“It does,” Carla assured her. “When he was whining to me on the battlefield, he said he couldn’t let you and the others hear him like that. Grandmother once said that the more a man cares about someone, the more prideful he is around them.”

“Y-You think...? Oh, wait, Carla, he was whining to you?” Liscia asked.

“It’s because I mean nothing to him, I’ll bet. I did oppose him, after all.”

“Carla, Souma is...!”

When Liscia turned around and looked at Carla’s face, she was at a loss for words. Her expression showed none of her usual defiance; it was lonely somehow, with an air of peaceful resignation.

“I know, Liscia,” said Carla. “On the battlefield, he forced me to see the weight he’s carrying on his shoulders. He’s no phony. He’s a splendid king. You and King Albert were right in your judgment of him. We were the ones who lacked your clarity of vision.”

“Huh?!” Liscia exclaimed. “If you’ve figured that out, then...”

“It’s why I can’t let you intercede on my behalf.”

Liscia stood up and slammed on the bars. “Carla! Do you have any idea what Duchess Walter and I are going through to...”

“No,” said Carla. “That’s not it, Liscia.” She shook her head silently. Then, folding her hands on her lap, she forced herself to say, “We made a mistake. That’s why I don’t want to cause any more trouble for you. If you try to help us survive, you’ll be putting Souma in a bind. He’s already pushing himself too hard to be king, so I don’t want to increase the burden on him anymore.”

“Carla...” Liscia looked as if she were in pain.

Carla smiled weakly. “I don’t want to be a burden on you and the one you love any longer.”

◇　◇　◇

“Now then, everyone, I think we’ll have this person here close out the program for us,” I said. “Here’s the number one singer, the Prima Lorelei, Juna Doma!”

Having finished with the lead-in to the last song, I moved off-stage to somewhere the jewel wouldn’t pick me up. When I got there, I found Margarita kneeling and Aisha looking at her with a grim look on her face.

“...King of Elfrieden,” snarled Margarita. “Did you know what I was going to do?” She looked extremely frustrated as I approached.

“Yeah, kinda,” I said. “Someone tried the same thing in the world I came from.”

Although that had been in a movie. It was an old musical, but my grandpa had loved it, so I had seen it a bunch of times.

Margarita hung her head. “I see... If someone has tried it before, it’s little wonder I failed.”

I placed a hand on Margarita’s shoulder. “Despite being from the Amidonian military, you didn’t rely on brute force, and you had a wonderful singing voice. How about it? Why not try becoming a singer in our country for real? An R&B singer, maybe.”

“...You put me to shame with such kind words for a defeated soldier,” she said bitterly. “I’m not sure what this... arr and bee is, but given I have failed as a soldier, perhaps that would be fine.”

“Yeah, we can never have too many singers,” I said. “You’d be more than welcome.”

A troubled smile formed on Margarita’s tough-looking face. “...Let me think about it.”

◇　◇　◇

Margarita Wonder was hesitant at this point, but not long afterwards, she did make her debut as an R&B singer from Amidonia. Her powerful singing with that husky voice of hers mostly found support with middle-aged people.

Furthermore, with the larger-than-life personality she had cultivated on the battlefield, and the courage to rival any man’s, she took over hosting the program, eventually becoming a mainstay of the kingdom’s entertainment industry.

Regardless, the curtain now fell on the highly-eventful first broadcast of the music program.

“You cur!” Julius screamed, lunging for me.

“Sir Julius!” Jeanne snapped, reaching out a hand to stop him.

While Julius did stop after only taking half a step, he still gnashed his teeth in frustration. I hadn’t permitted them to carry weapons during the audience, but it would have been a risky situation if Jeanne hadn’t intervened.

“Aisha, you take your hand off your hilt, too,” I said.

“...Yes, sire.”

I had been able to feel the bloodlust behind me, so I’d put a stop to it. Her voice sounded dejected, like a child who had been scolded.

She didn’t have to let it get her down so badly, though. The reason I could brazenly tear into Julius like this was that I felt safe in the knowledge that, if it came down to it, Aisha was there to protect me.

“Sir Souma... I would ask that you refrain from agitating Sir Julius,” Jeanne objected, with a sigh.

“I only spoke the truth,” I responded. “Governing the nation and providing relief to the people... those are the two duties of a ruler. They, however, taxed the people heavily to pay for their wasteful military spending. That is the very definition of oppression.”

“And whose fault was that?!” Julius shouted. “If the royal family of Elfrieden hadn’t stole land from my grandfather...!”

“Not this again...” Hearing Julius trot out the same tired arguments, I let out a sigh. “The royal family of Amidonia calls out for revenge against Elfrieden at every turn, but neither you, nor even Gaius, were party to those events. What’s more, I haven’t been in this world that long. What grudge could you possibly have had against me?”

“Ah! That’s...”

“If anything, your country is the one that’s continuously tried to bring harm to mine,” I said. “...Hakuya.”

“Yes, sire.” Hakuya pulled out a piece of paper that was rolled up inside a cylindrical tube and handed it to the two of them.

On the paper was written a number of names. When they saw those names, Jeanne seemed confused, but Julius had a look on his face like he had just bitten into something unpleasant.

“What... is this?” Jeanne asked.

With a bow, Hakuya explained, “The names you see written here are nobles of the Elfrieden Kingdom who were incited to sedition by the Principality of Amidonia. Some of them rose up during the reign of the former king and were put down. Amidonia incited them, fomenting rebellion, tempting them into corruption, and encouraging them to adopt an uncooperative stance towards the royal family.”

“Oh, my...”

When Jeanne turned a cold look towards him, Julius clenched his jaw.

It had seemed like they’d been trying to stir up the three dukes, so I’d had Hakuya look into it, and, boy, had we ever found some shady stuff. I could see the names of corrupt nobles who had taken part in the uprising on the list, but some of the names I saw belonged to nobles who had refused to take a side in the recent conflict. When I returned to the royal capital, I was going to have to do something about that.

“Madam Jeanne,” said Hakuya. “While they pay lip service to the Mankind Declaration, the Principality of Amidonia has been engaging in all of this skullduggery behind the scenes. It’s hard to see how they can talk about revenge against our kingdom after all this.”

“Even when it comes to that revenge, they only bring it up when it benefits them.” I glared at Julius as I spoke, following Hakuya’s example. “‘Our country is poor because of the kingdom, everyone goes hungry because of the kingdom, our people suffer under their heavy toil because of the kingdom, the heavy taxes we levy go to the military and not the people because of the kingdom.’”

“What are you getting at?” Julius demanded.

“It’s awfully convenient,” I said. “If you just use that excuse to pay lip service to the theme of revenge, you can hide your policy blunders and redirect the anger of your people towards Elfrieden.”

“You cur! How dare you say that!” Julius exclaimed, dashing towards me.

“Sir Julius!” Jeanne snapped, stopping him again. Then she turned an equally harsh glance in my direction. “Sir Souma, I believe I asked you not to agitate him.”

“...Sorry,” I said. “It’s just that we want you to see that we’re furious with Amidonia’s behavior, too.”

“That... I can understand,” said Jeanne.

“Thank you,” I said. “Now, I have a proposal.”

I turned to them, as if saying, Now, it’s time to get down to business.

“Could we have Sir Julius leave the room?”

Julius’s face contorted with rage. “Don’t be absurd! Why should I be removed from negotiations that will determine the fate of my nation’s capital?!”

An intelligent and beautiful face showing all that anger was at least fifty percent more intimidating than an ordinary person’s would have been. Before coming to this world, I’d probably have been overwhelmed by his threatening attitude, but... now I had spent around half a year as king, dealing with far scarier people such as Gaius himself, in matters of life and death. After all of that, this level of intimidation wasn’t enough pressure to faze me.

“It’s simple, really,” I said. “I don’t even need to negotiate with Amidonia to begin with.”

“What did you say?!” he shouted.

“I am at the negotiating table because I want the Empire to recognize my sovereignty over Van,” I said. “The Empire takes the position that they can’t recognize the changing of borders due to the exercise of force, so they’re here to negotiate because they want me to return Van, right? In that case, the matter can be settled entirely through negotiations between the kingdom and the Empire.”

This had always been a negotiation between the kingdom and the Empire. The principality had never been more than a sideshow. If his resentment was going to stop the smooth proceeding of the negotiations, I would be happier to see him removed from them. Jeanne seemed to understand this, too.

“...Sir Julius,” she said. “Could I ask you to let me handle this?”

“Madam Jeanne?!” he exclaimed. “But...”

“These negotiations will go nowhere with you both at each other’s throats,” said Jeanne. “The Empire does not wish to spend its time mediating other nations’ disputes. I will definitely reclaim Van, so I would like you to leave this to me.”

“That’s... very one-sided of you, isn’t it?” Julius asked angrily. He seemed ready to keep arguing, but Jeanne cut him right off.

“Then the Empire will have nothing more to do with this matter, and you will be welcome to negotiate for yourself. In my personal opinion, the fault lies with Amidonia on this occasion. We are doing what we can to help you because you’re a signatory to the Mankind Declaration, but if you find yourself unable to trust us, the Empire will withdraw from these negotiations.”

Julius knew the principality could not reclaim Van on its own. If the Empire hinted they might withdraw from the negotiations, there was nothing he could say.

Julius looked anguished, choking out the words, “You will... get Van back for us, yes?”

“I swear it on my sister, Empress Maria Euphoria’s, name.”

“I’m counting on you.” Julius bowed his head to Jeanne, then left the audience chamber.

After we had seen him off, Jeanne and I looked to one another and sighed.

“...I’m sorry,” said Jeanne. “Our signatories can be such a handful.”

“...I feel your pain.”

We both smiled. In order to hide our true feelings, both of us had naturally put on a smile. The dangerous air had vanished from the room, but the air was still as tense as ever. No, if anything, it was more tense now than before.

These talks would decide what was to come from here on for both the kingdom and the Empire, so that was probably inevitable.

“Did you deliberately agitate Julius to set the stage for this, perhaps?” Jeanne asked.

I shook my head with a wry smile. “I meant most of what I said. Thanks to his father and him, the kingdom’s recovery was delayed, and I had to do a lot of unnecessary work. I wanted to vent a little.”

“Is that so?” Jeanne said, not seeming to care all that much. Then Jeanne brought one hand to her chest, giving a polite bow. “Let me introduce myself once more, Sir Souma. I am Jeanne Euphoria, emissary of the Gran Chaos Empire. I come representing my sister Maria Euphoria.”

“Welcome, Madam Jeanne,” I said. “I am the (provisional) King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya.”

To start things afresh, Jeanne and I had reintroduced ourselves.

Jeanne had been a little taciturn before, but she now took on a cheerful tone, completely at odds with that. She smiled to Liscia who stood beside me. “I’m relieved to see you are well, Princess Liscia.”

“You seem to be in good health yourself, Madam Jeanne,” Liscia said, returning the smile.

“Hm? You two were acquainted with each other?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Liscia. “We met just once, when we were little. Before the Demon Lord’s Domain appeared, I believe?”

“Yes, it was,” said Jeanne. “If I recall, it was the time I forced the minister in charge of talks with your former king, Sir Albert, to bring me along. Because of our close age, we played together.”

I see, I thought. When they’re both royals, they have those sorts of connections, huh.

Then, Jeanne eyed Liscia’s body up and down and said, “You must be even stronger now than you were back then. I can tell just looking at you.”

“I could say the same of you,” said Liscia. “Back then, I never did manage to land a single hit on you.”

Whoa, hold up! How did we get from the two of them playing to them landing hits on each other?!

“You two were way too tomboyish...” I muttered.

“Even the mild-mannered Marx was mad at us that time,” said Liscia nostalgically.

“Our foreign minister was in tears, too,” Jeanne chuckled. “Ha ha ha!”

No, no, that’s nothing to laugh about... I felt bad for Marx and this minister for the Empire whose face I’d never even seen.

“Well, anyway, that’s enough reminiscing about old times,” Jeanne began. “I think it’s about time we talked heart-to-heart.”

“I know,” I said. “Let’s move somewhere else, for a start.”

I wanted to take this chance to speak frankly with the Empire. In order to make that possible, the meeting site needed to be a spot where both sides would feel comfortable. I was going to want a pen and paper, too.

“But, first... Liscia, could you summon Serina for me?” I asked.

Liscia nodded, leaving the room. Shortly thereafter, a woman in a maid uniform entered.

It was Liscia’s personal maid, the head maid Serina. The head maid, an intellectual beauty who was slightly older than me, lifted the hem of her apron-skirt slightly, and curtsied. “I have come at your behest, Your Majesty.”

“Serina,” I said. “Amidonia’s crown... no, Amidonia’s sovereign prince, Julius, is in the visitor’s room. I may be speaking with Madam Jeanne for some time, so begin the banquet without us and see to it that he is made welcome.”

When I gave her that order, Serina bowed respectfully. “Very well. In that case, sire, I would like permission to open a well-aged bottle of tequeur from the castle’s wine cellar.”

In the moment she said that, I thought I saw a suspicious glint in Serina’s eye.

Does she want to drink that alcoholic beverage, whatever it was called? I wondered. She seems like the tight-laced sort to me, but maybe she’s actually a drinker. Is she saying it’s for our guest, when really she wants to drink it herself?

“I’ll leave the matter to your discretion,” I said at last. “So long as our guest is properly entertained.”

“Understood. I will pour Sir Julius’s share and entertain him personally.”

With those words and an icy smile, Serina bowed and exited the room.

Her smile did worry me, but she’d said she would entertain him, so I figured it was probably fine. As I was thinking that, I looked next to me to see Liscia and Hakuya grimacing.

“Wh-What is it, you two?” I asked.

“Souma... tequeur is famous for being a strong alcohol,” said Liscia.

“It has a pleasant taste, which encourages heavy drinking. However, if one who is not used to drinking it does that, it will quickly send them off to the land of dreams. Normally, it’s the sort of thing you’d drink a few drops of mixed into a glass of tea or juice,” Hakuya explained, looking like his head hurt.

