Vol 11 Prologue (2/2)

“You’re just like an infant. Even if it isn’t something you were particularly interested in, as soon as you see a chance to get it, suddenly you desperately want it. You’d only just finished a long campaign. If it hadn’t been for that Dytiann affair, then around about now, you’d be spending your days chasing women’s a.s.ses without thinking about wanting to go to war again so soon. And naturally, you should have flatly turned down Prince Jeremie’s request.”

The “Dytiann affair” that Lance kept bringing up was not the military campaign against the Holy Dytiann Alliance that Kaseria himself had also taken part in.

The fighting had been fierce, but the difference in strength that had existed from the start between the two countries meant that Allion had gradually driven its opponent into a corner. the king of Dytiann, who served as both ruler and head of the church, had several times attempted to end the war by sending letters proposing peace negotiations. Allion however had turned a deaf ear, seeing it instead as a sign that its opponent was growing weak, and had started working towards toppling the enemy nation from within.

The end result was that the king of Dytiann decided to present Allion with his own head to demonstrate his surrender, and save his retainers and his people.

The people had, of course, been deeply grieved. So too had the army commanders and retainers, however, in order for the king’s death to not be in vain, they had resigned themselves to becoming part of Allion.

Tasked with carrying out the negotiations, General Randius, the commander of the right-wing of Allion’s expeditionary force, was stationed with his troops at Dytiann’s royal palace. As the king had no sons, his partners in negotiation were the two young princesses. They spent every day discussing numerous matters, including when to hand over the palace, the treatment that the royal family would receive, and the conditions for disarmament. The negotiations themselves proceeded smoothly, but not even three days had pa.s.sed when something changed in Randius.

The sister princesses of Dytiann were famed throughout the neighbouring countries for their beauty.

Randius – a man who already had a wife and children, was known at court as a devoted husband, and about whom many heart-warming anecdotes were told – was dazzled by the elder of the sisters, a girl of not quite eighteen.

He forced her to give her body to him but, when he came to sleep with her, the princess instead stabbed him through the throat with a sword that she had concealed by the bed. Then, as though following after her father, the princess had committed suicide by slitting her own throat. The officers and men of Dytiann’s army were enraged.

“We may have been defeated, but Allion’s b.e.s.t.i.a.l behaviour is inexcusable.”

“Everyone, if you don’t want them to rape your wives and murder your friends, seize your swords once more. Drive those savages from our country!”

The generals cried out as one and rose in revolt throughout Dytiann.

Furthermore, a part of Allion’s soldiers stationed at the royal palace – in other words, those who had been the subordinates of General Randius, who had been killed by the princess – had, for some reason, joined the people of Dytiann and fought beside them, their spears raised high.

The revolt did not last a week before being put down by the troops who were swiftly dispatched by the king of Allion. However, just as Lance has mentioned earlier, Kaseria had, at the time, already gone off to the countryside on the pretext of “shaking off the dirt from the campaign,” and so had been unable to take part in the subjugation.

“Lance, is the rumour true? You joined the subjugation forces?” Kaseria asked quietly. His eyes were s.h.i.+ning almost boyishly. Lance nodded with exaggerated gravity.

“It’s true. Although only sixteen, the dead princess’ younger sister was every bit the elegant beauty that her older sister was. She was the one who convinced Allion’s soldiers to join the uprising. I will make the man with the greatest achievements king of Dytian – I will give him the right to break into my bedroom, kiss my skin and enjoy my thighs, she said. I will whisper love into that hero’s ear, rake my nails along his back, and, if he desires it, I will even play the slave for every ruffian among his comrades to enjoy, she said.”

“I’ve seen portraits of the sisters,” Kaseria almost ground his teeth. “If only I hadn’t put off the pleasure of meeting them because of thinking that, since Dytiann became part of Allion, I could do so whenever. I wanted to one day see them with chains around both their necks and their a.s.ses lined up side-by-side,” he said, with the expression of one regretting something from the bottom of their heart. “But I wouldn’t have done it through brute force like Randius. Capturing a woman needs the same preparations as taking a castle, and from the start, I was going to make arrangements to gather information, and break through their ramparts and their bulwarks one by one, until the proud princesses knelt at my feet of their own wills.”

“Women are like castles. That’s also something you’ve heard from me,” Lance jeered.

The ceremony was still continuing on and, perhaps because the priests were getting into it, their chanting was starting to sound more like a kind of melody.

Once it turns to that, there’s still a long way to go, Kaseria murmured in a whisper.

“And?” He then asked Lance. A smile formed on his lips that were surrounded by a spa.r.s.e beard.

“And what?”

“O my esteemed mentor in swordsmans.h.i.+p, warfare, and women. You’ve done a fine job of making me listen to all sorts of harsh words, but will my right-hand man, Lance Mazpotter, take part in this war or not?”

“There’s no escaping it, since I’m here and the prince called me his right-hand man. Since when he swings his sword, that will definitely create an opening at his right side, then I will literally stand at his right and take on the task of driving away savage enemy swords.”

“I’m not a child anymore!”

From a teasing smile, Kaseria’s manner made a complete turnaround and he looked as though he was seriously going to lash out. His voice was so loud that one of the priests who had been engrossed in their chanting turned around, startled, and some of the priestesses let out small shrieks.

It was a scene that vividly demonstrated how much Prince Kaseria Jamil of Allion was feared by those around him. For Kaseria, however, Lance would forever be a one-of-a-kind existence, and he immediately returned to his previous expression.

“These past few years, Ende’s soldiers have only experienced skirmishes. Is there anyone among them with the skill to even attack my right-hand man? I said earlier that this is a good opportunity since the relations.h.i.+p between the three countries is unstable, but I really hope that some competent men from Garbera, the country of knights, and Mephius, the country of gladiators, will band together to challenge me,” he laughed as he spoke.

It was a smile as innocent as a baby’s.

However, Kaseria Jamil was a man who could cut a person down while smiling like that. Or at any rate, that was how most people within Allion’s domains perceived him.

No. Lance Mazpotter, present beside him, was perhaps the only one who clearly rejected that perception. This man isn’t a bloodthirsty fiend. He’s just a child. And just like a child, he can easily break another person’s things, and easily be hurt.

Lance Mazpotter was a man who had accomplished many feats of arms, who had been involved with many women, and who did not have many regrets to tie him to this world. The one wish that made such a man cling to this world, the one thing that he wanted to see through to the end, was that moment in which the childish young man called Kaseria Jamil would bring down the flames of calamity on the entire continent before finally seizing supremacy over it.

References and Translation Notes

Kaseria is slipping in an apposite quote from Confucius to support his actions.

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