18-4 Count Brown

After wringing a large number of souvenirs for the children out of Doran, I showed my face at Count Brown’s place.

The gatekeeper, whom I had frightened quite spectacularly last time, had his face twitching, but after he announced me, the butler immediately guided me to him.

“Hello, Lord Granburst. I hear you have become a duke.”

“Yeah, well, things were so hectic that it happened before I knew it.”

He was in what was either a reception room or a salon, and unexpectedly, he looked fairly well.

I felt as though not that much time had passed since last time.

It felt as if something that had been possessing him had fallen away.

Well, he had been in that state, so he had not been dragged out to war or anything.

He chuckled and continued.

“You really are a wild one. The second prince’s faction, including the prince himself, has either all died or fallen from power. While you are at it, please take care of that thing too one of these days. Duke-sama, the duke slayer.”

“That’s wrong, Count Brown. I’m already Duke-sama, the prince slayer. After all, the title of prince slayer was officially granted to me by the Kingdom. Well, that thing was originally supposed to become Crown Prince too, I suppose.”

When Count Brown heard that, he smiled refreshingly, then offered me the tea that a servant had just brought in and began speaking.

“By the way, what business brings you here today?”

“Ah, it’s about the compensation I mentioned before. How are things in noble society right now?”

“Well. At present, I was preparing to try some things I had thought of before, but unfortunately, I am still being ostracized in noble society.”

Count Brown said that with a slightly lonely look.

Unlike me, who had originally become a half-hollow recluse, he seemed to have a sociable personality, so that kind of thing must be hard on him.

“Ah, about that, I asked the new emperor just now. Once various things have been settled, the emperor himself will probably invite you back into society on some occasion. He was hurt by those people in all kinds of ways too, just like you, so you and he are basically fellow victims of that duke’s faction.”

“Eh, truly?”

He looked incredibly happy, almost leaning forward.

This kind of feeling was probably what he was originally like.

Well, it was a good thing that he had become able to make such a lively expression.

“Yeah. If he doesn’t invite you, then come with me for New Year’s greetings. I’ll bring our Fal, Sacred Elion-sama, along too. I wonder what faces the people who bullied you will make.”

I could not stop making a wicked face either.

“P-please go easy on them. This is my precious chance to return to noble society, after all.”

“I know. I won’t do anything that unreasonable. No joke, next time, show off how friendly you are with our Fal. That child won’t be cold to the person who gave us Yamamoto-san. That man is amazing. Right now, he’s the most amazing talent at our place.”

“Is that so? That is good to hear. I was worried about how he was doing. How should I put it? Even when I first met him, he seemed terribly out of place.”

“Hahaha, he’s that type of person. But he’s hugely popular with the children. That’s the kind of personality he has, and the sweets he makes are also something else. Also, I’ll give you this. In the Albatross Kingdom, there was someone who had circumstances similar to yours. Originally, this was something I prepared for that person. His wife is, amazingly enough, a young lady of House Palmia, which was at the center of that tragic calamity.”

Saying that, I spread out the same kind of wonderful material I had given Antonio.

“H-House Palmia!”

Ahaha, as expected, that name still drew that kind of reaction among imperial nobles.

And on top of that, Crown Prince Doran, who had been the central figure at the time of that incident, had only just ascended as the new emperor.

“So Antonio and that young lady of House Palmia were made to hold their wedding at the Alba Royal Palace under the sponsorship of the Albatross Royal Family, so no one could complain anymore. Well, various things happened, so I gave them this wrapping material too as a tool for reconciliation with the nobles.”

Count Brown picked them up, and he seemed to recognize the wonderful value they held.

“This is incredible. Is it truly all right for me to accept this?”

“Yeah, in the Albatross Kingdom, I’ve given the rights to someone else, so for now, Count Brown’s rights should be limited to this Empire. If you don’t have enough, I’ll give you more, so it’s fine. Contact me at that time. If there are inquiries from outside the country, contact me then too. As a means of contact, I’ll give you this smartphone as well.”

When I taught him how to use the smartphone, he became extremely excited.

Normally, a communication item like this would only be owned by royal families or the like.

Good.

With this, I had fulfilled my immediate obligation to Count Brown.

Yamamoto-san would also be relieved that the future of his benefactor, Count Brown, had become brighter.

He could now set to work on producing the crab-miso series without worries.

I would have to go procure crab right away later.

