HOT NOVEL UPDATES

Wortenia Senki (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 1




Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Chapter 1: The Clouds of War Brew 

A single galleon-class ship known as the Atalanta sailed across the serene sea, racing to the northeastern regions of the continent. It sailed so fast one could only assume its sails were blessed with godwind. And while the sails were indeed blessed by a wind of sorts, it wasn’t one granted by the gods. 

“Report! Sirius’s port is visible to the northeast!” one of the lookouts shouted. 

Land was faintly visible on the horizon. 

“Understood. I’ll call Captain Brass over,” one of the crewmen replied and went below deck. 

“Hmm, yes, that’s the town of Sirius, indeed...” The tanned captain looked through a telescope, confirming they were almost to the harbor city. “Hey! We’re almost at port. Begin preparations to dock.” 

Not having to wait for the wind and constantly having a tailwind... That does make for quick voyages, doesn’t it? Brass thought to himself as he collapsed his telescope. 

They set sail from the town of Myspos, on the eastern tip of Helnesgoula, at the end of the ninth month. And now, four days later, they arrived at Sirius. And while it was true that unlike last time, they weren’t cruising along the shore, but chose to sail straight across the open sea, such a short voyage still defied the logic of this world. 

I wasn’t sure what would happen at first, but I was right to accept his proposal... I thought he was just a cheeky amateur, but I guess the joke’s on me this time. 

Brass’s face twisted into a self-deprecating smile. It happened three nights before he set out on this voyage. He’d lived for years as a man of the sea, and while that boy was somewhat respectful, he also dictated his route and instructed him to cut down on the length of the voyage. 

According to established logic, given the time it would take until they caught the right wind, the trip was expected to take somewhere between ten days to a fortnight. So when Brass was told all too casually to complete the trip in a week, he had to seriously doubt Ryoma Mikoshiba’s sanity. It was far too ridiculous to laugh off as an amateur’s frivolous request. But looking at the facts now lined up before his eyes, he could understand how he made that request. 

Brass turned his gaze to the group seated at the ship’s stern. On the trip back to Myspos from Sirius, they were all seasick and practically useless, but this time things were different. They were all, after all, young and barely at the age of fifteen. And none of them were sailors, either. Those youths clad in black leather armor were soldiers under the service of House Mikoshiba. And while they were novices with no experience in sailing aboard a ship, they were now more important and dependable than the most experienced sailors. 

“How’s the wind, Captain Brass? Should we make it a bit stronger?” One of the girls in the group called out to him, noticing his gaze. 

“Nah, if you make it stronger there’s a chance you’d tear the sails. ’Sides, we’re almost to Sirius. Keep the speed as it is for now. Thank you, Miss Melissa.” 

Despite the girl certainly being young enough to pass as his daughter, Brass referred to her with due respect. Aboard this ship, this young girl and her companions were in a way even more important than the captain himself. 

“Understood. Then we’ll keep up the wind’s speed like this.” Melissa beamed at him and bowed her head. 

He simply regarded her with affection in his eyes. It felt like he was watching his own daughter... All the sea vessels in this world were either sail ships or galleys. Each had their advantages, but in terms of carry capacity and sailing range, sail ships were preferred as trade and transport vessels. And among all sail ships, the galleon class of ships boasted the highest loading capacity. 

Its hull was oblong and its draft was shallow, and as such it easily picked up speed. Its high loading capacity also made it an exceedingly convenient ship. But the galleon, just like all sail ships, had the critical weakness of being reliant on the whimsies of the wind to move. It used multiple sails to cruise. 

Some sailing ships were also equipped with oars, but that required bringing oarsmen on board. And those oarsmen naturally needed food and water, which meant less room to store trade goods. As such, sails were used as the primary driving force of a sail ship. 

This made the state of the weather and the wind’s direction important factors. Thankfully, this world was similar to Rearth in that ships were improved so they employed not only square sails and fore-and-aft sails, but also a number of auxiliary sails. These allowed ships some degree of movement even when sailing into headwind. 

But even that solution had its limits. If the wind completely peters out and the sea is completely calm, a normal sail ship without any oars would essentially be stranded in place, rocked by the water until the wind starts blowing again. And since controlling the weather was beyond humanity, a sailor stuck in this predicament could only pray to God for help. 

