As expected, the battle ended the moment the imperial side moved its troops.
The lord’s soldiers seemed to be well commanded; they withdrew in good order, and as soon as we arranged a place for talks, their representative appeared at once.
What’s more, when we informed them of the annexation that had been discussed in the imperial capital, they accepted it without a word of complaint.
“I’d heard they’d quiet down once the imperial army came out, but that was awfully quick.”
I was participating in the talks this time as well.
After all, I was one of the representatives.
Of course, the other side looked at me with deep suspicion, but once my status was explained, they straightened their backs.
Apparently, my bad reputation hadn’t reached this remote frontier.
Even if I wasn’t legitimate, the mere fact that I was an imperial prince made them show me more reverence than they did the imperial army, which only made me uncomfortable.
“I called you over because I thought it’d be better to have you watching nearby, but with an imperial prince showing his face in person, I’d say there were definitely parts where they backed down before saying anything stupid.”
Isn’t that a little harsh, General Wageris? Or do people really think I’m so reckless that I’d chase an assassin alone?
“But this is a territorial reorganization decided by the central government, imposed on people who were asserting sovereignty strongly enough to send soldiers out and fight. I thought the soldiers of Wabiri, the side losing land, might complain, but is it really just my status that made them back down so quietly?”
If I believed General Wageris, then the signboard of “imperial prince” had worked.
In reality, the troops had been sent out to drive me from the imperial capital, but there was no way people in the provinces would know that. Still, they were quiet.
“Besides, they probably just wanted to hurry up and go home. I got plenty whispered in my ear.”
General Wageris trembled his smallish ears.
“Things like how supply delivery wasn’t going well, how the folks in the town below were taking advantage of them, how unloading it all was a pain so we could have whatever they didn’t need… and that the biggest nuisances were the residents here and the wind.”
“A troublesome wind—do you mean the poisonous wind?”
“You know about it?”
“I read all the documents left behind by the general who was dispatched here before. There are legends about it in both villages, and I also saw a report that soldiers actually died on a day when a poisonous wind blew.”
At my words, General Wageris looked around as if searching for someone.
Then one military official came over, flipping through the documents in his hands.
“Yes, um, yes. Here it is. This one.”
Apparently, General Wageris hadn’t known about the poisonous wind.
It seemed he left records like that to the military officials, and the official in question was carrying a bundle of documents that looked ready to spill from one arm.
Hmm. Sloppy.
Well, in my case, other than what required advance preparation, I’d had Sephira memorize everything, and I’d checked it myself along the way.
General Wageris, who had been organizing the army and the like more than I had, probably hadn’t had enough time.
The troublesome thing about this land was that the villages of Karu and Wabiri had originally been located deep inside completely different mountain ranges.
Both villages had suffered disasters that forced them to abandon their homes several times, and while descending the mountains in search of somewhere to go, the two villages had coincidentally met here.
However, they spoke different languages, and because they had originally lived in different places, their cultures were different too.
Nowadays, they could communicate with each other, but old grudges had dragged on, and once you dug into them, it turned into an endlessly long and troublesome conflict.
“It’s true there are people who suddenly collapsed and died outdoors with no external wounds. Many witnesses, no one beside them, the only noteworthy circumstance being that a strong wind was blowing, huh.”
“Yes. If my guess is right, under the same conditions, we could die too. So I’d like you to order everyone not to approach the White Road on days with strong south winds.”
“The White Road?”
“Er, er, um, yes, this must be it. It appears to be the boundary between Karu and Wabiri.”
The military official produced a map of the villages this time, but had he perhaps memorized where every single target document was in that bundle?
“Why here? Huh? The road of the gods? Anything dropped there is an offering to the gods, so do not pick it up?”
In addition to the map, the military official found and handed over documents related to the White Road.
They said that the White Road was the road of the gods, so one must not enter it carelessly, that one would be punished if one lay down there, and so on.
Because the cause of death was unknown, the previous general had also left behind the surrounding legends he had investigated.
“Hey, didn’t the villagers set something up?”
“The legends are probably for the villagers’ self-defense. I’d say it’s a matter of personifying fear as divine punishment.”
“Either way, if people died, we can just squeeze the villagers and make them tell us what’s there.”
From General Wageris’s perspective, there was a cause behind the deaths, and the only people who could have set something up were the villagers.
From my perspective, I could infer another factor, but first I needed to stop him from acting rashly.
“That would be meaningless. Worse, it would just create hostility, so we’d only lose out. The general dispatched here before deliberately sent soldiers into the middle of the conflict to show off his strength and end negotiations quickly, causing casualties in both villages. But because of that, they maintained a hardline stance for seven years, and he couldn’t go home.”
“That was because there were two villages to negotiate with. This time, they’re being reorganized into one. Give the order, and it’s over.”
