by Ryota Hori
And with that said, Sudou took a seat in the chair without waiting for Lupis’s approval. A truly impudent approach. Lupis had never met anyone so brazen before, if nothing else.
“I ask again: Who are you?” Lupis said, aiming her sword at the man’s neck as he crossed his legs composedly on his chair.
“I go by Akitake Sudou. You may think of me as a mediator of sorts, shall we say. Hired by a certain individual.”
Sudou’s words were composed, but their content was quite dangerous. Unlike official merchants, secret emissaries like him put their lives at risk. Depending on what he let slip, he could very well be executed to keep his mouth shut.
He doesn’t come across as a fool who doesn’t know his place... But he is awfully calm.
Something about that composure tugged at Lupis’s attention.
“What’s your objective here?”
“To negotiate with you, Your Highness Lupis Rhoadserians. What else?”
“How did you get in?”
“I swam upstream against the Thebes to reach the back side of the camp. But my, your commander... Mikoshiba, I believe? He’s truly skilled. He didn’t stop at just making sure the moat is fully guarded, and extended his safety net to the Thebes too. Swimming takes quite a toll at my age, and I nearly got caught by the guards... Horrid, I tell you. Simply horrid.” Sudou gave a carefree laugh.
Lupis couldn’t help but be shocked at his words, though.
He... swam up the Thebes...?
There were those who knew how to swim if the need presented itself, so that alone wasn’t so implausible. Even if there weren’t many chances to swim, some in this Earth did know how to swim if only by virtue of their livelihood, like fishermen and sailors. And true enough, the back of the base was patrolled, but not nearly as tightly as its front.
But the Thebes was a massive river that fertilized the entirety of Rhoadseria, and it was always rich with water, never running dry. At its deepest, it was anywhere from four times to five times the height of a man, and not only was it wide enough that one couldn’t cross it without a boat, its currents were also rather fast.
Unless one’s ship had sunk and their life was on the line, no one would ever seriously consider swimming across this river, even if they were sailors and fishermen. They would at most splash about in the shoals. And that was why the side facing the Thebes was less secured.
The question became, then, why was Sudou that desperate to sneak into the camp?
“What are your intentions? What negotiations...?”
“Could you please put that dangerous thing away first? I’m a timid man, after all... Having a sword pointed at me by the woman known as the princess general is most unnerving,” Sudou said, and moved the sword’s tip away from his chest with a finger.
It was hard to tell if he was being honest or just trying to compliment her, but Lupis couldn’t discern the intent of the person sitting before her. Still, it was true that greeting a man who came to negotiate with a sword aimed at them was cruel. Even if he did sneak into a princess’s tent in the dead of night.
Lupis hesitantly sheathed her sword, though she did keep it within arm’s reach, so as to react to any surprise assault.
“Very well... Now we can discuss matters in peace.”
“You don’t have to comment on everything.” Lupis fixed her gaze on Sudou. “State your business already.”
Sudou remained flippant, however.
“Well, as I’m sure you might’ve imagined, I’ve been sent by one Duke Gelhart... Though the truth is a touch more nuanced than that, but for now that explanation will do.”
Lupis ignored his insolent tone. If she were to cling to every careless remark he made, the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere. Sudou, in the meanwhile, guessed at her thoughts from his gaze, and hardened his expression as he continued.
“Which brings me to my business... I will be direct. Duke Gelhart wishes to pledge allegiance to you, Your Highness.”
“Pledge allegiance?” Lupis scoffed. “Are you sure you don’t mean surrender?”
As inexperienced as she was, she was still royalty, and received considerable education. She knew that if Duke Gelhart ordered anything at this point, it would be either his surrender or to have Lupis assassinated.
Of course, since he was surrendering before the final showdown, it was questionable how severely she could punish him, but whichever way it went, Duke Gelhart’s power and authority would be severely diminished. There would be just about no chance of him regaining power.
