Chapter 63
"Have you made contact with the minister?"
"Yes. Everything went smoothly."
In a dimly lit room, a nondescript, expressionless man gave a brief reply to the old man seated at a massive desk polished to a dark gleam.
"And? How did it go?"
"Apparently, the attempt to incite the Second Prince succeeded. The prince was grateful for the weapons as well, but..."
"But?"
"He wants compensation in case the Second Prince fails."
At those words, Sakri's expression soured. How could anyone succeed with that attitude? He was nothing but a small fry. A man so easily swayed by another country was only capable of this much. There was no point wasting time on him.
However, Sakri said something entirely different from what he was thinking.
"Good. Grant him everything he wants. Tell him Golbel will provide all the support it can in recognition of his bold decision."
"Are you sure?"
"It's fine."—If he fails, he'll die anyway. To begin with, I never expected him to succeed.
"Understood. Then I'll do so."
The expressionless man left the room as though he had vanished. Sakri leaned back deeply in his chair.
"Even if he fails, all that matters is that he keeps them distracted." After giving a small stretch with a grunt, he muttered under his breath. Then he thought.
Things had gone somewhat off schedule. By now, Golbel should have established a bridgehead in Ellen Village in northwestern Ludeck, while it should have held the southwestern region as far as Liese Fort.
Of course, Sakri hadn't expected everything to go smoothly. Still, it was somewhat unexpected that both attempts would fail.
"Rays Stein, huh? What a troublesome opponent."
But... Sakri shifted his thoughts elsewhere.
Golbel had suffered virtually no damage and incurred no losses. Only Ludeck was running around in confusion.
The next move was already taking shape.
"I wonder how he'll move next..."
As he thought about his formidable rival Rays Stein, whom he had never met, Sakri secretly savored the anticipation.
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"A shakedown mission?"
"Yes. The cavalry drills should be nearly finished by now."
Rays-sama had summoned all three of us—me, Ryuzel, and Frein—and that was the first thing he said when we arrived.
"Yes. I believe the time is about right," Ryuzel answered.
"Then where are we deploying?" Frein followed up. Both of them were eager to set out. I understood how they felt. They couldn't wait to test the cavalry unit that was finally starting to look the part.
I was technically the commander, but asking them to consider my opinion would have been gauche, I guess...
"Bandits have appeared near the Three Goddesses' Spring. It seems a fairly large group has banded together. Normally, this wouldn't be an assignment for the Tenth Knight Order, but I took it on because it seemed just right for you."
The Three Goddesses' Spring. Though it is called a spring, it is technically a place where three lakes lie side by side. Each is named after the Goddess of Fate, the Goddess of Earth, and the Goddess of Wind.
The location was near the border with the Lifrea Holy Kingdom. Bandits were appearing along the road by the lakes, which were surrounded by lush forest.
If they were attacking people while hiding in the forest, it normally wouldn't be a place suited to cavalry. Yet Rays-sama had deliberately called it "manageable." In other words, he expected us to handle something of this level, didn't he?
In any event, once Rays-sama had accepted the assignment, it was effectively decided.
"Understood. We'll depart as soon as we're ready," I told him. Rays-sama raised the corner of his mouth and said, "This time, Golbel doesn't seem to be behind it."
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There was a fair distance between the capital, Ludecktrad, and the Three Goddesses' Spring.
Ludecktrad was located in southern Ludeck to facilitate coordination with Gadeland's major port.
Although Roa's unit consisted entirely of cavalry, the distance was far too great to cover in a single day. Besides, it would be impractical for the 1,000 soldiers setting out this time to stay in towns and villages.
For that reason, we planned to take a somewhat roundabout route to the Three Goddesses' Spring, stopping at five forts along the way.
Three of the five forts where we would stay were small. They normally had only minimal garrisons and were intended for emergencies or, primarily, temporary stays like this one.
The remaining two were large forts known as the key strongholds north of Ludeck.
Hockehalun Fort lay midway between the Three Goddesses' Spring and Ludecktrad, while Ocle Fort was closer to the spring.
Since Ludeck was allied with the Lifrea Holy Kingdom, both forts had small standing garrisons. I heard that the Second Knight Order was generally the only force to stay there from time to time.
"If all goes well, we might get to meet the Second Knight Order," both Ryuzel and Frein said excitedly.
The Second Knight Order was the only one of Ludeck's knight orders composed entirely of cavalry. The two horse lovers apparently admired that about it.
As I listened vaguely to the two of them getting excited, swaying on Arrow's back, I simply hoped the mission would end without incident.