The mood could have turned sour, but Michael and I weren’t like that. In the end, Michael clicked his tongue and slid out of his seat. The commanders who’d been lounging around straightened up sheepishly as well.
"Sometimes I swear you’re more of an adult than I am."
"Or maybe you’re just not acting your age, Brother?"
"No, there’s a real weight in your eyes, I’m telling you."
Looks like my D-Rank Lord title (Intimidation 40%) is earning its keep. In any case, it’s a shame Margareta wasn’t there to give our sluggish Michael a good, swift kick in the rear.
Schafen Castle had originally been a small fort, but as the city expanded toward Boden, the castle took on its current form. The walls couldn’t wrap around the entire city as a result, but they stood like a fortress guarding the entrance.
Hmm. Not a nut we could crack quickly.
A big part of why Michael had been taking it easy was that he was waiting for the Royal Artillery Corps to catch up. By now, Schafen’s garrison was probably trembling, wondering when the army at their gates would attack.
To open negotiations with the Lord of Schafen first, we raised a white flag and rode up to just outside arrow range. Count Heinlein, our invaluable bargaining chip, was kept hidden in the rear.
A defender spotted the flag and scurried off, and before long the Lord of Schafen appeared atop the wall. He was younger than I had expected. Around Michael’s age, I’d say?
"Are you the Lord of Schafen, Henry von Schafen?"
"I am. Our family has faithfully managed His Highness the grand duke’s trade city for generations. Why does the duchy army persecute us like this?"
"M-my lord! Th-that crest! Look at that crest!"
An aide nearby turned white as a sheet and pointed at the banner one of my men was holding. The Lord of Schafen, who had known only that the duchy army had come but not who led it, studied the crest intently.
"That crest looks awfully familiar."
Once, it had been a shabby crest not worth a second glance, but now the two longswords over a shield had become famous enough to instill fear and awe in our enemies. It must have looked quite striking beside the Rosenheim crest.
"It’s the crest of the Streit family!"
"The Streit family? Don’t tell me you’re the Baron of Rosenheim?"
"I am. It’s a shame we had to meet like this."
I wasn’t sorry in the slightest, but courtesy is courtesy. I couldn’t make out his expression well, but the Lord of Schafen’s mindset was riddled with panic and fear. The lopsided odds were one thing, but the fact that his opponent was me clearly played its part.
"What crime could I possibly have committed to deserve these threats?"
"Hm. It seems the Lord of Schafen hasn’t heard the news yet."
"Heard what? I’m in no mood for word games!"
He talked tough, but his voice was shaking. Seeing is believing, so at my signal, Drek hauled Count Heinlein out from where we’d hidden him among my burliest men. The Lord of Schafen was visibly shocked.
"Count! What on earth happened to you?"
"It’s over, Henry. The Lord does not wish for our prosperity."
You call that prosperity? Madness, more like. How badly must they have underestimated the central government to operate this brazenly? They really were an unexpected force lurking in the shadows, one the grand duke had gone so far as to call a poisonous mushroom.
I called out to the dazed Lord of Schafen.
"So what will it be? The count has already confessed everything."
"If I surrender, can you guarantee I’ll be spared punishment?"
"Regrettably, that I cannot do. The reason we’re demanding your surrender instead of simply attacking is that the night of the Nativity has passed and the new year is nearly upon us. You alone need to take responsibility."
"..."
Silence seemed to crawl along the top of the wall.
Within that silence, I could read conflict, despair, anxiety.
The defenders were all fixated on how their lord would respond. With a single word from him, this place could become hell. That was exactly why I was telling him to take responsibility before our men started spilling each other’s blood. If he alone died, it would all be over.
But his mindset read as evasion.
Hm. So he’s scheming to wriggle out of this.
"Sir Drek, I’ll attach two squads to you. Circle around the castle and head for the harbor. But you must not harm any of the citizens. I’m entrusting this to you because you’re quick on your feet."
"Shall we lie in ambush at the harbor?"
