“It was true.”
I had seen the royal treasury vault before.
Even though the Late King had taken to his bed, the Privy Council had seemingly been unable to touch the Key Staff, one of the Royal Regalia. All kinds of treasures and gifts presented to the royal family were stored there.
It held a considerable amount of gold and silver. I had seen the gold and silver treasures, shining on their own, cast their light upon renowned swords and armor until they gleamed as well.
Yet the former Finance Minister’s coastal warehouse rivaled it.
It created an effect as though light were shining out of the sea.
“The entire national treasury is here.......”
“It looks as though the Lion Unit’s annual salaries are all here intact. No wonder they will not return to the capital.”
Near the capital was a trading port, and nearby was an underwater cave exposed at low tide.
Within that underwater cave was the wealth the Finance Minister had amassed. The piles of gold were so enormous that they shone like phosphorescence even in the murky darkness.
The underwater cave had changes in elevation, leaving considerable empty space that did not fill with water. The country’s money was there.
It was exactly as the ledgers had reported.
The amount nearly equaled two years of taxes that the Royal Domain could collect in a bountiful year. It was enough to leave me speechless.
“I expected he might buy some ruined fief or find land to leave to his descendants.”
The main reason nobles usually amassed wealth was to provide for children other than the eldest, who would inherit the family.
They often bought another ruined fief or ensured that even without land, their children could live in splendor on money.
Having lived as a noble, I knew that maintaining a family required much land, while the world’s land was limited.
So they tried to leave behind wealth, at least.
I had understood that to a degree, so I did not greatly condemn noble greed.
But this man had crossed the line.
“He is not buying a fief. He means to buy a country. With this money, he could employ fifty thousand mercenaries for years....... Recover every last bit for the national treasury.”
“It will likely take three days.”
“Three days? Well, I suppose.”
The Finance Minister’s private warehouse was littered with bones and remains that appeared to belong to adult men.
Judging by their wounds, anyone could see they had been murdered.
It seemed they had been silenced through death after handling transportation.
In other words, the embezzlement had continued for a long time and in great quantities—enough that it required many people to move it.
“It is an immense fortune, so bring more troops. We cannot leave it here long.”
“Your Highness, but that many men will weaken the royal citadel’s defenses.”
“Do not worry. Unless troops capable of attacking the royal citadel appear from the sky, there are none within three days of the Royal Domain.”
They looked as though they wondered how I could know that, but the northern knights were accustomed to my patterns, and they bowed in agreement.
“......Yes.”
I put the northern soldiers to work as laborers and had them fill the national treasury at once.
I intended to show everyone that this much tax had been embezzled.
This purge had been undertaken with the calculation that it would bring the Privy Council under my control.
The Late King’s body had not even fully stiffened, yet the Regent’s purge had begun. I needed a justification for killing him.
Of course, even without justification, I had planned to prevent anyone from raising that point by killing them all.
But killing the Late King’s ministers indiscriminately was not without its burden.
So by securing justification, I intended to shed as little blood as possible.
Afterward, I headed with my attendants back toward the harbor to prepare to return to the royal citadel. Several ships loaded with cargo came in.
“It seems wheat from the volcanic island has arrived. Hmm.”
***
“This is no different from raising troops and rebelling against the country. He stole the King’s property and starved the entire country. Is that not causing turmoil in the country?”
After displaying the Finance Minister’s head on a stake, I convened a Privy Council meeting over his vacant position.
“My God.”
Naturally, this Privy Council meeting was tense.
They must have seen the Finance Minister’s head hanging in the royal citadel’s square as well.
Perhaps because of that, only the Archbishop opened his mouth.
Even then, he merely closed his eyes and recited a prayer for the dead man’s peace.
“Therefore, the House of Tranquia will be exterminated, and for the time being, the Queen herself will handle the work of finance.”
“The Queen herself?”
“I have already inspected the agencies under the Finance Minister. I will harshly punish those who embezzled the national treasury at the mint, harbor authority, and royal trade outposts, and newly select suitable people to assist the Queen.”
The Finance Minister might have done most of the stealing, but judging by its scale, it was certainly not the work of one person.
Of course, replacing every lower-ranking clerk would make the purge far too large.
I could not execute corruption so pervasive that the kingdom’s institutions would cease functioning at once.
Even I thought there was no choice in that.
But if I announced that Her Majesty would personally handle the treasury’s receipts and disbursements, thieves would not be able to freely pocket money as they had until now.
At first, I did not intend to let them spend freely except from the royal treasury.
Still, if she gradually came to understand tax collection, the use of funds, and finances, it would not be bad for Her Majesty to continue handling the Finance Minister’s work.
When she ruled in her own right later, this experience would become the foundation that let her control the Finance Minister she appointed herself.
