The King of the Cold and the Rising Wave

The Grand Duchy was cold. The snowfall was relentless. While the world blanketed in pure white was beautiful to behold, it was incredibly inconvenient for staying active. Upon hearing that winter lasted a third of the year here, the first thing I did was move my bedroom. On days with heavy snow, it took a full thirty minutes to get from the inner palace to my office. Catching a cold once as the price for trekking through the snow for thirty minutes was more than enough.

My new bedroom was in the annex used for envoys or honored guests, closer to the office. Even though I took the best room there, it was inferior to my old bedroom in the inner palace. After living in an inner palace bedroom that was already a step down from the fourth floor of the spire, moving somewhere even worse made me feel like I’d been demoted. I’d become the King of a nation, so technically it was a promotion, but I didn’t feel great about it at all. If it weren’t for the blankets I brought from the Empire, I might have succumbed to homesickness for my luxurious life as a prince.

The bedroom wasn’t the only issue. Many things about this country made me gloomy. In this land of long winters, the nights were equally long. Waiting for a sun that set early and rose late, I thought of the things I had left behind. The people who once filled my life were gone. The garden, where restoration had been halted due to the snow, looked like a ruin.

The nobles of this country only bowed their heads because they were terrified of the army I brought with me; they did not truly serve me or this nation. I had to remain cautious and perfect under the gaze of those waiting for me to slip up. How did Kallios live a life like this? I missed him. Sometimes I wrote letters I knew I couldn’t send, and sometimes I buried my face in my pillow and cried. The pillow brought from the Empire smelled of winter.

However, I didn’t want to go back.

New people began to fill the void left by those I’d lost. There was Sigret, who was so happy every day you’d think this winter-locked country was paradise; Count Rostion, who acted familiar as if he’d never been afraid of me; Sir Jager, who followed me around busily trying to fill Isaac’s shoes; and Countess Tania, who came twice a week to teach me the culture of the Grand Duchy. I might not have had luck with my health, but I certainly seemed to have luck with people.

Gradually, the frequency of my gloom decreased. I grew accustomed to the view of snow spread like a carpet outside my window, a workload that had increased beyond comparison, and the art of dealing with people who harbored no goodwill toward me.

I should also mention I became quite stoic about harvesting noble heads.

Since becoming King, I had annihilated two families, replaced the heads of four, and demoted the titles of six. It was a bit ironic that the original villain, Kallios, had seized control of the state without purges, while I couldn’t adapt to this new country without a blade.

I adjusted to my position and environment reasonably well. I didn’t know if I’d be a great king, but I didn’t think I’d be a bad one. It was a bit early to be sure since I’d become King at the end of autumn and winter was only now deepening, but so what? One puts a firm period at the end of such sentences not out of certainty, but out of hope.

I sat leaning back in my office chair, a seat I’d grown used to over the past two and a half months. Sigret handed me a bundle of letters. As soon as I recognized the handwriting on the top envelope, I snatched the bundle. It was a letter from Sierra.

Sierra, my princess.

She hadn’t cried until the very end. Even Isaac, who was twice her size, had returned looking like a bug-eyed goldfish from crying. I’d have preferred it if she’d cried because she hated the parting; seeing her say goodbye with a smile was so pitiful that my heart ached every time I thought of it.

I toyed with the sealed envelope before carefully opening it with a letter opener. The letter was two pages long. The rounded characters packed tightly together were a list of the daily life I already knew, but the final sentence read:

I am doing well.

I reread the letter several times.

“You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

Sigret spoke as I was putting the letter back into the envelope. I simply nodded. I didn’t want to go back to the Imperial City, and I no longer could, but I missed Sierra. To see her now, I’d have to invite her to the Grand Duchy, which wouldn’t be possible for a few years.

Below that were letters from Isaac and Ilios. I felt a bit bad for the two of them, but I wanted to dwell on Sierra a little longer, so I decided to read theirs later.

“You probably don’t need to bother reading the other letters. A few came from the northwest of the Empire, and the rest are from within the Grand Duchy.”

“Any ‘promising’ young ladies?”

I asked because they all seemed like schemes to fill the empty seat beside an unmarried King. Sigret gave a refreshing laugh and placed the sketchbook he’d been holding on my desk.

“If I were the Grand King, I would choose this person.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. The only daughter of Baron Bennett.”

“Wow… You’re planning to swallow everything up, aren’t you?”

“If I can have it all, why share?”

Sigret said nonchalantly. The audacity he’d shown as a commoner standing in the way of a Grand Duke was still there. No, it seemed to have gotten worse, perhaps because I allowed it. I chuckled, fiddling with the envelope that had grown thick with the two pages of the letter.

“For a young lady of a Baronial house, the position of a King’s confidant’s wife would be more comfortable than the seat of the Queen.”

Sigret was my close aide, but he was still a commoner. Since he was clever and useful, I’d tried to give him the lands of a family I’d purged, but he had refused, saying he wanted to work in the ‘center.’

If he married Baron Bennett’s daughter, he would become the next Baron Bennett. The Bennett territory was quite a fine piece of land, even excluding the mana stone mines. It was the land where the Magic Tower was located. He could just lie around picking his nose and the money would roll in. I’d made the suggestion subtly, but Sigret was firm.

“I have to work.”

“Anyone listening would think I make you work without giving you any time to rest.”

“Don’t you?”

I had no answer to that. I slunk my gaze to the side.

“Just bear with it for the time being.”

Both I, the one saying it, and Sigret, the one doing the work, knew that my ‘time being’ meant years.

“Want some pocket money?”

