Chapter 267
Side Story – The Memories of a Certain Princess (42)
What’s this?
“Your Highness… I have committed a crime deserving death. Please forgive me…”
I looked down at Ast, who was kowtowing on the floor, with complicated feelings.
“Ast, even though you commit crimes deserving death about five times a day on average… this isn’t one of them, right?”
If anything, he deserved to be praised.
“Just what’s going on with you?”
“Please just… my title…”
Ah, I see.
“I didn’t realize calling you Count Ast would have this great an effect…”
If he was always this obedient, that might be nice.
He’s at the point where I’m conflicted over whether to kill him or let him live, and yet put up a merit and he calms right down.
“Build up more merits from now on.”
“I absolutely refuse.”
When others are anxious because they can’t build merits, Ast gets anxious when he does.
“What should I call this, Renia?”
“I think you just have to say it’s so very Ast, Your Highness.”
I nodded at Renia’s cold words.
“You’re right. Very Ast-like.”
Only Ast could make someone as clearly emotional as Renia be this cold.
“Then for the promotion…”
As Ast glanced around to gauge the situation, I gave him an honest answer.
“Truthfully, making you a Count would still be too much.”
While he may have been born a commoner, Ast had only been a noble for a few years.
And even becoming a noble in just a few years was highly unusual, let alone becoming a Count just recently.
“I’m sorry about this, but there are certain traditions among nobles.”
“That’s fine, such traditions. I hope they continue in the future.”
He really is a weird guy.
“You’ll probably just end up with a commendation.”
“Wonderful. It’d be even better if you give a thick stack of cash along with it.”
The moment I mentioned a commendation, his eyes filled with greed.
“Why do you like money but dislike titles?”
Power and money have an inseparable relationship, and yet he reacts like this.
“The more money the better, but the higher the title, the more of a pain it is.”
“But don’t higher titles allow you to gain more things?”
“That depends on each person’s standards. My goal is to live comfortably while earning a bit less.”
I couldn’t understand it.
“Wouldn’t being a high-ranking noble make your life easier?”
“Don’t high-ranking nobles have far too much to do while living like that?”
“Is that so?”
“Your Highness is special, which is why. Other members of the imperial family are meeting various nobles every day through banquets and the like.”
“For once, Sir Ast’s words are correct. You have less activities compared to other members of the imperial family.”
Since even Renia was saying this, Ast’s words seemed to be right this time.
“Do you really have to put ‘for once’ in that sentence, Miss Renia?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Isn’t that being too definitive?”
Ast seemed a little hurt by Renia’s attitude, but given what he’s done to her in the past, I decided not to worry about it.
“In any case, thanks to Ast, we were able to swiftly defeat the enemy’s vanguard. General Pelstein must be satisfied with this as well.”
His soldiers who had sworn revenge might feel somewhat futile, but aren’t wars always like that?
Just being able to achieve their goal without fighting should satisfy the soldiers as well.
“While war wasn’t declared, we endured more than that. Should we also attack in retaliation?”
“No way! War is bad, Your Highness. Peace is the best!”
“You’re still saying that? You’ve already blown peace away with your own hands.”
In a certain sense, Ast could be called the worst enemy of the Merdeah Kingdom.
Ast found out that the people secretly assassinating the diplomatic envoys were from the Merdeah Kingdom. And the high elf they suspected to have been kidnapped from there was also rescued by Ast.
The Merdeah Kingdom’s vanguard that Ast just annihilated this time was also his doing.
“That, that can’t be…”
“Give up. It’s too late already.”
At my words, Ast became frustrated.
He hung his head gloomily, muttered something under his breath, then suddenly stood up and yelled loudly.
“I want peace but the world won’t leave me alone!”
“That’s not true at all, is it?”
“It doesn’t seem that way to me, Sir Ast.”
From my perspective, it was Ast who disturbed the peace first.
“As expected, peace must be seized. Love and peace, no, power and peace!”
“Can you say that in human language, Ast?”
