Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 3

Unexpected Personality

“Yup, it was really here.”

As I had expected, the place where I was being ordered to go was the 10th Division office.

The fact that I was being summoned, not captured, should mean I wasn’t being suspected as the lord’s ally…probably. But still the slightest possibility that remained made me hesitate to knock on the door.

“Let’s do this!” The second I strengthened my resolve to knock on the door while grabbing my fist tightly, the door was opened.

“Huh? I was about to drag you here myself, but you are actually here. Why are you standing in front of the door like that?”

Was this person that said something like that really was the so-called war princess? She was more like a war ogre!

“Well, whatever. Come in. Rays-sama is a busy person, don’t let him wait for you any longer.”

While feeling pissed off inside, I followed her and entered the room.

“I apologize for making you wait.”

I timidly apologize to him, but he seem to not really care? Huh? Now that I observed him more closely, he seem to be a bit different?

“Ah, no need to be so stiff. Just sit wherever you want. Sorry for Lapilia’s attitude, she was only worried about me,”After Rays-sama said so with a carefree tone, Lapilia-sama puffed her cheek.

“Rays-sama! You should not use that sort of tone to an outsiderl! Hey, you! If you spread the rumor about this anywhere…I’ll kill you!”

Well, even if you threatened me like that…

“Everyone, please calm down.”

The oldest person in the room, Grantz-sama said so while pouring us tea. Unlike Rays-sama, this person’s personality seems to match the rumor….but was it really fine for him to be doing the job of pouring tea for us?

“Um…”

I honestly didn’t know what to do in this kind of atmosphere. Probably noticing my confusion, Rays-sama urged me to sat down again.

Even though I sat down on a luxurious sofa, I couldn’t calm down. I want to hurry up and return. I still have to think about the way to save my precious people from this country’s destruction so I didn’t have time to relax like this!

“Sorry for calling you all the way here. You might have noticed that I was different compared to when we met before, but well, this is just how I am in my office. I couldn’t exactly act like a strict lieutenant 24/7, right? I will appreciate it if you keep this side of me a secret,” As he said so, Rays-sama squinted his eyes as if he was having fun.

“U..understood. I will not tell anyone about it.”

If I told anyone, that war ogre would kill me.

“Then, let’s move to the main topic. I investigated what you…um…Roa… told me before and I found that you’re right. You sure are quite something to notice something like that. It certainly seems that the incident isn’t just a normal bandits riot. I have stopped the 4th Division from going to the village.”

“…I see.”

“But, I still have some questions that I wanted to ask you directly. That’s why I called you here.”

“Please, ask away.”

“You said that the lord is pulling the string, but why did you come to that conclusion? If you noticed the ledger was strange, isn’t it possible to come to the conclusion that the lord is being threatened by the bandits?”

I felt relieved after hearing his question. At least, I wasn’t being suspected as the lord’s ally. Well then, Rays-sama, sorry but I would borrow the answer that you used previously again.

“There are 2 reasons I came to that conclusion.”

“Two, you said? Interesting. Speak.”

“First, According to the ledgers, this entire operation started about 3 years ago. 3 years is enough time for the lord to form a plan to ask the capital for help If he was actually threatened, but he never did so. Isn’t that strange? So I made a conclusion that the lord isn’t being threatened.”

“I see. That makes sense. Continue.”

“Second, with the possibility of the lord being threatened is now gone, the remaining possibilities are either the bandits are allied with the villagers or with the lord. The former doesn’t seem likely. If the bandits allied with the villagers, the news of the bandit riot shouldn’t reach here, since the villagers would hide the existence of the bandits. That leaves only one other possibility which is the bandit has allied with the lord.”

“Interesting theory. Continue.”

“Yes. If my theory is correct, that leaves two questions. Why did the lord do something dangerous like cooperating with the bandits and why did the bandits obey the lord?”

“And the answer to those questions?”

“First, the most probable reason the bandits decided to obey the lord is profit.”

After I said this, I saw both Lapilia-sama and Grantz-sama listening to my words with a serious expression while Rays-sama once again asked me a question.

“What kind of profit is great enough for the bandits to even consider obeying the lord?”

“There is a mountain near that village and there is an abandoned mine at that mountain.”

“You’re right about that. Wait, are you saying that a new mineral vein was discovered in that mine or something?”

“That is correct and one more thing, that new mineral vein was discovered by people from Gorber.”

“What did you just say!?” Both Lapilia-sama and Grantz-sama exclaimed in surprise, while Rays-sama silently waited for me to continue.

“What I will tell you next is pure speculation, so please treat it as such.”

Except, it wasn’t a speculation but something that would actually happen and would become known in the future.

Gorber Kingdom located in the west has a bad relationship with our kingdom. This village was located near the our kingdom border with Gorber.

Gorber has always had their eyes on this abandoned mine. Not because of the new mineral vein, but because this abandoned mine was located in a perfect spot for Gorber to build a military base to invade Radek Kingdom.

In this kind of situation, a new mineral vein was discovered in the abandoned mine, so Gorber used that mine as an excuse to negotiate with the lord. They said something like, ‘Gorber Kingdom would like to buy that mineral vein, and we would buy it with high price without any tax’

The lord fell for Gorber Kingdom’s sweet offer, largely because of a huge gambling debt the lord’s son had. I also heard this gambling debt was also something Gorber Kingdom has arranged.

Thus, the abandoned mine fell into Gorber Kingdom’s hand, and the Gorber Kingdom secretly build a military base there while disguising it as ‘mining work’

So to be more precise, it was the lord who pulled the string behind the bandits while Gorber kingdom was pulling the string behind the lord.

Gorber Kingdom’s only miscalculation was the amount and the quality of manpower.

Since the Gorber Kingdom didn’t want their activity to get found out by our kingdom, they could only send a few soldiers and manpower to the mine.

In addition, Gorber Kingdom disguised these few soldiers as bandits. The majority of bandits in the village were real, but there were some bandits who were actually soldiers from Gorber Kingdom.

With this arrangement, if our kingdom discovered something was being built in the abandoned mine, it would be the work of ‘bandits’ not Gorber Kingdom.

The lord then told the villagers ‘the bandit made that mine their nest, don’t get close to it’

The problem with this arrangement was food. It would be impossible for the Gorber Kingdom to send them food, so the lord secretly bought more food and gave them to the bandits, thus creating the strange ledgers.

However the real bandits became tired of building military bases day and night and started to assault the women of the village.

Because of that, the information that there were bandits got leaked. The 4th Division that was sent to that village in my previous life underestimated the number of bandits in the village, since the information about the bandits came from villagers, not from the lord himself. As a result they were beaten.

“…And that’s the end of my speculation.”

“Did you think of all of those scenarios by yourself?”

I answered with a simple ‘yes’ there was no way I could answer ‘actually, I was just borrowing your answer from my previous life…hahaha’ right?

“Are both of you satisfied with this?” Rays-sama asks while turning his gaze to Lapilia-sama and Grantz-sama.

Grantz-sama let out a small smile, while Lapilia-sama lowered her head in dissatisfaction.

After confirming their reaction, Rays-sama turned his gaze to me again and said, “Roa, you will accompany us on the our expedition to that village.”

?

T/N: I made a mistake in chapter 2. Lifrea and the empire are two different countries. I’m sorry! It’s fixed now so please reread it.