CH 298

“This is stupid……. Jeralis is, Jeralis is……, dead…….” (Emperor)

Jeralis, my own childhood friend and heir to the Marquis family, my own right-hand man, with superior wisdom and judgment.

Was, dead.

……No, I killed him. I did it myself…….

Impatience, frustration, and careless words that would normally never flow out.

And the weight of the words I spoke as emperor.

“Ā…

Ā āā…

A āāā ā ā ā ā ā……”

The emperor went down on his knees, disappointedly.

The dignity of the ambitious emperor of the Alder Empire, who was seeking to expand his territory, was not there anymore. Just the back of a shriveled middle-aged man……

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“I surrender. -Emperor of the Alder Empire, Schultrak III ” -Notice Board

Ah, he’s backing out~…

I thought I would have to stick around a little longer……

I wonder what’s going on, whether a trusted subordinate has made a desperate appeal, or whether the nobles were on the verge of rebellion……

Well, the word ‘surrender’ does not mean that the other country was the one that was surrendering.

They will not cede territory nor pay reparations to the victors, nor have their people be taken away as slaves. They will simply apologize and lose face.

…I wonder, I may just be thinking about it, maybe…

That’s why it’s much easier for them to surrender.

If it were against another country, it would not be so easy to surrender unconditionally.

Since it was just the divine messenger, they wouldn’t expect anything but be demanded an apology. I guess they thought it was much easier to surrender……

……But the world isn’t that sweet.

And so do I…

Okay now, back to Japan, and print!

……Printing at convenience stores would be a hassle, and if someone saw me printing a large number of suspicious documents that were neither in Japanese nor English, I would be reluctant to go there again, so I’ll just use my home printer/scanner/copier to make copies.

Epson’s reliable multifunction device, which was a tank type and had a low ink cost, which was awesome! (TN: An unexpected product endorsement!)

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And two hours later, it was all over the Imperial City.

I threw out the 200 leaflets.

It was at a pretty low altitude and the winds were weak, so more than 80% of it would fall within the Imperial City.

Since it was only letters, it did not consume much ink, unlike pictures.

Also, I copied it in grayscale, not colored.

After scattering the flyers, I immediately withdraw in transition.

There’s no need to confirm the landing of the leaflets.

Besides, this time it’s at a low altitude, so if I don’t hurry, I’ll soon hit the ground.

If the flyers were scattered at too high an altitude, they would fly too far from the Imperial City.

Anyway, if I scatter this much, even the emperor will get it, also the residents of the imperial city, and those from other countries staying in the imperial city will get the message sufficiently.

What has the emperor done to the divine messenger?

What did the angry divine messenger demand of the emperor?

And how did the emperor respond to that?

Yes, meaning, the whole continent will know what the emperor promised the divine messenger.

If the emperor was the only one who knows what he was promised to the divine messenger, he may later choose to fail to keep his word, alter a part of it, or even change it entirely.

However, if all the people and all the neighboring countries knew the contents of the treaty, if the empire broke the promise, they would say, “The empire breaks even the promises made to the divine messenger without any hesitation. If so, they would break treaties and agreements with other countries with impunity”, “It’s meaningless to make any promises to the empire”, and “It would be foolish to make a treaty that the other side honestly has no intention of keeping and only we can keep it”.

No matter how bullish the empire was, it would not want to be completely discredited by all of its neighbors.

Even if international relations were not so good, they should still be conducting commercial transactions, which were importing and exporting.

It would indeed be bad for them to be interrupted.

And the empire has suffered heavy damage on two occasions, when they invaded our country and when they invaded Princess Gegege’s country. It must have been quite a blow, both financially and in human resources.

…Especially in terms of losing a large number of skilled soldiers…

Yes, because I purposely aimed at the important human resources who support the army, such as commanders, officers, and non-commissioned officers.

Instead of the forcefully conscripted temporary soldiers such as farmers and peasants, I took out officers and skilled soldiers that took years and loads of budget to train……

So now the empire should be considerably weaker.

The military power, the financial power, the centripetal force of the people…… Also, the unity of the aristocracy and the military.

No wonder.

The reckless dispatches resulted in two heavy defeats.

A close fight would have been fine, but it was too miserable since both defeats were one-sided thrashing.

Death in vain. A dog’s death. No territory gained, no slaves, no goods.

Moreover, the people lost their precious family members.

An aristocrat loses his precious heir.

