WeTried Translations x Flame Comics
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 163: Side ep. Shaving the Beard, And (6)
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* * *
Ivan swiftly reined in his anger. He had been angry at the wrong person from the start.
His anger had to be directed at one person alone. Until then, he could not afford to waste any emotion.
“Thank you for the information.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Ivan bowed his head to the man before him. By giving him this information, the Grand Duke had effectively decided his own course.
The moment he revealed Alexander’s approach, he had submitted to Elizaveta.
“I was tempted too. They were dwarves, after all. Those dwarves. Just as the Second Corps does now, would I not have coveted the dwarves’ military supplies back then?”
“...”
“The Crown Prince said that if I simply remained in charge of the Military Administration, he would hand over every dwarven military-industrial facility. He said that when he ruled Krasilov, he would grant the Military Administration independence.”
“Then why...?”
Independence for the Military Administration. In other words, he would recognize the colony as a fully independent nation. With military-industrial facilities transferred as well, there would be little cause for economic concern.
An independent state combining the productivity of the demonfolk Military Administration colony, the technology of the dwarven military-industrial facilities, and the First Corps’ military power. It might even surpass Krasilov itself.
“Wasn’t that too good to be true?”
“...”
“No ruler in their right mind would ever offer a vassal such terms. If he truly intended to grant all those conditions, there were only two possibilities.”
Either Alexander was an utter fool, or it was a sweet trap.
Alexander was no fool. If he had been, he could not have kept up a political struggle against Elizaveta for over a decade. Elizaveta was one of the most capable politicians in the country.
So, if the Crown Prince was not an idiot, it was a trap. The Grand Duke had realized that the moment he learned of Alexander’s approach.
And he stayed silent.
He prepared himself to march out when the dwarves truly crossed Krasilov’s border, then waited quietly in the Military Administration.
Several months passed that way.
“Then, all of a sudden, I heard that the Second Corps was cooperating with the dwarves. Naturally, I thought Alexander had approached the Second Corps too. But what do you know? The Second Corps swore loyalty to the Princess.”
The Grand Duke grinned as he tapped the table with his dry fingers.
“So I hurriedly looked into it. And there it was. You had returned. ‘Little’ Ivan, the former king’s executioner. I sent out a few more people and learned that the Crown Prince faction nobles had just been purged on a grand scale.”
“...”
“I sent word to you right away. Do you remember? It was just after those dwarf bastards opened their doors. I clearly asked to meet with you once, didn’t I?”
He had. Ivan had ignored it, though.
Ivan quietly nodded. The Grand Duke gave a hollow chuckle.
“How do you think I felt? If the Counterintelligence Command had been even half as capable as the Annihilation Unit was in those days, they might have learned of Alexander’s approach beforehand. In that case, would I not have been classified as part of the Crown Prince faction in central political circles?”
“That was...”
“I couldn’t sleep at night.”
There were dark circles beneath the Grand Duke’s eyes.
“The Little Ivan I knew would have no trouble coming to cut off my head, no matter how well I fortified the colonial Military Administration.”
“You misunderstood.”
“...Then why did you not come? And why did you ignore my letters if that was the case? What was the Second Corps stockpiling military supplies for? Were they planning to strike at the rear of my First Corps?”
The Second Corps’ area of responsibility was the northern front. More precisely, it defended the border region that had once been the northern front.
Beyond it, past the mountain range, lay the First Corps’ colonial Military Administration, deep within demonfolk territory.
If the Second Corps sealed the border, the First Corps would be isolated in demonfolk territory. Once its supplies were cut off, the demonfolk would tear the First Corps apart.
“...Why not report directly to Her Highness, then?”
“You would naturally be one of the central government’s key figures, and if you would not answer my letters, what would be the point of sending anything to the Princess? You would intercept it on the way.”
“I don’t work that way.”
The Grand Duke ignored Ivan’s protest. He let out a long sigh and scratched his head.
“Should I raise my troops now and at least attempt to defend myself? Or should I contact Alexander again? With his attempt having failed, what other option did I have? While I was agonizing over that, word suddenly came from Tilles.”
“Ah.”
“They said the Princess herself had led the Second Corps to put down Tilles’s civil war. Why did it have to be the Second Corps? Why send the Northern Army all the way to the western edge rather than the Capital Command?”
“The Capital Command lacked military strength...”
“Was it not to confirm their loyalty and test their ability to mobilize? I heard they had completed their deployment within ten days of receiving the order. It seemed the Second Corps had passed the Princess’s test.”
That was why the Grand Duke had stormed in with his army. He emphasized that he had marched from the far north, passed through the Second Corps’ garrison, and met no resistance whatsoever.
His forces could attack Pritchenkaya from the edge of the border in only a few days, even faster than the Counterintelligence Command could relay intelligence.
This was his own survival strategy. He had not come to display military power, but to directly show the Princess how useful he was.
If he had conveyed it in a letter, the man before him would obviously have blocked it all. He had needed to make an entrance too loud to conceal.
“Ha...”
Ivan let out a deep breath and sank back into the sofa.
For now, he wanted to apologize. How worried must this old soldier have been? Krasilov’s winters were vicious. Yet he had crossed the country from the bitter north on horseback, sacrificing sleep as he pushed onward.
