The Imperial Palace of the Myers Empire.
Recently, state council meetings had been held every day.
The reason was, of course, the rebels.
News kept arriving through Imperial Intelligence that Count Grakal, who had raised the banner of overthrowing the imperial family, had sent proclamations throughout the land and that lords from the south-central region and the border margraves were answering his call with armies of their own.
The Third Prince, Kaon, had been hurriedly dispatched with cavalry to prevent the rebels from expanding further, but no one believed he could seriously disrupt them with only two thousand men.
Meanwhile, the Empire was already assembling the Central Army, and a second suppression force totaling fifty thousand troops was scheduled to march south.
Today was the day before the departure ceremony, when the emperor would bestow the ceremonial axe of command upon the commander of the suppression force.
“Second Prince, step forward.”
“I humbly obey the imperial command!”
The Second Prince strode confidently before the emperor.
Bandes von Myers.
He had distinguished himself since childhood and was known as a genius of swordsmanship.
Compared to him, everyone had regarded the Third Prince as a disposable piece.
The reason no one within the court opposed sending Kaon ahead was that they believed this was a perfect opportunity to knock the unruly prince, who barely had a faction to his name, out of the succession struggle.
If the Third Prince's troops were the vanguard, then the Second Prince's army could be called the true suppression force.
Just as the emperor was bestowing the axe of command, an urgent report arrived.
“Your Majesty! A military dispatch from His Highness the Third Prince!”
“Bring it here.”
The emperor and the ministers alike wore expressions that said the inevitable had finally come.
In the worst case, the Third Prince might have suffered such a disastrous defeat that even his corpse could not be recovered.
Some thought that, knowing the reckless prince, he might somehow have managed to keep himself alive, though perhaps at the cost of an arm or a leg.
But the report delivered through Imperial Intelligence exceeded every expectation.
BANG!
“What!? Is this true!?”
The emperor, who had been reading the report, slammed a hand against the throne and shot to his feet.
A ruler was supposed to restrain his emotions as much as possible.
For the emperor to react this strongly had to mean something terrible had happened to the Third Prince.
‘Tsk, tsk. He ran off with barely a handful of troops, and it seems he finally met his end.’
‘That reckless fool knows nothing of war. On a real battlefield filled with flying steel, he probably pissed himself and died…….’
“He defeated the enemy main force of fifty thousand with only two thousand troops and occupied their stronghold, the Grakal seat!? On top of that, he drew in the surrounding lords and built an iron wall around the region?”
“Y-Yes. It is said that His Highness the Third Prince even personally led a cavalry charge…….”
“How is that possible!? Could the intelligence be wrong? If we calculate the speed of the messengers, Kaon would have had to cover that entire distance in five days and then crush the enemy main force in a single day. How could such a thing be possible?”
“It is said he used scarecrows to exaggerate the size of his army and create a false show of strength.”
“Huh.”
Murmur, murmur.
The hall erupted into commotion.
Simply hearing the report made the achievement sound insane.
He had attacked an enemy main force of fifty thousand with only two thousand troops, yet suffered almost no casualties.
And as if that were not enough, he had continued advancing with unstoppable momentum.
It was a feat that should have been impossible unless the God of War himself had descended.
That was why even the emperor had shown such rare astonishment.
The ministers were no different.
The Second Prince's shock was especially great.
“There is no way that report is true!”
“Watch your tongue. This dispatch was not submitted by the Third Prince alone. It was cross-verified by the surrounding lords before being sent here. Official matters are official, and personal matters are personal.”
The emperor's eyes remained clear.
Not long ago, he had suddenly acted as though possessed and ordered the Third Prince to attack the rebels alone.
But ordinarily, the emperor was a man with the qualities of a wise ruler.
A reckless prince had suddenly achieved an extraordinary military victory?
How was he supposed to interpret that?
‘The Third Prince had been deliberately hiding his abilities.’
‘He knew he could not compete with the Crown Prince, so he lowered himself by squandering imperial wealth and pretending to be worthless.’
