Chapter 3 – Fast Forward, in the Middle of Accomplishing the Akitsushima’s Unification

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“I have returned!”

“Welcome back, honey. Do you want to take a bath first? Or would you rather have your meal first?”

“Husband, how did the expedition go? How many heads of enemy commanders did you secure for yourself?”

“Fujiko-chan, no wife would ask something like that?”

“Really? But, we are the wives of a noble. Such an exchange should happen every once in a while too.”

“No, the present Helmut Kingdom has grown distant from wars. The neighboring empire has also wrapped up its civil war. So far as it goes, I don’t think you will have any need for such a conversation during your lifetime.”

“So it’s different from Akitsushima Island, huh…? So, how many rebelling residents did you crucify?”

“Fujiko-chan! Your questions towards our husband are scary!”

“But you know, Lulu, at times it’s necessary to make heartless decisions when ruling over land as one standing above others. Doushi-dono, you also think so in your role as husband, don’t you?”

“I am appointed nobility…”

“Sometimes you will whip retainers who committed misdeeds or lop off their head if they went too far, no?”

“I have never done anything like that…”

“You are much kinder than your appearance suggests. You look like you could tear off a person’s head with your bare hands…”

“……”

 

 

“Say, Hosokawa-dono, what are they doing over there?”

“Playing house.”

“I hear you told them about this game, Yuki.”

“I certainly did, but somehow I feel like it’s different from the play-house I thought of…”

“Isn’t it deviating quite a bit? It scares me a bit, to be honest…”

“I’m also scared. Why would they suddenly come up with such a story…?”

 

 

Lulu and Fujiko were playing house in the courtyard of Castle Yonezawa after forcing Doushi, who seemed free, into becoming their playmate.

Leaving aside Lulu, Fujiko has always conducted herself as next head of the Date family since she became old enough to know what was going on around her. Because of that, she was estranged from the common sense of women and Yuki, who was worried about that part, taught the two about Playing House, a traditional game for girls on Akitsushima Island.

However, once we actually let them play it, it became immediately apparent that there existed some problems with Fujiko’s speech and conduct…

Burkhart-san had some free time as well, so he was enjoying the tea which he got Yuki to brew for him, but he drew back quite a bit from Fujiko’s behavior.

“Are residents crucified for going against their lord on this island?”

“O-Ryou-sama and I haven’t been doing that,” Yuki adamantly denied Burkhart-san’s question.

“It’s unnecessary for you, right?”

“Yes. You can tell, Milord?”

Yuki smiled at me while asking. She had received a special education from her time as a little girl because she was the last direct descendant of the distinguished Hosokawa family. Given that she also possessed talent, she managed to govern the Akitsushima fief decently.

Neither Yuki nor Ryouko desired to live in luxury, and thus their taxes weren’t high. And because Yuki also possesses a lot of knowledge about geology, she discovered the old imperial palace where plenty of underground water is gushing out.

The discovery of the underground water in the old palace seemed to be the sole exception for this island where wells and springs were gradually drying up.

Having discovered this, she took Ryouko, whose position on this island was questionable at best, and they fled to the most northern area of the island. There they finally secured a patch of land for them as a small lord.

“(She’s a talent at Roderich’s level, huh…?) Are residents crucified in other territories?”

“As long as the lord isn’t quite cruel… I cannot definitely guarantee that such lords will not appear, considering the deteriorating society. But, usually they’ll end up banished. Even if they try to live in another territory, it will be investigated why they were chased off their previous land. No one is going to accept them in the first place, and since there exist no unmanaged water sources, such banishment is actually equal to a death penalty.”

Given that they won’t be able to survive after getting banished, there’s no reason to go out of their way to kill such people, huh? Even without taking the bloody wars into account, it’s a harsh environment where you’ll croak if you can’t secure water for yourself.

“Hosokawa-dono, what about the Date family?”

“I have never heard of an uprising among the residents in that place. The Date fief is a relatively abundant fief too,” Yuki answered Burkhart-san.

“The remarks of that pipsqueak are quite disturbing.”

“She probably believes that it’s very cool to deliberately make such heartless remarks as the next lord.”

After all, she’s a five-year old girl with a ninth-grade syndrome.

“She has also been running her mouth about having a dragon sealed in her eye and other crazy stuff.”

“Right, right. In the end, the crimson was unrelated to the black flame dragon.”

Ina, Luise, I think she simply wanted to use the word crimson because it’s cool or sounds nice. My classmate was just like that too.

“Maybe that black flame dragon can be seen as street performance where it spews crimson flames?”

“I doubt there’s any point in a dragon made out of black flames spewing crimson flames. Right, Wend?”

“True that.”

In essence it’s just fire magic being divided. The time and effort to expressly recreate fire being breathed out of its muzzle would be a waste.

“You’ve got a point there. Yuki-san, please give me some tea as well,” asked Katia.

“I’d like some tea cakes.”

Ina, Luise, Katia, and Wilma had finished their work for the time being and came here to drink some tea while getting a break at the same time.

Because Elise was busy with providing free heals as the Earl Baumeister House’s political measure to gain some points with the residents, everyone often came to Yuki who was as skilled at brewing tea as Elise. Yuki also excelled at cooking. Her level of talent might actually rival that of Elise.

“Playing House, eh? How nostalgic.”

“Myuu myuu.”

Moreover, the demon queen, who had come here in order to spend time in a foreign country and earn some money by working, also showed up after apparently having finished today’s homework. While drinking her tea, she was watching Lulu, Fujiko, and Dosuhi playing house.

The baby dragon Creampuff, who has completely become accustomed to being the demon queen’s pet or rather servant, always stayed by her side. It likely has taken a liking to the demon queen’s mana.

“Does such a game exist in the demon country as well?”

“Yes, for a long time now. But, it’s slightly different from the human version?”

“Different? How?”

I’d think Playing House remains the same, no matter who plays it…

“Let’s give it a try. Doushi-dono.”

“Your Majesty, are you going to take the role of being my wife?”

“Indeed. Do as I tell you.”

“Got it.”

They started the demon version of Playing House under the demon queen’s supervision, and it was definitely quite different from the one being played in the Kingdom.

“Are you going to greet me at home?”

First off, the wife wouldn’t greet her husband. Instead, the husband would greet his wife after she came home. Originally, they’d change into clothes similar to a coverall apron, but since it’d tear if worn by Doushi, he put on a regular apron.

Doushi wearing an apron was like a macho-ish Kintaro.

“That’s right. The idea that the wife would stay at home and greet her husband was criticized for being outdated. And after being naggy about it, people reached the conclusion that doing the opposite would be easier.”

With those words, the demon queen put on the baggy suit she borrowed from me.”

“That is quite confusing…welcome back! I want to eat food!”

“Wrong, Doushi!”

“Why?”

Doushi had demanded to be provided food from the demon queen, who had come back home in her role as wife, but that was immediately labeled as failure by her.

“People were quite noisy about wives single-handedly dealing with dinner preparation being outdated thinking.”

“…I am going to prepare dinner.”

“It sure doesn’t suit you… Doushi as house-husband…,” said Burkhart-san while looking totally disgusted by the idea.

Even if the food was delicious, I would probably get sick of it as well…if I was forced to eat the food made by Doushi every day.

