Chapter 5

*

The next day.

In the middle of Jeilrant, inside a small castle’s main hall, Luna was introducing me to her subordinates.

“This is Swoen. Starting today, he’ll be our army’s strategist.”

Two armed soldiers from the Lunarien Army looked at me with subtle expressions.

Including me, there are four people in this group.

One is Cain Nerkis, a 70-year-old man responsible for politics.

He’s the one who provided the necessary funds for Luna to rise as a leader.

The other is Tifa, a valiant female general of the Lunarien Army.

A childhood friend of Luna who decided to help her unconditionally.

Though somewhat one-dimensional, she doesn’t seem like someone who would betray others.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Cain Nerkis. Don’t worry about my age, feel free to speak freely. Hmmph.”

Cain, an old man with white hair wearing a tattered robe, extended his hand.

After shaking hands lightly with him, I turned to Tifa and offered my hand.

She grabbed it with her large hand, tilted her head, and said,

“My name’s Tifa. Uh… Swoen, are you a girl or a boy?”

“Huh? Can’t you tell? I’m a guy, though.”

“Why is your arm so pale and thin for a guy? You look kind of delicate too.”

Now I understand why she’d say that after only seeing dot graphics before.

Her body is more akin to a warrior-woman, with well-toned muscles.

Her red hair is tied up tightly for convenience.

The large axe hanging on her back emits an intimidating aura.

After roughly shaking my arm a few times, she grinned and said,

“Anyway, nice to meet you! Strategist friend!”

“Whoa, what a quick energy drain…”

Just exchanging greetings and I already feel…

If your strength stat is low, maybe it affects your stamina like that?

Anyway,

These two are currently the only talents under the Lunarien Army.

Cain: High in politics but average in other areas.

Tifa: Decent in strength and leadership but not particularly smart.

This is the talent pool of the Lunarien Army.

Of course, both have incredible potential.

First, Cain. Though he looks like an ordinary old man killing time…

He’s actually the younger brother of the fallen emperor of the Unified Empire, rumored to be dead.

After narrowly surviving a power struggle by hiding his identity, he joined forces with Lunarien upon sensing a faint possibility.

Which means, he’s the uncle of the infamous tyrant Serpina from the Einhardt Clan.

Before passing away naturally, he reveals his true name and inserts all his secretly preserved descendants into the Lunarien Army—descendants so powerful they could form a dream team of SSS-tier characters. Thus, keeping him alive until his natural death is crucial.

Next is Tifa.

Despite appearing uneducated, she’s one of the few special individuals on the continent who can sense mana.

This game, [Garland Eternity Saga], mixes fantasy into a loose medieval setting but doesn’t officially recognize ‘mages’.

The game operates on a simple rock-paper-scissors mechanism:

Cavalry beats archers, archers beat spearmen, spearmen beat cavalry.

Not much depth due to its classic nature.

However, magic does exist.

Only a select few can detect the mana flowing through the continent and use it to cast lightning or summon fiery meteors.

Tifa is one of them.

Unlike other mages, who are purely intellect-based strategists, Tifa is unique as a physically strong general who can also use magic.

She has the potential to become the strongest general: skilled in combat and capable of using magic.

When her abilities will awaken remains unclear.

Simply put, if you keep Tifa alive while playing as the Lunarien Army, she’ll eventually gain magical powers.

Since the Lunarien Army’s concept is [King Return], it makes sense that their two main subordinates fit the same theme.

Still, none of this matters much to me right now since we can’t enact King Return yet.

Especially considering how the CPU handles the Lunarien Army in-game—it usually ends with a message like “[The Lunarien Army has disappeared into the annals of history]”.

“Then let’s begin this month’s meeting. If anyone has opinions on what we should do this month, please share freely. If you have tasks you’d like to take on, feel free to speak up.”

Once a month, orders are given, and subordinates carry out their missions for the following month.

This system matches exactly with Garland Eternity Saga’s gameplay.

At Lord Luna’s words, Cain slowly raised his hand.

“My lord, I believe it’s time to invest money in the market for commercial development.”

“Commercial development, huh…”

At the start of the game, funds are naturally scarce.

There are two ways to earn money: explore the surroundings or invest in commerce to increase monthly tax revenue.

Given Cain’s high political stat, his suggestion makes perfect sense. Exploring repeatedly yields low chances of profit, whereas investing in commerce with a politically skilled character should provide decent returns.

“…Swoen, what are your thoughts?”

Luna paused briefly, then turned to ask me.

I had two requests for her:

First, treat me like a subordinate whenever possible.

Second, consult me on most decisions.

While the first might not matter much, the second is crucial since my Divinity 100 brain requires questions to function optimally.

The result comes quickly:

“If Cain handles commerce, he’ll achieve decent results.”

But…

Let me think back to how I played the Lunarien Army.

Frankly, Luna wasn’t a faction I played often.

After successfully achieving King Return once, I stopped because it became boring.

The game was challenging before King Return but became too easy afterward.

So while I shouldn’t rely entirely on my past playstyle as gospel, referencing it somewhat isn’t bad, right?

“My lord, may I offer my opinion?”

“Speak.”

“I suggest assigning Cain to fortify the walls instead of focusing on commerce, in preparation for enemy attacks.”

“?…”

Cain looked at me curiously and asked,

“Swen, is it? While I appreciate the compliment, don’t you think sending an old man like me to supervise wall repairs is impractical? Would the workers respect and follow an old geezer like me?”

From his words, I understood how commands work in this game.

To repair walls effectively, you need high Strength.

For commerce, high Politics is required.

The game uses a very simple mechanism where stats determine success rates, without much thought given to how these numbers apply in real-world scenarios.

Given Cain’s low Strength, it makes sense to justify his ineffectiveness with something plausible like “workers won’t listen to a weak old man.”

“Still, we can’t just boost commerce aimlessly.”

The reason I suggested repairing the walls is simple:

We’re destined to lose this city anyway.

No matter how hard we conscript, train troops, or develop commerce with our current talent pool, this city—Jeilrant—will inevitably be taken by the Brance Army.

Their ruler, Lin Brance, is quite expansionist, making this outcome almost certain.

Thus, instead of pointlessly developing the market and handing over a highly developed city…

It’s wiser to reinforce the walls, pretend to hold out, and buy time to escape.

This isn’t mere speculation; it’s a trick I used when playing as Lunarien.

Always run first when surrounded by powerful nations.

Once you find a less valuable area they won’t bother targeting, settle down and try to survive.

While absolute strategies don’t exist in a game with variable modifiers and territories, basic operational principles remain consistent.

Luna seemed slightly confused by my suggestion to have Cain repair the walls but nodded eventually.

“Alright. What about Tifa?”

“I’ll do anything. Tell me what to do. Should I go fix walls with this old man?”

“Swoen, what task would you recommend for Tifa?”

Well, might as well assign her wall repairs too, since everything’s predestined anyway…

Still, since I was asked…

“What should I assign Tifa?”

Once again, my Divinity 100 brain quickly reached the optimal conclusion:

[Commerce].

“Whaaat??”

Commerce?!

No matter how many times I reconsider, the answer remains the same:

“Assign Tifa a commerce-related task.”

“…”

No matter how much I ponder, I can’t fully grasp why…

But I trust my Divinity stat.

In this game, a Divinity of 100 always speaks the truth.

As long as this world follows game rules, that condition remains constant!

“Swoen?”

“Ah, sorry. I was thinking.”

After making eye contact with Luna, Cain, and Tifa in turn…

I spoke solemnly, without joking around:

“Tifa, please engage in commerce and help develop the market.”