CH 376

Declaring the founding of the Kingdom of Angheland is good, but I’m too busy with work. Even though the work of the Knighthood and the Knight’s Nation is piling up, there are too many tasks such as the maintenance of governing system of Angheland, the enactment of laws, and the appointment of officials and deputies, so I can’t move at all.

“King Karruzer, please leave the pacification of Alvaland and Welez to us,” one of my new executives said.

“……I agree,” I said.

Considering the battles we’ve had so far, I understand that it’s not necessary for me to sortie to all the battlefields. It’s almost impossible for our army to lose without me. Of course, it won’t be so sweet that you can continue to win without taking damage, but at least if you use them properly, there will be no damage to the galleon fleet, and the artillery and gun units.

In a head-on collision with the enemy, normal infantry and cavalry would likely suffer some damage, but if we say that we can’t tolerate such damage, we can’t start a war in the first place…

But even if that’s all right, do they have the strength to suddenly attack Alvaland and Welez? Right now, the Kingdom of Angheland is not completely stable yet. Some of them will act to disturb the peace. To maintain public order and deal with rebels, we must have a certain amount of credible military force within the country.

“Hypothetically… if you were to attack Alvaland or Welez, what would you do with your military strength and strategy?”

“Sire!” one of the other, older executives said. “The main force of the army will be the Caan Army’s artillery and gun units, and the Caan Army will also send out an elite escort unit for direct cover. After that, we will bring the old Wessek army for suppression and overwhelm them with numbers. Also, with the navy, we will send a fleet of galleons to the coast, attacking enemy strongholds in our path and supporting the army.”

The accuracy is probably not very good, but they will explain while showing a map that is said to be the Blish Isles. Certainly, both Alvaland and Welez have many important cities and royal capitals along the coast. Well, you could say it’s par for the course with human habitation. People tend to settle in areas such as transportation hubs and riversides. If it becomes a royal capital or a big city, you could claims such conditions are essential.

As long as they didn’t abandon the original royal capital and flee to a remote area due to the war, it would naturally become such a location. Then the enemy’s major cities and royal capitals can be bombarded from the coast. If the royal capital and major cities fall, the enemy will be in chaos, and if the army that has been clinging to the border collapses, the war will be decided at once. It’s certainly not a bad strategy.

“I understand the strategy, but… I don’t want to spread fires unnecessarily,” I said.

“Your words are so merciful, King Karruzer, if the people of Alvaland and Welez heard them, they would weep tears of joy.”

Such overkill… However, I can’t relax too much. If I try to do as much as I can while I’m alive, even one minute and one second lost would be a waste. If I take time to unify the Blish Isles, my goal will not be achieved. Besides, the war on the Blish Isles will be prolonged. In that case, is it better to proceed at once to some extent?

“Then, King Karruzer, how about something like this? First, send out a messenger to order their surrender. So if they follow us, fine by us. If they oppose us, we’ll attack them. With this, your opponent can choose their future by their hands.”

Hmmm… But if I tell them to surrender, will they surrender? If you’re going to listen to what I say so easily, wouldn’t it already be settled by now?

I mostly learned about the history of Blish Isles, but it’s mostly war, surrender, vassalage, betrayal, war, surrender, vassalage, and repeat. Even if I leave the current system and make them vassals, I don’t know when the other side will betray me and start another war when they think they have regained their strength.

In the first place, this kind of history is repeating itself to the point that it was unpleasant to see it on the earth I knew. It doesn’t make sense to say that the opponent’s system was inherited and they were just verbally obeying us. Once power is restored, the war will be repeated. History proves it. Then…there is no choice but to destroy the opponent’s system.

But will royalty and nobles obey when they are told that their privileges will be stripped and their territory will be confiscated? There is no reason to obey. No matter how overwhelming the difference in ability is, if I’m going to have everything taken away from me anyway, and I’m going to die, I’ll make all the people involved and fight to the end! I wonder if there will be people who say that.

