The Champion's Return

by Hyougetsu

  Of course, the real situation was nothing like that, but we had no way of proving those serfs belonged to Lord Bolshevik. Meaning we couldn’t count on the support of the imperial army, or any of the other nobles’ personal forces.

  “Lord Bolshevik knows I’m not keeping too many troops at the capital, and this is a plot to lure them all away from my side.”

  The fewer soldiers Eleora kept stationed at the capital, the easier it would be for Lord Bolshevik to make his move. However, we couldn’t just sit here and let Peiti get slaughtered either. He’d been promoted to just a minor lord, with a domain of only a few villages. His personal army consisted of a few dozen men. Eleora showed me the letter she’d received from Ser—now Lord—Lekomya.

  “Lekomya said he’ll ride out to Peiti’s aid, but he doesn’t have many troops either, and farming villages aren’t fortresses. He’ll have to fight on the open plains, meaning he’ll need troops.”

  “So even if it is a trap, you have no choice but to do what he wants?”

  “Precisely. As much as it pains me to do what our enemy wants, I have to send my troops.”

  Eleora would never abandon her subordinates. Lord Bolshevik knew that, and he’d taken advantage of her kindness.

  I took a few minutes to consider our options. I had with me my 56 werewolves who’d been transformed into a special Jaeger unit, as well as Parker. That was enough people to keep Eleora safe from any potential threat, but if we were all focused on protecting her, we’d be leaving the palace defenseless. Wait, I’ve got it. If the problem is protecting Eleora, why not just get her out of here?

  “Eleora, what if you went with your troops to North Rolmund?”

  “You want me to take command?” For a moment Eleora looked surprised, but then she nodded in understanding. “I see. If I’m not here, you’ll be free to move as you please. Not only that, Lord Bolshevik will think this is his chance.”

  “Exactly.”

  If Eleora left the capital, I’d be the only one left standing in his way. Of course, Lord Bolshevik would probably prefer if I wasn’t around either. As I was thinking that, I absently stuck my hand into my pocket. I found a folded piece of paper in there and pulled it out. Ah, this is the report on how the renovations to Ryunheit’s sewage system are going. I skimmed over the canines’ loopy, cursive-esque handwriting. As I read over the report, an idea suddenly came to me. What if I left the capital too, leaving Lord Bolshevik to do whatever he wants unopposed?

  “While we’re at it. I’ll take my werewolves out of the capital too.”

  “What, why?”

  Eleora gave me a puzzled look, and I smiled.

  “Oh I just thought of something, is all.” I looked back down at the report, my smile growing wider.

  Canines always came in handy at unexpected times. I tasked Skuje’s unit with guarding Eleora during her campaign.

  “Listen up, you guys have to pretend to be Eleora’s attendants.”

  The brothers, all in their teens, looked unhappily at me.

  “Huh, how come? I don’t wanna!”

  “I don’t care if they’re your orders, Veight...I’m scared of that lady...”

  You hear that, Eleora? Even werewolves are scared of you. Eleora, who’d been discussing something with Borsche, walked over when she heard Skuje’s reply. The four brothers shivered.

  “Skuje, the scary lady’s here! Do something!”

  “What do you want me to do!? I’m scared too!”

  Eleora smiled benignly at the children and beckoned for them to come closer.

  “There’s no need to be scared. Look, I’ll even give you candy.” Eleora grabbed a bottle full of candies from a nearby shelf and poured four out on a porcelain plate. “There, one candy for each person.”

  “Th-Thanks.”

  Skuje was still suspicious that Eleora was plotting something. Of course, I’d already figured out what she was doing here, so I just leaned back against the wall and grinned.

  “But since I’m a scary lady, I’m going to take one for myself.”

  Eleora plopped one of the candies into her mouth.

  “Ah!?”

  “You really ate it!?”

  Eleora made an audible swallowing noise. She then held the plate up and covered it with a handkerchief. After making a quick gesture of prayer, Eleora solemnly lifted the handkerchief off the plate.

