— Lufens.
It was a country that had once been destroyed by a great army of Monsters, now serving as the headquarters of the allied forces because Laiel was there. The one visiting that country was Alette Baie, an envoy from Rolfis.
To meet with Laiel, the leader of the allied forces who had moved so many nations—the four-nation alliance, Cartafus, Janpear, Fonbeau—she had made sure to tidy up her appearance.
Her blonde hair, cut in a bob that reached her shoulders, had been too busy to get properly cut these past few days. Being able to relax for a whole day under the pretext of tidying her appearance was something Alette was grateful for.
The one who had pushed such relentless work onto her that she felt this way was, in fact, Laiel himself...
When Alette entered the royal castle of Lufens, she brought new subordinates with her. Her previous subordinates had been promoted and were now leading their own units.
Rolfis was also short on personnel, and that was partly related to the reasons behind this meeting.
Passing through the gate and into the courtyard, she could see that the royal castle itself was being renovated as Laiel's base—not emergency repairs, but a proper reconstruction.
From afar, the voices of knights training could be heard.
Alette's aide-de-camp, a rookie knight, looked at the scene.
"Are those Banseim knights? Their training looks awfully lax. If they were Rolfis knights, that level would never be—"
When the young knight said such things, Alette glared at him. Rolfis was a small nation, and had once put its knights through harsh training to forge them into elites. However, while she understood that they could hold their own in a roughly equal fight or even against a slight disadvantage, she knew that winning against a force more than double their size would be difficult even for her.
"You're showing your ignorance. The very fact that they can muster this many troops is already a threat—understand that. You may take pride in the harsh training you've been through, but don't underestimate the enemy."
Inside the castle, their guide was a Rolfis knight, which put her subordinates at ease and made them relax their guard—something Alette noticed and quickly tightened her composure over.
Alette was leading knights in their late teens. The shortage of personnel had been severe from the start. These were rookie knights who hadn't yet ventured out into Baim to see the world, and as a result, they had fairly strong-willed attitudes.
The guiding knight let out a sigh as well.
"Vice-Commander Alette, it must be tough for you. And you lot—at least most of the knights and soldiers here have been through wars involving tens of thousands of troops, multiple times over. Don't go saying stupid things and making them angry."
Seeing the rookie knights fall silent and look uncomfortable, Alette felt a twinge of unease herself. But once inside the royal castle, she steeled herself—.
Lying on the sofa in the office, I listened to Monica's reports while reading through documents.
North Baim was requesting Novem and Clara for reconstruction efforts. However, the requested Clara was expressing reluctance—apparently, she had come to request budget allocations and the arrangement of artisans for the practical deployment of Porter units.
Novem, meanwhile, had been working with mages to rebuild several villages in Lufence and was not present here.
Aria and Miranda had both been entrusted to Maxim along with their respective units, and were currently leading their forces under his direction.
Eva was also busy in consultations with the elves, and May had taken Marina along—or rather, given their respective sizes, it was more like Marina was taking May—and the two of them had gone out to exterminate monsters throughout the territory.
And the reason I, who should have been working right now, was lying on the sofa was—
"I must say, calling someone here only to meet in the office? Well, I suppose it's better than stiff formalities in the reception room."
Ludmilla, Queen of Kartafus, had come to visit me. Or more accurately, I had summoned her.
And at this moment, I was receiving a lap pillow from Ludmilla.
Monica, watching me from the side, said:
"Calling over the queen of a great nation just for a lap pillow—that's a first even for you, Chicken! And yet you still can't make a move beyond that, so you really are a Chicken. But I think that's what's great about you!"
She was beaming and giving a thumbs up, so I found myself feeling my face grow a little warm from the sensation of softness against the back of my head and the two large swells filling my field of vision—more so than from any of the documents.
The Seventh Generation muttered:
*"...Nice view."*
The Third Generation added with a hint of envy:
*"I'm a butt man myself, so a lap pillow is... hah, I'm jealous."*
What was I going to do... With Mireia absent, conversations inside the Jewel kept drifting toward crude guy-talk.
"...Don't say that. Honestly, if I'd called anyone from Zayin, Galleria, or Rusworth, it would have only come across as a threat, so I had her come to me instead. More importantly—what's the situation with Clara?"
