Chapter 29
After being thoroughly disgusted by a native noble from this world, Marshall only grew angrier the more he thought about it.
That same night, he got out of bed and began researching the political structure of the Kingdom of Fiore.
He picked up the first document.
Fiore was a permanently neutral kingdom covering more than seven million square kilometers, with a total population of only seventeen million.
In other words, the country was nearly the size of United States, yet its entire population was smaller than that of a single major city.
It was even more sparsely populated than Australia.
Predictably, the central government—the king—had very little influence over distant regions, while the local nobility’s authority often extended no farther than the areas surrounding their own castles.
It matched Marshall’s stereotypical image of a medieval fantasy kingdom almost perfectly.
Magnolia was an excellent example.
Whenever anything important happened in town, the local gang—Fairy Tail—usually had the final say.
As for the lord who supposedly governed the territory?
Nobody knew him.
Nobody cared.
Unfortunately, Fairy Tail itself was hardly responsible.
Makarov left nearly all local administration to Magnolia’s mayor, effectively surrendering any political influence the guild might have exercised.
Fairy Tail was powerful enough to ignore the territorial taxes demanded by the nobility, but the ordinary townspeople still had to pay them.
That kind of inaction left local wizard guilds in a strange position within their communities.
No one supervised them.
No one wanted to supervise them.
And no one was capable of supervising them!
This was apparently the normal relationship between wizard guilds and local governments throughout Fiore.
If a guild’s Mages had consciences, everything was generally fine.
If the guild was filled with bullies and criminals, the local residents were simply out of luck.
This bizarre social structure existed because Mages occupied an unusually privileged position.
Roughly one in every ten people in this world could use magic.
Even if only one in ten of those people became powerful enough to join a wizard guild, that still meant one out of every hundred citizens was a professional Mage.
In a country of seventeen million people, that amounted to approximately one hundred and seventy thousand Mages.
That was hardly a small group.
Because Fiore contained such a large supernatural population with access to extraordinary personal power, the permanently neutral kingdom had firmly established two parallel chains of authority.
Matters involving Mages fell under the jurisdiction of the Magic Council.
Matters involving ordinary citizens fell under the royal government.
’Only in another world could such a ridiculous system somehow maintain social stability.’
Marshall paused.
’Actually, this damn society isn’t stable at all. Dark cults were still kidnapping children everywhere till now.’
Forget it.
This broken kingdom was doomed sooner or later.
What made the whole situation even more absurd was that the Magic Council publicly claimed it stood on equal footing with the royal government.
Anyone with a functioning brain could see that the real power belonged to the organization overseeing Mages across the entire eastern continent.
Even the royal family and nobility generally accepted the Magic Council’s authority.
And yet, the Council refused to acknowledge that reality.
They insisted that the Council and the kingdom were equal institutions.
They would never interfere in national governance.
They fully supported the kingdom’s independence.
Their sole responsibility was the regulation of Mages.
It all sounded very respectable.
In practice, it simply meant they were too lazy to govern and had no desire to accept responsibility.
As long as no one clearly defined their duties, they could claim that nothing was their fault.
The relationship between the Fiore royal family and the Magic Council was almost identical to the relationship between Magnolia’s mayor and Fairy Tail.
Holding authority while refusing to exercise it responsibly was the mark of an incompetent government.
It could only deepen conflicts and create chaos.
Because Fiore operated under two parallel systems, complicated disputes involving both sides were inevitable.
The current conflict between a wizard guild and a noble Mage over territorial development was a perfect example.
Most nobles were Mages themselves.
That gave them two separate identities: they were privileged members of the magical elite and members of the ruling aristocracy.
They had somehow managed to claim the advantages of both systems.
The traditional solution to these overlapping disputes was simple.
The people at the top passed responsibility back and forth until the two parties involved were forced to settle the issue privately.
The process usually went something like this:
The dispute involved land governed by a noble, so the nobility should handle it.
However, Fairy Tail was a wizard guild, so the Magic Council had jurisdiction.
The Magic Council respected the king’s authority, so the royal government should decide.
But Duke Everlue was the feudal lord granted control of the territory, so the king would declare it Everlue’s responsibility.
In the end, no one wanted to deal with the matter.
Whoever had the bigger fist made the decision.
That was why Makarov had not been particularly concerned about Marshall provoking the duke.
The old man was merely annoyed by the inevitable letter of reprimand the Magic Council would send afterward.
The entire incident would almost certainly end without any meaningful consequences.
Fairy Tail would continue developing the amusement park and earning money.
At most, Duke Everlue would submit a few complaints.
He certainly would not dare enter Fairy Tail’s territory and cause trouble himself.
