“We will send the Gallico army back to their home country.”
At Cesare's capital residence, 'Villa Sorrotone', which was beginning to turn into autumn colors, the girl with black hair looked at the residence owner with calm green eyes.
Ariadne was surrounded by cypress trees that were the exact same color as her eyes.
“I need Cesare’s help.”
Somewhere, it was like a perfectly quiet painting.
Ariadne in the painting seemed to have found exactly where she should be.
She once lived in 'Villa Sorrotone'.
Cesare didn't know it, but he felt in his heart that this was where she belonged.
And he had a strange feeling of elation. He was going to send back the Gallico army, which would go down in history.
He was present at the scene of that history.
It was natural that she should not participate in his history, but that he should participate in her history.
Because it was something that Cesare couldn't do alone. It was a strange but pleasant sense of overwhelming.
“...Anyway. What do you need?”
“Do you have the right to exhibit?”
Although he was a commander-in-chief in name only, having lost all of his troops, his position itself was still intact. This was the result of Duchess Rubina's efforts.
"Yes."
“We need the night gate opening right. And the name of the operational directive.”
As a mere private citizen without any title or position, Ariadne's contact with the Montpellier Knights Templar could cause problems later on.
It's a problem if the operation fails, but it's even more of a problem if the operation is a huge success.
Someone is bound to come along and question what authority she had to do something so daring.
The operation must be carried out under the name of Commander-in-Chief Cesare so that she has an umbrella to protect her.
“Let’s listen to the story first. And then...”
If what Ariadne is trying to do is outrageous, then Cesare will also have to take on the risk.
He was already in a bad situation.
If he were to open the gates at night and give the enemy a pretext, Duke Cesare would truly be the target of the capital's criticism.
Instead of Leo III, he becomes a target of insults.
But he had a strong feeling that Ariadne's plan would succeed.
“If this works out, I’ll end up taking all the credit, so why are you doing this, young lady?”
Ariadne smiled bitterly. Her face was covered by a towel, so Cesare couldn't see her expression.
“...That’s right.”
I am moving in the direction of fate. I don't know where it will take me.
Can I save the Etruscan kingdom, the Etruscan people? What will happen to me if I save them?
Neither you nor anyone else can fully understand why I do this.
The words that could not leave her lips were all contained in her bitter smile.
Only a twinkling light, invisible to Cesare's eyes, guarded her side.
A week ago, Ariadne, with the help of Raphael de Baldessar, analyzed the southward movement pattern of Gallico's army.
In fact, there wasn't really any analysis.
Gallico's army was advancing in a straight line towards San Carlo, leaving aside all the great cities in the north which would have been excellent targets for plunder.
The implications were obvious.
“Here. Like this.”
Raphael took Ariadne's hand as she made dots on the parchment.
Instead of marking dots sequentially, he drew a straight line across the parchment, estimating the average distance between the dots already marked.
Ariadne, who had her bare hand grabbed, looked at Raphael in surprise, and he stuck out his tongue and apologized.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Ariadne was taken aback by his bashful smile as if it were a real mistake and immediately accepted his apology.
His clean, pale, childlike expression showed not a single hint of ill intention.
“Oh, no.”
Was I a little oversensitive?
But Ariadne looked at the parchment, thinking that Raphael's words had become strangely short recently.
The end of Raphael's line extended into the northern hills outside San Carlo.
“It’s a hilly area perfect for an army base. After we regroup here, we’ll apply pressure on San Carlo.”
Raphael tilted his head as he spoke.
“Actually, I don’t know exactly what the Gallico army is aiming for. I’m sure they’re going to march on San Carlo. But what about after that? They don’t have enough men to wage a siege, and as far as I know, they don’t have any siege equipment.”
Traditional siege equipment included battering rams, catapults, and siege towers. The latest trend was artillery, including siege guns.
Because they were large in volume, they were easily observed from outside, and their movement speed was slow.
Siege cannons are a key strategic weapon, so if they crossed the border there would be chaos.
However, there was no mention of siege engines being seen in the Gallico army, nor of artillery being issued.
Moreover, they moved too quickly for an army carrying siege weapons.
“Raphael said that San Carlo was not a defensive city.”
“That’s right. There is no moat, the walls are low, and above all, the city boundary line is too long.”
“But is siege weapons really necessary for the conquest of San Carlo?”
San Carlo was the largest city in the central continent.
Although the Gallico capital, Montpellier, has been on the rise in recent years, it is far from being able to catch up with the planned city of San Carlo, which has been in the same place since ancient times and has been repeating architecture and history.
