The investigation revealed that the Chancellor was guilty.
He was selling his unneeded weapons to several associations. He may have thought that he had dispersed the weapons evenly, but they were all business that the âGolden Fleeceâ had opened under different names.
Now that I know the distribution route of the âGolden Fleeceâsâ weapons, I can also see their next move.
The Golden Fleece had extended their influence far and wide. This was just my guess⌠but I think that the Golden Fleece must have been responsible for the Theanabe Union, for the Chancellor and Regent faction having different commanders, thus dividing the armies, and for having their armies consist mainly of mercenaries instead of their main force.
It was impossible for the two lords to âcooperate to create a single armyâ. They did both want to beat the Theanabe Union, but they were still themselves. The best they could do was to âtemporarily suspend political disputes while they were engaged with the Theanabe Unionâ. It was impossible for two people who have been at odds with each other for a long time to cooperate beyond that.
But an army was raised with two commanders as if they were asking to be destroyed individually, and as a result, they suffered a major defeat against the forces of the Theanabe Union.
And now the blame game has begun in the capital. The Chancellor and the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies are now reluctant to send troops to the Theanabe Union again. Well, if we lose to the same opponent twice, then our honour and prestige will be in tatters. There was no need to hastily regroup the army and send them back to attack the Theanabe Union since they werenât an opponent that we âmust beatâ.
War is expensive. A defensive war wasnât a win-win situation. At best, there would only be prisoners of war and equipment left behind by the enemy.
Nations fought defensive wars even if there wasnât anything to gain. You could say that this is why nations exist, but that wasnât the case for the âGolden Fleece. For them, war was an act of losing a lot of money with little to gain. They probably didnât want war. But they will be attacked at some point if they donât do anything. They canât even decide when they will be attacked.
Therefore, they instigated those two, got them to build an army and defeated them. If they were going to suffer losses someday, then they wanted to make sure that they would win and that their losses would be minimal. They also made us think that there would be little profit in blaming the Theanabe Union for this loss so that they could avoid a second invasion.
This was what the Golden Fleece had wanted to happen. They were extremely talented and terrifying. They control the Empire as they see fit.
But⌠there was another way of putting this. They didnât want the army to be reorganised and deployed.
They wanted to sell more weapons to the central continent, but weapon production has yet to take off in the Theanabe Union. So, they have no more weapons to sell?
No, they do. They have the weapons they used in the defensive battle against the Empire.
The Golden Fleeceâs next move âis to collect the weapons and armours that they had loaned to Theanave Union to sell to the central continent while controlling the Empire to prevent them from invading againâ.
If that is their next move⌠then there is something that can be done. They only made this move because they were certain that âthe Empire wouldnât invadeâ, so we have to tear down that belief.
No matter how much one hates war, anyone who was stupid enough to neglect to prepare when they could be attacked⌠Ah, but there were a lot of idiots in some peaceful nations in my previous life who say stupid things like âcutting down defence expensesâ even though they scramble around frequently, yup.
Well, leaving aside those exceptions who canât face reality, the Golden Fleece association arenât idiots and will not neglect their military as long as the threat of invasion exists.
All we had to do was make the Golden Fleece think that âthe Empire might invade againâ to stall their trilateral trade⌠and hinder their weapon sales.
The rest is up to my performance.
â ⌠â ⌠â ⌠â
Conveniently enough, I was celebrating my ninth birthday. The Chancellor and the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies will both be visiting me since they had to keep up pretences.
The Chancellor was ushered in by the steward, Helck, as I was finishing breakfast and thinking about taking a nap. He didnât even ask me if he could bring the Chancellor in⌠Who the hell does he think I am?
âLong time no see, Your Majesty. I came to congratulate you on your birthday as your vassal.â
With that, the Chancellor dropped to one knee and bowed his head. This was a rare Lothar-style greeting. It was originally used to show respect⌠but I canât feel any respect from him at all for some reason.
On a side note, âcourt etiquetteâ and âcourt languageâ existed during the time of the Lothar Empire, but they were all abolished and simplified by the First Emperor of the Bungdalto Empire, Cardinal since they were âa pain in the assâ. I like that part of him.
He revived many aspects of the Lothar culture, and only the court etiquette was changed. He wasnât good at those etiquettes, and that was why the Bungdaltos were treated as âbarbariansâ by the Lothars.
Now where were weâŚ
I adjusted my mood and spoke to the Chancellor.
âOh! Itâs been a while, Chancellor. Itâs a good day. Take it easy.â
I havenât thought about taking it easy since my reincarnation though. In my previous life on my birthdays, I would indulge myself in buying and eating expensive fruits that were used as gifts, buying and drinking craft beer that I normally wouldnât buy, but in this life, my birthday is⌠a political event.
âThank you very much, Your Majesty.â
Now then, shall I get to work?
