Antique wooden furniture.
Elegant teacups.
And tea with a pleasant fragrance.
In some ways, it brought to mind the aide’s office on the northern front.
Still, if there was one difference, it was that this place felt less like it was meant to flaunt wealth and more like the old man’s personal taste.
Rather than flashy, it had the strong feeling of things that had been used for a long time.
“It is a pleasure to see the face of a celebrity here.”
“I’m not really that fam—”
Crunch.
Peres stomped on the top of my foot under the table.
“It’s an honor for me as well to meet Count Sinis of the southern front.”
The teacup was still empty.
When I reached for the teapot, Daniel lightly blocked my hand.
“Do you have any knowledge of tea etiquette?”
I felt like Karina had asked me something like this too.
“I do. I was active in the Academy’s Servants’ Club.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose you have never been in the position of a guest. The servants will take care of it. Since I am the one entertaining you, if you reach for the pot like that, it puts me in an awkward position.”
Right.
I had heard that in the Servants’ Club too, but it had been quite a while, so I’d forgotten.
To begin with, it had also been a long time since I’d even gone to the Servants’ Club.
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“No, there is no need to apologize. Rather, I am very pleased that despite being lowborn, you made the effort to learn refinement.”
Hmm.
He seemed all right, didn’t he?
He didn’t seem like some strange, nasty old monster of a grandfather.
I wouldn’t say I was an exceptional judge of character, but I often got an unpleasant chill when talking to people.
If it felt chilling, uncomfortable, or uneasy, there was a problem.
It had always been that way up until now.
“There were times when I, too, did all sorts of things to cultivate refinement. I read any book I could get my hands on without discrimination, and one day, from an elderly butler…”
At a glance, he wasn’t fundamentally a bad person.
He just looked like a talkative old man.
Or else, at this very moment, he needed me, so he was treating me well.
“Lord Daniel. I would like to get straight to the point and begin discussing the commission.”
At Peres’s words, Daniel smiled with an expression as if he had just remembered himself.
“When one grows old, one truly does become talkative. You young people must be short on time, and yet I have pointlessly wasted it. Do forgive me.”
Daniel gestured into the air.
With a series of beeps, a hologram covered the table.
It was a map of the South, its terrain reproduced in detail.
“Do you see where the southern border connects to the center of the Empire? That is the territory of House Sinis. Follow the road there, deep into the heart of the South, and you will arrive at the center of this map.”
Tap.
For a sound made by pointing with a finger, it was fairly loud.
“This is the southern front base.”
It was farther than I’d expected.
And the distance wasn’t even the problem.
The space between the territory and the front base was packed densely with clans.
At this rate, it was more solidly filled than the snow crabs sold at Sorae Port.
No wonder the count had entrusted things to House Otto instead of going back and forth between his territory and the front himself.
“It has been quite some time since I entrusted my territory to Viscount Otto. Now, the Empire has gone on the offensive against the Union, and I, too, have become able to move my soldiers more freely.”
The Empire’s surveillance.
The South, being in the most suitable state for independence, had been under the Empire’s constant watch.
Naturally, even moving troops would have meant taking the Empire’s reaction into account every single time.
Peres narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Do you mean that you intend to face the Union in step with the Empire’s movements?”
“Please do not misunderstand, Peres. Our soldiers have no leeway to march against the Union. I meant that, thanks to the offensive the Empire has begun, I can now finally push back the clans more actively.”
At Daniel’s words, Peres leaned back.
There was a sound as he sank deeply into the backrest.
“So you planned a clan subjugation operation?”
“That is correct. However, you are wrong about the stage we are in. In terms of stages, the plan has already been made. This is the next step.”
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
A hologram of a Titan appeared above the map, and some of the clans near the front disappeared.
“The expansion of the front began a week ago. What our front needs now is not an opportunity, but a wedge.”
A wedge.
In other words.
“An ace pilot.”
“Precisely. Did you figure that out by looking at the situation on the front?”
“Yes.”
The road leading from the southern front base to the territory.
They could have simply cleared out only the clans occupying the road, but the southern front had chosen a strategy of thoroughly eliminating the clans around the road, nibbling away at them one by one.
Count Sinis wouldn’t have devised this strategy because he was a fool.
It was because it was impossible to push through so quickly that the clans couldn’t respond.
“It’s because you don’t have an ace pilot, so guerrilla warfare that annihilates the enemy in a short period of time is impossible, right?”
If they’d had enough ace pilots, they could have cleared the road first and then devoured the surrounding area.
That would connect them to the territory faster, making it easier to receive supplies and support from the main base.
Without ace pilots, they couldn’t do that.
Even if their pilots’ average skill surpassed the clans’, the absence of an ace pilot was a serious issue.
“The greater problem is that most clans each have an ace pilot. After all, they are mercenary bands gathered around one highly skilled mercenary as their leader.”
