After seeing how he’d fooled the emissary from the Adventurers’ Guild, I had no doubt that the Count Palatine could play the part of a general if he so desired. Personally, as long as the militia charged, I didn’t care how it happened. It was just that out of all the options presently available, me going was the best choice.
Sometimes, a commander had to fight from the very front, because where they went, their soldiers would have to follow. Moreover, I was the emperor, and a child to boot. No self-respecting adult would allow themselves to stay quivering in their boots as a kid charged ahead of them toward the fight. And once the ball was rolling, the rest of the soldiers would be pushed forward from behind, forced to advance whether they liked it or not. The end result would become a headlong charge straight toward the enemy.
“You are the inheritor of Rotahl’s legacy,” the Count Palatine said, emphatically. I understood where he was coming from, of course. I didn’t have any heirs yet, so if I died, my bloodline died with me.
Everyone was watching our exchange, from Deputy General Bourgault-Ducoudray, who had evidently chosen to refrain from interjecting ever since I’d given the order to charge, to Balthazar, to the rubbernecking nobility. Silence hung over the terrain as they all waited for my next words.
My true thoughts on the matter was that I didn’t give a damn what happened after I died. But such a mentality was unbecoming for an emperor. It could be taken as an abandonment of my duty to produce an heir. Thus, I would never speak of it. I locked it away in the depths of my heart, and donned the emperor’s mantle.
“We are,” I said. “And you are our guardian. If we set foot on the front lines, you shall be there to defend us to the death. For is that not a guardian’s duty?”
I didn’t need this generation to revere me or sing me praises. If all that later generations thought of me was that I was surprisingly capable and nothing more, that was fine too. But I had come here from a world whose grasp of science and history was more advanced. So if I had any say in it, then at the very least, I wanted to be seen as someone with foresight. Someone with ideas that still held up generations into the future. Call it ambitious, call it vain—that was how I felt.
Of course, the thing about future generations was that they came after my time. I would never know what they thought of me, because I would be dead.
“There are no guarantees on the battlefield, Your Majesty,” Count Palatine Vodedt argued. “You could be struck by a stray bullet. Something might startle your horse, causing it to throw you off. A desperate enemy counterattack might meet with success. If you go, Your Majesty, nothing is certain.”
I wanted to be an emperor who was appreciated by future generations. I wanted my reign to be fair and prosperous for as long as I was in power. I wanted to repay the citizens who had placed their hopes in me. I wanted to make my country—the Empire—a wealthy and powerful nation. I found joy in being needed by others, and unlike my previous life, where I hadn’t been able to become anything of note, I saw value in my life as the emperor. All of this was true. All of it was from my heart.
Yet, more than any of that, I wanted to live. Not once had I ever even considered the thought that I might prefer being dead. Before I’d decided to live as the emperor, ever since I’d been reborn into this world, that core part of me had never changed. When I’d opened my eyes as a baby and realized who I was in this world, the fear of death had driven me to tears. The threat of assassination looming over me was why I’d planned to escape. It wasn’t that I was after immortality, or eternal youth, or anything like that. It was just plain old survival instinct. I wanted to live, and keep living. That was all there was to it.
I had pledged in my heart to give my life for the sake of this country as its emperor. But that wasn’t the same as throwing my life away. From the very beginning, I had become the emperor to survive, damn it!
All of which was to say, Carmine the transmigrator very much did not want to charge at the enemy. Obviously, it would be far safer for me to stay here. But Carmine the Emperor knew that taking the lead would be the best course of action in this situation, so that was the decision I’d made.
I wasn’t going to go into the fight planning to die. I’d choose the best option for an emperor to make, and the best option for my own survival. And if I wanted to do that, I needed to drag the Count Palatine out of here with me!
“Then take that stray bullet in my stead,” I told him. “Pacify our horse, and cut that desperate enemy down before he reaches us. Guard us with your life, Count Palatine. No, guard us even after your death. Become our shield, and die for our sake.”
The Count Palatine had been my first ally in this world. I knew all too well that he wasn’t someone I could give my full trust. Even so, I had to make use of him.
I had chosen both to be emperor, and to survive, and ever since the day I’d made that decision, I hadn’t shirked from my duty even once.