The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kiro
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 109 – A Certain Kingdom and the Great General Conference [A]
Eastern part of the continent.
The kingdom that existed there was the hegemonic nation of humanity which possessed the longest history and was known as the most beautiful.
Lined with historic and majestic buildings, there was no expression of anxiety on the faces of people walking there. That was partly due to the nation being rich, but that wasn’t the only reason. That was because unlike the people of other nations, there was a worry that was unrelated to that nation.
That was――the existence of the Demon Army.
Many human kingdoms feared the threat of the Demon Army, which was hostile to humanity. Most nations had a history of being messed up by the Demon Army at least once.
However, despite this kingdom being famous as a nation that was bordered with the Demon Army, it was also famous that the Demon Army never attacked at all.
The last time it was attacked was during the dawn of the kingdom――which was about 400 years ago. Since then, the Demon Army never touched that nation at all.
Therefore, this nation had long been famous as the safest nation in the world, with many people migrating to the nation because of that rumor, and it had a history of the nation established and developed that way.
While other nations struggled with the countermeasures against the demons with most of their effort being in vain as their nations were still messed up, this nation alone continued to develop steadily and became a hegemonic nation before anyone knew it.
Because there was no need to worry about the Demon Army and their cities were never destroyed, their cities grew beautifully while their historic cityscapes were preserved. As people and goods continue to flow and make the nation wealthy, it was natural for them to always have the upper hand in diplomacy with other nations.
For other nations, which suffered from regular invasion of the Demon Army and had no leisure to recover, often had to buy supplies from this nation. That also served to enrich this nation further.
They kept selling those supplies as expensive as the limit of the buyer could afford and enriched the nation with that wealth. This occurred every time the Demon Army attacked another nation, repeated endlessly, bringing a never-ending cycle of wealth to this nation.
The royal palace of the capital of said kingdom. In the audience room of that place, the messenger of another nation desperately bowed his head while clenching his teeth.
“Please, please help us…! At this rate, people of our nation would die out of starvation…! We want to avoid that no matter what…!”
His voice was filled with sorrow.
The nation that messenger belonged to was in tatters due to the slaughter and looting of the Demon Army that launched their invasion the other day, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the nation. People were starving to death one after another since they couldn’t get enough food. The people of this rich nation should be aware of that.
However, the king of this nation who sat on the throne only looked down at the messenger in front of him coldly and rejected him.
“Fuhn, I don’t care about that. If you want to prevent people from dying of starvation, you just need to spare no money to buy supplies.”
At those words, the messenger raised his voice.
“B-but! There’s no way our nation could pay double the market rate…!”
“Then you can just request help from another nation.”
“Guh… that’s…”
The messenger raised his anguished voice. He wouldn’t bother asking this nation if he could do that.
Every other nation was busy taking care of its own and had not much resources to spare. That was why they had no choice but to buy supplies from this nation. And that king was aware of that.
They were forced to spend money to the limits. That fact made the messenger furious with anger and want to punch the man in front of him, but if he acted according to his impulse, his nation would be no more.
There was no room for negotiation. Recognizing the reality, the messenger shut up for a while.
Then the king sighed,
“…I’m also a busy person, so if there’s nothing, I’ll be going――”
And stood up. It was to show the negotiation ended. Seeing that, the messenger hurriedly raised his voice.
“Please wait a moment!”
“Hm? What’s up? Feel like paying now?”
The king tilted his head and played a fool on purpose. The messenger desperately swallowed back the complaints that were about to leak from his throat and spoke different words instead. He lowered his head,
“…Please, let us pay for it…”
“Hou, I see.”
When the king heard such words, he stroked his beard and made a gentle smile.
“Umu umu, then leave it to me. We will prepare the supplies and deliver them right away. After all, the loss of innocent people is also heartbreaking for me.”
“…Thank you very much…”
“It’s okay. You’re paying for it, right? Then all is well. It’s not like our nation has financial leeway after all. Even if we want to help, we need to take the minimum amount of money. It can’t be helped.”