“Huh? Wait, if she goes pouring him glasses of the stuff...”

“The banquet will be over not ten minutes after it begins.”

“She has no intention of entertaining him whatsoever?!” I exclaimed.

The head maid Serina. She had an elegant beauty, she carried out her duties perfectly, she was polite, and she could also show great consideration, all of which made her flawless as a maid. However, she was also a little too much of a sadist.

When it came to cute girls, she always wanted to “buwwy” them. Not “bully,” “buwwy.” Not that she’d do anything that would hurt them; she just enjoyed stirring up their senses of shame a little.

Left alone with Serina, Julius didn’t stand a chance.

Well, the goal of the banquet was always to keep Julius from finding out what’s going on with our negotiations with the Empire, I thought. If she gets him to drink himself into a stupor, that’s one way of doing it...

“Just this once, I feel bad for Julius,” Liscia said, with eyes as emotionless as those of a dead fish. “Serina, she just loves to toy with swaggering types like him.”

“I-It sounds like you have personal experience with this...” I said.

“Whenever I misbehaved, Marx was the one who would scold me, but Serina was always the one in charge of disciplining me,” said Liscia. “Of course, Serina’s a maid, so she couldn’t punish me physically. No, she went for psychological attacks instead. If only... If only she didn’t know about that one thing... No, there’s that, too, isn’t there...? Augh, why does she always, always have to see me at the worst possible moments?”

As I tried to console Liscia, who was holding her head in her hands, I let out a sigh. “Just how much blackmail material does she have on you...?”

“Heh heh. This really is an... interesting country.” In the corner of my vision, I saw Jeanne doing her best to hold back a smile.

After that, we changed locations, and I showed Jeanne to the governmental affairs office. That was because, if we were going to be sitting down and negotiating at length, I felt this was the best place to do it.

It was large enough to hold a reasonable number of people, and there were plenty of pens and pieces of paper there. Being able to easily get our hands on any documents we might need was another point in its favor.

...Though, when Jeanne had entered the room, the first thing that had caught her attention was the bed off in the corner.

“Sir Souma, what is that bed for?” she asked.

“It’s mine,” I said. “I’m too busy to have a room of my own.”

“You sleep in the governmental affairs office?!”

“I am ashamed to admit it, but yes,” Hakuya, not I, said, sounding deeply embarrassed.

However, it apparently wasn’t the fact that I slept in the office itself that surprised Jeanne. “I never thought there would be a king doing the same things as my sister...”

“Come again?” I asked, startled.

Her sister... That’d be Madam Maria, right? Huh? The empress sleeps in the governmental affairs office, too?!

When I asked her about it, Jeanne awkwardly responded, “She does have her own room, too, of course, but when she finds herself busy with administrative work, she sleeps in a bed that’s been set up in the office, yes. What’s more, in my sister’s case, she doesn’t settle for a simple bed. She’s brought in a proper, comfy one. That makes it all the worse.”

I was silent.

I wonder why, I thought. Right now, I feel an incredible kinship with the Saint of the Empire.

“My sister needs to realize that she’s the ruler of a vast empire,” said Jeanne. “I keep telling her not to do it, and to consider how it looks to her vassals, but all I get in return is, ‘I don’t see the problem. I sleep so well in this bed.’ She doesn’t listen to me at all.”

When Jeanne said that with a sigh, for some reason, Hakuya was nodding along. “I understand. I don’t know how many times I’ve advised His Majesty to get his own room and sleep there. Yet, every time I do, he brushes me off with a simple, ‘But this is more efficient.’”

“Oh, I understand,” said Jeanne. “I know she’s tired from her work, but I wish she’d consider how her subordinates see her a little more. Especially since my sister has this image of being a saint, I’d rather she not do anything too unseemly.”

“I can understand that,” said Hakuya. “I’ve given up on that front. His Majesty could have carried the title of ‘hero,’ but everything he does is so...”

The two of them just keep saying, “I understand, I understand,” I thought. Why are they hitting it off so well?

“I think it’s good that when Sir Souma does it, at least he’s doing it calculatingly,” said Jeanne. “When my sister does it, it’s just laziness. She can be a bit of an airhead at times, too.”

“Well, at least that’s cute,” said Hakuya. “In His Majesty’s case, I think it’s all the worse because he’s planned it out. Why does the king who is so good at listening to his subjects in matters of state pretend not to hear a word I say when it comes to advising him on his personal life?”

“I can see you’ve been put through a lot, too, Sir Hakuya,” said Jeanne.

“No, no, Madam Jeanne, you must have had it worse,” said Hakuya.

Jeanne and Hakuya were really hitting it off. They looked like they might exchange a firm handshake at any moment.

And so, right here, right now, the “Association of the Victims of Slothful Masters” was formed. That was a joke I couldn’t laugh at. It was getting awkward for me, and I wanted to move the conversation along to another topic quickly, but if I interrupted now, I was going to get a scolding and get slapped with a paper fan, so I decided to keep quiet for a little while.

I watched carefully for their conversation settle down a bit, then, clearing my throat loudly, I gestured for Jeanne to take a seat at the long table in the middle of the room. “Well, anyway, take a seat. Let’s get right to the negotiations.”

“Ah... Right. Very well.” Jeanne’s expression changed, and she sat at the table.

Once we were both seated across from each other at the long table, Jeanne looked me in the eye and began. “I suppose the first order of business is your current occupation of Van.”

I said nothing.

“As much as I truly regret that I must say this, I did give my word to Sir Julius, so the Empire has a role it must fulfill here,” she said. “Could you please return Van?”

“There’s no need to rush to the conclusion like that,” I said. “I mean, this is a rare chance for the head of the kingdom and the Empire’s number two to negotiate directly. There are a lot of things I want to take this opportunity to discuss, and a lot of information I want to share. Let’s leave any topic that might put us both in a foul mood for after all of that.”

Jeanne took on a pensive look, but eventually she nodded. “...Well, then. In that case, I would like to call in the bureaucrats from my country who are standing by outside the castle here. Would that be acceptable?”

“I’ll allow it,” I said. “They’ll have to go through a body check first, though. ...Is someone there?”

When I called out towards the entrance, Serina responded, “Pardon me,” and entered the room.

Wait, why’s Serina here?! I thought.

“...Didn’t I ask you to keep Sir Julius entertained?” I demanded.

“I have already finished with the entertainment,” Serina said with a nonchalant look on her face.

It’s only evening, but Julius is already passed out drunk? I thought incredulously. Serina... you really are a terrifying woman.

“Is something the matter, sire?” she asked.

“Oh, no... Gather our bureaucrats and the ones who came with Jeanne, please. Be sure to at least give them a cursory search for weapons and the like.”

“Very well.” Serina departed with an elegant bow.

If there was one person I never wanted to make an enemy of, it was her...

“You mean when she cut her hair?” I asked.

“I saw her determination and resolve in that act,” he said. “As a person, as a woman, the princess has grown into an individual who can stand on her own two feet. I don’t want her to dull that resolve by clinging to a dying man.”

He’s rejecting Liscia for her own sake, huh, I thought. Honestly... What a stubborn old man.

“I, too, have something to ask,” Georg said.

“What?”

“What has become of the soldiers in the Army and Air Force who rebelled against you alongside us?” he asked. “And what of the nobles who engaged in corruption and then rebelled?”

“In recognition of their valor in the Amidonian war, I have pardoned the soldiers of the Army and Air Force for their crimes,” I said. “The House of Vargas rebelled against me, but I must consider their accomplishments up until the time of the former king. I have decided that only Castor and Carla will be judged for their crimes. I abolished the Duchy of Vargas, but I allowed the disowned eldest son to inherit the family name, and granted him just Red Dragon City as his fief. Though, that child still being young, his mother Accela and their steward Tolman will assist him in his duties. As for Castor and Carla themselves, to repay Excel’s accomplishments in the war effort, I have heard her plea and, at a later date, I will judge the two of them personally.”

Georg closed his eyes and remained silent. How must he have felt listening to me?

“Now, as for the corrupt nobles... I abolished their houses, confiscated their domains and assets... and had them executed,” I said. “For those who acted directly, I did so publicly. For those who were merely implicated, I did so privately.”

Under current law, treason was a crime that carried a death sentence for relatives of up to three degrees of consanguinity. If, like Georg, they had cut ties with their families properly, their uninvolved relatives wouldn’t have had to get involved, but the vast majority of the corrupt nobles had neglected to do that. They must have thought they couldn’t lose.

Worse yet, in addition to treason, they bore charges of corruption, bribery, collaborating with Amidonia, misdeeds within their own fiefs (under the protection of their own status, they’d engaged in murder, rape, theft, etc.), and so on. Anyway, they had broken the laws like crazy.

For those whose only crime was treason, like Georg and Castor, I still received petitions to spare their lives, but for these people, I actually received petitions calling for me to murder them more brutally than I did.

“The system of collective responsibility is supposed to hold their families responsible for not stopping them, right? Isn’t three degrees of consanguinity a little much?” I asked.

“There is nothing else to be done for it,” said Georg. “If humans or beastmen live to see their great-grandchildren, they’ve lived a very long life, but there are races that live to see their great-great-grandchildren and greater’s faces while still being active. Because of that, the punishment had to reach farther.”

“Still, too many innocent people died!” I cried. “Hakuya and I worked like madmen, and we were just barely able to reform the law to only cover two degrees of consanguinity in time. We also stayed the execution of everyone under the age of thirteen, and had them placed in the care of orphanages or the church, but that was the best we could do...”

Those under ten had been placed in an orphanage run by the state, while those who were between the ages of eleven and thirteen had been left with the church.

The difference between the two was whether they would be able to marry and have families of their own in the future. For those in the orphanage, it was possible, but those given to the church would be cut off from secular life and be unable to marry. Furthermore, among the people implicated by association, there had been a woman who had given birth less than a month ago, so she had also been left with the church along with someone to watch her. If she tried plotting anything untoward in future, she would be dealt with then. That was about all I could do right now.

“I’m... opposed to the system of collective responsibility,” I said. “The only ones who should be judged for a crime are those who commit it. Even if they are related, it’s wrong to execute an innocent person. And publicly, at that. In order to judge heinous crimes, and as a deterrent against them, I can’t let go of the death penalty. That’s why I don’t want that penalty to be a public spectacle, and I want to reform the minds of people who see it as one.”

“The country is already yours,” said Georg. “I believe you should do as you see fit.”

“...I will,” I said.

“Sire, is it hard on you, taking the lives of others?” asked Georg.

I must have looked pretty anguished, because Georg said that as if trying to comfort me.

“How could it not be?!” I burst out. “On my orders, countless lives vanish. The weight of that responsibility feels like it’s going to crush me. Up until half a year ago, I was just an ordinary guy, damn it!”

“I’ve read about it in the princess’s letters,” said Georg. “She praised you as a king among kings. She wants to support you, with all her body and soul.”

“Liscia is... doing a good job of supporting me,” I said. “But I have to make a decision that will sadden her. I... have to kill you.” I placed my hand on my forehead, speaking in a low groan. “Your plan was brilliant. Hal’s old man... Glaive told us everything. By gathering all the corrupt nobles in one place, we were able to round up all of them and their assets in one fell swoop. It was a splendid plan that filled in a number of gaps Hakuya and I had overlooked. But... because it can’t be made public, I have to treat you the same as I did the corrupt nobles.”

There were two reasons it couldn’t be made public.

The first was that there had been death caused by the fighting between the Forbidden Army and the Army. Unlike the Forbidden Army’s losses in the battle at Red Dragon City, which were limited to one warship, the battle outside Randel had seen losses on both sides. If we publicized Georg’s true intent, the bereaved wouldn’t accept it.

The second was that relations with Zem, who had been forced to pay a ransom for their mercenaries, would worsen even further. The way things stood now, Zem were regretting that they had sent mercenaries to the losing side in order to take revenge for my canceling of our contract.

If they learned that Georg and I had been secretly working together, Zem would think the kingdom had set them up. It was actually Georg who had done that on his own, but I could hardly blame them for feeling that way. Their feelings towards us were bad enough as it was. They didn’t need to be made any worse. That was to be avoided.

That was why, as things stood now, Georg’s plan could not be made public.

All of that said, Georg himself must have been aware of that fact. He had been fully aware of it, and was literally trying to take the secret to his grave. How stubborn. He really was... an idiot.

“Hey, was this really the only way? This was what you wanted? To sully your own name, and commit a double suicide with the corrupt nobles, are you satisfied with that?” I rose from my chair, slamming my fist into the iron bars. “Where was the hurry? We could have taken our time to purge the corrupt nobles! The same goes with Castor! He believed that you had some idea, followed you to the end out of friendship and became a traitor for it! I had jobs I wanted you to handle after the war, and now my plans are all thrown off! Sure, handling it all in one go was a big deal, I’ll give you that. The country’s been cleaned up a good deal, and Hakuya’s and my stock has risen, making it easier to implement my policies. But, still, it’s meaningless if you lose you for it! Do you have any idea how much it hurts a state to lose talented people?! It sure as hell isn’t equal in value to getting rid of some corrupt nobles!”

“...” Georg’s eyes remained closed as he listened to me in silence.

I pounded on the iron bars once more. “Answer me, Georg! Are you really satisfied with this?!”

“That goes without saying,” Georg calmly replied. “From the roots of a great tree that I thought, like my own body, would only wither away and die, I now see new growth sprouting. All I can do is pray for it to grow up well.”

“Even if it knocks down that great tree as it does?!” I yelled.

“That is the joy of seeing the next generation grow up strong,” said Georg. “In time, you will come to understand it, too, sire.”

“...Will I really?” I asked.

“When a child is born to you and the princess, I guarantee it.”

I slumped back heavily onto my chair. Feeling strangely enervated, I asked him the last thing that had bothered me. “Please, tell me this... Is this something you came up with entirely on your own?”

“What do you mean by that?” Georg opened his eyes and asked.

Don’t play dumb with me!

