Of the roughly one thousand nobles invited to the King’s funeral and coronation, about six hundred and twenty had conveyed their intention to attend.
I had expected it to stop at three or four hundred, but as expected, upon hearing that the Duke of the East would participate, they hurriedly reversed their positions and said they would attend, even at this late hour.
The remaining three hundred and eighty or so nobles were those who truly could not come, or those who had heard the news and still refused to budge.
Here, I was able to experience the nobles’ approval rating of the regime indirectly.
If we formed a coalition government with the Duke of the East, it was sixty-two percent.
If not, there would be no great issue in comparing it to a maximum of thirty or forty percent.
“By the way, did having a child bring about a change of heart in him?”
The Duke of the East’s cooperation had increased the regime’s stability.
Considering everything from his diverting the Lion Unit without justification to his usual conduct, I had thought he would force through the logic of power without restraint.
Then we would have had to begin a war of succession at once and tear the country in two.
I had been prepared for that, but the Duke of the East unexpectedly approached the matter through ordinary political discourse. I was surprised that he had not rebelled even though I had remained consistently coercive.
“I feel a little sorry for him as well.”
It had been the right decision to demand that he offer his newborn daughter as the goddaughter of Her Majesty, her older cousin, but on a human level, I did feel somewhat sorry for him.
After all, I had threatened to make him give up the first child he had ever had as a hostage.
Of course, I had originally intended to maintain a consistently hard-line policy toward the Duke of the East.
I had left the northern border empty, allowing an invasion by foreign enemies to go unchecked.
Foreign enemies would invade as a result, and if matters went awry, I could turn the Duke of the East into a cabal of traitors among traitors.
“There are no less than forty countries sending diplomatic envoys.”
The diplomatic envoys included even the small northern countries we had not invited—more precisely, countries we had thought would struggle to ally with us because the Empire stood in the way.
‘You want us to keep them in check from the south. That must be what it means.’
The Duke of the East had acknowledged Her Majesty, more than half the nobles had expressed their support, and the reaction abroad was fervent.
If things continued this way, Her Majesty’s coronation would be held without much trouble.
But one more spark remained that could be used to assert a claim to royal authority.
It was the late King’s youngest daughter, whom his former foreign wife had taken with her into exile.
Officially, the current line of succession after Her Majesty was as follows.
First in the line of succession was Her Majesty’s half-sister, Princess Aisia Palatina, an imperial granddaughter.
Second was Her Majesty’s uncle, Benevento Friuli, Duke of the East.
Third was Her Majesty’s cousin, the Duke of the East’s daughter, who had not yet even received a title.
Fourth was Her Majesty’s youngest uncle, Duke Rovello.
Fifth was Her Majesty’s aunt, Princess Royal Alice of Eldipe.
The late King had two younger brothers and one younger sister, who were closely arrayed throughout the line of succession.
Duke Rovello, fourth in line, was the youngest of the late King’s siblings and had no intention of leaving his villa-like castle on the scenic southeastern coast of the Kingdom.
He loved books, was kind, was skilled at painting, and was devout in his faith. But after a riding accident in his youth, he could not walk, and the trauma kept him from even going near horses.
Naturally, he could not ride in a carriage either.
[I apologize to Her Majesty and the Regent, but the journey is too far and difficult. With these two infirm legs, it would be too arduous a journey. I could gladly endure the strain on my body, but I am deeply concerned that I would have to attend upon Her Majesty in an unsightly state. Please look kindly upon this pitiful and afflicted person.]
[Even if I cannot use my knees for the new Queen, I shall bend them and offer loyalty. If I break this oath, it would be no different from forsaking my faith, and I would deserve punishment.]
[Every count and baron under my administration will attend.]
It was a duke’s letter, but when a man with bad legs swore to that extent, it would be almost embarrassing to press him further.
For that reason, Duke Rovello had announced that he would not attend the coronation, but there were not many nobles who followed him anyway, and all the subordinate nobles in the territories under Duke Rovello’s domain would attend.
There was no need for a king to go to the battlefield personally, but his physical disability was a weakness. Unless he had a son, of course.
Thus, he was not in a position as threatening as the Duke of the East.
“He needs to be married off as well.”
As the youngest of the late King’s siblings, there was a considerable age gap between him and the late King, but not much of one between him and Her Majesty. He was now twenty years old.
Because he was paralyzed from the waist down, people doubted whether he could produce an heir.
Despite being a royal descendant in his own right, he had not yet married. Thus, even if the throne passed to him, the succession after him was uncertain.
The late King should have seen to his marriage, but it seemed he had neglected to arrange the marriage of his youngest brother at a time when he had not even had the leisure to compose himself.
Because we had a duty to make the royal family flourish, arranging his marriage was something I had to do as well.
Fifth in the line was the late King’s younger sister and third-youngest sibling, Alice of Eldipe, who had married a prince of another country.
