The year is about to dawn.
Winter was coming and it was starting to snow.
Think back, a lot has happened this year.
After all, the biggest change would have been the independence of Fontana territory as a kingdom.
Probably, but you never expected that to happen as anyone else.
That goes for me, of course.
I never thought this would happen.
It was also a year of great social change, but also of great personal change.
That would have made a child of me.
Besides, he was an unexpected twin.
The way Lilina messed up after the twins were born was again unexpected to me, and she's been apologizing to me.
Eventually, it meant it was not a good idea to raise the twins as they were, one on hand, but the other as dead was to be left with my mother at home and raised as my brother.
Is it salvation above all that Lilina has calmed me down mentally?
Since then, they have both grown so fast that they have their chests down for the first time.
In addition, there were a lot of things like building clock towers, building tracks, and making Barca silver coins.
I think I'm working too hard.
but apparently it's not the end of what I'm supposed to do yet.
"Are you here again?
"Yes, Master Ars. Several knights have offered to submit to the Kingdom of Fontana and pledge allegiance to the King."
"... Instead, you mean territorial relief as a knight? I don't know what to do."
"You're about to have trouble coping. Anyway, since the knights of some lands have offered separately, their territory will be everywhere. Moreover, it means that it is within the territory ruled by other nobles. It's hard to relieve that territory."
"Right. I wish the aristocrats would at least follow me, not the knights."
Fontana became independent as a kingdom and both the Church and the Doren royal family recognized it.
And the land outside that Fontana has become very unstable.
So the forces around us also had to move in line with this situation.
It wasn't the hipster aristocrats who survived and went into action, it was the knights.
Especially the knights in the northern aristocracy.
They have sworn allegiance to the northern nobility and ruled the territory as knights.
but some parts of the north were heavily damaged by coalition forces from the Memento faction.
And the Memento family is trying to secure the king's capital and royalty to reach further around.
The anti-memento coalition to cope with it has not been able to become a complete single rock, and I have no expectation of what will happen in the future.
Then what should a small knight family, a small force, do?
Do you continue to act with the aristocrats who have originally sworn allegiance?
Or guard the territory about under another, away from the aristocracy?
I was forced to make a choice.
And some of them relied on the Kingdom of Fontana.
By entering the kingdom of Fontana as a knight and making the land part of Fontana, it will mean that you want to be the back shield to protect your territory.
But it's not that easy.
The original lord, the aristocracy, would not allow a knight to serve a stranger.
Or he could strip the knight of his identity and take over the territory.
Then some tried to send to the Kingdom of Fontana, not as knights, but as second and third sons who would not inherit the knighthood.
If I had the strength to fight as a knight, I would be far more powerful in combat than gathering multiple ordinary people.
As a knight, while serving the Lord today, that kinship may survive if a child who does not succeed the governor is allowed to recognize his power in Fontana and treat him as a knight.
Or maybe I can give you martial arts and get a second son, three boys, a territory.
Or, even if the main house is crushed by the Memento family or something, it could be a stepping stone to claiming and retrieving that land was originally ours.
Thinking that way, all sorts of things were gathering in the kingdom of Fontana from the forces of the North.
whether to accept them or not.
I don't like being poorly accepted and caught up in home disturbances.
but it couldn't be that I wouldn't do anything.
Leaving the person you are saying you pledge allegiance to down will reduce the number of people who will bow their heads from the other side in the same way in the future.
Shouldn't we accept it to some extent when we think about the future?
When I came up with that, I couldn't give an easy answer as to who I would accept to how far.
"But it's about you. You're going to attack anyway, Ars."
"Sort of. There's no way I'm going to do anything like this, and if I don't keep it for when I can, I might regret it later. Then you can't just wave a chance at a stick."
"I have to come. So, when are we going to attack?
"When the year breaks, I guess."
"New year means early and early spring, right?
"No, you're not, brother Byte. Attack northern aristocratic territory. It's just after New Year's."
"Huh? Soon after dawn, what are we gonna do about the New Year's greeting?
"Later, I guess. Or attack where other nobles and knights are gathered in one place in New Year's greetings"
"... come on, seriously. Don't even think about it the same way, you. But I'll see you then. Uh. All right, all right. I'll try to gather my strength now."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, brother Byte"
Fontana became independent as a kingdom.
but that only means that the title was recognized.
The aristocracy, known as the other great nobles, is more powerful in actual warfare.
If so, the Kingdom of Fontana could not have stopped walking satisfactorily in the present situation.
I was worried about what to do when a knight belonging to more than one noble territory offered to subordinate to Fontana, but there is also the aspect of a ship on the crossing.
Let the knights send Fontana a rescue request.
Whatever the content is.
Anyway, all you have to do is make him say he wants help because he has a problem with the nobility of his own Lord and his knight's territory is in danger.
That way, you get the big father-in-law to attack that noble territory once and for all.
Attack the aristocracy of the north and take its territory into Fontana.
Is it the Memento family that is likely to complain the most about this?
However, the Memento family has attached a promise not to speak out about the North when they previously transferred the Labyrinth Street.
That's not just about the Carmus family, it's the same everywhere else.
Besides, I haven't set a deadline.
In other words, it can be argued that the promise is still ongoing.
For that reason, I decided to attack three aristocrats in the north.
Its attack timing is when the New Year dawns.
Why the timing.
That is because, for one thing, there is a custom that knights of the noble realm meet together in that noble realm capital for New Year's greetings.
A group of rulers are gathered in one place to rule the territory on land closed to snow.
Moreover, it is a situation in which peasants cannot be summoned as soldiers without an army that can move them.
A situation like this would be hard to come by.
Aim for it.
Thus, the Fontana army secretly proceeded to prepare for the snowy march.