Ch.270EP.60 – How a Knight Deals with Beasts (6)

“?”

The rosy pink eyes that reminded the old man who once cared for Louise of pink pearls were wide open and blinking repeatedly.

The still incredibly young child seemed to find it extremely difficult to adapt to her changed environment overnight, appearing constantly bewildered.

“Th-this isn’t my room, is it?”

“No, from today, this is indeed Miss Louise’s room. And please don’t speak so formally. Miss Louise is now our master.”

“??”

Just a few days ago, her room wasn’t like this. The walls were made of worn-out planks, and smelly straw from the stable served as both her blanket and bed.

But now…

“Is this really a room? It’s bigger than a courtyard…?”

It was spacious. Incredibly spacious.

It was filled with pink hues similar to the color of the child’s eyes, and besides the lavish decorations, the bed was soft and smelled nice, large enough for a foal to lie down and roll around on.

The floor was equally soft. Much softer than the straw bed.

At this rate, couldn’t she just sleep on the floor instead of that intimidating bed?

She actually did sleep that way, and it felt warm and pleasant, but the next morning…

“Oh my goodness, Miss!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! P-please spare my life!”

“P-please sleep on the bed, please…!”

“????”

Louise had to tilt her head in confusion once again.

However, despite her confusion, Louise obediently followed the maids’ instructions.

‘These sisters are so nice!’

Since it was a request from the maids who would secretly give her soft bread or fresh cherries behind the mean head maid’s back, Louise was happy to comply.

Above all.

‘I like these sisters!’

Louise had always washed with cold water, but now the maids let her bathe in warm water, carefully dried her body with soft, warm towels, gave her warm and sweet cocoa, and even brought cherries and soft bread to put in her mouth.

Louise couldn’t help but like these maids.

Thus, Louise had been experiencing many changes over the past few days.

Getting a magnificent room and having kind maids were certainly changes, but perhaps the biggest change was…

‘All the mean people are gone?’

The mean people.

That is, the men and women who always bullied Louise had disappeared.

The people who made her feel intimidated just by looking at them, who yelled at her and tripped her, were gone.

Louise was happier about their disappearance than anything else.

…Still, she was curious.

Where they had disappeared to.

“Sisters, where did the mean ladies and gentlemen go?”

When she couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked…

“Eeeek!”

“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry! P-please spare me…!!”

“…Don’t mind them. They just have severe trauma.”

“??”

“And those people… Well, they’re being punished by Santa right now. That’s all you need to know.”

“I see!”

Louise immediately understood when she heard the name of her precious ‘friend’.

‘Since Santa is strong, he’s punishing the mean people!’

Since Santa had even punished the mean head maid, it seems he could punish other mean people too!

While Louise was feeling joyful about this…

“Margrave Louise! P-please! J-just once! Please meet with me just once! Forgiveness…! Please forgive me, Y-Your Excellency…!!!”

…Another strange person came today.

Yes, in the past few days, not only had her room and the people around her changed, but one of the things Louise found even stranger was that weird people kept visiting her every day.

Each time they came, they would say things like “Please forgive me!” or “M-mercy!” or “I’ll give you everything I have,” and Louise didn’t understand any of it.

‘Why are these adults asking me for forgiveness?’

They were all people she had never seen before.

These were incomprehensible events to Louise, and such adults were both burdensome and somewhat frightening.

However, the reason Louise could remain unafraid was…

THWACK-!

“Wow!”

Because whenever such burdensome and scary people came, her friend would send them flying far away.

“Santa!”

Louise welcomed her friend and ran straight into his arms, and her friend embraced her affectionately.

“Miss, no, Your Excellency. You shouldn’t run at me like that. It’s dangerous.”

“Hehe, Santa is strong, so it’s okay.”

“Goodness. Being this rough, I wonder if you’ll ever get married, Your Excellency.”

“What’s marriage?”

“Hmm, it’s something that exists. …Looks like there’s a lot to teach you.”

“Huh?”

“…It’s nothing. For now, just play and do what you want. Playing is the best thing for children.”

“Okay!”

Louise responded energetically to his words, and whenever she answered so vigorously, Santa would always pat her head.

And each time, Louise would…

“Hehe!”

It felt warm and cozy.

Even more so than when drinking cocoa.

‘Santa is really like a magician!’

The magician she had seen in the fairy tales her grandfather read to her.

A magician who could create anything and give fantastic gifts.

So…

“Santa is like a magician!”

Louise sincerely expressed these feelings.

But…

“…Where did you learn such an insult?”

“Huh?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

“??”

