Chapter 223 - Episode 216: National Reconstruction
And so, Chloe Tajinette regained consciousness.
First, she felt a discomfort as if her head were shaking. It was like the day after being terribly drunk.
Her vision was blurred, and her hearing was faint. She could barely tell that she was lying down somewhere, feeling the sensation of a hard blanket against her back.
She could tell that people were moving about hurriedly around her, speaking loudly in various voices. However, she could not understand the content of their words.
Suddenly, hands were placed around her back, and she was raised up almost by force. Something like a cup was pressed against her lips. Was she being told to drink this?
The contents of the cup were forced into her mouth, and she swallowed.
Then, while feeling an intense bitterness, her consciousness awakened all at once. Her vision and hearing also recovered rapidly.
"Geh... cough, cough, cough!"
"You're finally awake."
As she coughed, surprised by the extreme bitterness of the liquid she had been made to drink and her suddenly sensitized senses, those words were spoken to her.
Chloe looked up, and it was then she first noticed that she had been lying in a bed inside some kind of room. Judging by the construction of the room, she wondered if she was inside some fort or castle.
Then, she looked toward the man who had spoken to her.
"...Count Paradir-kakka."
Standing before her was Count Auguste Paradir. While he was a great noble of a military house well-known in the Kingdom of Lancel, he was a man who had kept a certain distance from the radical military factions. Chloe had heard that he had been acting as the practical commander of the Princess Faction Allied Forces.
"It has been a while, Viscount Tajinette. Three days have passed since you fell. What you just drank was an expensive mana recovery potion. My treat. Be grateful."
Count Paradir should have been nearly fifty years old, but his well-trained physique—evident even through his military uniform—his jet-black hair, groomed beard, and fearless smiling expression gave the impression of someone younger than his actual age.
Contrary to the Count's light tone, a solemn atmosphere drifted through the room. Whether they were Chloe's monitors, the Count's guards, or both, soldiers who looked every bit the elite were wary of Chloe's movements. If she made any strange move, she would likely be cut down instantly.
"...Why am I alive?"
"Hahaha! Is that the first thing you ask? Do you not care about the whereabouts of your precious former King Cadne?"
When Chloe asked, Count Paradir laughed boisterously. Thinking that what he said was reasonable, Chloe changed her question.
"Did His Majesty Cadne manage to escape?"
"Yes, thanks to you releasing magic of such incomprehensible power and freezing the soldiers' feet. About four hundred of them. You buried the feet of four hundred men in ice in an instant, didn't you? That was tremendous. It will likely go down in the nation's military history."
Count Paradir placed a nearby chair beside Chloe's bed and sat down heavily.
"In order to dig out and rescue the soldiers before they succumbed to frostbite, I had to allocate a great deal of manpower. I sent a small number of elites to pursue Cadne, but... the remnants of his Guard had set up a defensive line halfway up the mountain path. Thanks to that, the pursuit was too late. At the very least, Cadne did not fall into our hands. Is that not a good thing?"
Told this by the Count, Chloe made a complicated face. Despite having let Cadne escape, despite having successfully bought time, there was a part of her that could not feel happy.
"However, what does he intend to do by fleeing to a place like that at this time of year... The possibility of successfully crossing the mountainous region is perhaps ten percent, and the possibility of surviving in the northern part of the continent beyond that is perhaps another ten percent of that? I wonder how he intends to survive in the North, which is full of unstable small nations."
At Count Paradir's words, Chloe agreed inwardly.
That mountain path was a road with considerable danger even during warm periods. It was a narrow trade route with the North, traversed by courageous merchants who accepted the risk of minor injuries or death. Setting aside the foothills, monsters appeared in the upper parts of the mountains, and there were dangers such as rockfalls and landslides.
To attempt to cross that in this season, with winter approaching, even with the assistance of attendants and despite that incapacitated body, was not sane. Even if he crossed, beyond that lay a region where northern peoples formed numerous small nations. Having lost all actual power and backing in the Kingdom of Lancel, and now being nothing more than a wounded man, how was Cadne to survive there?
