Chapter 34
Just before the banquet began in the Imperial Palace.
In the north, a short distance from the capital, Drakir.
- Slash!
“Graaah!!”
A group of assailants had attacked a viscount on his way to attend the banquet in the capital.
“Huff, huff…!”
‘Rotten Herold,’ the viscount who had shown off his carriage with a sparkling incandescent-light sign, clutched his chest…
“Th-thank you, Saintess!”
He thanked the Saintess who had protected him.
“Damn it, why is the Saintess riding in the carriage of some lowly viscount?!”
“Hehe. Because I had business in Viscount Herold’s territory.”
The assassins sent by Viscount Herold’s political rivals recalled that he had recently contacted the Holy See about building a Catholic church.
In that case, a representative from the Holy See, the main branch, would come out to discuss the matter… It was usually a task assigned to a high-ranking cleric.
But why?!
“Why is a Saintess taking on such unpleasant work herself?!”
The Saintess had personally negotiated with the viscount and was now attending the Millennial Founding Festival with him?!
The assassins felt they were going to die of sheer injustice.
“Should a Saintess refuse unpleasant work just because of her position?”
Of course, as the Saintess said, one should not refuse unpleasant work simply because one held a high position.
They were merely shown consideration because they occupied a position that demanded greater responsibility and required them to bear its burdens.
That was why, whenever she had time, the Saintess would make visits herself out of consideration for the busy priests.
And while she was returning from one such visit…
“Saintess, leave them to—.”
“No. I sense a strong aura of black magic from them… I’ll deal with them myself.”
“…So this unpleasant feeling wasn’t a coincidence after all.”
To think she had found such delectable targets for punishment!
The black magic of demons that consumed the life force of others!!
That aura was pouring from the robed figures standing before them.
“Heh, heh!! You’re not even ten people, and you think you can defeat these dozens of ghouls and hordes of zombies?!”
The necromancer was confident.
No matter how powerful the Saintess was, if he threw the rampaging ghouls and endlessly resurrecting zombies at her all at once, she would eventually grow exhausted.
“With these hands, I shall judge you! Keh-keh-keh!!!”
At that moment, the necromancer formed a plan to slip through the knights and kill the Saintess.
- Bzzzz!!
“Huh?”
That was before he saw the two Sacred Light Swords the Saintess had drawn.
“No, Saintess! Did you take my flashlight again?!”
“I’ll borrow it just this once, Sir Thorbi!”
After stealing a flashlight from one of the knights, the Saintess drew her Sacred Light Swords and crossed them.
The golden Sacred Light Swords stretched into the shape of a cross, symbolizing God’s love and grace.
- Clang!
“How dare you reject the grace of reincarnation bestowed by God and proclaim that you will judge God’s daughter?!”
“Pardon?”
The Saintess completely overwhelmed the necromancer through sheer momentum alone.
For a moment, the necromancer thought a saint from the Holy See had descended.
Perhaps he was right.
“Kyaaaak!!”
“Evil shall be smitten!”
- Slash!!
“Huh?! My ghoul was split into three in one blowww?!”
The instant the Saintess swung her twin Sacred Light Swords, the leaping ghoul was cut into three pieces and scattered across the road.
- Bzzzz!
“You will not tremble before God’s blessing, but fall like cut straw!! Aaaaaaameeeen!”
Ever since the Saintess had gained the ability to maintain her Sacred Light Swords longer than anyone else in the Holy See,
she had been training her swordsmanship under the Saint with the elite knights.
- Hum-hum-hum!!
“Ohhhh!!! Hallelujah!!”
“God’s blessing has melted perfectly into the Saintess’s muscles! Aaaaaaameeeen!!!”
The reason that elite order was so strong was that its members were fanatics who healed themselves with holy power after nearly dying, then trained again.
For a Saintess who had endured such hardcore training…
“He said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light!!”
- Slash!!
“And God saw that the light was good!”
Slaughtering ghouls and zombies while reciting Bible verses was nothing difficult.
