CH 341

Ha~… I’m tired… I wondered what I would do if they told me that the demonstration was boring and now demanded my head, as promised. Of course, I don’t mean I’ll let it be silently chopped off, but I’ll stake my head on it! Even though I said something like that, it would be uncool if I ran away after being told they would behead me, anyway…

Well, I can’t say I’m uncool when I’m about to be killed, but if that happens and I resist, negotiation is no longer an option. Even if I could have a seat to negotiate with the Kingdom of Del again in the future, I would never get involved with them again.

I’m glad the king here isn’t a bad king. If he is an unpleasant king, there is a possibility that he will never admit it no matter what he thinks in his heart. If that happened, I wouldn’t want to be killed, so I would have to fight back with all my might, and I would have had to force the galleon fleet to attack Cobenhaven as well.

If we attack Cobenhaven, it will be like a provocation to war, or rather, it will be a war, and there will be heavy casualties among civilians. It’s outrageous to start a war with the general public just because I want to save myself, even though I brought it upon myself.

“You are truly merciless, aren’t you, Floto?” Mikoto said. “If this was what you were planning to do, it would have been better if I spoke in your stead.”

“What do you mean…?” I asked. “Even though I risked my neck to do that…”

Seriously… Mikoto is so rude. Didn’t I show my seriousness to the point of putting my life on the line first? King Knut guessed that and thought of shaking hands with each other, so it was good in the end, but if I didn’t do well, I really might have been told to bend over and offer my neck.

“Miss Flora,” Katharina said, “after being able to clearly see the difference in power, isn’t it impossible for Del to say that you should hand over your head? Then, Cobenhaven will be reduced to ruins.”

“That’s!” I started. “… That may be so.

I realized that I couldn’t refute Katharina’s words. That’s right. It’s like I threatened Cobenhaven with that assault at any time…

Maybe what I did was pretty low-life? I just showed my strength to the leaders of Del, who seemed to be underestimating me and just showed them not to think too lowly of me. In the event of a war, I don’t think we can win against the Kingdom of Del or the Kamaal Alliance.

It’s just that I’m just trying to show bravado that I may be from a small country, but don’t barely give me a thought.

But while the other side’s navy wasn’t even ready, we lined up ten galleon ships equipped with Caan Cannons in perfect condition at the port of Cobenhaven, their de facto capital. If there had been a fight on the spot, Cobenhaven would have suffered enormous damage.

In other words, I’m the worst person who threatened the people of Cobenhaven as hostages…

“I know what you’re thinking, Floto, but it’s irrelevant, so don’t worry about it. To be clear, even the ten galleons you brought here can destroy the Kingdom of Del,” Mikoto said. “You don’t seem to be aware of it, but House Caan’s power has gotten to that point.”

“………… Huh?”

Since Mikoto says something strange, I ask for help. but…….

“””””Mm, mm.”””””

“……………… What?”

Everyone nodded for some reason. I want you to hold a moment.

“I think we can win in small-scale naval battles, you know?” I said. “But no matter how many galleons I line up, we’ll never bring down a country with them…”

“That may be so, Flora… but any country is supported by its people,” Alexandra said with a serious expression. “You understand that, don’t you?”

“Yes……”

I nodded. No other reaction is possible.

“If a ship like that suddenly appeared in their main city and attacked various other port towns…the nation would fall into chaos,” Alexandra said. “The people will make demands of their King and their nobles. “There’s no way we can win against them! If we don’t surrender immediately, the country will perish and all of us citizens will be killed!’ they’ll say…”

“That’s an exaggeration… If you escape in-land out of the range of the Caan Cannons, they aren’t a threat anymore,” I said.

Port facilities, garrisons, and ships could be destroyed. But it’s impossible to kill every citizen. The cannons don’t have that kind of power.

