The territory simulation game World Archive.
In this game, where you began as a member of the imperial family or a feudal lord, its freedom to do almost anything you could imagine alongside a cast of varied and charming characters made it a global hit, and it became a huge success.
Having liked simulation games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms since I was young, I fell completely in love with it.
While working at my company, I enjoyed the game whenever I could, until I died from overwork and found myself transmigrated into that very game.
……What the hell is this insane situation?
It was true that I liked the game, but I was, in every sense, an ordinary gamer.
I hadn’t written a 100,000-character hate comment like some people,
nor had my playtime surpassed 100,000 hours like some people.
I was just an ordinary gamer, more common than a random pebble on the roadside, who played whenever he had time after getting home from work.
And yet, I died from overwork and transmigrated.
No… isn’t this way too out of nowhere, no matter how you look at it?
In any case, after being thrown into this abrupt transmigration and feeling bewildered for a while,
I adapted to life in another world, grasped the situation, and reached this conclusion.
Mm…… I’m fucked.
* * *
Baron Calix Cron.
That was the character I had transmigrated into.
This character, the young lord of House Cron located at the southern tip of the Novarence Empire, was, in a word, “ordinary.”
His appearance was “ordinary,” his house was “ordinary,” his stats were “ordinary,” and his characterization was “ordinary.”
He did not even have a “Blessing,” a special ability that every named character worth mentioning possessed.
If there was anything special about him, it would be his thick silver hair, which could be called a hereditary trait of his family.
In any case, because he was such an incredibly ordinary character, despite being a young lord and a baron, his presence in the game was practically air itself.
He had even less presence than Baekhasain (the four whose combined stats did not even reach 100), who gained popularity as joke characters because their stats were so low, so that said it all.
Of course, that was not why I despaired.
No matter how small the house was, and no matter how ordinary the character was, it was still one of the houses called pillars of the empire, so I could be considered born with a silver spoon.
From my perspective, someone who had been ground down in my previous life by a Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri workweek, it was an extremely thank-you-very-much situation where I could live the silver-spoon life of my dreams.
The problem was the timing.
The current time I had transmigrated into was Imperial Year 1162.
In a few years, the empire would be engulfed in civil war.
Right now, the empire was divided.
There were various factions, such as the Imperial Princess faction, the Imperial Prince faction, the Northern Grand Duke faction, and so on,
and all the noble houses were either supporting one of them due to their own circumstances or remaining neutral and watching from the sidelines.
This balance would inevitably collapse in a few years.
Depending on the route, the trigger differed slightly, whether it was “the Assassination of the Emperor” or “the Invasion of the Blood Kin.”
But in the end, that incident would occur, the “War for the Throne” over the imperial seat would begin, and the main story of World Archive would start.
And once that war began, the territory of House Cron, where I was, would become the number one target for plundering and get robbed blind.
It could not be helped, because its location was just too perfect for being looted.
With House Cron as the center, there was a house of the Imperial Princess faction to the west and a house of the Imperial Prince faction to the east.
On top of that, our house was currently not supporting either side, so we could not receive protection from any faction.
Moreover, since we bordered the sea, we had built up a level of wealth far beyond what was appropriate for a baronial house through salt.
A house with lots of money, no strength, and politically easy to push around—House Cron had been designed precisely so that players could freely loot it at the start of the game.
Fuck…
When I was playing the game, I had looted it without thinking, but now that I was the person involved, it really felt like shit.
After realizing that if I did nothing, my territory would soon become everyone’s punching bag and get plundered, I shut myself in my room and agonized over it for days.
And one week later, I made my decision.
“Is anyone there!?”
Clatter!
“Yes! My lord!!”
As soon as I shouted, the door opened and a knight who appeared to be a guard entered.
I immediately said to him,
“Call Chief Steward Hart here at once.”
“Yes! Understood.”
I called for Hart, the chief steward who served as my… or more precisely, Lord Calix’s hands and feet in managing the territory.
From now on, I would give him orders as the kind of lord I intended to become.
From this moment on, I would become a “beloved and incompetent lord.”
* * *
For a week, I thought about many things in my room.
At first, I considered using the knowledge I possessed to develop the territory, then attaching myself to either the prince or the princess and receiving protection.
But that was far too dangerous.
World Archive had over 200 endings, and depending on the route, major characters died like crazy.
On top of that, even when it seemed like a particular faction would win, all sorts of events occurred randomly to balance things out, making it impossible to let your guard down until the very end.
No matter how much I, as a transmigrator, used my knowledge to try to make the side I supported the victor, the moment I got hit by an assassination event, my head could go flying just like that.
The next method I considered was the opposite: becoming an evil lord.
The reason the territory was invaded after the main story began was the wealth accumulated by House Cron.
If I became a debauched villainous lord and squandered all that wealth, the value of invading our territory would decrease.
However, after thinking it over, I rejected that as well.
If I spent money like that and indulged in luxury, I would become a bad lord and gain a notorious reputation, while the value of the territory itself, where salt could still be produced, would remain.
In that case, the probability would rise that some other lord would invade to eliminate the evil lord and secure the salt.
I needed a survival-king route where the territory would, if possible, not be invaded at all, and even if it was invaded, I could survive without getting dragged into political strife and live a peaceful life.
For a week, I agonized again and again in my room to find that route, and while gazing at the rising morning sun, seeing a vision of Gigachad, I finally found it.
It was none other than the “beloved and incompetent lord” route.
“Lord Calix, did you call for me?”
“You have come, Chief Steward Hart.”