“Depart from me, all you evildoers! You workers of iniquity, depart from me!!”
“Huh? Eek?”
As far as the assassins knew, the Saintess was publicly known to sometimes take the front line, but she was not a combatant at heart…
Contrary to those rumors, more than two-thirds of the ghouls and zombies had already been cut down.
By a single Saintess wielding twin Sacred Light Swords!!
“O God!! I return these twisted children to Your bosom! Forgive me, who makes them remember death—!!”
The Saintess had become a master of dual-wielding swordsmanship?
The assassins wondered whether such a thing was even possible, but…
“R-run!! There’s no way we can defeat her!!”
“The mad Saintess is running wild!!!”
What could they do when the impossible had become reality?
If they wanted to live, they had to run.
“Where do you think you’re running, forces of evil!!!”
“Pursue them!! They can’t have gotten far after being struck by the Saintess’s Sacred Light Swords!”
Having failed in their assassination, they had no choice but to flee in haste.
* * *
Returning to the first day of the Millennial Founding Festival,
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Young Master Akion. I run a sugarcane plantation in the south—.”
The banquet of the Millennial Founding Festival had officially begun after the Emperor’s Akion roast(?) and congratulatory address.
So this was clearly a day to celebrate the Empire’s thousandth birthday, but…
“We met last time, didn’t we? It’s good to see you again, Young Master Akion!”
“About that turbine pump I mentioned. If you wouldn’t mind, perhaps you could make one for our estate too—.”
People were actually gathering around Enersis in ever greater numbers.
Everyone was trying to make even the slightest connection with Akion.
“My younger brother asked this Juan for a favor. ‘Big Brother, make a furnace hot enough to melt armor in one go. Please bestow upon this younger brother your knowledge of earth!’”
“Heh. Do you know how much Akion helped me while I was developing turbine pumps and boilers? It would have been impossible if I hadn’t given him those pressure values, you know?”
His siblings, meanwhile, were busy putting Akion forward and bragging about themselves.
Was this the Founding Festival or the Enersis Festival?
Akion wanted to go home.
“When did I ever say that?”
“But you did!”
“But you did!”
“Just because I didn’t lie doesn’t mean exaggeration and understatement disappear, you slanderous brothers.”
But they had good reason for acting that way: just a moment ago, the Emperor had proclaimed two imperial decrees for Enersis—no, for Akion alone.
And he had done so at the grandest event in a thousand years.
“Hehe, Akion. Don’t be too hurt.”
“I’d rather you spent that time doing more research than feeling sorry for me.”
“……”
“Come to think of it, Countess Lucretia, you’ve been going to the workshop less often lately—.”
“Oh-ho-ho! I just remembered that I have an acquaintance over there. I must go! Since you’re here, go meet lots of people!”
Symbolically, politically, and in terms of future industrial policy,
the Emperor had made it clear: ‘This fellow is insanely talented. Therefore, he’s my man now.’
From the perspective of nobles who needed to keep an eye on politics, an individual they had to treat with extreme caution had appeared.
“Enersis. Long time no see.”
And this was an unpleasant development for House Volkov as well, since it was engaged to him.
- Silence….
One section of the banquet hall fell silent the instant a noble called out to the Enersis family gathered there.
- Step, step.
The leader of the northern warriors walked toward Delphord.
His large, intimidating frame, mixed with the blood of the northern barbarians of the continent, looked even more fearsome because of the scars covering him.
“Duke Arctic….”
“Congratulations. Who knew your son-in-law would bring the Empire such a windfall? So… you’re Akion Enersis?”
He was the greatest head of House Volkov, the man who had raised it from a marquisate to a duchy.
As a swordsman, he was a top-tier Expert, though still below his daughter, but he was nevertheless an excellent knight and…
“The child who used to hide behind his mother’s skirts in fear is now grown enough to stand boldly before me. Time flies! Bwahaha!”
He was a military genius who had risen to the rank of grand general as a tactician, commanding the army and completing the Volkov Line’s walls, whose construction had been repeatedly delayed by monster attacks.