At least, until now... 

What Melissa and her comrades were doing wasn’t a difficult task. Unleashing a gale of compressed wind was the most basic of wind thaumaturgy. The only difference is that rather than releasing it in a compressed fashion, they scattered the wind gradually over a larger area. It had very little attacking power, but the ship only needed mild wind to move. A gust of wind that’s too strong would actually be detrimental, because it might rip the sails. 

This meant the young soldiers’ inexperience was in fact valuable here. And seeing their spells be so significant and effective filled Melissa and her comrades’ hearts with joy, exactly because they were aware of their inexperience. This was the perfect way of boosting their experience and proficiency in thaumaturgy. 

The fact that they were needed and relied upon filled their expressions with confidence. They were also no doubt elated to return to Sirius after a month’s journey. Most people dreaded the place as a cursed no-man’s land, but the town of Sirius was, without a doubt, a second hometown to them. 

“Now hear this!” Brass shouted at the sailors, switching over from his otherwise serene attitude. “Lady Simone instructed us not to tell a soul about anything we see in this place, got that?!” 

The sailors all nodded at their captain’s orders, and began working on lowering the anchor. They’d already made the trip from Myspos to Sirius four times already, and were somewhat sick and tired of being told to keep quiet time and again. They did, however, understand why they were told to keep quiet, and what would happen if they were to ignore that warning. 

Their first trip to Sirius left that much of a striking impression on them. The townscape was properly divided into sectors. The roads were wide, spacious, and paved with stone. The walls were fairly high, and surrounded the entirety of the town. 

That on its own wouldn’t surprise them that much normally. Towns of a similar scale could be found in just about any other noble’s territory. But the surprise came from the fact that such a town was built on the Wortenia Peninsula, and within just a few months. 

“Cap’n... Are me eyes playin’ tricks on me?” one of the sailors asked Brass, rubbing his eyes as Sirius’s townscape came into view. 

Brass didn’t ask him what he saw. He had trouble believing the sight before his eyes, too. 

“Don’t worry. You’re seeing just fine,” he said. 

“Then it’s real...” the sailor muttered. 

“Aye. The city’s getting mighty bigger.” 

It had been six months since Brass and his crew first came to Sirius. It was just ready enough to allow for the port to operate, and was still roughly the size of a fishing village you could find anywhere. But every time Brass’s ship returned from a voyage, the town had changed. Just the port built along the coastline was twice its original size by now. No, it matched Myspos’s docking facilities by now. 

We can’t tell this to anyone else. And anyone would laugh us off even if we did... This is the worst... 

That thought crossed Brass’s mind. After all, if this were anywhere else, one might assume that tens or hundreds of thousands of people were worked to the bone in the name of building such a large dock, but this was the Wortenia Peninsula. That wasn’t an option. Several months ago, Brass carried a thousand slaves from Myspos to Sirius aboard the Merallion — Simone’s galleon ship. 

But even with that number in mind, the sight before his eyes didn’t feel plausible. Especially since he knew all those slaves he brought in were young boys and girls with underdeveloped bodies. They’d been submitted to abuse by their slavers and were all extremely weak and emaciated. They didn’t look like they were at all capable of labor. They were properly fed aboard the ship, but it was hard to believe their stamina would recover that quickly. 

I can see why the miss insists we keep quiet about this... 

Brass’s gaze turned back to the stern, where Melissa’s group was. He realized, ever so faintly, the trick behind this unbelievable sight. 

“What’re you gawkin’ at? I said go and prepare to drop anchor.” Bottling up his curiosity, Brass scolded a group of sailors who were staring slack-jawed at the horizon. 

Brass knew full well that curiosity could very easily kill the cat... 

 

The name of the port city of Sirius stemmed from Greek, where it meant “that which scorches” or “that which shines.” 

“Master Ryoma, the Atalanta has docked after returning from Myspos,” Sara informed Ryoma. 

“Right, got it. They’re finally back... Did Captain Brass say something about why they were late to return?” Ryoma asked. 

Sara answered his question with her eyes still on the piece of parchment in her hands. Were this Ryoma’s world, he wouldn’t mind the delay that much, but in this world things were all too different. There could have been some absurd reason Ryoma couldn’t consider ahead of time. 

