Chapter . 129
Openly despising wretched rabble like Tom, the knights from good families banded together among themselves.
However, after they all went through Prince Leontes’s two knights under the pretext of training, the sense of distance among the knights vanished as if it had been washed away.
“You all took the sa single blow. You shared pain together. In the overflowing comradeship, you built your skills together. The more you all repeat today’s rewarding experience together, the more the pain decreases and the more your skill increases.”
Count Petrafis’s words were an excuse, a lie, and nonsense. That lunatic was forcing lunatic behavior on others as if he thought everyone else was as crazy as he was.
“If it is hard, you can simply not co out starting tomorrow. His Highness said he welcos everyone, but I am different. Not coming is your freedom, but soone who cos and does not co has no value even to report to His Highness. Only those who pass this training can beco His Highness’s knights. If you work hard, even if you lack skill, I will give you at least a small post, but if you do not even have that diligence, quit now.”
Baron Graf was even more vicious. If even one person skipped training, how were the remaining ones supposed to handle the lunatic among themselves?
“You traitorous bastard, why did you not co out today? Because of you, we had to take the lunatic’s lunatic blow even for your share!”
“My shoes wore out because of training, so I could not help it! It is true! Look, there is a hole so I cannot run! I really wanted to co out too! It is true! Believe !”
“You beggar bastard! Do you not have a horse and do you not have shoes too! I will give you one pair of my shoes, so make sure you co out tomorrow!”
“You bastard, if you do not co out again, then saying you wanted to co out is a lie!”
“It is not a lie, I am coming out! I am really coming out!”
“If there is a problem again, then say so! Do not skip again!”
Baron Graf did not lie, at least. A guy who ca and did not co was not only not worth reporting to His Highness, he was a traitor.
“You dodge far better than before? Your skill improved, ha-ha-ha! Let us continue sparring!”
Count Petrafis was surely lying because he was afraid that with even one fewer man coming out, he would not be able to do the ten-on-one sparring, the fifteen-on-one sparring, that he liked. His praise was the devil’s temptation. Of course, more often than praise, he was covered in threats.
“If you do not train properly, I will kill you! Only those who survive can et His Highness Leontes!”
Was Prince Leontes an angel of death?
“The count is trying to kill us before we et His Highness. His Highness is a generous person, as our fathers said, and he is not an evil man like the count.”
At Charles’s words, the one who had given him shoes, Tom nodded hard and said.
“We must tell His Highness this. His Highness is being deceived by the count.”
“How? You have to survive to tell His Highness anything. The count is the gate of hell, the baron is the hunting dog guarding the gate of hell, and His Highness is trapped beyond that gate, is he not?”
Giovanni spoke a truly righteous truth.
“Whoever among us survives will tell His Highness the truth. In place of our comrades’ shares, let us beco loyal subjects even more than the count!”
Johan declared fiercely. Everyone agreed.
“I am Prince Leontes of Armatia.”
Amazingly, they all survived and t the Prince together. A smiling guardian angel who ca to take their souls, seen right before death. Had they truly died and co to heaven……. Without mad Michelon and his mad single blow, that place could not not be heaven.
“My knights, I am truly glad to et you.”
The Prince hugged each and every one of them, and gave them armor and horses as gifts. He was truly rciful. Now, for the sake of the one who bought him a horse, Tom would run and run like a horse.
“Hey, are you not saying it? You said you would.”
“Why are you picking on , am I the only one who survived? You survived too.”
“Fine, then let us all tell him.”
“But what do we say? That the count, His Highness’s milk-brother, is trying to kill us? If only I survived and all the others died, maybe, but when everyone is alive, if we say that, will His Highness believe it?”
“…That is it! The count kept us alive precisely for that!”
“No wonder! I kept thinking he always stopped right before we died, but he was doing it on purpose!”
But Count Petrafis was far too close to Prince Leontes. Michelon, Leontes, like milk-brothers they called each other by na familiarly. It made his teeth grind to see that mad devil wearing a human skin, smiling brightly, and deceiving the kind and good Prince.
“It cannot be helped. As loyal subjects, the matter of remonstrating with His Highness will be postponed until after we serve the lunatic like lunatics for a long ti and earn trust.”
At Tom’s words, everyone nodded vigorously.
The Prince hired all of them. It varied by the size of the territory, but generally he paired a knight and an administrator as a set and sent them out to several territories. It was a dizzying speed.
Even counting the training period, since there was no grueling process of clinging to this person and that person to get a letter of introduction, the ti until dispatch was far shorter than other factions.
However, before dispatch there was practical training from Lagardie.
First, they were told the prohibited matters.
If there was a person pointed out as a mage, then even if it was an old woman living alone, they must report it. Prohibition on abusing serfs…….
“Why? They are serfs.”
“You do not even know, and you have serfs, so how would I know, when I do not have serfs.”
Neither Charles nor Tom could understand it.
By national law, serfs inherited along with a territory were indeed the lord’s property, and if that lord beca the Prince’s man, then the territory’s people also beca the Prince’s people, so it was not sothing that could be said to be wrong……
“If I beco the Emperor of Armatia in the future, then everyone will be my subjects. Do you want to serve , the Emperor, or not?”
Then there was nothing to say. Especially if it was soone who provided, to every post, a teleportation magic circle that might or might not be purchasable even if you sold all those serfs.
“Does it make sense for my person to tornt my person? Treat the territory’s people well.”
At these words, they could not help but bow their heads. Prince Leontes was a good person. Because it was a world where good people suffered losses, his subordinates had to look after him.