“Let me formally introduce myself, son-in-law. I am Duke Arctic Volkov.”
“…I greet the blue wolf of the North. I am Akion Enersis.”
Finally, Akion’s father-in-law-to-be.
He was Duke Arctic Volkov.
*
“Let’s dispense with these perfunctory pleasantries.”
One side of the banquet hall’s terrace.
A place favored for discreet conversations, it sometimes served as a rendezvous for young noblemen and ladies,
“Your forthright personality hasn’t changed.”
“As a northern warrior, I’ve never had much use for flowery words. Anyway, let’s get to the point.”
At present, it was occupied by Akion, Delphord, and Duke Arctic.
“Akion Enersis. How old are you?”
“I’m eighteen.”
“Then you’ll be an adult next year, so you can marry. I’ll take you to the North at the beginning of next year.”
“Duke Arctic!”
“Fulfill your responsibilities as a son-in-law.”
Every noble in the banquet hall had their ears turned in this direction.
Delphord cast a spell to block anyone from eavesdropping,
but the duke’s declaration was so shocking that it nearly shook the spell apart.
“I clearly sent you a letter! I unilaterally broke off the engagement, and increased the support payments as compensation!”
“Ah. They went up by twenty or thirty percent. I’m truly grateful. I seriously considered breaking off the engagement as well, but….”
Duke Arctic raised a finger scarred by burns and sword cuts and pointed at Akion.
“While I was late to the banquet because I had business to attend to, His Majesty beat me to it. He proclaimed two imperial decrees solely for Akion Enersis! Heh-heh…!”
As he laughed like a wolf eyeing its prey,
Akion felt goosebumps rise all over him.
“In truth, His Majesty has declared war on me. To see who claims Akion first.”
“Refrain from making hasty judgments, Duke!”
“Delphord, my dear friend Delphord. You are his father and must have been by Akion’s side, so you know well how his value rises by the day.”
Contrary to his savage appearance, the tactical genius Duke Arctic was shrewd in politics as well.
He saw right through the ulterior motive behind the Emperor’s imperial decree, which promised lavish support for magi-engineering.
“You know as well as I do, Delphord. There is no alliance stronger than marriage.”
He clearly intended to place Akion under his own banner.
On top of that, the Seventh Princess’s remarkable transformation lately had actually been achieved with a custom magi-tool Akion had given her.
In the eyes of the nobles, the prospect of ‘an engagement between Akion and the Princess’ was obvious.
“My daughter returned home heartbroken. She said the young master toyed with her through his sweet words, then unilaterally broke off the engagement.”
“Duke, that joke is going too far.”
“I may not know about the former, but isn’t the latter true?”
Akion had said it, yes, but in effect he had only postponed the marriage.
Even so, the duke’s fixation on Akion was intended to snatch him away as quickly as possible.
Akion had noticed as much.
Whether he liked it or not, he had been forced to hone his political instincts inside and outside noble society.
“Delphord. Let us acknowledge it. As comrades who filled in each other’s shortcomings, the engagement must be fulfilled—.”
“Then would it solve everything if I abandoned the Enersis name?”
“What?”
“What?!!”
But then an answer far more outrageous than anything they had imagined came out.
Both the blue wolf and the count were left dumbfounded.
*
“Well done. Thanks to you, we weathered that crisis.”
The duke, still stunned by Akion’s outrageous statement, withdrew after saying they would discuss it another time,
“Until you showed me those incandescent lights, I was seriously considering leaving Enersis.”
“Think about going to another city and installing that infrastructure you set up here all over again.”
“Damn it. I shouldn’t have let myself be seduced by Enersis’s money!”
Akion and his biological father, Delphord, had escaped safely.
Of course, Akion was also vaguely curious about the Enersis family he remembered from childhood.
Why had they sold off their incompetent son to such an obsessive family?
But judging by his biological father’s mood, he did not seem likely to explain it right away.
“By the way, your romantic entanglements have become quite complicated.”
“What kind of slander is that, Father?”