  “Whaaa!?”

  “How!?”

  Skuje and his brothers stared at the plate. Somehow, there were four candies on the plate again.

  “There’s four again! How’d you do that!?”

  “Did you take it out of your stomach!?”

  Of course not. None of the four candies had saliva on them.

  Eleora gave the boys a small grin. “Would you like to know how I did that?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Teach us!”

  “Was it magic!? It was magic, right!?”

  Eleora’s grin turned mischievous. “I could tell you, but you all say I’m a scary lady, so...”

  Skuje and his brothers quickly held up their hands in denial.

  “You’re not scary at all!”

  “Yeah, you’re nice!”

  “And pretty!”

  “You’ll still give us candy after you tell us, right!?”

  Now you guys are acting like canines. Eleora handed them each a candy and said, “That was just sleight of hand. I didn’t even need to use magic.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  Skuje cocked his head as he munched on his candy. His younger brothers all had similar expressions. Smiling, Eleora handed the bottle of candy to the kids.

  “I’ll give you this bottle to play with on the way to Peiti’s domain. If you manage to figure out how I did it, I’ll give you another bottle.”

  “Really!?”

  The brothers smiled giddily at each other, then started debating over what the right way to sneak candies out of the bottle was. After making sure they weren’t looking this way, I exchanged glances with Eleora. I took my own handkerchief out of my pocket and waved it in her direction. The handkerchief was the key to this trick. Eleora had placed an extra candy in her handkerchief beforehand, then transferred it to the plate.

  Seeing that I’d figured it out, Eleora silently stuck her tongue out at me. There was still a half-melted candy in her mouth. I really didn’t need to see that. Her mouth still open, Eleora smiled at me. It was a bit surprising how...different she was from when I’d first met her in Meraldia. I much preferred the way she was now, though. Her current personality was more fit for ruling, too.

  I smiled back at her and said, “Skuje’s squad has met the werewolves working for Lord Bolshevik before. I’ve already spoken with their leader, Volka. As long as they’re with you, she won’t harm you guys. Though I’ll give you three more squads just in case.”

  “Understood. Thank you.”

  Right now, the most damaging thing Lord Bolshevik could do to us was have Volka’s clan assassinate Eleora. I doubted Volka would agree to a request like that since she probably wanted to keep the possibility of allying with Eleora open, but it never hurt to be cautious. All that was left now was to ask Parker and Ryucco to do a rather irksome job for me. Oh yeah. There’s one other thing I should warn her about.

  “Please don’t give them too much candy, Eleora. Sugar’s expensive in Meraldia, and if they get hooked I don’t know how I’ll get more for them.”

  “Alright, alright. What are you, their dad?”

  I’m their leader, which is basically the same thing.

  In response to the revolt within Lord Peiti’s lands, Eleora dispatched her own troops to suppress the conflict. She created a joint army with her uncle Lord Kastoniev, and marched north toward Creech Castle. Meanwhile, all the surrounding nobles belonging to Eleora’s faction started gathering their own troops. Together, they managed to raise a force of 1,000 to send to Lord Peiti’s aid. At least, that was what it looked like on the surface.


  “We’ve just got a measly four thousand this time?”

  “You sure we’re going to be okay?”

  My werewolves gave me worried looks. I turned to them and said, “The only large standing army within the empire is the imperial army, but Ashley didn’t order his troops to march, so this is the best we can do.”

  “That damn emperor betrayed us!”

  I smiled sadly.

  “Ashley can’t afford to move the imperial army for every little revolt that happens within the empire. We’ll have to resolve this using only the soldiers Eleora’s faction can mobilize at a moment’s notice. Most of the troops we used before were overseers and serfs who live in different villages, and they take time to call upon.”

  As it was, Eleora sent out practically every soldier she had. None of her troops were left in the capital. Still, Lord Bolshevik’s army consisted of 20,000 trained serfs. There was at least no doubt that they were serfs though. Using them was the only way Lord Bolshevik could have gathered that many healthy young men of fighting age in such a short time. Even if he’d wanted to hire mercenaries instead, the total number of freelance mercenaries within Rolmund didn’t come close to 20,000. Besides, most mercenary companies had long-standing contracts with other nobles already.

