As night fell, I prepared to go to the castle for my appointment with Sophie. I decided that Fairis should stay here quietly, and left Tia to guard her. I don't want to worry about anything if Fairis is alone.

If I do it in the hideout, the warding will interfere with it, so once I'm outside, I'll use the <Advanced-TransferGreater Teleportation>. When I moved to Sophie's room, she turned to me and smiled, as if she knew I was coming with the transfer.

「Welcome, Yard-sama.」

As she pulled out a chair and greeted me, Sophie's figure looked more glamorous than before. I think she has become much more attractive since the incident that night.

「Oh, excuse me. So, what is the reason why you called me here today?」

「Right, I was informed that Yard-sama has recently been suspected of heresy by the church, and I wanted to help you clear your name.」

「I see, I appreciate that, but how do you plan to clear the suspicion?」

「Right, normally I would send a petition to the church, but it can take several years to prove heresy that way, so I'll tell you a better way this time.」

She replied confidently, so maybe she had some connections in the church. Just as I was about to ask her the rest of the story, there was a knock on the door of the room. Apparently, there was another guest in the room beside me. However, the person who came in was someone unexpected.

「Sophia, I'm coming in.」

「Yes, thank you for granting my urgent request, Father.」

It was the king who came in. I was taken aback by the suddenness of the situation, but I quickly rose from my chair and took my vassal's bow while desperately searching for an excuse. There was only one thing a parent could think of a man who was in his daughter's room at night.

「His Majesty the King. There's a reason for this: ......」

「Good, Viscount Werner. My daughter told me you were here. Make yourself comfortable.」

「Thank you. ......」

For a moment I thought it might be a bad idea, but the king didn't seem too bothered by my presence. Sophie is laughing with her voice suppressed when she sees me panicking. I didn't need this kind of surprise.

「Well then, Sophia. What is it you want to talk about at this hour?」

The king was giving her a stern look, but she indicated me with her hand without losing her smile.

「I would like your permission to marry Yard-sama.」

「What!?」

I was the one who was surprised by her sudden statement. I knew that she felt that way, but I didn't expect her to say that to her father out of the blue.

I looked at the king, but he didn't seem too surprised and continued to give his daughter a stern look.

「...... Sophia, why now?」

「I'm sure father has heard of it.」

「Fumu, the rumor, huh. But I'll have to hear your thoughts first.」

「Okay. In fact, I have been promised in marriage to Yard-sama for some time. He had asked me to wait until he had the proper position, but I thought it best to make our relationship public in order to stop the Church from running amok.」

The king listened to what Sophie had to say and thought about something for a while but eventually opened his mouth.

「...... I see, I don't mean to say that royalty shouldn't marry for love. But Viscount Werner is a little short of a title to marry you. Are you aware of that right?」

「Yes, that's why I invited father here. Please help me to raise the title of Yard-sama.」

「......」

The king groans meditatively at his daughter's request. Is he thinking about whether or not to cooperate with his daughter? The fact that he doesn't reject her out of the blue is probably a sign that the king approves of me. I was grateful for that.

What I was thinking at the time, however, was whether or not I could pretend this conversation never happened. I didn't think I would suddenly meet her father without a proposal. The idea that the relationship between a man and a woman should proceed more slowly was running through my mind.

「...... Mm, okay. All right. You're saying that the Viscount should have the opportunity to get the credit he deserves for his elevation, is that what you're saying?」

「Yes.」

「All right. Then, I would like you to go and capture the Istrian fortress, which has long been said to be impregnable. If you can conquer that place, it will be an achievement worthy of a count's title.」

「Istrina? With all due respect, father, I don't think it's going to be easy, even for Yard-sama.」

「I'm giving you my daughter, you must show me that much talent. So be it, Viscount.」

「Hmm? Ahh, I understand.」

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't really listen to what he was saying, but when the king asked me about it, I quickly replied on the spur of the moment. I thought he had said something about a fort.

「I'll give you an official order tomorrow. Sophia, is that okay with you?」

「Yes, I apologize for calling you at this hour.」

「Good. Then I will leave now. Viscount, if you wish to take my daughter Sophia as your wife, you will do well to live up to her expectations.」

The king said this and left the room. The king was not opposed to the marriage itself. He must have heard about my relationship with her through the grapevine, or he must have thought there was a good chance of it. It seems that Sophie had successfully blocked my escape route. So she's not living among the nobility.

