Chapter 343
Side Story – Memories of an Imperial Princess (59)
“Your Highness! Urgent news!”
My heart started racing at the sight of the intelligence officer who had run until he was out of breath.
I wonder… How did it turn out?
I wanted to shout at him to speak quickly, but I held back.
Hadn’t Ast said it? That fine restaurants have long lines because of many waiting customers. That patience is needed to eat delicious food.
“Go ahead and speak.”
After responding to the intelligence officer, I closed my eyes and waited for the urgent news.
Ah… Darkness. Complete darkness everywhere.
“Lord Religieus Lu Raisha has been confirmed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Merdea Kingdom!”
My eyes opened wide at the soldier’s words.
Light. Light began to appear in a world where only darkness was visible before.
“Your Highness!”
“Ast!”
I ended up clasping hands with Ast, who wore a joyful expression.
My voice was highly excited as I shook our tightly held hands so vigorously they made whooshing sounds.
“We succeeded! This crazy operation succeeded!”
“Yes, we succeeded! Lord Religieus Lu Raisha has become the Commander-in-Chief of the Merdea Kingdom!”
Starting with my and Ast’s joyful shouts, many others let out cheers.
“Sob… It was such a difficult time…”
Among them were some who wiped away tears, like Ria.
That’s how challenging this operation was.
“They were a formidable enemy.”
“Indeed.”
Lord Religieus Lu Raisha showed incredible achievement in this operation.
“I didn’t know there could be someone who could even beat Ria.”
“I realized there’s always a bigger fish.”
“To think we were just frogs in a well…”
They were truly a difficult opponent.
“That’s praise, isn’t it, Your Highness? Right, Lord Ast?”
“Even we didn’t expect Sir Ria’s victory.”
“You’re insulting Lord Raisha, right? Not me? Right?”
It really was a difficult time.
Ordinary people probably haven’t experienced the feeling of having carefully crafted strategies defeated one by one.
Even strategists called geniuses wouldn’t have predicted it.
The terror of creating situations where you win even when trying to lose!
The majesty of Lord Religieus that couldn’t be expressed by merely saying âignorance is courageâ!
“You’ve all worked hard. Now we just need to draw them in a little more.”
“It was such a difficult time…”
The military personnel gazed into the distance, thinking about everything that had happened.
Really…
“We might have won more easily if we had just swept through…”
“I can’t deny that.”
Many had their resolve weakened by Lord Religieus’s achievements.
They argued that we should switch to offense and attack the enemy even now, and many agreed with their opinion.
But Ast, who was in charge of this operation, diligently soothed others and pressed forward.
And as a reward for those efforts, we were able to obtain sweet fruit.
“Through our efforts, Lord Religieus Lu Raisha has become Merdea’s Commander-in-Chief. Now, frankly speaking, we could win against the Merdea Kingdom even if we gave the Commander position to Sir Ria.”
“Why is my name coming up there, Lord Ast!”
Ria shouted with a reddened face, but others simply nodded indifferently.
Thanks to that, Ria’s face grew even redder with embarrassment… But that’s not what’s important right now.
“Are we going on the offensive now?”
“No.”
Not taking the offensive even though we’ve achieved our goal?
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to give them more?”
That must mean there’s an even bigger picture being drawn. And for that, we would need to give up something more.
“Let’s give them this place.”
“Fort Pesra?”
“Yes. With that much, our Commander Raisha would surely establish definitive merit, wouldn’t you say?”
Everyone fell silent at the suggestion of handing over a stronghold, and a fortress defending the border at that.
“Lord Ast, isn’t that going too far?”
Even the mighty Ria realized the gravity of the situation.
“It’s a fortress that’s already fallen to the enemy once anyway. Let’s just hand it over.”
Yet Ast spoke as if it were no big deal.
“What if this was all the enemy’s scheme?”
“You mean they anticipated we would act this way and made Raisha a Commander?”
“Yes.”
If the enemy had anticipated and moved according to all of this, we would just be handing over Fort Pesra.
“Shouldn’t we consider that?”
To this reasonable opinion, Ast tilted his head.
“Do we really need to consider that?”
“Huh?”
“Your Highness, this place is gathered with rather unusual people, so…”
“W-wait a minute! Does that include me?”
“This statement is absolutely unacceptable!”
“To be treated the same as the people here! I’m normal!”
Despite protests from all around, Ast wore an expression that seemed to ask what they were talking about.
“Would normal people proceed this far with plans to make Raisha a Commander-in-chief?”
“…”
Everyone fell silent at Ast’s words.
As Ast said, this wasn’t a plan that a sane person would carry out.
“T-that’s because Lord Ast…!”
“By rank, don’t you all have similar authority to mine? Even if I was delegated authority by Your Highness, you could have stopped it if you tried.”
That was nonsense.
Everyone knew that when someone tried to stop it, he went around pressuring them by asking if they were refusing the royal command by invoking my name.
“That’s because it was what Your Highness wanted…”
“A true loyal subject should risk their life to speak up against things they believe are wrong. I don’t think anyone here lacks loyalty to the royal family.”
“…”
“Hmm…”
Suddenly, claiming to be normal became equivalent to lacking loyalty to the royal family.
There had never been such sophistry, but everyone felt that the more they spoke, the more they would be dancing in Ast’s palm.
“Well then, let’s assume we’re all abnormal.”
Everyone looked at me with wronged expressions, but this needed to move forward or it would never end.
Now that Merdea Kingdom’s long-vacant Commander position had been filled, we needed to start our preparations too.
