How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

— Late in the 11th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Royal Capital Parnam —

It had been close to a month since the war with Amidonia had come to a close.

On this day when we began to feel the onset of winter, I was in the room with the jewel for the Jewel Voice Broadcast, facing a simple receiver with a certain person’s image projected on it.

My partner was a single woman. Her well-balanced figure was wrapped in a pure white dress, and her light, wavy blond hair was beautiful.

I was acquainted with her younger sister, but she left a very different impression on me. While there was a resemblance in the contours of their faces, when this woman blinked, there was something childlike about her large eyes, making her appear to be the younger of the two. Even though I had been told she was supposed to be a year older than me. She was a very beautiful person.

I thought that, having been surrounded by Liscia, Aisha, and Juna, all beautiful in their own different ways, I had developed a discerning taste, but at a single glance, I had been struck by how beautiful this woman was.

The beauty opened her mouth. “Greetings, Sir Souma. I am Maria Euphoria.”

She was Empress of the Gran Chaos Empire.

“Greetings to you, too, Madam Maria,” I said. “I am Souma Kazuya.”

The heads of the largest nations in the west and the east were meeting for the first time. Normally it would be a time for handshakes, but that wasn’t possible through the Jewel Voice Broadcast’s screen.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you like this, Madam Maria,” I said formally. “I’ve always wanted to be able to speak with you at length.”

“I feel the same,” she said. “We’ve heard of your great ability here in the Empire, too.”

“It’s not my ability... I’m helped by my capable subordinates.”

“That’s very humble of you to say, but talented retainers gather under a great ruler.”

We kept up with the polite talk for a while. While discussing nothing of importance, I tried to get a feel for Maria. But her smiling face was a thing of childish innocence; so brilliant that I almost felt guilty for trying to read into it. Though, at the same time, I also thought this:

There was no way a girl who was only pure and innocent could rule a vast Empire.

“May I ask a question, Sir Souma?” Maria asked.

“What is it?” I asked.

“What are your thoughts about what happened in Amidonia over the past month?”

Maria’s eyes narrowed as she said that. That alone was enough to completely change the aura around her. She appeared to be smiling, but looked angry in spite of that.

Not that I could blame her. From the Empire’s perspective, what I’d done was close to a betrayal.

“When Jeanne delivered me her report on the negotiations, I thought we had found ourselves a reliable ally in the east,” Maria said. “Was I mistaken in that?”

“...No. We still view ourselves as sworn friends of the Empire. This may sound like an excuse, but this result was unexpected for us, too.”

“It wasn’t arranged by the kingdom, you mean?” she asked.

I nodded and scratched my head. “I won’t deny that I was plotting something, but I never intended for it to go this far. Honestly, it’s turned into an ongoing headache for me.”

Maria’s anger seemed to subside, for the moment at least. “Can you explain it in detail for me?

“Of course,” I said. “According to our agents in the principality...”

One month earlier, when Van was returned to Amidonia...

Julius took back the capital of the principality, Van, and the area around it by borrowing the influence of the Gran Chaos Empire. He returned to Van to succeed his father, Gaius VIII, as the Sovereign Prince of Amidonia.

The first thing that Julius’s close retainers thought to do after he became the new sovereign was to remove any traces of Elfrieden’s influence.

“There’s been an appalling degradation of public morals in Van,” one of them said stiffly.

“Indeed,” another agreed. “The austere atmosphere from Lord Gaius’s lifetime is the most appropriate for our principality. We should clamp down on this.”

“Why not begin by dismantling the shanty town that’s built up around the Jewel Voice Broadcast plaza?”

Julius listened in silence, his eyes closed, as his retainers pushed him to return the city to its former state. That man’s words flashed through his mind now.

“If the people were choking under the yoke of our oppression, do you think they would want to make their roofs and walls more colorful?”

Those were the words that Souma Kazuya had said the other day.

“If a ruler is oppressive, the people will try to act in a way that doesn’t stand out. That’s because, if they were to catch his eye by doing something showy, there’d be no telling what kind of disaster might befall them. So the more oppressed the people, the less you will hear them complain. They don’t show their feelings or attitudes, keeping their true feelings bottled up deep inside their hearts.”

Why... Why am I remembering his words now...? The words of his hated enemy had stabbed into Julius’s chest.

“Now, tell me, what color were the colors of Van like when you and your father were here?” Souma had asked.

Shut up! Julius snapped internally. I don’t need you to tell me. Our Princely House has always thought of the people...

“Have we, really?”

Huh?!

That last voice wasn’t Souma. It had been his own voice.

...Is that how it’s been? his own voice continued.

It was a simple matter. It wasn’t that Souma’s words had been echoing in his mind, it was that Julius had been asking himself about them. About whether his decisions were right or not.

Julius had been the crown prince until just the other day, and Gaius VIII had been the one to make all the important decisions on matters of the state. From Julius’s perspective, he had only been following Gaius’s orders.

However, now that he sat on the throne as Prince, he would be forced to make decisions that would decide the fate of the nation by himself. Julius had, for the first time, been let out from under the yoke of his father, and he was starting to seek diverse information.

Julius shared Gaius’s ideological focus on the military, but he wasn’t as impulsive as his father; he was the clever sort who could think deeply. He would make decisions after considering the various circumstances he found himself in. On that point, he was closer to his younger sister Roroa than he was to Gaius.

Roroa, huh... I wonder where she is and what she’s doing now... he pondered. Where was his sister, who had evaporated along with a select group of bureaucrats before Elfrieden had occupied the city?

When he caught himself thinking that, Julius couldn’t help but mock himself a little. They had never gotten along, and he was wary that she would become his political opponent. It was a little late to be worrying for her safety now.

“Your Highness!” a retainer cried, interrupting his thoughts.

Brought back to his senses, Julius made a heavy decision. “Very well. We must remove the kingdom’s influence.”

“““Yes, sir!”””

Their orders received, the retainers saluted him and then left the governmental affairs office.

In the end, Julius decided to have the many changes brought about under the kingdom’s rule struck down and destroyed so that the principality could return to its former state. Wiping out the legacy of the previous administration for the benefit of the new one... That should have been the right course of action. You might think there were quieter ways to have done it, but none of those were available to Julius.

Right now, before anything else, I need to regain my authority as the sovereign prince, he thought.

Transfers of power should be carried out while the former ruler is still alive and with a suitable guardian in place. When that isn’t done, vassals will belittle the new ruler for his youth. The more strongly authoritarian a country is, the more important this process of firming up support becomes. However, Gaius had died in the war, and so Julius had been forced to become prince without being able to first solidify his position. That was why he first sought to centralize power around himself. For that, he needed to wipe Elfrieden’s value of tolerance for diversity from Van.

“Yes... even if I am called an oppressor for it,” Julius whispered, wearing an expression that showed his tragic determination.

First, Julius issued an order banning anyone from watching the Jewel Voice Broadcast throughout Amidonia.

With Amidonia’s broadcast jewel being kept by the kingdom, the only broadcasts the people could view would be coming out of the kingdom. Naturally, the stalls that had been set up in Van for the people who watched the Jewel Voice Broadcast were forcibly removed. This was easier than expected, because the merchants had mysteriously vanished when Julius returned to power, so it was just a matter of dismantling their abandoned stalls.

How must the people of Van have viewed Julius as he tore down the stalls in the plaza that had already become their marketplace?

Furthermore, as Souma had anticipated, Julius and his people demolished the bridges that bore his name and the names of his followers. It was inevitable that he would have to demolish any bridges that were along the route the kingdom had used to invade, but it was pure folly to destroy the other bridges “because they were built by the kingdom.” Breaks in the transportation network can be a matter of life and death for people.

Other than that, he didn’t distribute food the way the kingdom had, and clamped down hard on breaches of public morals. In particular, he banned women from dressing up, banned the art movements that had infested Van... and many more things. He even went as far as having houses with images of loreleis on them razed.

The people of Van, who were now having the freedoms they had been given removed, said:

“It was better under King Souma.”

“We didn’t have to go through this pain and suffering when we were a territory of the kingdom.”

“We were able to feed the children properly.”

“Why does Lord Julius care less about his own people than a foreign king did?”

“Do you think His Majesty King Souma will come back to occupy Van again?”

And they turned a resentful eye toward the castle in Van.

