Hearing About The Lumoria Kingdom From The Former Viscount

“Karmos. I asked you to come today because I wanted to hear about the Lumoria Kingdom.”

“Yes, sir.”

Karmos said that and bowed his head. The potion discussion had derailed us from the main point quite a bit, but that was that—honestly, it had been pretty fruitful, so I’d call it a win.

“I called Kiriku and Ilmitt too, but… wait a moment. Kiriku, can you hear me?”

‘Yes! I can hear you! I’m very sorry! Ilmitt and I are on our way to you now, Fels-sama! Could you please wait seventeen seconds!?’

“Yeah, perfect timing. As expected of you two, Kiriku.”

If I didn’t say that, they might cause a traffic accident. They weren’t exactly strong in combat, but if they ran at full speed, they could easily hit a pace that would trigger speed cameras. If they crashed into someone, it could turn into an unimaginable disaster.

‘Thank you very much!’

Unaware of my thoughts, Kiriku replied cheerfully.

Did she say seventeen seconds? Knowing Kiriku, she’d arrive with not even a one-second difference… but unfortunately, I wasn’t counting, so there was no way to confirm.

While I was thinking that, it seemed they’d reached the room—there was a knock at the door.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. It’s Kiriku and Ilmitt.”

I’d be more surprised if it weren’t them at this timing, but there was no such twist; Kiriku’s voice came from the other side.

“Enter.”

I guided the two who came in to their chairs. Before sitting, Kiriku spread out the papers she’d been holding on the table.

A map… right. Of course you’d prepare a map for this kind of discussion.

Meanwhile, I hadn’t prepared one, because I was inattentive… Really, without Kiriku and the others, I’d be hopeless. I’d probably get Einheria destroyed almost immediately.

“The next battle will be against the Lumoria Kingdom’s national army. The army’s size is fifteen thousand. On top of that, three thousand will be dispatched from Harekukku Territory, the neighboring territory to Yōntsu. They might join up, but… if it were me, I’d move them under a separate chain of command.”

“Depending on where our forces collide with the enemy main army, the movement of the force coming from Harekukku should change.”

Kiriku spoke with a hand to her chin.

“They could coordinate with the main force for a pincer attack, or they could aim for the towns in Yōntsu Territory. They could also try to target our base, but judging by their movements, they probably don’t know where our castle is.”

“That is almost certainly the case. They would never send people into a dragon’s lair, and for someone of these neighboring nations, establishing a base in this place is beyond imagination.”

Karmos said with a wry smile.

“That part makes things easier. Well, if they target this castle, we’ll wipe them out without discussion.”

“Exactly~. But~ personally~ I’d rather not let lowly people come anywhere near the castle~.”

“Fels-sama, I feel the same. If the enemy army is planning to approach this castle, we should go out ourselves and destroy them.”

Ilmitt and Lynferia said that with pleasant smiles, but the content was anything but gentle.

“Right. If that happens, we’ll crush them ourselves. But it doesn’t look necessary this time.”

I looked down at the map spread across the desk.

“Yōntsu Territory is fairly close to the center of the Lumoria Kingdom, but it looks like there’s one more territory between here and the capital.”

“Yes. Around Yōntsu Territory, there is Assen Territory to the west, Harekukku Territory to the east, Kruser Territory to the north, and Hareru Territory to the south. The capital lies further beyond Kruser Territory to the north.”

“The army coming from the capital is fifteen thousand, but won’t it link up with Kruser Territory’s forces in Kruser Territory?”

As I asked while listening to Karmos’s explanation, Karmos thought with a serious expression, then gave a small shake of his head.

“…Most likely not. The Lumoria Kingdom is divided into two factions: the old nobility and the rising nobility. Since the current king took the throne, relations between the two have become the worst imaginable, and I doubt they will cooperate at all. The national army belongs to the rising-nobility faction. Viscount Kruser of Kruser Territory belongs to the old-nobility faction.”

