Going over our situation and some personal details

As I followed the soldier I looked up and realized that it wasn't even noon yet, this day felt so long, shaking off the though I continued following the soldiers, after a few more minutes of walking we arrived at a thin patch of trees which the camp was scattered across, the camp was made up of 20ish tents separated into a few different groups by the trees, continuing to follow the soldier we arrived at the largest tent in the camp, I had to hunch over to fit in the tent and as I entered I saw Shinju, Daiki, and Akune around a simple table.

As I entered the 3 went quiet, moving to the table I quickly sat down so I could stop hunching, I then turned to Shinju and asked "you wished to speak to me?" she nodded before saying "We are in a pretty bad situation honestly, lord Kosuke is a spiteful man and will be furious once he learns about our situation." I nodded then asked "I know lady Haruka is outnumbered, how bad is it for her?" Shinju thought for a moment before replying "lord Kosuke has gathered around 2,000 conscripts with 300 samurai and is sieging Yokotori castle which lady Haruka is currently defending but she only has 100 samurai and another 100 or 200 conscripts to defend with, her uncle an honorable and loyal man by the name of Akahito has been trying to gather a relief **** but that's proved difficult, though he has so far evaded the raiding parties which are trying to capture him."

I nodded before asking "before we continue I have to ask, why are you so willing to serve me and betray Kosuke? don't lie to me." Shinju sighed and said "because Kosuke is a terrible person and a bad lord, I also know he'll have my head once he learns about my defeat and enslaving so because I'm **** to follow your orders anyways my best bet for survival is to serve you loyally and hope that your a kind lord."

I nodded, "You're a pragmatist, I like that, I hope to be worthy of your service." I then turned to Daiki and Akane and asked "I'm guessing you 2 are in the same place as Shinju?" they nodded, then Akane said "if Shinju thinks it's our best bet then it probably is." Daiki elbowed him hard when he said that but Shinju couldn't stop herself from chuckling, that made me wonder "you 3 seems to be rather casual with each other, do you have much history?" Akane responded first, "the 3 of us have been friends since we were kids."

Shinju rolls her eyes before saying "we have some history, but I need to ask you, do you have a plan?" I thought for a moment before saying "I have some idea, lord Kosuke is the main threat so well have to defeat him, we'll want to link with Akahito but well need a lot more before we can try to break the siege, tell me how many more raiding parties are there?"

After a minute she replied "5 I believe, we were sent out to attack these smaller mountain villages but the rest are in the lowlands targeting larger towns and hunting Akahito." liking the sound of this I asked "how many samurai total?" she replied "not exactly sure but around 30 if I had to give an exact number, plus a few hundred conscripts." I then said "well that's a start, I can make more soldiers using magic so that'll help, anyone else have any thoughts or ideas?"

Shinju sighed "it isn't the worst idea and it's not like we have a great number of options so we'll try it." Akane then said "the armies are mostly beastmen so we have very few mages, you'll probably be the strongest mage in either armies in fact!" Daiki then added "Akane is right, also if we do subjugate the raiding parties and **** them onto our side morale will crumble on Kosuke's side while securing support from the peasantry meaning we may be able to match him." Shinju nodded "it seems it's the plan then."

We spent some time going over the details of the raiding parties, how well find them, and so on. After a while of this I asked Shinju "could you tell me what you know about lady Haruka?" Shinju thought for a minute "from what I've heard she is a rather compassionate and capable lord but she lacks experience and resources, she would be a good ally in the long term if we can beat Kosuke." I agreed with her, then having thought of something I asked Shinju "tell me is lady Haruka married?" she looked puzzled for a second before she seemed to realize what I was thinking and said "no, she isn't married or even betrothed, thinking of proposing if we win?" I nodded.

Daiki seemed to be following along but Akane was confused and asked "what are you planning exactly?" Shinju replied to him "if we win this then lord Mitsuki will have control of lord Kosuke, his lands, army, and a strong reputation so if he marries lady Haruka then we'll be able to unite our territories which will make us a notable faction, at least in the north as well as avoid more conflicts between us." understanding hit Akane and he agreed it was a good idea.

Next I asked "following my last question what are the marriage customs here, specifically among the nobility?" Shinju replied "a simplified version is that noblemen can have 1 primary spouse and as many secondary spouses as they want, though it's also common to have unofficial beyond that, for noblewoman they can only have 1 spouse and no secondary's, though unofficial partners are also common especially among powerful woman, general you can love anyone you want and marriage is mostly around inheritance, political alliances, and making heirs."

Having finished going over the details I excused myself from the tent and went outside, it was just past noon at this point.