Upon our return, we were greeted by the Clan's vassals.
　The Clan wanted to see us in person to work on us.

　I met with the Clan along with Leng, Tecnad and Lisia.
　Singh and Charlotte are waiting in the other room.

　I first gave Leng and Tecnad a word of thanks for their work and then gave them a reward.
　Leng was not used to being praised so much, but he seemed quite happy to receive it.

　After that, he gave me and Lysia the

Good to have you back, Ars, Lysia. I heard that negotiations were concluded. You did some good work, I see. I'll have Lysia and Ars get their share of the spoils.

　That's what I've been saying.
　I haven't been that helpful myself, though.
　The fact that I introduced you to Lycia is probably a credit to you.
　If you say you can give me that, I'll take it.

　I received a hundred gold coins as a reward. The same amount was sent to Lysia.

''I will continue to try to be of service to Clan-sama.
Those are encouraging words. The negotiations have been concluded and the war will now move in our favor. In fact, we have already begun to capture Alfada County, but it's not going very well. In fact, we have already begun to capture Alfada County, but we haven't been able to do so very well, and we haven't been able to retake the key areas that we were attacked by surprise.

　So the battle wasn't going well so far.

　After that, Leng, Tecnad and Lysia were sent back and I was left alone.

'I have a favor to ask of you, Lord,'
Excuse me?
I need you to deliver this letter to Lemeil.

　I received the letter.

"This is a letter to Rumail, ordering him to go to war. For now, I have ordered him to withdraw his troops from Alfada County. Since the Paradiles will be attacking Alcantez this time, the danger of being attacked will be reduced even if our defenses are reduced. Once we have gathered a large army, we will invade Alfada County once more. We have been informed by the Paradile Province that they will attack the Alcantez on the 20th of April, and we intend to begin our invasion in time for that.

　It's March 19 now. That's about a month from now.

"I've ordered Lemeil to fortify his defenses in preparation for the invasion from Saiz, but there's been a disturbance in Saiz and there's no time to attack anywhere else. There's no problem if the defenses are a little thinned out. I'm going to ask Lemeil to lead the Canale soldiers to Sempra. And to that army you will join your lord.
Yes, sir.

　So I guess I can see that this would be my first battle.
　That makes me a little nervous.
　A month from now.....

I expect you and your men to do well in battle. I'm sure it won't be too much trouble to capture Alfada County.
I will do my best to live up to your expectations.

　That was the end of the Clan's business.

　Finally, the war begins in earnest........
　Meesian has one of the largest populations in the entire state.
　It's going to be a pretty big battle.
　A lot of people will die, too.

　I got a little scared, but I slapped myself on the cheek and got fired up.

　I am a lord now. What's that to do with being scared of war?
　I can't feel sorry for my dead father if I'm weak.
　You must prepare yourself.

　I said this in my mind, as if to myself.

　Then we went back to Canale.

　I would return to Lumberk before delivering the letter to Lemayle.

　Lysia and I were to leave there to return to Torbekista.

'I hope you will keep your promise when the war is over.

　The promise to marry.
　I was a little upset.

Yes, sir.

　He nodded.

'If I break my promise...'
If I break it...?

　Lysia looks at me with a smile, silent for a while.

'I'll see you then.'
'What?　Ah, yes. Also.....

　He left without telling me what would happen if I tore it up.

　It was kind of scary in reverse.
　Well, I have no intention of breaking it, so there's no need to be afraid of it.

　If we win the battle, I'll have to ask Lysia to marry me first.
　I'm pretty nervous, but it's not something I should be thinking about right now.

　I returned to the Rumberg compound.