Chapter 2 – No Battle but No Progress either

 

 

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『General 3rd Class Earlyton, is the construction of the base proceeding as planned?』

“Yes.”

『Fine』

 

 

In the sky above the uninhabited island chain called Terra Harrez Archipelago by the humans floated an airship. Around a hundred kilometers east from here a noble holding territory in the western part of the Lingaia Continent claimed possession of these islands, according to our most recent intelligence.

This was information we procured from the sailors of a large magic airship which was captured by our defense forces after they got fired at the other day, but just as those captives had told us, you can only see a crude lighthouse and some very frugal and basic huts.

This place didn’t allow people to live on grains, and one had to dig very deep to obtain fresh water. For this reason, these islands have remained uninhabited or so they said.

“Parliamentary Official Gary, when are we going to begin the negotiations with the Helmut Kingdom?”

『I would like you to wait for a bit longer since it requires sophisticated political decision-making』

I, 3rd Class General Earlyton, fleet commander of the National Sky Armada stood on the bridge of the flagship while giving my regular report to a senior government official through a 『Magic Picture Transmitter』.

“Sophisticated political decision-making, huh…?”

The official had said so on the other side of the magic picture, but in reality, the government was simply confused as they didn’t know how to deal with this whole situation.

Gary is actually a handsome man who’s rather popular among women. In the previous election, he ran as a candidate for the opposition, the Civil Rights Party, and won his seat after gathering many votes from women. Him holding the position of parliamentary official for national defense in spite of him being a congressman in his first year is solely owed to the huge support he obtained through the women’s votes.

His popularity allowed the Civil Rights Party to obtain more than 20% during the last election, leading to them making a significant breakthrough as they came to power. The National Sovereignty Party, which had held the power until then and formed the government for the long period of 630 years, suffered a crushing defeat during the election as they didn’t manage to prevent the demon’s decline, which has been going on for a long time, and lost many of their seats, despite not having made any particular mistakes in their government.

The people simply wanted to see some kind of change, I suppose.

But, the Civil Rights Party had few people with practical experience in running a country. They were able to say lots of popular things when in public, but when it came to putting all their promises into practice, it was foreseeable that it’d prove difficult.

Anyway, the incident in question occurred merely one week after they formed their new Cabinet, making this a real bad timing. The humans, whose highly advanced civilization vanished 10,000 years ago, suddenly showed up on an ancient magic airship from the eastern continent said to be a place where savages were competing over land while forming primitive societies.

Our defense forces immediately ordered their ship to withdraw from our territorial waters and skies in accordance with regulations, but because the human airship fired magic at them for some reason, our army had no choice but to seize their vessel.

Fortunately, this whole incident didn’t lead to any casualties, but it seems like a few people got injured. Their medical treatment finished a long time ago by now, but interrogating them gave us a fair share of troubles.

After all, the last records pointing to us coming in contact with the humans all dated back more than 10,000 years ago.

Because they had fired magic at us, unprovoked, they’re currently held as prisoners of war. But, our country possesses no laws in regards to how prisoners of war are to be treated.

We did have such laws in the past, but since they were unnecessary, all those laws were abolished over time. And since we had no contact with other countries or races either, we got rid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the same time.

For all these reasons, the public opinion was split on how to handle those prisoners and which governmental department should be in charge of their questioning and management. And even though their treatment shouldn’t have been bad, the mass media arbitrarily started to kick up a fuss over civil rights violations towards the prisoners and so on.

Well, then again, it’s their business to garner interest by kicking up a fuss. They’re the same as all those people who complain about environmental destruction through river construction works as it puts rare fish species in danger.

Many of the people hearing and reading their articles took the whole thing with a grain of salt, but quite a few people believed their fabrications, joining the racket as well.

According to all these people, humans seem to be a pitiable race since they only live for a short time and only have few members who possess mana.

Certainly, they might have a point in that, but I don’t think that they’re all that different from us, except for a slightly lower cultural level.

I clearly understood that part after also participating in the interrogations. Two people, who introduced themselves as captain and vice-captain, had calmly explained the circumstances. They apparently spoke with us while rationally deciding what information they could share and which they shouldn’t reveal, which urged me into holding a high esteem of them as someone also striving in handling his professional duties diligently.

At the very least, I evaluated these two much higher than the parliamentary official, whose face was in front of me right now as I made another of those totally pointless reports.