“I’ll... speak well of you to Her Highness.”
“You’d better.”
“You will be granted an audience soon. If you disarm the troops you brought with you, I will permit them entry into the capital.”
“I will.”
“And... I’m sorry.”
Ivan was a sensible person, so he did not mistreat the elderly. Unlike this premodern fantasy world, he came from Earth, where filial piety and morality were part of the elementary school curriculum.
He could not help feeling responsible for this situation, where ignoring a single letter without much thought had forced a man over seventy to cross half the country on horseback in winter.
The man before him had also helped arrange Ivan’s retirement when Ivan decided to leave the military...
Elizaveta’s power alone had not been enough to fully remove him from the military rolls and make him a dead man in the eyes of society.
So perfectly that even Alexander did not notice, and so thoroughly that not even the surviving members of the Annihilation Unit knew.
When Ivan politely bowed, the Grand Duke gave a bitter smile and waved his hand.
“So what will you do now? Are you going to Kallion? That won’t be easy.”
“If I go through formal diplomatic procedures, there should be no difficulty. The elves will not know me.”
“Well, that is true. Elves are too arrogant to remember a human who died four years ago.”
The Grand Duke snickered and nodded.
“Then I shall stay here for a while. I suppose I should watch the trainees you raised so diligently.”
“They are orphans.”
“I have eyes too.”
* * *
“Absolutely not.”
A firm voice rang out through the silence.
“Impossible.”
Bang. A small hand struck the table, making the cups atop it rattle.
“Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!!”
“Your Highness.”
“No! Over my dead body... no! Even after I am dead and buried, I will not allow it!!”
Elizaveta was practically having a fit. Ivan sighed quietly. She had been born with the qualities of a sovereign, but she worried over far too many little things.
“What are you going there to do this time! How are you planning to get hurt and be carried back this time! Has your leg healed? Can you move?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Your arm?!”
“It is fine.”
“How much function has it recovered?”
“About thirty percent.”
“See?!!”
Elizaveta was one of the few people who had learned how to speak with the man before her. When she asked quantitative questions, Ivan never lied to her.
So asking whether he could move was meaningless. As long as all four limbs were still attached, he was a man who could move.
If she was going to ask, she had to quantify his physical condition. But thirty percent. Considering the recovery ability of a superhuman like Ivan, it meant that even after resting for a month, he had not returned to full condition.
Even with the Saintess’s healing, fully restoring injuries that severe would be difficult. Which was only natural. When someone had been reduced to tatters, four weeks of treatment could never heal them completely.
That man had even stubbornly refused medical treatment such as healing potions. Foolishly. (Ivan never used healing potions on allies, so he had no choice but to resist Elizaveta’s tyranny.)
“Thirty percent. And the big-eared schemers of Kallion are ten times... no, a hundred times more sinister than Tilles’s dogs on horseback! What military text says you should challenge a stronger army with diminished strength!”
“Even so, Your Highness, we cannot leave Alexander alone. The trouble he may cause is endless.”
“Do you not know why my brother crawled into Kallion?”
Elizaveta spoke with a heavy sigh.
“That man has already lost all his political footholds on the continent! His scheme to incite the Droan Huscarls failed. The dwarven civil war? Failed! Even the coup in Tilles failed! Who would willingly support a man who failed three consecutive plans capable of toppling nations?”
At that point, his support base should have collapsed entirely. Why had the elves helped him? The answer was obvious. Because they were elves.
Elves basically hated peace. (It was true.)
They could gain nothing from peace and a stable political climate. The more chaos spread, the sharper elven diplomacy became.
Perhaps they had helped the Allied Kingdoms because otherwise, the alliance would have been wiped out by the demonfolk far too quickly.
Elizaveta was almost certain of it. They were the least trustworthy people in the world, so there was nothing strange about their using Alexander, who had failed again and again, as a pawn.
Who knew? Perhaps they would use Alexander to stir up trouble in Krasilov again someday.
“So you will never, absolutely never, leave this country. This is not a request. It is an order!”
At least with Tilles, there had been a way to invade with an army. Even that had been a diplomatic overreach she committed only because she believed Ivan was dead.
Once was enough. Losing this man once was enough.
Kallion could only be reached by sea. Krasilov had no navy. It did not even have an ice-free port, so every sea route closed in winter.
Her only means of contacting Kallion was a trade route through Tilles. She could not lead an army along that route, which made Kallion practically another world.
She could never permit it.
“...As you command.”
Ivan bowed his head quietly.
Elizaveta, looking much more relieved, said this and that in an effort to comfort him. Ivan only nodded silently, without continuing the conversation.
He was a trained agent, so he did not make the same mistake twice.
Once had been enough. Letting an enemy escape before his eyes, and watching old friends who shared his memories die.
Ivan was a sensible person, so he did not try to persuade a stubborn young woman in her mid-to-late twenties.
That had been impossible even during his days on Earth. He had never once succeeded at romance on Earth, so he knew nothing about persuading women.
Besides, the Annihilation Unit did not do persuasion.
As he had reflected before, they only proved things.
* * *
“I should prepare a smuggling ship bound for Kallion.”
“That’s another of my specialties!”
Elphihara finally smiled brightly.
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Footnotes:
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