Chapter 15:
The Right Hand
AT THE PARTY, Marion scowled in her dress.
"You've done it now, Liam..."
Her usual androgynous look was gone. She was the very picture of
femininity now. The cutesy party dress had been Liam's idea, of course.
Marion would never wear something like that willingly, and hardly ever
wore skirts in the first place. She preferred her usual suits.
Liam was chatting with guests he'd invited to the party. As they
praised his impressive spaceport and he happily accepted their
compliments, Marion simmered with anger.
And headship of my family was just within reach...
At this point, even if Marion managed to become viscount, the
margrave most certainly wouldn't acknowledge it. Her plan had already
failed.
The margrave spoke to Marion without looking at her, as if to
indicate she wasn't worthy of his time.
"You had to go and get involved in the succession conflict on the
Capital Planet, didn't you?"
Instead of soliciting aid from powerful nobles as she'd been asked
to, Marion had let her own greed dictate her actions.
"I-I regret doing what I did."
The margrave criticized her for getting involved with Cleo's faction.
"You made that mistake because you aspired to something beyond your
reach. Now we've received incredible aid from House Banfield...but that
aid won't come cheap."
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The margrave's expression made it clear that he was uncomfortable
with the aid Liam was providing him. He could only assume that Liam
wasn't acting out of noble intentions and would expect something from
him in return. To make matters worse, one of his family had been plotting
against Liam. Basically, House Algren had picked a fight with Liam, and
Liam had turned around and helped them. To those noble party guests
living near Planet Augur, that act must have seemed incredibly benevolent.
Liam had positioned himself as a benefactor to the nobles on the
border, and as the one who was supposed to unify those nobles, the
margrave wasn't too happy about the influence Liam was amassing. In the
end, all this went back to Marion.
"You wanted to make use of that man, didn't you? But you were the
one who ended up being used in the end."
"Liam used me...?"
"He's won the trust of the border nobles with this move. It's clear
now that sending him out here as magistrate was a bad move."
At first, Marion didn't understand what the margrave was saying;
the shame of the embarrassing outfit she'd been forced to wear had
clouded her mind. But the situation gradually became clear to her. Once it
did, Marion recognized how thoroughly she'd been exploited.
"Damn him!" she burst out.
The margrave wiped the expression from his face. "That man is on
an entirely different level than you. You made a mistake in choosing who
to fight—no, in choosing who to join hands with."
Marion clenched her fists when he pointed that out. Just then, she
saw Liam leaving the venue, and before she knew it, she'd taken off
running.
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***
I made a show of leaving the party and waited in the hallway
outside. Sure enough, Marion came flying out of the venue after me. When
she realized I was waiting for her, she tried to play it cool despite her
obvious surprise.
"Lord Liam, there's something I wish to discuss with you."
Leaning against the wall, I chuckled as I guessed what she had to
say. "Now you want to join forces, I assume?"
Marion looked frustrated, so I had to be right. She quickly put on a
smile and paid me a compliment. "Very astute. You're much more clever
than Randy. I should have worked with you from the beginning."
"Yeah, maybe things would have been different for you if you'd
kissed my ass from the start."
Though that would have creeped me out in its own way. The only
reason I was interested in Marion at all was because I knew she was trying
to use me. Of course, there was no reason she had to know that, so I
decided to keep quiet about it for now.
"Why not work with me?" Marion proposed.
"There's nothing in it for me," I said with a smirk, but Marion must
have taken my light attitude to mean there was room for negotiation. I was
only teasing her, but her unfamiliar state of dress and the way she'd been
cornered clearly made it hard for her to think on her feet. Her panic caused
her to clutch at any little thing as a potential escape route.
"There is! Whose orders do you think I was acting under?"
I folded my arms and waited to see what she'd say. Whose name
was she going to give me? Marion drew out the suspense before giving me
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an answer.
"It's Prince Cleo. Prince Cleo is trying to oust you from your
position. If you work with me, I can be a double agent and feed Prince
Cleo information—"
"You're out, Marion." I declared her failure before she even finished
her appeal.
"Huh...?"
"If you'd said Randy or Annabelle, a slightly better future might
have been in store for you."
With those words as the trigger, shadows leaped out from the walls,
ceiling, and floor. The color drained from Marion's face at the appearance
of Kukuri and his men.
"A-agents..."
Marion trembled, knowing exactly what the appearance of these
secret operatives meant. Kukuri descended from the ceiling, flexing his
large hands. My operatives surrounded Marion excitedly, like children
who'd just got their hands on a new toy.
"Hee hee hee!" Kukuri chortled. "Ah, excuse me, Master Liam; it
just gets my sadistic juices flowing seeing fools like this. What would you
have us do with her?'
I was about to answer his question when Marion screamed over me.
"Why?! I told you who was behind all this!"
I sighed, looking at the pale, trembling Marion. I didn't want her
making any more commotion, so I decided to tell her the truth. "It was
Prince Cleo who told me about your maneuverings."
"Why...?"
