The Dragon-Slaying Strategist ~The Heroic Tale of a Certain Swindler~

## Illustrations ## Prologue Scans: Cinderella Translation, proofreading, and polish: Cinderella Release: Dong Jun "The bigger the lie, the harder it is to get caught." Those words were a certain master's famous saying. In practice, a timid person who sets out to lie will always tell the same small lies over and over. I was out drinking with people I didn't know until dawn. I ran into a childhood friend while I was shopping, and the two of us spent ages reminiscing. Say something like that while trailing perfume and rambling on, and even the dullest wife would start to suspect an affair. So on an occasion like that, you tell as big a lie as you can. That was the master's constant refrain. For instance: you saved a princess who was attacked by ruffians in the city. You suddenly ran into the royal capital's household guard, and they made you serve as a road guide for the entire day. You met a dragon in the forest and barely escaped with your life. Absurd as it sounds, the harder the story is to believe, the better it works at a time like that. The more preposterous the tale, the harder it is for the other person to tell truth from falsehood. An ordinary citizen could never know a princess, could never have anything to do with the household guard, and could never go into the forest to confirm whether a dragon was really there. The first time he heard it he was startled, and he thought, how unreliable could this master be? Yet after he left that master, and life forced him to survive on his own, he found those words to be a treasure beyond price. Because this... ## Chapter 1: The Fraud Impersonates a Great Man The girl before his eyes swallowed. Her name was... what was it again? He'd forgotten. Even so, he still remembered that she was the angel who had brought him happiness. The girl, dressed entirely like someone from the countryside, stared hard at him and asked once more. "You really are Lord Eishir the Silver, aren't you?" She had already asked five times, but she was the one who had treated him to a feast, so he could not show a poor attitude. He answered again. "I am. I am one of the strategists of the Council of the Scales from the stories people tell—Eishir the Silver." "I heard that Lord Eishir the Silver has beautiful silver hair." "Hey now. If Lord Eishir the Silver had silver hair to match his nickname, that would be far too blunt. Not a single difference?" "Eh... is that how it is?" "Yes. That's exactly how it is. The azure wolf isn't blue, is it? Look closely and it's gray. And the crimson-lotus bear is a reddish brown in early spring. It isn't a crimson lotus at all." "Ha. That is true." "So there is nothing wrong with Eishir the Silver having black hair. No—it is only natural. It is the philosophy of nature, the will of the gods, the working of fate." "...I see. Put that way, I understand. If Lord Eishir the Silver's hair were silver-white, that would be the strange thing." "Okay, okay. Good that you understand. Someone like me, to begin with..." ## Chapter 2: The Fraud and the Princess About a thousand years ago, the tyrant-king Akam, who had once unified the continent of Seresnia, died. With the end of his cruel tyranny, the people of every land rose in revolt. They rose not only to win their freedom, but, more importantly, to win the right to go on living. Such was the cruelty of Tyrant-King Akam's rule. What followed was a war of liberation lasting decades. The blood it spilled was a hundred times what had flowed when the continent was first unified, and the fighting ended only after every ill had been cleared away. Yet that war plunged the continent into misery. The ruinous turmoil left indelible scars on the hearts of those who survived. The tyranny of a hegemon who held overwhelming power. The wars fought, after the tyrant's death, to seize the place of the next hegemon. And the blood shed to cast that next hegemon down. The people of that age were long sick of these meaningless wars. From the bottom of their hearts they prayed that such atrocities would never happen again. Then, among them, those with the will to act joined together and founded an organization: the secret society known as the Council of the Scales. Those the Council of the Scales accepted had to share that same resolve and also possess great ability. In other words, the organization consisted of strategists alone. And a strategist of merely ordinary talent would never be admitted. It was an organization of geniuses, one in ten thousand, devoted to the principle of a small and elite few. Legend said that a strategist of the Council of the Scales was worth five orders of knights in cunning, and... ## Chapter 3: The Old General's Letter of Challenge "You must be weary after so long a journey." The moment they reached Fortress Krukus, Kael was given a room the princess had assigned him so he could rest. He accepted her kindness frankly and said: "Ah, this one is called Ellie. She's my disciple and my servant. She must be tired too. Could you give her a room like a horse stall—one where it wouldn't matter if the feed were set right beside her?" So he asked. Phyllis smiled and answered, "Of course." Meanwhile, before Ellie, treated so carelessly, could get angry, the maids led her off for a bath scented with fragrant oil. Only then did he feel that she was a girl. Kael sighed, lay down on the bed, and began to think about what he would do from here. Honestly, he had followed