Book 10: Chapter 8: Lying in a Trap
The bridge of Liam's ship, Argos.
There, Theodore was laughing inwardly while trying to keep her face expressionless.
(To see it crumble so quickly, Liam's faction's unity was fragile.)
The faces of the aristocrats of the Cleo faction were projected in the air on the bridge.
They were all indignant and blamed Liam.
"Count Banfield, this is your fault!"
"Remember that when you get back."
"I am disappointed in you."
Six months after the war began, the tide had turned completely in favor of the Calvinists.
The allied fleets were falling back, having lost most of the territory they held.
Some of the fleets even fled.
Some of the nobles had turned to the Calvinists.
Now the nobles are hanging Liam.
But...
"Is that all you have to say? Then get the hell out of here and go home. I'll play Calvin on my own."
-Liam, still young and full of blood, had misjudged the moment to pull out.
He was unable to stop his allies from defection, and he was intimidating those around him with his anger.
By all accounts, the game was up for grabs, and he was still determined to win.
Theodore was happy.
(Yes, he was. So, limp and bleed like that. When this battle is over, I will make sure that you will never be able to oppose His Highness Cleo again. A fitting end for a count-born boor.)
Looking around, Tia and Marie are looking down with bitter faces.
"Liam-sama, this is only going to cause more damage."
"The game is won. We should retreat or begin negotiations."
The two competent knights offer advice, but Liam refuses.
"Shut up! All you are allowed to do is to lead me to victory. --Tia, Marie, you two have been failures since the war started, haven't you? I'll leave it to the incompetents who can't follow me to transport the wounded."
They are given the role of putting together wounded people and weapons on the battlefield and letting them go.
This resulted in both Tia and Marie being removed from the battlefield.
Finally, Klaus admonishes Liam.
"Liam-sama, this is as far as you go. The main planet of Baron Glynn is waiting behind us. Even if we were to defend ourselves, the enemy outnumbers us more than four to one."
In response to the advice, Liam cites the battle against space pirates.
"That's not a problem. I've turned the tables on them before. This is acceptable."
"But!"
"--Klaus, if you can't follow me, you back off."
Theodore takes action at the sight of Liam removing all of his capable entourage.
(That went quicker than I thought it would. Still, what an expedient thing to do, to keep his most trusted men away from him.)
Alone on the ship, Theodore connects with Baron Glynn on the communication.
If he leaks information to the enemy, he will be noticed, but if he sends a communication to his allies, he can make excuses if he is blamed.
The conversation is a report of the situation, but the important thing is to use the words that had been decided beforehand.
"We are in a critical situation here. Baron Glynn should be prepared."
Baron Glynn's narrow eyes widen at this line, which is not strange in this situation.
"I understand. I will resist as much as I can."
It's a conversation about a backed-up situation, but it's one that was decided beforehand.
The translation is: "Liam is backed into a corner. Prepare to surrender."
Baron Glynn, who had no intention of fighting from the beginning, intended to surrender as soon as the Calvinists came on board.
Theodore gives final confirmation.
"The Banfield family sent a defensive force, didn't they?"
"Yes, they will do their best. It was worth the trouble I went through to borrow them."
There is a fleet that was forcefully borrowed from Liam because the defense of the main planet was not strong enough.
After surrendering, we planned to hand it over to the Calvinists, but if they resisted, we were going to pincer them.
"I will end this communication now."
"Take care of yourself, too."
When the communication ends, Theodore smiles a lowly smile.
"Now I can be a real nobleman."
One year after the war began.
Calvin sat up from his chair when the news arrived on the capital planet.
The young nobleman who brought the news has moistened eyes.
Calvin asks again.
"Did you really win?"
"Yes, Your Highness! Our forces have defeated the forces of the Banfield family and captured Baron Glynn's main planet! Baron Glynn surrenders. The remaining troops on the ground, sent by the Banfield family, continue to resist, but we are assured that they will soon be subdued."
If the main planet of Baron Glynn was conquered, the battle would be an unqualified victory.
"But it was too stupefying. Shouldn't Count Banfield have had a right-hand man, Klaus?"
Our spies report that Banfield insisted on winning despite Klaus's admonitions.
Would Liam do such a thing?
Calvin becomes more anxious than relieved.
"--How is Cleo doing?"
The young nobleman switches his frivolous mood and reports back with a serious face.
He too must have been concerned about Cleo's condition.
