Chapter 59
Phaedus, the capital of the Providence Duchy.
This city had a certain nickname.
The City Where the Lights Never Go Out.
That was because, eight years after Rex became its lord, he had installed mana-stone streetlights throughout the city.
It was a feat even the Empire had failed to accomplish.
It wasn’t that the Empire was poorer than the Providence Duchy.
It was simply that its officials didn’t trust the citizens.
- If we install expensive streetlights, the citizens will steal them.
- And having the guards watch each one would cost a fortune, too.
- It doesn’t matter to us either way, does it?
They believed that poor citizens couldn’t restrain their uncivilized nature and would steal the streetlights for a quick profit.
Since the imperial officials and lords all thought the same way, they never installed streetlights.
Besides, roads and waterways had been built because even nobles used them, but streetlights were fundamentally unnecessary for superhumans like them.
They could see perfectly well at night anyway, so there was no reason to spend money installing streetlights.
For the same reasons, when Rex said he would install streetlights, every official opposed him.
Even Ari, Rex’s yes-woman, found it hard to trust the citizens.
In that situation, Duke was the only one who sided with Rex.
- “Trust can only begin when one side reaches out first. I want to believe in the goodness that lies within the citizens.”
In the end, Rex and Duke persuaded the officials, and they reluctantly agreed.
They would try it on one street first, then gradually expand it from the capital to the entire duchy if the results were good.
Three years passed.
The citizens repaid Rex and Duke for their trust.
Those who knew how tyrannical other lords could be understood Rex’s good intentions and resisted the temptation the mana-stone lamps offered.
As a result, the capital forgot what night was, and the mana-stone lamps became a source of pride for its citizens.
In the process, a new culture unique to the capital took root.
“Good work today~”
“Going there again today?”
“It’s Friday. Of course I’m going.”
As the sun set and the mana-stone lamps began to light up, the citizens’ second daytime began.
The commercial district was crowded with citizens, rivaling its daytime bustle.
It was a stark contrast to other cities, where people never ventured outside for fear of what might happen to them on the streets at night.
The mana-stone lamps had brightened the roads, of course, but an even greater factor was what the citizens themselves had proven.
- ‘If they don’t even steal the mana-stone lamps, do we really need to worry about security?’
Thanks to that, the capital’s commercial district developed a unique nightlife unlike any other.
The taverns were especially pleased by the situation.
In the past, the only people who stayed out drinking late were those who lived for alcohol or those confident they could protect themselves.
But lately, many people had started visiting taverns to unwind after a stressful day or simply to socialize with friends and neighbors.
The economy was even booming under Rex’s rule, which also meant people had become less reluctant to spend money at taverns.
“Cheers!”
Thanks to that, the taverns in the commercial district reached the point where supply couldn’t keep up with demand.
A group of guards appeared on the bustling street.
Every one of them carried himself proudly.
But the merchants didn’t feel intimidated by the guards.
It had become hard to imagine the guards in this city harassing anyone for some ridiculous reason.
Instead, the merchants watched them with fond smiles.
Their confident bearing couldn’t hide their youthful faces, making it clear they were new recruits from this year.
Only one man in the group, a knight with the air of a veteran, led the way at their head.
He was a knight well known to the merchants for several reasons.
“Hey, Matthew. On duty tonight?”
“No, I’m off today. I came out for a get-together with my juniors.”
“Going to your mother’s place again? You’re such a devoted son.”
The knight called Matthew answered with an embarrassed smile, then led his juniors into a tavern.
“This is my mother’s place. Drink as much as you like today. It’s on me.”
“Thank you, Sir Knight!”
“Call me ‘senior.’”
““Yes, sir! Senior!””
Leaving his juniors, who answered in booming voices, Matthew headed for the middle of the tavern.
- Whoever rings this bell will pay for the drinks served at every table that day.
As if he were used to it, Matthew moved the warning sign beside the bell and rang the golden bell.
The sound rang through the tavern, and the other customers who heard it cheered.
“Wow. Our senior knight must be making a lot of money these days.”
“Matthew’s a god!”
“Didn’t you say the Duke and Lord Duke were the only two gods last time?”
“Correction! Matthew’s an angel!”
Amid the cheers, Matthew smiled bashfully.
“Don’t thank me. Thank Lord Duke. I only became a senior knight thanks to him.”
Whenever he said that, the tavern regulars cringed and pointed at him.
