Ch.9Chapter 9. The Invasion of Brans (1)

Currently, who is the monarch with the highest possibility of unification in the Garand continent?

If you ask anyone, only one name is mentioned.

Legitimacy from having imperial blood.

A vast territory obtained by pacifying the northern part of the continent.

Countless talented individuals.

The tyrant, Serpina von Einhart, will finish the war and unify this continent—

Storytellers in taverns and civilians alike all call her name, declaring her the new unifying monarch.

And next.

If we assume Serpina fails to unify the continent, who would have the next highest possibility?

That person would be Lynn Brans, the leader of the Brans family and their talented third daughter.

Long blue straight hair. Extremely elegant appearance that naturally endears her to people meeting her for the first time.

Not only does she control the central part of the continent, the most fertile land, but she also absorbs numerous small nations, growing stronger with each passing day.

It was certain that the Brans army would become the undisputed ruler of the central part of the continent, which had the largest population and many small nations rising with ambition.

And now, she—Lynn Brans—sitting on the throne with a somewhat bored expression,

was receiving a report from someone who appeared to be her retainer.

“My lord. We have achieved victory in the Tirandy occupation battle, successfully liberating Tirandy from the Walnut army.”

“Oh? Good work, big brother♡”

So we’ve finally managed to deal with the Walnut army that we’ve been fighting recently.

Lynn smiled with satisfaction and asked the kneeling man—her second oldest brother Kalintz.

“How many prisoners do we have?”

“We’ve captured a total of five prisoners. Please decide their treatment. Hey there!”

“Yes sir!”

At the man’s call, soldiers brought in five generals with their hands bound and made them kneel before her.

Among them was the man who was once their leader, Walnut Castrado.

“……”

“Let’s see.”

Lynn slowly examined the prisoners.

There was one somewhat useful talent who had once succeeded in defeating her army.

“Attention, everyone! I believe there was a general who once captured Heizel Castle. What was his name… Right. Gurupa. Who is Gurupa?”

“…I am Gurupa.”

A long-haired man raised his head and spoke.

Lynn looked at the man and said with an extremely seductive expression.

“My, my… So it’s you? The one who gave me trouble. Fufu♡ I thought there were no forces around that would dare attack our territory first. You’ve got quite the nerve, haven’t you?”

“……”

Although Gurupa remained silent,

Lynn seemed to like his attitude, letting out a giggling laugh.

She rose from her seat, slowly approached Gurupa—

and lifted his chin with two fingers, looking down into his eyes as she spoke.

“What do you think? Don’t you want to become mine? I treat useful people ex-tremely, extremely, ex-tremely, extremely, extremely well, you know? Working under me would be much more enjoyable than under that Walnut whatever-his-name-is, don’t you think? Hmm?”

“…Kill me.”

Gurupa, without avoiding her gaze, summoned his remaining strength to answer.

Lynn looked at Gurupa with a smiling expression, and then…

Soon, with an extremely cold expression, she said:

“Hmm. I see. So you don’t want to work under me?”

Lynn roughly pushed Gurupa away with her hand.

With a thud as he fell, she ordered a nearby soldier.

“Hey. Take him away and kill him.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

And so Gurupa was dragged away somewhere by the soldier.

Everyone in the room realized that his destination would be the execution ground.

The remaining prisoners were no exception.

They watched the entire scene with their eyes wide open.

“Sigh. How boring. I don’t understand why he won’t become mine. I could show him much more interesting sights than that outdated old man.”

Lynn was lost in thought for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth.

“I’ll ask the rest of you, except for Walnut, all at once. Do you want to join me or not?”

This was another recruitment offer, but with a clearly different temperature than the one she made to Gurupa.

It carried the nuance that she didn’t really care whether they joined or not, but if they wanted, she would use them.

Perhaps because they had just witnessed Gurupa being dragged to the execution ground,

the remaining prisoners unanimously bowed their heads and said:

“I-I surrender.”

“From today on, I will serve Lady Lynn Brans.”

“P-Please! Sp-spare my life! If you just spare my life, I will serve you with all my l-loyalty.”

“……”

Lynn approached the man who had shown excessive loyalty with cold eyes.

Then, looking down at him, she asked:

“Hey.”

“Eek…!! P-p-please… please, just spare my life…!”

“…Sigh.”

Lynn let out a long sigh—

then looked at the soldier and said:

“Hey. Just let this one go.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“L-let me go…?!”

The man looked up at Lynn in surprise and asked.

“You’re free. I’m just releasing you. I don’t want to pay a salary to use someone like you.”

In other words, she was saying, “I’d rather set you free than pay you to work for me.”

Despite being quite insulting, the man was so happy to have saved his life that he kept banging his head on the floor, expressing his gratitude to Lynn.

“Thank you, thank you…! Really, really thank you! I will never forget the kindness you’ve shown me!”

“Yes, yes. You may go. Hey. Take him out.”

“Yes! Come this way.”

Even as he was being led away, the freed man repeatedly expressed his gratitude with tears streaming down his face.

Of course, no matter how many times he said it, it didn’t reach her ears.

Lynn turned her head, smiled sweetly, and said:

“And you two will work for our Brans army from now on. Understood?”

“Y-yes! Understood!”

“I will obey your command!”

Despite gaining two new talents for the Brans army, she wasn’t particularly pleased.

She had lost the most delicious prey, and the rest were all just a bunch of nobodies.

“……”

“Ah, right.”

Lynn approached Walnut as if she had just remembered something.

“Do you have anything you want to say, Mr. Walnut?”

“…I.”

The balding old man Walnut trembled slightly.

