After Stoga left the party, he invited Emile to the hanging garden on the rooftop.
It was a cloudless night, and the moon and stars shone beautifully. Stoga, who was much too self-absorbed, firmly believed that the heavens were celebrating his birth too. The wintry night breeze was cold, but the many bonfires set up around the square gazebo and the thirty-one-year-old amber wine they sipped on warmed their bodies. These were luxuries that commoners could never get a taste of.
“I apologize for keeping you waiting, Earl of Tus. We can take it easy and chat now.”
“Oh, it’s quite all right. There were simply so many guests here eager to celebrate your birthday, and they were terribly excited to greet you for as long as they could.”
“Ha ha ha! It’s so difficult to be popular,” Stoga laughed, completely serious. Emile also nodded with a smile.
“Similarly, I wanted to come and congratulate you as well. That’s why I requested you invite me here.”
Stoga didn’t even have the awareness to tell that Emile was giving him fake smiles and flattery. They’d been frequently communicating through letters, but this was the first time in half a year that they’d seen each other face-to-face.
They amused themselves in trifling conversation for a short while, and when their glasses were half empty, they delved into the main topic.
“You made sure we’re alone?” Stoga spoke to the figures around them. Aside from himself and Emile in the hanging garden, there were twenty guards. Five of them were Emile’s knights that he’d brought from Baron. The rest were military officers under Stoga’s direct command.
Baron’s knights were dressed impeccably in suits that hid their affiliation and were on alert, standing at attention. Stoga’s subordinates, in contrast, were slouching, sloppily wearing the military uniforms the empire provided. You could even hear some of them whispering a bit farther away, chatting among themselves.
However, Stoga didn’t mind. It was because he knew they were all capable people.
Formally, they were appointed as military officers of the prefectural government, but they were actually mercenaries deployed by his father. They were a group of master swordsmen, which meant they desired to fight even more than they wanted to make money. No matter where Stoga went and what he did, he always had them by his side.
On the other hand, he couldn’t trust the military officers who’d been appointed prior to his inauguration. It wasn’t that Stoga doubted their abilities. It was that they might report him if they knew he was selling out the country to the enemy.
Of course, he’d been working on winning over the military officers and government officials within the prefecture. He first weakened the officials’ sense of discipline by overlooking injustices and corruption. He wanted them to grow overconfident, and the more they tasted success, the less devoted they’d feel to their country, adhering to Stoga himself instead.
Even so, there was always a wolf in sheep’s clothing somewhere. It was too soon to reveal his true intentions just yet.
“At any rate, everything’s going according to plan, especially regarding the hunters we have now. Their numbers have exponentially grown,” Stoga declared as if to brag about his capabilities.
“Excellent.” Emile once again smiled. Stoga of course wasn’t encouraging hunting to promote the prefecture’s growth. Even he understood that promoting something like hunting, unlike trade and agriculture, wouldn’t lead anywhere. He was a legitimate bureaucrat who’d made it over the high hurdle that was the General Civil Service Exam.
So why did he want more hunters?
“Our country believes in your capabilities, Your Excellency Stoga, and we’re steadily preparing ourselves for the invasion,” Emile said smoothly with a smile still on his face. He said something so frightening as if it were nothing.
But it was true that Baron was planning to invade the empire’s territory. Stoga was using his position as the Alona prefectural governor to collude with the earl, giving him assistance. They’d also decided that when that time came, Stoga would lead his prefectural army and revolt, and the two factions would attack the empire together. That was why they were currently growing their militaries in preparation.
Obviously the central government wouldn’t permit Alona’s prefectural army to expand for no good reason. They’d wind up suspecting that Stoga was setting up a military clique or planning an insurrection. Ever since the Pandelsen Revolt nine years ago, the empire was particularly high-strung about the armies in the countryside.
That was why Stoga had devised a plan to increase the population of hunters within the prefecture. In this era, during temporary crises, it was standard protocol to incorporate hunters into the normal army as rangers. They might not be as reliable as a regular army, but you couldn’t belittle their archery skills.
To effectively disguise the fact that he was actually reinforcing their army, Stoga advertised his encouragement of hunters as a measure to facilitate the prefecture’s development. Drastically lowering taxes, meanwhile, was solely to gain popularity. It’d ruin Stoga’s scheme if none of the citizens joined in when he instigated the uprising, including the hunters. He was impressed with himself for how meticulous he was to evade such a tragedy before it happened.
“Our king expects much from your resourceful nature, Your Excellency Stoga.” Emile’s smile further stroked Stoga’s ego. “Just as we promised, His Majesty has given his approval for you to remain in charge of your current territory once Cylin has been separated from Catalan. He can grant you the title of margrave.”