“But we are a thousand years old. After all, we have all the basics. With that number of people and that equipment, it would be very difficult to take San Carlo. If I were the commander, I wouldn’t even start.”
It was now approaching winter, making it too early to replenish equipment in the home country.
Even if they start the convoy right away, the first snow will fall by the time the siege engines cross the Prinoyak Mountains and arrive here.
Politically, it wasn't easy either.
When the Gallico army was stationed near the border, the excuse could be made that 'they came to our border for training and ended up crossing over a little way.'
Because Pope Louis was willing to be generous with anything.
Then, once they started to move inland, they came close to violating international comity to the point where even Pope Louis XIV would have found it difficult to protect them.
Pope Louis may have ignored Leo III's first protest.
However, if the period is extended excessively amidst repeated strong protests, or if the military does more than just stay, even the Pope will not be able to protect them any longer.
“If it were a normal situation, it would be like this.”
Raphael moved the quill pen Ariadne was holding and named Regento, Ermo, and Manfredo in the North in that order.
Ariadne, who had been holding out her hand repeatedly, even-handed the quill pen over to Raphael.
“Here it is.”
But Raphael seemed to have used up his quill.
He accepted the pen, put it down on the desk, and pointed to the three major cities in the north with his index finger.
“They would have come down and plundered sequentially. Considering the defensive capacity and the size of the city, that would be textbook.”
“But if we start pillaging the city...”
Raphael nodded.
“From then on, it will be all-out war.”
Even if the Emperor of the Latin Empire, not the Pope, returns alive, it will not be able to provide protection.
“They have business in San Carlo. Either they come down to the capital as quickly as possible, put a plate of iron on their faces, and just beat the capital, or they try to negotiate by setting some conditions. One of the two.”
“Could it be that they came down without plundering the city in the middle because they wanted to avoid the Black Death?”
Ariadne pointed out one thing.
She didn't know it, but that was precisely why the Montpellier cavalry commander had avoided the city and headed south in a straight line.
Raphael partly agreed with her guess.
“That could be the case. They are avoiding all the cities and are coming through the granary area. Since the supply line is long, it seems like they are trying to procure as much as possible locally.”
“...The central region was still partially harvested, but it must have all been plundered.”
“I guess so. But there’s a limit to how much you can carry and move, so they probably burned the rest.”
...Bad guys, Ariadne muttered.
There is nothing mean about war, but they were taking away the Etruscans' hopes for the next year without even declaring war.
If the harvest fails in the central region, following the north and south, the shock will not end until next year.
They don't even eat the grain they took.
They were just burning everything so that the Etruscans couldn't use it. It was pure destruction.
She asked through gritted teeth.
“Will they come back when winter comes?”
“Normally, I would think so, but right now, the Gallico Army is moving in a way that breaks all common sense.”
An advance inland without declaring war between countries of the same religion, without pillaging large cities.
Moreover, moving south into a land rife with plague was unprecedented.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to return to my home country in the winter...”
Ariadne shook her head.
“If you don’t go back, I’ll have to let you go back.”
“...Is there any good plan? Maybe the intervention of the Pope?”
Raphael's question was justified.
The only Etruscan troops left were the capital's praetorian guard, which had no authority except that of the King.
It's a power that Ariadne definitely doesn't have.
Moreover, since Ariadne was the illegitimate daughter of a cardinal, it was natural to think that she would move the Holy See to find a political and diplomatic solution.
But instead of answering, Ariadne gave Raphael a small smile.
It was a task that could not be guaranteed to succeed. There might be blood on his hands.
Ariadne wanted to protect Raphael, who was aspiring to become a priest.
“ ...When it becomes concrete, I’ll let you know.”
It was a curse.
This was always the limit that Raphael could approach. Although he was disappointed inside, he nodded with a smile.
“Let me know when you’re ready.”
He added.
“Because I really want to know.”
Because he wants to know everything that's going on in her amazing head.
The first person Ariadne shared her vision with was not Raphael or Cardinal de Mare, but Sancha.
“They are trying to spread the Black Death to the Gallico army.”
Sancha was the one who trained the nursing unit of the Rambouillet Relief Home.
He was also one of the most knowledgeable people in the city of San Carlo about the prevention and control of the Black Death.
It was to the extent that the plague doctors working in the capital sought advice from Sancha, who was merely a maid from a prestigious family, to avoid public attention.
“What method?”
“The safest way, in fact, is to drop the corpses and by-products on the enemy’s staging area.”
