Empire of Ice

by Hyougetsu

  Fixing this problem wouldn’t help Eleora become empress, but it would remove one of the reasons why Rolmund might invade Meraldia. If Rolmund’s own agricultural production rose, they’d have less reason to go all the way beyond the mountains to steal someone else’s farmland. For a while, at least.

  Eleora’s adjutant, Borsche, arrived in the middle of our discussion with a report. Normally he gave his report right away, but this time he hesitated and checked to see who was present. It seemed whatever he had to say was quite serious. Eleora gave him a small nod.

  “It’s fine. State your report.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Borsche saluted and said simply, “The emperor has passed away.”

  So it’s finally time.

  Flower and Wolf

  My name is Ashley. Ashley Voltof Schwerin Rolmund. First in line to be emperor of the Holy Rolmund Empire. In other words, I’m the crown prince.

  “His Majesty is resting, Your Highness. My apologies, but...”

  The old court physician gave me an apologetic look, and I shook my head.

  “It’s fine, I understand. I just wish to see my father’s face, that’s all.”

  I was standing in front of a luxurious canopied bed. Hidden underneath the pile of covers was my father, the emperor Bahazoff the Fourth. In his youth, he’d been considered a wise prince, but after ascending the throne he’d come to be called “the stagnant emperor.” These days, no one held him in high regard. As far as the citizens were concerned, he was already dead.

  But for all his shortcomings, he was still my father. He did his best to fulfill his duties, respected his ancestors, and valued tradition. When my mother had died, he’d hugged me and my sister as we cried. I still remember how happy he’d looked when I’d first offered to help him with his duties. My memories of him were all fond ones. I didn’t want him to die. That was my single, fervent wish.

  “Doctor, how is my father doing?”

  “No treatment I’ve tried has worked, and his symptoms are worsening.”

  The court physician knew to be completely frank with me. The group of doctors that worked under his wing were the best in the empire. They knew of every medicinal herb in the world, and their knowledge of diseases and the human body was unparalleled. If even they couldn’t cure my father, then no one could.

  “He’s not in pain, is he?”

  The imperial mages who were standing behind the doctors stepped forward.

  “Allow me to answer that. We have given His Majesty a magical anesthesia to dull his pain. We are taking turns to refresh the spell so that it’s always active.”

  “Thank you. I suppose that is one small mercy.”

  As I said that, I noticed the disgusted look that the court physician gave the mages. Some things never change. The people who worked in the palace had different social standings, occupations, and beliefs. It was the imperial family’s job to make sure they all worked together. However, I lacked the ability to do so.

  Just a few days ago, my father’s condition had taken a turn for the worse. Until then, his symptoms had come and gone in cycles. But suddenly, his body had weakened drastically, and he’d started being in constant pain. He could barely even speak, and last night the imperial mages had been forced to make him sleep through magic. He had one foot in the grave.

  I returned to my office with a heavy heart and found my aides waiting for me.

  “Your Highness, Princess Eleora has returned to the capital. She’s brought a Meraldian general with her.”

  “That must be Meraldia’s representative.”

  I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “Both rewarding Eleora for her services and meeting with a foreign diplomat are something the emperor should do, not the crown prince. We should wait until His Majesty recovers before...”

  I trailed off. I knew as well as anyone that he wouldn’t recover. The doctors weren’t sure what exactly his disease was, but all chronic diseases took time to cure. And with my father’s condition the way it was, it was clear he was out of time. There was almost no chance he would recover. Meaning his duties fell to me, the crown prince.

  “Very well. I will hear their report.”

  Even though Father’s long-held dream of conquering Meraldia has finally been granted, he’s not even awake to celebrate it. I heaved a weary sigh as I changed into formal attire.

  Meraldia’s representative seemed to me like a common foot soldier who’d worked his way up the ranks. He was a young man named Veight Gerun Friedensrichter. And apparently, he was on the Commonwealth Council.

