Chapter 5 – Authentic Records

 

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Imperial History, Year 259 – Moon of the Diamond (April)

 

The wedding banquet, which was attended by the whole clan, after Malida’s reinstatement as family head had ended peacefully. Currently Malida’s boobs were pressing down on my face.

Brest and his family, who had stepped down from family headship, had moved to other private chambers within the castle. Instead, we had taken the private chambers beyond the great reception hall for ourselves.

“Awuuuh, Albert, I’m pooped. T-Take Lichere…awwuuh. Making me wear such perverted underwear is foul play. Ugnhuu.”

My cute wife was half awake, but thanks to that, my morning began with the supreme bliss of being surrounded by Malida’s boobs and Lichere’s soft skin on a fluffy bed. Hmm, is this possibly the place they call paradise? The scent is great, the feeling is great, and my mood is great too. I’m deeply grateful for this wonderful way of waking up.

Yesterday was yet another day of me making an effort for our nightly activities to be as exciting as possible, but because I was assaulted by the starved, wild beast called Malida who had to do without any sex for several days, I taught her proper manners together with Lichere.

Of course, I also had her put on the lewd underwear we bought the other day.

During my absence, Lichere had taken care of Malida’s training for me, but as she unexpectedly seemed to have a knack for this, I got surprised by the master-servant relationship between Malida and Lichere getting reversed at night.

Malida, who had squirmed around as she got attacked by Lichere, was very cute in her own way, and since it looked like she wouldn’t get fully satisfied by Lichere’s toying, I did her properly.

“Albert-sama, Malida-sama, I think it is about time to get out of bed.”

“Malida-sama, it’s time to rise and shine.”

“Awwuuuh, I’m still sleepy. I’ve said that I leave all the governmental affairs to you, Albert. Right? Catching up on sleep during times of peace if a rule for any soldier.”

I got up while pushing Malida’s springy tits aside, pulled off the sheet, and took a good look at Malida and Lichere’s naked bodies.

As the room was flooded by the morning sun’s light, Malida’s nude body revealed a strange gleam and Lichere’s big tits swayed as if to flaunt their softness.

“Albert, you’re such a pervert. You never miss a chance to look at Lichere’s and my naked bodies, do you? You got an eyeful last night, didn’t you?”

“That is true. He has taken a very close look at my naked body as well.”

“I was just confirming the greatness of morning by looking at your nude bodies. Anyway, get up and dress yourselves, you two. We will be busy with all sorts of stuff, starting today.”

“Ugh, what a hassle. I wanna laze around in bed.”

“That’s no option. Since you’ve become the family head, I will have you do the bare minimum of work. I will handle anything else besides that.”

Malida left the bed while mumbling complaints under her breath, before starting to dress me with the attire she got from Lichere. Given that she’s gotten dressed herself even after whining about leaving the bed, it’s just as Brest said: Malida is a girl with a nice character.

As Malida and Lichere began to dress me, people shouting at each other reached us all the way from the castle’s courtyard. I thought it might be a quarrel among the oni, but the voices sounded somehow familiar to me.

Umm, that’s a standoff between father and son, isn’t it? Once a day father and son would grapple with each other. As a family.

These kinds of stories seem to have become something like a common tradition among oni. And this tradition also took place inside Castle Ashley, our new home.

“Dad! Why is it not good for me to head out to battle!?! YAAHAAAAAHH! I’ve been telling you that I’m already an adult, haven’t I!?”

“Haaah!? Don’t get cocky! As if I could entrust the command of our precious Erwin soldiers to a greenhorn like you! Study some more strategy first, dimwit!”

When I stepped out on the noisy courtyard together with Malida and Lichere, a wild, ferocious dad and his meatheaded son were in the middle of grappling.

One month has already passed since I’ve come to this castle, but this here is a customary event taking place every morning. What a chore to be greeted by this when people try to tackle the governmental affairs after replenishing their energy by greeting a rare morning of pure happiness.

“Oh my, morning, Albert. It sounded like you once again gave Malida and Lichere plenty of love yesterday. Looking at their luster and color, I also feel like getting a bite. How about, want to sleep in my bed tonight? My techniques as a mature lady are relatively good, I think.”

Brest’s wife, Fray, stood in the corridor leading to the great reception hall. I’ve already checked her abilities.

 

Name: Fray von Erwin

Age: 38

Gender: Female

Race: Oni

Valor: 45

Leadership: 20

Intelligence: 12

Domestic Affairs: 7

Charm: 66

Three Sizes: B89 (E-Cup) W54 H86

Status: Wife of the Erwin Family’s Chief Retainer

 

Her son Lator is already fifteen and Fray’s own age is close to 40, but her skin’s texture is still fine and she has a charming figure that rivals Malida’s. In short, her beauty hasn’t decayed at all.

As I was fascinated by Fray, a voice said close to my ear, “Albert-sama? Is my service insufficient for you?”

“I can still keep going for a good while longer, too. Want to hop back in bed once more?”

“No, it’s fine. Malida-sama, Lichere, you’re both the best.”

Malida and Lichere, who got slightly jealous, are way too adorable. I put my arms around their waists and pulled them into a hug.

“Pheew, you three sure are passionate so early in the morning. If it’s like this, I guess it’s better to postpone my nightly invitation for the time being. It’s regrettable, but I assume those love-struck girls over there would get in the way.”

“Uncle and Lator are quarreling again, huh?” Malida spat out with a sigh while looking at the two with a fed up expression.

“Sorry, Albert, but could you stop those two? At this rate, it’s going to rain blood soon.”

Since the castle would get damaged if we left them to their own devices, I decided to mediate the situation, albeit not being overly enthusiastic about it.

“No choice, I suppose. I’m going to mediate things today as well then.”

I picked up a bucket, drew some water from the fountain in the courtyard, and tossed the bucket’s content on the two squabblers.

“Bfffhuah! Who was this!? Who dared to throw water at me!?”

“I got splashed with water as well! Who was it!? Name yourself!”

“I did, but is there something wrong with that?”

Having been recruited as arbiter of this quarrel that has been going on since morning, I called out to the two with a broad smile plastered onto my face while an aura of fuming anger was wafting behind me.

“It looks like both of you are bursting with energy this early in the morning. Working on repairing the wall or reclaiming new farmland; which do you prefer? Come on, don’t hold back and pick whatever suits your taste. Actually, thoughtfulness or constraint would be a waste since we have mountains of work piled up!”

I took a decisive step forward while grinning broadly. Thanks to Malida’s inauguration as family head, I was granted almost full control over internal, external, and strategic affairs. After being given the authority of a governor outside of battle in my role as strategist, which I had to begin with, I reached a point where I could warn and teach Brest, who had become the Chief Retainer as authority in the Erwin family, and his son Lator. However, the position as strategist was a role given to me personally by Malida and thus held no public status.

Yet, thanks to the strength contest that took place at the wedding reception banquet and Malida, as the strongest oni and matriarch, declaring that she’d follow my instructions, Brest and Lator couldn’t go against my orders as her retainers.

If you allowed battle maniacs like the meatheaded oni to do whatever they like during peace times, it’ll only cause all kinds of problems, so Malida has me take control of them outside of battlefields.

Even in regards to battle, the general outline of the strategy is decided by me, but I’ve agreed to entrust things to Malida and Brest, when it comes to the tactical command on-site, because they’re experienced in leading groups of soldiers.

But, right now we’re in time of peace. And quarreling during peace is taboo. Anyone who breaks this taboo gets punished.

“It’s not my fault! But Dad’s!”

“W-WHAAT!? Lator! Are you trying to blame everything on me!? You damned traitor! Albert, if you let me explain, it’ll immediately become clear! This idiot is wrong!”

Brest is still one of the better ones among this race of muscle-headed idiots, but in the end he lives by instinct rather than logic.

“I should have told you during the decision-making. Fights inside the castle are forbidden. Violators must expect punishment. If you hate repairing the walls or working on the fields, you could also get along for a day inside the 『Special Reflection Room』, if you like?”

Brest and Lator immediately stopped moving after hearing 『Special Reflection Room』. The 『Copying of Simple Text in a Closed Space』, which we had done as trial of strength during the wedding reception, had its name changed into 『Special Reflection Room』 and apparently turned into something synonymous to dread among oni. Apparently rumors about the oni, who didn’t even fear death on the battlefield, having begged for forgiveness while crying have made their rounds.

Though, it’s not like they had to do anything overly nasty. They simply need to sit in seiza inside a small, windowless room with white walls and repeatedly write down, 『One should act after careful thought』, for a day, so it’s a light punishment where they’re forced to do something simple.

But, this seems to be a huge challenge for those meatheads.

“W-Wait! Albert, I hate the 『Special Reflection Room』! I implore you! Anything but that place!”

“I-I hate that place too. Please, I won’t fight with my Dad anymore. Seriously.”

Currently it was my job to be a wild-animal trainer who would tame the wild beasts called oni who usually only live by their instincts. No, officially I was the governor and strategist of the Erwin family, though.

Hating to go to the 『Special Reflection Room』, their legs started to tremble like mad, before they eventually flopped down on the ground. I declared to the two who were trying to crawl away, “Very well, instead of going to the 『Special Reflection Room』, Brest-dono is to repair the wall while Lator will go to plough the fields in the outskirts. Alright?”

I stared at both of them. If they were to keep kicking up such a fuss every day, we would never get a break over here. I’ll take the liberty to use their extremely hotblooded temperament for the sake of developing the Erwin family further.

“What’s your reply?”

“”Y-Yes!””

The two straightened their backs and then left towards the jobs they received as punishment.

After seeing her family off, Fray addressed me with a faint smile on her lips, “Albert, you might have a talent for taming wild beasts. You’re skillfully handling not only Malida, but also my husband and idiot son.”

“Such a talent is…”

“Fray, I’m just gentle to Albert.”

Certainly, at night she’s submissive to me and I’ve been in the process of training her.

“For that restive horse Malida to have become so docile is truly stunning. You’ve got a knack for this after all. I’m going to count on you if those two quarrel again.”

I sighed deeply, “I understand. If possible, I’d like you to warn them to not fight as well, Fray.”

“Impossible, seriously, that’s impossible. They don’t listen to me,” Fray admitted with a cackling laughter, refusing to intervene in those quarrels herself.

Haaah, their fights cause quite a substantial damage to the property, so I’d like them to give it a rest.

“I see. I will caution them from my side.”

“Yes, please do.”

After having mediated the family feud, we headed towards the office, where a mountain of paperwork was waiting for us, in order to carry out the governmental work which was our original objective in leaving the bedroom.

To reach the office, we had to return to our private chamber from the courtyard. The office was connected with our private rooms through a corridor. Upon entering I could only sigh after seeing the number of petitions by the residents which had piled up on the lord’s desk.

Originally it had been Brest’s job as former lord to process these documents, but oni would get a rash if they clasped a writing brush outside matters related to war. The oni as a race preferred to train their bodies for combat rather than doing paperwork.

Because I’ve fully realized their lacking ability in paperwork after assuming my office as governor, I’ve been assigning physical labor like the one from before to them.

They’re a race solely living for battle. When it came to combat, they could display transcendental, artistic skills, but as soon as it was related to anything else, every normal, human child would outdo them. This was the conclusion I had drawn after watching them all this time.

As the one entrusted with steering the Erwin family, I decided to capitalize on their strong points as much as possible since I understood that every person had their good and bad sides. However, that was limited to just the retainers as the family head didn’t accept it.

“Albert, is it alright for me to go back to our room and take a nap? That or I’d like to do some training.”

As soon as I sat down at the desk, my family head immediately started talking about playing hooky or training her body.

