“With his achievements until now, I intend to grant the peerage of an honorary imperial Earl and the position of staff officer in the liberation army to Wendelin von Benno Baumeister, but what are thy thoughts on that, Sirs?”

The next day, Therese formally announced the appointment of my post and the conferring of decorations for me to the n.o.bles who had gathered.

“No… There are no particular opposing opinions.”

“Earl Baumeister has actually achieved plenty of meritorious deeds…”

“There was never an instance of holding peerages in both countries so far, but if it"s a honorary peerage, it"s limited to lifetime…”

I didn"t know what they are thinking inside their heads, but there was no one among the n.o.bles who openly objected.
There should be many who don"t look fondly at me, a foreign n.o.ble, obtaining authority in the liberation army.
However, if they remove us, who are an influential military a.s.set within the liberation army, at this point in time, it"s very likely that they will lose the decisive battle against the rebel army.
There"s no doubt that complex emotions are clas.h.i.+ng inside their chests.

“How will the appointment be carried out?”

“By that thee mean?” (Therese)

“The capital"s imperial palace is under the control of Duke Nürnberg.”

An elder n.o.ble voiced out his sole worry.
Only the emperor can a.s.sign peerage. It"s been said that Emperor Urquhart the 17th has been put under house arrest after getting caught by the rebel army. Duke Nürnberg is a.s.suming the seat of emperor on his own devices.
It was a way of calling that hasn"t sunk in much among the rebel army since it"s a coup d"etat administration, but even so, news that he has independently started to grant peerage and positions streamed in, too.
It looks like he has begun to award the territories and peerages of the n.o.bles that were killed after clas.h.i.+ng with the liberation army or got eliminated at the time of the coup d"etat to his own loyal retainers.

“No matter how much that man has alleged himself to the imperial throne after gaining control of the imperial palace, that"s nothing more but a fabrication. It will be fine if our side does a formal conferring of decorations after liberating the imperial capital. Since it"s a time of war now, it will be a temporary conferring of decorations.” (Therese)

Thus I became an imperial n.o.ble with the condition that it"s limited to my lifetime.
Originally I would have needed to ask His Majesty in the royal capital, but thanks to that jamming device, communication with him is impossible.
With its effective range being strangely wide in accordance with the obstructed magic being limited, no kind of information from the kingdom has reached us for more than a month since the start of the civil war.
Even if they would send a messenger this way, it should be difficult for them to arrive with the empire"s south and centre belonging to the rebel army"s domain.
Which reminds me, I wonder what happened to Earl Schulz and the others that had come to the empire?
It seems that several magicians got killed, but I don"t want to believe that Duke Nürnberg is as foolish as putting his hands on n.o.bles.
If he went as far as ma.s.sacring them, it will turn into a situation where even His Majesty has to consider sending out a punitive force.
There"s also the honour as a state before worrying about profits. If one thinks about it in the long term, it"s the state"s duty to turn giving a punishment into a profit.
It was certain that this isn"t a world where things will be over with just a bit glossing over.

“According to the intelligence of our spies, it appears that Duke Nürnberg himself is finally leading the army.” (Therese)

It seems that Therese diligently gathered intelligence about the rebel army.
Both armies had such a large scale that they would produce corpses in the ten thousands in a second battle, but he might have thought that it won"t get settled if it stays like this.
There were reports about the rebel army running large-scaled mobilisations.
Even our allies" liberation army that opposes them is trying to gather as much military potential as possible.
However, since they are mainly messengers using fast horses, information won"t reach us in real-time, no matter what we do.
The point that it took time was frustrating.

“So, how"s the difference in combat strength?”

“The rebel army has around 120.000 soldiers while we have approximately 90.000 soldiers.”

Since I don"t know how much the empire can mobilize at maximum, I couldn"t judge whether that"s a lot or a little.

“Is this the limit of forces we can barely muster?”

“Both sides can"t dispatch that many troops.”

