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“Sou family? Who’s that? Where is their fief located?”
Just when I thought that the unification of the island was finally over, it seemed like there were still some feudal lords left. Shimazu Takahisa, who managed to become the first southern governor after winning the lottery, had informed me about it.
“You can find the territory of the Sou family here.”
A relatively wide sand beach existed in the south of Akitsushima Island. It came with the danger of occasional serpent visits, but the Shimazu family produced its salt there, which they transported to the central area.
“This gulf has the form of a perfect circle and is only connected to the open sea through a narrow strait on its southern side.”
Because of this special topographic feature, it comes with a huge sand beach, allowing the salt industry to prosper there.
Every once in a while serpents invade through the strait, but the men of the Shimazu fief have always fought to protect their salt-making tools, risking their lives for it. Because of that, they were famous as elite troops, too.
From now on we plan to reform things so that they can focus on salt-making and fishing.
“There exists an island in the center of that bay. Its population is around a hundred people, I think.”
“It wasn’t part of the Shimazu fief?”
“Well, an independent lord lives over there. He’s not affiliated to any high-ranking noble, including us. The present head of the Sou family is an intermediate magician, making it even less indispensable for them to obey the Shimazu family.”
Hundred people…that’s basically the population of a village. Yet, their mindset of independence seems to be strong.
I felt like leaving them alone since it seemed more of a chore than worth the effort. When I told Takahisa, he rebuked me.
“Milord, you cannot do that.”
“My final job for the unification of the island, huh…?”
The opponents number around a hundred. As long as we have a thousand…no, since I want to go ahead with the disarmament already, 500 soldiers should be enough to make them surrender.
We disembarked to the island of the Sou family with a ship.
“It’s full of palm trees, isn’t it?”
“That’s their local product. The juice inside the nut can be drunk and the rich folks from the central area tend to buy it to raise their vitality.”
“That’s such a waste.”
It could become a new industry, if only they built a big orchard to increase the number of palm trees.
＊
“So you’ve come, invader!”
When I was inspecting the island after landing, I was suddenly addressed with a loud voice. Looking in the direction of the voice, I found a swarthy youth in a strange outfit, namely a straw waist coat and Mizuho clothes, staring at me.
Since I could tell that he’s a magician from my probing, he must be the family head of the Sou family.
“…Wend-sama, he’s somehow weird.”
“Is there any point in wearing that straw waistcoat?”
“It’s strange, isn’t it?”
“It might be a custom in his family.”
“Umm…it’s a very individual taste…”
Given the straw waistcoat and the Japanese-styled Mizuho clothes──they seem to be called Akitsushima clothes on this island──the youth is judged to be an oddity. Wilma, Ina, Luise, Katharina, and Elise all called his outfit eccentric.
Elise obviously phrased it as individual taste to not criticize him, but in a case like that, individuality can be counted as synonym for weirdness.
“He’s going to dance soon, right?”
Lulu, who had come along as the danger appeared to be low, asked after seeing the head of the Sou family. And certainly, his straw waistcoat closely resembles that worn by dancers, if you visit Hawaii or Bali.
“On Lulu’s island, we also put on straw waist coats and danced during the yearly festival.”
“Was it something like a harvest festival?”
“Yes. A lot of food was served on that occasion, too.”
I guess they dance with straw waistcoats during the harvest festivals on southern islands. Lulu is the same race as the people of the Helmut Kingdom, but the head of the Sou family looked more like a Japanese, despite his sunburn.
In other words, there was not much of a racial difference with the inhabitants of Akitsushima Island, so why is he wearing a straw waistcoat?
Moreover, his way of speaking was weird too.
“Do youuuu──! Have any business with this genius magician! Me, the one who’s called Whirlwind of the Sou Family!?”
“Takahisa, is he really being addressed with such an alias?”
“No, it’s my first time to hear about this.”
“…I see…”
Looks like he decided on it right now and here.
How to put it…I guess you could call him a person with a deep character.
“Let me ask just in case, but what’s the relationship, or rather, standing of the Shimazu and Sou families?”
“We keep our distance from each other. If I had to say why, it’s because the Sou family has a lot of people like its family head…”
In the past, the Shimazu family apparently approached the Sou family about becoming their follower many times, and they even dispatched soldiers at times.
“If you gather soldiers and approach them, they’ll surrender. But…”
This guy feels like he’d eventually say that he was just kidding around. Many generations of Sou family heads seemed to be such folks…they’d quickly become independent again.
If the other side sent soldiers again, they’d surrender once more, but they’d declare their independence as soon as the soldiers withdrew. Dispatching soldiers wasn’t for free either, and since they have the palm tree’s nut as trade item, the view that there was no need to force the Sou family to swear allegiance gradually gained in popularity.
“Thinking they could stab our back, the Otoumo, Ryuzouji, and Mouri families also tried to get the Sou family to swear their allegiance to them, but well, it was all in vain…”
After they declared that the Sou family wouldn’t side with anyone, people in the south started to understand that they wouldn’t be able to change that stance. Since they could trade with them normally as long as they left them alone, no one considered taking down the Sou family nowadays.
This is the current status quo of the Sou family.
…Considering how easily Shimazu Takahisa surrendered, he had some nerve to test the Baumeister family like this. On the other hand, I suppose he’ll recognize the Baumeister House in the future, if we manage to win the Sou family head for our side.
“Is there anyone who could win against this super talented magician!? Is there!?”
What was that? This guy’s way of talking is so annoying.
I can fully understand why the Shimazu family didn’t want to bother with the Sou family anymore.
“Anyone want to fight him?”
“”””””””””……””””””””””
Not a single person raised their hand. Even Doushi hated the idea. I’m sure it’s because of the eccentricity of that guy. Also, his talking gets on one’s nerves.
“I’ll take you on. If you lose, surrender.”
“Hmm, it’s not like I won’t consider it, I guess.”
Seriously. This guy is such a pain in the ass.
“……”
“Are we going to start?”
“Yeah!”
Time is precious, so let’s make him submit quickly. We will have a magic duel between lords, and I’ll make him surrender by winning.
This is how they often handled it on this island.
“Do you know…! Why am I being called Whirlwind of the Sou family!?”
“It’s what you call yourself, right?”
Ina, you’re right, but don’t trigger him with such retorts, please.
“It’s not me calling myself like thaaat! It’s a name given to me by the cute Hana-chan, who’s one of my residents!”
