Immediately after the Battle of Fort Henderson, the Army of the Leine immediately set out to chase the remnants of the Second Continental Army. Before Alexa knew it, within three days, two separate battles—more accurately described as major skirmishes—occurred, as Wilhelm and General Bismarck pushed the Army of the Leine northward.
The remnants of the Second Continental Army, consisting of a few brigades that managed to get out of the envelopment, offered minor resistance. They were, more accurately, fighting in a desperate rearguard action. In many cases, Alexa tried to order the rebels to disperse while offering generous terms of surrender using her [Rose Eyes] ability.
Unfortunately, it was all for naught. Each day, a thousand or so rebel soldiers would die at the hands of the Army of the Leine. In comparison, Alexa’s side barely suffered casualties, thanks again to Phoebe’s presence.
Now, it had been four days after the Battle of Fort Henderson. It was Monday, and it was already the first day of December. Their time was slowly running out. When Alexa woke up in her tent, she quickly urged Adele to wake up. Phoebe, on the other hand, remained in her little portable bed, curled up while mumbling softly to herself.
“She looks so tired…” Alexa said, while looking down at Phoebe with concern. Meanwhile, Adele on the side just yawned.
“She’s working herself to the bone for the army,” Adele said as she steadied herself. “My…I haven’t had a beauty sleep in a while. I wonder, do I have eyebags now?”
“Hmm…time to find out, perhaps?”
“War is just so dreary…sigh…”
Adele already began rummaging through their bags, taking things out that they needed for the day. Alexa, for her part, only asked for her basic makeup, since anything more would be ruined anyway. It was just enough to mask the eyebags that were now growing below her eyes, as, while this wasn’t all truly necessary, Alexa had to look her part.
She was the crown princess, second only to Phoebe in terms of being a morale booster for the Army of the Leine. She had to look decent, someone whom the troops would respect and follow. Of course, she told Adele not to overdo it, as usual, because she also didn’t want to look like she was trying to make herself look pretty in war.
When Adele was done, Alexa smiled a bit in front of the small mirror they placed on a stand on a wooden table.
“Hmph. I look fine now. What about you?”
“I am fine as it is,” Adele said, smiling at Alexa. “Quite frankly, I don’t need much more than this. Hmm, I suppose I should work on hiding my eyebags too, though.”
“You’re working yourself hard too, huh?”
“...You two work yourselves hard too. If I don’t cover things by supporting you two, what use will I be?”
Adele then patted Alexa's head gently, careful not to undo the braids that Adele did so that Alexa’s hair wouldn’t sway too freely while walking around in the battlefield. “Quite frankly, I’m more worried about you and Phoebe. After everything you’ve done, you seem to be carrying such a massive burden on your shoulders.”
Alexa felt Adele’s soft hands on her shoulders. She relaxed a bit, as she felt her lady-in-waiting’s hands massaging her gently.
“A massive burden, huh?” Alexa looked up a bit. “I don’t know…maybe Phoebe does. But me? All I’m doing is benefiting from the efforts of others. Am I even a good leader? I feel as if…it’s my fault that this civil war happened.”
Alexa’s tune turned gloomy.
“Do you think I have just…given up the throne—?”
“Lady Alexa,” Adele’s grip on her shoulder suddenly tightened. “Do not even think about that. It’s beyond unacceptable. You, Lady Alexa, are the one true heir to the empire. Do not forget that. Even if you don’t have the Holy Mandate yet, you already have the Civil Mandate. It’s literally on your skills now.”
“Yes, but…”
“And what buts? Isn’t it a sign that the Sun Dragon already recognized you? All you need is more legitimacy, and you’ll be worthy of being crowned.”
Alexa sighed. “The Sun Dragon, huh? Now that you say that, rarely has anyone ever brought it up.”
The covenant of the Holy Empire with the Sun Dragon after all mattered greatly, as whoever wielded the Holy Mandate wielded the strength and powers of the Sun Dragon. Of course, since the Holy Empire gained complete supremacy in the continent, the usefulness of it was not exactly that great. After all, the covenant only required the Sun Dragon’s intervention in case of a foreign invasion.
It wasn’t allowed, though, to meddle in the internal affairs of Lotharingia. Instead, the Sun Dragon only accepted as its master whoever it recognized as the legitimate ruler of the Imperium, whoever had the ability to steer the wheel of the state in its full capacity, and they had to be of royal blood.
It was why neither the regency council nor the current junta that Wilhelm created was a ‘true’ government. They wouldn’t rival the legitimacy that Alexa’s father once wielded, as he was able to call on the Sun Dragon when needed, even going as far as aiding the Defense Forces at the north—though that rarely happened historically for some reason.
“For a creature that claims to protect this nation, it sure doesn’t lift its finger in times of strife like this,” Alexa complained. “It would have been so much easier to put the rebels down if I could terrify them by deploying the Sun Dragon.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Even if you had control of it though, it’s never allowed to attack fellow Lotharingians.”
“You’re right. Still, I wish it could do more, at least.”
“Pfft, it’s as if you don’t even respect a majestic great creature that formed the bedrock of our nation. I swear, this war is really getting through your head.” Adele patted Alexa’s head again. “As I’ve said, please calm down and think this through. Even if things are shaky right now, your actions are already getting us in the right direction enough.”
Then, Adele leaned close to Alexa’s ears. “You have us with you. You don’t need more than that.”
“...Right. You’re right.”
