Chapter 52
Two months had passed since I came to the Sneria Domain as reinforcements.
“It looks like even this winter is finally coming to an end.”
I stood alone atop the southern wall we had recently captured and muttered to myself.
As though responding to my muttering, a shadow writhed.
It was one of Hana’s retainers, who had taken up residence in the shadows under the pretense of serving as my guard.
Of course, I sometimes wondered who was guarding whom, but since I was an honored guest from a neighboring domain, they had assigned me a guard as a matter of courtesy.
Having lost all privacy because of this person, I still found it convenient that someone was there to watch and spread rumors whenever I put on airs, meaning I no longer had to worry about the presentation myself.
- “Today, this and that happened, and then···”
When I saw them sharing with the other retainers what had happened with me the other day, I realized they had the makings of an excellent chronicler.
With my temporary chronicler hidden in the shadows, I muttered into the winter wind.
“When winter ends, my role will end as well.”
The shadow writhed even more violently than before.
When winter ended, I would return to my domain.
And I suppose you fear that, when spring comes again, that same hopeless battlefield will open up once more.
To reassure the retainer in the shadows, I recited lines I had picked out of a poetry collection the night before.
“Do not fear winter’s end. What you see before you may be a wasteland, but when spring comes, flowers will bloom without fail.”
***
Yuhana had been in a good mood lately.
That was because her power level had risen sharply through nothing but exchanges of questions and answers with Duke.
Before she knew it, she had grown strong enough to hold her own in one-on-one battles with the other lords.
It was astonishing that exchanging insights through words alone could bring about such a dramatic change.
It was the first time anything like this had happened since she had acquired shadow magic, an advancement-type spell, during her time with the resistance.
‘So this is why lords are always going on about having a master.’
According to one legend, a certain lord had sacrificed about a hundred years of their lifespan in order to receive instruction from a master.
Ordinary people regarded it as a tale mocking a foolish superhuman blinded by their obsession with reaching a higher realm, and Hana had thought so too.
But after experiencing it herself, she thought she understood.
A proper master was certainly worth offering up one’s lifespan as the price.
As she thought about that, something she could do for Duke naturally occurred to her.
‘My offer to treat him as an honored guest in my domain for ten years failed last time.’
Her plan to host Duke as an honored guest for ten years after resolving the demonkin incident had somehow failed.
She could not exactly resent him for sharing the reward in order to save people, either.
But this time was different.
‘He saved my domain, and helped me raise my power level···’
At this point, would it not be acceptable to devote her entire life to him?
Not merely acceptable—would that not be the proper thing to do?
“Heehee···”
The corners of her lips curved upward.
She hugged the cloth, whose scent had faded by now, close to her chest and spun all sorts of fantasies.
While she was immersed in such a happy dream, someone suddenly burst into her tent.
Bang!
Drawing on her overwhelming power, she reflexively fired a shadow stake toward the entrance.
“Gasp!”
In the brief instant when her retainer, who had entered without making a sound, was distracted by the spear that had grazed their cheek, she stuffed her cloak into the shadows and straightened her clothes.
“Ahem. Ahem. This is a time of war. No matter how urgent the matter, make sure to announce your presence. I might mistake you for an assassin.”
“I apologize, my lady.”
“So what is it?”
“Well···”
Seeing her hesitating retainer, she was swept by a sense of unease.
Before long, that unease became reality.
“Well··· The mayor, who was persuaded by the other lords, has started a rebellion···”
A look of dismay spread across Hana’s face at the report.
‘Of all times, now···’
Until now, she had made up for the gap in power level with technique and ingenuity.
Once Duke’s special training had raised her tier as well, she had even gained the upper hand against lords of the same tier.
At this point, no baron could stand against her, and if she went all out, she could even contend with counts.
Thanks to that, she had achieved the feat of switching from slowly being pushed back while doing nothing but defend to taking the offensive and reclaiming territory.
But she was under no illusions about the situation.
The reason she had been able to go on the offensive and drive back the lords was that the enemy was uncertain whether Duke was in the south or the east, not because she herself was truly strong enough.
In other words, her current momentum was the result of having Duke at her back, not of her own strength.
The enemy exploited that fact.
Once Duke returned to his domain, she would be pushed back again.
If that happened, the cities on the fringes would be sacrificed, unlike the relatively safe cities near the center.
Rather than swear loyalty to a lord like that, swear loyalty to us first, and we’ll spare your lives.
That was how they had persuaded the mayor and incited the citizens.
“Sigh···”
Her mood, which had been so good only moments before, instantly plummeted to rock bottom.
Lords generally did not bother using their heads.
It was easier to crush people with their rank than to spend that time thinking.
As a result, it was rare for most lords to distinguish themselves in strategy or tactics.
But that did not mean they were stupid.
‘War really is a goddamn pain in the ass···’
Incitement was a basic tactic in war.
