Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: 61. What It Means to Carry on the Bloodline (1)
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"I still remember as if it were yesterday the day I first met you in that nameless field. You were like a lost lamb, a child soaked to the skin with nowhere to shelter from the rain. Seeing you like that felt just like looking at my past self—my heart ached so fiercely that you'll never know."
"...And so I vowed to become a sturdy shelter for you against the rain. Because I believed it was the right thing for a brother to do..."
The opening of the letter was filled with expressions of affection that rang utterly hollow, along with pointless flowery rhetoric.
"What a mad bastard."
I let out a hollow chuckle and quickly skimmed through the rest.
"...That you and I, brothers as we are, should now face each other with sword and spear—this current situation is tragedy itself. Caught between my love for my homeland and my affection for you, I spend yet another night sleepless with tears."
The middle was nothing but drivel steeped in his personal tragedy and sorrow.
I skimmed that too.
"Though I was compelled by imperial decree, I never intended from the start to seize your brother's castles and fortresses. Now the time has come, and I intend to return those castles and fortresses—temporarily held in my care—to their rightful owner."
I'd wondered if it was all just insane nonsense, but there was at least some substance to it.
"With this, I seek to end this tragic war."
"All shall return to how it was before the war."
"To the time when you and I forged the bond of brothers."
It was a unilateral declaration of ceasefire.
"Ha."
A scoff escaped me.
There were limits to shamelessness.
The Empire had started the war first and invaded the Kingdom's territory first. The Kingdom had already lost its Queen Mother and countless others.
And now they wanted to reset everything to pre-war status.
It was utterly self-serving, to a vicious degree.
I read the letter's closing again.
"Remember that you and I are brothers, just as the Empire and the Kingdom are no different."
"Brothers do not covet each other's possessions."
He pathetically prattled on about brotherhood, but stripping it down, the point was simple: he'd return the occupied castles and fortresses, so don't press the attack.
It was laughable coming from someone embroiled in fratricide with his own blood kin while lecturing on brotherly duty.
But setting aside the 3rd Prince's inconsistent words and actions, the ceasefire proposal itself wasn't bad.
The Kingdom had already reached its limits.
This wasn't about immediate victory or defeat. It was about the aftermath of the war.
The Kingdom was deploying its maximum available forces and pouring everything into it. It wasn't an exaggeration to say we'd staked the entire nation on surviving and winning this war.
The longer the war dragged on, the greater the burden on the Kingdom—that was inevitable.
In that situation, the 3rd Prince proposed a ceasefire. And he was even offering to return the occupied castles.
It was a hard offer to refuse.
Yet I didn't welcome it. It felt like I'd been doused in filth.
I turned my head.
I looked down at the Empire's knight below the walls.
Surrounded by Kingdom knights, he showed no fear whatsoever. He seemed utterly convinced that no one in this castle could touch a hair on his head.
Even though countless Empire knights and soldiers had lost their lives right here not long ago.
The knight stood arrogantly, like a king's herald come to bestow a grand reward, or a rich man condescendingly giving alms to the poor, drunk on his superiority.
The moment I realized that, I understood the source of my queasy feeling.
Accepting the ceasefire like this would be tantamount to extinguishing with my own hands the flame kindled by the Queen's death. It would be scattering ashes over everything the Kingdom's knights and soldiers had achieved with their lives.
The victories and pride the Kingdom had earned would ring hollow, and the Empire's knights would once again look down on the Kingdom's knights.
Because the end of the war they'd remember wouldn't be our victory, but merely the result of negotiations.
And the proof stood right before my eyes.
I hadn't even said we'd accept the ceasefire, yet the knight was already acting magnanimous, as if granting us mercy.
It wasn't a pleasant sight.
And I had no reason to let such an unpleasant sight linger.
But before sending the envoy packing, there was something I needed to do first.
"Malkoy."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Malkoy, waiting nearby, hurried over.
I briefly explained the letter's contents and ordered him to draft a reply at once.
"What shall I write?"
"Tell them if they want to end the war, they need to get serious. Don't think they can wrap it up with a single letter like this."
Malkoy pondered my words for a moment, then nodded.
"So, you're saying we should push for proper ceasefire negotiations."
Malkoy pulled out pen and parchment right there and dashed off a reply in one go.
"Is this acceptable?"
I glanced over what he'd written.
The flowery language was excessive, and the tone too deferential for my taste, but the content was spot-on.
"Good. Send it as is."
