by Dojyomaru
Right before my eyes was a scene of a person being thrown into a wall and leaving cracks in it, something I had only ever seen in battle anime before. After seeing him take a hit that I was sure would have killed me instantly, Castor was bruised but still conscious. I guess that’s what made dragonewts so impressive, huh.
With his back to the wall, he slumped down, groaning, “Urgh... So this is it, huh... I admit defeat, princess.”
“Duke Castor...”
Seeing the sad look on Liscia’s face, Castor smiled a little. “Don’t look like that. I stayed true to my pride, fought, and was defeated. I have no regrets. But, that aside... I’d like to ask you the same thing I asked the dark elf girl.”
“...What might that be?” Liscia asked.
“Is Souma... a good king?”
“Yes. For me, he’s a good king.” Liscia gave a clear answer to Castor’s question. “Whether he was good for the country and people is something to be decided once a king has died. There is no end to the number of kings who ruled well at first, only to become tyrants in later years. So, I can only give you my own opinion.”
“...”
“Many of Souma’s political measures can be roundabout, or downright strange, but I feel at ease watching him. That’s because I can feel that this country is slowly but steadily improving. So... call me selfish if you want, but I want Souma to be king. If my father demands his crown back, I’ll fight him at Souma’s side.”
I had heard those words before. If I recalled correctly, they had come before we’d gone to the planned construction site for the new city. While I had been exhausted from repeated all-nighters, Liscia had said this to me when I’d been trying to take a nap.
“Never forget. You’re the one I want to be king, Souma. I’ll accept no substitutes. If my father were to demand the crown back, I’d fight him at your side.”
Since her words hadn’t changed, was that proof that her feelings hadn’t either?
...I was happy. At the fact there was someone who would say they wanted me to be king. That she could feel at ease with me in that position. It was because Liscia was at my side that I was able to be king.
As I was thinking that, I saw the Albert explode in the distance.
“Liscia, the Air Force is coming back,” I said. “Hurry and get that thing out.”
“...I know.” At my urging, Liscia took something black out of her pocket and fastened it around Castor’s neck. “I’m sure you’re aware, but that is an item called a slave collar. It can be tightened at the master’s will, and if the wearer seeks to harm their master, the collar has a spell in it to automatically decapitate them. It will decapitate the wearer if they attempt to remove the collar contrary to their master’s wishes, too. They can’t commit suicide, either. Also, the master of this collar is set to be Souma Kazuya.”
“...I don’t have the will left in me to resist at this point,” Castor said.
Having been collared, Castor limply let go of the sword he had been holding. The hilt guard bounced on the stone floor with a clatter. This was the moment the battle was decided.
Then...
“Father!”
A girl with blazing red hair, gleaming golden eyes, dragon wings, and a tail flew down from the sky, rushing over to Castor, who had his shoulders slumped.
Come to think of it, Excel had told me “I have a granddaughter who stayed with Castor” with a deeply pained look on her face, hadn’t she? In that case, this girl had to be Castor’s daughter, Carla.
The Albert had just blown up moments ago, but when I saw her red armor, it occurred to me that she may have been fighting with the Albert up until now.
The moment she saw my face, Carla unsheathed the sword at her hip. “Curse you! How dare you do this to my father?!”
“Stop, Carla!”
Castor stopped Carla just as she was about to come swinging at me.
“Father?! But...”
“That’s enough. We’ve lost.”
Liscia stood between me and Carla, spreading her arms wide. “Stop this already, Carla! Duke Vargas is already wearing a slave collar! If you kill Souma, Duke Vargas will die, too!”
“Liscia...?!” she gasped. “I see... We lost, huh.”
The strength seemed to drain from Carla’s body. The sword fell from her hands and Carla limply slumped to the ground where she stood. She wore a stunned look, tears streaming from her eyes.
It pained me a little to see it, but she had taken part in this rebellion. I couldn’t show her preferential treatment. I asked Aisha to put a slave collar on her, too.
Around that time, the wyvern cavalry who had been fighting the battleship Albert began to gather. They were all seething with anger, but as soon as they saw the collars on Castor and Carla, they realized they couldn’t touch us and just ground their teeth in frustration.
The glares of the wyvern cavalry hurt, but I didn’t have time to be concerned by that now. “Tolman, steward to the House of Vargas!”
“...I am here.”
I raised my voice, and Tolman, who hadn’t interfered and had just silently watched how things had played out, just as Castor had said he would, stepped forward.
“You recall the rule that was agreed on when I delivered my ultimatum, I trust,” I said. “‘If one of us is struck down or captured, that person’s subordinates will immediately come under the command of the other side.’”
“Yes...”
“As you can see, I have captured General of the Air Force Castor Vargas,” I said. “From this moment, I temporarily give the powers of the General of the Air Force to you. You are to lead the Air Force under the command of the Forbidden Army!”
“Yes, sir. I understand... However, might I ask one question?” Tolman asked with a face stricken with grief.
“...What is it?”
“What will become of Duke Vargas and Lady Carla?”
“We will deliberate on what is to be done with them after the war. There is no need to decide that right here and now.”
