How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom
Book 16: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Maritime Alliance Gets Serious

“No... Sister...” Jeanne fell to her knees after seeing her sister jump.

The scenery behind her had been familiar to Jeanne—it was the balcony of Maria’s office. Knowing the location and how high it was, Jeanne was absolutely certain of her sister’s death. Gunther, meanwhile, was still staring in disbelief.

“...Huh?! What?!” Gunther gasped.

It was a strange reaction, and Jeanne, who had gone quite pale in the face, looked up at him.

“Sir Gunther?”

“Just now, something large and black flew by in the projection.”

“Something...black?”

Jeanne looked where Gunther was pointing in the water ball. It showed the skies of Valois now that Maria was gone. And in that image, a coiled, black creature was suddenly climbing upwards. Her eyes widened, seeing the figure—that of a dragon, yet different.

I know what that is, she thought. And if it’s...who I think it is...

Before her head found the answer, someone jumped down from the back of the creature, their black cape swishing in the wind as they descended to the balcony. Held in their arms was Maria, who had fallen.

“Sister!”

Jeanne leaned out over the edge of the fortress wall without meaning to. She squinted at the image, but saw no evidence of any injury on Maria. The empress had her dainty arms wrapped around her savior’s neck. Jeanne said a name she knew very well.

“Sir Souma...”

The figure in the projection was King Souma A. Elfrieden of Friedonia.

He adjusted his grip on Maria with a grunt, and she squeezed her arms tight around his neck. With that gesture, everyone watching the projection realized that Maria had survived. This time, a cheer erupted from the Imperial side, and it was the Great Tiger Kingdom’s forces’ turn to be silent.

Then, Souma spoke to the empress in his arms. “Proud and noble Empress Maria, it is absolutely not true that the times we live in have no need of you! As proof—I learned of your peril and came across the continent for you.”

His performance was a touch theatrical, but that actually had the effect of relaxing and delighting the people of the Empire who were watching. Souma, who couldn’t have seen their reactions, turned and addressed the viewers.

“Hear me, O soldiers of the Gran Chaos Empire and Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan! We, the three nations of the Maritime Alliance, have begun an intervention to stop the Great Tiger Kingdom’s invasion of the Empire!”

◇ ◇ ◇

“So this is where you make your appearance, you slow turtle!”

At that same time, Fuuga was in the main camp of the army surrounding Valois, glaring at the projection. Despite the harsh look in his eyes, his voice was bounding with joy. He was excited, as if he was watching the climax of a movie.

Lumiere, meanwhile, showed immediate shock and anger.

“The King of Friedonia?!” she screeched. “Why is he here?! Why now?!”

Yeah, why now... Something seemed off to Fuuga.

Souma’s appearance seemed far too well-timed. He appeared the moment Maria leapt from the balcony and made a dashing entrance after saving her. This broadcast was being shown across the Empire as part of Hashim’s plan. The people who loved Maria were probably bawling their eyes out with gratitude about now.

Still, it seemed a little strange to Fuuga. If this was all following Souma’s script, it wasn’t like him. Even if he’d been planning to save her, he wouldn’t have let Maria throw herself from the balcony. He’d have been too scared of what would happen if he failed to catch her. A cautious man like Souma would never let her take such a risk.

That means this script is someone else’s...

Maybe Hakuya the Black-robed Prime Minister or the newly joined Julius would have proposed something like this. But they were Souma’s subordinates. No matter how good he was at delegating things to his trusted comrades, Souma was still bound to reject a risky plan like this.

Well, who was it then... Fuuga thought. Suddenly, the words Souma had said to him that day came back to Fuuga. “Are you sure you’re not taking Maria Euphoria too lightly?” Oh! So that’s it! I get it now!

Fuuga stomped the ground.

“You sure got me, Maria Euphoria!”

Fuuga looked up at the skies above Valois to find the parachutes of the falling dratroopers opening like blooming flowers. They had been carried in and dropped by the wyvern cavalry. The countless parachutes descended to the castle, floating in the wind like cotton fluff.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Urgh... This is terrible.”

Also, at the same time, in the camp before Jamona Fortress...

Hashim bitterly ground his teeth. He was one of the few who instantly understood the situation.

Gaten looked suspiciously at Hashim.

