Neighborhood Visitor (6)

“So, there’s no need to leave such a legacy, Your Majesty.”

“Hahaha, well, you’re right as always. But…”

“It’s fine. I’ve retired. I have no intention of getting involved.”

“Is that so…”

The Emperor nodded as if reassured.

“Then what is this small matter?”

He got straight to the point. So, it was my turn to do the same.

“Do you know about the situation in Dedran City?”

“Are you talking about Count Dedran’s incident?”

“So you know about it.”

“Yes. Although I pretend not to be involved in state affairs, I do know that the Count caused a major incident.”

“That’s correct. Thanks to him, Dedran City is in chaos right now. So, I have a proposal. Could you merge Dedran City into Greek City?”

Even if I stabilize Dedran City, it will be in vain if a proper lord isn’t appointed.

In that case, it would be best to leave it to the young man from Greek City who aspires to be a proper lord.

“Why is that? It’s not a matter that concerns you, is it?”

“I understand that taxes from Dedran City aren’t coming in properly.”

“I believe it’s the worst.”

“I intend to step in and normalize the taxes. Isn’t the recovery of taxes the top priority for the central government? The dukes are too busy checking each other to appoint a proper lord.”

“Duke Gelti has assured that if the matter is entrusted to him, he will normalize it.”

He said he wouldn’t get involved in state affairs, yet he was well aware of all the facts.

“I don’t want Dedran City to be a pawn in power struggles. It’s a place where a pure and devoted woman grew up, and I believe her son deserves to inherit it.”

I began to tell the Emperor a more detailed story.

The story of Berna and the Greek family.

And how they must continue to develop that territory.

To do that, I would first step in to sort out the situation and asked him to disguise me as a direct noble under the Emperor and send me as the administrator.

High ceilings. Red carpet.

Luxurious window frames.

Candles shining everywhere.

And in the center, a desk.

The desk, made of high-quality Lumel wood, exuded an air of nobility.

It showed how much money had been poured into the entire building.

And at that desk sat a man with long hair covering his ears.

Outwardly a moneylender, but secretly connected to various criminal organizations in the southern part of the Empire.

Click. Click.

Rieden sat at the beautifully grained desk, trimming his nails.

Then one of his subordinates approached. A big man with broad shoulders.

“Master, we have new information.”

“Really? A new administrator has arrived?”

“It seems so.”

Click!

A trimmed nail flew and hit the subordinate’s forehead. Rieden finally finished trimming his nails and looked up at Berneto’s face.

“Hmmm.”

Berneto inwardly complained, ‘Again?’ He wished Rieden would at least refrain from the habitual ‘hmmm’, which didn’t suit him at all.

But outwardly, he maintained a calm expression. If this man got upset, it wouldn’t matter if it was his right arm or left arm, he would show no mercy.

“So, what kind of person is he?”

Rieden asked with a face that seemed to say, ‘What are you stalling for?’

He waited because he was trimming his nails, but now he looks angry.

“What’s your problem? If you don’t like it, why don’t you be the boss?”

“No, not at all!”

Berneto began to sweat, thinking he had fallen for Rieden’s mind-reading again.

“The new administrator is a man named Baron Ivolk. He’s coming down with the title of Lord Deputy, but we couldn’t find any special title in the capital. Isn’t he just a noble stuck in some countryside?”

“A baron, huh.”

So far, administrators of that rank have come and gone. It’s getting tiresome.

“How long do they plan to send Lord Deputies? Even if all the nobles of Dedran City have been captured and it’s empty, it’s absurd to keep sending mere barons.”

As Rieden blew on his trimmed nails and answered, Berneto nodded in agreement.

Usually, nobles of count rank or higher have a knight order attached to their family. It’s a privilege of the count rank. Of course, the knight order isn’t large at the count level. But at the duke level, the knight order can be as large as a division.

But they don’t have private soldiers outside of the knight order. Usually, nobles of count rank or higher have territories with stationed troops.

Those troops are composed of ordinary citizens fulfilling their military duty.

In other words, there is an army, but it’s managed by the lord on behalf of the country.

After Count Dedran’s fall, such troops lost their military discipline and became like a criminal organization.

Thus, the new administrators couldn’t exercise proper authority.

Unless the Emperor’s capital army was sent down from the capital.

But that capital army was busy with border disputes with the neighboring empire. So they didn’t consider sending troops to a small city.

The central government saw only a slight disruption in taxes and didn’t consider the issues with ordinary nobles to be very serious.

It was in this gap that Rieden, who had committed various atrocities with Count Dedran, began to operate secretly in Dedran City.

“But, Master. If powerless barons keep coming, won’t we be able to control this place for a longer time?”

“That’s not it. If you keep asking such stupid questions, you never know when you’ll disappear from that seat next to you.”

Rieden’s eyes sparkled.

It was practically a warning, and Berneto had to shut up and be tense.

