Plan
Plan
"You finished it quite cleanly, didn't you?"
With the utterly predictable praise, along with looks of envy and admiration toward the Hero, serving as the finale, Esmue greeted us as the day's schedule came to an end.
"It was ridiculously easy."
"Honestly, I was worried that using magic and spirit arts together would make it end too easily. Defeating the envoys with only your sword was a very good choice."
At Esmue's answer, Zeke snorted and approached the women, including Eselua, but I couldn't brush off her answer so easily.
Even with two more days remaining, wasn't it more advantageous to show clear results? Starting from the sloppiness of the Hero's education and all the subtly strange things consistently on display, I couldn't get a read on what any of it meant anymore.
At first, I'd thought it was just about putting a leash on the Hero to use him, but as time passed, it felt like the issue wouldn't end that simply.
"That's a face that says you don't understand."
Part of it was that I hadn't bothered to hide my expression, but Esmue smiled as she read my doubt.
"I can guess why, but this isn't something to discuss here. Let's move somewhere else."
Wondering if something had been discussed while we were in the dungeon, I looked at Ragnis, but she shook her head as if she hadn't heard anything definite either, understanding my gaze.
"You've worked hard for the Empire. Shouldn't we at least share a meal?"
Esmue casually addressed Zeke, who was about to leave, while naturally holding out a hand to me for an escort.
"I'm fine. Why would I follow to a place where Eselua's uncomfortable?"
"I have never made my sister uncomfortable?"
"Then let's just say I'm the uncomfortable one."
Though she was the one who had invited him, Esmue didn't call after Zeke again, as if she'd expected his refusal. In the end, only the three of us, including Ragnis, followed her into the carriage and left the academy for a meal.
As the carriage started moving and we went out the academy's main gate, Esmue opened her mouth.
"Doesn't the Empire's treatment of the Hero seem strange?"
It was a question that seemed to pierce right through to my thoughts in one go. At any other time, I might have mulled over my answer, but since it was Esmue, that kind of deliberation felt pointless, so I decided to just speak honestly.
"Asking when you already know... can I take it that you intend to tell me?"
"Are we not among ourselves? You may speak comfortably."
"Then I won't hold back."
Stubbornly clinging to formal speech in this precarious web of relationships could have who-knew-what consequences, so I decided to accept readily. Seeing Ragnis show no particular reaction and Esmue clearly pleased, it seemed fortunately not a bad choice.
"Of course I brought it up because an explanation was necessary. In fact, it was the fundamental reason I invited the Margrave of Levien directly in the Empire's name rather than inviting the Kingdom of Itisel. It's true that the variable called you threw the plan off in several ways, but it's just as fair to say it produced an even better result. In any case, since you won't be participating in the practical training from tomorrow onward, I figured there'd be no problem telling you now."
"...You'll explain why my participation in the practical training matters too, right?"
"Heh. It would be nice if you understood naturally, but even if you don't, I'll explain as much as you need."
'Where should I begin?' Esmue said by way of introduction. After a brief pause to think while looking out the window, she touched her lower lip and continued.
"Let me start with the conclusion. The Empire's goal is to make all kingdoms move voluntarily in the face of the Demonfolk threat. To that end, we deliberately delayed the Hero's achievements and left his weaknesses unattended."
"...I don't understand the connection between the goal and the action at all."
"First, Eldmia. None of the Hero's achievements began the moment the Imperial Divine Council received the oracle and found him."
Though she seemed to hesitate slightly as if mulling over her words, once they were all out, Esmue looked at me as if asking whether I understood what she meant. And in the silence she offered, I could sense instinctively that what she was about to say was anything but ordinary.
The first thing that came to mind was Zeke's hatred of depending on the Hero.
Now, he was forming relationships with Eselua and the other women and finding his place... but had the bastard acted that way from the start? Had they been friendly toward him from the beginning?
Of course not. Whatever else, the guy hadn't been thrilled about being reincarnated into another world.
So just how long had Zeke maintained a non-cooperative attitude toward the Empire's education?
"Half a year."
Had my expression really shifted that transparently from moment to moment? The answer to my question popped out of Esmue's mouth.
"The Hero Siegfried reached his current level after only half a year of training."
With a tone and expression devoid of any jest, Esmue stated it flatly, but both I and Ragnis could only doubt our ears.
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"It's obvious in hindsight, but at first it was bewildering. We had clearly found the Hero according to the oracle, yet no one imagined the Hero himself would be so uncooperative. Even now, we still don't know why he was so uncooperative."
After arriving at the restaurant, even while eating incredibly luxurious food, Esmue's story continued.
As a fellow reincarnator, I could interpret Zeke's words in my own way and understand what his grievances were, but honestly, from the Empire's standpoint, they must have looked like unfathomable behavior and complaints.
