I'm very sorry that I haven't updated in a month. It's not even that I haven't been working on the fic, but I've been pre-writing future chapters when I should have been working on this chapter.
I don't really want to make statements on politics here, but the entire political situation in America has also been, and still is, very stressful for me.
"The Order of Iron doesn't really have 'territory' so to speak," Count Bergliez said. "Anyone openly flying their banner is sure to be crushed, by the Empire or by Nemesis. Their 'Iron Dominion' is a more shadowy affair. Towns and minor nobles who secretly give them tribute, and information if they have any that could benefit them. Some of them just don't want to be attacked, others have grudges against Nemesis or Lycaon, or hope to gain more power for themselves by undermining the Crested nobles who hold much of the power in both Adrestia and the Kingdom of Liberation."
"One of these minor nobles is Baronet Geller," Aubin continued. "He's one of the vassals of Lord Daphnel, but ever since his sons were killed in a suicide mission—an aspect of the mission that Daphnel hadn't informed the unit of—Geller has been in contact with one of Ohm's spies."
"We were informed about all of this by his nephew, Simon," Bergliez continued. "Simon shares his uncle's grudge against Dominic, but he doesn't trust the Order of Iron. He wants someone to help him convince his uncle to join the Empire instead. You haven't been with us long enough for anyone to recognize you as working for us, so you're going to make sure Geller joins us instead of the Iron Dominion."
"Diplomacy," Claude said. "I have some experience with that."
"Hopefully, diplomacy will be enough to do the job," Bergliez said. "But you need to be prepared to pursue alternate means in case Geller can't be convinced. Convince Simon and his men to overthrow Geller if you have to."
"We'll see what the situation is when we get there," Claude said.
"Good," Bergliez said. "Of course, if you just walk up to Fort Geller and ask for an audience, Geller has no reason to listen to you."
"That's going to be the easy part," Yuri said. "Just contact Simon and tell him to go hunting with some of his men the day we reach the castle."
"Hapi," Yuri prompted.
"Fine. It's about time this curse works to my advantage for once," Hapi said, then sighed.
It didn't take long for Demonic Beasts to appear. There were four of them. Two seemed to have been wolves, one a bird of some sort, and the fourth resembled a giant scorpion.
It didn't take long for the knights to spot the Demonic Beasts converging on them. But the Beasts never got the chance to attack. Just as they were getting close to the knights, none of whom were armed well enough to fight them, Claude and the others stepped in. Claude and Ashe brought the bird down with arrows, Raphael held one of the wolves in place for long enough for Bernie to stab it to death with her glaive, and Petra cut the stinger off of the scorpion's tail, while Yuri found a gap in its exoskeleton and shoved his sword through it.
As the Demonic Beasts shrank back to what they had been before, Simon, a dark-haired man who was on the shorter side, walked up to Claude. "Thank you, friend. We wouldn't have been able to kill those Demonic Beasts on our own."
"It was no trouble," Claude assured him.
"I could see that," Simon said. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"If we told you, you wouldn't believe us," Felix said.
"Well, regardless, you must allow me to invite you to dine with us at Fort Geller," Simon offered. "Just so I can thank you properly."
"Certainly," Claude said.
They had an in. Now they just had to persuade Baronet Geller.
"Thank you for saving my nephew," Geller said. He was an older man with a gray beard. He was on the heavier side, but all of the Company members could tell that his body wasn't all fat; there was enough muscle that he could still hold his own in a fight. "He's the only family I have left. Frankly, I can't thank you enough."
"It was no trouble at all," Ashe said. "We've fought far stronger opponents than Demonic Beasts."
"You said you're mercenaries?" Geller asked.
"The best," Claude said. "You want a Demonic Beast horde cleared out, or a bandit gang eliminated, or a local Iron Order unit wiped out to a man, we're the best money can buy. Though honestly, if the job is killing Iron bastards, we'd do it for free."
Geller frowned. "Why do you say that?"
"Because they're monsters!" Claude said. "They wipe out towns, torturing people to death to make a point. They practice human sacrifice. One guy we met, they kept him prisoner for three moons, and only gave him human corpses to eat. Our policy on Iron Order is kill on sight. No restraint, no mercy."
