Prediction, and the Result (1)
In the audience chamber after Swen had departed, Serpina sat in her chair, lost in thought for a long while.
"……My lord."
"……"
No answer came, but Jena paid it no mind and pressed on with her question.
"I would like to offer a word regarding the opinion we just heard. May I?"
Serpina turned her head slightly and looked at her. Having spent so many years at her side, Jena had no trouble reading the silent permission in that glance.
"It is certainly a reasoned argument. Pure conjecture, yet credible enough. All the more so because the man was, until very recently, part of the Asius Army and therefore knows far more about them than we do. However……"
"I cannot be certain Yuuri will act purely on emotion to that extent. If his explanation is correct, it amounts to saying an invasion will come our way……"
Jena lowered her head a fraction and spoke carefully.
"I find it somewhat hard to accept his insistence that this is the most efficient course, spoken with such absolute certainty. Would it not simply amount to throwing troops away?"
"Yet she is the same woman who once handed her own subordinate over to me. To assume people will always move within the bounds of common sense is its own arrogance."
"That is true, but…… back then Anima Ingram was at stake. Right now nothing of the sort is on the line, is it? As was mentioned earlier, there is more than one way to divert attention."
"A fair point."
"There is something odd about Swen's proposal. How shall I put it…… it feels as though he is deflecting at the critical points. As if he is building his logic around peripheral details rather than the essence……"
While Jena struggled for the right words, Serpina slowly turned her head and asked,
"You mean to say the true center of his argument is not 'an Asius invasion'?"
Jena looked mildly startled. From time to time Serpina would take a thought Jena herself could not yet articulate and crystallize it into a clean, precise sentence.
"Yes. Exactly. Listening to him, the problem is less that the Asius Army might attack……"
"……and more that he was focused on stationing troops at Amir Castle."
"Just as you say. Swen's proposal did not seem to be about stopping the Asius Army so much as about reinforcing Amir Castle. Perhaps that is why the earlier part remained mere conjecture……"
Jena and Serpina had read the situation with considerable sharpness. They had correctly identified that the real core of Swen's opinion was not a surprise attack by the Asius Army, but the reinforcement of Amir Castle.
Yet that was as far as it went. Jena was an excellent strategist, but she was not quite that brilliant. In this nation, the sharpest mind of all still belonged to the woman who stood above her—Serpina.
"My lord."
"Hm?"
"Could this also be a kind of magic?"
"What do you mean?"
"Magic that lets one see the future, for instance…… Is it not highly likely that he is a mage?"
"For someone saying that, Jena, you yourself do not seem convinced."
"Well…… he is a man who can drop stones from the sky, so he may well possess abilities we do not know. But the idea that someone capable of such magic would be discarded by his lord and keep hopping from nation to nation is simply too strange……"
If he truly could see the future, being abandoned like that would make no sense. At present, Jena judged it more likely that he was not a mage.
"With my limited wisdom, this is as far as I can take the conclusion."
Serpina listened, remained silent for a long moment, then let out a soft, amused laugh.
"Did you notice, Jena?"
"Notice what, my lord?"
"Swen's expression. More precisely, the look in his eyes."
In the brief instant before Swen began laying out his opinion at the Opinion Proposal Meeting, while he was still deep in thought, his eyes had suddenly flashed—as if he had just realized something. Others might have missed it, but Serpina had seen it clearly with her own two eyes.
"What do you make of it?"
"Even if you speak of a look in his eyes…… I am afraid I do not understand."
"It is fine. I expected you would say that."
Jena knew the remark was not empty courtesy. Serpina's intuition was unnaturally sharp; she could read another person's thoughts as if by magic. Even when someone tried to hide flustered emotion behind a perfect poker face, Serpina always saw through it.
"Jena. What is the current disposition of forces along the border?"
"Troops are distributed evenly across most of the castles. Even if war broke out, we would be able to hold somehow."
"So we have breathing room for the moment?"
"That is correct, but……"
Only then did Serpina turn her head fully toward Jena.
"Jena. Issue a conscription notice for Amir Castle at once."
"Yes. And once the notice is issued?"
"Station them there without reassignment and have them prepare the defenses."
"Then……?"
At Jena's question, Serpina gave a sly little smile and tilted her head. It was the smile of a nine-tailed fox that had already swallowed three or four livers.
"I intend to place my bet on that look in Swen's eyes."
"You mean you will follow his will, my lord?"
"I will. But before I trust him blindly, there are things I must verify."
Magic, was it? If, as Jena suggested, such magic truly existed, then one simply needed to test it.
Serpina smiled faintly, amused, and this time kept the thought to herself.
Why he can be so certain…… that is what I want to know.
"You held an Opinion Proposal Meeting?"
At Jennis's words I simply nodded.
"Yes."
"Already? You haven't even been here that long! I still haven't had mine!"