“According to Captain Brass’s report, Melissa’s team was seasick during the trip to Myspos. On their way back, though, they’d gotten better and fulfilled their roles perfectly.” 

“Seasick, huh? And that’s why they came back later than planned... Yeah, I guess I didn’t account for that.” 

Perhaps telling them to work aboard a ship with no training or warning may have been reckless, Ryoma realized. Some people were less physically prone to seasickness, but apparently the troops he’d sent with Brass this time lacked that constitution. If anything, he was surprised they’d gotten better on the return trip. 

I guess it was their first time ever on a boat. They would get anxious, and they say motion sickness has a lot to do with psychological factors... 

“There is no problem with the cargo, though. They were thankfully graced with good weather, and the waves rocking the boat didn’t damage anything.” 

If a ship were to have to cross a storm, the cargo would often be damaged. Water could also enter the hull and spoil the goods. Luck was on their side this time, though. 

“Alright. For now, keep bringing in weapons and preservable foodstuffs. The monsters’ fangs and skins will do for the payment as always, right?” 

“Yes, we have enough to make the payment,” Sara nodded. “But according to Miss Simone’s letter, their clients’ stocks of them are running out, and she asked if we could send a larger number of them. She would pay off the remainder with gold, of course.” 

Ryoma sank into thought. 

“Increasing the number we deal in, huh...?” 

The monsters breeding in the Wortenia Peninsula were all considered powerful, and as such the ingredients harvested from them fetched a good price on the market. Simone was currently setting up a position in Myspos, and even to her, ingredients brought in from Wortenia were highly viable commodities. 

I wish I could do something for her, but... 

Normally, he’d like to send all the skin and fangs they got to her, especially since Simone herself was in the middle of a sales war with other sly merchants. They’d sworn to share each other’s lots, and so he wanted to give her any assistance he could. 

But the sad reality was that he couldn’t afford to sell any less of those ingredients to Epirus. Or rather, it wasn’t that he couldn’t do it, but rather that he dreaded the backlash it would cause. And suddenly dropping the amounts he sold might expose to Count Salzberg the fact that he was selling things to merchants outside of Epirus. 

“How’s the training going?” 

“It hasn’t been six months since we began.” 

Deploying more soldiers would allow them to hunt more monsters, but if they were to send out troops before their training had reached a certain point, they’d only be feeding the monsters instead of hunting them. 

“We’re going to need Simone to wait a little longer... We’ve got no choice.” 

Their supply couldn’t keep up with the increase in demand. 

Then again, going crazy with the sales until the prices plummet wouldn’t be good, either... Simone’s just going to have to be patient. 

Ryoma nodded once to himself. Seeing that Ryoma had come to a decision, Sara brought up the other matter that bothered her. 

“There’s... something else, actually.” 

“What is it? It’s not like you to be this timid...” Ryoma said with a frown. 

Whenever Sara talked like this, good news never followed. Not for any fault of hers, of course, but Ryoma couldn’t help but tense up. 

“Is it about the demi-humans?” Ryoma asked. 

“No, it’s something Miss Simone wrote in her letter...” Sara replied, to which Ryoma cocked a bow quizzically. 

The biggest issue on Ryoma’s mind currently was the issue of the demi-humans. He’d recently escorted the three demi-human girls he’d saved from the pirates back to the chief, which took quite a bit of trouble. 

In the novels Ryoma read, a white knight who saved a maiden was welcomed by her peers soon enough. Reality, however, wasn’t kind enough to live up to fiction. That wasn’t to say the demi-humans were entirely thankless, but they didn’t trust Ryoma Mikoshiba as a person, either. In fact, expecting them to trust him was reckless. 

Their history with human persecution was deep and long-running, and the weight of that history bound their hearts. They truly and honestly wanted nothing to do with mankind, and it took Ryoma quite some time to convince them. The demi-humans were an issue Ryoma felt he couldn’t afford to disregard in any way. At worst, he wanted them to maintain a stance of mutual non-aggression. At best, he’d hoped to absorb them into his forces. 