In the midst of all this, Delphord suddenly told his son that he had the physiognomy of a man destined for trouble with women.
Akion was dumbfounded, but…
“There’s such a thing. Heh-heh.”
From Delphord’s perspective as an outsider, there were simply too many women around Akion.
Hermione was excluded from consideration because she had always viewed Akion like an academy professor.
If she felt romantic interest in Akion, he would have to lock her away in a convent immediately. Anyway.
In Enersis, there were Goldie and Tower Master Ridasid.
In the capital, there was the Saintess, and judging by the Emperor’s attitude, the Seventh Princess was included as well.
And Aishirel of Volkov had seemed to like Akion too, judging by the way she acted last time…
“Son.”
“Yes?”
“Keep your chin up. I’ll help you make up for what I couldn’t do as a father.”
“Why are you suddenly saying something so embarrassing?”
Whatever form of affection they held for Akion, one thing was certain.
Akion had the physiognomy of a man plagued by women!!
“Even if you give up the countship, you still need to leave descendants!”
“I said it’s embarrassing, and now you’re teasing me….”
Still, wasn’t one son with several daughters-in-law better than one daughter with several sons-in-law?
The Imperial Family had been suffering quite a headache from the former arrangement.
And compared with the shocking achievements Akion had accomplished… Delphord, as the current head of Enersis, could share the burden of that much karma.
“Count Delphord Enersis, Akion Enersis. His Majesty summons you.”
“His Majesty is summoning me…?”
“Er… me and Father?”
As it happened, the Emperor’s summons had arrived as well.
If the Seventh Princess came up, he could help smooth things over.
*
When they went to the secret audience chamber, just as Delphord had expected, the Seventh Princess was seated beside the Emperor.
Delphord became certain that his prediction had been correct, but…
“You said a ducal house was too much, didn’t you? Then how about a marquess’s house?”
“Your Majesty. Begging your pardon, but I must ask you to repeat yourself.”
He had not expected the subject of a marquess’s house to come up.
“The attacks the Western Alliance had directed at you have quieted down, so how about becoming a marquis? If so, a marriage to royalty would pose no problem either.”
“……….”
Delphord recalled the days he had spent cleaning up the mess left behind by Enersis’s previous head.
Because of that, Akion currently thought of him as a father who had sold off his own son…
“Hahaha! Delphord, my man, you’re too overjoyed to close your mouth!”
“I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty’s grace….”
And then he imagined the political fallout that would come from the marquessate he was about to receive.
They were maintaining their countship partly because of their ancestor’s dying wish, but also because the Western noble alliance that harassed them was glaring at them, so they had been keeping their heads down!!
We have to defend ourselves somehow…!!
“But, Your Majesty. Enersis has not yet achieved a feat great enough to be elevated to a marquessate. Please withdraw your command.”
“Then we shall give you one. Enersis, obey the imperial command!”
Not a chance.
Delphord felt sick at being handed achievements to earn the title.
Naturally, Akion felt exactly the same. Why was there another imperial command?!
The two Enersises immediately rose from their seats and knelt,
“Akion Enersis. I trust that one who brought light to Enersis territory will not turn a blind eye to the destitution of the Empire’s ill-clad people.”
The Emperor praised his benevolence and entrusted him with the first mission to be carried out with the sweet aid of the national budget.
“Bring us a means of mass-producing fabric faster and more precisely than magic, so that no one need go unclothed. This is the first edict in the burden I place upon the name of Enersis!”
It was an edict concerning clothing, the first of the essentials of food, clothing, and shelter.
This could be solved through mass production by semi-automating and industrializing the sewing machine and loom Delphord had mentioned!
Akion glanced sideways, and Delphord looked back at him with an equally surprised expression.
The Emperor was practically spoon-feeding them the marquessate.
There was no way they could refuse anyway….
“I accept the imperial command!”
“I accept the imperial command…!”
What the heck, let’s give it a try.
Akion hurriedly began recalling the principles behind looms and sewing machines.
Akion hurriedly began recalling the principles behind looms and sewing machines.