On the other hand, they also had an irredeemable idiot on their huge airship. He was their second vice-captain.

I wouldn’t say that his abilities are lacking, but maybe because of his youth, he’s lacking patience. Either way, he keeps whining about being mistreated as heir of a noble.

As it appears like the humans have a noble society on their continent, it sounds like some of their youths have a strong bias towards possessing special rights. Since you can find the same kind of people among the relatives of politicians, important bureaucrats, and enterprise owners in our country as well, I think we’re not that different in this respect either.

But, according to what a part of the populace and the mass media are claiming, the Helmut Kingdom appears to still be a savage nation that’s infested by an autocracy of nobles. A reporter, who shares their view, wrote those claims in an article.

The people believing in all that are demanding that we should immediately invade the human country in the name of spreading the moral values of democracy. The slogan sounds great, but those people are pushing us to move our army with us only knowing that a Helmut Kingdom and a Holy Empire Urquhart exist on the continent, but nothing about their population, technological level, national power, or military forces. They’re fairly irresponsible with their demands just because they won’t be the ones that have to enforce them.

In the first place, our defense forces aren’t even a regular army. Because we didn’t have to worry about any real threats for more than 10,000 years, our defense force is no more than a police organization endowed with the ability to suppress domestic conflicts.

Every once in a while demons with tremendous mana are born, who then grow into outstanding combat forces. Given that we’d be troubled if such demons planned terror or subversive actions, the main duty of the defense force lies in preventing such demons from committing crimes. In addition, police forces to deal with common crimes and rescue forces to perform relief and fire fighting also belong to our defense force, but even if you combine all these forces, they number less than 30,000.

The population of our country amounts to a million, but most recently large-scale, atrocious crimes or terroristic acts have been rare. Because of that, there had been complaints about the costs for renewing the equipment, and at present there’s also a trend to decrease the personnel.

So how are we supposed to occupy and rule over an entire continent with these forces?

It was a view that could only be described as utter stupidity, but the whole situation was so problematic because a certain number of influential politicians endorsed the continent invasion idea──as it seems like it’s bad to call it invasion, they coin it as liberation, although it’s the same thing either way──among the members of the Civil Rights Party, including the idiot on the other side of the magic picture. In addition, that idea also had sympathizers among the congresspeople of the former ruling party, media people who wanted to boost their sales, and financiers.

The mass media advocated that newspapers as public institutions were necessary in order to teach the people on the continent about democracy. I feel like they just want to improve their sales with this, but they are probably able to talk themselves into believing their own public stance while masking their true motive.

And to be honest, I’m quite envious of them. Their frank, greed-based approach of wanting to expand their potential customers is something I can still understand. But then again, most of the demons are regarding the media with inborn skepticism and indifference.

For all these reasons, the troop dispatch has turned into such a half-baked mess. The politicians want to pressure the other party by building a temporary base on this archipelago, which belongs to the other party but has been left deserted, in order to push the other party into apologizing for their preemptive attack, so that they can afterwards tie a trade agreement with them.

As might be expected, even our government isn’t as stupid as to immediately plunge into war. Though, even if they wanted to do it, they’d likely have to face an opposition by the uniformed personnel of the defense forces since they’re no combat forces after all.

On the other hand, diplomats are necessary to tie trade agreements and demand apologies from the other party, but unfortunately our country has abolished the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two thousand years ago.

Back then, the government was under heavy criticism for keeping the ministry going and thus paying a budget for the department, despite it being completely useless. I hear the members of the ministry opposed the notion, but since they were reassigned to other ministries and departments to help out over there after they lost their posts, they probably accepted their lot in fate at some point.

So far as it goes, there are still documents about how to handle foreign diplomacy left behind, but currently the politicians are debating who should go. But contrary to expectation that everyone is flinching back because of lacking experience, it’s actually a quarrel over taking the initiative by various ministries, which has turned the whole issue into a chaotic mess.

Today was yet another day of Gary dodging the crux of the matter with a pointlessly refreshing smile, but just the face of the Minister of Defense not having shown up means that they’re still arguing.

“So, about the diplomats of the Helmut Kingdom who have arrived in absolute secrecy…”

The continent has two big nations, and thus the Helmut Kingdom naturally has diplomats working for it. A delegation of ten such diplomats visited us. In absolute secrecy.

