The Sword That Cuts Down the Throne
Everyone, including Jeanne, warmly welcomed Chastan after he had triumphed in the duel.
When seen up close, Chastan was shorter than Jeanne.
Of course Jeanne was tall for a woman, but even so he stood shorter than the average knight.
The even smaller Chastan looked like a child among the knights.
It was truly astonishing that such a boy had defeated an experienced and skilled enemy knight.
Chastan seemed more tense before Jeanne than before the enemy.
“Uh……” The sweat-soaked gray hair clearly showed how nervous he was.
Jeanne patted his shoulder.
“Well done.”
Chastan blinked his large golden eyes at Jeanne’s praise.
It was a bewildered expression, as if he could not believe it was real.
Only after Diego poked him from behind did he snap back to reality.
“T-thank you.”
Immediately he thanked her again with a flushed face.
The rough swordsmanship he had shown earlier was nothing like the gentle boy before her.
Jeanne stared at his face, searching her memory.
‘According to Diego and Fabian, his skill is extraordinary. Such a knight should have shone in war. Why don’t I know this person?’
He was unique in appearance and skilled. He should have been known by now.
Even more puzzling was that she, the captain of the Second Knight Order, did not know her own subordinates.
Diego ruffled Chastan’s hair.
“When will this little puppy become a wolf?”
Chastan smiled shyly.
Jeanne tilted her head at the unexpected nickname.
“Puppy?”
“His name is Chastan Rugrif Plato.”
“Ah.”
Jeanne let out a small sound of realization.
“The Gray Wolf, right? It suits him.”
Ru-grif. Gray Wolf.
That was both his name and his battlefield nickname.
Though she had heard of the Gray Wolf, she had never connected it to Chastan.
‘The Gray Wolf. So the enemy I met earlier was him.’
He was a figure who had died in war a year before she became captain of the Second Knight Order.
She had only heard rumors.
She had imagined a violent, terrifying knight from the name Gray Wolf, but this gentle boy was nothing like that.
“Good work. Rest now.”
“Thank you!”
Chastan bowed his head shyly again.
Looking at him, Jeanne smiled gently.
‘He is someone I should never have met. There were many others like him who died unknown to me.’
Jeanne wanted to protect this young boy until the war ended.
No, more than that.
‘I want to save even one more citizen of Bluisol who is about to die in this war.’
Watching the orange-tinged Chastan, Jeanne made a new resolve.
The sun began to set.
No signs of attack appeared in the enemy camp. The prediction that they would not attack the day after losing the duel held true.
It was a suitable moment to carry out the pre-planned operation.
As night fell completely, Jeanne led the knights secretly toward the inner fortress.
“Is it truly all right to do this?”
Diego, following her orders, repeatedly questioned whether this was correct.
“Shh.”
Jeanne placed a finger over his lips and nodded.
After all, it was impossible for the enemy to guard the entire wall around the capital.
All civilians had already been evacuated from Roire, so it was much easier to hide in the inner fortress and buy time.
‘There is no need to prolong it. Just hold on until Huze finishes his work.’
***
“Tch, Aaron’s dog showed up first.”
Another Rotinzel commander, Nicolas Wisteria, arrived at Roire one step later than Aaron.
The fact that the two commanders representing Rotinzel were sworn enemies had become well-known even in Bluisol.
More precisely, Nicolas had unilaterally restrained and envied Aaron.
Nicolas built a resting place for his troops and had his subordinates investigate what had happened the previous day.
“How did it go?”
“General Aaron sent out three knights, but two were injured and one was killed by the Bluisol knights.”
“Ah, I see. So Aaron’s knights lost.”
Nicolas smiled at his subordinate’s report.
It meant his side had lost, which should have been unwelcome, but to Nicolas the fact that Aaron had missed his chance to shine was more important.
After all, victory belonged to him by right.
The Rotinzel forces were so overwhelming that losing a few knights was no big deal.
Once his troops were settled, Nicolas challenged the Bluisol army to a duel.
“Anyone who wishes to face the knight Nicolas Wisteria!”
His voice boomed through his loud subordinate beside him.
Even from the low wall, it should have been heard, yet the fortress was unnervingly silent.
“Hmph… How strange. Will you attack?”
Aaron approached quietly, stroking his chin as he muttered.
Nicolas glared at him.
“What are you trying to say?”
“The enemy’s behavior is suspicious. Our troops will withdraw and observe. We will not interfere with your work.”
Nicolas rejoiced inwardly.
‘If you withdraw on your own, I will take the glory of capturing Roire.’
Aaron, that coward, will not be able to catch him. Nicolas thought this as he ordered his subordinate.
“Open fire.”
“Yes, understood!”
Launching a preemptive attack without a duel was quite dishonorable in Rotinzel.
However, Nicolas was not one to be bound by such customs.
Moreover, he had already applied for the duel. The one without an answer was the opponent, so refusing was the end of it.
