Having returned to the castle, I was examined and treated by a doctor.
It was my first time feeling my body and stamina recover through a doctor’s healing magic; it was quite a fascinating experience.
Having recovered like that, I…
was scolded by Hart like crazy.
“What would you have done if something terrible had happened!!!!!”
Hart was angry to a degree I had never seen even in Calix’s memories.
Hart shouted as if scolding a grandson who had caused trouble, and both I and the other retainers could only watch, thoroughly intimidated.
“You are the last remaining successor of the Cron family, my Lord. Please, take care of your body. If not for yourself, then for this old man’s sake, please…”
“I’m sorry for worrying you. Grandfather Hart…”
Hart shouted, truly seeming about to cry—no, shouting as he wept.
Feeling sorry, I naturally called Hart “Grandfather,” just as in Calix’s childhood memories.
Well… even I thought I had overdone it.
Swimming through a typhoon while carrying a child on my back… thinking about it again, it was a miracle that I had survived.
How in the world did I make it back alive?
Anyway, because of that incident, I received a thorough health examination and was confined inside the castle for a week.
I received healing magic every day, and my work was limited to simply receiving brief reports from Hart and the other retainers.
And Noah began visiting frequently.
“I’m here, my Lord. Are you feeling better now?”
“I’m fine. I’ve rested so much my back hurts. But Noah… you’ve been coming quite often these days.”
“Of course I must come often. I am your ‘Financial Officer,’ after all.”
Noah had recently become the official Financial Officer of our family.
To be exact, she had become one of the Financial Officers, and there had been Hart’s strong recommendation.
Hart had said, eyes wide open:
“For the future and succession of the Cron family, let us appoint Noah as an official Financial Officer, my Lord.”
With Hart’s overwhelming recommendation, I could only nod my head like a grandson being scolded by his grandfather.
Having become the official Financial Officer, Noah began commuting to the castle as if it were her home every day, truly working hard.
I don’t know if it was just my imagination, but from what I could see, she seemed to work even harder than when she was at the merchant company.
And there was one unresolved question.
…What on earth did he mean by “succession”?
* * *
Noah thought she had a reasonably accurate eye for people.
But this time, she honestly admitted that she had been wrong.
She had thought that Lord Calix would be someone who would bring a new storm to the Empire.
She had thought he was a “slightly unusual lord” whose goal was to expand his own power through policies targeting the common people, something no one else had thought of.
“(I was completely wrong. To think that I considered Lord Calix to be merely that kind of lord…)”
While working at the merchant company, Noah had seen countless lords and imperial family members.
All of them spoke with their mouths of the common people and the territory’s subjects, but none of them truly acted for the sake of the people.
They all only thought of exploiting the people and merchants; not a single one, she swore, practiced benevolent governance truly for the people.
So Noah had given up as well.
She had given up thinking that an ideal ruler was nothing more than a fairy tale.
But on the day the storm came, she saw.
She saw the young lord who had jumped into the water for the sake of his people.
That very appearance was the “ideal ruler” she had dreamed of.
It was the appearance of a “true emperor” who showed that he could lay down his life for the people through actions, not words.
It was an incredibly blasphemous thought, but…
if she were asked who among the people she had seen was most fit to be emperor…
Noah thought that she would answer “Lord Calix” without hesitation.
Having thought that far, Noah’s decision was swift.
If Calix was fit to be emperor, she simply had to make Calix the emperor.
The Empire’s emperor selection was conducted by election.
Not only the descendants of the emperor but also nobles of lord rank who possessed territories all had the right to run for election as well as voting rights. After the emperor’s passing, the imperial family members and lords with voting rights gathered to elect the next emperor.
In other words, Calix, being a lord, could theoretically become emperor as well.
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy as things stood.
The Cron family’s power was still insignificant, and the already prominent candidates—the princes, princesses, and other grand lords—had already built enormous power bases of their own.
But… if she devoted her full strength to helping the Cron family…
Noah was certain that in about five years, the Cron family could become a massive power capable of fighting them.
And so, Noah decided to become Calix’s “Kingmaker,” without anyone knowing.
“Therefore, from now on, I shall serve you with all my heart and soul, Lord Calix.”
“Mmhmm… yes, I look forward to working with you, Financial Officer Noah.”
A week later, when I had returned to my lordly duties, Noah said to me with a smile.
I wasn’t sure what she meant by “therefore,” but since a beautiful girl had said it with a smile, I simply accepted it.
But what was this… it was truly a beautiful smile, yet I got chills.
I had a feeling that very troublesome matters were progressing somewhere I didn’t know about.
Was it just my imagination?
“More importantly, was there nothing out of the ordinary in the territory while I was away?”
“Nothing in particular. The storm recovery is complete, and the farms have all been restored as well. It is thanks to the territory’s subjects who worked tirelessly without rest.”
“Mmm… I see.”
I was happy yet saddened by Hart’s words.
I was glad that the subjects had stepped forward on their own, but the fact that money was beginning to pile up again gave me a headache.
*Sigh*… where am I going to spend that money again?
As I was worrying about that, Hart continued.
“And one problem has arisen.”
“A problem?”
Hart spoke flatly.
