How to Live as a Tyrant’s Spoiled Brat Chapter 265

(265)

I was the scoundrel of the empire, the Archduke, Emperor Valencian.

He could not stop Helena from repelling the invading army, nor could he turn away from Eric, who asked for permission to at least withdraw his forces.

Still, I did what I could to be able to raise my head in front of Jaylilith and the God of Light.

The debris will still be heading east.

I just heard reports that the follow-up units that were supposed to secure the supply route have disobeyed the order to advance and are now on the defensive.

If Benoa doesn't want to starve to death, he'll probably turn back.

… … Then it’s okay to be a little loose now.

I sank deep into the ornate chair I had left in my tent.

“Mr. Valen, the tea is ready.”

"car?"

Rudy brought a bangsho, a stew made with wine and various spices such as cinnamon, apples, and grapes.

The rich aroma naturally whetted my appetite.

“Yes, Your Majesty. It is a liquid that soothes the mind and invigorates the body, so it will definitely be good for you.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Rudy smiled kindly yet playfully and handed me a large tin mug, which I immediately took a sip of.

A warm heat spread through my chest.

I boiled the bangsho once to my liking, then added some strong port wine to give it more sweetness and alcohol content.

It was a consideration that made life enjoyable.

Rudy reported brightly.

“Sir Tentia is holding a hunting competition with the machine knights, and is discussing the operation of the general workshop within the Nibelungen with Marquis Marcus, who is reporting to Sereraji.”

“Where is Count Rudy and what is he doing?”

“I am reporting to Your Majesty.”

“Tell him to sit next to me and report.”

Rudy nodded and brought a chair and sat down next to me.

“And Her Majesty Helena wished to see Lord Valen.”

“Ah. Right. You must be really angry now. Just bring me another glass of Bangsho. … Just add a drop of the potion of stability.”

The last words were spoken so quietly that they could never be heard from outside.

As soon as Rudy left the tent, Helena came in as if she had been waiting.

I don't know if it was a bit of consideration to not get angry at her master in front of her maids, or if it was a calculation to get angry without worrying about what her subordinates thought.

“Valencian!”

Her blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, as if she had just been wearing a helmet.

The cloth cap worn inside the helmet caused static electricity, and the remaining hair stuck out a lot, looking a bit comical.

But her red eyes were burning like coal.

“Why on earth did you not allow the attack that morning? Did I need permission in the first place? I too was under orders from Her Majesty Jerilis. To repel the traitors who invaded the Empire!”

I laughed heartily and consoled her.

It was an understandable anger, and in fact Helena was right.

“Permission? What do you mean? I asked you to do that. I said that since they’ll go back, there’s no need to attack them.”

“It only takes a day to get from their camp to the Imperial Village. You never know when they might attack our subjects.”

“If we launch the Nibelungen, it will take less than an hour to get to their camp. My sister has left the main force there right now, and is monitoring it while operating a reconnaissance unit. If they try to do anything strange, I will roast them with my own hands.”

Apart from the gratitude I felt for being made into a person when I was a wreck before my regression, the less blood flowed, the better.

No matter how much of a benefactor he was, I couldn't tolerate him fighting like a mad cock.

* * *

I chose my words calmly.

“I’m sorry, big sister. This must have been the first battle with the soldiers you raised, and everyone must have been determined, but it all came to nothing.”

It's embarrassing to say that we should go back after we've finally finished preparing to attack.

There was no position where style was as important as that of a commander.

Helena's reputation must have been greatly damaged.

Of course, it would have been foolish to mention this directly.

“Still, it’s fortunate that no one got hurt.”

“Even though I knew all that… … !”

Helena's tone softened as if she knew I was mindful of her dignity.

I said it like I was hammering a nail into it.

“I will receive the military equipment by stabbing Signine in the side. And I will tell His Majesty to hold a ceremony for him.”

Helena ground her teeth, still feeling foolish.

“You could have dealt a fatal blow to Langsowa. If you had sent the alien to sweep through eastern Langsowa and annihilated the soldiers who had been cut off from their supplies, Langsowa would never have been able to raise its head again!”

I tried to break that foolishness.

“And in that chaos, the encroachers must have grown rapidly. You know. They’re getting stronger. They’re behind the capital city foreign matter incident. Killing them one by one won’t do anything. We have to work to stabilize the world.”

“Tch!”

Helena clicked her tongue.

It meant that I understood.

“As you know, post-war stability is more important than war. Winning a battle doesn’t mean the war ends. If it’s a republic, there will be a huge militia.”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s not like in a war between lords within the empire, where only the lords who pay taxes change.”

“If you can’t completely control it, it’s better not to touch it. Even the old ones can resurrect corpses as undead. Unless you’re going to kill all the villagers and burn them to the bone, it’s better to refrain from invading. Just. That’s the era it’s in.”

Yeah, it just became that kind of era.

Helena threw her hair back, ran her fingers through it, and pulled it tightly back into a bun.

A few strands of hair were sticking out on the back of his white neck, where the sunlight had not reached.

She snatched the glass of bangsho I was drinking from and drank it down.

“Ah. It’s delicious. Your maid is good at cooking too.”

“Of course.”

“What’s the secret? I’ll have my cooks do it too.”

“Even if I tell you, you won’t be able to follow it?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Give him three times the wages of his peers, give him the title of count, and buy him a mansion in the capital.”

Helena opened her eyes wide.

