The Lord Speaks

Madman.

The man sitting across from me spoke like a madman.

Or else, a colossal fool who could not see reality.

They were words that ought to be dismissed with a laugh—that was how I understood it.

And yet, my eyes, my heart, denied it.

My reason insisted that every word from his mouth was delusion, mere ravings… but my eyes and heart told me the person before me was the sort of great hero found in legends.

He had been speaking words utterly beyond his station, and the reason I could not simply sneer and call them empty boasting lay in his eyes.

They were not the eyes of a lunatic, nor the inorganic gaze of someone trying to martyr himself to the role of “king,” nor the unfocused eyes of a dreamer blind to reality.

They held many emotions and thoughts—and within them, I saw a fierce will to hold to himself no matter what.

As I watched those eyes, I suddenly realized something.

From the person seated before me… no, from everyone inside this command tent, I felt no hostility toward me.

Even if the battle had already ended, we had only just crossed spears. True, we had dealt them almost no damage, but even so—could one really discard ill will so completely and look upon the enemy’s overall commander like this?

The moment I reached that thought, I grasped a single fact.

They did not see me as an enemy… no, I was not even fit to be their enemy.

In the battle earlier, our army—set in a formation biased toward defense—had been swept away in its entirety by the enemy vanguard, as if our soldiers were made of paper. Before those behind us could even begin to retreat.

The commander who had scythed through our army was here in this tent as well… and not only did he show no fatigue whatsoever, but despite having just raced across a battlefield, he bore not the slightest stain of mud or blood.

An overwhelming gap in strength—no, even that phrase felt too gentle. The difference in rank was that absolute.

If I tried to harm the King of Einheria… no, perhaps even if I merely thought of it, I might be met with death.

That was how utterly separated we were.

For a brief moment, I took my focus off the King of Einheria and turned my awareness to those around him.

Every Einherian commander here seemed to hold reverence for their king, yet there was no fanaticism in it. They accepted his existence as it was, and only then offered him their loyalty.

A man to whom such commanders—men who radiated a sense of integrity—swore loyalty…

For someone who stood above others, it was impossible not to take interest in what sort of person he was.

I likely would not be permitted to return home with information gained here…

Even so, wishing to know more about this extraordinary hero, I opened my mouth.

“…I am nothing more than a provincial lord. I understand the nobility of what you say, but I cannot believe such things can be accomplished by human hands.”

“That you call it ‘noble’ is precisely why you are unfit to govern. A lord is entrusted with a portion of the kingdom, is he not? Does your king not bring peace and safety to the people?”

“…His Majesty loves his people and cherishes them. That we cannot save all citizens is solely because we, his vassals, are lacking.”

“Your king, Viscount, cherishes the people?”

“Yes.”

At the very least, the king to whom I had sworn loyalty had worked himself to the bone for his people. The current king… seemed to hold somewhat different views.

“It is natural that a king loves his people, but to say he ‘cherishes’ them is arrogance. The people can live without the king, but without the people, the king cannot live. A king does rule and protect the people, but only because that is his assigned role.”

“That does not sound like a king’s words. A king emits authority merely by existing. A flick of his finger makes many obey, and a single utterance decides a nation’s course. A king stands above the people, and because he is king he is absolute—and because he is absolute, he is king.”

“Hah hah hah! Incredible. So that is the throne of the Lumoria Kingdom—an absolute being, is it? Hah hah hah!”

“What do you find so amusing…?”

From the bottom of his heart, he laughed—as though mocking the very idea of a king. It almost made me mistake him for someone who lacked awareness that he himself was a king… and yet everything he did and said was unmistakably kingly.

“Let me ask you one thing. How long a history does the Lumoria Kingdom have?”

“The Lumoria Kingdom has a history of two hundred and fifty years.”

“Oh? And what happened two hundred and fifty years ago to create the Lumoria Kingdom?”

“Our kingdom began when a hero subdued a great goblin nation, became the founding king by his achievements in that war, and established Lumoria. In this region, I believe most nations—excluding the newer ones—trace their origins back to the same roots.”

“Hm… I see.”

The King of Einheria nodded, looking satisfied.

But in the first place… where had this king—no, this army—come from?

There had never been any nation called Einheria among Lumoria’s neighbors.

I wanted to pry that out somehow, but…

“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the king took up the sword and founded the country. But today’s king… is absolute? He is nothing more than the descendant of a hero. He is far from an absolute being.”

The King of Einheria spoke with a derisive smile.

“It is the bloodline, passed down unbroken from the founder, that is noble. Because we honor the founding king who shed blood and fought for the people—and because we honor our forebears who ran through that era of war alongside him—we serve the kingdom and protect our houses.”

