It has been almost a year since I appeared in Santeneri.
I have done virtually nothing of my own initiative. It has been a year spent simply observing and being carried along by events.
I now have a very rough understanding of Santeneri.
But all of it has come through the filters of the people around me. There is very little I have actually experienced for myself.
If you merely run your hand across the surface, Santeneri feels perfectly smooth.
The lords who serve as ministers—let’s call them that for convenience—cooperate with one another, and the great nobles rarely display open hostility. No one comes running to denounce a political enemy. Everyone thinks of the good of the kingdom and diligently attends to government affairs every day.
Or.
So.
It.
Looks.
Naturally, if you put that smooth surface under a microscope, you would discover mountains and valleys everywhere. An astonishingly turbulent world would probably spread out beneath your eyes.
That is all speculation, of course.
Santeneri’s political forces can broadly be divided into three groups.
First comes the political bloc centered on the Royal House and its retainers.
The ruling party, basically.
Most of the ministers belong here.
That said, there is a considerable range in just how loyal they are to the Royal House. Houses such as Froisbourg, which holds the Stewardship, and Barois of the Royal Guard are extremely loyal because of their closeness to the throne.
On the other hand, House Pluville of the Interior and House Montbrier of Finance owe their positions more to the personal abilities of their current heads than to the standing of their houses, so their political positions are more fluid.
And then there is House Delroise, the leading house of the Army of the Kingdom of Santeneri, which stands just a little farther away from the throne.
They were never military counts enfeoffed by the Royal House. They are great lords in their own right, so they possess relatively greater independence.
Next come the people who serve as counterweights to Leroy royal authority.
They fall into two groups.
There is the anti-Royal-House bloc centered on the Duke of Aquiane.
And there is the group of outside great lords centered on the Duke of Gaillure.
The largest opposition party and the second-largest opposition party.
Forming a coalition with the largest opposition party would be difficult.
Their current head, Pierre, is in a position to inherit the Royal House if I die without leaving an heir.
There are several other cadet branches created during the reign of Grois XI, but those descend from children of secondary consorts or mistresses, so their blood claims are weaker.
Pierre’s line is different. A son of Grois X by his principal queen married a daughter of the Duke of Aquiane, creating the Aquiane branch of House Leroy.
My great-grandfather Grois X must have thought something like, Excellent. Now we can absorb one of those “states within the state.”
That did not happen at all.
The Grand Duchy of Aquiane has been an enormous, almost kingdom-like territory in southwestern Santeneri since the days when House Leroy was little more than a pack of river pirates along the Roi River.
It has its own history and culture, and even its language differs considerably from the standard language of Strois.
In the end, the Leroy son-in-law was simply absorbed into Aquiane.
House Aquiane maintained a steadfast policy of keeping out of the various projects undertaken by my father, Grois XII—most notably his wars.
Sometimes they even criticized him openly.
Two generations of foreign wars and territorial expansion under my grandfather Grois XI and my father Grois XII greatly increased Santeneri’s prestige on the Central Continent.
The people were ecstatic.
They took pride in seeing Santeneri’s flag—in other words, the heraldic banner of House Leroy—flying across distant corners of the world.
Grois XI was even called the Great King and was loved by the common people.
At the same time, he was hated.
People unable to feed themselves because of heavy taxation enlisted in the army and died in foreign lands.
The wives and children they left behind were reduced to destitution and settled in the cities.
Public order deteriorated.
The wealthy commoners who formed the traditional urban population grew increasingly dissatisfied.
Enthusiasm and resentment existing side by side.
That strange contradiction is just barely holding Santeneri together.
Then, after two generations of reckless expansion, the third generation took the throne.
Me.
The younger, previous version of me had shown distinctly belligerent tendencies, so the opposition House Aquiane must have been rubbing its hands and thinking, At last.
Pierre styles himself the “Protector of the Common People,” and his retainers make sure everyone hears about it.
Not only in his own territory but even in Strois, he spends his own money on soup kitchens for the poor and the establishment of relief houses.
Of course, that does not stop him from conducting ruthless business when business calls for it.
Had I begun doing something truly stupid, he would probably have thrown his full weight behind bringing down the government.
The second opposition bloc, led by the Duke of Gaillure, maintained a neutral position leaning toward the ruling party.
They cannot stomach the idea of House Aquiane, another “state within the state” like themselves, establishing political supremacy.
But joining the ruling party is not so simple either.
