Chapter 22: Tetra

TL: Pengu

TLC: Osura, Manga Hunter

For now, lets go meet King Rosaith. I want to check whether the refugees really were trying to run away to King Rosaiths country. (Almis)

Yeah (Tetra)

Tetra answered in a small voice.

She seems to be worried over something.

Then Ill head over with the horse. (Almis)

I attach a saddle and stirrup to the horse.

By the way, I created these ones by myself through trial and error.

I was pretty surprised when I learned that Lia hadnt heard of them before.

Since these kinds of tools are fairly convenient, I decided to hide their existence. After all, it would be no joke if our enemies ended up using them and became stronger.

Here. (Almis)

Okay. (Tetra)

I stretch out my hand and pull Tetra onto the horse.

Were going to be riding together.

You couldnt call it big by any means, but its strong enough to carry two people.

Hey, Almis. (Tetra)

After travelling a distance, Tetra, who had been silent until now, called to me.

What is it? (Almis)

Would you be surprised if I said I was acquainted with King Ferme? (Tetra)

A little bit. (Almis)

Tetra wraps her arms around my waist, and presses against me as if to embrace me.

I can feel her tension in her arms.

That person is a scary person. Also greedy. And on top of that, he is willing to do anything to achieve his goal. But since he has enough power to leave people in fear, those people naturally come to obey him. (Tetra)

I see. In other words, youre saying that if he finds out about us, it is possible that he will try to take what we receive from our harvests. (Almis)

Truthfully speaking, there is a chance that the refugees that come to our village are actually acting as the vanguard of his plans. Well, Im going to King Rosaiths country in order to confirm that theory though.

How much national strength does King Fermes country have? (Almis)

The population is around thirty thousand. Therefore, their military force is normally five hundred strong. In war time it is one thousand. During emergency situations I think they can mobilise around two thousand. (Tetra)

So they can normally mobilise five hundred? (Almis)

He killed f only recently became King by killing the clans belonging to King Rosaiths country, Radou Ars. Thats why his position is shaky. (Tetra)

To maintain the unstable position, he would have to have constantly supported the soldiers by relying on heavy taxation, leading to an even greater instability. (Almis)

Thats right. (Tetra)

But still, five hundred, huh

For our population, we count one hundred. Within that, only sixty-two are male.

And within those sixty-two, we should have around forty people who might be able to fight.

A twelvefold difference.

No, it would be twenty-five-fold since they number one thousand in war times.

Either case, we wouldnt stand a chance if we fought against them.

Numbers mean everything when it comes to war.

Can we win? (Tetra)

If we continue like this, it would be impossible. (Almis)

And if we prepare for it? (Tetra)

A fifty-fifty chance. (Almis)

I should stock up on suitable weapons and while developing our guerilla warfare abilities, build an alliance with or rather use the title of ally to depend on King Rosaith, to be able to request for reinforcements.

It might also be a good idea to purchase some combat-oriented slaves from one of the Karishan merchants.

After that, all we need to do is divide the opponents forces by cooperating with those who oppose King Fermes rule and then it shouldnt be impossible to win.

I see (Tetra)

Lost in thought, Tetra looks down towards the ground.

Were only doing it as a last resort. (Almis)

Tetra murmurs to me in a small voice.

What if the girl from Radou Ars- the old clan, had survived? Would our winning chance go up? (Tetra)

I think so. If she would bring her status to light, then that would be great. Thinking from King Rosaiths perspective, providing support is the obvious course of action as she is the daughter of a retainer, as well as since there would be people in King Fermes country who fondly remember of its clans rule. (Almis)

That so. (Tetra)

Tetra falls silent again.

After some time had passed and King Rosaiths country had come into view, Tetra asked me something.

Will you protect me? (Tetra)

Of course. After all, youre family to me. (Almis)

Then Ill cooperate. (Tetra)

Tetra said and strongly hugged me.

I see. So that means it was true that you refused, right? (Almis)

Yes. That is correct. Weve had a shortage of food lately, and as such we had no room to feed them. If We were to approve for thirty people, we would end up with more flocking in. And it would be a problem if there was a spy mixed in with that group. (Rosaith)

Strange. I heard King Rosaiths countrys population was around 170,000 if I recall.

Im pretty sure that a mere couple hundred people would be nothing for them, but

In the first place our village had an abundance of crops. Which would mean

Youre plotting something, arent you? (Almis)

We have no idea what you are talking about. (Rosaith)

Whats with that barefaced lie.