“Oh my... I’m truly grateful!” Stoga had decided to collude with the country of Baron for that very reward. He remembered that in Baron, a margrave was of a higher status than a marquess. It wasn’t a bad deal.
As a future marquess, Emile knew that Stoga would eventually stand above him. That was probably why he’d come all this way to celebrate Stoga’s birthday.
Stoga had been born the fifth son of a wealthy merchant, a big figure even in the imperial capital. His father was a self-proclaimed meritocrat, and he intended to have the most brilliant of his children succeed him. So when Stoga turned fifteen, his father gave him a store to manage, just as he had his older brothers. He put Stoga to the test, telling him to make his business flourish.
That’s how I demonstrated my talent for using people, Stoga reminisced.
Without him having to barely lift a finger, the supervisors under Stoga earned them more and more money. Naturally, he’d been set to become his father’s successor.
However, a small incident threw a wrench into his future. It was discovered that the most insignificant of the supervisors had been pocketing the store’s money.
Now what on earth did I do?! That was just a bout of misfortune! Even now, thinking back on it made the fury bubble up inside him.
At any rate, although that supervisor had been the wrongdoer and Stoga’s hands were clean, his father berated Stoga as incompetent.
Then, all of a sudden, his father said, “I no longer have any expectations of you. From now on, study to become a bureaucrat. Try to at least gain our family a benefit or two—it doesn’t matter what.”
His father was like an absolute monarch within the family, and Stoga could raise no objection to his demand.
Well, with my brains, father probably knew this wasn’t too unreasonable to ask of me.
He studied hard for five years and went to take the exam at the capital. At the bare minimum, his father had wanted Stoga to pass the Intermediate Civil Service Exam, but that ended up being impossible.
For some nonsense reason, the empire wanted you to know how to wield swords and spears and know archery in order to become a civil servant. Tests on these skills were included in the exam.
However, Stoga had never held anything heavier than a lover, and he had no experience with physical labor. He was a man who’d even get exhausted during sex.
I can’t deny that, objectively, I was spoiled by a good upbringing. So with no other options, he decided to take advantage of his outstanding education to cover for his weaknesses and challenged the General Civil Service Exam instead.
After three tries, he passed.
That was the only time that unsympathetic father of mine praised me. In addition, his father passed out bribes here and there to arrange Stoga’s first position for him.
Although it was far from the imperial capital, it was a decent position as the assistant department chief of the Commerce and Industry Department at the state government office in a somewhat metropolitan area. His father had actually wanted to buy him a post in the imperial capital head offices, but it had been impossible under Emperor Heinri’s rule. Catalan’s central offices were full of annoying hypocrites who acted like a bunch of do-gooders.
That changed with the onset of Emperor Jemma II’s rule after Emperor Heinri died in the northern backcountry. The foolish new emperor and the prime minister pestered Stoga’s father for a hefty sum of money, and in exchange promised to grant Stoga the position of Alona’s prefectural governor. There was no mistaking that Stoga was a bought official. Truly, this was how deep the empire’s foolishness went.
However, neither Stoga nor his father cared how far the empire corrupted. His father was pleased that Stoga could abuse his authority as prefectural governor and expand their family’s business to the empire’s south, which he had yet to tap into by that point. Stoga himself had been thinking about how he should use his position.
That was when Emile secretly came into contact with Stoga, and the two immediately hit it off.
Birds of a feather do flock together. I was deeply moved that a real noble immediately recognized my innate, truly refined character.
But how about everyone else? His father didn’t recognize Stoga’s talents. The empire’s nonsense exam had cast aside his potential. Only Baron recognized his true worth.
That’s why I’m abandoning my foolish father and the empire. Baron is a great country that suits me, and I can obtain a befitting position through them. I won’t say I’m doing something so pathetic as taking revenge—this is merely one of society’s absurdities being corrected. The heavens have granted me justice; that’s all.
As he rocked his glass filled with amber wine, the corners of his lips curled up. He had yet to realize it himself, but his intrinsic spinelessness was on full display in his expression.
That imbecile Jemma II is continuing to support my nonsense policies, blissfully unaware of my plan to invite foreign aggression. And to ensure that he keeps supporting me, my foolish father is diligently feeding him bribes. I’m grateful. Thanks to you fools, wise men like me can get their lucky breaks.
Emile and Stoga raised their glasses.
“Long live the king.”
“Long live the king.”
Stoga cheered for the true wise ruler who deemed him worthy of nobility.