All of Seitz’s most prominent and powerful nobility were gathered up in the room, including Boroths Heigand, the man who had been tasked with the conquest of Canarre County. One seat at the table, however, was empty: that of the castle’s lord, the Duke of Seitz himself. The tension among the gathered nobles was palpable as they awaited his arrival.

Finally, the door to the chamber slowly swung open. A somewhat small-statured man strode inside, his gait calm and unhurried. He seemed to be in his late forties, at a glance, and his features were distinctly dignified. Short though he was, his bearing gave him a commanding presence as he walked over to his seat and settled himself.

“Of course. I shall report on the current state of affairs,” said Boroths. “In regard to the conquest of Canarre, my attempt to assassinate the current count, Ars Louvent, has ended in failure. Being as the threat of assassination has now been made clear to our foes, it stands to reason that any future attempts will meet a substantially greater degree of caution and will be less likely to succeed.”

Boroths Heigand split no hairs concerning his own failure. He seemed unpertubed of the consequences he might face. His expression was that of a man with the resolve to say anything, no matter how grim its implications may have been.

Ashude raised a hand to his chin and spent several seconds in thought. “It would seem, then, that this Ars Louvent is formidable indeed,” he said, his expression unchanging. “What news do we have of Missian’s movements, Raddas?”

“Counties across the duchy move to bolster their standing armies, seemingly under the order of Duke Couran. Given recent events, there is reason to believe that they have realized that we were the perpetrators behind the attempted assassination of the Count of Canarre, and intend to invade in retribution.”

The man who replied to Ashude’s question had long glossy black hair. His name was Raddas Keysias, and he was said to be Seitz’s greatest tactician─an aptitude that had earned him a place as Ashude’s right-hand man.

“I suppose it would be optimistic to think that they’re building up military might to defend against an invasion on our part,” said Ashude, his words calm and calculating as he dissected the situation. “No, far better to act under the assumption that they will launch an attack, and soon. This was inevitable the moment they declared their secession, but I hadn’t thought they would move so quickly.”

“The Duchy of Missian is rich in both resources and population compared to us. Engaging them in direct, open combat would leave Seitz at a disadvantage. Moreover, the men lost and resources exhausted in our recent attempted invasion of Canarre have yet to be replenished,” noted Raddas.

The bulk of Missian was made up of level terrain, and its climate was warm, with no shortage of water. It was, in short, a region with ample opportunity for agriculture. To make matters worse, not only was its population large, its armies were disproportionately massive.

Seitz, in contrast, was a far more mountainous region. Its terrain wasn’t quite as hostile as that of the duchies of northern Summerforth, perhaps, but it was also lacking in water sources, and vast regions of the duchy were made up of nonarable wasteland. Agriculture was hardly its greatest strength. This, perhaps, was part of why Missian boasted a greater population, despite the two duchies being roughly the same size.

“The defending side of a war always holds an advantage, but I cannot guarantee that we would be able to fend off Canarre’s armies,” said Raddas. “Especially considering that a Missian invasion would involve the army of Canarre’s participation…”

“…And having been trounced so thoroughly by that army, our troops will fear to go into battle with them. If Missian does invade, we can expect a blow to our own army’s morale,” said Ashude.

The expressions of the nobles seated around the round table took a bitter turn.

“Of course, we always knew that we would be at a disadvantage should Canarre invade. That’s precisely why we laid so many plans to prevent it from coming to pass,” Ashude continued. His expression, at least, spoke of calm and confidence.

“You mean that plan…?” said Raddas.

“Yes─whatever came of it, if I may be so bold?” another of the nobles in attendance timidly asked.

“It was a success,” said Ashude.

The eyes of every lord present widened.

“We, the Duchy of Seitz, have entered into a formal alliance with the Duchy of Paradille.”

A cheer rose up in response to Ashude’s announcement. Paradille shared a border with both Seitz and Missian. Its lands were meager, and its population small. Its military, meanwhile, paled in size compared to those of both Seitz and Missian. What it lacked in size, however, it more than made up for in terms of skill. In that regard, Paradille’s forces were feared by every other duchy in the empire.

“So then, we’ll be calling in the army of Paradille to help defend us?!” the nobleman from before shouted.

“The opposite. We’ll be joining them in an assault,” said Ashude. Once again, the gathered lords reacted with exclamations of shock. “Right now, our enemy assumes that if we are to invade, we’re sure to do so across the border of Canarre. With Paradille as our allies, however, our options have expanded. A sudden attack from Paradille’s territory will take Missian by surprise.”

All that Seitz had to do to enable their invasion, in short, was amass troops in Paradille and storm across the border.

“A surprise attack…” muttered one of the lords. “If this succeeds, we may be able to claim several of Missian’s fortresses before they can respond!”

“The war would turn in our favor in an instant!” chimed in another. Ashude’s strategy had prompted a surge of excitement throughout the chamber.

“Even should Missian see us coming and respond with surprising swiftness, our numbers combined with the mighty warriors of Paradille will more than exceed the capabilities of their army. We will be fighting at an advantage. While there’s no guarantee our alliance with Paradille will last forever, it stands to reason that while it does hold strong, they will not hesitate to join us on the attack,” said Raddas the tactician. Even he was in support of Ashude’s plan─in fact, not a single lord in attendance objected.

“This council is adjourned. Return to your people and prepare for war!”

Thus, I hurried on my way to Shin’s workshop, stepping in the moment I arrived.

“Is it true?! Did you finish the airship?!” I exclaimed.

Rietz and Rosell had accompanied me, as well as Licia and Charlotte, who’d said that they wanted to have a look at the completed craft as well.

“Oh, you all made it! Nice timing,” Shin cheerfully replied.

The airship sat within the workshop. The first test model he’d built had been the size of a small sailing ship, but this one dwarfed it. It looked about as big as a mid-sized boat. Two large orbs sat upon its deck, which I imagined served some purpose when it came to keeping the ship in the air─though really, it was so big that a part of me doubted that it could fly at all.

I’d lived my previous life in a world with airplanes, so the existence of flying vessels wasn’t hard for me to accept in and of itself. The problem was that this one would fly through a completely different set of principles than the ones I was familiar with. I knew that it was powered by magic, but the details of the process eluded me. I recalled having asked about it, at some point, but Shin’s explanation had sailed right over my head and I’d forgotten the bulk of it almost the moment after I heard it.

“Ayup─as you can see, she’s good and done!” said Shin. “She can carry a crew of fifteen, and she’ll take you up real high. I’d say she should clear a small mountain range, easy. Crank her up to full speed and she’ll go as fast as a horse can gallop. Her fuel efficiency’s pretty good too! Just takes a little aqua magia to get her running. Wanted to make her bigger, honestly, but this is about my limit as far as size goes for now. She’s a hell of a beauty, though, so I figured I’d better shoot you a report ’bout her!”

From the way Shin put it, it sounded like his new airship was so high-spec, it put his test model to shame.

“Have you already assessed its capabilities?” Rietz asked.

“Yup!” said Shin. “A few times. Worked perfectly. Wasn’t that in the report?”

“Hm…? Oh. Things have been, err, rather hectic for House Louvent of late, so it’s possible I overlooked that detail,” Rietz bashfully admitted.

“Oh, right! I heard about that! You were supposed to be sick or something, right? How’s that all shapin’ up? You okay?”

“Y-Yes, I’m perfectly fine now,” I replied.

It seemed that Shin had conducted his test flights while I was still bedridden on account of the poison. I’d spent most of that period barely conscious, if at all, so I couldn’t remember much of anything about it. Rietz, meanwhile, had been forced to take on such an outrageous workload, it was no wonder that an event like that had slipped past him.

“Oh, well, glad to hear it,” said Shin. “But, yeah─the tests were all wrapped up ages ago, so we know for a fact that she’ll fly. How do you like that? Really something, ain’t she?” he added with a triumphant smirk.

It was certainly something, I had to give him that. It felt like I’d only just agreed to fund his project, and he’d already made his design into a reality. As far as airships were concerned, Shin was a genius, through and through─though I knew that Enan’s help may have made a considerable difference as well.

“She’ll move people or goods just fine. Whatever you want her to. Load her up with weapons and she’ll make for a hell of a warship, too. She can fly up high enough that the enemy’s spells and arrows won’t be able to reach her, but you’ll sure be able to hit them! Use her right and she’ll be a real asset, I’m tellin’ you!” Shin explained.

“Oh, I get it. Spells and bows both have longer effective ranges when you’re higher up than your opponent,” Rosell agreed with a nod. “Not to mention that the spellcaster’s skill plays a factor in a spell’s range. If we put Charlotte or Musia on the ship, they could rain magic down on an enemy army from way outside of the enemy’s range! I can’t think of anything that could be more dangerous, from our enemies’ perspective.”

“How long can the vessel stay in the air?” asked Rietz.

“Depends on how fast you’re flyin’ her, but if you treat her right, she’ll keep going for three days straight. You’ll cut that down to about twelve hours if you’re flyin’ fast, though.”

Three days?

That meant the ship could fly far greater distances than I’d been anticipating─and flying, of course, meant that we could ignore the terrain below when plotting out our route. It was starting to hit me just how much ground Shin’s airship might be able to cover. Furthermore, as long as we were traveling within Missian, we’d be able to procure fuel at our destination.

Shin’s airship was powered by wind-aspected magic, which meant that wind-aspected aqua magia effectively functioned as its fuel. Wind-aspected magistones, the material needed to refine that aqua magia, weren’t mined in any significant quantities within Missian’s borders. Deposits of them could be found here and there all across Summerforth, but wind magic wasn’t particularly useful in battle and didn’t have a plethora of other common uses, so for the time being, it wasn’t mined much of anywhere. The upside to that was that the magistones were sold on the cheap, but the downside was that it was difficult to buy them in bulk, and very few were found in circulation within Missian itself.

I guess that shouldn’t be a problem if its fuel efficiency’s as good as Shin says, but still, we might want to look into buying up as many magistones as we can get our hands on. We should be able to get at least a small stock of them from Semplar and Arcantez, considering how big those cities are.

“I would love to try riding the ship. Would that be possible?” asked Licia.

“You bet it would!” said Shin. “It seats fifteen people, but around ten of those are gonna have to be the crew, so we’ve got capacity for ’bout five passengers or so.”

“All of us can join you, then? Wonderful! Let’s all try it, everyone!” Licia exclaimed with an ecstatic smile.

“Yeah, I’m in. I wanna see how high up this thing can go,” Charlotte eagerly agreed.

Rietz was willing to tag along as well, but just the thought of riding the airship had left one of us a quivering mess.

“U-Umm, d-do I have to come along? It’s going to fly, like, really high up, right? I think I’d be happy just watching from the ground, personally,” Rosell stammered. He looked downright terrified.

I could understand his apprehensions about flying that far up into the sky. I was a little scared too. I’d flown on airplanes a number of times in my past life, but I’d had a lot fewer doubts about their skyworthiness than I did about Shin’s airship. I had a feeling that its odds of crashing were way higher than those of the airplanes back home, at the very least. The difference between me and Rosell, however, was that my curiosity was winning out against my terror. I wanted to give it a go.

“Aww, is widdle Rosell scared? Weren’t you supposed to be a man?” Charlotte jabbed with a malicious smirk.

“Wha─L-Look, anyone would be scared of being that high up off the ground!” Rosell shouted back. Her provocation had scored a direct hit on his ego.

“We’ve ironed out all the safety features, so nothing to be scared about, trust me!” Shin declared. “Even if worse comes to worst and she ends up going down, we’ve got fail-safes in place to slow the fall with wind magic. And luckily enough, we’ve got Charlotte, House Louvent’s best mage, along for the ride! Nobody’s dyin’ on this trip, for sure.”

“Right. If things go bad, I’ll whip up some wind magic and save everyone before you know it,” Charlotte agreed, pivoting to reassure Rosell.

“In that case…I guess I could come along,” Rosell finally agreed. He still seemed scared, but I had a feeling that the airship was rather intriguing to him as well.

“Great! In that case, I’ll start getting her ready to fly. Give us just a minute!” Shin said before hurrying off to prepare the airship for departure.

After what felt like almost no time at all spent waiting in the workshop, Shin called out to us from the airship’s deck. “All right, we’re all set! Climb aboard, everyone!”

It had only taken about thirty minutes for him to get ready, from start to finish. It seemed the airship could be deployed much quicker than I’d anticipated.

Everyone made their way up onto the vessel’s deck.

“We’re taking off from here? But we’re indoors! What about the ceiling…?” Licia muttered, sounding a little mystified.

Actually, that’s true. What are they going to do about the ceiling? I wondered─but my doubts were quickly dispelled.

Shin let out a shout, and a moment later, the ceiling itself began to slowly move. It split open, revealing the blue sky above us.

Oh, I get it! That would do the trick, yeah.

At Shin’s signal, the airship began slowly drifting upward. Its rate of ascent gradually picked up, and before I knew it, the ground was dwindling away beneath us. I assumed that some sort of magic was being used to help us climb faster. Shin had asked for a few of Canarre’s mages to be dispatched to help him with his project, and they were most likely the ones handling that side of the ship’s workings.

“O-Oh, god, we’re so high up… I n-never should’ve come along…” Rosell moaned. He was trembling like a leaf.

“Th-This is incredible! I can’t believe how tiny Castle Canarre looks from here!” said Licia. She seemed more impressed than scared as she watched our home from afar.

“That’s enough! Keep her level here!” Shin shouted. The ship’s ascent came to a halt. “Really something, ain’t she? Bet’cha didn’t think she could fly this high!” he added with a very proud smirk.

“It truly is remarkable… Our enemies’ attacks could never reach us at this altitude,” Rietz muttered as he peered down at the surface.

“Right? Bet it’d feel real nice to blow an enemy castle to smithereens from up here,” Charlotte noted. She had a way of saying some pretty unsettling things, from time to time.

“We could go a bit higher than this, by the way, but that’s where it starts gettin’ dangerous. Practically speaking, this is our limit,” Shin noted.

“Dangerous? How so?” I asked.

“Well, y’know how we’re floatin’ thanks to a device that’s powered by wind magistones, right? Well, if you use it to take you up too high, it’ll stop working, lose its lift, and you’ll end up falling again. I figure we’ll be able to improve on that upper limit once I’ve made some tweaks to the design, but for now, goin’ up any further than this risks goin’ down again, and in an awful hurry.”

It’ll “lose its lift”?

I didn’t understand the reasoning behind his explanation, but I imagined it could have something to do with how air pressure lessened as you went up in altitude. Maybe wind-aspected magistones lost their distinctive characteristics in a low air-pressure environment? That was just blind speculation, of course.

“W-We’re just floating in place right now, right? How long could we stay up here if we wanted to?” asked Rosell.

“Just floatin’? Good long while. Using magic to move expends aqua magia, of course, but the device that’s keepin’ us airbound just uses the special qualities of wind magistones─it doesn’t expend them at all. Now, I’m not sayin’ we could stay up here forever, course! The device itself has some wear and tear to keep an eye on, and it has to get serviced on the regular. Bein’ up this high in bad weather would be pretty dangerous, too, so we’d have to descend when it gets stormy. Then there’s the question of how you’re feeding the crew. Can’t stay floatin’ in the air forever if nobody has anything to eat, can you? Point is, aqua magia expenditure’s just one part of a bigger picture.”

So just floating doesn’t expend any aqua magia at all? Doesn’t that mean we might be able to use the same technology to make permanently airbound buildings in the future? You’d just need to fly a ship up to them from time to time to restock them with supplies. I guess riding out storms and rough weather is a problem we’d have to solve, though, and I’m sure there are other issues I just haven’t thought of.

“Okay, then─how ’bout we get moving, eh?” Shin suggested. He turned to shout orders to the crew, and a moment later, the ship began drifting slowly forward. “Full speed ahead!”

The airship began to accelerate. We were up on deck, of course, which meant we were exposed to the wind, and it got awfully cold in an awful hurry.

“I-It’s rather frigid, isn’t it?” said Licia, who’d started shivering.

“N-No kidding! Can’t you do something to fix this?!” Charlotte─who was trembling just as violently as Licia─shouted at Shin.

“Oh, right. Forgot you were dressed like that. You’d better stick below decks, for now! Bring her to a stop, everyone!”

The airship halted midair, and we made our way inside. It hadn’t struck me before, but Shin and his crew were all pretty bundled up. Winter was in its closing days and it had already started warming up again, so I’d thought it was a little odd, but it only now hit me that they were dressed that way so they could stand the chill of the high-altitude winds.

The ship was equipped with a single, small room for passengers, which we were led to. It had windows, thankfully, so we could still see outside. The view from up on deck had been nicer, but there was still plenty for us to see. Soon, Shin gave the signal to his crew and the ship started moving once more.

“It’s still a little hard to believe we’re flying. What exactly’s the principle that lets that happen?” I asked Shin, who’d returned to the cabin to talk with us.

“The whole explanation’s pretty long. We’re usin’ wind magic, of course, and… Well, to put it nice and easy, we’re pointing the magic behind us and blasting out wind at high speeds to move us forward.”

Oh, so it’s like a jet engine?

“I spent a good long time thinkin’ over my options for how to move the ship around. My first idea might’ve worked, but it would’ve been way too slow, no matter how you slice it.”

“Oh, really? How did you solve that problem?” I asked.

“I didn’t. Enan’s the one who figured it out,” said Shin.

“Oh, Enan? Did she?”

“Yeah, she came up with a real nice little device that lets us generate some proper speed. She says there’s still plenty of room to improve on it, though.”

“That’s incredible, isn’t it?”

“You said it. She’s got a sort of creativity you don’t stumble across every day. I kinda hate to admit it, but she’s caught me by surprise plenty of times. Should’ve figured, seeing as you were the one who sent her my way!”

Once again, my Appraisal skill had been right on the mark. Enan was an incredibly talented inventor. She would have to be, I reflected, to make someone like Shin admit she had what it took.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Enan yet. Isn’t she on the airship?

“Where is Enan, by the way?” I asked.

“Oh, she can’t take heights at all,” said Shin. “She knows we’re not gonna fall, but she still just can’t bring herself to get on the ship, so she didn’t come along today. I’d bet she’s locked up in her room dreamin’ up a blueprint for some new device, right about now.”

She can’t handle heights? I guess that sounds about right.

Enan had seemed like a very timid young woman. The fact that she was probably still hard at work proved how industrious she was, at least.

“I see. It sounds like she’s applying herself,” I said. I’d been considering stopping in to say hello to her, but decided to put it off since I wouldn’t want to distract her from her work.

“We’ll keep cruisin’ along at this altitude for a while. Just sit back and enjoy the view,” Shin said before departing from the cabin.

Our flight carried on smoothly. Unlike seabound vessels, riding the airship didn’t involve putting up with the constant swaying of the waves. It was quite a comfortable trip, all things considered.

Vast swaths of nature spread out across the surface below us. Missian was a very green region, and it turned out to be beautiful from the sky.

“I would love to travel across all of Summerforth like this, someday,” she added with a dazzlingly bright smile.

“We will,” I said with a nod. “We’ll make it happen.”

Someday, peace might return to Summerforth and airship technology might spread far and wide. It wasn’t an impossible future to picture, by any means.

Our flight carried on for some time until eventually, we returned home and touched down in Shin’s workshop.

“N-Naaah, it’s not that impressive or anything!” said Shin. “And anyway, I should be thankin’ you for believing I had what it takes. You did me a solid there! I’ll be makin’ even more incredible stuff from here on out, too, so the work’s not done yet, and I hope you’ll be stickin’ around for the ride!”

“Lord Ars? I believe it would be in our best interests to have a second and third airship built immediately,” suggested Rietz. “While I’m certain the costs will be substantial, I assure you that they will be valuable enough to justify any expenditure.”

Rietz didn’t need to work hard to convince me. I’d already been thinking along those same lines, in fact. A few airships on our side would mean that no enemy invasion would stand a chance of making it into our territory.

“I’d love to keep crankin’ out ships one after another for you, but this workshop’s gonna be focused on developing the next model,” said Shin. “Like I said before, we’re hoping to get an even bigger ship up in the air! I’ve got a few ideas for some little improvements we could make to this design, too.”

“I see…” replied Rietz. “In that case, perhaps it would be worth investing in the construction of a shipyard? The new facility could handle construction of additional ships while Shin and his people continue their research here.”

“No complaints ’bout that over here!” said Shin. “This workshop’s not the most efficient place to be puttin’ a buncha ships together in, anyhow.”

Rietz had a point. If we were going to make more airships, then a proper shipyard would be indispensable…though also expensive, most likely.

“For now, I’d like to call everyone together for a meeting,” I said. “We can discuss the creation of a shipyard and the potential uses for the airship then.”

“Considering the importance of this matter, that strikes me as an excellent idea,” said Rietz.

With that decided, we left the workshop.

“Heya, kiddo. Finish shaking off that poison yet?” Mireille asked. It was a little rare for her to show concern for my health.

“Yes, I’m fine now, “ I said with a nod.

“Well, good. I’d be in a nasty fix if you kicked the bucket.”

“And what about you? Are you taking your work in Lamberg seriously?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I am! What else would I be doing?” Mireille said, doing her best to look wounded by my question’s implications.

“I can think of several other things you might have been doing, actually,” I said. “Do you have any idea how big of a record you’ve built up, at this point?”

“Wh-Who knows? Never had a memory for that sort of thing. The past is past, right?”

Not by very long at all, in this case!

“How has she really been behaving, Rikuya?” I asked. Taking Mireille’s word for it would be optimistic of me, and I know it. Rikuya, meanwhile, was working as her assistant, and would presumably know how she’d been conducting herself on the job.

“She’s been behaving herself,” said Rikuya. “Aside from the part where she guzzles booze like no tomorrow. That hasn’t changed.”

“I see,” I replied.

“Whoa, hold on a second! Why are you double checking with him? What, you can’t trust me, or something?” asked Mireille, now looking rather indignant. “Anyway, that airship sure got done a lot quicker than I thought it would. Hope I’ll get a chance to see it in the air sooner rather than later.”

Mireille had been in Lamberg until just recently. Apparently, she hadn’t had the chance to see the ship for herself yet.

“Just the thought of a ship that flies through the air is incredible! We didn’t have anything of the sort back in our homeland. I wonder how it works?” said Rikuya out of earnest admiration for the achievement. He’d come to Summerforth from a foreign nation called Yoh, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with his surprise this time. Even native Summerforthians would be shocked to hear that we’d made a flying ship.

“Is it true that this so-called airship can fly, though? I happen to have my doubts,” Maika chimed in with a skeptical look on her face. I couldn’t blame her─it was hard to believe that sort of thing without seeing it for yourself.

“I know it sounds preposterous, and I can’t blame you for not believing me until you see it in person,” I conceded. “Why don’t we all go watch it fly after our meeting’s over, in fact? Would that be possible?” I asked, turning to Shin.

“Yeah, sure,” Shin easily agreed. “If we don’t have to fly it anywhere in particular it won’t take that much fuel, so why not?”

“There you have it,” I said. “While I understand your doubts, I’d like this meeting to proceed under the assumption that we have a newly-invented flying ship at our disposal.”

“Very well,” Maika replied.

“All right, then─let’s get this meeting underway!”

With that, our discussion began. The first matter at hand: what we would use the airship for.

“I remain convinced that our first airship should be used for military purposes. Canarre’s defenses are in dire need of bolstering,” Rietz proposed, opening the subject.

At the moment, sharing a border with Seitz, Missian’s enemy, put Canarre in a precarious position. We needed the military might to repel an assault, but we were somewhat lacking in manpower, and although our castles were better fortified than they used to be, I still could hardly call my territory particularly defensible. We’d managed to repel the last invasion before they could make any progress into Canarre proper, but there was no guarantee we’d be able to pull that off again. Using the airship to aid in our defenses struck me as perhaps the best current application for it.

“I’m in favor of that too,” said Mireille. “If that thing can really fly as high as I’ve heard, then we could lay waste to an invading army just by flying above them and lobbing magic into their formation. Pull that stunt a time or two, and we’ll have the enemy so scared they won’t want to bother invading at all anymore, don’t you think? Especially considering we have Charlotte to do the honors.”

That did indeed seem like a terrifyingly effective option. What could be scarier than being attacked by an enemy standing far outside your own range?

“I can think of plenty of other uses, but yeah, I agree. Using it in battle seems like the best idea to me too. As long as Shin’s okay with that, I mean,” Rosell said, glancing over at Shin as if to appraise his reaction.

That was something that hadn’t occurred to me. Would Shin be all right with his invention being used for warfare? If he was opposed to the idea, it could end up complicating the issue.

“I’m good with you using it however you want, honestly,” said Shin. “The one thing’s that if you’re gonna use the airship we already have in battle, I’ll have to make a few modifications. I didn’t exactly make it with live combat in mind.”

“Oh, really? Well, good,” Rosell said, sounding relieved. “We shouldn’t need to use it right away anyway, so I don’t see why modifying it would be a problem.”

“Do you have a plan in that regard? What modifications would you need to make to make it battle-ready, specifically?” asked Thomas, Mireille’s younger brother. He’d become my retainer just recently, and was sitting in on the meeting as well.

“Well, mounting a large catalyzer on the deck would be tough in terms of weight, but I think we could get a few medium ones on there no problem,” said Shin. “We could install weaponry for non-mages too, if we wanted to, but considering how often people talk about House Louvent’s mages being our strongest weapon, I sorta figured that they’d be the way to go.”

“You figured right. Please operate under the assumption that we’ll be putting mages on the airship,” I said.

We can only put medium catalyzers on it, though?

A large catalyzer would have allowed even dubiously capable mages to unleash devastating spells, but medium catalyzers made that prospect a bit more dicey. Charlotte was capable of casting powerful magic with one, but I had a feeling that the other mages in our unit wouldn’t quite be able to output the firepower they needed. I could only hope that Shin would improve his design to the point that mounting a large catalyzer would become feasible.

“I take it, then, that no one is opposed to using the airship for military purposes?” I asked. No one objected, and with that, the matter was settled. Shin would be making a second and third airship soon enough, and when they were finished, we’d have to consider how to go about using them as well.

We moved on to discussing the proposed construction of a shipyard. It would have to be a massive facility, and there wouldn’t be room for it in the city itself, so we quickly decided that we’d build it a short ways outside of town. Building a facility of that scale would be very expensive, of course, and that wasn’t even starting on the cost of the ships themselves. Just one of them had cost a pretty penny to build, and since they were propelled by wind-aspected aqua magia, we’d need to spend even more money to amass a stockpile of fuel. Canarre’s economy had been booming and our tax revenue was on the rise, but from a cost perspective, building a whole fleet of airships just didn’t seem feasible to me.

“I have a proposal. Why not discuss the matter with King Couran? I’d think he would be willing to invest in the project,” said Licia. “Airships are a compelling idea, after all. I’d think it quite likely that he would take great interest in them.”

That sounded like a very good idea.

“You’re right─King Couran’s the wealthiest person we know, and there’s every chance he’d be interested in the project,” I admitted.

Couran ruled over both Semplar, Missian’s thriving capital of trade, as well as the capital of Arcantez. There was no doubt whatsoever that he had money to spare.

“True…and given that the project has proven successful, we have an obligation to inform King Couran of it sooner or later regardless. It may very well be prudent to request additional funding from him when we do so, as an investment,” said Rietz.

If it got out that I’d hid the news of the airship’s development from Couran, the king I served, there was a real chance I’d be accused of outright treason. Using the airship without letting him find out about it, meanwhile, seemed like a very difficult prospect. That being said, I was still a little apprehensive about giving him the news. He had told me that he wasn’t interested in waging war, but I wasn’t sure I was prepared to believe it. It seemed possible that he could send the airships straight into mass production and use them to wage a war of unification, bringing all of Summerforth under his heel.

If Couran managed to conquer the continent with ease, thus bringing the fighting to an end for a time, then that would be all well and good─but would it really be that easy? Airships would be a powerful asset, certainly, but they didn’t seem like enough to turn the tide of any war to his advantage on their own. The fact that Missian was lacking in wind magistone mines meant that if trade failed us, we could run out of fuel and lose the ability to use the airships altogether.

Worse still, if the airships turned out to be less game-changing in combat than I expected them to be, they could lead us into an endless quagmire of war after war. Needless to say, that would involve me being sent out to the front lines time after time…and no matter how capable my retainers were, going out onto the battlefield that often would mean terrible things for my chances of long-term survival.

Then again, in spite of all those worries, my status as the lord of House Louvent meant that there wasn’t any way to get out of sending him a report. I just had to hope that doing so wouldn’t be the spark that lit the fuse of a large-scale conflict.

“An investment, huh?” said Rosell. “I wonder if he’ll be up for that? Airships are an amazing invention, and they could change the nature of warfare as we know it, but it’s not like we’ve tested them on the battlefield yet. Whether or not they’re useful in combat is still an unproven factor, and if we don’t demonstrate how powerful they are in a real way, he might not be willing to spare us much funding at all. We still have to tell him about them one way or the other, of course.”

Rosell seemed to be coming at this from a rather pessimistic standpoint, but indeed, the airship’s practical capabilities were still an unproven factor. It would certainly be easier to convince Couran that they were worth investing in once we’d achieved something through their use. Airships were groundbreaking enough at face value that I assumed he’d give us some funding one way or the other, but proving their practicality could make a massive difference in terms of how much he was willing to spare, and more money would mean that the next model of new and improved airship could be developed all the quicker.

Rosell was right that proving the airship’s value in battle could give us a big advantage, but needless to say, we’d have to actually go into battle to make that happen. Seitz had been bolstering its military forces, sure, but that didn’t change the fact that its crushing defeat in its last attempted invasion would make another attack on Canarre a very tall order. For all I knew, it would be a very long time before we were called on to do any fighting at all.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, a messenger burst into the meeting room.

“Apologies for the interruption, Your Lordship! A letter has just arrived from King Couran!”

The messenger was brandishing the letter in question. I accepted it, and found that its envelope had a message of its own written on it, informing me that it was a matter of great urgency and asking me to open it immediately. I called the meeting to a pause so I could do just that.

Moments later, I let out a gasp. The contents of the letter were so shocking, my eyes widened with surprise.

“Wh-What does it say?” Licia asked, a little shaken by my expression.

“Paradille and Seitz have formed an alliance, and are marching on Missian together,” I explained. “They gathered up their armies in Paradille and have invaded over the northern border rather than attempting to attack Canarre again.”

“Wh-What?!” Licia exclaimed.

“Paradille and Seitz, huh…?” muttered Mireille.

“And they’ve invaded from Paradille’s territory?” Rietz asked.

“Y-Yes,” I said. “A region to the north─Lund County─has already fallen under attack, and King Couran has called for an emergency council of war. He’ll decide our response then, and has ordered us to bolster our defenses along the border and stand by until we receive new instructions.”

My retainers were stunned by my summary of the letter.

“An alliance between Paradille and Seitz…? This could be troublesome indeed,” said Rietz. “Missian’s population is large, and our military is capable, but having to fend off the armies of two duchies at once puts us at an unmistakable disadvantage.”

It didn’t help that Paradille and Ansel had an already established alliance in place, as well. In the worst case, it was possible that Ansel would also join the fray. That would put Missian in a very tight spot.

“A-And isn’t Seitz invading from Paradille’s territory nothing at all like what we were counting on?” said Rosell, his face pallid with anxiety. “I’m sure King Couran could handle that if he was aware of it in advance, but if not, the enemy might manage to conquer a castle or two before he can even respond.”

Paradille had plenty of enemies, at the moment, and was lacking when it came to food stockpiles. The idea that they might invade another duchy was something nobody had really considered, and as a result, Lund County─the county closest to Paradille─was likely relatively poorly defended. An alliance with Seitz meant that Paradille now had a source of food, at least to some extent, and also that Paradille no longer had to concern itself with the possibility of a Seitzan invasion. The troops it had dedicated to defense could now be sent out on the attack. Their options had shifted dramatically in an instant.

“Well, so much for Couran pulling his precious strings behind the scenes to make sure his bid for independence went smoothly,” Mireille commented dryly.

The moment Missian declared its independence, the odds of its surrounding duchies banding together for an attack had skyrocketed. You’d think Couran would have done something to prevent that, but by all appearances, he’d declared independence without laying any such groundwork at all. Maybe he’d thought that Seitz and Paradille weren’t on good enough terms to forge such an alliance, and had underestimated the threat it would pose? It certainly seemed like the Duke of Seitz had outwitted him, this time.

“You said he had called together a council of war, did you not? Should House Louvent not be in attendance?” asked Licia.

“It would take too long for us to travel there, even if we left now, and delaying the meeting on our account would be difficult, I’m sure,” said Rietz. “Moreover, strengthening Canarre’s defenses is of vital importance. If we show the slightest hint of weakness, there’s every chance the enemy will invade from this flank as well. The fact that Seitz is invading from Paradille does not necessarily mean that all of their troops have left the duchy.”

Licia seemed convinced by Rietz’s explanation.

“Then again, there’s no doubt that Seitz’s defenses are weaker than usual. This might be the perfect chance for us to storm in and take the whole duchy for ourselves. We’ve got a shiny new weapon on our side, after all─wouldn’t it be nice to test it out and see just how helpful it can be?” Mireille suggested with a devious smirk.

“Absolutely not. We can’t go defying King Couran’s orders,” I firmly replied. I knew she was just kidding, but I still felt like I should put my foot down. Judging by the way she started grumbling about how it would’ve totally gone well, I’d made the right call.

“Going on the offense might be out of the question, but perhaps His Majesty will order us to strike at Seitz in the future?” suggested Maika. “From what I’ve heard, Canarre performed admirably in the previous war. If our troops were to march into Seitz, they would have to divert a portion of their own armies to fend us off. They may even need to recall some of the troops they sent out to invade Missian.”

She had a point─it wasn’t hard to think that Couran would reach a similar conclusion during his council. The one problem with Canarre staging an attack, however, was that we just didn’t have enough manpower. A field battle was one thing, but storming a castle required numbers that we couldn’t muster. The airship had the potential to change things in that regard, but it didn’t seem advisable to put blind faith in a completely untested form of weaponry. In other words, if we were ordered to go on the attack, we could expect it to be a very harsh ordeal.

Nothing was set in stone yet, but it was possible I would once again have to go into battle. I had my concerns as well, but I was resolved to live through it, for the sake of House Louvent’s future.

“For now, we’ll follow His Majesty’s orders. We’ll bolster Canarre’s defenses and ensure that we’re prepared if the battle comes to us. In regard to your airship, Shin, please carry out the modifications to make it battle-ready as quickly as you can.”

With those final orders, our meeting came to a close.

Remus opened the discussion with a less than cheerful declaration. He sounded almost disgusted by the current state of affairs.

“We knew our enemies would band together to oppose us, but I’ll admit that I did not foresee them doing so this quickly,” said Couran. “It’s remarkable given that Paradille and Seitz have never been on the best of terms. I can only assume that either the Duke of Seitz is an especially capable man, or we underestimated the depths of the grudge that Paradille’s rulers bear against Missian.”

“Both, I would presume,” said Remus. “The Duke of Seitz, Ashude, claimed his domain by casting down his former liege. To think he would be anything less than capable would be sheer folly─as would presuming that Paradille would feel anything less than betrayed by our actions. Declaring our independence after begging for─and receiving─their support in the previous war was an act tantamount to outright treachery.”

Couran furrowed his brow. Remus’s words had carried a reproachful bite that had not gone unnoticed by his king.

