Ch.6969. The Count

The next day, the Hyde family left the Imperial Capital.

“I’ll be going, Erick.”

“I’ll work hard, Count.”

I remained in the Imperial Capital. Today was both the final day of Cordana collection and the day of my title conferment ceremony.

I had essentially sent a father and daughter who had been quietly working as officials to a chaotic county with sudden heavy responsibilities, but I didn’t particularly feel guilty about it.

After all, the Imperial Capital was also a mess.

***

Given the current state of affairs, the title conferment ceremony was conducted in a simplified manner.

“We hereby appoint Erick Wellesley as Count.”

“We grant the taxation rights and military authority over the former Delirose County. We also permit the exercise of judicial rights under the oath to comply with national law. All these authorities are permitted to be inherited by imperial decree.”

“Count Wellesley, receive this imperial decree.”

This was the content read by the Court Minister.

The Emperor, who had noticeably lost weight in the past few months, was looking at me, surrounded by the royal family including the Prince. The influential figures of the Imperial Capital were also present. Despite the grave times, they seemed to think that at least this many should gather to celebrate the birth of a new Count.

Though the prestige had somewhat faded in these days when Counts and Marquises were frantically trading on the exchange, the title of Count was no ordinary position.

“Erick, as you know, some of the Count families in territories far from the Imperial Capital are of royal descent.”

This was what Commander Waynelight, who was looking at me with a strangely proud expression, said as soon as the ceremony ended.

“Yes. I’ve heard that during the conquest wars, royal families who surrendered without resistance lowered their status and were incorporated as nobles.”

“You must not forget that you now bear greater responsibility.”

Though he spoke like this, Commander Waynelight was actually someone who had entrusted his own territory to his younger brother while remaining buried in the knighthood.

Moreover, the Waynelight County was home to the second largest rock salt mine on the continent and produced many other underground resources. It was said that even he didn’t know how much gold was piled in his treasury.

‘Yet this man leaves all that money behind…’

He was content with his not-so-spacious commander’s office.

Despite approaching 60 years of age, he was still actively participating in expeditions. Recently, he had even hunted a dragon turtle that appeared in the east. It was quite an achievement, though overshadowed by Cordana’s overwhelming presence.

A master who amassed tremendous wealth while nobles were screaming in distress, yet spent his time wielding a sword.

Now that I had become a Count myself, I was somewhat envious of him.

The Wellesley County, despite having reduced expenses through restructuring, was not in a comfortable financial situation. It would be fortunate if I didn’t have to spend my own money until the wheat harvest in early summer. Moreover, public sentiment was rather grim.

Of course, as someone who had just become a Count, I shouldn’t be envious of a distant territory, but…

“I wanted to congratulate you on your promotion, so I sent a gift to your territory, Erick.”

“A gift?”

My envy evaporated instantly.

The “gift” from the Commander was naturally salt. He had sent ten cartloads of salt, pure enough to be consumed just by crushing it. And he had done so without even notifying me in advance.

“I was going to send gold coins, but my brother said that would cause gossip.”

“So you sent salt instead.”

I stared blankly at the Commander before belatedly showing proper courtesy.

‘He’s giving it away as casually as if he were pulling turnips from his backyard.’

Since he was giving it, I was grateful to receive it.

Usually when someone gives a large gift, they expect something in return, but Commander Waynelight wanted almost nothing from me. At most, he preferred to call me simply “Erick” instead of “Lord Wellesley” or “Count Wellesley.”

That much was fine. Even Bingo, who had inadvertently become the financial manager of the Count’s family, called me Erick in private.

“Ah, Erick. If you haven’t decided on a marriage partner yet, how about Serina from the Black Iron Knights’ 1st Division?”

“…She’s considerably older than me.”

“But she’s Expert top tier. She has an excellent character too. If you two were to combine…”

I decided to listen this far.

The Commander wasn’t the only one who gave me congratulatory gifts. The Imperial Family, in the name of the Prince, decided to give me a mythril inner armor.

Though light due to the properties of mythril, it had excellent strength and magic resistance.

For Aura users, especially Masters, reliance on armor decreases dramatically, but mythril was a different story.

‘This might save my life at least once.’

It was an excessively expensive item to be bestowed as a favor. Since it was impossible to craft with human skills, it had to be commissioned from dwarves, with whom we rarely interacted.

“This is a small token of appreciation for your efforts, Lord.”

That’s what the Prince said when he had his attendant present the gift. It didn’t seem like he was simply rewarding my efforts; there seemed to be significance in presenting it in the Prince’s name.

‘Salt and treasure.’

In peaceful times, it wouldn’t have been strange to hold a large banquet and even jousting tournaments. Though it may sound like a luxury now, before Cordana spread, the Empire was known to prepare festivals at the slightest pretext.

