By the way, Aage today is wearing what looks like a white kimono with a ridiculously large collar, the official formal wear of the Old Elves, called a “shiromuku.” It makes her look like a tiny bride, quite cute.
Incidentally, her current name is officially “Takakura Aage Florencia”… that’s what she told me. It seems she intends to keep this name even if I were to die.
Father, Mother, Ancestors… the Takakura family name will likely be secure for another thousand years.
“Ah, Aage. This is Okura, the Empire’s representative… he was actually my junior from university back in Japan. So, essentially, a friend from my days there.”
Even though I’ve officially made Aage my wife, our relationship is still pretty much the same: we drink together, work together, pull all-nighters and end up sleeping on the floor together… you get the picture.
Our relationship hasn’t really changed much.
I thought that for her to claim the title of main wife, she’d be inviting me to bed or attempting to sneak into my room at night. But she said that with three of them now pregnant, it would be too much trouble. Plus, she has a proper understanding of her role as a key figure of the nation, so she’s deliberately restraining herself.
So, throughout this expedition and even at Convenience Store Village, we were always together, drinking and sleeping side-by-side, but nothing happened.
Actually, it’s been quite helpful that Aage is around, as it keeps the guards from bothering me. Aage is slowly becoming my personal source of healing…
“Indeed… I did consider that individual a rather formidable presence… So, he is from that nest of Japanese economic elites, Keirou University? Is that it? No wonder he was such a troublesome opponent…”
“My, my, Lord Aage Florencia. It is truly an honor to meet the legendary you in person! We’ve had the pleasure of your company during preliminary negotiations several times as well. Well, yes… I don’t know about being an elite, but I am a fellow alumnus of Lord Takakura and an old acquaintance. Sadly, the Empire is in disarray these days… to the point where someone like myself, an Otherworldly person, is deployed as the nation’s negotiator. I beg of you, for today’s negotiations, please show us some leniency, considering us.”
“Truly, you are a wily fox… The discussions behind the scenes have already concluded, haven’t they? The armistice negotiations that are about to begin, their outcome was already decided before they even started, wasn’t it? It’s merely a spectacle… a foregone conclusion, isn’t it? I know that you, Kenturi, have also been secretly negotiating with someone every night until late… you are truly not missing a single detail.”
Aage’s observation elicits knowing smiles from all of us. For now, regarding these armistice negotiations, we have secured a promise from the Ormechia side to completely withdraw to their previous border line and to not demand any reparations.
With the recent incident involving Satoru and the King’s treatment, we’ve developed a significant debt with them. This has made Miria and the Ormechia leadership completely indebted to us, so these matters proceeded smoothly.
Although it was presented as though they were reluctantly agreeing, Ormechia, having long surpassed their offensive limits and seeing a clear path to victory, found themselves unable to back down. The truth is they were also struggling to find a resolution, so they accepted these terms rather readily.
To willingly abandon victory and stop the war ourselves… or to be persuaded by a third party to stop the war and stand down.
In the end, the outcome is the same, but the former inevitably creates a victor and a vanquished. The victor becomes arrogant, and the vanquished never forgets their resentment. And so, it becomes a lingering grudge, and history repeats itself.
The latter, being a cessation of war without a victor, also means there is no vanquished. Of course, there are times when the mediator is criticized for meddling too much… but in cases like this, where both sides are exhausted but unable to back down due to their own circumstances, a third-party mediation is the best solution.
The Ormechia government stated that they couldn’t appease their citizens without taking at least some reparations directly from the Archduchy of Rumelia. However, Romeo offered a condolence payment, telling them to be satisfied with that, and silenced them. This was essentially a case of us overwhelming them with money. I admit it’s rather unscrupulous of me, but I know full well that Rumelia has no economic capacity to pay reparations… you can’t get blood from a stone. They just have to accept it. For domestic purposes, they’ll pretend they extorted it from Rumelia, but since it’s for the sake of troublesome public sentiment, they can do as they please.
