Military Expansion - 4
“Your Majesty, I must oppose this.”
“I, too, believe Jihan should not be allowed into the royal audience chamber,” Rio and Herbert said in unison.
Herbert’s stance was expected, but Richard could not understand why Rio would object. “But Rio,” Richard said. “He has come to deliver a report. We cannot simply drive him away.”
“This is not driving him away. He holds no proper title,” Herbert replied. “This is not expulsion; it is simply turning away someone who should never have come.”
“Why should he not? He is my proxy regarding Jihan affairs.”
At Richard’s words, David flinched slightly as he recalled his own mistake. Though for different reasons, Herbert reacted the same way. After all, he himself had approved the granting of that title.
Rio stepped in to support Herbert. “What use is such a title? Being a proxy administrator does not grant a mere Jihan the right to attend a royal council.”
Rio was correct. The royal council was Zylan’s highest governing body after the Queen herself, and eligibility to participate was strictly limited. While private audiences might be granted for practical matters, the council was different. No matter how high one’s status among the Jihan, no matter how much wealth one possessed, the royal council was not a place where such people could casually appear.
Richard asked, “Well then, can we not say Bloomfield has come as my personal guest? Or, if that is insufficient, could we not treat him as a witness?”
“In that case, summon him to the court of law. The royal council is out of the question.”
“Rio!”
At Richard’s sharp rebuke, Rio flinched. The prince continued, “What on earth has gotten into you? The very clues you need for calculating war expenses are right there. Blocking this is unlike you. I could understand if it were Herbert, but you?”
“Th-that’s…!” Rio opened his mouth, then shook his head. “I apologize. Please proceed as you wish, brother.”
Richard glared at him. “You mean you no longer wish to speak?”
“It is not that. It is only that…”
In Rio’s eyes, a clear look of resentment surfaced. Richard knew exactly what that expression meant. It was the face of someone with a mountain of things he wanted to say, yet terrified that uttering them would be an unforgivable breach of etiquette.
Richard sighed and silenced Rio with a gesture. “Enough. It seems nothing will get through to you right now. We will speak again once you have calmed your mind.”
“Yes, brother.”
Rio bowed his head, his face a mixture of sorrow, indignation, and worry.
David, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke. “This atmosphere is quite different from the royal councils I had imagined.”
At his words, Rio exploded in fury. “Shut your mouth, Jihan! This is no place for the likes of you to flap your jaws!”
“The right to speak is something I grant, Rio. Do not presumptuously silence another.”
“Brother!” Rio cried out, looking as though he might burst into tears at any moment. “Why do you keep protecting that Jihan scum?”
“Is he not more than simply a Jihan? He has lent me a great deal of money and forgiven much of that debt. Moreover, I have told you many times that he acts as my proxy in managing Jihan affairs within my government. Cease losing your dignity as a prince and as secretary of my administration.”
Rio was undoubtedly brilliant. He had devoured countless ancient and modern classics and masterpieces. Unlike Richard, who had little talent for study, Rio had astonished those around him more than once or twice with his profound insight despite his young age. But he was still a boy who had not even reached fifteen.
His emotions had run so high that he had touched Richard’s reverse scale.
“Is that what matters? David Bloomfield is a Jihan! Only a few weeks ago, brother, you suffered such humiliation at their hands… How can you still…!”
After the fall of the Eranian Empire, the northwestern continent among the three continents of the Benil landmass was torn apart by hundreds of barbarian tribes.
For five hundred years after the last Eranian fortress fell at the northern edge of the imperial domain, the continent plunged into an age of darkness.
Yet it was the churches and monasteries that preserved the flame of knowledge during that dark age. Only there could the Eran language, countless classics, and ancient wisdom be protected—though they could neither develop nor evolve, they did not completely disappear.
All the current kingdoms of the Benil continent were founded by the descendants of the barbarian races that the Eranians had collectively called the Ben tribe. Even the emperor of the Western Empire was merely one faction of the Ben tribe who had occupied the empty Erania and proclaimed himself emperor without the approval of the Eran emperor who had fled east.
The sole exception was the Kingdom of Zylan.
Queen Chloris had been a legitimate general of the Eranian Empire and had pacified the western territories through her own power alone. She received divine blessing and was always victorious on the battlefield. She reclaimed the Derim heartlands, part of Zelon, and the land that is now Zylan. By restoring relations with the Apostolic See for the churches and monasteries that had been hiding in seclusion, she truly deserved the title of Great.
At least to Chloris and her descendants, the succession rights of the Kingdom of Derim were indisputable.
Neither the Apostolic See nor the Eastern Empire desired a vast empire spanning from Zelon to Zylan; they merely wanted stability on the frontier.
Chloris, once the hope of the empire, had become an enemy of the faith and was attacked by other imperial forces. Seeing the empire’s division, the barbarians rose once more and threw the borderlands into chaos.
Chloris was a typical Eranian. She chose to die standing rather than live on her knees. She refused to relinquish what she had built in order to protect the frontier of the homeland that had betrayed her.
She uprooted with her own hands the fragile order she had established in Derim. She burned administrative offices, collected official documents, and relocated the bureaucrats. All of it was moved to Zylan.