Monica's expression turned serious.
"She's still refusing. Clara and Adele don't get along well. Adele wants to keep costs down, while Clara fundamentally wants to reproduce knowledge from books and such with perfect fidelity. Well, I suppose they're equally lacking in practical flexibility."
Being called lacking in practical flexibility by an Automaton—were those two really going to be okay? As I was thinking this, Ludmilla rose to Clara's defense.
"Clara is highly knowledgeable. She possesses expertise across all fields. Architecture and civil engineering would be among them, right? Then she's exactly the kind of talent Baim needs for reconstruction. That's true even if she's a bit inflexible. That's why I'd also like to recruit Adele."
I looked up at Ludmilla.
"That's surprising. I didn't expect you to defend Clara."
Ludmilla chuckled softly.
"Is it? But I hold Clara in very high regard. She's competent."
However, Monica opposed bringing Clara into North Baim.
"She may indeed be necessary under the current circumstances. However, Professor Damian has shown no interest in improving the Porter, so establishing a transport corps using Porters will be difficult. Removing Clara from the picture entirely wouldn't be good for the overall picture either."
Ludmilla narrowed her eyes slightly.
"A Porter corps, hm? They've come around here a few times already... Hey, Laiel, would you sell me that information? No—I should say, I'd like you to transfer it to me. If we can reduce the number of horse-drawn wagons, we can put the horses to other uses. That way, I can use it as a justification when explaining this visit to my subordinates."
There was no problem giving it to her. In fact, I'd intended to hand it over anyway.
"That's fine. But since it's not complete yet, I can only make a promise. Send a few mages over. No—have the Kartafus knights who are here take the information back with them instead?"
Knights from various nations had come to investigate what was being built in the South Baim workshop.
Some were acting in their own country's interests, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that the current alliance was no monolith.
"How boring. So you were planning to hand it over from the start, were you? Well, that works for me either way."
When Ludmilla said that, I turned to Monica.
"Keep Clara in her current position. However, once the Porters are complete and we have people who can operate them, send them to Baim. Until then, tell Adele we'll be sending additional personnel. As for Clara... the artisans in South Baim are already stretched to their limits. Put in a commission with the four-nation alliance."
Then Ludmilla spoke up.
"Hold on a moment. Why not have Kartafus take that commission instead? We have artisans too, and we have the capacity. There are transportation issues as well, but you can't really afford to be picky about that right now, can you?"
I could more or less understand what Ludmilla was thinking. She wanted the Porter technology, but more than that, she wanted to lay the groundwork for future technological development, even if only a little.
Within the alliance, the push to secure each nation's own interests was growing stronger.
This felt like something that needed to be dealt with quickly. If Ceres wasn't knocked out of the picture soon, the alliance would collapse on its own.
The reception room.
I had used it several times before, but perhaps out of some desire to maintain the grandeur of the former royal palace, it had been built extraordinarily spacious and lavish.
Had it been designed to give an edge during negotiations—crafted to be dazzling so that the other party would feel even slightly intimidated? Or was it simply so they wouldn't be looked down upon?
Monica and Ludmilla, along with the knights serving as Kartafus's guards, were in the room.
Across the large table, Alette and the other knights of Rolfis sat before me.
Alette, despite glancing worriedly at Ludmilla, spoke.
"Lord Laiel, the matter has been conveyed through the documents."
I nodded, dressed in the formal attire reserved for audiences, and addressed Alette.
"Reports have come in from the Valkyries as well. About Rolfis's standing within the allied forces, correct?"
Alette wore a serious expression.
"A lot of people are anxious since they're not used to this and aren't sure if communication is really being maintained. Setting that aside, Rolfis's contribution is admittedly low in the current situation. I acknowledge that, and we have our reasons for it. However, compared to the other three nations, I believe we have made extraordinary contributions to you, Lord Laiel."
Zayin, Galleria, Rusworth... The reasons these three nations were cooperative with me went beyond simply having saved their countries. In Zayin, there had already been rumors involving Selma and Aura. Galleria and Rusworth had formally declared they would accept Gracia and Eliza.