“Why the grim look, Sir Advisor?” Gaten asked. “He doesn’t appear to have shown up with that many reinforcements... Won’t Lord Fuuga flatten Souma and his troops?”

“It can’t be that easy...” Hashim shook his head. “Souma said he was intervening not just with the Friedonian military, but with the Maritime Alliance. That means the Republic of Turgis and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom will be getting involved in earnest. He only showed up with a small number of soldiers there, but the number that he still has in reserve is far greater. They’ll be moving into action all across the continent.”

“That’s...frightening.” Gaten gulped as it finally dawned on him what that meant.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that Souma’s forces were already on the move the moment he appeared. Hashim was certain that the Souma being projected there would soon say as much. Because that’s what he himself would do to break the morale of the Great Tiger Kingdom’s forces.

And, as he predicted, the projection of Souma spoke.

“What you see here is but one of the pieces I’ve played. I’ve left the deployment of the remainder of the Kingdom’s troops to Hakuya, the Black-robed Prime Minister. I will let him explain the situation across all regions to you now. If you intend to continue this war after hearing all this, then...I’ll take you on,” Souma asserted, loud and clear.

◇ ◇ ◇

At the same time, in a walled city in the south of Zem...

“Wh-What’s that?!” shouted one of the mercenaries keeping a lookout from on top of the southern walls.

The mountains that demarcated the border with the Republic of Turgis looked as if they were squirming. At a distance, it appeared the trees were falling. The soldier thought it was an avalanche, but it wasn’t the season for snow to have accumulated, and the squirming things were brown. Whatever was happening was most assuredly abnormal.

He hurried to fetch a telescope, only to discover the writhing mass was thousands of numoths—an animal trained as riding beasts in the Republic of Turgis.

“It’s the Republic! The Republic is coming!”

As the mercenary cried out, the others began rushing around.

There were only 8,000 men in this fortress now. The stronghold had been built as the first defensive wall against an attack from the Republic. So even with eighty percent of their forces having been sent to join Fuuga’s, they still had a significant garrison here.

Yet, the onrushing forces of the Republic looked even greater in number. If there were thousands of numoths, then that meant there were tens of thousands of Republican soldiers nearby.

The mercenary commander of the walled city gave the order immediately.

“Send a messenger to the Mercenary King, Sir Moumei, who is accompanying Fuuga’s forces! We’re no match for a force that large, and there’s a high risk they’ll strike deep into Zem! He needs to come back before it’s too late!”

“Yes, sir!”

Once the order was given, the mercenary commander glared out towards the forces of the Republic.

“We may have no choice but to abandon this city. The Republic fights well in the snow, but they’re bad at holding territory they capture. If we make them stretch out their supply lines, they’ll be easier to strike, and recapturing what they take will be simpler.”

As the mercenaries were running around, the sound of rumbling gradually increased.

Thousands of numoths were stampeding down the side of the mountains overlooking the fortress city. These would be the numoth cavalry, a category of troop equivalent to war elephants from Souma’s old world. They had far more power to break through the enemy than ordinary cavalry, but were smaller and could make tighter turns than rhinosauruses. Because they were creatures from a frigid region, the numoths had the ability to cross ice and snow. However, they became weaker as they moved north and the temperature rose.

These numoths were accompanied by 50,000 beastman soldiers belonging to the five races of the snowy plains. This was all of the forces available to Kuu Taisei, the Head of the Republic.

Kuu rode atop a numoth at the front of the charge, shouting to his men.

“Ookyakya! All right, we’re close enough the sound should reach them! Band, let’s give them a real show!”

On Kuu’s orders, the band riding on a howdah atop the back of one of the lead numoths began to play their instruments. They paid no mind to harmony, instead focusing on making a whole lot of noise.

They played as loudly as they could, so as to not be drowned out by the stomping feet of their numoths and to show the grandeur of the Republic’s forces.

“Urgh... It hurts my ears...”

Kuu’s second wife, Leporina, who was riding with him in the same howdah, covered her bunny ears. She’d been able to bring earplugs because Kuu had informed her in advance about the plan, but her race’s excellent hearing was making the cacophony unbearable.

Kuu held Leporina’s head against his own chest.

“Wha...! Master Kuu?”