‘But even with this achievement, can he really surpass His Highness the Second Prince now?’
Everyone arrived at similar thoughts.
Military achievements did have a tendency to be exaggerated.
Even so, it was undeniable that Kaon had defeated the enemy main force and seized their stronghold.
The ministers' thoughts were more complicated than ever.
At that moment, Marquis Weiss, the Third Prince's great-uncle and the supply commander, stepped forward.
“Your Majesty! Forgive this presumptuous statement, but His Highness the Third Prince foresaw the present situation in advance.”
“He predicted his victory?”
“That is correct. His Highness said that if he succeeded in driving back the enemy main force and occupying their stronghold, a formal distribution of rewards would surely follow. He therefore instructed me to submit a petition to Your Majesty. May I reveal his request here?”
The emperor's gaze trembled slightly.
‘Kaon…… Was everything you did until now merely a smokescreen?’
If that speculation was true, just how many moves ahead had he been thinking?
When Kaon asked for two thousand cavalry, the emperor had worried that something was wrong with his mind.
Yet before leaving, he had apparently met with Marquis Weiss and even discussed his future reward in advance.
It was truly astonishing.
The emperor's evaluation of the Third Prince rose sharply.
“Speak.”
“His Highness the Third Prince wished to take up a post in the Bior Territory on the Empire's frontier and prove his abilities there.”
“Prove his abilities?”
“He said that a fertile territory would be more than he deserved and requested that he instead be granted land on the frontier.”
The Bior Territory.
It was not particularly famous, but rich deposits of mana stone lay beneath the land.
That was why Kaon had singled it out.
The emperor felt secretly pleased and was about to approve the request immediately.
But suddenly, his voice would not come out.
It felt as though something were interfering.
It was the same sensation he had experienced when he had forced the Third Prince to suppress the rebellion.
“……Denied.”
“May I ask the reason, Your Majesty?”
“The Bior Territory is too remote. Kaon has achieved extraordinary merit. If I fail to reward such service properly, who would risk their life for the Empire?”
Cold sweat ran down the emperor's body as he forced out the excuse.
Fortunately, the explanation worked.
‘This is our chance to bury the Third Prince!’
At that moment, Marquis Gales, head of the Second Prince's faction, stepped forward.
“Then, Your Majesty, why not appoint His Highness the Third Prince as Northern Commander and grant him the Lampas Territory?”
“The Lampas Territory?”
The emperor's eyes narrowed.
For an emperor who was trying to keep the competition as fair as possible, the suggestion was deeply irritating.
Northern Commander sounded impressive, but in practice, it meant little more than telling Kaon to go there and die.
The region suffered from vicious cold and was filled with all manner of wild beasts and monsters.
For generations, nobles had avoided receiving it as a fief.
Marquis Gales spoke as though he were making a generous concession.
“The Northern Army is already stationed there. If Your Majesty grants him another three thousand troops from the Central Army, it will be a great help. What greater promotion could there be for a prince who has achieved such distinguished merit?”
‘That is not a promotion at all, is it?’
The emperor tried to say those words.
But without realizing it, he found himself nodding.
A sign sent by the gods.
A mere human could not reject it.
“Approved.”
An imperial decree was issued appointing Third Prince Kaon as Northern Commander and lord of the Lampas Territory.
***
Kaon ruled as temporary lord of the Grakal Territory and administered military government.
As small and mid-sized lords continued gathering there, the infantry stationed in the region alone had surpassed thirty thousand.
Under normal circumstances, Kaon, as commander of the suppression force, should have governed the region personally.
But he did not bother.
He hated tedious work, and he already knew he would be leaving soon anyway.
Most of the administrative burden was dumped(?) onto the lords who had followed him while loudly declaring their loyalty to the imperial family.
Kaon himself spent his time leisurely training.
Boom! Boom!
“Urgh!”
“What in the world is this!?”
Sir Mitchell recoiled in shock at the sword aura Kaon had unleashed.
