I've got an update on Starz Castle.

　It was Ben who reported the information The Shadow had grabbed.
　He was still a sober face that was hard to remember, but it was enough to identify him without having to appraise the stones.

'Please.'
'First of all, Sturt's Castle, but they haven't been able to bring it down yet. They're having quite a hard time.

　Is he struggling?

　Although they were outnumbered, I thought they might not be able to take it down so easily because it was a hard castle, but was my prediction correct?

'After all, Sturt's Castle is a pretty hard castle.
''It's partly because the castle is solid, but it seems that the soldiers who came as reinforcements from Berzd Castle have been getting beaten up quite a bit. It seems that one of the main reasons for their struggles is that the facility that stores magical water was taken by surprise and as a result they lost a lot of magical water from the explosion.

　That's a tough one.
　The magical water of explosions would be a siege weapon that could be said to be essential to breaking down the castle.
　It's a castle that is originally difficult for magic to work on, and to fight with the loss of so many of them would be an extremely tough situation to be in.

　This might be a worse situation than I thought.

''What's going on now?　You're having the magical water of the explosion delivered to you?
Yes, but by the time it arrives, winter may be in full swing and it may be difficult to continue the war.

　We are now in June and it's getting chilly as it is.
　It is true that if we don't end the war early, we will enter winter.

　Since they've probably already taken up positions near Sturt's Castle, it may not be that the battle itself will be impossible.

　But when the snow falls, it makes it difficult to transport food and resources, so in that sense, it will not be possible to fight.

　The coldest time of the year is around the end of June to the beginning of July, and if we can get through that, the snow will start to melt and we will be able to fight.

　It's not that long of a period of time, but even so, with the current situation where it's better to finish the war as soon as possible, the possibility of not being able to do anything for twenty days or so would not be a pleasant situation.

'Thank you for the information.'

　I thanked Ben and then gave the information I had received to Lemeil.

　Lemayre made a reluctant expression and let slip his thoughts.

''How........that things aren't that good......is there anything we can do?
'We should go for reinforcements. There are several savings of magical water for explosions in this Rolt Castle as well. I don't know if it's enough.
There's no question that we should help Master Klan. The question is how.
Is that the way?

　Is there any other way to do this other than to run to them normally?

It's not just a matter of running to them, but also attacking the enemy from a different direction to exploit their emptiness. It's a very good idea to have a good idea of what you're doing. There are two ways to get from Rolt Castle to Starz Castle, one of which is a smaller road apart from the one we marched on. If we can make a surprise attack through here, it might work.

　If the enemy knew about the fall of Rolt Castle, it's possible that they're being defended, but it's still likely that we'll be able to attack more effectively if we go in for a surprise attack.

''I think it would be better to take them by surprise but I think it's better to talk about it with everyone and decide.
'I agree with you on that. The sooner you decide, the better. I want your good vassals to assemble at once.
I'm sorry, sir.

　I called my vassals and started a military discussion.