Dream Life

Around 7pm on July 11th.

A letter from the Blacksmith Guild's Head of the Dägenhardt Branch arrived at the castle of the Raswell Border Uncle.

He gave me information about Maddock and the other buyers of the bandit's weapons that he asked for at noon today.

And the letter contained unexpected information.

The common buyer of long swords, two-handed swords and spears was the Oulet Chamber of Commerce, based in the commercial city of Aurelia.

(Oulett Chamber of Commerce? You've never heard of it...)

I just didn't expect the name of the Viscount Tiesburn family to come out intact, but I didn't even think the name of Aurelia's merchant would come out.

I'll confirm with Oldham that the Baron of Oldham, who divides up the Raswell Borderline Uncle House, might know,

"The Oulett Chamber of Commerce...... you've never heard of it. Let's check with the commercial guild tomorrow."

Even Oldham, who should have many contacts with the merchants, did not know the name of the Oulett Chamber of Commerce.

The next day, I asked the Blacksmith Guild to investigate.

The request is whether the Oulett Chamber of Commerce has purchased any other weapons. Maybe that weapon just happened to pass over to the Maddocks as a mere arms dealer.

The director of the Dägenhardt branch immediately seconded staff to each workshop.

Oldham also seems to have sent his men to the Wellburn branch of the commercial guild to conduct an investigation into the Oulett Chamber of Commerce.

That evening, I checked the information Oldham and I gathered, but all I could tell was that it was a mid-level drug-related chamber of commerce, that I had never traded in arms before, and that it was a newcomer's chamber with little face on the guild branch either.

Yet another piece of information came from Oldham.

"It appears that Lord Harrison Gannell, a subordinate of Associate Baron Gateskel, has headed for the Viscount Territory."

The person named Harrison Gannell is Associate Baron Gateskel's Scarf (you know), a grey-haired samurai who was behind Viscount Tiesburn and others the other day, but has not left a very strong impression. But they say he's a knight with a strong influence on Viscountry security and military relations.

"... we have heard that his arms were brought to life to improve security in the Viscount Territory. However, there seem to be some rumors that are not very fragrant..."

Gannell was an active knight on the front against Lukes, but he was apparently engaged in not only simple combat, but also intelligence and backward sabotage activities.

Rumor has it that he was also carrying out assassinations and other things within Lukes, and since he began working under Gateskell, there have been many suspicious deaths in Viscount Tiesburn territory and Gannell has been involved in them.

"... the return of Lord Gannell to the Viscount Territory during this period, without any preparation, if I may say without decorating words, would have gone to prepare Miss Rosalind to interfere with her marriage. Fortunately, neither Viscount Tiesburn nor Sir Gateskell are militarily bright. So until Lord Gannell returns, you may assume that nothing will happen in Welburn. You need to hit this one right now..."

But Baron Oldham's predictions were completely betrayed.

That's in the worst possible way, too.

■ ■ ■ ■

I, Associate Baron Desmond Gateskel, was born the second son of Eaton Gateskel, a knight.

The Gateskel family is a knight's house with territory in the northern part of the empire, and I have an older brother. His brother seems to have some talent as a samurai, but he also has no distinguished talent and is utterly incompetent as a lord.

Conversely, I have no talent as a samurai. But as a civilian, I am proud to say that I have more than enough abilities. I am graduating from the Imperial Academy of Higher Studies in the Imperial capital Plymouth, who is not a senior nobleman in the evidence.

But my brother's succession to the Gateskel family was decided long before I graduated from the Academy.

The Imperial Academy of Higher Studies is a higher education institution for senior aristocrats, with many sons such as imperial officials and the Duke's family learning. The gates are wide open to their senior nobles.

But those like me who are not aristocrats are in themselves very difficult to enroll. Furthermore, even in post-school grades, grades had been watered down by titles, and eating to the top in their unfavourable conditions required blood seeping efforts.

I had come to dream of becoming a bureaucrat in the Empire since I learned the fact that I would never inherit the Gateskel family. So I didn't hate any effort. The result was graduation at the top of the grade.

My efforts like that seemed utterly futile.

Empire was more corrupt and decadent than I imagined. There was a proliferation of post distribution and precedentism in the Imperial capital due to hereditary attacks.

Without bribing imperial officials and senior nobles, I couldn't even meet my HR representatives.

