While I was about to think more about this interesting relationship, I felt movement beneath my feet.

It was the enemy army climbing the castle.

Whoosh.

“Aaagh!”

Barbarossa shot an arrow at a soldier of Baron Shire who was climbing the wall under the cover of darkness.

The comrades of the dead soldier below the castle wall cursed.

“Crawling up like rats in the middle of the night. If you were polite guests, you’d come during the day.”

He seemed to be wandering around Tiberius Castle aimlessly, drinking recklessly, but in fact, it was Anette’s order.

She told him to go to Tiberius, just drink, and diligently cater to the lord’s mood. And not to hide that appearance.

Barbarossa, true to his character, also became friendly with the maids of Tiberius territory.

The enemies were now sufficiently off guard.

If the enemy has let their guard down enough, serve them a meal. Be a good host.

That was the note Anette had passed to him at the training ground that day.

* * *

Count Tiberius defeated the enemy by just having feasts on top of the castle wall for two weeks without ever going to the battlefield.

More precisely, it was the mercenary group led by Barbarossa.

Count Tiberius’s extravagant and arrogant personality was widely known. Even in the midst of war, Count Tiberius held lavish feasts every day without any sense of crisis, somehow obtaining supplies from somewhere.

One dawn, Baron Shire’s army caught a cart entering Tiberius Castle. The cart was full of rare food and alcohol.

“Even at this point, they’re still eating this stuff without coming to their senses!”

“Oh please, spare me. I’m just a mere merchant delivering food because I couldn’t resist the count’s demands.”

The Shire army, who had been watching the daily luxurious banquets of Count Tiberius from below the castle covered in dirt, excitedly looted the cart.

So this is the food and drink that noble lords eat. Indeed, what the nobles eat tastes special.

The food that tasted special and was eaten hastily spread dysentery among the Shire army.

Attacking the weakened enemies was an easy task even for the demoralized Tiberius army.

Thus, the mercenary group led by Barbarossa achieved their first merit. It was the first step of what would become a legendary mercenary group.

* * *

“You promised 1/3 of the grain harvested in Tiberius territory this year as a reward for overturning the odds and achieving victory.”

When they had just arrived in Tiberius territory, Count Tiberius was so terrified that the castle would soon be captured that he didn’t take a single step outside his bed.

Barbarossa clearly remembered that sight, but the Count Tiberius now was completely different.

He was arrogantly sprawled in his private room, being attended to by a young maiden while dealing with Barbarossa.

It was exactly the typical noble image that Barbarossa hated the most.

“Hmm, did I say that? I don’t quite remember.”

Sure enough, as soon as the urgent fire was put out, the count started to deny it blatantly.

“No, you dispatched only a hundred men. What exactly did you do to demand 1/3 of the harvest? Even thieves have limits!”

Even after fighting a war until recently due to his arrogant attitude offending Baron Shire, the count’s attitude hadn’t changed.

Barbarossa was smiling on the outside.

“Are you saying you want to negotiate?”

“If each of your hundred men takes just one gold coin, that should be enough. I’d say that’s me being quite generous.”

“Count, the compensation you promised was set by you yourself.”

“That was before I knew it would be just a mercenary group coming! Isn’t that right? What exactly have you done just standing there?”

“Yes, we’re still just standing here now.”

Barbarossa was now pointing the tip of his sword, which he had drawn at some point, at Count Tiberius’s nape.

“N-now…!”

“It was the order of the one who sent us not to yield even a bit on the share that Inkhart would receive.”

Do what you do best.

Did that woman think this far ahead?

The count trembled before the blade.

“L-let’s, let’s talk calmly again…”

“One-third of the harvest. Without missing even a bit.”

“That’s why! Put it down first!”

Eek! The maid who was pouring wine into the count’s cup screamed. Barbarossa paid no attention.

Although what happened next did surprise him a little.

* * *

“I heard the daughter of Count Tiberius fell for you so quickly and said she’d make you a knight if you’d marry her? Why did you come back here? You should have married her there.”

I held my stomach and teased him, looking at the walking sinner.

