Epilogue (last part)

◇ ◇ ◇

"Castor," she said.

"What?"

"Cut your ties with Accela, Carl, and Carla."

"Are you trying to say we're going to lose to that whelp?!" he shouted.

"It's in case the worst should happen. If you intend to face the king, at least be

prepared for the possibility."

Excel glanced over at Georg, but his eyes were closed, as if to say he had no intent

of intervening. Even though she was discussing what would happen if he lost... Was

this a show of confidence, perhaps?

Castor who had been asked to cut ties with his wife and children, on the other

hand, had a troubled look on his face. "Accela and Carl, maybe... But Carla, I can't."

"Why not?!" Excel demanded.

"...Because she'll never listen to me."

At that moment, the doors to the conference room slammed open.

Through the open door, a beautiful young girl entered. Her flaming red hair and

shining golden eyes were quite distinctive. She was sixteen or seventeen years old.

She wore heavy armor in a metallic red color, and from her back and rear protruded

the wings and tail of a dragon.

"Carla..." whispered Excel.

This was Castor's daughter, Carla.

She had gotten her facial features from Excel and was a fair young beauty, but

when it came to her temperament, Castor's blood seemed to have won out. Instead

of doing anything feminine, she had joined the air force unit led by Castor, training

day in and day out.

Because of her beautiful face, many sons of the nobility and gentry had sought

her attentions, but she had said in no uncertain terms that "I will never take a man

weaker than me as my husband."

In fact, she was the second strongest in the air force after Castor, and so she had

handily trounced every one of her suitors. As a father, Castor was relieved, but as a

parent, his feelings were more complicated, and he worried she might wait too long

and never be able to get married.

Seeing Carla appear here, Excel had a bad feeling about what was going to

happen.

And, as she had expected, Carla said, "Grandmother! If Father has decided to

fight, then I shall fight, too!"

Excel shouted back, a vein pulsing on her forehead, "No, you must not! Do you

mean to become a traitor at your age?!"

"I cannot forgive him for unseating King Albert and trying to force himself on my

friend, Princess Liscia!" she declared. "I will punish him for his insolence

personally!"

"You've misunderstood!" Excel shouted. "King Souma is..."

"Ah... It's no use, Mother. Once she gets like this, Carla won't budge an inch."

Castor shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

"You people... Honestly..."

Even as Excel held her head in consternation, Georg remained silent.

◇ ◇ ◇

The capital of the Principality of Amidonia, Van.

In the territory of the Principality of Amidonia, which was longer on the map

than it was wide, this city on the eastern side was the capital.

Some had felt it was too close to the Elfrieden Kingdom to be a capital, but its

selection had likely been a manifestation of their unbroken determination to regain

the stolen eastern territory.

In the governmental affairs office in the castle in the center of Van, a middle-aged

man with a handlebar mustache was reviewing documents.

His cloaked figure looked somewhat plump, but this was only because he had

broad shoulders. He was not actually obese. In fact, under his cloak, he was

extremely muscular.

This man was Prince Gaius VIII of Amidonia.

"Oh ho..." he said.

"What is it, Father?" A young man in his twenties who stood waiting at his side

queried. He had a handsome face, but his eyes had a cold glint which chilled those

who looked at them. He was the crown prince and heir apparent of the Principality

of Amidonia, Iulius Amidonia.

Gaius handed the document he had been reading to Iulius. "It's from Georg

Carmine. It seems he's ready to 'stand up.'"

"I see," Iulius said. "At long last. I've heard of the swift, severe attacks he would

make in his younger years, never giving us time to catch our breaths. For a

personage of such ability, he was awfully slow to act."

"He's grown old, I'm sure," his father said. "Were his mind still keen, he never

would have taken us up on our offer."

"True..."

After Iulius returned the document to him, Gaius rose from his seat. "We will

move when the new king declares war. Send 'reinforcements' to the kingdom."

"Oh...? And to which side?"

"Which? To the king's side, we say, 'We are with the three dukes,' to the three

dukes' side, we say, 'We are with the new king.'"

"I see," Iulius said. "We have no reason to obey either side that way."

"Heh heh heh. Precisely."

Gaius and Iulius looked to one another and shared a dark smile.

Beside them, there was a pair of cold eyes watching.

Good heavens... Sometimes I just ain't sure what I oughta do about my old man and

my idiot brother.

The cold eyes belonged to a young girl.

She was sixteen or seventeen years old. She had an attractive face, like Iulius, but

not his air of cruelty. If anything, her eyes were small and beady, and with her round

face, she had the stuffed animal-like adorableness of a raccoon dog. Her hair was

tied in two braids at the nape of her neck.

This girl who looked good in these braid-style twintails was the first princess of

this country, Roroa Amidonia. However, contrary to appearances, her inner voice

was sharp tongued (and spoke in mercantile dialect).

This country ain't long for this world as is. Are these idiots tryin' to shorten what

little time it has left? she thought.

Amidonia was a mountainous country. It had plentiful metal resources, but on

the other hand, it had little arable land, so it was always faced with food shortages.

The food crisis in neighboring Elfrieden was bad, but nothing compared to what this

country faced. Even a slightly poor harvest would mean people starved to death.

I do understand why the old man's tryin' to get even a little more fertile land for us,

I do, but the old man's pourin' every last cent that I worked so hard to scrimp and save

for him into military fundin'. Roroa ground her back teeth together in frustration.

