Of course, I had expected the nobles to get cold feet.
So, to reassure them, I wrote in the invitations…….
‘Even if they bring guards who somewhat violate Coronation protocol, it will not be held against them.’
That was what I wrote.
The law stipulated how many people could enter the Royal Castle with a noble, depending on that noble’s title.
If nobles suddenly entered the Royal Castle leading hundreds of soldiers, it would mean that the Royal Castle had been seized by other nobles.
However, after hearing news that nobles had been slaughtered at the Royal Castle, they would naturally be anxious and reluctant to enter at all.
So I granted them permission beforehand to bring sufficient guards.
Thanks to that, we would have more than a thousand guards, primarily knights—human weapons.
They could not have walked here, so they would all have horses as well.
“Do you mean that we should fight too……?”
“If you do not wish to, you need not. Simply remain by Her Majesty’s side in the Royal Castle with the Royal Castle Guard.”
“But this is a war of succession......”
“You will suffer no disadvantage even if you do not take Her Majesty’s side. You will simply receive rewards later if you make the right choice.”
Though I had merely stated the obvious, the nobles hesitated.
These people must have been frustrated as well.
I could be this confident because I believed that I would win, but if the Royal Castle were breached, would the nobles gathered here remain safe?
They had attended the Coronation that recognized the Queen, after all.
“Lord Protector!”
It was then.
More people burst into my office.
Prince Haral, a diplomat from Roskile, a country on the Empire’s Northern Peninsula, came after hearing the news here, accompanied by his retinue.
“Ah, Prince Haral. What brings you here?”
“I have heard. The Royal Castle has been sealed, and I have also heard that the Duchy of Feltkirch intends to invade the Royal Castle by mobilizing Eastern nomad cavalry.”
“News truly travels fast. The formal declaration of war has not even arrived yet.”
“If you intend to hold out, we will fight alongside you.”
“Oh? I can only be grateful.”
“This is a cowardly invasion. It is only proper.”
Others had also been isolated by this sudden lightning strike against the capital.
The diplomatic envoys.
Like the nobles, they had remained in the capital because they had many matters to negotiate with the Kingdom. Then this incident had abruptly stranded them.
Unlike the Kingdom’s nobles, the diplomatic envoys had been permitted to leave until the Royal Castle itself came under direct attack.
There was absolutely no reason for them to get involved.
Yet, because they had nothing to do with the country’s political struggle, they wished to join the battle without hesitation.
“However, foreign aid should be requested when a country’s people are overwhelmed. For now, we are fine.”
Still, there was a strong possibility that they did not truly intend to fight merely because this was a cowardly war.
‘We fought alongside you at this time, so hear us out in diplomatic matters too.’
They might be thinking that.
It would mean owing them a diplomatic debt, so I was not entirely pleased.
If they faced trouble later and needed reinforcements, they would bring up what had happened now. What if the Kingdom lacked the means to help them then?
“Are you certain it is all right?”
“If our Kingdom arms a small number of diplomatic envoys to repel foreign enemies, the country’s prestige will be damaged. I cannot leave Her Majesty a country whose prestige has fallen.”
“Do not think of diplomacy and prestige. Please consider a warrior’s pride. We were welcomed as guests, but to ignore our host’s hardship would not merely harm our prestige. It would be a sin against our god.”
Even so, the warriors of the Northern Peninsula, a warrior people, were pleading with me.
There was no refusing them.
“I thank you once again. Your fervent resolve may even make the blood of our nobles boil.”
“Thank you. Then issue your orders whenever you wish. Do you all understand as well?”
“Yes!”
“Dear me.”
All sixteen members of the Roskile delegation raised their ceremonial axes, symbols of their manhood, and declared their resolve to aid Her Majesty.
At the same time, our noble lords were crowded aside by the towering builds and muscles of the Northern Peninsula men.
“......What are you people?”
The men of the Northern Peninsula added that question, looking puzzled at the noble lords who had been standing behind them like sacks of barley set aside.
In this case, I ought to defend the nobles instead.
Were they not the nobles of our country?
“Ah, I was discussing strategy with our nobles.”
