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Chapter: 43
“…That concludes the message Her Majesty the Queen has ordered to be delivered to His Grace, the Grand Duke of Loren.”
The grand conference hall of Castle Loren.
The messenger, who had ridden without rest for two full days, relayed every detail without omission—Brienne’s situation, its strategy, and its request for aid—before Claude and the key vassals of Loren, as well as the senior officers of the knight order.
“An army of ten thousand monsters?!”
“Good heavens, what is all this all of a sudden…?”
Everyone who heard the report was struck with shock.
Only Claude de Loren remained silent. Not only was this something he had already experienced in his previous life, but ever since the Megalodon incident, he had been keenly aware that history could change at any moment.
Amid the unsettled atmosphere, Claude raised a hand. When it became clear that he intended to speak, the room fell quiet.
At last, Claude opened his mouth.
“You’ve worked hard getting here. It seems we need to discuss this among ourselves for a bit, so step outside and wait.”
“Yes. However, time is of the essence, so I would appreciate it if this could be concluded as quickly as possible.”
The soldier pressed them with proper courtesy, then left the conference hall. As soon as he was gone, several vassals muttered in disbelief.
“How dare a mere soldier tell us what to do!”
“This is why those Brienne bastards…”
“To think they come begging for help and still don’t know how to bow their heads.”
Although Brienne and Loren were allies bound by a non-aggression pact, invisible tensions constantly simmered among the nobility.
In Brienne, there was an undercurrent of looking down on Loren as nothing more than a grand duchy…
“Your Grace, we must not send support. Not only was that soldier’s attitude unacceptable, but isn’t Brienne essentially saying, ‘We’ve decided on a plan, so just do as you’re told’?”
Meanwhile, in Loren, Brienne was often viewed as arrogant and unscrupulous.
“Exactly. If we accept this, they’ll mistake our alliance for a relationship of lord and vassal. Ever since ancient times, they’ve been itching to seize Loren.”
“They’re demanding we send troops unconditionally, without offering anything in return! What kind of shameless behavior is that?”
More than half of the nobles present did not hold Brienne in high regard.
Some spoke up heatedly against providing support, while others calmly presented differing opinions.
“Let’s all calm down for a moment. If the monster army will reach Brienne’s capital in just ten days, perhaps they simply haven’t had the leisure to consider compensation for our aid.”
“Yes. In any case, we are allies, and helping them is the proper course.”
“And this is not the time to stand on pride alone. If Brienne falls, we may well be next. For the sake of protecting Loren, I believe it is right to participate in the operation.”
Claude and the knight commanders remained tight-lipped while the vassals continued to push their respective arguments.
“Then how about we send troops, but delay their deployment a little? We could dispatch reinforcements just before the monsters reach the capital from the north. That would weaken Brienne’s power.”
“Isn’t this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Loren to rise—first to a kingdom, and perhaps even to an empire?”
“I disagree. If the northeastern region of Brienne is wiped out, agricultural supplies will be disrupted, and as a result, prices in Loren will skyrocket.”
Arguments for and against continued without pause. As if they were mere background noise, Claude let them go on while he studied the map spread across the desk, slowly tracing his index finger across Brienne’s northern region.
That line marked the boundary where, according to the messenger, a holy barrier would be erected.
‘Once again, there’s no Dongremian.’
The “strategy” of Brienne—something he had hoped might change—was not different in the slightest.
Because they had been ordered to stand by, the ordinary knights remained at the training grounds, waiting for further instructions.
Yet no one knew why the emergency summons had been issued, nor how long they would be kept waiting.
“Don’t tell me monsters showed up again?”
“It could be, but if so, isn’t this taking way too long?”
Some speculated. Some doubted. Some stayed silent.
Jeanne belonged to the silent group—not because her mind was empty, but because she was plagued by an ominous premonition she could not logically explain.
‘No. It can’t be.’
Every so often, words like “monsters” and “this is no ordinary matter” pierced her ears with unsettling clarity.
Jeanne shook her head hard. I’m just being overly sensitive, she told herself. Those people are just being loud.