“Yes. I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
Ast would often speak in the common continental language while saying things no human could comprehend.
Despite being able to understand the languages of most nations, even I had yet to grasp the extremely bizarre and complex language that is Ast’s.
“It’s simple. You just have to seize peace through power.”
Isn’t it still hard to understand even after hearing the interpretation?
“Try explaining it in an even simpler way.”
“If the Merdeah Kingdom is preventing me from having peace, then wouldn’t I be able to live peacefully if that place disappeared?”
“You can’t possibly mean…”
Ast always came up with abnormal ideas that no one else could think of, but this time he went too far.
“Yes, that’s right. I can live a peaceful life if the Merdeah Kingdom is destroyed.”
I couldn’t bear to even look at Ast proudly shouting ‘power and peace’.
“Renia, what did I just hear?”
“Bullshit, Your Highness. You heard bullshit.”
That was Renia’s dull response as she stared wide-eyed and blankly at Ast.
My expression probably wasn’t too different from Renia’s.
“Ast, do you not know how strong the Merdeah Kingdom is?”
While they may have suffered defeat despite ambushing with several times more troops, that was due to the incompetence of the general whose name I hadn’t even heard of.
Just looking at how they recklessly charged out in anger due to Ast’s provocation, it was clear the commanding officer was still lacking in training.
Yet such a commander killed General Pelstein.
Even taking into account their superior numbers and catching us off guard, the fact that General Pelstein judged that he would have to risk his life just to defend the defensive line means the enemy forces were frighteningly mighty.
“You can’t take the Merdeah Kingdom too lightly.”
“Yes. Just because we won easily this time doesn’t guarantee we’ll win again next time.”
Despite their overwhelming numbers and ambush, only one person underestimated the enemy to this extent. There wouldn’t be anyone else like Ast.
“No way. There won’t be anyone who overestimates the enemy as much as me.”
Contrary to our warnings, Ast’s confident expression did not disappear.
If so, then he must have some kind of method in mind.
And that method was,
“Your Highness, do you recall when you played strategy chess in the past…”
“Why does that keep coming up?”
An event from several years ago continues to be mentioned. And one where I suffered a devastating defeat, no less.
I grimaced reflexively at the awful memory.
Bringing up such a memory remorselessly, Ast smiled as if asking to be punched as he continued.
“Why did you lose back then?”
“I didn’t think they would use the same strategy again.”
There were only 3 reasons to keep using the same strategy.
One was when the opponent didn’t know any strategies other than that one.
And another was when very strong psychological warfare was in effect.
Finally,
“Do you think the enemy can’t defend against the magic bombing?”
It was when there was a strategy the enemy absolutely could not defend against.
“Well, they haven’t come up with a countermeasure yet, have they? We have to keep using it until it stops working.”
Seeing Ast smile while saying ‘We can think about it if it doesn’t work, can’t we?’ gave an unexplainable sense of assurance, poured heavy rain on the Merdeah Kingdom, and finally, gave Ast…
“Congratulations. Now you might really become Count Ast?”
“Kyaaaak!”
…an opportunity to raise his title.
#56 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Certain Villain
“Thank you, General!”
“I’m not a general!”
I watched as the departing officer left.
“These stupid fools, please try to stop them.”
It had been two months since we routed the vanguard of the Merdeah Kingdom. And for those two months, the Merdeah Kingdom border area was being devastated.
The driving force was the mages’ magic bombing.
“If you know you can’t block it with a magic barrier, you should come up with a way to deal with it!”
With shaking hands, I took out a report.
<Bombing of Merdeah Kingdom 10th Corps formation successful>
<Death of 10th Corps Commander Count Torrez and annihilation of 10th Corps command>
<Collapse of de facto border defense line due to annihilation of 10th Corps>
“Ah, damnit…”
When I was thinking about love and peace, or rather power and peace, I never imagined a problem like this would occur.
“This is all thanks to my connections!”
The organization taught me that when connections like these appear, the nobles in the upper class nibble away at them, and the person who actually made the connection doesn’t get promoted.
