Epilogue: The True Raising of the Curtain

It happened around the time that Souma and the others were fighting the final

battle in Amidonia.

The prime minister of the Elfrieden Kingdom, Hakuya Kwonmin, was in Red

Dragon City sorting things out in the aftermath of the war. Because Souma had had

to leave to fight the principality before he could do any real work on the process,

Hakuya was handling it on his behalf.

While he was the prime minister, he was also a bureaucrat, so for Hakuya this

was his battlefield.

In Castor's governmental affairs office, the only sound was the scratching of

Hakuya's pen.

It was quiet in the castle. The master of the castle, Castor, had already been

transferred to Parnam. The majority of the Vargas family servants had turned to

Castor's wife, Accela, who had been left with Excel, and they had departed for

Lagoon City. Because of that, the only ones in the castle were the guards and a small

number of bureaucrats.

Tap, tap.

There was a hesitant knocking at the door.

"Come in," said Hakuya.

"...Excuse me. I brought some papers for you," Tomoe said as she entered the

room.

Tomoe would soon be departing for Amidonia to negotiate with the

rhinosauruses. Still, they couldn't very well bring a child like Tomoe to the

battlefield, so she would be staying with Hakuya until things settled down.

Hakuya stopped writing, and his cheeks loosened just a little. "That's kind of you.

You don't have to do this for me, you know?"

"No... I wanted to do something to help, too..." When Tomoe said that, her tail

drooped, but her wolf ears perked up and moved around restlessly.

Seeing Tomoe acting like that, Hakuya smiled wryly despite himself. "Are you

worried about His Majesty and the others?"

"Ah! ...Yes." Since he had been on the mark, Tomoe's ears flattened down. "At

times like this... I can't do anything."

"You could say the same of me," Hakuya said, patting Tomoe's head as he took the

documents from her. "We worked hard to refine the plan. Between Duke Carmine's

plot and Duke Vargas's opposition, there were a number of events we hadn't

predicted, but things are going well for the most part. You needn't worry. I am sure

His Majesty, the princess, and everyone else will come back safely."

"...Okay!" Tomoe was encouraged by Hakuya's perfect composure, and she gave

him a cheerful response.

That was when it happened.

A single soldier rushed into the office and said, "I have a report! His Majesty

Souma's army intercepted the Amidonian army near Van and successfully routed

them! It was a major victory for our side!"

He was reporting their victory in battle.

Tomoe smiled.

Clatter.

When he heard that report, Hakuya jumped to his feet so quickly that he knocked

his chair over. His face showed signs of his excitement, a rarity for the usuallysubdued Hakuya.

Tomoe stared blankly at him.

When Hakuya noticed that, he awkwardly cleared his throat.

"...For an advisor, even if he has some reservations about his own plans, he must

never let that show. It wouldn't do for him to stir up uncertainty," he said, the words

sounding like he was just trying to hide his embarrassment.

Tomoe suppressed a laugh, giving her mentor, the Prime Minister, a firm salute.

"Yes, sir. I toooootally understand."

When Tomoe, the honorary little sister of his master and also his pupil, gave him

a response like that, Hakuya sulked a little.

The black-robed prime minister, who was famed for his cleverness, couldn't keep

up that image in front of his adorable student.

◇ ◇ ◇

Before entering Van, the capital city of the Principality of Amidonia, I gave an

order to the entire army.

"We will now enter Van, but this area is already under the rule of the Elfrieden

Kingdom!" I announced. "Therefore, the people who live within are already citizens

of the kingdom! Killing, harming, raping, or robbing them will absolutely not be

tolerated! If anyone should violate this order, regardless of their social stature or the

severity of their crimes, I will have that person decapitated and their head put on

display! Understand that now!"

Once I had given that order to the entire army, I secretly called Ludwin aside and

gave him a note I had prepared. Ludwin accepted it with a puzzled look.

"What is this note? A list of people's names?" he asked.

I nodded, then said in as calm a tone as I could manage, "Ludwin... find the five

people whose names are listed here, decapitate them, and put their heads on display

above the gate. However, make the reason for it 'because they attempted to enter

and loot the houses of a resident of Van.'"