Of course, the festive atmosphere was brief.

Everyone would offer me congratulations or make obvious statements about the Empire’s bright future, but occasionally they would hesitate and look around cautiously.

Some would frequently summon mages to check if there was any new information.

“…Count Wellesley. Soon now.”

Legal Affairs Minister Lord Necker muttered with a serious expression.

“Yes. I know.”

A prominent Cordana advocate in the Imperial Capital. Lord Necker was known to have suffered such a severe blow that I felt too sorry to ask how much he had lost.

The “soon” he referred to meant the end of the collection period.

Not all investors had participated. Rather than having any lingering attachment to Cordana, they probably didn’t want to come all the way to the Imperial Capital just to salvage a few coins. Perhaps they thought they might die of anger the moment they received a few 100,000 Lyra gold coins.

“Anyway, after today, Cordana will be treated the same as an equal weight of gold.”

The Legal Affairs Minister hesitated momentarily after saying this. He seemed choked up by his own words.

Though I understood his feelings, there was no time now to soothe the regrets of individual investors.

What worried me was the Demon Lord’s army.

Since I had administered the drastic measure of lowering Cordana’s price to 100,000 per piece, the recovery rate had been declining day by day.

In particular, the influx of what were presumed to be counterfeit Cordana, which used to come in large quantities, had decreased and had almost stopped since yesterday.

This was evidence that the Demon Lord’s army was monitoring the developments in the Imperial Capital.

‘Not in real-time though.’

However, they seemed to be assessing and responding at intervals of a day or two.

This meant they had the ability to observe the Imperial Capital, humanity’s core stronghold, in such a short time.

It wasn’t particularly strange. Until now, the Demon Lord had shown little interest in invading humanity, so we hadn’t felt their presence, but the Demon Lord’s army possessed such power. It was said that we had planted collaborators in the Demonic Land several decades ago.

At this point, the Demon Lord’s army could try various methods.

They could frame a lord who had fallen into despair with false accusations of collaborating with the Demon Lord’s army (or actually recruit them), or they could introduce elements that would stimulate speculative psychology. I considered the latter possibility more likely.

‘Or they might combine it with military force.’

One thing was certain: something was coming soon.

Perhaps because of this, a subtle silence fell over the reception room of the Imperial Palace after the ceremony.

Even amid all this, information reports continued to come in from inside and outside the Imperial Capital.

News that the second son of Count Burko, who had caused a disturbance at the exchange on the first day of collection, had suddenly transformed into an adventurer, claiming he would make it big by catching a unicorn.

“Hmm. That family is quite concerning.”

And news that Academy professors were fighting outside the exchange right now. Unfortunately, one of them was someone I knew.

“…I hear Professor Weaver is advising professors who first recommended Cordana investment to him to sell. There are a couple of professors whose reputation among students has deteriorated because they’re clinging to Cordana. He’s been trying to persuade them for days, but they won’t listen at all.”

“Oh dear.”

Finally, news that a minor noble who went bankrupt running a merchant guild had tried to take personal revenge on former Prince Matthias in the Papal State but was stopped.

Each piece of news was concerning and made one worry about the country’s future, but…

There was no sense of the Demon Lord’s army’s involvement.

“The border marquisate is also quiet, they say.”

This meant they weren’t mobilizing large-scale military forces to push down either.

‘If I were a strategist for the Demon Lord’s army, I would never miss this timing.’

Whether the Demon Lord’s army mobilized forces or attempted additional operations, there would be no better opportunity than now.

Of course, they might simply want to watch the Empire spiral into chaos, but the Demon Lord’s army wasn’t just full of voyeurs. There were certainly those who didn’t understand why jingling coins constituted an attack on humanity.

“They might be hoping for us to lose our bearings and flounder. Maintain vigilance, but don’t harm yourselves with excessive worry.”

This was the admonition from the Emperor, who looked more tired than anyone.

…That evening.

I received a report from a messenger who rushed from the Imperial Palace that the Demon Lord’s army had appeared.

There was nothing strange about this, but the problem was the location where they had appeared.

“It is presumed that an island in the Kingdom of Microssia has been ambushed.”

The news was that a small number of high-ranking demons had ambushed a federation of island nations far from not only the Demonic Land but also the Empire, which had essentially been excluded from the war with the Demon Lord’s army.

It was surprising enough that they had gone all the way to such a distant place, but it was said that an extremely powerful figure, presumed to be one of the Tetrad, was also included.

‘…Why there? Did they think we would take a ship to rescue them?’

If they had appeared at the border marquisate, we could have just grabbed our swords and rushed out. I couldn’t understand what their intention was.

The current Demon Lord’s army was indeed strange.

Or perhaps we had made them strange.