episode_0059

Let’s rewind time a bit, to the Kram Empire.

A time when the war was almost two years underway.

A tragedy occurred in a certain noble family.

“Oh, my son!!!”

“You insisted on making a name for yourself in the war, but why do you return as a corpse…!”

“Lady, Milady! Please, come to your senses!”

The heir of the Gruxi Marquisate had died. The cause of death was an explosion.

He was commanding troops on the front lines as a battalion commander when he was caught in enemy shelling.

“Damn it… you stupid fool. Why did you have to die there? What is this family supposed to do without you?”

“Lord, a person from the Imperial Family has arrived. Claiming to mourn the death of your son…”

“Hah. Already scheming to swallow our family whole? That treacherous Emperor’s brat.”

Originally, Marquis Gruxi had five sons.

But now, all of them had passed away.

The first died of illness, the third was killed in action while serving on a warship, the fourth died in a carriage accident.

The fifth was caught in a bomb attack while working at the rear headquarters.

And now, the last remaining second son had also departed for heaven.

“Do we…have any young people left in our family? I don’t care if they’re from a collateral line or bastards.”

Just hearing this might make it sound like a fairly common occurrence. And in reality, it was somewhat.

Because the war was so intense, it was not uncommon for nobles who had been commissioned as officers to die.

But the problem was that the person who had died this time was the sole heir of the Gruxi Marquisate.

“I’m sorry, but there are none, Lord.”

“What?”

“The collateral lines are all in similar straits. There is one bastard, but contact was lost a long time ago, and their whereabouts are unknown.”

“I’m going insane.”

The Gruxi Marquisate had always been short on descendants.

Whether it was because of the characteristics of their bloodline, or just bad luck.

That situation combined with the special circumstance of war to create the worst possible outcome.

“If this continues, the Marquisate will be destroyed after I die. Those guys will come up with all sorts of bizarre justifications to try and take our territory.”

“Lord, wouldn’t it be better to adopt an heir…?”

“From where? Is there anywhere that would give us a child befitting our family’s status?”

If it were the old days, things wouldn’t have come to this.

Even if there was a war, the armies of the two countries would gather and fight for several months, and the outcome would determine victory or defeat.

Even in the most intense cases, they would capture each other’s fortresses and, if they had the strength, engage in open battles.

But now?

“No one will try to help our family. Even if they wanted to help, they wouldn’t have the余裕.”

“Because so many people have died?”

“That’s right.”

They’ve been operating unprecedentedly large armies for years.

They are constantly maintaining a scale that they would have strained to mobilize for a decisive battle in the past.

And they weren’t just maintaining it. They were engaging the enemy whenever they felt like it.

They repeated attacks and defenses whenever they saw an opening here or there, so the rate of attrition soared.

In both people and military spending.

“I should decide where to transfer the territory from now on. It’s better than just waiting for the family to be destroyed.”

“Lord…”

“Thank you for everything, you all. You’ve suffered a lot by assisting this inept person.”

That’s how this situation came about.

A tragedy in which the men of one family all died, and their future disappeared.

Even though they were a powerful family with the status of Marquis, they were reduced to waiting for destruction in a single day.

And this news…

Quickly spread among the other noble families.

“The Gruxi family is disappearing like this…”

“We may become like that too. Shouldn’t we come up with some kind of countermeasure?”

“That’s true, but the question is what to do specifically.”

The extinction of a family.

For nobles who are obsessed with honor and tradition, it was the most terrifying thing of all.

To think that a bloodline that had been passed down for hundreds of years and should continue to be passed down would be cut off.

The mere thought of it was terrifying.

“Should we prepare to adopt an heir in advance?”

“But that’s just someone else’s child in the end. We must leave someone to carry on our blood.”

“Then we have to save our children… I think I’ll have to put in a request to the military.”

Therefore, the noble classes quickly took measures.

To not send their children to dangerous places.

In the military, they changed their jobs to the safest positions possible.

They bribed conscription officers or officers with connections to get military exemptions.

There were even cases where they faked illnesses or made unreasonable demands to avoid enlisting altogether.

“How about sending them on a trip? If we say they’re going to the East, they’ll be safe for the next three years.”

“That won’t work. It seems that maritime inspections are thorough these days. It would be better to use the excuse that they went for convalescence.”