If he couldn’t manage that, there would have been no point to setting up base in the backwater lands of Wortenia. So long as they kept control of the seas, Epirus remained the only way to enter the Wortenia Peninsula. Ryoma could focus his forces to the south and keep the enemy out. This was the greatest advantage to having his land be a peninsula on the corner of the continent. 

But all of that would mean nothing if a force that opposed him existed within the peninsula, even if their opposition wasn’t explicit and direct. The fact they weren’t friendly toward him was enough of a problem. It meant he would continually have to keep some sort of force around to protect Sirius. 

So when Ryoma returned the abducted elven girls from the pirates, he made a proposition to Nelcius, the chief. His suggestion was that Nelcius, along with the other chiefs, would make monthly visits to Sirius where they would dine with Ryoma. He hoped these periodic dining meetings would help dispel their distrust of humanity. 

It was a roundabout solution, to be sure, but Ryoma felt that demanding anything more of them would make the negotiations fail right there and then. Their fear and suspicion of the human race were simply that high. 

As such, Ryoma was mostly nervous about the demi-humans. And put another way, any other problem wasn’t on his mind. At least until he actually read Simone’s letter... 

“There are movements in Helnesgoula. There are signs that soon an army of several tens of thousands will march into Xarooda again... Ugh.” 

Reading the letter to its conclusion, Ryoma clicked his tongue and crushed it in his hands. 

Dammit, is the beast of the north about to straight up interfere now...?! 

The letter informed Ryoma that the price of armaments like swords and armor was increasing, along with the costs of rations. That, coupled with the fact that several knights orders that were stationed in the western border to serve as a check to the Holy Qwiltantia Empire were moved to the east, signaled that some sort of movement was about to take place within the coming month. The end of the letter was Simone’s promise to keep gathering information. 


“Looks like her intelligence organization is coming into shape,” Sara commented. 

Simone’s role was to handle trade. She was to raise funds, acquire supplies, and keep and gather intelligence on the diplomatic movements of the different nations. This was, in effect, slightly different from the role Ryoma expected out of Gennou, his granddaughter Sakuya, and the rest of the Igasaki clan. 

Gennou’s role focused on counterintelligence — eliminating spies that attempted to sneak into the peninsula, as well as handling opposing assassins. Simone’s role was to keep an eye on the overall movements and state of affairs of the other powers in the continent, and inform Ryoma. 

Famines, plagues, wars, revolts. There are always signs reflected in the market economy that precede such events. The cost of foods skyrockets during famines, and price of medicine increases during plagues. A country’s economy was a window into its internal affairs. 

So when the prices of rations and armaments increase like they did now, it was safe to assume a military operation was at hand. With this in mind, it was clear Simone was doing her job well. 

“Yeah, she’s doing a good job.” Ryoma nodded quietly. 

But his gaze, unlike his words, was severe. Seeing her master’s mood, Sara parted her lips to speak. 

“This is bad timing, isn’t it...?” 

Several months ago, the battle of the Notis plains took place. The O’ltormea Empire won the battle, but their invasion didn’t surge into Xarooda’s territories because the Kingdom of Helnesgoula launched their own invasion of Xarooda. 

The only reason the Kingdom of Xarooda hadn’t been wiped off the western continent’s map was because O’ltormea was dreading the possibility of a concurrent invasion from the beast of the north. But if this letter told the truth, the situation would soon change. 

“Well, I suppose complaining about it isn’t going to change anything...” Ryoma’s expression softened at Sara’s words, and he gave a sardonic shrug. 

A war was like a giant rock thrown into an otherwise serene pool. The rock shakes the water’s surface, and its ripples spread in all directions. Similar to that, a war influences any surrounding countries in a multitude of ways. Those influences could be for the better or for the worse, but one thing was for certain — there would always, certainly, be some kind of influence or change. 

The problem was that there was no telling where those influences would appear and how. An increase in the market price of certain items was negligible, but Xarooda could ask Rhoadseria for reinforcements. And how would Queen Lupis react if she would be required to send out troops? 

The most probable option would be that Helena Steiner would lead the army, but it was doubtful that things would end with just her taking to the field. At worst, he himself would be forced to go to war, and this was the worst possible development for Ryoma, who wanted to prioritize developing and governing his land. Worse yet, there was no guarantee this wasn’t what Lupis and her followers were plotting to do. 

I hope I’m being anxious for no reason here... 