"The dark side is keeping an eye on him, but they haven't seen any suspicious activity," he said. "He doesn't seem to be connected to Liam, and he's moving as planned. Frankly, I find this more eerie."
No one would believe it if Cleo himself, who was leading in the battle for succession, said he would surrender to Calvin, who has no time left.
Calvin himself had no choice but to take the hand at that moment.
If he killed Cleo on the spot, Liam would simply put up someone else.
It would make no sense, and it was Liam, not Cleo, that Calvin was afraid of in the first place.
He collaborated with Cleo because he didn't have to fear him any more than Liam.
But he still couldn't believe it.
Cleo - and Liam's defeat.
"Tell your allies to stay on their toes. If he - Count Banfield - had ended up like this, we wouldn't have been pushed so far."
The young nobleman also straightens his back at Calvin, who tells him to brace himself.
"I'll tell them right away!"
"Oh, and I'll nail you later as well, while I'm working on it."
Normally, he would have been relieved that it was over here, but he was so taken aback that Calvin was struck with anxiety that it might have been a trap.
As the young nobleman leaves his office, he holds his head up.
"It should be over. I should have won. But why am I so afraid of him?"
To get rid of this anxiety, Calvin could not rejoice until he was sure of victory.
.
Baron Glynn's main planet.
Thousands of space battleships floated above the barons' perfect environment city - Acology, blocking the sun's rays.
On the bridge of that battleship, a Calvinist nobleman - the commander-in-chief - is buoyed by his stunned victory.
He is one of the commanders of a detachment of several thousand ships.
"The Crown Prince sent you a secret weapon, but you didn't use it after all."
His second-in-command also seems distracted.
"Isn't that why they are secret weapons, because they end up staying secret?"
"Yes, I suppose so. And what a god if you don't touch it."
The secret weapon was delivered by Calvin, but its adjustment took up a lot of space on the ship.
It was also difficult to handle, and a specialized staff was sent to handle it, basically not even the commander was given the details.
I wanted to know, but I also didn't want to get too involved.
The commander looked down through the window at the acolytes visible on the ground with his second in command.
"It's a very rough territory, by the way," he said. "I am a lord myself, and I can assure you it is no worse than this."
"Baron Glynn is reputed to be a buffoon. How dare His Highness Cleo invite that man to be his ally?"
"It's called politics. But I have no idea what it is."
The commander was not informed of the situation.
The second-in-command confirms his future plans.
"Regardless, we have won too brilliantly. We need to reschedule."
"It's not over yet, is it? There must be a unit of the Banfield family on the ground. Shouldn't there be allies heading that way?"
"They say it will all be over soon. Baron Glynn has reported the exact size of the ground forces."
"--A man you really don't want to have on your side."
The war was coming to an end.
They were relieved, but turned to see what was going on when an allied naval vessel floating a few kilometers away exploded.
The space battleship, falling as it exploded, ended up near the acolyte.
The first officer shouts to the operator.
"Hurry up with the situation report!"
"Attack from above, sir!"
"The enemy? No, but we have allies in space."
More and more allies are pierced by the light and explode as sirens sound and the system shifts to Type 1 alert.
Some allies appeared to attack upward, but it was an allied ship that fell from the sky.
As if crushed by the falling allied ships, allies fall one after another.
"The Banfield family? Wayward."
As the commander takes his seat and tries to give the order, the operator reveals the affiliation of the enemy.
"Chi, no, sir. This--this is the family crest of the Barony of Exner!"
Hearing the name Baron Exner, the commander was momentarily puzzled as to which house it was.
Then he remembered that one of his enemies was a baronet close to the Banfield family.
"A rising baronet? I thought they had defected."
Soon after, a white knight appeared in front of the bridge of the battleship on which the commander was riding, and saw him swinging down the sword in his right hand.
There, the commander's consciousness was cut off.
In the cockpit of the white Mobile Knight, pilot Kurt was fighting while checking his surroundings.
Kurt was fighting from the atmosphere, which is a reckless thing to do.
The Mobile Knight that Kurt rides is a state-of-the-art aircraft presented by Liam.
Specially customized from a mass-produced machine, it was called the White Knight.
The white painted aircraft carries a sword, which is Kurt's specialty.
The same aircraft descends after Kurt, but the rest of the aircraft is gray and plainly finished.
It is hard to believe that they are very much the same aircraft.
"Let's hit them before the enemy maneuvering knights come out!"
I give an order to my men, and they all reply at once.
"Yes, sir!"
