Chapter 53 – Territorial Dispute V

Translator: Isekai Shousetsu

“What did you just do…” (Almis)

I hold my head after hearing Ron’s report.

Just what the hell…

“I…I’m sorry……” (Ron)

“No, it’s fine. Saving the fugitives was…well, it’s bad but as a human, you did well, I think. Yes. You did well in that situation. However, why did turn the tables on them!!!” (Almis)

If we had just sent them an earnest apology then we could probably have make do but…with this didn’t we just completely make them enemies?!

It still hasn’t even been a week since the last refugee incident!!

“Well, Almis. Calm down. No matter how you look at it, the enemy’s objective was the salt mine. We’ve secured it for the meantime so I didn’t think that was a horrible plan. In fact, I think it was great given the huge difference in our military force.”

Tetra sticks up for Ron.

Well, certainly that’s correct. They will probably ask for the salt mine as reparations though.

“By the way, what did you do about Lord Regal’s second cousin you captured, that Lord Gilberto?” (Almis)

“Well, he kept complaining at the beginning but he got drunk and fell asleep after we brought out some spirits for him to drink.” (Ron)

Hey, don’t drink the liquor than an enemy brought out. Also, don’t sleep!

Perhaps, he’s actually a big-shot?

Nevertheless, Roswald made a good call huh. If he had killed Gilberto then for sure Ron’s, Roswald’s and Soyon’s lives would be demanded and that would be next to impossible to reject.

Getting captured is without a doubt a scandal though. The DeBell Clan would probably want to cover it up.

It seems we obtained a good card.

“It can’t be helped. Please be careful from here on out. By the way,…… the casualties are?” (Almis)

I feel a little nervous.

It was a battle so it would be normal for there to be deaths.

However…if possible I don’t want anyone from the same village as me to die. They are people whose faces, names, and lives I know very well, after all.

“……Deaths are 10 people. All of them are recruited soldiers.” (Ron)

I see……

My nervousness settles down.

I might have been lacking as a leader but…still I want them to forgive me.

“However…” Ron makes a difficult face.

Soyon takes over for Ron.

“Three people are got injured – one in the right hand, one in the left leg, and another in the left hand. All of them got festered and rotten so I made the decision to amputate them.”

I see…

Well, that’s somewhat less objectionable to dying.

“Then let’s visit them immediately.” (Almis)

I rise up.

The three have already woken up.

Because they’re under the influence of my divine protection, their amputation wounds healed in the blink of an eye. However, it still couldn’t get back their lost limbs.

The three show disappointed faces.

“I’m sorry……” (Injured Guy)

“I got humbly beaten……” (Guy #2)

“To be not able to fight anymore for Almis-san’s sake……” (Guy #3)

These guys……

Why are you worrying about that when you’re seriously injured!

I stroke the heads of these three people while feeling a mixture of happiness and a little dismay.

“Stupid!! We lack talented people right now, you know? I can’t let you guys rest just because you lost a limb or two, right? I’ll have you guys do paper work. It’ll be something tougher than the battlefield so prepare yourselves, okay?” (Almis)

The three’s faces light up.

It seems my support wasn’t wrong.

Even so……

This is hard, huh…

“Screw him!!!!!!! That brat!!!!”

Regal’s been hitting things for quite some time now. There are already more than 10 furniture and ornaments nearing their last moments.

Bermet exhales his heart out while looking at that scene.

While Regal may be angry at Almis, Bermet is angry at Gilberto.

Why the hell did Gilberto lose even though they’ve prepared for the inevitable scandal and everything was set up for him. Bermet tries to find an answer for nearly an hour.

In the end, he got captured.

If he had just died then, the balance of power would be better here and they would be able to demand vast amounts of money for indemnity……but……

With this, they could not avoid having a scandal that the DeBell Clan has weak soldiers. What with they hopelessly lost even though they had a double size advantage, after all.

Although it couldn’t be helped if you say it was inevitable since, except in number, they completely lose in equipment, experience, and command.

Without a doubt, the DeBell Clan has certainly weakened in its unifying power. It would be best if they prepare for seeing various clanmen switching sides to the Ars Clan.

Nonetheless…

“We can secure the rock salt mine.”

