Chapter 346
Side Story – Memories of an Imperial Princess (62)
The Intelligence Department handles many tasks.
Collecting enemy intelligence is basic, but they also monitor enemy alliances, friendly alliances, war situations, market changes and merchant movements, and even potential variables like the movements of different races.
It was essentially equivalent to checking everything related to the war.
And naturally, the Intelligence Department also verifies and communicates information about friendly forces to other units.
These papers were no different.
As the Karan Empire was fighting not just in the Merdea Kingdom but across the continent, the contents covered various regions.
For example, how the First Prince had nearly pacified the northern region, or how other princes were experiencing various victories and defeats in battle.
And then…
“My younger sibling has died.”
The letter contained news about the death of my younger sibling.
“Are there casualties among the imperial family?”
“Yes. And it’s a terrible casualty.”
He was quite a decent child, yet he met such a horrible death.
“This is the first, isn’t it? A death among the imperial family?”
“Yes. And it was the youngest who died.”
“Did Lord Raid pass away? What a shame, he was a good person.”
For Ast to say someone was a good person – that’s unusual.
But before that,
“Have you met Raid before?”
“Ah, I met him once while walking in the imperial corridor. He said I was an unfamiliar face, so when I told him I had recently become your exclusive butler, he said I must be having a hard time.”
For him to remember faces when there must be at least thousands of people in the imperial palace – my younger sibling was more impressive than I thought.
“Really?”
“Yes, that’s right. He had deep famililiar affection. He even gave me 5 gold coins, saying that although Your Highness has a bit of a nasty personality and is moody, you’re not such a bad person, so I should try to endure for about two months.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
Cancel that.
Seeing how he went around saying unnecessary things, it seems my younger sibling wasn’t that impressive after all.
“I think I’ll be able to meet him soon, so I can ask then.”
“…Are you planning to die, Your Highness?”
“No, why?”
I was supposed to die, but thanks to Ast, death passed me by.
Thanks to that, I even participated in the war to stimulate my life, but I can’t die when I haven’t even felt anything yet.
“Then have you dabbled in black magic? Although legal forms of black magic exist, I believe resurrecting the dead is in the impossible realm.”
Ast was looking at me with a very suspicious expression.
That’s the look of someone watching an enormous criminal.
He seem ready to report to the nearest military department… But unfortunately, I was the commander-in-chief of the nearest army.
“What are you talking about?”
“To meet a dead person, don’t you have to either die or resurrect them?”
Looking at Ast, who seemed ready to report me right this moment, I let out a deep sigh.
“There was a problem with my expression.”
I handed over the documents I had been looking at to Ast.
Although Ast received them with a very dubious expression, he soon nodded with an understanding look.
“He’s certainly still alive.”
“Yes. He’s still alive for now.”
“Though it seems he’ll die soon.”
“Even if he doesn’t die, he’ll experience pain close to death.”
Ast muttered quietly with a very bitter expression that he doesn’t usually make.
“The cause of death is death from shame.”
“You mean he died from shame? That’s correct.”
Death from shame…
Although it was the first time I’d heard this term, there couldn’t be anything more appropriate as a diagnosis for my younger sibling’s current condition.
“I never thought there would be a fool who would lose to Duke Raisha.”
“I also never thought there would be a fool among our imperial family who would lose to Duke Raisha.”
I still couldn’t believe that fool was my youngest sibling, Raid Nel Karan.
“By the way, you do realize that calling a member of the imperial family a fool just now counts as insulting the imperial family?”
“Ah… That’s right. It’s a serious crime that should normally result in decapitation.”
“Yes, normally. But since what you said is correct, I’ll forgive you just this once.”
“I should express my gratitude to Your Highness for your great mercy and to Duke Raisha for making it permissible to call a member of the imperial family a fool.”
“Yes. Just this once, you can call my sibling a fool. To think my sibling wasn’t even human…”
How low must my sibling’s intelligence be to lose to Duke Raisha, who has sub-human intelligence?
Thinking about what Ast said earlier, it seems his memory is quite good.
Like the saying âgenius and fool are separated by a thin paperâ, my younger sibling’s talent might have been concentrated in one direction.
“Did he lack talent for war?”
“Losing to Duke Raisha means he has talent in a different sense.”
“Talent for ruining the empire?”
“Yes. People with that kind of talent should be removed from war and sent to the rear.”
“That’s right.”
I had known about Duke Raisha’s abilities with that talent for a long time.
If my younger sibling has such talent, I must use everything at my disposal to make him step away from war.
“Wouldn’t it be better to meet him directly rather than deal with these things?”
Seeing someone once in person is more accurate than receiving a hundred reports.
“Are you going there yourself?”
“No. We’re not idle, we’re very busy, aren’t we? There’s no time to visit and comfort a defeated sibling.”
“Isn’t it more about pushing your defeated sibling to the bottom?”
“Be quiet, Ast.”
I take the paper and pen that Ast hands me and move the pen lightly.
“Send someone with this.”
“Understood.”
Ast received the well-folded letter sealed with my seal and immediately called a soldier to send it.
And then,
“Nothing to do.”
There was absolutely nothing to do until my sibling arrives.
“Didn’t you say you were busy earlier?”
“The unit is busy, but I’m not.”
“Then would you like to have some tea?”
“That would be nice.”
Ast made tea with skilled hands.
Watching Ast, Ria screamed with a dying voice.
“Your Highness! Lord Ast! If you have nothing to do, couldn’t you help us a little? It hasn’t been long since the battle ended, and we have mountains of work!”
Looking at Ria and the generals crying among mountains of reports to review, Ast and I gave them bright smiles.
“My job is to stamp approval seals on your reports.”
