The Peace(?) Delegation
"..."
For nearly a full minute, Adelheid offered no response, despite having pressed me with murderous intensity just moments earlier to get to the point. Her wide eyes glared fiercely at me, yet her jaw hung slack in a daze—as if her body had simply refused to obey her will. To be entirely honest, it was hilarious.
"Ah..."
Belatedly realizing her own expression, Adelheid snapped her mouth shut. She pressed a hand lightly against her forehead, bowed her head, and muttered silently before finally looking back up.
"I must have misheard you. Would you mind repeating that?"
"I said you should become Emperor."
"...I apologize for rushing you earlier, but could you elaborate on that a bit more?"
Her eyes trembled as though she were beholding some grotesque monstrosity, and she instinctively dragged her chair back half a span.
"It is not complicated," I replied smoothly. "You and I both want something out of this. In my case, I want to bring an end to this war and return safely to the Kingdom of Remus without lingering trouble. And you, Imperial Princess... do you not wish to break free from this suffocating predicament?"
I had no idea whether she truly harbored treasonous ambitions, nor did I care. All that mattered was that she was currently backed into a corner.
"You must already know this, Lady Adelheid. This situation has long passed the point where logic and facts can resolve it. His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince... no, the Crown Prince is hell-bent on using this opportunity to eliminate you, one way or another."
"Watch your tongue—"
"If that weren't the case, why are you trapped in this city, defying his recall orders?"
"..."
"The Crown Prince has already discarded any sense of decency. Do you think that if you stand with your hands behind your back, clutching onto decorum, he will suddenly stoop to pick up what he threw away? You have already lost the initiative. You are not standing at a crossroads deciding whether to act or not; you are standing on a crumbling cliff where you either leap to the other side or get swallowed by the landslide."
"..."
"At the very least, if you jump now, you have an ally across the chasm ready to toss you a lifeline. Whether that rope is sturdy hemp or a rotten cord is for you to judge."
Pressing harder against her temples to stave off a throbbing headache, the princess said nothing, but her gaze remained locked onto mine, silently urging me to continue.
"...Even if you speak the truth, what does that have to do with you? From the Kingdom of Remus's perspective, they could simply dispatch another envoy once all of this settles. Incurring an empire's debt would hardly offset the unbearable risk if this gamble fails."
"That is a burden for my homeland to bear, not me," I answered with an easy shrug. "If we return without taking a side and the victor holds it against us later, my head will be the one on the chopping block. As I mentioned before, my standing within my royal clan is hardly enviable."
"...Remus has truly lost its mind," she muttered, "sending a treasonous bastard who would wager his nation's destiny just to save his own neck as an envoy..."
Perhaps she had realized the irony of having to rely on such a traitor, for a hollow, self-deprecating scoff escaped her lips.
"They gave me next to nothing and sent me off to die," I said. "It is only fair that they share the consequences. Isn't that what family is for?"
"Bwahaha! Madman! You're an utter madman! What rotten luck with children! Your kingdom and mine alike!"
Clapping her hands as if conceding complete defeat, Adelheid burst into roaring laughter. It was a stark departure from the exhausted, austere general she had presented just moments before. Her subordinates cast anxious glances her way, but to my eyes, having finally cast aside her pretense of dignity, she looked vastly relieved.
"Very well, Prince Romul. What aid can you offer this officer—no, this princess?"
Having resolved to face the situation not merely as a soldier, but as an imperial claimant, her change in self-address carried both a sense of liberation and an unmistakable fire in her eyes.
"Supplies are the prerequisite of any war. That is what we will provide."
"Supply an army of ten thousand...? Do you intend to liquidate the tribute—pardon, the gifts—you brought for peace to purchase grain? A fair thought, but purchasing enough food to feed ten thousand troops out of nowhere will leave an obvious trail. Conversely, buying in modest amounts to avoid suspicion is inefficient and takes far too long."
"You need not worry about that. The trade has already been made."
"...?"
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a trade; I had simply packed nothing but provisions from the very beginning. But there was no need to invite disdain by divulging that detail.