Right now, our defense forces are kindly taking care of them. We’ve been telling them that we’ll transport them to our country if the time’s ripe, but it’s completely unclear when that might be.

Still, it’s funny in a bad way. Most of our politicians and media folks believe them to be savages with inferior culture and technology, but even though these barbarians immediately dispatched diplomats, our country is in complete disorder, unable to send any diplomats from our side. Doesn’t that make it kind of hard to tell which of us are barbarians?

『It’s going to take some time to build the base anyway…』

“That’s certainly true…”

There exists yet another problem: the base we’re currently building. At first it was planned to build it as a temporary base allowing for a quick withdrawal. But, the government has been frequently changing its plans.

After the initial idea of a temporary base, they soon started to clamor about taking this as an opportunity to use this base as a launch pad for an invasion of the continent.

Now that the Helmut Kingdom has started to amass its troops to repel us, it’ll lead to war if we try to occupy this place permanently. The defense forces have been against this idea of occupying the archipelago from the very start. Then again, they could take such a passive stance because the defense forces are under civilian control. Or in other words, they don’t have to obey the government’s orders.

I don’t particularly mind that. A militaristic dictatorship by the army as it existed in ancient history must have been a nightmare.

But, seeing how civilians control the defense forces, I’d like them to at least learn the minimum amount of knowledge needed to run an army.

By the way, the idiot on the other side of the magic picture device isn’t even able to differentiate between a naval and air fleet. Considering that this retard is going to effectively act as No. 3 within the defense forces in the case of an emergency, I get headaches.

『Are the young civilians in military employ doing well?』

“Yes…”

And the core hindrance delaying the construction of the base are those very civilians in military employment.

For the last few hundred years, the birth rate – accompanied by an increase in singles – has been decreasing in our country. It’s reached such an extent that there have been worries about an economical degrowth. Well, if you take the reality of more than half of the youths being unemployed into account, that might be inevitable.

However, the youths themselves weren’t overly worried about this. Because we could perform farming with few people thanks to our high technological level, the excessive amounts of leftover food were distributed for free, and on top of that, the state also offers public assistance on the level of paying people some pocket money. As such, they’ve been enjoying a life of unemployment, except for the few times when they did some part-time jobs or immersed themselves in work they like.

According to the elderly, this behavior was outrageous and inexcusable, but since there simply weren’t enough jobs to be found, it was pointless to make a fuss over it. Yet, the government recruited those young people for the army as civilians in order to cover up that contradiction.

In short, the defense force was lacking combat forces, so they recruited unemployed folks, who looked like they’d be interested in the world beyond our island, and had them work on the base’s construction.

As a result of that, the work progress on the base kept falling behind schedule. Of course, the reason was simple enough: they were amateurs with little to no work experience.

The few defense force members, who possessed the necessary skills, had to protect them while those amateurs were building the base through trial and error.

Some officers and men got totally pissed by the ridiculous slowness of their progress, but the government shut them up over the possibility of causing work injuries to the youths. Therefore, everyone stopped caring and let the amateurs go at their own pace.

It was good that we applied for a delay in the base completion as it wouldn’t get finished any time soon anyway. And if we blamed the delay on the young civilian workers, we’d only get rebuked and punished by the government.

Honestly, politicians sure got it easy as they just need to talk down on others.

『They’re inexperienced. So please be lenient with them and take the long term into consideration』

“Yes…”

I don’t particularly mind that, but some of them have quite a bit of past experiences. They won’t do any decent work, but instead investigate the island’s geological features and ecosystem. They’re university graduates and have apparently performed research in those fields.

The university’s autonomous student bodies are strongholds of the Civil Rights Party. Using the system of employing young civilians for the army as pretext, the real intention is probably to let them research for free.

“(Well, in a certain sense I admire their strong will, though)”

Besides, it’s also possible that the idiots over at the government would get funny ideas if they built an outstanding base in no time. Looking at it like that, it might actually be convenient for the base’s completion to get delayed.

In the first place, I can still understand that the young civilians are amateurs, but what should I think about the No. 3 of the defense force being an amateur at politics? Or am I the odd guy out for believing that amateurs shouldn’t become politicians? (T/N: lol)

“(In your case, you’ll stay an incompetent dolt no matter how long the term that’s taken into consideration…)”

『Did you say anything just now, General 3rd Class Earlyton?』

“No, nothing, Sir.”

