The reason Lynn Brance brought such a large army here.
If that reason is me, then all these speculations fit perfectly.
What they wanted was me. So once they secure their target—me—they won't care about the ruler of a small nation who flees and disappears somewhere on the continent.
Why did I become the target?
It's incredibly embarrassing to say it with my own mouth, but—thinking as objectively as possible.
It seems our meeting during the last agreement left quite an impression on her.
Lynn Brance had an especially strong desire for talent among rulers. Believing that she wants to recruit a decent-looking strategist working under a weak nation adds plausibility to this theory.
Another piece of evidence would be the ridiculously large army attacking this castle.
She must have highly evaluated me and is trying to prevent me from devising another miraculous strategy to overturn the situation.
Unfortunately for her, the only thing I can do is make 100% accurate predictions.
In summary, what I need to do now is make everyone flee the castle and then surrender alone.
This will lead to the temporary destruction of the Lunarian Army—but it won't be total annihilation.
As long as everyone is alive, raising an army again is always possible.
I didn't know what kind of process raising an army entailed in this world, unlike how easy it was in the game, but regardless, this method was much better than dying and being unable to do anything.
'Sure, there might be a better way than this.'
A more convincing strategy.
A move no one thought of, something that strikes where they least expect.
With an intelligence stat of 100, I wish such ideas would just pop into my head—but they don't.
All I can do is come up with perfect answers to questions.
So, at the very least, this was the best I could scrape together right now.
'Alright.'
Still, with this, a decent puzzle had formed from the three predictions.
There was no guarantee this was the right answer. But with the enemy approaching, I had no time to sit around and think.
"Everyone."
I finally looked around and spoke.
I could feel every member of the Lunarian Army was waiting for my words alone.
I slowly began to lay out my plan.
"We will lose this battle. But that's okay. Even if we lose this battle, we can achieve an ultimate victory elsewhere. That's the longer-term concept—war. For the future, now is the time to take a step back."
"But isn't there no other territory where we can flee?"
"And attacking another weak nation doesn't seem like a very realistic option either."
Hearing Gustav and Aaron's thoughts, I nodded.
"That's right. We have no retreat. Once we've signed a non-aggression pact, attacking another country isn't a good idea. And if we engage the Brance Army in battle like this, we will be 100% destroyed. But... if we abandon the concept of a 'nation,' a retreat becomes possible."
"...That, that means..."
Luna opened her mouth with a trembling voice as if she had realized something from my words.
I had no choice but to inform her of the harsh reality.
"This is the end of our army's journey. For now."
"The end?"
"We will surrender to the Brance Army."
Tifa's eyes went wide, then she shouted at me in anger.
"Hey, this isn't right! Didn't you join our army because you supported Luna's ideals?! Do you think that woman will let Luna live if we just surrender to Lynn Brance?!"
"Indeed. I agree with Miss Tifa."
"What?!"
"I said I would surrender, but I never said I would let the Lunarian Army become just a force mentioned in history books."
I turned and looked directly into Luna's eyes.
"My liege. Take Miss Tifa and Mr. Cain and flee."
"...What?"
"You must go south. Seek refuge with the Karelia Army in the southern continent. The lord of the Karelia Army, Makana Karelia, is a virtuous ruler who will treat you and your companions with respect. Even if you later leave her forces with a different purpose, she won't blame you."
Makana Karelia.
If this game has a 'lawful good' alignment, she would be the representative of it.
A kind personality. Her desire for a peaceful world was on par with Lunarian.
No, in fact, I only learned after coming to this world that Lunarian Iniang held such ideals, while in the game, it was Karelia who played that role.
After playing this game for 10,000 hours, I was confident.
Going to the Karelia Army was undoubtedly the safest way for Luna to go into hiding.
Karelia's territory was located even further south in the southern continent.
The south had a relatively well-balanced power structure, and like it or not, there was another country acting as a buffer against the Brance Army, making it a safe place to hide.
"If you stay hidden long enough, an opportunity will come someday. To preserve your life for a greater purpose in the future, that is the only way."
"But... Swen. Still..."
Just as Luna was about to continue, an unexpected voice reached my ears.
"May I have a word with you?"
I turned toward the voice.
Its owner was Cain.
He was facing me with a seriousness I had never seen before.
Why is that?
I felt like I was finally seeing the real face of the elderly royal who went by the alias Cain Nerkis, struggling to survive.
"Swen… When you asked me to lead the vanguard with 1,800 soldiers, honestly, I could've argued that it made no sense to just trust you. But I didn't. I didn't want to go against our liege, and to be honest, since the country was going down anyway, I figured I could still survive somehow under the Brance Army or some other lord."
I listened closely to his words.
"Looking back, these last few months were filled with strange miracles. Doing as you said made money roll in, we won battles that seemed unwinnable, and two mercenary groups pledged loyalty to us. I still don't know what mysterious power you used to bring all this about. However..."
My impression of Cain was never one of strong memory, more like a foggy background figure.
But in this moment.
His sunken black eyes were clearer than ever before.
