I sent the golems I recovered, along with soldiers and knights, to the places with the biggest uprisings. One after another, the rebel armies surrendered and we could help restore order. As expected, the intimidating appearance of the golems paired with their overwhelming strength came as a huge shock. The rebels called them “forces of the devil” and greatly feared them. On the other hand, our allied forces called them the “black steel knight troupe.” At any rate, it seemed that most people thought the golems were living beings.
“Sir Gino! There’s trouble! We’ve received a message from mother!” Ana said, frantically bursting into my office, holding a letter.
There’s been a problem. Both Ginorious and Anastasia should immediately return to the Sevensworth territory.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Sevensworth
That was all that was written after it was decoded. There were faint traces of the letter having been folded, most likely from her using a carrier pigeon to deliver the message. There was always a chance of these correspondences being intercepted, so it was normal for anyone using this method of communication to be vague with their messages.
“I’ve never received a message from mother like this before. What could have happened?” Ana asked, worried.
My mother-in-law wasn’t one to use carrier pigeons unless it was an emergency since there was always a higher chance that it would be intercepted or attacked. As such, she didn’t very much like using these kinds of dangerous, risky methods of communication which could easily lead to information being leaked. The only time she would rely on carrier pigeons would be in a time of desperation. If there was something she needed to let us know immediately to the point that she could risk the information being leaked, it must really be urgent. This was why Ana was so worried because in all likelihood, her mother was in great danger.
“Was the pigeon from our house?” I asked.
“Yes. It definitely appears to be one of our pigeons,” Bridgette confirmed.
On top of that, the message had been written in our house’s code as well. Though it wasn’t exactly like my mother-in-law to use a carrier pigeon, there was no doubt she’d sent it.
“Ana and I will go back to the Sevensworth territory immediately. The situation seems dire, so we’ll take the fastest horses. Matthew, put a small force together. We don’t have a minute to waste.”
For the time being, I left the duchy in Matthew’s care while Ana and I set off for home.
It was now the third day of our journey back to the Sevensworth territory. Since we were in a rush, Ana was on horseback rather than in a carriage. There was a force of approximately two hundred mounted knights accompanying us as our guard, though it still wasn’t ideal given that we were traveling through an unstable area.
We’d stretched ourselves really thin to assemble this force, but it would’ve taken too much time to send for more manpower from the squads who were dealing with the rebellions all across the grand duchy, and they already had their hands full.
Though there were two hundred total guarding us, there were only about fifty in our immediate vicinity. The other hundred fifty were sent in a wide area ahead to search for enemies. It was best to use the forces we had to find out where the enemies were so we could avoid them altogether.
At this time, I had zero golems with me. There were fewer golems than there were soldiers in general, but I planned to pick up some of them when we passed by the fort. Though we still needed defense there, it probably didn’t require all thirty-eight of them. It was overkill.
“What?!”
I couldn’t help but cry out in surprise. My horse was also shocked and reared back on its hind legs. I frantically tried to control it. Up until now, there’d been nobody in sight, but after exiting the forest and advancing about a third of the way down the plains, a force of over ten thousand suddenly appeared in front of us, and a girl on a white horse began approaching by herself.
“Good day. As expected, you took this route in the interest of it being the fastest and safest,” Lady Francess called as she got off her horse.
Both Ana and I dismounted as well.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
“I truly apologize. Both of you are going to lose your lives here, but in light of our friendship, I’ve gained permission for us to have one final chat. Before you get any ideas, taking me hostage is pointless. My father is not so doting on me that he’d waste this one-in-a-million chance just to save my life.”
Oh, so her father’s here too? If he’s here, that must mean these are her family’s main forces.
“I see... So your family’s magic is one that can hide your armies.”
“Very well deduced. Not many take kindly to espionage magic like this, so it’s a family secret.”
I glanced over at Ana and saw that she had a very calm expression befitting of a noble; however, I could see that she’d gone pale and her hands were trembling. It seemed she was wisely trying to hide her fear.
I needed to save Ana somehow, but I couldn’t think of a good idea. I didn’t even have any golems left in the basement I could summon. If House Lillard had come with only one or two thousand soldiers, I probably could have fought them, but with this many, it was impossible. I would run out of mana, and once that happened, I’d be no different than a normal person. The same applied to Bridgette. If she fought all these soldiers, she’d eventually run out of chi.
