Chapter 2: The Casts of Two Nations (part 3)

Some days later, at the same time as Gaius VIII and Julius departed from Van,

there was an incident where Princess Roroa and a number of bureaucrats vanished.

It was an incident that ought to have caused a big stir, but it was craftily covered

up by Roroa, and neither Gaius or Julius ever noticed it.

◇ ◇ ◇

It was the Royal Capital Parnam, late September, the 1,546th year of the

Continental Calendar, in the royal palace of the Elfrieden Kingdom, Parnam Castle.

In the governmental affairs office, I was listening to reports from Poncho and

Tomoe.

First, I heard from Poncho.

Until just the other day, his title had been Minister of State for the Food Crisis, but

with that issue now resolved, I had made him the Minister of Agriculture and

Forestry. In addition to agriculture, forestry, and management of military provisions,

I also had him overseeing the construction of terraced rice fields and other projects

that would establish new crops in this country.

By the way, the reason he was not also in charge of fisheries was that this country

did not manage fishing rights. The various fishermen's guilds each had their own

zones, to a degree, but all that the country did was receive taxes from the guilds in

exchange for protecting their rights.

Eventually, I wanted to set up something for that, but it would likely have to wait

until I had the navy under my control. In order for the country to guarantee the

rights of fishermen, we were going to need something like a Maritime Safety Agency.

If we tried to force obligations onto the fishermen without any protections, they

wouldn't obediently go along with that.

It looks like I'd gotten off-topic, huh?

I asked Poncho a question. "How are things going with the supplies (military

provisions and cavalry horse fodder) that I asked you about?"

"All right. Somehow I managed to procure them, but..." Poncho sounded awfully

non-committal, especially considering he was saying he'd managed to get the

supplies ready.

"Is something the matter?" I asked.

"No... I was just worried whether these numbers were correct," Poncho said,

wiping the sweat from his brow. "The supply totals you requested could easily

support the Forbidden Army for over a month, you see... It wasn't easy to gather

them, so if the numbers were in error, it will mean we've taken massive losses, yes."

Ah, that made sense. When he looked at the numbers I could currently mobilize

from the Forbidden Army, he worried that the amount of supplies was too high.

There were only around 10,000 men, after all.

"It's not a problem," I said. "We do actually need all those supplies. In fact, you

could even say that this massive stock of supplies is what will decide whether we

win or lose."

"I-It is?" he stammered. "...It's a good thing that we had such an abundant harvest

this year. If you had asked me last year or before that, I wouldn't have been able to

gather this quantity."

"Yeah," I said. "Though this is the fruit of everyone's hard work. Of course, that

means it's thanks to you, too, Poncho."

"Y-You are too kind, yes!" Poncho, humbled by the sudden praise, stood up so

straight, it looked he might bend over backwards.

I gave a wry laugh at his behavior, then shifted my gaze to Tomoe. "How have

things been on your end, Tomoe?" I asked.

"R-Right. I think I have another five rhinosauruses that will help us."

Because Tomoe was gifted with the ability to understand animals and monsters, I

had sent her to "recruit" some of the giant lizards, rhinosauruses, that we used

during our mission to provide relief to the God-Protected Forest.

Their ability to haul cargo, as I had seen during the road construction, was truly

amazing. I wanted to increase the number of them held by the Forbidden Army, but

because they were living creatures, it took quite some time to train a rhinosaurus.

Still, if we tried to deploy them without substantial training, if the worst were to

happen and they went berserk, their bodies were huge. They could do a lot of

damage.

That made this a job for Tomoe, who could understand the languages of all living

creatures. Tomoe could listen to requests from the rhinosauruses.

Mind you, it seemed rhinosauruses weren't all that smart (maybe on the same

level as stegosauruses, which they say had brains the size of a chicken egg?), so their

requests usually amounted to "tasty food" and "a place to breed safely."

In order to accomplish that, I had ended up creating a rhinosaurus preserve in

the kingdom, but it was a small price to pay for a long-distance, high-speed means of

shipping, roughly equivalent to a train, that would be loyal and require no training.

"M-Madam Tomoe's ability truly is incredible, yes," Poncho said.

"It sure is," I agreed. "I'm glad I was able to take her under my protection before

she fell into the hands of some other country."

"Y-You're flattering me." Tomoe turned a bright red and looked down in

embarrassment.

The doors to the governmental affairs office opened, and Liscia walked in.

"Souma..."

There's something troubled in her expression, I thought. ...I'm a little worried.

"...Poncho, Tomoe," I said. "Could I ask you to leave us alone for a moment?"

"Y-Yes, you can, yes."

"O-Okay, Big Brother..."

With a bow, they headed out of the governmental affairs office, leaving me and

Liscia alone in the room.

We were both silent for a moment, but then I rose from my seat and moved over

to the bed in the corner. Then, sitting down on the bed, I motioned for Liscia to come

over to my side.

Liscia sat down next to me, like I'd asked. Sitting on my own bed, a beautiful girl

at my side, this should have been a lovely situation, but the atmosphere was heavy

and oppressive.

"...You came because you needed to talk about something, right?" I asked Liscia,

unable to bear the silence any longer.

Liscia seemed to resolve herself and began to speak, the words coming out

slowly. "In the castle town... there are rumors that you're raising an army against the

three dukes."

I said nothing.

