Chapter 26
When Duke and Hana returned to the lord’s mansion, its interior was marked by the gruesome traces of battle.
Ari was in far worse shape than when she had fought the fiends, but unlike then, Rex was calm.
“Thank you, Ari.”
Rex had already steeled himself for this, and Ari had accepted it as well.
Duke and Hana waited until Rex and Ari returned from their respective worlds.
Only after several minutes did Rex return to reality with a fake cough.
“Ahem. I’ll take charge of this domain now··· no, I mean, I will.”
Of course, another option was to start a revolution and leave for somewhere far away.
But Rex’s sense of responsibility kept him here.
“Maintaining a revolution is more important than starting one.”
Rex was showing off with a cool-sounding line he had heard somewhere.
Ari weakly applauded beside him, while Duke merely stared through his helmet, his emotions impossible to read.
Rex awkwardly hunched his shoulders by himself.
Meanwhile, Duke asked Hana about something he had long been curious about.
“By the way, how does one become a lord? Does one just become one like this?”
According to Duke’s scant common sense from his previous life, even assassinating a lord would not make claiming a domain simple.
One had to be granted noble status by the royal family or a superior lord, and in some regions, one also needed recognition from the local religion.
But Rex had no legitimacy whatsoever for taking this domain, which was why he had asked Hana, the neighboring lord.
Facing Duke, Hana answered with a warm smile that did not suit her nickname, the Shadow Queen, at all.
“Yes. After all, a domain belongs to the strongest person.”
Duke’s common sense did not apply in this world.
“Domains aren’t granted. They’re taken. When the Empire fell, the strongest people in each region became lords like me, and keeping them from being taken afterward is a matter of one’s ability.”
There were titles such as count and duke, but rather than being granted by the royal family, they merely meant that the person was that strong.
“The royal family is basically a representative of the lords. They have some authority to command the lords, but their relationship is closer to one of equals, bound by contracts with each lord.”
Hana cynically mused that there was hardly any difference among hyenas squatting atop the corpse of the Empire.
“Unless you’re one of the Thirteen Heaven-Defying Stars, honestly, you can assume that royalty and lords have no legitimacy.”
Her gaze rested on Duke for a moment.
It was a gaze that seemed to wonder why he did not know that.
This time, Duke cleanly admitted his ignorance.
“I do not know much about such things. Power is not something a knight should pursue.”
“As expected of you, Sir. In any case, if you can protect it, you may call yourself a count.”
In other words, it was a warning that if he could not protect it, he would naturally be overthrown.
Duke nodded in understanding.
“My lord is certainly more than qualified to call himself a count.”
Rex overheard those words and joined the conversation with a slightly uncomfortable expression.
“Starting as a count feels like a bit much··· Maybe I should start as a baron···”
But before he could finish, Ari, who had been listening, began radiating displeasure.
Duke also fell silent and gave off a similar air.
The company commanders, who had been receiving Rex’s conversation through the interface ability, sent messages in a frenzy.
[My lord is a baron?! That will not do!!!]
[Enlightenment requires authority. I shall say no more.]
[Do you realistically think that makes sense?]
As he watched the message window flare up like a chat room, Rex’s cheeks stiffened.
In the end, Rex was pushed into starting with the title of count.
“Will people recognize me···”
[[They will recognize you.]]
Rex sighed deeply under the weight of the responsibility.
Hana, who had been quietly observing Rex, smiled faintly.
“Shall I take over this domain in your stead?”
“Really!?”
“Just kidding.”
“That’s mean···”
Seeing Rex melt again, Hana returned to Duke’s side with a bitter smile.
“If he is your lord, shouldn’t he show ambition befitting that position? Will he be all right?”
Duke answered confidently.
“The virtues a ruler needs are responsibility and ethics. Just as you made a young girl into a splendid queen, he will do the same this time.”
“You’re unfair, Sir.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“If you suddenly come at me like this out of nowhere, it puts me in a difficult position too.”
Seeing Hana bow her head in embarrassment, Duke tilted his head.
Duke could not understand where in that conversation such a point had arisen.
****
This land was now the Providence Domain, not Karognar.
As regent in place of the socially inept lord, Duke saw Hana and the vassals off.
“Then, now that we’ve renewed the contract, I shall be on my way back.”
