"No, you can't do this..."
I, Jin Fleetberg, couldn't help but roar at the situation that brought me down to myself.
The Earl of Fleetberg family with a noble place in the Grand Slam Empire. That's my home.
Once again, the Duke and Marquis are next in rank in the Empire. Most importantly, the Counts are also Pin to Kiri, and the Fleetbergs are infinitely closer to the Viscount. Though it is once a territory, it is remote or rugged.
And I'm such a Fleetberg three man.
There is nothing in the aristocracy about the role of second son or younger. Basically, the eldest son will be the heir to the house, and the second son will have to look for other ways to live. Therefore, our eldest brother, Brother Edward, was educated and raised as a man. If his eldest brother, Edward, was infirm, his second brother, Brother Hulk, might also have been given an education as a successor, but Brother Edward was a magnificent and brilliant man as a successor.
As a result, Brother Hulk and my youngest son, I had to leave the house with graduating from college.
Did Brother Hulk, who excelled in martial arts, join the Knights as he graduated from the College and was to be entrusted with one of the youngest knights in history, drawing on his excellent martial arts and skill?
And I did not possess martial arts, but I possessed a high level of witchcraft, and I was dubbed a "genius with the greatest amount of magic in history" in the college.
Kukukuku was so taunted by the great sage who supported His Majesty the Emperor in terms of witchcraft that he could be the leader of the Sorcery Corps even if he wasn't. Therefore, there was no more anxiety in the future. He said that he had consolidated his determination to move towards the abyss of sorcery.
Badly folded, when I held my graduation close, my father - Count Harold Fleetberg - was in an accident while patrolling the territory and became the one not to return as it were.
Nevertheless, my eldest brother Edward has already completed his education as the next Count. As it were, it was natural for Brother Edward to succeed the Earl of Fleetberg family. That's what everyone believed.
Even so.
Brother Edward, I ran off with my neighbor's bakery daughter.
"You're telling me to do something about this, Dad..."
Dim and dusty, formerly the office my father used.
I elbowed at the clerical desk there, roaring my leather chair in a gibberish.
All sorts of materials and paperwork were messed up. That's where you never let me in your whole life. It is stipulated that it is the Lord of the Count's house who can enter, and then the successor to the Count's house. And being only three boys, I was a place where I didn't even have to go in.
Highly stacked documents were written about the finances of the territory, about the income of the crops - varied, but just important documents anyway.
I've been watching this for a long time this morning, and it's a repetition of sighing.
Since Brother Edward ran off, Count Fleetberg's territory has been in disarray. I wondered what I would do in the future.
If there is any reason why the firstborn cannot inherit the house, it is only natural that the second child should inherit it it. That is why the opinion was expressed that Brother Hulk, who had already done his job as Knight Commander in Imperial Capital, should be the next generation of the Lord.
But it was the heavenly Grand Slam Emperor, Friedrich Halfed Grand Slam III, who opposed this.
Making Brother Hulk a secluded count with rare martial arts qualities and entrusted with one of the Knights at his youngest would be a huge loss to the Empire - that's what he said, he didn't let go.
What happened as a result?
My youngest son and I, Jin Fleetberg, were to succeed Count Fleetberg with the graduation of the College. It has.
"... you can't"
Shit, and the light on the lamp flashes for a second if even the worm went in. Even such a small thing seemed terribly uncomfortable.
What's in my hand like that is the file with the most recent paperwork bundled together. Watch it carefully from start to finish, then throw it away.
It describes the financial situation of the Territory and much more. It is the content of materials such as the number of inhabitants, the percentage of their age group, the number of dead, and so on, how much tax revenue derives from it.
And secondly, how much will it cost? Payments to the treasury, the necessary funds for maintenance, the costs associated with sending troops to the border, the costs associated with private regiments for defence, the sight money for the war wounded - to name but a few, I have no idea. And the result of that calculation is a deficit until brilliant.
What is the deficit, roughly, one hundred and fifty gold coins? Fifteen thousand pieces for silver coins. An amount that is impossible to improve at the earliest, such as 20 silver coins at the most, where the income of ordinary people working and entering the month.
Put this back in the black - that can't be done.
There's nothing to help you with.
"Ha..."
Let me enumerate the reasons.
