Chapter 194: A Country for the Weak (2)
Translator: KJ
The grand assembly hall of the Imperial Palace's House of Nobles.
Reutern II stood at the center of the platform and raised his voice.
"Esteemed Councilors. The materials you see before you now are the very words that Azento, Prime Minister of Valkania, has been spewing at every gathering, official and unofficial alike."
From the scribe's seat, Sonnet listened intently and moved her pen.
──So long as the threat called the Empire exists, our national defense must be strengthened, even if we must endure the bone-grinding pain of it.
To Sonnet, whose habit of collecting and analyzing records bordered on an obsession beyond mere hobby, this was already familiar ground.
Ever since the moment Valkania invaded Mekerel, she had analyzed every document and speech connected to Azento.
──I loathe the servility of the contemptible nobles who parasitize beneath the Empire's shadow.
And yet, the words now spilling from Reutern's mouth differed from the originals.
──Feeble cowards who cannot so much as draw breath without the Emperor's command.
He was fabricating sentences.
The word choices were different, the subtle nuances twisted into hostility, and with them he was inciting his audience.
──Wretches who rot away even while they still draw breath, like living corpses.
Such blasphemous words, flowing from the lips of Reutern II, settled into the ears of the nobles like grains of sand.
Every face froze cold.
"Councilors, I ask you. Why on earth must we lend our support to barbarians who hurl such arrogant, insulting filth at the Empire... is what I wish to ask!"
All of these words would surely reach the Emperor's ears as well, yet Reutern did not hesitate.
"Why should we hand over the Empire's sacred resources and military might to such base creatures?"
A propaganda script, refined and penned by Johann Goetze to suit aristocratic tastes, then layered with academic justification by Professor Ruben before being presented to Reutern.
Reutern recited every word of it as though it were entirely his own, as though he had arrived at all these insights by himself.
"Valkania is a swarm of vermin, unworthy of even the Empire's mercy."
Sonnet recorded every one of Reutern's remarks without omission.
"Above all, to dare wage war so recklessly, without a single word to our Empire, the very guardian of the continent's order..."
The arrangement of words, the breathing that heightened emotion, the delicate rhetoric that stoked the nobles' sense of chosen superiority.
A speech crafted solely for propaganda and incitement.
Scratch. Scratch.
As the nib of her pen scraped across the paper── Sonnet found herself admitting something she had no desire to admit.
'...It's well written.'
Reutern certainly had an ambition she had failed to grasp.
.......
Owing to Reutern II's opposition, the House of Nobles' session ended without resolution, and Grossman set his direct agency in motion, ordering an investigation into Valkania.
To uncover the reason why Reutern II, that inscrutable serpent of a man, had finally stirred his own body into motion.
"...Hm."
At the report compiled and submitted by the agency, Grossman's brow furrowed deeply as he reviewed its dozens of pages.
When he actually cross-checked Valkania's internal political documents against Prime Minister Azento's unofficial remarks, they had indeed revealed a stance plainly hostile to the Empire.
Next came the academic papers on Valkania from the Imperial Central University.
And then, a recent military commentary published by Professor Ruben, one of the rare scholars who had devoted his entire life to studying Valkanian affairs.
"......."
Grossman turned the pages with a cigar clamped in his mouth.
One page, two pages, three pages... he read through the entire text, hundreds of pages in all.
The incompetence of Valkania's military, its wretched logistics system, the animosity those wretches held toward the Empire's nobility, all of it aligned astonishingly well with the claims Reutern had poured out from the platform.
"He remains an unfathomable man."
Grossman pressed his fingers to his temple.
He was a clever one.
Beyond reading politics, he understood diplomacy and saw into other nations.
"...Rather, this is a good thing."
A faint smile spread across his lips.
The one who had until now busied himself solely with sorting out the power struggles among royals had at last revealed his intentions before the Emperor's eyes.
In other words, he had finally entered the game.
"Better to have him out in the open than hidden."
Grossman exhaled cigar smoke and conjured the face of Reutern II, seated across from him. Three people at an invisible chessboard.
'You, me, and that woman.'
'It seems there are only the three of us left at this table now.'
.......
Heheehe. Kahahaha.
Meanwhile, Reutern II lay sprawled across the sofa in a side chamber, recalling 'that incident' at the House of Nobles.
"Ah, that was fun."
Three whole days had already passed, yet he replayed his performance from that day and let out a chuckle.
"Hey. How was I back then?"
He asked the secretary standing beside him. The secretary, too, beamed and chimed in.
"You were truly magnificent, Lord Reutern. Not a single soul dared even to rebut your words."
"Ahh~ right? Haa~ it was an absurd proposal to begin with. Why would we help such ungrateful morons~"
Reutern II swept back his hair in satisfaction.
