All of us turned in unison toward the blazing horizon, staring in stunned silence.
Save for Jerry, every man present was struck dumb.
Even I was genuinely caught off guard.
"Your Majesty!"
"Mm."
At my nod, Henry spun on his heel and strode briskly away, shouting, "Someone, quickly!"
"Hate being doubted like that. I mean, with a blaze that huge, anyone oughta see it's the real deal."
"Don't say that. Doing his due diligence is Henry's job."
"Guess that's how it goes, huh?"
"You wouldn't blindly swallow a report from your own subordinates without verifying it either, would you?"
"Well, reckon you've got a point there."
Convinced by my reasoning, Jerry nodded in agreement.
"Still, you did well to uncover that. A detached forage depot—no, at that scale, it was practically a regional supply base. Something like that ought to have been top secret to the enemy."
"Aw, that kind of stuff is easy."
Jerry wore a proud smirk, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
"Oh?"
"Take these lasses here, for example. No joke or nothin', their folks happily sent 'em over to my place."
"Hm, I see...?"
Wondering how that connected to our conversation, I gave a noncommittal nod to urge him on.
"No matter how hard they try to hide stuff, the locals always see right through it. Unlike those maggots, I make it a point to stay on good terms with the folks living on the land."
I see, I thought, understanding his point.
"So they were the ones who tipped you off?"
"Yup. Didn't even have to do any digging myself; the locals just brought the info right to me. All those maggots do is sit around acting high and mighty. What was his name again... uh... E-Ela?"
"Eiler Nuf, you mean?"
"Yeah, that guy!"
Jerry snapped his finger and pointed straight at me.
Then, catching himself, he panicked, hurriedly pulled his finger back, and laughed awkwardly to brush off the blunder.
"He's my lord's dad's great-uncle, right?"
"Mm. A collateral descendant of the Grand Imperial Prince line, bona fide imperial royalty. By the way, while he is the late Emperor's granduncle by relation, his actual age is not much different from mine."
Nobles naturally end up with massive families, and political marriages create all sorts of tangled combinations, so distant relatives often end up with generational titles and actual ages that don't match up proportionally.
"No offense to you, my lord, but having scum like that out in the provinces and the frontier just drags the imperial family's name through the mud."
"Is he really that awful? He crushed the Imperial Army, so I assumed he was treated somewhat like a hero."
"My lord, you're overestimating that piece of shit way too much. That guy's such trash... that the locals willingly hand over his secrets to me."
"Hm... Is that so?"
I nodded and looked at the young girls Jerry had brought along.
I recalled what Jerry had said earlier.
Even if I didn't take a fancy to these girls, Jerry had promised that, in exchange for them coming all this way, their families would receive preferential treatment.
If that was true, and if that was the kind of rapport he regularly maintained with the locals—in stark contrast to Eiler Nuf—
Then it made perfect sense that the people would be devoted to him and bring him intelligence unprompted.
"However, doesn't that cost a fortune? Staying on 'good terms' with them on a regular basis, that is."
"Well, that's thanks to your teachings, my lord."
"Mine?"
"Yes, sir! Well, ain't had the best luck, so I didn't get to hear it straight from you—just heard it through the grapevine, though."
"Hm?"
What is he talking about? I wondered, tilting my head.
Jerry closed his eyes and began reciting the words in a solemn, ringing cadence.
"'A third-rate noble is stingy about sharing. A second-rate noble fulfills their duty through sheer grit. A first-rate noble does so naturally, without even considering it a sacrifice'—"
Having recited the entire phrase, he opened his eyes and looked back at me.
"—heard tell you said that."
"I see. I indeed have said that before."
Those were the words of my predecessors, a golden rule I held dear and lived by.
So strictly speaking, they weren't originally my own words—but without pointing that out, I simply looked at Jerry with an expectant gaze, as if asking, And so?
"So I just did exactly as you said, and things turned out pretty damn well, you see."
"Hm. In that case, while we're on the subject, let me grant you a piece of advice."
"—! Yes, Your Majesty! I shall listen with the utmost reverence."
Jerry's demeanor shifted completely. He dropped to his knees on the spot and bowed his head deeply.
"Even if you do it naturally, there will be few times where you feel truly rewarded. However..."
"..."