“If I don’t do this, you won’t be able to hear me, right?”

“Ohh...”

Held close, with her husband whispering in her ear, Leporina turned bright red.

“What’re you two flirting for when we’re on the march...?” groaned Nike, an exasperated look on his face.

He’d nimbly jumped up on their numoth at some point and was sitting on the edge of their howdah. Leporina became flustered when she realized they were being watched and tried to get up, but Kuu wouldn’t let her go.

Cackling like a monkey, Kuu then said, “Looks fun, doesn’t it? Why don’t you find a wife for yourself too?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m so jealous,” Nike said flatly. “You’ve got your other cute wife Taru waiting for you back home too.”

Kuu smiled wryly. “I’m amazed you can say that. I hear you’re even more popular with the ladies than I am. Bet you’re getting more tail than you know what to do with, am I right?”

Nike had been famed as a beautiful young spearman in the Union of Eastern Nations, so he’d been looked at affectionately by many women of different races since coming to the Republic. Kuu became jealous when he’d noticed, and his wives called him out for it; Taru with silent fury and Leporina with a teary-eyed lecture. The two of them had learned how to keep their man under their thumb while they were in the Kingdom.

“I prefer to be the one making offers, not receiving them,” Nike said with a shrug. “If there was someone well-tempered and dignified like my sister Mutsumi, I just might go after her.”

Now it was Kuu’s turn to look at Nike in dismay.

“They’ve got a word for people like you in bro’s world, you siscon.”

“Siscon? What’s that? Some sort of title?”

“You know what, forget it... More importantly, you know what we’re doing next, right?” Kuu asked, regaining his composure as the head of the Republic.

Nike also snapped back into serious mode and said, “Yes. We keep intimidating them as we close in on the city, yeah? Making as big of a show of it as we can.”

“Yeah. Zem’s got something like 100,000 troops in total, but most of them are out supporting Fuuga. When you consider that they need to have troops on their border with Friedonia too, even if that place is one of their key defensive positions, they can’t have left even 10,000 guys in there.”

“And that’s why we’ll be able to intimidate them—acting like we could crush them underfoot easily and getting them to run away, right? If our enemies are smart, they’ll likely pull back their defensive lines to concentrate their forces.”

“...Basically.” Kuu let out a mischievous chuckle. “Bro and his prime minister only ordered us to intimidate them. If the enemy there tells their guys who are out supporting Fuuga that their homeland’s under attack, they’ll get antsy and want to go home. That’ll be our job done.”

“Then is there any need to force an attack?”

“What do you mean? If I’m coming out all this way, then there’s no problem with having a city or two to show for it.”

With a boyish grin on his face, Kuu continued.

“Let’s call in Taru to turn the cities we take into impregnable fortresses. She’s got all these ideas that she had to give up on because of the pushback there’d be if we did them in one of the Republic’s cities. But a city we took off the enemy? We can remodel it all we like and they won’t be able to complain much. This place looks like it’s got potential for agriculture too... Oh, I know! We’ll drill a tunnel through this mountain and hook it up to the Republic! That’ll make maintaining our supply lines easier too!”

Nike’s eyes widened as he realized that despite the innocent look on his face, Kuu was steadily thinking through how he’d rule the area after the war. As carefree as he might seem, Kuu was fit to stand at the top of a nation, and Nike now served him.

“Well, I don’t see a problem with that,” Nike replied, subconsciously tightening the grip on his spear. He was too proud to let it show on his face, so he deliberately remained aloof in his response. “I know I’d prefer to be somewhere less cold. That city looks like it’d fit the bill.”

“Sure would. If the mercenaries defending the place put up a resistance, I’ll be counting on you to show us your stuff. Let’s race up the walls together and send them packing.”

“You’re going to the front line too, Master Kuu? If you don’t hold back a little more, Lady Taru is going to get upset, you know?”

“Ookyakya! Well, keep it a secret from her!”

In the middle of their friendly banter...

“Jeez! Would you two stop talking like I’m not here?!” Leporina protested, still in an embarrassing position.

◇ ◇ ◇

Also at the same time, on the east edge of the Great Tiger Kingdom, countless ships appeared in the open sea next to a port city on the coast...

