“I-I have committed a crime worthy of death! Your Highness!”
His face was already a mess of cold sweat.
It was understandable.
The moment this was handed over to royal law,
it would not have been strange if his head flew.
&
Before long, Baron burst into laughter as he looked at Viscount Doren Halsen kneeling on the ground.
“Hahaha! Get up, get up. That’s enough. There’s no need to go so far as royal law. You’ve still worked hard managing this place all this time. How could we not know your efforts?”
“Th-thank you. Truly... truly, thank you.”
Baron patted Doren’s back, which was soaked in tears and snot.
“Good. Then I suppose you don’t need to explain any further why you won’t be receiving the levy?”
“O-of course! Of course not!”
Doren bowed repeatedly.
Then he flinched again at Baron’s next words.
“But if that side decides to hand this over to royal law, even I won’t be able to do anything.”
Doren’s eyes trembled uneasily.
Soon, his gaze darted around, and he hurriedly turned toward Father.
“I-I apologize, Count Drevan. I must have been possessed by something for a moment.”
“...”
“Please, please forgive me.”
Father looked down at him for a moment, then looked back at Baron.
Baron, the corners of his mouth raised, made a gesture as if telling him to handle it as he pleased.
Father slowly nodded and looked at him.
“It’s all right. If you’ve managed it for three generations, you may not have known.”
“To be so broad-minded... Th-thank you! Then, as for royal law...”
“His Highness has already forgiven you. What more could I possibly say?”
At those words, Doren’s face relaxed at once.
“H-hahaha. As expected, the Signal family is truly a prestigious house, just as the rumors say.”
Suddenly, our family had become a prestigious house.
At Doren’s flattery, Father smiled gently.
“It seems you have misunderstood.”
But the words that came out were not what I expected.
“Pardon?”
“I have no intention of saying anything more about royal law.”
Patting his shoulder, Father continued softly.
“However, regarding the damage Brennan Territory suffered because of the territorial war, and since this matter was not based on a just cause, should we not discuss the compensation for that in detail once more?”
At that moment.
To Doren’s eyes, Father’s smile, which had seemed so amiable until just now, must have looked like something completely different.
Cold sweat began to seep out across Doren’s face again, little by little.
Watching the scene, I swallowed a laugh.
As expected, he does it properly.
If it had been me, I would have shoved the evidence in his face first,
and focused only on driving him into a corner.
But Father was different.
He preserved the dignity of the royal family,
did not damage Baron’s authority,
and yet placed the blade precisely before Doren’s throat.
Like this, the man would swallow fear before anger.
And once a man has been frightened like that,
he will never be able to charge in so easily again.
Then.
“I-I only... did it because I was told to...”
Doren muttered in an incredibly small voice.
But I heard it.
And the moment I heard it, my brow furrowed.
Because he was told to?
By whom?
The thought flashed through my mind like lightning,
but just then, my eyes met Baron’s.
He crooked a finger and called me over.
“How is it?”
“Pardon?”
“What you gave me was bigger than I expected. So I came personally to give a little back. Do you like it?”
To say his personal arrival was shocking would not be enough.
“I am very flustered, but... truly, thank you.”
But if I were being honest.
Was that necessary?
It was something we were bound to win anyway.
“Don’t tell me.”
Baron looked at my reaction and chuckled.
“You weren’t thinking this was something you would have won anyway, were you?”
My shoulder flinched for an instant.
Did he read my mind or what?
“No. Of course not.”
“Good. I’d be hurt if you thought that.”
Baron tapped my shoulder and continued.
“Because I came, this ended in an instant. If he had made up his mind, he could have dragged it out for another month. A few days at the very least, no matter how fast it went. If that happened, would winning really be winning? Because I came, he couldn’t even insist otherwise.”
Only then did I understand what he meant.
He was right.
Doren would have kept insisting.
He would have dragged out the time as much as possible,
muddied the waters as much as possible,
and the moment our side grew exhausted, tried to secure even slightly more favorable terms.
The longer it dragged on, the more we lost.
Construction in the territory was stopped,
the people were anxious,
and the guilds and merchant companies would continue watching from the sidelines.
But the moment Baron came personally,
all that delay was cut away at once.
As expected.
He was on a different level.
The breadth of his perspective was different.