"They say a clash with Duke Carmine is inevitable." Liscia turned to face me. Her

eyes were quivering with uncertainty.

...I could hardly blame her. For Liscia, I was her king and fiancé, while General

Georg Carmine had been her superior during her time in the army, and she

respected him. If the two of us came into conflict, Liscia would feel like she was

being crushed from both sides. In order to avoid that, I knew she had sent a number

of letters to Georg, who was secluding himself in his own territory, asking that he

meet with me.

"Is... Is there nothing else you can do?" she stammered.

When she asked me that with those quivering eyes, I wanted to say something,

but...

Unable to find the words, I could only nod in silence.

Seeing my reaction, Liscia murmured, "Right... Of course..."

With just those words, she faced forward and her shoulders slumped.

It was frustrating. Having to take this route, even though I knew it would hurt

Liscia. This had gone far enough that neither Georg or I could back down. In that

case... At the very least...

"...Liscia."

"...What?"

"I want you to tell me about Georg Carmine," I said.

"?!"

Liscia raised her face and looked at me.

"...Why now, when it's this late?"

"I want to know what kind of person the man I'm going to fight is," I said. "Now

that I think about it, I've never met the guy, after all."

Liscia was silent for a moment. She seemed a little bewildered, but in time, she

began to talk.

"Duke Carmine... Georg Carmine is a warrior of unprecedented ability. He's a

burly lion-headed beastman, and while he has no small amount of personal ability in

combat, they say it's when you put him in charge of an army that he shows his true

value. He is a great general, able to handle himself in a field of battle, or as the

attacker or defender in a siege. When he led the vanguard during a retreating battle

under the man who was king before my father, I hear that he managed to take the

head of the enemy commander, even in that losing battle."

"That's pretty amazing, huh..." I said.

You're doing well if you can just keep ally losses to a minimum during a retreat,

but to go and deal a blow to the enemy, as well—that was like something a famous

general from the Warring States Period would have done. It reminded me of the

young Shingen Takeda, who had run ahead of his father Nobutora's retreating army

to seize a castle in a surprise attack.

"You're darn right it's amazing," she said. "Not only did he have the leadership to

keep up the morale of a defeated army, but it was also a feat he couldn't have pulled

off without the perception to locate a spot where they could meet the enemy

efficiently."

There was a slight pride in Liscia's voice as she spoke. She really... did respect

him, huh.

"When my father took the throne, this country changed the way it expanded," she

continued. "With my father, who was, for better or for worse, an ordinary king ruling

this country, we ought to have been an easy target for nearby countries."

"You're awfully harsh, even though he's your own father," I commented.

"Well, it's the truth. Still, that never happened. Because Duke Carmine always

kept a keen eye on the west, neither Amidonia or Turgis tried to lay a hand on us.

Despite being the greatest warrior of his generation, he had no ambition and served

my father loyally. ...No, that's not it. Rather than it being for my father's sake, Duke

Carmine just had a pure love for this country."

"Why for this country?" I asked.

"Don't you know?" she asked. "There are still countries in this world that

discriminate against other races. The Empire holds up the values of racial equality

now, but there is still discrimination against nonhumans in some regions. There are

also places where it's the other way around; in the northwest, there's a high elf

island country that promotes a policy of high elf supremacy, and it's humans who

are looked down on there."

It looked like those sorts of problems that you find everywhere existed in this

world, too.

"But, in this country, we don't have that sort of discrimination," she continued.

"Even if it exists, there's no outlet for it. The races that were against that sort of

discrimination to begin with gathered under the first king and cooperated to make

this country prosperous, so that they wouldn't have to live under the yoke of anyone

else. That is what this country is like... and Duke Carmine loved it more than

anyone."

There, Liscia paused for a moment before continuing to speak.

"In his personal life, Duke Carmine is a man who knows how to be polite. He had

a close relationship to my father that was more than just professional, and he often

offered my father advice. He even cared for me like his own daughter. As for myself...

I loved Duke Carmine."

I was silent.

She continued, "When I went to the Officer's Academy because I wanted to

become a soldier, he was opposed to it at first. He said it was unbecoming of a

princess. But, in the end, he let me have my way. Mind you, once I graduated from

the academy, I was placed at his command, and was only used to encourage the

troops."

Well, yeah... He couldn't have used the princess, a blood relative of the king, as

one of his subordinates. Even Georg, as impressive a man as he was, must have had a

lot of trouble dealing with Liscia's tomboyishness.

"So, he was like a second father to you, huh?" I asked.

When I said that, Liscia hung her head in sadness. "Yeah... He was a wonderful

man. So why did he..."

Liscia started to say something, but stopped, shaking her head.

"I don't know exactly what Duke Carmine was thinking... But perhaps, it may

have been because he was a warrior."

"Because he was a warrior?" I asked.

"Duke Carmine is over fifty," she said. "A beastman's lifespan is no different from

a human's. Were he just a general, he would still have many years left to grow, but as

a warrior, it's all downhill from here. I think, maybe, that's why he's trying to do

something big for his country right now."

"...Even if that means becoming a traitor?" I asked.

"If he thought that would benefit this country, Duke Carmine would do it."

There was a degree of trust in those words that I couldn't help but envy a little.

I spoke up. "Tomorrow... I will hold a conference with the three dukes over the

Jewel Voice Broadcast."