Sitting in my chair in the king's governmental affairs office, I spoke to Hakuya,
who stood across from me.
"Give me your report on the surrounding countries."
Right now, Hakuya and I were the only ones present in the room. Liscia and the
others were elsewhere, probably having a great time at the party to celebrate the
launch of the Jewel Voice Broadcast. Even Aisha, who usually stayed at my side at all
times, claiming it was to guard me, was busy with the food that had been prepared
for the occasion.
We had left the celebration partway through, coming to the governmental affairs
office for a secret meeting.
Hakuya spread out a map of the world on my desk.
"I will now make my report. First, I will review the surrounding countries. Our
country, which is situated in the southeast of the continent, shares a border with
three countries: the Union of Eastern Nations to the north, the Principality of
Amidonia to the west, and the Turgis Republic to the southwest. Also, across the sea
to the southeast there is the Kuzuryu Archipelago Union. In addition, to the west of
Amidonia, the mercenary state Zem could also be called one of our surrounding
countries. Of these, zero are friendly, four are neutral, and one is hostile."
"We're pretty isolated, huh," I said.
"With all due respect, given that these are troubled times with the Demon Lord's
Domain expanding, this is normal. In these days where each nation eyes the others
with suspicion, the only countries on friendly terms are those in the relationship of
suzerain and vassal state."
"You call that a friendly relationship?"
"If there is no fear of betrayal, it is friendly enough."
He said the most outrageous of things with a cool face. What he had said meant,
basically, that he felt a relationship of control and subordination which allowed no
room for complaint even if one nation was used like a tool and then thrown away
still qualified as friendly, didn't it? Sort of like the alliance between the Matsudaira
and Oda clans when Nobunaga Oda had still been alive.
"So, which is the hostile one?" I asked. "Amidonia? Zem?"
"Not Zem. Certainly, that matter has worsened their impression of us, but not to
the point where they would be considered hostile. That said, if Amidonia requested
reinforcements from them, I have little doubt they would dispatch mercenaries on
their behalf."
"Amidonia, huh... If I recall, they sent us an 'offer of assistance,' right?"
"Yes. 'The stability of our neighbor Elfrieden is directly tied to our own national
defense. If a request is made, we will dispatch forces to help subdue the Three
Dukedoms,' is what they offered."
"Ha ha ha ha... That's pretty straightforward."
It was plain to see that they wanted to take advantage of the discord between the
Three Dukedoms and myself to expand their territory.
"It is. The Three Dukedoms have likely been told something similar."
"'Let us strike down the usurper Souma together,' is it? Hard to laugh at that."
Well, I could probably count on the Three Dukedoms to see through Amidonia's
scheme. They wouldn't let foreigners run roughshod over this country just because
they didn't like me. Of course, Amidonia knew that too, so basically...
"By making offers of aid to both sides, they want to give themselves a cause to
mobilize their troops," I said.
"While seizing cities in the west, they'll send reinforcements to the side that
'won,'" he agreed. "Then, they'll come up with some reason to assume de facto
control of the cities they occupied, integrating them into their country. It's an
orthodox strategy, but an effective one, I would think."
Well, yeah. There were many examples of it in my own world's history. Like
So'un Hojo with his "Borrow a deer hunting trail, steal a castle." The simpler the
strategy, perhaps the more likely people were to be deceived.
Amidonia was blatantly trying to deceive us, Zem was tilting towards hostility,
and the Elfrieden Kingdom was unable to achieve national unity because of my
conflict with the Three Dukedoms. Difficult problems to solve, all of them.
"However, this is all part of the scenario you wrote, isn't it?" I asked, staring hard
at Hakuya.
Hakuya remained unperturbed.
"Yes. At this moment, everything about the situation is shifting as it should," he
declared. That cool expression of his made me scratch my head vigorously.
"You... do realize, right?" I asked, referring to the number of people who would be
sacrificed by Hakuya's plan.
The scenario Hakuya had laid out would mean great losses for our foes, and great
gains for our allies. It was true that I needed a move, no matter what it was, that
would let this country rise to be a strong nation. However, to bring it to fruition, this
country would also need to shed a fair amount of blood.
Despite that, Hakuya declared this without showing any guilt: "Yes. I believe we
should take everything that this opportunity offers us."
I was silent.
"Sire, you should understand, the result will save many of your countrymen."
"...I know that. But, still, I'm only going to accept doing 'this' once." I looked
Hakuya straight in the eye. "A political thinker from my world, Machiavelli, wrote
about it in The Prince. If a ruler does 'this' just once, and in doing so finishes
everything, never doing it again, he will be regarded as a great ruler. On the other
hand, should the one time he does 'this' fail to be decisive, he will sooner or later
face his end as a tyrant."
"...This Machiavelli had a terrifyingly realistic view of things." Hakuya was slightly
taken aback.
Yeah. That was why I liked him. I had been enthralled by the endless realism of
Machiavelli, and reread The Prince many times. Though I had never expected the
knowledge to come in handy like this someday.
"Regardless, I have deemed your plan to be an example of doing 'that,'" I said.
"So..."
—If we are to do it, let it be in one stroke.