Marion looked as though she couldn't believe what I was saying, so
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I explained.
"I was the one who accepted the position of magistrate, if you'll
recall. We'd been discussing it even before then. Prince Cleo knew about
your plan from the beginning."
Marion sank to the floor, her expression still disbelieving. I gave her
the message Prince Cleo had entrusted me with.
"Prince Cleo told me to tell you something if you gave me his name.
He said: 'I'm disappointed that we couldn't see eye to eye.'"
Marion hung her head, so I walked over to her and gently lifted her
chin, making her stand up a little straighter.
"Men are all scum," she said, tears spilling from her eyes. "Using
me like this."
"Have you already forgotten that you planned to use me? Still, I'll
let you off the hook with this. After all, you won't get the seat of viscount
you were after, and you can't go back to your family. There's no place for
you on the Capital Planet anymore either. I'd feel bad if I took anything
else from you."
I guffawed, and Marion grimaced. When she realized she'd lost
everything, more tears flowed from her eyes.
"What are you going to...do with me...?"
I could tell all she wanted was not to be handed over to my
operatives.
Now that she was weeping, I wasn't having fun anymore, so I let go
of her.
"Serve me. If you do, I'll let you live."
***
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Meanwhile, Calvin's forces had received word of the structure of
Liam's fleet. However, it was the man serving Liam that concerned Calvin
more than the count himself.
Calvin narrowed his eyes. "Claus? Liam's right hand is here?!"
Calvin's fear of Claus was only to be expected, as the knight had
served as the acting supreme commander of the Empire's forces in the war
with the United Kingdom. Anyone who hadn't been there fighting in the
war themselves assumed that Claus had commanded the troops in Liam
and Cleo's place.
A stir ran through the nobles of Calvin's faction.
"He's the man who won the war with the United Kingdom in no
time at all!"
"I've heard he crushed them thoroughly and without mercy!"
"If Liam's brought a man like that with him, does he actually intend
to get rid of us?"
Claus's name was known to everyone in Calvin's faction. He was
reputedly Liam's right-hand man and a skilled strategist who'd repelled
the United Kingdom's forces in a surprisingly short time.
Calvin sweated bullets at the thought of Claus's presence at the rear
of their forces.
We can't fight at our best with such a skilled strategist threatening
us from behind.
Calvin couldn't even imagine what kind of move a strategist like
Claus might make against them. He had led the Empire to a swift victory
in a conflict that everyone had thought would drag on for some time. In
addition, he'd used the war as an opportunity to clean up the nobles from
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Calvin's faction who were threatening him. Calvin saw Claus as a knight
more dangerous than any other. It would also be impossible to try to
recruit him to Calvin's ranks despite his fearsome prowess. The other
nobles in his faction would never allow it after what Claus had done to
them in the previous war.
While Calvin and his supporters affirmed the need to heighten their
vigilance in regard to the rear line, an emergency transmission reached the
council room.
***
"Is this all you've got, Empire?!"
Calvin's jaw dropped as he stood on the bridge of the Empire's
flagship. He almost forgot he was on the battlefield as he took in the
impossible scene before him.
"This can't be..." he muttered, and no one around him could fault
him for trying to deny reality.
After all, what he saw was the Autocracy's main force pushing
toward them. Hundreds of thousands of ships were pressing forward, but
that wasn't what scared him.
The monitor before him displayed a single, many-armed mobile
knight. It would be classed as a twenty-four-meter model, and it was
covered in plating made to look like human musculature. It was mostly
light brown, with red around its waist. It almost looked like a man naked
except for a red loincloth, but the features on its back went far beyond that
image. Sprouting from the mech's back were six additional arms. With the
two on its main body, it had eight total. Each arm on its back held a
different weapon. Something like a golden magic circle showed behind the
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mobile knight, which was apparently part of its system. The mobile knight
almost looked divine, but its form didn't shock Calvin as much as its
obvious strength.
"How many ships did that one mobile knight just take out?!" Calvin
couldn't help but yell.
That single mobile knight had been slicing through Imperial ships
one after the other. The Empire concentrated their attacks on it, but...
"All ships, fire on that mobile knight!" A general who served as
Calvin's advisor ordered thousands of Imperial ships to fire on the foe
simultaneously. Thousands of beams converged on that one craft.
"You're aiming at me?!" the craft responded. "Well, that's not
enough to destroy my country's namesake humanoid weapon!"
Just as the enemy pilot boasted, the ships' weapons did nothing to
the mech. The lasers, energy beams, and other weapons were deflected
away before they could hit the mobile knight.
Calvin covered his mouth. "Just one mobile knight... So its pilot
is..."
Over every channel, the enemy pilot demanded, "Isn't anyone
strong enough to face me—Isel Balandin?!"
The pilot was the enemy nation's crown prince—the supreme
commander of their forces himself.
"Retreat!" Calvin ordered.
***
After fighting off the Empire's main force, Isel returned to the
G'doire Autocracy's fortress-class flagship looking unsatisfied.
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"I let Calvin get away..."
