第１７８７堀：男爵との面会 (Part2)
Prompted by Kagura, I gestured for Baron Siana to take a seat. I had completely forgotten she was still recovering from her wounds.
"Yes. The injury has closed up perfectly, and there are no lasting aftereffects," she said.
"That is a relief. Even if it was merely a performance, I had no choice but to cut you."
"Please, do not concern yourself. It was my own request. Had you handled it poorly, it would have brought trouble not only to my country but to my own territory as well. I am truly grateful for how you managed it."
It sounds absurd to thank someone for being slashed across the chest, but she wasn't wrong.
"I heard the details from Kagura and the others, but does the Church truly hold that much power?"
"Indeed. I had heard that a church had been established in my country as well, but I never imagined it had reached this extent."
"Does that mean the Church's influence has not yet fully permeated your territory, Baron?"
That was the crux of it. Based on the information gathered so far, Baron Siana did not seem to be a follower of the Church’s doctrine. After all, she had defied their orders, refusing to hand over her food supplies. That defiance was precisely what led to her being sent on a suicide mission. Or perhaps, once she had been cornered that thoroughly, the outcome was inevitable regardless?
"It is not that their influence hasn't reached us. After all, I was the one dispatched to this campaign. However, I would not go so far as to say they have absolute control."
"I see. Yet they have enough influence to demand you accompany this expedition and provide troops."
"Yes. I was chosen because it was deemed 'inconvenient' if I didn't comply. To be frank, I believe they judged that even if my forces were annihilated, the loss would be minimal."
She was right. The soldiers the Baron brought were her own private troops, numbering fewer than a hundred. I didn't know the full scale of her barony, but as far as I was concerned, that was a significant number. Still, from the perspective of the state, losing a single noble and a hundred conscripted commoners was a negligible price to pay. It was a cold, calculated judgment.
It was a miserable fate for those treated as disposable pawns, but I suspected the premise of their strategy was different.
"It is true that the loss would be minimal in terms of numbers. However, were they operating under the assumption that this battle would be lost?"
I decided to press a little further. It was a risk—I might invite her suspicion—but I needed to gauge how much she was willing to divulge. As I waited, wondering how she would react, Baron Siana spoke without a hint of hesitation.
"No, the higher-ups were convinced they could win this battle. They believed defeat was impossible."
"Did you hear the reasoning behind that confidence?"
"Not to that extent. I am merely a minor noble, after all. I was not in a position to offer input on strategy. Besides, one does not usually march into battle assuming defeat."
"That is true. Which means they believed they had a winning hand."
"Presumably."
In reality, had we of Weed not intervened, the Oue side would have been cut off from food and supplies, and their leader would have been incapacitated. The probability of them losing due to dysfunction was quite high. It was likely they had tampered with the situation and truly believed their victory was assured.
"And what of their objective? Ah, I suppose that is the same question Kagura asked."
"No, please, do not worry about it. You felt it necessary to ask, did you not? That is a good thing. As for the march and the invasion, it was ostensibly to destroy Oue, a nation of demi-humans who supposedly side with the Demon Lord."
"The Demon Lord... We have not confirmed the existence of such a being here. Do you believe it is merely a pretext for the invasion?"
"I do. These types of invasions are almost always based on false accusations. I do not believe there is any justification that warrants taking human lives... but that, of course, involves the intentions of those above, the intentions of the state."
She was right. When it comes to the state—or in this case, the Church—the concept of legitimacy is meaningless. There is no such thing as a "righteous" invasion. While some conflicts descend into a quagmire of mutual slaughter, this wasn't even that. It was a fabrication, a pretext for some other hidden agenda. After all, based on everything I knew, there was no strategic sense in destroying Oue, which served as a shield against monsters. Whether the reason was trivial or grand, it was undeniably a nuisance to us.
"Hmm. This sounds like it will be a long story. How about we change locations and discuss this at our leisure?"
And so, I decided to seek out further information. From an outsider's perspective, the reasons for war are often just a matter of who speaks the loudest—claims of ancestral lands, or accusations of who struck first. In the end, it is always the people living there who suffer the most. That much, at least, is certain.