“There he goes again. Trying to convert people.”
“Sir, I’m not trying to convert anyone.”
“Then why do you keep your juniors at the table for three hours?”
“I’ll keep it short today.”
After answering the regular, Matthew returned to his juniors.
With sausages and barbecue for snacks and beer in front of him, Matthew began telling his juniors his stories.
“So, how did I meet Lord Duke? Well...”
That was the day he’d been beaten to a pulp by a senior knight.
It was for the ridiculous reason that Matthew was close to reaching the next realm.
The senior knight apparently hadn’t been satisfied with beating Matthew up, because he’d then tried to hurt Matthew’s mother.
Duke had rescued Matthew’s mother from him.
“So, because of that, I ended up guiding Lord Duke and Lord Rex back then...”
Matthew’s connection with Duke continued after that.
Whenever Duke met Matthew, he taught him swordsmanship and magic, and in a mere ten years, Matthew became a Tier Three Senior Knight.
After becoming a senior knight, Matthew even rose to become the deputy captain of the capital’s guard.
Even after he became a senior knight, he never forgot his humble beginnings and became famous as an exemplary knight who was kind to citizens and juniors alike.
There was, however, one minor flaw Matthew had acquired along the way.
“Where was I? Oh, right. Back when I was stationed at the southern wall, I ended up with my dream assignment as the guardian of the inner wall. The inner wall, the very symbol of freedom. Once I was assigned there, every restaurant I went to for a get-together asked me for an autograph or publicity, and the bards were always following me around, asking for interviews...”
The fact was that he had become a compulsive talker.
‘He’s a good guy. He really is a good guy.’
The juniors who couldn’t keep up with his stories used the youngest recruits as scapegoats.
That was why the newest recruits were always dragged over to Matthew and made to suffer.
Just as patrols and shifts that didn’t help with training had once been dumped on the youngest members of the duchy, the role of Matthew’s audience always fell to the newest recruits.
‘Ah... Next year, I’ll pass it on to the juniors.’
This was the fifth gathering this year.
The new guards were already determined to pass the role on to the next batch.
For the record, Matthew added to his stories every year, so the recruits arriving next year would have even more to sit through.
After Matthew finally finished his story, which had lasted three hours and ten minutes...
“Any questions?”
“Senior, you said you once guided Lord Duke to a blacksmith’s shop, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then did you see Lord Duke’s face?”
“Of course!”
As if he’d been waiting for it, Matthew launched into his ‘I saw Lord Duke’s face’ routine.
The recruits sighed inwardly and hoped time would pass as they nodded along appropriately.
Just then, an old man approached their table.
“Hoho. Young men, would you mind if this old man joined you?”
“Of course not, sir.”
Matthew gladly welcomed the old man to the table.
Enjoying a drink and the chance of an unexpected encounter was one way to enjoy the capital’s nightlife.
Matthew personally brought over a chair so the old man could sit down.
‘His eyesight must be poor.’
He could tell from how the old man had tapped around with his cane as he approached.
The old man readily accepted Matthew’s kindness and joined them at the table.
“My name is Peter.”
“I’m Matthew, sir.”
“Are you the famous senior knight?”
“Haha. I’m flattered, but I am. By the way, sir, is this your first time in the city?”
“I haven’t been here long. Tonight’s my first time going out after dark.”
As Peter spoke, he observed Matthew’s demeanor.
‘Hmm. He’s a polite young man, just as I heard.’
Matthew’s courtesy had nothing to do with Peter’s status.
As befitted a lord who kept his secrets, the identities of his direct retainers were classified. The only direct retainer whose identity was publicly known was Duke.
Ari, too, was publicly known as an ordinary maid.
And Hana was publicly known as a lord granted a fief by the Duke of Providence, not as one of his retainers.
Naturally, no one knew that Peter had recently become one of Rex’s retainers, either.
Matthew’s politeness was simply a reflection of his character.
“I see. Then what brought you here?”
“I used to wander wherever my heart took me, but I’ve gotten on in years and thought it was time to settle down. I heard this city was such a nice place, so I came to see for myself.”
“And what do you think of it, sir?”
“I’m certain I want to spend my remaining years here.”
“Lord Rex would be happy to hear that.”
Matthew and his junior guards gave Peter warm smiles.
They were glad that he could spend the little time he had left here, while also feeling sorry that he had found the place so late in life.
