The Price of Choice (1)
The continent's first mage had appeared—
They say a rumor travels a thousand miles. This news began racing across the continent at a startling speed.
Brans Army, Beliar Castle.
Beliar Castle stood in the western reaches of the continent. Among the western territories clustered with small fiefdoms, it was one of the few places of any real size—and it had now become the new capital of the Brans Army.
Officially it was only a temporary capital. Once they reclaimed Anel Castle from the Kalintz Army, they would move back. But everyone knew that day was still far off, so in practice they were expanding buildings left and right to make the place function as a true capital. It was livelier than at any point in its history.
The nation had split into three. Somehow they were scraping by on the resources they still held and the castle lords who had not betrayed them. From an outsider's view, it looked like a situation with neither dreams nor hope.
Yet what hung thick over the royal castle was not despair, but vitality. Hope.
Every soldier's expression was so upright that no one would have guessed they belonged to a fallen nation. Instead of the characteristic slumped look of men from a collapsing country who could feel no tomorrow, there was the sharp edge of a fledgling state still full of great ambitions.
And at the center of it all was her.
Seated on the throne in clothes rather modest and comfortable for a sovereign was the blue-haired prodigy Lin Brans.
Ordinarily, as the one who had split the country into three, she would have lost the trust of many. But the moment she found herself in this crisis, it was as if she had become someone else. She somehow stabilized the situation and succeeded in securing one pillar so that the Brans Army would not collapse entirely.
Chel Brans and Kalintz Brans both clearly carried the blood of the Brans line—but the overwhelming legitimacy of having been named successor by Sovereign Orlando Brans still rested with Lin, and that could not be casually ignored.
When she had nearly conquered the central continent, she had always sat on the throne with a bored expression. Now, as the ruler of a small nation whose territory had been carved into more than three pieces, she listened intently to the report of her strategist Parfalle with eyes clearer than ever before.
"The victor of the Battle of Anel Castle is said to be the Kalintz Army."
"Is that so? Brother Chel must be burning up inside."
After the Brans Army split into three, the territory Lin could claim was the westernmost region of the continent—an outer fringe of little value even within the old Brans domains.
All the influential figures and outstanding generals had been concentrated around Anel Castle in the very heart of the central continent, and being clever, they had bet that Lin could never become a proper sovereign.
Yes. Lin admitted it herself. The outstanding generals had sided with Kalintz or Chel. Those who had come to her were the ones she had never even glanced at—generals she had stationed on the outskirts, expecting nothing more than the bare minimum, whose names she had not bothered to memorize.
She had never given a second look to those husks she had planted only in places where someone absolutely had to be assigned—places anyone could fill. Yet in the end, at the final moment, it was those husks who, without calculating profit and loss, foolishly and loyally followed their original discarded lord.
The Kalintz Army had swallowed Anel Castle and the cream of the Brans territories. The Chel Army's lands were a bit poorer in quality, but they had gathered every warrior of renown from the old Brans ranks. Busy checking each other, they paid no mind to Lin—the original owner of the crown and absolute ruler who had been pushed to the margins.
Yes.
Ironically, because she had no particular foundation left, a golden opportunity had fallen into Lin's hands: to step aside from the Brans family sibling feud and reorganize the situation.
"What about troop movements?"
"We have conscripted every available person... but we are critically short of generals who can properly train them."
"Is there anyone decent among them?"
"Rather than someone of great ability... there is one who insists we use him, in a different sense."
As Parfalle trailed off, Lin asked in a calm tone.
"Tell me the details."
A short while later, a man strode into the audience chamber and knelt before Lin.
"Belut Luga, having received my lord's command, has just arrived at this place!"
He had rather bold, masculine features, but overall an ordinary impression. He had some muscle, yet he did not give off much intimidation—more like a well-trained soldier than a warrior or general.
"Raise your head, Belut."
"Yes!"
"You're asking for authority to manage the soldiers, correct?"
"That is so!"
Belut bowed his head once more and shouted vigorously in a loud voice.
"I, Belut, from the moment my lord graciously spared my life, have sworn again and again that I would one day repay that debt. I believe that time is now. Not only for training—if you entrust me with the battles to reclaim the territories stolen by those vile traitors, I will stand at the vanguard and bring you the heads of the rebel ringleaders Kalintz and Chel!"
"......"
Honestly, she could not quite remember who he was.