Well, I had thought that there was a possibility that I would marry Sophie, so it was not something that I would force myself to resist. Rather, now I should just think about whether or not I can bring down the fort that was mentioned.

「Um, Yard-sama: ......」

「Hmm? Is something matter?」

「I'm sorry for bringing up the subject of marriage without asking Yard-sama's will.」

「Oh, don't worry about that. I figured it would happen sooner or later. Is that fort really that hard to take down?」

「Yes, it's an invasion base of the Demon Empire. If we can seize that place, it will be difficult for the Demon Empire to invade with a large army like before. However, the other side knows that, so they have gathered a reasonable amount of strength in that fort.」

「If you want to get a title to marry royalty, you have to be tough enough to do it, right?」

Well, it doesn't matter how many mere soldiers I have, there's no threat to me from an enemy whose location I know. In fact, it would be more troublesome to manage them afterward.

「I heard that the terrain there makes it difficult for the invaders to attack, so even if we were to attack from here, it would be tough with only knights and soldiers. I'm sure they will add a few magicians, but I think it would be better for Yard-sama to have a good number of people as well.」

「I would like to take that advice, but I don't know any other magicians. Well, if Elle and I are there, then we should be fine with just a few soldiers.」

「Is that so? If Yard-sama says so, then I'm sure it'll be all right.」

Sophie agreed without even questioning my words. I wondered if that was a good idea, but since she was convinced, it was better not to say anything else.

The King said he would talk about it in detail tomorrow, so I decided to leave tonight. Sophie looked at me a little sad, but if I didn't leave early, the king might have had a strange misunderstanding.

When I returned to the basement of the mansion, Fairis was already asleep. For some reason, she was sleeping on my bed instead of her own, wrapped in a blanket, and I thought about knocking her off.

※

The next day, I went to the royal palace again to get official orders from the king. The church officials seemed to have played it out, and there was no one trying to catch me.

「Viscount Werner, it seems that the church is treating you as a heretic, but I believe in your loyalty. I would like to ask you to capture the Istrian fortress.」

「As you wish. I will make sure that this fortress falls.」

「Umu, you have said it well. I will give you the troops to capture the fort. How many men do you need?」

Tia told me this morning that this country had tried to capture the fort with a large force of a thousand men in the past, but they had to retreat due to a fierce counterattack by the enemy. I was told that more troops would be fine this time, but it was not advantageous to have so many. In fact, it would be a disadvantage for me.

「A hundred men would be enough.」

「You want to capture that impregnable fort with only a hundred men? It's winter now, we can't fight a siege, we have to take down the fort as quickly as possible, don't be ridiculous!」

The blond-haired man who is rushing at me right now is Sophie's brother, the First Prince Robert. I'm sure I've seen him since the first day I came to this world, but he didn't leave much of an impression on me. If you ask me, he has a certain air of dignity that may slightly resemble that of the king.

He was also the man who had commanded the army that had attacked Istrian last time. I'm sure it's an unbelievable number to him, but I can do it by myself if I just want to annihilate the enemy, so the number doesn't really matter.

Besides, as he said, it's tough to act outdoors in this season. If we are going to attack the fort, we need to take it down quickly as he said, so moving with a large army is impossible in terms of action speed.

「The reason for our defeat last time was that we didn't have any good magicians. For a magician with a certain level of skill, a siege with no moving targets is a much easier job than an open battle. At any rate, since the enemy is concentrated in one place, it becomes a good target for large-scale magic.」

「But of course, the opponent knows this, and there must be many magicians who can use defensive magic. In the first place, in terms of the number of magicians, the Demon Empire has far more than our country. How in the world are we going to get more magicians than them?」

「You seem to be concerned about the number of people, but that is not necessary. Only two magicians are participating, myself and my apprentice Elmaire. There's no point in having more than that. If anything, they'll be slowing us down.」

「Don't joke about it. Even if you and your apprentice are excellent magicians, there's no way you can take on many a lot of enemies.」

He didn't see the battle in the fortress, so he might not understand, but even if several Adriana-class magicians came out, they wouldn't be a threat to me. As long as Elle was prepared in advance, she would be able to overwhelm any number of them.

There was no point in talking to him any longer, so I turned my head toward the king. When he saw that I was blatantly out of his sight, his face turned red with anger.