Then, looking to the wyvern cavalry around me, I said, “If you come under the command of the Forbidden Army now, you will be treated as only having acted under the orders of Castor. Those who do not comply will be tried alongside Castor as traitors when the war is over.”
“You want us to sell out our masters?!”
“Yeah! We won’t abandon Lord Castor!”
Some spirited voices shouted out from amidst the wyvern cavalry. I glared in the direction of those voices.
“Consider this carefully. This country has a system of joint responsibility for crimes. If you are found guilty of treason, your relatives will be punished, as well. I hope you were prepared for that before you spoke!”
““...””
The room fell silent. Surely even the fearless soldiers of the Air Force weren’t willing to gamble with lives other than their own. When told their families would be implicated as well, they didn’t have the spine to go through with it.
In that heavy atmosphere, Tolman bowed his head to me. “...I will follow your orders, Your Majesty.”
“S-Sir Tolman!”
“We can still fight!”
“Silence! Can’t you see that the more you resist, the worse you make Duke Vargas’s position?!”
“Urkh...”
Having silenced all opposition, Tolman bowed to me once more. “Your orders, please, sire. How would you have the Air Force move from here?”
As Tolman admirably bowed before me, I gave him my order.
“First, announce the end of the battle using the Jewel Voice Broadcast. Announce to the people of your domain that Duke Vargas has been captured and the Air Force will come under the command structure of the Forbidden Army. After that, call up the members of the Air Force that aren’t present here. Once your forces have gathered, I will have you head to the Carmine Duchy. Also, I want you to announce that anyone who continues to resist, especially after all that’s happened, will be judged as a traitor once
the war is over. Do I make myself understood?”
“Yes, sir! It will be done.” Tolman saluted me, then moved to carry out his orders at once.
With this, the terrible battle in the Vargas Duchy, which had been a “needless battle” for both the losers and the winners, came to a close. That was one obstacle surmounted.
Now, finally... I can head to the Carmine Duchy.
From the wall, I looked off into the distant west. There, I knew that man must be waiting for me.
“I’ve kept you waiting, Georg Carmine. I’m coming now.”
Liscia was watching me with silent concern, but I barely noticed it.
Elfrieden Historical Idiom Lessons: Number 3
“Attack a Castle with a Battleship”
Type: Figure of Speech
Meaning: Doing a thing that no one had ever thought of before.
Origin: During the One Week War, when King Souma attacked the rebellious Castor’s castle, he employed the unusual strategy of using a battleship on land to win.
Synonyms: “Copernican Revolution,” “Egg of Columbus”
Chapter 7: Sacrifice the Plum Tree to Preserve the Peach Tree
—1st Day, 10th Month, 1,546th Year, Continental Calendar — Red Dragon City.
It was the morning following the battle where wyverns had flown through the skies and battleship cannons had roared.
Liscia and I were eating breakfast with Castor’s daughter Carla in the governmental affairs office at Red Dragon Castle.
Aisha stood behind the exhausted Carla, her hand ready on the hilt of her great sword, as if to say, “If you make any suspicious moves, I am prepared to cut you down at any time.”
It occurred to me that Aisha was still my “self-proclaimed bodyguard.” Given her accomplishments in the battle for Red Dragon City, I thought it might not be a bad idea to formally create a title like Captain of the King’s Personal Guard for her.
...Well, it could wait until after the war.
Having captured Castor Vargas and taken control of the Air Force, we were staying in Red Dragon City while we waited for the Air Force to gather. Right now, Hakuya, who had arrived after the battle, and Tolman must have been busy calling up those who had yet to respond and organizing those who had already gathered.
I’d had Castor shipped back to the capital along with a number of rebellious wyvern cavalry.
They would have only gotten in the way if we had brought them all with us, and Castor was wearing the slave collar. That collar had a spell attached that would make it tighten if he did anything untoward, and in the worst case would decapitate him. As long as he wore that slave collar, no one would try to seize him during the transfer.
Incidentally, Castor’s daughter Carla was the only one I’d had stay here, and I was keeping her close at hand. That was because I figured having a visible hostage would help to nip any unwanted resistance from the Air Force in the bud. I had a slave collar on her, too, and Aisha was keeping a watchful eye on her from behind, so she probably wouldn’t be able to do anything she shouldn’t.
I didn’t know if it was because of that, but her violent temperament from yesterday was all but gone, and Carla was resolutely silent. To make up for her taciturn friend, Liscia was being even more talkative than usual.
“Carla may not look it, but she’s actually the caring type,” she said. “She has a lot of integrity, so no matter how much she dislikes something, she’ll always help out when she’s asked. I think she’s a great girl.”
I said nothing.
Everything she said was all about selling me on Carla’s virtues. She had been talking about nothing but Carla’s many charms as a woman for a while now.
We were sitting in the office of the man who had been the enemy commander until yesterday, eating boxed meals we had brought from Parnam (this having been enemy territory up until yesterday, I was being careful not to get poisoned), while my fiancée and future primary queen recommended that I take the daughter of an enemy general, who was now wearing a slave collar and sitting next to us, as a secondary queen. It was quite a bizarre scene.
