Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume5 Chapter1 (section)

=== Part 2 ===

Clouds of dust whirled tempestuously. Tens of dragons galloped over the ground. One dragon-riding warrior was outstandingly fast.

"What, what? You can't win against Tauran's other dragoons like this! Are you fine with letting the soldiers of the suzerain state of Taúlia be laughed at?"

The leading rider who had raised his voice angrily was Ax Bazgan. The governor-general of the city-state of Taúlia let his large body be jogged up and down as he sat astride his favourite Yunion dragon. Several metres behind him, the soldiers were likewise galloping along on Unions. Ax was perfectly aware that compared to the small Tengo, these were not dragons that were easy to handle, but still Yunion dragons were by nature far easier for humans to tame than were the similarly medium-sized Baians.

They were a new species that Ravan Dol had taken great pains to train. Ax felt that if one could not handle them as well as a horse, one could not survive in the turbulent war-torn Tauran region. Above all, Taúlia was facing an imminent threat. Until not so long ago, Ax's bitter enemy had been Mephius in the east. But now – 

''Oh''.

All of a sudden, a shadow appeared in his field of vision. Looking at him from the corner of his eye, he appeared to be a youth of about twenty. He recognised the virile features that could be seen through the visor of his helmet.

"Oh," Ax's thick lips curved into a smile, "so you did it, Raswan."

Raswan was Ax's nephew. As was to be expected, he was skilled. He didn't usually take part in Ax's dragon drills but this one time, he had said, "Uncle, I will be accompanying you today" and had come. And now, without answering Ax's call, he was focussed intently on galloping his dragon.

''Hmmm''.    

The road along the ramparts that Ax always used for his dragon drills had been trampled flat by the dragons' feet. An irrigation canal ran right beside it and wide fields spread outwards. The people doing farm work there rested their hands for a bit as they watched the dragons being exercised.

With a sigh, Ax turned to look over his shoulder.

"But still, they're an undisciplined bunch. Raswan, you go first. They need someone to lead them by the hand."

He said and, slowing his dragon's pace, he let Raswan take the lead. Meanwhile, he went around to the tail end and continued encouraging his men from the rear.

The dragon exercises took nearly another two hours. When Ax called out "Right, stop", the men and dragons were so exhausted that they couldn't move from where they were. Only Raswan Bazgan pretended stoicism and gave Ax a bow as he returned to the front.

As Ax was wiping away his sweat, the strategist Ravan Dol came up to him.

"Thank you for your hard work, my lord."

"Aye. I took my eyes off him for a moment and Raswan has become a fine Tauran warrior." As Ax spoke, he knit his eyebrows as though somewhat displeased. "But, that fellow..."

"Is there something which is worrying you?"  

"No, I was just wondering about the way he's looking at me..."

When they had been lined up in a row next to the dragons and when he had bowed and left also, those eyes held some kind of negative emotion when directed towards him. Raswan's eyes, like Ax's, had always been dark. But whereas Ax's were always brimming with a vigorous light, Raswan's eyes were strangely irritating to the person he was staring at, and there was something about that made them feel uneasy.

"No doubt he is dissatisfied because my lord was being considerate of him."

At Ravan's words, Ax's expression grew bitter.

"Nothing less from you, Sir Master Strategist. You're good at reading the inner workings of ordinary men."

"At times such as these, when a youth earnestly throws down a challenge to a competition, the elderly should sympathise with their feelings and confront them head on. Taking the long-term view, whoever loses or wins in this kind of situation is frankly of no importance."

"You say that but the people were watching. And Raswan is a prideful man."

"Although my lord has a discerning eye for others, when it comes to the way you treat them, your knowledge is a little lacking"

"You should show a little more of that knowledge towards me," Ax grimaced. "Once I find a better strategist, I'll pull out that tongue of yours and throw you out of Taúlia."