âBy the way, Chancellor, have you heard?â
âExcuse meâŚ? About what?â
âAbout those rebels, Thea-something. You were going to destroy them, or have you not destroyed them yet?â
Didnât you say something about them being âdisloyal and treasonous people? You were trying to drag me out to war.
âYour Majesty. They are already calling themselves a nation. Theyâre not that easy to destroy.â
Hmm, youâre taking back your words. Well, the reason why they canât be easily defeated is because of the weapons you sold. According to the reports I received, the Chancellor had also noticed this, and hasnât been selling old weapons ever since⌠Itâs already too late though.
âI see. I canât trust the neutrals and Iâve heard that the Aquicurl soldiers arenât that strong. I thought the Chancellor would be the only person who could destroy them⌠But well, if you canât then thereâs nothing to be done. Should I order Lord Warung to do it?â
The Chancellor fell silent for a while when I said that. I donât know what youâre thinking, but you only have two options.
Lord Warung has already sent his daughter to the palace. If I order Lord Warung to defeat the Theanabe Union, then he will come to the palace. If Lord Warung were to join forces with the Regent Faction then the power balance, which puts the Chancellor at an advantage, would be tipped. The only way to prevent this was for him to say that he would defeat the Theanabe Union himself.
⌠His other choice? To âkill the Emperor and become the Emperor before Lord Warung and the Regent Faction join forcesâ. Well, he wonât get the support of the aristocrats if he does this. In a sense, my life was at stake⌠but it wasnât the first time my life has been in danger.
âYour Majesty, I am not saying that I canât defeat them, but it will take time.â
âBut I havenât heard anything about you putting together an army.â
âThat will also take time. But please wait for a bit, Your Majesty. I will show you that I can defeat the Theanabe Union.â
The Chancellor only said âdefeatâ not âdestroyâ. He had completely ignored my words. He was trying to change the subject.
Well, that was what I had wanted!
âOooh, really?! I knew I could rely on you, Chancellor! Iâm looking forward to⌠having a good vassal.â
This compliment balanced out the praise that I had given the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies for helping the Belbe Kingodm.
The Regent seemed to be making a lot of fuss about âthe Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies being my true loyal vassalâ which was why the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies didnât like her.
â ⌠â ⌠â ⌠â
Now then, when I told Fabio about this âideaâ that night, he asked, âIf the Chancellor really does destroy the Theanabe Union, then wouldnât the power shift in favour of Lord Raul?â
If the Chancellor won against an enemy who both the Chancellor and the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies had lost against (even though they hadnât fought directly), then the Chancellorâs prestige would increase and the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies wouldnât stand a chance against him.
But Fabioâs question was based on the premise that the Chancellor will obey the Emperorâs wishes.
NaĂŻve, too naĂŻve. A man who only sees me as his puppet will never do the proper thing.
Two weeks later, when I received a report that âLord Raulâs army had engaged and defeated a large army from the Theanabe Union at the borderâ, I was overjoyed. I complimented the Chancellor and even gave him a reward, then I told him I was looking forward to the day that Theanabe Union is destroyed.
By the way, the Chancellor held the actual authority to give rewards, so I donât know what was given to him. I guess he just took what he wanted. The Treasurer might be screaming again, but I hope he can endure it.
I received a report of the âRaul armyâs victoryâ, but the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies wasnât panicking, and the power balance wasnât upset. If the report had been given accurately, it would have gone like this.
âLord Raulâs army (a small force of mercenaries hired by Lord Raul) was (looting a village on the Theanabe side of the border) at the border when they ran into an army from (intercepted by a large army from) Theanabe, (so they fled, but this couldnât be reported, so they engaged in battle with the villages who were resisting) and defeated them.â
The report certainly wasnât falsified, yup.
This kind of falsified report wasnât unusual. It happened a lot in my previous life. It was just that people could be stopped from making such falsified reports under the law, or the laws can be bent so that they can give such falsified reports.
People do whatever they want if they arenât stopped; like announcing war or controlling information in a dictatorship. Well, the Chancellor was still a lot tamer than those people.
⌠Iâll keep this in mind as one of the charges Iâll slap onto him one day.
But my goal has been accomplished with this action.
The Chancellor can just have some random mercenaries loot the Theanabe Union whenever I want. It was easier and less expensive than building an army of his own. He will probably do this repeatedly.
But this was an invasion even though they were just looting. How can the Theanabe Union sell off their equipment when they are repeatedly being invaded?
A fool probably could have done this, but unfortunately, the leader of the âGolden Fleeceâ is extremely talented. They couldnât risk losing their base in the eastern continent, so they couldnât sell their equipment, and their exports to the central continent would stagnate.
This was the most I could do now. This move was only to delay the Golden Fleeceâs dominance, and it would become meaningless once the Theanabe Union starts producing weapons.
I will have to take control of politics by then.
This probably wasnât something that would happen in the distant future.