Chapter 78

After deciding on the treatment of Duke Cavaldi of Urdino and returning to the command tent, all the officers were gone, and only Randolfo was waiting.

As someone who had to avoid Randolfo, I flinched, but Randolfo had not yet noticed the strange atmosphere.

“Ah, Lord Gryph. How is Duke Cavaldi?”

“He's perfectly fine. He regained his vitality after receiving treatment. I should have told them to wrap him up tightly with bandages so he couldn't even speak.”

“It's a relief that it's not a serious injury. We wouldn't be able to get a ransom if he died, would we?”

“Ransom. Right. Yes.”

No way, already?

Did he find the hole in the account books?

“Anyway, since the duke has been captured, Urdino is now out of the coalition.”

“I know, right. It's a good thing Theo captured him alive.”

If he had been stabbed with a sword or beaten to a pulp, it would have been a big problem, but fortunately, Cavaldi's condition was not that bad.

As he said, because Cavaldi was captured alive, Urdino was in a situation of being eliminated from the coalition forces without having been able to do anything properly.

It didn't seem like the other countries would show loyalty and come to help.

It would take several more days for the rumors to reach their ears.

As I was contemplating where to confine the captured Duke of Urdino and his subordinates, a strange sight came into view.

Selvi, holding a sausage grilled over a fire with oil dripping from it, approached Theo and struck up a conversation, feigning coincidence.

“Oh, isn't it Sir Theo? You were here! I grilled some sausages, want some?”

“Huh?”

“Don't worry and eat! It was all found in the Urdino carts.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you for the meal. Oh? This is delicious.”

“I know, right? It's delicious, but I don't know what the people of Urdino were thinking, coming to war with a cart full of food.”

After the battle ended, Selvi suddenly started acting friendly with Theo.

Did he do something to deserve a beating?

Is he trying to smooth things over?

Just then, Eleonor was passing by.

Eleonor was also holding a large sausage from somewhere and was cutting and eating it with a small knife.

“Sir Eleonor.”

“Oh, Lord Gryph. Would you like a piece? The people of Urdino had some good things.”

“That looks very delicious. No, that's not what's important, why is Selvi suddenly acting like that? I thought he wasn't the type to be mindful of others.”

“I don't know about that either, Captain.”

Eleonor shrugged and pointed at Theo with her chin.

“He probably gained some enlightenment after watching today's battle.”

“What enlightenment?”

“That if he recklessly picks a fight with Theo, he'll get smashed?”

“Aha.”

Although Theo had lost face when he was defeated by Tospol last time, that was because the wall was too high, not because Theo was weak.

In the first place, the standard strategy for defeating Tospol in was to destroy his ship and drown him.

And Duke Cavaldi of Urdino was also a fairly well-known knight.

Since Theo had faced and defeated such a Cavaldi on his own, it was not strange for Selvi to hold him in high regard.

“It's a good thing for the mercenary comrades to get along.”

“Well, I suppose so.”

Although it was a bit strange since Selvi wasn't originally that kind of person.

Anyway, that wasn't the important issue right now.

What was really important was how to respond to the next move of the coalition forces.

“Sir Eleonor, I will call a meeting. Please gather all the officers.”

Eleonor looked at me with an aggrieved expression.

“……Can't I move after eating just this?”

“……Please do.”

But a moment later, I was startled to see the mercenary officers.

They all entered while munching on sausages.

Everyone had a piece of sausage in their hands.

Even Selvi, who didn't need to eat food because he was a vampire, was doing so.

Wait, did I not?

Pay their salaries?

It's not that I didn't.

Why on earth?

Are they all obsessed with snacks?

Are they going crazy?

“No, what is this disgraceful behavior from all of you?”

“Lord Gryph?”

“Are the officers of the unit supposed to be walking around and eating like vagrants with no sense of decorum?”

When I shouted, the officers quickly hid the snacks they were holding in their hands.

The problem was that the hiding place was inside their mouths.

I sighed as I looked at the people who were not acting their age, their cheeks puffed out like hamsters.

This is driving me crazy.

Really.

“So, what's with the sausages? You didn't plunder the private houses, did you?”

Even if the supplies were cut off, plundering private houses in an occupied territory could be a problem.

If the residents, enraged by the plunder, suddenly grew nostalgic for their old master and started a riot or a rebellion, we would be the only ones in trouble.

When I questioned them, the officers avoided my gaze and wouldn't meet my eyes.

Then Eleonor, who had a relatively high position among the officers, stepped forward on their behalf.

“No. As I mentioned earlier, these are goods seized from the Urdino Ducal Army.”

“Really? If you didn't plunder private houses, that's a relief, but there's still such a thing as dignity. You can eat a little later, can't you? Do I really have to nag like this?”

“Well, it's because the Urdino sausages are said to be so delicious. Everyone was tired of fish, too.”

“No, how delicious can a sausage be? A sausage is just a sausage. Besides, sausage isn't even a specialty of Urdino.”

“Lord Gryph, haven't you tried it? Didn't anyone bring you any?”

Wait, did they eat it all by themselves?

As I looked at them with a sullen expression, the officers exchanged glances, passing the responsibility to each other.

It seemed that no one had paid any attention to me in their eagerness to eat.

At this point, I'm getting curious about how delicious it is.

I looked around the officers and, seeing that Theo's coat pocket was bulging, I reached out my hand.

Then Theo slapped the back of my hand.

“……”

“……”

“No, let me have a bite too. You have a lot.”

“No. It's all mine.”

“Hey, are you really going to be this cheap?”

“Hmph.”

After coaxing him with carrots and sticks, Theo reluctantly cut off a tiny piece, the size of a fingernail, and gave it to me.

As I popped the ham with a deep red hue into my mouth in one bite, saltiness and spices danced on my tongue.

“Oh?”

“How is it?”

“It's delicious.”

“Right?”

“Let's stock up a lot when we go back.”

“Understood.”

Seeing the liveliness in everyone's voices, it seemed they were quite tired of the fish served at meals.

Since Fasa is on the coast, it's inevitable that fish is more abundant than meat.

Well, maintaining the morale of the mercenary company is important.

It's a relief if they're happy with just a supply of sausages.

I stealthily reached for Theo's pocket again and got slapped once more.

Theo bared his teeth and growled like a beast protecting its food.

So cheap, really.

I'd rather not eat.

“Anyway, the reason I called this meeting today is to confirm how the remaining coalition forces are moving and to prepare a response. Selvi, what are the movements of Messina and Pescara?”

Selvi, the ever-prepared spy and intelligence officer of the mercenary company, reported.

“According to the reports from the dispatched spies, the navies of both countries have reached the vicinity of Fasa.”

***

Around that time, the Messina-Pescara fleet was moving towards Fasa as planned.

Unlike Urdino, Pescara and Messina were nations that focused more on the sea than the land.

Therefore, their navy was stronger than their army.

Both governments put their heart and soul into the invasion of Fasa.

One could guess their fighting spirit just by seeing that they had gathered almost all the ships they could mobilize, except for those that were out, to create a fleet of several dozen ships.

Of course, the majority were just merchant ships, not warships like Fasa's.

But no one was worried about the lack of combat power.

First, just because they were merchant ships didn't mean they had no combat capability.

Second, because the sailors were experienced soldiers, pirates, adventurers, and merchants.

Due to the nature of the private sector, there was a lack of discipline, but there was no problem in deploying them into battle immediately.

Didn't even the pirates, the soul twins of the sailors, fight well when a battle broke out?

Messina-Pescara was very confident.

They had no doubt that Fasa would soon kneel.

They were so confident that they didn't even try to hide the movement of their fleet.

This movement of Messina-Pescara was immediately obtained by the spies that Selvi had scattered everywhere.

And Leon, who had obtained the intelligence, was enraged.

“If they had that much power, they should have tried fighting the pirates. They would have subdued the pirates long ago if they had.”

According to his official statement, that is.

But in Eleonor's memo, concerned about Leon's honor, a more colorful statement was recorded.

The records written in history books and actual history can always be different.

Of course, Leon's words had overlooked many things.

Originally, the majority of ships were engaged in fishing or trade, so it was not easy to mobilize them for battle.

Even if you want to go to war, someone has to take responsibility for daily life and the economy.

The fact that they had given that up and scraped together all available ships showed just how much resentment Messina-Pescara had accumulated against Fasa.

In other words, it was clear that the defenses of Messina and Pescara would be in a state of vacuum.

And as it happened, among the cards Leon held were experts in plundering.

“Since the pirates plundered Urdino. Messina would be closer to the pirates than Pescara, right?”

“That's right.”