I mean, how is it not funny that he mistook the count’s daughter for a village maiden being harassed by the count with money and power, not realizing it was a father-daughter relationship! The count must feel wronged about that if nothing else.

“Moreover, when that shameless guy tried to act tough and said he couldn’t pay after you drove away the enemy, his daughter, who was listening from the side, shouted at him to pay the money quickly. Because she likes you.”

If being handsome is a crime, then I’m serving a life sentence, I chuckled.

That guy is something else. He says he ran away to Inkhart, pale-faced, when the count’s daughter held onto him and asked him to marry her. He should think about improving his own fate.

I told him. That guy will never be able to date a nice girl. His taste is really bad.

“She was a bit young to know about bad men.”

“But don’t you regret it? It was a chance to become a count’s son-in-law after all.”

“I prefer women I can break up with easily. Such a pure-hearted girl is a bit troublesome.”

“That guy’s personality, really.”

“This guy’s popularity, really.”

Barbarossa, who wanted to hide the incident with the count’s daughter, gritted his teeth saying he’d kill whoever spread the rumor, then asked me.

“How did you come up with such a plan? You, who’ve never even opened a tactics book.”

“Curious?”

“How could I not be? That strategy determined the outcome of this war.”

In the original story, the war became quite prolonged as the Inkhart soldiers, famous for their strength, participated, and Baron Shire approached the war with firm resolve.

Amidst maintaining strict vigilance, Darius witnesses a suspicious scene at Tiberius Castle.

Wartime is naturally different from peacetime.

Food and all other resources must be conserved.

Thus, Darius was maintaining strict discipline within the castle, but the owner of that castle, Count Tiberius, couldn’t do the same.

Unable to bear being away from his luxurious lifestyle, he secretly called a merchant. Promising to pay five times the price for supplies.

It’s a situation where anyone would be furious to the point of their head exploding, with some risking their lives fighting while the party directly involved in the war shows no tension at all.

Darius used Count Tiberius’s foolish act to reversely trap the enemy.

He poisoned the luxurious supplies heading to the count’s residence and deliberately let the enemies plunder them. In the original story, the enemies ate that food without knowing they were poisoning themselves.

Seeing that strategy work this time too, Darius truly was a genius.

“Darius is amazing.”

Recalling his achievements from the original story, I smiled without realizing it.

There was no need for Count Tiberius to feel wronged about taking so much money this time without doing much. After all, he made Darius suffer so much in the original story.

‘Consider it paying for the karma caused by yourself in another world.’

“Why is the lord’s name coming up there?”

“Well, there’s a reason for that. Anyway, you said Count Tiberius didn’t want to give the money willingly, right?”

But the count’s daughter, who seems to only look at men’s faces, fell for Barbarossa and made sure he got the money.

‘In the original story, there’s no way that Count Tiberius would have given money easily, right?’

Come to think of it, I think in the original story, it was mentioned that the count acted dirty when Darius was collecting the payment for the territory battle.

He did end up receiving the promised money, but… there was no mention of how he received it.

“No way?”

Did the count’s daughter fall for Darius back then too? So even then, did the daughter scold her father and give away the household wealth?

“No, so how did you come up with that plan? Which military text did you see it in?”

“Well… at least this time they didn’t meet face to face.”

Because that guy took the girl’s first love.

“My lady?”

“You seem to be useful at times like this after all. Like a charm that prevents unnecessary things.”

“Oh, really! My lady!”

I glanced at Barbarossa’s handsome face for no reason.

The reason I feel bad is, um…

‘Why are there so many romance flags popping up here and there for Darius, who should be with Evangeline?’

It’s because I feel bad as the angel of love who should bring them together. Yeah, that’s it.

‘No, what am I saying about feeling bad? It’s as if I’m jealous of the girl who almost liked Darius?’

Haha. Jealousy? That can’t be. There’s no reason for that no matter how much I look.

There was no betrayal by Lady Egritte, the finances of Inkhart Castle were sound, and I didn’t miss the events that happened in the original story.

It was a satisfactory day in many ways.

Except for one unsettling fact that Darius had quite a lot of romance flags allocated to him in the original story.

Ah, this is… kind of bothering me?