Nothing More Than That
After the meeting ended, I checked the duties that had been assigned to me.
Commerce… huh.
I had no idea what my Politics stat actually was, but orders were orders. I would have to do the work either way. What I was supposed to do at the market, specifically, I had no clue. After all, Intelligence wasn't a stat that affected commerce in this game. And frankly, I didn't even know where to begin.
Back when I was with the Lunarien Army, aside from a single scouting mission, I had spent the rest of my time on fortification repairs… Embarrassing as it was to admit, my Martial was so low that Tifa and Luna handled all the actual wall work themselves. Kane and I had just been there to support them from behind.
I'll figure it out once I get to the market.
Official duties, it seemed, would begin the day after the meeting. In the Lunarien Army everything had just sort of rolled along without any real structure — I supposed a major power really was different.
At any rate, I was done for the day.
And as for the woman who had come with me, Airen Juliette — once again, she had been given no assignment at all.
The Brans Army had so many generals that a few others were also without duties, but those were all ordinary C-rank officers of no particular distinction. Airen alone had been cast aside with nothing to do, despite her exceptional stats.
"……"
I followed her home in silence, just as she walked in silence ahead of me.
She only spoke once we had arrived at the house.
That unchangingly blank expression of hers softened, and a clear look of apology rose across her face.
"I'm sorry, Swen. I didn't mean to ignore you. But if I had acted too familiar with you in front of so many people… I was worried you would be treated poorly for it."
"It's a little late for that, isn't it? I already agreed with your opinion in front of all those people, Lady Airen."
"Yes. And that is exactly what I want to ask you about!"
For some reason, Airen was strangely worked up as she pressed me.
"What on earth did you mean by that? That the Charam Army has a secret pact with us and plans to betray us? Do you truly believe that?"
Oh. Thank you.
I silently thanked Airen for posing the very question I had been wanting to test, then entered into my mind: Does the Charam Army plan to betray our forces?
But the result that came back was —
[UNKNOWN]
I had seen this result before. Back before I joined the Lunarien Army, when that old man I used to chat with asked me whether he would win or lose at gambling, I had gotten the same answer.
I figured as much, but I guess it really is too much to ask.
In this game, a strategist with Intelligence 100 could advise on matters of sovereigns and nations, the outcomes of battles, the success of schemes, which duties should be assigned, and the most efficient policies. Questions this specific, it seemed, fell outside the reach of that power. The only option left was to wring answers out of pure thought. I still didn't know the exact criteria, but once I built up enough data, I would figure it out.
"And you said we should attack the northern territories of the Serpina Army? What is that supposed to mean? Isn't that far too reckless?"
I answered in a calm tone, trying first to settle the agitated woman in front of me.
"Lady Airen. If it wouldn't be too forward of me — before I answer your questions, may I ask one of my own?"
"……Go ahead."
"Why did you propose that we send troops north and fortify our defenses there?"
Airen let out a short sigh at my words.
"Sit down first."
She removed her heavy armor, hung it up, and took a seat at the table. I settled naturally across from her and met her eyes. I was ready to listen.
"Do you know that our army and the Serpina Army fought a decisive campaign in the north for several months not long ago?"
"I've heard of it."
While I had been enjoying peace at Zeiland Castle, the Brans Army must have been grinding itself down against Serpina's forces.
"We managed to hold them off, somehow… but even fighting from a defensive position, we failed to repel their troops with any real efficiency. We won the immediate battle, yes — but in the long term, the reality is that our Brans Army is being pushed back."
"In other words, we came out behind on the exchange ratio?"
"Exactly."
True to a general who possessed the Siege Specialty, she seemed to have a sharp instinct for this kind of analysis.
"The north has a considerable concentration of population. The central regions that make up most of our Brans territory are fine land as well, but things are still unstable there. Anel Castle and its surroundings may be enjoying an age of peace, but the people living in the border territories have already been conscripted as soldiers in large numbers. So with no way to raise troops on short notice, I believe mobilizing fifty-six thousand men to suppress the Aeshus Army is premature. I am certain the Serpina Army will seize any opportunity to attack Kelstein Castle again."
Having said that, Airen left me with a "Wait a moment" and rose to prepare tea. No matter how many times I saw it, she really was a thoroughly diligent woman.
Before long, I accepted the cup she handed me and took a sip. A subtle smoky fragrance drifted up from the tea.
"Once Parfalle has put forward an opinion, the odds of that proposal passing are extremely high. She is the most trusted woman in our army, after all."
"So that's why you raised your hand?"
"Yes."
She nodded and took a sip of her tea.
I see.
