The next destination you and your companions set was the territory of Marquis Hemming in the kingdom.

Since matters related to the Lion Duke’s bloodline were wrapped up, and a loyalty oath was received from Giselle, there was no need to keep Adelaide’s mother and Ronnie hidden elsewhere anymore.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if that William or Willie or whatever noble uncle is trustworthy!]

To your question, Dorothea answered with a snort, “Well, my head isn’t exactly a flower garden. Obviously, I can’t trust someone who once held a knife to my neck.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if that’s not something that shouldn’t be done!]

“I’ve bound him by Blood Oath, so while I can’t trust him, I can credit him. If he doesn’t want to become a frog, he’ll behave himself.”

Above all, there was no other choice at the time.

While dealing with the Lennart Ducal family, leaving the lord’s wife in Giselle’s hands would be like asking to be taken hostage, so they had to somehow move her elsewhere, but it was too much of a stretch for the Tin Knight’s party, who were busy going back and forth between the Magic State and the Empire, to come directly to the kingdom.

So what could they do? They had no choice but to use the one somewhat trustworthy person as a card.

Listening silently to Dorothea’s explanation, you suddenly asked.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if there weren’t any other acquaintances to use as connections, since the kingdom is Dorothea’s hometown!]

“…”

Dorothea’s body stiffened.

Adelaide, who was running backward alongside the carriage, and Sophia, who was busy with real-time map updates, also pricked up their ears as if it was an interesting topic.

“Ahem.”

Your contractor, released from your social stun, began to explain calmly, in an extremely composed and intellectual manner, “The opponent is the Lennart Ducal family. Of course, their influence would be relatively less in the kingdom, but even sending a few skilled warriors would be difficult for ordinary people to handle. Besides, the lord’s wife was in poor health, right? We can’t put her in some abandoned house, so it would be meaningless to send her to someone without sufficient power and wealth. If I had told my teacher, who knows what disaster would happen. So, Marquis William was the best choice, understand?”

You tilted your head.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if, ignoring the power and wealth factors, there are acquaintances she could ask!]

“…”

Dorothea didn’t answer.

Adelaide subtly distanced herself from the carriage, then pretended to focus on physical training with a strange, “Hup-hup, hup-hup,” that she rarely made usually.

Sophia looked at Dorothea with a lukewarm benevolent smile, as if to say, “It can happen to anyone, so don’t worry about it.”

You patted Dorothea’s back.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ sincerely apologizes, saying he seems to have asked something unnecessary!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ shows understanding, saying it’s unavoidable due to the necromancer job penalty!]

“…You’re the worst!” Dorothea screamed with a red face.

You were inwardly laughing, thinking there was always fun to be had teasing your contractor.

***

The road to the Marquis’ territory was relatively peaceful.

As the kingdom had less stable public order compared to the Empire, there were occasionally signs of bandits lurking around, but they never actually attacked.

“Brother! Prey has come! It’s an incredibly fancy carriage!”

“Oh! Let’s make a big… what the hell is that?”

Human eyes weren’t very good at gauging the size of distant objects.

When they first spotted the carriage of the Tin Knight’s party, the bandits rejoiced, saying, “A fancy carriage has come.”

Fancy meant expensive, and riding an expensive carriage meant good prey with many valuable elements.

But as the distance closed and they could properly recognize the detailed elements of the carriage, their raised corners of mouths quickly dropped.

A giant horse with a completely different base weight class from ordinary horses, looking like it could crush not just ribs but the entire upper body if it stomped with its front hooves.

The carriage was certainly fancy and luxurious-looking, but upon closer inspection, it was full of parts clearly intended for combat, like some kind of cannon or blades.

Decisively, there was even a golden-haired girl running alongside the carriage with back steps, carrying a greatsword on her back that seemed difficult for ordinary people to even hold.

While banditry itself was basically something that couldn’t be easily done without a fair amount of recklessness and determination, even so, the bandits’ weren’t nearly reckless enough to charge at something like that. They quickly fled as their survival instincts dictated.

Although the party arrived smoothly at the territory of Marquis Hemming, the real problem arose after that.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if a marquis isn’t higher than a count!]

“In the past, there were times when it was difficult to clearly say which rank was superior, but now that the Empire has clarified the hierarchy between ranks, and other nations have followed that policy, it can be seen that way.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that this place looks much smaller and poorer than Tik-Tok which was a count’s territory!]

“There’s the difference in national power between the Empire and the kingdom, and to begin with, the size of the territory and the height of the rank don’t necessarily match,” Sophia answered, but she soon added an additional explanation upon seeing the appearance visible outside the carriage. “However, apart from the scale of the territory… the internal situation doesn’t look good.”

The City of Pleasure, the City of Clockwork, the City of Struggle, the City of Scales.

Many of the villages or cities the party had passed through so far were full of their own vitality and bustle, despite various issues.

But in the territory of Marquis Hemming, the residents’ appearances were visibly haggard, and the pedestrians walking the streets also had a gloominess felt in their faces and eyes.

Dorothea frowned, “That’s enough, Adel, come inside.”

“Yes.”

Adelaide’s expression had also slightly hardened.

