by Dojyomaru
“Even when it comes to that revenge, they only bring it up when it benefits them.” I glared at Julius as I spoke, following Hakuya’s example. “‘Our country is poor because of the kingdom, everyone goes hungry because of the kingdom, our people suffer under their heavy toil because of the kingdom, the heavy taxes we levy go to the military and not the people because of the kingdom.’”
“What are you getting at?” Julius demanded.
“It’s awfully convenient,” I said. “If you just use that excuse to pay lip service to the theme of revenge, you can hide your policy blunders and redirect the anger of your people towards Elfrieden.”
“You cur! How dare you say that!” Julius exclaimed, dashing towards me.
“Sir Julius!” Jeanne snapped, stopping him again. Then she turned an equally harsh glance in my direction. “Sir Souma, I believe I asked you not to agitate him.”
“...Sorry,” I said. “It’s just that we want you to see that we’re furious with Amidonia’s behavior, too.”
“That... I can understand,” said Jeanne.
“Thank you,” I said. “Now, I have a proposal.”
I turned to them, as if saying, Now, it’s time to get down to business.
“Could we have Sir Julius leave the room?”
Julius’s face contorted with rage. “Don’t be absurd! Why should I be removed from negotiations that will determine the fate of my nation’s capital?!”
An intelligent and beautiful face showing all that anger was at least fifty percent more intimidating than an ordinary person’s would have been. Before coming to this world, I’d probably have been overwhelmed by his threatening attitude, but... now I had spent around half a year as king, dealing with far scarier people such as Gaius himself, in matters of life and death. After all of that, this level of intimidation wasn’t enough pressure to faze me.
“It’s simple, really,” I said. “I don’t even need to negotiate with Amidonia to begin with.”
“What did you say?!” he shouted.
“I am at the negotiating table because I want the Empire to recognize my sovereignty over Van,” I said. “The Empire takes the position that they can’t recognize the changing of borders due to the exercise of force, so they’re here to negotiate because they want me to return Van, right? In that case, the matter can be settled entirely through negotiations between the kingdom and the Empire.”
This had always been a negotiation between the kingdom and the Empire. The principality had never been more than a sideshow. If his resentment was going to stop the smooth proceeding of the negotiations, I would be happier to see him removed from them. Jeanne seemed to understand this, too.
“...Sir Julius,” she said. “Could I ask you to let me handle this?”
“Madam Jeanne?!” he exclaimed. “But...”
“These negotiations will go nowhere with you both at each other’s throats,” said Jeanne. “The Empire does not wish to spend its time mediating other nations’ disputes. I will definitely reclaim Van, so I would like you to leave this to me.”
“That’s... very one-sided of you, isn’t it?” Julius asked angrily. He seemed ready to keep arguing, but Jeanne cut him right off.
“Then the Empire will have nothing more to do with this matter, and you will be welcome to negotiate for yourself. In my personal opinion, the fault lies with Amidonia on this occasion. We are doing what we can to help you because you’re a signatory to the Mankind Declaration, but if you find yourself unable to trust us, the Empire will withdraw from these negotiations.”
Julius knew the principality could not reclaim Van on its own. If the Empire hinted they might withdraw from the negotiations, there was nothing he could say.
Julius looked anguished, choking out the words, “You will... get Van back for us, yes?”
“I swear it on my sister, Empress Maria Euphoria’s, name.”
“I’m counting on you.” Julius bowed his head to Jeanne, then left the audience chamber.
After we had seen him off, Jeanne and I looked to one another and sighed.
“...I’m sorry,” said Jeanne. “Our signatories can be such a handful.”
“...I feel your pain.”
We both smiled. In order to hide our true feelings, both of us had naturally put on a smile. The dangerous air had vanished from the room, but the air was still as tense as ever. No, if anything, it was more tense now than before.
These talks would decide what was to come from here on for both the kingdom and the Empire, so that was probably inevitable.
“Did you deliberately agitate Julius to set the stage for this, perhaps?” Jeanne asked.
I shook my head with a wry smile. “I meant most of what I said. Thanks to his father and him, the kingdom’s recovery was delayed, and I had to do a lot of unnecessary work. I wanted to vent a little.”
“Is that so?” Jeanne said, not seeming to care all that much. Then Jeanne brought one hand to her chest, giving a polite bow. “Let me introduce myself once more, Sir Souma. I am Jeanne Euphoria, emissary of the Gran Chaos Empire. I come representing my sister Maria Euphoria.”
“Welcome, Madam Jeanne,” I said. “I am the (provisional) King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya.”
To start things afresh, Jeanne and I had reintroduced ourselves.
Jeanne had been a little taciturn before, but she now took on a cheerful tone, completely at odds with that. She smiled to Liscia who stood beside me. “I’m relieved to see you are well, Princess Liscia.”
“You seem to be in good health yourself, Madam Jeanne,” Liscia said, returning the smile.
“Hm? You two were acquainted with each other?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Liscia. “We met just once, when we were little. Before the Demon Lord’s Domain appeared, I believe?”
“Yes, it was,” said Jeanne. “If I recall, it was the time I forced the minister in charge of talks with your former king, Sir Albert, to bring me along. Because of our close age, we played together.”
I see, I thought. When they’re both royals, they have those sorts of connections, huh.
Then, Jeanne eyed Liscia’s body up and down and said, “You must be even stronger now than you were back then. I can tell just looking at you.”
“I could say the same of you,” said Liscia. “Back then, I never did manage to land a single hit on you.”
Whoa, hold up! How did we get from the two of them playing to them landing hits on each other?!
“You two were way too tomboyish...” I muttered.
“Even the mild-mannered Marx was mad at us that time,” said Liscia nostalgically.
“Our foreign minister was in tears, too,” Jeanne chuckled. “Ha ha ha!”
No, no, that’s nothing to laugh about... I felt bad for Marx and this minister for the Empire whose face I’d never even seen.
“Well, anyway, that’s enough reminiscing about old times,” Jeanne began. “I think it’s about time we talked heart-to-heart.”
“I know,” I said. “Let’s move somewhere else, for a start.”
I wanted to take this chance to speak frankly with the Empire. In order to make that possible, the meeting site needed to be a spot where both sides would feel comfortable. I was going to want a pen and paper, too.
“But, first... Liscia, could you summon Serina for me?” I asked.
Liscia nodded, leaving the room. Shortly thereafter, a woman in a maid uniform entered.
It was Liscia’s personal maid, the head maid Serina. The head maid, an intellectual beauty who was slightly older than me, lifted the hem of her apron-skirt slightly, and curtsied. “I have come at your behest, Your Majesty.”
“Serina,” I said. “Amidonia’s crown... no, Amidonia’s sovereign prince, Julius, is in the visitor’s room. I may be speaking with Madam Jeanne for some time, so begin the banquet without us and see to it that he is made welcome.”
When I gave her that order, Serina bowed respectfully. “Very well. In that case, sire, I would
like permission to open a well-aged bottle of tequeur from the castle’s wine cellar.”
In the moment she said that, I thought I saw a suspicious glint in Serina’s eye.
Does she want to drink that alcoholic beverage, whatever it was called? I wondered. She seems like the tight-laced sort to me, but maybe she’s actually a drinker. Is she saying it’s for our guest, when really she wants to drink it herself?
“I’ll leave the matter to your discretion,” I said at last. “So long as our guest is properly entertained.”
“Understood. I will pour Sir Julius’s share and entertain him personally.”
With those words and an icy smile, Serina bowed and exited the room.
Her smile did worry me, but she’d said she would entertain him, so I figured it was probably fine. As I was thinking that, I looked next to me to see Liscia and Hakuya grimacing.
“Wh-What is it, you two?” I asked.
