Published: August 10, 2026
The small hall had no fixed seating order so that everyone could converse as they liked. Instead, the tables and chairs arranged around the room were to be used freely. The banquet had been held so suddenly, and no one knew how many from Dunkelfelger would be treated as honored guests, so the number of participants had not even been finalized, making it impossible to decide on seating arrangements.
Grandfather came over to where I was sitting, and his attendant went to fetch food. Foster Father took a seat to hear Grandfather's report, and Father, who had finally been able to appear at the banquet, stood behind Foster Father. Ferdinand sat down in the one remaining empty seat with a perfectly natural expression on his face.
"Ilkner is far away, is it not?"
Grandfather's tales of valor began with those words. As Grandfather said, Ilkner, at the southwestern edge of Ehrenfest, is far away. If you travel there by Mount for a march, it becomes a full day's work. One must match the speed of the lower-ranking knights, and there is no point in pushing too much mana into the Mount just to gain speed if you arrive at the battlefield too exhausted to fight.
"But if the trip takes that long, the possibility of Ilkner being overrun rises as well. Arensbach is a large territory. If you include the nobles of Former Berkeshtock, their fighting strength is beyond comparison."
Ilkner's population is gradually increasing, but it is still a land with few nobles and commoners and many mountains and forests. There is a lot of land that must be protected, but few guardians. If attacked by a large territory, it would be subdued in no time at all.
"For that reason, we moved to Ilkner's Summer Hall through a teleportation circle that only the aub may use."
Grandfather said that it would be a waste not to use something that was there for the taking. A teleportation circle used to transport people requires a fair amount of mana to operate, and only the aub can activate it. It is not something that can be used carelessly. The reason knights could be sent to Ilkner by teleportation circle this time was because Ehrenfest had not yet come under attack, and there was at least some room to spare in the form of healing potions for mana recovery and time to rest.
"The moment we arrived in Ilkner and began fighting, it became clear that this was an attack meant to draw out the knights order."
"How did you know?"
"Because the number of knights was fewer than expected, and their attacks were clearly not aimed at taking down Gibe's Mansion."
Apparently, enough knights were sent to make it difficult for the forces in Ilkner to handle, and the enemy attacked in a way that made it obvious they had no intention of simply ravaging Ilkner until reinforcements from Ehrenfest arrived. On top of that, they were targeting the land's mana and operating over a wide area. They were not a particularly powerful enemy to Grandfather, but they were very troublesome.
"But since their goal was to call out the knights order, they must have intended to hold out for two or three days. They were quite startled when we appeared through the teleportation circle."
Grandfather gave a self-satisfied little laugh. Even if the aub receives a request from a Gibe, it is not usually possible to depart immediately. Preparations must be made, then the journey itself... it should take several days. But because everything had already been prepared for the attack, and because they used the teleportation circle, reinforcements reached Ilkner in no time.
"You make it sound simple, but we also had to push ourselves quite hard to activate the teleportation circle," Foster Father said with obvious dissatisfaction, but Grandfather continued as if he had not heard him.
"While we were fighting, word came in that Gerlach was under attack as well. The enemy numbers were so great it sounded as though that side was the true target, and they asked whether we could send reinforcements. I felt that I had to go, but in order to head for Gerlach without reserve, we first had to end the battle in Ilkner as quickly as possible."