Everything is about gold and death. The giant wall stood before me.

I was confident.

He said that if you could only give him the opportunity, he would always recognize his strength. But even the opportunity needed money.

That's when I was able to get acquainted by chance with His Excellency Viscount Constance Tiesburn.

It is a total coincidence that Master Constance came to the capital as a nominee for the Governor of the North. And the fact that one civilian died ill and had a vacancy along the way of that journey.

I took the opportunity to bet on all of myself.

We could also say that we were lucky to have had an argument about what was going on in the northern context, especially the economic value of the northern streets. It is also my good fortune that when I visited His Excellency the Chancellor with Master Constance for a report, the questions put by His Excellency were my specialty.

That I dived into the last seat of Lord Constance's entourage, answered directly to His Excellency the Chancellor, the Duke, and that His Excellency the Chancellor was impressed by my words, and that it impelled my appreciation of Lord Constance, should not be good luck, but rather my strength.

This was the hang-up, and it was taken up as a minister of the Tiesburn family. And Master Constance placed his full trust in me and entrusted me with the great task of reforming my own territory, a project so big that I just turned twenty that I didn't deserve it. That is also in the form of a delegation of full powers.

I risked my life to encourage my work to live up to that trust.

Still, the situation in Viscount Tiesburn territory did not improve medium. In the geographical conditions of proximity to the Porta Mountains in the east, far from the main streets, and in a situation where the major industries were not other than agriculture, the proposed reform at the small tip did not have immediate effect.

I was in a hurry with no results.

That's when Aurora's merchant, Auraf Oulett, showed up.

In a pattern of old knowledge with my men, Harrison Gannell, he offered substantial loans and the provision of labour by slaves, subject to the cultivation of plants, the raw material for one drug.

I felt frigid, but on that fascinating condition, I rode Oulett's suggestion.

About five years ago, I started producing raw materials for the drug, "The Blood of the Light God (Lucidus)”. “The blood of Lucidus" is a drug used in the Holy Kingdom of Lukes, a kind of drug designed to improve the morale of soldiers.

Using that drug, he becomes faithful to the Commander's orders along with effects such as spiritual uplifting, improving physical abilities, and strengthening resistance to dark attribute magic. It was a demonic drug that would allow poor peasant militiamen to cross each other with the elite forces of war.

Naturally, there are disadvantages.

The duration of the effect is as short as four hours, the inability to move in recoil after taking it, and habituality.

Involvement in the manufacture of drugs, which would otherwise benefit the belligerent kingdom of Luke, is an act of enmity. In that regard, he asked Oulett.

"I was born in the Knight's House of the Empire. I'm proud of that. Isn't your suggestion an act of enmity itself?"

Oulett hangs on to persuade me to keep a grin on his greasy face.

"Master Gateskell is only going to sell to my Chamber of Commerce. To my knowledge, there is no law that you should not do business with merchants doing business with Lukes. What's more, this Lucidus blood is a dramatic drug that we're trying to ban in Luke's country. Isn't spreading it a splendid ploy to reduce the power of the enemy nation?"

According to Oulett's information, Luke's administration, the Holy King's Palace, is working to stop the use of "Lucidus' blood” at the Phototheistic Church headquarters.

The words of the officials of the Holy King's Palace are that not only do they waste and crush the peasants, who are the labor force, but they also cause many addicts to come out in the manufacturing process, thus causing a decline in national power.

However, the denominational side, and the Saints in particular, disagree that the country itself is in danger if the peasant militias are not made a force for war. In fact, Luke's main force is man-made sea tactics by peasant militias, and if we stop using the "Lucidus blood” that supports it, the western front in adhesive condition could change dramatically.

I didn't receive Oulett's words as they were, but I decided to ride a logic (logic) similar to his manipulation.

As promised, Oulett began lending Viscount Tiesburn a low interest rate of C (Krona) million (= about one billion yen). This allowed Viscount Territory's finances, which were gasping for high interest, to breathe a sigh of relief for now.

A further supply of slaves on a hundred basis was provided as a workforce. The ownership of the slave lies with the Oulett Chamber of Commerce, but in fact it is lent free of charge. Of course, the cost of maintaining food and other items is in the hands of the Viscount, but it can still be quickly recovered from the cultivation of a plant called "Blood Hualien", which is the raw material for Lucidus' blood.

