Chapter 109. The price of war is a bitter law.
Anyway, even if this much is removed, the three kingdoms will have to live a life far from development for the next few years.
That should be enough to pay for a fight on your own. Of course, the reason I am satisfied with this is because there was not much damage on our side.
What if there was damage on our side during the war or in its aftermath?
At that time, it would not have been finished to the point of destruction.
“I don’t think I need to keep an eye on the processing after that.”
I was concerned about what might happen, so I kept gathering information, but there was no need to do that anymore.
“Then what’s left now is the next step.”
I smiled heartily as I thought of what would happen next.
“Now is the time to earn the price in earnest.”
I thought maybe we should be talking about it by now.
Ernesia royal palace conference.
Discussions about post-war treatment continued here.
It is impossible for the king to conduct all negotiations alone.
Therefore, the influential nobles were busy negotiating, dividing their responsibilities, doing their own work and reporting it.
And it is now that the priority work on post-war processing has barely been completed.
Now, the next step is to continue to peck the three kingdoms until you get what you were supposed to receive.
“Many lords have worked hard in this war.”
Theonel is now out of luck to deal with the next issue.
In the post-war process, what follows now is non-gong peddling.
Give a clear reward to those who have made achievements.
Those who do wrong are surely punished.
Of course, most of the discussions at this place are mostly about what to give as a prize to those who have made merit.
Punishment should be dealt with according to military law anyway.
There's no need to even talk about it here.
“First of all, we should praise the hard work of those who guarded each border.”
The first to be evaluated on the ball were the lords who were in charge of the borders protecting the territory at the time of the first invasion.
Since they risked their lives to protect the border, it is only reasonable to give the prize first.
Other aristocrats did not have much disagreement on that point.
“I will allow the margraves to enslave gold coins and some of the captives.”
“Do so.”
They discussed in advance what kind of award they would give to those who made such a contribution.
For the most part, the story went on without a hitch.
‘Hmm... from now on.'
Theonel muttered to himself, stroking his beard, about to mention the name of the next person to be mentioned.
“Then, all that remains is about Arell.”
The youngest son and third prince, Arell.
At the mention of his name, the mood among the nobles changed slightly.
“....okay. The three princes also made a lot of contributions.”
Duke Dezel Pratze said, trying to remain as calm as possible.
Arel's contributions in this war were simply impossible to ignore.
It protected the defensive line that was at a disadvantage, and also contributed quite a lot to the battlefield by devising a new weapon.
“...This is a presumptuous statement. Isn’t that large crossbow used in the territory of the 3 princes?”
One of the nobles asked a little nervously.
I can't help it even if I hear bruises for not being able to read the atmosphere.
Not only that, but the lords with some territories, of course, couldn't help but pay attention to that point.
If they don't, they're probably afraid that he'll use the weapons to threaten them.
“It's not that I doubt the three princes. Its power is not something a single territory can handle.”
“That’s right!!”
Regarding the crossbow, it is felt that the national level wants to do something to prevent Arel from using it arbitrarily.
That's right, because a strong weapon is strength.
They are worried that Arell will have a weapon.
That is, the royal family is afraid to exercise that power.
Since Arel is a member of the royal family, he must be concerned about the growing power of the royal family.
‘Because they seem shameless.'
Theonel cursed inwardly as he saw the blatantly trembling nobles.
‘What on earth do you see that child as?'
It's not that I don't know their intentions, so I was bitter inside, but I answered the question for now.
“The large crossbow will be thoroughly managed in the palace. They said they wouldn’t place that child in Fahilia either.”
Since the issue of weapons is a sensitive matter, Arel had already clearly stated that he would give up on large crossbows.
The aristocrats seemed a little relieved when he made it clear that he would only use it for national defense afterwards.
However, the reason why the expression is still not bright is probably because the weapon is officially owned by the royal family.
“Rather than that, shouldn’t we discuss how to praise the child for his achievements first?”
Now don't say anything else.
When Theonel said that, intending to warn them, the nobles also fell silent.
“First of all... I'm thinking of lowering the dukedom to Arel.”
“…that makes sense.”
It was something I didn't like but didn't object to.
Since the achievements he made were enormous, he must have judged that there would be no resentment if he were given that level of title and treated.
If you oppose giving them the prize they deserve, you'll just live with a needless grudge.
It's not that they don't care enough to interfere there.
But, of course, that cannot be the only reward to be given.
It is from now on that we will discuss in earnest.
“Actually, I asked him beforehand what he wanted.”
This time, it was my intention to try my best to listen to anything that was not overly forced.
