Housecleaning (5)
Even if he made a rather undignified spectacle of himself by collapsing the moment he heard the urgent report…
there was little to fault in Hernan Gallisto’s initial response.
“What is the composition of their forces? The scale?”
“Mostly cavalry. They don’t appear to be planning for a prolonged war—Debora Claudia has brought only her personal guard.”
“Then we needn’t worry about being surrounded. Report their advance route so far.”
“They’re repeatedly hitting and running, centered on the northwest where the wealthy villages are concentrated.”
“Guerrilla warfare. They’re after plunder, not the land itself.”
Sitting in his ducal palace far from the battlefield and nearly accurately inferring the enemy’s purpose proved that, however greedy he might be, he was not incompetent.
Without that sharp judgment, he never would have climbed to the head of a ducal house crawling with every kind of intrigue in the first place.
The enemy’s scheme is obvious. Hit-and-run tactics to keep seizing loot.
Then the countermeasure was simple: draw them deep into the territory so they would not dare retreat.
In the end, this land is foreign and unfamiliar to the Claudias. The deeper they come, the more they will sink into the mire.
Especially since the border regions had many canyon terrains ideal for ambushes—use those to force a war of attrition and bleed them dry.
A highly efficient operational plan with clear purpose. Under ordinary circumstances, it would almost certainly have worked.
But this time, the opponent was far too unfavorable.
Debora had already received complete topographic information on the border regions. She was essentially driving her cavalry with the map hacks turned on.
“How goes it? Have we succeeded in annihilating them?”
“I beg your forgiveness! We lost all five mages we sent to the battlefield!”
“W-what…! And you call that a report?!”
Crash!
An ink bottle shattered, staining the map that showed the military situation. But no one considered that a problem.
The total loss of the mages essentially meant the battle was over.
“Does that make any sense?! We had the numbers, the intelligence, the terrain—all on our side. How could we lose?!”
“The enemy’s movements were far too unpredictable… Forgive me! Kill me!”
“Fine, then!”
Shing! Slash.
Summary execution in wartime. Hernan no longer had any self-control left.
Servants entered the office with bated breath to clear away the corpse.
Even that gruesome sight failed to register. In his mind, only the disastrous news from the battlefield echoed endlessly.
We were toyed with without being able to do a thing.
Since the enemy did not seem intent on occupation, they might fight again soon enough.
But until then, they would have to endure helpless ravaging—until the plunderers had their fill and returned to their main force.
“How… how could this happen.”
They had lost every mage in the territory.
The armory that had lived and breathed with the family’s history had been cleaned out.
The food stores they had stockpiled to sell dearly when winter came had been completely seized. The precious metals too.
Somehow the bastards had even dug tunnels and cleaned out the family’s hidden slush funds completely.
As a bonus, the Gallisto family’s illicit accumulations had been fully exposed to the territory’s people in the process.
When Hernan heard that large numbers of non-human slaves and male prostitutes—banned under kingdom law—had been discovered in the secret warehouses, he nearly fainted.
“What kind of scoundrel put those things in the warehouse… Ugh!”
Blaming relatives now was meaningless. The family’s ruin was already at their doorstep.
“No, no. That can’t be. I was wrong and the queen was right? Even my own people praising that damned siblings’ foresight? Impossible…”
No matter how many times he denied it, reality did not change.
Regardless, Debora’s cavalry focused even more fiercely on plunder.
And when at last the document tower storing all the family’s bonds and financial ledgers was looted as well, Hernan completely lost it.
“Wait—isn’t that inside the church?! Are you saying that unrestrained bitch Debora turned her blade even on the priests and nuns?!”
“W-well, the clergy had already abandoned the church to protect their own mansions, so there was no resistance at all!”
“These rotten bastards! After all the patronage I’ve given them!”
He had even covered for them so they could quietly resume selling indulgences banned since the queen’s accession—and this was how they stabbed him in the back?!
Hernan’s rage finally exceeded its limits.
“That was a solemn vow made before the goddess! A sacred duty!”
“Y-Your Grace, please calm yourself!”
