by Ryota Hori
And with that introduction, Sudou began relaying what happened during that fateful audience...
That day, Ryoma had promptly accepted the summons he’d received to Lupis’s audience chamber.
“Quite early, aren’t you, Mikoshiba... Do you have your answer?” Lupis asked, her expression stiff.
“Yes, Your Majesty... I was quite happy to receive your offer, and if it were possible, I’d be happy to oblige, but...”
Ryoma’s words trailed off, and he directed his gaze at Lupis. His eyes didn’t contain a trace of the rage they had yesterday, instead filled with pure respect for the queen.
“Should I take it that you refuse, Mikoshiba?” Lupis’s voice grew low and cold.
A queen had offered to make a commoner into a noble. He should be groveling on the ground in gratitude, but the man before her was implying he wanted to refuse. She said nothing, but her attitude made her heart clear to Ryoma.
Hmph... Stupid bitch.
Ryoma held back the desire to curse at her and continued his words, feigning sorrow.
“No, perish the thought... I’m quite overcome by your generosity, Your Majesty, but...”
“But what?”
“Before I can accept your gracious proposal, I’d like to confirm a few things with you... And until I can hear your answers, I’m afraid I can’t very well make a decision...”
Ryoma’s evasive words flared up Lupis’s irritation.
“Your Majesty...” Meltina, who stood next to the throne, whispered into Lupis’s ears. “I think you should at least hear what this man has to say... It would be better than him dancing around the issue like this...”
“Very well... What do you wish to know, Mikoshiba?”
Ryoma bowed his head with dignified gratitude at having received permission.
“I’d like to verify something first... How aware are you of the current condition of the Wortenia peninsula?”
“What do you mean?” Lupis’s expression clouded over.
Meltina, who stood beside her, grimaced as well.
“Of course, I can’t claim I know very much about it myself, but this Wortenia peninsula... is a rather problematic region.”
“My... Is it?” Lupis asked, giving the impression that this was the first she’d heard of it.
She wasn’t foolish enough to answer Ryoma’s question honestly, but then again, Ryoma fully assumed she would play dumb here.
“Unfortunately, yes... Upon receiving your proposal, I looked into the place as quickly as I could, but...” Ryoma turned a probing glance at Lupis. “The Wortenia peninsula is located on the northernmost tip of Rhoadseria, and it’s roughly one-eighth the total size of the kingdom... As territories go, its size is excessive... But there are quite a few issues here...”
Ryoma then began listing the peninsula’s problems, as follows.
First, it was used as a no-man’s land where Rhoadseria’s criminals were exiled. As such, it had absolutely zero citizens to claim taxes from.
Second, the Wortenia peninsula was a breeding ground for multiple strains of powerful monsters, making it extremely hard for ordinary people to live there.
Third, there were constant rumors of tribes of demi-humans living in the peninsula, who were antagonistic to humans.
Fourth, its coastal regions served as a stronghold for pirates.
Fifth, it bordered the neighboring country of Xarooda, which made it a site of incessant skirmishes.
Those were the five problems Ryoma mentioned. Each of them was a difficult issue that was quite hard to resolve, with the first and the second being particularly fatal. It meant that Lupis wanted to grant him a land where he couldn’t collect any taxes.
Considering a noble’s income came from the taxes he gathered from his people, it was clear just how much of a raw deal this was. This land wasn’t really part of Rhoadseria’s territory to begin with. On paper, the Wortenia peninsula was part of the kingdom of Rhoadseria, but it didn’t rule over it in practice. It had no citizens, after all, so there was no one to govern over.
When Ryoma learned about it after a night of scanning over documents from the library, his expression was like that of an enraged demon. This was, in a way, tangible proof of Lupis’s malice. Ryoma didn’t display those emotions in front of her, though. The time to display his anger and hatred would come when he became stronger than her.