But that prince had now died young, and though she remained as the grand duchess ruling Eldipe Domain, the subjects of that foreign country did not welcome her.
She had once expressed her intention to undergo the formal procedure for dissolving the marriage through the Church of the Holy Spirit, return the territory, and come home.
If she returned, I intended to summon her to the royal palace and make her a relative who would protect Her Majesty.
Ordinarily, if there was no Queen, the title of Princess Royal—which oversaw the royal family’s women’s ceremonies—was held by princesses who had not married foreigners. She was suited to that role.
At present, Her Majesty and Countess Dvari divided those duties between them.
“Your Grace!”
“Have you arrived?”
Meanwhile, I had been waiting upon hearing that a northern messenger had arrived.
The horses raised on the northern plateau plains had great endurance despite their large size, yet the northern rider had arrived in such a hurry that even his horse looked exhausted.
“Your Grace, the Grand Duchy of Feltkirch’s...”
“Its troops have moved, and it seems that a black-haired nomad tribal cavalry force has joined the Grand Duchy as mercenaries and is preparing to move south together.”
“What?!”
I had never seen this messenger’s face before, and he was surprised.
If a northern messenger had rushed here in such desperation, it could be nothing else.
It meant that either an invasion or signs of an invasion had appeared. The Empire would likely find an invasion difficult because even as I withdrew the northern border troops, I had strengthened the border with the Empire instead.
Then the forces that would attack the Kingdom’s northern border were most likely the Duke of the East’s eastern Kingdom forces and the Lion Unit, followed by the young Grand Duke of Feltkirch, the former Queen’s new husband, and the mercenary forces he had drawn in.
“Is that so?”
“I-I was ordered to arrive as quickly as possible, but... did you already know?”
His face showed surprise at how I could know without a telephone, but among my close retainers and northern knights, ‘Of course he knew’ was the usual response.
The men who spent their time joking with me sometimes said impudent things such as, ‘If you knew, you should have told us in advance,’ and were occasionally struck for it.
“You have worked hard. Naturally, I cannot be the only one to know. Formally convey this matter to Her Majesty and the Privy Council.”
Thus, receiving a messenger was, in effect, for the purpose of putting the matter on the official agenda.
I could have delivered the news myself, but there was no reason for me to personally handle matters such as the delivery of news.
***
The Queen and the Privy Council took the northern messenger’s report seriously.
“Then... does this mean that they intend to start a war?”
Her Majesty received a report on state affairs with the Privy Council in attendance.
The crown still looked precarious, the arms she had placed on the armrests looked unsteady because the throne was still far too large, and her legs dangled above the floor.
Even so, Her Majesty tried not to show how awkward she felt as she read the northern military dispatch and set it down.
There was ample reason for me, the Lord Protector and acting representative of royal authority, to answer Her Majesty’s question.
“It is an armed demonstration against the Kingdom in order to assert Princess Aisia’s claim to royal authority, as another daughter of the late King.”
“And if... if that claim to royal authority is not accepted?”
“It means that they will naturally invade.”
“Mmm.”
Her Majesty seemed somewhat afraid, but all the Privy Council members, myself included, had sensed that this would happen.
Because the laws of the world had not been completely put in order, differing interpretations of inheritance law left room for disputes according to custom, secular law, and religious law.
Thus, whenever a new king ascended the throne, there were bound to be disturbances and rebellions caused by people who found different grounds on which to assert their own claim to royal authority.
Moreover, Her Majesty had a younger sister whose status was interpreted differently under the two principal systems of inheritance law: primogeniture and bloodline-based succession.
It was fortunate that she was a younger sister. Had she been a younger brother, the Kingdom might have been torn in half.
“Then, does that mean my throne? But... Imperial law and the Kingdom’s law...”
There should have been a Minister of Justice to answer, but he had fled long ago, so there was none at present.
As head of the Privy Council, I answered in his place.
“Indeed. The Kingdom has adopted primogeniture, while the Empire has adopted bloodline-priority primogeniture. The Empire cannot try to change our country’s laws, so it cannot make the shameless assertion that Princess Aisia must inherit the throne.”
“But is it not the Kingdom’s law that Princess Aisia, the late King’s child and my younger sister, inherits the throne after me? Until I have a child?”
Elined, the late King’s former wife who had plotted his assassination, had committed the crime of rebellion, so all her privileges and ceremonial treatment had been stripped away.
But Aisia, the late King’s youngest daughter by Elined, had been a nursing infant at the time.
Under religious law, which prohibited guilt by association, she was innocent, and her bloodline was indisputably that of the late King’s daughter and the Emperor’s maternal granddaughter.
Within the Kingdom, she was Queen Casertania’s lawful heir and first in line to succeed.
She was also a venerable person, sixteenth in the Emperor’s line of succession.
With a bloodline of that degree, she was also the great lord of a territory where the Kingdom and Empire’s disputes and unrest were already present.
If only she could be brought over to the Kingdom’s side, she was someone whose territory could be added to the Kingdom and whose presence could strengthen the royal family.
