The next enemy is Roselle, a great power.
　Speaking of rotten great powers, Gilbed and Fardham...

　The Roselle Kingdom is a superior power that is not corrupt.
　It's not an opponent that can be used in the same way as before.

　In order to fight the Roselle Kingdom, a secret meeting was held in a room of the royal castle.
　The members were the familiar: me, Bartolo, Alexios, Ial, Raimondo, Ron, Rosward and Gram.

　''Well, I think it's a little easier than the earlier war where we took on multiple countries at the same time,''

　Bartolo says aloofly.
　He's as comfortable as ever. Well, it's true that....

　'One enemy, that's certainly easier to understand, but...'

　On the other hand, one enemy cannot be cracked.
　One-on-one combat.
　This is hard.....

　Bartolo, are you confident that you will win a hundred battles out of a hundred?
　'No well you can beat most opponents if there's an equal number or more, right?　I can't guarantee that it's against General Clue, either... but to begin with, the opponent is the great nation of Roselle.
　I know...

　So far, they have won by preparing more troops than the enemy's numbers.
　Moreover, since it was Bartolo who was leading them, it could be said that they deserved to win.

　But from now on, it was the higher-ranked Roselle Kingdom.
　A certain victory cannot be guaranteed.

　So if that's the case........

　I guess we'll just have to divide the enemy.

　Ial muttered in a blur.
　Well, there's no other way to do it.

　Divide it into a small number and defeat it one by one without fail. That's the only way.

　Then how do we split them up........
　No, the question is where to divide it and where to divide it in the first place.

　The Roselle Kingdom isn't as strong as our country, but the king's power is quite strong.　
　On top of that, the unity of the Gauls should have been strong, but.......

　'How about we drag Merlin, the witch of example, out and have him start a political war?　

　Raimondo suggested.
　Hmm, Marilyn........well, it seems that Marilyn has quite a few allies in the Roselle Kingdom, and if that guy returns to the Roselle Kingdom, there will be a political dispute or two.......

　I don't think Marilyn is going to do us any favors.

　I mean, I don't want her to get stronger by releasing Marilyn poorly.
　That woman's spell is nothing short of troublesome.

　And besides, Marilyn and General Clue are a set....
　I want General Clue to fight in the north, as he has been doing.

　So it's the Adelnians.
　'Well, I suppose that's fair enough. And it seems that the Adelnians under Roselle's rule are ruled so harshly that they are known even in Pofenia to have been dropped off by serfs and used as servants.

　Alexios smirked.
　As usual, he seems to be fond of this kind of ill-natured strategy.

　''But unlike the nobles and tycoons, isn't it difficult to incite slaves, serfs and peasants to revolt?
　I don't take people for their status or money and...
　It's not very coherent to begin with...

　Ron, Rosward, and Gram say to each other.
　The three of them are right, creatures called slaves and serfs rarely revolt in the first place.

　For example, during the Edo period in Japan, there was a revolt.
　That was not a rebellion.
　It was just a demand for lowering the annual tribute, a type of riot.

　At least let's pull down the generals and the emperor and start a revolution and do our own politics!
　It was not a thing that happened for the purpose of such a thing.

　Well, not necessarily in the case of the revolts of the Warring States period.

　The same is true of the refusal to do military service in our country.

　Rebellions and revolutions require a certain ideology, a leader, and a core population.

　For slaves and serfs, following the ruler is as natural as things falling from the top to the bottom.
　Of course, there is no ideology.
　Nor is it likely that a charismatic leader will conveniently emerge.
　And the core mother does not exist either.

　There is no way for rebellion to occur in this situation.

　Nobles and great families are turned over rather easily because of the security of vested interests, status, and gifts.

　''As I recall, the Roselle Kingdom didn't have much of a developed monetary economy either...''

　As the money economy spread and the people became reasonably wealthy, they became more interested in politics, rights and law.
　However, under the rule of Roselle, Adelnians lived in such a way that they did not even have enough money to eat that day, and they had no time to spend on money.

　They were so busy living their lives that they couldn't afford to rebel because their lives were not affluent.

　Hmm, that's pretty hard to do.

　"Then I guess we'll just have to wait for one more famine to occur.
　Do you want to curse him?　If you ask Lady Julia....
　'A curse... hmmm...'

　Raimondo's suggestion is not a bad one.
　A famine is not something that will wait for you to come, and if possible, it will make it easier to take military action if it happens at our own timing.
　But..........

　Curses that cause crops to wither or become diseased, lowering the harvest rate and degrading the national power of the enemy country are risky.
　As they say, if you curse a man, you get two holes, and curses are easier to bounce back than they are to cast.