Perhaps because he was once the leader of an army that had waged war against her, even though he was now a prisoner,

Lynn was using honorifics when speaking to Walnut.

“…If you spare me, I will do my best to help you.”

“My, is that so? It’s certainly pleasing to hear that the once esteemed leader Mr. Walnut would help us♡”

Lynn smiled slightly—

then changed her expression and lowered her voice.

“But I can’t allow that.”

“…W-what do you mean…?”

Lynn slightly raised her head and looked down at him.

It was a gaze like looking at an insect.

It was somewhat different from the look she had given the man who had thanked her for sparing his life despite her insulting words.

If her gaze toward that man was contemptuous yet somewhat sympathetic—like looking at someone who was simply useless from the start—her gaze toward Walnut was one of utter contempt, as if looking at something worse than garbage.

“You’re a leader. Do you know how pathetic it is for a leader to beg for his life? You can’t even follow half the example of Gurupa, who died maintaining his loyalty to you?”

“T-that… G-Gurupa, that guy arbitrarily—”

“Shut up. You stink. Do you know why an army led by garbage like you was able to capture Heizel even for a moment? It was because of Gurupa. How did you dare to raise an army without even knowing that?”

Lynn glanced at the soldier standing nearby.

The soldier brilliantly understood that it meant “take him to the execution ground.”

“Come this way!”

“W-wait… Lady Lynn Brans! Spare me! P-please show mercy…!”

Walnut continued to cry out pitifully—

but Lynn thoroughly ignored him and returned to her throne with elegant steps.

“Ugh. To think I was defeated even once by such a pathetic guy, it’s embarrassing.”

After the prisoners had been dealt with,

Kalintz, who had remained kneeling, carefully spoke.

“My lord. What are your plans going forward?”

“Hmm? Same as always. We need to attack the surrounding small nations to expand our territory. We need to pacify the central region as quickly as possible to match the northern Serpina army. Oh right. What happened to the spy we sent to Zeilant?”

“He has returned. As before, Lunarian Ineanne occupies it, with about 3,000 soldiers and a total of three generals under her command.”

“Three? Didn’t you say there were two a few days ago? An old man and some carnivorous woman, right?”

“That was certainly the case before… but our spy reported frequently seeing a young man with white hair accompanying Lunarian Ineanne. It seems they may have recruited a new general.”

“Hmm? A new general joining the failing Lunarian army? Maybe they just mistook some boy Lunarian is keeping around?”

“Well… that’s hard to…”

“Hmm.”

Something felt boring.

She had been enthusiastic about the battle with the Walnut army, thinking she could gain Gurupa after winning.

But defeating the Lunarian army would only yield the small city of Zeilant.

The talents under Lunarian didn’t look particularly appetizing either.

‘But what can I do? The more annoying the task, the quicker I should get it done.’

Lynn looked at Kalintz and said:

“Brother. Is Chel currently in the south?”

“Yes, he is.”

Chel Brans.

Kalintz Brans’s older brother and Lynn Brans’s eldest brother.

He was a strong man whom anyone would name as the best swordsman of the Brans family.

“Hmm… Can you handle it alone, Brother Kalintz?”

At Lynn’s words, Kalintz bowed his head and said:

“How could I not? If you entrust it to me, I will bring you Zeilant Castle. The negotiations have already been concluded.”

Negotiations concluded.

While she wondered if that was really necessary, Lynn figured Kalintz would handle it well.

She nodded.

“Alright. I’ll provide you with an appropriate number of soldiers. Let’s finish this quickly.”

“Yes!”

After dealing with five more forces, including the Lunarian army, they would completely pacify the central continent.

She was somewhat concerned about the Aeshus army, which would likely be their final opponent due to its location… but she was confident they could somehow succeed.

After all, who was she? None other than Lynn Brans.

‘The one who will unify the continent is me.’

She smiled with satisfaction.

It was an extremely beautiful, elegant, and dignified smile.

* * *

After hearing the messenger’s report, Luna and Swen quickly returned to Zeilant Castle.

Tifa and Cain, who had already heard the news, were waiting inside the castle.

“You’re here?! Did you hear? They say the Brans people are coming to attack us?!”

“…I heard. Who’s the enemy commander?”

“It’s likely to be Kalintz Brans. We received testimony that he was seen organizing an expedition force in the village.”

At Cain’s words, Luna’s expression darkened.

“Kalintz Brans… He’s not an easy opponent.”

Kalintz Brans.

It was a name I knew well too.

When playing as the Brans army, there were two generals who always led the vanguard in battle.

Kalintz Brans and Chel Brans, the brothers of the monarch Lynn Brans.

Kalintz, Lynn’s second brother, wasn’t as outstanding a general as Chel, but he had a cooler temperament than the somewhat reckless Chel, making him an S-class general who rarely fell for strategies.

I too had mainly used Kalintz rather than the unpredictable Chel.

‘Should we abandon the town and flee after all?’

We had spent money to raise public sentiment significantly.

But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t find any way to win this battle.

Including the minor generals under Kalintz, they would have well over five commanders, while our side had only four people including myself.

The difference in soldier numbers was also more than double, making it a desperate situation.

“Swen. What do you think we should do?”

Luna asked for my advice.

The one fortunate thing was that my intelligence stat was 100.

If she followed my instructions, we might somehow manage.

With such a somewhat naive thought, I input Luna’s question into my head.

And then.

‘…Huh?’

The answer my mind produced was—

[Appoint Cain as the vanguard commander and engage in battle. That is the optimal strategy you can implement now.]

Once again, an absurd answer was emerging.