Look, this dude won’t be satisfied if you don’t debate him. It’s a waste of time, so I’ll finish him off quickly.
“You think you can win against me? Just because you have a bit more mana than usual? No matter how great your spells’ power might be…! They won’t work against me, who moves at the speed of the wind!”
It looks like the head of the Sou family specializes in wind magic. Unlike Katharina, he’s the type who uses wind magic to dodge his opponents spells and swiftly approach his opponents.
“Aaahahaha! Can you────see me────!? Even if you might have a lot of mana──! There’s no meaning to it, if you don…ah──aaahh────!”
Because it seemed like I’d get a headache from listening to him any longer, I predicted his movement path, created a wind cluster and deployed it in his way as trap. The head of the Sou family crashed into it and was hurled into the ocean.
Since it was an attack that used his own speed against him, he was thrown far off the coast, but I was convinced the he didn’t croak from that.
“Looord──!”
An inconspicuous retainer who had accompanied him…although he looked just like a normal villager…yelled after watching his lord being flung away.
“That guy makes others call him lord…?”
It was understandable for Burkhart-san to be appalled. But, village chief would be more correct than lord in this particular case.
“Now then, this should finish the unification, I’d say.”
With the Sou family’s surrender, I finally unified all of Akitsushima Island. From now on I can expect all wars to vanish from the island and the land to develop nicely…just when I thought that…
＊
“Milord, the Sou family declared its independence.”
“……”
Since he was such a pain, I sent Takahisa forth to deal with him as governor of his former fief, but the Sou family started another rebellion just a few days later, according to a report by Yuki.
“That bastard…”
His way of talking is annoying and he looks like an idiot at a glance, but he actually seems to be quite clever.
His fief only has a hundred residents and his specialty are the nuts of the palm trees.
Killing the ones opposing my rule would make ruling that place meaningless. This island has special rules when it comes to war, and the head of the Sou family merely abuses those rules to keep his independence.
“Are you going to subjugate them once more?”
“Yep.”
“How many forces?”
“I wont send any forces.”
“But!”
“That’s the aim of the Sou family.”
Even if an invader attacks the Sou family while leading an army many times over, it’ll all come to nothing as it only takes time and effort. Because it’s a fief that has no value to get serious about it, the Shimazu family and others immediately gave up on it.
“It’s a waste to even just prepare military forces. Yuki, please reorganize the standing army and make them help with the development under the pretext of training.”
This island has been conquered. We must lower the number of the soldiers and divide some of their people to assist with the island’s development. Once the residents won’t be drafted for war any longer, their productivity will also increase.
If their lives become more abundant, the number of those regarding the Baumeister House as a problem will keep dwindling.
“Very well.”
“Okay, I’m off then.”
I teleported to the island with the territory of the Sou family, after saying that I’m off as if saying my goodbye to my wife before going to work.
＊
“How is it?”
“There are a lot of pure breeds. The usage of the land is inefficient, and the production output could be increased too, but well…”
“So the demon country has palm trees as well?”
“We can’t grow them out in the open fields due to the climate, so their cultivation is restricted to greenhouses. Palm juice is being sold and selective breeding is advancing too. There’s even seedlings sold for gardening.”
“You can grow palm trees in gardens?”
I brought Mall and his friends to today’s Sou family attack. For the sake of having them judge how much this island has developed. There was no need for military forces.
Those three have studied well in this short period of time, seeing how they used to be farming amateurs not long ago. Then again, they were smart to begin with and after having been able to secure a job and a wedding in the near future, they’re likely doing their best now. In order to earn some money as wedding funds.
“The former Shimazu fief possesses a lot of land suited for palm tree cultivation. Their water supply doesn’t go as far as that of the central area, but many places have plenty of water. But, I suppose most of the land isn’t suited for rice plantation. But they could grow potatoes here.”
“So, depending on the type of vegetable, it’d be possible to farm on a big scale on this island?”
“The island has sand and soil covering the basalt layer, so the ground has a slightly bad fertility, I guess. The Baumeister Earldom’s mainland is the complete opposite. You’ll rarely find land so suited for farming.”
Just as Mall explains, the Baumeister mainland has a lot of water and plenty of areas suited for rice plantation. We can grow other produce without any problems as well as the climate remains fairly warm and the sun shines a lot. As he says, the land is extremely suited for farming.
“The climate on this island isn’t bad either. And as long as you dig wells, water will become available, too. You also plan to introduce lots of second-hand sea water filtration devices. Well, because it’s an island, the soil is poor. How about bringing in soil from somewhere else?”
“That might be a good idea. Maybe I should officially request this from the demon queen later?”
“Could you please do that for us? We can’t act without our president’s permission either.”
It’s not like I can’t understand the outlines, so I consulted with Mall’s group about the future development plans while inspecting the island that formerly belonged to the Sou family. If I hire the demons to handle it, it’s quite efficient since they possess the technology and knowledge.
Even magic tools their country treats and dead stock and junk will be very helpful to this island and the Baumeister mainland.
“Hey, you people!”
“Mmh? What is it?”
As might be expected, the head of the Sou family apparently snapped after hearing us discuss the development plans on our own in regards to his former territory.
But well, no matter how angry that guy becomes, we’ll just carry out our jobs efficiently.
Even though I beat him in a magic duel and threw him into the sea just two days ago, this guy keeps being annoying and resisting me without learning his lesson.
“We’ll be done with our discussion in a bit, so wait a moment. I’ll take you on right away. I can fully understand that you feel lonely, buddy.”
“You piece of shit! Don’t phrase it as if I’m a pathetic guy without any friends!”
“No one has said anything like that, you know?”
But, the population of the Sou territory amounts to roughly a hundred. The retainers, who obey him as the lord,…aren’t with us today. Since they’re mostly like normal residents, they’re busy working on the fields today or something. Maybe this guy has actually been much more of a loner than me during my childhood?
“Earl Baumeister, is he the former head of the Sou family?”
“Demon! Don’t treat others as former lords as you please! The Sou fief has managed to become independent once again!”
Being treated as a former lord by Silas, the youth throws a fit. He loudly announces that he’s still the lord of this land.
“Surrendering temporarily isn’t how this works, is it…? In that case, how about you sacrifice yourself for the territory without surrendering instead?”
“Silas, don’t say such scary things.”
“The winner in duels and magic contests between fellow lords achieves and advantage during the peace talks and the loser will yield their allegiance to the one who won. It’s a nice system that doesn’t produce any unnecessary casualties, but I think it’s okay to dispose of exception who ignore those rules.”
