Chapter 77

Mightiest Melee Magician

Chapter 77

The medicine for bad guys… is getting hit.

“What are you thinking of doing?”

“If they want to see my face that much, I should go show it to them.”

“No. There’s no need for you to go to them. I’ll handle everything, so leave it to me.”

Considering my father’s personality, he wasn’t someone who could make risky decisions.

The most he would do was send a report to the palace and ask them to do something about this.

However, they wouldn’t pay much attention to the going-ons of territorial disputes that happened in the southernmost part of the kingdom.

We didn’t have power.

We didn’t have money.

We were getting picked on because we didn’t have the ability to handle and resolve these problems ourselves.

But now, it was different.

“Ki trout, grain, and potatoes. These are our main specialties produced in our territory. However, the one who pays the price of these items being undersold isn’t us, but our citizens.”

“……”

“That’s why I’ll go there myself. Three days will be enough for me to return.”

For now, I was just the young master of a territory that came back for their school holiday.

But I would change all of this, no matter what.

* * *

My father’s silent approval was given to me in the afternoon of the next day.

The chief of affairs, Baggins, had brought me a mare and a bag with beef jerky and water.

“I was scolded quite harshly yesterday from the Lord. Asking me why I would bring something like that up when Young Master had just returned.”

“You only did what you needed to do, Baggins.”

“Yes. You’re at the age where you should know everything that would concern you, Young Master. Of course, this is how I think, but it seems the Lord has a different opinion because you’re still a student and shouldn’t have your career impeded by such things.”

“……”

I was now past the age where I could live only watching and doing nice things.

However, a father was also right to worry for their child’s safety.

As I smiled silently, Baggins looked at me for a second and then said,

“Yesterday, you were the one who said the ones who would pay the price as time went on would be the citizens, correct?”

“……Yes?”

“That is not true. Most of the people of the territory don’t know about the situation. The losses we incur at Monzo are all filled back up with the Lord’s own money. Right now, the only one who is losing is the Lord himself.”

My father……

Was burdening all the loss himself?

“So please do not misunderstand the Lord. Going there himself and asking, asking the palace for help with security and surveillance…… Other than declaring war, he really is trying everything he can.”

“……Is that so.”

I felt a little ashamed.

I had never doubted my father before this, but underneath the words I said about fixing this problem that my father couldn’t resolve……

‘Why are you just taking the loss?’

‘Why are you holding back?’

There were feelings like these where I was frustrated with my dad’s inaction.

However, my father was doing all he could within his power, and the one who cared the most for the people wasn’t me, but my father.

I took out a small box from my bag.

“Can you deliver this to my dad in my stead?”

“What is this?”

“Ten thousand gold.”

“……What?”

Having accepted a sum of money that he never could have expected, Baggins took the box, eyes wide in shock.

“H-how did Young Master come across such a big—”

“It’s the prize money for winning the Grand Festival. I hope it gets used where the territory needs it the most.”

“By where the territory needs it the most……?”

“I know that you will spend it well since you know better than me…… but in my opinion, developing our territory to be self-sufficient so situations like this don’t arise again would be nice.”

“Self-sufficient…… Could you give an example?”

The way a territory could become self-sufficient.

Increasing the population and open jobs was a must.

But to do that, the land must also be wide.

Money, people, land.

Only after these basic things were met, would money start to circulate within the territory itself.

To create an environment where these things could be made, an astronomical number of investments were needed, but there were small investments we could make right now.

“We need to resolve the land problem first.”

“……The land?”

The reason Baggins was surprised was that, even though ten thousand gold was a staggering amount of gold, it wasn’t even close to enough to buy land that’d expand our territory’s influence.

“That will be hard. Trying to buy any acre of land around our territory won’t be simple. They would naturally be expensive, but nobody would be willing to sell either.”

Of course, just as Baggins said, I wouldn’t try to ‘buy’ lands with the normal method.

“We can take them.”

“What? Are you perhaps… talking about subjugation?”

* * *

* * *

“Yes. The Wolfhills and the mudmen’s Red Plains to the southeast of us that are thorns in the side for us. We’ll reclaim them.”

“……”

The Chief of Affairs made quite the troubled expression.

It was understandable.

If ‘land expansion’ using subjugation was so easy, why hadn’t it already been done?

Ontop of not having the military strength to subjugate these lands, the palace had no intentions of sending reinforcements either.

This was the reason that, even though we were tormented for so long, we weren’t able to fix this problem.

Why would he say that knowing this?

This was the meaning behind Baggins’ gaze, but that was only for an instant.

“So do you have an idea?”

“Not yet.”