Malida was a special person even among oni. She grew up on battlefields. Moreover, she was a woman who lived by her instincts and readily exposed such a wildness that her brethren referred to her as war goddess. On top of that, she was a milk sibling of this country’s emperor who seemed to dote on her as if she was his real, little sister.

However, I’ve never met the emperor, His Majesty the Demon King.

Anyway, I’ll be troubled if I don’t get Malida to do the least amount of work necessary as lord.

“I should have told you many times that it’s your job to press down the seal, Malida. Lichere, pass Malida the stamp.”

“Yes. As you wish. Malida-sama, here you go.”

“I hate the small stuff. Didn’t I tell you to do all of it, Albert? Pushing down seals isn’t really my job.”

Malida started throwing a tantrum, but the seal of approval had to be pressed down by the lord. This was imperial law, and if it was violated, I’d lose my head as governor. I had been granted authority over internal, external, and military affairs, but the final decisions for all matters required the approval by the lord through her seal, even if it was for form’s sake.

The lord――the head of the noble family that held the peerage and land――possessed a seal granted to them by the emperor. Once every few years, inspectors would be dispatched by the empire. If they spotted any documents that had been implemented without the lord’s seal of approval, the one responsible for those documents would lose their head and their family would be dissolved.

Now you might think that it’d be no problem to simply pass the seal to me and have me do the stamping, but if the empire suspected anyone other than the holder of the peerage to possess the seal, it’d immediately develop into a grave matter that would lead to the immediate dissolution of the family.

For that reason, I’d like Malida to understand that I needed her to do the stamping at the very least.

“If I can have you do only this much, I’ll take care of everything else. Or are you going to carefully examine these piles of documents?”

Malida’s face turned pale as soon as she saw the bundles of paper.

“No, I don’t want to read any characters. I will silently stamp the seal of approval, so Albert, you do the reading. Good grief, for Uncle to allow so many documents to pile up…inexcusable. Lichere, please hold down the paper so that the seal won’t become crooked.”

“Of course. Ah, Malida-sama, it is slightly askew.”

Hating to scan documents, Malida started to reluctantly stamp documents after telling Lichere to hold them down for her. Now that Malida had begun her work, I started on my own duty of reading through the accumulated heaps of documents requiring approval and the petitions.

By the way, I’ve previously explained that Castle Ashley has been built as strategic point of the 『Great Carriage Road』 which is connecting Elancia’s capital Dektris, which houses the palace of His Majesty the Demon King, and Alexa’s capital Lutune.

In peace times many peddlers come and go, and the castle town serves as a starting point for caravans to sell Elancia’s goods all over the continent.

The region visible from Castle Ashley’s northern wall is fertile land with gentle undulations that’s perfectly suited for farming. It’s the empire’s grain basket where 80% of the food is being produced. And the very front line protecting that important area is the territory of Malida’s oni.

Even Alexa, which has started many big wars in the past, must take Castle Ashley, a key fortress along the highway, to invade deep into imperial land. If they advance while ignoring the castle, Alexa’s army will doubtlessly suffer surprise attacks and raids on their supply lines by the battle maniacs, and thus Castle Ashley is always regarded as a major target for capture, if it comes to a war with Alexa.

In preparation for such a time, I’ve been gathering all sorts of information, trying to grasp the detailed situation of this fief, but…I didn’t find any documents that would give me a basic idea for creating a tax revenue ledger such as the number of residents, the number of farm villages, the harvest conditions for food, and so on. All things necessary to plan the domestic administration.

Since the question how much provisions you can extradite from the territory and the understanding of the population’s figures are essential for deciding the number of soldiers that could be mobilized, I want to grasp these things as quickly as possible, but…when I asked Brest, my predecessor, to hand over the documents related to tax revenue, he asked me with a serious look, “Tax revenue documents? What’s that?”, so I punched him out of reflex.

But, I only injured my own right fist thanks to the toughness of his cheek.

When it comes to landed noble families, the documents such as the family’s tax revenue ledger, census, cashbook, property inventory list, and so on are managed by retainers and the family head should have a general understanding allowing him to tell the family’s broad situation, but such documents don’t exist in the Erwin family.

I asked Brest just how he ran this family under such circumstances, but because he bragged that they had the village chiefs and merchant store their taxes in storehouses and vaults as they saw fit, and suitably collected some cash from the residents whenever they lacked warfunds, I ended up punching him with my left fist.

Though it only resulted in my left fist getting injured just like my right one…

I’d really like them to give me a damn break here. To be perfectly honest, I’m getting headaches from this nonsense.

Successive generations of family heads had continued with these incompetent shenanigans when it came to domestic affairs.

Let’s keep it a secret that I unloaded my bottled-up anger on Malida’s body. Me having worked her hard on that day was definitely because of her tribe’s failings.

“Gaaaaaaahhhh!”

Malida did her stamping work with the help of Lichere while screaming something weird. Watching her like that, I sighed deeply.

Now then, I already mentioned the part about the clear incompetence in domestic affairs by successive generations of Erwin lords, but I can come up with around three reasons why the family didn’t fall into ruin despite this silly way of managing the fief.

First, the land around Castle Ashley is fertile and thus the crop harvest in the farm villages is bountiful. Second, many residents are wealthy thanks to the prospering business district in a fief that’s a major trade hub. And lastly, the residents secretly want the oni, who boast outstanding combat strength, to focus on their war business and thus they provide them with all the money and food they need to live instead of risking to draw the oni’s rage upon themselves.

Those three points are the main reasons why the Erwin family still exists despite its whack domestic administration. But, I intend to stop that haphazard way of running the fief by reforming the system. The reason for me to come to this land is to elevate the Erwin family into upper nobility within the empire and to build the foundation for me to live a wonderful life!

I need three things to achieve those goals.

First, military might. Second, financial strength. And third, manpower. This last point means all kinds of capable personnel and it also includes personal connections.

I tried to consider the current evaluation of the Erwin family under those three aspects.

When it comes to military might, their forces are so outstanding that they don’t actually fit their noble rank. I think they’d be able to endure a siege by tens of thousands enemy soldiers, if they hole themselves up inside the castle, and Brest also declared that it’d be a piece of cake to rout several thousand soldiers on the open field.

If the enemy army consists mainly of conscripted peasants, they won’t be able to do anything against the oni. As a matter of fact, if you look at Malida and the Erwin Mercenary Band taking down the three border castles, I can fully believe that the oni count as Elancia’s strongest combat force.

And even within the clan, their members have a very strong unity and loyalty while absolutely following the orders from above. Their bonds are extremely strong.

Therefore, it wouldn’t have been strange for the Erwin family to have been promoted into higher noble ranks long ago, if you only looked at their military prowess.

But, the other two aspects, financial strength and manpower, are standing in the way of that, preventing the growth of this family. If you take a closer look at all the petitions, those two problems dominate the majority of the issues. They are problems that have to be resolved at highest priority to allow the Erwin family to develop.

“Haaah, finally done. Albert, I won’t do any more government work today. I’m going to train, so please take care of the rest.”

After stamping her approval on the least amount of checked documents for today, Malida exuded an aura of a job well done while having Lichere wipe off the sweat on her forehead. Although you could call it work, if you stretched the definition, she merely stamped her seal of approval on ten documents that required a decision by today from among those I had carefully scanned beforehand, but Malida had failed to properly stamp those documents three times, so it had taken more than an hour to create those ten, approved documents.

But well, she’s already pretty good for having finished ten of them. Let’s think of it as Malida growing up if I praise her regularly.

“You did well. Nothing less of you, Malida-sama. Since you have wonderfully finished your work, you are free to go train now.”

“Yahooo! I’m off then!”

I added just one more remark to Malida who had already whirled around and was in the process of fleeing the office at high speed.

“But, tomorrow the required documents for approval will increase by one more. After all, you are someone capable of getting things done, if you put some effort into it.”

Reacting to my words, Malida looked back at me, her face clearly showing her dislike of this idea.

“You demon! Devil! Pervert! Albert, you’re a twisted man who gets pleasure out of seeing me suffer.”

“Well yeah, your troubled face sure is a feast for the eyes. It looks like our nightly activities will become even better with this.”

“Albert, you idiot!!”

When I teased Malida a tiny bit, she rushed out of the office with tears in her eyes.

“That face of Malida-sama is definitely arousing.”

Lichere’s eyes were gleaming suspiciously as they followed Malida’s departure. She seems to have also smelled the masochist nature hidden inside our aggressive, wild, young lady.

“You can tell, huh? As expected of you, Lichere.”

“It is because you allowed me to realize it. Hehehe.”

It looks like a psychological change has occurred within Lichere after discovering the masochist trait in Malida, who was older than her and should be her mistress.

Lichere has grown into a major contender for restraining Malida besides me. She has had no education, but because of her keen insight and smarts, I let her support me in various ways, including the matter with Malida.

“I’d say we can look forward to our nightly activities from now on. Hehehe.”

“Please leave it to me. I will make Malida-sama go crazy for sure. Hehehehe.”

The two revealed dangerous smiles inside the office Malida had left moments ago.

“Now then, I suppose I’ll work hard on achieving my own goals as well, if it’s also for the sake of striving in our nightly activities. Lichere, can I entrust you with taking care of Malida on the courtyard?”

“As you wish. Also, I already informed you in the capital, but our preparations to launch an intelligence agency have started. Currently we are looking for a medium-sized, average company we can purchase, Albert-sama.”

“Got it. Information takes precedence over everything else. The work of the intelligence agency, which will use the company as cover, will become indispensable, so please establish it as soon as possible. You can use the money we earned with Alexa’s organization to cover the acquisition costs.”

“Very well, I will get everything started as quickly as possible,” Lichere bowed in consent and then vanished into the corridor, following Malida to the courtyard.

“Okay, now I have to grasp the financial situation of the Erwin family.”

After watching Lichere leave, I left the office to check the Erwin family’s vault for the sake of getting a read on the Erwin family’s assets.

 

■

 

The vault had been installed in a corner of the castle and it was guarded by burly oni soldiers.

“I’m going to confirm the inside of the vault. Would that be alright?”

“Yes, Milord! Here you go!”

One of the guards unlocked the vault and opened the heavy metallic door. The inside of the vault was windowless and thus remained dark even during daytime.

Another guard lit a torch, illuminating the vault for me.

“THE HELL IS GOING ON HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!”

With the torchlight revealing the vault’s interior, I couldn’t stop myself from yelling.

“N-Nothing…we haven’t a single gold, silver, or even copper coin in here!”

The Erwin family’s fault wasn’t filled with gold, silver, and other riches, but only bundles of paper that seemed to be promissory notes and receipts. Because the family had completely ignored all domestic administration and focused on going to war, it’s quite possible that they’re close to bankruptcy due to being bogged down with tons of debts.

“Is it normal for there to be no money in the vault?” I checked the situation with the guards.

After all, it might be a temporary situation right now because the payments have piled up.

“It is always like this. Because it looked like we were lacking funds, we have reported to Brest-sama, the previous lord, that it might be smart to perform a special tax levy.”

Yes, that would be the usual… Moreover, they had scheduled a special tax levy? But, during the last two years, there shouldn’t have been any battles, so why is there no money in the vault!?

Looking at the prosperity of the castle town, they should have received a fair amount of taxes!

I somehow managed to stop myself from falling to my knees after seeing the state of the vault.

“Haaah, sorry, but could you please carry all the promissory notes and receipt to the lord’s office? Don’t miss a single one.”

“Yes, Milord! As you command. We will carry all of them right away!”

After having the oni guards take all the documents inside the vault to the office, I took out my abacus and started to unravel the financial situation of the Erwin family.

While crunching the numbers, I gradually got a headache from how bad the financial situation actually was.

Back when I was a priest in the Temple of Wisdom I had studied all sorts of information about Elancia based on the assumption of the empire being a theoretical enemy for Alexa in order to answer the king various questions ranging from imperial law to the customs of demihumans or the hierarchy between the imperial nobles. This came in handy now.

