Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 121

The Empire’s Turmoil (8) – A Princess from a Powerful Country

Luluria just called King Zeurasia a foolish king.

The atmosphere turned cold and tension could be felt in the air.

“What do you mean?”

King Zeurasia asked with a sharp expression.

Yet, the person who created this tense atmosphere, Luluria, remained calm.

“Because it seems to me you are willing to give up your greatest profit merely for a short-term gain. Isn’t that what a foolish king will do?”

“Explain yourself. Depending on your explanation, I might let that remark slide but if you said that just to insult me then…”

“What’s the greatest benefit that you, King Zeurasia, or rather, Rudek gain from this matter?”

“Benefit? There’s no benefit my country could get from this matter.”

“There’s a great benefit that your country will gain by helping us. Great enough that if I were you, I would refuse the gold coin and just let the Greedl Empire do as they please. Of course, I will also keep observing them closely.”

“You are not trying to say that the benefit was being able to show the generosity of my country to the world, are you?”

“Of course not. In this world, nothing is free. The fact that Rudek, who had nothing to do in this matter is willing to cooperate without receiving any compensation will be a huge headache for the Empire. After all, that means the Empire will owe Rudek a huge debt.”

“But the Empire is an enemy nation that is targeting our territory. If they attacked us and managed to destroy us, then whether they owe us a debt or not wouldn’t matter.”

“You have a slight misunderstanding about the Greedl Empire, it seems. An Empire that has grown to this extent in such little time is by no means truly united.”

“Princess!”

One of the envoys who had accompanied Luluria from the Empire paled at Luluria’s words. Of course, he would act like that. After all, Luluria was essentially sharing her country’s internal situation with an enemy country. But Tsetsie stopped the envoy with his hand. Seeing that, Luluria continued.

“Currently, the Empire has no other choice but to play the role of an ‘honest and good country’ at least until the Empire’s internal situation stabilizes. The reason the princes of the Empire were given their territories was to prevent civil war due to rapid expansion from happening. In short, it was to ease the people by making them see that the Emperor’s sons are competent… although this time it was one of them that started a civil war.”

“Continue.”

This was the first time all people of the Rudek that were here heard about this, not just for King Zeurasia.

“Therefore the Empire cannot ignore the ‘debt’ they had to the Rudek or anyone else. Because if they did ignore their ‘debt’ people might start to harbor distrust to the Empire.”

“…I see. Interesting. So because of that, you are saying that it will be better for my country to make the Empire owe us as much as possible.”

“That is correct. Yet, you want to let go of this opportunity just for a short-term benefit. I couldn’t help but think that you might be…”

King Zeurasia started laughing.

“Hahaha! You are right, Princess. Delant, after seeing this do you have any objections now?”

Delant, who’s the King called, was one of Rudek’s important people who was standing near the wall.

“No,” Delant answered shortly.

“Prince Tsetsedra and Princess Luluria, I apologize for being rude earlier. To put it bluntly, the people of our country have a strong distrust of the Empire. There were quite a few of our people who thought there was no point in making the Empire indebted to us for the reason that I had said before which is why I needed you to explain. Prince Tsetsedra, is everything the Princess said earlier true?”

“Yes, it is.  Furthermore, if you feel uncomfortable with my wife’s words, the responsibility rests entirely on me.”

“I acted rude first, so let us just say we are even. Well then, just as you had said Princess, I will let the Empire owe us for this. Take back your money. I’ll allow you to take that criminal and pass through our country’s territory.”

“Thank you very much,” Tsesie bowed.

Finally, a sense of relief spread throughout the audience room.

Immediately afterward, Luluri spoke up, “Ah, but–” causing the atmosphere to become tense again.

“Yes?”

“The internal situation of our country that I had explained earlier should be valuable information for your country so I will consider a part of that ‘debt’ to have been paid.”

King Zeurasia nodded with a bitter smile.

“Prince Tsetsedra, you have a good wife,” King Zeurasia commented.

“I’m proud of her. Even this time, I kept on relying on her.”

“No, when the Princess was speaking earlier, you stopped your country’s envoy from interfering and allowed the Princess to do as she pleased. It was because you had the ability to do that that the deal was able to be concluded.”

“I believe that after this the imperial envoy will go to Gorber to arrange a suitable day. In that case, you ought to relax here in Ludektrad for a few days while waiting. I’ll prepare a welcoming banquet tomorrow night.”

“Thank you very much. Then, I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“That is all for today! First, you ought to relax and rest your tired body.”

And so the audience between King Zeurasia and Prince Tsetsedra had concluded.