Chapter 4: Schemes and Love

And so, Barracuda County—who had tried to butt into my engagement with Nia—found a new hopeful groom-candidate in Gale. Since there was no way they could jump straight to engagement after only just meeting, the Barracudas were probably going to do some background checking. If that came up clean, then they’d get serious about moving forward, removing any potential obstacles in their way. So basically, since Gale’s squeaky clean background was practically bar none, he was as good as got.

“So in the end, everything worked out.”

“And quite honestly, that’s something to celebrate.”

The day after our meeting with Count Barracuda, I was in Prince Alphonse’s office, reporting what happened while he listened with his perfect, princely smile on his face.

Absolutely perfect. Too perfect—to the point where it gave you chills.

“Aside from myself, you could say that it worked out well in a number of ways,” I continued, counting the other successes on my fingers.

First off, Miss Emilia Barracuda didn’t seem upset at all about Gale. He actually seemed to be her type.

“I actually started looking into Barracuda County and Miss Emilia in the short time I had after you told me about them,” Prince Alphonse explained. “And from that, I learned that Miss Emilia prefers intellectuals over the grizzled knight type. Her issue was that despite that, she wanted someone muscular too, so she couldn’t find any noblemen who met her standards.”

“I see. And since Gale’s got an intellectual’s face and a built body, he fit into her strikezone perfectly,” I said, thinking back to Miss Emilia’s reactions from yesterday, and coming into a total understanding of them.

She’d just seen two rough muscle brains duke it out in front of her, only for a knight that hit all her buttons to appear. The gap between the two must’ve made Gale look even more her type. Normally, this effect would’ve lessened as time passed, but then his other abilities had fit her criteria exactly, so her feelings probably weren’t going to fade anytime soon.

I’d wanted to say it all went as planned, but apparently, it hadn’t.

“I only just learned her type a moment before, so Gale getting there in time was purely by chance,” His Royal Highness admitted.

“Wow, so it really was by the skin of our teeth,” I exclaimed. “You were a huge help, though... Wait. Then why didn’t you tell Gale anything about the plan?”

“If I’d told him, he’d have choked. He’s not good at that kind of stuff, after all,” the prince commented, a wry smile on his face.

“Ahh, I see.” I couldn’t do anything but nod. Gale was the type that went all red when ladies hit on him at the pub. It was good he’d found someone before some strange woman got her claws in him.

“To be completely honest, I didn’t think it’d go this well. I won’t say it wasn’t well planned, but it was definitely also a gamble. It’s quite surprising that things have gotten this far this quickly.”

“Well, Count Barracuda seemed to be mostly sure of things that same day,” I said, giving His Royal Highness a forced smile. I thought about what happened yesterday. The count had eventually requested a bout with Gale after he’d recovered somewhat, and after a little duel, he confirmed Gale’s skills. And with that, Miss Emilia—who was already crushing on him—didn’t show any signs of objecting with the way things ended up.

All that was left was for them to get rid of any potential problems, and, with the count now backing him too, Gale was basically set to become a baron. His promotion would allow him to marry into the Barracuda County, and Prince Alphonse would have an easier time using him.

Gale was getting something out of it too; not only was he achieving his goal of a barony, but he’d even be on the way to marrying into a county. From House Barracuda’s perspective, they’d be getting a brave, wise, and upright knight as a groom, one with a promising future, so he was more than welcome.

“To think that Gale has grown enough that even Count Barracuda has acknowledged him... My ability to raise my subordinates is enough to make me shiver,” Prince Alphonse boasted.

“Ah... Yeah, you sure do raise us.”

I gave him a look I couldn’t describe. I was one of the subordinates he’d “raised,” after all. And his methods were brutal. But to be fair, it wasn’t as if he worked us to the bone and only picked up those who survived. It was exactly like he said before: he knew each of our limits and within them, made us do unreasonable things. Probably.

“And as a result of your raising, one of your underlings is now in Count Barracuda’s inner circle. That has to be beyond your expectations,” I remarked.