However, because the duke possessed a technically valid legal claim under the kingdom’s laws, he would probably spend the rest of his life imagining the day Fairy Tail declined.
Then he could arrive with his deeds and official documents and claim the completed project for himself.
Marshall could not simply walk over and kill Duke Everlue either.
The duke was also a Mage.
If a member of a legal guild murdered a noble Mage with no official criminal record, both the Magic Council and the royal army would intervene to arrest the killer.
After finally untangling the kingdom’s absurd web of laws, authority, and deliberately ignored contradictions, Marshall realized there was almost nothing he could do.
His face burned with frustration.
This entire world was being run by an enormous collection of amateurs.
The kingdom’s institutions were riddled with countless obvious flaws, but because society somehow continued functioning, everyone simply pretended those flaws did not exist.
Marshall had expected that understanding the situation would reveal a solution.
Instead, he discovered that dealing with Duke Everlue within the rules was nearly impossible, while eliminating him outside the rules would create far more trouble than it was worth.
His already foul mood became even worse.
"Maybe I should just blow up the Magic Council."
Still muttering angrily, Marshall eventually passed out from exhaustion.
...
To his surprise, something unexpected happened the following day.
The Heartfilia family’s maid, who had only left Magnolia yesterday, returned to Fairy Tail.
"Mr. Marshall, I hope you will accept this."
Inside the reception room, the middle-aged maid placed a golden key on the table and gently pushed it toward him.
"This is...?"
"The golden key to the Gate of the Maiden—Virgo. It previously belonged to Duke Everlue."
She folded her hands neatly in front of herself.
"At the Celestial Spirit’s request, and according to my own wishes, I hope you will accept it as a gift from the Heartfilia family."
"Huh?"
Marshall stared at her blankly.
One of the twelve Zodiac Keys... And she was simply giving it to him?
’Since when were the Heartfilias and I close enough for something like this?’
"As far as I know, a Celestial Spirit cannot betray its contracted Mage unless the Mage willingly ends the contract," Marshall said. "Did Duke Everlue give Virgo up?"
"I can sense that you are also a Celestial Spirit Mage, Mr. Marshall. However, you may not know that the Heartfilia family once possessed all twelve Zodiac Keys."
The maid continued calmly.
"Although the keys eventually passed into the hands of others, our family established a covenant with the Celestial Spirit King. Under that covenant, the Heartfilia family retained the right to reclaim ownership of each Zodiac Key once."
She paused.
"That was the primary reason Duke Everlue was willing to ’lend’ Virgo’s key to my master."
"I originally intended to use our family’s unused right as leverage to mediate the dispute between the duke and Fairy Tail."
Her expression remained composed, though her tone became slightly apologetic.
"Unfortunately, the negotiations failed. Duke Everlue rejected my request.
Since that was the case, I exercised our family’s right and dissolved the contract between Duke Everlue and Virgo. The Gate of the Maiden currently has no contracted owner."
She glanced at the key.
"Before returning here, I asked Virgo for her opinion. She expressed a willingness to form a contract with you."
"Therefore, I sincerely hope you will accept this key."
"This... feels like far too much."
Marshall scratched his head.
Such an enormous gift had fallen directly into his lap, and the whole situation felt almost unreal.
Was the Heartfilia family some kind of professional benefactor?
First, they came to offer a partnership.
Then they offered to fund the entire amusement park.
They promised to handle the relationship with the duke.
Now they were giving Marshall a Zodiac Key.
Was this some elaborate scam?
Fortunately, Marshall had a built-in lie detector.
[My master instructed me to establish the best possible relationship with Mr. Marshall. I hope my attempts to please him aren’t making him uncomfortable... This shouldn’t seem too abrupt, should it? I’ve already restrained myself considerably.]
Marshall blinked.
’Wait. She’s really telling the truth?’
What was going on with the head of the Heartfilia family?
Was he secretly a fan of Naruto?
Marshall was thoroughly confused.
Still, he could not see any obvious downside.
Perhaps he should simply accept it.
"There’s no need to worry, Mr. Marshall," the maid added. "If the Heartfilia family wishes to continue expanding the southern railway network, we will most likely require Fairy Tail’s assistance in the future."
"Please consider this gift an investment in both you and our family’s relationship with your guild."
’But why are you investing this heavily in a seven-year-old child?’
Countless questions remained, but Marshall ultimately decided to accept the golden key.
There was no reason to reject a valuable gift being offered freely.
If it caused trouble later, then his future self could deal with it.
"Since you’ve put it that way, I’ll shamelessly accept your gift. Thank you!"
"You are most welcome."
The maid offered him a courteous smile.
"May the friendship between you and the Heartfilia family endure for many years."