These vessels of varying sizes, towed by sea dragons and horned doldons, belonged to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom’s fleet. Responding to changes in naval warfare, the Archipelago Kingdom had worked with the Kingdom of Friedonia to augment their existing fleet of wooden and ironclad ships with steel battleships like the Albert II. These new ships could carry large cannons and anti-air repeating bolt throwers.

Incidentally, Shabon had said to Souma, “I would like an island-type carrier. I will pay for it, so would you please give us one,” but obviously he had to refuse. However, Shabon had learned to negotiate from Kuu, and was far more persistent than Souma and the others expected. To that end, they had agreed that once enough new carriers were built and it was time to retire the originals, she could have one. Shabon was currently developing into a determined and stubborn queen.

Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Shabon was on the bridge of the largest, most impressive battleship in her fleet, the New Dragon King.

“They are far too defenseless... Did they never consider that we might attack by sea while Sir Fuuga is away?” Shabon said to Kishun, her royal consort and prime minister. She watched the soldiers of the port city run around willy-nilly in response to the arrival of the fleet.

“Who can blame them?” Kishun said in response. “Sir Fuuga’s people are of the steppes, masters of war on land. They have never been attacked from the sea, so they cannot be expected to be wary of such an event. I am sure that he simply left the task of ruling this port city to its former lord when they submitted to him.”

“Just like Sir Souma told us, then?”

In the past two years, Souma had explained the importance of sea power to Shabon, as well as Fuuga’s presumed lack of awareness about it. This meant that the only country on this continent other than the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Archipelago Kingdom with a proper understanding of sea power was the Gran Chaos Empire. And he’d explained this to Shabon, who, due to the geographical makeup of her country, best understood the importance and was able to build her forces to take advantage of it.

If he had kept it secret, he could have built the Kingdom’s naval forces into a power unmatched by any other country’s, but that would have led to pushback, and likely the breakup of the Maritime Alliance. If the Archipelago Kingdom would become hostile to him and start engaging in piracy, that would be incredibly tough to deal with.

Instead, Souma and Hakuya had decided it was best to explain it to her from the beginning and arrange things so that they both benefited. Even if the Kingdom’s fleet was not absolute, so long as they had the strongest fleet in the Maritime Alliance, they could maintain peace at sea.

Shabon smiled a daring and regal smile. After having given birth to two children, she was developing a dignified presence that rivaled Juna’s or Excel’s.

“Then we will have to show them what it means to fight at sea.”

“Indeed.” Kishun nodded. “We will teach them the importance of being able to make and act on decisions immediately.”

Shabon swung her arm towards the port city. “As planned, our first target is the artillery battery in the port. Our second is the military ships in port. Let us neutralize them before they can come out. All ships, open fire.”

“Roger. All ships, open fire!”

Boom! On Shabon and Kishun’s orders, the New Dragon King’s guns roared.

With that as their signal, the rest of the fleet began bombarding the port with their cannons, lion-dog cannons, and other gunpowder armaments. The countless shells all slammed into the battery that had been built to protect the entrance to the port. These were not explosive shells, but ones that relied on pure kinetic force, so there were no showy pillars of flame or smoke.

Still, as the buildings in the artillery battery crumbled, it was clear to see that it had been neutralized. That was when the ships left port, possibly to intercept them, or perhaps to flee.

“Much too slow. They lack training.”

Shabon ordered her fleet to continue firing, and the New Dragon King’s main cannon roared once again. Its cannonball slammed into the largest enemy battleship—likely their flagship. Even at a distance, they could clearly see its bridge collapsing and falling like a crumbling tower.

“Excellent.” Shabon gave a satisfied nod. “Our gunners are superb.”

“Indeed. Ours have far more experience than theirs do, after all... Now then, Lady Shabon. Our task from the Kingdom’s prime minister was to ‘destroy Fuuga’s military vessels,’ which he expected to be gathered here, correct?”

Nodding, she replied, “Yes. As well as the destruction of any warships under construction. Even if they failed to understand sea power, Sir Fuuga and Sir Hashim would not be amused that we seized control of the seas. So they had to be building a fleet at their port city on the east coast. We were directed to seize or destroy it.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NʘvᴇlFirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“And we do not have to take this city?”