“I do not wish to leave the current ruling system of each country as it is,” I said. “But will the royalty and nobility of each country obey, knowing they will lose their privileges and territories? They would not. That would only lead to war.”

“Then… First of all, why don’t you talk about the government system that you, King Karruzer, will lay down from now on? If the current rulers can benefit from it, we can negotiate and persuade them.”

I see now……. If they were told that they would be completely deprived of all their rights, their territories would be taken away, and they would be treated as commoners in the Kingdom of Angheland, they would probably be repulsed. But if the ruling system of the Kingdom of Angheland is convincing, and if it is said that there is a possibility that they can be promoted within it, some people may follow rather than force a war.

“Then, let’s summarize the governance system that I have in mind,” I said. “With that, we’ll use it to negotiate with the nations, yes?”

“””Yes, Sire!”””

Everyone accepted my words and withdrew. After everyone is gone, I think by myself. The system I’m trying to build…

Angheland was able to reduce the power of the nobles and centralize the power of the king in the process of establishing the country. I would like to continue this trend on the Blish Isles in the future. In the process of conquering Alvaland and Welez, it would be meaningless to allow the other party to surrender and maintain their current regime. It would setback everything we’re doing now.

On the other hand, no one will obey even if I tell them to surrender their privileges and territory and obey the Kingdom of Angheland.

Therefore, the ruling system of Angheland is important. The Kingdom of Angheland will be a monarchy, that is, a country that is based on my absolute authority as king. But it’s not like the king can do everything by himself, from investigating family registers, collecting taxes, maintaining public order, and to going to court. Naturally, there is a need for someone who has received the king’s trust and acts on behalf of the king.

So let’s hire anyone with the talent and ability to serve as a government official or governor. In this case, the nobles who are highly educated are quite advantageous. Even a person who is currently the lord of a small village will be given a higher position in our House and will be able to do a big job if he has the talent for it.

In this case, if there is absolutely no chance of winning even if you fight, rather than going to war out of desperation, wouldn’t it be better to abandon the regime once and aim for becoming a government official in Angheland?

In any case, I can’t move from Laudin for a while. There’s too much work. At this pace, I wonder if we will be able to unify the Blish Isles even if we use the remaining two weeks. In that case, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to send a messenger first and negotiate before I can go on a conquest.

It would be terrible if the messenger was killed, but since there’s no risk for us to negotiate and fail, let’s send the messenger as everyone says we should. For the time being, the conditions to present to the other party have been decided, so let’s give everyone authority and leave it to them to some extent.

“Flora! Let’s take a break!”

“Mikoto…”

While I was still busy with paperwork at Laudin, Mikoto and the others tumbled into my office. There’s a sudden increase in the population of millions and that’s not all, but…

“Come on, Flora! Are you tired? I’ll make you some tea!” Claudia said, trying to take the set.

“Please stop, Claudia,” Katharina said, smacking her and taking it away from Claudia. “I’ll make the tea. Don’t do anything unnecessary and please just leave it to me.”

It is true that the taste of tea changes greatly depending on who brews it. In my previous life, I thought that tea would be the same no matter how anyone brewed it, but when I actually tasted it like this, I realized that it was completely different.

“Umm, you know, I got cheese from Carruzan’s ranch today. It’s a nostalgic taste, isn’t it?” Louisa said, handing me the cheese with an adorable smile.

Cheese with your tea? I can’t help but think it’ll be fine.

“Uuu… I’m not very good with cheese as it is, uncooked…” Alexandra said, frowning a little.

It seems that she can eat it if you bake it like with pizza, but can she not handle it raw? It’s strange, but she doesn’t seem to be very good with cheese that is just cut as it is. It’s strange that if you put it on toast and bake it, she’ll be happy to eat it.

“Flora! Make a bath here too! We can’t all go in at once!”

