Chapter 182 : Chapter 182
Chapter : 182
Even if lightning strikes in the dead of night, I never expected trouble to erupt this suddenly.
Staring at the Infamy notification window that had popped up out of nowhere last night, I sat there with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. At a glance, my Infamy had jumped by seven.
“What, am I some Axis of Evil? This is making me lose my mind.”
I could only let out a hollow laugh at how absurd it was. Since my Infamy had risen, it seemed I would have to do the work of lowering it again.
I did not want to experience the penalty of high Infamy—the appearance of a Soul Eater—twice. Of course, it was not I who had suffered through it, but that troublemaking goat beastman. Still, remembering that day, when our lives had truly hung by a thread, made anger surge up all over again.
“Bwa?”
Bishop Marco, the goat beastman, blinked his peculiar square eyes and tilted his head.
“Meeee. L-lord-nimu. Did you curse me? Mehr.”
“…No. Keep working.”
“Meheheheheh. All right. Lord-nimu.”
His instincts really were annoyingly sharp.
Shaking my head, I turned away.
This was the office Baron Lueg had lent me. On the desk before me lay a hideous object that had once been, in a sense, spoils of war(?).
“How can it be repaired, Magician Agpiel?”
“You are not joking, are you?”
“…I am serious.”
Magician Agpiel answered as though he was dumbfounded.
“The breastplate of the armor has been torn apart, and the mystery imbued into it has already scattered. This is just a lump of scrap metal.”
“Is that so?”
I had suspected as much, but hearing it confirmed made it even more disappointing.
To think I had destroyed such a treasure with my own hands.
“You should have used less strength.”
“How was that possible in a duel? Besides, if I had not put that much strength into it, I would be the one lying down, Magician Agpiel.”
With lingering regret, I jutted out my lower lip. It was as though I had personally destroyed one of the treasures counted among the rarest even in [Pangea Universalise]. Tears and sighs rose unbidden.
At least the other remaining arms and armor were in good condition.
Although even those….
“Hmm. This sword is fine, but it is definitely inferior to that holy sword you carry.”
“Other than shining like this, does it not have any special mystery?”
“It is not shining. It strengthens the wielder’s power, you know…?”
“What?”
I tilted my head. I had not felt my strength increase at all. But the words that followed from Magician Agpiel made me understand why.
“That is because your strength is greater than an ogre’s, is it not? Good grief….”
“…….”
If it strengthens strength, it should strengthen it properly—why does it stop there? Sure enough, as Agpiel said, the mystery on it was nothing to write home about.
It is not as though I am sulking because I cannot use something I worked hard to obtain.
Really.
“Meeee. Lord-nimu. Your face is sulky. Mehr.”
“Ahem. It is not that. Go over there.”
Shoo, shoo.
Stop butting in, you goat beastman!
“Lord-nimu is strange. Magician. Meeeee.”
“It is because you keep hitting where it hurts for no reason. Tsk, tsk.”
“Bwa?”
“Such things happen.”
“…….”
At some point, the two of them had started matching each other’s rhythm far too well.
Rubbing my throbbing head, I hurriedly ushered out the two people who kept muddling my mind.
Whew. I can finally breathe.
But it did not last long.
“Your Excellency the Margrave, Viscount Avignon has arrived. Shall I show him in?”
“Let him in.”
Viscount Avignon—who handled my discreet business—had come at my summons.
“My lord. You called for me?”
“Yes. I have another confidential task for you.”
“Give the order, and I will carry it out as is only proper.”
At some point, Viscount Avignon had stopped questioning my words.
Whatever I ordered, he only bowed his head and said he understood. He was, in every sense, an ideal man for secret work.
“Do you still have ties to people from the Crusader Knight Order?”
“I have an informant I connected during the last escape operation.”
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes. I kept the connection, just in case. What is the matter? Are you planning to contact them and support the peasant rebel army?”
Perhaps because he had handled stratagems with me several times, he could read my intentions to a degree.
Viscount Avignon truly was capable—especially considering he had been a starting vassal of the Bellua Margraviate, which had been falling apart.
“That is right. I do not want the peasant rebel army to collapse all at once. Rather, I want them to form a massive force within the kingdom and continue causing chaos as they are now.”
“Hmm…. Certainly, the more divided the kingdom is, the more it benefits you, my lord. However, it will not be easy. Food is bulky, so it is difficult to provide it discreetly, my lord.”
“Not that sort of food. Though, well, it would be good to provide food as well.”
“Pardon?”
Before my words even finished, Viscount Avignon tilted his head slightly.
If not food, what was I going to supply?
“Food matters, but to fight, you need weapons, do you not?”
“D-do not tell me…?”
“That is right. Secretly siphon off the weapons we recovered in this battle and provide them to those Crusader Knight Order bastards. With that, they will maintain the peasant rebels on their own.”
Watching Viscount Avignon’s flustered expression, a grin spread across my lips. It had been a long time since I had seen his face waver like that.
“Umm. Since it is your decision, my lord, I will not dare to doubt it…. But those weapons could be turned against us, my lord.”
“That could happen. But have they not already been thrashed by us once?”
A beast that had been deeply wounded once did not easily forget the memory. And besides—
“Right now, nobles everywhere are gathering armies to survive. They will desperately need a stable ally who will not attack them, even if only temporarily. In this case, it is closer to a non-aggression pact.”
