Ch.81This Time, Safely… #1

“Um… I’ve been thinking a lot, and I’d like to follow what the Duke suggested. Would that be alright?”

After spending several days shut away in the guest room, her response in the office was quite unexpected. I had thought she would leave on her own since I left her to act freely without any particular persuasion. From the mention of “the Duke’s suggestion,” I could tell that Helena had done some convincing on her own.

“Of course. That’s most welcome news to me. I look forward to working with you.”

However, I wondered why Helena had taken it upon herself to persuade her. Wanting to know the reason, as soon as Eve left, I turned to Helena who was sitting beside me and asked.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, Eve? Apparently she’s considered eccentric even at the magic tower and gets criticized a lot, but she’s produced results here. And seeing those results made me greedy. I thought it would be good to have her stay with us. Also, since we’re a ducal house, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have our own exclusive mage.”

An exclusive mage.

While it’s uncommon for people to invite mages as guests to borrow their abilities, it’s not entirely unheard of. It seems perfectly reasonable. However, I strongly felt there was more to it than that.

“That’s not all, is it? What other reasons do you have?”

“I thought it would be too dangerous to let her exercise her abilities elsewhere.”

Dangerous.

I was inwardly surprised at how accurate Helena’s prediction was, but outwardly I tilted my head nonchalantly and asked.

“In what way?”

“The fog that only kills mosquitoes. That means, in other words, it could also be a fog that only kills humans. It seems to require complex formulas, but compared to the advantage of being able to handle a wide area quickly, that’s hardly a drawback.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.”

“Moreover, right now the fog is visible so we can at least see its range, but after some refinement, couldn’t it be made completely transparent? If that happens, one would need to detect suspicious signs through mana flow, but with clear visibility, people might not even realize they’re entering a poisoned area.”

And that would be the end.

Helena stopped there, explaining that this was why she had decided to keep Eve under the duchy’s management.

“So I gave her a subtle hint… Are you angry?”

Suddenly, Helena’s expression drooped, her eyes downcast.

She looked like a child waiting for a parent’s scolding after making a mistake. The feeling of someone who has prepared themselves but still can’t help being afraid.

I had no reason to be angry. Rather, I was surprised that Helena’s perceptiveness remained as sharp as ever. Perhaps anyone might think the same as Helena, but from my position of already knowing Eve’s power, it was inevitable.

That’s right. You never know how things will turn out in this world.

I embraced Helena’s waist, relieved that the three most dangerous women were unintentionally in the same place.

“Not at all. I’m surprised you brought in such talent without saying anything, but just surprised, not angry at all.”

“Really…?”

“Of course. Truly. I’m actually glad to see you still have an eye for people. Especially since you’ve been so busy with other things lately.”

“A-ahem. I have nothing to say about that, but…”

Helena, moving from relief to embarrassment and back to relief, leaned against me.

I firmly supported her incredibly soft body as I tried to focus on paperwork.

If only Ellen wasn’t looking at me with envious, wistful eyes from the wooden sofa meant for guests.

“Ellen. Come over here too.”

“Yes!”

Ellen immediately brought a chair to my right side and sat down.

The feeling of having two soft bodies—Helena and Ellen, equally matched—in my arms brought a sense of satisfaction.

Helena briefly glanced at Ellen, who had suddenly joined us, then sighed softly and turned her gaze to the desk.

Her gesture suggested she was letting it slide just for today.

Working in the office with a woman in each arm.

To anyone, including myself, it looked less like work and more like dallying.

If people from the Iberian Peninsula saw this, all sorts of comments would fly.

In that respect, the fantasy world was quite nice.

Even if rumors spread, they did so relatively slowly.

“Ah… I just realized the King’s birthday is next month already.”

Ellen suddenly muttered to herself while looking at a report about preparing for a royal audience.

The King’s birthday.

I was surprised that the time had already come, and also felt somewhat apologetic.

Though largely ceremonial, it was a time when the King should be the center of attention and enjoying himself more than anyone else, yet he had to deal with troublesome matters.

Of course, it wasn’t intentional, and things had just become strangely complicated, but as one of the causes, I felt a pang of conscience.

“The King’s birthday… It’s already that time.”

“…Indeed.”

Helena flinched at the mention of the birthday.

Though her expression wasn’t clearly visible due to her hair and angle, I could guess what expression she wore and what she was thinking.

She was also one of the people who had dampened what should have been a good occasion.

“I’d like to increase the scale of our gift to include an apology for last year’s unfortunate incident… would that be alright?”

“Yes, I think that would be good. I don’t regret it, but we did cause trouble for His Majesty.”

“Ah… come to think of it, there was a duel last year, wasn’t there?”

Coincidentally, everyone present was involved in that incident.

It was surprising that almost a year had passed since the duel, and it was somewhat bitter to realize how quickly time was flowing.

Perhaps it felt that way because there had been so many hectic events.

“This year should pass without incident, right?”

“I think so. I’m different from back then—now I’m a Grand Duke, though it’s beyond my station.”

“That’s right. I wonder if anyone would dare pick a fight with a Grand Duke in that setting.”

Helena and I took turns answering Ellen’s question.

