The sun was high and Yurine was sitting on Yu's lap, looking possessive. Their tents were on the side facing the river because it was difficult for the catapults of the enemy army behind the river to hit them from this position.

They were at the head of the rectangular table and Sivina was sitting on their right. Ana was to her right. On their left were Link and Kigaro. Dimen was standing behind Kigaro.

The person sitting opposite Yu was Cornelia, and she was acting strange again. First she would look at Yu, then she would see Yurine's gaze and look away.

To Cornelia's right was Cecilus, whom Yurine had recently wanted to kill. He was responsible for the death of Yurine's mother and she was eager to see his dead body as soon as possible.

Sitting to Cornelia's left was the man who couldn't stand Yu because Yu was at least a million times more handsome than him. Yurine knew he was a Bishory, but she hadn't bothered to memorize his name.

“You didn't have to give me a squire,” Yu said. He was referring to Jaime von Salamon, the sixteen-year-old boy standing right behind him.

“You'll break Jaime's heart if you say that,” Cornelia laughed.

Jaime Salamon was the heir of the House of Salamon, ruled by the House of Vermilia, and his father had given Jaime to Leoral as a squire. When Leoral died, he stayed with them for a while and came with them to the siege.

Here too, Cornelia had made him Yu's squire, because he was financing the armies of the Cathedral of Virgo and his words was belongs to Yurine.

“A butler having a squire is like an ordinary private having another private under his command.”

“You are more than a butler.”

Cornelia said this to praise Yu and win his heart, but she was right. Yu was so much more than a butler.

“I wish he had agreed to be a knight,” Yurine thought. Chivalry would suit Yu as well as anything else.

“And don't think of me as a simple squire, sir, I can also use swords and magic!”

There was an enthusiasm in Jaime's voice that Yurine didn't know why. If it was a girl, she could understand why she was so pleased to be Yu's squire, but why would a boy be excited to be Yu's squire?

Moreover, Yu had no such legendary achievements.

“You're probably better at both than the butler,” Cecilus said. He was grinning as he tried to insult Yu.

“Grin, will you be able to grin like that when you die bastard?”

When Cecilus felt his sister's gaze on him, he shut up, put his hands on the table and waited.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting, Your Excellency.”

After a short wait, the new commanders entered the tent. Silence prevailed as they all took their places in turn.

The first person to enter was Shimey von Bishory. Like his other relatives, he had dark blue eyes but gray hair. He was a charismatic man if he wasn't so old.

Shimey was Salery's older brother and head of the Bishory family. He sat next to Cecilus. Yurine knew he wanted Cecilus to be duke.

“He is guilty too. He made the plan with Cecilus. He must die. Son of low bitch.”

Behind him was Mark von Salamon. Jaime's father was bedridden and unable to take care of the battles. So he was in his castle at the end of the Jade River, south of their camp, and he sent his brother Mark to command five hundred Salamon soldiers.

Then Ily von Marton entered the tent, looking no different from the commoners with his brown hair and brown eyes. He too was a supporter of Cecilus.

Ily was followed by Keer von Vilem, Toe von Lenal and Marcus von Marcusie. Of the last three to enter, only Marcusie wanted Cornelia to become duchess.

There were many other small houses under the House of Vermilia, but none of them sent them support. This was because their relatives were being held hostage in Vermia.

“In fact, Vilem, Lenal and the Bishorys are among those whose relatives have been taken hostage, but they don't worry about it.”

Shimey von Bishory's son was in Vermia, but he had moved against the Crown to seize Vermia despite the possibility of his son being harmed.

“Then we can begin,” Cornelia said. She rested her hands on the triangular table.

“I don't think they'll waste time putting up ladders,” Toe Von Lenal spoke. “We can see their catapults from the top. First they'll start firing their shots in formation, then they'll break our walls and charge in.”

“Our gate is weak, they will attack across the river. The enemy has enough army for that,” Marcus von Marcuise spoke. “We must mass troops at the gate.”

“About two thousand soldiers have left the city and are gathering north of us. There are also reinforcements there from the enemy's base camp. They will attack from the north,” Shimey said.

Yu listened expressionlessly as Cornelia's commanders talked among themselves. After a while Cornelia joined her commanders and for a few minutes they discussed where the first attack would come from.

“What do you think, Yu?” Cornelia asked.

Half of the commanders argued that the attack would come from the river to the west, the other half from the north. When they all insisted on their own opinion, Cornelia asked Yu what he thought.

