Chapter 104

A little while after we arrived at the harbor, a small boat came in from offshore.

A white flag was raised on it, and I was surprised to learn that even in this world, a white flag apparently signified surrender.

When the person aboard the small boat came within earshot, he introduced himself as Frost Roran-Bax, acting manager of the Bax Company.

He was the commander responsible for that fleet, and according to Cole, he seemed to be the eldest son of the Bax family.

The one rowing the small boat was the beastman I had exchanged words with earlier, and there were about two more people aboard, but they seemed to be scribes.

Cole’s older brother, who had introduced himself as Frost, had the height, broad shoulders, and long hair that seemed perfectly suited to a noble. In ordinary times, he probably would have looked every bit like a high-ranking noble, but right now, he was soaking wet and utterly bedraggled.

It seemed the fleet offshore had also fallen into complete chaos because of the blast and the raging waves, and when he got off the boat, his legs trembled like a fawn’s, and his teeth would not stop chattering.

Even so, I could see something like pride in him as he tried to maintain his composure, so I thought nobles had it rough too.

“Welcome to Jirenu Territory. We are generous to prisoners. ……Unlike you people.”

Iiria, who had come out to meet them, smiled with as much sarcasm as she could pack into the moment.

Really, she was a girl perfectly suited to being a lord.

And so, as we were taking the now-captured dignitary of Roran to Iiria’s mansion—

Someone struck me on the waist from behind as I was walking a little apart from the group.

When I turned around, it was Kururu disguised as Dorasutel.

“Why are you soaked like a drowned rat too? Did you get startled and fall off the boat?”

She had a teasing smile, and her ears and tail were moving briskly. Apparently, she was a little excited because the great magic had gone well.

Remembering the fear I had felt at the time, I nearly got a little angry, but when I saw Kururu’s tail swaying happily beneath her cloak, that anger scattered too.

“Kururu-san, what happened to your face?”

“Master said this is what you do when lying in ambush.”

Kururu’s face beneath her hood was striped with charcoal and dirt.

It was probably meant as camouflage, but for a sniping shot—no, bombing—from such an absurd distance, camouflage was completely meaningless.

Gerario had probably done it to be considerate of the nervous Kururu.

After all, if Kururu had made a mistake with her hands, we would probably be on the surface of the moon right now.

“I couldn’t really tell from where I was, but it looks like it made for a good threat.”

The exhaustion of Cole’s older brother and the others being led away was obvious even at a glance.

However, as for me right now, emotionally speaking, I was more on their side.

“Next time, let’s leave it to Gerario-san, and you can experience that together with us too, Kururu-san.”

When I said that with a smile, Kururu widened her eyes, then hunched her shoulders.

“W-was it really that bad? I fired the magic at a place far enough away, didn’t I?”

“I thought the world was ending.”

Most likely, because they had been watching from so far away, it had not felt real to Kururu and the others.

They might have simply thought something like, a white mushroom sprouted from the blue sea.

“……Master said magic is better the bigger it is……”

Kururu made excuses like a girl sulking after being scolded for a prank.

“From next time on, please be the one to restrain him, Kururu-san.”

“……”

Kururu hunched her shoulders in dissatisfaction.

“Still, Jirenu should be safe for a while now.”

The people of Roran who had seen that huge explosion must have thought that an unbelievably enormous magic stone had been discovered in Jirenu’s mine. They must have thought Jirenu had rebelled against Roran because we had obtained a magic stone capable of firing magic to match it.

If we used that point in negotiations, we should be able to avoid interference from Roran as an untouchable existence.

“Do you think the negotiations will go well?”

Perhaps because she was reflecting on having gone too far, she asked while looking slightly upward.

In response to those words, all I had to do was jerk my chin toward the pitiful nobleman.

“Just look at him. Even if we told them to all bare their stomachs and dance, they would accept it.”

“Nfuh.”

Kururu burst out laughing, then pulled the hem of her hood down to hide her face and shook her shoulders.

While thinking she had a strange sense of humor, I was happy that I had managed to get back at her a little.

Cole’s older brother, the eldest son of the Bax Company family, Frost Roran-Bax.

The name Roran apparently indicated governing authority, and since there seemed to be two other families that shared it, Roran seemed to be a pseudo-republic ruled by powerful houses.

However, even in Roran, the largest Bax Company was apparently still at the center of power, and all negotiations had supposedly been entrusted to Frost.

Or perhaps, simply because Cole of the same family was on the enemy side, the Bax family had been told to take responsibility and he had been sent into a deathtrap.

Either way, even among those arrogant people of Roran, apparently not a single person had called for thorough resistance after being shown that magic.

This Frost had been entrusted with ceasefire negotiations and pleading for the lives of those in that fleet.

When the offer of peace was made by Frost’s side, Iiria answered.

“Our demands are simple. We have no interest in things like your territory or power. What we want is only peace for this land. So we will deliver magic stones to you as before, and we also want you to trade with us. We want to get along with Roran as we always have, as though nothing ever happened.”

After saying that, she smiled with plenty of playfulness, but if this Iiria waved her right hand just a little, a gigantic pillar of water would rise from the sea again, and the fleet would be blown to splinters.

