After leaving Elsa, I first went towards the inn where Mireille was confined.
“Hey, thanks for your hard work.” I greeted.
Two wolfmen rose up and returned the greeting as I passed through the inn’s entrance. There was a reversi board between them, and it was clear that they had been playing reversi.
However, they were not skipping their work in particular. There were four guards watching Mireille. Since there were only supposed to be two standing guard, the other two were permitted to take a break during this time.
I told the two of them to be at ease and went to the second floor alone.
“Why, if it isn’t Fujiwarsama. Thanks for your hard work.”
Mira and a wolfman was standing in front of the room where Mireille was located. Of course, the one who had bowed and greeted me was only the male one. Mira only lowered her head slightly. She wasn’t even trying to look at my eyes.
Her attitude was the same as always, but I has received a report saying that she was doing well in her guard duties, so it’s alright.
“I’m coming in.” I announced.
Since there was no rejection, I opened the sliding door. In that room, Mireille was sitting in a seiza position with her eyes closed.
I coughed audibly. I had heard the story, but she was indeed losing an abnormal amount of weight.
I’ve interrogated her when I came to this inn once, but she was like a different person now as compared to then.
“Fujiwardono?” Mireille opened her eyes.
There was no color in her eyes. They were hollow.
“You have become thinner. Are the meals not to your tastes?” I asked.
“No, the meals are delicious. They are actually much better for this body.” She replied quietly.
[Did you really become better?]
I was about to blurt out those words unconsciously, but I swallowed them at the very last moment.
“I came to talk. Please tell me about the countries north of the Kingdom of Sandra.” I did not come to have an enjoyable talk, so I quickly went to the main subject.
But, Mireille only agreed softly, and started to talk without asking for the reason.
“There are two countries north of the Kingdom of Sandra. Most of our northern territory are adjacent to the Kingdom of Robutas, and a small part along the northwest coast is adjacent to the Dukedom of Shugurin.” She started her lengthy explanation.
“Although the Kingdom of Robutas has a humid climate overall, there is still a lot grassland spread out in their territory with black soil and little rain, which is suitable for agriculture. In addition, a quarter of the country is forest, and there are a lot of mines too, so their forestry and mining industries are quite developed. But, because they have such blessed lands, the name of their country has changed numerous times because of long wars, and it was only around 40 years ago that it became the current Kingdom of Robutas.” She stated clearly while I simply listened.
“Because they have pushed for excessive centralization until now, their political situation is a little unstable. But, because the king has absolute power, there is no waste in their national affairs. Even though they have just emerged as a country, their national strength can’t be underestimated.” She continued speaking, her voice carrying clearly. “Their relation with the Kingdom of Sandra is not that good. Regarding the northern lands, the Kingdom of Sandra has never recognized it, so territorial disputes exist.
“In contrast, about the Dukedom of Shugurin; it is an average agricultural country without any specialties that are common in this continent. It is an old country, and their political situation is also very stable. They prefer diplomacy, so as a neighboring country, they have good relations with the Kingdom of Sandra.” She introduced the overall situation. “And as for their military strength, the Kingdom of Sandra stands above both countries. But, since half of the Four Dragon Order of Knight were destroyed, as their influence decreases, the relationship of power can be reversed depending on the trend from each lord.”
“I see.” I nodded.
If this story is true, then I should make peace with the Kingdom of Sandra. If I don’t make peace, then the Kingdom of Sandra will need to pay attention to the south, and if they are attacked from the north, then they might have a crisis.
In the first place, I didn’t intend to attack the north from here, so there were no losses for this peace. On the contrary, I can ask for a large sum of money as the condition for peace, so I can return the prisoners without delay.
As I make up my mind, I leave the room with the watchmen. Just before the sliding doors were closed, Mireille’s appearance came into view for a moment.
She had already closed her eyes, and was sitting in silence. Her form was, strangely, fitting for a japanese room.
I told the watchmen to do their best and left the inn.
That night, I drank with Elsa. There was sake, wine, and beer. As for the meal, I had prepared Matsusaka beef served with steak sauce. When Elsa ate the juicy, marbled steak, even her eyes rounded as she exclaimed about how delicious it was.
The common topics between Elsa and me were very limited. Elsa talked about Reila and Ryle who had come here before. Both of them seemed to be doing well. It was said that they would buy a noble rank with money in the future.
I got interested in that story.
“Is there a country where you can buy noble rank?” As I asked, Elsa answered smoothly.