“There will be no first strike. They have thirty thousand troops to attack, not counting those in the city, which is less than I expected. They will attack from three directions at the same time. Instead of concentrating in one place, we need to distribute our forces evenly. So we will divide the troops and give them equally to each commander.”

“What do you know about war, butler?” Shimey asked.

“I liked watching war and strategy movies, even though I fell asleep halfway through most of them, I learned something. I even played HOI IV.”

Except Yurine, no one understood what Yu was saying, and his incomprehensible words and non-serious demeanor did not inspire confidence in the commanders.

“Nineteen thousand five hundred is the number of soldiers we have. We will divide them equally.”

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“No one controls my men but me.” Shimey tabled his objection and Cecilus supported him.

“There is no one at this table who would accept such a thing.”

“This is not an offer, Cecilus.” If the sharp look in Yu's amethyst eyes had been a knife, Cecilus would have been cut to pieces long ago. He was indeed a cowardly boy. “I don't expect them to accept, I expect them to obey.”

“Who do you think you are? Mere butler!” Shimey slammed his fist on the table and the items on it shook. “Don't you dare give us orders-”

A blade of wind passed by Shimey's head, cut a hole in the tent and disappeared. As Yurine lowered her hand and Shimey was about to open his mouth again, a second windblade passed by the other side of his head. This time it was closer, and the third would pass much closer.

Since Yurine's seriousness was obvious, everyone remained silent, fearing that they might have been beheaded by mistake.

“He is the voice of the Cardinal of Virgo,” Link intervened. “Who threaten him is to threaten the Cardinal of Virgo. I don't recommend you do that.”

“Why should we be subject to the Cardinal of Virgo? The commanders here all belong to the Cathedral of Libra,” Cecilus said.

“Cecilus, you will never open your mouth again.”

Cecilus shielded his face with his arms when Cornelia raised her hand slightly, but she only scared him away. Even the commanders who supported him disapproved of his behavior. Still everyone was sure that they wanted to make Cecilus a duke not because he was a great and brave man, but because he was a fool who was easy to control.

“Yu is right,” Cornelia continued, “When we controlled the Church of Andromeda's army, we divided the troops equally. The idea of each family controlling its own army is not healthy.”

“True,” said Marcus von Marcusie. “It is foolish to even dispute that.”

“Watch your tone Lord Marcus, you have to respect our opinions.” It was Ily von Marton who spoke.

Yu tapped his wooden hand on the table several times. Cornelia was staring at him, but the commanders were too busy talking among themselves to hear him.

“SHUT UP!”

When Kigaro roared, all the commanders froze and Cecilus screamed like a little girl. Yu interjected as Cornelia looked at her brother and sighed.

“One way or another, you will obey Cornelia. Now that Cornelia has joined me, I'll explain what we're going to do.”

The commanders were about to object again when Kigaro opened his mouth and growled. He looked at the commanders at the table like a hunter stalking his prey.

“They will attack from the north, south and east at the same time. We will distribute the troops evenly.” Yu picked up a ruler and pointed it at the map in the center. “Sir Devan and Lord Shimey will be in the north with five thousand soldiers. Sir Link and Lord Toe will be in the south with five thousand men. Dame Sivina, Cornelia, Lord Ily will be in the east with six thousand men.”

Yu stood up and reached out to point to a different area on the map.

“Lien Yachi Long's men are gathering in the east. He wants revenge on Cornelia, so he will mass more men here.”

He then pointed west of the Jade River.

“We also saw Azil Zao Long crossing the river to the west. He will land at our gate with the men from the other side of the river, and there are more soldiers there than in the north and south.”

“But there are only three thousand five hundred soldiers left to put there, even though the enemy is large,” Lord Marcus said.

“Yes, we'll position most of our archers there. They will be showered with arrows as they try to cross the river. I believe that a thousand archers alone will be enough to stop them, but I have kept the number of troops there high in case the unexpected happens.”

Even though Yu said so, there were fewer soldiers there than in the other three regions.

“As the enemy troops there are weakened, our archers will move north and west to their front lines. Lord Marcus and Lord Keer will hold the gate to the west.”

“That's reasonable,” Cornelia said. “What will you do during the war?”

“Yurine and I will run around the front and smash the rocks that fall on us. Ana also has wind magic, and she will do the same in a different part of the front. The roarons will accompany us to safety.”

Cornelia nodded and approved the plan and with her approval the commanders at the table left the tent to carry out the orders.

That left Cornelia, Cecilus, Kigaro, Yurine, Yu, Yu's squire and Bishory who couldn't stand Yu, waiting to talk to Cornelia.

