“It has been a long time, Your Highness.”
Friede was drinking wine in his room when a voice suddenly came from behind him. He didn’t remember allowing anyone inside his chambers, but for some reason, he didn’t mind the intrusion.
“Hmm? Oh, Crow. I haven’t seen you in quite some time. What have you been doing?”
“Traveling from place to place to strengthen your influence, Your Highness.”
“I see. Good work.”
“I hear your proposal will soon be discussed in an official capacity.”
“You know everything, as always,” Friede said, picking up a document from his desk and holding it out toward Crow. “Here. This is the national highway proposal.”
“I wouldn’t have expected any less from you, Your Highness. It appears the seeds I’ve sown will soon bear fruit.” As she spoke, Crow took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Friede.
“What’s this?” he asked. He looked over the long list of names written on the paper.
“These are the people who will support you from the shadows.”
“Most of them seem to be commoners.”
“That is true. However, many commoners have influence rivaling that of nobles. Most of the people on this list carry considerable weight in their communities. They’re local leaders, affluent merchants, promising engineers... All of them will be instrumental in making your proposal a reality.”
Friede hummed. “I’ll leave the details to you. Manage them however you see fit.”
“Yes, Your Highness. For now, I shall draw up the materials you’ll need for the meeting.”
“Good,” Friede said. He paused for a moment. “Say, Crow, have you seen Sylvie? She doesn’t visit me often these days. She says she’s busy.”
“Is that so...? I’m afraid I do not know Lady Sylvia’s whereabouts.”
“I see. She told me she needed to study to be a proper queen worthy of standing by my side.” Friede sighed. “Good grief. Her priority should be helping me when I need to unwind, not studying.”
“Most definitely, Your Highness. I’ll make sure to relay that to her.”
“Yeah, please do.”
“I shall take my leave, Your Highness,” Crow said. She bowed and exited the room silently. “The hypnosis on Sylvia must have grown weak again...” she whispered softly enough that no one would hear her. “I thought an insignificant girl like her wouldn’t be an issue, but that constitution of hers is starting to become a problem. Perhaps the time has come to get rid of her entirely.”
A sadistic smile crept onto Crow’s lips.
A few days after Friede and Crow’s discussion, most of the important figures of the kingdom gathered in the large meeting room of the palace for the biannual Great Assembly. It was normally the prime minister’s responsibility to conduct the assembly, but since Sieg was still missing, a civil official was chairing it in his stead. The man nervously announced the beginning of the meeting.
Bulat sat at the end of a very long table. To either side of him were his children, Friede and Adel. Many of the meeting’s attendees had not known that the princess had been called back to the palace and were astonished to see her, but none of them dared to comment on it.
“The first item on the agenda concerns the terror attack on the Yutear Empire last month. The empire claims to have found evidence that our delegation was involved in the attack and has lodged an official protest.”
“I’ve heard the report,” Friede said. “If memory serves me right, you handled all matters pertaining to the delegation, didn’t you, Adel?”
“Indeed. I appointed Eiwass Leiston as the leader of the delegation. According to him, they didn’t notice any signs of an upcoming attack before leaving the imperial capital.”
“I’m saying Eiwass might be the culprit!” Friede exclaimed, his voice saturated with mockery. “Didn’t they find a considerable amount of evidence pointing to him ordering the attack? What a stupid thing to do when we were trying so hard to foster a friendly relationship with the empire. Did he think that causing mayhem in the capital would count as distinguished service to the kingdom? Your subordinate sure is shortsighted.”
“I wasn’t done speaking, brother. There is indeed evidence incriminating our kingdom, but do you not find it strange? Who would orchestrate such a massive attack and yet leave evidence behind? In fact, it’s clear the empire does not genuinely suspect Haldoria either.”
“Why send us a protest, then?! It proves that backward country of savages is incapable of profound thought.”
“No, it simply proves that the empire is not a monolith,” Adel replied. “Have you not read the protest? While it does raise some suspicions about Haldoria, it only asks questions without making any direct accusations. A document like that has no political capital. The fact that they sent this instead of a letter of accusation or a declaration of war should tell you what the emperor truly believes. They only lodged this protest to calm down the bellicists. Since we’re innocent, all we have to do is reply to their questions in good faith.”
“I understand why you wish to protect your subordinate, sister, but there is no point in playing these games. We should just send the criminal to the empire and let them deal with him, should we not?”
“That’s rich coming from— Um, forgive me. I couldn’t help but take offense to you calling him a criminal when there is not yet any proof. Anyway, since we’re on the topic of offering up criminals to the empire, I suggest we focus on those who’ve already been proven guilty. What do you say, brother?”
“Tsk... It doesn’t matter. The investigation will uncover the truth, sooner or later.”
Adel’s allusion to the counterfeit money incident made Friede back down at once, and Adel came out of the argument on top. Regardless, she made a mental note to reinforce security as soon as the assembly was over. Friede’s last statement left her worried that he might try to tamper with the evidence.
The civil official in charge of leading the assembly, intimidated by the heated argument, hadn’t dared to say a word. With the royal siblings’ battle of wits over, he finally moved on to the next topic.
The assembly went on for a while, discussing various matters of importance to the kingdom.
“The next item is the last on today’s agenda,” the civil official said. He began distributing documents to everyone in the room. “This proposal was submitted by His Highness Prince Friede.”
Adel read through the first page of the stack of papers and scowled. There was no way Friede had written any of this.
“Well then, I’ll go over my proposal,” Friede said, standing up. He made sure everyone’s eyes were on him, then opened his arms dramatically for his announcement. “I’m proposing the creation of a national highway!”
Friede’s subordinate stepped forward and rolled out a large map on the table.
“Haldoria is a vast and powerful kingdom,” Friede continued. “While the source of our might is undoubtedly our experienced army, we also rely on other things: the food produced by the vast agricultural lands of the south, the high-quality ore mined in the east, and the magic items and monster materials found in the labyrinth city of the west. To utilize all of these assets to their fullest potential, I propose we build and maintain a safe highway spanning the entire country.”
Whispers filled the room. The minister of finance spoke up, wearing his nervousness on his face.
“But, Your Highness, each region has circumstances to consider. Some houses would decline, if not collapse outright, if they were forced to pour all of their resources into maintaining the roads.”