"Here, Evelyn, look at these books," Esther says as she places three black-covered books in front of me. The books are just plain black covers, with no symbols, titles, or images. I pick them up, noting that the covers are completely blank and offer no clue to their contents.

"..."

"They're made by me. You won't find a signature, since I don't put my name on books of this type," she says as I look on in surprise.

"You write books?" I ask, doubtful.

"From time to time. Normally, they're published without a cover and without a name, just the content. Some became famous, while others were discarded as trash... When you have free time, you need something to entertain yourself, don't you think?"

"I had a lot of free time before, so I used it to study, and sometimes to write books, usually on themes involving combat lessons, magic, and military tactics," she says proudly, as if trying to impress me.

"These here are books on military tactics. It's already clear to me that you're a complete strategist at heart. Even when you learned to see the Hikishin, you still couldn't fight directly."

"So, I want you to read and study these three books. One is about duels, another about war, and the other about general tactics and troop management. Everything that matters on a battlefield, summarized." I open one of the books and see the neat, elegant handwriting.

'...' She puts her hand in front of me, stopping me.

"Before you read, I want to see how far your leadership can go. So, let's play a game." She takes a board from a drawer and tosses it in front of me. The board opens up, extending and revealing a large map of a plain with trees in various spots.

There's also a river, and sandy areas. Overall, it's an obvious battlefield right now. Suddenly, several tiny little "figures" appear, stationary on both sides.

"This is a magical artifact I received as a gift from the Demon King after I asked for something to help me understand the panorama of a war... It's a child's toy, in my view."

"But even if it's a toy to me, it's perfect for a complete beginner, because it gives you the ability to truly command troops as you would in a real war."

"Unfortunately, it's limited to light infantry, heavy infantry, archers, terrain-control mages, cavalry, and finally, troops with shields. Nothing beyond that, and the terrain never changes, so it gets boring after a while," she says, speaking of this absurd artifact as if it were a mere toy.

'What kind of child plays war!?' This is clearly not a toy! At the very least, I can't see it as a child's toy or a simple game.

"Your challenge is simple, Evelyn. We'll control our troops and fight. They obey your orders as long as you don't exceed a certain limit... And of course, they can also refuse to follow suicidal orders."

"It all depends on your charisma, confidence, and primarily, control. The pieces here were made with a magic that perfectly recognizes the players and simulates them on the battlefield. If you hesitate, the pieces will perceive your hesitation."

"And since it's a relic meant for a child, it was made in a simple way. If you show fear, cowardice, hesitation, or give wrong orders that cause damage to yourself, the board deducts [Reputation]. Each player starts with 100 Reputation."

"And without Reputation, you cannot command. While you have 100 Reputation, you can give almost any order. If you do everything perfectly, you gain a 50 Reputation bonus and can even give suicidal orders that the soldiers will obey."

"However, as your Reputation lowers, they obey your orders less, and may even flee the board, causing you to lose pieces... Each of us has 1000 pieces in total."

"The task on the board is to capture the commander. In this case, you must capture my piece that simulates who I am... Are you ready, and do you understand the basic rules?" she asks, and I nod my head.

"Great, then I'll start the match." She presses something beneath the board, and soon the "battlefield" seems to rise up, generating a panorama that is practically a 3D hologram of the battlefield.

'Wow... the little figures even look like real people.' I look at the figures, surprised by this magic.

"Mages, use earth magic to form walls!" Esther, ignoring me, immediately starts giving orders. I realize I lost my chance to start first because I was distracted, and I grow anxious.

'If she's forming defenses, I should attack right away and not let her defend!!'

"C-Cavalry, advance!" I give a confused order. The figures look at a specific figure that is their "leader"—meaning, it represents me—and they advance.

"..." I see a counter on the side. It was at 100, but it dropped to 98. I realize it's my Reputation.

'D-Damn it, I started poorly...'

"Evelyn, what foolishness. You don't send cavalry into an open field. Archers, fire arrows!" As she gives her command, a volley of arrows is fired from much farther away than I expected was possible.

The arrows fall on my cavalry, practically killing half of them as they continue to advance. Seeing the pieces reduced like this increases my anxiety.

"R-Retreat! Cavalry, retreat! Mages, provide support for...."

"Mages, block the cavalry's retreat with fire magic to scare the horses. And my light infantry, begin your advance alongside the shield team for protection against enemy arrows," Esther speaks over me. I look at her, feeling wronged.