“I don’t even have time to spend it.”

I unpinned the brooch I was wearing on my chest and tossed it to him. Sigret, who said he had no time to spend it, caught it instantly and tucked it into his pocket. I liked that he accepted it without a fuss, so I tossed him a jeweled fountain pen as well. Sigret caught the pen and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

“How is the Abas Mountains area?”

“Count Rostion is currently organizing the data… but it looks like I’ve beaten him to the punch.”

I stood up from my office chair. Sigret naturally moved to the door and asked the servant waiting outside for two cups of tea. I sprawled out on the head of the sofa. Sigret, who had brought some blank paper, sat diagonally from me.

“So…”

Sigret, who had taken out the fountain pen I gave him to draw a line on the paper, paused. I suppressed a laugh. After staring at the line drawn in shimmering pink ink, Sigret pulled out his original pen and drew the line again. This time, it was plain navy ink.

Unlike the light start, the conversation that followed was heavy.

“The current monster wave is estimated to be ten times the usual.”

“So exactly how many?”

“At least thirty thousand… Count Rostion is likely thinking around thirty-five thousand.”

“This is insane.”

The number of monsters Kallios used to deal with was seventeen thousand. The troops stationed in the Rotenmeyer territory were seven thousand five hundred elite soldiers, along with two knight orders. That much was needed just to hold the line.

“Are you sure?”

“I haven’t heard the full details yet, but it seems certain.”

I stared at the number Sigret had written. Thirty-five thousand. This couldn’t be stopped by the strength of the Grand Duchy alone. Not that we had to. All thirty-five thousand wouldn’t come pouring into the Grand Duchy. There were three countries that shared the Abas Mountains as a border: the Kaian Grand Duchy, the Caprezena Empire, and the Kingdom of Lucas.

Since Caprezena and the Grand Duchy would move together, I only needed to check on the Kingdom of Lucas. I heard the current King was bedridden with old age and the Crown Prince was acting as regent…

“Count Rostion has arrived.”

“Let him in.”

At my permission, Count Rostion entered with a bundle of documents and a rolled-up map. He tried to greet me while holding a map as tall as he was, but I told him not to bother. Count Rostion bowed instead and hung the large map on the wall of my office. It was a map of the eastern part of the Grand Duchy.

“I prepared this as I thought it would be necessary given the wartime situation.”

Count Rostion cleared his throat and stood before the map.

“Sigret. How much have you discussed?”

“You arrived so quickly that…”

“That’s fortunate.”

Count Rostion gave a grin and immediately pulled out a thick pen to draw a line on the map. It was a long line starting from the Kingdom of Lucas, passing through the Grand Duchy, and leading to the northeastern part of Caprezena. It marked the area where the monster wave would hit. Then, five arrows were drawn: one toward the Kingdom of Lucas, two toward the Grand Duchy, and two toward Caprezena. Numbers were written above the arrows. Seven thousand.

“This is the prediction based on the migration routes identified so far.”

“So we have to block fourteen thousand?”

At my question, Count Rostion drew an arrow pointing toward us below the arrow pointing toward the Kingdom of Lucas. Three thousand.

“The Kingdom of Lucas has pulled their defense line inward. It seems they intend to let monsters flow toward us.”

“What?”

Has that Crown Prince lost his mind? What happens after they let them flow out? We were a Grand Duchy of Caprezena. Did he think there would be no repercussions? I frowned, glaring at the seventeen thousand—a coincidentally familiar number.

“Actually, this is better. The Kingdom is currently in a civil war. If they fail to maintain this defense line with their troops in such a state… we could end up having to accept both monsters and refugees at the same time.”

Haaaa. I let out a long sigh, pressing my throbbing forehead. Seventeen thousand. Seventeen thousand.

Count Rostion circled three territories.

“These are the expected engagement zones.”

Loasa, adjacent to the Empire’s Ipsent territory; Visconti, located in a basin below the Abas Mountains; and Sevigne, which borders Lucas. Count Rostion drew a star over the Ipsent territory.

“The Imperial garrison will be here. Since they said they would handle Ipsent and Loasa, we just need to form a defensive wall centered here, in Visconti.”

I listened to Count Rostion’s explanation with a troubled expression.

It was said that the Emperor had declared he would personally lead the campaign. Since his territory had become the Imperial garrison, Isaac would also participate.

I, too, ended up enlisting troops and heading out myself. To be recognized as a ‘true king’ when I was neither from Aphelion nor the one who conquered it, I had to do this. It would be troublesome if I were assassinated after avoiding the battlefield out of fear. My dream is to live a long life.

Count Rostion and Sigret knew this, so while they worried about my health, they didn’t stop me from going to war.

Becoming a king I never asked for, and now I have to wear armor.

Well. Surely the armor won’t be so heavy it makes me sick, right? Magic solved that concern. The armor I was to wear was enchanted with both weight-reduction and temperature-regulation spells. It was excellent, aside from the joints being a bit uncomfortable to move. I wasn’t much for moving around anyway.

After a brief and swift departure ceremony, I entrusted the Grand Duchy to Count Rostion and set out.

It was a week’s journey from the capital to Visconti. We wouldn’t see each other’s faces, but just being closer to the people I missed seemed to give me strength. I rode through the snow-covered streets toward Visconti.

It took exactly ten days to get from the capital to Visconti.

The atmosphere and situation in Visconti were much better than in the Rotenmeyer territory. It was likely because the monster wave hadn’t reached us yet. I looked at the citizens and soldiers filling the streets and waved my hand. A loud cheer greeted me.