The Hero's abilities were sufficient, they provided him education free of charge, and even promised glory and rewards. In a situation where all of humanity clearly couldn't avoid the war anyway even without the Hero stepping up, the option of not preparing for war was basically nonexistent from the start.
If someone could sympathize with a boy who understood all those circumstances and still adopted a "fuck it, let's all just die" mindset, refusing to lift a single finger, that someone would clearly need their own mental state examined.
"In the end, he changed somehow and began following the education, but the time it took just to reach that point was three years. Naturally, we couldn't just trust only the Hero and wait."
They trained the army more thoroughly, reorganized the academy curriculum around war and practical combat, and held meetings practically every day to find ways to make even an uncooperative Hero useful. The silver lining was that, despite his lack of cooperation, he had a clear hostility toward monsters and bandits that harmed ordinary people. They could rely on his help in that area, and his relationships with Eselua and the other women deepened along the way.
After that, with barely any time to feel satisfied as Zeke began showing sincerity in his half-year of education, the Empire noticed that the atmosphere among the surrounding kingdoms was strange.
"I truly consider the saying that peace has lasted too long to be absurd. Isn't it obvious that the longer peace lasts, the better? The cause was simply that they regarded it not as their own crisis and gave in to selfishness."
The Empire is being greedy. Why does only the Imperial Divine Council designate Heroes? Why do the other gods remain silent? Maybe the oracle doesn't exist at all. Questions like that.
At a glance, it might seem plausible, but peeled back, they were rumors born from deep distrust and arrogance. In reality, even while receiving intelligence reports that Itisel was desperately maintaining the frontline, these people drew the absurd conclusion that if they were maintaining it, it must not be a big deal.
Without the faintest thought for how many had died over the years to maintain that frontline, living in war unable to return home.
So Esmue turned the idea around. If that was what they believed, then she would simply make it look true.
Itisel and the Empire are colluding, using the Demonfolk as an excuse to suppress the surrounding nations. Resolving to amplify that suspicion instead, she delayed Zeke's education.
And on this occasion, she would show the unfinished Hero to the entire world. A Hero who still lacked the kind of strength found only in myths would naturally look far more manageable to the kingdoms.
And based on the information accumulated so far, the kingdoms would come to a conclusion.
If the Empire is putting forward a Hero who, while certainly strong, is ultimately still within the human realm, to deal with Demonfolk that Itisel could withstand alone...
Couldn't they also mobilize their own armies and dispatch their kingdoms' greatest warriors to join Itisel's war and steal the benefits the Empire was trying to monopolize? That conclusion.
"If he were someone they could never hope to reach, I believed they'd give up. Even if exploiting him truly could bring the Empire immense benefits, how could they dare if the Hero could genuinely split mountains and part seas? So I trusted the growth he'd shown over half a year... and made a gamble."
And then I appeared, unplanned, defeated the Hero, and cut down the Young Lion of Rudra.
"Naturally, when I first received the report, I believed all plans had gone awry. This part was not part of my plan but something left almost entirely to luck, so I couldn't have predicted it. But... I realized it was rather a great success, within half a day of meeting you."
Because someone like me had appeared not in the Empire but in Itisel, the situation unexpectedly created a synergy that worked in her favor.
Regardless of whether the Hero was strong or not, the opinion began to emerge that, in the end, a human who hadn't even received an oracle could defeat the Hero.
The prevailing opinion was still that this was nothing more than false rumors spread by the Empire, but Esmue said that would change starting today.
"If the Empire truly meant to exploit them, it'd threaten them with a powerful Hero. Why would it show weakness instead? That's how they would interpret it."
And once they believed that, they would act accordingly.
Once they entered the war, they wouldn't be able to pull back. They would use the threat to humanity as their justification, argue that every kingdom naturally had to take part, and come with their full military strength.
They would regret it later after experiencing the battlefield, but that didn't matter.
The oracle had been given, and the Empire and the Imperial Family had confirmed the current situation as a threat to humanity.
They would mobilize as much support and military strength as possible just to survive.
"If every nation had provided stable support to Itisel from the start, there would have been no reason for such a messy and dangerous gamble. But... don't you two know better than anyone about that?"
Support in words only. Or purely financial support. It was absurdly insufficient for a situation being labeled a threat to humanity.
Even regarding that problem, within Itisel itself, the Royal Faction and Noble Faction were split and engaged in political squabbling, and Ragnis had personally been caught in that gap.
"That's why I chose the Margrave of Levien. I shared this truth and searched for someone who would sincerely give everything for a better future, and you were the result. I believe the Itisel royal family also sees this issue properly, but they could still turn away if circumstances demanded it. You, however, have lived through something that makes it impossible for you to ever turn your eyes away from the Demonfolk."
Having closed her mouth and listened intently to the story, Ragnis maintained her silence.
Unlike me, she didn't know the details about Zeke, so I couldn't grasp what she might be feeling at all, and I could only stay quiet.