Queen of the Mad Dog Knights - Chapter 21
Chapter 21 – Her Majesty Liselotte’s (10 Years Old) Job is to Discipline Her Dogs
My name is Lieselotte Mona Budgerigar.
I was born as the only daughter of the Heidegger Family, but by chance, I was returned to my real homeland, the land of the Budgerigar Family across the ocean.
There are a lot of dogs residing in this land.
About… thirty million of them.
Each one of them is cute.
And they have their own unique ways to express their love for me.
Some of them love to show off with their amazing smiles, giving me nice things that they found from the ground, sniffing me, kissing me, cuddling me, stealing my socks, hiding on the floor so I could step on them, and many more.
However, some of them are, well, unrestrained, and sometimes they overdid some things and caused a little bit of trouble for others.
Like conquering neighboring countries, conquering other continents, and picking a fight with the largest empire on the continent.
It was troubling.
I’m aware that they are doing their best to earn praise from me as I’m the only royal family left in this kingdom.
But, they really shouldn’t be doing something that grand since I’m happy from having them staying with me.
That’s why I’m doing my best to praise, scold and play with them everyday.
As an owner, I also have to discipline them properly.
After all, if I don’t…
“Your Majesty, the temperature is getting hotter, let’s destroy the empire now.”
“No, Pitbull-sama, we have to get along with our neighbors.”
“If we wait any longer they’ll start swarming you know?”
“They aren’t bugs, please stop treating them as such.”[1]
Underneath the throne is a young nobleman with a pompous-looking face and fierce eyes.
He’s kneeling down, but there is a hint of ridicule in his gaze.
This person is Barbarian von Pitbull-sama.
He is the biggest troublemaker, someone who will immediately go wild if I were to take my eyes off him.
The Pitbull clan is known for their aggressiveness and their territory is on the western edge of the Kennel Kingdom.
It’s only a mountain away from the territory of the empire.
Originally, the previous members of the royal family stationed them there because that area bordered a peaceful country, it was also to prevent them from making any contact with the Humanist Kingdom.
But a few years ago, the empire went on its way to take over and annex that country.
Now, we have the empire and the rabid dogs sitting glaring at each other.
It’s really bad.
My late father, Abel, even left a complaint about this in his journal.
‘This is bad, Pitbull-sama is happy over the recent empire’s invasion toward the neighboring country. Mastiff-sama is on the verge of going wild because of the possibility of him not being able to join the fight. I have both of them on the leash to control them, but I don’t know how long it will last. Worse, there is a rumor going around that if they present me with the emperor’s head, my illness will be cured. I’m in deep trouble.’
I believe that Marquis Pitbull in Father Abel’s time was Barbarian-sama’s father.
I heard that he lost his life in the previous war with the joined invasion from the Humanist Kingdom and the empire
—-Does he possibly want a war to avenge his father?
No, there’s no way he would be that honorable of a man.
His eyes are glowing.
He just wants a fight, that’s why he’s convincing me.
“The Pitbull family is starting to build up stress.”
“No! That isn’t good enough of a reason to start a war! At least make a proper reason!”
“You want a proper reason?”
“Yes!”
‘It can’t be helped,’ he said.
He started to explain while fiddling with his purple-colored collar.
I gave him that collar.
Even though after that he never even tried to listen to me.
I considered giving him a muzzle, then he said something unexpected.
“Well, it’s that, you know, our instinct. Our territorial instinct to be exact.”
Dogs are territorial animals.
They won’t feel comfortable unless they were given space exclusively for themselves.
In fact, the capital city and even the grounds of the detached houses in the kingdom are properly divided into sections.
If by any chance, someone broke through others’ territories, the owner of the territory would legally be allowed to fight the trespasser until they feel satisfied.
For them, those who mess with other people’s territory must be beaten down to submission so that they wouldn’t do the same thing ever again.
And, here is the root of the problem.
If you stretch that logic hard enough, you could treat national borders the same way you treat the fences.