My mutterings were almost heard by him. I felt like it’d have been fine for him to hear them as well, but if I got punished for military insubordination at this point, my severance payment and pension would be toast. It’s best to just endure for now.

『The negotiations should begin around the time when the base has been completed. Since the Helmut Kingdom resorted to violence first, they’ll apologize, I suspect. And if we can tie a trade agreement afterwards, things will get better too』

“You’re right, Sir.”

It’d be great if everything goes so smoothly…

I was gradually starting to become jealous of this parliamentary official who was an utter birdbrain.

 

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“The supply work sure keeps you busy.”

“Earl Baumeister, you’ve become just like a fisherman. Anyway, what’s going to happen with this dispute?”

 

After finishing the fishing, giving milk to the babies, and putting them to sleep, we held a dinner party. Because the situation wasn’t moving at all, we invited Philip and Christophe and tried to exchange some information.

Since we were still living on the airship, we didn’t invite too many guests. Basically it’s those two, their subordinates, and their new vassals.

“You’re already taking vassals?”

“Well, I’m not the only noble who received medals for the civil war in the Empire.”

Several of the commanders, who had become soldiers in order to make a living as second or third sons of noble houses, were appointed as Knights and became independent as appointed nobles. Those guys apparently became Philip’s vassals.

“It took you no time to herd them in…”

“Earl Baumeister, even if you might think so, don’t blurt it out like that. Even I was perplexed about it.”

“Eh? Even though you were originally the son of a margrave?”

“Did you think that I knew about our vassals in detail? Christophe was in charge of such things.”

“An eldest son cut out for military affairs, and a second son suited to be an official for domestic affairs, huh…?”

“What’s so bad ’bout it?”

“Philip-niisan, please conduct yourself properly, even if only for form’s sake,” Christophe rebuked Philip.

But sure, revealing that you haven’t done what was necessary for a noble isn’t the smartest idea, I guess.

“I mean, even you, Earl Baumeister, haven’t been paying that much attention to your vassals, have you?”

“Well, I haven’t, but still…”

I haven’t been doing it since I dumped everyone on Roderich.

“Nowadays, I’m doing it though. After all, everyone’s relying on me. Appointed Knights are basically treated like nobodies after all.”

Different from the past, Philip seems to believe that it’s bad if he doesn’t take care of his people. And his subordinates, who suffered together with him during the civil war, appear to idolize Philip after having watched him taking care of his men.

“Christophe and I have also been indebted to a vassal of Minister Edgar. That part is very appreciated and makes things easier on us. In exchange, we’re striving to exchange information with you, Earl Baumeister… Let us pass you some intel as well, as thanks.”

According to their patron, Minister Edgar, the Kingdom has already dispatched a delegation of diplomats in secret to the demon fleet in question. But, it sounds like they’re being detained on their ships without any negotiation having started so far.

“Are they being confined?”

“We don’t know. It looks like they can regularly contact our side, and the demon’s commandant also told them that they can go back at any time if they got some business to take care of.”

“So they’re keeping us in suspense to negotiate under good conditions?”

Our side sent a diplomatic delegation, so it’d be common for someone in charge to deal with them.

“The palace also finds it hard to make heads or tails out of it. Some of the nobles are claiming that the demons are looking down on the Kingdom and that we should attack them right away…well, mostly it’s the folks around Earl Platte, though…”

“That guy again…”

He seems to be advocating that even starting a war to recover his heir, who’s a vice-captain on the Lingaia, would be justified. He’s taking the doting father act to the extreme, but I wonder if I’d react in the same way if Friedrich went through the same experience?

“Since the A information has come from Roderich at your place, we’ll be thankful as long as they don’t make any moves while we’re not understanding anything.”

『A information』 was referring to the information of the demon freeloading at our place, aka it’s mostly 『Arnest’s information』.

Since it was suspected that he might betray us by contacting the demons on his own accord if we brought him here, he had to stay back home. They guy himself appeared to be busy with his theories and had locked himself in his room, though.

And, in exchange for the Kingdom turning a blind eye on him, we’ve been providing information about the demons which he told us about.

Arnest was a guy who had fled his country as he wanted to investigate the historic ruins on the Lingaia Continent. Therefore, his allegiance to the demon country was rather weak, allowing him to tell the Kingdom everything he knew.

