The emperor’s hearty laughter, which had rung out thunderously as if it would swallow the audience chamber whole, slowly subsided.
“Truly an amusing fellow. Yes, I am well. An impressive first greeting.”
The emperor looked down at me as though intrigued.
But the voice that followed that praise once again carried a keen chill.
Resting his chin on his hand, the emperor gazed at me askew.
“However, your country is precisely the sort of nation I despise most on this continent.”
“……”
“A natural fortress, surrounded on all sides by the sea and buffer zones of other nations. Thanks to that, for decades you have not experienced a proper war, let alone a territorial dispute—an overwhelmingly weak nation rotting away, steeped in peace.”
The emperor’s eyes curved with a sardonic gleam.
“The weak, who do not know the true scent of blood, must roll over and show their bellies when the strong command it, and kneel when told to kneel. If ordered to die, they must crawl across the floor and imitate beasts begging for mercy if they wish to survive. Just like your Sterling Kingdom now.”
It was an insulting remark.
Behind me, the countless imperial nobles lined up throughout the great audience chamber snickered and whispered, their gazes pricking painfully into my back.
But without letting the slightest hint of resentment or humiliation show on my face, I calmly bowed my head.
“Your Majesty’s words are entirely correct. We are indeed nothing more than weaklings before the vast empire, and we are in a position where we must rely on Your Majesty’s mercy to survive.”
“Oh?”
“However, we merely cherish dearly that humble peace we have preserved without bloodshed for so many long years.”
‘Honestly, we were fucking small fry.’
At my answer, the emperor snorted.
“Peace, is it.”
Then, suddenly, the emperor brought to his lips a language that sounded utterly foreign and unfamiliar.
“Si vis pacem, para bellum. Do you know what that sentence means?”
For a moment, I nearly burst out laughing while still prostrate.
I knew it all too well.
Cheering inwardly, I answered without the slightest hesitation.
“If you want peace, prepare for war. Is it not a very famous and excellent ancient maxim, Your Majesty?”
The instant my answer fell, the old scribe beneath the throne sucked in a startled breath, and an incredulous murmur broke out among the ministers lined up in the hall.
“…A famous maxim, you say. Is it not a dead language, spoken by no one? In the Sterling Kingdom, do you call a maxim made of words no one uses a famous maxim?”
“It was a slip of the tongue, Your Majesty.”
‘Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have acted like I knew.’
The emperor’s violet eyes flashed frighteningly like torches.
“I jest. In any case, remarkable. A young royal, not even a scholar, knows the ancient tongue… Then I shall ask you.”
The emperor leaned his upper body forward, pressing down on me menacingly.
“I and my great forefathers spent our lives on horseback preparing for war, just as that old maxim teaches, and we were victorious, swallowing half the continent. But after cutting down every enemy in the world, what must one prepare for? If the tip of a drawn sword has nowhere left to point, is not all that remains for the sword to rust?”
I took a deep breath inwardly and strove to give the best answer I could.
“A magnificent insight, Your Majesty. A sword that has lost its enemies is inevitably bound to rust. However, I do not believe war ends simply because all enemies have been defeated.”
“What do you mean? I have no need for vague, cloud-grasping words. Give me a clear analogy that will strike my heart.”
An analogy. Deep within my chest, the spirit of the humanities student that had lain dormant for some time flared to life.
“It is said that the realm may be won from horseback, but it can never be governed from horseback.”
It was a maxim from the Chu-Han Contention.
Advice offered to the founding emperor Liu Bang by his retainer, Lu Jia.
Every gaze in the audience chamber fixed on my lips.
The emperor, too, stroked his chin as though interested.
“If an overwhelming sword has cut down every enemy in the world and brought the continent to its knees, then the one who wielded that sword must now melt it down, make plows, and mint gold coins. For what keeps a vast empire running without collapse after conquest is not the terror of a blade that may rust at any moment.”
I slowly raised my head and met the emperor’s violet eyes head-on.
