Chapter 4:
Conceit
BACK AT MY WORKPLACE out in the sticks, I considered my future
course of action. The office I used now once belonged to my incompetent
superior's superior. Officially, I was still only a trainee, but since I'd
cleaned out the upper management here, I took their place regardless.
Some of the others here weren't too happy about that, but most of them
accepted me and went about their work as usual.
What's this training supposed to be good for anyway? Well, I'm not
gonna be here long, so I guess I don't have to think about it too much.
In any case, due to my thorough cleaning, my workplace was very
comfortable now. All of my troublesome superiors and the evildoers
connected to them locally had been taken care of, so my work-related
problems had been solved. There had been some noisy resistance from the
officials who'd benefitted in some way from my old superiors and their
corrupt network of people in town, but of course when I said I'd take them
on if they had any complaints, they all shut up pretty fast. I'd done a
thorough investigation of everyone connected to my old superiors, and if
even the slightest bit of embezzlement was found, I'd used that to have
them fired. As a result, no one here got in my way anymore.
With fifteen minutes left before it was time to leave work for the
day, I sat mulling over the objectives before me:
First of all, I had to be victorious in this war between intergalactic
nations.
Second, I needed to quell the chaos in my realm.
Third, I had to crush everyone who ridiculed the Way of the Flash.
The first and second were absolutely necessary and time sensitive.
The third I could take my time with, so I'd hold off there for now. To be
honest, in my anger, I wanted to handle the third problem as soon as
possible, but nothing could shake my knowledge that the Way of the Flash
was the strongest sword style around. Besides, the war wouldn't wait for
me.
Conflicts between intergalactic nations were such a big deal that it
took a lot of time to even prepare for them. It would be a while before we
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could get moving, so first we had to decide how to move.
"Now, who should I deploy where?"
I had to decide not only who to deploy, but who to leave behind on
the Capital Planet. Due to the political strife with Calvin, I couldn't send
out my entire force.
"The Capital Planet will be a real concern for me."
I didn't know what Calvin would get up to if I left the Capital Planet
completely undefended, so I wouldn't be able to fight to my heart's
content without leaving some trusted forces here. While I weighed my
options, Kukuri materialized from the shadows.
"Do you have a moment, Master Liam?"
"What is it?" I asked.
"Terrorist attacks have been occurring on the Capital Planet lately."
"That's not unusual here."
"These acts are suspicious, however. The perpetrators claim a
variety of motives, but the attacks are consistently too well-executed. The
Empire isn't investigating them seriously either."
Terrorist attacks that the Empire wasn't taking seriously? That set
off alarm bells for me. The group of assassins we went up against recently
had apparently disguised themselves as terrorists. If Kukuri was bringing
this up, we must be their true target, and if they managed to kill us,
Calvin's faction could simply claim we were victims of a terrorist attack. It
was a sneaky way to do things, but I considered taking some pointers from
this prince.
"Can you guys look into it?"
"We can do our best, but we're spread thin."
"We'll leave it alone, then—I have something else I want you to
handle. I want you to root out everyone important who's betrayed me.
Don't do anything to them, though. I plan to make use of them later."
"Very well. Traitors... That count in the United Kingdom is
suspicious, but it will take time to dispatch people there. We already have
some people in the Union, however."
Kukuri's men had snuck into the Union the last time we interacted
with them. His people really worked hard.
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"Count Pershing? I expected him to betray me, so that's fine. You
don't need to go do anything there."
"Shall we take care of him?" Kukuri asked.
"Sure, if you have the time, but he's not an immediate problem."
From what Thomas had told me about Count Pershing, I knew the
man would betray me sooner or later. As a fellow evildoer, I wanted to get
along with him, but I couldn't blame him if he betrayed me after seeing
my situation. If our positions were reversed, I would have betrayed him
too.
"Just be careful of any information coming from Count Pershing—
and make sure the only info he gets from us is fake."
"We did learn that Count Pershing will be fighting in the war."
According to Thomas, Pershing didn't seem the type to make a
name for himself on the battlefield. I wondered what that was about.
