CH 250

I receive the sealed letter from Stefan and open it. I unwittingly exhaled deeply as I took out the paper and looked through it.

“What happened? What was written?” Stefan asked.

“Hmm… for now, please call Lord Carruthers and Schwartz,” I said.

“Ah… aye, aye!” Stefan said.

Seeing what I meant, Stefan saluted and left immediately. He can salute, but he can’t knock… well, Stefan is not stupid. He probably doesn’t do it because he isn’t motivated to do so.

I mean, what do you mean by not even knocking to enter a woman’s room? What would you do if, for some reason, I were undressed?

If you think about it normally, this is the office, and I rarely change clothes. But can you say with certainty I won’t be undressed? Maybe I spilled drinks or snacks on myself and was wiping up or changing my clothes. It wouldn’t matter if men were seen naked by each other. But a man seeing a woman’s nudity?

Well… in this world, or rather, even on Earth, in the past, the value of naked women was low… there was a time when the queen of one country wore her plunging dress in front of the diplomatic missions of another country and her breasts were puffy and visible but she didn’t care.

They are used to exposing their skin to people because I am walking around without wearing underwear and going to the bathroom in the gardens. Even today, Japanese people are puzzled by the open exposure of foreigners, but it seems that it was even more uninhibited here.

However, I have the sensibility of a modern Japanese person, and when I consider the fact that a former man has become a woman, I am very reluctant to let a man see my skin. I’m asking you to knock on the door to avoid such an accident, but I can’t quite get it across.

“Miss Flora, I brought Lord Albert here,” Katharina said.

“Oh, please come in, Lord Carruthers,” I said.

Stefan must have gone ahead to invite the various people. Katharina was left to escort my father. She knocks properly and tells me what she needs outside my office.

Now it’s not father and daughter, but Margrave Carruthers and Baron Caan, so I behave accordingly. No matter how much we’re parent and child, no, that’s why it’s good to separate public and private matters. Right now, it’s just an Alliance partner who is cooperating with the King’s order.

“Mm. Pardon me,” Father said as he entered.

I thought while looking at my father taking a seat. Come to think of it, my father also seemed to have tricked me. What was he so worried about with General Janzicka? My father and mother seem to have discussed that if the enemy had General Janzicka, I would have a good fight and gain experience because I don’t have enough experience in interpersonal combat.

Thanks to that, I thought that there was a monster like my mother as an enemy, and my heart cooled down a lot. I thought the ship would be in danger if a monster like my mother was part of the enemy, but apparently, my father is stronger than General Janzicka. If my father was still on the ship, it would have been possible to deal with him, and I felt a sense of crisis as if he was a very dangerous opponent, but he didn’t seem worth that much worry.

While I was thinking about that, the leaders were gathering one after another. Since most of the main members have gathered, I think I’ll show off the troublesome letter I received from Wilhelm.

“That I have gathered you here now is because a Royal letter has arrived from His Majesty Wilhelm,” I said. “Let me begin by reading its contents to you.”

I read the letter to everyone, but it contains a lot of redundant phrases typical of aristocrats, so to summarize…

“The war was launched by the Kingdom of Polsky, and the enemy has been annihilated in the Battle of Koenigsvelg, and now that they are weakened, please free all the lands and cities that have been stolen by them so far.”

…… Well, that’s the gist of it.

Historically speaking, the coast of the Hulk Sea around here was originally a settlement of the Kingdom of Ploiss. As an eastern colony, it seems that it has been gradually developed and colonized since hundreds of years ago, moving eastward along the coast of the Hulk Sea.

The Kingdom of Polsky was a country that was later established in the inland area to the east and was originally a completely landlocked country with no territories on the coast. However, the Kingdom of Ploiss confronted the Kingdom of Frasia and the Demon Country, and while they were fighting and occupied in the west, Polsky repeatedly attacked the east behind them and stole many cities and towns.

Currently, the border lines are ambiguous, and the remaining territory of the Kingdom of Ploiss is limited to the scattered free cities, and the surrounding area is mostly controlled by the Kingdom of Polsky. And this time, Polsky has taken action to seize the remaining free cities.

However, in the Battle of Koenigsvelg, instead of repelling the invading army of the Kingdom of Polsky, we destroyed them. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Ploiss.

The Kingdom of Ploiss has neither given up on the territories and cities that have been taken so far nor ceded them by treaty. It was just left unattended in the east to confront the countries in the west. However, by destroying the enemy’s main force this time, the Kingdom of Polsky has a decisive opening.

Ploiss’s decision this time is to take back the stolen territory before the enemy recovers, so it’s an order given to us. With a mere 1,000 ground troops and several galleons and carracks, we were told to take back the land they had taken from our country.

Moreover, it comes with information that it will be several months before the regular army of the kingdom comes to support us. I thought there would be generous support for giving such an order, but I can only think that they are fooling around with no guarantee of war expenses and no support for supplies.

Take back the land. Fight with your own forces and supplies. That’s what they say…

I know this from interrogating people from Polsky. This is because they have insiders. That’s why they’re giving us such ridiculous orders. I knew that there was an insider inside the Kingdom of Ploiss even before I went to war this time. It’s no surprise, only supplemented with info from Polsky’s side to unquestionably confirm it.

But the King is also the King. I don’t understand why he made such a decision and gave orders, even though he knew that… and I even sent a private letter with some of the information I got from the prisoners separately from my battle report. What on earth are Wilhelm and Dietrich thinking?

No matter how you look at it, I don’t think they’re scheming anything terrible… I guess I’m being used well by the two of them. Since I’m a vassal, it’s unavoidable for me to be used by the King or the Prime Minister and obey orders, but… I want to become someone who makes such unreasonable demands.