If one considers the number of people in the empire, it should be possible to mobilize 1.000.000 soldiers in theory.
But, in order to reach that number, it"s normally indispensable to conscript the commoners such as farmers and craftsmen.
However, once they do that, the productivity of the areas under the direct control of the empire and the territories of the n.o.bles will drop.
With the income of the recruited people decreasing, the taxes won"t be paid either.
The people, who were recruited as soldiers, won"t receive anything but pocket money as wages, although they will be guaranteed the minimum amount of necessities for life.
It"s even possible for them to get rewards if they put in great efforts in a war, but there"s also the trap that those people, who are strong to the degree of being able to play an active role, have become career soldiers to begin with. Honestly speaking, normal commoners shouldn"t be able to perform that well.
The reason for plundering to be allowed in the past wars was the necessity to compensate for the reduction of their income.
Something like raping women apparently saves on the money to pay for a prost.i.tute, if spoken by a guy with a sharp and nasty tongue.
It"s a cruel story, but that"s what a war is about.

“It"s best to keep the combat forces to the bare limit by a.s.sembling soldiers while making sure to not drop the productivity as much as possible.”

Even so, that"s probably a problem that causes headaches for both sides.
Since there"s the decline in productivity and the interruption of the flow of goods and money between the hostile spheres of influence of both powers, there"s also the issue of a deterioration of economic activity due to the traffic and distribution being paralysed.

“Going by the lack of combat forces, Duke Nürnberg and therefore the coup d"etat administration is struggling harder with the strengthening of their foundation than they expected.”

The strategy of getting rid of the annoying n.o.bles through the liberation army succeeded to some extent, but now there are voices showing anxiety towards Duke Nürnberg"s military talent popping up due to the defeats.
Even the battles just a while ago were strategically a victory since the rebel army took all the stolen bases back, but tactically it"s a fact that there had been overwhelmingly many war casualties on the rebel army"s side.
This time"s large-scale mobilisation seems to be for the sake of wiping out those worries.

“For Duke Nürnberg that means that he couldn"t shave off our military strength as much as he had planned. Oh well, there"s no other option but to meet the enemy on the battlefield.” (Therese)

Therese"s strategic plan is to intercept the enemy at this field encampment and to press them to retreat by making them acc.u.mulate damage. There was no one who objected to this.

“Since I will announce the deployment tomorrow, make sure to not be negligent in your preparations.”

The meeting finished with the announcement of how we will intercept the rebel army and the conferring of decorations for me.
Once I tried to leave the room, I got kidnapped by a smiling Therese. For some reason it resulted in me having to struggle with a large amount of doc.u.ments in her office.

“Why? And moreover, why this many?” (Wendelin)

A pile of doc.u.ments was stacked up in front of my eyes.
Even during my time as trading company worker, I never had to deal with such a huge amount of doc.u.ments.

“Thou are a staff officer, right?” (Therese)

“Wasn"t that just in pretence?” (Wendelin)

“Even if it"s just a pretence, it will be great if my doc.u.ments decrease with that.” (Therese)

“Before that, processing doc.u.ments isn"t the task of a staff officer!” (Wendelin)

“If I, as the most important person in the liberation army, order it, even a staff officer has to process doc.u.ments from that moment onwards.” (Therese)

“(What an arrogant att.i.tude…)” (Wendelin)

It"s just natural, but if you move a large army, a large quant.i.ty of doc.u.ments will be generated by only that.
Since the rebel army controls the imperial capital, they can simply leave it to the government"s bureaucrats by treating it as them cooperating, but the liberation army heavily leans the burden on the retainers of the Duke Philip household.
The High Earl Mizuho household and the Duke Baden household are helping out as well, but the other n.o.ble houses don"t have any experience with organizing an army that had been gathered on such a large scale.
Getting confused by military movements they are not familiar with, they couldn"t a.s.sist at all.

“Though I don"t think that I can stand up to the task…” (Wendelin)

Even so, due to my habits from my time as salaryman, I began to read the doc.u.ments at once.
Since it looks like Elise and Ina can help me with that, we begin checking the details written in the doc.u.ments a.s.signed to us.

“Ina, what about Luise?” (Wendelin)

“She ran away.” (Ina)

“That"s what I thought.” (Wendelin)

Her brain isn"t bad, but something like paperwork is impossible for Luise who lives by partly following her instincts.
Even going by her character, she"s bad at such detailed work. Thus she already ran away at lightning speed.

