Table of Contents
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Table of Contents Page
Chapter 1: A Day in the Capital
Chapter 3: The Underground Library
Newsletter
Color Gallery
Characters
World Map
Chapter 1: A Day in the Capital
Chapter 1:
A Day in the Capital
~Determination and Confession~
WE FORMED UP OUTSIDE the capital in freshly changed clothes, and then entered the city to resounding cheers. No surprise there, considering we had defeated a Demon Commander right after our battle at Finoy. The average Wein citizen would hardly notice if one of the Four Fiends operating abroad was slain, but the commander we’d taken down had been right in the kingdom’s domain.
Just as we had planned, the first and the second knight brigades—alongside their commander, Marquess Schramm—led the advance. Behind them were Mazel and his party, the ones who had actually defeated the Demon Commander. I followed behind them, so if you thought of us as a sports team parading around after a win, I filled the spot of the benchwarmer. I took it as a given that I’d play that role, so it didn’t really bother me. In fact, even in that position I was drawing more attention than I wanted.
Still, watching the crowd wave in adulation as the Hero’s party passed, I couldn’t help but marvel at the gallant picture Mazel and his companions cut. It felt like they were from a completely different world than me, though I’m sure Mazel felt the same way peering into on the world of politics. I guess the grass really is always greener on the other side.
I recognized Lily, as well as a lady knight and her group among the crowd that had gathered to watch, along with a number of Zehrfeld knights standing guard around them. The lady knight had her eyes locked unwaveringly on Mazel. I couldn’t help but laugh. I waved casually in their direction, which had Lily grinning, and for some reason, I felt my skin begin to crawl. Until a little while ago, I had been the one protecting, not the one being protected. Compared to my position in society during all that happened at Finoy, I had now taken up a much more central role. Just when had my status undergone such a drastic change? It turned my stomach.
We drew to a stop in front of the palace, where the king offered us words of praise and presented us with rewards. Considering that Mazel’s party received the largest share of the latter, he really must have worked to balance things out so everyone was satisfied. What remained of the Four Fiends was still out there, as was the Demon Lord, which meant this really wasn’t something you could measure in gold. While the knight brigades covered themselves in glory, it was the hero and his friends who earned tangible rewards.
Since I had been sent to Anheim as a deputy appointed directly by the throne, I was treated as a professional who’d done his job as ordered. As I received my reward, I thanked the knights and the great Hero, Mazel, without whom I could not have succeeded, which was what I knew the higher-ups wanted me to say.
My reward mostly consisted of money, but they gave me a “fine horse” as well, not that I was too happy about receiving one. All the debts I had to repay would eat up the majority of my money, but that didn’t really bother me. I also had to divvy out shares to those who’d worked for me. As the deputy who had asked them to help me rebuild Anheim, that was just part of the job.
***
The banquet celebrating our victory was to be held at a later date, so we all parted ways for the day. Though really, the plan may have changed after His Majesty received a request from Oldman Uwe. He’s really got no shame if he couldn’t even read the room given the circumstances.
“He really just said, ‘I have something to discuss with you, Your Majesty.’ No preamble whatsoever.”
“Yeah. It surprised me too.” Mazel wore a bitter grin as we walked down the hall. Apparently, Laura and Oldman Uwe were still in a meeting with His Majesty and the crown prince.
After we were all dismissed, Luguentz and Feli returned to town. Not that I really minded, but why did they decide we’d all meet at my house? I’d sent a messenger ahead so the staff could prepare.
Meanwhile, Mazel and I had been summoned, so we broke off from the rest of the group. It was just too early for lunch, but the perfect time for a tea party. Not like that would be happening.
“We are Werner Von Zehrfeld and Mazel Harting.”
“Please enter.”
We stepped into a room guarded by knights. I needed to act like a proper viscount, but given how much stronger that knight looked than me, taking such a haughty attitude gave me a stomachache. Then, we came face to face with a man who turned my stomach for altogether different reasons.
“My apologies for summoning you two, Lord Werner, Mazel.”
“No, I apologize for keeping you waiting.”
“It’s been quite a while.”
“There is no need for the two of you to be so formal.”
There was no refusing a summons from Duke Seyfert no matter how much I was dying for a wink of sleep. But for some reason, Chancellor Falkenstein was here too, and only the barest presence of guards. It really felt like we had been personally summoned.
Apparently, Duke Seyfert and Mazel had met right before Mazel accompanied the knight brigade to Anheim, so Mazel’s “quite a while” really just meant half a month. Not like it had been half a year or something since I had seen him either.
“First, let me congratulate you on the results of your hard work.”
“There’s no need,” I said. “Things simply went according to the plan.”
“And all I did was offer a bit of a hand at the end,” Mazel added.
We were led to our seats and served some tea. Then the others were ushered out of the room, and when at last it was just me, Mazel, the duke, and the chancellor, our discussions began in earnest. Thanks to the chancellor, we could speak without ceremony, but that was probably more out of consideration for Mazel than for me.
First, Mazel filled us in on what he had been up to. He had defeated the first of the Four Fiends and three Demon Commanders. The types of monsters he described from his encounters matched what I remembered from the game. The only way this reality diverged from my memory was in the politics of things. Specifically, the king of Fahlritz had tried to convince Mazel to stay in his country by offering him nobility and riches. Mazel had refused, stating that he had no intention of abandoning his quest to defeat the Demon Lord, but it hadn’t been easy to shake the king off.
Apparently, Mazel and his party had chosen to return to the capital before heading to Bauan Island. There, the crown prince requested their aid in the battle to defend Anheim. Given that Chancellor Falkenstein had reacted to this news with, “We are dealing with the matter,” I assumed that they had returned to the capital to have the crown relay their grievances to Fahlritz on their behalf.
It also seemed like His Highness had Mazel remain at the capital until the first fortress was attacked, having determined that his presence would guarantee our victory over the Demon Commander at Anheim. It was a sound decision, I figured, but what would have happened had I failed to lure out Gezarius? I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I really am no match for Werner,” Mazel mused.
“It’s not a competition, you know.”
Though we were in the presence of the chancellor and the duke, I voiced my unvarnished thoughts. I really didn’t want this to be a competition between us. I just wanted him to think through things seriously. Next up for Mazel would be obtaining the legendary armor and facing off with the second of the Four Fiends, then after that was the attack on the capital, which would happen simultaneously with his fight against the third Fiend. We really didn’t have much time. My fear was mounting.
“By the way, Lord Werner, you say events simply unfolded as planned, but are you truly happy to leave it at that?”
Happy to leave my reward at that, he meant. I always thought my efforts would be credited to the crown, so I was happy just getting paid for the job. I let the duke know that without even stopping to breathe lest they get a word in edgewise. Hearing my response, the chancellor and the duke to exchanged exasperated grins.
“If you’re happy with how things stand, then all is well. Though truly, you deserve more recognition for your efforts.”
“It is true I sent you there to defend against the Demon Commander, but even I did not expect you to accomplish so much in so little time.”
O-Oh. So that’s how it was. I had assumed we were working under a time limit, but apparently the kingdom saw things differently. All they expected from me were good old slow but steady measures. So we weren’t on the same page about this. It was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do about it now.
“I just thought it was best we dealt with the Demon Commander quickly.”
“Indeed, however…”
I knew what the chancellor was trying to say. If I simply sauntered back to the capital, more than a few nobles would be upset, especially since my reputation as In-Debt Deputy was even worse than when I’d been appointed to Anheim. I did feel a bit guilty about stirring up such trouble.
“Even if you do not wish for more, you must repay the men who worked for you. The government will deal with it this time, but you must learn to be greedier.”
“Right.”
I knew that well enough. Even if I took all I could, I could just pass it off to the others who had worked hard. Next time, that’s what I’d do.
“Well, now that you’re back in the capital, it’s back to civil official work for you, no two ways about it.”
“Really?” Mazel asked.
I myself found the statement quite strange too. I was certain some people would be demanding that I return to Anheim.
“To clarify, you will need to stay out of military affairs for a while. Your recent undertakings, including leading troops in Triot, have spurred some interference from an unexpected source.”
Just what was he talking about? A moment’s thought had me mentally recoiling. So that’s who he was talking about. I hadn’t been thinking about this, but in retrospect, it all made sense. I’d messed up.
Mazel was giving me a stare, so I decided to clarify the matter out loud. “Do you mean the nobles who fled Triot?”
“Precisely, but that is not to say I am criticizing your actions.”
Duke Seyfert understood the reality of my situation, so he wasn’t blaming me for moving troops into the former Triot domain. Still, it seemed that the Wein Kingdom leading a march against a Demon Commander had led to some unrealistically high hopes.
“It is just a few of the nobles who have been vocal about it, but there have been calls for the Wein Kingdom to assist Triot’s survivors in restoring their nation.”
“So they’re asking us to send troops?”
“Troops, weapons, and provisions. It is likely that you will be appointed as commander when that time comes.”
Oh, give me a break. I don’t have time for that. I was so far at my wit’s end I couldn’t help but clutch my head in my hands, courtesy be damned. The chancellor and the duke looked at me and chuckled.
“We do not yet have exact intel, but given what we know, it is all but certain that you will be nominated. After all, you were able to wrap even a Demon Commander around your finger.”
“There are even those trying to discreetly broker a betrothal between their daughters and the deputy viscount of Anheim.” The chancellor’s words sent a chill down my spine. These guys wore their ulterior motives so obviously on their sleeves that all I could do was laugh. But seriously, they were just refugee nobles from a ruined nation. What gave them the right to look down on me and try to rope me into a marriage?
“Obviously, I’ll be refusing all such proposals.”
“Given you are already engaged, you can’t be off to another nation, after all.”
Huh? That was just a rumor going around Anheim, wasn’t it? I couldn’t help asking for clarification. “Were you the one who spread that rumor, Duke Seyfert?”
“Not I, but your father.”
Now that was a shock. So my father was the man behind the lie. I again wasn’t sure what to make of this information, but I decided to puzzle it out later and focus on the discussion at hand. If only I could think about two things at the same time.
“Once you have proven your worth on the battlefield, such people tend to start gathering around you.”
“It is your prerogative to remain unattached, but it’s important to remember that can be a weakness as well.” Chancellor Falkenstein was once again giving me the same old talk. Oh, so that’s why the chancellor was here. There was no escaping it, so I decided to entertain him.
“It’s not like I’m not engaged because I don’t want to be.”
“Either way, the fact you lack a fiancée means you walk alone. To those who wish to use you, that is all the information they need.”
Once those words left the chancellor’s mouth, Mazel fell into his thoughts with a scowl beside me. Duke Seyfert gave him an approving look. I really wished that people would stop using Mazel as an example to teach me how to be a noble, but considering what was going to happen next, it was probably necessary.
“Have such talks come your way, Lord Mazel?”
“Luckily, no.”
Obviously. He had Laura, second princess of the Wein Kingdom and pronounced holy woman by the church, at his side. The fact someone like her was accompanying him on such a dangerous journey would be enough to make any noble pause to consider the situation; if Laura was by his side, and both the church and crown were behind him, they could hardly think themselves worthy to offer him a prospective bride.
On the other hand, it was safe to assume that Mazel hadn’t received any marriage offers in Fahlritz or in the other lands he had visited because they couldn’t offer a bride of greater standing than Laura. Even if his victory over Demon Commanders and one of the Four Fiends had earned him recognition for his prowess, some would no doubt be less than happy about welcoming him into their noble circles.
That meant the church, in having Laura accompany Mazel, was in its own way keeping rival states getting from their hands on him. This, in turn, meant that the kingdom would owe the church. So that was it. Brazen as it was, I heaved a big sigh and glared at Duke Seyfert. “So I’m staying here in the capital as pest repellent?”
“Precisely. I am glad you are so quick on the uptake.”
The chancellor nodded as Duke Seyfert spoke, but Mazel just watched us. He looked so confused I could practically see a question mark floating above his head. I didn’t want to say this in front of Mazel, but there was nothing else I could do now. “Then the church has their eyes on Lily.”
“Their reasoning is sound. They wish to train her as a nun, for if she masters healing magic, she would be able to aid her brother the Hero.”
“That’s a handy excuse.” I was probably able to say that on reflex only because I didn’t believe in God. I didn’t want them to use Mazel as leverage.
He spoke. “It might not be my place to say this, but even if she started her training now, I don’t think she would ever be able to come with us.”
“That’s not quite it,” I said. “They’re trying to use Lily to get you on the church’s side.”
The Holy Woman was a member of the royal family, so the church and the monarchy had to maintain a careful balance. There was no way the church wanted to pick a fight with Wein Kingdom, so they couldn’t force anything. But that meant that it would only be after Mazel defeated the Demon Lord that we’d find out whether the Hero’s loyalties lay with the church or with the crown.
To put it frankly, the church wanted to claim that the man who defeated the Demon Lord was a holy warrior under the divine protection of God. Laura alone wasn’t enough to bring Mazel to their side, so they wanted to use Lily as a pawn as well.
“I’m really not a fan of this.”
“I hear you.”
It was rare to see Mazel looking like this, but he couldn’t let it get to him. The church’s reasoning seemed to be grounded in their absolute confidence that Mazel would defeat the Demon Lord. But when I began to wonder why this had come now of all times, I realized something else. “Did something happen to one of the grand priests?”
“You’re sharp, Lord Werner. Just as you’ve predicted, one of the grand priests has abdicated his position due to health troubles,” answered the chancellor. I couldn’t help but sigh.
In this world, the clergy was led by a single High Priest, and below him were seven grand priests, and next came priests, then ministers, then the temple guard, and then apprentices. A priest could be the head of a town or village’s local church. The monk class that Erich belonged to existed outside of that hierarchy, so it was a bit more complicated, but since I wasn’t too interested in how the church operated, I didn’t bother to learn the particulars.
The only thing I did know was that if something happened to the High Priest, one of the grand priests would be chosen to replace him. So, it was a public secret that conflict often arose between the incumbent High Priest and his former rivals who’d failed to claim that title. It seemed like something was currently unfolding behind the scenes.
Behind those conflicts was the existence of two rival factions in the church. There were the commoners who climbed their way to the rank of grand priest through hard work and magical acumen, and there were the nobles who had gained their titles upon entering the clergy. The relationship between those two factions wasn’t great, and I could kinda see why.
Not to mention, things became especially complicated when a commoner’s magical prowess allowed them to reach a position that afforded them more preferential treatment than important nobles and the fellow members of their rank. The nature of this muscle-headed world was probably what made so many nobles so militaristic, yet so dismissive of magical talent as to give them only the barest of praise, mixed into a load of condescension.
As a result, it was easy for the relationship between the church and the nobility—or really, between nations—to reach the point of fraying. Since the religion practiced in this world was monotheistic and had no sects, it was easy for the actions of the clergy’s elite to influence the workings of nations. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like there was something amiss in all this.
***
I decided to leave the questions for later. For now, I’d rely on my own brainpower to get to the truth. Whether or not poor health was the real reason behind the grand priest’s resignation, the main issue was who would take his place. How would he think? Which faction would he be from? Would he be the ambitious type? There were too many things to think about.
If the new grand priest just wanted to put the church above the kingdom, he’d probably be satisfied with bringing Mazel over to their side. But if he was aiming to be the next Head Priest, becoming the Hero’s brother-in-law would be a big leg up. In that case, it was possible that it wasn’t a prospective candidate who wanted all that, but one of the current grand priests who’d set his sights on High Priesthood.
Regardless of his position, the instigator wanted to use Mazel as a shield to expand his influence in the church, and one of the seats of grand priest opened right when such a man was in the clergy. Was this really just a coincidence?
In any case, the church had their eyes on Mazel, and consequently, Lily. This relationship chart was getting so twisted it had my head aching.
I had been sent to Anheim because someone was suspicious of my relationship with Laura, which meant that there was a group of nobles who were after her, and that group certainly saw Mazel as someone standing in their way.
From the kingdom’s perspective, however, Mazel was an obvious advantage. Any noble family who could welcome Mazel as a retainer or son-in-law would profit immensely. If any nobles weren’t interested in Laura, they’d want to get close to Mazel. That meant there were two factions of nobles: one that was friendly to Mazel, and one that opposed him.
On the other hand, the church wanted to get Mazel further on their side since Laura was so close with the clergy. Given his victories against the Demon Lord’s forces in particular, there would be many in the church who’d see him as valuable insurance against the throne should Laura ultimately prioritize her family’s interests.
But there also had to be some people in the church who’d rather keep Mazel away from the church entirely, rather than have him side with their rivals in the clergy’s internal conflict. The only problem was that I knew nothing about these factions since I never had any interest in the workings of the church.
To sum it all up, there was a faction among the nobles who supported Mazel, and another that opposed him. Likewise, the clergy’s factions were divided along similar lines. Since my enemies weren’t Mazel’s, this all got more muddled the more I thought about it.
In any case, I lacked information, so for now, the best I could do was to clear my mind and just beware of the idiots plotting on the sidelines.
“So, how do we assess this chaotic situation?”
“Currently, defeating the Demon Lord is our top priority. Would that we could solve all our troubles in one fell swoop, but alas, there is no such method.”
“We shall maintain our current position until an opportunity presents itself. We should be able to solve near half our troubles while we await our chance. And in biding our time, I would like to enlist the help of Lord Werner.”
Biding our time, huh? The balance between powers on the inside had to be incredibly tenuous. While I understood our current situation, I just couldn’t accept it. Such chaos occurring now of all times just felt too convenient. I couldn’t help but feel that there was someone behind this.
But if the chancellor was saying all this, the duke must have judged that this was what the kingdom wanted as well. Of course, he probably already received permission from my father. Now, he just needed me to agree as well.
“Understood. I’ll do my best to help.”
Things had grown more complicated, but that didn’t change what I had to do: keep anyone from interfering with Mazel’s quest to defeat the Demon Lord and drive off our enemies once they attacked the capital. That was all, and I’d do anything to see it through. And considering the kingdom was enlisting my help, they probably didn’t mind me finding my own ways to accomplish that, right?
***
“You thinking about something, Werner?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Mazel sat across from me as our carriage rattled its way to the Zehrfeld residence. His question pulled me out of my thoughts. I had plenty of questions but not enough information to answer them. Just how should I go about researching natural disasters in this world? And what about why I remember all of this as a game? For now, best to turn my thoughts elsewhere.
“Seems like things have changed for the both of us.”
“Yeah, they have.”
Mazel and I shared a bitter grin. This time last year, we had just been students enjoying our school days, but now he was the Hero and I was a viscount. Too much had changed in just a year.
Still, it’d probably be more difficult for Mazel to return to the academy than it would be for me. He was famous, and as long as the Demon Lord existed, that would get in the way of Mazel being a student.
Mazel’s mirthless grin slipped as he sank back into his thoughts. I decided to speak up.
“Don’t think too much.”
“You always say that, but three of the Four Fiends are still out there, not to mention the Demon Lord.”
So that’s what he was thinking about. He was worried about what was happening behind the scenes. I always knew he was the serious type, but jeez was it true.
“Mazel. Don’t let what we talked about today get to you.”
“But even the chancellor was there.”
“It was just a warning. A warning to make sure you didn’t get sucked into this.”
I couldn’t help but shrug my shoulders. It was natural for people to view a “Hero” as a threat, but the kingdom wasn’t trying to get rid of him. While they wouldn’t say it outright, it was clear they were trying to show Mazel that they were on his side. They were being subtle about it, but that’s just how nobles tended to operate.
Rather than poke him, I put out my fist to Mazel’s face. He dodged it. Then, talking the way I did when we were classmates, I said, “Defeating the Demon Lord is the most important job, but I’ve got to leave it to you. That’s why I’ll do the things you can’t.”
For a moment, he stared at me blankly. Then, he flashed me an awkward grin. “I feel like I’m pushing all the tedious stuff onto you.”
“You do the hard things, and I do the tedious ones. It all balances out.”
“Yeah, let’s think of it that way.”
We bumped fists and grinned. It may have been a fleeting moment, but I was happy to return to the more relaxed ways of our student life.
***
“Welcome back, Lord Werner. Congratulations on your safe return!” Lily came to greet me with a full-faced grin.
“Thanks.”
It was her usual greeting, but with Mazel right behind me, it was kinda embarrassing. I handed her my coat and decided to get all my questions out of the way.
“Where are Luguentz and the others?”
“Sir Laser and Sir Kluger have already arrived, but we received word that Princess Laura and Sir Almsick will be staying the night at the palace.”
So Luguentz and Erich were already here. Feli was probably visiting the orphanage. Though really, hearing everyone addressed by their last names had me wondering who she was talking about for a second. Behind her, Norbert was nodding with a look of satisfaction, Apparently, Lily had passed his test.
“And Frenssen?”
“He awaits you in your study.”
“Got it. Sorry, Mazel. I’ve got something I need to do, so just wait here for a bit.”
“Sure.”
I left Mazel to Lily and gestured for Norbert to follow after me. That guy really was capable. As we walked down the halls, I took the opportunity to confirm a few things with him.
“What has the church been up to while I’ve been gone?”
“They’ve made multiple requests for us to leave Lily with them.”
“Does she know this?”
“She once refused the offer herself. Ever since, your mother has been dealing with them.”
In a count’s household, the matron held ultimate authority when it came to the servants. In other words, without my mother’s permission, the church couldn’t take Lily. If my father were to directly oppose the church, it would pose some problems. With my mother taking the helm, though, it was just a matter of the household staff, so they couldn’t take offense. Given that the church’s representative seemed quite pushy, it looked like my mother had her work cut out for her too.
“Do you know who the church has been sending over here?”
“I have already looked into it.”
My father must have ordered him to do so. Still, I was surprised to hear he had already finished. A count’s butler was something else, all right. I decided to ask Erich more about the church later.
“Tell me about it later. What about my father?”
“He’ll be a bit late this evening. He would like to host Lord Mazel’s party for dinner.”
“Feli’s here, so I want to keep things casual. No standing on ceremony.”
“I’ll relay that to him.”
I cut off our conversation with a nod as we reached my study. Frenssen stood up to welcome me as I entered, and I greeted him with a wave. Things had improved, but my desk was still covered in a mountain of papers. It sucked, but it could wait for later.
“Thanks for working so hard. Do you have the documents related to Anheim?”
“They’re right here.”
Oldman Uwe’s unreasonable demands meant I was now swamped with that paperwork. I flipped through the pages, scanning their contents. Ironically, traveling with the knight brigade and the army had slowed me down, so the papers had arrived here before I did.
Plus, the next big event was still some ways off. I had yet to be relieved from my duties as the deputy of Anheim, so there were documents that required my signature. Marquess Schramm’s officials and Sir Behnke were skilled, but that didn’t mean my hands were completely free. Wait a second.
“Is something the matter?”
“No, it’s nothing. You’re dismissed for the day, Frenssen. I doubt you’re as accustomed to long journeys as I am.”
Mazel and I were obviously used to this, and as knights, Neurath and Schünzel could push themselves. But that didn’t go for Frenssen. I didn’t want him collapsing on me, and I had already given Neurath and the others leave for this day and the next, anyway.
“Thank you for your consideration, but…”
“Just rest. That’s an order. And take off tomorrow too. I’ll just be tying up loose ends with all that’s happened, anyway.”
After sending Frenssen off to rest, I rounded on my desk in frustration. I had just moments ago heard from Duke Seyfert and Chancellor Falkenstein that I’d be staying in the capital, but some of the papers Sir Behnke had sent were predicated on me not returning to Anheim. Clearly, he knew that my return to the capital wasn’t simply a temporary arrangement on Oldman Uwe’s directions. Considering Sir Behnke didn’t work for the duke, he must have been close to the chancellor. That’s why he was so good at his job. It was good the duke approved his appointment.
It was vexing, but what was done was done. I’d never get these documents done if I kept dwelling on such details. I had been thinking this since I was in Anheim, but Sir Behnke’s documents were so perfect and easy to check over again that they really served as an example. Maybe he was meant to be a teacher for the deputy.
A knock at my door interrupted my musing over the paperwork.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Lily, Lord Werner. I’ve brought you some tea.”
“I’ll have a cup. Come in.”
“Excuse me.”
It was just what I needed, and Lily began serving the tea as soon as she entered. Her movements were more refined than they had once been.
“What’s Mazel up to?”
“He’s chatting with Sir Laser and the others. Here you are.”
“Thanks. For this, and for Anheim,” I said as I took the tea from her. Then, she gave me a blank stare. Apparently, blinking three times when they were confused was a habit both of the Harting siblings shared.
“You helped me out, right? Thanks.”
“Oh, no, um, it’s fine, so…”
Suddenly, she was at a loss for words, and seeing her like this had me stifling a laugh. Seeing the blush I’d inadvertently brought to her face soon had me feeling awkward too, though, so I moved the conversation along.
“I wanted to give this to you earlier, but I’ve been busy. Sorry that it’s basically a souvenir at this point.”
I took out a hand-carved box and presented it to her. She accepted it with no small amount of surprise.
“May I open it?”
“Sure.”
As a Japanese person, this was where I should have added on, “Oh, but it’s nothing special.” But in this world, I wouldn’t let that slip even if someone tried to force it out of me. Were a noble of this world to say something like that, it’d be as good as calling the gift trash. Different cultures could view things differently to a horrifying degree.
“Wow…”
Flashy jewelry didn’t seem like her thing, so I’d picked out a fairly plain-looking silver brooch. Not that there was really anything better at the market, either. I had the artisan add a flower to the design to make it more elaborate, which had taken some time.
Seeing as nobles mostly lived at the capital, there wasn’t a lot of elaborate jewelry to be found in country towns, especially ones like Anheim, which were built to defend the kingdom’s borders. Triot exported a lot of minerals, so if it were still standing, there might have been a merchant selling silver jewelry in town, but there was no use yearning for what you couldn’t have.
Simple, undecorated brooches could be used like a button to fasten coats and mantles, so they weren’t too hard to come by. Ornamental ones, however, were quite uncommon. Necklaces were even hard to find. If someone needed jewelry in provincial towns, they typically needed to buy from sanctioned merchants in larger cities. While you could technically call in a merchant from within the region or a neighboring fief for a custom order, only a noble would actually do that.
Since I didn’t have enough time for that, I just had a merchant add some decoration to a basic brooch. As a noble, I was cutting corners, but thankfully, Lily seemed to like it.
“Thank you! I’ll treasure it forever!”
“I’m glad you like it so much.”
It was simply good manners to offer a lady a gift after having received one from her, but seeing how happy Lily was, I began to wonder if there wasn’t something even better I could have given her. I’d just have to prepare it for next time.
After looking at Lily’s smile, I returned to my paperwork. I would need to scope and prioritize my work before dinner got underway. Once I had eaten, I’d probably be too tired for anything but sleep. At least, I had thought so.
With both my parents present for dinner, Feli was so anxious it gave me a stomachache. Then after dinner, my father ordered me and Mazel—and, for some reason, Lily—to stay behind. Then, he retrieved some envelopes he had entrusted to Norbert and handed them to us.
“Mazel, this is an invitation to a soirée. Lily will be attending too.”
I had to deal with this already?
***
Mazel’s face was dark with worry, but I ignored him and turned to my father. I had to get some things straight.
“Is the royal family hosting?”
“It’s a birthday celebration for Prince Ruven. They’ll be holding a nighttime ball.”
We damn well couldn’t refuse that. What a headache. Please excuse my uncouthness.
This was quite a sudden attack. And to think it was an evening party, no less. I assumed it wasn’t my father’s intention to push this onto us this soon, but really, this could put us in the spotlight for quite a while. Surely, he realized that?
“Um…” Mazel started.
“It’s not what you think, Mazel,” I said.
“Huh?”
Mazel was clearly shocked, so I explained things to him. Putting it roughly, the victory celebrations held in pubs right after a battle might be considered the opening ceremonies. It was the soirées that followed that were the festival proper.
Just like villages would prepare for a festival for days, it took a lot to prepare for an evening party. The debut of high-ranked noble daughters to such an event didn’t just begin with picking the dress, but with weaving the fabric.
Plus, it couldn’t really be said aloud, but those holding the party often “kindly” encouraged the women and ladies who had some issues with their body structure to diet for the event, but let’s not get into that.
“These parties vary in size, but generally, they’re so big that they’ll prepare a few hundred bottles of wine. This isn’t the kind of thing that just gets planned and announced a few days beforehand.”
There weren’t any hard rules when it came to liquor, but hosts usually prepared around two bottles of wine for every three or four people. Apparently, that had never led to it running out. I was pretty sure the alcohol content of the wine in this world differed from that of my old world, so I couldn’t say whether that made the people of this world heavyweights or not.
The real hassle, though, was preparing soft drinks for the children. Drinks like that couldn’t be preserved, and you couldn’t just leave them somewhere while you were making them, lest someone poison them, which would certainly cause a stir. Thus, there was a group of people juicing fruits from morning till night on the day of the party.
To do a little back-of-the-napkin math, they needed to squeeze about a hundred liters of juice, which was a lot of work. Those guys must have hurt the day after. There were magic items that could squeeze juice, but doing it by hand was just the way it was done for nobles.
“They’ve got to decide seating arrangements too.”
This was a formal dance, but even those needed seating arrangements. You had to have people who could be positioned near the king before he introduced himself, and there were others who had to be relegated to wallflowers (as unfortunate as it was for them). In general, it was more complicated than one might expect. Putting two people who didn’t get along near each other—even if they held the same rank—could lead to fights, and you had to have two groups flanking the king who could stay put until the party began.
So, you first had to send out the invitations, and once attendance was confirmed, you had to navigate the political work of deciding seating arrangements. Invitations for evening parties were sent months in advance, and they were really an insinuation to either clear your calendar or, if you truly couldn’t manage that, to immediately inform the host you wouldn’t be attending.
“I got all that,” Mazel said after I’d explained.
“A lot of evening parties are held with an agenda other than what’s publicly stated. For example, the first dance at a ball is usually done with a family member, fiancée, or lover.”
Who would Princess Laura share her first dance with at a ball that had the Hero in attendance? The nobles with ulterior motives would probably try to gather information or sell themselves behind closed doors. There was even a chance that the church would make a move, and some of the nobles who had been hiding away in their domains might exploit this opportunity to come visit the capital.
The more moves a player made, the harder it would be to conceal them. That’s why they had used a birthday party for Prince Ruven as a front, with Laura acting as a lure. It was quite an ill-natured plan.
Anyway, Mazel still looked confused, so I put things bluntly for him. “They’re just telling you to come to the party and make sure you’re in the capital when it’s held. Your focus is still on defeating the Demon Lord.”
“Is that really all there is to it?”
“Yup.”
If Laura wasn’t in the capital until right before the party was to be held—and really, off fighting with the Hero’s party where a knight couldn’t come save her at the drop of a hat—it was bound to arouse some suspicion. Not being in the capital was enough of a reason for certain nobles to suspect her motives, and it was likely that the kingdom would deliberately leak information to encourage speculation. They weren’t just inviting them; they were inciting them.
It’d be nice if I could deal with this simply by warning Mazel not to let them drag him back and forth when he still had a Demon Lord to defeat. Sigh. Still, if the kingdom was willing to go through all this for him, it meant that I didn’t have to be sticking my nose into the business of the more important nobles.
Now, it was Lily who was baffled. “But, um, why do I need to be there?”
“Oh, right. Like I said, it’s common practice to have your first dance at a ball with a family member.”
Would Mazel’s first dance be with Laura, his sister, or another young lady entirely? I was sure the other nobles were dying to find out. This was hardly a delicate way to frame it, but the point of giving him that choice was just to make him waver.
Still, it would normally be crazy talk to prepare a seat for a commoner, even if she was the Hero’s younger sister. This was probably meant to send the message that they’d soon be giving Mazel a noble rank. There was also a chance they were trying to put this notch in Mazel’s belt as a way of leading him toward the kingdom’s side.
Or maybe, they were going to announce the creation of a new noble lineage as a way to commemorate the prince’s birthday. Though since the situation was still in flux, it was best I stopped thinking about it.
“But I don’t know how to dance.”
“Me neither.”
“Prince Ruven’s quite young, and so is his fiancée, the daughter of Marquess Schramm. Considering that, the first dance won’t be too difficult. You’ll be fine if you just learn the basics.”
Probably, at least. I wasn’t too knowledgeable when it came to dancing either. As the son of a noble, I had received basic training, but I had been using my status as a student as an excuse to not attend those kinds of events.
Also, I wouldn’t say it out loud, but I was quite confident Mazel could learn to dance more complicated choreography with just a half day of practice. He was so athletic and quick on the uptake I felt like he’d be fine just learning as he went on the day of the party. He was on a whole different level for a bunch of reasons.
Lily was looking nervous, but that was normal—or really, natural. I’d just have to keep an eye on her. Suddenly, I remembered I had something I wanted to double-check with my father.
“So are the Zehrfelds attending as public substitutes?”
“We are.”
My father was the Minister of Ceremonies, after all. Of course we’d have to basically act as hosts.
Let’s say for example that a couple and their daughter RSVPed for the ball, but the father suddenly fell ill and couldn’t attend. In cases like that, there were clearly designated proxies to serve as dance partners, known in this world as “public substitutes.” Though rather than “public,” we were really substitutes for the host.
Regardless of the name, dancing with a substitute didn’t count. As a matter of courtesy—or really, just tradition—it would never be considered cheating, but it was for that very reason that the people serving as public substitutes had to be chosen so carefully.
Incidentally, when noble houses held relatively minor parties, their butlers would often act as substitutes, which was maybe what inspired the trope in fiction of butlers being good dancers. Not that I really knew anything about it.
It was rare that a knight would serve as a substitute, but that was a popular trope in romance novels too: a knight with secret affections for a noble lady would, taking on that role, share a single dance with her. Though in the more corrupt real world, it was much more common for a noble lady who had lost her spouse to try to approach a high-ranked noble lord and become his lover by serving as a substitute at such a party.
Anyway, I would be a freebie at this ball. While it didn’t really count, there was a chance I would share my first dance with Laura, which was enough to turn my stomach. Though, I’m sure that possibility was meant to rile up the other partygoers.
What else was there? If the crown prince was the one who wrote up this scenario, he likely had other objectives in mind, even if his main goal was to thwart the church and the idiot nobles who had all butted into our business.
While I was lost in my thoughts, my father began to speak. “Werner, for now, report to the palace tomorrow morning and arrange for a dress for Lily in the afternoon. I will cover the costs.”
I’ve got tons to do, including finishing up the rest of my work as the deputy of Anheim, I thought. But just as that ran through my mind, my father glared at me sharply.
“Debt will not ruin a noble, but reputation can. Be mindful that your actions inspire no rumors about how you’re running from your debts.”
Well, I can’t argue against that. I was paying for my previous actions and getting what I deserved. I guess that reputation would really weigh me down, even if I never thought it would. Plus, I’m sure my father was livid that I’d cultivated such an image on purpose.
“If this is a birthday celebration for Prince Ruven, then it’ll be held in a little over a hundred days from now, right?”
“Yes. In a hundred and seventeen days.”
Wow. If Mazel continued to fight the Demon army at his current pace, he could easily defeat another two of the Four Fiends by then. But what would take place first, this party, or the attack on the capital? Needless to say, I had plenty of things I needed to look into before either of those. Time was even tighter than I had thought.
***
“The commoners seem to be in good spirits,” said David, second son of Marquess Cortolezis, as he brought a glass of wine to his lips. It was the middle of the day, and he was enjoying a luncheon with his potential fiancée.
Hermine, the second daughter of Count Fürst, thought his observation quite obvious, considering the knight brigade had driven off an attack by a Demon Commander and returned triumphant to the capital along with the Hero’s party. She answered his question with silence.
Today, Mine was dressed not in her typical attire, but in a dress of the sort young noblewomen often wore. She carried herself well and her appearance was kempt, but the simplicity of her dress and the sparseness of her jewelry indicated that she wasn’t on board with what was happening. Given how militaristic the Fürst family was, her appearance matched her house well.
“More importantly,” she said, “why have you sent a marriage proposal to us?”
“Well, because it was convenient for us.” David grinned sardonically, deliberately making it seem like he had no intentions of hiding anything. “I’m the second son, and you’re the second daughter. Of course the convenience of our families was put above all else.”
“There’s no denying that.”
“And there’s no saying I’m certain of that.”
Lord David is clearly fond of sneering, thought Mine, and she wasn’t wrong. She and Tyrone had hidden her possible engagement and looked into the rumors surrounding David. The common thread in all they’d found was his very noble-like (in both the good ways and the bad) reputation for leaving all his work to others.
Regardless, his reaction caught Mine’s attention, and she intentionally affected a cautious inflection as she clarified, “What do you mean, you’re not certain?”
“There’s no guarantee that my brother will be heir. How much do you know about my family?”
“Just that your father has long been bedridden.”
Mine’s answer was common knowledge. Even though there was magic in this world, it couldn’t treat every illness. However, a noble being “bedridden” usually meant that they had gone missing due to some unforeseen accident or that there was some other issue within that noble house.
In all the countries of this world, it was an unwritten rule not to look too deeply into the illnesses of those in noble society. Werner would likely phrase it as, “different worlds, different manners.”
“Exactly. My father won’t show his face because he’s bedridden, so our grandmother has been acting as the de facto head of the family. She and my brother don’t get along, though.” Mine wondered if that was really something to share with a woman who was still practically a stranger, but David carried on, clearly unbothered. “If my brother is labeled as unfit to be heir, I’ll be the marquess and you’ll be his wife. I want you to help me arrange for that.”
“I don’t think I have what it takes to be a marquess’s wife.”
“You mean the issues with your mother?”
Mine’s face stiffened.
David sneered but continued on as if nothing happened. “I’ve heard all about it. If you marry into our family, I’m sure that reputation will disappear, and aid will come to the Fürst and Teutenberg families.”
“Has the marquess already approved this?”
“It was our family that decided it. Though, the scope will be different depending on whether it’s me or my brother who’s helping.”
He was likely insinuating he would offer more aid than his brother, but Mine decided not to address that point. It was true that David’s family and position ranked above hers, but there was something about his words that she couldn’t trust. She felt in his eyes, and his readiness to kick his brother to the curb, that he was the type of man who used others as stepping stones.
At the same time, she somewhat understood why he had approached her—or really, the Fürsts—as they were quite notable among martial houses. If two noted houses in the faction were united by marriage, their reputation in the faction would rise beyond what each might achieve individually.
Mine knew that marriages between nobles were rooted in that kind of thing, but she also felt there was something dangerous about David’s temperament.
“Today is just an opportunity for us to meet. You don’t need to answer right away, but when you do, I expect it to be a good one.”
“Thank you.”
His words made it sound like he prepared some time for her to think, but Mine knew that he was really demanding she take the initiative to eagerly ask for his hand in marriage herself. Still, she was relieved to know she didn’t have to answer immediately.
“Thank you. Until our next meeting, may it come swiftly.”
Hermine bowed, but David simply answered with a nod. Afterward, they ate their meal in silence. Then, once Mine had refused some post-meal tea, David escorted her to her carriage. It kept up appearances, but he still had that noxious smile on his face.
Once Mine was inside the carriage, she let out a deep sigh. The lady knight who had accompanied her like a shadow addressed her with concern. “Lady Hermine…”
“It’s fine. I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Being in the position she was, that was all Mine could say. This wasn’t something she could discuss with the knight, and she couldn’t complain either. Unable to rely on the family her mother hailed from, and with her father absent, she wondered what she should do next. As she looked outside the carriage window, her worries only grew deeper.
***
I had breakfast with Mazel and the others the following morning and then headed for work. Laura and Oldman Uwe were staying at the palace, so we’d be reuniting with them within the day. Still, I didn’t quite get why the meet-up point was my house.
After breakfast, I asked Mazel, Luguentz, Feli, and Erich for some favors, which prompted Feli to say, “I’d do anything for you, even if all it got me was a cookie!” I couldn’t help but laugh.
Word that the Hero’s party was staying at the Zehrfeld residence had already spread, so people hoping for an audience with the group started appearing early in the morning, which kept Norbert, Tillura, and even Lily busy. The nobles were one thing, but I was in awe of the spirit of the merchants. Luguentz explained that “This was only natural since we might be able to get our hands on monster materials you can’t easily find in Wein,” so I guess I just had to accept it.
I had been summoned to the palace and was currently there to report for duty. When I walked down these hallways in the past, people would give me the side-eye and trade whispers among themselves, but now, some even said hello. Well, some of those people were snickering as they said it, but considering the fact that they were nobles, they really needed to learn how to better conceal their expressions.
“Werner Von Zehrfeld reporting.”
“We have been waiting for you. Please enter.”
It was probably thanks to my new title as viscount that the guards had changed their tone when talking to me. Given I was young enough to be a student, it felt quite odd. The palace had to have a certain level of opulence, but getting treated with deference from someone dressed up in armor had me feeling the pressure.
“Apologies for my tardiness.”
“No, please excuse me for summoning you so early in the morning.”
“As I am your subject, it is wholly your right to do so.”
Being apologized to by Crown Prince Hubertus was even more unsettling. Apparently, Laura and Oldman Uwe were here too. Seriously, it was too early in the morning to be in the presence of such a stomachache-inducing group.
“First, you did well in battling the Demon Commander. Thanks to you, we no longer need to be so concerned about our southern border.”
“I apologize for moving troops without your permission.”
Those intentions had been submitted along with the rest of my plan, but since it hadn’t been signed off by the king or the rest of the top brass, I technically hadn’t been cleared to do so. Still, the crown prince laughed it off.
“I cannot tell you that the fact of your victory should be put above all else, but titles are granted to those with the resolve and necessity to act without orders. If you were prepared for the consequences that would await you had you failed, then all is well.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
I was glad he’d let me off the hook with just that, but his hopes put me under a lot of pressure. Just as that thought crossed my mind, he clasped his hands together over his desk and looked at me. Just like Mazel, his casual movements were picture-perfect.
“Not to mention, the reputation you have made for yourself has aided me as well. I’m glad that some brash souls have been incited into action without me having to lift a finger.”
“I see.”
“There are a few who have been making the rounds and crying, ‘the family of the In-Debt Deputy, the Wastrel Viscount, cannot be entrusted with guarding a member of the Hero’s family.’ It seems that they have no interest in who lent you all that money in the first place, or what it was used for.” The crown prince—the very man who aided me by offering those debts—chuckled in glee. While this had all been a coincidence, it seemed like I could use it to my advantage. “I do apologize,” the prince continued, “but I would like this reputation to follow you for a while longer. I do hope I have your permission?”
“But…” cut in Laura.
“Of course,” I interrupted her. Since I didn’t mind at all, I readily gave my permission. But why did she look so disappointed for a second? There was no way I could refuse a request from the crown prince.
“He and Mazel are quite similar,” Laura mused.
“I concur,” said Oldman Uwe.
“Then leave that matter to me. Next…”
The two who’d been muttering to themselves promptly turned their attention to the crown prince as he spoke.
“Sir Uwe has informed me of the prophecy. So, it is possible there will be an attack on the capital.”
Huh? Prophecy? I pondered for a moment, but once I noticed the look the old man was giving me, I understood what he was talking about. No one would easily believe me having the memories of two different people. Still, if this was the story he had decided to go with, he could’ve at least filled me in. Maybe that was the reason Laura was here. Wait. First,I have to answer his question.
“I believe it would be hard to determine its veracity in light of the Gezarius incident.”
“Indeed, you had no memory of so much as his name. Perhaps there are different types of prophecies.”
“I lack the information needed to make any judgments in that regard, so I unfortunately can’t answer that question.”
Wait, just what was the story here, Oldman Uwe? It’s hard to make it sound like we’re on the same page when I don’t know what that page is.
“I see. For now, let’s create a plan of action in accordance with Sir Uwe’s prophecy. I’ll have you assist as the situation calls for it, but Duke Seyfert will lead the effort.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“This task is one that we should take full responsibility for. There is no need for thanks.”
This took a huge weight off my shoulders. Jeez, did this help me out. Duke Seyfert had to know about the capital and where to position troops even better than I thought he did.
“However, we must ask that you stay out of military affairs for the time being. I’m sure you know the reason why?”
“His Excellency the Duke has already informed me.”
“I see. Then for the time being, I’ll have you serve as chamberlain to the chancellor, though that will be in name only.”
“Chamberlain?”
“Without such a high rank, we could not grant you entry to the special library of the throne.”
Well, that was a term I couldn’t ignore. “The special library to the throne, you said?”
“This will naturally be news to you, as only those in the royal family or people in special positions, such as the chancellor and Sir Uwe, are privy to such knowledge.”
“Is the library related to the ancient kingdom, then?”
“Indeed. I want you to research what Sir Uwe has specified as a matter of interest there.”
