Enlightened Empire

Chapter 420: Funerary Festival (2)

As Corco's wife stared back at him through her own mirror across the room, with her enticing eyes, Corco felt impulsive again. Though just as he turned around to continue their previous activities, Sumaci seemed to notice his plans and tried to change the topic.

"Right, let's go over the itinerary one more time, in case you forget," she said as she turned towards him as well. At the same time, Corco walked up to her.

"I never forget anything, my dear student," he said, while holding her hand. However, Sumaci brushed him off and patted his cheek in a cheeky way.

"Well then we should go over it in case I forget," she replied as she turned back towards her mirror. "We really don't have much time left."

"Fine, there's not much to it anyways, right?" Corco walked next to her and continued to fix his robes in the mirror. "I just go out when it's my turn, hold my speech-"

Before he could continue, he was interrupted by Sumaci again.

"By the way, I finished looking over your speech for you," For a few seconds, she rummaged in a dresser next to her, before she pulled out a few pieces of paper and held them towards Corco. "I have marked any problems I could find, but there is not much. I think the best part was the one about sacrifice."

The king started flipping through the speech he had written while he was still on the road, busy gaining control over the estates of the rebellious lords. He had an exceptional memory and plenty of experiences with public speaking, so he didn't really need to look at his own nonsense again. Instead, he skimmed through to check out the nonsense his wife had added for him, especially the sacrifice portion she liked so much.

"'Those dead now lie here, to form the foundations of this house of learning. Just the same, their sacrifice shall be the foundation of our bright future,'" he quoted himself with his head still buried in his own writing. "I wasn't sure I wanted to keep that. It felt disrespectful towards the dead."

"No, I think it's necessary," Sumaci responded. "In the first place, you're not writing for the dead. You're writing for the bereaved, and the survivors of the war. Both need to believe that those people died for a greater purpose, the soldiers and the civilians. Seeing literal foundations under their feet and then imagining the positive impact their sacrifice will have on the future... it's cathartic."

Although he was sure Sumaci was right, Corco still didn't really feel comfortable with his own written words. He would later decide whether or not to include that part in his speech, but he certainly didn't feel like talking about it anymore right now. Instead, he decided to continue going through his itinerary for the day.

"Anyways... after the speech, I just give out the medals, shake hands and shortly talk to all the soldiers who will get their medals in the war. Fadelio is gonna do the details of who gets what, so I just have to pick up whatever is put in front of my nose and pin it onto whoever walks up to me. But at least, I've remembered the names of everyone, so I won't look like an idiot."

"Anyone interesting?"

When Corco looked back up again after skimming through his speech, he saw that Sumaci had already fixed her clothes, so he threw his speech onto the dresser and started fiddling with his own again to catch up.

"Not really. Wait, I think one of the guys called Taki who gets the silver triquetra - that's the highest honor one - blew up a bunch of gunpowder barrels point blank and survived."

"Then we'll definitely have to ask him about his experience later. I want to hear the whole story." Sumaci smiled in anticipation. At the same time, she pulled Corco around by his shoulder until he faced her, before she helped fix his collar.

"Already on it, my dear student," the teacher said and tapped his temple.

For a few seconds, there was quiet between them, until Sumaci stopped fixing his clothes and asked: "Are you sure you're not forgetting anything?"

"I don't think so..." Corco said, though he still mused what he could possibly have overlooked. Meanwhile, Sumaci stood there with her hands on her hips and an annoying smirk of triumph on her face. This was ridiculous! Corco had to defend his honor as a teacher, so he thought hard and finally remembered.

"Oh, right. I still have to open up the music performance, right?"

Since they had planned a funeral that would lead into victory celebrations for today, the transition between the two was difficult to manage. How would one go from somber remembrance to celebration? In the end, Corco had decided to guide people's emotions with some music. After his speech, a performance would start in memory of the dead, and then seamlessly lead into music of triumph. Before people had time to think, they would already be in a much better mood. Only then would Corco give out the awards for the heroes of the war.

While the king was still organizing his thoughts on the itinerary, the queen had already moved on.

"And we should try to look presentable too, while we're at it."

Thus, she pulled a turned over chair off the ground and sat on it in front of the mirror. However, when she pulled out the delicate ivory comb from her dresser, Corco took it from her hand.

"Working on it, noble queen."

For a while, the two were silent, as Corco combed his wife's hair. After a while, he realized that Sumaci was starting to purse her lips in the mirror. Before he could wonder whether he was doing something wrong, the queen complained about something else.

"I still don't understand why we have to let those lords get away. They started a rebellion and now they will still keep control over their territories."

"They're not getting away." Corco shook his head. "They just get a stay of execution until we have enough officials to do all their work for us. For now, we don't have enough as is. Now that the war is over, we'll have some leftover manpower, but those guys will have to enter the new territory to take over the books right away. At that point, our lack of bureaucrats will once again be our main bottleneck for growth. With the books under control and the lords away from home, they won't have much control over their territories anyways."

In fact, the new system of the southern kingdom was far more centralized than Corco could have hoped a year back, despite Sumaci's complaints. After the end of the war, all territories within the southern kingdom would have to adhere to Corco's new constitution, which guaranteed basic rights to all citizens of the kingdom. At the same time, a supreme court would soon be established in Saniya to uphold the law, which meant the courts of Saniya would have judicial power over every estate within the kingdom.

