The Deficit

#1. The Deficit

"Haa……."

Every time he exhaled, a cloud of white breath appeared.

The lord's office in the Winterwald Grand Duchy's castle in the North.

There sat Grand Duke Kylan Winterwald, the battlefield ghost who guarded the northern reaches of the continent, lord of Winterwald, and the Empire's Sword Master.

'The fire magic stones have become far too expensive lately. I can endure it, but at this rate, the entire population may freeze to death.'

He had jet-black hair and deep blue eyes. Yes, he had the face of a textbook handsome man from a romance-fantasy novel.

His charisma overflowed so much that even ordinary knights could not meet his eyes and would lower their heads.

Even now, he stared at the bundles of parchment before him with a grave expression, his chin propped on one hand.

His loyal aide and knight commander, Cedric.

He stood by the door and watched him.

“Ah… To think His Grace agonizes so much for the safety of the North… Gasp!”

Cedric remained in place, holding even his breath so he would not disturb his lord.

Meanwhile, Kylan—or rather, Lee Hyun-soo, a lifelong middle manager on the accounting/logistics integration team at a small Korean company—felt like he was dying of frustration inside.

'Damn, can this be right? The deficit is 30,000 gold this month alone?'

One gold coin of imperial currency was worth roughly one million won in Korean currency. In other words, the hole in this month's territory budget amounted to a whopping 30 billion won.

Kylan suppressed the urge to tear the parchment report before him to shreds.

Three months since transmigrating.

After collapsing from overwork and opening his eyes, he had become the Grand Duke of the North in the romance-fantasy novel his younger sister loved to read.

At first, he rejoiced. He had finally thought he could quit his damnable life as an office worker and live grandly as a nobleman born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

The northern grand duke in the romance-fantasy novel had plenty of money, immense power, and eventually enjoyed a happy life flirting with the pretty heroine sent by the emperor.

Yes, at least that was how it looked to the readers.

….But there was a reality that a novel of 5,000 characters per chapter could never contain.

The North was winter for nine months of the year. Farming? Sow seeds in frozen soil, and all that grew were small, tasteless, unimproved, rock-hard potatoes.

The title of grand duke was merely a fine-sounding name. In reality, he was no different from the owner of a one-man security company tasked with stopping waves of monsters on the Empire's front line.

The subsidies from the imperial family were laughably small, while the costs of maintaining a defense force of 10,000, providing relief food for the territory's people, and repairing the shattered walls were astronomical.

Romance, my ass.

He woke at six in the morning to smash monster heads, spent the afternoon checking for residents who had frozen to death, and wrestled with these deficit-ridden ledgers at night. He had no time to think about women.

'If I didn't have a Sword Master's stamina, I would have died of overwork here too.'

Kylan pressed down hard on his throbbing temples.

'At this rate, the territory will go bankrupt within three years. And then not only the North, but the entire Empire will be finished.'

He had only one goal.

Turn this damnable territory profitable, put the whole system on autopilot, and retire to a warm southern resort where he could enjoy all four seasons.

'FIRE movement! Let's gooo!'

Just as he dipped his pen in ink and was about to cross out the [Knights' banquet expenses] item on the budget with an unforgiving X,

"Grand Duke! Emergency report!"

The office door flew open, and a messenger knight came rushing in, panting.

Kylan's brow twitched.

'Oh, come on, what now? Right before quitting time.'

"What is it?"

He forced his voice to sound as indifferent and cold as possible. The messenger flinched at the imposing voice and dropped to one knee.

"A red signal has been raised at the Third Watchtower in the northwest! It's a mixed legion of orcs and dire wolves. There are roughly a thousand or more of them, and at this rate, they'll reach the walls within two hours!"

Cedric's expression by the door hardened.

"A thousand! Good heavens, a large-scale wave right as spring begins. Your Highness, I'll summon the knights immediately!!"

Cedric said solemnly, gripping the hilt of his sword.

But Kylan felt the opposite.

His eyes shone like a child's as he smiled.

'I'm saved!'

Wolf pelts could be used for winter clothing.

More importantly, orcs and dire wolves were monsters.

Magic stones—in other words, ATMs were walking straight toward him of their own accord.

'About 1 gold per orc. 2.5 gold per dire wolf.'

Life began to return to Kylan's eyes.

