Selemous Plains. The plains were now in a strange state of stalemate.

The fire whirl had caused severe damage to the forces of the Bestir Empire, but the vanguard had managed to join back up with the main army before they suffered critical losses. At the same time, the forces from the Neutral and Nobles factions of the Mireana Empire, which made up the vanguard, were preparing to resume their offensive at any time.

Yes, originally, this would have been a great opportunity to attack the enemy vanguard and main army while they was still some confusion from joining up. But they didn’t attack. No, rather, they couldn’t because they had received orders from the Royalists, that is to say the main army, to refrain from attacking.

「What is Count Arius thinking!? Even though the enemy is in confusion, we’re overlooking such a good opportunity to attack!」

Inside a tent that was hastily set up as a command post, Daska slammed his fist against the armrest of the chair he was sitting on.

「Maybe he wants to write off his blunder of being ambushed by crushing the enemy’s main army with his forces.」

Hearing Philma’s words, as the leader of the Nobles faction here, the surrounding nobles nodded in agreement.

「Seriously, taking such measures just to cover up his own mistakes. The pride of the Royalists is really obvious here.」

「In the first place, it was the achievement of the Nobles faction to defeat the enemy’s vanguard. They’re blind to their own shortcomings while they try to take the credit of others……」

「Wait a minute. The biggest credit for defeating the enemy vanguard should go to the fire tornado. In that case, of course, our Neutral faction should take a larger share of the credit for hiring the adventurer who created the fire tornado.」

「What are you saying? I’ll admit, the fire tornado definitely surprised the enemy. However, it’s clear to everyone that it was us Nobles that who defeated the most enemies after that. I know you want to show off your accomplishments, but are you trying to steal the achievements of others?」

「How dare you! I’ll return those words straight to you. How much damage do you think that fire tornado did to the enemy’s vanguard!? You can’t just ignore whatever you want and steal those achievements!」

We did most of the work, those achievements are ours. Daska gave a sigh when he saw the disputes start. At the same time, he heard the sound of Philma sighing similarly.

『……』

They exchanged thoughts with each silently before sighing again.

Whether it was Daska or Philma, they had both expected this situation to occur. Their offensive against the main army was halted by Count Arius and the main army as they were just about to attack. Their attack would have been able to cause massive damage to the Bestir Empire’s army while taking minimal losses in return. But, they had received orders to stay put. In this situation, with no other place to release the tension from their previously high morale, it wasn’t strange for arguments to start.

Previously, the number of enemies had been overwhelming, which was why the Neutral and Nobles factions, two different factions, had managed to work with each other. But now that it was no longer necessary, the usual faction conflicts started to appear again.

Daska and Philma tried to calm the situation down by drawing the attention of some of the nobles with their eyes, but eventually, as a central figure in the Neutral faction, Daska was forced to speak out.

「All of you, that’s enough. Even though our attack dealt considerable damage to the enemy’s vanguard, we only managed to even out the difference in power. If we fight over achievements right now, don’t you understand that it will only benefit the Bestir Empire? War merits will be properly evaluated after the war. So focus on the war right now.」

「It’s as Daska-dono says. As a member of nobility, I would like you to not act ungraciously and to act in a manner worthy of your pride. And……it seems that the situation is going to change.」

Philma followed up after Daska’s words and, as he was speaking, a buzz could be heard from outside.

The nobles who were absorbed in arguing, or rather discussion, also noticed the noise. Their eyes all turned to look outside the tent.

「The General Princess, Elena-sama, and the adventurer, Rei-dono, have returned. They’ve brought a letter with orders from Count Arius.」

The words from a soldier guarding the tent explained the cause of the noise to the nobles.

However, at the same time, many of them showed fear on their face for a moment.

They had been happy to hear Rei’s report after his attack on the enemy vanguard, but that was only until they had seen the people that had been killed by the fire whirl.

Of course, they had heard what had happened and had some expectation for what it would have looked like. All the nobles here were ones that had been in battle many times before. But even for them, the countless people that had died from the fire whirl was unbelievable. There were those whose bodies were burnt to carbon, crumbling from any impact. There were those who were torn apart by the wind blades and metal fragments thrown into the fire whirl by Rei. And there were those who had finger sized holes all over their body. All those corpses could only be called eerie.

「Daska-dono, Philma. We’ve managed to repel the ambush over there……hmm? What’s wrong?」

Entering the tent, Elena looked around after feeling the strange atmosphere.

At those words, the nobles seemed to collect themselves as they turned their eyes away from Rei, who was behind Elena.

(……I see.)

During that time, only Rei knew why the nobles had all looked at him.

It was both a good and unexpected turn of events that Rei managed to kill so many enemies, but it also caused a certain level of fear among the nobles.

「No, it’s nothing. So Elena-dono, you’ve brought orders from Count Arius?」

「…..Ah, it’s here.」

Elena looked at him doubtfully for a moment before handing over an envelope with the orders inside.

Upon receiving it, Daska opened the envelope and took out the orders after making brief eye contact with Philma.

Daska took a minute to read the orders before handing them over to Philma with bitter expression on his face.

