I am the gray tapir Kraug . I am the best of Gringot Intelligence . Well, even though it may sound like I am part of an intelligence organization, we never actually did anything spectacular like infiltrating enemy territory and bringing back important information or the like . If anything, our main role was to keep an eye out for enemy agents who may have infiltrated our city .
Not long ago, we managed to catch the mastermind behind the assassins who attacked the Black Thunder Princess . Speaking of the Black Thunder Princess, she’s the current most popular local hero, having broken through conventional wisdom that the black cat tribe which was said to be incapable of achieving evolution . Upon usurping that deep rooted belief, she could even fight with Goddarfa to a stalemate . Hence, it would be unforgivable for anyone to even think of taking away this budding hope of the black cat tribe .
Although it took a bit of time, we managed to apprehend them in the end . On the other hand, however, it was much easier than expected for us to force them to speak up . No, it seemed to be that their mission was to leak this information in the first place .
“The Krishna royal family? The royal family that ruled the Beastmen Nation before the Narasinha family, right?”
“Yes, that’s right… . . We will only bow our heads to the rightful royal family . ”
Then I remembered a rumor . It was said that the current Beast King family has a dark history that people here no longer talk or even know about . One of the reasons for this is the lack of people working in a certain profession . There were only a handful of people of this specific profession or title in the Beastmen Nation . This profession we are referring to is a historian .
Despite our country being more militaristic and combative than others, it does not mean that only barbarians live here . There were also sorcerers, scholars, and in fact, my father used to be a biologist .
Yet, even though we did have all these knowledge classes, there were sadly still an extremely small number of historian students, historians, and archaeologists in this region . As a matter of fact, it’s safer to say that there were almost none of them . One of the biggest reasons for this was that we didn’t really have proper historical documentation left behind from before, and hence there are no old records left to be studied or kept . Apparently, it was the Beast King family of the past that destroyed the old documents . Therefore, this situation led to the fact that there wasn’t really a need for this kind of occupation .
Another reason was that this profession was heavily cracked down upon by the Beast Kings a few generations ago, and most of the historians of the past have either been imprisoned and executed . As a result, the profession itself has disappeared .
Having been so thorough in their actions, it’s obvious that there was a big secret that the Beast Royal Family did not want any of its citizens, or anyone else for that matter, to know . While the current Beast King was very lenient with regards to this incident up to the point where we are even able to learn about the situation, until a few decades ago, it was apparently forbidden to even mention anything of it .
What if that secret was the existence of a former royal family called the Krishna family? Moreover, what if the current royal throne came to be not from a regular regime change of successor inheritance, but instead an usurpation of its predecessors?
I wanted to know more about it . But regardless of the past, I am not dissatisfied with the current Beast Royal Family, which is currently running a good government . Rather, they are doing a fairly good job and are honorable leaders of our country .
But what about the politics behind all of this? What if a person, a survivor of the Krishna royal family, with whom the Bashar royal family is said to be cooperating with, was planning behind the scenes for a reinstatement and restoration into kingship? In some cases, they may be able to claim legitimacy .
At the very least, they may not be able to one-sidedly assert that Bashar Kingdom was evil . Regardless, even at a glance, it was a messy situation .
According to an agent of Bashar’s Kingdom, the authorities of the kingdom were indebted to the Krishna royal family of the past and were unable to refuse their request . That’s one thing for certain . But there’s no country that can be driven to action just from gratitude alone . Instead, you can give legitimacy to your actions by appearing to be working in favor of others . In other words, this time, the war was not just a skirmish, and the Bashar Kingdom’s side, anticipating this, should have been well prepared .
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Half a day later . We had been sent north to scout the neighborhood . Then, near the Schwarzkatze, we encountered a group of adventurers . They were the skillful men who marched with Master Kiara to intercept the evildoers . They also said that a knight of Bashar was amongst those that were captured .
It seemed that the knight was very loyal and wouldn’t budge to any form of interrogation or extortion . But she had managed to put them in a trance and extracted information from them . Under normal circumstances, it’s hard to force them to do what we want them to, and even I myself am not strong enough to make them do what I want . But apparently, he was put into a trance and it made it easier for him to fall into hypnosis . Well, even so, it was limited to just about a minute .
The knight also mentioned the name “Myrelia” . To repay the woman’s debt, the Bashar Kingdom was apparently lending a helping hand .
That Myrelia woman, she’s got some serious guts . By impressing upon one’s self-respect or patriotism, it was possible for a person to instill a favorable feeling from another to oneself . It was similar to a prostitute’s modus operandi for hitting on a man .
However, there is a high probability that the knights have already taken into account the information leaked to us, and have given only convenient information . It seemed that these knights may have already been brainwashed in the first place . In essence, the earlier testimony was not very credible .
“What’s the real purpose of this Myrelia woman? No, it’s not my job to think about this . In the meantime, I must report this to my lord… . . ”
Side Rigdalfa
“Excellent work, as ever . To build such a wall in such a short time . ”
“Oh, Lord Rigdalpha . You too, thank you for your hard work . ”
In front of me, the young man who was smiling is of the human race, Lysius Laurentia . A member of the branch of the Laurentian royal family that perished in the famous Laurentian tragedy, he is one of the court sorcerers of our beastmen nation . Speaking of Lysius of the Great Wall, he is also known as one of the best earth magicians on this continent .
