"Isn't it the Empire?
Ardis looks suspicious on the information from the marida.
"Yeah, they're named after the San Rogel monarchy."
"San Rogel? Where is it?
Now Nicole has a question.
It was Ardis who answered the question.
"Sounds like a country on the southern continent..."
"You know what?
I'm not so familiar with Ardis, but I've fought on the battlefield once.
An exotic army riding a strange beast and using magic that I have never seen before.
The impression hasn't faded now.
"This is the country that was on the side of the Empire in the battle the other day. It was also a reinforcement when the Royal Army was destroyed in the war four years ago."
"Reinforcements? What do you mean there's no empire?"
Maybe it wasn't reinforcements this time.
Nicole picks up Ardis's little tweet in her ear.
"It's not reinforcements... oh, really?"
Nicole seemed to understand what Aldis was saying.
The San Roger Empire sent reinforcements to the Empire all the way across the open ocean, not because it agreed to the cause of the Empire's "restoration of the old territories," nor because it hostiled the Kingdom for the sake of friendship with the Empire.
Gain new territory on the continent by joining hands with the Empire and using its foundations as a stepping stone.
That would be the aim of the monarchy.
The point is, it's just an expansion.
The monarchy helps the empire defeat the kingdom, and at the cost of it silences the invasion and annexation of the Union of Cities.
It is highly likely that such an agreement has been made between the Empire and the monarchy.
"Whether it's an empire or a monarchy, it doesn't change that the army has invaded us."
"... you're not telling me to fight because they're not empires, right?
Aldis recalls the words Marida said the other day when she took over the escort: "I'm not going to stand up to the Empire."
Marida made it clear that she would never fight the Empire, but if the opponent were an army other than the Empire, she could say that the story was different.
"I wouldn't say that. No matter where you attack, don't worry, Aldis, I'm not going to let you stand alone."
"In the meantime, lady, shouldn't we keep it under control?
"Ah, it's okay because you're already turning your hands. I'd like to ask both of you."
"What?
Marida's question to Aldis to ask was quite natural in this situation.
"Do you think Lattin will fall?
Ardis and Nicole joined hands.
"Surely the defense force when the monster attacked us before was about 2,000?
"Yeah, mercenaries and militia."
Nicole affirms Ardis' words.
"But I don't know if we'll get the same number this time. They were beasts and monsters the other day. If you lose, you don't have to ask questions and kill your whole family. The militia gathering was good because there was no later, but this time it was someone who could negotiate. Some people will try to follow the enemy, others will try to get in."
Whether the opponent is a verbal person or not, it is reasonable to expect a soldier who is excited in battle to be violently obsessed.
In fact, it seems that a considerable number of non-combatants were killed and looted in King's Landing.
Nevertheless, it can be said that the empire was opposed to a kingdom that was the enemy of indestructible heaven.
So far, there is no such connection between the monarchy and Lattin.
There will be some problems, but it may not be like King's Landing.
"But just regular soldiers and mercenaries will be tough to protect. Mercenaries aren't always on Lattin's side. Instead, if the enemy is more advantageous, the one who sells himself there will come out."
Aldis's explanation is directed not at Nicole, but at Marida, who is not the only mercenary here.
"Five thousand enemies... Even if it contains heavy soldiers, it is overwhelmingly more than Ratin. This is even worse if the militia gathers poorly."
Nicole calculates the power differential immediately.
The last time the militia gathered around 1,500 people, it depends on how the opponent comes out.
Unlike last time when it was a sudden attack, this time there is still a choice to escape because of the time available.
Humans leave town to leave Lattin before the troops of the monarchy actually arrive.
"You're requesting reinforcements from other city states, aren't you?
Probably not.
When Aldis confirms, Marida responds immediately.
"Because it's a coalition for times like this. I'm sure there are couriers on their way to every national city.... I don't know if I'll make it."
"So, what are you going to do as a marida? You hired me as your escort for this, didn't you?
"Well, Aldis, you and Nicole stay put."
"Are you sure?
Ardis threw a confirmation at the marida, which was unlikely to hit him in particular.
I don't mind.
Ardis wondered that she could not feel any emotions such as anxiety or sadness in the face of Marida, who answered without hesitation.
Marida first dreamed when she was ten years old.
Of course, it's not just a dream you dream while you're asleep.
It means ten years of age to express the ability of dreams linked to reality.
My first dream was the death of my parents.
