Ch.34Chapter 34. Devoted to the Mission at Castle Annel

Rebellion.

It meant the act of a vassal entrusted with a castle rising against their lord for some reason.

During rebellions, vassals in the castle would either remain or be driven back to their original faction depending on their allegiance—but resources like troops, gold, and food could be swallowed whole by the rebels.

In any case, if a rebellion occurred, it would create a crack in Serpina’s powerful ranks.

Was the idea to use that moment—either to invade the rebelling castle or a nearby one—to give our army an advantage?

However.

For the Brans army to take advantage of this situation, they would inevitably need to station sufficient troops at Zeilant Castle at the moment of rebellion.

Even the Serpina army would be in disarray immediately after a coup—but they were a nation with the strength to quickly suppress rebellions and regroup.

So, reaching this conclusion was—coincidentally thanks to Irene.

If Irene hadn’t suggested defending the north with her “warrior’s intuition,” this would have been a method impossible to know at this point.

Of course, if Lynn had asked me directly, I would have given the answer—but unlike Lunarian, Lynn wasn’t a ruler who asked me how to do everything and trusted me absolutely.

Besides, I could reach this conclusion through step-by-step reasoning, but if she had asked me directly, I would have bluntly predicted “Invade Serpina’s northern territory,” and then I would have struggled to find the right words to convince her.

Anyway—the course was set.

At this rate, even if a rebellion occurred, they would be too preoccupied with the Aeshus army to do anything properly, and ultimately they would fail to plant the Brans flag in the north.

Well, but—

‘I suppose that’s just how it’s meant to be.’

Lynn Brans wasn’t destined to become the unifying monarch.

From my position as someone who should work under the unifying monarch, I didn’t need to sincerely convince her.

Meanwhile, I could just spend time with Irene while handling commercial matters in the market.

With that thought, I organized the map and turned my head.

Irene had fallen asleep, crouched with her back against the wall.

I approached her slowly, making sure my footsteps couldn’t be heard.

She was beautiful.

Long red hair.

A delicate nose and skin so white it seemed impossible for a swordswoman.

She possessed beauty enough to learn proper etiquette and marry into a decent noble family for a peaceful life—but she was born in turbulent times, and the blood flowing through her veins was not noble.

Somewhat stubbornly straightforward, yet never choosing the easy path—a person fighting desperately while holding her father’s will close to her heart.

A knight. A siege specialist. The sole descendant of House Juliette serving House Brans—beyond all that, the woman called Irene.

She carried so many burdens on her shoulders alone, with no one to acknowledge them.

I had no intention of killing this woman.

She would clearly be a great help to my lord Lunarian’s “unification of the continent” someday.

‘I will find a way to save you, Lady Irene.’

I slowly moved away from her again.

After turning off the lantern that dimly lit the room, I lay down on the bed.

Lying there, all sorts of thoughts came to mind.

Wearing clothes emblazoned with the Brans army symbol, attending meetings for the Brans army, hearing Irene’s personal circumstances…

Yet through it all, one woman still occupied my mind.

Lunarian Ineanne.

The monarch who would unify the continent.

‘Come to think of it.’

A question I hadn’t asked myself in a while.

Can Lunarian Ineanne become the monarch who unifies the continent?

I casually entered this question into my mind before falling asleep, just to check again.

…And then.

‘…Huh?’

*

“Hey, you! Stop right there!”

“Hahaha. Catch me if you can!”

Children’s shouts and laughter.

“This is… Is this really the right price for this?”

“Yes, it is. Annel Castle has better supply lines so it’s cheaper here. Go check the next town over and see what they charge.”

Customers haggling over goods, and merchants dealing with them.

In the middle of this peaceful marketplace, what I was doing was—

“Welcome.”

Surprisingly, working at a counter greeting customers.

“You’re from the Brans army. We appreciate your help again this time.”

Judging by the shop owner’s words, it seemed common for officers to come help with work like this.

The Brans army had assigned dozens of officers to commercial duties this month.

The most capable officer—presumably the one with the highest politics stat—had taken the lead in distributing tasks to everyone.

And my assigned task was customer service.

The location was inside a tavern.

A place where hidden talents gathered and rumors from across the continent circulated.

I too had spent time in taverns during my unemployed days, hoping to be recruited by someone.

Perhaps the concept was that developing taverns where talents gathered and adventurers completed various requests would lead to commercial development.

The tavern in Annel Castle was enormous, so there were several employees besides me.

Some appeared to be C-rank officers like me who had been assigned to work here.

Being placed here told me one thing:

‘My politics stat must not be particularly high.’

That’s why they assigned me to a position requiring relatively less skill, right?

Of course, customer service could be endlessly complex if one wanted to specialize in it, but considering how relatively idle I was, I clearly wasn’t in an important position.

Since I couldn’t see a status window, I had to estimate my stats myself.

Still, it wasn’t bad.

With plenty of time, I could verify various things.

First of all.

The question I asked before falling asleep yesterday: “Can Lunarian Ineanne become the monarch who unifies the continent?”

There was no answer to that.

Not like “unknown” or something similar—I simply couldn’t obtain an answer.

It felt similar to when I hadn’t received a question at all.

Usually I could ask myself the same question multiple times once I’d heard it from someone else, but for some reason this was blocked.

Sensing something strange, I immediately asked myself several questions.

All were questions I had received when I first met Lunarian.

[Can Serpina von Einhart unify the continent?] And, [Is Baranga Yurie Aeshus a monarch who can unify the continent?] [Can Lynn Brans unify the continent?]