“This is the first time we’ve met,” I said. “Yet you have a strangely high opinion of me. You’re trying to leave this plan in my hands, as well as Liscia, who you love like a daughter, in my hands, and the future of this country in my hands, too. It’s just wrong, no matter how I think about it. Where did that loyalty come from?”

“Is learning of your unusual talents from the princess’s letters insufficient as an explanation?” Georg asked.

“Yeah, it’s insufficient,” I said. “I can’t see you embracing this loyalty to a bunch of words on paper. If you were going to martyr yourself for something, it could only be for the House of Elfrieden.”

Now that I thought of it, something had been off from the very beginning.

From the moment I’d taken the throne, the path I had needed to travel down had seemed to have been prepared for me strangely well.

I was suddenly given the throne, I was entrusted with all of the power to control national policy, even given an engagement to Liscia to bolster my legitimacy, and then at some point, the corrupt nobles had been smoked out for me. When I looked back, I could see everything had been moving to make things easier for me. If that was the will of someone... there was only one person who could have done it.

“Was this plan done on that person’s orders?” I asked.

“...I will remain silent.”

“Answer me,” I ordered. “What does that person know, and what do you know?”

I waited for Georg to speak, but he had nothing to say to me. It was so silent in the dungeon that I could hear the ringing in my ears. I realized I could wait forever, and it wouldn’t do me any good.

“Why won’t you answer me?” I demanded.

“When the proper time comes, I am sure that person will tell you themselves,” said Georg.

I rose to my feet, pulling a small bottle from my pocket and placing in front of Georg. “Poisoned wine. While I may not appreciate the form it took, I can’t publicly execute a man who tried to martyr himself for his country. Also... I’ll be offering the same to those who want to martyr themselves for you.”

It must have been the work of Georg’s strong personality, but there were more than a few soldiers and officers in the Army who’d said they would do just that. His former second-in-command, Beowulf, as well as a number of high-ranking officers, had demanded they receive the same punishment as Georg. Furthermore, even among the soldiers of the Army and Air Force who had had their crimes forgiven for their distinguished service in the war against Amidonia, there were those who’d had to be restrained after they attempted to commit suicide in front of the castle after demanding their commander’s life be spared. Honestly... I was sick of all these people wanting to die.

Georg took the bottle and said, “Thank you,” his cheeks loosening slightly. That menacing lion face of his now looked like that of a happy old man. Georg opened the bottle, holding it up in my direction. “Sire. I ask that you take care of the princess for me.”

“I can promise you that,” I said. “Liscia is already an irreplaceable member of my family. ‘Protect your family, come what may’... No matter what happens in the future, that is one belief I will never change.”

I knew the pain of loneliness, and I would protect my family, no matter what might come.

No matter how inefficient that might be.

Perhaps sensing my resolve, Georg nodded with satisfaction. “It relieves me to hear that. I will always there, praying for the Elfrieden Kingdom’s glory and for Your Majesty’s happiness and good fortune, from the shadows beneath this nation’s grass and leaves. Now... I am sorry.” With those words, Georg downed the contents of the bottle in a single gulp.

With time his body began to tilt to one side, then the bottle fell from his hand to shatter on the ground.

With the thud that followed, the dungeon was silent once more. Having fallen over to the side... Georg’s face seemed to be smiling in satisfaction.

I stood, turning my back to Georg’s cell, and walked away.

Step, step, step, step. A few echoing steps later, I turned back just once. “...Don’t make me carry all of this burden.”

I faced forward and began to walk once more. I didn’t turn back again.

The next day, Chris Tachyon’s new program ran a story with the title “Former General of the Army Georg Carmine Takes His Own Life in Prison.”

“Now then, let us carry out the trial of Castor and Carla,” Souma declared in a quiet voice.

Hakuya read out the crimes of which they were accused. “Former General of the Air Force Castor Vargas and his daughter, despite the lawful transfer of the throne to His Majesty, resisted his authority and even rejected his ultimatum, turning their swords against the Forbidden Army. The crime of treason applies in this case. Therefore, I believe it is appropriate that their land and assets be seized and they be subject to the death penalty.”

I had expected this. Hakuya was pushing for the death penalty for both of them.

...Of course he was. Treason was a serious enough crime that it carried a death penalty for all relatives of up to three degrees of consanguinity.

The number of people affected was being kept to an absolute minimum because Duke Vargas had heeded Duchess Walter’s advice and formally cut ties with his family. Furthermore, in recognition of Duchess Walter’s distinguished service in the war, it had been decided that Carla’s young brother Carl, who had been disowned and left in the care of the House of Walter, would inherit the House of Vargas with just Red Dragon City and the area around it as his fief. Excel’s daughter, who was also Carla and Carl’s mother, would serve as his advisor.

When Hakuya finished presenting the punishment he sought, it was Excel’s turn to defend the two and request a lesser punishment.

In prior deliberations, Duchess Walter’s offer to “offer my head in exchange for their two lives, or turn over all of the Walter Duchy with the exception of Lagoon City” had already been rejected. Taking her head was out of the question, and if he destroyed all three duchies, it would put the rest of the nobles on guard against Souma.

“It was foolish for Castor and Carla to rebel against Your Majesty,” said Excel. “However, they most certainly did not do it in an attempt to usurp your position. It was their loyalty to the former king, Sir Albert, and friendship with the General of the Army, Georg Carmine, that led them astray. Of course, the throne had been formally ceded to you by Sir Albert, and it is unthinkable that any of your vassals should have doubts about that.

“However, the sudden change of rulers threw not only Castor but many other people into confusion. Carla only followed Castor as his daughter. Neither of the pair had any ambitions of their own. Fortunately, there were no casualties among their subjects or the Forbidden Army during the battle at Red Dragon City. Can you not spare them their lives, if nothing else?”

Bowing, Duchess Walter sought to reduce the severity of their crimes.

Souma just sat there listening to her speak.

He was so expressionless that it was impossible to read from his face what he might be thinking. I think, probably, he was suppressing his emotions so they wouldn’t show.

Having heard the arguments of both the prosecution and the defense, Souma opened his mouth. “Castor. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

“No,” Duke Vargas said firmly. “There is no need for a defeated commander to speak. Please, part this head from my shoulders.”

“...I see.”

“There’s just one thing,” said Duke Vargas. “I’m the one who started the war. Carla only followed orders. I’ll take her punishment, as well. I don’t care if you torture me, or humiliate me in public. But, please, can’t you spare Carla’s life?”

While still bound, Duke Vargas bowed so that his head nearly touched the ground.

Seeing her prideful father do that, Carla’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Father!”

However, Souma let out a sigh, his expression remaining impassive. “I’ve heard that the one leading the Air Force in that battle was Carla. I can’t let that crime go unpunished, can I? You must have known this might happen when you raised the flag of rebellion.”

“Urgh...” Duke Vargas bit his lip. However, he said no more.

This time, Souma looked at Carla. “Carla. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

“...I do not.” Carla shook her head weakly.

“Is that all? You have nothing else to say?”

“In that case, there is one thing. I apologize for my lack of wisdom. Lic... The princess tried to mediate between us, but we still stubbornly refused to listen.” With those words, Carla hung her head.

While Carla had been in prison, she’d said she didn’t want to become a burden by having us intercede on her behalf. She probably felt the same way now.

“You won’t beg for forgiveness?” Souma asked.

“I will not. Judge me as you see fit.”

“...I see.”

Souma looked away from the two of them, then said to the nobles seated in the rear, “Now, I would like to hear from those of you gathered here. These people have, in their thoughtlessness, raised the flag of rebellion against me, the current king. What do you think is the appropriate judgment for these fools? I would very much like to hear your unreserved opinions.”

Souma said that with a look that, even to my eyes, seemed a little frightening. For a moment, something seemed off to me. The way he said it, it was as if he had already made up his mind. Though he said he wanted to hear their opinions, it was as if he was saying, “I can’t imagine any of you would dare object to executing these traitors, would you?” in order to intimidate them. It was as if he was acting to constrain the nobles watching the trial...

Normally, Souma would listen to any opinion, implementing it if he felt it was right, but what he was doing now was the exact opposite of that.

When I considered that and looked at the nobles, they were all from houses with dark rumors swirling around them or houses that had repeatedly declined to get involved when there was a crisis. Could it be that Souma meant to use Carla and her father to make an example and force these people to swear loyalty to him?

He was showing off his power and saying, ”If you don’t want this to happen to you, then obey me.” That was the impression I got.

Then, one of the nobles stood and raised his voice. “Your Majesty! When you say it like that, you make it seem as if their crime is already decided!”

The speaker was a young man with a masculine face. He was maybe around the same age as Halbert. But he didn’t have the same roughness as Halbert. He seemed to be a serious, good-natured young man.

“Who is that person?” Souma asked.

“That is the head of the House of Saracen, Piltory Saracen,” Hakuya said.

Piltory said, “I understand this to be a place to determine the weight of their crime. If you do this, forcing your will on the rest of us, then this trial has no purpose!”

“Ga ha ha! Well said, young Saracen!” another of the nobles said, rising to his feet. With his ash gray hair combed back, and a thick beard the same color as his hair, he was a big, muscular man just starting to show the signs of old age.

Hakuya narrowed his eyes, calling out that person’s name. “The head of the House of Jabana, Sir Owen Jabana.”

“O Black-robed Prime Minister,” the man responded. “Duke Vargas over there has defended this country for over a hundred years, which is longer than I’ve been alive. He may lack maturity, but I doubt his feelings towards this country have changed. He rose against His Majesty not out of personal greed, but because he was prepared to die for his friendship with Georg Carmine.”

“You suggest his treason couldn’t be helped because it was done in the name of friendship?” Hakuya glared at him.

“No, no,” Owen said, shaking his head. “That’s not what I’m saying. The throne had formally been passed to His Majesty King Souma, so I can only say that Duke Vargas acted rashly. It’s not a crime that can be pardoned. However, Duke Vargas has already been stripped of his position, his fame, his lands, and his assets. Is it not, perhaps, a little much to now take both his and his daughter’s lives on top of all that?”

“‘Forgive the traitor’—is that what you are saying?”

“Old as I am, I think it would be regrettable not to,” Owen said. “Duke Vargas is a person who could command troops for another two, three hundred years. Is there anyone in this country who could lead the Air Force as well as he?”

Perhaps emboldened by Owen’s words, Piltory began to argue forcefully once more. “Sire! You yourself said, ‘If you have a gift, I will put it to use,’ didn’t you?! Are you going to lose a rare gift like his?! I cannot believe that Duke Vargas, a man who bared his fangs against you because he trusted in his friend, is somehow inferior to us nobles who opportunistically refused to take a side! I beseech you, do as Duchess Walter has said and lighten his sentence!”

Having listened to their words, Souma closed his eyes for a moment, and then... gave the order.

“...Take them away.”

In an instant, soldiers surrounded the two and removed them from the hall. Owen quietly obeyed the soldiers with a disappointed expression, while in contrast, Piltory continued to cry, “Sire! Please, reconsider!” even as he was being escorted out.

Once they were taken away, an unpleasant silence fell over the hall. Everyone held their breath, unable to say anything until Souma broke the silence.

“Are there any other opinions?”

The other nobles’ opinions were all some variant of “Sentence both of them to death.”

“The law is the law.”

“If you let this pass, it sets a poor example to your other vassals.”

“Any fool who would oppose Your Majesty can be of no use.”

...And it went on like that. While what they were saying sounded reasonable, it was clear they were thinking, “We don’t want to displease the king like those two.”

...

I... was having a hard time understanding it. True, the nobles who had remained feared Souma, and they would have a hard time plotting against him. However, when I compared the two who’d been expelled with the twelve who remained, I had to question which group would really of more benefit to Souma and to the country.

...No. Don’t doubt him. I decided to believe in Souma, didn’t I?

I pinched my thighs. As I desperately tried to suppress my internal conflict, I heard Souma whisper, “This is something... that has to be done.”

Souma?

“I understand your positions.” Souma stood and raised his right hand up high.

When they saw that gesture, Duchess Walter’s eyes went wide, the nobles held their breath, and Castor and Carla lowered their heads in resignation.

Souma swung his hand down as he gave a short order. “Do it.”

In the next instant, there was the sound of a blade slicing through the air and a splash of blood. And then...

...twelve heads fell to the ground.

◇　◇　◇

The book I referred back to when deciding how I should act as king was The Prince.

Machiavelli’s The Prince was called “the devil’s book,” and for hundreds of years after it was released, it was attacked by the Christian church. The parts most often singled out were, “Chapter VIII - Concerning Those Who Have Obtained a Principality by Wickedness” and “Chapter XVII - Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether it is Better to be Loved Than Feared.”

Chapter VIII had as its theme “even though a good, upstanding ruler can lose his country, one who seized his state through vile and treacherous means may, thereafter, live out the rest of his life in peace, without facing rebellion from his people.” In it, Machiavelli said, “I believe that this follows from cruelties being badly or properly used.”

Also, in Chapter XVII, he reasoned that men are self-serving creatures, and if asked to harm one of two people, they would chose to harm a person they love over a person they fear. This meant “it is much safer to be feared than to be loved.”

He also said, “When a prince is with his army, it is quite necessary for him to disregard the reputation of cruelty,” noting, “Hannibal of Carthage faced no dissension among his troops or against himself, whether in victory or in defeat. This arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty.”

The Christian church, which preached love, attacked these portions, saying, “What is the meaning of this? Recommending that princes, who should rule through virtue, engage in acts of cruelty!” It angered them, and The Prince was banned.

Then, partially because of its established reputation as the devil’s book, its content wasn’t closely considered, with extreme statements being given the most focus. It got to the point where misreadings like, “The Prince approves of the use of cruelty,” or, “The Prince says to massacre all who oppose you,” went unchallenged. It also saw occasional calls to reevaluate this tendency.

However, what I want to say firmly is: Machiavelli did not go into extensive detail about cruelties.