This was that, wasn’t it? He already thought his job was done because the lord’s soldiers had withdrawn.
It was true that the army had brought people capable of handling negotiations, but the army was needed as a deterrent, and it would be a problem if the general commanding that army was thinking so lightly.
“In any case, deliberately harming the villagers is forbidden.”
“You’re soft.”
“You’re the one who’s soft, General Wageris. Negotiations aren’t something you can settle through brute force alone. Sometimes a powerful blow is effective, but unless you’ve determined that the attack will definitely get through, you’ll end up unable to even strike a second blow.”
This was something I’d learned on the way here, but if you didn’t speak clearly to General Wageris, he immediately rushed to a decision.
In the palace, there had been a tendency to dislike speaking plainly, but he was so completely the opposite that it was as if reading the room was nothing but a tedious nuisance.
“And we are the side that will eventually leave. Even if we suppress them with force, that force will disappear. What happens then? We’re back to square one. Even if they’re integrated into the same village, we can’t replace every villager who once fought each other. If we only paper over the surface, this military action won’t produce results.”
Life here was harsh.
On top of that, the people who lived here had their own philosophy, and there was no point in outsiders denying it.
“Are we going to ravage territory His Majesty has gained with half-hearted oppression, only to cause conflict again in the future? A village integrated under His Majesty’s name immediately splitting apart would be truly meaningless.”
For the sake of building up Father’s achievements as well, I had to guide this village to a peaceful resolution.
“…Then hurry up and say what you’re thinking. You keep acting all important, going on about guesses and whatnot.”
It seemed he understood that I had an idea, but I raised one hand toward General Wageris.
“It’s still only a guess, so I don’t feel the need to say it yet.”
“Hah!? Was it a lie when you said people could die?”
“No, there are records showing that it actually happened, aren’t there? I’ve made a guess as to the cause. But it’s still just theory on paper. I could talk about all kinds of guesses, and one of them might be the answer. But if there’s too much unnecessary information mixed in, it’ll only cause confusion.”
I didn’t want to needlessly disrupt the army’s chain of command either.
That was why all I’d asked was that they make sure no one did what the legends forbade.
“Once my luggage arrives, I’ll head out to investigate right away. I’ll share the results properly.”
“Hah? Luggage? Investigate? …Come to think of it, you had us haul a pointless mountain of baggage. I thought maybe you’d brought useless things to decorate your room, but the only strange things in your tent were those glass contraptions.”
“Strange, strange—wait, do you mean the alchemy tools?”
“Those are alchemy? Not pharmacology? What are you making the soldiers drink?”
“Medicine. A poison that kills poison—that is what people call medicine.”
I couldn’t read a capybara’s expression, but I could tell from the atmosphere that he didn’t really understand, and the military official beside him looked uneasy as well.
The luggage that would arrive was also alchemy-related, and even if I explained, they probably wouldn’t understand.
Even if I told them I had brought a mountain of luggage because I thought an investigation would be necessary, explaining it would be a hassle.
“In any case, I’ll investigate the direction the south wind blows in from, so until then, focus on self-defense.”
“South?”
General Wageris murmured and looked at the map.
The White Road ran north to south, forming the boundary that divided the two villages.
And this place was a hollow.
No matter which direction you went, you would run into the mountains that formed the range.
However, something else was drawn to the south on the map.
“What’s this building?”
“That too? The reason the locals fight is that building.”
When General Wageris checked with the military official, the official nodded without searching through the documents this time.
At the southern end of the White Road was something like a shrine.
It was a facility for worshipping the mountain god, and if you traced things back to the beginning, the two villages were in conflict over its ownership.
“What’s this… hole?”
Farther south, General Wageris noticed that there was a huge blank space in the mountain on the map.
However, that place was marked as dangerous, and the previous general hadn’t investigated it either, so it was an uncertain area.
That was precisely why it was also the place I had to go investigate.
“The source of the poisonous wind is probably there…”
“Hey, wait. You mean there’s poison there? Then the very fact that the village is here is a problem. We’ll need to negotiate relocation. No, before that, an investigation? As if I’d let you go!”
“That’s why—come on. Stop rushing to conclusions so crudely. The locals have their reasons for continuing to live here. Unless we resolve that, there’s no point.”
It was no good. General Wageris was fatally unsuited to negotiations.
I understood that he was thinking of safety, but that wouldn’t connect to Father’s accomplishment of increasing his territory.
He may have dismissed the matter, thinking it didn’t need to take priority over human lives, but then there would be no meaning in my having come all this way.
“In any case! Be careful around the White Road. Just crouching down there will probably kill you!”
When I pointed at General Wageris and gave him that order, he let out another clearly angry sound from the end of his thick nose.
Regular Update
Next: The Dangers of the Fanan Mountains 4