Giselle’s inauguration ceremony as lord went very smoothly.

Since Giselle had already been handling all the lord’s duties as acting lord, there was no need for a separate handover, and the family’s youngest lady, who could have been the only obstacle, also acknowledged Giselle’s inauguration as lord with a smiling face.

The people and vassals, who felt their lives improving day by day under Giselle’s rule while feeling a bit of anxiety and guilt towards the family’s youngest lady, also inwardly sighed in relief when Adelaide herself said it was fine.

Strictly speaking, Adelaide hadn’t given up on Friedel but rather decided to rule a wider area “including Friedel”, but few people properly understood this part.

The commoners would only understand what position Adelaide had risen to after the new territory development and existing territory absorption merger project led by Maris and other Lion Duke bloodline members began in earnest, but that was still a story that needed time.

“By the way, you’re really a weirdo. What’s the point of continuing to follow us when you have nothing to be dissatisfied about anymore?”

“Hehe…”

At Dorothea’s jab, Adelaide smiled sheepishly.

In fact, as Dorothea said, Adelaide had almost no reason to continue traveling.

No, thinking coldly, staying here instead of moving with the party would have been the right action as a noble.

Whether it was absorbing surrounding territories or redevelopment, Adelaide directly commanding on-site rather than just leaving it to the Lion Duke bloodline members would be more advantageous in terms of securing future influence.

Moreover, there was also the risk that they might embezzle the enormous funds sent from the two Towers while Adelaide was away.

Of course, neither Maris nor Giselle were foolish enough to be blinded by such short-term profits and voluntarily incurred long-term losses, but human nature was not easily determined.

However, despite this, Adelaide did not hesitate to set out on the journey with the party.

“Thanks to you all, I’ve achieved my goal, so I want to help you too! Besides, I need to stop by the Kingdom anyway to meet my mother.”

“Geez.”

Dorothea shook her head.

You, who had been staring blankly at this sight, soon added some words of your own.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks why is Dorothea grumbling when she is actually delighted deep inside!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that not being able to say thank you when you’re grateful is also a kind of mental illness!]

Bonk!

The answer came back not in words but with a staff.

However, the impact wasn’t that great.

It was proof that Dorothea herself was somewhat aware of what you had said.

When you made silly jokes purely to tease her, you got beaten to the point where your helmet became U-shaped, so this level of response could be considered quite cute.

While letting Dorothea’s words about transactions and debts go in one ear and out the other as she continued to chatter enthusiastically, you suddenly fell into thought.

The purpose of a journey was important.

You could call it the main scenario or main quest.

Although you were the type to sometimes deviate from the designated route and beat up opponents you didn’t need to fight, you didn’t deny the significance of the main quest’s existence.

It could be called a milestone.

For example, you had the purpose of protecting Dorothea by her side according to the request of the old man who entrusted his body to you.

In the early stages of the journey, it was half out of interest and half because there was nothing else you could do, but now it was a goal engraved in your heart, even without the request.

Dorothea had the purpose of gathering the kingdom’s eight sacred treasures and passing her teacher’s graduation test.

The Key of Opium. The Belt of Amaryllis. The Chalice of Tuberose. The Gloves of Haider. The Pouch of Lilium.

Currently, five had been secured, and only three remained. Looking at it this way, it seemed like just over half, but other competitors would surely gather the other sacred treasures and come looking for Dorothea, so the end wasn’t far off.

Adelaide achieved her goal of building up her abilities and achievements to be recognized as the heir to her domain.

In fact, she achieved it so excessively that instead of becoming the lord of Friedel, she reached the level of making the lord of Friedel her subordinate. Regardless, what was good was good.

Adelaide’s newly updated purpose could be summarized as “helping her companions” and “settling things with Kalidahs”.

After thinking that far, you suddenly looked to the side.

A beautiful woman with a calm impression, green hair and red eyes, noticed your gaze and tilted her head.

Sophia.

What was her purpose for traveling together? What was her own “main quest”?

Just being dragged along by Dorothea as someone who carried one of the eight sacred treasures in her body, without any purpose or will of her own.

…It was too much to brush off with such thoughts, considering what you had seen so far.

The angel who appeared in the City of Scales. The girl who called Sophia “teacher”.

While showing a friendly attitude towards the existence of God, saying, “It’s endearing because it’s imperfect,” she was unusually hostile towards the heavenly realm that bore that God’s name, and seemed to mock their words and actions.

When asked about this reason on the uninhabited island—well, technically it was inhabited by a vampire, many sea creatures, and even an Imugi, but still—in the past, Sophia refused to answer, saying her affection level was still insufficient.1

Fortunately, she also said it wasn’t far off.

At that moment, a shiver ran through your mind.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ brings a flower from the roadside and presents it to Sophia!]

“Oh my, thank you.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ brings a flower from the roadside and presents it to Sophia!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ brings a flower from the roadside and presents it to Sophia!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ brings a flower from the roadside and presents it to Sophia!]

“Hmm?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if perhaps the secret route hasn’t open yet!]

