39 - CHAPTER VIII "Audience III"

"The heads of the legions are assembled."

The audience chamber.

The heads of the legions kneeled and bowed to Helian, who was seated in a luxurious chair.

The First Commander of the Legion (Liebe), whose main duty is to assist the king.

The second corps commander (Balan), who is entrusted with important security duties.

And the 6th corps commander (Camilla), who is in charge of espionage and sabotage.

Only these three corps commanders were summoned this time.

I would have liked to call Ertina, who is in charge of internal affairs, but I hesitated to call her because she is in the midst of hard work. Well, it would not be so much of a problem with Liewe.

"Thank you. Raise your face."

The gazes of the three legionnaires, with the king's permission, meet Helian's.

Only a few days ago, he might have been atrophied, but now he was somehow at peace.

He is not as brilliant as Rilifa, but he has flipped the switch as a king. When he reminded himself that he was the king now, the words came out more easily than before.

"I thank you all for coming together at such short notice, given your busy schedules. However, I do not intend to make you waste your precious time. Let's get right down to business."

The three corps commanders reply with a brisk "hah".

As usual, they chanted as if they were practicing.

First, let's recap the current situation. Baran, how is the security situation?

"Ha. There is no problem at all. Your speech has relieved the people of their fears, and the great victory in the last war has relieved the stresses that the army has been under. The newcomers who have been a source of disquiet have been eliminated, and there is nothing to worry about for the time being.

Helian remained silent and responded with a nod of the head.

Although I had known this to some extent, it was reassuring to hear it from Balan's own mouth.

Then, let's move on. Camilla, what about the problem of Noblewood?

"The operation is progressing without a hitch, as you have planned," he said. Their home countries have no knowledge of the destruction of the advance team. Preparations were completed just a few days ago to disclose it at the appropriate time."

He's working fast as always.

If we want to explain why the Alkimaira is hidden and the Noblewoods are all dead, we have to be prepared for that. Camilla was entrusted with the task of making that happen.

Her Sixth Legion, although called a legion, is small in absolute number - [Tactics Chronicle] has a cap on the number of spy units it can have - but it is a specialty and does a great job. It was a good performance.

"By the way, have you heard anything about the commander of the Seventh Corps who has been sent to RATESTWOOD?"

Although he was sent for a reason and to support the reconstruction of RATESTWOOD, he was a difficult corps commander to deal with in a different way from Nogarde. As you can read from his personal characteristics, he is a man of many eccentricities.

However, that was also the reason (・・・・・) why he was sent to LATESTWOOD.

"He's still the same, but ...... well, I think it's within acceptable limits."

It's a very subtle way of putting it, but there's nothing we can do about it.

If it hasn't caused any major problems, good for you.

Next.

"Hmm. And finally, Liewe. Let's hear what you have to report on other domestic issues."

"Ha. First of all, we have refrained from interfering in the Abyssal Forest (Abyssal Forest) issue, basically waiting for analysis. Although the logging work necessary for the development is being carried out under the supervision of the 4th Legion, the fact remains that the Abyssal Forest is an unidentifiable object even with the magical science of our country (Alkymyla). I think that it will not be too late to conduct exploratory activities toward the depths of the Abyssal Forest after the results of the analysis are obtained.

"I agree with you there. It is true that we won a great victory in the last war and gained a base of operations in the forest in secret, but our country is still suffering a great blow from the metastasis phenomenon.

The god who does not touch is cursed.

We need to continue to investigate the mysterious transition phenomenon, but it is not too late to make some progress in analyzing the Abyssal Forest.

Alkymaira is now in a solitary position, and the forces it has lost cannot be easily replenished. Since we do not know what will happen in the future, we should not take any rash actions in the current situation, which should be called a reconstruction period.

I am sorry. As for the military personnel belonging to the eight major corps, we have left them with the necessary defensive forces to focus on reconstruction and pioneering projects. It is not a project that will yield immediate results, but the project is beginning to take off as you have planned, Mr. Helian.

First of all, we must be able to feed the people.

With only a year's worth of food in reserve and no guarantee that we will be able to return to our original world within a year, it is imperative that we improve our food self-sufficiency ratio.

And for Alkymyra, which has lost all of its bases except the capital, the army is a precious mass of labor power. The manpower of the army, except for a certain amount of defensive forces, will have to be allocated in this direction.

The military is working hard on the pioneering projects, which may be helped by the low barriers between military and civilians, which is a characteristic of the Demon Nation.

"As for the security issues and Noblewood countermeasures, I have nothing to add since they have been reported by the Commander of the 2nd Legion (Balan) and the Commander of the 6th Legion (Camilla). Aside from the minor concerns, the major issues are as mentioned above.

"I see... ......"

He muttered thoughtfully, as if he were pondering.

After a long enough pause, Helian opened his mouth amidst the tension in the audience chamber.

"--To sum up, I would say that the domestic issues have been settled to a certain extent.

No objections were voiced by the three corps commanders.

"For the time being, the corps will not be able to move freely. Since our country has been deeply wounded by the recent transition, Alkymira itself will have to concentrate on consolidating its position. And since we have the advantage of concealing its existence, I think it would be folly to move the Alkimyra in a hasty manner.

No voices of disagreement were raised.

"On the other hand, once the domestic situation has calmed down to some extent, we should start moving toward our country's long-term strategic goal of . But I'm talking about this with the current situation in mind, where we cannot move the army."