Some of the things they were resentful over weren’t Julius’s fault. For starters, there was a difference in the size of the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Principality of Amidonia’s territory and economy. If you asked whether the principality would be capable of providing the same level of aid the kingdom had been, the answer would be no. However, the common people didn’t know that. Ultimately, the more Julius tried to wipe the kingdom’s influence from Van, the more the people’s hearts shifted away from him.

Now, as for how the areas other than Van felt, things weren’t going well for him there, either. Because, as already noted, the sudden death of Gaius meant that the transfer of power hadn’t been handled properly, and Julius was being taken lightly by the lords of Amidonia.

This came in two forms.

The first was: Who cares about the Princely House? why should I have to bow my head to that whelp? The kind that looked down on him.

The second was: That youngster is unreliable! I need to defend myself! The kind that couldn’t be bothered to deal with him.

The majority of the nobles and knights who held land in Amidonia fell into the latter category.

To begin with, in a country under the feudal system, fealty was sworn to the liege in exchange for guarantees on land and property. If the liege lacked the power to provide those, the vassals would have to defend their land and property themselves. They would come to act not for their liege’s benefit, but their own.

Souma had told Julius, “Those who acquire a principality with difficulty will keep it with ease. Those who acquire a principality without difficulty will find it difficult to keep,” paraphrasing the words of Machiavelli. As might be expected, Julius, who had used the influence of the Empire to regain Van with ease, was finding it difficult to rule.

There were some stories that seemed emblematic of the crumbling of his power base, too.

As mentioned already, Julius issued an order banning people from watching the Jewel Voice Broadcast, but this order was only followed in the areas close to Van. Everywhere else, people apparently said, “Who cares what some order from the capital says?” and kept on watching.

When trust in the center is shaken like that, each city starts to gather soldiers and mercenaries of their own. If you consider that, at this time, the kingdom was abolishing the armies of the nobles and the three dukes, creating one unified National Defense Force, then this was a move in the opposite direction.

Every petty lord raising his own army was something Julius shouldn’t have been able to tolerate, but if he censured them for it, there was the risk that the lords would band together and revolt against him.

However, looking at the end result, this was a chance to let the pus out. Machiavelli would have pointed out that this was precisely the time when cruelty should have been used. Even if it resulted in a revolt, he could eliminate hostile forces and intimidate those who were hesitant to commit to him into falling in line.

However, Julius didn’t do that.

Maybe he was the sort to let sleeping dogs lie, or he didn’t want to lose any more manpower when it had already been reduced by the war. There was no way to know his reasons without asking him.

And so... that lack of planning was his first step into the quagmire.

One month ago, there had been a popular uprising in the northwest of Amidonia.

It started with riots over the shortage of food.

Those had happened in the kingdom as well, but the food crisis grew deeper the further you went into the rural areas. It seemed that the northwest of Van was especially hit hard, and “hundreds” was no longer enough to count the number who had died to starvation.

The people of the domain turned to their lord for aid, but the lord refused it. Because he had gathered troops, the little food he had in storage was being used to maintain them.

The lord’s attitude caused the people’s anger to explode, and they attacked his manor. The lord had to use the troops he had gathered against the people of his own domain, whom he had enraged.

What was more, the soldiers were largely people from his domain who had missed meals themselves. When they were confronted by angry people from the same domain, they were quick to abandon their posts and scatter.

The lord narrowly escaped and made his way to the princely capital, Van, where he demanded that Julius quell the riots.

Julius pondered the request. If the riots dragged on, there was the risk that the flames would spread to other areas where dissatisfaction was smoldering. Besides, if he showed strength here, the nobles would no doubt fall in line.

Having made that judgment, Julius led the regular forces himself to put down the rebellion. The peasants might have been angry, but they were no match for the regular forces, and the rebellion was gradually being quelled. In the villages of the northwest, the horrific sight of the corpses of peasant rioters lying in the streets became widespread.

Julius was about to end his suppression of the rebellion in the northwest, but then another even more surprising report came in.

The people of Van, which he had left vacant, had risen up and occupied the capital. What was more, they had dispatched messengers to the Elfrieden Kingdom pledging allegiance and requesting reinforcements, and the kingdom had accepted their request and immediately dispatched its armies.

In other words, Van had been reoccupied.

Maria gave me a look that seemed to demand answers. “And so... that’s how you came to reoccupy Van.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “It was a request from the people of Van, after all.”

Mind you, I had used Kagetora and his Black Cats to incite the uprising in Van. They had lain in hiding near Van, connecting with power brokers in the city as they watched how things developed, waiting for the best timing to reoccupy Van. The reason the reoccupation had happened so swiftly once the messengers had come to deliver their pledge of allegiance was that those forces had already been deployed near the border.

“The Mankind Declaration prohibits any change to the borders of countries brought about by the use of force,” Maria said. “The people of Van rose up and forcefully occupied the city. If the borders of Amidonia are changed by this, it will violate the Mankind Declaration. If that is the case, as the head of the treaty, the Empire will have to mediate between the two nations again. I am sure we will have to handle the kingdom harshly, too.”

“Can you do that?” I asked.

Maria fell very silent.

“The Mankind Declaration also recognizes the right of self-determination for all peoples,” I said. “If the people of Van wish to belong to Elfrieden instead of Amidonia, doesn’t the Empire, as the chief signatory of the Mankind Agreement, have to accept that and support them?”

Maria must have know that. That was why she was unable to say anything.

I sighed a little, then told Maria clearly, “This is why the kingdom didn’t sign the Mankind Declaration.”

The three main articles of the Mankind Declaration were:

First, the acquisition of territory by force between the nations of mankind would be deemed inadmissible.

Second, the right of all peoples to equality and self-determination would be respected.

Third, countries that were distant from the Demon Lord’s Domain would provide support to those nations which were adjacent to it and were acting as a defensive wall.

It was a wonderful thing, ideologically. However, there was a contradiction in these three articles that the Empire hadn’t noticed.

It was true that, if these three articles were sternly enforced, it would prevent external conflicts. However, this text would make internal issues that arose intractable.

To use this case with Van as an example, if the people’s right to self-determination was accepted, the signatories of the Mankind Declaration would have to accept what the people of Van had done.

However, if that meant that the borders of Amidonia would change, they also couldn’t accept it. Furthermore, the logic that, if Van became independent, it would no longer be a signatory to the Mankind Declaration didn’t hold water. If Amidonia suppressed the people of Van who wanted independence, they would be censured for failing to respect the right of peoples to self-determination.

In other words, the signatories of the Mankind Declaration would be forced into a state of inaction.

Some of you may be wondering how the Empire could have failed to notice this. However, it was the sort of thing that wouldn’t occur to anyone until it actually happened. After all, people on Earth in the 20th century hadn’t noticed it, either.

“Have you heard the story I told Jeanne?” I asked.

“...Yes,” Maria said. “It was a story about people who were afraid of getting caught up in a fight between two gods establishing some rules to avoid a war, right?”

In the story I’d told, there were two gods: the God of the East, who said, “The world should be equal,” and the God of the West, who said, “The world should be free.” It was an era in which the followers of these two gods were staring daggers at one another. The countries that were close to the boundary between these two gods worked with countries in the east and west to establish some rules in order to avoid being caught in a war between them.

One was: “Let’s not allow borders to be changed by military force.”

One was: “Let’s let the people of each country make decisions for themselves.”

One was: “Let’s arrange cultural exchanges between the East and West and try to get along.”

“I heard it from Jeanne,” said Maria. “It really is similar to the Mankind Declaration, isn’t it? I want to know how this story of yours ends. What happened to the world after that?”

“There were problems, but it was reasonably successful for a time,” I said. “Eventually the God of the East broke up, and because the balance of power collapsed, the state of tension was relieved, avoiding total war between the two camps.”

“And... wasn’t that a good thing?” Maria asked.

“Yes, it was, at that point in time,” I said. “However, later, in one multi-ethnic country, a certain people started an armed uprising for independence. If their independence wasn’t recognized, it would go against the principle of self-determination. However, if their independence was recognized, it would mean accepting a change in borders brought about by military force. That contradiction immobilized the countries that had come up with these rules.”

“Like the Empire has been right now?” Maria asked.

I gave a firm nod to Maria’s question.

You may have already realized, but this story was about Earth’s history.

The God of the East that said “People should be equal” was socialism.

The God of the West that said “People should be free” was capitalism.

The worshipers of these two gods had stared each other down during the Cold War.

The countries that had engaged in talks to avoid a war from breaking out were the members of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1975, later the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The rules they had decided on were what was called the Helsinki Accords.