Unlike the other duchies of Summerforth, Paradille’s loyalty to the emperor remained as strong as it had been at the peak of the empire’s authority. It was hardly difficult to imagine that the duchy’s rulers would view Couran as the pretender to an illegitimate throne, and be enraged by his attempt at unilateral secession. All the more so since said secession had only been possible thanks to Paradille’s cooperation with Couran in the recent civil war.

“Allow me to make this clear: in no way do I regret declaring Missian’s independence,” said Couran. “Even if it was a mistake, it’s far too late for us to walk it back. We have no choice but to accept the state of affairs as it stands, and find a way to overcome it. In terms of military might alone, I don’t see our position as hopeless.”

“Perhaps,” Remus conceded. “Nevertheless, the state of affairs in Lund County is dire. It was the border county we were least expecting to be invaded, and thus, the border county least defended. Its castle was never well-fortified to begin with, and I expect that holding out against the enemy forces will prove impossible for its defenders on their lonesome. That said, it is far from certain that reinforcements would arrive in time to make any difference. With Seitz and Paradille working in unison, we must assume that the army that’s come knocking at our northernmost door is a mighty one indeed.”

A mighty army would require a similarly mighty band of reinforcements to repel─but the greater the numbers of the force that Couran attempted to send, the longer it would take to mobilize them. It seemed far from certain that the castle would still stand by the time they arrived.

For a moment, Couran hesitated. “If the castle falls, we need only reclaim it,” he finally said. “We were already preparing to invade Seitz, and we have more than enough mercenaries on our retainer. Our military is as prepared for this as it could ever be. We will not be defeated─not even by all the forces of Seitz and Paradille combined.”

Missian’s economy was strong, and as its king, Couran held the authority to utilize incredible amounts of money. In terms of pure numbers Missian’s military was close to equal to those of Seitz’s and Paradille’s combined, so long as you counted the mercenaries on Couran’s payroll.

“What news do we have of Ansel’s recent movements?” Couran asked Robinson.

“They are unchanged, Your Majesty. Ansel remains paralyzed by a domestic power struggle. Considering their need to defend against the threat of their neighboring duchy, Rofeille, it would be all but impossible for them to mobilize any sort of reinforcements to send Paradille’s way, even should Paradille demand them,” Robinson replied without hesitation.

The nobles in attendance seemed relieved to hear that Ansel would not be sending any support to Paradille. A war with three duchies at once, after all, would have left them with very slim prospects of victory.

“The enemy is unlikely to receive a great number of reinforcements…but nevertheless, we should remain on guard,” said Couran. “The fact that Ansel lacks a single ruling authority means that each county has the potential to act on its own judgment. If our numbers wear thin and one of Ansel’s border counts realizes it, they may well jump at the chance to launch an opportunistic strike of their own.”

“This is true,” Robinson admitted. “Frankly, it’s difficult to say what the state of affairs within Ansel is at the moment. A degree of caution does seem merited.”

Ansel was the home of Summerforth’s emperor, but the emperor himself was still young and far from capable. In all practicality, he was nothing more than a puppet of his retainers, who held the true power. Many of Ansel’s nobility thought rather poorly of this status quo. Some plotted to seize power themselves, while others were more loyal and sought to restore the emperor’s rightful authority. Motives and intentions varied, and dramatic incidents were frequent, ranging from uprisings to the assassination of prominent nobles to entire noble families being put to death after some treacherous plot or other was unveiled.

It seemed safe to assume that Ansel would not be suddenly unified and dispatch a full, cohesive army to aid in the conquest of Missian. That said, if any of the fractured powers within the duchy got it into their heads to do a little profiteering by way of the war, it was possible that they would make moves of their own.

“For the time being, dispatch orders to all counts whose territories do not lie on the border,” said Couran. “Tell them that Missian’s armies are gathering in Arcantez, and that they should send all available troops at once. If we aren’t able to reinforce Lund County in time, we’ll have to besiege its castle in order to reclaim it.”

“If the border counties are to be exempt, then am I to assume that Canarre County should be instructed to hold position and tighten its defenses? If I may, that strikes me as something of a waste,” said Robinson.

“Canarre’s troops are exceptional, yes, but the fact remains that Canarre lies on the border with Seitz. We can’t leave that front unprotected,” Couran countered.

“But what if we were to task Canarre’s army with invading Seitz itself? In the best case, we could drive the enemy to divide its forces. Even if we feigned an invasion, with no intention of claiming any Seitzan castles, the army of Seitz likely fears Canarre’s forces enough that it would still be an effective diversion.”

“A feigned invasion, you say…?” Couran muttered. He crossed his arms and sank into thought. “So we’d threaten them with a bluff…? Though of course, dispatching soldiers always involves a degree of risk… What say you, Remus?” he finally asked, conferring with his chief tactician for advice.

“I would caution against feigning an assault,” Remus replied. “Canarre’s armies going on the march would hardly amount to a threat worth acknowledging. At the very least, the report that Canarre’s armies are on the move would not be enough to convince Seitz to split their own forces. If they truly feared Canarre so, they would have abandoned all thought of conquering Missian to begin with.”

“True. Seitz’s commanders aren’t dull-witted enough to fall for a simple diversion…” Couran muttered. He seemed convinced by Remus’s logic.

“That being said,” Remus continued, “leaving the army of Canarre to bide time in a land where battle may or may not break out would indeed be a terrible waste. Were I to make the call, I would not command them to feign an assault on Seitz─I would command them to go on the warpath. Claim a castle or two, and Seitz would have no choice but to withdraw their troops for a counteroffensive.”

Couran looked somewhat shocked at Remus’s proposal. “You would have them take the battle to Seitz itself? I hardly think that Canarre’s army has the manpower to topple a castle. An ill-fated invasion leading to a crushing defeat could lead to Canarre falling to the enemy in turn. Though then again, I suppose it’s hard to believe that Ars and his people would be thrashed that soundly…”

Claiming an enemy castle, as a rule, required the attacking force to be larger than the defending one. Canarre’s population was unremarkable by Missian’s standards, and its army was similarly lacking in size. Their soldiers were exceptional, to be sure, but tasking them with going on the offensive would still entail no small amount of risk.

“Why not send them reinforcements?” Robinson suggested.

“Reinforcements?” repeated Couran. “I doubt we have the men to spare, considering the size of the army we’ll be fending off.”

“But if Canarre’s invasion is successful, that army will shrink as Seitzan troops rush back to their homeland. Reinforcing Canarre could be the key to making our own defense a success.”

“Perhaps so… But how many men to send…? Too many and we won’t be able to hold the line in the north, but too few and Canarre’s invasion is liable to fail.”

“Fifteen thousand men, perhaps?”

“Fifteen thousand… Would that be enough to topple a castle…?” Couran muttered, lapsing into thought once more.

“Furthermore, perhaps it would be advisable to include the Maitraw Company among those reinforcements?” Robinson continued. “Their capabilities are well-proven, and they would be sure to make a difference. I’m told they’ve used their recent payments to bolster their numbers, as well.”

“The Maitraw Company, you say…? What are your thoughts, Remus?”

“I, too, believe that fifteen thousand men would be fitting, and that the Maitraw Company would be suited for the task. They were sent to Canarre’s defense recently, and handled themselves well enough, but their true strength lies in their capabilities on the offensive. They’ve worked with Canarre’s forces a number of times, as well, and should be prepared to fight by their side once more. A well-coordinated force has a high chance of toppling a castle, even if somewhat lacking in numbers.”

“Hmm… Compelling, indeed…”

Couran paused to think once more. The Maitraw Company would be effective reinforcements, but a part of him still leaned toward turning their expertise toward the defensive line instead.

The better the troops I send to Canarre, the sooner they’ll be able to claim an enemy castle. Sending a questionably helpful force, meanwhile, would only slow them down─better to send no one at all, in that instance…

Finally, Couran reached his conclusion.

“Very well, then. We will instruct House Louvent to mount an attack on Seitz, and send fifteen thousand men as reinforcements, the Maitraw Company included.”

The course was clear. Canarre would go to war.

I opened the new letter, hoping against hope that it would contain instructions to stay the course and continue bolstering our defenses…but this time, my prayers would not be answered. The message contained clear orders from Couran: we were to march upon Seitz.

Those orders were not presented without context. He’d written the rationale behind them, as well. It seemed that Seitz was poorly defended, and would make for an easy target. Furthermore, if we were able to claim a Seitzan castle, the army that was marching upon Missian would have no choice but to send some of its manpower back to Seitz to defend against our incursion. Finally, Couran was confident that the army of Canarre would be able to accomplish the task in short order, considering our expertise. Those three points put together were why he had chosen to order us to go on the attack.

Considering he’d gone so far as to justify his decision to us, I had no choice but to accept it. I had no interest in attacking Seitz, if I were being honest, but orders were orders. It also seemed that Couran would be sending fifteen thousand soldiers to support the endeavor, including the Maitraw Company. This would be the third campaign that we’d fought by their side, astonishingly enough. I knew very well how reliable they were, and their help, at least, was something that I could be happy about.

Canarre’s population had grown, and our army had grown as a consequence. Currently, we had a force thirteen thousand strong. We couldn’t send all of our troops out into battle at once, of course, but if we left three thousand behind to hold down the fort, we’d have ten thousand men ready to mobilize. In other words, our invading force would number twenty five thousand in total. I wasn’t convinced that would be enough soldiers to conquer Purledo, but again, orders were orders and we had no choice but to do what we could and hope it all worked out.

In the end, I decided to call my retainers together for a meeting to discuss the invasion.

“Well, one thing’s for sure: if Couran’s using this situation as a chance to invade Seitz, then he might have a better head on his shoulders than I’ve been giving him credit for,” said Mireille. I could already tell that she was chomping at the bit to invade Seitz, and was behind Couran’s decision.

“What? No! Are you serious?! Invading now is risky on so many levels!” Rosell anxiously exclaimed. “We don’t even know how many soldiers Seitz left behind to defend itself!”

We did have a vague idea of how many troops were defending the forts on the border, at least, but how many soldiers were left in Seitz on the whole was a mystery. The Shadows were very capable, but not even they could come up with a perfect headcount of every single soldier present in the duchy.

“If they’re invading Missian, then they must’ve put together a pretty sizable force, right? Considering Seitz’s population, there can’t be all that many soldiers left to defend the duchy,” Mireille countered. Her analysis checked out to me─Seitz’s rulers must have known that they’d have no hope of conquering Missian if they left too many troops behind. I had a feeling that she was right on the money.

“That’s true…but we can’t rule out the possibility that they’ve hired mercenaries!” Rosell fired back.

“Mercenaries, huh? Even if they did, they’d use them for offense, not defense. I just can’t imagine that they have the leeway to leave many troops behind.”

“That may be so…but honestly, I’m doubtful that our invasion will make them pull any troops out from Missian at all. If they can just conquer Arcantez, Seitz will be at a massive advantage in this war. Losing a few of their own border counties would be a piddling price to pay if it earns them the enemy’s capital.”

I was in full agreement with Rosell on that front. If Couran was defeated by the combined force of Seitz and Paradille’s armies, then it wouldn’t matter if we took Purledo─Missian would still be left at an insurmountable disadvantage. I shuddered to think of the predicament that Canarre would be left in, if that came to pass.

“You’re wrong on that point, Rosell,” said Mireille. “The enemy won’t be going for Arcantez after they take Lund County. It’s just too far away from Seitz proper─the logistics would never work out. I give it higher odds that they’ll aim for Maasa after Lund is theirs, then use it as a staging point to wage a two-front war for Canarre, coming at us from Maasa and Seitz simultaneously.”

“But that just means that their position’s even stronger than I was giving them credit for! And thinking about it from Canarre’s perspective, it means we’re in huge trouble!” Rosell exclaimed.

“That’s only if we can’t take Purledo,” Mireille said with a shrug. “Pull that off, and I think they’ll withdraw. The next county over from Purledo’s called Kuat County, and if memory serves, it’s one of Seitz’s top three biggest regions. If Purledo County falls, Kuat’ll be in a whole mess of trouble. I don’t think that’s something Seitz could afford to ignore.”

“So whether or not the enemy pulls back to defend Kuat County will depend upon how many troops are still stationed there, I guess,” said Rosell. “I figure that a county of its size would have at least a decent number of defenders, right?”

“They won’t be totally unguarded, bare minimum,” Mireille agreed.

Mireille and Rosell’s debate over the likely path the war would take continued for some time. I could see both of their points. There was no guarantee that losing a single castle would be enough to make Seitz pull back its main army, and Mireille was very right about how Seitz taking Maasa would leave both Canarre and Missian on the whole in a terrible position. I had no confidence in our ability to hold out in a two-front war. Using the airship to pull us through would be our only hope…but even that advantage wasn’t enough to change the fact that it would be a troubling position to end up in.

“Rosell, Mireille─being as we’ve already received our orders, I don’t believe there’s any point in debating this matter further. The purpose of this meeting is to decide how we will go about invading Seitz, not to second guess the King’s judgment,” Rietz chided. “Whether or not Seitz withdraws its army will depend entirely upon our efforts. If we’re able to conquer one of their castles in short order, there’s a chance that speed will cause them to feel threatened and encourage them to pull back troops to aid in their defense.”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, Mister Rietz,” Rosell said, backing down immediately.

“Our only choice is to invade Purledo County, Canarre’s immediate neighbor,” Rietz continued. “We have a reasonable understanding of the forces stationed in Purledo, and it is far from poorly defended─perhaps unsurprisingly, considering its status as a border county.”

According to Rietz’s explanation, none of Purledo’s troops were participating in the current invasion of Missian.

I guess that’s kind of a given, though.

“Okay, so they’re not short-staffed, but do they have more troops to work with than usual?” Mireille asked.

“No. Their numbers are unchanged,” replied Rietz.

“Hmm. That’s kinda strange. Considering the circumstances, you’d think they’d have predicted that Canarre would use the opportunity to invade and bulked up Purledo’s defensive force. Either they don’t have the soldiers to spare, they’re underestimating Canarre, or they’re too stupid to realize that we might invade in the first place.”

“It’s also worth noting that Purledo County’s fortifications were strong to begin with. Perhaps they believed that an excess of defenders would be wasted?” suggested Rietz. “In truth, claiming it with Canarre’s army alone would be difficult. If it weren’t for the Maitraw Company coming to reinforce us, we would be in a very troublesome position right now.”

Purledo County was home to Fort Purledo, a key element of the region’s defenses, and it was reportedly quite sturdy. Claiming it would be no easy task. Purledo County was also home to another structure called Castle Auros, situated in a position that would allow it to dispatch reinforcements to Fort Purledo in the event the latter came under attack. Castle Auros itself wasn’t all that large, but it was located on top of a hill, making it a somewhat difficult structure to assault. In short, a number of factors made laying siege to Fort Purledo a difficult prospect, but its sturdy nature made storming it by force just as questionable.

“We’ll have to start by bringing down Castle Auros,” Mireille suggested.

“Hmm. Are you sure? It might be easy for them to cut off our supply lines, considering its location, and it’s built in a hard to attack position as well. I don’t think taking it will be easy,” Rosell countered. “But then again,” he continued, “it’s true that the castle’s presence will make attacking Fort Purledo way harder…”

Rosell lapsed into thought, and Charlotte, who was in attendance but hadn’t contributed much to the discussion so far, stepped in to fill the gap. “So, hey─can’t we just use the airship you guys made the other day? Wasn’t that supposed to be a super-incredible game-changing invention, or whatever?”

“The airship…?” Rosell replied thoughtfully.

“When you put it that way, I supposed the enemy would have no way of defending themselves if we were to fly the airship above Fort Purledo and attack from above. They’d have no choice but to surrender,” said Rietz.

“I guess that’s true, isn’t it…?” Rosell agreed.

At the moment, our foes had no access to an airship of their own. That meant that we could use ours to assault their castles, and they’d have no answer for it. It was a weapon without peer, and now that it had been brought up, I was starting to think that we might be able to win this particular battle without even needing some sort of tactical masterstroke to back us up.

“The problem, of course, is that in order to do so, we’ll need to transport the airship to the vicinity of the fort,” said Maika.

“I mean…why not just fly there?” asked Rikuya. “After all, if we flew at a high enough altitude, there wouldn’t be any chance of it being shot down by the enemy.”

Maika heaved an exasperated sigh. “Brother, were you perhaps not listening to the part of the explanation where we learned that the airship has a limited range of flight? I should think that flying all the way to Fort Purledo from here would be an impossibility.”

“O-Oh. Really?”

That’s right─we’re working with a limited range.

The bulk of Purledo County was inhospitable to human habitation, so its population was small, but in terms of area it was quite large. The distance from the border to Fort Purledo was rather far as well, so I didn’t think we’d be able to fly straight there from anywhere in Canarre.

“We can just get it as close as we possibly can, then fly from there,” said Mireille. “Flying around for too long would be risky anyway, seeing as it can’t stay up in bad weather.”

There was no such thing as a quick and easy weather forecast to reference in this world, and there was no way of knowing when the weather might take a sudden turn for the worse. Purledo didn’t get much rain, but it did have the occasional day of violent winds for us to worry about. If the wind was too strong it risked capsizing the airship, so flying in uncooperative weather would be difficult, at best─and if we had to make an emergency landing, the ship and crew would be left alone in enemy territory. The airship would almost certainly be destroyed. Since we only had one of them, I didn’t want to take any risks that we could possibly avoid with it.

“Our wind-aspected aqua magia reserves are still lacking as well,” Rietz added, “and being as we’ll need to begin the invasion the moment our reinforcements arrive, there isn’t enough time for us to procure more. We should avoid situations that would require the airship to make long-distance flights as much as possible.”

Buying up a massive stockpile of wind aqua magia had been the plan, but unfortunately, we just hadn’t had enough time to follow through yet. I wasn’t sure if a long-distance flight would be possible with our current fuel stockpiles, whether or not it was necessary.

“Not to call this whole plan into question or anything, but the airship’s being modified to make it combat-ready right now, isn’t it? When’s that going to be finished?” asked Mireille. That was a factor I hadn’t considered─Shin had yet to get in touch to inform us that the modifications were complete.

“The modifications are proceeding at a rapid pace. I expect them to be finished within the month,” explained Rietz. “The Maitraw Company, meanwhile, should be arriving in Canarre by the end of the month at the absolute earliest. As such, I believe the airship’s completion and the assault’s timing should line up with one another.”

“Guess we’ll actually get to use it, then,” Mireille admitted.

“But only over short ranges,” chimed in Rosell. “Why don’t we construct a temporary fort right in between Canarre and Fort Purledo, and transport the airship there? We could use it as the staging point to send the airship on the attack.”

“A fort at the halfway point, huh?” said Mireille. “Can’t see the enemy just sitting back and letting us build one of those. We’d have a fight on our hands, no question.”

“And? We just have to win! Sure, they’ve left a decent number of troops in Fort Purledo, but with the Maitraw Company’s reinforcements on our side, we’ll have even more soldiers than they do. I don’t think they’d send their entire army out to stop us from building a fort, after all,” said Rosell.

It struck me that a temporary fort was something that we could use magic to raise. We’d need someone to direct the construction effort and tell the mages what to make where, but Canarre had plenty of people with the skills to oversee that sort of construction, Rietz included. Making that sort of fort seemed completely possible to me.

It wasn’t long at all before our strategy had solidified. We would build a fort halfway to Fort Purledo, and transport the airship there. That transportation stage would require immense caution. The enemy could send spies to sabotage our efforts, so I decided to task the Shadows with escorting the ship and ensuring it arrived undamaged.

Just in case things went catastrophically wrong and, for instance, the ship was set aflame mid-transit, we also hashed out a plan for what we would do if it was rendered inoperable. Ultimately, we decided that taking Fort Purledo first without the airship would be too difficult, and settled on targeting Castle Auros instead. We would have to take extremely great care to ensure our supply lines weren’t cut off, and dedicate more soldiers than usual to protecting them. That meant that we would have fewer troops available for the attack on Castle Auros itself, but that was something we could hopefully compensate for via our tactics.

There was, however, one worst-case scenario: if it turned out that Seitz had left more troops behind than expected, Fort Purledo was protected by a very large defense force, and our airship ended up being inoperable, it was very likely that we wouldn’t be able to claim the fort at all. Our only choice under those circumstances would be to admit defeat, fall back, and tighten up Canarre’s defenses. The worst-case scenario within a worst-case scenario would be the enemy pursuing us and taking over Canarre itself, so if things seemed to be moving in that direction, I would have to be very quick about making the judgment call to retreat. I had faith that Couran wouldn’t hold that decision against me.

After ironing out our overall strategy, it came time to decide who would be stepping into which roles. To start, I tasked Rietz with overseeing our fort’s construction. He would direct Charlotte and her unit of mages, who would handle the heavy lifting via their magic and also defend the fort from any attackers who arrived to obstruct them. I didn’t anticipate Seitz devoting a large army to that task, so I was confident Charlotte and her mages would come out on top.

The one problem was that battle breaking out would delay our fort’s completion─and there was a risk that the other nearby counties would use that time to send reinforcements Purledo’s way. We had to finish the fort as quickly and efficiently as possible if we wanted the plan to succeed.

Finally, I decided to entrust transporting the airship to the Shadows and Braham’s unit. They would have to be ready to cope with any subterfuge that our enemy could throw at us in an effort to destroy the airship, so I wanted the best soldiers we had available watching over the vessel like hawks. The Shadows and Braham’s people fit that bill. They would begin escorting the airship the moment the fort’s construction was completed, so until then, I decided not to deploy them to the front lines.

With that, our meeting came to an end. We were ready to begin making our preparations toward the commencement of our invasion of Seitz.

Finally, Couran’s reinforcements arrived in Canarre County, accompanied by the Maitraw Company. All together, they numbered fifteen thousand strong. Speaking of manpower, the band of mercenaries seemed larger than it had been the last time we fought together, and its members were also better equipped than before. They had done remarkable work during the defense of Canarre, and it seemed that Couran had rewarded them generously for their service. They’d turned right around and used that money to upgrade their equipment and hire new members, apparently.

“What’s the plan this time?” the Maitraw Company’s leader, Clamant, rather bluntly asked the moment he met up with me. He’d always felt like a rather brusque man, and that hadn’t changed in the time since we last met. It also happened that he was calm and levelheaded, though, which made him a very reliable ally on the battlefield.

Rietz began by thoroughly explaining our strategy to Clamant.

“Wait. You have a flying ship?” Clamant interjected when the subject of the airship was broached. For once, his perpetual expressionless deadpan was replaced by a look of shock.

“Yes, we do,” Rietz confirmed. “Its development was completed just recently, and I have reason to believe that it’s more than capable of aiding in battle.”

“‘Reason to believe,’ meaning you haven’t actually fielded it yet?” asked Clamant.

“This will be its first sortie.”

“And you’re positive it’ll do the job?”

“I’m inclined to think so, yes.”

Rietz went on to explain the airship’s full specifications to Clamant. Clamant, for his part, seemed keenly interested in the airship, and shot off a rapid-fire barrage of questions the moment Rietz was finished.

“I see. Yes, I could see that being of use, considering Canarre’s capable mages,” Clamant finally said. He’d instantly understood why the airship would be so useful. “And, on a note unrelated to the upcoming battle, would you have any interest in selling an airship to the Maitraw Company?”

“Huh?” I grunted with shock. His question had come from so far out of left field, it left me bewildered.

“We have more money than you might expect,” Clamant continued.

Judging by the look on his face, Clamant was dead serious. He genuinely wanted to purchase the airship. He and his men made their living on the battlefield, so maybe a mighty new weapon was just that appealing for them.

“I’m, umm, afraid that we’ve only completed one of them so far. As such, selling it is rather out of the question,” I explained. We just weren’t in any position to be putting them up on the market.

“I see,” said Clamant. “Once you’ve made more, I would like to purchase one of them for my company.”

I hesitated for just a moment longer.

“Understood. I’ll take your offer into consideration,” I finally said. I hadn’t been expecting to discuss this sort of business, so it was a wonder I managed any response at all.

Soon afterward, Rietz resumed his explanation of our strategy.

“So, our role is to prevent the enemy from obstructing the fort’s construction by driving off any forces that may attack. All right, then,” said Clamant once Rietz was finished. He’d understood his role in the operation in an instant. I knew very well how capable he was, and was confident that he would play his part to perfection.

Once the explanation was finished, I gave the order for our armies to march. We would go into battle in the hopes of forcing the Seitzan army that was invading Missian to withdraw. At the moment, Lund County was under attack and fighting a losing battle. The longer we spent taking the fight to Seitz, the more difficult a position Couran would end up in. Simply put, there was no time to waste.

Thus, the battle of Fort Purledo began.

Rosell wound up staying behind in Fort Coumeire with Ars, where he would help issue instructions from the back lines. The Shadows and Braham’s unit stood by in the fort as well, ready to begin escorting the airship the moment they were given the order. Needless to say, Clamant and the Maitraw Company were participating in the operation as well.

Rikuya and his siblings had been entrusted with a unit of soldiers as well this time, albeit a small one. This would be their first time engaging in a major conflict since joining House Louvent. That was not, however, to say that they lacked battlefield experience. All three of them had made their way through a number of bloody warzones on their way to the Summerforth Empire, and they were so calm about the prospect of going into battle, it caught Ars somewhat by surprise.

There were also a number of nobles among the reinforcements, sent from other counties to lead their troops into battle. Some of them seemed less than pleased by the fact that Rietz, a Malkan, was leading troops into battle, but at present none of them had shown signs of defying his authority. Couran himself had ordered them to ride to Canarre’s aid, and if their lack of cooperation led to the county’s defeat, their reputations would be forever sullied in the eyes of their king. It wasn’t hard to imagine him going so far as to strip them of their title, even. As such, in spite of their misgivings, they had no choice but to behave themselves.

Rietz led his force toward a particular location that had been chosen in advance, situated perfectly between Fort Purledo and Fort Coumeire: a place known as Heine’s Hill. The new fort would be raised atop that hill. Situating it on high ground meant that it would not be easy to storm, impromptu though its construction may be. Rietz could hardly have asked for a more ideal site to present itself.

Needless to say, Rietz’s force was keeping careful watch for enemy activity over the course of their march. The Shadows, however─who typically served as scouts for Ars’s army─were tasked with protecting the airship during its transit, and weren’t available to help the main force. Thankfully, while the Maitraw Company’s scouts couldn’t equal the Shadows, they were exceptional in their own right and had taken on the task of gathering intelligence.

“I can’t imagine they haven’t noticed that we’re on the move… Are they hunkering down in the fort and preparing for a siege? If so, that would work in our favor,” Rietz said, breaking the situation down.

Fort Purledo was very defensible, and it wasn’t out of the question that their enemy would choose to fight a purely defensive war, never sallying forth from its walls. There was also a chance that their defensive stance would only last until the construction of Rietz’s fort began, at which point they would go on the attack─but by that point, they would be too late.

With earth magic on Rietz’s side, the fort would be completed in no time at all. In fact, a functional, no-frills fort of that nature would likely be possible to raise in just a single day. Rietz intended to make a fort that was somewhat more sturdy than that, which meant an increase in the time he’d have to invest, but it would still be finished within three days, in all likelihood. If the enemy waited until construction began to send out troops, they would not make it in time.

“I suppose we’ll just have to hope that they’ll stay committed to defense…” muttered Rietz.

“An invasion from Canarre…? Wh-What should we do?”

Barth Micnisua, the Count of Purledo, was paralyzed with indecision. The previous invasion of Canarre had been led by Boroths, but he was off participating in the invasion of Missian, leaving Barth on his own. That meant that it was Barth’s responsibility as count to take command and repel the invaders. To make matters worse, Canarre had already put him and his men through several painful defeats. A sense of inferiority had begun to fester in Barth’s mind, and as a result, the news that Canarre was attacking had left him shaken.

“We should reinforce the fort and prepare to repel them here!” declared one of Barth’s men. “Canarre’s soldiers might be the best of the best, but not even they could storm Fort Purledo!”

“That’s right!” exclaimed another. “If we go on the attack, there’s a chance we’ll lose a massive chunk of our army for nothing! We should put our faith in the walls of Fort Purledo and prepare to defend it!”

“Hmm…”

Barth’s followers were certain that holing up was the soundest strategy, but while he’d given the option serious consideration, he wasn’t convinced it was the right course of action.

“How many reinforcements will the surrounding counties be able to send?” Barth asked.

“What troops they had have all already been mobilized, Your Lordship,” said one of his followers. “It would be best to assume that no reinforcements will be coming. If any are dispatched at all, they will be few in number.”

“I see… Well, so long as we work together with Castle Auros, it won’t be easy for them to seize Fort Purledo… But then again, we are up against Canarre… And His Lordship the Duke seems unlikely to pull back any of the invading forces to help us, being as we have the manpower to defend the fort as is…” Barth muttered. It seemed that the previous war with Canarre had left him rather traumatized.

“Reports have it that they’ve invented something called an ‘airship,’ which they’ve carried to Fort Coumiere,” noted one of Barth’s followers.

“An airship…? Does it fly by magical means? Such a device could be a threat, certainly, but if it’s only just been invented, I hardly think it will be ready to do us any harm. No need for us to intervene,” said Barth.

“I suppose so,” the follower conceded. “I’m told it’s quite large, so even if it does fly, we’ll just have to have our mages shoot it down.”

The airship’s existence─and even Canarre’s intention to use it─was known to Purledo’s defenders. They simply didn’t see it as a threat worth preparing for.

“What of the enemy’s movements? Should we expect them to attempt to claim Castle Auros first?”

“That seems very likely, yes…and if they do, we need only cut off their supply lines, then catch them in a pincer attack between us and the forces stationed in the castle. Canarre’s army will be crushed before they even realize what’s happened to them.”

“Hmm… That logic is sound, indeed…but wait. What if they realize that we intend to fight defensively, and use the opportunity to raise a fort of their own, or something to that effect? On Heine’s Hill, for instance, or even closer on Klax’s Hill? That would make cutting off their supply lines a far more difficult prospect.”

“Th-That’s true…”

Barth’s followers were caught off guard by his theory, and in their surprise, they were unable to argue against it.

“Could they really build a fort that easily, though?” one asked.

“That’s true!” said another. “That sort of construction is no simple task, even with earth magic! It would be outright impossible, unless they have a specialist in fortification on their side!”

“Are you mad?!” barked Barth. “We’re up against Canarre, remember?! They have all the specialists they could ever need! You can’t mean to tell me they wouldn’t have someone who specialized in building forts?!”

“Ugh…” the follower who’d objected grunted. Everyone present understood Canarre’s distinctive strengths painfully well.

“We’ll send our troops to Klax’s Hill to start,” Barth said after spending a moment mulling over his strategy. “If they built a fort there, we’d stand almost no chance of victory.”

“And what of Heine’s Hill?” asked one of his followers.

“Indeed… Considering their current rate of advancement, the enemy will reach Heine’s Hill before we could. We’ll start by securing Klax’s Hill, and if they begin constructing a fort on Heine’s Hill, we’ll send a detachment in to disrupt them. A fort on Heine’s Hill would be a blow, but nowhere near as dire as one on Klax’s Hill. No need for us to go to incredible lengths to stop them from claiming it.”

“I see…”

“Very well, then! Prepare our troops to march at once!”

His plan laid, Barth spurred his men into action.

“Klax’s Hill…? I see…” Rietz muttered. “I suppose they’ve realized how dangerous it would be if we built a fort there, and have decided to head off the possibility. From their perspective, it’s understandable─a fort on Klax’s Hill would allow us to defend our supply lines more effectively, and would make their defense of Castle Auros much more difficult. They’ve moved to ensure that doesn’t happen…but since that was never our intention to begin with, it works in our favor. They can fortify Klax’s Hill all they want. They’ll just be doing us a favor by overlooking our construction of a fort on Heine’s Hill.”

“You don’t think an enemy encampment on Klax’s Hill could pose a problem?” asked Clamant. “The way I see it, there’s a risk they’ll slow our advance.”

“True… Even after we’ve laid waste to the fort from the air, we’ll still need to send in troops on foot to secure it. If we ignore the encampment on Klax’s Hill, it could make reaching Fort Purledo challenging.”

However little threat the enemy posed at the moment, ignoring them could spell disaster for Rietz’s force when they advanced further down the line.

“We’ll prioritize the construction of the fort on Heine’s Hill, to start. We can decide what to do about the enemy encampment after it’s done,” Rietz eventually concluded. His force would continue its march, as planned.

Rietz’s troops had yet to finish the new fort, but they’d already begun raising a simple defensive wall around its perimeter. The longer they spent working on it, the stronger the enemy’s defenses on Klax’s Hill would become, but Rietz stuck to his plan, prioritizing his own fort’s construction.

Driving the enemy away from Klax’s Hill had the potential to take longer than anticipated, and would likely involve casualties on Rietz’s side as well. Even if they did sally forth to obstruct Rietz’s force’s advance in the long run, fighting them in the open would put the army of Canarre in a better position than charging their encampment would. There was, in short, very little reason to bother attacking them at the moment.

The construction continued under Rietz’s supervision. Canarre’s mages made good use of their earth magic, and made remarkable progress on the outer walls.

“We’ll need a wall over here too,” said Rietz.

“Coming right up,” Charlotte replied. She cast a spell, and a wall began to form.

In no time, a massive wall towered over Charlotte. No ordinary mage could have made a wall that tall─it was a stunt that only a caster of her aptitude could hope to pull off. Two mages casting the same spell could accomplish vastly different things, depending on which had a greater aptitude for spellcasting. And, considering that Charlotte’s spells used up the exact same amount of aqua magia as all the other mages’, having her do as much of the casting as possible was the most efficient option.

Still, Rietz doled out instructions at a rapid pace to the whole unit of mages. Having only Charlotte do the casting would have been the best option as far as resource consumption went, but unfortunately, it would also have been too slow to complete the fort in time. Canarre’s stockpiles of earth-aspected aqua magia were sufficient, so speed took priority over resource efficiency, and every mage was asked to pull their weight.

The construction of the fort carried on for some time. Small units of enemy soldiers occasionally arrived to attempt to obstruct the process, but they were driven away with ease, and didn’t even cause any delays worth mentioning. Work was continuing apace.

Rosell backed up Rietz’s judgment. According to him, as long as we used the airship well enough, the enemy forces on Klax’s Hill weren’t any cause for concern. The flip side, however, was that if the airship ended up being inoperable for whatever reason, they had the potential to turn into a much bigger headache for us.

Finally, word arrived from Rietz that the fort was complete.

“It’s time─let’s get this airship over to the fort! I’m counting on you to keep it safe,” I said to Braham.

“Understood! Just leave it to me,” Braham enthusiastically replied.

Braham’s unit of elite soldiers and the Shadows would be in charge of the airship’s transportation. I would be accompanying them as well, along with Rosell. Leading my troops into battle when they went out to capture Fort Purledo felt like my responsibility as the head of House Louvent, and it was a responsibility I intended to fulfill.

That meant, of course, that there would be two prime targets in the convoy: the airship and the enemy commander, which is to say, me. Protecting both of us at once would be a challenge, but traveling separately felt risky in its own right, so I decided to make just the one single trip. I was confident that the Shadows and Braham’s people would be more than capable of keeping both me and the ship safe.

Shin would be traveling with us as well, since we needed him to fly the airship. He wasn’t one of my retainers in a formal capacity and had no obligation to go into battle, but for lack of any other options, I’d asked for him to be present and he’d agreed. It wasn’t a fully one-sided arrangement─from Shin’s perspective, if the airship achieved great things in battle, Couran would be that much more likely to invest in its further development.