This plant called Blood Hualien is a Lotus plant that grows in wetlands and ponds. As the name suggests, red flowers like blood bloom a few times a year, and after the petals fall, they give fruit of a dull black colour like a sore lid "scab".

Viscount Tiesburn's territory lies in the northeast of the Empire, along the Fatas River - the great river flowing from the Kingdom of Kaum - and many wetlands and ponds exist because of the numerous tributaries flowing into the Fatas River.

The land, which is inherently rich in water and fertile, is suitable for agricultural land if opened, but due to financial difficulties and lack of labour, it was untouched. Fortunately, there was still a lot of land suitable for Blood Hualien.

I guess Oulett naturally knew the favorable conditions.

The production of “Lucidus blood” has been going well since the first year. Oulet buys all the blood Hualien fruit that is the raw material and carries it to Aurelia. The Viscount Tiesburn Territory repaid its borrowings from the proceeds of its sale.

In the second year, the amount of loans was further raised and the infrastructure within the territory was improved. Maintenance of streets, opening of agricultural land, attraction of commercial guilds… all of which worked well.

Oulett began manufacturing the "blood of Lucidus” itself around the spring of last year.

When asked why, he said it was because tighter controls within Luke, bringing it directly into the church as a product was less risky and even more profitable.

addicts occurring at the time of manufacture, the only concern, but was never manifested by the use of slaves.

The tightening of controls, he said, was the result of the coup d 'état within Lukes, and the Holy King's Palace's efforts to unwind on the occasion of the replacement of the top of the Order of Light Theology.

These were my peak days.

All my policies have been successful, and Tiesburn, said to be the poorest in the northern part of the Empire, has turned into a richer land than Welburn.

My appreciation of me was unknown to the ceiling, and as a result I was able to give him the title of Associate Baron four years ago. He also welcomed Constance's son, Heloise, to his wife, where he lived a full day, both public and private.

But the days of fulfillment were over.

Uncle Raswell, the Governor of the North, had doubts about Viscount Tiesburn's rapid development.

At first it was in the form of an inspection, so I didn't realize it, but Uncle Borderline's hand explores the territory without losing sight.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice the cultivation of the Blood Lotus at that time, but the sophisticated Border Uncle has put in many explorations.

I wasn't holding hands either.

It wasn't until Uncle Borderline came in to explore that he hung a shake on the Raswell family.

The Raswell family has a clear weakness.

That's the successor.

This weakness was also an opportunity for Master Constance.

The hand I took was the marriage of Rosalind, son of Uncle Borderline, and Egbert, son of Master Constance.

Master Egbert enters the Raswell family and hides the current northern governor, Hubert Raswell Borderline Uncle, on the grounds of his further age. If Master Constance then lawfully cows the Raswell family as a hindsight of his great-grandson Francis, there will be no legal or moral problems.

A year ago, Uncle Borderline hit me first. That was Rosalind's engagement announcement to Rodrick, Lockhart's best man.

Initially I didn't think the Lockhart family, which was just the Knight of the Border, would be an obstacle, but as I looked into it, I came to see how old the Border Uncle was.

The Lockhart family was the only (...) being able to move the Blacksmith Guild, and countries were pulling out the Lockhart family by name.

Borderline reinforced the Raswell family's political foundations by incorporating the son as his son-in-law.

If Rodrick, his son-in-law, becomes the head of the Lockhart family, he can move the Blacksmith Guild as the Raswell family thinks. Whether it can actually be moved is not a problem at all at this time. It's important that the Raswells see (...) that they have the powerful power to bury even Luke's ruler.

Even more troublesome, Rodrick said he would take advantage of his marriage to return to the border territory.

The village of Rasmore, the territory of the Lockhart family, is an enclave in the eastern Free Border Zone, a land with little Empire power.

In other words, it becomes realistically impossible to destroy the Raswell and Lockhart families at the same time. So if there's anything in the Raswell family, Lockhart turns to the enemy. Except for the fool who doesn't think what that means, he can't get his hands on the Raswell family anymore.

Assuming that it harmed Francis, the grandson of the Raswell family, its executors would suffer intense retaliation. Not only will we be unable to do business with the Dwarves in the future, but we will also be unable to do business with merchants who care about the Dwarves' intentions.

This means a deadly stagnation in commercial activity. Unless you're ready to do that, you've got to keep your hands off the Raswells.

Still, I still could afford it.