Morning, one week (eight days) after we returned to Parnam.
In the castle's governmental affairs office, all that could be heard was the
scratching of my pen and the shuffling of paper as Liscia passed documents to me. I
had been getting work done while in Van, but not only had the workload not
decreased after returning to Parnam, if anything it had grown.
Now that the system of three dukes had collapsed, I needed to reorganize the
army post-haste.
In order to build a relationship of equals with the Empire, I needed to increase
military expenditures to counter the threat of the Demon Lord's Domain. In other
words, to strengthen the military. That plan for strengthening the military was the
one I had spoken of during the ultimatum to the three dukes, the unification of the
armed forces.
When I looked at the history of the other world, an army's strength or weakness
depended heavily on its mobility. In other words, how fast it could get where it
needed to go, and whether it could deploy the needed firepower.
The reason we'd won a crushing victory over the Amidonian forces recently had
been that we'd been able to reach the battlefield before our opponents. Because we
had arrived a day ahead of the enemy, we had been able to fight the exhausted forces
of the principality with a well-rested Royal Army. Had we arrived simultaneously,
our exhaustion would have been roughly the same, and while the forces of the
principality would still have been outnumbered, they would have dug in and fought
harder. If that had happened, the fight would have been much more difficult for us.
In order to achieve that mobility we needed, it would be necessary to roll out a
transportation network, and, at the same time, eliminate the divisions between our
Army, Navy, and Air Force, to create a system that worked under a single command
structure to immediately move all of our forces. That system would be a unified
armed forces.
The Forbidden Army, Army, Navy, Air Force, and, lastly, the troops that were
nominally part of the Forbidden Army, but were the personal troops of the nobility,
would all be dismantled and reorganized as one force to be called the Elfrieden
Defense Force (EDF).
In organizing that EDF, I had to be cautious of resistance from each branch of the
military, but with the recent uprising, the Army and Air Force had lost their
influence. The temporary heads of each force, Glaive and Tolman, were both
cooperative, so they would pose no problem.
Furthermore, the Navy had sided with us and therefore had not lost their
influence, so by appointing their Admiral, Excel, as Supreme Commander of the EDF,
we could expect very little resistance. Excel wasn't keen on being enshrined as the
Supreme Commander, but I had made her accept the position under the condition
that it was just until Ludwin gained enough experience to handle the role.
That was enough for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, but the real headache was
going to be the nobles' forces.
They were part of the Forbidden Army, but the fact that command over them lay
with the various nobles made them hard to deal with.
In this world with wild beasts and monsters (though, before the appearance of
the Demon Lord's Domain, these had only existed in dungeons), thieves, pirates and
bandits, there needed to be a certain amount of policing power in every area.
That was why the landed nobility trained personal troops, which they were
obligated to use to maintain stability inside their fiefs.
However, in this country, the numbers they had were excessive. It was the effect
of the king-before-last's expansionist policies.
At that time, battlefield achievements had been the shortest route to glory and
advancement, so the nobility used to levy commoners from their fiefs to bolster the
ranks of their personal forces. Despite the fact that, while conscripting amateurs
might raise their manpower, if it led to a fall in productivity, it was pointless.
Eventually, when the former king, King Albert, hanged tack from his predecessor's
expansionist policies, the nobility still maintained their enlarged forces.
That was why, now, I was stuck with the task of dismantling their forces down to
the bare minimum required for policing. Those who had a primary trade outside of
soldiering would be given severance pay and released from service, while those who
sought to join the EDF would be able to undergo testing to enlist.
While the organization would be decided on by Excel, Glaive, Ludwin, and the
other military officials, they had looked over my proposal and found they had no
choice but to give it their stamp of approval.
While we worked, Liscia and I were silent. There was an awkwardness between
us.
...No, I was likely the only one feeling awkward. Liscia was acting the same as
always.
That day, even as I'd told her that Georg Carmine had committed suicide in his
cell, Liscia's expression hadn't changed in the least. Her face had been emotionless,
and my report had only elicited a quiet "I see..."
It wasn't that I thought she would lose her composure. It wasn't as if I thought
she would blame me for it. Liscia wasn't that kind of girl, and I was well aware of it.
But I hardly expected her to be able to go about her daily routine this way, like
everything was normal. I thought she would look at least a little distraught. There
was no way this wasn't painful for her, no way it wasn't heart-wrenching, but when I
saw Liscia acting like nothing had changed, I couldn't find the words to say to her.
It would have been easier if she'd lashed out at me a little...
"Why didn't you spare Duke Carmine?!"
...Yeah. No, that wouldn't have been any better.
Just imagining Liscia insulting and demeaning me was enough to depress me.
If she would just punch, and we could forget it all after that... But, no, the only one
that would make feel better was me. Honestly, what was I thinking? After running
my mouth like that to Georg, could I not even protect the heart of the girl closest to
me?
"Souma," she said.
"Huh? What?" I raised my head, and saw Liscia looking at me with her head
inclined to the side questioningly.
