Chapter 6 – Toward the Signing of an Accord
1
The savage fighting with the Kingdom’s army and the Order’s ended, the inspection was called off partway through, and we were dismissed where we stood.
“Raquel!”
I turned at my name, and there was Princess Valtrune, looking rather tired.
“Rune-chan. Were you all right?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. You came all this way and it ended like this…”
She bowed deeply, sounding genuinely apologetic.
The inspection was called off because the Kingdom’s army attacked. None of it is her fault, if anything she stood at the very front so that no harm would reach the delegations, and protected us desperately. She has my gratitude and nothing resembling criticism.
“Lift your head, Rune-chan.”
“…Raquel.”
“You’re the hero who protected us. That many soldiers came to invade and you didn’t run a step; you went to meet them bravely. I’m certain that isn’t only my feeling, every person in the delegations felt it.”
It is a shame the inspection ended half-finished because of an interference nobody expected. But Princess Valtrune, imperial blood and all, standing in the line of fire and contributing to driving the Kingdom’s army off, has improved every nation’s impression of the Empire. Her efforts were not wasted.
“Have confidence. You’re a wonderful princess, Rune-chan… I shall have to learn from you.”
We never got to the orb workings, but how excellent the Provisional Elite Corps she founded is came through even to those of us watching the field from a distance. Few in number and elite, they did not yield to numbers and defended the Dyrst region admirably. That alone is a large harvest to carry home as the result of an inspection.
At the same time, no end of distrust has been born toward the Reshfeld Kingdom for so selfish an invasion. The Roscheld Republic borders the Kingdom and has built a relatively friendly relationship with it, but I think this affair is a blunder on the Kingdom’s part that could cost it credibility worldwide.
“…I intend to raise the Kingdom’s invasion of the Empire at the council at a later sitting. The Empire isn’t going to forgive it unconditionally either, is it?”
“No. I’ll report this to my father and we intend to send a letter of protest to the Kingdom.”
“Which means… there’s a possibility of full war between the Kingdom and the Empire.”
“I would rather not think about it, but you’re right, Raquel. To protect the Empire’s pride I’m sure we will never simply swallow it.”
If the Kingdom and the Empire go to war, the Republic’s position is deeply involved. If we were asked to take a side, the decision would be one with our nation’s survival on it.
“Raquel, if the Kingdom and the Empire do end up at war, what will the Republic do?”
The question went to the heart of it and I caught on my words.
Had the two countries come into conflict without the Dyrst affair, the Republic would certainly have gone with the Kingdom. But once the fact spreads that the Kingdom invaded the Empire without any declaration, I think even the council will split in two between a Kingdom faction and an Empire faction.
“Honestly, I don’t know yet. I’m one member of the council. I don’t have the power to decide the country’s direction on my own.”
Having said that, I looked steadily into her eyes.
“But personally, I want to side with the Empire.”
“…Raquel. Just hearing you say that makes me happy.”
“Well, I’d rather not think about killing you, Rune-chan.”
I put it half as a joke, though in truth conflict with the Empire would be no good thing for the Republic either.
“Yes. I don’t want to think of you as an enemy either.”
There was a wry smile on Princess Valtrune’s face, and even so there was so little hesitation in her eyes that it made me think she would cut me down if we ever were opposed.
Being tossed about by the state of the world is the lot of those who stand at the top. With dark cloud gathering over the relationship between the two countries, there must be a great deal troubling her, and she does not let any of it show, and puts the emotional care of the delegations first.
“Well then, Raquel. I’ll go and finish greeting everyone else.”
“Mhm. Of course.”
I waved discreetly and watched her grown-up back as she went.
I admire the strength of her will as a princess. When I think about my country’s future there are days I can’t sleep for worry, and I think that shows more sharply the heavier the responsibility pressing on you.
“…I see. She’s already gone somewhere I can’t catch up to.”
In our academy days, we were friends who talked about both of us becoming fine leaders. Back then she and I were still children, and I imagined we would take our time growing into leaders who guide a country.
Instead, graduation was the moment she became a princess dependable enough to lead so many people. While I am still a half-formed council member, she has endured every kind of pressure as the Empire’s only princess, and become an adult.