Shin had practically jumped at the opportunity to help out, in fact…but it was also his very first battle, and I could tell that he was pretty nervous now that the time had come. I couldn’t blame him. If the operation went south and he crash landed in enemy territory, then even if his elaborate wind magic systems cushioned his fall, he’d be cut to pieces by Seitzan soldiers the moment he touched down. I was a little worried that his nerves would keep him from flying properly, but I’d already asked him to take on the job, so now I just had to have faith in his abilities.

“All right─start preparing the airship for transit!”

I gave the order, and my soldiers got to work at once.

“I suppose it will be some time before we see each other again,” said Licia, a look of concern upon her face. She had accompanied me to Fort Coumeire, but I’d drawn the line at bringing her any farther than that.

There was no telling how long the battle for Fort Purledo would last, so assuming it would be quite a while before we’d meet again seemed like a safe bet. I could only imagine how much concern those circumstances would cause her until we were reunited.

“I know you’ll be worried about me one way or another…but still, I promise I’ll be back,” I said.

“Yes…and I’ll be waiting for you,” Licia replied. “I assure you that House Louvent will be in good hands in your absence.”

“Good. I’m counting on you.”

While Rietz and I were gone, Licia would be in charge of the castle. She was a smart and capable leader, so I knew that everything would be just fine with her watching over the home front. Finally, we finished our conversation with a gentle kiss.

I had no intention of dying and leaving Licia behind. I would finish the war as quickly as possible, and return to Canarre safe and sound. I swore to myself that I would make it happen.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said when it came time for us to part.

“I know you will,” Licia replied.

It almost looked like she’d started to cry, but I knew that if I turned around to look, I’d be tempted to go right back to her and stay by her side. That’s why I kept my eyes forward, never glancing back as I sallied forth from Fort Coumeire.

“What? They’ve already raised a fort on Heine’s Hill…?” Barth, the Count of Purledo, exclaimed with disbelief. One of his retainers had just reported to him regarding his enemies’ movements.

The fort wasn’t complete, strictly speaking, but from an outside perspective it looked like a full-featured, well-fortified stronghold. Barth had been aware that Canarre would employ someone well-versed in the art of construction, but he still hadn’t thought that they would be able to finish their work quite this fast.

“Wh-What about Klax’s Hill? Is our camp there holding strong?” Barth asked, fighting through his shock to confirm the state of his own army.

“Yes, Your Lordship,” Barth’s retainer replied. “The enemy has shown no intention of attacking the encampment.”

“Well, we must hold onto Klax’s Hill, no matter what it takes. If it falls, we might end up with two enemy forts on our doorstep!” said Barth. Knowing how quickly Canarre’s force had raised a fort on Heine’s Hill made protecting Klax’s Hill feel all the more vital to him, and he gave the order to defend it with no small amount of panic evident in his expression.

“There’s one other development you should know about, Your Lordship,” said the retainer. “It seems that Canarre have begun moving their airship. Its destination, most likely, is the fort they’ve built on Heine’s Hill.”

“The airship…? Hmm…”

Barth had a bad feeling about that piece of news. He had no idea what the airship was capable of, but it being able to fly outside of his mages’ range was a prospect that he’d dismissed. He’d been operating under the assumption that his troops would be able to shoot it down.

But what if I was wrong? What if its performance defies my expectations…?

A bead of cold sweat ran down Barth’s brow.

“It could be that their airship is a more powerful weapon than we’ve been anticipating. We should destroy it, just to be safe. It’s made of wood, so a well-placed fire spell should burn it to ash without issue. See that it’s done,” Barth ordered.

“Yes, Your Lordship,” said the retainer. “I should note, however, a cause for concern: it seems that Braham’s unit is among the airship’s escort. They’re known to be a group of elites, even by Canarre’s standards. I would expect the airship to be very well-guarded, with them around.”

“Braham’s unit… Does transporting this ship really mean so much to them…? My concerns are only growing.”

Barth was aware of Braham and his unit’s reputation for being composed of the cream of the crop from Canarre’s already exceptional military. If soldiers of their capabilities had been tasked to guard the ship, it seemed more likely than ever that it was powerful indeed. Barth was starting to believe that the airship Canarre had created was, in fact, capable of far more than he had assumed.

“Just see to it that the ship is destroyed─that’s all that matters. Assemble our spies, and instruct them to sabotage it at all costs,” ordered Barth.

“It shall be done, Your Lordship!”

“Flaming arrows!” someone in our party shouted. We were under fire from a great distance, and the enemy was using incendiary munitions.

“Not an issue,” said Pham, who was traveling with us. He began calmly flinging a series of throwing knives, striking the arrows out of the air before they could make any impact. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The sheer skill it must have taken to hit an arrow mid-flight was mind-boggling.

Apparently, our enemies had decided to burn the airship with arrows rather than through magical means. Spells tended to have relatively short effective ranges─shorter than an arrow’s, at the very least, and especially one fired from the bow of an expert sniper. With enough skill, an archer could deal damage from an incredible distance.

Needless to say, however, expert snipers were few and far between, and a single flaming arrow wouldn’t be enough to destroy the airship. A bucket of water is all it would’ve taken to nip that issue in the bud. A single offensive spell at close range, on the other hand, had the potential to inflict irreparable damage in the worst case. We were anticipating the possibility that enemy mages would try to approach in the guise of allied soldiers, and were taking extra care not to let anyone or anything suspicious get near the airship.

Before long, a report came in. “Lord Ars! We’ve apprehended a suspicious soldier!”

I used my Appraisal skill on the spot to investigate, and found that the soldier in question’s listed birthplace was indeed Seitz. I’d brought plenty of people into my service from duchies far and wide during my personnel-hunting excursions, but as a general rule, I only hired people after appraising them. In other words, if there was someone in my army who was from somewhere other than Canarre, I should have appraised them at some point in the past, and that’s something I would remember. This soldier’s face, however, rang no bells whatsoever.

“You’re from Seitz, aren’t you?” I asked.

“H-How could you possibly know that?!” the soldier replied.

“Well, regardless, I’m afraid we have reason to believe you may be a Seitzan soldier. We won’t kill you, but we’ll have to keep you tied up for the time being. I hope you won’t hold that against me.”

A pained expression came across the soldier’s face. A moment later, he pulled something out from his pocket. I recognized it instantly: it was a small catalyzer. No sooner had I come to that realization than Braham, who’d been standing guard next to me, drew his sword and lopped off the soldier’s head in one swift motion.

“Guess he was a spy,” said Braham. “Close one, huh? We might be better off not just relying on your power for this sort of thing from now on.”

“M-Maybe so,” I stammered.

It had happened so suddenly I was a little taken aback, but seeing someone die in front of me didn’t bother me anymore, in and of itself. I’d seen enough death at that point that I was used to it. It wasn’t something that I enjoyed witnessing, but it wouldn’t send me retching anymore. I’d changed since then.

Our enemies made a few more attempts to destroy the airship over the course of the trip, but between the Shadows and Braham’s troops, every one of them was thwarted. I got the impression that Purledo’s spies were quite experienced in their field, but they still paled in comparison to the Shadows. Spies of their ability, it seemed, were very hard to come by.

And so, the trip continued on without any major issues. In the end, we were able to bring the airship to our new fort unscratched.

No sooner had we arrived than Braham started singing the fort’s praises.

“I have to admit, I’d never think it was made in just a few days if I didn’t already know,” I agreed.

“That’s my teacher for you! Gotta hand it to Rietz!”

It was such a remarkable fort that it was hard to believe how quickly it had been thrown together. It had been raised with earth magic, so there were sure to be some little structural flaws here and there, but for a temporary defensive position, it was more than sufficient.

We stepped into the fort and made our way to its upper level.

“Lord Ars! You’ve arrived safely!” Rietz let out an elated shout the moment he saw me. Mireille, Thomas, and a few of my other retainers were there as well. It seemed we’d walked in on them mid-meeting.

“You’ve done an incredible job on this fort,” I said.

“You flatter me, Lord Ars,” Rietz replied. “Truth be told, I intended for it to be much more well-formed.”

I could tell he wasn’t just saying that. Rietz wasn’t satisfied with how the fort had turned out. He’d always been a bit of a perfectionist.

“So, seeing as we’ve got the airship on hand now, how about we decide how we’re gonna be using it to go on the attack?” suggested Mireille. She seemed like she was brimming with motivation, this time.

“You seem more excited about this than usual,” I commented. She was typically very casual about her work, if not downright flippant. It was strange for her to be taking the initiative like this.

“Oh, you can tell? It’s not every day I get to take down another duchy’s stronghold, see. Really works you up, right?” Mireille replied with a rather terrifying grin. Apparently, invading suited her preferences more than fighting defensively. Her high Ambition score was showing.

“I believe you’ve already been apprised of the situation, but for the sake of certainty, allow me to begin by updating you on how things stand,” Rietz said before launching into an explanation of the current state of the war.

Currently, five thousand enemy soldiers were stationed on Klax’s Hill. They’d shored up their defenses, and while they hadn’t gone quite so far as to build a fort of their own, they’d raised a low wall and constructed a number of simple towers along its perimeter. Each of those towers had a mid-sized catalyzer mounted upon it, as well. They’d structured their encampment to be as difficult to storm as possible.

The troops in Castle Auros, meanwhile, had yet to make any notable movements. They were biding their time in the castle, ready to move out at any moment if battle broke out elsewhere, it seemed.

“Regarding the forces stationed on Klax’s Hill, I believe that bombarding them from overhead would be a strategy worth considering,” said Rietz. “Fielding the airship without warning could spread panic throughout the enemy ranks─so much so that their formation could collapse, granting us a substantial advantage. It will also serve as an opportunity to train our own troops in the airship’s use.”

“I could see that, but wouldn’t it be better to make our attack on Fort Purledo the airship’s debut? After all, the less they know about it, the more likely the attack is to succeed,” I countered.

“Knowing about the airship does not guarantee that they’ll conjure up any countermeasures to it,” said Rietz. “I believe that the experience our own troops gain will offset any disadvantage imparted by the enemy’s knowledge, and then some.”

“I guess that might be true…” I conceded. Unless our foes were incredibly capable, it seemed safe to say that they wouldn’t have a way of dealing with a new and unknown weapon mere days after it was first used in live combat.

“Hmm, I don’t know… I think we might be better off not clearing out the troops on Klax’s Hill at all,” said Rosell.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Because I don’t think they’re going to abandon their position to attack us, even if we march toward the fort. From their perspective that hill is the perfect position, and they’ll want to keep it, even if it means letting us pass by. They’ll be planning on waiting until we’ve laid siege to Fort Purledo, then coordinating with the soldiers in Castle Auros to attack us from two fronts and drive us out of the duchy.”

“Hmm… Doesn’t that just make it all the more vital for us to clear them out of Klax’s Hill before we advance?” asked Rietz.

“Right, which is why we won’t totally ignore them,” Rosell replied. “We’ll split our force in two. Some of our men will stay back at Klax’s Hill to hold the enemy off, while the rest of us attack Fort Purledo.”

“So we’d stall them…? How many troops would you send?”

“I’d say seventeen thousand to attack the fort and eight thousand to hold off the troops on the hill, or so. If a force almost twice their size is blocking the path between them and the fort, they’ll be stuck in place─and if they work up the nerve to come down from the hill and attack, we’d just have to drive them back. Those five thousand men came out of Fort Purledo’s defenders, so there won’t be many troops left in the fort itself at all right now. If we make good enough use of the airship, we’ll be able to render the fort defenseless and occupy it in no time at all,” Rosell explained.

“And on the other hand, if we were to attack the soldiers at Klax’s Hill first and they withdrew, the survivors would rally at Fort Purledo. It would only cause us more trouble down the line,” Thomas added.

“We might be able to bring down the fort with the airship, but we won’t have enough aqua magia to wipe out all the troops inside,” Mireille noted. “If there are too many of them left standing after the airborne assault, we might still be fighting them by the time the reinforcements from Castle Auros show up.”

“Would the forces stationed upon Klax’s Hill retreat to the fort, though?” asked Maika. “I’m to understand they’ve been told to hold the hilltop, come what may.”

“Maybe, but who knows how long they’ll stick to that when they come under attack by a weapon they’ve never seen before,” Rosell replied.

“I mean, I’ll grant you that we still don’t know if the airship’ll be very helpful in a field battle or not,” said Mireille. “It’ll let us scatter an enemy formation, sure, but it won’t necessarily cut down their actual numbers all that much. If the enemy commander knows what they’re doing, they’ll pull their troops back into line the moment the airship’s bombardment ends and get right back in the fight, or else order a retreat. We’ll have to keep our own troops at a solid distance to make sure they don’t get caught up in the blasts, which means that the enemy will have plenty of time to regroup after it’s over.”

Mireille had picked out the airship’s potential weakness in field battles right away. It would be a different matter if we had a whole formation of airships to work with, but we only had one. It seemed possible that it wouldn’t be enough to sway the outcome of a skirmish on its own. A siege was a different matter, though─just one airship had the potential to destroy, or at least weaken, the enemy’s defenses. In that context, it would make an incredible difference.

“Hmm… You have a point, yes. Perhaps using it in a field battle would be less than advisable. I still have concerns about the attack on Fort Purledo being its very first deployment, but nevertheless…” said Rietz. He seemed more or less on board with Rosell’s plan.

“Your plan’s not bad, kid, but it’s risky,” said Thomas. “What do you do if the airship isn’t as helpful for taking down the fort as you think it will be? We’ll end up wishing we’d dealt with Klax’s Hill first, if it comes to that. I say we should seize it.”

“U-Umm, well, if our plans revolving around the airship fail, we’ll have no choice but to temporarily retreat,” Rosell stammered awkwardly.

If the airship was taken out of the picture for whatever reason, Klax’s Hill would become a vital strategic point. I had to agree─if it was possible for us to claim it, it seemed like doing so would be for the best.

“Well, if the airship goes wrong, why not just fall back and attack Klax’s Hill afterward? I think we’d be better off assuming the airship will work to start, and adapting on the fly if it fails,” said Mireille. She seemed in favor of Rosell’s position.

Thomas silently furrowed his brow. I got the sense that he knew Mireille had a point, but was so opposed to agreeing with his sister that saying nothing at all felt like the better option.

The discussion carried on for some time after that, but ultimately, we chose to adopt Rosell’s plan.

Rietz and my units would be making our way to Fort Purledo, with the intention of claiming it for ourselves. Mireille’s unit and the Maitraw Company would be coming along with us as well. Meanwhile, the troops who would be holding back the enemy troops stationed on Klax’s Hill marched behind us. The road would get us close to Klax’s Hill, at which point they would stop and set up an encampment, waiting to intercept any attempt at reinforcing the fort.

The airship hadn’t taken flight just yet. It would outpace our army’s rate of advance flying at its usual speed, and while slowing down to match our pace was an option, the longer it stayed in the air, the higher the odds were that the weather would shift and the ship would end up in trouble. Our plan was to have the airship lift off a day after the main army’s march began.

We also left a few defenders at the fort, just to make sure the airship wasn’t damaged in our absence. Those defenders included the Shadows, with the sole exception of Pham. I figured that it would be much harder for the enemy to sabotage the ship when it was safe and sound within a fort than it would’ve been while it was on the road─in fact, I didn’t anticipate the enemy trying to attack the fort at all. Even if they did, as long as the airship had a brief moment to get airborne, there wasn’t much of a chance it would be destroyed.

As a side note, Charlotte would be the only mage aboard the airship this time. We could only load so much aqua magia onto the vessel, and considering that limitation, it just made sense to have our most powerful spellcaster be the only one in the air. That way, we’d make the most of our limited supply. The rest of our mages would be helping stake out Klax’s Hill, under Musia’s command. She’d grown considerably as a leader, and could take charge of the unit without issue.

We’d exclusively brought along explosion-aspected aqua magia this time. It was one of the more expensive varieties of aqua magia, but Canarre’s economic boom meant that we’d been able to stock up on a reasonable amount of it. The airship would hover above Fort Purledo, and Charlotte would drop explosive spells directly on the enemy.

Most forts in this day and age had barriers set up to protect them from magical attack. Fort Purledo likely had those defenses as well, but a characteristic trait of barriers of that kind was that their upper reaches were weaker than their flanks. Keeping the whole barrier reinforced would expend far too much aqua magia to be practical, so standard practice was to make the top of the barrier─the least likely area to be hit directly─weaker than the more obvious targets. Knowing how powerful Charlotte’s explosive spells were, I expected the barrier to fall in a single hit─maybe two. Once it was down, she would be free to pepper the fort’s interior with magic. Its defenders would be routed in an instant.

Our march progressed smoothly, and as planned, a portion of our force split off partway to the fort to stay behind and stall the enemy’s potential reinforcements. By pure coincidence, their reinforcements arrived at just about the same time that I knew the airship would be taking off. I’d made arrangements for a message to be sent if any trouble had occurred with the ship, and I hadn’t heard anything at all so far, so most likely that end of the operation was going well.

We marched onward, making straight for Fort Purledo.

The enemy’s split their force. Some of them are carrying on the march to Fort Purledo, and the rest are very likely staying here to prevent us from intervening. That second force numbers eight thousand…

Kerubim’s forces were at a numerical disadvantage, and he was disinclined to lead his men into open battle. He’d considered the possibility of the enemy dividing its forces, but he’d been caught off guard by just how many troops they’d left behind. Fort Purledo would not be easy to conquer by any means, so he’d assumed that they would leave three thousand troops to hold his forces back, at the most. He’d thought he would be able to charge straight through their formation and lead his men to Fort Purledo’s aid.

But eight thousand of them…? No, I can’t afford to be hasty. One careless move could be all it takes to deliver Klax’s Hill into the enemy’s hands… And anyway, the fact that we’re keeping eight thousand enemy soldiers occupied is a victory in its own right. Maybe our best move is to have faith in Fort Purledo’s walls and hold our position…? Our provisions should last for quite some time…

Just as that thought crossed Kerubim’s mind, however…

“The enemy airship’s been sighted! It’s flying straight toward Fort Purledo!”

“O-Oh? I suppose our attempts to destroy it were a failure, then,” said Kerubim. “An airship…”

Kerubim had made his choice. He was resolved to hold Klax’s Hill, come what may…but something about that airship was giving him a terrible feeling in spite of himself.

“Just don’t get so worked up you run straight off the ship,” Shin cautioned.

“I’m not a kid, sheesh! I wouldn’t fall! Rude!”

“How am I supposed to know you’re not a kid when you always act like one?!” Shin snapped. Charlotte’s carefree attitude had been putting him on edge for quite some time, at that point. “Seriously, how’re you not freakin’ out right now? This is the first time anyone’s ridden an airship into battle!”

“Freaking out? Why would I?” said Charlotte. “All I have to do is wait until we get to the fort and cast some spells. Same as ever, basically. Actually, since I get to see all the nice scenery from up here, it’s better than usual.”

“I guess your job isn’t all that different this time, when you put it that way…” Shin sighed, a tired expression coming across his face.

Shin had spent his whole time under Ars’s patronage working on his airship. As such, he’d never been involved in a battle before. To make matters worse, while he’d flown his airship on a number of occasions, none of those trips had covered the sort of long distances he’d have to fly today. There were countless causes for concern, and they were doing a number on Shin’s nerves.

Shin knew, however, that if he wanted to create an even more capable airship in the future, he would have to prove his invention’s worth in battle. That was the one way to gain the funding he needed. He couldn’t let his fear and anxiety slow him down.

A-Anyway, Shin thought, I’m only here to fly the ship! No chance the enemy could hit us at this altitude, so if there’s anything to be afraid of…i-it’d be the weather.

There was always a chance the weather would turn. That was a risk that Shin couldn’t mitigate. A little rain wouldn’t be an issue on its own, but the moment the wind picked up, he’d have no choice but to take the airship down for a temporary landing. If lightning struck the ship, it could set fire to it and damage it beyond repair.

At present, the skies were bright and clear. The weather was a temperamental thing, though, and it would take about two days to reach Fort Purledo. All Shin could do was pray that the good weather lasted.

I need to make the next airship safe to fly in bad weather. That, and build it out of something other than wood─something that doesn’t burn, hopefully. That’ll cut down the risk of the enemy setting fire to the ship, too.

Even while scared for his life, Shin found himself preoccupied by his plans to improve his airship.

“That must be Fort Purledo,” said Shin.

The fortress had just appeared on the horizon, meaning the airship had safely made it to its target. The ship had overtaken Ars and his army some time ago─they were still on the march, at the present moment. The plan had always been for the ground troops to stay a safe distance away during the airship’s assault, so the airship arriving earlier than them wasn’t a problem at all.

Shin steered the airship toward the fort, just as planned. As the ship closed in on the structure, its defenders soon took notice. A spell was unleashed from the fort’s tallest tower─earth magic, from the look of it─propelling a large boulder through the air, up toward Shin.

“Hey, they’re shooting at us!” Charlotte called out.

“Not an issue,” Shin replied. His calm attitude was soon validated. The boulder that the fort’s mage had created was soon seized by gravity, and plummeted back towards the ground long before it got anywhere near the airship, ultimately slamming into the earth just in front of the fort.

“Oh, huh! Not even close,” said Charlotte.

“They don’t have anything that could touch us at this altitude,” Shin confidently declared.

The fort’s defenders turned one of its siege engines─a ballista─on the airship next. Weapons like it fired large, arrow-like projectiles. They weren’t nearly as powerful as a typical spell, but were still in common use thanks to their lengthy effective range. In this case, however, that range wasn’t long enough. The ballista’s bolt flew higher than the boulder had, but still plummeted to the ground long before getting anywhere near the airship.

“Oooh, yeah, looks like this is gonna be a pretty one-sided attack,” Charlotte cooed, clearly impressed. “You made this thing, right? That’s some pretty incredible work.”

“W-Well, of course it is! I could’ve told you that I’m incredible!” Shin replied with a satisfied smirk. Charlotte’s praise had gone right to his head.

Nothing that Fort Purledo’s defenders could throw at the airship was able to get anywhere near it, and the vessel had sailed right over the structure in no time at all. The crew brought the ship to a halt at Shin’s orders. The ambient wind caused it to drift in the air a little, but it was a notably calm day with barely any breeze to speak of, so the airship felt like it was still.

Once again, Fort Purledo’s mages attempted to shoot the ship down. The boulder they fired didn’t reach the ship, of course, and fell straight down toward the fort again, colliding with an invisible wall and crumbling to pieces before it could do any damage. That was the fort’s anti-magic barrier in action, and the fort’s defenders had just damaged it themselves.

“Ooof! Should’ve just left it alone,” Charlotte commented.

“Come on, this ain’t a show!” Shin shouted. “It’s time for you to do your job! Get ready!”

“All riiight,” Charlotte droned. She stepped below decks, working her way to the bottom of the vessel where a mid-sized catalyzer had been installed. “So, I can’t actually see what I’m firing at. That’s not gonna be a problem?” Charlotte called out.

“Not an issue!” Shin shouted back. “We’ll give you the signal when it’s time. Just cast your spell then!”

“Can do!”

The ship was sitting far enough above the fort that it looked quite small, from Shin’s perspective. He carefully adjusted his position, making sure the airship was just where it needed to be. Thankfully, the lack of wind made that fine-tuning easy.

“All right, let ’er rip!”

“On it!”

Charlotte cast her spell, and a burst of explosive magic was unleashed from the hull of the ship. It traveled straight downward, slamming into the fort and exploding. Charlotte’s spell had been even more effective than expected─not only had it shattered the top of the fort’s barrier in a single hit, it had also destroyed the tower that the fort’s mages had been firing at the airship from.

“Aww, what? I can’t even see it! Way to take all the satisfaction out of blowing stuff up,” Charlotte whined from her position belowdecks. All she’d done was cast a spell without any context on what it had done. She had no clue what sort of state Fort Purledo was now in.

“Well, one thing’s for sure: our aim’s on point right now,” said Shin. “We probably won’t hit the exact same spot again, considerin’ the range we’re at, so let’s just keep on blasting from here! We might start drifting, though, so keep an ear out─I’ll let you know if you should stop so I can adjust.”

“Got it,” Charlotte droned. She was a lot less motivated than usual, but she still followed Shin’s directions and started letting loose one explosive spell after another.

“I-It seems it’s just too high up, Your Lordship,” a pallid soldier explained.

“Th-That’s impossible! Preposterous! And if it were true, it would mean that we’re defenseless against it!” Barth stammered in a panicked fluster. A moment later, the sound of a massive explosion rang out.

“Th-The airship has commenced its attack! They seem to be using explosive magic!”

“Wha─E-Explosive magic?! Missian’s specialty?!” Barth exclaimed. His panic was escalating. The sheer destructive potential of explosive aqua magia─a resource that could only be found in Missian─was known throughout every duchy of the empire.

Just then, a shout rang out. “The overhead segment of the anti-magic barrier has been broken, and the second mage’s tower has fallen!”

“Wh-What?!” Barth yelped, horrified by the news.

If the barrier had been broken, the fort would be defenseless from any further spells. The loss of one of the mage’s towers was a blow as well. They allowed Purledo’s mages to unleash devastating magic from on high, and were one of the fort’s most important defensive installations. Their mere presence was enough to deter enemy invasions.

“W-Well, do something about it!” Barth desperately roared.

“Wh-What do you mean, something?! What?! How?!” Barth’s retainer shouted back, clueless how to fulfill Barth’s vague and directionless orders.

Barth and his retainers were facing an attack unlike anything they’d anticipated, and could do nothing but panic. Soon a second explosion impacted Fort Purledo, followed by a third. Neither of them were direct hits, but they were still gradually tearing the fort to pieces. Its towers and walls were crumbling, one after another.

Barth watched the devastation play out from the fort’s central keep. He stood there, staring in slack-jawed horror, unable to accept that what he was seeing was real. This was no time for him to be in a daze. He had to give his subordinates their orders─but he couldn’t say a word.

Another explosive spell went off nearby, and a roaring boom echoed throughout the fort. The floor of the keep shook, and Barth had to prop himself up on a wall to remain standing.

Another explosion burst nearby, finally snapping Barth back to his senses.

“W-We’re not safe here, Your Lordship! We should flee!” one of Barth’s nearby retainers urged.

“Flee…? Wh-Where would we even go?!” Barth shot back. “And how could I flee in the first place?! I’m the count! I have to give the men their orders!”

“O-Orders?! The men are all but routed! They wouldn’t listen to your orders even if you had any to give!”

The fort’s defenders had indeed fallen into utter panic. Some of them were attempting to abandon the fort. It was true─Barth’s army was broken, and it was far too late to give any commands to his followers.

“That’s still no excuse for me to flee! Call the mages! I’ll use sound magic to issue orders to the whole force at once!” Barth shouted in a desperate attempt to regain control.

“Call the mages…?” the retainer repeated, horrified. Once again, Barth was asking the impossible.

A moment later, yet another explosion went off in the immediate vicinity. They were getting closer and closer as the bombardment dragged on.

“Ugh?!” Barth grunted.

“Th-There, see?! If you die, this whole fort will be lost, Your Lordship! You must remain alive to help us regroup, and that means you have to retreat before it’s too late!” Barth’s retainer shouted, half mad with impatience and anxiety.

Barth let out a low, frustrated growl. “Fine, then… They can’t keep casting explosive spells forever! A temporary retreat is our best option!” he said, with no small degree of reluctance. It pained him, but running was his only choice.

Barth and his retainer began making their way down the stairs together.

“Where exactly are we running? This was your idea─do you have a plan?” asked Barth.

“N-No! I have no clue where we can go!” his retainer replied. The whole of Fort Purledo was being magically bombed into oblivion, and by all appearances, there were no safe pathways to refuge.

“Wh-What?! You don’t know?!” Barth bellowed with rage. He racked his mind as he ran, trying to think of anywhere he could escape to. “O-Of course!” Barth finally exclaimed. “Underground! The explosions might not reach us there!”

Fort Purledo was home to an underground passageway. It was a hidden corridor, meant to carry the fort’s lord to safety in the event it ever fell. Barth didn’t intend to abandon his fort, of course─it just seemed reasonable to think that he’d be able to shelter from the explosions there, then emerge and take control of his troops the moment they abated.

“U-Underground! Of course! We should head to the passage at once!” Barth’s retainer agreed.

As the two of them flew down the stairs, a blast of explosive magic impacted the keep’s roof. A tremendous roar rang out over Barth’s head, and he knew that if he hadn’t run, he’d have been killed instantly. His relief, however, only lasted an instant. A moment later, a nearby wall crumbled, falling toward him. Barth tried to dodge the rubble, but in doing so, he lost his footing and hurtled down the staircase.

“Your Lordship!”

Barth tumbled down the stairs, slamming his head straight into the ground. He let out a pained moan─and then everything went black.

In the end, the airship had proven itself as effective as I’d hoped it would. It hovered outside of the enemy’s reach, one-sidedly bombarding them into submission. It had flown a little higher than I’d anticipated, and not all of the magical blasts were direct hits, but surprisingly, most of them impacted the fort enough to do damage.

Once the airship had fired off its last shot, it began to move away from the fort. I had given its crew instructions to make their way to where we’d set up camp as soon as the attack was finished, and they did just that, eventually coming to a stop right above us.

“I almost can’t believe how effective that was… Do we know how much damage it managed to inflict on the enemy?” I asked.

“Let me see…” said Rietz. “It would seem that all but one of the mage’s towers have been destroyed. The fort’s keep is half fallen, and while its outer walls weren’t entirely destroyed, they were breached in a number of locations. Storming the keep through those gaps will be a simple matter. I’m afraid there’s no telling how many casualties were inflicted, as of yet.”

I’d checked about the damage dealt because the manner in which we approached our assault could vary depending on it. This time around, it seemed that we’d eliminated most of the fort’s defensive measures. Considering the state their keep was in, it was possible we’d managed to neutralize their commander as well.

“I-I can’t believe it worked that well…” Rosell marveled. “The airship was incredible, of course, but Charlotte was just as amazing.”

“This battle’s pretty much in the bag, at this point,” added Mireille. “That fort’s not gonna do much for anyone anytime soon.”

“The enemy forces are likely in a state of disorder, and I’m certain that we can claim the fort if we act now. Please give the order to attack, Lord Ars,” said Rietz.

“Agreed,” I replied. I unsheathed my sword and held it aloft.

“Charge!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, and my soldiers echoed my yell, letting out a bellowing war cry as they took off toward Fort Purledo.

The battle that ensued was so hopelessly one-sided, the word “battle” barely even felt appropriate for the occasion. The count who’d been leading the enemy forces had apparently either been killed or knocked unconscious, and his troops had been left without direction. They were helpless against the surge of Canarre’s soldiers. The enemy mages barely managed to attack us at all, allowing us to storm the fort with almost no casualties on our side. The one mage’s tower that was still standing was overwhelmed and brought under our control, rendering them incapable of striking us through magical means.

Before long, enemy soldiers started emerging from the keep to surrender or flee. And, soon afterward…

The unconscious body of the enemy commander was discovered. A blow to the head had knocked him out cold. He’d been found in the half-leveled keep, surrounded by rubble, and apparently he was lucky to have not been crushed to death beneath it.

We proclaimed to the enemy army that we’d captured their leader. At that, the few soldiers within the fort who’d still felt like putting up a fight laid down their arms. Losing their count was a blow that their morale couldn’t recover from, it seemed.

Thus, Fort Purledo fell with barely any effort expended on our part.

On the other hand, considering the size of our army compared to theirs, I had a feeling that we didn’t have much to worry about even if the fort wasn’t in perfect shape. If they did choose to attack, they would be fighting a nasty uphill battle. I soon learned that the troops in Castle Auros had indeed begun to move out in an attempt to come to Fort Purledo’s aid, but upon learning that the fort had fallen in an instant, they’d turned right back around again.

The troops on Klax’s Hill, meanwhile, hadn’t moved from their encampment at all. They’d been left without a stronghold to return to, and retreating to Castle Auros would have involved passing right by Fort Purledo. That would mean a fight, and if they abandoned the defensible position they’d set up in, we wouldn’t be letting them reclaim it. They were, for all intents and purposes, stuck in place.

My retainers and I gathered up for a meeting to decide what to do about Auros Castle and the troops on Klax’s Hill.

“Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting the airship to be quite that ridiculous!” noted Mireille. “Maybe a little too ridiculous. Wasn’t much of a fight, was it? They folded like a wet washcloth.”

She had a point. The airship had inflicted such devastating damage that we’d barely had to put any thought into our tactics at all. From her perspective, it was something of an anticlimax.

“I can’t think of anything better than an effortless victory, personally,” Rosell replied. He looked a little aghast at Mireille’s apparent dismay.

“Okay, yes, the airship was amazing, but let’s not forget that my magic was a big part of that, okay?” Charlotte chimed in with a very self-satisfied look on her face. She was right, to be fair: her capabilities had just as much to do with our victory as the airship’s. In fact, it seemed safe to say that she and it made for an outrageously powerful combination.

“Keep the irrelevant chatter to a minimum, please. We’re in a meeting,” Rietz scolded.

“S-Sorry!” said Rosell.

“Right, sure,” Mireille casually grunted.

Charlotte ignored him. Apparently, she hadn’t realized she was one of the ones being scolded.

“I believe we should urge Count Barth to formally surrender to our force. His words carry weight, given his station, and the remaining forces should lay down their arms if he instructs them to,” Rietz suggested.

A direct order from the count would mean that the soldiers on Klax’s Hill would abandon their effort to resist our invasion. It was a little less clear what the troops in Castle Auros would do, but considering how difficult it would be for them to hold the castle under the current circumstances, it wouldn’t have been surprising if they surrendered as well.

Executing Barth and informing the enemy of his death, in contrast, had the potential to backfire. It could enrage them, or convince them that their situation was do or die and send their morale skyrocketing. We’d risk running up massive, unnecessary casualties.

I decided to take Rietz’s advice, and we settled down to wait for Barth to recover in the hopes he’d order his troops to stand down. It wasn’t long before the count regained consciousness, and I went to speak with him along with Rietz and Mireille. Rosell still wasn’t great about talking with people he didn’t know─he tended to freeze up from nervousness─so I left him behind this time, asking him to consider our next moves in the war while we were away.

I was a little worried that Mireille might do something line-crossing and inadvisable, but she’d claimed that this sort of thing was her speciality and asked me to bring her along. I had to hope that she’d meant persuading people was her specialty, rather than torturing them.

“Just don’t get too rough with him, okay?” I whispered.

“I know, I know,” Mireille replied in her usual flippant tone. I didn’t have much faith in her, but then again, if worse came to worst I could always just put her in control of the whole discussion and let her do it her way.

We’d locked Barth up in one of the fort’s remaining intact rooms. It was well-decorated, and part of me wondered if it might have been the room that he’d been living in.

I stepped into the room, coming face to face with Barth himself. He was wide awake, as I’d been told, and was sitting in a chair, staring pointedly at me. He looked a little sick, but there was still plenty of life in his eyes, and the glare he was shooting me made it feel like he would’ve stood up and killed me on the spot if he’d had the chance. It was a little overwhelming, but considering what a mess I’d made of his fort, I couldn’t blame him for his hostility.

I decided to appraise him, just for good measure. He was forty years old, apparently, and had a Valor score in the seventies while his Leadership, Intelligence, and Politics scores were all in the sixties. He had no obvious weaknesses, in short, but didn’t have any standout strengths either. All of his stats were close to their max values, as well, which told me he was a man who’d trained himself diligently.