In Chapter VIII, he did say, “An usurper ought to examine closely into all those cruelties which it is necessary for him to inflict, and to do them all at one stroke so as not to have to repeat them.” But when it comes to the content, he only listed historical examples, and at no point did Machiavelli himself say, “Do it like this!”

It was the same in Chapter XVII. He credited Hannibal’s wonderful deeds to his inhuman cruelty, but he didn’t elaborate on what cruelty was. Now, what were these cruelties that Machiavelli said were to be done all at once, or the cruelty that was the burden a prince must bear?

First, Machiavelli said in Chapter XVII that, “A prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that he avoids hatred,” and noted that, to avoid being hated, “He must abstain from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women.” Then, in the same section, he said, “When it is necessary to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause.”

This could be reworded, “Even if a prince has just cause, he shouldn’t lay a hand on his subject’s land, assets, or women, and killing is only permissible with proper cause. (Which is to say, killing without a proper cause is not permissible.)”

In other words, when Machiavelli spoke of “the use of cruelties,” he limited it to “the killing of those for whom you have just cause.” Therefore, how far can those justifiable killings be permitted? Was he saying, as the church condemned him for, that you should “kill all of your enemies”?

I am well aware that opinions are divided on that point, but I believe the answer is “No.”

That is because, in Chapter XX of The Prince, Machiavelli himself said this:

“Princes, especially new ones, have found more fidelity and assistance in those men who in the beginning of their rule were distrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted.”

With those who may have been hostile at first, if they came to need assistance to support themselves, they could be won over with ease. Once they had been won over, they would work desperately to dispel the bad impression they had left, and so they were much more useful than those who, having not opposed the new prince at first, lived in security.

For an example in Japanese history, the fierce general who had served under Nobunaga Oda, Katsuie Shibata, should serve as an easy-to-understand example.

When Nobunaga’s younger brother rebelled against him, Katsuie sided with the younger brother at first, but later surrendered and became his vassal. From there, Katsuie rendered distinguished service under Nobunaga and became his chief retainer. However, if his efforts had been deemed insufficient, he might have been banished like Hidesada Hayashi, who had surrendered with him. That must have been part of the reason Katsuie worked with such desperation.

Now, getting back on topic, what Machiavelli meant when he spoke of “cruelty” wasn’t “Make sure you kill all who oppose you,” or anything like that.

Therefore, what exactly did he mean?

To answer that, we must look to the historical examples Machiavelli used of “cruelties being used well.”

When Syracuse was attacked by the Carthaginians, Agathocles deceived and killed the senators and people of influence, and then, once he had solidified his own power, he fended off the Carthaginian attack.

In order to seize the rule of his hometown of Fermo, Oliverotto deceived and killed his uncle who was his patron along with the citizens of influence, then held Fermo for a mere one year.

As for the man Machiavelli held up as his ideal prince, Cesare Borgia, he murdered those he had reconciled with and solidified his power. Among those he killed was the aforementioned Oliverotto.

Machiavelli approved of these actions. And what we can see from these examples is that the target of cruelties was allies within your own camp.

The senators, who might have been allies as members of the same camp, but would have got in the way of one’s policies.

The father who stood in the way of one becoming a prince.

And finally, the ones who had reconciled and become one’s allies, but who could not be trusted not to turn on one again.

Those sorts of troublesome allies, or to put it more strongly, potential enemies within one’s own camp, were the target of Machiavelli’s cruelties.

The same can be said of the “cruelty” in Chapter XVII.

Hannibal was said to be feared by his men due to his inhuman cruelty, but if we are to judge the quality of that “cruelty,” by looking at the contrasting example he gives of Scipio, what he means begins to come into view. Scipio was a great general, but his men betrayed him, and the people under his rule rebelled against him. The reason was that his too-great forbearance kept him from punishing his followers when they engaged in abuses.

In short, Machiavelli was saying that Hannibal, who was Scipio’s opposite, was able to properly condemn his allies, which made him feared by those who served under him, and regardless of whether he won or lost, they never betrayed him.

If we think of the target for Machiavelli’s “proper use of cruelties” as being allies who might in future become enemies, along with his other assertion in The Prince that when neighboring states are at war, you should clearly state which side you are on, because if you attempt to remain neutral, you will generally fail, we can begin to see what Machiavelli’s underlying thoughts were.

Basically...

“Don’t trust opportunists who join whichever side is winning at the moment.”

...That’s about it.

Machiavelli had served as a diplomat in a time when Italy was rife with scheming and treachery.

He must have seen countless cases where things were brushed under the rug because someone didn’t want to make a big deal of them, only to see the ones whose transgressions had been overlooked become a major source of trouble later. That was why he said that, even if it was deemed “cruel,” the source of the illness needed to be cut out at its root.

That was why I had the twelve nobles decapitated.

More than ten men clad all in black stood behind the twelve beheaded nobles. Their faces were covered in black cloth, and they wore black clothing that resembled ninja outfits. In their hands they held bloody swords, making it plain to see that they were the ones who had decapitated the nobles.

The sudden intrusion and murder made everyone present gulp. My expression remained unchanged. Hakuya’s did not change, either. We were the only ones.

“Huh?! Souma!” Liscia exclaimed.

“Sire! You knaves, who are you?!” Aisha cried.

Liscia and Aisha both drew their blades and stepped forth to protect me, but I just put a hand down on each of their shoulders.

“It’s okay. These are my subordinates.”

Liscia stumbled, “Your subordinates... Huh...?”

While Liscia was still looking bewildered, one of the men in black approached. While the other men all wore nondescript black clothing, this one alone wore black lacquered armor. He stood nearly two meters tall, with a muscular build that was apparent even through his armor. From his neck down, he looked like some sort of dark knight, but his face was covered with a black tiger mask. The man in the black tiger mask knelt before me, bowing his head. “Master. The mission is complete.”

The man in the black tiger mask had a low voice that suited his appearance.

Liscia inhaled in surprise. “That voi... Ow!”

Liscia started to say something, but I gripped her shoulder tighter. Liscia looked at me with surprise, but when I shook my head... it seemed she figured out what was going on. She quietly sheathed her sword.

When I looked over to Excel, she seemed to have grasped the general situation, too. There was a slight anger not quite hidden in her smile.

“I am going to insist... on a proper explanation for all this later,” she seemed to be silently saying. When a beauty like her got angry, it was an incredible sight to behold.

I felt a chill run down my spine as I tapped Aisha, who still hadn’t relaxed her guard, on the shoulder. “Aisha, you put your sword away, too.”

“B-But...”

“His name is Kagetora—‘shadow tiger.’ He is the leader of the intelligence agency, the Black Cats, who report directly to me.”

When I said that, the agents of the Black Cats held up their swords in front of themselves in unison.

I had been caught out by the Empire’s secret service in Van, the capital of Amidonia, so I had recently organized this unit under my direct command to focus on intelligence operations.

To be more precise, I had greatly increased the number of agents Hakuya already had, refined their skills, brought on Kagetora with his superb abilities as a commander to lead them, and then reorganized them into a unit under my direct command.

They were a unit with many mysteries. The identities of the members were unknown. It was also unclear why, though the unit had only formally been organized the other day, they could act in such unison.

The greatest mystery was Kagetora’s identity. The way he commanded his unit as if they were his own arms and legs... it was almost like he were a veteran general of some sort, but was there anyone like that in this country?

Just who could he possibly be? No one knew his true identity.

“...Hey, Souma,” Liscia said slowly. “Is Kagetora...”

“No one knows his true identity. Got it?”

“Ah, right...”

Liscia looked like she didn’t know what to say, but she nodded. I immediately gave an order to Kagetora and the Black Cats.

“Once the nobles’ bodies have been disposed of, contact the units from the Forbidden Army lying in wait around their mansions. They are to charge in and secure evidence. If there is any resistance, suppress it.”

“By your will,” said Kagetora.

The Black Cats began to clean up the bodies, immediately departing.

Kagetora looked to Liscia one last time, then left the great hall. Once they had left, Liscia gave me a slightly harsh look.

“...You’re going to explain all this for me, right?” she demanded.

“I know,” I said. “But I’m not sure where to begin...”

“Maybe you want to start with why you killed the nobles.”

“Well, yeah, that would be your first question...” I said.

I began to slowly explain my reasons for this murder.

“Now, as for the reason those twelve had to die, they were also connected to Amidonia,” I said. “That’s something that both Hakuya and Georg had confirmed through their independent investigations.”

“They were spies for Amidonia, you mean?” Liscia asked.

I shook my head. “That’s not quite accurate. I said ‘also,’ didn’t I? They were connected to Amidonia, to the corrupted nobles, and also to our side.”

“Huh? What do you mean by...”

“They were opportunists,” I said. “They side with whoever’s winning.”

Those nobles had always cooperated with whoever was on the winning side, in order to avoid trouble themselves.

When the kingdom had been in decline, they’d had underground connections to the Principality of Amidonia. When the civil war had broken out, they’d supported the corrupt nobles from the shadows, while remaining uninvolved themselves. They had always fomented discontent while securing their own safety like that. Only thinking of their own profit and self-preservation.

“They profited by providing supplies and personnel with resistance groups, and if the winning side shifted, they’d crush their current allies to win acclaim for themselves,” I said. “If suspicion turned on them, they would foment rebellion elsewhere, so as to keep the investigation from catching up with them. It seems they did it again and again under your father’s reign.”

Having learned what was going on behind the scenes during her father’s reign, Liscia was at a loss for words. “No...”

“Now, what made them dangerous was that they never directly rebelled themselves,” I said. “When the advantage was on our side, they acted almost like loyal vassals, so it was hard to bring them to justice. That’s because when things were going our way, they actually did their jobs.

“The more confident a ruler is in his ability to maintain power, the more forbearance he has, the more he wants to trust his vassals, the more he will fall into a trap like that. ‘If I can build a stable administration, it should be fine. There’s no need to reduce the number of allies I have,’ he’d think.”

“But... you had them killed, right?” Liscia asked.

“That’s because I don’t see my rule ever being stable,” I said. “In fact, I think someday I may be forced to stand at the crossroads of fate. When that time comes, I guarantee you that those opportunists would have hurt me. I don’t want you, or Aisha, or Juna, or any of the people I care about to get hurt, and then think, ‘If only I had disposed of them back then.’ If that ever happened, I’d probably go crazy. That’s why, here and now, I decided to nip it in the bud.”

In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he said this: “I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less.”

In this world, a person’s rise or fall will be decided by whether their actions are suited to the era in which they live. However, that can only be judged by those who come later. Nobunaga Oda, Napoleon... Even if they are geniuses in their time, once the times no longer suit them, they will be destroyed.

Machiavelli had likened fortune to a raging river.

He said that, though the sudden change of fortune cannot be stopped, if one prepares for that change in advance, its flow can be made less unrestrained and dangerous.

The important thing was to not be optimistic about one’s situation, but to be resolute and do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

In regards to this, Machiavelli said, “Fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her,” a way of putting it that would upset any feminist who heard it. Setting aside his choice of words, in order to ensure that the roots of calamity didn’t remain, I had given the order to strike down twelve nobles here.

When she heard my explanation, Liscia slowly nodded. “I understand your reasoning, Souma. What will you do with the Houses of Saracen and Jabana, the ones you had leave?”

“Allow me to explain that,” Hakuya said, stepping forward. “The Houses of Saracen and Jabana had worked alongside the other twelve under their former heads, but that connection between them was broken with their deaths. The present head of the House of Saracen, Sir Piltory, is a fine young man who excels with both the pen and sword, while the head of House Jabana, Sir Owen, is a sober and honest hotblooded man. They can be counted on to serve His Majesty without duplicity. I believe you could see that from the way they acted while being led out of the great hall.”

“...So you showed some discretion about who was to be executed, then,” Liscia said.

“That is correct.” Hakuya nodded. “The ones executed were all up to something-or-another. Now we are investigating their mansions in the capital, collecting evidence of what that was for each of them. The punishment for the crime and the finding of evidence are in the wrong order, which is hardly praiseworthy, but I ask you to understand.”

With that said, Hakuya bowed his head.

He was probably trying to back me up. By telling her I hadn’t murdered twelve people on my suspicion alone, he was trying to keep it from doing anything strange to my relationship with Liscia.

Liscia seemed to understand that, too, so she didn’t press the issue any further. “Okay, I understand the twelve, but what if the other two had agreed with you, Souma? Would you have killed them, too?”

Hakuya shook his head. “In that event, the plan was for me to provoke them. Though, if they had attempted to curry favor with His Majesty like the other twelve houses, we would have had little use for them after this.”

“You’d thought it through that far...” Liscia looked at me, scandalized.

No, this sort of plan that involved reading the vagaries of people’s hearts is Hakuya’s department, I thought. I don’t have that nasty a personality... I think.

Seeing me avert my eyes, Liscia let out a sigh of resignation. “So, what happens to Carla and her father now?”

“...I’m getting to that.” I walked over to stand in front of the bound Castor. Having seen everything that had just unfolded, he looked dumbfounded. The blade he’d expected to fall on his own neck had fallen on another’s. It was little wonder he was so bewildered.

“Castor Vargas,” I said. “Because you refused to heed my ultimatum, you are guilty of treason.”

Castor bowed his head. “...I understand.”

Then he bowed his head even lower than before, grinding his forehead against the floor this time. “That’s why, I beg you. The crime is mine alone. So, please, spare just Carla.”

“You are not the one who decides that,” I said coldly. “This is your judgment. Your crime of treason is plain to see. ...However, as both Piltory and Owen said earlier, I will recognize your contribution to this country in the more than one hundred years you have protected it. I have already taken your post, your lands, your assets, and even your family name from you. Therefore, I will spare you your life, and that alone.”

I turned to Excel, who was silently watching to see how things developed.

“Castor will be left in your custody. However, he is forbidden from entering the former Duchy of Vargas, and also forbidden from contacting his son Carl, or the boy’s mother, Accela. Excel, your son-in-law is the one who did all this, so you must keep a proper watch on him.”

“Ah! ...Yes. It will be as you command.” There were tears forming in Excel’s eyes as she gave me a proper bow.

