Chapter 10 (1/2)
Side story 10 – A Certain Prince’s Despair
“You-! This is plain harassment!”
General Godwin struck the round table in the center of the conference room with his fist
“I understand how you feel, but calm down, General His Majesty is here”
“F-, Forgive my rudeness!”
Chastised by the Priry General Godwin suddenly caised to my father in a fluster
“It’s fine I feel the same way”
Not just athered here would blame the General’s words The reason was because the people here all held the sas
At present, the topic of discussion for the group called the Royalists Faction was that the Church of Sacred Light had declared an edict for the forarding the subjugation of a group of adherents of an Evil God cult that were gathered in a certain dungeon near our kingdom, Fortera But no matter who looked at the situation, it was clearly an overreaction to forroup of cultists not even nu 1000
The Church of Sacred Light clai that appeared to be the Evil God itnessed in the dungeon in question, and the foration, and if possible sealing or subjugation
There was no lie more barefaced
Because the higher-ups of each nation knew that the Evil God was a fictitious threat created by the Church, after all The Church wasn’t seriously aiation of the Evil God either, and the other nations passed this suggestion knowing quite well that it was a lie
“So it really was because of the proposal from the other day”
“That seems to be the case There are no other reasons”
The Church of Sacred Light is the largest religion in the Huion of all nations Because of that, the money that each nation donates to the Church’s headquarters, the Luxiria Theocracy is no small amount Of course, our Fortera is no exception
However, because the crops and tax yields in our kingdoe this year, we declared that ould be reducing next year’s contribution to the Theocracy
There was probably no doubt that it was correct to interpret this edict as revenge for the contribution announcement
Although it was the forht’, in truth it was a coalition force of the knights and soldiers of various countries With an edict from the Luxiria Theocracy, they expected participation from various countries, but because it was officially participation in order to fulfil their duties towards the Church of Sacred Light, there was no remuneration If this was the invasion of the Demon Territory, then there would be de facto remuneration in the form of territory distribution, but because this time was the formation of the Order in order to solve a do
Of course, our kingdoive out remunerations for this But despite this, if a domestic issue of ours is solved by thea debt, and would need to take this into account in future diploes
“Revenge, and an example to the others, huh”
“You could certainly interpret this as a show of force through the difference in military power”
The other nations probably understand the Church’s purpose in this edict as well
Not to e as well: ‘If you report that you’ll be decreasing your donation, this is ill happen to you’
“It’s too late to change the donation back, isn’t it”
“Now that the formation of the Order has already been announced, it is probably iin with, the reason we reported a reduction was because we couldn’t pay it You can’t use money that you don’t have”
Thesank into silence
“So, ill you do? We received a strong suggestion that as one of the nations involved we should scout out the location and set up camp, but…”
“Making us do subordinate work on top of harassing us, huh? Just how dom”
Both scouting and setting up camp formations are certainly iain achieveains, the larger the debt our kingdom will owe them, so this too was a form of harassment
But this was a good chance as well
“I shall lead the army and head for the battlefront”
“Your Highness!?”
Hearingaround the round table all turned their gazes to me
“Hmm, and your intention?”
“Pretend to scout and set up caht be slandered for acting arbitrarily by the other nations and the Church, but this should be better than letting thee debt If we say that the young commander was anxious for merits, it shouldn’t seem unnatural”
I answered my father’s question with my plan
The other nations one out of the way to prepare their ar as they hadn’t actually headed for battle, they probably wouldn’t be able to strongly de from us
The Church of Sacred Light probably won’t stay silent, but given that their official aiation of the Evil God and cultists, they shouldn’t be able to openly criticise us
“But there should be no need for you to take the blahness”
“As a member of the royal faly reproach me If any other commander does it, they may demand punishment”
Even if they can’t publicly condedom, it’s entirely possible that they would bla orders Once you consider this, I can’t leave the role to the generals
Perhaps because they understood my intentions, the Prime Minister and General reluctantly fell into silence
“How is it, Your Majesty?”
“…Very well I shall leave it to you”
Having set up caazed at the Evil God worshi+ppers before me
The enemy had also set up a military formation, but you could say that it was entirely crude On top of the fact that they barely reached a thousand people, there were elderly people, as well as women and children ht It was obvious that they didn’t even have enough troops to set up an a as I sent the soldiers forward, ould easily crush them
Honestly speaking, it was strange that having come to this they still hadn’t run away and scattered, but was this also because of their disgusting piety?
Having thought that far, I accidentally let a wry smile slip
“Your Highness?”
“No, it’s nothing”
Finding e, General Godwin had questioned me, and I told him not to worry
Disgusting piety, huh?
The fact that I can’t understand those ould worshi+p soed, but after this incident, the piety that we the Forteran Royal Faht had fallen to rock bottohts to the citizens after all, and we certainly weren’t opposed to Sacred Goddess-sa in the corrupted Church that was ra Both as the prince, and as a person
Between the believers of the Evil God ere risking their lives, and the people who secretly deht, just as better? When I started wondering this, I found it so funny that I couldn’t help but smile
Lightly shaking ears
──Both of them were the same