“They’re coming.”
The very next day after the Coronation.
The fourth day since Elined departed.
The army of Grand Duke of Feltkirch, Elined’s new husband, crossed the Kingdom’s northern border.
The report would reach the Royal Castle in half a day.
I had thought there was a chance that he would raise an army at once, and indeed he had.
“I left it open.”
I had left it open as one would leave a vault door open.
The Kingdom’s north was a natural border blocked by a colossal mountain range, but an invasion through the northwestern waterway or the northeastern bypass route was not impossible.
The Empire, our enemy and greatest security threat, lay to the northwest, so I had not withdrawn the troops stationed there. That left the northeast completely empty, which was partly intentional.
‘A new regime needs military merit, and I will extinguish the bloodline of the other claimants to the throne as well.’
For the rule of Her Majesty and me, the Regent, to stabilize, we needed a manageable national crisis. This worked out perfectly.
And it was the very day after the Coronation.
They had attempted a lightning campaign, timed precisely for when Elined would have escaped the country, so as not to give us even the chance to prepare.
It was a day by boat, and the Kingdom’s roads were well maintained on land as well. From the border, one could reach the Royal Castle in two or three days without even having to drive the horses hard.
I had waited for them and even lured them in, and I was confident that I could defend against them. Still, they would not be complete fools.
They must have committed forces capable of toppling the Kingdom. This was no ordinary matter.
“Your Majesty.”
“Ah, yes. Come in, Lord Protector.”
“You do not need to wear the crown.”
“I will be wearing it.”
She was still clinging to it obsessively.
“Splendid.......”
“W-well, people should naturally feel awe toward me, not toward the crown.”
Praising her for having acquired a ruler’s bearing felt rather strange, so I had intended to simply call her splendid and smile.
Yet Her Majesty, having learned it from somewhere, was haltingly expressing her conviction that she should inspire awe even without the crown.
Her manner of halting speech did not suit that conviction at all, and it nearly made me laugh. Still, I restrained myself from showing anything beyond a smile.
Her Majesty might feel differently, but I did not think it was entirely good to keep smiling at someone simply because she was cute.
If one of my vassals did that, I would think, ‘This bastard thinks this is funny?’
But......
She was already reading my expression again.
“But I do not inspire awe......”
I had been about to let it pass with a smile, but she immediately said something so lacking in confidence that I made my voice stern.
“Your Majesty.”
“Yes?”
“A ruler’s majesty is revealed through politics. It is not revealed through an imposing appearance, manner of speech, or a ruler’s few talents.”
“Ah.”
“Your Majesty is a rare young ruler, so I understand why you worry. But a ruler is also a person. In youth, the innocence of one who learns and grows is bound to show through. In old age, when illness comes, the frailty that prays to God for what comes after death is bound to show through as well.”
“......Is that so?”
“Therefore, do not force yourself. I will ensure Your Majesty’s majesty......”
“But.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I think I must not show Your Grace my weak side.”
“Hmm.”
“Ah? What is it, Grand Duke?”
Those words reassured me, and I wanted to smile, but I worried that she might think I was looking down on her.
So I asked.
“May I smile?”
“Y-you look much cuter when you smile....... More dignified. Please show me the smile you wore at the Coronation.”
It seemed she had been looking into a mirror.
I did not know who was one to say that, but I would take it to mean that I looked less frightening.
“I keep hearing singing, so I am happy too.”
The subjects of the Royal Domain also seemed exhilarated at gathering together like this and singing as a group.
More and more people were humming hymns in praise of the Queen, and those songs often reached Her Majesty’s ears directly.
I had seen Her Majesty smile, so it was time to state my business.
“Your Majesty, word will soon come that the north has been invaded. Please proclaim resolutely that you will repel them.”
“What!? Already?”
“It was expected, Your Majesty. When the throne is passed on, the country is at its most vulnerable. Due to the conflict with the Duke of the East, the Royal Castle’s defenses are weak, and the north is empty because my Northern Army has come to the Royal Capital.”
“Now that I have held the Coronation, am I not this country’s rightful successor, recognized by God? Why would they wage such a war?”
She was not even suspicious of how I knew.
It would have been troublesome if she had questioned that first.