To Theorel, Arel told the price he wanted without hesitation as if he had waited.
“...3 What did the prince want?”
“They wanted you to give them an additional estate.”
“Youngji… you mean?”
Duke Pratze's expression slightly wrinkled.
Other nobles reacted similarly.
Putting aside the title, it is called Yeongji, so of course you can't help but pay attention to it.
He must be afraid that his rights will be taken away.
“What that child wanted were completely unexpected territories.”
What Arel wanted was several territories located near Pahilia.
However, most of the territories are barren and have no special use value.
Usually, it is land that people do not want to take even if they give money.
Is it even different as a prize?
While everyone was relieved that their territory was not being taken away, they couldn't help but feel doubts.
Could there be value there that we don't know about?
However, no matter how much I think about it, there is no place to guess.
“Why do you want a place like that?”
“The child must have his own meaning.”
If it had been before, Theonel would have had the same doubts and tried to stop Arell.
Now, even if I want something that I don't know why, I won't stop it.
Haven't you been good enough yourself?
There must be a reason.
“Won’t you know when the time is right?”
He smiled softly and said so to the bewildered nobles.
After a while, a letter came to me.
‘What else?' I tilted my head, sucked on the carbonic acid, and unfolded it. It looked like this.
To sum it up, it was the content that since my contributions in this war were not small, I would give a worthy reward.
?That's right~ There's no way I wouldn't give it to you. ‘I read each and every one of the prizes that will be given to me while feeling kind of happy.
First of all, is it a title?
They say they will raise my title to duke.
Well, this isn't bad, but it doesn't really hit me that much.
After all, since he was born into the royal family, it is close to the authority of a lord to see it as a title.
There's nothing wrong with being there though.
Then the territory.
‘Fortunately, what I wanted came in just as it was.'
Usually, when you set up a ball, the most down is gold or territory.
However, the territorial issue was a little sensitive, so there was a concern that other nobles would react somewhat nervously.
Because territory is soon capital.
But this time, it seems that there was no such concern.
Most of the territories I told my father about before will come in.
‘As expected, it's a worthless land for them.'
Most of the land I requested was the barren lands adjacent to Fahilia.
Of course, farming can't work properly.
It is not known to have any other geographic value.
Some of the lands were owned by some nobles, but it seems that they also agreed to hand over the lands to me for a reasonable price.
‘I'll get it without any problems with this.'
In fact, these lands are places that I have been eyeing since before, but I deliberately did not show them.
There is nothing you can't buy with money.
Rather, if you give me a little money, the lords of the land will say it's right and hand it over.
It's just that it says it's unnecessary land, but if I openly buy it, there will of course be strange views, so I didn't show it on purpose.
There is something that has been achieved in the war, so he is trying to get his hands on this opportunity.
Thanks to this, I got these lands without spending much money.
If I go through the process in earnest with this, all of these lands will become my territory.
As a result, the territory of Pahilia that I manage is wider than before.
The problem is that most of the expanded territory is a barren land where a single blade of grass can grow properly.
Even if the land is large, the original population is not even 1/10 compared to other similarly sized territories.
Most of the nobles will probably laugh at me, wondering why I want this other land.
yes, laugh out loud
After all, it's my turn to laugh.
Why did I obsess over these worthless lands... Well, let's postpone that to another opportunity.
Other than that, there are quite a few gold coins.
Money rots and overflows, so there is nothing to say about this, but thanks to this, the cost of war can be covered with this.
Seriously, some of them could be turned into gold as a consolation to the soldiers.
It's not such a big expense from my point of view.
And finally slaves.
In fact, slaves are things that I decided to take for reasons other than prizes.
Some of these prisoners of war were not eventually ransomed by the Tripartite Alliance.
Therefore, they will go through formal procedures and become slaves of the Kingdom of Ernesia.
I decided to take over about half of the slaves from us.
Even half the number is close to 100,000.
In fact, it seems that the prisoners of war this time were in trouble as to how to deal with them in other territories as well.
Slavery is something that cannot be arbitrarily increased.
If you don't take the money for a place to sleep, of course, problems will arise.
If most of the territory is empty like ours, there is no problem as long as you make a proper shelter.
It doesn't matter as long as you have enough money.
However, it seemed that the other lords were in a position to hand over half of the slaves they had already lost in the war by taking over and filling them with prisoners.
At that time, since I had expressed my position that it did not matter if I took over the other half, they could also solve the prisoner issue, so there was no objection.
Yes, you are a slave after all.
With that kind of perception, there is no reason to say strange things to me as a slave again.
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