The barbarians and imperial forces could barely fill the void Chloris left behind. But that void could only be filled with violence and chaos, never peace and order.
Zylan, fertile yet sparsely populated, was protected by the instability on the far side of the strait and by the strait itself. Yet Chloris and the faction she led remained enemies of both empire and faith.
The empire no longer possessed the strength to conquer Zylan, so it posed no threat to the newly founded kingdom. The Apostolic See, however, was different.
Having lived through the age of war, the Apostolic See had given up the sword. But what they had abandoned was only the secular blade. They possessed a sword far greater and more powerful than any worldly weapon.
They were the masters of the churches and monasteries.
For Zylan’s spiritual safety, Chloris took as hostage the lost ancient rites of the church that only she had protected. Modern religious scholarship acknowledges that much of it was useless, but at the time these were matters of grave importance: how many times larger than the altar should the holy tablet at the front of the chapel be? How many steps away from the priest must the deacon stand when administering the sacrament? And was that step to be measured by the priest’s stride, the deacon’s stride, or by some other regulation?
One would think that would have been enough to feel secure. But by the time Chloris had stabilized the Kingdom of Zylan to that extent, she had already grown old.
She had long since lost the courage of her youth, when she would leap alone onto her horse and charge into enemy lines. She traveled to the last remaining sanctuary of the Age of Mysteries in the world—the sanctuary within Venterum Castle—and staked her very soul in prayer to the divine.
It was a cruel twist of fate. Chloris had been a great female knight and queen, yet she could not abandon the achievements she had wrought. The feats that should have earned her eternal praise were, due to clouded judgment in her later years, transformed into a curse upon her descendants. Especially so for ambitious male heirs like Richard.
Richard had once been praised as the strongest knight on the three continents. How terrible must the suffering have been for such a man to become a woman? And that was not the end of it. He had been violated by a Jihan and had even come close to death.
Rio could not bear it.
And now, the very Jihan who had threatened Richard stood before his eyes.
With tears glistening, Rio stared straight at Richard and shouted, “After your enthronement, after you became a woman, how much have you suffered, brother?”
He pointed at David. “I cannot forgive even a single one of those Jihan who caused you such pain. And that man is a Jihan. Right now, this instant, I want to gouge out David Bloomfield’s disgusting eyes and kill him.”
Herbert said to Rio, “Your Highness the Prince. There is an outsider present. You should refrain from such remarks…”
“It is fine,” Richard interrupted Herbert. “The Jihan are those abandoned by the gods. They know nothing of the new history. That man already knows my true past.”
“……”
At Richard’s eerily calm demeanor, Herbert was left speechless. If he had been in Richard’s position, he did not think he could have shown such composure out of sheer shame.
Regardless of what Herbert was thinking, Richard continued. “So, Rio.”
“Yes, brother.”
“Does that mean your personal feelings should interfere with the drafting of the war budget?”
Rio hesitated before answering. “That… of course not.”
Richard asked in a stern voice, “And yet you still oppose Bloomfield delivering his report before the royal council?”
“……”
Rio did not answer. He was torn between emotion and reason.
Reading his inner conflict, Richard pressed even more sternly. “Then are you saying you can investigate Malong’s military strength more accurately and more quickly than David Bloomfield has done?”
“That… that is not the case either, brother.”
The moment Rio’s answer fell, Richard asked again. “Very well. Then I shall ask one final question. Do you believe you can predict the cost of war without even knowing the scale of Malong’s forces?”
“No, brother.”
Rio’s head drooped weakly.
Richard spoke to him with an icy expression. “Military Secretary Rio.”
It was not the warm tone he usually used, but the voice of a queen addressing her subject from above. Rio’s shoulders stiffened visibly.
He answered carefully, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“It seems to me that you are somewhat agitated. I suspect the burden of excessive duties is the problem. Am I mistaken?”
“You are not, Your Majesty.”
“In that case, I specially grant you three days’ leave. Use the time to hunt vigorously in the royal grounds and release the resentment pent up in your heart.”
Tears finally spilled from Rio’s eyes. Though it was called a vacation, it was a leave granted after he had contradicted Richard’s will. He could not believe it was truly just a holiday. Richard was undoubtedly furious with him. And it was equally certain that three days would not be enough for that anger to subside.
Rio lowered his head even further and covered his mouth with his hand so his crying would not be heard. But it was to no avail. His shoulders began to shake as he sobbed.
Watching him, Richard waved his hand. “Your answer is accepted. It seems you had much weighing on your heart, so depart at once. Herbert!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Write a royal warrant permitting Military Secretary Rio the use of the hunting grounds near Polbury. And escort him there.”
Herbert wanted to ask if he was serious, but the words would not leave his throat. He had never seen Richard on the battlefield, yet he imagined that the force with which Richard commanded troops in war must be exactly like this. It was not a force any mere human could defy.
Herbert bowed deeply in polite acknowledgment, then led Prince Rio out of the Queen’s office.
Once Rio and Herbert had left and the door closed, only Richard and David remained in the office.
Richard let out a long, heavy sigh. “Haa…”
“You have endured much, Your Majesty.”
“Not at all. Rather, it is you who has suffered. I feel truly sorry for summoning you only to subject you to such a commotion.”