Two weeks have passed and the royal capital was completely occupied by Lushak and his rebels.
However, Lushak did not take the throne.
He chose a young noble with so royal blood who was easy to manipulate behind the scenes and he himself beca a duke after he took over all the real power.
The reason why he didn’t take the throne himself was simple: there were still many of Kashak’s lieutenants left, and there were probably so who advised him against it.
He only occupied the royal capital, but he did not bring the entire territory of Carthage to its knees.
Of course, the powerful nobles of the royal capital, the dukes who had tried to escape, were captured or taken hostage, or even killed in so cases.
If the na of the Carthainian dynasty is kept alive and soone from the Carthage royal family is put on the throne, it will be the Kingdom of Carthage anyway.
If he could gain so many benefits by not taking the throne, he would have had no choice but to accept it.
How to completely defeat Carthage in this situation?
Just overthrow the central governnt.
The local aristocrats have not really given their approval to Lushak.
If only the central governnt seized by Lushak disappeared with the fires still burning around it, there would be rebellions in many territories to seize that power, as the entire country would be beset upon one another.
The country is in a state of turmoil where each region is fighting against the other without centralization, and without a true king, the country cannot be united.
At the mont, Lushak has taken control of the royal capital and is sohow promoting the idea of a unified country, but as soon as he is gone, Carthage will be divided into four sides.
If that were to happen, there was no way the surrounding countries would leave Carthage alone, supporting the various factions inducing a proxy war, ultimately till the country is so weak soone will be lay claim to the remains.
They would not miss this chance to gradually subjugate Carthage’s territory by destroying it individually while their own people were fighting among themselves.
Then they will fight each other for more territory, and the entire southeastern portion of the continent will not be interested in Aquitania as they’ll be to busy fighting this war.
Once the rear is secure, I will be able to deal with Visigoth and South Lunan without worry.
The hill overlooked the gates of the royal city, where the head of the king who was killed while fleeing still hung.
Fortunately, Serena had been sowhat relieved of Dofle’s death in two weeks.
Her familiarity with the land had been very helpful.
"What do you intend to do now?"
"I’m going to kill duke Lushak."
"Duke Lushak...?"
"He’s proclaid himself a duke now."
I answered and she suddenly knelt down.
"Is such a thing really possible? If you can kill Lushak...if you can avenge my father’s enemies, I will have no regrets even if I die!"
"I’m not killing him to avenge you, Your Highness. It’s for Aquitania’s sake."
"I will do whatever I can to take revenge!"
She’s not even listening...
"Your Highness, I understand. Please stand up first. This is not sothing to get down on your knees about."
When I tried to help her up, Serena made a thoughtful gesture and then opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind about sothing.
"His Majesty is dead and I am a fugitive from the royal palace, so I am no longer a queen. I’m just a sinner who couldn’t save her husband or even her father..."
Actually, that’s what I was hoping for.
I need help, and capable people are always welco.
"I will help you get what you want, if Your Highness makes up your mind regarding what we talked about."
"Decide? I’ll do...anything. I will obey you."
Serena smiled and said so, dimples forming on her cheeks.
Over the days that passed we first made idle small talk, then i cleared up many of the blow out rumours she’d heard with the truth, and more recently i’d offered her a place in exile within the nation i was forming, not as a queen or anything but as a free woman where should could do anything she wanted.
"You will work for as a part of Aquitania. You said you would do anything, and you will live up to that commitnt."
"I, I’m going to...beco a mber of Aquitania...? But I have no talent whatsoever. Why should I be...!"
You don’t have to say that much.
In terms of talent, your basic attractiveness value is high enough to be a trump card in a civil war.
Attractiveness is a hidden ability that is not displayed separately, but if it is high, it will not lower public sentint when conscripting or collecting taxes.
It also has an effect on developnt and agriculture.
Even one more such person would have a considerable positive effect on the country and Aquitania was currently experiencing a serious shortage of manpower.
"Not to toot my own horn, but...I beca queen because of my face, not my talent. And I’ve never accomplished anything on my own, only helped my father implent the policies he wanted."
"Is that so? I think there’s another talent you ntioned in your story."
Serena was too stunned by my words to continue.
A few seconds later.
