Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume2 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===


Hayden Swift arrived at a fortress built near Allion’s eastern border.

It was the very same fortress that had been constructed to capture the temple, and he had kept about eight hundred soldiers stationed there. His cloak fluttering as he returned, the ‘commander’ received the reports of what had happened during his absence, although he barely registered them. His eyes were fixed on something far beyond the temple.

He had not obtained the king’s permission to invade Atall. At the time, he had played the part of the understanding vassal, but there was of course no way that this man would have given up.

''From here on, I’ll focus everything on having Conscon Temple surrender''. His eyes gleaming like a newly-sharpened blade, Hayden once more pictured the plan that he would carrying out from there onwards. ''Then, once the temple becomes a military base for Allion, I’ll have soldiers garrisoned there ‘for our defence’…''

Hayden himself would stay on, as he planned to draw Atall’s nobles to him. Then, he would have those who responded to his call rise in rebellion, on the pretext that “the sovereign-prince is acting as high-handedly as he pleases, as though the country belongs to him.”

With his armed force stationed near the border, Hayden would be able to immediately send in soldiers, on the grounds that he was “assisting those who have risen in righteous indignation.” He would fan the fires of civil war, and use their flames to capture Atall’s capital city. Given that Atall would have fallen with very little effort, the king was unlikely to say anything even if he only received the report when everything was already almost over…

– Such were Hayden’s plan for the immediate future.

He felt that, ''no matter what work I try out, it isn’t ever difficult.''

First, capture the temple.

That was nothing. ''I just need to crush them with the difference in strength.''

If Allion’s military commanders could hear him, they would burst into laughter, exclaiming that, ''Hayden really thinks he can actually pull it off?'' And as a matter of fact, rumours had reached him that a certain general had said something very similar.

But after all, they only had the limited intelligence of army men. To be sure, Conscon Temple was currently still going strong, but that was neither because of a mistake on Hayden’s part, nor because he did not know how to attack. It would also be wrong to say that he had at first been overly cautious, out of fear of losing more soldiers than was strictly necessary.

The reason for all of it was simply ''that’s what I wanted''.

And that was all.



Hayden had changed.

All those who were close to him were agreed on that, and he himself was aware of it. 

Nor is there any need to repeat what had caused that change – it was Florrie Anglatt.

The moment he first laid eyes on her, he had felt as though a throbbing new pulse had started flowing through his rusted blood vessels. As though time, which had seemed to stand still around him, had started moving to the creak of cogwheels turning.

Hayden had a wife and children, and before his marriage – as well as after it, too – he had accumulated who knows how many trysts with ladies serving at court and so on, yet he had never been fully engrossed in any of them. Whether it was romantic love such as it was celebrated in songs, or the stories told by his peers about how blind love had been their undoing, they were just wild and fantastic stories to him.

Yet the second he beheld Florrie singing unskilfully but still trying her best, Hayden’s mass of hard, coagulated emotions was instantly smashed. The plain truth is that it was his first love. And it was no directed so much towards the current Florrie as it was towards what Florrie would become in a few years time, when she would perfectly correspond to Hayden’s ideal.

And that was why he was so impatient.

If it had been just an ordinary first love, he could have built a closer relationship with her father, Claude Anglatt, while concealing his feelings, and then, with time, he could have become more intimate with Florrie as well. A few years later, once Florrie had grown up, it would not have been very difficult to steal her heart.

However, it was the future Florrie that Hayden was so deeply in love with. Although one could assume that she would continue to safely mature into that ideal future version of herself, there was still that small chance of a ‘mistake’ occurring during the process of her growth into adulthood. The still incomplete Florrie was so close to his ideal that Hayden wanted nothing less than unimpeachable ‘perfection’.

''I have to have her by me'', he resolved to himself. He would monitor Florrie’s growth from close by so that it could continue unhindered by any static noise. He would cut away anything unsuitable as though pruning a plant, and would encourage the growth of what was pleasing to the eye.

Florrie’s father, however, had obstructed that plan. He had turned down Hayden’s offer of “having Florrie receive an education at the capital,” and to make matters worse, he had confided that Florrie seemed to already have her heart set on someone. He had even hinted that the man in question was Leo Attiel.

As far as Claude was aware, there was no truth in what he had said about Leo and Florrie having feelings for one another. It was simply that he expected Hayden would give up if he were told that “her betrothal to the Atallese prince will soon be settled.”

Hayden realised that static noise was already interfering with her progress towards his ideal, but even so –

''It’s not too late yet. It absolutely isn’t.''

Exactly contrary to Claude’s hopes, Hayden’s love flared up even more strongly.

After that, he went to Conscon Temple as a mediator meant to mend the worsening relationship, although he returned to his own country shortly afterwards.

''That'' was where it had all begun.

First of all, Hayden decided to make use of the temple. He pretended that the mediation had failed, and spread the rumours that Bishop Rogress had rained curses down on the royal family.

