Karl of Wiridia
Using the Imperial Counts to whip public opinion into supporting war, the Emperor declared not a mere subjugation of nomads, but the conquest of the North. Even a campaign framed as subjugation would have sent ripples of unrest through the nobility; making conquest—something far beyond subjugation—the strategic objective was another matter entirely. Even the nobles swept up in the fervor could not help but feel shaken.
"Your loyalty is truly something that will be remembered by future generations. I myself am deeply moved by such splendid devotion."
At this point, saying "Your Majesty, that might be a bit much" was impossible. Public opinion had already settled on war. More than that, this was not the Emperor's unilateral decision—it was a voluntary request from the nobility. Trying to restrain the Emperor now would make one a traitor who spoke out of both sides of his mouth and insulted the throne.
"We cannot treat lightly the matter of sending the Empire's peerless and loyal soldiers to the North. We must discuss the detailed organization of the expeditionary force. As many loyal retainers have rushed here on sudden summons, we shall take a brief rest before beginning that discussion."
With those words the Emperor turned away. Having dropped the bomb that plunged the nobles into panic, he made the organization of an expeditionary force for the Northern conquest a settled fact and gave them time.
Now the nobles had only one path left. They would have to pray desperately that the expeditionary force—which would include even their private armies—would achieve victory, and contribute to making the Empire's Mandate of Heaven even more secure. If the expedition failed, it would not merely be a blow to imperial authority; the Empire itself would collapse. For the nobles to continue enjoying their present power, the Empire had to survive.
Thus the nobles either sank into solitary contemplation with grave faces or clustered together and began whispering. Overturning public opinion was impossible, so they were surely searching for ways to raise the odds of victory.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
While I was watching the nobles, the Minister tapped my shoulder.
"Step outside for a moment. It's far too stifling in here."
The Minister left the grand conference hall together with the other department chiefs. The expression I glimpsed before he turned was a mixture of confusion, helplessness, and a subtle irritation.
This was the sort of situation where adding an unnecessary remark would get one's soul wrung dry. I quietly followed him out. Honestly, I had no desire to linger and whisper among hundreds of people either.
Outside the grand conference hall, clusters of nobles and officials had already scattered about. It was rare for refined nobles to discuss matters so openly in plain view, but this was not a factional struggle—it was a matter concerning the entire Empire. Whether anyone overheard or not no longer mattered.
Thanks to that, the senior officials of the Ministry of Finance could hold their discussion openly without needing a private room.
"The conquest itself appears to be genuine. This is not an order meant to extract something else."
Because the other chiefs were present, the Minister spoke in formal language. At his words the other chiefs let out low hums of acknowledgment.
They would already know that the Minister had been summoned by the Minister of Palace Affairs before this general assembly. Up until the Emperor's official proclamation there had still been a sliver of hope that one could spin happy circuits and wonder if this was some elaborate prank. But now that even the Minister, who had received a direct hint from the Minister of Palace Affairs, was confirming it, that last possibility vanished.
The declaration of Northern conquest was not a show staged to extract concessions and obedience from the nobles. It had truly become the Empire's goal.
"Over the past three hundred years the Empire has expanded into Northern territory, but the North is a vast expanse incomparably larger than those colonized regions. Whether conquering such a domain is even possible..."
The Collection Chief, still wearing a thoroughly confused expression, spoke. The Deliberation Chief answered briefly.
"Would His wise Majesty have failed to consider the very problems we worry about?"
On the surface it was a rebuttal, but looking deeper it was a bitter admission of "I don't know either." In an instant he had turned the Collection Chief's personal opinion into our collective one. Even in the Deliberation Chief's view, conquering the North would be an extremely difficult task.
Of course I thought the same. Looking at history from before my transmigration, settled nations had repelled nomadic invasions, but one could almost say there was no case of annexing the nomads' own heartland. Unlike settled states that possessed a clear weakness in the form of a capital, nomads had no obvious strongholds or strategic points. Exactly what would one need to seize to call it a conquest...?
No—more fundamentally, that place was a wasteland of dog shit. Even if we conquered it there would be no economic gain, only an absurd amount of sunk cost. There was a reason the Empire had only ever expanded northward little by little.
