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Volume 9, Chapter 222: What the Adjutant sees

The voice of the adjutant Neymar echoed in the captain’s tent of the Great Holy Church army. She tried to keep her calm, but her voice still contained some frustration.

「Captain, it’s been reported that Philos’ city soldiers are on the verge of collapse. It seems that we will soon enter the battle with our army.」

Although she was giving a simple report, Neymar noticed that the edge of her lips was shaking somewhere. This was her first time for her to participate in a real battle, aside from night vigilance and suppression of small rebellions. Even though she didn’t want to loosen her heart, her body was already inevitably resigned.

“How pathetic, I usually tell my subordinates not to lose their composure.” Neymar’s eyebrows narrowed slightly.

The old-looking captain named Richard nodded lightly when he heard Neymar’s report.

「It’s faster than I expected, but it’s all good. Get the archers ready and, after Philos collapses, aim for the idiots that try to come after us.」

Richard said it was okay to involve the Philos’ soldiers in that strike.

Neymar lightly frowned, but still pulled her chin and nodded. In the last few days, she understood that she was still unmatched by this old man’s own speech even if she tried to argue against him. She didn’t have enough experience and knowledge after all.

Perhaps, he saw Neymar’s uneasy expression; Richard’s wrinkled cheeks were crumpled and distorted.

「Neymar, if you have any complaints or doubts, just say it. It’s a little clever to decide on what you were not agreeing with, but it won’t be smart to hide things for yourself.」

And now I have some time, Richard said, wearing a gray outfit.

Neymar’s lips were frightened by the words that seemed to see through her heart. To be honest, there were many things she couldn’t understand from commands of this old-looking captain. To hear all of his unreasonable demands would be something that idiots would do without thinking properly.

Neymar moved her fingers and opened her mouth, stirring the thoughts in her head.

「…Well then, I just have one thing I’d like to ask you. Why did you use the insider Roseau like that?」

Roseau, she didn’t even know the name of his family, but it was the name of the insider embraced by the Great Holy Church. He was a frivolous and sharp-tongued man, but he was a man who had the talent of an agitator, and faced Philos in the private assembly.

Besides, even though he was a light-hearted man, he was not crazy. He was familiar with Philos’ position, and he probably understood that it was better to be embraced by the Great Holy Church instead. By promising money and some status, he easily held the title of an insider. He listened to everything we said.

That was why the instructions Richard gave him were incomprehensible to Neymar.

…Refute the words of the ruler, Philos Trait, and isolate her from the rest of the citizens.

What a mysterious and inexplicable instruction. Philos Trait would have offered herself to cooperate with the Great Holy Church, even if her inner self spoke otherwise. That was why, if Roseau also cooperated with her, more Philos’ soldiers could have been poured into this battle.

However, Neymar didn’t know why he made Philos Trait into a suspicious person and reduced the number of city soldiers who could’ve been dispatched to war. Of course, it was possible that he didn’t want to use Philos’ city soldiers, or perhaps, there was even a change in policy.

Upon hearing Neymar’s words, Richard laughed happily, stroking his beard under his chin. He seemed to be wondering how to explain it to Neymar.

After a moment, Richard opened his lips to answer Neymar’s question.

「In the first place, that bastard Roseau wasn’t meant to guide Philos into the Great Holy Church. Well, I wish he could at least prevent her from going to the Heraldic Order at best.」

Richard continued to speak.

「And I knew that Philos Trait would be the one to decide to send troops, even if she received backlash from the private assembly. That’s because she’s a person with a bloodline that allows her to make such political decisions. The minimum number of the dispatched Philos’ city soldiers is sufficient. No, it’s actually better.」

Neymar narrowed her eyes as she slowly chewed Richard’s words. She was wondering how those words were connected with her question.

In other words, was it because Roseau was used as an insider not for this battle but for other purposes? Richard said that he had foreseen that Philos would mobilize the city soldiers, even if Roseau was not activated for that purpose.

Neymar’s eyebrows squeezed. She wondered what it was. She even felt a sense of strangeness. It was good that Roseau was embraced for another purpose. However, when Neymar heard this story, it seemed that Richard put more emphasis on that purpose more than on the battle with the Heraldic religion.

「Then, Captain. What is that other purpose? 」

Neymar’s honest question echoed in the tent. Those words popped out of her lips without much care, but it seemed to Neymar that Richard was distorting his lips for a moment. Anyway, she had nothing to lose.

「What do you think it is? 」

While pulling her chin lightly, Neymar shook her cheeks, thinking that she didn’t like this old man either.

Even though she asked him directly, Richard didn’t answer but wanted her to guess. Neymar squinted, wondering if Richard was playing with her.

The purpose for isolating the ruler Philos Trait. If she thought about it simply, it would be to bind her behavior. A leap in Neymar’s thoughts said that purpose was to drag her out of her leadership.

If Neymar thought about it normally, it would be unlikely that the ruler would be able to do something if she was refuted by her people. That city of Philos operated in an unusual way. It was a city where there was an uncivilized mechanism. Neymar did not understand the mystery behind the creation of the private assembly. “Then, is this way of thinking the reason for that other purpose?”

Neymar replied to Richard. He nodded and said.

「You know it all too well, don’t you? Yes, that’s right. What I told that Roseau guy is my other purpose.」

The wrinkled voice of the old man resonated in the tent. It was terribly cold, and Neymar had the feeling of being pressed against ice.

…Indeed, getting rid of Philos Trait is the other purpose. Someone has decided that it’s okay if we end her bloodline here.

Richard didn’t say who made that decision. That was probably the only one thing Neymar shouldn’t ask.

A matter of aristocratic lineage or was it a dispute over the succession of the family estate? It was a common thing in itself. Besides, it was not unheard of to keep the bloodline of non-successors in order to prevent problems within the House.

The news that Philos Trait was adopted came to Neymar’s ears. So, in order to prevent her from being involved in some kind of inheritance dispute, the old man was using Roseau beside the battle to bring her down?

“…Is that really the case?”

“Does it mean that this battle isn’t as important as it should be? But, this war came to be because of the words of His Eminence the Pope. Did he have another agenda too? In other words, is this purpose the equivalent to the desire of the Great Holy Church’s God?”

Neymar realized that bloodlines’ disputes were far more important.

Neymar lowered her head and forcibly swallowed the one option that came to her mind. She desperately killed the emerging options as she tried to breathe, strangling her thoughts with both hands. “Don’t think about it. I can’t come to a conclusion when I think about it now, but I should rather understand the meaning behind my superior’s words.”

Maybe Richard understood something when he saw Neymar’s stiffened expression. Richard carried his cloak on his shoulders, stood up and said.

「Well, don’t think about it now. The seeds were planted. After that, it’s okay to chew the remnants of the Heraldic Order.」

The outside of the tent became suddenly noisy. Perhaps, the Great Holy Church army and the Heraldic Order army had begun to engage their fangs. Neymar also adjusted her stiff look and closed her lips.

Richard stepped out of the tent, ringing his toes.

「Neymar, take a good look. It’s nice to have a small number of enemies, but I’ll teach you how to knead the battlefield with your hands.」

Richard’s voice sounded so serious that it was unusual for Neymar to hear such tone. It wasn’t a frivolous voice that made fun of her all the time.

Involuntarily, Neymar’s eyelids blinked quickly and tension crawled up on her spine.

「Great, just take a closer look now. 」

With that alone, Richard carried the black sword on his waist and stretched his legs to the battlefield.

The prelude played by the Philos’ city soldiers came to an end. Neymar’s skin felt that the time, where the Great Holy Church army and Heraldic army were confronting each other directly, was imminent.