by Dojyomaru
There was a slight pride in Liscia’s voice as she spoke. She really... did respect him, huh.
“When my father took the throne, this country changed the way it expanded,” she continued. “With my father, who was, for better or for worse, an ordinary king ruling this country, we ought to have been an easy target for nearby countries.”
“You’re awfully harsh, even though he’s your own father,” I commented.
“Well, it’s the truth. Still, that never happened. Because Duke Carmine always kept a keen eye on the west, neither Amidonia or Turgis tried to lay a hand on us. Despite being the greatest warrior of his generation, he had no ambition and served my father loyally. ...No, that’s not it. Rather than it being for my father’s sake, Duke Carmine just had a pure love for this country.”
“Why for this country?” I asked.
“Don’t you know?” she asked. “There are still countries in this world that discriminate against other races. The Empire holds up the values of racial equality now, but there is still discrimination against nonhumans in some regions. There are also places where it’s the other way around; in the northwest, there’s a high elf island country that promotes a policy of high elf supremacy, and it’s humans who are looked down on there.”
It looked like those sorts of problems that you find everywhere existed in this world, too.
“But, in this country, we don’t have that sort of discrimination,” she continued. “Even if it exists, there’s no outlet for it. The races that were against that sort of discrimination to begin with gathered under the first king and cooperated to make this country prosperous, so that they wouldn’t have to live under the yoke of anyone else. That is what this country is like... and Duke Carmine loved it more than anyone.”
There, Liscia paused for a moment before continuing to speak.
“In his personal life, Duke Carmine is a man who knows how to be polite. He had a close relationship to my father that was more than just professional, and he often offered my father advice. He even cared for me like his own daughter. As for myself... I loved Duke Carmine.”
I was silent.
She continued, “When I went to the Officer’s Academy because I wanted to become a soldier, he was opposed to it at first. He said it was unbecoming of a princess. But, in the end, he let me have my way. Mind you, once I graduated from the academy, I was placed at his command, and was only used to encourage the troops.”
Well, yeah... He couldn’t have used the princess, a blood relative of the king, as one of his subordinates. Even Georg, as impressive a man as he was, must have had a lot of trouble dealing with Liscia’s tomboyishness.
“So, he was like a second father to you, huh?” I asked.
When I said that, Liscia hung her head in sadness. “Yeah... He was a wonderful man. So why did he...”
Liscia started to say something, but stopped, shaking her head.
“I don’t know exactly what Duke Carmine was thinking... But perhaps, it may have been because he was a warrior.”
“Because he was a warrior?” I asked.
“Duke Carmine is over fifty,” she said. “A beastman’s lifespan is no different from a human’s. Were he just a general, he would still have many years left to grow, but as a warrior, it’s all downhill from here. I think, maybe, that’s why he’s trying to do something big for his country right now.”
“...Even if that means becoming a traitor?” I asked.
“If he thought that would benefit this country, Duke Carmine would do it.”
There was a degree of trust in those words that I couldn’t help but envy a little.
I spoke up. “Tomorrow... I will hold a conference with the three dukes over the Jewel Voice Broadcast.”
There were four Jewel Voice Broadcast jewels in this country. Three of them were held by the three dukes. Using those jewels, we would hold something like a video conference. There, I would issue a final ultimatum to the three dukes that they were to submit to me as my vassals. I would have to fight anyone who refused. And, regardless of what the other two did, there was zero chance that Georg would comply.
“Liscia, if this is hard on you...” I began.
“I’m going to attend,” she said.
She wouldn’t even let me say she didn’t have to.
Liscia put on a smile clouded with sadness. “I know. Duke Carmine has already made his choice. He can’t turn back now.”
“Liscia...” I said.
“I want to watch to the end, because I know that. I want to see how that man lives his life.” Liscia looked straight into my eyes.
Really... I had no words for her. So, to do the least I could do, I hugged her tightly around the shoulders. She was trembling a little.
I tilted Liscia’s head onto my shoulder.
Even though I was the king, I couldn’t do anything more for her, and I was angry at myself for that.
◇ ◇ ◇
—The same day, in Red Dragon City.
“Damn it... What the hell is going on?!”
In Red Dragon City, located in the north of the Elfrieden Kingdom, the commander of the air force, Castor Vargas, was at his desk, holding his head in his hands.
Red Dragon City was the central city of the Vargas Duchy, and also where Castor’s castle was located.
It was built at a slight elevation on a portion of the mountain that had been cleared. This might have seemed a poor location for a central city, given the inconvenience of transporting goods to it, but for the Vargas Duchy, the ones who held the kingdom’s air force, it gave them the convenience of having access to transport wyverns in addition to combat ones.
Each could carry as much as a cable car loaded with supplies, and there were bus-like vehicles carried by four wyverns that went to each city, so the remoteness of the site didn’t matter that much.
Also, because the castle of the General of the Air Force was located in Red Dragon City, the city’s defenses were hardened.
While the location already made it like a mountain castle, it was also surrounded by high walls. While the mountain slopes kept away battering rams (vehicles with a massive stake meant for breaking through gates) or scaling ladders (these came on vehicles built like fire trucks, which provided a foothold for getting over the castle walls), the high walls would defend against any attacks by infantry or cavalry.
The only means of attack that might have been effective was an assault from the air with wyverns, but this was the Vargas family’s specialty, so it was fair to call it an impregnable fortress.
Furthermore, Castor, the current ruler of the city, was an excellent commander. Even though Castor was not so good at the intricacies of politics, he displayed an unmatched strength on the battlefield. In the last hundred years of war for the Elfrieden Kingdom, he had always stood at the head of the wyvern unit, mowing down foreign enemies as their vanguard commander.
He had made a lot of errors due to not thinking things through well enough, but his broadminded nature, his hot-blooded personality, and his incredible strength had lent him a charisma that charmed his subordinates. If we were to compare him to Zhang Fei in Chinese history, or Masanori Fukushima in Japanese history, that might make it easier to understand.
Because he was that kind of person, he left management of the city entirely to his wife, Accela, who was Admiral Excel’s daughter, as well as to Tolman, the man who was his second in command in the air force and also the steward of his house.
No good could come from a poor manager butting into administrative decisions, so this was probably for the best. Castor knew that running around the battlefield suited him far better than managing a city.
Now Castor, the man who was ill-suited to thinking, was wracking his brains over what to do for once.
“Tolman! Has Duke Carmine still not said anything?!” he exclaimed.
“...Not as of yet,” the man in gentlemanly attire standing across from him answered, continuing to stand upright as he did so. This was t
he man entrusted with administrative control of Red Dragon City, the steward of the House of Vargas, Tolman.
Castor banged his hands down on the desk. “The king’s ultimatum comes tomorrow! What is he contriving by not sending us any word before that?!”
Tolman said nothing.
The people were all talking about a confrontation between the new king and the three dukes, but that didn’t mean the three dukes were all in agreement. Army General Georg Carmine had made his opposition to the king clear, but Navy Admiral Excel Walter took a more negative view of fighting the king. Finally, for Castor... He was showing a position of opposition to the king, but was wavering on that stance internally.
General Georg was his comrade in arms, and he respected him as a warrior. Because Georg was the one raising the flag of rebellion, Castor had assumed he had thought it through, and he had even pushed back against his mother-in-law Excel to side with Georg in opposing the king. In other words, while it was true that Castor had been suspicious when there had been the sudden change of kings, he had left the decision of whether or not he would oppose the new king to someone else.
Castor’s own emotional immaturity had been one of the causes for this.
Dragonewts like Castor were a race that was longer lived than either humans or beastmen. The speed of emotional development tended to be inversely proportional to how long a race lived. Because of that, though Castor had lived for over a hundred years, his mental age was around thirty, and he treated the fifty-year-old Georg as an elder.
However, though he had sent a number of letters to Georg asking him what their next course of action should be, he had received no response.
“There’s got to be something wrong here!” Castor exclaimed. “If he was going to make peace with the king now, he never would have acted against him to begin with. On the other hand, if he intends to fight the king, he should be desperate for our air force to help him. So why isn’t he telling us anything? Does he mean to fight the king with just the army?”
Tolman pondered. “The one thing I can think of is... Could he have been ‘driven mad by ambition,’ like Duchess Walter suggested? Master, even if you distrust the new king Souma, you wouldn’t want to harm the former king Albert, his wife Elisha, and even Princess Liscia, would you?”
Harm the royal family.
When Tolman spoke those words, Castor cried out in a loud voice, “Of course not! Duke Carmine himself said, ‘Once King Souma is removed, I will have King Albert take the throne once more, and we will support him’!”
“And what if that were a lie?” Tolman asked. “Could it be that, in truth, he wishes to take the throne for himself? If that is the case, you and Duchess Walter will surely be his next enemies. In preparation for when that happens, could he not be trying to settle things with just his own forces, so as to keep the two of you from gaining influence after the war ends? So that he can abolish both your houses after the war?”
“That’s absurd!” Castor burst out. “There’s no way Duke Carmine would ever think of doing that!”
Castor denied it, but as would be expected from one entrusted as the steward of his house, Tolman had the ability to calmly analyze things. This was the conclusion Tolman had come to, setting aside appeals to emotion and looking purely at the interests of those involved.
However, because Castor knew Georg well, he couldn’t accept that argument.
“There isn’t a warrior who cares more for this country than Duke Carmine!” Castor protested. “He could never harm the royal family...”
“However, was it not because of her doubts about Duke Carmine that Duchess Walter parted ways with him?” Tolman asked. “Even going so far as to take the mistress and Young Master Carl back home with her?”
“...”
Fearing Castor’s wife Accela and their young, eldest son Carl would be held collectively responsible, Excel had demanded that he divorce Accela, and she was now sheltering them at the House of Walter. At the very least, they would not be caught up in the showdown between Georg and Souma that was no doubt coming. That offered Castor some small comfort, at least.
Castor rested his elbows on the desk, covering his eyes with his hands. “...I just can’t imagine that Duke Carmine would be driven mad by ambition.”
“Master...” Tolman began.
“I’m sorry, but could you leave me alone for a moment?”
“...As you wish.”
With a bow, Tolman left the office.
Left alone in the room, Castor leaned all the way back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. And then...
“Carla,” he said quietly. “You’re there, aren’t you?”
The window behind Castor opened, and a girl with red wings came in with an embarrassed look on her face. With long red hair the same color as her wings, this beautiful girl who looked to be around eighteen was Castor’s only daughter, Carla. In contrast to her pretty girl look, she had the courage and combat sense to lead an air force unit into battle.
“So you noticed me,” she said.
“You’ll need to hide your presence better than that. The sound of your wings when you landed on the balcony gave you away.”
“But that’s not sensing my presence.” Carla shrugged her shoulders. Then she pulled a bundle of letters from her pocket.
Because he was talking to his daughter, Castor was taking a less formal tone. “What are those?”
“From Liscia,” she said. “Liscia sent a number of them, asking us to make peace with King Souma.”
Carla considered Liscia a friend. They had gotten to know one another after Liscia had joined the army. Because both had serious personalities, and both had enlisted in the military despite being women of high birth, they had a lot in common, and had become fast friends.
However, because Carla was even more serious than Liscia... or, to put it in less favorable terms, she was a bit hard-headed... when Liscia had gotten engaged to King Souma, Carla had suspected coercion, and she had become hostile towards Souma. Because of that, even when her mother and brother had gone to the Walter house, she had remained here by herself with her father Castor.
However, at this point, Carla was beginning to have a change of heart. “I can feel Liscia’s passion in these letters. It’s not coming from someone who was coerced into a betrothal she doesn’t want. Also, in her letters, Liscia cautioned to ‘Beware Duke Carmine as he is now.’ ...We may have been the ones who were mistaken.”
“...I see,” Castor said. “So Princess Liscia feels the same way, does she?”
Castor’s shoulders slumped. Then, as if making up his mind, his head rose.
“Carla... It’s not too late. Go be with Accela. I’m the only one who needs to go along with Duke Carmine.”
As a father, he must have wanted to avoid getting her caught up in something he was doing out of friendship. However, Carla shook her head, her mind already made up.
“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to show my face to Liscia after all this,” she said. “Besides, you still believe Duke Carmine has put some thought into this, don’t you, Father? In that case, let’s see our position through to the end. Even if Duke Carmine is defeated and we become traitors, if you fall at his side, having believed in your friendship, I doubt the people would laugh at you for that.”
“But... then you’d...”
“I was born into a military family,” Carla told him. “I am prepared. Oh, don’t worry, we have Carl, so at least the house and our bloodline will remain. That’s why, as members of the House of Vargas, we will leave behind a record of distinguished military service.”
“...I see.”
Learning of Carla’s determination, Castor made his own decision. He would believe in Georg Carmine to the end, and he was ready to fall for that.
To that end, he did not call up the air force units stationed around the Vargas Duchy. This was done out of consideration, so that even if he came into conflict with the king after the ultimatum tomorrow, he would
fight with only his own personal forces in Red Dragon City, and would not drag the rest of the air force into the conflict.
◇ ◇ ◇
—At night, the same day, in a certain location.
“I see... Those two have resolved themselves to do it, then.”
When she learned of Castor and Carla’s movements from the spies she had sent to Red Dragon City, Navy Admiral Excel Walter’s beautiful face took on a look of sorrow, and she let out a sigh.
This antlered beauty who, despite having lived for five hundred years, looked no older than twenty-five, stood at the window in her dark room, staring out at the night sky. Even the clothes she wore seemed to weigh her down now.
Tonight it was cloudy, and she could barely see any stars.
“Castor is prepared to martyr himself for his friendship with Georg,” Excel said sadly. “And Carla is prepared to follow him to the end as he does it. Fools though they are, I cannot bring myself to deny the validity of their choices entirely.”
Excel closed her eyes slowly, bringing a hand to her ample bosom which was apparent even through her kimono-like outfit.
What was she to think, having learned of her son-in-law and granddaughter’s determination?
Some time passed before she opened her eyes once more, turning her back to the window and walking away.
“If anything, this only gives me more reason to do as I must.”
Even if that meant treading on their determination...
Chapter 3: Ultimatum
It happened in the Jewel Voice Room, Parnam Castle.
In this room where the two-meter diameter jewel used in the Jewel Voice Broadcast floated, there was also equipment for receiving a Jewel Voice Broadcast. The receivers in each city used equipment installed in fountains to produce mist, then used water-type magic to reproduce the recorded video, and wind-type magic to reproduce the recorded sound. The system in this room, however, projected the image on a piece of equipment that was like a thin, wide tank filled with water.