Chapter 10
Time passed after the incident with House Ryan.
Fortunately, contrary to my concerns, House Ryan's reaction was quiet.
It was so quiet that I wondered whether this was really the same House Ryan that had been like a boar in the World Archive, and I felt relieved.
If there was a problem, it was in my territory—or more precisely, in my office.
In other words, after the clash with House Ryan... Noah started clinging to me quite a lot.
"My lord, I have finished organizing this month's finances. Please take a look."
Before, she would stand in front of me when reporting and deliver her reports by the book.
Aside from looking at me with an inscrutably bright smile, there had been nothing unusual about it.
But now…
"My lord, I've organized the budget for supporting the immigrants. Please take a look. Ah! There are some difficult parts, so I'll explain them to you."
Saying that, she would stick close beside me and explain it.
There was nothing wrong with her explaining things.
But she explained while pressing so close that I could feel Noah's ample chest, making it impossible to keep my head.
On top of that, when I caught the scent of hydrangeas wafting from Noah, ooh…
It felt like indirectly experiencing what an adventurer seduced by a succubus felt like.
“The key point is the tax-rate adjustment plan for immigrants and subsidies. We classified the free citizens who could pay the relocation costs and those who couldn't, then adjusted the tax rates accordingly.”
Noah was saying something.
But not a word reached my ears.
Even seeing her again, I couldn't help thinking how impossibly beautiful Noah was.
No, she was beautiful beyond mere prettiness, like a goddess of beauty.
How could she be so beautiful? Was it because this was another world?
"My lord…My lord! Are you listening to me?"
“Huh…? Ah! I'm listening carefully. Yes, I understand everything. Let's go with this approach.”
Anyway, having a beautiful girl like Noah cling to me was very pleasant.
But lately, whenever I saw Noah flash that smile, I sometimes felt a chill run down my spine.
It felt like the look I had sensed while playing a raising sim like Princess Maker.
…It was just my imagination, right?
* * *
While I was enjoying those little events and brief moments of happiness,
as expected of the World Archive's world, where it never let its characters rest, an event occurred.
A few days later, Hart came to see me with a grave expression.
“Bandits have begun appearing.”
“Bandits?”
Hadn't our knights wiped out the bandits?
As though reading my thoughts, Hart continued explaining.
“The bandits within our territory have been completely wiped out by Rikain and the knights.”
Hart explained while looking at the map.
It clearly showed the bandits who had been subjugated within our territory with skull markers.
Seeing it like this, our knights really had crushed the bandits.
Supporting them had been the right call.
While I was thinking about something else, Hart pointed toward our territory's border and said:
“However, bandits who seem to have flowed in from outside the territory have begun appearing.”
“They flowed in from outside the territory?”
“Yes, they have been appearing in the area along the border between our territory and House Ryan's territory.”
“What about casualties? Have any of our subjects been injured by those bandits?”
If bandits had appeared and harmed my precious subjects, I couldn't just sit by and do nothing as a beloved lord.
Hart answered calmly.
“Fortunately, none of our subjects have been injured. However…the free citizens trying to move to our territory have suffered serious losses.
“The free citizens were injured!?”
Once I heard Hart's full story, I realized the situation was serious.
Some of the free citizens traveling to our territory had apparently been attacked by bandits and found dead with sword wounds.
Their corpses had been stripped of everything they possessed, as though robbed by bandits, and the women had even suffered acts too vile to put into words.
“Can we protect the immigrants?
“It won't be easy. Even if we deploy all the knights in our territory, it would be difficult to protect all the immigrants.”
Hart explained while looking at the map.
He marked the areas where the bandits had appeared, and even I could see that they were spread over a vast area straddling the border, making it difficult to do anything.
Their calculated movements even made them seem like an army.
“The only thing we can do is guide the immigrants to gather and travel safely during the day.”
“I see…Then let's at least proceed with that method and do our best to prevent the immigrants from being injured.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Seeing this after living in a country where it was safe to travel around even at night made me keenly aware that this was another world.
“And tell our subjects that bandits have appeared, so they should be careful and run away without fail if they find themselves in danger.”
“Yes, understood, my lord.”
So Hart and I discussed how to deal with the bandits.
After Hart left, I looked at Noah, who had been quietly listening beside me.
Feeling my heart race at another of Noah's bright smiles, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“Noah, would it be better if I prepared something more for the sake of our subjects?”
I subtly sounded her out to see whether there was any way to increase our spending.
Noah smiled sweetly and said:
“I don't think you need to make any special preparations, my lord.“
“Really?”
“Yes, the people of Kron are already thoroughly prepared.”
Noah said while looking out the window.
As treasurer and heir to the White Merchant Guild, Noah seemed to see something I couldn't.
I asked Noah.
“What do you mean, they're prepared?”
When I asked, Noah looked startled.
But then she smiled, as if she had suddenly understood everything, and said:
“Your skill at pretending not to know, my lord, is worthy of a grand merchant. Did you prepare everything in advance to make things turn out this way, and now you're saying this?”