“……”

“As you know, I’m still blind to the ways of the world. I don’t even know how much this endeavor would cost. But, using the ten thousand gold, hire mercenaries for the subjugation, and with the help of the citizens, we could rebuild the area and lend them out to citizens of other territories under the market price and make even more money. That’s what I’m thinking, at least.”

This was simply a method of using a small amount of money to fill up our missing personnel and make a greater sum of money.

Investment, and then reinvestment.

“Oh ho……”

Hearing my plan, Baggin’s started to consider it, thinking deeply.

And the conclusion he came to…

“……It’s not a baseless plan. No, if we can just hire mercenaries at a reasonable price, this is definitely within the realms of possibility.”

It was possible.

I smiled brightly for Baggins.

“Please discuss the fine details between yourself and my father.”

“For the subjugation…… will you participate, Young Master?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm…… Wouldn’t the Lord object?”

“No. I will be needed, I guarantee it.”

This was the overconfidence, no, the self-confidence of the next-generational magician that had won the Grand Festival.

One effective magician had the power to compete against a force of a few hundred.

At my statement, Baggins genuinely nodded.

“Yes. It seems I was worried for no reason.”

“Then, I will be on my way to Monzo. I’ll leave the rest to you, Chief of Affairs.”

“Yes. Ah, wait. The Lord told me to say this one thing.”

“What is it?”

“That you aren’t allowed to use excessive force.”

“……”

Uhm……

This… This would be a hard promise to keep.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I hope so too.”

* * *

Trade city Monzo.

It was half a day’s travel from the Ardell territory.

As the largest city in the southern part of the kingdom, most of the products in its vicinity end up here.

That meant, whether you liked it or not, all goods had to pass through this place in one way or another.

However, the lord of the city, Vilcos Monzo, despite being a noble, used usury to increase his wealth and buy a title. He was an untrustworthy individual with such rumors about him floating around.

His personality was the complete opposite of my father’s, and unfortunately, most of the nobles in the Radian Kingdom were like this.

Meaning…

‘I can steel my heart as much as I need to.’

In a situation where violence was needed, I could use it without hesitation or regret.

Of course, the ‘break speech’ I gave as the student representative on the podium troubled me a little.

However, I just had to not use magic, right?

As soon as I entered Monzo, I headed to the biggest and most prestigious looking mansion I could find.

“Who are you?”

Offhandedly asked one of the four guards that blocked my path while looking bored and I replied,

“I am the young master of the Ardell house, Ruin Ardell. Is the lord of the territory inside?”

However, their answer was quite interesting.

“Hmm? Ardell? Again?”

“……”

I didn’t even expect the lowest respect a noble should receive.

Since this was the southern boonies, I could expect that they wouldn’t know my name.

However, they had shown disrespect after hearing the name of Ardell……

Father.

I am sorry.

I don’t think I’ll be able to abide by your order.

I dismounted from the horse.

“I won’t ask a second time. What’s your answer?”

“Who knows? I’ll need to check to know if the Lord is in or not…… Hey, new kid. Go in and check if he’s here or not.”

“What? The Lord is inside.”

“Tsk! Stop talking and go ask. Another unwelcome guest came from the Ardells, although the person changed.”

“Ah, ok……”

“……”

Hearing how they spoke, it looked like my father hadn’t visited this place only once or twice, and I could reasonably guess that they showed this same disrespect to my father.

The ‘new kid’ went back inside, leaving three guards.

“Wait here for a bit. I’ll open if we get a confirmation, but it’ll be good to not expect much. Boss doesn’t like hearing the same thing twice.”

“Hey! It’s not Boss anymore. Now it’s Lord!”

“Ah, yeah yeah. My bad. I’m just used to it…… Hehe.”

They were picking their noses and acted with impudence. I could feel inexcusable levels of disgrace.

The reason was simple.

If I was just an academy student, I wouldn’t have felt so bad, but I was here as the young master of the Ardell house.

Right now, was there a reason to hold back against this disgrace I felt from the thugs of this area?

There wasn’t any.

And on top of that…

“If I let this go, our honor wouldn’t hold up, now would it?”

“……Huh? What did you say?”

“It’s nothing.”

I held up my fist.

“Just, get hit a little.”

* * *

“Sirs! Sirs!”

The youngest guard who was sent in to check if the Lord would welcome Ruin hastily ran back outside.

“Boss said to turn them away if it’s Lord Ardell and let him in quickly if it’s the young lord… Ack! Aaah!”

As soon as he opened the door to the mansion, the young guard stumbled back in shock.

“Wh-what happened here……?”

His seniors, the three other guards, had collapsed on the ground, and one man was standing leisurely in the middle.

The young master of the Ardell house, Ruin Ardell.

He commanded the guard, displeased,

“Your lord. Tell him to get out here.”

——