Allow me to recite some of that information regarding the currency system in this country.

Elancia has many mines with precious metals. Most residents use silver, copper or iron coins to do trade with others. The minting of coins can only be carried out in special workshops that got the empire’s permission, and only the coins fulfilling imperial norms in regards to their metal composition are allowed to circulate as currency.

Apparently you’d occasionally find an idiot or two who would mint counterfeits in their own territories, but such coin forgery was banned by imperial law and resulted in severe punishment upon detection.

By the way, bartering was still a thing in farm villages, but every bigger settlement was mostly dominated by monetary payments.

Silver, copper, and iron coins were used for normal trades while gold coins were mostly used for rewards or big payments between merchants. Below you will find a conversion of the circulating coins into Japanese Yen.

 

• 1 Imperial Iron Coin equals 10 Yen.
• 1 Imperial Copper Coin equals 100 Yen.
• 1 Imperial Silver Coin equals 1000 Yen.
• 1 Imperial Gold Coin equals 10,000 Yen (T/N: and 10,000 Yen in real money is approx. 67 $)

 

If you’re on imperial land, you can get ten iron exchanged into one copper, ten copper into one silver, and ten silver into one gold. However, in foreign countries, the value and exchange rates will be completely different.

Now that I got you to understand the currency system, let me tell you about the Erwin family’s financial situation.

At present, the family has zero savings, 5000 gold in cash which the mercenary band had brought back, and a debt of 490,000 gold. I’d like to call for insolvency, but because I can’t assess the value of the Ashley territory, which could be described as property of the Erwin family, I cannot make a final conclusion yet.

However, if a normal Baron family were to hold a debt of over 400,000 gold, they’d have had their lands and assets confiscated by now. It’s just my impression at first glance, but the Ashley Barony has a lot of tax revenue, so I don’t think we’re in a fatal financial situation. Moreover, I also identified one of the big reasons for us getting indebted: the huge amount of money we pay for personnel.

 

Following are the posts and salaries of the Erwin family’s retainers:

• Servant – Initial post of any person hired from the common populace. They’re in charge of all miscellaneous chores. Moonly salary: one gold.
• Chief Servant – Post that manages servants. Moonly salary: three gold.
• Thane – Lowest rank for a member of the oni clan. They take care of the warriors’ needs. Moonly salary: three gold.
• Warrior – Combat personnel. A thane can be promoted into this rank after several years of experience. They’re the family’s main force. Moonly salary: four gold.
• Warrior Leader – Post that managed the warriors. During war times, they’re counted as commanding officers. Moonly salary: ten gold.
• Chief Retainer – Post that manages the retainers. During war times, they serve as representative of the family head. Moonly salary: fifteen gold.

 

That’s the basic gist of it. You might think that those are low salaries, but the average moonly salary of ordinary people generally amounts to seven silver and five copper, turning even servants into high earners.

The ranks above Warrior Leader can also get territory in addition to their salary, and warriors and thanes will receive a bonus pay called reward money, if they go to war.

The number of retainers currently receiving pay from the Erwin family amounts to 213. In addition, the number of warriors and thanes on standby are 200. That number of retainers is clearly too high for a Baron family. Usually, a Baron family has around 50 retainers, including civil and military officials.

However, the Erwin family is employing four times that. This number of retainers, which also exceeds that of a Viscount family and actually closes in on Count families, is getting paid by the Erwin family. And that huge number of personnel puts quite a strain on the family’s financial situation, showing signs of pushing the family into a debt cycle.

Still, if we decrease the number of retainers, the tremendous military force, which is the Erwin family’s strong point, is going to vanish, so I judged that it’s not a problem that can be solved easily.

By the way, I hold the highest position as governor when it comes to official posts. On top of that, I’m the matriarch’s husband and hold the position of 『Strategist』 for the Erwin family.

You probably think I must receive a ridiculously huge amount of money as salary, right?

The salary I can earn by completing hard work is three gold per moon. That’s because my formal post in the Erwin family amounts to no more than Servant Leader. The cost of living is cheap for me sure, but even if you take that into account, I’ve received more during my salaryman times before the reincarnation and my priest times at the Temple of the Wisdom.

Well, in my case there’s also the income I get from the companies I’m running myself, but…since those companies also come with various expenses, I’m actually living off my wife.

All hail the life of a pimp! Yeah right, I don’t know whether it’s all that good to be happy about this, but anyway, as far as my social status is concerned, I’m a simple Chief Servant. I receive a treatment almost equal to a family head and possess huge authority, but in the end I’m a pimp strategist with a cheap salary. That’s my current state here.

It’s a position where I could immediately take over the house if I felt like it, but…if I did that, the demon king and the peerless, meatheaded combat maniacs would turn into my enemies, so I prefer not to do anything like that.

On top of the office desk with its sorted documents lay heaps of document stacks that still awaited approval.

Dealing with this amount might be quite a chore for one person. I wonder whether we’ve got a capable administrative official somewhere? I’d really like some personnel besides oni…

Given that I’m the only one right now, I accepted my fate and picked up one of the document bundles awaiting approval.

“I’d like to decrease their number at least a bit until evening. I guess I’m going to work hard for a bit longer.”

The one I picked up was a farm village chief’s petition about the construction of a waterway to water new fields from the rivers that are also sourcing the moat of Castle Ashley.

I tracked down the farm village’s name on a detailed map of the territory which the oni had created in preparation for battles.

I forgot to mention it, but oni are top-of-the-crop artisans when it comes to war business, and because of that they’ve drawn maps of the surrounding topography, the military positions inside the Barony, and the roads (including even back roads) for being used during wartimes in such a detail that they don’t fall short in anything to the maps used by Alexa’s military.

But, not using that knowledge that allows them to create such detailed maps for their domestic affairs is yet another striking quality of the oni. In short, maps are essential tools for war, so there are some specialists who feel like it’ll boost their combat ability to be capable of creating such maps, and thus they’ve been passing down the mapping techniques throughout generations.

Also, oni make you think that they’re a race unfit for management, but 『only』 their management of military equipment experiences such a scrupulous control that you’d take them for nitpickers. Minute records of who’s using and lending which weapon, what damaged items need replacement, and what projectiles need resupply are being kept up-to-date to such a fine detail that you can track things by the minute.

When I was shown those logs by a broadly smiling Brest, I had a dire urge to retort, 『Why can’t you apply this on domestic affairs as well!?』, and punch him, but since I didn’t want to injure my hand again, I restrained myself.

In other words, oni are 『first-class when it comes to skills and knowledge connected to combat』, but they can only exhibit those abilities 『in a combat-related context』.

That’s a stupidly high level of restriction, seriously. What a pain in the ass.

Once I found the farm village in question on one of those oni war maps, I could immediately understand the importance of a waterway as requested in the petition. If we build a waterway there, not only the farm village that forwarded the petition, but also the surrounding uncultivated land could be turned into farmland. This would increase the harvest yield sharply in turn.

The area is located downstream from the castle, but with the huge amount of water in the rivers feeding the moat, the impact on us will likely remain small as long as it doesn’t escalate into a large-scale waterway system.

In this world you can never have enough food. And if you do have excess, you can simply turn it into money by selling it in a town. The traders in the castle town of Castle Ashley will gladly buy everything they can and sell it for a good profit to areas lacking food.

The petition even included the number of days the construction of the waterway would take, the laborers it would require, and the funds necessary to build it. The sum they had written down was close to what I had estimated myself.

This village chief might be a fairly useful man to have around. I should memorize his name. Given the devastating state of our domestic affairs, I will be crushed by the huge workload, if I don’t pick up capable personnel within the fief.

For this reason, I should keep an eye on all the folks that seem promising.

Next was a letter…yeah, right. Who am I kidding? It’s just another petition. Working alone is discouraging, yep. Malida’s office work ability is at the level of an infant and Lichere can read, but not write.

Both are very reliable when it comes to our nightly activities, but they cannot assist me with my daytime work which is an accumulation of difficult problems.

Haah…I wonder whether there’s any big-boobed, young, unmarried, pretty girl around who can read and write… If such a girl actually exists in the fief, and if I get Malida to hire her as personal secretary…

A fervent desire for a pretty secretary seemed to build up inside me, but since it’d be pointless to search for someone who doesn’t exist, I decided to pick up a new petition.

This one was about the disposal of surplus emergency provisions which have been clogging up the storehouses in the castle. The petition asked whether it’d be fine to sell off the food, which was about to go bad, to sutlers. The Erwin family had a reputation of frequently heading for war, but if other lords heard about the emergency provisions having piled up over here to such an extent that they’re rotting, they’d likely get quite jealous.

Also, the person who wrote this petition seems to understand the importance of managing an inventory, seeing how they have suggested that they’d like to enforce a first in, first out. For this reason, they’re petitioning to temporarily take out all the stored goods from the storehouses, sell off the oldest ones, and use the opportunity to sort the storehouses.

I immediately noted down the name of the petitioner in my notebook.

This is a problem that ought to be resolved quickly. It’d be a bad joke if our food was rotten during a siege. I will have the muscleheads do the storehouse clean-up and sorting under the pretext of training, and sell off all the food that’s about to expire to turn it into cash on hand.

Speaking of training, oni fundamentally don’t hate physical labor. They say it might be useful for this or that, but those might be words for the sake of the oni.

For the time being, it’d be best to take out everything from the storehouses and clean them properly. I should accept this as an urgent, highest-priority matter.

Next up is a petition from the merchants in the castle town, huh? They say they’d like us to do something about the troubles caused by the measurement criteria of trade goods in the fief.

Many merchants visit the castle town as a center of commerce. But, weights and measures haven’t been unified within the Barony. Each merchant uses their own criteria and that repeatedly causes troubles.

In this case I’ll take the liberty to invoke the power of the government, meaning only the lengths, weights, and volumes I set as standards will be approved for sales within the fief. Given that we must apply unified standards for the tax payments that are paid in food anyway, unifying the criteria for all merchants will likely lower the initial costs.

If we increase our territory, it will also apply to the new land, and if it raises the convenience, our new measurement system should spread as standard to the surrounding territories through the merchants like ripples on a serene lake.

Those ruling over weights and measures also rule over the economy. With that sort of feel, this move also has the advantages of expanding our business region and increasing our profit by making others use measures and weights that are beneficial to us.

Of course, the other party won’t use the new system if it doesn’t offer them the benefit of growing the number of business partners. In this regard, Ashley’s castle town is a huge trade hub where trade routes in all cardinal directions cross.

Even traders likely regard this land as paradise for business. So, there might be some initial opposition against the new measurement system, but we will enforce it by only permitting business deals in the fief to be valid if they’re based on the new system.

If the merits of a measurement system unification become clear to the merchants, it’ll spread explosively, I think.

After noting down the name of the petitioner in my notebook, I put the petition on the stacks of documents awaiting approval.

The Ashley Barony Malida had inherited was a high-spec territory that came with such favorable conditions that any noble family specialized on domestic affairs would describe it as a paradise. If I get the internal administration fixed up and allow the territory to develop, those meatheaded warriors possess enough strength to become the strongest army corps on the whole continent.

But, currently the fief is in an highly abnormal state with the farm villages having developed advanced levels in self-government because the complete incompetency in domestic affairs by generations of Erwin lords. If you ignore this trend, the oni will increasingly turn into figureheads and in the worst case, if the self-governing advances to a level where you can’t suppress it with military force, it could potentially lead to a bloody civil war.

Even if the oni might be peerless on the battlefield, they’re still no more than a minority. If the huge number of humans living in the Barony rises against the ruling clan, the problem would start to shift into a complicated direction.

So what would the humans do in such a situation? Now, that’s simple.