“To completely make Dedran City mine, I need a perfect puppet lord. One that even the Palace can’t complain about. If administrators keep changing, we have to pay attention every time, and how wasteful is that? When a count comes, using that drug on him will make everything go smoothly. Got it? If you spout such stupid nonsense again, I’ll replace you with someone else.”

“I’m sorry!”

Berneto shouted loudly because that was something that should never happen.

The end of someone Rieden no longer needed was only death. Berneto knew this best.

‘That drug. So that’s what it was.’

And with the mention of that drug, Berneto nodded in understanding.

The drug used on Count Greek.

Rieden had offered that drug to Count Dedran. And Rieden had one more of those drugs.

“Are you talking about that drug made by the dark elves?”

“Yes.”

An experimental product obtained by providing the dark elves with an unlimited supply of humans they could use freely.

Just as elves are talented in healing magic, dark elves are very knowledgeable in pharmacology. Unlike elves, however, dark elves use that knowledge for nefarious purposes.

“That’s why we brought the steward of Count Dedran’s house to our side, isn’t it? Hehehe.”

The steward of Count Dedran’s house was a person who had been released without being sent to the capital due to several testimonies that he was frequently abused by Count Dedran.

“Anyway, making the drug is very difficult, so we only have one vial. We can’t use it carelessly. So we need a properly appointed lord, not just administrators. Even if they bring some knights, we can deal with them later.”

“Y-yes, of course.”

“We spent so much money on Duke Mertina for that, yet they still haven’t sent a proper lord.”

“There was a message that they would send a count this time… but suddenly the Emperor pushed for it.”

“Suddenly?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm, find out more about that.”

“Understood!”

“Anyway, if there’s nothing special about the one coming this time, we’ll have to kill him. We’ll give them a shock treatment. That way, they’ll realize the seriousness of the situation and send a count with a knight order, don’t you think?”

There are ranks even among territories.

Of course, a duke could send a count under his command to a territory bestowed as a duchy.

The difference between a territory where the Emperor sent a count and one where a duke sent a count is only who sent the lord; the fact that a count becomes the lord of that area remains unchanged.

In the case of a duchy, even if a count becomes the lord, the actual owner of the territory is always the duke, and a lord appointed by the duke rarely changes unless something like Count Dedran’s incident occurs.

“Understood. I’ll prepare for that as well.”

“Prepare without any setbacks.”

Rieden said this and looked back at his nails.

I returned to Dedran City under the name Baron Ivolk.

The Lord’s castle was half burnt down. But the remaining part was still enough to eat and sleep in, so it wasn’t a problem.

The burning of this Lord’s castle was to remove the mental shackles that had oppressed Berna all her life under the monster called father.

I don’t know if it actually helped Berna. I hadn’t entered her mind.

“Rurin, we’ll stay here for a while.”

“Here?”

Rurin blinked and looked around the office inside the Lord’s castle. She didn’t seem to like it much.

Of course, I didn’t like the space either.

But well, living as a lord after being born a man isn’t so bad, is it?

Although it’s a very problematic neighborhood.

After eliminating Count Dedran, I’m paying for not handling the aftermath. That’s all there is to it.

“There’s no bed.”

“Huh? That’s the problem?”

“Then what is the problem?”

“Isn’t it?”

When Rurin asked back, I had nothing to say.

“Well, it’s just for a while. We’ll go back soon. There are things to achieve. Fool, you make me feel sorry when you talk like that.”

Making her stay here because of my personal matters made me feel suddenly sentimental.

So I patted Rurin’s head as she looked up at me.

“Hehehe.”

Rurin suddenly started laughing.

“If you feel sorry, let me sleep on you. There’s no bed!”

Back to the starting point, but there is a bed. This is the office, so there’s only a desk here.

“The thing is, this whole Lord’s castle is our home for now. So, there’s a bed.”

“What? What is that! I don’t want that!”

She said she didn’t care as long as we were together, but now she’s suddenly getting angry.

“If I can’t fall asleep with you in this small place, it means nothing. Understand, you? That’s how it is!”

What does that even mean?

Was her oddly obedient behavior because of this?

“Even when I won the bet before, you ran away?”

“Th-that was because it was the first time! I’m used to it now! It was the same before, too! That’s it!”

“Really? Hehe, but for now, there won’t be such things.”

“You. If you keep making a woman shed bloody tears, you’ll regret it later!”

“What? Who told you that?”

“Such a thing exists!”

Rurin made an absurd argument while sitting on the desk in the office and started swinging her legs.

It’s probably one of my old comrades, or recently, that damn Red Dragon.

If she’s not saying who told him, it means she doesn’t want her pride hurt.

Then the obvious culprit is Sereina.

Anyway, that Red Dragon.

I wish she knew that I’m enduring it too.

Moreover, I almost couldn’t endure it on the rooftop of the Wizard’s Tower.

Hold it in.

Rurin’s birthday is just around the corner.