They say environment changes a person. I think that is no more than one trigger. That she became a splendid princess full of courage is the fruit of the effort she has been stacking up all this time.
“I can’t afford to lose.”
Touched by how well she carried herself, something hot settled in me too. As a council member of the Republic, I want to keep proposing right policies with the people in mind, no matter how rough the politics gets.
This inspection has been a turning point for me. I am finished making excuses about being a half-formed new member. I occupy one of the seats that decide the Republic’s policy, so like every other member I should hold my own opinion and make the choices that put the people first.
Having spent a violent day in the Dyrst region, I hope for a day when I can stand level with her. I put my student memories away at the bottom of my chest and chase after her as she walks into the future, parting from an immature version of myself, to make real the thing she and I swore to each other back then, that we would both become splendid leaders.
2
The inspection was cancelled, whether it would be held again was undecided, and the delegations were to return to their own countries.
The fighting in the Dyrst region, small accidents aside, went broadly to plan, and for my part I obtained a satisfying result.
“I am truly sorry that it turned out this way…”
“Please lift your head, Lady Valtrune… we watched your courage from a distance. The whole of the delegation has been wanting to express its gratitude for Your Highness’s deep consideration.”
“Thank you.”
I was making my rounds among the delegations when a hand touched my shoulder.
“Rune-sama. I am sorry to interrupt when you are busy. There is something I need to confirm urgently.”
It was Aldia, my personal knight, appearing with that thoroughly serious face. The moment I saw the unfamiliar sheaf of paper in his hand, I understood that a matter needing to be solved had arrived.
I excused myself to the delegate I had been about to speak with and left.
“I truly am sorry to intrude.”
“It’s fine. It’s an important matter, isn’t it?”
“Yes. In fact, Fadi reports that today, at the same hour as the invasion, a gathering of anti-Princess nobles somewhere in the Dyrst region was attacked by Kingdom soldiers. Every Kingdom soldier remaining at the site has been destroyed, so there is no danger inside imperial territory. But he apparently found a document at the meeting place that concerns him, and gave me this to have you look at it, Rune-sama.”
I tilted my head at the report.
“A document that concerns him? You mean something the anti-Princess nobles at the private meeting left behind?”
“Yes. It appears to concern the production of a drug…”
Speaking carefully around it, he put the recovered sheaf on a temporary table nearby. The pages were held together with an iron clip, and apart from a slightly torn corner it was in clean condition.
“So this is the document.”
“Please look.”
The title was ‘Concerning Madmiasma.’ A name of a drug I had never heard.
“Is this something that’s been going around the Empire recently?”
“No. I asked Fadi and he says he doesn’t know it.”
“Which may mean it’s only just begun to circulate.”
Talking as I went, I turned a page. On several sheets were a recipe for producing ‘Madmiasma’ and case notes on the symptoms that occurred in the drug’s users.
Madmiasma’s effect: an explosive strengthening of the body and a dramatic increase in the magic held inside it. The side effect, as written, is loss of reason.
—Loss of reason? It doesn’t say it’s temporary. How long, specifically, does a person lose their reason for?
“Al. What do you make of this loss of reason?”
“…I’m not certain either, but presumably something like being unable to judge normally once the drug is taken.”
“…Yes. Perhaps.”
I read on. As far as I could see, besides the imperial nobles counted as anti-Princess, even the names of neutral nobles I would never have expected appeared in the column of people cooperating with the development.
Through repeated human experiments, Madmiasma had been improved by degrees. In the course of it numerous people had died, and the surviving subjects had had their selves destroyed.
“I see. So they were experimenting in Marquis Rigel’s territory too. It says here it was even deployed in a real battle, what on earth is this…”
“Presumably it refers to the large man who ran wild during the Corps’ first engagement. General Ritziareite and I only put him down together, and he had strength nothing like a human being’s. On top of that his eyes never quite focused, and as I remember it, communicating with him by speech was difficult.”
“So this Madmiasma isn’t like the illegal drugs criminal organizations put on the street, giving pleasure and dependency. It’s for producing powerful combatants.”
“Inferring from the context, yes.”
—No wonder Fadi, out of the underworld, doesn’t know it.
An illegal drug it may be, but it is not the sort there is demand for on the street. Given there is nothing written about dependency, it does not look like a drug taken repeatedly.
