The Overlord Speaks

“As expected of you, my lord! That was splendid command! To instantly discern the weakness of an enemy formation on first sight… I can only call it admirable!”

Jōsen returned to the command tent with a beaming face and laughed heartily.

“You did well, Jōsen. My command only worked because of your valor. First merit goes to you.”

“Yes! I am honored by your words! Still, it looked like a sturdy formation at a glance, yet before my lord it was but a brush of the sleeve—like dust before the wind!”

Yeah… “before me,” you say, but you mean “before you,” don’t you?

Sure, I said a dense formation was weak to flanking attacks, but with what I just saw, even slamming into it head-on probably would’ve ended the same way…

“…Jōsen. I understand you want to praise Fels-sama, but we’re still in the middle of post-battle processing. Your unit brought in prisoners too, didn’t it? Ilmitt is making a list, so take them to her.”

“Hm, then I must hurry. Fels-sama, I beg your leave.”

I nodded, and Jōsen bowed and started to leave… then stopped.

“Fels-sama. May I say one last thing?”

“Go on.”

Jōsen turned back, dropped to one knee, and lowered his head.

“…To stand on the battlefield again as my lord’s sword, and to swing my blade under my lord’s command. I have believed, without doubt, that this day would come. Once more, for the sake of my lord’s path… use my blade to your heart’s content. Even if this body shatters, I will cut down everything without exception, and show you.”

I couldn’t see his face, but the bright mood from earlier was gone—he spoke with the sharp, honed air of a drawn blade. I answered him with the same seriousness.

“Sword Saint Jōsen. You are my finest sword, and at the same time, an irreplaceable vassal. Until I reach the end of my path, I will not permit you to throw your life away. Burning away one’s life. Yes—perhaps you could meet a satisfying death, a beautiful death. But if I lose the sword that is you, how am I supposed to cut down the next obstacle? If you take pride in being my sword, then remain with your wielder to the very end.”

“H… yes! Forgive me! By the Ame-no-Habakiri you bestowed upon me, and by my vow to my sister… until the moment you halt your steps, I will keep swinging my sword at your side!”

Until I stop walking, huh… What should I even aim for in this world? For now, the immediate goal was securing mana stones… at minimum one hundred thousand a month—no, one million. That meant either one hundred thousand humanfolk or twenty thousand goblins had to live near a mana collection device.

If I could gather the goblins into the castle town under the banner of “protection,” that’d be ideal… but finding them while they hid from humanfolk sounded like a huge pain. I’d need settlements on Bangagonga’s scale… uh… a hundred… no… eighty.

Searching for goblins would be the more peaceful route, but it would probably take time.

If instead I brought humanfolk under my control… I’d interrogate the captured commanders about the population around here and decide our policy from there.

“Heh… swearing by your sword and your sister, hm. Come to think of it, you had a sister, didn’t you? If you swear on those two, you won’t betray your words. See that you do well.”

Jōsen “had a sister” only as a setting—I hadn’t edited her as a character. If I remembered right, I’d even tagged him as an absurdly devoted big brother.

Also—did that mean the equipment I gave him counted as a formal bestowal? Well, I didn’t really mind.

“Yes!”

After Jōsen left, Kiriku, who had been standing nearby, spoke to me.

“Fels-sama, what will you do next?”

“Before we return to the castle, I’ll meet the enemy’s overall commander. Bring him to me.”

“Yes!”

Kiriku left as well, following after Jōsen. That left only Lynferia and Ururu.

In a normal army, this kind of menial work would be done by regular soldiers, but… in our case, the commanders had to do it themselves.

Summoned troops could handle tasks like standing guard, apparently, but they weren’t adaptable. They could only act according to pre-set orders. Of course, if a summoned commander was present and issued detailed commands, they could move more precisely—but without that commander nearby, they couldn’t respond flexibly, and it was simply more convenient to have living people do the work.

More importantly, summoned troops couldn’t speak, and they had no way to contact their summoner.

I could issue orders remotely, but they couldn’t report back on the situation. If I sent them far away, I’d have no way to judge whether they were actually carrying out the orders.

Entrusting work to soldiers like that was harsh… honestly, it was scary.

So in the end, the key people had to move directly… Should I hire attendants?

Normally, the maids in the castle would fill that role, but frankly there weren’t enough of them. I couldn’t help being astonished that only about twenty people were cleaning that entire castle.

To increase manpower, maybe I could create new characters… but was that even possible?

Back in the game, if you used an item called a “new employment contract,” it would take you to the character-edit screen and let you create a new character… but since coming to this world, I hadn’t seen anything like that game-style screen even once.

I did have employment contracts in stock, and you could even buy them at the general store. I’d already confirmed the general store worked. The product lineup was unchanged from the game days, and even the shop girl looked the same as before. But how inventory restocked was an eternal mystery… or rather, something the game never told you.

Anyway, beyond employment contracts, I’d need to investigate a lot of the old game items too. There weren’t that many item types, so it wouldn’t take long.

What would take time to verify were equipment items. Exclusive gear—was it truly unusable by anyone else? And weapons with special effects—did those effects truly manifest in reality? It sounded fun, but there had been some brutal weapons too. Poison and paralysis were the mild ones—there were things like petrification and instant death… that would be pretty bad if it happened in real life.

