"This is quite the lavish feast isn’t it?"
Gilbert Redgrave and the civil officials directly under him were surrounding his father, Duke Vince Redgrave and having a friendly chat. Diplomatically one could say that it was a complete defeat, but there was no depression or impatience on their faces.
"Is it? We aren’t falling behind in disposing the inventory like merchants either."
A teenage girl with blonde hair in a bun stood up and raised her voice. Her pupil was red. She was a beautiful girl with blonde hair that seems to sparkle with an upswept hairstyle along with white skin, fierce red eyes, quite big breasts and an attractive body.
Duke Vince Redgrave ignored her daughter and swirled his wine in a good mood.
However, the young heiress who was unable to enter that margin was trembling in humiliation.
"Those guys from Fanoss, they acted in such a shameless way!"
The duke looked at Angelica as if asking ‘so what of it’.
"She is still young, she doesn’t understand the truth behind things. She’s a smart girl but still immature."
The duke with white moustache smiled again. Then he started to talk with the innocent girl in a good mood.
"Listen carefully, Angelica. What happened on this occasion is what I expected from beginning to end."
"With all due respect…I don’t understand what you mean."
"The war this time, the reason each country participated…what was the just cause?"
"We are saving the citizens suffering from poverty due to the political pressure from Tevinter."
"That’s exactly right, and what is the population of Tevinter?"
Angelica was unable to find the point of connection between the two questions and curled her head but she couldn’t answer her father's question.
"If I recall it was over a milion…"
The king nodded in agreement.
"You have studied well. That’s right it’s 1,000,000. Although a third quarter of them had evacuated towards Ferelden and the newly acquired territory has 100,000 citizens. On top of the exhaustion from the long years of political pressure, the war this time has also caused the land to become desolate for the 100,000, so there are too many citizens to hold."
"That’s true…our country is…"
The duke interrupted.
"To that point, the north half and eastern remote area’s population altogether is 40,000, and is like a drop in the sea of its original 1 million population."
The duke continued further.
"Not to mention what they gained is the south, who they themselves have trampled over and invaded, the Tevinter’s side also had held a grudge against Fanoss for many years. Well, won’t they be the most fitting rulers?"
"That is…"
There was no way that was the case. The citizens and the rulers, both were holding grudges so the prediction was that they will be repeating the cycle of having their country collapse.
But the young heiress objected while he kept his head lowered.
"With all due respect I will return your words. I have heard that Tevinter’s rule is severe. It is possible that the citizens will think that it will be much better than that and accept it. If so then Tevinter’s originally abundant land will help the population become the country’s strength."
"Exactly. But that is only if they are able to redevelop the land, and prevent the citizens from starving."
If they starved then they have no past nor future. If the citizens wanted to survive then they would have no choice but to climb over each other.
"To prevent the small chance that our country will starve the occupied citizens, they have once again prepared to start cultivation since food is necessary, and we have already bought from the various countries and federations in the central plains in the south."
Gilbert reported to the duke.
"I see, the buy out for ‘just in case’ was slightly overdone. I have heard that the price for the grain has already gone up by 30%."
"That is unavoidable. If we don’t have food then nothing can be started."
The duke's smile is different than what it was earlier and it looked sinister. Was it like this from the beginning? He didn’t care about the former Arkland’s country at all? Anyways he intends to swallow all the countries being ruled over…
「To that point, the remote eastern area not only doesn’t know the casualties of war, they don’t even know about the collapse of the country.」
Laughing with Gilbert, the youngster froze in front of the king.
"What’s wrong, suddenly you lost your ambition? Diplomacy is a battlefield, this isn’t something that great to cause you to be taken aback."
His sin asked the duke like a youngster would ask.
"This is just in the case of an unlikely event, but Fanoss’s northwestern area is dotted with castles and fortresses to prepare for the war with Tevinter…however the remote eastern area’s border doesn’t have a highway and is insufficient."
"I’ll have to use my life to urgently request for the area to have the highway maintained then."
"…are you thinking about invading the Principality of Fanoss?"
"What are you saying, this is of course a what if situation.'
The duke lightly pat the girl’s shoulder.
"Father, how will you distribute the territory for this eastern remote region?"
The duke got tired of drinking, so he put on his cloak and went to leave the room.
"Talking with you about this sort of thing is the proof of my trust, right now you are still immature but I will answer your loyalty. Keep it up."
Gilbert and the others as well as the civil servants all left one after the other.
"Well then, how long will Fanoss be able to endure, three months? Half a year? Will they be able to endure for one year? Why don’t we wait and see!"
The duke’s laughter resounded.