Who would’ve thought there was something like that in the palace? No, if it was constructed using lost technology that had survived from the ancient kingdom, then there must be related documents there. Plus, if it was a “library,” it had to be quite large, with multiple collections. I definitely wanted to check it out. F-for research, of course.
“Of course, you will not be allowed to take any of the materials off the premises.”
“Naturally, Your Highness.”
“On the other hand, it seems that there are certainly differences between what is happening now and what happened during the time of the ancient kingdom, including what happened with the Demon Commander. We also need to gather information on the Hero. I will assign Lily Harting as your aide, so she will be allowed to copy any excerpts you find necessary to your research.”
“Huh?”
Wait a second. This was a library that only chamberlains and above could enter, but Lily was just a commoner. It was too much. Oldman Uwe seemed calm, but Laura seemed disappointed…wait, disappointed? I guess the throne must have already decided to make this unofficial offer.
“The documents needed to make this official will be drafted in the upcoming days. I’m sure you have no problems with this, yes?”
“…Yes.”
I mean, there were several problems, but would telling that to His Highness change anything? Just what was he thinking? At the very least, he was trying to keep me out of the limelight, but there had to be something else to it too.
Well, I could leave thinking about that for later. For now, I had to use this chance to bring up what I had previously realized. “Crown Prince Hubertus, Princess Laura. There is something I’ve noticed, Your Highnesses.”
“What is it?”
“It’s related to our enemies’ movements. About what happened in Finoy.”
I explained my thinking while recalling that Laura had clearly been a target of the Demon army during the battle of Finoy—they had even tried to take her hostage. I thought it was strange then too, but thinking about it more made it seem even stranger. If the existence of a holy woman would get in their way, they simply needed to kill her, but seeing what the Demon Commander had done in Anheim had given me a hypothesis as to why—they had a tendency to steal the bodies of those that they could effectively utilize.
“I am not yet certain, but I believe the Demon army had a reason to want Princess Laura on their side.”
“Hmm, you don’t seem to simply mean they wanted her body. What are you thinking?”
“They purposefully tried to kidnap her, and I believe it has to do with her powers of divine revelation.”
“I agree. What do you think, Sir Uwe?”
“I do believe it is possible. Perhaps they wished to disturb humans with a fake revelation, or perhaps they have another reason to receive an oracle. Hmm…”
Oldman Uwe had fallen into his thoughts. Hey, you’re in the presence of the crown prince, y’know. Though, the crown prince was being his usual self and ignoring the man. Really, Uwe had too much freedom.
“Basically, you mean to say there’s a chance that Laura will continue to be targeted in the future?”
“I don’t know it with certainty, but I believe it’s best we assume that to be true.”
“I see. Laura, relay this to Mazel and stay vigilant.”
“I will. Thank you.”
I watched their conversation and fell into my own thoughts. I wanted to look into this too. There was something malicious about the revelation I had heard in Finoy about Laura, and the fact that just like in the game, the Demons and the Hero used magic with the same name. I couldn’t say it out loud, but I had a lot of doubts.
What was the God of this world thinking? Was he really on our side?
***
After my talk with the crown prince had concluded, I returned to my study and spent the rest of the morning on paperwork. All I had to do was sign the papers that had come from Anheim, but I made sure to read each one carefully, regardless.
I was starting to gain a greater appreciation for the job of a count’s deputy, though it mostly amounted to making sure nothing fell through the cracks. As the person taking the helm, I couldn’t do a shabby job, so I made sure to check things thoroughly, even if I was quite busy myself.
“Lord Werner, Viscount Wackenroder is here to see you.”
“Let him into the drawing room.”
Contrary to my predictions, many people had come to meet with me. Some said they’d shoulder some of my debts while others promised amicable relationships, so I couldn’t just turn them all down. Back when I was no more than a count’s son, my father dealt with this sort of tedium for me. Not that realizing that now, after all this time, changed my situation for the better.
One man offered me his daughter’s hand in marriage in return for allowing him to take on some of my debt, but I politely declined. Not only did such a deal throw the man’s humanity into question, it was hard to rely on a noble family who didn’t do enough research to realize my debt-filled reputation was a surface-level rumor.
Having attended to errands in the morning, I clocked out before lunchtime so I could make myself scarce before anyone tried to invite me to eat with them. Currently, I was an independent viscount who lacked a domain of his own, and since my job title wasn’t set in stone, it was hard to consider me someone of good standing.
After returning home, I made sure the few things I had prepared were in order. All I had planned for today was dealing with the aftermath of the events in Anheim, so I had Neurath, Schünzel, and Frenssen take the day off. Thus, I had to prepare guards to act in their place.
Our house wasn’t so lacking in personnel that two servants taking the day off would leave us shorthanded, but since my work was urgent, I needed to discuss a temporary rotation of men with Norbert. Ultimately, the lady knight whom I had troubled earlier, Annette, was the one chosen to accompany me.
Our main goal was to allow Lily to do some shopping, but instead of calling the merchant to our family’s house, I was to accompany her to prove that I wasn’t locking myself up at home to hide from my debts. Not that it was a good idea for me to stay with a girl the whole time she was shopping, however.
According to Lily, she hadn’t really taken any proper days off. She sure was serious. Most of her salary went into savings, the main exception being a good handkerchief and embroidery tools she had purchased with Tillura. I knew that my house had prepared all the writing tools she needed for her studies, but I still felt like she deserved to spend more on herself. Given that, I wondered if it might be a good idea to go sightseeing around the capital. Hopefully, she could endure the fact that we’d have guards accompanying us.
“Got it. This is good. I’ll leave it to you to organize the rest of our men.”
“Understood.”
I went over everything and decided to take a break. Mazel and his party would be leaving in the afternoon once they had reunited with Laura and Oldman Uwe, so I had Mazel and Lily take some time off to spend together as a family.
I planned to have a light lunch today as well. After so much time spent in battles, I no longer minded having meals that weren’t fit for kings. Though I did wonder where that put me among nobles. I decided to assume that refraining from extravagance was a good thing.
“Excellent work today, Viscount Zehrfeld.”
“You as well, Erich.”
I had let my guard down, and as I walked down the hallway Erich stopped me. We exchanged a few words. I asked him to thank the temple for everything they had done for me, and he replied with a smile that it had been nothing. Jeez was this guy handsome.
“We plan to leave this afternoon,” Erich said. “Thank you for putting up with us.”
“It was my pleasure.”
For some reason, it felt natural to speak politely to Erich. Given I was Japanese in my past life, formal speech came more naturally to me. I guess that was a good thing.
“I hear you’re going shopping this afternoon?”
“I am, but I’m not quite sure how I should comport myself.”
Feli had informed me on our way to the capital from Anheim, so I was a bit worried—or maybe a bit stumped. Having a cute girl fall for you felt nice, but it was hard to know exactly how I should act around her.
“I don’t think you need to think that hard about it.”
“You think so?” I wasn’t trying to think hard, I thought before Erich interrupted me with some unexpected words.
“The feeling is mutual, after all.”
“What was that?”
“Miss Lily sees you not as a noble, but as the man Lord Werner. What about you?”
Suddenly, it all made sense. Just like me, Lily wasn’t viewed as her own person, but as “the Hero’s sister,” and that could likely be traced all the way back to when she still lived in Arlea Village. And it was the same with Count Witthöft, the church, and even the kingdom. It must hurt for others to only see value in you as an extension of your brother.
But how did I see things? I certainly was conscious of her status as Mazel’s younger sister, but I never viewed her as someone to use for power or reward. As the son of a count who continued to ignore all marriage proposals who came his way, we were in similar positions. Well, given that marrying was my duty as a noble, I was probably worse.
“But does that equal affection for her?”
“At some level, certainly.”
“I’ll try to think of it that way,” I said with an awkward smile. I at least agreed with everything else he had said. I averted my eyes from Erich, who watched me with the look of a pastor watching someone younger than himself.
“In any case, I’ll make sure to take the time to confront the matter.”
“Yes, I believe that would be wise.”
I decided to stop overthinking things and just spend time with her. Still, I really felt like I was no match for this guy. For different reasons than why I couldn’t win against Duke Seyfert and my father, I couldn’t get one over on him.
***
“Be careful out there, okay?” I told Mazel.
“You too, Werner,” he replied.
“I’ll be there for him, so there’s no reason to worry,” said Feli, cutting into our exchange.
The two of us traded looks and laughed.
“I’ll be counting on you,” I told Feli.
“Leave it to me.”
I patted him on the head, which he responded to with a triumphant nod. This must be what having a younger brother feels like. Then, I exchanged some quick words with Luguentz.
“I’ve already passed on your message. Goecke says he’ll stick with you for the time being since the contract he signed was for six months.”
“That’s good to hear.” We may have signed a contract, but I was worried about what would become of Goecke and his band of mercenaries now that I was no longer the deputy. I was too scared to ask myself, so I had Luguentz ask as a go-between, and apparently, that had been Goecke’s answer. I was glad the mercenary was so fond of me. Though perhaps it was Marquess Norpoth—the man behind the scenes—who had ordered him to stick around. While I doubted the capital would see any military action anytime soon, having a mobile force in case of emergency would prove an advantage.
Next, Laura approached. She had been chatting with Lily. Crap. She doesn’t seem to be in the best mood.
“Lord Viscount, if anything happens, you may lean upon the names of my brother and father. I’ll do what I can.”
I responded with an awkward laugh. “Got it. Please be careful out there.”
There was no way I could do that. Don’t ask for the impossible, I thought, but given that the church was trying to involve a common citizen—even if she was the Hero’s sister—in their mess, I could kind of understand where she was coming from.
As a royal herself—though I was certain being crown prince was special in its own right—it was sometimes necessary for her to use people. My sole source of reassurance was that I was confident they wouldn’t just toss me to the curb.
Additionally, Laura felt like she needed to stand at the forefront of danger, a stance fitting for a member of the Hero’s party. She likely thought it was her responsibility to fight against the church this time as well, but given her position as a holy woman, doing so would be complicated. Laura likely knew that much herself, but I guess she still wanted to tell me I could rely on her family.
“In that case, I dearly hope you find something within the library, young viscount,” said Oldman Uwe.
“I’ll do my best.” I was thankful for his timing considering how much I was struggling to find a response to Laura, but jeez did that guy not know how to read a room. Since I did have a lot I wanted to look into, however, I really was glad he brought it up.
As we chatted among ourselves, the preparations I had been waiting on were completed. Annette came to inform us that my carriage was now ready.
“Watch after my sister, okay?” Mazel bade her with a smile.
“Y-yes! Leave it to me!” Annette’s face was beet red. No question that Mazel was a good-looking guy, but he could be a bit of an airhead.
I approached Lily with an awkward grin. She smiled back at me.
“Shall we get going?”
“Sure!”
I gave Mazel one final wave goodbye and escorted Lily into the carriage. Rather than her regular uniform, she was dressed in clothes which, while of fine quality, were nonetheless different from the fashion among nobles. It was about what you might expect a merchant’s daughter to wear.
There was no way she could go out and buy a dress while wearing her maid uniform, and having someone connected to us go out dressed in the attire of a commoner would have reflected poorly on us as a noble family. Once I explained this to her, she easily agreed to wear this new attire, but as soon as the words left her mouth, Tillura and the other maids had turned her into a dress-up doll. Or so I’ve heard. As a wise man keeps away from danger, I stayed far away. I was positive I would have lacked the vocabulary to give my opinion on each outfit had they asked me to. The clothes she wore today were fine, and complimenting them earned me a grin, so that was enough out of me.
Most large towns, including the capital, had carriages for rent, ranging from cheap buggies just to carry your bags to large box-style coaches that could carry quite a few people, with options varying from shop to shop. Most could be rented on a half-day basis, with an additional charge for horses. Goods steeds were expensive.
The income of lower-ranking nobles like barons and viscounts was often tight enough that it was hard to maintain a horse—much less a carriage—and those who had just been conferred a title rarely had a carriage of their own. Still, it was improper for them to walk the whole way to their engagements with other nobles, so rental carriages had a strong clientele.
Coachmen could be hired as well, but since the best of them worked for noble houses directly, you couldn’t rely on them to keep a secret. If you didn’t want something spread around, it was standard practice not to discuss it in front of a driver. That said, we were using a coachman that worked for my father, so we didn’t have such worries.
According to rumor, the biggest clients for these rental carriages were high-ranking noblemen sneaking off to see women they had affairs with. I wasn’t confident that was true, but if it was, those noblemen would certainly be paying a pretty penny in hush money, making them high-profile customers.
Perhaps one of our guests could have ridden in a carriage marked by our family crest, but that wouldn’t fly for a maid like Lily. At the same time, she wouldn’t be taken seriously had she gone on foot to buy some frilly dress. Thus, we decided to use a rental carriage for our outing.
While coaches and buggies didn’t have license plates, they were affixed with a metal plate that served a similar purpose. I checked the one that was affixed to our carriage and saw that it properly marked that a noble was on board. Some roads couldn’t be traversed by merchants but could be traveled by nobles, so these plates made it possible to screen carriages at a glance.
Additionally, there could be crowds during the day, so only certain roads could be traveled by carriage while the sun was up. Still, only coachmen knew those routes, so employing one was a necessity. I guess that professional knowledge made the price of hiring one worth it.
“Wow… So this is what it looks like from inside a carriage!” exclaimed Lily. She was like a child riding in a car for the first time. Considering that she was on the smaller side, seeing the town from inside the carriage must have given her a new view.
“Shall we take the long way home once we’re done with our shopping?”
“Yes, please! Thank you!”
She happily thanked me, but she did know that would be coming later and not now, right?
***
Once we had arrived at our destination, I alighted from the carriage first and helped Lily down to the street. We had already notified the shop that we’d be coming, so they would already have a dress designer waiting for us. Annette had been riding next to the coachman’s seat, and she also dismounted the carriage and took up a position where she could monitor the perimeter. She had been acting a bit differently than usual, likely because Mazel had talked to her. I glanced in the opposite direction, confirmed the signal that nothing was amiss, and left things at that.
“Dresses can be surprisingly draining to wear,” I said to Lily, “so you’ll probably want to prioritize how it feels on you.”
“R-right.”
Lily seemed quite daunted, but the shopkeeper was as well-trained as you’d expect from a boutique that catered to nobles. They skillfully distracted Lily from her worries and led her around. I was never worried about their hospitality, but since I was definitely worried about them seeking my opinion on what made a dress good or bad, I decided to watch from a distance.
Annette had done the same, but suddenly, she addressed me. “Do you have a moment, Lord Viscount?”
“Sure. What is it?” I turned to her and found her countenance full of conviction.
“I know you are quite skilled, and I have great respect for your efforts in Lesratoga, especially having seen them myself. However…I do not approve of your wasteful spending habits.”
“Right…”
I see my reputation as the Wastrel Viscount had really made the rounds. Usually, her words would have been nothing but extreme insolence, but if a knight was willing to speak so earnestly to a noble, my nicknames must have really bothered her. Or maybe, what Mazel had told her had inspired a sense of responsibility that was egging her on.
“Got it. Thanks for the warning.” Clearly, she was considerate enough to keep this out of Lily’s earshot, and there was no hatred in her words either. A word of thanks was the only response I could have. Still, it wasn’t fun having to hear it. “For now, look after Lily and—”
“It’s been quite a while, Viscount Zehrfeld.” Just as I was directing Annette to watch over Lily, I was interrupted by a new voice—the voice of someone I was loath to meet here. Had he been lying in wait for an ambush?
“It has, Bierstedt.”
“Since the incident with the merchant corps, no? As belated as it is, congratulations on your promotion.”
“Thanks”
I had already received congratulatory gifts from the guild and his company for my promotion, but it really had been a long time since I had come face-to-face with Mr. Bierstedt. He was a big shot in the merchants’ guild, and while I didn’t really have any antipathy toward him, the fact that I had completely ignored the numerous proposals he had sent me made him a man I one-sidedly didn’t want to meet.
“Has word of the soirée already made its rounds?” I asked.
“Naturally, considering that some of the noble ladies have already been calling on our merchants. That young lady is with you, yes?”
“Yeah.” Given Bierstedt already knew the answer to that question, I kept my answer short. He was careful not to let Lily’s name slip, which marked a level of care I had come to expect from the man.
“I see, I see. Given her appearance, something less opulent would suit her better than something flashy. I’ll prepare something excellent for her.”
“Thanks.”
If Bierstedt were the sort of man I could joke with, I would have said something like, “there’s no need to suck up to the Wastrel Viscount,” but those words were off-limits when speaking to a merchant. In my previous life, there were nobles whose every judgment revolved around money. There’s even a story about a noble who, unhappy with the cheapness of his shoes, angrily barked at his servant to buy him a new pair. The servant bought a pair even less expensive than the first and lied to the noble, saying that he had spent an exorbitant sum. As a result, the noble happily wore the cheaper pair.
That all just sounded like a comedic story, but once you learned that the noble in question ranked so high he was called “Your Grace,” it was hard to keep laughing. Maybe it was just an example of how many different types of people all fell under the umbrella of “nobles.”
Anyway, I thought it was better to listen to the recommendations of a trained merchant than interrupt, but I hadn’t been expecting his next words.
“Why don’t you and your companion follow me inside? I won’t take much of your time at all.”
***
At shops frequented by nobles, it was common that merchants and shopkeepers would use the term “inside” with high-profile clients to refer to the second floor. With tailors, the upper story often housed rooms for taking measurements or browsing high-quality fabrics; with jewelers, it was often the place where you might negotiate the price of a prized item.
This was partly for security reasons. On the off chance that a gang of hoodlums broke into the store to attack customers, the shop’s staff and guards could create a barricade at the stairs to stave them off. Considering that noble manors were made to do the same, this medievalesque world really was bloodthirsty, though I suppose the same could be said about the Middle Ages of my old world.
“Can I get you two anything to drink?”
“I’m good,” I said.
“I-I gracefully decline the offer,” answered Lily, earning an approving nod from Annette, who was standing behind us. Quite honestly, I had no idea why we were called up here either.
“I see. In that case, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I’ll keep discussions to the point.”
Offering food and drink to nobles can be such a pain with all the taste-testing and stuff, I thought. Then suddenly, Mr. Bierstedt bowed to us. Just what was going on?
“I am humbled to have been chosen to relay this message not just on behalf of my guild, but by the will of all guilds in the capital: You have our deepest thanks, Lord Viscount.”
“Um…” Lily let out a baffled mutter before I could even open my mouth. Thanks to that, no one realized how shaken I was. Hopefully, at least. Really, what was this all about?
“I hear it was you who detected the presence of demons in the capital. Had the worst happened, I am certain that not just myself, but my employees, family, and the city itself would have fallen victim. You have my deepest thanks for preventing such a tragedy before it could come to fruition, Lord Viscount.”
Oh, so that’s what it is. Thinking back on it, I never gave a gag order to keep my name a secret. I realized that with enough time, intel would reach the ears of those in the know even if it wasn’t the type of information that would leak immediately.
“I also hear it was your idea to offer orphans and refugees cleaning jobs in exchange for monetary compensation.”
“That’s only because I had a personal reason. It benefited me too.”
“I am sure you had your reasons, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has caught the attention of those the orphans and refugees have sought out for earnest work. Considering nobles soon after began to repair roads and buildings, it is easy to see that us citizens are the ones who have been blessed.”
I guess that citizens who have to work to support themselves put results over reasons. I could understand that. I hadn’t tried to hide all this, but hearing it all in person, it was hard to know what face I should be making.
“Not to mention your feats in Anheim.”
“Was the guild conducting commerce there as well?”
“That is a separate matter.”
Huh?
“I hear you put together a plan to evacuate citizens from the farming villages before the Demon Commander attacked and even prepared financial aid for them in advance.”
“Yes, I did do that.”
“Compensation for victims is one thing, but I have rarely heard of any other nobles preparing aid in advance, not to mention calling on other domains to take care of those who have evacuated there. I doubt there has ever been any man who has commanded his forces with as much consideration for the people as you.”
I thought that going to those lengths was natural considering I was luring the enemy into our territory, but it was also true that there were many people who didn’t think that way. Plus, I had time to prepare since I was the one setting the trap. At least, that’s how I saw things, but I guess things looked different if all you saw were the end results, and all you could go on was hearsay.
“And there’s the rumors of your debts as well.”
“Those are no rumors.”
“Merchants have the eyes of merchants, and your subjects have the ears of subjects. Even if your debts are true, I know well that you did not squander your money and resources.”
“I see…”
“I am sure that to some extent, I merely see what I wish to see, but those in the know understand that the debts you bear are the lengths you were willing to go to in order to defend against the Demon army. By your leave, the rest of the guilds and I would like to offer our aid in your purchases.”
Didn’t he just casually insult a decent portion of nobles just now? I suppose for merchants, information is equal to war. He was much better informed of my actions than I had expected. Not to mention, this conversation had served as a hint; now I was beginning to catch a glimpse of the chessboard as it must appear to the crown prince, and it had me breathing a sigh of relief.
For those standing near this nation’s center, Mazel’s victory over one of the Four Fiends had been huge news. But did the same go for the citizens who lived here? Likely, that news was comparable to hearing talk in my old world of someone winning a big prize overseas.
However, improving the roadways directly benefited them, and maintaining public order in Anheim—as well as winning skirmishes at the border—had close ties to their daily lived experience. It felt much more real to them; while Mazel was a celebrity in the media, I was a down-to-earth member of a sports team.
If Mazel began to garner popularity among the masses, the possible consequences would inspire fear among statesmen no matter if they were looking at the pros or cons. Worst-case scenario, the masses could grow dissatisfied with the government for failing to solve the issue themselves.
However, stories of knight brigades fending off invaders at the border, talk of the government promoting public welfare, and—as much as I disliked it—discussion of a noble who dedicated so much of himself to the nation that he was now shackled with debt kept the Hero from being the only talk of the town.
From that perspective, His Highness the Crown Prince must have told me to keep my debts since it would make sure I stayed a topic of conversation. It wasn’t just a fishhook to scoop up the nobles, but a tool to help govern his subjects. That guy will really use everything, even debt.
“Got it, but that’s enough of that. I’ve got to buy her a dress.”
“Yes, my apologies. I’ll have our best clerk serve you.”
Guilds were usually sectionally divided. It varied from town to town, but guilds for fabrics, handicrafts, and clothing were often separate. On the other hand, the merchants that served nobles typically operated cross-sectionally and had influence in every guild. Without that sway, merchants wouldn’t be able to adequately respond to the absurd requests nobles occasionally put in.
Of course, if nobles were after something specific, they often bought directly from merchants who dealt with that craft. In cases like these, both the specialty merchant who provided the goods and the go-between merchant who made the introduction needed to have a certain level of good repute. A man like Mr. Bierstedt—who had the merchant corps at his disposal—had such an outstanding reputation he could insert himself into the discussions that came after that introduction as well.
If Mr. Bierstedt was making this proposal, it was quite possible he wasn’t just banking on this shop’s ace dressmaker, but rather that he’d called upon the best tailors of every shop in the guild.
“This way, miss.” One of the store’s female employees came forward.
“You accompany her as well, Annette,” I said.
“Y-yes, Lord Werner.”
Given the employee’s poise, she had likely been educated at a noble house or had received stellar grades from the capital’s academy. I was confident I could leave Lily and Annette in her hands. With that out of the way I turned to Mr. Bierstedt with a glare.
“May I ask why you purposefully said all that in front of Lily?”
“You have worked hard for this kingdom’s people, but I believe you were mistaken about something, Lord Viscount.”
“That’s a lot of praise,” I shot back on reflex. I didn’t catch the face Lily had been making, but there was no way he would call us up here just for that. I guess I must have had the kind of face that just invited teasing from my elders.
“I was trying to shake up the lady knight behind you.”
“What?” I hadn’t been expecting that response. I scowled. So Annette had been his goal.
“On her mother’s side, Annette Mölders is a distant relative of the Jhering family.”
“Jhering…” It took me a moment to recall where I had heard the name before. Eventually, I vaguely remembered that Count Jhering was a member of the faction that opposed Duke Gründing.
“Do you think she chose to be near Lily on purpose?”
“Miss Annette herself is far removed from politics, and her connections to House Jhering are so distant she has likely forgotten them, but I’m not positive it will stay that way.”
“Then I guess it’s not something that requires immediate action.” I heaved a sigh at this new headache-inducing intel. I needed to stop thinking about anything complicated for the rest of the day, especially since it would be rude to Lily to have my mind elsewhere.
“You have my thanks for filling me in. That reminds me. There’s something I want you to procure for me.”
“What is it?”
“Monster-summoning flutes. I want…about thirty at most, and I want them on the double. If you can’t get thirty, get as many as you can.”
In the game, monster-summoning flutes were an item that triggered battles with monsters that roamed the map. At first, I had wondered if there was any use for them in real life, but apparently, adventurers trying to collect monster materials would use them where that monster tended to lurk. I’m sure a lot of adventurers knew you couldn’t rely on them to call exactly the monster you were looking for but considered it better than just searching. To me, it felt like a huge gamble, but I guess the size of that risk was a matter of perspective.
“I can procure five or six immediately.”
“It doesn’t have to be right this moment, but I need that supply. Once I’m ready, I’ll send someone to collect them from you.”
“Understood. I shall await your agent.”
He must have really trusted me given he hadn’t asked what I planned to use them for. Or maybe he just thought it was a good business opportunity. Well, I guess trying to suss out what Mr. Bierstedt was thinking wouldn’t help me any.
“You have many more allies than you know. Please do not forget that.”
“I won’t.”
Let’s just leave thinking about anything complicated for tomorrow.
***
“I chose a dress that looks like what a princess might wear… Is that okay?”
“Yeah. We’ve got the funds to cover it,” I responded with an expression that made it clear she had no need to worry. From my perspective, it was a plain dress with nothing princessy about it, but seeing as she had no point of reference, I could see why she might think that. We really had a different view of things sometimes—though actually, it was just a difference in familiarity and experience.
Mr. Bierstedt was properly considerate and had made a good choice in the employee who attended to us. However, the smile he wore when we departed made it clear he was hoping for something more from us. I decided I’d look over his proposal and at least leave some comments for him.
I escorted Lily outside the shop. We could have brought our carriage directly in front of the boutique, but I had reason to have it pick us up a short distance away. Since the coachman worked directly for my father, he wasn’t the source of my worry.
The coachman was holding the carriage door for us, so I talked to him as Lily stepped inside.
“Did anything happen?”
“Two children came by, so I gave them some change using the name of Lord Ingo.”
“Got it.”
Our exchange was in code. We were being watched, but the term “children” meant they were unarmed, and there had been two of them, just as the coachman said. The fact the coachman used my father’s name rather than mine meant that our observers were related to a noble house. “Giving them some change” meant that we had sent one of our men to tail them as well.
Basically, the coachman had told me, “The carriage is being watched by two unarmed men in service to another noble house. We’ve sent someone to follow them to learn which family they work for.” Well, as long as we weren’t going to be attacked, I guessed it didn’t really matter.
People running surveillance on someone else rarely considered the possibility they were being monitored themselves. The coachman purposefully had our man wait away from the carriage, so they must have let their guard down.
“I want to show Lily around town, so could we take a detour?”
“Yes, my lord.”
At my request, the coachman adjusted the position of the magic lamp, which was a signal to our escorts that we’d be changing routes. There were a total of four guards in front of and behind the carriage, positioned so as not to draw attention. If they believed us to be in danger, they would signal with a mirror, so we could rest easy in their care unless such a sign came.
Annette sat beside the coachman’s seat, and I entered the carriage right after Lily. She seemed to be dying to ask me some questions, but I pretended I didn’t notice.
“Should we stop at some shops as well?”
“Sure!”
Now I just needed to figure out what kind of shops girls are into.
This was supposed to be a detour to see the capital, but the city was too large to see in just a half day, and there were plenty of roads that carriages could traverse. I guess it balanced itself out.
“This is amazing!”
“The design is really intricate.”
I guess girls in every universe love sparkly things. She had convinced me to bring her to a jeweler under the promise that she’d just look, but she was completely entranced.
Oddly, this world had quite advanced technology when it came to cutting jewels. Obviously, they’d achieved rose cuts, but they had princess and oval cuts as well, which on Earth had only been invented in the last couple centuries. They probably cut the stones using magic, or maybe there was a Jeweler skill. I decided to stop thinking about such intricacies, just like I had when it came to the design of the maid uniform. As long as it looked good on her, I had nothing else to say on the matter.
“We need to pick something that matches your dress.”
“Huh? But…”
I had already checked the design of her gown, but I had no idea what type of jewel would go well with it. I had already requested that someone else pick out a matching piece, trusting in their best judgment, but the details would only be decided once we had later summoned a specialist.
“This is just a part of buying a dress.”
“R-right,” she muttered as she made herself smaller. Still, her eyes were locked on the jewelry, making her look like a puppy who was doing everything they could to hold themselves back after their owner had commanded them to wait. I realized Annette, who had entered the shop with us as a guard, was glancing at the jewels as well. Lily and I shared a knowing grin.
“Are these all shops?”
“Yup. These kinds of shops can be found in town as well.” Once we had left the jeweler, our next destination was a five-story building that had Lily craning her neck in awe. Such department-store-like buildings, which had shops on every floor—if not quite as many as modern ones did—had existed before the Middle Ages in even my own world. Often, they were owned by affluent merchants.
Still, the stairs were cramped, and the lack of elevators and escalators meant that the higher the floor, the harder it was for customers to get there. It was also difficult to carry stock up there, so top floor shops often sold light but expensive items like cloth scraps. Typically, you’d have ceramics or other heavy wares at ground level, and areas around the third floor would have smaller woodcraft items, such as spoons, cutlery, or other items commoners often used. Larger woodcrafts would be found at other stores.
By the way, cups at noble houses—even the ones used by servants—were treated as personal items, so nobles and their servants often took a long time picking out one that suited their liking. Everything else—like silverware, for example—was provided for by their employers, which was how things operated during the Middle Ages on Earth as well.
I looked out the window, listening as Annette and Lily browsed the shop’s wares and chatted. There was no glass, so I was able to look straight down on the road below. There was quite a crowd.
“Lord Werner?”
“What is it?” I glanced back at them, but it didn’t seem like Lily wanted anything in particular. Since we had come all this way, I decided to buy a mirror decorated with a frame of wood that was displayed behind the counter as a present for Lily. It was just the size to reflect one’s face. Lily was quite hesitant to accept the gift since it was made with high-quality glass, but I suppose that was to be expected.
The fourth floor was what would have been known as a stationery store in my previous life, but when I asked Lily whether she had any interest in art supplies, she said she was fine with what she was using back at our manor. They were of high enough quality to be used by nobles, so that made sense.
In fact, she seemed more interested in the cloth scraps. When I asked her what she planned to use them for, she said she wanted them as back-up clothes for her parents. Man, was that an inconsiderate thing to ask. So that’s how hard commoners like Lily and her family had it. I told her I could prepare that for her and let her look for what she wanted.
In light of this, I decided to talk to my mother about changing some things, not just for Lily’s parents, but all of our servants.
***
As we strolled through the bustling open-air market, we stopped at one of the stalls and ordered two meat skewers. The shopkeeper cooked them with the finesse of a professional and grinned at me. “You’ve got quite the beauty with you today!”
“Oh, stop it, Pops. Just hurry up.”
Lily was quite shocked to hear me joking with the man who was running the place. I handed over one of the skewers to her with an awkward grin. For a moment, she looked at it, but then, she suddenly seemed to come to her senses.
“U-um, I need to taste-test it…”
“I’d like to congratulate you for remembering, but there’s really no need to do that here.”
Usually, one of the servants of our home would eat a bite and replace their skewer with mine, but we didn’t need to go through all that with this food stand. The academy that the nobles attended maintained a list of vendors that they regularly oversaw and endorsed for quick meals, and this stall was one of them. I rather suspected this stand had kingdom money backing it, and that it was a fake set up so that noble children could get a chance to enjoy life as commoners. The old man who ran the place may have been a former soldier.
Of course, there were some students who didn’t stick to that list, but I had never heard of it being an issue. Likely, that was thanks to how safe it was in the capital—minus the commotion drunks would sometimes cause. Annette must have known all this considering she kept herself quiet.
“I used to eat these with Mazel a lot.”
“Did you?”
“We’d compete for them too.” By that, I just meant that we’d flip a coin to see who would have to treat the other or something similar. I suffered the most losses. He’s always been better than me at everything in general, I thought as I ditched my manners and bit off a large chunk of the skewer.
Lily seemed shocked, but after noticing how calm I was, she snapped out of it and took a small bite of the meat on her own skewer. “It’s tasty!”
“They don’t put any odd seasonings on it, so it’s easy to eat, don’t you think? These had a lot of fans among my classmates.”
Lily still seemed shocked, but this time by the flavor. I watched her as I took another bite. There was something that felt awfully nostalgic about this, probably because of the tumult of the past few months. With those thoughts in my mind, I munched down on my skewer and glanced around.
“Is something the matter?” I asked, noticing Lily was looking at me.
“Oh no. It’s nothing.”
By the time she had brought her skewer to her mouth for another bite, her expression had returned to normal.
***
Once dusk had approached, Lily requested that we go somewhere where we could look out across the city from above, so I took her to a part of the castle walls that we could ascend. There were guards about, but they must have recognized me, since they just let us in. They observed Lily with particular interest, but…yeah, that checked out.
There was no one up above the walls, so I had Annette wait below.
“Be careful!” I called.
“I will! Thank you!”
Obviously, ramparts in this world weren’t meant as tourist attractions but as military facilities, so they weren’t easy for girls to navigate. I offered Lily my hand as we climbed the stairs. In my previous life, there was a good chance I’d have been out of breath and have to sit for a spell myself, but Lily continued to climb despite her labored breaths. Both men and woman were strong in this world. Given the time of day, the wind was quite strong.
“That’s the water reservoir, isn’t it?” Lily asked, once we’d climbed the castle walls. She was pointing at a man-made lake that glittered in the sun’s reflection.
“It is,” I said. “I’m impressed.”
Originally, the reservoir had been built for military use, but these days, it was mostly used as an event venue and many nighttime parties were held there in the summer.
It’s thanks to that lake always being full that we’ve never had to worry about running out of water, I thought as I turned my gaze to the aqueducts that lay beyond the reservoir. They looked tiny at this distance.
“The Great Temple is that way, and beyond that is the arena, right?”
“Yup. You really know your stuff.”
The arena wasn’t as huge as the Roman Colosseum and was only big enough to hold jousting tournaments or the duels that knights fought as a part of the exam to earn their titles. It was similar to the reservoir in the sense that it was used mainly as an event hall. But man, Lily really knew her stuff.
Lily put a hand to her head, using it to hold down her hair as she watched the distant corners of the capital. But suddenly, she sensed my gaze and looked toward me.
“This was always a dream of mine.”
“What was?”
“The capital, princesses… Especially after my brother went off to the academy.”
I understood where she was coming from. However comfortable life in Arlea was, visiting big cities like the capital was a dream of almost anyone. Now that I thought about it, it was strange how that seemed to be the case in any time and place.
“I was always a bit jealous. I used to read the letters my brother sent me over and over, always thinking to myself that it would be so fun to be there with him.” She giggled. “He wrote a lot about you too, Lord Werner. About your lives at school, your competitions, and…oh! The time you caught that underwear thief.”
“Leave at least some of it out, you bastard!”
Ugh, this is embarrassing. I had proudly pretended to be Sherlock Holmes, and while it wasn’t an event I wanted completely erased from my history, I wasn’t exactly proud of it either. My indignant expression earned a giggle from Lily, but she quickly composed herself and once again looked out to the city.
“All those letters have burned, but maybe that’s exactly why I’m remembering them now.”
Even during my previous life, I had never lost the house I had grown up in. Quite honestly, I didn’t quite understand the sense of loss she must have felt. I decided it was best to keep quiet and let her finish.
“But then you saved me. I got to work at Count Zehrfeld’s home and live in the capital.” She let out a sigh. “It’s all been like a dream.” She turned to look at me. Quite before I realized it, I was spellbound by her beauty. “And after spending time with you today, I realized I was mistaken. You’re always watching everyone around you and…protecting me, aren’t you?”
I always tried to pretend that wasn’t the case, but clearly, she had seen right through me.
“And it’s not just that. I got the chance to see for myself that the people living in this city weren’t just fictional characters from the world in those letters, but real people. And that you’re always looking after everyone, Lord Werner. That the person beside me now is no dream or fantasy.”
Dreams and fantasy, huh? My undertakings were nothing quite so grand, however much Mr. Bierstedt had been overselling me.
“Lord Werner?”
“Hmm?”
“You are the man dearest to my heart, Lord Werner.”
Feli had warned me, and I had at least realized she had some affection for me, but now she had declared it with conviction.
“I won’t ask to be by your side for now, as there’s much of which I’m still ignorant. But could you wait just a short while? I promise that I’ll become someone worthy of standing there one day.” She didn’t avert her eyes, but her hands and voice trembled. She must have felt the need to profess her feelings despite her fears of rejection.
I questioned myself. Could I ever see another woman the same way I saw Lily? Could I ever feel something for a girl who wasn’t her? When I had found my answer, I couldn’t help but sigh in disappointment at the fact that I had made the girl who had been watching me so earnestly say all that.
“Sure.”
She gasped.
“But let me correct you on one thing.” She seemed anxious, but I couldn’t let this go. “I’ll wait. But when that time comes, I’ll go and bring you to my side myself.”
“Huh…?”
“On that day, I’ll be the one to ask whether you’ll be by my side.”
“G-got it!”
She looked bashful as she smiled through her tears. Personally, I didn’t want her making that face. I couldn’t help but pull her into my arms.
From that moment onward, making Lily—no, Lily and me—happy became my responsibility.
***
The sun had already set by the time we returned to my family’s home, which made sense considering we had gone out of our way to take the scenic route through the city. It was probably also time for the pair who had been tailing our carriage to return to base. I didn’t know who they worked for, but it must be hard going in the dark.
Once I sent Lily inside, I took some time to converse with the coachman. That’s when Annette approached. Given the scowl on her face, I knew she had something to say to me. Though really, she had nothing to worry about.
“Viscount Zehrfeld… I was rude today.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” I remained deliberately blasé as I answered. I may have been biased, but my debts were true, and they weren’t something to praise. Since the crown prince and I were trying to use that fact in our favor, getting an apology from a woman I had deceived just didn’t sit right with me.
At least, that was my thinking, but her expression was still sullen. She really took her job seriously.
“Fine. In that case, I want you to continue taking good care of Lily,” I said, this time trying to sound firm.
“Y-yes, my lord.”
She was finally satisfied. Good grief, I thought. But then, Annette said something I couldn’t ignore.
“The church has asked about your debts, and—”
“The church?”
“Yes, Priest Kaempfer. Thinking back on it, I believe there’s a chance Lily may have overheard.”
Ugh, so that’s it. If I was remembering correctly, Kaempfer was the name of the priest in Norbert’s report, who had been pestering my mother every day. One theory about stalkers held that speaking ill of one could attract them to you. But really, Annette didn’t have to look so apologetic.
Well, not everyone who belonged to a church was a saint. Clergymen committed crimes not only in this world, but in my previous one, and they were driven by a wide range of motives. Be it assassination by poison or financial scams, there were countless surviving records, if unreliable ones, that could be used to research the history of crime during the Middle Ages.
During the medieval era of my old world, there were so many fake holy relics it was impossible to count them all. I got why wood pieces from Jesus’s baby cradle and the like would be considered important, but even things like the dice one of the Roman soldiers who stabbed Jesus used to play with were a part of that list. I just couldn’t understand. They were fakes, no matter how I looked at it, but considering what people would pay for them, maybe I shouldn’t be so sure.
One especially interesting example from fourteenth century England revolved around a miraculous image of Christ’s crucifixion. Said miracle apparently involved the wooden figure spinning its eyes while crying and frothing at the mouth. It was also said to have miraculously healed illnesses.
But one day, a man snuck into the church and saw the back of the statue. He realized it was a puppet, and once he announced it publicly, it stopped performing miracles. Most accounts of illnesses it cured were by “those related to the church.” In the decades it took for the trick to be discovered, the church had received huge donations, which had ensured prosperous lives for the people who worked there. Part of me was impressed by how well they had swindled their own believers. Not that any of that pertained to the conversation at hand.
“Got it. In any case, forget about today and watch over Lily for me.”
“Yes, my lord!”
I decided to bring the conversation to a close. Still, I couldn’t quite see what the church was after. Well, I could sort of see it: Clearly, they wanted to bring Mazel over to their side. Their actions, though, didn’t quite seem to align with that goal.
Given their movements, the worst-case scenario was that soldiers were acting on their own because their supreme commander had failed to keep them in line. Some might cause violence in town hoping it would earn them accolades; but given that such incidents were as hard to predict as traffic accidents, I had to figure things out now.
***
I entrusted the coachman with messages for my father and Lily, purchased some used clothes from a new store, then hit the pubs after I had changed. I handed the owners some extra cash to let me leave by the back door, and then took the long route to my destination. I made sure to watch for anyone who might have been following me.
When I reached the store I was headed for, I went in by the rear entrance. It had been rented under a fake name, and I had to hand it to the merchant behind it; his reputation was well-earned, considering he opened a shop in such a short amount of time.
“Lord Viscount! I see you’re dressed quite uniquely today as always.”
“I was almost certainly being followed from my manor. I’m glad to see you’re well, Rafed.”
“Thanks to you providing me the funds I need not to struggle. I thank you from the warmest depths of my heart.”
Like always, he was putting on a weird act. I really wished he would stop it with all the off-putting flattery. For some reason, I was getting a lot of that today.
“Leave it. I need you to investigate something.”
“What is it?”
“The church and Count Jhering. I can’t quite tell if they’re connected or not.” I explained the information I had gathered today.
He tilted his head. “Based on what you’ve told me, I don’t see Miss Annette having any sort of correspondence with the Jherings.”
“I’m sure her friendship with Lily was a coincidence, but if the church and House Jhering are connected, it’s possible that the church will use information they’ve received from the house to try to spread unsavory rumors about me.”
“I see. So House Jhering has deliberately avoided approaching Miss Annette as of yet. I suppose they plan to appear once their plan reaches its final phase. Hmm…” He pondered for a moment. His assumptions seemed likely. “I had the chance to hear plenty of rumors about the Jherings when I frequented the home of Count Bachem. I’ll look into the matter.”
“Thanks.”
“For a price, of course.”
“I suppose there’s no avoiding paying up. I’ll have the money sent to you tomorrow, so get started on preparations already.”
Despite my current debts, here I was spending money again. While I didn’t have to repay my debts to the crown prince as of yet, I couldn’t keep a bitter grin from creeping onto my face considering the mouthful I had gotten from Annette.
Still, gathering intel took time, so I had to act now rather than later.
***
I took the long route back home, specifically choosing a well-trafficked street, and changing into my usual attire partway through the journey. Somewhere down the line, I realized I was being followed, but I decided not to fret over it.
I returned home to find Lily, who greeted me with worry. I handed over my coat with an awkward smile and told her I was headed for my parents’ room. She seemed anxious, so I tried to calm her nerves with a grin and a few more words of reassurance.
Worst-case scenario, one of our relatives could inherit the Count Zehrfeld name. With that thought in mind, I headed to see my parents.
“Excuse me.”
“Come in.”
I entered the room to find both my parents already present. I was lucky that my mother was already there.
“What is it?”
“I have something to ask you two.”
They weren’t glaring at me, but their gazes were still sharp. Quite honestly, I was a bit nervous, but I had no intention of letting that get to me. If I wavered now, I wouldn’t be able to face Lily again, given the courage she’d displayed in confessing her feelings to me.
I said it all at once. “In the future, I would like to take Lily as my wife.”
There was a moment of silence. My parents exchanged glances, which seemed to me to hold rueful grins, though maybe that was just my imagination. But those doubts only lasted a second, as my father spoke before they could grow any further.
“If you do this, you will face strife and difficulties, you know.”
“I know.”
“You’ve had proposals from some of the high-ranking noble ladies as well,” said my mother, but I already knew all that, and it wasn’t going to change anything.
“I don’t mind.”
“I know,” she responded with an exasperated grin. I knew I’d be stirring up some drama between her and the other noblewomen, but her expression now was soft. I had rarely seen her look that way. “You resemble your father in the strangest of ways.”
Do I? I looked back at my father. It was rare to see him shrug, but that was exactly what he was doing now. It was his turn to speak. “This is the first time you’ve made a request to us with such an earnest look in your eyes. I see you’re prepared to face the consequences. Now, all you need is to keep that conviction with you until the very end.”
“…I will.”
“But I am still unable to give you my blessings.”
