A few days later, when my own troops were well prepared to go into battle, a scout, who had been gathering information on the enemy, came to report back to me in a hurry.

　The scout went to report to the clan, and since I was curious about it, I went to hear what it was all about.

'The enemy forces have begun to make strange movements. It looks like they are preparing some kind of huge apparatus that I have never seen before.
What did you say?

　The Clan gives a reluctant look upon hearing that.

　A huge device, the one thing that comes to mind when he hears it is the story of the secret weapon that the messenger said was developed in Belzud the other day.

　Don't tell me it wasn't a lie, but the truth?

　I thought so, but quickly reconsidered.

　There is a high probability that this weapon is also a lie.
　It's probably just preparing something that isn't actually a weapon at all, as if it were.

　However, if we are shown the actual preparations being made, we may have to investigate a little more carefully before going there.

　It's possible that my expectations are wrong and it really is the example weapon, and even if it's not powerful enough to destroy a city, it could still be a fairly powerful weapon.

　How would the Clan judge it?

''There's a high probability that this is also a lie... but if we don't find out what it is, there's a chance that the vassals will be scared and their morale won't be buoyed up if we don't find out what the weapon is... it will take some time to find out what it is. The enemy is trying to buy us time. What a waste of time. Stalling for a little time now won't do any good.

　The Clan seems to be planning to find out what the weapon is. The weapon seems to be out there, so we'll be able to get a handle on it, but it may take some time.

　If the enemy's goal is to buy time, that's part of what makes it hard to figure out. As the Clan says, how much sense is there in stalling for time now?

　Is it really the development of the weapon, and do you think they'll stick around until the development is complete?　Hmm, there's no chance, but if that were the case, I wouldn't take this approach. I'm sure there are other ways to buy a little time.

　So is there a purpose other than to buy time?

　I honestly don't know if I can think about it.

　The Clan seems to be looking into the weaponry, and it looks like we'll have to wait for information for a while.

　I used a secret agent other than The Shadow to investigate the information. The Shadow couldn't use it because he had an important mission to protect the Clan.

　A few days later, the secret agent returned surprisingly quickly.

　I didn't hear the report in person, but after the Clan heard it, I gathered my vassals together and told them about the secret agent's report.

The weapon is still a complete lie. It seems that the enemy was trying to draw our attention to the weapon and secretly set a magical trap to increase our defenses while they were buying time. If the clandestines had failed to grab the information, things might have gotten a little tricky.

　I see, that was a distraction.
　It's true that if they talked about a secret weapon beforehand and prepared a weapon that looked like that, we would pay attention to it.
　In the meantime, did they set a trap or do what they really wanted to do?

'I know what the enemy is planning to do. Bertsud is planning to drop them in a siege, so they will be able to drop them whether they set a trap or not, but there is a risk that it will take a waste of time. Let's sally forth before they set a trap and destroy the enemy's plan.