Henkyou no Roukishi: Bard Loen - Vol. 6 Ch. 36 - Smoked Spirits

[alacaelum]

Well, it’s going to be a conflict for sure, but whether Lord Ensire got killed or the Persare family got purged is not known and not Bard’s business either (he’s just a traveler now).

I mostly agree with what @alacaelum said. It’s just the size of the respective armies and their loyalties are not known, so it’s not definite that Lord Ensire will lose. Ensire soldiers on the field seems to be loyal to him and he will be defending in a castle, that and as a ruling lord, if anything he has an advantage. Though if the Persare managed to amass a sizable army and hire many mercenaries then it could end up differently.

Yeah, you are right, I may have counted lord Ensire's death a little too quickly.

But his spouse's family clearly was planning this for some time, maybe even before their marriage, so the chances of them having amassed the needed firepower are big.

Even with him back and his man being loyal to him, things are still unstable, the people are worried there were things done to them, Ensire will need to reorganize his soldier and they(the soldiers) must still be feeling humiliated and with low morale after this shitshow.

And let's not forget... maybe Ensire doesn't even know about his wife's plan, if she played her cards right she can buy at least a few days without big suspicion, more than enough to warn her family and if she was smart enough to keep even more on the down low... when her family arrives she can help them infiltrate the castle, from there... well you can imagine most scenarios, they aren't difficult to come to.

 

[Tds-PdV]

Yeah, you are right, I may have counted lord Ensire's death a little too quickly.

But his spouse's family clearly was planning this for some time, maybe even before their marriage, so the chances of them having amassed the needed firepower are big.

Even with him back and his man being loyal to him, things are still unstable, the people are worried there were things done to them, Ensire will need to reorganize his soldier and they(the soldiers) must still be feeling humiliated and with low morale after this shitshow.

And let's not forget... maybe Ensire doesn't even know about his wife's plan, if she played her cards right she can buy at least a few days without big suspicion, more than enough to warn her family and if she was smart enough to keep even more on the down low... when her family arrives she can help them infiltrate the castle, from there... well you can imagine most scenarios, they aren't difficult to come to.

Yeah, I agree the Presares should have resources for this. I would lean towards Ensire knowing more than what he shows though, that was what Bard was implying in Ensire offering him hospitality to stick around (so that Bard and co. end up assisting him). Also, at least we’d think that he had time to ruminate over things while he was imprisoned and connecting the dots with the current situation.

Now, whether he knows his wife’s family is related, it’s hard to say, but after all these occurrences he surely knows someone is after him and his territory.

What we know is that the situation was changing rapidly as Bard mentioned the Presares will be sending an army that day.
As you said, it’s possible Ensire will immediately welcome the army from his wife’s family and end up getting offed. Similarly he could find it very suspicious on why he received no rescue all this time from them, consider them traitors, and keep his castle on alert and see the Presares coming with an army to be a hostile behavior.

On the soldiers’ morale, I would say it’s high because they now have their original lord and a chance to redeem themselves, especially if they are attacked. That said what you said is very much possible as well, that they are confused and concerned of the consequences of their actions, some might even desert out of fear.

Without any further information we can’t really see how things going to pan out. For instance, how well connected are Ensire and Presares? If Ensire is a part of an old noble family, he might be able to call reinforcements from all over due to his blood ties. Similarly if the Presares have major backer(s) on their plan.

My theory is that the original plan of the Presares is to pit Ensire and his brother to a civil war. They will then be legitimized to swoop in, clean up, and place the son (and their family) as the new ruler in multiple fashion. Hence why Ensire was left alive (brother has more risk than merit for doing this), possibly they have future plans to rescue him so he can fight his brother.
Such case is a win-win for the Presares because once rescued Ensire would be indebted to them, then if Ensire is losing/weak they swoop in and take both out, if Ensire is winning they assist him gaining more of his trust then they can take their time taking him out or force him to take responsibility by abdicating as they burrow their roots deeper.
The incident in this chapter threw that all out of the window and my guess is that Ensire now has wisened up to this and the Presares know that, hence their only option is a head-on collision before Ensire can call reinforcements from other nobles or at least made his political moves to other nobles.

Whether my theory is true or not, all we know is that the lives of people in that region will not get better anytime soon.

 

[alacaelum]

Yea

Yeah, I agree the Presares should have resources for this. I would lean towards Ensire knowing more than what he shows though, that was what Bard was implying in Ensire offering him hospitality to stick around (so that Bard and co. end up assisting him). Also, at least we’d think that he had time to ruminate over things while he was imprisoned and connecting the dots with the current situation.

Now, whether he knows his wife’s family is related, it’s hard to say, but after all these occurrences he surely knows someone is after him and his territory.

What we know is that the situation was changing rapidly as Bard mentioned the Presares will be sending an army that day.
As you said, it’s possible Ensire will immediately welcome the army from his wife’s family and end up getting offed. Similarly he could find it very suspicious on why he received no rescue all this time from them, consider them traitors, and keep his castle on alert and see the Presares coming with an army to be a hostile behavior.