Never bows down when it comes to territory.
That’s the ironclad rule for the Dog-Kins when it comes to fighting.
In fact, the country has never lost a single territory ever since its inception.
Rather than losing territories, the Kennel Kingdom gained a country’s worth of territory and a whole new continent instead.
Though, there is still someone that is trying to mess with our territories—
“Isn’t it okay if we answer their provocation a little bit?”
It’s the empire, they are targeting the former Humanist Kingdom territory that we already annexed. Though they actually are trying to conquer the whole continent and we are their biggest obstacle.
This expansion is caused by their failure in population management.
Their population has grown too large due to the successful invasions they had been doing in the past years.
While they claimed to be the nation of dragons, they have multiracial policies and because of this and the abnormal growth of population, their food production simply couldn’t keep up and the country is currently under a food shortage.
As if the shortage of food wasn’t enough, other problems started to come up in their country.
The need for land for both living and producing food. The need for jobs and so on.
—-They are simply desperate to solve those problems like a hungry swarm of locusts.
“We can’t let ourselves lose to those reptiles.”
Reptiles.
That’s a derogatory term for the Dragon-Kins.
Dragons, who make up one-eighth of the population of the empire, are the ruler of the empire.
When they change their forms, while they become dragons of various sizes and shapes, each and every one of them is a force to be reckoned with.
Under their command are a number of races, including Snake-Kins and Alligator-Kins and they control the empire under the banner and strength of the Dragon-Kins.
Of course, the emperor as well as Duke Hainuwele, the ambassador of the empire are both dragons.
It was said that when they changed their forms, they turned into giant-sized dragons.
I’ve never seen them do that though.
Dog-Kins hate Dragon-Kins, who always act like they own the place, as much as the Humans who hate the Alters as a whole.
Though to them, Dragon-Kins are generally more annoying since they keep trying to force their hierarchical rule for no reason.
Well, to be fair, you would get annoyed if someone kept telling you in your face that they are better than you in any way possible, right?
Now that the situation with the Human has been settled peacefully…
The Dragon-Kins naturally received the undivided hostility of the Dog-Kins.
—-It’s also easier for the Dog-Kins to see the other party’s scummy conduct as well, making it easier for them to hate the dragons even more.
That’s why we have to make our stand clear now, their attempts to steal our territory time after time is enough justification to scrutinize them—- or so he said.
“I see, I understand the reason behind it.”
“Right? Then, I’ll assume I got your understanding.”
“I said ‘I understand the reason’! Not saying that it’s okay to go to war!!”
“…I see you’ve grown a little, Your Majesty.”
“Are you an idiot?! You won’t fool me twice, you know?! And for the last time, no war!”
I stood up from my throne and protested.
I won’t be fooled this time.
“Well, since Your Majesty let her blood rush to her head, why don’t we leave it for now?”
“Don’t change the topic!!”
I’m not even angry! I just don’t want a war to happen!!
Even today, the dogs failed to understand the feelings of their queen.
* * *
Currently, we are inside the audience chamber.
The chamber has a much wider space than the temple where we held my coronation.
The ceilings are high, and it, along with the wall and the pillars were lavishly decorated.
A red carpet was laid down from the large entrance door to the throne where I’m currently sitting on, while The First Division, the Royal Guard are lined up at both sides of the carpet…
Everyone is dressed in their military uniforms.
And they are wearing their collars around their necks.
When the audience was in session, they would secretly stroke their own collars with a happy expression while glancing at me with their feverish gazes.
They are proud of the position of ‘Guard Dogs’ that they currently have.
And they also cherish their collars, which were labeled ‘Queen’s Dog’ more than anything else in the world.
That’s good and all, but, please.
Stop making me conscious of your collars.
If anything, it only makes me uncomfortable.
This country is called the Kennel Kingdom.
It’s a country where most of the population is made up of Dog-Kins, a shape-shifting race that is able to take on both the form of a dog and a human.