He had memorized the script written with Professor Ruben by heart, with a slight slip here and there, and during the speech, those high-nosed nobles had gazed up at him in tongue-tied silence. That electrifying thrill.
"Did you see the face on that old man, Theodor or whatever his name is? I suppose this is why one has to study."
"Yes. Your insight is truly extraordinary, my lord."
"Of course it is. I'm the foremost authority on Valkania, after all."
Reutern II tilted his chin up haughtily and snickered.
"We shall never!"
Then he sprang to his feet and tried to reenact that day's speech.
"...What was it again. Ah, I've forgotten."
"'...be ensnared by the savage games of those people!' was the line."
"Ahh~ right, right. Hey, how did you memorize all of that?"
"That is how deep an impression it left."
"Wow~ you're good. Want to come to Lilac Vita with me today?"
"...It would be an honor!"
Ha ha. Ho ho. These days, Reutern often found himself thinking this.
Life truly is an amusing and delightful thing.
* * *
One day, Princess Justine summoned me to her hideout.
She commended me for the recent rooting-out of corruption in the Eastern Border Region, then turned, as if naturally, to ask about the Valkania war.
"What are your thoughts?"
"Would I dare have anything to add to the diplomacy of the Imperial Court?"
I politely feigned evasion, but the Princess was persistent.
"Father, too, is troubled by it. If the Empire were to take Valkania's hand, it could mean gaining a firm ally. So, what are your thoughts?"
She asked for 'my thoughts' a second time.
It meant: do not, under any circumstances, dodge the question.
"...Is the nation called Valkania even worth the Empire extending its hand first?"
When I countered with this insinuation, the Princess's brow twitched faintly.
"Did Reutern II say something like that to you as well?"
Reutern II, who had denounced Valkania at the House of Nobles.
It seemed the Princess too was keeping a careful watch on his movements.
I gave a faint smile.
"It was less persuasion than simply receiving the information Reutern had collected."
"...That's true enough. That bastard Reutern wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong, no."
The Princess gave a soft snort. It was not entirely a pleasant smile.
"So then, Maximilian. How should the Empire move now? What words should I bring to my father?"
Once again she demanded my opinion.
Perhaps it was a test.
"Rather, why not uphold the dignity of the Empire?"
"...Dignity."
"Yes. The West is cowardly. With their mouths they fiercely condemn Valkania the invader and play the role of justice's apostles, yet they lack the courage to subdue them by force. They cannot even dispatch troops for the small, invaded nation of Mekerel."
Let us sacrifice our own people's lives and money for Mekerel!
─Any politician who utters such a thing would be dismissed on the spot.
"The Eastern Alliance is even worse."
Robrus, where Premier Varmil's great purge was in full swing, and the various Eastern nations gasping under economic hardship.
"On the surface they denounce Valkania, while behind the scenes they secretly sell Mana Stones to Valkania to reap the windfalls of war."
The Princess's red lips twisted.
"Sleds will always be sleds. There's not a sane mind among that lot."
"Indeed. But our Empire can move differently from them."
"Move differently?"
"Yes. The Empire does not need to open its mouth at all."
There still existed on the continent countless minor nations not yet absorbed into the hegemony of the Empire, the West, or the East. They would not become protagonists in the Continental War that was to erupt later, but they would prove a variable impossible to ignore.
After all, in the Continental War before the Regression, more than nine-tenths of the continent's independent states had taken part.
"Cowards say one thing and do another. But the strong prove themselves through action."
Before my Regression, the Empire's diplomacy had been disastrous. Dominated by coercion and threats, with words and deeds so thoroughly mismatched that it became the common enemy of every nation on the continent.
I have no intention of repeating that history.
The Empire must be an object of fear, not a thing of filth.
"What if we remain silent, yet aid Mekerel?"
"Aid a minor nation... what use would that barbaric tribal state ever be to the Empire down the line?"
In southern Mekerel there existed warrior tribes who lived off barren land. Train them right up until the eve of war and they could be put to good use as a perfectly serviceable force, and what's more.
"It would be of immense help to the Empire's reputation. Unlike the hypocrites of the East and West, the Empire would plant the image of one that quietly relieves the weak."
"Then we would make an enemy of Valkania."
"In any case, it is a nation we will eventually have to conquer."
"......."
The Princess suddenly fell into quiet stillness. She seemed to chew over my words, then gave a faint smile.
"But I have one question."
"What is it?"
"Was all of that truly your own thinking?"
In that moment I sensed what lay in the Princess's heart.
The thought, perhaps, that the architect of this strategy was Reutern II.
"...In truth."
