I gathered my vassals together and a military council began.

　First, I explained the current battle situation of the battle of Sturt's Castle from my mouth.

''I see.......that's a tough situation.......''

　Rietz let out his thoughts.

''I heard that your master's brother was here, but I wonder if he's participating in the defense of Starz Castle?
I'm sure he's doing all of that. I've been taught that you must accurately exploit the enemy's weaknesses, that's what I taught you. It looks like that lesson is being followed in this war.

　Mireille said as if it was someone else's business, even though the Clan was suffering because of that teaching.
　It was probably a long time ago, so I'm not saying you should feel bad about it.

''Anyway, I think we should go for reinforcements since we're in a tough situation, but I was talking with Master Lemeil about how it would be more effective if we go for reinforcements in a way that catches the enemy off guard.
'Yes. We need to hear everyone's opinion.

　Rumail said.

''How much is the magic water of the explosion in this castle?　That changes the story, doesn't it? If there's a lot of them, it's safe to deliver them normally.
That's about 300 meters.

　I checked this one out before opening the military council.

'Three hundred is another subtlety. It would take about 30M or so to unleash a single shot of magic with a large catalyst machine. If it's a surprise attack and you're aiming at a place where defensive magic is thin, if Charlotte uses it, you could break the wall with a couple of shots, but with defensive magic in the front, 300 won't be enough to break it.
So, I guess we're going to have to take them by surprise.
There's another method, which is to create a diversion to the enemy under the guise of a surprise attack.
A diversion....
I'm not a fan of surprise attacks. In the case of a surprise attack, I first find the enemy's weak position, and then Charlotte shoots explosive magic into it to break the defensive wall. Then, she pours in soldiers from the defensive wall at once, opening the enemy's castle gates, breaking the function of the defensive magic, and ravaging the place in a scattered manner. Then, I would have the main force attack the castle and make it fall. It would be an operation like this. When we infiltrate the enemy's castle, it looks like we'll be able to fight quite well and it will be interesting.

　I don't want them to decide on a strategy based on whether it's interesting or not, but, well, I feel like a surprise attack would be the most effective.

''I think a surprise attack would be good for me too, but the question is where the castle's weaknesses are. Is there a book that describes the structure of the castle?

　Roselle asks Lemayle.

'I had them search the archives, and there was a book with a simple structure of the Sturz Castle. It didn't say where the traps were or anything else that would be a military secret, though.

　Lemayle opened a map on the desk with the structure of Sturt's Castle on it.

''You've surrounded a pretty large area with walls... this is going to be difficult to encircle and feed on...''

　There is a town inside the city walls. It's likely that the battle could involve civilians.

''This is the one that looks weak.

　Mireille points to a point.
　It's the wall to the northwest.

How do you know that?
''In order to use defensive magic, the presence of magic soldiers is essential. A high quality magic soldier deploying defensive magic would increase the defensive power, but with these large walls, it would be impossible for one person to be in charge of everything. I guess I'll need at least thirty people?　On top of that, the most important thing is the defense on the south side, near the main gate, because if this gate is breached, a large number of troops will come avalanching in, so the defense has to be fortified. On the northwest side, there was no gate and the slope was even more difficult to attack. The probability of them attacking us from here would be low, so relatively low quality magic soldiers would be in charge of defensive magic.
'I see... but that also means it's hard to attack from here, right?
'I think we can increase our chances of success if we work with Clan-sama. You can make them pretend to attack and raise the alertness of the main gate. There are many ways to do that.

　The higher the alertness of the main gate, the less vigilance there will be for a surprise attack.

　That would increase the probability of success of the operation?

I think we'd better contact the Clan for once. We'll decide on the specific plan after hearing information about the main unit from the clan master.

　Rumail said, and wrote a letter and sent it to the Clan.