While Zenjirou was effectively a commoner from a peaceful land, Aura was the monarch of a powerful nation that had emerged victorious from a war. As a statesman, she was conservative and tended to avoid true warfare. However, that did not mean that doing so was her first priority.
She understood that Zenjirou’s views in that area were drastically different from her own, so she began to explain the way she governed and led the country so they could come to an understanding.
“With war, you can either be active or reactive. When you are reactive, you have little choice, so I am talking solely about the active side of things. While this is my personal view, I will say that I believe there are three conditions that need to be met to actively wage war.”
“Like the whole ‘heavens, land, people’ thing?” Hearing the phrase “three conditions” linked to war made him respond with that practically instinctively.
Aura blinked in surprise. “Oh, interesting. The heavens, the land, and the people? That certainly does cut right to the heart of the matter in a rather understandable way.”
“Well, it comes from a saying thousands of years ago, and it’s still used today.” A saying still being in common use thousands of years from its coining was perhaps some of the best proof of its validity.
Aura nodded at his answer. “They are incisive words. However, they are not the three conditions I was talking about. The heavens, land, and people would come second to the three I consider. One of them would be the chance of victory.”
Zenjirou considered her words for a moment before nodding. “That makes sense. But does that mean there are two other things you consider as important as the chance for victory?” He was entirely unfamiliar with military matters, so he couldn’t think of anything.
Aura nodded and then answered. “There are. The first—more important than the chances of victory—is the benefit. A war with no benefit is not one I would wage even if victory was assured.”
“Right...”
It was perhaps an obvious statement. There was the issue of whether any benefit would be to the country as a whole, to the royal family, or to the monarch personally. It was a digression from their current topic, though, so Aura didn’t go any further.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Zenjirou continued. “Even if you’re guaranteed victory, waging war for no benefit is just a waste.”
“This is all from the perspective of declaring war, after all. A war that in itself offers a benefit rather than solely through victory is better, but that would be far too convenient. The third thing, which can sometimes be second in importance, is the end of the war.”
“The end?”
This time, Zenjirou had no idea what she meant, so Aura added to her explanation.
“More specifically, perhaps ‘the ability to dictate an end’ would be a better way of phrasing it. Ending a war is extremely difficult. After all, you have an opponent. Even if you personally decide you want to stop, you cannot unless your opponent agrees. Hence the third condition is having measures in place to bring things to an end if it becomes necessary. That is why it and the chances of victory can sometimes switch their importance.”
If victory was all but assured, such measures were less necessary. Conversely, if those measures were practically perfect, the chances for victory didn’t need to be quite so high.
The queen then continued her explanation. “From the Northern Continent’s perspective, the benefits of their acts of aggression are clear. The second condition, their chance of victory, is less clear at present. Personally, we feel that it has not been met, but the truth of the matter is uncertain. Even then, there is the possibility that they see it as being so.”
Zenjirou couldn’t deny that there was a chance the church could assume a low chance of victory was actually a high chance, or even a guaranteed win.
“The reason behind their willingness, though, is the third condition. They have a practically perfect way to end a war, and they are the only ones in that position.”
Zenjirou considered her statement for a moment and immediately came to a conclusion. “Oh, right. They’re the only ones with intercontinental ships.”
The Northern and Southern Continents were separated by a vast sea, and only countries on the Northern Continent had vessels capable of crossing it. Therefore, if an invasion went poorly for them, they could simply withdraw their ships and unilaterally declare an end to the war. In the absolute worst case, they could abandon both their ships and men and end things that way. To add to that, the actual leaders commanding the invasion would never be on the ships. While it might hurt their coffers, they would never be at any personal risk.
“Indeed. That is why gaining capable ships is indispensable to us.” Aura nodded firmly, her reddish-brown eyes narrowing.
For as long as the Northern Continent was the only party capable of crossing the sea between them, no matter how different their combat power was, it would never change that the Northerners would be on the offensive and that the Southern Continent would be on the defensive.
However, if the Southern Continent were able to get ships of their own and succeed in making a round trip to and from the Northern Continent, it would serve to keep the Northern Continent’s states in check. If they could manage to plant the seed of a counterattack on the Northern Continent’s soil if things went poorly, it would be a worthy accomplishment.
“So if things go well, could we head off the invasion as a whole?” Zenjirou asked, still unable to discard his hopes of finishing things without a war.
The queen shook her head. “No. That is not going to happen. Building the ships, manning them, and establishing intercontinental routes will take years, at least. Meanwhile, preparations for a naval invasion will need around the same amount of time. In other words, if the invasion takes place on the time scale I am considering, plans for it will have already progressed by the time we have our ships. They are unlikely to abandon such plans after they have been fleshed out to such a degree. We should consider it inescapable at this point.”
Her statement was no lie, but nor was it the whole truth. If the Northern Continent’s politicians were particularly short on nerve, there was a chance that they would call the whole thing off. However, that was extremely low. Aura was of the mind that telling Zenjirou that would only cause problems.
“I suppose so,” Zenjirou agreed, following the logic and lack of falsehoods. That meant admitting that it was inevitable that his country would eventually be at war.
He realized he was shaking slightly. Zenjirou wasn’t actually as cowardly as he thought of himself. A coward wouldn’t board a boat that had a reasonable chance of sinking, nor would they face off against a huge boar as he had, even if they had powerful magic tools protecting them.
When it came to war, though, his estimation of himself was entirely correct. Zenjirou’s desire to avoid war, his dislike and fear of it, were unusually strong for someone in this world. It had therefore taken him time to come to grips with it and accept it. Coming to grips with war in the way he had, though, made his resolve weighty and firm.
“So we meet them in kind.”
“We do,” Aura agreed, despite her surprise at how firm the resolve—the like of which she’d never heard from him—in his words was.
“We win.”
“We will.”
“So thoroughly we push the next conflict back as far as possible.”
“Yes, that is right.”
Despite her shock at the words and surety coming from him—things she never would have dreamed of hearing from him—Aura offered her agreement.