House Gaillure and House Leroy have a great deal of historical baggage between them.
House Delroise, whose military power gives it a major position within the government, once fought House Gaillure in a struggle to the death.
And to the other great houses that occupy ministerial posts, House Gaillure remains a potential enemy.
That creates a strange equilibrium.
In terms of blood, the ruling House Leroy and the largest opposition force, House Aquiane, are close.
They are relatives.
Politically, however, they are obvious enemies.
There is no particular current dispute between House Leroy and the second opposition force, House Gaillure.
House Gaillure has neither a pretext nor any ambition to seize the throne.
And yet old grudges prevent the ruling bloc from drawing them fully into its camp.
In this powder-keg situation, the role I have played can probably be summed up quite simply:
I pulled the rug out from under House Aquiane.
I rejected foreign expansion and began reducing the military.
And somehow I am trying to do it without causing any major defections.
Who might defect?
House Barois, naturally, since they will lose the Royal Guard.
And House Delroise, which is being asked to accept reductions to the Army of the Kingdom of Santeneri.
Both should resist.
Perhaps they are still simmering even now.
But House Barois has my relationship with Mary acting as something of a restraint, while House Delroise has only recently undergone a change of leadership.
And although the Army itself will be reduced, House Delroise has been shown the benefit of incorporating the Royal Guard into it.
So for the moment, they seem willing to endure it.
Dismantling the Royal Guard was a fairly outrageous move.
No one expects a king to give up his final weapon.
And no one can demand that he do so.
But precisely because I volunteered to do something that extreme, everything else has just barely remained manageable.
It is insanity, really.
Without the Royal Guard, all it would take is a single army unit raising the banner of rebellion to create an immediate crisis for the throne.
Hell, if the citizens of Strois decided to stage an uprising on a whim, I would be finished.
This is Earth history I am applying retroactively, but as far as that knowledge goes, what I ought to be doing is creating a system in which the king directly controls the entire military.
Except military command in Santeneri became the vested interest of great noble houses ages ago, and I have no idea whatsoever how the whole thing actually works.
So logically, instead of “absorbing the Royal Guard into the Army,” I ought to be “absorbing the Army into the Royal Guard.”
The Royal Guard is still relatively close to me, after all.
Then I remove House Barois from control of the Royal Guard and connect the army directly to the king’s will.
I systematically crush the power of resistant great nobles, violently when necessary.
At the same time, I reform obsolete institutions “from above” and modernize society under the king.
It sounds wonderfully proactive and heroic.
And it would probably fail immediately.
Every noble supporting the Kingdom of Santeneri is frighteningly capable.
They would see straight through my plan.
First, the Assembly of Nobles would ignore convention and refuse to countersign my royal decree.
That would more or less be the end of it.
Afterward, I would become “gravely ill” and sadly pass away.
Incidentally, if I had continued with my original plan to expand the Royal Guard, forces outside the government would have reacted immediately as well.
House Aquiane would have loudly stirred up the population.
“The king does not trust his people! That is why he expands the Royal Guard! His Highness Pierre, Protector of the Common People, has no need for such guards. He protects all the people, and in turn all the people protect him!”
Something like that.
The Army might even have aligned itself with Aquiane.
After all, the Royal Guard is essentially an expression of mistrust toward the Army, a restraint placed upon it.
A Duke of Aquiane promising to abolish that restraint would be attractive to them.
And in terms of blood, he is unquestionably a cadet of the Royal House of Leroy.
They could recognize him as their sovereign without any great difficulty.
Then should I simply eliminate Aquiane on the first move?
Fabricate whatever charge I need and have him arrested?
What would happen?
Executing the man first in line to the throne would itself be an outrageous act almost beyond imagination.
Unless the Duke of Aquiane personally tried to shoot me dead in front of a crowd of witnesses, something that blatantly criminal, it would be extremely difficult.
Honestly, even then executing him might just barely be impossible.
At most, he would probably be confined in some old castle somewhere.
And if I ignored all of Santeneri’s conventions and forced it through anyway?
First, the Duchy of Aquiane declares independence.
Angran or someone similar guarantees that independence.
The Army itself becomes useless.
The Duke of Delroise, who commands it, is an independent great lord just like Aquiane.
Naturally, he would think, I’m next.
And then Gaillure probably declares independence too.
Welcome to Santeneri’s Autumn Independence Festival.
