Ch.345Five Letters

After informing me that all members of the Rose Cross Knights had chosen to stay, Leonore left my room saying she should go spar with Frider.

Apparently, since their skills were similar, fighting each other was quite enjoyable.

Well, it’s not a bad thing that they get along.

Their skills will gradually improve as they continue to spar.

After she left, I opened the five letters placed on the table one by one.

First, the letter from Nigel.

——–

Lord Haschal,

Recently, I heard news about the northern battle.

Tales of your heroic deed of personally pursuing and slaughtering Rurik, the king of the Werebeasts, all the way to the northern wall have reached us here.

I can only hope that you haven’t sustained any serious injuries.

After all, you’ve always suffered major wounds whenever you’ve fought in fierce battles.

(Omitted)

…Landenburg is currently expanding its forces and dedicating itself to daily training in preparation for war.

Strangely, there are no signs yet of the eastern forces launching an invasion, but we cannot afford to let our guard down.

Therefore, all of Landenburg’s Swords, including myself, are currently gathered at the main castle. Every day is filled with continuous sparring.

I can feel our spear tips becoming sharper with each practice battle we engage in.

(Omitted)

By the way, the Lord mentioned that he would publicly announce you as Landenburg’s successor.

Some seniors showed surprise, but there wasn’t much opposition.

I strongly supported it as well.

I believe that the Lord Haschal I’ve come to know will firmly protect Landenburg.

Well then, I look forward to the day we meet again.

——–

Nigel’s letter was more like a simple greeting without any particularly special content.

Except for the fact that my position as the presumptive heir to the Margrave had been decided to be announced.

Perhaps he judged that the time had come?

In the past, it might have been difficult to announce due to issues like animosity toward Ka’har or my notorious reputation, but now I’m a hero whose fame has spread throughout the Empire.

A hero… personally, I find it a somewhat embarrassing expression, but… that’s just how the setting is, so what can I do?

—-

The next letter I read was from Ophelia.

She still wrote only her initials, O.S., instead of her full name.

This one didn’t have much content either.

She said she had been cleared of the charges of massacring the Count of Sigmillus family and the false accusation of being a witch… but the family mansion had already burned down completely, and with the family fortune having disappeared somewhere, all that remained was the name.

Even the territory had already become the property of another noble, so reclaiming it would require going through complicated legal disputes.

She had essentially become penniless… but since she had become a high-level mage, there would be plenty of ways to make money, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

She could just join a magic tower or become an exclusive mage for other lords.

…Now that things have turned out this way, wouldn’t it be perfect to hire Ophelia as House Median’s exclusive mage?

When I return to the mainland this time, I’ll finally be granted a territory. Not the northern territory given by the Duke of Faelrun as a reward, but a territory in the Empire’s mainland.

They won’t leave me as a noble without territory forever.

Then I’ll have a steady income… and since I don’t have many places to spend money, I could invest the collected taxes in operating the knights or Ophelia’s research.

I should suggest it to her later.

—-

Leopold’s envelope was lavishly decorated to the point of extravagance, befitting the Emperor’s personal letter. The letter paper was the same.

I took out the letter and read it.

From the first sentence, it was an excessively verbose letter adorned with all kinds of flowery phrases, but the main point was exactly what I had expected.

He commended me for ending the civil war, killing the witch, and subjugating the Winter Wolf, saying he had prepared sufficient rewards and asked me to return to the mainland when my physical condition allowed.

The matter of granting me the title of Marquis had been temporarily put on hold because Lord Wien and some nobles had expressed concerns.

They pointed out that I was too young and that an unusually rapid promotion could disrupt the Empire’s title system.

Of course, that didn’t mean the title of Marquis had been completely taken away.

Since it was the Duke of Faelrun’s proposal, the Empire’s nobles couldn’t completely ignore it either.

Therefore, Leopold suggested a kind of compromise.

If my age was an issue for granting the title of Marquis, the idea was to grant the title to my family first, rather than to me personally.

…Is this more of a loophole than a compromise?

In short, he would grant the title of Marquis to the deceased Imelia de Median, officially recognizing House Median as a marquessate.

My inheritance of House Median’s title would be postponed for about two years.

Hersella was extremely pleased with this rather than me. What a filial daughter.

Thus, I became both the heir to the Marquis of Median and the heir to the Margrave of Landenburg.

Growth that would be unimaginable to achieve in just a few months.

It was as if the aristocratic notion that values bloodline and the game world setting that values power had simultaneously given me wings.

Personally, I wondered what the point was in holding both titles since they were both marquessates, but apparently there was meaning to it. In terms of territory, not position.

