Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume2 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 3===


Hayden was confident that the temple would fall. It would, moreover, be a perfect victory, as rapid as possible and with as little damage to his own troops as possible.

For one thing, there was the intelligence from their spies within the temple. They said that the temple had been lured out by Allion into placing their cannons at the foot of the mountain. Since the warrior monks were also concentrated in the areas surrounding the guns, the corollary was that there were many passageways that were apparently completely undefended. It had been arranged that when they received the signal, the spies would guide Allion’s soldiers to those locations.

Soon after receiving that information, Hayden was planning to move his troops for a large-scale offensive. Originally, the temple should already have fallen by now, but back when he had received news of Lord Leo and Florrie’s escape, Hayden had been left with no choice but to postpone its capture. He had even gone so far as to leave the headquarters and depart for Tiwana.

He had not, however, given the order “not to do anything” while he was away. Just as Camus had guessed, they had continued to send out soldiers to cut off the temple’s supply lines, and to sporadically cause skirmishes in the villages at the foot of the mountain. The reason for that last one was because they wanted to force the enemy to maintain fixed gunnery positions.

Just as Camus had also seen, runaways were escaping the temple one after another. A spy mixed in among them had brought one more piece of information, and his report was the second reason why Hayden was convinced that complete victory was within reach.

“Oh-ho, so Atall’s soldiers have finally pulled out?” Hayden smiled as he sat back in his chair in a relaxed pose.

Of the Atallese reinforcements which had come rushing, about three hundred had still remained at the temple, but they had finally left the day before. Apparently, they had streamed down the mountain like the remnants of a defeated army.

Hayden chuckled to himself. Even if the sovereign-prince had wanted a little longer before deciding when to quit, there was no more time left.  

Incidentally, among the information that Hayden had collected, there was also some concerning movements within Atall itself. There was no evidence that they would be sending in any fresh troops. The Atallese aristocrats had jumped at the bait called ‘peace’ that Hayden had prepared for them, and were savouring its false flavour. As for the sovereign-prince, he would have no thought of defying their opposition and sending soldiers to defend a temple with which he did not actually have any connection.

And also… among the topics covering Atall, there were reports concerning Leo Attiel. He alone had called for a reorganisation of the armed forces, but he had tragically failed and had thereupon immediately been baptised into the Cross Faith. Actually, rumour had already spread within Allion that his conversion had served as the pretext for building the first large-scale church within Atall’s domains.

''So Atall’s ruling family does have a connection to the temple after all'' – there were may voices that cried out in anger and suspicion. Yet many of the adherents of the Cross Faith within Allion had favourably received the news of the prince’s baptism.

It made Hayden want to laugh.

''Don’t you care how you look anymore?''

Was he hoping to win over public opinion in Allion thanks to his religious conversion? Certainly, there were many who viewed it with favour, but that would not be enough to sway the country’s policy. Being baptised into the Cross Faith and establishing a diocese within the country was a shoddy, hastily thought-up plan that could not possibly halt Hayden’s momentum at this point.

''Ha.''

On the eve of his departure for the front, Hayden felt like laughing as he inclined his wine cup towards him. Yet for some reason, he couldn’t laugh. For a moment, he was bewildered as he couldn’t understand why that was.

He pondered for a while.

Silence reigned inside the fortress. While this might have seemed strange, it was the proof that every unit had already completed their preparations for tomorrow’s assault. As was Hayden’s habit, he kept both those of lower rank and the pages waiting in attendance at a distance, so he was alone. While hearing the faint hum that was the voices of insects, he arrived at his answer.

''I see.''

Hayden looked down on Leo’s plan. That was a fact; yet, at the same time, he was inclined to admire Leo Attiel. During the banquet in Tiwana, Hayden had provoked Leo; yet in and of itself, that had not been necessary. To be sure, Leo had committed the crime of taking Florrie away from Allion, but that was only a temporary thing. If the banquet had ended peacefully, he would have been able to bring Florrie back with him on the ship, and, very little time later, he would have destroyed Atall.

