Chapter 1: Project Lorelei (part 1)

5th day, 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Princely Capital Van.

Several days had passed since the opening of hostilities with the Principality of

Amidonia.

In the war room of the castle in the now-occupied Van, five people had gathered.

They were: Liscia, Royal Guard Captain Ludwin, Acting General of the Army Glaive,

Prime Minister Hakuya, who had returned after finishing up his work in Red Dragon

City, and me. We were standing around a table with a big map of the area spread out

over it.

When you looked at it on the map, you could see that we had only occupied the

capital city, Van, and a small area around it, shifting the border only ever-so-slightly

to the northwest. Everything beyond that was still Amidonian territory.

I asked Ludwin, "Is there any sign of a counteroffensive from the Amidonian

side?"

"No, they aren't making any obvious moves." Ludwin laid out little pawns

surrounding Van to represent the cities of the principality. He was indicating how

the forces of the principality were currently deployed. "As you can see, they have

focused entirely on hardening their defenses in the cities around Van. Most likely,

they are severely exhausted from the battle the other day. They've given up on

retaking the city themselves, and..."

"They're waiting for the Imperial Army to arrive, huh?" I finished.

The Gran Chaos Empire. It was the largest realm on this continent, excluding the

Demon Lord's Domain. We expected they would be coming to intervene in the

conflict as a mediator, at the request of Amidonia.

I asked Hakuya, "For reference, what's the difference in strength between our

kingdom and the Empire?"

"The Empire is superior to us in terms of national power, population, troops,

technology, and wealth," he replied. "If you were only asking about the number of

troops, we are outnumbered five-to-one. If you factor in equipment and other things

that have an effect on our war potential, their advantage is double that."

"More than ten times as much power as us, huh... We're no match for them right

now."

If we wanted to deal with the Empire on equal terms, we needed to get stronger.

We had been able to get by with the things we'd already had up until now, but from

here on, we were going to need to create new things.

"It's unfortunate," Glaive said, his voice full of regret and his shoulders slumping.

"The way things stand, we would have been able to seize the rest of Amidonia."

However, I felt differently.

"Yeah? We don't really want it," I said, sitting down in a chair, resting my elbows

on the table and my cheeks on the palms of my hands. "Their mineral resources are

appealing, but the country is way too poor. We just got out of a food crisis ourselves.

While providing for this city and the area around it is one thing, we can't afford to

feed all of Amidonia. And if we only seized the profitable mines, we would inspire

them to hate us more."

"When you say it like that..." Glaive said, "there really isn't much appeal to it."

"I know, right?"

Well, it would all be the same once the Empire put in an appearance. No matter

how hard we worked and how much land we seized, when the Empire came, we

would be forced to return it. That applied to Van, too.

"Besides, the Amidonians are a vengeful people," I said. "It looks like they've been

indoctrinated for generations. If we tried to maintain the occupation, I doubt we

could establish stable rule here."

"You're right," said Liscia. "With just Van, we're fine for now because we have a

massive force here, but if you were to try to install a magistrate, I doubt the people

would obey him."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. That's why I want to 'tame' their resentment."

"You want to tame it?" Liscia asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I've already called in the perfect person for the job."

There was a knock at the door to the war room. When I said "Come in," the door

opened and a blue-haired beauty entered with a bow and a "Pardon me."

"I am Juna Doma, serving under Navy Admiral Excel," she added. "I have come at

your command." Then she stood before me and greeted me not with a salute, but

with an elegant bow.

Today she wasn't in the usual outfit she wore as a songstress of the singing cafe,

Lorelei, but in the dignified white uniform of the Navy.

"Thank you for coming," I said. "I see you look stunning in uniform, too."

"I'm deeply embarrassed to let you see me dressed like this, Your Majesty," said

Juna.

"You shouldn't be," I said. "I think you cut a dashing and beautiful figure like

that..."

"...Soumaaaa?" Liscia butted in, trying to stop us from bantering. "We're in a

meeting now. Could you save the flirting for later?"

Liscia had a smile on her face, but the words had a strange intensity behind them.

She was starting to give off an extraordinarily unsettling vibe, so I decided it was

about time to move the discussion along. I mean, it wasn't as if I'd called Juna all the

way from the southern border just so I could banter with her like this.

The mature Juna was watching Liscia and me with a smile. Anyway, moving on.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat. "There is one reason why I have called Juna here.

That would be..."