The Dog-Kins are physically strong and intelligent. They have been developing numerous technologies and increasing their national power for a while now.
In particular, their military power is absurdly high, in fact, they felled a nearby country in just a single day last month.
Regarding the military power, the kingdom has a large number of horseless vehicles, the tanks.
The tanks that are capable of operating on land, sea, and air are operated by the squad known as the Puppies that are really popular with children.
They regularly held airshows, probably that’s why children love them.
On the other hand, they are feared by other countries due to their mobility. The underground tunnel they dug could reach the whole continent in a short time if they wanted to.
They are called Cerberus, by other countries.
Anyway, back to the audience. The audience is happening because I strongly asked it to be held.
The person who is in charge of the internal affairs of this country, Leonhardt-sama, was worried about me, but…
As their queen…
I want to at least put a little bit of an effort to help them.
Well, that’s me putting it nicely, in fact, I just want a job.
The Dog-Kins hate the sight of me working.
Recently what I’ve been told to do is to grow healthier and to gain more weight.
So all I’ve been doing was eating every day.
On the other hand…
My stepbrother who followed me to this country —though technically speaking, we are no longer related to each other— is working hard under the Prime Minister, Leonhardt-sama’s guidance. He told me that he wanted to be ‘a man who is able to protect Lize when the time comes.
He worked hard from being a nobody to someone that Leonhardt-sama could rely on and can be regularly seen running around the castle with his civil servant clothes.
My stepbrother is working so hard, yet I’m living leisurely like this.
I can’t accept that.
I want to grow up quickly.
That’s why I have been attending tea parties and dinner parties hosted by the nobles.
However, whenever I wanted to exchange my opinions with the nobles from Kennel Kingdom’s newly annexed territories, the Liselotte Continent (temporary name), and the Humanist Kingdom, the Prime Minister said to leave it to him instead.
I’m just a ten-year-old girl after all.
If I were to meet them face-to-face, there is always a risk of me saying something inappropriate by accident and them taking my word for it.
I want to be a queen who is able to fight her way through a thousand mountains and seas.[2]
The sight of Leonhardt-sama’s back, who has been brilliantly solving both domestic and international affairs, strengthened my resolve.
However, the man himself actually prefers to wear a kappogi[3] instead of his Prime Minister outfit and he kept telling me that he actually wishes to be an osandon[4] instead.
Every now and then, whenever the stress gets to him, he would come to me and complain ‘I’m supposed to be a household dog!’, and I would sometimes comfort him by stroking his fur.
Anyway, as a queen, there is something that bothers me the most out of everything.
The empire.
The Lumania Dragonia Empire, which borders the northern part of the Kennel Kingdom has always had a population problem and they are eyeing the new continent that was recently annexed by the Kennel Kingdom.
Their justification came from ‘Chronicles of the New World’, a book written by an imperial adventurer, Radon da Gama, that was published several decades ago.
They said that Radon de Gama accidentally stumbled upon a ship from the Liselotte continent (temporary name) or something like that (there was a rumor that said a member of the Fourth Division secretly exchanged his own personal belongings for a large chicken bone. Because of that the ship was called ‘Chicken Bone’)
Though in fact, we didn’t even know if we were talking about the same continent or not.
—-The one who discovered the continent was a citizen of the Empire.
—-Therefore, the continent belonged to the Empire.
So they claimed.
And to reinforce their argument.
‘Legend said that on the continent a giant Dragon-Kin roamed through the sky and built their nest there.’
‘According to the folktales, Dragon-Kins lived on the islands to the south, so the southern part of the continent belonged to the empire.’
‘If you look closely, you can see that the continent is shaped like dragon wings.’
‘Reptiles love the sun.’
And many other nonsenses led to this current situation.
At the start of today’s audience, Duke Hainuwele, the ambassador of the empire jabbed at me while saying ‘So, Your Majesty, who allowed you to name the continent as Liselotte?’
I ignored him.