"About that conquest—"
After observing the Collection Chief and Deliberation Chief's reluctant reactions and the dark expressions of the other chiefs, the Minister spoke in a quiet voice.
"He is aiming not for direct conquest, but for an indirect sphere of influence."
"An indirect... sphere of influence?"
At the Collection Chief's questioning reply, the Minister simply nodded.
Indirect sphere of influence?
What was that supposed to mean? Exerting influence indirectly had been the method used before the Great Subjugation War, hadn't it?
Talking about conquest in a gathering of every high-ranking official and then stopping at that level would put the Emperor in a difficult position. It could give the nobles the impression that he had merely been bluffing.
"Perhaps the North will fill the thirteenth seat of Aesilon."
Ah.
The moment I heard those words, I understood.
A reception room near the grand conference hall. It was insufficient for the Emperor of the Empire to stay in, yet Father Emperor sat there without the slightest concern, sipping tea.
If Father Emperor said it was fine, what could one do? It was not that an emperor stayed in a noble place; wherever an emperor stayed became a noble place.
"Crown Prince."
"Yes, Father Emperor."
"You seem to have much you wish to say."
At Father Emperor's calm single remark, I flinched and my body trembled.
I had restrained myself as much as possible, yet in Father Emperor's eyes I must have looked like a restless boy. Whether I was lacking or Father Emperor's insight simply surpassed imagination, I could not tell.
"...With my insufficient insight I found it difficult to grasp Father Emperor's intentions, and so for a moment I harbored doubts."
After closing my mouth for a moment, I honestly laid bare my inner thoughts.
I could understand Father Emperor's declaration of war. Having lost the previous war, if the nomads who had regrouped were merely persuaded with words, they would have room to look down on the Empire. Nomads aiming to become a second Rebel Against Heaven had to be crushed by force.
But subjugation and conquest were problems of entirely different dimensions. Subjugation meant sweeping away the anti-imperial nomads and then withdrawing; conquest meant the Empire would have to administer and control the vast, desolate North. One would obtain land that possessed no strongholds whatsoever, land that would require countless troops and astronomical funds simply to maintain.
"The Crown Prince's doubts are only natural. Not harboring such doubts would be the stranger thing."
Father Emperor showed no anger at his successor's questions. He merely offered mild praise, calling them proper doubts.
"The light of Rivnoman shall rightfully cover the North, yet that is not a feat to be achieved with the blood of our soldiers."
Yet Father Emperor spoke words even harder to understand. Father Emperor, who had pushed the Imperial Counts forward to declare war, now said it was not a feat to be achieved with blood? Then with what exactly did he intend to subjugate the Khan and conquer the North?
If Father Emperor had mentioned peace, I would have thought he desired a cold peace by stationing legions across the entire border. The nomads would be unable to pierce the Northern mountain ranges and fortresses to come south, and the Empire would simply guard the border and cease fretting over the nomads. In that way a strange and peculiar peace could be achieved.
But that is not it either.
From the moment he had already declared war before the nobles, half-measures of peace were impossible. Blood would have to be shed no matter what.
"The times when humans can abandon even their lives are when the safety of their homeland, their faith, or their families is at stake."
While I kept my silence, Father Emperor spoke again.
"The forces gathered by the rebel who styles himself Khan are tribes that did not lend their strength to the Rebel Against Heaven in the past Great Subjugation War. They possess neither the conviction to found a nation of nomads nor the will to properly establish the nomads' faith."
I could only agree with those words. When the Rebel Against Heaven had driven the Empire into crisis, how joyfully the tribes that raised the banner of anti-imperialism must have cheered. If even then they had ultimately refused to join the Rebel Against Heaven, one could conclude that their attachment to a nomadic nation or faith, and their hostility toward the Empire, were faint.
"What remains for them, then, is family. The safety of their families—and if personal gain is included on top of that—they will gladly enter the Empire's embrace."
It was simply that the Empire had been far away and the Khan close at hand.
Having added that, Father Emperor raised his teacup to his lips once more.