“Hmm? Maybe?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ brings a flower from the roadside and presents it to Sophia!]

“Sir Tin, affection level doesn’t increase repeatedly with the same gift.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ displays ‘!?’ next to his head in shock!]

“What are you doing, you idiots?”

“…”

“Adel, why are you looking at that enviously…”

Saying there wasn’t a single normal person here, Dorothea heaved a deep sigh.

Indeed, she was a witch who didn’t realize that others would see her the same way.

***

Rewinding time a bit, when the Tin Knight’s party was still bickering in the Empire.

William Hemming, the Marquis, who had brought the lord’s wife and her close associates to his territory from Friedel domain, trembled his lips upon receiving a report summarizing the state of the territory from his representative.

“Is, is everything written here true?”

“I apologize, Marquis. We sent letters to the royal capital as well, but it seems the paths crossed.”

The report handed over by the representative clearly showed that the territory’s economy was slowly but surely drawing a downward line.

As if precisely inversely proportional to the king’s favor towards him.

Of course, there weren’t no signs that this would happen.

“Look here, Marquis Hemming, are you really going to watch the king’s rash actions like this? At this rate, that madman king seems like he’ll really start a continental conquest movement!”

“Weren’t you the one who argued that we shouldn’t let the king run wild and should somehow put a leash on him!? And now you stab me in the back like this!?”

“William, you ugly traitor! Are you happy sticking with the king!?”

“You son of a bitch!”

Somewhat dignified in front. Just blatantly vulgar behind.

Hearing the increasingly intense criticism from his old comrades day by day, William Hemming inwardly shed tears of blood.

Fuck, I don’t want to do this either!

That witch is a bitch! She threatened me by cursing me! Neighbors, please listen about her vicious personality!

If only he could freely spread such words around the neighborhood, it might at least make him feel better.

Bound by the constraint that he “cannot take actions that harm the witch”, he simply couldn’t reveal the truth.

If he did, he might change species from human to amphibian, so what could he do?

William wanted to live as a human with a grudge rather than a frog without one.

However, since the nobles didn’t know William’s circumstances—even if they knew, it was questionable whether they would have stopped—they began to exert aggressive pressure on the “self-proclaimed mediator” who now seemed to have completely turned to the pro-king faction.

Not with military power, but through economical means.

As the nobles of surrounding territories began to impose tariffs indiscriminately or control the entry and exit of merchants, tightening the noose like mad, Marquis Hemming’s territory was placed in a situation that was virtually isolated and helpless.

After grasping the situation, William tried sending envoys to ask what this was all about, and even went to visit the opposing territories himself to talk, but their reactions were consistently blunt.

— We’re just preventing the outflow of grain because the recent harvest has been poor. We can’t sell what we don’t have, can we?

— Why is the inspection so strict, you ask? It’s just because there are many bandits, so we’re being thorough. Even if you’ve become the king’s favorite, it seems excessive to interfere in the management of other people’s territories.

— Merchants? Travelers? We haven’t blocked anyone? Maybe they were caught by trolls? If not, then never mind.

“These bastards really…!”

Although William was trying to live a dignified and elegant life as a descendant of a prestigious family, even he found it difficult to refrain from swearing at the nobles’ brazen attitude.

Of course, he wasn’t unaware of the reason.

The current king was obsessed with strengthening central administrative power and improving military power while shouting about “the glory of old times”, which was threatening to the nobles either way.

To be more precise, it wasn’t the court nobles who received salaries and were given positions under the king, but the territorial nobles who had their own independent territories in the kingdom who were seriously rebelling.

It wasn’t that there were no nobles like William, who had their own independent territories but also worked at court, but in most cases, the lord himself stayed in the territory and sent representatives like children or relatives to the royal palace, while they themselves just faithfully paid taxes from the territory.

If one went a little further west on the continent, there were many who didn’t even pay taxes—it wasn’t for nothing that the lord of Friedel was treated as an oddball—claiming that they were sufficiently loyal nobles.

They say the old kingdom wasn’t a place where nobles and the king had such power struggles, but their position was that they didn’t care about such old ancestors’ affairs.

Above all, William’s territory was close to the nobles and far from the king.

It was a great advantage when he was one of the representatives of the noble faction, but now it had become an incredibly disadvantageous position.

Even this was at a level of “difficult but manageable”, but when a large-scale riot of mouse swarms broke out within the territory, the already precarious food situation in the territory instantly plummeted into a muddy mess.

“Do something about those damn mice! More importantly, why did swarms of mice suddenly appear!?”

“T-they seem to have suddenly come from the nearby forest, but I’m not sure why exactly.”

“The mice are raiding every warehouse there is!”

“They say mice have appeared even in the room where the lady of Friedel territory is staying!”

“Aaargh!”

As William lamented the unfairness of the world.

A traveler visited him.

The traveler, with a rather thick wooden flute at his waist, said to William, “—I will get rid of all those mice for you.”

Footnotes

1. 1. TL Note: A lesser dragon in Korean mythology. Basically, , the Tin Knight's narration is calling the Dragon King a lesser dragon.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken