"Thanks to that Geerhilt scoundrel, the matter has become much easier."

Count Euz secretly summoned me and Count Belfort together.

I was busy as hell, and he calls me out of nowhere only to say something without any context.

After the southern princes officially surrendered, we ended up staying at Rheinkalsen for a while to regroup. The Western Lords’ Army had taken in the disarmed rebels and seized their war materials wholesale.

Reorganizing units, distributing materials, and countless other matters had piled up, and with rest being granted to soldiers who complained of exhaustion, Rheinkalsen was currently in quite a state of disarray.

Count Euz had arranged a meeting to discuss the division of Baschurten. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Even in the midst of all the busyness, I accepted his request because, with Feuzen as my only territory, it was a chance to acquire one of Baschurten’s villages. I felt like a conspirator in some backroom deal.

"Wouldn’t it be best to decide in advance which areas each of us will occupy? This old man will take Öderlen."

"Belfort will be satisfied with Kovenbach. Anything more is too much bother to manage."

"...I’ll take Leben, which is close to Feuzen."

Naturally, I chose the village closest to my sphere of influence.

The problem was Ladwig, an unfortunate area that those ignorant mercenary bastards had ravaged beyond all sense, so restoring it would require bracing for heavy expenditure, and nobody chose it.

A game of chicken seemed to be starting, but Count Euz made the first move.

He smiled gently and pushed it onto me.

"Sir Streit, you take Ladwig."

"Is that all right? The area I’m taking is awfully large."

"Conquering Baschurten was your achievement, so I’ll recognize your occupation."

It was as though Count Euz and Count Belfort had joined forces; they handed the ownership of Ladwig over to me. Even so, was it really all right to hand over a village this easily?

Hm, it seemed easier than brewing a cup of tea.

Ladwig had been weighing on my mind, so I had no choice but to accept.

Restoring a destroyed village was a daunting task, but at least I’d won the goodwill of its people, which was fortunate. Wouldn’t the surviving residents of Ladwig accept my rule readily?

My compassion proved useful again at a time like this.

As expected, when you show people virtue, it comes back to you.

There’d be some bleeding for a while, but what I wanted was long-term value.

Still, the most important thing was the Grand Duke’s intention.

No matter how much we planned among ourselves, if the Grand Duke refused, it all came to nothing.

"Will His Majesty grant us the northern part of Baschurten?"

"If we demand it as part of our reward, the Grand Duke will grant it. The royal family now has justification to revoke the Geerhilt family’s title and territory, so it’s possible."

The Geerhilt family had foolishly broken two taboos.

One was stabbing an allied force in the back.

Originally, princes stabbing each other in the back was an everyday occurrence and nothing special, but if you did it after concluding an alliance treaty, you were scorned as a house that had broken its word.

The second was that even though the Geerhilt family’s head had surrendered, his deputy rejected the surrender and chose to keep fighting. It was a touch unfair to the Geerhilt family, but since it was something a member of the house did, collective responsibility applied.

So these two taboos became justifications, and even if the royal family revoked the Geerhilt family’s title and fief, no noble house would take their side. It was exactly the outcome Count Euz had been aiming for.

"Those foolish men brought losses upon us and destroyed themselves in the process, so we have ample justification to intervene in Baschurten. It’s our rightful spoil of war, since we shed blood in a war Altringen started."

He let out a hearty laugh, but his eyes were very cold. Baschurten and Basel allying to invade Euz had clearly struck a nerve.

I’d suffered losses too, but Euz went one step further, with even local nobles joining the rebellion, so you could say he’d suffered greater losses than I had.

"Sharing the profits only among ourselves is dangerous. Count Essenbach could harbor resentment."

"That old man cares about nothing but Strasbourg. Don’t fret needlessly."

"I disagree. We must share profit with him in some form. Remember that of the troops Sir Streit led, the Essenbach dragoons were the most numerous."

"Hmm, so you mean we could end up at odds with the Billingen family."

He was certainly right. Baschurten wasn’t a region closely tied to Essenbach’s interests, but if we kept all the profit to ourselves, Count Essenbach could take great offense.

Count Belfort was a bellicose, fierce-general type, but he was more meticulous than anyone, so he wanted to remove any factor that could interfere with their interests in Baschurten.

He had a point.

The wise course was to remove sources of strife in advance.

Count Euz deliberated, then set the matter aside for now, saying they’d discuss it again. The truth was, it was still hard to gauge what specifically should be given to Count Essenbach.

"By the way, subjugating the southern princes through your collaboration with His Highness was impressive."

"It was fortunate the bluff and intimidation worked. The truth is, it was half a gamble."

The biggest reason this gamble could succeed was that the Count of Basel, who had served as the southern princes’ rallying point, had been taken prisoner. His capture had demolished their grand plans.

And letting them witness the cannons’ power had broken the south’s will to fight. The crown prince and I staging a trivial bit of theater in the corner had also been a means of forcing their hand.

"Setting up a game you can’t lose is a remarkable ability too."

"I merely showed the cannons’ power and left them no choice but to surrender rather than fight on."

"Hm, do you see the southern princes as having surrendered out of fear of the cannons?"

The southern princes had lowered their surrender conditions drastically because the cohesion among them had vanished. They might unite when they sensed mutual advantage, but they never trusted one another.

In the world of princes, where stabbing each other in the back had become an everyday occurrence, the moment they spotted a weakness they’d pounce to devour you. Just as Euz had drawn in Belfort and me to carve up Baschurten.

"Infighting breaking out among the southern princes was likely the biggest reason."

"Right. If they could cave to a mere bluff, they wouldn’t deserve to be called princes."

After the Count of Basel vanished, the Count of Rheinkalsen led the south, but in the end they were nothing more than a fistful of sand.

They tried to negotiate to recoup their losses somehow, but with the cannons’ appearance, they came to realize that simply holding out wasn’t the answer.

What they feared most was that, if war resumed, one of them would be singled out and crushed while the others surrendered.

When the crown prince and I, with our trivial bit of acting in the corner, said we’d send the Royal Artillery Corps to crush Selthausen first, the Count of Selthausen grew wary not of us but of Konstanz and Rheinkalsen.

Having witnessed the cannons’ power, his castle wouldn’t be safe. In such a situation, if the other princes simply surrendered, in the end he alone would shoulder the immense loss.

But would it stop at just suffering a loss?

A wounded beast becomes the target of the beasts around it.

Restoring destroyed walls and repairing the damage would require pouring in considerable money and time, so would the relatively intact Rheinkalsen and Konstanz leave Selthausen, which had exposed a weakness, alone?

And this was a concern not just for Selthausen but equally for the other princes.

Considering that cannons had made wall defense impossible, along with various other anxieties, they reached the conclusion that dragging things out instead of surrendering now carried a high chance of getting screwed all on their own.

So they surrendered.