“By the way, why is the Minister of Justice not present?”
The Privy Council was, in principle, attended by the Archbishop, who handled religious policy; the Finance Minister, who oversaw the finances and household; the Foreign Minister, who handled diplomacy; the Minister of Military Affairs, who handled military affairs and was represented by the Lord Protector; the Minister of Justice, who handled law and punishment; and the Minister of the Interior, who supervised the affairs of the royal offices.
Beyond them, I, as the royal authority’s proxy, could summon intelligence officers, administrative officers, the chamberlain, the captain of the capital guards, other high nobles, and more. For now, I had not summoned them.
Yet the Minister of Justice was absent.
The Chief Justice of the Royal Court of Justice was attending in his stead, and he trailed off.
“It is that...... He has not appeared for three days.”
“Is that so?”
That meant he had not appeared since the day after the Finance Minister was slaughtered.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
“......Did he flee?”
I did not say it as a certainty, but seeing that no one said anything, it seemed to be true.
It was absurd.
Come to think of it, a few more absences stood out.
I had not bothered to prevent news of the Finance Minister’s slaughter from getting out, so those who heard it seemed to have fled.
The Finance Minister’s murder had the appearance of a purge of the Late King’s ministers, so they had fled to other powerful nobles or returned to their fiefs.
It was fully possible behavior.
But how dirty must they have been?
The remaining Privy Council ministers watched one another’s reactions, when the Archbishop cleared his throat and took control of the atmosphere.
“Lord Protector.”
“Do you have something to say?”
“Even if the Finance Minister committed such a crime, I believe you should have cultivated justification through procedure. Politics that do not follow procedure are called tyranny.”
“Hmm.”
It was not wrong.
If I did not intend to fight the Church of the Holy Spirit, I had to listen to at least some of the Archbishop’s harsh words.
He was the man who would guarantee royal authority in God’s name at Her Majesty’s coronation.
And even in this vicious situation, with a Privy Council minister slaughtered and his head displayed on a stake, he raised such a point.
The old man had some nerve.
“With the Late King’s death, the subjects will have lost the starlight of the night sky and be wandering in darkness. They will be waiting for the new Queen, a newly risen dawn, to light that darkness. You must not show signs of tyranny by killing people and hanging them up for display.”
He was right.
But it seemed he had missed the point somewhat.
That the new Queen and the Regent showed signs of tyranny? To ministers, that was indeed something to fear.
But to the subjects of the royal citadel? That was not so.
‘The more a king screws over officials, the more the people like it.’
Right then, cheers could be heard even in the royal citadel’s inner ward.
That was fast. I thought it would take a little longer.
In any case, there was nothing money could not do.
“Do you truly believe that will happen, Archbishop?”
From the royal citadel’s Privy Council meeting room, we could look out over the royal city below.
At the sound of the cheers, I rose and made them look over the capital within the royal citadel. At that moment, it was filled with the voices of subjects praising the new Queen.
“......Hmm.”
The faces of several Privy Council ministers and the palace nobles attending the meeting twisted.
It seemed they had petitioned the Archbishop, whose position was secure thanks to the Church behind him, to speak up on their behalf.
‘There are always ways.’
I had thought in advance of a way to solidify control over the royal citadel and the new Queen’s reputation.
A new regime had to begin by opening the prison and the granaries.
It was a signal that the country would remain fine even without petty criminals and a portion of the national treasury.
When I found the Finance Minister’s treasure, ships from the volcanic island carrying food along the capital’s trade route arrived at just the right time.
Using the gold I had found, I purchased every bit of that grain.
Rather than use soldiers to transport the gold embezzled by the Finance Minister, I bought up all the food right there on the nearby coast.
Then I distributed enough food that the Royal Domain’s subjects would not starve for a month.
Scattering silver coins and small coins would cause prices to soar, but food would be consumed immediately in a world where hungry people were still everywhere, so the economy would not be greatly disrupted.
Besides, this was not a world where it could be stored for long, was it?
‘We have executed the Finance Minister, who embezzled taxes and made your lives difficult. Her Majesty, newly ascended to the throne, is also distributing food free of charge to you subjects who have suffered so much!’
What commoner would dislike hearing that?
In truth, some royal-citadel subjects who received food were happy, and those with a tendency to overdo things shouted their thanks toward the royal citadel at the top of their lungs.
The sound was loud enough to reach us.
I could have cracked down on them for daring to shout at the royal citadel, but I did not.
So that this sound would be heard.
“Of course, winning the nobles’ hearts will be more helpful to royal authority than winning the people’s hearts. As the royal authority’s proxy, I certainly intend to do that.”
I added a word to the Archbishop and Privy Council, whose faces looked as though they had bitten into something unpleasant.