"Living here for a few months, watching our people, who probably lived the most miserable lives on the continent due to our geography, wear happy faces... I started to think. Instead of hiding away on the continent, I want to see my liege, Lunarian, rule the Garland Continent, the world, all creation. That desire has only grown stronger."
Cain continued, eyeing me warily.
"I'll be honest. It looks to me like you're using this as an excuse to chase our liege away so you can offer up this land's gold, troops, and the entire castle to Lynn Brance and gain favor."
"..."
"With your abilities, staying stuck in a small, weak country like this would only hold you back. Am I wrong?"
"...Is... is that true?"
Tifa asked in shock after hearing Cain.
Before I could say anything, Luna came to my defense.
"That... that can't be! Lord Swen isn't like that! Lord Swen is..."
I raised a hand to calm her down.
"My liege. If you don't mind, allow me to explain."
"...Lord Swen..."
She said nothing in response.
But I could tell it meant she gave me permission.
Cain, after watching the situation for a moment, looked straight at me again.
"Rebuilding a fallen nation is incredibly hard. It could take years, decades even. On top of that, there isn't even any land on the continent worth settling on right now. And you're telling us to give up the nation, surrender, and flee?"
"Yes, sir."
"Sorry, but this isn't like when you had me repair the walls or had Miss Tifa handle market commerce. I could follow those orders without question. But not this one. If you want to convince me, bring undeniable proof. Otherwise, I'll stay behind and fight to the end. I just can't accept surrendering for the sake of some future when we haven't even resisted the Brance Army once."
Proof.
Proof, huh.
Honestly, if I knew what that proof was, I wouldn't be having such a hard time.
The two predetermined facts I'd gained from prediction were: 'To avoid the Lunarian Army's destruction, I must leave.'
And, 'Lunarian Iniang will become the Unifying Sovereign.'
Everything I proposed was merely reasoning based on these two absolute truths.
But saying something like 'my intelligence is 100 so all my predictions are guaranteed' wouldn't fly in front of Cain.
So how could I persuade him?
I had to approach it differently.
If Cain was convinced of anything, it was probably this: 'I'm giving up this castle to Brance to gain favor and quickly secure a high-ranking position.'
'That's the point I need to hit.'
I drew my blade—one made of words.
"To summarize your words, Mr. Cain, you're saying that I'm offering this Zeilant territory's gold, troops, and land to the Brance Army in order to gain credit and settle in there, correct?"
"That is correct."
"Then take it all."
Everyone's attention focused on me at my firm response.
"...What did you say?"
I looked around at everyone and spoke.
"Take all the gold in the castle. And as for the soldiers—aside from the minimum number required for a safe escape, split the rest into two groups and attach them to the Chilein Mercenaries and the Raven Mercenaries."
Gustav and Aaron, who had been watching us in silence, were startled and asked in surprise.
"Excuse me?"
"You're saying they'll become our troops?"
"Yes."
Handing all our soldiers over to the mercenaries.
That was my answer.
In this game, when you surrender, the soldiers in the castle naturally become part of the occupying force.
And since the game rules seem to apply to some degree here, the same would likely happen.
However, mercenary units not directly under our army's command wouldn't be handed over, even if we surrendered.
So the best option was to split our soldiers and have them retreat with the mercenaries.
Mercenaries, once allied with a nation, would never betray it unless triggered by a specific event.
In the game too, mercenaries wouldn't betray first, although players could betray them to exploit this and pull tricks.
With my 'Intelligence 100' rule applying so thoroughly, it was only logical to assume the rest of the game's minor mechanics also mostly held true.
And if Lunarian's future unification was already set in stone, these mercenaries would undoubtedly be a great strength at that time as well.
"With that, Zeilant Castle becomes a land with zero troops, zero gold—an utterly worthless prize. Unless the castle itself, or its location, had strategic value on par with Kelstein Castle... What do you think, Mr. Cain?"
"Th-this place..."
Cain was at a loss for words.
Of course he was. This place was meaningless.
No outstanding people, infertile land, no special products, not even a large population.
"If I really wanted to impress the Brance Army, wouldn't I have tried to spin a story and scheme to do something with the gold and troops, rather than giving them away outright?"
"No... even before that."
Cain's expression shifted.
Strangely, his guarded demeanor seemed to have softened a little.
"If you boldly surrender an empty castle like that... the sovereign might take offense and have you executed. That would be an insult to the occupying force."
'Huh?'
That much?
In the game, it was such a given. If it looked like you were going to lose, you just took all your gold, provisions, and troops and ran.
Because you couldn't hand over your money or your soldiers.
But here, it seemed like that very act was perceived as a serious insult.
Well, sure, if someone runs off with everything, it would definitely piss off the occupying force.
"If nothing else, if even you ran away with everyone else, maybe that'd be different. But staying behind in an empty castle to greet the occupying army? That would practically be suicide."
Hearing that, I felt it immediately.
This is my chance.
Right now, to Cain, I probably look like I'm playing a deadly gamble with Lynn Brance.
I definitely wouldn't seem like someone who would betray them.
And that's exactly what I was going to use.
I slowly opened my mouth to speak.