“Greetings,” I said. “I am Ars Louvent, the Count of Canarre.”

“And I am Barth Micnisua,” Barth replied, still glaring at me as he spat the words. “I heard the rumors that the Count of Canarre was still a youth. It seems they weren’t exaggerated.”

I was fifteen years old now, which meant that by this world’s standards, I was no longer a child. That said, I was unmistakably still much younger than you’d expect from a count.

“What business could you have with the commander of the fort you just seized?” asked Barth. “If you intend to behead me, you’d best get it over with. I’ll tell you now that I have no intention of disgracing myself by begging for my life.”

“Taking your life is not one of my objectives,” I replied. “I’m here because I was hoping to negotiate with you.”

“Negotiate?” Barth repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“Correct. If I were to execute you here, then there’s no doubt that I’d galvanize your followers on Klax’s Hill and in Castle Auros─and if they choose to resist, I’ll have no choice but to order their deaths. If, however, you were to declare your formal surrender, it could convince your soldiers to stand down peacefully. Don’t you think that surrendering would be in everyone’s best interests, for the sake of minimizing needless casualties among your people?”

I tried to frame the issue not around how inconvenient it would be for us if his soldiers kept up the fight, but rather, how much of a senseless loss it would be for us to kill them. I had a feeling that would be the much more likely argument to win Barth’s cooperation.

“Hmph… I was wondering what you could have to gain from speaking with me, but this is even more foolish than I’d anticipated. You truly believe I would roll over and do your bidding? Laughable. Needless casualties are a trifling consequence. My men are honorable soldiers of Purledo, and each and every one of them would sooner give up their lives than surrender to the likes of you. We will never yield to Canarre,” said Barth. Clearly, bringing him around was not going to be that easy. He was digging in his heels, preparing to resist us to the end. “In other words, I have nothing to say to the invaders who wrought such devastation upon my fort.”

“Lord Barth,” said Rietz, “you appear to consider our attack on your fort to be a coldhearted act of unilateral aggression─but how do you justify that perspective to yourself, knowing full well that we have only invaded in response to Seitz’s own attack on Missian?”

“You mean to say that Seitz is to blame?” asked Barth.

“I mean only to say that the origin of this conflict lies in a decision made by the Duke of Seitz. He chose to carry out his invasion of Missian, knowing perfectly well that there was a risk Purledo County would be invaded in turn. The loss of Fort Purledo was a consequence of that decision─a sacrifice, if you will. Do you disagree?”

“A Malkan with a silver tongue? Never thought I’d see the day. You must be the one they call Rietz Muses,” Barth growled with a scornful glare. It seemed he was a man who wore his prejudice on his sleeve. Anti-Malkan sentiment had been on a gradual decline in Canarre as of late thanks to Reitz’s achievements, but was as rooted as ever the moment you left the county. “I don’t care how you twist and gild your argument─my answer will not change. The duke has done no wrong, and failing to protect Fort Purledo was no one’s fault but my own. Offering my surrender to you now would disgrace me like nothing else ever could, and I will not have it.”

Barth’s loyalty to his duke clearly ran deep─and to the duke who’d overthrown his predecessor just recently, rather than the one who’d sat on the throne for years beforehand. I found it remarkable that he would offer that sort of faith to a usurper. Was the duke that capable of a person?

“Yup, you’re a stubborn one, all right,” said Mireille. “Guess we’re wasting our time. Too bad, but not a huge issue─killing you won’t pose any problems for us at all. The kiddo’s only offering you a chance to save yourself because he’s nice like that.”

“A bald-faced lie. The soldiers of Purledo may stand no chance of snatching victory away from you anymore, but they can whittle your forces down considerably. If you want to be rid of them, you’ll have to pay a price in blood to do so.”

“Hahaha! You can’t be serious,” Mireille said with a mocking smirk. “You saw the airship, didn’t you? All those soldiers you have holed up in Castle Auros are gonna meet the same fate that your troops here did. We just have to blow the castle to pieces, then sweep in and mop up what’s left during the panic. Easy as that.”

“Wh-What?!” Barth exclaimed.

“Oh, wait, that’s right─Auros is a castle, isn’t it? Not a fort like this place. There’ll be plenty of civilians in that little castle town within its walls. Too bad they’ll have to get caught up in the carnage, but eh, it happens. War’s war, and all.”

“Y-You monster,” Barth growled, a wrathful grimace on his face.

“And wiping out the troops on Klax’s Hill will be even easier. We just have to fly the airship over them and incinerate their food and water supplies. They won’t be getting any new provisions from this fort, after all! They’ll run out of rations in no time, and since there’s no source of water up on that hill, they’ll be out of it before long too. Do you know how quickly a person dies if they don’t have anything to drink? Two days in, and they’ll barely even be able to stand anymore.”

The truth of the matter was that targeting the encampment’s supplies would require pinpoint accuracy that was far from guaranteed, considering the altitude the airship would have to fly at. Barth, however, had no way of knowing that.

“If you’re that dead set on not cooperating, then every soldier in Purledo’s army is going to die like a dog, for no purpose and without ever even being able to touch us. I’m sure you’re picturing some sort of heroic last stand, but that’s out of the question. It’ll be a one-sided massacre.”

“Wha…? Ugh…”

A bead of sweat ran down Barth’s face. He believed every word that came out of Mireille’s mouth.

“You’re only getting the chance to save them because senseless slaughter doesn’t sit right with us. We know what sort of people your army’s made up of. Most of them are ordinary farmers and townsfolk when there isn’t a war on, right? We’d sooner leave folks like that alive.”

“You fiend… How very brazen of you to claim such benevolence after slaughtering Seitz’s men in droves in the last war,” Barth sarcastically jabbed. His expression, however, communicated much less composure than he tried to impart in his words.

“In the last war, you invaded us,” I replied. “We killed your men because we had no choice. This time, that isn’t the case.”

“You child… Dress up your words all you like, but I know the truth: you only want the soldiers of Seitz alive so you can use them for your own purposes. I know that. It’s plain as day…and yet…” Barth said, his conflicted feelings apparent on his face. “And yet, I cannot overlook a chance to spare my people from a senseless and cruel fate…” he finally muttered.

The count, it seemed, had believed the better part of Mireille’s story. The fact that he’d experienced the horror the airship could inflict on a fort lent a lot of credence to her words.

“May I take that to mean that you will instruct the soldiers in Castle Auros and on Klax’s Hill to stand down?”

“I will,” Barth agreed with a nod.

The contents of the letter were quite simple: an appeal to surrender to the army of Canarre at once. The soldiers on Klax’s Hill capitulated to their count’s request, laying down their arms on the spot. Fort Purledo had fallen, and they’d had little hope of reclaiming it with a force of their size, so I imagined they’d already been at a loss for what to do next. Now that Barth had given them the option to surrender, it was only natural they’d jump on it without a second thought.

The soldiers in Castle Auros, on the other hand, chose not to surrender right away. There wasn’t any question about whether the letter was authentic─it seemed someone there had known what the count’s handwriting looked like─but they still chose to keep up the fight, perhaps out of pride or sheer obstinacy. We kept pressuring them to surrender, though, and as time went by word of how the battle had gone seemed to make its way to the castle. Ultimately, they decided that they had no hope of winning and chose to obey the count’s call and yield as well.

And so, Fort Purledo and Castle Auros both fell into our hands. There were other regions of Purledo County governed by local barons as well, but those baronies were rather small in scale. Their barons lived in manors rather than castles, and lacked any defensive structures to retreat to in the event of an attack from a large enemy force. For all intents and purposes, Purledo County was already ours.

The airship’s first campaign was over, and its performance had exceeded even our lofty expectations. It had earned us a total victory.

“R-Really? Is this any time to be celebrating?” Rosell protested when he heard the news.

I could see his point─the fort had only just been taken, and it was still in terrible shape. We’d done some basic repairs already, but it was still a long way off from being fully defensible again. If the enemy launched an attack now, we’d be in pretty big trouble.

“Most of Seitz’s troops are occupied with the invasion of Missian,” Rietz explained. “They likely don’t have enough soldiers available to retake Purledo County. In other words, this is the perfect opportunity to take a day off and relax and unwind while we can. The boost to our soldiers’ morale will more than make up for any time lost.”

I was a little surprised to hear that from him. Rietz was usually all business, all the time, so I’d sort of expected him to be against the banquet plan.

“I-I mean, that’s true, but still…” Rosell weakly replied. He still seemed rather anxious.

We held the banquet in Fort Purledo. There was a town nearby, but showing up with an army’s worth of soldiers seemed like it would be a terrible imposition, so we stuck to military territory. Instead, we bought up food and alcohol for the event in town and raided our own provisions as well.

We spent the day preparing, then began the event proper once night fell. I’d had all sorts of dishes cooked for the troops, and they were all too happy to indulge. Most of our marching rations were preserved, and weren’t much to write home about in terms of flavor. This would be the first time a lot of our troops had eaten a properly cooked meal in ages.

Alcohol was banned mid-campaign, so it’d be their first chance to drink in some time as well. I sort of wanted to break my long stretch of sobriety too, but being fifteen years old, I was still too young to drink. There weren’t strict laws about underaged drinking in this world, and plenty of fifteen year olds imbibed, but I knew from my past life that drinking under the age of twenty could have consequences when it came to your health, and I’d made a personal policy of abstinence until I reached that point. Licia would be sad if I drank myself to an early grave, after all.

Speaking of Licia, even though Purledo County was now under our control, I hadn’t called her over to meet up with me. I wanted to see her as soon as possible, but Fort Purledo wasn’t safe yet by any stretch of the imagination, and I didn’t want her anywhere near a potential battlefield, since there was still a chance the enemy would show up to reclaim it. No, the next time I’d see Licia would be when I returned to Canarre.

“You’ve all fought hard, and I thank each and every one of you for your service! There’s every chance that Seitz will attempt to reclaim this fort in the future, but for now, the time has come for us to indulge to the fullest in the fine drink of victory!” I declared. My soldiers let out a rousing cheer and fell upon the food and drink with incredible vigor.

“Oooh, now that’s the stuff! Guess Seitz makes some pretty good booze!”

And, for some reason, a certain woman in the crowd was already three sheets to the wind. She, of course, was Mireille, and it seemed she’d had a head start on the others when it came to the drinking.

Just how much does that woman love her alcohol?

“C’mon, keep the food coming! I’m not even close to full here!” Mireille added. She was being bossy to the people around her, and I considered giving her a talking to, but I knew that there was no getting through to her when she was that sauced. All we could do was wait until she drank herself into unconsciousness.

I was just about to tuck into the food as well when Pham held out a hand to stop me.

“Not so fast,” Pham said. He was dressed in his maid uniform, but spoke in his usual, natural voice. “Let me test it for poison first.”

“Huh…? Wait, really? I’m sure it’s fine, right?” I said, a little bewildered by how sudden his request seemed. The food had been made by a soldier who worked as a server in Canarre─one who I’d known and trusted for many years. He was a highly capable cook who always made delicious food. It was very hard to imagine him deciding to poison me.

“Just in case,” Pham said before taking a bite off my plate. “All right, no issues.”

“O-Oh, really?” I said. “Actually, now that I think about it, does it even make sense for you to be tasting my food?”

Pham was the Shadows’ leader. If my food were somehow poisoned, and that poison killed him, I would be in a whole heap of trouble.

“I’ve built up a resistance to poison. Won’t be an issue,” Pham confidently replied.

The whole thing still seemed odd to me. He’d never been that worried about the possibility of poison before. Was the recent attempt on my life weighing on him, maybe?

“Sorry,” I said. “I know I make you worry about me sometimes.”

“What are you talking about? I’m your retainer. Worrying about your lord is just part of the job,” Pham replied, maybe feeling just a little bashful. That was odd for him─he wasn’t the sort of person to let his emotions show.

“Hey, maid! We need some more booze over here!”

“Ah, okay! Coming right up!”

One of the soldiers called out for Pham, and he was off in the blink of an eye. As usual, the way he behaved in his maid persona was so unlike himself, it was almost like he was a different person. I didn’t think he needed to bother with the disguise since only our allies were in attendance, but whether he was surrounded by friends or enemies, Pham seemed to prefer keeping his identity a secret when more than a few people were around him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like or trust our soldiers─just that anyone at all learning his identity meant another potential vector through which he could be exposed. In that sense, he was doing the right thing.

Anyway, now that my poison tasting was done, I tucked into my food. I’d been served a sort of meat that I wasn’t familiar with. It tasted like fish, almost, and since I’d eaten so little fish since my reincarnation and so much of it in my past life, I felt a certain sense of nostalgia. I soon learned, however, that it wasn’t a fish at all. It was the meat of a land animal I’d never heard of called an anzarki.

“An anzarki? What sort of animal is that?” I asked Rosell, who was seated nearby.

“They only live in Seitz,” Rosell explained. “They look like big lizards, but they live around the water and are great swimmers.”

Lizards, huh? I guess they’re reptiles, then? Or maybe amphibians, since they’re good at swimming?

I tried imagining what one could look like for a moment, but then thought better of it.

It’s tasty, so who cares? Better not to worry about it.

“You’ll have to excuse me now,” said Clamant. He’d participated in the banquet, but had powered through his meal in a hurry and was now trying to make an exit.

“You’re leaving already?” I asked.

“Correct. I’ve never been fond of this sort of thing, and I have training to attend to anyway,” Clamant somewhat coldly replied. He struck me as the sort of person who didn’t care for getting close with other people─and the sort of person who never neglected his training, of course. He was diligent to an extreme.

“Oh,” Clamant added a moment later, “and it seems the airship is an even more useful weapon than I thought it would be. If you’re willing to sell one, I’m willing to buy.”

“I-I see,” I replied. “We’ll be making more of them in the future, so depending on how things play out, it’s possible I’ll be able to sell you one eventually.”

“Understood. If it’s doable, please try to see it done,” Clamant said before making his exit for real this time.

“Hey, Mister Count!” Shin called out to me next. “Man, talk about one hell of a victory, huh?!”

“It really was,” I replied. “And the airship performed admirably. Thank you again for making it.”

“C-Come on, you don’t have to thank me! I should be thanking you for lettin’ me make it, for cryin’ out loud!” Shin bashfully replied.

“Sure, the airship was amazing and all, but what about me? I was incredible too, right?” said Charlotte, who had appeared behind me. She’d spoken up without warning, and made me jump a little.

“Y-Yes, that’s true. You did well too, Charlotte,” I admitted. The truth was that if it weren’t for her magic, we wouldn’t have been able to bring the fort down, airship on our side or not. This had been a battle that let her put her destructive potential on full display.

“Heh heh,” Charlotte chuckled with a self-satisfied smirk. “Really, though, the view from the airship was something else! I wanna ride it again soon.”

“I’ll certainly agree with that,” I said.

“Oh, I know! Hey, Shin! Make another airship just for me, okay?” Charlotte said, asking the impossible with no preamble whatsoever.

“H-Huh? Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Shin said, completely bewildered by her unreasonable demand.

“Oh, c’mon! They’re not even that big! Just whip one up for me real quick!”

“That’s not how it works! They’re on the small side for ships, sure, but they’re filled with all sorts of mechanical junk! Makin’ an airship’s not that easy!”

“Boo. It would’ve been so fun to fly wherever I wanted to.”

“Even if you had an airship, you don’t know how to fly one in the first place!”

I had to assume it was unintentional, but it felt like Charlotte was goading Shin into some sort of comedic dialogue sketch.

“Oh, Lord Ars!” Braham said as he rushed over to me. Zaht and the Fujimiya Siblings were with him, for some reason.

“Braham!” I said. “Thank you again for your work when we were transporting the airship. I hope you’re enjoying the banquet?”

“Sure am! And wow, was that airship ever amazing! Hey, speaking of, I’ve got a request: Can I ride it? Just once?! Please?!” Braham asked, more than a little forcefully.

“You want to ride the airship…? I can understand why…but that might be out of the question for now,” I replied. “Purledo County may be under our control, but we’re not out of the woods just yet. We can’t risk sending it out for any flights that aren’t necessary.”

“Y-Yeah, figures! It doesn’t have to be right now, though! I can wait till the war’s over! I just really, really wanna try riding something that can go that high up into the sky!”

“Well, in that case, I’m sure that’s something I can arrange.”

“Woohoo!” Braham shouted. He was over the moon to have gotten the permission he wanted.

“Well, lucky you,” said Rikuya. “I’d like a chance to ride it as well!”

“It can fit a fair number of people, so you’ll be welcome to come along, if you’d like,” I said.

“Oh, really? You should come along too, then, Maika!” Rikuya happily urged his sister.

“I shall refrain,” Maika replied. “How, precisely, does that ship fly in the first place? The principles escape me, and a fall from that height would mean certain death. I won’t get anywhere near it.”

Apparently, she didn’t trust anything that she didn’t fully understand.

“W-Well, when you put it that way, I’m starting to feel a little nervous too,” Rikuya said with a shudder.

“The airship’s inventor is right here, as it so happens,” I said, gesturing to Shin. “Maybe you’d feel better about it after talking with him?”

“Oh, yes─Shin, I believe?” said Rikuya. Shin and the Fujimiyas had attended meetings together on a number of occasions, but hadn’t had the chance to speak one-on-one yet, from what I could tell. “I’d appreciate that, but do you think you could explain it in a way that even a child could understand? Seems like a tall order.”

“Wh-Who are you insinuating is a child?! I am a fully grown, seventeen-year-old woman!”

“Y-You’re seventeen?! You sure don’t look it!” Shin said, gaping at Maika. Incidentally, by this world’s standards, being seventeen meant she was considered a fully-grown adult.

Shin’s less than polite exclamation led to a rapid breakdown between him and Maika, which I did my best to mediate. Eventually, the two of them cooled down enough for Shin to start explaining the principles behind the airship’s flight to Maika. Maika, in yet another demonstration of her remarkable intelligence, grasped his explanation with ease, much to Shin’s shock. It seemed he hadn’t been expecting her to catch on that fast.

“Well, I’m not following any of this,” Rikuya commented from the sidelines. He’d been listening in, apparently in vain. I’d heard Shin’s explanation a number of times at that point, by the way, and I still didn’t feel like I had a handle on it either.

“How about you, Takao? Are you interested in trying out the airship?” asked Rikuya.

“I dunno. Are airships tasty?”

“They’re… They’re not food, Takao.”

“Oh. Then no thanks.”

The moment he learned food wasn’t involved, Takao lost interest. As always, eating was the one and only thing on his mind.

Things got a little out of hand as the banquet wore on─Mireille going on a drunken rampage that Rietz had to put a stop to was a stand-out moment─but in the end, everything came to a more or less peaceful resolution. The day after, the restoration of Fort Purledo began in earnest.

The allied forces of Seitz and Paradille had stormed into Missian by way of Lund County, and although Couran had sent a force of troops to help repel the invasion, they hadn’t made it in time. The county had fallen without putting up any real fight to speak of. The Count of Lund, at least, had managed to flee without falling into the enemy’s clutches, and had brought the remnants of Lund’s army to the neighboring Maasa County.

“What movements has the enemy army made since?” Couran asked Robinson.

This time, Couran would not be leading from the front. He had left that task to his followers, and only intended to take to the field himself if or when the enemy army managed to occupy a location closer to Arcantez. Thus, he remained behind in the capital, overseeing the war from afar.

“None so far, Your Majesty,” Robinson explained. “Currently, they’re in position in Castle Lund. I fear, however, that it will not be long before they set out on the warpath once more.”

“I’m sure,” Couran agreed. “Where do you believe they will attack next?”

“They may stage a direct assault upon Arcantez…but I believe there is also a chance they will choose to steer toward Maasa County instead.”

“Arcantez is a farther march from Castle Lund than Maasa, yes. I can certainly believe that they would choose to assault Maasa first, depriving us of an army we could otherwise call in to defend ourselves with,” Couran thoughtfully muttered.

“Indeed…and conquering Maasa would offer a number of logistical advantages, as well. Even if they were to conquer Arcantez, it’s so far separated from Seitz proper that any form of transit between the two, and even communications between the duchy and the front, would be challenging. Maasa, in contrast, is located closer to Seitz and would make the question of transportation much easier to surmount,” said Robinson, supplementing Couran’s analysis with his own.

“A fair point indeed. In which case it would be safe to assume that Seitz hopes to claim Canarre as well?”

“Precisely, Your Majesty. Though Canarre drove off a sizable army in their previous engagement, Maasa falling to Seitz would force Canarre into a two-front war, with Seitz on one flank and Maasa on the other.”

“A situation that not even the mighty army of Canarre could withstand, I suppose…” Couran muttered, a frown creeping across his face as images of that worst-case scenario flashed through his mind.

“However,” Robinson continued, “none of this is to say that we can afford to leave Arcantez undefended. It’s a troublesome position we’re confronted with indeed.”

Arcantez was a region of undeniable importance. Couran could not, under any circumstances, allow it to fall. The situation was a tricky one.

“Yes… And the enemy’s vast numbers pose a problem as well. Matters would be different if Canarre was able to take Purledo, but alas,” Couran said with a bitter scowl.

If Canarre’s forces assaulted Purledo and presented themselves as a serious threat on Seitz’s home front, there was a chance they would choose to divert some of their attacking forces back to defend the duchy proper. Losing Purledo would be a blow that Seitz would most assuredly prefer to prevent.

Couran, however, was somewhat anxious about Canarre’s prospects of bringing Purledo to heel, even given the reinforcements he’d sent to them. Still, he kept his hopes high: knowing the sort of individuals who fought under Canarre’s banner, there was always a chance they would emerge victorious.

As Couran continued discussing his strategy, a soldier arrived bearing a message─specifically, a letter from Canarre. Couran opened it on the spot and read through its contents.

“Wh-What news, Your Majesty?” Robinson nervously inquired.

“It’s from Ars,” said Couran, unable to disguise the agitation in his voice. “It seems Fort Purledo has fallen and Castle Auros has surrendered, placing the bulk of Purledo County under his force’s control…”

“Wha─?! I-Is that really true?!” Robinson shouted, just as bewildered by the letter’s contents as Couran had been.

“That was far, far too fast…and it is indeed difficult to believe…but this letter bears Ars’s seal, and I recognize his penmanship as well. I find it hard to believe that it’s a forgery…and Ars would never send me a false report.”

Couran had assumed that even if Fort Purledo were to fall, its conquest would take a considerable span of time. A mere three months had passed since Couran had sent the order for Ars to attack the county. Bearing in mind the time that each message had spent in transit, the speed with which Ars had brought Purledo under his control was downright stunning.

“He claims to have used a new weapon called an airship to enable his victory,” Couran added. “I was aware that he was developing such a thing, but I never dreamed it would already be possible to put into practical use.”

“A-An airship…? Do you mean to say he attacked the enemy from the sky?” asked Robinson.

“It seems natural to assume, yes… And if that was the case, he may well have bombarded them with magic from far outside their own range.”

“That would be a mighty weapon indeed─particularly given the wonders that the mage called Charlotte, who works under Canarre’s command, is capable of.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Couran said with a nod. “If this is true, and Purledo is under his control, the enemy will have no choice but to summon troops back to Seitz en masse. Otherwise, they would be asking for Canarre to move on and conquer the surrounding counties in sequence. That means an invasion of Maasa will be off the table…and that our next move should be to reclaim Lund County with all due haste.”

“I heartily agree, Your Majesty. What shall we do after the county is reclaimed, though?”

“Seitz will be moving to take back Purledo, so our first step will be to prevent them from doing so.”

Couran had intended to invade Seitz from the start. They were a troublesome neighbor, exemplified by their attempted invasion of Canarre. The duchy’s hostility toward Missian could hardly have been more blatant, and Couran had planned to order an invasion and nip the threat it posed in the bud before it could cause any real trouble. Purledo County would serve as the perfect foothold to stage that assault from. The enemy would try to take it back, to be sure, but if defended well, it had the potential to make all the difference.

“If we waste too much time taking back Lund County, then Canarre’s armies may not hold out, regardless of how capable they are. We need to reclaim Lund as swiftly as possible,” Couran concluded.

“Perhaps it would be wise to dispatch reinforcements to Purledo immediately?” Robinson proposed. “A few spare soldiers could make all the difference for the county’s defense.”

“We have the troops to send…but we can’t afford to send them until we’ve determined how many troops the enemy has left in Lund County. For now, we should confirm that the report from Purledo is indeed true and wait to see the enemy’s next move.”

“Very well, Your Majesty.”

Thus, Couran chose to bide his time and see what card the army of Seitz would play next.

Ashude had led his troops to a clear victory in the battle of Castle Lund. He’d lost fewer men than anticipated, even, although the fact that the Count of Lund had escaped was an irksome fly in the ointment. His worries in that regard were justified when the escaped count rounded up the remains of Lund’s army and fled to Maasa County alongside them. Without their count to command them, those soldiers would have been unable to coordinate themselves and escape. Ashude could have either wiped them out or forced them to surrender, depriving his foe of even more soldiers.

Still, the fact that Castle Lund had fallen before any enemy reinforcements could arrive had put Ashude in a strong position. If he could leverage that advantage to claim Maasa County as well, Missian’s overall fighting force would be severely damaged. The war, at that point, would be Seitz’s to win.

An advantage, of course, was no guarantee of victory. The enemy’s numbers were still vast, and that army would have to be crushed if victory was ever to end up on the table. Ashude knew that this would by no means be the last time he would be forced to set foot on the battlefield before the campaign was done.

“Now then─regarding our next move,” Ashude said, addressing the retainers who’d gathered up to hear his orders. He’d called them together in Castle Lund’s meeting chamber to discuss their current strategy.

“Lord Ashude! Urgent news!” shouted a soldier who frantically burst into the chamber. “Purledo County has fallen to an enemy invasion from Canarre!”

There was a moment of silence.

“What?” Ashude finally said, brow furrowed. He was a man of calm temperament, and did not shout or show any real sign of surprise. Internally, however, he was beside himself with shock.

I knew that Canarre had marched upon Purledo, Ashude thought to himself, and I knew they were not a threat to be dismissed─but now the county has fallen? Surely that was far too fast…?

The army of Canarre had once fended off a Seitzan invasion, and Ashude was aware that they were far more formidable than their modest numbers would suggest. Invading a territory, however, was a far greater challenge than defending one. There was a point at which strength in numbers became mandatory. No matter how capable Canarre’s soldiers were, the idea that they could have taken over the county with such ease was unthinkable.

“Purledo has fallen?! Lies!” one of the lords in attendance shouted. “That man must be an enemy agent! Cut him down!”

It was, by all accounts, a reasonable theory. There was every chance that the enemy had sent a false messenger in the guise of a Seitzan soldier in an effort to sow chaos among their army’s ranks. The guards present at the meeting drew their swords.

The messenger’s face paled with fright. “W-Wait, please! I was given this news from a messenger sent from Seitz─I was just told to deliver it to you!” he frantically explained.

The noble from before withdrew his order. “Then it’s that first messenger who’s an enemy agent,” he said. “I expect he’ll have long since fled the castle, in that case.”

“A-Actually, no, he hasn’t,” said the soldier. “It seems he was exhausted from how hurried his trip was. He’s currently resting.”

“What?! Then apprehend him and bring him here at once!”

“Y-Yes, Your Lordship!” the soldier shouted, white in the face, before spinning about and dashing out from the chamber.

“Hmph─as if there’s any chance that Purledo County could be conquered so quickly! Our enemies have resorted to petty trickery,” said one of Ashude’s retainers.

“They’ve been driven to desperate measures by the speed of our advance, I’m sure. They’ll try anything to make us turn back,” another commented.

Ashude himself sat there in silence, listening to his followers converse.

Is it false information…? That wouldn’t be an unbelievable strategy, by any means…but if that’s the case, the fact that the messenger they sent hasn’t fled is peculiar…

If the messenger truly was an enemy spy, one would think he’d have long since made his exit. There was a real chance that he’d be killed if any suspicion was cast upon him─assuming they didn’t take their time torturing him for information first. There was no good reason whatsoever for a spy to remain in the castle after completing his mission.

“It’s too soon to assume that the report is false,” Ashude finally said. “And if Purledo County has fallen, our situation has taken a grim turn. Take steps to verify this claim at once. We will reconvene once the truth has come to light.”

“Huh?” Ashude’s retainer grunted. “Ah! Y-Yes, Your Lordship! At once!”

Ashude had a number of capable spies in his employ. They could move cross-country at a rapid pace, and could gather information from far-off regions. There was a risk that spending too long gathering information could set back the invasion of Missian, but just a few days wasted would make little difference in the long run.

Ashude dispatched one of his spies to confirm the state of affairs in Purledo County with all due haste.

“So we truly lost Purledo? How could this be…?”

“Wh-What’s to become of the war now…?”

Ashude’s retainers were disturbed by the news, but not all of them were at a total loss.

“I believe we’ve no choice but to withdraw,” said Boroths, who was the first to speak up with a proposal. “If Canarre’s forces are left to run rampant across our lands, there’s no telling what irreversible damage they’ll do.”

“How could we retreat now?! We’ve only just claimed this castle!” shouted a muscular man who was in attendance. “We need to stay here in Lund, and let the troops we left behind sort it out! We’ll put our faith in them and keep on the attack!”

“Though a reasonably sizable force was stationed in Purledo, the counties around it were left with only the bare minimum of defenders. If we don’t fall back, and in very short order, the situation will go from bad to worse─of that, there can be no question. Withdrawal is our only option,” said Raddas, Seitz’s preeminent tactician. “Furthermore,” he continued, “the weapon that Canarre has developed─their airship─is a significant threat. The fact that they were able to use it to overcome the fort’s defenses means that our other fortresses could be taken as well. Until we’ve devised a means to repel such a weapon, we have to assume that any structure not protected by a large enough force will be vulnerable, no matter how sturdy its fortifications may be.”

News of the airship had also reached the army of Seitz. Although they were not yet aware of its full, specific capabilities, the fact that Fort Purledo had fallen was enough to tell Raddas that it was a menacing weapon indeed.

“It does seem that we should return our troops to Seitz, then,” said Ashude. “We can’t allow Canarre’s army to attack the surrounding counties, and we can’t allow Purledo to remain in their hands. We must reclaim it as fast as possible.”

The moment after a territory fell was also the easiest moment to take it back. Any fortress that fell in the fighting would already have had its defenses damaged, and the remains of the army that had once defended the territory would do their part to occupy the attention of its new owners, rendering it unstable. The longer you waited, the more those defenses would be rebuilt and any resistance would be snuffed out.

If Purledo County fell under Missian’s permanent control, it would make a future invasion of the rest of Seitz much easier to stage. And on the other hand, if Seitz wished to have any hope of defeating Missian, reclaiming Purledo was an absolute necessity.

“One moment. If we’re to return to Seitz, then what is to become of Castle Lund?” asked one of Paradille’s commanders, a grim-faced man named Bamba Phanamahmaf.

When the Duke of Paradille had sent his troops to Seitz’s aid, he had given Bamba command of the contingent. Just a few years earlier it would have been unthinkable for Bamba to lead a force of that size, given his standing at the time, but his accomplishments had piled up so dramatically since then that he’d risen through the ranks.

“I’m afraid to say that holding this castle will be all but impossible,” said Ashude.

“You intend, then, to pull back your entire army?” asked Bamba.

“Much as I would sooner ensure that Castle Lund does not fall into enemy hands, this territory has little merit of its own. It only has use to us as a foothold through which we could claim Maasa and Canarre,” Ashude explained.

The route from Seitz to Castle Lund involved passing through Paradille, and took a considerable amount of time to travel. Although Ashude had managed to topple the castle in a surprise attack, holding onto a fort that far separated from his homeland for an extended period was not realistic.

“Very little merit to Seitz, perhaps, but to Paradille, this castle serves as a strategic position of no small importance,” Bamba countered.

To Paradille, Lund was a border county that could provide a wide variety of options for the remainder of the war with Missian, both offensive and defensive. Having won a territory of such great significance, Bamba wasn’t about to let it go without a fight.

“I understand that, yes. I trust, however, that you also understand the position that we of Seitz find ourselves in?” said Ashude.

“I fully appreciate your moment of crisis, Your Lordship, but we have expended no small amount of rations and magistones to enable this venture─not to mention the casualties our army sustained, admittedly few though those were. We cannot turn around and leave after suffering such losses,” Bamba replied, the stern look in his eyes never faltering. “For the sake of our duchies’ mutual friendship and future collaboration, might I suggest that we discuss the matter further?”

“You wish to discuss it. I see,” Ashude muttered. Bamba’s words had led him to realize just how troublesome of a matter this was going to be.

If Ashude had been given full impunity to do as he pleased, he would have abandoned Castle Lund in a heartbeat and rushed his men back to Seitz to defend their homeland. The sooner a losing venture was abandoned, the better. A worsening of relations with Paradille, however, was something Ashude would have preferred to avoid. Earning their animosity would make a future victory against Missian difficult, even if Seitz did manage to weather the current crisis.

The Missian army will be marching to reclaim Castle Lund at once.If this castle falls, they’ll proceed to gather their troops in Purledo and march on its surrounding counties as well. That is a situation that would pose its own set of problems. Perhaps leaving some number of soldiers here would be for the best, for the sake of maintaining our alliance with Paradille… Ashude thought. He spent a moment longer putting his thoughts together, then delivered his conclusion.

“Very well. We will aid in the defense of Castle Lund. However, given the dire state of affairs in our homeland, I will be ordering a number of my troops to withdraw. This means, of course, that we will not be following through with our planned invasion of Maasa.”

“Understood,” Bamba said after a lengthy pause.

Ashude and Bamba went on to discuss the particulars of the movements of Seitz’s army, coming to an agreement after a rather extensive period of negotiations. Ashude agreed to leave twenty percent of the Seitzan army to defend Castle Lund, while the remainder of his troops would return to their own duchy to drive back the enemy and reclaim Purledo County. Ashude himself would return to Seitz as well, leaving one of his vassals, Boroths, to take command of the troops in Lund.

Ashude wasted no time in carrying out his plan, leading his troops back toward Seitz at a frantic pace.

It’s so quiet here, Licia thought to herself. Seeing the state of the castle brought a melancholic frown to her lips. It wasn’t just that Ars was missing─Rietz and the rest of his retainers had ridden off to war as well, leaving very few of the castle’s usual residents behind.

“Elder Sister! Welcome home!” a shout rang out. Wren dashed down the corridor toward Licia, accompanied by her pet, Rio. She and her brother Kreiz were still children, so needless to say, they’d been left behind in the castle.

“Thank you, Wren,” said Licia. “Hm? Where is Kreiz?”

“He’s out in the field, training!” said Wren. “He’s been pushing himself harder than ever ever since our elder brother went to war.”

“I see. I’m a little worried he’ll push himself too far, though. It would be terrible if he hurt himself,” Licia said with a look of concern.

“I was just about to go study! Would you mind teaching me a lesson, Elder Sister?” asked Wren.

“Of course not,” Licia warmly replied. “I’d be happy to teach you anything I’m able to.”

Licia and Wren made their way to Wren and Kreiz’s room, where they pulled up a pair of chairs, sat down, and began their lesson. Being a daughter of nobility, Licia had received a formal education and was well-versed in a number of subjects that she now passed on to Wren.

“I had no idea there were that many cities in Summerforth!” Wren exclaimed. Today, the two of them had decided to study geography. “Have you ever been outside of Missian, Elder Sister?”