“Their pretext will naturally be to condemn the Regent’s tyranny, claiming that they cannot recognize the King’s successor. Your Majesty must trust your vassal.”
In military matters, my position allowed me to wield nearly the full authority of a commander-in-chief.
A Queen who was ten years old, had been on the throne for one month, and had held her Coronation only a day ago had no grounds for anyone to condemn, no matter how much they wished to do so.
Therefore, they would find their cause by calling me, the Regent, an utter bastard.
If they claim they are coming to punish me because I am a bastard, Her Majesty must firmly reject that claim. Only then can I mobilize the forces of the Royal Castle and the Royal Domain without hesitation.
“Really, really, they are going to invade....... Grand Duke, can a mere duchy dare to set its sights on this country?”
“That is not so.”
“Then why are they invading? Is this not a war they are certain to lose? ......Ah?”
Her Majesty stopped in the middle of her questions, lifted her chin, tilted her head, and stared directly at me.
“Why is that, Your Majesty?”
“Your smile has deepened too, Grand Duke.”
It seemed she had noticed.
It was because I found her commendable.
Her Majesty was right.
A mere duchy was not in any position to set its sights on a kingdom of this scale.
The former Minister of Finance’s plundering of tax revenue, along with the operation of the standing army system known as the Lion Unit, which was difficult to sustain even at the Kingdom’s scale, might have temporarily made the level of their treasuries similar.
However, in territory, population, and productive capacity, that measly duchy likely amounted to no more than one-tenth of the Kingdom.
There was truly no reason to fear an invasion by a mere duchy.
For instance, if the Lion Unit, an ultra-elite force assembled through that difference in national power, happened to be stationed in the barracks within the Royal Castle.
“They will know that there are no proper forces in the Royal Domain. They will also know that most of the nobles are in the Royal Castle. In that case, they will expect the north to be empty and the nobles to offer no scattered resistance, then attempt to surround the Royal Capital at once with cavalry.”
“Must we bring the East into the fold to stop them? Since the north is so thinly defended.”
Her Majesty was asking whether we could use the East’s forces to stop them.
How commendable.
No one in the world could match me in military ability unless they possessed a separate power like mine, but Her Majesty still needed to understand the basics.
“The East ought to take the most active part in this war. This war will take on the character of a succession conflict within House Palatina.”
A war of royal succession was not a national all-out war.
Above all, she was no distant relation of the royal family. She was the Late King’s second daughter.
Some nobles would remain neutral because they would not mind if the realm continued through her.
On the other hand, if the Royal Domain had too little military power to stop a conflict over the throne of this scale, or if it could not exert the internal authority needed to mobilize the nobles—
Most nobles would have little reluctance to serve another sovereign from the same family.
“I hear that cavalry makes up most of their forces. Then we must meet cavalry with cavalry.”
“That is correct.”
“Ah, um. You are smiling a lot!?”
“I apologize. It is discourteous of me to smile before Your Majesty. I have been rude.”
“No, please do not stop. It looks nice.”
Cavalry had to be met with cavalry.
She had put that well, and I was pleased again.
“Or a siege......?”
“I am not considering a siege. The Royal Castle must not be attacked.”
“But if we rely on the Royal Castle’s walls, would we not be able to stop an army of ten thousand?”
The capital, Palatina, was fortified as a walled city.
There was one natural moat, but its waters ran straight and only served to stop an invasion from the south.
The Royal Castle, the inner fortress, stood on a hill within the city. Its defenses had been strengthened to the utmost, and it could withstand the siege of tens of thousands of troops.
But......
If we held out here, the civilian residential districts would be devastated.
“The ruler’s home was attacked. That fact alone inevitably lowers the ruler’s authority. If the people and districts of the Royal Capital are damaged by the enemy’s siege weapons, who will they blame? Therefore, I will not hold out under siege.”
“Then do we not need more troops? But as for the troops, I......”
If we conscripted the able-bodied men of the Royal Domain and Her Majesty’s direct estates, we could likely raise another twenty to thirty thousand soldiers.
Of course, there was far too little time to mobilize troops against enemies who would wage a lightning campaign centered on cavalry.
“Do not worry, Your Majesty. The bastards may think they have chosen the ideal time through the speed of their campaign, but in truth, they have invaded the Royal Castle at the worst possible time. I can stop them, so please put the wartime laws in order.”