Even knowing she was despised, she had raised her hand out of concern for the nation — out of the conviction that things could not go on like this. Lin would never appreciate it, and Airen herself no longer expected any such recognition… and yet she still said what needed to be said.
She was the very picture of a loyal retainer. But in most of the game's worldlines, the result of that loyalty had been tragedy.
Was she going to die in the end? Because of that unbending character of hers?
One fact I knew for certain: Lin Brans kills Airen Juliette — a subordinate general with whom she has poor compatibility — with her own hands.
Looking at that bare statement of outcome, I felt as though the puzzle pieces were slowly gathering around it.
I carefully posed a question to the woman staring blankly into her teacup.
"……Lady Airen. This may be an impertinent thing to ask, but—"
"It's fine. A commander who takes every word from a subordinate as an offense will never improve. Speak freely."
"Then I'll be blunt. Are you aware that you are despised by your lord?"
"……"
She smiled bitterly.
"Yes. I know."
"And you still give her your full loyalty?"
"Yes."
"Is there a reason?"
"……"
Airen Juliette.
An S-Class General. Red hair, violet eyes. The Siege Specialty and high Martial. A tragic general who, in the end, has her head cut off by her own lord, Lin Brans.
That was the sum total of what the game told you about her. Even the tip was painfully simple: If you want to make use of Airen, either play as Lin Brans yourself or destroy the Brans Army as quickly as possible! Note that even after the Brans Army falls, Airen is rarely recruitable, so be patient!
She was a woman who was nothing more than that.
And yet.
The Airen Juliette who was nothing more than that trained every single day, waiting for the day her lord would call on her.
The Airen Juliette who was nothing more than that always offered honest counsel for the sake of the nation, even knowing she was hated for it.
The Airen Juliette who was nothing more than that was generous to her subordinates, never overestimated her own abilities, and never took out her frustrations on those beneath her — even when she herself had been treated shamefully.
I found myself wondering.
Why did Airen remain so loyal to Lin Brans even while being despised by her? Not because of some character setting that said deeply loyal — but because the living, breathing woman sitting in front of me, the one who made tea and never neglected her training, refused to betray the lord who hated her.
And if I could help it, I wanted to save her.
The woman before me, wearing a smile that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
"……This will be a somewhat personal story."
She said it, then lightly traced the rim of her teacup with a finger.
"It was my father's request."
"Your father?"
"Yes. After the Empire fell, the first warlord to seize Anel Castle — the richest prize in the heart of the continent — was a man known as the Empire's watchdog: Orland Brans. You've heard of him, I assume?"
Orland Brans.
I knew the name, but I had never actually played as him. By the time the game started, he was already dead, and the Brans Army had passed to his third daughter, Lin Brans.
"The man who served as Orland's personal guard knight was my father, Kafka Juliette."
That name I had never heard. Unlike Lin Brans, a major playable sovereign, Airen was just a general with good stats. The game had never bothered to flesh out the backstory of someone like that.
"From the day I first took up a sword, my father always told me the same thing. That we were people who lived for the Brans family. That our very existence was possible because of them. And while Lord Orland was alive, our house truly did live without any particular worries."
I offered no interjections, simply focusing on her story.
"My father gave his life protecting Lord Orland."
"What happened?"
"There was an assassination attempt on Lord Orland."
Ah. I could roughly picture how it had gone.
"It was right after the Empire had collapsed, so people still carried the identity of 'Imperial subjects,' and many still followed the Aingart family. After my father died, my mother fell ill and passed away as well."
"So you've carried on your father's will… until now?"
"Yes."
Airen looked at me more clearly than she ever had before. In those eyes, faded though it might have been, pride hung unmistakably bright.
"To serve the Brans family and live for the Brans family. With Lord Orland Brans gone, working for Lady Lin Brans — his successor — is the most natural thing in the world to me. Don't you think so too, Swen?"
"……"
I said nothing, taking an idle sip of tea instead. Telling her No, I don't wasn't going to persuade her of anything.
In this game, the stat that most affected general recruitment was Charm. With Charm at 100, even difficult generals would usually come along without much fuss. Judging by my thoroughly ordinary looks, my Charm was probably somewhere around 50 to 60 — so the thought was meaningless anyway.
The methods I had used in the game to recruit renowned generals stuck at Loyalty 100:
1. Raise their affinity to MAX.
2. Form a special relationship (a deeper friendship than most, and so on).
3. Use schemes to lower their loyalty.
Just off the top of my head, there were three. Of course, from the perspective of someone who had simply pressed buttons, I had no idea how to apply any of that in this world — but for now, doing what I could was the best option. No matter her circumstances, it wasn't as though there was no way to bring Airen over to our side.
Start by raising affinity, then figure out the rest.
Thinking that put me at ease. I opened my mouth carefully, packing as much consideration into my voice as I could.