The reason I was able to immediately notice the contradiction in the Mankind Declaration was because I was familiar with the similar Helsinki Accords. I had studied modern history for my university entrance exams, after all.

That was why, while I knew the Helsinki Accords had been effective in preventing the outbreak of total war between the East and the West during the Cold War, they had made it impossible for anyone to move during the inter-ethnic conflict between the Serbs and the Croats in Yugoslavia.

“This is the pitfall you said was in the Mankind Declaration?” Maria said with disappointment.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s a fatal pitfall for a multi-racial state like ours. That’s why the kingdom can’t sign the Mankind Declaration.”

This might be cruel to say, but if we had been a country like Amidonia, with one subset of races more powerful than the others, it might not have been much of a problem. As long as a race was in a low position socially, or their population was low, they wouldn’t be able to get a movement for autonomy going inside the country. But in a country like ours where many races worked together, it was dangerous.

It wasn’t an issue when the country was being managed well, but if things went downhill, people would start thinking about partition and independence. Even if things were going well today, they might not be tomorrow. Like Machiavelli had said, one had to be prepared for the vicissitudes of fortune.

“It hurts to hear that,” said Maria. “Our Empire is a multi-racial state, too, after all.”

I’d figured it would be, yeah. The Empire had the wind at its back right now, though, so it would be fine.

In the current situation, with the Demon Lord’s Domain slowly encroaching from the north, there was no place safer than the strongest of all mankind’s nations. No race in the Empire was going to want to change the nation they belonged to.

However, if the country were mismanaged, or if the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain were to go away, what would become of the Empire which had championed the Mankind Declaration?

“Madam Maria...” I began.

“I know what you want to say. However, I can’t lower the flag now.” Maria smiled with a strong will in her eyes. “Thorny though the path may be, I want the Empire to be a light of hope unto all people living today. It’s clear as day that mankind needs to unite to face the Demon Lord’s Domain. Even if it’s only for a time, the Empire will lift up the flag to unite the hearts of people.”

“...I feel like I can see why they call you a saint,” I said at last. I found her ideals naïve, but she spoke in a way that drew people to her.

Though she might have a head-on collision with reality someday, she still held up her ideals, fully accepting that. It was hard to watch her, but I wanted to, nonetheless. That was the sort of charm that she had.

I’m sure Jeanne has no end of worries... I thought, recalling the younger sister and general who took a more realistic view of things. If Hakuya could have read my mind at that moment, he might have said, “You’re one to talk,” with a vein pulsing on his temple.

Maria shook her head as if to clear her mind. “I understand what happened regarding your reoccupation of Van. I think, technically, it happened in a way that leaves you without fault. Even if you were moving around behind the scenes.”

It seemed that Maria was aware that the Black Cats had been involved in Van’s uprising. The reason she wasn’t pressing me on it here was likely because her own nation engaged in similar clandestine activities. I mean, Amidonia had been, too, after all.

Maria sighed. “However, Souma, I don’t understand.”

“Don’t understand what?” I asked.

“Why did the kingdom absorb all of Amidonia?” Maria looked straight at me with probing eyes.

...Well, obviously, I had expected she’d want to follow up on that point. Because, right now, Elfrieden had not just Van, but all of Amidonia under its rule. However, this was nothing I had ever wished for.

“I do, of course, intend to offer a full explanation, but let me say one thing first,” I said. “We were not the driving force behind this. If anything, we’re a reluctant participant.”

“...What in the world happened?” Maria asked.

I sighed. “At the very end, we were outwitted by one little girl.”

If you asked what had let her outwit us, I would have to admit that it was because we’d been looking at things too narrowly. The eyes of the Elfrieden Kingdom had been focused solely on Van.

With the call for assistance from the citizens of Van and the area around it to provide a just cause, we had planned to reoccupy Van in a way that didn’t infringe on the Mankind Declaration. That was the planned course of events.

For starters, though we were supposed to receive heavy reparations as a result of the earlier fighting, I couldn’t imagine that a Principality of Amidonia being ruled by Julius was going to have the financial power to pay them.

The bureaucrats who had managed Amidonia’s finances had apparently up and vanished before the outbreak of hostilities, and they hadn’t reappeared even after Julius’s return to power, after all. I didn’t think people who put the military first, like Julius and those he surrounded himself with, were going to be able to get Amidonia back on its feet.

Furthermore, with Gaius’s sudden death, the transfer of power hadn’t gone well. Even if we hadn’t meddled, it was clear that the country would have been heading for turbulent times.

The various lords hadn’t taken Julius seriously and kept acting rebelliously, and if he’d raised taxes to pay the reparations, the people’s discontent would have been bound to explode. If a civil war had broken out, he wouldn’t have been able to pay the reparations.

That was why I had moved to make it so I could reoccupy Van.

Now, even if he had failed to pay the reparations, it might not have been that profitable, but I could still keep up appearances as the victor. I had abolished the Carmine and Vargas duchies, after all, and had secured enough rewards for the domestic audience. Now, as for the request from the people of Van, it was actually a method that was open to me when the Empire came to demand its return. I could have installed an interim Lord of Van, then had them request integration with the Kingdom of Elfrieden.

Even so, I chose to return the city for a time before making a move like that, in order to let the Empire take the position that they had mediated.

If I had taken advantage of the hole in the Mankind Declaration at that point in time, forcing them to recognize our sovereignty over Van, it would have been throwing mud in the Empire’s face. That was why I had agreed to return it, to let the Empire look good. Doing it this way, even if we took possession of the city again, it wouldn’t do anything to shake the Empire’s authority.

So, in that way, while the kingdom’s eyes had been only on Van, something unexpected had happened outside of it.

The reoccupation force from the kingdom began forming themselves up to defend the city from the forces of the principality, which would no doubt be coming straight back with Julius leading them, but... in the end, Julius never returned to Van. When the forces under Julius finished putting down the riots and had tried to return to the newly-reoccupied Van, a new report came in. Multiple reports, in fact.

At the same time as the Elfrieden Kingdom had dispatched its troops, disturbances had broken out in many places, all across Van, and all at the same time. Each of them was different.

One said that people who had been oppressed by their lord had rioted, wiping out the lord’s family and occupying their city.

One said that a major noble who looked down on Julius’s abilities had launched a rebellion to replace him.

One said that a noble who was pained by Julius’s suppression of the people in the northwest had taken it upon himself to shelter those who had escaped and was taking a stance against Julius.

One said that Roroa’s supporters, upset that Julius had ignored the existence of his younger sister when he’d taken the throne, had raised troops to resist him...

The list went on, and there were as many reasons as there were uprisings.

Among the uprisings, there were even cities that had seen the Jewel Voice Broadcasts that came from the Elfrieden Kingdom and requested that they be annexed like Van. Strangely, though their reasons varied, they all did it at the same time, as though they had been conspiring to do it in advance.

Before we knew what had happened, the Go board that was the Principality of Amidonia was overflowing with black stones of rebellion, and the white stones that were the forces of the principality under Julius had been put in a state of “damezumari,” a shortage of liberties.

With no way to tell friend from foe, the forces of the principality under Julius, despite being inside their own country, were surrounded by enemies on all sides. Once they found themselves in that situation, fighting the forces of the kingdom while also quelling the rebellion became impossible.

The forces of the principality under Julius saw a rash of desertions, and the footsteps of the rebel forces drew ever nearer.

Ultimately, the forces of the principality scattered, and Julius fled with a meager retinue to seek asylum in the Empire. Thus, for a time, Amidonia became fractured and leaderless.

From the kingdom’s perspective, we were able to reoccupy Van, and an enemy state had fallen apart. It was an unexpected turn of events, but we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

...Up until this point, at least.

However, that fracturing didn’t last for long. No, it couldn’t last.

Because a foreign enemy invaded Amidonia.

The ones to move were the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State in the north, and the Republic of Turgis in the south. The Mercenary State Zem to the west had its policy of eternal neutrality, so it showed no signs of invading, but it was probably selling its mercenaries to both of the invaders.

The Lunarian Orthodox Papal State was the center of Lunarian Orthodoxy which worshiped the moon goddess Lunaria. It was a theocracy with their pope serving as a religious and temporal ruler. Lunarian Orthodoxy stood next to Mother Dragon worship as one of the two largest faiths on this continent. The latter revered the Mother Dragon who lived in the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

Lunarian Orthodoxy doctrine preached love for all mankind, mutual cooperation, and tolerance, but some zealous believers held ideologies that were hostile to other religions. In that way, it was similar to Judaism, Christianity, or Islam on Earth.