Not only would I have the Landenburg domain, but I would also be separately granted territory befitting the Marquis of Median.

As a result, I would eventually have nearly twice as much territory as other marquises.

In fact, Leopold’s personal letter stated that the entire existing Barony of Median and the surrounding nobles’ territories would be assigned to House Median.

Since the nobles surrounding the Barony of Median were all part of Isabella’s faction, it was easy to remove them all and take away their territories to hand over to me.

Although it didn’t quite feel real yet, with this, I had become a great lord in name and reality.

Of course, since I knew absolutely nothing about territory management, no matter how vast my territory became, I would end up entrusting the operation and management to proxies and just collecting the profits.

Besides the territory and title, there was much more I would receive.

Things like the grand mansion in the mainland that had belonged to Isabella, and reward money that would be more than enough to pay off all my debts and have plenty left over.

Judging by the amount, I wouldn’t have to worry about money problems in the future.

Considering that until recently I had been struggling with a few dozen gold, this was truly fortunate.

—-

Below that were details about the rapidly changing international situation.

Panam and Dane were showing suspicious movements, the Holy State was continuously urging the dissolution of the Grand Diocese, and… Alvheim was invading Himmel and engaging in fierce battles.

I couldn’t help but take out a Mana Herb and light it at the sigh-inducing news.

Anxiety mixed like clouds in my exhaled breath.

…Why are these bastards fighting among themselves when they should be preparing for monsters?

I couldn’t consider it fortunate that they were attacking Himmel instead of the Empire’s mainland.

The Dwarves were generally cooperative with humanity, and the ambitions of the elves wouldn’t end with attacking the Dwarves.

If they succeeded in occupying Himmel, what would happen next was obvious.

They would either kill all the Dwarves or enslave them, and then they would attack the Empire.

In the original work, they had attempted to do this but failed due to an unexpected incident where the Great Forest burned down, but there was no guarantee that the same thing would happen in reality. After all, Rurik’s great invasion had never occurred in the original work either.

…I don’t know. It’s a problem that won’t be solved no matter how much I think about it.

If the Dwarves and elves have started fighting, it’s not something that can be resolved by me going there alone.

For now, watching seems to be the best option.

Given the nature of the elves, even if I argued that this is not the time to fight each other because much stronger monsters will appear in the future, they wouldn’t believe me anyway.

—-

Lacy’s letter was full of praise for the northern victory in the first part, but from the middle, it was filled with her characteristic malice toward other races.

She said she wanted to go see Rurik’s taxidermy someday, and that she had ordered research on how to deliciously cook Werebeast meat… things like that.

Has the rumor that Frider is taxidermying Rurik already spread to the mainland? It seems the princess’s secret hobby is no longer secret.

Surely such things won’t become trendy…?

Besides, how to deliciously cook Werebeast meat? Is she seriously planning to use it as food?

I wouldn’t have touched it myself if it hadn’t been an extremely urgent situation.

Skinning them to make clothes, taxidermying them for decoration, and now cooking their meat for food…

…Now I’m not sure anymore.

Whether Werebeasts are the more terrifying race, or humans are.

There was also a comment about the battle between Dwarves and elves.

She said that Dwarves were at least better than elves, so she hoped they would fight each other to the brink of extinction and that the Dwarves would win.

…It was so like her that I had nothing to say.

The latter part was about the Holy State.

Their opposition to the establishment of the Grand Diocese organization had gone too far, and they were refusing to cooperate with the Empire despite the growing threat of other races.

Having lost the 1st and 2nd Legions, the Empire now needed the cooperation of the churches more desperately than ever before.

Because of this, Lacy said she planned to return to the Holy State in person later.

She would appreciate it if I could accompany her, saying that even though it was her homeland, she couldn’t be completely at ease given the suspicion that there was a connection between Isabella and the Holy State.

The Holy State…

Yes, I should visit there sometime.

—-

Ludwig’s letter, which I opened last, contained only a brief and straightforward message, befitting the Margrave’s character.

———

I assume you’ve heard about the news of Landenburg from Sir Nigel, so I’ll omit that.

The reason I’m still sending this letter is to convey confidential information that Sir Nigel doesn’t know.

A few days ago, a large Champion from the east came to the Wall requesting asylum.

Jahan. He claims to have been a warrior in your personal guard, is this true?

(Omitted)

Since a Champion’s defection is no ordinary matter, currently only a few people in Landenburg know about this.

He says he has news that must be delivered to you… but I haven’t heard what it is. He says he won’t talk until you arrive.

So I’ve placed him under house arrest for now. Please come as soon as possible.

———

…And just like that, I had a reason to head to Landenburg.