Chapter 23: The Embodiment of a Nation

The Month of Ninsum Day 26 Year 675 Of the Second Holy Calendar

In the afternoon of the 26th, the Antlatur Army packed up and retreated from their siege camps. Behind them, the Garrison of the Lapetra let out a tremendous cheer. Although the victory celebration had technically already started, the soldiers with a little more tact and experience were relieved by the enemy's withdrawal. The war was never over until it was over, or as the demon king would say, "The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so."

In the evening, the expeditionary party returned with two pieces of good news. One was that the Marshall Saint of Esterberg had been killed. Although he lacked any major renown, he was still the Marshall Saint of the country. If such a skilled combatant had been killed, it would have been a morale booster, if nothing else. The second was that the Queen of Esterberg had been captured. Veronica was most relieved by this piece of news. A prisoner Queen was valuable regardless of whether she sold back to her home country for a mountain of gold or used it in negotiations with the Kingdom of Antlatur. It would greatly help the Kingdom of Black either way. Veronica was also interested in the man who killed the Marshall Saint, who was just some apprentice knight until he had been drafted for this mission.

The damage they had suffered in this war was not light, although it was yet to be assessed. Much of the Black Knife Valley had been destroyed. Although the area was blessed with water from the river, the soil was rocky and unsuitable for agriculture. After quite some time, the Black Kingdom built several irrigation canals. They used a combination of magic and regular old terraforming to make some of the soil able to sustain agricultural activity. However, the area had been severely damaged due to the war, partly due to the refugees fleeing to the city and partly due to the fires that the Golden Stallion, and had politely been left behind.

The refugees were all crowded into the city; however, this didn't cause much confusion or panic. At this point, Lapetra was so used to being sieged that they had prepared individual refugee camps. The villages were also used to fleeing and having their everyday lives interrupted by enemy armies attacking their nation. With none of their population being killed or enslaved by the enemy, they could resume regular activity outside when everything was repaired. Luckily, the month of Ninsum was only early summer, so they should have enough time to get another harvest, assuming everything went according to plan. This would prevent starvation in the kingdom, one of Veronica's most significant concerns for the immediate future.

However, Veronica's most significant concern following the war was securing her internal political power. Her political enemies had previously suppressed her due to the succession issue, and now she intended to gain revenge, specifically on her husband, who was currently facing the backlash of his faction due to Francis's idiotic retreat from the Black Valley, thus exposing the entire Kingdom to danger. Although Francis was also her son, she never particularly cared for either of her children and had no intention of starting now. She would use this time to consolidate her political power, although the succession issue would soon rear its ugly head, which was a problem for her future.

She had one of her political allies leak the details about Francis's retreat from the Black Valley to the public. The jubilation of the population quickly turned to outrage against Francis. She also leaked the information that the council forced her to accept his appointment as Division Commander of the Third. She intentionally chose to do this while the refugees were still in town, as they had lost the most in this war, with protesters demanding bloody vengeance and that Francis be held to account. Veronica leisurely retreated to her office and enjoyed the fire she had started.

She enjoyed the comforts of her Dragon leather chair, her 300-gold-coin bottle of wine, and a premium cigar. She didn't have her creature comforts publicly. She displayed modesty and frugality, but like most things that were complete for the charade, she lived a quiet life of luxury. Of course, this was her in her office. Her outer office, where she worked and greeted nobles, was far more frugal. A queen deserved her creature comforts. After all, she had to deal with the stress of running a country and dealing with her backstabbing husband daily.

Elise Nordland, the leader of her companion cavalry, was one of the few people she trusted, including with the secret of her inner sanctum. She approached, “Harwin Tawind is without,Your Majesty, and requests an audience with you.”

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“He probably wants to talk about something boring and important things like the war or the aftermath of the war or fixing the burnt ruins of our territory.” She said in a light-hearted tone, “It's best you not let him in, or else it would ruin the taste of my wine.” Saying that, she took another sip.