Incidentally, the Elfrieden Kingdom, as a multiracial state, placed no laws on what faith its people should follow, and everyone followed whatever religions they pleased. It positioned itself as a polytheistic state.

Let’s get back to the topic.

In response to the rioting, the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State deployed its troops along the border, justifying it in the name of protecting their coreligionists within the Principality of Amidonia.

They gave shelter to the faithful who fled Amidonia, and showed that they were prepared to advance into Amidonian territory should that become necessary. However, they moved slowly.

They were likely aware of the forces of the kingdom deployed near Van, and were taking a “wait and see” approach in order to avoid clashing with us.

The ones who actually crossed the border were the Republic of Turgis in the south.

This continent got colder the further south you went. As the southernmost nation, Turgis was a land of frigid cold. Their southern peninsula in particular was locked in snow and ice for most of the year, and the air currents were wild enough to make flying wyverns drop from the air. In the face of that harshness of nature, it’s said that even the Empire at the height of its power had been unable to touch this country.

This country’s soldiers rode on giant yak-like creatures that only lived in their country, and they were said to be invincible when it came to battles on cold terrain.

The news that the forces of the Republic of Turgis had invaded quickly spread throughout the principality. As it stood, the principality was disorganized and would be easily carved up. If Turgis was invading from the south, Lunaria would no doubt invade from the north before all of the spoils were taken. If that happened, Amidonia would collapse and would be ruled by two separate powers.

Fortunately, forces of the Republic of Turgis had their advance impeded by a fierce resistance put up by the lord of the fortress city Nelva, the battle-hardened old commander Herman. If they were going to be divided and ruled separately, weren’t they better off having a single person who they could trust rule over their entire country instead? When the people of the principality thought that, what came to mind was the cheerful face of the king of the neighboring country which they had seen over the Jewel Voice Broadcast. That young king who had ruled the princely capital Van without issue, and who had even hired General Wonder, the woman who had tried to demonstrate her loyalty to the principality.

...Well, basically, it was me.

The next thing I knew, it had become mainstream opinion in Amidonia that they should seek annexation by the Elfrieden Kingdom and resist Turgis and Lunaria that way.

In the process, anyone who was attached to maintaining Amidonia’s independence (which was pretty much all people who had launched rebellions to usurp Julius’s position) was eliminated by the annexationists.

Herman Neumann, the old general who had stopped the Turgish advance at Nelva, along with the former Minister of Finance, Gatsby Colbert, who was staying with him, both lent their names to support the annexationist faction, which was a major factor in that. It seems Colbert was well-trusted by the people for his reputation as a great minister who supported the country through financial difficulty.

And so, a request for the annexation of the entire Principality was delivered to me.

...

...Yeah. It makes you go, How did this even happen?

If I weighed the pros and cons of annexing all of the Principality of Amidonia, there were more negatives than positives. The positive was that it would raise our population, which would increase the power of our nation in the long term.

Furthermore, the Principality of Amidonia was rich with rare mineral resources, such as gold, and this would provide a steady supply of those mineral resources that we couldn’t mine inside the kingdom.

The negatives, on the other hand, were that even though we had finally resolved the issue of the food crisis inside the kingdom, we would now need to deal with Amidonia’s food shortages, too.

In addition, it was a nation that had been our enemy until mere days ago, so it would likely be difficult to rule.

Also, until now our country had only shared borders with the Union of Eastern Nations, the Principality of Amidonia, and part of the Republic of Turgis. With the change in borders, in exchange for the disappearance of Amidonia, we would now border the Mercenary State Zem and the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State, which was another downside. The more nations we bordered, the more difficult our diplomacy would be, after all.

Another thing was that, though I hadn’t ever been counting on them, the war reparations would stop being paid, too. Since the citizens of Amidonia would become part of our country, the border between those paying the reparations and those receiving them would be gone.

When I looked at it this way, it seemed like there were more negatives than positives to annexing Amidonia.

However, we didn’t have the option of refusing. That was because the negatives of choosing not to annex Amidonia were even bigger.

First, it would shake our just cause in claiming, “We incorporated Van into the kingdom at the request of the residents.” If we took in just Van, but not the rest, then: “Oh, so, in the end, the kingdom just invaded the land they wanted,” people would point out.

Furthermore, if we left Turgis and Lunaria to invade the country, ultimately, we would still end up bordering more countries.

Also, ruling Amidonia while it was facing food shortages would be difficult. If the two countries failed to rule properly, and famine and civil war were to break out in the former territory of Amidonia, we would see a fresh influx of refugees. That being the case, it would be better if we took responsibility for caring for all of it from the very beginning. It would be difficult now, but in the long run, our investment would pay itself off.

In the end, I accepted the integration of all of Amidonia with the kingdom, and notified various foreign countries. As I did that, I also moved a naval unit under the command of Excel that was standing by in the southwest of the Elfrieden Kingdom to the border with Turgis, putting myself in a position to invade at any time.

From the Republic’s perspective, they wouldn’t want an attack on their mainland while their primary force was laying siege to Nelva. They immediately withdrew from Nelva, and the forces of the Republic pulled back from Amidonia like the receding tide.

Also, seeing that the chaos in Amidonia had subsided, the forces of the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State that were deployed along the border stopped preparing for war.

Unlike Turgis, they hadn’t made any major moves. Because of that, it was hard to gauge what they had been thinking, and it felt creepy.

Anyway, that was the sequence of events that led to my annexation of Amidonia.

Sometime after the Republic of Turgis withdrew...

I was back at the castle in Van to handle the post-annexation paperwork, and on this day, I was seated on the throne in the audience chamber to present awards to those who had contributed to defending against the Republic of Turgis. It had come up suddenly, so I hadn’t brought many of my followers with me, but, as per usual, Liscia and Aisha stood on either side of me, while Hakuya carried out the ceremony.

There were two people receiving commendations on this occasion. The old general who had defended Nelva, and by extension Amidonia, Herman Neumann; and the former Minister of Finance Gatsby Colbert (his first name was Gatsby, but because he was a former minister, I felt like I should call him Colbert) who had worked with him to unite the fractured Amidonia. Herman was a battle-hardened old general, like Georg or Owen, while Colbert was a more delicate intellectual type in his mid-twenties.

Behind them were two piles of something, but I couldn’t tell exactly what because they were covered. Whatever it was, it was apparently a gift to our country.

When they bowed before me on the carpet, I told them, “Raise your heads.”

Once they had, I first addressed Colbert.

“Sir Colbert. I thank you for bringing the people of Amidonia together. Without your hard work, the chaos would have been drawn out, and the people of Amidonia would have suffered much misery for it.”

“You are too kind.” Colbert bowed his head deeply.

I had tried speaking of the people of Amidonia as if they were my own people, but he showed no real response. Well... he did plan to push all of the responsibility off onto me, so that was only natural, I suppose.

Colbert raised his head and said, “In any event, Your Majesty, I have something here which I would like to give you.”

“What is that?” I asked.

Colbert removed the cover from one of the two piles. What appeared from beneath it was a mountain of documents. Hakuya, who was standing beside him, said, “I see,” with a strained smile.

I wasn’t sure what it was that he saw, but I asked Colbert, “What are those?”

“These documents are statements of income and expenditures as well as materials regarding rights and ownership within the Principality of Amidonia,” Colbert explained. “They were originally stored in the archives at Van, but we carried them away before the outbreak of hostilities in order to prevent them being lost in the fires of war. The war is over now, so we have brought them back to Van, where they belong.”

Oh, now that he mentioned it, when we had taken custody of Van’s archives as collateral against the war reparations, I might have received a report saying that none of those documents were there. That must have been the reason for Hakuya’s strained smile. Because, for Hakuya, things hadn’t worked out the way he had planned there.

“I see,” I said. “That makes a wonderful gift. It will make ruling easier.”

“I’m honored to hear you say that.”

“However, I think it would be best if you returned them there with your own hands,” I said, refusing to accept them.

“Huh?” Colbert looked dumbstruck.

Hm, I think that evens the score.

I grinned as I said, “Former Amidonian Minister of Finance, Colbert! Do you wish to serve me?!”

“Y-Yes, sire!” Colbert responded almost reflexively. Good, I had a commitment from him now.