By the way, to explain the difference between primary and secondary queens, in this country primary queens were those whose children had the right of succession, while those who did not were known as secondary queens.
It was possible to have any number of primary or secondary queens (ranking within the two categories would be expressed as 1st X Queen, 2nd X Queen... and so on), however, in order to become a primary queen, a woman had to be born to the gentry, nobility, or higher.
Conversely, any person of any class could become a secondary queen. If one didn’t care about appearances, even a slave could be made into a secondary queen.
“O-Oh, and you know what?” Liscia went on. “When Carla strips down, she’s got a killer body. Maybe you can’t tell when she has armor on, but she’s way more stacked than I am. Dragonewts are long-lived, too, so she’ll always be young.”
“What are you saying, Liscia?!” Carla suddenly burst out.
It seemed that once Liscia started spilling the details on her proportions, even Carla wasn’t going to be able to stay quiet. And yet, Liscia snapped back at her, even angrier than Carla was.
“Carla, just be quiet! Hey, Souma, Carla’s an attractive woman...”
“...Liscia,” I said that in a somewhat stern tone, making Liscia inhale sharply and then go quiet. When I saw that worried look on her face... it hurt my heart. I didn’t want to make her look like that. I scratched the back of my head vigorously. “Liscia, I can see what you’re thinking. But have you properly considered the risks?”
She went silent.
No primary queen would ask her king to take a secondary queen. Yet Liscia, the 1st Primary Queen, was eagerly suggesting that I take Carla as my secondary queen, because she was trying with all her heart to save her.
The officers and soldiers of the Air Force who had followed Castor were under suspicion of participating in the rebellion, regardless of whether they had taken part in the battle or not. But of course it wouldn’t be possible to punish all of them as rebels, and so, formally, I was going to have to treat them as “having only acted under the orders of the General of the Air Force, Castor, and a number of high ranking officers,” under the condition that they come under the command of the Forbidden Army.
Because of that, Castor would have to bear responsibility.
As Castor’s daughter, and having taken part in the fighting herself, it was seen as a certainty that Carla would face the same judgment as her father when the war was over. As things stood, their execution seemed inevitable.
Because Liscia thought that, she was trying to push Carla into the royal harem.
In this country, the king had a lot of power. In principle, there was supposed to be an independent judiciary, but if the king exercised his powers, it was possible to shield a criminal from prosecution. Liscia was trying to convince me to like Carla so that I would work to keep her from going on trial. But that... was not something that should be done lightly.
“Where might is master, justice is servant,” I said. “If a king doesn’t uphold the law, the people the law protects will lose their respect for that king. If we don’t act logically, we ourselves will pay the price for it later. You must understand that, right, Liscia?”
“Well, yes... But...”
Of course, I was sure Liscia knew that. Still, she couldn’t let her friend go without saying something. Honestly... being a king was such an unpleasant role.
“Still, I...” Liscia began.
“Liscia, there’s no need to beg for my life,” Carla said as Liscia was still searching for the words. “You sent letters again and again, asking us to pledge our allegiance, yet we chose to refuse. I followed my father knowing this could happen if we lost. I’m only getting what I deserve. I consider myself to be a warrior. Now that it has come to this, I will not regret losing my life.”
Carla seemed to have already come to term
s with her fate. I felt like I could understand why she and Liscia were so close. Her personality was similar to Liscia’s, earnest and stubbornly unyielding once she made up her mind. That was why all I could do was sigh.
“I wish you had directed that determination into something that wouldn’t make Liscia sad.”
“There’s nothing I can say in response to that,” Carla said. She added in a discourteous tone, “Don’t you dare... Urkh!”
“Carla?!” Liscia cried.
In the middle of her sentence, Carla groaned in pain. The slave collar had tightened. It looked like this item wouldn’t tolerate any disrespect towards the master. It seemed pretty harsh.
Some seconds later, once she was released from the pain, Carla turned to Liscia, who was looking at her with concern, and said, “I-I’m fine.” Then, looking back to me, she bowed her head. “True, I wasn’t as polite as I could have been. Let me rephrase that. King Souma, I ask that you not sadden Liscia the way I have.”
“...I know,” I said.
As we were talking, Hakuya and Tolman entered the office. Tolman stood before me, giving a military-style salute before beginning his report.
“Your Majesty, we have finished calling up the Air Force.”
“Good,” I said. “Well, then... let’s get going.”
I rose from my seat and gave everyone their orders.
“Hakuya, I’ll have you handle the cleanup here. Also, use this place’s jewel to get in contact with Excel while she’s staring down the Amidonians in Altomura. Tell her she only needs to hold out until this evening.”
“By your will,” Hakuya bowed.
“Tolman, lead a unit from the Air Force to bomb Randel in the Carmine Duchy,” I continued. “However, your only targets should be the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on the castle walls and Randel Castle itself. Don’t you dare drop even a single gunpowder barrel on the people’s houses! If anyone is found to have killed a civilian, I’ll see to it that they will face punishment after the war. Do I make myself clear?”