along on a whim, but was this really all right? He felt himself about to regret it. Kael had successfully passed himself off under Eishir's name back in Monika Village, but he had never truly wanted to be a strategist. His plan for life was to keep misusing Eishir's seal and spend his days swindling money. That, too, was fun. Suppose—just suppose. He stayed here and served as the princess's strategist. He could earn a great deal of money and live a life second in standing only to royalty. Perhaps he might even have a sensual romance with one of the beautiful maids who served the princess. The price was that Kael would actually have to stand on the battlefield, take command, and devise strategy. He tried to picture himself on the field, leading a great army. ".........." In his imagination... ## Chapter 4: Phyllis's Dream Farther north than Ernica lay a kingdom on the northern face of the Gillett Empire. The king of that kingdom solved, in a single year, a problem that had troubled the country for ages. He brought every clan that had long scorned royal authority under his rule. It was the most stirring feat since the founding of the nation, a historic achievement. Yet the young king who had brought that achievement about did not sink into reflection. He attended a banquet. The banquet was held, of course, to celebrate the pacification of the realm—or rather, it was also an occasion for swearing loyalty to the young king. He listened to the flattery of his ministers and clan chiefs as lightly as a passing cloud, then left his seat on the grounds that he "could not hold his liquor." In the Kingdom of Rox, a poor head for drink was something people looked down on. Now, though, no one dared to laugh at him. Were the people gathered at that banquet admiring the young king known as the Dragon-Star King of the North, or were they afraid of him? No one spoke of this small flaw that might stain the king's great work. The king returned to his private chamber and spoke to the person waiting there. "Heh. Drink really doesn't suit me after all. A single cup and I already feel as if I'm about to turn into a fire dragon." "If you cannot drink it, there is no need to force yourself. So far as I know, people who like that liquid do not live very long." "If even you, who have lived for centuries, say so, then it must be right." So answered Volcaus, the Dragon-Star King of the North, and then once more... ## Chapter 5: When a Strategist Is Happiest The Kingdom of Hazan was the neighbor on Ernica's western side. Like Ernica, it was a country founded by one of the Twelve Generals of the War of Liberation. For that reason, and because of where they lay, many people thought of the two as brother nations. Yet few who called each other brothers got along as badly as these two. Since the War of Liberation, once borders the same as the present ones had been drawn, no countries quarreled as often as these two. Hazan, for example, produced fine rock salt, but the Kingdom of Ernica hated importing it from there and ended up paying a great price to bring rock salt in from far away. Hazan had problems of its own. Unwilling to use the central trade route that crossed Ernica, it moved its goods along trade routes it had built itself. Merchants from other countries complained bitterly. Even though that road cost a great deal more time, no one dared suggest to the Kingdom of Hazan that it be changed. After all, the two countries had been on very bad terms since their founders. "Both of the Twelve Generals" sounded well enough, yet even then their relationship had already been as hostile as fire and water, and that tradition had lasted to the present day. And so, for these reasons, the two nations never stopped quarreling over the border. Even in a single year there would be several large battles, and within ten years a war on the scale of a pitched campaign. That had already become the ordinary state of things. And so the King of Hazan, word of whom had come yesterday by messenger... ## Afterword Hello. It's been a long time—I hope I may put it that way. I am Ryosuke Haneda. Two years ago I published a book called Risshoku Fantasy with Famitsu Bunko. This time, I have at last been fortunate enough to bring out a book in a second series. It is all thanks to the readers who have supported me all along. Allow me to say this. "Thank you, truly—!" And to Editor K, who gave everything for this publication, to the illustrator Marimo-sensei, and to everyone else: thank you, truly. I had published a book before, and I already knew that a book truly involves a great many people. Only this time did I learn that the work was filled with even more of everyone's kindness than the last. Especially this time. It was taking the story posted on "Let's Become a Novelist" and publishing it, so I could receive readers' impressions and encouragement directly. Thank you all, truly. A reader's impressions are a writer's nourishment! I can say it outright: receiving readers' thoughts is a truly happy thing. In fact, I have carefully kept a fan letter I received in a safe. (Thank you, S from Hokkaido!) If I keep writing thanks, I'm afraid the afterword will run out of pages. The secret story of how The Strategist Who Slays Dragons came to be, and the dull little anecdotes, can wait for another time. This book does have the outline of several volumes in mind. I pray that the next volume can be published, so please let me stop here for now. November 2015 Ryosuke Haneda Postscript Phyllis...