“Cornelia, can we talk?” Yu asked.

“Of course,” Cornelia replied excitedly and stood up and walked towards Yu.

“I wanted to talk to you too,” Bishory said.

“We'll talk later.”

Cornelia gestured for him to leave and Bishory left the tent with clenched fists, but Cecilus was still inside. When Cornelia saw that he hadn't left, she motioned with her chin for him to leave.

Not daring to defy his sister, Cecilus left the tent and Yu signaled Kigaro to come out.

“It will look strange if Devan and Cecilus are the only ones taken out. You go after them.”

Kigaro nodded and obeyed. The roarons were proud beings and he thought they would be reluctant to take orders, but they obeyed Yu's orders without hesitation.

“Cornelia,” Yu whispered. “Do you want to be a duchess?”

***

“Really, Yu is the coolest, coolest person in the world. Even cooler than my mom. So cool, so handsome...”

Yu was on Virgo, the horse Rie had bred for her but never rode. He was wearing white armor, and on the breastplate was the Maiden of the Virgo.

His boots, the trim of the armor and the joints were gold. He wore golden steel gloves on both hands, but the fingers of the glove on his left hand were specially made for Yu's wooden hand, so they did not move.

On his back was a golden cloak, and on the cloak was embroidered a silver maiden. In a brown scabbard hanging from his waist was a black sword belonging to a demon. On Yu's left arm was a shield that he could not remove by himself because of the shape of his hand.

“You're so cool...” Sivina sighed. Her sea-green eyes sparkled as she looked at Yu.

“I agree,” Cornelia said. She was giving Yu a naughty smile.

Night had fallen and they had long exceeded the enemy's deadline for surrender. While their own soldiers were taking up positions to defense, the enemy soldiers were also taking up positions to attack.

“First defense...” Yu took a deep breath and put the helmet in his right hand on his head. The breeze blew both their banners and Yu's cloak.

The tunnels they had dug were not yet finished, but they were about to fight their first battle. It would be another month before the tunnels were finished and they would fight many battles before then.

“Don't worry, Yu.” Yurine lifted her head and looked up from Yu's chin. She was sitting on the horse in front of Yu. “I will protect you.”

“Normally a man should say that. It's embarrassing coming from a girl.”

“Girls are strong too!” If he wasn't wearing a helmet, Yurine would have pulled Yu's hair.

“Yes, I'm not going to deny it. Someone beats me every day to remind me of it.”

He was talking about Sivina, and it was true that Sivina beat Yu every day. Sivina had beaten Yu even this morning. But of course it was for Yu's sake.

After the beating she had made him lie on her lap, but Yurine preferred not to think about it.

“Let's take our places,” Cornelia said. Sivina took the left flank while she moved to the right.

As the two girls walked away, Yurine thought they were finally alone. Being alone with Yu in such a stressful environment would have been a relief, but their solitude was broken by the sound of voices coming from behind them.

“Wow that looks good.”

Kigaro drove the rino next to Yu and tapped him on the shoulder with his hand. He tapped gently, knowing that Yurine would be angry with him if he did it hard.

Fifteen roarons were with them and another fifteen roarons under Dimen's command accompanied Ana. She was in a different region.

The rinos were faster and stronger than horses, but with the limited number of rinos available, Yu suggested that it would be better for the roarons to ride the rinos.

Because if they put them on horses, the horses would get more tired carrying this weight than the rinos.

Cornelia had three extra komodors, but while komodors were faster than horses, they were not good at sudden maneuvers. Yu and Yurine preferred to ride a horse as it had to change direction constantly.

So one of the komodors was given to Sivina, another to Link and the last one to jealous Bishory.

“You're really cool, Mr. Valarfin!” Jaime was accompanying Yu on his own rino. His rino had a few extra weapons of war and water. This boy with purple hair and blue eyes wore armor similar to Yu's, but his cloak and decorations were blue.

“Did the squires wear armor?” Yurine thought. She thought their only job was to help.

Although probably the reason why Cornelia gave Jaime to Yu was to ensure Yu's protection.

In the past Yu would have gloated at the nice comments made to him, now he was said nothing. He pointed Virgo in the direction where the enemies would attack and waited.

Everyone held their breath. The wind that had just been blowing suddenly died down and the drums of the enemy army reached their ears.

And Yurine saw the first rock in the sky.

She raised her hand towards the rock and the wind around her arm rippled Yu's cloak.

A second later, the storm, directed at her small hand, shot up into the air, soared towards the rock in the sky and crashed into it, shattering it to pieces.