“Elise, what about Wilma?” (Wendelin)

“I think it would be difficult for Wilmsan…” (Elise)

Wilma was skilled at hand-writing, but she had basically no experience with paperwork.
Since her father-in-law is that person, I"m pretty sure he didn"t teach it to her either.

“How about Katharina? That girl seems like she would be unexpectedly alright with this.” (Wendelin)

“She appears to be busy with another job.”

According to Elise she was apparently entrusted with the task of training the magicians with Burkhart-san.
Her mana won"t grow from now on, but she wants to compete with good efficiency and thus gets taught by the veteran Burkhart-san.
She has been asked by Therese. Katharina apparently serves as Burkhart-san"s a.s.sistant.

“What about Dous.h.i.+?” (Wendelin)

“Wend, do you really want to entrust Dous.h.i.+-sama with paperwork?” (Ina)

“Dear, I believe that to be the most unsuited work for uncle-sama.” (Elise)

Being told that with serious looks by those two, I had no other choice but to silently nod.
Certainly, I feel that just imagining the appearance of Dous.h.i.+ swiftly working through a large amount of doc.u.ments in my head is already odd enough.
As it will immediately become troublesome for him, it gives the impression that he will blow his nose with those doc.u.ments.

“Uncle-sama has gone to dig trenches against horses outside the encampment.” (Elise)

It looks like he was recruited to increase the number of trenches that proved useful in the previous defensive battle so that cavalry units can"t approach.
Nevertheless, going by the image, you might say that it"s the work that fits Dous.h.i.+ the most.
I could easily imagine Dous.h.i.+ digging trenches as a physical worker.

“So, it"s us three, huh?” (Wendelin)

Ina, who is studying diligently the most, and the perfect superwoman Elise.
We decide to look through the doc.u.ments that seem to be uncomplicated.

“A full report regarding the army"s organization? Since Earl Rolzas and Viscount Heinen are on bad terms, to not station them close to each other… a full report from Viscount Schindzielorz?”

“Currently I"m planning to reshuffle the 90.000 troops into three army corps.” (Therese)

According to Therese"s strategic draft, she plans to become the general of the central army corpse and leave either the left or right side to young Duke Baden.

“The remaining side will be filled by High Earl Mizuho then?”

“No. It will be included with the centre. His household is special. Also, if I suddenly give him a superior command rank, the n.o.bles below him will likely oppose that. In reverse, even the Mizuho army will hate it to be commanded by a n.o.ble whose face they have never seen.” (Therese)

The difficulty of consolidating and commanding the feudal armies of the n.o.bles lies here.
The numbers and skills of the military forces the n.o.bles lead are varying. Even if you place a certain n.o.ble at a higher commanding rank, they will just end up wasting the far too particular feudal armies and that will become a seed for quarrels in the future.
And even before that, just thinking about the formation was already a headache-inducing problem since the liberation army is entirely made up from feudal armies. Thus a superior commander might deliberately try to waste the the military forces of a n.o.ble they dislike, or conversely, the n.o.bles might not listen to the superior"s orders and oppose them.

“Although the rebel army might have it easier, it"s just a matter of how much easier.”

Since there are many n.o.bles making it thus inevitable, it"s also possible that one gets betrayed on the battlefield once it turns into a close battle.
If you organize the army while keeping that in mind, the army"s strength and efficiency of the command structure will drop.
Therese expected that it"s likely only the feudal army of Duke Nürnberk household and a part of the imperial army that can be relied on in the rebel army.

“However, even so, the rebel army is superior in regards to numbers and skill.” (Therese)

“That"s because the imperial army is with them.”

As a standing army they probably have actual experience at the level of maintaining public order, but as they have regularly received training in group combat, they still enter into a higher category.

“In the end we can only rely on the feudal army of Duke Philip household and the Mizuho army, huh…?”

Things like the full reports from just a bit ago are nothing but a part of the difficulties.
There are many considerations to be taken in regards to combining them. Despite the roughly 90.000 troops being split into three groups, they won"t become 30.000 troops each.
Only the centre will have 40.000 soldiers. If the army corps with the lowest amount of 20.000 soldiers struggles, we will likely end up sending out reinforcements.
If you neglect them, it will result in the rebel army getting ahold of the field encampment"s earth wall.

