Chapter 21
#21
"Are you perhaps from Pomnos too? Wow… this is great!"
Lucy shook the hand she offered and asked for another handshake. Huis stared at her hand, his beak open, at a loss for words.
The Lafi have the characteristic of living in groups of three or five in each city without the concept of a nation. Therefore, they have a special affection for their hometown, even more than being cold to outsiders.
Combined with the characteristic of having a small population, they treat anyone who has lived in their hometown like a close relative.
"No, well… huh, gee."
Huis wrung his beak, not knowing what to do. His hands, moving incessantly as he clenched and unclenched, trembled slightly due to the overwhelming joy.
"Are you really saying you lived in Pomnos?"
"That's right. I lived in seclusion near Mount Hwinum in Ankakhbun. I sold smoked trout and malt mushrooms, which surprisingly made good money."
"Ankakhbun, you say? Why in such a rural place…."
"Even though it's a small village, the sunset is really beautiful there. It was perfect for seclusion."
"……."
"Unfortunately, I was dragged to Parnassus, but my mother is still there taking care of the Lafi children."
Ankakhbun, Mount Hwinum, malt mushrooms.
Words that could not come out unless one had actually been to Pomnos popped out casually.
Huis suppressed the feeling that his comb was about to pop out and stared intently at Lucy. Auburn hair, a frame that seemed like it would easily break here and there if touched, and unusually large eyes.
He didn't realize it because humans look so similar, but when he looked closely, she reminded him of someone in his memory.
To be exact, not a person in his memory, but a person in a letter he received from his mother.
That bizarre human who was causing trouble in Pomnos, nesting there and doing strange things with the Lykan, that was the very human.
She was definitely a human woman with auburn hair, from Parnassus, and as skinny as if she hadn't been fed properly….
…Could it be.
Huis, who had come to a conclusion, gaped in shock.
"No, that's absurd…! Are you saying that Your Majesty is that Lykan trafficker?"
"...Lykan trafficker?"
"My mother told me. There's someone who pretends to send the Lykan to other countries but sells them for a ransom, and that woman has auburn hair."
"No!"
Lucy waved her hands in disgust.
It wasn't like the Lykan were animals, but now she was being called a trafficker. She couldn't understand why her actions to help them were being seen that way.
…No, wait.
From the Lafi's point of view, she was helping those who deserved to die, so it was even more incomprehensible.
It might be more rational for the Lafi to think she was selling them off.
She understood the flow of thought, but she didn't have the courage to persuade Huis, who was looking at her with contempt.
Lucy winked at Walter, asking for help. Walter, understanding her intention, cleared his throat.
"Huis. Her Majesty did not sell off the Lykan. Rather, she granted them freedom."
"I heard from my mother that she received money from the Lykan."
Walter turned his gaze towards Lucy with an emotionless face.
His expression was calm as always, but turmoil was swirling in his black eyes.
Well, it would be difficult to explain since Walter didn't know how she had lived. Lucy crossed her arms and finished a brief deliberation. Then, she feigned sincerity with a dignified voice.
"Yes. I sold them."
Both men gasped simultaneously. Lucy fiddled with her chin and spoke in an arrogant tone.
"You know very well how vulgar and dirty the Lykan are, don't you?"
"Of course. They are uncivilized, lowly, and uneducated. They are full of thoughts of bullying the weak and selling them off, and when the moon is full, they can't tell the difference between heaven and earth and run around like beasts."
"That's right. I also realized while living in Pomnos how uncivilized the Lykan are."
Lucy sighed deeply and forced a sorrowful expression onto her face.
"It was so annoying to see those vulgar fellows setting foot in the city. If I were a Lafi, I could have suppressed them with force, but since I couldn't, I tricked them well and expelled them to other countries."
"So the reason you received money was…."
"The money was… just an extra. No, I didn't receive that much anyway. That wasn't the purpose. Anyway!"
"You mean the purpose was to drive them out."
"That's right!"
A light of admiration seeped onto Huis's face, which had been displeased all along. It was as if he was saying, 'I had no idea there was such a deep meaning!' without anyone explaining it.
"I see… I almost misunderstood. It wouldn't make sense to defend such fellows."
"Yes. The Lafi are far superior and more beautiful than those fellows. They aren't even human."
Huis stared at her with his beak open and a moved expression.
Seeing his tongue fluttering between his beaks, it seemed like he wanted to say something but couldn't easily get the words out.
"I was always wondering why the Grand General had recommended such a… young woman as the monarch. Now I see that Your Majesty is one of the wisest people I have ever met. Please forgive my disrespectful attitude."