“That’s right. And for it to be in such an ideal way too. Though I hadn’t had any plans to make a pass at the count—there was no need to.”

According to His Royal Highness, Count Barracuda would deploy for any battle that was logical and would benefit him, so there hadn’t been any need for him to maneuver the county into listening to him. If anything, the fact that the county would go on the defensive and become hostile if they sensed any plot against them made messing with them all pain and no gain.

This time, one of His Royal Highness’s trusted subordinates would be marrying into the count’s own family—a boon for any of Prince Alphonse’s future strategies and tricks.

“It’ll be another ten years or so before Gale and Miss Emilia lead House Barracuda, so I’m not planning on making them cooperate with me fully right now... But even so, it looks like I’ll be able to accelerate our plans on conquering a certain kingdom,” His Royal Highness said, a wonderful smile on his face.

The “certain kingdom” he was talking about was, of course, Princess Sonia’s home country of Sylvario. In Prince Alphonse’s case, their show of contempt towards Brigandia made him want to conquer them immediately, but that, of course, wasn’t just an emotional response.

“No matter how you spin it, their royal family is just leaving that port of theirs to rot. The two generations before them must have been quite smart, but the current king and his sons aren’t putting it to good use in the least,” His Royal Highness said seriously. I couldn’t do anything but agree.

The port that was in Sylvario’s capital was the biggest among all nearby countries, and apparently made the royal family a pretty penny. Even if they couldn’t have used its transportation power during the war that was happening within its own borders, it would’ve been a massive pain for us if they’d imported food or munitions from outside of the country, but...they hadn’t even tried.

“How could they have just kept buying the exact same things during a war as they did during peacetime? And it was all jewelry and luxury foodstuffs. There should have been other priorities,” he grumbled.

“I’d had the thought that they might just have not made any orders in time since the war had been so short, but when we inspected the logs there had been no attempts at all,” I commented. “They seemed to believe they could hold on to what domestic products they had, but had the war dragged on, they wouldn’t have made it.”

When we’d been in Sylvario during the whole Princess Sonia incident, we’d taken the opportunity to sneak a look at their account ledgers while they were cooperating, and that was when we’d learned about their supply history. We’d gathered that they’d decided they could cover their food needs with domestic products. With the money they had on hand, they could’ve procured an alternate route if the worst-case scenario came to pass, but there was no record of them trying. I mean, it was probably because the war itself hadn’t been planned, so they didn’t intend on hunkering down that hard, but... The fact that their folly led them to have to cede land to Brigandia meant there was no saving them.

“Whatever the case, we won’t have to hold back if Sylvario’s that inept.”

“Which is why you’re sending me to the territory you stole? Are you planning on treating it like a forward base?” I said, glaring, taking the opportunity to mention the information the count and his daughter had leaked.

His Royal Highness the Smiling Iceberg didn’t even flinch, a big smile still on his face. Not only did he not flinch, but...

“Part of it is because I need someone I trust to keep their mouth shut, and also has achievements under their belt, since we’ll be doing some mining while we’re at it,” he said.

“That is NOT something you just do ‘while you’re at it’!”

As he just smiled in amusement, I barked at him, tone quite serious. We were talking about a territory we’d only just taken. If Sylvario had any sense, they’d want to take it back, and to do so, would deploy quite a number of spies into the territory. The minute they noticed we were gathering mining engineers to do something, it’d trigger a brand-new conflict...

“Your Highness, please tell me you aren’t planning on them catching us and then pulling something else.”

“Oh, Ark. What other reason would I be making it a forward base and sending in a brigade for?”

“You want to garrison troops in my viscounty that bad?!”

He proceeded to tell me that the McGuine Viscounty would have roughly 5,000 royal military soldiers, knights, and supporting logistics officers stationed there, and that they’d already sent 2,000. The viscounty’s total population was currently about 30,000, so when we’d be adding in a force equal to a sixth of the population, you’d pretty much be able to just throw a rock and it’d hit a member of the military.

