Chapter Three: A Declaration of War
I
There was a civilian official in the intelligence division of a certain nation who was supremely confident in his abilities and always offered up his opinions to his superiors.
In that nation, however, ability was valued less than blood, and the man came from the lowest tier of the lower nobility. It would have been easier to find water in a vast expanse of desert than a superior willing to listen to him. Indeed, his superior was no exception—just another one of many.
“—so, Chief Secretary, if we put my proposal into action, it will dramatically improve our information processing. I hope you will give it serious consideration.”
Without so much as a glance at the stack of papers laid on his desk, the chief secretary fixed the man with a withering look.
“I told you,” he said, slowly and pointedly. “How many times do I have to repeat it before you give up on wasting your time?”
“Please, read over the papers.”
“I,” the chief secretary replied, “am an extremely busy man. Right now, I must go out to patrol the streets.”
“Chief Secretary! We beg leave to accompany you on your rounds. Through close observation of you in the course of your duties, we hope to apply ourselves to our work with still greater dedication!”
“What a bunch of good-for-nothings,” the secretary replied indulgently. “I suppose I can make an exception today.”
His smirk was met by smug grins from his other subordinates as they chorused their thanks.
“But Chief, my papers—”
Alas, the man had no way to make the leering crowd listen to him. They disappeared off into the town at dusk in fine spirits. As he clutched his stack of papers, someone called over to him. It was a colleague who hailed from the same low noble stock as himself.
“Stop beating your head against the wall already. That scum will never listen. Even if you did somehow get him to take up your idea, he’d just steal the credit without batting an eye. We’re never going to move up in the world, no matter how hard we try. We should just shut up and get on with the jobs we’re given.”
It was sound advice. If only the man had excelled in the arts of war, he might have found any number of opportunities available to him. But with a frame that even a charitable observer would have described as scrawny, he could never have endured such a life.
After this, the man’s colleague continued to take every opportunity to admonish him, but he closed his ears to all of it. Eventually, the colleague stopped trying to talk to him, and, helped by the fact that he had never been talkative to begin with, the man became more and more isolated. He would only mutter and smile to himself.
“—meaning no disrespect, Chief, but is that really true? Just the idea that you used to work with His Imperial Majesty...”
“Beyond belief, isn’t it?” the Chief Secretary said with a crooked smile.
“Of course, I know you would never make up stories like that,” the younger official said quickly. “But I don’t understand it. How did a civilian in the intelligence division end up rising to emperor...? Please, if you have any insights, I would love to hear them!”
In a sense, it was to be expected that the young official, eager to move up in the world, would have questions. The man who had once been the emperor’s colleague and was now chief secretary, the only one who knew anything about the matter, looked at the youth with an utterly lifeless expression.
“If it’s success you want, you should concern yourself with working harder. Unlike in the old days, even low-ranking nobles have plenty of opportunities for success, if they’re competent. That’s all I’ve got to tell you. Oh, and you’re not to repeat that story. And don’t even think about prying further. I’m sure you’d rather not end up an unidentifiable corpse at such a young age?” With that, the chief secretary left the wide-eyed young official there and, with the dragging steps of a bone-tired man, exited the room.
The Emperor’s Workroom at Listelein Castle, the Asvelt Empire
Darmés Guski, after laying out Ramza as bait, had seen him stolen away by Felix and allowed the latter to slip through his fingers. Given that in the end it would only briefly delay their deaths, however, he went on with his duties as the new emperor of the Asvelt Empire without any particular sign of concern.
“Have you established the Azure Knights’ location?”
“I beg your pardon, Your Imperial Majesty. My people are searching as hard as they can, but the Azure Knights continue to elude us.”
“This is not a hunt for one man. I fail to see how it can take this long.”
“Of course, I apologize...”
Marquess Schwarz von Hermit, appointed as the new minister of the interior as part of the reshuffling of the officials at the heart of the nation’s governance, dabbed at his brow and cheeks with a damp handkerchief throughout his report to his new emperor. After a few minor skirmishes with Darmés’s army on the outskirts of the capital, the Azure Knights had withdrawn, then vanished. With the city’s former defenders now turned into a pack of traitors, Darmés’s personal army had since taken over their role. The usual recourse would have been to send them in pursuit of the Azure Knights, but with the threat of an invasion by the Royal Army still lingering, Darmés had given up on that, which had in turn led them here.
