Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 135

The Royal Ceremony (4) – A Crude Plan

Rudek’s northeastern region was made up of territories of several noble houses and was collectively known as the Halodel Region.

The name ‘Halodel’ came from the Halodel cows commonly raised by locals in the region…wait, or was it the opposite? The cow’s name came from the region name…?

…Well, whatever. In any case, Halodel cows’ meat and milk were known as one of the highest quality in the entire northern continent. It was even popular in the southern continent. Along with minerals, products made using Halodel cows were known as Rudek’s specialties.

The distinctive feature of Halodel beef was its fine fat. The mountain range that acted as a border between the Empire and Rudek was the habitat of the Halodel cow so the Halodel cow was raised at green hill while drinking clear spring water, giving its meat an exquisite sweet and delicious taste.

In particular, the best part of its meat could melt on your tongue…or so I heard. I had never eaten it before. Halodel beef was not something a commoner could easily get their hand on.

The Halodel cow brought a great profit to the Halodel region. One of the noble families that managed to become an influential family because of the profit was the Belosa family.

The royal shrine wasn’t located in Belosa territory, but it wasn’t that far, so Dentacruz Belosa should also know the area quite well.

The royal shrine itself was managed by a somewhat unusual family called the Obera family. The Obera family only has the town near the shrine as its territory.

From what I heard from Prince Zeland, Obera was a family that was created solely to protect the royal shrine. It was one of the oldest noble families, having existed since the first royal ceremony. Due to its special role, the Obera family received direct financial support from the royal family.

The royal shrine was located at the foot of the mountain and was connected to the town managed by the Obera family with a straight road. Because of the difference in altitude between the town and the shrine, when a member of the royal family headed to the shrine, anyone from the town could see it. The sight was said to be quite spectacular.

While I was listening to Prince Zeland’s explanation, the journey continued for several days until we reached the town.

On the journey, the people of the 9th Division never bothered us. Frankly, they were quite useless as escorts.

“Prince Zeland! Look how big you have grown up…”

The person welcoming Prince Zeland with open arms was Halvery Obera, the head of the Obera family. He was a kind-looking man who was already approaching old age.

“Halvery-dono. It has been a long time.”

“You must be tired from the long journey. Now, please rest well. We had 10 days until the ceremony after all. Your escorts are also welcome.”

Led by Halvery-sama, we entered the town. I looked around the town. I had heard the town was not that big. Still, I could see many impressive-looking buildings in the town.

Oh, most of the buildings in the town were inns? Plus despite its size, there were a lot of people here. Everyone was waving their hands and cheering.

When I told Sazabi about my impression of the town, he replied, “That’s because this town mainly serves as a lodging place for people who come to the shrine. When there’s a royal ceremony, even people from the surrounding territory will come to the town to watch the ceremony.”

“That means most people here aren’t from here?”

“Yeah. Most of them are probably tourists who came to see the ceremony. See how everyone is looking at us?”

I see. So we were a literal spectacle. No wonder everyone was so enthusiastic.

“But the royal ceremony might not be held for years, or even decades.”

“Yup. That’s why the royal family supports this town financially. The lord’s job is only to manage the inn. You could even say the whole town was just a giant inn and the lord was just the inn’s manager who kept the room clean so the royal family could stay at the inn any time they wanted.”

“Whoa. Wasteful.”

“Well, they are the royal family. And now with us arriving in the town, there are going to be even more people coming.”

“Wait, so the reason we needed to stay in the town for 10 days before Prince Zeland goes to the shrine is…”

“To recover the cost. They wanted to attract as many people as possible.”

Shrewd.

“But why do you know so much? You aren’t old enough to have witnessed the previous ceremony.”

“When I came here for the briefing, Halvery-sama told me about it.”

Ah, so that’s the ‘mission’ Nelfia told me before.

“By the way, have you ever eaten Halodel beef?”

“No, I’ve never eaten it.”

“Then you can wait forward to tonight. You’ll get to eat as much Halodel beef as you want.”

Now, I was looking forward to eating Halodel beef. Unfortunately, I never got any Halodel beef that night.

***

Dentacruz made a move.

As soon as we arrived at the town and were taking a rest, Dentacruz approached us.

“The Empire’s made a move,”

That’s what he said. Apparently, a report came from the barracks of the 9th Division that they saw the Imperial soldiers sneaking into Rudek’s territory.

“There are about 3000 soldiers, so we need to investigate quickly. I have 2000 soldiers from the 9th Division so give me 1000 soldiers from the 10th Division. That Roa guy can’t be trusted so give me soldiers from Lapilia Brigade instead.”

Lapilia-sama and I tilted our heads in disbelief.

Was he being serious?

You said the Imperial soldiers sneaked into our territory so how do you know the number was 3000 soldiers? How did that many soldiers even manage to sneak in? What was the 9th Division doing, letting that many soldiers invaded our territory? His lies were way too obvious.

“If the Imperial soldiers are invading our land, then as a member of the 9th Division, I can’t leave them alone. Or could it be it was you, the 10th Division, that guided the Imperial soldiers to our territory!?” Dentacruz urged.

 I… didn’t even know what to say.

It was obvious he was trying to get Lapilia-sama’s soldiers to leave the town. But the way he did it was…too crude.

The fact the Empire sent so few soldiers at this sort of time didn’t even make sense.

Still, if a rumor that Imperial soldiers were invading our territory was to spread, it could cause the tourists to panic so we couldn’t just ignore the news.

Lapilia-sama turned to me, silently asking if it was okay to go and I nodded.

“…Okay. Lapilia Brigade will go.”

“Thank you,” Dentacruz said monotonously. His face didn’t show any shred of gratitude.

Thus, out of the 4000 soldiers we brought, 3000 soldiers were hurriedly dispatched to search for the ‘Imperial soldiers’