“Sorry. Lately I have had to do a lot of overtime…no, there’s no overtime in the Labor Standard Act, I suppose. Those blasted politicians. It’s a system that favors big corporations while shunning labor rights. Isn’t that simply hiding unpaid overtime!? Having said that, I’ll be fire if I complain. Sheesh…life is truly hard.”

 

 

“…It is good that I was not born as a demon,” commented Doushi.

As someone who had experienced both, I couldn’t really refute his words. After all, there are merits and demerits in both worlds…

“Demons have it just as tough as we do.”

“Booooooh, how boring.”

Fujiko felt sympathy with the lifestyle of the demons. Lulu, on the other hand, complained about Playing House having been changed in this way.

Helmut Kingdom, Akitsushima Island, and the demons; we could directly experience the difficulty of intercultural communication.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“The development in the north sure is proceeding well.”

“Of course it is. I mean, this big number of magicians has gathered in a small area on a rather small island.”

I read the reports in the office of Castle Yonezawa, located in Akitsushima Island’s northern metropolis Yonezawa. I can’t deny that our family specialization on development also plays into this, but because we have so many magicians, we can proceed with the development much faster than planned while rotating our working members.

My main job has become to pick up and then send off the necessary number of magicians to the designated development area with my Teleport. Still, I gotta say, there’s just too few people capable of using Teleport. For some reason even the demons, who should be overwhelmingly superior in magic to us humans, can’t use that spell at all.

Apparently some demons capable of teleporting existed in the past, but nowadays it’s treated as a legendary spell among the demons. Then again, today’s demons have advanced with their technology so far that they don’t seem to lack means of movement.

“But, as might be expected, moving the demon queen and Mall’s group to this island is the limit of what I can do.”

“The seeds brought along by them are outstanding.”

The demon queen, who runs an agricultural enterprise, is contributing to the northern agricultural development a lot. She reclaims new land and drastically improves its soil with magic.

Demons other than Mall and his friends have also come here every several days. They would distribute manuals on how to farm to the peasants and personally teach them on-site. They seem to be farming professionals who have been sustaining themselves with their own produce even before the demon queen became the company president.

Moreover, they also sold us grain and vegetable seeds from the demon country as well as fruit seedlings.

At first, Therese worried that those might be labeled as state secrets, but they didn’t care about it at all.

“Those are seeds we have improved through selective breeding over many years, but most of them aren’t cultivated in our country anymore.”

“Is it because of the large amount of harvest of well-tasting produce?”

“They lose out to the lifetime seeds offered by big enterprises. Even if we bring such old seed types here, they won’t complain. You can buy these for cheap at any DIY store in our country.”

Lifetime seeds probably refers to F1 seeds on Earth. They taste well and you can harvest a lot. They grow up easily while being resistant to pest infestation, weather, and diseases. In addition, they yield quite a bit of a profit. But, those effects only last one generation.

Even if you plant the seeds you harvested before, those effects will fade away with each new generation of seeds. Still, I guess companies like the major multinational grain corporations on Earth exist in the demon country as well, huh?

I’ve heard the market dominance of Western major F1 grain seeds is one of the reasons for Japan’s agricultural industry struggling when I still lived over there. But, it should be difficult to spread those on the Lingaia continent. I doubt common farmers would be able to constantly buy seeds, fertilizer, agrochemical products, herbicides, and so on.

 

＊

 

“It might be best to use the old seed types, which are relatively easy to cultivate, for making them spread on this island. We also offer advice on farming that avoids using synthetic substances or fertilizer as it’s applied by our enterprises. We sell it as a concept where produce relies only on small doses of naturally-derived herbicides, organic fertilizers, and seeds that are close to pure breeds. You can’t use those on a grand scale, but since there’s a certain number of fans for this sort of farming and produce, they’ve been selling rather well,” a young demon recommended after coming to me in order to report on the work progress.

Contrary to huge plantations which prioritize yield and efficiency, farmers who stick to traditional farming methods existed in my previous life as well.

“I see. It sounds like it’d fail, even if we tried to force an introduction of your latest agricultural technologies.”

Modern agriculture comes with high expenses because of all the tools and resources you need to buy, so some people also claim that only the agricultural enterprises offering all the agrochemical substances etc. actually profit from this.

As a result of this, farmers have to cultivate huge patches of land to make a profit, but if the harvest is abundant and the price of the produce plummets, they end up deep in the red. It’s pretty much an illusion to believe that agriculture is always profitable, if only you cultivate on a large scale. Rather, the enterprises selling agricultural machinery and equipment, medicinal plants, fertilizer, seedlings, and seed, might have a much more stable profit.

“In the first place, we wouldn’t be able to buy seeds and synthetic fertilizer as the negotiations aren’t finished yet.”

It’s pretty obvious that it’s a dream for our countries to come to a trade agreement anytime soon. As a result of the Empire having joined the negotiations as well, various influential groups in the respective countries are interfering, making the negotiations even more difficult.

And they also noticed that it wouldn’t be any obstacle to their usual life, even if they don’t conclude the negotiations quickly. Agreeing to an unequal treaty out of impatience bears the danger of losing the current positions after being exploited. As a result of that, the negotiations are dragging out.

“It has no influence on me either.”

The young demon didn’t seem overly interested in his government’s negotiations. His own company was thriving and he’s allowed to earn some money in a distant land, so he should be happy either way.

“Considering it closely, you could even come here after the negotiations concluded.”

Because this agricultural technology has become obsolete long ago in the demon country, no one will blame him,even if he introduces it to a foreign country. Of course, strict export restrictions would be imposed, if this was the latest technology, though.

“Very well, I still have more teaching to do.”

The young demon returned to the fields after finishing his report. Even so, he’s a fairly excellent youth. I can’t believe that he was jobless until just recently.

“Demons feel so dispassionate and aloof.”

“Isn’t that better than them lusting for taking over the world?”

“Well, thou have a point there.”

 

＊

 

“Milord!”

“Wendelin-sama!”

When I was talking with Therese, Fujiko and Lulu, who I always made to practice magic and study the books, entered the office.

“Earl Baumeister, I brought some refreshments.”

“Myuu myuu.”

The demon queen, who was holding a cake.like box, and Creampuff were with them. If I remember correctly, she was carrying that box back when I brought her here with Teleport.

“Refreshments?”

“Indeed. Our company is on track in regards to the business and my pocket money has increased, too.”

The demon queen is the president of an agricultural enterprise, but since she usually prioritized her school studies, she doesn’t work that much. Given her being a figurehead until she becomes an adult, I’ve heard from Layla-san that she receives pocket money as a reward.

“A queen receives pocket money?”

“His Majesty in the Helmut Kingdom also is paid pocket money.”

It’s rather an annual expenditure, which he can use privately, than pocket money.

“Even the Emperor is limited in the amount of money he can use for his annual expenditures. If he wastes the money, he will occasionally get investigated by congress.”

The Empire noble congress seems to be surprisingly serious about their job. Though they didn’t prevent the civil war from happening.

“Therese-dono, The corporation belongs to me, but it’d be meaningless if it were to fail just because I squander its money. At times it’s an important duty for me as a queen to practice moderation. Having said that, my pocket money increased to 30,000 En per month. Usually I save as much of it as possible, but sometimes it’s also necessary to treat everyone.”

30,000 Yen in Japan would be a lot for an elementary schooler as pocket money in Japan, but it sounds like the demon queen is putting aside the money properly. Still, she’s quite a charming demon queen.