“But what does Lord Sieger mean to do after running off with His Imperial Highness, I wonder?”
Felix and the Azure Knights’ betrayal had shocked the people of the empire even more than the accession of their new emperor. Since Darmés had made it publicly known how Felix had stolen into Listelein Castle in the dead of night and kidnapped Ramza, rumors about him had become nothing short of a public obsession. Now, wildly embellished stories flew all over the capital, including within the halls of Listelein Castle.
“Perhaps he labored under the unjust suspicion that I would subject His Imperial Highness to abuse. Felix does seem to have been remarkably attached to the former emperor, after all.”
“If that is true, he can really only be called shortsighted,” Schwarz said. Inside, however, he thought there was something extremely off about this. Their relationship had been entirely professional, but even so, he was fairly well acquainted with Felix. It was this that had, when he had first heard of the Azure Knights’ betrayal, made him write it off as a joke in poor taste. At the very least, the Felix that Schwarz knew was a wonderful man, accomplished of many a great thing in spite of his youth, and endowed with both courage and intelligence. He also knew how Ramza had favored him so.
But in reality, this is how things played out... Schwarz couldn’t even so much as begin to guess at Felix’s thought process. Meanwhile, Darmés had been named as the successor to the throne by Ramza himself, a qualification no other could claim. All the high-ranking nobles who had been summoned had witnessed Ramza lay the crown on Darmés’s head with their own eyes. As such, if Felix’s rebellion was condemned as a self-serving mockery of Ramza’s will, that could not be helped.
Darmés breathed a deep sigh. “For but a fraction of the loyalty he swore to our former emperor, I would have shown Felix favor above and beyond what he had enjoyed before.”
This show of lament from Darmés, as the new emperor continued to scribble away with pen in hand, struck Schwarz as blatantly false. So as not to expose his feelings, he deliberately kept his tone flat as he declared, “I shall continue to give my full efforts to the search for the Azure Knights.”
“Regarding that,” Darmés replied, “I thought we might assign Rosenmarie to carry out the search—and suppress their rebellion, while she is at it.”
“Eh? Lady Berlietta?”
“What, pray tell, do you find so strange about the idea?”
The Azure Knights were renowned as the mightiest soldiers in the imperial army. Schwarz himself was as far from a military man as it was possible to be, but he knew no ordinary army would be a match for them. As Rosenmarie was now in command of both the Crimson Knights and provisional commander of the Helios Knights, she was the natural choice for the task of subduing them. Schwarz did not disagree with this, but...
“Have you forgotten, Your Majesty? Lady Berlietta is presently engaged in battle with the Royal Army at Kier Fortress.”
For a split second, Darmés’s hand froze. Then he spoke, his pen already moving again.
“That’s right. She is, isn’t she? In that case, please send her word both that I am now emperor, and that she is to wrap things up there with all speed.”
Schwarz felt a slow twisting sensation in his gut as he realized that Darmés had not changed his mind at all.
“Forgive me, great Emperor, but I must protest. Of course I shall see that Lady Berlietta is informed that the coronation took place. But as I said, she is at this very moment in the middle of a battle. I humbly suggest that even if we tell her to wrap things up, she is hardly in a position to take on the subjugation of the Azure Knights, not so long as the Royal Army does not withdraw.”
At this, Darmés looked up for the first time and met Schwarz’s gaze. “The siege of Kier Fortress was no more than a farce designed to draw our eyes away from the invasion of the empire. Now that the Royal Army’s attempt to take Olsted has ended in failure, I imagine it will not be long before they retreat.”
“So that’s how it was...” Schwarz replied. “Very well. I shall include that in my missive to Lady Berlietta.”
“That will not be necessary,” Darmés said dismissively. So casual was the rebuff that for a moment, Schwarz thought he had misheard.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty, but why is that?”
