By the Sun's Side 3 - (Re:Zero, SI)

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Prisca Benedict was not a pushover. Nor a doormat.

But she was a cautious girl. And one that knew how precarious her position truly had gotten.

Being one of the youngest children of the former Emperor of Vollachia, Prisca had been coddled a lot, both by her father and by some of her siblings.

So, while she had been given many advantages in life to hardly feel threatened or in peril beyond the usual assassination attempt from those that sought to lessen the pool of competitors for the Imperial Selection Ceremony, Prisca was aware she was ill-prepared for this war.

She had thought herself fine to wait a few more years, but her father, for some inanity she couldn't fathom, had decided to die at such inopportune circumstance. And foolishly so.

Prisca had... loved her father. He had been a strong and ambitious man. But he was deeply flawed in a way that had cursed the Empire to conflict with his desire to produce heirs based on quantity rather than quality - someone would turn out the right one! That sort of mindset disgusted her, but she knew better than being too impetuous with her own thoughts.

So, she waited, she rolled with the opportunity and... right now, she was tempted to say she was gambling a lot more than just some prestige.

Faradar was an unfamiliar land to her, and yet her only servant spoke of it as a most reliable area to set up her new base - going home was no longer an option, not when there was no loyal servant waiting there for her to return.

Prisca thus gave John Bukharin, once the owner of a food stall turned into her personal chef, to handle the negotiations. And the way he spoke further enabled her to see how her brother, Vincent, may have not picked him just out of convenience and that, perhaps, he had seen more than just a vendor.

The girl could tell this much as he spoke so intensely of some details that should not be known to non-royal elements, but he argued he was able to acquire this knowledge through his land's 'fairer' laws. In his own words, his home had created a degree of equality that allowed most to pursue higher reaches of wisdom and awareness.

It sounded such a foolish endeavor, but she could see how quantity here was necessary. Quality couldn't be expected by the nobility, she didn't even need to look too deep in the past to remember that foolish brother of her that tried to lick their father's boots for praise, only for the Sword of Selection to burn him to ashes before her own eyes.

So yes, creating a literate class from non-nobles sounded like a smart way to reorganize the aged bureaucracy. It wasn't going to be easy, but she signed down that as a possible reform to implement in due time and... there were more pressing issues on the matter.

Such as John adopting a very peculiar approach. He didn't stick to either sides of 'fearing these folks into submission' or 'trying to bribe them into submission', but rather he played a mixed game.

"The Civil War will bring on the worst scum around. They will attack this village regardless of it being aligned to us. We can offer you all support, shelter, legitimacy and protection. My lady, Prisca Benedict, will provide you all with a guarantee that you shall not be discriminated for your 'Evil Eyes'."

Carrot and Stick.

The oddest way to convince someone to join their side, but Prisca was both surprised and pleased that the chieftain agreed without much of a fuss. Not even the villagers appeared too displeased, and some were even happy for this turn of event.

Were things truly that bad to the point that loyalty was so fickle?

Prisca had hardly left the mostly-sheltered walls of the nobles' villas, so she hardly knew of the struggles of the common man - it was beneath her, but if this actually impacted her chance of success, she found the topic suddenly relevant. Hence why she started to nag at John for answers and he provided some exhaustive answers on the matter.

Peasants, especially those located in distant communities, were ambitionless. Thus, they were less inclined to believe in individual pragmatism and were taught to behave on the basis of group's morality. In this case, the survival of their tribe outpaced any potential displeasure they may have in being led by a noble lady.

"Treat them nicely, feed them right, and they will die for you."

Simple and easy, yet not as much. Not when Prisca was given a fairly small room and a fairly smaller bed. Both were the biggest in the shabby building that was meant to be her 'manor' now, but it didn't feel right.

After all, as the future empress, she should ultimately get a bedroom fitting of her needs - but that was going to wait until she had won. And that was... a distant thought.

For now, she just strolled about, tested Arakiya's reflexes and ate good food.

The rest of the burdens? She punished John for giving her such a dreadful living condition despite not having any control about it.

After all, a princess cared not for logic if her whims were not sated.


Noblesse Oblige. These two words are the core concept behind the strategy Prisca has to adopt to win this stupid competition.

Despite her attitude on the matter, Prisca allowed me to take charge of the negotiations that, despite its own attrition, yielded positive results.

The Chief of Faradar Village, a middle-aged man, was quite stunned by our arrival, but rather than push us aside, he seemed most troubled by the news that a civil war was imminent. While some may argue that a smart man would have all the reasons to keep war out of an isolated community, this wasn't a good response to adopt within the land of Vollachia.

If there is an internal struggles among heirs, there will always be a degree of issues for the minorities. Some could easily hole themselves in Chaosflame, the Demonic City that was known to be the only place in Vollachia that had a semblance of equality under their leader, but most could not do that and, by all means, hardly survived the ensuing onslaught.

So, as much as the old man didn't want a prissy little thing like Prisca staying over at his village and potentially boss him around, he knew that this was a chance and, as a man that valued the lives of his citizens, he was also quick to accept the 'most generous' offer of economic assistance.

Prisca didn't see why the people there would not be as thrilled of being paid off, but the issue was less about coins being coins and all about lacking the means to get the cash moving aroung: as an isolated community, Faradar was hardly able to come by in terms of trading. The closest settlement was Chaosflame, and Chaosflame was a pinnacle of self-sufficiency... so yeah, they weren't going to give a fat shit about any requests for trading.

This was a problem, but I had a solution to see it solved as the first week of our stay in Faradar came to an end. All I needed was for two letters to be sent to Chaosflame. One was penned by Prisca herself going over the formal request to open up trading between Chaosflame and Faradar, while the latter was one solely meant for the moody lady in charge of the place.