“Only once,” Licia replied, “but on the one occasion I did leave, I traveled to the Imperial Capital.”

“What was it like?!”

“The castle there was enormous, to start, and splendidly made. The city, however, felt a little dreary to me. I think Canarre might be a much nicer city on the whole, as a matter of fact,” Licia explained as she thought back on her time in the empire’s capital. It had far exceeded Canarre in terms of scale, of course, but she’d gotten the impression that Canarre’s citizens were livelier than those of the capital by just as great a degree.

“Really?! Canarre sure is a great place to live, huh?” Wren said with an innocent, childish grin. “Oh, that reminds me! People have been saying that we made a boat that flies through the sky, called an airship! Is that true?”

“It is indeed,” said Licia.

“Oh, wow! That’s amazing!”

“And as it so happens, I’ve ridden aboard it!”

“Really?! I’m so jealous! I wanna ride it too!” said Wren, eyes sparkling with glee.

“It’s sailed off to war, so you won’t be able to ride it just yet,” said Licia. “Once the war is over, though, I’m certain you’d be able to ride it if you asked.”

“I’ll ask! I wanna ride!” Wren excitedly cooed─but a moment later, her tone dropped to a subdued mutter. “I hope the war ends and our brother and the others come home soon…”

“Yes, I do as well,” Licia said, her own tone just as full of loneliness.

The two of them kept chatting for some time as they carried on their lesson.

“Kreiz is taking his time, isn’t he?” Licia eventually commented. They’d been carrying on their studies for quite a long while, but Wren’s brother had yet to return from the training grounds. “Do you suppose he’s still practicing? Too much exercise is bad for the body… I think I’ll go check up on him.”

“Elder Sister…?” said Wren. “Make sure he’s all right, okay?”

Licia departed from the room and made her way toward the training grounds.

Licia arrived at the training ground to find Kreiz on his own, swinging a wooden sword through the air. He was focused single-mindedly on his training blade, and his frantic energy was palpable. His form was a mess, as well─even a total amateur could tell that if he stepped onto a battlefield and fought like that, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

The training grounds were normally packed with soldiers running through their drills, but today, Kreiz was the only one present. That, Licia assumed, was because most of Canarre’s army had gone into battle. A small number of troops had stayed behind to maintain public order in Canarre, but it seemed that none of them had picked this particular moment to train.

After one final swing, Kreiz’s wooden sword clattered to the ground. He stooped over, shoulders heaving as he gasped for breath with his hands on his knees. Sweat poured from his face, dripping to the ground below him. Anyone could see that he’d driven himself past the brink of exhaustion.

“Kreiz…” Licia called out as she walked toward him.

“O-Oh… Big Sister… You’re back…” Kreiz managed to choke out between heavy, panting breaths as he turned to face her. “Sorry. I still have a few more drills to run through. I’ll talk later…”

“I believe you would be better off stopping here,” Licia said, stepping in to intervene. “Pushing yourself too hard will have quite the opposite of the effect you’re hoping for.”

“N-No! I have to get stronger, now! I should’ve gone out to fight with the others this time, but I got stuck back here instead! If I’d been stronger, I could be out there too, fighting for my big brother!” Kreiz shouted with tears in his eyes. He had clearly taken his inability to go to war personally.

Kreiz bent down to pick up his wooden sword, but his hands were trembling so violently that he couldn’t seem to grip its hilt. It fell from his grasp right away.

“Ah,” Kreiz exclaimed in surprise as the clatter of his sword hitting the ground rang out through the training grounds.

“Let me see your hands, Kreiz,” said Licia. She took him by the hand to inspect his palms, and as expected, they were in a terrible state. He’d swung his sword for so long that he’d rubbed his skin raw and bloody. “If you keep practicing your swordsmanship like this, there’s a chance you’ll never be able to hold a sword again.”

“Wha…? N-No way! I can’t let that happen!”

“Then call your training off here for the day. We need to treat your hands as soon as possible. Come along!”

Licia pulled Kreiz by the hand, leading him to the first-aid room set up near the training grounds. Injuries were a fact of life when carrying out military drills, and a convenient place to treat them was a vital necessity.

Licia and Kreiz made their way inside the first-aid station. Canarre’s medics had gone out to aid in the war effort, just like the soldiers, so at the moment no one else was present. Licia searched through the room and soon found a medical salve, which she rubbed onto Kreiz’s palms.

“Ouch!” Kreiz yelped with a wince.

Once she was finished treating his wounds, Licia wrapped Kreiz’s hands in bandages. “There! All better now,” she said.

“Yeah… Thanks, Big Sister,” Kreiz muttered. He seemed to be in very low spirits.

“You should know, Kreiz, that haphazard training won’t make you stronger. Resting from time to time is just as important as pushing yourself,” said Licia.

Kreiz silently nodded.

“I know that you’ll be a force to be reckoned with eventually, but eventually and immediately are very much not the same thing. Rushing yourself will get you nowhere. You should take your time, building up skill and experience slowly but surely.”

“I know…” Kreiz muttered, in spite of his obvious frustration.

Licia believed that Kreiz’s ability to put in such incredible effort would make him a valuable asset to House Louvent in the future. For now, though, she led him back to the castle to join Wren in their room.

“B-But…”

“No buts!”

“S-Sorry.”

The moment Kreiz arrived back at the room he shared with his sister, Wren laid into him with a no-holds-barred scolding. Kreiz just sat there and took it, offering her a dejected apology. He couldn’t bring himself to stand up against her.

After Wren’s lecture was finished, the siblings and Licia had dinner, then spent the evening chatting and playing games with one another.

“The two of you look tired,” Licia eventually observed. “Shall we be heading to bed soon?”

“Y-Yes, I think so,” Wren replied before letting out an impressive yawn.

“I-I’m not sleepy at all,” protested Kreiz, who was struggling to stay on his feet from how tired he was.

“M-May I sleep with you tonight, Elder Sister?” Wren somewhat bashfully asked.

“That’s quite all right,” replied Licia.

“Hurray!” Wren cheered.

“M-Me too,” Kreiz insisted, already half asleep.

“All right, then. The three of us will all sleep together tonight!” said Licia.

Licia led the twins to the room she shared with Ars, where the three of them turned in for the night. Kreiz was out like a light and snoring away mere moments after getting into bed.

“Look at that. He’s already asleep,” commented Wren.

“It’s hardly a surprise. He must be exhausted,” said Licia.

Licia and Wren joined Kreiz in bed, with Licia in the middle and one twin on either side of her.

“I hope our brother’s okay…” Wren anxiously muttered. “Going to war is dangerous, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure he’s just fine. He’s surrounded by a handpicked band of incredible people, so there isn’t a chance that they could lose,” replied Licia. She was more worried about Ars than anyone, in truth, but she hid those feelings away and did her best to reassure Wren instead.

“Y-Yeah, you’re right,” said Wren.

“Let’s go to sleep now, shall we?”

“O-Okay…”

With that, Licia and Wren closed their eyes and drifted off.

The next day, Licia woke up and had breakfast with the twins. Normally, Ars would have eaten with her, but today, it turned out to be a three-person meal. Not being alone made Ars’s absence a little easier for her to bear, and Licia was grateful for the comfort that Wren and Kreiz’s presence brought her.

A few days later, a letter from Ars arrived at the castle. He’d written about how the plan involving the airship had gone off without a hitch, and how Fort Purledo had fallen under Canarre’s control.

“Oh, Ars! You’ve done it now!” Licia said with a smile that was as broad as could be. She headed straight back to her room to find some paper and begin writing a letter in reply.

In Couran’s mind, this moment─when Seitz’s defensive forces were scattered─was the prime opportunity to take Castle Kuat by storm. The airship that Ars had used in his recent campaign had proven incredibly effective, and it was safe to assume his enemies would still be unable to mount an effective defense against it. Pressing that advantage now would allow Ars to fight from a dominant position.

The remaining troops in Couran’s army would strive to retake Castle Lund. Once the castle was reclaimed, Couran intended to turn his attention fully upon Purledo County and join in the effort to claim Castle Kuat.

Those plans, however, would prove premature. Bamba, who had stayed behind in Castle Lund, was about to make the process of reclaiming Couran’s lost territory much harder than it otherwise would have been.

Ars Louvent…the child. Yes, I remember him well, Bamba, Paradille’s commanding officer, thought to himself. He crossed his arms, conjuring an image of Ars’s face to mind.

“So the youth truly was no ordinary being. My divine eye has not deceived me,” Bamba muttered with a sardonic sneer.

The truth, incidentally, was that at the time, he hadn’t thought much of Ars other than that he was a rather clever child. Bamba hadn’t imagined he would become this important. He was, in short, making it up as he went along.

The Seitzan commander who was seated beside Bamba, Boroths, had overheard his mutterings and was now looking at Bamba with the bewildered expression of a man who had no clue what to make of his new comrade in arm’s nonsense. When the bulk of the Seitzan army had retreated, Boroths had been left to lead those few soldiers who remained.

“Umm, Sir Bamba? Would you perhaps have any suggestions?” one of the Paradillean nobles asked, prodding their commander for an idea.

As a general rule of thumb, Bamba never volunteered his ideas unprompted, even when he had a fully developed one in mind. He would either wait for someone to ask him for input, or otherwise bide his time until the absolute last second to speak up. His reasoning was simple: he thought it made him look better, in a dramatic sort of way. The lords of Paradille found his eccentric behavior obnoxious, but couldn’t deny that his suggestions were often the stuff of genius. Playing along with him was a regrettable matter of necessity.

“Our foes have placed us in a perilous position─that, none can deny. They have beset us with a force four times the size of our own, and the walls of Castle Lund stand unmended. Paradille, meanwhile, lacks the ability to send reinforcements our way,” Bamba said, summing up the current state of affairs in a calm, collected tone.

The assembled nobles hung their heads in despair. If not even Bamba could come up with a tactic to turn the tide, it seemed that surrender was their only remaining option.

“However,” Bamba continued, “our defeat is not yet set in stone. The enemy’s vast numbers are their bane. Their strength will surely have bred complacency. I do believe the time has come…to use our trump card.”

“Our…trump card?” Boroths skeptically repeated, unable to understand what Bamba was alluding to.

A number of the nobles from Paradille, however, seemed to grasp the implications of Bamba’s words.

“You mean to say you brought them with us?” one of them asked.

“I did. Just in case worse came to worst and the time came for their unveiling,” Bamba replied with a self-satisfied smirk.

“It’s time for you to learn that you’re not the only one who’s invented a new weapon, Ars Louvent.”

Missian had claimed the advantage in the war, but if Castle Lund wasn’t reclaimed in quick order, that advantage could be flipped on its head. As such, the battle to retake the castle would be an important one, and a battle of that significance was one that Couran felt the need to be personally involved in.

“The enemy seems intent upon weathering the siege, Your Majesty,” said Robinson.

“Hmm. I’d thought that would be next to impossible, considering the damage that’s been done to the castle’s walls. Still, it works in our favor,” said Couran.

“How shall we stage our assault?”

“No need to wait them out. We’ll bring down the walls and take the castle by storm,” Couran replied. Neither Robinson nor any of his other subordinates objected to the plan, and the attack began in short order.

“Your Majesty, the enemy has mounted something on the castle’s wall,” Robinson soon reported.

Couran took a long, hard look at the wall in question.

“Hm…? Is that…a catapult?”

In the modern era of magical warfare, a catapult’s simplistic ability to hurl stones wasn’t relevant anymore. They’d all but vanished from the battlefield in recent times. Even in the era where they were commonly seen, they were used as siege engines to knock down walls and fortifications, not bombard enemy armies from atop them. That’s not to say it was unheard of─sending a catapult stone into the middle of a battalion was a rather effective way of breaking their formation─but it was certainly rare.

“What could they intend to accomplish with one of those in this day and age?” Couran muttered.

The catapult launched its first stone, which crashed into one of Couran’s formations. An unfortunate soldier who failed to dodge in time became an instant casualty, but it seemed the catapult wasn’t powerful enough to launch anything particularly large. Bringing down one man per shot seemed to be the best it could hope to accomplish, and the soldiers of Couran’s army were used to storming across battlefields where powerful spells fell like rain. This was far from a threat that would make them falter. Couran’s army continued to advance…but then, a moment later, the stone that the catapult had flung exploded.

The soldiers in close proximity to the stone were incinerated. Worse still, the fragments of the stone scattered in a burst of shrapnel, mowing down even more men in the vicinity. Some of them were hit in their vitals, taking fragments of stone to the head or the heart, and died on the spot. More still were hit in their arms and legs, and while their wounds weren’t fatal, there was no chance they’d be fighting fit any time soon. In the end, almost every soldier that had been standing around the stone was taken out of the battle.

“Wh-What was that?! Explosive magic?! But that’s impossible!” Couran shouted.

Missian was the only one of the duchies with access to explosive magic─the others shouldn’t have been able to use it at all. Missian was the only region where explosive aqua magia could be manufactured, and its export to other duchies was prohibited.

A catapult stone exploded… Perhaps it wasn’t explosive magic, then, but rather some new form of weaponry? New and troublesome, indeed, Couran thought, just as the soldiers atop the castle’s walls began throwing stones down toward his men.

Couran realized the danger he was in at once and called for his troops to fall back─but it was too late. The stones thrown by the enemy soldiers exploded just as the catapult’s had, and though they─and their resulting explosions─were much smaller than that first blast, there were far, far more of them. A series of ear splitting pops rang out, and the front line of Couran’s force was decimated. The survivors who could still move fell into a panic and began to scatter, ignoring Couran’s attempts to stage a controlled withdrawal.

Ugh… There’ll be no reforming our vanguard after this. Best to ensure the rest of my men make it out in time.

The front lines, Couran decided, were lost. He chose to abandon the men who’d fallen into a rout and fall back with the remainder of his army.

“Yes, they are quite impressive. I must ask, though─why ‘drake’? Is there some significance to the word that I’ve missed, perhaps…?” Boroths asked, giving Bamba an appraising glance.

“Hm? The significance is that it sounds fantastic, of course. It doesn’t mean anything,” Bamba replied.

“I… I see,” said Boroths. He did not think it sounded fantastic. He thought it sounded ridiculous, in fact, but chose not to broach that subject. “How do they work? I was under the impression that Paradille was not capable of creating explosive aqua magia.”

“Which is why explosive aqua magia is not among the components used to create them. These explosions are the product of black powder.”

“Black powder…? I’m familiar with it, conceptually, but my understanding was that the explosions it created weren’t that impressive,” said Boroths. While black powder had been discovered in this world, the fact that flame-aspected magic put its effects to shame had resulted in its use falling to the wayside in favor of magical means.

“I discovered that if you mix black powder and flame-aspected aqua magia together in just the right way, the resulting material is capable of producing powerful explosions. It’s an invention that only I could have ever managed to dream up─and, importantly, Paradille is capable of creating its own flame aqua magia,” Bamba boasted.

“Fascinating…and remarkable indeed,” said Boroths. “And the specifics of how this mixture is compounded─”

“Are, of course, top secret! We may be allies, but this is a craft that I would never share with another duchy without a very compelling cause.”

“I suppose that stands to reason,” Boroths admitted. He hadn’t expected Bamba to share his methods─he’d just figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. It came as no surprise when Bamba shot him down. “So then, how many of these Bursting…something stones do you have available to you?”

“Bursting Drakestones! Remember that name! We have a thousand that can be thrown by hand, and a hundred that are catapult-sized,” Bamba replied.

“I see…” Boroths said, an apprehensive look on his face. Would that, he wondered, truly be enough to drive Couran’s army away?

“Yes, I understand your doubts all too well,” said Bamba. “Indeed─that quantity may not suffice! Our foes were wise to withdraw when they did. When fighting at a numerical advantage some sacrifices can be afforded if it allows you to force through the enemy lines, but instead of pressing on, they turned back the moment they became aware of the threat the Bursting Drakestones posed to them. Clearly, their leader is an individual of remarkable judgment and insight.”

If Couran’s army had tried to force their way through, Bamba would have taken the opportunity to inflict as many casualties upon the invaders as possible, ultimately rendering them unable to continue their attack. The shrapnel effect that the Bursting Drakestones produced made them capable of inflicting tremendous casualties on a tightly-clumped mass of enemies. Most of those soldiers would survive, but wounding them was all it took to take them out of the picture. A wounded soldier, after all, would be of no use when it came to reclaiming the castle.

Couran’s decision to fall back at once, however, had taken the wind out of Bamba’s scheme’s sails. They wouldn’t attack again without some sort of plan to deal with his new weapon, meaning they’d lose far fewer soldiers than they would have if they’d tried to force their way through at once. That meant that it was unclear whether Bamba’s available stockpile would be enough.

“So it would seem,” Boroths agreed. “It appears that Couran has taken personal command of Missian’s army, at the moment.”

“Couran himself?! Hell’s bells! Then ordinary means won’t get us anywhere… But I suppose coming up with extraordinary means is our only choice, that being the case,” Bamba replied. It was a concerning development for him, but he launched into preparing for the next battle in spite of his worries.

However prepared Missian’s force was, maintaining command of an army while marching straight into a battlefield that was exploding every way you looked was a very tall order. Missian’s formation collapsed after a while, and when it became clear its soldiers were falling into a state of mayhem, the order to retreat was once again given and carried out.

That evening, Bamba took the very rare step of speaking out on his own initiative in a war council, the instant it was called to order.

“Well, we’ve lost. Let’s get out of here.”

Almost everyone present at the council was stunned by Bamba’s words.

“Wh-What are you saying, Sir Bamba?!” one of Paradille’s nobles exclaimed. “We’ve inflicted incredible damage upon the enemy forces thanks to your invention! If we just hold our ground, this battle is ours to win!”

Bamba shook his head. “That invention isn’t going to last us forever. We’ve exhausted our supplies faster than expected─in fact, we’re almost out. What little we have left won’t make a difference the next time they attack. We’ve incapacitated an incredible number of their troops, yes, but there’s still far more where they came from. If we try to hold the line here, we’ll lose.”

The Missian army’s performance had exceeded Bamba’s expectations. Their timely withdrawal in the first engagement and effective anti-explosive tactics in the second had minimized their casualties. All things considered, they’d handled a new and unknown weapon with remarkable aptitude. Bamba had thought that Missian’s numerical superiority would lull them into a sense of security and prompt carelessness on their part, but that had proven to not be the case, taking his best hope of eking out a victory with it.

A number of other attendees attempted to argue against Bamba’s proposal, but he proceeded to debate them all into submission. Before long, Paradille’s retreat was set in stone.

“Very well─but we will remain in this castle, at least for a moment longer,” Seitz’s commanding officer, Boroths, declared.

“All right,” said Bamba. “You should know, though, that the hopes of your defense being successful are dismal at best.”

“I’m well aware, thank you. Defending the castle is no longer our objective.”

From Seitz’s perspective, the defense of Castle Lund had never been a necessity. Their only goal was to delay Couran’s participation in his own invasion of Seitz. If Castle Lund fell immediately, Couran and his army would make their way straight to Purledo County and Seitz’s odds of reclaiming the region would plummet. Kuat County would find itself in imminent danger, as well─there was a risk that Couran would storm across their border before they had the chance to shore up their defenses.

“Understood. Fight well, my comrade in arms,” said Bamba. With those parting words, he began directing his troops to prepare for their retreat.

“A massive number of enemy soldiers have been spotted withdrawing from Castle Lund! They seem to be from the army of Paradille!”

“They’re withdrawing…?” Couran repeated, perplexed by the news. He had been under the impression that the enemy had full control over the situation.

In spite of tactics that had proven effective at mitigating the damage dealt by the enemy’s new weapon, it still hadn’t been enough, and he’d lost many a soldier in his previous attempts to storm the castle. The castle’s defenders, meanwhile, had barely suffered any losses at all. Couran couldn’t say for sure whether or not he would have emerged victorious in a battle of attrition, but he’d already started attempting to devise an alternative when news that the enemy had given up and fled reached him.

“Could it be that their supplies of their new weapon have run dry, Your Majesty?” Robinson proposed.

“That seems plausible, yes. If they were only invented recently, they may not have had time to make a substantial number of them. They were fearsome, though─we’ll have to take great care should we encounter them in the future. If we’d been moments later with our withdrawal in the first engagement, it may have spelled defeat for us.”

Couran had emerged victorious in the end, but he’d gone into the battle in a position of overwhelming superiority, and had almost seen that advantage turned on its head. Missian, famed for its use of explosive magic, had seen its own tactics used against it. The weapon wielded by the castle’s defenders had left a very strong impression in Couran’s mind, and he was resolved to find a way to defend against it in the future.

“It would seem that a number of Seitz’s soldiers intend to remain and continue defending Castle Lund,” Robinson reported.

“I see,” said Couran. “They intend to buy time, I’m sure. That will not be an issue─we’ll crush them with everything we have.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

Couran gave the order to march on the castle. Seitz’s remaining soldiers put up as much of a fight as they could, but they were unable to weather Missian’s overwhelming assault. In the end, Boroths gave the order to abandon the castle and flee when fewer than a hundred of his men remained standing.

It had been a hard-fought battle, but in the end, Couran reclaimed Castle Lund.

To be honest, though, we weren’t in the best position to go invading another county just yet. To start, we were low enough on fuel for the airship to make me nervous. We hadn’t been able to claim any wind-aspected aqua magia from Purledo’s stockpiles, so we were still working with the exact same supply we’d started out with. I’d sent Couran another letter requesting that he send us as much aqua magia as he could spare, but there was no telling when any supplies from him would reach us. Wind magic was hardly ever used in battle to begin with, so I wasn’t even sure he would have any of the resources we needed in stock at all.

On a similar note, our supply of explosive aqua magia was running low as well. It was quite a rare resource, and was fairly hard to get ahold of in the first place, but since it was one of Missian’s signature specialties, I felt certain that Couran would have a reasonable quantity of it stashed away for times like these. As such, I requested that he send any explosive aqua magia that he could spare our way as well.

From what we’d been able to determine, Kuat County had sent the bulk of its standing army out to war, and had very few soldiers left to defend it. I couldn’t deny that if we were going to claim the territory, this would be our best chance. The one problem was that, important to Seitz as the county was, its castles were well-fortified. It wouldn’t be easy to take one by storm unless we could make full use of the airship, so for the time being, I decided to focus on buying as much explosive- and wind-aspected aqua magia as I could while waiting to see what the enemy’s next move would be.

Meanwhile, we got to work restoring the fort. Depending on how things played out, there was a significant chance that we’d end up having to defend Purledo from a returned Seitzan army intent upon reclaiming it. I most certainly didn’t want to take that task on with a broken fort serving as our stronghold.

We’d already managed to rebuild the mages’ tower that we’d destroyed in our attack. The keep had been largely leveled as well, and we were working on repairing it too, but it would need a little more time before it was restored. Fortunately, just having the mage’s tower back in operation meant that our defenses were solid. Magic was the best possible weapon to use when defending a fortress─especially since we had Charlotte on our side.

Having access to the airship would also make a huge difference if we were forced to defend the fort. I knew that our enemy would send a massive army to reclaim Fort Purledo, and if they tried to advance while grouped up together, bombarding them from above with explosive magic could thin their numbers. They almost certainly wouldn’t be able to return fire at the airship, either, meaning that all those losses would be one-sided.

The airship also gave us a morale advantage, in the sense that our enemy would never know when we might send it out to strike at them. The fear that would instill in their soldiers would have an effect on their will to fight. We might also be able to use it to destroy our enemy’s large catalyzers in the event of a siege, which would leave them without any means to bring down the fort’s walls. The accuracy of our aerial bombardments wasn’t super high, but since large catalyzers were, well, large, there was a decent chance we’d be able to target them. In short: if the enemy decided to come reclaim Fort Purledo, our airship would play a major role in our efforts to defend it.

Now that we knew that Seitz had indeed pulled their troops back, we could abandon all thoughts of advancing further into the duchy and direct our full focus on defending Purledo instead. We had the fuel we needed to send out the airship again, which gave me confidence that we’d be able to stop any attack that Seitz sent our way.

Seitz’s army march progressed faster than I’d anticipated, and when they arrived back in the duchy, almost all of their troops made their way to Kuat County to help with its defense. They numbered about one hundred thousand, in total, while we had fifty thousand troops to work with thanks to both Couran’s reinforcements and local soldiers from Purledo, the majority of whom had signed on to fight for the Missian army after we moved in. It seemed that the majority of them were fighting for a paycheck rather than loyalty to the duchy, and as long as we could keep the money flowing, they weren’t fussy about which lord in specific they were serving. The five thousand soldiers who’d surrendered to us in the previous invasion had, in the long term, ended up bolstering our numbers.

The enemy had two men to every one of ours. In a field battle that would have put us at a serious disadvantage, but when defending a fort, that ratio was a lot easier to work with. When you factored in our airship on top of all that, it started to feel like the odds of Fort Purledo falling were very low, even if Seitz did come at us in force.

The army of Seitz seemed to understand that as well. However long we waited, they showed no sign of attempting to invade Purledo County. Rather, they spent their time bolstering their own defenses to ensure they’d be ready if we chose to invade them. It was clear that they considered us a genuine, existential threat to the duchy. I wasn’t inclined to complain about that─the fewer battles, the better, in my book. And so, I settled in to wait, hoping that Seitz would keep holding its position, until another letter from Couran arrived.

The message’s contents were twofold. First, it informed us that Castle Lund had been reclaimed…and second, that Couran’s next objective was the conquest of Kuat County. We were to launch the first strike of that campaign.

The moment I received Couran’s letter, I called everyone together for a meeting. I didn’t want to go on the attack at all, if I was being honest, but orders were orders.

This time around, our directive was only to begin the invasion into Kuat County. We hadn’t been instructed to take control of any castles or bring the whole county to heel─just to launch the first strike. Couran would be leading his own army on the warpath afterward, so we just had to kick things off and keep our enemy on their back foot as well as we could until he arrived. Taking hold of strategic positions and driving the enemy out of any they had was about the most I figured we’d accomplish.

“Castle Kuat lies at the center of the county, and protects its central city as well. If our long-term goal is to take Castle Kuat, then we’ll have to start by dealing with Fort Sokan, which is located near the border with Purledo,” Rietz explained.

“Fort Sokan isn’t very far from Fort Purledo. We could fly our airship right there and bring it down, easy,” said Rosell.

“True ’nuff,” Mireille agreed. “The Seitzans’ll be working double time to figure out how to deal with the airship, but honestly, it’s not the sort of weapon you can cope with by thinking your way around it. It’s on a whole other level.”

“It’s safe to assume that the enemy will have heard, at least to some extent, what happened to Fort Purledo,” said Thomas. “It’s possible that they’ll go out of their way to not engage us in a siege scenario, and will lure us into fighting them in the open instead.”

“Considering how badly they outnumber us, yeah, I could see that,” Mireille admitted.

“Sure, the airship wouldn’t be as big of a tide-turner out in the open as it would in a siege, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t still be effective!” said Rosell. “Knowing that they could get attacked from overhead at any moment will terrify our enemies, and wreak havoc on their morale. Then when we do launch our attack from the airship, it’ll scatter their formation. They might try to shoot it down with a large catalyzer, I guess, but we just have to take that out first if they do.”

“True though that may be, if Seitz is persistent in dragging us into field battles, we’ll risk running out of fuel for the airship and not having access to it when the time for a siege arrives. We received plenty of explosive aqua magia to last us for some time, but I could hardly say the same for our wind aqua magia reserves,” Thomas countered. Couran hadn’t had very much wind aqua magia in stock to begin with, so he hadn’t been able to send us a large quantity of it.

“Hmm. We still need to win any field battles we get into, though…” I muttered. “And if we thin the enemy’s numbers enough, does it matter if we can’t take a castle afterward? We can leave that to King Couran after he leads the rest of the Missian army here.”

Couran’s army numbered a little less than a hundred thousand─fewer soldiers than the current army of Seitz. He’d left a considerable number of troops at Castle Lund to ensure it didn’t fall right back into Paradille’s hands. When you combined that army with the troops we had available in Purledo, though, we would have a force that far exceeded that of Seitz in size. Advancing into the enemy’s territory and wearing down their numbers in field battles could indeed give us a significant advantage down the line, and I was ready to believe that not being able to take a castle wouldn’t be a problem.

“One way or another, we can’t make any detailed plans until we’ve seen how the enemy reacts to our invasion. We can sort out our strategy after they’ve made their first move,” Rosell concluded.

If the enemy bunkered in for a siege, we’d send our airship out to Fort Sokan and take it for ourselves. If they seemed more inclined to engage us in the open, we’d harry them with the airship over the course of the battle, dealing as much damage to their army as we could. We would also have to take care to minimize our own losses as much as possible, in that scenario. Our goal, in short, was to reduce their fighting capability. That was easier said than done, of course, but we had a whole roster of exceptional commanding officers who I knew were up to the task.

Once our preliminary strategy was decided upon, I called the meeting to a close and ordered my retainers to begin the invasion of Kuat County.

“How large is the enemy army?” Ashude asked one of his counselors, a man named Lacan. The two were meeting in one of Castle Kuat’s chambers.

“They numbered roughly twenty thousand at the start, but many of the soldiers in Purledo have surrendered and joined forces with Canarre’s army, rendering their numbers greater than before. Furthermore, it seems they’ve received reinforcements. We can expect a force of nearly fifty thousand now.”

“Fifty thousand…” Ashude muttered as he sank into thought.

Overwhelming the Missian army through force of numbers didn’t seem impossible, but he also couldn’t say with complete certainty that such an attempt would end in victory. If he lost, and a large portion of his troops were wiped out, Missian would surely stage a counterattack and claim his whole duchy in one fell swoop. That was a situation that he could not allow to come to pass. He would have to decide whether or not it was wise to go on the attack.

“What of Fort Purledo itself?” asked Ashude.

“It was in quite poor shape following Canarre’s conquest, but their repairs have proceeded apace and it’s nearly back to its former state. The mage’s towers in particular have reportedly been restored,” said Lacan.

“Hmm… Considering that, and the airship they have at their disposal, it seems reclaiming the fort would be a challenge…and even if we were to succeed, our losses would be devastating. If Couran were to invade afterward, our defeat would be assured,” said Ashude. “And the battle for Castle Lund? How does it fare?” he asked. If it seemed Couran would not be able to take Castle Lund, then swooping in to claim Fort Purledo seemed a worthwhile venture in his mind.

“A weapon created by the Paradillean commander, Bamba, has proven quite effective, and they’ve managed to hold the castle for some time, but as you know, it was hardly the most defensible stronghold to begin with and their numbers were few. The situation, in short, is very precarious,” Lacan summarized.

“I see. Send word to Boroths that if the situation seems hopeless, he is to abandon the castle immediately.”

“Will there not be repercussions to abandoning the castle, Your Lordship? Given its significance to Paradille, that is,” asked Lacan.

“If our defeat is assured, then they would have no reasonable basis to criticize us for withdrawing. And more importantly, I expect that their commander─this ‘Bamba’─will withdraw of his own accord before Boroths. He did not strike me as the sort of fool to would allow his men to die in vain.”

“I suppose so. I’ve heard rumors of a remarkably capable man who’s come to be known in Paradille. Perhaps he will have swift judgment in this matter.”

“He did seem like a sharp one─the strange manner in which he conducted himself aside,” Ashude added. Bamba had let his eccentric side slip out often enough around him for Ashude to have reached the conclusion he was a rather odd character. “In any case, I expect that Castle Lund will fall before long─and when it does, Couran’s next target will be here. We must ensure that Kuat County is prepared to repel his attack,” he concluded. A picture of how he expected events to play out was beginning to form in Ashude’s mind.

“Yes, Your Lordship… But if I may ask, what do you intend to do about the airship?”

“There is a way we could neutralize it, if we only had enough time…but under the current circumstances, that’s one thing that’s in short supply. I presume that adjusting our castle’s magical defenses to protect from overhead bombardment would not be a simple task?”

“Indeed, Your Lordship. It would not be impossible, to be clear…but doing so would render our frontal defenses much weaker. Bolstering our defenses across the board, meanwhile, would be an undertaking so massive we would need at least a year to complete it.”

“Hmph! Well, ensure that we’re prepared to turn our defenses to the sky at a moment’s notice, at least. If our enemy’s most powerful mage is aboard their airship, it will be better to have our strongest defenses pointed in their direction.”

“Understood. I’ll give the order at once,” Lacan replied. “That said, knowing the capabilities of Missian’s strongest mage─a woman named Charlotte─I believe that even our full magical defenses won’t be enough to stop her. She’ll blow through them from above. It will, of course, ensure that the barrier will withstand a greater number of spells before breaking, which will be valuable. An airship that can assail us one-sidedly is a tremendous threat to us.”

“A one-sided assault… Perhaps we could construct higher towers? No, that may not be realistic,” Ashude muttered.

“I’m afraid not─building a tower that high would risk it collapsing. Moreover, we lack the time to undertake such a project.”

“In short, unless we were able to develop an airship of our own, or otherwise a new form of weaponry capable of shooting one down, a perfect defense will be beyond our means.”

“So it would seem, Your Lordship,” Lacan confirmed with a melancholic nod.

“Our only option may be to destroy it while it’s grounded, then… It can’t stay in the air forever, correct? There’s sure to be a moment when we can target it. Send in our spies to do so.”

“Understood,” Lacan said with a nod.

Ashude’s discussion with his counselor ended there. Lacan went on his way to deliver the duke’s orders to everyone who needed to hear them.

Even if we’re able to destroy the airship and emerge victorious in this war, Missian will still have the means to produce more of them. Do we truly stand any chance in the long term…? Missian’s population is vast, and its economy thriving. An airship or two will take them no time to produce at all. We could send an assassin to take the life of the craftsman who invented them, but so long as blueprints exist, they’ll still be able to make more─and destroying every blueprint will be difficult indeed. They’ll be very carefully guarded, and likely kept in duplicate, Ashude thought after Lacan left.

If everything went well, then keeping hold of Castle Kuat was by no means out of the question. Whether or not Seitz stood a chance in a long-term war against Missian, however, was a far more grim prospect.

We’ll have to learn to make airships of our own, or otherwise devise a perfect counter to them. Kidnapping the craftsman behind them is an option…but there’s a chance that he won’t be willing to give up his secrets. It’s not even certain that any one, single individual will know everything there is to understand about how the airship functions. Even if there was a single leader behind the initiative, they might not understand how to make the smallest and most detailed components of its power source, for instance. Stealing the blueprints could help, but that would be yet another challenge. As for means to counter the airship…there are ways to minimize our casualties, of course, but none that will counteract the sheer advantage that flight offers. Until we create a flying vessel of our own capable of engaging it in direct combat, we will be unable to fight on even footing.

However much Ashude mulled over his position, no stroke of genius was forthcoming. There was no way for him to turn the situation around in a single maneuver.

At the very least, our prospects are not yet so grim as to merit surrender. We must do what we can, nothing more, and nothing less.

His resolve renewed, Ashude began to develop a more detailed tactical plan for the upcoming battle.

I’d thought that the Seitzan army would engage us in the open, but so far, they’d chosen to hole up in their fort instead. It seemed that there were very few soldiers stationed in Fort Sokan, at the moment─the bulk of their troops were protecting Castle Kuat instead. It almost felt like they didn’t care if we took Fort Sokan, oddly enough. I just didn’t understand why they would throw away such an important strategic site. What could they be aiming for?

In the end, the enemy’s inexplicable behavior surprised me so much that I called our advance to a stop and gathered everyone up for an emergency meeting.