It was as if a sucker with his wallet wide open had walked in of his own accord before a sales manager who had failed to meet his quarterly target!

"Cedric."

"Yes, my lord! Just give the order. Even if I have to sacrifice my life, I will bring back the heads of those monsters!"

"Good. The neck… Only the neck."

"……Yes?"

Cedric and the messenger knight both made equally foolish sounds.

Kylan slowly rose from his seat.

An overwhelming aura poured from his towering 190-centimeter frame.

He picked up the greatsword 'Frost Fang' hanging on the wall and said,

"If you strike the heart, the magic stone will be damaged. And since we need to collect the dire wolves' pelts, you'll have to butcher them even more carefully."

Despite this explanation, the two knights still wore blank expressions.

"Do you not understand that the territory is suffering from a serious deficit! Every single magic stone represents food to fill our people's stomachs and clothing to keep their bodies warm! Tell the knights that if anyone carelessly breaks a magic stone, I'll remove tobacco and dried meat from that person's provisions for this month."

"……!"

Only then did Cedric tremble and bow his head.

"I will convey your warm intentions to the knights in no uncertain terms!"

Kylan rubbed his forehead inwardly.

'Did these battle-obsessed idiots actually understand? Please, just preserve the merchandise. The auction price differs threefold between A-grade and C-grade pelts.'

In any case, the order had been given.

Kylan glared at the gray sky visible through the window.

'Right before quitting time, damn it.'

It was forced overtime.

***

The snowy field before the northern walls.

Rrrrummmble!

Along with a vibration that shook the earth, a pitch-black wave came surging toward them.

Orcs crazed for slaughter and starving dire wolves shrieked at the top of their lungs.

This was hardly the time to cheerfully go harvesting magic stones.

"Kroaaah!"

"Human! Kill! Human! Eat!"

Hundreds of Winterwald knights lined up before the walls gripped their swords tightly, their expressions stiff. Even for the elite of the North, it was a number they could never afford to take lightly.

Just then, the massive iron gate in the center of the defensive wall opened, and a knight dashed out.

A man riding a black horse, his black cloak streaming behind him.

It was the Grand Duke of the North, Kylan.

"His Highness has come out in person!"

"Hold the line! Protect His Highness!"

When Kylan appeared, the knights' morale soared to the heavens.

For the northern knights, having their lord personally stand at the vanguard was the greatest honor and inspiration imaginable.

But Kylan, standing at the front line, was actually in a thoroughly foul mood.

The wind was far too cold. He had never caught a cold since possessing this body, but that did not mean he felt no cold at all.

Let's finish this quickly and have a nice bowl of hot soup in the warm office.

"Eight hundred orcs. Two hundred fifty dire wolves. That should make roughly 1,400 gold in overtime pay."

Kylan muttered as he drew Frost Fang.

Clang!

Aura began to shimmer around the blade.

His aura was as cold as a blizzard and as sharp as a surgical scalpel.

Kylan spurred his black horse.

In an instant, he plunged like a thunderbolt into the center of the monster legion.

"Grrr!"

A dire wolf that had charged at Kylan from the front, ready to bite him, bared its fearsome teeth at him.

Kylan swung his sword casually, and the head of the pack leader went flying through the air.

Before blood could spray everywhere, the extreme cold clinging to Kylan's sword instantly froze the cut surface.

Pelt damage: 0%. Magic stone damage: 0%.

It was a clean harvest of resources.

Shhk! Slash!

Kylan did not stop.

Whenever his sword nicked a monster's knee and robbed it of its mobility, the creatures' legs froze and they crumpled one after another.

The knights, ready to risk their lives, charged in behind Kylan.

"His Highness has laid out the feast! Don't damage the pelts—cut their throats!"

"If the merchandise loses value, it'll come out of our provisions! Be careful when you finish them off!"

This was probably the first time in the history of the North that knights had ever mentioned the value of merchandise.

They say that master and servant come to resemble each other.

The knights cutting off monster heads looked exactly like their lord, who had sweated blood over the territory's deficit.

The office workers' bloody struggle for their livelihoods continued for more than three hours.

A while later.

The long battle and night shift finally came to an end.

The snowfield was covered by a mountain of more than a thousand intact orc and dire wolf corpses.

There had not been a single casualty.