"I understand. I understand why your loyalty to Lady Lin remains unshaken."
"I'm glad you understand… but I worry I may have burdened you by sharing something so personal with someone I've only just met."
"It's fine. Getting to know you better is a thoroughly wonderful thing for me, Lady Airen."
"……!"
At my words, Airen's pupils widened slightly — and then she turned her head aside, her face flushed red.
Was she just awkward around men? Well, I had said it to raise her affinity, so this kind of reaction was a good sign.
"Ahem. Well… in any case, never mind my story. Let's get to the main point."
She covered her mouth with a fist and cleared her throat several more times before she could speak again.
"I want to know the basis for your conclusion that we should attack the northern territories of the Serpina Army."
"The basis, huh."
Honestly, I didn't know either. I had simply reasoned from the results I had gotten so far, and when Parfalle conveniently posed the right question, the answer that came back had been correct. But the fact that the result came out that way meant something was definitely going to happen.
"……"
I considered fabricating an explanation on the spot, but it seemed fine to wait until I was more certain. We weren't in the middle of a debate, the policy had already been decided, and Airen hearing it wouldn't change anything she could do about it.
"I have a vague sense of something, but my thoughts aren't refined enough yet. Could you give me a little more time?"
"I don't mind."
"That's a relief."
I hadn't had anything ready to say anyway, so this worked out. I needed to think this problem through on my own.
Then —
"Swen."
"Yes?"
"……Thank you."
She said it with a faint flush on her cheeks.
Why was that? Airen, who had always felt like a formidable warrior because of the way she spoke, suddenly seemed like nothing more than a woman who needed someone to lean on.
"For supporting my opinion… thank you. ……It was the first time anyone ever has."
I answered in a serious tone.
"Lady Airen. Let me say this clearly: I did not raise my hand out of pity for you. I raised it because I believed your opinion was the most rational one. Please keep that in mind."
"……I will."
She smiled at me again. This time, it was not a smile that looked ready to fall apart.
That night.
Leaving Airen asleep after her training, I spread out the map of the northern regions I had drawn and stared at it by the dim light of a lantern, lost in thought.
Something is definitely going to happen in the north.
Intelligence 100's prediction said that launching an attack on the north would produce the optimal result. But no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't find an opening. Every northern castle was heavily garrisoned, and raising an army to push in from our side would inevitably create the perfect opportunity for them to strike Kelstein from elsewhere. I even checked whether the newly built fortresses introduced some variable, but nothing clicked into place.
No wonder Parfalle looked so incredulous.
Even I — someone who had cleared this game thousands of times — felt like it made no sense. How much worse must it have been for her?
Of course, this was a world built on a game that was never particularly realistic about tactics. If you cheated and brought along a handful of SS-rank officers and several generals with the Siege Specialty, it wouldn't be impossible. But that was a meaningless assumption right now.
Still. If "attack the north" truly was the most efficient course of action — that meant something absurd was actually going to happen.
I ran through every variable that existed in the game. Every event that could occur. From those, I filtered for situations where the Serpina Army would be in distress and our forces would have a genuine opportunity to invade.
First, I eliminated events that, even if they occurred, wouldn't actually help our army much if we invaded. A considerable number of "variables" vanished at that stage. Then I organized what remained. There were three.
First: a natural disaster.
This game had natural disasters. If you were truly unlucky, a massive earthquake could destroy one of your castles — something completely ridiculous. An earthquake was at least more plausible than getting hit by a meteor, though the game did have a low chance of that too. This was a freewheeling world where a handful of mages who could use magic existed, so it was full of these arbitrary, spiteful events. But the probability was far too low. Even basing this on an Intelligence 100 prediction, dredging up a scene I myself had barely ever seen while playing felt like a stretch. If it were the only possibility, maybe. So I discarded it.
Second: the sudden death of a sovereign.
If a ruler died without designating a successor, a large nation would often split into three or four pieces. That was why some players would save-scum and assassinate the rulers of major powers as a cheese strategy. If a nation fractured, it would of course be a perfect time to advance into the north.
But… Serpina dying?
She was a major character who survived through the entire scenario — the face of the game, in a way. In most worldlines, she was the absolute power who unified the continent. She was also young. And healthy. So this, too, felt essentially the same as a natural disaster.
Right.
That left one.
A sudden increase in the number of fronts the Serpina Army had to respond to.
In other words —
I marked two castles in the north with circles.
Chorel Castle in the northwest, and Cherien Castle in the northeast.
One of those two places.
In one of them —
A rebellion… is going to break out?
Third.
A rebellion and uprising within a castle, born of a coup.
No matter how I thought about it, that felt like the answer.