Anyway, recently, the Empire has been strengthening its naval armies with the shipbuilding technology they stole from the Fourth Division (they were tricked by food).
In the not-so-distant future, they would be able to march with their troops toward the Liselotte Continent (temporary name) by their own power.
It was said that if both of us were to fight with all our might, we will come out winning in the end due to the differences in military technology, but trying to fight a country with 80 million population while only having 30 million of our own (45 million if the Humanist Kingdom is included) is ridiculous.
Our reason to live is not to fight to the death.
On the previous audience…
I made my thoughts clear to everyone.
What’s the use of doing skirmishes?
It’ll just start the cycle of revenge and lead to more fights.
Case on point, our fight with the Purists, our victory gave justification for terrorism acts.
At that time, everyone was suffering.
Even if they tried to hide it, it was obvious from their tails’ movement.
“In any case, I don’t want to start any kind of fights!”
My tutor, as well as the head of the Research Institute, Dr. Schnauzer, who had been listening, stroked his beard and backed me up.
“Well, Her Majesty doesn’t like blood on your fur. Isn’t it good that she is attentive toward your hygiene? Being clean is the best after all.”
“Indeed. The best thing is to live a clean, healthy life, both mentally and physically. Let’s all strive to live a healthy life.”
Furthermore, the High Priest Apso also agreed with me while bobbing his overgrown white eyebrows up and down.
Now, even the religious authority, a group that simply couldn’t be offended, told them to back down.
I was taken aback by how disappointed everyone looked.
Then Tosa-sama, the Vice-Commander of the First Division, also a Waken, softened his stern face and closed the audience session.
“Everyone, isn’t it enough? (We only need to fight without shedding any blood and without telling Her Majesty). Let’s continue our daily training and live our healthy life! (by beating the living shit out of the Empire)”
The conference room instantly filled with agreement ‘Yes’, ‘I agree’, ‘Well, we got no choice but to obey.’ It seemed like my intention was successfully received by them.
As expected of a Waken, they just built different.
But…
Sadly, the dogs who are obsessed with beating the Empire didn’t back down easily.
And now, I’m having a hard time keeping them in check.
Back to the present.
Barbarian-sama proposed that we should have a war anyway, but I told him no.
He answered with an indifferent face. ‘Well, that’s a problem.’
“I already deployed the troops to the border, all we need to do is to cross it.”
“That’s a lie! I won’t be fooled this time! I’ve banned the nobles from deploying their private troops independently! Anyone who wished to do that had to obtain the permission of all eight commanders of the Knight Order!”
“You are aware that there are a lot of people within the Order that would willingly break the nose of the empire, you know? For example, Second Division’s Mastiff-sama.”
“I already told Mastiff-sama if he ever does that, I’ll ignore him. Isn’t that true, Mastiff-sama?”
“…I’m glad that my Master would scold me…”
Gray von Mastiff-sama, who is standing near the throne, made a troubled face with his drooped cheek.
However, he is trying to avoid making eye contact with me.
He’s restlessly playing with his collar, it’s really suspicious.
“You haven’t given your permission to Pitbull-sama, have you?”
I looked around as I said that, in response, the various commanders of the various divisions of the knight order turned away from my gaze.
When I stared at Lyric von Corgi-sama, the Commander of the Fifth Division, he freaked out.
He suddenly got down to his knees and said, “I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn’t do anything!”
It isn’t like I’m bullying you, stop that.
Then suddenly I heard the voice of Mars von Maltese, the Queen’s personal guard dog and former Commander of the Fifth Division from my feet, ‘You are still spineless…’
He is currently in his dog form, sitting next to my shoes while keeping his guard up.
This is because of a certain nuisance who wants to be the Queen’s exclusive foot mat.
The Commander of the Fourth Division, Rascal von Malamute said, ‘I don’t know anything.’
So he said, with leftover naruto[5] on the side of his mouth.