He'd dealt a considerable blow to the enemy's army, but Calvin had
still escaped. That wasn't what frustrated Isel, however. What displeased
Isel was the fact that he hadn't been able to fight anyone who really got his
blood up.
G'doire watched him sympathetically, his eight tentacles writhing.
"My poor Isel is without any strong warriors to fight. When will that
damn Guide bring Liam to the battlefield...?"
The Autocracy soldiers started clamoring. G'doire looked to see
what the noise was about and found they'd learned information about the
enemy, and among the information was a name that set the warriors' hearts
ablaze. Even Isel, who a moment ago had been so disappointed, grinned
with excitement.
"Claus? Claus Sera Mont is on the battlefield?!"
Information on Claus, whose name was known even to Isel, had
come to them not from the Empire but from the United Kingdom. All
those on the bridge were thrilled to hear that Claus was here on the
battlefield.
"He's the tough guy who destroyed the United Kingdom, right?"
"No, I hear he's just a tactician."
"Either way, he's got to have some powerful people working for
him!"
Claus had trounced the United Kingdom in the Empire's last war. At
the appearance of a named knight like him, Isel's earlier frustration all but
vanished.
"I was just thinking Calvin's head alone might not satisfy me, but if
there's a big name like Claus here, I might have some fun after all. I'm
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getting excited! So where is Sir Claus?"
The soldier who'd given the report was much less excited than
everyone else on the bridge. "He's not stationed on the front lines. He's at
the rear, on a base that's currently under construction."
Isel was surprised to hear that. "Not on the front lines? Why?
Shouldn't a first-rate knight like him be positioned there?"
To the people of the Autocracy, it would make even more sense for
Claus to serve as the enemy's supreme commander than Calvin, so they
couldn't believe he wasn't commanding the fleet.
One soldier brought up the planet where Claus stationed on the
monitor. "I don't know why, but they positioned Sir Claus on a planet at
the rear of the Empire's forces, where their defenses are awfully thin."
The Empire's famed general was in the underdefended rear. From
that, Isel reached a single conclusion. "So that's what's going on. They
plan to lure us there and crush us!"
They were trying to draw the Autocracy's forces into their midst.
A military advisor cracked his neck. "So they're luring us to Sir
Claus, the man who defeated the United Kingdom... Not a bad strategy.
What do you want to do, Prince Isel?"
Isel grinned and closed his eyes, then opened them wide and thrust
his arm forward. "It's obvious! If it's a trap for us, then we'll just tear
through it!"
He commanded them to charge forward, as if to say they needed no
strategy beyond that, and the troops around him all cheered.
Watching the bridge unseen, G'doire wriggled his tentacles with
glee. "Heh heh...heh heh heh! I didn't know they had foes so strong!
Liam, Claus... So the Empire has some tough guys too. Ooh, I can't wait!"
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G'doire was thrilled that Isel would get to fight those two
opponents.
"Tens of millions...no, hundreds of millions will likely die in this
fighting! I can't wait! I really can't wait!"
G'doire eagerly envisioned the many lives that would be easily lost
in this war.
***
In the spaceport above Planet Augur, where he was working, Claus
experienced a strange chill.
"I keep shivering lately. Am I just tired...?"
Claus often suffered from Liam's reckless whims. Still, for the most
part, he simply did his work diligently, and his day ended without
excitement. This was another day that was poised to conclude without
anything unusual occurring.
"Maybe I'm just anxious from being so close to the front lines. I
want to go home..."
Claus prayed every day for boring peace. He hadn't actually wanted
to become Liam's head knight. He was well aware of the fact that he had
no particular skills in the first place. He didn't like fighting, and his
abilities were thoroughly average, so he still couldn't believe he was
serving in that role.
"But as soon as Lord Liam's term as magistrate is up, I can go
home. If nothing happens in the next two years, I'll be able to leave for
there..."
When he'd heard about Liam's plans to go to the border, he'd been
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worried, and he was relieved to find that things just might end without
anything crazy happening this time around. He felt bad for the people
fighting on the front lines, but House Banfield hadn't come here to fight in
the war in the first place. They were only here to support Liam in his work.
Still, Claus couldn't shake the bad feeling he'd had lately. In an
effort to distract himself, Claus looked down at the document on the tablet
he held.
"Guess I'll wrap up my work..."
Just when he thought he'd be able to get his work done and clock
out on time, Claus received an emergency communication from a
subordinate. Even before he could answer the call himself, it connected,
and his subordinate made a hasty report.
"Sir Claus, the Autocracy's fleet has changed course! A large force
is headed for Planet Augur!"
Claus looked off into the distance. Oh. So that's what that bad
feeling was.
Claus's subordinate interpreted his distant attitude as the head
knight keeping his cool. His awed expression said that the head knight's
calm under pressure amazed him. Regaining his own composure, Claus's
subordinate awaited his superior's orders.
"I'll report this to Lord Liam. Tell our army to get ready to sortie."
"Yes, sir!"
Though his emotional state was plummeting into depression, Claus
always got his work done.
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