They’d want to piss off and trouble the lord and the ruling oni, but naturally the army would come at them, if they got exposed. So, the natural choice would be to ask a nearby human country for help. This would mean the humans would launch a resistance backed by Alexa. It’s as easy as that.

Under such circumstances you could assume things to have taken the worst turn of a messy civil war with Alexa being involved.

Because I want to avoid any such developments, it’s crucial to further the territory’s development by not allowing any self-governments inside the Barony and winning over the existing structures as retainer group of the Erwin family. I plan to employ those people as civil officials and work them hard as my hands and feet.

I intend to leave all the external fighting to the oni under the command of Malida and Brest, so the domestic administration team I’m going to create from now on will cover things such as inspections, tax collection, office work, keeping records in the ledgers, and dealing with internal issues.

I want to get my hands on personnel as quickly as possible… It’s great to talk about forming an administration team, but at present not a single person among our retainers is capable of normal administrative work.

Inside the office I could only laugh feebly at the devastating state of the Erwin family’s retainers. The retainers on the family’s payroll are mostly oni warriors who could be described as combat artisans who are solely specialized on combat-related matters.

Sure, those peerless warriors are strong. I’ll admit that. But, I wanted to yell at the generations of family heads what they thought when they didn’t hire a single person who can handle domestic affairs.

The confirmation of the Barony’s income, the number of emergency rations in the castle, the trouble inside the fief, and so on; currently no one precisely knows the true state of the Ashley Barony.

While bitterly cursing at the nasty inheritance the family heads of the Erwin family kept handing down like a hot potato, I looked at the huge stacks of petition.

T-This much is no biggie! Yep!

Salty water trickled down my cheeks inside the office occupied by me alone.

I promise I will vent all of this bitterness on Malida and Lichere’s bodies at night.

Afterwards, I grappled with the huge amount of petitions and documents related to those petitions until the sun set.

 

■

 

Once I arrived at the castle’s storage on the next day, I first called out to a human man who was guarding the storehouses in order to check whether an inventory list of all the emergency rations existed by some freak chance.

The storekeeper was a forty-years-old guy with a shiny, bald head, who seemed sociable enough. He was also the one who sent in the petition to sell off the excess provisions.

“Are you the person in charge of managing these storehouses?”

“Yes. The oni, including Her Ladyship, will only manage the rations during times of war, so I have been asked to take care of the storehouses during peace times by the village chiefs of all farm villages. My name is Milevis,” the man greeted politely.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Albert and I am the governor who has been entrusted by Malida-sama to handle the domestic affairs. I am still inexperienced in this job, but I am pleased to work together with you from now on.”

“I have already heard the rumors from the oni. They said you married into the family of Her Ladyship. And I have also heard that you are courageous and smart despite of your young age.”

From the start to the end, Milevis exhibited a respectful attitude while only using polite words, but the depths of his eyes had a sharp glint as if he was appraising me.

“Rumors are circulating stories that vastly differ from reality. But leaving that aside, I took the liberty to read the petition which you sent to Malida-sama. Because your writing was clean and pretty on top of your text explaining the problem in an easily understandable way, I thought that I must act right away and visited you as soon as possible.”

“Hoh, that petition was read?”

The sharp glint in Milevis’s eyes became even more pronounced. Contrary to his sociable and calm outward appearance, his eyes revealed a keen and discerning wit. I guess it’d be best for me to see this as being evaluated by Milevis.

So far as it goes, my position is that of a governor handling governmental and military affairs under the direct command of the family head as sole human retainer in the Erwin family that puts heavy emphasis on blood relationships.

In the eyes of a resident of the Ashley Barony, it must spell the appearance of someone who will finally listen to their domestic issues.

On another note, because of the Erwin family’s emphasis on blood relationships, it seems to be a rule that only people who married oni can become retainers, besides pure-blood oni. By the way, the oni, starting with generations of family heads, only consider military posts as viable for retainership, and although civil posts also fall under the same rule, they’re not being taken into account whatsoever.

And if you wonder what you have to do to become a retainer then, it’s simply a question whether you can marry a oni. Seeing how the oni respect all martial prowess, you just need to display extraordinary valor in combat to enter an oni family. Basically, as long as you prove your strength, the head of an oni family will give you their daughter and welcome you as blood member.

In other words, you need military prowess on the battlefield to become blood related with oni, and thus humans, who don’t have a blood relationship with oni, will never be able to become retainers, no matter how excellent they might be in fields other than military prowess.

For this reason, Milevis couldn’t become a blood relative on this sort of criterion.

“What are your thoughts on the current state of the Erwin family, Milevis-dono? I would prefer you giving me the truth as you see it without holding back.”

“This is a fairly blunt approach, you chose there. A powerless guy like me cannot raise any objections to the policies of the Erwin family. Please stop teasing me, Albert-dono.”

“Okay, then let me change my question. Tell me the currently most urgent measure to develop and expand the Erwin family!”

Changing from my polite attitude thus far, I used a commanding voice to ask for Milevis’s answer.

Thereupon, Milevis tightened his face――probably sensing the seriousness in my voice――and the sharp glint in his eyes became stronger just as it happened when he had appraised me earlier.

“Is it alright for me to regard this as my employment examination?”

“Sure, I don’t mind you interpreting it like that. I need people who will move as my hands and feet. If I take a liking to you after you answer my questions, I plan to have Malida-sama hire you as a retainer in the civil official branch, using my authority as governor. At first you’ll be a servant, but if you produce results, I will consider promoting you to chief servant.”

It’s obvious that I alone won’t be enough to manage the domestic affairs, so I plan to actively appoint humans, who are the main racial group in the Barony, as retainers to quickly expand my personnel pool.

My reply caused even more seriousness to permeate Milevis’s face. After thoroughly pondering about it for a short while, Milevis had apparently reached an answer.

“Putting all the accounting books in order is the matter the Erwin family should tackle first and foremost. Basic taxation ledgers that are necessary for tax collection, land account books that assess the farmland’s crop income for each farm village and thus serve the taxation ledgers as foundation, a census that investigates the population of the farm villages which is then used for poll taxing, a food control register for the paid provisions in the storehouses, a sales application register merchants in the castle town will need to hand in for their individual taxation, and many other ledgers need to be put in place as they’ll allow to grasp the situation in the fief. I believe this to be the first priority!”

The answer given by Milevis was almost perfect. The foundation of any internal administration is to have a proper grasp of how much money is entering a territory and how much is leaving. But, right now both values are unclear for the Erwin Barony.

Or rather, we’re in a situation where we can’t even tell whether this territory has enough or too little money.

I thought the oni did rather well to not get totally scolded by the inspectors that are dispatched by the empire, but the inspectors are normal people as well. Rather than being bitten to death by mad dogs, they’d pretend to have seen nothing and make up some story to avoid any bad situations for them, I feel.

Of course it’s also possible that a decree to not inspect the Erwin family might unexpectedly exist as well.

If any inspector had seen the current state, they’d know that this fief is virtually unmanaged to such a fatal degree that it causes too many problems to count. It looks like the writers of petitions among the residents simply implemented their demands after a certain time of getting no answer and this autonomous behavior has actually allowed this fief to keep running despite the utter lack of governing.

In other words, the Ashley Barony is a fief where the residents handle everything themselves to such an extent that it’d be usually unimaginable. It’s part of the Barony’s history that this has been going on for a long, long time now.

As such, I must gradually cut away the authority of the village chiefs, who have been representing the residents, in order to stabilize the fief’s administration.

While thinking about the future of the Erwin family, I used my power to check on Milevis’s talents.

Name: Milevis

Age: 39

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Valor: 18

Leadership: 9

Intelligence: 54

Domestic Affairs: 81

Charm: 44

Status: Storekeeper of the Erwin Family

 

His ability in domestic affairs is high. It goes so far that he can immediately be used as personnel in the internal administration.

“Good. From now on you’re hired as a servant and civil official of the Erwin family, and I will have you work under me. Help me draw up the many documents the Erwin family needs.”

“Yes! Wait…!?!? An instantaneous decision?”

Milevis’s face froze out of surprise when I told him about his employment. He probably hadn’t expected me to hire him on the spot.

Sorry, but I’m a busy guy, so I’ll keep employing capable civil official candidates right away, if I spot them. I don’t care about age or gender. As long as their characters aren’t totally messed up, I plan to employ people without any hesitation. Or, if you turn it around, the Erwin family is lacking folks excelling at internal affairs to such a critical extent that I basically take anyone with the necessary skills.

“Yeah. From now on I’m going to be your boss, so I’ll take the liberty to call you Mil. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Eh!? Umm, well, I don’t mind that, but…the permission of the family head is still…”

“I have full authority over everything related to domestic affairs. I should be able to pass you your servant appointment documents by tomorrow. But, I’ll have you help me out with the work starting today. Also, until we get the official account books sorted, it’s fine for you to receive the pay you got from the village chiefs. Your pay as a servant of the Erwin family will be added on top of that.”

“Huh!? I’ll be able to receive an additional salary!?”

“Yes, but the workload will shoot up in proportion. You know the current state of the Erwin family, so I believe you realize that drawing up all the necessary documents will be quite taxing and stressful work. Because of that, I permit you to get twice the salary.”

Milevis’s expression immediately changed after he heard that he could get paid from two places at the same time. He had likely grasped the workload that we’d need to do from now on. Considering that workload, even twice the salary still remains a fairly bad deal for him.

Of course, I plan to have Malida promote Milevis further once we finish writing all the documents. If the oni should voice any complaints about it, I’ll make them understand just what a hero he is by having them experience a fraction of the difficult work Milevis has ahead of him.

Oni respect valor. They not only value amazing martial arts skills and strength, but also a heart to challenge difficult hardships and courage that fears nothing. For that reason, I just need to make the oni understand properly if such things occur in the castle during peace times.

Once they realize that civil officials fight strenuous work with their writing brush during times of peace, no oni should ever again look down on the people I’m going to hire as civil officials from now on such as Milevis.

“Very well. I promise to strive in my duties as your subordinate from now on, Albert-dono.”

Milevis knelt down in front of me and vowed that he’d become my subordinate while placing his left hand on his right chest.

“I’ll be counting on you. Sorry for getting to it right away, but I think we should do something about the provisions inside the storehouse that are about to go bad. Do you have any idea where we could sell them off?”

“Most certainly! Just as I have stated in my petition, I believe it would be smart to have sutlers make bids on the food close to its expiry date. I will immediately contact the ones in the castle town. When should we do the pricing?”

Milevis seems to also have connections to sutlers. He apparently intends to call them over and have them place bids on the provisions we’re going to sell off.

And while at it, I’d also like to organize the storehouse. I guess I’ll mobilize some of the bored muscleheads.

I decided to use the opportunity and thoroughly tidy up the storehouse which had turned into a cluttered den of mess after years of negligence.

“Alright, tomorrow I’ll have the oni carry everything inside the storehouse out onto the courtyard under the pretext of training. Everything without a single exception. Since it’ll be emptied out within half a day, we’ll divide the goods to be kept, the goods to be sold off, and the goods to be disposed of at the same time. Let’s have the sutlers make their bids in the meantime.”

“Tomorrow!? To have the oni help out with the carrying of the goods…”

“It’s fine. They’ll delightfully carry everything you want as long as you imprint in their heads that it’s for training. Besides, it’ll be impossible for the retainers to not do, if their matriarch does, right? Please leave that side to me. Milevis, please contact the sutlers at once.”

“O-Okay, I will get to it right away.”

Like this I succeeded in scouting a capable retainer, decided to get the storehouse of the castle completely cleaned and sorted, and started to act.

 

■

 

Beginning with Malida, I mobilized every free oni in the castle to carry out all the inventory in the storehouses on the next day.