The atmosphere in the training grounds changed abruptly when one of the division commanders entered.
“All personnel, assemble!”
The knights scattered across the grounds hurriedly formed ranks. Jeanne quickly took her place as well, all the while fervently hoping that that plan would not come out of the commander’s mouth.
“A short while ago, an urgent request for support arrived from Brienne. A monster army of ten thousand has appeared, split between the north and south of Brienne. The northernmost and southernmost fronts have already been breached, and they are currently holding the advance at Rédel and Blois.”
Ah.
“With their current forces, Brienne cannot hold both fronts. They’ve decided to concentrate their defense in the south, and have therefore requested that we subjugate the monster army advancing from the north.”
Damn Brienne.
“Their strategy is to hold the monsters back with a holy barrier while we eliminate the northern force from Alas, thereby seizing victory.”
“So you’re saying they want us to handle all ten thousand monsters? Isn’t that an unreasonable demand?”
Alas lay far to the south, even beyond Dongremian.
In other words—
‘They’re abandoning Dongremian again.’
The only difference from her previous life was that the incident had been brought forward by several months. The strategy itself had not changed at all.
In her past life, when she had been a knight of Brienne, she had only been ordered to defend the south. To prevent a drop in morale among soldiers whose homes lay in the north, the higher-ups had not revealed the full plan to mere ordinary knights.
Unaware of the truth, she had fought. She had swung her sword until she nearly lost herself. Even drenched head to toe in monster blood, she had not fallen.
And after barely surviving and returning, she learned that Dongremian had been annihilated.
She had come to Loren to prevent that from happening again—yet as if fate itself could not be defied, the events unfolded once more. Just like in her previous life, Brienne’s queen had abandoned part of the northern cities. And the timing was just as terrible.
Of all times…
—
I won’t live foolishly like my father.
—
She had driven nails into her father’s heart, and before she could even properly clear up their misunderstanding…
‘No. This can’t happen.’
Her breathing grew shallow. Her whole body trembled, as if she had been stripped naked and abandoned in the freezing cold.
“Sir Jeanne?”
“…”
“What’s wrong?”
Iris spoke softly to her from beside her, but Jeanne heard nothing.
Standing still was unbearable—she felt like she might burst out running at any moment. If she could, she wanted to head straight for Dongremian.
But facing a monster army alone would be suicide. Jeanne was fighting desperately to survive, not recklessly charging toward death.
She had to save them somehow.
“However, nothing has been decided yet. Until the meeting concludes, all personnel are to remain on standby here at the training grounds.”
She had to force things into motion—somehow.
Loren’s apex. Claude.
“Why hasn’t anything been decided yet?”
“The heads of the houses are divided in their opinions, so a conclusion has not—”
Without thinking of consequences, Jeanne broke ranks. Iris called out to her, and the division commander ordered her to stop, but none of it reached her ears. Fixated on a single thought, she sprinted toward the grand conference hall.
She had to persuade them to protect Dongremian.
If necessary, she would use every bit of strength or information she possessed.
She ran in a trance, the scenery around her blurring into nothing. At last, she reached the doors of the conference hall, where two guards stood watch.
Spotting Jeanne charging toward the doors like a bull seeing a red flag, the guards stepped in her way.
“The meeting is in progress, so you may not enter—”
“Move.”
She poured aura into her hands and shoved both guards aside. Overpowered, they were sent sprawling to the floor in the blink of an eye.
Leaving the stunned guards behind, Jeanne flung open the conference hall doors.
Kreeeak.
The moment the doors opened, the mixed voices inside fell instantly silent.
Nobles, knight commanders, and even Claude—all eyes turned to Jeanne.
“What is this?”
“Leclerc?”
“Why did she suddenly come in?”
The division commanders, who had been silently observing until then, whispered among themselves in confusion.
“How dare a mere ordinary knight barge in here!”
“What are you doing?! Get her out at once!”
Several nobles, still fired up from the heated debate, shouted for her to be expelled. But no matter how they pointed fingers at her, Jeanne did not spare them a glance.
She shut out all other sounds and looked only at Claude.