The distribution route for this drug probably does not exist yet. It will be a dangerous new drug the people at that meeting are developing in secret.
Madmiasma certainly has the advantage of building military strength, but with a side effect that costs so much reason that speech becomes impossible, practical use would be extremely difficult.
And developing military pharmaceuticals of this kind is not permitted without the imperial family’s approval to begin with. It is plainly illegal manufacture.
When I had read the whole of it, I put a hand to my forehead.
“…It seems I shall have to crush the opposing faction in earnest after all.”
Anti-Princess nobles quietly pushing forward the development of a suspicious drug behind everyone’s backs. I had considered giving them a little more line so long as it did not damage the country, but I had reached my limit.
“Al… I am going to ask His Majesty for a swift succession. And then a declaration of war on the Kingdom, along with identifying and sweeping out the hostile forces spreading inside the country.”
“Yes.”
“The anti-Princess nobles’ gathering was attacked by the Kingdom’s army, wasn’t it. I want to know the damage.”
“According to Fadi’s report, the people forming the core of the anti-Princess nobles are dead almost to a man. Duke Felsdorf, the head of the faction, appears not to have attended and so escaped the attack.”
“I see… so they collapsed on their own without my needing to lift a hand.”
With the principal nobles of his faction fallen, Duke Felsdorf will not be able to come at me strongly either. In practical terms, the two groups hostile to me, the Kingdom’s army and the anti-Princess nobles, have conveniently destroyed each other.
“That is the whole of the report. Shall I take charge of the document?”
“Yes. Please.”
“Understood. I’ll have further investigation requested on it. I will report to you, Rune-sama, as soon as anything is known.”
He gathered up the sheaf on Madmiasma and left, and after I had watched him go, I began walking slowly back toward where the delegations were gathered.
“…So there is no time to rest.”
I had never intended to rest to begin with, but faced with a mountain of tasks stacking one on another, I did want to look away from it.
For now let me finish the rounds of greetings and hold the discussion about what happens next.
This much to do, and I am not even Emperor yet. Once I inherit the throne, exactly how busy will the days waiting for me be?
With my thinking taken over by sorting tasks, I put on my outward smile and resumed the greetings.
3
Many Corps soldiers lined up to see off the delegations who had come for the inspection.
Having watched the Corps at work, the delegates waved broadly and praised how bravely they had fought as they left the Empire by carriage and by ship.
“Thank you for protecting us!”
“Having all of you there was a great comfort!”
“I look forward to the day we meet again.”
The inspection had been cancelled partway, and they set off for their homelands looking satisfied.
The delegations went off in order, and the last remaining was the woman from the Roscheld Republic’s council, who was still talking with Princess Valtrune.
“Rune-chan. Thank you for seeing me off as well.”
“Not at all. It’s you and me.”
“True. Write to me again once things settle. I’ll come and see you when I can.”
“Yes. I’ll write… well, then.”
“Mhm. Until next time…”
The two embraced, and the councilwoman got into her carriage and left. Princess Valtrune kept waving until the carriage was out of sight.
“…A friend of yours?”
I asked once the carriage had gone entirely, and she nodded and clasped her hands behind her back with a fond look.
“Yes. Her name is Raquel Nova. We were in the same year at the academy. She is a council member of the Roscheld Republic now.”
“Raquel Nova…”
The name was familiar. That she had been in Princess Valtrune’s year at the academy would not by itself have kept a name in my memory, and I was digging desperately through people I had encountered in the past when a startled ‘Ah!’ went up right behind me.
It was Petra.
“Hey, what is it all of a sudden?”
Steano, standing beside her, shook her shoulder, and she began talking in some excitement.
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten! Raquel Nova was the girl leading the opposing team the first time we ever fought a siege exercise!”
“A siege exercise?”
“Haah, you really have forgotten? The one you and Mia and Ambros took part in because you got failing marks and didn’t want to sit the remedial class.”
I remembered.
Raquel Nova was an opponent from a siege exercise, the one who led the students from the Republic. She was a middle-school student at the time, as I recall, and even so she stood against our team as the exercise’s commanding mind, over the high-school students.
