A Crude Plan

Victor, Victor, you're such a hypocrite! Why worry about such things now?

When you taught Michael and Paru, didn't you keep saying that a commander should love his soldiers like children but use them like clay?

And even if you don't stir up those landowners, their tenants won't have good lives. Rather than leave them to sink into misery, you might as well give them a chance to escape this place entirely.

As for those who die along the way, those are necessary sacrifices! The voice rang out from deep within him, sharp and grating.

In the end, Victor merely shook his head, as though trying to cast off his self-reproach.

He took a deep breath, picked up his pen again, and continued writing: If any subjects of the Grand Duchy choose to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, the Interim Management Committee should provide them with appropriate assistance without delay...

Victor tore off the page he had just written and folded it neatly.

Then he called for a messenger, slipped the letter into a dispatch tube, and handed it over with a solemn expression.

"Return to Blackwater City at once. You must deliver this letter personally to Mr. Gaita at the Governor's Mansion. Do not fail!"

"Yes, sir!" The messenger saluted, took the tube, and hurried away. Before long, he vanished into the distance.

Victor composed himself and rode on to catch up with the main force.

After adjusting their marching route, they were eighteen kilometers from their rest stop at Moke Town and roughly eighty kilometers from the main battlefield in Sextus County.

An oppressive air of impending bloodshed hung over the city of Sextus County and its surroundings, as if an unseen pall had settled over the whole place.

Inside the city and in the