A space where over six million vessels had gathered.

It was a truly magnificent sight, but moving a force of this scale required an enormous budget.

Even for a massive interstellar nation like the Empire, it was quite a strain.

However, it was imperative to repel the Oxis United Kingdom at all costs.

Inside the flagship battleship, Klaus, who had been made the de facto commander-in-chief, stood next to His Highness Cleo, enduring a sharp pain in his stomach.

(Just having the numbers means nothing in a battle of this scale. Can we really win?)

In terms of numbers, they had managed to assemble a force twice the size of the enemy's, but they wouldn't be deploying all of them in one place.

Space is vast.

Since the enemy would also be dispersed, the Imperial side would have to split up to fight as well.

That meant they would be fighting on multiple fronts.

There would be hundreds of battlefields, large and small, and potentially thousands if things went wrong.

Including skirmishes, the number could reach the tens of thousands.

It was fine to lose locally as long as they won the overall war, but with numbers this inflated, there was no telling what might happen.

The operators were crying out.

"Deputy Commander Klaus! We're receiving complaints from the patrol fleets that their supplies haven't arrived!"
"Deputy Commander Klaus! Complaints from the participating nobles, asking when the banquet will be held!"
"Deputy Commander Klaus! Some of our units are quarreling! They've started fighting amongst themselves!"

The complaints were coming from the patrol fleets, which had been cobbled together to contain the nobles forced to participate in order to sabotage Cleo's faction.

Nobles unrelated to Cleo's faction were also acting to undermine them.

They must have struck a deal with the Calvin faction.

The ones fighting were those very people.

They didn't care whether they won or lost the war; if it looked like they were losing, they planned to find an excuse and flee.

Desertion in the face of the enemy was punishable by firing squad, but the Calvin faction would surely blame it on Cleo—on Liam—in their efforts to thoroughly discredit him.

(My stomach hurts. Only half of them, three million, are reliable. The rest are practically the enemy.)

It wasn't six million versus three million, but three million versus six million.

The only saving grace was that half of them were allies.

This was also thanks to Liam.

(Is it because Lord Liam has taken charge of rear support? Thinking of it that way, it's not a bad arrangement. It isn't, but why am I here?)

Near Cleo was Lysithea, who had become his knight.

Sitting on a chair a short distance away was his guard, Chengshi.

She was tending to her nails, showing no signs of tension.

(His Highness Cleo has no experience commanding a fleet, and this is Lady Lysithea's first battle of this scale—it's my first time too. And Chengshi doesn't seem to care at all.)

If Liam were here, Klaus could have just followed his orders without thinking.

However, Liam was dedicated to rear support.

It was only because Liam was handling rear support that they could move a fleet of this size.

From arranging supplies to handling various other matters, the rear was stable because Liam was there.

If Liam weren't on the capital planet, they would have been subjected to the Calvin faction's sabotage.

Klaus, his stomach aching, turned his gaze to Tia, whose eyes were sparkling.

"What a noisy bunch of fools. Operators, add those who are making a fuss to the list. They are of no use to us."

However, Liam was no fool either.

He hadn't expected Klaus to be able to manage a fleet of this size, so he had dispatched Tia.

Klaus's position was more like that of a chaperone.

But since Tia ignored all the trivial matters, the ever-anxious Klaus had to take care of them.

"Lady Tia, do you have a strategy to fight the United Kingdom?"

Cleo, looking tense, asked Tia, whom he knew.

Klaus had also had a preliminary meeting, but—

"I intend to be flexible and adaptive. After all, in a battle of this scale, things rarely go according to plan."

Lysithea looked uneasy.

"Can we win? In effect, the enemy is twice our number."

Lysithea hadn't expected all their allies to follow their orders either.

Tia tilted her head and smiled at Lysithea.

"Twice our number? Lady Lysithea, please have a correct understanding of the situation. This is, so to speak, a three-way battle. The United Kingdom's forces can't tell friend from foe just by looking at the Imperial army."

A stylized representation of the six-million-ship fleet in motion was displayed before Klaus and the others.

Even before arriving at the battlefield, there were fleets moving in defiance of their orders.

It was the composite fleet made up of the patrol fleets.

And the fleets that did arrive at the battlefield attempted to move to their designated positions.

Among them, there was a fleet that ignored its orders.

"Oh, we have traitors already. Well then, let's start by eliminating them."

Tia operated the screen in front of her, issuing orders to the fleet.

"Our goal is Lord Liam's victory! Let's make the traitors work for it, shall we?"

Her last words were so cold they startled everyone around her.

"Noden—you will regret betraying Lord Liam."

◇

The United Kingdom Army.

Count Noden's fleet of six thousand ships had formed up with those of other nobles.

