They said a civil war was likely to break out within the Empire.

When I first heard the news, I simply laughed it off.

"Those bastards couldn't even breathe loudly in front of the Emperor, and they are going to start a civil war? Don't be ridiculous."

It might have been different if I had not seen him myself, but I had already seen the Emperor at close range.

I had also seen just how much the nobles of the Empire feared the Emperor.

There was no way nobles who did not even have the courage to look the Emperor straight in the eye would start a civil war while the Emperor was wide awake and watching.

No matter how chaotic the Empire was right now, inside and out.

I left the possibility open just in case, but since no further news came in, I soon wiped it from my mind.

"How can we hand even greater achievements to that Third Imperial Prince bastard without taking losses on our side?"

After repeated meetings with Malcoy, putting our heads together, I selected several not particularly important strongholds and made a "deal" with the Third Imperial Prince.

Needless to say, that deal was carried out so secretly that even the Third Imperial Prince's side did not realize it.

In the course of the deal, the Imperial Army suffered no small loss of troops,

and while the main force was distracted by capturing strongholds, the Imperial Army on the front lines took heavy damage from the kingdom's detached forces, but those were also unimportant matters.

The Third Imperial Prince was pleased because he gained the fame and achievements of having captured the kingdom's citadels and fortresses that no imperial legion had been able to take, and I was able to inflict considerable damage on the Imperial Army in exchange for strongholds that were not even important, so this could truly be called a model of an excellent deal that satisfied both sides.

Everything was going smoothly.

If there was one thing that bothered me, it was only that the imperial Mages and Paladins who had arrived at the front were far too quiet.

"They have already lost one Mage and one Paladin."

"It is only natural that they are being cautious to prevent further losses to precious forces on their side."

"If they were going to treat them so preciously, they should have left them in the rear to begin with, so why bring them all the way to a battlefield crawling with danger?"

"I cannot understand it."

At my words, Malcoy shook his head.

"Knights are treated as precious in any country."

"When you consider the time and cost it takes to develop one person's abilities as a knight, you cannot think of them like ordinary soldiers."

Malcoy said that was precisely the difference between the Empire and the kingdom.

"The kingdom has staked its survival on this war, but the Empire has not."

"They joined the war out of fear of the Emperor's strict order, but the Empire's Legion Commanders will have no choice but to think about the situation after the war as well."

"No matter how much merit they gain, there is no practical benefit if they lose their knighthoods and all their precious forces in the process."

"Did they look down on us?"

"You should see it as the opposite."

"They saw what happened to those who looked down on us and charged in, so now they are being cautious."

Having said that, Malcoy added one more thing.

Even they would not keep conserving their knighthoods and Mages forever.

"They will want to avoid being reprimanded for failing to carry out the imperial command faithfully, so they too will put everything they have into it at least once."

"And if they do pour in all their strength, it will absolutely be against this citadel."

Malcoy said that now was the time to call back the Masters and knights from the detached forces and prepare for a decisive battle.

"I will tell Jean Catherine and the Azure Sky Knights."

Since the Wyvern Riders who had returned from the imperial mainland were here just in time, there would be no problem relaying the news.

And not long after, changes began to occur on the front lines.

"The Empire's offensive has noticeably weakened."

"The bastards who used to hammer at the walls every four days have been staring at the castle from a distance for a whole week now."

"The situation is similar on almost every front."

At this, Malcoy predicted that the Imperial Army had begun reorganizing in order to wage an all-out battle.

Malcoy and I expected that the moment the Empire finished catching its breath, an offensive fiercer than any before would begin.

But that was not the case.

"The Imperial Army has begun withdrawing!"

The Imperial Army that had advanced to the kingdom's borders began to pull back all at once.

It was not a one-step retreat for the sake of taking two steps forward.

The Imperial Army was truly pulling its troops away from the border.

The Azure Sky Knights personally toured the battlefields and confirmed that fact.

"Why on earth?"

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no way to explain the Imperial Army's sudden retreat.

No, there was one.

The story I had heard not long ago about a civil war in the Empire could explain the current situation.

"Could there really be a civil war..."

Perhaps Malcoy had thought of the same thing as I had, because he brought up the possibility of an imperial civil war again.

My thoughts had not changed, neither then nor now.

There was no possibility that the imperial figures who could not even dare to breathe properly in front of the Emperor had started a civil war.

Even if there was someone that bold, there was no way the Emperor would sit back and watch a civil war break out in his own territory.

Even though I clearly thought so, I ordered them to use every means available to confirm whether the rumor was true.

And a few days later, Percival, who had disguised himself as a defeated soldier and joined the Imperial Army, returned to the citadel.

"Your Highness!"

"A civil war really has broken out in the Empire!"

I frowned.

It was because even after confirming the thing I had thought could not possibly be true, I still could not easily believe it.

Seeing me like that, Percival continued his report with his face flushed bright red.

"The information was limited, so I could not learn the details, but it seems the Fifth Imperial Prince felt a sense of crisis and raised troops!"

The moment I heard those words, the situation sorted itself out in my head in an instant.

Originally, the Fifth Imperial Prince was someone with as little chance of inheriting the imperial throne as the Third Imperial Prince.

But as the war continued, the situation changed.

His rivals, the Second Imperial Prince and Fourth Imperial Prince, had fallen in battle one after another, and even the First Imperial Prince, the most powerful candidate for the imperial throne, had died an untimely death in the recent attack on the imperial mainland by our allies.

An opportunity had come even to the Fifth Imperial Prince, whose chances of inheriting the throne had not been high because of the princes who possessed outstanding ability and strong factions.