The Moorish Empire catapulted the corpses of plague victims into the thousand-year-old city of Yesak, which had fallen at the end of the First Crusade.
The Lion King, who had led the First Crusade to victory, had returned to the Central Continent with most of his forces, and his nephew, Count Yekon, who had been newly installed as the 'King of Yesak', fought alone in a city that was collapsing from an epidemic, but was defeated by the Moorish Empire.
Literature from the time said that instead of stones falling from the sky, dead bodies poured down like rain into the walls.
At first, King Yesak and his men evaluated it as 'If you want to break down the wall, you have to shoot something solid. What is this?' and 'If they were trying to hurt my feelings, they succeeded.' However, they soon lost their ability to fight due to the Black Death that had taken over the city.
Even the knights that the Lion King boasted about were no exception. No army could maintain its fighting ability in the face of the plague.
And the damage to the Moorish Empire that shot the corpses was virtually non-existent.
“...Do you have a catapult we can use?”
“None. The enemy is not fighting within the walls but is moving on the plains. It’s not a situation where we can use catapults.”
Another route of infection was needed.
“Isn’t there any better way?”
“...Let me look into it. I’ll have to decide first whether to use a corpse or a patient’s byproducts.”
Sancha, who had received Ariadne's secret order, hurried to the Rambouillet Center.
The purpose was to think of a way to maximize infection for the opponent and minimize damage to their allies.
And just two days later, Sancha came back, looking a little pale.
“...Excuse me, Miss. There’s someone you need to meet.”
"Who?"
“But... I’m not sure if it’s right for me to arrange this.”
Ariadne asked.
“Why, what happened that made you do that?”
“Greta from the Rambouillet Relief Center would like to see you.”
It was a child from the Rambouillet Relief Center nurses' team who Sancha had previously praised as being very smart.
“Ah. I remember. Didn’t you say that Greta became the leader of Group 2 a while ago?”
The nursing team at the relief center was divided into two groups and worked together.
Considering that Sancha was directly in charge of Group 1, Greta, the leader of Group 2, was the most outstanding child among the friends who had just started receiving training at the Rambouillet Relief Center.
But Sancha lowered her head.
“You remember. It must have been a trivial matter to you, Miss... But it’s not important anymore.”
"Why?"
“I think Greta has the plague.”
At Cesare's capital residence, 'Villa Sorrotone', which was beginning to turn into autumn colors, the girl with black hair looked at the residence owner with calm green eyes.
Ariadne was surrounded by cypress trees that were the exact same color as her eyes.
“I need Cesare’s help.”
Somewhere, it was like a perfectly quiet painting.
Ariadne in the painting seemed to have found exactly where she should be.
She once lived in 'Villa Sorrotone'.
Cesare didn't know it, but he felt in his heart that this was where she belonged.
And he had a strange feeling of elation. He was going to send back the Gallico army, which would go down in history.
He was present at the scene of that history.
It was natural that she should not participate in his history, but that he should participate in her history.
Because it was something that Cesare couldn't do alone. It was a strange but pleasant sense of overwhelming.
“...Anyway. What do you need?”
“Do you have the right to exhibit?”
Although he was a commander-in-chief in name only, having lost all of his troops, his position itself was still intact. This was the result of Duchess Rubina's efforts.
"Yes."
“We need the night gate opening right. And the name of the operational directive.”
As a mere private citizen without any title or position, Ariadne's contact with the Montpellier Knights Templar could cause problems later on.
It's a problem if the operation fails, but it's even more of a problem if the operation is a huge success.
Someone is bound to come along and question what authority she had to do something so daring.
The operation must be carried out under the name of Commander-in-Chief Cesare so that she has an umbrella to protect her.
“Let’s listen to the story first. And then...”
If what Ariadne is trying to do is outrageous, then Cesare will also have to take on the risk.
He was already in a bad situation.
If he were to open the gates at night and give the enemy a pretext, Duke Cesare would truly be the target of the capital's criticism.
Instead of Leo III, he becomes a target of insults.
But he had a strong feeling that Ariadne's plan would succeed.
“If this works out, I’ll end up taking all the credit, so why are you doing this, young lady?”
Ariadne smiled bitterly. Her face was covered by a towel, so Cesare couldn't see her expression.
“...That’s right.”
I am moving in the direction of fate. I don't know where it will take me.
Can I save the Etruscan kingdom, the Etruscan people? What will happen to me if I save them?
Neither you nor anyone else can fully understand why I do this.
The words that could not leave her lips were all contained in her bitter smile.