“That’s your opinion though, isn’t it, Flora?” Alexandra said. “If you see that for the first time and experience the terror of being in a town having cannonballs fired upon you like rain… you can easily shatter people’s wills. And rather than fight an enemy they can’t win against… they will gladly turn their blades toward their royalty and rulers. And when that happens…”

“The country collapses via self-destruction…?” I finished.

Alexandra’s words were…too convincing to be ridiculed as absurd. Certainly, there are many countries that have fallen like that on Earth.

I was only thinking about how to fight honestly with my army and destroy the enemy. But… as Alexandra just said, if you threaten the populace by making it look like there’s an overwhelming difference in power, then incite them, and encourage the populace to revolt against their rulers… they’ll become like your army, instead, you may be able to defeat the opponent country with almost no forces of your own deployed.

There is no need to fight only the enemy soldiers head-on, defeat them, take them prisoner, and advance on land in order. War can be like that. And in this world, even such bloodied and dirtied hands are forgiven… This is because there is no international rule that determines the waging of war.

“…………”

I was horrified for the first time. If you don’t want to take prisoners, you can kill the surrendering enemies on the spot. Enemy soldiers, civilians, and guerrilla fighters don’t matter, you can kill all the enemy citizens you see. Is that… war?

“Don’t think so hard,” Claudia said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You should do what you think you should do, Floto, and believe what you want to believe.”

“Claudia…” I said as I put my hand over hers. I felt relieved just by hearing that. And at that time…….

Kon-kon…

Someone knocked on the door. Come to think of it, this was the King’s Castle in Cobenhaven. This time I was welcomed as an official messenger, so I was sent to a reasonably appropriate room.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Excuse me. I heard that Princess Mikoto is here, but…”

When I gave the signal, Katharina opened the door. A young woman was there. I wonder if she’s around the same age as us. Judging from her appearance, she might be the daughter of a fairly high-ranking aristocrat……or perhaps we could even call her royalty, she appeared to be dressed appropriately.

“Gunhilda!”

“Princess Mikoto!”

When Mikoto approached the woman, they hugged each other. It seems to be a familiar face. We can’t keep up with the situation, so we’re a little confused.

“Let me introduce you! This girl is Gunhilda Vandenlissen! The daughter of King Knut, in other words, the Princess of Del!”

“Princess Mikoto… I’m embarrassed by the way you introduced me,” Gunhilda said.

Hmmm… she’s lovely. Is that how a princess feels? Margarete was also like this in terms of image. She is a mature and lovely princess. A real princess. It’s completely different from the rough, foul-mouthed, and tiny twin-tailed girl I knew.

“Hold, Floto! You’re definitely thinking about something stupid right now, aren’t you?!” Mikoto yelled.

“No? Not at all?” I said.

Don’t get upset here. I don’t know why Mikoto can always read what I’m thinking, but if I insist that I don’t know, there’s no proof. If you’re going to lie, lie through your teeth.

We welcome Princess Gunhilda and talk with everyone in the guest room. Apparently, Mikoto and Gunhilda were originally very close friends, partly because they were princesses of the same generation. It seems that Mikoto wanted to stop by the Kingdom of Del last time just to meet Gunhilda.

“I haven’t met her that many times,” Mikoto said. “Even so, Gunhilda seems to admire me quite a lot!”

It would have been better if she hadn’t been so arrogant and proud of herself… I wonder why Mikoto can’t help herself from saying such things… If it comes from Gunhilda’s mouth and we hear it, that’s true, it’s something that we can honestly think that she adored her…

“Princess Mikoto and I have different statuses, but I thought that we were in a similar position as princesses of our countries,” Gunhilda said. “And I don’t have friends my age… so it was very exciting to be able to talk to Princess Mikoto about the outside world.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Mikoto said, nodding with her nose completely turned up.

“Master Flora, may I have a word with you?” Kanbee asked, knocking, and then calling from outside.

“I’m coming,” I said. “Excuse me. I have some business to attend to. Please, enjoy yourself Princess Gunhilda. I will see you later.”

