The Lord Of Sinal (9)

For the next few days, the two were extremely busy. She missed the last month when she could laze in the master’s bedroom without anyone complaining, but Liris now had to perform her true duties. She summoned the knights already gathered near Sinal and compiled spotless dossiers on the powerful nobles, including Millen and Raiden, covering the past month to hand over to Kaiston.

Externally, the existence of the Crown Princess was kept strictly secret, so few retainers even knew. The secret had to hold until the banquet. Raiden planned not to attend the banquet, and of all people, Commander General Luther had expressed intent to come. The Crown Princess said she doubted Luther would protect Millen, but separate from that, Luther’s interest in Kaiston could be a variable. No one believed he would come to Sinal and leave after only seeing the duke’s face.

Kaiston, too, had to perform his duties as a duke while preparing a trap to seize Millen. Especially in recent days, he had no time to rest from dawn to midnight, visiting the troops mobilized across Sinal and meeting the lords or their deputies one by one.

A thick shawl was draped over Liris’s shoulders as she stood on the outer city wall watching Sinal’s annual combined military exercise.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?”

“Damon.”

Liris took the mug of hot milk tea from his hand.

“It really is. I’ve never seen a military exercise of this scale.”

Out of Sinal’s fifty thousand troops, about thirty thousand, excluding minimal garrison forces, were conducting this large-scale exercise in conjunction with the knight orders.

Drumroll!!!

Watching the Red Moon’s knight order led by Haris and Ban surge toward the medium infantry at terrifying speed alongside thousands of guards, Liris swallowed hard. Although they used mock weapons for the staged battle, wooden spears without edges and arrows without points smeared with paint, injuries still occurred. Of course, any unit that clumsily caused casualties would be thoroughly chewed out.

When the volley of arrows from the longbowmen behind the medium infantry rained down, Liris expected many guards to be hit. However—

“Oh, that…”

An invisible shield, starting from the tip of the charging knight order and forming a cone, was deflecting the rain of arrows.

“It’s a technique you wouldn’t normally see in the knight orders of the Empire.”

Liris recalled the technique Kaiston had displayed against the giant worm.

“It’s a secret art taught from the kingdom of Baras.”

“Yes. A few years ago, only a handful of knights could perform it, but now, more than half have mastered it.”

The medium infantry raised shields nearly as large as their torsos to stop the knights’ charge, but they were pierced deeper than expected.

“Ah, the Red Moon’s forces will seize the advantage.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure…”

Damon did not agree with Liris.

“The Red Moon does have more elite knights, but Sinal’s army frequently trains knights and foot soldiers together.”

Just when it seemed the medium infantry line had been broken, the Red Moon knights and light cavalry had slowed so much trying to break through that they were suddenly being encircled. While the medium infantry grit their teeth to hold the melee knights, the lord’s knight order and medium cavalry crashed heavily into the flanks of the Red Moon foot soldiers who had broken through.

“Ugh…”

The Red Moon’s longbowmen could not shoot because knights were mixed deep among the enemy lines.

“Commander Kamel is originally from the Red Moon. He knows the tendencies of the fortress knights better than anyone. Especially since Haris was his successor…”

“Ah… I see.”

Having spent barely a month together, she seemed oddly reluctant to see the Red Moon’s forces defeated. Watching the saddened Liris, Damon said with a hint of amusement.

“It’s not over yet, so watch carefully.”

Liris blinked, glanced at Damon once, then turned back to the Red Moon knights led by Haris and Ban. She wondered if a mere hundred or so knights could sway the outcome of a clash involving thirty thousand troops.

Faster than expected, Haris and Ban broke completely through the Sinal lines and escaped. Since halting and delaying was the medium infantry’s limit, the light cavalry who had charged with them did not suffer heavy losses. And then,

“Ugh…”

The Red Moon’s knight order charged boldly again from the rear where the longbowmen had been stationed.

“This is when the saying ‘leaves swept by the wind’ applies…”

“If the weapons they held were real blades and they used sword aura as well, the fight would have been even more spectacular.”

Liris nodded and finally took a sip of her milk tea. The training continued with an emphasis on maneuvers using branches rather than chaotic melees. Since the aim was to assess and refine joint-operation capabilities rather than to determine dominance between the Red Moon and Sinal, once momentum rose before a melee, forces were pulled back immediately.

“If you include the branches that were held back because it’s hard to control firepower, Sinal would truly be one of the continent’s top armies.”

Although the central army led by Commander General Luther and the Grima coalition led by nobles of the Empire’s western Grima region were considered the continent’s flagship forces, Sinal’s army, which developed independently for over a decade after separating from the imperial host, was no less formidable. Its northern proximity to the Demon King’s territory likely bred soldiers with above-average capabilities and abundant combat experience.

“It’s too vast a land to hand over to a single duke.”

“That’s true, but until the Red Moon and its vicinity were stabilized, the northern areas of Sinal Castle were poorly controlled.”

“So it’s temporary.”

Liris sighed softly. The very idea that a formidable, almost unprecedented commander like Duke Kaiston Crunel had been holed up in the Red Moon for over a decade was absurd. Moreover, a significant number of the talents gathered in Sinal were from the kingdom of Baras. Sinal, as a whole community of a leader and loyal retainers transplanted en masse, couldn’t be normal.

What would become of the region once he disappeared? It was not an easy question to answer.