Only a twinkling light, invisible to Cesare's eyes, guarded her side.
***
A week ago, Ariadne, with the help of Raphael de Baldessar, analyzed the southward movement pattern of Gallico's army.
In fact, there wasn't really any analysis.
Gallico's army was advancing in a straight line towards San Carlo, leaving aside all the great cities in the north which would have been excellent targets for plunder.
The implications were obvious.
“Here. Like this.”
Raphael took Ariadne's hand as she made dots on the parchment.
Instead of marking dots sequentially, he drew a straight line across the parchment, estimating the average distance between the dots already marked.
Ariadne, who had her bare hand grabbed, looked at Raphael in surprise, and he stuck out his tongue and apologized.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Ariadne was taken aback by his bashful smile as if it were a real mistake and immediately accepted his apology.
His clean, pale, childlike expression showed not a single hint of ill intention.
“Oh, no.”
Was I a little oversensitive?
But Ariadne looked at the parchment, thinking that Raphael's words had become strangely short recently.
The end of Raphael's line extended into the northern hills outside San Carlo.
“It’s a hilly area perfect for an army base. After we regroup here, we’ll apply pressure on San Carlo.”
Raphael tilted his head as he spoke.
“Actually, I don’t know exactly what the Gallico army is aiming for. I’m sure they’re going to march on San Carlo. But what about after that? They don’t have enough men to wage a siege, and as far as I know, they don’t have any siege equipment.”
Traditional siege equipment included battering rams, catapults, and siege towers. The latest trend was artillery, including siege guns.
Because they were large in volume, they were easily observed from outside, and their movement speed was slow.
Siege cannons are a key strategic weapon, so if they crossed the border there would be chaos.
However, there was no mention of siege engines being seen in the Gallico army, nor of artillery being issued.
Moreover, they moved too quickly for an army carrying siege weapons.
“Raphael said that San Carlo was not a defensive city.”
“That’s right. There is no moat, the walls are low, and above all, the city boundary line is too long.”
“But is siege weapons really necessary for the conquest of San Carlo?”
San Carlo was the largest city in the central continent.
Although the Gallico capital, Montpellier, has been on the rise in recent years, it is far from being able to catch up with the planned city of San Carlo, which has been in the same place since ancient times and has been repeating architecture and history.
“But we are a thousand years old. After all, we have all the basics. With that number of people and that equipment, it would be very difficult to take San Carlo. If I were the commander, I wouldn’t even start.”
It was now approaching winter, making it too early to replenish equipment in the home country.
Even if they start the convoy right away, the first snow will fall by the time the siege engines cross the Prinoyak Mountains and arrive here.
Politically, it wasn't easy either.
When the Gallico army was stationed near the border, the excuse could be made that 'they came to our border for training and ended up crossing over a little way.'
Because Pope Louis was willing to be generous with anything.
Then, once they started to move inland, they came close to violating international comity to the point where even Pope Louis XIV would have found it difficult to protect them.
Pope Louis may have ignored Leo III's first protest.
However, if the period is extended excessively amidst repeated strong protests, or if the military does more than just stay, even the Pope will not be able to protect them any longer.
“If it were a normal situation, it would be like this.”
Raphael moved the quill pen Ariadne was holding and named Regento, Ermo, and Manfredo in the North in that order.
Ariadne, who had been holding out her hand repeatedly, even-handed the quill pen over to Raphael.
“Here it is.”
But Raphael seemed to have used up his quill.
He accepted the pen, put it down on the desk, and pointed to the three major cities in the north with his index finger.
“They would have come down and plundered sequentially. Considering the defensive capacity and the size of the city, that would be textbook.”
“But if we start pillaging the city...”
Raphael nodded.
“From then on, it will be all-out war.”
Even if the Emperor of the Latin Empire, not the Pope, returns alive, it will not be able to provide protection.
“They have business in San Carlo. Either they come down to the capital as quickly as possible, put a plate of iron on their faces, and just beat the capital, or they try to negotiate by setting some conditions. One of the two.”
“Could it be that they came down without plundering the city in the middle because they wanted to avoid the Black Death?”
Ariadne pointed out one thing.
She didn't know it, but that was precisely why the Montpellier cavalry commander had avoided the city and headed south in a straight line.
Raphael partly agreed with her guess.
“That could be the case. They are avoiding all the cities and are coming through the granary area. Since the supply line is long, it seems like they are trying to procure as much as possible locally.”
“...The central region was still partially harvested, but it must have all been plundered.”