“It’s because the rules have stopped working. If you consider the risks, isn’t it in the range of the permissible, even if one person dies in the process of the unification?”
Following Silas, Ramul also adopts a harsh opinion.
“You outsiders have no right to criticize the rules of this island!”
“Isn’t it you who breaks those very rules? What do you think about that part?”
Mall logically pointed out the weakness in the Sou family head’s argumentation.
“Shut up! I swore as lord that I’ll definitely protect this fief!”
Did this guy possibly oppose me right after losing the magic duel against me as he swore to protect this land for his late parents? He’s doing it because of dead parents, huh…?
I can certainly sympathize with that part.
“Was this the will of your parents?”
“Hey, demon! Don’t kill off other people’s parents as you like!”
This guy seriously pisses me off. His parents are still alive and it sounds like it’s correct to say that they ordered their son to protect the Sou fief.
“Anyway! I won’t give up! Earl Baumeister, I challenge you to a duel!”
“Again?”
“Don’t say it as if it’s a drag!”
Even though he whines about it, I must fight him either way. And as long as this guy doesn’t accept his own defeat, he’ll continue to oppose my rule right away, no matter how often he loses to me.
In the past, a wise man said that it’s pointless if you don’t break your enemies spirit.
“Are you going to surrender, if you lose this time?”
“Whooooo knoooows.”
I really have an urge to beat up that guy for good.
“Also, Earl Baumeister…!”
“Anything else?”
“My name is Lord Sou Yoshitoshi! As a superior, genius magician…”
“Ah, that’s enough since it doesn’t matter anyway.”
Even though his name sounds pretty imposing, it’s spoiled by his retarded way of acting. Even if he keeps yapping to me any longer, it’s just a waste of time and boring. I’m going to defeat him with a quick attack once again.
“Don’t treat me like an idiot──! You will definitely regret iiiit──!”
Just like before, he ran his mouth like that while getting agitated due to the duel. It’s probably a habit of his.
This time he’s trying to create a huge Tornado, using almost all his mana, to attack me.
Rather, this guy can use Tornadoes as well, huh?
Its power was tremendous as it managed to pluck the nuts off the palm trees and whirl them high up into the air.
“Young lord! The palm trees are the lifeline of our island! If you’re going to have a magic duel, please do it somewhere else!”
“Sorry… Also, I’m the lord here…”
Yoshitoshi acted all high and mighty towards people from the outside, but his position within the fief seemed to be unexpectedly weak. As could be seen by him getting scolded by the old man, who owned the palm trees that lost their nuts thanks to Yoshitoshi’s Tornado.
Still, it’s rare for lords to be lectured by their population.
“Isn’t most of the work as lord still being done by His retired Lordship and his wife? Stop shooting magic spells all over the place and start working properly.”
“Heeey! I’m fighting for the sake of this land’s independence!”
“No one wishes for you to do that!”
“Oh, is that so?”
I questioned the old man.
“If the island becomes unified, it’s better that way. We’ll be able to sell our coconuts. This island can only cultivate potatoes, so everyone has to buy rice.”
“Wait, you idiot!”
Don’t you have plenty of work cut out for you before running your mouth about independence and so on?
“Who’s an idiot──!? I’m vastly different from the past mee──e! I, the transcendental genius magicians…”
“Ah──please tell me about the future.”
“Are you taking me for a fool──!? Taste this huge Tornado──!”
Yoshitoshi tried to hit me with his Tornado, but in the end it was several levels below Katharina’s Tornadoes. I swiftly created a Tornado of the same size while sending it from the opposite side, causing it to offset Yoshitoshi’s Tornado. And given that he had used most of his mana for this, he couldn’t launch any further magic attacks at me.
“You────! In that case I’ll use the katana arts that have been passed on through generations of the Sou family to…argh!”
Since it’s pointless to go along with his nonsense any longer, I made him faint with my Electric Shock spell.
＊
“Earl Baumeister-sama, thank you for being so considerate.”
“Lead me to his parents.”
“Okay.”
As he didn’t lose his palm trees as I defeated Yoshitoshi quickly, the old man led us to the lord’s manor on this island. Because no one wanted to carry the unconscious Yoshitoshi, I transported him by having him float along.
“Please forgive us!”
“Sorry for having such a foolish son!”
The Sou family’s home was the biggest and most extravagant building on this island, but if you go to the central area, you’d be able to find countless more imposing houses than this. Given that they were lords of a village with around a hundred inhabitants, they can be regarded as no more than being village chiefs.
Surprisingly, Yoshitoshi’s parents possessed a lot of common sense and they repeatedly apologized to me for their son’s behavior. Meanwhile, Yoshitoshi was being neglected on the dirt floor, so it’s not like I don’t feel somewhat sorry for him.
“I’m going to entrust the role of the governor for this village to Yoshitoshi’s father, Yoshihige, for a while. Or rather, I have no one else I could spare for this job.”
Since Yoshitoshi is so annoying about the Sou family’s independence, I have no choice but to leave matters to his father.
“Why is he doing as he pleases in the first place?”
“As you can see yourself, my mana is quite low, so…”
He had an exceptionally low amount of mana as head of the Sou family, and he didn’t have an annoying personality either. Because of that, he created a breeding ground for Yoshitoshi to become cocky. Having said that, it’s a fact that Yoshitoshi has a lot of mana, so Yoshihige yielded the family headship to him early on and lived a life, preparing for the Shimazu family’s meddling that could have happened at any moment, but the Sou family gradually started to fuss about independence, maintaining a stance of not being willing to surrender, no matter the costs.
“Earl Baumeister, what should we do with that?”
“Leave him alone.”
I just need to repel him quickly if he comes lunging at me. Rather than that, I should worry about how to handle this island’s development.
Because the island is bigger than I thought, I bought seedlings of a new palm tree species through Mall’s group. Growing those should increase the number of palm trees by a lot.
“You’re right. We will tend to the open land on this island and plant more palm trees.”
Yoshitoshi is like that, but his father obediently surrendered and became the governor of this island. The residents don’t seem to be as particular about independence as Yoshitoshi appears to be.
“If he had some backing, they’d at least form a faction, right?”
“Silas, don’t say something so mean in such a nonchalant manner…”
“I’m just telling the truth. At times, the truth can be cruel, right?”