“That box contains a cake, right?”

“I heard you like sweet food, Earl Baumeister. This is a cake made by a famous patissier of our country. Everyone else is free to get some of it as well.”

“Yaaaaay!”

“Wendelin, you appear to be happy from the bottom of your heart.”

“I love sweets after all.”

“Let’s eat it together with everyone right away.”

Given that it’s the perfect time for snacks now anyway, I decided to eat the cake together with everyone.

“As expected, it tastes great. It’s even better than the cake sold at the stores of the Imperial household’s purveyor.”

Therese had already eaten the cake from the demon country before, but she was surprised by the great taste of it once again. The elite patissiers and cooks in the royal and imperial capitals make great cakes as well, but the demons still excel them in taste, when it comes to sweets and regular dishes.

Given that the demons repeatedly improved their recipes throughout many years by repeated research, it’s only natural for their food to have become delicious. Even the cheap, mass-produced food often would quality as having the highest grade of taste in the Kingdom and Empire.

The demons with their high living standard have a refined palate and since the competitions seems to also be extreme due to the population decrease, the patissiers and cooks probably pour even more effort into improving and studying recipes.

“For such a pretty pastry to exist…”

Yuki, who was working in the office as actual governor, was moved by the cake which she saw for the first time.”

“Delicious…a time of pure bliss. Is it okay to deliver this to O-Ryou-sama later too?”

“I don’t mind.”

Yuki ate the cake with an enraptured expression, but she didn’t forget to secure Ryouko’s share. I think she’s an amazing woman for not only being capable, but also considerate of others like this.

“How’s the state of sweet food on this island?”

“Sweets are luxury items in the north.”

“Why?”

This island is situated in the subtropics. If they felt like it, they could cultivate sugarcane in any territory. The northern part has a high elevation. leading to the mornings and evenings being chilly, though.

“We have put off sugarcane due to the water shortage as you can live without them. The central and southern areas are commonly growing them. Both areas have plenty of water to spare.”

The central area has Lake Biwa, but it sounds like many springs exist in the southern territories. The agricultural production flourishes in both areas and especially the south is famous for its large sugarcane fields. However, because the price is slightly high, most of the sugar is consumed in the center thanks to its residents having more money due to the economic prosperity.

Actually, the northern area was much poorer than the other areas.

“Because we now have plenty of water ourselves, we plan to grow sugarcanes as well.”

Since Yuki is a woman, she wants sweet food as well. Even so, she sure has dealt with it quickly.

“Sweets are wonderful as they calm your mind and heart.”

“The demon country is prosperous, I suppose. I can also eat steamed buns and confectionery several times per month.”

Given that Fujiko, the princess of the famous Date family, has such limits, it tells you just how poor this area has been. We must hurry with the development to improve the lives of the people here.

And if that goes well, the Baumeister House and the Akitsushima family will be strongly supported by the residents.

“Wendelin-sama, this is tasty.”

Unlike Yuki and Fujiko, Lulu has been engrossed with eating the cake while having fresh cream on the tip of her nose, as you’d expect of a girl her age. Sugarcane plantation was popular on her former island, but sweets like cake, which took time and effort to make, didn’t exist over there.

From her point of view, snack time was always something to look forward to. And I also got soothed, seeing Lulu act so cutely.

“Lulu, you have some cream on your nose.”

I wiped away the cream.

“Thank you kindly, Wendelin-sama.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Is something the matter, Your Majesty?”

“You’re really like father and daughter.”

“We aren’t that far apart in age, though.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty. Lulu is Wendelin-sama’s bride.”

“By the way, the same also applies to me.”

For some reason, the two assertive, little girls became my wives. But, I ignored that issue by telling them that this would need to wait until they become adults.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

 

 

It’s been two months since we landed on Akitsushima Island. The negotiations between the demon country and the Kingdom as well as the Empire have stalled so badly that it’s actually ridiculous, but it’s allowed me to proceed with the development of my territory in the meantime.

The original Baumeister fief, the southern archipelago, the islands in the serpent-heavy ocean area, and the northern domain of Akitsushima Island, which is the southern tip of the Baumeister Earldom; beginning with immigration and investigations of the islands that seem inhabitable, we also opened regular magic airship flights between those islands.

Given that we somehow managed to build a port with our magic, the service started quite quickly. As for the sailors, we hired retired royal air force members on a limited-time offer since we’re short of hands anyway. We put young beginners under them so that they’ll operate the ships while educating the next generation.

It all had a vibe of last-minute measures, but it’s currently working one way or another.

All the retired air force soldiers came to us with a referral from Marquis Weiz and other nobles of the royal air force faction. Of course, the folks with connections to Earl Platte have been excluded, so I’ve heard he totally snapped at the royal palace.

Earlier I got a message from Marquis Weiz to watch out since Earl Platte is apparently scheming to get rid of me. Since Roderich has been notified about this as well, the people related to Earl Platte all have become unable to get employment with us and even merchants have been locked out from doing trade with us.

According to Roderich, I don’t really need to mind though, since people, who are completely hostile to you like that, will appear from time to time, so it’s completely normal for nobles to adopt such drastic measures. No matter how short on hands we might be, there would be no point in hiring people related to hostile powers and then getting sabotaged by these people.

Therefore, it sounds like Earl Platte is in a bad mood today as well. Since I won’t visit the palace as I’m busy, it’s not like I’m going to see his face anyway, though.

Because of the cooperation with the royal air force, it’s become possible to cover the travel across the vast Baumeister Earldom with magic airships.

Recently the trade between the Kingdom and Empire has skyrocketed, and thus the soldiers of the royal air force are quite busy too.

It’s not like the folks with deep connection to Earl Platte have been excluded from trading with the Empire, so it appears there’s only a few people who help Earl Platte with his evil conspiracies. Because of that, he has apparently become even more irritated.

All in all, the development of the Baumeister Earldom is proceeding well. Us having many magicians serves as a beneficial advantage, too.

The Miyoshi family, the powerhouse in the central area, hasn’t said anything about the island’s northern area. They’ve simply stopped the merchants from visiting the north, but given that trade with the mainland is possible, the residents don’t feel any distress over this.

I’m actively carrying out public works and development. On top of that, I’m generous with paying money to the common people. Because all of that money are Kingdom cents, the residents purchase products imported to the island with magic airships.

The rice, which had its plantation increased on the mainland, the fruits harvestable in the Demon Forest, marine products, salt, and sugar were especially popular among the people. In addition, decorations, clothes, handicraft, and works of art were selling well, too.

I wondered whether the residents in the north were so rich, but they were actually reselling all these items to other areas on the island. The central area forbade merchants to visit the north, but they didn’t restrict each and every little peddler from coming here. Hence, solitary peddlers could get to the central area while carrying all those goods from the north.

Because many rich people live in the central area, they can make a huge profit by selling the imported goods for big money to them. Recently, prosperous residents have started to slowly appear in the north. There seem to have been cases where the peddlers will have their wares stolen by bandits, if they travel by themselves, but since it’s possible to offset one such failure with one successful trip, many people are peddling to the central area.

Then again, recently they’ve started to travel together on the main road we repaired and as a result of it having become difficult for bandits to raid successfully, the success rate of the peddling has gone up.