“Very well,” I said. “In that case, I will prepare a position for you equivalent to the one you held in Amidonia. Henceforth, as the Minister of Finance of both the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Principality of Amidonia, I ask you to support the finances of this new nation.”

“I-I am an Amidonian, you realize... Is that all right?” he stuttered.

“It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll use anyone I think I can use. If I obsess over race and nationality, I’ll never get this country rebuilt.”

“Y-Yes, sire...”

No, seriously; I had been wanting someone like him. I had been studying the humanities, so mathematical calculations and decisions involving the economy were always difficult for me. If this guy had the skill to keep this less-than-prosperous country from going bankrupt when the military was eating up its budget, I wanted him working for me, no matter what. If there were a capable Minister of Finance trimming unneeded expenses, I might be able to find room in the budget for a policy or two I hadn’t been able to before.

Heh heh heh... oh, the possibilities.

“Minister of Finance Colbert,” I said. “Those documents will surely be the tools of your trade. Take them back, and work to rebuild the Amidonia region.”

“Ye... Yes, sire! I understand!” Colbert prostrated himself before me again.

I nodded, then looked to General Herman. “Sir Herman, you did well to defend against the forces of the Republic of Turgis. Without the fierce struggle you put up, I am sure the Republic would have made it past Nelva and into the heartlands of Amidonia. If that had happened, our aid wouldn’t have arrived in time, and the situation would be even more chaotic than it is now.”

I had thanked him, but Herman’s stern expression didn’t soften.

“Warriors are the defenders of the people,” he said. “Even without a master, that remains the same. I merely did what is my duty.”

H-He’s pretty strict and formal, huh... I thought. He was probably the sort that was dedicated to his profession. If Owen was a laughing old man, this guy was a stubborn old man.

Yeah, he was like a tsundere old man from Japan, and I liked that. His earlier words had been the equivalent of: “I-It’s not like I did it for you, okay? I didn’t have any choice after losing my ruler, so I just defended it!” or something like that, I guess.

Herman stood up and walked over in front of the other covered pile. “I, too, have come bearing gifts, Your Majesty. I hope you will not make me take mine back after receiving them.”

With those words, Herman pulled back the cover. Beneath it was a pile of many colorful textiles, all rolled up like roll cakes.

“The south of Amidonia has a successful industry that produces high quality wool,” he said. “These textiles were made with that wool. Please, accept them.”

“Hm... May I come take a closer look?” I asked.

“As you wish.”

I rose from my seat, approached the pile of textiles and put my hand on one. Yeah, it felt good. Was this one a carpet? I didn’t know how to judge the quality of these sorts of things very well, but I could still tell somehow that this was a good one.

“Hm? A carpet?” I murmured.

A carpet as a gift... huh. I dunno... I feel like I’ve heard of this scenario somewhere before. If I recall, there was a scene like this in Earth’s history... Huh?!

“...Sir Herman,” I said.

“What is it?”

“There wouldn’t happen to be a woman hidden in that carpet, would there?”

The moment I said that, Herman’s face stiffened.

Wait, seriously?!

One of the textiles in the pile began wriggling. Had an assassin slipped in? The soldiers and Aisha were on edge, when...

“No fair, no fair! It was gonna be the surprise of a lifetime! Why’d ya have to go and figure it out?!” a girl’s voice exclaimed.

The moving textile slowly came unfurled, and out popped a girl who was somewhere between middle school and high school age. Her long hair was tied at the nape of her neck into ponytail-style twintails, and she had lovely, regular features and beady little eyes. That was the kind of girl she was.

The young girl put her right hand on the back of her neck, and her left hand on her hip, shaking back and forth a bit while she posed like a model. “Welcome or not, here she is, dun-da-da-dun! It’s Roroa!” Then she gave a coquettish giggle and tried to act sexy.

She was slightly shorter than Liscia, and her body had a distinct lack of curves, so she just looked like a little girl trying too hard to seem like an adult. But, well, it was cute in its own way, like a small animal, and... Wait, wasn’t Roroa the name of Julius’s little sister?!

While I was staring in blank amazement at the suddenness of all this, Roroa got angry. “Aw, you’re no fun, Mr. Souma.”

“Mr. Souma?!” I cried. I’ve never been called Mr. Souma before... Wait, that’s not it! Huh? What?

Gaius and Julius had both been scary people who’d given off a serious bloodlust, so why was this girl so friendly? Wasn’t the princely family of Amidonia supposed to hate the royal family of Elfrieden?

While I was still out of sorts, Roroa started punching me in the shoulder. “Still, I can’t say I approve of ya spoilin’ the surprise. I was all rolled up in here for a little under an hour, y’know? ...Yeah, it was hotter than I thought it’d be.”

Well, yeah, if you were wrapped up in wool, it would be...

“So, how’d you figure it out?” she demanded. “I was pretty confident you wouldn’t, y’know?”

“Well, there was a woman in the world I came from who did something similar, you see.”

“Urkh, my trick overlapped with someone else’s, huh?” she cried. “What a blunder.”

“Though, that person was apparently naked when she did it,” I said. ( *Opinions vary about this.)

“What’s with that woman?” Roroa cried. “Was she some kinda pervert?”

I shrugged. “It’s been said that she was so great that if her nose had been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed...” ( *Opinions vary here, too.)

I looked at Roroa who was hugging her rather meager chest as if to hide it. She let out a sigh.

Roroa, by the way, was clothed. If she had been naked, we wouldn’t have been able to have an easygoing chat like this. My two fiancées were right behind me, watching, after all.

“Erm... Do you mind if I call you Roroa?” I asked. “You’re the princess of Amidonia?”

“Darn tootin’,” she said. “These clean-cut features, this charm and wit, oh, yes, the breathtaking beauty of Amidonia, Roroa, that’s me.”

“Oh, geez, I don’t even know where to start poking holes in that...”

“‘Poking holes,’ huh?” she demanded. “Which of my holes are you plannin’ on pokin’? ...Blush.”

“You don’t say ‘blush’! Also, get your head out of the gutter!”

“No way! You and me, we’ve just met, haven’t we? Let’s start out as husband and wife, okay?” she said.

“You’ve already gotten to the end goal there!” I shouted. “We’re supposed to start as friends!”

“You two... Why are you getting along so well when you’re just meeting for the first time?” Liscia demanded.

While I was diligently playing the straight man in Roroa’s comedy routine, Liscia gave me a cold look.

Whoa! Now that she mentioned it, she was right!

Roroa cackled. “You’re good at this, Mr. Souma. You make a good straight man.”

“Why are you so easygoing?” I asked. “Are you really an Amidonian princess?”

“Sure am. If ya’d like, I can do a formal greetin’ and everythin’.” With that said, Roroa dropped the silly grin and did a respectful curtsy. “I am Roroa Amidonia, daughter of Gaius VIII, of the former Principality of Amidonia.”

When she acted that way, she mysteriously started to look like a princess.

“...And what exactly is Princess Roroa doing here?” I asked.

“Ohh. I’ve got me a good reason for that.”

“You’re already back to speaking casually?!”

“It ain’t nothin’ to get so fussed over. I mean, after all...”

With her best smile on her face, she dropped the biggest bombshell of the day.

“After all, I came here so we can get hitched.”

“Hold on!” Liscia shouted.

While my brain was still frozen, processing Roroa’s sudden declaration that she was going to be my bride, a flustered Liscia ran over to Roroa.

“You’re a princess of Amidonia, aren’t you?! What are you talking about?!”

“I’m just doin’ what you did, Sis,” Roroa said.

“Sis?!”

Roroa was calm in the face of Liscia. “Sis, you’re a princess of Elfrieden, ain’t ya? When ya first agreed to marry Mr. Souma, it was all to give him a just cause for rulin’ the kingdom, wasn’t it?”

“How did you know that?!” Liscia burst out.

It was only natural for Liscia to be surprised. Roroa had an accurate grasp of what our situation was.

“Never underestimate a merchant’s information network,” said Roroa. “Well, anyway, it’s the same for me. If I’m marryin’ into the kingdom, and bringin’ my country with me, Mr. Souma’ll gain the Principality of Amidonia, and a just cause for rulin’ it. By mergin’ with the kingdom, the reparations the principality needed to pay’ll be wiped out, and by bein’ integrated into the kingdom, we can receive food support from there, too. Don’t you think it’s a marriage that benefits the both of us?”