"Well, take care of him if you have the chance, but covering the
Capital Planet is the bigger issue right now," I said.
Our enemies wouldn't have gone to the trouble of creating a mock
terrorist organization if they didn't plan to throw it at us. When I
considered the possibility of them sending assassins who could rival
Kukuri and his men, I didn't really feel comfortable leaving anyone
behind.
I wanted both Tia and Marie to lead on the battlefield. I could
conceivably leave one of them here, but I didn't like my odds in battle if I
did. Chengsi...well, she seemed best suited for combat as well. I would
leave Kukuri behind on the Capital Planet, of course, but I wanted at least
one more person I could rely on there.
Wait a second... I was thinking about this with the assumption that
I'd be going into battle. Maybe that approach was wrong. There wasn't
really a reason for me to go out and fight personally, was there? I
reconsidered the deployment of my personnel under the new assumption
that I'd remain on the Capital Planet.
"We'll make this work, Kukuri," I said, and told him what I had in
mind.
"Yes, sir."
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***
Claus was panicking. Oh, on the outside he appeared perfectly calm,
but inwardly he was shouting to himself, You've gotta be kidding meee!!!
All of House Banfield's major players were gathered in a meeting
room in the high-class hotel where they resided while here on the Capital
Planet. Since Claus was Liam's personal guard, it was only natural that he
be present, but he couldn't help but become nearly hysterical inside when
he heard the plans Liam put forth regarding personnel assignments. In fact,
everyone in attendance was confused.
Liam sat up front in his chair, looking perfectly satisfied with his
decisions that baffled everyone else in the room.
What did he say that created such confusion?
"I've decided to put Claus in charge of Prince Cleo's forces."
Liam had always been the type to speak and act in ways that were
difficult for some to comprehend, but this time, every single person in the
room was stunned. He had appointed Claus, a man with no real
distinguished accomplishments, as the supreme commander of a fleet of
millions. Of course, Prince Cleo would be the official supreme
commander, but he couldn't be expected to actually lead. After all, this
would be Cleo's first battle, and he needed an acting commander to stand
in for him.
Liam had picked Claus for that role, but the man himself spoke up to
protest this decision, while still maintaining his outward composure. "Lord
Liam, I have no experience commanding a fleet of millions of ships. With
all due respect, I cannot serve in this role. You should choose someone
else for the position."
"It isn't a problem," Liam replied, immediately rejecting Claus's
suggestion.
How is it not a problem? To Claus, it was nothing but a problem.
The supreme commander in this war would be commanding not just the
Empire's regular army, but all the ships provided by participating nobles
as well. House Banfield was personally contributing 60,000 ships to the
fight. Well, at the very least, Claus's appointment as the top commander
was proof that Liam trusted him that much.
When Liam announced his decision, Claus was pierced by the sharp,
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envious glares from Tia and Marie. The two of them were so strong as
knights that they occupied the two highest positions in that role...but they
were also problem children.
"Isn't that wonderful for you, Sir Claus?" Marie said, her face
twitching.
Tia was also smiling, though the sentiment didn't reach her eyes.
"I'd happily take your place if the burden is too great for you."
Claus's stomach began to hurt from their stares. Gaaah! I can't take
them glaring at me like this!!! In terms of his individual strength and
abilities as a knight, Claus didn't measure up to Tia or Marie in the
slightest.
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While Claus endured their resentful stares, Liam noticed this and his
mood soured. He sent a sharp look of his own at Tia and Marie. "Do you
have a complaint about my assignments?"
Tia and Marie immediately fell to their knees and apologized,
trembling before Liam.
"O-of course not!" Tia exclaimed. "I will gladly follow your every
order, Lord Liam!"
Marie had something else to say, however. She had more of a
problem with Claus's abilities than with Liam's commands. "I would
never complain about your orders, Lord Liam, but do you really think Sir
Claus is suitable for this job? He said himself that he has no experience
commanding a fleet of this size."
There were only two people in House Banfield with the experience
of fighting in a war where millions clashed with millions: Tia and Marie.