But if he surrendered, she couldn’t have him executed to begin with. His territory would also be a concern, because even if she could diminish it, she wouldn’t be able to take all of his lands away, and the same held true for his fortune.
There was a difference between surrendering after the war had concluded and surrendering in the middle of battle. The winner couldn’t press the surrendering party for conditions as harshly.
But while it would be one thing if their forces were equally matched, there was no reason for Duke Gelhart to decide to swear allegiance to Princess Lupis at this point in the war.
The nobles’ faction held numerical superiority, but Princess Lupis would win due to having several times the number of knights, who were trained and proficient in thaumaturgy. Ryoma Mikoshiba took away the nobles’ faction’s locational advantage. And most of all, the nobles’ faction was ultimately nothing more than a disorderly mob. They’d do anything to maintain their families’ standing.
Had Duke Gelhart offered his allegiance before Princess Lupis’s forces crossed the river, she may have begrudgingly agreed. Ferrying an army across the river was much easier said than done.
That was why Mikoshiba’s achievements were so significant.
Lupis understood this, and so she deemed Sudou’s words to be unacceptable. All that aside, Duke Gelhart was the one who used that illegitimate child he brought out of nowhere, Radine, and the contents of the will to form a just cause for battle. He was essentially a traitor to the crown.
For all Lupis was concerned, Duke Gelhart was the source and ringleader of this political strife. Sparing his life wasn’t an option for her.
At least it wasn’t until she heard the words Sudou said next.
“Have you heard of a knight by the name of Mikhail Vanash?”
The moment he said those words, Lupis went pale. She didn’t expect to hear the name of a man whose death she’d mourned until now, and her surprise was understandable.
“Huh...? What do you mean...? It can’t be!”
A messenger who came for negotiations mentioned the name of a man who should be dead. That caused a single possibility to sprout in Lupis’s heart.
“It can’t be... Mikhail is...”
But then something tore apart the tent’s fabric and forced its way in, as if to cut into her words.
“Huh?”
Lupis was then struck speechless by the movements Sudou performed right before her eyes. His heavy, middle-aged body had at some point disappeared from the chair, and was standing on both feet. Her eyes couldn’t perceive the moment he got up. Something once again slashed through the air, but stabbed into the chair Sudou was sitting on just a moment ago.
“That’s dangerous. Attacking without any warning is dreadful, even if I am an intruder,” Sudou said, fixedly gazing at the chakram that had stabbed into the chair. “But oh, this is unusual. A chakram... If anyone were to use this weapon it would be Ryoma Mikoshiba himself, yes?”
Sudou’s voice echoed through the tent, but no response came. In place of an answer, another chakram zoomed through the air, this time from the tent’s entrance, roaring as it made way to Sudou’s face.
“Good grief, ignoring me, are you...?” Sudou blocked the incoming chakram by picking up the chair.
Even as more than half the blade pierced through the wood, Sudou’s tone remained as light as before. Even as more and more chakrams were being thrown at him.
“Coul
d you please just show yourself already? It feels like I’m talking to myself, and that makes me feel quite foolish.”
More chakrams came flying even as he said that. Of course, Sudou himself didn’t know if he really was speaking to Ryoma, but he simply tried to provoke the other party. His tone remained flippant, but his concentration was fixed entirely on the tent’s entrance... Without knowing that this was exactly what Ryoma wanted him to do.
“Your Highness! Over here, hurry!”
All of a sudden the tent’s fabric was torn apart, and Meltina rushed in from behind Lupis. Even a sturdy tent made to withstand rain and wind was made of cloth, after all, and could be easily torn apart by a sword.
“Meltina!”
“Come, Your Highness, we must hurry!”
Meltina lead Lupis out of the tent through the tear, where the perimeter was completely surrounded by knights. While Princess Lupis was still reeling, unable to keep up with the rapidly shifting situation, Meltina raised her voice.