“Providence County shall always await the visit of the Lord of Sneria.”
Then, as Duke Urwick, he also saw Hana off.
“And I, too, shall welcome you at any time.”
"I’ll come at least once a month."
"Do not overexert yourself."
"There’s much I wish to learn from you."
"I could hardly dissuade you from a desire to learn. In that case, you are welcome."
She answered Duke with a gentle smile before returning to her domain.
After seeing Hana off, Duke returned to Rex’s office.
Because the mansion had been half-destroyed in the previous battle, Rex’s muttering inside the office could be overheard from the corridor.
“At last, domestic-administration content has been unlocked.”
Rex’s voice was so excited that even Duke could feel his exhilaration.
Thus, after entering domestic mode, Rex first wanted to repair the roads throughout the domain.
“As I traveled around, I realized···”
But the vassals immediately pushed back against Rex’s first order.
“My lord. There is something you must do first.”
“Huh? What?”
“You need to repair the mansion and the inner fortress walls first.”
“···Ah.”
Through a hole in the mansion that let the wind blow in, Rex looked at the neatly severed inner fortress wall.
It felt as though a forgotten bill had suddenly dropped into his lap.
After pondering the matter, Rex revised his first task.
“Uh··· let’s repair the mansion first.”
At the very least, he and his vassals needed somewhere to sleep.
*
Once the mansion had been repaired over several days, Rex simply skipped over repairing the inner fortress walls and focused on the roads and sewers first.
“We’re already barely scraping by. Let’s put the inner walls off until later and fix the sewers and roads first.”
Under Rex’s orders, sewer construction began in the domain’s capital, and road construction began throughout the domain.
When Rex’s orders spread through the domain, the citizens lamented.
“The new lord is starting something strange again.”
To them, whether the Karognar Domain became the Providence Domain was of little importance.
Their lives were far shorter, more miserable, and more powerless than those of the lords.
But powerless commoners had no choice but to do whatever their lord told them to do.
In the end, they clutched their hungry stomachs and trudged off to perform their labor duties.
However, when they completed their day’s quota of labor, they encountered an unbelievable sight.
“Sir knight··· what is this?”
“Your wages. It is my lord’s grace, so spend it wisely.”
The domain residents’ eyes widened at the coin pouches handed to them by the royal guard knight dispatched as an overseer.
From then on, they continued to encounter unbelievable sights one after another.
- ‘Why are we being told to rest on weekends?’
- ‘Why are our taxes being reduced for doing this?’
- ‘Why are children forbidden from participating?’
Policies that had been unimaginable under Count Karognar continued pouring out under Rex’s leadership.
The domain residents were confused by the inexplicable goodwill right before their eyes.
But even as the domain residents struggled to understand it, Rex’s one-man administrative rampage continued.
- Why are taxes so heavy? Strange. At this rate, the domain residents won’t be able to survive.
- If all the domain residents are conscripted for military service like this, who’s going to farm?
- We probably need to build reservoirs if we’re going to farm···
Once domestic mode was unlocked in the interface ability, Rex began managing the domain as if he were playing a simulation game.
Moreover, while fiddling with the interface, he could use the excuse that he could not meet anyone, so he cut into his sleep like a shut-in gaming addict and devoted himself to administration.
Since part of the inner fortress wall had been cut away, the citizens could see Rex’s hilltop office, where the lights stayed on until late at night.
“Why are you treating us this well?”
At first, faced with this continuous stream of incomprehensible favors, the citizens feared that Rex would eventually take their happiness away.
But when this continued for three years, the domain residents gradually began to open their hearts.
“Compared to the former lord, he doesn’t cause trouble.”
“I’ve never heard that he killed people just to vent his anger.”
“They say he even dislikes accepting bribes?”
Before long, the citizens who had regarded it as merely the lord’s whim accepted that this was simply the personality of Lord Rex and began praising him.
- “Long live our lord! Long live!”
Naturally, when it came to the citizens’ reaction, Rex···
“Heheh. Managing a domain is fun.”
Had no idea at all.
Perhaps because of the intense experiences that had begun right after meeting Duke, Rex felt that he had spent too much of his going-out cost during that one year and hardly went outside for the next three years.
The lord’s mansion was even equipped with an excessive number of amenities, so he had even less reason to leave.