Firstly, the territory of the Earl of Fleetberg is remote. It is the eastern edge in the empire, with forests stretching east over this territory. There are many vicious beasts in that forest that target crops and attack people.
Therefore, we need the strength to defend ourselves against nature and such forests. Because if nothing is done, the pests can cause crops to be vandalized or the inhabitants damaged. To that end, we hire a private army, and we keep an eye on the border with the forest at all times.
Moreover, the Grand Slam Empire is currently at war with its neighbours, the Kingdom of Alisha. Most importantly, they don't develop into large-scale fights because of all the skirmishes, but the aristocrats still need to screw up and dispatch more troops than they are at war.
The cost around here is the biggest.
Because the army is a gold-eating bug, and it's only a private army that employs everything at the Count's house.
Next comes the problem with regard to crops.
The remote territory of the Earl of Fleetberg is, to put it better, idyllic and idyllic. To put it badly, it's rural with no entertainment whatsoever. Therefore, young people abandon their homes and leave for cities such as Imperial City and its surroundings.
As a result, there are no more young people in the countryside, only the elderly are making crops. There is a huge shortage of labor here, and the yield is falling below half as much as it was a decade ago. In the remote areas my father visited during his life, one rural area was full of weeds.
In addition, the aforementioned private militias - such as the sight money for their fallen and the disability pension paid to those who return home with disabilities - are also applauding the deficit.
As a result of the battle, I say I am sorry to the soldiers who were handicapped, but those who left the battlefield with the handicap will not be counted as a workforce in their future lives. Even so, it is a totally large deficit project because certain disability pensions have to be paid.
As a conclusion.
Income has fallen, the workforce has decreased, farms have to be secured only by military force, even though many are vacation sites, and there is a current Count family that makes it difficult for farmers to even get past the winter.
What am I gonna do with this, it's packed.
"Ugh......"
I'm never a superman.
It seems that magic was the best college graduate of all time, but there is no way for it to turn into money. In the first place, even the magic I learned was just the foundation of what I learned in college. All you need to do to use magic from there is teach your teacher and learn the abyss. There are no shortcuts.
But I don't have a future like that.
Because I have to inherit the Earl of Fleetberg. My shoulders depend on the lives of the inhabitants of this territory. They do not do their duty as lords, nor do they have time to train as magicians.
"Oh, already..."
I could see scratching my hair 27615; and losing a few longer silver hair.
No matter how much you think, you don't get an answer, and no matter how much you calculate, you only get hopeless results. It's dark ahead, there's no solution, and there's only one way to solve this deficit.
But at the same time, much of what is included in the expenditure - that is also the 'repayment of debt'.
Seems like he's been in the bike business for a long time, and his debts have been swelling, swelling and swelling for a decade now. And what a gold coin, five thousand pieces. It's enough that you can't make money even if it takes me a lifetime.
Increase such debt, even more. Furthermore, the deficit increases and income decreases. As a result, this territory stops turning at all.
Such a future was clearly there.
"What should I do?!
To much despair, I kicked my desk with my back in the chair.
As a result, the unbalanced chair falls back as it is.
"Wow!!
And my body falls to the floor with the chair and hits me in the head hard.
Hold your aching head down to the feeling as if a spark was scattered in front of you. It was all, it was all already frustrating.
Something hits my right hand like that.
"What's the pain... hmm...?
That's under the carpet over the entire office.
Slightly upbeat, something happened. This must have been the one that hit my right hand earlier.
It's hard for a long time to see if something dived under the carpet. I touched it from the top of the carpet and I had no idea what it was.
"Hmm...?
Fortunately, not so far from the edge of the room.
By the way, no one serves my house because of this state of deficit. The last time I hired a retired servant at an old age ten years ago, I didn't hire one. That's why it was normal for us to clean our own rooms.
Perhaps my father didn't even do much cleaning in this room. I just lifted the carpet a little and found myself dancing in the universe enough to choke on the accumulated dust.
That's what was under the carpet.
"... basement?
What was there was a door leading to the basement.
What was booming earlier seemed to be such a door handle.
I've never heard of such a basement. Instead, it's also my first ear that we have an underground in our house.
Maybe it was made to hide something golden?
It says, "Never come in" in old letters.
"... would you like to come in"
I'll keep the basement door open.
While opening it, it opens up to a lot of stinking air.
I told him about the rope that was hanging and went down to the basement.