"Are there many people who want to do it?"
Jennis nodded vigorously.
"Of course! It's one of the few chances you get to speak alone with our lord and sell yourself. Catch her eye there and landing an important post isn't just a dream. You have no idea how many people are dying for a turn!"
"I just assumed every newcomer got one."
"Well, everyone does get one eventually…… but there are so many officers serving under her. It takes a while, you know? Anyway, Swen, you're pretty lucky."
I scratched my head, wondering if it was really something to make such a fuss over, and he immediately launched into another stream of chatter. After a few days living together I had learned that Jennis was quite the talkative type.
"Oh right—I have to tell you about this too. You know those tea leaves on the table?"
"Ah, those?"
They were the ones Irene had given me. Jennis had shown interest, so I had told him he was welcome to brew a cup or two.
"Those are insanely expensive. How did you get them? You seem like more of a gourmet than I thought."
"Someone I know gave them to me."
"Someone you know? A friend?"
"Yes."
I had been about to say "someone precious," but stopped myself. There was no need to spill every little personal detail.
"They're leaves guaranteed by the Clament family, the famous black-tea house. The peach fragrance is pure art! It would have been even better with something sweet to go with it, though. What a shame."
"You know a lot about black tea, Senior Jennis."
"Hm?"
He tilted his head. I answered casually, the way one does in small talk.
"No, just…… I figured most men don't usually take much interest in that sort of thing."
But for some reason, the moment he heard those words, Jennis's expression began to change.
"……Huh?"
"?"
We sat in silence for a beat, then he broke it again.
"No, well! I mean, men can be interested too! I may not look it, but I'm from the Al Kaski family! This is basic aristocratic cultivation any noble house should know! Being able to serve a lady fine black tea is part of a nobleman's qualifications, isn't it?!"
The desperate edge to his excuses made me decide to simply concede the point.
"That makes sense. I don't really have a family of my own, so I wouldn't know."
"It's fine! In this day and age, does a noble house even mean much? It's just a name, really."
Jennis laughed awkwardly as he said it. A little overwhelming, perhaps, but he was clearly not a bad person.
The only thing that still bothered me was—
Neither Irian nor Jennis exists in my memories.
I had never encountered either of them in the game, and that fact kept nagging at me. Jennis was one thing, but from what I had heard, Irian Al Kaski was a rising talent from a prestigious house in Serpina's army…… so why did I have no memory of such a general?
His looks were decent enough that he should have stuck in my mind, yet there was nothing. Serpina's army had no S-Class Generals, true, but there were still a few recurring faces that showed up often enough that I should have seen him at least once.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. You just looked completely spaced out."
Jennis's words finally made me realize I had been staring into space. I nodded and returned to the present.
"It's nothing. Just a little tired."
"Yeah? Sorry if I was talking too much…… I'll shut up so you can rest. I'm on night patrol tonight, so don't wait up—go to sleep first."
"Understood."
Well, they probably just weren't important enough to stick in my head……
With that simple thought I lay down on the lower bunk of the two-story bed.
And, lying there, my mind naturally drifted.
……I missed Irene.
The fact that she was the last person I thought of felt oddly funny. Who was she thinking of right now? I hoped it was me, and with that thought I rested.
The next day.
When Jennis returned from night patrol and told me Serpina had summoned me, I switched places with him for sleep and left the quarters.
The place she had called me to was not the royal palace itself, but a detached residence nearby. I was curious what it was about, but figured I would find out once I arrived, so I quickened my pace.
"Lord Swen, we have been expecting you. This way."
The moment I arrived, a guard in armor engraved with an impressive crest greeted me. Beyond the main gate a neatly tended garden welcomed me—charming and lovely, though from the perspective of a member of the imperial family it probably counted as rather modest.
I was led inside the building and down a flight of stairs.
A basement……?
When I entered the underground chamber, she was standing in the center of a very spacious room.
"Come in, Swen."
She was wearing the same officer's combat uniform she had worn the first time I saw her. It projected an entirely different aura from the glittering dress, yet even in that attire the full, unconcealable femininity of her figure still pulled my gaze in every direction.
"I present myself before my lord."
I bowed and glanced around. The atmosphere of the room was peculiar. Several scarecrows dressed in armor stood about, and a variety of weapons hung on the walls. In the middle of the empty space a circular arena of sorts had been marked out.
"My lord. This place is……?"
"Swen."
Serpina looked at me and spoke in a cold, expressionless tone.
"Will the weapon you already carry be sufficient?"
Her gaze rested on the green rapier I always wore at my hip.
"Pardon? A weapon—what do you mean……?"
Instead of answering she walked over to the weapons on the wall, selected a rapier similar to mine, then strode back toward me…… and whispered, as if it were the most natural thing in the world,
"This is sudden, but I would like a match, Swen."