In other words, Yoshitoshi is charging at me all by himself without being supported by anyone. Yuki was confused by that since his standing was that of a lord, but learning about the real situation, she reached the conclusion that it didn’t matter, even if she ignored him altogether.
As such, Sou Yoshitoshi remained the loner magician of Akitsushima Island.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Earl Baumeister, we bought the seedlings.”
“Those are the improved crossbreeds, huh?”
“These breeds were cultivated by farmers until a little while ago. Even nowadays they seem to be produced in very small quantities. Well, the demand for palm trees is low in our country and the climate is a problem too. Only a small number of palm trees are being raised in greenhouses.”
Since the demon queen brought us some palm tree saplings, we planted those on the island that used to belong to the Sou family and the former Shimazu fief. Beforehand we prepared the soil and added fertilizer to it with magic.
The inhabitants of the island and people, who will start a new palm tree sale in the former Shimazu fief, helped us out as well after Mall and his friends told them how to grow the trees.
The majority of the knowledge for this came from gardening books of the demon country and farming instructions that could be bought in bookshops.
“Earl Baumeister, it looks like there’s adult trees as well. Lyra said so.”
“I’d like those, but why adult trees?”
“Their former owner went bankrupt, I hear.”
“The world sure is a tough place, I guess…”
Katharina frowned at the word “bankrupt” that left the demon queen’s mouth.
Once I asked for more details, I was told the owner built a greenhouse to lure tourists to the region which was suffering from population decline, but although he started to grow tropic fruits and coconuts and used those fruits as dishes for the tourists in his restaurant, he quickly went in the red and then bankrupt.
It’s a business that you could also find on Earth, but even Japan has tried all sorts of things to revitalize underpopulated areas and to breathe life into rural areas, but since it’s a business, it followed the usual pattern of only a few prevailing while the majority failed.
It’s also not rare for the region to fall even more into a predicament when the local government thoughtlessly invests money, resulting in them having to cover the debts with tax money.
The local government in the region at question here also funded the greenhouse plantation and restaurant. Basically, it was a joint venture of government and business, but in the end, not only didn’t the government get its money back, but they had to pump even more tax money into it to pay for the loan, causing the local residents to become enraged.
“I hear they were blamed for wasting taxpayer money.If the abandoned palm trees can earn some money back, it will reduce their losses. Just at this moment, Lyra should be trying to beat down the price.”
Lyra-san is a truly excellent woman. Completely different from her life to keep up a family with several jobs to take care of the demon queen, she had managed to become an outstanding female company president.
“It sure would be nice to have a greenhouse.”
“It’d probably be difficult to relocate it.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
All the demons are magicians, but the number of spells they can use is low and when it comes to rare spells, there’s almost no one able to use those. My Teleport, Baron Rembrandt’s Relocation, and Communication magic is out of the question.
However, given that the technology behind the MHCD is state-of-the-art, the demon queen has been frequently contacting Lyra-san. The demon queen’s MHCD is for girls with its conspicuous pink color. Fujiko and Lulu were staring at it while obviously quite jealous.
A demon queen who uses a mobile phone…that’s somehow surreal.
“Agriculture is difficult to manage. It’s only big farm companies, which can endure a price fight, and small plantations with a lot of flexibility. And yet, many of the farmers still fall short.”
Lyra-san apparently would buy out the tools, fertilizer, seed, and saplings, and send them our way. Given that those were items treated as junk by the creditors over there, she managed to gather quite a number since they were happy to get back at least some of the money for the trees.
And because Lyra-san is registered as president of an agricultural company, they didn’t seem to expect that the trees would be exported to Akitsushima Island.
The residents, who were planting the saplings, rejoiced over the easy use of the farming tools we provided.
“Sir, we’re only planting palm trees. Is this going to be of any use to us?”
“Palm trees have many purposes.”
There are various types of palm trees, but the types planted on this island resemble coconut palms. The residents here apparently extracted the juice from the unripe fruits and sold them to the central area, allowing the rich to occasionally drink it. Moreover, they squeezed coconut oil out of the albumen of the ripe fruit as well as using it for its milk and husk. The rind, trunk, and leaves of the tree all have their uses as well.
The improved breed imported from the demon country seemed to have been optimized so as to grow bigger fruits, be less vulnerable to diseases and have a higher growth. In addition, there were some breeds resembling other palm tree types. They’d allow for the harvest of fruits, sugar, and oil. The oil, in particular, will become a base material for cooking oil and soap.
Given that they have this perfect climate here, they will be growing huge amounts of palm trees, which could be exported to the Kingdom and Empire in the future.
“I guess we can simply create a huge plantation of palm trees by raising the seeds into saplings.”
“That’d be very appreciated. It will allow this area to make some money.”
The residents of the former Shimazu and Sou fiefs rejoiced over the prospect of earning some good money. Because this island had been divided for many years, they were troubled by the lacking inflow of money into the rural areas. Many of the regions were so lacking in ore deposits that they used stone coins as local currency and bartering to do trade.
Stone coins can be created by anyone, if they feel like doing it. For this reason, their value is insecure and many people don’t accept them. Also, when it comes to bartering, it takes too much time and effort.
So even if it’s something from a foreign country, having a stable currency will become a benefit for them, if they can obtain it through trade.
“Bah! How deplorable!”
Just one person was extremely opposed to this…
“You again? We’re busy right now, so I’ll play with you later.”
“Damn you, midget! Don’t treat me like some loner!”
The present head of the Sou family (in name only), Sou Yoshitoshi, was complaining once again. Once Luise casually brushed him off, he was unable to endure it and fought back, resulting in the start of a low-leveled verbal dispute between those two.
“Aren’t you actually quite lonely? Aiming for independence is all nice and shiny, but what about your supporters?”
“I obviously have many! They might be executed in the worst case, if they oppose you people publicly! That’s why they’re hiding their true feelings and support me secretly!”
I had asked Yoshitoshi’s father, the current governor, about this in the past, but it sounded like the independence of the Sou residents was something garnered by their secluded life on the island in the past, which was only interrupted by trading the palm tree fruits. They only hate the intervention of bigger lords such as the Shimazu family because they feared that it’d cause their income to plummet.
Right now, Earl Baumeister was promoting the development and trade through the governor, so no one participated in Yoshitoshi’s revolt. Or rather, can you even call his actions a revolt? I think it was a lost case at the moment Luise started to treat him as a pitiful guy…
“We’ve gone out of the way to plant all those trees here, so don’t blow them away with your magic, okay? Their roots aren’t as deep yet, after all.”