Soldiers lost their men, and some lost their limbs.

Whether they liked it or not, they had to remain unchanged in their allegiance to the emperor……

But now, for the third time, the empire has been completely defeated, and the conditions thrust upon them by the flyers were…….

‘300 gold coins for medical expenses, fees, reparations, etc., for a 9-year-old girl who was the victim of an assassination attempt.’

‘A consolation fee for the divine messenger, Hime Miko (including the fees for using divine power), 2000 gold coins.’

‘Abdication of the current emperor, as a punishment for the great crime of the attempted assassination of the divine messenger. His successor shall not be a direct descendant of the current emperor, but a collateral descendant, or one chosen from another noble family.’ 

Yeah, it’s sweet.

I could have told them to turn in the heads of everyone involved, but, well, there was no need to waste blood.

At one point, I’ve said, “I’m going to kill the whole family!” but I didn’t really mean it……, no, at that moment, my blood was rushing to my head and I was just talking without thinking, but when I cooled down, I didn’t really intend to go that far, though.

……Of course, it would be a different story if Colette-chan were to suffer permanent injuries or worse.

In that case, I think I would’ve erased the empire’s existence off the map…… maybe.

And the reason I didn’t make too big a demand was that the burden of meeting that demand goes to the empire’s general populace.

Aside from the first invasion of our country, the second invasion of Princess Gegege’s country was “because the situation in the country had deteriorated”.

The war against our country caused the empire many deaths and cost a huge sum of money.

A lot of money, food, and other supplies…

And so, the dissatisfaction from the aristocracy, the military, and the people bubbled up.

In an attempt to deal with their plight, they took a reckless, desperate action, which was the second invasion.

Let the military fight. The nobles will be satisfied if they get territory, slaves, and reparations as spoils of war. And the general populace will be satisfied if they see how “strong the motherland” was.

And yet, the empire lost another huge gamble, making the situation even worse.

If I make excessive demands on the empire in such a state, people will starve to death if I’m not careful.

……So, I only requested a total of 2300 gold coins as ‘something tangible’.

That’s a lot of money for a commoner, but from the perspective of the nobility and royalty, ‘twas nothing but a small change.

In this world’s monetary sense, it would be equivalent to about 230 million yen.

However, converting the gold coins into Japanese yen via dollars would only amount to just under 60 million yen, though……

If I don’t get this much, I’ll be in the red.

There’s the cost of shells and bombs and of course, Colette-chan’s hospital bills.

It’s common to hear that if a Japanese traveler gets an appendectomy in a foreign country or has an unscheduled overseas birth due to premature delivery, the bill would be around 5 or 10 million yen.

It’s much different from Japan, where health insurance was fully provided. Therefore, when traveling abroad, it’s a must to have some kind of insurance.

……If so, Colette-chan’s hospital bills could easily range from a few million to over 10 million.

She won’t be able to leave the hospital right away, and in some cases, she may need to have another surgery or something. If it’s possible to have surgery to reduce the size of the scars or something like that, of course, I would have her undergo it……

Anyway, 2,300 gold coins were only the actual cost with no profit, which means that I may be in the red, or even go broke, if not handled properly.

Whether or not Wolf Fang was ripped off because they were in a hurry to purchase from another mercenary group. Whether the arms dealer gave them a discount for clearing out his bad stock, or they got duped instead…

……Yeah, I didn’t provide a budget in advance, my bad.

Anyway, 2300 gold coins, a negligible amount of money for the empire, would not be a problem.

Now, whether or not the emperor would cling to his position, regardless of his will, the nobles and collateral royalty will drag him down.

Then the battle for succession will erupt and the upper management will be torn apart.

That’s why I went to the trouble of writing “shall not be a direct descendant of the current emperor, but a collateral descendant, or one chosen from another noble family”.

To exclude the default route of “The Emperor’s son” and to expand the range of target people.

The nephews and nieces of the current emperor, his children, and the senior nobility.

Furthermore, the children of the current emperor, although they will not be his successors, would attempt to somehow seize power.

…No, it’s also possible that he would insist on a thorough war with the divine messenger. For the direct descendants, otherwise, there’s no other way for the direct descendants to make themselves the emperor…

Anyway, for the time being, they will not be able to invade other countries.

Well, now let’s wait for a response to the flyers. I’m looking forward to it…….

Ah, of course, I canceled the raining seawater.

I originally didn’t really intend to do it anyway.