No matter how much I bestowed upon the people, it would only strengthen control over the Royal Domain, which was but one territory.
For control over the entire country—that is, for royal authority—winning the hearts of the nobles who literally governed the people would be far more helpful.
In this case, I had cut off a noble and Late King’s minister’s head without procedure, so it would be difficult to win over the nobles. That was also why I had chosen the next best option.
It did not matter, since national income had increased enough to let me choose that option.
“Therefore, be loyal to the new Queen. Then we will share the same heart, and I can be friends with those whose hearts align with mine at any time.”
And so, I threw them a carrot as well.
If they swore themselves to the weeping child Queen for whom they had no desire to be loyal right now, I could overlook a small amount of corruption.
***
I came to see Her Majesty again.
“My Queen, this subject pays his respects to the Queen.”
“Grand Duke! Ah.”
Her Majesty hurriedly looked for the crown.
Though I had told her she did not need to wear it, she still did so.
“You need not be constrained by it.”
“No. I know that this is why I am treated this way.”
There was no need for the crown to turn her into a hip-hop female warrior.
Still, the King’s insistence on wearing it had the right foundation, so I did not say anything more.
I only had to hold back my laughter.
“What brings you here, Grand Duke?”
“I came because I was curious whether Your Majesty was studying well.”
“I-I am trying this.”
After taking on the work of finance, Her Majesty was calculating from ledgers.
She had not been responsible for it long and must have been overwhelmed, but she was working hard at her task in her own way.
In truth, a young Queen raised to the throne by a Regent had little to do beyond practicing protocol for the Late King’s funeral.
Then there was official coronation practice, and nothing else.
Then....... She should study hard in her free time.
I had books from the Royal Library kept in Her Majesty’s office at all times.
Her Majesty’s bedchamber, rather than her office, held several liberal arts books related to mathematics and several books related to literature.
Hmm.
“Your Majesty, do you perhaps have a hobby of composing writing?”
“Ah, yes. I wrote a poem once, and the teacher who taught poetry cried when he heard it!”
That teacher seemed to be a flatterer. Would it be better to keep him away from Her Majesty, or to let him keep teaching her as he had in her days as a Princess, when her confidence was weak?
“Do you know how to speak logically, or write that sort of prose rather than verse?”
“Of course! My verse was excellent as well, but I have been praised that my prose is even better.”
That man was a god of flattery.
“I see, Your Majesty. This subject has a request.”
“Yes, please say anything, Grand Duke. If it is something I can do.”
“Could you do the work of creating words?”
“Does that mean you wish me to compose writing? Ah! So I must write diplomatic documents or royal decrees?”
Ah, of course she had to do that.
I had come intending to appoint a new Minister of Justice, since the old one had fled. But there was a law code on Her Majesty’s desk as well.
Let us learn just one more thing, Your Majesty.
“Your Majesty, are there any rules you wish to make?”
“Rules I wish to make?”
“I mean, making everyone follow what Your Majesty says, and making people remember and follow that rule even when you do not keep saying it.”
“I-I!”
“Yes.”
“I would not want a dead person’s body to be torn apart too much. I would not want their stomachs cut open either.”
She did not like excessive punishment.
The authority over punishment was at the core of royal authority.
“Those are reasonable words, Your Majesty. Then, how about trying your hand at handling the law?”
“Pardon?! Ah, no. I cannot memorize all those complicated legal provisions. Uh, uhh. Those laws, you have personally fought wars and know military law, so.......”
Her Majesty had shown that she had thoughts of her own, but when I tried to make her do it, she was once again seized by fear.
Of course, a cautious personality, one afraid enough to consider this and that, suited the handling of law.
And the monarch was the law.
So long as we did not touch inheritance law, tax-related laws, or mobilization laws, there would be no problem.
Or even if we touched them, so long as we guaranteed each lord their own interpretation of the law within their fiefs, rule of law from the royal perspective would not pose a major problem.
Unlike finance, law was difficult to entrust to a northerner in the Royal Domain’s Privy Council, because northern customs differed too greatly.
“Your Majesty, reading law codes with my one eye tires my eye terribly, so it is difficult for me to hold on to the law and interpret it for long.”
“Ah, ahhh. I-I see. Then I will, I will try.”
One eye was universal.
She was a kind person.
“Then I will seek out and appoint assistants to support the rule of law Your Majesty will carry out.”
“Grand Duke!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Could it be...... Do you also not ride a horse well because of one eye?”
It was an out-of-the-blue question.
“Ah, no, that is not so. Why, ah.”
And before long, I realized why she asked such a question.
Her Majesty shouted.
“That, that really is really. I have...... never even been praised for it! Really!”
‘Ah, I should have said I could not ride.’
Her Majesty had quickly caught on to my pattern of pushing work onto her.