“Ah, that time…”
Listening to Petra and Steano, I remembered her. We had been short of numbers on top of everything, and the other side was thoroughly practiced at siege work; I remember it being a hard fight. Petra used every kind of trick to keep the enemy off balance and we scraped a win, but Raquel’s quality as somebody who stands above others was very high.
“You cannot possibly have forgotten a fight that close.”
Petra asked again, as though confirming it, and Steano did not appear to follow at all.
“Er, hmm… was there someone like that?”
Which naturally exasperated her.
“I really should have forced you into that remedial class after all… ah, well. I worked so hard for nothing, nothing at all.”
“Wait, no! I remember doing the siege exercise! It wasn’t for nothing!”
Petra refused to meet the eyes of a desperately excusing Steano, teasing him.
“Ahaha! You made Petra-chan angry!”
“Shut up, idiot Mia. You didn’t remember either!”
“I did remember. Right, Bro-suke!”
“Mm!”
Ambros seemed to be nodding along without following any of it, at a Mia who looked as though she was inventing whatever came out of her mouth. Beside them, Flegel, who had entirely stopped listening, gave an enormous yawn.
“…Your friends are all very close, aren’t they.”
“…They are. We were together constantly at the academy.”
Looking back at old memories, I watched my friends messing about. Princess Valtrune’s eyes on them were full of admiration.
“Raquel and I were friends like that too. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to call her my closest friend at the academy.”
“…And now you both carry countries on your backs.”
“Yes. I wanted to treat her the way I used to, and it did feel as though something had changed, just a little.”
Had it? From where I stood I could not see any moment where discord had come between her and Raquel.
“Did you fall out?”
“No. It isn’t that… only that it felt as though a small distance had opened.”
Distance opening is unavoidable. Once you meet as the representatives of nations, you cannot carelessly lay out what you think.
Princess Valtrune carried it well, saying it might only be her imagination, but there was something in her eyes that felt, very slightly, like loneliness.
4
Two days had passed since the invasion of the Dyrst region by the Kingdom’s army and the Order’s.
The Empire protested fiercely to the Kingdom on the grounds of the many casualties and the violation of its rights, and nations across the world joined in condemning the Kingdom’s selfishness. That the invasion began while a delegation was visiting is surely the largest reason the Kingdom drew such criticism.
Having made its opposition to the Kingdom unmistakable, the Empire began moving to build friendly relations with neighboring nations. In the space of a single day, the Kingdom’s position in the world had become an isolated one.
And Princess Valtrune’s position changed as well.
“…Valtrune. You defended this country from the Kingdom’s invasion. It was truly splendid.”
“Thank you, Father.”
Princess Valtrune was highly praised for driving off a Kingdom army of many soldiers with a small force, and an imperial decree came down from Emperor Grode.
“Valtrune. I have resolved to pass my throne to you… you will surely be able to lead the Empire as a fine Emperor.”
“Father, that is…”
“I mean to step back from active rule… I entrust the Empire’s future to you.”
“—!”
It was the moment the Emperor approved the succession.
“Your Majesty! Please reconsider!”
“No. This decision will not be overturned.”
“Her Highness is still young and inexperienced. It is far too early for a succession…”
“Mm. Do you say my daughter is unformed and unfit to be Emperor?”
“N-no, I never intended anything of the kind… I merely felt it premature.”
“…In any case, the throne passes to Valtrune. Say no more about it.”
“Y-yes… my apologies.”
Grode’s will was firm. He rejected the anti-Princess nobles’ objections to her accession outright, and made known throughout the Empire that the coronation would be held on the twenty-eighth of August, Kingdom Calendar Year 1241.
Once the information was public, the anti-Princess nobles could no longer interfere.
One of her long-held wishes, the succession, had come true.
“Rune-sama. Congratulations.”
“Yes. Thank you… and you said you had something to tell me.”
“I wanted to offer my congratulations, and to give you this.”
Princess Valtrune was taking over the affairs of state ahead of the coronation, and I had her spare me a little time, partly to celebrate the succession being settled, and partly because there was something I badly wanted to give her.
I handed her the important document I had ready.
“This is… a letter from Raquel?”
A plain but beautiful envelope, addressed in the name ‘Raquel Nova.’ She opened it carefully and read the letter inside.
‘Your Highness Princess Valtrune.