“The debt notes and ledgers in that tower are our territory’s greatest asset, our pride! And they just handed them over to the enemy to save their own skins? This is treason! Treason!”
“Y-Your Grace is not in a position to be betrayed…”
The retainers’ attempts to restrain him fell on deaf ears.
Already seething rage filled the duke’s mind completely.
He began thrashing about as if he would smash every piece of furniture in the office, venting his fury in every direction.
“Those Claudia barbarians daring to claim blue blood is a disgrace! I will slaughter every last one of their family!”
“The Empire! Those arrogant Lasion bastards failed to properly leash that mad dog and brought disaster upon the continent! Incompetent, disgusting creatures!”
“If the queen hadn’t been choking us Gallistos so hard in the first place, would we have suffered this humiliation from a handful of cavalry?! This is all because the monarch is incompetent and weak!”
He denied, raged, denounced, and spewed extremes that could scarcely be spoken aloud.
And still, nothing changed.
“Haa… haa…”
Having barely calmed his rage amid the wrecked room, Hernan soon sank into deep powerlessness.
Right. It was fated to end this way. I didn’t misjudge.
Even if I’d transferred the private army to the central forces long ago, what difference would it have made? How could a woman and a merchant possibly stand against those swift cavalry?
I did my best! Ultimately this is the incompetence of my subordinate officers! Or, maybe… the territory folk enraged by the plunder will rise up in righteous indignation!
He tried to find comfort through self-denial. But with continuous news from the battlefield, even that was difficult.
“Your Grace, Debora Claudia has scattered some of the silver coins she plundered among the territory folk and vanished, intending to cause chaos in the domain!”
“W-what?! That wicked woman with such a cunning scheme…!”
“But rejoice! The territory folk, full of righteous spirit, are using the money they received from the enemy to buy weapons and arm themselves, gathering to repel the invaders!”
“Oh, that is truly glad tidings! Then we must immediately raise a volunteer army in the name of Gallisto.”
“W-well…”
The retainer suddenly hesitated. When Hernan pressed him, wondering why he was hesitating over such good news, the unwanted truth finally came out.
“No one is coming to our family. In most cases they are either forming their own units or volunteering for the central army.”
“The central army. Yes… that name again. Demian.”
He was past anger now. Only a profound sense of defeat lingered in his heart.
“Y-Your Grace, are you all right?”
“Yes. I was wrong, and he was right. I lost, and those bastards won. Thoroughly, miserably.”
“No. How can you say such a thing…”
“Don’t. Even the territory folk burning with righteous anger no longer trust the name of Gallisto. It’s all over.”
To have failed to stop even a single cavalry unit from a newly founded kingdom, while aiming for the neck of that cunning man…
I myself was far too reckless and foolish.
Only now did Hernan realize he had plotted a conspiracy he could never have handled.
Perhaps it’s fortunate it was smashed before I even tried.
At least, if he prostrated himself before the queen and begged, he could preserve the family’s lifeline.
If he kept his head down and obeyed the siblings’ will, then in the next generation, or the one after, a day to reclaim glory would come.
Consoling himself thus, Hernan made his decision.
“Request reinforcements from His Majesty.”
“Your Grace, in that case headquarters will likely demand we hand over our private troops.”
“It’s something we have no choice but to accept. Agree to any demand so long as we can bring in reinforcements. We must survive first for there to be a next time.”
“…As you command.”
And so the support force they barely managed to summon.
Three thousand elite troops including a full thirty mages. After absorbing all of House Gallisto’s private soldiers under their command, they began exercising full command authority.
Hernan was reduced to an advisory role with no real power, barely managing to show his face at strategy meetings.
At that first meeting thus arranged, Hernan faced Demian for the first time.
“Ah, hello. I’m Demian.”
“Oh my, greetings. I am Duke Hernan Gallisto, head of House Gallisto.”
“I see…”
Something about his brightly smiling face felt eerie.
Something’s off…
Of course, Hernan’s intuition was not wrong at all.
“It’s a genuine pleasure. You’re the one who tried to entangle me in a filthy sex scandal with Lasion, aren’t you, Duke?”
Unfortunately, that keen intuition did nothing to stop the exposure of that long-buried past conspiracy.