「His Majesty the King, may I borrow a hundred soldiers?」

「Umu, you seem to have a lot of confidence. Well, I hope your confidence is not just empty talk.」

「I appreciate it.」

In the discussion that followed, it was decided that we would leave in three days. I was told to keep my wits about us until then, but do you really think I can afford to do that when I'm still on the run from the church?

Anyway, the discussion was over and I was about to head back to the mansion when Robert arrived. I wondered if he had come to complain about the fact that I had ignored him earlier.

「Viscount Werner, I need to have a word with you, so please join me.」

「Hmm, I don't mind.」

Without waiting for my reply, I followed him onward and arrived at what I thought was his room. Inside, there were almost no furnishings, and the room didn't look like royalty. It was unusual for a nobleman in this world.

Robert urged me to sit down on a chair. It was another chair without any decoration, perhaps because of its practicality.

He brought out a map of some kind and spread it out on the desk. I couldn't tell where it was, but it had a rather detailed topographical map with a building in the center. Perhaps this was a map of the area around Fort Istrian?

「Well then, Viscount Werner. I'm sorry that this is an old map, but this is a map of the terrain around that fort. When I attacked, I attacked from this area on the south side, but if you are going with a small group, it would be better to attack from this location to deceive the enemy's eyes.」

Pointing to the map, he told me where I could attack easily and where the enemy could see the danger. I was a little confused by his attitude as if he was a different person from the one I had just discussed.

「I appreciate the information, but why are you telling me this? I don't mean to be rude, but I thought you had a different opinion from me.」

「Of course, I don't like people like you either. But you don't know how sad my sister will be if you die. Listen, you must come back alive. Even if you can't bring down the fort, you have to come back here alive. I can't leave my sister in the hands of a man who can't even fulfill the wishes of the woman he loves.」

Like the king and Margarete, this guy also seems to have a soft spot for Sophie. I've never talked to her, but I think the queen might be the same way.

After I finished explaining the map, I thanked Robert who was glaring at me, and tried to leave the room.

「Don't ever do anything to make my sister cry.」

「Yeah, I'll be fine. I swear I'll come back alive.」

I exchanged a few words with him and left the room.

I'm not going to die, but I'm going to teach Elle a new technique to make sure she's ready. With the information I had just received, I was able to determine the location of the fort that seemed to be within range of my planned technique.

The remaining problems are Elle's technique and her laxity in combat. The latter can't be fixed even if I tell her, so there's nothing I can do about it.

※

When I returned to the mansion from the castle, I went to Elle's place before going to the underground hideout. The purpose of my visit was to teach her the techniques needed for her upcoming mission and to supervise her training.

When I entered Elle's room, I found her in the middle of a training session. She was crouched on the floor, holding her mouth, and the composition of the method kept appearing and disappearing around her, each time making her shake and endure the pain and nausea.

She had been training to increase her magical power like this ever since she returned from Leshiana. She said she wanted to increase her magic power in as short a time as possible, so I taught her the hardest but most efficient way.

The method is to keep activating the magic formula while the magic power is cut off, but in this way, the body will try to take in magic power from the outside forcibly to activate the formula. In this way, the maximum amount of magic power increases slightly, but when the external magic power that is not controlled by the magic imprint is converted into magic power of its own, severe pain and a feeling of nausea and vomiting come over the whole body.

If you continue to do this for five hours a day for a month, the maximum amount of magic power will increase by about 40%, although there are individual differences. In a year, it would increase fifty to sixty times. In fact, after a certain point, it becomes difficult to increase the amount of magic power, so this method can only increase the amount of magic power by 30 times at most.

「Elle, that's enough of your training for today. There's a technique I need you to learn.」

「Ah ...... Master ......」

She didn't seem to have noticed me because of her training and looked at me with unfocused eyes. She was sticky with sweat and other juices, so I told her to wash her face anyway.

I poured out some water into a nearby container and handed it to her. While she was washing her face with it, I restored her magic power with a magic Mana Transfer. Her maximum value is much higher than that of an ordinary elf, but from my point of view, it's only a margin of error, so there's still plenty of time for her to recover completely.

「Thank you very much. So, what is the technique that I should learn?」

「Ahh, it's a telepathic system called <DaydreamHalucination>. I'll be using it on my soldiers during the upcoming invasion of the Istrian fortress.」

「I see. What are the effects of these techniques?」

「By suppressing reason, it creates a state of psychological defenselessness, and in some cases, hallucinations.?Unlike another telepathic system, this one is not as effective as the others, but it works by utilizing group psychology. It's mainly a technique for stalling and inciting.」

「So that's what I need to learn, I understand.」

I drew a sample magic circle with no magic power to show Elle. It's a complicated structure that someone who doesn't understand the formula might give up on learning it at a glance, but Elle, who is being educated by me, seemed to understand most of it after just looking at it for a while.

