Chapter 61: Collapse

“You utter fool—!!”

A furious roar echoed through the air.

It rang out from within a corner of the royal capital—from inside the Newsbeck ducal residence—and its sheer volume made the walls themselves seem to tremble.

“Getting carried away with yourself, Carland! This is exactly why I said he’s unfit to be a field marshal! Giving someone like him that kind of—!”

In her private study, Newsbeck slammed the report she had just received down onto her desk, her fist crashing after it with a violent thud.

“…My lady, please—try not to raise your voice so loudly.”

“Hmph!”

The maid at her side gently admonished her, aware that what she was shouting was not something meant to be overheard.

“How utterly foolish. To grow impatient for merit and launch an offensive…!”

According to the troop allocations decided at the royal council, the reserves had been assigned to the western front, while the new recruits were to be sent east.

Carland had likely intended to force a reconsideration through achievements in the west.

In pursuit of results before the new recruits were formally deployed, he had initiated yet another offensive in the west—despite preparations being far from complete.

At the time, not even half of the planned reserve forces had been properly deployed.

“To begin with, once it was decided that the new recruits would be sent here, it should have been obvious that any offensive depending on their arrival ought to be called off.”

The target of the attack was a fortress city of the Kingdom of Friez.

The original strategy—to capture a key enemy stronghold using existing forces and reserves, expand the front line, and then fill the widened line with newly deployed troops—had no chance of succeeding under the current circumstances.

And yet, Carland had made no changes to that original plan. Instead, he had proceeded under the assumption that his accomplishments would justify redirecting the new recruits back to the western front.

The result—

The western army of the Kingdom of Lunoa had effectively shackled itself with an arbitrary time limit: they had to achieve results before the new recruits were sent east.

“And on top of that!”

Even choosing to embark on such a reckless operation was, in itself, an act worthy of a thousand deaths.

“And yet—he didn’t stop even when the enemy launched their offensive!”

In the midst of the siege on the fortress city, the Kingdom of Friez had begun an offensive along the banks of the Sol River.

On that front, Friez had gained the upper hand. Still, the trench lines of the Lunoa army were strong—far from something that could be easily broken.

Had Carland abandoned the siege and redirected reinforcements to the Sol River, they could have weathered the offensive with minimal losses.

But driven by his hunger for merit, he stubbornly continued the siege.

The result was devastating: repeated defeats along the Sol River, and eventually, the collapse of the front line itself.

“…Damn it. Who do they think stabilized that front in the first place?”

The western front of the Kingdom of Lunoa had crumbled.

A single breach had opened—and from it, the forces of the Kingdom of Friez poured in unchecked.

The western line, painstakingly held together by Noah’s efforts, now stood on the brink of total collapse. Only now, far too late, had Carland abandoned the siege and sent reinforcements to the Sol River.

It was already beyond saving.

“…Tch. Every last one of them—always getting in my way!!”

The more she organized the situation in her mind, the more her anger swelled.

The frustration she had once swallowed after being cautioned by her maid now reignited, burning even fiercer within her chest.

“I was supposed to return to the eastern front quickly, and now I can’t get back at all!”

Newsbeck was the supreme commander of the eastern front, and Noah was the one who had achieved the greatest results there.

And yet now, both of them were being deliberately restrained from earning further merit.

The higher-ups in the military were wary of Noah’s sudden rise.

As for Newsbeck, she was being watched—and suppressed—by her own ducal family.

She had two older brothers.

But both had been overshadowed by Newsbeck, the so-called “hero.”

That imbalance was something her brothers—and even her father—had come to fear.

The heir to the house would be a man, not her.

And so, to prevent her from achieving any further distinction, her own family had begun to hold her back.

Burdened with meaningless duties assigned to her, she had been unable to return east even after the royal council had concluded.

“…Hmph. I suppose I really will have to marry out after all.”

She would have to abandon the name of Newsbeck.

“…Heheh…”

As that thought settled in her mind, her expression began to twist—

No, not just slightly. It warped completely, unmistakably.

“My lady… do try to remember your age.”

“Sh-shut up!”

For the maid who had stood by her side for so long, it took only an instant to understand exactly what kind of thoughts had just crossed her mistress’s mind.

“Ahem!”

Clearing her throat in an exaggerated manner, Newsbeck forced herself to regain composure, straightening the atmosphere she herself had just ruined.

“Call Noah. I’ll fill the gap myself.”

Her expression sharpened, her tone turning crisp and authoritative as she issued the command.

“…Please refrain, my lady. When you phrase it that way, it sounds like the worst kind of innuendo. What exactly am I supposed to say? ‘Shouldn’t it be the other way around—you’re the one filling the hole?’”

“Hey! I just got serious again, didn’t I!?”

Unfortunately, once the mood had slipped into farce, there was no bringing it back so easily.