How refreshing!
How pleasant!
How comfortable!
This was probably the first time in his life that he had been filled with such a feeling of liberation. He felt so good that he could not help but imagine he had sprouted wings with which he could flap into the sky.
He put his heartfelt smile away and faced his subordinate. You smile more often now, his not-beautiful concubine had said, but this was not a time to let others see him smile. Dignity was a thing that caused many when it was lost.
And so, the usual morning meeting began.
Jircniv had many scribes, but the one before him now was an excellent man called Roune Varmilinen.
At first, he had been worried that something had been done to him after he had returned from the Sorcerer King’s palace, and so he had placed him in a sinecure. However, that too was a thing of the past. Roune’s position as head scribe was now secure. This was not because he was certain that nothing had been done to him. It was simply to prove that he had nothing to hide from the Sorcerous Kingdom. In addition, it was also a fact that Roune was very skilled.
He glanced over the document he had taken from Roune, and due to the ridiculous content within, Jircniv lost control of himself and burst into laughter.
“Whoever wrote this was quite the comedian. What do you think of the Sorcerer King’s death?”
“First of all, I am absolutely certain, with practically zero chance of it being otherwise, that this is one hell of a lie.”
Jircniv agreed with what Roune had said.
“Ahh, that’s right. It must be fake. Besides, it’s impossible that His Majesty would lose or die or whatever.”
Nobody could possibly kill a magic caster who could crush an army of 200,000 with a single spell and fight in armed combat with the Martial Lord, the Empire’s mightiest warrior. Jircniv was certain of that.
Of course, he could not be poisoned either, and he could not fall to disease or die of old age. It was more likely that someone was spreading a bad joke on a massive scale in order to make the punchline of “…because he was already dead to begin with.”
“Well, it’s probably to root out any malcontents. Still, I have a question.”
“Which is?”
“That is to say, I am wondering why His Majesty, who possesses unrivaled intellect, is resorting to a lame little scheme like this which anyone can see through. Unless it means there’s some other… yes, it’s possible there may be some grand conspiracy brewing that even I cannot discern…”
Who could say for sure that it was not the case? No, if this was a scheme laid by the monstrous intellect who knew every detail of Jircniv’s movements, then Jircniv was certain that this was nothing but the tip of the iceberg. For all Jircniv knew, even thinking that way might have been part of his plan.
However, what if this was not a scheme hatched by the Sorcerer King, but by one of his underlings — for instance, that toad-like monster that looked like an imbecile?
“…I don’t know. Besides, if you can’t figure out something you want to figure out, you can only give up on it. More to the point, all we need to do is obey Albedo-sama, the prime minister of the Sorcerous Kingdom, and do what she says. There’ll be no problems so long as we don’t betray them and complete our tasks. As the ruler of a vassal nation, I won’t be so easily purged if I’m appropriately incompetent.”
“It is as you say.”
Roune shrugged.
In the past, he was a person who would not make such movements, but his many experiences had trained him to do so. Or perhaps it was because he had grown bold.
Regardless of whether the Sorcerer King was dead or alive, all would be well as long as the Empire did not stop being a vassal of the Sorcerous Kingdom. In this way, they would be immune to any stratagem the opposition employed. Loyalty was the best defense. If they were killed even after giving their loyalty, then all they could do was laugh at the pettiness of the other party and go to the grave in peace.
“Now then, is that all the work for today?”
Ever since the vassalization, Jircniv’s administrative workload had dropped to around half of before, Still, today’s workload seemed too light.
“No, Your Majesty, there’s still something else. This is a document we received this morning. It was submitted by the knight legions.”
Unfortunately, his work was not yet done.
Jircniv accepted the proffered document with a mocking smile on his face.
He glanced briefly through it. It seemed to contain the knights’ complaints about their legion being reorganized
In the past, he would have given a certain amount of special consideration to the knights. Or rather, considering Jircniv had many nobles as his enemies, he could not allow the enemy to snatch away the martial force which the knights represented. However, things were different now.
“Tell them this: you can tell His Majesty the Sorcerer King in person. I can’t believe they wasted paper on this.”
The paper used in these reports was made by utility magic, and it cost more than usual regardless of the tier of spell that was used to make it. Jircniv could have thrown it away after use without any concerns, but he did not intend to tolerate excessive expenses.
Paper made from zero tier spells was crumpled. It was coarse and discolored.
Paper conjured from first tier utility spells was thinner and whiter. Papermaking techniques could produce paper of this quality as well, but their yield was lower and so the paper was more expensive.
Second tier utility spells produced very thin and very white paper. Of course, one could color magically created paper to a certain extent. Spells of this tier could produce a very soft and high class paper known as noble paper, which was the principal yield of those spells..
“Still, it’s not like I don’t understand why they’re so resistant to letting another country handle our national defense.”
“Don’t complain about that to me, tell Albedo-sama. Also, didn’t we already say that we weren’t entrusting everything to them?”
This came from Prime Minister Albedo’s instructions to supplement the Empire’s military manpower with the Sorcerous Kingdom’s undead armies.
Jircniv believed that this was part of the program to complete the vassalization process, and so he obeyed it. He planned to let some of the knights retire and disbanded two of the Empire’s eight legions.
This ought to have been a good idea since there were many people who were mentally exhausted from that massacre, but there had still been some disgruntlement about the lack of seats which could be taken.
“And I even prepared positions for them to transfer into…”
“People are just unhappy at losing their privileges and uneasy about doing jobs they’ve never done before, I think.”
“If it’s the latter, then they just have to work hard, but if it’s the former, then it’s only to be expected. Or am I expected to pay people who simply do their job and engage in physical labor the same amount that people in hazardous jobs receive?”
Jircniv snorted and disregarded it.
Perhaps he would have needed to masterfully manipulate them in the past, but now there was no need for that.
Jircniv had the backing of someone called the Sorcerer King who possessed absolute power. No matter what happened, all he had to do was say, “Please tell His Majesty yourself,” and all dissent was quashed in an instant.
Nobody in the Empire could express their displeasure to someone who could slaughter on such a scale and even defeat the Martial Lord in combat.
While they had used to field their complaints to Jircniv in the past, his position was now secure, given that he was a servant of the Sorcerer King. No, because he was feared, he ought to say it was more secure than secure. Immovable, perhaps?