With the unbroken wax seal as our only evidence that the letter hadn’t been tampered with, there was no proof we were being honest. We could’ve faked this setup easily by opening the envelope, putting a new letter inside, and resealing it. The seal had been made using a stamp that belonged to the Kuklillison family, but there was no way to prove we hadn’t duplicated it. Trust in whoever delivered it was far more important.
“I would’ve opened it without you if you hadn’t gotten here today. Anyway, let’s take a look.”
“All right,” Kien agreed.
I broke the seal and opened the envelope.
“Please let me be the first to read it. It’s also a means of communication from company employees, so I need to check it doesn’t include any company secrets.”
“That’s fine.”
I’m struggling to accept the news of the assassination. It’s difficult being outside of the kingdom where many details don’t reach me. If such a murder really did take place, then may Her Majesty the Queen and the parents of our chairman rest in peace.
I: General Matters
Regarding the printed holy books, the new format has proved popular. Demand has increased significantly and the same applies to the unbound version. (See the attached document.)
Demand for the old version of the holy book has fallen by ninety percent.
Protests from archbishops of the Carulgi sect are growing increasingly loud. I have enclosed the rebuttal we received in response to Ms. Ether’s written arguments.
II: Information
An order to assemble a crusade force has been issued for the third time.
This information came to the Albio Republic from across the channel via an urgent messenger pigeon. We consider it highly reliable.
The Albio Republic has spies who gather this sort of intelligence in the Euphos Federation—a likely enemy of Albio. We are still unaware of the response from other nations, but Euphos has agreed to participate following a discussion held by the nation’s rulers.
According to analysts in Albio, this confirms that the order to assemble a crusade force was recognized by the Papal State. When an unofficial order was issued previously, Euphos’s rulers did not even meet to discuss it.
In short, we can conclude that a crusade force will gather for the sake of an invasion.
Upon receipt of this news, a grand council was convened in the Albio Republic to discuss the matter. As with every crusade, the government here worries that they might be the target of the next attack, rather than a Shanti nation. As per your instruction, I shared details of the assassination with them without concealing anything.
III: Products
As instructed, we’ve acquired a large sum of money from a lender to purchase guns and large quantities of gunpowder. The interest rate is eight percent per annum.
The lender touched my behind. I was infuriated.
IV: Ships
We have received the Holland XV and the Mamiya XVI (small exploration vessels). They will be sent over once loaded with goods.
Regarding ship construction, we’re forced to put discussions with shipbuilders on hold because the remaining earmarked funds will instead be spent on guns.
“That figures,” I mumbled to myself.
Above all else, I’d been hoping the crusade had been called off. Unfortunately, enemy forces had been ordered to assemble, which made an invasion inevitable.
Once a state gave orders to take aim, it was sure to give orders to fire. Taking aim meant spending vast sums of money and moving people and resources. It was too late for them to declare the whole thing a mistake and back down.
I passed the letter to Kien while I read the documents that had been enclosed with it.
I was glad that I’d left it to others to handle the holy book’s redesign. The increase in orders was enough to increase our profits by tens of percent—though money was a secondary concern for someone in my situation.
“Sounds like they’ll reach us this year,” Kien noted, then passed the letter to Liao.
“Yes, it looks that way.”
“The Rube family will, of course, fight. We can mobilize twelve thousand soldiers.”
“The Ho family army has sixteen thousand. The second order has eleven thousand, and the first order’s another seven thousand. That’s forty-six thousand in total. Then again, the second order’s pathetic—we should think of them as one-third their current size.”
“What’s the state of the second order right now?”
“The regular soldiers were charged with insubordination and told they’d be pardoned after a year of military service. They’re under the command of high-ranking Ho family officers, and they’re going through a harsh training regime in Ho Province barracks and the royal territory. Any female officer who was merely a figurehead has been removed in both orders of the royal guard.”
“The crusaders could be here in a matter of months. Is there even time for training?”
That was a problem.
“The second order was never assembled to fight wars. They served the witches in exchange for authority and money without hard work. We’ll use them in the war, but even after training, they’ll only be half as useful as other soldiers. Let’s imagine the second order is five thousand and five hundred strong—that gives us an army of about forty thousand and five hundred overall.”
“Last time, the enemy had roughly eighty thousand soldiers. We can’t face them without help from Bof and Noza.”
“Fortunately, we’ll have at least a few months to prepare. Common sense says that the enemy can’t raise an army any quicker than that, no matter how much they hurry. First, the individual nations have to discuss matters and coordinate their logistics. That’s where their planning will start.”
“Yes, that’s likely.” Kien was in agreement.
“In the meantime, we have to crush the Bof and Noza families,” I said while handing Kien a sheet of paper.
Contract
The seven witches will enter into a contract with the Bof family’s representative, Orone Bof, upon fulfillment of the following Requirements.
1. The Bof family will not position its army in the royal territory in the event of a disturbance in the royal capital.
2. The Bof family will hinder the advance of the Rube family’s army by denying the army permission to enter Bof Province.
3. If the Rube family attempts to move south by sea, this advance must be stopped.
If the above conditions are met, the seven witches will do as follows for the Bof family.