The Question (1)
"So that is what you are saying?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
In an empty corridor of the royal palace, Serpina was holding a clandestine conversation with a soldier dressed for covert work.
"You are certain of this?"
"Yes. I have finished cross-verifying the account with several soldiers of the Brans Army."
Serpina fell silent for a long while, lost in thought. Then, at last, she spoke to the soldier in a firm tone.
"Very well. Bear in mind, however, that this remains mere speculation. Do not allow the matter to grow larger than it needs to be."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Understood."
Once the soldier had vanished, Serpina set off toward the audience chamber to meet him.
When I arrived at the audience chamber, Serpina greeted me with a smile.
Ever since the day my advice had, by fortunate coincidence, allowed her to root out the traitors early, she had grown considerably warmer toward me.
"My lord. I was told you summoned me."
"You have come, Swen. Yes. I have been waiting for you."
Good.
It's been a while since I last saw my lord. Time to put in a little social effort.
"I am truly relieved to see you looking well."
"Even if the words do not come from the heart, they please me. I shall take them as a courtesy."
She seemed thoroughly amused by something, a look of keen interest lingering on her face as she turned to me.
"There is a matter on which I would like your counsel."
"Is this about the alliance with the Roland Army?"
"So word has already reached your ears, has it?"
Serpina crossed her legs and spoke in a somewhat coquettish tone.
"Indeed. The Roland Army wishes to form an alliance with us for a period of twelve months. I would hear your thoughts on the matter."
An alliance, is it…
I did wonder whether it was appropriate to put such a question to me—a mere civil official rather than the State Strategist—but a question had been asked, and that meant I could feed it into the system. Might as well try.
Would forming an alliance with the Roland Army be advantageous for our forces?
An alliance that will bring loss in the future.
As expected.
I had figured as much. This was an alliance our army had no need to accept.
From our perspective, forming it or not made no real difference. From theirs, however, it would mean seizing Brans territory and advancing into the Central Continent without any interference from us—an enormous gain. An arrangement that offered no merit to us while granting every advantage to the other side could only be counted as our loss. No matter how much smaller the Roland Army was compared to ours, accepting would amount to one-sided diplomatic charity. And even if we later chose to dissolve the alliance out of dissatisfaction, the resulting damage to our reputation would fall entirely on us.
That being the case, I had no choice but to examine the terms they had offered.
"What are they offering in return?"
"They say they will give us a full twenty-eight thousand gold."
"…Pardon?"
Twenty-eight thousand gold?
And in a lump sum, no less?
They're offering more money than I expected.
It seemed that during the long peace that had settled over the Southern Continent, they had devoted themselves to internal administration and accumulated a considerable surplus. Even if the Serpina Army's vast territories meant we rarely struggled for tax revenue, gold in this world was always welcome—the more of it, the better. Twenty-eight thousand was enough that one might well close one's eyes and accept a twelve-month alliance.
Since the alliance offered us so little strategic value, the Roland Army had clearly decided to overpay outright. Had I been in Serpina's place, I might simply have taken the money…
But my prediction still read: An alliance that will bring loss in the future.
If that gold were truly indispensable to our army, no such prediction would have appeared. Tempting as the sum was, the moment the system forecasted a loss, it became a poisoned chalice.
"What do you think, Swen?"
"If it is not too forward of me, might I first hear the State Strategist's opinion?"
"Jena proposed that we accept the alliance. She said twelve months is hardly a long time, and that the sum offered seems quite reasonable in light of that."
It was not an unreasonable judgment. Honestly, if I had been unable to draw on an Intelligence of 100 for predictions, I would likely have taken a position similar to Jena's. Besides, Jena's Intelligence was not particularly high. For the sake of balance, the generals under Serpina were none of them especially gifted.
In the end, the decision rested with Serpina. Offering my own opinion, then, should be fine.
"I believe we should not form the alliance."
"I would hear the grounds for that judgment."
"In this alliance, the only party that stands to gain strategically is the Roland Army. For our forces, currently focused on consolidating internal affairs, the relationship is of no help whatsoever. I judge that it may even become a shackle. And even if we assume our army were to enter into combat, I do not believe we would particularly need the Roland Army's assistance."
"That is a fact We are already aware of. But even so—if we can receive twenty-eight thousand gold, would that not still leave our nation clearly ahead? It is only a single year, after all."
A year… only a year.
Right. Why would such a prediction appear for something that was only a year?
Being handed the correct answer meant I could always extract something from that answer. Until now I had been tracing why something was correct. This time, I simply needed to reverse the approach and ask why it was not.
"I rather suspect… that a better opportunity may present itself."
"A better opportunity?"
Once an alliance was formed, it became nearly impossible to form another with a different nation. That would apply equally to the southern states—the Hesna Army, the Ohana Army, the Karelia Army—and needless to say to the Brans Army and Aesius Army to the north.
From there I arrived at a proposition: Might some other nation already be sounding us out for an alliance?
If that alliance proved far more valuable than twenty-eight thousand gold, then the prediction—An alliance that will bring loss in the future—would fall perfectly into place.
"My lord. Now that the balance of the Southern Continent has been disrupted, our army holds the winning hand. Rather than rushing into an alliance with the Roland Army, I believe we should watch the situation a little longer. There is no need for us to decide in haste, is there?"
