“So you’re going to sing and dance in front of the soldiers yourself?”
His voice was so down that Sienna shook her head quickly and said it was a joke. She had realized it was strange when the words came out of her mouth. It was rare for a nobleman to perform dance or song in front of others—only barmaids would do it.
“Just because I thought I wouldn’t be able to help boost morale.”
“It’s enough that you’re here. When they see you here, they’ll think the war will soon be over. The nobles are not happy to come to war, but usually, they come to negotiate compensation by the time the war ends in victory. So you don’t have to sing or dance to boost morale.”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m not good at it.”
“To be honest, I’m curious. The way you sing.”
“It will never happen.”
She was never meant to sing because she was so tone-deaf. She definitely has ears to listen to music, and the fact that she can play an instrument means she knows beats, but strangely, the song that came out of her throat was a mess. She could not stand her own song.
She quickly changed the subject in case he suggested a song.
“How’s the war going? This place is quiet and the atmosphere is nice, but other fronts must be different.”
Carl explained one by one the topography of the map on the table.
“Here, the middle of the front, there’s still a fierce battle going on. We’re seeing hundreds of wounded every day, let alone our enemy.”
“If it’s so fierce, will the war go into a long-term war?”
Carl said, pointing to where he is and the river.
“You said before that the river would overflow by heavy rain. That’s exactly what happened, so I’m planning to use the river stream as your plan.”
He said, referring to the current Tromil.
“Yes, but this wasn’t the place I told you about. And is there a river in Tromil?”
It was Castro’s land about which she told Carl on the first night of her wedding. After subjugating part of Castro’s land, the plan was to have the heavy rains send ships into the river’s stream and lead the troops close to the capital city of Castro. She only said it because it was one of Carl’s successful plans in the past, but in fact, she didn’t know much about the detailed war tactics.
“Not originally. But there’s a lot of swamps on the west side of Tromil. This swamp is connected to Mannheim. With the rain, the swamp turned into a shallow river. There won’t be a big boat, but I can float a small boat. I’m going to use the small boats to attack here, the back of Whitron, where the war is going on. Castro can’t use much power in swamps because he has a lot of cavalries. So I’m going to lead the soldiers and engage in an arrow attack from the back.”
“Where do you get all those ships?”
“They are building ships at Tromil right now. These small boats don’t take much time to make. Maybe 2,000 ships will be built by next week. If it goes as planned, we can wrap up the war before the end of the year.”
According to Carl, the war would end a year earlier than in the past. Sienna thought about the impact of a faster end to the war. But she couldn’t picture it easily.
“Then there won’t be a battle here until the ship is dry?”
“Yes, this is not going to be a battlefield even after the ship is built.”
“What are you doing until then?”
“What do you want to do?”
“Not that I want to do something but I’m more curious about what you are normally doing while there’s no fighting.”
“Things are the same as ordinary days except that there is just no battle. You train your soldiers, you review their plans, you know.”
Sienna asked Carl with a smile.
“Then can we go to the lake?”
“A lake?”
“You can take a day off from training or reviewing plans. I want to go to the lake that Shaylin told me about before.”
She was well aware of how childish she just sounded. Nevertheless, she pestered him. She remembered going to Elf’s lake with him. She wanted to go to a lake with him again.
As Shaylin said, she wanted to see the lake filled with the moon at night by the blessing of the goddess of the moon, and she wanted to see the scenery with Carl. Time was running steadily. There was not much time left to be with him. In the meantime, she wanted to make the best memories. Even if it’s a memory that only she will keep for herself.
*
Sienna and Hain have been busy since morning. This was because she received an invitation to eat from the lord of the territory close to Tromil. Although it was not a frequent event in wartime, it seemed that the invitation was sent in courtesy of the news that Sienna, the princess, had visited. Since the military was stationed nearby and Carl was supported by local lords, he accepted the invitation without hesitation.
“I should have brought my dress.”
Hain grumbled in a dissatisfied voice.
“I can’t help it. The lord will understand the situation. No, even if he doesn’t understand it, you can’t help it.”
Because she didn’t have a dress, she was dressed in equestrian uniform today. On the bottom, Sienna wore dark brown pants and horseback boots that came up to her calf with a white shirt under a sky-blue tailcoat on top.
“I’d prefer a shorter scarf than a brooch today.”
Hain put a light sky blue scarf around Sienna’s neck. Then she looked at Sienna’s appearance and nodded with a satisfied face.
“It would have been better if you wore a dress, but an equestrian uniform is fine. It may not be formal, but it looks good enough.”
Sienna smiled because she didn’t hate her praise.
“I think we’ve lost too much time. I’ve got to get out of here.”
Outside, stood knights. Among them, Jamie was standing. Sienna asked Jamie, “Sir Waters, aren’t you going?”
“I will stay here. I’d like to take a look at other military bases with Heidel. Heidel is well-trained in dealing with monsters, but there are differences in military and training methods in this area of dealing with the Castro Empire.”
At Jamie’s words, Sienna nodded.
“I’ll be back then.”
“Good-bye.”
Carl dragged the horse and stood in front of Sienna.
“Then shall we go?”
“On a horse?”
Sienna asked Carl, who had dragged the horse, not the carriage. Carl patted the horse on the butt and said, “Now that you are wearing a riding suit, I thought it would be nice to ride a horse as if on a cruise.”
Carl jumped on the horse and reached out to Sienna. She smiled and took his hand and got on the horse.
“Shall we depart?”
The horse began to walk when Carl shook the reins. Two knights escorted the party back and forth.
“Isn’t the entourage too simple?”
It was true that they were going to a nearby area, but there were only four drivers escorting the prince and the princess.
“Because we are not going into the Castro Empire nor its capital. It’s not polite to take an excessive escort while visiting a nearby territory.”
Tromil area was humid, perhaps because of the large swamps. It occurred to Sienna that she was fortunate not to bring a heavy, loose dress.