Leo, however, had responded to Hayden’s provocation.

He had publicly announced his engagement to Florrie. Moreover, as he trod down on Hayden’s foot, he had fired off these words: “Are you saying that your power can take the place of a proper cause, and get the army to move? Then show me. And I’ll show you how I turn the tables on you.”

Hayden had been engulfed in intense fury but, looking back on it after he had left Atall, he realised that Leo’s words had been no more than childish defiance. With no concrete plan to go on, he had simply blurted out how much he wanted to oppose Hayden. Which was why, when he was having his audience with the king of Allion and reaffirming his right to military command, Hayden had believed that, ''a brat of no more than seventeen, who isn’t even the heir, won’t be able to do anything. He can just wait and shiver. I’ll make him regret his words from the bottom of his heart when I march the troops upon them.''

Yet Leo had shown movement. At least compared to those Atallese nobles who were indulging in the bait known as ‘peace’, he still had the will to oppose Allion. He was not just ‘waiting and shivering’. Even though, when Hayden had first met him at Claude’s castle, he had been no more than an insignificant hostage.

''If I can say that you, who was supposed to live out your life as a worthless hostage, was the one who shook me awake from where I was sleeping in the ocean that is Allion, perhaps it can also be said that I was the one who woke you.''

Hayden felt an oddly profound emotion. He was even relaxed enough to be able to objectively think of it as strange.

''I’m drunk'', he put down his wine cup with a forced laugh.

Even if he admitted that he was increasingly feeling something like a connection to Leo Attiel, there was no point thinking about it too deeply; in the end, Leo amounted to no more than one who would be engulfed by even the smallest of waves born from the ocean that was Allion.

''But I’ll remember you, Leo Attiel'', Hayden closed his eyes. ''I’ll take your head as Atall’s palace goes up in flames. But, I will be the only one who will remember you name, since it won’t be left either in history or in people’s memories. That is the least I can do for you, you who woke me up, as a show of thanks… and as your eulogy.''

He soon started to snore softly, before being awoken again by the pages.



Until that day arrived, Leo Attiel was running abound making preparations.

He had met with Dytiann’s envoys, had snuck into Allion’s territory, and had spoken with Claude Anglatt. Concurrently to that, he was pushing along another strange item on his agenda.

In the western part of Savan’s territory – which was to say, everywhere that was close to the border with Allion – he had encampments hastily constructed.

The one whose cooperation he called upon was Bernard. Most of his territory was covered in forest, so Bernard served both as a domain lord and as the forester for the woodlands owned by the ruling House. Using the authority of the princely house, Leo had him cut down trees and have them transported to Savan’s lands.

''Up to something weird again'', thought Bernard, but his wife, who was an ardent believer in the Cross Faith, did not stay silent when she heard that the wood was to be used to build lodgings for the craftsmen working on the church, as well as for sheds in which to temporarily store the stone. Partly at his wife’s instigation, Bernard had hurriedly started work.

This is a digression, but before returning to the temple, Sarah had once paid a visit to Bernard’s wife. As women dedicated to the same faith, they had a lot to talk about. The topic of the war at Conscon Temple was also brought up, and it left Bernard’s wife deeply worried. “Why can’t our country help the temple?” her words were unusual for a woman from Atall, or rather, they came dangerously close to stepping into the domain of politics. Because of that and because he intended to build a base to allow the Cross Faith to conduct large-scale activities in Atall, Leo had become something of a hero to Bernard’s wife.

Leo now had a huge quantity of timber to hand, but most of it was used no to build dwellings for the craftsmen, but to construct encampments.

Although even if they were called encampments, they were nothing more than structures with roofs that could house several dozen people. As for what they were used for, it was to lodge Leo’s five hundred militiamen – who, incidentally, had pitched in to build the camps.

They were joined by regular soldiers. Not, however, the Royal Guards that Leo had brought with him from Tiwana. Since those were no more than guards for the quarry who had been left to him by the sovereign-prince, Leo had sent them back to the capital once they had successfully drawn out Darren’s soldiers.