“Even if the beginning was a hero, today’s king and nobles are still just people, aren’t they? The feats were done by the king’s ancestors. The feats were supported by the nobles’ ancestors. If blood is what’s noble, then why not draw it and worship the blood? You won’t need a body or a head, will you?”

This went beyond mere insolence…

How could a man who was himself a king declare kingship so worthless!?

To belittle the king was to belittle the kingdom—and to belittle the vassals who served it.

And the one who should understand that best was the king himself—yet he said it anyway!?

Every word would return to him, and to the retainers at his side!

“Since earlier… do you call yourself king while scorning kingship? A king—authority—is not something that can be degraded by such word games! The wishes of our forebears are embodied in the king who bears the present age! The king is the crystallization of all our hopes! The one whom all nobles, all people, look up to! That is what a king is!”

It had to be so.

Because it was so, we nobles served the king and enriched the realm.

If that premise collapsed…

It meant nothing less than the kingdom could no longer maintain its dignity.

“I see. That was an interesting story. It does not align with my thinking, but… I will use it as reference when I speak with the king you serve.”

He ignored my agitation completely, as if declaring the matter finished.

…Even I did not understand why my heart had been shaken so deeply.

No—this sludge pooling at the bottom of me was anxiety. I could not define it clearly… but this king had spoken words that could shake the very foundation of my being.

No! That did not matter now!

More importantly—what had he just said?

When he spoke with the king I served… he said that, did he not?

There was no way he meant to begin friendly diplomacy in this situation…

Which meant only one thing: a clear intent to invade.

“This is within Lumoria. You illegally occupied our land… and now you would spread the flames of war further?”

“Spread the flames of war? What an unkind way to put it. When did we ever turn our blades upon your kingdom? I have said it many times—we merely answered those who petitioned us.”

“…Then allow us to negotiate the return—”

“Viscount. The villagers are already my people. There is nowhere to return them to.”

“…”

A village of that scale…

Within Lumoria, there were countless villages of similar size. Even if Lumoria lost one, it would hardly sting.

But that was not the problem.

For now, only Yōntsu Territory, Assen Territory, and a portion of those in the capital knew that a group claiming to be another nation’s army had appeared within our borders.

But now that our army had lost, word would spread across the entire kingdom… and even to neighboring nations.

A new nation appearing suddenly inside our territory would be tantamount to advertising that the kingdom no longer functioned normally.

Naturally, other countries would seize this opening and begin carving away Lumoria’s lands.

To minimize that wound, the king would inevitably move to suppress the Einherian army.

And viewing our defeat as grave, he would likely send no fewer than ten thousand troops.

But… could we win?

The commander who captured me…

Did Lumoria possess any hero capable of matching him?

Even if we succeeded in containing that commander through strategy…

There was also that great magic—the wall of flame that prevented our retreat.

It was likely the sort of spell that required dozens, perhaps hundreds, of mages to perform a ritual to cast… but if that magic were unleashed, the royal army would collapse without question.

At the very least, it did not feel like something that could be defended against with defensive magic…

Could the defense spells of our magic corps stop it?

With my lack of battlefield experience, I could not say for certain.

But… I could not believe that either that commander’s strength or that wall of flame was something that numbers alone could overcome.

If the royal army were defeated, the neighboring nations would certainly move.

And the lords along the border would, one after another, break away from Lumoria.

With the royal army—meant to serve as the rear guard—defeated, there would be no way to stop invasions from other nations.

“And you spoke of spreading the flames of war, but…”

As I pictured the future that would come, I had likely gone pale…

Yet the King of Einheria continued without caring.

“We merely brush away the sparks that fall upon us. I do not care what those scattered sparks burn.”

His eyes spoke plainly: what would burn was Lumoria.

He shrugged.

“I am not unwilling to put the fire out for you. Of course, if I do, that land will never again call itself Lumoria.”

“…”

No.

We must not fight this army.

Even if we brought ten times the soldiers…

It was Lumoria that would be consumed by flames.

This army… this nation called Einheria… could do it that easily.

That was the weight I felt from this king.

“Your king is an absolute being, is he not? Then he cannot leave a wound that formed within his borders as it is… can he?”

“…That is…”

At this point, it no longer mattered which argument was correct.

And the one who had advanced things to this point…

Was me.

We should not have sent an army…

We should have sent an envoy.

This king was not a dictator who refused to hear others.

That was obvious—because he continued to speak with me directly, even though I was only the viscount of another country.

The first encounter had doomed us.

Driven by that impression, we thought of this army as bandits illegally occupying a village.

But they had declared themselves a nation from the beginning…

And precisely because of that, we should have acted with caution.

Because I was foolish…

The Lumoria Kingdom, which had endured for two hundred and fifty years, would fall.