"If you bestow favors upon a thousand people, and even a single one of them gives back, then you are in the black—a resounding success. Just like you."
"I humbly receive your gracious words."
Remaining prostrate on the ground, Jerry began to tremble faintly with overwhelming emotion.
☆
Declaring, "I'll go reap 'em down to the root," Jerry gathered his troops and departed.
I had him take the girls back with him as well.
If I needed a partner for "debauchery," I already had Alice, and the fewer accomplices there were to a deception, the less likely it was to unravel.
Amid all the commotion, the western sun had completely set, and the veil of night had fallen.
Even so, beyond the mountains, the blaze consuming the forage depot dyed the night sky in a brilliant, fiery glow.
"This will make the battle considerably easier."
"Yeah... Still... what an incredible man."
Neil, who had barely been able to interject during the entire exchange and had watched everything from my side, finally spoke up.
"Indeed."
"Your Majesty is truly amazing for recognizing his worth."
"He's merely one out of a thousand. It wasn't something I deliberately planned."
I let out a faint smile.
"If that's the case... I think that's even more amazing."
"Hm?"
"Bestowing favors upon a thousand people just for one to give back... Even if you set your mind to that, most people would break along the way."
He makes a good point, I thought.
That was precisely the concept behind "grit is second-rate; doing it naturally is first-rate," but I kept the thought to myself.
"Even so..."
"Hm?"
What is it this time? I glanced at Neil.
Neil was gazing in the direction Jerry had gone—into what was now nothing but pitch-black darkness.
"It feels like such a waste, despite Your Majesty favoring him so much. If he fixed that attitude even a little, he could've climbed much higher."
"Hahaha, is that how it looked to you?"
"Huh?"
Neil looked back at me, bewildered.
"What do you... mean by that?"
"Jerry's attitude—it's entirely deliberate."
"Huh?"
"Just like me, he's putting on an act."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Think back to when I offered to grant him a piece of advice."
"A piece of advice... If I recall, he knelt down..."
"Mm."
I nodded, recalling Jerry's conduct at that moment.
"Did you find anything off about his behavior then?"
"Off? No... I thought he was acting completely proper."
"Precisely. He was acting proper. His demeanor was so immaculate that no one could have found fault with it even before the imperial throne."
As I spoke, Neil nodded.
His expression asked So what?—before realization struck him with a sharp gasp.
I let out a quiet chuckle.
"It sounds like a cliché, but the fact that nothing felt off is precisely what was off. Just moments prior, Jerry was behaving in a way that infuriated Henry. Yet in that single instant, he displayed movements grounded in flawless imperial etiquette."
"Why would he do that...?"
"Didn't I tell you? It's an act, just like mine. Jerry is playing that persona right now. Though it seems he couldn't maintain the facade when it came to receiving genuine advice from me."
"..."
Neil stood there with his mouth agape, utterly speechless.
"Pretending he can't do something when he actually can. No, even before that, he's putting on a front that factors in his own background. He must have put in an extraordinary amount of effort behind the scenes."
"Aren't you giving him a bit too much credit?"
"Do you really think so?"
"...No. To climb this far from being a mere bandit is undeniably incredible."
"Indeed."
Nodding, I looked in the direction Jerry had gone, just as Neil had done moments ago.
I recalled our very first meeting.
Back then, he was nothing more than a bandit chief, but now he had grown into a capable general who could feign incompetence and charm the common folk to extract enemy secrets.
Paving the way for him back then was definitely the right choice, I reflected.
Then, I reconsidered how to handle Jerry moving forward.
Should I let him rack up more military achievements on the frontier for a while longer, or recall him to the imperial capital and entrust him with the Imperial Guard Army?
Or perhaps dispatch him to the Tulhive front to assist Jessica—
Suddenly, Oscar's figure crossed my mind.
Things were stable for now, but circumstances might arise in the future where I'd need to be wary of Oscar again.
When that time came, having someone like Jerry holding a measure of military authority near the imperial capital would be far more advantageous.
Even so.
Entrusting him with the Imperial Guard Army would go much more smoothly if he accumulated a few more military merits first.
Not forcing things through would avoid provoking Oscar or putting him on his guard.
That was precisely why, on the contrary—
I resolved to make even greater use of Jerry in this upcoming battle.