That made sense. I still had plenty left to do. But once that thought made its way through my mind, my father said something I wasn’t expecting.
“Had this been a marriage to unite two noble families, I would have had no reservations. But those are not the reasons you have chosen Lily, are they?”
“No.”
“We face many problems both domestically and abroad. You are in no position to show any weakness. I am sure you know the Demon army is not the only threat we face.”
He was right. Even as we spoke, I couldn’t figure out what the church was up to either.
“Thus, as the head of the Zehrfeld family, I cannot grant you my permission, as our position is too dire to allow for such headstrong displays and romantic entanglements.”
I wasn’t planning on letting it get to my head, but it was true that being too headstrong could lead to overly rigid thinking. Even though I hadn’t been conscious of it, there was a chance I would have been willing to go to dangerous extremes to win his approval. I felt a twinge of disappointment, but my father and mother now showed me rare, genuine smiles.
“But as your parents, we’re glad you have that determination.”
“I know that Lily is a good girl, but that’s also why you need to take a good look at yourself. Having her by your side means more will be demanded of you.”
“…Thank you.”
I was no match for my parents.
Chapter 2: Trial by Duel
Chapter 2:
Trial by Duel
~Bargaining and Conflict~
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Lily and I left for the palace to receive the official documentation that granted us access to the special library. She was clearly nervous, and her movements seemed forced and awkward, so I did my best to cover for her while we received our papers. In addition to a letter of authorization, we also received what looked like medals.
Mazel could always maintain his composure in front of His Majesty, but I guess most people would end up like Lily. Maybe my point of reference was a bit off. Still, I was proud of her for remembering her manners, though I questioned why the crown prince looked like he was having so much fun.
After that, one of the chancellor’s staff led us deep into the palace. Our only objective for the day was to familiarize ourselves with the place, so neither Lily nor I had prepared anything. I was actually glad we were traveling so light, however, considering how any unnecessary articles would have just gotten in our way.
We were handed magic lamps, then we headed for the basement, proceeding down a dark passage. Not that it mattered, but I felt like this guy kind of resembled Sir Benhke, who had served me in Anheim. Maybe they were related.
The underground passageway was lined with stone walls, which reminded me of a haunted mansion. Not that anything would appear—actually, I suppose it wouldn’t be so strange for the ghost of an assassinated noble or something to show up here. It almost sounded likely.
Such idle thoughts were bouncing around my mind when we arrived at a heavy door barred shut with three latches. At first glance, it looked like your average door, but closer inspection revealed there was something strange about it.
“You won’t need a key, but please move the latches in the following order. Be careful to follow this exact sequence,” explained the guide as he moved first the top latch, then bottom, then middle to open the door. The other side was perhaps built like a puzzle considering that moving the latches in a different order wouldn’t open the door. I liked these sorts of tricks.
Beyond it was a spiral staircase that led deeper underground, but there were no lights. The darkness was so absolute that anyone who came unprepared would be walking totally blindly. We’d have to remember our magic lamps.
“Lily, lend me your hand.”
“R-right.”
Such stone, spiral staircases were quite common in the West, but they could actually be quite tricky. They looked pretty imposing, but in reality were quite cramped, with a narrow span. You would often see people dashing up them in anime, but one wrong move and you’d end up motion sick. Those with small semicircular canals in their inner ear could easily end up taking a quick trip to the bottom, so the design really wasn’t something I could recommend. It was important to take these stairs slowly and calmly.
Knowing that Lily was likely unaccustomed to such staircases, I supported her as we made our way down.
“We’re so deep underground.”
“Yeah, we’re going even deeper than I thought we would. But strangely, it doesn’t feel too humid.”
Our descent stretched on. Since we couldn’t see what lay beyond the stairs, it was hard to tell how far we had come, but my best estimate was about three floors. It felt like we were headed for the dungeons, and a little while later, we had finally reached the bottom where we faced another heavy door. I guess this one opened at a knock.
“I have brought Viscount Zehrfeld and his assistant.”
“Thank you.”
The door led to a spacious room that gave off the impression of an important secretarial office. Passing through here was necessary to make it any deeper inside, and there were four men in palace guard uniforms standing watch. While they weren’t dressed in armor, they were nevertheless armed, and their skill was evident in the way they carried themselves.
The guards only spared me a glance, but they looked at Lily in wonder. Nevertheless, they made sure to maintain their proper manners. Apparently, no one had served in her position before, and while it perhaps wasn’t very nice to point out, there were probably very few women outside the royal family who had ever visited the room. Plus, word had probably gotten around that she was the Hero’s younger sister. It made sense that she would draw their interests. I suppose I can let them be since they’re not staring at her.
“Please wash your hands here.”
“Right.”
I was surprised there was a place for handwashing, but the presence of such a facility was perhaps obvious considering this was a library that stored precious written materials. Stepping on a pedal caused water to spurt forth from the faucet. It was oddly modern.
“This way, please.”
After confirming that the two of us had properly washed our hands, one of the knights opened the door for us. Something felt off, so I stopped in my tracks. But then, I noticed the source of that feeling—the stones of the ceiling were glowing. They were just like the electric lights of my old world.
“Is this magical lighting?”
“I don’t know the details, but it seems so.” The man serving as our guide may have been a civil official, but he didn’t seem to know how to use magic. It made sense that he wasn’t well-informed on the matter.
Right ahead was a peculiar double door and a path that branched left and right. When we reached the center of these paths, I noticed that the right path ended in a lavish door while the left ended in a sturdy one.
Standing at the center of the crossroads put the guards’ room behind us, the peculiar double door in front, and the two other strange doors to our left and right. This looks like a game dungeon. Now that I think about it, the door right in front of us kind of resembles the doors that would only open for certain quests.
“The door to the guards’ room can only be opened from the inside, so whenever you visit, please have them open the door for you.”
“Got it.” I nodded.
“Do all of these doors lead to libraries?” asked Lily. It was a good question. If all three rooms were filled with books, our research was going to be a lot harder.
“No. The library lies beyond the door to your left, while the door to the right leads to the royal treasure stores. As for the door before you…”
For better or worse, only one of these three rooms was the library. That makes things easier, I thought, but then, our guide let out a bombshell.
“It leads to a room known as the Magic Control Room. I hear it holds the summoning circle and fixed pillars that maintain the barrier around the city.”
Huh, so this is where the demon-repelling barrier around the capital is maintained.Could we be right next to the center of the palace? It was hard to keep the surprise off my face.
“Is something so important really right before us?”
“This area is closed to the public, after all. It’s off-limits to all but a few people related to the throne, the chancellor, and the captain of the mage corps.”
Is it really okay to let people like me and Lily down here? I further lost my grasp on what the crown prince could possibly be thinking. Still, asking our guide any careless questions might simply arouse suspicion. I decided to keep my mind trained only on the library for the day, and took a step toward the door.
“Lily?”
“S-sorry!”
She had been curiously observing the door to the treasure stores, and I understood why it would draw her attention. Then again, her reaction was probably the norm for people who knew nothing about the palace and its workings. If I hadn’t known more, I’m sure all my attention would have been on that room as well.
When the three of us approached the library door, I noticed it lacked a keyhole. I looked at it in wonder, but then our guide pointed to a conspicuously colored plank to the side of the door.
“Place the medals you were given on this part of the wall. Both of you, please.”
“Like this?”
When I pressed my medal against the panel, it glowed. Then, the door opened. It must have been a contactless key operated by magic. The fact both of us had to do it was probably related to some sort of security measure.
“I do not have a medal, so this is as far as I can take you. Will you be looking inside?”
“Hmm… I think we will.”
“Understood. I will be waiting for you in the guards’ room when you are done.”
With that, our guide turned on his heel and walked off. Lily and I exchanged glances before stepping inside the room. In a flash, light spilled down from the ceiling, replacing the previous darkness. Reflexively, the two of us stood still.
If there are a hundred books, each of us just needs to read fifty. That’s easy. If there are a thousand, that’s five hundred each, which is still doable.
“Um, Lord Werner? How many books do you think are here?”
“I was just wondering that myself.”
Clearly, that number had to be over ten thousand.
***
Faced with far more shelves and books than we had imagined, the two of us could only stare in awe. But that just wasted time. Truly, coming down here for a preliminary look had been the right move.
“Um, Lord Werner? Is it all right if I look at just one of the books?”
“Sure. Oh, but make sure you put it back exactly where you found it. The books are probably organized by type or topic.”
“Right.”
I’m gonna be pissed if they’re not organized, I thought as I watched Lily take one of the books from the shelf. I looked around the room in an attempt to figure out the source of what had been bothering me.
“Wow! This book is amazing. The pages are so thin, and all the letters are the same size. It’s so easy to read!”
I wasn’t expecting Lily to be so moved. I looked at her book and discovered it was the same sort of paper I knew well. I guess this was the natural reaction coming from someone who had only seen notes handwritten on sheepskin and monster-hide parchment before.
“Um, Lord Werner? How do you think they wrote these books?”
“They’re probably not written, but printed.”
“Printed?”
So I have to start from there, I thought, but it wasn’t strange for a daughter of a village innkeeper to be a stranger to printing. Still, while I was familiar with the term “rotary press,” I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, so the only detailed explanation I could offer was the particulars of woodblock printing.
“Well, first…”
I used cattle brands as an example to explain movable type printing, describing how letters could be transferred to paper by lining stamps marked with letters in order and pressing it onto a sheet of paper. Please forgive how much gesturing I had to do to explain.
“Not only is it easy to read, but you can create multiple copies from the same plate. Though that also means the mistakes are copied as well.”
One famous example from my previous life revolved around a so-called adultery bible where the word “not” was missing from one of the Ten Commandments, resulting in the line, “you shall commit adultery.” The scale of that mistake was catastrophically grand, as no one noticed the misprint until after the bibles had been distributed.
Still, I had to wonder at how many of those bibles had reached the hands of future generations, given that the king had ordered them all burned. I suspected it wasn’t just a matter of failing to recover some of them, but that some nobles of dubious priorities must have hidden them away.
“Why hasn’t it spread, then?”
“It probably has to do with both the paper and the printing process.”
Printing needed paper to fit certain requirements, including how strong it was and how the ink took to its surface. Animal hide parchment often had bumps, making it a poor fit for the process. I knew that much, but I had no idea what inks worked best on what.
“How were they able to print on such thin paper then?”
“I think it’s because it was made from plants.”
“You can make paper from plants?!”
“You can, but I don’t think this is made using the exact same method that I’m familiar with.”
I was pretty sure this paper was created using the Western method, but the documentary I had watched only covered how to make washi paper. Before briefly explaining the washi method, I made sure to warn her that the result of what I was explaining would be slightly different. Did this world have kozo and mitsumata anyway?
I described the papermaking process based on my half-remembered knowledge, earning gleeful surprise and awe from Lily. Outside of the arts, papermaking didn’t have much practical use, so it was probably strange for a noble to be familiar with it.
Incidentally, the papermaking process had spread to the West by the twelfth century, but since cotton scraps were the main material used back then, the process was not only laborious but resulted in hard, starchy paper. In this world, using monster hide to make parchment was likely much quicker, and I had never seen anyone make paper here before.
“You really know a lot, Lord Werner!”
“It’s just stuff I happen to pick up here and there.”
I had only learned this stuff by watching TV, but thinking back on it now, my previous world really was overflowing with information. Just repeating what I had learned from a documentary earned me so much praise. Though I felt that this world markedly lacked information in the same way my old one was abundant in it.
Still, I’d be digging my own grave if I raised her expectations of me too high, so I decided to change the subject. “Let’s do a full circuit of this place. I want to figure out exactly how big it is.”
“Got it!”
We walked around the library together in an attempt to gauge its size. It seemed to only be about as big as a small library on earth, but the shelves were big, and the number of books was staggering. But why did something still not seem quite right?
“Is something the matter, Lord Werner?”
“No, it’s nothing. Something just feels off.”
All my staring must have drawn her attention. I answered her honestly, and Lily took a moment to ponder my words before offering a response I hadn’t been expecting. “Off? Could it be the bookshelves?”
“The bookshelves?”
“Yes. They don’t look like the sort you’d find in a library.”
With that, I finally realized the source of my premonitions. They lacked the artistry you’d expect from the furniture of a royal library. Furthermore, there was something cold about them, like they belonged in a private warehouse that rarely saw visitors. To put it in terms of my old world, they looked like shelves not for books, but for office files. Perhaps this being a secret library explained all that.
Looking around once again, I noticed there were no classification labels. Instead, only a section of the shelves was marked with wooden-plaque memos like “magic” or “sewers” by someone else who had used them. It would have been nice if they had brief explanations about what could be found on each shelf like libraries back on Earth had as well.
“Somehow, it seems like things were just moved here,” I remarked.
“Yes, like everything was just put away,” responded Lily.
Rather than a library, this place seemed like a storehouse that things had been thrown into in case of emergency. If that was the case, it was safe to assume these tomes weren’t organized.
We had given up counting the number of volumes and settled on simply walking around, but even that exhausted me somehow. If we wanted to save time in the long run, we were probably best off mapping the shelves first. Suddenly, I realized I had no idea what time it was. It was careless of me to forget to bring a clock.
“Let’s head back for today.”
“R-right.”
For some reason, something seemed to have caught her attention. “What is it?”
“It’s just, um… Lord Werner, do you mind if we head for the treasure stores as well? We don’t need to step inside.”
Huh? Based on her expression, this request didn’t seem to be based solely on curiosity.
“Let’s get permission from the guide first. I’ll ask as well.”
“Thank you.” She was probably relieved that I hadn’t denied her request given how happy she sounded. She looked at me like a puppy wagging its tail, and I wished she would cut it out, knowing the effect it could have on me.
***
Our medals didn’t give us access to the treasure room, but the guide gave us permission to head for the door and accompanied us there. This one had a panel-looking thing beside it as well. Likely, it needed a different key.
Lily looked around the door and spread her arms. I don’t know what she’s doing either, so please stop looking at me like that, guide man.
“Something really is strange about this door, Lord Werner.”
“Huh?”
“You see…”
Lily suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me toward her. It was rare to see her acting like this. I had no intention of resisting her, but the look of shock on the guard’s face was making it hard for me to control my own reaction.
Lily dragged me back to the center of the crossroads. Then, she looked both left and right. “From here, the doors on both sides look like they’re the same size, right?”
“Huh? Yeah, I suppose so.”
“But they’re not.”
Huh?
“They’re not the same size, but they look like they are from here.”
“Wait a second.”
The door to the treasure stores was so opulent that I hadn’t paid any attention to the size. Was it changing?
The guard who followed after us gave us an inquisitive look. “And what does that mean, exactly?”
“There’s some sort of optical illusion that makes those two doors look like they’re equally spaced from the center here,” I said.
“Exactly,” Lily said. “We would need to take proper measurements to be certain, but it looked to me like the width of the passageway grew as we approached the door. The distance to each door from this center point differs, but that’s been purposefully concealed. Though I don’t know the reason why.”
If it was just a result of the architecture, there would be no need to conceal it. There really was something strange here.
“Could you report this to His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“C-certainly, my lord.”
I figured this was something he could handle, so I left it to him.
***
It was already quite late by the time we bade farewell to our guide, so I planned to hurry back to my family’s manor. However, a messenger from the crown prince chased after us with a summons from him, so we turned around and headed back to the palace. We didn’t have to wait before being ushered into His Highness’s office, and once again, Lily was stiff with nerves. I placed a gentle hand on her back, which earned me a stiff smile, so I decided to leave things at that. Considering that even I got nervous talking to him, there was nothing else I could do.
“I see.” The crown prince placed a hand to his chin and pondered. He didn’t even glance at Lily.
Within the silent room, a single knight spoke. “Could this be some sort of mistake?”
“There is no telling at this point. However, I have only visited the library and treasure store separately, and never in the same trip. It is true that I have never thought to pay attention to the distance between those two doors and their size.”
I was quite certain that the royal family rarely visited the library or treasure store in the first place. If their visits were so infrequent, it would be hard to notice anything was off.
His Highness repeatedly tapped his finger against his desk. When he ceased, he looked straight at me. “What do you make of this?”
“I believe it’s probable that the reason for changing this distance and concealing it is unrelated to what lay inside the rooms.”
“There is nothing strange about the size of the rooms being different, after all.”
Exactly. There was no reason to conceal the rooms being a different size, and that only left one conclusion. “In other words, I believe there is likely something hidden in the hall.”
***
I had to shift gears the following day. An investigation of the passage was to be held under the supreme command of the crown prince, so the area was off-limits to anyone not directly involved. It was a bit of a letdown, but they would inform me of the results, so I just had to be patient. For the time being, I was given other tasks to oversee.
While I was now a chamberlain to the chancellor, spending every day in the underground library had left the average nobles wondering what I was up to. The fact that the library was a secret only compounded their suspicions about me, and thus, I was unable to object to the work that had been assigned to me today.
I was also told that they wanted me to attend to other work at least once every three days but that I could prioritize my research in the library should anything happen. Basically, I was given work that I could be removed from at any time. While I understood the reason for this, this made my time constraints even tighter. It was giving me a headache. I’d need to find a more efficient way to plumb the library’s secrets sooner rather than later.
Today, I served as the temporary organizer for the dishware storehouse. There was no need to finish the whole job today; I had only been given the task for appearances’ sake, so I could be somewhat perfunctory in my work. I was like one of those secret agents in manga whose cover was a useless salaryman.
Since my job today had nothing to do with my archival work, Lily spent the day studying back at my family’s house. My mother had called teachers for history and dance to our home in both the morning and afternoon. While history was useful, it was hard to say the same about dance lessons. Hopefully she would do her best.
“So I don’t need to check on our food stores?”
“No, we have a man for that job. I want you to take charge of checking the tableware.”
“Got it.”
In general, this world had a similar feel to Earth’s Middle Ages, but the inside of the palace resembled more modern times, which I was thankful for. The Middle Ages covered a large swath of time, but during the middle period of the era, everything but soup was eaten with your fingers. Writing that “the woman avoided wetting her fingers even when placing them inside her plate” was actually an expression of praise.
That was all well and good, but you’d find passages like “the pinky finger should not be used for seasonings,” and “you mustn’t blow your nose using the table cloth,” in books of etiquette from the era. The difference in table manners between the Middle Ages and contemporary times was vast.
The time had also been riddled with sanitation problems. One famous story tells of an emperor who found a frog in his wine and drank it before anyone could even doubt whether the noble who had poured him the glass was trying to poison him. Thinking back on it, there was a similar story from the Edo period regarding the shogun and a caterpillar.
If the world I lived in now was anything like that, I would have probably just given up on changing anything, but I hadn’t yet seen any events of that sort unfold in front of me. Conveniently, noble society followed more modern customs, and since that was enough for me, I figured complaining would only backfire.
“Right, then we’ll be dividing into groups and conducting our reviews separately. Make sure you check for cracks in the ceramics and dirt on the silverware.”
“Yessir!”
I see they take a soldier’s approach to everything. I had the men examine the ceramicware and the women the silverware, further dividing them into teams to check each box in order. The silverware was sorted into smaller batches than the ceramics were, so the women were still able to carry it easily. I was thankful our magic lamps made it so easy to see.
The amount of dishware in the palace was huge. There were men working under my father, the Minister of Ceremonies, whose work focused solely on that, and apparently, the number of ceramics exceeded six thousand, while the number of knives alone exceeded ten thousand.
Glasses were used as a show of stature when hosting foreign parties, but even so, they numbered in the thousands as well. I couldn’t even fathom how much time it must take to count and polish all that.
Candlesticks were usually stored here as well, and the largest weighed more than thirty kilograms. The manager of the place jokingly told me that “it’s too heavy to be swung around, so it can’t be used as a weapon!” but was that really something to laugh about?
“Any issues with the tally of the silverware?”
“It’s remained consistent since the last knighting ceremony.”
I confirmed the number with the man in charge. Incidentally, smaller items like teaspoons were often ordered in bulk after parties. Much as in my old world, there were people who placed them in their pockets and took them home.
One might wonder whether any nobles or knights would really do such a thing, but it was actually quite common. I could kind of understand wanting it not for its monetary value, but as a keepsake.
Still, there was no way to check every single noble after every single event, so ordering replacements for these small items had become a natural part of the follow-up to any party. It was a waste of money, but I wouldn’t want to live in a society that was too strict about these things, either.
Collapsible tables known as “horse and saddle tables” were also stored here. They were moveable and assembled by placing a board on top of legs. The board had grips and was decorated, and there were collapsible seats to match it as well. However, these weren’t meant just for those of lower ranks; it was believed that the famous Sir Gawain used one of these chairs. There were a variety of shapes—including rectangular and oval—and each one served a different purpose.
There were also small irons that were used on tablecloths once they were fitted on the tables, but what I found most interesting was the presence of long ropes. Apparently, they were used to make sure that the dishware and silverware on long tables were all properly aligned. The technology was surprisingly simple.
As such superfluous thoughts ran through my mind, I realized someone had started thoughtlessly returning everything to where it had been. “Wait!” I said, panicked, which got them to stop. Then I called out to the men who were regularly assigned to this place. “Let’s change where these are stored. Those of you who are regularly stationed here, stand up and lend me a hand.
“All right. We’ll put the most-used items on these two shelves.” I guess this is about average height. “What gets the most use?”
“These and these.”
“Then let’s start with those boxes. Move what gets the most use to places that are easy to reach and mark the boxes so it’s easy to tell what’s inside.”
Nobles ate well, so those in charge and those who served them often differed in height. Obviously, it was best to keep more frequently used items in places that were most accessible, and we had to make sure we kept that in mind.
***
In the afternoon, I once again shifted gears. My job was to transport documents related to a public finance meeting and manage their bulletin board. I wasn’t yet at an age where I could have any say in public finance, so I was only sitting in on the meeting. I guess I’m serving the same purpose as the civil official who attended our meeting regarding the refugees.
“These materials pertain to our next matter of discussion.”
Still, someone else had already prepared all the documents, so I just had to hand them out and post some on the board. I had time to linger in my thoughts, but I figured it was best to stay focused.
Some of the attendees glanced at me every so often, which was probably because I had gone from being a deputy directly appointed by the crown to a chamberlain working for the chancellor. On the surface—or really, any way you looked at it through the lens of the palace’s value system—it was a downgrade.
Not to mention, my reputation for governance was in shambles thanks to my debts, and my standing as a commander was in doubt given Anheim’s ramparts had fallen under my leadership. The common opinion of me was that I would have lost the city had the knight brigade not appeared. They might have even assumed that my failure to manage a crisis had resulted in my demotion. Wait, was I given this job today so I’d be working where people would see me? Maybe it’s best not to think about it.
The attendees discussed how to deal with the damage the Demon army had caused and the state of public finance, but one thing I couldn’t ignore was the fact that the value of currency was depreciating.
This often happened during times of financial crisis in my previous world as well, with famous examples including the Edo period and the Hundred Years’ War. Adulterating silver and gold was a way to financially give the nation a break, which worked well as a short-term solution. But long-term, that inevitably led to inflation, and unlike the island nation of Japan during the Edo period, the fact that goods still circulated internationally despite the presence of monsters meant that currency exchange rates would change, which spelled trouble.
Plus, it was quite easy for history to repeat itself in this regard, since a measure used once was all too readily seen as the right answer the next time the same problem cropped up. And while depreciating the currency was a tempting balm for our financial troubles in the face of the Demon army, it would, in the long-term, poison the country’s finances.
More than anything, there was no quick way to change to a new currency during the Middle Ages, which meant two currencies would have to be used for a time. This would drag out inflation until the harmful effects hit us like a ton of bricks. Historically, such a process typically took five to ten years.
I really didn’t want to have to deal with such an obnoxious situation in my twenties. While I didn’t have any right to speak in this meeting, I’d have to draft up a plan and submit it for these officials’ consideration later.
Still, I’d probably just be ignored if I couldn’t find common ground with their opinions, and I needed to consider how those funds would be sourced. Considering I wasn’t too successful at taxing the guilds when I was deputy, I needed to address that first. Just how should I write this?
Once again, I was starting to get a headache.
***
As the next day arrived, the investigation of the chambers beneath the palace were still underway, so the area remained off-limits. This threw a wrench in my plans, but that was even more true for Lily. Being my assistant, she didn’t have anything to do. This is taking longer than I expected. This must be one laborious investigation.
Just as I was mulling that over, Lily came to request she be allowed to continue studying history. I figured that getting access to the nobility’s exclusive libraries would be a change of pace for her, so I sought permission from the chancellor to organize one of the archives in the palace, which he readily gave. There was something I wanted to research myself, and this was the perfect opportunity.
Since their time off was over, I had Neurath and Schünzel accompany me as well. I would have liked Annette to be there too, but since she didn’t work directly under me, I couldn’t give that order.
“That reminds me. Have either of you entered this library before?”
“Libraries and I don’t quite get a long,” Neurath said.
What do you mean, ‘don’t get along’? Books won’t attack you, y’know. Apparently, he had rarely visited.
“I’ve stopped by many times in the past, but that was a long time ago.”
Really? You too, Schünzel? was my first thought, but I quickly reconsidered. Knights probably had to prioritize training over studies. I supposed neither of them would be much help in this.
“Got it. No matter what happens to me, just keep an eye on Lily.”
“Yessir!”
“Understood.”
I thought it was unlikely that anyone would attack us in the library, but I wanted to cover my bases.
After choosing one of the reading desks as our rendezvous point, Lily headed for the history section while I made my way to the registry of nobles, where I picked out some of the public records. Books made from paper were heavy, but those made from parchment were practically boulders, so I uttered a litany of curses in my mind as I made my way back to the desk.
This world had its own version of top-secret information, but researching it required hefty funds and would expose you to some particularly dire risks. Thus, I decided to focus on public records rather than confidential ones.
This world had a shoddy understanding of the importance of information, but there was a famous story related to public information from the modern history of my old world. Right before World War II, a Swiss reporter was able to gather intel on the German military units in a certain region and publish it in full. The release of so-called military secrets caused an uproar that resulted in that reporter’s arrest by the German army, but when that very army traced the sources of that information, they realized it was all publicly available.
Basically, the reporter had meticulously collated intel like “the captain of so-and-so division is on official leave to travel for the summer” or “the captain of platoon whatever greeted me at a party,” and turned it into a proper hierarchy list comparable to secret intelligence.
Flabbergasted, the Nazi police had no choice but to acquit them. Still, the story became a landmark victory in the West among journalists and the media at large. Afterward, such information was excluded from public records, but the incident remained exemplary of how separate pieces of innocuous information could be strung together to reveal big secrets. I guess even researching public records posed some risk.
When I returned to the desk, Lily was already deep in a book. I sat across from her and began to peruse the documents I had grabbed, paying special attention to the names of houses who had strong ties to the church. As I did so, I made it a point to remain wary of my surroundings. When I became aware of someone’s gaze on me, I couldn’t help but sigh.
“I’m going to grab some new documents,” I said to Lily as I headed deeper into the archives.
“Okay!” responded Lily.
The eyes followed me. I didn’t really mind as long as I was their target. As I put away the books I had taken earlier, the owner of that gaze approached.
“Why, if it isn’t the Lord Viscount!”
“I doubt this is our first encounter, but may I ask who I’m speaking to?” I responded coldly to his sarcastic tone, eliciting a scowl. Don’t worry, I know exactly who you are, Viscount Vogel.
“How rude of me to not offer my name. Please forgive me. It is Wotan Sven Vogel.”
“Ah, the viscount. Apologies for my rudeness. I am Werner Von Zehrfeld.”
He looked to be in his early thirties. Two flunkies had accompanied him. I felt kind of sorry for them, but being surrounded by the three wasn’t intimidating in the slightest. The dirt under one of the Demon Commanders’ claws would have left more of an impression than they did. Now, just what did they want from me?
Viscount Vogel sneered sardonically at the oblivious front I’d put up. “I must praise you for your work as deputy of Anheim. And now I hear you’re a chamberlain? It must be hard work.”
“Not at all. I’m famous now, which is much better than being a nobody.”
He was clearly trying to put me down, so I decided to leverage my reputation. Better infamous than a nobody like him, whom I’d never even heard of. The veins began to bulge in his forehead. Man, just a little bit of teasing can set this guy off.
“…I hear you are close with Princess Laura.”
“I’m lucky that such rumors are being spread about a man as lowly as I am.” I’ve only briefly spoken with her, but she’d never even talk to someone like you, I added with my eyes.
“I hear that Her Highness even spent the night at your residence.”
“I was away then, so she must have been a guest of my mother’s, Lady Zehrfeld. I can confirm that with her if you’d like.” It was a thinly veiled challenge to pick a fight with a count’s household. Insinuating Laura had been my father’s guest was inviting controversy, but being the guest of another woman wouldn’t quite raise those kinds of doubts. Just a little more. “If you’re interested, I’ll invite you to visit on a later date. Well then.”
“W-wait, Viscount! I’m not done with you yet!”
“I’m sure it would displease you to know you’re no good even for killing time with, but I’m busy, so I’ll be taking my leave now.” I beat him down in a single breath and walked past the three men, who watched me in silence. I rushed back to the desk and spoke to Lily before the men who approached could speak to her.
“Sorry, Lily. Do you have a moment?”
“Y-yes.” Having been spoken to, Lily bolted upright. The man who was watching soundlessly gaped at her like a babbling fish. You need to choose better vassals, Vogel. “What do you need?”
“Come here for a second.” I signaled with my gaze to Neurath and Schünzel to stand where they could keep the men in check. Then, I led Lily to the archive’s atlases. That guy needs to stop trying to stare me down. Still, I don’t recognize their bozo boss. I’ll have to look into him later.
“Um, did something happen?”
“I just put out some embers before they could become a flame. I didn’t want you to get burned, after all.”
“Thank you.”
For a moment, I thought I was being overprotective. However, Lily was well aware that she lacked power, and thus, she returned a docile smile. For the moment, it was best I head home before the situation could devolve into something worse.
***
In my previous life, ideas had a tendency to come to me suddenly while I was walking or resting. It was a rare common occurrence, as strange as that expression may sound. What I experienced late that night was the same; while I was marveling at the strength of the wind as I lay in bed, I suddenly had a lightbulb moment.
I jumped out of bed, planted myself at my desk, and began to write down some notes. It’s always hard to sleep when this happens, I thought as I turned on a magic lamp and began considering a series of different scenarios. These bursts of nocturnal insight always left me dead tired the morning after. The servants would wake up before the nobles to open the shutters and prepare breakfast, and I had heard them get up that morning. Basically, I had pulled an all-nighter.
“Good morning, Lord Werner… Did you not sleep well last night?”
“Oh, well. You know.” Lily started to worry for me once she noticed the bags under my eyes, but causing her to worry only made me feel like the bad guy, so I forced our conversation in a new direction. “Lily, this can wait until later since it’s still early, but can you have Norbert summon Max?”
“O-of course.”
“Also, send someone to pick up what I ordered from Bierstedt’s company.”
“Right.”
Having received her orders, Lily exited the room. Seems like I got out of that one. I knew I was making her worry, but I wanted to conduct my experiment before I said anything. I’ll have to give my reasoning and take the day off from working at the palace.
Incidentally, days off had to be bought with money in this world—yes, for real. That was the case in quite a few places during the Middle Ages, and even until recently in Europe. Basically, to take a day off, you had to pay a fine to the kingdom worth a day’s work. You’d occasionally come across stories of nobles who spent their days merrymaking without ever working at court, and usually, this was how they bought those days off. Though if they had the money to buy days off from the kingdom, they had to be quite well off in their own right, I suppose.
“Good morning, Lord Werner.”
“Oh, morning.”
While I was brooding over my plans for the day, Norbert knocked on the door to my room and entered. I told him to inform the palace I’d be absent, and then to hire some adventurers for the day. Then, I had breakfast, and once that had concluded, I met with Max. Today was going to be busy.
***
After finishing my morning meal, I received the monster-summoning flutes I had ordered from Bierstedt, gathered some adventurers for my experiment, and began my tests in the suburbs of the capital. Well, not really. Right when things were about to get started, something unexpected happened, forcing me to put my plans on hold.
“I am utterly ashamed…”
Max was bright red and dejected, which meant I had to cheer him up, which was rare.
“I mean, everyone has things they’re better at than others, right?” I said. Still, I could understand how he felt, especially with Orgen and Barkey snickering behind him. “I didn’t know you were so tone-deaf, commander.”
“T-to think,” Max said, “I can’t even play a flute…”
Well, yeah. I’m surprised too. In the game, the same tune resounded no matter who played the magic flute, but even so, I had naturally assumed that wouldn’t be the case in real life. And unlike in the game, I wasn’t quite sure of the range of the flutes. I thought there was a chance the wind could amplify the sound and carry it longer distances, so I wanted to conduct my experiment on a day with strong gusts. Thus, I gathered a large group to blow the flutes on one such day to test whether the flutes would work differently depending on who played them—or at least, I had planned to.
I never expected—and I doubted anyone would—to hear a flute make a sound so brazenly loud, and so utterly out of tune. Now, it was true that I was the one who had Max test them out first since he seemed like he’d have good lung capacity, but the noise he made was so dissonant that my eardrums felt like they were about to burst. Max had no past experience with music or instruments, so even he himself hadn’t realized how terrible he was. In any case, this unexpected turn of events threw the experiment into chaos.
However, the experiment also benefited from the situation. In order to test how far the sound of the flute would be carried, I had the adventurers spread out into concentric circles around Max. Despite the strong winds blowing from the north, I could see adventurers in every direction giggling. Apparently, the fact that summoning flutes were magical items meant that weather phenomena didn’t alter their effect. I was also able to determine that the flute disappeared after use no matter how off the pitch.
“You’re up, Max!”
“Right! Please continue the experiments!”
My tests involved blowing flutes over and over, and I put Max in charge of dispatching the monsters that would be summoned. The job wasn’t enough to completely remove the stains from his sullied name, but it was at least a good method of catharsis.
When a monster-summoning flute was blown, it would usually draw monsters directly to its user even if others stood between them and the summoned monster. The only exception to this was if another tried to intercept the monster; in that case, the monster would attack the interceptor. If I ever wanted to use these flutes in traps, I’d have to spread word of it in advance.
I also tested how the sound spread. Considering these were “summoning” flutes, they had to be drawing monsters starting with those that were closest. However, no matter how many times we used the flutes, monsters came regardless. Additionally, the adventurers positioned farther away reported that while they didn’t hear the flute at first, they eventually began to hear the sound. This fact remained constant no matter how quiet or loud the sound the flute produced.
Thus, it was safe to assume that the flutes were imbued with a magical spell that guaranteed the sound would be heard by at least one monster. That explains how monsters would always appear in the game, no matter how many times in a row you used these flutes.
It was also possible that the sound the flute produced was simply a signal that magic had been cast, and the real magical effect summoning the monsters was something else. Given all this, it was unlikely I’d be able to use them as radars or sensors.
“But still, what exactly are these flutes?” asked Orgen.
“This is just a guess, but I think these flutes are repurposing a tool originally used for something else,” I answered as I recorded the farthest adventurer that had heard the most recently used flute.
In the past, I hypothesized that the ancestors of monsters were livestock turned monstrous by the Demon Lord during the days of the ancient kingdom. If that was true, it was easy to imagine that these flutes might have once been used to herd grazing farm animals.
However, that begged other questions. While these musings were still simply in the realm of hypotheses, if the Demon Lord had turned the livestock of the peoples during the ancient kingdom into monsters, could he turn people into monsters too? Now that the Demon Lord had returned, Demons were spawning all across the land, but how they increased their numbers and where those additions came from was a mystery. Of course, it was possible that the Demon Lord was using magic to create synthetic humanoids—well, “humanoids” probably wasn’t the right word for what the Demon Lord was creating, but it was feasible that he was creating a subspecies of golems or something.
However, taking this theory of demonization a step further suggested a connection with the fact that Demons had begun to appear so frequently after the return of the Demon Lord. For example, if a human without the skills to become a Demon Commander were turned into a Demon—a being a step below a Commander—then…
Adventurers went missing in dungeons all the time. Hunters would never return from forays into the woods, and travelers would vanish, never heard from again. While all such people were lumped into the category of “missing persons,” was that really the whole story? Since I currently had no means of investigating the matter, I decided to tuck it away in the corner of my brain for now.
“We are ready to retreat, Lord Werner.”
“Got it. Give the adventurers their pay for today, as well as some alcohol money,” I ordered Max. I felt like his terrible pitch was bound to become the talk of the night, but it was probably best to pretend like I hadn’t noticed. “Oh, and Max, I’ll be providing liquor for the knights who helped us today as well.”
“My thanks.”
This was the least I could do considering I had been dragging these knights all over the place. But just as that thought passed through my mind, one of the knights approached me.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“Sir! A man claiming connections with the Adventurers’ Guild requests an audience with you!”
“Connections?” I decided to ask for clarification. Apparently, the man didn’t work for the Adventurers’ Guild, but was an acting adventurer equal in position to a real guild member. I hadn’t realized we had such a man here today.“Got it. Bring him here.”
Back here in the capital, I was a noble and he was an adventurer, which made it difficult for him to meet with me. In a place like this, though, we could have a relaxed conversation. Plus, I was probably more grateful than he was for this opportunity for us to talk.
“I’ll lead him here!” When the knight returned, he had in tow a famous adventurer of large, burly stature. I was on good terms with the Iron Hammer, but I guess it checked out that there’d be even more well renowned adventurers out there.
The man made a single request: to share my report on the function of monster-summoning flutes with the guild. Being a magical item, the flutes were quite expensive, and apparently, the guilds had never used so many at once for such a thorough experiment.
It was also important to note that rather than “share,” he was really asking me to sell it to them, but a commoner couldn’t beg for what belonged to a noble. Thus, he had to be roundabout; he was asking that I share it out of the kindness of my heart while implying that he’d give me a monetary reward as a sign of appreciation.
“Sure. If it’ll help adventurers to slay monsters, it’ll keep the populace safe. I’ll submit a copy of my report to the guild.”
“I deeply thank you for your kindness, Lord Viscount.”
Just like a noble couldn’t say a gift they were offering was “nothing much,” it was hard for a noble to take research they’d paid for out of pocket, then hand it out for free. That was especially true for the Adventurers’ Guild, as it could lead to the mistaken belief that certain nobles were involved with them.
At the same time, accepting repayment for such a minor favor called that noble’s honor and dignity into question. Thus, I’d have to prepare some excuse to offer the report for free. Being a noble was an absolute pain.
“All right! Move out!”
Once I finished rechecking my records, I ordered everyone to return to the capital. While being near the city had limited how much we could collect, we had nevertheless gotten our hands on a large number of monster materials. It was likely enough to pay for our liquor tonight, and I decided to divvy the profit up later and let everyone use it at their own discretion.
In any case, first I’d return home, then I’d check the data and put together a plan while considering the range that… Never mind. There was too much to do, and first, I needed to get some sleep.
***
Once all that was over, we spent a few days working in the underground library. I still hadn’t heard anything about the passageway, and while I was sure the crown prince didn’t want others to know Lily and I had been visiting these archives, I still felt like he was up to something else when Lily and I weren’t working there. I mean, the hallway just felt like it had been seeing a lot of foot traffic, or at the very least, I could tell there was something different about it compared to the first time I saw it. But despite this, I couldn’t come up with an estimate of how many people had been walking these halls.
Thinking about that wasn’t going to do me any good, so I decided to focus my efforts on investigating the library. We had wasted a whole day on creating a map of the room, but there was nothing we could do about that now. Making some preliminary preparations would surely aid us later anyway.
For now, I had Lily look for books that contained maps. Whether the presence of a map meant the book was related to history or not was one thing, but it was nevertheless true that most history books had maps. Rather than read through the pages, it was faster to just look at the diagrams. While Lily carried out her task, I skimmed through documents relating to magic. If I let my intellectual curiosity and interests get the better of me, I’d end up reading the whole volume, which would be a dangerous waste of time. Thus, I limited myself to identifying the keywords, as there were too many volumes to do much else.
“The way this place is organized really is odd,” I muttered as I took a break and looked at the diagram before me.
“You’re right…” Lily, who was taking some notes, lifted her head and offered a response. Seeing that she was recording numbers, comments, and checkmarks, it seemed that she had been making a record of which shelves we had already investigated. I’d have to look at them later.
But there really was something odd about this library. The paths were of uneven width, and the books were laid out in haphazard rows. When trying to look from one side of the room to the other, it felt like new shadows would pop up. There were shelves that weren’t in line with the others as well. Sure, I could get this layout for a storehouse, but an archive? It just doesn’t seem quite right.
“There’s something weird about the carpet too.”
“You’re right. The one at your house is much nicer.”
What lined the floor seemed more like a mat than a carpet, though I suppose it was possible that it was regulating the humidity of the room. At the very least, it left an impression that function had been put above all else, and that this wasn’t a room built to the standards of royals.
“It makes me wonder what the treasure room looks like inside.”
“As much as I’d like to see for myself as well, I doubt we’ll be able to,” responded Lily with an awkward smile. I agreed with her, but nevertheless, I couldn’t help but feel that knowing whether the room had always been a treasure store or if it had been repurposed into one would bring us closer to the answers we were looking for.
Which reminded me, while this was currently just a hypothesis, I felt like this room was more a stack room than a library—that is, a place to store books that overflowed from the main viewing room. Basically, it was the warehouse of books that was adjunct to a library.
If that was true, it meant that there was a viewing room nearby built during the ancient kingdom, full of imprints from that period—one that even the royal family would be unaware of. If they had known about it, I was sure they wouldn’t have kept it a secret from me.
If the treasure store was a repurposed room where the books in the library used to be, then that was that. But if that wasn’t the case—that is, if the treasure stores had always been the treasure stores—then it was possible there were ruins from the ancient kingdom that contained a whole library of information somewhere nearby.
Well, not that thinking about it so deeply will do me any good in the moment. I didn’t want any more to carry on my shoulders. But on the very day I had that thought, I was stopped on my way home from the palace and summoned to a meeting. I was quite certain it would be about the underground passageway, but I entered the room to find the crown prince, the chancellor, Duke Seyfert, and even a man wearing what I believed to be the uniform of a grand priest. The crown prince was scowling, making the air heavy.
His expression dark, the grand priest opened his mouth and bowed his head. “Excuse me for my shortcomings, but Mazel Harting is being taken to court.”
…Huh?
***
“Um, could you explain?” I had no idea what was happening and was thus in desperate need of an explanation.
The man dressed as a grand priest once again bowed his head. “My name is Blasius Isaac Reppe, and it is our first time meeting you, Lord Viscount. I thank you for your distinguished services at the battle of Finoy.”
“I thank you for the introduction, Your Eminence. My name is Werner Von Zehrfeld, and I implore you to speak with me as you would any other.”
As a noble, Blasius spoke to me respectfully. Given the different registers between this utterance and his previous, his apology must have been directed at Lily rather than me. I could tell something obnoxious was waiting in my future.
Just as emperors who stepped down to be monks or cardinals were referred to as “Your Eminence” in my previous life, the High Priest and grand priests of this world were addressed with the same title. To maintain rapport, the church traditionally instructed that they be referred to simply as “Lord” outside of official occasions, and we nobles followed that example.
“I’d like to be filled in on our current situation.”
“Shall I start with the big picture, or begin with all the details?” asked Duke Seyfert.
“The big picture, please.” I decided to start by getting a rough idea of what was going on. Given the way he phrased his question, it sounded likely that the details were quite complicated. If I didn’t get an idea of what was most important first, there was a good chance I’d end up lost.
“To summarize, Deritzdam has been spinning a particular narrative about Mazel, and some in our kingdom have been strung along. As a result of this information leaking, those of us from the kingdom and the those from the church are currently locked in discussions regarding how to handle the situation.”
Deritzdam. If I remember correctly, that’s the nation situated to the east of Triot. If they’re the ones spinning this tune, then…
“Does this have to do with the situation in Triot?”
“You bear no blame for these circumstances, but you are correct. Deritzdam has expressed a wish to gain control of the former Triot domain.”
“They’d like to expand their border west, but they’re hesitant to send troops.”
They had probably heard rumors of Gezarius’s defeat. However, the Demon army still lurked inside both Deritzdam and Triot. Any half-baked countermeasure could prove dangerous.
“While they wish to send in enough troops to expand their sphere of influence, they fear what would become of the Demons inside their country should they do so. Thus, they would like to mobilize their army while keeping the Hero trapped inside their nation as protection.”
“By putting him on trial?”
“While I am not well acquainted with the Hero, I believe he would offer his aid to defend a troubled people from the Demon army even should the trial be unjust.”