The door to the room opened, and an elderly butler with a kind face and a proud white beard entered.
This man was Hart Ansus, the current chief steward of our house.
If Calix’s memories were correct, he was an old man of seventy this year, a grandfather whose working days were nearly over.
I’m sorry, Grandpa.
I have to survive, so I’m going to have to abuse the elderly a little.
“I apologize for suddenly shutting myself in my room.”
“Not at all. It has only been three months since the previous lord passed away… It is more than understandable.”
Chief Steward Hart was like a grandfather to Calix.
Perhaps he thought I had locked myself in my room for a while because of the shock of my father’s death.
Well, it was true that I had gone into my room because of mental shock, so it was not exactly wrong.
I recalled Calix from memory as best I could and began to act.
“I thought a great deal in that room. About how I should govern the territory after succeeding Father… about how I could improve the lives of the people…”
“I see… sniff! If the previous lord saw Lord Calix thinking of the people like this, he would surely be deeply moved.”
Chief Steward Hart shed tears, touched as though he were looking at a grandson who had grown up splendidly.
Not a bad development.
“That is why, though it is sudden, I want you to carry out my order.”
“Please say anything. I swear on the name of House Ansus that I will become your hands and feet and carry it out.”
Chief Steward Hart’s eyes shone as he prepared to accept my order.
To that Chief Steward Hart, I said the words I had prepared.
“Starting today, double the daily wages of the serfs.”
“…………Lord Calix, it seems my ears have failed me in my old age. Could I ask you to say that once more?”
“Starting today, double the daily wages of every worker who works in the territory’s salt fields.”
At my words, Chief Steward Hart’s expression visibly darkened.
The grandfatherly expression he had worn while looking at his grandson vanished without a trace, and with his eyes, he was saying to me, “Has this bastard gone mad?”
“M-My lord! That cannot be done. If you suddenly raise the workers’ wages, it will put a strain on the house’s finances! And…”
Still, perhaps his sixty years of experience as chief steward had not gone anywhere, because Chief Steward Hart immediately controlled his expression and began speaking to me.
I cut him off with a gesture and said the words I had prepared.
“Chief Steward Hart… do you remember our house motto?”
“From the lowest place…”
“Think of the highest place… Father always told me to think of our house motto when governing the territory.”
With the window at my back, I spoke with the expression of someone carrying deep contemplation.
So that he would believe it was not something I had thought of on impulse, but a decision made after profound consideration.
“Until now, I have never once thought of them. How hard it must be, how much they must suffer, those people in the lowest places.”
“My lord…”
“That is why I want to take care of those in the lowest places first…”
After hearing my words, Chief Steward Hart looked as though he might cry.
It seemed he was moved that the young Calix in his memories had cast off his childishness and, carrying on the will of the previous lord, given an order as a lord.
“My lord, since you have thought so deeply… my own thinking was far too shallow. Please forgive me.”
Chief Steward Hart apologized to me.
Then, after further discussion regarding the detailed compensation, he left the room.
“I will inform them of your words and double all daily wages starting tomorrow.”
“I leave it to you… Chief Steward Hart.”
Chief Steward Hart bowed, closed the door, and left.
Bang.
“…Is he gone?”
Once Chief Steward Hart left, the strength drained from me, and I collapsed into the chair.
When I took off the uncomfortable cloak, I felt a cool breeze blow in.
“Wow! Acting like a proper lord is harder than I thought. Ugh, this is uncomfortable!”
To understand why I suddenly doubled the daily wages while acting like a thoughtful lord, you first had to know my mentor.
The person I was currently taking as my mentor was Liu Shan.
Yes, that Liu Shan, the son of Liu Bei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Liu Shan was an icon of incompetence, but that did not mean he was a tyrant.
Though he himself was incompetent, when capable retainers were around, he listened well and governed decently, and because of that, the people’s evaluation of him was not bad.
After Shu fell, his not-bad popular support and his incompetent abilities combined to earn him the judgment that it was better to keep him alive and use him than to go out of their way to kill him, and he became Duke Anle and lived out his natural lifespan before dying.
To live and die comfortably after enjoying my natural lifespan like Liu Shan!
That was my current goal.
For that, I needed to practice politics that would make the people love me, becoming popular, yet drive the territory to the brink of ruin so that I would be an incompetent lord with no ability, and therefore nothing to worry about.
The order to double daily wages was the first step toward that.
In a single morning, the house’s expenses had doubled.
Surely, before long, this spending would empty the house’s coffers and spread my incompetence throughout the nation.
Of course, the territory could not completely collapse, so if I restored things to normal at an appropriate time, there would be no problem.
Pleased with my perfect plan, I drank the tea the maid had left behind.
It truly was a perfect plan.
- Two months later -
Bang!!!
“My lord!!!”
Two months later, Chief Steward Hart suddenly burst into my office, kicking the door open so hard it seemed about to break.
Barely calming myself from almost unleashing a stream of curses out of shock, I asked Hart,
“What the—! Ahem… Chief Steward Hart? What is the matter? Why have you rushed in so urgently?”
“The… the salt fields!!!”
“The salt fields? Did some kind of accident happen there?”
Starting last week, it had been the salt fields’ harvesting period, and it was certainly a time when an accident could happen.
What on earth had happened for Chief Steward Hart to be this shocked?
What is it? Did a dike burst or something?
“The salt fields’ production has increased by 300%!!”
“…What!!!!!!!?”
At that moment, my perfect plan began to blow apart.
Somethin’… something had begun to happen.