When Viscount Rosswai surrendered, Jerome praised Milton with wonder.

“You are outstanding, my Lord. You really made Viscount Rosswai surrender without letting a single arrow fly.”

Milton grinned at Jerome’s admiring expression and replied.

“It’s a 50-50 whether this was going to work. I thought it was worth a shot regardless.”

“Still, that was superb. And it looks like your plan did end up working after all, yes?”

“We just had a stroke of luck, is all.”

“What did you plan to do if Viscount Rosswai did not surrender?”

“Then we would have continued with the attack, backed with a more than apt justification.”

“I see; we wouldn’t have incurred any further losses as we kept a fight in mind anyway.”

Jerome was awestruck by Milton’s stratagem. This was a different kind of wisdom to the design of strategies that influenced the field of war, or tactics used on the frontlines in the heat of battle.

Milton had his opponent in the palm of his hand from the start, forming an accurate notion of their adversary’s mentality to know how they would react to him and drawing up strategies accordingly.

Milton’s wisdom was closer to planning and prediction than combat.

Unlike strategists or policy advisors, history tells that backstage schemers do not receive the same amount of...