“What do you believe our enemy is trying to accomplish?” I asked.

“I would say that Fort Sokan is being used as bait,” Rietz replied.

“Bait?” I repeated.

“Correct. Specifically, I believe that they’re using it to entice us to deploy our airship, allowing them to gather further information regarding it. Moreover, using the airship to claim the fort would involve transporting it, making it an easier target. That said, while Fort Sokan is a significant strategic point, it’s also possible that they’ve decided that protecting Castle Kuat is a higher priority. I only mean to propose this as a possibility.”

“I see now… They must see the airship as a tremendous threat, so they’ll be looking for any chance possible to destroy it. And if they can’t manage that, they’ll at least want to learn as much about it as they can,” I said. I was convinced by Rietz’s logic. “Does that mean that we should try to capture the fort without deploying the airship?”

“I suspect that that, too, would be playing into the enemy’s hands,” said Reitz. “No matter how few its defenders may be, claiming a fort like that without the airship would take time, if they’re willing to fight to the last. They may use that extra time to bolster their main army with mercenaries, replenish their supply of rations and aqua magia, or fortify Castle Kuat, to name just a few of many possibilities.”

“So what you’re saying is that no matter what we choose, it’ll work out in the enemy’s favor?”

“In a sense. Losing Fort Sokan will be a painful setback for them, so I’m not sure I’d say it would work out in their favor, regardless of what they gain from it. At the moment, though, I believe that by leaving the fort poorly defended, they’ve chosen the best option that was available to them. Assigning a massive force to the fort would have risked losing a tremendous number of soldiers, in the event they were defeated. I expect that Seitz’s leaders are already well aware that King Couran has reclaimed Castle Lund and is leading a massive army in this direction,” Rietz explained. All things considered, he seemed to have a high opinion of Seitz’s tactics.

“I think Mister Rietz has our enemy figured out,” said Rosell. “As for what we should do about it, I’d say we should try to take the fort without using the airship. It’d be bad if they learned too much about it, and even worse if it got destroyed.”

“Yeah? Well, I think we should use it,” Mireille chimed in. “Attacking a fort’s a real hassle, no matter how few people are defending it, and I think we’ll be better off if we can take Fort Sokan before Couran gets here.”

Fort Sokan wasn’t quite a match for Fort Purledo, but it was still a rather defensible structure. It would definitely be a problem if we spent too much time dealing with it, and having it under our control by the time Couran arrived did seem like it would make it much easier for us to go on the attack with his forces.

“B-But what if the airship gets broken?” asked Rosell.

“Just make sure it doesn’t. All we have to do is take extra care defending it. It won’t be that easy to destroy it if our guards are up.”

“R-Really…? It won’t matter how careful we are if the enemy has a capable enough spy working for them! I’ve heard that the Duke of Seitz, Ashude, is personally commanding his army, too. He’ll be sending the best agents in all of the duchy to disable the ship, I’m sure of it!”

“Doesn’t matter how good they are, unless they’re better than Pham and his people─and spies like that aren’t so easy to find. It’ll be fine, trust me!” said Mireille.

She was approaching the situation with an awful lot of optimism, but speaking as someone who came within an inch of being assassinated just a short while beforehand, I wasn’t content to think that having Pham around meant that we were a hundred percent certain to be in the clear. For all we know, Seitz could have other spies working for them who had the skills to get the better of the Shadows.

“And besides,” Mireille added, “if they really did have someone that good, they could send ’em in to destroy the airship whether we use it in battle or not. If it’s gonna get broken either way, then better to get our money’s worth out of it first, right?”

“I-I’m not so sure about that,” said Rosell. “I mean, sending it into battle means it’ll be more likely to break, right? There’s no arguing against that! They might be setting something up in Fort Sokan to deal with it, too! Sure, they won’t be able to hit it with any magic all the way up in the sky, but it can’t keep flying forever. We’ll have to land it in the fort after it falls, and they might use that as their chance to spring an ambush on it! It won’t last a second!”

“What sort of ambush are you even talking about?” asked Mireille.

“A magical trap, probably!” said Rosell.

“Okay, so we just look through the fort after it falls and make sure we disable any traps we find. Easy.”

“Except it’s not easy at all! Some traps can be hard to find, and there isn’t even any guarantee we’ll be able to disable them if we do!”

Rosell and Mireille descended into a heated debate. Personally, I was in favor of any strategy that would bring the fort under our control sooner rather than later. I also wasn’t very excited about not using the airship since that would mean our own troops would suffer more casualties. Even if the fort didn’t have many defenders, some of them could be manning a mage’s tower, and the sort of bombardments that one of those could dish out had the potential to slaughter masses of soldiers all at once.

Even if the enemy learned a little more about our airship, I didn’t think it would be enough for them to figure out how to counter its attacks. It would be a huge problem if it was destroyed, of course, and like Rosell said, there was a chance they could booby trap the fort itself. If we did use the airship, we’d have to make sure it was stocked with rations so that it could stay floating above the fort for quite a while after we’d conquered it, giving us enough time to search for and disable any traps that might be left around. Though of course, if we didn’t use the airship, we could take our time searching the fort and only move the ship after we were certain it was clean. And all of this was assuming that they were capable of setting a trap that could destroy the airship to begin with, which I had my doubts about.

“What sort of trap, specifically, do you believe the enemy could set?” Rietz asked Rosell.

“Hmm, well… They could hide a spy who can use magic in a secret room, then have them blend in with our soldiers and set fire to the airship? I guess they couldn’t set an explosive trap, since Seitz doesn’t have access to explosive aqua magia…”

“That’s believable, yes,” said Rietz. “The reinforcements King Couran sent mean that we can’t be familiar with the names and faces of every member of our force, at the moment. Slipping in an agent would not be impossible. That said, I believe that tightening our security around the airship should resolve that problem handily. Even if they were to hit it with fire magic, as long as we managed to put the fire out, I’d think the airship would not be too damaged.”

“What if I use my power to make sure that all the soldiers around the ship are on our side?” I suggested.

“W-We could never allow you to do something so dangerous!” Rietz shouted without missing a beat.

Okay, fair enough. Going somewhere that might be full of enemy agents would be pretty risky for me. They might try to kill me the second they realize who I am.

I also knew from painful personal experience that my skill could be fooled. There was a chance that Seitz knew the technique that was used back then, so I couldn’t put total faith in the results of any appraisals. It seemed like not relying on my skill would be the wiser decision, in this case.

We kept discussing our options for some time, and in the end, we decided that we would use the airship. Minimizing our casualties during the attack on the fort was a high priority, and as long as we guarded the airship well, I didn’t think our enemies would manage to destroy it. They’d learn more about it, sure, but that didn’t matter to me─there was no way for them to mount a perfect defense against it. Seeing an airship in action wouldn’t teach them anywhere close to enough to make one of their own. Once we took Fort Sokan by storm, we could bunker down and prepare for the attack on Castle Kuat while we waited for Couran to arrive─or at least, that’s how I expected things to play out.

I called the meeting to a close, and directed our army to set off once more.

It also seemed that Shin wanted to collect more practical, real-world data about how the airship flew. There were plenty of aspects of flying a ship like that that you just couldn’t understand unless you’d had your fair share of hours behind the rudder. Wind-aspected aqua magia was precious, so we couldn’t send it up very often under normal circumstances, but we’d received a fair amount of fuel for the sake of the war. This was the perfect chance for Shin to get all sorts of data that wouldn’t be easy for him to amass under normal circumstances.

Charlotte would once again be the mage on board the ship, though this time, we’d have mages down below supplementing the attack as well. According to Rosell, the magical defenses that most forts employed had a surprising amount of flexibility when it came to which portions of the barrier they generated were sturdiest. That meant that it was likely the enemy would anticipate an attack from above and have the upper section of their barrier extra reinforced. Reinforcing its top, however, would leave its other segments weak in exchange unless they’d performed rather difficult modifications on the device that generated the barrier, and those modifications couldn’t be executed in such a short span of time.

In summary: there was a chance that either the front of the barrier, or one of its flanks, would be less sturdy than we would expect. Attacking from the surface would give us an opportunity to exploit that vulnerability. Couran had sent us a massive amount of explosive aqua magia, as well, so there was no need for us to be stingy with our firepower─except for the risk of blowing the fort away entirely, of course!

The walls weren’t damaged enough for us to storm the fort just yet, but one explosive magic blast, cast by Musia from a large catalyzer we’d brought with us, had the potential to change that. The enemy couldn’t lob any powerful spells at us with their mage’s towers destroyed, and while they did pepper our troops with arrows, they didn’t have enough defenders to overwhelm us and a few raised shields was enough to mitigate the threat they posed.

Musia unleashed a single, incredibly powerful spell that blasted its way through the fort’s wall. Once I’d confirmed that the path was clear, I ordered our troops to charge. The defenders’ small numbers meant that they held out for but a moment before we’d overwhelmed them. The battle for Fort Purledo had ended in what felt like an instant, but somehow, this one had gone by even quicker─maybe thanks to the fort having been so short-staffed.

Once the fort was under our control, I enlisted the Shadows to search the building from top to bottom for secret rooms. They did discover a number of them, and there were indeed enemy soldiers hiding out within, all of whom were captured. Mireille attempted to torture details of their plans out of them, but it seemed they hadn’t been willing or able to give up any worthwhile information. I was too scared to ask about what she’d done with them afterward.

There’d been quite a few secret chambers in the castle, some of which were empty by the time the Shadows found them. That meant that some number of enemy agents had slipped past them and blended in with our troops already, so I instructed our whole army to report anyone who seemed even remotely suspicious. Anyone who came under suspicion was apprehended and searched from top to bottom. We hadn’t found anyone who we could prove was working for Seitz so far, but just to be on the safe side, we locked them all up in the fort’s jail. I felt bad for anyone innocent who just happened to get reported by accident, but we couldn’t afford to take any risks.

The airship touched down not long after that. Someone did take a potshot at it with a flaming arrow from afar, and that arrow did manage to lodge itself in the airship’s hull, but a bucket of water solved that problem in the blink of an eye. It seemed that the Seitzan forces had a rather impressive archer working for them. There just wasn’t any way for the airship to take off or land without exposing itself to enemy fire, so there was always a risk it would come under attack at those moments. Magical attacks had fairly short ranges and wouldn’t be an issue as long as we cleared the landing site of enemies, but a capable sniper was a whole different story.

Thankfully, capable snipers weren’t easy to come by and we probably wouldn’t have to worry about a rain of fire arrows any time soon. We could expect a single arrow to meet its mark at most, just like it had this time, but one flaming arrow could never burn up a whole airship on its own.

To make a long story short, the airship landed safely and my frayed nerves subsided. I tasked the Shadows and Braham with guarding the ship, and gave strict orders to not allow anyone other than a few specific individuals anywhere near it.

And so, Fort Sokan fell without a hitch. We got to work repairing it at once, biding our time while we waited for Couran and his army to arrive.

Just as expected, a mere two days later, Couran arrived at Fort Sokan.

The moment Couran laid eyes on me, he gave me a very spirited greeting.

“It has indeed, Your Majesty,” I said, kneeling down as I replied to him.

“I don’t believe we’ve crossed paths since the day I declared Missian’s independence,” Couran continued. “You can’t imagine how concerned I was when I heard you’d collapsed shortly afterward. I hope your recovery has been a full one?”

“It has, Your Majesty, and I apologize for worrying you,” I replied.

“Now now, there’s no need for that. We both know that Seitz is to blame.”

Couran, apparently, was prepared to assume that Seitz had been responsible for the assassination attempt. We’d sent a report to him regarding the incident, and had informed him that we felt Seitz was the culprit, but had also noted that we had no conclusive proof to that effect. To be fair, I think anyone would jump to the same conclusion─Seitz was just that suspicious, in this case.

“Incidentally, I’m to understand that your airship played a part in the conquest of this fort. Will you show it to me?” asked Couran.

“Of course,” I replied.

I escorted Couran to the area where we were keeping the airship.

“So this is the vessel that’s accomplished so much,” Couran marveled as he admired the airship. “So it’s true? It truly does fly?”

“It does, yes,” I said.

“Would a demonstration be possible, perhaps?”

“Takeoffs and landings both pose a degree of risk, I’m afraid,” I said, going on to describe the flaming arrow incident.

“I see. Indeed─it would be best to keep it grounded until battle necessitates its launch. Instead, explain to me what it’s capable of, and spare no detail.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty. However, I believe there’s someone else who would be more prepared to offer an explanation than I am,” I said before calling Shin over to join us. “This man’s name is Shin Seimallo. He’s the inventor responsible for the airship’s creation.”

“Oh, really? So we have you to thank for this remarkable creation?” asked Couran.

“Y-Yes, umm… H-Hello!” Shin timidly squeaked out in reply. He’d never met Couran before, and I didn’t get the impression he knew who he was, but between the deference I was showing him and Couran’s regal bearing, it seemed Shin had at least reached the conclusion that he was someone important.

“H-Hey, who’s the new guy?” Shin whispered into my ear the moment he found an opening. I whispered back, informing him that he was Couran, the King of Missian. “K-King Couran?! Th-Thank you for taking the time to visit us, Your Majesty!” he sputtered. Clearly, knowing who he was dealing with hadn’t done his nerves any favors.

Shin went on to deliver a very halting explanation of the airship’s capabilities.

“I see… That would indeed be frightfully potent on the field of battle. A one-sided assault from the sky… And of course, the mage who was aboard the ship, Charlotte, deserves her fair share of the credit for your stunning victories in the battles for Purledo and Fort Sokan. I’ve no doubt that she is the finest mage in all of Missian. Still, I’m certain that even a lesser mage aboard this vessel could accomplish great things,” Couran said, seemingly quite impressed.

“I believe, Your Majesty, that if we were to make more airships, they would allow us to dominate any war we participate in,” I said. “Moreover, they could serve many purposes outside of warfare as well, and the design still has ample room for refinement and improvement. If you would be willing, I believe that financing that further development would be a valuable investment for you and for Missian.”

“Financing, is it? This is a valuable enough project to be worth a fortune on its own, I’ll grant you that. I see ample reason for optimism, and ideally, I would hope to ensure that airships can be produced all across Missian. I will see to it that the most talented engineers from all across our fair kingdom are gathered together in Canarre. I trust that you will be prepared to teach them how you built your creation.”

“Y-Yeah, of course! I can do that!” said Shin.

I knew how massive of a development this was. If airships could be made all across Missian, it could change the world in a massive way.

“Very good,” said Couran. “We can sort out the details regarding your funding after the war’s over, then.”

“Th-Thank you so much, Your Majesty!”

Shin had been on pins and needles from start to finish, but in the end, his conversation with Couran went well. Considering how wealthy he was, I had a feeling that his investment in Shin’s work would prove to be very substantial indeed.

“With your airship on our side, this war is as good as won. I’ll call a meeting at once.”

With that, Couran sent for his followers. The time had come for another council of war.

Typically, one would hope to have several times the enemy’s numbers in order to have any hope of claiming a fortress like Castle Kuat. We, however, had the airship: a weapon capable of nullifying many of the castle’s defenses. I was certain that with the airship to help us, we’d be able to claim the castle for our own. It could come in handy during a field battle as well, so even if the enemy tried to catch us in an ambush before the siege began, we’d be fighting at an advantage.

The plan that we’d settled upon by the end of the conference was quite straightforward. We would march on Castle Kuat, taking the chance to whittle down the enemy’s numbers if they chose to sally forth and attack us. The airship was the key to accomplishing that last goal─if we could use it to disrupt the enemy’s chain of command, it would reduce our losses and lead us to victory. Finally, if the enemy army retreated into the castle, we would use the airship to lay waste to it from the air, then storm into it in force.

Kuat, the city that was host to Castle Kuat, was very sizable and featured a wall around its perimeter. Bombing the city would risk inflicting civilian casualties, so it was decided that we would issue a warning to the populace a short period before we went on the attack. I hated to think that innocents would be caught up in the fighting anyway, but we didn’t have much in the way of other options. Civilians always died in battles over cities like this, even when the attackers used more conventional tactics, and all one could do was accept the fact that it was a necessary sacrifice.

Neither I nor my retainers found any particular flaws in Couran’s strategy, so none of us spoke up to protest it and the meeting ended without incident. Couran gave the order to make preparations to march for Castle Kuat─after all, the sooner we staged our assault, the better. I’d come to appreciate that speed and decisiveness were some of his strongest traits as a commander. My army ended up marching along a short way after Couran’s.

All signs pointed to the army of Seitz engaging us in the field rather than holing up in their castle. Considering we had the airship to work with, that was probably a good decision on their part. It seemed that they’d already finished setting up formation in a strategic location where they’d chosen to stage their attack─specifically, a point along a prominent highway that we’d need to travel in order to reach Castle Kuat. A massive number of enemy troops were supposedly stationed there.

We could, in theory, have taken an alternate route through the mountains, but it seemed there were enemies waiting for us along that path as well. That path was much narrower, as well, and only a small number of troops would be able to use it. Its defenders would have to deal with that same problem, of course, but Couran still chose to send his whole army along the direct route and plow through any defensive forces that wound up standing in his way. Splitting our forces would diminish our strength in numbers, and that, it seemed, was an advantage that Couran wanted to capitalize on.

The Seitzan encampment along the highway featured an astonishing number of large catalyzers, lined up and ready to fire upon our troops. I expected that they’d brought together all the most powerful mages throughout the whole duchy for the sake of this battle. Magic was better suited to defense than offense as a rule, thanks to large catalyzers’ limited mobility─they were pivotal in sieges, but dragging one of those out into the field when you were on the attack tended to be an awful lot of trouble.

If we’d had to break through their ranks using ordinary tactics we would’ve been in for one hell of a hard time…but we had an airship to work with instead. As long as we could take the large catalyzers out with a bombing run, our enemy’s defenses would be diminished. Our accuracy in a bombing run still wasn’t the greatest, and I didn’t know if we’d be able to wipe their catalyzers out or not, but the way they’d arranged them all in a convenient line felt like it would give us much higher odds of pulling it off, or at least taking out a few of them at once.

Also, even if we missed the catalyzers altogether, we’d still probably hit a fair number of their soldiers in the process. An explosive spell landing in a cluster of men could do unfathomable damage in the best case. Part of me even hoped that we’d get lucky and blow up the enemy commander, though I knew that was a little optimistic on my part.

Couran led his army closer and closer to the enemy encampment before calling his men to a stop.

“We’ll send the airship on the attack first. It’s time for you to give us a taste of what it can do,” he said.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I replied.

We’d arranged for the airship to take off a short period after we began our march from the fort. It had been following us ever since, and was currently floating right above our army. We had it hovering at a lower altitude than it had flown at while assaulting the two forts. Shots fired from towers or other high places were a threat during a siege, but in a field battle with no such terrain available, it could fly a little lower without risking coming into the enemy’s range. The lower it flew the easier it would be for Charlotte to land her spells where she wanted to, so generally speaking, our goal was to stay at as low of an altitude as the circumstances would safely permit.

We considered landing the airship briefly so we could give its occupants specific instructions on what to target, but in the end, we’d decided that it would be too risky to do so. We’d already ordered them to target any large catalyzers the enemy brought out if it came to a field battle, so it seemed safe to assume they’d know what to do.

Before long, the signal for the airship to begin its assault─a burst of sound magic─was sent out. The lower altitude the ship was flying at meant that we were able to give it direct instructions in that manner. The airship sprung into action immediately, flying over the enemy lines and raining explosions down upon them.

“Yes, impressive indeed… There is nothing that they can do to counter the airship’s attack. Their large catalyzers are devastated without ever being used, and their infantry are thrown into a panic, sending their formation into a state of chaos,” Couran observed from the high ground he’d taken position on. He seemed very impressed with the airship’s exploits.

Before long, the airship’s attack came to an end.

“I see. It’s not an especially large ship, so the number of spells that can be cast from it is limited by its weight capacity… But if we could produce more of them and field them en masse…why, we’d never lose a battle again,” Couran muttered.

In a battle against an enemy force as massive as the one we faced, one airship had unfortunately proven insufficient to turn the tide on its own. That wasn’t to say it was ineffective─at a glance, it looked like we’d managed to destroy more than twenty of the enemy’s large catalyzers, and throw their chain of command into a state of chaos as well. The ship had clearly played its part, and played it well.

As it turned out, the damage we’d done to their command structure was a more pivotal factor than I’d given it credit for. Being bombarded by a foe that you couldn’t reach had done a number on them, psychologically speaking. The Seitzan troops were left in a state of terror─it was like a localized natural disaster had touched down right on top of their heads. Who could blame them for being too scared to put up a fight?

The airship turned around and flew off into the distance, making its way to Fort Sokan where it would be restocked with aqua magia.

The enemy’s commander, Duke Ashude of Seitz, took to the front lines to rally his panicking troops. The Seitzan vanguard formed up anew around him, and put up a far better fight than I’d ever expected it to. The loss of their large catalyzers, however, was a heavy blow, and left them without the heavy firepower they needed to fend us off. The army of Missian still held the upper hand. Ashude seemed to realize that, and before long his army began to retreat, leaving behind a rearguard that laid down their lives to delay our pursuit.

Couran seemed to believe that letting Ashude escape would lead to trouble down the line. He ordered his forces into a very aggressive chase─and that order ended up being his greatest misstep of the whole battle. The enemy, it seemed, was laying magical traps as they fled, and one Missian soldier after another fell to them over the course of their reckless advance. Even a few Missian nobles in positions of command were slain, and ultimately, Couran was forced to call off the pursuit.

We’d destroyed their large catalyzers with our airship, but had lost plenty of soldiers in the following battle. In other words, the engagement had ended in a draw. Ashude’s swift action pulling his troops back into fighting shape had been a major setback, and his choice to retreat had been well-timed on top of it. The way his troops had laid traps even as they fled spoke well of his ability as a commander, too. I’d never met Ashude in person, so I’d never been able to appraise him, but I had a feeling that his stats would impress me if I ever did. He was certainly a troublesome foe to face.

“We lost more men than we had to today…but we drove the enemy back and claimed the land they were hoping to hold. I suppose I can call this a win,” Couran said, though his scowl didn’t quite seem to match up with his words.

We had achieved our objective, so I wouldn’t have said that we lost the battle. Our casualties weren’t great, to be sure, but considering the size of our army, they also weren’t an enormous problem. We still held an advantage in that field.

“Breaking the enemy’s formation and destroying their catalyzers with the airship was what led to this victory, to be sure. With the bulk of their large catalyzers disabled, a swift retreat was the enemy’s only option. An airship is a wonderful tool to bring into battle indeed,” Couran said. His opinion of the airship seemed to have grown higher than ever. “Once this campaign is over, we’ll have to produce more of them as quickly as possible. In fact, I’m of the mind to do so as soon as the battle for Castle Kuat is concluded.”

“I believe that would be wise, Your Highness,” Robinson chimed in.

I agreed as well, internally. One airship had its weaknesses, but having more than one would give us a dominating advantage.

“Since the only workshop ready to produce them is in Canarre, we’ll center our efforts there. Ars─all the money and resources you could ever desire are yours for the taking. I trust that you will construct more airships with all due haste.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” I replied at once.

It seemed that Couran would be throwing as much money at the airship project as he had to in order to get a fleet into the sky as quickly as possible. For the time being, though, we didn’t iron out any of the specifics regarding that investment and focused instead on the upcoming assault on Castle Kuat.

Our operating theory was that the enemy would once again engage us in the field rather than hole up in their castle. They knew that defending a fortress was a lost cause when we had an airship on our side. Unfortunately for them, while the army of Missian had suffered losses in the last engagement, we still held the upper hand even in a field battle. The fact that we had more soldiers to work with than they did was enough to give us a major advantage on its own.

We began to advance toward the castle, taking care not to fall into any traps this time. Our broad strategy when battle broke out would be the same as it was in the first engagement: the airship would destroy as many of the enemy’s large catalyzers as possible, reducing their firepower before we charged. We knew now, though, that the enemy army would be quick to recover from that blow, so this time we staged our attack in a slower, more careful manner, not letting the chaos in their ranks lure us into a state of overeagerness. Our experience in the last battle had allowed us to learn and adjust the fine details of our tactics.

In the end, however, the enemy army made a choice that none of us had anticipated: the bulk of their army, the duke included, streamed out of the castle and fled, leaving only a small number of troops to defend the fortress in their absence.

Ashude made his decision known the moment he called his meeting to order. The nobles who’d gathered up with him were unable to conceal their astonishment at his declaration.

“B-But, why?!” one of them exclaimed. “We may have been forced to fall back before, but we felled droves of enemy soldiers as we did so!”

“If there’s one thing we learned through that engagement, it is that not only do we stand no chance of victory in a siege, we also find ourselves at a considerable disadvantage in the open,” said Ashude. “Would that we had been able to decimate their forces, but alas, Couran Salemakhia has proven himself to be not entirely talentless. He will not let his guard down again─no, he’ll advance with caution. All we would gain from clashing with him is the needless deaths of our soldiers.”

“B-But what of Castle Kuat?! If we fail to protect this fortress, then what will become of Seitz?!”

“The castle will fall one way or another. I have chosen the path where we will suffer fewer losses before that happens. We are nothing without our soldiers─if we lose them, then the war is lost as well,” said Ashude. His advisors fell silent, unable to refute his words. “We will pepper Kuat with our agents, and ensure that the Missians will not have an easy time ruling it. The county’s population is high enough that it will be challenging─and, vitally, time consuming─to bring stability to these lands, and Missian will not invade the neighboring counties until they have a firm handle upon Kuat.”

“You mean to say, then, that we have a means of buying time? And I suppose that while Missian is occupied with Kuat, we will be working out a means of counteracting their airship,” Lacan the tactician theorized.

“Precisely,” said Ashude. “So long as we can deal with the airship, we will be able to mount a counteroffensive. If we can stall them for long enough, victory will be within our grasp. The army of Missian believes that their fight is already won, and casting down the arrogant and complacent is a task at which we excel,” he concluded. His confident expression and bold, spirited words swayed his followers’ opinions in an instant. Instead of arguing with his plan, they now endorsed it.

That is, of course, assuming there is a means to deal with the airship to be found, Ashude added internally. The truth was that he believed his odds of victory to be slim.

Not long after the meeting’s conclusion, the army of Seitz withdrew, leaving only a skeleton crew behind to defend Castle Kuat.

In the end, Couran decided that we would just attack Castle Kuat, risk of a trap be damned. This was an opportunity we couldn’t afford to pass up, considering how strong of a position we would be in if we could bring the castle under our control.

There was some discussion as to whether or not we even needed to use the airship, considering how few in number the defenders were, but in the end, we chose to bring it out regardless. Kuat was a massive and heavily fortified city, and laying siege to it would be difficult even under the best of circumstances.

There was also a risk of Ashude changing tactics and attacking our armies once we’d encircled the city, and since we wouldn’t be able to keep the airship hovering over Castle Kuat perpetually, we’d have to leave it in Fort Sokan. In the worst case, we could have ended up in an all-out battle without the airship to help us. I didn’t think we’d lose, even under those circumstances, but we would lose plenty of troops, and it was by no means unthinkable that we’d be forced to retreat. If we did use the airship, on the other hand, the castle’s lack of defenders meant it would be easy to bring under our control.

With our tactics laid out, we began our march on the castle at once. No enemy forces ended up disrupting our path to Kuat, and we were able to send our airship out just as we had in all of our previous battles. The castle was far larger than the forts we’d used the airship on before, but the length of its walls turned out to mean that they were weaker than those of the forts. The airship broke through them with ease, but wasn’t able to bring down the keep’s much tougher defenses nearly as quickly.

We’d instructed the airship’s crew to focus their bombardment on walls, mage’s towers, and the central keep. The accuracy of its bombardment wasn’t the highest, however, and a few blasts ended up falling into the surrounding town from time to time. We’d sent out word that we’d be carrying out the attack and recommended the people evacuate, but considering no one had ever seen an airship be used like this before, it seemed that the bulk of the population hadn’t understood what we were telling them and had stayed put. I could only hope the casualties weren’t too terrible…

We managed to break through the castle walls and disable its mage’s towers, then staged our ground assault. The lack of defenders made it quite easy to occupy, and in the end, Castle Kuat fell into our control after far less of a struggle than I’d imagined would be possible.

“You honor me with your words, Your Majesty,” I replied, wincing as I felt the stares of the nobles around us bore into me.

House Louvent hadn’t served House Salemakhia for generations. My father, Raven, was born a peasant and worked his way up to the title he’d passed on to me. I had to imagine that the lords from houses that did have storied histories of service involving Couran and his ancestors weren’t very happy to see an upstart like me receive this sort of attention.

“Tell me,” said Couran, “where did you find the man who created the airship, Shin?”

“I happened to come across him in the Imperial Capital, where I chose to recruit him,” I said.

“The capital? Ah, yes─I do recall sending you there, now that you mention it. So that’s when you crossed paths… To think that if the emperor had taken Shin into his service instead, he might have been the one to introduce airships to the world.”

If Shin had invented his airship in the capital, then the Imperial Family may very well have ended up ascending back to the heights of power that they’d once enjoyed. It wasn’t like Shin hadn’t tried to get imperial backing─he’d explained his theories to them, but they’d sent him away. If I hadn’t taken him in, he might have still been out on the streets, searching for an investor to finance his project.

“Now then,” said Couran, “our next task will be to restore stable governance to the lands of Kuat and Purledo, as instability in these counties will render the rest of this war far more difficult to fight. While we occupy ourselves with that task, I would like you to set about constructing as many airships as you can in Canarre. I will, of course, provide you with all the materials, personnel, and funding you need to make that happen.”

“It shall be done, Your Majesty,” I replied.

“And on that note, I also assure you that Shin will be given all the funding he needs to continue his research.”

“I thank you for your generosity, Your Majesty. I’m certain that Shin will be beside himself with joy.”

More money for Shin meant that not only would he be able to mass produce airships, he’d also have a chance to revamp his design. I had a feeling that we might see a new and improved airship model in the not so distant future.

With a new goal set out for us, we made our way back to Canarre.

The instant I arrived back at Castle Canarre, Licia rushed out to greet me.

“It’s good to be back,” I replied. The fighting had ended sooner than I’d expected it to, but it had still been several months since we’d seen each other, and I was more than a little happy that streak was at its end.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Licia said, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

“Sorry to make you worry,” I said.

“Don’t apologize. To ride into battle is a lord’s duty. I only wish I were more able to carry my own share of the burden as your wife…”

“You’re carrying plenty already. Don’t you realize how often you pull me out of the fire? I couldn’t get by without you, you know?” I replied. She seemed sad, so I did my best to cheer her up. Licia was still young, so it wasn’t surprising she’d had a hard time coping with the circumstances of the past few months.

“Y-You couldn’t get by…? Well…I-I feel the same way about you!” Licia bashfully insisted. It struck me that this was a pretty embarrassing conversation to be having in public. Good thing no one was around to listen.

“I’m so impressed with your contributions to the war this time, Ars,” said Licia. “You were responsible for Missian’s victory! I couldn’t be more proud to be your wife.”

“It was my retainers’ work, not mine,” I admitted. “The airship and Charlotte deserve all the credit, really.”

Licia and I had corresponded by letter over the course of the war. I’d ended up writing an awful lot about how the campaign was going, so she was well-informed about everything that had happened.

“You mean the retainers that you discovered with your power! It’s fair to say that their skills and accomplishments are your own!” Licia insisted. Personally, I thought she was going a little too far with that one. “But I do have to say, it’s astonishing just how much of a difference the airship made. It really is incredible, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. King Couran thought so too, so it looks like we’ll be making a few more of them in the near future.”

“I see! We’ll never lose a war again with a fleet of airships on our side.”

“Right?” I agreed with a nod.

For a moment, Licia hesitated. “When do you think the fighting will resume?” she nervously asked. “The War with Seitz isn’t over yet, is it?”

“No, but it’ll take quite a while to manufacture new airships, and to make sure things are calm and stable in Kuat and Purledo. I think it’ll be a good long time before it all starts up again.”

“O-Oh, I see!” Licia replied, a little relieved. She’d probably been worried that I’d barely be home at all before I had to head back out into battle again.

“I think I’ll be able to take it easy for a while, this time,” I said.

“I’m very glad to hear it,” Licia happily replied.

The sources of my woes were the conquered counties of Purledo and Kuat. Couran dispatched officials to temporarily reign over them, but those officials hadn’t had much luck, and since Canarre was the closest county to them, we ended up being asked to send people over to lend a hand.

Purledo was in a fairly stable state, at least comparatively, but things had taken a turn for the worse in Kuat County, and its current rulers were having a very hard time asserting control. A few explosions had landed in the city during our bombing raid on Castle Kuat, and those explosions had done more damage than I’d expected, resulting in a number of civilian casualties. Those deaths hadn’t done the locals’ sentiment toward their new Missian rulers any favors, and signs pointed to the presence of a resistance that was beginning to form.

I ended up sending Mireille to help out in Kuat. I sort of just got the sense that out of all my retainers, she’d be the most qualified to put down a brewing rebellion. I also dispatched the Shadows to help her, on the off chance that someone was pulling the strings behind the uprising. I kept Pham back in Canarre, since we needed his skills to prevent any sabotage back home, but about seventy percent of the Shadows ended up making their way to Kuat, leaving me uncomfortably aware of how short-staffed we were in terms of counter-espionage on the home front.

Finally, since Mireille wouldn’t be able to manage Lamberg while she was away, I entrusted that territory to the Fujimiya siblings, who’d already been working as Mireille’s aides. They hadn’t been in my service for all that long, and I was a little worried that it was too soon to give them such an important role, so I sent Virge to Lamberg as well to support them as needed.

Purledo, meanwhile, I left in the hands of Thomas and Braham’s squad. The problems in Purledo weren’t as dire as those in Kuat, but they’d been having an escalating bandit problem, and the region seemed to be growing less and less safe by the day. Thomas and Braham’s soldiers’ skill sets were suited to rooting out brigands, so they seemed like just the right people for the job.

In the end, Canarre was left with a diminished staff who had to handle a veritable mountain of work. With Virge off in Lamberg, Rietz had lost his trusty administrative aide, which would have been a problem even if he wasn’t also taking on the workloads of several other people who’d had to go abroad. We were desperately in need of more staff, and I knew that I couldn’t just sit back and relax while things were this dire, so I started taking on a variety of chores and odd jobs that I often would’ve left to someone else to handle. Rietz was aghast when he found out─“Lord Ars, surely you must realize that such tasks are beneath you?!”─but I managed to turn him around in the end.

Licia was helping lighten the workload as well. She was smart, and a very quick learner, which let her pick up jobs that she’d ordinarily never be involved with and master them in no time at all. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through my own mountain of tasks without her there to help me.

As for the airships, Couran made good on his word and brought craftsmen from all across Missian to help with their mass production. The current airship design wasn’t monstrously big, so it took a surprisingly brief period of time to churn one out, as long as you were familiar with the process. They’d put together a second airship in what felt like no time at all, and the goal was to build five in total. Considering how game-changing one airship had been, I knew that with five, our enemies wouldn’t stand a chance against us.

The invasion of Seitz would resume when both the airships were finished and the situations in the counties of Kuat and Purledo were stabilized. Judging by their current pace the airships would be finished sooner than I’d expected, but bringing Kuat in line seemed like it would take a considerable amount of time. Purledo, at least, was already on the road to recovery─that was one area where it didn’t feel like I had anything to worry about.