“I see. I’d expect as much from you, Sir Mikoshiba...” Meltina said in place of Lupis, who had fallen silent. “You’ve done well to grasp the peninsula’s circumstances so quickly. So... You intend to use that as a reason to refuse Her Majesty’s offer? To betray her expectations?!” Meltina then raised her voice. “Sir Mikoshiba, you’ve earned great merit to your name by defeating Duke Gelhart and slaying General Albrecht. And so, Her Majesty broke the kingdom’s customs to make you a noble as a reward... True, the Wortenia peninsula cannot be called bountiful, but it is still part of Rhoadseria’s territory! Vast enough to match the royal family’s territory! Discarding it would be a wasted opportunity! Do you not agree?”
“I see... So you’re saying Her Majesty kindly bequeathed the Wortenia peninsula to me, so I would develop it into habitable land?”
“Precisely! True, it is a difficult land, but a man of your resourcefulness can surely succeed in this task... What say you?”
That was quite the clever little way of putting it, considering it came from Meltina. They were only granting this difficult land to Ryoma because they believed in his skill. It was an attempt to stroke Ryoma’s ego. He wasn’t falling for it, though.
“Should I interpret what Lady Meltina just said to be Her Majesty’s intentions?” Ryoma moved his gaze from Meltina to Lupis, sitting on her throne.
Lupis responded with a curt, silent nod. She couldn’t, under any circumstances, tell him to his face that she was sending him to a backwater region to keep him contained there.
“Oh, I see...! Then that makes my request much easier, Your Majesty.”
“...What do you mean?” Lupis’s expression twitched. “You only said you wanted to confirm my intentions.”
She thought Ryoma’s wish here was to hear her intentions, but of course, Ryoma didn’t want anything so simple as that. Everything so far was just him laying the groundwork, so he would be able to corner Lupis and Meltina...
“Not at all, Your Majesty! My request is a fairly simple one... But I was quite hesitant to speak it before confirming your wishes... But if you truly wish for me to develop the Wortenia peninsula...”
“What... is it?” The two of them had a bad feeling about what Ryoma was about to say.
“Well, you see... I’d like for you to lend me funds to develop the peninsula... But with the sum being as high as it is, I couldn’t bring myself to ask without making absolutely sure what your intentions were... But, since you place so much trust in me, Your Majesty, I’m quite honored. I’ll have to exert my best efforts and answer your high expectations of me!”
Ryoma bowed his head before Lupis earnestly.
“Wait! You want us to provide you with funds? What are you saying?!” Meltina raised her voice angrily. “The Wortenia peninsula is your territory! Why should the royal house provide you with funds for it?!”
Ryoma’s expression, however, didn’t budge.
“Huh? That’s quite an odd thing to say. I was under the impression that Her Majesty was aware of the peninsula’s condition, and asked me to develop it into a flourishing territory.”
“Exactly! And that’s why you need to develop it using your own resourcefulness!”
Meltina’s claims here would normally be reasonable, but in this particular case they were lacking in legitimacy.
“But as you know, I’m a commoner. I don’t have any fortune or assets to my name. I’m sure you both understand this, yes?”
Ryoma lied brazenly, keeping the fact that the fortune he’d stolen from Azoth the slave merchant had remained untouched to himself.
“We do,
but...”
“And since I don’t have any money, I’d need someone to provide me with funds so I can meet Her Majesty’s expectations... But no merchant on the continent would lend me money to develop that peninsula.”
Merchants loathed risks. Of course, if one were to present enough merit to offset that risk, things were different, but a peninsula infested with demi-humans and monsters wouldn’t offer anything of the sort. No merchant would back something that risky.
“Then you should use your own wit to...” Meltina hung on desperately.
Losing this argument would make everything come to nothing. They would fail to contain Ryoma, and Lupis would suffer a blow to her dignity. That was the one thing they had to avoid.
“Of course! I intend to do my utmost, but I am not a god! I can’t develop that land without any funds...! Which I’m sure Her Majesty, with her wisdom and sagacity, understands perfectly well?”