Cannons struck the wall. Yet the fortress remained silent.
‘Trap? No. And even if it is a trap, overwhelming military power will break it.’
Nicolas ordered his troops to storm the fortress.
When they passed the outer walls and entered Roire, the surroundings were eerily quiet.
The capital was completely deserted.
Only traces of hasty escape remained scattered about, with not a single shadow of a living person in sight.
“Search everywhere.”
“Yes!”
Soldiers were sent to comb through every corner of the city.
They had suspected hidden troops might spring a trap, but that was not the case.
In truth, the entire population had fled.
“Tch.”
Deep wrinkles formed on Nicolas’s brow.
In war, plunder was a way to soothe tired soldiers and release tension.
Now there was no proper reward to give the soldiers who had fought so hard.
Nicolas looked toward the inner fortress. There were still people moving on the windows.
“Enough. The king and knights remain in the inner fortress. Just capture those. They are nothing but mice trapped in a hole.”
The important thing was not lowly commoners. Capturing the king would bring greater glory than Aaron.
Nicolas ordered his entire force into Roire.
“From now on, we launch the assault on the inner fortress.”
***
The Second Knight Order was desperately holding back the enemy assault from the inner fortress.
The gates were tightly locked, and the knights had taken up bows instead of swords.
Numerically they were overwhelmingly disadvantaged by the river, so if the enemy bypassed them there would be gaps, but since it was the first day, holding the front was enough.
Meanwhile, Huze was tirelessly moving through every corner of the fortress, completing the tasks Jeanne had assigned him.
He gathered every drop of oil left for military and cooking use, sprinkling it on highly flammable materials.
He even created fire lanes so that a single flame could ignite multiple places at once. That way it would be impossible to extinguish the fire easily.
The fortress itself was not particularly large for a royal residence, but being more closed than open made the work easier.
Debian, who had been wandering near Jeanne, sighed upon seeing Nicolas’s army surrounding the fortress from the window.
“I assume you have thought of a way to escape?”
“Of course.”
For Jeanne’s plan to succeed, the enemy absolutely needed an unknown escape route.
Otherwise they would only use themselves as bait to let the civilians escape, and in the end everyone would die inside the fortress.
Jeanne took Debian into one of the fortress rooms.
“This is Prince Louis’s room. He was the closest to being crown prince.”
There was a large bookshelf on one wall of Prince Louis’s room.
Debian looked at it and thought it was odd.
Prince Louis and a book. It was like pairing mint and chocolate—disgustingly mismatched.
To Prince Louis, alcohol, women, gambling, and hunting suited him.
Jeanne walked up to the bookshelf and took out one of the books in the third slot from the top, inserting it into the empty slot in the second slot from the bottom.
Whoosh. A mechanical sound came from behind the bookshelf. Debian immediately understood what it was.
“A secret passage?”
“I couldn’t make secret passages in every room, so the most important person needed the fastest way out.”
Jeanne replaced the book exactly where it had been. A similar sound echoed.
“As far as I know, the fortress has two secret passages. One for the king and queen, the other for the royal family excluding the king.”
“So this room was used by Prince Louis. After all, he was the one closest to the succession rights.”
Jeanne nodded.
King Philippe VII had as many as thirteen children, but none were born to the queen.
Thus the line of succession remained unclear even now that the children had grown.
The strongest candidate, the eldest prince Louis, was a notorious debauchee. Though handsome, he neglected his studies for wine, women, and gambling.
The ministers had despaired over his attitude. Even the king himself looked upon his son with contempt.
Debian clicked his tongue at the thought of Louis and asked Jeanne again.
“Is it all right to tell us such things?”
“It doesn’t matter. We won’t use it again anyway.”
The plan he had built with Huze was not shared with the knights.
Because it was a plan that someone might oppose, he did not want to waste time convincing them.
The knights had only seen a few soldiers working in various places around the fortress with Huze; they had no idea what they were actually doing.
“The enemy might discover this passage. They could pull out all the books or forcibly move the bookshelf.”
“I will let them discover it.”
“So you intend to turn this place into a trap as well, not just the fortress.”
Debian sensed Jeanne’s thought and pulled out one book from the bookshelf, unfolding it.
The title of the book Prince Louis would never read was The Course of the Trojan War and Military Operations. One of the books Jeanne had studied in class.
“This is the first one we finished. When Huze reports completion, that is the time to use this room.”
Jeanne paced near the window and casually brushed the curtain. Her figure appeared outside the fluttering fabric.
It was deliberate so that Rotinzel soldiers could spot her.
The ashen blue hair unique to Bluisol’s royal family would stand out even from afar.
If Nicolas saw it, he would certainly want to pursue the bait.
The summer sun pouring through the window was scorching.
It would be troublesome if clouds gathered. Jeanne breathed a sigh of relief at the cloudless sky. At least it would not spoil her plan.
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