“If that is your desire, your majesty, then of course I, your humble servant, will only obey,” she said without missing a beat.

“Sia's light, you can't take a joke. Let him in.” Elise left and soon returned, bringing a man in tow. Harwin Tawind was one of the oldest men in the Kingdom. The kingdom had a mere 50 years of History. Veronica was almost as old as the kingdom itself. But even then, she liked to imagine that Harwin was old even when the kingdom was new, although he would have only been 33 then. Despite turning 83 this year, he walked with the straight-backed confidence you would expect of a far younger soldier. In his craggy features, one could see the experience of wisdom and being the oldest General in the Kingdom.

Harwin Tawind was the minister of military affairs and the last surviving general of Francis the Liberator. Both were feats, as all of Francis's generals had died either in his victories or defeats. Maintaining his power as minister of military affairs despite the younger generals emerging. It was proof of his military ability and political. He was also one of the only other people she could trust. His loyalty lay not in a political faction but to the kingdom itself, which is why she'd been expecting this visit.

He gave a standing salute, “Hail your majesty.”

“Harwin, have a seat to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit.” She took another puff on her cigar before putting it back in the ashtray.

“I bought you the casualty report,” he said, placing it on the desk before sitting down. Veronica casually glanced over it. More or less, I had already figured out most of the casualties. She had intentionally used the garrison soldiers sparingly, and relying primarily on the militia soldiers and retired veterans who have been drafted. The garrison soldiers were the most combat-ready and valuable soldiers, the retired soldiers did nothing but eat up money due to their pensions. Militia men were just commoners, although losing too many of them at once would cause problems in the short term. Even if all of the militia she drafted died, it wouldn't cause too many problems due to their new influx of slaves from the war.

The outcomes was as expected. The primary figure she was interested in was the Apprentice knights who had died. Knights were children of the nobility, and losing too many of them would be a loss that would take years to recover from, as it took decades to train a knight. The casualties of that group were lower than anticipated, far lower actually; they'd only lost around 30. She pointed to the number, silently asking the question.

“Resistance in the camp was lower than anticipated. The Antlaturs had already deployed most of their knights elsewhere; even the number of soldiers in the camp was practically nothing, and the false flag strategy worked wonders. Confusing them tremendously, at least in the early stages of the fight. By the way, excellent work coming up with those strategies. Your father would be proud.”

Veronica sneered in her heart while outwardly expressing sincere gratitude. “Anyways, I'm sure you didn't come here just to flatter me and deliver a casualty report.”

“I came to question you about that,” he pointed to the door.

“Ah, you mean the protests.”

“Going after Howard, I understand, but this is a very unlike you move.”

A monarch was supposed to represent the nation itself. Those were some pretty words that weren't really followed by most monarchs; they were merely abused by them. In that sense Veronica was the truest monarch on the entire Western continent. She didn't deliberately get involved in politics or pick a side in the political struggles. She merely acted in the nation's best interest, always in the best interest of the nation. Sometimes, the council shot down her proposal for one reason or another, but she never tried to force the issue, and she rarely used political backroom dealings to get her way. That was a part of why her political position was so weak.

All that hadn't changed; she merely decided to destroy her son's chances of the throne and, hopefully, weaken her or destroy her husband's political faction. It wasn't personal, even though she hated her husband; it was merely that she was acting in the nation's best interest as she saw it. The Traditionalist faction, as they called themselves, had become little more than a shitpile that didn't understand the reality of the world. As a result, they needed to be destroyed.

Of course, she would need to explain that to her political allies to prevent them from getting the wrong idea. A part of the reason why the prime minister, Cane Magenta, and Harwin Tawind supported her regime was the fact that she was the neutral arbiter of the nation. But she had actually decided to shift tack a little bit and consolidate more political power in her own hands rather than suffer the fate of being isolated again and forced to watch as the nation around her burned. “I decided that it would be the best for the nation,” she said simply. “We will suppress the Traditionalist faction to prevent a disaster like this from occurring again.”