"Exactly. That lord will flee by way of the harbor, without question. Find a chokepoint suited for an ambush and capture him. If he dies in the fighting, so be it, but take him alive if at all possible."
"Understood! Leave it to me!"
This wasn’t some trifling job like bandit hunting or digging up dirt. It was a mission that truly mattered, and color bloomed in Drek’s cheeks. I worried he might be getting too excited, but he’d do fine.
Beort looked hopeful that he’d be given a mission too, but I ordered him to keep close watch over Count Heinlein. Sending two commanders on a single ambush operation risked throwing the chain of command into confusion.
I reassured him that he’d have chances to earn merit fighting at my side.
As Drek and his men moved out, Count Heinlein, who had been watching, let out a snort. To his eyes, I apparently looked like a young upstart putting on airs and barking pointless orders.
"A wasted effort. Henry is a green boy without the will to resist."
"A wasted effort, you say. Do you know the Lord of Schafen well, Count?"
"I am Henry’s uncle, Baron. I know him better than anyone."
"Then you’ve misjudged him all this time."
Suddenly, my men moved as one and raised their shields in front of me. Thwack-thwack-thwack! Arrows streaked in and slammed into the shields. That was his answer, and I had expected it.
The count stared blankly up at the Lord of Schafen, unable to believe it.
As the defenders began preparing for battle, we took it as our cue to withdraw.
"That imbecile Henry means to resist? At a time like this?"
"You underestimated his will to live. And next, he’ll run."
That was why I’d sent Drek to the harbor. If Henry escaped by ship to Austria or the Swiss Confederation, catching him would be impossible. He knew that better than anyone, so he would make for the harbor without fail.
Michael, busy with battle preparations, was openly impressed.
"He looked like a pushover even from a distance, but he’s got some backbone after all."
"Has the Royal Artillery Corps arrived?"
"They arrived while you were negotiating. They’re unloading as we speak."
They were lowering enormous masses of bronze. It was like taking a butcher’s cleaver to a chicken, but I couldn’t let good soldiers die in a pointless siege, so expensive or not, cannons were the way to go.
"It’s been too long, Chief Artillery Commander!"
"I don’t have any ties to the Royal Artillery Corps anymore. You’re still calling me that?"
"Hahaha! Once the Chief Artillery Commander, always the Chief Artillery Commander! Everything we’ve achieved, we owe to your discerning eye! You called, and so we came running!"
Schneider was as full of energy as ever. That said, the bushy beard he’d grown to look dignified didn’t suit him at all. His right-hand man and perpetual killjoy, Marco, could only sigh.
"Take everything the captain says with a grain of salt. He thought his wife was a demure young lady before the wedding, but she turned out to be an unbroken mare. He couldn’t handle her, so he used this deployment as an excuse to run away."
"What? Wasn’t Violetta the young lady I introduced you to?"
"That’s her, Inspector General. The very lady who stole our captain’s burning heart."
"Where else would you find a girl as gentle and obedient as Violetta?"
Judging by the way Schneider’s face twisted, this Violetta that Michael had introduced was apparently the Hilda type. No, maybe even the Margareta type.
Come to think of it, every noble lady tied to the duchy army seemed to be as fierce as fire.
Schneider cleared his throat a few times, then asked me a question.
"So, is that wall our target?"
"That’s right. I’d planned to make them surrender, but they chose to resist."
"It’s not exactly big. Won’t the gunpowder cost more than it’s worth?"
"Cannons don’t just break walls. They’re highly effective as a show of force too."
"True enough. The sound alone will have them scattering like startled rats."
Schneider hurried off to build the artillery emplacements. Henry, having chosen resistance, was busily preparing for battle alongside his garrison commander, but his head was filled with nothing except finding the right moment to flee.
A lord abandoning his own castle to run is unthinkable, and yet Henry was about to do exactly that without batting an eye.
Nothing in this world is absolute.
After all, it’s full of people who defy common sense.