Ch.1212The Princess Who Doesn’t Want to Work and the Perceptive Chancellor

======[ Hestella ]======

The acting queen of Hestella, and the secret and involuntary first follower of the Austica Order that hasn’t even been properly established yet.

“Ughhhh… how much longer must I endure this suffering…?”

Eleonora Wittelsbach was once again struggling under the weight of duties dumped on her in her office today.

“I wish someone would take over this role for me…”

“Um… what do you mean by looking at me while saying that…?”

“I said, I wish SOMEONE would take over this role for me…!”

“That’s completely unreasonable. If my workload increases any further, I’ll need to start looking for a grave plot.”

She was suffering alongside Administrative Director Lamber Sigel, whose pain was no different from her own.

—-

To counter an unprecedented attack since the nation’s founding, Hestella had declared a total war system, with most available forces concentrated in the capital, maintaining a thorough defensive posture.

Consequently, administrative workload naturally exploded, and the capital’s officials—from leadership to frontline bureaucrats—were thrown into a battlefield without swords.

The burden on the final approvers who had to review and oversee this enormous workload—Eleonora and Lamber—was beyond description.

“…Administrative Director Sigel. Don’t you find it strange? We surely recruited quite a few talented people through selection exams for times like this… so why isn’t our workload decreasing at all?”

“Well… they may have been selected through exams, but they’re still inexperienced newcomers. How much can people who’ve just been appointed really accomplish?”

Thanks to the selection exam designed by Haschal and systematized by the two of them, the number of administrative officials had increased significantly, but they hadn’t managed to reduce the burden on the two.

While those who passed the selection exam had their minimum abilities verified, most were still youngsters without proper experience.

These people with no practical experience were thrown directly into the workplace without any training period, so they were still struggling just to adapt to their duties, let alone utilize their talents.

“I told you we should have selected only those with at least three years of experience…”

“Why would such people come to our country? With three years of experience, they’d be in the midst of promotions in their own countries.”

“…That’s true.”

But if they tried to select only those with practical experience, as Lamber said, such talent would hardly apply for Hestella’s official exams.

Most such people were already affiliated with the Empire or Dane’s administration—why would they leave their stable jobs to transfer to an entry-level administrative position in a newborn country?

By that point in their careers, they would easily recognize that an administrative position in a newly born country would be a hellish post with low pay and enormous workload.

In fact, perhaps for this reason, most who volunteered for the recruitment exams held twice were commoners with no experience as officials.

More precisely, most were children of merchant-class families who, though commoners by status and thus blocked from promotion opportunities in other countries, were wealthy enough to receive higher education.

Of course, the academy established by Haschal was providing educational opportunities to the poor, and once the new officials gained some experience, they would all demonstrate their capabilities, so the situation would improve somewhat in the future…

“It will take at least two years for our administration to function properly. Still, by then, our workload should decrease considerably.”

“…Two years is too long.”

But this was still a story for the distant future.

Someday, Hestella might have an efficient and stable administrative system like other countries, but what comfort was that to someone struggling right now?

At least for Eleonora, it wasn’t even the slightest consolation.

Lamber clearly understood this feeling, so he suppressed his desire to scold her for whining when she could be reading one more document instead.

“…I should just ask my brother to dispatch some imperial officials—no, no, no, what am I saying?”

“Hmm? What did you say? I was concentrating on this and didn’t hear…”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”

…Well, in truth, even if he wanted to openly scold her, his status wouldn’t allow him to even dare.

‘Openly rebuking the Emperor’s sister…? Well, if I had about five lives to spare, I might try it.’

The perceptive and clever Lamber already knew.

The identity of this veiled parachute appointee who suddenly claimed the high position of acting queen one day, using the unfamiliar name Elnora.

The former queen of Panam who was reported missing, the sister of the current Emperor Leopold Wittelsbach of the Empire, Eleonora Wittelsbach.

The second highest-ranking woman in the kingdom was, in fact, an imperial family member of such exalted status that she ranked among the top three even in the Empire.

Of course, despite realizing this, Lamber deliberately pretended not to know. After all, there are certain pieces of knowledge in this world that are better left unacknowledged.

The fact that Eleonora, who disappeared on the day King Danon was killed by attackers, was here was evidence that the attack itself was the work of the Empire and Haschal.

Considering the chaos and tragedy that befell Panam after the death of King Danon—who, despite his personal flaws, had managed state affairs adequately—keeping quiet was clearly the wise course of action for anyone.