“As if I’d do that! I’m a transcendental genius magician and a super prodigy at martial arts as well! Earl Baumeister, I challenge you to a duel!”
This guy is trying to fight me with martial arts because he can’t win against me with magic!? Doesn’t he realize that he won’t have a sliver of a chance against me, if he doesn’t use his mana?
Yoshitoshi appears to be a typical Jack of all trades but master of none. I heard from the governor that his son became able to do everything at a reasonable level.
“Dream on, man. I’ll take you on instead.”
“Hah, I won’t be able to show my true strength against a woman.”
“You’re just saying this because you’re scared of losing against me, right?”
“As if something like that is possi──iible──!”
Yoshitoshi easily fell for Luise’s provocation and leaped at Luise. He had a speed that would be impossible to handle for an average martial artist, but Luise seemed to have no problem with it at all.
“Aaand here we go!”
Without even using her mana, Luise used Yoshitoshi’s speed against him and while warding him off, she quickly grabbed him and tossed him into the ocean.
“Noaaaa──!”
Unable to deal with Luise’s throwing technique, he sank into the water after creating a huge splash.
“Is that guy going to be okay?”
“He won’t die from something like this.”
True. Yoshitoshi fought against me many times, but he’s abnormally tough and resilient. It looks as if he’s so resistant to injuries that he can challenge me to another duel on the following day without so much as a scratch.
“Puhh! Gnhhh…”
Yoshitoshi’s face appeared from the water, donning an expression full of mortification.
“I’ll play with you again, if I have some free time.”
“A great man like me will never lose to a small kid like you──!”
“How rude. I’m Earl Baumeister’s wife and have already given birth, too.”
“Liar!”
“Shut it, you rude buffoon!”
“That hurts, you know!?”
Enraged by being treated like a small child, Luise threw a random stone at Yoshitoshi. It squarely hit his face, causing him to become even angrier.
Even though Yoshitoshi was wishing for the independence of his family, he didn’t know the first thing about gathering information about his enemy. Because he’s resisting all by himself, he apparently doesn’t have the time to investigate us.
Then again, since there’s no person who would expect Luise to be married and a mother on their first meeting, Yoshitoshi’s claim isn’t necessarily wrong.
“What a persistent guy.”
This guy’s tenacity is, in a certain sense, legendary.
His father is apparently scolding him every day as soon as he comes back home…or rather, it’s amazing that he even goes back home to his family, who has been appointed as governor, while opposing the Baumeister rule. I hear he eats his meals normally at the family table.
According to him, he’s apparently trying to cause financial damage to the Baumeister House by increasing the food costs in the governor family. Quite the roundabout way to make an excuse.
“I guess he’s going for the novel pattern where the enemy will give up as long as challenge them often enough.”
“But, Ina, would you be happy to be admired by a guy like that?”
“No way.”
Ina and Katia are pretty ruthless with their words, but the idea of them being idolized by Yoshitoshi is definitely…somehow annoying.
“Damn it! Why can’t I win──!?”
Yoshitoshi yelled while floating in the sea, but not a single person had sympathy for him. After all, he was pointlessly going against the Baumeister House all by himself, even though he could simply do his job as governor of the island. Even his parents tilted their heads, not understanding the meaning behind his actions.
“Do you want to win against me that much?”
“Of course! I’m a transcendental genius magician after all!”
Intermediate magicians are being treated as geniuses on Akitsushima Island, so it’s not wrong what he’s saying. But, did he never fight against the four Shimazu siblings?
Personally I have been more cautious of those four siblings.
However, when we actually started the hostilities, they obeyed their father and surrendered. Now they’re working hard as governor, bureaucrats in the central area, and army officers.
For sure I had never expected that a Warring States Era commander-like guy like Sou Yoshitoshi would be the one to oppose me.
“No matter how much of a genius you are, you won’t win if you don’t train, right?”
“Earl Baumeister, did you train yourself?”
“I did. And it sure was tough…”
Luise and I were trained by Doushi until we became adults. I might still not be good at martial arts, but even so, I didn’t get killed by Master during the Empire’s civil war, so Doushi’s hard training wasn’t a waste, I believe.
“Haha, for you to even help your enemy…you sure are naiiive, Earl Baumeister!”
Ah, there is it again. His usual tone whenever he gets excited and cocky. It looks like I managed to skillfully lure him into my trap.
“In that case, I’ll also get trained by that person and then I’ll definitely defeat you, Earl Baumeister!”
“But, are you sure?”
“What do you mean, Earl Baumeister?”
“Well, it’s very tough training, you see… Right, Luise?”
“True… It was quite difficult for me as well.”
“Just when I wondered what you’re worried about…a great man like me will be able to easily carry out that training!”
“Well, then please do as you see fit.”
“Hmph! Don’t regret it later.”
It was correct to deliberately warn him to better stop since the training would be tough. Yoshitoshi became all the more motivated as he couldn’t fathom the idea that he wouldn’t be able to handle the training I managed to finish.
Because I had winked at Luise earlier, she noticed my plan to tempt Yoshitoshi into Doushi’s training.
“Very well, I shall go to that person then!”
“I’ll send you there.”
“Hah, what a naive guy you are.”
Since it’s going to be hell for him from now on, I’ll at least be kind to him once. Though I’m actually only doing it to shorten the time for him to go to hell.
＊
“He seems like quite a spirited young man!”
“Doushi, I hear he wishes to become your pupil.”
“That is very welcome!”
Doushi had been training magicians in the outskirts of Ootsu. Beginning with Kanenaka, most of those magicians belonged more into the category of fist-swinging fighters than magic-shooters. It’s not really necessary to mention it explicitly, but all the normal magicians opted to train under Burkhart-san.
“Oohh! He seems to be quite strong, doesn’t he?”
Yoshitoshi rejoiced when he saw Doushi.
I don’t think his training will end anytime soon, but he should feel free to do his best.
“Then watch my strength!”
“Hah, this transcendental, genius magician Sou Yoshitoshi-sama will easily best you within a month! I’ll get the hang of the training much faster than Earl Baumeister and power up!”
“Earl Baumeister, this is a much more spunky youth than I had expected!”
“He’s quite tough, so please train him to your heart’s content.”
“Leave it to me!”
