The territory of the Urgalia Empire spans one hundred twenty provinces on the Northern Continent, but in truth, the Emperor’s direct domain is only half of that, sixty provinces.
The remaining sixty provinces are ruled by nobles, and most of those nobles are high-born clan nobles.
Duke Inselm, who fought alongside me at the Dalai Plains, is a lord who rules ten provinces in the north of the Empire, and his mobilizable military force reaches thirty thousand. If you add the nobles of Duke Inselm’s faction, it was possible to move over fifty thousand troops.
This is a military power on the level of a small country, and it shows just how great Duke Inselm’s influence is.
In contrast, Marquis Lirgana of the same Noble Clans rules five provinces in the east of the Empire, and including the nobles of his faction, he could gather thirty thousand troops.
Even if he is not as much as Duke Inselm, as far as troops a single noble can move, it can only be called huge.
It was one month after the late Emperor’s funeral ended that Marquis Lirgana raised the flag of rebellion against the Urgalia Empire.
How did this happen, except that I likely provoked Perilla directly?
The plan to provoke Perilla into being rude to me, then use that rudeness as grounds to drive her out of the Imperial Palace, worked well. Or rather, it worked too well.
For my part, I only needed a pretext to drive Perilla out of the Imperial Palace. To be specific, just the insult “a snot-nosed brat born from a lowborn woman’s belly” would have been enough.
However, on top of the insult, Perilla even struck me. This was originally lèse-majesté, no, a barbaric act that would not be strange to be cut down for treason.
In fact, when Perilla’s father, Marquis Lirgana, received the report, he rushed to me late at night in a panic and begged for his daughter’s life.
I had no intention of killing Perilla either, so I ordered Marquis Lirgana, “She must be shaken by my father’s death. Let her rest quietly in her homeland for a while.” With this, I succeeded in driving Perilla out of the Imperial Palace as I had originally planned.
Also, Marquis Lirgana himself offered to step down to take responsibility for his daughter’s foolish act, so I approved it.
At this time, I was grinning, thinking, “Now no one will object even if I make Lady Adelaide the mother of the nation.” After all, even the Noble Clans cannot claim that Perilla, who insulted the Emperor and then slapped him, should be made mother of the nation.
I could also sell a favor to Marquis Lirgana, killing two birds with one stone, I thought—
Sighing softly at the realization, I muttered, “I never thought he would start a rebellion less than a month after the funeral ended…”
Thinking about it now, Marquis Lirgana was probably already thinking of raising troops when he offered to step down himself.
He must have expected that we would be stuck dealing with the late Emperor’s funeral, and during that one month, he carefully prepared in his territory.
What requires special caution is the Noble Clans other than those in the east.
The Noble Clans are split into several factions, such as Marquis Lirgana’s eastern faction and Duke Inselm’s northern faction, and historically they have repeatedly joined and separated. Sometimes the Noble Clans fought each other, but for the most part they took a cooperative stance and worked hard to expand the power of the Noble Clans.
Naturally, this time too, Marquis Lirgana must have reached out to the other factions. And surely he only went through with the rebellion because he judged there was a chance of success.
Thinking that way, the Noble Clans other than Marquis Lirgana cannot be trusted either. If I gather troops from the Emperor’s direct domain and send them east, a situation could arise where the other Noble Clans attack the now-empty Emperor’s direct domain.
At this point, the troops I can mobilize are limited.
Also, it was possible that the Kingdom of Kassia would move at this chance. Or rather, it would definitely move. When I fought the Selseta Army, it seemed eager to move in the east too.
”If that happens, the Holy Kingdom will move too… no, could it be that the Holy Kingdom is pulling strings behind this as well?”
The Holy Kingdom moved the Kingdom of Selseta in the previous war. There is nothing strange about it moving the Kingdom of Kassia and the eastern nobles this time too.
To begin with, I had predicted for a while that the Holy Kingdom would reach out to dissatisfied elements inside the Empire.
I could not believe that Perilla’s actions were ordered by the Holy Kingdom, but—while I was thinking about this and that, Shiron, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke to me.
”…Um, Your Majesty. Are you to go to war once more?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the floor.
”Hm? Who knows. The Chancellor has not said anything to me, but it might turn out that way.”
The Kingdom of Selseta, which we fought last time, is a historic enemy country, and in a sense its relationship with the Urgalia Empire was simple.
But Marquis Lirgana, whom we will fight this time, is a noble of the Urgalia Empire, and to say even more, one of the leading great nobles in the country. The battle may not stay on the battlefield alone.
General Oswald and General Gordon, who lead the regular army, have no problem with military talent, but political negotiation is difficult for them. This is not a question of talent but of authority. If they had to check with me or the Chancellor in the Imperial Capital every time something happened, even one negotiation would take a huge amount of time.
So it is more efficient for me and the Chancellor to be as close to the battlefield as possible—when I explained it to Shiron like that, my exclusive maid stared at me with a worried look, seemingly anxious for my safety.