We’d finished producing the five airships that had been set as our goal. That goal wasn’t a hard limit, though, and the more ships we were able to create the better, so we’d already started work on the sixth vessel as well.

On the foreign affairs side of matters, I’d received a letter informing me that the resistance in Kuat had been wiped out, and that peace seemed to be returning to the county. I’d expected it to take longer, frankly, but it seemed that Kuat would regain stability in fairly short order. I had to wonder what exactly Mireille had done to pull that off─the report didn’t go into any specifics about her methods, and I was too scared of what the answer might be to go out of my way to ask for details.

I knew it wouldn’t be long before the war started up again, and had settled in to wait for the inevitable summons from Couran when something outside of my expectations happened instead. News arrived in Canarre not of the war’s resumption, but rather, of a message that Ashude, the Duke of Seitz, had sent to Couran petitioning him for peace.

I knew as well as anyone that Couran wouldn’t blindly accept the first offer of armistice that came his way, but the particulars of the deal that Ashude had proposed were remarkable: he had offered a total submission to Missian’s demands. In essence, it felt less like a request for peace talks and more like an outright surrender.

It seemed that the duke had judged that he had no hope of winning the war, so he had taken the next logical step. Voluntary surrender was far better than a meaningless fight in which Seitz’s cities and populace would without question be devastated. It hadn’t been an easy choice to make, surely, and even knowing that surrender was the best option, I was confident that many of the lords in his service had opposed the decision. Talking them down had probably been a challenge in its own right, and the fact that he’d managed it told me he was quite the silver-tongued man.

I didn’t end up participating in the negotiations that were held between Missian and Seitz, but it wasn’t long before news of their results reached me: it had been decided that Seitz would secede from the Summerforth Empire and declare itself the Kingdom of Seitz, becoming a vassal state of the Kingdom of Missian. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Seitz would not be ruled by Ashude, the current duke. Rather, the former duke’s nephew, a man named Kyle Postanos, would become king. Missian would continue to hold the occupied territories of Purledo and Kuat, while Seitz’s remaining counties would exist under the new king’s rule.

A number of other stipulations were written into the treaty, including an agreement to have a daughter of the new king─in other words, a Princess of Seitz─marry one of Couran’s sons in an effort to cement the new, friendly ties between the two nations in place. Other daughters of prominent Seitzan lords were promised to Missian nobles as well, acting as what I could only describe as hostages. That said, some Missian ladies were sent to marry Seitzan nobility as well, so it wasn’t a one-way street. I assumed that their purpose was to keep an eye on the new kingdom.

As for the now former Duke of Seitz, Ashude, Couran reportedly thought long and hard over how to deal with him. There was always a chance that his surrender was part of some sort of long-term plot, and killing him would have been the safest measure by far, but the Seitzan nobility adored him, and treating him too poorly risked earning their ire and fostering resistance within the new kingdom. That prospect was unappealing enough that Couran ultimately chose to have Ashude step down from his position, but otherwise remain unpunished. Duke or not, Ashude would surely wield enormous influence in Seitz, and would have to be monitored moving forward.

The sudden development had come out of left field for me, but its results were clear: Seitz would become a vassal state to Missian, and in doing so, the war would end in Missian’s indisputable victory.

Ultimately, the decision would be Couran’s and Couran’s alone to make, but apparently, he wanted to hear the opinions of the lords he ruled over before he made that choice. That meant that I would have to share my opinion as well, and I knew that what I said could have quite broad-reaching consequences. If, for instance, I proposed that a particular lord be given one of the counties, I could anger any number of lords who happened to be on poor terms with my chosen candidate.

Since both territories were being ruled by individuals in Couran’s service, Kuat and Purledo were effectively under his rule for now. Saying that I believed he should continue to hold onto them felt like the safest, most inoffensive move that I could make. I was convinced that nobody would actively resent me for proposing it, at least, and went into the meeting with that as my general plan of action.

“Now then─as you’ve all been informed, I’ve called you here today to discuss who would be most suited to rule over the counties of Kuat and Purledo. I wish to hear all of your opinions,” Couran said, opening the meeting.

One of the attendees spoke up at once. “I believe that Lord Ars Louvent should be granted that honor. His conquest of Purledo County was magnificent, and his airship instrumental in the capture of Castle Kuat. None among us could claim to have contributed more to the war than he did. Moreover, Canarre, Purledo, and Kuat all lie within a close proximity to one another, meaning he is uniquely positioned to govern all three counties at once.”

The meeting had only just begun, and I’d already been thrown into the running. It was such an unexpected development, I was taken aback for a moment. I had certainly accomplished the most out of all of Missian’s lords in the war, but considering the widespread sentiment among the rest of the nobility that House Louvent was a house of upstarts, I hadn’t thought that anyone would nominate me for the job.

It didn’t help that, in all honesty, I thought that managing both Purledo and Kuat on top of my current territory would be too much for me. I hadn’t been able to search for new recruits like I used to ever since the assassination attempt that almost killed me. I had to be much slower and more cautious these days, which meant that my rate of hiring had also declined, and I couldn’t just bring a whole host of new people in to help me govern multiple new lands. I didn’t mind the idea of improving my territory by any means, but it felt like we were skipping over several necessary steps in that process.

I’d expected nobles to start crying out in protest one after another, but much to my surprise, most of those in attendance expressed their approval of the proposal. I had no clue what was going on, and paused to study the expressions of the lords who said they were in agreement. About half of them seemed to genuinely think that I deserved to rule over the counties, but the remaining half voiced their approval with rather more malicious smiles on their faces. It seemed that they didn’t believe that I was capable of managing three counties at once. If I failed in my efforts at governance─say, for instance, if I allowed a revolt to rise up in Kuat or Purledo─then my standing in Couran’s eyes would be dramatically lowered. Contributing significantly to a war didn’t mean that I was capable of ruling over vast swaths of land.

Not everyone agreed with the proposal, of course. A few of the lords in attendance suggested that it might be too soon to make such a dramatic decision, but they were in the minority. I didn’t join in the conversation at all, choosing instead to sit on the sidelines and watch it play out.

“What are your thoughts on this suggestion, Your Majesty?” one of the lords asked Couran. I crossed my fingers, praying that he’d shoot the idea down outright.

“Ars has indeed accomplished great things,” said Couran. “He has proven time and time again to be outstanding at both unveiling the talents of those around him, as well as using them effectively. I have every confidence that if granted the territories of Kuat and Purledo, he would do an exemplary job of managing them. Furthermore, although Seitz has capitulated to us and sworn to serve our interests, so long as the former duke Ashude lives, we can never be entirely certain that the threat he poses has passed. Being as Kuat and Purledo will both be pivotal regions for maintaining our hold over Seitz, I could hardly ask for a more capable man to keep hold of them. Seitz has learned firsthand time after time the danger of opposing House Louvent, and would not oppose him lightly. If Ars were to take hold of the counties, we could rest easy knowing that his presence would cow any Seitzan aggression.”

Much to my dismay, Couran was all for it. His little speech seemed to have sealed the deal, in fact, and the nobles who’d protested the choice fell silent.

What am I supposed to do now?

I would have loved to refuse the offer, but after having that many people endorse the choice, turning it down would have been difficult, to say the least. Plus, while I was worried that three counties would be too much territory for me to handle, from another perspective it would also make my territory stronger than ever.

Considering how large Kuat and Purledo were, if I could manage them effectively, they would make me the second most powerful lord in all of Missian. My goal had always been to rule over a somewhat prominent territory, so from a certain viewpoint, this wasn’t a bad deal for me at all. I also already had my people helping out with Purledo and Kuat’s management, which meant that they’d already have valuable knowhow when it came to the ins and outs of the two counties.

Then there was the fact that, frankly, I didn’t like the way that some of the other nobles were looking down on me. Well, on us, really─I knew that I wasn’t all that impressive on my own, but my retainers were as capable as could be. A little extra territory on our plate was nothing that they couldn’t handle, one way or another.

“I believe we have our consensus. Kuat County and Purledo County will be ruled over by Lord Ars Louvent. Does anyone object?” Couran asked. By now, no one dared to speak up in protest. “Then this matter is settled. I’m sure your new territories will be a trial to manage, Ars, but I trust that you’re up to the task. I have faith that you’ll do a fine job.”

“I promise to rise to your expectations, Your Majesty,” I replied.

The Imperial Family held very little real power in the modern Summerforth Empire. Each duchy was self-governed in all but name, and despite the continent’s ostensible unification under the emperor’s banner, frequent wars between the duchies had become par for the course.

There was, however, one exception to the Imperial Family’s broad debasement: the Duchy of Paradille still stood strong in its loyalty toward the throne. It was that loyalty that brought Mahkfa to Ansel, and that drove him to speak with the emperor in person.

“Tell me, Bamba…do you truly believe he’ll lend an ear to my words?” Mahkfa asked, a timid, fainthearted look upon his face.

“That, Milord, is a question with only one means to answer it: meet him and find out for yourself,” Bamba replied. He, as it happened, had been the one to suggest that Mahkfa seek an audience with the emperor. “I would think that he’ll be open to discussing the matter, though, circumstances being as they are,” he added. His reserved optimism did nothing to wipe the anxiety from Mahkfa’s expression.

Mahkfa and Bamba soon arrived at Castle Ranverth, which was situated within the Imperial Capital. They were quickly led to the audience chambers.

“Lord Mahkfa. A pleasure indeed to see you,” Shakhma, the empire’s chancellor, said as he stepped up to greet the duke. Just behind Shakhma, the emperor sat upon his throne. He was still a young boy, with a rather sickly look to his face.

“We are most honored by your willingness to grant us this audience, Your Majesty,” Mahkfa said, taking a knee a moment later.

“Rise, loyal Mahkfa,” the emperor, Charles, replied in a soft, somewhat feeble voice. “We shall always have time to spare for our most dedicated of subjects.”

“I thank you, Your Majesty,” Mahkfa said, standing once more.

“Now then,” said Shakhma, “I am to understand that you requested this audience out of a desire to bring a petition directly to His Majesty’s attention. I am afraid, however, that as pressing matters demand His Majesty’s attention, I will be hearing your request on his behalf.”

The emperor did little to no governing of his own. Everything was left in his chancellor’s hands instead, and this matter would be no exception. The emperor took his leave just moments later, rising from his throne and stepping out of the chamber. Mahkfa was unmoved as he watched him go. He’d been well aware that the meat of the conversation would occur between him and Shakhma.

“Let us discuss the matter at hand, then,” Shakhma said once the emperor had departed. “I understand that you wish to make a request regarding how Missian will be dealt with in the future?”

“Correct. Through use of a new form of weaponry known as an airship, Missian has forced the withdrawal of the Duchy of Seitz from the Summerforth Empire, pressing the territory into becoming Missian’s vassal state. It is my firm belief that Missian will go on to mass produce these weapons and use them in a bid to lay claim to all of Summerforth,” Mahkfa explained, doing his best to emphasize just how much of a threat Missian posed.

“The situation in Missian is indeed most regrettable,” said Shakhma. “However, it is somewhat difficult to believe that these so-called airships could enable such a feat. Are they truly that dangerous?”

“Though our forces have yet to engage one directly, we are aware that an airship proved capable of razing a Seitzan city in the blink of an eye. It was the airship’s power that forced Ashude to capitulate to Missian’s demands. I cannot overstate the terror that those vessels bring─they fly far above the battlefield, raining death down from beyond any conventional weapon’s reach. Worse still, explosive magic─which only Missian’s forces have access to─is well-suited to being used in that manner. There are precious few means by which it could be countered,” Bamba explained.

“Hmm… I suppose that Seitz’s capitulation is evidence enough that these weapons are not to be trifled with. What, then, would you ask of His Majesty in regard to them, Lord Mahkfa?” Shakhma asked.

“I would petition him to form a combined force for the sake of bringing Missian to heel, ordering the dukes of each duchy to contribute soldiers to the cause,” Mahkfa replied.

“A combined force with which to wage war on Missian…? Interesting. In short, you would hope to bring together every duchy other than Seitz to oppose them. I am sure you are aware, however, that with the exception of Paradille, those very duchies are controlled by disloyal fiends who often ignore His Majesty’s imperial word. Rofeille, our neighbor to the north, even starts skirmishes within our own Ansel on a regular basis. I question whether such spurious allies would be willing to join in the effort at all,” Shakhma replied. His words, Mahkfa knew, carried a great deal of truth.

However just a cause defeating Missian might be, the empire coming together to fight as one was difficult to imagine. And yet, Bamba had an answer ready for Shakhma’s skepticism.

“The threat posed by Missian is one felt by all duchies equally, Your Lordship. Seitz has already been forced into a position of subservience, and it’s plain to see that any duchy that engages Missian on its own will suffer the same fate. Even disregarding the airship factor, Missian’s army is far too mighty to overcome with a single duchy’s force. I believe we should first call together the remaining dukes for a council. That, at least, is an order they’ll be willing to heed, and once we’ve explained the grave threat that Missian poses, I’m certain that a number of duchies will choose to cooperate.”

“A council of dukes…?” Shakhma muttered.

“To further incentivise cooperation,” Bamba continued, “his Lordship Mahkfa will, in his capacity as Duke of Paradille, dispatch letters to the other dukes urging their participation. Paradille’s ties with the other duchies run deep, and I do not believe they will dismiss our word out of hand.”

Located in the center of the continent as it was, Paradille shared borders with all of the other duchies. Inconvenient terrain that made the duchy difficult to invade was part of how it had managed to maintain its existence in such perilous circumstances, but even more significant was Paradille’s skillful management of its relations with its neighbors. At the moment, Paradille was on good terms with all of the other duchies, excluding the obvious Missian. Diminished though their loyalty to the empire was, twin letters from the emperor and the Duke of Paradille could still carry enough weight to compel them to attend a conference─or at least, that was the gambit that Bamba had chosen to bet on.

“Hmm─a fair point. Summons from His Majesty and Lord Mahkfa would indeed be difficult for them to disregard,” Shakhma admitted. “Difficult, though not impossible by any means. Nevertheless, I can see the merit in making an attempt. Consider your request granted. I will see to it that letters are sent to the dukes at once.”

“Many thanks,” Mahkfa said with a deep bow. With that, his business was concluded and he departed from the castle with Bamba at his side, hurrying along back toward Paradille.

Missian is certainly a troublesome and dangerous presence on the continent. Ansel in particular is liable to become its next target.

Shakhma was convinced that when Missian inevitably chose to invade its next duchy, Ansel would be the first in line. Missian shared borders with three duchies in total: Seitz, Paradille, and Ansel. Seitz was already under Missian rule, and while it was possible that Missian would cross through its territory to invade its neighbor Scheutz, the conventional move would be to conquer the duchies surrounding Missian first. And, faced with a choice between Ansel and Paradille, Ansel was unmistakably the more appealing target.

Paradille’s central location meant that any of the other duchies could choose to invade it. As such, even if Missian managed to conquer Paradille, they would find themselves having to defend it over and over, likely exhausting their resources in the process. Paradille also lacked an impressive population or any major agricultural output, meaning there would be very little to do with any land that Missian was able to conquer.

Ansel, on the other hand, boasted a large population and was abundant with natural resources. Conquering it would provide no end of benefits, and would require far less caution when it came to the surrounding duchies. Moreover, while Ansel was one of the larger duchies in the empire and while Shakhma was effectively in control of its affairs, it was plagued by constant factional infighting between its nobles and could hardly function as a monolith. To put it plainly, Ansel was poorly equipped to fend off an invasion. Missian could hardly have asked for a more promising target.

The Imperial Family has never faced a greater crisis. Even those fools who never listen to a word I say will have to see reason and join the fight this time, Shakhma thought, picturing not the other duchies but rather the factions within Ansel that spurned his attempts to influence them.

Many of Ansel’s nobles were dissatisfied with Shakhma holding such a position of power, but many of those same nobles were loyal toward the emperor himself. They would know that keeping up their petty resistance toward the chancellor could spell doom for the emperor, under the current circumstances. Shakhma believed that they would have no choice but to obey him.

A combined force to subdue Missian. If all goes well then not only will our most dangerous neighbor be removed from the equation, I’ll also have the perfect opportunity to dispose of all those who oppose me, Shakhma thought with a sneering grin.

Every war had its casualties, and if certain less cooperative nobles refused to accept a dangerous order, Shakhma would have a convenient excuse to rid himself of them for good. He was a man driven first and foremost by self-interest, working not for the sake of Ansel’s future, but rather to bolster his own power and influence.

We’ll see if the dukes offer us any soldiers, though. I suppose stranger things have happened. No harm in having His Majesty write the letter himself, at the very least.

With little to lose, Shakhma went off to pay his emperor a visit at once.

“Letters have arrived from Paradille and His Majesty the Emperor. They have informed us that they intend to assemble an army with which to punish Missian for its misdeeds, and have requested that we of Canshiep contribute to that effort.”

The first person to speak was none other than the Duke of Canshiep himself, Towak Umungas. He was an older man of nearly sixty, and the scars that peppered his face spoke of the many battles he’d been through in his time. His sturdy, muscular build, meanwhile, spoke of how little of his strength he’d lost in his old age.

“We’re rejecting them, I’m sure. Why in the name of decency would we ever agree to such a thing, honestly? We have enough on our plate with the pirates as is,” said Yaado Umungas. He was twenty years old, and was the fifth of Towak’s five sons. He had long, black hair that complimented his handsome features, but something about his expression gave the impression that he was a bit of an imbecile. Anyone who got that impression would soon find it validated─he was not a smart man by any means. Still, his skills in sword fighting, horsemanship, and other martial pursuits were indisputable, and had led him to become Canshiep’s greatest general.

“Silence, fool,” Towak’s eldest son, Kai, snapped.

“F-Fool?! You don’t have to be that harsh!” Yaado whimpered.

Kai was a sharp-eyed and remarkably inexpressive man of thirty-five. He looked as straitlaced and stubborn as they came, and at the moment, he was considered to be the leading contender for the seat of duke when his father eventually passed.

“Missian will become a threat to us in the future, like it or not,” said Kai. “The only reason they aren’t a higher priority is because they’re located so far away from us. At the moment, it’s unclear whether or not they’re worthy of our attention. We need more information.”

“Okay, but they’re only asking for us to go to a meeting, right? Isn’t that the perfect chance to get a bunch of information about Missian from the other duchies?” asked Towak’s fourth son, Otto. Otto was a kind-looking man with a soft, gentle manner of speech, and at twenty-four years of age, he was still quite young.

“True─they have not requested us to dispatch troops, as of yet. It could be a worthwhile chance to learn more about the state of things,” Kai admitted.

“Of course, it could also be a trap that Ansel and Paradille are working to set together,” Otto noted.

“Hey, can I, uhh, leave?” a new voice piped up, cutting into the brothers’ exchange. “I was sorta in the middle of working on a new weapon I’m developing, so…”

The new participant in the meeting was the duke’s third son, Noin, who was slumped listlessly over on the table. He had scruffy, unkempt hair, and his outfit was just as ragged. His slender build hinted that he got no exercise whatsoever, and his pallid skin suggested that he went outside just as infrequently. Noin’s passion lay in researching and developing weaponry, a calling that he spent the bulk of his day-to-day life fully occupied by. He was emphatically not passionate when it came to this sort of meeting, and was the sort of person who would sooner hide away in his room to do research than join in on a conference. Since his brother Kai was in charge of funding that research, however, it hadn’t been hard for him to threaten Noin into making an appearance. For all his foibles, Noin was a remarkable craftsman─most of Canshiep’s recent inventions were his original designs.

“No. Stay till the end,” snapped Kai. “Have you no pride as a member of House Umungas?!”

“Okaaay,” Noin droned listlessly.

Kai heaved a sigh. His criticism had clearly not done its job. “In any case, it’s true that we can’t dismiss the possibility that this is a trap, in which case we cannot afford to send our father. I should go in his stead. They won’t have the right to complain about us speaking through a representative, considering their own circumstances.”

“Well, sending you is not any better than sending Father, is it? You’re the heir, Kai,” said Otto. “If one of us has to go, wouldn’t I be the best choice? I may only be the fourth son, but I am still the son of the duke.”

“By that standard, Louvert would be the most rational choice,” Kai said before pausing. “Speaking of whom…Father, where is Louvert?” he asked. Louvert, incidentally, was the second son of House Umungas.

Towak, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and listening in silence as the brothers debated, spoke up once more. “Louvert left some time ago to deal with a pressing issue in the south. I imagine he’ll be back before long,” he said.

“I see,” said Kai. “What do you say, Father? How do you believe we should approach this request?”

“If an army is to be formed in opposition to Missian, then that army’s leader will, of course, be the emperor─and I’ve no desire to be a dog of the empire. Never again,” said Towak.

“You’re opposed, then?” asked Kai.

Towak shook his head. “Not opposed, no. We have ample motive to stand against Missian…and if Semplar is to be put up for grabs, we must be the duchy that claims it.”

“Semplar…” Kai muttered. “That would be Missian’s largest port city, would it not?”

“It would. Large as our fair Ryaptar may be, Semplar is a city to rival it─and while Ryaptar lies in the far north, Semplar rests in the far south. If we were to claim it and establish a trade route between the two cities, unfathomable profit would await.”

“I see. However, a direct trade route seems unfeasible. Scheutz is our ally, for the time being, but our ships would need to pass through Seitzan waters as well,” Kai said as he consulted a map.

“We would, of course, do well to conquer a number of Seitzan ports as well, but that would hardly be a challenge. The Seitzan fleet is no worthy foe of the mighty armada of Canshiep. We’ll brush them aside with ease.”

Canshiep was the maritime powerhouse of Summerforth, its fleet putting those of the other duchies to shame. A large island lay to the north of the duchy, which pirates had infested and declared to be a rogue nation called Sektar. Canshiep had been forced to build up a powerful navy in order to counteract the threat that the pirates posed. Not only was that navy formidable in terms of numbers, its vessels were also superior in a technological sense. They were the best ships around when it came to both speed and cargo capacity. That was why claiming Semplar posed such incredible potential for Canshiep in particular.

“Hmm─but the airship makes this tricky, huh?” Otto said with a worried frown. “Nothing we can do to fight back against an attack from the sky.”

“And learning more of that risk is another reason why it would be for the best to participate in these talks,” said Towak.

“Understood,” Kai agreed with a nod. “I’ll begin laying the groundwork to send Louvert to attend. I don’t imagine he’ll be inclined to refuse, but just in case, I’ll be the one to broach the subject with him.”

With that, Kai spun about and left the chamber.

“According to the letter, Paradille and the emperor himself are asking us to join in an assault against Missian… What in the world should I do?” the Duke of Scheutz, Bran Dormane, asked in a bewildered fluster. Bran was forty years old, and his timid features were matched by his equally fainthearted personality.

“I believe we should participate. If the other duchies take part in this proposed conference and join together to oppose Missian, Scheutz will be isolated. I imagine that this proposed combined force will indeed be formed, given that many of the duchies look poorly upon Missian’s atrocities, and that they are a foe we cannot afford to ignore regardless,” said Walt Roberts, Bran’s most trusted tactician.

Walt’s stately bearing and clear, eloquent speech stood in sharp contrast to his lord’s demeanor─and this in spite of the fact that he and Bran were the same age. They’d known each other since childhood, and had remained fast friends throughout their lives.

“Moreover, claiming Seitz was our ultimate objective,” Walt continued, a note of anger entering his tone. “Missian has thrown our strategy into disarray. They must be made to pay the price for their insolence!”

“D-Do try not to be quite so heated, Walt, please,” Bran chided.

“My apologies, Your Lordship. I simply cannot abide by it when my plans are disrupted.”

“Yes, I’m well aware. Some things never change,” Bran said with a sigh. “Nevertheless, point well taken. You believe we should participate in the conference…b-but what if it’s a trap?”

“While I cannot dismiss the possibility, calling you out under false pretenses only to assassinate you would accomplish nothing aside from earning Scheutz’s fury. There would be no benefit to Ansel. Furthermore, it is most assuredly the truth that Ansel and Paradille alike consider Missian to be a threat.”

“That does make sense, yes… And with Seitz grasped in Missian’s clutches, we can’t afford to ignore them any longer either. Who knows when Seitzan troops might start marching across our borders? Perhaps you’re right, Walt. Perhaps we should cooperate…”

“Indeed,” said Walt. “But of course, our attendance won’t guarantee that the conference will accomplish its objective. Paradille is the only duchy left that still offers any real loyalty to the emperor, after all.”

“Y-Yes, this is also true… The question is, can we even win against Missian…?”

“Even if the coordination between our armies is less than ideal, the mere creation of a combined force of this nature will mean that Missian must contend with five duchies at once. That will, unmistakably, put them at a significant disadvantage.”

“Y-Yes, of course…but Paradille and Ansel border Missian proper, while we share a border with Seitz, its vassal state. Canshiep and Rofeille, however, are far separated from Missian. Will they truly be able to pose any sort of threat?”

“The strength of Canshiep’s navy alone is enough to ensure they capture a share of Missian’s attention. The port city of Semplar is a cornerstone of the Missian economy, and if Canshiep were to strike at it, it could spell disaster for them. Rofeille…is a far less certain question, I will admit. They have little to gain, even if Missian is defeated, and there’s every chance they’ll refuse to participate at all. If they refuse to even participate in the conference then Ansel will be forced to prepare for the possibility of an invasion from Rofeille as the war goes on, making it much harder for them to devote troops to the fight. Ansel’s population is vast and its army mighty, so if they’re forced to turn their attention away from Missian in part, it will not bode well for the combined force’s chances of success.”

“I see now… So Rofeille is the key to the whole endeavor,” Bran muttered as he crossed his arms.

“Of course, Rofeille’s leaders will understand that if Missian is left to run rampant, their time will come as well before long. While I cannot say whether or not they’ll send troops, I would at least imagine they would be open to a pact of non-aggression while the war is fought,” Walt added.

“I certainly hope so,” said Bran.

“And, of course…there’s the matter of Missian’s new weapon, the airship.”

“Of course. The flying boat that earned Seitz’s surrender with ease.”

“It seems that Hyness Brown has claimed to be capable of crafting a vessel with the same capabilities. Not immediately, to be clear, but in time.”

“My word!” Bran exclaimed. “I offered him a job because I knew that his mind was sharp, in spite of his eccentricities, but I never imagined he would accomplish something that grand! Do you believe him?”

“To be frank, I have my doubts. I do know very well that he is no ordinary man, though, so I cannot dismiss the possibility that he is capable of it. The best means of opposing their airship would be to have one of our own, so if his story does prove true, it could change everything.”

“It was powerful enough to lay waste to Seitz. If we don’t plan ahead, we’ll meet the same fate. I hope that Hyness makes good on his word…” Bran muttered.

“Now then─I’ve called you here to discuss letters that we have received from the emperor and the Duke of Paradille. They claim that a combined army is to be formed for the purpose of bringing Missian to heel, and they ask that we contribute our forces to that cause,” said a middle-aged man with red hair that matched his lengthy beard. His name was Cedric Breind, and he was the Duke of Rofeille.

“How could they think we’d participate in something like that?!” shouted one of the lords.

“Ansel is our greatest enemy! If anything, we should use this chance to launch an invasion of our own. The other duchies we could cooperate with, perhaps, but not Ansel! Never!” insisted another.

The first few voices were opposed to the idea─but that wasn’t to say there was no debate to be had.

“We may not know much about Missian for now, but what we do know is more than enough to conclude that they have become a force to be reckoned with. It’s unsurprising that Ansel would decide that they need to be dealt with.”

“What does it matter to us if Missian has grown more powerful? Them crushing Ansel would only work to our benefit.”

“I urge you to think in the long term. While we cannot say what Missian’s aims are, the idea that they intend to unite all of Summerforth under their banner is not beyond the realm of possibility─and if Ansel falls, then no force will remain capable of opposing them. We cannot stand by and allow that to come to pass. At the bare minimum, I believe that we should claim a seat at this proposed conference.”

Some lords, at least, spoke up in favor of the proposal.

“I, for one, believe that we must learn more before any final decisions are made,” said Cedric. “The optimal outcome, of course, would be for Missian and Ansel to exhaust their resources fighting one another, allowing us to swoop in and claim Ansel for ourselves.”

“That would indeed be ideal,” one of the lords muttered.

“Quite─and in order to bring that outcome about, sending a representative to the conference would indeed behoove us. If Ansel believes that we’ve chosen to support their cause, and if we assuage any lingering anxieties through our actions, they will devote everything they have to opposing Missian,” Cedric continued. The bulk of the gathered lords nodded and muttered words of praise, applauding their duke’s judgment. “What say you, Eleanor?” Cedric asked next, turning to the woman─or rather, the girl─seated beside him.

It wasn’t her red hair that made her stand out most among the meeting’s attendees, but rather, her gender. The bulk of the assembled lords were men, on account of the fact that typically, only men were trusted to lead troops into battle. Women were a very rare presence at gatherings such as this.

The girl’s eyes, like her hair, were a striking shade of red. Her features, meanwhile, were so perfectly sculpted one might have mistaken her for a doll, at a glance─a doll dressed in attire typically reserved for nobility, and specifically noblemen. Her name was Eleanor Breind, and she was Cedric’s sixteen-year-old daughter.

Eleanor didn’t immediately answer her father’s question. Instead, she closed her eyes and seemed to lapse into thought. The gathered lords watched on in apprehensive silence, holding their breath as they waited for her to speak. Their gazes were full of respect─of awe, even.

Finally, Eleanor’s eyes snapped open.

“We should join this council,” she said. “And following it, we should act. Waiting and observing won’t get us anywhere. No, we should gather our forces, march into battle, and strike Missian ourselves.”

A number of the gathered lords looked shocked by Eleanor’s proposal.

“T-Truly…?” said one bewildered nobleman.

“But…for what cause?” another asked.

“Because the combined force’s victory over Missian is uncertain,” Eleanor explained. “If Missian wins, then every duchy aside from our own will become subordinate to them. We will be finished before we even set foot on a single battlefield.”

“Perhaps…but you must admit that in terms of troops alone, Missian will be at a grave disadvantage,” said Cedric. “I have great difficulty imagining that the combined might of the other duchies will prove inferior to theirs.”

“The combined might of the other duchies will be led into battle by the emperor. Do you believe the empire’s current ruler is up to that task? Of course not. There will be no unity or coordination─each duchy’s troops will act of their own accord,” Eleanor explained. “And then there are the rumors of Missian’s new weapon, the airship. There’ll be no telling how effective it is until we’ve seen it perform on the field of battle…and that is a sight I would very much like to witness for myself.”

“I take it that your closing point is, in fact, your main motivation,” Cedric said with a tired scowl.

“Of course not. Preposterous.”

Eleanor’s tone didn’t waver, but she did break eye contact as she spoke. That, Cedric knew, was one of her tells─in other words, a sure sign that she was lying. The duke heaved a sigh.

“Well, in any case, I must admit that there’s reason to my daughter’s words,” Cedric said. “Summerforth has fallen into an age of strife and bloodshed, and even as conflicts have played out all across the continent, none of the seven duchies has been able to win a decisive victory over any of the others for decades on end. We’ve been locked in a state of stalemate─a stalemate that Missian has now broken. If we fail to intervene, then there’s no telling how mighty Missian will grow.”

“I agree wholeheartedly. Which, I should note, is an earnest opinion not at all informed by any desire to go into battle against a worthy foe.”

“Please stop talking, Eleanor,” Cedric groaned. Lying was not among his daughter’s talents.

“But wait─Missian is a threat, yes, but no one will benefit more from their defeat than Ansel!” one of the lords exclaimed.

“Th-That’s true! The Imperial Family may hope to use this as an opportunity to restore their power and influence! This could end with Ansel controlling both Missian and Seitz, which would put us in just as untenable a position as Missian’s victory would!” another chimed in to oppose Eleanor’s opinion.

An equal number of the gathered lords, however, were in favor of her plan. A heated debate ensued.

“I will lead a force of ten thousand men and join the effort to defeat Missian,” Eleanor eventually declared. “If they prove unable to resist the combined might of the duchies and are weakened to the point they lose their grip upon Seitz, then my father and brother can lead the rest of our army to attack Ansel. Rofeille’s losses will be minimal, while Ansel will have surely expended tremendous resources fighting Missian. Our victory will be assured.”

“I see,” one of the lords muttered. “Her Ladyship leading a small force could solve everything…”

“We’d deal a blow to Missian, and maybe even earn a chance to catch Ansel unawares and claim their territory!” said another.

All around, the lords seemed taken with Eleanor’s proposal. The combined force being assembled would be a very large one, though, and some seemed to question whether or not a mere ten thousand soldiers would be enough to make any real difference.

“Lady Eleanor is our Goddess of War,” said one of the lords. “Ten thousand men under her command will be a force so mighty, Missian will never know what hit it!”

Although Eleanor was only sixteen years old, she had led troops into battle on numerous occasions and emerged victorious each and every time. Hence the name some had taken to calling her: the Goddess of War. In recent times, that name had spread far beyond the borders of Rofeille, and was now known all across Summerforth.

“I trust you won’t object, Father?” asked Eleanor.

“I suppose not…but I can’t see this as anything more or less than you creating a convenient excuse to go to war,” Cedric replied.

“Perish the thought. I care only for the future of Rofeille and House Breind,” Eleanor declared definitively. That, at least, seemed to be the earnest truth.

“Then we will indeed join in the conference. As duke, it is my duty to fulfill that role,” said Cedric.

“No─I will go,” Eleanor interjected, raising her hand in the air. “If I’m the one who’ll be going into battle, then I should make myself known to the other duchies beforehand.”

“Y-You’ll go yourself, Your Ladyship?” a lord chimed in.

“It might be dangerous!” said another. “It could even be a trap!”

“If it’s a trap, then all the more reason not to send my father marching into it. I’m confident that there is no trap I cannot evade.”

“Hmm…” Cedric muttered, mulling over the matter. “Very well, then. I entrust all matters related to the suppression of Missian to you, Eleanor.”

“Understood,” Eleanor replied with a quick nod.

Rofeille’s course was decided, and the meeting adjourned.

The moment the meeting was over, Eleanor had set off toward the training grounds. As she walked through the castle’s hallways, however, a voice rang out from behind her.

“What is it, Brother?” Eleanor replied, not breaking stride for so much as an instant.

The voice was indeed that of her brother, Gart Breind. Gart was the eldest son of House Breind, and was considered to be the next in line to become the Duke of Rofeille. He was twenty-five years old and had short, red hair, with a face that resembled his father’s and a muscular build that made him look quite strong, at a glance.

“I won’t allow you to join up with the other duchies’ armies! I’ll go instead!” Gart insisted as he sped up to match Eleanor’s pace.

“No you won’t,” Eleanor snapped back. “You will stay behind in Rofeille, prepared to strike at Ansel after I’ve dealt the killing blow to Missian.”

“Let Father do that! How could I let my little sister go into battle alone?! Can you even imagine how worried I’ll─”

“Brother? You’re annoying me. Stop.”

“A-Annoying you?!” Gart bellowed, reeling back in shock before crumpling to his knees. Gart’s overprotective attachment to his sister bordered on the pathologic, and the mere suggestion that she found him irritating was enough to all but shatter his psyche.

Eleanor, of course, paid no attention to her fallen brother whatsoever and just kept walking.

“W-Wait!” Gart shouted as he sprang to his feet once more and pursued her.

“Weren’t you finished?” Eleanor coldly replied.

“I’ve been looking into Missian ever since I learned that they’d subjugated Seitz,” said Gart.

“Oh.”