“Sir Mikoshiba, I’ve secured Her Highness!”
As if in response to her words, the knights all tilted the torches they were holding forward.
“All right. Do it!”
At Ryoma’s command, several dozen torches were thrown at the tent, scattering embers and sparks as they soared through the air.
“Wait, no, you can’t kill him...!” Lupis shouted as hard as she could. “Meltina, please! Hurry, get water! Extinguish those flames!”
Not yet, at least! From what that Sudou person said, Mikhail might still be...
That emotion spurred Princess Lupis forward. She knew how low of a chance it was, but people had a way of clinging to the hope before their eyes. But her words came far too late, and the flurry of torches had already ignited the tent. In addition, the knights already had their swords drawn, expecting Sudou to burst out of the tent. Everyone present was bent on delivering the intruder who snuck into the princess’s tent to his death.
“What are you saying, Your Highness? Isn’t he an assassin?” Meltina asked.
She was struggling to get a handle on the situation, too. She was awakened from her bed, told that Princess Lupis was in danger and rushed over after putting on her armor. She then only abided by Ryoma’s instructions.
Meltina didn’t know what was going on, and couldn’t fathom what Princess Lupis was saying. She had no idea about the hint Sudou had dropped regarding Mikhail’s survival.
“Forget all that, just save him, save Sudou!” Lupis ordered her men to save Sudou from death’s maw.
Overwhelmed by Princess Lupis’s angry shouting, Meltina shifted her gaze to the burning tent.
“But... At this point it’s...”
The fire had completely overtaken the cloth that made up the tent, which had by now reduced to a huge campfire. Going into that tent would be throwing oneself into one of two fates: suffocating from lack of oxygen or catching fire and burning to death. Whichever of the two it was, it was doubtful Sudou would survive.
But it was then that the sound of the knights’ shocked voices reached Meltina’s ears.
“Oh! He just...!”
“Prepare the spears! Forward! Forward!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
The knights from the other side of the tent called out.
“Meltina!”
“Yes!”
Meltina still didn’t understand the situation, but she did know Princess Lupis wished for this assassin’s life to be saved. And so Meltina went about fulfilling her mistress’s wishes, albeit while feeling rather dubious about it.
“My word... That was an awful thing to do... I might be an enemy, but you could spare a bit more mercy. Burning a person alive... Unacceptable. Simply unacceptable. Goes against human decency, I’d say.”
Sudou appeared before Ryoma. His clothes were charred here and there, but he had no visible wounds.
“Are you really human...?”
Even though he was composed, Ryoma couldn’t restrain his surprise at the sight of Sudou walking calmly out of the burning tent’s entrance.
“Ah, finally remembered how to speak, have you? My, how very joyous.”
But Ryoma simply ignored his words, drawing his katana.
“Hmm, gone quiet again? Even curtness should have its limits...”
But Ryoma ignored Sudou’s wisecracks, hiding the katana with his body by holding it in a flank stance, closing the gap between them in a moment. And then, with his gaze fixed on Sudou’s abdomen, he swept his sword forward.
At that moment, the dull sound of clashing metal rang out, as a spray of sparks bloomed between the two.
“Could we settle this another day, considering how lightly armed I am? This truly is becoming too much to bear, even for me.”
At some point, a dagger appeared in Sudou’s hands, and he spoke while using it to parry Ryoma’s attack. It was hard to tell if he was speaking truthfully or not — whether he truly had the leisure to stay composed or not. None of the surrounding knights could tell what Sudou was thinking — not even Ryoma could know. But Ryoma only cared about one thing right now, and it wasn’t this man’s intentions.
A dead man’s intentions didn’t matter in the slightest, after all.
Ryoma’s right leg stomped at the ground hard. Sudou evaded, avoiding the front of his leg being stepped on, and that made Ryoma lose focus for a split second, which Sudou took as a chance to widen the gap between them.
