Chapter 7:
All Ready
Panamera
NOT EVEN A MONTH AFTER HIS MAJESTY RETURNED to the capital, I received word that he had reassembled the Chivalric Orders and departed. The messengers were swapping horses and running through day and night, though, so we still had time before he arrived.
“How are preparations going here?” I asked the commander, who smiled confidently at me.
“Including our reinforcements, we have five hundred soldiers ready! Our supplies are in good shape, too!”
I nodded. “Excellent. It will take us two weeks of travel to get there. We should be able to stop at Seatoh Village and resupply.”
With the ballista and machine bows we’d purchased from Van, eliminating bandits and large monsters no longer ran the risk it once did. Consequently, we had managed to acquire a significant number of treasures and rare materials without suffering many casualties; buying more arrows from Van wouldn’t constitute a significant financial loss.
“Hmm,” I murmured, “His Majesty asked me what sort of reward I desire. I should be able to ask for my own territory now.”
The commander’s expression stiffened; he was still hesitant about the whole thing. At times it could be a burden to be a member of the nobility, given all the obligations that came with the title. First were the conflicts between opposing factions of high-ranking nobles. Over the last few decades, the number of high-ranking nobles had remained unchanged. Putting aside members of the royal family who had relinquished their right to the throne, there were four marquis and counts in the capital and another two or three scattered across the land.
Among the lords of the various territories, charged with protecting those lands in the king’s name, were marquis and counts with military accomplishments to their names; they were charged with using their strength to govern much larger areas. In times of emergency, they also received special privileges. Essentially, in an emergency, these high-ranking nobles could take control of the nearby low-level nobles at their own discretion. In situations like that, the nobles possessing territory were at least able to voice their own opinions, but someone like me, with no territory to her name, had no right to say anything. In the case of this war, I could be charged with treason for ignoring the orders of a high-ranking noble.
Low-ranking nobles kept constant tabs on the nobility who outranked them, seeking an opportunity to supersede them. I was no different.
“I refuse to follow the orders of some overweight middle-aged men and risk my life for them,” I whispered, dropping my gaze to the palms of my hands. I may have been a noble, and a powerless one at that, but my hands were rugged from all the swords I had swung throughout my life. I clenched my fists, then raised my head. My lips curled into a smile. “I will climb the ladder with my own power. I will be no one’s pawn.”
The commander began to laugh.
“What wonderful ambition. However… Lady Panamera, even if you acquire territory, Marquis Fertio will be close by. I do not think things will be easy for you.”
Holding territory meant drawing attention to oneself, and as a member of House Ferdinatto’s faction, I would undoubtedly draw the marquis’s fury. In that case, I might find myself dispatched to one of the fiercer battlefields. The nobility had a penchant for hammering in the nail that stuck out; that was why my commander was worried.
I snorted. “I’ll be working you to the bone. Just put your faith in me,” I said, grinning.
The commander blinked a few times, then burst into laughter. “Ha ha ha! Well, well, perhaps you forget, but I have already sworn my loyalty to you. Use me however you need to make your ambitions a reality.”
My smile deepened. “Well said.”
It was time to fight. This battle would determine just how far up the ladder I could climb.
Count Ferdinatto
I RECEIVED THE FULL REPORT AND ROSE TO MY FEET. “So His Majesty has departed,” I said.
“The next battle will be a large one, no?” my wife asked. “Will you be okay?”
I pulled my chin in and sighed. “We will begin to march into enemy territory. Our first invasion in decades. The enemy will likely strengthen their defenses and prepare traps for us. Our house suffered the greatest losses in the last set of battles, and we lack the capacity to prepare properly for this next fight…but wemust participate if our house is to continue. We must produce results.”
I sighed again, and my wife frowned, casting her gaze downward. When she spoke, it was with a tinge of embarrassment in her voice. “Baron Van will be on the battlefield as well, yes? You said he was exceptionally good at producing weapons… Is there any way we could borrow some of his?” She hesitated, then added, “Our daughter is with him, so…”
Anger surged in me at her words, but I resisted the urge to yell. I took a few light breaths, then said calmly, “A count could never request aid from a new member of the nobility. And we did not send our daughter there to form an alliance. We must not forget that.”
I cast my gaze out the window, toward the castle city, lit red by the evening light. It was significantly less active than it used to be. I sighed and clenched my fists.
“It is my powerlessness that has lost our house its influence and strength…but this battle is a great opportunity.”
My wife furrowed her brow and hung her head low. “I understand,” she said, nodding.
It had been many years since I first became the head of the house, yet here I was, still causing my wife grief. I was ashamed and angry at my own behavior. Now was the time to display my power, even if it meant risking my life.
Meanwhile, despite only recently establishing his own house, Van had accumulated a frightening number of accomplishments. The magic that allowed him to create ballistae and machine bows certainly factored into that, but so did the fact that he knew how to make proper use of them. That he could build a fortress faster than you could blink was undoubtedly one reason for the trust His Majesty put in him.
If we made progress in our invasion of Yelenetta, we would find ourselves in situations where we were disadvantaged in terms of geography, supply routes, or even sheer numbers. Occupying Yelenetta’s fortresses and strongholds would be one thing; whether we could use them properly was another question entirely. There was also the risk that we’d be attacked mid-march and suffer tremendous casualties.
One thing was clear: Baron Van would earn himself more accomplishments in this invasion than anyone else. That means we must aim for second or third, I thought. But that would mean outdoing Marquis Fertio.
I winced as that arrogant man’s face appeared in my mind. Despite his fierce disposition, he possessed the strategic mind necessary to dominate a battle. Put bluntly, we would lose to him eight times out of ten on an open battlefield. To outdo him, we would have to either break down the front gates of an enemy stronghold before he could do so himself or take the head of a general-class enemy. Luckily, these were the sorts of battles in which Van would never participate.
Pondering this, I remembered something my wife said earlier. I turned to her. “Didn’t you say that a pair of frightful knights defeated Yelenetta’s army when they invaded the city?”