It meant the act of a vassal entrusted with a castle rising against their lord for some reason.
During rebellions, vassals in the castle would either remain or be driven out to their original forces depending on whether they supported the rebellion—but resources like troops, gold, and food could be swallowed up by the rebels.
In any case, if a rebellion occurred, it would create a crack in Serphina's powerful ranks.
Was the idea to use that moment to invade either the rebelling castle or a nearby one, giving our forces an advantage?
However.
For the Brands forces to take advantage of this situation, they would inevitably need to station sufficient troops at Jeilant Castle at the moment of rebellion.
Even Serphina's forces would be in disarray immediately after a coup—but they were a nation with the resilience to quickly suppress rebellions and regroup.
So, this conclusion was reached—coincidentally thanks to Irene.
If Irene hadn't suggested defending the north based on her "warrior's intuition," this would have been a method impossible to know at this point.
Of course, if Lynn had asked me directly, I would have provided the answer—but unlike Luna, Lynn wasn't a ruler who asked me how to do everything and trusted me absolutely.
Besides, I could reach this conclusion through step-by-step reasoning, but if she had asked me directly, the prediction "Invade Serphina's northern territory" would have popped up, and I would have struggled to find the right words to convince her.
Anyway—the course was set.
At this rate, even if a rebellion occurred, they wouldn't be able to do much while worrying about Aishers' forces, and ultimately they would fail to plant the Brands flag in the north.
Well, but—
'I suppose that's just how it's meant to be.'
Lynn Brands wasn't destined to be the unifying ruler.
From my position as someone who needed to work under the unifying ruler, there was no need to sincerely convince her.
In the meantime, I could just spend time with Irene while handling commercial matters in the market.
With that thought, I organized the map and turned my head.
Irene had fallen asleep, crouched with her back against the wall.
I approached her slowly, making sure my footsteps were silent.
She was beautiful.
Long red hair.
A delicate nose and skin so white it seemed impossible for someone who wielded a sword.
She possessed beauty sufficient to learn proper etiquette and marry into a decent noble family to live peacefully—but she was born in turbulent times, and the blood flowing through her veins was not noble.
Somewhat foolishly stubborn, yet never choosing the easy path—a person fighting arduously while holding her father's will close to her heart.
A knight. A specialist in siege warfare. The sole descendant of House Juliet serving House Brands—beyond all that, a woman named Irene.
She carried so much on her shoulders, with no one to acknowledge her burden.
I had no intention of killing this woman.
She would clearly be of great help in completing the "unified nation" for Luna, who would someday be my lord again.
'I will find a way to save you, Lady Irene.'
I slowly moved away from her.
After turning off the lantern that dimly lit the room, I lay down on the bed.
Lying there, all sorts of thoughts came to mind.
Wearing clothes emblazoned with the Brands insignia, attending meetings for the Brands forces, hearing Irene's personal circumstances...
Yet through it all, one woman still occupied my mind.
Lunarienne Iniang.
The ruler who would unify the continent.
'Come to think of it.'
A question I hadn't asked myself in a while.
Can Lunarienne Iniang become the ruler who unifies the continent?
Just to check again before falling asleep, I casually entered that question into my mind.
...And then.
'...Huh?'
*
"Hey, you! Stop right there!"
"Hahaha. Catch me if you can!"
Children's shouts and laughter.
"This is... Is this really the right price for this?"
"Yes, it is. Anel Castle has relatively good supply, so it's cheap. Go check the next town over and see how much they charge."
Customers haggling over merchandise and merchants dealing with them.
In the middle of this peaceful marketplace, what I was doing was—
"Welcome."
Surprisingly, working at the counter greeting customers.
"You're from the Brands forces. Thank you for your patronage again."
Judging by the shop owner's words, it seemed common for military officers to come help with work like this.
There were dozens of officers assigned to commerce duty from the Brands forces this month.
The most capable among them—presumably the one with the highest politics stat—took the lead in distributing work to everyone.
And my assigned job was customer service.
The location was inside a tavern.
A place where hidden talents gathered and rumors from across the continent circulated.
I too had spent time in taverns during my unemployed days, hoping to be recruited by someone.
Perhaps the development of taverns where talents gathered and adventurers fulfilled various requests led to commercial development.
The tavern in Anel Castle was enormous, so there were several employees besides me.
Some appeared to be C-rank officers like me who had been assigned to work here.
Being placed here made one thing clear.
'My politics stat must not be particularly high.'
That's why I was assigned to a position requiring relatively less skill, right?
Of course, customer service could be endlessly complex if one wanted to master it, but considering how leisurely I was spending my time, I clearly wasn't in an important position.
Since I couldn't see a status window, I had to estimate my stats myself.
Still, it wasn't bad.
With plenty of time, I could verify various things.
First of all.
The question I asked before falling asleep yesterday: "Can Lunarienne Iniang become the ruler who unifies the continent?"
There was no answer to that.
Not that I got an "unknown" response—I simply couldn't obtain an answer at all.
It felt similar to when I hadn't received a question in the first place.
Usually, I could ask a question I'd received multiple times, but for some reason, this one was blocked.
Sensing something strange, I immediately asked myself several questions.
All were questions I had received when I first met Lunarienne.
[Can Serphina von Aingart unify the continent?] And, [Is Baranga Yuuri Aishers a ruler who can unify the continent?] [Can Lynn Brands unify the continent?]