The reason why the villages in King Fermes kingdom have been experiencing bad harvests is because of a curse cast by a different country. After all, it is true that my village hasnt been experiencing bad harvests. This is because they didnt cast curses on it due to fear of the Griffon. Including Julia, King Rosaiths country has many excellent sorceror. They wont end up with any bad harvests because of curses. Fact is, none of the villages we encountered on our journey were in any sort of deficiency of food. I also heard from Julia, who told me that the country was experiencing a good harvest. In other words, there is plenty of room for King Rosaiths country to accept. You should be able to take in three hundred people no problem, let alone thirty, right? (Almis)

While that may be true, it doesnt change the fact that it is a bad debt. Its common sense to throw out good-for-noth- (Rosaith)

That is quite strange. (Almis)

I interrupted King Rosaiths words.

If the population increases then that is beneficial to you. And those refugees are your enemy nation, King Fermes countrys citizens. You shouldnt be driving them away, but calling them in. By doing that, King Fermes countrys citizens will come flooding in to your country. While, yes, your food supplies will go down, in the long run you will be able to get back what you lost via taxes. And you should be jumping at any chance that will lower King Fermes countrys national strength. (Almis)

If King Rosaiths country was currently experiencing a famine then it would be a different story, but his country has food in abundance. So there shouldnt be any problems at all.

There is a divide in language and culture. If that was his reason then I could somewhat accept that, but on top of him being a fellow Aldernian, they also lived in the same country together until a few decades ago. Even if he was to invite them in, there would be no problem at all. Or rather precisely because they are his fellow compatriots, that should be reason enough to take the initiative and welcome them in.

Hes got no shortage of undeveloped land.

Also, they told me that they wouldnt mind even becoming slaves. Of course, they should have said the same thing to King Rosaith. You can get slaves for free, you know? Theres no annoying human rights coalition in this world. You could abuse and sell them off all you want.

If he were to accept it, he could make some kind of folk tale called The Benevolence of the Wise King, Rosaith or something.

Driving them away would be a terrible idea.

There is also one other thing that felt off to me.

It also doesnt make sense that they would come to my village. Its not like you and King Ferme, the countries that you two rule are the only countries in Adernia Peninsula. If you were absolutely against taking them in you could have just sent them to a different country. In exchange for having them being escorted by some soldiers, you could give them permission to transit through to another country. (Almis)

King Rosaiths country was experiencing a good harvest.

Which would mean that neighbouring countries should also be experiencing good harvests. It would be impossible for the climate of only this specific area to be different.

The neighbouring countries have plenty of room to accept the refugees.

Yet they arrived at the forest. And in that vast forest, they were able to find our village.

That isnt any easy feat. Its hard to imagine that they just stumbled upon it.

Im guessing you just said something like I heard that that place is like paradise~, right? (Almis)

Fumu as expected of you. You are ninety-percent correct. But you are still missing something. (Rosaith)

Are you talking about the reason you sent the refugees to my village? If thats the case then the answer is simple. (Almis)

I stare at King Rosaith, who is grinning.

You came to the conclusion that I would have a high chance of accepting the refugees. After all, Im such a good person, if I do say so myself. But you cant sate hunger with kindness. Because of that, I would need to procure wheat from somewhere. Now, the place where I was to get the wheat is (Almis)

That would be in Our country. (Rosaith)

Although we could have also bought them from the Karishans, they live rather far away. Procuring them from a nearby location is a much more pragmatic approach.

Were you planning on loaning me some wheat? After all, you would have a better chance of having the loan repaid if you loaned me the wheat instead of loaning it directly to the refugees. (Almis)

Yes. That is exactly right, and you are ninety-five-percent correct. (Rosaith)

*smirk*

A face that irritates me to no end.

And finally for the loan conditions, you were planning on getting our pottery, honey, and our paper manufacturing method, werent you? (Almis)

King Rosaith probably wants them like the dead want out of hell.

But he cant get the information out of me by abusing his military might.

There was the possibility that I could have run to King Domorgal, after all. And King Rosaith cant leave due to sickness. Also, if he were to carelessly mobilise his army he could be attacked from behind by clans aiming for the throne.

And above all, if he were to do that he would be hated by Julia, who is close with me.

It would be tough, living while being hated by your only daughter.

And so he decided to use the refugees to get the information out of me.

Its probably something like that.

When I explain all that, King Rosaith clapped.

Applause does that mean I answered correctly? That doesnt make me happy.

You are ninety-nine percent correct!! Magnificent. If you were Our son, I would make you Our successor without hesitation. But you are still missing the last one percent. Do you know what that is? (Rosaith)

I dont know.

King Rosaith shows an evil smile as he looks at my face.

The one who cursed King Fermes country was I. Hows that? Wahahahaha-*cough* *cough* *cough* (Rosaith)

Dont work yourself up. Youre sick.

As I look coldly at King Rosaith, he reclines arrogantly with a nonchalant air around him.