“We don’t share a border with Missian, so there wasn’t much need for me to learn about them until recently, but the fall of Seitz changed matters. Among everything I’ve learned, one point stands out: one of Missian’s lords is a capable individual who’s gathered the top talents from all across the duchy to serve under his banner and used them with incredible skill. He’s the one responsible for the airship’s invention, and for Missian’s rise to power.”

“He gathers and uses those with talent?” Eleanor repeated, coming to a stop. She hadn’t expressed any interest at all in her brother’s words up to that point, but now, he had her attention.

“That’s right─and he’s only fifteen years old. His name is Ars Louvent, apparently.”

“Ars Louvent. And he’s younger than me?”

“Indeed. I have to admit, his achievements are stunning. His airship led Missian to victory in the war with Seitz, of course, but that isn’t even the half of it. He fought Seitz before as well, and fended off an army eighty thousand strong with only twenty thousand men of his own.”

“Oh?”

“That’s the sort of foe you’re going to be up against. Even Rofeille’s ever-invincible Goddess of War might lose to a man like him. How can I help but worry?” said Gart. The way he spoke made his words come across as a warning.

“If someone that capable lives in Missian, I’m more excited to invade it than ever,” Eleanor said, once again deaf to her brother’s words of concern.

“H-Hey! I’m serious about this!”

“No need to worry, Brother. I can’t be beaten,” said Eleanor. “And this man, Ars Louvent… If he’s as useful as you’re making him sound, I’ll leave him alive and drag him back to Rofeille with me.”

Eleanor set off once more. Gart, meanwhile, resigned himself to the fact that she wasn’t about to be convinced and heaved a deep, tired sigh.

Ashude, however, still had all the connections he’d forged during his time on the throne─including connections with lords who now had the ear of the new king, Kyle. His influence over Seitz had, in fact, hardly changed at all. It helped that Kyle himself was a craftsman by nature, more interested in creating works of art and patronizing artists than he was in matters of statecraft. In fact, he had no interest in politics or warfare at all, and had kept them at arms’ length up until his recent ascension to the throne.

At first, Kyle had refused to accept the crown. It was only after his beloved art collection had been held hostage that he’d begrudgingly agreed to take up the position. His reluctance was a virtue in the eyes of Missian’s rulers, who believed that a king like him would make keeping Seitz under their thumb a simple task. Kyle, however, had proven so disinterested in politics that he’d entrusted all of his duties to his retainers─and they, in turn, allowed Ashude to exert tremendous influence over the fledgling kingdom, even from his new home in the outlands.

“I believe it’s time,” Ashude muttered to himself. He left his estate, made his way into town, and stepped into a particular bar.

The moment the bar’s owner recognized Ashude, he jogged up to the former duke in a fluster. “Right this way,” he said, leading Ashude into a private chamber─then opening up a trapdoor within that chamber and leading him underground. Ashude passed through a long, dimly lit corridor before arriving in a rather large room, at the center of which sat a round table.

This was a space that Ashude had had created after he became the lord of Harval: a secret chamber in which he could conduct his councils of war. Bringing too many outsiders into his own estate would risk Couran catching wind of his actions, so he’d taken steps to ensure he wasn’t observed when he didn’t want to be.

A number of lords were already seated around the table─all members of Ashude’s inner circle. Boroths was among them, as was Raddas the tactician. Boroths hadn’t been banished from the capital, and in fact remained in a position of great influence over the king.

Ashude took a seat at the table, and the assembled nobles all paused to bow deeply. Though Ashude was, as the lord of a minor town, technically of lower standing than each and every one of them, they still viewed themselves as his loyal servants.

“So then,” said Ashude, “have we learned who will rule over Kuat and Purledo?”

“Ars Louvent has been granted both counties, Your Lordship,” Raddas replied.

“I see. As expected, I suppose. The creation of the airship would merit such a reward. I’m sure nobody dared to oppose it.”

“With this, House Louvent has become one of the most prominent of Missian’s nobles─though considering how much their lord has accomplished, one might even say the territory he holds was insufficient up until now,” Raddas added.

“I’m sure his presence in Missian will only grow more prominent as time goes on,” said Ashude. “The question is, does Couran have what it takes to keep Ars Louvent under his control?”

Ashude had his doubts. In his mind, House Louvent’s allegiance to Couran could only last for so much longer.

“So then, Your Lordship, what will Seitz’s next move be?” Boroths asked.

“Given Missian’s ascension, I believe that the other duchies will soon begin forging temporary alliances,” said Ashude. “Perhaps on a grand scale. It’s possible that all the remaining duchies will join together, assaulting Missian from all sides. No matter how mighty the airship might be, it will do little good against five duchies at once.”

Fighting a war against five enemy nations would mean having to deal with a tremendous number of enemy soldiers. It would also mean fighting on numerous fronts at once, making the defense of Missian’s own territory an incredibly difficult task.

“If that comes to pass, it will be a chance for Seitz to slip away from Missian’s grasp and regain its independence,” said Boroths. “Perhaps if Missian is invaded, we should join in the effort and invade as well?”

“It won’t be that easy,” said Ashude. “Scheutz is far more likely to strike at Seitz than at Missian proper. They’ve coveted our territory for many a long year, and since they lack a shared border with Missian, any territory they managed to conquer there would be of little use to them.”

“Scheutz… I see now. That is troublesome indeed…”

“Of course, if they do forge an alliance of that nature, we’ll want to learn of it as soon as possible. We should send agents into each of the other duchies with instructions to gather information on the matter.”

“Understood, Your Lordship…though as we lack sufficient spies at the moment, we’ll need to hire new agents for the task.”

“Very well─but make sure they can be trusted,” Ashude cautioned. Boroths nodded in reply. “For the time being, continue to follow Missian’s commands. Feign subservience as much as you can bear. Betrayal hurts the most when it comes from where you least expect it, and as matters stand, any rebellion we raised would be quashed.”

“Yes, Your Lordship.”

“And, finally…take extensive care to keep watch over Ars Louvent. His newfound standing will expand the influence he holds over Missian. As his territory grows, so too will his ability to find new talents to bring into his fold. There’s no telling what monsters he’ll discover…and even should all the duchies come at him at once, he holds the potential to turn the tide against them.”

“I wish I could disagree, Your Lordship, but alas,” Boroths bitterly replied, memories of his own war with Missian flashing through his mind.

“How fares the king?” asked Ashude.

“The same as ever, Your Lordship. He has little interest in anything other than the arts, and has delegated the kingdom’s management to his subjects.”

“I see. I had thought that gaining such great standing might have changed him, but it seems that some rare individuals are immune to the seductive allure of power. Try to procure a piece of art or two from the other duchies for him, from time to time. He’ll love it,” Ashude replied offhand. He was well acquainted with Kyle, and knew how to best control him.

“It will be done, Your Lordship.”

With that, the meeting came to an end and Ashude returned to his estate.

“To start, I believe we should prioritize building up our military and strengthening our hold over Seitz,” Robinson replied. “Although they have ostensibly become our vassal state, so long as the former duke Ashude lives, we won’t be able to let our guards down. We’ll need to ensure they are defanged before we turn our gaze elsewhere.”

“Agreed. Ashude is a dangerous man, and we can’t afford to ignore him. He wouldn’t have surrendered without a very good reason, and that means he may well have a plan in mind already. In regard to our military, we’ve already thrown all available resources into the construction of more airships. I’ve also provided Shin, the inventor from Canarre, with all the funding he could need to create a new model that should prove even more capable than the first ones. A vessel even more powerful than the ones we’ve already made will render our foes powerless to resist us,” said Couran. “I will strengthen our military, challenge the other duchies, and bring all of Summerforth under my grasp. And so, the Missian Empire will come to fruition,” he added, a powerful flame of ambition burning within his gaze. That was Couran’s ultimate goal: to conquer the duchies and rule over the continent as its absolute and indisputable leader.

“I believe the other duchies will be quite wary of us now, Your Majesty. They may even choose to form alliances and wage war upon us,” Robinson said in a somewhat reproachful tone.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. However powerful Missian might appear to them, they won’t discard their old grudges and join hands so easily. And even if they do, there isn’t a chance they’ll have the wherewithal to coordinate with one another and fight as a united front,” said Couran. He believed that Missian had, for all intents and purposes, already won any war that could be declared on it. “And if through some miracle they were able to work together, we would defeat them. The airship has given us the means to do so.”

Robinson fell silent, a frown spreading across his face. The airship had indeed seemed all but unbeatable in the war with Seitz─but there was no telling whether the same would prove true in the next war. Seitz had gone into the war with numbers inferior to those of Missian, but if a combined force were formed, Missian would be forced to fight a foe with greater numbers and resources to work with. Robinson, at least, wasn’t certain that it would be a battle so easily won.

“Well, in any case, there will be no more political maneuvering or pretensions of peace. If the other duchies choose to attack, we’ll have to rise to the challenge,” said Couran.

“I suppose so…”

In Couran’s mind, now that Seitz had been claimed, it couldn’t be let go again. If that meant alarming the other duchies into pooling their armies and going on the attack, then so be it.

“Incidentally, Your Majesty…are you certain it was wise to grant two new counties to House Louvent?” asked Robinson.

“Was it wise…? Ars is the man who found the airship’s creator and chose to invest in the project. His achievements in battle more than merit the reward. I’ll admit I have some reservations about how he’ll cope with a territory so large, granted so suddenly, but Ars’s people are the cream of the crop. They have what it takes, I’m sure. In fact, he has so many of them that they’d almost be wasted on him if I didn’t give him more territory to manage!”

“I certainly don’t mean to belittle the work that Sir Ars has done, and I do not believe him incapable of ruling over the counties. However…with such vast swaths of territory under his control, I cannot help but worry that House Louvent has grown perhaps too powerful.”

At that, Couran caught on to what Robinson was insinuating.

“And? If Ars has grown powerful, then what of it?” he asked with a scowl. “Do you believe he’ll try to dethrone me? Ars has done great things for Missian, and has never given me cause to question his loyalty. He would never betray me.”

“For now, no…but one can never tell how one with power will choose to wield it,” Robinson replied. Couran’s wrathful glare had made him flinch, but he still spoke as candidly as ever.

“Hmph! You’ve always been a worrier, Robinson. No need to fear. Even if Ars were to rise up against me, he would be crushed. He may rule over three counties now, but Canarre and Purledo are both small, and while Kuat is indeed a large city, it’s still smaller than Velshdt, which is only the fourth largest in Missian. He hasn’t gained as much power as you seem to fear,” said Couran.

“Perhaps, but it bears considering that Canarre, a minor city in a corner of Missian’s borderland, has gone from a place of little significance to a flourishing economic center after a small matter of years under House Louvent’s rule. If Purledo and Kuat develop in the same manner, it’s easy to believe that the power he holds will grow at a rapid pace…and he may give rise to another invention akin to the airship, as well.”

Now Couran fell silent. He spent a few moments in thought, considering House Louvent’s wealth of followers and their past achievements…and found himself unable to dismiss the possibility that even if all of Missian rose up to oppose them, House Louvent could still somehow pull off a miraculous victory.

“Point taken,” said Couran. “I will take your concerns into consideration, and send someone I know I can trust to take up a position within House Louvent. If I claim to be lending a helping hand to manage his new territories, he’ll never suspect a thing. I wouldn’t want Ars doubting my intentions and losing faith in my rulership.”

By dispatching a watchdog to keep an eye on House Louvent, Couran would gain a degree of insurance. If Ars did ever choose to plot a rebellion, Couran would have a chance to learn of it long before it came to pass.

“A sound decision, Your Majesty. You will have no need to fear House Louvent’s disloyalty this way─though of course, I would prefer not to doubt them at all, were it only safe to do so.”

“No need to bother. Doubting my closest allies is one of your duties. I’m certain those doubts will prove groundless this time, but a little caution never hurts. Your paranoia is an asset, and I trust you’ll continue to wield it for my cause.”

“Of course, Your Majesty… I am your loyal servant, now and forever,” Robinson replied with a long, deep bow.

“You’ve been granted rulership over Purledo and Kuat County…? That’s incredible, Lord Ars…but will also be an incredibly difficult role to fill,” said Rietz. He seemed less than pleased by the news, which didn’t surprise me. I wasn’t over the moon about it, either.

“But it really is incredible, though!” Licia exclaimed excitedly. “You’re the ruler of three counties! I knew this would happen─you could even rise all the way up to the emperor’s throne, at this rate!”

“D-Don’t say stuff like that! We’ve talked about this! I don’t want to get suspected of treason!” I yelped.

“Oh, what’s the harm? No one here would dream of spilling your secrets!” said Licia.

“I know, but…I don’t even want to be the emperor to begin with,” I said. “Even just ruling over three counties feels like it’s going to keep me so busy, I’ll hardly keep up.”

Honestly, where does this obsession of hers with making me the emperor even come from? I just don’t get it. I know she’s just kidding, but it’s still weird!

“With this much new territory under your control, we’ll have to discuss who will oversee each individual county. I believe we should call a meeting at once,” Rietz suggested.

“Agreed,” I said.

I wasted no time in doing just that, and soon, my retainers had all responded to my emergency summons and gathered up in the castle for a meeting.

“He’s giving you both of them?” Mireille asked, somewhat incredulously. “Well, I guess that just makes sense, considering how big a role House Louvent played. You sure are something, kiddo. Never heard of anyone climbing the ranks quite this quickly.”

“It’s thanks to all of you,” I replied. “And particularly thanks to Shin, this time. I owe him my gratitude.”

Shin wasn’t formally one of my retainers, so he wasn’t present at the meeting. In fact, I was pretty sure that asking him to attend would’ve just been an inconvenience in his eyes. He was hard at work developing the next generation of airships using the funds Couran had given him, and he didn’t have the time to spare.

“Okay, but you’re the one who scooped him up and paid for the project,” Mireille noted.

“I guess I can’t deny that.”

Shin hadn’t exactly been a famed engineer in the capital when I found him. Our first encounter, in fact, had involved him being tossed out onto the street. If it weren’t for my involvement, he probably never would have found the funding he needed and never would have made his invention a reality. This just drove home the fact that my Appraisal Skill was the best power that a lord like me could ask for.

“As for the territories themselves, I’ll need to appoint acting counts to govern each county,” I said. “Who do you all think would be suitable?”

“I’ll take Kuat,” Mireille confidently declared. “I was working there up until just recently, and I learned the ins and outs of the place. I’ve already got a few of the capital city’s bigwigs dancing in the palm of my hand, so stepping in and claiming control will be no problem.”

I didn’t have any worries about Mireille’s ability to manage a county…but I couldn’t help but be concerned about her large Ambition score. I couldn’t necessarily count on her to not rebel against me…but then again, I wouldn’t be making her an actual count. She would just be my acting count, which would make turning traitor harder in a variety of ways.

An acting count wouldn’t have complete control over the county they were assigned to. They would handle the moment-to-moment decision making, yes, but any larger and more sweeping decisions would be mine to make. They also wouldn’t have permission to unilaterally deploy the county’s military. There were exceptions to that last point─if the county was invaded, for instance─but she wouldn’t be able to stage an invasion of her own without my express permission. Lords with their own territory, on the other hand, had a surprising amount of leeway to launch invasions without any sort of permission. The oversight only came after the fact─if a Missian lord went on the attack for an unjust cause, Couran would likely punish them for it somewhere down the line.

Then again, although acting counts didn’t have a tremendous amount of power, there was still no telling what Mireille would do with the position. It was easy to imagine her talking and threatening her way into complete control over Kuat. On the other hand, I had Couran on my side, which meant that any rebellion she tried to launch would be doomed to failure, and Mireille wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight she couldn’t win.

On the other hand, if she did decide to go down that path for whatever reason and I was forced to ask Couran for aid in putting her rebellion down, I would have to worry about him deciding that I couldn’t be trusted to look after my own territory. I didn’t want to do anything that would lower my standing in Couran’s eyes, at the moment. House Louvent was still a house of upstarts, and it wouldn’t take much for me to lose my title and be ousted.

“Kuat is a large territory. Wouldn’t it be better for its true count to live within the county itself?” noted Thomas. “As a rule, lords have an easier time ruling over territories when they dwell in one of that territory’s cities. All the more so in this case, considering how much work it’ll take to manage so much land.”

I could see where he was coming from. The fact that an acting count’s hands would be tied when it came to certain matters meant it would be all the harder for them to govern effectively. Any major decision would have to be sent to me for approval before it was enacted, meaning that the rate of decision making would, from time to time, slow to a crawl.

“Relocating to Kuat for a time is also an option…but it would be a dangerous path to travel, given Kuat was once an enemy territory,” Rietz noted. “Though we’ve wiped out most of the Seitzan army’s remnants, it’s difficult to say whether any Seitzan agents remain, and if so, how many. And needless to say, Seitz’s status as a vassal state by no means guarantees that they can be trusted.”

We had plenty of reasons to distrust Seitz, even considering their unconditional surrender. The former duke, Ashude, was alive, well, and possibly even plotting to bring down Missian from within. If he did, I had a feeling that House Louvent would be his very first target. He would try to weaken our influence through whatever means he could muster.

Kuat and Purledo were both once Seitzan counties, and many of their residents still considered themselves Seitzan to the core. I was positive that both of them were lousy with Ashude’s spies. We’d put down the local resistance, sure, but eliminating every single opposing agent just wasn’t a realistic goal. There weren’t many spies out there as capable as the Shadows but Ashude was a former duke, and I knew that whatever agents he had on his payroll would at the very least not be incompetent.

“I think it would be best for me to not relocate, at least for the time being. I may consider it down the line, but that can wait until after we’ve held Kuat County for a few years and seen what sort of challenges present themselves,” I concluded.

Kuat’s not that far away, really. I don’t think not being there all the time will lead to any huge disasters.

In the end, despite my apprehensions, I decided to entrust Kuat’s management to Mireille. I also chose to assign Braham’s unit to the region. Kuat County was more dangerous than Purledo and Canarre at the moment, and there was a chance that Seitz would try to stir up even bigger trouble, so having Braham and his men there would hopefully head off any major issues. It would also discourage Mireille from stabbing me in the back, with any luck. Braham had matured a lot, and I didn’t think she’d be able to fast talk her way around him as easily as she used to.

Seeing as Thomas had been overseeing Fort Purledo for some time, I decided to let him be the acting count for that county. I also sent Rikuya and his siblings to Purledo─specifically to Castle Auros, in their case. I was a little worried it was too soon to entrust them with an important task, to be honest, but we were at a nasty deficit when it came to personnel, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Rikuya would be my official proxy at the castle with Maika and Takao assisting him, and considering Maika’s brains and Takao’s brawn, I had a hard time imagining that the three of them would encounter any troubles that they couldn’t solve together.

Virge would be ruling over Lamberg in Mireille’s absence. He’d spent long enough working as Rietz’s assistant in Canarre to pick up quite a bit of skill when it came to governance, and since Lamberg was such a small territory, I figured he’d be able to keep it under control without too much trouble. Rietz himself would remain in Canarre, handling governmental affairs here like he always had─though really, he’d be busier than ever since he’d now have to deal with all sorts of detailed information coming in from and going out to Kuat and Purledo Counties. Clearly, I’d have to help him out whenever I found the chance to do so.

I’d thought that Rosell would want to work abroad somewhere, at first, but in the end he refused the opportunity and asked to stay in Canarre instead. It seemed he was comfortable in his current environment, and didn’t feel like branching out for now. Things in Canarre were going to be busier than ever, of course, so having him around to help out would be a good thing in the long term. Charlotte would likewise be standing by in Canarre, at least until the next war began. I’d considered sending her to Kuat to help out there, but considering she was more or less our ultimate weapon, I preferred the idea of having her around in our home base, just in case. Knowing she would be there in the event of an emergency was very reassuring.

With that, we had a solid plan in place for how we’d manage our new territories. Things went pretty smoothly from that point onward, and the details of everyone’s new stations were soon set in stone. The one problem: frankly, we just didn’t have enough people left after everyone had departed. We lacked the manpower to deal with our new lands, and by a dramatic margin. I’d been significantly more cautious with headhunting excursions ever since the attempt on my life, and I knew that I couldn’t start taking crazy risks again, but I still had to find some way to appraise and recruit more retainers before my staffing issues started causing major problems.

“I think we can call this council to a close, then,” I said. “I wish you all the best of luck carrying out your new duties.”

If my retainers did a good enough job managing their territories, House Louvent would grow bigger and more powerful still. I knew that all of them would do just fine, which meant that the only real question was whether I’d do my part as well. I departed from the council chamber, determined to do everything I could to fulfill my role to the best of my ability.

The war with Seitz was over, and Purledo and Kuat had been occupied by Missian forces. That meant that the fighting had ended and we’d been able to return to Canarre, only for things to get busy in a whole different sort of way. Kuat and Purledo had proven difficult to rule over following their occupation, and Couran had requested that I dispatch some of my retainers to help─a request that I’d been obligated to acquiesce to, in spite of my reluctance. As a result, we’d found ourselves at a lack of helping hands in Canarre, and a mountain of work began to amass that the count─which is to say, I─would have to handle personally.

Unfortunately, in this world, there was no such thing as an air conditioner. If it was hot, you just had to suffer through it and do your job in a puddle of your own sweat. That was what had inspired the river trip: everyone was so worn out from the heat that they hadn’t been able to work efficiently, and a trip to the river to refresh ourselves would be just the thing to get us back into tip-top shape. It was working, too. Just standing by the beautiful, crystal clear water was already making me feel a little cooler.

“It’s so refreshing here, isn’t it?” Licia commented. She was the one who’d proposed that we take a little trip to get ourselves back into the swing of things.

Rietz, Charlotte, Rosell, Musia, Wren, and Kreiz had all come with─in fact, just about everyone in the usual Castle Canarre crowd had tagged along. Well, everyone except for Mireille and the others who were away from the castle, of course.

“Does that water look great, or what? Let’s jump in!” Charlotte said before, without any warning whatsoever, starting to strip her clothes off.

“Wh-What are you thinking, Miss Charlotte?! Stop!” Musia yelped, diving forward to stop her.

“What? It’s fine! I’ve got a swimsuit on underneath!” Charlotte replied. She ignored Musia’s protests and peeled the rest of her outfit off…revealing that she had, in fact, been wearing a bathing suit beneath her clothes.

Swimsuits in this world were like those back on earth in the sense that they were quite revealing, and Charlotte’s put her ample bosom on very prominent display. I couldn’t help but stare, in spite of myself. Her proportions were just plain unreasonable.

“Y-Yes…?” I said, tearing my gaze away from Charlotte as quickly as possible. “O-Oh, right─we should change into our swimsuits too,” I followed up before she could say anything.

I headed off to get changed with the other men, while the girls went in a different direction to do the same.

“Is this really a good idea? I can’t swim… I might drown if something goes wrong,” Rosell muttered anxiously.

“You’ll be fine if you stick to the shallows. They’re not deep enough to make you swim at all,” I said.

“Even the shallows of a river like this are a little scary… Can you swim, Ars?” Rosell asked.

“I can, yeah. I’ve actually always been pretty good at it.”

“O-Oh, really? That’s amazing!” Rosell said, sounding rather surprised.

The truth was that I’d actually learned how to swim in my previous life. I remembered being a pretty fast swimmer, too─not the fastest in my grade, or anything, but toward the upper end of average. I hadn’t swam much at all since I was reincarnated, though. This wasn’t the first time I’d gone out to play in a river like this, but since swimming in rivers could be dangerous, I had yet to try to do so. Water was a valuable resource, so pools weren’t a thing, which meant there weren’t many other opportunities to swim on the whole. Apparently, it was common for people to swim on a daily basis when summer came around in regions close to a lake or a beach, though. Places like that were where swimsuits had originated, supposedly.

“How about you, Rietz? Can you swim?” I asked.

“I’m fairly good at it, yes. I used to catch fish by hand in the rivers from time to time, and I polished my skills then,” Rietz replied.

“O-Oh! I, uh, I see.”

He caught fish by hand? Considering how dangerous that would be to do in a river, he must have been literally starving.

“Big Brother, Rietz, I wanna learn how to swim, too! Teach me!” Kreiz excitedly insisted.

“Swimming in rivers is dangerous, Kreiz. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait until you’re a little older,” I replied.

“Booo,” Kreiz huffed with a sullen pout.

We finished getting changed, then headed back to the riverside. A short while later, the ladies finished changing and arrived at the river as well, all wearing their swimsuits. Licia’s was modest in terms of exposure─a frilly, light pink bathing suit that fit her perfectly. She looked adorable.

“W-Well? How do I look, Ars?” Licia noticed my stare and nervously asked for my opinion.

“You look great! I mean, you look really cute in it,” I said. A look of shock flashed across Licia’s face as she let out a gasp, turning beet red a moment later.

Before long, we’d all made our way into the water. Even though it was midsummer, the river was nice and cool.

“All right, let’s do some swimming!” Charlotte said before marching off toward the river’s deeper reaches.

“W-Wait! That’s dangerous!” Musia shouted.

Charlotte, however, paid her no mind. She headed deeper and deeper into the river, and eventually started swimming. I was worried the current might sweep her away, but instead she slipped right through it, swimming swiftly and skillfully. She must have had a lot of experience in the water, judging by how good at it she was.

“I suppose we don’t have to worry about her, then,” Rietz commented. I had to agree─it wasn’t unheard of for rivers to surge without warning, but knowing Charlotte, she’d come swimming right back to us like nothing had happened no matter how fast it ended up running.

“Oh! Is that what I think it is…?” Rietz muttered as he peered into the river’s depths.

An oddly serious look came across his face as he moved deeper into the river. He took a few steps, came to a stop, then thrust his hand down toward the riverbed in one swift motion. A moment later he pulled it out again, holding some sort of squirming, thrashing creature clutched in his grip. Its skin was a light blue, and at a glance, it looked a little like an eel.

“Th-That’s a sapat!” Rosell yelped the moment he caught a glimpse of the creature Rietz had caught.

“A sapat? Is that the species’ name?” I asked. I’d never heard of them before.

“Yeah! It’s a pretty rare type of fish that lives in rivers. I didn’t know there were any in this one, though!”

“Sapats may look a little strange, but they’re tastier than you’d expect,” Rietz explained as he dropped the sapat into a bucket he happened to have on hand.

“I-It certainly is squirming, isn’t it…? Are you certain they taste good…?” Licia asked. It looked like the sapat wasn’t appetizing, by her standards.

I took a closer look at the creature as well. The more I inspected it, the more like an eel it seemed to me. It was a little bigger than the eels that I knew, though, which I suspected meant it would be quite fatty. Eel had been one of my favorite foods in my last life, and while I knew that sapat might taste different from the eels I’d eaten before, if they were similar, then they would indeed be delicious.

“I just can’t believe you caught that thing,” said Rosell. “Sapat are supposed to be slimy and hard to grab.”

“There’s a trick to it… Ah, look, there’s another! We’re in luck today!” Rietz shouted, then snatched up the second sapat as well.

“Oh, wow, is that a sapat? Those are so rare! Two of them, even?!” exclaimed Musia, who was apparently already familiar with the creatures. I turned to look and found her holding a fishing rod.

“Were you about to go fishing?” I asked.

“Oh, yes, I was! I’ve always liked fishing from time to time, and since we were going to a river, I thought this would be a good chance.”

Musia had been a commoner before she entered House Louvent’s service, so that made sense. It seemed like the sort of hobby a townsperson would have.

“Oh, I wanna fish too!” shouted Kreiz.

“Me too!” Wren chimed in.

“All right, then!” said Musia. “We have plenty of rods, so we can all fish together!”

“Yeah!”

“Teach us how, okay, Musia?”

The twins and Musia happily went off to find a fishing spot. Shortly thereafter, Rosell said something about wanting to research a plant that was supposed to grow in the area and set off to find it. He’d recently come to the conclusion that sometimes learning through experience by seeing things in person was preferable to just reading books, apparently. Anyway, once he was gone, Licia and I found ourselves alone by the riverside.

“Why don’t we have a seat over here?” Licia suggested. She’d found us a nice, convenient stone to sit down on.

Licia seated herself first, and I plopped down next to her. I quietly took her hand in mine as I paused to bask in the cool riverside breeze.

“It feels wonderful, doesn’t it?” said Licia.

“It does, yeah,” I agreed.

“When things are calmer again, we should come here more often.”

“Agreed.”

Between the climate and the lovely scenery, this was the perfect place for a breather. Swimming in the summer was nice, but we could leave the swimsuits behind and come here in fall as well to go camping, maybe. Probably not in winter, though─it would be a little too cold then.

I felt Licia’s hand in mine, and gave it a squeeze.

“Ars…”

Licia squeezed my hand back. I turned to face her on a whim, and found that she’d turned to face me at the exact same moment. For a moment, we gazed into each other’s eyes. Licia blushed faintly. And, just as we were about to kiss…

Splooosh!

…a massive splashing noise rang out and what felt like a wall of water crashed into me and Licia. The wave was so powerful that it knocked me off the rock and onto the ground. It didn’t hurt, thankfully─the ground was soft and grassy─but it most certainly scared the living daylights out of me.

I sat up and looked around, trying to figure out just what on earth had happened.

“Oooh, nice! Just look at all those fish!” Charlotte cooed. She was holding a catalyzer in one hand, and it was pretty easy to guess that she’d just cast some sort of spell straight into the river, raising an enormous wave that we’d then fallen victim to.

Was she trying to fish, or something?

If she was, it had worked─fish that were either out cold or dead were now bobbing up to the river’s surface.

“I hope you have a good explanation for this,” I grumbled to Charlotte.

“Oh, Lord Ars! Look! I caught so many fish!” Charlotte said with innocent glee.

“Magic’s way too dangerous to use for fishing, so no more of that,” I said. “Also, catching too many fish like this is bad for the environment, in case you needed another good reason to cut it out.”

If she cast a few more spells like that into the river, then we’d have to say goodbye to all the beautiful, scenic nature here!

“Aww, but I caught so many! But fine─I won’t do it again, so can I at least pick all these fish up?”

I sighed. “Fine, fine. They’re all yours.”

“Woohoo!” Charlotte yelped with glee, then grabbed a net and started scooping fish out of the water.

Just when we had a nice mood going, she had to go and put us in the splash zone.

After that little incident, we joined the others for some fishing, then took a stroll around the river. Eventually, the sun began to set. I’d worked up a pretty big appetite at that point, so I suggested that we stop for a meal.

“We can go ahead and cook something, then!” Musia suggested. She was the most capable cook out of all of us, with Rietz coming in second─though to be fair, it was harder to find things that Rietz couldn’t do with a fair degree of competence. Licia and Rosell were decent cooks as well. Licia had started studying cookery with remarkable enthusiasm after we got married, so her repertoire had expanded quite a bit. I wasn’t completely helpless either, and could lend a hand in the kitchen, but it wasn’t my strongest suit.

“Oh, wow, we have so many ingredients!” said Musia. “Will we even be able to eat all of this? We’ll be making a feast tonight!”

We really did have a lot of ingredients to work with. Wren and Kreiz had apparently had some real beginner’s luck with their fishing, and had caught a very respectable haul. Wren had caught just a few more than her brother, it seemed, which explained why Kreiz was sulking. Most of the fish they’d caught were pretty small, and were suited for eating whole or simmering into a nice, fishy soup. Licia and I had only caught one fish between the two of us, by the way, though that hadn’t made the experience any less enjoyable. I was still willing to call it a success.

Rietz had gone out searching for more sapats, and had ended up with four of them in total. According to Musia, they were so rare that catching four of them in a single place was more or less a miracle. Rietz also picked up a few shellfish that were edible, and Rosell had plucked some edible grasses while he was looking into his plants. Finally, we had the fish that Charlotte had concussed with her magic. She’d scooped up fifteen of them, and they were all on the larger side of things, as well.

Okay, yeah, this is a lot of food. Are we even going to be able to eat all of this?

“No worries. We’ll never have to deal with leftovers as long as I’m around!” Charlotte boasted. She did tend to eat as much as several ordinary people, so that wasn’t empty bravado.

We split up the work and got to cooking. The skill with which Musia prepared her ingredients was something else. Rietz could cook pretty well too, but he recognized that she had him beat and took on a supporting role. I, meanwhile, occupied myself with the sort of grunt work that pretty much anyone could do. The last thing I wanted was to get in over my head and slow everyone down.

“What should I do with this?” asked Wren. She seemed to have an interest in cooking, and was asking Musia question after question about the ins and outs of kitchen work. Kreiz, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any interest at all and spent most of the time we were cooking grumbling about how long it was taking. Thanks to Musia’s skillful work, that didn’t end up being especially long at all.

We ended up with roasted sapat, a soup made from fish, shellfish, and wild herbs, a number of whole fish roasted on spits, and a variety of other delectable dishes. The roasted sapat ended up looking a lot like the eels I knew, though of course it wasn’t coated in the sauce we often used back in Japan. We had brought salt with us, though, so I sprinkled a little on a piece of the sapat and gave it a try. It was as fatty as it looked, and tasted superb. I sampled the soup as well, and found it to be just as good─the broth was about as delicious as fish soup could be.

“You truly are an incredible cook, Musia. You would make a wonderful bride,” Licia commented.

“Huh? O-Oh, thank you!” Musia stammered, blushing with a smile on her face.

“Sounds good─I’ll take her! Be mine, Musia!” Charlotte chimed in.

“Wh-What in the world are you even saying?!” Musia wailed.

By the time we’d finished our meal, we were exhausted. We started getting ready for bed right away, though since we’d set up our tents in advance, all we had to do was crawl inside and fall asleep. Licia and I were sharing a tent, naturally.

“Today was wonderful, wasn’t it?” said Licia.

“It was, yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this relaxed,” I replied. My day-to-day life had been so packed with work lately, I hadn’t had any time for anything else. Having a day to actually indulge in leisure for once had been fun, plain and simple.

My plan was to take my time heading back to the castle tomorrow, then get back to work again the day after. These two days of rest, I knew, would do wonders for my efficiency when I was back on the job. I knew that things wouldn’t stay this busy forever. An end would come someday, and when it did, I figured I’d take little excursions like this more frequently.

I resolved myself to work through this busy period as fast as I could, then drifted off to sleep.

Thank you very much for purchasing volume seven of this series. This is Miraijin A, speaking.

The first season of the anime has finished its broadcast! Thank you very much to everyone who watched it. This was the first time having one of my stories receive an anime adaptation, and it was incredibly moving to see it happen! The animation was wonderful, and I loved that the characters’ voices all sounded like I’ve always imagined them. I hope that everyone who watched it enjoyed it as much as I did. On that subject, the second season has begun airing! I hope you’ll all tune in for it as well!

In this seventh volume, the airship made its debut. I’ve been planning to introduce one to the series for a very long while, and this time, I finally managed to make it happen! There’s something about skybound battles that gets your blood pumping! There still haven’t been any midair ship-to-ship battles just yet, of course, but I have a feeling I’ll be writing one of those before long.

This volume also features the introduction of a number of characters from duchies other than Missian. I’m planning on depicting events that occur in the other duchies a little more often starting in volume eight, and I hope you’ll look forward to seeing how those characters will end up interacting with Ars and his friends, since that’s the direction I’m planning on taking the story in!

I imagine that the anime adaptation has led a lot of people to take an interest in the original novels it was based on, and speaking as their author, I couldn’t be happier. I hope that the second season will spread this series to an even wider audience. I’ll be putting my all into writing it, as always, and I appreciate all of your continued support!

That’s all for now. See you in volume eight!