Chapter 19

*

The Brance Army swiftly retreated.

True to our word, our army did not pursue the Brance Army.

Honestly, it wasn’t like we couldn’t have broken the agreement right here and ambushed them from behind. But if we had done that, it was obvious that the Lunarien Army wouldn’t be able to conduct normal diplomacy with any nation in the future, so we didn’t go that far.

Aside from hindering the Brance Army, there wasn’t much else we could gain by pursuing them.

The walls of Jeilrant Castle were more than half destroyed, and over 8,000 soldiers became combat-incapacitated, but—

Ultimately, we succeeded in defending this castle.

Since the Brance Army would be busy dealing with the Serpina Army for a while, this was a golden opportunity for us to strengthen our foundations during this time.

And this place is… inside the royal palace of Jeilrant Castle.

It was rather shabby compared to the royal palace of Anel Castle that I had visited before, but for some reason, it didn’t feel too bad since it felt like I had finally arrived at my real home.

Here, the monarch Luna, along with Gustaf and Aaron who were guarding different areas, and even Cain, had all gathered in one place.

I heard that Tifa suffered severe injuries during the war and is currently undergoing treatment.

I placed a sack filled with gold on the table and spoke.

“Three thousand gold.”

After confirming the gold, Cain looked back and forth between the gold and my face several times with an expression of disbelief and said,

“So… Sir Swoen, you went to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with the condition of thirteen hundred gold, but instead ended up bringing back three thousand gold?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“What in the world… how did you manage…?”

I calmly replied to the astonished Cain who couldn’t continue his sentence.

“I just haggled a bit.”

“No, haggling or whatever… huh… really.”

Cain wiped his cold sweat while looking at me.

At first, when he looked at me, there was no particular emotion in his gaze.

He probably just thought of me as someone new, nothing more.

But as time passed, while he started to distrust me, he also began showing surprise at my abilities occasionally—

Now, he was looking at me with eyes filled with reverence.

“Swoen, you truly are remarkable. What has a person of your caliber been doing until now?”

“Just passing the time.”

“Ho ho, is that so? I never imagined that there were still untapped talents hidden away in such times… life sure is full of surprises. You’re truly remarkable, Swoen. I won’t doubt your decisions from now on.”

“We were also surprised. Negotiating an unfavorable agreement and coming back with money… it’s really impressive…”

“Sir Swoen is truly a talented individual.”

Gustaf and Aaron were also praising me unanimously.

Although I’m not the type to enjoy being praised, since I’m working under the Lunarien Army, these reactions were definitely good rather than bad.

In the future, my Divinity 100 brain will somehow make various predictions that always turn out to be accurate, and explaining everything step-by-step every time would be troublesome. It would be much easier if they trusted me entirely.

“I thought it would turn out like this.”

Luna chimed in from beside me.

“I trusted him… Thank you so much, Swoen.”

It was easy to see the deep trust in her ruby-colored eyes as she looked at me.

Indeed.

Most importantly, the overwhelming support from Monarch Luna put my mind at ease.

Even if my words were always right, if the monarch didn’t listen to my opinions, it could lead to awkward situations—

But working under Luna made me feel like I wouldn’t have to worry about that kind of thing.

She trusted my words to such an extent.

She’ll probably keep supporting me going forward.

I recalled the question Lunarien asked me for the first time.

‘Can Lunarien Iniyan become the ruler who unifies the continent?’

The conclusion was the same as before.

The protagonist of unification wasn’t anyone else but her, the woman standing right in front of me.

To be honest, even now, I still don’t understand how she’ll become the ruler who unifies this continent—

But my predictions are never wrong. She will undoubtedly become the unifying ruler.

Until then, I just need to stick close to her and return safely to my original world.

It was an incredibly stable plan for this other world, even when I thought about it myself.

‘This is too easy, isn’t it?’

Ah, no.

That’s not right; I can’t let my guard down just because things are going well.

No matter how predetermined the future may seem, the current Lunarien Army is still a weak minor power.

Even though we’ve managed to hold on so far, we don’t know what trials await us in the future.

Thus, our army gained 4,300 gold.

This time, Luna didn’t use all of it for aiding the territorial people.

She seemed intent on strengthening internal affairs by conscripting soldiers, developing commerce, and funding the mercenary unit.

This was certainly very precious activity funds for further developing our Jeilrant Castle.

At first, I thought we might abandon the castle soon.

Currently, all the castles closely related to Jeilrant Castle are occupied by separate leaders.

During the early days when we lacked both soldiers and capital, other lords took over many vacant castles.

Our location here is quite close to the Brance Army, which isn’t ideal, but given the situation, there’s no choice but to develop this place, which feels somewhat regrettable.

‘It’s fine. Everything will work out.’

As long as I’m here, I’ll find a way to resolve any issues.

With that thought, I supported Luna by her side.

* * *

Upon arriving at Anel Castle, Iren quickly divided the wounded soldiers, ordered supplies for the remaining troops, and promptly headed toward the royal palace.

Soon after, she reached the royal palace where her lord, Lin Brance, was located.

“My lord. Iren Julieat has just arrived.”

“……”

Lin approached Iren who was reporting to him.

One step, two steps.

When they were so close their noses almost touched—

SMACK!

“……!!”

Lin slapped Iren’s cheek hard.