If anything, it’s better to take to the royal capital of Berne from now on… but I can’t say that. I can’t say that it’s impossible if I’m stressed by being made to do so much unreasonable things.

“That’s it,” I said. “We have gathered the leaders this time to discuss our future strategy, but does anyone have any opinions?”

Read the royal decree once and then ask for an opinion. However, the discussion went in an unexpected direction.

“If we were to take back the land that was once stolen from the Kingdom of Ploiss, would we invade as far as Windou?”

“In order to head to Windou, we need to conquer Memburg first.”

“If we’re going to take back all the stolen eastern colonies, then we have to take back Rieger as well…”

“Rieger is in the bay. In order to gain control of the sea in Rieger Bay and be able to navigate safely, we will have to capture Aursel Island, first.”

Everyone started to have a lively discussion, but please wait a moment. Why are you all so positive? Certainly, even more than what we were originally ordered must be obeyed. But wouldn’t it be better if we just held this territory without forcibly invading?

First of all… I don’t know how accurate the map of this world is, and I’ve never been there myself, but roughly speaking, if you go from Koenigsvelg to the free city of Memburg, the Hulk Sea hits the land and you can only go north. The Hulk Sea, which stretches from east to west, turns north to south. If you go north along the land, there is a free city called Windou at the end of the peninsula.

Roughly speaking, if you go south from Goslant Island, it’s around Danzij, and if you go east, it’s Windou. You can see how important Goslant Island is as a transit point for trade in the Hulk Sea. The coastline gradually changes from east-west to north-south while proceeding from Danzij to Windou, and Koenigsvelg and Memburg are on the way.

Furthermore, Rieger Bay spreads out to the southeast from the peninsula where Windou is located. In the depths of that bay is the free city of Rieger. However, the entrance to the bay is blocked by an island called Aursel Island. If you want to secure the safety of your ship and gain control of the sea, you have to capture both the peninsula where Windou is located and Aursel Island.

“Aursel Island is also an eastern colony of the Kingdom of Ploiss. We have justification to take it back, as well.”

“No… right now, Aursel Island is in a confusing status between the Kamaal Alliance and the Principality of Moscove. If you touch Aursel now, you’ll be dealing with both those powers simultaneously.”

“We are already fighting with the Kingdom of Polsky. It would be unwise to make any more enemies.”

Hold a moment……. before that, why are you all so belligerent? Let’s calm down a bit. We have an army of over 1,000 people, and even though we’re talking about large ships, we only have a few galleons and carracks, you know?

Of course, there are other ships that are responsible for transportation and resupply. There are cogs and caravels, and support ships from other Caanza Alliance members. However, the galleons and carracks are the only ones equipped with cannons that are likely to be a fighting force by themselves. Even if all of them were collected, the maximum number of ships that could be used at once would be 10. Even if you use more than that at once, you won’t be able to replenish in time.

“Rebal should be taken back.”

“And Rebal is now a territory where the Kamaal Alliance and the Principality of Moscove are fighting. If we get involved there, we may be flanked from both sides.”

Rebal is a peninsula on the opposite side of the peninsula where Windou is, and is sandwiched by Rieger Bay, with Aursel Island’s location blocking the exit of Rieger Bay. It seems that the Kamaal Alliance and the Principality of Moscove are currently fighting in this area, and as they say if we get our hands on this place, they can both attack.

Wait, that’s not what I mean. Even if we were to expand our reach with just the military strength we had, even if we were able to capture it once, we wouldn’t be able to maintain a large number of cities. Even if we fight, we will just be wasting resources.

“Hold a moment, please,” I said. “Even if we secure only free cities in the coastal areas, it will only become a repeat of the current situation with Koenigsvelg and Danzij.”

“Indeed…” Father said.

Ooh! My father agreed. In that case…….

“Then it is necessary to invade the inland area in order to have a certain amount of buffer.”

HEEEY! Why would we do that!? If you expand the range of invasion more and more, you won’t be able to maintain the supply lines!?

“If that’s the case…… when you consider our supplies and soldiers, do we move to about Alrenstein or Ostelode?”

Ah, you’re thinking about that, huh…? I thought you were going to say something like taking down the entire Kingdom of Polsky because we have everyone. Or rather, I’m thinking about securing sea superiority and covering it with marine transportation. For the time being, should I say that they are indeed veteran generals?

Alrenstein is a city in the inland area south of Koenigsvelg and is not a free city. However, it was originally a city developed as an eastern colony of the Kingdom of Ploiss. West of Arlenstein is the city of Ostelode, which was also an eastern colony of the Kingdom of Ploiss.

According to the range indicated by the leaders, it seems that they will recapture everything along the Hulk Sea, from the coastal areas to the inland areas where supplies can reach. As expected, it seems that the unreasonable thing to do with Rebal was withdrawing, but instead, they decided to take back the coastal area all the way to the inland area. Yes, it was a confirmed decision.

They discuss taking back everything along the coast all the way to the inland part of the peninsula where Windou is located…

Well, I can’t just do nothing because I was ordered to do so by royal edict. It may have been narrowed down to the possible range with the military power we have. It’s certainly not a pipe dream, but the veteran commanders think it’s plausible.

But isn’t that a bit too reckless? Even if it’s possible to supply supplies and transport soldiers, I don’t think it’s an area that can be overwhelmed by just over 1,000 people…

“I’ll return from this campaign in a month,” I said.

“”””-!?”””””

For some reason, the conference room was buzzing with my words. I don’t know what they’re upset about. I personally think that their unreasonable war plans are much more disturbing…

T/N: The funniest part to me is that almost everyone but Flora is going into this strategy telling Polsky, “Stop us? You and what army?”