The catch was that even if you added together Matthew’s remaining lifespan and those of all the guards, it still wouldn’t amount to half of Peter’s.
The old man and Matthew naturally moved on to praising Rex.
“Have you seen the clock tower? That clockwork mechanism must be valuable, but no one’s stolen it.”
“That reminds me of the mana-stone lamp incident.”
“What was that?”
“It happened three years ago...”
With the old man keeping Matthew occupied, the junior guards were finally able to catch their breath.
‘Thank you, sir...!’
‘So this is what experience looks like.’
‘I want to grow old like that.’
For some strange reason, the guards felt boundless respect for Peter.
“...And that’s how the people kept their faith in the streetlights. After that day, we guards even made the mana-stone lamp the symbol of our night patrols.”
“That’s a fine story.”
The old man took a sip of beer and tilted his head slightly.
“But... I’m a little worried.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“I heard the lord has no heir.”
“You don’t need to worry about that, sir. They say Lord Rex is at least Tier Eight. The duchy will be fine for another thousand years...”
“Noooo!”
At that moment, Peter shouted.
Matthew and the guards, who hadn’t expected the gentle old man to suddenly do that, nearly fell off their chairs.
They stared at the old man, whose face had turned red and whose neck veins were bulging.
“S-Sir?”
“You call yourself a senior knight! What kind of irresponsible thing is that to say?”
“Sir, please calm down. I think you’ve misunderstood...”
“What do you mean, misunderstood, you fool? What does lifespan have to do with it? Have you completely forgotten that the duchy was at war just a few weeks ago? Have you already forgotten that Lord Rex stood on the front lines?”
At the old man’s shout, Matthew felt as if he’d been struck on the back of the head with a hammer.
He immediately apologized for his mistake.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Matthew apologized because what he’d just said was not something a senior knight should have said.
A knight was, by nature, someone loyal to his lord and, at the same time, a guardian of the country’s system.
And this country was at war.
There were no certainties in war, and one had to consider even the possibility that something might happen to one’s lord.
So for a man who called himself a senior knight to act as if there was nothing to worry about because the lord had plenty of years left was by no means appropriate.
At the very least, he should have said, ‘I’ll protect him, no matter what,’
or, if not that, he could have answered that the lord had his reasons.
“I’m sorry, sir. I caused you concern.”
“As long as you understand. Now, what’s your answer to my earlier question?”
“Yes?”
“What should be done about Lord Rex having no heir?”
“Uh...”
Matthew considered his answer.
A senior knight might not be a retainer, but he still held a fairly high rank among civil servants.
His official statements were not to be taken lightly.
After thinking it over, Matthew answered honestly.
“To be honest... I’m worried about that, too.”
“Hmm?”
“Sigh... I know our lord works hard for our sake. Do you see that over there?”
Matthew pointed from the window toward the inner wall.
The inner wall that Duke had once cut down had become a symbol of communication and still hadn’t been rebuilt.
The citizens took it to mean that Rex didn’t want to put a wall between himself and his people.
Thanks to that, the citizens could see Rex’s mansion from a distance.
The problem was that the lord, whose face was unknown, was famous for keeping the lights on in his office late into the night.
“I’m worried, too. He’s so diligent, he doesn’t seem to have any interest in that sort of thing.”
The previous lord’s mansion had often been visited by prostitutes and sex slaves.
But there wasn’t even a hint of that sort of thing at Rex’s mansion.
“It seems like he’s married to his work...”
At Matthew’s ‘official’ statement, Peter’s expression stiffened.
He knew his lord was diligent, but it was a problem if even a knight like this was worried about him.
And with the guards beside Matthew nodding along, it seemed the story had spread throughout the duchy as common knowledge.
“Good heavens...”
It was more serious than he’d thought.
At this rate, Rex’s line of succession might end with his generation.
Just then, a group of burly middle-aged beastmen who had been quietly listening at the next table joined the conversation.
“Old man.”
“Hmm? What is it, you fellows?”
“We’re ignorant commoners who can’t even read and know nothing but hard labor. But even commoners like us know how much we owe the Duke.”
The beastman began to tell him about his past.
There had been a time when he was enslaved for being a demi-human, and even his wife and children had been sold away.
It was Duke Rex who had rescued him, reunited him with his family, and introduced welfare policies that helped him find a job.
“I still have trouble sleeping whenever I think about ten years ago.”
“Yes. I can imagine.”
