(This story's timeline is when Lucy finally became the ruler of Krasland.)
Three months have passed since Lucy became the Marchioness, the ruler of
the city of Krasland.
The joint assembly of nobles and citizens, which was originally planned,
has finally begun to move, and the power of authority has been transferred
from Lucy to the assembly.
In the first place, her being the direct ruler was only until the council was
formulated.
The delegation of authority went smoothly, and the assembly members
immediately began discussing new policies.
When all is said and done, Lucy will be left with only the influential
authority of the Marchioness of Krasland and the right to command the
military.
Her influence on the government and judiciary will be reduced, but at the
same time, the meddling from the other side will also be lessened.
Lucy may be a talented military commander, but she cannot rule over this
city alone. Thus, this makes cooperation of the bureaucrats essential for the
administration of the government.
Well, in any case, it is good that she no longer has to do everything.
"Good work, Your Excellency. With this, the delegation of authority is
about half over."
We have just finished our work for the day in the castle's office, a renovated
room formerly occupied by Marquis Krall.
I received the documents signed by Lucy, and after checking them, I handed
them to our subordinates to deliver to the authorities.
After this, Lucy's authority would be handed over to the newly elected head
of the office after several steps of confirmation.
"Thank you for your hard work. All of you may now go home and get some
rest for today."
Lucy then urges her subordinates to go home.
Even in her position as a Marchioness, she has not lost her habit of treating
her subjects as equals except when it is necessary to exert authority, like in
battle. If yo u ar e ab le to r ea d th is me ssa ge, y ou are re adi ng fr om an
unau tho rized ag gregate si te. Rea d at my Word Pre ss at st abbing wi th a
syri nge . hom e. bl og to sup port me and my tr ansla tions.
Well, it's not like Lucy having a pompous attitude would look dignified in
the first place.
More importantly, I also don't want another Krone. She alone is enough.
"Yes, Excellency. We'll excuse ourselves first."
Speaking on behalf of his subordinates, the chief retainer old man tried to
leave the room.
But at that moment, the door to the office was suddenly and violently
opened.
"W-what the!?"
One of the subordinates raises his voice in surprise, but I remembered the
guy who had come in.
If I am correct, he was the bureaucrat who was assigned in duties related to
diplomacy.
"I-is Her Excellency the Marchioness still here?"
The bureaucrat says, seemingly out of breath.
Apparently, he has run all the way here.
"Yes. How can I help you with?"
"Good. She's still here… Actually, a foreign diplomat came here from the
city of Samria."
"Samria?"
When Lucy asked the question, the bureaucrat nodded.
Samria is a medium-sized city just south of here in Krasland.
Like this place, it continued to maintain order and defend itself against
monsters after the collapse of the country's capital.
"I thought we had friendly relations with his city. Is there a problem?"
"No, it is not a diplomatic problem. But it seems that Samria was attacked
by a horde of monsters and has come to our city for aid."
His response instantly increased the tension in the room.
The call for help meant that they had little chance of winning on their own.
"It's not good. If Samria falls, more monsters will attack us from the south
than ever."
"Not only that, we'll have to take in more refugees. We're already on the
verge of being flattened by this burden, and we can't take any more of
them."
One after another, the subordinates listening to the conversation piled up
pessimistic predictions.
Currently, because monster invasions we were receiving from the northeast
have been intensifying, we have more troops allocated there than every
other region.
However, if monsters that could suppress a city the size of Samria were to
flow this way, we would have to move the forces that had been allocated to
the northeastern direction to the south, which would be a big problem.
"I'll meet the diplomat now. Please show me the way."
"Understood."
Lucy stood up after saying that and followed the bureaucrat.
Of course, I went with her.
Where the bureaucrat led us was one of the meeting rooms in the castle.
When we entered the room, several men were waiting for us.
One was a diplomat from our side, but the rest were probably messengers
from Samria.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Her Excellency the Marchioness has arrived."
At the bureaucrat's words, the messengers rise and bow.
"Greetings to you, Her Excellency the Marchioness of Krasland. My name
is Jones, and these are my men and the knights escorting me."