According to Count Brown, Count Richter had refused to go to war and had been under house arrest, but that had been lifted by order of the new emperor, and now he seemed to have been entrusted with important work.

Apparently, there were still very few people who could be trusted, so he had been loaded down with mountains of work.

Well, Richter was probably not the kind of man who would complain about that.

He was a rare talent in his own way.

It seemed the Empire’s new regime was being splendidly handled by the house-arrest duo.

In the end, just as Count Richter had said, a new wind had blown through the Empire too.

That guy must be quite satisfied.

He could peacefully bury himself under mountains of work.

Next time, I might go greet him while checking on how he was doing.

After taking my leave from Count Brown’s mansion, I went strolling around the town square, and there was already a proclamation posted on a standing signboard regarding the lewd elves.

Let’s see, let’s see?

“Granburst the prince slayer desires elves, so all elven slaves within the country are to be handed over to him. This is part of legitimate wartime reparations, and our defeated nation is not permitted to refuse. In the event of refusal, that rampaging spirit Demon King will soon visit the offender. In that case, both our Empire and the emperor shall have absolutely nothing to do with whatever happens. That is all.”

What a very straightforward piece of writing.

I felt as though his personality was seeping through it.

Since documents must have already been sent around to each house too, inquiries were probably flooding into the Albatross Kingdom Embassy, and the embassy staff must be running around in chaos.

Oops, not good. I had forgotten to contact the raccoon ambassador about this matter.

For now, I hurriedly teleported to the embassy and apologized to him.

“No, Ambassador-dono. I apologize for the delay in contacting you regarding this matter.”

“No, that itself is not a problem, but what shall we do with these elves?”

When I looked, there were already quick-acting people who had left elves there, and it seemed there were already over a hundred of them.

They were packed into the embassy’s empty rooms almost like sushi in a box.

Every one of them looked lost and had their heads lowered.

They had been thrown out of the familiar places where they had lived all this time.

For these long-lived people, perhaps that kind of thing was all the more painful.

The women in particular had expressions that looked dead, which was extremely frightening.

Well, considering the situation they had been placed in, that was only natural.

It was fine to take them in, but how was I supposed to support that…?

“Ah, wait a moment. I’ll prepare to receive them right away.”

I immediately flew to the Alba Royal Palace and asked permission to build a new town near the Royal Capital.

Normally, an important matter like building a new town should probably have gone through the government offices and received proper permission, but since this was an emergency, I specially asked His Majesty the King and forcefully got permission, then flew toward that land with Fly.

For now, I roughly leveled the land.

I was already used to work like this.

Next, I took out the town-parts series that I had made during my free time and stored in my item box, and assembled them rapidly.

First came the walls.

I slammed them down ready-made, and for the time being, I enclosed the planned town area with a boundary.

I made this all at once with earth magic.

For now, all I needed was a temporary wall.

I also made temporary gates here and there.

If the residents disliked them or if there was any inconvenience, I could remake them later.

Next, I lined up a mountain of buildings for the kindergarten with a boom, and covered the roads completely in stone paving.

At the edges of the roads, I made U-shaped gutters that processed drainage with magic tools.

I left the placement of equipment and furniture inside to the golems.

Because I had built the town with the feeling that it only needed to keep off the rain and dew for now, it ended up feeling extremely rough.

I built it at super-rush speed with the idea that it was enough if they had somewhere to sleep tonight.

Otherwise, all the elves would end up sleeping outdoors.

For now, I brought the first group over with teleportation magic, then chose people from among them whose eyes still seemed to have some firm light in them and appointed them as temporary leaders.

They became the town magistrate and the leaders of each block.

I also appointed people in charge of meals, hygiene, public order, counseling, and so on for each block.

I had barely even spoken with them yet, though.

It was fine.

If this were a Japanese company, once you joined, you would be taken straight to the worksite without any explanation and simply made to work as-is.

And overtime on that same day would be guaranteed.

That was exactly what happened to me.

On top of that, I was shocked when I had to deliver urgent goods that could not be loaded onto a truck to a customer using my own car, then was told to go straight home afterward. (Nonfiction.)

The overall person in charge here was me, a Japanese person, after all.

If I did not work hard to process this, the following groups would probably keep arriving one after another.

That new emperor was capable.

He would surely get spiteful and send a massive number of elves my way.

This was a contest between me and that underling of mine.

I absolutely could not afford to lose.

To think a contest like this would begin before the crab negotiations—somehow, that made me happy.

This was far more wonderful than a fight to the death.