At his reaction, I thought it was nothing serious and asked. Then…
“The number of freemen applying to immigrate to our territory has more than tripled.”
“It increased by more than three times!?”
What do you mean nothing happened?! This is a fucking huge deal!!
I had much I wanted to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it to Grandfather Hart, and grasped the situation instead.
What I heard from Hart was a more headache-inducing situation than I had anticipated.
“Into the pitch-black waves, the lord cast himself♬ Racing across the black sea, embracing a small life, breaking through the rough waters♬ He placed the small life back upon the earth!! Ah! The great Silver Dragon of Cron♪!”
I went outside the castle for the first time in a while with Hart and Noah to see the situation firsthand.
Outside the castle, bards were singing everywhere, and people listened along, singing with them.
It was not unusual in this era for bards to sing songs.
The problem was that the songs they sang were ones praising me, and they were spreading to neighboring territories at a crazy speed.
“Recently, songs praising you and our territory have been spreading to neighboring territories through bards in this manner.”
“They’re spreading to the neighboring territories!?”
“Yes, word has it that they have already spread to the Black Rose family in the west.”
Even though I had done a good deed, did songs really spread this fast?
At that moment, my eyes met Noah’s, and she simply grinned.
It was something I always felt, but a beautiful girl’s smile was not good for the heart.
“And freemen are flocking here after hearing those songs?”
“Yes, they are flooding in tremendously.”
I looked toward the castle gate that Hart was looking at.
There, even more people than the time when the merchants had flocked together were gathered, packed to bursting.
“Form a line!!!! Please, form a line!!!!!”
That gatekeeper is having a hard time today as well.
I’ll have to give him a bonus later.
“But if so many freemen immigrate, can we handle it?”
“The thing is…”
If the freemen immigrated like that, there would be more than just one or two things to worry about.
Housing was needed, food was needed, and jobs were needed.
At my words, Hart couldn’t easily answer, as if there were a problem, and Noah, who was beside him, answered.
“If you invest all the profits gained from this tariff reform, my Lord, it is possible.”
Noah answered with a very bright, fresh smile, as if something pleased her.
It was understandable why Hart had such a dark expression.
Having to tell his liege that funds were insufficient and the family’s private wealth needed to be used must have been unbearable for him as a steward.
Of course, to me, it was a very good thing.
I could waste money on the people! Let’s do it right now!!
“Is that really enough?”
“Yes! It is a conclusion reached after calculations with the other Financial Officers. There is no doubt.”
I pretended to give in and tried to accept Noah’s proposal.
But when I truly tried to use the family’s private wealth, Hart shouted in apparent panic.
“But if you support the freemen with my Lord’s private wealth like that, you will soon reach your limit!”
“It is fine. Now that they have come here, they are my subjects as well. If I can support them with my private wealth, I shall do so as much as needed.”
“My Lord…”
At my words, Hart entered a kind-grandfather mode and looked about to shed tears.
Then Noah slipped between Hart and me, speaking with a bright, fresh smile.
“I believe I have a solution to that problem. May I speak of it?”
“What solution do you have, Financial Officer Noah?”
At my words, Noah pointed toward the abandoned land by the sea and spoke.
“The immigrants shall be put to work on land reclamation.”
“Put to work on reclamation?”
Before I knew it, Noah had put on glasses and began explaining to me.
Where did those glasses even come from?
“The Cron territory is vast, but there is not much usable land due to the salt content.”
As Noah said, our territory located on the coast did not have much land suitable for farming.
It was much like the Jiangdong region where the Wu Kingdom of the *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* had been before its development; because of this, food was largely dependent on imports, obtained by trading salt and so on.
“But what if we house the immigrants there and have them reclaim the land?”
Noah spoke of the policy, mixing in terribly difficult words, and the gist of what I heard was as follows:
First, land that would become usable through reclamation but had not been reclaimed until now due to lack of people would be loaned to the immigrants.
Second, when they reclaimed the land, their ownership would be recognized for a set period, and all harvests except taxes would be given to the immigrant reclaimers.
Third, once the immigrants’ lives stabilized, the private wealth invested by the Cron family would be recovered with low interest.
“This way, the Cron family saves on expensive construction costs, the freemen gain land of their own, and my Lord’s private wealth can be saved as well.”
Hearing Noah’s words, Hart nodded as if satisfied, then looked at me and spoke.
“It seems like a good plan, my Lord.”
“Y-yes! It sounds good to me as well.”
To be honest, economics wasn’t my major, so I couldn’t fully understand everything Noah was saying.
But hearing the rough outline, it seemed similar to good policies I had seen in my previous life’s news or YouTube.
And so, I pretended to more or less understand and approved Noah’s proposal.
This was, in the not-too-distant future, not only one of my greatest achievements,
but also the moment Noah’s “Settler Reclamation Policy” began, which would transform the Cron territory into the largest granary district in the south.
“Then let us return now.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“Hah!”
I told Hart, Noah, and Rikaan, who had accompanied me as my escort, that we were going back.
Just as everyone turned their mounts toward the castle to return…
“Kyaaah!!!”
“He-help us!!!!!”
Screams were heard from the end of the immigrants’ procession.