"Wha?! What have these people done...?"

"It was a gift from Georg that came to me through Glaive," I said. "They're from

the Army, but when they were in the Carmine Duchy, they broke into a private

residence, engaging in pillaging, rape, and murder. We would just be executing them

later anyway, so I'll render judgment on them here to set an example."

"...By your will." Ludwin meekly bowed, then took his leave.

Soon there were five heads lined up near the gate to Van. Next to them was a sign

on which the charge against them, "attempted pillaging," was written. It helped

enforce discipline in every soldier who passed through the gate. As a result, the

forces of the kingdom not only didn't engage in arson, looting, or violence, they

didn't even fight back when those who couldn't accept their defeat threw stones at

them.

That, despite expectations, ended up inspiring awe and fear in the Amidonian

people.

Once the roads were confirmed safe, I myself entered Van.

This time I traveled not in a carriage, but on horseback. It seemed that, as the

victor, it wouldn't do for me to ride inside a carriage.

While I had finally learned to ride a horse recently, I still wasn't very good at it.

Well, Aisha was holding the reins for me, so it would probably be fine.

As my horse and Liscia's moved forward side by side, I looked at the streets of

Van.

The Capital of the Principality of Amidonia, Van.

The militaristic Principality of Amidonia had built this military city as a foothold

towards their invasion of the Elfrieden Kingdom, and as a front-line base to defend

against invasions by the kingdom. On top of that, because of their unique mentality

of not wanting to lose to the kingdom at anything, its scale was comparable to that of

Parnam.

When I first entered Van and saw that mishmash of practicality and vanity, I had

one strong impression.

I want to re-district this place...

The civilian residential areas were crowded, the roads were complicated, and the

layout made me want to call it a "labyrinth city." Even though we were heading

towards the castle, we kept turning left and right, and just couldn't seem to get there.

There were mansions that looked like they belonged to nobles here and there in

the residential area. When I saw they were higher up than the commoners'

residences, I finally understood the layout of the city.

The layout had probably been designed so that, in the event of a battle, any

soldiers who broke through the gate would get lost in the labyrinth city, while the

defenders would use the nobles' mansions as fortresses from which to attack.

...I dunno, it just made me think: Did you really have to go that far?

This city layout would be hard on the enemy, but it was no kinder to the

residents. It was inconvenient for getting around, and I was worried about how fires

would spread with the buildings crowded together so tightly. The fact that this city

seemed to be designed around a policy of decreasing accessibility made my head

hurt.

At this point, I had no choice but to rework the entire city. There weren't many

cities that would benefit this much from improved infrastructure. When I thought of

the mountain of administrative work that was no doubt waiting for me... I couldn't

help but get depressed.

"Souma? What's up?" Liscia asked.

"...No, it's nothing."

"Hm?"

"Look, you can see the castle now," I said.

While I dodged Liscia's questions, I braced myself for what was to come.

I entered the castle in the center of Van, then sat on the throne in the audience

room which must have belonged to Gaius VIII. Gaius was probably the type who had

cared about projecting a dignified appearance.

I had heard Amidonia's finances were in bad shape, but this audience chamber

was quite impressive. They might have spent even more on decorating it than the

one in Parnam.

If you had this kind of money, was there nothing better you could have spent it on? I

wanted to question the former lord of the castle.

As I sat on the throne, Liscia stood by my side and Aisha stood behind me

diagonally. The rest of my retainers stood a few steps down the stairs on the carpet,

waiting to serve me. It had been a while since I'd had such a king-like scene in front

of me.

I ordered them to each give me their reports. They did so in order, with Ludwin

coming first.

"First, in regards to the family of Gaius VIII who were in this castle, we were

unable to secure them," he said. "In addition to his son Julius, who fled the

battlefield, there was apparently another princess, but she vanished a number of

days ago. Furthermore, judging from the fact that the finance minister and a number

of other important bureaucrats are missing, it is believed they left Van before we

arrived."