The regular soldiers in question were the three hundred led by Nauma Laumarl. Having been left for so long at Conscon Temple, they had been waiting impatiently for orders from the sovereign-prince, and finally been given permission to come down from the mountain. In actual fact though, Sovereign-Prince Magrid had not issued any such orders.

Leo Attiel had given Camus a dagger bearing the crest of the princely house on its hilt and, along with a letter, it gave the impression of being an order from Magrid that allowed Nauma and the others to descend from the temple.

Once they crossed the border, they had, for the time being, been guided to Savan’s nearby castle, where they had stayed a night to “recover after your long campaign”. Given that their impression of Savan Roux was that he was merely ‘an impoverished vassal-lord’, they were astonished by the magnificent reception they received.

''Right, His Majesty the Sovereign-Prince must have given Savan the money to thank us for our services. We had a hard time of it, and His Majesty appreciates it'', now that he was tasting civilised food and drink for the first time in a long time, Nauma was intoxicated.

The next day, while they were in the middle of getting ready to “return to dear old Tiwana,” Leo Attiel showed up. That too came as a surprise to Nauma. Which was understandable, since he was completely ignorant of Atall’s current internal situation, but yet another shock was in store for him.

“I’ll be taking charge of all the soldiers under your command, Nauma,” the prince announced.

Nauma himself was ordered to remain as captain to the men. Well, even if it was presented as “an order from the sovereign-prince”, that was, of course, another of Leo’s lies. In all honesty, he did not actually have any further need for Nauma himself, but if he returned like this, the sovereign-prince would find out that Leo had acted on his own to have them withdraw from Mount Conscon.

“P-Please wait. What does His Majesty intend for us to do now? Have we not made peace with Allion?” Nauma asked, but the prince stuck to it that it was “an order from my father, the sovereign.”

While Leo was explaining that he would be taking overall command of the troops, Nauma found himself unintentionally doubting his liege’s sanity – ''His Majesty must have been caught between Allion and the vassal-lords, and had to try and do something.''

But anyway, if it was an order, he had no choice but to obey. Muttering complaints the whole time, he divided up the soldiers into a number of units, and sent them off to the encampments.

That evening, Leo Attiel was in the chapel. He had received information that Hayden Swift had returned to the frontlines. The attacks on the temple would start up again soon.

Camus and Sarah were at that temple now. Percy had headed to a different location, and was waiting for Leo’s signal. Kuon had been entrusted with an elite unit, and he too was waiting for the prince’s orders.

And Leo Attiel was also waiting. While soaking up the atmosphere in the simple and still completely unadorned chapel, he had one hand on the sword at his waist. His other hand was on his chest, and he could feel the beat of his heart against his palm.

The wind was blowing, and the candle flames were flickering. Leo’s shadow also seemed to sway, then it turned into that ominous, stagnant ''sludge'', a one-dimensional figure that stood right before him, thrusting its black, featureless face at him.

Will you do it? It spoke in its silent voice.

“I’ll do it,” said Leo.

''People will die. A great many people. Foolish little prince. Countless lives will be lost which wouldn’t have needed to be if only you hadn’t provoked Hayden. And you too will plunged headlong into hell.''

“If I don’t take action, sooner or later, Atall will fall.”

''Excuses, excuses. Their corpses won’t want to listen to those words from you, Little Prince.''

“If they don’t want to listen, then they don’t need to listen. Somebody has to make a change. Somebody has to force things to move.”

Who was Leo speaking to?

“The relationship between the ruling family and the vassal-lords has collapsed simply because the ruling House wasn’t able to show the necessary strength when it needed to. As the ruling family lost power, the influence of the vassal-lords increased inversely to that. That’s why they can’t give a single order that doesn’t profit the vassal-lords, and can’t make a single move.”

In other words –

“Ultimately, the ruling family is to blame for Atall’s current weakness.”

– was what he was saying.

“And that’s why,” the moment Leo said it, the ''sludge'' returned to being a shadow. “that’s why, I will do it.”



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