“The team that carried out the most during this training session will be allowed to serve as vanguard during the next battle, so please do your best.”

“My team is going to secure the vanguard role! We won’t lose to you, Uncle, Latour!”

“Stop dreaming! I’ll obviously take first place! As if I’d lose to some tomboy or my idiot son!”

“If I’m going to lose to the likes of an old, frail grandpa, it’ll be a disgrace as an oni! Besides, I also won’t lose to you, Malida-neesan! Everyone, help me to obtain the right to join my first campaign without anyone being able to whine about it!”

I had split the oni into three teams led by Malida, Brest, and Lator, making them compete on how fast they’d be able to empty out the storehouses.

Thanks to them being muscleheads, the stuff inside the cluttered storehouses was piled up on the courtyard at a ridiculous pace.

“No way. For you to get the oni to carry out the goods for us by just calling it training is truly mind-boggling.”

Milevis watched in admiration how the storehouses were quickly emptying out.

“They’re working hard for us because of the right to become the vanguard.”

“Albert-dono, I must bow my head in front of your ingenuity. At this rate, the storehouses, which I thought would never be sorted properly in my lifetime, are going to be clean in no time.”

“We did it! My team is leading!”

Malida’s team seems to have carried out everything from the storehouse assigned to them.

“Wait! My team should have been faster!”

“No, my unit finished first!”

The three appeared to start arguing over who was first, but because there was still a second half left, it was too early for them to bicker.

“Milevis, take care of the classification.”

“Yes, Sir. I’m going to start right away.”

Milevis and the ones in charge of cooking spread out to the mountains of food piled up on the courtyard. I had them label the different types of provisions with colored cloths. Blue would go back to the storehouse, yellow was food close to its expiry date, and red was the food that couldn’t be eaten anymore.

After a short while, Milevis’s group finished the classification.

“Now then, the second half is going to decide the winner, so please get pumped, you three. The team which finishes carrying the food with the blue tags back into their storehouse first will be guaranteed to lead the charge during the next battle. However, if we find any food with yellow tags inside your storehouse, ten minutes will be added to your clearing time. And if we find any red-tagged food, a hundred minutes will be added. So make sure to do your job cautiously! Okay, start!”

The muscleheads all started to run at once when I raised my hand.

“It’s blue! We don’t need anything but the blue stuff!”

“I’ll beat up everyone who makes a mistake and brings food with red cloths! It’s the blue ones we want!”

“Hurry up and bring everything blue! You! That’s yellow! You idiot!”

The oni got all fired up as they returned all the stuff with blue tags into their storehouse. All blue quickly vanished from the piles, leaving only red and yellow cloths behind.

“Hah! As I thought, we ended up first!”

“Wait, wait, my team has――”

“No, I’m first!”

“For the time being, good work. The result of the inspection will be announced by us later on, soe please look forward to it. Also, Malida-sama, make sure to properly finish your duty as family head. Lichere, please take care of it.”

“Malida-sama, this way please. Everyone else, we have prepared drinks and food, so please head to the great dining hall.”

“””Yahooo! It’s time to dig in and drink!”””

“Why!? Why must I alone work!? I don’t agree with that! You fiend! You demon!”

Before things could develop into a quarrel over who finished their job first, I chased everyone off the courtyard by making Malida do her official duties and offering food and booze to the oni who had finished their manual labor.

“Those chaotic, cluttered storehouses became all clean within less than a day…”

“Milevis, you don’t have any time to stand around and get all emotional. The creation of an inventory list, the disposal of the rotten goods, and the sale of the food that’s about to expire is still not done yet.”

“Y-You’re right. The real work starts from now on, I guess.”

The sutlers showed up on the courtyard, where the provisions were spread as if we were holding a trade fair, to make their bids. They were traders who would procure provisions cheaply, travel together with armies who were going to war, and make a profit by selling food for high prices.

They scrutinized the provisions planned to be sold off with serious expressions, and decided on their bids.

“Oh, what a pleasure to see you, Albert-dono. And you as well, Milevis-dono.”

One of them approached us while rubbing his hands together. He was the guy whom Milevis had immediately contacted after hearing about the sale. Four other sutlers doing business in the vicinity other than him also came here to buy the food.

The food we were selling was starting to get slightly spoiled, but because the pricing would start from half their usual price, it seemed to draw enough interest. After all, this continent had more than plenty of regions where you wouldn’t be able to obtain any food during wars.

Dirt cheap, leftover food in this territory would be worth its weight in gold if you went to sell it at the front.

“Franc-dono, Albert-dono here kindly persuaded the family head to sell off large amounts of excess food. It’s not without authorization as usual, so I expect you to give us a good price.”

It’s a story I heard from Milevis, but until now he had sent in a petition many times over, just to be answered with ignorance, so he simply took things in his own hands and sold off excess food to Franc and the other sutlers. Given that it was the oni fault for simply disregarding his petitions, I didn’t accuse Milevis of using the earnings of those sales for himself.

But, I also told him that I’d immediately fire his ass if he should sell off stuff without my permission. Milevis is a smart guy, so he apparently understands that the usual ways so far won’t work with me holding all authority on internal affairs.

“Oh, this is truly a surprise. I had already heard that Albert-dono is an excellent husband, but it sounds like the Erwin family actually welcomed an expert in governing as a retainer.”

“That is true. Albert-dono will handle all the domestic affairs of the Erwin family from now on, so I would ask you to avoid any careless blunders.”

Milevis warned Franc to be careful about his attitude towards me. Franc is a sutler who wanders the battlefields while always being close to death, so he makes you feel a completely different boldness from normal merchants.

Since he kind of interested me, I decided to check his max talents.

 

Name: Franc

Age: 45

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Valor: 42

Leadership: 48

Intelligence: 55

Domestic Affairs: 67

Charm: 66

Status: Sutler in the Castle Town of Ashley

 

The talents are well-balanced and average, but it looks like he also has potential in domestic affairs and charm. I feel like he’s a capable man who would prosper in jobs such as diplomat or commander of a supply unit.

“Forgive my rudeness then. Albert-dono, you are still so young, so I thought Milevis-dono was actually handling all of this. I have now understood how wrong I was, so I would be more than delighted to build a good relationship with you in the future.”

You cannot read what this man thinks. At least, he gives me a strong impression of being rather cryptic.

“Please do not mind it. Just as you said, I’m an inexperienced boy with no actual achievements under his belt. I will take a good example of you, Franc-dono. It would be a pleasure for you to get along with the Erwin family from now on.”

There is never a lack of sutlers, who can organize anything on the battlefield as long as you pay in hard cash, and it’s said that it’s the smartest thing you can do to build a good relationship with capable sutlers early on during times of peace.

“The food we’re selling off today has been preserved perfectly and got a stamp of approval by our cooks. It would be a big help if you could make a good bid for the sake of Albert-dono who made all the arrangements.”

“That depends. The preserved food has little time left before becoming inedible. Still, up until now the Erwin family’s head never gave permission to sell off provisions, so how did you get Malida-sama’s permission, Albert-dono?”

I don’t have any intention to hide it, but if you’re very blunt about it, you could say I got full discretion over everything related to domestic and financial affairs.

If I ask Maldia something like, “I’d like to do this. What do you think?”, she always answers, “Oh, do as you see fit.”

It sounds cool if you describe it as us sharing a relationship full of mutual trust, but the straight truth here is that our aggressive, wild noble lady doesn’t care to think about anything other than battle and her nightly activities.

“Well, you could call it a secret of our family. The only thing I can tell you is that I enjoy just that deep a trust.”

Hearing my reply which was brimming with confidence, Franc’s facial expression changed. He had probably conjectured that my position and authority must be quite high within the family.

“It sounds like I must insist on getting along well with you by all means, Albert-dono.”

“Well, let us work together in various ways.”

Since it’ll make things more flexible on the battlefield if I can win over a sutler, I intend to cherish my relationship with Franc who has a wide network of connections around here. There’s no loss in currying favors with sutlers who are regarded as general stores of the battlefield.

As we were talking with Franc, the different sutlers placed tags with their bids and names on the sales goods in the courtyard. It was a system where the one with the highest bidding tag would win the provisions in question.

Around this time of the year, other feudal lords were also airing out their emergency stores, so it’d be difficult to obtain high prices, but any money would be better that throwing it away. Because we’re going to start to only sell off excess goods when they can get a good price on the market once we’ve managed to draw up inventory lists for all our storehouses, this event would be a limited discount sale where we’ll make losses.

After the sale finished, the employees of Franc’s place loaded the food he bought while Franc was monitoring them with a pleased expression. He’s the one who bought the most during today’s bidding fair. Having said that, he simply made low bids on almost all goods unlike the other sutlers.

I said the bidding results would be announced in order with the highest value bids starting, but that was a lie. We made sure that you wouldn’t be able to see the bidding sum on the bidding tags and we didn’t announce the price either. We merely told them, “The highest bid was placed by xxx”, without mentioning any precise figures.

I wonder whether you get it after I’ve explained it to this extent?

Yep, it was a fixed game under the pretext of a bidding. We had decided whom we would sell what from the very start.

In order to get Franc indebted to us, we allowed him to win the bids with lower bidding sums than the other sutlers. Of course, we also allowed the other sutlers to win some bids and passed them the goods flagged for disposal as souvenirs. It’s important to be attentive and have a give-and-take relationship with sutlers.

“Thank you very much. I shall repay this debt on the battlefield.”

“Yeah, it’d be a big help if we could have you do that. Also, I think there will be other times when I will rely on your assistance outside times of war. I will count on you at those times.”

“Yes, absolutely! This lowly servant shall come running at a beck’s call whenever you plan to trade with me, Albert-dono.”

“Thanks. That sounds promising.”

Fran and the others left together with their fully loaded wagons while laughing cheerfully. They’re off to sell the provisions they obtained here to some army on some battlefield.

The total profit of the sales amounts to 3,000 Imperial gold. That’d be 30 million Yen.

I’d love to pay off the family’s debt, but for now I’ll keep that cash on hand in order to further my policies.

“We were able to nicely sell off all the excess provisions. I thought more of it would remain unsold.”

“Most recently, this region has been quite dangerous. Skirmishes with Alexa break out at all times somewhere along the border. The Erwin family might have food over, but the demand is high wherever you go.”

The southeastern region of Elancia with Stephan as its district commandant frequently sees skirmishes between the lords of Alexa and Elancia. Milevis’s words once more drove home that we were living in a conflict zone here.

Thanks to the frequent clashes between the nobles of both countries, it’s become a region where sutlers can make a killing.

“As Jack of all trades, sutlers will make a good profit as long as there’s battles going on. I think we should build a friendly relationship with Franc. You put in a good word for us as well, Milevis.”

“Yes, Sir! I’m sure that sutler will be of use for you, Albert-dono. It might be a good idea to promote him into being a retainer at some point, when he has proven himself to be useful.”

“Yep, that would make sense. He seems to have a better talent at making money than me. If the domestic situation settles down and we finally get some leeway in our coffers, I could imagine hiring him as a retainer and having him earn money for us.”

“I believe that to be a fine idea.”

I made sure to write down Franc’s name in my notebook for potential candidates to be scouted.

“Okay, this wraps up the cleaning and sorting of the storehouses. All that’s left is to draw up an accurate inventory list. Please take care of it, Milevis,” I tapped his shoulder as he stood next to me.

From now on the hell of creating all sorts of ledgers and lists was awaiting him. It was such a staggering amount that I got shivers from just imagining me doing it myself, but I’m very sure that a capable man like Milevis can get it done for us.

“O-Okay. I shall do my best!”

I lightly clapped his shoulder one more time.

Don’t die, Trooper.

