Signs of War: Map of the Continent

The day after Lufa officially joined the Tenth Knight Order, I was alone on a hill on the outskirts of the royal capital.

This was the training ground where I had fought Rays-sama the other day. The main camp had been withdrawn, leaving nothing but an earthen mound.

It didn't have to be this place. I was simply looking for somewhere I could be alone.

I dismounted Arrow and looked around. The deserted training ground held little more than a few patches of dead grass.

When I exhaled, a faint white mist mingled with my breath.

"It'll be soon now."

My words, heard by no one, dissolved into the sky along with my white breath.

A great battle was about to break out.

If the future I knew was still the future awaiting us.

Golbel was our opponent. Having dealt the Sixth Knight Order a devastating blow and continued its advance into southwestern Ludeck, Golbel would raise a huge army that winter to drive a decisive wedge into its war against Ludeck.

The battlefield of the conflict later known as the Great Battle of Zetta would be the Zetta Plains, quite close to Eren's village. The plains were the most open stretch along the border between Golbel and Ludeck, making them ideal for an invasion while also ensuring that both nations watched them with the utmost vigilance.

Golbel would mobilize thirty thousand soldiers at the Zetta Plains. Ludeck would meet them with nearly all the forces it could deploy from the Fourth and Tenth Knight Orders—eighteen thousand men.

Though hopelessly outnumbered and forced onto the defensive, Ludeck would somehow turn the tide when reinforcements from the Second Knight Order in the east arrived in time. Even so, the battle would end inconclusively, leaving both armies with heavy casualties.

The Tenth Knight Order would lose many veteran soldiers and capable commanders to the losses in this defensive battle and the great battle the following year.

That night—the night the royal capital was burned by the First Knight Order. Had the Tenth Knight Order been at full strength, a different fate might have awaited us.

I didn't know whether the Great Battle of Zetta would happen this time, too. The circumstances were different from before.

In the future I knew, Golbel's decision to raise a huge army had also been heavily influenced by its victory at Haksha and its success in pushing into southwestern Ludeck. It wasn't hard to see why they would want to strike while the Sixth Knight Order was nearly annihilated and the front lines were thinly defended.

This time, we had won the Battle of Haksha. The Sixth Knight Order had withdrawn from the front, but remained intact. The Seventh Knight Order was keeping a close watch around Haksha.

But as I considered all this, a small question occurred to me.

"Come to think of it, why was the Second Knight Order in the east?"

When I went to see the Second Knight Order recently, they had been based at Yufe Fortress, on Golbel's side.

The only apparent reason they would have needed to move east was that something had happened in the Empire. That seemed the natural conclusion.

If anything came to mind, it was the Second Prince's rebellion, in which Prince Tsetsedra would become involved. The timing was exactly right, but it seemed too soon for word to have reached Ludeck from the Empire.

We were at war with the Empire, and the rugged mountains already made travel difficult, so there was little traffic between the countries. In other words, information was hard to obtain. Even the marriage between Luluria and Prince Tsetsedra was no more than a rumor among ordinary people.

News of something like the Second Prince's rebellion—a scandal that could only expose the Empire's weakness—spreading so quickly was unnatural. Someone must have leaked the information.

Based on that information, the Second Knight Order had moved east to prepare for the Empire's unstable situation.

Could it be that Sacri, Golbel's strategist, had aided the Second Prince's rebellion and deliberately leaked the information? Was I overthinking it?

Yet, as a result, Ludeck had been forced to hold back Golbel's forces with a small army until the Second Knight Order arrived. It was too convenient to dismiss as coincidence.

"I wonder what became of Luluria and the others..."

I looked toward the eastern sky.

I hoped they had believed my letter and, even if they couldn't stop the Second Prince's rebellion, hadn't been caught up in it...

I wanted to send a letter to confirm, but that was difficult. Perhaps I should send one to Luluria's family home and have them forward it. Would that reach her? I decided to give it a try.

Even if Sacri had been involved in the Empire's movements, and even if the Second Prince's rebellion had been stopped, would Sacri—and Golbel—still attack?

If Sacri had really orchestrated everything from Eren's village and Haksha through the Second Prince's rebellion in the Empire for the sake of the Great Battle of Zetta, it would be an unbelievable scheme.

But if all of those plans had failed, would they still attack?

I didn't know.

For all I knew, my theory that Sacri was involved in the Empire's affairs at all was merely speculation. In fact, by any ordinary reasoning, he had nothing to do with them.

And yet, somehow—just somehow—I felt that the Great Battle of Zetta would take place.

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"The Second Prince is fleeing here?! How did this come to light beforehand?!"

The old man who owned the room, furnished with a heavy black desk polished to a gleam, was in an unusually furious state.

The one being berated by that old man, Sacri, was an expressionless subordinate named Munnar.

"As reported, the Second Prince's plot was exposed by the Fourth Prince, Tsetsedra. The minister was arrested, and the Second Prince Philemas fled aboard a ship. He is currently waiting off our country's coast, seeking assistance."

"Is this Prince Tsetsedra really such a remarkable person?"

"No. I consider him an ordinary young nobleman. He is still young and has no particularly impressive achievements to his name. He has a mild temperament as well. As a provincial lord, I would say he is suitable enough."

"That ordinary brat saw through my plan?"

"Sacri-sama devised the plan, but the ones who carried it out are the fools now adrift at sea. Perhaps the leak came from Philemas himself?"

"That is possible... That idiot... If he had fled straight here, it would be tantamount to proclaiming our country's involvement, wouldn't it? Shall we simply sink the ship?"

"Sink it?"

Munnar spoke as though the protection he had promised Philemas had never existed.

"...No. It would be better to make it appear that we captured him. Sound out the Empire accordingly."

"If the Empire demands his surrender, won't Philemas tell them everything?"

"If the Empire demands his extradition, agree to it, then kill him somewhere along the way."

"Understood."

When Munnar left the room, a flamboyant general entered Sacri's room without knocking.

"Hello, Strategist! How are you feeling today?!"

Sacri secretly grimaced, then put on a smile for the general, Rodelight.

"Well, well, Hero Rodelight-sama. What brings you here?"

"Surely the time has come for a battle to display our martial prowess, hasn't it? I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. By the way, I heard a strange rumor—that we might postpone our departure. That's not true, is it?"

He was smiling broadly, but there were thorns in his words.

What a clueless battle maniac...

Once the attempt to take Haksha had failed, Sacri had begun considering canceling the plan for the Great Battle of Zetta.

He had judged that an internal conflict in the Empire would give them ample opportunity to win, but as a precaution, he had also quietly spread rumors about canceling the operation.

And that rumor had reached Rodelight—the fool.

That battle-crazed man wanted to fight. He wanted to show up at every battle, no matter how small. His popularity among the common people and the influence that came with it made him troublesome.

The invasion of the Zetta Plains had been intended to proceed in secret, but the idiot had publicly declared, "I'll lead a huge army and deal Ludeck a final blow!" As a result, many generals had gotten carried away.

The fact that Frankurt had slain the commander of Ludeck's Sixth Knight Order the previous year, and that the Sixth had been forced to retreat with almost no casualties at Haksha, had set the war on a dangerous course.

As I thought, canceling it was impossible after all...

"I was thinking of having a new helmet made for the campaign..."

As Rodelight, that fool, rambled on about something utterly inconsequential to Sacri, Sacri responded with perfunctory nods and sighed deeply to himself.