Chapter 8

“Alright! Take as much as you like, freely! Don’t worry about it!”

“Bread this way! There’s still plenty left!”

All the money in the box was used to rebuild the village that had collapsed due to the typhoon.

Half of that amount was entirely spent on buying food.

Under Cain’s leadership, soldiers doing odd jobs were all out distributing food to the villagers.

The orders came from Luna, but those who took charge at the forefront of the relief activities were me and Cain.

Among them, Cain was at the front line helping people.

Like it or not, through this opportunity, Cain was making a strong impression on the villagers.

“Thank you so much…”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I will never forget your kindness, sir.”

Cain replied with a kind smile to the woman who said she would never forget the favor.

“All of this comes from Lady Lunarien. I hope you remember that fact.”

“Ah… Yes! We will never forget the grace bestowed by the Lunarien Army.”

For now, since they’ve been scattering food around, the city’s public sentiment towards the Lunarien Army should improve—

But honestly, is this really the right thing to do?

Since we’re just going to abandon this castle anyway, where are we even supposed to use this improved public sentiment?

With that money, we could have hired a mercenary unit right away. If we had around ten thousand soldiers, we could somehow manage to defend ourselves even if things got rough. Then, we might not have had to abandon this city and could have made it our stronghold.

Of course, if public sentiment improves, naturally public order will be restored, and with that, commerce and agriculture will develop simultaneously. The more the city develops, the population will proportionally increase, and the number of conscriptable soldiers will grow as well—but for that, far too much time would be required.

And frankly, it doesn’t seem like a small country like the Lunarien Army will get such a long period of peace amidst this era of chaos.

Well, my Divinity 100 self has concluded that this is the right decision, so I guess it must be correct…

“Hey there, Strategist.”

“What is it?”

Cain, who was involved in relief activities with the soldiers, approached me during his free time to ask something.

“Was the decision to distribute all this money the Lord’s intention?”

“Yes, that’s right. Since we found it in this village, the idea was to return it to the village.”

“Hmm, I see. Ahem.”

Cain cleared his throat a few times before looking directly at me and asking:

“Come to think of it, didn’t you, Strategist, oppose this? It’s good-hearted, sure, but as you know, we don’t have much money in our army. In a situation where we don’t even have funds for immediate use, doing something like this… Normally, I’d expect you to object, wouldn’t you?”

The look in Cain’s eyes as he asked this question felt unusually sharp.

It wasn’t the usual lackluster, hazy gaze; it was more like the piercing eyes of a lion in full activity.

I smiled faintly as I responded.

“Do you see me as someone without feelings, Mr. Cain?”

“Well, not exactly. But considering you’re the strategist brought in by our Lord, I figured you must be extraordinary. Honestly though… I’m curious why you didn’t stop her from going ahead with this.”

He kept twisting his words around, which made me feel like there was something else he really wanted to ask.

It seemed like he was testing me in some way.

Cain isn’t a bad person.

In fact, the reason he serves under Lunarien instead of another minor ruler, despite being royalty, is because she possesses a purity that can’t be found in other leaders.

Is he testing my humanity as a person right now?

I answered in the most convincing tone I could muster.

“To be honest, I did consider stopping her, but it seemed like Lord’s resolve was stronger than ever. A strategist must offer opinions when necessary, but there are also times when one must support the Lord’s decisions, don’t you agree?”

Why didn’t I stop her? Because when I calculated it with my Divinity 100, the conclusion was that scattering the money would be beneficial.

But I couldn’t just say that outright.

So, I added a plausible-sounding reason.

The real reason is still unclear to me, so there’s nothing I can do about that.

Moving forward, I’ll just keep attaching plausible reasons and carry on.

“I see.”

Cain nodded.

“Well, I’ll follow Sir Swoen’s judgment. After all, if it weren’t for you sending Miss Tifa to negotiate, we wouldn’t have obtained this amount of money, would we?”

“You flatter me.”

“In that case, this side seems to be wrapping up. I’ll handle the report, so why don’t you take a rest?”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

I accepted his offer.

I was already exhausted from moving sacks of flour with my weak physical strength.

Leaning against the wall, I gazed up at the sky.

It’s painfully blue.

So blue that it almost feels like it will stay peaceful forever.

‘That’s unlikely.’

Maybe I should start preparing myself mentally.

I enjoyed this brief moment of peace while watching the clouds drift by.

*

Afterward, days passed without much happening as I focused on internal affairs.

Cain’s recommended task was [Commerce], and Tifa’s was [Training].

When my brain suggested these two tasks, nothing unusual occurred.

It was simply that politically adept Cain handled commerce, and the physically powerful Tifa handled training.

Continuously absurd luck can’t keep happening forever, after all.

During this period, instead of conducting reconnaissance, I followed Luna around and helped her rebuild the village.

Indeed, Lunarien Iniyan, despite being the leader, personally went around exerting herself to help everywhere.

You could say that realizing she was handling everything alone, I decided to follow her around directly, given the current situation.

“Take heart. Our army will do its best to restore the village to its former vitality.”

“Goodness gracious, thank you so much… truly, thank you, my lord…”

Was this the effect of scattering money earlier?