“Your side’s casualties must be heavy too.”
Daniel shook his head.
“They are not heavy. We use measures to reduce our losses as much as possible, so it merely takes a long time.”
Time was a problem even greater than allied losses.
“The longer it takes, the more the clans will start cooperating with one another.”
They take time to eliminate clans in order to reduce allied losses.
Then the clans, feeling a sense of crisis, begin to unite with one another.
At that point, the southern front has only two options.
One, take even more time than before.
Two, only then accept the allied losses they had been minimizing until now.
Both were fatal.
“Hmm.”
Daniel stared intently at me.
I’d seen that expression before.
Professor Sumeragi had worn that kind of expression when offering me an assistant position.
It was a little burdensome.
“Everything you say is correct, young man. It was because of such problems that we needed a wedge. And at this moment, we have gained a wedge in the form of you.”
Vwoong.
Another Titan hologram appeared.
Though it was depicted somewhat subtly, it was a Titan with generators embedded in both thighs.
It was probably meant to represent Ailey.
“Is your Titan still intact?”
“It was totaled. Right now, I’m using a customized mass-produced Titan from the Union army.”
“A mass-produced Titan, is it? Even if it has been customized, that means you are not in a state where you can fully display your skill. Still, there is a saying that a master does not blame his tools.”
I damn well do.
There was only one case where a master didn’t care about his tools.
When every tool he laid his hand on was a first-rate tool.
Even Levan possessed considerable skill, but he still became obsessed with the synchro rate and tried to get his hands on Ailey.
I really should have killed him.
“I may look like this now, but in my youth, I was a pilot of considerable skill. So, just by looking at you, I can tell how skilled you are.”
“Really?”
“That was a lie. How could one know a person’s skill just by looking at them?”
The wind went right out of me.
Daniel grinned, then gestured over the map.
“It would be good if you lent your strength to opening the road. However, there is an even more important task I must entrust to you. In my judgment, you are not simply a wedge.”
Beep.
The map hologram disappeared.
In its place, a purple Titan rose above the table.
“You are closer to a chisel that breaks a protruding stone.”
It felt like I might have seen it somewhere, but also like I had no idea.
“Have you seen it before?”
Daniel asked.
At the very least, that meant it was an extremely famous Titan in the South.
Aside from its unusual color, purple, it was hard to find anything distinctive about its armaments.
A few pieces of basic equipment, and a lever-action rifle of a sort most Titans didn’t use.
With a scope attached, it looked like a type capable of sniping.
Wait.
Sniping?
“Banshee?”
Daniel nodded.
“You recognize it. Did you encounter it while passing through the South?”
“Yes, I did meet it.”
But I didn’t have any particularly special memories.
I first met it on the day I crossed the southern border, and it helped me.
It had been impressive how it eliminated clan members by striking only their heads, without killing them.
It seemed like someone I could talk to. Was I supposed to cooperate with them or something?
“It is fortunate you did not die. Banshee is the only figure who treats the entire South as their stage, participating in countless conflicts without belonging to any clan.”
It was the same situation as back then.
The sound of the railgun I fired had drawn several clans together, and they started fighting among themselves.
Banshee had taken care of the last remaining blue clan.
“Are they dangerous?”
“We judge them to be dangerous.”
They were dangerous?
For that, I hadn’t felt uncomfortable at all.
When I glanced to the side, Peres nodded.
“He is right. Banshee is a Titan that operates across the entire South. It participates constantly in disputes between clans.”
There was a strange certainty in his tone.
“You believe they are the one causing the disputes.”
“I cannot say they are not.”
“To some extent, that is how we see it.”
As expected.
But I was certain they hadn’t seemed like that kind of person.
More than anything, my stomach suddenly felt uneasy and uncomfortable.
“Have you met and spoken with them?”
“We were acquainted. Banshee’s pilot is a mercenary who once fought for the southern front.”
Beep.
A screen appeared beside the Titan.
“Dolores. When I was clearing out the clans of the South, she was a mercenary I hired and trusted.”
It was an old photograph.
It wasn’t black-and-white or anything; you could just tell the image quality was poor.
She looked to be in her twenties, so by now she would be a grandmother in her sixties.
“I do not know why she intervenes in the disputes of the southern clans. However, if she is the rallying point of the clans, then it cannot be helped. She must be eliminated.”
Daniel extended his hand.
For an old man, it was a large, tough hand.
My insides prickled, and I didn’t want to take it.
“Resolving the issue of Banshee, and expanding the road as well. Correct?”
“That is right. The reward for you, young man, will be paid before everything is even finished.”
Daniel seized my hand and gripped it tightly.
Honestly, it hurt.
“I am counting on you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
It was suspicious.
Something about it made me uneasy.
“I’ll handle Banshee.”
I had no choice but to talk to Banshee.
I had clearly said I would resolve the issue.
I had never said I would kill Banshee.