When she raised her face, I saw her mouth the words “Thank you,” to me. I showed no reaction, moving on to Carla.

Even though her father had been spared, Carla still wore a quiet expression.

“Carla,” I said, “you are guilty of the same crime. What’s more, you don’t have Castor’s distinguished record of having protected the country for one hundred years. I’m sad to say it, but I don’t see any way I could lessen your punishment.”

“...I understand,” she said quietly.

“W-Wait! Then kill me!” Castor exclaimed, grinding his face against the floor in desperation. “Carla turned her blade on you at my orders! So let my record be used for Carla...”

“Take him away.”

My attendants dragged him from the room. He kept screaming “I’ll take her place!” until he was out of the room, but I was under no obligation to listen to him.

Once things had quieted down, I continued. “You have clearly committed the crime of treason. However, if I let the mastermind, Castor, live, it would reflect poorly on me to kill his daughter. Therefore, I will spare your life, but you will live as a slave. Your owners will be the royal family—that is to say, Liscia and myself.”

The second most heavy punishment in this world was forced labor as a convict slave. There was no such thing as life imprisonment. Those who became convict slaves, unless they were granted an amnesty, would be forced to do endless hard labor in the coal mines. Though, in Carla’s case, because I had chosen to give ownership of her to the royal family, she would be spared the coal mines and kept in the royal house as a servant who had to be absolutely submissive.

“...Okay.” Carla accepted my order, nodding weakly.

Excel was about to say something, but she held it in. She must have decided it was better than her being killed, at least. Hakuya closed his eyes in silence, while Aisha was flustered by the atmosphere in the room. And finally, Liscia watched what I would do in silence, her expression unchanging.

“I will give you further directions later, but, for now, I have an order to give you,” I said.

“...As you wish.”

I walked over to Carla, who was hanging her head, crouched down and whispered a certain order, quietly, so that only she could hear. Carla’s eyes went wide.

◇　◇　◇

When Souma quietly whispered the order, I doubted my own ears.

“If it comes to it, kill me.”

When he saw my eyes widen in surprise, Souma needed to me with a serious look on his face. “Not now, of course. If I become a tyrant, I want you to be the one to stop me. With your martial ability, you could kill me easily, right?”

Kill him if he becomes a tyrant...?! Why would he suddenly say that to me?!

I kept my voice low, asking him, “Why would you say that? And why to me, of all people?!”

“Because Liscia and the others might not be able to,” Souma whispered, a troubled smile on his face. “At some point, I found myself surrounded by many people I care about. Just recently, I got engaged to another person on top of Liscia. It’s Aisha, over there.”

He got engaged to that dark elf without me hearing about it? I thought, stunned. Has Liscia accepted it? Well, knowing her personality, she’s probably being pragmatic about it...

“Well... Congratulations?” I whispered.

“Thanks,” he whispered back. “So you see, I have more and more people I care about. In itself, that’s a good thing, but when I think of what would happen if, someday, I grew drunk on power and become a tyrant... it starts to scare me. If that came to pass, I worry whether Liscia and the others could stop me like they should, you know?”

“Liscia would stop you,” I whispered. “You know her straight-laced personality.”

“Would she?” he retorted, still whispering. “Sure, if I started indulging in too much debauchery, or started massacring the townspeople, she’d admonish me for it, but what about if I had a good justification, like I did this time? Individual purges aren’t that much of a problem on their own. But when they happen repeatedly, eventually you reach a point of no return. When it comes to that, will Liscia and the others be able to abandon me?”

That’s... No, probably not, I realized.

“It’s not my place to say it, but... Liscia is head over heels in love with you,” I whispered. “If you fall into hell, I’m sure she’ll be right there beside you.”

Liscia was too serious and too devoted a girl. Probably, no matter what happened, she would follow Souma loyally to the bitter end.

Souma nodded. “I know, right? Aisha’s sort of the same way. Do you think Juna would do it, maybe? Anyway, there are a lot of people who would try to suffer alongside me. I don’t want that. If there were a revolution in response to my tyrannical rule, it wouldn’t just be me who got executed, it would be Liscia and the rest, too. I don’t want Liscia and the others to turn out like Marie Antoinette.”

Marie... who?

While I still had a question mark hovering over my head, Souma whispered with a serious look, “That’s why, Carla, before those I care about can suffer with me, I want you to take on the role of putting an end to me.”

“...I’m a slave now,” I whispered. “If I kill my master, the collar will kill me, you know?”

“Yeah,” he whispered back. “So, please, only do it if you’re prepared to die, too. And, if I manage to hand the crown on to the next generation, I will set you free.”

This man... he says the most incredible things as if they were nothing. I was stunned.

Souma had told me, if he became a tyrant, to become the blade that struck him down. Then, having killed him, to die myself. By keeping me at his side as his slave, he was hoping to use me as a personal deterrent against his becoming a tyrant.

“You really... don’t show any mercy,” I whispered.

“I only hold back for those I care about,” he whispered back.

“I meant towards yourself,” I whispered. “Though I suppose the meaning still got through.”

I had thought the same thing in the battle with Amidonia, but this man treated himself far too poorly. If he didn’t take better care of himself, he was going to cause no end of worry for those around him.

Liscia, you’ve fallen for a real troublesome guy... I thought to myself.

That was right. In order to keep my best friend’s love life from a sad future, I decided to act as his deterrent.

Sitting up straight, I bowed deeply. “I have received your order. Until the day comes that I must act on it, I will work my hardest for you, praying that that day never comes.”

Souma nodded in satisfaction at my response. “At this moment, we have no work meant exclusively for a slave. For now, you will join the maid force... But... Well... Uh, get the details from the head maid yourself.”

When he gave me that order, he sounded a bit hesitant towards the end. I wondered what was up, so I followed Souma’s gaze to see a beautiful maid who seemed to be around twenty years old smiling happily.

When I wondered what it was about her, I realized Liscia was looking in my direction, an expression of utter pity on her face.

...Huh?

◇　◇　◇

With the trial of Castor and my friend Carla over, Souma, Aisha, and I were returning to the governmental affairs office when suddenly, Souma stumbled in front of us.

“Souma!” I cried.

“Sire!” Aisha shouted.

When Aisha and I tried to support him, Souma put a hand on the wall. “I’m fine. Just stumbled a bit,” he said, motioning for us to stop with his free hand.

“But...” I said.

“It’s all right,” he said. “...I’d like to be alone for just a little while,”

Then he went into the governmental affairs office by himself.

From the glimpse I got of his face in profile, he looked pale and unwell. Left on our own out in the hallway, I struck up a conversation with Aisha, who had likewise been left behind and was standing there in a daze.

“He was his usual self just a moment ago,” I said. “What do you think happened to him all of a sudden?”

“I am not entirely sure myself,” said Aisha. “However...”

“However?”

“He looked like a soldier returning from his first battle,” she said, looking troubled. “Like one... who had just killed for the first time.”

“You mean he’s feeling bad over how he killed the twelve nobles?” I asked.

But Souma had done that because he’d believed it to be necessary, hadn’t he? If so, he had nothing to regret. Besides, Souma had experienced his first battle in the war with the Principality of Amidonia. He’d struck down Prince Gaius VIII of Amidonia, and he’d had the corrupt nobles executed after that. This wasn’t a first for him.

When I pointed that out, Aisha shook her head. “This is mere speculation on my part, but the time with Gaius was a case of ‘kill or be killed.’ The corrupt nobles had clearly manifested their intention to rebel against him. However, in the case of those twelve nobles, they were not immediately attempting to harm His Majesty. Even if he knows it would be harmful to leave them alive, he questions whether or not it was the right decision to kill them. In his heart, perhaps he can’t quite come to terms with it.”

Aisha looked worriedly at the door to the governmental affairs office.

He can’t come to terms with it... huh.

...Yeah. I thought Aisha’s interpretation of it was correct. I’d heard Souma had come from a peaceful world. There hadn’t been a war there in some time.

Because he had come from a world like that, Souma absolutely hated to have people die. But he wasn’t so unduly optimistic that he thought everything could be taken care of without sacrifices. That was why the policies Souma took were always focused around minimizing the sacrifice while maximizing the reward.

It was a natural frame of mind for the ruler of a nation. However, in Souma’s own heart, he wasn’t so insensitive that he could accept even those minimized sacrifices.

“Hey, Aisha,” I said. “What do you do to support a soldier like that?”

“Well... I have never been a part of the military, so I am no expert on these things... but I often hear it is best to make them forget about it.”

“Make them forget about it?” I repeated.

“I hear that their superior officers and the older soldiers will invite them out for wine and women to help them vent,” Aisha said. “It is the sort of thing that only time can heal, so they keep them from thinking about it too deeply and breaking down.”

Wine, or the other thing... huh, I thought to myself. In that case...

◇　◇　◇

The trial had begun at noon. Now it was most definitely night time.

I lay alone in my bed, the governmental affairs office completely dark with all of the lights turned off.

There was a lot of work for me to do. But, just for today, I had asked Hakuya to let me shirk my duties. I just didn’t have the will to do anything. Hakuya understood that. I wished I could just go to sleep. But, contrary to that hope, I was wide awake.

If I used my head just a little, that might help, so I decided to think through whether the execution was justified or not.

I thought that executing the twelve nobles had been correct, examining it in the long term. If I’d left them alive, and if anyone had been hurt by the seed of calamity they would sow, I was sure I would have regretted that. But, well, now I was desperately holding my chest, trying not to regret that I had killed them.

“All cruelties should be carried out in one stroke.”

“A prince need not concern himself over a reputation of cruelty.”

“In order to avoid destruction, it is better to choose to fight.”

“When the time of your demise comes, it is too late for regrets.”

I went over Machiavelli’s ideas over and over again in my head. But all I was doing was looking for an excuse.

If I was going to regret something, I preferred to it be that I had chosen a path that didn’t hurt those I cared most for. I thought I had convinced myself of that before making the decision, and I resented my own heart for still wavering despite that.

While I was pondering, the door suddenly opened. I moved just my head to check, and Liscia and Aisha were standing there.

In rather provocative attire.

“Huh?!” I reacted in shock.

They were both wearing what looked like thin bathrobes that only went down to a little above the knee.

Maybe they weren’t wearing anything underneath the robes, because the cleavage that poked out from where the collar met, as well as the bare thighs that stuck out from beneath, were captivating. In the light that came in from the hallway beyond the open door, their silhouettes were accentuated in a provocative way. It made Aisha’s height and her shapely figure stand out all the more, while Liscia’s well-balanced body was beautiful, too.

It was a little too much for me to take in all at once, and I stared for a while, entranced.

...Honestly, if I hadn’t been feeling so down at the time, all reason would have likely gone out the window in an instant. However, in my current state of mind, it all seemed more like a bad joke.

“...What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.

My tone was so scary that I startled myself. No, that wasn’t what I ought to have been saying, and I knew it. It was like I was taking my frustration out on them.

I kept my tone as calm as I could manage and corrected myself. “I believe I asked you two to give me some time to myself.”

“We can’t leave you alone when you’re like that, now can we?” Liscia paid my objections no heed as she came over and sat down on the edge of the bed where I was lying down.

Aisha also said “P-Pardon my intrusion,” and came around to the opposite side from Liscia before politely taking a seat.

Whether I turned my head left or right, there was a beautiful girl’s bottom. I could only cover my eyes with one arm, looking straight up. “What is this...? What do you two want...?”

“That’s, well... we want to help you forget, you could say...” Liscia said.

“Come again?” I asked incredulously.

“Anyway! You can do whatever you like with us!” Liscia burst out.

“I-It is my first time doing such a thing, so I am counting on you, Your Highness!” Aisha cried.

“You can do what you like with us”... “I am counting on you”... what are these two saying?!

“Listen... I’m not in the mood right now,” I said.

“Ohh, if only we’d had Madam Juna here with us,” Aisha said sounding disappointed.

No, Juna’s busy going through the procedure to transfer here from the Navy right now, okay? I sighed... Oh, whatever. I’m sure they’re doing it because they’re concerned.

While I was thinking that, Liscia started fidgeting. “Um, Souma...”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s a bit chilly, so can we join you under the covers for now?”

She was shivering, huh... Well, it is almost winter, after all. They must be cold in those outfits.

Before I could say It wouldn’t be a problem if you had dressed properly to begin with, the two hurried under the covers. It was a single bed, making it was a tight fit for three people. Inevitably, the two of them ended up pressed up against me. Close enough I could feel their hearts beating.

“Whew,” Liscia said. “This is nice and warm, huh.”

“Indeed,” Aisha said. “I could fall asleep just like this.”

“This is my room and office, though, you know...” I could only put on a wry smile in response to their comments. But, well... it really was warm.

My worries from before seemed to be melting away. That was how great the warmth of others was. Just by having someone there next to me, my heart felt lighter.

I could remind myself that I was protecting them. That I wanted to protect them.

“You two,” I said.

“Hm?” Liscia said.

“What is it?” Aisha asked.

“Thanks.”

When I said that, the two of them smiled, one on each side of me.

Then, perhaps because we were tired, the three of us soon drifted off to sleep.

“Eek?!” Carla shrieked.

When she turned around, Serina was standing there with a glossy smile. Given that she’d just made Carla, who had fearlessly plunged into the battlefield, shriek like that... just how scary was she?

“Is something the matter, sire?” Serina asked.

“...No, it’s nothing.”

Sorry, but as long as she doesn’t have her sights on me, I’m going to play ignorant, I thought. It’ll be fine, Carla. I’m sure you won’t die. ...Physically, at least. Emotionally, I’m not so sure.

“Now then, Carla,” Serina beamed. “I believe I asked you to make His Majesty’s bed in the governmental affairs office, did I not?”

“No, um... Collecting the sheets of a man I’m closely acquainted with was embarrassing, so I...”

“What are you talking about?” Serina demanded. “If you call yourself a maid, eventually His Majesty and the princess will [censored], and you have to make the bed where they [censored] and [censored] while it’s all [censored], while keeping a straight face.”