This past month, my mind had been consumed by war, but I needed to start branching out into other matters too…

And for that, first came the conversation with the person Kiriku was about to bring.

If he was the overall commander, he had to be someone of significant status, and I’d be able to get plenty of information—assuming he spoke willingly.

Gathering information from prisoners was the diplomats’ job, but I should at least meet the overall commander face-to-face. If I could pry out anything useful for deciding our next steps, that would help…

Still, an overall commander… what kind of person would he be? Well, nobody would be more intimidating than Bangagonga… but if he was overly arrogant, I worried Lynferia might just cut him down in one stroke.

As I was thinking that, Kiriku and Jōsen appeared before me—along with a man who looked to be just entering old age.

“Fels-sama, thank you for waiting. I have brought the enemy army’s overall commander, Viscount Karmos-Fivro-Yōntsu.”

Kiriku bowed and announced the name of the enemy’s overall commander.

Karmos… what was that again…? Right, Yōntsu was the name of the territory around here, and… “viscount” was a noble rank, wasn’t it? How high was a viscount? Above baron? Below? It should be below count, right? How was I supposed to address him? Karmos? Add the title? “Viscount Karmos” would do, I guess?

I hoped my thoughts weren’t showing on my face… and I really hoped he hadn’t noticed… but the overall commander gave a small shake of his shoulders as he looked at me.

Was he tense…?

Well, of course he was. Just a short while ago, we’d been at war, and he’d been the enemy’s overall commander.

We’d crossed spears aiming for each other’s necks, I’d won, and now he’d been brought before me with no allies at his back. It would be unreasonable to tell him not to be tense.

Anyway, it would be awkward if he just froze there… Should I be the one to speak first in a situation like this? Whatever. In Einheria, we’ll say that’s acceptable.

“Standing there with your shoulders tight won’t change anything. Sit… Viscount.”

Since I didn’t know how to address him properly, I just went with “Viscount.” It should be fine. Probably.

He looked slightly dubious, but he sat down obediently.

“Now then. This is our first time meeting face-to-face, but I am Fels, King of Einheria. You’ve at least heard my name from the knight who came here before, haven’t you?”

“It is an honor to meet you, King of Einheria. I am Viscount Karmos-Fivro-Yōntsu, lord of Yōntsu Territory in the Lumoria Kingdom.”

He introduced himself while looking straight at me, without bowing his head.

His gaze was stern, but considering he’d just lost a battle, I didn’t feel hatred or anger in it… at least, I didn’t think I did.

“So, Viscount. Why did you turn your army toward us? Did we do something to you?”

We had occupied a village and declared it ours, didn’t we. And honestly, if soldiers and a king suddenly appeared on another nation’s land, you couldn’t complain about an army being sent. Even a country obsessed with “exclusive defense” would shoot.

As expected… no, as it should be, the viscount’s eyes widened at my words.

“We dispatched our army to answer the lamentations of suffering citizens. I believe we explained that carefully to your knight… Why did you turn your army toward us?”

It was shameless beyond belief… but I was the King of Einheria now. I couldn’t admit wrongdoing in my actions. Not in public matters, anyway.

As a Japanese person, I’d like to bow my head endlessly for personal matters. Well… I probably couldn’t, but still.

“…This is land our ancestors opened, our king rules, and my house holds in trust.”

“I will accept that you opened it. But your claim of ruling it is hard to accept. If you truly ruled it, there would be no cries of lamentation from your citizens.”

“That is…! We did dispatch troops. It seems our response was somewhat delayed, but…”

He spoke with anguish on his face. Well, without inter-base communication or teleportation, that made sense. I didn’t know how long it took between citizens filing a plea and troops being sent, but a knight corps had arrived only a few days after we accepted the request. Bangagonga and the others really had been at the limit.

“Viscount. You cannot see it, so I will tell you. A country has a country’s field of vision. A lord has a lord’s field of vision. And citizens have a citizens’ field of vision. Naturally, a citizen’s view is narrow. They judge happiness and misery only by what lies before their eyes.”

“…”

“What matters is the result. I saved those citizens. Your kingdom did not. Is it not natural that they would seek the protection of the one who brought them benefit?”

That was a lie.

I had threatened them into submission.

“But that—!”

“Because your domain is wide, you say they should wait? I told you, Viscount. Citizens do not possess that field of vision. And above all, governance means to rule and to bring order. If you prattle about ‘my land,’ then rule it properly. There should be no room for lamentation to arise at all.”

“You would save… every citizen’s lamentation?”

“No. Once they enter my rule, every lamentation up to that point will be wiped away. And they will never lament again. That is how I, as king, will be.”

The viscount stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.

I mean… I knew I was saying something absurd. “Under me, all lamentation will vanish”… impossible. People lament easily. If I lost my wallet, I’d absolutely lament… and anyone who wouldn’t is probably a minority.

Well, I wasn’t talking about everyday complaints, and I knew that… but still. That was my line, wasn’t it. How terrifying—an Overlord who says outrageous things with a straight face.

Also, why was I even saying all this again…? Right. I was pushing the line of “you failed, so I did it for you!” So I had to keep pressing hard.

Well, this was my Overlord act… I was going all-in and making it count.