It was Hayden also who had persuaded the king to attack the temple. “You definitely have to show them,” he had urged.
In that way that he had built up antagonism between Allion and the temple. Next, he had gotten Atall involved in their relations. 

And for that, Oswell Taholin, one of the vassal-lords who shared the southern part of the country, had been most helpful.

When Hayden had been working out a plan to seize hold of Florrie, he had met with several of the commanders who had been involved in the war against Atall seven years ago. He had been groping about for as many of the principality’s weaknesses as he could find, which was why he had gone to see Hawking, who had been in charge of gathering intelligence about Atall’s internal situation.

At the banquet, when Leo had spoken with some of the vassal-lords, one of them, Bernard, had admitted being invited into a scheme from Allion, and Hawking... well, Hawking was the very person who had been behind it.

It was rare for Hayden, whose sense of self-importance was ridiculously inflated, to take the trouble of initiating action, yet he had personally galloped to Hawking’s residence to hear what the man had to say.

Hawking, a military commander, had lost his left leg in an earlier war than the one against Atall, so he no longer stood on the battlefield. However, thanks to his sharp mind, he had switched to espionage, and the king placed a lot of trust in him.

“Atall’s vassal-lords are a weak spot,” Hawking had opined. The sovereign-prince’s authority was teetering and since the vassal-lords were highly aware that they now had to protect their lands and people by themselves, it made them susceptible to plans from the outside.

That was especially true of Oswell Taholin, who appeared to be a man who could easily be swayed. Seven years ago, during the war, “if the time had come and we had given him the order, he would even have risen to cause trouble from inside the country,” said Hawking. 

In the end, Atall had surrendered without there being any need to use that scheme, but Hawking had judged that Oswell might well be useful in the future, so they had continued to exchange letters and envoys. The commander was a man with a lot of foresight.

“Then, would you write a missive to this Oswell for me?” Hayden’s eyes gleamed.

“Oh? It looks like you’re thinking of something interesting. Very well, I’ll get in touch with Oswell and inform him about you, Sir Hayden. In exchange, and should it ever come to actual warfare, would you take my boy as a squire?” The commander replied, his eyes gleaming also.

Hawking had a sixteen-year-old son. The boy had a good physique and there would have been nothing unusual about his having already been to the battlefield. Yet even though wars followed one after another in Allion, by some inexplicable stroke of misfortune, he had never had the opportunity to be called to the front. His name was Randius.  

At present, he was serving as an apprentice to Hayden and had taken an active part in the campaign against Conscon by mixing in with the marauders.

It was in that way that Hayden got Hawking’s cooperation and was able to approach the Atallese vassal-lord. He enticed Oswell with the prospect of funds and favourable treatment by Allion, and drew him into the plan. Not long after, Oswell urged Sovereign-Prince Magrid to send reinforcements to Conscon Temple.

Conveniently for Hayden, when pressure from Darren and others forced the previous sovereign-prince from the throne, Oswell had been one of those who had supported Magrid in taking over the position. Consequently, the sovereign-prince felt a debt of gratitude towards him, and besides that, Oswell was an eloquent speaker, so Magrid accepted the plan and sent soldiers to the temple.

In other words, even that had been part of Hayden’s scheme.

He had two goals.

First, after deliberately exposing the fact that Atall had sent reinforcements, Lord Leo’s position in Allion, where he was being kept hostage, would deteriorate. 

The second was to spread slanderous rumours to the effect that, “General Claude, who is in charge of Leo, is linked to Atall and the temple through that self-same Leo,” in order to put the general in a difficult position.

Being an upstart, Claude had very few allies. If Hayden then approached him, Claude would have no choice but to rely on him. 

That was all. In order to remove a rival in love and to place Florrie’s father deeply in his debt – and for those reasons alone – Hayden Swift had caused the chaos at the temple. And not only that: one day, he was determined that one day, he would cast the Principality of Atall into the flames.

During the initial stage that was the fight to seize Conscon Temple, Leo and Florrie had fled to Atall, which inevitably meant that he had needed to rethink his plan. Yet Hayden’s thoughts on that was that ''in a way, I don’t mind.''

His ardent desire for Florrie was no different from before, but another, greater, part of Hayden Swift had changed. Ambition such as he had never felt up until then had flared up within him.

''I’m sure I have what it takes to leave my name in history.''

Naturally, walking alongside him down his glorious path would be the by-then adult Florrie Anglatt.

Why not aim for an exhilarating future? For a heart-pounding daydream?

Life was going to be very enjoyable.

''And for that, Conscon Temple comes first.'' 

Now that the war had been stretched out, there was no longer any need to drive Leo and Claude into a corner. They would be swallowed up.

Still, if he recklessly dived head first, even though victory was assured, there would inevitably be casualties.

Thereafter, Hayden would prepare for war against Atall. Since his plan could not yet be openly revealed, he refrained from asking the king for reinforcements, so it was necessary to keep victims and sacrifices to a minimum.

''I will obtain a swift and brilliant victory with almost no losses.''

Of that, Hayden was certain.