“In addition, there"s also the situation of the emergency food stores, the lists of equipment to buy… Why is it that expensive?”

Even though it"s the trade of daily necessities, the prices were staggeringly high to an extent that even I as amateur realized it.

“There are many rats like those.”

Therese attaches a red label to the doc.u.ment I found, immediately calls the retainer in charge with a bell and orders to punish the person responsible for that.
If close to 100.000 humans gather, there will be a set number of those who commit a crime.
In addition there are cases of theft among the units, fights between soldiers, not paying money to the peddlers who visited the encampment and raiding the neighbouring villages with several people to rob the villagers and to rape the village"s women.
It"s no good if Therese doesn"t give a final judgement for these as well. The colour of fatigue dyed her face.

“After overcoming these difficulties, there"s the decisive battle with Duke Nürnberg. Even though it should finish sooner or later, just how many casualties will be generated from taking the imperial capital and Nürnberg Dukedom…?”

And after the war they have to elect a new emperor.
It seems mostly decided with Therese as empress, but she should once again end up with troubles due to the reorganization of the torn empire once she gets enthroned.
I believe her to be pitiable, but if I show an odd sympathy with her here, she will very likely request the fulfilment of the fait accompli.
Hardening my heart, I should probably operate in a businesslike manner here.
In short, it"s best if I silently carry out the processing of the large amount of doc.u.ments.

“Finally done, eh…?”

“Wendelin, thou seem plentifully capable as feudal lord, too.” (Therese)

“That"s because I"m a feudal lord, more or less. Though only in name.” (Wendelin)

Which reminds me, I wonder whether Roderich is successfully advancing the development of the Baumeister Earldom?
I didn"t think that information not flowing in could have been that inconvenient.

“Come to think of it, won"t thee go to the first-aid station, Elise-dono?” (Therese)

“Today uncle-sama is in charge if there are any injured people.” (Elise)

Trying to have Elise go to the field lazaret which is her original task, does Therese plan to seduce me during that time?
Since her intention was plainly visible, Elise didn"t leave my side.

“Dous.h.i.+ is?”

“As a matter of fact, recently he has learned 『Holy Healing』.” (Elise)

“That person overturns the common sense of the magic society in various ways.” (Therese)

It"s understandable for Therese to be surprised.
Usually the growth of the mana pool stops when one becomes around 20 years old, but his is still continuing to grow even after pa.s.sing 40 years in age. He even reached the point of being able to use 『Holy』 magic which he could barely activate until now.
However, since it won"t work unless he holds onto the other side while healing or attacking, the healing, which also served as practise for Dous.h.i.+, had a bad reputation among the soldiers.

『I want to get healed by Elise-sama.』

『Me too. Even if it has the same effect, it"s different in various ways to Dous.h.i.+-sama"s healing.』

『You can say that again.』

I fully understand the soldiers" feelings.
Even I would definitely choose Elise if I had to receive medical treatment.
There"s most likely no one who wants to get hugged by the over-40, muscled darumlike Dous.h.i.+ who has a scarier face than a yakuza.

“Though I can heal myself to some extent.” (Wendelin)

According to what master said, I have quite a bit of talent in it, but since my healing magic uses the 『Water』 attribute, it"s slightly different from Elise and Dous.h.i.+.
Since there"s no difference in healing things like injuries, you might as well say that it"s the same, but as I don"t have that many chances to practise it, the problem lies in me being slightly inexperienced in using it, I suppose?

“I guess I will practise it some since there will be a large-scale battle soon?”

“That"s a good idea, I think. I will help you as well.” (Elise)

“That"s very rea.s.suring.” (Wendelin)

Elise"s healing magic was really excellent.
I had seen healing magic before, but the way of using a special, written magic circle that magnifies the effect if it"s minor injuries, the wounded and sick get healed all at once after gathering on top of the magic circle.
Because her mana has increased, the number of people she can deal with per day has grown as well. Elise has become very popular among the soldiers.
There were even soldiers that wors.h.i.+pped her by calling her 『Saint-sama』, but in proportion to that, my reputation has fallen.
Things like 『Earl Baumeister has to die for having married Elise-sama!』 has spread mainly among the unmarried soldiers.
Incidentally, there were also others who said 『Even the other four are nothing but beautiful wives! Earl Baumeister has to die after all!』
Of course there"s no one who says that publicly, but even in this world the jealousy of men seems to be something deep-rooted.
However, I wonder what"s that 『after all』 about.

