After Maria imprisoned the two players, she quickly took over the town they had been managing along with the rest of the territory they possessed. With the former mayor’s help, Maria quickly integrated the territory with her own, so it was now officially part of the Dire. When she checked the prosperity ratings of the territory, Maria sighed when she saw that it was only slightly better than the other outlier territories of the Lycan Kingdom that she had conquered.
“Just what the hell is the Lycan King doing? Is he an idiot or is he a moron? Bah, he’s probably both!” Maria complained. “As a king, the first thing you should take care of is the prosperity of your people and yet this is the result you have to show? If Ash or any of my officials brought me these kinds of results, I’d beat them ten thousand times with a stick!”
Lucille, who was standing nearby and listening to Maria badmouth her father, couldn’t help but blush red in embarrassment and shame because she agreed with what Maria said to some extent.
Before all of the bad things in the palace started happening, her father was once kind and intelligent. He ruled the kingdom impartially and didn’t take sides, but ever since he took in his second spouse, he had changed–to the point where Lucille thought that he was an entirely different person. Lucille cleared her throat and stepped forward to ask, “Your Majesty, now that you’ve taken over all of the outlier territories, what will we do now?”
“What? We’ve taken over all of them? This was the last one?” Maria asked in confusion after hearing that her task was already finished.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Ah, dammit. We finished things up way too soon!”
“W-Well, isn’t that a good thing?”
“It isn’t…this means that my job here is done and I’ll have to go back to Dreyra again…How was this mission so easy? We only spent a few days on it and we’re already done!”
Lucille scratched her head and answered, “Well, Your Majesty, here’s the reason.”
“Oh? There’s actually a reason?”
“Yes.”
Maria didn’t expect there to be some kind of reason as it was a rhetorical question on her part, but since there seemed to be one, she was interested in knowing what it was.
“Please explain.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The reason why everything proceeded so smoothly and quickly is because the outlier territories have the most people who are sympathetic to you.”
“Hm?”
“Since the start of the armistice, trade between our two nations started thanks to the treaty that was in place. Although it isn’t as prominent in the lands closer to the capital that are already rich, the trade agreement helped improve the lives of the people living on the outer territories.”
“...”
“As you can see, the outer territories are extremely poor. The goods the Dire merchants bring in and sell at a pretty reasonable price is what’s been keeping the people living in these territories alive. It isn’t too far-fetched to say that the werewolves and some of the ‘unfortunate lycans’ who live in these parts see you, Your Majesty, as their life savior.”
Maria took a look at the prosperity values of the territories she had recently conquered and shook her head in disappointment. They were all extremely low, being around 30 points on average. These numbers were way below the normal average, which was 50 to 60 points.
If the prosperity values fall below a certain point, the people living in those areas that you control will inevitably rise up in dissatisfaction and rebel against you who lords over them. They’re also even more prone to defecting if someone who offers them something better comes around–someone like Maria.
The Lycan King was already losing a lot of support from the normal people, especially those in the outlier territories, so this made Maria’s job a whole lot easier. She was able to conquer all of the Lycan Kingdom’s outer territories in a little under 6 days–minus the 1 day she took to take a break on the beach–so it was around 5 days total.
She expected the conquest to take around 2 weeks, at least, but she only spent 5 days, which was extremely short in her opinion. Others would be ecstatic that things had proceeded so quickly and smoothly, but it was instead disheartening for Maria because this mission was sort of like a vacation for her, who would be faced with a mountain of paperwork once she got back to her palace in Transylvania.
Just thinking about it made her shiver, but she couldn’t help blaming herself for this situation. Whose idea was it to open trade between the Dire and the Lycan Kingdom during the armistice? It was naturally her idea because she wanted to use the merchants as a guise to plant her people within the lycan’s territory.
She didn’t know that it would backfire on her like this, so Maria could only lament and regret her decision. However, in hindsight, it was pretty good. She was able to help the people who were suffering in the outlier territories, so she had relief in that at least.
‘I’ll take it as doing a good deed for my future citizens. I’ll have to do something about the slavery as well. Abolishing that unsightly practice is the first thing I do once I conquer the lycans,’ Maria thought to herself.
“So you see, Your Majesty, those people who you’ve essentially ‘saved’ have been praying day and night that my Father would accept the peace treaty terms that Your Majesty had sent about a month ago after those players started appearing,” Lucille said as she finished with her explanation.
“Hm, I understand…I guess that explains why I’ve been receiving a few reports from the colonies here on Vanargand, stating that they’ve been gaining a few lycan and werewolf refugees recently,” Maria said.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“...Desperate times call for desperate measures, Your Majesty. Some people were extremely desperate so they packed up their belongings before secretly moving to your colonies in order to seek refuge.”
