Chapter 110

The ship carrying the envoy flew the flag of Azuria Province, and surprisingly, there was also a church ship beside it.

When I went to Frost and the others’ room and told them the situation, they explained that it was “nothing unusual.”

“Roran must have judged that it would be impossible to suppress this Jirenu Territory alone. They chose self-preservation over revenge. If they trample on a peace mediated by the church, this Jirenu Territory will become an enemy of God. Of course, the same logic will apply if we, Roran, trample on the peace. I think it is good for both sides.”

Rather than a peace in name only with an inferior opponent, it seemed Roran had seriously considered how to respond.

As I thought, using the synthetic magic stones so extravagantly and terrifying them to the bottom of their hearts had probably been a good strategy.

As I was thinking that, Frost, who had been looking outside through the wooden window, suddenly spoke.

“Since we were children, we have grown up hearing about the battles between the empire and Roran. So I thought prisoners of war were something far more miserable and wretched.”

Frost turned his gaze from outside back to me and shrugged.

“To think that, instead of being tortured, we would be served dragon meat, and even asked to teach you.”

At Frost’s deliberately theatrical words, I gave a wry smile.

After defeating the dragon, I had come here again to ask for a favor.

And even after that, I continued to visit this room from time to time.

The reason was that I wanted to gain every bit of knowledge I could while these valuable prisoners were still here.

“You really helped us. Thank you very much.”

“…I learned that the kind of person who bows their head like that is the most frightening.”

Frost himself did not seem to have originally been all that hostile toward Jirenu, but there was no doubt that he had looked down on us as inferiors and seen us as insignificant.

However, from this room, the liveliness of the town was impossible to ignore.

Just the other day, as soon as we heard information about the abandoned mine, we found it in no time, and on top of that, we even subjugated a sea dragon.

Seeing how we acted must have forced him to revise various assumptions.

“If this territory develops, it will benefit Roran as well. I will not spare my cooperation… no, that was an arrogant way for someone who lost to speak.”

Frost smiled wearily.

“As for what you asked of me, dispatching legal experts and administrators, I will make arrangements promptly once I return to Roran.”

“I would appreciate it.”

This was the reason I had been visiting Frost so often.

For the development of Jirenu Territory, we had to hurry and establish laws and an administrative organization, but it was far too heavy a burden for us.

The domestic affairs part of a management simulation game and the actual establishment of an administrative organization were completely different things.

When I tried discussing the establishment of a tax collection system with Yoshu in order to secure funds for ship construction, I immediately realized that.

Just deciding the job details and hiring people would not even amount to ten percent of everything that was needed.

For example, suppose we decided on their wages.

From the perspective of the townspeople, if the people squeezing taxes out of them were highly paid, they would be furious, but if the tax collectors’ wages were too low, some might end up turning to corruption.

Of course, if personnel expenses were higher than the taxes collected, there would be no point at all.

Just balancing that alone was already a difficult problem.

Then, various problems would likely arise in tax collection, so a person in charge would be necessary.

In that case, we would have to organize the chain of command, and we would need an accountant too.

The people needed for tax collection were by no means only tax officials.

On top of that, tax evasion and the like would definitely appear, so penalties would have to be imposed on such people. Otherwise, no one would honestly pay their taxes, so judicial power was also necessary for tax collection.

Or conversely, tax officials might commit wrongdoing. We would need someone to keep an eye on that too, and we would also have to establish a place where townspeople could submit complaints.

In this way, the problems kept doubling.

For tax collection to function, laws were necessary. For laws to function, people who administered those laws were necessary. Furthermore, laws were not something that could exist just because they were written down. For them to have meaning, a realistic system of punishment, such as a jail to throw criminals into, was needed.

To exercise that power, fair and sturdy guards were necessary, and then there were the guards’ wages, service regulations, organization chart… and a bottomless swamp waited beyond that.

Even that alone was enough to make my head hurt, but this Jirenu Territory had an even more fundamental problem.

In the first place, Jirenu Territory had no proper written laws to speak of.

There was a lord, there were unwritten rules like “this is probably bad,” and many disputes had been decided solely by the lord’s feelings. Apparently, things had managed to function reasonably well through that accumulation.

There was probably also the fact that, if something truly serious happened, people could appeal to Roran, which had a properly established judicial system.

However, in any case, building laws from scratch was something utterly impossible for us.

And now, here in Jirenu, we had Frost and the others, people who were actually in positions of governing and operating Roran.

So I had made daily visits to Frost and the others’ room, learning the general structure of common political forms and governing systems in this world.

After that, once peace was concluded with Roran, I secured a promise that Roran would send us specialists in administration and law.

In short, the method was to use the administrative and judicial systems that already existed in Roran as a foundation, then interview people about Iiria’s wishes as the lord and the customs of those who had long lived in Jirenu, and reconcile them.