“That only natural since we are married. We can use healing magic together.”

Elise"s remark was filled with thorns.
There"s no doubt that she has said it towards Therese.

“Certainly, I can"t use any magic. But, Elise-dono, thee use 『Holy』 magic while Wendelin uses 『Water』 healing magic. Even as amateur I know that it"s considerably different.” (Therese)

However, Elise undauntedly retorted to Therese,

“I don"t think that you are aware of it as amateur, Therese-sama, but even if the attribute is different, the healing magic is the same. There are also many shared aspects like the means of imagination and the mana control.” (Elise)

“I didn"t know that.” (Therese)

“Then, please excuse us at this point.” (Elise)

Once Elise says so, she links her arm with mine and leaves Therese"s office.
I was curious what kind of expression Therese behind us has with Elise openly linking arms with me, but since I"m scared, I purposely made sure to not look back.

“(I couldn"t say anything. How scary…)” (Ina)

“(I"m afraid as well…)” (Wendelin)

Ina whispers to me in a way so that only I can hear it. I agree with her opinion, too.
During the clash between Elise and Therese, Ina continued to silently sort the doc.u.ments until we left.
In the end it"s true; the character of a person will become apparent at such times.

“You must not be negligent towards that person.” (Elise)

“In the end you became an imperial n.o.ble didn"t you, Wend?” (Ina)

Even though it"s limited to my lifetime, it"s still n.o.bility.
I considered even the possibility of the reward being dodged, but did Therese think that I would refuse it with that as reason?
The condition is that the currently approved pay system continues, too.
In regards to the financial part, the pay towards us will follow after the war.
If we win, there will probably be plenty of fortune from the crushed Nürnberg Dukedom and the imperial government to take. With her stating that there"s no need to actually consider the case of losing, this part makes one actually feel that Therese is a n.o.ble.

“I had to accept the peerage anyway.” (Wendelin)

“That"s right, isn"t it…?”

If we hadn"t been mercenaries, I would have refused to take part in the previous dispatch towards the Talberg Mountain Fortress.
It was unknown just what kind of decision-making led to such an order, but the current me is an aide of the staff of Therese, the supreme commander of the liberation army, as imperial Earl.
If she places me at her side, the probability of me getting manipulated and crushed due to reckless orders will be low.
Elise seems to think that Therese"s temptations will increase accordingly, and it actually turned out like that.

“Looking at your current situation, Wend, it"s a dirty move since she knows that you have no other choice but to accept it, right?” (Ina)

As Ina says, I have to accept it because the awarding of an honorary peerage to me has benefits for Therese and me.
Hence you can say that I have been toyed with by Therese"s ability as n.o.ble.

“Even if we worry about it, there"s no point. Let"s go to Dous.h.i.+?” (Wendelin)

“Yeah. Though you can expect the patients to scream.”

As Ina expected, after going to the field lazaret we saw the figures of patients screaming and Dous.h.i.+ who healed them one after the other by hugging them while emitting a bluish-white light from his entire body.

“Nua~~~!”

“That"s no real injury. As a man you don"t have to scream about something of that level.” (Armstrong)

“(I think he simply hates being hugged by you, Dous.h.i.+…)”

And, although Dous.h.i.+ is probably restraining himself and hugs them lightly, the soldiers should feel like being strangled by a vise.
From the point of view of patients with bone fractures, it"s probably natural for them to harbour the image 『Didn"t our injury actually get worse?』
The soldiers, who are waiting for healing, gathered in one place and trembled like kittens.

“Dous.h.i.+, I will take over for you.” (Wendelin)

“Is that fine with you, Earl Baumeister?” (Armstrong)

“I will do it while being taught by Elise-sensei.” (Wendelin)

“In that case, I can have a peace of mind I guess?” (Armstrong)