I have no objection.

"--I will put that in perspective. As a foothold to start a full-scale investigation of this world, we will establish a new base outside.

I will personally lead a very small expedition to the "border city" to begin such activities.

At these words, there was a definite movement in one of the three.

The ears on the top of his head perked up.

It was a reaction that could not be missed.

"Do you have something to say, Liewe?"

The wolf-eared legionnaire prefaced his question with the words, "With all due respect," and then locked eyes with Helian.

"If you are setting up a new base outside, does that mean that your goal is to set up a ......[teleportal]?"

"As for immediate goals, yes. For future large-scale information gathering, Camilla's Sixth Corps will be the mainstay, but there is more than a considerable distance to the human sphere of life. It is obvious that we will need an external base of operations for this purpose."

In addition, the Sixth Corps is a corps whose main purpose is to conduct counterintelligence activities.

Their intelligence capabilities are specialized in this area, and they are not suitable for exploring unexplored areas or gathering information without human intervention.

In the previous audiences, I made careless remarks about the operation of the 6th Corps, and I will not make the same mistake. The Sixth Corps will begin operations after it establishes a base of operations. Until then, we will ask you to focus your efforts on countermeasures against the Noblewood.

Incidentally, the gathering of information from the people who reside in the forest - the elves - will be discussed only after the Noblewood issue is settled. Because of its location, Noblewood is a barrier to other Elven nations.

"However, there is an unacceptable risk for you to visit the Noblewood yourself. Leave the rest of your activities outside the country to us, and let Mr. Helian stay at the castle."

No, that's not true, Levee. No, that's not the way it's going to work, Lieve. I have to do it myself. In order to set up a teleportal, we need to gain a certain amount of control over the area, but we can't just go in with military force like we did in the capital of RATESTWOOD. In order to gain [control] peacefully, I must go there myself."

There are two major ways to set up a teleportal.

One is to force a region to be under your control by defeating the enemy forces or capturing the symbols of the region.

For the capital of RATESTWOOD, a "teleportal" was set up by this method.

The other method is to raise the "controlling power" in the area to a certain level. And the dominance can be obtained without any military actions.

The typical method is that the king (player unit) stays in the area. Although it takes time, it is a sure way to increase the [Dominance]. Also, by increasing the influence of the player's power in the region through economic and cultural activities, the player's [Dominance] can be increased.

Players "familiar" with old simulation games used to call the former method and the latter method .

This time, Helian is attempting the latter, the <.

"We must also show the people the attitude of the Alkimaira. I am the king of Alkimaira. There have been kings who have sat on their thrones and simply given orders, but I have always stood at the head of the pack and shown my back to my people.

Then, I told the people who were facing difficulties that they had nothing to worry about, that nothing had changed. We must show them that there is nothing to fear as long as they behave as usual. This is what I have in mind for this expedition.

As if to say, "This is the point of the game," Helian rattled off the lines he had prepared.

The corps leaders gasped in unison as they heard his words. After a few seconds, Helian hears Liewe mutter, "So much for .......

"-Your wish is my command, I understand. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for my rude suggestion and for not understanding the king's wishes."

"Fine. I understand that your suggestion was made out of concern for my safety. I am glad to hear that.

As if to show his generosity, Helian nodded his head in affirmation to Levee.

Herian's serious expression remained unchanged and he let out a cry of joy in his heart.

（Yes, yes!)

A secret gut-punch.

Now he can practice negotiating under a false identity as a merchant.

The aforementioned is a true reason, but Helian's personal goal was to improve his negotiation skills.

Negotiation is an integral part of a merchant's activities.

At times, business negotiations may involve the lives of tens of thousands of people.

A merchant who has lived in such a world should have a high level of negotiation ability.

A business meeting is an ideal training ground for acquiring basic negotiation skills.

The ultimate goal of Hellian is .

[It is not to raise Alkymyra to a great power like in Tactics Chronicle, and moreover, there is no intention to conquer this world.

Unless it is to follow the path of the High King, it is out of the question to take military action in order to gain an external stronghold.

On top of that, I felt like praising myself for this idea, which was an effective way to find a way to return home, to practice negotiation skills, and even to show the people that I was the king of all demons.

The corps commanders, who were unaware of Hellian's inner thoughts, looked at him with a fascinated gaze.

Although he was not lying, Helian felt a little guilty under their eyes, but he held on tight and did not look away.

"You always stand in the forefront for the sake of the people. I am just in awe of you."

"...... Mm."

He nodded his head in a hawkish manner.

However, I was a little bothered by what Rieve said.

("Always"......?)

I have a bad feeling about this.

Although we have succeeded in convincing Rieve and the others, I wonder if we have established a position where we will have to remain in the forefront for a long time to come.

(......) No, there have been signs of this for a long time. We would have had to continue to be in the forefront anyway.)

Yes, it should be.

But it seems to me that he has made the composition definitive with his own hands.

"............"

......Well, okay.

This is how it should have been at some point.

Then my attitude will change if I can work on it as my own decision, not as a result of being influenced by others.

"Then, I will announce the members of the expedition who will serve as my followers.

The heat in the gazes of the corps leaders increased with each word.

Helian, under the eager gazes of the commanders, who were looking at him with eager eyes, stated the names of his followers in an unaffected manner.