In other words, from the perspective of those three nations, they already had marriage ties to me. Zayin as well, since Selma had—well, never mind that.
"I understand. That's why I don't intend to ask for anything further from my side—"
"That's precisely the problem! There's also Rolfis's standing within the four-nation alliance. The issue is that it clearly looks like Rolfis is being singled out for cold treatment."
I looked at Alette.
"There are people saying that?"
It might have been worth having Rauno investigate, but right now I had him buried in intelligence work on our own people rather than the enemy, so he was overwhelmed as it was.
Intelligence operations were short-handed too.
"I understand that the Serba matter expanded our territory. We're grateful for that. However, there are many within our country who question any further cooperation."
At that, Ludmilla burst out laughing.
"What a joke. As if there's any way to leave the Four-Nation Alliance now. Everything around Rolfis is already in Lyle's grasp. Think about it and the answer comes immediately. If you pull out now, you'll turn every neighboring nation into an enemy. And Lyle isn't naive enough to fight Banseim while leaving enemies inside their own borders. Which means..."
Alette's expression didn't change, but the knights around her wore their emotions on their faces. Anger, agitation—those sorts of feelings.
I raised a hand to stop Ludmilla.
"We're grateful for Rolfis's cooperation. If conditions at home are difficult, we'll accept only the bare minimum of future cooperation. In exchange, I promise that we won't slight the Four-Nation Alliance, nor will we slight Rolfis."
Alette's brow shifted just slightly.
"That's exactly the—"
Ludmilla cut in.
"—problem. Rolfis gets nothing out of this, is that it? Let me be blunt. What you want is an engagement between Lyle and Her Highness the Princess, correct? But don't forget. It's not just me. There's the princess of Fonbeau as well. And the women who have supported Lyle from the very beginning. You understand that squeezing your way in here won't be easy?"
I'd brought her here to apply pressure, but I hadn't expected it to go this far. Alette and the others looked bitter too. They had probably been planning to push Her Highness onto me. Even I couldn't accept someone Novem had already rejected. More to the point, I didn't want any more additions. I might still be able to handle a Third Generation, but I was well past my limit.
From inside the Jewel, the Seventh Generation's voice reached me.
*"There is no such thing as an equal relationship between nations. It has never been possible to make everything perfectly equal since ancient times. But letting this become a problem wouldn't be any fun either."*
The Third Generation agreed.
*"Yeah, it wouldn't be fun at all. Besides, with Lyle's case we have the family creed and all that, but from Rolfis's perspective they'd probably be thinking, 'Don't bring family crests into international affairs!' Still, it's a headache. Even if we crush a betrayal, how we treat them afterward is another problem. And going too far is no good either... Oh, I just thought of something."*
It was absolutely not something good. Even I knew that much.
In the reception room, Ludmilla's and Alette's voices were growing louder by the minute.
"When the continent is about to shift on a massive scale, you threaten us with secession? Or are you begging? If you want to betray us, go ahead. I'll send thirty thousand troops immediately, and you won't even have to pay me a thing!"
"You think you can bully us just because you're a great nation? Have you forgotten that we were cooperating with you before you even showed up? Is this what great nations do—show up late and take all the spoils?"
Cartafus's knights and Rolfis's knights alike were on edge.
I spoke in that reception room, offering a silent apology in my heart.
"I understand. Marriage has been important since ancient times. However, under the current circumstances, a marriage between me and Her Highness the princess is simply impossible. I'm not in a position to marry into the family. The throne of Rolfis cannot be left vacant."
At that, Alette furrowed her brow.
"But if a prince or princess were born—"
"Then why don't we pursue a marriage between our prominent figures instead? How about we start with an introduction meeting, Alette?"
"...Y-you mean, me?"
I didn't miss the way Alette's expression—or rather, the way her eyes lit up. I thought to myself.
Sorry, Baldoa. It's not me, you know. It's the two inside the Jewel...
'Alright, now even if marriage talk comes up from within Rolfis, we're covered!'
'Let's keep having Baldoa work hard on winning over the Four-Nation Alliance... especially the Rolfis faction. Oh right, Lyle... make sure to properly reward Baldoa later.'
...I'm the worst. I just sold out my subordinate.