“Brigandia will be covering their food expenses and everything, right Your Highness?”

“Of course we are. My elder brother will be managing it, so there’s no chance anything will slip through the cracks.”

“Urgh... While it’s true that I don’t remember ever going hungry over the course of the war...”

As I’d mentioned earlier, the second prince Prince Artur had kept the distribution of goods stable, even during the war. If someone that great at logistics was handling this, then nothing could be more comforting. They said that the limit to the size of the standing army a nation could support was three or five percent of the total population, after all. Having a few times more soldiers than that stationed in the viscounty would be next to impossible, especially since it would still be unstable due to just being acquired, and we still had no idea how much it could produce agriculturally.

The fact that we wouldn’t have to worry about that was a huge weight off of my shoulders.

“All right. If you’ve got it all set up that well, then I’ll just have to do it,” I sighed.

“What are you talking about? You never had a choice in the matter.”

“I knew that, okay?! I was just trying to pump myself up!”

I very unintentionally yelled at him. It was really a miracle I hadn’t been executed for being rude to a royal yet. Unfortunately for me, I thought, staring into the distance, this had become all too commonplace for that to happen.

“So with that all said, I’d like to tell you to get your marriage settled quickly since you’ll be busy, but... I have to admit that it would be rather boorish of me to try to rush you,” His Royal Highness said, suddenly seeming slightly anxious about it.

“What? You’re showing consideration, just like a person...? Ah, it’s because Nia’s involved instead of it all being on me, right?”

“No, I’m trying to be considerate of your feelings too, but you didn’t have any wishes for your wedding ceremony, anyway,” Prince Alphonse pointed out.

“I mean, that’s true, but... I wonder about Nia...” I murmured, thinking about it.

Now that we’d gotten our engagement sorted out, all that was left was to leave a little bit of a gap before having the wedding. We’d begun talking about the ceremony, but...

Oh, I knew that you’d normally take a year or so preparing for one. I knew that, but with the circumstances and ulterior motives behind our marriage, we’d be rushing and finishing everything within two or three months. Nia understood that too.

“There’s no use asking me what she thinks. Try asking her.”

“I have asked her, but she just says that she doesn’t have any wishes for it all,” I grumbled, troubled.

“Ahh... She is the type that understands things a little too well, isn’t she,” nodded His Royal Highness, similarly troubled.

In the first place, my marriage to Nia was entirely for the purpose of putting her in a social position that would let her serve Prince Alphonse. What’s more was that we were going to use that position to conquer Sylvario and absorb it into Brigandia. It was absolutely a political marriage, albeit a bit different from usual ones.

Another reason why it was different from a usual political marriage was because of my feelings, but I had absolutely no intention of forcing them on Nia. If anything, I felt as if the situation was testing my worthiness as a man, so I was planning on thoroughly wooing her first.

But I was getting off-topic.

Anyway, forgetting about how she probably hadn’t had dreams for her wedding in the first place, I was pretty sure she had none at all with ours... Though I held on to the faint hope that maybe she did. I thought I should be allowed to hope that much.

But even if she did have wants and dreams, I was worried that her consideration of the current situation would keep her from actually voicing them.

“I know we can’t actually do much for the ceremony, since considering her true identity, we would want to keep as many eyes off of her as possible. We’re planning on putting some effort into the wedding dress and rings, but there’s only so much we can do...” I continued.

With three months at the most to prepare, we had just enough time to have a made-to-order dress tailored for her, but making it something worthy of a royal would be really difficult. And pathetically enough, I was already struggling a bit with the financials. I could get her a dress fit for marrying into a viscounty, and she’d definitely claim that would be enough, but... I didn’t know if that would be how she truly felt.

“You know, since this is an absolutely political marriage, she might even want to just get it all done and over with on paper,” His Royal Highness joked.

“You may be right, but could you please not?” I replied, face serious.

I mean, yeah. That was the scariest possibility out of them all. But since I would be the only one hurt in that case, it really wouldn’t matter.