In her time as the so-called Princess Knight, Tia had lent her skills to
another nation, fighting in a war of that scope. And two thousand years
ago, when Marie was known as one of the Three Knights, she had fought
in several such conflicts, commanding a large part of the Empire's forces.
She had been a supreme commander herself three times, beating out Tia in
terms of experience in the position.
The two of them had far more experience than Claus, and Claus
himself knew that more than anyone.
"The position is simply too large a burden for me," Claus spoke up.
"I again beg you to reconsider, Lord Liam."
Liam had no intention of changing his mind. "I'm certain you can
do it. I'm putting Tia under your command, so feel free to put her to work.
And you, Chengsi..."
Everyone's attention shifted to the woman leaning against a wall
who had been playing with one of her pigtails this whole time, showing
zero interest in the proceedings. As someone who had made a serious
attempt to kill Liam, people considered the beautiful knight dangerously
insane. Even so, Liam had forgiven her, and she was still in service to
House Banfield.
When Liam called her name, Chengsi cocked her head
expressionlessly. "Yes?"
With Chengsi's doll-like appearance, the gesture was almost
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inhuman. Tia and Marie didn't hide the hostility they directed her way.
Liam showed no sign of being bothered by Chengsi's creepiness.
"You're the strongest fighter here, so I'm putting you under Claus too.
You'll serve as Prince Cleo's personal guard."
Chengsi's expression didn't change as she received Liam's orders,
but she did say more this time. "You trust me to do that?"
Liam threw her some bait to help motivate her. "Do the job I've
assigned you, and I promise to play with you again."
The woman visibly shivered, her cheeks flushing. Now she was
filled with life, no longer seeming like a blank doll. It was as if Chengsi
was a different person than she had been only seconds ago.
That was when Claus realized something. Wait, Lord Liam! You're
forcing two problem children on me?!
While Claus experienced more internal panic, Marie raised her hand
timidly. Her name hadn't been called yet, and she had a forlorn look on her
face, as if she was worried that Liam had forgotten her.
"What about me, Lord Liam?"
To dispel her worries, Liam replied, "You'll be hunting pirates with
a fleet of 3,000 ships. I can't give you many forces, but the ones you have
will be elites. I leave defense of my domain to you, so keep it safe, all
right?"
"Y-yes, my lord!"
Since Liam himself would remain on the Capital Planet during the
war, leaving the defense of his domain to Marie while he was away was a
sign of his trust in her.
"Lord Liam, how many troops do you intend to station at the Capital
Planet?" Claus asked.
"I believe 3,000 ships should be enough."
When Tia heard that number, it was her turn to panic. "That's not
enough, Lord Liam! Calvin's faction won't overlook this opportunity! You
should leave at least 10,000 ships behind!"
Liam seemed confident, unconcerned by Tia's worries. "All you
guys need to focus on is winning. Meanwhile, I'll kick back on the Capital
Planet and watch."
He spoke as if he'd only be taking it easy, but everyone knew the
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Capital Plant was just as likely to turn into a battlefield itself. Leaving him
virtually alone there while the vast majority of his fighting forces were
elsewhere seemed just too dangerous. Even if Liam was setting up the
situation as bait for Calvin's faction, the threat seemed too great.
"B-but..." Tia persisted, still not convinced.
"Enough!"
"A-ah! I apologize, my lord."
No one would dare talk back to Liam once he shouted, so it was
clear that they had all just better do as he said.
Considering the matter settled, Liam shifted to a new topic.
"Anyway, what's Eulisia up to? I have work for her too."
Claus cocked his head when Liam asked after her, since she wasn't
present at the meeting. "Err, I believe Lady Rosetta said something about
having Lady Eulisia return to the military. Something about her recent
conduct..."
Liam's eyebrows shot up at that. "At a time like this? Hurry up and
call her back! My domain's a mess right now and I've got work for her to
do!"
Had Liam actually forgotten about Eulisia until this very moment?
Claus doubted his master for a moment before realizing that Liam didn't
even see Eulisia as a woman.
