Interesting…

  It was already May, 1841.

  It was a pleasant, warm day in the Monile Palace. Defense Minister Helmuth Hindenburg watched from the sidelines as the Crown Princess herself spoke at the center of the long table they were sitting on.

  Arrayed on the left side of the table were he and the leadership of the Defense Forces. Opposing them on the right side were the representatives of the Imperial Government. Leading them were the last two members of the regency council, Duke Ludwig von Kassel and Count August von Stat.

  Ludwig was the elder statesman of the two, so he remained silent as he sat near the princess, but August, the younger member of the regency council, was glaring at Helmuth.

  There was a lot of finger-pointing at the moment. First was the failure of the Defense Forces in preventing demons from breaching the northern defense lines, and second, was the string of murders that targeted the regency council and their allies.

  “I believe that we should, however, cease pointing fingers too carelessly,” the crown princess declared, and Helmuth turned to her. “That’s why, the solution I prefer, is a nice compromise. Both the Imperial Government and the Defense Forces must take responsibility, after all, for both failures and triumphs. We are one people in this struggle. We mustn’t be torn apart by our foes.”

  Helmuth was impressed. The Defense Forces were only holding onto the Schengen Region because of its negotiation potential. Right now, Alexa Theresa proposed that in exchange for the return of civilian rule in the Schengen Region, the Defense Forces’ budget will be increased by twenty percent.

  It wasn’t exactly a massive increase, but it would mean so much money to keep buying the supplies they needed from the Empire’s weapons manufacturers.

  “Our coffers won’t be able to sustain this,” Ludwig neutrally said on the side, taking all of the attention back to him. “Your suggestion…is not quite ironclad.”

  Helmuth remained silent. He didn’t want to argue yet. Well, it wasn’t his place to argue, even as the highest-ranking member of the Defense Forces, Helmuth was a commoner.

  Most officers on his side were. It was why, throughout this negotiation, the only time they ever even spoke was at the start, when they gave their reasons for occupying the Schengen Region, and why they would not budge.

  They did not even ask for anything. Nor did they speak. That was the way of military men like him. They weren’t here to kneel and beg from nobles who would find that act ‘insulting’.

  Instead, they remained silent. That alone was enough talking. It meant that it was up to them, the Crown Princess and the nobles, to give them a reason why they should vacate an area they were occupying based on the military situation.

  He expected Alexa Theresa to be quite intimidated by it, but she took it with great composure. Now, he kept with that strategy.

  How will you deal with him?

  If the Imperial coffers weren’t able to increase the funds of the Defense Forces, then how would this entire meeting go? The Schengen Region will remain occupied, because he, Helmuth Hindenburg, will claim that ‘demonic presence is highly likely’.

  The only time when he would make an announcement that lifts the made-up risk assessment of the region was if the Defense Forces got what they wanted.

  But, she wouldn’t be able to do that at this rate. It was a shame, Helmuth thought, but she wouldn't be able to push this through. In fact, she’d gone silent already. The Empire after all was already stretching its tax base to its limits, its debt growing greater and greater each year.

  What we’re asking for is impossible to achieve.

  Unless, this girl truly had the guts to do what needed to be done. But she was a royal, for all her bluster of being for the people of this continent, she would always prioritize herself and her peers.

  Helmuth was about to look away in muted disappointment when she suddenly spoke.

  “Then…can’t we just raise taxes on the nobility to pay for this?”

  That one sentence, alone, made everyone turn to her, shock in their faces. Even Helmuth’s eyes were wide, both in disbelief, horror, and jubilation.

  D-did she just say that?

  +++

  Um…did I mess up?

  Alexa didn’t know what she was doing. She just summoned the most prominent officials of her Empire in one of the meeting halls of the Monile Palace.

  Why? She wanted to settle the question about the status of the Schengen Region.

  Her goal was to finish catering to the Defense Forces here, with the implicit agreement that if she gave them the big money, they’d pull out of the Schengen Region, and give her all the herbs she needed to advance herself.

  So, she was, as usual, winging it, with the guidance of Alfred’s and Wilhelm’s advice of course, both of them standing behind her.

  Alfred’s eyes were wide, while Wilhelm seemed to be trying to hold off his snickers.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Alexa wanted to turn to them for help, but, instead, she cleared her throat to clarify herself.

  “I suggested that because the demon horde reached as far as Perlenstadt,” Alexa said. “While we did repel them, who knows what will happen next time. What if Ostend is next? What if other cities are next? We have to rearm the Defense Forces further.”

  She banged her gloved fist on the table.

  “To do that, all of us need to contribute, myself included. Grand Regent Kassel and Stat, I’m sure you both understand that, no?” Alexa asked.

  August, the younger man of the regency council, seemed red-faced, outraged at Alexa’s suggestion, though he did not voice any of his opinions.

  Instead, it was the calm Ludwig who spoke on behalf of the Imperial Government.