Leaving the Yunion with a dragon handler, and once Ax had changed his clothes, they went towards Taúlia Castle. Although it was called a castle and had a moat dug around it, its appearance was more that of a manor. While eating a simple meal in the ground-floor hall that faced the courtyard, Ax received various reports from his vassals. Afterwards, he brought Ravan to his own chambers.

"Well then," Ax broached the topic in an offhand sort of tone. "Isn't it about time that Taúlia sent a delegation with condolences over Prince Gil?"

"It is still too early for that." Ravan was a man who always had answers prepared so no matter what kind of question might be thrown at him, he would reply immediately and without faltering. "The letter which arrived from Emperor Guhl Mephius about half a month ago praising the "triumph of both armies" was extremely vague, and nothing has yet been made clear as to a peace conference or an alliance. All the less so since Prince Gil, who promoted negotiations for reconciliation, has passed away. First of all, let us send a letter in my lord's name expressing your determination to carry out the prince's dying wish. You could also attach a proposal to have a stone monument erected at the border between Apta and Taúlia in honour of Lord Gil Mephius who worked towards peace between the two countries."

"Hmm."

"It appears that Mephius has yet to hold a funeral service for Lord Gil. Don't act hastily until then."

"I get it," Ax nodded unreservedly and gave a small sigh. "Damn, so I won't be able to gauge the emperor of Mephius' mood."

Ax knew that now that the threat of Garda's army was imminent, peace with Mephius had to be maintained at all cost. Besides,

''There's the war fan''.

When he was defeated at Apta, he had the war fan he always carried snatched away by Gil Mephius. It was no ordinary war fan. It contained the sovereign's seal from the ancient magic dynasty. It was the symbol of royal authority from the era of Zer Illias – in other words, the one who held it, and that one alone, could claim the right to rule supreme over this land of Western Tauran.

Gil had said that he would return it at some point to the Bazgan House. But now the prince was dead and the whereabouts of the fan were unknown. Because the loss of the sovereign's seal had been kept secret from most of Taúlia's subjects, they could not openly press Mephius for its return.

Ravan had sent scouts into Mephian territory. Their aim was of course to locate the sovereign's seal but they had yet to produce any satisfactory results. At present, Ax held greater fury against the criminal who had assassinated Gil Mephius than any of Mephius' chief vassals did.

And also,

"Is Esmena still shutting herself up in her room? Should I bring her out even if I have to do so by force?"

Ax's sources of worry were unending. Recently, his daughter hadn't been showing herself in public at all. 

"What is it?" Ax asked after a while and gave Ravan a sidelong glare as the strategist hadn't come up with his usual immediate reply. Whether he was plunged in thought or thinking about nothing at all, the old man who looked much like a withered tree had mysterious eyes.

"Indeed, Lady Esmena. Unlike previously, when you were the one to shut her in her room, this time it is she herself who will not take a single step outside."

"Do you not know how to speak without throwing in sarcasm each and every time?"

"The reason is of course because of Lord Gil Mephius," said Ravan, ignoring Ax's rebuke. "Still, Lord Gil Mephius... It's strange."

"Strange in what way?"

"No, it's something I have thought for a while now. I had the scouts I sent to Mephius collect information about the prince and various unnatural points came up."

Mephius' prince was assassinated right after he returned to Apta from having personally led reinforcements to Garbera. The one who had killed him was said to have been a general who harboured a grudge against the prince.
"There's nothing unnatural about that."

"What was unnatural were the prince's actions before that. It seems that Lord Gil sent out letters in every direction."  

"Letters?"

"I haven't pursued the matter to the end, but among them, some concerned a certain Birac merchant called Zaj. He addressed the Mephian nobles and ministers in charge of commerce and said that he would like them to entrust trade with Western Tauran to Zaj. It would seem that he helped during the struggle at Apta, and as that has now become his final will, it looks like the Crown Prince made preparations for his intentions to be known."

"Zaj..."