So I was comfortably beating up on the Merdeah Kingdom without worries, but now I’m suddenly in danger of getting promoted to count!
“And that happens to be under the Princess…”
I had forgotten that my position was the Princess’s exclusive servant.
I only had one superior, the Princess, and because of that there were no malicious nobles who could hijack my connections.
Moreover, I was the one who came up with this bombing, and I was also the one who devised this plan.
So every time the bombing succeeded, achievements came to me,
“Then who should I give them to next?”
And I was put in the position of having to distribute the achievements among all the personnel under me.
“Damn! Have I given to all the officers I can give to? Should I give to the same people again? No. Should I rather distribute among the non-commissioned officers?”
It wasn’t easy distributing achievements either.
Why were the officers here working so hard and fighting on the battlefield?
The first reason was of course because of our suddenly war-bound Princess, but the second was to advance their own careers.
Soldiers have to get promoted.
The more they advance, the higher their salaries become, and of course their authority increases, as does the number of subordinates under their command.
And to get promoted, they need achievements. But is it easy to build up achievements?
Of course it’s difficult for everyone except me.
It’s too difficult for those who desperately want it, yet too easy for me.
I don’t need this stuff!
If I really become a Count, I’ll become a focused management target both in the Empire and the Organization.
There’s a reason for the saying: In a fight between whales, the shrimp’s back is broken.
If my title keeps rising, I’ll end up crushed between the Empire and Howling, the two whales.
So I distributed it to subordinates who wanted achievements.
I diligently prepared documents saying ‘This guy did that, so the credit for this achievement should go to him!’
I was happy that my own achievements decreased, and the subordinates were happy that they had opportunities to advance.
It was a happy ending for everyone, but the effects didn’t last long.
“Damn! I need a breakthrough soon.”
To think the famous military powerhouse Merdeah Kingdom would be so bad at getting things done.
I wanted to sell the anti-magic bombing defensive gear developed in the Empire to the Merdeah Kingdom.
If I could sell it, it would be a business I could earn 10 times the cost price on!
“Huh?”
The worries about whether I should make a shady deal in advance with the Organization quickly disappeared.
“This is…”
Reading through the report, I felt an enormous presence, like when the Avengers found the silhouette of Than-s.
And the next day.
“Your Highness, it’s Ast.”
“Come in.”
Early morning when no other military officials were present.
The only time when just Renia and I could have an audience with Her Highness!
“Please take a look at this?”
I showed the Princess the bigger picture of this war, seizing this opportunity.
“This is…”
“Do you understand what this says, Your Highness?”
The Princess’s eyes widened as she quickly grasped the content.
“Renia… take a good look at this.”
I couldn’t make a PPT without PowerPoint, but the graphs I’d worked on all night told one truth.
“What is this?”
“It’s the death toll statistics from battles across the Merdeah Kingdom.”
“That’s right. At a glance, they look similar overall, but most are actually one-sided massacres by the mages’ magic bombings.”
“But there are casualties approaching those numbers…”
As expected of the Princess. Unlike Lady Renia who still looked puzzled, she rapidly comprehended the content of this report.
“That’s right. Namely, Duke Religius Ruh Laiasha.”
“Giving command to Duke Laiasha, known for his incompetence, has Merdeah Kingdom reached its end?”
Seeing the sighing Princess, I said in a serious tone.
“Your Highness, this is an opportunity.”
“What opportunity?”
“Grand Marshal Religius Ruh Laiasha Duke, isn’t he perfect?”
“What the he…ck…”
The Princess who had frowned her expression fell deep into thought for a moment.
Her face changed in various ways as she seemed to ponder something.
The last expression left on her face was a very wicked smile.
“Grand General Duke Religius Ruh Laiasha. He really is perfect.”
“Isn’t he?”
“Hehehe! Good. Do you have a plan?”
“I do. First…”
While Lady Renia still didn’t understand, the Princess and I began preparing for the Make Grand General Duke Religius Ruh Laiasha Project.