Regardless, Rumelia is on the brink of collapse as a nation, so demanding reparations would be outrageous. As for territorial concessions, the border areas are mostly wasteland with little benefit from cession, so they compromised by accepting Romeo’s condolence payment.
Well, as a gesture of goodwill, we did agree to transfer some of Rumelia’s coal mines near the border to Ormechia. They had said they wanted the breadbasket regions and didn’t particularly need coal mines, but when Romeo said he’d buy a lot of coal, they immediately changed their tune and were actually pleased.
The coal mines were also largely neglected and exclusively controlled by the Archduke’s family in Rumelia, so no one was inconvenienced by their handover. We arranged it this way to give Ormechia a point of pride.
From Romeo’s perspective, Ormechia is a buyer of agricultural products and a valued customer. If they were to achieve self-sufficiency by acquiring the breadbasket regions, it wouldn’t be beneficial for us. Ormechia is a militarily strong nation, so keeping them tied down with food is just about right.
Besides, with coal, the Dwarves are always eager for it. So, by buying coal and selling agricultural products, both sides profit.
Rumelia had already agreed to an unconditional armistice with Ormechia, which even the supporting Empire had approved, so things moved quickly.
Engaging in war also costs money… the Empire is also in the midst of economic reconstruction led by Okura, and they didn’t have the luxury of spending money so wastefully. In reality, the Empire’s true desire was to extricate themselves from such a pointless and unbeneficial war as quickly as possible, and hearing this from the parties involved made our discussions proceed much faster.
In return, we have promised the full backing of the Merchant Guild for Rumelia’s post-war reconstruction. Rumelia’s national army has long been in ruins, making even public order maintenance difficult. However, the Merchant Guild’s private mercenary force will handle public order, and they will also diligently train the provisional government’s few remaining troops and provide them with weapons as needed.
In effect, it will be under the Merchant Guild’s occupation, but the Merchant Guild are resourceful individuals who can find business opportunities and make money even from barren land. Rebuilding from the ashes is nothing to them. More importantly… Rumelia possesses a high-quality military port that once served as a base for the Imperial fleet. Since the Imperial fleet has long since departed, the Merchant Guild plans to redevelop it as a maritime trade hub under their direct management, thereby reorganizing the eastern sea routes on the continent.
The Merchant Guild, as always, is incredibly shrewd. Marquis Roxius is also involved in this, and if the eastern sea route is restored, our trading range will significantly expand, making it a most profitable endeavor for us. In essence, we used stacks of cash to slap the warring nations on the face, compelled them to shake hands, and distributed appropriate profits to the involved nations, ensuring a Win-Win situation for everyone… that’s how we arranged it.
Simply put, that was the gist of these armistice negotiations. Well, we did spend a lot of money extravagantly, so in a sense, we took a loss. But as they say, “profit from loss.” The achievements of mediating a long-standing war and establishing peace, coupled with the enhanced reputation of Lord Kuroie, more than make up for it.
The Imperial Army has completely withdrawn from Rumelia and is already in full retreat. The Archduke’s family and high-ranking aristocrats, who abandoned their people and fled to live in comfortable exile as a “government-in-exile,” have all been forcibly repatriated to Rumelia, and their consent for this has been obtained. After all, it was their presence that prevented the Empire from withdrawing. Since there is no longer a reason to remain in the Empire as long as the armistice is in place, returning them to their home country with a formal notice is the only logical course of action.
As for what fate awaits those who abandoned their people and country to live in carefree comfort in foreign safe zones after being forcibly repatriated… it’s not hard to imagine. It’s their just desserts… they deserve absolutely no sympathy. Naturally, there was strong opposition from those within the Empire who wished to maintain Rumelia as a satellite state, and from sympathetic Imperial nobles who had welcomed the Rumelian aristocrats in exile, arguing that retracting such a promise after granting asylum was unforgivable.
