Helena's claim caused quite a stir among both the tribesmen and knights.
Their tent went from dead silence to loud grumbling in mere seconds. It was a clear sign of the shock and anger, but none of the warriors dared to address the princess to clarify.
The king might've finally returned, but she was still their regent, after all.
Good thing Eyna wasn't a soldier like them.
She's gotten used to the battlefield of diplomacy by now.
"What do you mean by killing us all, Your Grace?" she asked, bowing her head to Helena.
People fell silent, to wait for her response with bated breath. She seemed to be out of hers, too—who knows how long she must have been riding to get here. Her horse's mouth even foamed.
She glanced at the open flaps where her knights were waiting, hesitating for a moment.
"He's terrified of Maou Midori," she said in the end, a mere mumble. "But also of Konrad."
"Of our Konrad?" Welf scoffed, crossing his arms with one eyebrow raised. "He worked his ass off to please your brother. He rebuilt Halaima, and oh, saved his ass, too. And now he's scared?!"
A less diplomatic input, but Eyna suspected those two had something going on between them.
Thus, the princess let it slide.
In fact, she was trying to make up an excuse, keeping her voice down.
"I—I don't know what they did to him while he was away, but—he changed," Helena muttered.
That sent everyone in the tent into a panicked guessing game.
"Did they brainwash him?"
"Is it even the same person? Could be a puppet—"
"A clone. An illusion, like the stuff bossman made. Or what if he's with the nomads now?"
Questions and theories rained down, one more outrageous than the other.
But Helena didn't have a chance to rebut them, no matter how outlandish they sounded.
"Ronald didn't explain it in detail," she said what she could. "But it seems he saw a few outcomes for this war. Like glimpses into the future. And he said the only way not to lose was not to fight."
"That's a coward speaking," Count Rolalt's voice boomed above the others.
It could have gotten him executed, but many knights grunted in agreement.
The tribesmen were quite upset, too.
Welf nodded along with them, though his expression was more painful than anything.
"We're not talking about a war between kingdoms," he said, his arms twitching. Eyna felt like he wanted to take Helena's side, but he was way too upset. "He's a Demon Lord who wants blood."
And what that man wanted was only one thing.
Nomads, numbering in the tens of thousands, waited at the border.
If they had no leader, nobody could hold them back.
Whether they wanted revenge, plunder, conquer, or go home was anyone's guess.
"You don't have to tell me," the Princess snapped, finding her voice at last. "I said, I'm disgusted by his actions, too. I came all the way here to join you, but you must know about the dangers."
True. She offered her loyalty to Konrad—but things were starting to get out of hand.
Trying to calm the mood, Eyna stepped between them.
"Arguing won't change the fact that Master is gone," she said. "And so is Maou Midori. What we have is a horde of angry men at our gates, and a king who'd let them in."
"She's right," Welf joined in with a sigh. "We're the only ones between them right now."
He grabbed the tall necromancer's shoulders, pushing her forward despite her trembling.
"We can hold them at the Halaima Pass," he said as if he were promoting her. "We still have sorcerers, even without Liliske and the dra—I mean, Maple."
"What?!" Helena's voice pitched up. "They're gone, too?! And—wait, who is she?"
That was a good question. Since the incident in Halaima, Stella spent most of her time hidden away in her parents' old manor. She was strong but unstable—and the only one they had.
Still, the nature of her spells would have drawn a lot of unwanted attention.
"This is Lady Stella Nord," Eyna claimed before the blacksmith could say something odd. "A noble of Halaima whom Master freed from the Church. Also a powerful caster."
Who raised the undead and froze an entire city—
But if Konrad managed to keep that part a secret until now, she wasn't about to reveal it.
"As I said," Welf tried to distract her, "we can hold the pass. But not if your brother stabs us in the back. Saw the camp, right? The dukes already backed out, but we have some men."
"The Aset Defenders' leaving is unforgivable, though," Count Rolalt claimed.
All other men-at-arms left as well, but Lord Schwertburg was Konrad's ally by marriage.
His daughter—and Konrad's second wife, Gabrielle—locked herself up in Halaima.
She refused to answer either her father's or their calls.
Another powerful ally they couldn't rely on—but at least she was still there. There were many things Eyna didn't know. But she could gauge how powerful her Master's haremettes were.
She was by far the weakest.
But what she lacked in brute force or spellpower, she made up for in brains and hard work.
"I understand why Master's presence is so important," she said. "Apart from the king's reluctance to attack him, he also made a truce with the Church. Without his person, we're—"
"Fucked," Welf offered when her voice trailed off.
Not the eloquence she was looking for, but it described the situation well.
The blonde Church girl even trembled at the mention of her former employers.
She didn't want them here, either, powerful or not.
"At this point, we could go independent and fortify the duchy from every side," Count Rolalt sighed. Eyna suspected he wasn't serious, but some tribesmen cheered the idea.
"If it were up to you, My Lord, they would never go through Altef Fort," a knight claimed as well.
"Don't be stupid," Welf groaned. "We have five hundred men, most of them militias. Between a hundred thousand nomads and all the forces Kasserlane can mobilise. And we have one pass."
The natural borders to the east were almost impassable, but the west was open flatland.
Anyone with the slightest strategic sense could see that a fort on a river wouldn't stop a kingdom's army. And why fight them if they didn't have to, anyway?
"I'd like to suggest an idea," Eyna raised her voice before things got out of hand again.
If nothing else, she had the blacksmith and the regent's attention.
"You say that both the king and the Church fear Master," she said. "And for all we—and the nomads—know, he defeated the Demon Lord. With him around, they might not attack at all."
"Well, yeah, but we've no clue where he is now," Welf pointed out. "Disappeared into a portal."
"And we know this from Lady Stella Nord," Eyna countered. "We, in this tent, and nobody else."
"Your point is?" Helena asked, her brows furrowed.
"Even if we keep it a secret, someone will soon notice he's not here," Count Rolalt added, too.
"Then why don't we show him to the people?" Eyna asked, struggling to suppress her smug smirk. How was she the only one remembering? "We have Lord Nimrod to parade around."