CH 115

Chapter 115

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : Flames Of War In The Central Plains, Part 3 — Princess Of Krummus

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

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And now Rhine was on the carriage. Now that he knew what was going on, Rhine couldn’t leave the place and decided to accompany Rayfan and others for the time being.

「I didn’t realize you were a woman.」

「Yes, I was surprised, too. Well, I guess I wasn’t at an age where I hadn’t developed my female characteristics yet, so it’s no surprise to hear that I was a man.」

「Well, yeah.」

「Sorry to have deceived you…」

「The princess doesn’t need to apologize!」

The man—— Apparently a bodyguard for Rayfan, who identified himself as Rusty, Rhine watched with blank eyes as he tried desperately to defend Rayfan. During the ride in the carriage, Rhine heard from Rayfan and Rusty that the situation was apparently this.

Krummus has three heirs. Soon after the death of the first prince Rieval and the second prince Wayne, the king collapsed from heartache and the third prince Musuta took over the real power, but apparently there was another princess. Since the king had a concubine when he was old enough, the princess had been raised freely with little or no connection to the succession to the throne, and until now, she had hardly appeared in the public eye.

However, many of the nobles became impatient when Musuta, who was considered incompetent, came to power. Many of the nobles and court officials had not paid much respect to Musuta. Sure enough, when Musuta seized power, a storm of purges broke out at the court, and the nobles who barely survived the storm began to secretly move in rebellion. They thought that they couldn’t let Musuta become king as he was.

If Musuta were no longer around, Krummus would give priority to the succession to the throne to the brother of the current king or to a male child related by marriage. However, although there was no proof, most people in the court believed that Musuta was responsible for the deaths of the first and second princes, and they revoked their claim to the throne, fearing a purge from Musuta.

Therefore, they brought up Rayfan, who was not originally a heir to the throne, and claimed that she would be granted the right to succeed to the throne. After allowing the young Rayfan to take over the throne, Rhine believes that they intend to manipulate her from behind the scenes. If they succeed in carrying Rayfan, then good, if they failed, they will blame it on Rayfan and run away, Rhine was repulsive by the thought of it.

But Musuta was even more shrewd than all of them thought, and he kept a firm watch on Rayfan. He planned to kidnap Rayfan, but he almost failed, thanks to the efforts of Rhine and Dance Slave.

The attempted kidnapping itself had already happened several times, and this was the fourth time. At first, when she was in the capital city of Seimrid, she was escaped to a recreation area by a nobleman of the court who feared that Rayfan was under house arrest, but from there she was attacked by suspicious people on numerous occasions. This time, they made it to Trimedo among the refugees, but once again, it seems their whereabouts were discovered. As for Rhine, he suspected that there is an inside man, but he thought they all know that, and they have kept that under wraps here and now.

So far, she has been what Rhine think is a typical family feud, but there is something that doesn’t add up.

「Is that Musuta that much of a well-prepared person? From what I’ve heard, he’s a rare fool. Oh, and no disrespect to your brother.」

「No, don’t mind me.」

Rayfan looked a little complicated, but she didn’t lose her cool. But instead of Rayfan, who had difficulty answering, Rusty explained.

「Foolishness or not, Prince Musuta was certainly not a man who could do such elaborate things. At least as far as we know. One day, however, he started doing all sorts of things as if he had changed.」

「And that most of them are not for the good of the country.」

「As embarrassing as that sounds, it’s true.」

Rusty was embarrassed of what he had said. Rayfan was also depressed, but Rhine didn’t even give her a second glance, as if he didn’t care.

「Do you have concrete proof? If there is evidence of kidnapping or assassination, could the king offer to strip Musuta of his claim to the throne?」

「There is no proof. I wish I could get something out of the man you captured alive earlier.」

「Well, I kept one of them alive. But I don’t know. Maybe they’re from an assassination guild. They’re tight-lipped, and there’s a good chance they really don’t know. But why don’t you just advise the king, even if it’s only circumstantial evidence?」

「That is… no one has seen the king for months now.」

「What?」

As one would expect, Rhine was surprised. He had assumed that the king was simply lying in bed sick.

「Then Krummus is now…」

「Yeah, it’s almost like Prince Musuta’s personal effects. He has purged those who rebelled and taken most of the remaining military officers to war with Zamwed, but it seems that there are many of the prince’s men left here as well. The king’s bedchamber was packed with soldiers like no one had ever seen before, and no one but the king’s physician was allowed to approach. When did he send such men under his command… And the king seems to be all right, according to the doctor, but his condition is more serious than we thought.」

「That’s not safety, that’s just house arrest. I think that doctor is being held in his arms, too.」

「Maybe so. We would like to help the king somehow, but we can’t go near his bedchamber because of the royal decree in the prince’s handwriting. They don’t hesitate to cut them down if they approach without permission. To counteract this, we need a royal decree from the king himself.」

「But the king is under house arrest. But I didn’t realize the third prince was that manipulative.」

Rhine crossed his arms musingly. He didn’t really care about Krummus, but things were slowly changing. Just a few aristocrats making strange moves can lead to a major incident that could shake the country. Rhine has learned this firsthand before. And if the prince were to become turbulent, it would be a crisis that would threaten the collapse of the nation.

The collapse of the state is a story that has nothing to do with the Rhine, but the situation was a little different for Krummus.

Krummus is a nation adjacent to the land of the Beastmen and, at best, serves as a line of defense. Bordered by Zamwed to the west of Krummus, Tragathlon to the south, Kria to the east, and Fulgund to the north, the state was established as a buffer zone between the four countries.

Originally a war zone between a number of influential people, it was a little over 100 years ago that Krummus functioned as a state, led by the Lancaster family, the most powerful at the time, as it was only waiting to perish when the four surrounding countries were officially established as states.

The Lancaster family had the most western territory and had relatively good relations with the Beastmen, so much so that Zamwed was the first to approve it as a state. Therefore, although Zamwed and Krummus are adjacent to each other, there have been few skirmishes, and the other three countries have continued to standoff with Krummus as a buffer zone, rather than occupy Krummus territory and start a war with the beastmen. In fact, the relationship between Tragathlon and Zamwed in the south was so bitter that they were often at war. Each time, Krummus would take on the role of mediator.

If this Krummus collapses, there will definitely be a war over the Krummus territory. There will no longer be a country to arbitrate between Tragathlon and Zamwed, and Kria is considered to be a nation originally created by bandits, a nation that is not to be caught off guard or unguarded. It’s also no secret that Fulgund is also eager to make the wealthy Trimedo a territory.

「If it goes badly, there will be a major war…」

Rayfan seemed to hear what Rhine muttered, and shivered. Dance Slave glared at Rhine as if to say he was an uncaring man, but Rhine was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice.

After a while, however, Rhine seemed to have come to his senses, and he began to question Rayfan insistently.

「I have a few questions. Can you answer them, even if it’s in lieu of an apology for trying to kill me earlier?」

「…I can.」

「How many forces does Krummus have in total?」

「There is no way we would share such state secrets with a bunch of mercenaries!」

「It’s fine, Rusty.」

Rayfan answers, stopping the agitated Rusty. Rhine doesn’t care about Rusty.

「There are 40,000 soldiers stationed in the capital, 20,000 each of the five dukes of Krummus, for a total of 100,000, and soldiers dispatched from the capital to guard the border, for a total of approximately 40,000 from all four sides. Assuming that there are more than 30,000 street guards and reservists, there must be at least 200,000 people in the army if we can round them up.」

「How many of those troops are at war with Zamwed?」

「We were told that only soldiers who could move quickly from the capital were taken. That’s about 20,000 soldiers, and with the border guards, we are fighting a war with about 30,000 soldiers.」

「…That’s honestly insane.」

「What do you mean?」

Rayfan is apparently unfamiliar with war. It is sad to hear that a 10-year-old girl knows so much about war, as one would expect.

「Is it fine, Rayfan?」

「How dare you address the Princess like that…」

「The outsider being shrugged.」

「What did you say!?」

「Silence, Rusty… Rhine-san, go on.」

Rusty was about to leave his seat, but Rayfan stopped him and sat down.

「Right. It’s said that if Beastmen and Humans were to go to war on the plains, they would need about twice as many men. Most of Zamwed’s territory is just plains, and that’s why that country survived the dawn of time. It’s an advantageous way to wage war. Besides, do you know the total number of guards Zamwed has posted on the border with Tragathlon?」

「No.」

「I’ve heard that there are usually 50,000 people there, too. The rest of Zamwed is surrounded by a nation of beastmen, because they are so homogeneous that they hardly have to devote any manpower to it. The main thing is to just be wary is Tragathlon.

Besides, Tragathlon is said to gather 100,000 soldiers for every war with Zamwed. The Krummus area, assuming that relations are good, even if only half as many people are deployed to the border…」

「Twenty-five thousand. So you’re saying that if we go to war, we’ll lose?」

「So that’s the general view, but you’re winning, right?」

「Yes. Just before I escaped Seimrid a month ago, I heard a report that they had defeated the Zamwed border guards.」

Rhine pondered again. He’s not convinced. The function of an army changes drastically depending on the general who leads it. Of course, there is a possibility that Musuta is extremely talented, but even if so, how can the morale of the soldiers be improved by being led by someone who has no experience in actual combat? Also, it’s easy to move an army that you have trained yourself, but it takes time to adjust to an army trained by someone else.

But from what he’d heard, as soon as the prince took real power, he proceeded to Zamwed. The most important issue is that the prince was at war with Zamwed before he took real power, and who directed him to do so.

There is more. Krummus, although a buffer zone, has been peaceful for a long time and the soldiers are not so skilled or strong. It’s inconceivable that it would fight against the beastmen and win. He knew because he had participated in wars with beastmen as a mercenary. Fighting in front of the beastmen was terrifying, even for the battle-hardened Rhine. How can a professional soldier, let alone a border guard drafted from the peasantry, fight a war?

「I’ll have to look into this one in detail.」

Rhine was secretly determined.