‘Thank you most sincerely for inviting me to the inspection the other day. It was a great honor to see the Provisional Elite Corps’ excellence for myself. If the chance comes, I should like to see the courage of those who face an enemy so resolutely once again.
‘And that is enough stiff formality.
‘Rune-chan. Congratulations on the succession being decided.
‘When I heard the Valugan Empire’s next Emperor was going to be you, I couldn’t sit still, so I decided to write. So little time has passed since the Kingdom’s army came into imperial territory, and when I heard about the succession I was truly astonished.
‘But the strong, kind Rune-chan I know will surely make a splendid leader who guides the Empire somewhere better. It will be all right, I’m certain.
‘I am working at my own duties every day as a council member so as not to fall behind you. I’ll become a fine member who puts the people first the way you do, so please cheer me on!
‘On the day of the coronation I will certainly come and see you on your great day.
‘Not, of course, as a representative of the Roscheld Republic’s council, but as Rune-chan’s closest friend. There was still so much I didn’t get to say at the inspection, so this time let’s take our time and talk about everything that has happened.
‘I look forward to the day of the coronation. Until then, Rune-chan.
‘From Raquel Nova.’
Having read it through, Princess Valtrune turned eyes toward me that had gone slightly wet.
“How did you come to have this?”
“Lady Raquel entrusted it to me and insisted I put it in your hands. I’m glad I could.”
She put the letter back in the envelope and held it to her chest as though it mattered.
“Raquel… no distance opened at all. Nothing has changed from those days.”
Position changes people. Even so, it is not as though everything is lost and begins again from nothing. The relationships you have built up carry on the same way they did in the past. Change depends on the people themselves, wish to change and you change; wish to keep something and you can go on with the same relationship you had before.
Princess Valtrune and Raquel are both working hard in different countries, and that the two of them are friends is a fact that will never change.
“I’m glad. She thinks of you as a close friend too, Rune-sama.”
“Yes… she does. And I feel the same about Raquel, and I have no intention of changing how I behave toward her once I’m Emperor.”
Her face cleared as though a haze had lifted from it, and her worry about how to go on with Raquel appeared to be gone.
I was glad the trouble had left her; now I could raise the real matter without concern.
“Rune-sama.”
“Hm?”
“In fact there is more to the letter.”
“More? …Ah, so there is.”
A second sheet, headed as a postscript. On it was important information Raquel had set down not as a friend but as a representative of the Republic.
‘Postscript.
‘When I reported to the council that the Kingdom’s army invaded the Empire while I was attending the inspection, opinions were raised that the Republic should reconsider how it deals with the Kingdom. At the same time, countless opinions were raised that the Republic should conclude a treaty of friendship with the Empire. If you are willing, Rune-chan, I would be glad to discuss the signing of such an accord between the Empire and the Republic.’
Friendly relations with the Republic. For the Empire there could hardly be better news.
In the world before the regression, the Republic sided with the Kingdom and became a nation opposed to the Empire; in the war between Kingdom and Empire it supplied the Kingdom with war materials and was never a country the Empire would sign an accord with.
“You’ve done it, Rune-sama. This should put the wind at the Empire’s back.”
“Yes… but why? For the Republic to weigh a relationship with the Empire above one with the Kingdom…”
“That is a question for Lady Raquel, surely.”
It is only conjecture, but I believe this topic came up because Raquel worked for it, that being close to Princess Valtrune, she argued the Kingdom’s invasion was unjust and persuaded the council desperately.
The bond Princess Valtrune built with her in their academy days had shown its real worth here.
“Either way, the accord will need a lot of discussion.”
Her face turned serious at once, and she put Raquel’s letter carefully inside her coat. Standing there entirely composed, she looked steadily into my eyes.
“Al. I’ll write to Raquel. To set the schedule for talks about the accord.”
“Understood!”
“The date to be after the coronation. I want the content of the accord worked out before then.”
Until the coronation comes, she will be as busy as she always is.
With the succession in front of her, Princess Valtrune’s face was full of confidence and more attractive than anyone’s. As she is now, she will become a splendid leader loved by her people even as Emperor.
I found myself hoping I could give every kind of help I have, so that one day she will be spoken of as the finest Emperor there has ever been.