“Hehe. Please need me as much as you want.”
It was, as expected, bewildering,
but building a good relationship with the Pimale family was certainly not a bad thing.
Above all, Angelina was someone who would play a major role within the Pimale family in the future as well.
So this relationship, right now,
was precious in many ways.
&
The next day.
“What on earth is he doing, wandering around like this?”
I was roaming here and there in search of Miles.
And after quite some time, I finally found him.
He was sitting on the terrace of some cafe.
He was in plain clothes, not his usual half-mail.
With his hair swept back, he was unnecessarily overflowing with masculinity,
and the woman sitting across from him was gazing at Miles with tender eyes.
Just then, Miles’s eyes met mine.
When I raised a hand, he calmly nodded.
Then he lightly kissed the woman sitting before him and rose from his seat.
Even as he left, the woman looked at Miles with eyes dripping with regret.
And yet Miles merely tossed her a wink, turned away without the slightest lingering attachment, and came over to me.
“Looks like you had fun.”
“They were the best days of my life.”
“Is she a noble?”
“She’s a professor at the academy.”
“...”
Impressive.
Academy professors were usually as fussy as they came.
And the professors here, if anything, were even worse, not better.
“Once I showed her what a man truly is, she said she wanted to marry me. Heh heh.”
“So?”
“I told her that this memory of ours should be preserved forever in the beautiful memories shared by you and me. And that if one day I ever wished to take out that memory again, I would come find her then.”
I frowned.
“That’s way too greasy.”
“Haha! It may sound greasy to men, but not to women. The language is different, you see.”
“If someone saw you, they’d think you were a knight of romance, not a knight.”
At my words, Miles rested his chin on his hand.
“Oh, that’s not bad. Should I take this chance to quit being a knight and pioneer a new profession as a knight of romance?”
I laughed in disbelief and shook my head.
And just as I was about to get into the carriage—
“Rayon!”
When I turned my head, Angelina was running toward me from afar.
“Lady Angelina. What brings you here?”
“Haa, haa... W-well...”
After hesitating for a moment, she finally caught her breath and spoke.
“Do you have to go?”
“Pardon?”
“A-ah, no. Of course... that wouldn’t be possible.”
She bit her lip slightly and added weakly,
“Mr. Rayon is... not a book, after all.”
What does that mean?
But the look in her eyes as she gazed at me was a little strange.
“Lady Angelina.”
“Yes?”
“If you want to see me, come anytime. You’ll be welcome.”
Part of it was gratitude for all the effort she had put in for me over the past few days,
and I also didn’t want to coldly send off someone who was showing that much regret.
“...”
In that instant, Angelina’s eyes briefly
took on another light.
What is that in her pupils?
Hearts?
For a moment, it felt as though I was seeing things.
“Yes!”
She adjusted her glasses and smiled so brightly that, even so, she looked beautiful.
She must have been sad to see me go.
After all, people who would listen to her stories as much as I did weren’t common.
She had been able to talk to her heart’s content for the first time in a while.
Even after the carriage departed, Angelina remained standing there, waving her hand.
And Miles, who was riding alongside us on horseback, let out a chuckle.
“I think the knight of romance should be you, not me, Young Master. Young Master of Romance? Does that sound weird?”
“She’s someone who didn’t have anyone to talk to. She must have enjoyed being able to chatter away excitedly for the first time in ages.”
Miles clicked his tongue.
“I’d like to learn it. How to make a person come running after you like that, all desperate. No matter what kind of effort I put in, I’ve never gotten eyes like that.”
“I told you, she wasn’t desperate.”
“Nope. She was.”
Miles smiled leisurely.
“You should’ve stayed just a few more days. She would’ve followed you all the way home.”
I gave a small laugh.
“As if.”
“When it comes to reading a woman’s state, I’m accurate.”
I’m sure you are.
I closed my eyes without answering further.
“By the way, where are we going? This isn’t the direction of the Brennan Estate.”
“The capital.”