Well, it’s a slight jump ahead in the storyline, but eventually he managed to finish that taxing work, and thanks to this achievement, he was called 『Ledger Conjurer Milevis』. Later on, he went on to flourish as a leading administrative official who was responsible for all financial matters of the Erwin family. In short, he displayed capability as my right hand, even then he remained no more than Malida’s personal servant.

 

■　■　■

 

Having entrusted the task of creating the ledgers and account books to Milevis, I visited the merchant union in the castle town on the next day to tackle another lingering problem.

“We hadn’t been expecting that a messenger of our Ladyship would come to visit us. We shall prepare a proper welcome for you right away. Please give us a short moment.”

An elderly man called Reinbell, who was the current union leader, started to instruct the staff around him, getting the meeting room ready at great haste. He was also the one who had sent the petition. Seeing the one, who sent the petition, panicking so much despite me having shown up without a previous appointment, allows a glimpse at the terrible state of lacking domestic administration by generations of oni lords.

“No, please do not mind me. I had interest in your petition, so I simply came here to ask you about the details.”

“W-What!? I have already heard the rumors that a man knowledgeable in domestic affairs had married into the Erwin family, but are you possibly the person in question here?”

“Yes, indeed. My name is Albert. My status is that of being Malida-sama’s husband. Moreover, I have been appointed as governor.”

Hearing that I was a retainer directly under Malida, Reinbell’s eyes gleamed up.

“I dislike beating around the bush, so please allow me this straight question. Is it alright for me to take it as you having been entrusted to lead the Erwin family, Albert-dono?”

“You can think of it like that. I have complete authority over all the domestic affairs in the Erwin Barony.”

The gleam in Reinbell’s eyes became even stronger. I’ll give his talents a look.

 

Name: Reinbell

Age: 48

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Valor: 19

Leadership: 21

Intelligence: 64

Domestic Affairs: 71

Charm: 77

Status: Leader of the Ashley Merchant Union

 

As might be expected of a man who has been serving as union leader for many years while controlling the shrewd merchants, he has abilities I’d love to see in an advisor for the internal administration team.

Let’s try gaining his trust here while resolving the problem at hand.

“In that case, I would like to lend your assistance in resolving the serious disputes over the trade transactions I mentioned in my petition the other day, Albert-dono. If the scales for measuring weight, length, and volume aren’t consolidated, it will constantly cause conflicts during business deals. Recently many people have been complaining about such cases to us, resulting in us having to allocate a lot of our precious time and personnel resources to constantly mediate the disputes…”

Probably feeling a glimmer of hope over someone willing to listen to their problems having finally appeared in the Erwin family, Reinbell begged me to resolve the troubles with the business deals which he had also mentioned in the petition. The problem bugging Reinbell basically comes down to something with a weight of one kilogram at purchase being downgraded to having 900 grams when trying to sell it, or something with an original length of one meter being reduced to 900 cm when selling it.

Eh? You don’t get it?

First off, it’s not about goods drying up and losing weight or cloth reacting to moisture and shrinking during transport. Roughly explained, the weights measuring the weight of an item, the rulers to measure the length, and the containers to measure volume are different at the place where the item was bought and the place it’s intended to be sold. This is the root cause of the problems occurring in Ashley’s castle town during trades.

When I asked Lichere to investigate, she quickly found out that 20 types of weights, rulers, and measuring containers are circulating in the castle town alone. If you also include other countries in this, the number will go up into the thousands. In other words, even imperial land uses no unified standard for measuring weight, length, and volume.

So, what should a lord do in such a case?

The solution is actually pretty simple. The lord invokes her power as ruler of the land, creates weights, rulers, and measuring containers that bear her authorization, and declares that all trades have to use these. If someone uses any measuring tools other than those officially approved by the lord, they will receive severe punishment. As such, all people knowing about the ferocity of the oni should willingly use the officially approved measuring tools.

At times like these, the muscleheadedness of the Erwin family comes in very handy.

“If it’s about the matter of the frequent conflicts during trade deals, I have already started to take action. In addition, I would like to borrow your assistance and have all merchants in the castle town gather over here.”

“A-Amazing. For you to have already taken steps to deal with this issue… I shall urgently call the merchants, so please wait for a short while. Irena! Serve our guest some tea.”

As Reinbell rushed out to call his subordinates and merchants, a beauty with long blond hair and blue eyes entered the room in exchange, carrying a waitress’s tray with tea cups.

“My father apparently was so rude as to leave in a hurry while leaving our guest all alone here.”

I was captivated by the blond beauty who had shown up in front of me. Contrary to her lovely appearance which was accompanied by a graceful conduct, her body had decided to go down a different route. Malida and Lichere had big tits, but this woman wasn’t any inferior either. Their large swaying as she moved immediately drew my eyes.

Since I got curious, I checked her abilities.

 

Name: Irena

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Valor: 16

Leadership: 42

Intelligence: 59

Domestic Affairs: 84

Charm: 82

Three Sizes: B95 (H-Cup) W58 H90

Status: Vice-Leader of Ashley’s Merchant Union

 

 

 

 

She had an outstanding talent in domestic affairs which also exceeded her father’s. She’s fairly young, but her abilities appear to be fairly high.

“Please do not mind. It was I who asked your father to call the merchants. By the way, how may I call you?”

“Oh, forgive my impoliteness. I am the daughter of Reinbell, Irena. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, Albert-sama,” Irena bowed respectfully, causing her apron to stretch at the chest area and thus emphasizing her breast’s size.

Her fantastic boobs sure are arousing… I feel like things would progress in various ways, if I could get this woman to work next to me as secretary.

I had some random chit-chat with her for a while. Because of that, I learned that she was still single, which quickly boosted my desire to win her over as secretary.

A little while later, her father Reinbell came back with the town’s merchants in tow.

I placed an iron rod on the table, drawing all eyes there.

“I would like you to produce 3,000 rods with the same length as this one here.”

“Hoh? The same length, you say?”

“Yeah, it ought to be exactly the same length. Please use iron as material. It doesn’t bend easily, and it’s a material you can obtain anywhere.”

I had Malida break an iron rod at a place I had marked in advance. She cut it for me at a length I assumed to roughly equal one meter by eyesight. Because I used my eyes for measuring the length, it likely wasn’t precisely one meter by Earth standards, but this would count as one meter inside the Erwin Barony.

This is what I had decided. Originally, it was something that had to be decided by the lord, but when I explained things to Malida, she merely told me to do as I see fit. And as such, I did as I saw fit.

Iron expands due to temperature changes and it rusts. But it’ll allow us to measure length with much more precision than the myriads of unique rulers thus far.

“I ask you to keep the measurement error as small as possible.”

“As you wish.”

Given that some of the blacksmith merchants here were craftsmen who create arms, I assume I’ll be able to gather the iron rulers quickly. I plan to spread these iron rulers as officially approved length measurement tools and impose heavy punishments on anyone trading while using other rulers.

“Now then, next is this here.”

I placed a small iron clump on the table with a clack. It had been lying in one of the castle’s storehouses, so I picked it up. It’s a piece of iron I assumed to weigh around one gram.

“This is?”

“This will become the counterweight for your scales. We will have this here serve as the lowest weight unit. I’d like you to create iron weights five times, ten times, fifty times, a hundred times, and a thousand times as heavy as this standard here.”

“I understand.”

Scales had spread inside the Barony as a tool to measure weights and were used by people on a daily basis, but the counterweights used for the measuring weren’t standardized.

Just like with the iron rod, I’ll have everything unified into one system since Malida told me to do as I see fit.

At last I put the container which Milevis had used in the storehouses, on the table.

“Next, I’d like you to measure fluid substances and smaller, grainy items with this container as a base unit.”

“Should this be made out of iron as well?”

“No, this will also be used for liquids, so I’d like you to make it out of wood. Would that be possible?”

“I think it should pose no problem since we also have woodcrafters among our members.”

“Then please have them do as I told you. Business transactions which don’t base their transactions on these new measurement units for weight, length, and volume, will lose all validity as official business transactions in the Barony starting with next year. Imperial law states that the noble families ruling over land have the privilege to decide the measurement units and means used for business transactions inside their fief.”

A stir went across the craftsmen Reinbell had gathered.

“Are you saying that such a verdict has been passed down by the Erwin family?”

As might be expected, Reinbell seemed to not have imagined that I’d have the authority to make such a drastic verdict.

“Yes, I shall propose Malida-sama to officially announce this verdict, so I can reliably confirm that it will be passed down. I believe you do know what happens to those doing business transactions forbidden by the Erwin family?”

Reinbell swallowed hard upon hearing those words. The residents living in the Ashley Barony all understood the brutality of the Erwin family.

“T-This will be an extremely serious matter… It will turn into a huge uproar.”

I had already assumed that a forced change in the measuring system, which served as the basis for any business deal, would cause some confusion. As such, I see it as my job to keep the confusion as low as possible.

“I’m well aware of that. For the sake of reducing the confusion I will have you, Reinbell-dono, sell the officially approved weights, rulers, and containers at the trade union. I’d like you to also spread the news so that people are being made aware of the new measurement units.”

I’ve decided to adopt the measurement units I used in Japan as standard units inside the Barony on this occasion. Since it’d be necessary to introduce the new measurement units anyway, I planned to go with something familiar to me.

“So you’re saying the trade union will have a monopoly on selling the measurement tools officially licensed by the Erwin family while at the same time telling us to promote the recognition of those measurement units, huh…?”

“Indeed. I’d like to borrow your strength for this, if possible. If we enforce the usage of these measurement tools for all business transactions, the quarrels over business deals as they’ve been plaguing the Barony should naturally diminish.”

Reinbell’s eyes wandered left and right as he seemed to weigh the chaos caused by the change of the measuring units and tools against the merits it’d created afterwards.

“How about it? Can you do this for us?”

His eyes settled back on me and he bowed his head deeply.

“The trade union shall support your judgment, Albert-dono. Please allow us to handle it by all means! This will end many years of disputes. And the Erwin family will further grow thanks to your smarts, Albert-dono!”

Reinbell apparently is going to lend me his assistance. With this, the backlash from the merchants will be reduced significantly.

If we can consolidate the measuring system in the Barony, it’ll naturally lower the friction over business fraud and we’ll be able to guarantee measurement accuracy for our tax collection, so I plan to introduce it as soon as possible.

It’ll likely cause quite a bit of chaos at the beginning, but humans get used to everything. After five years all residents of the fief will use the new system normally. The troubles will take place only at the beginning while the advantages of it will be huge.

The standardization of the measurement system will have a bigger merit, the bigger the Erwin family’s property. So it’s a prior investment for this sake.

I explained the details of the production for the measurement tools to the craftsmen gathered in a room of the trade union, and sent them out to create the new tools.

With the desire to secure myself a pretty secretary rising after having finished one job, I decided to sound out Reinbell, who had stayed behind the room, about me hiring Irena.

“Reinbell-dono, as a matter of fact, I have another request.”

“Oh? If it’s something I can help you with, I’ll try to assist you.”

“As a matter of fact, I want to hire your daughter Irena-dono as servant and civil official of the Erwin family, assigning her as my secretary, but what would be your take on this? Of course, I do not plan to cause you any disadvantages with this, Reinbell-dono.”

Father and daughter looked surprised by my sudden request.

“You plan to employ my daughter as retainer of the Erwin family and your secretary?”

“I’m well aware that this must sound like a very shameless request. But, I believe that Irena-dono’s talents will be indispensable for the Erwin family which will develop drastically from now on.”

Going by the talents I read with my power, Irena registers as top-notch official in domestic affairs. Besides, if I can secure myself a pretty, blond secretary, it’s definitely going to boost my motivation. She’s someone I’d love to add to my internal administration team by all means.

“Even if you suddenly request something like that…currently I have my daughter work as my assistant.”