“But…”

Liris’s gaze turned to her master. Kaiston and a light-armored knight stood in a spot overlooking the exercise. Wasn’t that his military aide? The aide had the same black hair as Kaiston and, with a slight, frail frame, appeared to be female.

“That knight looks young. Quite capable, I suppose?”

At Liris’s slightly curt remark, Damon followed her gaze.

“Ah, you mean Sion. He is capable. Very capable, but…”

Damon smiled wryly.

“You’d better be careful.”

“…Why?”

“He’s inscrutable. He’s the one Count Setunel pushed into the household to win Your Grace’s favor—calculating, clever, and quite formidable in his own right.”

“…And yet you haven’t fallen for him. Is he not very pretty?”

“He is handsome, but…”

“Ugh, even handsome…!”

“But he’s a man, after all.”

Liris, momentarily doubting her ears, asked again.

“A man? You say a man was offered?”

“Because he paid no attention even when beautiful women were presented, they pushed in the first and last pretty boy instead.”

“……”

“Of course it didn’t end in refusal. They did tear Count Setunel apart afterward.”

“Ugh…”

Liris felt a sudden surge of emotion and wanted to hurl the mug in her hand.

“Strange man! Why do men keep clinging to him?!”

“It’s not that women wouldn’t cling as well…”

Damon said that, then cleared his throat at Liris’s indignant look and turned his head.

“By the way, what about the banquet? Isn’t there anywhere to hide and watch?”

She would reveal herself as the Crown Princess only near the banquet’s end, so until then, there was no way to fend off the young noblewomen clinging to Kaiston.

“You needn’t worry… Your Grace is smitten with the Crown Princess, isn’t he?”

“But Damon, Lady Lotus is coming too. She’s even… prettier than I am.”

Damon looked surprised at Liris’s sulky trailing off.

“Oh. Is that so? A young lady prettier than the Crown Princess? Truly, the Empire is vast.”

Liris pouted as Damon expressed genuine admiration.

“Damon, you must help me. Okay?”

“Ah, of course I’ll do my best to help the Crown Princess, but…”

Damon was also curious that if Kaiston liked Liris because she was pretty, how would he behave when he met an even prettier ‘lady’?

“Master!”

Liris greeted Kaiston, who returned to the lord’s manor near dusk. Sion, Kamel, Haris, and Ban accompanied him.

“Liris. It’s cold. Why are you out here?”

He had no right to say that to someone fully armored except for her eyes, but seeing the redness around Liris’s eyes, he compassionately took off his cloak and draped it over her.

“Ugh…”

Sion, standing behind, snickered at how bulked-up she looked. Liris’s gaze turned to him. With long black hair tied up, gray uniform, and light armor, he was—true to Damon’s words—quite handsome. His slightly drooping eyes, red lips, and slender figure gave an androgynous allure.

“So this is Your Grace’s ‘lady’.”

Kaiston’s expression hardened seeing Liris unable to look away from Sion.

“Stop staring and come inside.”

Sion’s eyes gleamed at the duke’s curt command.

“It seems the ‘lady’ is interested in me. Isn’t that right?”

Kamel and Haris turned pale. Of course, Sion still didn’t know Liris’s true identity; the Red Moon knights would know her only as the slave who had served the night ward, so he spoke so freely.

“Sion, didn’t His Grace give a command? Come inside quickly.”

Kamel shoved him from behind.

“Ah, really! We were supposed to dine together, Your Grace!”

At Sion’s words, Liris’s face crumpled. Not only work, but dinner too. With that pretty man?

“I’ve changed my mind. It would be awkward if I joined an officers’ gathering.”

“What? Commander, that’s not it!”

Ban, shoutingly oblivious, had his foot stepped on by Haris. Meeting Kaiston’s resolute gaze, Sion realized there was nothing to be done and sighed.

“Sigh, I suppose I can’t help it. ‘Lady’, then I’ll see you another time.”

Sion waved at Liris and, pushed by Kamel, turned toward the right annex where the officers’ quarters were. Liris watched his retreating form until a hand suddenly shaded her view and she turned her head.

“Stop staring.”

“……?”

His face looking down at her seemed somewhat angry. Who was actually the one offended?

“I’ve never seen such a pretty man before.”

Liris pouted, though her scarf hid it.

“So that’s why you stared so intently?”

“Yes. I had many questions, but you chased him away.”

Liris was very curious what he and Kaiston had been up to. Before he knew he was a man, had things progressed? Seeing her openly interested in Sion, a crease formed between his brows.

“Do you want me to call him back?”

Suppressing his irritation, his already low voice came out almost like a growl.

“It’s fine. There will be another chance to meet. Besides, in my state right now, I’d only earn mockery.”

Kaiston fell silent at her self-blaming tone. Dress her nicely and Sion would fall for her. Was she planning to be taken on a date now?

Kaiston felt upset watching her flirt so openly. She had professed liking him several times until a few days ago. Did she mean she didn’t care because he was already his?

“Liris, I…”

Kaiston, about to say he disliked the idea of another man being with her, closed his mouth again. Baras was a kingdom where monogamy was the norm from royalty to commoners and was sexually conservative. But the Aikadum Empire was not like that. It was common to have a mistress after marriage, and orgies and male-male relations were not unusual.

He couldn’t judge whether he had the standing to forbid the Crown Princess from having lovers other than the man she would marry.