“And my duty as a dedicated butler is to assist Her Highness in such matters.”
“It’s not our job.”
“That’s right, Your Highness.”
Those who had held some hope after our words buried their heads back in their desks piled with documents.
“Then please go somewhere else to enjoy yourselves!”
Only Ria screamed at the unfamiliar documents… But neither Ast nor I listened to those words.
#80 Their Circumstances: Raid Nel Karan’s Situation
I lost. I was defeated.
“What are the casualties?”
Due to the hasty retreat, I couldn’t even receive proper reports.
The enemy pursued us as if they would follow us to the ends of hell, and we were too busy just avoiding them.
“Out of 30,000 troops, we had 10,000 casualties.”
“That’s a lot…”
Ten thousand. That’s one-third of the vanguard and 10 percent of the entire army who were killed or injured.
“How many are severely wounded?”
“Not many among the casualties are severely wounded. As you know, we had no capacity to care for the wounded during the retreat…”
“You mean most are fatalities.”
“Yes.”
The report indicated that most were either missing or dead.
It was a devastating defeat.
“So this is the army of Duke Raisha, who even defeated my sister…?”
Since childhood, I’ve known well about myself.
Genius (怩æ). A being born with heaven-given talent.
That was who I was.
When taught one thing, I easily understood ten, and using those ten, I could predict what lay ahead.
Additionally, I had an excellent eye for people, making it easy to gain reliable allies.
If asked to choose what I consider the most important among my talents, I would choose my ability to judge people.
Even a genius has only one body.
Looking at history alone, one can see that there are problems that cannot be solved by individual ability, no matter how much of a genius one might be.
Therefore, I trusted my eyes.
The ability to filter out treacherous officials and select outstanding talent first.
I believed that with this ability alone, I could defeat my talented siblings and obtain the position of Emperor.
“You were blinded by military achievements. The opponent was someone who even defeated your elder sister.”
When I first saw my First Brother, Ignal Nel Karan, I instinctively knew.
That if I were to become Emperor, this would be the person I’d fight until the very end.
That’s how exceptional my First Brother was.
And… When I saw First Sister, I realized she was a wall I could never overcome.
A castle reduced to ruins.
Yet from Sister, I felt the presence of massive castle walls that no being could surpass.
“I apologize, Your Highness. Everything was due to my inadequacy…”
“No. Your strategy was perfect.”
The intelligence department’s information stated that Duke Raisha, who had occupied Fort Pesra, would divide their forces into four parts to clear the surroundings and attack other locations.
We found a suitable location for ambushing Duke Raisha’s main force along their route of movement, and secretly hid there to launch a surprise attack on Duke Raisha’s army.
It was a perfect ambush.
The terrain was favorable for a smaller force to engage a larger enemy, and the difference of 20,000 troops was something we could overcome with our surprise attack.
However,
“We just didn’t know Duke Raisha’s valor and leadership abilities.”
Honestly, I had underestimated them. No, I was rather relieved.
Sister was human after all. She wasn’t an insurmountable wall.
Before becoming Grand General, Duke Raisha had suffered numerous defeats, and among those who had defeated him was my army.
That’s why I thought Sister had let her guard down.
Because Sister was too strong, I thought she had looked down on Duke Raisha, who seemed too weak, and lost.
After all, although Sister had surrendered Fort Pesra, her forces had suffered almost no casualties.
But Duke Raisha, whom I faced directly, was an extraordinary person.
“Who would have thought he would choose to break through there.”
The advantage of a surprise attack was, undeniably, that it prevents the opponent from staying calm.
When suddenly attacked, not only the soldiers but also the commanders fail to maintain their composure.
It was standard practice to retreat when unable to properly assess the enemy’s numbers and seeing allied forces being pushed back.
At night, only magic could accurately determine the number of enemy forces hidden by terrain features.
But what commander could calmly allow time for mages to prepare detection spells while under surprise attack?
Retreating and regrouping was the natural course of action.
But Duke Raisha threw a bold move upon seeing our attack.
Charge.
As if without any thought, he ordered a charge directly into our ambush position the moment they were attacked.
If we had prepared more traps and been ready, Duke Raisha’s forces would have been completely annihilated there.
However, there couldn’t have been such traps in a hastily prepared ambush based on intelligence reports, and our forces ended up being pushed back, overwhelmed by the enemy’s imposing charge.
“He must have estimated our force size by observing the scale of our attack.”
“Such frightening calculation ability and judgment. To think he would choose to charge against enemies who ambushed in the night…”
“While his calculation and judgment abilities were outstanding, it would have been impossible without the charisma to command his soldiers. Soldiers who would unhesitatingly charge into enemy territory in the dark night where nothing could be seen.”
“Indeed, they were soldiers worthy of Merdea’s reputation as a military powerhouse.”
As a result, our forces suffered considerable losses.
Although we still had enough forces to defend, we couldn’t hold off with just 20,000 troops if the enemy’s main force joined with their reinforcements to form an army of 200,000.
“We must either call in forces assigned to other areas, or abandon this position and reinforce elsewhere.”
“Hmm…”
There was no other option.
There was the possibility of joining forces with Sister and forming a united front, but there was no way Sister would accept that.
That’s what I thought, but,
“A letter? From Sister?”
The letter handed to me by a soldier contained a message from my Sister asking to meet.
It was a troubling letter.
In a battle for imperial succession, this meant meeting with the most powerful enemy.
This was a battlefield.
Frankly speaking, it wouldn’t be strange if Sister poisoned my food and claimed it was an enemy assassination.
But… The situation wasn’t good.
To break through the current situation, it was necessary to take risks!
“I will meet with Sister.”
And shortly after.
I deeply regretted my decision to meet with Sister.