“To the capital?”
Miles didn’t ask anything more,
and I didn’t bother explaining.
Perhaps because I had spent days staring at books, my mind was more exhausted than I had expected.
It was better to get a little sleep on the way.
***
As soon as we arrived in the capital, I moved right away.
I hadn’t come to play.
I was only stopping by briefly, so I had no intention of wasting time.
The place I went to was a tavern,
and though it was the middle of the day, the inside was already quite noisy.
The smell of liquor, sweat,
and iron filings was all mixed together,
and the sounds of tables being struck and shouts rang out from here and there.
However,
the conversations here had a different nature from those in other taverns.
“I’m telling you, that’s not it. You have to turn it this way there for it to roll!”
“Don’t make me laugh. Wanna bet? Huh? Bet on it!”
“Fine. You’re buying beer this week, you bastard!”
“You’re on, you bastard!”
Curses and shouting flew everywhere,
but the subjects of their arguments were all machines and structures, assembly and design.
This was a tavern frequented by engineers.
A place where people who had crawled up from every region, hoping to register even a single patent, gathered.
In effect, it was no different from a hideout for the capital’s engineers.
And there was an engineer here I absolutely wanted to find.
In the distant future,
a person who would develop a farming tool that would make rice farming far easier.
With that one tool, yields would rise even more,
and the time required would be greatly reduced.
Saving time meant that labor could be redirected elsewhere.
I had to find him.
Of course, there was no way he had completed that technology right now.
In the first place, even in my previous life, that invention had only appeared after rice farming had spread widely.
But if I found the person in advance,
and secured that talent?
I might be able to bring that time forward.
There was just one problem.
I didn’t know who it was.
So I decided to use the method I had thought of beforehand.
I went to the bulletin board in one corner of the tavern and posted a sheet of paper.
[The Signal Estate is Hiring Engineers]
Most engineers were poor.
Even while living hand to mouth each day,
they gritted their teeth, dreaming that someday they would release an item bearing their name into the world.
But there was no way that would be easy.
Countless engineers collapsed without even being able to afford living expenses,
let alone secure a patent.
There were more than a few who returned to their hometowns in failure.
I knew the value of technology better than anyone.
In the end, it was people like them who changed the world.
One new tool,
one new structure,
one idea that seemed useless could change an estate,
change a battlefield,
and ultimately shake an entire era.
And yet why did nobles look down on them?
I simply couldn’t understand it.
“Hey, what’s this? They’re hiring us engineers?”
“Is this for real?”
“Look at the terms! Support for development costs, meals provided, workspace provided, and even a monthly salary?”
With a single notice posted on the bulletin board, the inside of the tavern quickly began to stir.
Everyone crowded over and read the terms,
and expectation appeared in their eyes before suspicion did.
“I’ll do it! I’m in!”
“Hey, aren’t these terms insane?”
But that expectation did not last long.
Because someone read the line at the bottom.
“Wait. Completed technologies are... jointly owned with the Signal family?”
“Ha.”
“Share my child with someone else?”
“Crazy. Absolutely not.”
“They had me excited for nothing.”
To engineers, completed technology was not merely an object.
It was their child.
Most of them were poor,
shabby,
and reeked of alcohol,
but at least when it came to pride in their own technology, they were no less than nobles.
That was why, despite seeing such good terms,
quite a few of them turned away without a second thought.
But not everyone could do that.
“Damn it... I’m already broke as it is.”
“If I go back, I’ll end up farming anyway.”
“If I fail again this time, it’s over...”
Poverty.
In the end, that was what held people back.
I wrote the name of the inn where I was staying beneath the notice.
Those who would come would come.
The number of people I needed was five.
That much would be enough.
I returned to the inn, rested my body for a while, and thought about the next matter.
Recently, another territorial war had broken out.
The one fortunate thing was that,
perhaps because I had placed the gold mine in Baron’s hands, the number of territorial wars igniting right away had certainly decreased compared to my previous life.
But that was not the end.
