The Lohengrin teritory appears merely a backwater province on the surface.
Yet in reality, it is a land so valuable that exchanging it for the entire Uentas Principality would still leave a surplus—a veritable treasure trove of a territory.
Of course, the senior Uentas nobles are aware, which is why all the current commanding officers occupying the Lohengrin teritory are either the heads of powerful noble houses or their heirs.
As for Ayano herself, she was racking her brain over how to divvy up the delectable fruit that was the Lohengrin teritory among her subordinate nobles…
“Your Grace! This is an emergency!”
The military minister burst into the office, his face drained of color, signaling the end of the Duchess of Uentas’s tranquil time.
“What is it, Minister?”
“The, the city commanders occupying the Lohengrin teritory have—every single one has gone missing!!”
“…Eh?”
Ayano could not immediately comprehend the report the military minister had brought.
“What in the world does that mean?!”
“It was, how can I put it…within just a few days, only the commanders in each city reportedly disappeared as if they had disappeared into the clouds. …..!”
“Minister! Can that information be verified!?”
“We are currently verifying it as quickly as possible…!”
Pushing the endlessly bowing minister to the edge of her consciousness, Ayano desperately racked her brain.
–To be honest, she had anticipated that one or two city command centers might be destroyed.
After all, the enemy nation had the Killing Goddess, a merciless war maiden.
However, the resistance from the Uentas Principality forces was supposed to be far, far more vicious and troublesome than the Drosselmeyer Kingdom had anticipated.
This was because our side knew the true value of the Lohengrin teritory, while their side did not.
And the commanders were powerful nobles who understood that if they lost, they would gain nothing from the Lohengrin teritory. In other words, defeat was tantamount to death.
They were determined to win at all costs, even at the expense of their personal fortunes, as if their lives depended on it.
Furthermore, Ayano knew that the enemy nation’s Killing Goddess had a soft spot, or in noble parlance, a sweet side.
She could annihilate enemy soldiers, but she was not the type to indiscriminately kill the civilians of her own territory.
Therefore, even if two or three cities were recaptured, she was supposed to give up further retaliation due to the sheer scale of the damage–that was Ayano’s reading as the Duchess of Uentas.
However.
(If the enemy side understood that much and specifically targeted only the commanders–!?)
Ayano’s face paled as another dreadful report came in.
This time, the Foreign Minister rushed in, rolling in momentum, and declared:
“Your Highness! We have received this letter from someone claiming to be the new Lord of Lohengrin teritory!”
With an intense sense of foreboding, Ayano hesitantly accepted the letter.
Her premonition was confirmed in the worst possible way.
Its contents stated that all the missing commanders had been captured by the new Lord of Lohengrin teritory.
And in exchange for the complete withdrawal of troops from the frontier county, the commanders would be returned unharmed.
“Th-This is…!”
“What shall we do, Your Highness?”
“…We can’t pretend we didn’t see this, can we…?”
“Indeed, that would be impossible…”
Ayano slumped her shoulders dejectedly at the Foreign Minister’s words.
The kidnapped commanders were, without exception, the heads or heirs of powerful noble families.
If they had been killed, it would have been better, but leaving them at the enemy’s mercy was out of the question.
No, if it were just one or two, they might have been able to abandon them, but this time the number was far too great.
Abandoning them would turn almost all of the powerful nobles against them.
“In that case, it would have been far better for them to be massacred…”
Ayano couldn’t help but inwardly agree with the Foreign Minister’s cold-sounding words.
Bluntly speaking, if they had died at the enemy’s hands in battle, there would have been a succession of power.
But being held captive was an extremely troublesome and half-baked situation.
Even if they declared this many heads of families dead and had them replaced, if they then returned unharmed, a civil war would be inevitable. It was simply impossible.
“…Your Highness, what will you do about this proposal…?”
“Wait, just a little longer, please!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
Though cornered, Ayano had one last glimmer of hope.
It was the fact that the letter was from the new Lord of Lohengrin teritory.
Ayano had been investigating the new Lord even before he became the lord, and as a result, she had judged him to be a dangerous individual comparable to the Killing Goddess. She had strongly urged her ministers to be fully vigilant against him.
And when she received information that this dangerous individual had become the new Lord of Lohengrin teritory, she had unilaterally sent an assassin, according to a report from the chief secretary.
Not only that, but to ensure the success of the assassination and prevent any possibility of exposure, she had paid a large sum of money to hire the strongest ace from the largest and most powerful assassin guild in the Uentas Principality.
At the time of receiving the after-action report, Ayano had secretly frowned, thinking that she didn’t need to go as far as sending an assassin, but now she could only pray for the assassination’s success.
If the new Lord of Lohengrin teritory was slain, there was still a chance for a reversal…!
As Ayano desperately hoped for this, another crushing report came in.
“Your Highness! The assassin’s guild has been annihilated!”
“What!?”
“Everyone in the guild’s building, including the guild master and executives, has been killed! And a note was left on the guild master’s desk!”
With trembling hands, Ayano received the note that was said to have been left behind.
There, in childishly scrawled handwriting, was a single line:
[Found my true master. Bye-bye]
“Wh-Wh-What is this–!”
“Hmm…Could this be a resignation letter from the guild? But resignation from an assassin’s guild is supposedly impossible without death.”
“I know that!”
Yes, as the Military Minister peering over at the note said, resigning from an assassin’s guild was normally unthinkable.
If one tried, they would be pursued and killed. That was the norm.
If they didn’t want that, then the only option was to defeat all the members of their former guild…!
“Your Highness!”
“What is it this time!?”
“A messenger from the Amazones tribe has arrived and issued us an ultimatum! It states that [if we continue to occupy the Lohengrin teritory, it will be considered a declaration of war against the Amazones tribe]!”
“Why would that happen!?”
“According to the ultimatum, [The great new Lord of Lohengrin teritory annihilated the mass outbreak of mutant ogres in the Great Tree Sea of the Ogres, saving not only the Amazones tribe but the entire continent. He is none other than the brother and benefactor of our great hero–Yet despite the fact that without this great hero, the current national system could not have survived, you shameless barbarians have forgotten his kindness and even audaciously continue to occupy his territory. We no longer consider you a party worth negotiating with, but rather a harmful pest to be thoroughly crushed]!”
“What the hell is that–!?”
Why did this happen? Ayano repeated the question in her mind with tears.
–The reason was extremely simple.
Unintentionally and completely contrary to Ayano’s intentions,
she had picked a fight with the one party she absolutely should not have provoked.
After her long-cherished desire to seize the Lohengrin teritory was achieved, the neighboring new Queen Toko had replaced the Lohengrin teritory family with a new one.
Queen Toko had played the one and only trump card that could overturn everything, the ultimate move for a miraculous revival.
What Ayano should have done as the Duchess of Uentas was to swiftly conclude a peace treaty with Toko and force her to cede at least part of the Lohengrin teritory.
If she had done so, the birth of a new Lord of Lohengrin teritory would never have happened in the first place.
There was no way she could have anticipated the appearance of a demonic figure far surpassing even the Killing Goddess. By aiming for control of the entire Lohengrin teritory and continuing the state of semi-war, she ended up losing everything. It would be too harsh to denounce Ayano as an incompetent duchess without understanding these circumstances.
What left Ayano aghast was something that happened a little later–
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