So the Medieval Age Has a Split Inheritance System…
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Ai
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 46 – Good and Evil
The Carling Empire shared its borders with nations on the east, south, and west, while the ocean held the north. And it wasn’t like they were on bad terms with any of those nations.
The Holy Lenart Empire was the Carling Empire’s eastern neighbor. The nations have had a fairly long relationship with each other and sometimes would send reinforcements to each other. Since both nations were of the same faith, trade between them went well. Perhaps that was also why the moment they heard the Carling Empire was suffering from a famine, they offered to provide food, or rather, they already sent it. What was with this group of good people?
If they did that now, it would become very troublesome for me as I would have to take some countermeasures. Fortunately, Duke Schult often looted the Holy Lenart Empire, so this point of contention might delay their decision.
Originally, they were a settlement of elves, or rather, a long-living species on the great mountain range in the east. They expanded from there and grew into an empire. The emperors of this nation were crowned by the pope of Knut religion for generations—and because these emperors were born with “piety”, which allowed them to converse with the goddess, they were known as a “sacred lineage.”
…Is it because the goddess stopped giving advice to me that they provided help? Or maybe it was the goddess who advised them to send help. Regardless, I decided that I definitely wanted to get in the way of their relief efforts, and if possible, get rid of the supplies that came with that aid.
And so, I selected 1,000 slave soldiers to be dispersed and hidden around Alan duchy, north of Estoa duchy. After all, I believed that the escort unit for relief supplies wouldn’t exceed 10,000. Worst case scenario, all the slaves needed to do was burn the supplies so that I could nip this bud of hope for the Carling Empire.
The thought of having elven slaves was nice, but I doubted that the elves, which were already few in numbers to begin with, would participate in escorting the envoy, so the people we would catch would only be half-elves and normal humans. In order to rapidly deteriorate the two empires’ relationship, I would repeatedly loot the border to make both sides believe that the other side looted them.
As for the stolen food, I would use it in a feast for the territory. Food obtained from looting was especially delicious. And perhaps because their civilization was more developed compared to the Carling Empire, they had more types of crops. I guess I should preserve some to be used in cultivation within Deal duchy.
After a while, the Holy Lenart Empire attached 1,000 soldiers to the food transport unit, but it wasn’t good enough for us to match their numbers. So Duchess Poitiers agreed to plunder the envoy with me, which meant that Duchess Poitiers, Duke Schult, and I joined forces to cut off the path of support to the imperial capital.
The Holy Lenart Empire sent out large-scale food relief 5 times in total, but almost all of them were robbed by my slave units. In addition, bandits from various places gathered in Alan duchy and made the security there even worse. This was what happened when I distributed the food I looted to the bandits and the thieves who cooperated with me. Wouldn’t this make it hard for others to know who the culprit was?
Just as I thought that, I received a declaration of war from the Holy Lenart Empire. They knew I was the culprit. Their justification was a punitive war against the evil retainer, Palmer Klaus. If I lost, it would be a straight path to prison, torture, and execution. But it would be difficult for them to dispatch their army all the way here. Not only do they need to traverse more than one duchy, but they’d also have to fight on the way here against the bandits and thieves infesting Alan duchy at the moment.
I thought His Majesty Paulus would make use of this opportunity to declare war as well, but military action wasn’t possible due to the huge impact of the famine. They just lost against the Estoani Kingdom the other day, so it couldn’t be helped. I was thinking of declaring independence soon. So couldn’t the current emperor pass away quicker?
Since the Estoani Kingdom and the Holy Lenart Empire didn’t get along well, the latter didn’t have the option to pass through Estoa duchy. After some time since the declaration of war, I received information that the Holy Lenart Empire sent an army of around 9,000 soldiers. Well, if it was only that much, I think I could handle it on my own.
Just as I thought that, the Holy Lenart Empire also declared war on Duchess Poitiers. Why were they in such a hurry to die? The riches that Duchess Poitiers had from coin minting might have been a thing in the past, but it didn’t change the fact that she still possessed tons of gold and silver. By providing gold bars instead of gold coins, and food instead of money, Duchess Poitiers gathered the mercenaries she had connections with. 9 mercenary groups combined to produce 4,000 people. This war was ours.
“…Is it okay to not call back the 500 slave soldiers that you lent?”
“Even without them, the current number of slave soldiers is already 2,500. I also expanded the standing army to 1,000 people, and Duchess Poitiers would be fighting with us. If we still lost even with Duchess Poitiers’ help, then we have no future.”
I appointed Hans as the commander-in-chief of the army and sent them to Poitiers duchy. Duchess Poitiers had 5,500 soldiers in her army, and we had 3,500. We had 9,000 soldiers in total, but the quality of our army was different from the Holy Lenart Empire’s. About half of their army consisted of conscripts, so it would make no sense for us to lose here.
Regarding the slave soldiers I lent to Agnes-kun, he was securing his third county at the moment, so if I called them back, Agnes-kun would lose and die. I have already invested a lot of resources into Agnes-kun, so if he lost now, everything would have been in vain.
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