“With that money, I could train a hundred more elite soldiers. Yeah. I can’t keep up. Hey. From now on, I’ll have to live off of biscuits and salted meat porridge.”

Rudy came in through the door on the other side of the tent.

She watched Helena drinking my bangsho, then took on an uncharacteristically serious expression, then came back in a moment later.

“Valentine, here you are.”

“Yeah, thanks. I took a sip and it was taken away.”

It seemed as if the glass had been completely changed, as the scratches on the handle had disappeared, unlike the original glass, but no one would wonder or ask how many drops of the potion of stability were originally in the glass.

* * *

Helena asked, almost finishing her glass.

“So are they retreating now? I’m just asking because I’m genuinely curious.”

I sipped my bangs and laughed bitterly.

It was a very sweet stew, but it had a bitter aftertaste.

“It’s just wishful thinking, but it can’t be helped. If this foreign entity continues to advance westward, the eastern part of the Republic will be destroyed, and the supply line will also disappear. The 100,000-strong army will become a burden.”

“The Republic, which loves equality for all people, will not even fill its needs through plunder. That is why we are afraid of legitimacy and identity.”

“The ones blocking the foreign object right now are the rear units and the supply units. They won’t be able to hold out for long. They’ve probably placed powerful relics and prayer users at the front.”

“If the holy water the supply unit is carrying runs out, we’re finished. We’ll retreat before then.”

Helena laughed as if she found it refreshing.

Although he didn't have white hair or golden eyes, it was the most Solettaras-like smile among the remaining Solettaras royal family.

“Yes, Valencianus. Just as you said, I won without swinging my sword once. It’s amazing how you can screw someone like that. Not bad.”

I swallowed the words that just came to my mind along with the alcohol.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

There will be 'collateral' damage.

Many villages will burn down, and many refugees will freeze to death this winter.

There will be ranchers who have to leave their livestock behind, farmers who have to watch their barley fields burn, and husbands who have to find wagons to carry their full-bellied wives.

I've seen that sight over and over again for the past 40 years.

There was a reason why they held splendid ceremonies for the soldiers, distributed tobacco that barely fell into the category of drugs, spent a lot of money to bring in military chaplains, and held banquets whenever they had the chance to get the soldiers drunk.

Because they are not superhumans like us.

“… … .”

However, after burning, shooting, and stabbing to death 100,000 soldiers of the Republic of Langso, they could not allow the situation to escalate into an all-out war between the two countries.

Of those 100,000, about 60,000 were resurrected as undead and could not be seen wandering around in search of the living.

He could not bear to hear that the subjects of the empire were 'liberated from the tyranny of the lords', that the knights and the nobles who had been protecting the territory were captured by the soldiers of Langso and burned alive, and that the knight who barely escaped came up to the capital like a beggar and asked for revenge for his family.

I didn't want to see Jaylilith, who had her eyes rolled back, summon a meteor and turn a country into a lake overnight.

I said, trying to smile.

“Yeah. Not bad.”

Just then my tent door flew open.

“Urgent news!”

"kyung?"

He was a mechanical engineer who had followed Marcus and was now my private soldier.

Perhaps because he had been hunting with Lord Tentia, he was wearing leather armor that was closer to everyday wear than his usual heavy mechanical armor.

“The forces of the Republic of Langso are moving forward. The front-line forces commanded by General Benoa are also ready for battle.”

I didn't hear anything else after that.

A lingering aftertaste of bangs rose from my throat.

I wrote like crazy.

* * *

For a moment, I wondered if Eric had betrayed me.

I had a suspicion that they were using me to buy time, and in the meantime they were planning to cross the border and then immediately advance inland.

Of course, if I were to call that a plan, I would get slapped in the face, so it would be right to think of it as an illusion created by my shocked mind trying to explain away the situation.

“Your Majesty Valencian!”

Eric came running into my tent quite naturally.

“Whose name does this traitor call?”

Helena grabbed him by the collar with her chainmail-clad left hand and pulled out her dagger with her right.

“Because of you, I had to watch as those traitors almost completely crossed the border! Since you screwed me over, you’ll eat your blade!”

It looked like it would pierce Eric's throat at any moment.

The blonde hair that flowed down her neck mixed with Eric's blonde hair.

I joined forces with Marcus, who ran out, and barely managed to stop Helena.

At Helena's single gesture, Sereraji flew to the opposite sofa.

I offered a chair to Eric, who was released, and smiled bitterly.

“Things didn’t go as we had hoped.”

I regretted doubting him for a moment.

He looked so pale that he looked like he might faint at any moment.

“This, this, this can’t be happening. The anti-war faction in the National Assembly won’t stay still. If the pro-war faction is crushed in the next election, the military won’t be safe either… … .”

Langsowa was a republic, and its parliament, unlike our capital's parliament, was a powerful governing body.

Those who have been affected by the foreign object will be angry that the military has not come to their aid.

Then I will vote for the anti-war faction instead of the pro-war faction that is close to the military.

If the Congress is filled with anti-war factions, the military budget will be cut in half in the next election.

Therefore, in order to keep his position, Benoit had no choice but to withdraw.

While Eric and I made dumbfounded faces, Helena had her hair tied back, pulled down a Gambeson hat made of several layers of tough cloth, and put on a fancy red-tasseled imperial helmet.

“Valencianus.”

The game-like smile seemed to be visible even beyond the helmet.

“I think I’ll be needed now. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t ask me for any favors this time.”

I could only nod.

“Okay.”

Eric had a look of despair on his face.