Thanks to that, we managed to gather some information about the demons, but because he’s been a university professor over there, he could only provide an outline about the demons’ government and army. Even so, it was plenty for the Kingdom’s government to be tilted towards negotiations.

“All demons are magicians. Even the weakest demons possess mana above intermediate level. The performance of their magic airships and other weapons goes far beyond anything the Kingdom owns. So even if they might be outnumbered in personnel and resources…”

It might not turn into a total war because of their low numbers, but if it develops into a limited clash of armies for the sake of improving the negotiation conditions, our side would likely get completely devastated. And what if the Kingdom had to accept a disadvantageous treaty, including the cessation of territory, as an outcome of that? It’d likely develop into a situation where even the Empire would scoff at us.

“The Kingdom’s government wants to apply pressure by relying on numbers to somehow get the demons to conclude a treaty among equals with us.”

“They think that’s possible?”

“They wouldn’t be doing it, if they doubted the possibility. The problem is to be found with the folks who keep getting in the way like Earl Platte and his followers.”

“Them thinking that they could win a war against the demon country is astonishing. Even though they have access to Arnest’s information, too.”

“According to them, that sort of intelligence seems to be unreliable.”

“Then tell them to go and look for reliable information by themselves.”

“Those retards would never do anything so bothersome.”

In their eyes, war is a bet with their career as a chip.

“The ministers, soldiers, and upper echelons hate war. The nobles hawking war think that they can rise in rank if everything proceeds smoothly, and if not, they’ll just dump responsibility on the guys above them. And then, once some positions have opened up after the upper brass got punished, they’ll come back while acting all innocent.”

That’s very scummy, but such behaviors and opinions are prevalent among mid-tier nobles and non-mainstream factions. I feel like pitying the upper ranks, but since they’re in positions where they’ll be held accountable if they go along with such ideas, it probably comes as a part of the deal when being appointed to higher posts. Higher-ups eyes to take responsibility after all.

“That means we can still continue to fish, right? Great, I’ll use this opportunity and go all out on sea fishing, ya───ay! So far I haven’t caught any fish you could categorize as the boss of an area.”

“Earl Baumeister, what kind of fairy-tale is that supposed to be?”

“It sounds likely, or rather, it’d be interesting if such a boss really exists.”

Philip immediately dismisses it while Christophe partly approves of my boss idea.

“One day I’m going to catch such a boss!”

“There was also the serpent from the first day, so you just need to make another such big haul, dear.”

“Right. You totally get my drift, Elise.”

Yep, this area is home to a wonderful fishing zone that has been blessing us with an abundance of fish. If I do my best, I might be able to make yet another big catch.

“Wend, so far as it goes, we’ve been heading out to fish under the pretext of procuring food for the armies stationed here…”

“Erw, you think I don’t know as much myself?”

Because I’m well aware of it, I’ve been heading out every day while repeating that pretext. Besides, we’re also selling loads of fish to them, too. We set the prices to be a bit below market price and we also guarantee the fishermen’s income. Because of all that, Margrave Holmia hasn’t said anything about this either.

“I’m just worried that you might have become so absorbed in fishing that you forgot about our original objective here.”

“Ahahaha, there’s no way that’s true,” I answered Erw with a laugh.

“Really? I consider Erw’s worries as rather valid.”

“E───ehh!? Why are you stabbing me in the back, Ina?”

“I’m not stabbing anything, It’s just that you’ve been happily fishing or staying with the babies every day, Wend.”

“Spearheading the era, I’m a noble who takes care of his babies. That’s my calling as Earl Baumeister-sama!”

Ideas like child-rearing fathers or division of house chores don’t exist in this world. It’s a common way of thinking that women mostly take care of the children. And most high-ranking nobles entrust this duty to wet nurses or maids so as to not bother the mother.

It seems like guys who feed the babies with milk or change their diapers, like me, are a rarity.

“Usually I cannot do it, so you should let me at least do it now when I’ve got some time.”

I’m busy with various things while I’m back home and Roderich is a pain about it, too. For that very reason, right now is the perfect chance for me.

Even though the situation might develop into a war at any moment, I’ve got plenty of free time for some reason.

“I don’t think it’s bad, but it might be a problem for you as Earl Baumeister.”

“Yep, you could be looked down upon.”

Luise agreed with Ina’s view.

