Ch.349Chapter 349. Battle of Eingart Castle (4)

In the silent room.

I sat in a chair, wearing the most serious expression in the world.

And I looked at her—Ioline, who was wearing an equally serious expression.

The reason I called Ioline—who had perfectly disguised Reika as a completely different woman, and who claimed with her own mouth that “being skilled at disguise is a rule that any woman of the Al Kaski family should naturally know”—was for one reason only.

To become Reika Nighthart.

“Lord Swen. May I clarify the situation once more?”

“Of course.”

“So… you need to appear like Lady Reika for the operation, and that’s why you called me, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“In other words, you want to cross-dress as a woman.”

“Exactly right.”

Yes. Reika was a woman.

And me appearing like Reika meant I would be cross-dressing.

I never imagined, not even for a moment in my life, that I would ever do something like cross-dressing.

Ioline slowly nodded.

“I understand. Fulfilling your request won’t be difficult. Especially since it’s coming from you, Lord Swen. Personally, I’m happy to be able to repay the debt I owe you. However…”

“However?”

“I hope this isn’t something dangerous?”

I almost panicked for a moment, but fortunately, I managed to brush off the question without changing my expression.

“What in life isn’t dangerous? Especially when executing an operation on the battlefield. However, with your help, the chances of it being less dangerous will certainly increase.”

It wasn’t a lie. Nothing is more dangerous to a general than defeat.

If I were to be captured as a prisoner… I couldn’t rule out the possibility of things happening that I didn’t even want to think about.

But Ioline smiled at my words and dismissed them.

“Let me ask again, Lord Swen. This isn’t dangerous, is it?”

“I’ll try my best.”

“You still won’t give me a definitive answer.”

Ioline remained silent for a moment, then nodded with a determined expression.

“Besides me, many people would be sad. You must return safely. Understood?”

“If you can make me look perfectly like Reika, what wouldn’t I be able to do?”

“I see.”

Ioline approached me.

And then… she smiled with the confidence of a young girl.

It was a smile I’d never seen before. Seeing this side of the usually serious Ioline.

“I, Ioline Al Kaski, am prepared to bite off my tongue and commit suicide right here if I don’t hear that you look like Reika.”

No, that’s going a bit too far…

“I will definitely make you into Reika, Lord Swen.”

And so, her hands began to work on my face—

* * *

—When I came to my senses and looked in the mirror.

“…Wow.”

“How is it? My disguise technique, into which I’ve poured everything.”

Ioline looked at me with a gaze full of satisfaction, as if admiring a masterpiece.

That expression of having accomplished something. I could understand it. After all, if I had created something like this with my own hands, I would have had the same reaction.

“Huh…”

Before my eyes—

Reika was speaking with my voice.

“Convincing, isn’t it?”

“No, beyond convincing… how on earth did you do this?”

“Actually, if we consider the difficulty, it’s much easier to make a woman look like a man. Making a man look like a woman is an extremely labor-intensive and difficult task.”

As soon as I heard Ioline’s words, Senior Zenis’s face, which I had forgotten about, came to mind.

Right. I had already been fooled. When Ioline was pretending to be Zenis, ridiculously, I never properly noticed it.

“But fortunately, since Lord Swen is very handsome and also beautifully featured, with quite a slender build, I was able to work without much difficulty.”

“Sudden flattery won’t get you anything.”

“Lord Swen is right. Why would I offer flattery when there’s nothing to gain? You understand what I mean, don’t you, Lord Swen?”

“…”

By the way… the chest area felt strangely heavy.

Ioline had put various things in to create a chest. Since Reika had quite a large chest, it was true that adjustments were necessary so it wouldn’t be noticeable if the chest wasn’t protruding… but carrying something on my chest that I’d never worn before was more uncomfortable than I’d expected.

Does Reika always carry this around and endure this weight?

Suddenly, the faces of all the well-endowed women I’d met flashed through my mind.

The foolish thought that it wasn’t just the weight of the throne that burdened Lady Serpina’s shoulders, and above all—

‘Lady Irene… what kind of battle have you been fighting all this time…?’

Wouldn’t fighting on the battlefield with those be like fighting with sandbags attached?

If she achieved this much with those… if she had been slender, wouldn’t she have become a legendary general recorded in history?

Ioline seemed to notice my subtle expression and smiled gently as she spoke.

“I’m sorry. To create a natural shape that resembles Reika as much as possible, I had to use materials that match, even if they’re a bit heavy…”

“No, no. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“I see, Lord Swen. Hehe.”

Ioline said that as she approached me and giggled.

Just as I was thinking that I was seeing many different sides of this woman today—

The door suddenly opened with a thud.

“Ioline! I need to ask you—”

It was Irian Al Kaski.

For a moment, I was worried he might notice something off and recognize me.

“There you are, Lady Reika.”

…Huh?

Did he not sense anything off about me?

“What is it, brother?”

“I’m looking for the strategist. Do you happen to know where he is?”

Ioline glanced at me briefly, then shook her head and answered.

“I don’t know either. Is it urgent?”

“Is that so? Well, it’s not an urgent matter… Have you seen Reika by any chance?”

“…”

Unable to answer, I quietly nodded, and whether it was due to Reika’s personality or not, Irian nodded without any suspicion and slowly left the room.