It was totally possible. Given Mazel’s personality, he’d boldly take on a false charge and put his unfair treatment aside to help anyone he found suffering along the way. It was more likely than not, actually.
So, their plan was to drag out this false trial and use Mazel for the time being. Taking him to court had been an attempt to buy time from the get-go.
“Do you know what the group who started this is after?”
“The charge is related to the temple. They say that the Hero demonstrated an inexcusable, insolent attitude to Princess Laura. Since all trials related to the temples can be held in any court across the continent, it is likely that trial shall be held in the temple nearest to the accused in Deritzdam.”
Now, Grand Priest Reppe spoke. “They say that he touched her unnecessarily, and that they shared a night under the same roof despite being unmarried.”
“That’s bound to happen if they’re traveling together.”
“I concur. Yet, this case has been accepted in the records.”
I wondered why, and the answer I hit upon infuriated me. According to the noble who was going to bring Mazel to court, “The Hero is a commoner, and is thus illiterate. Therefore, an intermediary has explained the contents of the case to him and has returned with written consent from the Hero to appear in court.” It was worth mentioning that Mazel had top grades at the academy—his were even better than mine.
“And who is this noble?”
“Would you mind if I explained later? First, I would like to explain how this case was accepted.”
“Right.”
Usually, court cases could only open under the consent of the accused; that much was the natural way of this world despite the fact it was stuck in the Middle Ages. However, the noble had prepared documents from his intermediary that claimed that despite Mazel’s illiteracy, he understood the case and agreed to it. This noble even had bystander testimonial that this had occurred.
“Documents claiming that the Hero had heard the details of the case in Deritzdam have been submitted to the temples in Wein as well. All cases are accepted as long as there are no issues in the paperwork. In this case, it was Grand Priest Malavoi who oversaw these proceedings.”
“And what is he after?” Of all people, this noble had chosen to take the Hero to court. He wouldn’t have failed to double-check these documents unless he had a motive.
“Grand Priest Malavoi is a relative of the noble in Wein who is trying to charge the Hero. Apparently, there is money flowing behind the scenes as well.”
Mentally, I crumpled to the ground. I hadn’t been expecting this connection. Temple trials were held with rotating oversight, with duties changing hands every four weeks. That explained the timing of all this.
“However, another issue has arisen. Priest Kaempfer, one of Grand Priest Malavoi’s subordinates, is hoping to utilize this situation for his own gain.”
Where have I heard the name Kaempfer before? Wait, isn’t that the priest who was trying to take Lily away? Could that mean…?
“I believe you know that there is an open seat among the grand priests,” said Duke Seyfert.
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“Priest Kaempfer has tried to take advantage of this situation to claim that seat. He has offered to clear the trial from the slate in exchange for Miss Lily joining the church under his wing, in hopes it would bring the Hero on their side.”
Basically, he was trying to cajole Lily into working for the church by offering to dismiss this sham trial against her brother. Then, he was going to use Lily’s allegiance with the church as an excuse to drag Mazel onto their side as well. Those plans were still pending, but he really succeeded in hanging the threat of pandemonium over our heads.
“However, Priest Kaempfer failed to make contact with Lily.”
My mother had continued to turn him away, and Lily had been working in the top-secret archives with me as of late. From the perspective of this priest, she was practically a missing person. Getting into contact with her after these court summons occurred had been much more difficult than he was predicting.
Thinking back on it, a strange man had tried to approach Lily the other day, and according to Norbert’s investigations, Priest Kaempfer was of noble descent. That man might have been a messenger sent to bring Lily to him.
“Additionally, one of Kaempfer’s blunders has led to something of an incident within the church. In his attempts to buy time, he unwittingly allowed someone from another church organization to catch sight of the trial documents. This woman soon told her colleagues that the Hero was soon going to be taken to court for inexcusable insubordination.”
“Um, so basically…?”
“Word has already spread, and with it, the church’s dissatisfaction grows,” said the grand priest as he scowled. Now there was no way they could sweep this under the rug without anyone noticing, especially with how popular the brave Hero Mazel was with the people. The woman who caught sight of those papers must have been quite young.
But with such talk going around, there must have been a lot of controversy regarding the church’s reasonings. Wait, controversy. Could that mean…?
“Then…”
“You’re quite sharp, Lord Viscount. A number of nobles have submitted a public, written enquiry to the church asking them to explain what this ‘insubordination’ is,” said the chancellor. I was so vexed I wanted to hold my head and scream. There were certainly nobles in the martial faction that had a soft spot for Mazel given his demon-slaying activities, as well as nobles who wanted to build a good relationship with Laura. For them, this was a major issue. Even if it would sour their relationship with the church, some nobles had been brave enough to ask for clarification regarding the situation. However, it was also obvious that nobles getting involved would only add to the uproar.
“Some have claimed that this situation is your responsibility, Lord Werner, but I’ll see to it they are silenced.” Um, Your Highness? Could you refrain from saying anything that makes it feel like the temperature in here’s dropped to subzero? His utterance had scared even me. I decided to change the subject.
“You said that the documents were accepted, right?”
“Indeed. At the very least, they shall have no issues beginning the trial. Rather, if the trial were not held at this point, it would call into question the validity of all temple trials,” said the grand priest as he furrowed his brow. Now that the papers had been accepted, either putting off the trial for Mazel’s sake or calling it off altogether would cast doubt on both the trials themselves and the law they were built on. Why have it if it wasn’t going to be followed?
“Can we not publicly declare that the documents were forged?” I asked.
“It would call the honor of the grand priest into question, and the noble who called the case would rebel. It would be trouble for us if the noble family made an uproar over accusations of forgery.”
“May I ask what noble family this is?”
“It is the house of Marquess Cortolezis,” answered Duke Seyfert. That family really is a pain, I thought, but that sentiment must have shown on my face. The duke continued. “The Cortolezises are the family that His Majesty’s mother hails from. The former marquess was an excellent man, but those who succeeded him do not have the best reputation.”
I dutifully listened to Duke Seyfert’s explanation. As Marquess Cortolezis was the head of the martial faction, the Zehrfelds had little to do with them, and my knowledge of the man was lacking. Plus, Lily had probably never even heard of him.
“To put it plainly, they have suffered one loss after another in high society. They lost to Duke Gründing when it came to the choice of the current queen, and they have lost to both His Highness the Crown Prince’s generation and the subsequent generation to Marquess Schramm.”
“So they have no hopes of rising to the top anytime soon.” Thus, they had sunk to utilizing illegal methods. Prince Hubertus’s wife, the princess consort, was a princess of a foreign nation, and she was apparently so talented that Crown Prince Hubertus himself had been tricked into taking interest in her and wishing to make her his wife himself.
“Yet, they are still a family who produced a queen just a few generations prior. Their relatives are great in number. Not to mention, the current Marquess Cortolezis is sickly and bedridden. His mother—the wife of the previous marquess—is the de facto head of the house.”
To summarize simply, they had been an illustrious family during the reign of the previous king, but the current Marquess Cortolezis was notoriously bereft of virtue, and the leadership of the family had fallen to that notorious cad’s wife, since their son—the rightful head of the family—was recovering from illness. The poor reputations of a no-good husband and sickly son had cursed the family, leading them to suffer one loss after another during their daughter’s and grandchildren’s generations.
From what I was hearing, Lady Cortolezis was carrying quite the heavy burden. No matter what her personality had originally been like, it now seemed twisted.
“Is this trial meant to tarnish Princess Laura’s reputation?” A rumor about how a princess known to be a holy woman was having immoral relations with a man would at the very least hurt the throne’s reputation. Could this just be a way of getting back at the royal family?
“Lady Cortolezis may have such intentions. However…” Now, Duke Seyfert wore an expression of extreme exasperation. “The eldest of one of the current marquess’s sons—one who will surely be his successor—is claiming that he is the one most fitting to be Princess Laura’s suitor. It is a one-sided love.”
“I see. And what is he like?”
“He governs as well as the average noble, but he has the temperament of an artist. Apparently, he once gifted her a bouquet of roses and boldly declared that ‘a beautiful princess should not be inside a church, but beside my beautiful personage.’”
That’s not the temperament of an artist, but a creep. Though if you wanted to put it delicately, I suppose that was the only expression available. But really, that sounded like the exact kind of guy Laura despised.
“On the other hand, the house’s second son seems to be aligned with their mother.”
“Just for reference, where are the former marquess’s wife and their sons currently?”
“The two sons are in the capital, while Marquess Cortolezis is recuperating in his domain. The de facto head, his mother, and the marquess’s wife are both there, attending to him.”
“I didn’t think his wife would be so foolish,” spat the crown prince. Basically, the current Marquess Cortolezis being down for the count due to illness had led to the associates of his two young sons causing trouble, while the wife of the marquess—the mastermind who should have been the supreme commander—was holed up in the Cortolezis domain where she couldn’t immediately obtain intel from the capital. Amid this chaos, the neighboring country of Deritzdam successfully called the Hero to stand trial, and a power struggle within the church had only sown further chaos.
From Deritzdam’s perspective, taking the lead would, understandably, only hurt their diplomatic position; if Laura declared her own innocence, the trial would be over, leaving Laura and Wein with a grudge. Thus, someone from Deritzdam had an idea—they simply needed a noble from the Wein Kingdom to take Mazel to court. They riled up someone from House Cortolezis, who then submitted a claim to the church that Mazel had disrespected Laura. Laura did still have a trace of Cortolezis blood running through her veins, after all.
Then, if they dragged out the trial in Deritzdam, where Mazel was at the moment, the Deritzdam Kingdom would be free to mobilize their army and take advantage of the confusion to expand their borders. It was a win-win scenario for them. While Wein would surely be aware of their true intentions, they would be unable to voice their objections in public. In the end, the only ones who would have to suffer embarrassment were House Cortolezis and their associates, who would take the Hero to court.
Based on what the crown prince had just said, it was safe to assume that the wife of the former Marquess Cortolezis had not thought this far ahead. Perhaps she was blinded by her own grudges. While I knew neither of them, I got the feeling that this whole disaster could have been avoided if Marquess Cortolezis had not succumbed to illness.
To summarize:
NEIGHBORING NATION: DERITZDAM
We want territory and the Hero’s help.
That’s it! We can use a trial as an excuse to use the Hero for a while.
CHURCH: GRAND PRIEST MALAVOI
House Cortolezis will owe me a debt, and with that, my seat as a grand priest will be secured!
CHURCH: HIS SUBORDINATE, PRIEST KAEMPFER
I also want to be a grand priest. Let’s use this situation to my advantage!
NOBILITY: LADY CORTOLEZIS
I don’t care if it’s true, as long as it brings shame to the throne!
NOBILITY: THE ELDEST SON OF MARQUESS CORTOLEZIS
I’m the one who should be by Laura’s side! I’ll use trumped up charges to besmirch the Hero’s name!
THE POPULACE AND A PORTION OF NOBLES
What do you mean the holy woman and the Hero have acted improperly?! Explain yourselves!
Based on all this, it seemed that while the wife of the former Marquess Cortolezis had a grudge against the throne, she held no grudge against Mazel himself. Did she realize that her eldest grandson viewed Mazel as his rival for Laura’s love? Was there a point of conflict there?
Hey, anybody there? My head could really do with some painkillers right now. And I could use something to settle my stomach too.
Putting all jokes aside, a keen look at this scenario made it clear that this was meant to separate Laura and Mazel—for example, forcing Laura to return to the Temple of Finoy and work on its defense. Considering that left Laura vulnerable to getting attacked again, we had to avoid such a situation. But just what should we do? I couldn’t find an angle to exploit.
“My apologies, but given the circumstances, I would like to enlist Lily to help us.” The crown prince hardly ever apologized, but he did now.
“M-me?” Lily seemed quite shocked.
“We would like to make this an intermediary trial.”
An intermediary trial. Basically, someone representing the accused would stand trial when circumstances prevented the accused from making a personal appearance. There were times when illness or accidents prevented someone from standing trial, which gave rise to this provision.
However, that would mean that Mazel—the accused—wouldn’t stand trial, but his parents or Lily would… Oh. As long as his intermediary is in Wein, we could hold the trial here.
“I will take care of the preparations for the intermediary trial. With the veracity of the papers having been called into question, Grand Priest Malavoi cannot be entrusted with the matter, and I am quite sure the people will agree with us.”
The crown prince was saying he’d utilize external influences to put Grand Priest Reppe in charge of the real proceedings. We would be throwing our weight around to some extent, but with nobles and the public demanding an explanation, there would be chaos should Mazel or Laura check the documents and claim they were forged.
Rather, it would be better to hold a trial just for appearances’ sake and declare them to be innocent. Pressing the church about the forged documents and hiding them would be best for their reputation as well. It would put them in Laura and Mazel’s debt, but that wasn’t my matter to deal with.
“To hold an intermediary trial, we will need proof that the defendant—the Hero—is unable to stand trial, which I shall prepare,” said the chancellor. He was trying to keep Deritzdam in check by declaring that our whole kingdom was backing the Hero. But wouldn’t that mean…?
“Won’t House Cortolezis’s ire fall on Lily for interfering?”
There was no way they’d be happy about us butting in given they were trying to drag either Laura or Mazel to court. From where they stood, it would be natural to hold some ire against a commoner like Lily.
“Honestly, there is such a possibility. However, the blame is mine for letting my guard down and letting the situation grow so dire. Thus, I shall involve myself publicly in this matter.”
Um, what was that, Your Highness? Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room had changed.
“Chancellor Falkenstein, Duke Seyfert, Grand Priest Reppe. Let the records show explicitly that these were my orders.”
“Yes, Your Highness!” they all said as they bowed their heads. With the chancellor as witness, no one could doubt the veracity of their claims.
“As Crown Prince Hubertus of Wein, I order that the Harting family cooperate with the throne to relieve the Hero Mazel of the need to stand trial for unjust, spurious claims.”
“Y-yes, Your Highness,” said Lily with a gulp. Yup, no one else could match the crown prince’s forceful presence. I mean, I could physically feel the force, and how did that even make sense? So this was the impact of true charisma.
“Grand Priest Reppe,” the crown prince continued, “am I correct in assuming that the plaintiff is someone connected to House Cortolezis?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“There is a vast difference in how nobles and commoners engage with the law. Thus, I believe it would be best if we had each side select an intermediary and have them duel for the trial. What do you think?”
“I believe your opinion is sound, Your Highness. Let us carry out this intermediary trial as a trial by duel.”
So, this was how it was going to be. Wait, but did that mean…?
“Lily Harting, the intermediary representing the accused. What brave knight do you wish to call upon?”
Having been asked that question, Lily glanced at me. I nodded. I hadn’t been expecting this turn of events, but it was time for my poor reputation to shine. I nodded back at her, and with that, Lily made her declaration with a single breath. “I-I appoint Lord Werner Von Zehrfeld as my representative.”
If Lily had enough faith to appoint me, I could do nothing less than live up to that trust.
***
I borrowed some men from within the palace to send word in advance. Then, having begun making our preparations, we left the castle after. It was by then completely dark outside, so we returned by carriage. This one was not owned by my father, but a rented one. Due to the family crest that ostentatiously decorated my father’s, there were some situations in which we couldn’t use it.
Still, I felt that the carriage suited my father perfectly given his title as minister. And to be frank, having a cool crest or coat of arms was kind of a dream of mine.
“Um…” Lily called out to me as I was staring out at the passing scenery, still trying to get my head straight. She seemed quite apologetic, so I decided to be the one to make the first move.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Huh?”
“I mean, I think I would have been sad to hear you appoint anyone besides me.”
“I-I would never!” My words had been spoken in jest, but she denied them with fervor. Maybe I had teased her a little too hard. Still, I really was happy she had chosen me. Even I felt like I had been a bit unfair to take the conversation down that road.
“B-but what did you all mean by ‘duel’?”
“It’s a rule I don’t quite get either.”
It was a lapse in our legal system, you might say. Put simply, in this world, as in the Middle Ages of my old world, the word of the powerful held sway over the law. In connection with that, final legal decisions could be decided by duel. I felt this was kind of a rare instance of brainpower being exhibited in this world, but that was probably just because I was biased.
In my previous life, the church would get involved with proclamations like “This battle shall stand as a prayer before the Lord, and His judgment shall bless its outcome. Whosoever should emerge victorious stands on the side of justice.” To be honest, I didn’t quite get this way of doing it either, but that was probably because I had been Japanese. Still, they had something called kugatachi in ancient Japan as well, which was a trial by hot water based on the belief that the innocent wouldn’t be burned. I suppose humans tended to leave it all up to the gods whenever anything got a bit too much to handle.
While I was on the subject, the tradition of trial-like hearings only lasted until the Middle Ages in Europe, and in later periods, there’re even stories about two dog owners using a duel to settle the question of which of their dogs had barked first in a fight. I was quite curious what sorts of expressions had crossed the faces of those who’d witnessed that duel.
But putting my previous life aside, duels could be quite cumbersome. In manga, someone would just throw down a white glove and declare, “Let’s duel!” and on the next page, they’d be squaring off already. However, it didn’t quite work that way in real life, which was probably obvious given the fact they’d need to prepare a venue for this duel.
However, things were even more complicated here. After you threw down the glove, both sides then needed to submit proper papers in a particular format, and then they had to decide the duel’s date, time, weapons, and other particulars before a judge. After that, they had to prepare all the equipment they’d need for the day, and once it was finally time to fight, the warriors representing both sides needed to declare that their assertions were just and that they would defer to the word of the victor.
Usually, the witness of the duel would ask for a peaceable solution, and then, with that token gesture out of the way, declare that if any knights involved themselves in the fight, they’d have their arms and legs cut off. In actuality, a knight who interfered would only get one of his arms cut off, but if an underling interfered, it was off with their head. I didn’t mean that metaphorically.
All of this was quite similar to the duels of my old world, save that there was no praying to the cross in this one. Not that it mattered, but for some reason, duels were always held on Tuesday during the Middle Ages, and the reason for that was completely shrouded in mystery. Well, maybe I just didn’t know.
In any case, I’d usually have to be the one to spend ample time preparing all this stuff, but Duke Seyfert had offered to see to these tasks in my place. I was pretty sure only this world allowed others to stand in for you in a duel, though nobody would suspect a duke of forgery anyway. Still, thinking about everything going on here was really quite…
“It’s just that… Sorry, Lily. But I don’t think I’m as cool of a man as you think I am. I’m a coward.”
“Huh…?”
“So, let’s take a detour. And sorry, but you’re coming with me.”
She watched me curiously, and I kept her in the corner of my eye as I once again sank into the sea of my thoughts. To put it in magician terms, I was the assistant shown to the crowd. I hoped she wouldn’t pick up on everything going on behind the scenes, but just how should I act to keep her in the dark? Ugh, I’m getting another stomachache.
***
“If it isn’t the Lord Viscount! I have been waiting for you.”
“Sorry to drop in again like this, Bierstedt.”
Our first stop was the Merchants’ Guild, and thinking it would be dangerous to keep Lily waiting in the carriage, I had brought her with me. Still, I wished Mr. Bierstedt wouldn’t look at me like that just because the two of us were together.
I was sure that wish hadn’t been communicated, but he nevertheless suddenly turned serious. “I heard from a messenger. Are you truly all right with this?”
“News will spread extensively, anyway, since duels are such a rare event.”
“Indeed.” He seemed to think there was a hidden motive behind me letting him know of this duel before it was publicly announced, and it was clear he was mulling over my words carefully. Watching him, I was certain he’d be able to pick up on my intentions in coming here.
“I have something to ask of you. I want the strongest-looking decorations for a shield and armor you can get your hands on. Could you do that for me?”
In my previous life, the crescent moon crest on Date Masamune’s helmet was a good example from Japan of what I was trying to accomplish, but Western warriors adorned their helms in similar ways as well. Basically, they would wear something comically gargantuan to remind others of their presence even when they weren’t in battle. Their most common use, though, was for showing off to the ladies during parades or jousting tournaments.
“I was under the impression that you despised such opulent displays.”
“I still do.”
“Hmm, I see…” He nodded, and it was clear he had picked up on what was hidden behind my words. Lily still watched me curiously, and seeing this, Mr. Bierstedt gave me a searching look, as if asking my leave to explain. I nodded and turned my attention to a catalogue of illustrations brought to me by one of the clerks. Not that I would be using anything inside.
More than anything, my victory would benefit Mr. Bierstedt, so I was certain he wouldn’t be spreading what didn’t need to be spread.
“W-well,” he began, “I believe you have likely heard of the Lord Viscount’s reputation, yes?”
“U-um…” Lily stammered.
Seriously, no need to be so considerate of my feelings, Mr. Bierstedt. It’s the truth. Considering how hard it seemed to be for him to just spit it out, I decided to speak myself. “My reputation as the Wastrel Viscount.”
“B-but…”
“Just listen.” The conversation seemed like it was about to be derailed, so I brought it back on track.
Mr. Bierstedt nodded. “People have a tendency to believe what they wish to believe. Rumor that the so-called Wastrel Viscount has ordered an opulent set of armor simply for show will surely reach the ears of his opponents.”
To be clear, having Mr. Bierstedt spread this rumor for me was a part of my request, and it seemed that he understood this. Still, it wouldn’t have bothered me if this rumor didn’t reach my opponents either; it wouldn’t be a detriment to me regardless.
“Should word of this reach someone whose opinion of the viscount is colored by his reputation, it will confirm in their mind that he is a weakling who only cares about appearances and puts armor above weapons.”
“Oh!” Lily finally seemed to understand, but yes, it was a ruse. It would be great if my opponent took me for an idiot and that was it, but this was a measure that could prove surprisingly effective regardless—especially in this world.
Plus, my spear had been a gift from Mazel, which had been tested in battle against no less than a Demon Commander. While it wasn’t imbued with magic, it was doubtful there were any spears in the capital that could equal its quality. I had no need to prepare any weapons. In fact, I was more worried that a straight hit would kill my opponent.
I slammed the catalogue closed and motivated Lily. “I’m counting on you.”
“Yes, I’m counting on you as well.”
I had a lot to do today.
***
I returned home and confirmed that my father was still out. He was likely hearing about the same situation I had just been informed of at the palace.
Since I had sent word ahead of me, not only Frenssen awaited me at the manor, but Neurath and Schünzel as well. I had Norbert ready some civilian clothes and took a short break until preparations had been completed. Tillura had been the one to prepare my tea today, and her brew was as delectable as always.
“Who would have thought this would happen?” Schünzel mused.
“We know exactly who we are dealing with,” Neurath said. “It’s our chance to counterattack.”
“The crown prince and the chancellor aren’t so naive,” I said, cutting into their conversation. Suddenly, I found everyone looking at me in surprise. They clearly couldn’t understand what I was trying to say, which made sense considering how I had just finally been able to catch up to their line of thinking. It felt like my brain cells were on fire.
“Just where should I start? I suppose the fact that they purposefully decided to make this a duel. Why do you think they’d do that?” I posed the question to everyone in the room.
Frenssen spoke. “First of all, the situation will be announced to the public.”
“There is no shunting it back to obscurity anymore.”
“Exactly. Now, everyone knows there is a group trying to underhandedly manipulate Mazel and Laura for their own gain. Though frankly, I believe this is only part of the reason.”
I doubt that anyone—even the schemers at Deritzdam—had foreseen that Priest Kaempfer would take this opportunity to so recklessly further his own ends, much less that someone from another section of the church would have witnessed it. Only God could have foreseen these circumstances.
“Additionally, he has decided not to hold this trial behind closed doors, but as a duel in front of a crowd. What do you think that means?”
“He’ll be exposing more people to a trial in which the Hero faces false charges… Which of course means word of this will spread not just to Deritzdam, but many surrounding nations.”
“Frenssen’s got it exactly right. This is just my assumption, but I’m sure other countries have been weighing their options for exploiting Mazel as well. However, all of Wein will stand in their way, even if it means making some of our nobles look like idiots—a fact which will ultimately work against us.”
Basically, we were boldly declaring, “This is how far we’ll go to protect the Hero! Are you really still thinking about using him for yourselves?” Now, interfering with Mazel’s journey to defeat the Demon Lord would mean instigating international conflict with the Kingdom of Wein.
“And what do you suppose Mazel and his party will think once they hear word of this?”
It wouldn’t take long for them to realize someone was trying to use them. Laura and Erich were capable of making political judgments, and Feli’s senses were above average. Once they heard these rumors, their opinion of Deritzdam would plummet.
Worst-case scenario, Deritzdam now risked hostility from the Hero’s party if they tried anything against Wein after the Demon Lord had been defeated. There was a saying that the crafty schemer always drowned in his own scheme, and from this point onward, they would be negotiating from a much weaker position.
“Finally, do you think His Highness the Crown Prince would pick a fight he can’t win?”
There lay the crux of the matter. If he’d heard of Deritzdam’s conspiracy before the trial was to be held, it was safe to assume he had already been investigating everything going on behind the scenes. He might even have acquired evidence of who from Deritzdam was involved.
It was also possible that his possession of this evidence was why he was so comfortable taking center stage in this matter. The rational assumption was that the kingdom had already established a strong base for its diplomatic maneuvers.
In sum, the reason the crown prince had turned the trial into an open-stage duel and stepped into the limelight was to make an example of Deritzdam. It would show the world that the Hero had the protection of Wein, and that any other state that tried to steal him from them would meet with potentially dire consequences. Now that the kingdom had laid claim to the Hero, the verdict, whatever it turned out to be, would brook no complaints, as long as the original charges were found to be false.
This had also been a preemptive strike against the church. While they might argue that the Hero was not someone any one kingdom could lay claim to, the church was involved in this trial too. No doubt the majority of the church would hold a grudge against those fools who’d dragged them into this. I was sure the complexions of those in Deritzdam couldn’t be looking too good given that they had basically just stepped on a lion’s tail.
“Then will they immediately execute the parties involved?” asked Neurath.
“I doubt it,” I said. Having to be the one to say this out loud made me realize that it really was my place to say such things, which left me feeling ambivalent about this whole thing. “Turning this trial into a duel relates to domestic matters. Let me give you a hint. Everyone’s on guard when entering the arena of politics, but they let their guard down during festivals. What do you think they’ll do when presented with a festival where some poor sap’s about to be humiliated right before their eyes?”
“They’ll gather their comrades to try to watch their opponents’ loss and celebrate their victory,” muttered Frenssen. Finally, the rest of the men exchanged looks of understanding.
“Then you believe the audience will be divided according to faction?”
“I think that’s safe to assume. I’m sure eyes that serve the crown prince and the chancellor will be there as well, not to see the results, but to find out who’s out there sucking up to Grand Priest Malavoi and House Cortolezis.”
Then, they would send out spies to observe those men, who would then visit others. One by one, they’d put together an updated list of everyone in the faction, ranging from the bigshots to the small fry. That was their aim. This duel was an event meant to serve as a stepping stone in creating a list of everyone who had relations to anyone who might cause us problems. From that perspective, my success or failure was irrelevant; either way, the crown prince got a gallery view of the roster of the idiots who failed to grasp the gravity of the situation.
“This is just a guess, but I believe they might pass this off as a problem related solely to House Cortolezis for the time being. Then once they have the proof they need, they’ll wipe out everyone involved—including those in the church—in one fell swoop.”
When Mazel and I had been summoned by Duke Seyfert and the chancellor soon after my return from Anheim, the duke had told us that he “would like to solve near half our troubles while we await our chance.” Basically, they had already been planning to wipe them out.
We also had to consider Lily’s invitation to the soiree. Their motive was likely to force Mazel to waver regarding whether he’d dance with Lily or Laura, and likely, they planned to use the fact that those two had traveled together to further stir things up. With that in mind, the “letting his guard down” that the crown prince had mentioned likely meant that he hadn’t predicted the wife of the former Marquess Cortolezis would start dancing on a foreign nation’s strings before he had that chance to act himself.
In any case, now that a whole group of nobles had started to dance along, we’d only be able to capture a few of those involved if we enacted punishments now, forcing us to leave the roots behind. So, the crown prince had resolved to turn this trial into a spectacle—in this case, a duel—in order to create a list that would allow them to cull the majority of those involved. The crown prince could use anything for his goals, even this. It left me quaking in my boots.
Though tragically, it meant that this duel to settle these false claims was just a fishing hole for political stooges, and that I was the worm. Not to mention, it was bound to be the talk of the whole town. What a bummer.
The crown prince had likely already planned for my possible failure, but I had my own reasons for which defeat was not an option.
“I’ve prepared your commoner clothes, Lord Werner.”
“Thanks. Neurath, Schünzel, you’re with me.”
“Yessir!”
I had a feeling my poor reputation would serve me well here, but it was always best to be extra prepared.
***
“I see. You look quite strange.”
“Well, considering the circumstances…”
Neurath, Schünzel, and I made our way to our destination, detouring to deter pursuers, watching our backs all the way. Unlike in my old world, the city streets were dark at night. This made it easy to hide, but also easy for any skilled shadows to escape notice. You couldn’t completely let your guard down, which was a pain.
We first stopped at the inn where Goecke and his band of mercenaries were staying. Our casual attire sent the message that there was no need for titles and formalities. They let us inside without speaking a single word. Someone had been there to make sure we hadn’t been followed, which was just the level of thoroughness I had come to expect from Goecke.
“So, that’s the situation.”
“It may sound odd coming from me,” Goecke said, “but I see you keep things interesting for yourself.”
“It’s as annoying as it is exciting, Sir Goecke.”
Was this really the reaction I got after explaining everything? I just wanted to live my life in peace, not that you could torture that admission out of me. But really, I couldn’t help but speak formally to Goecke, which probably wasn’t a good thing considering I was a noble. Well, given the favor I was asking of him, maybe it was for the better.
“So? Why are you telling me all this?”
“First, could you train me?”
“Ah, I see. You won’t be fighting with your spear, after all.”
“Ah, I see” should have been my line. But given what he said, it seemed like the rumors of his noble pedigree were true. Clearly, he knew exactly what a duel would entail.
Commoners often confused jousting and duels, but they were two completely different things. A joust was won by unhorsing your opponent, while duels continued until one fighter either surrendered or was left unable to fight. While both jousts and duels began on horseback, duels often continued on ground after one participant had been knocked down, as it was against the rules to attack a dismounted opponent from horseback.
Thus, there were cases in my previous life where the duel devolved into an armored fistfight. While there were certain martial arts techniques for this exact situation, I only knew what the academy had taught me. In a real battle, I’d be at a disadvantage.
“Wouldn’t it be best to learn from a knight?”
“In the long run, yes, but I don’t have the time to start at the basics. I just want to be able to win this duel.”
“Right. I should be able to show you the ropes in a few days. You’ve got more experience in real battles than most unskilled knights and nobles.”
It would take a few days to prepare the stadium and sort out the paperwork, which was all the time I had to prepare. More likely, though, the reason I had this time was that the crown prince was trying to spread word of the trial as far as possible. Either way, that was all the time we had left, which meant I’d need to learn stuff I could immediately put into practice.
Plus, my opponent was likely more accustomed to fighting knights than mercenaries. If my fighting style was outside his wheelhouse, I’d have an advantage—it would be asymmetric.
“I also want you to spread a rumor.”
“An odd request for mercenaries, no? Most of us aren’t great with words.”
“I just need you to hide a portion of the truth. Get people talking only about the group battles I’ve fought.”
My opponent would almost certainly gather some intel of his own, and what would happen if he heard talk about my individual accomplishments in battle? Mazel was the one who took out the Demon Commanders at Finoy and in Anheim, and while I had led squadrons and executed stratagems, I had little to show by way of individual exploits. If talk of my own brave achievements never made their way into the conversation, others would naturally assume that I’m not good at fighting on my own. Rumors tended to swing to the extremes, after all.
“So, you plan on utilizing what hasn’t spread about your reputation. You really are a brilliant strategist.”
“No, just a coward.”
“Others tend to dislike it when someone always puts themselves in the worst light possible. I’d advise you to quit that habit.”
Ouch.
“I-In any case, let’s start training tomorrow. And keep it a secret.”
“Understood. It would be best if you came in disguise.”
Somehow, I felt like I had lost this battle. I mean, even Neurath and Schünzel were snickering.
***
Our next stop was Rafed’s shop. He seemed to have predicted my visit, as he was already waiting to greet us.
“You saw right through me, huh?”
“Why, of course I did! There are rumors flying about that the Hero has violated a holy woman, after all.”
What was that? This rumor gets more overblown each time I hear it.
“Do you believe that?”
“Not at all! I just hope whoever spread such a lie doesn’t get thrown in a bag and beaten.”
So somebody was spreading this intentionally, and I was sure we’d figure out who it was before long. At first, I questioned who would believe such a ridiculous story, but then I remembered the misinformation that spread like wildfire on social media in my past life. I used to question the intelligence of whoever was coming up with some of those stories, and yet there were people who believed them. Society was a major pain in the butt.
In any case, I explained the situation to Rafed.
“No, no. This will make for the perfect story!”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s the Hero, a commoner who fights the Demon Lord, a beautiful princess, and the ugly nobles who are envious of them, not to mention the young knight who fights those nobles who’s also the hero’s best friend. Isn’t it just picturesque?”
“I’m a noble too, y’know.”
“The people don’t care about that. Rumors, gossip, the stories that set people’s tongues wagging, they’re the same—people only focus on the parts they want to.”
I understood what he was saying, but that didn’t change the fact it was giving me a headache. The last thing I wanted was to become a hot topic. Anyway, I needed to get back to doing what I came here to do.
“Did you learn anything about House Jhering?”
“Despite their limited talents, they have leveraged their blood ties to put themselves at the center of politics.”
“Their blood ties?”
“Count Jhering’s wife is from House Cortolezis on her mother’s side, and his younger sister has married into House Gahmlich.”
I was likely the only one here who recognized the name, but it was really familiar. I must not have realized before since the relationship is on her mother’s side.
“Count Gahmlich, you said?”
“Have you heard of him?”
“Not the count himself, but the name, yes.”
“It’s quite clear that the one who has brought these charges is from House Cortolezis, but the name on paper is House Gahmlich.”
“I see.”
Mazel and I had beaten a Gahmlich boy to a pulp back at the academy. Even if Mazel was the Hero, it wouldn’t be odd for Count Gahmlich to have a grudge against him for forcing him to disinherit his eldest son. Now, I felt like that was more my fault, but revealing any weaknesses to fellow noble houses was worse than revealing them to a commoner. Though, as fellow students, maybe nobility had nothing to do with it. In any case, there was a good chance that Count Gahmlich wasn’t too fond of me either.
“No, we’ve got it backward. We should narrow down our target to the count. But I have another favor to ask of you, Rafed.”
“What is it?”
If I’m going to do this anyway, I might as well spread a story people will want to believe. I gave Rafed the gist of a rumor, which he agreed to spread around. But then, he suddenly changed the subject.
“There’s some talk I’ve been hearing that’s caught my attention, Lord Viscount.”
“Talk of what?”
“I’m sure you know that there are those in the church who are able to receive divine oracles.”
“I’ve heard of them, yes.” Why was this suddenly coming up again?
“Someone claiming to be an acquaintance of Sir Erich has asked me to pass along a message to you. According to rumors, someone among their ranks has gone missing from the capital.”
“What is the temple saying?”
“It appears they’ve decided to keep it a secret from outsiders, but I hear that the missing woman worked directly for the grand priest that recently abdicated his position.”
I shared a glance with Neurath and Schünzel, who were quick to speak.
“Perhaps he didn’t step down but was held accountable.”
“I’m curious about that as well.”
“Right,” I said. “I’ll report this to the throne. I want you to gather all the intel you can, but don’t go sticking your nose into anything just yet.”
“You have my word.”
I decided to have my father deliver the message for me. But really, I’m already so swamped. Why did this have to happen now? Though, I suppose they do say that whenever one person schemes, another also conspires.
Still, if I spread myself too thin, I’d have my feet swept out from under me. For now, I needed to focus on winning this duel. Everything else could come later.
***
It was noon, two days before the trial by duel was set to take place. The ministers had gathered for a roundtable, and they chatted among themselves as they waited for the king, crown prince, and chancellor to arrive.
“Ah, that reminds me. The duel is set to take place the day after tomorrow. I take it you all are coming?”
“Not me. There’s no point. We already know who will win.”
“Well, I for one certainly can’t get out of going,” said Duke Seyfert, winning some laughs. While most ministers had a smidge of interest in the event, even they generally felt attending wasn’t necessary. Duke Seyfert, as the party responsible for the Harting family, was the only exception.
“You’ve already ensured the duel will begin with mounted combat. What need would there be for me to go and see the proceedings myself?”
The kingdom and the Hero were connected, and if Werner accidentally died in this duel, the kingdom would be in trouble. Not to mention, the kingdom knew well that Werner’s skill was Spearmanship.
Duels may have presented themselves as fair fights, but that was rarely the case in practice. There were even cases where rules were instated to all but guarantee victory for one side—for example, limiting the weapons used to only axes, when that was the skill of the king’s participating retainer. The judge could change the event as he saw fit.
As Deritzdam had forged their papers, Wein had simply exercised their right to decide the rules—an obvious bargaining chip in the eyes of this world’s citizens. From the standpoint of national interest, this sort of meddling was so minor it hardly warranted the term. In fact, Werner and the other involved parties may have been the only ones ignorant of these facts.
“Even if it’s just for show, a one-on-one battle on horseback is bound to go over well with the citizens.”
“Indeed.”
While Mazel was far abroad, Werner—a noble—was much closer. The nation wanted the man defending the Hero against slander to celebrate a dramatic victory. Thus, they decided to have the two participants fight on horseback and use the entire battlegrounds rather than fight on foot and only utilize the center. It made for a better spectacle that way.
Werner was well aware that he was noble bait, but he was also a figurehead for the kingdom’s citizens. Everyone at the gathering was well aware of that.
“I remember His Highness the Crown Prince voicing disappointment that things are progressing too quickly.”
“While events have unfolded earlier than he expected, they still align perfectly with his designs.”
The results of a jousting tournament were greatly dependent on the quality of each fighter’s steed; should a horse be spooked by the impact of a clash, they were liable to throw off their rider. Furthermore, a timid horse might run in the face of another, disrupting the distance and aim of its knight.
“Ah, so that is why the throne bestowed Lord Werner with a horse as his reward for his efforts in Anheim.”
“Lord Werner’s opponent may have been hoping to battle a bigger fish as well.”
A few of the men in attendance broke into wry grins, amazed to see that the crown prince had seen so far ahead. While he had been expecting these developments to take more time, and hadn’t predicted the full extent of his opponents’ methods, the event was ultimately unfolding according to his plans.
While the crown prince had contrived to hide the fact that this battle was all but predetermined, Count Zehrfeld remained taciturn as he listened to their conversation. Now that House Cortolezis had lost some of its means of collecting intel, they no longer posed a threat.
“It seems that Count Gahmlich has been taken in by false rumors.”
“People have a tendency to believe intel they think has been concealed from them, after all. The viscount has acted admirably.”
The only rumors that Werner had spread were facts regarding the incident at the academy involving Count Gahmlich’s former heir, as well as the fact that the Hero had been involved. While he emphasized the fact that Mazel’s presence had been a big help to him, that wasn’t a lie either.
However, when people caught wind of this story after hearing that Werner had spent lavishly on extravagant armor despite having no martial achievements to his name, they could only come to one conclusion: Werner Von Zehrfeld was a weakling. Ironically, the whirlwind pace of these events had meant that those who had witnessed Werner’s battle with the Demon Commander were largely still in Anheim. While Goecke and his mercenaries were among the few exceptions, their contract with Werner still stood, and so, they had refrained from spreading any details that would disadvantage their employer. In the end, the rapid pace of developments had worked in their favor.
“His Majesty makes his entrance!”
Just as the discussions were about to continue, this announcement confirmed that the king, the crown prince, and the chancellor had arrived. All in attendance stood up to bow in greeting. Once they all had taken their seats, the king began to speak.
“Thank you all for gathering here today. Let us begin by discussing diplomacy. How do our two neighbors to the west stand on the matter of the Hero?”
“Both still suffer at the hands of the Demon army. They are aggrieved at the fact that the Hero may very well stay in Deritzdam,” answered Equord, minister of foreign affairs. Both nations to the west of Wein had yet to be visited by the Hero’s party, and Deritzdam’s actions had left them indignant. However, they had other fears as well.
As Wein stood at the center of the continent, their diplomats often grouped foreign states as “the two to the west,” “the two to the south,” and “the three to the east.” Of course, the nation conducted diplomacy with these nations separately, and simply being located in the same general direction from Wein didn’t necessarily mean those nations were on amicable terms either. Now that Triot had fallen, Deritzdam was also now the only nation to the south.
“However, they also have made it clear that they disapprove of Wein’s king taking the Hero under his wing.”
Should Wein find itself holding the Hero’s reins, as it were, any other state that sought his services would be saddled with diplomatic debt to Wein’s king. After hearing from the minister of foreign affairs that the two nations to their west feared this, the king nodded in understanding. “Our primary priority is the Demon Lord’s defeat. Relay to them that any debts incurred should be repaid to the Hero himself.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
In other words, he was to relay that Wein expected no recompense for the Hero’s efforts, and that any of the odder gifts—for example, sending Wein a princess or other noble lady—would be rejected and returned.
“What of the three to our east?”
“Lesratoga has promised to cooperate with us, while the island nation of Zallois to the north has stated they would follow suit under one condition.”
“Which is?”
“Their battles with the Four Fiends have resulted in the loss of multiple large ships, interrupting their trading capabilities.”
The king took a moment to ponder. Then, he nodded. “Understood. We shall allow more of our trading ships to journey to their shores. However, do not compromise on tariffs.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
“See to it that these trips are distributed fairly among our noble houses.”
Simply increasing the ships headed for Zallois’s shores wasn’t all that was necessary. Monsters threatened this world, meaning the crew had to consist of warriors and that the burden of conducting trade via sea was heavy. It was a high risk venture with potentially high rewards, and when only certain noble houses were allowed to take part in it, they either embittered themselves by overinvesting in failed ventures, or they grew so successful that it upset politics between them and neighboring fiefdoms. The chancellor instructed that a balance had to be struck to prevent such problems.
“Understood.”
“We have yet to receive a response from Fahlritz to the southeast.”
“If I recall correctly,” the crown prince said, “the current queen of Fahlritz is a princess from Deritzdam, no?”
“Indeed,” said the minister of foreign affairs.
After a short moment of silence, the king nodded. “Fine. For now, we shall set Fahlritz aside. It is currently five versus one. At the very least, they will be unable to enthusiastically side with Deritzdam.”
“Right, Your Majesty.”
“Now that the two nations to the west and Zallois have assented, we shall send a letter of grievances to Deritzdam signed by all five of us. Then, we will wait to see how our foe responds. That is enough of that matter for now. Next, let us discuss internal affairs.”
“There is something that bothers me about the matter with House Cortolezis,” offered the crown prince. All turned to look at him. “Let me ask our knight captains this: How much time would it take to attack the marquess and his family?”
“A siege of their holdings would take time, and interrupt our preparations to march against the Demon army. I believe it would take two months, from the time we moved our troops until their surrender, though it depends on the resistance the marquess puts up.”
“I concur. Such preparations would deviate from what’s needed to counter the Demon army, and I doubt Lady Cortolezis would concede too easily.”
After confirming the answers from the captains of both the first and second knight brigades, the crown prince nodded. “If the knight brigades are to be away from the capital for two months, the prophecy Sir Uwe has warned us of is a greater concern.”
“Do you believe the Demon army will attack while they are away?” asked the king.
“We must prepare for the possibility,” responded the crown prince.
“Indeed,” said Duke Seyfert. “The timing of House Cortolezis’s rampage would make sense were we to assume the Demon army is pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
“Then shall we have another noble house attack them first?”
“No, all houses must prioritize the Demon army. I am sure you won’t disagree that these battles can drag on as well.”
The chancellor and captains of the knight brigade exchanged opinions for a short while, but ultimately, it was decided that they would cleave to their original course. If it was possible that there would be a siege on the capital, they needed to make sure they had enough defenders stationed there. Instead, they would move to weaken the Cortolezises, and once their desperation caused them to overextend themselves, the kingdom would grab them and drag them down. Until then, they would wait.
“Let’s take a page out of the book of Lord Werner and create a detailed map on the Cortolezis domain as well. Send out plenty of scouts and have them map the area.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Which reminds me, has the criminal who attempted to attack Count Zehrfeld confessed anything?”
“Nothing as of yet.”
Not just Werner, but even Ingo’s wife, Claudia, was ignorant of this matter. It happened outside of Werner’s earshot, and without his even knowing, the kingdom was moving to solve the matter themselves.
For one, the list of those moving to attack Count Zehrfeld was still quite short. While their motive was clear, having proof would be better than simply having a witness. As Werner often said, criminals had basically no rights in this world.
