“…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.”
There were four Jewel Voice Broadcast jewels in this country. Three of them were held by the three dukes. Using those jewels, we would hold something like a video conference. There, I would issue a final ultimatum to the three dukes that they were to submit to me as my vassals. I would have to fight anyone who refused. And, regardless of what the other two did, there was zero chance that Georg would comply.