Published: January 15, 2026
“Frustrating.”
“Huh?”
After inspecting the new fortress of Centena—the defensive power and its various facilities—Panamera furrowed her brows and muttered something strange.
“Do you have a cavity?”
When I asked that, she slapped my back hard enough to make a sound.
“I’ve never had a cavity in my life!”
“Eh? That can’t be true, can it?”
When I gave her a skeptical look, Panamera glared at me, so I shut my mouth. Once she noticed I was quiet, she spread her arms wide in front of the row of ballistas and turned back to everyone.
“With all this, surely we can defend against attacks from the Yelinetta Kingdom or the Shelvia Confederation. We can’t commit our full forces here, so if it’s just defense, this force is more than enough. But are you satisfied with that? Marquis Fertio, appointed as the commander, was left half-dead with severe wounds, and there were many casualties. Seeing Centena like this, those cowards from Yelinetta and the Shelvia Confederation might not dare approach. But is that really acceptable?”
Panamera challenged everyone with that question. Some knights lowered their heads, showing expressions of regret. Stradale looked the same. Seeing that there were quite a few knights feeling that way, Panamera smiled.
“I have a plan. Will you take it? I promise we’ll show the enemy something to remember.”
When Panamera said that, I felt as if a fire sparked in the eyes of the knights.
Thus, Panamera quickly took command, uniting her own knight order, the Centena knight order, and the Marquis Fertio family’s knights into a new unit and shared the attack strategy. The plan seemed reckless, but strangely, Panamera’s words had a peculiar persuasiveness.
“Boy. Revenge for your father. Lend me all the wagons and mechanical bow units.”
“They’re not dead yet!?”
I couldn’t help but shout in response to Panamera’s outrageous order. She shook her shoulders and laughed.
“Ah, that’s right. Well, I cauterized his wounds to stop the bleeding, so he survived. Forgive me.”
With those words from Panamera, I sighed and checked our forces. Since most of the work had been focused on rebuilding the fortress for Centena’s defense, we only had fifteen armored carriages in total. The mechanical bow unit could bring about fifty men at most.
“If you give me a day, I can build about five more carriages…”
“No. The enemy will surely act once they see the fortified Centena. Before they can make unpredictable moves, we need to confuse them first. The worst-case scenario is if the Yelinetta Kingdom’s knights return all the way to the capital city. But if we can defeat all Yelinetta knights here and deal a heavy blow to the Shelvia Confederation, it might decide the war’s outcome right then and there.”
Panamera gave no room for delay. I understood her point, but if we launched an offensive and got ambushed from the mountains, it would be a disaster. We also needed to keep some forces for defense.
“In that case, let’s send ten carriages and twenty men from the mechanical bow unit. But place the mechanical bow unit at the rear.”
“…That’s too few. Far too few.”
“No, no, our knight order is small to begin with…”
Panamera complained with dissatisfaction, so I frowned and retorted.
“Only ten carriages? You could be a bit more generous.”
“No, I’m against it in the first place. Ten are enough, right? If it gets dangerous, we retreat immediately, okay?”
I pouted and protested, mimicking her expression. Panamera sighed deeply.
“Hah… Boy, don’t be a stingy man. A narrow-minded man is boring.”
“I’m offering this free of charge. I think I’m being quite generous.”
I brushed off her complaints smoothly. Panamera shook her head unhappily and began preparations herself.
It was only an hour or two. Under Panamera’s command, many knights assembled. Standing in the front line alongside Stradale and Talga, I noticed Panamera eyeing a particularly large carriage.
“Isn’t the one you’re riding in ridiculously big?”