Then again, the first to speak on Valkania had been Reutern, and I, Maximilian, was no more than a mere knight of the Empire.
In that case.
"I did discuss matters like these deeply with Reutern."
I would not go out of my way to deny it either.
The Princess's golden eyes rippled for a moment. She laughed softly and tilted her gaze. Those clear eyes flowed like wine.
"Maximilian, what do you make of that bastard Reutern?"
A dangerous exchange.
Depending on how I answer now, Reutern II might be swept out of the Imperial Palace in the not-so-distant future.
"The Reutern II that I know is."
...And yet, for now, at least.
"One of the few loyal subjects worth counting among the figures of the Imperial Palace."
Reutern still had value left to be used.
"And, I believe he is a pure imperialist."
"......."
Princess Justine nodded without a word.
At the sight of her like that, I suddenly felt a certain 'trust'.
──Justine had begun to trust me.
* * *
The royal palace of the independent state of Mekerel was wrapped in late-night fog, the whole place steeped in despair.
King 'Batimus' gazed down at the strategy map, sunk in deep sorrow.
After Valkania's invasion, Mekerel's front line had been pushed back helplessly, for in supplies, equipment, and firepower, their army held no advantage over Valkania in any single respect.
"...What became of the requests for aid?"
At the King's question, the Interior Minister bowed his head.
"There has been no proper reply."
The great powers of the West merely cried out for peace with their mouths.
King Batimus had dispatched secret envoys across the entire continent, pleading for military aid. Yet the answers returned from the Western nations and the Eastern Alliance were all one and the same.
'We have already imposed severe economic sanctions and an embargo upon Valkania.'
'Any intervention beyond this risks escalating tensions between nations and is therefore impossible.'
'So then, what exactly is it that you want from us?'
'If you're an independent state, you ought to conduct yourselves as one.'
A worthless declaration would not save Mekerel's dying people.
That they could not dispatch troops, he could of course understand. Their own people were precious to them as well.
But the claim that they could not provide supplies, no, that they could not even 'sell' them...
was in the end little different from saying they did not care what became of Mekerel.
"...How dark it is."
Just as the sorrow of being unable even to counter his enemies' forced pretexts blanketed the palace.
"──Your Majesty!"
The Captain of the Royal Guard came rushing in with hurried steps.
"A Secret Letter such as this has been delivered!"
A black envelope bearing no seal. King Batimus drew it out, unfolded it, and read down through the contents, taking in the sentences written in the Mekerel tongue, one line at a time.
"...!"
At some point his fingers trembled violently. The paper fluttered and slipped from his grasp.
"Your Majesty?"
"...Ah."
The King sank down upon his throne. Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Amid his retainers crying out for him in worry, the King's expression shifted strangely.
It resembled, far more than sorrow or despair, something closer to joy.
.......
That night, at the Ghost Harbor in southern Mekerel.
Whoooosh──
Cutting through the fog-shrouded sea, beyond the surging waves, dozens of cargo ships of unknown nationality dropped anchor in silence. Endless piles of food, medicine, Rifles, Anti-tank Mines, Mana Stone Bombs, and more, were unloaded onto the shore.
"Everyone, move."
Mekerel's regular army, which had been waiting in advance, set into motion.
They hauled the endless heaps of war materiel toward the Mekerel-Valkania front line.
Of course, no matter how fine the weapons they wielded, the Mekerel army, still short on combat experience, could not overwhelm Valkania's regular army in a single stroke.
But at the very least, they would now possess force enough to fend off a massacre and drag the front line into a stalemate.
And so, as the days passed, and passed, and passed some more...
The northern front of Mekerel.
"What the fuck is this?!"
The Valkanian officer who had captured the Mekerel position after a fierce skirmish picked up the spoils left behind in the trench and frowned.
A state-of-the-art Rifle finished in smooth steel.
It was, beyond any doubt, a modern weapon of a wholly different order than Mekerel's crude, shoddy conventional arms.
"...How the hell do dirt-eating beggar bastards have weapons like this?"
The officer disassembled the rifle's barrel.
"Fuck... this can't be real."
It even looked far superior to Valkania's standard issue.
"Hey! Get over here!"
The officer called out to a passing soldier.
"Yes. Sir!"
"Take this to headquarters."
"Wh-what is this?"
"What do you think, it's a weapon. No wonder these bastards were putting up such fucking fierce resistance..."
And so the captured weapon would be relayed at once to Valkania's military high command.
Before long, Azento, the Prime Minister who held real power in Valkania, would learn of it as well,
and as they mobilized their entire intelligence apparatus to trace the weapon's origin, and traced, and traced again, at the end of that trail they would perhaps,
discover the name 'Reutern'.
~~~
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