「I still remember the moment I first met you on that nameless plain as if it were yesterday. You were like a lost little lamb, like a child soaked to the skin with nowhere to shelter from the rain. You may never know how my heart ached at the sight, for to my eyes, you looked exactly like I once had.」

「... Thus, I resolved to become with my own hands a sturdy fence beneath which you could take shelter from the rain. For I believed that was only what one ought to do for a brother...」

The beginning of the letter was filled with expressions of affection that did not move me in the slightest, along with useless flourishes.

"Is he actually insane?"

I let out a hollow laugh and quickly skimmed the letter.

「... The present situation, in which I must cross swords and spears with you, who are like a brother to me, is tragedy itself, and between my feelings for my homeland and the affection I bear for you, I have no choice but to spend yet another night in tears.」

The middle was also nothing but rambling written while he soaked himself in his own private tragedy and sorrow.

I skimmed past that as well.

「Though I had no choice but to seize them by imperial order, I never had any intention from the beginning of taking my brother's citadels and fortresses. Now that the time has come, I intend to return the citadels and fortresses I had briefly held in safekeeping to their rightful owner.」

I had wondered if he had written nothing but deranged nonsense, but there was at least a point to it after all.

「With that, I intend to end this tragic war.」

「Everything will return to how it was before the war.」

「To the time when you and I formed the bond of brothers.」

It was a unilateral declaration of an end to the war.

"Ha."

A hollow laugh escaped me on its own.

There was a limit to shamelessness.

It was the Empire that had started the war first, and it was the Empire that had invaded the kingdom's land first. The kingdom had already lost its Queen and countless others.

And now he wanted to turn everything back to how it had been before the war.

He was doing exactly as he pleased to an appalling degree.

I read the last part of the letter again.

「Do not forget that just as you and I are brothers, the Empire and the kingdom are also no different from brothers.」

「Brothers do not covet what belongs to each other.」

He had written all that pathetic nonsense about brothers and whatnot, but if I boiled it down to the point, he was saying he would return the occupied citadels and fortresses, so we should not attack him from behind.

It was truly absurd that he was talking about a brother's duty when he himself was in a situation where he had to fight his own blood brothers.

But apart from the Third Imperial Prince's inconsistent words and actions, the proposal to end the war itself was not all that bad.

The kingdom had already reached its limit.

This was not about the immediate victory or defeat. It was about what would come after the war.

The kingdom was currently operating the maximum number of troops it could mobilize, and it was pouring everything it had into doing so. It would not be an exaggeration to say the kingdom had staked everything on surviving and winning this war.

Naturally, the longer the war dragged on, the greater the burden the kingdom would have to bear.

In such a situation, the Third Imperial Prince had proposed ending the war. Even while offering up the citadels he had occupied.

It was an offer difficult to refuse.

Even so, I did not welcome that offer. If anything, it felt as if I had been drenched in filth.

I turned my head.

I looked at the Imperial Knight below the wall.

Though he was surrounded by the kingdom's knights, there was not the slightest trace of fear in him. He seemed firmly convinced that no one in this castle would dare touch a hair on his head.

Despite the fact that countless Imperial Knights and soldiers had died in this very castle not long ago.

The knight was arrogant, like a king's messenger who had come to bestow some great reward, and intoxicated with a sense of superiority, like a rich man giving alms to the poor.

The moment I realized that, I understood the true nature of the unpleasant feeling I was having now.

Accepting the end of the war like this would be no different from extinguishing with my own hands the spark the Queen had kindled with her death. It would be like scattering ashes over everything the kingdom's countless knights and soldiers had achieved by giving their lives.

The victories and pride the kingdom had gained would become hollow, and the Imperial Knights would once again look down on the kingdom's knights.

Because the end of the war they remembered would not be the kingdom's victory, but merely the result of negotiations.

The proof was the knight right before my eyes.

I had not even said I would accept an end to the war yet, and the knight was already acting arrogant, as if he were showing us mercy.

It was not a very pleasant sight.

And I had no reason to keep looking at something so unpleasant for long.

But even if I was going to drive out the envoy, there was something I had to do first.

"Malcoy."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Malcoy, who had been waiting not far away, came over at once.

I briefly explained the contents of the letter to him and immediately ordered him to write and send a reply.

"What shall I write?"

"Tell him that if he wants to end the war, he should take it seriously. He shouldn't think he can finish this by sending a single letter like this."

At my words, Malcoy sank into thought for a moment, then nodded.

"You mean we should properly begin end-of-war negotiations."

Malcoy took out a pen and parchment on the spot and wrote the reply in a single flowing stroke.

"Will this do?"

I skimmed over the letter Malcoy had written.

I did not like that it had too many useless flourishes and that the tone was excessively courteous, but there was nothing to criticize about the contents themselves.

"Good. Send it as it is."

I roughly sealed the parchment on the spot and handed it back to Malcoy, and Malcoy in turn handed it to the imperial envoy.

The imperial envoy who received the letter had an expression that stiffened visibly.