On the soldiers’ morale, I would say it’s high because they now have their original lord and a chance to redeem themselves, especially if they are attacked. That said what you said is very much possible as well, that they are confused and concerned of the consequences of their actions, some might even desert out of fear.

Without any further information we can’t really see how things going to pan out. For instance, how well connected are Ensire and Presares? If Ensire is a part of an old noble family, he might be able to call reinforcements from all over due to his blood ties. Similarly if the Presares have major backer(s) on their plan.

My theory is that the original plan of the Presares is to pit Ensire and his brother to a civil war. They will then be legitimized to swoop in, clean up, and place the son (and their family) as the new ruler in multiple fashion. Hence why Ensire was left alive (brother has more risk than merit for doing this), possibly they have future plans to rescue him so he can fight his brother.
Such case is a win-win for the Presares because once rescued Ensire would be indebted to them, then if Ensire is losing/weak they swoop in and take both out, if Ensire is winning they assist him gaining more of his trust then they can take their time taking him out or force him to take responsibility by abdicating as they burrow their roots deeper.
The incident in this chapter threw that all out of the window and my guess is that Ensire now has wisened up to this and the Presares know that, hence their only option is a head-on collision before Ensire can call reinforcements from other nobles or at least made his political moves to other nobles.

Whether my theory is true or not, all we know is that the lives of people in that region will not get better anytime soon.

Yeah, it would be stupid of me not to consider that he is asking himself who "sponsored" his brother, and at least it can be said that Bard's interference did interrupt the rhythm of their plan.

With how ridiculously badly organized the brother's power grab was, there is much chance that the Presare family wanted to do things in a more "legal" form, just like you said.

By allowing that loser to go on his rampage and cause mayhem in the territory making the people uneasy, when the boil finally got good enough they would have come down swinging as the saviors from the usurper and tyrant.

Maybe the wife would convince the brother at some point to kill the lord, maybe not, even then by the time they would act not only the people but even some soldiers would take the Presare family actions as "lawful", and some Ensire soldiers could even go to their side, in the confusion, maybe something terrible happens and lord Ensire gets killed... or maybe he keeps alive and later because of being captive his health takes a nosedive and he dies, leaving his grieving widow and son with her family to take responsibility to bring peace to the land again.

Pretty clever plan.

But one way or another... we probably won't know what happens, unless the author wants to make this dispute have some major consequences down the road, which could happen or not, this will be just a conflict that Bard and company scattered right off, but hey... he got a badass new horse and some great booze, I would say all things considered they came out of this on the positive XD.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion, really fun stuff .

 

[Tds-PdV]

Yea

Yeah, it would be stupid of me not to consider that he is asking himself who "sponsored" his brother, and at least it can be said that Bard's interference did interrupt the rhythm of their plan.

With how ridiculously badly organized the brother's power grab was, there is much chance that the Presare family wanted to do things in a more "legal" form, just like you said.

By allowing that loser to go on his rampage and cause mayhem in the territory making the people uneasy, when the boil finally got good enough they would have come down swinging as the savior of the usurper and tyrant.

Maybe the wife would convince the brother at some point to kill the lord, maybe not, even then by the time they would act not only the people but even some soldiers would take the Presare family actions as "lawful", and some Ensire soldiers could even go to their side, in the confusion, maybe something terrible happens and lord Ensire gets killed... or maybe he keeps alive and later because of being captive his health takes a nosedive and he dies, leaving his grieving widow and son with her family to take responsibility to bring peace to the land again.

Pretty clever plan.

But one way or another... we probably won't know what happens, unless the author wants to make this dispute have some major consequences down the road, which could happen or not, this will be just a conflict that Bard and company scattered right off, but hey... he got a badass new horse and some great booze, I would say all things considered they came out of this on the positive XD.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion, really fun stuff .

Indeed, as you said, we’ll never know. And that’s kind of part of the world building. There are also many ways the conspiracy could have gone as you theorized, which is interesting to ponder about.

And, yeah good stuff. Thanks for the discussion, your points got me thinking and they really add to the enjoyment of reading the chapter.

 

[Ironclad]

Aight so lemme get this straight. The wife's family is trying to take Lord Ensire, her husband's territory, all for herself? Did I get that right?

And what about the wife's "sweet smell" then? It was mentioned a few times so I thought that was something important but I still don't understand.

Her perfume, implying she was sleeping with the traitorous brother of her own volition. Bard mentioned he was feeling uncharacteristically not chivalrous, so maybe that's why he didn't stick his nose any further into the local politics.

 

[AceTheBase]

Im so glad that in the midst of all this chaos, the White King survived and even went on the journey with them. From looking at the raws, I think Mora and Sii are gonna stick around for a bit longer. A very welcome change!

 

[Triplicity]

man im so hungry

 

[friendly]

The funniest part of this is panicking and deciding to get rid of Bard was probably the biggest misstep... I wonder if the wife asked for that mount as a gift to let the traitor lord think she could be bribed, to cause more misfotune?

Kind of a columbo plot.

 

[Sam209]

RIP Chestnut the horse. It’s not your true name, but it’s the best we got.