They receive clumps of gold and silver as payment, which they then exchange into Helmut cents.

Not only the rich in the central area, but also the wealthy people in the southern, western, eastern areas have started to desire the goods coming from my territory and because the residents of the north made even more profit by responding to that demand, a lot of money and precious metals has gradually started to flow into the north, but there’s no reason for me to care about the economic state of regions I haven’t conquered yet. It’s a problem the central area has to deal with.

Moreover, the earthenware, handicraft, and art of Akitsushima Island has begun to be sold in the Kingdom, too. The peddlers, who set out to the central area, would stock up on those. The Baumeister House would purchase them and then sell them on the mainland to make a profit. Because those items possessed an unusual design for the Lingaia Continent, just like the special products of the Mizuho Dukedom, rich collectors would buy them off us for a lot of money. According to them, those items were interesting since they had a different style compared to the items from Mizuho.

 

＊

 

For this reason, a calm life without any problems should have returned for us, but for some reason Erw always tried to run away whenever the time for the afternoon snacks, a new custom we established at Castle Yonezawa, started.

“Somehow it feels uncomfortable, you see… I got some work to do…”

“You asshole, don’t leave me behind.”

Except for the female party which was doing construction work, almost everyone had gathered. Tea had been served and it was about time to enjoy the sweets we bought earlier──

With Lulu, Yuki, Ryouko, and Fujiko added, women were clearly in the majority. The only guys were Doushi, Burkhart-san, Erw, and I. At first, Kanenaka had participated as well, but he soon began to run away since he was tired from “being surrounded by only women.”

Burkhart-san didn’t seem to mind it overly much. He dripped some of his brandy into mate tea, a combination he drank every day. It always triggered Katharina though.

“Teacher, drinking alcohol has to wait until the evening.”

“I’m not drinking any alcohol. It’s pretty common to add alcohol to sweets as an aroma, right? This is nothing more than adding an aroma to my tea.”

“Considering that, the amount of alcohol seems fairly high.”

“Stop saying the same stuff as my wife.”

“Wendelin-san doesn’t drink much, so I have no need to warn him about that. Accordingly, I’m warning you in the stead of your wife. She must be worried about you.”

“Aye, aye. I got it.”

Burkhart-san intended to lightly brush off Katharina’s warning, but without him noticing, Lisa drained his drink consisting of 50% brandy and 50% mate tea.

“HEEEY! Don’t chug down the whole thing like water! It contains extremely expensive brandy!”

“It most certainly contained a lot of alcohol.”

“Gaaaah───! This is why heretics who don’t appreciate the taste of alcohol are…”

Lisa holds her liquor and she excels at determining tastes. But, she didn’t appreciate liquor, which was regarded as expensive by society, at all. Even Burkhart-san’s favorite brandy seemed to only register with her as an old, high-percentage drink.

“Earl Baumeister, which sweets will we be having today?”

Doushi had no issues as long as he could eat delicious food, so he didn’t mind having lots of women around him either.

“By the way, Milord…”

“What’s the matter, Yuki?”

“As a matter of fact, we have heard rumors about the passing of Miyoshi Nagayoshi.”

It seemed like he was laying on his sickbed due to a serious illness, so maybe there could be some truth to the rumor of him having died?

“It’s not some sort of scheme where he’s feigning to have died, is it?”

“Erwin-dono, as far as the Miyoshi family is concerned, it would be more beneficial for Nagayoshi to be alive, so there is no need for them to spread rumors about his death.”

“Isn’t it the sort of ploy where we’d get completely confused, if we got carried away and attacked the central area, just to find Nagayoshi safe and sound?”

Damn it, Erw, don’t say stuff sounding like 『A great man’s deeds continue to affect those left behind after his death』.

“I cannot deny that possibility, but in that case, the Miyoshi family should try to hide his death. After all, it’ll lead to a succession struggle within the family.”

The death of a family head without a predetermined successor causes huge chaos among the whole family, I guess.

“Hasn’t the Miyoshi family decided on a successor?”

“Rather than them not having decided on one, they couldn’t do so…,” Yuki started to explain, but because this was another world, even if the setting here resembled Japan’s Warring states era, quite a few differences were present here.

“There are the Illegitimate Older Brother Yoshioki and the second son Yoshitsugu as Nagayoshi’s children.”

“That is perfect material for a succession struggle as they happen so often!”

“Indeed.”

Yuki curtly gave us a rundown on the current situation of the Miyoshi family. In short, it’s similar to the Margrave Browig family, I suppose.

“The family members and influential retainers support Yoshioki or Yoshitsugu. The family is split on this.”

“It’s just as you have guessed, Milord.”

Nagayoshi’s younger brother Miyoshi Jikyuu, Atagi Fuyuyasu, Sogo Kazumasa and the Chief Vassal Matsunaga Hisahide are on Yoshioki’s side. The family members Miyoshi Nagayasu and Miyoshi Masayasu as well as the retainers Iwanari Tomomichi and Naitou Nagayori are on Yoshitsugu’s side. Basically, they’re completely split in two equal halves, according to Yuki.

“That means the death of Miyoshi Nagayoshi would be terrible for them. Ah, he’s already dead, isn’t he?”

 

＊

 

It’s not like Burkhart-san saying so was the cause for it, but a while after this, the fact that the family head Nagayasu was officially confirmed, dividing the Miyoshi family in two camps. However, their following actions became even more irrational.

“Eh? Why has it turned out like this? I don’t get the meaning.”

“As I told you, the Miyoshi family’s army is attacking us. Those are the forces of the faction siding with Yoshitsugu and him.”

The spies sent out by Yuki reported that a big army of 5,000 soldiers is currently marching towards Castle Yonezawa.

“I wonder what’s going on? Wouldn’t he usually fight against Yoshioki’s army in this sort of setting? It’s weird for him to target us first.”

“I don’t know. At any rate, we must deal with them.”

“Earl Baumeister, are we going to hole up ourselves in the castle?”

“No, we’ll meet them on the battlefield!”

It’s good that we had the soldiers of our forces on this island train and help with the development without calling the mobilization off. We immediately moved southwards with 3,000 soldiers and met the enemy army in an area around twenty kilometers away from Castle Yonezawa.

“A message to the invaders! Hand over Akitsushima Takaomi to me, Yoshitsugu, the family head of the Miyoshi family!”

At first we didn’t understand why Yoshitsugu would ignore his rival and attack us, but as soon as he demanded us to hand over Ryouko, the reason became pretty clear. He was trying to take her, who was a member of the most renown named family on this island, as a wife so as to get a decisive advantage over Yoshioki in the succession dispute.

“I don’t want to!” Ryouko immediately turned him down. “I’m going to become Earl Baumeister-sama’s wife! So I won’t come to your place!”

“…”

It was fine for her to refuse it and all that, but what’s with the reason for it? Somehow, the stares of the others are painfully stabbing…

“In the first place, it was your family that made sure that we cannot live in the central area, so it makes no sense to put up such a demand at this point! Also, who is the current head of the Miyoshi family anyway? If you’re going to welcome a wife from the Akitsushima family, the head of the Miyoshi family would be the only option of proper standing. Let me ask you again: Are you the official head of the Miyoshi family?”

“That’s right! I, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, am the head of the Miyoshi family!”

