The Decision to Betray
At the end of that year, when the farming off-season arrived, the enemy attacked once more. We succeeded in holding them off the same way we had before.
River-based defense always proved effective. The difficulty of a crossing operation, the stamina required to ford the water, and above all the spike in musket misfire rates—all of it worked in our favor, and thanks to those advantages our forces claimed victory yet again.
Imperial Year 553. I turned twenty-five, and my lord Adel turned nineteen.
I had made a promise to him once.
Desperation. Urgency. The hunger to survive. Never let those change. So long as you remain the same, Lord Adel, I will always stand by your side.
But the Adel who had turned nineteen had changed—so thoroughly that not a trace of his former self remained.
"Hahaha! This kite is to commemorate Sir Franz's triumph! Sir Franz is the treasure of the Setia army! So long as Sir Franz stands with us, our forces shall never fall!"
The magnificent owl kite he had crafted soared into the sky. His vassals cried out in admiration.
Up to that point, there was nothing particularly wrong. The real problem lay elsewhere.
"My lord, it has been over a month since you last attended to state affairs. Flying kites is well and good, but please tend to your duties."
"Just a little longer! This kite is nearly finished! Leave me be for now!"
"You said the same thing last week, my lord. If you neglect your duties again today, the internal administration of the Setia Duchy will descend into chaos."
"What is there to worry about? Sir Franz is here! Let Sir Franz handle it!"
"My lord!"
I could not hold back any longer and raised my voice. My lord fell silent.
"Why… are you like this?"
"Lord Henrik and Lord Andeln, even while stricken with wasting illness, hid their condition and forced themselves to attend to state affairs. Do you know why?"
"…I do not."
"Because power is born from the act of governing! Where to build a road and how far it should run, which merchant guild's interests to protect, how to set the tax rates—every single one of those decisions is your power, my lord! Have you contracted some incurable disease like your father or your elder brother?"
"I—I have not."
"Then is there some unavoidable circumstance preventing you from attending to your duties?"
"There is not… but—"
"Then go tend to them at once! If you will not govern, my lord, I will have no choice but to reconsider my promise!"
At the word promise, Adel's face went blank with confusion. He probably no longer even remembered what promise I meant. For him, it was already gone—the desperation, the hunger to survive, all of it.
Damn it all…
Was fate truly something that could never be overturned? Even with an irregular like me thrown into the mix, the story was flowing exactly as it had in the game, and the sheer gall of it made my blood boil. If this was how it was going to be, why send me here at all?
That day, my lord did attend to state affairs. For two hours. And even that was longer than he managed to last.
The following month, a man was invited into the court as a vassal. His name was Rando—a craftsman, and the most gifted among my lord's kite-making disciples.
The problem was that he was neither a soldier nor an administrator. He could not command troops, nor did he possess the slightest political insight, yet he had been brought into the castle on the strength of his craft alone.
When Rando first arrived, Franz Meyer spoke to Adel.
"My lord, there is nothing to be gained by having this man in the palace. Cast him out at once."
But Adel answered thus:
"I will not! Rando looked after me when I was in hardship! How could I abandon a man like that?"
"Repay him with money. Do you not possess vast stores of gold and treasure, my lord? Give him that and expel him from the palace."
"…"
Adel deliberated for a time, then ultimately rejected Franz Meyer's counsel. And Rando, for his part, nursed a grudge against the man who had so bluntly demanded his expulsion.
After Rando's arrival, my lord smiled more often. He threw himself into kite-making alongside his disciples and sold the finished kites to neighboring countries, making a name for himself. But the problem was that he neglected state affairs even further. At first, when Franz lost his temper, Adel at least pretended to listen—but now, even when Franz raged at him to tend to his duties, he simply laughed it off with a sly grin.
And that was not the end of it. Afterward, my lord brought dozens more disciples into the castle. Under Rando's direction they formed a new faction, clouding my lord's eyes and ears, and with each passing day Adel grew less willing to heed Meyer's words.
Worse still, Rando—nursing his grudge against Franz Meyer—openly colluded with the Four Great Factions, offering them enormous concessions.
This is bad. At this rate, the house will not last long.
With each passing year the enemy would only grow stronger. Leona was skilled at war, yes—but her true talent lay in domestic governance.