“Do you have some ingenious way to gather more troops?”
“There are elite soldiers in the Kingdom who are not currently known.”
“Ah?”
***
“Why are the gates of the Royal Castle being closed all of a sudden?”
“Are you a noble who participated in the Coronation?”
“I am. But why are you blocking passage?”
“Intelligence has arrived that more than ten thousand Eastern nomad cavalry are riding south from the northeast.”
“What!?”
“It appears that Princess Aisia, the daughter of the Deposed Queen, has started a war by claiming the titles of Guardian of the Holy Land and Administrator of the Crossroads. We have heard that they are invading along the main road without attacking any other estates.”
“They are moving this quickly?”
“Your Graces would be safer under the protection of the Royal Castle. Unless your estates are extremely close, it is more dangerous to leave the Royal Castle at present.”
They were holding them back well.
Every noble who had attended the Coronation was being prevented from returning home.
Originally, I had arranged for events to continue after the Coronation, in which they would have an audience with Her Majesty and offer personal greetings. I had said that the courtesy shown to guests could not possibly last for only a single day.
Of course, I would not have stopped them from leaving if it were urgent, but a war had broken out immediately. It was only natural that they would be flustered.
“How did this happen, Lord Protector!?”
My unofficial office was the Minister of Military Affairs’ conference room, an annex of the Privy Council building.
It was closer to an ordinary office, but that small room was filled with high-ranking nobles.
“Just as I said. A messenger has arrived.”
The capital had been sealed.
Unable to escape and stranded in the capital, the nobles immediately came to find me.
I received ceremonial treatment equal to that of a Queen Dowager, but in essence, I stood on the same level as the dukes.
So I received the figures of ducal rank who had come to learn what was happening with the capital’s closure.
“Then should you not send us away without delay?”
“If you heard of the movements of the Eastern nomad cavalry before the Coronation, you would know that cavalry make up their main force. The Eastern nomad cavalry, Imperial mercenary companies, and Grand Duke of Feltkirch’s personal guard troops total roughly fifteen thousand soldiers moving south.”
“That many!?”
As Her Majesty had said, this was not a force beyond the Kingdom’s ability to stop.
If foreign forces intended to seize the entire Kingdom, they would need one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand troops.
However, for an operation aimed only at the capital, those forces were still considerable.
“Grand Duke, is this invasion not a struggle for royal authority within House Palatina?”
It seemed he intended to say that, since it was a struggle for royal authority, they had nothing to do with it.
By common sense, he was right.
When a dispute over the throne arose, nobles could fight for the sovereign they supported, but generally, they remained neutral.
They would receive no reward for staying neutral, but at least they would break even, and their titles would not be stripped away.
In a struggle for royal authority, the sovereign had to make even more conciliatory appeals to win the nobles’ support.
During the Late King’s reign, there had been wars from which none of the nobles could withdraw, such as the Empire’s full-scale invasion and the subjugation of heretics. Those were national undertakings, but war was generally like this.
“Do not worry. You are all Her Majesty’s guests. How could we ask guests to risk their lives in a desperate battle? I will stop the bastards with my own Northern Army and Her Majesty’s forces.”
“Are the Eastern cavalry not the problem?”
“It seems you have heard of their customs.”
Even these men knew well of the Eastern nomad cavalry’s ferocity.
If they left the Royal Castle to return to their estates and were unfortunate enough to be discovered by them—
“I hear that they fill the entrails with grain and eat them as provisions, and that those entrails are human entrails.......”
That seemed to be a somewhat distorted rumor, but I let it stand so that they would be properly frightened.
Upon hearing of the enemy’s ferocity, a fearful silence fell over the nobles.
Once I judged the time had come, I spoke.
“Since things have come to this, why not fight alongside my Northern Army?”
“What?”
“I hear that, because of the Minister of Finance’s brutal killing, you all brought quite a few knights with you.”
Some six hundred nobles had each brought their own attendants and guards.
Most of those armed guards consisted of private soldiers and knights whom the nobles had painstakingly trained.
‘Thousands of elite soldiers.’
They had heard the rumor that the Regent would purge the nobles and brought many guards just in case.
And now, they have become my soldiers.
Why get cold feet, then?