Sorry, Belut—but until now Lin had never allocated space in her brain for remembering mediocre generals. He might talk big, but he was probably a general who could be handled easily even by Kalintz, let alone Chel, the First Sword of Brans.
But.
"How reassuring, Belut."
Lin slowly rose from her seat, stretched out her hand, and declared in a serious tone.
"I shall entrust you with forty-eight thousand troops. I'll also reinforce you with officers and soldiers as quickly as possible, so I hope to see a splendid performance. Understood?"
"Yes!"
"And."
"......?"
Looking straight into Belut's eyes as he raised his head to look up at her—
"No matter what happens, I will never forget your name, Belut."
"Ah... y-yes! It is an honor!"
Belut bowed his head as if overwhelmed, shouted vigorously as he had when he entered, and exited.
——Lin no longer looked down on those without ability.
After all, choosing her at this moment meant that rather than thinking rationally, they had kept their duty in this chaotic age even when they received little recognition.
Lin engraved Belut's name into her mind again and again. Including him, she intended never to forget the names of everyone who continued to follow her.
"Parfalle. Where did Belut used to work?"
"I believe he was part of the Walnut Army."
The Walnut Army—that was where Gurupa had been. Back then, no one but Gurupa would have even entered her eyes.
She had never imagined that one of the people she had recruited without a second thought would stay by her side until the end—she was thinking that when something else occurred to her.
......Come to think of it.
The moment she thought of the man she had targeted next, something rose in Lin's mind, and she turned her head to ask Parfalle.
"Have you heard the news, Parfalle?"
"News, my lord?"
"A mage has appeared in the Serpina Army."
"......"
Parfalle hung her head low and said nothing. She had probably heard the news but deliberately not told her lord.
Lin easily guessed the reason and smiled with a rather bitter taste.
"......They say a pink-haired woman created flames from her hands."
"That wasn't all, was it?"
Parfalle slowly closed her eyes and lowered her head.
"It's all right, Parfalle. Tell me honestly. It's a moment we have to face and move past anyway."
"......A white-haired man was seen beside her, as if supporting it."
"As I thought, it was Swen. He did something similar when he was with our army."
"But this time they didn't even set up an altar for a ritual... it seems he truly fought like a mage from the literature. It's still at the rumor stage, so it's not certain."
"Well, even if it's a rumor, if it's a white-haired man, it can't be a lie. Maybe he's been hiding that ability until now? Swen was always someone who hid a lot even when he was with me."
"......"
"It's fine. He's already left my hands anyway."
Lin said that... and then, in a slightly trembling voice—
"And... as long as Swen can be by that child's side... I'm fine."
Having said that, she turned her head.
The overall commander of the battle where the mage appeared, and the name that had reached them first. The red-haired female knight known as the Siege Warfare Specialist——
"......Let's go, Parfalle."
"Where are you going, my lord?"
"Just a simple inspection. We've conscripted so many, the people's morale must be shattered, right? I can't just sit on the throne as sovereign and do nothing."
If we collapse meaninglessly like this, I won't be able to face Irene... at the very least, I must reintegrate the Brans Army that she wanted to protect.
Thinking that, Lin strode out of the royal castle.
Swen and Irene.
Perhaps she had lost the most important key to unifying the world. Or perhaps she had naturally let go of beings who could never have been hers, whom she could never have reached for—
She could no longer collapse while blaming only their departure.
Everything was for the Brans Army that Irene had so desperately wanted to protect.
Even if she could no longer reach her, Lin didn't care.
It was a belated atonement that was not quite atonement. Even knowing that no matter how many times she regretted it, she could never go back, she could not stop—it was nothing more than her small thrashing.
And so, if there was someone who had realized her situation and was somehow trying to move forward—
There was also someone who was only now realizing what she had done.
"A mage... has appeared?"
A woman's trembling voice filled the empty royal castle.
It was not strange that the owner of this voice would react this way. After all, the existence of the mage that was now beginning to shake the continent... had originally been in this woman's hands.
The leader of the Asius Army—who had founded a nation with comrades who shared a blood oath and great ambitions, a force that could not be ignored in the eastern continent—with two differently colored eyes. Baranga Yuuri Asius, who had carried the will and resolve of five people on her shoulders and decided without hesitation what she believed was right.
Just as Lin had—
It was time for Yuuri as well to face the consequences of her actions.