“I-I really hope you’ll spare me from that, at least?!” Carla said with her face turning a bright shade of red...

Wait, huh? Aren’t Liscia and I being indirectly embarrassed here, too? I was feeling really awkward right now.

On top of that, Tomoe asked her mother, “What is [censored]?” and left her struggling to answer.

Don’t say things in front of a child that are going to affect their emotional development...

As I was thinking that, Serina tilted her head to the side questioningly. “Incidentally, sire. Are you going to be okay, sire?”

“Huh?”

“No, it’s just that I see someone running this way from behind you, sire.” Serina smiled.

When Serina said that with a smile, I turned around to see...

“Oh, crap!”

I got Rou down off of my back, then hurriedly tried to run away, but... I was grabbed firmly by the collar.

“Gwah!” I yelped.

“Gahaha! I’ve been looking for you, Your Majestyyyy!”

When I turned around, a muscular man who was just starting to show the signs of old age, with his gray hair combed back and a beard in the same color, was standing there with an overbearing smile.

When I had judged Castor and Carla, he was one of the two who had not been intimidated by me and continued to defend them. It was the head of the House of Jabana, Owen Jabana.

After the trial, I had hired him on as my personal educator and advisor (and martial arts trainer). I’ll talk more about that one in a parenthetical later.

Oh, by the way, as for the other person who had defended the two of them, Piltory Saracen of the House of Saracen, when I’d explained the evil deeds of the former head of the house (his father), he had said, “My word... I can’t believe that my father did such things. I can offer you no proper apology. Knowing what I do now, I am prepared to serve you to the bitter end, sire. I will go through any peril for you.”

He seemed to be thinking in the way you might expect from a serious young man of the nobility, so I gave him the very dangerous mission he was looking for. The mission of “Special Ambassador in the Elfrieden Kingdom Embassy to be established in the Gran Chaos Empire.” We were in an experimental phase still, so there was no telling how far extraterritoriality would protect him.

Now, back to Owen.

Owen was the type who could vociferously speak the truth to those above him.

By his own account, “These old bones have nothing to lose. I’m going to live out what little is left of my life being true to myself!”

He said he didn’t have much time left, but it felt like even if I killed him, he’d still come back somehow...

If I kept someone like this, who could tell his ruler the honest truth, at my side, it would reduce the chance of me straying from the right path. While I might have ordered Carla to die to stop me if it came to it, I would prefer to make it to retirement without getting killed.

So, after a bit of this and that, I brought Owen on to help educate me, but...

“Gahaha, sire! If you were free from administrative work, you should have told me! Come on, come on, let’s start our training for the day!”

I was silent.

It seemed that, in Owen’s mind, education included physical education, and any time I was free from my administrative tasks, he would try to train me. If he caught me, it meant running, practice swings, mock battles, everything on the training menu for a newly-recruited soldier.

“No, I have Aisha training me already, so...” I said.

“What are you saying? The princess of the God-Protected Forest, Madam Aisha, is much too easy on you, sire! She only makes you train with your puppets!”

“You’re too loud,” I said. “But, if I use my puppets, at least I can put up a fight.”

“And what will you do when you find yourself in a situation where you can’t use them?” Owen demanded. “Your life is the life of this country itself. If an assassin attacks, if you can fend off the enemy’s attacks for a few exchanges, or even just one exchange, your bodyguards will be able to get to you in time. That one exchange will decide the life or death of our country. That one exchange will bring our country glory.”

Urgh... Because he was right, there was nothing I could say. As I slumped my shoulders, Carla, who Serina had also grabbed by the collar, looked at me with just a little sympathy.

“I see you have it hard, too, Master...”

“You too,” I said with no emotion.

“Come, come, sire! To the training grounds!” Owen declared.

“You, too, Carla,” Serina scolded. “You need to hurry and learn how to make a bed.”

And so, the two of us were dragged off in different directions.

Some days later, we received a report that a rebellion had broken out in Amidonia.

◇　◇　◇

“It’s lookin’ like my brother couldn’t win, after all,” Roroa said.

In a room at an inn in a town near Van, the first princess of Amidonia looked at the two people with her. One of them, the former Minister of Finance, Colbert, shook his head.

“This country has already been defeated. The negotiations were only to limit the damage. I think it’s too harsh to blame Lord Julius.”

Julius gave off a cold impression, but he rated Colbert’s skill at finance highly and, partially because of their close age, the two had formed a friendship. Colbert couldn’t bring himself to criticize his employer and friend.

Roroa smiled wryly at Colbert, seeing him like that. “Maybe not, but if there’re war reparations to be paid, the ones sufferin’ will be the folks in town. We call it the capital, but it’s just one city. The area around it’s not all that productive. Shouldn’t he have let the kingdom keep it for a while and avoided takin’ responsibility for the war? We’re not totally beat yet, and if we left the territory as-is, the Empire and Kingdom couldn’t say anythin’ more. If that got us past the current crisis, there were any number of moves left he could’ve played.”

Roroa said all that like it was no big deal.

Sebastian, the other person who was here with her, shrugged. “Not everyone could accept that so easily. People don’t act solely on the arithmetic of profit and loss. We all have things we’re emotionally attached to, you see. Lord Julius has them, you have them... and I am sure the young King of Elfrieden has them, too.”

“Me and Souma, too?” Roroa asked.

“Yes,” said Sebastian. “In the same way that the spirit of Amidonia was precious to Lord Gaius and Lord Julius, the smiles of the men and women who live in the principality are precious to you, right? Would you be able to cast them aside because your arithmetic said to?”

“...I see,” Roroa said.

True, that’s somethin’ I want to protect, profit or loss aside, Roroa thought. Does that Souma have somethin’ he’s attached to, profitable or not, too?

“You met Souma, didn’t ya, Sebastian?” she asked. “Watchin’ the broadcasts, he seemed like a clever, funny guy. What’d you think, meetin’ him in person?

“Well, let me think... He looked like an ordinary young man, able to listen to the opinions of others and, more than anything else, he felt like someone who valued the people close to him.”

“The complete opposite of my old man, huh,” Roroa nodded. “But, in that case, there’s still a chance.”

Roroa shook her closed right fist in circles. It was the gesture she made before throwing dice when gambling or playing a board game.

“Will it work out in my favor or not? I was thinkin’ my odds were fifty-fifty, but maybe it’s not so bad a bet, after all. He’ll make a fine opponent for the biggest gamble of this gal’s life.”

“Princess... Are you absolutely certain about this?”

Colbert wore a look of concern, but Roroa said with a serious look, “We’ve gotta do it. Uncle Herman’ll keep things under control down south... but somethin’ smells fishy up north. We’ve got information sayin’ the forces of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria have come up near the border.”

On this continent, there were two major faiths, Mother Dragon Worship and Lunarian Orthodoxy. The center of the latter faith, the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria, was a dangerous theocracy with a unique system of values. With this country looking like it was on the verge of death, they might try something.

Roroa rose to her feet, turning to the other two and clapping her hands. “Now, here’s where we’ll turn it all around. From here on out, we won’t be lettin’ my brother, the Papal State, or Souma go doin’ whatever they please. We’ll be the ones to get the last laugh!”

Roroa spoke proudly, puffing up her meager chest.

Then, mentally, she added, And, Souma, you’re gonna be laughin’ with us. Though, unlike ours, yours is probably gonna be a strained smile!

Roroa smiled like a mischievous child who had just thought up a new trick.

Afterword

Thank you for buying How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom III. This is Dojyomaru. I have one page for the afterword this time. Now then, what should I use it for?

Well, I suppose I’ll touch on the content of this volume just a little. Oh, this is going to involve spoilers, so if you’re reading the afterword first, please come back when you finish the main story.

Now then, this volume includes about one-third of what was labeled as the Post-War Arc in the web version. It’s the section that addresses what Souma will do with the capital of the Principality of Amidonia, which he occupied in the previous volume, as well as what he will do with those who rebelled against him. I believe both the good and bad points of this story come out especially strongly in this volume, and I am thinking with some trepidation about how it will be received by readers as I write this afterword. That miniature pseudo-thesis that received mixed reviews has all been included here, after all.

Now then, that girl who might best be called a “seriousness breaker” will start to really get involved in the story next volume. What’s more, what’s more, I’m planning to fix the pits that were written out of sequence in the web serialization into a proper chronological order, so I hope you’ll join me again next time.

Finally, I give Fuyuyuki, who has once again drawn lovely pictures for us, my editor, the copywriter, and all of you, the readers out there who support me, my greatest thanks.

This has been Dojyomaru.

Bonus Short Stories

Aisha and Juna’s Secret Pact

—The end of the 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Parnam Castle

“Aisha, could I get you to put that dresser over here, please?” Juna called.

“Understood.”

Aisha tenderly placed the chest of drawers that was taller than she was down in the corner of the room. Even after single-handedly carrying a dresser that was heavy enough to make the room shake when she put it down, Aisha wasn’t even slightly winded.

Juna gave Aisha an apologetic smile. “Thank you. Also... I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be making you, who will be His Majesty’s second primary queen, help me with my move...”

Aisha laughed. “Ahaha, this isn’t enough luggage to present me any real trouble. Besides, Madam Juna, you will be His Majesty’s wife too one day, so our positions are equal.”

It had happened a few days ago. The two of them had become betrothed to King Souma Kazuya of Elfrieden. Currently, only his betrothal to Aisha had been made public, but it had been decided that his betrothal to Juna would be announced when her work as an idol was at a good stopping point.

However, announced or not, it was a fact that they were betrothed, and so a room had been made at Parnam Castle for Juna. Still, if he had taken on extra attendants to help, there would have been risk of the details of their engagement leaking to the public, so Aisha was using her strength to help with the move.

“That’s everything, I think. Let’s take a break,” suggested Juna.

“Okay,” said Aisha.

The two sat at the table and asked one of the servants waiting out in the hall to go fetch some boiling water. Juna transferred the water the servant brought into a glass pot with tea leaves in it, then waited a little while before pouring two cups of tea.

“I received some herbal tea at Lorelei, the singing cafe where I was lodging before, as a parting gift,” she said. “Though it’s not like I’m going to be leaving Parnam.”

“Will you be living at the castle from now on, Madam Juna?” Aisha asked.

“Yes.” Juna nodded. “It’s close to the Jewel Voice Broadcast studio, and besides that... if I am going to act as a go-between for His Majesty and Grandmother, it would seem to me best were I at His Majesty’s side as often as possible.”

“Hmm... Is that really all there is to it?” Aisha asked with a meaningful smile as she sipped her tea.

Juna gave up and confessed with a wry laugh, “Of course, even if I didn’t have that reason, I would want to be at His Majesty’s side.”

“Hear, hear!” Aisha grinned, having heard exactly what she wanted to hear.

Juna laid down her teacup, resting her elbows on the table as she looked at Aisha. “You really do love His Majesty, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Aisha said. “On the day we first met, I swore my body and soul to His Majesty.”

“But that was an oath of loyalty as a dark elf warrior, wasn’t it? When did you first start to think of him as a man?”

“That would have to be... when the disaster struck the God-Protected Forest,” Aisha answered with a look of fond recollection. “I am quite confident in my own strength. I wouldn’t lose out to just any man.”

“Yes. I’m well aware,” Juna nodded. It would have been fair to call Aisha the strongest in the kingdom. It wasn’t just that she wouldn’t lose in a contest of strength to just any man; in single combat, Aisha could overwhelm even battle-hardened veterans.

Aisha shook her head silently. “Yet, there, my strength meant almost nothing. While my martial abilities would let me cut my way through any bloodbath, I was powerless before the might of nature. When word came from the village, I stood there not knowing what to do. That was when His Majesty said ‘Leave this to me,’” Aisha said with a broad smile. “He said ‘I have no power, but I’m in a position to make many people move,’ and ‘If there are lives that can be saved, I’ll save as many as I can.’ The man I thought was weaker than me, who needed my protection, instead was the one who protected me. He made me so happy, and he was so reliable... I just clung to His Majesty’s chest and cried.”

“Yes... I can see why you would have fallen for him.” Juna was satisfied. Someone’d she thought was weaker than her had shown that he was strong in another way, and had been able to protect her. That was what had won Aisha over.

“If anything, I want to ask you the same question, Madam Juna,” Aisha said. “You were sent by Duchess Walter as a liaison, right? You were interacting with His Majesty as part of your mission, so when was it that you came to long for him?”

“That’s a fair question,” Juna said. “I think in my case, I was drawn to His Majesty’s weakness.”

“His... ‘weakness’?”

“Yes. Just before issuing the ultimatum, His Majesty was straining himself pretty hard,” Juna said.

Aisha had been staying in the God-Protected Forest during that time, so she had only heard about it from the others, but she knew that Souma had been feeling worn down by the coming conflict with the three dukes and the Principality of Amidonia.

“Despite that, he was putting up a strong front for Princess Liscia’s benefit,” Juna continued. “He must not have wanted to show her his weakness. Watching His Majesty work to carry the heavy burden of ruling the country, even with that frailty... I came to think, whether or not it was as a liaison, I wanted to be there to support him.”

“I see... That is very like you, Madam Juna.” Aisha gave a satisfied nod and popped a tea biscuit into her mouth. “Mmf, when I fing ob it fat way...”

“I can’t understand a thing you’re trying to say, so please continue when your mouth is empty.”

“...Excuse me,” Aisha said. “But, when I think about it that way, it is quite mysterious. We both love the same man, and yet I fell in love with him for his strength, while you fell in love with him for his weakness.”

“That’s only natural,” Juna said. “People have as many faces as the moon in the night sky. A strong face, a weak face, a gentle face, a cruel face... I’m sure if we were to ask Liscia, there’s a good chance she fell in love with yet another face of his.”

“Hee hee. I am sure you are right,” Aisha said with a smile. However, then she suddenly took on a serious expression, leaning in close and whispering to Juna, “By the way, since we are already alone together, I would like to talk about that matter.”