“It is sturdy roads stretching like blood vessels from one end of the empire to the other, a dense system of law and administration that prevents even the thought of rebellion, and bread that fills the bellies of the people. In the end, what topples those who are not cut down by the sword is bread. For humans will kill and be killed for a single piece of bread.”
“……”
“If one prepared for war in order to seek peace, then after victory, one must prepare for an invisible war called governance, by which the conquered lands are fully digested. That is the most tedious and the greatest war a conqueror must wage after dismounting from his horse.”
“Hmm.”
“When humans are hungry, they will do anything to fill their stomachs. Among them, there will inevitably arise those blessed with ability, luck, and desire, who will smash the existing system apart. But if the conqueror can feed all his people until they are full, such desires will end as vain fantasies. A full-bellied human seeks sleep, not a sword.”
“Are there not also humans who begin entertaining other thoughts once their bellies are full?”
“To remove such people, so that the innocent majority who seek sleep when full may live satisfied with their lives—that, too, I believe, is war.”
When my words ended, a perfect silence fell over the vast audience chamber, so complete that not even the sound of someone swallowing could be heard.
“…Ha.”
A deep exclamation slipped from the emperor’s lips.
He stared at me with eyes wide in disbelief, then pressed his palm to his own forehead.
“Madness. Truly madness.”
“Y-Your Majesty……?”
“Kahahahaha!”
Once again, the emperor burst into laughter so loud it seemed the audience chamber might collapse.
This time, there was not a drop of mockery mixed in—only pure delight and admiration.
“A mere teenage hostage brat from the borderlands! And yet you can explain the essence of governance so clearly? Magnificent. Truly learned, and bold!”
“Thank you.”
“How old did you say you were this year?”
“I have turned twenty.”
“Hoho, well now… remarkable. Twenty, twenty… You are only that old? Someone as wise as you?”
“I am merely repeating aloud what I have learned. To call such a simple act wisdom—I am deeply moved by Your Majesty’s grace.”
“Most people in this world cannot even do that simple thing. Now then, let me ask you something else. What do you think a good monarch is?”
“A good monarch is…”
‘This is where I should talk about Machiavelli, right?’
After that, the emperor and I continued exchanging questions and answers for quite some time, leaving the retainers in the audience chamber to stand there like perfect folding screens.
After the conversation came to an end, the emperor, who had been wearing a satisfied smile, suddenly tilted his head.
“…I may have to evaluate your country far more highly than I had thought.”
“Pardon?”
“Is that not so? If a mere second prince possesses learning this deep and courage as weighty as Mount Tai, then how extraordinary must the vessel of Sterling’s first prince—the crown prince who will inherit the royal line—be?”
I nearly choked.
In my mind flashed the innocent face of the kind but idiotic Prince Joseph.
That frail prince who would shed tears and hide behind me if he so much as cut his finger on a branch while practicing swordsmanship.
‘No, Your Majesty. If that Joseph fellow came here, he would piss himself in a day and collapse from crying after three.’
Hurriedly swallowing the truth that was about to burst out of my mouth, I merely wore an inscrutable smile, bowed my head in silence, and kept my mouth shut.
“Considering the report from Sir Amber White, who escorted you, and considering what I have personally confirmed through our exchange today… it seems the Sterling Kingdom is not simply a country of shabby, feeble weaklings, as my eldest daughter Victoria said.”
The emperor stroked his beard and added cheerfully.
“That girl must have let the hot blood in her veins get the better of her and underestimated you too much, judging you solely by the measure of force. Truly, it has been a very, very long time since a hostage so much to my liking has come!”
The emperor slowly rose from his throne and issued an imperial command.
“Imperial Household Department, hear me! Give this man a proper residence within the imperial castle. Do not treat him poorly or oppress him merely because he is a hostage from an enemy nation. See to it that every convenience is generously provided so that, while he stays in the empire, he lacks nothing in his studies or daily life!”
“We obey Your Majesty’s command!”
The hundreds of ministers and knights lined up on either side of the audience chamber knelt as one and submitted to the emperor’s order.
The gazes of ridicule and contempt that had been directed at me had, before I knew it, changed into shock and a faint sense of awe.