To begin with, the Gunpowder King Hessen was completely ignorant when it came to the North.
Even I, an inspector, had only heard a few pieces of background information and stories about it.
Therefore, when it came to grasping the situation accurately, Sedrun was the best.
“This isn’t good.”
That Sedrun muttered in an extremely grave tone.
By now, I knew he was not the sort of person to be greatly shaken no matter what happened.
After traveling with him for the past two months, I had grasped all of his tendencies and characteristics.
Looking at it from that perspective, his current reaction was by no means a good sign.
“What on earth is the matter? Let us know the reason, Sedrun.”
“Can’t you tell by looking? Some of those barbarian bastards crossed the border and drifted in. And they aren’t even prisoners—they came on their own two feet! This is why I hate dealing with people who only sit behind desks.”
“What? How are we supposed to understand anything from just that?!”
“Now, now. Everyone calm down.”
If the situation is bad and we start fighting among ourselves, the mission will be a failure from the very start.
I don’t want to go before the crown prince and say, “I’m sorry. We’re doomed.”
You people don’t want to take responsibility and lose your posts either, so it would be best to be careful.
“Sedrun. You said the problem is that the barbarians crossed the border. Judging by your reaction, didn’t the border guards accept them for some reason? At least, that’s how it looks to me.”
“This is not such a simple matter, Inspector. Since you went to the east as an envoy, you should know that wherever two powers share a border, there are hardliners and moderates.”
“That’s true. The Urut tribe among the eastern grassland tribes was like that.”
“But just because they are moderates does not mean they abandon their homeland or come into the Empire. The moment they do, they are no longer moderates, but traitors to their own people. Then look at them. Why would they have come all the way into this Empire of their own accord?”
Hessen, who was beside me, looked as if he could not understand it at all.
I was about to answer that I did not really know either, but I thought it over again.
As an inspector. Since I still knew more stories and background than most.
What exactly was the serious point in the current situation that Sedrun was trying to convey?
Why was it a problem that the barbarians had crossed the border and entered the Empire?
They must have asked to be accepted, and the border guards let them in after a search.
Was he worried that they might carry out sabotage from within?
But it wasn’t as if this place was some strange backwater where military discipline had collapsed.
This was the world of men who fought barbarians almost every other day.
Any clumsy trickery would be spotted at once by veterans with plenty of experience.
Therefore, that possibility could be excluded without further consideration.
Let’s go back again. Sedrun had pointed out that they had entered the Empire.
He said there were hardliners and moderates, and he also mentioned the word traitor.
If the hardliners said, “Naturally, we should attack the Empire and seek survival!”
Then the moderates said, “The Empire is indeed our enemy, but we should approach more cautiously!”
…Wait. If I put it all together up to this point. Could it be that?
“Sedrun. Are you saying that the existing moderates among the barbarians have completely lost their power, and in order to stay alive, they chose to come to the Empire even if it meant being branded as traitors?”
“You are still an inspector, after all. That is exactly it. The barbarians beyond the border have already forgotten the days when His Great Majesty the Founding Emperor swung his iron hammer, and they are trying to start another great war!”
Hearing Sedrun’s words, I immediately understood why he was so agitated.
This was serious. I had not considered that the barbarians as a whole might have become extremely volatile.
At most, I had thought we would only have to deal with a few extremely aggressive tribes.
The grassland tribes and the barbarians differed in many ways, but they were also similar in some.
There was conflict between those who wanted a life-or-death struggle against the Empire and those who wanted to fight only in moderation.
Between them, the Empire mixed pressure and appeasement, preemptive strikes and defense in proper measure.
The enemy must never be allowed to unite as one. They had to be divided in two and fight among themselves.
Only then could the Empire easily defend the region, even if it could not expand the border.
If the situation improved, we might even gain cooperative forces within them.
But now all of that had gone awry. This was, in effect, an emergency.
What if the barbarians gathering over there really were the relatively moderate ones?
What if all the barbarians beyond the border now came charging in with spears, blades, and axes?
It meant that I, who had come here as an inspector, might be swept into war from the very beginning.
The situation was far from ordinary, so we quickly met those in charge of the North.
And we confirmed that every one of Sedrun’s predictions had been exactly right.
Not long ago, what was effectively a civil war had broken out among the barbarians.
Those who had been at least somewhat passive about attacking the Empire had all been eliminated.
Now a large-scale barbarian attack was right around the corner.
“We sent someone to the imperial capital a few days ago. But then, only a few days later, an inspector arrived, so we were truly surprised.”
“Hahaha… Even when things get tangled, they get tangled like this.”
The purpose of my coming here was, to the very end, to shake the barbarians.
Together with Hessen, I would use the gunpowder we had brought to spread fear among them.
Even if it could not boom like cannon fire, being able to start fires at will was an extraordinary thing.
Through that, we intended to make them hesitate a little more before attacking the border.
But now every plan had gone awry. Now we had to prepare for battle.
“This is truly troublesome. In truth, as soon as we arrived in the North, I was planning to tell the inspector about the tribes with whom dialogue was at least possible. I never expected matters to turn out like this.”