"I have my ways, so rest assured. So long as you can secure sufficient water, we have enough supplies to sustain an army of ten thousand for a full month."
"Is that true? Truly insane! Bring me a map!"
They said this subjugation army was handpicked from the cream of the crop, and it showed. Rather than questioning the princess's sudden resolve, her aides moved instantaneously at her command and retrieved a map. Adelheid gathered her officers and unfurled it before me.
"Our convoy is currently gathered in this forest," I explained, pointing to the parchment. "We number around three hundred in total, but since we are a peace delegation, only about fifty are soldiers."
"That matters not! The mere existence of supplies is more than enough! All we must do is break through the encirclement and secure them!"
"Everything is loaded onto wagons and carts, drawn by retired warhorses, so all you need are men to take the reins. However, Princess, though I don't know their exact strength, the besieging forces are hardly few in number. Can you break through them?"
"...They are a rabble hastily conscripted from various fiefdoms, but in sheer numbers, they do outnumber us. While they cannot compare in quality to my battle-hardened Central Army veterans, we cannot afford to be careless."
The room's atmosphere, heated by the sudden glimmer of hope, cooled rapidly. Yet it was a welcome shift, adding cold calculation to the princess's hardened resolve.
"If numbers are lacking, why not simply increase them?"
"Hm?"
I pointed toward the western frontier—the very region harboring the culprits who had prompted the formation of this subjugation army in the first place, whom everyone had temporarily pushed to the back of their minds.
"Send word secretly to the remnants at once. Order them to take up arms and converge on Hannover with all possible haste."
I had no idea how large those scattered remnants were without a central figurehead. Yet whether they numbered ten thousand, one thousand, or merely a hundred, there was one undeniable fact: unlike Adelheid, who was being framed through slander, they were genuine rebels. If they mobilized, the besieging forces would have no choice but to react.
"...You wish for me to use traitors?"
"Is Your Highness not being treated as a traitor all the same?"
"...That is true, but..."
Given that those very rebels were the direct cause of her current predicament, she seemed repulsed by the notion. But having already abandoned her pride, her hesitation did not last long.
At the princess's gesture, parchment and a pen were promptly set upon the table. Her hand moved swiftly across the page, drafting an order in no time at all.
"My concern is whether they will comply immediately. They never truly intended to enthrone me; they only invoked my name to drag me down with them like drowning ghosts... What if they believe this to be a trap laid for retribution?"
"Since you have already made your choice, let us show them your conviction. After all, do you not possess the most definitive means of proving it?"
"Means...? Surely you don't mean—?!"
"Affix your seal. Then command them to proclaim it to the imperial besiegers. Once they do, they will have no choice but to believe that Your Highness is in earnest."
Even without waiting for an answer, the stir among the officers and their wide-eyed stares told me everything: they knew my proposal was far from reckless folly.
"Did you not say that you had no experience on the battlefield or in statecraft...?" Adelheid asked, peering at me with profound bewilderment.
"Pardon? Ah, yes, that's right. Did my suggestion sound like mere armchair theory—"
"No, not at all! It is not that I doubt your competence... It is simply rather hard to believe. Why would the Kingdom of Remus leave someone like you idle? Judging by your attendant's expression, I do not believe you are lying, either."
"Hm?"
Until she mentioned my attendant, I had completely forgotten Belle was standing there. Wondering what she meant, I turned my head.
"..."
Belle was staring at me with the most intensely emotional expression I had seen on her face in nearly a decade.
"Y-You really are the prince I know, right...?"
"What in the world do you take me for...?"
In Byron, the ancient imperial capital of the Fron Empire.
Inside Sanssouci Palace—the summer residence where the late Emperor had stayed until his final days—the Crown Prince was overseeing state affairs in the interim.
"Is Adelheid still defying the imperial edict?!"
Crash!
Having summoned the ministers before the throne for council, the Crown Prince let out a furious bellow that shook the rafters. Yet there was no way to soothe his wrath, nor were there many among them who genuinely wished to try.
'Would the princess be crazy enough to walk straight to her death?'