“But this may be irreverent of me to ask... What would happen if something happened to the Duke?”
Peter answered with a grave expression.
“We’d have to live in that hell again. I’ll commit seppuku before I have to see that happen.”
Every person in the tavern heard the old man’s words clearly.
In fact, when Peter had just shouted, everyone had fallen silent and focused on him and Matthew.
In other words, everyone in the tavern had heard the entire conversation about the succession.
Before long, the people began to murmur.
“Wait. I’d never thought about it before. Have you ever heard that the Duke has a lover?”
“A lover? We don’t even know what the Duke looks like.”
“Huh? Then we don’t know how old he is, either. What if he’s already old?”
“Is that the problem right now? We’re at war! Anything could happen!”
“Come to think of it, isn’t the Duke aggressive enough to fight on the front lines?”
“Someone said he doesn’t show his face because he’s sick and doesn’t want us to worry...”
“Who said something that ominous?”
“It wasn’t me! The lady at the general store said it!”
“Don’t believe that bigmouth.”
“But what if something does happen?”
“Still, there’s no need to worry already...”
“They say the Empire fell because it was too complacent, too.”
“Are we in more danger than we realize?”
Anxiety began to spread.
“I... I can’t go back.”
“Me neither! I worked so hard to build a family!”
“Fuck! I finally learned what happiness is! This can’t happen!”
Everyone in the tavern knew the duchy’s past.
After all, anyone drinking in a tavern was at least an adult.
They all naturally remembered what things had been like eleven years ago.
The neighbor’s child who had become dog food in an alley for making eye contact with the knights.
Streets rife with filth and disease, lined with corpses that had no family to claim them.
Chicken so lean it seemed to embody poverty, and beef eaten perhaps once every ten years.
And the lord who had never spared a thought for the citizens’ poverty.
“No!”
“What are we supposed to do?”
The citizens fell into confusion.
If someone were rolling dice in a higher dimension, they would have said their morale had dropped and rolled a check.
Just then, Peter calmed the confused crowd.
“Calm yourselves.”
His skill had activated unconsciously.
The skill, which offered ‘appropriate advice,’ could help someone in a state of confusion regain their composure.
“I’ll go plead directly with Lord Rex.”
“Sir, how?”
“As I recall, the laws Lord Rex proclaimed say that citizens have the right to submit petitions peacefully. Was it called the petition drum?”
“You know the laws? But you can’t see, sir.”
“I read them in Braille.”
“Braille?”
“It lets people like me read books... Oh, come on! That’s not what matters right now!”
At the old man’s words, the people placed their hopes in him.
“Sir, please! We can’t read...”
“All right. I’ll submit a petition myself.”
Carrying the people’s expectations on his shoulders, Peter hurried off.
***
Peter headed straight for Duke.
The petition system allowed the people to submit petitions directly to their lord, but officials served as intermediaries to prevent its indiscriminate abuse.
However, Duke was the only official who could approve a petition from Peter, one of Rex’s closest retainers, so that was where he went.
“I heard you have the authority to approve petitions.”
Since joining Rex’s service, Peter had been sensitive to the chain of command, so he addressed Duke formally during work hours.
Duke was also a knight who knew how to separate work from personal matters, so unlike the way he usually treated Peter, he accepted the scroll with a serious expression.
“This is...”
“A petition.”
Duke read through the scroll Peter had written in calligraphy.
To sum it up, it was a petition asking to discuss Rex’s heir.
The moment Duke saw the scroll, he thought of the original story.
‘So it plays out this way in this world, too.’
In the original story, Peter was a lunatic old man who brought people along once a month to shout that Rex needed to have s*x and procreate.
Since he would say such things with a perfectly serious face, the fans treated him like a senile old man.
That was why Duke had always thought of Peter as a ridiculous old man.
He was serious, wise, and someone with plenty worth emulating.
But let your guard down for even a moment, and he’d start making jokes about having lots of children.
His senility persisted even past the ending, into the post-ending side stories.
Thinking back on the original story, Duke was about to approve the petition in a fit of nostalgia.
Just then, a memory flashed through his mind.
‘Now that I think about it...’
That bastard Rex had teased him about his relationship with Hana during the last war.
Of course, things had worked out well in the end, and thanks to Rex personally coming to the battlefield, the Sneria Duchy had been able to sign an armistice peacefully.
Watching Hana develop her duchy with advice from Rex, the monster of domestic administration, had even made Duke think he should treat Rex like a superior these days.