“They have a land connection to it, after all. We would struggle to hold it when Sir Fuuga returns,” Shabon said with a shrug before pointing to the west. “More importantly, this city is near Sir Fuuga’s homeland on the steppes, so now that we have threatened it...”

“I see. It should serve to shake up the old hands among Fuuga’s forces.” Kishun let out a groan of admiration. “Then what do we do now? Their defenses are neutralized; if we are not going to occupy the city, should we at least destroy their storehouses?”

“No... It would be unwise to incur too much ire from the people who support Sir Fuuga. If all we attack are their military facilities, that will create a difference in the emotional response from the military and the civilian population. Treating them equally will only serve to unite our enemy.”

“Very true.”

“It would be best not to touch their food stores, lest people starve. I forbid any looting that targets civilians as well, of course. See to it that everyone has strict orders to that effect.”

“Yes, ma’am! It will be done.”

“However...” Shabon stuck her tongue out and smiled mischievously. “Let us help ourselves to the weapons and ammunition that they have no doubt stocked at the base. If possible, I would also like to drag back the warships that are under construction, as well as ones that have been neutralized. And all the resources they have for building more too.”

Kishun stared blankly at her for a moment before smiling wryly.

“You’ve become quite merciless...”

“Does that hurt your image of me?”

“No, it is most reliable.”

“Hee hee, good, then. I think we will have some nice souvenirs for Sharan and Sharon.”

“You mean to give the children warships as presents...?” Kishun gave an exasperated shrug.

Their children, Princess Sharan and Prince Sharon, were currently in the care of the former Nine-Headed Dragon King, Shana, who had been entrusted with the rule of the Twin Islands. They’d indeed both smiled wryly when they saw how the stern face of the former monarch softened and he became a doting grandfather.

Shabon clapped her hands and said, “Now, let us do as a pirate fleet should, and help ourselves to everything we can.”

Having become a queen and the mother of two infant children, Shabon had become highly reliable.

◇ ◇ ◇

At the same time, as Mercenary State Zem and the port city in the east of the Great Tiger Kingdom were being thrown into chaos, there was great confusion unfolding in the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State...

Thirty thousand forces from the Friedonian National Defense Force had appeared on their border. People screamed and ran about in terror, and all signs of life vanished from nearby cities and towns. They were all terrified by the forces of the Kingdom, and piled into the holy city of Yumuen as refugees.

Overrun by incoming people, Yumuen was left unable to send the defenders they had left there to the border.

Meanwhile, the source of that chaos—the Friedonian army composed of 30,000 soldiers mainly from the National Land Defense Force—made no attempt to cross the border. They were not firing so much as a bolt of magic or an arrow into the country. They acted as if they were “just passing by” as they assembled there, displaying their might to the Orthodox Papal State. And yet what terrified the people—the true source of such pandemonium—was the general leading this force.

They screamed his name as they ran.

“I-It’s Julius! Julius is here!”

“The bloody prince Julius?! W-We have to flee, quickly!”

Everyone from the common folk to rank-and-file soldiers was shaken by news of his arrival, and things devolved from there. They dropped everything and ran like people who’d panicked after encountering a bear in the mountains.

With an indescribable expression on his face, Julius watched this unfold from the main camp of the Kingdom’s forces. It was like he’d bitten into an unpleasant food...but with a far-off look in his eyes like he had resigned himself to something.

“The people of the Orthodox Papal State are awfully frightened of you, Sir Julius,” called out an easygoing voice from behind him.

Julius slowly turned to see Mio Carmine standing there in her armor. Because they were mainly using the National Land Defense Force, they had called in Mio and assigned her to be Julius’s second-in-command.

Incidentally, when she got the order, she and her fiancé Colbert had this exchange:

“Finally, a chance to serve as a warrior again! I have to participate!”

“Hold on, Madam Mio! What about the Carmine domain?!”

“I’ll leave that to you, Sir Bee, my beloved fiancé!”

“Since when did fiancé mean slave?”

“I hear people talk about being a slave to love all the time.”

“No, that’s not very witty, okay!”

Julius looked at Mio with dead fish eyes.

“Oh, it’s you...Madam Mio.”