“Carry this with you, and have it speak here every command you issue as His Highness’s subordinate in His Highness’s territory. In battle or in an ergency, you may do it after the situation ends. Then a report goes to His Highness automatically, so how convenient is it. You do not need to write a separate report. Of course, if you want to write a report too, that is your freedom.”
Lagardie gave everyone a small crystal. He said it was not the Crystal of Truth at all and only had the sa shape, but it was hard to believe.
“…If I do not speak… I an, if I sotis forget the process and do not do it, what happens?”
“Well, then the real Crystal of Truth will handle it on its own. You swore to the crystal, after all. Why do you not try it once? I am curious too. In fact, many people are curious like you. If you satisfy everyone’s curiosity for us, we will all be grateful.”
Even though Lagardie encouraged them, no one tried to test the crystal. It was the first ti Prince Leontes had applied magic to administration in such a new way, and it was frightening.
There were many nobles who lived in the capital, left their territories to acting castellans, and did not care how their territory’s people were tornted as long as taxes were paid.
Even the sovereign had appointed several tax agents and taken a huge sum at once, and he did not even care how they squeezed the people to wring out several tis that amount.
“Ahem, ahem, I, I as acting castellan need waterway maintenance, so I have decided to collect new taxes and impose corvée labor on the territory’s people… the administrator will explain the details!”
“A-as the administrator, I, I am not even the acting castellan, so why am I r-reporting…….”
They managed sohow, but honestly it was doubtful whether the Prince would listen to these reports himself. It seed like it would be resolved at Baron Lagardie’s level and end there.
But Prince Leontes took excessive interest in territory managent.
It was the first ti there had been a royal who liked territories more than the Imperial Palace.
Even not large, fertile land, but even a small, remote territory with a wooden structure that could hardly be called a castle.
“His Highness ca, that cannot be!”
It did not seem believable, but even if you rubbed your eyes and looked, only a Prince looked like that.
“It has been a while, dear Sir Thomas.”
“Y-Your Highness, it is truly an honor that you would co like this…….”
Behind the Prince’s bright smile, the Chief and Deputy, the married-couple mages, stood arm-in-arm affectionately.
“Oh, have this many people gathered? I will show everyone sothing fun.”
As he said that, Prince Leontes stepped forward and waved his hand to the people who had gone slack-jawed because they had never seen even a collateral royal in their lives, and he had the mages show fireworks. Of course, those mages did not co only to do fireworks.
The effect was trendous. The earth moved on its own, built a dam, and dug waterways, and fire hardened them.
They had heard they were an earth-and-fire married couple of mages, but it even looked as if they controlled water too.
In any case, in an instant, work progressed smoothly, and whether it was a dam or an embanknt, whether it was sewage or water supply, it was all neatly maintained.
“Long live Prince Leontes!”
“Your Highness, thank you!”
People who had braced themselves to work themselves to death, sinking into mud and filth with no promise of when it would be finished, with farming pushed aside, cried out in gratitude.
They had only heard that magic was an evil power, but seeing it in person, it was truly convenient and astonishing. The sewers looked as clean as a temple, so how could it be called evil!
“My beloved territory’s people! I will co again next ti!”
Prince Leontes smiled and disappeared with the mages into the teleportation magic circle. Usually, when a Prince ca, people were frantic, making others clear the roads and prepare banquets, but he ca quickly, resolved everything efficiently, and left quickly, so it felt like a dream. If not for the clean waterways before their eyes.
‘Wait, if His Highness suddenly appeared just now, then he might suddenly appear again at any ti, might he not?’
Once that thought occurred, it was easier to resist the temptation of bribes.
And besides, when people from other regions ca to see the facilities made by magic and could not close their mouths as they marveled, it felt truly good.
“My goodness, you completed this astonishing work in such a short ti?”
“Kwahahahaha! It is all thanks to our Prince Leontes’s grace. I am a subordinate favored enough that he cos personally, so kwahahahaha!”
Like that, he rose sharply from an outsider who had been glared at by the locals of a place he had co to for the first ti in his life, into a central noble who was the Favorite Subject of royalty.
But he had not known that if there was a magic circle the Prince used to co and go, that ant the count could suddenly appear too.
“Comrades! For His Highness, let us all together prevent muscle loss in harmony!”
He wanted to say he had never had a comrade like you, but he swallowed it and tried a reasonable rebuttal.
“If I train with you, Count, I will end up bedridden, so my muscles will be lost even more.”
“Kwahahahaha! You are not dying, you are not dying! I say I will kill you only with words, have you ever seen truly kill anyone? You are alive too, are you not! Kwahahaha!”
Even the laughter sounded so obnoxious.
‘If it is to stop that laughter, I will gladly roll in the mud! For His Highness the Prince!’
“Kwahahahaha! Today was fun too! As expected, we are comrades!”
‘If we are comrades, then why do we not fight together, and why must we fight each other!’
After the count left, he contacted true comrades through the crystal to look after them. The crystal allowed communication among those who trained together, too.
“Charles, run away! Hide even in the latrine!”
“…My friend, thank you. But it is too late…….”
“Kwahahahaha!”
Behind his friend’s back as he spoke gloomily, the devil’s laughter rang out. The lunatic had clearly not returned to the Imperial Palace by magic circle from here, and had gone to attack even his friend. The lunatic was evil, too! If so, there was only one thod!
“On the way to the training ground, fall down the stairs! Break a bone! Then you can live!”
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