Beletria Lien Archesium (4)
Beletria Lien Archesium (4)
Continental unification.
A goal the 600-year-old Archesium Empire has dreamed of dozens of times, but never once achieved.
No, even the many powerful nations that existed before Archesium only imagined it.
The Emperor, who holds the strongest potential to achieve that goal—a goal no one even dared to attempt—speaks to me.
"The Dharon Kingdom, Archesium's next target for conquest for the sake of continental unification. I will entrust the entire war against them to you."
At first, I thought I misheard, so I forgot to even be polite.
I picked at my ear and stared at the Emperor and the ministers with a slightly stupid expression.
However, the ministers just looked a bit displeased, as if the discussion were already over.
'No... they're accepting this? And really entrusting it to me?'
Yeah, I could easily accept that I needed to be acknowledged by everyone in the Empire.
Whatever, my current status isn't the 3rd Prince of Rehentra, but more like a victory commemorative trophy.
But they're entrusting the Empire's major affairs to a trophy?
How the hell am I supposed to take this?
I genuinely got a headache, so to do something, I looked at the bear-like man with four stars on his shoulder, who exuded the most powerful aura here after the Emperor.
However.
"Ahem, hum... The troop organization is already complete. 120,000 Imperial troops are waiting for the Prince's command."
He made eye contact with me, cleared his throat, and just said that while trying to avoid my gaze.
Or rather, to be precise, he was trying to avoid the gaze of the Emperor, who had started looking at him at the same time as me.
"Huh...."
Still bewildered, I saw other soldiers nodding in the heavy silence, signifying agreement with the man's words.
Okay, so no matter what I do, I can't escape this, huh?
I still couldn't figure out if the Empress was giving me a chance to really accept me as her Imperial Son-in-law, or if it was just a simple whim.
But one thing was certain.
If I backed out now saying I couldn't do it, my head would definitely be hanging on the Imperial Palace walls by tomorrow morning.
To survive, I have to cooperate as obediently as possible.
I took a step forward again and approached right in front of the Empress, Beletria, who was exuding a subtle chill.
Standing right in front of her, I felt an unidentifiable, heavy pressure weighing down on my shoulders.
"Could you... give me the relevant documents?"
I bit my lower lip slightly so my voice wouldn't tremble and held out my hand.
Beletria, with a look that was half indifferent and half satisfied, picked up the thick leather binder that had been on the table and placed it in my hand.
In the process, our fingers touched ever so slightly, and I was startled again.
'So this woman is a normal person like me, too.'
Warm body temperature.
A strangely sweet yet addictive scent.
I stared at the woman in front of me, momentarily lost in thought, before hurriedly lowering my gaze and focusing on the documents.
As soon as I opened the leather binder, the map of the Dharon Kingdom's front lines, meticulously prepared by the Archesium Imperial Army, caught my eye.
'Let's see....'
The first place that stood out was the Cailders Fief, which boasted the reputation of being the most impregnable in Dharon, surrounded by rugged rocky mountains.
The terrain itself consisted of sheer cliffs and canyons, so it was literally a fortress created by nature—the worst possible ground for large-scale troops to move through.
Moreover, a massive fortress called the Iron Wall of Cailders stood right in the center of that canyon.
In fact, it was safe to say that more than 50% of the reason the Dharon Kingdom had been able to maintain its existence until now was because of Cailders.
'More than that... so Rehentra wasn't a superpower, but it was at least mid-tier, huh?'
Leoser Halden Rehentra, who could lie that even a child he treated as non-existent was the most precious child in the world if it meant survival.
Yeah, the man who was my father, who was full of greed, had also tried to prepare for war to swallow up Dharon about 5 years ago, before Archesium started the continental unification war in earnest.
And some of the contents I saw in passing back then were exactly the same as what was written in this document.
Of course, that was only up to here; from then on, the quality of the information was completely different.
First of all, the walls of Cailders are said to be three times the thickness of a normal castle.
On top of that, more than half of the walls are integrated with the cliffs, making it nearly impossible to even drag siege weapons up.
"A level where siege warfare is impossible...."
I muttered my thoughts out loud without realizing it.
Noticing that I wasn't just pretending to read, some officers who had been staring at me dismissively awkwardly looked away.
Beletria also looked at me with a slightly more interested expression.
Feeling a bit burdened by her gaze, I started acting as if I were even more immersed in the documents.
'If siege warfare is impossible, avoiding it could be a method, but....'
Honestly, there wasn't a proper way to bypass the fortress either.
To go north, I had to pass through Sirna's Wind Canyon.
This place was a harsh terrain where strong winds blew 24 hours a day, all year round, and it was impossible to sneak through because the elite archers of Dharon were stationed there.
If I chose the southern route, there was Tarben, a black swamp with unknown depth.
It was a mud pit where not only supply wagons but even trained warhorses would get their feet stuck and sink while struggling.
There was even a warning written in red ink that venomous monsters inhabited the place.
The last remaining place had another defensive line that was almost equivalent to Cailders, just slightly lacking.
In the end, the only option was a frontal breakthrough.
Either collapse the Iron Wall with mindless brute force and money, or draw the troops out—even a portion would do—and neutralize the Cailders Fief itself.
