The sound of metal striking metal.
「What’s wrong? Is that all you’ve got!!」 (Casserole)
「Gu, (mada made) Not yet！！」 (Pastry)
Two men face each other.
In each of their hands, a sword.
Of the two, one was great man in the prime of his life.
His toned muscular physique, despite being covered by his clothes, exuded an overpowering aura.
頑丈そうな鉄の塊を、両の手の如く自由自在に扱う様は熟練の域だ。 TLN
And the other.
He seemed less than 10 years old.
Sometimes, when a sword becomes one with oneself, the resulting movements would flow like water. But he seemed to be middle of his growth.
Rather than using the sword, he was being used by the sword.
「Oi, your grip has weakened. Grasp it firmly」 (Casserole)
「That’s good. Even if you make a 1000 slices, grasp with the intent of never letting go. To lose you sword on the battlefield is the same as death.」 (Casserole)
「Yes!」 (Pastry)
An exchange of sword between 2 men.
Viscount Molten, and his son, Pastry Mil Molten, were in the middle of their daily swordsmanship lesson.
This daily lesson was something that Pastry had been doing every day since he was 5 years old.
Although his body isn’t there yet, he can wield the sword well, thought the father. The unique traits of his son were pronounced.
Bruises started to spread over his body.
In an era of peace, such training could be called child abuse. A voice calling for a break intervened.
「Boss. Boss. Are you here? Ouch. Yep, its here.」 (Sheets)
「What Sheets? Its my son’s training time now.」 (Casserole)
The man entered the area where the 2 men were swinging their iron weapons.
However, the strength of the army was only 2 people.
Sheets glanced charmingly at Pace, then turned to face his father.
「General, its time for breakfast. There is also a report, please report to the ‘office‘.」 (Sheets) TLN
「Is that so? Ok Pace, let’s stop here for today.」 (Casserole)
The father slowly sheathed his sword.
At that moment, the son sagged at the spot.
「Th-.. Th-.. Thank you very much!」 (Pastry)
「Eh, then I need to hurry. Father, I’m going to excuse myself.」 (Sheets)
The boy held a sword taller than himself.
Watching him leave, the father and his friend both stared at him endearingly.
「Sonny’s pretty good huh? You’re raising his arm strength huh? Even though he’s a kid his growth is fast.」 (Sheets) TLN
「Ah its out, your doting side. You shouldn’t place so much expectations on him. A 5 year old miko, a 15 year old nobody. There is a saying like that too.」 (Sheets)
「Pace, by the time he turns fifteen, may become someone of note.」 (Casserole)
At the sight of his friend’s doting side could only shrug and swallow the “yare yare“ that he was about to say. TLN
Afterwards, they set off towards the office with their army of 2. However, to call it an ‘office’ was ironic.
Originally, the sovereign territory of Molten acted as a buffer to the neighboring nation. As the land declined, even wheat could not grow in this reddish wasteland.
A land with nothing. No woodland to speak of. 3 years until it can become fertile.
After that they slowly began to cultivate the land.
As poor the land was, the home of the feudal lord was just as frugal. In the fashion of a knight, it was made extremely simply. In short, it was destitute.
In another land, it was equivalent to the house a farmer.
Even though, we are nobles. This thinking led to them building many rooms.
No threat of thievery, no fear of burning furniture thought Sheets.
The furniture in this room were all the assets that this noble possessed,
Sheets took his place at the table in a joking mood. The breathing of the 2 retainers could be heard.
「Okay, about the report, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?」 (Sheets)
「OK, so the good news. It’s about the harvest of vegetables. As the boy said, we can expect a bountiful harvest. If we go at this rate, we should be able to survive the winter without any worries.」 (Sheets)
「Hoho, that’s wonderful.」 (Casserole)
Viscount Molten’s had a great reputation as the feudal lord.
Now fielding 3 villages with 40 people in each village, The Molten family is well on its way to becoming a respectable aristocracy. Moreover, due to their recent expansion, their fame only soared.
As a new experiment, 3 years ago they started to cultivate bean crops and their success in harvesting bean crops made them famous. Even though there was a nationwide drought last year, there was not even a single person selling themselves into slavery due to starvation. The rumour of this exploit abounded in the salon (noble’s rumour mill).
As a matter of fact, this chivalrous act was mostly a result of the territory’s son’s suggestion. Although the people who knew of this matter were few.
Casserole publicising the achievements as his son’s saw the people who saw his as an doting parent reduce.
Furthermore, as he was a doting parent most of the time, this only served to make announcement less plausible.
「Then, I shall report the bad news.」 (Sheets)
The atmosphere changed.
The previous nonchalant atmosphere, at a breath, became tense.
「If they decide to come here, how much time do we have left to prepare for it?」 (Casserole)
「(yabai) That’s pretty bad」 (Casserole)
A noble has many duties. Of those, there are 2 that require tacit compliance.
