Translator: Tsukii
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 20 – War is Recommended desuwa
After Lydia quelled the rebellion of the duke of Constine and YEETed them, she gathered the members of the knight brigade. It wasn’t for her usual YEET tournament, but for a tournament to distribute titles.
There was no problem with Lydia taking the duke’s territory as it was, but thinking that having more vassals meant it would be easier for factions to form, which in turn would make it easier for rebellion to occur, Lydia divided the duke’s territory into counts and distributed these titles to members of her knight brigade. If one compared it to modern Japan, it would mean that Lydia only secured Osaka while the rest—Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Shiga, Wakayama, and Mie—were awarded to the knights.
Constine duchy was one of the most developed duchies and had many cities. By the end of it, Lydia selected 6 victorious knights and they were granted the title of count by Lydia, making them join the ranks of the nobles. The knight brigade had the danger that its members might be YEETed at any week and nobody served as the knight commander. Because of that, it was possible to select candidates purely through ability.
Having high martial arts might not necessarily mean they had high governance ability. Lydia chose to do so due to such thought, but it was also due to a wish to make the territory a mess. However, having a lord with high martial might was suitable to reign over the rebelling territory whose security deteriorated due to the tax increase, and those who were highly capable quickly established their ruling system.
Due to this series of events, Lydia’s dignity as a king was heightened, further deepening the awe and respect of her vassals. The thing that received the highest evaluation was the speech she said during the meeting with the messenger of the Constine family, since normally it would include “confiscation of all territory and property” and imposing such a thing would normally lead to a siege battle to fight to the bitter end.
However, Lydia granted the choice for the Constine family to escape outside the territory, accomplishing bloodless capitulation over the strong fortress of the Constine family. Even though Duke Constine’s army mostly consisted of conscripted peasants with few members of the standing army, having to do a siege battle against them would still cause damage to Lydia’s army. Lydia’s actions that prevented that from happening only served to further boost her reputation.
Moreover, Lydia used this timing to declare freedom of war to her vassals. Lydia allowed wars between vassals as long as it was within the territory of the kingdom, and Lydia thought that would further drive the territory to ruin.
Lowlet Empire, to which the Narorosa Kingdom belongs, basically didn’t allow war between vassals. This rule also applied to war against foreign nations, and if a vassal wanted to declare war, they had to get permission from the emperor.
However, this law didn’t extend to vassals of the empire’s vassals. In the first place, having a vassal of a vassal ask direct permission from the emperor wasn’t possible to begin with. The emperor only cared that there was no war among his vassals, and he would basically turn a blind eye if war occurred among vassals of a vassal.
Because of that, ambitious vassals of the emperor’s vassals would sometimes request freedom of war. Especially on a kingdom scale, a warlike and ambitious count or duke would form a faction and demand freedom of war from their king, and sometimes, they even resorted to rebelling to have it acknowledged.
And as the war within the territory continued, there would be vassals gathered to a certain vassal, who would eventually replace the king. Once that happened, the original line of kings would end up in a miserable situation, which would either end in execution or torture until the end of their lives. That was one of the BAD ENDS that Lydia wished would happen to her.
However, the moment Lydia declared the freedom of war, all the vassals already pledged their allegiance to Lydia from the bottom of their hearts, and should any of the vassals try to do something toward Lydia, other vassals would crush them without needing Lydia to do things personally. Such fear had spread among them.
“Well then… I’m returning to the academy, but I’d like to ask Crecia to do another job.”
“Please ask me anything.”
“I want you to bring me the blacksmith who is said to make the magic swords in the Arcelus Kingdom. If you can’t bring the person, I’d like you to buy some magic swords.”
Lydia also ordered Crecia to search for magic swords and their creator while she was home. It was the person who made those swords that allowed Abraham to transform his arms into swords, and it was said that while a magic sword had amazing abilities, it tended to drag its wielder to misery, so there was no way Lydia wouldn’t want to own one.
“I heard they cost about 500 million credits each. Since it is said to strengthen its wielder just by holding it, I think it’s worth its price.”
“But there’s also a rumor that those swords bring their wielders to ruin… no, I understand. I will make sure to bring some. The blacksmith himself seems to be protected by the Arcelus Kingdom so bringing him here will be hard, but I will try to negotiate as much as possible.”
According to what little Lydia heard, it was said the wielders of magic swords were driven to suicide, insanity, or ended up in unfortunate accidents, so a sword like that was obviously coveted by Lydia. Moreover, among those unfortunate accidents, most were the wielders being stabbed by people close to them, so there was no way Lydia wouldn’t want it.
Tsukii’s Note:
Freedom of war also means war could be declared against them at any moment, so if any of them show intent to rebel, it could be taken care of through war instead of political action, spreading the fear mentioned above.
Also, since the magic sword drives its wielder into an unfortunate state, what would that mean for Lydia, who sought self-destruction? I could only interpret it as a glorious future, or at least, being put afar from possible destruction.
The newly appointed noble came from the member knight brigade. If we put it more blatantly, from that absurd unit where the weakest of them are champions of martial arts tournament level of skill (since even Akbar, a former champion, could be YEETed). Giving them freedom of war would make their competition intensify and their military power would be polished further. Other nations could only see Lydia’s Kingdom as a nation of carnage for constant conflict.
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