“What about Yoshioki-dono then? Everyone knows about the Miyoshi family being in the midst of a messy succession struggle! Did you persuade Yoshioki-dono to yield the position of family head to you?”

“That’s…”

The young man called Yoshitsugu was immediately overwhelmed by Yuki’s logical questioning. Without a doubt, the succession struggle is still going on.

“Hey, little boy, is your home alright while you’re out here to play?”

“How dare you address the eldest son of the Miyoshi family, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu-sama, like that!”

Burkhart-san came on strong from the very beginning. No matter how you look at it, we’re outsiders anyway.

Besides, it’s very likely that we will be treated as underlings, if we act modestly with people calling themselves the rulers of this island. Several dozen magicians as military commanders and relatives of the Miyoshi family were present, but none of them was any sort of threat.

We, on the other hand, had to worry about how things were going with the demons. Therefore, we had no hesitation to make our power known and suppress this island as soon as possible.

“Aren’t you going to use your magic? Give it a shot. Otherwise, go back home before pissing your pants.”

“You damn old geezeeeeer!!”

“I’m still not at an age where you could call me geezer. What a rude boy you are.”

Yoshitsugu totally fell for Burkhart-san’s obvious provocation.

“Don’t underestimate our Miyoshi family and our band of retainers, who can brag of an impregnable unity! We’ll have you outsiders show us your magic!”

In response to Yoshitsugu’s order, one magician after the other stepped forward from within the army of the Miyoshi family. They were family members, retainers, and allied lords.

“There are quite a lot of them! But, all of them are small-fry!”

“Well, compared to you, Doushi, everyone can be regarded as small-fry…”

“This big number of magicians among their retainers and relatives is the reason why Miyoshi Nagayoshi was able to rise high enough to call himself ruler of this island.”

Certainly, just as Yuki explained, they’ve got a lot of magicians. However, all of them are elementary magicians. Yoshitsugu himself is barely beneath the intermediate level.

Either way, we won’t lose unless we become quite careless.

“Earl Baumeister, do it!”

“Eh? Me?”

“Doushi-sama, please let me handle it.”

“Fujiko, that’s out of the question!”

Even if we don’t let Fujiko fight here after she arbitrarily tagged along because of the sudden departure, it doesn’t look like it’s necessary for me to deliberately take them on…

Luise and Wilma, for example, look like they are itching for a fight.

“Earl Baumeister, they are similar to dogs!”

I also thought…that they might be quite discriminatory since they spent more than 10,000 years isolated on this island, but it’s not like they’re that bad. The residents in the north readily fell under the rule of the Baumeister House too.

Well, we don’t mistreat them and we dug many wells for them, so…

“Mana equals authority and power on this island!”

“Aahh! I got it backwards.”

I misunderstood. The residents on this island don’t obey their lords because of their bloodlines, but because they’re magicians. Anyone who can drill a hole through the hard basalt layer to dig a well, if you exclude the central area which has plenty of water, will be respected and obeyed.

The reason why the Akitsushima family lost power, leading to the appearance of many warlords on this island, in recent years was the lack of a lord capable of digging new wells. So far as it goes, the people obey the lords since they have mana, but it seems like a cohesive power was missing.

“The Miyoshi family grasped the central area with its economic power through their big number of magicians.”

Having said that, it’s not like Miyoshi Nagayoshi himself was that much of an outstanding magician. The Miyoshi family, which had been brought together under his organizational capabilities, split apart upon his death.

“Earl Baumeister, you must show your might to bring them together once more!”

“It is just as Master says! If you show your great magic, the likes of a brat like Yoshitsugu will immediately pull back, Master!”

After all, we have an example over here which makes it easy to understand as much. Once I defeated him with my magic, he became a loyal retainer.

“Okay, then I’ll take them on.”

“Humph! Let’s hope that brat doesn’t cry like a baby later on!”

“How saddening.”

“Honestly, this island has way too few magicians capable of measuring another magician’s mana!”

Burkhart-san lamented over the low level of the magicians on this island. But, since the opposite situation would make it extremely difficult, I feel like it’s fine like this.

I’m no protagonist from a weekly manga series, so I don’t want to fight against one formidable enemy after the other.

“We boast of impregnable power thanks to our strong unity! Miyoshi family’s magic corps!”

“Hoh, that’s an awfully exaggerated name.”

“Geezer! Stop running your mouth!”

Yoshitsugu-kun is still young. Beginning with the introduction of his prized magicians, Burkhart-san was totally making fun of him. I don’t know what to think about introducing your units on a battlefield, but it seems like that’s a thing on this island. The soldiers are just a threat since the battle will usually be decided through the magic of the supreme commander and his military commanders.

Well, I guess it’s not bad to avoid a battle turning into a bloody mess. Still, Miyoshi Nagayasu, Miyoshi Masayasu, Iwanari Tomomichi, Naitou Nagayori…I feel like I’ve heard those names somewhere before…

I’m no history maniac, so I don’t really know all the details, but still…

“『Fire Player』 Miyoshi Nagayasu, I manipulate flame magic!”

“『Wind Warrior』 Miyoshi Masayasu, I’m a master of wind magic!”

“『Rock Sphere』 Iwanari Tomomichi, I’m an expert in earth magic!”

“『Water Blade』 Naitou Nagayori, that is me!”

They are introducing themselves so energetically that it’s actually hard to watch, but unfortunately all of them are elementary magicians. Given that some people get a big head over being able to use magic since magicians are rare, it’s not that rare of a sight in the Helmut Kingdom either.

On this island, magicians, who also serve as generals and commanders in case of a war, seem to often carry out magic duels. Flashy self-introductions might be their forte because of that. And when it comes to the Miyoshi family, they probably need to stick out even more than others.

“Doushi, that’s embarrassing to watch.”

“Well, it would be impossible for me.”

Burkhart-san and Doushi looked at the introductions of the enemy while clearly unable to endure.

I mean, they’ve got a point. This looks like the introduction of some local pro-wrestlers.

“So, are you going to start anytime soon?”

“Humph! This is the end of you people acting all cocky!”

“Don’t cry later on!”

“Realize the power of our Miyoshi family!”

“We will make you grovel on the ground!”

Several seconds later, all of them were lying on the ground, unable to move as they were paralyzed, and the troops under their command fully surrendered to us.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“As you command! It shall happen as you desire, Milord!”

Half of the Miyoshi family under Yoshitsugu surrendered to us. It’s our fourth consecutive victory after coming to this island. I guess it’s a blessing that there have been no casualties among us and the enemies.

Even Yoshitsugu, who was acting all tough at the start, was so submissive now that I think he’d immediately bring me a yakisoba bread and cola if I told him to do so. The other family members and vassals were the same. Thus it currently doesn’t look like they’re going to betray us later down the line.

“Unexpectedly that Doushi is quite capable of seeing through the true nature of things, huh?”

“Indeed.”

The Baumeister army and the Miyoshis family under Yoshitsugu started their march towards the central area. According to Yuki’s advice, it was the smartest to use the current confusion to take control of the central area.

If we’re going to rule over this island, we must grasp the center of the island, the core. In addition to the benefit of having a big water supply with Lake Biwa, it’s also got a lot of clout since the politics and economic activities are centered there.

As such, we cannot afford to let another lord grab it.

Leaving the north to Date Masamune who had recovered from his sickness a lot, we moved our troops forward towards the center.

