Chapter 71 – Tragedy of the Grand Duchess (Grand Duchess of Ventas’ POV)
Ayano could not immediately understand the news brought by the Minister of Military Affairs.
“…What? The commanders of the occupied cities in Margrave of Lohengrin’s territory have all disappeared…!? What the h**l does that mean!?”
“Well… In just a few days, reports say that only the commanders of each city have disappeared, as if they had gone into hiding…!”
“Minister! Is that information verified!?”
“We are currently in the process of confirming as quickly as possible…!”
Ayano desperately turned her head, pushing aside the minister who was prostrating himself single-mindedly at the edge of her consciousness.
—To be honest, Ayano had assumed that one or two of the city command posts would be attacked.
After all, the enemy country is home to the Killing Goddess.
However, the resistance of their force must be far more fierce and troublesome than the enemy anticipated.
Because the Pricipality’s side knows the value of the Lohengrin territory and the enemy does not.
And the commanders are aristocrats who understand that if they lose, none of their rights to the Lohengrin territory will be handed to them. Defeat, so to speak, is synonymous with death.
They will try to win the race to the death, even if it means giving up their personal fortune.
Furthermore, Ayano knew that the Killing Goddess, known for her slaughter in enemy countries, had a soft side and could be described in noble terms as having a sweet aspect to her.
She may be able to kill all the enemy soldiers, but she’s not the type that can kill indiscriminately.
Therefore, even if two or three cities were recaptured, the immense scale of the damage would be enough for any further counterattacks to be abandoned—That was the reading from the Grand Duchess of Ventas. However…
What if the enemy side, having understood that much, had targeted only the commander!?
Ayano’s face turned pale when she received further bad news.
This time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs rushed into the room at a rolling pace and announced,
“Grand Duchess! I have received this letter from someone claiming to be the new Margrave of Lohengrin!”
Ayano, who had a strong sense of unease, reluctantly accepted the letter while hesitating.
Her hunch came true in the worst possible way.
Written in the letter, all the missing commanders were taken into custody by the new Margrave of Lohengrin.
And in exchange for their withdrawal from the Lohengrin territory, it was stipulated that the commanders would be handed over unharmed…
“T-This…!”
“What would you have us do, Grand Duchess?”
“…We can’t pretend we didn’t see this letter, can we…?”
“It would definitely be impossible…”
Ayano’s shoulders slumped at the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ words.
In any case, the kidnapped commanders were all heads or heirs of powerful aristocratic families.
It was impossible to just leave them to die.
If it was just one or two, that would still be fine, but this time there were too many.
In any case, it would make enemies of most of the leading aristocratic families.
“I would much rather have all the commanders killed than this…”
Ayano couldn’t help but privately agree with the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ cold-blooded words.
If the commanders had been killed, the succession of power would take place.
But they were captured instead, it was a very tricky situation.
If so many heads of families were to be declared dead and power passed on to the next generation, and then they returned unscathed, a civil war would surely erupt.
“…Grand Duchess, what do you propose to do with this letter…?”
“Wait, just wait a little longer!”
Ayano seemed to be in a tight spot, but there was one glimmer of hope.
The letter was written to the new Margrave of Lohengrin.
Ayano had been studying the new Margrave of Lohengrin for some time and judged him to be even more dangerous than the Killing Goddess. She had urged the ministers to be very careful.
And when the Chief Secretary was informed that this dangerous person was to become the new head of the Lohengrin territory, he reportedly sent assassins to assassinate him on his own.
In addition to ensuring that the assassination was a success, he paid a large amount of money to have the strongest ace of the Principality of Ventas’ assassination guild join in so that the request wouldn’t be exposed.
When Ayano received the report later on, she secretly frowned at the idea of sending an assassin, but now she could only pray for the success of the assassination.
If the new Margrave of Lohengrin dies, there is a way to turn things around…!
As Ayano was desperately hoping for this, a further report came in.
“Grand Duchess! The Assassins’ Guild has been destroyed!”
“HAH!?”
“Inside the guild building, there were a large number of slaughtered bodies, including the head of the guild and its executives! A note was left on the guild leader’s desk!”
Ayano received the left-behind note with trembling hands.
It contained only one line in childish handwriting.
“I’ve found my true Master. Goodbye.”
“W-W-W-What the h**l—!!!”
“Hmm… Is this a letter of withdrawal from the guild? But I’m not sure that you are allowed to withdraw from the assassin’s guild unless you are dead.”
“I know that!”
Yes, the Minister of Military Affairs, who peeked at the letter from the side, was right, it is unthinkable to withdraw from the assassin’s guild.
If you try to do that, they will hunt you down and kill you. That’s common knowledge.
If you don’t want that to happen, then you’ll have to kill all the members of that guild…!
“Grand Duchess!”
“Aah, now what?!?”
“An emissary of the Amazons came and gave our country an ultimatum! The content of the letter is ‘If you continue to occupy the Lohengrin territory, we will consider it the same as a declaration of war with the Amazon clan!’”
“Why are they doing that!?”
“According to the ultimatum, ‘The new Margrave of Lohengrin, who eliminated the mutated ogres that had proliferated in the Ogres’ Great Forest and saved not only the Amazon clan but also the entire continent, is none other than our beloved savior, Taren-Nii-sama. Without that great hero, the current state of the world could not have continued. Yet, you shameless barbarians have forgotten his kindness and shamelessly continue to occupy Taren-Nii-sama’s territory. We can no longer consider you as a party to negotiate with. You should be regarded as pests that must be thoroughly crushed!'”
“What the h**l!?”
Why did this happen, Ayano repeated, sobbing inside.
—The reason for this is quite simple.
Though consequential, and though that was not Ayano’s intention at all…
She had picked a fight with someone she should never have picked a fight with.
After the long-cherished dream of seizing the Lohengrin territory was fulfilled, the new Queen Touko of the neighboring kingdom replaced the head of the Lohengrin territory, which was the main cause of the whole thing.
Touko had taken the only possible chance to turn the whole thing around.
All Ayano had to do as Grand Duchess of Ventus was to quickly conclude a peace treaty with Touko, and to get her to cede even a small part of the Lohengrin territory.
That way, there would never have been a new Margrave of Lohengrin in the first place.
殺戮の戦女神キリング・ゴッデスなど比較にならない鬼駒の登場など想定できるはずもなく、ローエングリン辺境伯領全土の支配を狙ってゆるい戦争状態を継続したあげく全てを失うことになったアヤノを無能大公と罵るのは、さすがに酷というものだろう.
It would be truly unfair to label Ayano, who was unable to anticipate the appearance of an overwhelmingly powerful force, surpassing even the likes of the Killing Goddess, and who ended up losing everything after continuing a loose state of war in pursuit of dominion over the entire Lohengrin territory, as an incompetent duchess.
It was only a little later that Ayano was shocked to find out about those circumstances…
