The Young Lord

Turning even barren wasteland into money. The lord of Goran certainly knew how to do business.

“Apparently, they’re also growing cacao beans for chocolate in the greenhouses near the dungeon.”

“Cacao beans, too?”

Cacao beans could only be grown in warm climates, and cultivating them domestically was said to be impossible. In short, they were enormously profitable.

…Margrave Goran really did have his fingers in all sorts of businesses.

I knew practically nothing about Goran’s territory, but the same could be said of the knights stationed in the central region.

For the knights of Maruam Central, the south was the region that demanded their attention.

The south was plagued by both internal problems and diplomatic difficulties.

Repeated skirmishes with its belligerent neighboring country had left the southern region severely weakened.

Taxes were high to cover the cost of the war, and rebellions were never-ending.

I myself had been dispatched to the south on several occasions.

Operating dungeons was profitable, but maintaining them came with stringent requirements.

With its severe political instability and lack of spare military forces, the south couldn’t meet those requirements and had no choice but to earn money through conventional means.

However, local industries could hardly flourish in a region perpetually on the brink of war, and the south was suffering from widespread poverty.

By comparison, Goran’s territory was a region without any significant problems, so there was no need for the central army to intervene.

However, one of my former colleagues had once said something to me.

The truly terrifying power lay in Goran to the west.

If the lord of that territory ever seriously decided to oppose the central government, the entire kingdom would be thrown into turmoil.

Certainly, the wealthy territory of Goran had the power to do just that.

And the king had already lost Goran’s trust.

The town hall belonged to the local lord, and meeting rooms like this one usually displayed a portrait of their lord.

This meeting room was no exception, with portraits of successive lords of Goran lined up along its walls.

And as was customary, the portrait of the current lord was displayed prominently at the front.

I looked up at the portrait and asked the young town hall official.

“…Is that the lord?”

“Yes, that’s right. That is Lord Alvin Astrate, the lord of our Goran territory.”

The young man suddenly scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

“Oh, my name is Alvin, too. It’s an honor to share His Lordship’s name.”

“Is that so? I think it’s a lovely name.”

Alvin was the name of a hero renowned for slaying monsters who had eventually become a king. It was a popular name for men in our kingdom, and I frequently encountered guests with that name at the inn.

Most portraits of nobles depicted men who were middle-aged or approaching old age.

In our kingdom, noble titles were generally held for life. Since they weren’t passed down while their holders were still alive, succession normally occurred only when the head of the family died.

Yet the portrait displayed as that of the current lord depicted a boy who appeared to be in his mid-teens.

He was a rather handsome young man with glossy black hair. However, his blue eyes possessed a dark gleam that seemed entirely out of place in someone his age as they stared back at me.

As befitted the head of a family of margraves renowned for their courage and military prowess, the boy wore a suit of jet-black armor and carried a black helmet beneath one arm.

The Goran ruling family’s coat of arms consisted of a silver sword on a black shield. The Goran Knight Order, traditionally commanded by a male member of the ruling family, followed the same design, and its knights wore entirely black armor.

But rather than looking heroic, the boy’s appearance seemed to convey the crushing weight of the responsibilities resting on his still-slender shoulders. I couldn’t help finding the sight rather heartbreaking.

The previous lord of Goran had been assassinated.

He and his wife had been traveling together to inspect a town within their territory when they were attacked and killed by bandits along the way. Their only child, Alvin Astrate, had lost both his parents at the age of fifteen and inherited the position of lord. His uncle, the younger brother of the previous lord, had become an adviser to assist the still-young successor.

His uncle had quickly located the perpetrators’ hideout, and after a fierce battle, every last one of them had been killed. The culprits were identified as bandits who had established themselves within the territory, and that was what had been reported to the central government. However, there were several suspicious circumstances surrounding the previous lord’s death.

Although Goran was a frontier territory situated close to a neighboring country, the territory itself was reasonably safe, and the lord and his wife had been accompanied by an appropriate number of guards. Nevertheless, they had been caught completely off guard and attacked by bandits who had appeared out of nowhere.

The attack had clearly been orchestrated.

The real culprits hadn’t been those bandits at all.

The new lord had secretly continued investigating the incident and eventually discovered that the person behind it had been his trusted uncle. He had also uncovered the identity of the people who had incited his uncle: a family of viscounts belonging to the central nobility, who were the family of his uncle’s wife.