I Only Love My Greatest Enemy

Count Staufer and Marshal Ludwig marched out of the chapel with Armand behind them. With a grimace, Ludwig turned to some of his mercenaries.

"Gather up the severed wolf heads and one of the bodies. Bring them to our baggage train. We'll show them to as many lords as we can," Ludwig said.

The Landsknechts did as ordered, moving to grab the heads. Marshal Ludwig turned to his brother next.

"I trust you can handle everything else here?" he asked.

"Yes. I can," Count Staufer answered.

Ludwig's gaze turned to Armand.

"I apologize for shortening your reunion with your fiance, Lord Armand. But I don't want to waste time," he stated. "Though, I don't know your relationship with her. You might be happy to be separated."

"I'm actually pretty sad. We would have been separated for a time after the banquet anyway, but we are deeply in love," Armand said before thinking. "Well, Eris is in love with me. There is no way I could ever love someone like her. But I am sad that I won't be near her. I finally found something I could cooperate with Eris on that would save lives, and now we'll be far enough away that working with her might not be possible."

The boy ran some numbers in his head.

"It takes, on average, half a day for one of my letters to reach Eris. And our lands share a border. If I end up in the Northern region of Foldzar, worst-case scenario, it would take over a month to send a letter to her. Even in the best-case scenario, it would take more than a week. Fast communication with Eris won't be possible. And I can forget about getting to her quickly."

Marshal Ludwig nodded as he surveyed Armand.

"When are you getting married to your fiance?" the Marshal asked.

"Two years from now," Armand answered.

"I will make sure that you have time to get married then," Ludwig said. "Now, go ahead and say goodbye to your fiance for now. Just be quick about it. I will have my Landsknechts get your things from your room."

Armand bowed.

"Thank you, Marshal Ludwig," he said.

The boy looked around the feasting hall for Eris. She was nowhere to be found. Moving outside, Armand saw several of Eris' servants carrying bombs from a broken carriage. Standing nearby, the girl was keeping on lookout.

When Eris saw Armand, she waved to him. He approached her.

"What are you doing, Eris?" Armand asked.

"Thank the gods, it was Armand that came out. I didn't have to tell my servants to hide. Rushing things with explosives is never a good idea," she thought.

"I was planning on assassinating someone with those magically-timed bombs," Eris answered. "But her carriage was destroyed by the Not Wolves, and she was eaten by them. So, I'm taking the bombs back and disabling the timer."

Armand's eye twitched, but he took a deep breath. Eris shifted with nervousness.

"Eris, I'll be fast. Marshal Ludwig did not give me much time to talk to you," he said.

"Go on," Eris replied.

"Please don't kill my family," Armand begged.

Shock coated Eris.

"I wouldn't do that," she stated before thinking. "If I killed Armand's family, he would never forgive me. Letting some nuisances live is better than having Armand hate me."

"I'm serious, Eris," Armand said. "My younger brother, Charles, is 11. He's almost a man, and he hates me. I have a deal with him, but I don't know if he will keep up his end while I'm away. He might plot against you."

Eris grimaced, but she didn't say anything.

"Please, Eris, don't kill him. If you have no choice, then...you have no choice," tears welled in Armand's eyes. "But if there's any alternative, keep him alive, even if it means throwing Charles in a dungeon. I don't want my brother to die."

Then, Marshal Ludwig's voice came to them.

"Lord Armand! It's time to go!"

The boy didn't hesitate. He marched to Marshal Ludwig right away. There was a group of Landsknechts with him, making preparations to leave. Some of them had Armand's luggage. Eris walked over to her carriage.

Her servants had placed all the bombs inside. Eris stepped into the carriage, placing her hand on one of the bombs and uttering an incantation. There was a puff of smoke, and the magic timer was undone.

"I'm glad I decided to cast the deactivation spell ahead of time. You can never be too careful," Eris said.

She placed her hand on each of the bombs, undoing the activation spells one by one. After a few minutes, the weapons were as safe as any Early Modern explosive could be.

Then, the girl turned to her servants.

"Bring my baggage here. We are leaving the moment everything is together," Eris said.

Several servants rushed to get her things. The others made preparations to leave. Eris made sure that her horses were rounded when she left the feast hall earlier. While the animals were in a panic after the Not Wolves attacked, they thankfully were unharmed.

"None of the horses were injured. Wild beasts would have feasted on them before attacking humans. We have less meat on us. If any noble thinks this was anything other than an attack against Foldzar's leadership, they should be executed for their stupidity. Even a subhuman could figure it out," were Eris' thoughts at the time.

Now, Eris' brow was furrowed as she sat in her carriage. Her mind was focused on a different issue.

"That bastard Brutus survived the attack. He's still in the hall there. I doubt that he'll give me a chance to kill him. The best I can do is get back home and get ready for whatever he sends at me," Eris contemplated.

The girl's servants returned with her luggage. They placed it in the carriage and, after some incredibly swift preparations, it took off.

Eris gazed at the castle behind her as the vehicle moved. The entrance to the main hall had been knocked off its hinges. Bodies of servants and guards were scattered in the area outside it, and there was a sheen of blood on the grass.