"Hm... Setting aside that princess, it hurts that we're missing those bureaucrats," I

said. "Contact Parnam immediately and have Marx send some over. Hakuya should

be coming from Red Dragon City once things settle down, too."

"By your will." Ludwin bowed.

Poncho was the next to speak. "I-I'm here to report on the state of the national

treasury, yes. As expected, you could say, there were hardly any funds or stores of

food. While it doesn't really compensate for it, there was a plentiful supply of

weapons and such, yes."

"How did they plan to hold out in a siege without food reserves?" I asked.

"Oh, no, if we only consider the guards for this castle, they could hold out for

three months, yes," he said. "If we consider the city as a whole, they wouldn't last a

week, though..."

"'The townspeople can fend for themselves,' huh," I muttered. "They sure are a

militarist state... Let's sell off the excess weapons and convert them into funds. Also,

I'd like to distribute rations until things calm down inside the castle. Would it be

possible to ship those in from the kingdom?"

"We don't have a lot to spare, but it should be possible within limits," he said.

"This place is close to the kingdom, so if we can just make the roads safe, I think we

can manage something, yes."

"Make securing the roads our highest priority," I said. "Next, Glaive."

Glaive Magna, Hal's father who now led the Army, made his report. "Perhaps as

an effect of Your Majesty's 'example,' the troops are adhering to regulations.

However, if you make them hold their desires in for too long, I believe there is the

risk that some of them will explode. If any of them were to lay a hand on the

townspeople, public opinion would take a turn for the worse quickly."

"We have that sort of problem, huh?" I asked. "Well, there are drinking

establishments and a red-light district in this city, aren't there? We'll cover the

expenses, so negotiate with the owners to get them some wine and companionship."

"Are you sure that's all right?" Glaive asked, sounding surprised.

Had I said something that strange?

"We can't have them causing trouble for the townspeople, can we?" I asked.

"No, that's not it," he said. "Is it okay to let the men fool around? With our current

momentum, I would think we could annex all of Amidonia in short order."

Oh, that was what he meant.

"We'll only take Van," I said. "We won't go any further than that."

"Really? I think it's best to take out your enemies when you can..." Liscia

expressed her doubts, but I told her it was fine.

"No matter how much we expand our territory, no matter how many cities we

take, when the Empire steps in, we'll lose it all," I said. "The only thing left in the end

will be all the lives we wasted."

When I said that, the room froze.

Liscia hesitantly asked, "Is the Empire... going to be coming?"

"They almost certainly will, is my and Hakuya's reading of the situation. A

signatory of the Mankind Declaration, Amidonia, had its border changed through

military force. There's no way the leader of that pact won't show up."

We had violated one of the three articles of the Declaration of Mankind's

Common Front Against the Demon Race (also known as the Mankind Declaration),

which stated that "the acquisition of territory by force between the nations of

mankind would be deemed inadmissible," so as the leader of that treaty, the Empire

would have to act on behalf of Amidonia. They would probably start by negotiating,

but they wouldn't hesitate to intervene militarily if it came down to it.

Incidentally, the difference in power between Elfrieden and the Empire was

about as big as the gap between modern day Japan and America.

"But the principality attacked us," Liscia protested. "Why would we be the ones

blamed for it?"

"That's just how international treaties work," I said. "Amidonia will probably

claim 'It's Elfrieden's fault for not signing the declaration,' I'm sure."

"Urkh... If this was going to happen, maybe we should have signed the Mankind

Declaration, too..." she said. "Wait, huh? Come to think of it, why didn't you sign it,

Souma? You knew this would happen if we fought Amidonia without signing it,

right?"

When Liscia pointed that out, I scratched the back of my head and laughed.

"Because we can't sign it. There's a pitfall in that declaration."

"A pitfall?" she asked.

"Yeah. Maybe the Empire doesn't realize it?"

Had they not noticed, or had they noticed and just chosen to turn a blind eye?

Either way, that hole was a dangerous one that could cause the collapse of the

Empire. I couldn't sign a faulty declaration like that.

I stood up, then turned and said to everyone there, "Well, I guess we should take

care of the post-war clean up until the Empire does something."

—This is where my work as king really begins.