17-1 The Footsteps Of War

Michael, the second prince of the Albatross Kingdom, was busily moving about.

Sending that man into the Empire had been absolutely the right choice.

It had stirred up all kinds of ripples throughout the Empire and exposed openings.

An enormous amount of information had flowed in.

Right now, he was in the middle of digesting it all.

But there was no time.

He had also grasped the overall flow of events so far, vague though it still was.

The Empire was planning to execute a lightning operation through a surprise attack.

There was the Princess Milene incident from two years ago, as well as the matter with Emilio.

And then there was the stampede incident.

Under normal circumstances, the Empire would probably have invaded much sooner.

However, thanks in part to that Rare Visitor’s activities, they had been unable to do so, and during that time, the Empire had fallen into a semi-coup state under the second imperial prince.

From our side, the fact that they intended to attack in that state was nothing but laughable.

Because of the recent incident, Prince Sharion’s authority, which had never enjoyed much public support to begin with, had fallen even further.

Regardless of whether they were nobles or commoners, the people wanted the return of Prince Doran, the crown prince.

The people who had propped up that incompetent second prince must be panicking as well.

After all, they had nowhere left to retreat.

In order to create an achievement that was easy to understand at a glance, they would likely carry out a war against the Albatross Kingdom.

We must strike them down steadily here.

Should I make two moves?

First, negotiations with friendly nations.

Ideally, forming a united kingdom army would be best.

The other nations also seemed to be expressing considerable concern beneath the surface over the Empire’s reckless courage, in the sense that they were thinking deeply and far ahead.

They were worried while looking toward the future of the world.

And I should stir that man up even further as well.

It was the appointed time.

In one corner of the room, a man appeared instantly at the designated spot.

It was Granburst.

“Hello, good afternoon. Your Highness Michael. You said you’d let me hear about the information today, right?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, we’ve learned quite a few things. The Empire really is going to attack.”

“Around when?”

“Within about a week, I would say. It will be a surprise operation. After all, their preparations for war have long since been completed. It seems they plan to cross the river in small groups under cover of the dark night and gather on our side. There are also collaborators of the Empire on our side. We are currently having that area investigated. It seems they have also disguised and arranged the movement of people and transport of supplies within the Empire. The amount of supplies being moved as logistics will be considerable, after all. They will likely use storage as much as possible too. When crossing the river, those people use monster-repelling medicine. It seems they have already carried out quite a lot of river-crossing training. Publicly, the reason was the extermination of monsters such as river snakes.”

So they were finally coming.

From the west, right?

“What are the Kingdom’s chances of victory?”

“We have grasped quite a lot of the enemy’s movements. Well, I would say we have a fair chance.”

For this man to say only a fair chance? That would be a problem for me.

“Could you wear this for me?”

I took out the usual bracelet and showed it to him.

“What is this?”

“That is a teleportation bracelet. It has an item box function and a marker function for tracking allies. In Your Highness’s case, the marker function is the main point. You are quite difficult to catch when you are needed.”

“There are so many things I want to object to, but who else has this?”

The prince also asked with a thoughtful expression.

His eyes as he inspected the bracelet were serious.

“Armon, the Guildmaster of the Royal Capital Adventurers’ Guild; my Ars and Mari; twenty other adventurers guarding the Beast-Ear Garden; the current Count Orston; and two other Rare Visitors. Also Eri from Kitchen Eri. You will be the twenty-eighth person. As for me, I have teleportation magic and various abilities of my own.”

“There are that many of them…?”

“Well, I haven’t given them to anyone who doesn’t need one. My place is special in various ways. With that, coordination with other countries should be completed quickly as well. If you’re going anyway, the sooner the better. Since this is an emergency, if anyone asks about it, you can just say you borrowed it from the treasury for a limited period. That should be fine.”

“You say that, but… Well, since you went to the trouble, I’ll gratefully accept it.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now the name Michael of the Gale will shine even brighter. Then I have preparations of my own, so I’ll take my leave.”

After watching Alphonse vanish as though melting into the air, Michael also sank into thought for a while.

Armon, Ars.

Those nostalgic names lingered in his ears.

During the Sky Garden incident two years ago, if not for their unexpectedly great efforts, neither his younger sister Merine nor this country would ever have escaped unharmed.

And this time as well, that wild troublemaker and the Rainbow Fals known as Sacred Elion were lending their strength.

Could this also be thanks to the protection left behind by Founder Yamato?

Not long ago, Elder Brother had brought back something that seemed as though it would bring yet another outrageous blessing.

Though apparently, that was something that wild troublemaker had done too.

This is the critical moment.

The wild troublemaker has been stirred up.

I’ve also received something good, so I suppose I should set out at once.

For the time being, he checked the bracelet, and its usage was the same as the one kept by the royal family.

That man had previously been granted permission to enter the treasury, so he had probably seen through its mechanism at that time.

Michael himself had tried various things to see whether the bracelet could be reproduced in preparation for the war against the Empire, but it had been wasted effort.

Good grief, this is why Rare Visitors are what they are.

And that includes my own ancestor.

All he could do was shrug, thinking that it was fortunate that man was not an enemy.

First, he jumped to the royal palace of the neighboring Kingdom of Hyde.

It was the country where Crown Prince Sid, the fiancé of First Princess Merine, resided.

He sent advance notice through the “communication device,” a means of contacting embassies in various countries and friendly kingdoms, informing them that he would be coming by teleportation magic.

