How Long Am I Supposed to Play the Fool?
How long am I supposed to keep playing the fool?
The passing of Cain de Lawrence, the great sun of the empire, went something like this.
"Kyaa!? A fearsome wild bear has appeared, Your Majesty!"
"Fear not, my lady! I, Cain de Lawrence, shall surely protect you!"
"!? You mustn't, Your Majesty! Please take cover behind the knights!"
"Out of my way! You'd have me cower before a lady now!? I'll turn that bear into a fur rug right here and now!"
[ROOOOAAAR!]
"CRUUUAAAGH!?!?"
Is he an idiot?
Is this real life?
He got into a boxing match with a wild bear to impress one woman?
They should've just said he died in his sleep. It would've been less humiliating. For me.
I couldn't hold my head up the entire funeral.
"His Imperial Majesty Dante de Lawrence, newly ascended sun of the empire, now enters. All rise."
"We greet His Majesty."
"……"
"Then let the 527th State Council begin."
How did it come to this?
I know the reason.
I'm now the only one of royal blood left alive.
Given how the old emperor had died, the succession had to be swift and clean. The faster it was done, the faster the chaos could be stamped out.
A perfectly reasonable choice, honestly. So reasonable that I was almost moved — hard to believe it came out of this idiotic country.
'I'll turn it into a rug!'
My brain locks up.
My hands and feet tremble.
I genuinely cannot fathom why Cain died.
'Wait — is it that thing? Where the plot changes if someone who knows the original story enters that world?'
Nonsense. To Cain, Dante was beneath an insect. That's exactly why I did nothing and lived as incompetently as possible.
They call it the butterfly effect, but a bug behaving like a bug doesn't get the protagonist killed.
'Then was it my changed relationship with Elis?'
Also nonsense. Cain de Lawrence was a depraved tyrant with the bizarre setting of having never shown women so much as interest, let alone harm.
In practice, Elis and I had to reintroduce ourselves every single time we met. Influence? What influence?
No matter how I turned it over, nothing I'd done had touched the original story in any way.
…………
No — why would you charge a BEAR, you idiot!?
"Now then, Your Majesty. We await your approval."
"……Huh? Approval of what?"
"……*Sigh*."
The man in charge of the imperial military. The Commander-in-Chief of Lugnica pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a sigh loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Do try to focus, Your Majesty."
"……"
"This is the State Council, where matters of national importance are decided. When Your Majesty cannot keep his wits about him, the realm itself wavers."
Snickers rippled around the chamber. The vassals were laughing openly, muttering about what a worry it was to have such an emperor, how the country was doomed.
Well, fair enough. I was the incompetent second son.
A figurehead emperor, hastily crowned out of necessity, nothing more.
What they wanted from me was a single response, no matter what they said: 'Yes, do as you see fit.'
'As if my head weren't already spinning.'
Apparently they'd all practiced the art of grinding on people's nerves together. Even I, with the patience of a Buddha, was starting to get angry.
"It's my first time being an emperor. Cut me some slack. Let's just continue the meeting."
"Do you recall the agenda?"
"Stationing the newly reorganized 4th Knight Order permanently in Lake Fief… was it?"
"Intelligence reports that demonic beasts have begun swarming there of late. Should the fief fall, the damage would spread beyond all control. Preparations must be made before that happens."
"Denied. Next item."
In that instant.
The Commander-in-Chief, who'd been about to nod along half-heartedly, froze.
And not just him — the atmosphere of the chamber, until then no different from a fish market, froze solid in a heartbeat.
Denied.
Denied?
He said… denied? Just now?
Every face turned toward the emperor in unison. It was a word none of them had ever expected to leave the fool-emperor's mouth.
His opponent was the incompetent second son — a man with nothing going for him but royal blood.
What could a half-wit who'd never studied a day of statecraft possibly know? They'd assumed that with a few plausible-sounding words, he'd panic and approve anything.
They believed it without a shred of doubt.
And yet.
"Deaf? I said denied. Next item."
No reversal — just a repeated denial.
It took the vassals several seconds to even process the fact, and then their mouths began to fall open one by one.
"Yo… Your Majesty?"
The Chief Administrator doubted his own ears.
"Wh… what… HAH!?"
The Chief Justice's eyes went so wide they nearly popped out.
"D-d-d-denied, Your Majesty!?"
The denied Commander-in-Chief shot to his feet.
What earth-shattering thing had been said, that this mountain of a man was growling like he might charge at any moment?
"You dare deny a critical proposal concerning the security of the realm!?"
"A critical proposal concerning security? Did I mishear? Or is it that I simply fail to appreciate the Commander-in-Chief's era-appropriate comedy?"
"C-comedy!?"
"Judging by that face, you're serious. Then let's watch it together — ah, right, no screens in here. We'll make do with analog."
I yanked the imperial map across the table. When I found Lake Fief and slammed a dagger down onto it, several shoulders flinched.
"Lake Fief, as the Commander proposes. Surrounded on all sides by sheer rock mountains, with a single narrow canyon for an entrance. A natural fortress where three hundred ancient Spartans could hold off tens of thousands."
"Er… yes!?"
"And you want to station the empire's finest elite knights there permanently? That's not strategic deployment — that's sending them on a luxury military camping trip funded by taxes."