Now then, how much do you want? (Rosaith)

No, we dont need any, weve got enough. (Almis)

When I answer so, King Rosaiths face stiffens.

The most common form of farming in Adernia Peninsula is the two-field system.

And in my village, we use the Norfolk four-course system of crop rotation. Our productivity levels are fundamentally different!

And we even use cows and horses for ploughing deeper into the soil.

Although King Rosaith seems to have expected that we would end up running out of food that would only be the case if we applied the two-field system as well.

Too bad! You had based your entire plan on what was actually your miscalculation!! I-D-I-O-T!!

Thats only at the moment, right? Youll run out in no time. (Rosaith)

King Rosaith said, with a nonchalant look as if what he was saying had nothing to do with him.

What are you saying?

I just said were doing fine, didnt I?

Seeing me with a dumbfounded look on my face, King Rosaith said:

You overlooked something important, didnt you? Well, that doesnt matter. After all, within three days you will come crying to Us for help, pleading please lend me wheat. (Rosaith)

This guy, showing a look like hes already beat me.

Theres no way that I will come crying to you.

Well, whatever.

By the way, can I ask you something? What would you do if the child of the ruler prior to Ferme - Rago-san, was it - had lived on? (Almis)

We would offer them protection. Rago-dono was a sworn friend of Ours. We could tell whether they were truthfully his child or not by the sacred character and crest on their back. (Rosaith)

Then what would you do if that child was to ask for forces to regain their land? (Almis)

That would depend on the situation, but We may lend the forces if there was a chance of victory could it be, you are Ragos child? (Rosaith)

That is by no means the case. It is not me. (Almis)

Although if that were true, then this would all be so easy.

May We also ask something? (Rosaith)

What is it? (Almis)

Who is that girl? (Rosaith)

Before I answer, Tetra clings to me and declares,

Im Almis wife. (Tetra)

I dont remember getting married though

Well, its fine.

Doing it like this is more convenient.

Something like that. (Almis)

Is that so (Rosaith)

King Rosaith fixedly looks at Tetras face.

I look at Tetras face.

Tetra gave a large nod.

She is the daughter of Rago Ars, Tetra Ars. (Almis)

We see. We felt like We had seen her face before. She looks exactly the same as him. (Rosaith)

Do you need to confirm? (Tetra)

King Rosaith shook his head in a grand motion in response to Tetras question.

There is no need for that. We can tell from your face. And besides, you are not one to make such an inconsequential lie. And also, what is most important isnt whether you are the real thing or not. It is whether you can do work of the same level as the genuine article or not. (Rosaith)

So it doesnt matter whether she is truly Rago Ars daughter, as long as those around her accept her as such.

Its definitely something he would say.

But you are quite the crafty one. If you manage to give King Ferme a good fright and shake him up a bit, we will attack him and give you the rights to your own clan. (Rosaith)

Haha. Thank you very much. Although I will only be giving him a fright if he comes attacking first. (Almis)

Theres no guarantee that they will attack us, after all.

I dont particularly want power. All I want is to be able to make use of whatever I can.

If King Ferme turns out to actually be a peace-loving person, there wont be any war.

Well then, I will be making my leave here. I have to be checking on King Fermes country. (Almis)

Yes. Be careful. (Rosaith)

We took our leave from King Rosaiths presence.

Hey, Almis. (Tetra)

What is it? (Almis)

It ended up with me taking the role of your wife, but is that fine? Youre not straining yourself, are you?(Tetra)

Tetra asked anxiously.

A bit late for that, dont you think? Im not straining myself. After all, you are cute. Rather, Im happy more than anything. And in the first place, you were always trying to show off your appeal to me so what are you saying this late into the game? (Almis)

Truthfully, I actually like Tetra quite a bit.

Although I dont really understand the concept of love well, I dont mind if its Tetra.

I can come to truly believe that.

What about Julia? (Tetra)

Our social classes are just too different. (Almis)

She is the only daughter of King Rosaith.

Sooner or later she will have to be wed to the son of some largely influential clan.

It wasnt fated to be me.

Im not so dense as to not understand the fact that Julia has strong feelings for me.

I also like her, just as much as I like Tetra. Shes also my type in terms of appearance. Although its strange for me to be thinking about this after having accepted Tetra already.

Well, if I were asked whether I want to marry her or not, I would say that I do want to.

But there is a difference in our social classes.

By the way, how are we going to enter King Fermes country? (Tetra)

Lets go with the merchant from the south setting. So, when we were just passing through we noticed that there were abandoned houses wherever we went, so thinking that it was strange we asked about it I think that should be good enough. (Almis)

The clothes we are currently wearing are fairly good.