Doushi agreed by beating on his chest while Kanenaka’s face, who was next to him, became ghastly pale. He too had been thoroughly trained by Dosuhi, who appears to have broken through the wall of a normal human, and seen heaven many times over.
“(Milord…)”
“(He won’t revolt while being trained by Doushi. I’m busy too, so I can’t be bothered to constantly humor him)”
“(Haah…)”
Given that Kanenaka has become the captain of the guard unit that has been established in Ootsu, he was well aware of the matter with Yoshitoshi. Because of that, he agreed with me offering Yoshitoshi as a sacrifice to Doushi. He probably thought it’d be a pain to take care of Yoshitoshi himself.
“(Well, since I’m only a bit stronger than Yoshitoshi myself, it’d be a problem if he charged at me every day. I understand)”
“Alright, Yoshitoshi. Do your best.”
“Humph! You’ll be defeated by me who will exceed his limits even further!”
Or so he said. But, before that he can get a tough, stuffy training from Doushi every day. Yoshi won’t increase his mana any further as an intermediate magician, so if he doesn’t put in a crazy amount of effort and scheming into it, he won’t be able to defeat me.
“Okay, let us start then!”
“Ayes!”
Doushi and Yoshitoshi started to fight in order to check each other’s abilities.
“Huuuh──! Urgh! Bfft!”
Being pummeled by Doushi’s mana-charged fist all of a sudden, Yoshitoshi was buried in the ground, but his toughness is nothing to scoff at. Without paying any further attention to this, I returned to the for Sou family’s island through Teleport in order to continue helping with the work I interrupted.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Welcome back, Wend. How did it go?”
“Doushi gladly accepted him.”
“Sorry for my stupid son.”
When I gave Luise the details after coming back, Yoshitoshi’s father apologized for his son’s tomfoolery. Usually it’d be enough of a scandal that it’d be totally justified to fire the Sou family from its post.
But, at the current point in time, I won’t sack his father. He’s been doing good work as governor and he’s loved by the inhabitants of the island.
Yoshitoshi might start to see reality as well, once he’s trained by Doushi.
I got Yoshitoshi’s father to understand by explaining that his delinquent son has been sent off to something similar to training at a temple.
“Rather than that, it’s fine to call this place Sou Island, right? It’ll become an issue in various ways, if we don’t consider its official name properly.”
“Are you okay with that name?”
“Sure. Actually, I have already run out of good names when I assigned names to the places in our original Baumeister fief.”
Given that it’s a chore to think about it, I felt like just going with that. Since I need to report the names of places to the Kingdom, I have to quickly come up with a name for the island of the former Sou family, which didn’t have a name before.”
I’ll keep the other names of places just as they are.
Because the Kingdom also uses kanji, it’s no problem to use names like Ootsu. Or rather, it’d be a hassle to add something-burg to everything. I plan to use the excuse, 『They might revolt if I change the names to Helmut Kingdom-styled naming. Given that they obediently accepted our rule, it should be alright to leave things as they are』, for nobles who try to nitpick about that part.
Rather than bothering with the naming of places, I have to quickly proceed with the development. I will establish a magic airship network connecting the Baumeister mainland, the southern archipelago, the recently discovered islands where people could survive, and Akitsushima Island. And then I’ll need to recruit immigrants again.
Akitsushima Island still has some room for development. When it comes to immigration to the island where Lulu used to live, we’ve given the people of Akitsushima permission to stay there as adventurers.
However, it’s probably better for them to not be allowed to immigrate to the Baumeister mainland for the time being. I wonder whether some of them hope to migrate to Mizuho?
So I asked them about it.
“No, I would hate it.”
“Even if they’re the same race, we have been at odds with them even 10,000 years ago. Since back then, the people of Mizuho were nasty braggers who only boast about their technology and riches, I read.”
For there to still exist books with such slander…
Since Akitsushima Island loses in economic and technological strength at present, they probably think that they might be looked down upon, if they migrated to Mizuho.
『The dependents of Akitsushima? It’s best that they gave up on the idea of immigrating into Mizuho』
『They are saying the same』
『Are they possibly calling us an arrogant clan? Those Akitsushima scoundrels have abused the authority of religion through their priests. We have no interest in getting along with them. Our ancient documents tell us that our ancestors were relieved when they left…』
Even though they come from the same ethnic group, they seem to have various issues. With neither of them wanting to migrate to the other, Akitsushima Island and its inhabitants were completely incorporated into the Baumeister Earldom.
＊
“Wend, this magic tool looks a bit old, but its user-friendliness is outstanding.”
Ina was carrying out a trial run, tilling the field much, much faster than any human could. She used one of the farming tools which Lyra-san had gathered in the demon country as second-hand goods.
As expected, the farm tractors of the demon country had much better capabilities, despite being old, second-hand goods.
Because people from outside would see it on the Baumeister mainland, we couldn’t use the magic tools made by demons, but in exchange, we started to use the magic tools which had been sleeping in the underground ruin of the Demon Forest.
While entrusting my retainers with the management and simple maintenance of the farm tractors, rice planting devices, reaping machines, and watering devices, they’d take care of renting out those machines to the farmers in order.
The trucks and cars were protected from theft through the Baumeister House managing the transport company. The anti-theft tag, which Lyra-san obtained for us, was very popular, and we immediately caught an elementary magician who tried to steal a magic tool.
Roderich said that they had probably been sent there by some noble, but even if the criminal divulged the mastermind, we wouldn’t be able to punish the requesting noble for something like this.
Instead, the magician, who had been caught in the Baumeister Earldom, was judged by our laws. Even if they had been employed by some noble, they wouldn’t be able to complain about this, since the crime had been committed in the Baumeister Earldom.
He had all his personal belongings stripped off him, and had to toll away in a mine every day. He had to pay it off by digging out gems of a certain monetary value, but since he was an elementary magician, it’ll likely take him ten years.
In this world, theft is an unexpectedly heavy crime.
＊
“Ina, you’re good at this.”
“You think so? Isn’t Wilma more skillful than me?”
“Bam, bam, bam…this workload with just one machine is awesome.”
Wilma was planting rice plants with a rice-planting machine. She was so skilled at its operation that you wouldn’t expect this to be her first time today.
“Brother, do you want one as well?”
“Hmmm, our place is full of mountains, so the magic tools might not be usable there.”
After the tunnel strife, Katia’s family, the Eulenberg family, relocated to the Greater Lieg Mountains on the side of the Baumeister Earldom. They had started to mass produce maroimo on the huge slopes over there.