“I guess so. But there’s a limit to how much you can carry and move, so they probably burned the rest.”
...Bad guys, Ariadne muttered.
There is nothing mean about war, but they were taking away the Etruscans' hopes for the next year without even declaring war.
If the harvest fails in the central region, following the north and south, the shock will not end until next year.
They don't even eat the grain they took.
They were just burning everything so that the Etruscans couldn't use it. It was pure destruction.
She asked through gritted teeth.
“Will they come back when winter comes?”
“Normally, I would think so, but right now, the Gallico Army is moving in a way that breaks all common sense.”
An advance inland without declaring war between countries of the same religion, without pillaging large cities.
Moreover, moving south into a land rife with plague was unprecedented.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to return to my home country in the winter...”
Ariadne shook her head.
“If you don’t go back, I’ll have to let you go back.”
“...Is there any good plan? Maybe the intervention of the Pope?”
Raphael's question was justified.
The only Etruscan troops left were the capital's praetorian guard, which had no authority except that of the King.
It's a power that Ariadne definitely doesn't have.
Moreover, since Ariadne was the illegitimate daughter of a cardinal, it was natural to think that she would move the Holy See to find a political and diplomatic solution.
But instead of answering, Ariadne gave Raphael a small smile.
It was a task that could not be guaranteed to succeed. There might be blood on his hands.
Ariadne wanted to protect Raphael, who was aspiring to become a priest.
“ ...When it becomes concrete, I’ll let you know.”
It was a curse.
This was always the limit that Raphael could approach. Although he was disappointed inside, he nodded with a smile.
“Let me know when you’re ready.”
He added.
“Because I really want to know.”
Because he wants to know everything that's going on in her amazing head.
***
The first person Ariadne shared her vision with was not Raphael or Cardinal de Mare, but Sancha.
“They are trying to spread the Black Death to the Gallico army.”
Sancha was the one who trained the nursing unit of the Rambouillet Relief Home.
He was also one of the most knowledgeable people in the city of San Carlo about the prevention and control of the Black Death.
It was to the extent that the plague doctors working in the capital sought advice from Sancha, who was merely a maid from a prestigious family, to avoid public attention.
“What method?”
“The safest way, in fact, is to drop the corpses and by-products on the enemy’s staging area.”
The Moorish Empire catapulted the corpses of plague victims into the thousand-year-old city of Yesak, which had fallen at the end of the First Crusade.
The Lion King, who had led the First Crusade to victory, had returned to the Central Continent with most of his forces, and his nephew, Count Yekon, who had been newly installed as the 'King of Yesak', fought alone in a city that was collapsing from an epidemic, but was defeated by the Moorish Empire.
Literature from the time said that instead of stones falling from the sky, dead bodies poured down like rain into the walls.
At first, King Yesak and his men evaluated it as 'If you want to break down the wall, you have to shoot something solid. What is this?' and 'If they were trying to hurt my feelings, they succeeded.' However, they soon lost their ability to fight due to the Black Death that had taken over the city.
Even the knights that the Lion King boasted about were no exception. No army could maintain its fighting ability in the face of the plague.
And the damage to the Moorish Empire that shot the corpses was virtually non-existent.
“...Do you have a catapult we can use?”
“None. The enemy is not fighting within the walls but is moving on the plains. It’s not a situation where we can use catapults.”
Another route of infection was needed.
“Isn’t there any better way?”
“...Let me look into it. I’ll have to decide first whether to use a corpse or a patient’s byproducts.”
Sancha, who had received Ariadne's secret order, hurried to the Rambouillet Center.
The purpose was to think of a way to maximize infection for the opponent and minimize damage to their allies.
And just two days later, Sancha came back, looking a little pale.
“...Excuse me, Miss. There’s someone you need to meet.”
"Who?"
“But... I’m not sure if it’s right for me to arrange this.”
Ariadne asked.
“Why, what happened that made you do that?”
“Greta from the Rambouillet Relief Center would like to see you.”
It was a child from the Rambouillet Relief Center nurses' team who Sancha had previously praised as being very smart.
“Ah. I remember. Didn’t you say that Greta became the leader of Group 2 a while ago?”
The nursing team at the relief center was divided into two groups and worked together.
Considering that Sancha was directly in charge of Group 1, Greta, the leader of Group 2, was the most outstanding child among the friends who had just started receiving training at the Rambouillet Relief Center.
But Sancha lowered her head.
“You remember. It must have been a trivial matter to you, Miss... But it’s not important anymore.”
"Why?"
“I think Greta has the plague.”
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