It sounds like society would terribly gossip about a guy, and moveover a high-ranking noble like me, if they catch him taking care of babies. I wonder how the women of modern Japan would react if they heard of this.

In a certain sense, it’d be very interesting.

“It’s nothing thou need to mind so much.”

Therese became my ally.

“What does it matter if a noble does something slightly peculiar? Many trends in society are started by weird big nobles or kings.”

In Therese’s eyes, conspicuous people create most of the trends.

“In other words, you’re saying people, who see Wendelin-san take care of babies, will imitate it, turning this into a fad?”

“Something along those lines, yes.”

“I cannot believe that.”

Katharina is a woman who’s strongly obsessed with nobility. Because of that, she sticks closely to the rules and customs of nobility, regarding my baby-care as odd.

“I think you should just let him do it if he likes it.”

“Right, Wilma. My big brother also took care and responsibility for me when I was still small.”

Katia’s home was one of those noble houses where the lord’s family would do farmwork. Well, they probably did such things without a care as no other nobles would see them anyway.

“But, we’re there as well, so helping out every once in a while is fine.”

“Dear husband, in the end, you’re in the center of public attention…”

“Hmm, I guess I should do it in secret then.”

From Amalie-san’s point of view, it’d be troublesome if not only her work, but also that of the maids, who came with us, would disappear. And certainly, she has a point here.

I guess I should make sure to not be targeted about this by other nobles, as Lisa has mentioned.

“In that case, I have to intensify my fishing, huh?”

“Dear husband, why would you talk about fishing now?”

“Why, you ask…the sea is calling me!”

And, the boss, whom I haven’t seen yet, is also waiting for our fight.

“No, isn’t it a bad idea for you to not work on the development of our territory, seeing how you can use 『Teleport』? You’ll get scolded by Roderich-san, you see?”

“Lisa-san is absolutely right with what she is saying. Dear, please go home once every two days. I will contact you through the MHCD if something happens.”

As Elise also put pressure on me, my fisherman’s life got reduced to once every two days. The other day would be reserved for my job as engineering adventurer after going back to my fief with 『Teleport』.

 

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“Excuse me, is Earl Baumeister-dono present?”

 

 

Just as the usual waiting game was going on, five men visited us all of a sudden. Going by their attires, they looked kind of like a low-ranking noble and his children.

Under normal circumstances, they’d have been turned away at the gate, but unexpectedly, they were Erw’s father and elder brothers. So I decided to listen to what they had to say for the time being.

 

 

“The thing I dreaded the most…”

Up until now, they’ve been guarding the supply lines and never visited Sirius. But, when they entered the city with their troops after finishing their previous mission and taking a break, they ran into their family. A family reunion after running into each other would usually be the ordinary course of events afterwards, but it didn’t play out like that because they had pulled a huge blunder in the past.

Around the time when I received my territory, Erw’s father unreasonably demanded preferential treatment while relying on Erw’s connection as my retainer. This didn’t go down well with me, becoming one of the reasons for my shunning of the western lords.

Well, phrasing it as shunning would invite misunderstandings since it’s not like I refused them or anything. I accommodated the southern lords the most since we were basically neighbors, and the ones receiving the second-most accommodations from me were the central lords as I had received patronage and aid from the royal family and the central lords during the development.

We’ve been at odds with the eastern parts of the Kingdom for a while now, but after that got settled, it wasn’t as though I ignored the new Margrave Browig, effectively helping him out a bit since the east had suffered quite a few damages due to the dispute. The overall goal here was to stabilize the reign of the new margrave so that no new dispute would break out.

But sure, if you consider it objectively, the west might have had the least luck.

Anyway, Erw hasn’t contacted his family ever since then. Given that his late mother had been the only person he felt indebted to, he adopted the thinking that his father and brothers had nothing to do with him anymore, now that he left home and went independent.

“Erw got his fair share of troubles as well, huh?”

“No kidding. Your families are truly enviable, Ina, Luise…”

Erw had put on a bitter expression, regarding his family’s arrival as a seed of trouble.

“I don’t think my family is as wonderful as you make it out to be.”

“That’s true, isn’t it? My family is quite normal, you see?”

“And that very normalcy is what makes me jealous.”

