Unwavering 6 (Overlord, Zanac!SI)

The life of a Princess can be rough within the society that was the Kingdom of Re-Estize.

Renner had been warned many times by her brother that her burden would be higher than most of the women put in her position, not just because of the relevance her 'existence' warranted in the future power struggle for the crown once their father decided to back down from his position as king, but also due to her unique 'intellect'.

Her brother, Zanac, was able to see it on the spot when she was very very young. Where tutors would just baby-talk to her in an effort to coerce her into being a smarter person than she 'appeared' to be, her brother would outright give her some interesting tests in the form of drawings or even mathematical exercises.

Nothing too difficult and, truth be told, it was some of the most fond memories she had of her childhood. And the one that put the first stone of many that paved the path to the unique love she harbored for Zanac.

When compared to Barbro, Zanac was more 'balanced' as a person. Barbro was loud, demanding and, at times, so utterly dumb. Zanac was smart, but he was limited. He didn't deny that and he actually worked to either make up for his weaknesses or find ways to go around those in the long run.

And yet, as it became clear to a little Renner that her kind brother wasn't as smart as she had the potential to be, he had something that Renner instantly was smitten about: insistence - pure and utter determination to get the right kind of experience to substitute the natural prodigal mind he lacked.

While this may upset some of her 'kind', it actually gave the girl much to think and much to wonder. First, while her role was limited, what stopped her from finding ways to get things done how she planned? Not much in terms of extreme and radical changes, but rather deeds that could add more to her name and to her knowledge.

The orphanage effort was one of those, and albeit her wings were clipped on how far she could go with this initiative, the results were nonetheless positive.

It also added more for her to expand upon as her brother had given her some 'business lessons' before departing for his duty as Governor of E-Rantel. And while the news had devastated her a lot, that didn't stop the blonde from going as far as experimenting on something that relied on an independent source of income.

Renner decided to produce an item that couldn't exactly be taxed too much and which regulations were not truly as oppressive as other items would be. In fact, she pretty much opened a new sub-sector in the huge realm of beverages: apple juice.

And not just normal apple juice, but 'Premium Apple Juice'.

The idea was based on two notions: she could cheaply rely on some of the orchards of the land that her father had gifted her in her latest birthday as a way for her to have 'extra weight on a marriage claim' (even though she doubted her brother would need to be paid to have her as his bride), employ some of the oldest orphan as workers for her little company, and then open up deals with major institutions such as the military academies and other education-based institutions which could gain much by employing a 'reliable quality product' at an 'affordable price'.

In fact, Renner was clever with this business in terms of what laws she could skirt around, with the primary one involving the handling of the price when the process itself was not fully explained. Albeit the description behind the process involved 'the use of skilled producers', the use of a cheap workforce on voluntary basis through the use of smiles and by actually giving care to those workers in the orphanage through 'extra benefits' meant the expense was not on her pocket and that the income she gained was maxed out to the highest expectation.

Three months, and she was proudly sheltering five times the monthly income her father gave her as part of the royal family. All that money hardly used on exorbitant things as Renner cleverly invested in expanding the source of apples, the tools to simplify the job but also add new things to the orphanage to compel more workers within her growing business.

But there was an issue... She had to withhold this information from her brother.

A major sin, admittedly, even more as she realized she forgot to mention Climb to Zanac. Luckily for her, her brother was, as usual, understanding that her pet was more of a silly experiment that got extremely amusing and quite important for her to keep up with.

She found him, she gave him shelter, care, smiles, and even headpats. And then she put him through training.

Renner was not the one handling the combat duties, but the instructors she hired for Climb confirmed her gut feeling had been correct: the boy had potential to be a good protector. And that meant she could secure herself an utmost loyal puppy that could fight off anyone trying to attack or kill her through deceptive means.

"That's still quite ruthless even for you."

Her brother's words didn't wound her. Not at all. But it made her blink in surprise at the hint of disappointment. After all, all of this was to help him and... she could see why he wasn't as receptive of it as she was.

First, she didn't tell him this directly so any other reasons could be taken as the dominant purpose of her plotting, then there was the fact she may have actually lost her head in the fun those projects brought to her. As a person that prided her own mind, Renner had a deep-rooted sense of delight tied to her capacity to be 'right' about things.

After being told many times by tutors and her own father that she couldn't just 'do much' since her role was limited, to prove them that she was more and that her insults amounted to nothing. But still, her brother's words rang some truth.

Renner had let loose of the control she had on her own 'amusement'. And she was terribly embarrassed by it.

Despite this, Zanac still praised her good work about the 'Premium Apple Juice', and complimented the curious way to not create 'work slavery' out of this. In a sense, she had to admit to herself the thought had crossed her mind, but that the idea of crossing the line when her brother had so many times told her not to do so had compelled her to stop.

Hence why her workforce was a voluntary one... since she coerced them to do the work without expecting extra money but just more comforts at the orphanage.