And the man who had been desperately trying to stop me from charging full speed toward destruction despite understanding all of this was the Steward.
I really can’t thank him enough.
And if I had remained the way I was, House Froisbourg would eventually have gone over to the Duke of Aquiane as well.
Of course they would.
Their loyalty is not to me personally.
It is to the Royal House.
The Duke of Aquiane, commanding the military and the Steward while enjoying popular support—
versus me, sitting on a naked throne protected only by the Royal Guard.
No.
By that point, even the Royal Guard would become dangerous.
They, too, are loyal to the Royal House.
And the Duke of Aquiane is a member of that house.
Some sort of compromise might easily be reached.
For the sake of avoiding civil war.
Thus the young king would fall gravely ill.
Several days later, he would die.
A new king would ascend the throne.
Pierre II, perhaps?
Ah, maybe Pierre III.
Kings only began using Grois as a regnal name generation after generation from Grois VII onward, so earlier Santeneri had kings with all sorts of names.
So if the old me had continued charging ahead unchanged, I would never have become known as an incompetent king.
History books would record me instead as the tragic young king who fell ill only months after ascending the throne.
Maybe one line.
When I first started studying history, I used to think everyone in the past was stupid.
Ancient theocratic states.
Medieval feudal systems.
Early-modern absolute monarchies.
What idiotic systems, I thought.
If I became king, surely I could immediately build something much better.
What complete nonsense.
Look around in any direction and all you see are extraordinary people.
They understand the circumstances they have been placed in.
They search for the best answer available at any given moment.
They have decisiveness.
They have the ability to act.
Being surrounded by people like that makes me painfully aware of how insignificant I am.
In the end, there are almost no choices available.
Expand the Royal Guard or reduce it.
Either choice means gambling with your life.
Maybe the latter is just slightly less terrible.
That is about all.
Do you understand?
Being an incompetent king is not easy.
Surviving is, in fact, incredibly difficult.
◆
Tonight’s dinner guest is the Duke of Delroise, currently the hottest subject among the noble ladies, who apparently consider him ever so dashing.
He is so handsome that looking at him is mildly irritating.
First, he is tall.
Then there is the trained, inverted-triangle shape of his upper body.
Not quite muscular enough to call him a bodybuilder, though.
His black hair is parted neatly to one side and fixed in place.
His features are sharply defined.
There is not a trace of softness around his jaw.
Deep beneath his brows, his eyes sit in shadowed sockets, gleaming with the hard light of obsidian.
And then, as the finishing blow, he is wearing the black semi-formal uniform of the Army of the Kingdom of Santeneri.
It is cut like a suit, fitting naturally along his body, with gold embroidery on the epaulettes adding just enough splendor.
Well.
If you imagine a young salaryman working for a major trading company in Marunouchi, you will be pretty close.
Extremely good at his job.
Fast-tracked for promotion.
Family loaded.
Intelligent, considerate, and flawlessly competent at escorting women.
Actually, let’s add that he grew up overseas too.
He probably speaks about three languages at native level.
And naturally his hobby is futsal.
I am having dinner with that man.
“Come to think of it, Lord Jean, I heard you were acquainted with Lady Mary?”
The courses had ended, and I addressed him while we picked at dessert.
Jean Ene en Delroise.
A young man who became head of House Delroise after his predecessor died suddenly last year.
By convention, he should have automatically succeeded to the office of Lord of the Army.
Due to various circumstances, however, he has remained Deputy Lord of the Army.
More precisely, I have kept him there.
“Yes, Your Majesty. However, I merely had the privilege of seeing Lady Mary on several occasions during joint military exercises. She was serving as adjutant to the Inspector General of the Royal Guard.”
“That is correct. I too saw His Grace the Duke of Delroise from a distance on such occasions. But today is the first time we have actually spoken.”
Have you worked it out yet?
Tonight I invited both of my King’s Personal Attendants.
I am in the center.
Mary is seated to my left.
Braune to my right.
An impregnable formation.
Incidentally, I specifically asked Mary to come not in a dress, but in her Royal Guard semi-formal uniform.
She resisted quite a bit.
After that incident, Mary stopped wearing military uniform entirely.
I understand why.
But this time I begged her.
“Please help me.”
She put it on immediately.
Is that some kind of hypnotic trigger phrase?
“My, then you have had a connection for quite some time! To be acquainted with the young Lord Delroise—I am terribly envious. Seeing the two of you together in uniform like this, you truly do look wonderful together.”