“Come to think of it, the nobles had gathered. They must have brought sufficient retainers as well.”
“Is Palatina not a city of knights? We have gained an opportunity to witness their valor.”
The Roskile delegation had neatly provoked our nobles, stranded here and unable to return home, before simply leaving?
I was fond of plots and political performances, but I had not arranged this.
Diplomats knew enough to avoid involving themselves in their host’s affairs.
It was likely just that Roskile followed a different faith, and its customs regarded death in battle as glorious.
Still, since they had laid the board for me, I used it.
“They are merely guests, yet they have stepped forward like this. If you have nothing more to say, please leave.”
I intended to send the nobles away as well.
Frankly, the more troops we had, the better. Still, I was confident that just my fifteen hundred Northern cavalry could chew through a force ten times their number.
There was no reason to share military merit with nobles who were merely testing the waters.
Yet when I tried to send them away as though I had no particular interest, one noble spoke.
“The bastards...... will they not slaughter and plunder without any regard for the succession dispute?”
“There is no helping it. If the Lion Unit were here, or if I had been in the north, we could have stopped them simply by locking them out. But do not worry.”
“How can I not worry?”
“The fact that they are invading in such haste shows that they are impatient. If they have organized a force centered on cavalry, they are maneuvering to target only the Royal Castle in the shortest time possible. As long as no one resists along their route, they should be safe.”
“Grand Duke.”
“Hmm?”
“You should not speak of that so lightly. I have heard that there is a strategy of opening the way, but no matter how I look at it, you do not seem to have the troops to carry it out.”
I smiled as I looked at the noble who had said that.
A lord needed military acumen.
He appeared to be judging the situation well.
“I know you have something in mind, but is there any answer other than holding out at the Royal Castle?”
Perhaps I looked too relaxed, because they were willing to say that they understood I had a plan.
If nearly ten thousand cavalry were charging toward the Royal Castle and the military commander appeared this relaxed, he would look insane.
“If they reach the Royal Castle and begin a siege, must we merely wait inside the walls?”
Still, they seemed to realize how difficult it was to avoid choosing to fight.
“Just stay here. I will intercept them myself.”
“What?!”
“What!?”
The nobles, who had worn expressions full of anxiety until now, turned utterly pale.
I was saying that I would not defend against a force eight or nine times larger. I would sally out and fight them in the field.
They thought I must be insane.
“Grand Duke?! I have heard that the Lion Unit is absent and that your Northern Army numbers fewer than five thousand men!”
“Are you not able to go outside because those men have blocked you? Then they can certainly prevent others from entering as well.”
“How can that be the same thing? A small number of nobles leaving the Royal Castle and enemy troops swarming in are entirely different matters.”
“Hmmm. It seems that Your Grace might be able to stop them. Still......”
Why were the nobles remaining in the Royal Castle concerned?
Because there were too few available troops.
The Late King had been so concerned about this that he could not even close his eyes in peace.
Therefore, everyone would naturally think that the proper course was to rely on the Royal Castle’s walls.
Any commander whose mind was sound, other than me, would think the same.
“Lord Protector.”
“Do you have more to say?”
An elderly noble spoke.
He was Duke Ancona, whose estate lay in the northeast.
“Even if you do not covet further merit, everyone knows of your renown. Even the Duke of the East does not take you lightly and holds you in esteem. Would it not be better to choose the conventional course?”
“Do I look as though I covet merit?”
He had seen through me well.
There were plenty of ignorant people who could not interpret even such a simple political maneuver.
“I cannot understand it otherwise.”
“Indeed.”
When I readily admitted it, their stunned expressions were a work of art.
“......Why would you do that?”
“Naturally, for Her Majesty.”
“If it is for Her Majesty, would it not be better to keep the Royal Domain safe?”
“If a house catches fire, people say that it is the homeowner’s responsibility for failing to manage the house. But we cannot allow responsibility to fall upon the owner now, because the owner is not yet old enough to bear it all.”
“Now that Her Majesty has held the Coronation, is there anyone in the country who does not recognize her as the sovereign, aside from that mad bitch?”
