Now, all who were left were the ministers who had been ordered to stay behind. The king waited for them to once again be seated before speaking. “Viscount Zehrfeld has picked quite the interesting method to get his message across, even if it was to make sure it reached its intended recipients.”
“Indeed,” Falkenstein said with a chuckle. While the adventurers had in the end succeeded in delivering their letter, if the goal had simply been to ensure that the letter be delivered to the capital, the copy Count Gahmlich had submitted was another surefire way to succeed in that task.
“If we assume the viscount seeks to ruin his own reputation, he must have wanted to show that dastardly letter to as many as possible.”
Laura, the second princess, was one of the candidates to be Werner’s eventual wife. Should a letter like that get in the hands of those who wanted to prevent such an outcome, it would certainly make it to the capital. Werner must have assumed as much, purposefully picking an unreliable group of adventurers to get the letter into the hands of his enemies, who wouldn’t be able to resist showing it off at the capital. The spawning habits of monsters had changed after the Demon Lord’s return, and Werner must have used that knowledge to properly predict that his messenger would be attacked.
Hubertus put on an amused smile. “It feels like we are being tested as well.”
“Who could believe the contents of such a letter?” said Falkenstein, purposefully feigning ignorance. It was impossible to say for sure that testing them hadn’t been part of Werner’s intentions.
The royal family had chosen Werner believing that the Demon Commander would attack. They would never lend their ears to Werner’s grumblings and pretend hedonism, much less in front of the nobles who sought to mire him in slander. Still, it was only natural that Werner would fear their reactions.
“With the crown making it clear that such libel will not influence us, it has become harder for the viscount’s detractors to act.”
“So that was your aim.” Equord, Minister of Foreign Affairs, nodded. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face, amused not just by the whole ruse of the self-incriminating letter, but at the idea of Werner composing those words himself. Ingo had also been brave to declare it a fake despite knowing that.
“Minister, I would like you to spread these unfavorable rumors about Lord Werner to those abroad.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Would you like to make sure it becomes a topic of discussion in foreign courts?” the minister confirmed.
“Yes,” the king said curtly. “Do what you must.”
Hubertus was the next to speak. “There is no guarantee that demonic beings do not lurk within our own capital. The same can be assumed for those abroad. If word reaches the Demon leaders that Anheim’s deputy is nothing but a sybaritic playboy, it would work in Lord Werner’s favor.”
If the Demon army heard from foreign demons that the deputy of Anheim was nothing to fear, they may let their guard down or dismiss him, giving Werner time to build up the domain’s defenses. They may even dedicate fewer forces to the attack on Anheim. Having confirmed the crown’s intentions, Equord bowed. At the same time, he realized they had another goal as well; they could expect other results from countries who lent credence to those rumors.
For example, if a foreign country tried to lure Mazel into working for them, what would happen if they told him, “I hear that Lord Werner is a terrible hedonist”? Mazel would see it as nothing but a scheme to provoke discord in Wein. It would only worsen the hero’s impression of that nation.
“It is also crucial that you spread rumors abroad that Princess Laura is a strong candidate for his future wife.”
“Yes, I see.” The king nodded at the chancellor’s suggestion. Spreading information that his reputation was both that of a poor fool and that of someone respected by the king would sow chaos. Information wars sought to throw countries into disarray, but telling the truth as it was could also prove a tactic to accomplish the task.
“I see that office head of the Ministry of Justice was a position befitting him,” said King Maximillian with little emotion. The others in attendance nodded.
Chancellor Falkenstein responded coldly. “We are lacking talent amongst the mid-level nobles.”
“Let’s gradually expand the scope of their duties and see how that progresses. Would that be all right, Your Majesty?”
“Yes. Divide the duties among as many nobles as possible.” The king agreed to Hubertus’s proposal and ordered it be carried out, concluding that matter.
Without him knowing it, Werner had become something of a standard by which the kingdom’s highest authorities judged other mid-ranking nobles: “How do they deal with this young lord?” The current ministers needed to consider how they could utilize a noble’s treatment of Werner when making their judgements.
Should the noble and Werner’s goals align, they would either treat the noble as an associate or maneuver to make him an underling in order to use his skills. Should their goals be misaligned, they would either try to win him over or try to assign him somewhere in the kingdom where his interests wouldn’t cause any friction. In the worst case, the noble might prove to be their enemy at court, in which case they would have to consider setting him against another political enemy to tire them both out.
In the eyes of the top brass, the more skilled a noble was, the more important it was that they find out how to leverage them for the benefit of the kingdom. Similarly, someone who failed to consider such things would be unfit to be a minister of such a great country. Putting aside defamation, nobles who sought to get in the way of those they feuded with were seen as unbefitting of any government post exceeding an intermediate level.
Considering this, an office head who failed to comprehend Werner’s reasons for employing a foreign spy like Rafed and then, moreover, tried to bring the young lord down, was in effect failing the test. In the near future, it was quite possible that nobles such as him would be transferred to work in the provinces. The ministers also had to consider how to reform such nobles.