Chapter 118

"Oh, come on. Cheer up. Are you upset? Are you?"

"..."

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"You didn't tell me anything, from the news that the Crown Prince was coming onward."

"I said I'm sorry."

After the long discussion in the reception room ended, Yurik left immediately.

Arndt had suggested that he stay overnight since it would soon be dark, but Yurik simply shrugged his shoulders and reportedly said this.

-I'm afraid I might catch the Duke's cold. Just take good care of the Duke. He looks like someone who hasn't even had rice porridge.

An ordinary person might not understand Yurik's decision,

But knowing that his horse was not an ordinary one like Sleigh, he was content to let him go.

That was actually better anyway.

After dinner, the members of Hartmann gathered in his office, huddled together.

Of course, Leandros was still quite upset until then.

While he was sweating profusely trying to appease Leandros, Arndt casually asked.

"By the way, Your Grace, I received the Crown Prince in your stead because you instructed me to do so. But was that really necessary? Perhaps it would have been better if Your Grace had explained things yourself."

"That would have been the case. It might have ended faster, but... this time, getting the ducal territory back isn't the sole purpose."

"What is the other purpose?"

For Yurik, Arenheit wasn't a threatening figure.

The last remaining person of the ducal family.

A new Duke, but an utterly ordinary human who could meet a violent death with just the flick of Yurik's finger.

But what would happen if he suddenly stood out here?

Surely the protagonist would change, just like in the previous iteration.

That was absolutely out of the question.

"Hmm, I think I should start by explaining about the north. As I told Arndt, I went there because the situation in the north didn't look good in the revelation I saw before."

"You said there were no residents in the north in that revelation. Was it true?"

"Yes. I went with Leandros, but there were no people in the north. The villages were abandoned. Only demonic beast species and monsters not seen beyond the mountains were teeming there."

Arndt asked worriedly.

"Why wasn't news of this conveyed here? Weren't there merchant groups coming from the north to here, or going from here to the north?"

"First, the northern merchant groups were residents of the north. They couldn't have survived while they were there. Second, the same goes for merchant groups that went from here to the north. Since there was no news coming back, they were likely vulnerable to attacks from demonic beast species."

"What on earth happened? How did it come to this? No matter how small the northern population was..."

"Right. It's unreasonable for them to disappear all at once like that."

People crossing over to the north all disappeared,

And the personnel sent to find the missing people also disappeared.

The reason was because of the gods in the north, but.

He looked down at the snowman that had climbed onto his knee.

No one except Leandros knew that this snowman was an extension of Aphoom-Zhah.

Even Amelia, who directly filled its belly, just thought it was some kind of magic.

So.

"I couldn't figure that out."

He had no intention of telling them the truth about the north.

He and Leandros were enough to step into the threshold of madness.

When he asserted this, Leandros moved his lips but didn't say anything.

"However, just knowing that demonic beasts are rampant in the north was a significant harvest. I wonder if we could consider this fact along with the return of the Hartmann ducal territory."

The territory return and the north?

Everyone simultaneously raised question marks.

"Before that, Arndt, I'd like you to share what you discussed with Crown Prince Yurik."

"Ah, yes!"

Arndt said, flipping through the stack of documents he had taken to the meeting with Yurik.

"To get to the conclusion, His Highness the Crown Prince believed that the Hartmann ducal family has completely lost its ability to maintain security, which is one of the necessary capabilities for managing a territory."

"The ability to maintain security."

"From preventing ordinary crimes to, on a larger scale, defending against demonic beast invasions. The central question was whether the Hartmann ducal family could prevent these. This was because there are currently no private soldiers in the ducal family."

"Certainly, we can't expect Leandros alone to protect the entire ducal territory."

"Exactly. Because of this, the royal family is maintaining a negative stance on the immediate return, but His Highness the Crown Prince made a different suggestion."

"What kind of suggestion?"

Arndt frowned slightly.

"Differently from the royal family's opinion, he said that if public sentiment shifted, couldn't we view the return of the ducal territory positively?"

"My goodness."

He would bet his right eye that Yurik deliberately set up such a mission.

Yurik had always wanted to foster Leandros's growth.

To make Leandros the one and only protagonist who could confront him through appropriate trials.

Like a pig in a pen, he wanted to fatten Leandros up in various ways before slaughtering him himself.

For that purpose, Yurik had proposed a pilgrimage for honor to Leandros.

It was still perverted, looking at it again.

And what made it even more unpleasant was that Yurik had thought similarly to him.

At Arndt's words, Amelia's expression soured.

"H-how would you m-manage public s-sentiment? This is n-nothing but u-unreasonable. Why w-would villages or t-towns that were once p-part of the d-ducal territory w-want to be incorporated b-back from the r-royal direct territories?"

"That's right, Your Grace. Royal direct territories are exempt from death taxes and marriage taxes. Even tenant farming taxes are lower. Once classified as a direct territory, it's not easy to revert."

"Are royal direct territories that beneficial?"

When he asked back, Arndt became serious.

"Generally, territory residents are prohibited from illegal migration, but those from direct territories are different. Moreover, they're exempt from various taxes, and since they are managed by the state with dispatched representatives... Life is relatively prosperous compared to other territories."

It seemed that people living in lands owned by the state, that is, the royal family, or in free cities, could receive various benefits.

Certainly, if it was to that extent, there might not be a need to move to another territory.

"Aren't there any disadvantages to direct territories?"

"There probably are, but how significant they might be..."

As Arndt was mumbling and flipping through the innocent document pages, Leandros, who had been quiet, opened his mouth.