“That is not so. There may be an order of succession to the throne, but the next sovereign is chosen by the current sovereign. Yet you have seen it. There are people who demand that the throne be surrendered, even by force.”
“Huh.”
“I intend to give Her Majesty the right to name the next sovereign. I will make Her Majesty into a sovereign capable of doing so and ease the worries of the nobles and common people. Do not be concerned.”
Cowards were unnecessary.
It was also satisfying to rebuke those who intended to set their spoons at the table only once victory in the war was certain.
***
“Are you not overextending yourself?”
“Come in.”
The Duke of the East had entered as well.
The other nobles were not the only ones trapped by the sealing of the Royal Castle.
“Lord Protector, is this true? The news is extremely urgent, yet the Royal Castle is so relaxed. The nobles are concerned.”
“They appear to suspect a plot.”
In any event, I had sealed every gate of the Royal Castle and had my knight order and the Capital Guard stand in formation as they waited.
Looking at them standing in formation, I could draw up a death list of the nobles inside, cut them all down, and distribute the vacant lands left by their dead owners to a new class, such as Lion Unit officers, thereby earning their loyalty…….
It would be a reform that completely overturned the existing system of noble rule.
But it seemed I was not the only one thinking such thoughts.
“Since you govern the East, you must have known that the eastern nomads had begun to move. Did you not?”
“Did you have the leisure to conduct reconnaissance that far?”
“My Cuckoo Agents are everywhere in the world.”
The Duke of the East shook his head as though he were sick of it.
“Then can you stop them?”
“It will be sufficient.”
“Even without the Eastern Army or the Lion Unit?”
“It would be better to have them, but I had considered the possibility that the Eastern Army and the Lion Unit might join the Duchy of Feltkirch in its invasion. If they have invaded alone, I can stop them without difficulty for now.”
“The troops, no matter how I look at them......”
I placed a hand on the Duke of the East’s shoulder and patted it once.
“The leader of the East and the Kingdom’s greatest warrior are here. Why would we need more troops?”
“Are you relying on that alone?”
He looked incredulous, but the Duke of the East and the two knights he had brought would be more than helpful.
They were not people I could not mobilize.
Rather, to dispel the notion that he had played along with the Deposed Queen, the Duke of the East needed that bitch’s head as well.
“Your Grace, grave news.”
“They have arrived. Convene the Privy Council. You too, Duke.”
Following the messenger, Princess Aisia’s declaration of war arrived.
“To the beloved Queen and subjects of the Kingdom.
“The sovereign is young, and the subjects of the Kingdom…….”
“It is very long.”
Still, we could not simply refrain from reading it, so I had it read aloud.
(Omitted)
“The current Regent is an outrageously arrogant man who abuses the royal authority that should reside in the royal family in order to interfere with the next royal succession.
“The Regent, born a knight of a mere baronial house, received the title of Administrator of the North beyond his station and now seeks to covet even royal authority.
“We must punish the Martial God faction that defiles the Kingdom’s ancient bloodline, which has safeguarded the Holy Land and endured for nearly two hundred years, and restore royal authority to the royal family’s bloodline.
“And, as a blood relative who will protect this lineage…….”
“Hmm.”
I had the Administrative Officer read the letter aloud, but there appeared to be a section that he found difficult to simply recite.
“There is profanity in it. You may read it as written.”
“How could I possibly!? Please wait a moment.”
The Administrative Officer truly was an Administrative Officer. He had the talent to soften things like “dog bastard” into “the esteemed offspring of a dog,” and “baldy” into “a bald man,” all on the spot.
Was it only my imagination, or did the softened version feel even more unpleasant?
“That is all.”
To omit and summarize it, I was apparently a bastard who deserved to be killed.
Because I was manipulating state affairs with a ten-year-old girl, I was apparently a bastard who deserved to be killed.
The sender was six years old.
A six-year-old intended to kill the cowardly adult who had used her ten-year-old sister as a puppet and restore the foundation of the state.
“How absurd.”
Perhaps history books would someday call it the children’s war, and history teachers would joke during class that the two sides had merely pulled each other’s cheeks over toys.