The people of Jeilrant were enthusiastically greeting us and eagerly helping wherever they could. They were clearly very grateful to Luna.

Public sentiment is like a sword.

In times of chaos, rulers change frequently.

A reaction like this, where people genuinely express gratitude, probably wouldn’t have happened if we had merely talked about working hard.

“Lord, let’s call it a day here.”

“But… we haven’t gone down that alley yet.”

“This is enough. Besides, aren’t we planning to help the people within the territory tomorrow? It’s better to rest well tonight.”

“…That makes sense. I shall follow your advice.”

Luna isn’t particularly stubborn.

She mostly listened to me.

Frankly, the opinion to give all the money from the chest to the villagers—she likely wouldn’t have done it if the strategist, me, had advised against it.

Admittedly, the condition she set when recruiting me was that I would thoroughly follow her commands—but fundamentally, she is the ruler, and I am merely one of her vassals. If she had continued to insist, I wouldn’t have been able to push back indefinitely.

Thinking about it this way, this capacity to listen could be called her virtue.

Her virtue.

As that word came to mind, curiosity arose, and I asked her.

“My Lord, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“I roughly know, but since I’m serving you now, I’d like to hear the full story. Why did you decide to raise an army?”

“…”

Upon hearing my question, Luna thought for a moment before raising her head to look at the darkening sky and spoke.

“I… lost my only family member, my older sister, in the turmoil of war.”

Her story.

In-game, it’s not explained properly—the concept behind the ‘King Return’ mode and how the ruler of this small nation came to raise an army.

In this world, where games don’t exist and reality does, she began telling her story.

“Five years ago, the emperor died without naming a successor, and the weakened empire collapsed. Numerous lords rose up in arms. The nobles managing the territories all declared independence, and in the process, so many people… including my sister, died.”

“What did your sister do?”

“…”

Luna stared silently at the sky for a long time before finally smiling slightly with a hint of sadness and looking at me.

“Hahaha. This is something I usually don’t tell anyone, but… since it’s Sir Swoen, I suppose it’s alright to share. Strange, isn’t it?”

I didn’t respond, focusing entirely on her voice.

“My sister… was the unofficial concubine of Algord von Einhardt, the firstborn son of the imperial family.”

“The firstborn son, Algord von Einhardt? Could it be…?”

She slowly nodded.

“Serena von Einhardt’s… older brother. Due to her humble status, she couldn’t officially join the imperial family and merely received Algord’s favor. Even as a child, I could see that the two truly loved each other.”

A common romance tale.

But the setting that “my sister was related to the imperial family” adds depth to why the royal Cain chose to hide his identity and serve under Lunarien.

After all, in-game, the information available was merely that “she trusted Lunarien’s purity.”

Once again, I felt the reality of this world.

“And….”

“It’s fine. You don’t need to say more.”

Serena von Einhardt.

How could she, not the eldest child and not male, become the most influential warlord controlling a vast territory and wield significant influence over the continent?

Because she purged all her siblings.

The tyrant, the bloodthirsty ruler.

It’s widely known across the continent that the Einhardt bloodline now flows only through her veins.

Though, technically, that isn’t entirely true.

“So… ultimately, isn’t it revenge? For your sister?”

“That might be it. Perhaps it is revenge.”

She chuckled wryly, seemingly ready to admit it outright—but then she looked directly into my eyes and said,

“But I want to end this chaos with my own hands. I wish to build the ideal nation I envision… establishing a system so that such bloody power struggles within families don’t happen anymore. I want to bring peace to the continent to honor my sister’s spirit. If it were purely for revenge, joining someone else’s forces would be faster. But I don’t want to take the easy path.”

‘This miss has quite a complex background herself.’

I nodded and said,

“I understand. Thank you for sharing.”

“No, it’s fine. Who else but Sir Swoen?”

“What makes you think I’m so special?”

“Well, as I’ve said, you’re the first person to join our army. No one else accepted my invitation.”

‘….’

I turned my gaze away from her and said,

“You’ll become the unifying ruler.”

“…Really? Do you think I can become the unifying ruler?”

Another question came my way, so I recalculated in my mind.

The result was the same.

Yes.

You, you will unify this continent.

Though I find it hard to believe myself.

No matter how many times I reconsidered, the conclusion remained unchanged.

She, Lunarien Iniyan, was destined to unify this continent.

I said confidently,

“Who am I? Am I not the strategist of the Lunarien Army? Believe in my words.”

“Fufu.”

We’ve known each other for about a month and a half.

It hasn’t been a very long time—but maybe because we’re practically founding members of this small nation, spending every day together has strangely made me feel close to her.

Our ages are similar too.

“It’s getting chilly. Shall we go inside?”

“That sounds good.”

Just as we were about to head home without much thought,

“Lord!!!”

From afar, a soldier was running towards us—

No, specifically towards Luna.

“What is it?”

Luna quickly switched into leader mode and responded.

I examined the soldier’s attire.

The plain silver armor was similar to the others, but the red sash tied around his right arm was a familiar sight.

This guy… a messenger, right?

‘Uh oh.’

In this game, messengers only appear at one specific moment.

That is—

“The Brance Army, numbering around eight thousand, is marching towards Jeilrant!”

The moment someone initiated the event.