The faces of the people Alexa worked closely with, even the military officers that she had never once talked to before, flashed before her. All this time, she had been doubting her abilities greatly, yet all these fine people followed her anyway. Perhaps, she shouldn’t be too hard on herself.
Instead, she just needed to trust herself more and be more confident and bold in her decisions.
+++
“The enemy sent envoys to negotiate with us.”
Alexa nearly dropped her morning tea after hearing Wilhelm’s report. They were still having breakfast, which was essentially nothing but bread, coffee, milk, and tea, essentially the same thing that other officers were having for today. Alexa wanted to rush through it because she was going to have to make another one of her routine morning speeches for the people of Lotharingia, who must be itching today to hear another piece of news and words of encouragement in the midst of this crisis.
Now that Wilhelm said that, however, Alexa stopped. “What? Envoys? Negotiate?”
Alexa placed down her saucer and teacup on the table, planting both her hands on the desk as she looked at Wilhelm with wide eyes.
“Wilhelm! Our compromise. You told me that if you break them enough that they’ll negotiate, you’ll give me a chance to do so.”
Phoebe, who was still sleepy while sitting on a wooden chair on the side of their tent, immediately perked up too, shocked.
“Sir Wilhelm…” Her soft voice was full of hope. “Is this true? Are they interested in peace?”
“I wouldn’t say so, though it’s also somewhat close to that. To make things short, they’ve given us a list of demands.”
That made Alexa pause in her outburst. Then, she calmed down, sitting in a defeated manner. “Demands, huh? I see…so it’s not…that…”
“It can be partially that, though; it depends on our response.”
Wilhelm produced a piece of paper, handing it to Alexa. Summarized within it were the following eight points.
“As a prerequisite to ending hostilities, we demand:
- A general amnesty for all those who are involved with the Free Republic movement—including soldiers, officers, workers, bureaucrats, and the leadership of the Free Republic.
- A national referendum, with all adults aged above eighteen given one vote each, on whether the monarchy shall remain before the crown princess, Alexa Theresa von Wolgast, is crowned.
- A national election, with all adults aged above eighteen given one vote each, to determine the makeup of the Imperial Diet.
- A new constitution, under which the supremacy of the Imperial Diet over the crown is ensured. It shall be drafted and ratified by the Imperial Diet after an election described by our third point.
- An assurance from the next sovereign—should the monarchy remain—of complete non-interference in matters of state and government.
- A forced seizure of lands owned by the nobility that are otherwise unused for agriculture or are undeveloped, which shall be sold to the general public in a free and fair manner.
- A complete removal of all barriers to education affecting those of non-noble birth, outlawing all schools and universities from barring commoners from entry.
- A general mobilization of the continent against the demon horde, to ensure the enforcement of peace and security for the good of the people.
Should these terms be met, we shall peacefully lower our arms for the good of the Lotharingian people.”
Alexa read the terms aloud so that everyone in the room could hear them. It was quite a peculiar set of demands, one that Alexa didn’t really understand much. She wondered if that Henry guy authored it. She did understand a few points, though, such as the votes part, which she was familiar with because of her original world.
But I’m not sure about the non-interference part. Alexa mulled over that point. If I’m the Empress, shouldn’t I have the right to rule the people to the right path?
It sounded a bit weird in Alexa’s mind, though; she supposed that since she wasn’t an expert about this, she’d ask Wilhelm about it.
“Wilhelm,” Alexa’s voice was curious. “What do you think about it?”
“What do you think about it?” Wilhelm said. “I believe that before your advisor should say anything about it, we should know first how you feel about it.”
“It is absolutely preposterous,” Adele suddenly spoke up from behind, fuming in anger. “That piece of paper is essentially asking to disband us nobles. I can’t let my family lose our lands! It doesn’t matter if that land is unused. What about me or those who will come after me? What if we want to develop it one day? They might as well just rob our properties from our cold dead hands!”
She crossed her arms, shaking her head.
“It’s unacceptable. Maybe the other terms are fine, but that one cannot stand. I’m sure everyone else will say so. My family will say no, Alexa, all your peers will say no; in fact, everyone in the capital I know will say no.”
Wilhelm nodded at that. He turned to Phoebe. “What about you?”
“I…I don’t really have skin in the game,” Phoebe said. “And a lot of terms are strange to me. Sir Wilhelm…what is a ‘constitution’? Oh, and I do like the idea of votes. Doesn’t that give the people choices? Isn’t that what we promised?”
“Hmm…now that you say that, I did say that I’m on the side of the people all the time,” Alexa said. “But what does this really mean? It feels like I’m going to be so weakened by this. But I am tempted.”
Alexa’s lips formed a thin line. “After all…if this brings peace, I’d rather let go of some of my powers than let people die.”
For a brief moment, the words on the pages of the original Iron Saintess novel flashed in Alexa’s mind. She already saw what would happen if she would cravenly try to hold onto her power without the people—a razor dropping on her head. It was enough to make her feel cold.
Wilhelm nodded along before leaning back into his chair.
“Well, let me all give you my views about it. I don’t really care either way if we accept this or not, as, like Phoebe said, I have no personal skin in the game. I won’t lose anything or gain anything here, and I have measures to keep Alexa in control no matter what.”
“Wilhelm?”
“But…in the long term, what this means is that you, Alexa Theresa, if you accept all of these terms—you’ll be no different from those revolutionaries. You’ll turn the Imperium upside down. and this nation will be unrecognizable to those before you. Are you ready to do that, to save lives, as you say?”