Ever since I returned from the battle with the Selseta Army, Shiron has spoiled me in various ways. If she thinks I might stand on the battlefield again, she must not be able to hold back her unease.
I spoke in as bright a voice as I could to reassure Shiron.
”It’s all right. I will not be swinging a sword on the battlefield. It was the same in the last battle, but I was only behind the battlefield watching the generals fight. There is no danger. And as I just said, this time I probably will not even go to the battlefield.”
So there is no need to worry, I said, but Shiron’s worried face did not disappear.
Troubled, I came up with a plan, stood up from my chair, and beckoned Shiron over. Then I gently hugged Shiron, who approached while confused.
At once, a strange squeak, “Pya!?” escaped Shiron’s mouth.
”Y-Your Majesty!?” she stammered, her cheeks flushing red.
”I must reward the kind maid who worries about me.”
When I whispered into Shiron’s ear, the maid in my arms jumped with a start.
When I stroked her head and lightly kissed her cheek, Shiron immediately turned bright red to her ears and looked down.
If I had been groping her breasts or butt, she probably would have started lecturing me as usual, saying, “Pray reserve bedroom talk for the night.” But this kind of skinship seems to be okay with Shiron even during the day.
With the faint sound of the girl’s breathing, the sweet scent rising from her neck, and the feel of her soft body in my arms, I could tell that my groin was naturally getting hard.
I kept hugging her for a while, but there was no sign that Shiron was trying to pull away. On the contrary, Shiron also timidly put her hands around my back.
I have hugged her in bed at night countless times, but this is the first time we have hugged like this in the office during the day.
My heart pounded on its own at the unprecedented good mood. Maybe if it is now, she might even allow baby-making in the office—no, no, read the room, me. I must not ruin this rare good mood with dirty thoughts.
It was when I was having such a fierce struggle inside my heart.
Suddenly, a sharp knock, knock, knock sounded at the room door, and Shiron and I jumped apart as if we had been snapped back.
As both of us blushed, the voice of the Imperial Guard standing outside the door reached our ears. That voice announced the visit of Lady Adelaide Kassa, the former Empress.
Bowing slightly, she said, “Arses—no, Your Imperial Majesty. I do apologize for intruding upon your busy schedule.”
Lady Adelaide, who entered the office, apologized for the sudden visit right away.
What a difference from Perilla, who did not even greet me properly, I thought as I responded to Lady Adelaide.
”I welcome Lady Adelaide’s visits at any time. Ah, and you may call me Arses as before—no, I would be happy if you called me Arses.”
The reason I used not the first person pronoun used by the Emperor but the one I used when I was the fourth prince was because I did not want to bring stiff formality into conversation with Lady Adelaide.
Perhaps she understood my feelings, because Lady Adelaide smiled happily and nodded.
”Yes, I understand, Arses. Do call me Ade as before, won’t you?”
”…Huh? Um, I have always called you Lady Adelaide…”
She tilted her head with a firm smile. “Do call me Ade, won’t you?”
In front of Lady Adelaide smiling brightly, what could I have done other than nod and say, “Ah, yes”?
By the way, the only person who could call Lady Adelaide, the Empress, by the nickname “Ade” was the late Emperor. Or rather, since the late Emperor applied silent pressure whenever anyone other than himself called the Empress by her nickname, it is more accurate to say no one could call the Empress by her nickname.
Lady Adelaide also knew this, and sometimes she was amazed at the late Emperor’s jealousy, saying, “Ade is simply far easier to say than Adelaide,” but in the end she was happy that her husband was jealous, so they could be called a rare loving couple for an Emperor and Empress of a country.
Thinking that way, Perilla must have had her own troubles too. Well, even so, I will not sympathize with her.
Anyway, I ordered Shiron to prepare a chair for Lady Adelaide, then asked about the reason for her sudden visit.
”Well then, um… ahem, Lady Ade. May I ask the reason you came?”
Until then, Lady Adelaide had been watching with amusement as I struggled to call her Ade.
But as soon as I asked her business, her face was quickly covered by a serious expression.
Then Lady Adelaide quietly brought up the main topic.
”I have a request regarding the eastern nobles’ rebellion. Arses, would you send me to Kassia as an imperial envoy? I wish to meet my uncle and persuade him to form an alliance with the Empire.”
Trivia:
- Marquis Lirgana offered to step down at the same time he begged for Perila’s life, which Arses read as grief but was actually the noble buying one month to prepare his troops while the funeral kept the capital frozen.
- Arses’s habit of using his old fourth-prince pronoun with Lady Adelaide is a deliberate choice to drop imperial distance, and she rewards it by reviving the nickname Ade that only her late husband was ever allowed to use.
- The Holy Kingdom never appears on the page, yet Arses’s own train of thought links the Selseta Army, the Kingdom of Kassia, and the eastern nobles into one chain, hinting the rebellion may be a proxy move rather than a purely internal noble feud.