“So, what’s the connection between these people being abnormal and considering enemy strategies?”
Ast nodded and gave a very simple answer.
“It’s simple, Your Highness. Would a normal person do such things?”
“Huh?”
“Your Highness, a normal person wouldn’t promote someone like Duke Raisha to Grand General as part of a strategy.”
“What…?”
It was such a sensible statement that I could hardly believe it came from Ast’s mouth.
“The position of Grand General isn’t one that can be easily dismissed. It’s the position of Commander-in-Chief who oversees all military forces of a nation. That’s what Grand General means.”
“I know that.”
In a country, the positions of Prime Minister and Grand General were the highest positions after the king.
The Prime Minister who assists the king and handles all internal affairs.
The Grand General who assists the king and handles all matters of defending against external enemies.
Even with an unwise king, a country with an excellent Prime Minister can enjoy prosperity.
Even with a king lacking military ability, a country with an excellent Grand General won’t lose against powerful nations.
Such sayings existed because the positions of Prime Minister and Grand General were crucial roles that could determine a nation’s fate.
“Though the Grand General is appointed by the king, it’s not a position the king can decide alone.”
“That’s right.”
The nobles wouldn’t easily allow someone to have the highest military authority.
In other words, the Grand General needed both the king’s trust and the nobles’ recognition.
“Your Highness, because there are many abnormal people here, we could execute abnormal strategies.”
I wanted to ask how abnormal he was for thinking up such abnormal strategies, but I held back.
“But the Kingdom of Merdea is different. Unless the kingdom has gone mad, they cannot execute a strategy of making Duke Raisha the Grand General.”
“I… Suppose?”
If they weren’t mad, that had to be true.
“Lord Ast, isn’t there a way to dismiss the Grand General after achieving the objective?”
“This is the Grand General position. Dismissal is impossible without special cause.”
That was correct. Dismissing a Grand General without proper cause isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Especially someone as ambitious as Duke Raisha wouldn’t easily give up the position of Grand General with all its military authority.
“Even if the enemy boldly used such a strategy, Duke Raisha wouldn’t accept it.”
If Duke Raisha discovered he was being used in a plot and they planned to dismiss him once it was over…
“He’d stage a coup.”
“Correct. Duke Raisha is more than capable of such talent.”
Duke Raisha was indeed capable of such disaster.
“If Duke Raisha planned all of this…”
Seeing the military officials who couldn’t easily accept his words, Ast sighed deeply.
“Then we should let ourselves be deceived.”
“What?”
“If he planned all of this, it would be courteous to let ourselves be deceived. If he planned everything – dragging the once-Grand noble House Raisha’s honor to the ground, sending tens of thousands of soldiers to hell with nonsensical actions – wouldn’t it be courteous to let ourselves be deceived?”
“Uh…”
“How could we stop someone who has lived their entire life planning this strategy, predicting everything?”
“That’s…”
“At that level, letting ourselves be deceived would be courteous.”
It was similar to what he had told me before.
When everyone fell silent at those words, Ast looked at me.
“Your Highness, we’re dealing with Duke Raisha. He’s not the type to do something like this.”
“But what if it fails?”
“Unless there’s a spy among us, it won’t fail.”
That meant it could fail if there was a spy.
To be honest, there was someone I suspected of being a spy.
“You’re the most suspicious, you know?”
“What?”
It was Ast himself.
“Honestly, you’ve executed impossible things and succeeded at all of them. This doesn’t make sense unless you’re in League with the enemy.”
“That may be true, but if I were a spy who switched Duke Arisetias with Duke Raisha, would Fort Pesra be worth it?”
“No.”
If the deceased Duke Arisetias had commanded the entire army, the battle with the Kingdom of Merdea would have been a long war lasting at Least three years.
It was fortunate he died so unexpectedly that even the Imperial army could hardly believe it; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to be this relaxed.
“If I were a spy, the Empire should give me a medal.”
“True.”
Grand General Arisetias was replaced by Grand General Raisha.
This achievement would deserve more than a medal even if it was done by an enemy spy.
“Besides, would I do something like being a spy? It’s such an easy profession to die in.”
“That’s true too.”
Despite being my personal butler, Ast was someone who would abandon me and run away if my life was in danger.
Someone like that wouldn’t risk their life doing such dangerous work.
“If this operation fails, I’ll keep your achievements on record but take your head. Still want to do it?”
I set up a safety measure.
Since Ast refuses higher titles, he might try to sell one of our castles to reduce his achievements.
“Your Highness, couldn’t you spare my head even if you don’t keep my achievements?”
“No, not possible.”
As expected, Ast was very flustered about keeping the achievements but losing his head.
“Well? Still want to do it?”
“Hmm…”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief seeing Ast contemplate.
“Lord Ast, let’s not take the roundabout way and go straight forward.”
“That’s right. Duke Raisha became Grand General, what’s there to fear?”
“There are opponents even Sir Ria can defeat. Our victory is already promised.”
Many military officials began tempting Ast.
Under such temptation, Ast…
“Let’s abandon Fort Pesra, Your Highness.”
“Lord Ast!”
“Your Highness! This is nonsense!”
He pushed forward with his own intention.
“Alright, since Ast is betting his head on this… I’ll trust you.”
I didn’t really intend to take his head, but I planned to give him a punishment of equal measure.
So, Ast,
“Bring results that meet my expectations like you have until now.”
I wonder what kind of crazy things he’ll do next?
Wow i missed quite a few chapters for a while.