“You say their relationship is the worst—specifically, what happened?”

Kiriku asked, and Karmos answered with a slightly gloomy look.

“You can likely infer this from the fact that the national army belongs to the rising-nobility faction, but the current king of Lumoria was a king put on the throne by the rising nobility. And that current king is a puppet… specifically, a puppet of Count Harekukku.”

“To make the king a puppet…? What utter disrespect…”

Kiriku spat it out with disgust. From Lynferia and the others’ expressions, they seemed to agree.

“To them, the king is nothing more than authority they can use conveniently. They use that authority to weaken the old nobility, and divert what’s taken into their own interests. Yōntsu Territory being targeted was part of that stream.”

Karmos said it matter-of-factly, but… Lumoria’s internal affairs were anything but healthy.

“A power struggle among nobles… The people wouldn’t care, but I suppose it matters to those involved.”

“It is truly foolish. There are far more important things they should be doing.”

Lynferia nodded along, her face full of disgust.

“In the next battle, it seems the Lumoria King himself will appear. What do you make of that?”

I looked away from Lynferia and asked Karmos. Karmos opened his eyes wide.

“The Lumoria King is taking the field…? I cannot imagine it as anything but insanity…”

“So it is abnormal for a king to appear.”

“The Lumoria Kingdom has had many border conflicts, but there has been no major war in the last several decades, and the king has never taken the field. Nor is the king personally known for martial prowess.”

“First battle, and he’s supreme commander. Someone else will probably handle the actual command, but… even so, he doesn’t sound like the type who’d come to the battlefield…”

“…Baseless confidence and an inflated ego. The current king is, regrettably, the sort you would call a grown child. Even if he participates, it brings a hundred harms and not a single benefit. To be honest, to the rising nobility, the king is merely a ceremonial platform, but even so, he is not something they can afford to lose. Sending the king into a battlefield where even a ‘one in ten thousand’ could occur is unthinkable, and yet…”

Karmos fell into thought.

“They’re definitely underestimating us. They believe we have around three thousand troops, and with eighteen thousand total, they can crush us easily.”

“Certainly, with that gap, I can understand thinking it will be an overwhelming victory, but… isn’t the gap still within a range where heroes and strategy could overturn it?”

Karmos tilted his head at my words, but I continued without relaxing my posture.

“People cover up inconvenient facts and think the way they want. The information the enemy believes is probably this: the Yōntsu–Assen allied army lost to an unknown force, and the force that surged into the territorial capital numbered three thousand. Those two points. If the enemy had three thousand troops, it wouldn’t be strange for a fifteen-hundred allied army to lose. And if three thousand attacked the capital, then the enemy’s total force can’t be far above three thousand. Because they aren’t the army of an adjacent nation; they’re a group that appeared from nowhere. They wouldn’t hold troops back—they would have sent all they had. That’s probably how they’re reasoning.”

“And the matter of Arandor-sama, who seized a city alone… they’re ignoring it?”

“They might have taken some countermeasures, but they probably don’t treat it as critical. Otherwise, I doubt the king would take the field.”

“I see… but to make light of a hero is practically to guarantee defeat…”

Karmos said that as if enduring a headache. Even if he’d turned his back on Lumoria, the foolishness of a nation he’d served for years was probably stirring complicated feelings.

“This is just me interpreting the information I can see in a convenient way. Doubt everything, even my words. The conclusions you reach alone are the most fragile. That’s why we’ve gathered like this.”

Everyone in the room nodded with serious expressions.

If anything, the Overlord in me was not confident at all, so I’d welcome people tearing my opinions apart.

Oh, right—while we’re at it, I should ask Karmos about heroes.

“By the way, are heroes fairly common?”

“Yes… even a small country usually has at least one on its rolls. For a great power, it’s not unusual to have two or three. The Lumoria Kingdom currently has none.”