Given that Ina and Luise’s children would establish vassal families and become spearmanship or Magic Combat Style instructors of the Earl Baumeister House, both preferentially recruited relatives and their style’s pupils to help out with that. Of course, this kind of familial networking could be found in any noble house, and in addition, we were lacking hands anyway. As such, it posed no particular problem for the two to handle it like that.

“I’m not quite sure whether I’m the right guy to say it, but my family consists of only average Joes.”

Which basically meant his family would try to exploit Erw, who excelled in swordsmanship, out of jealousy.

“But, why are Lex-niisan and Barton-niisan here?”

“Why, you ask…isn’t that because they’re family?”

“I’ve heard those two were serving at Margrave Holmia’s House after leaving my parents’ home before I did.”

The young of tiny nobles also had the option to choose a local, high-ranking noble as a place of employment. But, even in an aspect like this, the difference between big and small nobles played a role. A big noble would be able to marry into a vassal family, but Erw’s elder brothers came from small nobility and could only serve as low-ranking guards, which ultimately meant that their noble status would disappear alongside their death.

“If they’re serving the Holmia House, they should be busy right now, shouldn’t they?”

Because of the situation with the demon fleet, I doubt they’d have the spare time to come here.

 

 

“Oh my, what a please Earl Baumeister-dono. I’m Erwin’s father and the head of the Armin House, Viktor.”

The initial greetings were nothing special. Erw’s father merely introduced himself and his four sons.

“I have also heard the rumors about your great exploits, Earl Baumeister-dono. So, putting that aside, when can my other sons enter the service of your house?”

“Pardon?”

I couldn’t quite understand what Erw’s father was telling me. If they want to work for my family, they’re free to respond to our recruitment. And in case they prove to be capable, they’ll be able to make a career at our place.

“As long as they respond to our recruitment. However, I would like them to retire from the place they have been serving thus far to avoid any unnecessary troubles further down the line.”

Our conditions are quite good, so I don’t know whether it stems from people becoming impatient, but some of them apply without quitting their previous job. That’s quite a bother, to be honest. After all, from the eyes of their previous employer, it looks like my family has arbitrarily headhunted them. And because they naturally file protests to us about that, it only adds to our already existing workload unnecessarily. Roderich and the other civil officials have been complaining about it, too.

Therefore, I stressed here that they should quit their current job first.

“Eh? Why would they need to do something like that? Please sort this matter out with Margrave Holmia-dono.”

“Pardon?”

What is this bloke yapping about all of a sudden?

“Erwin, I’ve had enough of working as a low-ranking soldier for Margrave Holmia. Make sure to prepare a good post for me.”

“Yep, yep, you gotta show respect to your older brothers.”

Lex and Barton, the two guys working for the Holmia House according to Erw, ordered Erw around with a condescending attitude.

But look, you morons, you might be his older brothers, but your standing and statuses are completely different.

They’re thinking that their connection as family is still going to work wonders for them…or they probably want to think so, I suppose.

“Erwin, you have to take care of my children in the future as well. Listen, you gotta let me inherit a vassal family that’s going to permit my children to inherit their noble rank.”

The second son-like person acted very arrogant as well for some reason. And Erw’s father as well as his eldest brother nodded at that calmly, also acting very high and mighty. They’re talking as if it’d be a law of nature to have their children serve the Baumeister House.

Or rather, aren’t these guys actually much worse than my family?

I told them before that I wouldn’t give them any preferential treatment, but it looks like these dolts still haven’t given up.

“Father, brothers, I do not have any such authority.”

I thought Erw would totally snap here, but he reacted surprisingly calmly. Maybe he’s already gone beyond rage, entering the domain of reproachful serenity.

I turned down all of their demands as we didn’t have any such connection.

 

“Please wait, Earl Baumeister-dono! This much is normal…”

What a disgusting visage. Even if you look at me with such servile, pleading expressions, I don’t plan to give you any boons just because you’re Erw’s family. In the first place, I don’t have any relation or connection with you people.

“He’s right. The likes of Erw is your vassal, Earl Baumeister-dono. So isn’t it only logical for us to be given higher posts?”

“Erwin, you tell Earl Baumeister-sama as well.”

“(Hey, Erw, have these guys always been like this?)”

“(No, it’s gotten much worse, I’d say. Your older brothers were all decent except for one, you know?)”

But yeah, with such a family, even Erw wouldn’t feel like having anything to do with them, I’m sure.