It was a name Ax remembered hearing. About a week earlier, a Mephian merchant had been holding a sales promotion on dragonstone ships. Because he went by way of the Northern coastal regions, he wouldn't charge for transportation costs, thus Ax had just given him instructions to procure a warship. That merchant's name had surely been Zaj.

As though guessing that Ax had a dredged up his memory during that pause, Ravan continued,

"Furthermore, there was also a letter in which he applied for the militarily-trained dragons at Apta and their dragon-grooms, not to mention the Yunion dragons sent by our Taúlia, to be incorporated into General Rogue Saian's forces. None of this should have been particularly urgent business, so isn't it exactly as though he was setting up how to deal with the aftermath?"

"The aftermath of what?"

"Of his own death."

Surprise took Ax' breath away.

He stared at Ravan intently. The expression on the old man's face held no indication that he had just said something utterly outrageous.

"You must be joking. Are you saying that Prince Gil had a premonition of his own death?"

"I don't know. Or there is also the possibility that he faked his own death and is still alive somewhere. Sending reinforcements to Garbera was probably not what Emperor Guhl had intended. As Mephius is now, no one knows what might happen for defying the emperor, not even to the crown prince. Perhaps he had already made up his mind when he left for Garbera."

"And so he dealt with various things that would come up in the aftermath? Hmm, it's not impossible... But please don't say anything to Esmena. I don't want her to get her hopes up."

"I understand."

"Well, even if she's at that age, she only met Gil two or three times. Even if talk about marriage to Mephius once came up, what we'll need to do soon is to think about the succession, be it through Bouwen or Raswan."

And with that, the conversation about Gil came to an end. After all, Ax currently had a lot to think about. Mephius in the East and Garda who was approaching ever nearer from the North. Little by little, Garda was drawing towards the southeast while absorbing the soldiers from the fallen city-states. He couldn't just cross his arms and wait to be invaded.

Taúlia was currently widely recruiting mercenaries and was gathering and strengthening its armaments by buying dragonstone ships and weapons from Mephian merchants and from the countries of the coastal regions.

Moreover, there was the previous fight over Apta fortress. As it was said that Taúlia, whose national strength should have been overwhelmingly inferior, had cornered Mephius and within five minutes had bound it in an alliance in which the two countries were on equal footing, Ax Bazgan's fame had grown ever greater within the Tauran region. Messages poured in incessantly from the other cities. They all spoke in the same voice, asking for an alliance to guard against Garda's army.

However, Cherik's name did not figure amongst them. It was a city-state situated west of Taúlia. At the meeting held recently within the hall, as there had as yet been no messenger from Cherik, Ax crinkled his nose, openly displaying his annoyance.

"They think they're away from the route advancing towards Taúlia but they had better not be planning on watching as simple spectators."

"But it isn't certain that Garda is aiming for Taúlia, right?"

"What he wants is the sovereign's seal." Ax had decreed. "It's clear from the fact that he's assumed the name of a high priest of the Dragon God Faith from the former Zer Tauran. Since he's posing as Garda, he's using empty slogans about the revival of the former Zer Tauran to try to become king of the Tauran region. And for that, what he needs is the sovereign's seal."

Above all else, Ax boasted that he himself was the legitimate king of Zer Tauran. Therefore, he believed that a recently emerged power with a shallow history such as Cherik should immediately rush to Taúlia and bow down as its vassal.

The current king of Cherik, Yamka the Second, was still young at thirty-three years of age. In the previous king's time, Ax had frequently crossed swords with them, but when the era changed to that of the current king, they had concluded peace.

"It's probably because of his youth that he finds it embarrassing to rush here immediately so I'll give him time. But I can't keep waiting for long like this."

Ax spread a map of the surrounding area on the table. He thrust his finger at an area north of Taúlia. Looking at it from Cherik, the city-state of Helio was northeast across Lake Soma. It too was bound in an alliance with Taúlia. It went back more than ten years, to when Mephius had attacked Tauran and they had campaigned together in order to drive them away.

