02. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer

Perhaps she still had divine providence on her side. After surviving the military training facility that was no different from hell for a year, the two who passed the knight selection became members of the ‘Blue Whale Knight Order.’

As they said, the two who became citizens of Pergos lived quite peaceful, humane lives.

“The time has come to complete the great work of His Majesty Emperor ‘Adam Perron,’ the great leader of Pergos!”

One day, about half a year after joining the Blue Whale Knight Order responsible for security in the capital’s outskirts.

Orders rang out to once again stain the Europa continent, which had been quiet since Sanders Grand Duchy’s surrender, with blood.

The Minister of Military, Greg Sanders, wearing Pergos’ red uniform, appeared at the training grounds.

“Let’s achieve the unification of the Europa continent by receiving Fabio Kingdom’s white flag!!”

Greg raised his sword high to draw cheers from the soldiers gathered at the training grounds and recited his carefully considered strategy.

“Knights whose names I call, prepare to depart for Fabio Kingdom!”

Expert Knight Commander Caleb Sanders!

Senior Knight……

Senior Knight Rud Primrose

Senior……

Junior Knight……

“That’s all! Caleb, I leave the operation of vice commanders and platoon leaders to you. Departure in one week!! Prepare thoroughly. Hearts to Pergos!”

“Hearts to Pergos!”

Rudbeckia, now 19 and an adult, trembled as she gripped her scabbard in disbelief.

Her golden eyes stared straight at Greg. And seeming pleased by that gaze, Greg approached her as everyone dispersed.

“How about it? If you become my aide, I can keep you out of the war.”

“My, wouldn’t it be better to make a subordinate who leads the war to victory your aide?”

“Huh? Are you saying you’re willing to be my aide?”

Greg was so startled by her response being so different from what he expected that he asked again.

He thought she would definitely refuse…… Since Rudbeckia had always looked at him like he was a bug.

As he opened his gray eyes wide in confusion, trying to maintain composure, Rudbeckia whispered in his ear.

“I was too ignorant about the ways of the world until now, wasn’t I?”

An affected voice. A tone that seemed to acknowledge her past wrongs as it tilted.

“Hahaha. That can happen. That can happen.”

“Now that I’m an adult, shouldn’t I get my act together? I’ll go fight this war. I don’t want to hear that I got in without any merit and was parachuted in.”

When she nodded with a confident smile, Greg was so delighted he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Well then, I’ll return to the knight order now. Look forward to good news.”

Turning her head, Rudbeckia closed her eyes briefly before opening them.

She recalled the final moments of Adele Glimm and the Sanders couple.

Unforgettable memories. Memories that made her bite her lips hard every time she recalled them.

She had bitten so hard that teeth marks clearly appeared on her lips.

“What did you just do?”

Caleb approached and asked. She who would tremble at even naming Greg, had put her hand on Greg’s shoulder, whispered in his ear, and even smiled freshly.

“The prelude to revenge. Now that I’m an adult, shouldn’t I use the legacy Master left me?”

Her golden pupils grew round as killing intent began to seep in.

* * *

Before long, the war with Fabio Kingdom was down to just conquering the capital.

“Now, we don’t have much supplies left. I’ll infiltrate the capital to assassinate the barrier magic knight, so prepare for an all-out attack when the barrier disappears.”

“Vice Commander Rud, this entrance we’re guarding is the only one, how can you infiltrate?”

“I’ll go to the western end and use the river. With the boats the magic technicians made, I can cross in 10 minutes.”

Near the capital, they couldn’t even see the enemy soldiers’ faces, let alone fight them. Just approaching the walls surrounding the capital would cause soldiers to have mental breakdowns, making proper attacks impossible.

A strategy focused solely on ‘defending.’

It was frustrating to be at an impasse due to the work of one magic knight who was said to be a master of defensive barriers.

“Vice Commander, what about after infiltrating? How will you kill the magic knight? It won’t be easy to completely hide your presence either.”

Elfleda Argen, a platoon leader with red hair and black eyes, asked the question. As the third daughter of the anti-war Argen marquis family, she volunteered for this war to thoroughly record the war’s true face.

“I plan to use a honey trap. I’ve seen his face in newspapers and know all about his womanizing ways.”

“Pfft. A honey trap? I’ll admit you’re pretty, Vice Commander, but we don’t even know if your face is his type.”

“……A honey trap will work regardless of his preferences. Because I learned from a good master.”