「Our vanguard troops are to wait where they are. The main army, led by Count Arius, will attack the enemy’s main army. We will support from behind.」

At Daska’s words, the surrounding nobles started making noise again.

Compared to their fear of Rei, the Royalists’ clear plan to steal their achievements made the nobles indignant. Daska looked at his surroundings with a sense of relief in his mind.

「Daska-sama! Is it really okay to let the Royalists do this!? It’s true that Count Arius is the chief commander. However, it was definitely our vanguard that brought this battle to our current advantage. Such an order!」

「Calm down. Even so, we can’t ignore the orders of the chief commander. Elena-dono, Count Arius……no, how were the Royalists faring?」

Looking at Daska, Elena shook her head in silence.

From that alone, they could roughly understand the situation of Arius and the Royalists. No matter what, they would attack the Bestir Empire’s main army by themselves.

Daska wasn’t unable to understand why. Count Arius may have used a considerable amount of bribes in order to gain the position of chief commander. He would be eager to seek a victory to justify what he had spent.

And, Arius must have thought that the weakened and demoralised Bestir Empire army could be defeated by the Royalist main army alone.

Furthermore, with the Neutral and Nobles factions backing them up, they wouldn’t lose in any situation.

Count Arius had many problematic issues with his character, but when it came to war, he was by no means incompetent. Rather, he was quite competent. Given that Count Arius had judged that he could win, Daska was sure that Arius must have had some plan to achieve victory.

(But……)

Daska thought to himself as he frowned.

But. Yes, there was a ‘but’.

(Is the Bestir Empire, that has caused trouble in our territory so many times before, going stay quiet and not fight back? No, that’s impossible. In fact, I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to ambush the main army……wait. After they appeared, they immediately launched their ambush, and as soon as they saw it was a failure, they retreated without hesitation. The speed of those decisions……I see, it was probably those two.)

Suddenly remembering the face of an enemy general, Daska turned to Rei and Elena.

「Elena-dono, Rei. The commander that launched the ambush on the main army……did you know who he was?」

Rei knew little about the situation, so he didn’t say anything as Elena gave a small nod.

「Flash, it was General Theorem Enerji.」

Flash. The moment that name came out, the nobles broke out into discussion again.

But, the discussion wasn’t full of motivation to attack the Bestir Empire like it had been a little earlier. Instead, it was closer to the fear they had shown towards Rei earlier.

「Flash? Was Theorem participating in this war!?」

「I see. Then it’s no wonder the enemy’s fighting spirit is still there.」

「No, but……no matter how strong the Flash is, isn’t the outcome already decided?」

「Don’t be stupid. This kind of disadvantage is not a disadvantage for the Flash. Rather, this difference in strength is not enough to deal with him. The movements of the troops he leads is as fast as his namesake.」

Among the discussion between the nobles, one of them suddenly spoke out.

「But then……how will Count Arius deal with the Flash? He said that the main army will take the lead, is there something he has planned?」

The other nobles showed questioning expressions at those words.

Of course, the Royalists weren’t without talent. The Flash, Theorem, and the General Princess, Elena. They had many people who could match either of them, alongside the S rank adventurers that were present in the Royal Capital. However, although they may have the people, none of them had participated in this war. When asked how to counter Theorem in this situation, there was only one solution.

「Elena-sama and Rei have been temporarily placed under the command of the Royalists for the attack.」

The answer was given by Philma, who was reading through the orders that Daska had passed onto him.

「But Elena-sama isn’t part of the Royalists!?」

「……Even if you say that. It wasn’t me or Philma-dono who decided that Elena-dono and Rei would follow the Royalists. That’s why I said it was what they said. It was also a direct order from Count Arius. And unfortunately, Count Arius is the chief commander of the Mireana Kingdom’s army. In other words, he has the authority to give orders to our subordinates. ……Well, usually this doesn’t happen because of faction relationships, but I don’t think Count Arius can afford to consider that right now. That’s why he ended up using such means.」

At the protest of one of the nobles, Daska smoothed things over.

Because it was an actual order from the chief commander, in terms of the chain of command, there was nothing wrong with that order and the nobles were unable to say anything in response.

「That is why. Rei, I’m sorry, but can you go? Honestly, I feel like I’m overworking you in this war, but in my current position, I still have to send you.」

Rei nodded at Daska, who had asked him apologetically.

「I was hired by Daska-sama for this war, so that isn’t an issue. Fortunately, I still have plenty of magic power and Set is also fine. In addition……」

「In addition?」

「The best thing about this war is that you promised me a magic item kept by the Rowlocks family. Considering that this is an opportunity to earn more merit, it’s not all that bad.」

Daska understood that Rei was trying dispel the atmosphere in the and responded with a grin.

「I see. Come to think of it, I did promise you that. To be honest, I feel your merit is already unmatched at this point, but that’s fine. You need to earn enough merit that no one can say anything back.」

As Daska’s voice and smile spread through the tent, Elena, who had been talking with Philma, joined up with Rei to work with the Royalists.

Of course, she didn’t want the Mireana Kingdom’s army to suffer any more losses, but it would be a lie if she said that she had no desire just to work together with Rei.

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