Huis bowed respectfully with a softened expression.
Lucy pushed the pangs of conscience about the Lykan to the back and received his greeting with a nonchalant face. Huis continued his self-introduction while bowing.
"I am the eldest son of Chief Omne Bomdeman, who rules Pomnos. It is a great honor to meet someone who knows my hometown. I will do my best to assist Your Majesty from now on."
"I'm the one who should be saying that."
Huis threw away his flustered appearance and stood upright, looking at Lucy with reverent eyes. When Lucy extended her hand, he responded to the handshake with a moved expression.
As the two were sharing stories about life in Pomnos and the chief's well-being, Walter, who had brought warm tea from somewhere, placed the tea on the table and sat them down.
When the reminiscence was over, Walter brought up the main topic while clearing the teacups.
"Huis. What's the atmosphere like in the duchy?"
Tension descended like a sudden attack on the lightly relaxed air. Huis placed both fists on his knees and straightened his posture.
"Yes. I have properly secured evidence of treason."
"What kind of evidence?"
"They are dispersing soldiers in groups of twenty and moving them near the capital. I estimate the total moving force to be about two thousand."
"Two thousand?"
Lucy muttered, raising her calves onto the sofa and hugging them.
Unlike her languid voice, her golden eyes were sharp.
"Huis. If you are the leader of the squad, you must be in charge of reconnaissance for the current operation. When you spied, what did you say was the total estimated number of soldiers?"
"As far as has been confirmed, there are one thousand soldiers stationed in the duchy and one thousand soldiers drafted from other lords. I estimate about two thousand in total."
Walter calculated the strength of the opponent and his own forces, then said.
"It's not a very threatening force. I think we can handle it sufficiently."
"...That's strange."
At Walter's words, Lucy raised one eyebrow and shook her head.
"The duchy has always maintained more than five hundred standing troops under the pretext of protecting the trade port. Moreover, he had about fifty autonomous troops in each free port in other countries besides the duchy. For such a duke to think of recovering the capital with only two thousand men…?"
Even if he gathered all the dispersed soldiers, it would be more than a thousand, and Kill gathered troops again as soon as the king fell ill.
Although it is said that he gathered soldiers separately to control the parliament, it is right to assume that he was plotting treason from the beginning, seeing that he was operating private soldiers even though there was a Parnassus army. But it's only two thousand?
"What about us? I think we said we have twelve hundred troops that can move immediately in an emergency. If we gather all the troops, it will be about twenty thousand."
"We can't gather the border guards because of the war between Dopein and Antevassila. But if we try somehow…."
Walter continued in an unsure voice.
"The maximum number of personnel we can mobilize within fifteen days is five thousand."
Five thousand.
It sounds like a lot, but it means they're squeezing out five thousand somehow. It will take quite a while just to gather the troops scattered in each command, and if you exclude the trainees and count only the soldiers who can be used in actual combat, it will be greatly reduced.
Well, it didn't matter. She had no intention of consuming troops by engaging in a full-scale war with the duke. Instead of refuting, Lucy slowly opened her mouth.
"Let's assume for now that we have five thousand soldiers."
Lucy moved her fingers nimbly and drew numbers on the table.
"But Duke Kill has less than half of that, two thousand. Do you think two thousand can beat five thousand, logically speaking?"
Walter closed his mouth with a stiff face. After a while, he continued in an unsure voice.
"I know that the duke has a meticulous personality… but I thought he was moving carelessly because he was an amateur when it comes to military affairs. Or that he couldn't judge properly because he was swayed by emotions…."
"Duke Kill is not a fool. If he were that dull, he wouldn't have reached that position in the first place."
Walter bit his lip at the sharp rebuke. Lucy let out a light breath to lighten the atmosphere.
"There must be hidden soldiers somewhere. Find them."
"I considered the possibility of camouflage. But Huis mobilized all the Lafi in the squad to search, but we couldn't find a clue."
"That's right, Your Majesty. The duchy is mostly plains, so there's no suitable place to hide. We secretly searched the mountains and underground, but there seemed to be no additional soldiers."
Lucy hugged her knees and rested her chin on them.
She stared at the two with narrowly opened eyes, then yawned lightly without being rude. Then, she opened her mouth with a sullen face.
"You don't seem to know what Duke Kill's greatest weapon is."
"Yes?"
"Where do you think smuggled goods are usually traded?"
"……Ah."
Walter, who belatedly understood her words, covered his mouth with his hand and turned his head as if embarrassed.