Unlike before, when I was engaged but still a baron’s son and servant, I was now clearly married to Helena and had become a Grand Duke as a result.

A Grand Duke can stand in for a Duke and ranks between a Duke and a Marquis in status.

When a Duke is absent or in exceptional disasters, the Grand Duke assumes those powers and becomes the acting Duke. That was one of the aristocratic laws of this continent.

In any case, though I couldn’t be certain, I prayed things would pass uneventfully.

I preferred boring predictability to having incidents occur.

“Now, what’s next…”

While processing documents and attaching appropriate instruction notes, a new agenda caught my eye.

It was a request from the soldiers guarding the walls surrounding the duchy to allocate a budget for strengthening defenses.

“Is our territory lacking in defense?”

“Huh? That can’t be. Without being arrogant, the walls are in good condition, and all our soldiers are elites. You know that, Jion.”

Helena’s words were absolutely true.

The soldiers under her management, who also handled knight training, were all elite troops, and as such, they could proudly claim to be the best in the kingdom.

“I know well. Then perhaps they’re trying to prepare in advance?”

“I think that must be it. We haven’t received any other news.”

“They’re really diligent people.”

They were living the saying that to keep peace, one must prepare for war.

It was truly admirable, and not something that would come from people merely doing their duty.

After finishing the remaining paperwork with Helena, I stood up, waving the defense documents in my hand.

Helena looked at me curiously for a moment, then nodded as if understanding.

“Alright. But it’s almost lunchtime, so let’s eat first and then go. Okay?”

◎◎◎

After eating and taking a short break, we headed straight to the military zone set up near the walls.

There were several barracks built with bricks that had a different atmosphere from modern buildings, along with separate structures for armories and food storage.

We visited the southern area among the zones dispersed in the four cardinal directions of the walls.

“Ah, Duke! What brings you here without notice…”

Knight Roland, who was guarding what seemed like an administrative office, welcomed us warmly.

He was both a knight of the duchy and served as an administrative supply officer.

“I came after seeing the documents requesting defense reinforcements.”

“Ah…! So you saw those documents. Our captain thought it would be good to supplement at this point and submitted the report. Although it hasn’t been that long since the walls were repaired…”

Roland trailed off awkwardly.

As he said, it hadn’t been long since the wall repairs were completed, so there was nothing to worry about yet, but I agreed with the idea of checking once.

He just seemed a bit uncomfortable because the Duke himself had come directly.

“There’s no need to be so troubled. It’s not a bad idea to take a walk and inspect the walls while we’re at it.”

When Helena responded casually with a smile, Roland nodded happily.

He seemed relieved to sense Helena’s sincerity.

“Ah, thank you! Then I’ll get horses right away!”

“Please do.”

While Roland ran off to the stables, we left the office and looked around.

Every soldier who made eye contact was flustered by the sudden visit of such high-ranking nobles.

It was similar to a four-star general showing up without notice, so their tension was understandable.

Though I wasn’t sure if it would help, I looked around and made some casual jokes, telling them to continue with their duties comfortably.

Helena also supported my words and made every effort to ease the tension, without mentioning anything about the environment.

For example, if I were to say:

“This place is very clean. It’s nice to see everything so well-maintained.”

They might take it at face value and feel reassured, but conversely, they might wonder if there was some hidden meaning and throw the unit into chaos.

A division commander’s visit would be a good example of that.

Of course, directly pointing out the cleanliness state would make the atmosphere quite unpleasant.

What would happen afterward goes without saying, so I thought it best to be sparing with words.

Perhaps on a normal day it would be different, but today I was visiting as a superior.

“I’ve brought the horses. Shall we go?”

Roland returned with horses, helped by some soldiers.

We mounted the horses and headed out, and as soon as we passed through the southern gate, Helena spurred her horse forward.

Neigh! The horse whinnied loudly and galloped with rough hoofbeats, and we naturally followed behind.

Since she wasn’t just racing ahead recklessly, it seemed she intended to first get a general overview of the wall’s condition.

“Hmm… I don’t see any notable issues with the walls. If we were to nitpick, we could find flaws, but it would be like throwing away a tool just because it’s slightly less shiny than a new one.”

“Yes, I think so too.”

After several hours of reconnaissance, we concluded that there was no need to repair the walls anew.

Roland also seemed to strongly agree, and I thought the same.

Above all, it was natural to trust the conclusion drawn by Helena, who could see things I couldn’t.

“Then perhaps new weapons on the walls… no, that might make maintenance too difficult and they could rust.”

“Yes. Thanks to your consideration, we have no supply problems. Rather, as you said, increasing the quantity would create its own difficulties.”

“Hmm… what should we do then? Since we’ve come all this way, we should come up with at least one plausible solution…”

Helena stroked her chin, deep in thought.

The sun was already setting deeply, with the bright red sunset gradually dying away, suggesting that night would soon fall heavily.

Though there was no danger since we were right in front of the south gate, it was clearly time to head back.

Moreover, since this wasn’t an urgent situation requiring immediate action, it seemed good to think about it more leisurely.

With that in mind, as I was about to place my hand on Helena’s shoulder,

“Oh, right. We’ve just brought a new mage into our territory. Let’s get her help.”

Helena expressed her intention to make good use of Eve.