“Contact Ishmael. Tell him that since Messina has brought out all its navy, the port will be empty. Tell him it's the perfect time to strike.”

“Those guys will be running wild with joy.”

Originally, it was very rare for pirates to directly attack a city.

Usually, the defense of a port was not at a level that pirates could touch, and pirates also knew the value of their own lives.

But for pirates who specialized in hit-and-run tactics, there was no easier prey than a port with weakened defenses.

Just as Urdino had been, the fate of Messina, spotted by Leon's eyes, was like a candle in the wind.

“If their main base is attacked, the Messina navy will have no choice but to consider whether to return or not.”

“Then are we just leaving Pescara alone?”

“Yes, that way the estrangement will work. Think about it. What if all the other cities are burned and destroyed, but only Pescara is fine? Wouldn't the other countries suspect that these guys are colluding with Fasa?”

It would be a good thing if internal division was promoted within the coalition that way.

If not, then so be it.

In fact, it was not as easy as it sounded to suddenly form an alliance and move.

Didn't Fasa also have a hard time keeping step with Levona at first?

No matter how they were united for the same goal, as long as their command systems and nationalities were different, it was hard to think that the Messina and Pescara navies would be in harmony.

This was due to the nature of bureaucratic organizations.

Those who work in the military or bureaucratic organizations tend to think that granting an external request is a loss in a power struggle.

For that reason alone, the probability of the Messina-Pescara fleet having high organizational strength was not high.

Of course, from Leon's perspective, it didn't matter if the Messina navy left to protect its home country or participated in the attack on Fasa.

“Because the one protecting Fasa is not me, but Albe Corsini. Whatever happens, I'm not the one getting dirt on my face. And also.”

“What is it?”

“One city like Pescara being fine will allow the people of Fasa to unite in a sense of crisis.”

If you finish a job too easily, people think it's an easy job and look down on you.

Leon thought it shouldn't be like that.

If you're going to win, it has to look like you've achieved peace after immense sacrifice.

Only then can you rise to the ranks of a national hero.

“Then I, too, shall return to Fasa for now and pick out the rotten apples from the basket.”

“Are we finally going back?”

“Yes. I'll take this opportunity to clean up the threat from behind. The sooner the bud is cut, the better.”

Leon ground his teeth.

“Albe Corsini, you bastard. Do you think I'm some kind of herbivore? That I'll just graze on the grass by the roadside and move on? I'll definitely make you regret it.”

Becoming a national hero once was this hard.

***

On a coast far from Urdino, the Fasa fleet was anchored.

Leading the Fasa fleet was Ishmael, who had been promoted from navigator to captain.

In the past, he had received many scornful looks for being a former pirate, but now his loyalty was recognized, and he had become a respectable senior officer of the mercenary company.

Currently, Ishmael was acting as the deputy commander, in charge of leading the pirates to plunder Urdino and monitoring them to prevent them from deserting.

A new order was delivered to such an Ishmael.

“A new order from Captain Gryph.”

“Krrk, give it here.”

Ishmael tore open the sealed letter and checked its contents.

The letter was written in code.

Ishmael gazed at the code and muttered.

“Krrk, to be able to use a code, the captain must be an educated man.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Krrk.”

Ishmael recalled the mercenary captain, Leon Gryph, whom he knew.

Leon Gryph had a knack for occasionally doing things others wouldn't and surprising people.

Making deals with the Kobolds he had met as enemies and making them his close aides, or starting a mercenary company with just a few armed merchant ships and eventually defeating Tospol, or planning to assassinate a foreign ambassador out of the blue, or thinking of buying out and utilizing the pirates he held a grudge against.

Looking at his actions alone, he was far from an educated man.

Rather, he was closer to a wicked schemer plotting conspiracies in the Sultan's court.

It was a mystery how such a man had ended up in Fasa doing mercenary work.

Of course, Leon would have felt it was unfair if he knew.

That much was basic knowledge for the users of .

“Krrk, this is not the time for this.”

To decipher the coded message, Ishmael took out a Bible of the Western Church from the bookshelf.

Books were expensive, but among them, the most common and widespread item was the Bible.

This was because it was produced in the monasteries of the Western Church.

So, it was natural to use the Bible in the code generation system.

After deciphering the code, Ishmael came out onto the deck.

He spoke to the guards who were waiting.

“Let's go to the pirates.”

“Understood.”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.