A Flash of Inspiration

In the end, there was nothing today either...

About ten days had passed since the letter was stolen.

Gordon's side hadn't contacted us today, either.

Should I assume things have now entered the course I'd predicted?

I let out a small sigh.

"So it really is a difficult situation?"

Fiene said worriedly as she served me tea.

I tried smiling to reassure her, but it only made her face cloud over further.

"Well, it's fairly difficult."

"That's a lie... It's actually incredibly difficult, isn't it?"

"I guess I can't fool you."

I scratched my head and let out a deep sigh.

At first, we were supposed to obtain the letter and expose the Southern nobles' corruption. If the South then rose in rebellion, I planned to use the military's hard-liners to suppress it. I had assumed it would remain small-scale.

But Gordon is hoarding the letters, making sure things don't stay small-scale. It's just like him.

Now that things have come to this, our original plan won't work. A large-scale civil war would weaken the Empire without question.

Gordon must understand that, too.

Even if he doesn't, Sonia certainly does.

If he's going through with it anyway, does that mean he has some vision for what comes afterward?

"If civil war breaks out, all we can do is give Leo a chance to distinguish himself. We'll have no choice but to act accordingly. But we still have some time before then. I'd like to somehow prevent a civil war, but it won't be easy."

"Couldn't we ask His Majesty the Emperor for help?"

"Leo already brought that up, and I stopped him. I understand how he feels, but the succession struggle won't end with this one matter. If Leo appeals to Father, he'll investigate, but Leo's future would be ruined at that point, and it might not even solve the problem. We'll have to find another way."

"Then couldn't Rebecca come forward and make an appeal?"

"There's no way to prove that she's truly the knight to whom Count Sitterheim entrusted the letter. The evidence backing that up was stolen. Even if we used Rebecca to make the appeal, Gordon would simply deny it. It would be the same if Leo appealed, of course, but Gordon probably won't hide it somewhere investigators could find it. Our standing would suffer, and in the worst case, Leo could be removed from the investigation of the South. If that happened, Leo wouldn't even need to take the letter to the Emperor, and we'd be completely shut out. Whatever we do, it works in Gordon's favor."

I have my doubts that Gordon is capable of something that deft, but Sonia is at his side as his strategist now.

If we make a careless move, we'll be hit by a counterattack.

But if we give up on stopping the civil war, there would be any number of ways to proceed.

Sebas told me not to let it get to me. The rebellion probably would have happened even if we'd obtained the letter. But not letting it get to me and giving up are two different things.

That doesn't mean we can neglect our efforts to stop it.

The best outcome is still preventing the civil war from happening.

Even setting aside the emotional aspect, a large-scale civil war would lower Leo's standing to some degree. People would say it happened because we were too late to discover the letter.

The Empire, its people, and the succession struggle would all benefit from stopping the civil war.

"Oh... This is troublesome..."

"I've ordered Sebas to search for the letter, but even he probably couldn't find it. Maybe I should have accepted the risks and cooperated with Leo as Silver...?"

Regretting it won't change anything. Time won't turn back.

Even so, I couldn't help thinking that I should have done things differently.

That defeat stemmed from insufficient information and the lack of understanding that resulted from it. Without enough of both, I couldn't make thorough preparations. Even so, I should have been able to act as Silver while exercising caution.

If I'd acted as Silver from the beginning, there'd have been no risk of being found out.

But that came with a fatal problem.

"But then it would be discovered that Silver was helping Leo-sama for personal reasons. Until now, we had the excuse of monster subjugation, but..."

"That's true. An Ancient Magic user meddling in the succession struggle would inevitably attract resentment."

Using teleportation to take Leo around in the middle of a power struggle would cross the line we'd managed to maintain until now.

Silver was tolerated because he was the guardian of the Imperial Capital and its people. If it became known that, with no monsters involved and no crisis threatening the Empire, he was showing excessive favoritism toward one person in a mere power struggle, who knew what rumors would spread? Sonia would have made excellent use of them. Even if we'd handed over Rebecca and the letter, Sonia would still be Gordon's strategist. On top of that, there had been a large number of Zandra's men there.

At worst, Silver could have been branded a threat and lost the ability to operate under that identity. The Empire was that traumatized by the combination of Ancient Magic and the imperial family.