After all, we were just returning from an audience with King Rosaith.

We could probably pass as some rich merchants.

By the way, are there any acquaintances of yours that seem like they might be willing to assist us? (Almis)

Hmm, since all of my relatives aside from me are dead there probably arent any. Besides, I was ten at the time. (Tetra)

Is that so. Well, its been seven years after all. (Almis)

It felt like such a long time, but it wasnt that long ago.

Just thinking about that time feels like Im reminiscing about a time long past.

Then, lets just do the investigation for today. (Almis)

For now, I need to come up with some way to deal with those thirty people

Erm excuse me. It doesnt seem like there is anybody in this village what happened? There are a lot of soldiers like you around as well. Is it some sort of epidemic? (Almis)

I ask, showing a frightened expression.

Thats not it. The citizens of this town have been running away at night. We are currently setting up a search party to bring them back. Its been a real bother. Well, since the one who is leading the troops this time is His Majesty King Ferme-sama, Im not so sure that it will end with just bringing them back. (soldier)

Running away? Why have they been running away? (Almis)

Well, you see (soldier)

The soldier looked around before whispering into my ear

Its because of the high taxes. They couldnt pay the taxes anymore. To tell the truth, I also want to resign as a soldier. If I dont do my work my relatives will also be subjected to the huge taxes, and they wont get my remittance. (soldier) (Osura: Honestly, I dont know if they wont get my remittance is proper English)

Thats serious.

It seems like there are a lot of sources of dissatisfaction.

By the way, why did you guys come to a place like this? (soldier)

Weve been peddling. We were planning to head north and so weve been transiting through this country, but we saw you soldiers gathered around this village and got curious. (Almis)

I just made up a suitable lie.

Is that so? But still, the fact that you have a horse is quite enviable. Is that your wife behind you? (soldier)

Tetra blushes slightly and gives a nod in reply.

For this trip, weve come to have a look for things that we could possibly sell here. Do you know of anything that the people around here might buy? We could even arrange for some places local specialty. (Almis)

We dont need anything like that here. Well, I guess you could sell some food. After all, everyone here is starving. Although we wouldnt have anything to exchange for it other than humans. (soldier)

The soldier laughs at his own situation.

We also make a forced smile, despite it not really being something to laugh about.

This country seems dangerous.

But is it fine for you to be this loose-lipped?

Incidentally, how do you plan to bring them back? If I were one of the citizens then I would run to King Rosaiths country. I think they would have arrived there by now. (Almis)

No, they arent in King Rosaiths country apparently. I guess King Rosaith doesnt need more useless mouths to feed. We dont need them either though. Haa. Id guess that theyre wandering somewhere in the forest. After all, there was some rumour about some utopia protected by Griffon-sama. They probably believed that and went in there. What idiots. (soldier)

It seems like weve become the residents of a utopia without realising.

Maybe it was a bad idea to bring in too much prosperity. Or maybe I messed up in throwing around the name of the Griffon so lightly.

Or could it be that for starving people, just that much can qualify as a utopia?

Wouldnt it be hard work to have to search for them in the forest? (Almis)

Thats not really the case. Although there arent that many, our country has some sorceror after all. If we use dogs it would be over in no time although I would be glad if those sorcerorwould get around to making barriers though. (soldier)

During the time in which a barrier is erected, curse power is constantly consumed.

King Ferme has been keeping the sorcerors power in reserve as to be prepared to start a war whenever he wishes.

As a side note, the reason that Julia even went as far as to erect barriers over our fields is because she has way too much excess curse power.

If you were to compare the curse power of an ordinary sorceror to a glass of water, she has five baths full of power, apparently.

She is a prodigal beautiful sorceror, and a princess.

She seems to have received two things from the heavens.

Also, the person behind me is the (self-proclaimed) person who has been a magician for longer than anyone else alive, and the beautiful daughter of a former large clan.

There are too many people given two things around me.

Ive heard that Griffon-sama is there will you guys be alright? (Almis)

About that Im worried as well. But King Ferme insisted that it would be fine if we sent in around two hundred people well, King Ferme is much scarier than Griffon-sama, who we dont even know whether is really there or not. (soldier)

It seems like Griffon-samas authority wont hold much weight here.

Or could it be that King Ferme just doesnt have any sort of sense of fear?

Or could it be because hes well-informed about the Griffon?

Almis, this is bad. These guys are going to come to our village. (Tetra)

Two hundred, huh. How annoying. (Almis)

I scratched my head.

For now, I now know for sure that those thirty from before are definitely innocent.

I guess we should hurry back.

Well then, we will be taking our leave here Take care. (Almis)

Yeah! Live in happiness, you two! (soldier)

I hastily returned to the village.