It was the diplomat on the other side who spoke first.
It seemed that he was the head of the messengers.
"We welcome you. We understand that your city is now in considerable
danger, but may we ask you a question? Or rather, a series of it if you
oblige."
"Of course. I have compiled as much detailed information as possible for
this meeting."
Lucy and Jones sit facing each other.
On the large table between them, his man put out a document.
"These are documents I hastily compiled before I left Samria. I will explain
them to you as well."
I sat next to Lucy with the bureaucrats and looked at the same documents.
"It happened about half a month ago. Different kinds of monsters
appeared."
"The document says they were a variant of goblins and ogres, right?"
"Yes and yes. And they were much more ferocious, probably because their
bodies had undergone a great deal of change."
The goblin variants were said to have enlarged front teeth, long beards, and
were covered with gray body hair and looked like rats.
Meanwhile, the ogre variants seemed to have sharpened fangs and claws,
and their entire bodies were covered with black body hair, giving them
bear-like features. This chap ter tra nsla tion is mad e po ssib le by sta bb
ing wi th a syr inge transl atio ns. Check onl y up-to-da te tra nslat ions on
my W rd pre ss si te.
"Mutants with animal features, huh…"
Lucy makes a difficult face at a phenomenon she has never heard of.
I've also read a lot of documents on monsters, but I've never seen anything
like this.
"At first, we managed to cope, but they kept increasing and increasing,
finally reaching to the point where we could no longer keep up with the
numbers."
So said the knight, the diplomat's bodyguard.
He must have fought defensive battles in the city before.
"Because our forces were exhausted, eventually, the enemies invaded the
city."
"The monsters breached the city?"
"We managed to push them into one sector, but our forces are no longer
strong enough to eliminate them from within the city skirts due to fatigue."
"Milady, the situation in Samria is worse than we expected."
I looked at Lucy, and she also nodded.
"We will organize an army for immediate reinforcements." She added to my
reply. "Samria's fall must be avoided at all costs."
"I truly thank you, Your Excellency. We, too, want to save our people as
soon as possible."
Diplomat Jones exhaled a bit of relief.
He had come with the fate of the city on his shoulders, so the pressure must
have been considerable.
"The expeditionary force will be of a reasonable size, so it will take time to
organize it, even if it is quite urgent. In the meantime, please rest your
body."
"Again, we thank you very much."
He expressed his gratitude, and the first meeting ended there for the time
being.
The diplomat led the messengers to their rooms, and the rest of us
continued our conversation.
"Your Excellency, a thousand or two of our men will not be enough to take
on an enemy that has even pushed Samria's own forces to the brink."
The bureaucrat, who had analyzed our forces based on the data he had been
given, told us first.
"Yes, we need 5,000 men, considering the worst-case scenario."
"It's quite a large force when considering that we will send them to other
cities for aid."
The bureaucrats who heard Lucy's words also made bitter faces.
With the recent increase in population, the maximum number of troops in
Krasland has increased to nearly 20,000.
Lucy's claim would be to dispatch a quarter of that number.
As someone in charge of a city, this is quite a concern.
"But if Samria falls, we will need more than 5,000 men to deal with the
aftermath. For both our sakes, we will save them."
I could see the determination in Lucy's eyes.
But I also had a bad premonition when I saw it.
"I will take direct command of the expeditionary force."
"Are you serious? No, you're serious from the start…"
The bureaucrat spoke, with a look of astonishment on his face, before
switching his glance to me with my hands behind my head.
"Well, if we include the troops directly under the Marchioness's control, the
allocated strength we'll draw from the city's defense forces will lessen."
"Mr. Sanada, are you serious?"
But I smiled wryly at the upset bureaucrat who spoke the same words the
second time.
"The Marchioness's presence will also boost morale, which is already
reasonable on its own."
I never thought I would have to go out on the battlefield again at this stage.
Well, it can't be helped. Even more now that Lucy is this motivated.
I patted the stunned bureaucrat on the shoulder to bring him back to his
senses, and immediately, we began to organize the expeditionary force to
save Samria.