“Souma... tequeur is famous for being a strong alcohol,” said Liscia.
“It has a pleasant taste, which encourages heavy drinking. However, if one who is not used to drinking it does that, it will quickly send them off to the land of dreams. Normally, it’s the sort of thing you’d drink a few drops of mixed into a glass of tea or juice,” Hakuya explained, looking like his head hurt.
“Huh? Wait, if she goes pouring him glasses of the stuff...”
“The banquet will be over not ten minutes after it begins.”
“She has no intention of entertaining him whatsoever?!” I exclaimed.
The head maid Serina. She had an elegant beauty, she carried out her duties perfectly, she was polite, and she could also show great consideration, all of which made her flawless as a maid. However, she was also a little too much of a sadist.
When it came to cute girls, she always wanted to “buwwy” them. Not “bully,” “buwwy.” Not that she’d do anything that would hurt them; she just enjoyed stirring up their senses of shame a little.
Left alone with Serina, Julius didn’t stand a chance.
Well, the goal of the banquet was always to keep Julius from finding out what’s going on with our negotiations with the Empire, I thought. If she gets him to drink himself into a stupor, that’s one way of doing it...
“Just this once, I feel bad for Julius,” Liscia said, with eyes as emotionless as those of a dead fish. “Serina, she just loves to toy with swaggering types like him.”
“I-It sounds like you have personal experience with this...” I said.
“Whenever I misbehaved, Marx was the one who would scold me, but Serina was always the one in charge of disciplining me,” said Liscia. “Of course, Serina’s a maid, so she couldn’t punish me physically. No, she went for psychological attacks instead. If only... If only she didn’t know about that one thing... No, there’s that, too, isn’t there...? Augh, why does she always, always have to see me at the worst possible moments?”
As I tried to console Liscia, who was holding her head in her hands, I let out a sigh. “Just how much blackmail material does she have on you...?”
“Heh heh. This really is an... interesting country.” In the corner of my vision, I saw Jeanne doing her best to hold back a smile.
After that, we changed locations, and I showed Jeanne to the governmental affairs office. That was because, if we were going to be sitting down and negotiating at length, I felt this was the best place to do it.
It was large enough to hold a reasonable number of people, and there were plenty of pens and pieces of paper there. Being able to easily get our hands on any documents we might need was another point in its favor.
...Though, when Jeanne had entered the room, the first thing that had caught her attention was the bed off in the corner.
“Sir Souma, what is that bed for?” she asked.
“It’s mine,” I said. “I’m too busy to have a room of my own.”
“You sleep in the governmental affairs office?!”
“I am ashamed to admit it, but yes,” Hakuya, not I, said, sounding deeply embarrassed.
However, it apparently wasn’t the fact that I slept in the office itself that surprised Jeanne. “I never thought there would be a king doing the same things as my sister...”
“Come again?” I asked, startled.
Her sister... That’d be Madam Maria, right? Huh? The empress sleeps in the governmental affairs office, too?!
When I asked her about it, Jeanne awkwardly responded, “She does have her own room, too, of course, but when she finds herself busy with administrative work, she sleeps in a bed that’s been set up in the office, yes. What’s more, in my sister’s case, she doesn’t settle for a simple bed. She’s brought in a proper, comfy one. That makes it all the worse.”
I was silent.
I wonder why, I thought. Right now, I feel an incredible kinship with the Saint of the Empire.
“My sister needs to realize that she’s the ruler of a vast empire,” said Jeanne. “I keep telling her not to do it, and to consider how it looks to her vassals, but all I get in return is, ‘I don’t see the problem. I sleep so well in this bed.’ She doesn’t listen to me at all.”
When Jeanne said that with a sigh, for some reason, Hakuya was nodding along. “I understand. I don’t know how many times I’ve advised His Majesty to get his own room and sleep there. Yet, every time I do, he brushes me off with a simple, ‘But this is more efficient.’”