“As governor of the Erwin family, I plan to recruit capable personnel regardless of their race or gender. I’d like to hire Irena-dono as a forerunner for this change in recruitment policy. Of course, I also wish to build a good relationship with you, Reinbell-dono, who controls the merchants in the castle town. Therefore I won’t treat Irena-dono badly after having her become my subordinate.”

I implicitly told Reinbell that he’d have various benefits if he permitted his daughter to become a retainer of the Erwin family.

“You’re evaluating my daughter that highly, Albert-dono?”

“Yes. Besides, if she becomes Malida-sama’s lover, she will also have the chance to create a branch family of the Erwin family.”

“HUUUH!? A branch family of the Erwin family, you say!?”

“Indeed. Reinbell-dono, you should be aware that Malida-sama likes women.”

“Yes, I do. Because of that, I was surprised when she welcomed you as a husband into her family.”

“She promised me that we would share her lovers, and that any possible child coming out of such a connection would be given the right to succeed a branch family.”

Reinbell and Irena’s eyes turned into dots when they heard my words.

“Umm, allow me to ask for confirmation, but are you saying that my daughter Irena could create a branch family if she becomes Malida-sama’s lover and gives birth to your child, Albert-dono?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Learning that he might have the chance to become a noble, Reinbell’s face changed completely.

“How high would you assess the chance for my daughter to become Malida-sama’s lover?”

“If I endorse her, it’ll be almost 100%.”

The probability of Malida turning down my endorsement in the case of a beauty like Irena is zero.

“Father, it seems to me that Albert-sama’s proposal could bring our family huge benefits, if you consider the terms. On top of that, I’m also nearing an age where I’ll have passed the marriageable age. As such, I believe now to be the time to grab the opportunity.”

Irena told her father that he should go along with my proposal.

“Irena, are you really fine with that?”

“Yes, I was asked by many noble youths, who courted me, to quit my job and enter their family, but if it’s the conditions set by Albert-sama, I will be allowed to continue my job, even after becoming Malida-sama’s lover and bearing Albert-sama’s child. That is correct, isn’t it?”

“Of course, I would love to make use of your talents for the sake of the Erwin family, even after you’ve given birth.”

Reinbell looked back and forth between me and his daughter for a while, but eventually he apparently made up his mind, fixed his eyes on me, and corrected his seating posture.

“We shall accept your request, Albert-sama. Since you will have my daughter Irena serve as your secretary and Malida-sama’s lover, I ask you to assist our family from now on.”

I grabbed Reinbell’s hand and shook it firmly.

“Thank you very much! I will definitely cherish Irena-dono, bless her with a child, and let her create a branch family of the Erwins with that child.”

“Albert-sama, I am certain I have some failings here and there, but please take care of me. Also, I would like to properly hand over my work here before moving to the castle, so could you give me a bit more time for now?”

“That is fine. Please settle everything over here to your liking.

“Okay! I shall immediately begin with the transfer.”

After answering, Irena rushed out of the room to get everything ready for the hand-over.

 

■

 

While excitedly awaiting the day when my pretty secretary prospect Irena would show up, I decided on the next day to head out for inspecting a farm village as it had been scheduled for today.

Small wheat fields were sprawling far into the distance in front of my eyes. The wheat that had been planted in winter was now waving its ears in the wind and seemed to rapidly grow riper by the day. Right now the fields were a bright mixture of lush green and golden yellow.

Around those small fields I could see farmers pruning the weeds with sickles. This was the slow life I yearned for. A farmer’s life, where you’d be able to enjoy a carefree life after retiring from the busy work days, was playing out right here and now.

As governor of the Erwin family which was stacked with heaps of problems, I kept working hard every day while continuously amassing anxiety and exhaustion. Because of that, my heart was attracted to a farmer’s life that would allow me to escape reality.

Haaah, I’d love to be released from my straining workload as quickly as possible… Can’t I just find a bunch of capable domestic officials somewhere!?

The farm village, which I would inspect this time, was selected from a list of tax payments which Milevis-kun had personally kept. We chose this particular village because it was paying an average amount of taxes among all the farm villages of the barony.

I’ll take the liberty to publicly announce my impressions after having walked all over the village while carefully examining everything.

First off, it seems to be a very prosperous village, considering that it’s situated at the front line. You can’t see any signs of war-driven destruction or devastation. I could also spot people of all ages in the village, giving it a well-balanced generational distribution.

When it comes to farm villages ruined by wars, you would usually only find women, children, and the elderly. Their men would be conscripted as serf soldiers, sharply reducing the manpower available to the village and thus causing the village as a whole to become desolate. Such I read in the records stored in the temple’s Great Library and such I also confirmed during my inspections of farm villages in Alexa.

The world of Worthrune has almost no mechanization, and supernatural techniques such as magic don’t exist either. The number of people was the defining factor for labor force, national power, and combat prowess.

Going by the population of the farm villages I inspected, I could immediately tell that the Erwin Barony was a land with an abundance of people, a source of power. Moreover, this land was perfectly suited for agriculture, which could also be seen from how the wheat was growing.

It was the best land to amass power in order to rise in the world. This is my personal evaluation of this territory.

This time, during the inspection of the farm village, I could also reconfirm the problems plaguing the barony. The village chief’s authority was quite dominant. This was the outcome of generations of Erwin family heads being utterly incompetent in domestic affairs.

If you ask why a 『village chief』, who’s no more than a representative of the villagers, could be so powerful, you’ll find the answer in their influence on the tax collection system.

Land rent and poll tax can be rightfully described as the pillars of tax revenue generated by a territory. And the ones currently shouldering the collection of these two taxes in farm villages of the Erwin Barony are the village chiefs. A village chief will gather the land rent and poll tax from his villagers and take care of getting it stored in a warehouse of Castle Ashley.

If you ask why the village chiefs would have to do all that, the answer would be simple: because the tax collectors of the Erwin family didn’t do it. No, the tax collectors didn’t do it would be the wrong way to put it. Rather, the tax collectors didn’t exist in the first place.

Contracting the village chiefs for the tax collection work was an almost perfect system, if you looked at it from the standpoint of work efficiency through outsourcing. From the lord’s point of view, it saves the trouble of collecting the taxes from each and every single farmer and also reduces the personnel to arrange storehouses for receiving the taxes. It’s a system where it’s okay for the taxes to be paid by simply telling the village chiefs the sum of taxes to be paid.

If something happens along the way, the lord can punish the village chief, who was responsible for the tax collection, and force the village to pay taxes once more. If you only look at those merits, it’s very appealing to use as a system…

But, this system created demerits which erased all merits for the Erwin family with its particular incompetence when it comes to domestic affairs.

Disadvantage number one of a tax collection system outsourced to very smart village chiefs would be the liberty for them to exploit and embezzle as much as they wanted to.

Why? At present, it’s a tax collection system that bases its tax revenue on the personal statement of the village chiefs, so…

The Erwin family, which hasn’t maintained any ledgers, except for their beloved war-related equipment lists, and didn’t even dispatch any tax collectors so far, didn’t have any census, planting estimation books, or basic taxation lists.

At the moment, we were investing all effort into creating the necessary lists, ledgers and books for all sorts of data, so this is the current state of the Erwin family according to Milevis-kun.

Every year during the New Year festivities, the village chiefs of all farm villages are required to attend the castle. On that occasion, the retainers of the oni would ask, 『How much can your place fork over this year? No need for the detailed account, just give me a rough estimate』. The village chiefs will then come up with some numbers while fervently complaining just how tough it is for their village. This exchange then decided the tax of the coming year as the Erwin family would base its taxation on the sums each of the village chiefs had told them orally.

Of course, the Erwin family would collect taxes in the name of emergency tax levy when they lacked funds for war, so the village chiefs already included those extra taxations in their calculations and would always make sure to report an amount smaller than the real one.

It appears that the village chiefs had a full grasp on the circumstances in their own villages, but people wanting to pay as little tax as possible was the same in every world.

Moreover, the Erwin family hadn’t unified the measurement tools and units used for the tax payment. As such, each farm village used whatever they liked.

Yep, you heard correctly. They haven’t standardized the means of counting taxes. Something that should be taxed as one kilogram was taxed for 900 grams in village A and 850 grams in village B.

Back when I lived in Japan, I didn’t feel any inconvenience since almost all measurements were standardized. But, the Erwin Barony used ounce, inch, yard, centimeter, kilogram, and liter all at once. Anyone would be confused by that, right?

Because the measurement units hadn’t been unified in the Barony, the village chiefs deceived the system by using light counterweights for tax payment in wheat. They brought the lower amount to the storehouse as the tax payment which had been agreed upon, but Milevis-kun had no authority and thus he could only lament that he didn’t have a real grasp on the amount reported by the village chiefs since he’d only store it without checking any.

Meanwhile, the village chiefs could fill their own pockets with the embezzled wheat and he also heard reports about them running through the city with broad smiles after selling off all the extra wheat.

Not having unified standards for measuring during the tax collection had become a hotbed for fraud on top of being a major pain in the ass. And that’s why I plan to not approve any tax payment that doesn’t use the measurement units and tools officially approved by the Erwin family on behalf of Malida.

Because I intend to make the proclamation that this rule would apply starting this year, unlike with business transactions, I expect that I’ll be able to crush all those who cheat with the measurements.

Well, the village chiefs might get pissed off about this, but one demerit of the outsourced tax collection system will disappear with this.

Maintaining public order counts for another demerit.

First off, I’d like to explain the difference between regular soldiers and serf soldiers. The muscle-headed oni are regular soldiers who are being paid a salary every month. They are a group of battle junkies who have specialized in fighting anywhere 24/7. As for the serf soldiers: they’re farmers who usually work on their fields. They’ll be conscripted during the slack season or emergencies to be used as additional combat forces.

This is the basic difference between the two. Now for the main topic: In case farmers are recruited as soldiers, their commanders will be chosen from among the village chief family members.

You ask why those families?

That’s simple. When it comes to the village chief family, they’re affluent in an economic sense and their literacy is high because they received education. Given that commanders are required to read orders, being able to read letters is regarded as a necessity. Even if some commanders can’t write, no commanding officers are unable to read.

Also, the members of the village chief family take care of mediating disputes within their villages, so many of them are strong.

As the village chief family’s members fulfill those two criteria, being strong and being able to read, they’re usually chosen for the position of commander. But, if the power of the village chief family becomes too big, it turns into a huge problem. After all, it means tax payers have authority over a military force.

If the lord raises the tax rates just a bit, they can immediately cause a revolt while loudly clamoring, 『You bastard! Do you plan to extort us!? Okay, then give it your best shot! We’ll take you on!』

If it’s a tiny lord with few regular soldiers, he will have no choice but to submit to the revolt by the village chiefs. And once that happens, the lord’s authority will only keep diminishing while the village chiefs’ authority will keep growing until they eventually usurp the power in the fief.

Therefore, there’s a realistic danger of our heads being displayed on the gate. The village chiefs have accumulated a lot of power by embezzling tax money. If they become too unhappy with the Erwin family’s rule, they could lead an army of humans against their rulers, especially seeing how the majority of the big population in the Barony consists of humans.

This is the disadvantage in regards to public order when it comes to outsourcing the tax collection to the village chiefs.

By the way, the reason why the village chiefs haven’t caused any revolts so far despite the Erwin family’s utter incompetence in regards to domestic administration and constant demand for additional money whenever they go to war, can be solely credited to them being scared of the oni wiping out their families. In other words, the Erwin family is currently forcing them into submission by showing the village chiefs an overwhelming difference in combat prowess.

At present the tax collection system of outsourcing it to the village chief works based on this nearly perfect balance of power, but if we leave it alone like this, the Erwin family will have to face internal enemies at a time when their power weakens.