But she was still a child, a puppet of the Empire.
At present, alongside her mother who had married into an imperial-aligned grand duchy, she had become a symbol that would swallow this country whole with the Empire’s support.
She was the person most capable of shaking the Kingdom, so it would be better if she disappeared.
“They are likely to demand the Master of the Crossroads and the Guardian of the Holy Land, along with the cession of part of the Royal Domain to support them.”
“Ah.”
“You must not accept it. It would be no different from handing over land and food in the very heart of the capital with which to raise and feed enemy soldiers. And if you do not accept, they will naturally invade.”
“Then will war truly break out?”
“Rumors are already widespread that the eastern nomad cavalry will receive a share of some of the gold mines owned by the former Queen’s new husband, the Grand Duke of Feltkirch.”
After her divorce, the former Queen remarried the young Grand Duke of Feltkirch, who ruled the northeastern border region of the Kingdom.
The Grand Duchy of Feltkirch was a mountainous basin country possessing rock-salt deposits and gold mines. Its population and territory were not especially large, but it was wealthy, and was assessed as capable of fielding an expeditionary force of ten to twenty thousand.
It was a wealthy small power that could hire many mercenaries and pay their wages.
With the Empire’s support as well, it could fight the Kingdom. Without support from nobles such as the Lion Unit and the Duke of the East, their simple numbers and military strength might even exceed ours.
“I-I have heard of cavalry’s power as well.”
I spoke while looking at Her Majesty’s expression.
Only stutter in front of me.
Before Countess Dvari, she had the natural manner of a childish, defiant daughter.
How much should I smile before she stops being afraid of me?
“If they enter the Kingdom’s n-northern rear plains, would they not reach the royal capital by road in one or two days, given cavalry’s mobility? Then we would n-need terrain capable of stopping them before they approach the royal capital. Hff.”
Her Majesty took deep breaths now and then, trying not to stutter as she spoke.
That was better.
“If they ride without stopping, the advance party could arrive in a day, if we are late in establishing a defensive line.”
“Then does the Lord Protector have a plan to stop them?”
“If I did not, I would not be qualified to protect Her Majesty.”
“Does that mean you cannot tell me the strategy?”
As Her Majesty continued to breathe deeply, her tone gradually grew calmer.
When she spoke, she settled herself. That was our Her Majesty.
“I have naturally prepared a plan, so Your Majesty need not worry.”
The movements of the nomad cavalry and the Grand Duchy of Feltkirch were matters I had kept apprised of in advance because I had to leave the north empty.
Those bastards would regard the northern soldiers leaving the front line to seize the royal capital as an opportunity.
But the Kingdom now had to conduct a national funeral and coronation.
The civilized people of the Church of the Holy Spirit were like that, but the eastern cavalry were even more sensitive about rites of coming of age, marriage, funerals, and ancestral observances, and did not regard a funeral as a favorable opportunity for war.
It would be as monstrous as taking condolence money from a funeral because the bereaved had taken on a private debt.
Thus, while the troop mobilization and the hiring of nomad cavalry had been urgent in order to pressure the Kingdom, the time for invasion would be delayed. There was only one strategy that the Grand Duchy’s economic strength could pursue.
“Have they not divided their forces? There are not many Royal Domain troops following you at the royal capital and the northern border with the Empire.”
“Grand Duke, Her Majesty’s question seems reasonable. Since the Duke of the East is here, are you perhaps planning a joint operation?”
The Archbishop offered another word again.
Ignoring him, I addressed Her Majesty.
“Your Majesty.”
“Yes, Grand Duke.”
“This servant has confidence in matters of war. At the root of that confidence is a perspective unlike that of others.”
“Ah, do you mean that eye of yours?”
“Because of it, I will often pursue tactics and strategies that lie outside the common sense of Your Majesty, the officials, and the knights. Since they will differ from common sense, I will be opposed. Perhaps I will not tell even Your Majesty at times, and I will ask you to consent even to things you cannot understand.”
I already held a position that allowed me to use the troops without Her Majesty’s involvement, but there might be people concerned that I would use the Queen’s troops in such a way.
Leaving aside the Northern Army, the Royal Domain troops and other nobles’ forces could refuse my commands, thinking, ‘Is this not an order to die?’ They could appeal my strategy to Her Majesty and demand my impeachment.
“If you do not want that, devise the strategy yourself and pass judgment upon it.”
Her Majesty took breath after breath, then rose from the throne to answer.
Then, placing a hand upon her chest, she shouted.
“That the Frost Sword is in the Grand Duke’s hands is my will.”
She began with a stutter, but once she spoke the language by which she called herself the Queen, Her Majesty’s voice shed its softness and became firm.
Then, seeing the looks in my and the Privy Council ministers’ eyes that seemed to say, ‘Oh?’, she blushed, sat back down on the throne with her hands pressed to her knees, and smiled bashfully.