“Yikes! You look even more dead inside than usual. What happened?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just realizing how much it hurts to have things pushed in my face from when I was less experienced...” Julius sighed and looked towards the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State. “It was after I took over the Amidonian throne from my late father... I ruthlessly suppressed the believers who the Orthodox Papal State stirred into rebellion against me. My infamy must have made its way back to the Orthodox Papal State proper.”

“Ah... That would explain how scared they were, yeah.” Mio clapped her hands together as she made the connection.

Julius sighed. “I thought it was my only option then, and I still don’t think I was wrong, but...then Tia’s face flashes through my mind. I imagine her being saddened by the blood of all those I trampled beneath my feet.”

“Perhaps... But there’s more to her, isn’t there?” With a deliberate smile, Mio patted Julius on the back. “Tia looks innocent, but she’s got a level head on her shoulders. Even if she learned about your bad reputation, she has the capacity to accept it and keep it close to her heart. She’s not just going to sit around being sad.”

“Madam Mio... Heh.” Julius finally cracked a smile. “I never would have thought a daughter of the House of Carmine would say that to me... To think I had fought against them in the past.”

“Well, us military folk need to take the good with the bad. That’s what my father always told me. If you’d left the rebels to do as they pleased, someone else would have been hurt instead, so we can’t say your actions were all bad. And, look. Thanks to your infamous reputation, we’ve been able to stir the Orthodox Papal State without fighting.”

“Using everything he has, including my bad reputation... The prime minister comes up with some nasty ideas.”

It was Hakuya who ordered Julius to lead 30,000 troops to go stand on their border with the Orthodox Papal State. In light of his past suppression of their believers, Hakuya judged this would be enough to shake them, and was why he’d given firm orders not to take the troops across the border. Because there was no need to invade, everyone—except Julius and a number of soldiers like Mio who had been sent to guard him—were weak troops who might as well have been cardboard cutouts.

Mio looked at him quizzically.

“But are you sure we shouldn’t go in? The plan is for the Republic to attack from the south, the Archipelago Kingdom from the east, and us from the southeast. Meanwhile, His Majesty leads a unit to join up with the Empire in the west, right? If all four prongs of our attack were serious, wouldn’t Fuuga’s forces fall to pieces?”

“It would end in a quagmire...” Julius said, crossing his arms with a pensive look on his face. “If the Maritime Alliance were to launch a serious attack just as Fuuga was about to destroy the Empire, we could likely deal him a crippling blow. However, were we to do that, Fuuga’s supporters would deeply resent Souma. They’d see him as the worst kind of person, marrying Fuuga’s sister on one hand, then actively obstructing his brother-in-law’s dream on the other.”

“That’s a rather selfish interpretation of it, especially when they’ve gone and destroyed Madam Maria’s dreams themselves.”

“Well, that’s just how people are. Fuuga and Hashim would no doubt make a lot of noise about how unfair the Kingdom’s been to them. And from there it would turn into a quagmire—an endless war that went on until one faction or the other was destroyed. Although, Hashim likely diverted all his forces to the Empire on the assumption that Souma would never do something so foolish...”

“I see...”

Julius let out a sigh.

“This is likely where the real challenge starts for the Black-robed Prime Minister.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“What we need in this war is not victory. In fact, it would be unnecessary.”

At this point, Prime Minister Hakuya was in the castle at Parnam, in front of a map of the continent, explaining his strategy to Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga.

“If we prevent Sir Fuuga’s conquest of the Empire while dealing him a major blow, that will earn us the enmity of those who lionize him. Once that happens, even if we take a city, it will not be stable, and Sir Fuuga will easily be able to show up to retake it. And to keep Sir Fuuga from invading us, the Maritime Alliance would need to constantly keep sending troops to areas Sir Fuuga is not in, forcing him to repeatedly take them back in a game of whack-a-mole.”

That was almost like the final stages of the Three Kingdoms period in China. In order to avoid being destroyed by the more populous and powerful Wei, Shu and Wu took turns attacking them, making them split their forces between the east and the west. There are those who believe that this is why Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei continued the Northern Expeditions despite Shu having little strength as a nation.

“It would be a quagmire. The era would grind to a halt, and all factions would be exhausted. If a demon wave were to come from the Demon Lord’s Domain then, none of our countries would be able to recover. It would be impossible for our exhausted nations to absorb the fresh waves of refugees while fighting a defensive war. We need to give people...the impression that Sir Fuuga won.”