“I had not thought that far. As expected of Your Highness.”
“Yes. Time. It’s a very expensive thing.”
Baron was smiling,
but somehow, I felt that was not the only reason, though I could not ask.
To begin with, the very fact that I was standing face-to-face with him like this and exchanging words
was something someone in my original position could never have dared expect.
“Good. If we meet at a party next time, come greet me.”
“It would be an honor. Please return safely.”
Baron turned to leave, then stopped again.
“Ah, right.”
“...”
“Do you have any more interesting stories?”
Those words made my thoughts come to a halt for a moment.
The old dynasty.
Should I tell him?
If I brought up that story,
it would certainly be helpful.
My relationship with Baron could become much closer as well.
Information about the old dynasty would no doubt be of great help to him, a member of the current dynasty.
Then something like this territorial war
might never be used to touch us again.
Father, Mother,
and Risel would be much safer too.
I steeled my heart and opened my mouth.
“Unfortunately, not yet.”
“Is that so?”
Baron tilted his head, seeming slightly disappointed.
“I was looking forward to it, thinking a story from you would be quite interesting. Well, fine. If you come across an interesting story next time, be sure to tell me.”
He patted my shoulder once more and climbed into the carriage.
Watching the procession grow distant, I lowered my head.
Not yet.
There was something I had to confirm.
***
And so, the territorial war ended.
Fortunately,
not a single person on our side died.
That fact alone completely changed the atmosphere of the territory.
“Honey, sob... Thank goodness.”
“I told you not to worry.”
People embraced each other, cried, laughed, and patted one another on the back.
If even one person had died, this atmosphere could never have existed.
In a frontier territory like this, that one person would ultimately have been someone everyone knew.
Someone’s son,
someone’s husband,
someone’s friend.
And so.
The fact that not a single person died was itself a victory.
Of course.
Next time, this kind of result would not happen.
That was why today mattered.
Because we had accomplished it.
We had won,
and we had even received compensation for damages from Halsen.
A full thousand gold.
“You really did tear a lot out of them.”
“I held back while trying to tear out more. Originally, I was even considering taking the management rights for the upstream embankment for a year.”
Father sounded genuinely regretful.
“His Highness came here himself, so I couldn’t drag things out there over compensation. I couldn’t put a blemish on His Highness’s prestige.”
“Still, we gained time.”
“Even so. We received something far greater.”
Father and I looked out the window together.
The territory was still half empty.
Construction had stopped,
and the people who had left had not yet returned.
“It’s not over yet.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“What do you plan to do about the guilds?”
The construction guild.
The various other guilds.
I could understand their position.
They would not have wanted to be caught up in a territorial war.
But separate from understanding them,
we were nobles too.
If we accepted them back as if nothing had happened,
they would remember this incident as our weakness.
A noble must not grow lax.
They would do something similar again next time.
Father spoke with a sigh mixed into his voice.
“I understand the other guilds. But the construction guild...”
“Please leave it to me.”
“Very well. If it is you, you must have something in mind.”
I grinned.
“I’m going to fire them. Those insolent bastards.”
“U-uh, hmm?”
***
I summoned the head of the construction guild and met with him.
The condition was simple.
They would sign a new contract for a lower amount than before.
As expected, he raised a fuss.
“If it’s a territorial war, of course we had no choice but to withdraw!”
“I expected you to say that, so I prepared the contract.”
I unfolded the contract they had personally signed and showed it to him.
“No matter what happens, work will not be halted until completion. These are the words you wrote yourself.”
“A-a territorial war is a separate matter, isn’t it?”
“Do you truly think so?”
At my words, the construction guildmaster’s expression stiffened.
“They did not attack the territory, and even if they had attacked during the territorial war, you know very well that it was not a situation where even you would have been in danger.”
“H-how could we have known that?”
My voice lowered a little further.
“Then why did even the workers who were initially going to stay leave as if they had all made a promise to do so? Even the day laborers hired on short-term contracts.”
The guildmaster’s lips twitched.
“Th-that is because they are all my people, are they not? Even if they were short-term hires, I had to take responsibility for them...”
At that moment.
My expression turned cold.
“No.”
I leaned slightly forward.
“You tried to use this situation to overturn the contract.”
The construction guildmaster’s pupils shook.
