ch 11; Opportunity (2)

By the time the negotiation result reached Siegmund's desk, and by the time he fully understood the whole segment of this negotiation process, he was heavily aware of his own oversight. 

 

The Empire's Hero, Brilliant General, Future Pillar, and much more epithet attached to the name of Siegmund were all pointed out to his outstanding intellect and thinking. Yet, ironically he was not exactly different from his surroundings. 

 

His thoughts regarding Philip up until Philip showed his fangs were no different than Ludwig. That's why, such late regret of choosing a wolf in a pig's clothing as their pawn meant to be controlled in its entirety akin to a punch in the gut for him. After all, the one who designed everything from the beginning and chose Philip was none other than Siegmund. 

 

But, at this point, there's nothing we could do to contain him. 

 

They understood too late to change anything. 

 

Based on the annual report from Ludwig about the southern internal situation, it has already reached a boiling point far hotter than what they intended. As Ludwig warned Philip, the separatist movement inside the Vedora Kingdom had also reached a point where they only had to wait for the optimal timings.

 

But there's also subsequent information which Ludwig did not share with Philip. 

 

The separatist movement was sponsored by a nearby kingdom. 

 

It was actually one of the cards Ludwig planned to use on the negotiation table, with the expectation of Philip vehemently reject the Empire's proposal of lighting war in the south—based on his track record. However, ultimately that intelligence did not surface at all. 

 

With the wit and slyness that Philip showed to Ludwig during the negotiation, it was a kind of constraining move, with the idea of not giving their potential enemy more advantage. 

 

What's so terrifying about king Philip, is his accurate grasp at the international situation. He understood the logic of power so well, it was as if he lived all his years dabbling in politics, which inherently doesn't make any sense. 

 

His premonition was eerily uttered with an absolute conviction. As if the man truly peered into the future—no, scratch that. It was as if he lived in one.

 

There's no doubt that today, the Empire has a superior position. But with Philip as the helm, there's no telling how the future would unfold. There's no absolute friend and enemy in politics, Siegmund thought. 

 

And that man knows when to push and when to back out. 

 

Ludwig agreed to Philip's own proposition for a reduced grain support, as well as knight escort to monitor him whenever, wherever. Conversely, the Empire agreed for additional clauses such as sending their POW (Prisoner of War) to the Vedora Kingdom for labour, and toppling one or two kingdoms in a coup and installing a puppet government to create a Triple Entente. 

 

By the end result itself, no one could see Vedora Kingdom as the dominant party in this negotiation. However, underneath, Siegmund can't cast off the strong suspicion that Vedora had never truly 'lost' the negotiation itself. That everything has truly gone according to Philip's plan. There's no hard evidence, but circumstantially, there's two suspicious points. 

 

The counter-proposal, and the self-restriction. 

 

Could it be that the proposal itself is the purpose? Or maybe the POWs? Siegmund can't tell. But what's certain is that, the initial request itself is solely for drawing them out. Therefore, Siegmund thought the grains and whatnot cannot be the actual purpose of Philip's hidden agenda. 

 

"Ahhh, I don't know. I really don't know." It's hard to tell what that person wants solely with an end report without facing him face to face.

 

Then again, the conclusion has been drawn, and everyone—either it's Ludwig, Siegmund, or even the Emperor—could clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel, an answer to this hateful war in the counter-proposal that Philip conjured. Coincidentally, the subsequent movement proposed such as toppling the other nations in a coup and installing puppet government has already on-going behind the scenes. 

 

They merely had to adjust the speed, which would make other nations notice and become wary, but at that point, such suspicion would be negligible, as a new entity friendly to the Empire would be born by then. 

 

"At least, now we know about the true face behind that facade." 

 

With that, the name Philip was quietly spreading in the high society of the Empire. 

 

***

 

This is such an obvious statement, but rebuilding, in any form of organization, is frustratingly difficult. 

 

It's like the onions of hardship, where every layer represents a higher stake of difficulty. 

 

And in most novels, you'll see the protagonist tackling such issues with their perfectly intact modern knowledge, but unfortunately, I am apolitical in my past life. Too busy to even see the word P in Politics. 

 

However I'm not so inept to just lay down and pray that everything would untangle in my time of rule. That would be straight up foolish, might as well hanging myself at that point. 

 

My interest in international politics and our own domestic situation was merely because there's nothing else to consume. My brain as a modern person has been rewired to crave dopamine, and although medieval times wasn't without its own entertainment, it is ultimately insufficient. 

 

That being said, dabbling in politics as an observer vs player is an entirely different game. All the more if you are essentially the monarch of the country. 

 

Haaaaa… let's focus. Focus. 

 

By the level of severity from all the problems in this kingdom, I've already put out the biggest fire of them all. At least, the ammunition has been properly prepared. Next, I just need to distribute it, but as I said before, in the language of onion, the grains that I've prepared are tantamount to the outermost layer of this hellish onion. 

 

And the next part, which is distributing the grains to the market in order to normalize it, is the real challenge. 

 

A committee is necessary. 

 

As always, in the place where a large amount of resources gather, the first and most crucial element you must taken care of, is greed. That's just how things are. From the ancient Assyrian Empire to the modern hegemony of America, corruption has always occurred in a place where resources are abundant. 

 

Anticipating this, my aim for creating a committee is not to curb these parasitic elements. But merely to diminish. 

 

The idea of completely curbing corruption is a huge misconception in itself. The divergence between healthy and unhealthy nations is not about whether corruption exists, but in the scale of the corruption itself. In which linearly correlates to the impact of said corruption to the country. 

 

Another juncture is whether the corruption could be challenged within the system or not. 

