Ch.175Territory (1)

“No way…!”

Louis, the heir to the Vermand Duchy, sighs as he reads the report.

All the information he gathered with his father’s cooperation and the full resources of his family points to a single conclusion.

Ellen entered the royal palace of her own volition.

“That’s impossible… She’s far too intelligent to accept such a fate as becoming a concubine…!”

Louis’s judgment is entirely correct.

The practice of concubinage has been forbidden for over a thousand years—it can’t even be called a relic of the past, but rather a barbaric custom.

In the current era, making a woman a concubine is an insult worse than enslaving her.

Even the most ignorant country girl would immediately glare and become furious if told, “Become my concubine.”

And yet, someone as intelligent as Ellen?

“…Young master.”

“She’s not even the first concubine—there are already two others before her.”

A man who has broken the taboo of devoting himself to one woman for life and is thus destined for hell after death, yet he still desires more than three women?

Is such a person… truly human?

“There must be circumstances we don’t know about, there must be.”

Louis cannot believe the contents of the report.

It claims Ellen had harbored feelings for the king for some time, that she begged to become his concubine even if that was all she could be, and that the king, who lusts after women, accepted her request and made a place for her in the palace.

While the latter is believable enough, the former is utterly nonsensical no matter how he considers it.

Harbored feelings? Begged to be a concubine?

The woman who rejected the courtship of every man, even himself?

This clearly means there are hidden circumstances they haven’t uncovered.

Yes, the king must have found Ellen’s weakness and manipulated her—

“You should give up, young master.”

“What?”

“Now that Lady Ellen has become the king’s concubine, any possibility of saving her has vanished. The Duke is looking for a suitable match for you, as you’ve reached marriageable age. You should set your heart at ease.”

“…What are you saying?”

“There are princesses whose status wouldn’t be inferior even compared to Lady Ellen, who received her surname directly from the king. Unlike Lady Ellen who has no background, these daughters of great lords would be fitting for the Vermand Duchy—”

“Enough!”

Louis cuts off his servant’s words with a shout.

Though the servant’s words are fundamentally reasonable even to his ears, emotions cannot be ignored.

To give up on Ellen for such reasons is unthinkable.

Love cannot be governed by reason alone—that’s why it’s called love.

“The Vermand I will inherit is not so weak that it needs the power of another lord. Such marriages can easily—”

“She has been defiled.”

“—What?”

This time, Louis’s words are cut short.

For a servant to interrupt his master is an unthinkably disrespectful and shameless act, but Louis is too shocked to point this out.

“It must be terrible to hear, but it’s clear that Lady Ellen has already had relations with the king. As a servant devoted to House Vermand, I must prevent you from forming a relationship with such a woman.”

“You… you…!”

Louis glares at the servant before him with murderous intent, but can do nothing more.

His body is paralyzed with rage, disrupting the nerves that control his muscles.

Defiled?

How dare he say such a thing about Ellen?

Flowers naturally grow from soil—would you point fingers at a flower for having soil on it, calling it dirty?

“Above all, marriage to a defiled woman would also displease the Duke—”

“How dare you!!”

*Thwack!!*

Unable to contain himself any longer, Louis’s fist connects with the servant’s jaw, cutting off his words.

But that’s all.

Despite the sudden violence, the servant seems to have anticipated this reaction. Even after being struck in the jaw, he maintains his posture, causing Louis to flinch slightly and stop.

“…Get out.”

“I hope you will come to your senses, young master.”

After several seconds of silence, Louis barely manages to order the servant to leave. Only then does the servant bow his head and depart.

Louis knows.

Having been raised as a nobleman and taught the proper mindset since childhood, he cannot deny it.

Ellen has lost her light.

Marrying a woman who has lost her purity is unthinkable—something only commoners would do… That’s what Louis has been taught and has felt from countless sources.

“…”

In this moment, paradoxically, Louis feels intense resentment toward Ellen.

She rejected all men’s courtship, even his own, yet she willingly accepted the king’s vile touch, even if she was coerced.