Ana’s magic was also not going to cut it. She couldn’t use defensive magic yet, and at this distance, she could be hit by their magic and arrows. There was the option of having Ana be the primary attacker while Bridgette and I focused on defending her, but that wouldn’t work either. The amount of heat from her spell was too great, so we couldn’t stand close enough while she used it. The best option would be to have Bridgette and me deal with their attacks, but we’d definitely run out of energy.
Lady Francess began giggling. “As I thought. You can’t summon those black steel knights of yours, can you? I took a gamble, but it seems that I’ve won.”
“What makes you think that?”
I might still be able to fool her. I just need to find out what she knows so I can see if there’s a chance or not.
“The first time I saw them appear out of thin air, I was quite surprised. Then when I saw their strength, that surprise changed to fear. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but think it isn’t possible to produce these powerful Artifacts infinitely. Seeing you send them to help quell the rebellions made me realize there was a limit once their numbers around you ran thin. As expected, you eventually had to go retrieve them yourself if you needed them elsewhere, meaning you’d reached the limit on the number you could summon. Although, as I said earlier, this was still a wager since I couldn’t be completely sure,” Lady Francess said after first apologizing for the faux pas of speaking about the Artifact.
“Y-You assisted the rebels?!” Ana exclaimed.
“Yes, I did. It cost our house quite a bit of money, but in exchange, we learned valuable information and were able to split your forces. By doing so, we reduced the number of people able to join you here on the battlefield.”
In contrast to the two of us, who were in a desperate situation, Lady Francess was completely relaxed and snickering leisurely. When Ana had appeared on the front lines to join the war, I’d freaked out and stationed all the backup golems at the fort. Up until just now, I’d thought that this situation had come about due to my mistake of leaving the golems there, but it wasn’t that.
The result would’ve been the same regardless. She would have kept inciting rebellions in order to spread the golems thin and judge how many of them I had. She’d keep going until I eventually didn’t have any left to summon. Even if I’d left some golems to defend Ana, she’d have kept the rebellions going until I was forced to reassign them to quell the unrest.
“Was that carrier pigeon fake? Did you use magic to steal the decoder and one of our pigeons?”
“Oh my. It sounds like you’re accusing me of theft. Though it’s true that I snuck into the room of the former Thorsdale palace and took a peek at the decoder, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I stole anything. I simply memorized all of it and returned it to the place I found it. However, what you say about the carrier pigeon is correct. I apologize that I borrowed one from your family.”
As I thought. That letter was fake. The Sevensworths had a lot of our forces and golems in the grand duchy. I didn’t think they’d risk it all on us potentially falling for their fake letter. But at any rate, she was truly impressive to have memorized that complicated decoder.
“Our family’s code is compromised... Such a blunder...” Bridgette said bitterly.
Most likely other covert operatives of our family would feel the same way. They were touted as the best in the country and masters of information. I could only imagine how frustrated this would make them feel.
“If you kill us, you’ll make enemies of House Sevensworth. Do you really think you’ll survive that?”
“Oh? But it won’t be House Lillard that kills you two, but the nobles from Thorsdale. They want the glory so they can take the country for themselves, and we want to hide the fact that we were involved. It’s a win-win.”
It was true that there were numerous banners flying over the collective armies in front of us, all of different houses from the former country of Thorsdale.
“I see the flag of Sarouge too. They’re okay lending a hand to the same person who killed the head of their family?”
“Well, of course. After I deeply apologized and explained the situation in tears about how I was unable to disobey your orders and told them about all the horrors I’d been subjected to, they eagerly accepted House Lillard’s proposal to help each other get revenge. The eldest son approved his forces assisting.”
So that’s why she looked at me after cutting off his head. She’d already planned to have them focus their anger on me so she could bring them to her side. Maybe even the very reason that he burst out of his chair like that was something that she’d orchestrated beforehand. House Sarouge had the greatest military power in the entire kingdom of Thorsdale, so I could imagine that she’d wanted them on her side at all costs. It was probably easier to trick the naive son than the former head of the house, who she killed.