It’s unthinkable that this softly smiling figure could raise the earth and bury hundreds of enemy soldiers in the blink of an eye . However, I know that behind that smile is a strong fighting spirit . He is the same age as me, and he is also a friend who has also fought on the battlefield with me many times since the first battle 30 years ago .
”I think you’ve gone through quite a lot, haven’t you?”
I’m sure they’re using the art of the Great Wall to build these walls, but I’ve heard they use quite a bit of magic . Furthermore, if he is to battle, his consumption must be tremendous .
“How can it be hard? I am merely doing this for the sake of protecting my place in this world . The Laurentians are now famous for being descendants of evil masters . It is a mockery in every country . It’s only here in the beastmen countries that people dare to fully accept me . ”
“Is that so . ”
“Yeah . And I think you’re reckless too . The White Rhinoceros’ heroic breakthrough was visible even from the top of the city walls . I didn’t think we’d go into the enemy lines with hundreds of infantry . ”
“Fu ha ha . Because I can’t show my brother a pathetic fight now that my brother is gone . ”
My name is Rigdalfa . I am the brother of Goddarfa of the Vajra Wall, the chief of the White Rhinoceros tribe and a close associate of the Beast King . And I am also the second-in-command for this battle against Bashar Kingdom . It is my natural duty to take the lead and inspire my allies .
“So, how can I help you? It’s not like you would bother to visit us on the battlefield just to warm up old friendships, right? So, is there a problem?”
“You’re sharp . Take a look at this . ”
“This is……”
Lysias looks over the letter sent to the command center . As he read on, a strong sense of bewilderment and a slight feeling of impatience appeared on his face .
I know how you feel . Because it was the same for me .
“The Krishna royal family, was it? I’m afraid I’ve never heard of such a name . ”
“It seems to be a royal family that reigned over our beastly kingdom 500 years ago . But it says in this letter that they’ve suffered a rebellion from the current House of Narasingha and have been usurped from the throne . ”
I’ve also spoken to my commander, the general, but I don’t care if this story is true or not . Or rather, it does matter, but it’s useless to argue further on that point right now .
Of course, I don’t think it’s an outright lie .
There are certainly some dubious aspects of the situation at the time of the Narasingha royal family’s ascension to the throne . However, he is a good King for us now, and to be honest, I don’t want him to step down now .
But in wars between nations, it was routine for such past events to be brought to light and be used as justification for vindictive actions . And that’s what you can’t fool around with . Post-war processing and so on will have a creeping effect .
I don’t know if 500 years ago is short or long . It’s definitely a time long past for us beastmen but to some of the long-lived species, it’s possible that they may still consider it as a recent event that it wouldn’t be surprising that some of them might still remember it .
However, if the Kingdom of Bashar really had at least one person from the Krishna royal family with them and they were planning on bringing that person out of the shadows, it is almost certain that they will raise complications in post-war negotiations and such . Depending on how the Bashar Kingdom intends to play out their story, there’s a substantial chance, one that we will be unable to ignore, that the surrounding nations won’t be on our side of this conflict .
“What’s more, it says that she is now an evil person…”
“Yes, that’s right . It seems like the former head of Krishna family, facing the dire situation in the past, turned to the evil god for help . Thus, as she was helpless against the onslaught of the usurpers, she had no choice but to dedicate herself to the evil god and has since become the evil god’s maiden…”
“They plan to thoroughly denounce the Narasingha royal family as usurpers and are content with emphasizing the play of a woman of Krishna’s blood being made into a sufferable victim of the circumstances . ”
“It also says that they have no choice but to lend a helping hand because they were indebted to the Krishnas’ in the past . And they also say that it is their duty as neighbors to denounce the usurper royal family and to restore the rights to the rightful royal family . ”
It is tempting to question whether Bashar’s kingdom is sane enough to join forces with an evil person, but it may be that the odds were stacked against them . Besides, it seems that this letter has been distributed not only to our country, but to other countries as well .
A number of inquiries have been sent from our neighboring countries, which were addressed to the Commander . We’ll have to take care of that too . Each country seems to want to gauge the wind and take a careful look at the situation before doing anything else . Apparently, the same story has been circulating to other countries through channels other than the letter, and so far none country seems to think that the letter is complete bullshit, or rather, they couldn’t simply brush off this news as a complete joke .
“To meddle with the power of an evil god would be nothing but a foolish thing to do, in my opinion . ”
“It’s very empathetic . ”
“Well… that’s…… I’ve been struggling with it since I was young . As a child of an evil mage, there wasn’t a day that went by that someone didn’t throw a stone at me . ”
“Linford, the wizard huh?”
“He disappeared before I was 10 years old, so I don’t remember much about him . Now that I think about it, he must have been mentally ill . He was an old man who always had a creepy grin on his face . I was picked up by the Beast King, but my father was despised for decades as a descendant of an evil mage, so maybe I can’t help it, but…”
“You still can’t find him?”
“Yes . To begin with, I’m a child from my father’s old age, and if he were alive,he would be nearly 100 years old . Maybe somewhere… . . he already… . . ”
“I’m sorry . I’ve been rude . ”
“It’s okay . The reason I’m looking for him in the first place is that I’m going to hand him over to you . Instead of talking about him, let’s consult on that letter now . ”
“Oh, yeah . ”
It’s really annoying when they just say that they have the upper hand on the war .