It was a triumphant feat made possible because the Sword Master Kylan had stood at the front.

Kylan took a deep breath as he sheathed the fine sword without a drop of blood on it.

"Cedric."

"Yes, my lord!"

Cedric approached, drenched in sweat.

"Summon every resident skilled in butchering and leatherworking. Bring out all the cutters powered by magic stones as well. Since this will be an overnight job, pay them twice the usual night-shift rate, and prepare plenty of fire magic stones and hot soup. Before the smell of blood attracts other monsters, load every last one of those into the warehouse by tomorrow morning."

"…M-my lord."

Cedric's voice was thick with emotion.

"Even after fighting such a desperate battle, all you can think about is whether your people might be hungry… Faced with your lordship's ocean-deep grace, I, Cedric, can barely see through my tears."

'Stop making such a fuss and just hurry up and prepare the work…'

Kylan did not even have the energy to answer, so he merely nodded and turned his horse toward the castle. He had to work this hard for an entire month just to cover this month's budget shortfall.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no way this could continue.

'Ugh, I'm so sick of this. When will I finally be able to quit this nonsense and relax with a mojito on a warm southern beach?'

The next morning.

Kylan, who was always kept awake at night by financial troubles, had finally enjoyed a good night's sleep for the first time in ages.

'People really do need to work and earn money.'

He was just about to enjoy a refreshing morning shower when a knock sounded and the office door opened.

"My lord……."

Cedric staggered in, his eyes dark and hollow from spending the night skinning wolves.

He had a letter in his hand.

A letter bearing the wax seal of a double-headed eagle… It was from the imperial family.

"This is an imperial letter urgently sent from the capital at dawn through a teleportation magic circle."

Kylan desperately ignored the ominous feeling in his gut and tore open the envelope. As his eyes rapidly skimmed down the contents, they grew wider and wider.

[...Thus, I commend the efforts of Grand Duke Winterwald, who guards the northern frontier of the Empire like an impregnable fortress, and wish to take my lovely daughter, the Empire's shining pearl, Princess 'Eleanor von Valdemar,' as your consort. The princess will arrive in the North at the beginning of next month...]

"Ha."

A hollow laugh escaped Kylan's lips.

Cedric asked in horror,

"My lord? Wh-what is it! Did the imperial family refuse our support again?"

"No."

Kylan tossed the letter onto the desk.

The imperial family's ugly duckling, the heroine 'Eleanor,' a bastard who had suffered every kind of persecution, was being sent off like merchandise into a political marriage with the Grand Duke of the North, who was called a monster.

This was the beginning of the main story.

In the original novel, the princess cried every night at first, wounded by the North's cold and the grand duke's brusqueness. Then she gradually discovered his warm side and fell in love with him.

"The emperor says he intends to marry the Fourth Princess to me."

"W-what?! The Fourth Princess… You mean the bastard who lives holed up in the academy library! To make a princess of uncertain lineage the noble lady of the North! This is imperial treachery! I'll send a letter of refusal immediately…!"

"Wait."

'What were the heroine's specs again…? She definitely had sun magic….'

A passage from the original novel flashed through Kylan's mind.

[Eleanor hid in the library to escape her half-siblings who tormented her, and graduated at the top of her class after double-majoring in public administration and finance at the Imperial Academy of the Empire.]

"Graduated at the top of her class…."

Kylan's eyes began to sparkle as brightly as when he was exterminating a horde of orcs.

'A princess born with sun magic, a gift possessed by only one person in ten thousand!'

The sun. Even the word had a beautiful ring to it.

With her around, the lord's office would not need fire magic stones at all.

Yes, she was not some bastard the imperial family had thrown away.

"Cedric."

"Yes, my lord. Shall I dispatch a courier with our refusal at once?!"

"Are you insane!? Clean the reception hall from top to bottom, and prepare the warmest room in the castle as Her Highness the Princess's bedroom!"

"Yes…? B-but…"

Kylan slammed his hand down on the table and shouted,

"Long live His Imperial Majesty! Prepare to receive Her Highness the Princess immediately! And move all the pending approval documents and the territory's financial statements into the princess's room so she can begin working the moment she arrives!"

"Why put the approval documents in the honeymoon suite…?"

Our territory finally had a finance minister.

'I won't work overtime anymore!'