"Your pen's stopped, you know?" she asked.
"...Oh, sorry."
That's no good, I thought. I have to keep it together.
I went back to work. Right now, I have to focus on taking care of all the little tasks
in front of me.
While I worked with that thought in mind, there was a knock at the door. "Come
in," I said, and the head maid Serina entered.
"Pardon me," she said. "The preparations are complete, and your presence is
requested."
"Right."
We stopped working, and I donned my royal cape and headed towards the
audience chamber. Today was a day for rewarding those who had distinguished
themselves in the war with Amidonia.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Glaive Magna," I said. "Your loyalty was truly remarkable. In recognition of that
loyalty, I grant you Randel and its surrounding region to rule."
"Yes, sir," Glaive said. "It will be my pleasure."
"Very good. In addition, while this is only provisional, I also grant you some of the
powers Georg held as General of the Army. Until they are folded into the EDF, keep
them in good order."
"Yes, sir," he said. "I swear I will do my utmost to meet Your Majesty's
expectations."
In front of me as I rose from the throne, giving commendations in a grandiose
tone, Hal's old man, Glaive Magna, bowed deeply. We weren't broadcasting this, so I
wasn't keeping up with stiff formality, but there was a secretary in the corner
dutifully recording my every word, so I had to act kingly. That was to ensure that
future generations who read the records didn't look down on me, or so my
chamberlain Marx had sourly told me, but... honestly, I didn't really care what people
would think of me after I died.
In the war with the Principality of Amidonia, the Elfrieden Kingdom might not
have gained any territory, but we had secured hefty war reparations. Furthermore,
we had been able to collect ransoms from Zem for the return of their mercenaries,
and I'd been able to confiscate the corrupt nobles' land and assets. The
dismantlement of the Carmine and Vargas duchies had been decided on, too.
For all of those gains, there was little need to reward the troops. Most of the
troops mobilized had belonged to the Army and Air Force. They were under
suspicion of treason, and this had been a battle to clear them of that suspicion, so no
rewards needed to be paid.
Additionally, for those who had taken a wait-and-see approach to the conflict, the
nobles whose forces were part of the Forbidden Army, I didn't need to pay for any
rewards to them, as they hadn't participated. It meant they had missed out on a good
opportunity, but that was their problem, not mine.
The only ones who need to be rewarded were the Navy and my directlycontrolled forces in the Forbidden Army. Those of the nobility or knightly class in
either force would be given land, but that would come from the former fiefs of the
corrupt nobles and the dismantled Carmine and Vargas duchies. Those who were of
lower status would be given a cash bonus.
And so, today, I was to give personal rewards to those who had contributed the
most. It was standard to give titles in the peerage and land, but if they wanted
something else, they were welcome to negotiate for it. If it was within my power as
king, and a suitable reward for their efforts, it would be granted. If they wanted cash
or rare items in the possession of the royal family, that was fine.
Long ago, there had been a knight who'd used this system to request the right to
marry a princess he was in love with. There'd also been one who'd used it to request
a corrupt noble be brought to justice. This was a situation where you never knew
what crazy requests might come flying, so I opted not to air it over the Jewel Voice
Broadcast.
This time, the people to be rewarded were as follows:
The turncoat from the Army who had led them in the battle with Amidonia,
Glaive Magna.
The Lord of Altomura who had stalled for time and delayed the Amidonian
forces, Weist Garreau.
The commander of the marines who had, likewise, delayed the Amidonian forces
at the Valley of Goldoa, Juna Doma.
As well as the one who sent reinforcements during the battle outside Randel, the
chief of the dark elves who lived in the God-Protected Forest, Wodan Udgard. Sir
Wodan was Aisha's father.
Normally, the Admiral of the Navy, Excel Walter, would have been first in both
rank and in terms of her contributions. However, she was foregoing any recognition
of her achievements for herself in order to seek clemency for the two Varguses, so
she wouldn't be receiving a reward.
Also, before giving the aforementioned five their rewards, I formally gave Aisha,
who had been defending me as my self-declared bodyguard, the newly created post
of kochiji.
If I were to explain what that changed, it was that before she had been like a
mercenary I was paying out of my own pocket money, but now she was a proper
knight with a salary.
Incidentally, her title, kochiji, came from the a bit of wordplay on the nickname of
Cao Cao's bodyguard Xu Chu, read Kochi in Japanese. The original's name was
written "Tiger Fool" and meant "a fool who is strong like a tiger," so I chose to write
hers with the character for "Eastern Wind" instead.
...Not that there was much point in me obsessing over how it'd be written with
kanji in this world.
In addition to that appointment, I gave Aisha a gauntlet from the treasury in the
castle that was enchanted with a spell that reduced physical and magical damage (it
was called the Iron Wall Gauntlet, apparently). To be honest, I had wanted to give
her a shield, as it suited the image of her position better, but Aisha used a twohanded greatsword, so I'd opted for this instead.