“That’s why you didn’t order them to take any of the cities, right, Mr. Hakuya?” Ichiha asked.

“Exactly,” Hakuya answered with a nod. “It might be fine to take one city, but if we reach for any more, it will give the impression we were victorious over Sir Fuuga. What we are looking for is to give Fuuga’s forces a Pyrrhic victory. The equivalent of him winning by decision.”

Hakuya pointed to the Empire on the map.

“What the Great Tiger Kingdom wants now more than anything is the Empire’s bureaucrats. These are the people who know how to run a large nation. If he can get his hands on them, then the vast lands of the Empire are only an added bonus. That’s why I expect he’ll use an insider to quickly assault the Imperial capital and force Madam Maria to surrender. In fact, it would be a problem for him if Madam Maria were to die. Should that happen, he would invoke the wrath of her supporters and the newly acquired Empire would be unruly, leaving him unable to assign his new administrators to positions in the Great Tiger Kingdom. He’s going to want to take the citizens of the capital hostage in order to force Madam Maria to surrender. However, anyone who knows Madam Maria knows that is wishful thinking. Because she is the type who would choose her own death over surrender if she thought that was what was best for the people of the Empire.”

“That’s what Big Brother said too,” Tomoe interjected. “He said that’s the kind of person Maria is.”

Hakuya nodded. “Yes. If that happens, Sir Fuuga and his people won’t be able to get what they want. The Great Tiger Kingdom and the Empire will both be harmed, and no one will benefit from it.”

“Yeah. That’s why I decided to cooperate with Sir Souma,” Yuriga said, crossing her arms and scratching her cheek. “I told my brother, ‘If I’m going to marry Sir Souma, I need to put the Kingdom’s interests first,’ but I don’t want either country to get hurt. I want to do everything I can to ensure that both sides benefit. That said, after listening to Mr. Hakuya, I think my brother shouldn’t completely destroy the Empire right now.”

“Yuriga... Are you okay with this?” Tomoe asked, worried, but Yuriga nodded.

“My brother needs to learn. There are some things you can’t get by winning all the time.”

“It may be that we would benefit from both their countries collapsing... With the Empire destroyed and the seeds of unrest sown in the Great Tiger Kingdom, that would serve to elevate the importance of the Maritime Alliance.”

When Hakuya said this, Tomoe blinked at him.

“No...! Then we’d be abandoning Maria and Jeanne. You and Big Brother have been friends with them all this time, haven’t you?”

“We have. But even as a prime minister, there are times when I may be pushed to make such decisions. Madam Jeanne understands this. That’s probably why she told me I didn’t have to strain myself on her account. I...couldn’t find a way to save the Empire in its current state. That being the case, I couldn’t put my own feelings first and send our people to intervene in a war because of my personal affection for her.”

“Mr. Hakuya...”

Seeing the pained look on Tomoe’s face, Hakuya suddenly smiled.

“But one word from His Majesty changed the conditions entirely.”

The day Jeanne had rejected his help...

“It is impossible to protect this country and maintain the Empire. If we recklessly try to defend both, it will turn into a quagmire. No matter how I think about it...I can’t find the answer I want.”

As Hakuya hung his head, Souma told him this: “There’s no need to keep the Empire perfectly intact. Maria wants the Empire to shrink.”

When he heard that, Hakuya snapped his head up, eyes wide with surprise. Souma continued.

“Maria is exhausted with the current situation where she is the only person supporting an empire that’s far too massive. All this time, she’s wanted to find a way to peacefully dismantle it. She opened up to me about that back when we met in Zem.”

“I can’t believe the Saint of the Empire would say that...”

“Listen, Hakuya. You said it was impossible to maintain the Empire, but if there’s no need to, then we can choose a slightly better future, right? After all, we’ve got Fuuga, who wants more land and people, and Maria, who wants to cut some land and people loose. I’ll bet you could find a way to make this work out in a way that saves Maria and Jeanne, couldn’t you?”

Then, moving to another place and showing him the preparations he’d been making, Souma said this to Hakuya: “I want you to use that head of yours to devise the optimal future for us.”

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