This duty advocates a noble’s authority and is guaranteed by the royal authority and influence, an obvious duty.
A trespass committed on this duty can be grounds for dismissal and allow the king to confiscate your land and property, award it to other nobles, thereby, turning one into a criminal of the state.
And the other, is the duty to defend the nation.
When accepting peerage (the territory from the king), the earnings due to you privilege and the taxes you collect invested in the military power is specifically for a time like now.
From the standard knight who offers himself, to the duke (rank below the king) who has a standing army, this duty of protection, is the same.
Due to these duties (of care), the governing nobles can collect tax, working nobles are paid wages.
Suppression of thieves also falls under this duty of care, and to do so is inevitable.
But there is no concept of success in such matters of the state.
When there is a disaster, if one were to rescue the majority of the victims, one should be proud that the disaster relief was a success.
In the response to an emergency, ascertaining the difference between success and failure is difficult.
This time, based on the communication from the Count, from his point of view, it falls under the category of a success.
The thieves pilfering the territory were driven out. In future, these thieves will not harass the people of this territory. Hence, it falls into the category of great success. But that’s just from the point of view of the Count’s territory.
When the expelled thieves freshly start pillaging other territories, the blame falls on the afore mentioned. From the point of view of the ones being pillaged now, it can be seen as a remarkable failure.
From viscount Molten’s point of view, it’s clearly the latter. Envisioning the trouble about to follow was enough to cause a headache.
「About 50 people」 (Sheets)
「With just 3 men, how am I supposed to fight 50 men. It won’t be a situation where we fight head on.」 (Sheets)
A group of 50 thieves, it’s a rather large group of thieves.
Just from the size of the group, one has to acknowledge that given his might, it took all that he had for Count Lettuce to drive them away. This was the harsh bitter truth.
「Even if we gather the men of the village and arm them with wooden spear and slings, its unreasonable.」 (Casserole)
「In the time that we siege, what if I call for reinforcement?」 (Casserole)
「Why?」 (Casserole)
「Even with the count’s reinforcements, overturning the opponents is hard. Even though we have our hands full with repelling them ourselves, if we finished them here, it would not be well received. With that said, if the reinforcement just repelled them, then they would just return to the Count’s land. After pillaging what they can, in the end, if they returned to the count’s land , it would be a funny story. If we fail, it likely that Fubark territory’s Count will then lead his troops to wipe our asses. They will then push all the responsibility of failure of suppression on us. If we do badly, there is also the possibility of them intruding. Other Viscounts, may not be as accommodating as you.」 (Sheets)
This is Viscount Molten’s reason for saying ‘the Count is a failure’.
Of course, in the knights land is indeed poor, and the standing army including Sheets consists of 3 men.
Possibly, no one would have thought that the thieves would slip from the Count’s hand.
「How about reinforcements from the royal capital?」 (Casserole)
「Even if I were to resent it, at the cost of protecting my subjects, I wouldn’t mind it. As this land is a frontier land any reinforcements that would arrive would be minimal. However, we can’t leave this problem as it is.」 (Casserole)
「I don’t want to die either, so I’ll leave it to boss」 (Sheets)
Being close friends, there was mutual trust in each other’s abilities.
「Other than that, do we have a better hand (to play)?」 (Sheets)
Sheets had serious look in his face.
Casserole gestured with a demeanour of a feudal lord.
「In the worst case scenario, I could stand alone……」 (Casserole)
「Aside from that, enclose the village with a deep moat and distribute spears to each household.」 (Casserole)
「I’d rather do that. (than the suggestion made before that)」 (Sheets)
Furrows appeared between each of their eyebrows.
実際問題、自分達より遥かに大きく豊かな伯爵領でも手に余った問題である以上、たかだか新興騎士領主に対応できると考える方が無茶である。 TLN
「I have an idea though.」 (Sheets)
「What?」 (Casserole)
From the voice from his subordinate, Casserole looked surprised.
「At any rate, a sink or swim strategy is necessary in this battle. A suggestion – how about making that boy our trump card?」 (Sheets)
「What do you mean?」 (Casserole)
「If we bet on your victory, in that case, I don’t know if boss would play an active role. According to my gut feeling, I feel that doing so would be best.」 (Sheets)
「I can’t very well go and ignore your feeling can I……」 (Casserole)
I’ll make my son our trump card.
According to that matter / viscount was confused. In the first place, he didn’t understand the meaning behind it.
However, Casserole was caught by the word ‘magic’ (italicise this).
A single word muttered , was distinctly heard.
「Ceremony of consecration?」 (Casserole)
「Bingo」 (Sheets)
This day, Casserole’s decision , would cause a shift in the gears of the world’s fate.
The first of many to come.