Yarvis

Candlelight illuminated the tall, slightly stooped figure and cast his shadow onto the white wall.

The white-haired old man's hand trembled as he gripped a quill and rapidly wrote something on the paper.

"Your Highness, please forgive me for leaving without saying goodbye..."

After frowning and thinking for a moment, he ultimately decided to get straight to the point.

"You actually sold out Aldo in order to make peace with the orcs—a kingdom like ours, whose inhabitants are all human."

"Before this, I truly never imagined that you could commit such an unwise act. I apologize for using such harsh words, but with my shallow wisdom, I find it difficult to see what profound strategy lies behind this matter."

"Was the Aldo of before still not satisfactory to you? We incited Giles's rebellion, already placing this country in a situation where it could barely take care of itself. Given its weakness at the time, we had long since achieved our original goal—making it difficult for it to pay attention to what was happening elsewhere on the continent."

"Under those circumstances, what purpose could there be in introducing a savage race like the orcs and subjecting the people of Aldo to yet another calamity?"

"Now those savages have entered northern Aldo, a fertile region with an inexhaustible population and resources. In time, it will cause the Prairie Royal Tent, already possessed of tremendous destructive power, to expand into something uncontrollable. Perhaps..."

The old man's hand began to tremble even more violently. Uncontrollable worry showed between his brows, but he persisted in writing.

"Like most people, I once looked down on this grassland race. I despised their culture, believing that with a social tradition based only on plunder and a nomadic existence, even overwhelming military strength would amount to no more than