“Hmph... Dreadful. You’re not listening to a word I’m saying... I cannot afford to fight you here...”
But while Sudou may not have had any will to fight, Ryoma was the exact opposite. He silently held the katana over his head, straining his muscles to deliver a slash. His eyes shined with dark bloodlust, which menaced Sudou.
“An overhead position, the stance of fire... This is a problem...” Sudou muttered in an almost resigned fashion.
I’ve tried to shake him as much as I could, but nothing’s working. I thought it might make his swordplay falter, but it hasn’t done a thing. He’s even calmly reading my actions... He’s probably realized that all I have is this dagger for self-defense...
He had left behind his usual sword and the many hidden weapons he’d kept hidden in his clothes, as they would have weighed him down in his swim through the Thebes. His sole weapon was this dagger, and having realized this, Ryoma chose the stance of fire. The most aggressive stance, that was also the least suited for defense — a stance that was in many ways reckless. But with only a dagger in hand, Sudou wouldn’t be able to block the incoming slash.
It was obvious that even if he managed to block it, he’d be overpowered. The raised katana would bear down on him with all of Ryoma’s strength and his weight, which was double that of the common man. The most he could do was predict its range and try to avoid the slash altogether.
What a bother... I can’t afford to die here... But at the same time, I can’t kill him without properly appraising him...
Sudou turned his consciousness to his own chakras, but it was then that the goddess of fate smiled upon him.
“Sir Mikoshiba, stop! That’s enough!” Meltina pushed between them, finally appearing on the scene.
She must have run over, because her shapely chest was rising and falling with fatigued breathing.
“What are you doing...?” Ryoma asked, maintaining his stance. “Why are you stopping me?”
His gaze was still unrelentingly fixed on Sudou.
His voice was as sharp as a blade, and unlike his usual tone.
“I don’t know myself! But Her Highness ordered it!”
“Princess Lupis...? Is that true?”
“Yes, there’s no mistaking it. She gave me a direct order to spare him.”
At her words, Ryoma exhaled grandly and lowered his sword. But he’d only switched his stance to a low position, so he could cut Sudou down in the event he did anything suspicious. He didn’t allow carelessness to sneak into his heart.
“Fine.
I won’t cut him down for now, but we need to understand the situation. I’m sorry, but could you bring Her Highness over?”
“I’m here!” Princess Lupis hurried over, running between the knights.
Ryoma then asked her. His attitude may have been too coarse considering he was speaking to royalty, but no one faulted Ryoma for it in this situation. Even if it was Princess Lupis’s order, no one saw a reason to keep an intruder that snuck into the camp under the veil of night alive.
“I’ve heard what Lady Meltina said... Could you explain what she meant?”
“Very well.” Princess Lupis nodded. “But first, I must ask this man something.”
She then turned her gaze to Sudou.
“You called yourself Sudou, yes? I would like to speak with you. Could you come with me?”
“Yes, yes. Of course.” Sudou readily accepted Princess Lupis’s proposal. “I would love for things to calm down and for us to continue our conversation from earlier.”
“Then Mikoshiba, please have a new tent prepared. Meltina, go and call Helena and the others.”
“Very well... But do be careful...”
While Ryoma was quite unconvinced, he left along with Meltina to do as Princess Lupis ordered.
“Your Highness... Why are you gathering people?” Sudou asked suspiciously upon hearing Princess Lupis’s words. “I would much prefer to speak with you privately.”
He’d judged from her behavior that Princess Lupis was interested in negotiations, and the fact he hadn’t been killed meant that she was interested in hearing of Mikhail’s condition. But she still had people gathered.
Why?
This was very much Princess Lupis letting her private emotions take hold, and wasn’t something she would want people to see.
“When it comes to deciding matters of the state, even a ruler can’t make choices arbitrarily. Or will you tell me you won’t talk unless it’s just the two of us?”
Sudou realized he’d made light of the princess.