 

If it's up to me without concern about consequence, I would just overhaul this country's system to the constitutional monarchy. After all, that's the best system for a former manager like me, whose specialty is wholly capped on human management. 

 

Ah, but of course. It doesn't mean I'm entirely revolted by this outdated monarchy. On the contrary, it was more cozy in many ways. Sure, the biggest trade off would be the massive responsibility that comes with the equally massive authority. I mean, one wrong move and my head would roll on the street. 

 

But still. I'm lucky enough to be born in this small nation, not even a moderately sized one like the former Eastern Entente or the Ferjya Federation. 

 

Here, although there's three main factions—noble, loyalist, and Empire—each head of these factions quietly lower their heads and offer me their leash, effectively strengthening my royal authority incomparable to my predecessor, the previous king.  

 

Is it dangerous? Of course. 

 

I could drunk on power and belatedly realize it after this country wrecked in shambles. But conversely, the matter of normalizing the Vedora Kingdom absolutely needs absolute power. 

 

One capital, two dukedoms, five marquisate, six counties, six viscounty and seven barony. In the vast region of south, our small kingdom is merely one in a dozen. I'm lucky our small kingdom doesn't have many quantities of nobility in the first place. Thus, by simply grasping the head of each faction, it's enough to consolidate my authority. 

 

With many territories to look out for, it did sound inefficient to only have two thousands active duty soldiers on stand-by, but in the first place, small nations like ours usually outsource arms and men with mercernaries. Because, unless you are a wealthy and giant nation like the Empire, or a naturally gifted species like the demons of Ferjya Federation, maintaining an army costs a huge amount of resources annually. 

 

Thus, for us small nations of the south, outsourcing arms to the mercenary was more logical. 

 

I mean, look at our current chaos. 

 

One disastrous war with the Empire injected with our whole armed forces has collapsed the peaceful atmosphere for the whole region in an instant. This revealed the south's whole capability is just that low. 

 

In fact, I myself humbly anticipated that even if we've successfully created a Triple Entente and claimed ourselves as the new hegemon of the south, there's a chance that the war obsessed westerners won't take us seriously. Or maybe cheated us in the idea that we would be too timid to retaliate. 

 

That would be a headache. 

 

But, ultimately, such concerns were practically useless to think about. 

 

I had to normalize this goddamn shithole first, then we could talk about the next step. 

 

There are ten established ministries in the Vedora Kingdom, which survives and merely changed heads when the Empire conducted a purge. 

 

First, Interior, which oversees almost everything in the domestic climate. Mostly, security, by silently spying on various elements. On a special note, the new head is a loyalist, thus they had already bowed their heads before me from the beginning. And quite conveniently, they're also entities responsible for royal matters and records. The scope is quite broead as they had a sub-division solely for scribing. 

 

Second, Agriculture. This ministry… well, no need for much elaboration. It sounds obvious from their name that this ministry mainly oversees farm matters. But, beyond that, they also managed the flow of domestic agricultural products that entered the market. This country practices a controlled market, after all. 

 

Third, Military. As there's also the Ministry of War, their scope of responsibilities are different. As in; if the Ministry of War focuses on the aspect of war, stratagem, and logistics, this ministry focused more on nurturing forces. Recruiting, training, and everything post-war in military matters, was their prominent task. 

 

Fourth, Foreing Affairs. This one is kinda tricky, in the matters of their scope of activites, I mean. Is it correct to call them a ministry for foreign diplomacy missions, when the actual action inside the ministry was very much akin to espionage? And not just a gentlemanly kind-of-way, but a covert information gathering borderline provoking. Althogh, credit must be given when due; their performance is one of the best in this country. 

 

Fifth, Treasury. In modern lingo, this would be the Economy type. Controlling the market, supervising the nation's national treasury, export and import, and the police of the nation's merchantry. 

 

Sixth, War. The very culprit of our baseless confidence that resulted in the last war. The very existence that became my primary target of reorganization. If the Ministry of Military kept active even without war, then these useless bunch could only suck their thumbs when there's peace. A parasite, if you will. But honestly, now I had to seriously reconsider disbanding this parasitic existence since it's definite that we cannot avoid war. Or at least, rearrange so they won't only be useful at spesific times only. 

 

Seven, Justice. If the modern political climate separates the three powers of legislative, executive, and judicial, then this ministry has an absolute grasp on judicial and executive power. From trials to law enforcement, this ministry has it all. But since the highest form of power is still me, the monarch, I could tolerate it a bit more before dismantling it. Probably after this country normalized, who knows. 

 

Eight, Disease and health. Self-explanatory. But there's also a part in their ministry where they oversee the matters of medicine distribution. A chunk that I planned to cut. 

 

Ninth, Works. Mainly dealing with construction, infrastructure, and related matters. For example managing the guilds which sprouts up as an independent venture from our citizens. And, again, overseeing the flows of construction goods in the market. There's already four ministries including this with overlapped responsibilities. Good gracious lord. 

 

And tenth, Forestry. A gray area where I don't have much knowledge about whether it's truly beneficial or not. But, according to its responsibilities, which includes timberstry and forest exploration for its product, my compass leads to hesitancy to truly cull this one. 

 

There's so many memos. On top of that I had to do it quick since those separatist will move in the moment of chaos. 

 

Normalizing the market by injecting external grains, curbing the separatists before they could even react, and preparing for the joint plan with the Empire. 

 

There's so much to do, man. 

 

But thanks to re-consolidate my purpose, each step filled with confidence. When I finally opened the door knob and entered, the ministries were standing up, and with a thud, the servants bringing my material for this meeting immediately dipped out, and I sat. 

 

"Let's begin immediately."

 

The third assembly officially began.