The Drunken Governor's Grudge
The governor smacked his lips in obvious disappointment.
Forming a personal alliance with Count Yeats would have been a comforting arrangement, but from the look of it, the Count felt no such need. And fair enough — the man had very nearly been allied with the imperial bloodline itself; there was little reason to strike a separate deal with a mere governor.
"You seem to have plenty of complaints about the Emperor."
"Complaints? My lord, this hardly rises to the level of complaints."
The governor snorted. Even with his own words called out, he seemed entirely unbothered. In Vinashitim, this level of candor was simply everyday talk.
Honestly, I can't get used to this.
Even in the feudal Holy Empire, no vassal spoke so freely about his lord. Finding it refreshing all the same, Johan listened quietly to the governor.
Despite having poured wine for Johan all evening, the governor was the one who got drunk first. His tongue curling slightly, he slurred, "Of— of course, of course. I am grateful to His Majesty. I owed a great deal to the previous Emperor, after all."
"Brother. You're drunk."
"So what? Leave me be. This is fun."
"......"
The governor's brother, Semenus, withdrew in flustered confusion. When people drank together like this, it was rare for only one of them to go under. The governor was no stranger to liquor himself, and a slave had been refilling Johan's cup to the brim every time it emptied.
"Were you appointed under the previous Emperor?"
"Yes, I was. Those were... truly good days. But the truth is, I find neither of the current two entirely trustworthy."
When the chance came to hear things from the mouth of a high official of Vinashitim, Johan's interest sharpened. Judging from Hormaric and Giada's accounts alone, the empire was simply too vast and tangled to map. He nudged the governor on.
"Come now, tell me freely. What sort of men are the two of them?"
The governor hiccuped, then opened his mouth.
"Emperor Gaiaros is... a stingy and miserly man, my lord."
"Stingy and miserly? In what way?"
"Start with the clothes on his back. The Emperor of Vinashitim, wearing coarse green cloth! Is that even conceivable?!"
Dye was a precious commodity, and the rarer the color, the steeper the price. Green, meanwhile, was among the easiest to obtain — hardly a color for an emperor's garments.
"The previous Emperor always appeared before his seat draped in purple. One look at those horns, those eyes, and you felt glory itself shining around him."
Good grief, even his frugality is insufferable.
Johan felt a flicker of fondness for a Gaiaros he had never even met. People who thought the way he did were rare in this world. It couldn't be helped — this world's thinking was simply not his own.
For a noble, extravagance and the display of one's dignity were not choices but obligations. If the money ran out, one was expected to borrow and spend anyway. When a man was born with the blood and the authority, it was his living beneath them that was strange!
A frugal noble had two fates: be branded a pinch-penny miser, or — like Johan — be hailed as pious while the Church filled its coffers behind him. And Johan could only get away with that because he was a Holy Empire man; Gaiaros had no such option. Once he'd taken the imperial throne, lavish splendor and majesty became an unconditional requirement.
"Since Emperor Gaiaros took the throne, the banquets have dwindled — and even the ones that remain, he rarely attends. The gladiatorial games have been cut back, the chariot races cut back, the boxing matches cut back, the plays cut back, and what else was it that got cut..."
"Yes, yes. Must be wretchedly sad, having less to enjoy. I understand your grief."
The drunk governor took Johan's barbed sarcasm as sincere sympathy and nodded along, again and again.
"Then what does Emperor Gaiaros actually do?"
"He simply lives in the barracks. He barely stays in the palace! I understand he was raised in the army, but to this day he eats and sleeps alongside common soldiers — does that make any sense? Eh?"
"Does he neglect state affairs while fraternizing with his troops?"
"No, he handles the state affairs right there too."
Then why are you whining at all...?
A man who trained his soldiers and ran the empire's business deserved a 'Wow, that Emperor really works hard!' — yet all the governor could produce was complaint, and Johan found him absurd.
"In many ways, I... I honestly think he'd have been better off as a simple general. Compared to the previous Emperor he seems so unremarkable. Short, not much to look at, bald..."
"...What does bald have to do with anything?"
"It lacks dignity, that's what."
The governor said this with utter seriousness. The prerequisites of a popular emperor were splendor, grandeur, and a pleasing face. He had to stand before thousands of citizens again and again, hold them in his hand, and engrave his presence into them.
"Emperor Gaoalkana, by contrast, is quite trustworthy — if you overlook how young she still is. She's tall and beautiful. Dignified, too."
"Since you're so fond of her — does she spend gold like water, perhaps?"
"You know her well! Her Majesty is indeed generous to a fault."
"!?"
Johan had meant it as dry sarcasm, and the governor snapped it right up. He was caught off guard.
"I attended the staging of The Exorcism of Saint Julianus not long ago — when Her Majesty showered gold coins with magnificent abandon, the whole crowd cheered."
"Shouldn't that gold go toward hiring soldiers?"
"BWAHAHAHA! My lord, you're a funny one. Soldiers can be hired separately. One doesn't stop drinking water just because one prefers wine, no?"
Without being asked, the governor, thoroughly animated, began rattling off Gaoalkana's exploits. She had hosted banquets dressed in jewelry and gowns of the priciest gems imported from the East; she had stunned the assembled nobles with a clever dish of a peacock served with a small peacock inside its belly; she had taken every female dancer of the theater troupe as her lovers, to the point that knives had nearly flown within the palace...
By Johan's reckoning she was a tyrant, pure and simple — but the governor clearly considered all of it the bare minimum for an empress.
"I hear the Grand Chamberlain has taken up the role of regent, though."
"Ah. You mean Lord Leoanos. Yes, that's right. I imagine he handles the greater part of state affairs these days. He's served since the previous reign, and so many nobles stand behind him..."
