It took six days for the Imperial Army to reach the nearby area.
During that time, the Imperial Army had always enjoyed rapid marches. This time, however, they were moving quite leisurely. According to the scouts' reports, it seemed they were advancing at a sluggish pace while deploying a considerable number of outriders.
"They're moving quite cautiously."
"Are they afraid of an ambush? The roads leading here are surrounded by narrow gorges and treacherous mountains."
"Hmm. So they're wary of ambushes."
The Grand Duke considered the mercenary captain's words a plausible guess.
"Furthermore, they've been pillaging every village they come across. They strip the grain from every village storehouse and slaughter every ox used for farming…"
"Tsk, tsk."
The captains clicked their tongues one after another. The Imperial Army had indeed been operating with ruthless aggression ever since negotiations broke down — or more precisely, ever since the Habsburg Republic entered the war — as though making up for all the restraint they had shown before.
"Your Grace, it's not too late. We must deploy a large ambush force in a suitable canyon area to intercept the enemy. If they break through to the open road, how many lives will be lost?"
"…I will not permit it."
The Grand Duke furrowed his brow with a grim expression.
"Didn't you just hear the report? The Empire is approaching with full precautions. We have ten thousand; they have twenty. In a head-on engagement, we cannot possibly win. It would be certain defeat, a crushing rout… We cannot advance now."
"But Your Grace, the damage to the civilian settlements…"
"I told you to wait!"
The Grand Duke of Florence gave the order while suppressing his rage. The person who wanted to charge out more than anyone else at that moment was the Grand Duke himself. The mercenary captains raised no further objections. In truth, aside from those from Sardinia, the captains preferred the safety of the castle walls.
Just in case, they had hidden two hundred men at the most defensible chokepoint. And those two hundred ambush troops proved just how foolish it was to fight in mountainous terrain against Helvetica mercenaries born and raised in the foothills of the Alps. They had been ambushed in return and completely annihilated.
"Now do you see? Engaging the Imperial Army rashly is forbidden. Endure it. If you endure, an opportunity will come."
The Grand Duke's thirteen thousand troops shrank back.
Aside from increasing the size of scouting parties, there was almost no military activity. Repairing the walls, inspecting the siege equipment, pressuring the Mayor of Genoa for more supplies… Taking on these miscellaneous tasks, the Grand Duke carefully — and only carefully — watched which direction the Imperial Army was heading.
Were they going for Genoa? Or for La Spezia, the territory of the Marquis of Rodi?
Before long, a messenger brought the information the Grand Duke had been hoping for.
"Your Grace, a report from the scouting party. The Imperial Army has changed course at Verseto."
"…! East or west?"
"East, Your Grace. The Imperial Army is heading southeast."
East!
The Grand Duke of Florence pressed his hand to his forehead. It was La Spezia. The Imperial Army's target was not Genoa but La Spezia. In other words, it was extremely likely that the people of La Spezia had indeed been colluding with the Empire, just as he had warned…
"Your Grace."
The mercenary captains gazed at the Grand Duke with uneasy eyes. None of them spoke, but a message clearer than words weighed down the air in the conference room.
The Grand Duke swallowed.
'Do I have to burn it? La Spezia.'
He felt the veins in his forehead pulse faintly through his palm.
'Do I have to burn it with my own hands before the Empire takes it?'
Thanks to the Marquis's benevolent governance, La Spezia was prosperous. Even when the Black Death swept across the entire continent, La Spezia had been one of the model cases where the lord's swift response kept the damage to a minimum. If the Imperial Army seized this place without shedding a single drop of blood… it was horrifying.
The Imperial Army would resupply to their heart's content. With plentiful food and weapons, they would continue the war. The consequences would not be limited to the area around La Spezia. Like a plague, they would spread to Genoa, to Florence, to the Tiber, across the entire kingdom.
"Your Grace."
One of the mercenary captains cautiously pressed him. The Grand Duke did not answer. At that moment, words Elisabeth the Consul had once said with an amused expression flitted through his mind.
'Will you protect the citizens of La Spezia? Or will you protect the citizens of Florence? The moment when you must choose one or the other will surely come. And there, what kind of person you truly are will be revealed…'
The Grand Duke's silence dragged on. The longer it lasted, the more the mercenary captains were consumed by anxiety. A prolonged silence meant the order to come had been thoroughly deliberated and would be too resolute to easily reverse.
"…I will… leave La Spezia."
"Your Grace!"
The Grand Duke of Florence wore an expressionless face. Only a hint of the agony he could not fully suppress leaked through in his voice.
"If La Spezia falls into the enemy's hands, the entire kingdom will be in extreme peril! Your Grace, please make your decision!"
"You need only watch, Your Grace. Just grant us permission to act freely. We will handle it ourselves!"
The mercenary captains urged him unanimously. They were determined not to let blood stain their sovereign's hands. Resolve was etched into every face.
The Grand Duke issued his command forcefully, as though trying to shake off their voices.
"I repeat my order. Leave La Spezia alone! This is my final decision."
"Th-then, at least grant us permission to requisition the weapons stockpile in La Spezia. If we invoke the risk of treason, it would be perfectly feasible."
