~ At the same time, inside Castle Altomura ~
A woman was making herself at home in Wyst Garotte’s mansion within Altomura. Despite being inside a city that was besieged by fifty thousand men, the woman was elegantly enjoying her tea. Seeing the woman’s out of place boldness, Wyst who just came back from the Amidonia camp made a wry smile while explaining the details of the negotiation. There was not an ounce of his earlier disgraceful appearance at the Amidonia camp in his face right now.
“Is this all right, mam… no, Duchess Ecksel”
“Yes. You did well. So Wyst can put up an act now, there’s a good boy”
The woman sipping tea was the Admiral of the Navy Ecksel Walter. She looked to be in her mid-twenties but since she was actually a mizuchi who was over five hundred years in age, even Wyst who was in his fifties was a child to her”
“Duchess Ecksel … would you please stop treating me like a child?”
“Every marine are children from my point of view, though?”
“But I’m not a marine any more”
“Fufu, no matter how much you go up in life, you will always be my underling and a child”
“Ah–, so am I going to be stuck with the child treatment for life?”
Even when the human Wyst became a graying old man, the youthful-looking Ecksel will probably keep treating him like a child.
“But …. That new King is something too, isn’t he? To even make Duchess Ecksel do errands for him”
“His highness handles his people roughly. Even though I did swear fealty to him from the start, but to suddenly tell me to [take the Royal Broadcast orb and go to Altomura]”
Ecksel received the King’s Final Counsel three days ago, not in the Walter Duchy, but here in Altomura, in Wyst’s mansion. Because what was shown in the broadcast is limited, as long as one is in a properly prepared indoor space, one’s whereabouts would not be known. Even if an Amidonian spy were to see the broadcast, they will surely think that she was in Walter Duchy. Soma made use of that and secretly sent Ecksel to Altomura.
Her job was to stall the Amidonian Army. He expected the Amidonians to first take control of the city in the center of the breadbasket region, Altomura, and do sweeping attacks from there to gain effective control over the surrounding areas. Because he can’t afford to send reinforcements and had to keep casualties in check, he had no other way but to hold them out at Altomura, and even then he had to avoid a fight as much as possible. Which is why the job fell on the sly old fox Lady Ecksel.
“The Amidonians would never have guessed that Duchess Ecksel would be in a place like this”
“It would take three days to get here from Lagoon City after all. Well, I have been here since five days ago though … goodness gracious, His Highness sure handles his old workers roughly”
“Please don’t use your age only when it’s convenient”
“Self-derision is a good thing you know, though I absolutely won’t allow anyone else to say so about me”
You’re just as reckless as Duke Vargas! Wyst wanted to yell, but he kept it all in his chest. Even though he’s already past fifty years old he still values his life.
“By the way Duchess Ecksel. I could only buy time until noon, will that be alright? Do you still need a little more time for the plan?”
“It’s all right. If they would lift the siege until noon, they’ll need some more time to get it going again. If they wanted to do a full-scale assault then that would happen at dusk at the earliest”
“I see. So there’s nothing else for me to do?”
“Yes. Good work Wyst. Leave the rest to me and take a break”
Ecksel said so while smiling at Wyst like a gentle mother. Just by seeing that smile, Wyst felt like he could forget all the fear from when he was standing before Gaius VIII.
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«Elfrieden Classical Idioms Course»
[Lord of Altomura] … figure of speech. Denotes a person who makes promises they cannot keep. The origin of the term was when the Lord of Altomura, Wyst Garrotte, fell under attack by the Principality of Amidonia’s Gaius VIII at the brink of the Five Day War, he repeatedly made empty promise to Gaius that he “would capitulate” in order to buy time. Usage example: “He’s a L— so you’d be better off not believing him”