Vol 5. Chapter 20: Interlude (A Certain Duke)
Amagio “Salmon”—no, Duke Amagio Silverhead—was working tirelessly.
He was worrying about the future of his own power base, the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
At present, the Kingdom of Lepuitari was continuing to grow with such momentum it could knock birds from the sky. This was due in large part to the power of its expanded navy.
Compared to the surrounding nations, the naval power of the Kingdom of Lepuitari was extremely high—head and shoulders, even two or three heads, above the rest. In terms of the technological gap, it was estimated at over a hundred years.
The ones who had made that estimate were that superpower, so precisely because of that, the analysis could be trusted.
Thus, the kingdom had continued to grow by one-sidedly siphoning off wealth from the surrounding nations.
But that momentum would eventually hit a ceiling. A regime that only takes cannot sustain itself.
For the next ten years, there would probably be no problem.
For twenty years, they could just barely get by on what they had already accumulated.
But what would things look like thirty years from now?
Once they had sucked all the wealth from the neighboring countries dry, the bloated nation would only starve if its supply lines were cut.
Therefore, Duke Amagio Silverhead decided to move.
If it were only the navy, he could bend things as he pleased with his personal clout. But a country does not run on its navy alone. There was the army, the key to national defense; the various government bureaus responsible for domestic governance; the law-enforcement apparatus that maintained public order. Only when all of these cooperated organically could a state be run in a healthy way.
And above all, the most important thing was free commerce protected by order. Without a functioning economy, sustainable growth was impossible.
The first necessity was power—enough power to forcibly push reforms through.
To that end, Duke Silverhead joined forces with key figures in the navy and set about bringing the kingdom’s noble houses under control. He recovered the power that had been scattered and restored a centralized regime with the royal family at its core.
Within the Kingdom of Lepuitari, which had already embarked on a path toward modernization, the nobles’ influence had been on the decline. The heads of the noble houses who understood that reality obediently submitted and were folded into an organization with the royal bloodline at its peak.
Any noble who resisted was crushed by the power of the navy.
Or rather, to be precise, they were crushed single-handedly by Amagio “Salmon.” If he moved the navy itself, it would draw too much attention, and there was a risk that the army, the city guards, or even the nobles’ private troops would show up. So in practice, he only let the scent of the navy hang in the air. What really happened was that Amagio “Salmon” barged in alone and physically threatened the head of the house until they swore loyalty.
In other words, a full-on gangland raid.
...Or maybe not.
In any case, that was how he forced the main noble houses to submit, and as a result, the royal family was able to reclaim the power that had been dispersed. The fact that the nobles as a class had already seen their influence in the Kingdom of Lepuitari eroded was one of the reasons this chain ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) of upheavals ended as smoothly as it did.
What remained was persuading the royal house.
To begin with, the current king had a history of having been placed on the throne during the past time of kingdom turmoil by Amagio “Salmon” and his companions—primarily the officers who now made up the navy.
The prince, who had been a boy at the time, had grown into a fine king with sound judgment, and above all, he held deep gratitude toward Amagio “Salmon.”
As a reward for Amagio “Salmon,” he had elevated him to Duke Silverhead.
And, in accordance with the duke’s wish, weary of power struggles, the king had granted him permission to take a frontier domain.
This time as well, fully understanding Duke Amagio Silverhead’s actions, the king had agreed to back him. Well, since his own power was going to expand, there was no real need for him to openly oppose it.
The one concern had been that the kingdom might end up being manipulated by Duke Silverhead, but the idea of treating so harshly a great man whose role could well be described as that of a founding father was viewed as a bigger problem.
And so the groundwork for centralization was in place.
On the practical side, they would address things by pushing forward a domestic railway-construction program. Once the railways were opened, the speed of information coordination between the provinces and the capital would improve dramatically.
Furthermore, once it became possible to gather and redistribute goods, the nation’s distribution functions would improve by leaps and bounds.
Here Amagio poured in the power of super-science.
More precisely, he had sought the opinions of Paraiso and, under their guidance, succeeded in developing large-scale heavy equipment and machine tools.
They mass-produced revolutionary civil-engineering heavy machinery capable of completing in an hour the work that would take a hundred people an entire day.
They built factories that manufactured highly durable rails and metal parts such as various screws and nails.
The technological capabilities that should normally have been built up through all sorts of trial and error were forcibly advanced by outside knowledge.
Thus, reforms to the domestic industrial base were carried out, and at last the Kingdom of Lepuitari began charging forward down the road of modernization.