Braune launched an absolutely vicious opening attack.
That is her style.
She likes to provoke.
Incidentally, I agree completely that Jean and Mary look absurdly good together.
Handsome Marunouchi elite salaryman and beautiful hard-driving career woman.
They look like they spend evenings having intelligent conversations in some fashionable bar in Kagurazaka.
I hope a meteor hits Marunouchi.
Kagurazaka too.
Akasaka and Shibuya may live.
“I cannot say whether a man such as myself is worthy of so dignified and beautiful a lady as Lady Mary, but if Lady Braune says so, it does give me a little confidence.”
Jean answered smoothly with a faint smile.
Kind of irritating, isn’t it?
Do you even know about Mary’s golden-retriever routine, you bastard?
“Lady Braune seems very familiar with His Grace the Duke of Delroise. I suppose that, like all the other noble ladies, Lady Braune is also fond of very dashing gentlemen.”
Mary brushed a strand of blond hair behind one ear as she spoke in an unusually prim voice.
“Why yes. Braune is a woman, after all. Surely there is nothing wrong with my admiring a very dashing gentleman?”
I can feel an intense stare drilling into my right cheek.
Braune is looking directly at me.
“Ah, Lord Jean is a fortunate man indeed. To receive praise from two of Santeneri’s fairest flowers. I am so jealous I may have to seek refuge in drink.”
My attempt at a graceful landing was immediately shot down by Braune, who answered with a completely straight face.
“Your Majesty appears to be under a misunderstanding. Braune was speaking of Your Majesty. Lady Mary, apparently, was not.”
“Of me? I am no different. I have no interest whatsoever in rumors about the sort of ‘gentlemen’ Lady Braune favors.”
Braune’s voice suddenly went completely flat.
Mary was visibly entering mild anger mode.
Like a glass filled with water right to the very rim.
I drained the glass in front of me.
No, this is no good.
I cannot get to the actual subject like this.
Aren’t both of you displaying a little too much killing intent?
Jean, sitting opposite me, watched the noble ladies trading sparks across my body with an awkward smile.
No.
He was observing them carefully.
Good.
That was exactly what I wanted.
I wanted him to see this situation properly.
“Well then, let us end the evening here. Pleasant hours pass quickly. I regret bringing things to a close, but it would not do to keep the ladies so late that their health suffers.—From here on, we unnecessarily sturdy men shall enjoy ourselves in private. Wouldn’t you agree, Lord Jean?”
I forcibly brought the conversation to an end.
Time to talk business.
◆
“I like hedgehogs. That is why I feel a certain affection for your Black Hedgehogs, the Sur Noir.”
The Black Hedgehogs—Sur Noir—are the finest infantry force in the Army of the Kingdom of Santeneri.
They number thirty thousand.
Despite formally belonging to the Army, the unit originated as the infantry force of the Duchy of Delroise, and even today most of its officers and soldiers come from Delroise.
It is the same pattern by which the Royal House of Leroy’s own military force developed into the Royal Guard.
The name Black Hedgehogs—Sur Noir—is rather amusing.
In Santeneri, the hedgehog is synonymous with cowardice.
How that name came to be attached to an elite unit famous across the continent for its utter disregard for death, I have no idea.
“I am honored. To tell the truth, I once indulged in the unnecessary suspicion that Your Majesty might dislike the Sur Noir.”
“I cannot blame you for thinking so. But that is a misunderstanding. I genuinely like hedgehogs. I am something of a hedgehog myself—a coward—so I dislike rapid change.”
I topped up my wine and offered him some as well.
Wine poured personally by the king, you know.
“You hardly appear so to me. Your Majesty is decisive. One can sense it even from far beyond the court.”
Jean is not actually far beyond the court.
He is acting Lord of the Army.
In other words, what he means is:
How much longer am I supposed to remain ‘acting’?
“I am not decisive. I am a coward, so change frightens me. Lady Braune and Lady Mary help me. Lord Jean and everyone else help me. I spend my days curled up on the throne.”
“It is only natural that we retainers of Leroy support Your Majesty.—But I wonder about Lady Braune and Lady Mary. Both are exemplary noblewomen of whom Santeneri may rightly be proud, but they are women nonetheless. Surely the situation places a considerable burden upon them.”
That statement told me quite a lot about what Jean was thinking.
He had come here having made up his mind.