However, the withdrawal of capital from the Merchant Guild, coupled with the subsequent collapse of Imperial currency, has plunged the Imperial economy into a state of inferno. The Imperial Army, with its drastically reduced forces, is barely maintaining minimal strength through extreme austerity. The economic officials like Okura, having been bought off with financial aid from the Merchant Guild, fiercely supported the peace faction and starved the warmongers of resources, which ultimately caused the warmongers to back down.
Furthermore, the decision to justify military intervention in Rumelia by accepting these exiled nobles was a unilateral one made by the Imperial Prime Minister, Flannel. Since he himself says nothing, and the war is ending, there is no one who would be inconvenienced by reneging on such a promise, other than the exiled nobles themselves. After all, Rumelia itself has not collapsed, and while many of its citizens suffer from poverty and shortages, they are otherwise unharmed. Most importantly, when defeat loomed after the decisive battle, they were the first to flee. At this point, the Archduke and his cohorts are clearly unfit to rule. Therefore, as they have served their purpose, their forced repatriation is a perfectly reasonable action for the Empire.
Incidentally, the Rumelian side has already reformed its provisional government and changed its name to the Republic of Rumelia, a parliamentary democracy. The Archduke no longer has any place there. He will be put on trial democratically, with numerous charges of treason prepared, to gain the trust of the people… Since he is receiving all the nation’s resentment, and has been abandoned by his former backer, the Empire, it’s unlikely he will ever reclaim his position as head of state. At best, he’ll face life imprisonment and die in prison.
Moreover, Okura knows that a considerable sum of money is also flowing from Romeo through the Merchant Guild to the economic officials who shifted the Empire’s stance – these funds, described as “live ammunition,” are effectively the Empire’s war chest. This is an open secret. In other words, Romeo’s financial influence extended even to the Empire. Bureaucrats, who are essentially cogs in the machinery of state operation, could hardly be expected to unify domestic opinions or exert pressure on the military on their own. The Merchant Guild’s economic offensive directly impacted the national treasury, the source of the economic officials’ power.
The national treasury, which was steadily dwindling, was barely supported by the issuance of an enormous amount of national bonds. These bonds were largely purchased by an international fund called the “Empire Rescue Fund,” which literally saved the Empire. However, this Empire Rescue Fund included not only the Merchant Guild and the Kingdom of Romeo, but also commercial states like Ceresdia to the north, which is in a similar position to the Kingdom of Romeo in relation to the French Kingdom. In essence, it was a collective effort by nations that wished to shackle the Empire, driven by their aligned interests.
Well, regarding Ceresdia, I’ve established trust with their leader, Princess Irene, and their guardian deity, Lady Seleneis, is my Master. As a divine oracle, I was told to “definitely join,” so they had no reason to refuse. Their desire for independence, which would ultimately weaken France’s power and thus benefit the Empire, is also being positively considered, so Ceresdia’s long-held aspiration for independence is suddenly becoming more realistic. This is, in part, the result of my behind-the-scenes machinations. As a result, Lady Seleneis is quite pleased, and Princess Irene has gained leverage by creating a debt with the Empire, so it’s a favorable outcome.
I can provide this level of support without even having to personally go there. And with Ceresdia’s cooperation, the plan to redevelop the eastern sea route will progress rapidly. Originally, the eastern sea route was a vital artery for maritime trade, passing sequentially through Romeo, Rumelia, the Empire, France, and Ceresdia. Currently, it’s fragmented due to inter-country conflicts, but if it can be directly connected and stabilized, it will be a beneficial development for us.
As always, Marquis Roxius and Latrie seem to harbor ill feelings towards Ceresdia, but they understand my methods and ambitions. They are also impressed by my ability to easily secure concessions from Ceresdia regarding the Empire Rescue Fund and the restoration of the sea route. …Hmph, this is how negotiations should be done.