“No, I…”
“Ah…It's because of House Ryan, isn't it? Understood. If that's what you say, my lord, I'll pretend not to know either.”
No, seriously, what was she talking about?
I really didn't know!!
I couldn't understand a single thing Noah was saying, and I wanted to ask her, but I held back for the sake of my dignity as a lord.
And before long, I learned what Noah had meant.
* * *
Gartze was very pleased with this mission.
Before being hired(?) by House Ryan, he had been a bandit.
He had lived a simple, enjoyable life robbing travelers and merchants passing through the mountains, until he happened to attack a House Ryan carriage.
And he met Hadem Ryan, House Ryan's 『Hell's Messenger』, whom he had heard about only in rumors.
That day, his bandit gang was annihilated, and he barely survived, only to be forcibly hired—or, more accurately, conscripted—by House Ryan.
While undergoing training bordering on abuse in House Ryan, Adjutant Lagos, Lord Hadem's right-hand man, came to him and gave him a secret mission.
It was to become a bandit and harass House Kron.
Gartze immediately accepted the mission.
After all, it would have been strange to refuse the chance to escape the hellish training and become a bandit again, free to have fun.
The days that followed were enjoyable for the first time in a long while.
He first attacked free citizens heading for House Kron.
This was partly because Adjutant Lagos had ordered him to deal with free citizens fleeing House Ryan as well, and partly because entering House Kron's territory directly would be dangerous.
With the know-how he had acquired over his long career as a bandit, he first carried out minor raids along the outskirts of the border to draw out the knights guarding it, then targeted larger prey—the way he had found yielded the biggest haul.
After carrying out more than ten minor raids around the outskirts of the territory's border, Gartze made his preparations, and at last spotted some prey.
It was news that a carriage carrying salt and taxes to the imperial capital had set out.
Carriages like this were usually guarded by knights in force, but this one had set out late and was said to have almost no escort.
Gartze immediately led his men and prepared to attack.
On a night with a full moon, just as the chill of the dead-of-night air touched the tip of his nose, he began to see the carriage lights.
“Gartze…Ah, no, I mean, boss, I think it's here.”
“Yeah, I see it too. Looks like I'll be able to gold-plate my dick tomorrow night for the first time in a while, kehehe.”
He could tell even from a distance that the carriage was loaded with valuable goods.
He had heard they could do whatever they wanted with the loot.
If he looted that cargo and sold it, he could go to the pleasure district for the first time in ages and have a blast until he dropped dead.
Gartze drew his sword and shouted.
“Let's go, you bastards!! It's hunting time!!!”
“Uoooooooh!!!!”
“Let's go!!! Giddyup!!!”
At Gartze's signal, all his men charged toward the carriage.
This was the moment he enjoyed most.
When they began charging out of the darkness, people became frightened rabbits, scrambling to flee from him.
Gartze loved the feeling of power that came from being able to decide whether they lived or died.
“Kahahaha!!! Rape the men and kill the women!!!”
“Go on, run, you rabbits!!! Hahaha!!!”
As he charged toward the carriage with all his might, he noticed something strange.
The people in the carriage weren't running away.
Usually, the moment they saw us, they would be too busy fleeing in a panic. What was with these bastards?
Just as he was thinking that, a sudden deafening boom rang out.
Bang-!!
“Graaagh!!!”
With the boom, one of the men beside him fell straight off his horse.
He had seen that before.
That was definitely…
“A gun!”
“They have guns!!”
It was definitely the kind of gun only knights used.
Gartze had seen that magical weapon before, but it was too expensive for him to use; the men in the carriage had one.
Before he knew it, the people in the carriage had armed themselves with gleaming swords and spears and begun charging toward them.
“You rotten bastards! Do you have any idea whose property you're laying hands on!!!?”
“How dare you try to lay hands on our lord's property!! You're all dead today!!”
What kind of scene was this?
Gartze couldn't understand.
The information had clearly said they were ordinary commoners, but the weapons they carried were absolutely not those of ordinary commoners.
“Hah!! Retreat!!! It's a trap!!! They set a trap for us!!!!”
Bang-!!
“Where do you think you're going, you bastards!!! Leave your heads behind as you go!!!”
Gartze abandoned his comrades and fled with all his might, while those who fell behind were captured by Kron's people and began suffering a horrifying fate.
And they never knew until the moment they died:
that the people who had counterattacked them were truly ordinary people of Kron.
After hearing that bandits were appearing, the people of Kron armed themselves at their own expense to protect themselves and their lord's property.
They even bought two guns said to cost as much as a subject's annual wages.
The reason they could do this was very simple.
Their increased daily wages gave them money to buy weapons,
and the growing number of merchants meant there were merchant guilds from which to buy them.
However, the people of Kron proceeded in secret.
If their lord found out, he might once again dip into his own fortune to support them.
The people of Kron felt they had already received far too much from their lord, so this time they decided it was their turn to protect their lord's wealth and prepared everything in secret.
And that day, the people of Kron annihilated the bandit horde and created a legend, giving the minstrels another song.
And that song invited her to Kron.