“Time was delayed, and we were in a hurry. So, if you forced a new contract, you could make an even greater profit. And if we refused? We would waste more time looking for a new guild. In the end, we would reach out to you again, and when that time came, you would shove an even bigger contract in front of us.”
For an instant, the air in the room froze cold.
After a brief silence, the construction guildmaster let out a sigh and smiled unpleasantly.
“If you know that much, then I don’t think this attitude of yours is wise.”
Since I’m young, he shows his true colors right away.
“Why?”
“You said it yourself, did you not? Look at the state of the territory right now. How long do you think you can last like that? I’m sure the territory residents will be so understanding.”
It was true that if we could not resolve this situation,
the territory residents would have no proper place to sleep and dissatisfaction would explode.
If the migrants all pulled out at once, the territory would truly suffer tremendous damage.
And because he knew that, this man was coming out so strongly.
Instead, I slowly nodded.
“Are you worried about us? How warm-hearted.”
“...”
“I’m quite worried about you all too. It will be hard for you to feed your wives and children from now on.”
“What did you say?”
“Winter is coming soon. It will be rather cold.”
The guildmaster did not fully understand my words, but he understood my intent.
Still wearing a confident expression, he stood up.
“Then I’ll wait for you to contact me again.”
After he left, I leaned back in my chair.
As Father said, I had no intention of touching the merchant guilds.
They were people who moved by nature.
If a territorial war broke out, it was natural for them to pull out.
Their contracts were different too.
As for the construction guild, if they had not tried such a trick in the first place,
I had intended to let it pass.
However.
This incident had actually turned out well.
I smiled slowly.
“I was originally wondering how I should use it.”
I took something out from my chest.
A card I had intended to use to ask for help if I were pushed into a crisis.
But seeing that I had not been able to use it properly this time made me realize something.
Use it when you can.
***
When the construction guild withdrew completely along with their belongings,
the mood in the village could not help but grow unsettled.
“No, if the construction guild leaves, what’re we supposed to do?”
“That’s what I’m saying. We don’t even have places to sleep right now. This is maddening. How long are we all supposed to sleep together in that temporary lodging?”
As complaints burst out here and there, one territory resident spoke.
“I heard the young master drove ’em out? I heard those bastards cursing him. Saying some young brat this and that. That he’d regret it.”
At those words, it grew quiet for a moment.
And then.
The atmosphere flipped in an instant.
“Those damn bastards. What? Young?”
“If the young master drove ’em out, there must’ve been a reason.”
“Must’ve been sons of bitches.”
“Honestly, I didn’t like the way they were putting up the buildings either. They were doing everything half-assed. When I nagged ’em a bit from the side, they said they knew better or whatever.”
One old man even spat and muttered.
“I’ve been building and fixing houses for over forty years, you bastards.”
The trust the territory residents held toward Reion had already reached its peak,
and that trust was shining precisely in moments like this.
Even after several days passed, they showed no dissatisfaction at all and silently did their work.
A few days later.
A rather large procession entered Brennan Territory.
The number and size of the carriages were different from the start.
And on the sides of the carriages was the clear image of a house.
“Then let us sign the contract on these terms.”
“A-are you truly all right with these conditions?”
“Hahaha! Of course. In fact, it is an honor.”
He belonged to one of the three great construction guilds.
Love House.
A guild that had rapidly grown long ago after signing a contract with the Deharmont family.
Even now, it was a major force that effectively moved under Deharmont.
The card I had received from Serafinlie,
I used it here.
If I was going to renovate the territory anyway, I wanted to do it properly.
“Thank you. Our Team Three will do our utmost in this Brennan Territory, with the mindset that we are building the homes we ourselves will live in.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
And once they began to move,
the territory started changing again in an instant.
The very first thing they did was almost funny.
They destroyed, without the slightest hesitation, every framework that had already been erected.
I was dazed for a moment at the sight,
but what was truly astonishing came afterward.
In just a few days, frameworks at the same level as before rose again.
And on top of them.
Buildings began to rise at an unbelievable speed.
The territory residents and migrants simply watched in admiration.
And there was another gaze watching it as well.
The gaze of the former construction guildmaster, watching from far in the distance.
The mark of the Love House construction guild.
The moment he saw it, his eyes widened as far as they possibly could.
After that day, no one ever saw that construction guild again.