Ryoma steered the conversation back to Lupis, who went pale at the sharpness of his gaze. She had pushed this entire business onto him while knowing full well how absurd it was. And now when it was clear he’d seen through it all, she had no more cards to play. In the end, Lupis could only mouth the words Ryoma wanted to hear.
“How much?”
“Your Majesty!”
Lupis ignored Meltina’s exclamation. They weren’t the only ones present. The neutral faction’s nobles and knights serving as guards were here as well. She couldn’t afford to shame herself any more before their eyes. She needed to present herself as a wise ruler appointing a commoner to noble status.
“I knew I could trust in your tolerance and wisdom, Your Majesty...! Well, I’ve only managed to come up with a rough, initial estimate so far, but when converted to coins, it comes down to one million golds at least!”
When Sudou mentioned the amount Ryoma specified, Saitou exclaimed out loud. It was quite unusual, given how collected and polite he usually was. Shardina couldn’t fault him for it, though. She herself was awfully shocked.
The cost of staying the night at an inn was between fifty coppers to one silver. A meal at an average eatery at town was between five to ten coppers. Of course, there were more expensive places one could go, but one silver was enough for most people to get through the day.
If roughly compared to Japanese currency, a copper was like a 100 yen coin, a silver was a 10,000 yen bill and a gold was roughly one million yen. This very much placed the sum Ryoma requested into perspective; he had asked her for the equivalent of one trillion Japanese yen.
“That’s absurd... They’d have to loan out almost all the assets the Kingdom of Rhoadseria has for that!” Saitou said.
“Even the Empire would have trouble paying that much at once...” Shardina said with a stunned expression.
That meant the sum wasn’t theoretically impossible, but no country in the western continent would agree to pay that much. Countries decided how to spend their income ahead of time. Officials needed to have their wages paid, the army had capital expenditures to consider, and plenty of other important matters could not be neglected.
Any country that decided to pay that kind of sum would have to spend years scraping by its budget. Even the Empire would struggle to come up with the sum immediately. Rhoadseria, a country which couldn’t match it in either size or economy, wouldn’t be able to, either.
“Quite so.” Sudou nodded. “However, if he were to seriously develop that peninsula, he would actually need to invest that much to pull it off. That much is true.”
Forests would need to be cut down. Roads would have to be paved. Reserve soldiers needed to be hired and equipped in case of pirate or demi-human attacks. Not to mention costs for migrating citizens. All of those sucked up money like bottomless marshes, but if they truly intended to develop that accursed land, that much would be necessary.
“That might be, but such a sum is...” Shardina said, and then exclaimed, “Ah! I see... So that was his angle!”
“I see you’ve figured it out. As wise as ever, Your Highness.” Sudou smiled, narrowing his eyes.
“He didn’t intend to have that much lent to him to begin with, did he...? He prepared some other conditions to compensate for being refused! Right?”
Sudou nodded at Sardina, and took out a sheet of paper from his inner pocket.
“What’s this?”
“A list of the conditions Mr. Mikoshiba gave to Queen Lupis... From what I’ve seen, the contents are quite problematic... He’s effectively completely independent from the Kingdom of Rhoadseria.”
The paper had a detailed list of clauses, and there were quite a few items listed there. Shardina scanned the page over from top to bottom, her grimace deepening the more she read. Ryoma essentially sought two things.
The first was that legislation, military affairs, external affairs and economics would all be entrusted to him. And the second was an exemption from taxes and military service that nobles were supposed to provide to the kingdom.
Were those terms to be accepted, he would be able to create a country which, while belonging to Rhoadseria on paper, would be completely beyond its control. In other words, while he was given only the title of baron, Ryoma Mikoshiba would be granted more power and authority over his territory than the ruler of the kingdom had.
“And Queen Lupis... seriously accepted this...?” Shardina asked, her expression absolutely stunned.
Sudou nodded silently.
“I heard that woman was stupid, but this takes the cake. She let that viper have free rein...”