“Un, but I’m guessing their desperate acts have angered your father, right?” Maria asked, as she was able to deduce something from the information she had just learned from Lucille.
Lucille nodded at Maria's question and answered her, “Their act greatly enraged my father, which is why he’s been delaying all talks about the peace treaty and has been secretly recruiting players to his side. Those two in the jail are one of the many he’s recruited though they’re likely the most competent of the bunch. The rest aren’t as good as them.”
“It doesn’t matter how many players he recruits. Nothing will stop me from conquering the continent. Anyone who opposes me will fall,” Maria replied with a scoff. “Be they the natives or the players.”
Seeing the vicious glint that flashed in Maria’s eyes, Lucille involuntarily shivered because she understood that Maria meant what she had said just now.
‘H-Her Majesty wants to conquer the entire continent? Then our Kingdom was only a stone that was blocking Her Majesty’s way to her true goal…’
Lucille only found out about Maria’s true objective right now and she didn’t know what to think of it since it was a truly ambitious goal that had never even crossed her mind before.
‘If we adamantly fought back against her…is it possible that she would have wiped us all out?’
She shivered at the thought, especially when she was reminded of the devastating force that Maria personally had at her disposal.
‘Her Majesty can wield the power of the sun despite being a vampire, so it’s extremely likely that she will if we keep resisting…as much as I don’t like my step-mothers, they’re all still my family.’
Since Maria said that she would be returning to Dreyra, Lucille thought that she now had a little bit more time to persuade her father to take Maria’s peace offer before she came back and laid waste to the entire kingdom.
Lucille was naturally only thinking about the worst-case scenario because, from what she saw of Maria during the brief time she spent guiding her around the outlier territories and helping her conquer them, Maria didn’t seem to have any motive to utterly destroy the Lycan Kingdom. Instead, it seemed more plausible to say that she wanted to absorb the Lycan Kingdom into her nation, the Dire.
“Your Majesty, as my duty here is done. I’ll be taking my leave. Despite being a werewolf and not a lycan, my royal father cherishes me the most among his many children, so if I’m away from the castle for too long, people might become suspicious of me and look deeper into my activities,” Lucille said as she tried excusing herself.
Maria waved her off as she understood where Lucille was coming from. Honestly, she didn’t even know what kind of excuse she gave to her father and those around to let her travel outside of the capital with no escorts with her.
Eventhough Lucille was a Dire-sympathizer, she was still the Lycan Kingdom’s First Princess, so if she disappeared for too long, people would naturally become worried and suspicious.
“I’ll send you a message the next time I visit Vanargand, though I will say, the next time might not be as pleasant a visit as this.”
Lucille bowed to Maria and said, “I understand, Your Majesty. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Yes, please return safely.”
After Lucille left, Maria sank down into her seat and couldn’t help thinking that things had become boring again. She thought about the war that was happening between the player alliance and the PK Alliance and wondered if she should interfere with it. The war was a hot topic on the forums and Unitale news network in real life, so Maria wanted a little bit of the action.
“I think it should be fine, right? I mean, it’s not like Ash will find out that I’ve finished a week or two ahead of time!”
With this, Maria decided to go see what all the hubbub was about on the player’s side, in hopes of seeing a little bit of action. Unfortunately for her, however, someone had already gone and secretly reported that her mission was over by sending a messenger to Ash.
This person was none other than Raiju, who too hadn’t been able to do anything remotely interesting since arriving on Vanargand save for that one day they took to have a little break on the beach.
“Well, Ash, I’ve completed the favor, so you had better hold your end of the bargain.”
Maria was smiling brightly in her room after making her plans to go join in on the fun, but she suddenly felt a chill run up her spine.
“Ugh, I suddenly have a bad feeling…” Maria looked around her room before shrugging off the chill she felt. “Oh well, who cares~”
She returned to her desk and began reading through the reports that had just come in.
“After I stabilize things within the newly conquered territories, I’ll go see what Eos and his groupies are doing,” Maria said as she read through the reports while delightfully humming. “They started something fun, but they didn’t invite me. How unfair!”
Elsewhere, Eos felt a chill run up his spine. Unlike Maria, however, he didn’t shrug off the feeling as he greatly trusted his gut. For the next few days, the Nine Hells Guild and those that were affiliated with them in the temporary player alliance were put on high alert. It was the right call, but unfortunately for them, Maria still needed a few days to finish everything on her end before she could go and have some ‘fun’ with them.