CH 366

I thought that the wives were aggressively approaching me, but apparently, they misunderstood that I was thinking that the fun I was having with everyone become stale. Thinking that I didn’t remember saying such a thing, I listened to them carefully, and it seems that they misunderstood my complaining about repeating the same routines in training, and that they thought it was about the nighttime fun with them.

But I feel like Mikoto is subtly backing away. Maybe she knew I was talking about my training from the beginning, and she deliberately provokes everyone else by saying that.

Well, Mikoto herself said she was mistaken, so I guess I have no choice but to believe her. Whether it was a misunderstanding in the first place or on purpose is not that important… I’m not going to complain because I’ve had some good times, too.

I finished the first half of the Yamato Empire’s inspections safely, and since I was able to visit all the places that I needed to be personally involved with, I decided to depart from the Knighthood

There is no point in hiding the technical support and craftsmanship exchanges received from the Yamato Empire. I’m in a position to receive technical support, and unless I keep my mouth shut when interacting with craftsmen, information will leak out. Therefore, I did not hide anything about them and had the delegates inspect them.

I also looked around for the most part and sometimes left halfway through to give secret inspections and instructions. Leaving the rest to Kanbee and Mikalojus should be fine. Meetings are held on a regular basis.

Even though we receive one-sided support, it may be thought that we are cheating by not letting the technology outflow to the Yamato Empire. But of course, even the Yamato Empire doesn’t provide us with all the technology unconditionally.

They support private craftsmen and the technology of daily necessities, but they don’t teach anything that is directly connected to military technology or even the Yamato Empire’s cutting-edge hidden technologies. They’re not stupid either, so there’s no way they’ll easily leak out their vital points.

These things are mutual, and we both know that we won’t release technology related to new weapons and that they keep their most important innovations secret.

“I would like to entrust you with the next work, Kanbee, Mikalojus, and with the Yamato Empire Delegation’s return as well,” I said.

“Fumu… Next is negotiations with the Kingdom of Frasia, isn’t it?” Mikalojus said with a natural and smooth tone.

That’s an extremely big deal. I thought he was an idiot and a petty villain, but he’s pretty smart when it comes to scheming. It’s not like he was just trying to make his mark in aristocratic society.

“Yes,” I said. “I intend to take possession of the Blish Isles, but I don’t want the previous conflict to turn into an all-out war with the Kingdom of Frasia. Therefore, I would like to ask you to negotiate with them in my stead.”

“Yes! Then we will immediately start investigating Frasia,” Kanbee replied.

“I think it would be quicker to just attack them, instead,” Mikalojus said.

Mikalojus may be good at scheming, but he’s too ignorant of wartime politics and military tactics. There’s no way we can win an all-out war with the Kingdom of Frasia right now. Even in perfect conditions, the difference in national power and population is hopeless. In such a situation, war with Frasia would be impossible.

And even if you could, even if you won the war, what would you do after that? Winning a war is not the end. It’s still hard after the war is over. As a hypothetical story, even if by any chance they were able to win against Frasia, if we didn’t think about the future, we would fail.

Are we occupying them? Are we just going to beat them just for war compensation? How much we will strike, how much we will forgive, and what your ultimate goal is; a war that is not clear about those points will definitely fail.

And even if we win the war now, we can’t rule Frasia. Even though I’m saying that the current territory is not enough, and this is also not enough, there’s no way I can rule Frasia alone, which would surpass the Kingdom of Ploiss entirely in terms of territory.

Winning a battle is not the same as winning a war, and winning a war is not the same as successfully governing after the war. In a situation where our own footing wasn’t stable, if we push ourselves any further, we will only collapse in on ourselves.

…… Well, don’t panic about that. Until the first foothold is solidified, having a stable home territory and expanding it has a different content and difficulty. It would be overwhelmingly easier to conquer the Kingdom of Ploiss after establishing a firm foothold in the Knighthood and the Knight’s Nation.

“Our House’s policy is to unify and rule the Blish Isles as it is,” I said. “In the meantime, let’s buy time through diplomatic negotiations so Frasia will not interfere. Hence, I’m counting on you both.”

“Yes! Leave it to me!” Kanbee said.

With instructions given out to Kanbee and the other related staff, we exchange goodbyes with Subaru and the Yamato Empire Delegation, then set sail from Cien. Considering the schedule for my return trip and the time I have to spare… I wonder if I’ll be able to stay on the Blish Isles for another three weeks…

I wasted a lot of time because of the trouble of the Yamato Empire Delegation coming. It would have been better if Dietrich had negotiated the treaty between the Ploiss and Yamato instead of me…

Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Since I signed the treaty, the contents of the treaty are all transparent to me. It’s like I’m the only one who knows a national secret, so that’s convenient.

If I hadn’t been in charge and didn’t know what it was about, I would have been quite worried about how much of a threat it would be to our House, and what kind of secret agreement was there. And when I think about it, I have no worries about this treaty where I managed everything.

There are some things that are not happy for us, but as a person in charge, it can’t be helped. We can’t arbitrarily conclude a treaty that is unfavorable to Ploiss because it works against Caan.

While thinking about such a thing, I passed through the Del Strait and went to the Hermann Sea. At last, we made it back up the Saymes River to Laudin. It’s dangerous to take a galleon up the Saymes. No matter how much they are now in our sphere of influence, that doesn’t mean everyone is friendly to us.

The galleons disembarked at Corchistel, from where they were transferred to small cogs up the River Saymes. When I arrived at Laudin, I sat down on a chair in the mansion that was requisitioned in the city.

