Chapter 108

– Bang!

Sitting at a shabby table, dressed in tattered clothes, she diligently pressed the royal seal.

Queen Louis.

I hate to say it, but to be honest, she really looked like a ruler with neither dignity nor authority.

If I had to compare her, she felt like an office worker who wanted to quit right away but couldn’t leave her desk.

In such a contrasting scene compared to her recent work as a blacksmith, she firmly pressed the seal onto the last remaining document.

And…

“It’s done!”

Queen Louis rose from her chair, looking genuinely delighted.

She looked like someone relieved after finishing a tedious day’s work as she hurriedly dashed outside.

And…

“Haah…”

A man let out a deep sigh as he watched her.

Minister Nekker.

He slightly shook his head as he saw the queen exit without a word, then began to gather the documents.

“Is everything ready?”

“Yes, with this, we’ve dealt with the urgent matters.”

Gazing at the documents stamped with the royal seal, Minister Nekker quietly spoke.

Most of these documents were policies I couldn’t even barely comprehend, and some contained orders to conscript troops in preparation for the impending war against the Holy Empire.

“However… I heard you, Nekker, cooperated with that Robes Fiora to execute the queen? To still use that as an advantage is quite shameless, isn’t it?”

I had heard that Nekker forced Queen Louis to sign documents securing the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Army in exchange for a potion to rid her of fear.

Initially, Queen Louis was horrified at the sight of Nekker… but upon hearing that if she cooperated, she could remain here, she eventually took out the royal seal she had hidden between her bosoms and stamped the documents he provided.

He seemed quite skilled at managing the queen in various ways.

However, knowing that such a person had once tried to take the queen’s life made me personally feel quite uncomfortable.

However, regarding my slightly sardonic attitude…

Nekker spoke with an unwavering voice.

“At that time, I had no authority to prevent the queen’s death. All I could do was strive to minimize the damage of that death, and that was all I did.”

“So, what you did by threatening the queen was the right thing, is that it?”

“In politics, right and wrong have no meaning. There’s merely the pursuit of profit and the effort to minimize loss. In that respect, I believe my actions at that time were necessary to reduce the country’s losses.”

In a way, it was shameless, yet one could also see it as a firm conviction.

As I thought about how I disliked this type of person, Nekker politely bowed to me one last time.

“Then, I trust you will take good care of Her Majesty the Queen moving forward.”

“…Are you really planning to take her away? If things go on like this, she might genuinely refuse to return, saying she’ll become a pirate!”

“I don’t mind. As long as you continue to stamp the documents faithfully.”

“…”

With those words, Minister Nekker exited.

Shortly after I was left alone in the room, I slowly shook my head and leaned back in my chair.

Personally, I didn’t quite like Nekker, but the information he provided needed serious consideration from my perspective.

“The war between the Holy Empire and the Kingdom of Frantz…”

The timing was pushed forward significantly, but essentially, the main backdrop of the original work was the war between these two countries.

At that time, the Holy Empire had launched a massive invasion using the beheading of the queen as justification.

As a result, the Kingdom of Frantz—no, in the original work called the Republic of Frantz—had its lands turned into ruins, and the kingdom was plunged into a crisis of potential annihilation.

In that context, the protagonist would begin their active role as a warrior of either the Kingdom of Frantz or the Holy Empire, ultimately meeting their death in battle no matter which side they belonged to.

With the outbreak of such war on the horizon now, I needed to make a calm decision.

Should I clean my hands and return to the sea for good, or should I immediately join the side of the Kingdom of Frantz and participate in the war?

“If it were any other day, I would have just run away… As a pirate, there’s no need for me to get deeply involved in national affairs.”

Having already secured Napoleona, I could straightforwardly give orders to devastate Napoleona’s territory the moment I got her back and simply leave.

Thanks to this incident, I had also obtained a lifetime freedom pass for the ports of the Kingdom of Frantz, so I had no need to be discreet about using the Port of Marinseu. No one could hold me here.

However…

There was one thing that bothered me in relation to this.

“But… it still feels too fishy to just leave it as it is… that guy… Duke Ocleang.”

The Duke Ocleang had crumbled far easier than I had expected.

Given that he even failed to escape with Queen Louis, I honestly thought he was basically done for.

But…

Like the boss rising again after hearing “Did we finish it?” he succeeded in mobilizing troops from the Holy Empire and ultimately managed to bring the timing of the war forward by almost two years.

No matter how rotten, a former noble is still a noble, it seemed.

Seeing this, I couldn’t shake the thought that I absolutely had to take him out before he grew again.

Having once faced a defeat and fled only makes one more dangerous.

Up until now, I had been lazily dawdling and lost pitifully, but after having taken a serious hit from me, he would surely harbor that vengeful emotion.

If such a person began to act on the knowledge of the original work, even if I managed to avoid confrontation for now, it was highly likely he’d put me in extremely troublesome situations later on.

And…

From this point of view, this very situation could be seen as my best opportunity.

“If war breaks out, the Revolutionary Army led by General Rafael will inevitably take the lead. If we use them as cannon fodder, we could more safely behead Duke Ocleang…”

Right now, while his forces were freshly ravaged, his strength would be at its weakest.

No matter how much knowledge he possesses, he would still need time to make use of it, making this the best chance to bury the Duke once and for all.

“I can’t help it… at this point, there’s nothing to do but put in some more effort here.”

After making that judgment, I immediately rose from my chair.

Having made the decision, all that remained was to take action.

To avoid losing the initiative by hesitating, I quickly headed toward the place where “they” were.

*

The Revolutionary Army had taken control of the Palace of Versha.

There, General Rafael felt a headache from the reports coming in.

“We’ll support you with a thousand troops from the Anjou region.”

“What? Just a thousand? I thought they’d send at least five thousand…”

“Due to the famine, the situation is not good. Furthermore, they also mentioned that if anything happens to Her Majesty, that support will be canceled too.”

“Ugh…”

“In the Toulon area, they offered to send a hundred peasant soldiers…”

“Leave that be, I wasn’t counting on that place anyway.”

Frowning, General Rafael took a moment to down a glass of water.

The gathered troops hardly amounted to even half of what he had anticipated.

Though he had somewhat expected it to be difficult, he never thought the regions he had trusted would express doubts or use various excuses to reduce their reinforcements, making him deeply frustrated.

By this point, the total number of troops gathered was around 80,000.

Compared to the past when he could raise over 200,000 with just the royal decree, it highlighted how much the internal situation of the kingdom had deteriorated.

“Thanks to keeping the queen alive, we managed to gather this much… If Robes Fiora had really succeeded in her execution, it would have been a terrifying situation…”

For now, it was a relief just to have enough to face the enemies.

With that, feeling the need to quickly extinguish this urgent flame and then check the local situations, General Rafael hurriedly signed the documents before him.

At that moment…

“G-General!”

“? What is it?”

One of his subordinates rushed into the office, delivering a piece of paper in haste.

Grabbing the paper, General Rafael quickly checked its contents.

And…

“! No… No way… Is this for real?”

“Yes, this is the information I personally received. The Pirate King says he’ll leave the Kingdom of Frantz.”

“Damn it!”