Her cheek turned noticeably red from that single slap.

Caught off guard by the unexpected situation, her body swayed slightly, but—

She quickly regained her balance.

“What are you doing? If you had taken the castle faster, we wouldn’t have experienced this humiliation, would we? How many more days did you need?”

Lin glared coldly at Iren and spoke.

It was unfair.

Iren herself knew all too well how utterly unfair this situation was.

However, even in moments like these, she never considered disobeying orders.

Instead, she deeply bowed her head in apology.

“I apologize, my lord. It was due to my inadequacy that I failed to capture the castle.”

Just a few more days.

No, even just one more day would have been enough to capture the castle.

She could have explained that, but Iren chose not to make excuses.

“I am willing to accept any punishment.”

“Enough. Give me a situation report first. How many troops remain?”

“Yes. Excluding the wounded, around 18,000 remain.”

Despite engaging in a siege battle and retreating, only losing about 5,000 soldiers was an objectively excellent result—yet Lin found Iren extremely unsatisfactory.

It seemed like he blamed her for the humiliating negotiation forced upon him by Swoen.

“Order the soldiers to prepare for immediate deployment. We’re sending them to Kelshtain Castle.”

“If that’s the case, who will lead the vanguard—”

Lin rudely cut off Iren’s words.

“What? Are you asking to be sent out? Are you trying to mess up my work again?”

“…No, I do not deserve it.”

Iren slightly bowed her head.

It meant she was ready to accept any punishment.

Noticing the silent signal, Lin sighed deeply and said,

“Just defend the castle walls here for now. Got it?”

Defending the walls of Anel Castle.

By the way, the area surrounding Anel Castle was all within the territory of the Brance Army.

In other words, there was no need to defend the walls.

Assigning a commander to a place where it wasn’t necessary was essentially a scolding telling her she was useless, but Iren nodded her head and seriously responded,

“Yes! I will faithfully carry out your orders.”

“Good. Go ahead.”

As Iren disappeared from sight,

Lin bit his nails and thought.

‘If we add another 18,000… we should barely be able to defend Kelshtain Castle.’

Adding the existing troops in Kelshtain Castle, nearby forces, and the returning soldiers together, nearly 40,000 troops gather.

Of course, if we combine the western and southern troops, we’d have double the number—but moving those troops would be difficult and take a lot of time.

Considering the advantage of defense over siege warfare, it was calculated that 40,000 troops could sufficiently defend against 55,000.

However.

If we hadn’t agreed to the ceasefire and were pursued instead?

There was a high possibility of losing nearly 8,000 more troops. Retreating soldiers inevitably lose combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the pursuers belonged to the famous Raven and Chirein mercenary units, trained in special warfare. It might not be an exaggeration to say we could lose more than 8,000 troops.

Therefore—

That man, Swoen, was right.

This ceasefire agreement saved the Brance Army from an extreme crisis.

Though it was hard to admit.

‘…Hmph.’

Lin felt his body trembling.

He wanted to make that man his own immediately, but stopping Serpina Army’s assault was the urgent priority.

‘I should personally join this battle.’

His eldest brother, Chel, was in the south, and his second brother, Kalintz, wasn’t reliable.

Then, it was time for him to step in as the supreme commander after a long while.

‘Interesting. Serpina. No matter what you’re thinking… you won’t be able to set foot in the central region.’

Thinking this, Lin quickly prepared for deployment.

* * *

After the ceasefire agreement with the Brance Army.

Thankfully, each day passed without any major incidents.

A day turned into a week, a week into a month.

A few months of peaceful routine that felt slightly monotonous.

Assigning tasks to commanders, pondering what jobs to give through ‘predictions’.

Supporting wherever we could despite our limited military strength…

The appearance of Jeilrant Castle had changed significantly from the beginning.

New buildings stood where typhoons once swept through, and streets that were desolate and eerie were gradually regaining vitality.

People cultivated the land, raised livestock…

What was once regarded as abandoned land, Jeilrant Castle, transformed into a place where people lived.

Witnessing this change, the territorial people unanimously praised the grace of Lunarien.

Looking back now, that was ‘peace’.

Time flowed, and the harvest season approached.

Luna and I were inspecting the morale of the people and wandering around the interior of the territory.

Following the vast plains of the territory—

Fields of wheat, glowing golden, rippled in the wind.

This was the first harvest for Jeilrant Castle.

“The crops have grown well.”

In response to my words, Luna nodded and said,

“It’s thanks to the efforts of the territorial people.”

“These territorial people all praise your rule, Lady Luna. I think it’s about time you realized you’re an exceptional leader.”

“There’s no one else who thinks of me that way besides Sir Swoen. Hehe… still, thank you.”

At that moment.

A boisterous noise came from somewhere far away.

‘What is that?’

Is there a festival happening?

Luna looked in that direction and then grabbed my sleeve while asking,

“Um, over there.”

“Speak your mind.”

“Would you like to go check it out together?”

I observed Luna’s face as she said this.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her peculiar hesitancy made her look like a small animal.

The patrol was almost finished anyway, and if the lord wants to go, what can a vassal like me do?

“Shall we?”

“A, yes…! Let’s go together!”

Luna’s expression brightened upon hearing my words.

Her two crimson eyes, shining in the sunlight, seemed like jewels.

We moved our steps together toward where the crowd had gathered.