“They’re like a trump card in war, right? Why doesn’t Lumoria have one?”

“There was one until about ten years ago, but… they departed, saying they could not get along with the king.”

They let their trump card walk away… The people around the king should have tried harder.

…No, if the hero went berserk, you couldn’t stop them. Maybe you simply couldn’t force them to stay.

“It’s remarkable the Lumoria Kingdom avoided invasion up to now.”

“The borders with other countries are held by old-nobility marquises and counts. Because they are distant from the center, they have little interest in the troublesome power struggles.”

“…That, too, would create its own problems. If those who form the backbone of national defense have no interest in the center, then an unbalanced system is inevitable.”

“Lumoria’s old nobility, for better or worse, has little interest in matters outside their own territories…”

Honestly, it was impressive the kingdom had lasted more than two hundred years…

Or maybe it lasted because each local lord defended their own region. Was it like… local warlords in a fractured era?

“From what you’ve said, even if we defeat the national army and bring down the king, the regional lords won’t necessarily submit to us.”

“As Your Majesty says, if word reaches them that the national army has been defeated, the old nobility who hold border territories will likely submit to other countries.”

“What a nuisance. They’ll abandon the kingdom if it loses, but they have no intention of joining the fight.”

“It would be better to think of it as: they have already abandoned it. The only reason the border regions still call themselves part of Lumoria is because the national army exists.”

“So there may be forts at the border to fight other nations, but they can’t defend against an attack from inside the kingdom.”

“The national army totals roughly thirty-five thousand. They are moving fifteen thousand for this campaign, and the remaining twenty thousand—along with the rising nobility—are watching the backs of the old nobles defending the borders, as if to say, ‘Don’t try anything.’”

“So the national army’s true concern isn’t foreign enemies—it’s the local old nobles who are supposedly on their side. I’m starting to understand the old nobility’s nature.”

Prioritizing your own land over the crown wasn’t that rare, probably. It felt like… regional lords who treated alliances as tools.

“Though they’re called the rising-nobility faction and old-nobility faction, the rising nobles aside, the old nobles are not a monolith. Under those conditions, it’s only natural that the rising-nobility faction holds power.”

If anything, the rising nobles sounded like the group that cared more about the kingdom as a unit. Well, what they were doing was securing their own interests… The difference between ‘new’ and ‘old’ was really whether they were still climbing or already entrenched.

Despite the name ‘old-nobility faction,’ their loyalty to the crown wasn’t particularly strong, and they even seemed matter-of-fact about it… Lumoria’s nobles gave me the impression of regional warlords and local clans.

“If we undermine the national army, and then immediately lay groundwork with the regional old nobles, we might be able to take their territories easily.”

It was probably better to treat Lumoria not as a single country, but as separate territories.

“You mean Einheria would replace the national army?”

“From what you’ve told us, many of those old nobles will accept any framework so long as the peace of their territory is guaranteed. If they aren’t fixated on ‘being the lord’ themselves, then like Karmos, we can appoint them as governors. It won’t be rule by ‘lords’ anymore but administration by city units… but I’d want them to comply with that.”

“I had no other choice, so I accepted all of Your Majesty’s terms, but… will they accept them?”

“If they won’t, then the Einheria army—stronger than the national army—will move. I’d prefer to spill as little blood as possible, but if they refuse, then it’s simply a necessary battle.”

Whether we even needed to expand that far was questionable, though.

Under my gaze, Karmos swallowed tensely.

“…If we are to negotiate and subvert the regions, I would like to participate as well.”

“Karmos’s knowledge is necessary to us. Of course you’ll participate, but… you also have the governor’s work. Will you be all right?”

When I asked while loosening my shoulders a little, Karmos gave a wry smile.

“I also believe it is better to spill less blood. And… we have potions.”

Yeah… if Karmos was going to work himself to the bone with a potion (energy drink) in hand, I needed to make sure he was properly rewarded…