  “The fact that he’s trained his serfs is at least concrete evidence that he’s a heretic,” Eleora said with a grim smile from atop her horse. “Furthermore, there’s a fatal flaw associated with using all your serfs as soldiers. Do you know what that is, Veight?”

  I’d seen what Rolmund’s serfs looked like firsthand, so I knew right away what Eleora was hinting at.

  “Just like with their farmwork, they have no personal stake in the outcome.”

  Serfs were treated like livestock by their feudal lords. They were given the bare minimum amount of food, shelter, and clothing, but nothing else. No matter how well they performed, there was no chance of them moving into a higher social class. Since they had no incentive to risk their lives, their morale would naturally be low. Of course, I was certain Lord Bolshevik had taken steps to mitigate those drawbacks, but he wasn’t like the other nobles who could give pretty, rousing speeches to lift morale.

  “Precisely.” Eleora nodded to me. “They’re nothing more than servants who follow orders. Nobles have plenty of things they value higher than their life like honor and so on, but for serfs, there’s nothing more important than their lives and the lives of their families.”

  “Nobles and career soldiers stand to lose a lot in a war so they’ll fight to the end, but serfs definitely won’t.”

  Nobles especially valued their honor and their territory more than their lives. Their land was their livelihood, the basis of their wealth, and their honor was what determined their standing among their peers and business partners. Lose either, and a noble’s entire family line was doomed to fall into ruin. As I pondered that, a thought suddenly came to me.

  “But if those serfs stood to lose something too, they’d fight with the same level of desperation, wouldn’t they?”

  That caught Eleora’s interest.

  “Hmm, elaborate.”

  “Humans are greedy creatures. Even if they didn’t particularly want something, once they have it they’re loathe to part with it. If you happened to find a silver coin on the road, then accidentally drop that coin later, the loss will sting even though it’s a net change of zero.”

  I was reminded of how back in Japan, I’d gotten a coupon for free ramen, but then forgot to use it before the expiration date. Even though the coupon hadn’t cost me anything, passing up the chance to use it had left me with a deep sense of loss. Man, remembering that story made me hungry for ramen. Whatever, let’s get back on topic.

  “For example, all you’d have to do is give your serfs a small measure of freedom and some basic rights. Then tell them that unless they fight with all their might that you’ll take those privileges away.”

  “I see. I thought you would come up with a more humane example, but I suppose you are a villain.”

  “It’s especially heartening to hear that from you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean...”

  Don’t worry about it. Eleora lapsed into thought for a few seconds, then nodded at me.

  “I’ll keep what you said about incentives in mind. It’d be dangerous to manipulate the current class system too much, but a few carefully chosen liberties might motivate serfs to take their farming more seriously at least.”

  “I hope it works out for you.”

  Class systems were delicate things, and this was as much meddling as an outsider like me should be doing. Hopefully once Eleora became empress, she’d slowly reform the empire into something less oppressive. Meraldia had no system of slavery, since the Senate had been firmly against instituting one. Despite their corruption, they’d cracked down hard on the illegal slave trade. Considering they were the descendants of escaped slaves, their zeal made sense. I’d hated the Meraldian Senate, but I’d at least respected their attitude toward slavery. Doing what I could to reform Rolmund’s slave system was my way of honoring their memory. Rest in peace, you old bastards.

  Our joint army moved northward without incident. However, I occasionally caught sight of cloaked figures tailing us through the forest. I heard howling from time to time too, so I figured the people tailing us were Volka’s clan. I didn’t know if they were just here to keep an eye on us, or if they were planning on assassinating someone, but either way, they kept their distance. Honestly, I was glad for that. Fighting Volka’s clan wouldn’t be fun.

  Even after reaching Creech Castle, we had no time to rest. Eleora spent a day reorganizing and outfitting her soldiers, then we were off again.