If we did that, this Jirenu should somehow manage to put itself in order as a territory.

“When I was a child, I often imagined what sort of city I would make if I had a city I could do with as I pleased. And now, you people are about to make that reality.”

Frost narrowed his eyes and said it with envy from the bottom of his heart.

“It is a shame that I must return to Roran, but please allow me to cooperate.”

I did not know how serious he was, but if Frost helped us, it would be a great help.

I bowed deeply to him.

“Are you lot ready?”

Kururu came in then.

She was attending the peace-signing ceremony in her position as Iiria’s chief attendant, so she was wearing a dress-like outfit with a lot of fabric, one that had been made by calling in a clothing shop from town.

Her hair was neatly done up, and there was a faint rouge on her lips, probably because Iiria had ordered it.

When she noticed my gaze, she narrowed her eyes unhappily, but when I said, “It suits you,” she gave me a look as if that were obvious.

However, of course, I did not miss how her ears and tail looked pleased.

“Well then, everyone, have you forgotten anything?”

After seeing off Kururu, who quickly went downstairs, I asked Frost and the others.

Apparently, for great nobles who took it for granted that servants handled all the miscellaneous matters around them, it was a truly fresh question.

After staring blankly for a moment, Frost laughed as if he found it very amusing.

After a roundabout exchange through envoys riding small boats, we finally faced them at sea, and aboard the church’s ship were the archbishop and below him, a whole line of Roran’s high-ranking clergy.

However, that greedy priest was not there.

He had not been present for the commotion of rescuing the lord, nor had he been there during the territory’s later crisis, so he probably could not very well act like Jirenu’s representative.

Instead, from the church’s side, Assistant Priest Clover was appointed as Jirenu’s representative.

Most likely, Clover’s excellence was known in Roran as well, and perhaps they thought this territory was far too dangerous to leave to the greedy priest.

They were probably using this opportunity to promote the useful-looking Clover.

Thus, under the witness of the archbishop and the others, Roran’s representative and Iiria signed the peace agreement.

Having fully restored her energy after spending her days in indolence, Iiria performed the role of an up-and-coming lord perfectly, behaving splendidly without being intimidated by the church or the people of Roran.

Kururu, who knew the hardship Iiria had endured as a decorative lord, mocked and ridiculed by everyone whenever she participated in town events, was even teary-eyed at Iiria’s astonishingly gallant figure as she faced the signing.

Then, at the very end came the handover of the prisoners, but Frost, who had been about to step forward from Jirenu’s side to Roran’s side, stopped and turned back toward Iiria.

“You could have turned us into ash. And yet, as prisoners, we received treatment we could not have hoped for. I wish to express my respect for the mercy of Lord Iiria.”

Seeing Frost take the lead and kneel, his second older brother hurriedly knelt as well.

Iiria lightly shrugged, then held out her hand and allowed Frost to kiss the back of it.

At that moment, Frost glanced at me and smiled.

It was not the face of a noble, but the face of a merchant.

It meant that if we washed away our grudges and joined hands, we would probably both be able to gain great profits.

In this way, once Frost and the other prisoners were safely returned, Roran presented a treasured sword and a flag, perhaps as ransom.

Finally, under the archbishop’s direction, the bell rang out loudly, and everything came to an end.

Looking back on it later, this day became the day of Jirenu Territory’s official restart as a territory known to the world.

And for the empire of later generations, no, for this world, it became a day recorded in history books as a major turning point.

But for now, Iiria and the others were simply relieved that a great burden had been lifted from their shoulders.

After the signing was finished and a light celebration was held, immediately after we landed at the harbor.

As soon as Iiria untied her tight sash, she held it in her hand and swung it around while shouting.

“We’re drinking today!”

Of course, no one scolded her, and the townspeople who had watched the peace with Roran being concluded at the harbor raised voices of joy.

Perhaps Iiria was more suited to being a pirate chief than a refined lord.

I gave a small, exasperated smile, then looked at Kururu.

Kururu had been tearing up again at the sight of Iiria receiving cheers from the townspeople as the lord who had splendidly repelled Roran, but when she noticed me, she wiped the corners of her eyes and gave a brave smile.

“Come on, we’re making food. You help too.”

“Of course.”

Kururu wiped the corners of her eyes once more, then suddenly hugged me.

Then, after pulling away as if striking my chest, she ran toward Iiria.

She was probably going to help her, since she was being mobbed by the townspeople.

When I suddenly noticed, Kengo, Marks, Dodol, and the other main members were watching Iiria and Kururu from a distance.

Calling it the face of a boyfriend watching from behind would be strange, but they looked as if they clearly understood what it was they had to protect.

Then, before long, the men exchanged glances without anyone initiating it, and smiled as if to say, “Good grief.”

There were many things to do.

In particular, I first had to light the cooking fire and wash the vegetables.

After all, our princess and her attendant had said that today would be a banquet.