Roroa was emphasizing how it was beneficial to both parties in her reasoning, but Liscia only seemed more reluctant. “That’s... I mean, yes, our betrothal was an arrangement for the country’s benefit at first. But, now, I sincerely want to support Souma. I even feel affection for him. Aisha, Juna, and myself, we all chose to be by Souma’s side of our own free will!” She practically shouted a confession of her love at the end.

I was startled. There was this girl who felt so strongly about me. Hearing her talk so passionately, I could feel my cheeks burning.

Roroa’s cheeks turned a little red at Liscia’s declaration, too, but she immediately snickered. “Ahh, there ain’t no problem there, then. I’m pretty fond of Mr. Souma myself.”

When she said that so plainly, it was Liscia’s turn to be dumbfounded. “You ‘re fond of him...? But this is the first time you’ve ever met, isn’t it?”

“I’ve seen his face before,” Roroa said. “When I was in hidin’, he was on the music program. That sure was a revolutionary new way of usin’ it. I can think of more applications, too. Dependin’ how it’s used, you could make a real mint off of it.” Roroa snapped her fingers gleefully. “I know! The royal and princely families have got a system of royal warrants of appointment, yeah? It’s a system where high quality gifts we receive are given our official approval. It’s a guarantee of the product’s quality, but it’s also an advertisement that there’s somethin’ good enough about it to make it worth guaranteein’. So, how about ya make even just a small amount of time on the Jewel Voice Broadcast where, for a price, you’ll show advertisements for people’s products? If there’s a big business lookin’ to advertise themselves and their product, don’t ya think they’d pay good money for that?”

“I see,” I said. “Run commercials, huh. I had overlooked that...”

Because the Jewel Voice Broadcast was currently being used as a public broadcaster, I hadn’t considered the idea of running commercials at all. I had never thought it would occur to anyone in a world without television to want to sponsor commercials on it, anyway. But, like Roroa was saying, there were merchants who advertised themselves as purveyors to the royal family. If we set up a place for them to advertise, the funding might start to pour in. If that let us cover the costs of producing programs, it would mean that much more room in the national budget.

While I was thinking that, Roroa put her hand on her hip and smiled. “I think you can bring the kingdom and the principality together and lead us into a more prosperous era, y’know. Besides, if I’m with ya, I figure I’ll probably be able to see more fun things like that, and I’ve always thought, if I’ve gotta marry someone, it’d better be someone interestin’.”

“...I understand your thinking, but... Are you okay with this, Roroa?” I looked Roroa straight in the eye as I asked her that. “I’m... the man who killed your father, Gaius VIII, you know.”

The moment I said that, a wave of tension ran through the people from the kingdom’s side.

Roroa’s father Gaius VIII had fallen in battle with the kingdom, and I was the one who had led that force. In other words, to this girl, I was her father’s killer.

Roroa shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “If you’re gonna say that, well, I went and drove my own brother out of the country. Used my connections with the merchants to set up simultaneous revolts and everythin’.”

“Wha?! That was you?!” I burst out.

The only riots that the kingdom had stirred up were the ones around Van. We hadn’t been involved at all in the revolts by vassals or the popular uprisings that had broken out elsewhere, but who would have thought that she was behind it all...

What a girl.

While I was still trying to process that, Roroa waved her hand. “Ya don’t need to feel bad for what happened with my old man. Or would ya rather I give you a vengeful ‘How dare you kill my father!’? Then do you want to force me to submit to you, and make me say, ‘I can’t believe I had to bear the child of my father’s killer...’?”

“I don’t have that kind of sadistic fetish!” I shouted.

“Souma,” Liscia muttered, looking disturbed. “That’s a little much...”

“Why are you acting a little creeped out, Liscia?! That’s just something Roroa came up with on her own, all right?!”

Ahh, I didn’t know what to say. Maybe because I’d been raising my voice a lot more than I was used to; I was starting to feel dizzy. This fake Kansai-accent girl totally had me dancing to her tune.

I sighed. “Listen, Roroa...”

“What?”

“You really don’t hold it against me? Not in the least?”

“...Well, when ya say it like that, it’s not like I feel absolutely nothin’ about it.” Roroa crossed her arms in front of her chest and closed her eyes. “Even with the way he was, he was still my old man. But he was tryin’ to kill you too, wasn’t he? On the battlefield, it’s kill or be killed. There ain’t much ya can do about that. It sounds like you returned his remains good and proper, so ya won’t hear any complaints out of me.”

I was silent.

“Well... it just means the two of us got on poorly enough as father and daughter that I’m able to leave it at that.” Roroa looked a little lonely. “My old man and my brother were so obsessed with takin’ revenge on the kingdom, they couldn’t see anythin’ else. Amidonia’s a poor country. We’ve got valuable mineral resources... but that’s it. Our food self-sufficiency rate is low. It ain’t the Royal House of Elfrieden or the people of the kingdom that’re makin’ our people suffer right now. It’s hunger and poverty. What we really needed were jobs and food. That’s what Colbert, the bureaucrats, and I were all thinkin’ when we desperately worked to scrape together money. But, my old man and his lot, they would immediately put it all into the military.”

As Roroa talked about that, her eyes went ice cold. The playfulness from before was gone, and her voice was filled with disappointment in her family and a sense of resignation.

“If they’d used it right, the starvin’ people, the girls forced to sell themselves, the children sold off so there’d be less mouths to feed, we could’ve cut down on all of that,” she said. “Stirring up hatred against the kingdom and using that to keep down dissent, that ain’t healthy. It’s sure to fall apart eventually. But, still... my old man didn’t listen to me when I tried to set him straight. I wonder when it was, really... that I stopped seeing them as family...”

“Roroa...” I said softly.

Roroa shook her head and collected herself, then smiled. “For me, my only family members are Grandpa Herman, Mr. Colbert, who’s like a big brother to me, and all the nice men and women who live in the principality’s markets. It ain’t a family that’s only related to me by blood that I want to protect. It’s a family that I care about.”

A family she cared about who wasn’t connected to her by blood, huh...

During the post-war talks, Julius had given up on Roroa because she might have become a political enemy of his. And now, Roroa had also turned her back on Julius.

Though they were on even terms, why was it I felt more of an affinity with Roroa? It was probably because, unlike Julius, Roroa understood the importance of family.

“I want to ask one more thing,” I said. “The other day, there was rioting in the north of the country that was put down by Julius, right? Was that something you instigated, too?”

“I’d never do that!” Here, Roroa was indignant for the first time. “In fact, I arranged for the revolts to all happen at the same time to prevent a situation just like that! It’d get my brother tied up so he couldn’t suppress the people! I’d’ve never allowed an uprisin’ that was sure to meet a horrible fate like that!”

Despite her vehemence, her voice was full of sorrow. It didn’t seem like she was lying.

“Well, was the revolt in the north a natural occurrence, then?” I asked.

“That ain’t it, either,” she said, shaking her head. “Look at the geography. What’s near the north where the riots broke out? Wasn’t there some people actin’ shifty up there?”

“Ah...! The Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria!”

Amidonia bordered the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria in the north. What was more, the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria had gathered its forces along the border in the name of defending their coreligionists.

Roroa nodded with a frustrated look on her face. “There ain’t no borders when it comes to religion. As close to the Orthodox Papal State as that region is, there’re a lot of followers of Lunarian Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Papal State probably stirred up the believers there, tellin’ them it was a direct order from the pope, or somethin’ like that. I’m sure they planned on sendin’ in troops to protect those believers.”

“But the north is hardly fertile land,” I said. “I mean, it’s bad enough that they were rioting over it. Was there any reason the Orthodox Papal State would want it?”

“It ain’t the land they want,” she said. “It’s the people. Believers. If they’re zealous believers, no matter how hard the lives they lead, they’ll never break away from the center of the faith. The troubles and hardships they face are all trials bestowed on them by their god, they’d say. That’s why that country doesn’t have to think about the daily lives of its people. So long as they’re performin’ the right rituals, they’ll support them. That’s why that country wants all the believers they can get.”

“That’s problematic...” I murmured. “And, hold on, Roroa, it sounds like you’re not so fond of Lunarian Orthodoxy.”

“I don’t give one whit about Lunarian Orthodoxy itself,” she shot back. “What I hate is the people who use religion to politically enrich themselves, then do radical things and hurt people around them who don’t have anythin’ to do with it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “On that point, I can agree with you.”

It seemed that mixing politics and religion was trouble, no matter what world you lived in. Normally, religion was something that existed to soothe the hearts of people, but some people used it as a justification and excuse for their actions. Interpretations of doctrine changed with those in power at the time, and those who didn’t adhere to their doctrine would be branded as heretics and punished in the name of their god. Honestly, there was nothing worse than that.