"If your business is done, go."

I waved my hand sharply and drove the envoy away.

"Then..."

The Imperial Knight did not dare act arrogant as he had before and bowed his head slightly.

It seemed that now that the mission he had thought would surely succeed had suddenly gone awry, he had finally begun worrying about the Third Imperial Prince's rebuke.

But I had no reason to care about the circumstances of that arrogant Imperial Knight bastard.

What I had to pay attention to now was the Empire's movements. And through them, what exactly the kingdom could gain.

To do that, I first had to bring the Third Imperial Prince to the negotiating table.

Fortunately, it would not be difficult.

This time, time was on the kingdom's side as well.

The Third Imperial Prince was in a situation where he had to return to the mainland as quickly as possible.

Because if the civil war the Fifth Imperial Prince had started succeeded while he was stuck out on the frontier, everything would come to nothing.

All our side had to do was pretend to hold back that Third Imperial Prince's feet.

If he wanted, the bastard could ignore the kingdom's army and hurry back to the imperial capital.

Provided he was prepared to bear the disgrace of having recklessly pulled out troops and caused the front line to collapse.

That, too, was something the greedy Third Imperial Prince's own greed had brought upon him.

From the moment the war broke out, the Empire had continued throwing troops into the war against the kingdom.

Most of them were smashed at the very beginning, and many of the troops that arrived afterward were also broken up or reorganized through repeated battles.

The greedy Third Imperial Prince absorbed not only the Imperial northeastern legions that had become famous in name only, but even intact legions indiscriminately, and by now, maintaining the border itself was impossible without the Third Imperial Prince's forces.

The moment the bastard pulled troops from the front line out of impatience would be the moment a huge hole opened in the front.

Of course, the bastard also had the option of dividing his troops, firmly securing the border defenses, and then leaving for the imperial capital. But there was no way the greedy Third Imperial Prince would leave behind troops that were as precious as his own lifeblood on the front line before a fight with his political enemy.

If that had been his plan from the beginning, he would not have gone to the trouble of sending an envoy and bringing up an end to the war.

I was certain that his only plan was to make it seem as if he were graciously granting an end to the war, then run off to the imperial capital himself.

But I had no intention whatsoever of letting the bastard go to the imperial capital so easily.

I intended to cling as stickily as possible and hold him back.

"Tell the commanders of every citadel on the front to prepare to shift to the offensive and attack the enemy's rear as soon as the order is given."

The Azure Sky Knights busily flew over the front and delivered my orders.

The troops of the Silver Lion Citadel also prepared to march.

For the Imperial Army to see. Very loudly and aggressively.

The effect appeared soon enough.

When our side made a great commotion as if we would throw open the gates and charge out at any moment, the Third Imperial Prince sent another envoy.

"The Prince ordered me to convey that there is nothing he will not do for peace between the two nations."

This time, it was a proper end-of-war negotiating delegation equipped with all due formalities.

I entrusted the end-of-war negotiations to the citadel's staff officers, led by Malcoy.

"This is an opportunity that will not come again. Take as much as you can."

At my words, some expressed concern that it would be a loss if the negotiations broke down that way.

To that, I dismissed the worry by saying that the ones desperate were over there, not the kingdom.

Of course, the negotiations could truly break down if we made excessive demands.

That did not matter either.

In any case, the current end-of-war negotiations were not for eternal peace.

How long could a promise made by a mere prince, not even the Emperor of the Empire, out of urgent circumstances last, and how great an effect could it have?

It would be fortunate if it was kept only until the civil war ended at most.

Despite knowing that, the reason I was pouring my heart into negotiations that might prove meaningless was solely for justification.

Because a peace the imperial prince tossed down like alms from on high and end-of-war negotiations that the imperial prince had achieved while practically clinging in desperation were not the same.

The negotiations proceeded in a manner where the kingdom presented conditions and the Empire accepted them.

In the process, the kingdom was able to secure a considerable amount of consolation money, though in reality it was war reparations, and obtained as territory some barren regions among the Empire's lands south of the border.

They were part of the old kingdom that had been the kingdom's land four hundred years ago but had been taken over time.

The end-of-war negotiation document did not specify victory or defeat in writing, but at this point, it was fair to say the Empire had acknowledged its defeat and taken responsibility.

It was radical, far too radical.

Even I, who had ordered them to take as much as possible, was left bewildered.

"This is strange. No one offers up their own country's land this easily. Even if that land is a barren wasteland devastated by war."

It was as Malcoy said.

Handing over one country's land to another was not something a mere prince could decide.

Even so, the Third Imperial Prince had agreed to that condition far too easily.

It was something no one would do unless they were insane.

But the Third Imperial Prince was not insane.

It was simply that the circumstances around him were moving so urgently that he must have wanted to go mad and jump out of his skin.

"The master of the Imperial Magic Tower and all its Mages have come out in support of the Fifth Imperial Prince!"

I learned that only after all the end-of-war negotiations had been completed.