However, the Fifth Imperial Prince was not the only one who benefited from the other princes dying in the war.

The side that gained the greatest benefit from the war was the Third Imperial Prince's.

The imperial nobles who had lost the masters they served in the first subjugation of Dotrin threw themselves under the Third Imperial Prince's banner one after another in order to avoid the Emperor's wrath.

As a result, the Third Imperial Prince became the most powerful candidate for the imperial throne in one stroke, and on top of that, he even gained the reputation of a war hero.

And that reputation(?) was currently continuing even on the front against the kingdom.

In such a situation, even his strongest rival, the First Imperial Prince, had fallen in battle, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Third Imperial Prince's succession to the throne had become almost a foregone conclusion.

Even leaving aside the Third Imperial Prince's shitty temper, there was no way the future of an imperial family member who failed in the succession would be bright.

It was only natural that the Fifth Imperial Prince would feel a sense of crisis.

Nine times out of ten, he would either die mysteriously or be executed on some convenient charge.

He had more than enough motive.

Because it must have been a situation where he had to do something, anything, in order to survive.

The reward was also overflowing.

If the undertaking succeeded, he could go beyond guaranteeing his life and even become Emperor of the Empire.

On top of that, it was not entirely impossible either.

The Third Imperial Prince, the most powerful candidate for the imperial throne, was out on the frontier, where it would take him nearly half a year just to return.

And he had brought most of the forces that followed him along.

Since motive, reward, and possibility were all more than sufficient, it would have seemed stranger for him not to make a move.

If I had been in the Fifth Imperial Prince's position, I would have made a move too.

Of course, that did not mean I thought the undertaking would actually succeed.

"The moment the Emperor moves, the civil war will be suppressed in an instant."

Malcoy also predicted that the Fifth Imperial Prince's rebellion would end in failure.

"What matters to the kingdom right now is how to make use of the Empire's civil war."

Malcoy said that even if it was a doomed undertaking anyway, we had to use what we could use.

"If necessary, we must prolong the civil war even if we have to support the Fifth Imperial Prince instead of the Third Imperial Prince."

I ended up laughing.

I had worked so hard to make the Third Imperial Prince Emperor, and now I was in a situation where I had to put effort into the Fifth Imperial Prince as well.

I could not help finding it absurd, wondering what the hell I was doing with the bloodline of Bourgogne, bastards I could grind up and drink and still not feel satisfied.

But there was no reason to reject Malcoy's proposal.

The longer the Empire's chaos continued, the more the kingdom benefited.

For the sake of that chaos, I had repeatedly let that Third Imperial Prince bastard go when I would not have felt satisfied even killing him on the spot, and I had continued to hand achievements to him.

There was no reason to hesitate now, at this late point, about lending strength to the Fifth Imperial Prince.

"The ways of the world really are impossible to understand, even when you think you do."

I said that because the situation of unexpectedly coming to support the imperial princes was so ironic, but Malcoy seemed to understand it differently and said something off the mark.

"I also never imagined that the Fifth Imperial Prince would go so far as to start a civil war."

"I have only seen him a few times, but among the bloodline of the Imperial House of Bourgogne, he seemed unusually gentle."

I did not bother correcting that misunderstanding.

"In any case, keep a close watch on the Imperial Army's situation, and report to me at once if you learn the detailed circumstances."

After saying that, I was about to rise from my seat when the sound of a horn suddenly rang out.

BWAHHHH.

It was the signal announcing the Imperial Army's approach.

I immediately headed up to the wall.

The veteran Rangers who had been pressed close to the wall told me the situation.

"It does not seem they came to attack the castle right away."

Following the Ranger's gesture, I looked at the enemy far in the distance.

A group of knights in full armor were looking toward this citadel.

Their orderly presence and sharp military discipline were certainly unusual, but that was all.

They did not seem to have the slightest intention of attacking.

And even if they did, there was no way a mere hundred or so knights could do anything to this enormous citadel.

"Surely they did not come to say farewell."

While I observed the situation for a moment, the enemy knighthood began approaching us.

"What should we do?"

"Should we shoot?"

The Rangers raised their crossbows and looked at me.

"Just say the word."

"The Iron Legion is ready to rain down a storm of fire at any time."

A dwarf of the Iron Legion, who had come all the way to the battlefield only to be unable to fight even one proper battle, spoke to me impatiently.

I shook my head.

"It seems they have something to say, so let us hear them out first."

The Imperial Knights stopped just in front of crossbow range.

Among them, the one who seemed to be the leader stepped forward from the group and raised the visor of his helmet.

And in fluent kingdom language, he shouted,

"The kingdom shall prepare to receive the Empire's envoy!"

He said they had come as envoys.

"What the hell is this now..."

At the sudden situation, the knights of the citadel stirred.

The reason was that they could not understand the Empire's intention in suddenly dispatching an envoy.

"We will know once we hear it directly."

I told the citadel's defense captain to open the gate.

Soon, the gate opened, and the Imperial Knight who claimed to be an envoy arrived at the citadel's open ground.

I stood atop the wall, looked down at him, and ordered him to state his business.

At this, the imperial envoy took a letter from his breast and showed it.

"There is no poison."

"There is no energy in it aside from the magic used to seal it."

After the citadel's knight and the White Night Tower Mages checked the letter, they handed it to me.

The seal attached to the letter bore the insignia of the Imperial House of Bourgogne, and among them, the one symbolizing the Third Imperial Prince.

"He is truly impossible to get a read on."

I shook my head and broke the seal on the letter.

Then I took out the contents and read them.

「My dear brother!」

The contents of the letter began abruptly like that.