Ryoma heaved another deep sigh. He realized he was overthinking things, but he also knew reality was a series of unexpected developments. He knew he should prepare for the unpredictable if possible. 

After getting that report from Boltz that his task was going along well, I figured I might be able to take a breather. Guess not, though... Seriously, it’s one headache after another. 

Ryoma had a fortress constructed at the feet of the Tilt Mountain Range, which was at the base of the peninsula. Boltz was currently in charge of the territory’s security, and was heading there with fifty of their best troops. 

Ryoma recently met with Count Salzberg, and the fortress was built with his approval. On paper, it was a defensive facility built to halt the progression of the monsters coming from the region south of Epirus. The truth was that the purpose behind its construction was quite the opposite. It was a checkpoint meant to keep out adventurers and spies attempting to enter the peninsula. 

The presence of adventures wasn’t normally a nuisance. They dispatched monsters, which were usually pests and dangerous threats. But right now, monster hunting was one of Wortenia’s leading industries. Ryoma much preferred to have his own soldiers take care of any monsters that needed slaying over letting adventures do it. 

Moreover, the peninsula was currently dealing with the issue of the demi-humans. If Ryoma was to nurture the relations between his side and the elves, he needed to get them to trust him as a human, and there was no telling what an adventurer that wandered into Wortenia might do. They might capture a demi-human like the pirates did, and that would deal a crippling blow to his attempts to build a relationship with Nelcius. 

For all the demi-humans cared, one human’s acts were reflective of the entirety of the race. And for that reason, Ryoma couldn’t afford to have an adventurer do something untoward. And true to Ryoma’s intentions, Boltz’s work did result in a noticeable drop in the number of adventurers gaining entrance to the peninsula. Some did try to get in without going through the highway, but Gennou and his clan were effectively disposing of them. 

So far, the turnout of their efforts was looking good. But if a war were to break out in a neighboring country, there was the chance of it spreading out. No, it wasn’t a chance — the fires of war would spread. That much was certain. And that wasn’t something Ryoma needed right now, when he was focused on developing the Wortenia Peninsula. 

To an onlooker, he likely looked like a hero who rose up to nobility despite being a commoner, but in truth, he wasn’t that lofty. In fact, Ryoma was quite convinced the goddess of fate hated him. Had she favored him, he never would have been summoned to this world to begin with. 

“But the fighting will only take place in the Kingdom of Xarooda. It shouldn’t influence us too directly...” Sara said, to which Ryoma smiled bitterly. 

She was right. There was no doubt the war would influence them somehow, but even if Xarooda were to request Rhoadseria for reinforcements, the war shouldn’t affect them too much so long as Ryoma wasn’t asked to be the one to send those forces. 

Ryoma couldn’t nod at her assessment, though. A bad, ominous feeling brewed in his heart. Ryoma possessed a small number of troops. Their numbers were somewhat larger now since they regrouped with Gennou’s clan, but they only had four hundred battle-ready troops. It would take a while longer before the slaves Simone delivered would be of use. 

But even if Ryoma were to assume their training would be complete on time, he would still only be able to mobilize less than a thousand troops. At best, he could muster eight hundred or nine hundred. At worst, he’d only manage six hundred. By comparison, the average size of a knight order was two thousand five hundred troops. Ryoma’s available forces wouldn’t even reach half those numbers. 

That said, these numbers did match what a single territory’s governor would have as reserve troops. And when considering they were all capable of thaumaturgy, they were by no means negligible. As a force to defend his territory, they were more than just capable enough. 

However... 

We need more numbers, even if it means pushing it. I’ll need to ask Simone to urgently send us another thousand slaves... And we’ll need to speed up work on that thing, too. 

Ryoma’s survival instincts were telling him that the current number of troops he had left him in danger. And Ryoma obeyed those instincts, which had only grown more acute as he cheated death time and again since being summoned to this world. And he knew that his survival and the survival of his companions hinged on how much they could prepare ahead of time.

“Hmm... Gennou has told me as much, but this city is built quite elaborately. Are the trenches built along the road meant to make sure rain water does not go to waste?” Jinnai asked, squinting as he looked out the window. 