The king once again spoke. “They targeted one of my trusted ministers. We absolutely must uncover the details of this crime. But as he is a witness, make sure he is kept alive.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
“Next, I would like to discuss sending aid to regions who have been ravaged by the Demon army.”
“Losses to both soldiers and villages near the eastern border where the Hero was are on the decline, however…”
“If the only aid we offer is reparations, we will only be able to make it through the end of the year,” stated the king.
The chancellor responded. “In addition to temporary funds, we are loaning these villages horses, cattle, and other livestock, while subsidizing the costs of husbandry, thereby providing them with regular income through loans in kind. We’re also decreasing their quota of indentured labor.”
“Could we decrease their taxes as well?”
“Considering the budget we need to defend against monsters, that is a difficult proposition.”
“Then there’s no helping it. Stay the course, but take measures to ensure that no single party can take all these resources for themselves. What of the west?”
“As demonic beings still have a strong presence in the area, we have stationed troops there and plan to send funds to supplement their resources for the time being.”
“And where will the budget for that be coming from?” interrupted the captain of the first knight brigade. Simply stationing troops could result in greater casualties—or even worse, drain their morale until the soldiers took their dissatisfaction out on the civilians. While some soldiers would turn to depravity even with an unlimited budget, it was hard to keep morale up when an army’s budget only covered their bare necessities, as the people and the soldiers had to coexist.
“We plan to scrape together the funds from merchants who sell goods to the army. We will grant them preferential treatment in selling their wares, while sanctioning any who attempt to profit by selling slipshod products that risk soldiers’ lives. What do you think?”
“It is not a bad plan, but it comes with potential issues as well.”
That day’s meeting dragged on, but once it concluded, the ministers returned to their offices. In addition to deciding the direction of the country, there was plenty of work for them regarding the jurisdictions they each oversaw. Perhaps it was entirely possible that they hadn’t the time to attend the duel.
***
The sky was perfectly clear on the day the duel was to be held. Not a single cloud was in sight as people piled into the stadium, long before anyone had even stepped onto the dueling grounds. In fact, the spectators were crowded so tight that in some sections of the stands, you couldn’t see the floor through their feet.
It was typical for such events to draw a lot of the nobility, who had their own seats set apart, but this time, the seats allotted for commoners were quite packed. Given the subject of the trial and the charges against them, the populace had set their eyes on it as well. And as was the case in every universe—no matter how illicit it was, or that it was relegated to outside the stadium walls—there were those who placed their bets on a winner.
At the judge’s stand sat Grand Priest Reppe, who represented the church, with the plaintiff and defendant flanking him. While Count Gahmlich was plaintiff in name only, the expression he sported was one of indignance. Lily, on the other hand, was standing in for her brother, the accused, and her nerves seemed to be overwhelmed by the number of people who had gathered.
However, this was perhaps a natural response to the audience’s attitude. While the majority of commoners and half the nobles watched her with warm or sympathetic looks, the rest regarded Count Gahmlich with wordless glances before taking their seats, making no move to approach him, doubtless because doing so would only draw attention from the nation’s heads.
As the trial by duel had been arranged by order of the crown prince himself, it signaled that the country planned to defend Mazel. Anyone with common sense knew to keep any contrary opinions to themselves, even if they did think the Hero was a menace. Furthermore, Count Gahmlich—who had willingly lent a hand to the Cortolezises—and the few other nobles on their side were practically isolated since the involvement of House Cortolezis had been concealed.
Werner had helped create these circumstances, as he had ordered Rafed to spread a rumor among the nobles close to Count Gahmlich that the church was dissatisfied with the false charges and forged documents. While there was no basis to support this rumor, the fact that the king had high hopes for Mazel was well known among the nobles. If the church, who provided treatment for illness and wounds and had their own funds, were dissatisfied as well, then the risks of supporting Count Gahmlich grew simply too great. As a result, most nobles had distanced themselves from the incident and were instead watching to see how things would play out.
Therefore, while Count Gahmlich had approached many valorous nobles and skilled knights to serve as his stand-in, each and every one had refused his offer—some likely only refusing because they now had a reason to.
On the other hand, impressions of Werner were varied and divided. While his reputation as the In-Debt Deputy and Wastrel Viscount continued to spread, people nonetheless acknowledged he had fulfilled his responsibility by assuming leadership of Anheim, facing the Demon Commander, and seeing the battle through. And what’s more, he was practically still a student. There were even rumors spreading that he had taken control of the front lines until the Hero and knight brigades had come to help, and there were some who believed that in the Kingdom of Wein, where military prowess was a major judge of character, he should be most acknowledged for his ambition and bravery.
Additionally, he was supported by favorable views of House Zehrfeld as a whole, and the fact that he had been an excellent student at the academy. What had truly captured the public’s attention, though, was that he was the Hero’s best friend. Some in attendance had only come to the stadium to satisfy their curiosity as to what sort of person a friend of the Hero’s might be.
While there were as many reasons for attending as there were people in the stands, among them was Hermine, who watched the proceedings uncomfortably for an entirely different reason than Lily. She was seated quite close to Count Gahmlich, and since her family was nominally a member of the martial faction, this was natural. However, her brother Tyrone had refused to attend the duel out of a desire to stay out of things, rather than simple apathy. Thus, she sat alone.
From what Mine could tell, it wasn’t just that Tyrone wasn’t particularly fond of Werner; he was also displeased with the fact that odd rumors had sprouted about the holy woman Laura due to the Hero’s actions, and that a noble was fighting on behalf of an accused commoner.
The man who had somehow or another offered her his hand in marriage, David, wasn’t present either. Since Marquess Cortolezis’s eldest son and David’s elder brother, Cnut Claus Cortolezis, was attending, David had refused to go, saying he lacked interest in the proceedings. Quite honestly, Hermine felt the same. For the most part, she was there out of a sense of obligation that at least one member of House Fürst be present to witness the trial.
***
While there was a rule that the plaintiff and defendant were not allowed to speak to each other on the day of the duel, there was no rule that others couldn’t speak to them. This allowed family members and others from the same factions to offer words of support. However, any discussion that could be used to send threats—for example, calling either over for private discussion—was of course banned.
Thus, while addressing the two was allowed, commoners were in no position to offer words to either one, and most nobles made no move to do so either. But despite this heavy air, there was one man in noble garb who approached Lily, making no attempts to conceal his high-handed attitude. His motive was unclear, and Annette, whom Werner had requested stay by Lily’s side, stepped in front of him.
The man got huffy with her. “I’ve got business with that commoner. Move, wench.”
“My deepest apologies, but I cannot comply.”
“Don’t you know who I—?!”
“No matter who you may be, I cannot allow you to approach with such a countenance and attitude.”
Right before the man could scream at Annette, another voice rang out from behind him. “His Eminence the Grand Priest shall hear you if you make any more of a fuss. I believe it is time you gave up, Lord Cnut.”
“Duke Seyfert…” Right as Cnut had tried to abuse his standing, a man with even higher standing had entered the conversation. Seeing the duke, he hesitated.
Meanwhile, the duke talked to Annette as if he was already done dealing with the other man. “Dear me I am late. Is that seat open?”
“Y-yes. It is.”
“I suppose I shall take it then.” With that, Duke Seyfert strode past Cnut. Nor was he the only one. Joining him in the stands were the likes of Viscount Davrak and Baron Kretschmer, nobles who despite their low ranks were well-respected for their exploits in battles as commanders.
“I would love a chance to try my hand in battle against Viscount Zehrfeld.”
“With you as his opponent, I’m sure he’d run.”
The nobles broke out in lively conversation, paying no regard to Lily’s erstwhile visitor. Nonetheless, Cnut couldn’t get to Lily without breaking through their ranks. So, with a glare and a muttered curse, he withdrew, with a few young men rushing frantically toward him.
“Th-thank you, Your Excellency,” said Annette.
“There is no need for thanks. You did admirably in preventing an incident,” said Duke Seyfert. With his eyes trained on the battlegrounds, he muttered to himself, “So that is the eldest son of Marquess Cortolezis. I do hope he refrains from causing trouble today, or in the days to follow, for that matter.”
***
A “waiting room” was probably the best term to use for where I was now, or maybe a “standby room” would be more accurate. In any case, the bustle and fervor from outside could be heard from all the way in here. Given that this world was under constant threat from monsters and the Demon Lord, and that a duel was a rare event, it made sense that there were so many people here to watch. Basically, it was the “circus” part of panem et circenses.
In my previous life, duels tended to begin at sunrise, but this one was set to begin well into the morning. This was to be treated like any other duel, usually held once the sun had reached its highest point in the sky.
The fact that proceedings began at noon rather than early morning meant perfect conditions for a spectacle, and that was probably on purpose. Though, I wasn’t sure who exactly for.
For one, while the arena had seen the occasional joust in recent memory, it had been quite a while since the last duel was held. From what I could remember, it must have been held around twenty years ago. Perhaps that rarity only added to the hype.
According to the rules of this world, participants could bring in their own weapons as long as they were of the type that had been specified for the duel. However, participants weren’t allowed to just kill their opponents. While it was acknowledged that the occasional, accidental death was unavoidable, fighters were instructed to avoid lethality. It was a delicate balance, and perhaps the existence of healing magic in this world allowed for such lax rules. It was true that unlike in my past life, it was rare in this world for someone to die a few days after sustaining an injury in a duel.
However, I used the word “rare” rather than “unheard of” because of a so-called healing accident that occurred roughly a hundred and thirty years ago, in which a noble who had caused one problem after another perished after his duel. However, it would be tasteless to question whether healing magic really could result in accidental death. Considering that the man’s family themselves weren’t concerned about the matter, he must have been quite the nuisance.
As I was now in the standby room for those who’d be participating in the duel, the only people with me were servants of my family, as well as a man sitting watch in the corner, who was there to make sure I didn’t mess with my weapon. Coating it in poison was against the rules, but that was probably obvious.
While there had been no food prepared, I was given some drinking water. This had been arranged by the judge—in this case, the church—but bringing anything else from outside was prohibited. Since I wasn’t hungry, this didn’t bother me.
That said, those who wished to meet with me were still allowed to enter as long as they got the proper permissions, though they weren’t allowed to bring me refreshments or anything else from outside. They must have compiled a list of everyone who wanted to meet with each participant, and I was certain the visitors seeing my opponent would be people with ties to House Cortolezis.
I, on the other hand, received quite an array of guests, and I was happy that some of my classmates had come to see me. We basically just used the time to catch up, and some of my female classmates had even just dropped in to tell me, “You can’t lose, but only for Mazel’s sake!” with a snicker. I could see he was still as popular as ever.
There were also some noble ladies who had come to charm me, whom I politely turned away with a simple thanks. While I had been demoted, my father was still a minister and I was a viscount, which placed me at a rank that I suppose accounted for such attention. In fact, I got fewer such proposals than I had been expecting, which was probably thanks to my reputation as the Wastrel Viscount. But just when I was mulling over such thoughts, an unexpected visitor came to visit.
“It’s been a while, Drechsler.”
“I’m glad to see you so hale and spirited, Lord Viscount.”
He really didn’t need to address me with my title. With an awkward grin, I pretended to give him a light punch, earning a laugh from him. Then, his expression yielded to exasperation. “What an odd turn of events, huh?”
“You could say that again. I’m glad you came to cheer me on. Is that all, though?”
“I was hoping to catch up too. Save for circumstances like this, it’s hard to casually meet with you now that you’ve got a title.”
Things just aren’t the same as they were in the academy, huh? I wondered what he wanted to catch up on, but he mostly talked about my reputation. Apparently, my monikers of In-Debt Deputy and Wastrel Viscount had spread quite far.
“The fact that you succeeded at defending Anheim is probably helping your case, but maybe one or two people out of ten believe the tales of your infamy, while a similar number are all too eager to be convinced. Perhaps two in ten don’t believe the rumors at all.”
“That’s fewer people believing it than I was expecting.” Quite frankly, I wanted the rumors to spread a little further.
“I doubt anyone who knows you from the academy believes it either. While they could understand you getting into it with some high-rank noble and then being thrown out into the boondocks as a result, you and womanizing couldn’t be further separated from one another.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Even I knew that I was far removed from matters of love and relationships with nobles. I was quite preoccupied with the future siege on the capital, after all.
“So some people want to believe the rumors, huh?”
“Just because some people want to see you mess up, though I’m sure you knew that already.”
I did. I didn’t think that all martial houses fell into that category, but some of those who had failed to distinguish themselves in battle certainly did. Though, they were probably more interested in changing that about them than dragging me down. Really, the nobles of this country made such unreasonable demands.
“And the rest?”
“They’ve taken a neutral stance while waiting to see what happens, or until they can confirm their intel. Some who don’t believe the rumors have nonetheless helped spread them, seeing this as a rare opportunity.”
That last group had to be those trying to pull noble feet in certain directions, and I was certain that some of them were acting out of strained connections with my father, the Minister of Ceremonies, rather than any ill will toward me. No matter the time or place, slandering your enemies made for a good topic of discussion.
“And about today. None of the students nor their families believe that Harting was insolent or rude.”
“Sounds about right.”
“In fact, some of the girls are bad-mouthing the nobles who have been criticizing him for being a commoner.”
I was always impressed by how much faith people had in Mazel, though maybe that also posed the risk of pitting commoners and nobles against each other. Oh, but if Mazel and Laura were to be engaged, that would be mitigated. No way, could he be considering that in his calculations as well?
“But there’s been a message going around telling people not to criticize or disparage the trial by duel. I’ve gotten it too.”
He didn’t say who had been spreading this message, but it had to be the throne. They really pulled out all the stops. Or maybe, they were also once again banking hard on the fact that the Hero was off fighting against the Demon Lord. If more people pinned their hopes on Mazel, then they’d just need to hold onto their resolve until he defeated the Demon Lord. After that, the people wouldn’t be quite so scared about demons, inflation, or scarcity.
“I’m sure you’ve got something up your sleeve for this duel, right, Zehrfeld?” Drechsler asked me with absolute conviction.
“Now I get to see what kind of man you take me as.” Those words gave me a lot to mull over. For one, the crown prince was really the one who had something up his sleeve, not me. Not that I could say that. Well, whatever.
“Anyway, I had a favor to ask of you.”
“I thought that was coming,” he said with an exasperated look. I felt bad, but I made a silent promise that if I survived this, I’d take him drinking somewhere with an all-you-can-eat buffet.
***
“Refreshments?”
It was Werner’s opponent who posed the question, though it was clear by his expression that he was skeptical anything of the sort was permitted. His name was Berndt Lank Gahmlich, and he was the captain of House Gahmlich’s knight brigade. While he was polishing his weapon in the waiting room across the stadium from Werner’s, someone from the church had come to speak with him. It was only natural that he was distrustful of this visitor.
The man who claimed to be from the church held out a potion bottle. “‘Refreshment’ is perhaps not quite the right word. It has been decided that both you and your opponent are to drink potions to guarantee you are in top shape for the duel.”
“You think I, a knight, am not already in top shape?” Berndt asked, glaring at the man who had introduced himself as Priest Kaempfer.
While Kaempfer seemed rattled, he cleared his throat and once again began to speak.
“Not at all. This is measure taken to ensure fairness, which you both must abide by. Viscount Zehrfeld has already drunk his potion.”
“Hmph. Well, I suppose that Zehrfeld, as a civil servant, does not properly hone his body,” said Berndt with a condescending look in his eye. While he was clearly not fond of the idea, he downed the potion regardless. “Is this all you needed?”
“Yes, thank you,” said Kaempfer as he took the bottle from Brendt’s hands in a manner that could only be described as obsequious. Then, he breathed out a sigh before speaking once again in his sycophantic tone. “I do look forward to your glorious battle.”
“Save that for my opponent, who’s nothing but show. Maybe it’ll keep him from falling off his horse after just one blow,” Berndt sneered, before resuming polishing his weapon. He was so entranced in that task that he failed to notice Kaempfer share a few words with the attendant watching him, nor that after Kaempfer had shown this man something, all the blood had rushed from his face.
***
After Drechsler left, having heard my request for a favor, the slew of visitors stopped, giving me time to ready my spear. Apparently, visitors were barred from entering once the match drew close to keep them from sharing too much info, or something like that. I wasn’t too clear on the finer points, but it made sense. Facing visitors up until right before the match would be exhausting.
Since this was a trial by duel, I was glad those who came to greet me couldn’t bring me any unnecessary gifts, especially since I had heard that noble ladies would gift handkerchiefs as a sign of affection before jousting tournaments. Not that I had any firsthand experience with the custom since I had never jousted before.
Handkerchiefs weren’t that bad, but I had never been able to wrap my mind around this one custom I read about in a book during my previous life. Apparently, there was a period during the Middle Ages where noble ladies “would present the knight who had their affections with a sleeve that had been sewn into their undergarments.”
There was definitely a period in my previous life when hands had been seen as something special. Apparently, stories of saints healing illness with no more than a gentle touch had given rise to this belief. There were other examples too, like a story where the king bestowed his envoy with his own glove, and the practice of kings knighting people with a blade upon the shoulder, which historians believed had originally involved the king’s hand rather than a sword. And if we wanted to mention the occult, there was also the example of the hand of glory, an attempt to use a hand for magical purposes.
In any case, I could understand gifting a glove or a sleeve, but why did it have to be a sleeve sown into undergarments? Since that excerpt was merely the record of a rumor, maybe there was some mistake in how it was chronicled in the first place.
Anyway, this differed by region and country as well, and there were records deliberately noting that the king of Poland never wore gloves. Customs were largely divided between lands where Christianity’s influence was strong, versus those where it was weak. With that in mind, perhaps it was impossible to really divide periods into just the “Middle Ages” or “modern times” anyway.
“Viscount Zehrfeld, we are now ready for you.”
“Right.”
While I was mulling over these random thoughts, the time for battle had come. At my hip was the sword I’d be using once the fight was taken to foot, and in my hand was my spear. I exited the room to find the hallway empty, everyone else having vacated it before me. Rather, the presence of anyone else would mean I was walking straight into a trap. The hall approached the dueling grounds by a winding path, rather than a straight one, which was probably meant to block any fallout from the combat. This world had the very isekai-like tradition of magic duels between mages, and having a stray bullet—or rather, a stray magic blast—careen into the waiting rooms could be disastrous. I heard there were special rules for these magic duels, such as allowing only fire or water spells, and banning close-quarters combat. Since I couldn’t use magic myself, though, I had never bothered to remember them.
In any case, I arrived at the grounds after a short walk from the waiting room. The sudden glint of sunlight was blinding, and while the cheers of the audience thundered in my ears, I had to keep myself calm. I couldn’t let myself get swept up by the crowd. I stopped in my tracks for a moment and took a deep breath.
“Well then.”
My actions were instrumental to concealing the crown prince and chancellor’s schemes. Thus, I would need to play the role of decoy to perfection.
***
As I entered the arena to boisterous cheers, I cast my gaze around the stadium. My opponent and I would be charging each other from opposite ends of the stadium and clashing at the center, right before the judge’s stand where the witnesses had their seats. Surrounding the judge’s stand were the seats for nobles, which made up about half of the total seats. That meant the other half were for commoners… Huh?
I choked back the surprise that threatened to escape from my mouth. I had heard no one from the royal family would be attending the duel, but I could see Prince Ruven and his fiancée, the daughter of Marquess Schramm, conspicuously sitting in the front row of the seats meant for commoners. They had failed to completely mask the noble aura they exuded, and I could even see what looked to be guards in their vicinity.
I couldn’t help but think that there was something a bit violent about taking a girl out to this event as a date, but perhaps that was normal for the people of this world. I decided to stop thinking about it. They probably thought they were properly concealed considering they were wearing disguises, so it was best to just pretend I didn’t notice.
The horses had already been brought to the arena, with Neurath leading mine. Schünzel had gone to inspect my opponent’s horse, and a knight serving my opponent had come to inspect mine. This was another rule unique to this world, apparently meant to ensure the horses had no special equipment.
While I had never considered it before, people would prepare horses for the battlefield by outfitting them with armor, even in my old world. Considering this world had magic, it made sense that someone might try to equip their horses with something special. This wasn’t a generational gap, but a world gap, and just one of many examples that often left me flabbergasted.
Incidentally, my horse had been a gift from the throne, and thus, I had been unable to change its name. From the day I got him, my steed’s name had been Theobald, meaning “the bold and courageous.” For some reason, I couldn’t help but feel his name was cooler than mine, though maybe that was just my imagination.
I was relieved to see that Annette was by Lily’s side. From what I could tell, it seemed like they hadn’t had been caught up in any incidents. Duke Seyfert being so close by had probably deterred even the densest of troublemakers.
With that in mind, I scanned the seats of the martial faction and found a familiar head of hair, which belonged to Lady Hermine, the daughter of Count Fürst. I wasn’t quite sure what her personal views were, but her presence confirmed where the Fürsts’ loyalties as a house lay. Given that House Zehrfeld and House Fürst’s only connection was that their domains were nearby, I supposed that was only natural.
While such thoughts were going through my head, I handed over my weapon to one of the observers. Then, I knelt before the judge’s stand alongside the knight I was about to duel.
In my previous world, the judge would have made some token appeal for a peaceful resolution, something about how God despises violence so we should just work it out with words. But trials by duel didn’t have such a custom, and I doubted there were many who chose peace after things had escalated to a duel in my old world anyway.
“I grant both of you permission to speak your last appeals,” Grand Priest Reppe proclaimed abruptly. His words reverberated throughout the arena. This had to be the same technique that had been used to amplify voices in Finoy. I had thought it was some sort of spell, but after careful observation, I realized it was some sort of magic item. Wait a second.
It would have been one thing if this were a place of worship like Finoy, but this was the capital. In other words, the temples had an item that wasn’t even used when the king paraded through the city. Nobody seemed to find this strange, but did the church really have so much power?
Or maybe, the church had much more technology connected to the ancient kingdom than I had initially thought. Perhaps reading records about religion or those related to the temples served as a starting point for researching the ancient kingdom. Considering I hadn’t yet decided where to start my research, maybe this was a timely hint.
“First, it must be stated that the second princess, a member of the royal family, has…”
Crap. While I had been distracted by my own thoughts, the plaintiff, Count Gahmlich, had stood and begun his remarks—or really, tirade—and I had zoned out for the beginning of it.
In my old world, the point of these appeals was to state one’s justness before God, but I wasn’t quite sure what the point was in this one. Maybe it was to clarify the need to pass judgment or something. I guess this was probably healthier than carrying out trials behind closed doors.
I had only started listening partway through his speech, but his words were more reserved than I had been expecting, especially since I was convinced he was going to drag Mazel’s name through the mud. Then again, I got the feeling that would only earn him the jeering of the crowd. Perhaps he wasn’t as much of a dunce as I took him for.
Not that it really mattered, but while booing from crowds could only be traced back to the nineteenth century, the Ancient Greeks already had a practice of whistling or screaming to express one’s displeasure as an audience member. Meanwhile, hooting—which expressed the opposite of booing—could be traced back all the way to the thirteenth century.
“Thus, my noble self views this as an affront to the crown, and thus, I have taken this commoner to court.”
There was some scattered applause from the noble section of the stadium, but most offered no reaction. Since I didn’t have eyes in the back of my head, I couldn’t see the commoners’ seats, but I got the feeling they were giving him quite a cold look. Rumors that were too simple often backfired, after all.
The fact he had stressed the words “noble” and “commoner” was probably meant to discourage Lily, but considering Lily and I had seen for ourselves how indignant the crown prince was with him, it didn’t really have the desired effect.
Was His Highness actually so angry, though? He wasn’t just putting on a front to set up this very turn of events, was he? My father had once told me that anger could serve as a noble’s weapon, and thinking about that now sent a shiver down my spine.
“Representative for the accused, you may now offer your remarks.”
“Right.”
Now it was Lily’s turn to speak. She seemed nervous, and when our eyes met, I gave her an encouraging nod. She nodded back at me before rising resolutely from her seat. She had worn white clothes to appeal to her brother’s innocence, which stood out against the colorful outfits the nobles wore. Seeing her now, I finally saw the full picture behind the prince’s ensuring that the trial by duel would take place before Mazel’s return. Just barely, I managed to avoid cursing under my breath.
“My name is Lily, and I am Mazel Harting’s younger sister. There is something I would like to tell you all regarding the slander that has been spread about my brother.”
Mazel was the one who had been called into question in the duel, but both Mazel himself and Laura were absent. Even if she was simply serving as an intermediary, Lily was nevertheless the one sitting in the seat of the accused. The sight of it would surely inspire a thought in the commoners, knights, and portion of nobles who had no further knowledge of the matter: “That noble is putting this poor girl in the pillory while the Hero is away.”
This impression would have lasting consequences. It could hardly be starker if, as in some trials from my old world, a pile of kindling for a pyre to burn her at had been placed beside her. In that case, the most conspicuous part of the story would have been picked out from the rest and spread as its own tale.
“My brother and I have lost the home where we were raised. An attack by the Demon army razed it to the ground, and yet even now my brother continues his quest against the Demon Lord.”
Then what would happen once those people learned that House Cortolezis had been the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes? They would be an eminent noble family who tried the Hero for false charges, pilloried his younger sister, and hid themselves in the shadows of other nobles. They’d easily be labeled as the bad guys, and I was certain such a rumor would spread soon enough.
When the throne would later announce that it planned to punish House Cortolezis, the judgment would be greeted with roaring applause from the people. Unlike with battles against the Demon army, commoners paid little attention to the conflicts between the throne and other nobles, so efforts like this, which impressed upon them the justness of one side, could be useful.
“However, I know my brother and I are not the only ones who have suffered losses at the hands of the Demon army. I am sure some of you have had things you treasured and people you loved taken from you. Right now, somewhere, my brother is fighting to put that to an end.”
And that’s not all. The nobles and knights of this world honored noble maidens and ladies and treated them with respect. In fact, standing to protect Lily could be considered a knight’s pride. With that in mind, what would this situation incite?
For example, let’s say that there was a noble close to Marquess Cortolezis. Now, if that noble wanted to double-cross the marquess and realign with the crown, they’d be able to say, “As a noble, as a knight, I can no longer abide a marquess house who would so shame the younger sister of the Hero—a woman of repute—with false charges.” For the sake of a noble’s honor, this was a valuable opportunity to abandon the marquess for a reason other than seeing the obvious hopelessness of his cause.
Basically, this scene was orchestrated to give the nobles close to the marquess an excuse to turn traitor on him. This duel didn’t just give the throne the opportunity to compile a list of all the nobles who had sided with House Cortolezis, but also laid the underpinnings that allowed those nobles to realign themselves with the throne.
Furthermore, the slandering party would have their comeuppance in the form of the people’s displeasure, which would have a chilling effect on any other malcontents lying in wait both in the kingdom and abroad. Following such a display, those foes would have a clear example of how the people would turn on anyone who tried exploiting the Hero.
“My brother is fighting alongside Princess Laura and the rest of their allies, but they fight not for their own sakes. He would never do anything to disrespect Her Highness. I beg of you all to have faith in Princess Laura and my brother, and to offer your own strengths to aid them on their journey.”
Applause resounded throughout the stadium as Lily finished her speech with a bow, but none of that made it to my ears. Still, I made sure to nod at Lily and flash her a smile, though I could barely even manage a poker face under my circumstances.
I didn’t think this plan was a bad one. Manipulating public opinion against the Cortolezises and putting a target on their back was enough motivation, but while I didn’t mind serving as a decoy, I still had my qualms about this situation. I understood that this was an opportunity the kingdom could use for its own gain, and I knew that there was a decent possibility that ignoring the trial would have led to even bigger problems. Still, while I knew this was an important preparation for the next political maneuver, my frustration came from outside the ambit of logic.
I took a deep breath. If I lost to my emotions, I’d also lose this match.
***
“Have you no noble pride, Viscount Zehrfeld?!”
I suppose now was the time for a verbal duel—rather than the real duel—between the participants. Apparently, this was also amplified and broadcasted to the whole stadium. Was there some rule that favored the plaintiff? In any case, I kept silent.
I had done some research on my opponent. He was Count Gahmlich’s younger brother by blood, making him the uncle of the boy Mazel and I had ousted from his seat as Gahmlich’s heir. Apparently, this fellow currently served as the captain of the House Gahmlich knight brigade, and he had the burly figure to match.
His predecessor had apparently fallen victim to his own carelessness during the Demon Stampede. In that sense, he was quite literally the second-best man they had. Nevertheless, this middle-aged man wore sturdy armor and had the bearing of a proper knight. Considering the muscle-headed nature of this world, it was clear he had some skills.
I had no idea what he thought of my failure to respond to his chiding, but he once again yelled as if to impress his convictions onto the crowd by sheer volume. “Your attitude is problematic any day of the week, anyway! Your reputation as the ‘Wastrel Viscount’ proves that you’re a blue-blooded lout!”
He must have realized that the crowd had sided against him, unlike he had predicted. Now, rather than attack Mazel or Laura, he had chosen to denigrate me. The implication was that anyone who picked an untrustworthy proxy must have been quite untrustworthy themselves. Had to admit, it was a sound argument.
While it was quite cumbersome to explain, “blue blood” was an insult in this world. In my previous life, the phrase had been used to refer to those of noble birth, as their lack of a need to perform menial labor had left them pale. However, nobles in this world typically had to take up arms against monsters, so anyone whose blood could turn pale was clearly quite shamefully under-exerting themselves.
On top of that, there were monsters in this world with blue or purple blood that attacked humans and begat casualties. Thus, saying someone had “blue blood” in this world also carried implications of savagery and viciousness. Now that I was thinking about it, there were undead monsters in this world too, meaning there were even people who had pale blue skin in addition to pale blue veins.
Apparently, the different colors of monster blood had something to do with magic, but I didn’t know the details. At first, I had been confused by the difference in meaning of “blue blood” in this world compared to my last one, but I eventually grew to accept it as the norm here.
To translate my opponent’s utterance, he was saying, “You’re a spendthrift who can’t even fight, a man lower even than a monster!” Turns of phrase of this sort were complicated. Still, the fact that calling your opponent less than a monster was an expression of contempt rather than fear was quite fitting given the muscle-headed nature of this world.
Anyway, I didn’t really mind being slandered, but I couldn’t let him be the only one to get a word in. It was about time I fired back. “You stink.”
“What?”
He didn’t seem to understand what I said, so I explained myself. “Your breath stinks. Get away from me.”
He was at a loss for words, which made sense. This time was meant for extolling the virtue of your cause. I was doubtful anyone would have expected to hear such words out of me. Still, these were the only words I needed to offer.
I decided to pile on even further. “Keep your mouth shut and keep your distance. At least go take a bath.” I waved my hand in front of my face. I could hear snickering from the crowd. From that far away, they had no way of telling whether my words were true. “I’m sure your head is too rotten to realize Sir Mazel and Princess Laura aren’t in the wrong, but I really can’t stand your smelly breath. If you’re a noble, at least have the hygiene of one.” Seeing my opponent’s face had turned red with anger, I dramatically shrugged. “You blushing over me just because I called you out before an audience? How embarrassing.”
“I’ll kill you, you damn brat!”
Wow, that was pretty blunt. The whole stadium can hear you, y’know. He emphasized the pride of nobles and of knights, yet here he was losing his cool. He stomped his horse over to his corner before we were called to, and I could see Count Gahmlich giving him the stink eye from the plaintiff’s seat. From up there, it would be quite obvious I had just been trying to provoke his brother.
Still, one’s expression and movements were what best revealed their emotions, which was probably why Count Gahmlich was so displeased with his brother after watching him take my derisive words at face value and blow his lid.
The same went for the crowd. As they couldn’t see his expression, they naturally began to ridicule him for getting so indignant at such a silly attempt to provoke him. As far as playing the crowd went, it was my win.
After offering a bow to Lily, who was watching from the judge’s stand, I returned to my own horse and took the reins from Neurath. Duke Seyfert had nodded in exasperation, implicitly asking, perhaps, if that was the best I could come up with. I couldn’t deny I’d been quite crude, so I decided to just forget about Duke Seyfert’s reaction for now.
***
According to the rules of this world, the use of shields in a duel was decided by mutual consent. In this case, neither of us were equipped with one.
In both jousting and duels, blows to the head were allowed, but only those highly skilled could manage to hit such a small target while being jostled by a horse, so usually, people aimed for the torso. Considering that a blow to the head could be fatal, I obviously had no intention of making it my target.
In my previous life, jousts were usually conducted with shields. In fact, watching the lances made for use in such tournaments—known as “jousts of peace”—break into pieces after hitting a shield was one of the most thrilling aspects of the event.
In jousting tournaments, knights were rarely unhorsed. According to records from my old world, while one knight had managed to splinter three hundred lances in a single tournament, only six men had ever fallen off their horse.
Even though the lances were made to break easily, people still died in jousting tournaments. One famous example was Henry II of France, who died from a wound to his eye, and another sobering example was a knight who had decided to act cool and keep his armor on only to die from heatstroke before his wife’s eyes—a truly needless death.
I hopped onto my horse, straddled the saddle, and took up my lance. Then, I placed my feet in the stirrups. Usually, you wanted to avoid placing your feet too far inside during a joust, as there was nothing worse than falling from your horse with one foot still tangled in the stirrups. On the other hand, your feet needed to be properly set if you wanted to get any power into your weapon. Figuring out how to adjust the height of your stirrups and where to place your feet was something that only came with experience.
I straightened my back, puffed out my chest, and slowly lowered my knees until I was settled deep into my saddle. If you didn’t have a stable position on your horse, the recoil would have your butt slamming into your steed’s back with every movement. This could be uncomfortable for the horse, and at worst, cause it to slow down.
Though, I had to confess that during lessons at the academy, I had a hard time keeping my back straight while riding. Bending backward meant pulling the reins, which meant slowing the horse. The fact that when galloping, the saddle didn’t move up and down so much as forward and back may have been another reason I had such a hard time.
Incidentally, riders would sometimes lean forward, grip the saddle with their thighs, and lift themselves off the seat when their horse was galloping at full speed. This was the position racehorse jockeys used when competing. However, holding that position long-term was quite strenuous for the rider, so it was really only suitable for short distances.
Keeping such thoughts in my mind, I slowly moved my horse to the edge of the arena. Even from this far away, I could tell my opponent was raring to go—and I was too, even if I didn’t let it show. I couldn’t lose this battle either.
***
An odd sound—something that you might expect from a wooden trumpet—marked the start of the duel. It came from an instrument made using the horn of a monster known as a giant goat, which was big enough to carry six humans on its back.
While the horn came from a goat monster, it split into multiple branches at the end like a deer’s antlers, which was about what you’d expect for a fantasy world. While they were mostly hunted for their meat and hide, the ends of their horns were hollow, and with a bit of finagling, could be used as an instrument. Still, these goats were quite laborious to hunt, so horns of that sort that made a good, clear sound could cost more than a jewel.
Such a precious item had likely been brought out to prove to any foreign ambassadors in attendance that Wein didn’t lack for riches. This entire event was pretty much performative.
I let my mind ponder such thoughts for a moment, but as soon as I saw my opponent rushing toward me, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him, I urged my horse forward. The first thrust of my lance would be a test to let me know how I needed to time things to get enough momentum behind it.
Though, I still needed to please the crowd.
My opponent roared, and I matched him. Then, we made our first pass. Cheers erupted from the crowd, filling the sky as I felt first, a moment of resistance, then a wave of force running up my arm.
As our weapons clashed, the friction created a unique smell for just a moment. Then, our horses galloped away at full speed. My opponent’s skills befitted his title as the captain of a count’s knight brigade; my arm was still throbbing.
Still, he had lost his composure, and his attack had been guided by nothing but his anger. While it had strength and force, it lacked accuracy. Just as I had hoped for when riling him up, he had aimed for my head, and I had been able to redirect his attack by thrusting the handle of my spear against his.
I hadn’t broken my posture for the entirety it had taken for my horse to run from one end of the arena to the other. Once I made it there, I turned my horse around to once again face the middle. I gave a soft pat to my horse’s neck—he was calm. Theobald really was an excellent steed.
“Help me out this time too, okay?” I gave Theobald another pat and dramatically brandished my spear. Once I saw my opponent rushing at me once again, a furious cry tearing from his lungs, I gave my horse a gentle kick in his sides.
***
After a brief silence, cheers once again erupted from the crowd as the two horses rushed at each other again for their fourth pass, the thunder of their hooves matched by the applause of the crowd.
Both participants were equipped with the spears they were accustomed to using in battle, and while neither weapon broke, the dull clap that resounded at their collision overwhelmed the crowd, inciting cheers so loud they shook the air to reverberate alongside the harsh clanking of metal.
Most jousts were a three-bout affair, but no limit had been set for the duel. Just as would be the case should they fall from their horses and fight on foot, the competition would continue until one admitted their defeat or was left unable to fight.
Both horses once again arrived at the edges of the arena, their riders judging when to next make their moves. At the same time, Duke Seyfert turned his gaze to Prince Ruven, who was watching breathlessly on the edge of his seat, which was natural considering his young age.
The duke once again turned his head, this time to look at Lily, who sat silently clasping her hands, her eyes closed. It wasn’t fear or anxiety on her face, though perhaps she considered that Werner might suffer some injury in the battle. Rather, her hands seemed to be clasped in prayer.
Just as Duke Seyfert regarded this with a mental shrug, impressed with her faith in Werner, those around him began to debate.
“What do you make of this?” asked Viscount Davrak, clearly amused by the battle.
Baron Kretschmer responded. “Lord Werner will prove victorious in their horseback battle. He is clearly skilled.”
“Agreed. While Sir Brendt would likely have the advantage if they could have chosen weapons freely, he seems completely unable to handle his horse,” added Viscount Mittag.
Brendt was larger than Werner, and he leaned on that as he went on the offensive. Yet, knights were trained to move dramatically on their horses, unlike Werner who skillfully deflected his opponent’s attacks with minimal movements. Brendt’s horse was bound to grow exhausted quicker than Werner’s, especially given that a joust required a horse to bear an armored rider at full gallop over and over. That would wear a steed down much faster than your usual riding.
Additionally, the participants had to continuously keep one hand on the reins, burdening the hand which carried their spears. This had minimal effect on Werner; to someone with the Spearmanship skill, the weapon would feel quite light. But that wasn’t the case for his opponent. Soon, the weight would strain Berndt’s arm.
“Provoking Sir Brendt seems to have been part of his strategy,” remarked Mittag.
“Indeed. He’s manipulated his opponent’s attitude magnificently,” Duke Seyfert commented to himself.
Werner had succeeded in breaking his opponent’s composure, and strike after wasted strike had drained his opponent’s strength, such that he couldn’t muster his full power in any of his attacks. Werner may have been planning to first let his opponent have the advantage, only to strike once he had let down his guard.
Werner had a habit of not giving himself enough credit, but it had led him to choose a battle tactic suitable for someone like him who didn’t boast much strength. While he was far from a weakling and had never failed to put in the effort, Werner’s greatest asset was his ability to deceive his opponents, at least according to Duke Seyfert’s appraisal.
“It has given him the advantage, but he may find himself lost in his plan. It’s about time to drop the act.”
“Your Excellency.”
Just as Seyfert once again muttered to himself, one of his personal retainers approached and whispered a report in his ear. The duke lifted one of his eyebrows as he listened before responding with a look of exasperation.
“Understood. Please make sure this does not cause too much of an uproar.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
When Prince Ruven had told his father he wished to see the match for himself, the crown prince had given his permission under the condition that he attend in disguise, as he wanted to avoid any implication that the throne had taken a side.
Yet at the same time, the crown prince had instructed that multiple guards be deployed around the stadium under the pretext of protecting the young prince. This defense network was officially meant to guard Prince Ruven, but a number of suspicious parties had taken notice of them as well.
As these parties readied their weapons for maneuvers of their own, Duke Seyfert gave curt orders to neutralize them. Then, he returned his gaze to the duel, stroking his beard with a look that made it clear he had no interest in who won or who lost.
“Our opponents would have to be fools to send their house’s own vassals, so I do wonder what prey we’ve caught.”
***
After the first pass, Werner made a show of flourishing his lance, his dramatic movements a sign to his detractors in the audience that he still had plenty of fight in him. But when the duel moved into the third pass, he altered course again.
He slowly urged his horse forward with his spear pointed downwards. Just as Werner had assumed, his opponent made no declaration that he would be exchanging his horse before he turned to face Werner. But this time, Berndt approached his line slowly.
Exchanging one’s horse had not been prohibited in this duel. Should either combatant wish to do so, they could trade their horse for a new one, but Werner had deliberately decided to refrain from doing so, as he knew his opponent would use it as an opportunity to exchange his own.
Berndt, Werner’s opponent, was a man of large build. In his heavy armor, he’d be a great burden on his horse. Werner, on the other hand, had saved both his horse’s energy and his own by keeping his focus on parrying and redirecting the blows of his opponent’s spear.
While Werner had goaded Berndt into aiming for his head at the start of their duel, he knew enough time had passed for his foe to regain his composure.
Berndt galloped forward, and Werner answered by kicking the belly of his horse. Theobald must have noticed that this kick was stronger than the rest, as he burst forth with redoubled vigor. Now that Werner and his opponent had met four times, they both had a sense of each other’s reach. While Werner had never noticed it before, given how rarely he had the chance to fight foes with the same weapon, his Spearmanship skill had apparently come with the ability to accurately judge range and distance when fighting other spearmen.
Realizing that his opponent’s stance was slightly different than before, Werner once again kicked his horse’s belly, gaining speed and closing the distance from his opponent in a flash. Until now, Werner had simply deflected Berndt’s attacks, but after four bouts, the blood that had rushed to his head had started to subside. Now that his foe had regained his composure, Werner decided to stop emphasizing how much energy he still had. Instead, he affected exhaustion, letting the tip of his spear droop toward the ground.
The stance Brendt now adopted was known as “Boar Fang” and positioned the tip of the spear directly at the opponent. It was a common stance in jousting tournaments, and Werner knew it signaled an attack to the torso. Berndt aimed to knock him off his steed.
Once Brendt’s spear passed just to the side of Theobald’s snout, Werner snapped his spear upward, knocking his opponent’s out of line. The impact staggered Berndt and, in turn, caused his tiring horse to falter in its steps. Berndt jerked forward, close to the saddle, barely hanging on even as Werner’s lance slid along his right till its point slammed into his body.
In those final moments before the impact, Werner had used his opponent’s own lance to brace his thrust against him, right before spurring his horse into a final explosion of force.
“Huh?!”
The crowd roared anew as the force of the blow surged up Werner’s arm and buffeted his body, nearly yanking the lance from his arm. He clamped his thighs down on the saddle and regained his balance just in time. Then he stopped and turned his horse around.
Something had crashed to the ground, closer to where Werner was now than where he and his opponent had clashed. The stadium had gone quiet. Now that his opponent had fallen from his horse, Werner got down from his own, as the rules required.
Theobald dashed off to a corner of the stadium, where Neurath caught him. Berndt’s horse followed suit, running to the other edge to meet a knight who was waiting there on standby.
For a moment, all was silent. As soon as Lily let out a small sigh of relief, Berndt began to stir.
“Uuuuuugh…”
“He’s going to get up after that blow?” The words had fallen out of Annette’s mouth, who was standing beside Lily, as they watched the Gahmlich knight struggle back to his feet with a groan.
However, Count Gahmlich’s cry from the other side of the judge’s stand drowned out her voice. “Yes! Don’t you dare lose to a damn Zehrfeld! Take him down!”
The eldest Cortolezis son, Cnut, chimed in as well. “Go! Beat him to a pulp!”
As if moved by their words, Berndt, who had gotten to his feet, drew his sword with a flourish that set the crowd off once more. As no one had called on them to stand down, Werner knew the duel would proceed to the next stage. He stuck his spear into the ground and drew his own blade. From this moment onward, the duel would be fought with swords.
***
I was kind of annoyed, to be honest. I had driven that blow hard enough into his left shoulder that his whole arm should’ve been rendered useless. While he might have gotten up from it, I couldn’t imagine how he could actually fight through the agony.
While I knew that the gladiators of Rome kept on fighting even after taking grievous wounds, I was shocked to see my opponent had the grit to draw his sword after my spearhead had torn into his shoulder. In video games—or when fighting monsters—your opponent would fight, undiminished, right until the brink of death, but it just seemed weird watching that happen in real life.
“I won’t lose. I won’t lose. I won’t looooooose!!!”
I gasped. In a flash, my opponent had closed the distance between us with a swing of his blade. Just barely, I managed to block, both hands firmly on the hilt of my sword. A shockwave rolled through my arms—much more than should have been possible for a stroke with his right arm alone.