Someday, the day would come when the forces of House Kruzenstein outnumbered those of House Setia.
And yet, even knowing that, my lord continued to pour all his attention into making kites.
What did Lucille do in the original story?
In the original, Lucille held the Kruzenstein forces at bay for four years.
And after that…
She returned the house to her lord and departed for a neutral country.
Should I take a page from Lucille's book?
No. Laying everything down and walking away was not my style.
I needed a different approach. A better one.
"Brother."
Lucille appeared before me as I sat in my office, head in my hands.
"Lucille."
It had been some time since I last saw her, and she was dazzlingly beautiful—so much so that the darkened room seemed to brighten around her.
"Is something troubling you?"
She brought over a chair and sat down beside me.
I hesitated for a moment, then reached a decision.
Lucille is on my side. I should tell her everything.
With that thought, I laid out my recent worries—from Lord Adel's neglect of state affairs to the strange men who had formed a faction of their own. And then…
"Overthrow him."
Lucille said it as simply as that.
"Overthrow him?"
"Quiet House Kruzenstein with a promise to cede the sixteen frontier castles after the coup, then storm the castle and cut down every last sycophant. Seize the lord at once and take control of House Setia, and crushing any resistance from the Four Great Houses will be trivial. After that, install the heir of House Ignati as the new head of household and establish a new regime. Of course, Ignati would be lord in name only—the real politics would be yours, Brother."
"…"
It was a feasible plan. Honestly, I had considered it myself at least once. But…
"And what comes after that?"
"You rule the Torgenberg Duchy as the power behind the throne."
"And after that?"
"You continue fighting House Kruzenstein, of course."
"And after that?"
"…"
I become the shadow ruler. It was certainly possible.
But there was no future in it. If I became a monarch, could I conquer the world?
No. Impossible. I had some talent for battle and for strategy—that much was true. But that was the limit. Holding Kruzenstein at bay for a time might be doable, but offense was out of the question; defense alone would eventually collapse, and when it did, my head would roll.
"That method might make me a monarch. But I am not cut out to be one."
Knowing one's own limits is a virtue in itself. I was a strategist, nothing more. I had no gift for ruling.
"In that case…"
Lucille spoke again.
"What about becoming the strategist of Leona von Kruzenstein?"
"Leona von Kruzenstein's strategist?"
"Leona is an extreme meritocrat. She's famous for treating surrendered generals well. Elevating Clemens de Balboa—who originally served her younger brother—to vanguard general was itself a gesture that she would not discriminate against those who switched sides. If you became her subordinate, Brother, Leona would welcome you with open arms."
As if I had never considered that either. Leona was the protagonist of this game, and attaching myself to the protagonist was an excellent path toward world conquest.
I had even thought through the concrete method. House Kruzenstein had once invaded through a side path, and a small fortress now stood near that route to guard it. The Meyer family operated that fortress. In other words, if the Meyer family simply opened the way, it was a straight line from Kruzenstein territory to Torgenberg Castle, where my lord resided. However—
If I do that… what becomes of Lord Adel?
After Leona seized Torgenberg, would she spare him? Of course not. So long as Adel lived, the blood of House Setia could always lay claim to Torgenberg's legitimacy.
In the end, wouldn't that mean turning my blade on my own lord?
Morally speaking, it was far worse than a coup.
"Every year, thousands die in Kruzenstein's invasions. And yet we cannot condemn Kruzenstein, because until someone unifies the continent and ends this age of chaos, people will keep dying in vast numbers. Even now, somewhere, people are dying—by war, by plunder, by starvation. Live faithfully by the small morality before your eyes and you may earn a reputation for virtue. Follow the greater cause, and you can save countless lives."
"…"
She was entirely right. My lord was incompetent. I had no intention of becoming a monarch myself. That being so, the correct choice was to attach myself from the start to the person most likely to unify the continent. That was the greater cause.
But the reason I had been unable to follow that cause was that I was a coward. Because abandoning the morality right in front of me was too terrifying. Because it felt like giving up on being human.
"Don't be afraid. Of living through this age of chaos. Even if you abandon your humanity, Brother—even if you become a monster, even if you are destroyed—"
Lucille took my hands in both of hers, cradling them.
"I will be with you."
At those words, I made my decision.
I would betray my lord.