And with that, I left the drawing room. As expected, when there were many other women, Kanbee would knock and wait outside. I mean, if you can do that, do it for me too! What do you think I am? What are you going to do if you catch me in the middle of changing clothes?!

Well…, it’s not that I can’t fix it even if I say it cruelly, so it’s not that he doesn’t want to fix it, or maybe he’s doing it on purpose. I’m adamant about every time but now is not the time.

Leaving Gunhilda in the room, I went outside and went to another room with Kanbee. Diplomats who had begun the prior talks for tomorrow’s major meeting are gathered there. Apparently, something important happened. As soon as I sat down in front of our delegation which was centered around Kanbee and Mikalojus, the conversation began.

“It appears that your threats were too effective, Lady Flora,” Mikalojus started. “Del’s attitude has suddenly changed. Now we can demand far more favorable conditions for ourselves than before.”

The other members of the delegation nodded at Mikalojus’ words. I’m not threatening them. I just showed my legitimate power and made the opponent recognize it. I learned in the other room that that was an excuse, but…

“I am the one who knows how terrifying that monster-like ship is~~~~!” Mikalojus cried. “I have seen its horror first hand! The power of simply being targeted by a Caan Cannon… just the thought of it makes my crotch wet all over again…”

Stop it……. I don’t want to see an old man piss himself…

“Certainly, it may have been more effective than I thought, but… you must not raise our demands,” I said. “If we threaten them then make demand after demand because they backed down, they’ll resent us for it. Our desire is neither to strike out at the Kingdom of Del nor to earn their ire.”

“I agree… well, then…” Kanbee said. “Will you serve the House Caan’s treasured items at tonight’s dinner party, as planned?”

Originally… we’re the ones who’ve come to visit, so we’re the ones who are supposed to be treated by them. But… we have a lot of specialties. Special treatment, specialties, is there some wordplay in there? It’s not intended, alright?

People don’t move just by suppressing them with fear or force. That’s why… you should show your opponent the advantages. How profitable is it to join hands with us? I’ll tell them.

Originally in the preliminary negotiations, when I the ambassador plenipotentiary arrived today, we talked about serving a meal. It seems that Del thought that it was just to try to please them and that they couldn’t eat the food of Ploiss. But it seems that today’s events have made them listen to me.

That’s why today’s dinner party will be prepared and served by House Caan. It’s a strange situation that the host of the banquet is not the home country and instead the guest country. Right now, our goal is to sell our products, so it doesn’t make sense if we don’t give them a taste of our specialties.

“I am grateful to have this opportunity today,” I said. “Unfortunately, the Kingdoms of Del and Ploiss have clashed with each other countless times in the past, but in this negotiation, we hope to change that conflict to a dialog, to overcome the weight of history, and from now on, hold hands in mutual benefit.”

Normally, the host country, the Kingdom of Del, would greet people like this, but since we are the ones who provide food and entertainment, I was in a strange situation where I was the guest and making the opening speech to our hosts. Even so, the attendees gave us a round of applause.

“Then let’s toast to the future friendship and prosperity of our two countries.”

“””””Cheers!”””””

After my greetings are over, everyone tilts their glasses. It’s a transparent glass, which is rare even in this country. What is poured in there is…

“So good!”

“This is… that ‘alcohol’ of the Demon Country!”

“I can’t believe they can serve alcohol like this… What is the Kingdom of Ploiss like…?”

Everyone seems to be surprised by the sake. The Kingdom of Del trades with the Demon Country. That’s why you should know a little about the goods from there. However, the amount of trade is so small that the goods there are valuable. They seem to have drank a little sake here and there, but it seems that it is too valuable to drink so recklessly.

“This is the liquor we made in our House,” I said. “The method of making it is very similar to the liquor of the Demon Country, no, it is almost the same, and it was made to remake it like the original product. So for tonight, please enjoy our sake to your heart’s content.”

I’ve loaded various items on the galleon ship for this negotiation. As soon as I said that, the entire venue of the dinner party became quite noisy. They seem quite upset. I think this will work.