Then if she leisurely brought a ship to the coast of Roran and did the same thing, that historic cityscape would vanish from the map forever.

Frost, who understood that, and the two scribes, who originally should have had the role of entering this territory and directing the invasion, were not in any mood to laugh at Iiria’s light joke.

But Iiria, whose playfulness had not been understood, suddenly became serious and said,

“Are you dissatisfied?”

Iiria had a fine personality.

All three prisoners inhaled sharply at once, but Frost, acting like the commander he was, answered as their representative.

“……No.”

Iiria smiled in satisfaction and placed the draft of the peace agreement that had been prepared in advance on the table.

Frost turned his eyes to it, briefly checked the document, and then had the two scribes beside him check the wording as well.

Iiria held out a quill to Frost, and Frost, the defeated commander, obediently accepted it.

The two scribes probably did not have the courage to cut in here either.

They timidly handed the document back to Frost, and once he signed it, there would, for the moment, be a clear prospect of ending the fight with Roran.

I had just relaxed with a feeling of relief.

Immediately after that—

Frost slowly took a long breath and spoke as though staking his life.

“Are the conditions for the ceasefire r-really only this?”

Frost’s tone was that of an overbearing noble, but he was clearly shrinking back.

It felt as though lowering himself before Iiria was not permissible for someone of noble status, but he also could not fully hide the terror he had experienced on the ship.

And since Cole was in the same room, his state of mind was probably even more complicated.

“Only this?”

Iiria seemed to be saying that trying to negotiate at this point was, in a way, impressive courage.

But Frost, who had received that question, did not seem to be trying to negotiate. Rather, he seemed afraid of something.

“It is too……generous. What are you……intending?”

Apparently, he thought there might be some hidden motive.

Certainly, what they had done up to this point had been far too shortsighted and tyrannical.

Even if she had been only a figurehead until recently, they had lured out Iiria, a legitimate lord, poisoned her, and confined her. On top of that, because their lord had been rescued, they came to attack in retaliation, only to be repelled, and now they were in a situation where their entire fleet, including its commander, had effectively been taken hostage.

It was doubtful whether Roran still had any proper naval forces left, and above all, after being shown that magic, they knew any defense by city walls would be meaningless.

In other words, the people of Roran were still alive now entirely because of Iiria’s mercy.

Gerario had said that normally, the rightful demand would be not only the heads of Deputy Manager Carini, who had plotted to capture Iiria, and every person who had cooperated with him, but also the execution of their entire clans down to their pet dogs, and the complete confiscation of the assets of everyone implicated.

Frost, too, had probably prepared himself to offer up his own life.

The people who had sent Frost here must also have intended to soothe Iiria’s anger even a little by offering up the lives of the Bax Company family, which had created the original spark.

Yet what Iiria proposed was to pretend none of it had ever happened.

From their perspective, it was so generous that it felt unsettling.

However, that was exactly the aim of this proposal.

Before Roran attacked, we had all discussed what the terms of reconciliation should be.

From the common sense of war, Gerario had insisted that the terms should be harsh enough that the other side would never lay a hand on us again, and Kengo had said that even if we set aside executing those involved in the kidnapping incident, we should at least take a huge amount of compensation.

Kururu naturally agreed with Gerario’s proposal, and Iiria leaned toward Kengo’s side.

As for me, I thought we should not make punitive conditions, no matter what they were.

Roran was a large city and also the provincial capital. It was undeniable that Jirenu Territory was in a corner of the province, and we would inevitably have to deal with Roran whether we liked it or not.

Of course, if we intended to conquer Roran on this occasion and govern it ourselves, purging all existing powers would be logical.

But Lord Iiria, the lord of this territory, had declared that she wished to leisurely take naps in this land.

Gerario also seemed to want nothing to do with politics, and even Kengo, who seemed the only one suited to it, would not be able to govern a large city all by himself.

In that case, bringing chaos to Roran would not be good, and earning resentment would not be good either.

Rather than that, I thought there was a good way to take advantage of this opportunity.

It was a line from a hard-boiled near-future science fiction manga that I often read in my previous world.

――It is precisely when you are in an advantageous position that bowing your head has value.

There was probably no position more advantageous than this one.

“I see. In that case—”

Iiria said, looking at me.

Contrary to her outwardly calm appearance, I could tell that her fluffy tail was tense.

This was probably her confirming, This is where I should bring up that deal, right? I’m right, aren’t I? But this occasion was also, so to speak, a place to unveil Lord Iiria to the people of Roran.

Maintaining my attitude as nothing more than an adviser, and in order to elevate Iiria as the lord, I said this.

“As you wish, Iiria-sama.”

When I answered as courteously as I could, Iiria’s dog ears stood sharply upright.

Seeing those cute dog ears, which showed her emotions far more clearly than her face did, I was a little surprised.

That was because the shape of Iiria’s ears, as she smiled shortly afterward, clearly indicated displeasure.

By the time I blinked and wondered whether I had still been rude in some way, Iiria had already turned back toward Frost.

“Well then, I have a request.”

At that “request,” in a situation where, no matter how one thought about it, they could not possibly refuse, Frost and the others gulped hard.