There was a country northwest of the continent -The Kingdom of Dryad. There was no particular industry they specialised in, and they had vast lands, but the number of infertile lands was high. This was especially so in the northern land called Dragon Horn. Food was not growing because of the cold, so they sell such land to people together with the nobility title, and they seemed to have made money with it.
In addition, even in such infertile land, the taxes remain the same with other places, so their land and noble title will be rescinded if they can’t pay the tax.
This seemed almost like fraud.
“Yeah, that’s right. That’s why there are no humans there, right? So, the beastmen who don’t go south will mostly go there.” Elsa explained.
I just found out something new.
The inflow of beastmen suddenly stopped at a certain moment. I thought it was strange, but it turned out that the place they were aiming for was different.
This might be a chance.
“Is it possible to summon the beastmen here?” I questioned.
“It’s impossible. The Kingdom of Sandra which is in the middle of the route won’t agree. Even if you mention it as the condition for peace, do you think they will agree? Numbers are power. The population of this town will increase, so for the Kingdom of Sandra, it would be more horrible than getting attacked by the northern countries.” Elsa shook her head.
“Is that so..?” I sighed.
The condition to change the [Era Setting] to [Modern] was to get the population to reach 10,000, and have 1 trillion yen funds.
If the funds stay as they were, there should be no problem. But, the population doesn’t increase easily. If I wait for it to increase naturally from reproduction, I will be a grandpa in no time.
Well, as long as I have the money, I can still buy stuff from the [Modern era] even with the [Setting Era] at [Edo], so I haven’t thought much about [Population] until now...
“Hmm... Mm.?” I grunted.
While I was absorbed in thinking, Elsa had fallen asleep.
Let’s stop here for today.
Still, Elsa was too defenseless in front of a man. When I thought that she was a beautiful woman, Elsa begin to snore loudly. While holding in my laughter, I gently cover Elsa with a coat and left the room.
The morning of second day of Elsa’s visit...
I got into the armored car, and headed towards the prison surrounded by stone walls which was about 40 km south from the town.
It’s the jail for the knights.
They spend their day in depression without anything to do under the scorching sun.
I went up to the turret on top of the stone walls, and listened to the report from the Bird tribe who were acting as guards.
Although there seemed to be fights occasionally during breakfast, there were no abnormalities besides that.
I look at the knights’ situation from across the vertically barred window.
They lined up side by side in the stone walls’ shade, and were simply sitting there without doing anything.
Some people were writing something on the ground. When I looked at it with binoculars, there were Os and Xs drawn in several squares. Two Os were circling the X, and the X became an O. There was no doubt that that was reversi.
As Elsa had said, reversi seemed to have become really popular.
Before long, I had interviewed several of the knights one by one. The contents were about the northern countries.
At first, the knights were suspicious about my line of questioning, but when I mentioned that I would give them meat, everyone’s mouths became loose.
The contents were not much different from what Mireille had talked about. Thus, I decided to make peace with the Kingdom of Sandra.
After that, I returned to my house and think about the conditions for peace.
――On the third morning of Elsa’s visit...
I told Elsa that I would make peace and handed the parchment with the conditions written on it.
The Peace Conditions were as followed:
The Kingdom of Sandra will pay 100 million new Barbanil Silver Coins (about 280 billion yen) as compensation.
Kingdom of Sandra must take over all 832 prisoners of war.
Furthermore, the ransom for Princess Mireille will be 10 million new Barbanil Silver Coins (28 billion yen), and a knight’s ransom would be 1,000 silver coins (2.8 million yen) per person. The rest would be returned free of charge.
We will return the villages from the southern territory leading to the town.
“Fujiwarsan is overcharging. The Kingdom of Sandra does not have this much money.” Elsa stated with an amazed expression.
That’s right. In order to make them not think lightly of me, I overcharged them with this outrageous amount.
Then, Elsa nonchalantly put the parchment with the peace conditions into her pocket.
Her role was to recommend peace, not to sign the peace treaty after all. Because the negotiation for peace will be carried by the diplomats, Elsa didn’t bother arguing.
“Well then, I am leaving. Stay healthy, Fujiwarsan.” She smiled.
“Yes, Elssan too.” I nodded.
Thus, Elsa got on the carriage and left. I handed over a [Puzzle Ring] so that she could kill time on the way and also do something about the taciturn knights during the journey.
[Puzzle Ring] [X5] 50,000 yen (List Price 500 yen) x 5 = 250,000 yen (List Price 2,500 yen)