Only ten days earlier, Kaon had possessed barely enough ability to defeat a single ordinary soldier.
Now he had improved to the point that even Sir Mitchell was startled.
Not only had his fundamentals in swordsmanship become firmly established, he had suddenly become capable of using sword aura as well.
His skill was now sufficient for him to be knighted without embarrassment.
The knights watching nearby were stunned.
“His Highness had been hiding his abilities all this time.”
“Without even us knowing?”
“He must have trained in secret. He did not want to raise a banner against His Highness the Crown Prince. Honestly, with this level of skill and strategy, he could easily have built a faction of his own.”
“I see.”
At Sir Jerome's words, the knights of the Imperial Third Knight Order found themselves nodding.
There was no other way to explain what Kaon had been showing them.
But Kaon himself was thinking something very different.
‘I got stronger again?’
The original owner of this body had been an idle wastrel who despised moving.
His strength had not even reached the level of an ordinary person, and he had been so weak that he could not have handled a conscript.
Yet somehow, his stamina had increased enough to endure that forced march.
Now, he had even become strong enough to face a low-ranking knight.
It had started ten days ago, when basic swordsmanship had suddenly been imprinted into his mind.
His body had filled out as well, and his muscles now had the springy resilience of a knight who had trained with a sword for years.
Something was clearly interfering.
And today—
He finally understood why.
“Your Highness! The vanguard of the relief force has arrived!”
“A relief force?”
“The cavalry commander brought an imperial decree. What shall we do?”
“What do you mean, what shall we do? Bring him here immediately!”
The knights brought the cavalry commander into the training ground.
Kaon gave a military salute in the direction of the imperial capital, then read through the decree.
“Northern Commander and lord of the Lampas Territory?”
“Gasp!”
“Th-That place is practically the middle of nowhere!”
The knights made no effort to hide their troubled expressions.
From the perspective of an imperial prince, being appointed commander of a frontier region was an extremely important post because it allowed him to build up his own power.
But not all posts were equal.
And of all places, the isolated north?
It was brutally cold, and they would have to defend against various foreign tribes and monsters as well.
It was practically forbidden land.
Service there was so difficult that throughout history, not a single high-ranking noble had ever held the region directly.
It had always been governed as imperial territory, and the permanent Northern Army had filled its ranks by forcibly conscripting criminals.
In other words, the moment Kaon took up the post, a road of hardship stretched out before him.
“Hah!”
Only then did Kaon understand.
He had personally won over(?) the supply commander and specifically chosen the Bior Territory.
Yet the emperor, his judgment twisted by the author's interference, had agreed to send him north instead.
And from that, Kaon learned one thing.
‘Every time the author interferes, I get stronger.’
The reason swordsmanship had suddenly been imprinted into his mind.
The reason firm muscles had begun forming on what had once been a weak body.
The author was not omnipotent.
Whenever he interfered with this world, he had to provide something in return.
That was why Kaon had been able to grow stronger so quickly.
The knights erupted in protest.
“Your Highness! You must return immediately and challenge this!”
“The Second Prince must have pulled something! The decree itself says that Marquis Gales, the Second Prince's lackey, was involved!”
“Enough.”
Kaon first silenced the shouting knights.
This was an imperial decree.
If they went any further, they could end up indirectly insulting the emperor himself.
That would be dangerous.
“Hand the territory over to the relief force's vanguard, then we return to the imperial capital. After that, I will immediately take up my post in the north.”
“Your Highness! With military achievements like these, you could receive any number of better territories…….”
“It is only proper to obey an imperial decree. Any further objections will be treated as defiance.”
It was not as though Kaon was not furious.
Even so, the Lampas Territory in the north was not necessarily bad.
It was inferior to the mana-stone-rich Bior Territory, but it was still land where he could build a foundation for growth.
A place where deadly disadvantages and opportunity coexisted.
Kaon looked up at the sky and muttered.
“Author, you bastard…… Did you really forget your own story?”