Ch.22Chapter 22. If You Believe in Me (1)

Lynn Brans’s reason for leading such a large army to attack this place.

If that reason is me, then all these speculations make sense.

What they want is me. So, once they secure their target—’me’—they naturally won’t care about the ruler of a small nation who flees and disappears somewhere on the continent.

Why have I become the target?

This is embarrassingly presumptuous to say myself, but thinking as objectively as possible…

It seems my meeting with her during the previous treaty made quite an impression on her.

Among rulers, Lynn Brans particularly craves talented individuals. The theory that she wants to bring a seemingly capable strategist working under a small nation under her command increases the plausibility of my speculation.

If there’s another piece of evidence, it’s the unnecessarily large army she’s brought to conquer this castle.

Since she holds me in high regard, she’s likely trying to prevent me from devising another ingenious strategy to break through the situation.

Unfortunately for her, all I can do is make 100% accurate predictions.

So, to summarize.

What I need to do now is—

‘Make everyone escape from the castle, then stay behind alone and surrender.’

This will temporarily cause the downfall of the Lunarian army, but—

This isn’t complete destruction.

As long as everyone stays alive, raising an army again can be done multiple times.

I wasn’t sure what process raising an army would involve in this world compared to how easy it was in the game, but regardless, this method was far better than dying and being unable to do anything.

‘Of course, there might be an even better solution.’

A more plausible strategy.

A method no one has thought of, something unexpected.

With my intelligence stat of 100, I’d like such ideas to come to mind immediately, but that’s not how it works.

All I can do is come up with perfect answers to questions.

So, at least this is the best I can manage to devise right now.

‘Alright.’

Still, with this, I’ve managed to assemble a decent puzzle from the three predictions.

There’s no guarantee this is the correct answer. But with the enemy approaching, there’s no time to just sit and think.

“Everyone.”

I finally looked around and opened my mouth.

I could feel all members of the Lunarian army waiting for my words.

I began to slowly unfold my plan.

“We will lose this battle. But that’s okay. Even if we lose the battle, we can achieve victory in the end by winning in other areas. That is, in the longer-term concept of war. For the future, now is the time to take a step back.”

“But we don’t have any other territory to flee to, do we?”

“Attacking another small nation doesn’t seem like a realistic option either.”

After hearing Gustav and Aron’s opinions, I nodded.

“That’s right. We have no retreat path. After signing the non-aggression treaty, attacking another country isn’t a good option either. And if we fight the Brans army as things stand, we will 100% be destroyed. However… if we abandon the ‘concept of a nation,’ a retreat path will naturally emerge.”

“…T-That means…!”

Luna opened her mouth with a trembling voice, seeming to have realized something from my words.

I had no choice but to inform her of the harsh reality.

“Our army’s journey ends here. For now, at least.”

“What do you mean, ‘ends here’?”

“We will surrender to Lynn Brans’s army.”

“!!!”

Tifa’s eyes widened in shock, and then she shouted at me with anger.

“Hey, this isn’t right! Didn’t you join our army because you supported Luna’s vision?! If we just surrender to Lynn Brans, there’s no way that woman will let Luna live!”

“That’s correct. I agree with Tifa.”

“What…!”

“I said surrender, but I never said I would turn the Lunarian army into a force that only exists in history books.”

I turned my head to look into Luna’s eyes as I spoke.

“My lord. Take Tifa and Cain and escape.”

“…What?”

“You should go south. Seek refuge with the Karelia army in the southern continent. Makana Karelia, the ruler of the Karelia army, has great virtue and will value you and your companions highly without turning you away. And she won’t blame you if you later leave her army with different intentions.”

Makana Karelia.

If there was a ‘force of order’ in this game, she would be the prime example.

Her good character and desire for world peace was no less than Lunarian’s.

Actually, I only learned about Lunarian Ineanne having such thoughts after coming to this world; in the game, Karelia was the leader who held that position.

Having played this game for 10,000 hours, I could guarantee it.

Going to the Karelia army would clearly be the safest place for Luna to take refuge.

Karelia’s territory was located in the southern part of the southern continent.

The south had relatively good balance between forces, and there was also a nation that, like it or not, served as a shield against the Brans army, so she could safely hide there.

“If you remain hidden, an opportunity will come someday. To preserve your life for a greater purpose in the future, that’s the only way.”

“But… Swen. B-But…”

Just as I was about to hear more from Luna.

An unexpected voice reached my ears.

“May I have a word with you?”

I turned my head to look at where the voice came from.

It was Cain.

He was facing me with a more serious expression than I had ever seen.

Why?

I felt like I was only now seeing the true face of this Cain Nerkis, an old royal using a pseudonym, struggling to survive.

“Swen. When you told me to lead the vanguard with 1,800 soldiers, I could have honestly questioned you and asked how I could just believe you. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to oppose my lord, and to be frank, even if the nation was doomed, I could have survived somehow under the Brans army or some other lord.”

I listened carefully to his words.

“Looking back, these past few months have been truly remarkable. Following your instructions, money rolled in, we won battles that seemed impossible to win, and two mercenary groups pledged allegiance to us. I still don’t know what mysterious ability you used to create all these situations. However.”

My impression of Cain had always been somewhat vague rather than memorable.

But at this moment.

This old man’s sunken black eyes were clearer than ever before.