“She was so blinded by the sheer sum he initially proposed she ended up accepting without properly thinking it through, it seems.”
“But still, what a thing to do... And besides, this says he’s also demanding five thousand gold coins in development costs for the present time.”
Lupis basically gave this menacing man carte blanche, with land to call his own and funds to build it up to boot.
“Well, I do think that aside from the feeling of debt at refusing his request for funds, Lupis had her own thoughts on the matter. She likely rationalized that he wouldn’t be able to do that much with just five thousand golds. And no matter how many rights he’s given, that peninsula is an undeveloped frontier with no taxes to collect. Even that man can’t produce things out of the ether...”
Five thousand gold coins was certainly a large sum of money, but it wasn’t enough to actually change that no-man’s land. However...
“Saitou... Do you really think so?”
Saitou fell silent at Shardina’s question.
A land one couldn’t collect taxes from, swarming with monsters, with little to no assistance from Rhoadseria... Could he really do anything in those conditions? Saitou was hesitant to say that, though. He himself was terrified by something Ryoma Mikoshiba possessed.
Shardina averted her gaze from Saitou. Everyone present harbored the same sense of dread.
“Sudou... This little ploy of yours... won’t come back to haunt us, will it?”
Sudou could only answer her with silence. He was the one who had pressed on Lupis’s anxieties and proposed she make Ryoma a noble, after all. This was a play to ensure they kept a grasp on Ryoma’s position. Shardina was just as anxious about the idea of Ryoma joining forces with another country, especially the countries to the north and west. But if their attempt to stop that were to only make things worse somehow...
That fear had snared all three of them.
“Fine... Sudou... You can’t let him out of your sight, though,” Shardina said briefly.
Sudou nodded.
“In that case, Your Highness... I will deliver my next report after we begin the invasion of Xarooda. Will that do?”
“Yes... We strike next month, according to schedule... Sudou! Preparations are complete, yes?”
“Rest assured.” Sudou and Saitou both nodded. “The civil war has kept the nobles and knights both quite shaken. We have plenty of chances to take advantage of... Rhoadseria wo
n’t be sending any reinforcements to Xarooda.”
At that moment, the Empire of O’ltormea was preparing to bare its sharp fangs.
Epilogue
A single estate stood on the outskirts of the capital of O’ltormea. It was surrounded by a thick strip of woods a ways off from the highway, and so even most of those living in the area weren’t aware of the estate’s existence. It was built long ago as a noble’s retirement villa, but it changed owners frequently before falling into the possession of a certain company as a piece of real estate for sale.
At least, that was the surface-level story.
While it was true that on paper, the estate was a property for sale, it was effectively never sold to anyone, and likely never would be. If that ever were to happen, it would only be in the event of the enemy discovering its existence.
After all, this was the primary base of the Organization, which brewed in the darkness of the Empire of O’ltormea.
The security is as strict as ever... This place is more fortified than O’ltormea’s palace...
Looking out the window, Saitou’s breath stuck in his throat at the sight of the tight security outside. That said, it wasn’t patrolled by guards armed with guns, like in some mafia movie he once saw. From an outside glance, it would seem like a completely ordinary estate. The front door was one of the few places that visibly had guards.
That wasn’t to say the Organization was lax when it came to defending the estate. The surrounding woods had a security net consisting of dozens of watchmen deployed within it, ready to stealthily eliminate anyone who dared wander too close.
It was likely that even the imperial guard tasked with defending the Emperor’s person or Princess Shardina’s prided Succubus Knights would struggle to defeat these forces, given equal numbers.
They weren’t quite up to the level of the Organization’s elite task force, the Hunting Dogs, but they were still overwhelmingly powerful by the standards of this world.
In addition, the window panes were made of materials unique to this world, reinforced with thaumaturgy, putting it on par with bulletproof glass. It would likely withstand even a full-force blast from Celia Volkland, Gaius’s heir to the position of court thaumaturgist.