Chapter 15

As I received well-wishers and asked temples everywhere to pray for a safe birth, the construction of Maust Castle made great progress. It’d still take more time to build all the facilities, but the main building was mostly finished. Until it was complete, I’d deal as amicably as possible with the nearby powers so as to avoid any unnecessary conflicts. Most of the remaining independent lords in the north of Fordoneria had sent well-wishers, so they were probably concerned, themselves. Currently, the Rentrant clan of Nagurry Prefecture to the north was my biggest fear, though the three counties in north Fordoneria just happened to form a buffer zone, so we still weren’t directly connected. I’d had good old Commander Kivik build a small castle, so I was ready for an emergency, but for now the situation remained peaceful. In the midst of all of this, a messenger came from a lord in Olbia, the prefecture south of Fordoneria. All of Olbia was steep and mountainous, preventing the establishment of an overall authority and causing the individual basins to act as separate powers. However, the Olbians had a militaristic spirit about them; they’d be no pushovers if it came to war. The messenger who came represented the viscount ruling Tacti and Naaham, two counties not directly bordering us. The viscount’s family name was Naaham, same as the county. The messenger was a cat-eared therianthrope—no surprise there, since many cat-eared therianthropes were nomadic merchants with no permanent home. Naturally, some of them went on to be appointed as commanders or vassals, and some filled the role of messenger. “I have come in hopes of forming a military alliance between the two of us.” The messenger showed quite a bit of confidence. An unskilled messenger would reflect badly on his lord, so whom to send was a crucial decision. “Currently, the Naaham clan rules two counties, but we are gradually expanding by invading other basins. Lord Brando Naaham, barely eighteen years old, is in the middle of strengthening our country, just as you are.” “Yes, I’ve heard Viscount Naaham has been doing some brilliant work, and after becoming head of his clan at the tender age of twelve.” I was familiar with the name Brando Naaham. Apparently, he was trying to unify Olbia—a difficult task, considering the prefecture’s many mountains. “I presume you are considering an assault to the north, sir. That will eventually lead you to the royal capital, and it’s not impossible you could climb to the rank of regent or chancellor.” I chuckled and avoided giving a straight answer. They had read me like an open book. The easiest way to get to the royal capital in the east would be to take Nagurry Prefecture and push onward from there. If I controlled Nagurry, there’d also be a sharp increase in the number of troops I could field. Without lots of troops, I wouldn’t be able to defeat the forces around the capital city should they try to stop me. The area around the capital was an agriculturally advanced region, and as a result, the population was greater than in the countryside. Thus, so was the number of troops. One prefecture there, if unified, could provide more than ten thousand troops, according to one story. The people in that area weren’t actually united as one, but if people with that much power were to ally, the way to the capital would be shut. “Indeed, it would be an honor to support the royal family, but what you speak of is unthinkable.” I didn’t need to admit what I was really thinking, so I said what sounded proper instead. “Currently, the royal house is split down the middle. If you could bring them together, you would be the most esteemed vassal in the kingdom; I daresay it wouldn’t be out of the question for you to be endorsed as the king, either. This is all just my opinion, of course.” Being handed the throne by the royals themselves? That would be amazing, but no lord had ever succeeded at that. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I’ve never even thought of doing something so insolent as seizing the throne for myself.” Liar. You were saying you’d be king. Quiet, you. Some things I just need to keep closer to my chest. Sorry, sorry. No, I know all about that. Besides, these things depend on the situation, you know. Back when I had just become head of my clan, I wanted little more than to be of help to Lord Yoshiteru, the thirteenth shogun. True, if a king was particularly smart, then there wasn’t anything to take advantage of. It wasn’t until after Lord Yoshiteru was killed and I had come up with a way to escort his younger brother to the capital that I really thought I could seize power. Even then, I slowly and gradually did so over time. Until I had at least the same social rank as the shogun, I absolutely didn’t kill him even when I had the opportunity; even after exiling him, I planned to install his son as shogun. In other words, be discreet. It wouldn’t be any fun if I did something to warrant someone’s envy. I had to bury my feelings deep down, sharing them only with Laviala and Seraphina, at most. “We presume that you would want to secure your southern border in preparation for the things ahead, so today I am here to discuss an alliance. For the benefit of us both, I certainly would ask for your consideration.” It wasn’t a bad proposal, to be sure. It was best to keep your enemies on one flank as much as possible. I sent the messenger away for the time being, telling him I’d think about it. I hadn’t even been considering the south as a route, so if anything, it would’ve come later. Actually, I’d had another good idea for making an alliance, though part of me hesitated to bring it up. Deciding to think it over with a walk, I went out to the courtyard. There, Seraphina and Altia were playing airball, a game in which you used a wooden racket to hit a ball back and forth across a net in the middle without letting it hit the ground. As I entered the courtyard, Altia had just jumped in front of the net and hit the ball to Seraphina’s side—a well-executed block. “You’re so good at this, Miss Altia!” said Seraphina. “I’m a thinker. If you hit it so they can only hit it back to a certain spot, it’ll be easier to defend.” Altia looked a bit smug. “Hey, hey, Seraphina, don’t overdo it with the baby on the way…” “I can’t get out much, so I’m just getting a little exercise. I’m not jumping around like Miss Altia, so don’t worry.” True—she wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Apparently, she’d hardly moved from one spot throughout the entire game. Altia, on the other hand, was sweating after quite some effort. “You’re looking pretty healthy yourself, Altia.” Her illness had cleared up recently; the color was even back in her face. “Yes, Brother. Now I won’t be a burden to you any longer.” “I’ve never thought of you as a burden.” Altia was practically my only family. I had other relatives, but I couldn’t really open up with them. A relative could potentially supplant me as count, after all. “But I’m still living here with you.” It was easy to tell what she was hinting at. She really is a nobleman’s daughter, I thought to myself. It was nice to see her so ready, but it also made me feel a bit lonely. Placing her hands on her chest, she continued resolutely, “I’m ready for you to marry me off somewhere.” I gazed into Altia’s eyes. The little girl, so sick she might fall apart if you touched her, was gone. Anyone would be happy to wed a count’s sister like her. I’d never seen her eyes so full of determination. “Actually, I was just thinking about that, too.” “Maybe the Rentrant family in Nagurry Prefecture to the north? Their heir should be about thirty years old by now.” I wasn’t sure whether we ought to discuss this in the courtyard of all places, but it wasn’t really something that needed to be hidden. “Definitely not. I might have to attack Nagurry eventually.” Generally when a wife had come from a state that later became an enemy, the marriage ended in divorce, but sometimes she stayed and fought alongside her husband and children. I believed some of these couples even died together. Apparently, those were mostly the ones who were truly in love, though. I could certainly catch Nagurry off guard by sending Altia, but I wanted to avoid using her as a pawn for a surprise attack. “Then Lady Seraphina’s family in the west?” “Hmm. That’s a possibility for strengthening our alliance even more, but it doesn’t have much potential to take us anywhere new. We’ve already managed to build a good relationship.” Still, Altia had a pretty good grasp of the goings-on around us. “Then south… Perhaps the Naaham family in Olbia? Like that young gentleman Brando Naaham.” “Bingo. I was just wondering if it was worth marrying you to him.” Altia seemed to be thinking it over for a while, when finally, slapping her racket against her left hand, she said, “You don’t know if a ball is good until you hit it,” as if it were some sort of proverb. “To tell if someone is worth marrying, you have to invite them over and see for yourself.” “Like brother, like sister—you two have the same personality,” Seraphina said, half-shocked, half-impressed; I knew exactly what she meant. “Well, what reason should we give for