“Living here for several months, seeing the happy faces of our territory’s people who had been the most unfortunate on the continent due to geographical factors, I realized something. More than wanting to hide somewhere on the continent, I want to see my lord Lunarian take this Garand Continent, the world, the entire realm into her hands. That feeling is stronger now.”

Having said that, Cain looked at me with suspicious eyes.

“I’ll be honest. It seems to me that you’re making up excuses to drive our lord away so you can move your base to the Brans army and bring this territory’s gold, troops, and the entire castle to her.”

“…”

“With your level of ability, that would be more advantageous for your personal life than sticking with a small nation like this. Am I wrong?”

“…Is that… really true?”

Tifa asked with a shocked expression after hearing Cain’s words.

Before I could say anything, Luna came to my defense.

“T-That can’t be true. Swen isn’t that kind of person! Swen is…!”

I raised my hand slightly to Luna, who was using honorifics with me in her confusion.

“My lord. If it’s alright, let me explain.”

“…Swen…”

Hearing my words, she said nothing.

I could easily tell that this meant she agreed.

Cain watched the situation for a moment, then looked straight at me and said:

“Rebuilding a fallen nation is extremely difficult. It could take years, decades even. Moreover, there’s no suitable territory on the continent to establish ourselves now. In such a situation, you’re asking us to abandon our nation, surrender, and flee?”

“That’s right.”

“I’m sorry, but this issue is completely different from when you had me repair the castle walls or assigned Tifa commercial duties in the market. I could believe you once without question for those things. But not for this. If you want to convince me, I’d like you to provide solid evidence. Otherwise, I’ll stay in the castle and fight to the end. I simply cannot accept surrendering to the Brans army without putting up any resistance, all in the name of the future.”

Evidence.

Evidence, huh.

Honestly, if I knew exactly what that evidence was, I wouldn’t be struggling this much.

The two established facts I predicted: ‘To avoid the destruction of the Lunarian army, I must leave.’

And, ‘Lunarian Ineanne will become the unifying ruler.’

My opinion was merely deduced from these two absolute facts.

But telling Cain something like “Because my intelligence is 100, my predictions are always correct” clearly wouldn’t work.

So how should I convince him?

I needed to approach from a different angle.

If there was something Cain was probably certain about, it would be that ‘I’m trying to look good to the Brans army by offering this castle, to quickly advance to a high position.’

‘That’s the point I need to address.’

I drew my tongue-sword.

“To summarize what you’re saying, Cain, you believe I’m saying these things to establish merit by handing over the gold, troops, and territory of Zeilant to the Brans army and settling there?”

“That’s right.”

“Take everything.”

My resolute statement drew everyone’s attention.

“…What?”

I looked at everyone and said:

“Take all the gold in the castle. And as for the troops, except for enough to facilitate escape, I’ll divide the rest equally between the Chilean Mercenary Group and the Raven Mercenary Group.”

Gustav and Aron, who had been watching us silently, were startled by the sudden situation and questioned me.

“Pardon?”

“Are you saying they’ll become our troops?”

“That’s right.”

Transferring all the soldiers to the mercenary groups.

That was my answer.

In this game, when surrendering, the soldiers in the castle naturally transferred to the occupying country.

Since the game’s rules applied to some extent, it was highly likely this would happen again.

But mercenary groups that weren’t subordinate to our army wouldn’t transfer to the occupying Brans army even after surrender.

So the best method was to attach our army’s soldiers to the mercenary groups in equal parts and have them each evacuate from the castle.

Once mercenary groups take a side, they never betray that nation unless an event occurs.

Even in the game, mercenary groups never betray first, though users could betray mercenary groups, which some exploited for cheesy gameplay.

Given how strictly my “Intelligence 100” rule was being applied, it was right to assume that other minor rules would generally apply as well.

If Lunarian’s unification was a predetermined future, these mercenary groups would clearly be a great help then too.

“This will make Zeilant Castle a land with 0 troops and 0 gold, meaningless to obtain. Unless the castle itself, this very location, has extremely high strategic value like Kelstein Castle… what do you think, Cain?”

“This… place.”

Cain couldn’t say anything.

Well, this was an unremarkable land.

No talented individuals emerged from here, the soil wasn’t fertile, there were no special products, and the population wasn’t particularly large either.

“If I really wanted to impress the Brans army, don’t you think I would have tried to use my silver tongue to do something with the gold and troops?”

“No… before that.”

Cain changed his expression and spoke.

Strangely, I could feel his wariness slightly wavering.

“If you openly declare surrender in such an empty castle… you could die from the ruler’s anger. Wouldn’t that be insulting to the occupying army?”

‘Huh?’

Is that how it works?

In the game, it was so natural to grab all the gold, provisions, and troops and flee when defeat seemed imminent.

I couldn’t hand over money and soldiers.

But here, that action itself seemed to be perceived as extremely insulting.

Well, I suppose from the occupier’s perspective, it would be quite annoying if everything was taken and fled with.

“Even if you all escaped, including yourself, that would be one thing, but staying in an empty castle to greet the occupying army? That’s practically suicide…”

Hearing those words, I sensed it.

‘This is my chance.’

To Cain right now, I must appear to be betting my life on a risky gamble with Lynn Brans.

I certainly wouldn’t seem like someone planning to betray them.

‘I’ll use exactly that point.’

I slowly opened my mouth.