It was strange. That was the only way to describe it. Blood spurted from his left shoulder, running red over his silver armor. And yet he had managed to put such force behind his blow. Didn’t he feel pain at all?
“Gwaaaaaaaah!”
“Agh!”
My opponent put his weight into our locked blades, but I managed to angle it away. I retreated a step, but my opponent immediately closed the distance with another swing, which I barely managed to thwart. In fact, he may have taken off a few hairs of mine.
Unlike in my showdown with Gezarius, I felt no fear. What I did feel was that something wasn’t right. I feinted with a conspicuous thrust, which my opponent batted away. The force of it rattled my arms as we shifted positions, putting more distance between us.
“Grah… Grer…”
“Hey now, you don’t even sound human!”
The voice I heard sounded much more like a wild beast’s. For a moment, I wondered if he was a Demonic Being, but I quickly tossed that thought aside. I didn’t think any Demonic Beings could worm their way into the capital as it was now, and I doubted the kingdom would make such a grave oversight. So, what explained what I was witnessing?
“Gwaaaaaah!”
Screams rose up from the viewing stands. Our swords had collided once more, and I groaned as my opponent threw his full weight onto me, knocking me off-balance. His blade made contact with my shoulder, but my armor kept it from doing any real harm.
I knocked his sword away. Then I realized I had been tossed into the air. Before I could realize he had kicked me, I was tumbling along the ground. I jumped back up and swung my sword, blade biting into his torso with a shower of sparks.
The blow had given me my opponent’s position, and I deftly moved in the opposite direction.
“Ugh…”
“Lord Werner!”
I heard my name among the shouts, but I didn’t currently have the luxury of identifying who’d called out. Another attack had come my way, and I dodged a moment too late to avoid a cut to the forehead. Luckily, it wasn’t deep, and the blood that trickled out didn’t affect my vision. If anything, it was my cold sweat that threatened to turn the world blurry.
The inside of my mouth felt sandy, likely caused by my earlier tumble. I spit onto the ground. Huh. When did that voice amplification magic stop?
I turned slightly, putting the judge’s stand in my sight, in the background of my opponent. Two men dressed in the robes of grand priests were discussing something. One was Grand Priest Reppe, and the other was likely Malavoi, the man who had accepted the documents for this trial. It seemed someone was trying to keep even them from interrupting things.
Had my opponent visibly turned into a Demonic Being, I’m sure this duel would have been halted. But as it stood, he just seemed crazy, which wasn’t reason enough to call for a halt.
I was also surprised to see that Count Gahmlich was silent. As a member of the martial faction, he had to be well-versed in martial arts, and thus, had likely realized something was off about his knight. Though, the guys nearby him yelling “Kill him!” and “Cut him down!” were kind of obnoxious.
Lily was as white as a sheet, her eyes trained right on me. Cuts to the forehead always looked worse than they were, thanks to the way blood flowed out of them. Still, I didn’t have the time to show her I was all right. It took just a moment to make all these observations, and from the corner of my vision, I could see the duke nod at me—it was permission to kill my opponent if things really went south.
In trials by duels, it was custom to try not to kill your opponent, but there was something clearly off about this situation, on top of how glaringly obvious it was that my opponent was himself trying to kill me. There was nothing else I could do. I caught my breath and reset my stance.
“Grar… Gerr… Grrrrrrrrr!”
My opponent’s breaths were steady as he once again swung his sword down with such strength as seemed impossible for just a single arm. I blocked, using both hands to support my sword. The force was intense. As his sword’s hilt slammed into mine, I could see that my opponent was foaming at the mouth. His eyes were directed at my forehead, but it was clear he wasn’t looking at anything at all.
I didn’t have the time to think any further. I stepped forward with my left foot, tilting my body as I removed my left hand from my sword, angling my blade so my opponent’s slid off it.
My opponent held his sword only in his right hand, likely because he couldn’t put any strength into his left. It left him open to attack. Seizing my opponent’s right hand with my left, I pulled his sword aside, stepped in close, and slammed my sword’s pommel into his face.
“Grah!”
“Hah!”
My opponent retreated half a step, but that was exactly where I wanted him to be. I lifted my right foot and drove my heel into his crotch. I wasn’t sure if he could feel pain, but a blow to the hip joint was sure to knock him off-balance. He tipped forward.
It was the perfect chance to attack, but I managed to hold myself back. I felt no goodwill toward the Gahmlichs, but neither did I hold a grudge against my opponent. Moreover, I wanted the chance to interrogate him later. As long as I didn’t kill him, he could be healed with magic. Having made that judgment, I slammed the flat of my sword into his neck, causing him to collapse face-first into the ground.
All was silent for a moment. Then, Grand Priest Reppe began to speak from the judge’s stand. “The knight representing the Gahmlichs is unable to stand. I pronounce the Hartings the victors of this duel, and their claims accordingly just. Mazel Harting is hereby pronounced innocent!”
The arena exploded into cheers and applause so thunderous I could hear nothing else. I took a deep breath, lifted my sword into the air, and bowed. Mazel had the people on his side, so the outburst of cheers was only natural. I decided to play things up, waving to the crowd and eliciting even more vigorous cheers. Then, I turned to the judge’s stand to bow to Grand Priest Reppe. I could see Count Gahmlich glaring at me beside him, and I assumed the pretty boy who had been making such noise earlier had to be the eldest son of Marquess Cortolezis.
Lily was relieved, so much so that I could tell from all the way down here. I put on a smile and bowed to her. Then I walked back to the waiting room, the cheers of the audience resounding behind me.
This idiotic trial of Mazel’s had finally come to an end, but the threat of the conniving noble houses—as well the upcoming siege on the capital—still hung over our heads, which was a shame considering those were the most important matters at hand. Still, it wasn’t my place to get involved with any major houses. Now, I wonder what’ll happen next?
***
Once Werner exited the stadium, a man took a single glance at the enthusiastic crowd. Then he left, only partially stifling a disappointed sigh.
“What a farce.”
The other man sighed.
“If we drag this matter out any longer, the crown will start meddling in the church’s affairs.”
The man couldn’t quite conceal his displeasure at how thoroughly events had played out in the crown’s favor.
“Handle this quickly,” he said to the servant at his side, careful to keep his emotions from seeping onto his face or into his voice.
“As you say.”
***
Trials by duel didn’t simply end once the battle was over. We had to keep watch as documents were drawn up attesting to the justness of our arguments, making sure there were no loopholes that could later be used against us, and then sign those papers once we were satisfied. While a specialist hired by Duke Seyfert checked the documents for us, we still needed to affix our signatures and were thus stuck here until those proceedings were over.
“Excellent work out there, Lord Werner.”
“Not at all. The credit is yours, Your Excellency.”
“A worthy investment. That was quite the intriguing battle, after all.”
Once I had received some first aid, I had the opportunity to talk with the duke. Though rather than banter, it was more a chance to exchange intel and cross-check some things. Luckily, Lily would have Annette and some other knights around her even if Duke Seyfert was absent.
“Davrak and the others wanted to serve as her guard detail, but I sent them home. I am sure you’ve heard already, but there were a few who were smitten with Miss Lily upon seeing her in person.”
Lily must have noticed something was up herself. Apparently, she’d received nothing but warm greetings, Annette’s presence notwithstanding. Duke Seyfert had likely already heard about me and Lily from my father, and he seemed quite amused as he told me this. Just how should I respond?
“I do hope I am invited to your wedding,” he said.
“It’s too early for that, Your Excellency. And I do feel your station is a tad too rarefied for such a thing.”
“The groom is a minister’s son, no? If the king trusts such a minister, it would not be amiss for members of the royal family to attend, even if the king himself is absent. It’s simply politics.”
There was no arguing against that, but I did hope he’d at least wait for me to graduate.
“I am sure there will be a grand priest from the church attending as well,” he said.
“I suppose there probably will be,” I mused.
Not out of consideration for me or Lily, but Mazel. This whole event was bound to sour Mazel’s opinion of the church, and if they wanted to remedy that, they’d have to prove just how highly they regarded him and his family. While the High Priest himself could get out of attending, the grand priests likely couldn’t. I even felt like Grand Priest Reppe would happily nominate himself for the task.
In that sense, my marriage would be political, even if my intended didn’t have a rank herself. How obnoxious.
The duke and I were offered refreshments as we talked, but we both turned the offer down, which was natural considering what we had just witnessed.
“In any case, how was your opponent at the end of the battle?”
“It seemed like he couldn’t feel pain, and that his mind was addled. I’m pretty sure the only thought left in his head was that he had to win.”
“Hmph…” Duke Seyfert pondered my words with a serious expression. Apparently, nothing like this had ever happened before.
“I don’t think he was switched with a Demonic Being.”
“The church confirmed him to be your opponent, after all. This matter’s already caused a stir. We cannot allow such a blunder to happen again.”
“You’re right. Then it must have been some sort of concoction, right?”
“I believe that is the natural conclusion, yet if so, I cannot tell what our opponents are after. If their goal was to kill you, it was a sophomoric attempt. On the other hand, it’s too trivial to cause any real outrage.”
I was at a loss for words. If killing me had been their goal, they had plenty of other options to choose from, and if a potion was really what changed Brendt Gahmlich, then it would only tarnish the reputation of the church should it come to light. In fact, it seemed even more likely that this had been a ploy by the kingdom to deliberately besmirch the church’s honor.
“But anyway, what happened to my opponent?”
“He is receiving treatment at the church.”
Naturally, considering I had stabbed my spear into his shoulder as hard as I could. Count Gahmlich was apparently on his way home to his manor, but I was sure more would come to light in the coming days.
“I wonder what would have happened to Mazel’s journey had I lost.”
“We planned to settle things diplomatically should that have happened. We had diplomats ready to depart for Deritzdam at a moment’s notice, as did our neighboring states.”
“Do you think a Demonic Being could be at the center of this matter too?”
“We considered the possibility, and discussed how to make it public, were that the case. Beyond that, however, we could not figure out what the next moves would be. Had we defeated the one we discovered, there was always the chance we would miss another still in hiding.”
Thwarting such a plot once would be enough in the world of video games, but things didn’t work out so nicely in real life. There was a chance our enemies would try the same tactic again, and while the Kingdom of Wein remained vigilant, it would be impossible to monitor all its neighboring lands as well.
Still, even if there was a Demonic Being hiding inside Deritzdam’s government, Mazel would be able to take it on no problem, now that he had defeated one of the Four Fiends. It would barely be a setback for him. I had no intention of losing this duel, but apparently Mazel’s journey wouldn’t have been greatly affected, regardless of the outcome. But that only made me more confused.
“It was bound to be a diplomatic matter regardless.”
“Right…” Duke Seyfert smiled, but cold sweat still dripped down my back. Would they use this trial as a warning, or to gain diplomatic leverage over our neighbors? That was up for the highest ranks in the nation to decide, but that power still left me terrified.
“You have my apologies for once again using you to our advantage.”
“What do you mean?”
“We set a trap for the refugee nobles from Triot.”
At my request, he explained. Apparently, nobles from the now-destroyed Triot had fled to not only Wein, but Deritzdam as well. That made sense. While Triot and Wein were on amicable terms, there was no reason they would have sought refuge only in Wein. Basically, there was a faction who was pleading with Wein to retake their former territory, and a faction trying to borrow Deritzdam’s military might to recover lost land. Once a rumor that Deritzdam was about to send troops began to spread through the refugee nobles in Wein, some of them had moved to Deritzdam.
“While it is understandable that they wish to retake their land, we have no use for the loyalty of beggars who’d throw themselves at the feet of anyone who tosses them the first scrap. Thus, we had them leave.”
“Naturally.”
Once rumor of this duel had begun to spread, some of the Triot nobles who’d left wanted to return to Wein. Obviously, the kingdom refused them reentry. While we would one day have to see Triot back on its feet, that didn’t mean we had to offer succor to such a fickle group. It really was true that sending them off to Deritzdam would make things easier for us down the road.
“Some have requested an audience with Laura and the Hero, but the Hero has naturally refused such requests.”
“I see…”
Surprisingly, Mazel may have offered his aid in retaking the land from the Demon army if someone begged him all teary-eyed. Even if the crown commanded him to turn a deaf ear to such pleas, the way he was, he’d at least hear them out. It was quite likely that Mazel would have wanted to help them, but after hearing about this trial, that goodwill had likely evaporated.
Rather, these frequent requests for an audience had probably convinced him to leave Deritzdam as soon as he finished his business there. Thus, Mazel would continue his journey to defeat the Demon Lord without any hiccups, and Wein could rest easy, knowing they’d steered Mazel down a different path.
Incidentally, Wein’s neighbor to the west, other than Triot, was known as Salzanach, but the town of Subrtiz, which was located in Salzanach near Triot, had been the first town to fall to the Demon army. They weren’t really in a position to offer a helping hand.
“We can leave diplomatic matters to His Majesty and those tasked in foreign affairs. Or perhaps you have an interest in this as well?”
“While I am interested, I don’t want to be directly involved. Everyone has different fortes, and I can’t say diplomacy is one of mine.”
“Indeed,” responded Duke Seyfert with a nod. I was actually relieved to see this reaction. It was true foreign affairs wasn’t one of my strengths, but more than anything, I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with any more than I was already handling.
Since I had the chance, I decided to bring up another matter. “I’d like to change the subject. I have a hypothesis.”
“I see. About what, exactly?”
“About how flying Demonic Beings attack. While they are intelligent and can use magic, they have never taken advantage of their altitude to get their magic over our defenses.”
I had first found this strange when we captured Rafed. Why had close-range weapons like swords and spears been able to attack flying monsters in the game? It would be one thing if they only knew how to fight in close quarters, but given that they were intelligent and could use offensive magic, they could just pelt magic at their foes from high above.
This was the answer I’d arrived at. “I believe there is a difference between the magic contained within humans and that which flows throughout the world.”
“You are discussing your experiment with ranged magic. I read your report.”
“I believe monsters are capable of the same, and that they require magic to fly.”
It was a sound argument. The converse of this conclusion was that monsters with wings too small to support them in the air had to be using magic to fly—rather, it would be strange if they weren’t using magic to do so. Thus, when flying monsters wanted to use offensive magic, they had to sacrifice their ability to maintain height in order to increase their magic’s potency. They may not completely lose the ability to fly, but the more magic they funneled into attacking, the less magic they could channel into flight, forcing them to fight within reach of melee.
“Though that’s still just a theory.”
I couldn’t use magic in the first place. With enough study and practice, I was sure I could learn how, and a part of me felt I’d already put off learning it for far too long. Either way, I was incapable of recreating any experiments myself, and thus, I wanted the duke’s permission to borrow his knight brigade and magic squad to do that research.
“Finding an answer to such a question is no simple task.”
“But if I’m right, we’ll be able to distinguish between monsters who can fly over castle walls and attack us, and those who try to break through the castle walls from the ground.”
“It would benefit us to know how best to respond to each one.”
We would be able to focus on close-range combat with flying monsters, and if a high-flying monster suddenly descended to the ground, we’d know they were preparing for a dramatic ranged attack. We wouldn’t have to always worry about that possibility, which would be huge.
If we could maintain our protective barrier, we’d be able to limit our enemies’ attacks even further. I had no idea what method the Demon army had used to break through that barrier in the game, and that limited us. Still, with the right preparations, we could improve our chances.
I explained my strategy to defend the capital based on the presumption that my hypothesis was right. The duke listened with a raised eyebrow, and after a moment of pondering, he finally nodded in approval. “Indeed. I shall look into the matter.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency.”
If I was wrong, I’d just need to think up a new strategy, but I didn’t want to go into this fight just assuming I was correct. Relying on someone capable was my best course of action.
Before long, the documents were at last drawn up. I bade the duke farewell, read over the papers, and signed as a witness. I couldn’t help but think about how long this day had been.
Once all proceedings were concluded, more than half a day had passed since the duel, and naturally, my mother had already heard all about it. As a result, I returned home to a lecture about how I was too much of a problem child to be the Minister of Ceremonies’s son, and I had no room for rebuttal when she told me, “Your actions will have people calling not just the Zehrfelds, but the whole bureaucrat faction uncouth.” I suppose I was now viewed as one of the faction’s members, however much I’d tried to ignore that.
After a terribly long and tortuous scolding, Lily poured me a perfect cup of tea.
Chapter 3: The Underground Library
Chapter 3:
The Underground Library
~Politics and Past~
THE FOLLOWING DAY, I received news that completely upended my plans. During breakfast with my family, Norbert approached my father, stoic as usual, and handed him a letter that had been delivered early that morning. My mother and I waited in silence for my father to finish reading the letter, watching his scowl deepen the more he read.
As of now, Lily was still treated as a maid. The time their employers spent eating their meals was when parlor maids trained, so while Lily was present in the room, she wasn’t dining with us.
In any case, a butler would never bring a regular letter to his master while he dined, meaning this either had to be news of a huge incident or a letter sent from someone who ranked quite highly. Either case would require a prompt response.
But for some reason, there was something strange about the air around my father. He wasn’t mad, but frazzled wasn’t quite the right word either. If I had to put a name to the emotion he seemed to now be experiencing, it would have to be defeated.
“Lily.”
“Yes?”
My father called Lily over. At first, I thought he was requesting a refill of his tea, but I was wrong. Once Lily approached, he looked straight at her and began to speak. “You have received an invitation from the house of Marquess Schramm. They would like you to attend an afternoon tea party.”
Lily was silent—or really, frozen. It made sense. The contents of the letter were so out of left field it was hard to know what to make of it.
“The letter comes from the marquess’s daughter, Lady Rosemary Elle Schramm. According to the letter, she hopes it to be a light, casual affair.”
This was unusual in several regards, but apparently this wouldn’t be some stiff, formal tea party. Regardless of whether Lady Rosemary was personally extending the invitation, or if her father had simply sent it in her name, it seemed their purpose was simply to get acquainted with Lily. I didn’t sense any ulterior motives.
Unlike in my previous world, it wasn’t odd for a noble lady to invite commoners to social events. Both classes attended the academy, meaning nobles often invited commoners to their tea parties. Though given that Lady Rosemary had never been a student, it was still odd that she would invite a commoner.
While afternoon snacks were customary in this world, elevenses were not. Tea parties, therefore, were almost uniformly afternoon affairs.
In my previous life, I heard that the British custom of afternoon tea began in the 1840s, making it quite a novel phenomenon. To put that in terms of Japanese history, the final shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Yoshinobu, would have already been born. It was more of a modern custom if anything.
In this world, the presence of such a modern custom was likely explained by the fact that women had progressed further in society than they had during the Middle Ages of my old world. While society was further along, we were stuck with the limited information networks of the Middle Ages, meaning young ladies had developed the practice of tea parties as a way to exchange information and mingle.
Still, the tea parties here could be quite complicated. Of course, some were meant for relaxation with one’s family, but the sort Lily had been invited to—tea parties held by noble ladies for other nobles—could be quite a headache.
“Um, even if this is a casual tea party,” I said, “I don’t think…”
“Duke Seyfert has already granted his permission,” my father interjected.
So they had already prepared everything. I suppose I couldn’t expect anything less of a noble.
“You know the process, yes? You’ll simply have to play a different role,” said my mother. Lily had attended tea parties before as a parlor maid and had thus observed the proper etiquette herself.
For example, there was a proper order in which to consume the snacks on tea stands of two or three tiers, and rules about which plates and utensils were used for what. She had likely learned those rules just by observation, even if she never had the chance to take part herself. In fact, there was even a chance she had been made to observe such a tea party as part of her training.
Just when had my parents started preparing her for this?
***
Explaining the rules of a tea party was best done with an example. Let’s say that my family had decided to host one. I didn’t have any sisters, but if I did, then she, as the daughter of the count, would be the hostess, in charge of greeting and interacting with the guests. Meanwhile, another member of the household, who was particularly good at brewing tea, would prepare the drinks.
If my family were to hold such an event, the hypothetical count’s daughter would greet guests, lead them to their seats, and entertain them via conversation. Meanwhile, Tillura could be the one to make the tea, as she was the one most skilled at our manor.
That said, guests of lower rank might have someone else brew their tea—someone second in skill to Tillura, or even further down the line, like Lily. The quality of the leaves used for their tea—in terms of both flavor and aroma—would be yet another indicator of rank. An esteemed guest would receive different treatment from an otherwise unremarkable friend from the academy.
Sometimes, the hostess herself would prepare tea for a family member or particularly close friends. This was also seen as a way to practice the skills a noblewoman would need in her future. Basically, this would happen for guests who could laugh off any mistakes she might make.
Besides that, the hostess would sometimes make the tea for her fiancé, but that depended on whether the family had invited him or whether the lady herself had. It was a sign of affection for the hostess to prepare the tea herself, and noble ladies who couldn’t make a cup of tea were ridiculed—or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say they were treated like children. If I was remembering correctly, the girls at the academy had to take an entire class on tea parties.
On the other hand, the lady of the house would host and entertain guests during a tea party held among the wives of the nobility, and thus, all knew how to prepare tea regardless of their husband’s rank. It was an essential skill, right alongside dancing and table manners.
Well, in reality, the hostess would usually prepare your first cup of tea, while the most skilled servant of the house would prepare the succeeding cups, as it was proper that a lady entertain her guests herself.
When such tea parties had a multitude of guests, whether the noblewoman would pour your tea or not was dependent on your rank. Even if you were allowed to attend, you might be sat far away from the hostess and have even your first cup of tea prepared by the servants.
Sometimes, the hostess would choose premium tea leaves that paired terribly with her chosen teacakes in an act of sophisticated irony. In any case, it was a world I had almost nothing to do with.
In period dramas from my old world, noblewomen would stash their most expensive tea leaves in their jewelry boxes, keeping the keys on their person, lest their servants gain access. Basically, it was a symbol of a lady’s dedication to entertaining her guests.
Incidentally, only the legal wife of a nobleman was allowed the honorable task of preparing tea for her guests. This was a firm line in the sand, and the sight of some other consort preparing tea for guests was cause for scandal, even if guests maintained their composure in the moment. It was equivalent to a declaration that the nobleman’s affections had shifted, and a cause for an inevitable uproar in the family.
This world had some similar practices, and the first thing a newly married noblewoman would buy was a tea chest with a lock. All gifts given to her leading up to the wedding were chosen and purchased by her husband, but the tea chest alone was chosen by the bride and purchased by the groom. The practice was so codified it had practically reached ceremonial status.
Lady knights weren’t expected to know how to prepare tea, but while such ignorance wasn’t disgraceful, it often proved a problem if they married into nobility. Many lady knights thus practiced in secret. Similarly, noblewomen didn’t need to know how to cook, but they had to be knowledgeable about food and cuisine. I’d spare the details, but basically, noblewomen needed knowledge of topics that could be used to entertain guests, or in other cases, entertain a host. It was akin to discussing vintage wines.
To digress even further, men didn’t need to prepare tea when they invited women to their tea parties, as noblemen were subject to different expectations from noblewomen. In general, they just needed to be brave and strong, though dressing well was expected of both sexes.
Moreover, nobles were expected to have impeccable manners and be conversant in philosophy and the arts. Politics was rarely discussed in plain speech at social gatherings and required the ability to weave meaning in and out of allusions and insinuations. Besides, reciting a poem or two was an essential part of courting a woman.
Basically, noblemen needed the administrative expertise to rule their domains, the wisdom needed to express themselves artfully, manners to address the royal family properly, and a personal understanding of martial arts, at the very least. It was also ideal to have a hobby, such as music. Putting it all like that, seriously trying to be a good noble sounds like a tall task.
***
Still, as a marquess house, I guess the Schramms didn’t hesitate to invite a commoner like Lily. In fact, I was sure they’d be willing to invite a viscount like me to visit with less than a day’s notice. I suppose that was just the authority you got with a rank as high as a marquess.
On the other hand, the fact they had sent the letter to my father rather than Lily herself was meant to demonstrate that they had no ulterior motives. The invitation marked Lily as a guest under their protection, and any harm that befell her under their roof would be theirs to answer for. Basically…
“What do you make of this, Werner?”
“Does this relate to Marquess Schramm’s faction?”
“Indeed.”
Apparently, I was right. I decided to explain things to Lily, who clearly couldn’t follow the conversation. “This nation is largely divided into two factions: one consisting of military houses, and one consisting of civil officials. But there’s also a neutral faction, which Marquess Schramm is a part of, that doesn’t align with either faction. You already know all this, right?”
“Yes.”
“The neutral faction has only a few members, so they often try to get along equally with the influential members of both the martial and bureaucratic factions. Now, Lady Rosemary’s mother is from a martial house.”
“So, they’re trying to strengthen ties with bureaucratic houses since they don’t have any familial ties to them.”
Ding, ding! Lily was spot-on. She was sharp; she just didn’t have the knowledge and experience to work with.
Putting my appraisal of her aside, the Zehrfelds belonged to the bureaucratic faction, and now that my father was both a minister and held the illustrious title of count, it was safe to consider us in the upper echelons even if we weren’t the most powerful count house out there.
Still, a young noble lady inviting an unattached bachelor such as myself would encourage unseemly rumors, and it would be difficult to invite my mother without a proper reason as well, as it was impossible to avoid being automatically considered for your faction.
Thus, they planned to get their foot in our door by inviting one of our guests to a tea party, rather than one of the Zehrfelds themselves. My mother would likely invite Lady Rosemary or her mother to a gathering at a later date as thanks for entertaining our guest.
While I couldn’t help at marvel at how obnoxious and convoluted dealings between nobles could be, there was something else I had to bring up, even if it was hard to say. “There’s also their relationship with Mazel to consider, as Lady Rosemary is betrothed to His Highness the Crown Prince’s son.”
“So they want to get close with me as a stand-in for my brother, who’s away from the capital.”
“Exactly.”
That foot in our door would also open a pathway for Prince Ruven to form a relationship with Mazel, when the latter inevitably returned to the capital. Doubtless, this too was part of the Schramms’ designs. Still, I knew that Lily couldn’t be too happy about being treated like a stand-in for Mazel again, but now that Wein had publicly announced its support for Mazel, it was impossible to avoid these situations.
As I thought all that over, Lily nodded. “I see. I accept the invitation.”
“You are fine with this, yes?” asked my father.
“I am. I knew I had to join this world eventually,” she answered despite her nerves. She seemed to understand that refusing would reflect negatively on our family considering that the duke had already granted his permission, but she had yet to develop a poker face that could conceal the fact that played a role in her thinking. “And I think a relationship with the Schramms could eventually benefit Lord Werner as well.”
“Indeed.” My father somehow avoided choking. Thank god he didn’t have any food in his mouth.
Honestly, I wanted to tell her not to worry about that sort of thing, but I couldn’t, given my current standing. Though really, this wasn’t something for her to think about. I see that both siblings are good right down to their cores.
“Claudia, do choose a dress for her.”
“Of course.”
Despite the casualness of this tea party, Lily still needed proper attire, and I didn’t think my mother’s dresses would really fit Lily—size-wise, of course. This world had shops that rented clothes to nobles, and I assumed we would call on one for this occasion.
“You are excused from your duties today, Lily.”
“Thank you.”
We had been so swamped by the duel for the past few days that we had made no progress on our research, but there were still plenty of public duties I had to attend to, as I ostensibly had built up a massive backlog that needed clearing. I’d have to spend the day dealing with that. Lily looked at me with pity, which I think I quite deserved, since I’d be doing paperwork all day.
“I’ll report to the palace to work in the afternoon and ask for the proper permissions.”
While Lily was the one who had been invited, she’d need an escort to take her to the marquess’s residence. My father returned a vague nod, but as it seemed I had made the right call, I didn’t let it bother me.
***
“Lord Werner?” Lily called to me, as I sat at the desk in my study. “I know you must be tired, but could I have a moment?”
“Sure. What is it?”
It was after supper the following day that Lily approached me, looking incredibly apologetic. I had been looking over documents related to the governance of our domain, having spent the earlier part of the day at the castle submitting documents for the administration on Anheim. I had arranged repairs for the city walls that had been heavily damaged and submitted the last remaining documents I had to complete as Anheim’s deputy. I also revamped the procedure manuals for highway maintenance and patrols around the aqueducts near the capital. My to-do list was long, but I was only as tired as a walk around the castle could make me. While I was busy, I wasn’t exhausted.
On the other hand, Lily had been preparing to answer the invitation from the marquess by getting her rented dress fitted and altered, while reviewing her manners in between. The way I saw it, Lily had to be more tired than I was. My mother was strict but thorough, so I was confident she would receive proper training. Still, I knew it would probably wear on her soul.
“Um, there’s something I’d like to discuss.”
“Shall we move over there?” I asked, indicating the table and chairs I had for meetings with visitors.
“No, here is fine.”
I knew Lily would try to be polite, so I ignored her words and moved there myself. She followed me with a troubled expression, and I pointed at the seat across from mine. “Here, sit.”
“U-Um…”
“Right now, we’re not a noble talking to his maid, but Werner talking to Lily, and I won’t be the only one sitting down while we talk.” There was something ironic about saying this to someone dressed in a maid outfit, but maybe my memories of my past life were influencing me.
“Right, thank you.” With a hint of a smile, Lily took her seat. Then, I followed suit, sitting in the seat across from her, the table separating us. She must have decided to stay in her uniform since it was easier to move in. Noble fashion wasn’t particularly known for ease of movement, and considering Lily’s industriousness, a maid uniform probably suited her better. It looked quite good on her too, but I digress.
“Did something happen?”
“Yes. I had a chance to talk to Annette today.”
Lily initially had no plans of leaving the manor for the day, but Annette must have accompanied her as a guard. She was as hardworking as Lily. While I was thankful, I also felt like she could be inflexible. Maybe she was too hardworking.
“I heard that there’s been some problem with one of Annette’s friends, and um… Annette was disappointed that all she could do was offer her advice.”
Huh. Was Annette’s friend confiding in her, or venting to her? Apparently, Annette must have been wondering the same thing. Still, I had no idea what sorts of troubles lady knights might have, so I didn’t know how to respond either.
“Huh. It’ll depend on the problem, but maybe I can offer some advice.”
“I hear her friend is a noble, and she’s recently received a marriage proposal.”
“…This is an entirely different hassle than I was expecting.” Having been caught off guard, I accidentally blurted out my candid thoughts on the matter. Lily seemed quite chastised, so I had to follow that up quickly. “Well, tell me more anyways.”
“Right. Apparently, her friend is the daughter of Count Fürst.”
My eyes shot open. The only daughter of Count Fürst’s eligible for such a proposal was Lady Hermine. It was an unexpected connection—at the very least, one I hadn’t been expecting.
While I didn’t burst into laughter, I couldn’t completely conceal my surprise. Lily watched me curiously. “Do you know her?”
“Yeah, her domain is close to ours.”
I didn’t know her well, but we met frequently. Of the unspoken-for noblewomen I knew, she was probably the one I saw the most, other than my friends from the academy. Just like when her brother Tyrone was asked to be a messenger, it was clear she wasn’t too gung-ho about this either. But thinking back on it now, Lady Hermine had perhaps started to surpass the ideal age of marriage in this world. It wouldn’t be strange for someone to propose to her.
“Apparently the man who offered his hand in marriage is from House Cortolezis.”
It was such a ridiculous revelation that my brain stopped for a moment. So that’s why Lily brought this matter to me. Still, I wasn’t too familiar with the relationship between House Cortolezis and House Fürst, and when you didn’t know something, it was best to ask someone else. Since House Zehrfeld was the family of the Minister of Ceremonies, who had a hand in all rites and ceremonies between nobles, I’d likely be able to get my hands on some reliable intel, not just baseless rumors.
“Thanks for letting me know. If you have the time, could you try asking Annette for more details?”
“Sure.”
“I also want you to see if my father has some time. Ideally, now.”
“Right. Please wait just a moment.”
Lily stood up and offered me a maidly bow, but I didn’t have the time to marvel at how far she had progressed. First, I needed to check over the information I already had.
***
“Thank you for making time for me.”
“Of course.”
My father had agreed to see me immediately, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being strung around. Like he’d been expecting me to come here to discuss this and had just been biding his time. Though if you asked me why I suspected this, I couldn’t give a reason. Perhaps he was testing me as the next head of House Zehrfeld, seeing how I’d react to such information.
“I heard that two members of House Cortolezis and House Fürst are considering marriage. What does the crown think of this?”
“They are not pleased.”
In other words, what Lily told me was true, and while the crown didn’t view this favorably, they had no intentions of stepping in to stop it yet either.
Relationships between nobles and the crown affected marriages between noble houses, and vice versa. When nobles didn’t trust the crown or the kingdom at large, they prioritized their own political power, but since the Kingdom of Wein’s rulership wasn’t entirely centralized, both the throne and noble factions had impressive power.
In that sense, I needed to reexamine my opinion of His Majesty. In the game world, he was just a character who left it entirely up to the Hero to vanquish the Demon Lord, and from my perspective now, he was so high up in the clouds that I didn’t really understand what he was trying to accomplish. But objectively, the top levels of Wein were packed with talented men, meaning the king had the eyes to recognize skill and grant those men titles, as well as the influence to keep them working toward a common purpose.
The royal family had its hand in all matters throughout Wein, and yet, House Cortolezis and House Fürst had decided to proceed with a marriage between their two families anyway. They must have some grounds that would force the throne to recognize them, but what could those be? I didn’t know, but I got the feeling that if I put the question directly to my father, he’d instruct me to puzzle it out myself, anyway. For now, I needed to begin by cross-checking my intel and gathering new information.
“I don’t know a lot about House Fürst, but what reason would House Cortolezis have to form a relationship with them?”
“First, you know the meaning of the word Fürst, yes?”
“‘Marquess, right?”
Yes, while House Fürst had the rank of count, their last name meant marquess. I had always thought their last name was a strange one, but I couldn’t say it kept me up at night or anything. Or maybe it was more correct to say I just wasn’t interested in knowing more.
“The ancestors of House Fürst can be traced back to three sons of a viscount.”
“Huh.”
“When the first king demanded that troops be sent to battle, their family chose neutrality. However, the three sons went before the king with their vassals and pledged their loyalty to him. They cast aside their old name, vowing that ‘their military feats would be so great, they would one day earn them the title of count or marquess.’ In response, the king laughed and said, ‘In that case, you may call yourselves Fürst until that day comes.’”
Wow, how kind of him. Or maybe just frivolous. For a second, I was quite shocked. But in my old world, there were plenty of similar examples, like how “Ferrari” just meant “blacksmith” in Italian, or how the French bread “batard” also meant “bastard.” Similar examples could be found in Japan, like how a man named “Hashiba” had just taken a kanji character out of the names of the two statesmen Niwa and Shibata. In that sense, “Fürst” just seemed to be a name rooted in troubled times.
The story gave me the impression that the first king might have been a bit rash, but I figured it didn’t really bear thinking about. I didn’t want to be insolent, after all.
“So,” I said, “the three sons were no longer heirs of the viscount, and they really were able to climb the ranks to gain the title of count thanks to their military exploits.”
“Indeed. That story has been a source of pride for them as a martial house from then until now.”
So, they’ve prided themselves on their military pedigree for generations. Now, I could understand where they were coming from.
“On the other hand, House Cortolezis was a count family hailing from a collapsed nation. They betrayed their old country to instead serve Wein.”
To put that in terms I could understand, they were basically Tozama Daimyos—powerful families who failed to announce their support for Tokugawa Ieyasu before the Battle of Sekigahara.
“I see that the reason House Cortolezis had been situated near the border is complicated.”
I could think of two possibilities: Either they had been placed there to prove their loyalty by defending the border, or they had received a domain far from the capital out of fear that they would one day betray Wein. During the Edo period, new retainers were given domains far removed from Edo, while older retainers were placed in the Kanto region. From a geographical standpoint, the domains of trustworthy vassals had been placed as a barrier between the capital and its less trustworthy retainers.
Now that I had thought that far ahead, I knew why House Cortolezis had set their sights on House Fürst.
“Is the Fürst domain located somewhere that could get in House Cortolezis’s way?”
“While it does not directly connect their domain to the capital, is positioned somewhere they cannot ignore. I suppose that would be the most accurate way to put it.”
Given my father’s phrasing, it seemed like House Cortolezis was not the only house currently under surveillance—perhaps eyes were also on another house, whose domain was in the same vicinity: the Zehrfelds. House Fürst’s crest was an animal, marking it as a family that had served the king since the beginning. House Zehrfeld’s crest, meanwhile, was an object, marking it as one of the families that had joined Wein during the second wave. Basically, House Fürst had been positioned as a breakwater to defend the capital from multiple noble families with foreign origins.
“The king must have truly trusted the first Count Fürst. I’m surprised you were able to arrange a marriage between my brother and one of their daughters, given their position.”
“House Fürst has suffered their own sets of problems.”
“Economically, I presume?”
Despite this question, my thoughts led elsewhere. Almost two hundred years had passed since the reign of the first king. Just as towns grew and fell to ruin, and highways ran new courses, time changed all things. Those who developed their fiefdoms would find their arteries pulsing with trade, while those who governed poorly could draw only beggars to their domains.
As ironic as it may sound, the Fürst domain’s trade routes, vital in the early days of the kingdom, may have withered away because of developments in the newer, neighboring territory of the Zehrfelds. Likely, the crown wanted the Fürsts to revitalize via the help of their neighbors, rather than join the ranks of more ambitious nobles.
“Yes, but that isn’t all. I’m sure you have heard about Count Fürst’s wife?”
“No, my apologies for falling behind on news.” I really had never heard about his wife, though that was because I didn’t really have the time to be worrying about the inner workings of other noble houses.
“Roughly twenty years ago, rumors of witchcraft began to spread throughout a portion of the court.”
“Witchcraft?”
The term “witchcraft” meant something slightly different here than it had in my old world. It was hard to explain, but during my previous life, it was something akin to shady cult practices, referring to crimes and scams carried out by clandestine organizations and individuals claiming that they could use magic.
While there was magic in this world, the dead couldn’t be brought back to life, and the wish to once more see or hear loved ones who had passed was as strong as anywhere else. While there weren’t a lot of people who could receive oracles, the fact that they existed was common knowledge.
Thus, there were those who claimed to be witches or warlocks who sold promises to converse with the dead. They were swindlers, plain and simple, and given the muscle-headed nature of this world, there were plenty who thought it was fine to leave them alone, putting the blame squarely on anyone gullible enough to believe. However, there was a witch roughly eighty years ago who claimed she knew how to extend one’s life by sacrificing a child, which had given rise to a crime syndicate that carried out a slew of kidnappings.
In any case, I didn’t know of any recent incidents that could be traced back to witches, and I couldn’t recall ever hearing about witchcraft in the game. But maybe they had just dried up by the time Mazel began his quest.
For some reason, there were overly religious—or really, just superstitious—types in my previous life as well. It didn’t matter how smart the person was, and I often saw intelligent people falling for fortune-telling and divination, and wondered how they could be deceived by such tricks. There were emperors who nominated their cabinet ministers based on a prophecy, or even rulers who moved their capitals based on premonitions. Even in the twenty-first century, there was no end to scammers who defrauded and victims who fell for their tricks.
“It’s not real, is it?”
“Of course not. All self-proclaimed witches have been executed.”
However, such a warlock—or really, scammer—had influenced others, and apparently, the wife of Count Fürst was one of them.
“It began with a series of expensive gifts to this witch, including family treasures. The Lady Fürst was quite involved, and it took their family tremendous effort to undo the damage to their reputation.”
Some of those family treasures could have even been gifts from the king, and in that case, it would have been such an affront as to ruin the whole family.
For those in the bureaucratic faction who were often viewed as inferior to those of the martial faction, the decline of a rival noble’s reputation must have made for the perfect pairing for some choice spirits. At the same time, it could have easily led to struggles for rank within the martial faction. Being a noble was terrifying.
Basically, House Fürst had been duped by a scammer, damaging their reputation and their coffers, after which forming closer bonds with the Zehrfelds would have appeared advantageous. Their daughter’s betrothal to my brother was the condition for our financial aid.
While my father was a member of the bureaucrat faction, he was nevertheless a minister, so House Fürst had managed to jerk its reputation back from the depths of the scandal. Throughout this, the throne never decided to put an end to the Fürst family out of consideration for their ancestors’ loyalty.
At the same time, I felt like I now had the answers to questions that had long been simmering in my mind. I knew that Lady Hermine’s wet nurse was lowborn, and that was probably because the family’s reputation had been in the toilet. Given what her mother had done, she had probably been ousted by her family, making it hard for the Fürsts to request a wet nurse from her mother’s family, or maybe resulting in no one volunteering for the position. The Fürsts’ eldest son was one thing, but signing up to be the wet nurse of his second-born daughter was bound to hurt your reputation more than help it.
I also now understood why House Fürst had concentrated so much effort into guarding House Teutenberg, as they must have been trying to repay their debts to the family who stepped in to help them once marriage with the Zehrfelds had fallen through. Still, I wondered if the elder Fürst daughters understood that.
“I believe I’ve gotten a good grasp of the situation, so thank you. Now, what about Lady Hermine of House Fürst’s betrothal to House Cortolezis?”
“For now, we watch silently.” My father was expressionless, but looking at his face, I knew that something must be going on behind the scenes. A marriage between two noble families was an auspicious occasion…or not, but to the Minister of Ceremonies, at least, it was to a certain extent. He had to be well-informed, and there had to be a reason he was currently biding his time.
So now I understood the situation, but what would be my next course of action? Honestly, I had no particular ill will for Lady Hermine, and considering that the Fürst family hadn’t been the ones to make the proposal, it wasn’t my place to interfere if this marriage was something she had agreed to.
However, if she had confided in Annette, that probably meant she was against the marriage. If that was the case, then I had some ideas. Likely, becoming a close associate of House Cortolezis—a noble family the crown currently had its eyes on—could only bring her misfortune, and it was hard to simply gloss over that.
Plus, Lady Hermine seemed like the type who tended to draw the short stick in life. For a moment, I wondered if I just had some extra sympathy for her as someone with a similar fate, but then I thought better of it. Thinking like that was probably rude.
Still, it didn’t seem right for me to be the one to take action, so I decided to thrust all that responsibility on someone else. I couldn’t be blamed for asking for help sometimes.
“I’d like to discuss something with you, as well as cross-check some intel, Father.”
“What is it?” I didn’t know what he was expecting, but his expression didn’t look too pleasant.
In any case, I explained the situation, which earned a sigh.
“Fine,” my father said. “I shall ask myself. It can wait a few days, yes?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Afterwords, I decided to talk to Lily and have Annette carry a message to Lady Hermine.
***
“Indeed. So, that is why you have come to me.”
“I-I am so sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused you…” Hermine bowed to Duke Ian Keith Seyfert, unable to conceal how nervous and sheepish she felt.
Honestly, hearing from Annette that Werner had sent a letter of introduction to Duke Seyfert had left her completely flabbergasted. She was merely the daughter of a count, but now that the groundwork had been laid, she was in no position to refuse.
Why is this happening? The question echoed in Mine’s mind as she stepped into the duke’s residence, dressed like a knight protecting Lily in Annette’s stead.
Lily’s first visits to the duke’s residence had been as an artist, but now that the duke’s wife had taken it upon herself to tutor her in the ways of high society, Lily’s occasional visits were now as the duchess’s pupil. While the duchess told others that she was merely killing time in her old age, she had privately told Seyfert that she would have wanted to take Lily into their household had it not been for certain circumstances. She was quite fond of Lily and had even told her husband that she found her to be adorable, the same way a puppy or a baby squirrel was. Still, she had not shared those words with the girl herself.
Once Lily excused herself on account of summons from the duchess, Mine was left to speak to Seyfert alone, though she had no idea how to start the conversation. Seeing how nervous she was, Seyfert grinned. “There’s no need to be so stiff. I believe Lord Werner is being quite circumspect about your current situation.”
“What do you mean, ‘quite circumspect’?”
“He knows well that acting on his own risks worsening the situation, as he does not understand the full picture. That is why he has left it to his betters.” Seyfert took a sip of his tea and remarked that Werner had made the right choice.
Following in his example, Mine brought her cup to her own lips, though its taste didn’t register. The one thing she currently understood was that Werner could see things she couldn’t. Still, this could be explained by the difference in perspective between someone watching from the outside, and someone with skin in the game. One could hardly say Mine was being dense.
“May I ask a question?”
“Of course.”
“How much do you know of my family’s situation?”
Seyfert seemed to ponder her query for a moment. With a stroke of his beard, he began to speak. “Well, I suppose I know more than the average man, but that isn’t the issue here.”
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Nobles survive on advanced payments.”
“Advanced payment? What do you mean?”