“Sedrun, don’t you know the barbarians well? I suppose nothing like this has happened before?”
“During the time of Kondor, the barbarians’ attacks were effectively left unchecked. Then the Founding Emperor came personally and swept those barbarians away. In that process, countless barbarians died.”
“Are you saying that the sons and grandsons of those who died back then have now become the main force of barbarian society?”
“That is probably the case. They have almost no fear of that great man, and instead only anger and resentment remain, so what they are doing is not entirely impossible.”
Pressure and shake the barbarians, making them hesitate to attack the Empire.
For now, that plan needed a complete revision. It would be difficult against the barbarians as they were now.
Then what remained was to break the vanguard of the barbarians who would soon launch their attack.
We absolutely had to let those bastards know that attacking the Empire was suicide.
Only then could we awaken the fear of the Founding Emperor’s era, a past they had forgotten.
“Lord Hessen. First, what is the condition of the things you brought?”
“Fortunately, the North is not a humid place with a great deal of rain, so they have not clumped together or become unusable. However, it is not as if we brought an especially large quantity either, so we must use it effectively if you wish to obtain the results you desire, Inspector.”
“Thankfully, we are not going to wage an all-out war. What we need to do now is more like a preliminary engagement.”
Sedrun was with us, but he had not brought troops under his command.
He had only come to the North temporarily with me, the inspector.
He did not possess the authority to command the soldiers here or anything else of the sort.
“Sedrun. Is there anyone here in the North from whom we can receive help?”
“If they are still intact, there is a family with whom I used to exchange news from time to time. All of them received help from His Majesty the Founding Emperor, so they will not treat an inspector who came here by order of His Highness the Crown Prince, or the rest of us, carelessly.”
“Then please guide us to them. I do not think looking around here any further will accomplish anything.”
Whether the imperial capital heard the news and sent troops or did something else, we had to buy time.
Fortunately, this place was not in a state where administrative power did not reach it at all.
I might be an inspector, but when it came to the North, the current administrators were the real experts.
What I had to do was help them find a way to overcome the present situation.
*
The place Sedrun guided us to was a certain noble family in the North.
They were nobles, yes, but they were somewhat different from the nobles of the imperial capital.
If those people were dazzling and splendid, like true nobles,
then here, it was more fitting to call them local notables or landowners.
“It has been a long time, Sedrun. You really have become an old man now.”
His clothing was not particularly different from that of the people of the North.
He did not bother giving off the impression of, I am different from you.
Rather, he seemed like someone who lived mixed in with them. Someone similar to you.
Only, someone who possessed a bit more and had a bit more to do.
The old man who appeared before Sedrun was exactly that kind of person.
“And you, sir, have truly become an elder.”
“Are those beside you new drinking companions you have made?”
“Surely not. They are an inspector and his party, sent from the imperial capital by order of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
At that, the old man’s gaze turned sharp for a moment.
He looked me up and down with a piercing stare, then opened his mouth.
“Young sir, you must be the inspector who came from the imperial capital.”
“That is correct. My name is Ethan Montebello.”
“If you are the head of the Montebello family, I once saw you by the Founding Emperor’s side. Is your father well?”
“Ah, well. He passed away several years ago.”
That was what this place was like. Even riding hard, it was two months from the center.
It was true that our family was a fairly prominent founding contributor family.
But we did not possess overwhelming influence, so it was only natural he would not know.
“Mm. I have made a mistake. I am sorry, Inspector.”
“Not at all. On the contrary, I am glad to meet someone who remembers my father. It means I may hear stories from his younger days.”
“Judging by your way with words, it is no wonder you sit in an important position at such a young age. Come in for now. The wind in the North is cold, so staying outside even a little while is liable to harm the body.”
The name of the old man Sedrun introduced was Peruca. He was one of the local notables.
He said that when Sedrun had been in the North in the past, he had been in his debt somewhat.
Naturally, by that debt, he meant mostly wine and women, or so it seemed.
“I am glad you were not chased out after causing trouble. The North has been growing noisier and noisier.”
“I did not know it would become like this, sir. The barbarians have never purged their own kin on such a large scale before, have they?”
“They have forgotten their fear of the Founding Emperor, and only deepened their resentment from that day, so it is not unreasonable. They have cast out everyone who told them not to forget it.”
“In the end, it means we must fight that battle again.”
Sedrun and old Peruca clicked their tongues and voiced their concerns.
Thinking that this was about the right time to cut in, I opened my mouth.
“Perhaps we can reduce the scale of the battle that is about to break out, even if only a little.”
“What do you mean by that, Inspector?”
“The item that our Director of Armaments, Lord Hessen, brought this time. If we use it to break the enemy’s vanguard, we may at least be able to lower their morale considerably.”
Seeing is believing. I immediately had them demonstrate the magic powder.
At first, because only a very small amount was used, the two men’s reactions were lukewarm.
But what if this were used suddenly and all at once in large quantities?
Furthermore, what if we could make arrows fly even without anyone shooting a bow?
“If that is possible… then breaking the vanguard may indeed be feasible.”
From Sedrun, a master of battle, came an answer that acknowledged the possibility.