「I thought it had a similar structure to the <Thought-GuidingGuidepost>, but it's quite different, isn't it?」

「That is a technique that is completely aimed at controlling thoughts, but this technique is not aimed at controlling that much detail. As long as you can guide the direction of emotions, the rest will flow on its own with the human mind. It's more like <Hypnotic>>, focusing on slowing down thoughts and suppressing reason.」

「So why don't we just expand <Hypnotic>?」

「<Hypnotic> is too effective. With the right environment, it is possible to use group psychology to induce thoughts and emotions without using the technique, but it is only a technique to eliminate it. If you suppress reason too much, it will interfere with the operation that follows.」

「If you put it that way, it's true. If the effect is weak, should I prioritize the strength of the technique? I'll give it a try.」

She immediately started to draw a magic circle by herself, but since it was her first time, the composition was not good enough and she failed to activate it. Still, after several attempts, she was able to succeed. The only thing left to do was to increase the accuracy and speed of the magic formula.

As I was watching the magic circle being activated over and over again through trial and error, she suddenly stopped drawing the magic circle and looked at me with a dissatisfied expression.

「Uhmm, Master.」

「What is it, is there something you are worried about?」

「No, why are we attacking the fort at this time of year? Marching in winter is inevitably tough, and I believe Istrian had a fair amount of snow during the winter. It seems like an impossible order under normal circumstances, but is there a reason why you have to attack at this time of year?」

「Yeah, it's to dispel the rumors about the case.」

「...... Are you going to marry Sophia-sama by any chance? The reason you're attacking the fort is because you want the credit for raising the Master's rank, right?」

I don't remember telling her about my engagement with Sophie, but apparently, she guessed based on the little information she had.

「That's right. It was Sophie's suggestion because I thought it would be the most effective in the current situation. In fact, dealing with that bishop won't stop the rumors that I'm an elf lover. If that's the case, it would be faster to erase the rumors with further events, and it would also clear the church of any suspicion of heresy.」

In the case of Dian and Barkfield, the situation could have been resolved by dealing with the person himself, but this time, I was dealing with the church and the people who spread the rumors, so I couldn't take any action to destroy them one by one.

As Sophie had suggested, it would be easier to show that she and I were on good terms with each other than to persuade the church members. Well, I'm sure that Sophie was not just thinking of being nice, but she also wanted to use this matter to get the king to approve our marriage, but let's just say that she was one step ahead of me there.

「Yard-sama.」

Elle turned her head to the side as she listened to me, but after a moment, she looked up and gave me a serious look.

「Could I become Yard-sama concubine?」

「That's impossible. What do you think I'm marrying Sophie for? Having you as a concubine would be meaningless. That goes for Natalia, too, I have no intention of welcoming another woman for a while.」

「I see. Then how about when the rumors die down?」

「...... I'm sorry to say that, while I have feelings for you as a mentor and disciple at the moment, I do not harbor those feelings.」

「...... I am in love with you. Ever since you took my hand when I had no memory and told me to come with you, my heart has been drawn to you.」

Even after hearing my distant rejection, Elle still persisted, but no matter what she said to me now, my mind was fixed.

「I see. I appreciate the sentiment, but I didn't bring you here to imitate the concubine. I can't reciprocate your feelings, at least not right now.」

The reason I brought Elle here was to see how far she could go in acquiring magical skills if she were to be educated by people from this world, and to that end, I would not hesitate to conduct experiments that would be inimical to humanity. If there is a possibility that I might become emotionally attached to her as a concubine and use her as a hindrance to my experiments, then I need to eliminate that possibility as much as possible.

「...... I see.」

Elle resumed her training, looking more depressed than before. I knew this would happen if I said no, but I was more concerned with myself than with Elle's personal feelings. I'm sorry for her, but until I can come to a satisfactory conclusion, I'm not going to hold her, nor am I going to make her my woman.

After that, she was going to continue the training until the activation stabilized, but Elle's mental state was not as good as I had imagined, so I ended the training early and let her rest. If she's still reeling from the shock of her lost love after tomorrow, I might as well consider erasing her memory.