If she had accepted me first, none of this would have happened.

How dare she, with her lowly origins— Ugh?!

“Gah… No, that’s not right.”

*BANG!!*

Realizing his thoughts are taking a disturbing turn, Louis startles himself and cuts off his train of thought, going so far as to slam his head against the wall.

The sound and vibration of his head hitting the wall surely reaches the servant outside the door, but the servant pretends not to notice, closing his eyes and taking no action.

“Haaaaah…”

A moment later, Louis raises his head with a deep sigh.

Blood flows from his forehead, but he pays it no mind.

His eyes show determination, but they are terribly clouded.

“Ellen.”

No matter how defiled you are, it doesn’t matter.

Just be by my side in the end.

……….

Recently, there had been a headache-inducing trend of rural children continually moving to the cities.

Though the number of farmers hadn’t decreased, with so much land still needing cultivation, if this trend continued, agriculture would soon face major disruptions.

However, this concern was resolved in an unexpected way, while simultaneously creating another problem.

“Migration? You say migration?”

“Yes, people from neighboring territories who learned about the abundant land are moving into Your Majesty’s domain.”

Abundant land… That’s correct, both objectively and subjectively.

The royal territories acquired from defeating nobles and conquering Karolin haven’t yet been fully utilized.

Originally, I had planned to relocate farmers’ children there for cultivation, but such a task would take at least a generation to complete. People aren’t rabbits—they can’t just multiply rapidly and become adults in a few years.

Moreover, farmers’ children are all flocking to the nearest cities to earn money, further delaying progress. While farmers lack freedom of movement, their children face no such restrictions, making it somewhat awkward to address the issue.

I could issue a decree forcing these children to stay and farm the land, but with workshops and manufacturing springing up throughout the cities, such an action would create labor shortages in urban areas.

‘…Tsk, I shouldn’t have turned away those refugees from the Imperial civil war.’

At that time, I didn’t want the hassle of accepting many refugees at once, so I sent them all back except for the educated ones. Looking back now, that was a terrible waste. If I could, I’d like to smack my past self on the head and tell him to keep them by any means necessary.

If I had accepted all those refugees, this migration issue could have been easily resolved.

“Though I can guess the answer, let me ask anyway—how are the vassals reacting?”

“They’re clamoring for the return of their people.”

As expected…

While it might be uncomfortable to call people property, domain residents are clearly the property of their lords.

Naturally, lords would be furious when their property flees to another domain. What’s worse, sending pursuit forces across domain boundaries would be tantamount to declaring war on that domain’s lord, so they can’t even do that.

This reminds me of America during slavery—didn’t they say police couldn’t pursue slaves who fled to free states?

“Honestly, returning them would be the right thing to do according to custom. But right now, my territories are severely underpopulated.”

If I could be certain my vassals would quietly accept it, I’d prefer to let these people settle in my domain. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, we’re facing severe labor shortages in both urban and rural areas.

Sigh… I really should have accepted all those Imperial refugees.

“Your Majesty.”

“Of course, doing so would drive my vassals to the brink of rebellion. So… we need a plausible excuse to convince them.”

LeClerc, thinking I’m about to do something reckless, immediately becomes serious and tries to dissuade me, but then looks confused at my following words.

In pre-modern times, where a lord’s power derives from population size, refusing to return subjects is nearly impossible to justify.

Well, it’s all in how you phrase it, isn’t it?

“LeClerc, think simply. Is there a way to identify which residents have migrated from other domains?”

“…You don’t mean.”

“Yes, I do.”

Even capturing criminals who flee to other places is extremely difficult, which is why we keep them in prisons.

When we can’t properly verify the identity of domain residents, how can we simply say “Yes, take them back” when asked to return them?

What if, due to administrative errors, my own residents were handed over?

Plus, we can’t rule out the possibility that lords might inflate the numbers of illegally migrated residents.

Of course, if I flatly refused to return them using only this reasoning, it would cause a disaster… but this problem can be easily solved with a honeyed carrot.