Apparently, this was the mansion of the original lord, but it seems that it was requisitioned, perhaps because they were killed by Guillaume or the Frasian Army. I freed it and now it’s my temporary base.

When I gathered the executives in the office and discussed the current progress of the operation and the future, I received a messenger telling me that Ignatz had returned. And he wants to meet me and report as soon as possible. I was wondering what was going on, but I was in the middle of a meeting with the executives just now, so I called Ignatz to participate.

And then… Ignatz came into the office… covered in blood and mud. He said he didn’t have a single injury, but even so, I knew immediately that something was clearly wrong. There’s no way Ignatz, the commander, would look like this even though nothing happened.

“Due to Harold’s sudden attack, our army gave up trying to secure the area around Winchestel and retreated… 121 people were injured and 22 died…”

DAAAAHNNN!

Hearing Ignaz’s report, I forgot myself and smashed the worn-out office desk.

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“The Kingdom of Wessek~~~!” I hissed. “Just wait… don’t you dare think that you can get away with this!”

My head is blank and I can’t get my thoughts together. More than 140 people were killed and wounded. There should have been such a possibility. Despite that, I was optimistic and neglected to take countermeasures. Somewhere along the line, I thought it was impossible for Harold and Wessek to betray us and bare their fangs.

We must have been complacent with their big wins so far. We can’t lose. You can’t go against us. I was proud of that. That’s why I didn’t take any countermeasures… and this is the result. I am responsible for all of these 140 casualties.

This anger is against me.

The response was too sweet. I trusted people too much. We were overconfident that we would be able to do something about it.

People don’t act for rational reasons alone. Even if I knew that he would never be an enemy they could match, they would fight back. Repeat even if you know you will fail. There is no such thing as rational judgment, just emotions, and even if you know that you will destroy yourself, you will make stupid choices.

“Fu~~~~~~~~……”

Calm down… I can’t help but get emotional right now. Let’s take care of Wessek. Besides, I don’t know who the perpetrators and collaborators are, but it’s all going to be a bloodbath. A thorough investigation will be carried out and all those involved will be executed. This is already a decision for me.

The problem is how many people in Wessek are involved. Who knew, who didn’t, and who directed it? Did Harold know? If you think about it normally, it’s hard to imagine that Harold and the vassals who had been in the northeastern fort from the beginning would think of such a thing.

Those who know the battle with Guillaume’s Army will not choose to fight us first. An opponent who unilaterally annihilated an army of over 10,000 in two battles. You wouldn’t want to challenge such an opponent with just thousands of troops.

Then who did it? Why did they do this? Who are the collaborators? I will thoroughly pursue this matter until I understand this.

I said that before I left the Knighthood. A war cannot go well without a goal and a postwar without a postwar plan. This time it was decided.

The purpose of the war is to first destroy the Kingdom of Wessek and put it under our control. And I will kill everyone involved in this surprise attack. I will then conquer the rest of the country and put the Blish Isles under my control, as well as the neighboring island of Ehrland.

After the war… I will become King of the Blish Isles! Make my kingdom completely under my control and ruled by me. Don’t think about vague strategic goals or post-war plans. This is my goal.

“So… what about damage other than casualties?”

“Right… we threw away almost all of the supplies that we had brought to Winchestel. We recovered all the guns, every single one, but we couldn’t recover the rations or the ammunition.”

“No, you’ve done a good job,” I said. “Ammunition alone doesn’t mean anything. It’s fortunate that you were able to recover all the guns.”

Ignatz must be tired, but he reports directly to me without leaving it to others. Losing the supplies and ammunition we shipped to Winchestel was a heavy expense. But it doesn’t hurt to lose something like that. It would be a problem if the gun was stolen and reverse-engineered, but bullets and gunpowder alone are meaningless.

The bullets are lead bullets, and even if we were attacking, there will be bullets remaining on the enemy side. If you are in a battle, whichever side you’re approaching from the enemy is going to recover bullets one way or the other. If you don’t know how to make gunpowder, even if you capture the finished product, what you have is as far as your supplies will go. Even the structure of the gun, how to make gunpowder, and how to use it should not be leaked.

“It’s a little troublesome to lose the provisions… but what is the current stockpile?”

“Yes! There is no problem to cover the entire army.”

Satisfied with the report, I nodded. Winchestel was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Wessek, and I thought it would be an important base in the southern region. That’s why I ended up carrying quite a lot of provisions to make it a base. Losing them all is a great loss. We also carried plenty of spare ammunition.

Well, if it’s food or bullets, you can replace it as much as you want. As long as we have control of the sea, replenishment by transport ships will come soon. In fact, even when we return here, a large amount of supplies are being brought in. I came back as an escort for a transport ship.

“We were too obsessed with defending Laudin and Corchistel… If only we had sent a larger force to take all possible measures…”

No… Now is not the time to say such things.

“…I will also issue an order to the Galleon Fleet to prepare to sortie. Winchestel faces the sea… Then, as they wish… let’s turn it into a sea of flames. Betray us and launch a surprise attack from behind… how serious the consequences would be… let the whole world know! ”

“”””SIRE!”””””

If they told us they wanted to cut off our ties and openly challenged us to war, we would have responded as was proper and gentlemanly. But… I have no sympathy for those who suddenly shoot from behind. Did you even think that an innocent person would be involved? I will thoroughly punish you so that no one will ever make such a foolish act again!