#144. Blanche Waited
“Blanche intends to take control of the southern part of the continent.”
If voices could carry color, Melchizedek’s would surely have been as pale as his face.
Berken instinctively glanced at the map.
“The southern continent? All of it?”
Cartian was indeed the second-largest empire after Letail, but if you combined the entirety of the southern slopes of the Ralke Mountains, it would easily be five times the size of Cartian.
And Lamore, which was much smaller than Cartian, was planning to expand its territory this rapidly?
Whether it was even feasible was uncertain, and even if successful, it wouldn’t be maintainable. After all, ruling a nation is far more difficult than conquering one.
The south would be engulfed in war, and the north would be shaken by it.
Just imagining it made Berken’s head spin, and he closed his eyes tightly.
“Evidence?”
“Blanche has extra troops,” Melchizedek said, rising from his chair and moving toward the map.
“If your sister is right and she has a card to make the king submit—so she wouldn’t need to storm the castle—she would only face enemies who come out. Blanche wouldn’t need to lead an army of fifty thousand. Cartian has gathered all its spare forces, leaving only minimal defenses. Even if we generously estimate, ten thousand would be more than enough to face each castle individually.”
He was right.
If Blanche didn’t plan to wait for Cartian to gather its forces for a second major assault, there was no reason to slow down by bringing fifty thousand troops.
“Lamore is practically empty right now. We aren’t moving, and the west is blocked by the Ralke Mountains. But Animus to the east could invade at any time. Then the remaining troops should return home—it’s logical. This would increase mobility and ensure the safety of the homeland. If she isn’t doing that…”
“…Then it means she intends to continue the war even after forcing the king’s surrender. And that would require a war on a scale that needs fifty thousand troops.”
Riana’s eyes swept quickly over the map.
Before she was the commander of the Royal Knights, she had been responsible for military matters in the empire, giving her a rough understanding of each country’s forces and their military strength.
Fifty thousand.
Fifty thousand held by a child with the patience to wait until half a million are assembled and with the audacity to use firepower if needed—and who also possesses some unknown method of making the king of Cartian submit through words alone.
Counting potential wartime losses and reinforcements…
“If we’re just judging feasibility, it’s possible.”
Of course, war never plays out according to probability alone.
Heroes can rise from nowhere in the mountains, and conversely, those heroes might be struck down by an anonymous soldier’s arrow. There is no absolute victory, nor absolute defeat.
But was this a gamble worth taking? Absolutely.
Troops are always hardest to mobilize initially, so if someone had ambitions to conquer half a continent, now was precisely the time to start.
Berken exhaled, covering his face, having confirmed Blanche’s plan with the two people he trusted most: Melchizedek and Riana.
Ah, damn it. I wasn’t supposed to approve this request.
Melchizedek ignored his brother’s despair and spoke.
“Brother. I think I have to go to Cartian.”
Berken peeked at Melchizedek through his fingers.
The younger man’s eyes were utterly calm.
At least, they didn’t look like the eyes of someone about to make an emotional plea to a fickle lover.
“I need to meet Blanche.”
Berken saw his past self in those eyes.
When he had tried to convince Riana, who was about to give up her position as crown princess, he had looked the same. He had acted for the most emotional reasons, but inside, he had been icy and rational.
He had believed everything would work out—and it had.
“Go with Riana. Keep your identities hidden.”
So he decided to trust his younger brother, as he had trusted his past self.
He believed that his brother, just as he had, could win back the heart of the woman he loved.
“Gratefully accepted,” Melchizedek said, accepting the gesture he normally wouldn’t have.
The crown princess and crown prince of a nation were about to step onto foreign territory in the midst of war, keeping their identities secret. And it was just the two of them. They must have known the dangers of this mission.
“Then the Royal Knights will need to head to Crescan for training,” Riana said, quickly inventing an excuse for her absence, implicitly agreeing to the plan.
“I’ll say I returned north,” she added.
The plan was quickly set.
All that remained was leaving the empire and somehow turning the cunning child capable of plunging the continent into war back to reason.
Berken was left alone in the office, groaning.
“Ah… I really did raise a tiger cub.”
Berken knew part of Blanche’s strategy that he hadn’t shared with Riana and Melchizedek: her confidence in leaving Lamore empty, ignoring any potential threat from Animus in the east.
Blanche was currently rampaging through Cartian as if it were her home, but she was, after all, only the commander-in-chief of Lamore.
The current king of Lamore was Langrisha Dre Vandaluin.
Just as Cartian would lose if its king fell, no matter how many troops remained, Lamore would lose if Blanche captured the king, no matter how brilliant her military achievements.
That was why Blanche had sent envoys to Letail before marching to the battlefield.
Outwardly, the envoys expressed gratitude for condolences, but they secretly carried a letter intended for Berken.
In it, Blanche requested that Berken check on Animus, in return for the favor he had promised when she had gifted Riana words of counsel.
Until then, no one on the continent had even imagined Blanche might devour all of Cartian, so Berken had honored his prior promise.
And that was precisely why he hadn’t noticed any issues with Blanche leading fifty thousand troops while leaving Lamore empty—until Melchizedek pointed it out.
After all, Lamore would remain safe.
“What exactly has she foreseen?”
Of course, if this threatened the Letail Empire, Berken wouldn’t have honored this promise.
But Lamore being swallowed by Animus would only create chaos and wouldn’t benefit the empire.
So no matter what ambitions Blanche harbored, Berken would ensure Lamore remained uninvaded while she swept through the south.
And since this was a favor he had promised first, Lamore wouldn’t owe Letail anything, no matter how many military feats Blanche achieved.
Berken clicked his tongue, feeling like he had lost despite having drawn a good hand in a card game.
If he had known she was this capable, he would have made sure she never returned to Lamore.
He felt like his nose had been cut while he was wide awake—bitterly disappointed.
When Lamore’s army finally arrived at Cartian’s capital, Lepalacen, their formation looked impressive.
The Nikal tribe and the kingdom’s forces had integrated well, and training in real combat had honed them to perfection. Even facing Cartian’s elite capital guards, they would not likely lose.
Blanche calmly positioned her now-spirited troops outside the capital’s outer walls.
But something was unusual. Normally, during a siege, troops would be stationed at all gates. Blanche positioned her entire army only in front of the main northern gate.
That left the other three gates unguarded. Anyone could enter unnoticed from there.
Despite their doubts, the commanders deployed the troops as ordered.
From a purely military standpoint, the formation was textbook-perfect.
And then, Blanche waited.
Waited.
Patiently waited.
No one—not her own generals nor Cartian’s forces—could understand what she was waiting for.
It wasn’t as if she were offering terms of surrender that could provoke laughter.
Any attempt to attack from another gate would be detected as soon as they rounded the walls, so it would be pointless.
“What is that brat trying to do?”
Should we send a messenger to call reinforcements from other castles? Or initiate a parley? The Lamore homeland is empty; maybe we can bait Animus into striking, forcing her to rush back—let’s see what that brat does.
While such discussions went on inside, the thing Blanche had been waiting for finally arrived.
“To the king of Cartian! Your heir is in my hands. If you do not surrender by midnight in three days, your kingdom will lose its next monarch!”
It was the Crown Prince of Cartian and other direct royal family members whom she had sent to safety.