Though varying in intensity, almost everyone gathered here shared that identical sentiment. Not a few among them were loyal supporters of the Crown Prince, yet his rampant blunders were so disastrous that even they could not bring themselves to defend him.
And the one who felt that tension most acutely was none other than the Crown Prince himself.
'Did I underestimate Adelheid too much...? If only she had bowed her head submissively, I would have spared her life...!'
Yet there was no crying over spilled milk. If he showed even the slightest hint of weakness now, his already plummeting public approval would crash straight into the abyss. At the very least, he needed to make blood flow and instill sheer terror. That was how the Crown Prince rationalized his own obstinacy.
"Have you rounded up all the families of those subjugation army wretches?"
"Yes! Their immediate kin have all been detained."
"Adelheid is an issue, but the bastards clinging to her side despite a direct imperial decree are no different from traitors! Sever the heads of the commanders' kin and send them over!"
"Your Highness... doing so will only provoke them further. Strictly speaking, they have not refused the imperial order; they merely claim they cannot return because they have yet to locate the imperial seal—"
"It is Our command!"
As the Crown Prince flew completely off the rails, his roar leaving no room for dissent, a general was just about to pass down the gruesome order to his subordinate when—
Clatter!
"Y-Your Highness! Treason! It is treason!"
"What...?!"
"We have received a report that the rebel remnants have regrouped! An army of two thousand is marching straight toward the capital!"
Having never anticipated that the scattered rebels would coalesce and launch a counter-offensive under these circumstances, the council chamber froze in shock. But the silence shattered within seconds into utter pandemonium.
"What madness is this—?!"
"Your Highness! Now is not the time to fret over General Adelheid! We must stop the real traitors! You must recall the troops dispatched to Hannover! If an army of two thousand marches straight into the capital when the surrounding fiefs have already been drained of their garrisons, we cannot properly defend ourselves!"
"But if we do that, the encirclement at Hannover will thin out! If Princess Adelheid makes a move then—"
"Are you suggesting we sit on our hands and suck our thumbs while the rebels breach our gates?!"
"Your Highness, you must decide!"
Shouts flew back and forth among the generals, divided along factional ties and provincial origins. Only after the clamor subsided slightly did they all turn to the Crown Prince, demanding his decision.
"T-The traitors are coming here...?"
The moment he realized he was personally in harm's way, the wrath that had consumed his mind evaporated, replaced instantly by naked terror.
'If I die, this empire is finished... R-Right... That wench couldn't possibly be insane enough to commit real treason... If I tell her one of those bastards instigated it, she'll march out to fight the rebels on her own... She will have learned her lesson by now. Yes, I shall forgive her...'
"F-First, pull three thousand soldiers... No, five thousand! Divert five thousand men to block those rebels! And Adelheid! Instruct Adelheid to intercept the rebel army and prove her innocence!"
With the rekindling of a civil war that had only just begun to quiet down, the empire plunged into a state of emergency. Spurring their couriers by any means necessary, the imperial court delivered the decree to Hannover in less than a day. In the blink of an eye, over thirty percent of the fifteen thousand troops besieging Hannover pulled out.
"Prove my innocence?"
Clutching the Crown Prince's arrogant order—which still treated her as a hound tamely waiting for a leash—Adelheid looked down from the ramparts at the frayed, thinned encirclement.
"General, did you clear out every scrap of our remaining rations to feed the men until their bellies were full?"
"Yes, Your Highness! The men are in peak condition!"
"Splendid. There is nothing tastier than a meal eaten right before battle."
Schwing—
Drawing her sword, Adelheid leveled the blade toward the distant, hazy forest.
"Move out."
Bwooooh—!
At her single command, war horns blared from the ramparts. Beyond the heavy, bolted gates, the ten-thousand-strong army assembled in formation as the iron gates swung wide.
"Prince Romul once told me," Adelheid murmured, "that if someone hates you for no reason, you ought to give them one."
What a lunatic.
Yet contrary to the silent curse she swallowed, a fierce smirk curved her lips as the image of that brazen prince flashed through her mind.