I suppose she'll never find her way into Lord Liam's bed. Hmm...the
problem of his successor remains.
***
As soon as I left the meeting room, I headed for a dressing room to
meet up with Patrice of the Newlands Company. Patrice was one of my
personal merchants, part of the large merchant house's upper management.
She was a voluptuous woman with dark skin, and today she wore a suit
that exposed her cleavage. Right now, she was having Rosetta try on
dresses that she'd brought.
"That looks amazing on you, Lady Rosetta," Patrice was saying. As
soon as Rosetta tried on a dress, Patrice complimented her and
recommended another.
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"Wh-what am I going to do with this many dresses?" Rosetta said.
"This is the thirtieth one!" She was starting to look a little tired after trying
on so many.
"They're for parties," Patrice replied simply.
"Parties? This many dresses should last me for decades of parties."
Rosetta smiled awkwardly at the huge pile of dresses she tried on.
Patrice corrected her misunderstanding. "Well...you won't be
wearing any of the dresses more than once, so I believe these will only last
you a month or so."
"Huh? Oh, are they all reasonably priced then? I see—they're
disposable. Phew... I thought they might be expensive."
Patrice explained further. "This would be the general price, yes."
She held out her tablet and the average price per dress was displayed as a
hologram above it.
Rosetta's eyes bulged when she saw the number. "Th-that's a lot!
Well, I suppose thirty dresses would cost this much..."
"Oh, that's just for one dress."
"Huh?" Rosetta gaped in surprise. Beside her, her personal maid
Ciel was equally stunned.
Ciel would also be attending the parties, so there were dresses for
her as well. There were fewer than those for Rosetta, but still a decent
number. I figured the overly serious Ciel probably wouldn't want to attend
parties in expensive dresses, but to me, it was a necessity.
I like parties, and wasteful spending is what being an evil lord is all
about!
I planned on holding parties almost every day here on the Capital
Planet while my troops went out and fought. Naturally, I expected my
enemies to make a move during this time, but it wasn't my style to sneak
around and nervously look for them. I figured I'd just let them come to me.
I also planned on actually enjoying these parties, since I missed out
on so much fun in college. Wallace wasn't doing anything worthwhile
with his time, so I'd have him organize the events while I merely attended
and enjoyed myself.
Patrice approached to tell me why she called to meet with me. "Lord
Liam, I have a message for you from the leaders of the Union. They insist
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they have nothing to do with the protests. Actually, they were surprised to
learn of them. They could hardly believe their citizens started protesting as
soon as they arrived in your domain."
I gave those immigrants a warm welcome, but they betrayed my
kindness. Well, I was sure they were mostly confused idiots instigated by
Calvin's spies and didn't think the Union was involved in the first place. I
imagined they had spies within my territory, but every nation did that.
"I didn't suspect the Union."
Patrice gave me a solemn look. "What do you plan to do with the
protesters? Most Imperial rulers would raze an entire planet to eradicate
them. That's what the Union is worried you'll do."
"Awfully concerned about their former citizens, aren't they? I'm not
gonna burn it all down. That's my precious territory after all, and they're
my subjects now... My human resources. The organizers are gonna have
to be punished though." The ringleaders wouldn't get away with causing
so much chaos in my domain.
"Anyway," Patrice went on, "do you believe you can win the war
with the United Kingdom? And even if you do win, your faction's power
will be severely compromised, won't it? You have a bit of a personnel
shortage already..."
Patrice worried that I didn't have enough talent, but I just smiled.
"Investment is important."
"Do you mean you have some connections you can make use of?"
"I've got something I can finally collect on, that's all."
I'd been sending the young people of my domain to study abroad for
no real reason other than that it was tradition, but now it was time for them
to do some work for me in return. As for the military and government
bureaucrats...many of them had benefited from my support over the years.
I'd supported them in case they might come in handy, but mostly it was
just that I tended to throw my money around liberally. In fact, I'd pretty
much forgotten about a lot of the people I'd helped until now.
"I'm calling in favors. There won't be any problems with our
numbers. Patrice, I'm winning this one."
