by Dojyomaru
Georg silently closed his eyes.
It seemed that just once after returning to Parnam, Liscia had asked to meet with Georg. However, Georg had shouted at her (or, to be more precise, he’d had the jailer relay the message) and chased her off.
“What business does a woman who will soon be queen have visiting a convict?!” he had shouted.
Liscia had an overly serious personality, so she’d taken those words to heart, and never attempted to visit again. Then, as if seeking a distraction, she’d immersed herself in work.
“She’s putting on a tough face, but... I know she’s not fine,” I said.
“The princess and I had our last parting during the ultimatum,” said Georg. “There is no need for words between us now.”
“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! T
he 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.”
Chapter 7: Promise
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 Ar
my, 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.