Then he vanished on the spot.

I returned to the Beast-Ear Garden and looked at the MAP in my room.

“Considering the length of the river that occupies a considerable distance along the border, defense will be difficult if things stay as they are now.

And there’s something else I have in mind too.”

Then I showed my face in the direction of the garden’s large hall.

“Meow~”

I heard a calling voice, so when I looked, it was little cat-eared Remi.

She was inside her favorite cardboard box.

I felt my stern, tense expression loosen without thinking.

Relax a little, old man.

There are plenty of things in this world that won’t work out if you stay tense all the time.

The cardboard boxes I had developed for the sports day had been a huge hit with the cat people.

For that reason, I had created them in various sizes and tried putting different patterns on them.

Someone might object and say I should release them for merchants instead, but I did not worry about that.

After all, I was just the principal of a kindergarten.

Come to think of it, at first I had supposedly been a merchant, and I had done various kinds of business.

But I was supporting this many children.

It cost a ridiculous amount of money.

I had to earn properly.

Unlike Japanese child welfare facilities, this place did not receive a budget from the nation or local government.

And nobody donated anything either.

In any case, cuteness is justice.

Cat ears are justice too.

When I crouched down and ruffled her head, Remi looked extremely happy as well.

From the perspective of a Japanese person from another world, there were also issues related to this child’s age that felt far too harsh, but because of the circumstances in the beginning, when she had not warmed up to me easily, I felt especially attached to her.

I had to protect this peace no matter what.

Whatever it took, I had to immediately work out countermeasures against the Empire.

After that, I gathered the necessary people and held a meeting with the main members responsible for defending the Beast-Ear Garden.

“It looks like war will break out soon. The Empire is going to launch a surprise attack. There is a possibility they will attack the Beast-Ear Garden in order to pin me down here. Since Fal, the Sacred Elion, is here, normally I would wonder if they would really do that, but I think that idiot second imperial prince’s faction wouldn’t care about such things at all. What do you think, Ars? You fought fiercely with the people from the Empire in the past, right?

I heard about it from Princess Milene.”

Ars answered while folding his arms, as though recalling the past.

“Yeah, if anyone comes, it’ll be Balan. That guy has a history with me too. Unlike Rick, who was just crooked, that guy is dangerous. He has a special ability and bears the alias Balan of Scorching Heat. His swordsmanship and other magic are top-class too, and more than anything, the difference in experience is huge. Even I, as a fellow S-rank, can’t imagine the depth of the hellish battlefields he’s survived. I’ve only heard rumors about that part, but he must have done all kinds of dirty work ordered by the Empire. In any case, I’ll just say that you should not fight him head-on.”

“He’s really that incredible?”

“Yeah. Even back during that old case, when we ended up on enemy sides, it nearly became a real fight to the death, but he withdrew through negotiation. At that time, I was in such an overwhelmingly advantageous position that he had no choice but to silently back down, so it was fine. But I really don’t want to fight that old man on equal footing. Especially because I have a history of forcefully driving him off while he was in the middle of an important job, so I must have left a deep impression on him. I’m probably hated quite fiercely. He prided himself on never failing a job. Back then, he left behind a terrible parting threat before retreating.”

“Ahaha. Not bad at all, you.”

“Yeah. I’m extremely strong too, so I don’t think I’d be unable to beat him, but I have no confidence at all that I’d finish the fight with all my limbs intact. That old man really is dangerous. Even you can’t be guaranteed to come out unharmed if you fight him. If you have some sort of finishing move, you should prepare it carefully from now. If he takes the job, the Empire can claim at worst that a single adventurer attacked this place on his own. Since Fal-chan, the Sacred Elion, is here, they probably won’t send imperial soldiers openly wearing the Empire’s crest. Since Flash-God is in the enemy group, the enemy intelligence agents will probably be wandering all over Adros.”

“I see. In any case, at the very least, we have to protect the children. It’s good that the defenses were strengthened after Rick’s attack. I’ll push that area even further. Ed, I want to carry out evacuation drills for the children. This time, the Spirit Forest will also be included. Also, I’ll be working on countermeasures against Balan. That will take time, so let me skip the garden events for a while. Aoi-chan, please support that side. Yamamoto-san, please help her too. This is a job that would be difficult unless handled by Japanese people.”

Of course, Aoi-chan seemed carefree.

After all, she had also gotten a Japanese assistant.

“Leave it to me~. But war, huh? I hate war~”

Yamamoto-san said something even more carefree on top of that.

“So that country was actually pretty dangerous. Will everything be all right? Ah, I’ll help with whatever I can. It’s the school play and Christmas, right? I’m single, so I don’t really know much about recent kindergarten events. Also, I’ll go ahead with preparations for New Year’s dishes and the like. Please leave cooking-related matters in general to me.”

“Ahaha, well, that’s reassuring. I’m sure we’ll manage somehow. The other side has weakened itself by staging something like a coup. In terms of personnel, the Kingdom has the advantage. In any case, I can’t let them attack this place. If this turns into a proper, normal war, it’s obvious as day that the Empire, which has superior numbers, is stronger than the Albatross Kingdom alone. I’ll crush them as much as possible before it becomes a full-scale war where enemy and ally forces get tangled together. But please also keep in mind the worst of the worst: that the Kingdom might lose. If that happens, the entire Beast-Ear Garden will flee to another country. But if it comes to that, we may become refugees and have to wander from place to place. It would be almost like all of us going to hell together, so I’ll do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”