The Empire is far and the Khan is near.
And Father Emperor's final words continued to linger in my ears.
Once all the nobles who had been outside returned to the grand conference hall, the Emperor appeared not long afterward. Seated once more upon the throne, the Emperor surveyed the nobles with eyes in which no emotion could be read. If that appearance seemed like pressure saying, "I have given you time—now prove your loyalty," was that merely my imagination?
And that feeling was not mine alone; the nobles as one declared that they would offer their private soldiers and war funds to the Emperor. They prostrated themselves, saying they would gladly present what was theirs in order to demonstrate the Empire's stability and the firmness of the Mandate of Heaven. If war could not be stopped, then one had to catch the Emperor's eye as much as possible or secure a foothold for claiming a share of the victory.
"Your loyalty is truly beautiful. The grace the Great Emperor once bestowed upon your ancestors is the good fortune of the Imperial House and the Empire."
"I understand your heart, yet regrettably, if your valiant soldiers leave their posts, the kingdoms of the East will harbor empty ambitions."
"It would not be proper to make the soldiers who must fight bravely in the North travel so far. There are many ways to prove your loyalty, so do not feel slighted."
Amid the flood of voluntary offerings, the Emperor leisurely picked and chose. Forces that could be taken without issue, forces whose absence would create problems on the border, cases where funds were needed more than troops—on the spot, without hesitation, the Emperor collated the nobles' contributions.
The more he did so, the more bitter the nobles' expressions became, but what could they do? If they didn't like it, they should become Emperor themselves.
"As the Imperial House must also repay the resolve and dedication of its many retainers, the Minister of War shall keep in mind the participation not only of the Northern Army Group but of the Western and Central Army Groups as well."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
In the midst of it all, the Emperor displayed his will to mobilize on a massive scale not only the regional forces composed of the lords' private soldiers, but also the central armies under the Emperor's own command.
Excluding the Eastern Army Group facing the Eastern kingdoms and the Southern Army Group—which was distant from the North and primarily naval—he ordered the construction of an expeditionary force while reviewing every central army. The scale being called up was truly daunting, as if he had made up his mind. Looking at the numbers alone, it might equal or even surpass the previous war.
"And since multiple legions will be deploying, an Expedition Inspector will also be necessary."
At those words my gaze unconsciously shifted to the Minister. In the previous war the one who had participated as Expedition Inspector had been the Minister himself, then the Fourth Section Chief of the Audit Department.
Of course it was not that the Emperor distrusted the army and was attaching an inspector. It was to send as many special forces as possible—forces that could be dispatched to the North without other nations or civilians finding it strange—that he had dredged up the old system of inspectors. The Minister, being both a member of the Audit Department and a titled noble, had been perfect as Expedition Inspector at the time.
And it seemed that inspector system was going to be used again in this war. Well, if they were going all-out to thrash the North, they would need as much combat power as possible—
"I appoint Audit Department Chief Karl Crassius as Expedition Inspector. The duties currently being performed by the Audit Department Chief shall be temporarily suspended, and the duties of Expedition Inspector shall take priority."
Wha...?
What?
Why was my name coming up there.
"Y-Your Majesty. Though it is presumptuous of me to speak, the position of Expedition Inspector is possible only for titled nobles who have received the Imperial House's grace—"
"The merits the Audit Department Chief has established over the past several years are exceedingly great. I bestow upon Audit Department Chief Karl Crassius the Imperial domain of Wiridia, and simultaneously appoint him Count of Wiridia. This is a hereditary title that may be passed down to his descendants."
At the Minister of Justice's challenge, the Emperor bestowed the title without the slightest hesitation.
Crazy.
No, what the fuck is this.
Of course I desperately wanted to cut Dorgon down. So once this assembly ended I had planned to look for any pretext that would let me participate.
Even so, I had never imagined a situation like this.
"Karl Crassius of Wiridia. As Expedition Inspector, watch over the expeditionary force and do your utmost for the stability of the North. As a count who participated in the previous Great Subjugation War, I trust you will perform well."
The Emperor's words sounded exactly like a confirmation kill.