It was a risky personal letter, but I knew I could leverage two big piece of information to force a deal and more if we were lucky.

Still, an issue came up with that notion: we couldn't just send anyone in the village to handle the chore. It had to be someone personally official. And it wasn't me since I had to 'be punished with hard work for putting Prisca in this dreadful situation' (which was ironic considering she had taken all the pillows from both my and Arakiya's beds to create a little pillow castle in her bedroom: the absolute goblin.

Now, Arakiya had to go and this was... feasible. The girl loathed the idea of departing Prisca's side due to their oath, but the discussion was levied by Prisca herself.

"I can't just send a peasant to handle a job meant for someone worthy of my trust. That's you Arakiya."

"B-But Prisca-"

"I will be fine. As John said and as we can both tell, our current situation in Faradar is a mystery for even our close ally."

That's actually our biggest strength: nobody knew where we were. Absolutely no one. Not even Lamia and, while this was somewhat bad since we could be seen as traitors if we didn't reveal to her our location in due time, we still had a huge advantage over everyone else.

So, with Prisca happily holing herself in her little 'castle' and hardly leaving the safety of the modest-sized building given to us, I would say that there was no genuine threat to worry about.

It took some more convincing, but Arakiya was off with both letters, and Prisca soon needed something.

An assistant, a wrangler, and, by all means, a friend. She tried to be 'watchful' of me after Arakiya left, and it became clear that the girl was starving for attention - stuff that I, a man that was struggling between providing some plans for the few fields of the village, some public works planning for the near future, and getting 'good food' for Prisca to eat could not give to her.

I had to find a replacement for Arakiya really fast, and I found it in the form of the most 'feared' entity in the village - a little girl known as Melty Pristis.

Melty was the most harmless girl possible by her appearance and personality alone.

She had long straight purple hair, golden eyes, and a rather chubby face as she was quite the cheek-pinchable child but... I couldn't exactly poke at her without some precautionssince had been born with a unique ability that made her incredibly dangerous: the Evil Eye of Indoctrination.

Despite its name and its impressive capacity, the ability was not exactly as 'powerful and broken' as those villagers thought as they had the kid put away so that she wouldn't cause any issues. Far away from the village, but still being fed and checked upon by her brother, Salum.

Melty had been blindfolded, but that was hardly going to work considering her ability was not tied to her sight - it was her touch.

While the magic came from the eyes, it was contact with her skin that allowed her to unconsciously manipulate others and thus 'warp reality' by making them believe the best truth for herself.

It was even ironic to find out she existed since she was a 'half-canon' character. Melty was indeed someone from Re:zero, just not from the LN, the manga or the Anime: she was a game character. And one that Tappei had stressed he sought to see introduced within the main story.

I hadn't expected for this to actually translate in her being a thing, but she was there and she was quite the soft little thing. The moment I gave her gloves and confirmed her ability didn't work with her palms clothes, I introduced her to Prisca, told her about her ability and-

"Leave, I shall take care of her myself!"

The door shut on my face as Prisca decided to unilaterally adopt Melty as her second second-in-command. I could already tell some sparks were going to fly by the time Arakiya was back but... I also saw the opportunity to keep the Pristis family whole.

Salum, the pale-blonde-haired and golden eyes brother of Melty, was more than willing to accept the role of my own personal assistant. I paid him in food and being given permission to check his sister regularly and... the boy was a hard-worker much to my delight. He made my burdens easier to carry about as I gave him the stuff I knew he could handle with ease so that I could shave off the 'least worrisome' out of my list.

With the situation somewhat growing more easier for me to manage, I almost forgot that there was a level of unpredictability in how things could escalate through the letters, and the arrival of one through a 'rapid messenger' from Chaosflame put me in a very tense mood.

I read it before Prisca, just so I knew if I had to pack my things and bail as I may have killed off Prisca's childhood friend or... if I may have done worse than that.

Turns out that it was a positive letter - in most part.

As I looked into it, I finished reading with a frown plastered on my face as I delivered the news straight to my lady. I found her resting beside a snoring Melty by her own bed - and it was a most adorable sight.

"John. What is it?"

Groggy and clearly tired, the girl didn't expect news from Chaosflame, yet her worries ceased as I read the first half of the letter to her.

"So, we will be trading soon, this is great. If that's the case you should not be giving me such a ugly look. Spare it for trouble or-"

"Divine General Yorna Mishigure has made her will of escorting Arakiya back to Faradar and meet you."

Prisca paused, her eyes narrowed and then... she froze up.

"A-A Divine General? Ch-Chaosflame is led by a Divine General?!"

"Yes-"

"Why would we need to speak with such people?!" She snapped furiously. "Their loyalty is to those looking mighyt- and I am well aware I am not of that frame, if you can't see it yourself, you utter-"

"She likes kids. Like, she wants to protect them at all costs and is considered a rebellious element to the other Generals," I spoke up, and I saw Prisca's incensed look melt into confusion. "The reason why I sought her out for you was not to give you grief. Rather, she is one of your best chances at countering other Divine Generals."

...

"How- How sure are you that she will join me?"

"Trust me, you two will find many things in common, Lady Prisca."

After all, your mom's reincarnation still remembers you and would not let you die in a dumb war.


AN

So, the full explanation of Prisca and Yorna being connected will come by next chapter. As expected, the place lacks the resources to be made great and the air of war does not help in the current circumstance. Hence why trading is needed and Chaosflame will play a big role in 'shaping' Prisca's mindset for her rule. Especially since the fox mommy that is her reincarnated mom will help about to make sure her girl doesn't mess things up.

And yes, Yorna is single.