“We’re pretty isolated, huh,” I said.
“With all due respect, given that these are troubled times with the Demon Lord’s Domain expanding, this is normal. In these days where each nation eyes the others with suspicion, the only countries on friendly terms are those in the relationship of suzerain and vassal state.”
“You call that a friendly relationship?”
“If there is no fear of betrayal, it is friendly enough.”
He said the most outrageous of things with a cool face. What he had said meant, basically, that he felt a relationship of control and subordination which allowed no room for complaint even if one nation was used like a tool and then thrown away still qualified as friendly, didn’t it? Sort of like the alliance between the Matsudaira and Oda clans when Nobunaga Oda had still been alive.
“So, which is the hostile one?” I asked. “Amidonia? Zem?”
“Not Zem. Certainly, that matter has worsened their impression of us, but not to the point where they would be considered hostile. That said, if Amidonia requested reinforcements from them, I have little doubt they would dispatch mercenaries on their behalf.”
“Amidonia, huh… If I recall, they sent us an ‘offer of assistance,’ right?”
“Yes. ‘The stability of our neighbor Elfrieden is directly tied to our own national defense. If a request is made, we will dispatch forces to help subdue the Three Dukedoms,’ is what they offered.”
“Ha ha ha ha… That’s pretty straightforward.”
It was plain to see that they wanted to take advantage of the discord between the Three Dukedoms and myself to expand their territory.
“It is. The Three Dukedoms have likely been told something similar.”
“‘Let us strike down the usurper Souma together,’ is it? Hard to laugh at that.”
Well, I could probably count on the Three Dukedoms to see through Amidonia’s scheme. They wouldn’t let foreigners run roughshod over this country just because they didn’t like me. Of course, Amidonia knew that too, so basically…
“By making offers of aid to both sides, they want to give themselves a cause to mobilize their troops,” I said.
“While seizing cities in the west, they’ll send reinforcements to the side that ‘won,’” he agreed. “Then, they’ll come up with some reason to assume de facto control of the cities they occupied, integrating them into their country. It’s an orthodox strategy, but an effective one, I would think.”
Well, yeah. There were many examples of it in my own world’s history. Like So’un Hojo with his “Borrow a deer hunting trail, steal a castle.” The simpler the strategy, perhaps the more likely people were to be deceived.
Amidonia was blatantly trying to deceive us, Zem was tilting towards hostility, and the Elfrieden Kingdom was unable to achieve national unity because of my conflict with the Three Dukedoms. Difficult problems to solve, all of them.
“However, this is all part of the scenario you wrote, isn’t it?” I asked, staring hard at Hakuya.
Hakuya remained unperturbed.
“Yes. At this moment, everything about the situation is shifting as it should,” he declared. That cool expression of his made me scratch my head vigorously.
“You… do realize, right?” I asked, referring to the number of people who would be sacrificed by Hakuya’s plan.
The scenario Hakuya had laid out would mean great losses for our foes, and great gains for our allies. It was true that I needed a move, no matter what it was, that would let this country rise to be a strong nation. However, to bring it to fruition, this country would also need to shed a fair amount of blood.
Despite that, Hakuya declared this without showing any guilt: “Yes. I believe we should take everything that this opportunity offers us.”
I was silent.
“Sire, you should understand, the result will save many of your countrymen.”
“…I know that. But, still, I’m only going to accept doing ‘this’ once.” I looked Hakuya straight in the eye. “A political thinker from my world, Machiavelli, wrote about it in The Prince. If a ruler does ‘this’ just once, and in doing so finishes everything, never doing it again, he will be regarded as a great ruler. On the other hand, should the one time he does ‘this’ fail to be decisive, he will sooner or later face his end as a tyrant.”
“…This Machiavelli had a terrifyingly realistic view of things.” Hakuya was slightly taken aback.
Yeah. That was why I liked him. I had been enthralled by the endless realism of Machiavelli, and reread The Prince many times. Though I had never expected the knowledge to come in handy like this someday.
“Regardless, I have deemed your plan to be an example of doing ‘that,’” I said. “So…”
— If we are to do it, let it be in one stroke.
Intermission 1: Serina and the Death Spirit Panic
Parnam Castle in the kingdom’s capital, Parnam.
You are already aware that this was the royal palace where the king resides, but, recently, there had been a ghost story making the rounds in the castle. This was how it went:
It happened one summer evening, in the witching hour, when even the grass and trees slumbered.
One of the castle’s live-in maids was sleeping in her room when she awakened due to the summer heat. She tried to go back to sleep, but just couldn’t seem to.
Accepting that she was going to have to stay awake, she decided to at least get herself something to drink and headed towards the cafeteria used by the guards and maids. Water was drawn from a nearby mountain for the castle’s cafeteria, and the maids were welcome to take a drink whenever they pleased.
Then it happened when the maid entered the cafeteria. She saw something that looked like a faint light by the kitchen oven. When she squinted, she could also see what seemed to be the outline of a person.
Oh… One of the cooks is still here. The maid was relieved to see another person. This being the royal palace, security was very tight. It wasn’t the sort of place intruders could get into.
That was why the maid thought it was simply one of the cooks still in the kitchen. When she approached, it appeared that the person was mixing something in a pot. The maid was about to call out to them, but the next moment, a chill ran down her spine…
“Heh heh heh…”
…because the person let out a creepy laugh.
The maid felt something abnormal in that laughter, and, despite herself, looked into the pot the person was stirring. In the pot, floating in its oily mud-like brew, there were several bones, bones, bonesbonesbonesbonesbonesbonesbones….
There, the maid lost consciousness.
“…So, there you have it. A necromancer appeared in the castle, and may have been trying to summon something. Everyone’s been talking about it! What do you think, Head Maid?” one of the coworkers of the maid who had collapsed asked Serina.
Serina didn’t let her usual beautiful poker face slip. “…I see. And what happened to this maid?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Did it not turn into something like, ‘Stop! You’re going to do perverse things to me, aren’t you?! Like in shunga prints!’?”