“’That matter’? What do you mean?” Juna asked. Nothing came to her mind, but she responded in a whisper, caught up in the conspiratorial atmosphere.

Aisha’s eyes opened wide, as if to say ”Have you forgotten?!”

“It was when I went into Parnam with His Majesty!” she said. “That time, when we went to Lorelei, you said it to me, remember? When I asked, ‘If there were eight of us, do you think we could only have His Majesty to ourselves one day a week?’ you said, ‘If we invite each other on our days, we can both have more time with him.’”

“Ah...”

Now that you mention it, I did say that, didn’t I, Juna recalled. That was something she had said for Souma to hear, a little joke to make his heart race, but apparently Aisha had been taking the proposition seriously.

“But, even including me, he only has three fiancées, you know?” Juna said. “You’ll have more than one day a week...”

“No. His Majesty is the king, so I am sure he will end up taking other wives for political reasons,” Aisha said. “It hurts neither of us to start thinking about it now.”

“...I suppose you’re right,” Juna said.

Juna agreed that the more days she could spend with Souma the better. Rather than be optimistic about the future, she would be best advised to always be looking for cards she could play. That was something she had learned from the man who would be her husband.

“But you’ll want days where you can have him to yourself, won’t you, Madam Juna?” Aisha asked.

“Yes. Well then, how about we take our own physical condition into consideration and plan out a schedule together...”

These secret talks continued late into the night.

Liscia’s Happy Family Get-Together

—Late in the 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Parnam Castle.

On this day, having won the war against Amidonia and made it safely through the post-war negotiations, the Elfrieden Royal Army led by the provisional king Souma made their triumphant return to the royal capital, Parnam. Liscia was now visiting her father, the former king Albert, and her mother, Elisha, in their room.

“Father, Mother. I have returned,” she said, giving a formal military salute and reporting in.

The couple who were sitting on the terrace welcomed their daughter with a smile.

“Ohh, it is good to see you home and safe,” Albert said.

“Welcome home, Liscia,” Elisha added.

Liscia felt relieved by their smiles at first, but then she noticed her little sister Tomoe was sitting on her mother’s lap, a troubled look on her face.

“Not again...” Liscia sighed. “Father, Mother... are you bothering Tomoe again?”

Ever since they had adopted Tomoe, the two of them had been adoring and doting on her like a pet cat. (Though, given that she was a mystic wolf, maybe it was more precise to say like a pet wolf?) Liscia figured that because she herself had already been a tomboy by that age, and hadn’t been a cutesy girly girl, they were happy to have a little girl who acted like one.

“Tomoe just got back today, too, you know? Show some restraint,” Liscia complained.

“But it’s been so long since we were last able to see her,” Elisha said while patting Tomoe’s head.

Albert nodded, too. “We were most lonesome with both of our beloved daughters off in Amidonia. Is it not natural that we would want to spend some quality time with our girls when they get back?”

“Still... can’t you see the troubled look on Tomoe’s face?” Liscia asked.

“B-Big Sister, I’m okay, really. This is a bit too much of an honor, though...” Tomoe said timidly, trying to mediate. She probably didn’t want others fighting over her.

Liscia pinched her temples, shaking her head in dismay. “Tomoe, you can’t spoil them like that.”

“Is that not something you should be telling us instead?” Albert questioned.

“Who do you think you’re kidding? You two are the ones being spoiled here,” Liscia shot back.

“Now, now, Liscia, come and sit with us.” Elisha let Tomoe down off her lap and beckoned for Liscia to come over.

Liscia reluctantly sat down at the table with them. Tomoe moved to sit in the seat next to Albert, so the whole family was now seated at the same table. Then Elisha stood up and walked around behind Liscia.

“Mother?” Liscia asked.

“Oh, Liscia, you really did go and cut your hair,” Elisha said, running her fingers through Liscia’s now short hair. “A girl’s hair is her life, you know. How could you suddenly cut it off like that?”

“I-I wanted to show my resolve at that moment...” Liscia said, pouting. If she faltered a bit in her defense of it, that was because she herself understood that, even if it had been meant to show Duke Carmine her resolve, cutting her hair on that occasion had been a hasty decision. While it was nice that Souma had said, “The short hair looks good on you, too,” if he had said, “I liked it better before,” that would have been too sad.

Elisha chuckled to herself, knowing how her daughter felt. “But, well, you did wear your hair like that a long time ago.”

“She did?” Tomoe asked, to which Elisha nodded.

“Yes. This girl was such a tomboy, she didn’t act at all like a little girl.”

“M-Mother! Stop it! Not in front of Tomoe.” Liscia said hurriedly, but Elisha put a hand on her cheek and let out a little sigh.

“When Liscia was your age, she was already joining the castle guards for morning practice. I wanted her to grow her hair out so that I could tie it up cutely, but she said, ‘Long hair would get in the way of my training,’ and wouldn’t let it grow.”

While Tomoe was listening with admiration, Albert whispered in her ear, “The tomboyishness comes from Elisha’s side. I have no knack for the martial arts, as you can well see. I hear, in her younger days, Elisha was quite...”

“Darling? Were you saying something?” Elisha asked with a broad smile.

Albert sat up ramrod straight. “N-Not a word!”

While Tomoe was smiling wryly at her adoptive father’s antics, Elisha continued. “Was it when you were around fourteen? You suddenly started growing it out then, right? Did someone say something to you about it at the academy?”

“Urkh...” Liscia mumbled. Perhaps Elisha had hit the nail on the head. “Um... One of my female friends in my class said, ‘Liscia, you’re cool, but you’re not much of a girl, are you?’ I got argumentative and told her, ‘If I grew out my hair, I’d look like a girl, too!’... and I’ve just sort of been letting it grow longer since. That’s why I wasn’t that attached to keeping it that length, though...”

“But you were so dashing and lovely with your long hair, big sister!” Tomoe cried.

“Ahaha, thanks.” Liscia gave an embarrassed laugh.

Elisha smiled. “Do you think you’ll grow it out again now?”

“I’m still thinking about that. I mean, he told me I look good both ways,” said Liscia.

“Our son-in-law-to-be did, you mean,” said Albert. “I am most relieved to see you two are so close.”

Liscia realized she had said too much and blushed.

Albert let out a jolly laugh. “So young and innocent. And only half a year ago, you were angry with us about it, saying, ‘How could you decide my engagement without even consulting me?’”

“I’m not unhappy about the engagement, but I’ll have you know that I’m still not over the fact you decided on it without ever consulting me!” Liscia snapped. “Thanks to you, we’ve gone through so much over the last half year.”

“But you were able to overcome it all together, were you not?” Albert said, looking at Liscia with a gentle expression on his face. “In the past half year, this country has quietly, but meaningfully, begun to change. However, none of it could have happened with you alone, Liscia. I am sure our son-in-law could not have done it alone, either. With him clearing the road, and you supporting him along it, I believe you have been able to move this country forward greatly.”

“Have we really?” Liscia looked doubtful that that was the relationship she and Souma had. Ever since Souma had the throne thrust on him, she had done her best to support him, but she wasn’t sure how much she had been able to. It wasn’t something she could know for herself.

Elisha gave her a gentle smile. “You’re doing fine, Liscia.”

“Mother?” Liscia asked.

“You’re doing more than enough to support your groom to be,” her mother said. “I sat on the throne for a time, so I can tell you, with great power comes great responsibility. It grinds down the soul of the one who holds it. Naturally, they lose the ability to worry about others, and eventually they lose sight of themselves, too. That hasn’t happened to him. Even after running around to rebuild this country, then experiencing both a civil and foreign war, he hasn’t forgotten to care for you. That choker was a present from him, wasn’t it?”

Liscia touched the choker around her neck.

“His soul is still healthy,” her mother said. “I can’t say whether he is aware of it or not, but it must be your presence that’s supported him and kept it that way.”

“My presence is supporting Souma...”

I hope so, thought Liscia.

“Thank you, Father, Mother.”

Liscia wore a gentle smile much like Elisha’s.

Jeanne and Hakuya’s Joint Complaining Session

Based on an idea by the provisional king Souma, a hotline had been installed between the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Gran Chaos Empire using Jewel Voice Broadcast jewels.

This hotline was for the bureaucrats of both countries to keep in regular contact so that meetings could be arranged between Souma and Empress Maria. However, because they were both very busy people, and there was also a time zone difference, it hadn’t been easy to arrange for them to meet.

As a result, when there were things that exceeded the bureaucrats’ authority to discuss, but were not important enough for Souma and Maria to hold talks, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Hakuya, and the younger sister of the empress and general of the Empire’s armed forces, Jeanne, would talk in their place, then submit a report. Hakuya and Jeanne spoke over the broadcast at an average of once every five days to trade information.

First they would discuss highly important matters that would require a report to Souma and Maria, then they exchanged opinions on matters of policy in both nations, and with what time they had left over, they would engage in small talk about recent events. Although that small talk was nearly always complaints about their respective masters...

Today was no different, and when their meeting was finished, the two had a lively discussion about everything wrong with the masters they served.

“Sigh... Why must my sister be so slovenly?” Jeanne complained.

“What happened?” Hakuya asked.

Jeanne looked exhausted on the other side of the simple transceiver, wearing a wry smile that seemed to say, What can you really do but laugh?

“Before, I told you how my sister had brought a bed into the governmental affairs office like Sir Souma, right? Well, this happened the other day. As per usual... and it’s a problem that I have to say this is per usual... when she woke up, my sister went straight to work in the office, but, would you believe it? She was still wearing her pajamas. This is a room that male bureaucrats come in and out of, you know?”

“That’s...” Hakuya couldn’t quite find the words for it.

The rumors said that the Saint of the Empire, Empress Maria, was a woman of great beauty. From what he had seen of her younger sister’s beautiful countenance, those rumors were likely true. It wouldn’t be good for the male bureaucrats to see such a beautiful woman working in her nightclothes.

Jeanne sighed loudly once more. “Fortunately, my sister doesn’t sleep in a camisole, or anything that would make her figure apparent, it’s a more bulky type of thing, but when I saw her working while wearing a nightcap instead of the crown... This time, I couldn’t stop myself from shouting at her. ‘You’re the empress! Please, pay a little more thought to how people see you!’ I said.”

“...I feel your pain.”

“I know the burden my sister bears, so I don’t want to hound her to act like an empress too much... but this time, it was just too much...” Jeanne moaned.

“I don’t think there was anything else you could have done,” said Hakuya. “I am sure, were I in your position, I would have scolded her, too.”

Jeanne likely felt guilty that, even though she knew her sister’s heavy burden, she still had to scold her. It was her position. Hakuya tried to assuage those concerns.

“Even if we were to be unduly generous and condone the pajamas, the nightcap is simply one step too far,” he assured her.

“Huh?! That’s the problem?!” Jeanne exclaimed.

“The ruler’s head is where the crown rests,” Hakuya said very seriously. “A ruler must never stand before their vassals with something so casual there in its place. Were I to see that, I might resign on the spot.”

It was strange reasoning, that he could accept the pajamas, but not the nightcap. Jeanne was befuddled for a moment, but soon burst out laughing.

“Bwahah... Y-You’re right, we definitely can’t let the nightcap go...”

This was surely Hakuya’s attempt at a joke. To try to cheer Jeanne up, he had told a ridiculous joke with completely deadpan delivery. Jeanne chuckled.

“Well, does Sir Souma ever do anything like that?” Jeanne asked.

“His Majesty is no slob,” Hakuya said. “If anything, he’s fastidious and reasonable. You could say he’s a proponent of efficiency, I suppose. His sleeping in the governmental affairs office arose from his thinking that it would be more efficient. That’s all the worse in some ways; it makes it hard to criticize him for it.”

This time, it was Hakuya’s turn to wear a sour face.

“But, efficient or not, he doesn’t work in his pajamas, does he?” Jeanne asked.

“His fiancée, Princess Liscia, keeps a tight leash on him when it comes to such things,” said Hakuya. “Working in his pajamas... would be worse than this, yes, but Liscia once found him sleeping in his clothes so that he could go straight to work when he woke. She made him sit on the floor so she could lecture him about it at length.”

Ever since, Souma had made sure to change into his nightclothes before going to sleep. Even the provisional king who would ignore unnecessary traditions couldn’t stand up to a lecture from Princess Liscia.

“Hee hee hee! They make a good couple,” Jeanne said.

“Yes. I happen to think so, too, but...” Hakuya was sounding like he was avoiding saying something.

Jeanne inclined her head to the side questioningly. “Is there some problem?”

“No... It’s just that, recently, Princess Liscia seems to be being influenced by His Majesty.” Hakuya was thinking of Souma and the others’ recent eating habits. “The truth is, recently, His Majesty has been making his own meals, you see. Ever since he acquired this grain called ‘rice’ from the mystic wolves, he’s been preparing fried eggs and miso soup to go with it. The sort of meal he can eat with two bowls and a single plate.”

“That’s... awfully simple, yes,” Jeanne said.

It was normal for a royal meal to be a little more extravagant. It was partly to show the authority of one who stands above others, and partly because if a royal ate anything too strange, their vassals would look down on them for it.

“Didn’t Liscia get angry at him?” Jeanne asked.

Hakuya sighed. “You see, Princess Liscia is very fond of these meals.”

“Why?!”

“Princess Liscia has experience attending a military academy, so she is used to simple meals,” Hakuya explained. “In fact, it seems she would be more upset to have a formal style of eating forced on her. Now, as for the new queen candidates, Madam Aisha and Madam Juna, Madam Aisha lived in the God-Protected Forest, and will eat anything that is edible, while Madam Juna is of common birth, and so she has no resistance to eating these sorts of meals. Earlier, I saw the four of them eating this menu with great gusto.”

Hakuya slumped his shoulders in dismay.

Jeanne could only smile wryly. “I think it’s good that they get along so well, but that is a problem, isn’t it? As the king of a nation, Sir Souma will no doubt need to take wives other than those three. When that time comes, he’ll have trouble if they aren’t the sort who would accept a meal like that.”