But although he was grateful, Duke was a man who never forgot the past. (Mostly when it came to things done to him.)
‘How dare you tease me?’
Duke returned to the present and looked from the scroll in front of him to Peter.
Within a few seconds, he came up with a magnificent way to screw Rex over.
After collecting his thoughts, Duke rejected the petition.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t approve it.”
“Why?! Ah, I’m sorry for raising my voice. May I ask why?”
“Lord Rex has forbidden me from approving petitions of this kind. You’re not the first to submit one.”
“But...”
There had, in fact, been an old man who submitted a petition about the succession before Peter.
The former Duke’s adjutant and former chronicler, a gnome old-timer who now stayed home recovering and writing books.
Unlike Peter, of course, the gnome old-timer didn’t keep shouting about s*x, but submitted his petition with dignity and refinement.
Still, it was true that Rex had grown tired of petitions of this kind.
Duke’s refusal left Peter deeply disappointed.
“Then...”
“There is another way.”
Duke told Peter about ‘a certain’ method.
After hearing the explanation, Peter let out an admiring cheer.
“I’ve never heard of a system like that!”
“Lord Rex himself proclaimed that law, so don’t worry. I’ll approve it.”
Reassured by Duke’s promise, Peter waited eagerly for nightfall.
When night came and he returned to the tavern, he saw his comrades waiting to hear the result.
“Sir, how did it go?”
“Lord Duke said I couldn’t submit a petition for this reason.”
“But...”
“Instead, I learned about a new system.”
Peter’s skill manifested unconsciously, and everyone listened to him.
Neither Rex nor Peter knew this, but the old man’s skill was specialized in giving advice.
Depending on the situation, though, advice could also be another form of persuasion.
When that persuasion was directed at a group, it was usually called incitement.
“We’re going to hold a protest.”
“What’s a protest?”
“We’ll all go and plead with Lord Rex together!”
“But wouldn’t that be a riot or a rebellion?”
Not only the people here, but everyone in the city had never taken collective action before.
The previous lord had been terrifying, and there had been no reason to do so under Rex.
They respected Rex, but they still carried the fear instilled in them by the previous lord, so they didn’t dare take collective action.
For their sake, Peter told them about the laws concerning protests.
“As I recall, the laws Lord Rex proclaimed say people have the right to protest peacefully.”
“But you can’t see, sir.”
“I read them in Braille.”
“Braille?”
“It lets people like me read books... Oh, come on! That’s not what matters right now!”
Peter began rousing the people in the tavern.
“Everyone! Let’s gather in front of the mansion this weekend! Persuade as many people around you as you can, and let our lord know at once how worried we are!”
“Will that be all right? What if the lord or Lord Duke gets angry...”
“Sir Duke and I know each other personally. I’ll go speak with him, so everyone gather next weekend.”
“Understood, sir.”
The people left the tavern with grave expressions.
After sending them off, Peter recalled Duke’s warning.
- “You absolutely must not say that I was the one who told you about this.”
Duke was the one who would authorize the protest.
But if people found out Duke had introduced the idea of protesting, the protest’s legitimacy, sincerity, and legality could all be compromised.
In other words, Peter would have to take responsibility for all of it.
Naturally, Peter was more than willing to take on that role.
For this old man, shouting about s*x in front of people was nothing to be ashamed of.
And so Peter gathered his comrades at the tavern and started a protest on a scale that brought a coup to mind.
- “Your Grace! Find yourself a spouse at once! And today, you must leave work early and sleep with a woman!”
- “Chastity is noble in and of itself, but it is virtuous because one must eventually cast it aside, Your Grace! Please, at least today...”
- “I beg your pardon, but I have a book I brought back from that continent across the sea! Studying it will be of help to you!”
With a Tier Seven man bellowing those words through magic right at the mansion entrance, Rex’s mental fortitude was being shredded in real time.
Even Matthew, famous for being a diligent knight, had been swept up in the old man’s incitement and was shouting behind him.
And the chronicler recorded the incident as follows.
=============
- Under Sir Peter’s leadership, the people in the tavern held the first protest.
This protest symbolizes the people’s patriotism and is proof that Lord Rex personally guaranteed their right to participate in politics. Let future ministers remember this and never suppress protests.
The chronicler named the incident the <Matthew Beer Hall Riot> so that it would be remembered for all time.
=============