"Hmm...."
I tapped the surface of the old map with my finger.
After reading the entire document, I felt like I understood why the Imperial military leadership had only finished organizing the troops and left the operational plan empty.
It was clear that no one wanted to take the position of Commander-in-Chief, so they were just watching each other and pushed this headache onto me, a hostage who had just rolled in.
'Are you kidding me? My life is on the line, and you're pushing me into a crazy gambling table like this?'
I found myself gripping the documents harder.
But paradoxically, in this shitty situation, my mind was gradually calming down.
It was true that I needed to stay calm to see a way to survive, but....
For some reason, I thought it was a little fun.
For over 20 years, rotting away as a backroom prince of Rehentra.
All I could do was read the military strategy books that the ancestors of the kingdom had left behind for the prosperity of Rehentra—which no one cared about and were covered in dust—and play chess by myself.
Just as I was scanning the map around the Watcher's Spire, where Dharon's food supply routes and military supply warehouses were marked, on the last page of the leather binder.
"I didn't expect the answer today, so let's stop there."
The Empress, who had been quietly watching me without a word, stood up from her seat.
I stared up at her with an expression that said I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
At my blank reaction, Beletria added, raising the corners of her mouth slightly.
"I meant that just by showing the will not to lose focus until the end and not to be easily played by their shallow tricks, you have passed."
She said that and looked around the room.
After fiercely glaring at the ministers one by one, who were still busy looking away and avoiding the tyrant's eyes, she snatched the thick leather binder from my hand.
Tak.
The sound of the heavy document being thrown onto the desk broke the silence of the conference room.
"Although I have accepted your marriage proposal, don't we still know too little about each other? Isn't that right, Prince?"
"Yes? Ah... W-well, that is true, but...."
"So, starting today, I intend to have two hours every day where we only get to know each other."
I couldn't help but drop my jaw at the Empress's proposal, which was close to a notification.
The ministers' eyes widened as if they had seen something unbelievable, but no one dared to argue with the Emperor's decision.
Beletria lightly grabbed the collar of my clothes, as I was still frozen, unable to grasp the situation.
And then, she pulled me with force, half-compelling me to walk out of the conference room.
'... I'm really in big trouble.'
The place called the Sun Garden, where I arrived led by Beletria's hand, was, as the name suggested, a dazzlingly gorgeous and bright place.
Warm sunlight poured down between the marble pillars, and flowers of unknown names, blooming as if they had forgotten the season, were emitting a deep fragrance.
It was a completely different world from the gloomy conference room where we discussed bloody wars of conquest and death.
And now, I was sitting at a round table set in the middle of that surreal scenery.
Opposite me, the Empress, the ruler of the continent, was lifting a teacup with elegant movements.
Dalgeurak.
I swallowed dry saliva and stared at the red tea placed for me.
There was no way it was poisoned, but I couldn't bring myself to swallow it.
Seeing me like that, Beletria put down her teacup and said in a gentle voice.
"There is no need to be nervous. It is just a light tea party to get to know each other, as I said."
"Ah... Yes."
"How was life in Rehentra? I am curious about what kind of food you enjoyed, and what you did to pass the time when you were free."
Really ordinary questions that men and women commonly seen on the street might exchange when they meet for a blind date for the first time.
I rubbed my two hands, which were sweating under the table, against my pants.
"Uhm... There was nothing special. I just read books in the old detached palace on the outskirts of the main palace, or occasionally watched the knights swinging their swords in the corner of the training ground. I'm the type to eat anything without being picky, too."
I squeezed out a safe answer that fit my situation as a hostage, trying not to stand out as much as possible.
I kept quiet about all the treatment I had received throughout my life.
I continued speaking, mixing in facts and packaging them appropriately, as it would be troublesome if I were caught lying.
Beletria nodded repeatedly, observing me as if she found me interesting.
"It's unexpectedly quiet, considering you like books. Come to think of it, seeing how you didn't lose your composure even in front of those heavy military strategy books earlier, there is a part of me that understands."
"Thank you for the compliment."
She didn't seem to be in a bad mood.
Fortunately, it seemed I had passed the first hurdle.
After that, I broke into a cold sweat while exchanging a few more trivial questions and answers about my favorite season, the scent of tea I preferred, and so on.
As I did, the atmosphere gradually softened, and I, too, was becoming a little more comfortable breathing.
It was just when I was getting quite used to the atmosphere of the Imperial Palace and the conversation with the Emperor.
The moment a bird chirping on the windowsill flew away with a flutter.
Beletria, who had been lost in thought while toying with her teacup, opened her mouth in a low voice.
"From the moment I first saw you, all the seasons of my world have bloomed and faded only for you."
"... Pardon?"
The first line of the marriage proposal I wrote to Ersil, the princess of the Ignesia Kingdom, which popped out of nowhere.
The Empress nonchalantly muttered that desperate sentence, which I had spent days and nights tearing my hair out writing.
"That is what was written in the first line of the marriage proposal you offered to me."
Beletria leaned her upper body slightly toward the table.
At a distance close enough for our breaths to touch, she stared straight into my eyes and asked.
"I was curious from the beginning, exactly when you started to have feelings for me."
