Chapter 820

About half a month had passed like that.

The chaotic policy plans had somewhat taken shape, and it felt like it was about time to declare independence from the empire and hold a coronation ceremony.

“Your Majesty Astika. We have captured the blasphemer who dared to refuse the Saintess’s invitation and attempted to flee.”

The runaway Chief Administrator of Landenburg, Lambert Siegel, had finally been caught.

As I had warned, it would have been a hundred, no, a thousand times better if he had come willingly. Now, he stood before me, burdened with charges that made one’s hair stand on end just hearing them.

—-

“…Please spare me. I beg for your mercy…”

Lambert Siegel was a man who bore no resemblance to Ludwig.

Given that he was as distant a relative to Hersela as the word “refinement” was to her, it was only natural that there was no resemblance to be found.

“There’s no need to be so afraid. If I had intended to kill you, I wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place.”

He seemed to be in his mid-twenties. For a successor groomed to follow Ludwig, he was surprisingly young. Not that I have room to talk.

I sat cross-legged on the temporary throne, looking down at Lambert kneeling at my feet, and exhaled a long puff of cigarette smoke.

Perhaps because he had been treated as a prisoner and dragged here, he looked like he had been through quite an ordeal.

His once neatly kept dull brown hair was now disheveled, and his clothes were covered in dirt and dust.

Thanks to the order to capture him without harm, his limbs and features were intact, but the dark circles under his eyes suggested he hadn’t slept properly during his capture.

[Looking at him, he’s clearly a bookworm who’s never held a sword before.]

Hersela muttered a brief observation.

As she said, Lambert Siegel looked nothing like a knight or a soldier.

His gentle eyes, soft jawline, and the monocle on his left eye gave him an overall meek and harmless appearance. So much so that he didn’t seem the least bit threatening.

Of course, no matter how harmless he looked, one couldn’t let their guard down.

In my experience, those who looked harmless were often the ones who would suddenly snap and go on a rampage, or stab people in the back while spouting nonsense about ruling the skies.

However, this Lambert fellow gave off a slightly different vibe.

It wasn’t that his personality seemed harmless and comforting, but rather… how should I put it? He looked like the type you’d toss a few coins at and tell him to buy five loaves of bread and drinks, and bring back 10 gold in change.

He had the kind of face that made you want to poke him with your fingers like bullets and joke about whose finger hurt the most.

“Are you not planning to bury me…? Then why did you order my capture…?”

“Why, you ask? Isn’t that obvious?”

I lightly tapped the armrest of the throne with my fingers and smirked.

“To return the duties you abandoned back to you. The duty to dedicate your abilities to me.”

How dare you try to escape through death? You’ll serve as a lifelong administrator. The only death permitted to you is natural death from old age.

“Although I’ve already found someone to take over the national administration in place of the pathetic runaway… the more talented people, the better, right? So, work under that person and assist them with all your might. As the Chancellor of my kingdom.”

Originally, I had planned to return Eleonora to her advisory role and use Lambert as my proxy.

However, Leonor said that letting a captured runaway return to his original position as if nothing happened would damage my authority, so she advised me to punish him in some way.

Thus, I decided to keep Eleonora as the overall head of national administration and demote Lambert to her assistant.

The workload remained almost the same, but his rank was lowered by one level.

“Chancellor, you say…?”

“Yes. I wanted to see your abilities for myself. Prove it to me. Show me that you, as a human being, were worth the twenty days I spent on you.”

It wasn’t me who spent those twenty days, but the pursuers from the church, led by Adamante… but since they are my subordinates, in the grand scheme of things, it’s no different from me spending that time.

Therefore, Lambert had the duty to prove that those twenty days were not a waste.

“Do your best. If you show satisfactory results, I might even consider granting you or your descendants the castle of Landenburg. There could be no greater honor for you, right?”

That should be enough motivation.

For the Siegel family, a collateral branch of the Berengar line, to be recognized as a direct line would be the glory of their family.

“However, if you betray me or run away again, or prove to be utterly useless… well, I would be terribly disappointed. So disappointed that I might have to call Judge Adamante for comfort. Do you understand what I mean?”

I smiled at him as I extinguished the cigarette with the Rune of Collapse.

Having offered both a tempting carrot and a terrifying whip, I expected him to do his best from now on.

Lambert looked at me with an indescribable expression, then bowed his head deeply and replied.

“…Yes. I am grateful for Your Majesty Astika’s mercy.”

“Good, you catch on quickly.”

Of course, you should be grateful. If someone else were in my position, they wouldn’t have spared Lambert. They would have quietly disposed of him and buried him in a remote place.

So, by merely being alive, Lambert owed me his life.

—-

Lambert was competent.

To be specific, he was so competent that even after I abandoned my paperwork, the workload Eleonora had to handle was halved. It was a good decision to capture him.

Thanks to him, I was able to escape the tedious desk work and focus on my true calling.

What does that mean?

“Grooooooar!”

It means it was time to return to being Warrior Hasalleur, not Provisional Queen Hasalleur.

“Joshua, take the front! Heinrich, bind its movements! The rest, maintain the encirclement and keep it in check! Yan, Leonor, Freide, target its legs! Nigel, aim for its eyes with your throwing spears!”

“Understood!”

“You should fight too!”

I ignored Freide’s grumbling. I had already reached the limit of my Feats, so stepping in myself would be meaningless.

To prepare for the future, it was time to let others grow, not me.

“We need to cut off the snake heads at the tail! Jahan! Circle around and slash them!”

“Yes!”

Jahan, who answered loudly, pulled on the reins and headed towards the monster’s rear in a semicircle. The red Slaughter Sword trembled with the Power of Feats.

As expected of a Ka`har warrior, his fearless fighting against a giant monster was quite impressive.

—-

Thanks to Lambert’s competence, after escaping the paperwork hell, I led our elite troops to focus on subjugating the monsters appearing in the east. Not as a mere swordsman, but as their commander.

In other words, I became a backseat commentator, shouting out strategies from the sidelines.

With Joshua and Heinrich together, even if I just watched silently, there wouldn’t be any major issues with the monster subjugation… but knowing the enemy versus not knowing makes a huge difference in efficiency.

To prepare for my absence, I needed to teach them about the monsters and effective ways to deal with them whenever I had time like this.

Moreover, when I was with them, I could prevent unfortunate casualties.

While directly attacking the monsters would hinder my allies from accumulating Feats, saving knights who made mistakes in defense or evasion was perfectly fine.

Eleonora asked me to help with paperwork if I had time, but I believed that finding and assigning Lambert was enough, so I refused her request without any guilt.

Eleonora is competent, but since she’s a bookworm who’s never held a sword, she doesn’t seem to understand what’s more important.

Even if you can create a utopia where laughter blooms, what good is it if your forces are annihilated by monster attacks?

The most important thing in running a nation is cultivating a strong military.

Building the economic foundation to maintain such a military comes next, and the third most important thing is forming diplomatic relations to reduce enemies and increase allies.

A weak nation is just prey.

Therefore, what I’m doing now is the most important task for this nation.