Surely they wouldn’t kill him now for knowing such a secret, but they could use it to blackmail him into taking on more work, or something similarly useful.

Besides…

‘If I reveal the truth, I’d have to serve this woman as an imperial family member from then on…?’

For now, they had worked together long enough and the difference in their positions wasn’t too great, so he could treat her relatively comfortably, but that would be impossible after revealing her identity.

There was an enormous status gap between an unidentified acting authority and the Emperor’s sister, so continuing to treat her casually after revealing this would frankly be considered a crime of imperial insult.

‘…Yes, it’s wiser to keep this buried forever.’

Therefore, despite having long discerned Eleonora’s identity, Lamber steadfastly pretended not to know, with a straight face.

It was certainly a perceptive action… but what a pitiful survival tactic it was.

—-

“…Let’s get back to work. What did the knights say?”

“Not much different from the last report. They somehow repelled the fourth invasion, but the war situation remains unfavorable. They’re requesting as much support as possible…”

Having finished their brief complaints and jokes, Eleonora returned to her original duties.

Avoiding Lamber’s gaze that seemed to ask if she’d finally come to her senses, she moved on to the most urgent matter—discussing the attacks by Valkyries and other monsters.

The Valkyries, presumably summoned by the Church of Volberg, and the army of undead monsters integrated with animal hides, named “Baltyr’s Warriors” through Haschal’s old battle records.

The first invasion was successfully repelled thanks to the heroic efforts of Demian and other heroes, but the creatures had not given up and continued to launch repeated attacks.

“This is the fourth time… Sigh, it’s so frustrating. Have they decided to wear us down since they can’t break through by force?”

“Yes, seeing the same prediction in Lord Joshua’s report… it certainly seems to be a strategy with such intentions.”

Their persistent behavior—retreating to preserve their forces when the tide of battle turned unfavorable, regrouping from a distance, and attacking again—was becoming a pattern.

As much as they’d like to pursue and eradicate them when they retreated, this was realistically impossible.

Unlike the undead monsters, most of their forces were human with limited stamina, and in terms of military strength, they could barely maintain engagement only with the support of the walls, so pursuing could result in their own annihilation.

Therefore, Hestella’s forces had no choice but to abandon offense and focus on defense, resulting in an endless war of attrition.

Each time forces were depleted, requests for additional support of healers and troops were placed on Eleonora’s desk.

“If we withdraw any more local forces, we’d essentially be abandoning regional defense… let’s call in the Wall garrison troops for now. That area should remain quiet for a while.”

After scraping together all available forces a couple of times to deploy them for wall defense, Hestella’s reserve forces were starting to run out.

They had even dispatched Leonore’s direct knight order, the Rose Cross Knights, who also served as the imperial palace guards, to the field, albeit only volunteers.

This meant that further support was impossible with just the capital’s stationed troops and local forces from across the country.

Mass conscription of citizens was out of the question—not only would the aftermath be problematic, but untrained rabble would obviously not even serve as effective meat shields.

Therefore, after much deliberation, Eleonora decided to recall all the border guards stationed at the eastern border—the Wall of Berengaria.

“Will that be alright? Even though we’ve signed a peace treaty with Baryachrus, how they’ll react when the border is empty…”

“It’s fine. Recently, we haven’t even seen traces of Werebeasts near the border, have we? They’ve probably crossed all the way to the eastern edge to wage war with the Ka’har.”

Beyond the wall were Ka’har warriors constantly eyeing the west, and now that even the Werebeasts had moved their base there, they couldn’t afford to lower their guard in peacetime, but…

“So they won’t have the luxury to pay attention to us. Even for Werebeasts, fighting the Ka’har on the plains can’t be that easy.”

“Hmm… while not confirmed… that possibility is high. Understood. I’ll relay the order to proceed that way.”

That was old news now.

Thanks to Haschal’s great achievements, the Ka’har had been weakened to the point where they wouldn’t dare covet the west for at least several decades, and the Werebeasts had marched east to hunt these weakened Ka’har.

Unless the two forces united to attack the wall, there would be no problem leaving the wall completely empty for now.

Of course, strictly speaking, it wasn’t truly without problems.

The fatal issue was that numerous administrative tasks would be thrown at them—calculating the time needed to bring the wall garrison to the capital and the supplies they would consume, securing accommodation space, determining deployment positions, and so on.

In other words, it meant another night of overtime work.

Given that the soldiers fighting on the front lines were in life-or-death situations, even Eleonora couldn’t sincerely complain about mere overtime, but still.