Wars, domestic strife, revolts; you never know when you’ll be overthrown if you don’t keep paying attention to the internal and external circumstances.

I’d love to say that I’m peerless thanks to a domestic affairs cheat after my reincarnation, but unfortunately reality isn’t as kind with me and I have no choice but to go at it steadily.

“Man, that’s such a huge pile of problems…”

After finishing the farm village’s inspection, I drove back to Ashley Castle while feeling completely drained inside my carriage.

 

■

 

“Welcome back, Albert-sama. Irena-sama has requested a meeting with you. She is waiting inside your office.”

Once I came back to the castle, Lichere greeted and informed me about Irena’s visit.

“I was planning to recommend her to Malida-sama as a lover, but what is your impression of her, Lichere?”

“I was given the opportunity to have a bit of a lighthearted chat with her. She gives me the impression of being a capable person. Unlike me, she is also educated. Besides, she is endowed with the type of figure Malida-sama likes. Moreover, her appearance suits your tastes as well, Albert-sama.”

“So, do you think things will go smoothly with her?”

“Yes, she is smart and quick on the uptake. She will understand her position after becoming Malida-sama’s lover. I think she will also mesh well with me. Are you going to entrust her with the management of the company we purchased?”

“Yeah, in the future I’m going to assign someone else to that position, but for now I plan to have her cover that post.”

After searching Malida’s fief for a company to use as a front for my private intelligence agency, we found a general store with the name Marché, dealing with all sorts of goods. Since it met our conditions, we bought that store. Lichere has already started with the intelligence gathering while using Marché as a front.

Because I’m the Erwin family’s governor, I don’t have any capacity to even run a company like I did in Alexa, so I plan to transfer the management rights to Irena.

“Very well. Malida-sama has called for me as well since she was interested in Irena-sama, so please bring Irena-sama to the bedroom after a while,” Lichere revealed a shady smile, before bowing respectfully.

“Got it. Please entertain Malida-sama until we join you.”

“As you wish. It sounds like we have a long night ahead today.”

“Yeah, indeed.”

Lichere disappeared in the inner chambers in order to prepare all sorts of things while having a dodgy smile on her lips.

I made my way to the office where Irena was waiting.

“I heard I made you wait. Forgive me for that,” I addressed Irena who sat on the sofa for guests.

“No, no, I have to apologize. Please excuse me for taking so long to come to the castle. But, thanks to the time you granted me, I was able to pass on all my duties at the merchant union to my successors.”

“So you made up your resolve to become Malida-sama’s lover and work for the sake of the Erwin family? If it’s now, we can still act like all of this never happened.”

I asked Irena for a final confirmation. Apparently she had already resolved herself as evident from her responding with a silent nod.

“I understand. It might be a bit sudden, but I will have you head to the inner chambers to greet Malida-sama. Also, tonight we will have Lichere, your senior as her lover, teach you various things.”

“Okay……I will strive to do my best.”

I took Irena’s hand and led her to the lord’s private bedroom beyond the office.

“Irena, it’s wonderful of you to have come! Now that you’ve become my lover, I’ll have you wear this!” Malida showed Irena underwear consisting of nothing but strings the second she entered the bedroom.

“T-That sort of underwear!? Me!?”

“Yes, I demand you to always wear this whenever you attend to me at night!”

“T-This!?”

“Indeed. When sleeping in the castle, I cannot calm down unless women are sleeping next to me. This is yet another important job for you as my lover.”

“A-Alright, I understand. If that is your wish, Malida-sama, I shall oblige!”

Given that Irena had followed me to the bedroom, she had obviously made up her mind and thus she didn’t look against it, although she was surprised by the perverted underwear.

“Come on, put it on right away. Lichere is wearing it as well.”

Lichere, who was obviously pretty eager about our nightly activities, was already wearing the lewd underwear we bought in the capital.

“Irena-sama, please excuse me.”

“Lichere-sama, what are you doing!?”

Lichere went around and undressed Irena at lightning speed from behind.

“Now, hurry up and change. Now that you have become Malida-sama’s lover, this will be your uniform during our nightly activities.”

The string underwear, which Malida had held moments ago, was now in Irena’s hand. She had been stripped down to her underwear.

“As you wish. Please wait a moment.

Once Irena took off her underwear, her big tits dropped down.

“Hoh, these are…”

“Superb.”

“They have the perfect size for fondling.”

Irena finished changing into the string underwear while being exposed to our stares. Her trembling body as she frantically tried to suppress her embarrassment made me horny.

“Good. Now lie down next to me. I will treat you kindly, so don’t worry about anything. Guhehehe.”

Malida, who had been lying sprawled on the bed, beckoned Irena over.

“It is my first time to do something like this, so I might end up doing something rude, but I am counting on you to guide me.”

Irena lay down next to Malida and entrusted her body to her.

“Whooo, you have a body that feels wonderfully comfortable to hug.”

Malida had immediately latched onto Irena’s body.

“I feel very happy to receive such high praise from you, Malida-sama.”

“Nice, nice, now let’s see how things look here.”

As if following a natural flow of events, Malida started to fondle Irena’s chest.

“Malida-sama!?”

“I like boobs as well. Give it up.”

Being caressed by Malida, Irena’s breathing started to become rough.

“Malida-sama, we have Irena-sama with us today, so I will take this side.”

Lichere laid down on the other side of Irena as if to sandwich the older girl.

“You have a point. I’m going to enjoy Irena to my heart’s content, so help me from over there, Lichere.”

“U-Umm! I’m fin――nngh!”

Lichere’s hand had crept onto Irena’s abdomen without the older girl noticing. I mean, Lichere works quickly.

“Irena-sama, are you alright?It seems like this place has become quite wet, though.”

“Y-You’re wrong. It’s not wet or anything.”

“This is bad. We’re currently on my bed, you know?”

 

 

Revealing an evil grin, Malida licked Irena’s nape while the other girl was all flustered.

“Hyauuuh! Malida-sama!?”

Surrounded by two predators, the pitiful prey, Irena, couldn’t mount anything remotely close to a resistance.

“Oh my, what’s wrong for this place to be hard?”

“Uhnn! Stop!”

Irena knitted her eyebrows while having her nipples teased. She closed her eyes and chewed on her lower lip.

“You sure are sensitive. It looks like we’re going to have a lot of fun with each other. Don’t you think, Albert?”

“Indeed. She appears to have all the qualities necessary.”

Given that I was getting bored from just watching, I’ll have them let me join that little party as well. I took off my clothes and slipped onto the bed where the three girls were entangled.

“Albert-sama, Malida-sama and Lichere-sama are――”

“After seeing your lewd expression, I couldn’t hold back any longer.”

“Hauuunnn, but, I’m still not――”

“Ah, don’t worry. Malida and Lichere will get you ready slowly. Irena, you can just leave everything to us. I also plan to treat you gently.”

Being caressed by Malida and Lichere, Irena had started to pant with her cheeks dyed red.

“Albert possesses various techniques to give a girl pleasure. Irena, he’ll make you go to paradise, just like he does with me. Guhehehe.”

“Indeed. Besides, Albert-sama smells very nicely. Once you sniff that scent, you’ll become unable to restrain your horniness.”

While donning evil smiles, the two opened Irena’s legs.

“Please be gentle with me…it’s my first time, so I’m scared.”

“It’ll be okay. I’m by your side.”

“Me too. It will be fine, so please accept Albert-sama.”

Having her legs pried open her breasts fondled, Irena looked my way with moist eyes.

“It will be fine. You can leave everything to me.”

Accepting her fate, Irena closed her eyes and silently nodded.

Afterwards, the three of us enjoyed her voluptuous body many times over. She ended up becoming a slave to pleasure during her first night of sex, turning her into a pleasure-driven like-minded soul in regards to nightly activities.

Because of this, the power relationship during our nightly activities took the following shape: Me → Lichere → Malida → Irena.

“Albert, I’m going to also use Irena’s boobs, so treat them well. For the time being, I’m going to lend her to you over the day, but I’ll have her attend me at night.”

“I know. In exchange, I have the preferential rights during the day, okay?”

“Got it.”

Malida was hugging Irena tightly while caressing her boobs, but we agreed that she’d work in domestic affairs as my secretary during the day while serving Malida as her lover during the night.

Because she had been helping her father, the leader of the merchant union, she was good at managing schedules, receiving visitors, office work, and paperwork. As such I planned to have her help me with these things.

“I shall invest all my effort into assisting you with your work, Albert-sama. And I shall also strive hard to attend to you, Malida-sama!” Irena answered with a face brimming with motivation while her skin was quite glossy.

This was the very moment when a super capable, blond, pretty secretary was born. This would also boost my motivation by a lot and should raise the Erwin family’s domestic power 300 fold. Then again, it’d only raise the domestic affairs value to the bare minimum since multiplying a value close to zero by 300 doesn’t change much.

“Oh my, are you unhappy with me, Malida-sama? We should have agreed upon Irena-san belonging to everyone.”

Lichere embraced Malida from behind and tightly grabbed her boob.

“Ugghiii. Don’t play with my boobs.”

“Sure, then I will play with this here.”Lichere licked the tip of Malida’s horn, her biggest weakness.”

“Nnnnnghhhnnn! Lichere, you’re too strict with me. You should be a bit gentleeeeer!”

Malida sank down on the bed, drool running from her mouth.

This would increase the turmoil in bed in the morning, but for me personally it was a blessed time of being surrounded by three sets of boobs. Big ones are nice.

“Malida-sama, if you do not take care to watch Lichere’s mood, you will be teased all night long again. Last night, the same happened in front of Irena.”

“Gaaaaaahhh! Don’t remind me of that. That was inevitable. I hadn’t expected to be humiliated in such a way! Albert, Irena, forget you’ve ever seen anything! Got it!?”

Well, that was truly shocking. Malida was so cute that I feel like I worked too hard.

Apparently recalling the events of last night, Malida blushed, before unleashing a storm of kisses on Irena.

“Now then, everyone should feel great now, so let’s work hard on our jobs today. Irena, please help me with my duties as secretary, starting with today.”

“Very well. I shall change my clothes and get ready right away.”

“Malida-sama, please keep doing the 『Seal Stamping Training』 as usual. Lichere, I leave her in your hands.”

“As you command. You can entrust Malida-sama’s surveillance to me.”

“Lichere, you’re my court lady. Why do you follow Albert’s――”

Lichere licked Malida’s ear when she tried to talk back.

“Nnnghn!”

Malida apparently came from having her ear teased in a sneak attack.

“Come now, Malida-sama, you have to get ready and do your job.”

Lichere dragged Malida off the bed. I helped Irena to dress herself, and after we finished breakfast, we headed over to the office.

 

■

 

A month passed in the blink of an eye. The craftsmen mass produced the lord-certified weights, rulers, and containers I had requested from the merchant union at a mind-boggling pace. Malida’s verdict then decided that those new measurement tools would be officially used for business deals in the Barony starting with next year.

Union Leader Reinbell, who was deeply trusted by the other merchants, personally appealed to his members, saying, 『If you wish to do business that won’t earn you any problems with the Erwin family, buy the weights, rulers, and containers with the official license crest and only use those to measure your goods』. Because of that, the residents, who knew about the Erwin family’s ferocity, quickly switched over to the new measurement tools.

Within the Barony the switch appeared to proceed at a pace I hadn’t expected, but the trade dealers were the actual problem. Because they transported goods from other nations and fiefs, they didn’t seem overly welcoming to the new measurement tools.

However, I considered this issue to require a different type of measure anyway. Still, now I’ve at least got a rough idea what I must do at the very minimum as quickly as possible.

Also, personnel! I want a lot more personnel! Where can I find a bunch of good personnel!?

I closed the book in front of me, leaned back on my chair, and stretched myself.

 

 

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