At my cocky attitude, she crossed her arms under her large chest and
sighed. "Well, it would be bad for me if you lost. You really must be
victorious against the United Kingdom—and you'll have to fight Calvin's
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faction after that, so it would be best if you could succeed in the war
without losing too many of your forces."
Patrice didn't understand what I meant. The adversary I said I would
beat was Calvin. Calvin was careless, thinking there was no way he could
lose against me. I didn't think he'd make a move so soon, but the
confidence I showed Patrice wasn't just posturing.
As I watched Rosetta and Ciel try on more dresses, I looked forward
to the fun that would soon await me.
***
The Empire's Seventh Weapons Factory was experiencing a boom
the likes of which it had never seen before.
"Ah ha ha ha—I can't stop laughing!"
Drawn into the international conflict, Cleo's faction had
commissioned new heavy equipment from the Third, Sixth, and Ninth
Weapons Factories. They didn't order anything from the Seventh, but
Liam sent in a huge order instead.
Standing beside the guffawing Nias was one of her subordinates,
who looked upon the factory in full operation mode with a smile on his
face as well. He turned to her. "We'll be changing out all the weapons for
Baron Exner's house as well, I hear. Count Banfield sure is generous, isn't
he?"
Liam was sponsoring all the nobles in his faction who hadn't been
sure their forces could cut it, outfitting them with state-of-the-art
battleships, mobile knights, and anything else they might need.
Since Cleo would be defending them in an international conflict, the
Empire had promised him its full support—at least, on the surface. As far
as the Seventh Weapons Factory was concerned, they didn't want to incur
the wrath of Calvin's faction by favoring Cleo's faction, but their
pragmatic attitude was that they simply sold their battleships and such to
whoever was buying. And right now, the more they manufactured, the
more they sold. They were even selling off their old stock, so this situation
was extremely lucrative for them.
"Intergalactic war sure is good for sales," Nias observed.
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"Not that the war has started yet. But..."
Of course, before production really geared up, some matters had to
be addressed. Although the new machines the Seventh Weapons Factory
produced were top-grade, they had all been heavily modified after
complaints from House Banfield. They didn't like the designs. They didn't
like the interiors. They didn't want the functional specs to be altered, but
they requested so many extra features that ultimately the machines weren't
the Seventh's original creations at all. The Seventh would have preferred
not to make all those changes, but their traditional models just wouldn't
sell. No one liked them. They received no orders for anything but the units
modified to House Banfield's tastes.
"We've only sold a few of our unmodified units," Nias's
subordinate sighed. "My pride's in tatters."
Nias was unbothered. "I didn't design them, so personally? I don't
care."
Liam was making all sorts of bold moves. He was providing for
Cleo's fighting forces pretty much all on his own, and he was lending
money to the faction's nobles too. Nias figured that by powering up Cleo's
faction, Liam was strengthening his own position within it. In the end,
even after the war, Cleo would be left with a formidable military force.
Grinning and drunk with excitement, Nias gestured at the ship under
construction directly in front of her. "What I do care about is my own
special project. Just look at it!"
The three-thousand-meter flagship Nias was custom-making for
Liam would be the ultimate battleship, crafted with an abundance of rare
materials.
"I even used rare metals in the engine. Its output is going to be
something else! The gun barrel is arondite, and the thermal conductors..."
She had always had plans in the back of her mind for the ultimate
ship. Plenty of engineers did, but they were always held back by realistic
concerns such as budget and acquiring rare metals. Liam's backing had
made that dream possible for Nias, and she was using this opportunity to
really show what she was capable of putting together.
Nias still wore a dopey smile on her face, and it didn't seem like
she'd be coming back to reality anytime soon. Her subordinate decided it
was time to return to work.
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"Well, I'm just happy we're making so much money," he said
before stepping away. "And for their part, Lord Liam is outfitting Prince
Cleo at the perfect time."
The latest generation of craft had just come out, so obviously all the
ships currently being utilized would be the next to become outdated. That
meant the fighters of Cleo's faction would be the first ones to use the craft
of the coming generation.
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