“Eh~… well… the royal palace is scheduled to be built…”

There’s no way I can prepare anything with such a sudden request. Certainly, with the acquisition of millions of people, the labor force increased dramatically. But we don’t have the skills or materials. All of our craftsmen are busy building canals, building Charlottenburg, building the Caan Knight’s Nation, and laying roads.

Although the labor force is increasing, there is a limit to the number of craftsmen who have mastered our state-of-the-art technology. The number of craftsmen is increasing as they work here and there one after another, but the number of craftsmen is not keeping up with the pace of our expansion.

If you try too many things here and there, eventually you will end up with a shortage of workers and craftsmen everywhere. In that case, it would be a good idea to concentrate on one place at a time and finish it to reduce the work.

There are some castles and palaces that were originally on the Blish Isles, but compared to our facilities, they are far inferior. They’re not that bad, but I couldn’t live there. The construction of my new royal palace is essential. Also, unless a new city is built and water supply and sewage systems are not installed, city planning cannot proceed properly.

It’s a lot of work to redo all the existing towns. The only way to do that is to spend a long time renovating it little by little, but in order to proceed all at once, the only option is to build a new town nearby and transfer to that area all at once.

“But… why are you so obsessed with bathing, Mikoto? You can still take baths, right?” I asked.

It’s a simple temporary bath, but it’s properly prepared. It’s small and inconvenient, but in this day and age, a temporary bath is enough luxury. Even if it’s not satisfying, they should be able to endure it…

“Yah!” Mikoto groaned. “You’ve got it wrong, you know? I’m thinking of taking a bath with you again, Flora, and washing you!”

Ah… is that what she meant? … For some reason, I’m often attacked in the bath by my wives, and of course, I’m already being scrubbed down… For us, who can only have innocent relationships, socialization in the bath is also important.

“Well… that will be for another day. At least please be patient until we leave the Blish Isles.”

As expected, we can’t say that we should make a bath right away because we want to wash each other in the bathroom. We can take baths already, period, so they have no choice but to wait until we return to the Caan Knight’s Nation or the royal capital.

How long has it been since I was cooped at Laudin? A week or ten days? It’s been quite a while. If we don’t go to Alvaland or Welez soon for a friendly expedition, we won’t be able to unify the Blish Isles in time for the long vacation.

“King Karruzer, if we may enter?”

“Yes,” I said.

While I was thinking that I had to move soon, I was thinking about who to attack first, Welez or Alvaland. As I had sensed, some people were coming in, so I was waiting for a report while wondering what was going on…

“Pardon our interruption. The unification of the Blish Isles has finally been completed.”

“………… Huh?”

What? What did you just say?

“Your anger is understandable, King Karruzer, seeing as we took this long.”

No, I’m not angry, am I? I just don’t understand what you mean…

“Unification……Does this mean that both Alvaland and Welez are under our control?”

“Sire… we sent a messenger to recommend surrender, but neither the Kingdom of Alvaland nor the Kingdom of Gweneded, a powerful nation of Welez, followed our advice… and we had no choice but to conquer them through war. We realize that you didn’t want to spread the fires of war as much as possible, but we could not convey your mercy, King Karruzer… it was our lack of power…”

No… no, no……. What are you talking about? I have no idea…. huh? I can’t move until my hands are free, so I just said that it might be okay to send a messenger to negotiate with them, right? I didn’t say to conquer them right away. Did I?

………… Ah! But that about this? I was asked for various permissions and I gave them permission… Really……. Is that what it was? I gave them authority so they didn’t violate anything… After all, I was the one who allowed it…

Eh~……. Did the unification of the Blish Isles end without my knowledge? No… that might be a good thing… but what is this? There is no sense of accomplishment or anything. Even if I was told that the isles were unified before I knew it… I have a suspicious feeling.

And then…, the Kingdom of Angheland changed its name to the Kingdom of Blish in just a little over a week, less than ten days after its founding. Angheland, Alvaland, and Welez will remain regional names in the future, but…the Kingdom of Angheland quickly closed the curtain on that name. And I went through so much trouble putting it up, too…