After waking up to a terrible nightmare, the warmth of my mother, who cried and hugged me, is now far from my memory.
The contents of the nightmare were always the same.
In order to attend the party invited by the local lord, she left Marida in Lattin and her parents took a carriage out and got caught up in a cliff crash along the way.
Only one of the employees whose father was watching was lucky enough to survive and bring the obituary back to the marida.
Such a nightmare continued every night.
Eventually, in her dreams, Marida began to retain her parents.
I complain desperately not to leave, but my parents just take it personally.
I try my best to delay my departure time even if I am desperate to interfere as a child.
But no matter how hard Marida tried, the result was hopeless.
Even if they escape the cliff collapse, they end up being attacked by monsters or bandits, and their parents don't return.
While doing so, I received an invitation to the party from the local lord to my parents in the real world.
Marida struggles to get things going just like in a nightmare.
Naturally, I desperately retained my parents.
I often talk about nightmares and now complain about feelings when I know that explaining them logically is ineffective.
Without going, she burst into tears and tried to avoid the nightmare by pretending to be mad.
But it ends in vain.
Eventually, the parents who left the marida ended up leaving as they were.
--Marida never had a dream that night.
Then began a long, rather long, marida nightmare.
Marida, who was sinking into her parents' death, began dreaming again.
The only survivor in the carriage is the man who told me about his parents' death. And a nobleman Marida doesn't know.
I wondered what would happen when the chairman's daughter made a scene, but the chairman and his wife went through the underworld gate as planned. About a third of the employees of the Chamber of Commerce already follow me. There are a few old people, but if you throw them out, there's only one little girl who won't go even at the end of her life.... "
Are you going to take care of it?
To the aristocrats who asked with cold eyes, the employee man spoke his thoughts.
Now is a little too prominent. Soon after the chairman and his wife died in the accident, even his daughter... could become suspicious of the surroundings. But Shinsen is still a child. I thought it would be difficult to round it up. Take over the Chamber of Commerce without labor if you successfully incorporate it. If it seems to get in the way, you can send it to your wife anywhere. I'll have the whole thing in my hands by then. "
Hmm...... Then there are three or four sons of mine to be son-in-law. "
The employee's man rushed to the nobility, who began to imagine a convenient future.
In any case, the Lite Chamber of Commerce is already in my hands. When I acquire the real power of the Chamber of Commerce, I would definitely ask the Count to back me up. "
The nobleman smiles loudly at the man who pleads with an ambitious face.
Of course. The new trading route for gold ore pioneered by the Lite Chamber of Commerce is firmly held by the Earl's family. That's why I looked at you, and I took the trouble to turn my hand from behind. "
When laughing in a good mood for satisfactory results, the nobleman puts back his expression and stabs the nail with the words of labor to the employee's man.
Well done, too. Put the Chamber of Commerce under control within three years. Please don't let other employees or Lite's daughter distract you. "
Yes, I'll take care of it.
Afterwards, the employee's man shook the will of the deceased chairman and chased the old employees, and took over the real power of the Lite Chamber of Commerce.
Those who rebelled against the man who tried to ear the Chamber of Commerce with our faces, and those who tried to support the marida by standing by the previous chairman, were quickly expelled, and the Chamber of Commerce was steadily taken over by a man.
Eventually, one day a year passed since my parents died.
An assassin is being sent to Marida.
Without the power to confront the assassin against an eleven-year-old girl, Marida's life ends there.
When I first saw my dream of being killed, Marida finally understood that it was the future she was going to visit.
At the same time, the man who told me about his parents' death was discovered to have teamed up with the nobles and trapped them.
Then Marida keeps dreaming of her own death every night.
I managed to escape death in my dreams.
But even if you escape death, the future that awaits Marida is terrible.
Sometimes I was left in the wilderness dressed up, and sometimes I was sold to a whorehouse to take customers until they broke down.
It would still be the case, for example, when a poor civilian with children was forced to marry an unwanted man.
Marida was impatient.
As always, the same reality as a nightmare will await your parents.
I no longer had time to think about why I started dreaming like that.
I don't know how many days are left until the time limit.
But certainly the doom is nearing.
After several nights of trial and error, Marida finally reaches the option of avoiding death.
Marida, who knew no other solution, had no choice but to cry for blood.
Even if that's the option of putting a man, the enemy of his parents, next to him as his own heart.
Eighteen years since my parents were killed.
With Nicole on his side and Ardis on his side, Marida felt a cold joy at the chance of a hostile adversary.