“Sorry, sorry. But you’re not going to get an answer arguing with me about this. First, you should talk things out with her.”

“I know that, but... Would she even answer me honestly...?”

“Hrm. So I guess that’s the problem,” Prince Alphonse nodded to himself, making me puzzled. When I gave him a look asking for an explanation, he gave a pompous answer. “While in a way, it’s a natural problem for you two to have, wouldn’t you say it’s true that you and Miss Nia don’t trust or understand each other enough yet? If you don’t know if she’d tell you, or if you’re in a position to hear her answer, then that’s the explanation for it.”

“Uugh... That’s certainly true...”

When His Royal Highness pointed it out, I couldn’t do anything but agree. Nia and I hadn’t even known each other for a month yet. While we’d been speaking to each other since, it was more business talk, like reports and meetings. I couldn’t give you an answer on whether talks like that could bring about emotional understanding or trust, so I couldn’t be sure if what she told me was coming from the heart.

“What do I do?” I asked, helpless.

“Unfortunately for you, there’s no right answer for things like this. The only thing you can do is talk to her more.”

“Yeah, that’s true... We could talk all we wanted, if we didn’t have a time limit over our heads.”

While I’d mentioned earlier that—after getting “permission” from Nia’s fake father and making all of the arrangements we needed for appearance’s sake—a period of two or three months was needed to make everything natural, three months was really the longest we could afford to hold off the wedding. After all, we wanted to conquer Sylvario as soon as possible, and we had no idea how long it’d take to develop the mines.

Lastly was the simple fact that if we left Stonegaze, a border region, without someone to run it yet full of Brigandian soldiers, there was the possibility that it’d provoke Sylvario into doing something unnecessary. That was why I needed to get to the province as soon as I could, and needed to bring Nia with me as an advisor-slash-consultant, which would only be possible if we were married.

The situation really has us really bound up in the necessities here.

“So we’re aiming to get married in about three months, and that’s nonnegotiable.”

“Yeah. There’s no way you could bring a woman you weren’t married to to a frontline base, and we need her help to do our work out there. Which means that we need you to have the wedding, at most, three months from now... Or no, wait.” Prince Alphonse suddenly paused.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Your face looks extremely evil right now.”

“Would you like to be executed for talking back to a royal?”

His Royal Highness was giving me little threats like that, but the black-hearted smile on his face was seriously at a level of darkness that I rarely saw. But since I didn’t want him to actually get angry with me for sticking on the subject, I kept my mouth shut... He probably sensed what I was thinking, though.

“So? What is it you’re planning this time, Your Highness?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how you could just get married on paper and have your ceremony at a later time.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess that could work. I had honestly thought of that before, but I had no way of knowing when we would end up getting a chance to do it,” I commented.

“Then we just have to make it so you’ll know when.”

Damn, that was really spine-chilling! Like I’m shivering here... Wait, is he thinking something crazy?

“In the first place, the reason you can’t have a fancy ceremony is because we can’t let Sylvario know that she’s still alive, right?”

“Yes, that’s true... Your Highness, you’re not thinking...”

“Yes I am. If we were to get rid of the Kingdom of Sylvario, then there’d be no problem if people found out that Princess Sonia was still alive.”

Shit. What is he thinking? The shivers won’t stop!

But my shivers weren’t out of fear.

“So you’re going to wave the fact that if we conquer Sylvario, I can have a big fancy wedding ceremony in front of my face like a carrot.”

“Miss Nia might be just as interested as you are,” he added lightly.

Ahh, dammit, “the Black Wolf” inside me just might wake up here.

Suppressing an expression I really shouldn’t show His Royal Highness the third prince, I forced a smile as I asked, “Wouldn’t this be the first time anyone has ever overthrown an entire kingdom so they could have a nice wedding ceremony?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. Waving your wedding in front of your face is just a means to an end. Our objective is to conquer the Kingdom of Sylvario for the benefit of our nation of Brigandia,” he stated, the smile on his face a good deal colder than usual.