“Our ancestors accomplished impressive feats, and the heads of our households who came before us governed their domains admirably. Thus, their progeny are given privileges—such as taxing their people—under the belief that they will better both the nation and its subjects. Our estates are built on the trust that the realm and its people pay us in advance of our undertakings. That is the essence of a noble’s place in society.”
The surprise on Mine’s face suggested she hadn’t considered things from that perspective before.
Seyfert went on, heedless. “Those who recognize that payment for what it is must make ready themselves and their successors for the fulfillment of that debt. A noble should aspire not to the longevity of their line, but to the worthiness of their heirs. The nobles who belittle the value of their people’s and the nation’s trust will meet with the consequences they deserve.”
Mine shuddered. Seyfert’s expression hardly differed from how it usually appeared, but his suggestion that noble houses who had lost trust should naturally fall to ruin was chilling.
“The reason His Highness the Crown Prince and I think so highly of Lord Werner is because we know he will repay the debt of all that has been invested in him through his authority as a noble.”
“Repay his debts?”
“I simply mean that whether one is a military official or a civil official, those who have been raised under the wings of power and influence must fulfill their obligations accordingly.”
Mine took a moment to ponder his words. Eventually, she found what she believed to be an answer. “In that case, please tell me what I must do when it comes to House Cortolezis.”
Of course, Seyfert was asking her to consider what she could do as a member of the noble House Fürst, but she also saw another question in his words: How willing are you to be loyal to the kingdom knowing it has glimpsed your family’s entanglements? Thus, Mine had concluded that at the very least, this was no time to act according to her own judgments.
Seyfert answered Mine’s entreaty with a chuckle. He wasn’t teasing her, nor dismissing her as naive. Elder nobles sought to foster their younger ilk, just like Seyfert tried to guide and raise Werner. The crown and the cabinet ministers believed that letting a situation sour more than was necessary—as long as it didn’t rot altogether—was a necessary part of fostering the next generation.
Secretly, Seyfert was charmed by Mine’s honesty. “Hmm, there are a few things you may wish to consider…”
***
“I give you my thanks,” Hermine said, bowing her head, once she and Lily had returned to the Zehrfeld manor from their visit to Duke Seyfert.
“Th-there’s no need,” Lily said. She was, understandably, quite shaken to receive such courtesies from the daughter of a count, especially one still dressed as her guard. “I’m just glad I could be of help.”
“I got the chance to see you during the trial by duel. You really are quite composed.”
“I’m not always certain of myself, but the Zehrfeld household has treated me well.”
There was no pretense in Lily’s words. The Zehrfelds’ servants treated the lowborn Harting family well. While the circumstances of Arlea Village certainly played a part in this, the Zehrfeld manor was staffed with amicable folks, owing to Ingo’s disgust at the persecution of commoners and Claudia’s firm grip on household affairs.
“Um, thank you, Lady Hermine.”
“I don’t believe I’ve done anything deserving of thanks.”
“I was incredibly glad that a lady knight attended to me today.”
Lily’s current standing was as a mere maid of the Zehrfelds. Without specific orders or certain requests, the knights of another house would never act as her bodyguards. Though, it was thanks to that impossibility that Mine was able to meet with Seyfert without drawing attention.
“This served my ends as well. There’s no need for thanks.” Mine’s tone grew warmer. As a lady knight and daughter of a count, it was incredibly pleasing to have someone interact with her candidly, without flattery or deference.
“Mine.”
“Annette. Thank you for today.”
Just as Mine was about to say more, Lily’s true bodyguard for the day, Annette, made an appearance. Mine turned to face her, and sensing that it was wrong to intrude on a conversation between two lady knights, Lily bowed and took her leave. Mine watched her enter the manor and chuckled.
“She’s a good girl, isn’t she?”
“She is. I got to see for myself what you had been telling me.” Her praise was sincere. While she worried that Lily’s good nature would lead to struggles in high society, she hadn’t left a bad impression on her. She now understood why Annette was so fond of her.
“Did everything go well?”
“Yes, thanks to your and the viscount’s help.” Mine was thoroughly relieved. After explaining her next steps to Annette, she decided to first return to the Fürsts’ manor. Now that she had put together a plan, she needed to carefully prepare the support she’d need for it.
Annette had worried she’d been a bother, but now, she gained a deeper appreciation of Werner and Lily for their earnest help. Werner, on the other hand, decided to abandon the matter now that Seyfert and Hermine had met. There was no more aid he could offer in the matter, yet he never imagined the grand repercussions this meeting would prove to have.
***
“I-I’m pooped.”
“Good work today, Lord Werner…”
A few days had passed since Lady Hermine visited Duke Seyfert at his manor. After returning from my day of work at the castle, I collapsed at the desk in my study. Lily brought me some tea, which I was thankful for. But in my current state, even lifting a teacup needed more effort than I could muster.
We had spent the last few days continuing our investigation of the underground library. It should have been a simple day of looking over documents, but I ended up with a firsthand lesson in the harm that this world’s vertically structured government could cause.
For example, let’s say Count A shipped some packages to the capital through the domain of Count B, and that delivery was a few days behind schedule. In that case, the first problem to solve was figuring out where that delay had occurred. Was Count A late in shipping the packages out? Did something happen between House A and House B, or did something happen along the way from House B to the capital?
Next, there was a need to investigate the reason for that delay. Had there been an issue in checking paperwork? Were the roads compromised in some way? Had bandits or monsters waylaid the packages? Then, you had to consider compensation for the delay and for damage to the goods, if any, and that sometimes required a detailed plan of how to prevent the same issue in the future.
Basically, you had to interrogate the nobles of Houses A and B, the head of highway governance, legal officials, and sometimes even military officers just to investigate a few packages. And the castle is just too damn huge for that!
Running all over the place was tiring, and I needed to submit a report detailing the paths connecting the villages in these domains, and what problems these were facing. Once the man in charge had gone over it, he immediately realized that there was something off about the packages that had gone through the guild office of one particular town. According to him, there was a good chance they were purposefully delaying shipment in order to extort money in exchange for faster services. While such forceful tactics wouldn’t work for manufactured products, they could definitely prove effective for material shipments.
We investigated further and discovered that the delay had occurred right when the guild’s leadership had changed hands. As this had been a makeshift investigation, there was apparently no time to review the chronological order of events, though I definitely understood wanting to limit work inside the castle.
In the end, practically everyone involved in judicial affairs resolved to conduct a compulsory investigation of the guild’s office in the capital, and I decided to join them, which wonderfully forced me to run around the entire city, instead of just the castle, which meant even more work. Yeah, I regretted that decision.
If you ever bore witness to the compulsory investigation of an office in my old world, you’d see people filling vans with cardboard boxes. They’d carry them with a single hand, or stack two on top of each other. Apparently, a lot of those boxes were empty, and they were just trying to make it look like a ton of evidence had been recovered from even the smallest of offices, though I digress.
“My apologies, as I know you must be tired, but…”
“Is there something I’m forgetting?” I was so exhausted that my brain was displaying an error message. I had been sipping absentmindedly on my tea, but as Lily addressed me, I turned to face her. As my brain cells slowly kicked into gear, I realized she had been waiting on me for quite a while. I felt kind of sorry.
“No, but there’s something I’d like to show you.”
“Me? Sure. Could you bring it here?”
I wondered if I’d have to go see it for myself, but apparently, I wouldn’t. Lily asked me to wait for a moment and left the room, returning with a tray. As she handled it without any trouble, whatever was on it must’ve been quite light.
“Here. I was thinking it still needed plenty of work, especially when it comes to thickness.”
She looked quite proud of herself for some reason, and I couldn’t help but think that if this was a manga, sound effects like ba-bam! or ta-da! would be flashing behind her. That’s when I looked at the tray she carried. On top was a bundle of white paper… Wait, paper?
I lifted a piece without thinking. She was right—it was quite thick—but it didn’t feel like the paper I knew well. The surface was rough, almost like wallpaper. Still, this was undeniably paper, something akin to the washi paper some students would make on field trips, though I had never gotten the opportunity to do so myself. While the feel wasn’t quite as nice as the high-grade monster-skin parchment used for invitations in this world, it still served as an admirable prototype.
“Where did you get this?”
“You told me how to make it some time ago, so I decided to take a shot at it. I did the best I could!”
“Did the best I could” shouldn’t have meant an attempt this successful, yet the finished product was sitting right here in front of me. It wasn’t right to deny the hard work of others based on your own subjective views. I didn’t want to be lumped in with the bosses of shady companies from my old world.
I had been quite preoccupied with work lately, which meant Lily had spent most of her days studying back at my family’s manor. That must’ve left her with a lot of free time.
I flipped the page over, running my hand along the surface before turning to look at Lily. “You really made some fine paper.”
“My mother and I made a few attempts. You showed me the motion, so we made a tool to copy it by affixing some thin cloth to a wooden frame.”
I remembered gesturing the motion to her when explaining the process, and copying exactly what I did was probably what resulted in this thickness. I should have explained things more carefully.
“What did you make it out of?”
“Since you said it was made with fibrous plant materials, we mixed käthe wheat, cotton scraps, and some leaftoll fibers together and boiled it. My father found the time to make it for me.”
He must have ground it together with a millstone. Lily’s parents were cooks, so they were used to handling flames. They had the materials needed to boil the mixture, and they probably had a better idea of how to do that than I did.
Like käthe wheat, leaftoll was a type of tree unique to this world—at least, I was pretty sure it was. Nobles rarely utilized the material, but leaftoll cloths were worked into hand towels and were quite popular among the commoner class. It was probably comparable to the linen of my old world. Actually, the two plants were likely quite similar considering hemp cloth had been a thing.
Käthe wheat was paler than the wheat I was familiar with. Homes in farming villages were typically equipped with straw-thatched roofs, just like it was done during the Middle Ages of my old world. Wheat and villages had a close tie, no matter the plant variety.
Even back in the Nara period, people had made warahagami, a type of paper made from wheat. I vaguely remembered explaining to Lily that cotton scraps were often included in the pulp mixture. Still, the paper Lily had made was awfully white.
“I’m shocked you were able to make it so pale.”
“Oh, well…”
Apparently, there was a whitening agent that could be made by combining rinds from certain plants, ashes, nightingale droppings, and some minerals together and heating it, and the pulp had been washed in it. Incidentally, “nightingales” weren’t a monster, but a regular bird that often made their nests near people rather than the wild forest.
I continued to ask about Lily’s production process, but I eventually gave up on understanding since I had never heard the names of any of the materials she had listed before. Even in my past life, I’d never known much about plants.
This world had some of the same flora as my old world, like poppies and wolfsbane, but I had never seen any cherry blossoms. Still, I wouldn’t recognize a poppy even if I saw one, given how little I knew.
I was aware that opium was made from poppies and poison could be extracted from wolfsbane, but that was about it. None of my knowledge could be put to any use. Still, I felt like knowing how to make those things thanks to my previous life would probably lead to trouble, and it wasn’t the type of thing the average noble would know in this world either.
Anyways, I thought the pulp had been dyed white, but I was wrong. The whitening agent used was apparently so strong that it was typically only used to make white cloth.
“This bleaching agent doesn’t sound very useful.”
“You’re right. We’d only use it for the sheets back at the inn. Still, if guests left any stains on the sheets, it’d wash them right out, so we used it quite often.”
I had to hold back a groan. Thinking back on it, bed sheets at the inns in RPGs were always pure white, and it was tradition to stay at them right after you had left a dungeon. Still, who would have thought this world would have some sort of super-strong bleaching agent?
Not to mention, trade tricks wouldn’t easily spread in this world. There was no internet, and anyone who had grown up using it would mistakenly believe it was common knowledge. If it never came up in conversation, it would never spread.
To reassure myself, I reasoned that there was no way a noble would know about laundry detergents. And besides, since this world had plants of its own, it made sense they had developed technologies of its own. I was wrong to think that my knowledge from my previous life trumped all.
As an aside, there were no protocols here when it came to bedding, unlike in my old world. During the Middle Ages, commoners were only allowed to use mattresses made from bundles of straw with a cloth on top—even adding scraps of cloth was prohibited. Bedding divided the classes, but in this world, even commoners could use cloth in their beds, though that was partly so that monster skins that couldn’t be used to make parchment could still be put to good use. Sounds about right for this world.
“I’m surprised you got your hands on this stuff, especially the leaftoll.”
“Norbert was willing to discuss the process with me, and he managed to get some.”
“Norbert, huh?”
“Yes. He gave me all sorts of advice, including about tree fibers. He was also the one who advised me to show a sample product to you before bringing it to Lord Ingo.”
That damn Norbert. He was trying to get me to praise Lily first, then have her go to my father so paper could be produced as a new specialty of our fiefdom. Ugh. Well, I guess my first order of business is…
“You did a great job. This is amazing.”
“Thank you, Lord Werner.”
Her flowery smile was a feast for the eyes, but that wouldn’t make mass-producing paper any easier. We’d need specialist papermakers, but even more importantly, I wasn’t confident that the Zehrfeld domain could come up with a steady supply in its current state.
To sell, we’d need to prepare a market and amass stock. Literacy rates were low, so only the upper classes really bought paper. In my old world, both paper and parchment were pricy commodities, and low literacy rates and the lack of a need for paper led to low demand met by low supply.
I was pretty sure literacy rates were higher in this world, but there was also cheaper monster-skin parchment in addition to sheepskin parchment. While scribes did exist, spreading paper seemed to require advancing literacy rates and creating a new market.
Sometimes, a perfectly serviceable product would fail only because it had been introduced before a market for it had properly developed. While Coco Chanel was an excellent businesswoman, it was questionable whether she’d have become so famous if she hadn’t been born in a time when the common people could use perfume.
“Producing a lot of these seems like it would be difficult. I’m sure you’re quite busy already.”
“You’re…right. I heard that grinding the wheat and cotton was quite difficult as well.”
I had expected that answer. Grinding the materials had been done by waterwheels in my old world. Doing it by hand would be way too inefficient.
No, wait a minute. Sometimes, limited supply was exactly what made something valuable. I took a moment to ponder before speaking once again. “Sorry Lily, but could you bring me some art supplies? And if there are any citrus peels or anything like that left in the kitchens, could you bring me as many varieties as you can find?”
“Huh? S-sure.”
***
“My apologies for visiting when you must be tired.”
“It’s no trouble.”
I requested to meet with my father once he returned home. Since we weren’t meeting in his office today, my mother was present as well, along with Norbert. Considering he was already in on the plot, I didn’t really mind Norbert being there, but I did mind the weird grin on his face. Seriously?
Regardless, Lily and I entered together.
“There is something I’d like to show you.”
“What is it?”
“Here. It’s a product I was hoping we could sell in our domain. Lily made the prototype.”
First, I showed them the normal paper. Mentioning Lily’s name must have worked, as even my mother took it into her hands, not just my father. They both touched and examined it. Then, my father turned to me. “And its intended use?”
“I believe it will serve as record paper roughly ten years from now.”
“So the future. Am I right to assume we lack the means to enact such a reality at present?”
My father was as sharp as always. I had yet to point out any of the problems we faced, but my father had already put his finger on them. Creating a stable supply first required experimenting in its preservation, durability, and safety. As it was now, it would be hard to convince people who used monster-skin parchment—which was cheap but got the job done—to switch to regular paper. It just wouldn’t sell. At least, not right now.
“And what will we use it for until then?”
“Well, this.”
I had predicted this question and had already prepared an answer. I produced the paper with my proposition, and my father finally started to look interested.
“So, you’ve drawn a pattern on it, but to what end?”
“This.”
Earlier, I had Lily draw some rough designs on the sheets, and I first had my father look at a full, flat sheet. Then, I wrapped one of the sheets around a pen I had lying around and had Lily present it to my father.
“I believe we could begin by using it to adorn gifts.”
“I see.”
Basically, I had created wrapping paper, but since this world lacked the concept, they also lacked the word. When sending lavish gifts to another household or an individual, it was custom to wrap it in expensive cloth, place it in a bag, or, in the case of jewels, send them along with an entire box to hold them.
However, that didn’t always work when sending box-shaped gifts, regardless of price. A ribbon was the only decoration that could be added to a bouquet of flowers, for example.
But utilizing wrapping paper would change that. A noble house could have an artist adorn it with images befitting the recipient of the gift, such as that family’s crest, and since it could be wrapped around boxes, it could be turned into a unique decoration that perfectly matched the recipient.
Since this wasn’t the mass-produced wrapping paper of my old world, there was no need to decorate it with any unified designs. If necessary, we could do so by printing, but we’d first have to discover a method of producing bigger sheets before we could get to that.
Most artists of this world served specific households, but there were bound to be skilled illustrators in town as well. If we employed papermakers and talented artists at workshops, we could even make a new industry.
In Japan, yamato-e served as the designs for lacquerware maki-e decorations during the Muromachi period, and I was sure there was room for paintings to serve as the underpinnings for engraved designs in this world as well. I quite liked the idea of turning such items into a specialty of the Zehrfeld domain and possibly founding a technical school to teach the process, but all that would come later.
While I was on the topic, both oil paints and watercolors existed during the Middle Ages of my old world, and the Fabaceae plant that served as a glue in oil paints could be found in my family’s domain. Usually, this was used as an affixing agent in the incense used in ceremonies, but I was sure it could be put to other uses as well. Increasing those sales would bolster the domain’s economy as well.
“After drawing patterns or designs on the sheet, it could be wrapped around jewel boxes sent as gifts. There’s also this to consider.”
I handed him a sample of a greeting card. This had a rudimentary design drawn on it as well, giving it a colorful and flowery feel.
“A short message of thanks or affection could be sent together with the gift. It wouldn’t have to be a full letter, and it would appeal to both men and women. I believe this is about the size that would prove best when we begin production.”
If you wanted to use a smaller piece of both sheepskin parchment and monster-skin parchment, you had to cut it from a larger sample, and figuring out what to do with the leftovers would be a problem.
According to most noble’s sentiments, scraps were worthless, which made creating varying parchment sizes a significant problem in both production and distribution. The fact that this paper could be sold in different sizes would prove a huge benefit.
Apparently, the amount of parchment that could be recovered from one sheep was equivalent to about six sheets of A4 size paper. Given that there was no shortage of monsters, it was easy to see just how much parchment you could easily produce.
“There’s an aroma coming off the card,” interrupted my mother. I decided to answer her first.
“It’s easier to affix scents to this material than it is to add fragrances to monster-skin or sheepskin parchment. Normally, I think it would be best to do this with perfumes, but for today, I simply added a scent using citrus peels.”
“Surely, you must have bought Lily some perfume by now?”
Out of nowhere, a snake had bared its fangs. But my mother was right. If I could take the initiative in business, then I could do the same where Lily was concerned—especially since I had, in fact, given her a gift already, but not perfume. Lily scrambled for some excuse on my behalf, but since this really was a lapse on my part, I felt sorry.
“Can you write on it?” My father offered me a helping hand, likely because he was trying to avoid having to sit through a scolding. Still, the fact he hadn’t added “too” or “also” let me know he had already realized that these cards were the main use I envisioned for this paper, and that I was hoping to spread the idea that paper was something to write on.
If both the sender and receiver of a gift realized that these cards could be used to send messages, word would spread among their households, which would naturally lead people to see that that it was a convenient writing material. A pointless product had no hopes of selling, but if the product had merits, it’d sell well even if you priced it high.
I was also partly trying to protect myself. With my reputation as the Wastrel Viscount, I didn’t want the people of the Zehrfeld domain to worry that their local-lord-to-be had no interest in his own lands.
Still, if domestic affairs in my domain began to threaten the vested interests of other regions, I could find myself facing interference from the most unlikely sources. There was no denying that I was someone who had drawn attention to himself, and doing anything grand within the Zehrfeld domain could potentially lead to even more problems. Thus, I wanted to stop at supporting the economy with a specialty product that wouldn’t create any friction with our neighbors. For now, at least.
“I see what you are after. The rest depends on production output and material costs.”
“Right. That will depend on whether we can obtain personnel for production, and whether we can source the necessary materials domestically or if we will have to import them from other domains.”
“Have you put together a plan?”
“Quite honestly, not yet. Given how much time it will likely take to train the artisans, I wanted to hear your appraisal of the product first and see if it meets your approval.”
If we suddenly decided that there was no market for paper after we had begun to train people to make it, we’d not only lose all that time, but we’d be wasting those workers’ time. The time they spent learning those skills would be a part of their life they could never recover, which meant it was best to never begin at all if there was no hope for fruitful results.
We first needed to make a clear decision about whether we would move forward, so I decided to begin by taking the matter to none other than the lord of the county, my father.
As I thought all this over in my mind, I watched my father examine the paper for a while. Then finally, he nodded. “We’ll need to improve the quality, but I see no problems with the basics. What will you call it?”
“Well, since it’s made of plants, why don’t we call it plant paper?”
Since there were all sorts of parchment types in this world, this paper needed a proper name. But I wondered, would a day come when this product would simply be called “paper”? Considering how cheap monster-skin parchment was, it was hard to say. Even if it one day became the only type of paper in common use, that would surely be a long time from now—perhaps even the time of my great-grandchildren.
“Let’s be on the lookout for an opportunity to show His Majesty.”
“I’d like some time to create a better product before submitting it to the throne’s appraisal.”
“Norbert, I’d like you to gather information on the necessary materials.”
“Yes, my lord,” Norbert answered with a bow. But wait a second, if Lily had already been discussing the matter with him, he had to already have an idea. Somehow, I felt like he was leading us by the nose.
Beside me, Lily looked on with a look of surprise. This turn of events had probably far exceeded what she’d been expecting to happen. Still, presenting a new product to the king was a rule nobles had to follow, and it was also an opportunity to flaunt one’s power.
Basically, they were saying, “I’m governing quite diligently! I even made something as amazing as this! I’m better than all the other nobles!” In this world, nobles had to prove themselves, but do too much and they’d end up scorned by the others. It was hard to tell where to draw the line.
In any case, we’d get no further in talks of developing and selling plant paper anytime soon. While I now had the additional tasks of further perfecting the product and gathering the materials and workers needed to mass produce it, it was probably fine to leave that to someone better versed in such matters. I didn’t have the time to pay attention to every little detail concerning our domain’s yields—nor did I have the headspace for it.
Besides that, I had another vague idea in my head as well. If we were going to present our fiefdom’s technologies to the crown, I wanted to emphasize its uses.
“Thank you for making time for me today.”
“Not at all… I’m surprised you would bring such a subject up yourself.”
I wasn’t expecting this reply. Lily and I locked eyes, but when we turned our gazes back to my father, his was directed at Lily. Oh, so that’s how it is.
“Thanks, Lily.”
“Huh? R-right. You’re welcome,” responded Lily, flustered. It made sense that she couldn’t quite keep up with the conversation. But as long as I could follow, that was fine.
I had always prioritized the siege on the capital to the exclusion of all else. I’d given no thought to what would come after, except for Mazel’s quest to vanquish the Demon Lord. Still, things like domestic strife within Wein and economic troubles in the Zehrfeld domain would come after that. Until now, I had simply decided to put all that off, and I was quite certain Lily’s promise to stay by my side was the reason I had finally begun to take those other concerns seriously. My parents must have thought the same thing. Basically, I was maturing.
A panicked knock came from the doorway just as those thoughts ran through my mind. Once my father gave his permission to enter, a butler serving in place of Frenssen entered the room.
My father took one look at his expression before speaking. “Thank you. You may take your leave, Werner. You as well, Claudia.”
“Right.”
“Excuse us.”
I gave my assent as Lily bowed beside me. She had grown enough to keep calm in these situations. Everyone save Norbert exited the room, but he quickly chased after me and called me back. Something must have happened.
“It’s Werner,” I said.
“Come in.”
I entered the room to find that my father had changed into his work clothes. He didn’t seem distressed, but if he was dressed like that at a time like this, then something concerning had to be afoot.
“I will be taking Max with me to the palace. I am entrusting the manor’s security to you until I return.”
“Understood. May I ask what happened?”
“I just received a messenger from the castle. Count Gahmlich has died due to illness.”
Huh? His emphasis on the word “illness” can only mean one thing…
“I will confirm the details of the situation at the palace. Count Gahmlich’s wife and children are being treated as if infected for the moment. Keep that in mind.”
So, not just the count but his entire family passed away. And considering my father had demanded I take charge of the manor’s defense despite our secure surroundings, the situation had to be awfully suspicious. Maybe a mass suicide or homicide?
Still, the count’s family had ostensibly only fallen ill, which meant people’s guards were still relatively low. But this had just been an initial report. My father still didn’t know the details, so it was best I prepared for the worst, just in case.
“I’ll have Orgen spend the night in the manor, and have Barkey take up post outside, to be sure.”
“Sounds good.”
That way, Barkey would be able to lead the knights outside the manor as enforcers if it proved necessary. I doubted either of them would be getting any sleep tonight.
“Assume that the tea party Lily has been invited to will still continue as scheduled.”
“Understood.”
For now, we’d have to go it blind. I guess that meant I needed to think up countermeasures of my own.
***
The following day, Lily and I reported for work in the palace. Though rather than exploring the underground library, we were working in the palace offices. Lily was ostensibly my assistant, so the higher-ups had thought it best that others occasionally saw her around as well. To keep her from ever being alone, I brought Neurath, Schünzel, and even Annette with us as well.
After the trial by duel, others no longer looked at Lily as if she was a mere commoner, but as someone under the crown’s protection—well, not exactly, but along those lines. In any case, the other nobles knew she was someone to watch out for. Considering that the duel had introduced her to almost everyone connected to the palace affairs, it had been more effective than a simple PR campaign.
Lily probably wasn’t too comfortable getting looked at like she was some stage attraction, but I had my own affairs to consider.
“What do you think of this, Lord Werner?” Lily said, handing me the results of the work she had been doing in my office.
I gave it a look over. “It looks great, just like your work always does. Thanks.”
“Of course. I’m just glad I could be of help,” she said with a grin. I was incredibly thankful to have her helping me. I was horrible at drawing, and since these documents would need more than words alone, I’d enlisted her aid.
“I’ll go and submit this,” I said to Neurath, Schünzel, and Annette. “Take care of things here, you guys.”
“Understood.”
I left the room to meet with Chancellor Falkenstein, who had received word of my visit in advance. I currently served as a chamberlain to the chancellor, but my office hadn’t been moved close to his. It was an indirect way to remind the other nobles that my posting here was only temporary.
I was headed there to submit documents related to my tenure as deputy of Anheim, including civic and military affairs, but most important was my report on my defensive efforts against Gezarius. It would have been easy if I could have just written my comments on an already existing map, but I needed to cite so many small details that I needed an entire new map drawn up, which was what I had entrusted to Lily. Still, I felt kind of bad for asking her.
The crown prince had confirmed that there were no problems in how I handled the Demon Commander, but that didn’t mean inspections into the event to discover any problem points had been called off. I was the one who had come up with our strategy, meaning I was naturally the one who had to write the report. Not to mention, I basically left it up to my successor to sort out the entire aftermath of the event.
Since the role of deputy was an official one, I had to complete all my work in that role at the castle. Taking home any public documents posed a considerable risk, so I could only peruse them in the palace, which was why I had been forced to bring Lily here today.
“Werner Von Zehrfeld reporting,” I stated to a knight standing guard outside the chancellor’s office.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” At that brief acknowledgment, I was immediately let in. He really must have meant it.
When I entered the room, I found the chancellor in a meeting with Schündler, the Minister of Military Affairs. I wasn’t quite sure if it was really my place to intrude given their high ranks, but the minister dispelled those doubts, saying, “Perfect timing.”
“I am sorry to bother you when you must be busy.”
“Don’t worry. First, let’s see your report on Anheim.”
“Here.”
The chancellor always had a relaxed air about him, but there was something quite unique about it, like the atmosphere that surrounds a capable bureaucrat or a student whose skills have just been celebrated—or a sharpened blade concealed in its sheath.
While the chancellor went through the report, I quite casually fell into a conversation with Minister Schündler. Everything about the man seemed extreme; while he had the face of a man in his fifties, his body was that of a knight in his prime. It was awe-inspiring.
“You did great work back in Anheim.”
“I’m humbled to hear that, and once again, my apologies for intruding on your discussion with the chancellor.”
“Don’t mention it. I actually wanted your opinion on something.” The last of his words seemed half directed at the chancellor, who offered a nod of approval without taking his eyes from the report. I didn’t mind offering my opinion, but I questioned whether I’d actually be able to give a worthwhile answer. “Take a look at this.”
“As you say.” I clearly didn’t have the right to refuse, so I took the bundle of papers he offered me. The first few pages looked familiar, and I realized it was intel on the patterns of monster spottings—I myself had done some research on the subject in the capital’s vicinity. Still, these papers covered the entire kingdom, and… Wow. They even recorded where casualties had occurred, as well as how major the incident had been.
Dangerous monsters had begun to spawn all across the continent ever since the Demon Lord’s return—both within Anheim and without. My knowledge was limited to that region and the capital’s surroundings, but apparently data had been collected across the entire kingdom. I suppose that checked out, but it still served as a glimpse into how vast the power of an organization could be.
“What do you think?”
“May I have a moment?”
Damn it, I let myself get distracted. I returned my attention to the documents at hand. After perusing them for a moment, I discovered something strange.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts before speaking. “I don’t believe the Demon army has the capabilities to expand their military might…” I spoke this statement as if it were a question, and similarly, Minister Schündler didn’t seem all too convinced himself, which made sense.
According to these documents, monsters began to spawn in different patterns ever since the Demon Lord had returned. We already knew this, but it was strange those patterns hadn’t changed at all since they started.
That would check out if this was a video game. As long as there were no special events, the spawning patterns of minor monsters wouldn’t change. Still, the fact that these patterns hadn’t changed no matter how many monsters appeared didn’t make sense in real life.
There were three possible conclusions you might naturally arrive at: that the Demon Lord was expending all his resources already, that he was reserving his strength because the Hero was even stronger than he had imagined, or that he was prioritizing regions the Hero had yet to visit by deploying his strongest monsters there.
If you considered those options, sending his stronger Demonic Beings to attack the Hero before he could amass power was clearly the best course of action. Yet the Demon Lord hadn’t redirected or repositioned his forces accordingly. The spawn patterns of monsters remained as they were right after his reemergence, just as if this was a video game. Sure, he wasn’t scaling up in power, but it was still awfully weird.
But what could be concluded from that? I recalled that back in Anheim, after we had defeated Gezarius, Oldman Uwe mentioned the Demon Commander fought as if he didn’t mind losing. That must mean that the Demon Lord had a way of creating new Demon Commanders and Four Fiends, just like he could create other Demonic Beings. Demon Commanders had been revived in the game, but only once they neared their end. Still, that only begged the question as to why they hadn’t been revived earlier.
The conclusion I reached sounded equally impossible. “It’s as if they’re trying to increase the Hero’s strength incrementally.”
“I see.”
It really seemed like he was sending Demonic Beings of increasing strength Mazel’s way in order to grow his abilities, just like would be the case in a game. I hadn’t meant to speak my conclusion loud enough to be heard, but Minister Schündler offered a surprising nod. I found it so odd I couldn’t help but ask for follow up.
“What do you make of this, Your Excellency?”
“Hm. My interpretation was that the Demon army were prioritizing their forces in Wein to prevent the kingdom from amassing enough military might to support the Hero and Princess Laura, but I see there are other interpretations as well.”
“I failed to notice your way of looking at things myself.”
Our differing viewpoints were probably a result of our respective positions. I had a habit of thinking from Mazel’s perspective, but seeing this from the perspective of stifling Wein Kingdom’s defenses and public safety was also sensible. In fact, it was probably my way of thinking that was more unorthodox.
As those thoughts passed through my mind, the chancellor lifted his gaze from my report. “May I ask you a few questions, Lord Viscount?”
“Yes, of course.”
I quickly diverted my train of thought in time for the chancellor to interrogate me on everything from Anheim’s governance to my evacuation plan for the villagers to my military strategy. It was tough, but that was to be expected. But that’s when a new visitor arrived—and I was surprised to see who it was the chancellor bade come and join us.
“Neurath. What is it?”
“I am sorry to bother you.” Neurath bowed his head in deference to the minister and the chancellor, then reported that someone else had summoned me—and I was shocked to hear who.
“His Highness the Crown Prince?!”
“Yes.”
Yup, it was none other than the crown prince who had called for me. This was unexpected, or maybe more like unfathomable. Still, I couldn’t keep him waiting. I excused myself on the urgency of my business, and promised the chancellor and minister I’d answer their remaining questions at a later date.
“Where is His Highness waiting?” I asked once we’d left the room.
“About that…”
I was baffled to hear his answer—the underground library. Why there?
“Lily has entrusted this to me. She believed you would need it.”
“O-oh. Thanks.” Lily had made sure I had the medallion that served as the key to the library, and I was thankful for that. Still, my mind overflowed with questions. “Got it. Wait for me in my office. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Yessir!”
Obviously, you couldn’t run down the hallways in the palace, so I speedwalked as fast as noble appearances would allow. Once again, I found myself ready to curse the sheer size of the palace grounds.
***
“There you are.”
“My apologies for keeping you waiting,” I said, bowing before the crown prince.
“There’s no need for apologies nor pleasantries. I’m sorry to rush you.”
“It’s only fitting to move with haste at the summons of one as worthy of my time as yourself.”
I’d hurried as fast as I could, short of running, down the spiral staircase. Both my body and mind were exhausted. I noticed one familiar guard standing outside the library and one standing inside. The security here was lax, I had to say.
“First, I wanted to thank you and offer my apologies for coercing you into the trial by duel.”
“It was no trouble whatsoever.”
“Our priorities demanded it, of course, but it is nevertheless true that we placed the burden on you.”
I barely managed to hold back a sigh. So that’s how it is. The duel had played out exactly as the crown prince had wanted it, and that was why he had brought it up once again.
From the kingdom’s perspective, the defeat of the Demon Lord was top priority. The droves of monsters threatened the realm’s safety, and unless they could becalm the monsters by killing the Demon Lord, the kingdom would face no end of troubles, including but not limited to governmental obstructions and loss of life and property. For this reason, they prioritized Mazel’s success over all else.
From a political perspective, they were able to stage a performance that isolated House Cortolezis, though it had required making a show out of Lily, Mazel’s younger sister. It seemed like Crown Prince Hubertus had some qualms about taking that measure.
I served the crown as a noble, but it seemed like they were giving Lily some special consideration despite her being a commoner. Still, the royal family couldn’t be seen making direct apologies, which was why the crown prince’s had been so roundabout. I’m sure he was concerned for Mazel and Laura as well.
For some reason, Laura had always struck me as scarier than Mazel, but maybe that was just my imagination. She seemed like the type to vent her fury with a smile, and that image was enough to give me chills.
“I was simply fulfilling my duty as your vassal.”
That answer earned an awkward smile and a nod from the crown prince. I couldn’t help but praise how noble-like I sounded.
Had I said, “It was your command, Your Highness,” I’d really be saying, “I serve you, so of course I did as you asked. It wasn’t a problem at all.” However, my answer instead carried the nuance of, “It was a command, so I did as you asked, but it really was hard on me, and I hope you don’t ask me to do it again.”
Of course, inflection and tone affected the meaning behind those words, so that wasn’t always the case. These sorts of utterances needed to be judged based on the context of the conversation, but I was confident I’d conveyed the proper nuance through my words.
The crown prince spoke again, that awkward grin still on his face. “Please relay our conversation to Lily.”
“As you say, Your Highness.”
“With that out of the way, how much do you know about the incident regarding House Gahmlich?”
“I have heard only that the count has passed due to illness, and that his family are at risk of the same.”
“It is just us down here. There is no need for circumlocution.”
I was relieved to hear this, and I resolved to follow his lead.
The crown prince continued. “We don’t suspect your involvement either.”
“Right.”
Given all that had happened, it wouldn’t have been strange for me to attack the count, strictly speaking. In fact, I had considered the possibility I was already the target of their displeasure. But with someone I had been so wary of suddenly out of the picture, it was hard to figure out what had actually happened.
My immediate suspicion was that Marquess Cortolezis was involved, but I thought that it would be better to bring that up later into the conversation.
“Have you discovered the cause of death?”
“Poison was slipped into his wine. The count’s wife, younger brother, and sister-in-law, as well as the count’s two possible heirs, his son and his nephew, were killed by similar means. The only surviving member of his family is his youngest daughter, who is currently being monitored by the palace physicians.”
His younger brother was the man I faced in the duel. There were six dead and one critically injured, and it all had happened at the manor of a major noble house. This was huge.
It wasn’t hard to poison someone in this world. Venom could be extracted from snakes, poisons could be made from certain mushrooms and plants, and nobles even knew that arsenic and other toxins could be created from minerals. There was also monster venom to consider.
On the other hand, this world had magic, including spells that worked as antidotes. It was incredibly rare for a noble to die from a poisoning “incident,” as magic could cure the effects of almost any poison. Though, there were cases where nobles making nighttime visits to a temple would get bitten by a snake en route and be unable to get treatment in time, and other such mishaps.
Still, I had some questions. How did antidotal spells determine what counted as poison and what didn’t? Overdosing on certain medicines could have poisonous effects, so how did these spells draw the line?
Anyway, what mattered most was the incident at hand. It wouldn’t be strange for a noble to have poison on hand if he meant to commit suicide, but what reason would he have to do so?
I’d say it again—me poisoning the Gahmlichs would seem much more plausible. They had tarnished my noble standing during the duel, which meant I had grounds to resent them. But really, the opposite happened.
While they may have lost the duel, I highly doubted they were of such fragile character that it would have pushed them to suicide. In that case, this had to be a homicide in disguise.
“Are you aware that there was something off about my opponent during the duel?”
“Yes, I’ve heard. I planned to look into the matter later on, but I can’t deny that putting it off has led to this situation. It was a failure on my part.”
I couldn’t help but think that hadn’t really been his fault. This muscle-headed world valued martial prowess to the point it detracted from their investment in other functionaries. After my victory in the duel, they would have been busy attending to Deritzdam, then the church, then House Gahmlich in that order. With all that to deal with, of course the matter of my opponent was an afterthought. Though had my crazed opponent ended up killing me, that might have changed the order of priorities.
“I just met with Seyfert. He seemed quite dour about the matter.”
“His Excellency? Is that so?”
Well, our investigations into the previous commotion’s mastermind—likely, House Cortolezis—had just fallen through.
“Now that the head of House Gahmlich, as well as his younger brother, the captain of their knight brigade, have perished, the only surviving direct descendant of the Gahmlichs is his youngest daughter.”
“Right,” I said.
“In other words, the command of their knight brigade has been left to a young girl not yet ten years old. Should someone serve that honor in her stead, then their knight brigade will likely fight for us. However, they would at most be a reserve force should we need to defend the capital.”
“Oh…”
I hadn’t considered this, but he was right. Even a bureaucratic house like the Zehrfelds had been able to mobilize a hundred-man army to respond to the Demon Stampede. Regardless of the quality of those men, House Gahmlich had to have similar forces at their disposal, likely more.
But due to a change in command and dampened morale, we could no longer rely on their strength. Had the entire family perished, we could have dissolved the brigade and reorganized them under different forces, but that wouldn’t fly with the youngest daughter still alive.
Thinking back on it, since the Demon Stampede, five noble houses had been eliminated or dissolved—and that was just considering count houses and above. There was Marquess Kneipp who perished at Fort Werisa, Count Friedheim who fell alongside Valeritz before the Battle of Finoy, Count Teutenberg who died during that battle, Count Bachem who allied with Lesratoga, and now Count Gahmlich.
Of course, the knight brigades had been reorganized in the less disastrous cases and dissolved in the worse ones. They were no longer forces that could serve us, and there were countless battles that occurred out of my sights as well, such as battles here in the Hildea Plains, or monster exterminations at Finoy, in the capital, or even the battle at Anheim. We must have lost around a thousand soldiers since the Demon Stampede alone.
While our enemies, human and monster alike, thinned our forces, the monsters spawned endlessly. Basically, we were forced into a battle of attrition by an enemy who could restore their ranks indefinitely.
I couldn’t hold back a sigh. The crown prince had been right to allow Mazel near total autonomy in his actions. Now, faced with the common enemy of the Demon Lord, international politics had practically fallen into a universal nonaggression treaty. Once the Demon Lord perished, though, there was no telling how foreign powers would react if our military was depleted.
All nations were in that same boat, but considering there would eventually be a siege on our capital, our kingdom was under constant threat from the Demon army. Not to mention, it would be a major blow to farming and trade should that battle drag out even if we managed to defend the city walls. Considering all that could happen once Mazel’s quest was complete, we had to hope that he defeated the Demon Lord and quelled the monsters as soon as possible.
While national borders weren’t barriers in the game, it was possible he had some similar support behind the scenes. Though that was looking too far back.
“The throne will investigate the Gahmlichs incident, but keep on your toes for the time being.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Wait. Rafed had looked into their family relationships for me, hadn’t he? I tried to extract what I could from my memory.
Count Gahmlich’s wife was Count Jhering’s younger sister, and if I had my facts straight, Count Jhering’s wife was from House Cortolezis. If their familial relationship led Count Jhering to become the guardian of Count Gahmlich’s daughter, the Gahmlichs’ knight brigade would indirectly be subsumed into House Cortolezis’s faction.
“I believe we should be wary of Count Jhering.”
“I said the same to your father. I’m impressed you noticed.”
I wasn’t all too happy to hear this praise, quite honestly. If this was a noble house we were dealing with, not just I, but my entire family, needed to tread carefully. I was ready to strike back if they made any move, but… just what to do?
“And about the passageway. We discovered a hidden corridor.”
That was a casual way to drop a bombshell—not that this world had bombs. So, that also played a part as to why he decided to hold our discussion here. Our conversation would almost certainly stay private.
I wasn’t quite sure how to answer this statement, but I ultimately decided it would be odd not to ask the obvious question. “What did you find on the other side?”
“The first room stored artworks.”
The knight standing beside the crown prince opened up a magic bag and took out a box containing a necklace. It was reserved rather than ostentatious, but the workmanship was delicate and sensible, even though the jewels were huge. It seemed to be a masterpiece made by a first-rate artisan, and I could tell as much just by looking at it. Of course, I refrained from touching.
“This is just one of many pieces we found. And there wasn’t just jewelry, but weapons and paintings as well.”
“Paintings?”
“Most were landscapes.”
I didn’t know what to make of this. My puzzlement must have shown, as His Highness chuckled at me. “I see you’re not too knowledgeable when it comes to the arts.”
“My apologies.”
Skills related to the humanities—including knowledge of music, paintings, and sculptures—were important for a noble to cultivate, but having been an average man in my previous life, I wasn’t well versed in those regards. My abilities with instruments were average, and the fact I didn’t have to concern myself with the arts to the same extent as medieval nobles from my old world was one thing I liked about this muscle-headed world.
“There’s no need for apologies. This is a design from the ancient kingdom period.”
The people of the ancient kingdom were still human, so it made sense they’d be interested in the arts. In RPGs, you’d often find cash, perishable items, and on occasion things like armor, weapons, paintings, sculptures, and even magic items and other random valuables in chests.
So none of that was strange, but it still left me with some questions. Why hadn’t the royal family known about this passage and the room beyond? Still, it was hard to just ask that.
Instead, I decided to offer a more basic response. “Is it an art storehouse dating back to the ancient kingdom?”
“We would have considered that to be the case if artworks were the only thing we’d found, but we discovered fabrics as well, along with another door.”
“Then did it lead to a tomb—no, was it a mortuary chapel for a burial chamber?”
“That was our understanding of it as well.”
In this world, underground tombs were sometimes preceded by a mortuary chapel which held the goods buried alongside the dead, though that only applied to the grandest of the grand. Which reminded me, I had rarely heard of anyone being buried in the catacombs of churches in this world. Perhaps that was because magic made God feel closer.
Still, there was something noncommittal about His Highness’s answer. If this was a mortuary chapel, then there would be a casket in the following room. I couldn’t keep the confusion off my face.
“Our investigations have reached a standstill. The passage beyond the second door has collapsed.”
Wait. We’re in the basement of the castle too. I didn’t think I was in the wrong to look up at the ceiling after hearing this news, and neither the crown prince nor his knight chastised me for doing so.
“We first need to investigate whether the collapse will spread, and if it has affected any of the upper floors—and also figure out a way to remove the rocks and sand—before we can continue our investigation. Not to mention, there are very few people we can admit here.”
The royal treasure store, a secret archive, and the room that controlled the barrier protecting the capital were down here. There weren’t a lot of people he could inform about this matter, so it was only natural he had come to an impasse.
I couldn’t rush him, so my only choice was to accept this situation as it was. Though, there were still some other things that had caught my attention. It should be fine to ask his knight, right?