With a fleet of nearly one hundred thousand ships, they were occupying one of the planets in Imperial territory.

On the bridge of his battleship, Count Noden, puffing on a cigar, received a communication from the Imperial army.

"Your Excellency, it's the regular communication from the Imperial army. The next operation has been announced."

He took the report from his subordinate and checked its contents.

"Hmm, His Highness Cleo is reducing his numbers and deploying a decoy flagship—the real one is with a small fleet? The Imperial army seems to know nothing of war."

It was a diversionary tactic.

However, since this tactic had succeeded in the past, he had no reason to doubt it.

There have been interstellar nations that were defeated because they were convinced that a flagship would never move with a small fleet.

Count Noden decided to report this to his superior.

"Report this to my lord. Honestly, it's so easy just watching a war. I can't help but pity those who are seriously trying to kill each other."

Count Noden planned to ride out the war without ever going to the front lines.

The surrounding nobles felt the same way.

"Well, don't take it personally."

Those around him couldn't tell if he was speaking to Liam or to his allies.

◇

Meanwhile, new information reached the Imperial army's flagship.

"A United Kingdom force of three hundred thousand ships has defeated the composite fleet! Our side has suffered sixty thousand casualties!"

Hearing the report, Tia feigned heartache.

She pressed one hand to her chest and covered her face with the other.

"How tragic. Even though I ordered them to hurry back to their positions—I suppose the composite fleet wouldn't listen to the very end."

The troublesome delinquent soldiers and the bothersome children of nobles had vanished with a single piece of information.

Among the nobles were many affiliated with the Calvin faction.

In other words, they were Liam's enemies.

But they were also part of the Imperial army.

And she had eliminated them through information manipulation.

A chill ran down Klaus's spine.

(This woman—did she really do it!?)

They had suddenly lost sixty thousand allied ships, but there was zero sense of tragedy.

After all, the ones who had been culled were enemies.

Cleo's eyes, as he looked at Tia, held a hint of fear.

"—To think that allies would sabotage each other like this."

Tia seemed to find Cleo's sentiment endearing.

"I used to think so too. However, Your Highness—in a battle of this scale, it's only natural for allies to get in each other's way. In fact, if we had made a single mistake, we would have been the ones to be wiped out, just like the composite fleet."

Lysithea's face was pale, but Chengshi, seated in her chair, was smirking.

It seemed Chengshi's interest had been piqued as well.

"This is war. No, this is the true nature of humanity. It is on the battlefield that people shine at their ugliest, and most beautiful."

Klaus's stomach ached.

(These people are really—why are there so few decent knights in our knightly order?)

Tia issued her next command.

"Alright, spread the word that His Highness Cleo somehow managed to escape. The enemy will be thrown into confusion by the conflicting information from their spies embedded here and our own reports. We'll find the slow-moving enemy units and press our advantage!"

Afterward, Cleo's fleet, having destroyed one hundred thousand ships of the confused United Kingdom army, immediately executed the next phase of the operation.

"Now, shall we go hunt the confused enemy? They're in a state of exquisite paranoia. From here on, the battlefield will become even more chaotic."

Tia was in high spirits.

"Everything for Lord Liam's victory!"

◇

On a single battlefield, a fleet of nine million ships waged war repeatedly.

It would be more accurate to call it a strategic simulation game set in the vastness of space.

Securing planets, building bases, capturing, being captured—and betraying, and being betrayed.

This one war was giving birth to an incredible story.

This war, which could easily have continued for hundreds of years, was heading towards a much earlier conclusion than expected.

Count Noden was being pursued by his allies, the United Kingdom army.

His own forces had been reduced to a mere three thousand ships.

Pursuing them were twenty thousand ships from the United Kingdom army.

"Noden, you deceived us!"
"To think you pretended to be our ally while colluding with the Empire!"
"We won't let you return alive!"

He was being relentlessly pursued by allies—nobles, soldiers—whose families, friends, and lovers had been killed.

This was all because of Count Noden's information.

They had received intelligence that the Imperial army was suffering from internal divisions, and that the scattered Cleo faction was regrouping for a desperate, decisive battle.

That was the moment to strike.

The Imperial forces hostile to the Cleo faction would cooperate—or so the information went.

The United Kingdom army, having already whittled down the enemy considerably and with high morale, believed it.

The result—the ones who had gathered were not the Cleo faction, but the Empire's collaborators who had been on the run.

The ones the United Kingdom had attacked and dealt a heavy blow to were their own allies.

After the battle, the force that fell upon the United Kingdom army, their weapons and ammunition depleted, was—a fleet of one million ships from the Cleo faction.

And on the spot, Tia sent a message to the United Kingdom army.