She herself had tormented other lords with her specialties—espionage, sabotage, and incitement—so she could not call their methods excessive.
But there was nothing more infuriating than being on the receiving end.
After taking a moment to think, she immediately decided on a course of action.
“For now, while Sir Duke maintains this front, I’ll suppress the rebellion.”
Using reinforcements sent to stop the war to suppress a rebellion was a serious diplomatic offense.
Moreover, this incitement had worked because the people of the domain believed she was still weak.
So she needed to go herself, suppress the rebellion, and restore discipline.
“What do we know about the ringleaders?”
“We’ve identified them.”
“I’ll leave at once. Secure information on their families as well.”
She was a lord who cherished and loved the people of her domain, but she was not a lord they could take lightly.
She was not a soft-hearted girl who would coddle even those who started rebellions.
“Let’s inform Sir Duke as well. We’ll ask him to take care of things while we’re gone.”
Perhaps she would have the rebellion suppressed only by the end of winter.
With that thought, she put on her cloak.
Even during a war, a lord’s duties never ended.
***
When I came down from the wall, Hana brought me some new information.
“Sir. To my shame, a rebellion has broken out because my rule has had many shortcomings.”
She was telling me this because she wanted me to hold the southern front while she was away.
Once she returned, we would slowly continue moving south.
I accepted her request while recalling the original story.
‘Has it finally begun?’
At last, the trigger for the original story’s tragedy had appeared.
Hana’s tragic story in the original began with this rebellion.
Thinking it was merely a rebellion, she headed for the city, where she encountered a Tier Six superhuman.
Hilly, a necromancer and a hero.
That woman was an unexpected existence that even the Sneria Domain’s intelligence network could not detect.
What she had thought was a rebellion caused by mere incitement was a trap designed to drag Hana out of the fortress by having the hero control the corpses of the mayor and the citizens.
- “The war has gone on so long that I was starting to get bored.”
That was what Hilly said, but in truth, she lacked the confidence to defeat Hana while Hana was inside the fortress.
A superhuman backed by a fortress could withstand a one-tier gap, and the southern fortress Hana had built with imperial engineers was difficult for even an ordinary superhuman to breach.
But instead of becoming angry that she had been deceived, Hana felt relieved that the mayor had not betrayed her.
- “I knew I wasn’t wrong···”
And then she became enraged.
The mayor and citizens had refused to yield to the hero’s threats in order to remain loyal to Hana, yet the hero had killed them and tarnished their honor with their corpses.
This was the scene that had made me fall for her.
Her genuine love for her people, the personal loyalty she inspired that kept them from betraying her to the very end,
and the spirit that made her willing to sacrifice herself to keep her promise to them until the end.
That storyline had been so admirable.
That was why, after Hana was written out of the story, I had clung to her and declared myself her sole fan.
The rest proceeded as I had mentioned.
With the agreement of her retainers, she devoured them, then took her own life before karma caught up with her.
The rebellion in this city, where Hana was now heading, was the starting point of that entire tragedy.
‘Should I tell her after all?’
My ultimate goal was to prevent this tragedy.
In that sense, it would be right to tell her.
I contacted Rex to discuss the matter with him.
Even in my previous life, I had been unlucky and had always had to overcome things through sheer physical force.
Rather than meddling in the storyline on my own and making things go awry, borrowing Rex’s luck seemed a hundred times better.
Besides, I hoped that Rex might be able to devise an incredible plan that minimized the damage.
“My lord. That’s what happened.”
Rex, who had only been informed that a rebellion had broken out, nodded.
[Hmm. It’s a trap.]
“?”
I hadn’t given him any other information, though.
But apparently, it was an obvious trap to a veteran of strategy simulations.
[A rebellion can’t break out during a war through simple incitement alone. At least, the social conditions have to be in place. You have to understand this through the lens of dual-crisis theory or the revolutionary opportunity window theory···]
Hmm. I had no idea.
I understood the part about public sentiment and the absence of any observable collapse in trust and legitimacy, but beyond that, I was lost.
The one thing that was certain was that, since this was not a natural occurrence, it had to be a trap meant to draw her out of the fortress.
‘Wow. This guy really is smart.’
I knew he was smart, but I had not realized he was this smart.
He was just so hard to trust.
In any case, Rex had at least established that the trap made sense.
Now, there was no problem with me acting on the assumption that it was one.
[It’s a devious trap. If you leave it alone, it will really spread to the surrounding areas as a rebellion, so you can’t simply ignore it. Besides, since it’s a rebellion, Hana, as the lord, has to go herself. Duke, what do you think we should do in a situation like this··· Ah, my mistake.]
“?”
[It doesn’t matter to you even if it is a trap.]
“···”
What the hell? He was right, so why did it annoy me?
Somehow, I felt like I was being treated rather shabbily.