“If it were an option, I’d go the rest of my life without ever having anything to do with them,” I said.

“Too bad it’s not,” Roroa said bluntly. “That country’s sure to try and make contact with you.”

“Why? I’m not religious at all, you know?” I said.

“Because that country hates the Star Dragon Mountain Range and the Gran Chaos Empire, that’s why.”

“I can sort of see why they’d hate the Star Dragon Mountain Range, but why the Empire?” I asked, surprised.

The Star Dragon Mountain Range was essentially a nation for the sentient dragons.

The faith which worshiped Mother Dragon who lived there was one of the two largest faiths on this continent, tied only with Lunarian Orthodoxy. (Though I didn’t know what kind of faith was practiced in the Demon Lord’s Domain.) So I could understand the Orthodox Papal State hating the Star Dragon Mountain Range, which was the center of Mother Dragon worship. But why would they hate the Gran Chaos Empire, too?

“You know how Empress Maria of the Empire is called a saint, right?” Roroa said. “That’s just somethin’ the common people saved by her policies started callin’ her on their own; but in Lunarian Orthodoxy, the pope is the only one who can recognize someone as a saint. In fact, there’s a woman in Lunarian Orthodoxy who’s called a saint. That’s why the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria sees Madam Maria as an unforgivable villain who’s misrepresentin’ herself as one.”

“If the people just started calling her that on their own, I don’t see how that’s any fault of Madam Maria’s,” I said.

“They don’t care about that,” she shrugged. “In a theocracy, what the people look for more than anythin’ is charismatic leadership. If they recognized a saint who appeared naturally, it’d impact their credibility. That’s why, now that Elfrieden’s grown bigger by absorbin’ Amidonia, the Orthodox Papal State won’t be leavin’ you alone. Somewhere, somehow, they’ll try to make contact. Could be they’ll offer you some made up title like ‘Holy King’ and try to drag you into their conflict with the Empire.”

Urgh... That sounded both possible, and undesirable.

Because my secret alliance with the Empire was just that, a secret, other countries couldn’t find out about it. Actually, it would be a problem if they did find out about it, so the intelligence branches in both of our countries were working hard to conceal it. That meant I couldn’t openly admit to being allies with them.

The church offering those in power religious positions in order to make their own influence unshakable was something that had been seen in Earth’s history. They might try to turn us into the Holy Elfrieden Kingdom and have us lead the charge against the Empire for them.

That said, I wanted to avoid conflict with the Orthodox Papal State as much as possible. The troublesome thing about religion was that even if you crushed the center and their leaders, the believers would still be left behind. When believers were oppressed, it formed stronger bonds between them, and when their leaders were killed, they only became more revered as martyrs. Worse yet, the vast majority of believers were ordinary people, unconnected to any scheming inside the organization. If I tried to eliminate all of those believers, it would make me the primary culprit of a genocide.

The Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria... They were a truly troublesome group to deal with, one I would rather not cooperate with or oppose.

While I was starting to feel fed up with all my unpleasant imaginings, Roroa clapped her hands, as if to signal it was time for a change of mood. “Now, that’s enough about the Orthodox Papal State for now! What you ought to be decidin’ on first is your marriage with me.”

Roroa looked straight at me with those beady little eyes of hers.

“Mr. Souma... Do ya want me? Or don’t ya?”

“Urkh...”

I was at a loss for words. If she asked it that way, there could only be one answer.

“...I want you,” I said.

Desperately, at that. There was no room for doubting it. After all, the benefits of taking her as my wife were too great.

First of all, a marriage to Roroa would help emphasize the legitimacy of my rule over the annexed Amidonia. Roroa was loved by the people of the principality. If they saw her happily married in the kingdom, the people of the principality would feel less worried about being incorporated into the kingdom.

On top of that, her talents were appealing. The ahead-of-the-curve economic sense that had allowed her to come up with the idea of using commercials as a source of revenue, and the network of merchants she had built up on her own, were incredible. It was also good that she seemed likely to know any underhanded tricks that the nobles might use that Hakuya and I tended to miss. She was just the kind of person I had been wanting.

Besides... I liked the way Roroa thought. It was that mercantile spirit, you could say. While she had a realistic view that “the world’s all about money,” she still had a sense of honor and empathy. While it had never been allowed to bear fruit thanks to Gaius and his lot, she had been trying to use the money she earned for the sake of the people. For the sake of the people she cared about, she had been ready to confront even her own brother.

On top of that, she was cute, so I had no reason not to want her as a queen.

If there was one problem... it was how Liscia would feel about that. She was a princess from a country that they had been enemies with for many long years. Was she going to be able to accept her as a queen, essentially someone in the same position as her?

“What do you think, Liscia?” I asked.

“If you’ve decided you need her, then it’s fine.” Liscia gave her assent without seeming all that troubled.

Was it all right for her to give me the okay for it that easily?

While I showed my surprise, Liscia just shrugged her shoulders. “I can see for myself that this girl has talent. I think it’s worth taking her as a queen. If you’ll just take proper care of the issue of succession, I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

“Liscia... um... Thanks.”

“Do make sure you take proper care of us, too, though, okay?” Liscia said.

“Of course,” I said immediately.

She really was... such a great girl. I was so grateful... truly grateful... to have Liscia as my fiancée.

While we were having a touching moment, Roroa butted in. “Uhh, sorry to bother you while you two’re off in your own li’l world, but you don’t need to be worryin’ about that stuff any. I don’t give one whit about the princely throne of Amidonia.”

“You don’t?” I asked, startled.

“Yeah. In exchange, though, I’ve got a favor to ask, Darlin’.”

Darling, seriously...? I thought. Well, whatever.

Almost like a pleading child, working up all the charm she could muster, she looked at me with upturned eyes. “Y’see, I want my own company.”

“A company?” I asked.

“That’s right. Listen, Darlin’, I wanna see how the money I make with my own skill changes this country. Your policies show foresight, but y’don’t always have fundin’ for them, now do ya? They can be high risk, and I’m sure you’ll have a hard time usin’ the national treasury for things that may end up bein’ pointless.”

“That’s... Well, yeah.”

Now that I had expanded my power as king, when it came to projects like the road network expansion, or the construction of the new city, those where it was easy to demonstrate their practical value, I could get them funded relatively easily. However, if there wasn’t an immediate effect to show, or the enterprise looked meaningless at first glance, it was hard to allocate funds to them.

Specialized research funds, for instance. Even if a specialist knew second place wasn’t good enough, it wasn’t something they could explain to a non-specialist and have them understand.

“So, this’s what I’m thinkin’,” said Roroa. “When you’ve got a policy you want to implement, Darlin’, but you can’t fund it, you come to me. I’ll back you up usin’ the money I’ve made with my own company.”

“That sounds very reassuring, but... are you sure?” I asked. “If a queen is seen acting like a merchant, I don’t think the people will respect your authority.”

“I’ll be runnin’ it behind the scenes, so that’s no worry,” she said. “I know! For the public face of the company, I’ll put the owner of a place I frequent in Van, Sebastian of The Silver Deer, in charge.”

Sebastian of The Silver Deer... Wait! Ahh! That was the place I’d gone to with Juna and Tomoe! I’d thought he ought to be a butler with that name, so I remembered him.

So, the regular customer he’d said was “like an adorable little tanuki” had been Roroa, then? If I recalled, Sebastian had been a nice, middle-aged guy who seemed like a capable merchant, so he could probably serve as the representative of a company.

“Wait, hold on, you and Sebastian were connected?” I burst out. “Were you trying to investigate me?”

“Well, yeah, I wanted to know what the man I was plannin’ on marryin’ was like, didn’t I?”

“You don’t overlook a thing, do you?” I said. “When you take it that far, I have to be impressed.”

She really was a little tanuki. Childish, but cunning. I felt like she had tricked me good.

“Um... As the one who’s going to be in charge of the treasury, may I say one thing?” Colbert interjected, looking troubled.

“What is it?” I asked.

“If you have that kind of money, I’d prefer you put it in the treasury.”

...Yeah. I knew how Colbert felt. The kingdom had been going through all sorts of austerity measures until recently, after all.

Roroa and I spoke up in unison. ““But, I refuse.””

“Why are you two suddenly in sync?!”

“It’s fine,” Roroa said confidently. “I’ll be earnin’ the money on my own, anyway.”