“It’s my first visit to the central area too. I hear the capital city Ootsu is a beautiful and lively place.”

Given that Masamune stayed home, Fujiko came along as a hostage.

『Fujiko, I think it’s better for you to be at Milord’s side. Since I will be in charge of the north during your absence, a hostage is necessary to make a clear distinction』

『It’s just as Father says. I’m a hostage』

Those were Masamune’s words, but no matter how you look at it, he’s simply trying to get her to constantly stay close to me. He seemed to harbor a rivalry with Ryouko, who had announced her intent to become my wife during the stand-off with Miyoshi’s army, and Yuki, who was often with me as my aide.

Lulu also tagged along as Fujiko’s rival. Moreover, the trio around Agnes didn’t leave my side either.

“Milord, as a matter of fact, my younger half-sister, who was born by my mother…”

“””””””……!”””””””

“I-It’s nothing…”

Yoshitsugu tried to offer his half-sister to me, but being glared down by all the women around me, he immediately pulled back.

“Yoshioki-dono, what about your plan to welcome Akitsushima-dono as your wife?”

“That is out of the question! It would be far beyond my station!”

Yoshitsugu denied with all his might in response to Doushi’s question. Even though he was a young man who was putting on airs, he wasn’t an idiot. He knew that the island would be ruled by the Earl Baumeister House from now on. And he knew that the Akitsushima family, the most prestigious named family of this island, would serve as my governors here.

In short, he understood that Ryouko would become my wife and give birth to the next family head of the Akitsushima family. At present there were no concrete plans in this direction, but he gave up on Ryouko after considering that to be the case…then again it didn’t seem like he was that attached to her anyway…he probably thought it’d be nice if his younger sister could become my concubine.

Unfortunately he had no choice but to run away after being showered by the collective glares of Yuki and the other girls.

“I’m the sole successor of the Date main family, too. Seeing how the Date family has no suitable man, we must stabilize the northern region by having Milord’s child become the heir of the Date family.”

For her to fully understand the necessity of a political marriage at the age of five years is pretty crazy. It looks like Date Fujiko hasn’t developed a middle-schooler syndrome so early for nothing…yeah right, what a bad pun! ¹

“Even though it’s going to be a political marriage, I will work hard to be a good wife for you. I must study to achieve the same womanly modesty as Elise-dono.”

“Lulu is going to work hard as well.”

“I can do that reasonably well.”

“Me too.”

“…..”

Ryouko, Yuki, what’s the point in you two competing with little children?

“Sheesh, Sensei, you dummy. You’re really incorrigible. Please don’t increase the number of wives too much, okay?”

Hey, Agnes! It’s not like I’m increasing their numbers because I want to, or rather, I haven’t said a word about accepting them as wives yet…

“I understand. Sensei is a kind man and he also has his position to consider.”

“It can’t be helped, even if he has many wives, right?”

Betty, Cindy, why are you two acting like some strangely understanding wives?

“But, please don’t worry. We will work hard so that their numbers won’t grow any further.”

“I feel like there was some guy who tried to push his younger sister on Sensei, though…”

Having his sly plot exposed by Cindy, Yoshitsugu quietly turned his head away and started to whistle.

This guy is quite high up in the political sphere of this island, and yet he can’t even hold a candle to Cindy when it comes to capability as a magician…

It appears like the doctrine of mana capacity determining hierarchy runs deeper on this island than Doushi anticipated.

“I have a little question. Is it going to be okay for us to suddenly march on the central area like this?”

“Won’t the troops of Yoshioki-dono’s brother lie in wait for us or something like that?”

Katharina and Ina were worried about embarking to the central area without doing any real preparations. They likely expect Miyoshi Yoshioki and his supporters to get in our way.

“That should pose no problem,” answered Naitou Nagayori in Yoshitsugu’s stead.

“As a matter of fact, the Yoshioki faction sent its troops westwards.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, they were talking about increasing their allies…”

According to Nagayori, a violent succession struggle ensued after Nagayasu passed away. Both camps were increasing their allies, but the power distribution in the central area gradually balanced out. Because both camps had about the same military power, large amounts of casualties were a given, if both sides were to genuinely clash.

“In the first place, it’s strictly forbidden to fight a war in the central area. Accordingly, you intimidate your enemy by gathering allies through the invitation of allied lords and the estrangement of the other side’s retainers.”

“So you’re making the folks supporting the enemy side break away by scaring them with superior numbers, huh?”

Since the island’s economy would doubtlessly collapse if a war started, they couldn’t afford to have any large-scale battles. In such a case, it was more prudent to increase your allies and overwhelm your enemy with numbers.

This was a sort of battle that was often carried out on this island.

Accordingly, the Yoshioki faction sent its soldiers to the western region which lacked overly influential lords while Yoshitsugu’s faction sent its soldiers to the north, thinking that the regional named families would surrender all together thanks to the political confusion caused by the Baumeister House’s invasion.

The daughter of the most prominent named family, Ryouko, was situated in the north as well. Hence, Yoshitsugu sent his soldiers forth, trying to obtain her authority by turning her into his wife.

“Did thee actually send out any scouts to check on the situation?”

“I cannot say anything in my defense…”

The north, which they considered to be a melting pot of chaos, was prospering thanks to the trade with a foreign nation, the series of public work projects, and our well-digging.

Just as he was being told by Therese, I wonder what to think about a ruler who doesn’t even realize something as simple as that. If I remember correctly, Duke Nürnberg had such a side to him as well, but he was an excellent general and politician, making him a formidable foe…

“Accordingly I will beg for forgiveness as our Miyoshi family members, retainer group, and allied lords have meekly surrendered to the Baumeister House.”

“That’s fine and all, but won’t the central area resist? What about the Yoshioki faction? Some of them have stayed back home, no?”

“Yes, but that won’t be a problem.”

“You’re pretty certain of yourself here.”

“Actually, my brother is handling the defense of Ootsu…our family names are different since I was adopted by another family, but he’s called Matsunaga Hisahide.”

“Eh? Matsunaga Hisahide?”

“Yes, is there something wrong with him?”

Because he was surprised by my sudden yelling, Nagayori looked depressed.

Matsunaga Hisahide; even though he was quite useful during the Warring Times simulation game I played in my childhood, he was known for being a character that would betray you right away. He would kill your generals, burn your Buddha statues, poison the younger brother of his lord whom he didn’t like, and at the end of many betrayals, he would kill himself with his favorite tea utensils.

That’s okay if it happens inside a game, but I don’t really want such a person anywhere close to me in real life. Even if he were to offer me some tea, I wouldn’t feel like drinking it.

Of course, it’s not said that he’s such a person just because he shares the same name with the game character, so it’s bad to harbor prejudices, but…

“My brother possesses the most mana in the Miyoshi family. He can’t dream of reaching your mana, though, Milord…”

Still, it seems like he’s an intermediate magician at the same level as Kanenaka, Ryouko, and Fujiko.

“When I contacted him, he was so impressed with Milord’s abilities that he said he would surrender the city to you.”

“What do you think about this, Therese?”

As an upstart noble I have absolutely no clue whether this is a trap. It might be best to get Therese’s opinion as a former duchess on this.

“Wendelin, why are thou hesitating? With this opportunity thou can take Ootsu, the central city of politics and economy of this island. That Matsunaga person will be guiding us in, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, the choice is clear. It won’t be a problem as long as Matsunaga obeys to Wendelin from his heart. If he plans some evil ploy…”

“Yes?”