  “Make sure you’re a convincing double.”

  “Leave it to me.”

  I gave one of my werewolves my coat and armor to disguise him as myself. After that, I took the rest of my werewolves and looked for an opportunity to sneak back to the capital.

  “Take care of things back at the capital for me, Veight.”

  “Mhm. You be careful too, Eleora. The enemy might have more troops hiding somewhere. You better not die on me.”

  Eleora and I exchanged one last glance, then turned away from each other. With how volatile the situation was in North Rolmund, I was worried about leaving her alone. But there was nothing I could do. Whether or not Eleora picked up on my worries, she showed no outward hesitation. She turned to her soldiers and shouted, “We go to defend our allies in North Rolmund! Don’t think our enemies are mere serfs! Underestimate them at your own peril!”

  With four werewolf squads as her personal guard, Eleora headed to Lord Peiti’s territory. I had 10 squads left with me, a total of 40 werewolves, as well as my two fellow disciples.

  Ryucco and Parker exchanged glances.

  “Oi, are we seriously gonna do this!?” Ryucco moaned.

  “For the record, I am still very against this plan,” Parker muttered.

  I gave the two mages a reassuring smile and said, “There are other ways of making this work, but this is the one that’ll have the least casualties. So please do this for me.”

  The two of them fell silent.

  “What now, Parker? He’s begging.”

  “I never could turn down one of Veight’s requests...”

  “You too, huh?”

  “Indeed.”

  Oh good, they’ll do it. I knew I could trust my fellow disciples.

  Some days after Eleora’s departure to the northern front, a rather unexpected development occurred. I was lost in thought when Monza suddenly ran up to me.

  “Boss, that lord whoever’s younger brother’s here.”

  “You mean Lord Bolshevik’s younger brother, Jovtzia?”

  “Yeah, him. Bols... bos...whoever’s brother Jo... Ji... Whatever. He’s showed up with just a few guards.”

  What’s going on here? Since everyone was supposed to believe I was by Eleora’s side, I couldn’t meet him
personally. So I sent a disguised Parker to see what he wanted. When he came back, Parker was smiling.

  “He had a fight with his older brother. He said he’s done working for Lord Bolshevik and that he’s going to help Eleora suppress the revolt.”

  Parker went on to say that Jovtzia had confirmed Lord Bolshevik was indeed behind the revolt. His plan was to make her think it was just a small-scale skirmish involving only serfs, then hit her with his main army. He was hoping to crush her with the might of his 20,000 soldiers. If he could defeat Eleora, the hero of the Doneiks rebellion, he’d be able to strike fear in the hearts of the other nobles. With the rest of the empire paralyzed, he’d have the perfect opportunity to strike at the capital, especially since Dillier was leaking all of Ashley’s movements to him. Jovtzia believed he was planning on using Dillier to seize the throne.

  However, I shook my head. “No, that’s probably just another diversion. I doubt those are his real intentions.”

  Lord Bolshevik was a cautious man. There was no way he thought he could take Eleora down that easily. Even if he brought 20,000 soldiers to bear against her, she’d be able to retreat to Creech Castle and prepare for a counterattack. Given enough time, she could raise tens of thousands of soldiers from East Rolmund. Twenty thousand serfs wouldn’t stand a chance against her full army.

  My guess was that Lord Bolshevik was thinking if he was lucky, his army would make it all the way to the capital, but he wasn’t banking on it. After all, he’d already had a bunch of his troops infiltrate the capital. It’d be much faster for them to topple Schwerin from the inside.

  “Suppose he fed Jovtzia incomplete information, then purposely drove him off. He knew his brother would go to Eleora, not Ashley. After all, our esteemed emperor lacks the strength to fight anyone right now.”

  Parker nodded along to my explanation.

  “I see. So the plan Jovtzia has leaked to us is just a distraction meant to deceive us. And this way, Jovtzia will be lured away from the capital, where the real danger is. Hahaha, Lord Bolshevik really is an exemplary older brother.”