From the very beginning, it was possible to secure it regardless if they won or lost.

If they had won, then there won’t be problems in imposing effective control. If they had lost, they could take it away as reparations.

This time, they will go with demanding it as reparation.

They were the victims after all.

Well it was problematic that Gilberto got captured but……

With this, demanding the whole salt mine would seem very tough. As such…

Bermet continues to ponder over the matter.

He works over the best policy to do about it.

It’s desirable to settle out of court rather than go for arbitration.

They wouldn’t want the scandal to propagate further.

Arbitration would be more advantageous for the opposing party so it couldn’t be helped if they demanded favorable conditions for them in order to agree with settling it out of court.

“Lord Regal. I’ll head for the Ars Territory. Please wait for the good news.” Bermet heads out alone as he declares so to Regal.

“If possible, we don’t want the matter to get bigger so let us just settle out of court and get this over with.” (Bermet)

An old man declares such before me.

This old person seems to be called Bermet. His body looks like an old dried up tree but his eyes show a deep intelligence.

At the very least, he doesn’t seem to be a stupid old man.

“Settlement, is it? I wanted to officially end this in arbitration, however.” (Almis)

Since King Rosyth would favor me after all.

Arbitration would be more advantageous. If I shout the opposite party’s injustices with a loud voice, the blame would move greatly towards the DeBell Clan and the one towards mine would relatively weaken.

“Should we end up with arbitration this time, we will demand for the heads of the people responsible.”

You really hit where it hurts huh…

Did they know that I hold Ron and the others dear?

Even if you say arbitration would be more advantageous, I don’t know up to what extent I can reduce the penalties. It’s not like Ron and the others have royal blood in them nor are they great clansmen. They’re just commoners.

There’s no way some kind of punishment wouldn’t fall upon them. As expected, settlement would be the safer way to go.

Well. It’s going according to my assumptions.

“I see. Our territory is lacking in human resources, you see. Their deaths would be bad. Alright. Depending on the conditions, let us aim to end this in a settlement.” (Almis)

Bermet takes out a pen and parchment as I say so.

You could write old man?

“First, Condition No.1, we want to receive an apology from your side. The incident happened because you couldn’t discipline your soldiers properly.” (Bermet)

“I understand. My unworthiness has caused things to come to this.”

I will apologize so I had Tetra bring me the paper.

Settlement Conditions

I, Almis Ars, accept fault for this incident and apologize.

For the meantime, we complete the first line.

The next matter would be about money.

“Alright, as for the next condition……we demand rights over the whole rock salt mine.” (Bermet)

“That’s too much, right? Only a third.” (Almis)

Our opinions diverge.

Nonetheless, you have to persist here.

“Then let’s go with this. We shall surrender two-thirds of the rights to the mine to you. In exchange, we shall release Lord Gilberto, who we’ve taken as prisoner-of-war, without compensation.” (Almis)

Well, can this be a compromise?

As expected, demanding the ransom money would be…

Moreover, the other party won’t seem to assent to just a third of the mine.

“Releasing the prisoner is only natural. However, we would be troubled if you don’t compensate for the equipment. Our soldiers were pointlessly reduced because of you, didn’t you know?” (Bermet)

“I understand. Then let’s have the compensation for the equipment be paid in wheat. In exchange, the remaining third of the mines shall be ours. In addition to this, the one who will conduct the punishment of the fugitives shall be us.” (Almis)

With this, we would be able to keep face while allowing the other party to profit.

How about it?

Unfortunately for them, we have enough wheat. We could also afford to just return the equipment as is.

“……Then that should be fine. We will accept.”

The Settlement Conditions are:

Almis Ars shall surrender two-thirds of the rights to the Salt Mine.

Almis Ars shall release the prisoner of war without ransom.

Almis Ars shall pay wheat as compensation for the equipment reparations.

With this, it ends.

We’ll settle with this for now.

“I see. And with that, you settled, am I right? You could have won if you had pushed for arbitration, you know?” (Rosyth)

“If I became even more indebted to you then you would probably force me to agree to succeed the throne.” (Almis)

King Rosyth laughs scornfully.