“Oh, I understand,” said Jeanne. “I know she’s tired from her work, but I wish she’d consider how her subordinates see her a little more. Especially since my sister has this image of being a saint, I’d rather she not do anything too unseemly.”
“I can understand that,” said Hakuya. “I’ve given up on that front. His Majesty could have carried the title of ‘hero,’ but everything he does is so...”
The two of them just keep saying, “I understand, I understand,” I thought. Why are they hitting it off so well?
“I think it’s good that when Sir Souma does it, at least he’s doing it calculatingly,” said Jeanne. “When my sister does it, it’s just laziness. She can be a bit of an airhead at times, too.”
“Well, at least that’s cute,” said Hakuya. “In His Majesty’s case, I think it’s all the worse because he’s planned it out. Why does the king who is so good at listening to his subjects in matters of state pretend not to hear a word I say when it comes to advising him on his personal life?”
“I can see you’ve been put through a lot, too, Sir Hakuya,” said Jeanne.
“No, no, Madam Jeanne, you must have had it worse,” said Hakuya.
Jeanne and Hakuya were really hitting it off. They looked like they might exchange a firm handshake at any moment.
And so, right here, right now, the “Association of the Victims of Slothful Masters” was formed. That was a joke I couldn’t laugh at. It was getting awkward for me, and I wanted to move the conversation along to another topic quickly, but if I interrupted now, I was going to get a scolding and get slapped with a paper fan, so I decided to keep quiet for a little while.
I watched carefully for their conversation settle down a bit, then, clearing my throat loudly, I gestured for Jeanne to take a seat at the long table in the middle of the room. “Well, anyway, take a seat. Let’s get right to the negotiations.”
“Ah... Right. Very well.” Jeanne’s expression changed, and she sat at the table.
Once we were both seated across from each other at the long table, Jeanne looked me in the eye and began. “I suppose the first order of business is your current occupation of Van.”
I said nothing.
“As much as I truly regret that I must say this, I did give my word to Sir Julius, so the Empire has a role it must fulfill here,” she said. “Could you please return Van?”
“There’s no need to rush to the conclusion like that,” I said. “I mean, this is a rare chance for the head of the kingdom and the Empire’s number two to negotiate directly. There are a lot of thin
gs I want to take this opportunity to discuss, and a lot of information I want to share. Let’s leave any topic that might put us both in a foul mood for after all of that.”
Jeanne took on a pensive look, but eventually she nodded. “...Well, then. In that case, I would like to call in the bureaucrats from my country who are standing by outside the castle here. Would that be acceptable?”
“I’ll allow it,” I said. “They’ll have to go through a body check first, though. ...Is someone there?”
When I called out towards the entrance, Serina responded, “Pardon me,” and entered the room.
Wait, why’s Serina here?! I thought.
“...Didn’t I ask you to keep Sir Julius entertained?” I demanded.
“I have already finished with the entertainment,” Serina said with a nonchalant look on her face.
It’s only evening, but Julius is already passed out drunk? I thought incredulously. Serina... you really are a terrifying woman.
“Is something the matter, sire?” she asked.
“Oh, no... Gather our bureaucrats and the ones who came with Jeanne, please. Be sure to at least give them a cursory search for weapons and the like.”
“Very well.” Serina departed with an elegant bow.
If there was one person I never wanted to make an enemy of, it was her...
Chapter 4: Pact
The congress danced at a dizzying pace.
“How did your harvest fare in the Empire this year?” I asked.
“Thankfully, this year most of our crops have performed well,” said Jeanne. “Our wheat crop, in particular, was quite fruitful. How were things in Elfrieden? I had heard you were facing a food crisis.”
“Our yields have been steadily improving,” I said. “Partly thanks to the replanting effort having begun in time, I don’t believe we have any fears of a food crisis any longer. That said, I do have some misgivings about the levels of our food stores. Even if the harvest is good this year, if we were to have a crop failure next year, or the year after, there could be a relapse of the food crisis.”