It was a few days before Zara would fight to defend Bia-Dharla. Alkan, the former head of House Riga, was relaxing and looking down on the royal capital from his veranda.
It was Alkan’s eighty-first birthday. His family members and servants understood that he hated extravagance and pomp, so they had a modest but heartfelt dinner party.
Harmony spreading among people—nothing made Alkan happier than that.
What brought him joy was seeing a great number of family members, relatives, and friends journey to visit him. There were, however, people he wanted to come but couldn’t bring himself to invite and people who wouldn’t come despite his invitation.
As he expected, Esseluleia did not come.
Banust was quite far. But she did have to come to the royal palace once a year, so she could have timed that trip to make it to his birthday.
That Esseluleia didn’t even send a letter or a present showed her feelings more than anything else.
She really does think that I stole her Panzel’s life, doesn’t she?
That was a bitter thought. To Alkan, nothing could have been more absurd. In no way did he harm Panzel. But it was the truth that he had done certain things that made it only natural for her to think he did.
You reap what you sow, huh?
He laughed softly and brushed away the loneliness he felt at growing old and being hated by his daughter.
✦ ✦ ✦
The first head of House Riga came to serve the founding king not long after the creation of the kingdom. At first, he was not a vassal but a simple onlooker.
The first head was the heir to House Onis, which ruled over an expansive land facing the North Sea. By comparison, the founding king’s country consisted only of the royal capital and a handful of towns. The first head of House Riga did nothing more than offer some advice and cooperation as an observer while basking in the fun environment of a new country being born.
The founding king was a strange man, thought Alkan.
He was greedy and lacked modesty. He had no self-control when it came to items or women he wanted. He would try to forcibly snatch anything he desired for himself, even if it belonged to one of his vassals. It was fair to say he was a man of many faults.
But on the other hand, he was not stingy in the least when it came to recognizing the distinguished service of others. If he was admonished, he was capable of acknowledging his error with honesty. And above all, he was capable of inspiring others to dream big.
That was why no small amount of people who possessed the virtue and ability to build a country gathered around the founding king. They all exercised their talents, believing that they needed to support him. The founding king also had the ability to draw out the full potential of others.
Alkan thought that if he had been alive at the time and had been permitted to join them on that adventure, he would have hastened to do so. That was how joyful, unprecedented, and grand an era the founding king had built at the birth of this country.
When the founding king died, the first head of House Riga made to travel back to the North Sea. His parents had grown old, and he’d lost interest in the country after the founding king’s death.
He was in his carriage leading his family and retainers out of the royal capital when the founding king’s queen detained him. Then, holding the child who was to be the second-generation king in her arms, she lay down on the road in front of the carriage and said the following.
“If you leave, then neither I nor this child will be able to keep this kingdom together, and it will soon perish. You may as well run us over and kill us now.”
After the founding king’s death, the queen had watched in silence as his most influential vassals left one after another, but as soon as she caught word of the first head of House Riga’s departure, she suddenly dashed out of the royal palace and tried desperately to stop him. She all but wrapped herself around his feet to implore him to stay.
The first head was unable to shake her off, and he remained in the royal capital. That was when he threw away his position as heir to the land of Onis.
When the kingdom was founded, the king named his twenty-four direct vassals Defenders of the Realm and established the noble families of counsel. Many of those houses had been passed on to the next generation when the founding king died.
Of those twenty-four houses, the only two that swore allegiance to the kingdom after the founding king’s death were House Mercurius and House Lowell, the latter of which died out with the death of Evert. The rest of the houses became effectively independent and focused all their efforts on managing their own domain and expanding their territory as they pleased.
The first thing the head of House Riga had to do was bring those noble families back into the kingdom. Acting at times with negotiation and at others with force, over a long period of time, he managed to bring all the other twenty-two families back into the kingdom. It was a truly great achievement. When his life’s work was over, the Baldemost Kingdom occupied more territory than any other country in the north of the continent.
The next thing they worked to accomplish was securing a road to the sea. His first objective was a collection of small coastal cities to the northeast of Baldemost.
He chose not to take them with military might. Instead, he developed a city of commerce in the region of Riga, which sat between Baldemost and the coastal settlements.
The city of Riga bought salt and marine products from the coastal cities and sold them in the Baldemost Kingdom. The coastal cities benefited from this because a new market had opened in which they could easily sell large quantities of goods. Riga took care of the transport and escort, so it was a great opportunity for the coastal cities to develop industry. Riga also cooperated with the development of processing technology and even lent funds. Riga became an essential presence for the coastal cities, and they came to rely on each other deeply.
The lords of Baldemost put pressure on the coastal cities to lower the price of salt, but the cities would not budge from a price that would turn them a sizable profit. In contrast, Baldemost sold medical goods and metal products to the coastal cities as cheaply as possible.
The industries of the coastal cities expanded, and once the shipping industry really started to boom, they ended up with a shortage of personnel. The first head of House Riga gathered up refugees and poor people from all across Baldemost and sent them to the coastal cities.
Eventually, villages made up of Baldemost citizens began to be established along the sea. The people of the coastal cities welcomed this gladly as a sign of development. The rulers of the coastal cities then paid tribute to the king of Baldemost of their own accord through Riga, and they were eventually incorporated into the kingdom.
A number of direct-control municipalities were established, starting with Anpoan. Riga also achieved striking developments and became an important strategic point for both industry and defense. The first head was named the Duke of Riga, and he changed his family name to Riga.
In the final year of his life, he visited the place that was once the land of Onis.
The once-prosperous land had fallen to ruin and had become a borderland overrun by monsters. The first head of House Riga realized his mistake in thinking that the division of land would not affect the livelihood of its people.
That land was once a country, and he was supposed to be its ruler. But there was no longer a country, because its people had disappeared.
Which meant that a country was its people.
That was the true essence of the country that the first head of House Riga spent his whole life to build.