Geller clearly wasn't pleased to hear that. "You don't think they have a point regarding inhumans taking advantage of us to settle their own grudges?"
"Honestly? No," Claude said. "This war just seems like standard fare. Nemesis wanted power, so he tried to kill the Nabateans. It didn't work, and now they want revenge, and some human nobles decided to support them because they knew Nemesis would try to conquer them next. It's no different from any other war. Whether the people in charge are human or not doesn't matter."
That clearly wasn't what Geller wanted to hear. One of Geller's advisors, who Simon had helpfully informed them was the Iron spy in Geller's court, addressed the Baronet. "Sir, perhaps we should make them leave."
"No, Karl," Geller said. "I offered them hospitality. And regardless of any disagreements we might have, they did still save my nephew's life. They may stay the night."
Later that evening, Simon and Claude knocked on the door of Geller's room. "May we talk to you, uncle?" Simon asked.
"Of course, come in," Geller said, allowing them into his room.
Once the door was closed behind them, Simon addressed his uncle. "I want to talk to you about breaking the alliance with the Order of Iron."
"This again?" Geller asked. "I'm sorry, Simon, but the answer is still no."
"Baronet, I've seen what the Iron Order does," Claude appealed. "What kind of atrocities they commit. They'll turn on you the moment it's convenient for them."
"I don't care," Geller said. "I will have revenge for my sons."
"If you want revenge on Daphnel, why not join the Empire?" Claude asked. "You're close enough to Empire territory that they could support you."
"Join the Empire? After they killed my sons? Never!" Geller snarled.
"Your sons were enemy soldiers on a battlefield," Claude said. "What were they supposed to do?" He gesticulated with his arm and knocked over an open bottle of wine on Geller's desk, but quickly caught it.
"Their war was the reason my sons were on that battlefield in the first place!" Geller shouted. "They're all guilty! Agarthans, Nabateans, Crested humans, all of them! Now get out!"
"But—" Simon tried to interrupt.
"Out!" Geller shouted.
"He's not going to give up," Claude said after the two of them left the room. "Maybe you should persuade the knights to put you in command?"
"No," Simon refused. "I may not agree with my uncle on this, but he is still the rightful Baronet, and I will not betray him."
Claude bit his lip. "That is too bad."
The next morning, the Company were awoken by screams. They followed the commotion to Geller's room.
"Ah, Claude," Simon said. He didn't seem happy to see them. "When the servants came to wake my Uncle this morning, they found him dead at his desk."
"Oh. I'm sorry for your loss," Claude said. "How did he die?"
"It might have been natural causes. It might not have been," Simon said. "Red wine?"
"You suspect he was poisoned," Claude said.
"I had the guards arrest Karl. They're searching his room now," Simon said. "They'll search your rooms too, for any poisons. Speaking of which, guards, check them for any poisons. They might not have let them off of their persons. Kill them if they don't cooperate."
After a few minutes of frisking, a guard entered the room. "We found several vials in Karl's room. One of them was empty."
"I see," Simon said. "I'm sorry, friends. Karl must have realized I wasn't willing to support the Order of Iron, so he poisoned my uncle in hopes of framing you and manipulating me into joining them."
He turned to the guard. "Empty the other vials into Karl's next meal. If he refuses to eat it or doesn't die, stab him somewhere that will be fatal but not instantly fatal and let him bleed to death."
After that, he turned back to the Company. "Tell your superiors that I will join them."
After the group were well away from Fort Geller, Raphael chuckled. "That was easier than I thought. We barely had to do anything. That spy did the work for us."
"The Iron spy didn't poison the Baronet," Claude admitted. "I did. I had Yuri sneak the vials into the spy's room."
"You did?" Raphael asked.
"The Baronet wasn't going to change his position," Claude said. "And I wasn't going to be able to get Simon to overthrow him. But that doesn't change anything. I broke the laws of hospitality. And I took advantage of Simon's trust.
"This probably isn't going to be the last time I do something morally questionable for 'the greater good.' But I did learn some lessons in Hyrule," Claude continued. "I'm not going to jump straight to the most extreme course of action until I've explored all of the less extreme options available. And I'm not going to make excuses either. I abused both Giller and Simon's trust. That was my choice. I'm going to have to live with it."
The others accepted that with varying degrees of comfort.