I roughly sealed the parchment and handed it back to Malkoy, who passed it to the Empire's envoy.
The Empire's envoy's face visibly stiffened upon receiving it.
"If you're done here, get lost."
I waved him off dismissively.
"Then..."
The Empire knight could no longer muster his former arrogance and offered a small bow.
His mission, which he'd assumed would succeed, had gone awry, and now he seemed to worry about the 3rd Prince's reprimand.
But I had no reason to care about the plight of that arrogant Empire knight.
What I needed to focus on now was the Empire's movements—and what the Kingdom could gain from them.
To that end, I first needed to drag the 3rd Prince to the negotiating table.
Fortunately, it wouldn't be difficult.
This time, time was on our side.
The 3rd Prince desperately needed to return to the homeland as soon as possible.
If the civil war stirred by the 5th Prince succeeded while he was stuck in the boonies, everything would go up in smoke.
Our forces just needed to pretend to grab at his ankles.
If he wanted, he could ignore the Kingdom's army and rush back to the capital.
But he'd have to bear the stigma of recklessly withdrawing forces and collapsing the front lines.
That was the consequence of the greedy 3rd Prince's own avarice.
From right after the war began, the Empire had continuously poured troops into the conflict with the Kingdom.
Most were shattered in the initial clashes, and subsequent reinforcements were whittled down or reorganized through repeated battles.
The greedy 3rd Prince had absorbed not just the now-nominal northeastern legions but every intact legion he could grab. Now, without his forces, maintaining the border was impossible.
The moment he pulled troops from the front in his haste, it would punch a massive hole in their lines.
Of course, he could split his forces, bolster the border defenses, and depart for the capital. But the greedy 3rd Prince wouldn't leave his precious troops on the front lines before facing his rival.
If that had been his plan from the start, he wouldn't have bothered sending envoys and talking ceasefire.
I was certain his sole plan was to graciously declare a ceasefire and then bolt for the capital.
But I had no intention of letting him head to the capital so easily.
I planned to drag it out and cling to his ankles as long as possible.
"Inform all fortress commanders along the front: when the order comes, switch to offense and prepare to strike the enemy's rear."
The Sky Knights buzzed along the front lines, relaying my command.
The forces at Silver Lion Fortress prepared for sortie as well.
As ostentatiously as the Empire wanted. Loudly and aggressively.
The effect was immediate.
As our troops made a huge racket like we were about to burst out the gates any second, the 3rd Prince sent another envoy.
"His Highness the Prince says that for the peace of both nations, there is nothing he will not do."
This time, it was a proper ceasefire negotiation delegation, with full protocol.
I entrusted the negotiations to Malkoy and the fortress staff officers.
"This is a chance that won't come again. Squeeze them for everything you can."
Some voiced concern that pushing too hard might cause the talks to collapse, to our detriment.
I dismissed it: the ones who'd suffer were them, not the Kingdom.
Of course, excessive demands could still break the negotiations.
But that was fine.
These ceasefire talks weren't for eternal peace anyway.
How long could a promise from some mere prince—not even the Emperor—hold, especially when he was desperate? And how much weight would it carry?
If it lasted until the civil war ended, that'd be lucky.
Even knowing it might all be meaningless, we poured effort into the talks for one reason: legitimacy.
A peace charitably bestowed by the Empire's prince from on high was not the same as a ceasefire we'd wrung from him while he was hanging by a thread.
The negotiations proceeded with the Kingdom proposing terms and the Empire accepting them.
In the process, we secured a hefty consolation payment (in truth, war reparations) and gained territory south of the border—some barren wastelands that counted as imperial land.
Land that had been the Kingdom's 400 years ago but taken over time.
We didn't explicitly state victory or defeat in the ceasefire document, but at this point, it was fair to see it as the Empire admitting defeat and taking responsibility.
It was unprecedented—excessively so.
Even I, who'd ordered them to take everything possible, was stunned.
"It's strange. No country hands over its land this easily. No matter that it's barren wasteland ruined by war."
Malkoy was right.
Ceding national territory wasn't a decision for some prince alone. Yet the 3rd Prince had accepted it all too readily.
Something you'd only do if you were insane.
But the 3rd Prince wasn't mad.
His situation was just deteriorating so rapidly that he felt like jumping out of his skin.
"The Empire's Magic Tower Lord and all the mages have come out in support of the 5th Prince!"
I learned that fact only after the ceasefire negotiations had fully concluded.