"Count Noden, well done. Thanks to you, the Empire will be victorious. You can look forward to your reward."

The surviving nobles and soldiers of the Calvin faction.

And now, Count Noden was seen as an enemy by the United Kingdom as well.

"Why? Why has it come to this! The liaison officer should have confirmed it properly!"

Pursued by his allies, Count Noden would later flee back to his territory with his forces reduced to just three hundred ships.

◇

The Calvin faction's spies gathered around Tia.

"—That's enough. I'm grateful to you all."

As their forms were enveloped in a black liquid, they quickly changed shape.

They were the masked members of the black ops unit.

"By Lord Liam's orders."
"We have also dealt with the other spies who infiltrated."
"Noden betrayed us, just as expected."

Tia gritted her teeth.

"To think he truly betrayed Lord Liam—what a foolish man he was."

If he had sided with them based on the initial information, his treatment afterward would have been different.

"'He will definitely betray us'—those were Lord Liam's words."

When the black ops agent said that, Tia smiled and said, "As expected of Lord Liam."

"The United Kingdom army has requested a truce. Three months—that was surprisingly fast. But this means I can give Lord Liam a good report. We've managed to reduce the number of enemies within the Empire quite a bit."

Nearly a million in number.

Many had escaped, but the war had ended in victory.

The Calvin faction's nobles and soldiers had fled, and while there were some losses, the result was still satisfactory.

One of the black ops agents chuckled softly.

"The number of casualties was tremendous, though."

However, looking only at the results, it would be treated as a hard-won victory with considerable losses.

"But our own losses are small. And a win is a win, right? I'd like to see the fleets that deserted in the face of the enemy receive their just punishment."

For the Empire, it was a narrow victory. But from Liam's perspective, it was an undisputed, resounding victory.

"When we return, we can use this as a reason to pursue the Calvin faction. Ah, I can see Lord Liam's victory! And the one supporting him by his side is m-m-me!"

Leaving Tia to immerse herself in her world of delusion, the black ops agents vanished into the shadows.

◇

"Ah, I can see Liam's defeat!"

The Capital Planet.

The Guide, who had been in high spirits lately, smiled as he watched the news that the Imperial army had won, albeit with enormous losses.

"While that fool Liam was partying and fooling around, the Imperial army was suffering immense damage. This is definitely a matter of responsibility now."

Watching Liam become more and more miserable, the Guide couldn't stop laughing.

He was constantly smiling now.

Even Liam's searing gratitude, he could now laugh and forgive.

After all, the current Liam was constantly enraged.

Ever since he started receiving information from his domain, he had been in a constant state of fury.

His domain must be in a terrible state.

"It's almost time. Soon, Liam will learn everything and become miserable."

Skipping as he wandered the capital planet, the Guide would absorb any misfortune he came across.

A man with a despairing face sat in an alley, drinking.

"Damn it! Nothing I do ever works out. Why me—"

Passing by the drunken man, the Guide sucked up the man's misfortune for his own nourishment.

"Oh, that man's misfortune was quite a treat. Mmm, misfortune is delicious today, too!"

Just then, the terminal in the man's breast pocket received a call.

The man answered gruffly.

"What is it!? It's not like anyone cares about me—Huh!? Is-is that true? A nobleman took a liking to me? To the clothes I designed!?"

It seemed the man, a designer who had been struggling until now, had received a commission.

And it was a job with a very high reward.

The Guide had no interest in happiness.

"It's always like this when I absorb misfortune. Haaah, I hate it, I hate it. I need to hurry up and make Liam miserable—no, I mean, I need to make him happy."

The more he tried to make Liam happy, the more miserable Liam became.

Today, too, the Guide was active, gathering misfortune to try and make Liam happy.

As the Guide moved away, a single dog emerged from behind a trash can in the alley—it tilted its head as it watched the Guide's retreating figure.

The drunken man was now showing enthusiasm for his new job.

"Count Banfield's wife and maid? I just have to design dresses for those two!? How many? —At least ten!? A-and the payment!? —I'll do it! I'll make ten, twenty, whatever it takes! Thank goodness. Now I can provide for my family."

The designer shed tears of joy—and then started running.

The dog—followed after the designer.

Klaus ( T∀T): "All my colleagues are terrible, my stomach hurts."

Brian (´；ω；｀): "It's painful to see my fellow stomach-ache sufferer, Lord Klaus, in such a pinch."

Monica ( ゜∀゜): "But I'm not in pain! In fact, I'm in top form! 'The Seventh,' Volume 9, where the chicken bastard gets to shine, is out today! Everyone, head to your bookstores and online shops! There's an e-book version too, so e-book readers can rest easy."