…If even Irian, who had met me face to face, was fooled, it seemed I wouldn’t have to worry about being discovered.

* * *

“Wow…!! L-Lord Swen…! This is amazing…! It’s like meeting a doppelganger from a book…! R-really incredible…”

“Please don’t make such a fuss.”

“Wow…! I-I can hear Lord Swen’s voice coming from me…!”

The one who came to the room was Reika.

Since I had become Reika, Reika needed to become someone else.

Of course, Reika didn’t necessarily need to become me, so Ioline disguised her as some other woman.

This time, since there was a possibility of someone coming in during the process, we made sure to lock the door.

“There, it’s done.”

“Thank you…! I’ve experienced this before, but… it’s still amazing no matter how many times I see it… hehe.”

With just one touch from Ioline, she transformed from an innocent maiden into a seductive beauty with long white hair.

How on earth could she achieve this level of transformation with just makeup from this era?

In my opinion, this wasn’t just skill—it was real magic.

“Miss Ioline. Thank you for your hard work. May I ask for one more favor?”

“Anything, Lord Swen.”

“Please deliver this letter to Lord Irian.”

I handed over a letter I had prepared in advance, outlining the operation.

The main points were: ‘Deploy as is. And, do not deploy as many soldiers as possible around Reika Nighthart. Do not panic no matter what happens on the battlefield.’

Below, I had signed it to prove it was from me. Well, since Ioline was the one delivering it, Irian probably wouldn’t be suspicious.

In any case, for me to carry out the operation as I wanted, the commander-in-chief needed to be aware of the facts.

“Understood.”

After Ioline left.

Only then could I share part of my operation plan with Reika.

“So… you want me to attack the enemy mages…?”

“Yes, that’s right. You should ambush them as soon as they use magic.”

Reika needed to hide in a separate location and concentrate on striking areas where magical reactions were felt.

If they could use potentially lethal magic, the safest approach was to clean them up as soon as their positions were identified.

And naturally, Reika asked me about the unresolved questions she had after hearing my explanation.

“According to what you said, it doesn’t seem necessary for you to disguise yourself as me… Is there a reason?”

“It’s to divert the attention of enemy mages and deceive the enemy. I’m not sure how a magical duel will unfold… but there’s a clear difference between magic coming from an expected direction and magic coming from a completely unexpected place.”

“…”

I knew my explanation was somewhat crude.

But I couldn’t possibly tell her things like ‘I’m doing this to save you’ or ‘I plan to take the magic hit instead of you.’

At least Reika, unlike Irene and Serpina, wasn’t the type to question me persistently about why I was doing something, so I thought it would be fine—but at that very moment.

“I don’t mind following your instructions, but… please promise me one thing.”

“Go ahead.”

“This isn’t dangerous, is it? It’s not something like… you doing this instead of me because it’s dangerous.”

Reika closed her eyes and then shuddered.

“When I heard you were disguising yourself as me and going to the battlefield, I thought about it. I might not understand, but you have a kind of insight… Maybe you’ve predicted through various circumstantial evidence that something very dangerous might happen, and that’s why you’re doing this instead of me. But if that’s not the case, there’s no need to go through all this trouble with me…”

“That’s what worries me the most. If it’s dangerous—”

“Reika.”

I placed my hand on her shoulder.

If someone saw this scene, it would look like two identical people talking to each other.

“I will survive. And you will survive too.”

“Lord Swen…”

“So, don’t worry. Your role is more important than anything. You said it yourself, didn’t you? That you could never forgive mages who use such ‘techniques.’ Let’s teach them a lesson. You’re the great mage, aren’t you?”

Reika didn’t answer my words, staring at my face for a long time…

Then, with tears slightly welling up in her eyes, she smiled and nodded.

“Yes…! I—”

—believe in you, Lord Swen.

* * *

I somehow managed to thrust my rapier into the ground at the exact moment the magic was coming, guiding it in this direction.

That part went well. As I expected, the mana scattered and somehow dispersed through the ground.

Yes. I had just actually performed ‘magic nullification’—something that had only existed in theory.

The strongest reason I thought it would be possible:

In the game, generals with high intelligence would sometimes negate the opponent’s magic with just a single phrase like “Your sinister spells won’t work on me!” with a certain probability.

But in exchange, their health bar would decrease a bit.

I don’t know exactly how I did it, but my thought that it would be ‘possible’ to apply some logic to it had proven correct.

“Cough!”

I didn’t think that the decreasing health bar would be this painful in reality… though I wasn’t surprised.

Still, the pain of reality is indeed agonizing.

Seeing the blood dripping made the pain even more vivid.

‘…This hurts… damn it.’

At that moment, a momentary flash of light appeared before my eyes.

Did Reika succeed according to the plan?

I wanted to confirm with my own eyes, but due to my blurring vision, I couldn’t lift my head.

I couldn’t even properly hear the soldiers’ cheers.

Instead, what I saw before me were the faces of women.

Reika had said, “I believe in you, Lord Swen.”

Irene had worried, saying she was afraid of something happening to me.

Lady Serpina had clung to me, sobbing that she couldn’t do without me now.

And…

‘…I need to keep my promise with Lady Luna…’

…And with that, I lost consciousness.