It wasn’t that the embers had decreased,
only that they had been delayed for a while.
What was suppressed would eventually burst at least once.
I had been about to rest for a short while and think about what lay ahead until the engineers came.
Bang, bang.
The sound of knocking rang out.
“The Signal family! Are you here!?”
When I opened the door and stepped out,
there were no fewer than ten people waiting in the corridor.
I had thought one or two would come per day.
From the very start, there were far more than I expected.
So I had no choice but to hear them out one by one in order.
Since I intended to move as soon as I had five people I liked,
I first took simple documents from them.
I always highly value people who are the first to show courage.
Because I am someone without courage, I know.
How difficult it is to be the first to raise your hand.
So my first criterion was courage.
The second, surprisingly, was not technical level, but desperation.
I had no need for bastards who would simply take the money and hang around halfheartedly.
Naturally, I had also set conditions.
They had to show results at least once a year, no matter what.
And those results had to convince me.
So I absolutely had to filter out anyone who intended to make something merely usable and eat up maintenance costs.
Of course, there were plenty of people like that.
“Ah~ I really am good. If you use me, I’ll make something incredible. I’m telling you, your estate will get rich right away.”
“Then why haven’t you made it until now?”
“Well, that’s because~ I don’t have money, money~”
I slowly swept back my hair.
“Haa.”
I was a noble.
The other side was a commoner.
Since they were engineers and could work with me, I had intended, for the time being, to treat them accordingly.
But I had no intention of accepting someone who did not even have basic manners.
The moment my gaze and atmosphere changed,
the engineer flinched and straightened his posture.
“Get out.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
I had seen many people.
Even if I had not dealt with them directly,
I had observed countless humans while staying by Eileen’s side.
Thanks to that, at the very least, my eye for people was not particularly bad.
In particular, the ones I marked first were those who had families to support.
They were different.
People who possessed the desperation to endure no matter what
could accomplish far more than one might think.
And there was one final criterion.
What sort of technology did they possess?
I deliberately chose only two types.
Architectural engineers,
and siege engineers.
The reason I narrowed it down to two branches on purpose was simple.
If I chose five people from various fields, it might look good for the moment,
but there was a high chance I would be unable to handle the costs.
Each of them would likely want different materials.
Above all, what Brennan needed most right now was not household goods, but defensive strength.
There was no telling when a territorial war would break out.
So I had to make it so no one would dare think lightly of attacking Brennan.
Like that, I finished signing contracts with five people,
and I was about to move immediately.
That was when it happened.
“W-wait a moment! Hah, hah!”
Someone came running in a hurry.
He was a rather young man.
“Um... has the hiring of engineers perhaps ended?”
“Yes. It has ended.”
“...”
His face visibly stiffened.
But he did not give up and immediately continued speaking.
“Th-then, by any chance, do you not need agricultural technology related to rice cultivation? I saw the notice late... It wasn’t originally technology meant only for rice, but I thought what I was making could be applied in that direction, so I’m telling you.”
In that instant, my eyes widened.
Of course.
Even the tool that had greatly changed rice harvesting in my previous life
had only truly appeared after rice cultivation had spread widely.
In that case, now that cultivation had already begun, there was nothing strange about that engineer’s idea flashing into being.
I was lucky.
Strangely, the flow of events was fitting together very well.
The same went for discovering the pattern.
“Here is the contract.”
At my words, he burst into a relieved laugh, hurriedly signed, gathered his belongings, and moved to board the carriage with us.
The engineers climbed into the rear carriage we had procured, and I got into my own carriage and set off at once.
The Arcadia Estate.
And the capital.
It was time I had barely managed to squeeze out amid a tight schedule,
but the results, at least, were satisfying.
However.
The truly important part began now.
The Belledor Estate.
Ruled by the Belmardian family.
I intended to stop by the Brennan Estate once, drop off the engineers,
and head straight there.
Originally.
That was truly what I had intended to do.
If only a territorial war had not broken out for us.