Of these, only the last question about Lynn produced an answer.

The answer was, [No, she cannot].

Basically, I couldn’t directly ask myself questions.

To make predictions, I needed to hear questions from others.

Once I heard a question from someone else, I could ask myself the same question repeatedly.

But—despite having received these questions in the past, answers weren’t forthcoming.

At this point, I could vaguely guess a rule I hadn’t known before:

That is—

‘The questions I receive are reset when I change the ruler I serve…?’

If this was correct, it would simply explain why only the question about Lynn could be predicted.

This was the first question Lynn had asked me when she recruited me.

So my questions—

Since they were ultimately a “strategist’s” predictions, did questions related to my affiliated army take priority?

Though it bothered me that I could predict the futures of other rulers too.

Of course, this wasn’t a perfect answer.

The reset seemed real, but it could happen periodically… or due to some other factor I hadn’t noticed.

‘Well, I can’t know for now.’

If I could grab someone and say “Please just ask me one question: can Lunarian Ineanne unify the continent?”—well, I could easily check the results again.

But without Lunarian who would unconditionally listen to me, going around asking such strange questions would only draw unwanted attention.

Though Irene was here, we weren’t that close yet.

‘I’ll have another chance to check someday.’

So I just did my assigned work at the tavern, dealing with people adequately.

I wondered if this really counted as “contributing” to commerce… but in internal affairs, politics stats were far more important than intelligence stats.

Well, I didn’t particularly dislike this job. It would have been more annoying to come up with ideas to develop the market.

Why work so hard when I was just temporarily affiliated with the Brans army?

‘Let’s just do the job.’

So I spent my time working without particular enthusiasm.

*

A week had passed since I started my mission.

On my way back from the market, I bought a snack that all the children were carrying around.

It was a typical pastry with sweet jam inside.

“I’m back.”

“Mm. Good work.”

When I arrived home, Irene greeted me warmly, drenched in sweat and resting in that indecently revealing training outfit.

“Have you been swinging your sword until now today as well?”

“That’s right.”

Those firm muscles on her waist must be the result of that ascetic path, right?

Feeling a bit guilty about the situation, I laid out what I had bought on the table.

Irene approached, showing interest in my purchases.

“What’s that?”

“Snacks. All the children in Annel Castle were carrying and eating them.”

“Ah… Swen, do you like sweet things?”

“Not particularly, but you always make tea for me, don’t you? I thought these might go well together.”

There were snacks in Irene’s house too, but they were more plain than sweet.

If we’re going to have tea, wouldn’t it be nice to have something sweet with it?

“I see… I’ve been focusing on my training, so I’ve been avoiding sweet foods as much as possible.”

I suppose that makes sense.

Someone so focused on building her body would naturally control her diet.

Actually, except for when she grilled meat for me during my welcome dinner, she generally seemed to eat modest portions of simple food.

“Well, if you’re avoiding sweets while training hard, I suppose it can’t be helped—”

As I was about to put away the snacks I’d bought:

With a soft touch—

She placed her hand on my wrist.

“…”

“?”

“…Ahem.”

She cleared her throat awkwardly without saying anything.

Even when I tried to pull my hand away, her strong grip held it firmly in place.

“…Lady Irene.”

“What?”

“Would you like to have some?”

“…!”

Seeing her face instantly turn red, I knew I was right.

Living together, I’d noticed she was surprisingly bad at hiding her emotions.

But—she seemed to be having an internal conflict because the food didn’t fit her routine.

At times like this, a little encouragement helps.

“Let’s eat together if you’d like. A few won’t hurt.”

Not realizing my words were like a devil’s whisper, she covered her mouth with her hand and nodded.

“…Well, it’s not that I want to eat them… but considering you went to the trouble of buying them.”

She said this while mysteriously raising the corners of her mouth.

Why?

Hearing Irene’s obvious lie made me want to tease her.

“No, I’m fine. If you’re only eating them because you’re concerned about what I bought, you don’t have to.”

“What…!”

“I don’t want you to force yourself. I’ll eat them all. Please don’t feel obligated.”

Taking advantage of her momentary weakness, I moved the bread aside.

She leaned forward like a cat eyeing a treat, moving closer to where the bread was.

Her purple eyes flickered with such obvious disappointment.

She really is terrible at lying.

That’s enough teasing.

I smiled lightly, nodded, and said:

“I’m just kidding. Let’s eat together, Lady Irene. That’s why I bought them in the first place.”

Hearing my words, she pouted as if feeling wronged.

“…Swen, sometimes I really don’t know what you’re thinking.”

“I hear that a lot.”

“…Pfft.”

Amused by my response, she laughed briefly—

Then stood up and headed to the kitchen, saying:

“I’ll wash up quickly and bring some tea. Just wait a moment.”

“As you command.”

It had been nearly 10 days since I started living under the same roof as Irene.

I was gradually getting used to her.

*

“The news” came about two and a half weeks after I started my commercial duties.

“You’re saying I should suspend my mission and return to the royal castle immediately?”

I asked the soldier who had come to fetch me.

“Yes. Our lord is looking for you, Sir Swen. She said it’s fine to temporarily suspend your mission.”

‘Lynn is looking for me?’

What could this be about?

I couldn’t imagine why she would be looking for me at this point—

‘I’ll find out when I get there.’

“I understand. I’ll wrap things up and head to the royal castle right away.”

“Yes. I’ve delivered the message clearly. Well then.”

After briefly exchanging greetings with the soldier, I explained the situation to my coworkers and left the tavern, heading straight for the royal castle of Annel.