It sounds like Katia thought that the farm tractor might not be usable for farmwork on those slopes, and she’s probably right since there’s the danger of the tractor toppling over.
“I think it’ll be fine if you use them for fields other than maroimo fields. You should tell Roderich to lend you some of the magic tools from the underground ruin.”
“Hubby, you’re gentle, and that’s why I love you.”
Being told so by Katia straight into my face, I felt happy and at the same time, embarrassed.
“Demon Queen-sama.”
“What is it, Earl Baumeister?”
“I’d like more of those.”
“If we buy up too many at once, the market price will jump. Lyra has been saying that.”
Until now, they still haven’t concluded a trade agreement between the Helmut Kingdom and the demon country, but even if we actually do trade with them on our own accord, it won’t be a legal problem anyway.
The concept of doing trade with foreign countries has disappeared in the demon country for a long time, so they don’t have any laws which would punish people for arbitrarily doing trade with foreigners either.
The Kingdom has various rules when it comes to trade with the Empire. If they ignore those rules, even nobles will be punished, but the same couldn’t be said about trade with the demons.
Both countries started to negotiate to settle this issue and yet they weren’t making any progress whatsoever. The Empire has joined the negotiations as well, but unfortunately that didn’t speed up the negotiations.
Rather, they became even slower than before.
From the eyes of Peter, who has just recently taken the throne, the foundation of his government wasn’t solid enough yet for him to be attacked by parliament members and nobles, if they conclude a trade treaty with bad terms for the Empire.
If they let the demons even invade by behaving too restrained, the Empire would suffer huge damages.
Because of all that, the three parties continued their fruitless discussions. They just kept the negotiations going without making any progress…
“Having said that, our country is currently troubled by having too many small to medium magic farming tools left over.”
Because the small and medium-sized farmers decreased in number, many of their tools are left over after their previous users went out of business.
Large-scale agriculture is difficult on Akitsushima Island, so those leftover tools perfectly fit the needs over here.
“We still cannot introduce them in the Baumeister Earldom, though.”
For both countries, the Kingdom and Empire, the reason was to be found in the magic tool guilds.If those countries started to import magic tools from the demon country, people would doubtlessly stop buying magic tools from the magic tool guilds.
And even before that, things like vehicles and farming machinery were still in the middle of research.
“A danger of unemployment, huh? I sure can understand their feelings…”
“How about setting a volume of imported machines as condition?”
“Or maybe a high tariff to protect the country’s own industry…?”
Because Mall and his friends used to be unemployed for a long time, they seemed to feel sympathy for the magic tool guilds.
“Right now it’s fine since they have work, but in the end, unemployment is tough.”
Unemployment in the demon country is okay because of the public assistance, but unemployment on the Lingaia Continent was equivalent to being in danger of starvation after all…
But, I have no authority to voice my opinion there, so it can’t be helped.
“As long as we can get our hands on those tools, we’ll get them for you.”
After Akitsushima Island was unified, the establishment of a ruling system and the development were proceeding well. I decided to use this opportunity to give His Majesty a report.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Oh, Earl Baumeister! I hear you were quite busy.”
“Yes.”
When I teleported to the royal palace while carrying some of Akitsushima Island’s local products with me, I was immediately allowed to have an audience with His Majesty.
Minister Rückner was present in the audience hall as well. As soon as he noticed me, he said to me, “Earl Baumeister, if you proceed with the development of the Baumeister Earldom, trade will increase in proportion. And in line with that, the tax revenue will grow too. Which is something that makes me, as the minister of finances, very happy.”
“The problem is ruling over different ethnic groups.”
“I leave that part to you.”
This is probably why the Kingdom pushed the island and its population on us without trying to rule it directly. The Kingdom will just gain the benefits from the trading and they likely plan to explore the area south of Akitsushima Island once some time has passed.
“It might be an island, but you did extremely well to succeed in conquering it.”
Next His Majesty blessed me with his praise.
From the eyes of His Majesty and the Kingdom’s government, I suppressed a remote area inhabited by a different race, and thus increased the Kingdom’s realm.
I also offered His Majesty the local products of Akitsushima Island, but this was just an extra. The Mizuho-styled──no, I guess the people of Akitsushima Island would be angry if I called it like that, so I started to call it Akitsushima-styled──handicraft and tea utensils received great reviews.
Those might be good items for unusual nobles who love to collect rare items. The quality of the items is slightly inferior to that of Mizuho-made goods, but we will lower the price appropriately and because of their 10,000 years of isolation, the items of Akitsushima Island are somewhat different, compared to those of Mizuho.
There might be some demand for those items among medium to lower nobles, merchants, and richer commoners. Matsunaga Hisahide chose those presents for me thanks to his deep knowledge in art.
Given that His Majesty and the nobles liked them very much, he seems to have talent in this area.
“I shall hope that you, Margrave Baumeister, will develop even further so that our country can extend its southward exploration even further in the future.”
“Huh? Margrave, you say?”
I should be an Earl, though…
“We decided to promote your peerage in light of your recent accomplishments. Currently your power exceeds that of an Earl by far.”
The population is still falling behind, but the scale and potential of my territory exceeds that of the Breithilde Margravate. I guess it’d be a bad idea for me to remain an Earl despite that…
“I shall also raise your rank to fourth.”
The ceremony for the promotion of my peerage was carried out on the spot and I was granted a new mantle as well as a lavishly decorated sword.
The mantle was decorated with extravagant embroideries using golden and silver threads. I think it’s just for formal events since I don’t really want to go in public while actually wearing it…
I’d be regarded as a nouveau riche after all.
“The Margrave Breithilde, Margrave Browig, and Margrave Holmia families all possess this as well. Since it has a very luxurious appearance, use it for formal occasions.”
Once the reporting and ceremony finished, the audience came much quicker to a close than I had expected. As expected, the current main focus of the Kingdom lies with the demon country.
“If the Kingdom suffers a loss after agreeing to a treaty with bad conditions thoughtlessly, it will lead to a decline in the Kingdom’s authority. It’s only natural to tread carefully.”
After finishing the audience, I visited the mansion of Margrave Breithilde in the capital for the first time in a while. Initially I informed Margrave Breithilde of my new peerage, but he was already aware of it.
I guess that makes sense, though.
Since the south would now possess two margraves, Magrave Breithilde would have become angry if he hadn’t been informed in advance.