Yoch von Greyhound, the Commander of the Seventh Division said ‘What? Are you doubting me? This me who loves peace and quiet?’ It’s really suspicious.
Eighth Division’s Josee-sama, the medic. She should be against needless killing.
I looked at her and said, ‘You didn’t allow him, did you?’ She smiled and said ‘Those noisy lizards are disturbing our people’s sleep. We need to put an end to that.’
So you allowed him?!
Still in shock, I looked around for Third Division’s Apollo von Great Dane… huh? Where is he?
As I looked around, Darius-sama whispered in my ear. ‘He has an official duty today, so he couldn’t attend this audience.’
R-Right. He’s always been so quiet and reclusive, sometimes I forget that he exists.
I’m sorry.
The Sixth Division… Is whatever…
I averted my gaze, it’s better not to look at him.
Finally, I looked up at the big man beside me.
Darius von Wolfhound-sama, the Commander of the Knight Order and the Commander of the First Division.
He has a fearless-looking face and his light blue-colored eyes are clear. I can’t read any expression on his face.
As I stared into his light blue eyes, he suddenly took the form of a huge dog.
I stared at him even harder and he immediately put his tail between his legs.
I stared at him even harder and he immediately turned around, lowering his body down and hiding his face with his paws.
They were all together in this!!
“War is not allowed! As the Queen, I won’t allow it!”
That was the loudest voice I let out today.
I won’t allow them to play around anymore.
I was determined to rule the Kennel Kingdom in peace.
However, I have no talent for politics or good negotiation skills like Leonhardt-sama does.
That’s why, even if they ended up calling me a noisy and selfish kid.
I will do my hardest to prevent unnecessary war from happening.
—-still.
As a girl… I have no charm whatsoever.
Firstly, my facial muscles are too stiff to even make a smiling face.
My personality is too serious and rigid.
My face looks really cold because I can’t smile properly and I am really stubborn.
I love sweets, but aside from that, I have no girly power whatsoever.
My only redeeming quality is the fact that I love reading and studying.
Because of all this, I never had any friends ever since I was a kid.
Do I have any now?
—-Don’t ask.
Noticing my blood pressure rising and my feet wobbling, Darius-sama moved in to support me with his body that was covered in stiff fur.
As I managed to catch my ragged breath, I suddenly realized that someone who would normally make some fuss at a time like this was unusually quiet.
Now that I think about it, Leonhardt-sama is unusually quiet today.
Below the throne on my right side was Darius-sama.
Below the throne on my left side was Leonhardt-sama.
Whenever I was in trouble, it was usually Leonhardt sama, who was really attentive, who would come and help me out.
I looked at my left side and saw—-
A man wobbled and fell to the floor.
“Leonhardt-sama!”
“Your Majesty! Let me!”
I screamed while Jose-sama rushed up to the throne.
She laid the pale-faced Leonhardt-sama down.
Leonhardt-sama, in a hoarse voice, was making a fuss while saying ‘The mongrel… the mongrel…’
What’s wrong with Dashiba?!
After checking his pulse, pupils, chest, and breathing…
Josee-sama gave me, who had been staring, her diagnosis of his condition.
“Heatstroke.”
“Yes?”
“It’s heatstroke. So it finally arrives—- the season of hell for the Dog-Kins.”
The season of hell—
I came here in the spring so I didn’t know what summer was like in this country.
But from this, I started to understand the relationship between the Dog-Kins and summer.
It came earlier than I thought, but this was the beginning of my grind in the world of internal affairs.
[1] I don’t know how to deliver this joke properly, sorry. Basically, insects swarm in summer and he treated the emperor like insects.
[2] ????, Thousand Seas, Thousand Mountains, it’s an expression to describe someone that has a lot of experience.
[3] Kappogi
[4] Literally, this is kitchen maid, but they don’t exactly have the same role as the western kitchen maids do, so I decided to just let this untranslated. The difference is that Osandon usually took the role of both kitchen maid and scullery maid.
[5] Naruto
TL: Iyo