Currently, Helio was first in line of Garda's advance. Since Eimen, into which Ax's older sister had married, had fallen, looking at its position, it was easy to imagine that it would be the next target for Garda's army. There were three or four cities north of Helio but according to rumour, noble ladies from each of those countries had disappeared one after another. It seemed that just like Esmena, they had for a period of time been afflicted with nightmares. Perhaps because of that and because they were not in the path of Garda's advance, these cities had adopted a wait-and-see attitude. As these were smaller powers who barely managed to survive through trade with the coastal areas, Ax had from the start held no expectations of them.

If Helio fell, Taúlia would surely be next. Naturally notification of a request from Helio to form a united front had arrived more than a month ago. However as at the time Ax was proceeding with preparations for the capture of the Mephian fortress of Apta, the answer had been temporarily put on hold.

And meanwhile, the political situation within Helio grew stormier and stormier. King Elargon died defeated by Garda's army and the city was bathed in blood from the struggle for succession.

''We don't need this kind of trend''.

As far as Ax was concerned, no matter how powerful the city-state, it was a territory that would one day belong to himself as rightful king. The present situation in which tiny powers, blind to anything but the immediate future, competed against one another was irritating to him.

"So Helio's royal family has also been wiped out? Then the country's name might also be changed soon – at any rate this current king, Jallah, what kind of man is he?"

"He is a man of no ability. He is only good at reading people's expressions. It is simply that good luck befell him as other men of influence better fit to be king brought about their own ruin." Ravan gave his judgement easily but then added something strange, "But it wasn't only Jallah who was lucky."

"Are you talking about Queen Marilène? Apparently he was blinded by her beauty and wanted her for his own wife. Since she was able to protect her position and power as consort, the queen was indeed lucky."

"No, Helio itself. The men who declared their intention of being king of the new era were all hot-blooded military men. If any of them had become king, they would immediately have focused solely on organising their depleted army to confront Garda's forces to avenge King Elargon –  and to dispel the stigma of being labelled a traitor and gain the support of the people – and would no doubt have caused their own destruction. Jallah however is more than half aware of the fact that he does not have the capacity to be king. Even now, he has made no move other than gather soldiers and he saves his strength just as our Taúlia is doing. From what I have heard, he has taken in a mercenary leader exiled from Cherik whose force is nearly seven hundred strong. If reinforcements from our Taúlia were to be added to that, Helio should not fall so easily."

"Ha!" Ax sneered deeply. "Well then, is that also lucky for my Taúlia? Tonight Jallah will be drinking in celebration with the depraved queen. While Hardross who is prostrate with illness will no doubt spend his days unable to even sleep properly because of anger."

Elargon's father, Hardross, was also an acquaintance of Ax's that went back to the time of the war with Mephius, more than ten years ago. Hardross was quite a bit older than Ax but he was a very sensible man.

Ravan had thought so too and had said at the time, "My lord acts haughtily towards everyone. But while King Hardross also occasionally gets angry, he is not loath to deal with my lord’s personality. Even though I am his elder, I feel I should concede his superiority."

"There are also the greetings to Hardross. Should I go over there?", asked Ax. He was by nature impetuous. While the war with Mephius had popularly come to be seen as a victory for Taúlia, in reality it had been severely taunted and knocked about. Moreover, Ax himself had been taken captive at Apta. Those glaring eyes wanted a victory. He had always been hot-blooded and was a lord who enjoyed personally leading the war horses and war dragons into violent struggles.

"No," Ravan shook his thin neck left and right. "Helio will be at war before long. Rumours alone do not give us a complete portrait of our enemy. It is vital to cross blades with them first-hand, so we should first send out the six hundred or so soldiers from the main mercenary force. There will be time enough for my lord to go in person after that."

As he snorted with displeasure, there was something that Ax did not notice and that Ravan deliberately didn't tell him, but in fact Ravan had received information that gave him no choice but to move cautiously.