Of these, only the last question about Lynn produced an answer.
The answer was [No].
Basically, I couldn't directly question myself.
To make predictions, I needed to hear questions from others.
Once I heard a question from someone else, I could ask myself the same question repeatedly.
But—despite having received these questions before, answers weren't forthcoming.
At this point, I could vaguely guess a rule I hadn't known:
'The questions I receive are reset when I change the ruler I serve...?'
If this was correct, it would simply explain why only the question about Lynn could be predicted.
This question was the first one Lynn asked me when she recruited me.
So my questions—
Since they were ultimately the "strategist's" predictions, were questions related to my affiliated army given priority?
That seemed odd considering I could predict the futures of other rulers too.
Of course, this wasn't a perfect answer.
It seemed right that something was being reset, but it could happen periodically... or due to some other factor I hadn't noticed.
'Well, I can't know for now.'
If I could grab someone and ask them to "please ask me if Lunarienne Iniang will be the ruler who unifies the continent," I could easily check the results again.
But without Luna, who would unconditionally listen to me, going around asking such strange questions would only draw unwanted attention.
Though Irene was here, we weren't that close yet.
'I'll have another chance to check someday.'
So I just did my assigned work at the tavern, dealing with people adequately.
I wondered if this really counted as "contributing" to commerce... but in domestic affairs, politics stats were far more important than intelligence stats.
Well, I didn't particularly dislike this job. It would have been more annoying to come up with ideas to develop the market.
Why work so hard when I was just affiliated with the Brands forces anyway?
'Let's just do the job.'
So I spent my time working without particular enthusiasm.
*
A week had passed since starting the mission.
On my way back from the market, I bought a snack that all the children were carrying around.
It was a typical pastry with sweet jam inside.
"I'm back."
"Mm. Good work."
When I arrived home, Irene greeted me warmly, drenched in sweat and resting in that obscenely revealing training outfit.
"Have you been swinging your sword until now today as well?"
"That's right."
Those firm muscles on her waist must be the result of that arduous training path.
Feeling a bit guilty in this situation, I laid out what I had bought on the table.
Irene approached, showing interest in my purchases.
"What's that?"
"Snacks. The children in Anel Castle were all carrying and eating them."
"Ah... Swen, do you like sweet things?"
"Not particularly, but you always make tea for me, don't you? I thought these might go well together."
There were snacks in Irene's house too, but they were more plain than sweet.
If we're going to have tea, wouldn't it be nice to have something sweet with it?
"I see... I've been focusing on my training, so I've been avoiding sweet foods as much as possible."
Right.
That made sense.
Someone so focused on building her body would naturally control her diet.
Actually, except for when she grilled meat for my welcome feast, she generally seemed to eat modest portions of simple food.
"Well, if you're avoiding sweets while training hard, I suppose it can't be helped—"
As I was about to put away the snacks after saying that.
With a soft touch—
She placed her hand on my wrist.
"..."
"?"
"...Ahem."
She cleared her throat awkwardly without saying anything.
Even when I tried to pull my hand away, her strong grip kept me from moving.
"...Lady Irene."
"What?"
"Would you like to have some?"
"...!"
Judging by how quickly her face turned red, I'd guessed correctly.
Living together, I'd noticed she was surprisingly bad at hiding her emotions.
But—she seemed to be having an internal conflict because the food didn't fit her routine.
At times like this, a little encouragement helps.
"Let's eat together if you'd like. A few won't hurt."
Not realizing my words were like a devil's whisper, she nodded while covering her mouth with her hand.
"...Well, it's not that I want to eat them... but since you went to the trouble of buying them."
She said this while mysteriously raising the corners of her mouth.
Why?
Hearing Irene's obvious lie, I felt like teasing her.
"No, I'm fine. If you're only eating them because you're concerned about what I bought, you don't have to."
"What...!"
"I don't want you to force yourself. I'll eat them all. Don't feel obligated."
"Ah... well, that..."
Taking advantage of her momentary weakness, I moved the bread aside.
She leaned forward like a cat eyeing a treat, moving closer to where the bread was.
Her purple eyes flickered with such obvious disappointment.
She really can't lie at all.
That's enough teasing.
I smiled lightly, then nodded and said:
"I'm just kidding. Let's eat together, Lady Irene. That's why I bought them in the first place."
Hearing my words, she looked somewhat indignant and pouted.
"...Swen, sometimes I don't know what you're thinking."
"I hear that a lot."
"...Pfft."
Hearing my response, she laughed briefly, seemingly amused—
Then she stood up and headed to the kitchen, saying:
"I'll wash up quickly and bring some tea. Please wait a moment."
"As you command."
It had been nearly 10 days since I started living under the same roof as Irene.
I was gradually getting used to her.
*
"The news" came about two and a half weeks after starting the commerce mission.
"You're saying I should stop the mission and come to the royal castle immediately?"
I asked the soldier who had come to fetch me.
"Yes. Our lord is looking for you, Swen. She said it's fine to temporarily suspend your mission."
'Lynn is looking for me?'
What could it be?
I couldn't imagine why she would be looking for me at this point—
'I'll find out when I get there.'
"Understood. I'll organize things and head to the royal castle right away."
"Yes. I've delivered the message clearly. Well then."
After briefly exchanging greetings with the soldier, I explained the situation to the people I worked with, left the tavern, and headed straight for the royal castle in Anel Castle.