“Do you have a catalogue of what you found, or anything similar?”
The knight first glanced at the crown prince, who assented with a nod. Then, the knight handed me a piece of monster-skin parchment with an itemized list of everything they had found.
There was jewelry, gemstones, paintings, dishes, and clothing. Considering that the necklace they had shown me seemed to be made for a woman, I assumed that the clothing mentioned were gowns. There were also containers that seemed to hold a nearly endless variety of cosmetics.
“If this is a grave, then are we assuming there’s a woman put to rest beyond the door?”
“We are confident at least one woman has been buried here, at the very least.”
That only added to the mystery. For a moment, I wondered if this could be the tomb of this nation’s first king, but that was supposed to be a man. Why had a woman been buried here, and why had her tomb been hidden?
“Mehring. We mustn’t let anyone overhear this. Stand on guard outside the library.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Now, I was truly alone with the crown prince. He had sent his knight outside the library to stand watch—or rather, he was about to tell me something he didn’t want even his retainer to hear.
“Lord Werner, you’ve been researching the ancient kingdom under orders from Sir Uwe, correct?”
“Correct.”
This wasn’t a question in the true sense, but likely a warning that what he was about to tell me mustn’t be relayed to anyone else. That also meant he thought highly enough of me to consider an explicit warning redundant.
“This involves our kingdom’s founding. How much do you know about it, and of the ancient kingdom?”
“After the ancient kingdom was destroyed by the Demon Lord, a Hero appeared who defeated the fiend. Then came a time of strife, during which multiple nations were founded. Ours was the strongest, but that’s about all I know.”
It was believed that Wein Kingdom could be traced back to a noble house from the ancient kingdom, though the veracity of that claim was questionable. There were many who claimed to be descendants of important families in my previous life too.
If I was remembering correctly, fourteen nations popped up across the continent during that chaotic period, including the tiny City-State of Iqor. Still, there weren’t a lot of documents surviving from the period.
“So, exactly what you’d learn at the academy.”
He was right. I didn’t have any other historical documents to go off of, after all. But just as I was mulling that over, the crown prince nonchalantly dropped another bombshell.
“The Hero who defeated the Demon Lord was named Jörg Leisegang, and his wife was named Juliane Lutricia Weinzierl. She was His Majesty the first king’s elder sister.”
“Huh?”
“The grave of Hero Leisegang has been lost to history. We have no documents indicating where it once was.”
“…And what about Lady Juliane’s?”
“Lost, just the same.”
This was suspicious. Plain suspicious. The story of the first Hero’s triumph over the Demon Lord had been preserved, but thinking about it further, it said nothing of how he managed it or what happened to him afterward, at least in the versions told to the world at large. Shouldn’t those omissions strike people as odd? Shouldn’t they have struck me as odd? And if the royal family were descended from this earlier Hero, wouldn’t they boast of that fact to the world? They might not be his direct descendants, but…their line did trace back to him, didn’t it?
“Did the previous Hero leave behind any heirs?”
“No. At least, that’s what is believed.”
He was beating around the bush again. He knew the name of the Hero and his wife, yet he simply reported what was “believed” about their children. It seemed like he was hiding something, but considering how much he had already told me, I couldn’t see why.
“Have those records been lost to history?”
“It would be more correct to say they were erased. I conducted some research myself once the Demon Lord returned, but the records describing what happened right before and after the Demon Lord’s defeat are shockingly sparse, at least where our kingdom’s concerned.”
“It was odd enough that Skywalk Boots were missing from our nation’s records. I suppose it would be safe to assume that the documents relating to the ancient kingdom have been deliberately tampered with?”
“Indeed.”
I had used the phrase “tampered with,” but this really seemed like they had been intentionally hidden or even destroyed. It almost made you wonder if all records of the period had been set aflame.
That could also have been the reason entrance into this library was so controlled. The records here may have been slated for destruction, only escaping that fate by chance. But why did that have to destroy all books from the period, and what inspired them to go to such lengths to do so?
One possibility was that they saw the Hero Leisegang as a threat and got rid of him. The fact that his story was so shrouded in mystery almost seemed to suggest that his wife might have had a hand in obscuring it.
If—just if—Wein’s royal family played a part in killing the previous Hero, it would be a political and diplomatic disaster. They may have had reason to fear him at the time, but the people now viewed the Hero as humanity’s savior.
Which reminded me, the strongest weapons and armor in the game were the Hero’s sword, shield, and armor, but for some reason, they were all found in different dungeons. It was strange. Maybe it was some cover-up, and the equipment had been separated precisely to perpetuate the lie that the Hero had set off on a journey and never been seen again. If that was true, it was a miracle that equipment wasn’t cursed.
And what if other nations knew this story? Since it could serve as a trump card, I doubted they’d spread it so carelessly. Or maybe the rulers of all the lands had conspired to eliminate the Hero, and that was why all information had been destroyed.
Though really, learning this Top Secret intel only made things harder for me.
I took a deep breath and asked another question. “Do you believe the tomb beyond the door belongs to Lady Juliane?”
“As we have no evidence that would suggest otherwise, she is the top candidate.”
Thought so. But that only made investigating the matter even more difficult. Should the tomb of the previous Hero be discovered there as well—and should they find evidence inside that proved beyond doubt that the Hero had been assassinated—they’d have to put everyone who found out under a gag order.
At the very least, it would be bad for me to stick my neck into this any further. I could come up with an excuse as to why I knew the name of the previous Hero’s wife, but any hypotheses I could come up with were bad. This wasn’t a matter to be discussed lightly.
The crown prince likely informed me of this in case anything related to it came up during my research. But just what had inspired them to get rid of all records regarding the ancient kingdom? It might well have been on the old king’s orders, though his motives were likely lost to time, just as the Hero’s tomb was. Of course, that also meant thinking about it more couldn’t do me any good, so I decided to put it on the backburner for now.
What would the crown prince do if Lily found this out? I had too many questions to worry about, nor did I know what to make of this. Still, I couldn’t just stay silent.
“Thank you for informing me.”
“Let me know if you learn anything else connected to this.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He must have some high hopes for me. Or maybe, I should be more concerned about what sort of information I might find down here. Ugh, my aching stomach.
“Ah, that’s right. I have one more request of you. Could you put Eickstedt, the man you brought back with you from Anheim, under my care?”
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
This request had come out of left field, but Eickstedt wasn’t my vassal, and he was clearly a capable man. I’d be happy to have him serving the kingdom, especially since I certainly couldn’t figure out what to do with him myself. I had no reason to refuse.
***
After that, we received a couple more reports, I offered my own insights, and then at last our discussion concluded. For secrecy’s sake, we couldn’t leave at the same time, so the crown prince took his leave from the library first. Since I would have to wait anyway, I decided to take the time to get everything in my head straight.
I took a seat, propped up my legs—yes, quite rude, I’m sure—and sank into the sea of my thoughts.
The biggest thing I learned today was the story of the previous Hero. If we assume that the loss of the unifying figurehead of the Hero was what thrust the world into a warring states period and that the family of Weinzierl was involved, that had to be kept under close wraps.
But that didn’t explain why the grave of Lady Juliane—best to call her “Lady” since she was apparently of the royal lineage—had been concealed. Maybe I was mistaken about something? In any case, I currently lacked the information needed to make any judgments, but I decided to at least hold on to those questions.
In the period of my old world ranging from the Middle Ages to the early modern day, there were plenty of successful cases of information manipulation that toed the line between deliberate and inadvertent. In Japan, there was the idea that Edo had been the boonies of the boonies before Tokugawa Ieyasu took over, or that Hojo Soun had been a ronin,both of which were the prevalent view throughout the Edo period and until the Heisei era.
There were examples in the west too. It was once believed that Joan of Arc’s family had been completely ostracized after her execution. The story of a girl abandoned by the king and sentenced to execution by burning, and her family who were vilified and persecuted by France’s people, made for a tragic one. The only thing was that there were records reporting that a man Joan saved in Orléans got the whole city to pool funds for the care of her family.
In any case, it was quite natural that detailed records would be lost or confused with other stories from those most chaotic times, but it also seemed quite plausible that information would have been intentionally manipulated in this world as well.
Still, however the ancestors of the Weinzierls treated the previous Hero, it didn’t matter. As long as the current king continued to support Mazel, whatever his family did in the past was a moot point. There were no perfectly clean royals anyway—at least, that’s what my knowledge from my previous life suggested, and I was quite sure it applied to this world too. In the eyes of our enemies, Prince Hubertus must look quite malicious. I really wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.
Putting that aside, there was something else that had been bothering me—in our enemies’ eyes, what did, or would, they see as the reason to attack the capital? What was the Demon army trying to accomplish?
In light of the conversation I’d just had, I considered it might be Lady Juliane’s tomb, but after a moment’s thought, I realized Duke Seyfert already seemed to have an idea of what exactly our enemies were targeting. The tomb had only just been discovered, so it couldn’t be that. There was a chance Duke Seyfert’s assumption was wrong, but it still felt like I was missing some of the puzzle pieces.
I continued to ponder until I figured enough time had passed for me to leave as well. I had always been curious as to what would happen should part of this medallion security system break. I was tempted to test it out, but considering the worst-case scenario was triggering a deadly trap, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Which reminded me, just how many of these medallions were there? The books could be brought in by a magic bag, but lining them on the shelves would require at least ten people, perhaps many more. There had to be enough medals to let that number in.
I wouldn’t arrive at any answers by considering these questions, but I thought them over until I arrived at my office and reunited with Neurath and Lily. I explained our discussion about Sir Eickstedt and decided to call it a day.
Given the corporate slave culture of my old world, it might seem like I was slacking off. But there were plenty of nobles who spent their days having fun, so I had done enough. Even I tended to forget sometimes, but I was still a student after all—at least, I was supposed to be.
***
Hubertus had scarcely returned to his office when Chancellor Falkenstein, Duke Gründing, and Duke Seyfert came to visit him. They took their seats around a small table, then Falkenstein spoke. “Did you fill in Viscount Zehrfeld?”
“I did,” said Hubertus with a nod and slight grin.
Duke Gründing was a quasi-member of the royal family, and he joined the discussion next with a faint scowl. “Will that be all right?”
“The young man is quite capable of telling when discretion is needed. I am sure we have no reason to worry,” answered Seyfert before glancing at Hubertus. “I am certain other members of the nobility would cause a ruckus should they discover that the Wastrel Viscount assigned to work under the chancellor had been tasked with clandestine research of the utmost importance alongside the Hero’s sister.”
Given his poor reputation, it was possible others would interpret Werner’s situation as a punishment, that he had been forced into doing menial work alongside a commoner. However, his success as Anheim’s deputy and his victory during the trial by duel had somewhat rehabilitated his image, meaning it was possible to interpret his role as a secret assignment meant to aid the Hero. The nobles who’d broken off from the Cortolezis faction had become especially suspicious.
“I hear Marquess Schramm has approached Miss Lily himself.”
“I suppose that’s one way to go about it.”
“And what of the future siege on the capital at the hands of the Demon army?” Hubertus’s utterance served to cut off discussions about Werner. The other three turned serious in an instant.
“We have been scraping together the necessary defense funds in accordance with what the Old Sage has warned us of,” Chancellor Falkenstein began.
“The training and deployment of our troops have been progressing without a hitch,” Duke Seyfert added. “We are running patrols around town so our soldiers can survey the terrain and determine the fastest routes for moving around the city.”
Falkenstein and Seyfert made detailed reports of their respective undertakings. The former, along with Duke Gründing, further discussed what measures could be taken outside of the capital itself, and what funds would need to be allocated to them.
“Ah, that reminds me. The viscount’s report of Anheim was quite interesting.” Falkenstein handed a copy to Gründing.
Seyfert watched them out of the corner of his eye as he continued his discussion with Hubertus. “Then what shall we do about House Cortolezis?”
“For now, we simply need to keep them worrying and wondering what countermeasures the kingdom will take. I’ve already prepared something for that purpose.”
The optimal scenario was that the Hero would defeat the Demon Lord before the siege on the capital, while the worst possibility was House Cortolezis going on a rampage during the siege, resulting in the Hero’s defeat at the Demon Lord’s hands. To prevent this, the Kingdom of Wein had adopted some countermeasures.
“Hopefully, House Cortolezis will not retaliate.”
“Given that they have already colluded with foreign powers, I believe the time for such wishful thinking has already passed. Still, if we cannot stop them, then we can at least use them. Have you made any other preparations?”
“I have surreptitiously sent help to the families House Cortolezis is involved with.”
“Then I suppose our chance comes when they accidently show their hand once they realize things are not going as they planned.”
As long as House Cortolezis retained their composure, they’d be able to recuperate. But not all in their faction were patient, and no doubt some new, ambitious party within the faction would seize the chance to exploit the house for their own aims. While the house only had their eyes on the royal family, the royal family rightly knew that House Cortolezis was just a part of a larger whole.
“And how is His Majesty?”
“He, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Ceremonies have been locked in meetings with foreign ambassadors for the past few days. Though considering these meetings don’t run late into the night, they may be faring better than we are.”
The entire room began to chuckle. While they may be faring better physically, the mental toll was steep—incredibly steep. Nevertheless, the crown prince and the king were able to deftly govern their kingdom by dividing the work, so Hubertus dealt with everything involving military affairs, while the king handled everything that could be solved with diplomacy alone.
Hubertus and the rest of Wein’s top brass had to keep what came after the Hero defeated the Demon Lord in their considerations. If the Hero was to be affiliated with their kingdom, they needed to find common ground with foreign powers.
“From that perspective, I suppose Viscount Zehrfeld and the other young ones will help us years down the road,” stated Falkenstein.
“Are you saying you older folks can’t retire until that day comes?” asked Hubertus with a rare grin.
“Let’s have the ministers sit back when the proper time comes,” added Seyfert, seriously.
All this happened without Werner and his peers realizing they had become the subject of weighty conversations. Nevertheless, events newly set in motion began to unfold at a startling pace.
***
It was late in the night when I finally returned home. I stepped out of the carriage first and had just offered Lily my hand when I spotted an unfamiliar carriage parked outside our door. We shared a look.
“Neurath, Schünzel. Are we expecting any guests today?”
“Not that I’ve heard,” answered Schünzel.
I considered the possibility we had a noble visitor for a moment, but then I realized the carriage didn’t have the make or markings of a noble’s coach. “Well, let’s go on in.”
“Right.”
I escorted Lily inside to find my mother, Norbert, Frenssen, and some strangers locked in a verbal melee over a painting I had never seen in my life. Well, it wasn’t a full-on battle, but the atmosphere was definitely quite tense.
“I’m back, Mother.”
I ignored the air in the room and greeted my mother. Lily offered her a curtsy, the proper greeting for a noble lady to give. Both this and the fact I acted as her escort today had been part of her hands-on training.
As that happened, I noticed one of the other people in the room twitch his face at my mention of “mother.” It was the distinct look of someone who’d just realized they’d made a mistake—the same face someone in my old world would show their boss when he discovered their failures. Whatever that meant.
“And who are you?” I asked him.
“I’m an art dealer. The name’s Valery of Batzdorf Merchant Company. I believe this is our first meeting, Lord Viscount.”
An art dealer, huh? Meeting the “Wastrel Viscount” would seem like a windfall for a salesman like this guy. So what explained his earlier expression?
I decided to play up my reputation. “Perfect! Frenssen, see Valery to the drawing room. I had something I was hoping to buy.”
“Right away.”
“N-no, I was just…”
Aha! So he’s going to refuse my offer. This guy can’t be good news.
“I have business with you,” I said. Then, turning to Frenssen, “I’d like to change, so make sure he has some tea while he waits.”
He turned meek the moment I threw my weight around. He followed Frenssen deeper in the manor. Maybe he was thinking it couldn’t be good to get on my bad side after my duel? Anyway, he was hard to size up.
“My apologies, Mother.”
“This argument was going nowhere, so I’m grateful for the help. Well, so be it,” said my mother while closing her fan. Then, she turned to look at the painting Valery had brought, and I followed her gaze. It was worn and dirty. Something just didn’t seem right about it.
“What is this?” I asked.
“That art dealer brought it here all of a sudden saying it was a gift from Count Kumbernuss to your father.”
Count Kumbernuss. He was a member of the martial faction, meaning our families had never been particularly friendly. If anything, we were quite estranged. Perhaps I’d understand the gift had there been a reason for it, but considering how Valery was acting, that didn’t seem to be the case. It was likely an attempt to bribe my father as the Minister of Ceremonies.
“Apparently, it’s a Prochnow.”
Her phrasing was somewhat circuitous, but I was shocked to hear that name. Art history in this world could largely be divided between the Pre-ancient kingdom period and the post-ancient kingdom period. Just as the burial items discovered in the palace’s basement the other day had suggested, the people of the ancient kingdom were interested in the arts as well. Of course, those periods could largely be divided into smaller periods just like was the case in my old world, but there was no need to get into that.
Artworks made during the period of the ancient kingdom used different techniques and media than those of the present day. Basically, they were created using lost technologies, but in my old world, they’d probably be treated as OOPArt.
Prochnow was currently one of the most celebrated artists from the time of the ancient kingdom. I really couldn’t say much about his artistic technique, but even I could tell he was quite good. Still, he was just one artist from quite a long time ago, meaning his works were very few in number. Owning one yourself was a status symbol.
Basically, Count Kumbernuss had sent quite the valuable gift here. But just as I was thinking that, I noticed Lily staring at the painting. Or rather, she seemed to be studying it.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think this is a Prochnow, Lord Werner,” she stated. She sounded uneasy, but firm.
“Got it. Norbert, send a messenger to both my father in the palace and an art appraiser. This Prochnow is a fake.”
“Understood.”
“Neurath, Schünzel, could you two get some soldiers from the barracks?”
Lily looked quite shocked as I barked one order after another, but it was my mother who spoke.
“Why do you think that, Lily?”
“Oh, um… I had the opportunity to see a painting with a similar motif at His Excellency the Duke’s residence, but the strokes looked different.”
Apparently, Lily had seen a true work by Prochnow before. But really, I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Duke Seyfert than to own one himself.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Norbert spoke. “What do you mean, the strokes are different?”
“Well, the brushwork in this painting lacks vigor. They seem to have been made slowly and deliberately, probably because the artist was trying to copy Prochnow’s.”
“Ah, I see,” I answered. It’s easy to assume that slow brushstrokes would make for a cleaner copy, but artist’s hands tended to shake when they painted slowly, making the lines shaky as well. I couldn’t help but praise Lily’s keen insight considering she had experience with art herself.
“Why did you answer, Werner?”
“Because I realized that we were being deceived. No one would send a bedraggled, dirty painting to a count’s house.”
There were a few tenets that tended to be true about art scammers. The works they sold were often just under market price, featured motifs commonly used by the artist in question, and were slightly dirtier than the original—at least, that’s what I had heard.
In my old world, the history of fake artworks went as far back as Ancient Babylonia. Thus, over the years, people had plumbed the tricks of the trade, and there were even art exhibitions featuring counterfeits and manga series about the people who make them.
I recalled that an art curator once said that the first step in researching counterfeits was “to question your initial assumptions that an artwork is real and believe your initial assumptions that it’s fake.” If Lily thought the piece before us now was a forgery, I was positive it was. Not to mention that this had apparently been suddenly sent by someone our family hardly knew. Things were fishy from the start, so I couldn’t really boast about discovering it was fake. I didn’t even have the knowledge to judge real artworks from fakes anyway.
“I’m sure you and Norbert doubted its authenticity, Mother, which was why you had been stuck in a standoff.”
My mother sighed. I had apparently hit the nail on the head. However, that still begged the question of who had done this and what they were trying to accomplish. For now, it seemed like either Count Kumbernuss was behind this, or that the art dealer Valery was up to something, but figuring that out was likely best left to investigators.
“I’ll buy time to keep the art dealer here. Mother, Norbert, I’ll have you explain things to Father and the appraiser once they arrive.”
“Right.”
“Understood.”
“And Lily, could I have you look over the painting again to see if you can find anything else that’s wrong with it?”
“R-right.”
Next, I gave orders that guards be stationed around the perimeter. It was probably safe to leave it to Norbert and Max, who’d be returning with my father, to figure out the specifics.
Now, just how should I go about thwarting this man’s scheme? Playing up my reputation as the Wastrel Viscount could be quite fun, but what else was there? I was still considering my options as I arrived at the door to the drawing room.
***
It was morning the following day. The appraiser had confirmed that the painting was a fake, and Valery had been arrested by royal guards and taken on a direct flight from our manor to the dungeon. That all was well and good, but since I had been up all night questioning him, I hadn’t had time to rest.
“Greetings, Lord Werner,” Lily greeted me. “Um, someone from the royal guard is waiting to see you.”
I had just finished breakfast and had to stifle a yawn as I snapped back into focus. “Makes sense given yesterday’s events. And my father?”
“He headed for the palace early this morning. He said he would be having a discussion with the captain of the royal guard there.”
“Right.”
So my father would be hearing his report from someone higher ranked, meaning there was more to this situation than I was aware of. Considering this involved the entirety of House Zehrfeld, I got the sense he’d be filling me in later.
“Is he in the drawing room?”
“Yes.”
After confirming his location, I asked Lily to bring us some tea and headed to the drawing room, where I found a familiar face waiting for me.
“It hasn’t been too long, Drechsler.”
“I’m sorry to impose upon you so early in the morning, Lord Viscount.”
Given the situation, it was only natural he didn’t have the time to warn me about his visit in advance. Still, he could afford to fix his phrasing—he was sounding as suspicious as Rafed.
“Don’t worry about pleasantries. Fill me in.”
“Got it,” he said with a grin. He sat back in his seat, which was exactly when Lily brought us our tea. I introduced Lily to Drechsler, and learned that apparently, his name had come up in Mazel’s letters. They exchanged pleasantries, but given the look on Drechsler’s face, I knew I was in for a teasing.
I had Lily once again step out of the room and glared back at Drechsler, who was snickering at me. I waited for him to regain his composure before returning to the discussion at hand.
“So? What’s the situation?”
“First, about that dealer Valery and Batzdorf Merchant Company…”
Apparently, the merchant company had long been in good favor with Count Kumbernuss, but shortly after the Demon Lord’s return, monsters had waylaid several of their merchants, including their leader, which nearly ended the company then and there. Afterward, someone else took over the company, using it in name only. Valery had been an accomplice.
“Then they were just borrowing Count Kumbernuss’s name?”
“Probably.”
Borrowing the name of a noble was a serious crime in itself. Did he have an escape plan worked out? Or maybe he had already planned on getting caught. It was hard to tell either way with just this much information.
“So who is it that took the reins?”
“About that…”
I could hardly believe the name I heard next. Apparently, a merchant company with close ties to House Gahmlich had been behind the takeover. But right now, that whole noble house was ostensibly ill. Could another house be pulling the strings behind the scenes?
“And what about the painting?”
“The dealer we arrested said that ‘it was always a copy they planned to use for different purposes.’ You were lucky Lily realized what she did.”
I thought it had been strange that the painting was so filthy, and apparently it had been the right call to have Lily investigate it further. She realized the painting was too big for the frame, and when the royal guard conducted their own investigations, they found a space large enough for something.
“Do you think they’re smugglers?”
“Most likely.”
You couldn’t fit anything too big in a picture frame. In my old world, people might have used it to smuggle gold, jewels, or other valuables, but in this world, monster materials were another possibility, and they didn’t necessarily have to be particularly valuable. For example, there was an item called Stun Sand which could be used during battles in the game to stun enemies, and criminals were always desperate to get their hands on some. If this merchant company was willing to smuggle their wares, it was possible they’d be pushing dangerous substances among them.
These sorts of items were all monster drops, and you could find them for sale in item shops in both the capital and towns all over Wein. However, to buy them, you’d need to be a registered member of a guild with the right permissions. It was kind of like how in my old country of Japan, you had to prove your identity to purchase gasoline. In the game, the Hero could buy these items as he pleased, but things weren’t so simple in the real world.
“But why did he bring it to House Zehrfeld?”
“All he’s said is that he was directed to do so. This is likely the maneuvering of someone above the dealer himself.”
Was he planning to pick a fight with us for calling out a supposedly genuine painting as fake? Or maybe he was trying to frame us for theft? Count Gahmlich had only just brought Mazel to court on trumped-up charges, so maybe he was trying to interfere with House Zehrfeld now as well.
In this world, it would be a crime between nobles. The dealer had followed orders at the risk of his life, which meant the man behind all this was likely someone of consequence. It was too early to say anything for sure, but it was probably safe to assume as much.
“And what of the head of the company?”
“He fled last night, but he should have been caught by now.”
For a moment, I thought he had escaped our clutches, but apparently not. The royal guard must have let him run to see where he’d lead them to.
“Let me know the moment you have any new information.”
“Got it. I’ll meet with you regularly.”
Drechsler wasn’t the type to lie, so I took him at his word. The captain of the royal guard force that operated at night was his father, and it gave me the impression that Drechsler had been specifically chosen as my informant. I needed to make sure to thank him later.
The list of those I was indebted to only grew greater.
***
While Werner was engaged in his briefing, a certain man who had fled the capital was resting his legs from a long night’s travel, alongside the adventurers he had hired as his bodyguards. The highways were crawling with knights patrolling for monsters, so the man’s group had been forced to take the dilapidated side roads. It left them exhausted.
“Damn it! Why did this have to happen to me?!” The man still had something of a noble air to him, but his face was pale and the skin under his eyes was dark. Hardship was etched on his face. He attempted to catch his breath.
“That’s ’cause you always follow the first blasted impulse in your head!” said one of his companions.
“Seriously. You stepping out of line was what forced us to skip town!” said a third.
They may have been on the road together, but that didn’t mean they were on good terms.
A man dressed as an adventurer berated the first man who had spoken. “Can’t you use your brain?! Trying to pawn off a fake painting on a minister, who the hell wouldn’t get caught?!”
“But there’s a girl who knows all about art staying with the Zehrfelds. If they had a smuggling device disguised as a painting—and if the man who ‘sent’ it to them, Count Kumbernuss, didn’t know anything about it—they’d end up taking the fall.”
“It’s a cheap plan, Lord Gunner Melchior Gahmlich. Well, since you’ve been disowned, I suppose that’s just Lord Gunner,” came the cold—or really, exasperated—voice of a woman. Panicked, the whole group jumped to their feet and drew their swords. At the same time, knights of the kingdom’s army and their underlings rushed out from all directions, blocking their paths.
Hermine stood at the head of a brigade of Fürst knights. She drew her sword, earning an admonishment from one of the lady knights hemming their foes in from the other side. “You were too quick to show yourself, Lady Hermine.”
“My apologies. I couldn’t stand hearing such shallow drivel,” responded Mine, not sounding sorry at all. She returned her gaze to her enemies, who were glaring back at her. She put on a gracefully cold grin. “I’m looking at an unscrupulous lot who’ll use anything at their disposal for their ambitions, after all. It’s hard to think highly of anyone who thinks the world will open up to them just because they wish it so.”
“Shut up, woman!” screamed Gunner as he swung his sword. His attack was quick and sharp, but Mine easily knocked it away.
“Huh?!”
“I can see you’re well-trained. You really were the heir to a noble house of the martial faction,” she coldly surmised, pinning Gunner in place with no more than a well-placed step forward.
Once he had noticed his opponent had stopped, Gunner brought his sword to Mine’s. In a flash, she twisted her wrist, sending his blade in the opposite direction. Then, she thrust her own blade toward his face. He was able to dodge by a hair’s breadth, but she immediately followed her attack up with a side swing. Gunner tried to dodge, but stumbled to the ground.
“But you’re out of practice.” Mine stopped her blade just before it pierced his flesh. With the tip of her sword pressed against his neck, Gunner was motionless.
Praise rang out from the sidelines. “Excellent job, young lady.”
“You have my thanks.”
A large man stepped out from behind Mine, and upon seeing his face, Gunner froze in shock. His adventurers were already all incapacitated, either because they had fainted or were being held to the ground. He was completely surrounded.
With a shaky voice, he just managed to croak out, “Count Schanderl… Wh-what are you doing here?”
“What, you say? I was waiting for you.”
Schanderl had been the one to position troops on the highways for so-called monster control, as well as the one who lured Gunner to this road during his escape from the capital. Not that he needed to explain himself.
Mine took a step backward, allowing Schanderl—a devoted vassal to Crown Prince Hubertus—to stand before Gunner. Their vast difference in status had Gunner holding his breath, and Schanderl spoke to him calmly as he loomed over him. “The entirety of House Gahmlich drank poisoned wine without a second thought, which means the mastermind must have enlisted someone who had the house’s trust. Now, who could that be?” he asked coldly, as if simply musing out loud.
Gunner didn’t answer—perhaps it would be more correct to say he couldn’t answer.
“Did someone tell you that even if you had been disowned, you could still come to lead House Gahmlich, as long as you were the last man standing and had the right family backing you?” Schanderl waved his hand, and on command, the knights stepped forward and tied up Gunner and his band of adventurers, using a cloth to gag them to ensure they couldn’t take their own lives.
Watching the scene before him, Count Schanderl muttered aloud to himself. “There’s also the rumor that you were the leader of the group who tried to attack His Highness Crown Prince Hubertus on the day of the duel.”
“Huh?” Mine had heard his mutterings and turned around to look at Count Schanderl, but he dismissed her with a shake of his head. Then, he flashed an admiring grin. “I’m sure the road ahead will be tough for you, young lady.”
“Thank you for entrusting me with this opportunity. I hope I have conducted myself to your expectations.”
“You certainly have. If you need provisions or anything else, I’ll make sure you get it.”
“Thank you for your kindness.” Mine bowed her head before mounting her horse. Observing the ease with which she’d dispatched Gunner, and her skills on horseback, Count Schanderl had secretly surmised her skills outstripped Viscount Zehrfeld’s, but she remained unaware of his appraisal. She barked orders to some of her knights, then the brigade took off into the night.
Upon seeing her off, Schanderl ordered his men to throw Gunner and his band of adventurers in a prisoner carriage and turned his horse back toward the capital.
***
While I was working at the palace, I received word that I had a visitor. I couldn’t refuse, so I received Lady Hermine in my office. She really is a stickler for proper protocol if she’s visiting me here, I thought as I waited for her.
As soon as she entered the room, she bowed her head. “Thank you for your kindness, Viscount Zehrfeld.”
“Please, raise your head. I only acted as a simple go-between.” People really love bowing their heads to me, huh? “Have things resolved themselves?”
“While they have not yet found resolution, I now see a clear path forward.”
I was glad to hear that, and I meant it. I wasn’t hell-bent on forging a good relationship with House Fürst, but letting House Cortolezis cozy up to them wasn’t good for me either. In my eyes, neutrality was my best option.
“Will you be leading troops to Count Teutenberg’s fiefdom?”
“Yes. I was advised it would be best for me to leave the capital for some time.”
“On account of your betrothal to House Cortolezis, I suppose.” I spoke without thinking, but considering how quickly the color left Lady Hermine’s face, I decided to refrain from offering any congratulations. I decided to change the subject. “That reminds me. I hear your father is in the Teutenberg domain.”
“Y-yes. He is.” Considering how easily she took that bait, it was clear she must have been glad to change the topic as well.
I really was curious about the situation, so I decided to pursue the topic further. “Does the Teutenberg domain have enough troops to maintain public order?”
“The minimum needed, yes.”
Huh, something is odd here, I thought and, before I could stop myself, blurted out, “This is just a guess, but it’s quite possible there are Demonic Beings around there.”
“Huh?!”
She seemed shocked, but she had been tasked with dealing with the Demon Stampede and the refugee escort mission just as I had. Thus, she knew that while the Demon army had no unified leadership like human armies did, they could at least be ordered to charge and retreat—though whether it was words that guided them was unclear.
“It’s strange that he would be able to maintain the battlefront for so long if he had only the bare minimum troops needed to maintain public order.”
“Then do you think this is a trap?”
“The count might just be a decoy.”
Whichever it was, it was dangerous for Lady Hermine to enter the Teutenberg domain.
“Then what should I do? I would much appreciate your advice.”
“Hmm…”
The real question was whether the troops Lady Hermine commanded would actually follow her. I knew nothing about her soldiers’ morale or their leadership structure, so I had to offer solutions that would work regardless.
“Personally, I would hire a guide in advance and take a long route into the Teutenberg domain. Then, I’d immediately rendezvous with Count Fürst.”
“And ignore the monsters we encounter en route?”
“If there’s a Demonic Being commanding them, I’m sure they’ll try to catch each of you while you’re alone, which is why it’s best you join forces right away.”
“I see.”
She heeded my advice earnestly, which was something Lord Tyrone would never have been capable of. We discussed some points in greater detail, and I wrote down my thoughts in a report informed by my memories of monster spawning patterns from the game. I handed it over to her, and she offered me a polite bow before taking her leave. Man, am I tired.
***
“Wh-what do you mean?!” Mine’s elder sister Judith exclaimed when she heard the details of the situation.
Based on the look on Tyrone’s face, it was clear he found this quite annoying, but he managed to speak anyway. “The crown has found House Gahmlich lacking in light of recent incidents, particularly that their disowned heir was the one who poisoned his own family.”
“So?”
“House Gahmlich’s knight brigade is being punished with demotion. For the time being, their brigade will operate under House Fürst’s command.”
Tyrone felt quite proud of this fact, not just because it bolstered their family’s forces, but because it also meant that the family was being recognized for their efforts. The fact Count Schanderl had chosen House Fürst to assist him in capturing Gunner was something to take pride in as well.
Quite honestly, Tyrone had wanted to take to the field himself, but with his father absent from the capital, he had instead sent his younger sister Hermine in his place. Her success in capturing Gunner would surely reflect positively on the family, further improving their standing in the public eye.
House Gahmlich’s knight brigade didn’t boast much by way of numbers, so they were hardly a force to reckon with. However, were House Fürst to add them to their existing troops, their forces would be greater than they had had before the Demon Stampede.
Either way, common sense in this world posited that they had been entrusted with House Gahmlich’s men because the crown had recognized their loyalty. Thus, Tyrone was quite pleased with the situation, even if he hadn’t been able to personally distinguish himself on the battlefield.
Judith, on the other hand, was quite stiff in her words. “I know all that.”
“There’s Count Schanderl’s support and kindness to consider as well. We’ve been granted permission to station some of House Gahmlich’s men in the Teutenberg domain, which will surely make things easier for Father as well.”
When she heard that Mine had already left to lead that contingent of Gahmlich soldiers to the Teutenberg domain, Judith’s face went slack.
“I’m glad Marquess Cortolezis has offered his son’s hand in marriage to Mine, but we can’t rely on him too much. We need to keep our debts to a minimum.”
“Indeed,” said Judith, nodding in agreement despite her stiff expression. Then immediately, she told the preening Tryone that she had suddenly remembered some urgent business, left the manor, and hopped into her carriage.
“I haven’t heard about any of this… But why?” muttered Judith as the galloping horses carried her away. Her coachman was in such a rush he failed to notice the shadows tailing them.
***
News of Gunner sent ripples large and small in all directions. It had been the brothers of House Cortolezis who suffered the most harm at this news, and they sat in their manor in the capital, sharing looks of displeasure and loathing.
“Stop it with the sage act, brother.”
“Like you predicted he’d go so far! Not even grandmother did!” Despite his younger brother’s censure, Cnut’s tone was more sulky than irate.
“I understand that you planned to cut him loose at the end, but you need to understand that it’s because of your laxness with him that he managed such misconduct beyond our control,” David said frigidly. He criticized his brother for simply offering the man a monetary award and then leaving him to his own devices. “And how could you have been so dense as not to realize his target was House Zehrfeld? Not to mention how clumsy Gunner was!”
“Like I need to hear this from you!” Cnut shouted back, angered by his brother’s suggestion that he hadn’t been in control.
In the end, House Cortolezis failed to realize how deep a grudge Gunner held against Werner, whose actions had led to him being disowned by House Gahmlich, and this was the result. There was no denying that they purposefully instigated feelings of shame and anger in Gunner—and ultimately, a reason to act out—by showering him with gossip and glares condemning him as a man cheated by both commoners and the nobles of the martial faction despite being the heir to the great and mighty House Gahmlich.
“And what about you?!”
“I’m sure grandmother is livid,” spat David, his expression making it clear he considered this to all be Cnut’s fault.
Currently, Batzdorf Merchant Company was in the custody of the royal guard—assisted by the knight brigade of Viscount Degenkolb—as it was believed they had been sheltering Gunner. As a result, House Cortolezis’s plan to secretly acquire the company and incorporate it into their surveillance network had fallen through before it could even be set into motion.
All of that would have been fine, but the fact that Hermine had participated in Gunner’s arrest complicated the matter. She may have been unaware of the merchant company’s ties to House Cortolezis, but she had obstructed the marquess family regardless. Their grandmother was bound to be displeased that they had reached a hand out to her themselves, but with her currently leading troops from the capital, talk of her marriage to David would be on the backburner for the moment.
“Well, it’s still better than your impossible marriage.”
“If you are unable to understand Princess Laura’s beauty, then you will never understand me either.”
“And that’s an entirely different matter from whether she’ll choose you or not,” quipped David. Cnut bolted to his feet, seething with anger. David hadn’t just hit him where it hurt, he had pointed out the truth, and that was what had angered his elder brother. Seeing this, David laughed. “She’s off adventuring with a commoner Hero, and she’s been visiting the Zehrfelds’ manor when she’s in the capital. Her relationship with the viscount is also…”
After those words had left his mouth, he suddenly realized something, and his expression turned into a ridiculing grin that he brazenly showed to his brother. “Ah, I see. His target wasn’t the Zehrfelds, but the commoner family. I guess he was aiming to capture the Hero’s family and hold them ransom against the king.”
And in trying to take advantage of that situation, Gunner’s plot had ended at simply targeting House Zehrfeld. But as soon as David realized as much, Cnut stomped out of the room, completely ignoring his brother.
As soon as the door had closed behind him, David muttered to himself, “The Hero’s family, huh? My brother may be an idiot, but he’s got some interesting ideas.”
Their grandmother would need to be apprised of this back in their domain, and as this crossed his mind, David had his butler prepare his writing instruments.
***
Anshelm Zeagle Jhering was one of the recipients of this news, and it left him quite flummoxed. He knew at once that his plans had been ruined, and sat brooding in his private quarters, his face illuminated by the light of a magic lantern.
House Jhering and House Cortolezis were certainly related by blood, but quite frankly, Anshelm considered both the elder son of House Cortolezis, Cnut, and the younger son, David, lacking.
“It would have been easier to read House Cortolezis’s moves if we had been able to have the Batzdorf Merchant Company watch them.”
Anshelm knew not to underestimate the top brass of the kingdom, and he was well aware that even if Marquess Cortolezis had conspired with foreign powers, he’d be unable to completely escape Wein’s reach.
Thus, his plan was to announce his public support of the illustrious House Cortolezis’s claims that the royal family were too partial to the Hero, all the while waiting for an opportunity to betray them and realign with the throne, earning them some recognition. The way the crown had handled the trial by duel made it clear they were hoping to splinter the faction around House Cortolezis.
In that sense, losing Batzdorf Merchant Company—the group that would’ve handled any illegal business House Cortolezis was involved in—before that could come to fruition had not been a part of his plans. He had also been nurturing the thought in House Fürst’s heads—not just in the Cortolezises’—that they join the faction in submitting a joint declaration of dissatisfaction signed by all the noble houses displeased with that lowborn Hero. Now that those efforts had fallen through, he need to reconsider his plans.
Anshelm was no fool, and he was well aware that if one was trying to usurp a kingdom, it was far more effective to seize it by subterfuge, than by force. Thus, he knew that for now, it was best to make a show of loyalty to the crown, winning the esteem of its highest authorities. If you assumed this counted as making an opportunity, rather than waiting for one, perhaps you could even consider him ambitious.
However, Anshelm’s weakness was that he only ever trusted in his own talents. While he had tried to use others and deftly led them for his own aims, he hadn’t thought so far as to create trusty allies or loyal servants.
Much later in the future, Hubertus would speak of the Anshelm of this time, saying, “While even I need friends and servants, he believed he could take over a nation on his own. He was more than overconfident; he was mad.”
Werner had been the one to hear this remark, but no records make any mention of how he had responded.
***
In a vast, open dungeon just outside the capital, which received no light from either sun or moon, something slithered on the floor.
And in truth, it wasn’t just some thing, but countless insects, oozing along the dimly lit stone. Underneath this blanket of undulating shadows was a single girl, lying on her back. She sat up, turned her dark eyes to the ceiling, and began to whisper.
“You traitor…”
Her voice was beautiful, but there was no passion in her words—no emotion at all, really.
Just as she was about to speak again, one of the countless doors around her opened. It was the one that faced toward the capital. A man and woman entered the room, and the insect-like monsters created a path for them.
“We’ve come to visit you,” said a man dressed in the robes of a grand priest as he kneeled before the girl. Next to him stood a woman in a white ceremonial dress.
Her previously expressionless visage took on a cool radiance. “How fares the capital?”
“Chaos has begun to spread, but as of now…”
“Silence begets suspicion. Rouse the people with chaos. It is not yet time.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the grand priest with a bow.
The woman dressed in ceremonial robes spoke coldly. “I shall head south once Sarg makes their move.”
“I leave it to you,” said the girl. The undulations of the monsters on the floor grew more violent.
As of yet, no noble in Wein knew of this dungeon’s existence.
***
Night had fallen by the time I returned from the palace. Back at home, I went over financial reports and records of monster appearances from the Zehrfeld domain and read through a report of monster casualties with the help of Frenssen and his recollections. The knights had insisted no matter my accomplishments in the Demon Stampede and whatnot, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in Zehrfeld territory if I, the heir apparent, left it to rot. Still, considering I had kept quiet despite knowing it meant the Demon Lord’s return, it was hard to figure out exactly how I should view this matter.
I knew my expression was inscrutable as I flipped through the documents, adding notes on some of the casualty records. But that was when one of the maids came to bring me some tea. Today, it wasn’t Lily, but Tillura.
“Thanks.”
“Of course. Please get some early rest tonight, young master.”
It was rare to hear such words from her, but tomorrow was the day we’d be sending Lily off to the marquess’s residence for a tea party. She was right. I had to be alert.
“Got it. I’ll go to bed early. Where’s Lily?”
“She’s spent the night polishing the mirror.”
Makes sense. “Polishing the mirror” was a euphemism this world had for attending to skincare. Healing spells and potions could be used to fix small blemishes, and monster materials existed that could soften your skin better than your typical lotion—at least, that’s what I had heard. I didn’t know much about cosmetics myself.
In any case, hair and skincare applied at night would work in time for a party the next day, though that wasn’t true when it came to weight and figure. In a world different from my old one, I found it interesting that creating skincare potions had developed into its own specialized field, and that there were entire companies that were basically beauty guilds. Many noble houses even had private specialists of their own.
Considering this culture, showing up to a tea party without proper skincare was basically an admission that your family was struggling financially, which made sense considering how hard nobles were constantly trying to one-up each other. In any case, I could leave thinking about all that up to my mother.
“Make sure to praise her efforts, all right?”
“Of course. I’m a noble, after all.”
Considering Tillura served as her tutor, her warning had been quite firm. Still, I was a noble. I’d be sure to compliment her formal wear.
She seemed quite relieved to hear my answer. She bowed low before taking her leave, and once she was gone, I called out to Frenssen. “Do I really look so dense?”
“Sometimes, I worry for you.”
Hearing that from Frenssen as well wasn’t the best feeling in the world. Considering they had gone out of the way to warn me, it was probably best I went to bed early tonight. I could worry about everything else tomorrow.
But still, I’ll really come face-to-face with Lily in formal wear in the morning, huh? I began thinking up the right words to say to her as I returned my documents to the proper shelves.
Afterword
Afterword
WE’RE ON OUR SIXTH VOLUME, and it’s all thanks to you. I am Yuki Suzuki, and I want to offer a word of thanks to all of my readers.
This year, we held a fair at a bookstore, earned 27th place in the paperback section of Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2025, and the manga adaptation was even nominated for the grand prize of CMOA Comic’s digital manga award. It was a year blessed with your support and encouragement, and there are no words that express how truly grateful I am. Thank you all once again.
Volume Six is quite slow from a plot perspective, but it’s a major turning point in Werner’s life. Still, that’s only made him busier in the capital (lol)!
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who’s sent fan letters or supported me on social media, the readers of the web version, Sanshouuo (who drew some amazing illustrations for this volume), my editor Kawaguchi-sama, the manga adaptation artist Rampei Asio, and the manga’s editor Uchida-sama.
Yuki SUZUKI
November 2024