“A thing like that, Rosenmarie will pick up on somehow or other.” Darmés stroked his unhealthily sunken cheek. “But then, we can’t rule out the possibility that they alter course to attempt to topple the fortress...” he mused. “Perhaps best to send reinforcements, just in case. Schwarz, you are to make this your first priority.”
Schwarz took the document Darmés proffered. What was written there made him balk.
“Something wrong?” Darmés’s question felt like icy water dripping down his spine. He started to mop the sweat on his brow at even shorter intervals.
“No, nothing at all. I shall see to it at once, Your Majesty.”
The high nobles, at first surprised by Darmés’s inheritance of Emperor Ramza’s throne, had, as the days went by, begun to give voice to a variety of grievances. What had sparked these grievances was Darmés’s origins as a noble of low rank. More than a few had harbored discontent during his stint as chancellor, but because of the absolute trust the emperor had placed in him, no one had ever spoken of it in public.
But the difference in the power held by the chancellor and that held by the emperor was vast. When the houses of Ludis and Titan made their dissatisfaction public, what had been smoldering embers burst fully into flame. Even the emperor could not ignore the two great houses who had laid the foundations for the founding of their nation and still hope to govern effectively. The whole of the nobility had looked on, waiting to see how Emperor Darmés would act...
His Imperial Majesty didn’t so much as hesitate. He ordered the arrest of the heads of both houses for high treason as though he did it every day. After seeing their wives and children slaughtered before their eyes, the pair of them lost their minds and died. I never knew anything so dreadful.
The deaths of both lords had been announced immediately. The extreme harshness of their new emperor’s justice had horrified the nobles, and public expressions of displeasure had rapidly subsided. The document Schwarz now held was Darmés’s closing words on his great purge.
But then, perhaps those who died in ignorance were the lucky ones. Just the memory of that horror makes me tremble... Schwarz’s throat was dry, but he was too preoccupied even to swallow.
“By the by, has there been a response from Sutherland?”
“There has, Your Majesty, only...” Schwarz trailed off.
“Then there is no need for preamble.” Darmés’s voice was perfectly even. “Tell me their answer, and make it concise.”
“Very well. They do not intend to acquiesce to our demands. In addition, they say that if the empire means to unilaterally violate the nonaggression pact, they will not hesitate to go to war.”
Darmés chuckled. “Even that herd of sheep without a shepherd still hold on to their pride as a great nation, I suppose.”
“Our analysis division’s calculations indicate they can field an army of over two hundred thousand soldiers.”
“Yes, well, they are only neutral in name. A force of that size is to be expected.”
“I am no expert in matters of war, but by no means does that seem like a number to sneer at...”
“Yes, if one were to base one’s argument purely on the difference in troop numbers, I suppose our imperial army would be at a disadvantage,” Darmés replied. But even as he said it, it was plain from the smile playing about his cracked lips that he was not remotely concerned. He practically radiated confidence, and Schwarz knew why.
Even now, the ghastly, soul-chilling wails and hideous figures were indelibly burned into his mind’s eye. When Darmés had first shown him those soldiers, like the heralds of hell itself, he had been so terrified that he had soiled himself. The memory was as fresh as if it had happened the previous day. How Darmés controlled his army of hell, Schwarz had still not been able to ask.
“You intend to send them against Sutherland, Your Majesty?”
“Oh, yes. They cost us nothing, after all, and they will win the empire tremendous victories on the battlefield. I wonder if they might not reconsider after we destroy, say, a city.” Darmés’s eyes narrowed as a low laugh escaped his throat. Schwarz had never before seen the madness he now perceived so strongly in Darmés. There was nothing he could do for Sutherland, about to be overrun by the army of hell, but to pity them with all his heart.
“You know, I have been wondering,” Darmés remarked. “Is it so very hot today? I find the cold quite chills me to the bone, myself.” He smirked. Schwarz clenched his handkerchief tight, so drenched with sweat it had changed color, and forced himself to smile. For the entire time it took him to hurry from the room, Darmés’s smile never wavered.
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