  He really looks young. Of course I knew I was young myself, but this foreigner fascinated me. According to Eleora, he was a famous general who’d helped her conquer Meraldia. I knew nothing of warfare, so his accomplishments amazed me. As was tradition for nobles of conquered states, I granted Lord Veight the title of Honorary Count in place of my father. The title was both an honor and a statement. It was Rolmund that had the authority to grant Meraldians power and prestige, not the other way around.

  “With this, Meraldia has officially become a vassal of our empire.”

  “Now we simply need to use Lord Veight to spread our influence across the region.”

  The ministers were discussing their plans for Meraldia’s future. It seemed inevitable that Meraldia would be swallowed up. Yet I couldn’t help but worry. Had we really succeeded in putting a leash around that fearsome-looking young man?

  After the audience, I returned to my ailing father’s side. As I looked down at his sleeping face, I told him about how it had gone.

  “Father, Eleora managed to conquer all of Meraldia. Your wish has been granted.” Naturally, he didn’t reply, but I kept going, “Honestly, I still think Uncle was right. We shouldn’t have invaded. That’s why I helped him prevent any reinforcements from reaching Eleora. But she managed to win over the local population instead.”

  My cousin was a genius when it came to magical engineering, and she was a skilled strategist as well. But her diplomacy skills were sorely lacking. She was too logical for her own good, and she didn’t understand the art of negotiation.

  “I never would have imagined Eleora of all people would manage to win over such a fearsome general.”

  From the looks of it, he’d also helped her build up a strong base of support in Meraldia. When I first saw him, I’d wondered if perhaps Veight was Eleora’s paramour, but after watching their interactions I was certain that wasn’t the case. He was loyal only to his duty, and nothing seemed to scare him.

  “That foreign general, Veight, is no mere diplomat. He’s skilled at diplomacy, sure, but he’s also a master warrior.”

  Even if you managed to tame a tiger, cousin, was it really wise to bring it to our doorstep? There must have been a reason she brought him. I needed to be wary.

  “I remember, ‘the bottom of the lake holds the answers’ was always one of your favorite sayings. If there’s a fish leaping to the surface, that means something’s happening under the water.”

  If fish were coming to the surface, that meant there was either a fierce beast lying at the bottom of the lake, or the water had gone fetid. Of course, there were also times when it meant nothing. It was important to know how to tell the difference. I gently held my father’s hand and smiled at him.

  “But either way, your long-held dream has finally been granted. Congratulations, Father.”

  Bahazoff the Fourth was still alive, and he was still emperor. This feat would go down in history as his achievement. While I still didn’t agree with conquering the south, for now I was just happy that my father had gotten what he wanted. Still smiling, I looked out the window. The late autumn sunlight illuminating the grounds was tinged with the chill of winter.

  The foreign Meraldian noble, Veight, got into trouble the day after coming to the capital. Unbelievable as it was, he’d gotten himself in a duel with a viscount from the Doneiks faction. At first everyone considered him a rude barbarian, but a
s more and more details came out, their opinion of him improved. It seemed Veight was serving as Eleora’s strategic advisor, so when he’d run into a group of Doneiks nobles disparaging her, he’d been forced to duel them for her honor. And it seemed he’d won his duel spectacularly. He’d knocked out Viscount Schmenivsky in a single blow. A few nobles from my faction had been present to mediate the duel, and they were all telling me about how strong he was.

  “He moved like lightning, Your Highness. One second he was just standing there, the next Lord Schmenivsky was flying through the air. He smashed all the viscount’s front teeth. His honor’s been completely shattered.”

  “Lord Veight allowed Viscount Schmenivsky the right to choose weapons first, and even then, he managed to win without a scratch. He made it look so easy too, as if he wasn’t even breaking a sweat.”

  Viscount Schmenivsky was by no means a weak duelist. He had an excellent military record, and a lot of the landless nobles in the Doneiks faction looked up to him. Just how strong is Veight, if he managed to beat the viscount in one attack? I wish I’d been there to see it.

