The Yutland River was a mighty river that stretched across the land, its waters drawn from countless tributaries. Before the water dragon had made its home in the lake west of Aquellion, the people had embarked on a journey in search of a source of pure water. They’d found the Yutland River and built a city along its banks. It was a beautiful part of the world where people lived in harmony with nature—the Royal Capital of the kingdom of Sindoria.
The Capital was built in the style of the Empire by magic construction teams, and it had a large force of mages tasked with controlling the water’s flow. It was a splendid city that many called the Second Capital of Water, the first being Aquellion. Deep on its north side, it housed the Royal Palace, the symbol of the power held by the oldest of the human kingdoms. If you were to ask a random person in the world to name a kingdom, Sindoria would probably be the first to come to their mind.
The innermost building of the palace cut a magnificent silhouette with its panoply of nearly a dozen spires. Its walls were as white as alabaster, with brilliant blue decorations to contrast with them. It looked like nothing short of a cut gem.
Lords and nobles made their way out of the palace, their faces weary as they left His Majesty Sindoria the Eighth alone on his throne.
“This has become quite the headache, hasn’t it?” he muttered with a heavy sigh, looking over the letter in his hand. They had just held a serious meeting about that letter, which had been sent by the neighboring kingdom of Estoll. Its contents were quite straightforward. “Then Estoll would make war on our kingdom?”
Frankly, Sindoria the Eighth had not had even the faintest inkling that Estoll was preparing a declaration of war. None of the lords or ministers in his government had either. His spies had heard unverifiable rumors that Estoll’s young prime minister had been busy breathing new life into its industry, but nothing that suggested that war had been imminent. They hadn’t even heard anything to suggest that Estoll was expanding its military, leaving them at a clear disadvantage against Sindoria. But most importantly, Estoll and the kingdom of Sindoria were strong allies.
The alliance had been formed at first in order to resist the Empire and its might. In the present day, however, the Empire was bound by a nonaggression pact, and Estoll and Sindoria’s relationship had become that of close trading partners and friendly kingdoms. The king of Estoll himself had visited Sindoria not long ago, just as people of both kingdoms frequently traveled from one land to the other. There was no way Sindoria the Eighth could have foreseen the declaration of war, but there it was in his hand.
“What is to be done, I wonder...” Sindoria’s military was ten times larger than Estoll’s, or perhaps even more. It was unthinkable that they would lose the war, but Sindoria the Eighth was of the mind that war brought only bitter fruit. The two kingdoms were separated from each other by a mountain range, so even if his armies were to crush the Estoll invaders and take over their territory, all he would obtain from victory would be a detached and therefore unmanageable holding. Moreover, the Holy Land forbade using military force to expand one’s kingdom. War would only serve to hurt Sindoria. The best thing to do would be to end this inexplicable war quickly and use the subsequent negotiations to improve trade between the kingdoms.
“Quite the headache indeed...” the king said. He couldn’t believe that everything had fallen into disarray so quickly despite it having been going so smoothly not long before. He clutched the letter tight in his hand—the letter that had been the cause of so many sleepless nights.
Just then, a girl stepped into the room. “I must say, my lord father, I do not see the need for such grim theatrics.”
“Eavesdropping again, Theresia?” Sindoria the Eighth asked, furrowing his brow.
“Heavens forbid!” Theresia answered, smiling with perfect innocence. “I would never stoop to such vulgar means. I simply came to bring my hardworking father a cup of mint tea and happened to hear a little of what your ministers were saying. They were shouting so loudly, after all.” Her expression shifted smoothly to a look of mortification on behalf of the ministers. “Would you care for a cup?”
“Fine.” Sindoria the Eighth found his daughter’s habits extremely vexing, but he knew better than to think a lecture would change her behavior. He had learned that the hard way.
The kingdom’s second princess, Theresia von Cynthesia, was the most brilliant of all Sindoria the Eighth’s children—and also the most troublesome. But secretly, deep down, she was a kind girl who cared deeply for her family and supported her father as best she could.
“Out with it, then,” the king said. “What are you scheming this time?”
“What a thing to say to your precious, adorable daughter!” Theresia shot back, making a show of putting on an indignant pout. The truth, however, was that she had a long history of prior offenses. When she was seven, she had grown bored of the sweets available in the palace and selfishly used her royal authority as princess to raise funds, which she used to form a company dedicated to the creation of new kinds of sweets. It was only after sweets bearing the princess’s seal had already inundated the marketplace that she had told her father what she’d done, at which point it was a fait accompli.
In the years to come, she would do everything from misappropriating royal funds to illegally exterminating unruly nobles to ruining harvest festivals. And yet, the king couldn’t entirely dislike her troublemaking streak. After all, she worked hard for the good of the kingdom. When she was as young as twelve, the minister of finance had asked her to take over his post when he retired. For a girl like her to appear in front of the king now must have meant that she had some sort of scheme in mind.
“My lord brother said something curious,” she remarked. “He claimed that this is an opportunity to put the useless nobility to work—that Margrave Reinholt would serve well enough as commander. In that case, it should be a simple matter to divert the appropriate funds.” She brought her cup of tea up to her lips and blew a puff of air to cool it down before taking a sip. She was clearly enjoying herself. “I know nothing of war, though. Perhaps it is not my place to give counsel.”
“So you say, but you’ve already done the calculations, have you not?” Theresia might have lacked experience in martial affairs, but there were none who had a keener eye for profit and loss than her. Her father was certain that she already had a plan of action.
It wasn’t a bad idea to use this war as an opportunity to build combat experience among the nobility, who had known peace for many long years. With victory seeming like a foregone conclusion, they would certainly flock to the battlefield in search of glory. Those who fought well would win fame and influence, while those who showed themselves to be incompetent could be flattered with a simple sum of money and sent off to the front lines. Sindoria the Eighth suspected that his daughter’s plan was something along those lines. She must have come to him looking to raise funds. She had already been making arrangements.
“So, what is it you want from me, Theresia?” the king asked plainly.
“Ah ha ha,” she laughed. “I can’t deceive you, can I, my lord father? I do have a request, if I may be so bold.” She smiled up at him just like she had as a little girl whenever she’d wanted something. Those words had preceded so many troublesome escapades...
“Speak.”
“May I take a vacation to Free Market City to—”
“You may not,” Sindoria the Eighth said, cutting his daughter off.
“Foiled again...” said Theresia. “But my lord father, I’m so terribly bored shut up in the palace all day! Won’t you allow me to take a vacation? A business trip, if you’d prefer.”
Because of her habit of making trouble, Theresia had been confined to the palace for the past year. Her father had been trying to find her a suitable fiancé—it would be a great weight off his shoulders as both a king and a father if Theresia were to get married. But the princess had declared that she would only marry a man more capable than herself, and no candidates had yet been found.
“Of course, it won’t just be a pleasure trip,” she continued. “You need only give me permission and I will bring an end to your sleepless nights. I shall resolve the kingdom’s money troubles in one fell swoop. Oh, and I already have the permission of my lord brother and the finance minister.” Theresia handed her father a stack of papers.
It had only been two days since the declaration of war had arrived from Estoll, but Theresia already had a perfect grasp of the tactical situation and had pulled strings with those whose authority she needed. She didn’t just have her brother’s signature, but the signatures of the ministers of defense, finance, and agriculture as well.