"Evelyn, this is a battle. In a battle, the enemy won't wait for your turn to give orders," she says as her soldiers advance safely. With their shields, I can't even order my archers to attack, while her mages hinder my cavalry's retreat with walls of fire.

The horses get spooked and refuse to obey, throwing my cavalry into total disarray and destroying their formation.

"M-Mages, create walls to stop the enemy advance! A-and... light infantry... advance?" I don't understand warfare. What the hell should I do? My soldiers look at me again.

I see the Reputation number dropping like water: 95, 90, 88, 86, 84, 80... it stops at 77, dropping significantly because of my orders. My mages manage to create some protections with earth magic, but she still maintains the advantage.

"I-Heavy infantry, advance from the flanks! A-Archers, provide covering fire for the heavy infantry! And shield soldiers, go with the heavy infantry!" I give more orders, nervous. Esther isn't going to attack the light infantry with her archers because it would hit her own team, so I send the shields with the heavy infantry.

"..." In the middle of the battlefield, my soldiers clash head-on with Esther's, but I see mine being massacred. Her shield soldiers block my soldiers' strikes, while her light infantry takes advantage of the openings to kill.

'Go! Go!' The heavy infantry manages to push through, continuing forward on the flanks. I look at them, hoping they can get far.

"Evelyn, you fool. Why did you send all your soldiers to the battlefield? Cavalry, advance across the field, circle around, and take the enemy commander from the rear. Mages, use protective spells to defend the cavalry as much as possible against enemy archers and mages."

"Heavy infantry, I want half of you to defend me while the other half follows the cavalry," she gives orders, and I see my morale falling even further. My Reputation drops to 50, while hers remains at 100, not moving an inch.

Since I have no ground troops near my base, her cavalry passes by easily, circling the battlefield as it advances against me.

"M-Mages, form large walls to stop her cavalry and... u-use fire to stop the horses!..." I look at my mages, but they don't obey.

"H-Hey!! What are you doing?! Attack! Use magic! D-Do something!!" I say, sounding a bit too desperate for what is a mere game. My mages look at the piece that represents me and ignore the order.

I look at my Reputation; it fell to 30. My despair is destroying my chances of command even more. I see the light infantry I have left; they are fleeing the battlefield, and my archers are starting to run away too.

"..." And in less than 3 minutes, her cavalry surrounded the place where "I" am. My character looks at all the enemies around it and raises its hands in surrender, while my Reputation drops to 0.

"..." I look on, utterly defeated. I was completely crushed.

"You are terrible at leadership. It surprises me that you commanded those two puppets before when you were an adventurer. Did you only survive by luck? With leadership like this, did you actually help in any meaningful way?" Her words sting my self-esteem.

"..." She seems to realize how harsh she's being and simply turns off the relic as I bite my lip.

"Don't worry too much. I'll help you improve now that I know your limit," she says, coming over to me, while a horrible thought comes to my mind.

That if they were real people, most of them would be dead because I could barely give a single correct order.

"Besides, Evelyn, you had no way of winning even if you had played well, because I am experienced. Not to mention, I controlled the entire battlefield. Predicting beginners is easy."

"I knew that if I started by defending, you would try to advance with the fastest troops to stop me from setting up, because you get impulsive when you're nervous. But that's where you made your biggest mistake."

"Retreating is rarely an option. The moment your cavalry advanced and was hit by arrows, you shouldn't have ordered a retreat. By retreating, you only sacrificed Reputation, took damage, and gained nothing useful. You should have ordered them to advance."

"Because that way, they would have clashed with my troops near my territory, which would have prevented me from making moves like sending my cavalry around the flanks. Meanwhile, you sending your other troops would have made the fight happen near my leader."

"And that would have given you time to command your mages to stop any chance of me using the cavalry to capture you, since in that situation my heavy infantry would be used for defense and wouldn't go with the cavalry," she explains.

"..."

"O-Okay... so did I do well? Since I couldn't beat you, I must have at least given you some trouble, right?" I ask, a little hopeful.

"No, you were horrible. You are the worst beginner I have ever seen. And not just because you're predictable, but because you make impulsive choices and get nervous."

"..."

"But that will change. I will train you in this, and in the future, you will be able to lead real troops... and deal with the weight of lives lost by your decisions." She hands me the three books as she says this.

"Now read. I'll stay here watching you read, and I'll answer your questions and doubts. Don't think of the book's content as a manual, but as reality, because I wrote these books based on my own personal experience, so everything in them is correct." I take the books and decide to just obey, since she's the one who knows what she's talking about.

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