“(They probably fell in disgrace with Margrave Holmia-sama after they didn’t manage to form a marriage connection with you through me, Wend)”

Even if it’s Margrave Holmia, wouldn’t that kind of reaction be misguided? He and I met for the first time just a few days ago. Rather, my relationship with the Margrave Browig House is a lot better after all the problems they caused before.

If the relationship between east and south improves, it’s quite possible that the west will become the odd man out. And Erw’s family, which became the reason for that, must be getting heavily blamed from all sides right now.

“I don’t have any intention to employ you people as my guards, though.”

Why would I need to place people like you, who I don’t know at all, at my side? Roderich would oppose this for dear life.

True, Erw and I became friends by coincidence. And it’s also a coincidence that he became my vassal. But, Erw is in his current position because he worked hard for it.

Did you people actually invest any effort? No, if you did, you wouldn’t be telling me to take you in as vassals thanks to your family connection with Erw, would you…?

“Earl Baumeister-sama, I’m much more suited to be your guard than someone as inexperienced as Erw.”

“Quite so.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Then let us put that to a test.

“You people seem to believe that you’re more fit to be my guards than Erw. Then I’ll have you prove me just that. Erw, have a sword duel with them.”

“Very well. Brothers, you’ll be able to obtain my position if you can defeat me with your swords,” Erw said and drew his sword.

“Earl Baumeister-dono, something like a duel on an occasion like this too sudden!”

“Indeed!”

“Our abilities aren’t just limited to swordsmanship, but encompass a wider, comprehensive skill set.”

What the hell is a comprehensive skill set? If they at least had the backbone to take on Erw in a duel, their running their mouths would be less annoying.

Ah, come to think of it, these are the folks who couldn’t win against Erw in archery or swordsmanship even back during Erw’s childhood, aren’t they? They don’t look like the sort of people who would diligently work either.

I’m sorry, but I have no need for you people.

“In addition to being my guard, Erw also commands the guard unit during his spare time, and back during the Empire’s civil war, he cut into enemy armies at the head of his own unit. If your sword skills fall flat in comparison to Erw’s, then it’ll be tough for you to ask for a position higher than Erw’s. Therefore, please prove yourself by winning a mock battle against Erw.”

Thinking back on it now, Erw got some really amazing military achievements under his belt.

Huh? Isn’t the hurdle quite high here? I can say with certainty that it’d be impossible for me before I became Wendelin.

“That’s…”

“I intended to serve you with my head…”

“Right! Just like Barton, I also excel in smarts!”

“Okay, then please pass the exam for lower-ranking government officials at the capital.”

It’s the exam which Erich-niisan passed. It’s quite hard, but it’s not like it’s impossible to pass, if you put some effort into studying.

The lower-ranking officials, who passed this exam, are immediately usable as civil officials. We’ve been actively recruiting those who passed it into our service, and many of them were also assigned to responsible posts by Roderich.

If they want to work for us as civil officials, I’d like them to pass that exam at the very least.

“””……”””

“Is something the matter? We’re lacking manpower. That much is true. But, if you want to succeed at our place, that much ability is indispensable. Or putting it the other way, you can make a career with us even without any connections or high pedigree, as long as you have such skills. Anyway, please provide me with proof.”

“””……”””

“How about it? If you have the necessary abilities, Roderich, the household manager of my family, will immediately assign you to a responsible post. Please apply by all means.”

“Earl Baumeister-sama, I’ve got another urgent business scheduled, so…”

“Me too. Excuse me!”

“Me too!”

I just made some sound arguments, but Erw’s father and brothers scurried away at full speed. Even though I only mentioned those conditions, since they started to talk about wanting to have positions higher than that of Erw.

“Holy shit, even if they’re my family, I gotta say they’re truly lame.”

I didn’t say anything. I’m certain it took Erw all his effort to hold back here. So, I believe it to be kinder to not comment on this.

 

 

“Erw-san, today was truly hard on you, wasn’t it?”

“Guess so.”

After having heard about the circumstances, Haruka only thanked Erw for all his efforts and prepared a meal for him without asking about any details.

Nothing less of a Mizuho nadeshiko. She’s excelling in attentiveness to her husband.

“Shall we go to sleep early today?”

“Yeah, I think that would be good. Somehow, I feel drained…”

On that day, the two called in early, but all of us felt relieved when we saw Erw looking cheerful and energetic the next morning.

 

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