“Things have become complicated again, or rather, it’s all because the Empire also joined the negotiations. I have a connection among the members of the negotiation team, so I was able to hear about the situation, but the negotiations are at a complete standstill right now.”
“How about the demon politicians?”
“Some loudly proclaim that it doesn’t look like a treaty will ever be implemented, others are obviously only thinking about obtaining a new market to sell their demon products. The number of professional politicians is low, so we can’t even reconcile the terms. The demons might have terrible dispositions for this.”
Well, I guess it will remain impossible, if the politicians don’t get replaced in the demon country…
“That part is the domain of the Kingdom’s government. I don’t comment on it either, so it’s best to leave it alone. Earl Baumeister…ah, no…your promotion to margrave is a constraint towards me.”
“Balancing political power, huh…?”
“It helps a lot that you’re so quick on the uptake. But yeah, that’s how it is.”
The south is currently developing at an astounding rate. In accordance with that, the power of Margrave Breithilde, the one unifying the south, has been rising too. His territory hasn’t increased, but there’s the development rights in the Baumeister Earldom and the profit from trading which has been growing rapidly. Moreover, the slum inhabitants, which had been a problem in the Breithilde Margravate, have immigrated, resulting in the problems, which always accompanied Breitburg’s expansion plans, to have vanished.
Since he has some leeway in his budget thanks to all of that, the Breithilde Margravate has been constructing roads, repairing flight ports for magic airships, released smaller monster domains to free up more land, and overall, grew its power rapidly.
“In the eyes of the Kingdom, we’re likely to revolt or vie for independence if we become too big. The Civil War in the Empire is still fresh in everyone’s minds.”
Accordingly, the Kingdom’s government granted me the same peerage, using me as check against the Margrave Breithilde House.
“The Kingdom won’t tell you to take care of the southern nobles. Having me being in charge of that will burden me more.”
“A region of many smaller lords, is it…?”
“Being a patron is nothing but trouble. It’s only costing money too.”
There seem to be several houses which quarrel over the hand-over of criminals, water supplies, or territories in the noble fiefs adjacent to the Breithilde Margravate. Yet, given their status as vassals of Margrave Breithilde, they can’t simply duke it out until one has to surrender. He even told me with a bitter smile that there’s some nobles saying some aggravating nonsense like, 『The Breithilde House is cold to its vassals. How about changing patrons?』.
“In the end, fellow vassals always bicker about something, just like the dispute with Margrave Browig. Because I’m their patron, I will intervene to get things sorted, but most of the times the nobles are fighting over the same issue each and every time. Some nobles will criticize me for my plans to settle the dispute being too favorable towards one side. And then they claim they will become vassals of another noble.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It is, but as they end up isolated in the south, they only get disadvantages out of it. Therefore none of them really goes through with it.”
I suppose they’re trying to draw concessions out of Margrave Breithilde by talking about a change in patrons. Or rather, they sure are an annoying bunch of people.
“I can understand that they’re frantic because it also affects their livelihood, but being a margrave is so damn exhausting. In your case, you have few vassals, so it’s ultimately a move to put a check on me.”
There will be two margraves in the south from now on, and we will also be connected to royalty in the future. The royal family will either try to make its control over the south easier by having both our families compete against each other in the future, or they’re trying to avoid us breaking away from the Helmut Kingdom thanks to our families cooperating.
“I think it’s only natural for them to take such measures. If they didn’t, peace wouldn’t have continued for more than 200 years.”
Afterwards we talked about Akitsushima Island and the islands south of the southern archipelago. Margrave Breithilde seemed interested in the trade of sugar, palm nuts, marine products, and the serpents, which we’d subjugate from now on.
“Still, they finally lifted the ban on many of those magic tools. I’d like to have some as well…”
Margrave Breithilde looked disappointed as it’d be possible for him to push his fief’s development, if he had those tools. I’m in a situation where I can’t sell the magic tools we found in the underground ruin because we don’t have enough of them in the first place.
“I heard the magic tool guild has bought a huge number for research purposes, though.”
“It’s true.”
Since it will be to the Kingdom’s advantage, if they become able to make the same tools, they have been buying various magic tools up until now. Paying money isn’t that bad, so they don’t complain, but they’re troubled at the moment since it’s not like they usually got results out of their trials.
“It’s kind of amazing that they could do this for so long without showing any results. What have these people been doing all the time anyway?”
The research of magic tools is difficult, so it’s not like you can easily get results in a year or two. Their research and development requires a huge amount of money and time. I know as much, so I wasn’t as suspicious of the magic tool guild as Margrave Breithilde. Only in regards to this point, though.
“They’re well-known for interfering in the trade negotiations without any scruples.”
“That’s probably because they fear they will soon be out of business.”
If the Kingdom were to import magic tools from the demon country without any restrictions…I’d buy the demon country’s items too.
Preventing a finishing blow to the development of our own country’s economics and production in the future isn’t wrong at all. The magic guild employs a lot of people such as craftsmen and others, besides magicians. I think it’s actually logical for them to try to hinder the trade with the demons who might endanger their current livelihood.
“The situation won’t change for a while then.”
It’s an important negotiation between countries. It’s unlikely that they’ll immediately find a solution as it happens in tales.
“I’m going to return to my fief tomorrow, too. I see more sense in taking the lead over the development in my fief than watching the negotiations and attending tiresome socializing events in the capital.”
That’s a good idea.”
Just as we were chatting in such a way, a retainer of Margrave Breithilde suddenly rushed in, saying he had an urgent report to make.
“Milord, I heard a report about Chairman Israbel having suddenly passed away.”
“Chairman Israbel?”
I don’t remember having heard that name. But, chairman means he was the leader of some organization.
“Earl Baumeister, I’m not sure what I should think about you not knowing Chairman Israbel, but…he was the leader of the magic tool guild.”
“Now that you mention it, I feel like I’ve heard that name before…”
I belong to the sorcery guild which is on bad terms with the magic tool guild, so I guess I couldn’t recall his name since I haven’t heard it much.
“This will cause more chaos again…”
The guildmaster of the magic tool guild, which has been influencing the negotiations with the demons in various ways, has died. How is that going to influence those negotiations?
“This has nothing to do with us, right?”
“You cannot afford to say that, now that you’re a margrave. The magic tool guild has more influence than the people of society believe.”
Having said that, it’s just the news of some stranger having died.
At this point I didn’t quite understand what sort of effect it would have.
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