"...because you like that she's easy on the eyes?" Liscia finished.

"...Come on, don't be like that," I said. "You know that's not the reason."

"Hmph." Liscia turned her head to the side peevishly.

I thought it was cute when she did girly things like that, but... as Liscia herself had

just said, we were in a meeting. When I looked around, everyone else in the room

besides Juna was wearing a strained smile. I decided I'd try to appease Liscia later,

but for now, I needed to move along.

"Ahem... Let's get back on track," I said. "There is one reason why I have called

Juna here. That is to put a plan I've been refining for quite some time into motion."

"Plan?" Liscia asked, tilting her head to the side questioningly.

I answered her, brimming with confidence, "Yes. I call it Project Lorelei."

By the time we moved from the war room to the audience chamber, there were

already three girls waiting there, prostrated before the throne.

The girls were each of different races, appearances, and ages. One was a light elf

with dark brown hair. One looked like an adorable elementary schooler. The last

was a slender beastman girl with cat ears. All three could have fairly been called

beauties.

When I seated myself on the throne, Juna saluted me with her hand at her chest.

"I have brought the individuals you requested, Your Majesty."

"There's no need to make this formal," I said. "At ease, all of you."

When I said that, the three women rose to their feet, saying, """It's a pleasure to

meet you""" in unison.

Yep, they're full of energy and they're in sync, I thought to myself. As I gave a

satisfied nod, Liscia was standing at my side, looking at me with another "lovely

smile" on her face.

"Heeeey, Souma?" she asked.

"Wh-What?"

"I hope you haven't gotten so full of yourself now that you've captured Van that

you're planning to keep these girls by your side to wait on you hand and foot. Have

you?"

Ah, yeah, her face is smiling, but she's definitely not smiling in her heart, I thought

to myself.

"You've got it all wrong!" I said quickly. "I called these girls here because they're a

vital part of my plan!"

"Hmm..." Liscia sounded dubious.

"It's the truth, okay?" I said. "And, wait, didn't you say you'd let me take up to

eight wives?"

"Well, yes, I did," said Liscia. "But, while I can tolerate it with someone I know,

like Aisha, or if you're forced to do it for diplomatic reasons, I'm not going to be

happy if you abuse your power to round up some pretty faces for yourself."

"I'm telling you, that's not it, okay?" I said peevishly. "Remember when I was

gathering personnel before?"

During my big recruitment event, Aisha and the other four had been hired with a

great deal of fanfare, but I had hired a lot more people quietly, or had them added to

a list of personnel being put together by the country.

For instance, those who were talented at arithmetic had been hired as

bureaucrats, while one turtle man (estimated age: eight hundred years old) who'd

said "I've been reading books for hundreds of years. I won't lose to any young

whipper-snapper when it comes to my knowledge of books," had been appointed as

the chief librarian in the new city that was under construction.

Furthermore, when those with the same gift had competed, I had still hired the

ones who'd lost if I could be sure of their talent.

Aisha had been the winner of the Best in the Kingdom Martial Arts Tournament,

but those who lost to Aisha had still been invited to join the forces that reported

directly to me in the Forbidden Army if their skills were up to snuff. Though, my

directly-controlled forces had been seen as a purely decorative force at the time, so

few had taken me up on the offer...

Now, as for these girls gathered here, they might have lost to Juna in the Kingdom

of Talent competition, where contestants had competed on talents like singing. And

they might have lost to her in the Elfrieden Pretty Girl Grand Prix, where contestants

had competed on beauty. But they had still demonstrated their beauty and singing

ability in both of those tournaments.

"After the recruitment was finished, I had Juna scout these girls for me," I

explained. "Come on, I've told you about how I wanted to make entertainment

programs for the Jewel Voice Broadcast before, haven't I?"

"Oh, yeah... You did mention that," Liscia said as if she'd suddenly remembered.

I continued on, relieved that she had now mellowed out a bit. "Now, when it

comes to entertainment programs, I was thinking we'd start with a singing program.

There's no one who dislikes hearing a beautiful singing voice, after all. These girls

are the candidates to become singers on that program. From the day we scouted

them up until today, they've been training to improve their singing and dancing at

Lorelei, the singing cafe where Juna works."

Though, really, the order of things had been mixed up a bit.

Honestly, I'd wanted to start with a program like Nodo Jiman, the amateur singing

contest, to get the people used to the idea of a singing program, then have these girls

debut as idols.