After taking my horse to the stable, I headed straight for Nia’s room. Though I felt bad for cutting her rest time short with all this, I wanted to discuss our plan for this sooner rather than later.
Anyway, I knocked on her door, with Laura opening it soon after. She’d probably stayed with Nia despite her mistress telling her to rest. When I walked inside, Nia seemed to have just been finishing her tea. It was good to see her resting, even if only a little bit. Come to think of it, it was likely that Laura had made her rest. But whatever the case, the smile she gave me didn’t look tired at all.
“Welcome home, Lord Ark. I’m sorry that I didn’t come to greet you on your return.”
“No, you must be tired, and I didn’t send word I was coming back anyway.”
Our back-and-forth here was referencing one of the rules I’d made about how life here might go. Since I was the region’s lord, I’d often be inviting people home with me after meetings, and it would look incredibly rude if there was no one there to greet us when we got back. With that in mind, we’d agreed the rule would be that I’d send someone ahead of time so she’d know to wait by the entrance.
Though I dunno how that’d work when I’m alone. Maybe I could borrow one of Count Farlon’s guys? We’ll have to talk about that too.
“Did you get your greetings all out of the way?”
“Yes, the greetings went well.”
I still had some reservations about the count, but not enough to think he’d be an actual problem. The other thing, though, was a much bigger issue.
“You emphasized the ‘greetings.’ I assume that means something else happened?” Nia asked.
“Yes, actually...”
Seeing as Nia seemed to understand what I was getting at and took it upon herself to point the conversation in that direction, I immediately told her what I heard at the brigade’s garrison. She then began to lose herself in thought. Very cutely. No, stop that, Ark!
As a former visitor to the region, Nia was somewhat familiar with the geography, so she probably understood the damage the bandits were doing and what effects that would have much better than I did. And it was natural the news of this would hit her hard.
“First of all, I believe that you’re correct in thinking that the attackers are familiar with the terrain. The speed at which they retreat is one thing, but the fact that they’re targeting these specific roads is even worse.”
“So you think that their objective is to disrupt the flow of supplies?” I asked after thinking a bit, getting a nod back from Nia. Good, I wasn’t off.
As I thought that to myself, Nia explained to me that the three regions in McGuine Viscounty—Stonegaze, Stonehunt, and Diamoncut—each grew different crops. The regions would share with each other to fill in what they lacked, and the people were entirely dependent on this exchange.
“Of course, people won’t be starving at this very moment, but...” she said, trailing off.
“It’ll get worse the longer it keeps going. Hold on. Shouldn’t people know all about it already, then?” I questioned.
“Yes, they would. But it wouldn’t be something a recently arrived Brigandian noble would usually know about. Our enemy’s plan is just as you’re guessing, Lord Ark,” Nia answered, smiling at me as she nodded.
Yay! But my glee aside, her nod meant that I was right.
“A recent appointee to the area would most likely delay acting on this, since in the short-term, it doesn’t seem to have much effect,” I explained. “But from the public’s point of view, this is just the beginning—they know it will get worse the longer it goes on, and so they would want it dealt with immediately. They might even be outraged if they sense their lord isn’t doing anything about it. It’s a cunning scheme meant to target the difference in what we know.”
“Most likely,” Nia confirmed. “And it’s currently autumn, when people normally start their winter preparations. Not being able to get enough of what they need makes this a life-or-death issue.”
“Ah! And as the new lord, I’d be getting leftovers from what the Brigandian royal family sends for the brigade, so the fact that we personally wouldn’t suffer from this would only make things worse.”
“Their goal might just be to cause discord between Stonegaze and other areas.”
After saying all of that, Nia heaved a little sigh. She seemed conflicted; both disgusted and worried. She seemed to have something she wanted to say, so I waited, and a short moment later she spoke again.
“Their methods are unfortunately effective. They care not for the problems and damages they may inflict upon the familiar. Such a methodology is familiar to me: This is the work of Balthazar, the second prince of Sylvario.”
“The second prince, Balthazar... That’s the brother who you were always cleaning up messes for, wasn’t it?” I asked, recognizing the name. She gave me a wry smile back.
Balthazar was competing with Elmer, the first prince, to become heir to the throne, but the fact that he was both younger and the son of the king’s concubine put him at a disadvantage. His ambition was often self-destructive.
“I see,” Nia said, thoughtful. “Stealing back Stonegaze would be a big accomplishment for him. It’s why he’s causing so much exhaustion and disorder without a thought for the people. While I can see a strategy with some elements of what he’s doing, it’s hard for me to fully accept that he’s capable of doing such a thing to the people who were living in his kingdom just months ago. But this is exactly what he would do.”
Her words didn’t even have a sliver of familial feelings in them. Being the son of the king’s concubine would make the second prince Nia’s biological brother. I’d heard about their relationship, but I realized once more that the fact that she spoke of him like this meant that they weren’t at all familial. Plus, the fact that she wasn’t referring to him as “His Highness” meant that now that our wedding ceremony was over with and she was married to a Brigandian noble, he was now just someone from an enemy kingdom.
It encouraged me to hear this, even if it made me also feel a little conflicted. But if Nia had made up her mind about it, then it wasn’t something I should quibble about. That wasn’t what needed to be done right now.
“So if we know who we’re dealing with, then is there anything we can do against it?” I asked her, the new lord of territory speaking to his advisor. She gave me a firm nod.
“Of course. It will require some preparations, but we can definitely put an end to this.”
Her smile sent chills down my spine. She really was a dependable wife. Realizing this made me emotional all over again, but Nia was already plowing ahead.
“But the things we’ll need to do now aren’t anything especially flashy. First, we’ll need to visit both Stonehunt and Diamoncut to let them know that we’re aware of the issue and promise them that we’ll solve it. To put it simply, we need to reassure them that their concerns aren’t being ignored.”
“I see. It’s simple for a first move, but it’s something that tends to get forgotten about. In cases like ours, especially, we could have gotten so caught up in solving the problem that we’d forget to give the people an explanation.” I nodded in response to Nia’s idea. That was exactly what the second prince was making light of and what I, as the territory’s lord, must never forget.
From what Nia had told me, this area had been neglected even when it was part of Sylvario. The kingdom might’ve had a great economy, but its main earner was the capital’s port and its trade. People were shortsighted at the best of times, so it wasn’t a surprise that when they were pulling in boatloads of money right where they stood, they’d forget to look over the countryside. And when the countryside asked for help, they’d barely gotten a glance, only getting attention when the second prince would intervene (on a whim) and thus make a mess and act like it never happened. The fact that the fourth princess herself would travel all the way there to help them was bound to make the citizens think of her as special.
“Could it be,” I said, the idea visualizing itself in my mind, “that you’re thinking of doing the same thing that Princess Sonia would do, as the wife of a viscount?”
“Yes. Things being as they are, I was thinking that a change in priorities would be permissible, Lord Ark.”
“That’s true. It would stabilize things in the area as well.”
Nia gave me an impish smile. So cute. Wait, stop, Ark!
The reason we’d rushed to get our wedding ceremony done and out of the way was so that we could stabilize and govern this newly Brigandian territory as quickly as possible. We had prioritized building a partnership with Farlon and his brigade so we could create a governing body for Stonegaze, but it seemed it would be best to change tactics now. We couldn’t let the situation get to a point where a rebellion could happen at any time, after all.