“Lord Jean. I will put this simply.
“I will not give up either Lady Braune or Lady Mary.”
It was already late.
Time to get to the point.
“Your Majesty, lest there be any misunderstanding, allow me to speak equally plainly despite my presumption. Do you mean that you have no intention of relinquishing the Royal Guard?”
“I understand why you would interpret it that way. Let me state this clearly. The Royal Guard will be integrated into the Army of the Kingdom of Santeneri exactly as planned.
“But I will not relinquish Lady Mary.
“That is what I mean.”
“Then the Royal Guard will continue to retain its cohesion as a unit.”
“Yes. But under Army command. In other words, the Army will gain two great pillars: the Sur Noir and the Royal Guard.
“Under your command.”
The Duke of Delroise regards absorbing the Royal Guard as essential.
To accomplish that integration, he had most likely been planning to marry Mary, daughter of House Barois, as a symbolic union of the two forces.
“Hedgehogs are patient creatures. They can sit still and wait. They can remain in one place for a very long time.
“I am still young. I can wait a little.
“What about you?
“Can you wait a little longer?”
“That depends upon how long Your Majesty means.”
“Two or three years.
“If things go well, perhaps one.”
“So you do intend to appoint the Lord of the Navy.”
“Are you dissatisfied?”
Jean did not explode.
He had clearly been trained in patience from a young age.
Quite unlike me.
“—I am a retainer of the Kingdom of Santeneri. If it is Your Majesty’s command, I shall obey.”
He did have the expression of a man about to draw his sword, though.
I understand.
He has been prevented from succeeding to the office of Lord of the Army for more than half a year for reasons that make little sense to him.
And now I am telling him to wait several more years.
That is cruel.
“By the way, Deputy Lord of the Army—
“Do you have any interest in the sea?”
“The sea?”
He looked puzzled by the abrupt change of subject.
“I intend to have the Lord of the Navy serve as Lord of the Army while retaining his current office.”
“—Your Majesty!”
Jean began to rise, but I stopped him with one hand.
“This will not be a temporary dual appointment.
“It will continue.
“Permanently.
“In the future, Santeneri will possess only one national military.
“Under that military will be the navy and the army.
“That is the simple structure I have in mind.”
“Does Your Majesty intend to begin another war?”
“I intend nothing.
“Thinking is the work of you gentlemen.
“I am speaking only of what may become necessary in the future.—The Lord of the Navy is already advanced in years. His body must be finding the burden increasingly difficult.
“After him, I intend to entrust the unified military to you, Lord Jean.”
There will probably be occasions in the future when Santeneri must deploy its military, just as there have been until now.
But perhaps not in the form of conventional pitched battles.
Something different.
And when that time comes, having the army and navy separated would be terribly inefficient.
There should be someone above both who can coordinate and employ them together.
I know nothing about military affairs.
So I have no choice but to leave them to someone who does.
“—It is more than I could have asked for, but… since we have come this far, allow me to say one thing.
“What will Your Majesty do if I betray you?
“You are proposing to entrust me with the Royal Guard, the navy, and the army.
“Everything.
“That strikes me as extraordinarily dangerous.”
Jean had integrity.
He would actually say something this difficult.
Subordinates willing to tell you the things no one wants to say are genuinely precious.
“I do not care if you betray me.
“But would you betray Santeneri?”
“What difference is there? Your Majesty is Santeneri.”
“Abandon that way of thinking.
“I am nothing more than the crown adorning the nation called Santeneri.
“You may kick the crown as much as you like.
“Just do not kick the body.”
If I am the king of the Royal House of Leroy and my subjects are feudal lords, then rebellion terrifies me.
But if all of us are citizens of the Kingdom of Santeneri and I am merely an insignificant ornament, there is nothing to fear.
They have no desire to harm the Kingdom of Santeneri.
So they can ignore an ornament or two and simply leave them sitting quietly where they are.
“Lord Jean Ene en Delroise.
“I have told you what is in my heart.
“And now I have a request for you as well.
“I do not want you to be the lord of Delroise.
“I want you to become the sword held in the hand of the body called the Kingdom of Santeneri.”
Just like me, I wanted him to stop being merely the head of a vast territory called Delroise.
I wanted him to become one of the gears of the Kingdom of Santeneri itself.
“—To think Your Majesty had such intentions…”
“I do not think.
“That is everyone else’s job.
“I am an incompetent king, after all.”