“What are you even saying after having this territorial dispute…if that brat becomes king then your position would become dangerous, you know? It’s not just that. Your family and your subordinates too. There’s a lot of cases since long ago that the victor in a war takes in the loser’s wife as a concubine.” (Rosyth)

Don’t tell me unpleasant things…

Jeez.

Even I know that much.

However, this is not a problem you could just conclude that easily.

Once you’ve decided then you wouldn’t be able to take it back. That’s why I’m troubled.

It’s not like I specifically want to become king.

However, I do want to marry Julia.

Even I don’t understand what I want to do.

“Well, that’s fine. You’ve really thought about this, huh. It’ll be troublesome if you’ll regret it after all. Then let’s talk about other things…didn’t you just have a crushing victory? It’s become the talk of the town, you know. That the 300 man-strong DeBell Army lost to the 160 man-strong Ars Army.” (Rosyth)

“It’s not like I was the one who won, you know. It was my subordinates’………Ron and the others’ victory.” (Almis)

“The subordinate’s feat is the lord’s feat, you know. There are people who couldn’t use talented subordinates even though they have them. Conversely, there are people who bring out the very best out of their subordinates, even out of the not so talented ones. I also put the value of your subordinates into you.” (Rosyth)

Rosyth violently coughs after saying so. It seems his illness have completely progressed.

Raymond-san even said that he doesn’t know whether he could still hold out for a year.

“By the way, what did they do to win? Teach it to me.” (Rosyth)

“That’s alright. However, I can only say as much as I’ve heard…” (Almis)

I speak of Ron and the others’ strategy – the clever use of cavalry and topography. Honestly, I was surprised.

When the hell did the guys learn about tactics?

When I think back, the guys talk a lot with Bartolo…so they probably learned from there.”

Well, even if they weren’t hoplites, any branch of the army has the rear as the same weak point. Plus, it’s easy to predict that the formation would crumble if you hurriedly changed directions in the middle of a river.

They were probably also lucky that the enemy used centuries (1oo men). If they had used legions (10,000 men), then it would take time for the cavalry to go around them.

It’s a small number vs a small number so they were able to complete the tactic.

“I see. It’s quite simple huh. I heard they defeated an enemy twice their size so I was thinking what kind of clever scheme they used but…” (Rosyth)

“Clever schemes don’t work all the time after all. Simple tactics rarely fail so I think they’re more reliable.” (Almis)

As a certain famous general used to say, ‘Rather than hitting the enemy with a small force, bring a big army from the start and hit them with it.’

My duty is to make sure that we don’t get cornered into a situation where we have use something like clever schemes, don’t you agree?

“I see. There’s one thing I absolutely have to tell you.” (Rosyth)

“What would that be?” (Almis)

“The De Morgal Kingdom and the Gillbed Kingdom have agreed to a truce. It appears that it was to oppose the Rozel Kingdom but…it’s probably so they could advance south, don’t you agree. A war will happen before long.” (Rosyth)

The De Morgal Kingdom…I heard that Kingdom’s combined forces numbered around 10,000. If they mobilized to the limit, then they could probably reach around 30,000 soldiers.

“10,000 soldiers are coming, huh?” (Almis)

“I’m afraid so. That country can mobilize up to 30,000 soldiers. At the very least, they will probably mobilize around 15,000. However, the more soldiers they mobilize then the more time it’ll take. That country’s great clans are as powerful as ours. If they’re planning a large-scale war then adjustment is necessary. I fear we have us much as half a year. Until then, we’ll have to prepare countermeasures. We were caught off guard when that brat Ferrum attacked but……this time, we know in advance. We could probably mobilize around 7,000.” (Ferrum)

Well, excluding the great clans, the number of soldiers the Rosyth Royal Family could independently mobilize is around 4,000.

If you think it’s necessary to fortify our borders with other countries……then the number of soldiers this country can mobilize is around 6,000?

However, that figure would be dependent upon diplomacy.

It seems very grave, huh.

“Hurry up the fort construction. We should hold them back there at all costs.” (Rosyth)

“I understand. Ismere is doing here very bests right now, you know.” (Almis)

I also need to increase gunpowder production, huh.

It seems we would need a large quantity.

Author’s notes:

Just a few more chapters and the story will v-shape recover.

This is the turning point. Almis will finally show his determination.