The ones leading this industrial growth were the commercial-guild coalition under Duke Amagio Silverhead’s navy and the nobles aligned with him.
Naturally, their influence and financial power swelled at an accelerating pace.
The ones who took the hit were the commercial-guild coalition that had distanced itself from them and spent its age in a cozy relationship with the army and the like.
Or rather, it was only natural they took the hit, since the kingdom had been moving specifically in order to cut them off.
Any soldiers who tried to meddle were crushed each time. The all-or-nothing assassination plan against Duke Amagio Silverhead was brilliantly shut down, and not a few of the perpetrators and their associates were condemned.
Rumor had it that Paraiso had been deeply involved in that grand roundup.
The old-guard bloc—the Legendary Senate of Tradition, whose members had once possessed enough power to tug at the king’s will—struggled on for quite some time, but in the end, one by one, its members disappeared, and the body itself vanished as if it had naturally disbanded.
They may once have possessed enough power to interfere with the king’s will, but they were no match for a duke who commanded enough clout to twist even the king’s will itself. That was all there was to it.
Incidentally, there seemed to have been a commercial guild that had sent its private troops to the village where Amagio had been living, in order to get a hand on Duke Amagio Silverhead’s Achilles’ heel—but nothing in particular had happened, and only the private troops had vanished.
Amagio had heard the story from the commercial guild whose plan had been foiled, but of course he had received no such report.
As for the standard tactic of going after his weak points—or rather, after his surroundings—he had been on his guard enough, and the navy had dispatched a guard unit as well. Yet nothing at all had happened on that side either.
He had only one possible suspect in mind, but when he asked, “they” told him they knew nothing about that affair—though, they did say they had once crushed an armed group that had been getting in the way of their activities. And so he wisely kept his mouth shut.
Apparently, they had already infiltrated the country.
And whatever they were, they possessed enough power to erase dozens of people without leaving a trace.
There was nothing he could do about this, so he had no choice but to give up on it. To begin with, there were signs they were not only operating ships but also aircraft. He had not been able to confirm it directly, but he had heard rumors of moving lights high in the sky and mysterious distant roaring sounds.
It was easy enough for a knowledgeable man like Amagio to connect these phenomena, which had begun at the same time as their appearance.
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"Good evening, Amagio."
"Ah, good evening. Got any interesting stories tonight?"
"Hmm, let’s see. I’m still working on analyzing magic, but honestly, it looks like it’s going to take quite a bit longer. How about on your end?"
"Right. About the only thing is that the pilot pre-production models of the large steam engines that use those Fuelstones we buy from you as-is have finally started operating."
"Ah, that’s right. You mentioned that last time too. Are things going smoothly?"
"Yeah, more or less. The Fuelstone purity is more than good enough, so the rest is just a question of our machining precision. And even that looks like it will be sufficiently ensured with the steel material and parts you’re supplying us. Honestly, it’s all thanks to Paraiso."
"Is that so? Then I’m glad to hear it. If anything causes you trouble, talk to me, okay? We’re both transfer people, after all—I’ll give you a good discount."
"What, so you’re still going to charge me?"
"Of course. Nothing is scarier than free aid, you know? I’m already giving you a big enough discount as it is, so you should be happy."
"...Hmph, well, that’s true enough. From my point of view, it just feels like I’m always on the receiving end. But if that’s how you choose to frame it, I’ll let it be."
"Oh, come on. It’s not like we’re taking a loss on our side either, so you really don’t have to worry about it that way."
"Is that so. Well then, my apologies. In that case... thank you, as always. If there’s anything I can do to help, tell me. I’ll accommodate you as much as I can."
"Really? Ah, in that case, I’ve decided to send one of my daughters over to you. Would you keep her company?"
"...Daughter?"
"Yes. Well, to be precise, she’s an android with an onboard AI. It’s the perfect opportunity for her to accumulate experience. <Ringo> has also given her stamp of approval that the security situation on your side poses no problems."
"Security...? No, the royal capital is still pretty noisy, you know. Are you sure it’s really safe?"
"It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll send escorts with her, and I think it’s about time I let those girls out into the world. I still can’t move myself, but at least they can."
"...I see. Well, if that’s what you say, leave it to me. I can assign them attendants, and if you like, I can even prepare a residence."
"Really? Then I’ll take you up on that too. Well, I’ll give you the details next time. No, I suppose I should file a proper request through diplomatic channels."
"Got it. It would be strange if it came from me, so go through your diplomats. I’ll handle the preparations on this end."