inviting him? I can’t really tell him to come to give his appraisal of you. There’s other domains between us, even if they’re not at war with each other.” “How about asking him to come play airball with the count’s sister?” Altia suggested, picking up the ball and softly batting it at me with the racket. I caught it in my right hand; it was quite heavy. “I’m rather good at it.” I accidentally laughed out loud. “Fine. Let’s try your idea! Let’s invite this Brando Naaham.” It made sense. If he didn’t have the courage to come all the way through other lords’ land just to play airball, he wouldn’t pass muster. He wanted to form a military alliance anyway. “Besides, I want to see with my own eyes if he’s really good enough to make you his wife.” “You may be cold when it comes to strategy, but you are extremely soft on Miss Altia,” commented Seraphina. “Men are always that way with cute girls. Otherwise they should just be monks—no matter what profession they’re bestowed at the temple.” After writing Brando Naaham a letter, I heard back that he’d come right away. He arrived in my territory without incident after paying a hefty toll to the domains he passed through on the way. The two of us met in the temporary castle grounds on the hill in Maust. “Nice to meet you. I am Brando Naaham, viscount of two counties, including Naaham County.” True to the rumors, Brando was a man with a striking look in his eyes. He seemed ready for anything; you could tell how clever he was just by the way he looked at you. But his countenance struck me as more of a leader’s than a hero’s. “What profession did you receive at your bestowal ceremony, Lord Brando?” “The temple bestowed me with Thief. I’ve won many battles since by sending troops where my enemy’s defenses were thin; perhaps that is my own Thief-like intuition at work.” It was said that Thief improved judgment by 30 percent over normal people, as well as agility by 50 percent. It was easy to see how it could make someone sharp-witted. Of course, this man had been going to war as clan leader since long before he received his profession, so it seemed more likely it was all down to his own wits. “I see. It might sound insulting to tell a noble that Thief befits him, but I do think it is your calling.” “I agree. Well then, where is your sister?” “She’s waiting in the yard. I’ll show you the way.” Altia was there, wearing a shorter dress than usual. “I will not hold back one bit, Lord Brando,” she warned. The airball match between Altia and Brando Naaham ended in his victory. He really did move with the nimble steps of a Thief. It might’ve been lazy of me to judge a person’s character just from a ball game, but this man was thinking several moves ahead. If you added leadership ability on top of that, he certainly wouldn’t be outclassed by any small-time lords. They didn’t think about anything but defending themselves anyway. Right after the match ended, Brando came to me where I’d been watching and bowed his head. “Please, I would like to take your sister as my wife. There is no woman of her beauty in all of Olbia. I am enchanted by her elegance.” To think he’d come to ask me himself. I probably wouldn’t have wanted to give my sister to some fool who just went home saying “Thanks for the game!” anyway, though. I glanced at Altia. She nodded slowly. It seemed she’d already made up her mind. “Very well. However, I won’t lend you any troops just for my sister. I have more than enough enemies to fight on my own. Do what you can to make me proud.” “Thank you very much, sir!” He smiled broadly, from ear to ear you might say, and promptly lowered his head. “Also, don’t do anything to make Altia cry. She’s already been through more than most people. I want to make things easy for her.” “Yes, sir! You have my promise!” “I’ll send her your way soon. Worry not.” Thus, an alliance with the Naaham clan was formed. That Brando is like Azai Nagamasa, another young commander I once knew. He had enough territory to just about warrant being called a daimyo—another reason they’re alike. Oichi seemed pretty happy, herself. Oda Nobunaga seemed somewhat sentimental just then. So you married off your younger sister, too. Guess that’s typical of any lord. The situation turned quite thorny when he betrayed me, however. I almost lost my home. I managed to destroy him later on. Geez, what about your sister, then…? I rescued her and her daughters. But she was heartbroken for the rest of her days. I’m going to make absolutely sure nothing like that ever happens. I want my sister to be happy just as much as I want to be king. Well, just be as careful