  Veight’s superhuman strength already left a huge impression on the palace nobles, but Viscount Schmenivsky’s crazed claims about him added to the rumors. Apparently, the viscount’s defeat had been so humiliating that he’d lost his mind. In fact, he’d asked for an audience with the emperor, which I’d naturally declined. He seemed to think that Veight was a werewolf. Having watched the imperial mages confirm his identity personally, I couldn’t let Viscount Schmevinksy’s claims go uncontested. Calling the imperial mages’ credibility into question was tantamount to insulting the emperor they served.

  I had Viscount Schmenivsky censured immediately. Just in case, I also sent a private message to my uncle, Lord Doneiks. Since the viscount was a decently high-ranking member of his faction, I needed my uncle’s permission before disposing of him. The whole ordeal had left me exhausted, but it seemed my trials weren’t over. There were new rumors spreading within the palace.

  “Did you hear about Lord Veight’s duel?”

  “Yes, he’s quite the loyal retainer.”

  “I never imagined a foreign noble would risk his life for our princess.”

  “The regal Princess Eleora and the charming and gentle Lord Veight. The two are a perfect match, don’t you think?”

  “You can tell just by how he acts that Lord Veight isn’t a man who relies on force to solve all problems. He only resorts to it when necessary. The princess has a truly strong ally by her side.”

  “We underestimated the princess’ abilities. We need to be more careful, or...”

  “You’re right, we need to know just how strong her faction is.”

  The ministers inside the palace loved to gossip, so the rumors spread like wildfire. When my aides informed me that Eleora had become the talk of the palace, I decided to go for a walk and sort out my thoughts. In the empire, Eleora has no popularity, and she lacks a strong core of supporters. But it seems in Meraldia she has both. That’s going to cause a power shift inside the empire...

  The other members of the imperial family who had the right to succeed the throne were potential threats as well. I neither wanted a power struggle within the imperial family, nor did I have any desire to kill any potential rivals. However, I still needed to take care of my own safety. Thinking about the various ways in which I needed to protect myself, I walked down one of the palace’s nigh-endless corridors. The more I walked, the colder it seemed to get.

  The next day, I summoned Veight to the palace. I wanted to hear about the duel directly from him. All nobles had the right to duel, and an honorary count was no exception, so there had been nothing improper about the duel itself. However, I hadn’t expected him to use his newfound authority the moment I granted it to him. Truly, he was a man with no openings. From what I’d heard, he’d gone to pay Viscount Schmenivsky a courtesy visit after the duel too. He really had thought of everything.

  It feels like every single one of his moves is calculated... If he’d just been a simple, good-natured person, then he wouldn’t have challenged the viscount to a duel. And the duel itself had been a skillful political maneuver. He’d just arrived in Rolmund, so the fastest way to make a name for himself had been to give the lower-ranking nobles a show. The impact it had left ensured they’d be talking about him, and since they were mostly uninvolved in national politics, they weren’t worried about what his popularity might do to our negotiating position as an empire.

  He might prove to be a dangerous individual. As we walked across the palace grounds, I eyed him warily. His muscles looked as hard as steel, and he walked with the bearing of a warrior. But his expression was gentle, and his demeanor kind. It felt as though a warm southern breeze accompanied him wherever he went. No wonder there are so many rumors about him. What surprised me most of all was his insight though.

  “This feels more like an imperial museum than a palace garden.”

  That one sentence spoke volumes. With a single glance, he’d realized the imperial family’s greenhouse wasn’t growing pretty flowers for people to admire. It was a research facility meant for growing medicinal plants and testing crops that might help Rolmund’s agricultural situation. I’d known he was skilled at both swordplay and diplomacy, but I hadn’t expected him to be a scholar too. What an interesting man. While I realized he was a dangerous person, I couldn’t help but want to test him. Remembering that we grew out-of-season fruit here, I led him to a plant that looked deceptively like a poisonous one and plucked one of its berries.

  “Here you go, Lord Veight.”