――What bullshit…!
The king said they had no financial leeway. Looking at the old man with his entire body wrapped in good quality and colorful clothing, and wearing several jeweled rings on his fingers, the messenger was enraged inwardly. He had seen several cities of this nation on his way here. All of those cities were wealthy while this royal capital and especially this palace used luxurious materials for walls, floors, furnishing, and even every piece of their maid uniforms were expensive ones. So much so that the messenger wanted to ask back which part of them were lacking in money.
However, one couldn’t replace the stomach with their spine. There was nothing that could replace the life of a citizen. Thinking so, the messenger left the audience hall.
“…”
The person who silently watched as it happened was the flaxen-haired girl who sat next to the king.
She was a beautiful girl with jade-colored eyes, wearing a gorgeous dress.
Her name was――Sharon.
She was the first princess of this nation.
With a smile plastered on her face, she silently saw off the messenger.
Eventually, when the messenger left the audience hall, Sharon called out to her father next to her.
“…Is it really okay, father?”
“It’s okay. We don’t have an obligation to give it to them for free, and even at the double price, they barely had enough to pay.”
Indeed, the king calculated it and requested that amount of money.
If he raised the price too much, once the supplies were sent and they were done with reconstruction, their nation would likely be done for.
If that happened, they couldn’t squeeze more money out of them. It was important to keep the balance between dead and alive. The king spoke the words with such understanding.
But Sharon shook her head,
“…No, that’s not what I meant… it’s just earlier…”
“…Aah, you meant that one who was not aware of his own status.”
At Sharon’s muddy words that she seemed to have a hard time to say, the king realized what she meant.
It referred to a fellow who visited before this negotiation.
“Fuhn, it’s just not fitting. It’s completely out of proportion to marry into a nation like that. You don’t like it either, right?”
“…I… but…”
Sharon’s words get muffed. She certainly didn’t want to get married.
However, the person that visited before ―― it was hard to say rejecting the marriage request from the neighboring nation like that.
After all, the other party was,
“…Fuhn, I understand what you are worried about. But it’s a needless worry.”
The king snorted and revealed a fearless smile. He took a fruit from nearby plate and chewed it,
“Even if it ended up in war, we wouldn’t lose. We have plenty of funds and supplies, and unlike other nations, our number never dwindled, so it would be our army that remained victorious.”
Certainly, that was true.
Other nations continued to be forced to shed blood in their war against the Demon Army.
Meanwhile, this nation wasn’t damaged at all, so be it the soldiers of the nation or the knight brigade formed of elites, they were all in perfect condition.
There was no way they could lose. She could understand that.
“…But it’s war…”
She didn’t want war.
Because it was a sad thing.
However, that didn’t mean she agreed to marriage either,
“…Fufuh, but you see, Sharon. I don’t think it will become a war at all.”
“Eh…?”
Suddenly, her father’s laughter echoed.
Sharon saw no basis for his words. Because of that, a question mark seemed to appear above her head.
His father answered his vague words.
“You should be aware. This nation is protected.”
“! That’s…”
At the words he said, there’s no way, thought Sharon.
She was certainly aware of what her father’s words implied.
It was a classified fact yet spread as rumor. That was,
――This nation was secretly connected to the Demon Army .
It was a plausible rumor against this nation that didn’t suffer damage from the Demon Army.
But that was wrong, and the fact was a little different.
This nation’s royal family and the heavyweights knew this fact.
There was a person who was buried in the darkness of history for fear of being known to other nations and used as casus belli for invasion.
He was the founder who laid the foundation of this nation, yet this hero was forgotten by people.
Thinking of his existence, the king smiled.
“There will be no war. Of course it wouldn’t. It can’t even be said as war after all.”
“…”
Sharon shut up as she saw her father laughing happily.
Certainly, there was no need to worry in that case. This nation would be safe.
That was why the turmoil in her heart should just be her imagination. It must be so.
With that, Sharon stopped thinking and continued to watch her father who immediately took action.
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