He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 56

“Your Majesty, it’s pointless to tell you it’s dangerous now, but you’re always doing perilous things.”

“If the result is good, isn’t that all that matters, Guard Captain?”

The Guard Captain, whom I met again after leaving the Goblin Forest hunting camp that we had set up as a temporary base, sighed at my glib answer.

“Yes, that’s true. But as a member of the Imperial Guard, not actually guarding the Emperor makes me feel rather strange.”

“Haha… I feel bad about that. But isn’t it also funny if the Guard Captain isn’t next to *that* ‘Emperor’?”

Of course, *that* ‘Emperor’ was referring to Mirror, who spends all day playing around in the Imperial Palace.

Of course, it’s not like Mirror is always cooped up in the Imperial Palace; he often goes outside the palace to show his face.

It’s largely to show the public that “Your Emperor is behaving and not wandering around outside.”

“Your Majesty… Even so… Haa, well, I’ll stop with the pointless talk. So, what are you going to do now? We are providing aid to those we rescued, as you commanded.”

“Coordinate with the Prime Minister to resettle them. In the meantime, the army needs to hunt Goblins.”

I had dealt with Gobomane and neutralized the Goblins’ plans, but raiding just one gate wasn’t enough.

It was necessary to completely break their will by mobilizing military force.

“But I’m worried that it might be a sensitive time to move the army right now. The lords might start a civil war at any moment…”

“That’s why we need to do it even more now. If not now, there won’t be time to give the army combat experience.”

“Ah… So that’s why you ordered mainly new recruits to be brought along?”

I nodded at his question.

This was the only time to do it, while they were too busy watching each other, trying to calculate their own gains.

Of course, I couldn’t rely on that alone.

Right now, it was like a powder keg, and a spark could set it off anywhere.

And I already knew where that spark was most likely to ignite.

“It’s the Western Territory.”

“The Western Territory… Certainly, the lords there have the strongest separatist sentiments.”

With its vast, harsh, and barren wastelands, the Western Territory had long harbored resentment towards the Imperial Family.

Once, the Western Territory, which had even more land beyond the west, was wealthy and prosperous, but now it had lost most of its land to the Greenskins [a race of savage humanoids].

As it declined, it became disillusioned with the powerless Imperial Family and grew dissatisfied with the Imperial Family and court, which did nothing but demand taxes.

Because of this, it had become the Imperial territory with the strongest separatist sentiments.

“I’ll have to take a look at the Western Territory on the way back.”

“You’re not going straight back to the Imperial Palace again, are you?”

“I am going back, okay? I’m just taking a roundabout route. Hendrick will be accompanying me this time instead of Jack, so don’t worry too much.”

The Guard Captain looked like he had a lot to say, but he eventually sighed and had no choice but to agree with me.

In any case, me running around directly was producing good results, so it was difficult for him to stop me.

* * *

“The intelligence from the Western Territory is still at a rudimentary level, but one thing is certain: the local situation is not good.”

The border region between the Western and Central Territories.

Strictly speaking, it was more of an administrative boundary than a border, as it was within the same country, but border areas were always bustling with travelers and merchants.

The same was true of Rough Sand Village, a rural village closer to a small town.

It was basically a farming village, but it was bustling with people coming and going, so the residents would do business with them.

Thanks to that, there were pubs and inns, and if you bought a traveler a drink there, you could easily find out news from far away.

“Is that so? Well, I already suspected that, given the tendencies of the Western Territory nobles.”

“It’s not just them, but it’s hard to expect great loyalty from the commoners in the Western Territory either. They have a sense of being Imperial citizens, but they don’t have much affection for the Imperial Family.”

Well, they’ve lived hard lives for a long time, and there’s no one to help them.

Even if I didn’t do it, the Imperial Family either abetted the exploitation or stood by and watched.

If that continued for over 100 years… you’d probably just get cursed if you tried to sell the Emperor’s name there, right?

Hendrick, who said that, took a sip of the bitter beer and continued.

“But they’re not united as one force either. Rather, there’s a chaotic mix of forces coming together and falling apart.”

“Wouldn’t that be the same for other separatists?”

“They have an even stronger tendency to do that. For example, the Southern Territory is divided into the Duchy of Orlant and the pirate Duke Blackbeard.”

He gave the example of the Southern Territory to help me understand.

As he said, Duke Orlant, whom I had met not long ago, controlled more than half of the separatist nobles in the South.

In fact, not only the Southern Territory but also the Northern and Eastern Territories were divided into mainstream and other forces.

“But in the Western Territory, except for the Wizard Lord Elroyd, the Elector [a powerful noble with voting rights] who represents the wizarding forces, everyone is effectively an individual force.”

“I see, they wouldn’t have a central point to rally around.”

Unlike other regions, the Western Territory has only one Elector, the Wizard Lord.

However, as his title suggests, he had difficulty gaining support from anyone other than the wizarding forces.

This was because he had the unique characteristic of putting wizards and scholars forward as the vested interests, rather than nobles, which put him at odds with the nobles.

“In effect, everyone above the rank of Count is too busy maintaining their own power.”

“That’s right. Of course, if a civil war breaks out, they’ll unite their armies or agree on opinions…”

“But since they don’t share basic interests, there’ll be room to exploit.”

After learning about the news of this Western Territory from Hendrick and the informants I had deployed for a while, I could draw a rough picture.

“There is one force that we can expect some degree of loyalty from, though.”

“You mean the Western Rangers?”

“Yes.”

The Western Rangers, where Jack Forest was also located.