“Precisely,” said Hakuya. “I doubt the daughter of another royal or noble family would. In fact, if the number of people able to enjoy these sorts of meals with gusto increases, that would be a problem, too.”

“My sister would join in with glee, I’m sure.” Jeanne imagined her sister at the same table as Souma, cheerfully eating a simple meal. ...Yes, somehow, it suited her sister to a T.

“By the way, are those meals good, by any chance?” Jeanne asked.

“Yes. Earlier, I happened to join them, and they were quite good,” said Hakuya. “The fried egg flavored with soup stock was quite the delicacy. It had a simple, yet profound, flavor.”

“It sounds delicious just hearing you describe it,” said Jeanne. “I wish I could have tried it the last time I visited. ...Ahem. In that case, might it not be fastest to use that delicious food to win over any new queens who come in?”

“I suppose I should consider that angle...” Hakuya murmured.

And, as they were talking about that, the time for their talk came to an end.

“Well, Madam Jeanne, I think we should call it a day.”

“Yes. I’ll be looking forward to our next chance to talk, Sir Hakuya.”

“As will I.” He paused. “I do hope we won’t have any new material to complain about when that time comes.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

The two both wore wry smiles as they closed out the communication.

In the Refugee Camp

Outside the castle walls that surrounded Parnam, the capital of the Elfrieden Kingdom, there was a place where many hovels had been built. This shanty town was where the refugees who’d been displaced by the expansion of the Demon Lord’s Domain lived. These refugees, who had drifted here during the reign of the former king, Albert, lived by helping and supporting one another. The issue of refugees who had escaped from the Demon Lord’s Domain had been a source of trouble for all of the nations affected. It had been dealt with in various ways, from conscripting them into the armies and positioning them on the front lines, to working them to the bone as a cheap source of labor.

In that situation, the mediocre but gentle-natured Albert had silently tolerated the existence of this refugee camp. While his successor, King Souma, was unable to actively help them integrate, he had ordered his Minister for the Food Crisis, Poncho, to provide food support.

While Poncho had been in the Principality of Amidonia, he’d provided emergency food aid to the residents of Van, and here in the Elfrieden Kingdom, he did the same.

And so, Poncho was wearing a bandanna and a gown-like apron called a kappogi (Souma’s idea), like some old cafeteria lady, and was taking the lead in serving meals to the refugees.

“We are serving food here, yes,” Poncho called out, standing in front of a cylindrical pot, ladle in hand. “This time we have the mystic wolves’ miso soup and a pork soup made with lily root dumplings from the Principality of Amidonia. Everyone, please line up, and don’t push and shove, yes.”

“The end of the line is here,” Tomoe added. “There’s plenty to go around, so there’s no need to hurry.”

Helping Poncho was Tomoe, who despite being a refugee herself was now King Souma’s adopted little sister. In addition to Tomoe, there were many other mystic wolves helping to serve food. While they had gained the right to live in the capital in exchange for their skill in making soy sauce and miso, the mystic wolves had once lived in the refugee camp. Because of that, they had a sense of camaraderie with their fellow refugees and the money they made from producing Kikkoro brand miso and soy sauce went to support them.

At this point, a young girl came up to Poncho and Tomoe as they were serving food. “Thank you for your hard work, Poncho, Tomoe.”

The girl was around seventeen and wore clothing in earthen colors that was reminiscent of a Native American attire. As if to represent her exuberance, she was a beautiful, healthy, athletic girl with tanned skin and muscular arms and legs. When they noticed the girl, Poncho and Tomoe both smiled.

“Wh-Why, Madam Komain. It’s been a while, yes.”

“Hello, Komain,” Tomoe said.

Her name was Komain. She was the younger sister of the leader who kept everyone in this refugee camp together. When Poncho took off his bandanna and started bowing repeatedly to her, Komain panicked.

“P-Poncho, don’t bow your head to someone like me. You’re the one supporting us. It hurts my heart to see you do that.”

“Ah!... I-I’m sorry, yes.” Even as he said that, Poncho continued to bow his head to her. This was the product of his own timid personality, so even if she pointed it out to him, it probably wasn’t something he could fix. Komain understood that, so all she could do was smile wryly.

“I think you could afford to act a little more self-important, you know?” Komain asked.

“Urkh. I-I suppose you’re right. If Madam Serina were here, she’d say, ‘As one who stands above others, please, be more proud of yourself,’ and get upset with me. Ahaha...”

Poncho wore a troubled smile. Ever since she had been charmed by the food he made, the head maid, Serina, had constantly gotten herself involved in Poncho’s business. Souma had noticed, and was formally ordering her to assist him more and more often. However, today she’d had some other work to do at the castle, so Serina was not present.

“Serina? Is that your wife?” Komain, who was not acquainted with Serina, tilted her head to the side and asked.

Poncho hurriedly shook his head. “N-No, she’s not my wife! While I do rely on her, she’s like a coworker. Because of the way I look, I’m still single, yes.”

Poncho responded humbly, but Tomoe tilted her head to the side in confusion. Was Poncho and Serina’s relationship really just that of coworkers? Even to the eyes of ten-year-old Tomoe, the two of them seemed very close.

Komain also reacted with surprise. “Is that right? Well, you’re a hit with the women of the refugee camp, you know?”

“P-Please, don’t tease me with jokes like that, yes.”

Poncho seemed to think she was joking, but Komain spoke the truth. The fastest way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. There were many women in the kingdom, the principality, and even here in the refugee camp who loved Poncho for the delicious dishes he made. However, due to his lack of self-confidence, Poncho didn’t realize it at all. He was dense, but Komain found his humbleness and lack of arrogance likable.

“We’re all grateful to you and King Souma, you know?” Komain said. “You support us when we have nowhere to go, and no home to return to, and for that we truly thank you.”

“Ah! You’re welcome, yes.” Poncho laughed shyly in response to the girl’s heartfelt words of thanks.

Komain smiled. “Well, I’ll go around and let everyone know you’re handing out food!”

Then, with that said, she rushed off with a sense of urgency. The way that, before she was out of sight, she turned back once and waved to Tomoe and Poncho was memorable.

Poncho had seen her off with a smile, but the smile now vanished, replaced with a pensive look. When Tomoe noticed, she asked him, “What’s wrong, Poncho? You look depressed.”

Poncho snapped back to his senses. “Ah! No... I was thinking about what would happen to Komain and the others from here on.”

“From here on...?” Tomoe asked.

Poncho nodded with a solemn look on his face. “Right now, we’re offering them support, but we can’t leave the refugees like this forever. Kindness alone is not enough to rule a country. Eventually, His Majesty, the Prime Minister, or someone else will attempt to solve the underlying problem. Komain and the others may be forced to make a hard decision. When that time comes, I worry it will darken her smile, yes.”

Kindness alone is not enough to rule a country.

Those words of Poncho’s echoed heavily in Tomoe’s young heart. But...

“It’s going to be okay,” Tomoe said, smiling to Poncho.

“Madam Tomoe?” he asked.

“Big Brother Souma is really kind,” she said confidently. “He’s not full of himself, even though he’s a king, and he’s always looking out for me, a former refugee. My teacher... Hakuya is a very warm person, too, even though he doesn’t look like it, you know? I’m his number one student, and I say so, so I must be right.” Tomoe clasped her hands together behind her back and looked towards the castle. “If those two have something planned, it definitely won’t be all harsh. I’m sure they’ll figure something out.”

It was a baseless confidence, but Tomoe didn’t doubt it in the slightest. The people she loved would never leave people in sadness, she believed.

Poncho said, “I-I’m sure you’re right,” and nodded. “I’d like to trust in His Majesty and everyone else, too, yes.”

“Okay!” Tomoe cried.

“Now, let’s work hard on handing out food, yes!” Poncho agreed.

When he said that, Poncho rolled up his sleeves and held his ladle up high.

Maid Training

One fine afternoon early in fall.

“Now, do it the way I told you,” Serina ordered.

“Y-Yes, ma’am!” Carla replied.

The head maid, Serina, and Carla, who had been assigned to the Maid Corps just the other day, were together in Parnam Castle’s dance studio. While they stood in front of a large mirror on the wall, Serina was beating all of the know-how she would need as a maid into Carla’s head.

However, while Serina wore a maid uniform with the classical long skirt, Carla wore one with a flared skirt that only went down to above her knee and which accentuated her chest, the sort of maid outfit that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a modern Japanese maid cafe. It went without saying that this was the sadistic head maid’s proud handiwork. Carla, who was being forced to wear it for the first time, was bright red with embarrassment.

Right now, she was practicing walking gracefully with five thin books on top of her head. Carla managed to walk along at a brisk pace without the five books randomly stacked on her head moving even a little.

“Hmm... As expected, those with training in the martial arts are on a different level,” Serina said, sounding impressed as she stood there holding a short whip. “It must be because you have a solid core. This is something most people struggle with at first.”

“Heh heh, for a warrior, being able to move your body is the most basic of basic,” Carla said, puffing out her chest with pride, as if to say, How do you like that?

“Don’t get full of yourself.” Serina cracked the whip at Carla’s rump, causing her to jump a little.

“Yowch?!”

The whip Serina used had been specially enchanted. It would leave no mark where it struck, but it would attack the place it hit with a half-and-half mix of pleasure and pain. Apparently, it was a training item that used pleasure to stop the victim from trying to brace themselves against the pain, while the pain stopped them from trying to indulge in the pleasure.

Carla protested with tears in her eyes, “Wh-What was that for, Head Maid?!”

“I believe I’ve taught you this,” Serina said sternly. “What do you say when praised?”

“Ah...! ‘You are too kind.’” Carla hurriedly clasped her hands in front of her and gave a slight bow.

Serina nodded. “Yes. At all times, a maid must remain humble.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

“At this rate, it might be best to have you learn the rest on the job,” Serina said. “Now, shall I show you how to make the beds? Let’s move to another place.”

“Yes, ma’am! Roger that, Head Maid.” Carla said with a salute, earning herself another whack in the butt with Serina’s whip.

“Ow?!”

“Don’t salute. We may swear loyalty to the royal house, but this is not the military.”

“I-I understand,” Carla said with teary eyes, rubbing her sore bottom which kept getting hit.

The two left the dance studio and were walking down the corridor towards a room with a bed.

“Still, it’s a little unexpected.” Serina said all of a sudden.

Carla tilted her head to the side. She had been walking behind her. “Unexpected? What is?”

“When His Majesty ordered me to train you as a maid, I thought you would resist more,” Serina said. “At times, a lady who was formerly of the nobility has been forced to become a maid. In many cases, her pride gets in the way, and she feels a resistance to performing her tasks. While you may have been reduced to a slave, you were once the daughter of one of the three dukes, were you not?”

“...I was.”

“I had thought I would have to first begin by crushing that haughty attitude of yours utterly. But, sadly... I mean, fortunately... I didn’t have to do that.”

She definitely started out saying “sadly” there, didn’t she?! Carla thought.

Carla felt a shiver run down her spine. Haughty girls would be the ideal prey for this total sadist of a head maid. She would break their pride and retrain them as dogs, fit to serve their master anywhere. Carla was deeply relieved that she didn’t fit that profile.

“It seems to me that you’ve accepted your position as a maid, haven’t you?” Serina turned back with just her neck and asked Carla. “You were a noblewoman and a soldier. What do you think of your current situation?”

“It’s not like it hasn’t left me a little out of sorts,” Carla admitted. “There’s a lot of work I’m just not used to being involved in that’s required of a maid, and because I was always out seeking glory on the battlefield, I’ve never really acted like a girl.”

Having decided that she couldn’t keep anything hidden from this head maid, Carla revealed her true feelings.

Serina’s gaze grew harsh. “Then... you are dissatisfied with your situation?”

“No! Not at all!” Carla hurriedly denied it, then laughed wryly and scratched at her cheek. “I’m a little bewildered, but I’m not dissatisfied in the least. If anything, I’m grateful.”

“Grateful... you say?” Serina asked.

“Yes. After I committed a crime out of my own bullheadedness, my best friend and the one she cares for saved me. I’m sure... I must have caused a lot of trouble for them.”

While there had been the intentions of many different people in play, and it was a situation with no simple explanation, the result was still that Carla had participated in a rebellion against King Souma. The ones who had saved Carla were her best friend, Liscia, and the man Liscia loved, King Souma. It had been a given that she would be executed for her crime, but they had instead made her a slave (and, on top of that, treated her as a maid, under the justification that there was no work for slaves in the castle), which must have involved a lot of trouble on their part.

“I may no longer be in the military, but I want to serve those two in whatever capacity I can,” Carla said. “That’s why I want to learn my job as a maid quickly.”

“...A fine aspiration.” Serina’s dangerous tone vanished. She had likely been testing Carla’s determination as a maid. It seemed she was satisfied with the answers she had received.

“Oh, but... Is there anything we can do about this maid dress?” Carla asked, fidgeting in embarrassment. “My thighs feel awfully exposed, and it worries me...”

“Why is that?” Serina demanded. “I think it looks very cute on you.”

“But, when I crouch down, well... I worry people might see...”

“Carla...” Serina said with a dismayed sigh. “You became a maid after becoming a slave. If I were to treat you the same as the other maids, it would set a poor example. In fact, how do you think your coworkers feel, seeing you work in that outfit?”

“I think they pity me,” Carla said.

Whenever they saw her being toyed with... erm, instructed by... Serina, the other maids treated her far more warmly than anyone would have expected to treat a slave. That was because with Carla there, Serina’s sadism wasn’t being directed towards them (or at least her focus was more spread out).

“That means the clothes you wear have a proper meaning behind them,” Serina said.

“Head Maid...” Carla stared into Serina’s eyes. “...No, I’m pretty sure this is just what you’re into, right?”

“Of course,” Serina responded nonchalantly. “I simply can’t get enough of seeing you writhe in humiliation.”

“Don’t you feel even slightly guilty?!”

“Come now, let’s be on our way. I still have many, many tasks for you to learn.”

“Urkh...” Carla mumbled. “Understood...”

Carla’s days of suffering had only just begun.