"The disadvantage of royal direct territories lies in the relatively shallow bond between the residents and the representatives."

"Bond?"

"Direct territories replace their representatives every 2 years at the shortest, 3 years at the longest. This is due to a system applied to prevent corruption. However, this leads to high fatigue among representatives and a significant lack of understanding of local culture and environment."

"That's understandable. If people change frequently."

"And no matter how often representatives are replaced, corruption inevitably occurs. The most representative example is the hiring of mercenary bands."

"Mercenary bands?"

Why would mercenary bands suddenly come up here?

Amelia also had her eyes wide open.

"I've h-heard about m-mercenary bands. D-direct territories don't h-have the lord's p-private soldiers, so instead, r-representatives form l-long-term contracts with n-nearby mercenary bands."

"The contracted mercenary bands take on various security tasks, no different from ordinary private soldiers, but I'll skip that as it's not important. Since the authority to determine the mercenary band lies with the representative, it's easy for the mercenary band and the representative to conspire."

"Conspire?"

"For instance, deliberately setting the mercenary band's compensation higher than the usual, and when the employment cost comes in, the representative and the mercenary band share the difference."

Wasn't this a kickback?

He had anticipated it to some extent, but actually hearing it was still absurd.

People were the same everywhere.

"So mercenary bands with close relationships to the representative are mainly employed. It doesn't seem like such mercenary bands would do their job properly."

"That's precisely right. They often send fewer personnel than the designated number. They're particularly vulnerable to bandit groups or demonic beast invasions."

"I see. Leandros, how do you know all this in such detail?"

"The place where I was born was a royal direct territory."

"Was there perhaps such corruption... there too?"

"Yes."

Arndt cautiously asked.

"There weren't incidents like demonic beast invasions in that village, right?"

"There were."

"...Pardon?"

"Half the village population died then. By the time the mercenary band arrived, the demonic beast had already fed and left."

"I-I'm s-sorry."

"Now you know."

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

It was a moment when the protagonist's past was revealed, but it wasn't pleasant at all.

It felt like touching a part of a friend that shouldn't be touched.

Arndt was desperately sending signals with his eyes to him.

No, it wasn't as if he could do something about this atmosphere either.

But Arndt looked so pitiful that he eventually opened his mouth while reading the atmosphere.

"Ahem, hem. Anyway, with this, we can accumulate achievements in defeating demonic beasts, and report to the royal family that northern demonic beasts, which increased during Hartmann's absence, have come down via the mountains."

"If that happens."

"Then Hartmann went to the north tracking demonic beasts, and there witnessed the anomaly in the north. We discovered a massive demonic beast species nest, and it appears that Hartmann, as the first discoverer, needs to continuously manage it... Isn't this a reasonable justification?"

"B-but if you s-say there's a d-demonic beast n-nest, w-wouldn't the r-royal family d-dispatch troops d-directly?"

"I plan to argue that utilizing revelations can significantly reduce human casualties."

"Y-you're g-going to m-mention Hartmann's r-revelations?"

"It's not that big of a secret. Even the former Duchess had them."

"B-but."

Amelia seemed to have complex feelings.

Arndt glanced at Amelia and then casually asked.

"Is there no possibility that we might be accused of heresy, Your Grace? Prophecy and revelation are different, and since the ducal family hasn't been on friendly terms with the Central Temple from before, I'm concerned."

They were indeed heretics.

How could he worry about heresy while serving a family that worshipped his brother as a god?

He asked Amelia.

"So I had something in mind... Lady Arnold, what happened with that?"

"Ah. ...Ah!"

Amelia looked at him with a blank face for a moment, then opened her mouth as if she had realized something.

"S-so that's why y-you wanted to r-request help from the t-temple?"

"Wouldn't the temple's noble miracle be better than a heretic's suspicious ability? At least the possibility of being suspected as heretics would decrease. Even if we can't eliminate it completely."

"I h-haven't received a r-response yet. B-but I'll s-send another one!"

That's right, that's right.

He fondly watched Amelia clenching her fists.

At this rate, it seemed like getting her to permanently settle in the ducal residence wasn't a dream.

The snowman, seeing this, asked.

"Heretic, big trouble if discovered? What god do they worship here?"

"I don't know either. But it seems like a kind of monotheism."

"Monotheism? Say the name. I will eliminate it. Worship the great me."

"As if you're so great."

While he was quietly conversing with the snowman,

Arndt, watching the enthusiastic Amelia with curiosity, casually said.

"Lady, if it's not impertinent, I think I could handle that matter instead."

"W-why? I c-can do it m-myself."

"Well, since the Lady will be returning to the Arnold barony later, such miscellaneous tasks..."

"Hey! Hey!"

When he shouted, Leandros swiftly covered Arndt's mouth.

But Amelia, who had heard Arndt's words, was slightly frozen.

No! That's not it!

He spoke in a gentle tone, as if placating an employee who was about to resign.

"I would like to entrust this to the Lady. Please know that the improper remarks of my servant just now absolutely do not represent the Hartmann ducal family."

"T-then, that."

"Correct. Ignore that human male's words. Only human female filled my belly. Human female works well. Dedicated. First-class worshipper."

"P-pardon?"

"This snowman fellow is right. I would be very happy if the Lady would send it. I am always very! much! grateful for the help that the Lady sends to the Hartmann ducal residence!"

Amelia, bewildered, just nodded her head.

After Amelia left, it was only natural that Arndt, who remained in the office, received numerous knocks on the crown of his head.