The nobles’ residences were clustered in the northeast, while the workshops were clustered in the southwest. Garrisons for the guards were distributed evenly throughout, and it looked super efficient.
I was silent. I leaned back in my chair, looking up to the ceiling, and sighed. “…Hakuya.”
“Yes, sire,” he said.
“This goes too far,” I said.
What’s with this efficiency-focused layout? I thought.
Ane san rokkaku tako nishiki… I felt like I needed to chant the Kyoto road song, or I was going to get lost.
Actually, if we’re going to change so much, it’d be faster burning the entire castle town to the ground and starting from scratch, I thought. Are you trying to turn me into Emperor Nero?
“I’m sorry,” Hakuya said. “When I saw what a chaotic mess the town layout was, I was impelled to make it more efficient…”
Hakuya seemed to understand that what I’d meant. He smiled wryly and pointed to the main streets. “However, as a measure against fires, the city must be split into districts. Laying down these main roads is a necessity, I would think.”
“I agree, but… for everything else, I’d like the changes to reflect the will of the people who live here,” I said. “What sort of city they want to make this, how they want to make it more livable for them. I want the people who live here to think about that. I mean, if we just decide everything ourselves, they’ll probably resist it.”
“I have already reached out to some of the architects who live here, but… you want to make the locals think?” Hakuya asked skeptically. “With the atmosphere in the city now, they’re likely to turn it into a piece of avant-garde art…”
“An artful city, huh… that could be interesting in its own way,” I said. It might be good to try building art galleries and museums, too.
…Wait, huh? The marketplace already looks like it’s going to turn into something like Ameyoko. If I build a bunch of galleries and museums on top of that, I feel like Van is going to end up more and more like Ueno. Maybe I ought to build a zoo and call it a day.
If I borrowed Tomoe’s power, it would be easy to accomplish. I could already recreate Monkey Mountain.
However, Hakuya shook his head. “Van will be the city on our front line with Amidonia. At this juncture, we cannot allow them to have too much fun with its design.”
“…I suppose not,” I said. We can’t count on an artistically-designed city to be particularly defensible, after all. In that case, I guess we’ll have to maintain Van’s function as a military city, while making it easier to live in.
“I guess that’s how it has to be,” I said. “Take things in that direction, please.”
“Understood.” Hakuya bowed and left the room. Next, I turned to Ludwin.
“How is progress on rolling out the transportation network?”
“Sir,” he said. “The Army and your directly-controlled forces in the Forbidden Army are making every effort to realize that goal. A highway from Van into the kingdom’s territory has been completed, and we are beginning work laying road to the smaller nearby villages that are presently under our control. Also… we’ve built eight bridges over the rivers, but…”
“But what?” I pressed. The man was sounding evasive.
Ludwin gave me a look like he didn’t understand what I meant. “Sir. Right now, is there any reason for rolling out a transportation network for Van? I understand the importance of setting up military supply routes, yes. However, if we build roads and bridges to the smaller cities around Van during a time when the Empire doesn’t acknowledge our sovereignty here, won’t it have been pointless when we’re pushed to hand it back?”
“That’s right… of course, I’m sure the Empire will request the return of Van,” said Liscia. “It’s a bit galling to think that Julius and his lot will use the roads and bridges that we build.” She furrowed her brow.
“That will not be the case.” Hakuya immediately rejected Liscia’s opinion. “Even if we return Van and Crown Prince Julius returns here, he will never use infrastructure built by the kingdom. If anything, he will work to eliminate all traces of the kingdom’s influence from Van. He can’t afford to keep them out of convenience, as they might ingrain a fondness for the kingdom into the people of Van.”
“Me, I’d use whatever I could, Amidonian or not,” I said.
“Hee hee, I’m sure you would, sire,” Juna piped in with a smile. “You used that female commander with the husky voice as a singer, didn’t you?”
“Oh, you mean Margarita Wonder,” I said. “She was a good find.”
I had hired Margarita as only a singer initially, but lately she’d been hosting the amateur singing competition, too. Making full use of the grit that had let her rise to become a commander in this patriarchal country despite being a woman, the way she spoke frankly, even to men, was making her popular with women all over.
Oh, I got off track there. Let’s forget Margarita and focus on Julius and his followers for now.
“I know…” I said. “If that’s what’s going to happen, let’s try messing with them a bit.”
“Messing with them?” Liscia asked.
“We’ll put our names on the bridges,” I said. “There were eight of them, yeah? Well, we’ll carve the names Souma Bridge, Liscia Bridge, Albert Bridge, Hakuya Bridge, Ludwin Bridge, Poncho Ishizuka Bridge, and Aisha Bridge into their railings. If the bridges themselves say ‘This bridge was built thanks to the Elfrieden Kingdom,’ the anti-kingdom faction is sure to bust them up, don’t you think?”
“…You can be a real piece of work, you know that, Souma?” Liscia said with a sigh, half impressed, half aghast.
However, because there were no objections, this idea was carried out as proposed. Also, so that it wouldn’t matter if they were destroyed, we confirmed that they should be built only to be sturdy, not fancy.
That was everything that needed to be sorted out for the time being. Once we had seen Ludwin and Hakuya leave the room with the plans and policies we had just decided on, Liscia asked me, “If the Empire demands we return Van, do you still think it would be difficult to refuse?”
I could only nod in response to that question. “Well, yeah… I have no intention of changing my overall plan, but I can’t see us being able to strong-arm Madam Jeanne. It would be a huge loss of face for the Empire. We don’t have the power to fight it out with them right now, So if the Empire sees us as hostile to them, that would be a diplomatic failure.”
“You were saying you met Jeanne Euphoria, right?” Liscia asked. “Is it true? That the hero summoning was their way of showing some consideration to our country?”
I said, “Yeah, kinda.”
“When did you realize that?” she asked.
“When I heard Empress Maria was called a saint,” I said. “I figured anyone being called a saint wouldn’t do anything too improper. That said, from what Madam Jeanne told me, Madam Maria isn’t overly fond having that title.”
“You trusted in the title?” Liscia asked.
“People adopt titles because they’re convenient,” I said. “And because they’re convenient, they’ll try to maintain them, too.”
In a nation like the Empire which covered a vast swathe of territory and incorporated many people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, a title like “saint” must have been useful for accumulating power. Because it let her hoist the flag of a united human resistance in response to the threat from the Demon Lord’s Domain. That was why Maria had chosen to act like a saint, continuing to carry a title she didn’t care for.