The moonlight shined down on the streets. A few days ago, Ryoma granted the Igasaki clan a sector of the town to call their own. Five men and women sat around a table, in an estate built at the center of that sector. Those were the elder council, which stood as the will of the Igasaki clan. 

“Indeed. It was our lord’s idea. The highway is built similarly,” Gennou said. 

“Despite his youth, that one is resourceful.” Gennai nodded. 

“’Tis a bit boorish, but quite the functional, efficient city. And it develops at a shocking pace,” Ryuusai said, his voice quite impressed. 

The cityscape that spread out beyond their window seemed to be changing by the day. This city grew continually larger, and rapidly so. And its developments were by no means haphazard or random, either. It was done under detailed calculations and cautious urban planning. 

“But it is lacking in elegance.” Sae replied to Ryuusai’s words with a teasing tone. 

True to her words, the city of Sirius was built while stressing functionality, but completely ignored the idea of aesthetics. It had a sort of artificial, inorganic impression to it. It was different from old Japanese construction, which mostly used wood. Ryoma had most of the buildings made out of stone, probably to lessen the chances of a fire hazard. That only served to make Sirius more drab and unsightly. 

“Well, we do live in an age of war. Elegance offers little practical advantages,” Gennai said. 

“You may say that, Gennai, but think back to the capital of Kyoto grandmother once told us about,” Ume slightly admonished him. “Do we truly have no need for a touch of elegance? After all, it would not do for our lord to be seen as but the governor of a backwater country.” 

Elegance. A word that implied tastefulness and refinement. The fragrance of culture, or a refined artistic sense. Of course, rustic brusqueness wasn’t inherently a bad thing, but it alone was not enough. Culture was power. It was an aspect of national power — different from military might, but still crucial. An important aspect to consider when building a country. 

“That may be true... But it is not as if we have a shred of elegance to our names, either.” 

By the very nature of their profession, the ninjas weren’t completely unskilled in matters of song, dance or music. Pretending to be traveling minstrels or bards gave them a pretty flexible cover story for when they needed to infiltrate other countries. But at the same time, they weren’t truly artists — they were ninjas. They didn’t have any actual artistic pursuits. Their skills were enough to entertain an amateurish ear, but not good enough to hold an audience’s attention. They were, at best, only slightly above average in terms of their artistic skills. 

“Gennai, perhaps you should take up poetry? I believe your household published an anthology of poems during the Heian period?” Ryuusai said teasingly as Gennai scratched his head awkwardly. 

“Hmm. Perhaps I should.” Gennai replied in an overtly serious tone, prompting everyone to chuckle pleasantly. 

“But jokes aside, we should discuss that some other time,” Ryuusai continued. “I believe that pursuing any notions of elegance right now would only serve to make our lord more anxious.” 

Culture was an important source of national power, but countries that leaned on cultural wealth too much only drove themselves to ruin. Ryuusai’s words had truth to them. 

“Our lord shows great interest in the demi-humans’ culture,” Gennou said. “But of course, that depends on whether he can get them to open their hearts to him. And that will take considerable time.” 

Everyone lowered their heads at those words. 

“Ooh, the demi-humans... From what I hear, they are quite cautious of us?” Jinnai asked. 

“Yes, quite right.” Gennou nodded. 

Gennou recalled the expressions of fear and hostility they directed at them. When the ninjas he sent to scout out the Wortenia Peninsula encountered them in the forest, the demi-humans attacked them without any chance for dialogue. Many of the ninjas were greatly hurt in the exchange. 

Escorting the elven girls they rescued from the pirates back to the village took a great deal of effort, too. But thankfully — and due to persistent, unrelenting negotiations — the relationship between the demi-humans and Ryoma’s side was improving little by little, compared to the open hostility they initially showed. One couldn’t call it a truly cordial relationship yet, though. 

The only truly good part was that the people on their side didn’t show much of a dislike toward the demi-humans. Most of Sirius’s residents were in their early teens, and the rest were mercenaries. Neither of those were believers in the God of Light, Meneos. But of course, if the demi-humans were to turn hostile against them, none of Sirius’s residents would hesitate in helping drive them out. 

Still, the fact that his people weren’t opposed to the demi-humans for a religious reason was a stroke of luck for Ryoma. If all went as Ryoma planned, it would only take time for the tear between mankind and the demi-humans to be closed. 