"What evidence is there that La Spezia has betrayed the kingdom?"
The captains fell silent. There was no evidence. They had only strong circumstantial suspicion.
"What right do we have to seize the armory of a city that has neither committed treason nor given any indication it will? If we demand their weapons, we might even push them toward rebellion. I repeat: La Spezia is to be left alone…"
The Grand Duke's face twisted in pain.
He believed the Marquis of Rodi could never be a traitor. Simply making the Marquis a sacrifice was already a lifelong, irreparable mistake. And now he was supposed to condemn the Marquis's own people as traitors? He could not do that. Wearing the mask of a human being, he simply could not…
The Grand Duke's army remained garrisoned in Genoa.
A few days later, word arrived that an Imperial force of thirty thousand had descended upon La Spezia — along with the news that fewer than a thousand defenders were mounting a hopeless siege battle.
— The damage is severe! We cannot withstand the enemy's magical firepower!
— A section of the eastern wall has collapsed. When will reinforcements arrive? When?
Every hour, La Spezia sent desperate pleas for aid. The voices flowing from the crystal orb were steeped in despair. Even ordinary citizens had taken up arms to hold the siege, but the situation appeared dire.
A day passed.
Two days passed.
Three days elapsed.
Commanders gathered in the conference room. The Grand Duke had visibly aged.
"Is La Spezia still holding out?"
"Yes. According to the report that came in at dawn this morning, the Imperial Army launched a night raid and breached the wall. But thanks to a reserve force held in standby, they managed to repel the assault…"
The Grand Duke and the mercenary captains wore frustrated expressions.
"Is it really true that La Spezia was colluding with the Empire?"
"We mustn't judge hastily. It could be a ruse to lure us out from here."
"Ruse or not, the outer wall is about to fall! Even now we should send reinforcements to help!"
The commanders split into two broad camps. One side believed La Spezia had not colluded with the enemy; the other believed it was all a feint. Both sides had only intuition to go on, so the debate continued along parallel lines.
"…."
The Grand Duke himself could not make a judgment.
If the Imperial Army was genuinely assaulting La Spezia, he found it suspicious that they had not disrupted their communications magic. Thanks to that, desperate calls for reinforcements kept streaming in. Could it be a deception to lure them out of the safety of Genoa?
But the Grand Duke knew just how cunning the Imperial Army could be. They could read exactly what he was thinking — and might have planted the very communication lines they were monitoring. How deeply could the enemy read their intentions?… The Grand Duke felt himself sinking into a dilemma with no answer.
A Sardinian mercenary captain shouted in fury.
"I cannot accept this! If La Spezia falls into the enemy's hands because of our inaction, how are we any different from the Duke of Milan who sat idle while Pavia was destroyed? What meaning does a military have if it cannot save its own allies?"
The Grand Duke of Florence snapped to his senses.
'What have I been agonizing over all this time?'
That mercenary captain was right. What would happen if he abandoned La Spezia here? It would be the exact same mistake the Duke of Milan had made — watching Pavia be destroyed and violated while doing nothing. He would be repeating the very act he had once condemned.
The Grand Duke was humiliated. He himself had been the one most outraged by the Duke of Milan's choice, the one who had pushed back against it hardest. Yet now, out of fear, he was about to repeat the very behavior he had criticized… The Grand Duke asked himself again: what had he been thinking all this time?
"Your Grace! An urgent dispatch!"
At that moment, a messenger burst into the conference room. The messenger hastily saluted.
"La Spezia — the outer wall has fallen! The knight order has been annihilated!"
"…!"
"Currently the Lord Regent has retreated to the inner citadel and is continuing the final resistance. La Spezia is asking whether reinforcements are coming, and if so, how far they have advanced!"
The mercenary captains turned to look at the Grand Duke. Within a day — three at most — the fate of La Spezia would be decided one way or another. The choice now rested with the Grand Duke.
Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence and head of the House of Medici, spoke.
"We will save La Spezia."
At the Grand Duke's long-awaited decision, relief and hope surged through the assembled commanders.
"Your Grace!"
"However, we will reach La Spezia by sea, not by land. The Empire has no navy to speak of. They will be unable to hinder our movement."
The Grand Duke issued the order with finality, brooking no dissent.
"Deliver my command to the Mayor of Genoa immediately. All ships in Genoa are to be requisitioned. This operation is conducted in the name of His Majesty the King. Anyone who shows even the slightest refusal will be executed on the spot for insubordination!"
"Yes, Your Grace!"
The adjutant snapped a crisp salute and hurried out of the conference room.
"Send the mage corps to La Spezia ahead of us."
"Your Grace, forgive me, but… the enemy has erected an anti-magic formation against teleportation spells."
"Have they only left communications open?"
The Grand Duke clenched his fist at the messenger's addendum. He could not be certain, but the Imperial Army was most likely genuinely assaulting La Spezia. Their blocking of teleportation magic was proof. Yet just how deeply could the enemy read their thoughts…
"Since the knight order has been annihilated, they won't hold out much longer. All troops, prepare quickly. We march for La Spezia as fast as possible."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
The die was cast. But the Grand Duke had no idea which way it would land. He only hoped that he would not be ashamed of himself….