The Blue Road Home (10)

Although I had never visited them before, there are three countries south of the small states.

The country in the middle is Dolbogarde, where I am now, with Siglea to the east and Radlenia to the west.

Ah, no—strictly speaking, there is also another small island nation in the southern sea, but that can wait for now.

Now, Dolbogarde, Siglea, and Radlenia are not particularly large countries, but each has a major distinguishing feature.

First, as I mentioned before, Dolbogarde is a country that prospers through maritime trade with the east.

It does not rival the Republic of Vilestrica, but it wields considerable influence over the distribution of goods in the surrounding countries.

Next is Siglea to the east. Because it borders the Man-Eating Great Marsh, a dangerous region, it has built up considerable military strength to combat monsters.

In that respect, it could be called a country much like Baadas or Olotenan, which lie north of Siglea.

Another of Siglea's notable features is its fame for producing high-quality marble.

Marble is said to be a treasure bestowed by the Fertility God. It is particularly in demand among church circles and is apparently exported to other countries as one of the pillars supporting Siglea's finances.

Finally, Radlenia to the west has the smallest territory of the three, but is probably the most prestigious.

That's because Radlenia is home to the headquarters of the church, a religious organization spread across the central continent that teaches the doctrines of the Fertility God.

To begin with, Radlenia is ruled not by royalty or nobles, but by the pontiff and the priests.

Moreover, since the government is funded by donations from the faithful, Radlenia has no taxes—at least officially.

It was a country—or rather, a place—built on a system I found rather difficult to understand.

I got off the ship at Dolbogarde because I judged it the best place to objectively assess the current state of the central continent.

Logistics is not simply a matter of goods moving; it also involves the merchants who transport them and the movement of people.

Those merchants carry not only goods, but information as well.

If so, the best choice would really be to go to the Republic of Vilestrica, which is even more adept at logistics than Dolbogarde... Unfortunately, that country is in the midst of turmoil, so any information gathered there would inevitably lack an objective perspective.

Therefore, Dolbogarde, the country's second-best in logistics, is currently the best place from which to survey the central continent.

The turmoil began with Zieden, a new great power created by the unification of Zaints and Jideel.

Zaints and Jideel had a history of repeated skirmishes with the Kingdom of Rudria and the small states, so both had been wary of Zieden's birth.

Before I traveled to the eastern part of the continent, I vaguely remember that the Kingdom of Rudria was rushing to build forts along its border with Zieden, while the small states were preparing to mobilize their troops.

The ostensible reason for the unification of Zaints and Jideel was to oppose the threat posed by the plundering nation of Darotte.

Thus, everyone apparently assumed that the newly formed great power, Zieden, would fight either the Kingdom of Rudria, the small states, or Darotte.

But when Zieden gathered troops and raised an army, it invaded—of all places—the Duchy of Karkoym.

The Duchy of Karkoym had maintained its neutrality by successfully cultivating friendly relations with various countries, and had worked to preserve stability in the central continent.

Naturally, because the Duchy of Karkoym had friendly relations with both Zaints and Jideel, the invasion came as a bolt from the blue, catching it completely off guard.

At the same time, Darotte sent a large force against the small states, capturing the Kingdom of North Zair, the northernmost defensive bulwark of the small states.

There was probably some secret agreement between Darotte and Zieden, but as a result, the small states could not intervene in the conflict between Zieden and the Duchy of Karkoym, while the Kingdom of Rudria, which had built forts and was lying in wait, was likewise unable to react on the spur of the moment.

Thus, Zieden invaded the Duchy of Karkoym without paying much heed to its defenses, and rapidly occupied its entire northern half.

The move made by the Duchy of Karkoym, faced with losing half its territory and driven into a desperate position, was to appeal to the Republic of Vilestrica for protection.

The Republic of Vilestrica's aversion to sharing a border with a great power is obvious from its handling of former Paurogia, now Giatica.

If the Duchy of Karkoym were swallowed up by Zieden, the territory of the Republic of Vilestrica would be threatened as well.

To survive, the Duchy of Karkoym sought the Republic of Vilestrica's protection, even if that meant becoming a vassal state, and its request was accepted.

To put it simply, Zieden, which had expanded its territory and become an even greater power, and the Republic of Vilestrica, which led two vassal states, came to face each other in a direct standoff.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Rudria, now completely caught between those two powers, could not afford to remain silent either.

If it made enemies of both, it would be completely hemmed in and gradually, if slowly, be bled dry.

Meanwhile, in the small states, voices calling for the restoration of the ancient Azuedda Empire are reportedly growing louder as a means of countering the threat of Darotte, whose power is growing.

That would mean the birth of another great power, formed by uniting the city-states within the small states.

As the headquarters of the church organization, Radlenia is desperately calling for mediation in the turmoil that has erupted in the central continent, but so far its efforts have borne no fruit.

No—or perhaps it is precisely because of those calls for mediation that the turmoil has been limited to this scale.

...The central continent I was about to travel through had become such a place—one I knew, yet did not know.