Santa seemed to have received some kind of massive shock, and seeing her friend like this, Louise could only blink her eyes again, wondering if she had done something wrong.

Innocently.

“-Indeed, noble blood shows. To insult Lord Ihan like that. She’s got a sharp tongue.”

“I don’t think she meant it that way?”

“Then what did she mean?”

“Something that someone like you, who has lost the purity of childhood, wouldn’t understand.”

“Purity of childhood? Hmm… I was pretty much the same as I am now when I was young.”

“……”

The secretary became curious about Simon’s childhood but couldn’t bring herself to ask.

For good reason.

“Secretary! We’re short on manpower!”

“Here too!”

“Please send more personnel, please…!”

“Haah….”

She was too busy to even listen to someone’s story right now.

…The secretary, being an ordinary person, still couldn’t understand why someone who claimed to hunt vampires had conquered Modred and caused this mess.

* * *

One week ago.

What is now called the “Wales Unification War,” a seven-day journey that led to the current situation, happened completely out of the blue.

– …What kind of nonsense is this?

A dispatch from Wales, the territory of Modred known for its isolationist policies, came rushing to Simon, and Simon and the entire guild had to experience about 30 minutes of stupefaction.

[Establish a guild in Wales. We’ll cover all the expenses.]

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the sentence; it just took time to accept its meaning.

That’s how bewildering it was.

But whether they were bewildered or not…

[If you dawdle, I might join hands with the Merchant Union instead.]

Within a day, the Orodo family was annihilated, and when another dispatch arrived, the guild had to forcibly gather its wits.

If nothing else, the guild didn’t want to concede any benefits to the Merchant Union.

– Why would we concede anything to those money-grubbing merchants!

– The only thing those rotten bastards deserve is sewage!

Expanding into Wales.

This was a long-awaited grand enterprise for guilds and merchant unions operating in the south.

Wales was rumored to have abundant natural resources, plentiful food, and a considerable population.

The only problem was that neither the Guild Association nor the Merchant Union had been able to establish roots there due to its closed environment.

So Simon decided to invest, believing in this provocative, or rather gambling-like, dispatch.

If successful, it would be a huge win.

– I’ll bet my life on it!

Simon resolved to gamble with his own life.

Despite strong opposition from other executives, this somehow seemed like a business that would succeed.

With that great determination, Simon hired numerous mercenaries and personnel and headed to Wales, but…

– I’ve taken care of about 30%. As for the remaining 70%… honestly, I’m not sure how to handle it yet, so I’d like your ideas.

– …???

…It seemed like he wasn’t even needed.

He knew that knight was strong.

But conquering Wales, a major noble power, alone was something he couldn’t even imagine.

No, who would think that a mere individual could face a major noble power?

Simon felt like he was dreaming.

– What major noble? They don’t even have direct family members or elite knights. What kind of major noble is that? This is just a cat wearing a tiger’s skin. What’s so difficult about dealing with such people?

– ……

– You know the Crimson Eagles, right? I met them a few days ago, and they’re on a different level now. They’ve even mastered air walking, making them more troublesome to deal with, and they’re incredibly fierce too. If Modred’s elite knights were at that level, I couldn’t have done this.

– …Even if you give an example, how can you use a knight order that’s among the top five in the royal capital as an example?

– ……

That man said it was easy to subdue them because they lacked elites, but no matter what he said, Wales’ forces were by no means weak.

Although they might be called branch families or vassal houses, they had clearly supported Modred for a long time, and their strength was certainly not to be taken lightly.

In other words…

– This person, I need to raise his power level to 8. No, to level 9.

The guild’s power scale ranged from level 1 to 12.

For reference, levels 5 and 6 were only assigned to knight commanders or champions of prestigious families.

But level 9, several steps higher…

‘A level assigned to legendary heroes or monsters.’

…It meant he wasn’t human, and Simon couldn’t help but swallow hard.

It seemed that this knight he had connected with might become an even more incredible person in the future than he had thought.

So…

– Investment means buying at the lowest point.

Simon once again resolved to invest everything he had.

He had a feeling that investing in this person might bring him tens or even hundreds of times the return in the future.

And now.

“…Am I really going to die like this?”

A week after the end of the unification war.

Having had only 4 hours of sleep in the entire week, Simon was on the verge of going insane.

For good reason…

“Mr. Simon, ‘it’ has appeared again!”

“…Again?”

“Yes! This time there are as many as ten witnesses!”

“…Damn it.”

Simon clutched his head.

Investment my ass, I should have just stuck to what I was doing…!!

‘What the hell is with these ghosts?!’

Simon now understood why real estate agents curse constantly when ghosts appear in properties.