  “Prince Ashley?”

  I’m sure someone as knowledgeable about plants as you must know what this is. There was a poisonous plant common to Meraldia known as the witchberry. And in Rolmund, there grew a native plant that looked just like it, the snowberry. However, our snowberries weren’t poisonous. The fruit I’d offered had come from the harmless snowberry. Snowberries were both delicious and had medicinal properties. However, someone from Meraldia should have no way of knowing about the snowberry’s existence. Now then, what will you do, Lord Veight? Do you have the courage to refuse a fruit offered to you by the crown prince? To my surprise, Veight simply smiled and took the berry from my palm. Then, without any hesitation, he plopped it into his mouth.

  What!? It took everything I had not to let my surprise show. From what I’d read, witchberry was common enough in Meraldia that everyone living there knew it was poisonous. Even children knew not to eat them. Naturally, Veight must have known that too. And yet, he just smiled calmly at me and said, “What seems to be the matter, Your Highness?”

  “Well... I didn’t think you would actually eat it.”

  Veight casually replied, “This plant looks quite similar to Meraldia’s witchberry, but the leaves are a different shape. I imagine you have no reason to poison me, Your Highness, so I assumed you were offering me a harmless berry.”

  Not only were his powers of observation superhuman, but he was also fearless. He was someone far beyond my ability to test. This is my loss.

  That wasn’t the only thing surprising about the man known as Veight, either. As we walked through the greenhouse, he’d often stop to look at the soil inside some of the pots. He’d also sniff it, as if trying to identify the soil’s components by scent.

  “It must have been quite difficult for you to procure this soil.”

  “You can tell?”

  Veight caressed the plant’s leaves and said, “The smell of the soil is different. It smells like the fields we have back home in southern Meraldia. But you’ve enriched it with boiled vermiculite, haven’t you?”

  Amazing. That’s absolutely correct. I didn’t think boiled vermiculite gave off a scent, but Veight must have managed to identify it by smell alone, since it was hidden underneath the top layer of soil.

  “Yes... that is indeed soil brought over from Meraldia. This particular plant doesn’t grow well in Rolmundian soil. I am im
pressed you were able to tell though.”

  Veight smiled bashfully.

  “I may be a member on the Meraldian Commonwealth council now, but originally I was just a common foot soldier. As a child, I helped my mom till the fields.”

  “I see...”

  So Veight was a skilled warrior, diplomat, noble, scholar, and even farmer. He had an astute eye as well and seemed capable of seeing through lies. I see, so this is why you brought him here, Eleora. She’d wanted to show Veight the current state of the empire, so he could advise her how best to proceed. No normal diplomat would be capable of that.

  Veight really was a dangerous man. It would be best for the empire if we sent him home as soon as possible. If my father were here, he’d advise me to banish him right away. But I desired something different. I wanted to make him mine. If I could recruit Veight as an ally, he’d be of tremendous help in strengthening the empire. I wanted him as my retainer no matter the cost. But Veight paid me no mind and continued to examine the plants inside the greenhouse.

  “Despite the dark color, this soil’s scent is mild... it’s been diluted. You have very skilled gardeners, Your Highness.”

  “Thank you. This greenhouse’s gardeners have all served the imperial family for generations, and some of them also serve as imperial doctors. I’ve gathered all the experts I could find in growing foreign medicinal herbs.”

  “I see. I’m jealous of the talent you’ve gathered.”

  It had been a mistake to invite someone who understood this greenhouse’s value here. I’d expected Veight not to know that these were medicinal plants, or that they weren’t native to the area. While I wanted to make Veight mine, if I really did poach him away from Eleora, she’d resent me. As much as it pained me, it was probably for the best if I gave up on recruiting him. The foreign noble continued talking, seemingly unaware of the turmoil within my heart.

  My father’s condition has only continued to worsen.

  “Please have the mages cancel their magic!”

  The head physician barges into my father’s room and yells at the imperial mage overseeing him.