"You have done well to bring down Samk Castle in one piece. I thank you all for what you have done.

　The Clan gathered the main vassals and started a military discussion.

　They began by talking about how Samuk County would now be completely overrun.
　Although Samuk Castle had been defeated, there were still forces remaining.
　If we don't defeat them all, we can't say that we have conquered Samuk county completely.
　However, since there were not so many remaining forces, it was thought that it wouldn't take much to bring them down.

　Who would decide who would take control of the remaining forces. It wasn't going to be me or the Mayor of Canale County.

　Then it was time to discuss the main issue, the strategy for conquering Belzud.

'First, Roselle. What do you think of your master?
We must speed up the invasion even faster than before.

　Asked by the Clan, Roselle expressed that opinion.
　Roselle, who had participated in and spoken out in several military congresses, had become much more respected by those around her. Nowadays, there are much less things to reckon with because of his young age, and the nobles are listening to Roselle's opinion.
　It seems that the Clan originally trusted the power of my appraisal, so they thought that Roselle's opinion should be listened to.

''The enemy probably didn't expect to be attacked so quickly, so they are probably not fully prepared to fight yet. If we can use this opening to suppress the enemy's key strongholds, we will have a huge advantage.''
Hmm, I'm thinking the same thing. I think we should invade this place with all haste, even if it means taking some risks. If we want to invade Bertsd Castle, we need to capture Sturtz Castle first, but Sturtz Castle is an impregnable fortress. To take down Sturtz Castle with its defenses fortified, it would cost a lot of money. If we can hold this place down with a small number of casualties, it will be easier to take down Bertsd Castle.

　One by one, the voices of Roselle and the Clan agree with me.
　I agree with them, as I think we can end the war quickly.

　No one disagreed, and I thought we'd go with this policy.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. That's not a very good strategy.

　Mireille said.
　It's a little unexpected.
　I thought he was the type to say bang, in a situation like this, to attack with a bang, but is Mireille the opposite?

I'm not sure. I'm sure you have heard that your brother has been dispatched to the enemy.
'I've heard that. Thomas must have been sent to Bertsd Castle as commander.
Then don't you think we should be a little more careful? My brother's specialty is surprise attack. It's a good idea to identify the weaknesses of the enemy forces and when there is an opening, they will accurately attack it with a surprise attack. If you attack too quickly, you might get hurt.
'Hmm ... you certainly know the most about Thomas ... but it looks like you're taking a reluctant measure because you don't want to kill your brother.
Are you kidding me?　My brother is now an important figure on the enemy's side. How could I not want to kill him when killing him would be good for my career? I wouldn't hesitate to take his head off if he was in front of me.
Have you no compassion for your family?
'Is that what you would say if you were trying to kill your brother so you could take over the house?
....

　Clan, who had no words to reply to Mireille's words, kept his mouth shut.

　However, it's hard to make the Clan too sullen.
　For now, Mireille is my man, you know.
　I have to be careful.

''Hey, Mireille. You're overstepping your bounds.
Hmm?　Oh, I'm sorry.

　Mireille also seemed to know that there was a problem with what he just said, and he immediately apologized.

''It's just that it wasn't something I said out of concern for my brother, but to increase the odds of winning the battle, so you should understand that.
I know you have no sympathy for me, but I don't think you can take your time attacking here and take down Sturtz Castle.
'I'm not suggesting that we slow down our march extremely. If we raise it higher than it is now, we'll risk creating a gap, won't we?　I'm telling you that's a bad idea.
You want me to keep marching at the same speed as you are marching now?
'Yes. Attaches to the current speed as the best marching speed that will allow the enemy soldiers to be both alert and fast.
Can you take Castle Sturz at your current marching speed?
'I don't know. I'm sure the enemy will make preparations fairly quickly, and if they can fortify their defenses, they should probably use some kind of strategy to drop them.
Are you going to use clandestine mercenaries like you did when you took down Samuk Castle?
'It must be difficult. The enemy is not stupid, and they should be able to predict that the reason why Samok Castle fell so quickly was because of a secret agent. They should also hire spy mercenaries to come and prevent the crafting activities. No matter how great a clandestine scout is, it would be difficult for them to do their job in an alarmed state.

　You'll have to ask Pham about that, but I have a feeling that the probability of success will be considerably lowered if you're certainly warned.

''But Mireille, if that's the case, how can I drop it?''

　I asked.

'There are many ways to do this. There are many ways to manipulate the enemy general, to confuse the enemy with false news, to fish out the soldiers in the castle, to trick them into believing that there is a truce, but I don't know which one is the most effective at the moment. Well, we don't know which one will be the most effective at the moment, so the first thing we need to do is get them to gather information. They may not be able to craft it, but they can gather information, can't they?　Well, you may not be able to sneak into the castle and get detailed information, but just gathering information from the outside makes a lot of difference.

　It was a convincing opinion.

　First of all, we'd have time to get information about the complete control of Samuk County, and then the invasion of Bertsd, since we wouldn't just suddenly drop Sturt's Castle, but we'd also need to drop the forts on the county border.
　I thought Mireille was right.
　Clan seemed to think so too, and moved on without marching too early.
　We decided on a strategy to gather information on Sturt's Castle, and then we'd work out a specific plan again.