"Then the false proposal that came from the palace — the Chamberlain was mixed up in that too, surely? It seems impossible he wasn't."
"Ah..."
The governor's face suddenly cleared, as if the wine had been slapped out of him. He spoke with a flustered look. "W-well, that... that may be so, my lord."
"You seem afraid of the Chamberlain."
"It's n-not so much fear as... he simply has a rather explosive temper..."
Glancing nervously around a room with no one else in it made it plain enough: the man was terrified. Young emperors might not scare a vassal, but a foul-tempered servant certainly would.
"I do not fear Lord Leoanos in the slightest, my lord. Not in the slightest, I tell you. Lord Leoanos is... well... truly a most excellent..."
Mumbling on, the governor pitched forward and planted his forehead square on the table. The wine had finally claimed him completely.
"Take His Excellency the Governor to his bed. Tonight's feast was a pleasant one."
"Th-thank you, my lord."
Come morning, the governor — sober and frantic — hurried through his grooming and came looking for Johan again. Johan waved off the man's proposal of yet another feast and moved to the matter at hand.
"I've been well received, so there's no need for more of that. I want to bring over more soldiers. I'm curious what the governor's opinion is."
"Naturally! Summon as many as you like."
Having extracted Johan's promise not to attack or plunder the city, the governor granted permission gladly. He was reaping the full benefit of the reputation Johan had built, brick by brick, over the years.
Had Johan not held his temper and endured, neither the imperial house of Vinashitim nor this governor would ever have regarded him as a man worth negotiating with.
"But... won't you be reprimanded from above? I'd hate to see the governor suffer for nothing."
"My lord...!"
At Johan's words, the governor's face lit with genuine feeling.
"You needn't worry. Making excuses is a very easy thing. I'll simply say I spent gold to hire you."
That actually flies?
Astonishingly, it was a perfectly serviceable alibi. The governor had the standing to make it so.
In any case, with the governor's blessing there was no reason to wait. The fleet began ferrying soldiers back and forth between the island and the mainland. From the dwarves to the eastern tribes, they set foot on Vinashitim's soil one after another — every last one of them an elite, and the heavy infantry alone numbered over a thousand. Add the centaurs and the eastern tribesmen, and the tally defied easy counting.
Once the landings were more or less complete and the camp stood, Johan sent scouts ranging out in every direction. The swift-footed outriders returned carrying intelligence that made jaws drop.
"Have you lost your mind, Chamberlain!"
The nobles of the senate, gathered in the palace hall, jabbed accusing fingers at Leoanos.
"Sending the Dragon Bloodline out of the capital is humiliation enough — but you prepared a fake!"
To send the sacred blood of the imperial house beyond the walls was degrading, but tolerable — precedent existed for it. Even the proudest aristocrats had accepted that the times forced certain concessions.
But passing off an imposter as the Dragon Bloodline was another matter entirely. If word got out, even the meanest gutter-rat in the city would be laughing at the sacred imperial line.
"It's a misunderstanding."
"Do you take us for blind and deaf?! We've already interrogated the eunuchs and heard everything! Regent or no, this goes beyond the pale! Step down!"
"......"
Leoanos glared at the nobles — and the nobles glared right back, as if to threaten him in turn. For all the absolute power he had wielded, this blunder was one that could never be waved away.
If it reached the citizens, every last one of them would rise up demanding Leoanos's head.
Damn it all...
Before the envoy Johan had driven out even reached the capital, republican merchants had carried the news to the nobles first — and the young emperors, seizing the moment, had joined the chorus demanding his accountability. Even the wily old Leoanos had no answer here. He had no choice but to give ground.
"Very well. I will resign the office of Grand Chamberlain and withdraw to private resi—"
Leoanos had been cornered because of Johan — and, ironically, it was Johan who rescued him from the crisis. The news of the landings arrived late, but it arrived.
"Count Yeats's army has landed on the western coast! He has already taken Dakeon!"
"!"
Taken was a stretch — the man had cooperated — but that detail hardly mattered now. At the report that the ambitious young count had finally crossed the sea, the faces of the nobles went rigid.
"They said Count Yeats was an ambitious one, and in the end...!"
"We must dispatch reinforcements at once. Additional soldiers to the passes, to keep him from crossing the mountains—"
"The passes are already more than sufficient! The Count cannot force the mountains. The danger lies in the port cities along the connected coast!"
Western Vinashitim was mostly mountain country, miserable to traverse — but the coastline was another matter. The port cities strung along it were passages in their own right, and carried immense value.
"I will go myself. I will drive out the Count who dared set foot on Vinashitim's soil, and make him pay the price."
"......"
When Leoanos stepped forward, the nobles wore complicated expressions. The man had sinned, yes — but his offering was a temptation hard to refuse. He had military experience, soldiers in his personal employ on his own lands, and officers of genuine quality. In a moment like this, turning away a talent such as Leoanos was no simple thing.
In the end, the nobles permitted him to lead troops to the passes of the mountain range. And so Leoanos slipped free of a crisis that had nearly seen him deposed or assassinated, and made his escape from the capital.
"Lord Leoanos. They say the Count's army is high in spirits and fierce. With soldiers alone, this may not be enough..."
"I need only hold the passes of the mountains."
"...?"
"My purpose from the start was merely to get out of the capital. Ill luck nearly made it fatal, but now that I'm out, even the Emperor cannot treat me carelessly."
A general commanding an army in the field was a man even an emperor had to approach with caution — all the more so when that general was of imperial blood, rooted deep among the aristocracy.
"But if the Count moves—"
"The other cities all have garrisons. They'll hold well enough on their own."
If the port cities fell, so much the better. It would be the young emperors' prestige that bled — welcome news indeed to a man lying in wait for his chance.
"The Emperor sent a secret envoy, you say?"