“How many high-ranking magicians are with us right now? We will immediately crush all his little plans and Matsunaga will become the first victim of this war, right? It’s a miracle that we have kept the casualties to zero this far anyway. And miracles usually don’t last for long. Wendelin, you don’t need to mind it.”

“…No, my brother is devoted to Earl Baumeister-sama’s power from the bottom of his heart!”

Nagayori’s face turned ghastly pale due to Therese’s threatening warning, despite him being hailed as a brave general among the Miyoshis.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Matsunaga Hisahide. …I see, the rumors have been true.”

Combined with the Miyoshi army, we now had 8,000 troops. Riding our current drive, we arrived at Ootsu, the central city of the island at Lake Biwa. Ootsu was situated in the center of the island’s central part and was spreading along the lake’s coast.

The city served as a stopping point for naval transport on the lake. Large quantities of rice were gathered here from the big rice plantations before being shipped out to other regions.

It was a reasonable location to choose for the Miyoshi family after seizing power.

Ootsu’s population numbered around 100,000. Half of the central region’s population lives in this place. Seeing how half of the island’s population is living in just the central region, it’s clear proof of the region’s power.

A big castle stood adjacent to the government offices and Lake Biwa in Ootsu – the castle of the Miyoshi family. Currently it’s become the property of the Earl Baumeister House after its guardian Matsunaga Hisahide surrendered.

“Was there no resistance from Yoshioki’s faction?”

“There was, but once they saw your magic, they all became very silent, Milord.”

Actually I had shot a huge Fireball spell into the sky above Castle Ootsu after being asked by Nagayori before entering the castle. It was a purely decorative and flashy spell for show, but it’d be impossible to pull off for any intermediate magician.

The residents of Ootsu were scared out of their wits by the fireball, and Hisahide apparently clamored to all the Miyoshi retainers and family members present in the castle and governmental buildings that a rule surpassing Nagayoshi-sama had appeared.

Although the reign of the Miyoshi family should have lasted for many years, everyone readily yielded it to me.

“The named families and lords of this family have been harboring a sense of impending danger.”

The number of magicians with a lot of mana has gradually been decreasing and nowadays an intermediate magician is regarded as a genius. At long last, even the children of the Miyoshi stopped reaching intermediate level, causing Nagayoshi to lament over the bleak future on his deathbed.

Because of that grief, he lost consciousness before he decided on an heir and the chaos over the succession struggle apparently spread widely.

“As soon as you become the lord of this island, Earl Baumeister, we will support your role as retainers. That way will be fine, no?”

“I think so as well, but thou lords of this island are awfully obedient, aren’t thou? My grandfather always stressed that land was equal to gold…”

“Going by my own analysis, this island will reach its limit within a few decades.”

Hisahide seemed to be worried about the future of this island in his own way. There was still some leeway in the available land, but water was already at its limit. The central area was fine because it had the lake, but the number of dried-up wells in the outer regions has been growing and fellow lords have started to fight over water more frequently.

Even if they were to try to leave the island by sea, it’d be impossible because of the big number of serpent nests. Their ancestors didn’t bring any magic airships to the islands and the revival of the technique, which went lost in the deep past, wasn’t getting anywhere either. At this rate, they might be forced to go to battle in order to cut down the number of people in their fiefs.

“Luckily, many of the island inhabitants respect and obey those possessing a huge amount of mana.”

The magicians of this island are all members of named families or nobility. Given that those lords are magicians, the people have gotten used to naturally obeying their superior.

“Anyway, right now is a very unstable period of time. We must rule the island without causing any chaos in the central region.”

Afterwards, things became hectic. Because my family took over the rule from the Miyoshi family, it resulted in us becoming very active. While leaving a certain amount of soldiers for defense and policing behind, we sent many of our soldiers back to their towns and farm villages.

The Yoshitsugu and Yoshioki factions had each recruited around 5,000 soldiers in the central area with its 200,000 residents. If we kept maintaining such a number of soldiers, it’d damage the economy on this island.

I appointed Miyoshi family members, retainers, and allied lords as governors of their respective former fiefs and sent them back. I also guaranteed the salary for the civil officials working at Castle Ootsu and the governmental offices.

Well, to be honest, most of it was done by Yuki, Yoshitsugu, and Hisahide. Ryouko and Elise performed free examinations and healing as a part of the plan to improve the image of the new lord. Currently we’re still close to Lake Biwa.

“Earl Baumeister, is this a paddy field? Everyone is buried in mud to their waist.”

The demon queen, who was leading the farming-teaching demons, was surprised after seeing the Deep Muddy Rice Fields which produced rice that was quite famous. The farmers here didn’t use paddy fields like we had expected, but stood deep in mud.

“Isn’t farmwork quite a chore like this?”

Because of the warm climate, it was usually possible to have three crop cycles, but it sounds like they can only harvest rice once a year with the rice fields with their bad mud condition.

Thus we first off added thorough flood control, reformed the mud fields near the coast into normal paddy fields, dug out branches for Lake Biwa to distribute some of its water, added irrigation channels, and had to dig wells since some areas in the central region weren’t blessed with the water from Lake Biwa.

I split up the magicians and assigned them to each of those tasks.

“I’ll help as much as I can, too. I’m bad at this sort of construction and emission magic, though.”

Today Katia was accompanying me as a guard.

“Bro, you see, gave me the OK.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

Veith-san, Katia’s older brother, was also going to help out with the farming teaching. This island has mountains and their slopes will be chilly during the mornings and evenings. It’s even possible to grow maroimo, so we decided to teach the islanders the necessary steps.

“We would like to get teaching from Katia’s elder brother as well. Of course, we will pay him a reward.”

The demons are much more advanced when it comes to farming techniques, but they too don’t know everything. According to the demon queen, the demon country doesn’t have any potatoes as sweet and delicious as maroimo.

Apparently she wanted to secure the cultivation method to sell it as a monopoly in order to make some nice profits.

“I’d like to grow them on a mountain slope next to our village. Even if we plant regular produce up there, it doesn’t sell. It also takes time and effort to cultivate stuff, you know? So it’d be convenient. It’ll be easy to make a profit by selling it at a high price.”

“My brother is supposed to visit the demon country?”

“Please persuade him somehow. We will also contribute to the farming teaching on this island.”

The demon queen seemed to actively do work, considering that she was calling herself a figurehead.

“Think of it as something like a vacation abroad or such.”

“I mean, Bro rarely leaves our family’s fief…”

Their territory moved due to the tunnel strife, but even in the new place he spent most of his time cooped up in his home territory. He seemed to be working on his maroimo fields everyday.

Moreover, he liked the cultivation of maroimo more than three meals a day, so it wasn’t any sort of hardship on him at all.

“I’ll try to ask him. But rather than that, is that alright, Hubby?”

“What is?”

“No, look, they Miyoshi folks have split up in two groups, haven’t they?”

The Yoshioki faction sent its soldiers to the west in order to increase its allies. But they surely hadn’t expected that their rival, Yoshitsugu, who took his soldiers to the north, would surrender in no time and conquer the central region together with us in no time.