as you can. A king isn’t someone who has everything, but someone who sacrificed everything to be king. That night, Altia and I watched the moon together. We had everyone leave the yard before we sat at a table to drink tea. “The moon is so gorgeous tonight, Brother.” Her mouth hung open slightly as if in a sigh. “Sure is. I know I should be happy you’re getting married, but for some reason I just can’t manage it. Maybe that makes me a bad brother.” “No, never!” Altia insisted. “I would’ve died long ago if you hadn’t fretted over me so much. Moving to the hill manor was what helped me get better.” “And if I didn’t have you, I’d never have gone to defend that fort like Geisel ordered. We’d probably have surrendered to Mineria, and by now I’d just be leading a single company of troops, at the most.” Indeed, if it hadn’t been for Altia, I wouldn’t have needed to go risk my life defending Fort Nagraad. And if I hadn’t done that, an entirely different life would’ve been waiting for me. My life as a count was thanks to her. “If I hadn’t been your little sister, I’d have wanted to marry you,” Altia joked with a laugh. “I sure would’ve wanted to marry a woman like you, too.” “I’m so thankful that you raised me, Brother.” “Then you had better be as happy as you can, or else I’ll never forgive you, ’kay?” Afterward, when I was taking her back to her room, she hugged me tightly. I could tell she was crying. “Let it out; cry all you want.” It was just as sad for me as for her. I quietly wished for her future happiness. You’re destined to be the sister of a king. Just you wait. After Altia went off to get married, I devoted myself more than ever to the urban development of Maust. The population had grown beyond what I’d anticipated, so I needed to expand the town area more than originally planned. To that end, I decided to extend the town up to the vicinity of the castle on the hill where I was working. However, since it realistically was hard to run smaller water channels that far, I decided to use one big sideways channel to split the area into River Town, closer to the river, and Hill Town, closer to the hill. It was all one city, if you looked at the big picture, or you could see it as two next to each other. And finally, about six months after construction began, I moved into Maust Castle. It was normally connected to the castle town by bridge, but if you took that away, it became a citadel sitting entirely within the river. First, I assembled my vassals in the great hall of the new castle. It was bigger than any room I’d had in Nayvil Castle, but with the increase in my number of vassals, it still didn’t look very spacious. “Gentlemen, from this day forward, this place shall be our political center, economic center, and center of everything else. Not everything may be familiar just yet, but I’m sure you’ll come to love it. It’s every bit as good as Nayvil Castle in its construction, at least.” My vassals listened respectfully: Laviala with her gradually swelling belly; the veteran commander Kivik, my long-supportive general; the Red Bears, headed by Captain Orcus; likewise, the White Eagles, headed by Captain Leon; the intrepid general Noen, who’d come to work for me after the fall of the former clan he’d served; Fanneria, the werewolf financial officer; and Ornis, a Maustian ex-merchant. The rest of my retainers consisted of various individuals gathered here from many different lands. Longtime senior vassals of the Nayvil family were among them, albeit not enough to be the majority. “Now then, let me tell you about a certain goal of mine. Feel free to laugh if you still think these are mere delusions of grandeur. However, I do intend to make this particular delusion a reality. When I was lord of but three small villages, I had plans to take over the territory that is now in my possession; what I’m going to do next isn’t so different.” I paused for a beat before continuing, “Currently, the royal family is in utter chaos. Their line is split in two, with powerful top vassals and clans on both sides. Each faction has made a scene of taking the capital from the other several times. As a resident of the Kingdom of Therwil, I find it most reprehensible. And so…” I looked my vassals in the face, one by one. None of them seemed to think I was being delusional. “…I will go to the capital and help the fallen royal family recover. Serving at the side of the king, I will end the chaos in this country.” More than likely, about half of them probably thought I wanted to take power by making the king my puppet—plenty of others had done so in the past. Close, but not quite. I was aiming even further ahead: I would make my own kingdom. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, but my territory had already grown roughly six times its size since I’d become head of my clan. If I could expand it another six times over, not many could win against that. “So I want you all to work your hardest. It won’t be an easy road, but I’ll reward you as best I can. Some of you could easily end up with a whole county—nay, a whole prefecture. Work with that in mind. Now let’s raise our voices together, shall we?” I grabbed that long spear, the one I’d gotten from the cathedral. It was proof that I was at the top of this prefecture, in both might and authority. I tapped the floor with the butt of the spear. “Glory to our realm!” ““Glory!”” The new castle was filled with their voices. At the same time, another voice echoed inside my head: Special ability Conqueror’s Aura activated. As long as an individual with this profession resides in his castle as a conqueror, he and his family will age at an extremely slow rate. Looks like I got something new. Does family include my wives? It’d be nice if Seraphina and Laviala kept their beauty. Can’t you be more excited? After I went out of my way to bestow this upon you—how disappointing. Expanding my territory is more important than something like that. First I’ll unify the prefecture by taking the three counties left in the north. Ah, the place with all the smaller lords. I can’t wait to watch. Not sure if you’ll like what you see, but have fun. I assembled the Red Bears and White Eagles, as well as the elite units led by Kivik and Noen. “A lord of one of the three counties not under my control is being uncooperative. We’re going to eliminate him and his forces. First, capture that fort of his. Let me be clear: Kill them all. Don’t let anyone in that fort out alive.” “My lord, may I ask for clarification?” asked Noen Rowd. Still in his midthirties, he was a warrior in the prime of his career. He had served under some useless lord originally, but after I’d handily destroyed him, Noen had come to work for me. “With the enemy close to a village this time, there may be some nearby residents taking refuge with them, making it difficult to tell them apart. In that case—” “You may kill anyone in the fort,” I replied plainly. “I’ve already sent word to both the village and their lord, saying, ‘We will kill everyone in the fort. This is not just a threat.’ If they’re still hiding in the fort, I’ll consider them combatants.” “Understood. As long as I know, that’s fine by me.” Noen nodded. “Also, as far as how to capture the fort, shall we surround them and try to wait them out slowly? That would be the usual strategy anyway.” “Don’t you know why I brought you all here? Just overpower them and take it.” “Y-yes, sir…” Noen nodded again, a bit timidly this time. “Since you don’t all yet seem to understand my intentions, I’ll explain. If you eradicate your enemies all at once in the first battle, what’ll happen to the ones waiting elsewhere?” The veteran commander Kivik stepped forward. “I think most of them would be too afraid to fight,” he said. “If they’re peasant troops, they’ll probably try to desert.” “Exactly. If we show them in the first fight how much stronger we are, the enemy will quickly submit. If the first battle goes well, we can subjugate their lord without any more battles.” So even if it wasn’t easy, I’d crush the first fort. I’d make them see that my forces were of a different quality than anyone they’d faced before. “Besides, if the war drags on, they’ll call in more-troublesome enemies. I’d like to avoid that.” “You mean Colt Rentrant of Nagurry.” With his abundance of experience, Kivik sure was sharp. The lords of the three remaining counties had always been friendly with the Rentrants in Nagurry. That was how the smaller lords guaranteed their security. “It’s never been my goal to unify the prefecture by eliminating these minor lords. My goal is to eliminate the Rentrants in Nagurry. This fight…is no more than the first step.” That astonished my troops. They probably had never imagined unifying the prefecture, much less taking other prefectures. After all, for the longest time, no one had ever appeared who could. One man among them, however—Captain Leon of the White Eagles—spoke up: “Bravo.” He went on to add, “You’re thinking further ahead than anyone else, my lord. That’s why I’ll follow you anywhere.” I wanted my imperial guard at the very least to understand my—Oda Nobunaga’s—thinking. The more you try for the top, the lonelier you are, I thought. Must be why so few tried.