Rudbeckia smiled confidently as she thought of Yuli. Seeing her somewhat arrogant expression, Elfleda wiped the smile from her face and looked at Caleb seriously.

“If it succeeds as the Vice Commander says, it would be a very good strategy that won’t involve much bloodshed……”

Elfleda, who knew well how war devastated land and people, wanted to end this war as quickly as possible. That’s why she volunteered for this war, to lead it in that direction.

“Commander. Let’s prepare right away. The barrier range keeps expanding the more we attack, now we don’t even have room to set up catapults.”

“Does anyone have a different strategy?”

Caleb swept his gaze over the platoon leaders of the five divisions gathered at the meeting with an authoritative voice.

Everyone was silent as a grave. Elfleda, appearing to have already approved the honey trap plan, turned to Rudbeckia and asked.

“Rud, can you come back alive? Commander, decide.”

Elfleda spoke with her arms crossed, eyes twinkling at Caleb.

Though Caleb’s knight rank and position were higher than Elfleda’s, he couldn’t ignore or argue back because of her status as a central noble.

Though the pain of his chest tightening and lungs seeming to shrivel was agonizing, Caleb had to make a choice.

“Deploy the operation…… The executing personnel is……Rudbeckia.”

Unlike his hesitant voice, specific operation plans poured from Caleb’s mouth.

“Ah…… Sir Noah, my knight. Haah…… Are we really together today? If, if your wife finds out…… Ooh…!! That tickles.”

“I don’t want to hear those words.”

After that it was easy. She cooked and boiled the Noah who had fallen for her feminine charms, and made sure to end his breathing completely.

Perhaps it was because these were memories she had just experienced. The scenes changed quickly. The memory surge seemed to be ending now.

Right, she boarded the boat to report after completing the mission.

Did she report? Did she tell them the barrier disappeared before fainting?

Rudbeckia frowned at the flash of light before her eyes.

Then she gathered her thoughts. It was time to return to reality. To Caleb’s side, who always waited for her at the end of a memory surge.

* * *

“Quickly to the Commander…… departure…… attack, attack! Aagh!”

“Rud! Are you awake?!”

Even while fainting, Rudbeckia, who had been obsessed with reporting that the barrier had disappeared and quickly rejoining the main force to issue attack orders, woke up screaming like someone who had been having sleep paralysis.

“Cal? Where is……”

“Inside the castle. Thanks to you, we’ve captured the capital.”

“……Castle. And you say captured?”

Just before fainting, she had just escaped by boat.

Yet they had already captured the castle, and now she was inside it. How long had she been unconscious?

As her senses returned, Rudbeckia bolted upright. Dizziness hit her. If Caleb was telling the truth, she had been unconscious during the castle’s fall, doing nothing. Pathetically.

He pressed down on her shoulders with a quite distorted expression, making her lie back down.

“I’m sorry, I came to my senses too late and couldn’t help with the capture……”

“What sorry…… The capture succeeded all thanks to you.”

— Smooch

Caleb kissed Rudbeckia’s forehead.

“Ha… Then really… I succeeded. Haha. The honey trap worked.”

Rudbeckia covered her face with both hands as she laughed. Though her lips curved into a smile, her voice carried a tremor, heavy with emotion.

The honey trap had been far harder than she had anticipated. Much harder than what she’d read in books or learned from Grand Duchess Yuli Sanders. It was a strategy that demanded more than just charm—it required holding hands with someone she felt nothing for, being embraced by him, and ultimately offering her body to him.

“There was a reason Master Yuli said it could only be used and succeed after becoming an adult…”

Yuli had once told her that a true master of the honey trap could extract information with something as simple as holding hands. But as a novice, Rudbeckia had to offer not just her hand, but her entire self before she could claim even a single life.

Still, she endured that situation because of the fact that a man she had never met before was so enchanted by her beauty that he gave his life.

She became confident that she could enchant even the Emperor of Pergos, enter his embrace, and end his breathing. She endured several days with that confidence alone.

Unable to choose what words to comfort her with, Caleb asked a question.

“……Where did he…… touch?”

Rudbeckia pulled up her half-torn dress a bit more and pointed to where Noah’s lips had touched her thigh.

Caleb caressed that spot with a warm touch. Rudbeckia recalled her mother Adele who used to touch the bruises where her birth father had hit her when she was young.

“……Blow…… for me.”

“What?”

And then at the end, she would always place her lips on the wound and blow warm breath with a ‘hoo—’.

“Here. Where that bastard’s lips touched. I want you to blow ‘hoo—’ for me, Cal.”