A desperate struggle to protect the family at all costs.

These efforts of the Kram nobles were so active that they were quickly noticeable.

It didn’t take long for it to be known even in the Great Plains.

* * * * *

“Are these guys stupid?”

As always, I was reading reports and sighing. I was tired of the endless stupidity of the higher-ups.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

Kallia asks in a soft voice.

In a posture that tightly hugs my body from behind.

Enjoying the softness and warmth felt from my back and neck, I simply explained her question.

“This is too blatant. I understand why they’re doing this, but there’s a limit.”

Taking heirs and children out of the military to preserve the family? Keeping them in a safe place and waiting for the war to end?

It’s understandable behavior.

For nobles who pride themselves on blue blood, maintaining the bloodline is more important than anything else.

But they should have acted elegantly if that was the case.

There are many ways to do it. For example, faking an injury and falling back to the rear, or finding a substitute.

There are plenty of alternatives if you think about it a little. These guys were openly screaming and kicking because they didn’t want to die.

No matter how afraid they were of the family’s destruction, they couldn’t act so recklessly.

“Commoners aren’t stupid. They quickly notice when nobles are doing suspicious things.”

“Do you mean that will happen this time too?”

“Probably. For now, it’s certain that a lot of complaints will pile up.”

This is a common misconception that the higher-ups of this era have: commoners are by no means dull.

They just lack knowledge because they have fewer opportunities to learn.

If the nobles act like this, the people of the Kram Empire will soon realize it.

That they are dying like dogs while those guys are enjoying pleasure in a safe place.

They might have just let it go if it were normal times… but now it’s wartime, right?

That too, a primitive total war, the first in human history, that even scrapes up civilian goods and manpower.

‘It’s going to be hard to get through this safely.’

Many people were lured in by nationalist propaganda and enlisted as a group.

They offer their wealth and labor to the country, and risk their lives for the glory of the nation and fatherland.

They are being exploited more severely than ever before for the sake of a few measly ideologies.

They endure while groaning in pain because they believe this is for the future. Because they have learned that it is for their country and their monarch.

If only the nobles try to be an exception in this situation, people will soon start thinking this way.

–Why are those bastards an exception? Why aren’t they trying to sacrifice for the country?

–Aren’t those guys Kram’s citizens?

–Non-citizen? Are they non-citizens?

–Why should we be commanded by those national traitors?

When authority collapses, it’s only a matter of time before power wavers.

A privileged class that has lost respect can never survive in the long term.

If they’re royalty, they at least have the value of symbolizing national integration and the system, but nobles don’t even have that.

“Then will there be a rebellion?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s possible for the time being.”

I stroked Kallia’s head as she climbed on top of my head.

Then she purrs and snuggles closer. Enough to slightly obscure my vision because of her horns.

Even though it was stuffy when my face was stuck between her breasts, I felt good.

Should I ask her to give me a handjob tonight?

“Because the system is still being maintained.”

Anyway. In my opinion, it didn’t seem like a large-scale rebellion would break out immediately because of this.

The large-scale army created by the national conscription system is still intact.

The worship of the royal family, artificially formed through various propaganda campaigns, remains the same.

‘Even if there are internal difficulties and injustices, the whole society doesn’t rupture. An external shock has to be applied.’

It still needed more time for this to collapse.

It would only be possible if an incident such as the army being badly smashed and suffering a crushing defeat in the war occurred.

Instead…a small-scale riot might occur.

An incident of that extent, accidentally caused by resentment towards superiors or minor discord.

“Let’s wait and see for now. I think we’ll get news within a few weeks.”

“Then we can share love as much as we want in the meantime.”

“You’re really something. Aren’t you too lewd?”

“Do you perhaps not like it?”

“…It’s not that.”

* * * * *

As expected, Ismael’s prediction was right on the mark.

“Give back the food you took from us!!”

“We harvested the wheat until our bones ached, but why can’t we even eat a piece of bread to our hearts’ content!!”

“We can’t live like this anymore, let’s overturn it!”

“We farmed to feed ourselves, did you think we were tilling the fields until our bones ached to fill your bellies!”

In a rural village that could not stand the food shortage and excessive tributes, they plundered the army’s food warehouse.