  “That…certainly, is a bold solution,” Ludwig said.

  “And a bold solution is what we need to defeat the demon horde, is it now?” Alexa innocently asked.

  “You…have a point, Your Highness.”

  “Y-your Highness,” August interrupted. “This may not be received with positivity by the nobility—”

  “Of course they won’t. But wouldn’t it be worse if they are eaten by those demons?” Alexa asked, before she curled her fist. “Besides, many of their daughters and sons haven't been devoured during the incident. Sir August, think. What of the grieving mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and so on? Will they simply accept the deaths of their beloved?”

  Alexa stood up from the table.

  “No they will not! This is why I believe that such a measure will be popular. We will avenge those who fell during the Battle of Perlenstadt—the once young budding flowers of our great nobility. It is a patriotic duty, to our great nation, and to mankind to join this endeavour. Wasn’t your little sister killed in the Grand Academy?”

  “I-uh, yes—” August stammered.

  “Then you, Sir August, should also pay, like me, and like everyone around us to avenge your sister. Yes, indeed, this is the path forward,” Alexa’s voice boomed further in the room. “Now that we have the saintess on our side, the tides of this century-old war will soon turn in our favor. We will take the fight to them and beat them. With the contributions of both the common man and the nobility, mankind shall triumph!”

  And then, she grinned, pointing at the people on the right side of the table.

  “To do that, all we need is for you to pay a little bit extra in tax,” Alexa nodded to herself, then, she spoke sweetly. “You folks can do that much, now can you?”

  Silence dawned in the room.

  Two hours later, after a lengthy deliberation, both sides agreed to accept Alexa’s solution.

  The Schengen Region—will now be returned to the Imperial Government.

  +++

  Alexa smiled as she dismissed that. In just a few weeks, her officials will work to formalize the return of civilian administration in the Schengen Region.

  Instead of having any form of negative opinion from the projected effects, Alexa’s solution seemed to have improved her relationship with both sides.

  She enjoyed her reward cake for the day as she rested on her chair.

  Hah…it feels so good…

  She remembered the reactions to her speech. They were shocked at first, yes, but after she explained herself, her officials seemed to have been hit by a wind of fervor.

  Selling her tax plan as ‘funding to avenge fallen nobles’ seemed to have been accepted so well, even Sir August cried as he shook hands with Defense Minister Hindenburg. The grand regent even personally asked Hindenburg to ‘please give us the skull of one of the Archdemons’, to which Hindenburg replied, ‘We will’.

  “Now, I’ll get my herbs,” Alexa smiled further. It was a success in all metrics. She’d not only finished the refugee crisis, but she made a good deal that got her on the good side of both factions.

  Except, of course, Henry’s faction.

  She’d read the novels. Nothing changed. While she managed to get the good graces of the Defense Forces and the Imperial Government, one of them was going to die and the other would stay on the sidelines.

  She’d been planning earlier about that. She even met with Defense Minister Hindenburg and discussed the murders in Ostend.

  He had absolutely no opinion of it. Their job was to defend mankind, no matter who was in charge. In fact, the Defense Forces were still, officially, not allowed to participate, in any way, in courtly politics.

  It must be why Henry, who originally fought with them, joined the Imperial Army. Unfortunately for Alexa, the path to courting the Imperial Army was now out of the question. While they still were weaker than the Defense Forces and to a lesser extent, the continental magic and adventurers guild—both of them too claiming neutrality as their official stance—the Imperial Army was the Empire’s troops.

  They answered, always, to the Imperial Crown. Thus, they had always been more active in politicking than other factions. It was what Alexa was so worried about.

  How would she even deal with them and Henry? They must have Ostend surrounded now, and at least two of the five group armies must now be under Henry’s influence, with the rest remaining ‘neutral’.

  She knew which ones currently must be on his side. It was pretty simple anyway. They were the ones most zealous at enacting the new laws passed by the regency council, which involved a lot of tyrannic acts meant to silence and crush the regency council’s opposition.

  The 4th and 2nd Group Armies were, as of this moment, the most strict when it came to upholding that. At first glance, one would think they were therefore loyalists to Duke Kassel and Count Stat. But, as Wilhelm said, those policies were unpopular.

  Henry essentially ordered his allies to exploit the mistake made by the regency council. Alexa wondered why Duke Kassel would even do something so foolish, but he was too elusive for Alexa to reach. It was instead Count Stat that was mostly issuing these orders—because he was paranoid.

  So what really even is happening here? Are Henry and Duke Kassel working together? Then why is he compromising with me, and agreeing with my solutions?

  Her mind had wandered too far from her precious herbs, and all it caused was to give Alexa a throbbing headache. She sighed, giving up on planning about the future for now.

  Instead, she was going to practice more magic theory—because next week, she’ll probably do her second formation ritual!

  Magic was cooler to think about than all of these, after all.