Even more, all lords who hadn't allied with Corco before the lightning miracle would have to leave their territory, to live in a quasi-exile in Saniya, while Corco's own officials would go to these estates. Ostensibly, they would only go there to supervise the lands of the traitorous lords in order to prevent future rebellions. However, without the ruling family present and full access to all papers of the estates, they would wield significant power. After some time, these officials would let Corco control those lands directly. Even more, he had established a system in which the officials at every estate would change once every six months, so his own workers couldn't collude with the locals for money or power and had to stay loyal to Saniya. Still, it appeared that wasn't enough for the queen.

"I mean, I understand that we're lacking men," she said. "Still, we could have already changed the de facto leadership status of the remaining lords to be directly subordinate to us, at least on paper. Those lords could still have continued to govern so long as we are lacking manpower, and then we could have replaced them once they were no longer needed. Now that their old-fashioned rule has been confirmed by you, they have an excuse to stay in power for a long time to come. I doubt they will be dumb enough to make trouble for us again. So we won't get another chance to get rid of them and centralize power completely."

"I don't think we need to," Corco said. "I mean, these guys stuck with us when we looked our weakest. They've certainly proven reliable. And I can't mistreat them, or we won't have any allies anymore in the future. Plus, those guys can use their old influence, especially with the warriors, to help us stabilize the country while we grow. In the future, if everything develops the way I want, those ruling families will disappear eventually, and they'll just naturally lose power, without any conflict and without any problem."

However, apart from the king's allies, there was still one notable exception to the rule, which still seemed to bother Sumaci.

"At least you could have gotten rid of Vareo," she complained again. "Port Ulta was our enemy too, right? Weren't they even more responsible for the war than many of the other lords who got punished? That's where all the arcavian soldiers came from, and all the supplies for Antila. And yet he still gets to rule his city with almost no supervision?"

As she spoke, Sumaci opened the dresser again to pick out some jewelry for the upcoming occasion. Meanwhile, Corco was done with her hair, so he went to the corner of the room, where they had thrown their crowns in the heat of battle earlier.

"Well, Port Ulta wasn't part of the southern kingdom before the war," he explained. "They were nominally part of the central kingdom, an enemy country, so they're free to fight whoever they want. Those are the rules of engagement that me and my fellow medalan kings decided on, at least informally. I could weaken and even destroy those other houses because they broke their oaths towards their king first. I can't do the same with Port Ulta, because they technically haven't done anything wrong, based on Medala's current code of conduct. Plus, we've already lost House Ogulno, since the remainder of the family will probably not go back to Kapra. That also means losing their vote in the elder council back north. Politics in Arguna will be hard enough as is. After losing an ally in the capital, it's a good idea to keep House Vareo around, so long as they support us there. That way, we just replace a vote, instead of losing one."

By now, Corco had come back in front of the mirror and handed Sumaci her crown. Now all he had to do was pick out some simple jewelry for himself and he would be done with his preparations.

"Are those political games in Arguna really so important? We're focused on the south anyways," Sumaci noted.

"That's true, bur only for us. For most Medalans, Arguna is still the center of the world. If we lose our presence there completely, it will be misinterpreted as weakness, which will weaken our influence over the people in the north. And those are my people too, just like the southern kingdom's citizens. Sooner or later, once we have the bureaucratic strength to control them all, we'll have to bring them back into the fold. And for that, we need a good standing with the general populace. That'll make our takeover easier to accept, with less resistance down the line."

"In that case, I didn't say anything. You seem to have thought a decade farther than anyone else, teacher." After her compliment, Sumaci checked both of their figures in the mirror one final time, before she sighed. "I really don't like these stiff occasions. Let's just get this funeral over with, so we can go back home."

Although Corco agreed with Sumaci's mood after half a year on the road, there was something he was even more interested in.

"Talking about home, what's happening in Rasacopa? Any news?"

Since he had been busy with the war here, he didn't have time to check up on the situation in the Verdant Isles very much. However, Sumnaci's shrug told him that there wasn't much to report on.

"Nothing important," she confirmed his guess. "The Blue King Raoman Inkasa has apparently hinted at a peaceful resolution, but he's still in hiding, still attacking our transports like the coward he is. Since he's fled the blue island Palanta, we don't even know what island they're coming from."

"Fucking pirates..." Corco complained, which earned him a nasty look from his wife. If Raoman, the Blue King, was a pirate, then surely, Sumaci, the Green Queen, was one as well. Thus, he simply completed the sentence to save his hide. "...is my favorite thing to do."

Yet somehow, his wife still just stared at him. At least she looked more bemused than upset now. Maybe she was also thinking about their previous activity again, since she started to blush again.

"Sorry, the joke was just lying there," Corco continued talking to himself, and his mouth once more continued the thought before his brain could catch up. "Just like a certain pirate queen."

This time, Sumaci hit him in the shoulder after the reminder of their madness from earlier. Even so, she didn't say a word. Just as Corco was feeling frisky again, and his horniness threatened to ruin their preparations, he was saved by a knock on the door, and a servant's reminder that it was soon their turn to appear in front of the adoring public.

"Oh thank every god, fake and real." In his head, Corco thanked their servant as well, before he turned to his wife, whose face had returned to a regal paleness. "Looks like we'll have to get going. Ready?"

"Of course, my king." she said, a bright smile on her face, the kind he had missed the most throughout his campaign. "Lead the way."

Thus, the couple left the house of learning they had misappropriated, to lead a death celebration party.