Chapter 46

"You manage to befriend the beaver people and manage to explore the Ceras Lake. You found out that Ceras Lake is a man-made lake created by damming up the river, and the ruin near that lake is a giant sluice gate. Am I right so far?"

Freyjadour rubs the back of his head and says.

"Yeah."

I can only sigh and say.

"What kind of adventure have you guys been doing in the past three days?"

"Hehehe~ Not much."

"Right. Not much."

I shake my head and look at the others.

"So, what should we do from now on, Lucretia?"

The tactician looks at me with a smile.

"You are coming at the right time, Gerrald."

She looks at the prince and says.

"Prince, I apologize for being so evasive up until now. But now that everything is in order, let me explain my plan for destroying Hatred Fortress."

She takes a deep breath and says.

"The plan actually isn't very complicated. We simply open the sluice gate in those ruins. That's it."

Seeing the other confused expression, the man beside her explained the situation.

"If we release the water in Ceras Lake into the Feitas River all at once, the ensuing force will be like a tsunami. The torrent of water will crash directly into Hatred Fortress. No matter how well the beavers built it, that fortress won't stand a chance."

The others nodded in understanding, but one person did not agree with that plan.

"Hey! Wait just one second!"

Toma, the young man from Lordlake, shouts.

"Lordlake is gonna be in the path of that tsunami, too! You're gonna wipe out our town along with the Hatred Fortress!!!"

Lucretia smiles and says.

"No. I asked Muroon, the head beaver builder, and the others to take care of that. I'm having them construct a barrier so that the wreckage of the fortress doesn't get swept down to Lordlake."

"But you're sure it's gonna hold?! It's not gonna break?! Will Lordlake be alright?!"

"Now, now, calm down. We're talking about the beavers, after all. If they can't do it, no one can."

Seeing Toma finally nodding his head, Lucretia looks at the prince and says.

"So, Prince, what do you think of the plan?"

The prince looks at her and says,

"We can't do that! There are too many innocent people in that place only following the order of Lord Godwin!"

Lyon nods her head furiously and says.

"The Prince is right! The soldiers at Hatred Fortress are Falenans, just like us! They don't deserve to die like that!"

Lucretia releases a sigh, but I can see her smiling behind her fan.

"Yes, you're right, of course. And I've heard a lot of the soldiers who were just recently conscripted are assigned to Hatred Fortress. If we wiped them all out like that, we'd no longer be able to say we were fighting to stop the Godwins' tyranny, would we?"

The man standing next to Lucretia grunts and says.

"Wait, are you saying that killing in war is acceptable, but drowning isn't? You baffle me, Lucretia, as usual."

She shakes her head and says.

"No. Neither of them is ever okay. But if our hand is forced, the fewer casualties, the better, right? Prince, I've already come up with a plan to lure those soldiers out of the fortress, so don't worry."

I smile and say.

"Well, we will leave the planning to you, Lucretia."

She smiles at me and looks at the prince.

"To get the soldiers out of the way, we'll attack the fortress. Just give the word, Prince, and we can get started right away."

"Let's start right away."

"All right, then. It's time to get started. Admiral, is Raftfleet ready to do battle?"

The old woman gives a grin and says.

"You bet! Leave it to us."

Toma, who looks around, suddenly shouts.

"Hold on! I'm gonna bring some people from Lordlake! We wanna attack the fortress, too!"

"People from Lordlake? But…"

The prince looks at Toma with a hesitant expression, but Toma shakes his head and looks at the prince with determination.

"After all Lordlake has been through, I used to think people SHOULD help us, that they OWED it to us! But now I've seen that lots of bad things happened to the Prince, too! But the Prince never complains! He keeps on fighting, and he even helps out other people! Maroon and beavers are the same way!"

Toma suddenly throws both his hands into the air and shouts even louder.

"I'm not gonna let you guys be the only heroes, no! It's time for Lordlake to be a hero, too!"

And he leaves the room, running. I sigh and look at Gavaya and Hazuki.

"Can you two protect him? Escort him back home."

"Heh! Leave it to us, boss."

"Very well. We will protect him, Gerrald."

I nod and see the two of them leave the room. I then look at Lucretia, who is smiling at me.

"Anyway, can I ask you a question, Gerrald?"

"Of course, ask away."

"Have you managed to buy supplies?"

"Sure. I bought some."

"That is good. We need some of them to feed the soldiers."

"I don't mind. However, I mostly buy wheat, rice, and dried fruit."

Lucretia smiles and says.

"Don't worry. That is good enough."

She then looks at the Admiral and says.

"Let's prepare our army to move out to the Hatred Fortress. When the people from Lordlake arrive, we will move out and attack that place."

Admiral Raja smiles and says.

"Leave it to me. The people of Raftfleet will be ready before the people of Lordlake arrive."

"That is good."

Lucretia looks at Logg and says.

"Can you gather enough fish oil to make a single ship explode?"

"Eh? Sure. That is easy enough. But why?"

I decided to interfere and say.

"Because she wants to scare off the people on the Hatred Fortress. They are not real knights, so their morale is not high. We need to win the first battle on the water to decrease their morale and then create enough explosions to scare them even more. Am I right, Lucretia?"

She giggles and nods her head.

"You are right, Gerrald. That is the general idea. However, we need to make sure the fire explodes and spreads around the fortress."

I give a grin and say.

"Then you are lucky. I hear an apprentice of Babbage, the smartest person in the country, arrives in Raftfleet. We can ask him to create something or at least make him send a letter to his teacher to create something for us."

Lucretia smiles and points her fan at me.

"That is why you are a Godsend, Gerrald. You always make my job easier. I will ask Sorensen to tell his teacher to create something to make sure the fire that will hit the fortress spreads."

She nods to her own words before looking at Logg.

"Now, the most important job for this plan to work will fall under Logg's hand."

The others look at Lucretia as if she is crazy and shout as one.

"What?!"