Rangers were not a knight order, but a local military organization created by the Empire long ago.

In fact, during the Empire’s heyday, when it had far more territory than it does now, it was naturally impossible to meet the military needs of the entire territory with knights alone.

Since they couldn’t just create knights haphazardly, they compromised by creating the Rangers, a military group that commoners could join.

Now, only the Northern and Western Territories have Rangers left, but at one time, the Rangers themselves were treated as a separate class, such was their size.

“So they basically have some loyalty to the Empire left.”

“But that’s all old news, isn’t it? The support from the Imperial Family is as good as nonexistent now.”

After I became Emperor, I definitely remember allocating relevant budgets.

But the amount wasn’t that large, and I was half-doubtful whether it was being properly executed.

So it would be difficult for them to think positively about the Emperor.

“That’s probably true. But at least it’s hard for them to sympathize with separatism. That alone makes them the only ones worth contacting in the Western Territory.”

Certainly, Hendrick was right, so I quietly nodded.

I felt like I had gathered all the intelligence I could get from around here, so it was probably a good time to return to the Imperial Palace.

Thud!

At that moment, someone burst through the door of the pub.

As a group of soldiers and knights entered, the bustling place became as quiet as if cold water had been poured over it.

“Hey, innkeeper! Baron Gamlick has arrived, why aren’t you showing him in?”

“Ah, I’m sorry! I’m just so busy right now…”

“Watch your manners!”

Soldiers wearing thick armor, even though the Western Territory has a slightly dry and hot climate.

They looked more like bandits than soldiers, as they hadn’t bothered to groom their armor, shave their beards, or wash.

Their behavior was also difficult to find any discipline in, so they were closer to thugs than bandits.

“T, this way, Baron.”

“Hmph, still a pathetic place. But it seems business is doing quite well?”

“Yes, that’s right. The Central Territory is doing well these days, so we often trade with merchants from the North and West… thanks to that, we’re also making a profit.”

“Good, then you can afford to treat us, who protect you, right?”

The pub owner’s expression didn’t look like he wanted to at all, but the ‘Baron,’ who was indistinguishable from a bandit leader, grinned, revealing his yellow teeth.

“That guy’s a Baron?”

“He’s probably an imposter. He’s probably a rural knight who’s taking protection money under the pretext of protecting this village.”

“What’s the lord doing?”

“This is a border area, but it’s effectively the Western Territory. The lord is either indifferent, in cahoots… or beyond his capabilities.”

What a sight.

The state of the Western Territory was more serious than I thought.

“P, please stop…”

“Hey! Don’t you know who I am? Come here and pour me some drinks.”

He was starting to do the typical villainous act of harassing the barmaid, a third-rate thug rather than a Baron from the looks of it.

It was more absurd than infuriating to watch, but I was about to give him a suitable lesson.

But there was someone who stepped forward before me.

“How about you stop harassing the innocent barmaid, young man?”

A middle-aged man, sitting at a table a little away from the ‘Baron,’ wearing a robe, said.

It was a gentle yet dignified voice.

The face visible through the robe also had a neat style, even though he was a middle-aged man with a beard.

“Hey, do you want to die?”

“Look here, if you’re a Baron, you’re a noble too. A noble should have dignity in his words and actions.”

“…Are you a noble too?”

“For now, yes. I came from the North.”

When the middle-aged man calmly revealed that he was a noble, the Baron paused for a moment, but then smirked and said.

“A bumpkin from the North dares to impersonate a noble.”

He was wearing shabby robes, and his companions were only three people wearing the same shabby robes, so the Baron thought he was impersonating a noble to get out of the situation.

So, he became even more arrogant, and when he spoke, the middle-aged man tilted his head.

“Hmm? That’s strange. The West shouldn’t be in a position to call anyone a bumpkin. Well, what would a self-proclaimed Baron from the Western boonies know?”

“You son of a bitch!”

The Baron, who had tried to insult him but received more than he gave, immediately became enraged and drew his sword.

But he couldn’t draw his sword.

Thud.

“…Huh?”

When he thought he had ‘drawn his sword,’ the man who had already risen from the table was shaking the blood off his sword.

The arm of the Baron, who was trying to draw his sword, had been neatly cut off.

“H, huh! My arm!”

“You bastard!”

As the Baron, his arm cut off, staggered, the Baron’s men, who had been rampaging and drinking in the pub, immediately drew their swords.

“Dare to mess with us? We’ll kill you-”

Crack!

They immediately rushed at the middle-aged man to retaliate, but the head of the middle-aged man’s escort was split in half by an axe.

His guards were two or three heads taller than ordinary people. Like Northern barbarians.

“Don’t destroy the pub too much.”

“Yes, Grand Duke.”

The middle-aged man stood as if he didn’t need to step in himself, and his guards were slaughtering the Baron’s men who were rushing at them.

They were literally mountains, lightly slicing up the thugs with their axes as if they were dealing with children.

“You bastards! Shoot them with crossbows!”

But they still had more than a dozen men, so they picked up crossbows instead of fleeing.

If more than a dozen crossbowmen fired all at once, it could be threatening to those who weren’t wearing armor.

“Everyone fi-”

Shushushushuk!

“Cough!”

“Ugh, wh, what…”

But the black shadow blades that stretched out towards them pierced their necks, hearts, and arms, preventing them from firing their crossbows.

It was obvious, but it was what I had done.

“This is quite interesting, who are you?”

While casually subduing the thugs by extending shadow blades in all directions, I approached the unidentified man and asked.

He was also looking at me with very interested eyes.