Chapter 7: Sacrifice the Plum Tree to Preserve the Peach Tree (part 1)

—1st Day, 10th Month, 1,546th Year, Continental Calendar — Red Dragon City.

It was the morning following the battle where wyverns had flown through the

skies and battleship cannons had roared.

Liscia and I were eating breakfast with Castor's daughter Carla in the

governmental affairs office at Red Dragon Castle.

Aisha stood behind the exhausted Carla, her hand ready on the hilt of her great

sword, as if to say, "If you make any suspicious moves, I am prepared to cut you

down at any time."

It occurred to me that Aisha was still my "self-proclaimed bodyguard." Given her

accomplishments in the battle for Red Dragon City, I thought it might not be a bad

idea to formally create a title like Captain of the King's Personal Guard for her.

...Well, it could wait until after the war.

Having captured Castor Vargas and taken control of the Air Force, we were

staying in Red Dragon City while we waited for the Air Force to gather. Right now,

Hakuya, who had arrived after the battle, and Tolman must have been busy calling

up those who had yet to respond and organizing those who had already gathered.

I'd had Castor shipped back to the capital along with a number of rebellious

wyvern cavalry.

They would have only gotten in the way if we had brought them all with us, and

Castor was wearing the slave collar. That collar had a spell attached that would

make it tighten if he did anything untoward, and in the worst case would decapitate

him. As long as he wore that slave collar, no one would try to seize him during the

transfer.

Incidentally, Castor's daughter Carla was the only one I'd had stay here, and I was

keeping her close at hand. That was because I figured having a visible hostage would

help to nip any unwanted resistance from the Air Force in the bud. I had a slave

collar on her, too, and Aisha was keeping a watchful eye on her from behind, so she

probably wouldn't be able to do anything she shouldn't.

I didn't know if it was because of that, but her violent temperament from

yesterday was all but gone, and Carla was resolutely silent. To make up for her

taciturn friend, Liscia was being even more talkative than usual.

"Carla may not look it, but she's actually the caring type," she said. "She has a lot

of integrity, so no matter how much she dislikes something, she'll always help out

when she's asked. I think she's a great girl."

I said nothing.

Everything she said was all about selling me on Carla's virtues. She had been

talking about nothing but Carla's many charms as a woman for a while now.

We were sitting in the office of the man who had been the enemy commander

until yesterday, eating boxed meals we had brought from Parnam (this having been

enemy territory up until yesterday, I was being careful not to get poisoned), while

my fiancée and future primary queen recommended that I take the daughter of an

enemy general, who was now wearing a slave collar and sitting next to us, as a

secondary queen. It was quite a bizarre scene.

By the way, to explain the difference between primary and secondary queens, in

this country primary queens were those whose children had the right of succession,

while those who did not were known as secondary queens.

It was possible to have any number of primary or secondary queens (ranking

within the two categories would be expressed as 1st X Queen, 2nd X Queen... and so

on), however, in order to become a primary queen, a woman had to be born to the

gentry, nobility, or higher.

Conversely, any person of any class could become a secondary queen. If one

didn't care about appearances, even a slave could be made into a secondary queen.

"O-Oh, and you know what?" Liscia went on. "When Carla strips down, she's got a

killer body. Maybe you can't tell when she has armor on, but she's way more stacked

than I am. Dragonewts are long-lived, too, so she'll always be young."

"What are you saying, Liscia?!" Carla suddenly burst out.

It seemed that once Liscia started spilling the details on her proportions, even

Carla wasn't going to be able to stay quiet. And yet, Liscia snapped back at her, even

angrier than Carla was.

"Carla, just be quiet! Hey, Souma, Carla's an attractive woman..."

"...Liscia," I said that in a somewhat stern tone, making Liscia inhale sharply and

then go quiet. When I saw that worried look on her face... it hurt my heart. I didn't

want to make her look like that. I scratched the back of my head vigorously. "Liscia, I

can see what you're thinking. But have you properly considered the risks?"

She went silent.

No primary queen would ask her king to take a secondary queen. Yet Liscia, the

1st Primary Queen, was eagerly suggesting that I take Carla as my secondary queen,

because she was trying with all her heart to save her.