As Rex continued not showing his face for years, the citizens began to regard him as a mysterious figure.
***
As the voices praising Rex grew louder, the reputation of Rex’s royal guard rose with it.
No matter how outstanding Rex’s abilities were, he could not issue orders to domain residents with whom he had no contract.
That was why Rex used the only people he could trust, the royal guard, as messengers.
Thus, the knights waved flags with yellow snakes emblazoned on black and carried Rex’s voice throughout the domain.
“A message from the lord!”
The domain residents had initially feared the knights, but three years later, they welcomed at least that flag.
- “Sir knight! Look over here!”
Naturally, amid this fervent response to the royal guard, the popularity of its commander, Duke, was by far the highest.
Three years later,
If Rex, who rarely showed himself, was a supreme dark ruler whose face the people did not even know,
Duke’s image was that of an absolute knight whose limits could not be discerned, even though he showed himself.
It was said that he was a master swordsman who could cleave a mountain in a single stroke.
It was said that none of the enemies who had ever touched the flower ornament on his chest had returned alive.
It was said that he was a noble knight who remembered every person he had saved.
The first two claims were another matter, and the last was untrue, but Duke did not particularly deny it.
Thanks to that, whenever Duke appeared on the streets, flowers and cheers never ceased.
- “Duke saw me!”
There were occasionally people who were carried away in convulsions just from making eye contact with him, but Duke was satisfied by the people’s reactions.
‘At last, things are truly beginning.’
He would have liked to play the role of the strict but kind knight he usually was toward children and citizens today as well.
But today was an important day, so Duke headed for the plaza without even glancing at those who threw flowers at him.
Once Duke took his place in the plaza, the gnome adjutant who had followed him unfurled a scroll and shouted.
“Tomorrow, an important directive from the lord will be delivered here, so bring as many people as possible to the plaza!”
The same thing happened not only in the capital but in the cities throughout the domain.
In the plazas, the knights shouted the same words in booming voices once every hour.
The citizens faithfully carried out the order out of respect rather than fear.
And the next day, the knights began announcing a new decree before the citizens early in the morning.
“From this moment onward, slavery shall be prohibited in the Providence Domain!”
Upon hearing the decree for the first time, the citizens were confused, wondering whether they had heard incorrectly.
- What? Slaves?
Slavery was both a familiar and distant subject to the citizens.
It was familiar and frightening because they could become slaves the moment they displeased a knight or a lesser noble even slightly, or fell into the hands of the wrong criminal.
But it was also distant because they rarely had the opportunity to reclaim, own, or employ family members who had become slaves.
In short, the citizens’ impression of slavery was the worst imaginable.
For that reason, when the knights announced the abolition of slavery, the citizens stared at them in stunned disbelief.
The knight repeated the decree as though assuring them that the news they had heard was not a dream.
“From this moment forth, His Excellency has declared that all humans shall be equal upon this sacred land and under our lord!”
Of course, Rex had never made such a declaration.
It was an addition made by the Third Company Commander, who was part of the administrative staff, but the spirit was roughly the same.
Only then did the people realize that this was reality, not a dream, and erupt into cheers.
- Yay!!!
Amid the citizens’ cheers, Duke’s gnome adjutant nodded in satisfaction as well.
“To think this old man would live to see something like this with so little life left. I can die without regrets now.”
“Hm.”
Duke also watched the citizens shouting “Long live!” in the plaza with his arms crossed.
However, he was already devising another plan in his head.
‘It’s been too quiet for three years.’
While Rex was engaged in domestic administration, Duke had dealt with the occasional assassins, spies from neighboring domains, and remnants of the former lord who had fled, but honestly, it felt insufficient.
But that boring daily life ended after three years.
“Adjutant.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“Organize the observers.”
Duke thought that the city mayors and local influential figures would not easily give up slavery.
Of course, this was not something Duke had thought of on his own; it was something he had overheard while dozing off during a domain council meeting.
Under Duke’s orders, the gnome adjutant nodded as well.
“What size should it be?”
“Only the elite.”
“Understood.”
The gnome adjutant sent a message to the knight order with his wrinkled hands.
Duke watched the cheering citizens, the corners of his mouth twitching.
‘The scheming second-in-command.’
It was a role he had wanted to try at least once.