My mind raced, but in the end I figured it wasn’t going to get me anywhere until I read the letter from the Peijins, so I took the envelope Seki held out to me and I opened it right away.
The letter was written on real nice paper in sort of blocky handwriting. In it, the Peijins said that there were a number of different factors that put Yaten on the verge of losing his position. The first was that the Peijin family had elected to put some space between themselves and the councillor.
At the time, the Peijin family had not expected their actions to have any massive consequences—the Beastland Kingdom was home to a number of large merchant companies, and the Peijins had thought that in making space between themselves and Yaten, that space would quickly be filled by another merchant.
However, the Peijin family had impressive momentum behind it thanks to its successful dealings in baar wool, and they were well respected for their manners and their patience. Still, they’d never imagined that when they chose to distance themselves from Yaten, every other major merchant company would follow suit. This made things considerably more painful for Yaten.
The second reason for Yaten’s predicament was that he had erred in his judgment of my character. To put this in context, the Beast King had received intelligence regarding my person from a number of sources.
Firstly there were the Peijins. When they had first met me, they had informed the king that there were good prospects for trade with me and that I was not a threat. Basically, they’d told the king that I looked every bit the part of a good neighbor, and I would not look to harm or invade his country.
The king had also received news of me from another councillor: Kiko. She had come to Iluk herself and deemed it a safe home for her three sons—Seki, Saku, and Aoi. She had praised our village when she reported to the king, and like the Peijins she had said that I was a good leader who lived in harmony with human and beastkin alike.
She had assured the king that I was safe, and encouraged him to pursue friendly relations with Baarbadal. Her thinking was that friendly relationships would not result in issues with the Sanserife Kingdom, and that it was better to act now, because if I were replaced, the next domain lord might not be so open to diplomacy.
Naturally, Kiko’s report was only her opinion on things, but given she’d entrusted her own family with me, her words carried great weight with the king.
When it came to Yaten’s report, however, the king had received an entirely different opinion. Like Kiko, Yaten had come to Iluk to appraise me firsthand, and he had come away thinking me dense, ignorant, and third-rate.
To be honest, I kind of thought he was right. I was all of those things.
Regardless, he had excitedly informed the king that their options were great. They could use me if such a situation was favorable, or they could just as easily wipe us out completely. Given that Yaten had seen us as no threat whatsoever, he had advised the king to simply keep an eye on proceedings for the time being.
The king had been left extremely confused.
The reports he’d received on my person were nothing if not conflicting, but in the end he had chosen to lean on Yaten’s counsel—they would not take any immediate action and instead watch how things developed before settling on a plan. Now, however, voices around the king had been speaking up, telling him that he’d been mistaken.
First had come the report that we’d built a fortress on our western border with them, complete with a military force that had the vanquishing of multiple dragons under their belt. This was no easy feat for even the Beastland Kingdom’s most decorated platoons. It had been reported that the western border station had a burgeoning farming industry. Smoke seen nearby indicated that they were actively smithing as well.
All of this indicated that Baarbadal was not going to be as easy to dispose of as previously thought. More importantly, the border station was now of such size that serious thought would have to be put into the simple question of how to attack the place, let alone disposing of the inhabitants beyond.
And then I had encountered the gods themselves.
During the battle with the aqua dragon, a so-called “god in the form of a wild beast” had appeared from the ground at our feet to lend us aid. This might have been written off as mere hearsay if not for Peijin-Do having witnessed it all firsthand. The news had left the king astounded.
All of this had impressed itself heavily upon the king and left him with entirely the wrong idea about things. You see, he had seen the border station and the slain dragons, and he’d decided all of that had to be because we had the blessings of the gods at our backs. From here, a thought had begun to plague his mind: Why would a god in the form of a beast aid Baarbadal and not the beastkin people?
Such was the king’s concern that he had fallen ill. And while it hadn’t been anything serious—he had been back on his feet in a few days, according to the letter—it nonetheless carried great meaning. In short, the responsibility for all of it fell on Yaten’s shoulders for his counsel. After all, it had been Yaten who had called me—a man favored by the gods themselves—third-rate. It had been Yaten who’d advised the king to observe passively as Baarbadal boomed.
Yaten had been slammed for his report while Kiko and Peijin had been praised for their foresight. Kiko had never meant to back Yaten into such a corner and attempted to mediate proceedings, but there was little she could do—Yaten’s position grew more precarious by the day.
There was one last reason that Yaten was in such a bad position, and it also happened to be the reason civil war was brewing. According to the Peijins, it was due to...the securing of the border. The border had been a source of conflict in the past, but in securing a treaty with Baarbadal and having us build a border station, past worries and concerns had dissipated.
Naturally, I thought this was a good thing, but it had resulted in unforeseen problems. Before I’d arrived at the plains, Sanserife attempted a number of attacks on the Beastland Kingdom. Bandits had also moved in, looking to kidnap people to sell as slaves. Apparently, even some beastkin were willing to sell their own into slavery. But when I’d come along, those problems basically evaporated.
What this meant was that all the guards whose duty it was to protect the nation no longer had anything to do. Some of the Beastland lords were even saying they should launch a war of vengeance on the kingdom, and they were building their forces to do exactly that. I mean, they didn’t need to, because we had a treaty in place, but yep...that was just how many soldiers were left twiddling their thumbs.
I always thought that when you didn’t have things to do you could always train, or otherwise just get a different job, but it seemed that soldiers across the border had a different perspective. In short, because Sanserife wasn’t the threat it had once been, some of the Beastland Kingdom’s domain lords saw this as an opportunity to turn their idle military forces to domestic conquest.
To be honest, this part of the letter didn’t make much sense to me no matter how many times I read it, but I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t reading things wrong and I did my utmost to wrap my head around it.
In short, an uprising was brewing, and the reason for it was Yaten and the treaty he’d made with me. That’s what people were saying across the border, anyway. Kiko had agreed with the treaty, and so had the king, so by that logic they were at least partially responsible too, but nobody rallied against them. In the end, all of it was coming down on Yaten.
The Beastland Kingdom had always had a lot of internal conflict, and Yaten’s job was to mediate things between the domains. It was for this reason that his job saw him on the road all the time. But with his position weakened so considerably, the precarious balance keeping things together was crumbling. Everybody was seeing the situation as a chance to make good for themselves.
As I read on, I started talking to myself. I couldn’t help it.
“No,” I muttered. “Nope. No. No siree. No way. Nuh-uh...”
All the stuff about Yaten had been complicated, but it was the stuff that came after that was really problematic. The Peijins, Kiko, and the other councillors wanted to avoid an insurgency and were working hard to make sure it never happened. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make any promises.
Therefore, they were asking for my assistance to mobilize our troops if all else failed.
“No,” I mumbled. “No, no, no, no...”
It was one thing to mobilize troops and move them within your own nation, but it was a whole other thing to move them into another nation. There was no way that was ever going to fly, and I just couldn’t help moaning to myself at all the trouble we were suddenly maybe drowning in.