13 — A War Has Begun

13 — A War Has Begun

With our southern neighbor’s declaration of war, fighting seemed imminent. The aristocracy was informed of this turn of events via royal decree, and the commoners by royal proclamation in front of the palace and through newspapers.

“A month to get everything in place, eh? Looks like those fellows really didn’t hold back,” my father-in-law said as he fiddled with the envelope that the decree had been delivered in. Are you sure you want to do that to a royal decree?

“So it seems. Once the front line troops march in, though, they should have the whole place under control in a jiffy. It’s only a matter of time.” My mother-in-law, in turn, was nimbly folding a flower out of the paper the decree was written on. Are you sure you want to do that to a royal decree?

Neither of them appeared at all concerned. In fact, they were sipping their tea and smiling like this was any other day. They’re talking like we’ve already won. The war’s only just started—heck, there hasn’t even been any direct confrontation, it said!

“Um... Thinking back to past wars, I’m familiar with how strong the Flür military is, and I’m sure that they will win this one, too, but even so, don’t you think you’re being a little...” I spoke up nervously, interrupting their conversation.

“Ah. Well. I suppose it’s good that you think that. But to be more precise, the only thing that the other country has going for it is its fighting spirit, really... just an overall hot-blooded attitude, really. They don’t have any actual strategies—goodness, they don’t even have any actual strategists. They might win a few skirmishes at first by sheer force, but the tables will soon turn once they’re up against some real tactics, and they’ll lose in the end. No matter how daring and brave their generals may be, they have no real discipline as an army, so they’re not so scary if you can get them cornered. And then, if their intel is outdated, that would mean that there’s no information getting in, either,” my father-in-law politely explained, if not in slightly more detail than I was expecting. He must be able to stay so level-headed from all the battles he’s commanded.

Anyway, even to a civilian like me, it seemed pretty impulsive of them to start a war. No way they could come up with strategies if they didn’t have any strategists. Attacking with nothing but a will to fight? Guys, that’ll get you an insurrection at best and suicide at worst!

As if he read my mind, Lord Fisalis continued, “We won last time, and if you take a look at other countries, it’s the same story. They picked fights and lost at their own game, time after time,” he snorted.

I’m certain that the earlier skirmish—the one that made us have to postpone our wedding!—ended with the Flür Kingdom as the victor. It seems like that place usually loses, too, when they fight other kingdoms. It sort of makes you wonder if those blockheads ever learn. You’d think they’d notice a pattern if they just stopped and, well, thought about it. It’s evidence that they must not care about their soldiers or citizens. They’ll exhaust all their resources at this rate.

Then, my father-in-law said with a smile, “I used to wonder if maybe this time around they’ll have come up with a battle plan, but it seems like they never do. Like rats in a bag. I’m thankful our kingdom knows what it’s doing. All that’s left for us is to put them down.”

The war, however, was happening quite far from the capital. And since I rarely left the house, I didn’t keep up with what was happening at all. What did I have to worry, though, when it was business as usual at the manor! Time went by exactly as it always did, and I never felt ill at ease. It was like I was living apart from the rest of the world, with my only source of outside information being the tradesman who regularly came to the house.

With my uniform still on vacation in my closet, I was able to continue my chats with said tradesman, as well as Cartham and Rohtas, in the servants’ dining room by wearing regular clothes that just resembled a maid’s uniform. Thinking about it, ever since the uproar over a potential mistress, the tradesman had stopped sharing rumors with the maids (including me). Maybe he regretted doing so in the first place. But that is neither here nor there.

“...it’s because they don’t have any sort of regulation at the moment.”

“What will happen to the foodstuffs we order from Aurantia?”

“There are other ways to get those, so it should be fine.”

It’s not like we buy all that much from them anyway. The war is the hot topic around town, but if it’s not going to impact us in any way, life can go on as usual. I imagine the families of the soldiers are pretty on-edge, though.

“Oh, speaking of which, the duke is down there right now, is he not? Madam must be worried,” I heard one maid say to another while I was talking ingredients with Cartham and the tradesman. What’s that? Why, I’m just drinking my tea. I only overheard her by sheer coincidence!

“That kingdom has nothing going for it, so cutting off diplomatic ties with them isn’t exactly a bad thing, to tell the truth. It’s sort of depressing how eager they are to start a war. But you know what they say, you can’t learn without making mistakes.” The tradesman echoed my father-in-law’s opinion that victory for Flür was all but guaranteed.

The optimism among the citizens of Flür felt reassuring.