The officers and soldiers of the Air Force who had followed Castor were under

suspicion of participating in the rebellion, regardless of whether they had taken part

in the battle or not. But of course it wouldn't be possible to punish all of them as

rebels, and so, formally, I was going to have to treat them as "having only acted

under the orders of the General of the Air Force, Castor, and a number of high

ranking officers," under the condition that they come under the command of the

Forbidden Army.

Because of that, Castor would have to bear responsibility.

As Castor's daughter, and having taken part in the fighting herself, it was seen as

a certainty that Carla would face the same judgment as her father when the war was

over. As things stood, their execution seemed inevitable.

Because Liscia thought that, she was trying to push Carla into the royal harem.

In this country, the king had a lot of power. In principle, there was supposed to be

an independent judiciary, but if the king exercised his powers, it was possible to

shield a criminal from prosecution. Liscia was trying to convince me to like Carla so

that I would work to keep her from going on trial. But that... was not something that

should be done lightly.

"Where might is master, justice is servant," I said. "If a king doesn't uphold the

law, the people the law protects will lose their respect for that king. If we don't act

logically, we ourselves will pay the price for it later. You must understand that, right,

Liscia?"

"Well, yes... But..."

Of course, I was sure Liscia knew that. Still, she couldn't let her friend go without

saying something. Honestly... being a king was such an unpleasant role.

"Still, I..." Liscia began.

"Liscia, there's no need to beg for my life," Carla said as Liscia was still searching

for the words. "You sent letters again and again, asking us to pledge our allegiance,

yet we chose to refuse. I followed my father knowing this could happen if we lost.

I'm only getting what I deserve. I consider myself to be a warrior. Now that it has

come to this, I will not regret losing my life."

Carla seemed to have already come to terms with her fate. I felt like I could

understand why she and Liscia were so close. Her personality was similar to Liscia's,

earnest and stubbornly unyielding once she made up her mind. That was why all I

could do was sigh.

"I wish you had directed that determination into something that wouldn't make

Liscia sad."

"There's nothing I can say in response to that," Carla said. She added in a

discourteous tone, "Don't you dare... Urkh!"

"Carla?!" Liscia cried.

In the middle of her sentence, Carla groaned in pain. The slave collar had

tightened. It looked like this item wouldn't tolerate any disrespect towards the

master. It seemed pretty harsh.

Some seconds later, once she was released from the pain, Carla turned to Liscia,

who was looking at her with concern, and said, "I-I'm fine." Then, looking back to me,

she bowed her head. "True, I wasn't as polite as I could have been. Let me rephrase

that. King Souma, I ask that you not sadden Liscia the way I have."

"...I know," I said.

As we were talking, Hakuya and Tolman entered the office. Tolman stood before

me, giving a military-style salute before beginning his report.

"Your Majesty, we have finished calling up the Air Force."

"Good," I said. "Well, then... let's get going."

I rose from my seat and gave everyone their orders.

"Hakuya, I'll have you handle the cleanup here. Also, use this place's jewel to get

in contact with Excel while she's staring down the Amidonians in Altomura. Tell her

she only needs to hold out until this evening."

"By your will," Hakuya bowed.

"Tolman, lead a unit from the Air Force to bomb Randel in the Carmine Duchy," I

continued. "However, your only targets should be the anti-air repeating bolt

throwers on the castle walls and Randel Castle itself. Don't you dare drop even a

single gunpowder barrel on the people's houses! If anyone is found to have killed a

civilian, I'll see to it that they will face punishment after the war. Do I make myself

clear?"

"Yes, sir! I understand!" he said firmly.

"Liscia and Aisha, come with me," I added. "We'll join up with Ludwin and his

group."

"Okay," said Liscia.

"Understood, sire," Aisha agreed.

Good. After giving orders to the others, I turned to look at Carla.

"Carla, you come with us, too."

"I can't have that much value to you as a prisoner at this point," Carla said.

"Please, just throw me in a cell somewhere,"

She seemed to have no strength remaining, but I shook my head in silence.

"You should see how this ends. See just whose strings you were dancing to."

"Huh?" She looked startled. "What are you talking about? Nobody was making us

dance..."

"Oh, no, you were dancing," I said. "After all, we were, too."

"What?" Carla asked, giving me a dubious look, to which I responded with a sigh.

"It's not like we have a complete grasp of the scenario. Still, if we play our roles in

it out to the end, I think we'll start to see. We'll see just who it was that wrote the

script for this battle."