Under the barrage of words, the Commander-in-Chief's eyes went wide. His lips trembled faintly, and the skin beneath his eyes twitched in spasms.
Because it was all true.
The terrain, the structure, the advantages and odds it offered — for a man who had commanded countless battlefields, there was no room for rebuttal.
It was airtight.
The Commander, frozen in a slack-jawed expression, snapped back to his senses with a Hah!?
"B-but the local garrison there is far too weak! Should the fief fall, the damage could spread across the entire empire!"
"Did Count Lake himself send a letter requesting troops?"
"W-well…! No, but…"
"Look. Let's say the place really is in danger. Defending one's own territory is the basic job description of a lord. That's why he was granted the land. That's why he was granted the title."
"……"
"You know what I can't understand most right now? If a lord can't manage that much, you propose replacing him — not deploying the knights, who should be exerting themselves on actual battlefields."
I rapped the table irritably at the Commander, who had gone completely dumb.
"This is the State Council, Commander-in-Chief. Focus."
"……!?!"
The Commander-in-Chief's face flushed crimson.
It wasn't just a scolding — he'd been dressed down in front of everyone. Of course his pride was wounded.
"Since… since when did Your Majesty become a military expert!?"
"Last night. My maid is rather competent. Thanks to her, I stayed up all night reading every document that came in."
"Such an absurd…!"
"It's the truth, so accept it. And the newly formed 4th Knight Order will be sent to the Northern Border, where the demonic beast subjugation is in full swing. That is all."
The Commander's face, which had looked ready to explode, now turned deathly pale.
"W-wait, Your Majesty!"
"What? Assigning powerful knights where powerful enemies lurk — is that not a perfectly rational measure?"
"Th-that may be so, but…!"
"If you're so desperate to send troops to Lake Fief, either dock your own salary and hire some soldiers yourself, or be honest and say, 'My grandson is in that knight order, Your Majesty~.'"
"!?!?"
The staggering Commander wore the expression of a man thinking, How could you possibly know that!?
Truthfully, I could have let it slide at this point.
The world doesn't run on justice alone, after all.
Who'd want the seat of a powerful man who can't even line his own pockets?
But I don't yield.
I have no intention of losing, either.
Cain died, the original story derailed, and I became emperor. Everything that happens in this country from now on falls on my shoulders, whether I like it or not.
Goddammit…
So I'm done holding back too.
Because these bastards got to play the fool, they really take me for one?
This shitty country — for my own survival if nothing else, I'm going to tear it all down and rebuild from scratch.
"……I cannot accept this."
The Commander-in-Chief, who had been trembling with clenched fists, sat back down.
The elderly man crossed his arms like a sulky child and turned his head away with a hmph.
"I know not what misunderstanding Your Majesty labors under, but the 4th Knight Order will proceed to Lake Fief as planned."
"Am I to take that as a refusal of a direct imperial order?"
"Heaven forfend, Your Majesty. This old man merely wishes to honor the will of the late Emperor."
"……Hmm~"
"The late Emperor cherished Lake Fief dearly. How could one call himself a vassal while leaving such a territory undefended?"
I'll grant that the excuse was skillfully crafted. But what it actually amounted to was this:
'What will you do if I force it through, hmm? A figurehead emperor like you? I am the Commander-in-Chief of this nation!'
That's what he was saying.
"Loyalty most commendable — but a conclusion I cannot follow. Is that it?"
"Then strike off this old man's head instead. As Commander-in-Chief of the empire, I fear noth—"
Shffk—!
It was a sound one might almost call crisp.
Like slicing through a radish — no, lighter than that.
The Commander's head, suspended in midair, spun a full revolution before hitting the floor. A beat later, the headless body crashed down with a heavy thud-crash!
"……Huh?"
Nobody could react. Every face said the same thing: they'd seen it, but they couldn't understand it.
Standing before the rapidly spreading pool of blood was Elis.
Calm as a maid finishing the dinner dishes, she wiped the blood from her blade with a cloth.
The brief silence collapsed in an instant, starting with the ashen-faced Chief Administrator.
"Th-this is madness…!"
"The maid! The maid just cut down the Commander-in-Chief!"
"Seize her! Restrain her at once! Royal guards! Where are the royal guards!?"
"She's clearly insane! In this sacred chamber of the State Council, no less!!"
Some kicked back their chairs, some screamed toward the door, some jabbed accusing fingers. As I quietly watched that scene of utter panic, I quietly raised my fist and brought it down on the table.
BANG!!
"Everyone, sit down. While I'm asking nicely."
"……!?!?"
I hadn't raised my voice. I'd simply said it, flat and even. And yet the vassals who'd been raging like beasts a moment ago froze mid-motion.
They exchanged glances, then took their seats with faces drained white.
The message had landed, it seemed: that maid had just killed the Commander-in-Chief on nothing other than the emperor's orders.
He had killed him.
"To clear up any possible misunderstanding — my maid just disposed of a traitor."
"A… a traitor…?"
"Yes, a traitor. Invoking the late Emperor's name to defy an imperial order, and on top of that, attempting to move the army on his own authority?"
I swept my gaze across the terrified vassals and gave a light shrug.
"If that's not treason, what would you call it?"
First order of business: establishing the imperial authority that had fallen to the floor.
And while I was at it, taking out the trash.