In the end, even Matsunaga Hisahide, a powerful fighter of the Yoshitsugu faction, had surrendered to me. Yoshioki had the ladder pulled away under him and was now isolated in the west, so Katia was probably worried about the question when he’d sense his soldiers to retake the central area.

“Actually it looks like his army broke apart,” Hisahide reported.

With the central area having fallen under the rule of someone possessing a tremendous amount of mana, Yoshitsugu officially surrendered as well. The same could also be said for the Yoshioki faction left behind in Ootsu.

As that information was gradually passed along to the army in the west, the lords possessing land in the center were the first to break away. They had always had the disposition to bend their knee to the stronger one right away.

It sounded like the young Yoshioki couldn’t keep them back. And after returning, they immediately surrendered to me with Hisahide acting as mediator.

Once their allied lords had left, the number of family members and retainers surrendering to me while relying on Yoshitsugu as a connection kept growing.

Just like that, Yoshioki’s army decreased quickly. At the moment, it doesn’t even have 500 soldiers left anymore, it seems.

“That’s quite pitiful.”

“He’s not going to charge this play, clamoring about making a last stand to show his will power, or is he?”

“I doubt he’ll do that.”

“Do you share that assessment, Hisahide?”

“Yes.”

As a matter of fact, Hisahide’s daughter was attached to me under the pretext of being my caretaker. She apparently was unable to use magic, but she was quite excellent nonetheless. She carried out all sorts of jobs at my side while staying in touch with Yuki.

She was one year older than me and gave off an aura of cleverness at a first glance, but once I talked to her, I found that she was full of interesting topics. She talked with me, even laughed at Erw’ dumb jokes, and her smile was very charming, too.

Since she was a woman, I was wary, but since she didn’t do anything to tempt me, I placed her at my side while feeling relieved.

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“I think Father might soon give up after only experiencing troubles.”

“Is that so?”

The territory was snatched away just when he had a succession battle with his younger brother. I feel like he’d launch a war over the absurdity of it all.

“If we use that, the remaining retainers will fall in line as well.”

If you say so, Hisahide…”

By the way, Hisahide’s forecast was quite off for a rare change. Because Yoshioki was cornered, he displayed a ridiculous resilience and strength, persuaded the western lords, and approached the central region with around 5,000 soldiers.

Even Hisahide couldn’t hide his surprise at that.

“Miyoshi Yoshioki is quite resourceful, isn’t he?”

“Some retainers looked down on him for being an illegitimate child, so he’s a man with a strong, rebellious spirit.”

“Either way, we must repel him.”

The development of the land still hasn’t finished, but there’s no way we can simply ignore an enemy army.

 

＊

 

 

 

We confronted Yoshioki’s army, coming from the west, with the around 5,000 troops which were still under contract.

“Humph, what a pointless resistance.”

“You sure act big for a weakling who surrendered.”

“Earl Baumeister-sama is the man who will succeed my father Nagayoshi and become the emperor!”

“I see, you completely yielded to some foreign invader! As If a coward like you would be qualified to be the head of the Miyoshi family!”

“I’m qualified! But what about you? Unable to read the changes in times, you gathered the western forces! Do you intend to devastate the central area!?”

Yoshitsugu started a loud quarrel with his older brother Yoshioki.

“Stop.”

“Milord.”

“Everything will be fine if I take the stage, right? Miyoshi Yoshioki-dono, won’t you have a magic duel with me? If you win, everything, including the northern region, will become yours. If I win, I’ll get everything.”

“Perfect, I’ll gladly accept!”

Yoshioki immediately agreed to the magic duel I offered.

“Blasted, foolish brother of mine, you have always slighted me together with the retainers on your side because I’m an illegitimate child! And also saying that I have less mana than you. But, I deliberately hid my mana for a time like this! In reality, I’m an intermediate magician!”

Ah, I see. The western lords obeyed him because he showed that hidden mana of his. He probably hid his mana because he feared the danger of being assassinated during the succession struggle.

“Look! This is Tornado which I inherited from Father!”

“”””””””””””Ohhh!””””””””””””

The western lords, who didn’t have any powerful person spearheading them so far, cheered loudly at the size of the magic tornado created by Yoshioki.

“Well, I guess it gets 52 points.”

“That many?”

“While he’s an intermediate magician, I can see traces of the effort he invested to improve the form and density of the tornado and to lower the time of its appearance.”

“Okay, I guess it’s a fair assessment, if you add all of those.”

“Teacher, sometimes you’re taking things too easy.”

Burkhart-san and Katharina began to assess Yoshioki’s Tornado spell. Looking closely at it, he isn’t talking big for no reason, I suppose.

Going by the standard of the magicians on this island so far, it’d be pretty appropriate to call him genius.

“Young lord, the enemies aren’t overly surprised…”

“Humph! They look like they can’t say anything out of pure shock!”

“You think so?”

“As expected of you, Yoshioki-sama.”

Many of Yoshioki’s retainers and western lords laughed loudly, believing that they already won after assessing us to be scared by Yoshioki’s spell.

“Wendelin-san, their misunderstanding is quite severe, too.”

“It’s said a frog in a well doesn’t know the ocean.”

“I’m hearing this saying for the first time.”

“Earl Baumeister-sama, do you even know this island’s proverbs?”

Hisahide, it’s because Japan has the same proverb.

“I can’t use more than basic wind magic, but I guess I’ll manage one way or the other.”

“If it’s with your mana, it should pose no problem.”

I decided to first erase the Tornado which was the source of Yoshioki’s confidence.

In a situation like this, you usually erase it by throwing a spell of an opposite attribute at it. In other words, you’d normally counter wind magic with earth magic, but since it’s a chore to adjust earth magic so that it can erase a tornado, I’d like to avoid using it.

Accordingly, I decided to use a trait of a tornado. I created a Tornado with the opposite current of Yoshioki’s and tried to erase both by colliding my tornado into his.

“As the power output is so low, it makes it actually harder than usual…oh well, whatever.”

For a moment I planned to erase Yoshioki’s Tornado and try to threaten him by creating a far more powerful tornado, but since it’d take twice the effort, I created a huge Tornado in one go.

“Humph, just its size sure is imposing!”

Yoshioki seemed to be scared by my Tornado for a second, but he quickly judged it to simply be a bigger version and returned to smiling complacently.

But honestly, I really believe the magicians of this island should learn how to detect the mana of their opponents.

“Young lord, I’m sure it’s just big but nothing else. The inside must be hollow.”

“Maybe that’s the deal here.”

They only got a small fraction of time to laugh at it. Once my and Yoshioki’s prided Tornados clashed, his disappeared in no time.

“Wh-!?”

“Young lord?”

“There must be some sort of mistake! Once more!”

Yoshioki swiftly created another Tornado and sent it at mine, but the outcome was the same. His Tornado immediately disappeared.

Meanwhile I increased the size of my own Tornado even further. And once I moved it in front of him, his face became dyed with fear.

“Are you going to travel up into the sky after being wrapped up by my Tornado with everyone else? It’s going to be a free fall afterwards, though.”

“……”

“Yoshioki-sama?”

“I’m soooorry!”

Having finally perceived that he wouldn’t be able to win against me, Yoshioki prostrated himself on the ground then and there. The western lords and his retainers imitated him, resulting in the island’s western region falling under my rule as well.

 

 

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Translation Notes:

1. The kanji for the name Date is being used in the “for nothing” part. A word pun.