"I don’t know about that...talent, but I will follow Master Julius regardless of whether I am a mber of...Aquitania or not. My dream was to travel the world and live freely and at this mont, I have already fulfilled my dream, because I’m looking around the world with Lord Julius like this. That’s why I feel so at ease now. I want to shout that I am free!"
"Then I will treat you as a subordinate from now on. Is that clear?"
Not really but gotta start sowhere right?
"Yes, of course!"
She nodded loudly.
With a slightly exaggerated gesture.
"If you’re so determined, I’ll give you a quick order."
As I said this, Serena straightened her posture and looked up at with a tense face.
"Shout."
She looked at with a surprised face when I ordered her to do so.
"We’re the only ones here now. You have a good view of your father’s burial place and the royal palace. You can give it your all here."
"...Yes."
She did not cry in the face of her father’s death and tried her best to suppress her emotions.
At first, it seed as if she could not accept his death.
Later, after she hugged the tombstone and admitted his death, she showed her endurance again and again, either because she missed the timing or because she could not take revenge.
But she couldn’t keep doing that forever.
She nodded at my words and looked around.
Then she scread at the top of her voice.
After calling out the na of her father, the man she loved most in this world, over and over again, she finally started to cry.
I was not going to stop her, she should cry as much as she wants now.
And being that I’m the one who made her cry i lent the poor girl my should upon which she could let those tears fall.
***
It was quite complicated, though.
The only way to defeat Carthage without using troops was to invest ti.
After all, causing the periphery to explode is the surest way to bring down a puppet regi.
Especially if there’s a good cause involved.
Luckily for , I had one, a forr queen who could claim the pretext of carrying on the will of the king who had ruled Carthage for so many years.
Just as I had hoped, Lushak was out of control.
After all, his humanity was the worst of them all.
In less than two weeks, he had begun to oppress the people around the capital.
Dozens of villages near the royal capital disappeared one after another.
A puppet governnt is more vulnerable to a cause, and it is the people’s will that reacts to it.
A country that disobeys the will of the people cannot function normally.
If the value of the people’s spirit falls below [10], it will turn into a mob and cause a civil war.
If I could manipulate the sporadic civil unrest, it would be enough to drive out Lushak and create anarchy.
Then, I could kill two birds with one stone by using the anger of the people to gather the people of Carthage and bring them back to Aquitania, and we could secure their ships for the voyage as well.
It was also a chance to increase the population of Aquitania, in fact, this was my original purpose.
The most important thing I can obtain from Carthage is population, not it’s ships.
Our current population is 2.05 million and there was still room for more as Brinhild was quite large, and the fields we’d sown could easily feed that number and many more atop it.
The larger the population, the more money it would cost, but more troops could be trained, and the more hands to work the fields, forges, and crafting huts.
Visigoth is full of monsters and I could no longer solely rely on points, so I needed an army that could fight on equal terms.
I’m going to move the people of Carthage to Bridget since the battlefield will be there.
My plan is to convince them that we share the sa cause of overthrowing the puppet regi and guarantee them a stable life after explaining to them the bleak reality of the region where the war will take place.
It’s pretty selfish, but it’s the only way.
Public sentint and population are part of conquering this ga, and it’s a way to save my life.
Honestly, my life is the most important thing.
I’m not from this world, and I don’t have any justice or cause in mind.
I just have the will to conquer this ga.
In any case, it’s easy to manipulate the people’s minds to create a civil war.
Originally, the public sentint in Carthage’s capital was reasonably stable at 70.
Thanks to the diocre king, the aristocrats hadn’t made any significant policies other than fighting for power, so they had been able to maintain the 70 figure.
However, within two weeks after Lushak ca to power, public sentint had dropped to 30.
It only needs to drop another 20 from there.
Right now, there was not yet enough unrest in the numbers to cause a civil war, only a few voices of discontent here and there.
I had to manipulate the civil unrest and give it a powerful edge.
I needed to infiltrate the governnt to persuade the citizens to beco my people after denouncing and overthrowing the puppet governnt.
Without an army, I would have to use the will of the people to overthrow this puppet regi.
Furthermore, I was confident that I could lead the rebellion to success, not failure.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t take out Lushak on my own.
There was no one who could stop for at least half an hour but that would not be the people’s will.
There would be no reason for the people of this country to follow .
I need a good reason to make the people of other countries follow .
Population is power, that’s why I was going to infiltrate the largest village in the area.
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