　Even a top-notch sorcerer, if they witness your name, the type of curse, and the sight of you casting the curse, a third-rate sorcerer...no, even if you're dealing with someone like me who has absolutely no knowledge of the art of spellcasting, there's a risk of failure and a painful counterattack.

　In fact, since countries have started to take countermeasures against curses, all countries have refrained from curses for fear of retaliation.
　Well, it seems that the small western nations have been doing it to each other.

　A curse on a national scale can only be done with the confidence that it will never bounce back.

　If it's only a gil bed, I think we can succeed if we mobilize Yulia and the other spellcasters of our country.......
　The opponent is the Kingdom of Roselle, an advanced magician's kingdom.
　The number and quality of sorcerers are both higher than our country.

　They will certainly bounce back.

　Wouldn't it be best to wait and see what happens, instead of taking the low-profile risk?
　I agree. It's a big country and we can't afford to be hasty.

　Raimondo nodded.

　'We have to wait carefully for an opportunity.
　The important thing is not to miss the opportunity.

　Then, after discussing the foothold and actions to be taken in case of a famine, the topic of conversation turned to the route of our march to the Kingdom of Roselle.

　''The problem is the country of the Northern Gilbed King. Do we attack him or do we miss him?

　The Land of the North Gilbed King.
　It is a puppet state of the Kingdom of Roselle that was born out of a compromise between both the Kingdom of Roselle and the Kingdom of Romalia in the last war.

　Our country had no intention of trading with the Kingdom of Roselle at the time.
　The Kingdom of Roselle did not want to share its borders with the Kingdom of Romalia.

　As a result, a puppet state with one of the princes of King Gilbed's country was established as a buffer zone.
　Well, probably a puppet of the Roselle Kingdom, the Northern Gilbed King or something like that would be a puppet.

　Maybe he is imprisoned.


　''Ial, do you have any contact with him?''
　'I tried but I couldn't even get a visit. The royal palace is full of Gauls. For the record, I doubt the king is even alive.

　Hmmm....
　It doesn't matter how much money you put into a puppet, it won't matter how much money you put into a puppet.

　Which means..........

　We'll have to take them down by force. So the first target of our attack will be the land of the Northern Gilbed King.

　If the North Gilbed King's country was in a position to move somewhat freely, I would have thought of successfully negotiating and getting them to promise neutrality, and then attacking from the direction of King Fardham's country or King Domorgal's country.

　If we can't get them to promise neutrality, then that thing will only be a thorn in the side of the Romarian Commonwealth to bite into it.
　It needs to be removed as soon as possible.

　'Ial, there are a few Adelnian landowners and great families preserved in the land of the Northern Gilbed King, aren't there?
　''Yes, it's ostensibly an Adelnian country, for one thing. Though it seems that the Gauls of the Roselle Kingdom have taken away our land and rights a little by little and are not happy about it.

　Grin.
　Me and Ial smiled.

　Seeing this, Bartolo, Ron and the others seemed to draw back slightly.

　The Adelnian great families, landowners and peasants, who could not bear the oppression, rose up in arms and demanded our country's help. And they call upon our country for help.
　His Majesty Almus, the faithful King of the Kingdom of Romalia, could not abandon the Adelnians and was forced to go to war. He saved the country of the King of North Gilbed and annexed it by force.
　"And the rumor that King Almus had helped the Northern Gilbed King's country, or the Adelnians, spread throughout the kingdom of Roselle...
　Incite a rebellion, I suppose.

　Yeah, it's a good plot, if I do say so myself.
　Well ...

　"The decision should be made next spring, in February. Ial, by then, will have to go to the great families of King Gilbet's land in the north to make them feel safe. I don't care how.
　Yes, I understand, Your Majesty.

　Ial bows his head deeply.

　''Raimondo, find out the inner workings of the Roselle Kingdom through a secret agent disguised as a sorcerer or merchant lying in the Roselle Kingdom. ''The peasants, mostly.''
　'Yes, I understand. I can do that much myself.

　I've already sent a secret agent, so all that's left to do is sort out the information.
　Even Raimondo, who is getting older and older, can do this well.

　'Bartolo, Alexios, Ron, Rosward and Gram. I want you guys to be prepared for a domestic rebellion and for war with military training.

　""Yes!"

　Well, I'll just go buy some more food through the Cilicia merchants
　We should also have a contract to buy the food at a high price to prevent it from being passed to the Roselle Kingdom in the event of a famine.