Kurt glanced once at the acolyte and saw a succession of small allied ships disembarking one after the other.
From there, armed soldiers descended one after another to begin the ground battle.
"Don't forget to cover the ground troops. It is an important mission to rescue Baron Glynn!"
"Ha!"
Rescue - as he said this, Kurt let out an inward sigh.
(I'm sorry to lie to my men who are fighting for their lives.)
It was a land battle group led by Tia that invaded the acolyte.
"Where are you~, Mr. Baron!"
Tia, dressed in a pilot suit with power suit functions, carried a rapier-type weapon in her right hand.
In her left hand she carries a pistol, and when an enemy jumps out at her, she shoots him instantly.
Inside her helmet, she smiles, then her eyes bleed.
When she found enemy soldiers resisting by setting up a barricade, Tia kicked the ground and jumped over the barricade.
When she landed in a place full of enemies, she swung her rapier and slashed through them.
The blade of the rapier easily cut through the enemy's armor.
Then, Tia approached one fallen soldier, who luckily survived, and held him down with her foot on his chest.
The enemy soldier threw down his weapon and raised his hands.
He said, "Help me! I was just ordered to fight!"
"Where is the Baron?"
When Tia asks a question while threatening her rapier, the enemy soldier replies.
"Oh, that one got out of there right away. I don't even know if he's hiding or if he escaped. I just told him to give us time to escape, even if it kills us."
Tia kicks the enemy soldier unconscious and orders her men to restrain him.
"Capture this guy. Can you confirm the vehicle that got away up in the sky? A small ship, anything. Just find out."
When the correspondent checked, the answer came back immediately.
"He said he had them all in custody, but there was no sign of the baron among them."
"Yes. Then he is hiding. --Liam-sama will make sure he pays for his crimes."
Tia leads a group of knights and land troops to storm the mansion.
Then one soldier noticed something.
"--This is it."
The soldier found a nondescript shelf, but it was the entrance to a hidden room.
However, it seemed to have some kind of mechanism.
"It's an elaborate contraption."
"Oh, yes."
Tia listens to the soldier and kicks the shelves to forcefully discover the hidden room.
There was Baron Glynn, frightened in the corner of a rather luxurious hidden room.
"Hiccup!"
A pile of rare metals piled up.
The numerous antiques and other items are probably the property of Baron Glynn.
When Tia sheathed her rapier, Baron Glynn was relieved to see what she had misunderstood.
"Did you come to help me, by any chance? Oh no, thank God. I wondered what would happen when the Calvinist nobles caught me."
"That's good to know."
Tia smiled and slammed her fist into Baron Glynn, who stood up and approached her.
As Baron Glynn, blown away by the blow, crashed into the wall, she approached and grabbed him by his long hair.
Then she utters a deliberate line.
"Ahhh, what a mess! We rushed in to save Baron Glynn, but we didn't make it in time to let him die!"
"You didn't make it in time!?"
Knowing that Tia had not come to save him, Baron Glynn tried to escape, but he was unable to escape Tia's grip.
There are people waiting for you. The people who destroyed their home planet because of you. They hate you. You are nothing like Master Liam.
As it is, they take Baron Glynn out and throw him in front of the lords and ladies that the land forces have brought with them.
They had talked beforehand--these are the lords who resent Baron Glynn.
Baron Glynn tries to escape, but is stabbed in the calf by a weapon held by the lords.
"Ouch! Help me! Get me out of here!"
When the lords surrounded Baron Glynn, all of them hit him with their weapons - not firearms, but swords, spears, and other tools.
These were displayed as ornaments in the mansion.
"What's hurting you? It's your fault we're--"
"My family is dead because of you!"
"What reforms? It's your fault we're here!"
Baron Glynn's political skills are so bad that he is transformed into a terrible figure by his tormented subjects.
Even if he had a sturdier body than his subjects, there was no escape when he was surrounded by Tia and Liam's soldiers.
Tia's discomfort was evident on her face as she watched the scene.
The second-in-command questioned Tia's discontent.
"What's your gripe?"
The deputy is concerned that Tia is angry, even though it is an operation, because the people are killing their lords - an act that would not be tolerated in the empire.
But Tia was angry for a different reason.
"--I just wanted to fight up there anyway, if I could, I would have taken care of Theodore."
I wanted to kill Theodore who had caused me so much pain - Tia was not happy about that.
Her second-in-command shrugged.
"I'm sure Klaus-sama will organize things well over there."
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