While Roroa was a princess, she also had uncanny financial sense, and she

supported this country's financial policies from the shadows. After getting the

economy moving through foreign trade, she limited exports of resources and

encouraged the export of finished products to protect and develop their industries.

The reason this country on the brink hadn't seen its economy collapse was in large

part thanks to Roroa's monetary sense.

However, Gaius had been unable to fully make use of Roroa's money-raising

ability.

If they'd been usin' the funds I'd earned to develop industry, they mighta been able

to bring in even more funds, but these war mongerin' economic nitwits go and spend it

all on the military. What makes it even worse is that they sincerely believe "If we

strengthen the military, we can steal whatever we need." Are they morons? You spend

money to make money, it's that cycle that's important. If you're just dumpin' money

into somethin', that's called wasteful spendin'! ...But even if I were to scream that at

them, they probably wouldn't listen to me...

"You agree, too, right, Roroa?" her brother said.

"Yes, Brother." When the conversation suddenly turned to her, Roroa replied

with a big fake smile. Though, in truth, she hadn't been listening to a word they

said...

...The end may finally be here for this country. Oh, how I envy the Elfrieden

Kingdom. With their large population, they must have a lot of tax revenue they can

move around, and best of all, their king's the sort who'd be able to understand what I'm

talkin' about. Honestly, I'm so jealous of our neighbor's wallet... Their wallet?

At that moment, Roroa came to a realization.

If I'm jealous of my neighbor's wallet... Why don't I just combine it with my own? As

legally as possible... Maybe I can do that? ...Yeah, maybe I can. In that case, I can

contact the old man in charge of guarding Nelva...

Roroa began formulating a plan of her own. High risk, high return.

They say that as Roroa embarked on the greatest intrigue of her life, her smile

resembled her father's and brother's just a little.

◇ ◇ ◇

At the capital of the Elfrieden Kingdom, Parnam...

I was in the governmental affairs office in Parnam Castle, listening to the final

report on the food crisis.

"As you see in the materials provided, we can expect good results from the fall

harvest. Furthermore, the transportation network you laid out has accelerated the

movement of people, and now goods have spread across the land without

overabundance or shortages anywhere. Of course, this applies to foodstuffs, as well.

From these facts, I believe we can treat the food crisis as, by and large, solved for

now."

"That's good to hear," I said. "It makes all the hard work worth it."

It had been a long road, but now I could finally take a breath and relax. As the

person who'd been grappling with this problem all this time, it was an especially

emotional moment for me. However...

"Yes. With this, we can now safely move on to the next stage," Hakuya said, with

no regard whatsoever for my emotional moment.

...The next stage, huh.

"We... really have to do it, don't we?" I asked.

"Does it weigh on you?" he asked.

"Well, yeah. I understand the necessity of it, though..."

Yes. This was necessary.

The political theorist Machiavelli had said this in The Prince.

"If a prince should stain his hands with cruelties, even in peaceful times, he will

have difficulty holding the state. However, for some tyrants, even after infinite

cruelties, they live long and secure in their countries, defending themselves from

external enemies and never being conspired against by their own citizens. I believe

that this follows from cruelties being properly or badly used.

"Those which may be called properly used are those applied in one blow at a

time when it is necessary for one's security. If a prince does not persist in them

afterward, ruling in a way that advantages the people as best as he is able, he may

even be remembered as a great ruler. However, one who fails to strike out the root

of trouble from the beginning, dragging things out and inflicting repeated cruelties,

uses them badly."

This passage was one reason that Machiavelli's The Prince had been, for a long

time, criticized by the humanists of the Christian church. However, the cruelties he

had spoken of there did not refer to massacres of ordinary people. He was talking

about using trickery to permanently dispose of political opponents.

If you can stabilize your hold on power with one act of cruelty, then govern well

afterward, it is a happy thing for the people. On the other hand, if you spend all your

time worrying about what your political opponents think and don't advance any

worthwhile policies, not striking out the root of trouble in one blow, purging traitors

again and again, you will lose the trust of the people.

The prince Machiavelli had held up as his ideal, Cesare Borgia, had massacred the

influential nobles who had welcomed him during a feast, securing absolute power

for himself.

Nobunaga Oda had used his severity well, taking the Oda Family from rural

daimyos to becoming great daimyos in a single leap. However, in the end, because

Nobunaga had persisted with his severities, he had shortened his own life,

ultimately dying to a betrayal by one of his vassals.

In other words, "cruelty" was like a prince's treasured sword that could cut

through anything, but if he grew addicted to using it, it was also like a cursed sword

that would eventually destroy him.

"As I've said before," I said, "I've deemed your plan a cruelty."

"Yes," he agreed. "You also said, 'If we are to do it, let it be in one stroke.'"

"You can do it that way, I assume?" I asked.

"The preparations have already been made."

"...Very well, then."

I could say it was for this country, but I wasn't that attached to the place.

I didn't have a just cause, or a great one. But, when I questioned why I was doing

it, suddenly Liscia and the others' faces came to mind. Those who lived, smiling, in

this country: Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Tomoe's faces.

I thought of the bonds I had lost in the old world. I thought of the bonds I had

formed in this new one.

I already thought of those girls as my family.

"Kazuya, build a family. And, once you have, protect them, come whatever may."

...I know, Grandpa. I'll protect my family to the end, no matter what comes our way.

In order to do that, just this once, I will become a cruel king.

"We will now begin the subjugation."