All that remains is... 

Gennou had served at Ryoma’s side since the Rhoadserian civil war, and he believed he had a good grasp of that young man’s capabilities. 

“I still believe my lord is the kind of person our ancestors sought. What do you say, though?” Gennou asked. 

The other five fell silent. The wish of the first leader of the Igasaki clan — the motive for which the Igasaki clan had honed their skills over the long period of five centuries. They wandered the land, masterless, in search of someone who would lead them. At times they were shunned as outsiders. Other times, they were outright persecuted. But now, they finally found someone. 

Ryoma Mikoshiba. 

“I feel we can throw our lot in with him,” Ryuusai said. 

“I concur with Ryuusai’s opinion. There is also the matter of what happened the other day...” Jinnai agreed. 

Sae nodded silently. 

“The time may be right to have the heads of the branch families convene... It only remains to be seen if our lord would be able to draw it, I believe...” Ume whispered. 

“That, I do not know. But it did cry out recently. Chances are, he would be able to draw it.” 

The five of them turned their gazes to a single katana presented on a shelf in that very room. That blade, known as Kikoku — the Wailing Demon — slumbered in the embrace of its white scabbard. It remained silent, awaiting the arrival of its worthy wielder... 

 

Roughly at the same time that Ryoma received the letter from Simone, one Owen Spiegel — prime minister of a certain country sitting at the eastern tip of the western continent — entered his master’s office. The purpose of that visit was a secret meeting was to discuss the war against the Empire of O’ltormea. 

“Your Majesty... I’ve made preparations as per your previous letter... I’m sure a messenger from Xarooda is on his way now,” Owen said. 

At those words, the aging man he spoke to nodded deeply. 

“And how goes the war?” 

“Ten thousand men led by Ecclesia Marinelle are approaching Rhoadseria’s border.” 

“Understood. A job well done, Owen... The road to Xarooda should open soon.” 

“I’m not worthy, Your Majesty.” Owen deeply bowed his head, despite the anxiety filling his expression. “But do you think that queen will agree to our appeal that easily?” 

Owen was worried over the Kingdom of Rhoadseria’s new queen, Lupis Rhoadserians. In his eyes, she was an indecisive woman. This was despite the fact that, when considering the location of the countries on the continent, it was clear to see which country would be attacked next should Xarooda fall. In most cases, it would be Rhoadseria who would be sending appeals for aid to the Kingdom of Myest. 

I understand that her regime isn’t stable yet because of the recent civil war, and yet... 

Even with that in mind, the fact that she hadn’t gathered enough influence over the country in all this time reflected poorly on her rule. And that only made the military prowess she was rumored to have look dubious. Even if she was as skilled as the rumors claimed, it was completely wasted talent if she couldn’t come to a decision. 

“Of course, I think it’s quite probable that she will. And you know what to do then, yes?” 

“Of course, Your Majesty. I’ve stressed the point to Ecclesia, as well. However... Are you sure that this is the right decision?” 

“I understand your doubts, Owen. I have no desire to engage in a meaningless war, either. And yet... Even Xarooda’s knights, as mighty as they are sung to be, will not be able to hold on for much longer. General Belares’s third son is rather capable, but do agree with me that it’s unlikely he surpasses his father.” 

Even with the advantageous position Xarooda’s topography granted them, the gap between their forces and the O’ltormea Empire’s numbers was far too great. And on top of that, the loss of General Belares — the hero praised as Xarooda’s guardian deity — was too painful of a blow. 

“And there’s no telling when the vixen of the north might act on her ambitions, either.” 

The ruler of the Kingdom of Helnesgoula, Grindiana Helnecharles, was by no means as greedy and avaricious as the rumors made her out to be. Owen knew this full well, having met her face to face once before. She wasn’t reckless enough to make blind attempts to expand her territory, but at the same time, she wasn’t naive enough to let a battle she was confident she could win pass her by. 

Right now, things could go either way... But things will certainly become much more difficult when the Kingdom of Helnesgoula becomes determined to destroy Xarooda... 

And what road will Myest choose then? Owen couldn’t help but heave a heavy sigh. 



Share This :


COMMENTS

No Comments Yet

Post a new comment

Register or Login