"Brutus will probably take some time to get ready for any potential monster attacks after this. That will give me some breathing room, but I will have to prepare too. This attack might just be an outlier. But it could also mean the disasters are going to happen sooner. There's too much we don't know," Eris thought. "The worst part is Armand's brother."

The girl turned her gaze back to the front of the carriage. She pressed her fingers together, her eyes narrowing.

Eris recalled scenes from before she went back in time. Armand and Brutus joining forces and getting in the way of her plans. Their mercenary forces combining to face hers, battles of intrigue in castles, and the two of them succeeding at ending serfdom.

"If Charles is anywhere near Armand's level, I will be in trouble if he joins forces with Brutus. Charles and Brutus shouldn't be too distracted by other matters like Armand and Brutus were. They could pincer me because their lands are on opposite sides of mine. This would be less of a problem if I could try to kill Charles, but Armand already lost his family once. I'm not letting him lose them again. I will have to deal with Charles with kid gloves," Eris thought.

Frustration welled up in Eris. The girl recalled everything that had happened up to the banquet and the massacre that followed.

"Things were going so well too, and then all this had to happen. I've never even met Charles before. I don't know what he looks like, and I don't know anything about him. I can expect him to be like Armand. Or can I? Siblings are always similar, but there are bound to be differences. For now, I will assume the worst, that he's every bit as good at manipulation as Armand. I doubt Charles is, but I cannot afford to underestimate him."

Then, Eris' brow loosened. A smile crossed her face. She struggled to hold in evil laughter.

"But I have a few advantages. Even if Charles is as good as Armand, Brutus should know less about him than I do. After all, there is no way Armand would tell Brutus that Charles hates him. If I can get to Charles before Brutus does, I could turn this situation to my advantage. Even if Charles isn't on Armand's level, it would still be one more ally that I could use against Brutus."

Eris leaned back, feeling the leather of her seat. The girl gazed up at the roof of the carriage.

"Why do I get the feeling that I should be petting a white cat now?" she thought. "It doesn't matter. I'll need to be careful. Even if Armand loves me, I don't think he would have said anything positive about me to his siblings. He still thinks there's a chance that I would kill someone in his family, after all. I know Armand has several sisters as well as his brother. They'll probably try to protect Charles from my influence. Armand also didn't have time to tell me why Charles hates him. I need to figure that out as soon as I can."

The girl then placed a finger to her chin as her contemplations continued.

"I can't trust Armand's parents either. They might have their own agenda with my and Armand's marriage. The two were planning on disinheriting him, after all. Armand should have dealt with that by now, but there is no such thing as being too paranoid. But I can at least be sure that they won't try to kill me. That would waste the whole marriage."

Then, everything clicked into place.

"Armand's parents were trying to disinherit him. Charles is the second eldest son, so he is the natural choice for their replacement heir. If Charles knew about his parents' plan and Armand foiled it, then he might think that Armand stole his inheritance from him. That would explain why he hates Armand," Eris sighed. "If this is true, it means Charles is a hypocrite. A thief who gets mad when the rightful owner takes his stolen item back. I expected better from Armand's brother."

The girl shook her head, anger and frustration flowing through her. An expression of exasperation crossed her face.

"Why do I even care about that? Charles is, at best, a tool. And at worst, he's an enemy that I have to spare. I shouldn't care if he's a good person or not. Though, I suppose that telling a child that he is going to be the heir and then disinheriting him would make him mad. I'm not giving up Armand's estate, and Armand is the rightful heir, but I would be mad too if I was in Charles' position."

Eris punched herself in the face.

"My Lady, are you alright?" the carriage driver called out.

"I'm fine. Just saw a fly and missed my swat," she said.

The driver knew better than to question what Eris told him.

"That was stupid of me. I shouldn't sympathize with Charles, even if he is Armand's brother. And all this is assuming that I'm right about why he hates Armand. No, no, no, the fact that Charles is Armand's brother shouldn't have anything to do with this. Charles is a tool or an obstacle, nothing more and nothing less. The best thing for me to do is to get to him before Brutus can. I need to have prolonged contact with him and the rest of Armand's family. It's about time that I get to know them anyway. I have a feeling that I will have to deal with them, even if Armand's sisters get married off to lords halfway across the world."

Eris allowed herself to smile again. In fact, it was a wide grin.

"I might not be in a good position, but I can make the best of it. Armand leaving gives me the perfect excuse to spend time at his household. One of the duties of a noblewoman is to manage her husband's affairs while he is away, and Armand has taken more power in his family. Knowing Armand, he took on a number of duties with that increased power."

She turned her gaze to the carriage window. Eris looked over the vast farmland, woods, and villages lining the landscape.

"I'm not Armand's wife yet. But I can still tell his family that I'm going to handle his duties in his absence. I can even say that Armand asked me to. I'll send a letter to Armand, telling him about my plan and asking if there's anything I need to know about his duties. I can't expect much help from his family, after all. But I don't know where Armand is going, so I'm not sure how long it will take to get the letter to him. I will have to go to my family, explain things, and then go to Armand's family as soon as possible. By then, they should know about the massacre. I should send them a letter too ahead of time."

Determination pulsed through Eris like the beating of her heart.

"Armand, no matter what, I will prove that you can trust me."