"Is that your opinion?"
"It is."
I bowed my head as I finished speaking. Serpina walked toward me with deliberate steps.
"The one whose thoughts align with mine is not Jena, but you, Swen."
"…Pardon?"
"Twenty-eight thousand gold is certainly a great sum. But once the balance has been broken, those who wish to advance into the Central Continent will find our army the most fearsome obstacle of all. Even if it means bearing the infamy of joining hands with a tyrant, they will desperately want our cooperation—is that not obvious? Suitors are already lining up to beg for our favor. We can hardly sell ourselves so cheaply this early."
Having said that, Serpina smiled as though thoroughly entertained.
I had always thought that if the phrase the composure of an absolute ruler could be given human form, it would look exactly like Serpina in this moment.
"And… decisively—seeing an arrogant man like Seta Roland come forward with an offer of this magnitude makes one wonder what the other sovereigns will bring us next, does it not? That alone is worth watching."
Seta Roland, lord of the Roland Army. Aside from possessing a measure of personal Martial strength and some talent for one-on-one duels, he was a thoroughly unremarkable ruler. What good was raw power when the man was both stupid and arrogant enough to rise to every provocation thrown his way? Compared to him, even Chel and Kalintz looked respectable.
"Of course, Swen—you already knew that, which is why you spoke as you did, did you not?"
Huh?
"A small man of Roland's caliber put up that much gold. And so you declared with certainty that 'a better opportunity will come'—is that not so? One need not be told to understand as much. Heh…"
"…"
I said nothing and simply bowed my head.
Well… there's no harm in her thinking of it that way.
"Yes. Thank you for sharing your counsel, Swen."
"Not at all. I am glad if it was of any help."
The moment those words left my mouth, she suddenly changed the tone of her voice and asked me, her expression gone cold and serious:
"Do you truly think so?"
"…Pardon?"
"I asked whether you truly believe it fortunate that you were of help to me."
?
What is this all of a sudden?
The atmosphere Serpina was giving off had shifted in a way that left me slightly unsettled, but I kept any reaction from showing and answered as courteously as I could.
"Well… as one who serves Lady Serpina, how could I not?"
"Is that so? Then I may take it that I occupy a place within your heart?"
"Of course."
Step. Step.
I could feel her drawing closer.
"Swen. Raise your head and meet my eyes."
When I lifted my gaze, her beautiful face filled my entire field of vision.
Those glittering golden eyes fixed on me—or more precisely, on something within me—with an intensity that seemed determined to pierce straight through.
"I will ask once more. Swen. Does your heart hold me… Serpina von Aingart?"
I was bothered by how insistently she kept pressing this particular point, but I gave no sign of curiosity and simply nodded as I answered.
"It does. From the moment you accepted my wager and showed me mercy, I resolved to serve you, Lady Serpina. Did I not say I would become your faithful hunting dog?"
She did not reply. She simply stared into both of my eyes.
I did not look away. I met her gaze in full.
Before long, her voice drove itself fiercely into my ear.
"…I understand. No matter what happens, I will believe in you, Swen."
"…Yes."
The situation had come on rather abruptly—but somehow, this did not feel like a simple gesture of Serpina casually testing my loyalty.
Did some rumor about me reach her ears?
Well, from the Serpina Army's perspective, I was the stone that had been driven into place. From matters that ought to have been discussed with the State Strategist down to the most minor affairs of state, she was constantly summoning me in private for counsel. For those who had served the Serpina Army for years with their own ambitions, jealousy toward someone like me—and the slander that followed—was entirely plausible.
Moreover, I was a man who had already changed lords three times. Whatever the circumstances behind it, that alone made me an easy target for attack.
For the time being, I have no choice but to work as hard as I can for the Serpina Army.
Serpina was an extremely intelligent person.
And honestly… had what I just said not been a lie?
The lord who occupied my heart was not Serpina, but another woman. In that sense, those who sought to slander me were speaking the truth.
To bury any suspicion, I would move thoroughly in the interest of the Serpina Army. All I needed to do was keep giving correct advice—hardly a difficult task for me. And if I was going to escape this place safely with Irene and Reika, I needed Serpina's trust in any case.
"Please trust me, my lord. I am prepared to offer this body willingly for the sake of your great cause."
"Did I not already say so? I will believe in you. That is my decision."
Serpina spoke those words and simply continued to look into my eyes.
A fragrant scent of yuzu brushed the tip of my nose.
In the audience chamber after Swen had gone, Serpina sat upon the throne, chin resting on her hand, lost in thought.
"His movements from the time he left the Brans Army for the Aesius Army… and up through the period when he became a general of the Brans Army… are far from ordinary."
"It is possible that he…"
Recalling the report the soldier had just delivered, Serpina closed her eyes and cut away the seeds of thought as they rose.
The stories circulating about him.
But she closed her eyes and let those conjectures drift past.
I will believe in Swen.
Serpina wanted to make Swen her own.
She wanted, by any means, to take hold of his heart.
How could she win that heart if she could not even offer him her trust?
She did not want to corner him over something that lacked a single scrap of evidence.
And even if those near-slanderous inferences turned out to be true—
—I will win his heart by my own power.
Murmuring that resolve inwardly, she gazed for a long time at the red carpet of the empty audience chamber where he had stood.