No matter how close the peasant rebels were to ignorant rabble, there were still some among them of noble birth.
They would have some political sense.
They might ignore me if they dared, but they would not pick a fight with me.
“Hoh…. When you put it that way, it is true.”
Only then did Viscount Avignon nod, impressed.
As expected, my lord had a plan. All he had to do was trust and follow.
“I have been foolish. To dare to talk back to your judgment…. I will contact them at once, as you said. Leave it to me.”
And so Viscount Avignon answered with eyes brighter than ever.
Of course, I—
“Y-yes. I am counting on you.”
It felt strange, though—almost as if I was seeing something beyond blind faith, a hint of madness.
But what could I do?
If it was good, it was good.
Viscount Avignon would not do anything strange like the others.
Probably.
No, really!
---
Romulus, the capital city of the Holy See, Administrative Office.
Cardinal Adriano was receiving reports from all over and clutching his head.
The state of the continent was far from ordinary.
With the Great Famine continuing, peasant revolts erupted everywhere, and the Emperor of the Holy Empire still could not abandon his greed, launching reckless campaigns.
What in the world was it all coming to?
For Cardinal Adriano, who wanted to unfold a paradise on earth before the sacred God, it was a situation that drew nothing but sighs.
Even so, there was some good news.
“The Archbishopric of Cologne has submitted a report, Your Eminence. He says they achieved a great victory in the recent battle.”
It was news that, in the north of the Holy Empire, the Northern Noble Alliance supported by the Holy See had won its fight against the Emperor of the Holy Empire.
“Oh? And what became of the Emperor?”
“He barely managed to withdraw with his troops, but the losses were greater than expected, and his power has diminished greatly, Your Eminence.”
“Then has the Emperor’s ability to wage war finally reached its limit?”
In truth, this chaos could end at any time.
If only one person—
If only the Emperor would abandon his greed.
The problem was that the Emperor’s greed had no end.
“According to the report, he has suffered immense losses due to the continuing famine.”
As the official presented the report to Cardinal Adriano, he continued.
“In particular, most of the Emperor’s domains are regions with low productivity. We judge that this Great Famine has created serious problems in his food supply.”
“Hmm…. I see.”
At least it was positive news.
No matter how hardened an army was, without food it became nothing but a disorderly mob. A reasonable man would retreat for now and rebuild his domestic affairs for the days ahead.
“The problem is that the Emperor of the Holy Empire is not in his right mind.”
That man would instead insist on taking food from his enemies and ignite even greater war.
Of course, since both sides lacked food, it might be strategically true that the larger Holy Empire could endure better.
The issue was simply that such a strategy was a gamble—an all-or-nothing wager staked on everything he had.
Which was why the situation needed to be made so harsh that he could not even dream of gambling.
“If we cut off only the County of Campania in the south of the Apennine Peninsula, will the Emperor have no remaining strength?”
“Yes, that is correct, Your Eminence.”
The official nodded at Cardinal Adriano’s words.
“In effect, that place is the Emperor’s last remaining breadbasket. If we sever it, it will be possible to completely starve the Emperor within the empire.”
“And since the Kingdom of Aragon has been taken by the Prince-elector of Bohemia, there is no route to supply food from outside.”
“Of course, he could receive it from the eastern kingdoms, but….”
“His relations with them are quite poor, so it will not be an easy choice….”
Taking up the official’s words, Cardinal Adriano trailed off.
His 고민 deepened.
What should he do?
In such times, the blade best suited for use was the Margrave of Bellua. He had even promised that territory to the Margrave of Bellua in the first place.
The problem was….
“I heard the peasant rebels are sweeping through the Elang Kingdom.”
He understood that the Elang Kingdom’s circumstances were no better than the Holy Empire’s. Peasant rebels ran rampant across the land, and the King of the Elang Kingdom was simply watching, or so he had heard.
If that was true, then would not even the Margrave of Bellua—now with more to protect—lack the capacity to mobilize an army?
And yet.
“Your Eminence!”
An official rushed in from outside and delivered a report.
“Word has come that the Margrave of Bellua has crushed all peasant rebels who intruded into his territory. And the Duke of Bourgogne has also raised an army to subjugate the peasant rebels in the eastern region.”
Perfectly, coincidentally, it was precisely the news he needed—delivered at the perfect time.
“O-oh?!”
For the first time in a long while, Cardinal Adriano praised God again.
It was true: God was protecting them.
With this, every plan would be fulfilled.
---
While I was frantically directing various projects in Baron Lueg’s territory, my ear suddenly began to itch like mad.
“Hmm, is someone talking about me?”
“Meeee. Lord-nimu. Maybe you did not clean your ears enough. Mehr? It is dirty. Meheheh.”
“…….”
To think I would live to hear a vassal call me dirty.
I knew this goat beastman had a peculiar character, but it was genuinely beyond belief.
Maybe I should just boil him into goat soup.
Of course, that thought ended there.
“Your Excellency! A guest has arrived.”
A servant of Baron Lueg’s territory had come to me carefully.
“Hmm? Who is it?”
“An envoy from the Holy See, Your Excellency.”
Well, well?
So there really was a reason my ear had been itching.