As he left, Cadne had spoken some delusions like the protagonist of a tale of a noble in exile, but it almost certainly would not go that smoothly. The small northern nations would likely choose to establish new diplomatic relations with Princess Henrietta rather than accept Cadne's asylum. There was no longer any hope for Cadne.
"...Then, why am I being kept alive? From your perspective, I should be an existence you could call a traitor."
"Did you want to die?"
Asked in return, Chloe was momentarily at a loss for words.
"...No, rather..."
"That you should fulfill your role as a military noble, or protect the pride of the Viscount House of Tajinette until the end, or that you should perish here—you were likely thinking such things, were you not?"
"..."
He had hit the mark. Chloe fell silent.
"...I knew your father, who passed away prematurely, well. Our factions and ideologies differed, but he was a strong warrior. Having been raised under his teachings, I can roughly imagine with what thoughts you continued to follow Cadne."
Count Paradir spoke in a tone that seemed mixed with exasperation.
"I will speak plainly. Viscount Chloe Tajinette, submit to the Princess Faction Alliance... no, the name is different now. Submit to the new Kingdom of Lancel."
"What!? ...But I... because of me, King Cadne managed to escape, did he not?"
Chloe spoke in astonishment.
"This is no time to be worrying about a tyrant who is as good as dead. You understand how exhausted this country is, do you not? Especially the military. With consecutive foreign wars and this civil war, how many capable officers and soldiers, how many nobles, do you think have died? In order to build and maintain an equal friendly relationship with the Kingdom of Roadberg moving forward, we must rebuild the military strength of the Kingdom of Lancel. This country does not have the luxury of letting someone as excellent as you, both as a commander and a mage, relax in the afterlife."
"...However..."
"Are you saying you cannot serve Queen Henrietta-heika, the ruler of this country?"
At the Count's words, Chloe fell silent.
"Now that Cadne is gone, the one who stands at the peak of this country is Her Highness Henrietta. She has not yet been crowned, but practically, Her Highness Henrietta is the only one we should enthrone as King. Lord Tajinette, can you not protect Her Highness? Was it not the King, but Cadne as an individual, that you were protecting?"
"..."
Chloe fell silent at the argument, which was somewhat forceful and could even sound like sophistry.
"You are a noble of a military house. If so, you are not permitted to die arbitrarily for your own whim. If you survived until the King changed, then this too is your fate. Serve the new King until your life ends. Is that not the way the head of the proud Viscount House of Tajinette should be, as determined by you?"
"...Yes."
She felt as if she had been cleverly talked into it, but Chloe nodded in agreement.
That's right, was it not herself who decided that, regardless of her own will, she would simply fight for the person destined to be the King of this country? If the King has changed, then it is her mission to fight for the new King and protect the new King.
She is the King's sword. The King's shield. She is only that. She shall live as only that, and one day die just as a sword breaks and a shield shatters.
"...For the sake of Her Highness Henrietta, I solemnly swear to fight, staking my life. Please, grant me a place to serve."
Hearing Chloe's words and seeing the change in her expression, Count Paradir laughed softly.
"...There is the hunting of the remnants of the Cadne faction, those who are still resisting poorly, unaware that they have lost their figurehead. Preparations for Her Highness Henrietta's coronation, the reorganization of the national army, the reorganization of the political apparatus... there is plenty of work for a noble. If you have slept for three days, it should be enough. You had best get up quickly."
"Yes."
Thus, Cadne Lancel I and his clique lost their power, and Princess Henrietta Lancel and the alliance of nobles supporting her seized actual power. The Kingdom of Lancel began to walk a new path.
Whether by a prank of fate or the will of God, Viscount Chloe Tajinette came to stand at the starting point where the country began to change, and she would go on to witness the further future of the nation.