If that happened, we'd lose our trump card in exchange for the letter. We couldn't take that risk.

"Hah... There's no point dwelling on it. My options were far too limited back then."

Well, it wasn't just that time.

Operating in the Imperial Capital puts all sorts of restrictions on Silver.

That's why the chances to act are limited.

"We need to find a solution quickly, or Leo will say again that he wants to appeal to Father..."

"Couldn't we try negotiating with the Southern nobles?"

"They're nobles who have almost certainly dabbled in corruption, you know? Negotiate with them..."

I cut myself off.

They would never agree to negotiate.

But there would definitely be one occasion when they would.

"Fiene... you're a genius."

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, but could you go get Leo? I've thought of a good plan."

With that, I picked up my pen and began writing the plan that had formed in my mind on a sheet of paper.

Seeing it, Fiene looked bewildered, but immediately went to call Leo.

■■■

"Brother, is it true you thought of a good plan!?"

"Wait a moment. Let's see... These should be all the issues, I think. Then there's the escort. Figuring out the escort is the sticking point."

I folded my arms and pondered.

Seeing me like that, Leo picked up the messy plan I'd written on the desk and read through it.

"...Brother, are you serious?"

"Of course. Though I'm not the one who'll be carrying it out."

At my offhand remark, Leo's cheek twitched.

Leo would be the one to carry out the plan I'd devised.

"What sort of plan is it?"

"Simply put, we'll trick them into a surprise attack under the guise of negotiations."

"What...?"

"We'll infiltrate the enemy's headquarters and swiftly take control. Most of the Southern nobles only fear Duke Kruger. Once the duke is defeated, they'll surrender immediately."

There was no powerful figure to take his place, and they would have no reason to continue.

In this situation, the purpose of starting a civil war wasn't to seize control of the Empire. It was to force concessions from the Emperor and secure their own safety.

If Duke Kruger were captured, they would lose the leader who could negotiate with the Emperor as an equal, and their organization would lose its cohesion.

This tactic was useless while the civil war remained small-scale, because the Emperor wouldn't make any concessions. It was only viable once the conflict had grown large.

"I believe I said I wanted us to talk things over..."

"That was the genius of your suggestion. They would never agree to negotiate, but there is one opportunity when they certainly would."

"Right before the civil war begins. They'd certainly agree to negotiate with an envoy from the Emperor. I understand what you're getting at, but..."

"You're in a position to claim responsibility for the rebellion in the South. You can appeal to Father for a chance to restore your honor and win this assignment. That is, if you're willing."

"That's not what concerns me. I wholeheartedly support this plan. It could reduce the damage far more than we'd initially expected. If it works, this would be the best possible outcome."

That's right.

Infiltrating the enemy's headquarters and launching a surprise attack. If it worked, it would be a decisive blow. We could completely thwart Gordon's scheme and spare the people of the South needless suffering.

However, there were many challenges.

The first was the troops.

"The small escort contingent will have to be elite for this to work. Even if we bring Sebas and Sieg, we'll need a unit capable of putting up a serious fight."

"But the Imperial Guard is out. They'd immediately arouse suspicion."

"Right. We have to find that unit."

Then there was the second issue.

Negotiating with Gordon.

"When we receive the letter from Gordon during the negotiations, we can't make any rash promises. That's another problem."

"It'd be a problem if he told us not to make a move."

"We can manage that somehow, but the last issue is the biggest one."

The third issue.

Raising the odds of success enough to get the Emperor's permission.

"I don't think Father will give his permission."

"It's obviously dangerous, and if you're taken hostage, it could affect everything that follows. Sending in the army would save us from having to worry about all that. So we need to give him enough reason to agree."

"How do we raise our chances of success?"

"For now, we need to assemble an elite unit and make the enemy let down their guard. We have to thoroughly work out those two points first."

Even though Leo would be going as an envoy, we wouldn't be using the Imperial Guard.

That might make the enemy careless, but it wouldn't be enough.

We needed to think of more ways to make them let down their guard and bring in an elite unit second only to the Imperial Guard.

"Sounds tough."

"Well, it's much better than having no way forward. We can stop the civil war while minimizing the damage. The hurdle is high, but it's worth trying."

And so our strategy meeting began.