“And with the extra budget, I can carry out internal policies more freely,” I said.

“But, sire...”

“Now, now, we won’t be spendin’ it wastefully like my old man did,” Roroa said, waving her hand. “Consider it a division of roles. I earn money. You tighten our belts, Mr. Colbert. It’s all good that way.”

“If you spend too recklessly, I will do everything within my power to stop you, you hear?” But Colbert reluctantly backed down.

He would be keeping a sharp eye on Roroa and me from now on to make sure we weren’t spending money recklessly. I was glad. It was important to have people on staff who could earn money, like Roroa, but people like Colbert who could save money where precious, too.

Roroa walked up to me and slipped her arm through mine. “Also, if me and you have a child, Darlin’, I want that child to inherit the company. I’m thinkin’ that, probably, no child of ours is gonna want anythin’ to do with runnin’ the country.”

Well, that was true enough. If the child inherited my “I want to live in peace” personality and Roroa’s “I don’t want to be bored” personality, that child wasn’t going to want all the hassles that came with being king or queen.

...Actually, by that same logic, wasn’t a child who inherited Liscia’s sense of duty the only option to succeed the throne? Aisha’s personality wasn’t fit for a ruler, and Juna was asking to become a secondary queen, saying, “I’d prefer to be able to act more freely.”

At this rate... rather than a war over who was going to succeed the throne, we were more likely to have a war over who wouldn’t have to?

I’d have to have Liscia work hard to raise an heir with a sense of responsibility. But if I asked her to, she’d be bound to say, “Don’t say that like it’s someone else’s problem!” and get angry.

“Sebastian had a little girl recently, I hear,” said Roroa. “If we have a boy, we can marry him into her family. If we have a girl... I’ll get to thinkin’ about it then.”

“You’re getting way ahead of yourself!” Liscia shouted. “And, hey, get away from Souma already!”

Liscia started trying to pry her off of me, but Roroa used my body as a shield, switching the arm she was clinging to from left to right, and clinging to me all over again.

“Don’t be so stingy,” Roroa said. “You’ve had plenty of time for flirtin’ with him up ’til now, haven’t ya, Sis? What’s wrong with me takin’ a bonus turn for the next little while?”

“I have not had plenty of time!” Liscia said angrily. “We’ve been too busy for any of that!”

Roroa looked at her blankly. “...Don’t tell me, you two still haven’t...”

“We haven’t yet! Is that a problem?!”

When Roroa heard that, she turned a cold eye in my direction. “Darlin’... That’s a bit much...”

“I’m the one being criticized now?!”

“Yes! It’s because you’re not taking care of me ‘properly’!” Liscia snapped angrily.

“Yeah, yeah!” Roroa wore a smile like a mischievous child.

Why were these two so in sync?!

Aisha, who had been watching over all of this from behind me, tugged on my sleeve. “Um... I hope, uh... I’d like you to do things ‘properly’ with me, too.”

Urgh... At some point, I had been encircled by three fiancées. As I broke out into a cold sweat that just wouldn’t stop, my retainers watched with wry smiles and a roll of the eyes.

Some days later, the Elfrieden Kingdom, having annexed the Principality of Amidonia, formed the United Kingdom of Elfrieden and Amidonia. (Popularly known as the Kingdom of Friedonia.)

From this point on, as a magnificent king who expanded the country’s territory less than a year after ascending the throne, I came to be called Great King Friedonia.

Now, that “Great King” name — I wasn’t terribly fond of it. It made me think of giant squids, giant isopods, and... also, Dedede. All of which had “great king” in their Japanese names.

Also, given the fact that I’d agreed to take Princess Roroa of the annexed Principality of Amidonia as my wife, there were rumors that “King Souma grows more powerful and his territory expands with each wife he takes,” and, “He’s a lecher who invaded and destroyed an enemy country just to sate his desire for Princess Roroa.”

Honestly, how did it come to this...?

“...And that’s what happened,” I finished.

“Well... I don’t know what to say... Pfft!” On the other side of the simple receiver, Maria was holding her shaking shoulders. Something had struck her funny bone, apparently. This was supposed to be a meeting, so she seemed to be trying to hold the laughter in, but I’d feel better if she’d just let out a big laugh at this point.

“Hee hee hee... It seems that turn of events was completely unexpected for you, too,” she giggled.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “I feel like I was using shrimp as bait to catch a sea bream, but instead I ended up catching a shark.”

“Do be sure that you take proper care of what you caught,” she said.

“I can’t release it... can I?” I asked.

Maria continued giggling for a while, but she eventually returned to a serious expression. “Now, about what the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State was doing behind the scenes...”

“Roroa was saying that they hate you for being called a saint.”

“That’s true,” she said. “I received a request to stop calling myself a saint... or rather, a formal complaint over it. But I’ve never called myself one, so there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“It’s a bit strange to ask you to not let the masses call you a saint,” I agreed. “But that being the case, the Orthodox Papal State is going to continue to be a potential enemy of the Empire. They may try to make contact with us like Roroa was suggesting they would.”

“Sir Souma... do you want the authority that the Orthodox Papal State could give you?” Maria asked me with probing eyes.

I firmly shook my head. “Don’t be silly. I’m trying to move forward into a new era. I’m not about to take a step backwards into a time of rule by divine right.” Our country didn’t need a Girolamo Savonarola.

My firm rejection of the idea seemed to have relieved Maria. “The Orthodox Papal State is a headache for the Empire. There are many followers of Lunarian Orthodoxy in the Empire, and the Mankind Declaration is meaningless against a religious body. If anything, there’s the risk that they would make use of the hole you pointed out.”

Something like gathering their believers into one place and having them declare independence, maybe? Once a group of believers had formed, it would be difficult to eradicate them. Religion was something that burned all the hotter the more you tried to stamp it out. About the only countermeasure would be to round up those plotting to declare independence one by one before they could form into a group.

The flag called the Mankind Declaration drew people to the cause, but it also had large holes in it.

“Will the Empire still not abandon its position as the leader of the Mankind Declaration?” I asked.

“Yes,” Maria said. “We need to unite around the Mankind Declaration. If there needs to be someone to wave that flag, the Empire will take on that role. Even the Orthodox Papal State must understand that. If mankind is unable to deal with the encroaching threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain because of internal squabbling, it will all be pointless in the end. I don’t think they’ll try anything strange just yet.”

“...I wonder about that,” I murmured.

I felt like this wasn’t an issue we could take such an optimistic view toward. The more chaotic the times, the more religion showed its true value. It found its root in the hearts of people seeking salvation. Despair for society or the times they lived in would drive people toward religion.

Now, when there was the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain, some were already viewing this as the end of days. If despair continued to run rampant through society, the Orthodox Papal State could feed on that and eventually become an incredible force. In order to stop that... we needed to show people the light of hope.

We needed people to believe that the world wouldn’t be destroyed, that tomorrow would always come, and that the future would be even more incredible than the present. In order to accomplish that...

“Madam Maria.”

“Yes?” she said.

“For as long as your Gran Chaos Empire continues to hold to the ideal of uniting mankind, we in the Kingdom of Friedonia will walk alongside you.”

I needed the Empire... needed Maria... to be the light of hope for mankind. During that time, the kingdom would move forward into a new era. So that the people wouldn’t despair, and so that even if they did despair, they could get back up without clinging to gods.

“If our two countries support one another, I believe we can face any situation,” I said.

“Yes. May our pact last forever.”

If her eyes were always focused on her high ideals, she could very well trip over the stones in her path.

Though, if I was always focused on the realistic details on the ground, I might lose sight of our goal.

That was why we had to walk together.

We each looked at the screen and nodded to one another.

Elfrieden Historical Idiom Lessons: Number 5

“To Use Shrimp as Bait to Catch Sea Bream, but Instead Catch a Shark”

Type: Idiomatic Expression

Meaning: (1) To attempt to achieve great results with minimal effort, only to be disappointed by an unexpected outcome. (2) When something that was initially thought to be a disappointment turns out to have a surprising upside. (From the fact that, even though shark meat does not taste very good, their fins are highly valuable.)

Origin: These words were spoken by Great King Souma, who had tried to annex just Van, the capital of the Principality of Amidonia, and was disappointed when the rest of that impoverished country came with it. In the case of (2), the shark fin would be Princess Roroa.

Synonyms: “Counting your tanuki before they’re caught,” “A jewel in a dunghill”