"Still, you need to be careful that someone may try to start their own business to rival yours and, without a doubt, will employ deceit to smear your reputation."

A really worrying element for sure, but one that Renner was already planning to be prepared for.

"Are you really going back to E-Rantel, brother?"

"I am afraid I have to, Renner. The Empire will try their hand soon at another attack and, if I have to be honest, this one may be more severe than the first one."

She huffed. "I don't get why they would be so stubborn on wanting war with us," She argued, trying but failing to grasp what logical reason to create this issue.

The Baharuth Empire wasn't always butting heads with the Kingdom, and the few times they did so in the past it was far more 'decisive' rather than split in multiple annual wars. Her brother's prediction was coming true, there was no doubt about it, but that didn't stop the princess to question the validity of such an idea from the Emperor.

"Two reasons. They want to cause our economy to get dented by the war effort and they want to actually capture E-Rantel since it's a good bottleneck to create a new border. After all, we stopped a large invasion through the limited space for battle we could work with and how concentrated our defenses are."

"So, they just want to... ruin us? Why? What did we do to deserve this?"

"We did nothing to get this treatment, but each Emperor that rise to power tends to develop a new 'grander ambition', so the current one thought 'why not be a jerk to our neighbor' and so we got these wars."

"And how long will those last?" Renner's question was a rare moment of genuine concern.

After all, from the way her brother was introducing this matter, it was clear it would take a couple of years. Years he would spend away from her, years that would be quite upsetting since she could barely be happy without her brother be around.

Projects offered her some distractions, but they were fleeting in their rewards to her mind and ego when compared to her beloved sibling. Plus, how was she supposed to seduce him if he was constantly out of reach?

"As long as the Empire will feel capable or be capable to cause us real trouble in the border. I expect two more wars, maybe three, just to reduce their military to a significant enough level to not pose any further threats to us."

Zanac's words felt reasonable, but it didn't stop Renner from wanting to hug him to the very end, even though it wasn't a lasting moment.

Soon he was gone for his duty once more, and she was stuck with letters again. But as she huffed and puffed over the upsetting empire,Renner thought that maybe she could do something about it.

After all, the Emperor had no successor so... would his death be enough to prevent more trouble~?

My return to E-Rantel was a quiet affair.

I had brought with me a few military engineers that had retired mere years ago to oversee the creation of more fortifications along the border and the implementation of small bunkers to avoid any surprises with potential mercenaries of high level being involved in the upcoming war.

The growing economy in E-Rantel allowed for this to be feasibile, even more since the normalization of Demi-Humans within the city had gotten somewhere positive as some of the local communities had started to outright push for restrictions of human meat.

It was unpleasant but for this to actually happen I had to put a rather unsavory detail to death penalty for treasons: the meat would be handed to the Demi-humans. Horrible, but it was one of the best options I had to come out as 'supportive but also reluctant' to their integration within the current way things were handled with their diet and trade.

Small steps, but the income produced by the city was enough to further expand and also include a few villages within the plans of expansion for the hub to assimilate. The urban development would see a major growth to almost twice the current size, with the opportunity to install an industrial district granting positive projections over the rise of the production sector.

All was going well in those reports as I came back, even more when the drilled troops had doubled since my little stunt with Clementine had warranted many young men to flock at the recruitment posts. The military force manning the fortifications had thus expanded and allowed for several openings among the defenses to be filled up.

No gaps for any sneaky knights, but hardly any of those recruited had the potential to truly do more than be foot soldiers as of now. With the chance of quality Imperial troops being dispatched, it was best to worry that the next skirmishes were going to be still intense and needing some contingencies to prevent surprises.

Speaking of surprises, however, I was greeted by a curious report from the prison in regard to Clementine. Her cell was isolated due to her known attitude, but after a few check-ups from the healers assigned to her, a lengthy report was put on my desk over their discovery.

First, the prisoner was cooperative and naturally calm with just some hints of nervousness. Her behavior lacked any sort of aggression, and while it was originally thought to be an act, further controls by checking her behavior through a secret hole into the rooftop of the room confirmed that Clementine's overall behavior was calm and... she would pray a lot.

What I originally thought was that she experienced amnesia and that this was all the result of a ticking bomb in the making once she remembered what kind of person she used to be, but as I continued to read the paper, I realized this assumption had been tested too.

Clementine remembered, Clementine also knew why she lost and she listed it out without any shame or hesitation and... she showed guilt.

Clementine, the monstrous 9th Seat of the Slane Theocracy, has shown guilt not just for what happened, but her crimes as her praying was to find mercy in all the 'sins' she committed. It sounded absurd to believe, but after a personal visit to see if this was a farce or not, I could personally say that...

I really had smacked Clementine's sense of guilt active after years and years of inactivity. And this was... going to be an interesting development for sure.

AN

Clementine is... remembering things, but she actually got her sociopathy 'smacked' back down to make space for some normal behavior. Yes, Zanac has punched the sane back into crazy one.