With the state of the place where her mother and trusted servant were staying looking like this, of course she couldn’t help but worry.

If there were checkpoints or gatekeepers managing entry and exit to the territory, they could at least ask about the situation, but all that could be seen were villages scattered here and there.

Considering that there were more territories where residents just gathered around the lord’s mansion on their own rather than being surrounded by castle walls, it wasn’t strange, but it was quite frustrating for those wanting to obtain information.

After advancing like that for a while.

Only after reaching a place that could be called the center, where buildings were densely packed, did guards finally appear.

“Ah, stop! Stop! Halt!”

With a quite rough voice, or in other words, a voice full of irritation, a guard stopped the carriage.

It was quite a strange thing.

Usually, there was a high possibility that nobles were riding in fancy carriages, so it was basic to show courtesy in most situations.

Unlike when they were deliberately showing a threatening form to drive away bandits, now the carriage had no particular problems except for its large size, so it was even more so.

Towards Sophia sitting in the coachman’s seat, a guard with dark circles under his eyes said, “State your purpose and identity.”

“We are Mage Dorothea and her companions. We contacted Marquis William in advance that we would be coming to meet him.”

“Wait a moment.”

The guard, who retreated with a somewhat suspicious expression, chattered something to other guards.

When a guard, who heard the story brought documents made of poor quality and cheap paper bundles, he examined it carefully and then said in a slightly more relaxed tone, “…May I check the mage’s appearance for a moment?”

It was a reasonable request, in a way. Unlike the carriages of nobles with their distinctive emblems, there was no easy way to identify this one.

Click.

“There, is that enough?”

When Dorothea opened the carriage door and poked her face out, the guard examined her appearance and flinched.

It felt like half was surprised by Dorothea’s beauty, and half was captivated by her unique fashion.

The guard, who had been dumbfounded for a moment, only then cleared his throat and stepped back when Dorothea frowned.

“Ahem, confirmed. If you follow this main road straight up, you’ll reach the lord’s mansion.”

“But why is the territory’s atmosphere like this? It doesn’t seem like a bad harvest year, as the other territories I saw on the way here were fine.”

At Dorothea’s question, the guard’s expression changed colorfully for a moment.

However, the words that came out of his mouth were very monotonous, “That’s something I can’t answer carelessly.”

“…Is that so? Then fine.”

On the way to the mansion after passing the checkpoint.

The party held a meeting inside the carriage.

“It felt like he had a lot he wanted to say, but was trying hard to hold back.”

“I wonder if they were ordered to keep quiet from above?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says we can just ask the Marquis himself.]

“Well, that would be the surest way.”

Fortunately, meeting Marquis William wasn’t too difficult.

Before explaining the situation to the gatekeeper guarding the front of the mansion, the Marquis himself rushed out to the front of the mansion.

“Welcome, welcome! I’ve been anxiously waiting for you all!!”

***

“—I will get rid of all those mice for you.”

To the traveler who made such a bold claim, William initially showed an indifferent reaction.

It was a world where, though rare, there were both braggarts without any real ability and daring ones trying to scam nobles.

To William’s retort asking how he could believe those words, the traveler smiled and walked out of the mansion.

Then, he walked down the road playing the flute at his waist.

《～～♪ ♫ ♬》

It was an incredibly beautiful and mysterious flute sound.

Farmers who were wailing because mice had gnawed away the seeds to be planted next year, bakery owners sighing at empty shelves, even soldiers running around with brooms instead of spears saying they would beat the mice, all listened to that sound as if enchanted.

And it wasn’t just people who reacted like that.

Mice.

Even those pesky vermin that had been constantly tormenting people followed behind the traveler as if captivated by the flute sound.

The traveler’s footsteps led to a small stream nearby, and the mice only seemed to come to their senses with a start when they fell into the stream, scattering and fleeing haphazardly.

To the dumbfounded William, the traveler said, “If there were a large river nearby, I would have drowned them to death there, but for now, this is the limit. Of course, if the lord promises a definite reward, I could put in a bit more effort.”

William noticed that the traveler had intentionally not eradicated the mice in one go, but he didn’t nitpick on that point.

After all, he had demonstrated before his eyes that he had the ability to get rid of those pesky mice if given proper compensation.

To William’s words asking what he wanted, the traveler answered, “It’s impossible to eradicate all the mice at once. Therefore, let’s agree to receive separate compensation for each village.”

“Each time I get rid of mice, I’ll take one thing I designate from what’s in this territory.”

It was a very suspicious deal.

William said he would just pay in money, but the traveler shook his head.

Only after adding the condition that he would only take things that could be counted as “one”, to prevent loopholes like designating a building and owning everything inside it, or designating land and taking a wide area of land, did William nod.

He still thought the other party was suspicious, but William didn’t have the leisure to nitpick on every little thing.

After the first mouse eradication, the traveler pointed to a treasure mountain—though small in scale—in William’s warehouse.

William snorted and presented the previous conditions.

“Oh my, can’t be helped. Then I’ll take one gold coin from here.”

Next, the traveler pointed to a huge field.

William shook his head again this time, saying that was different from the contract.

“Oh my, can’t be helped. Then I’ll take one rice seed from here.”

After the deal was repeated several times like this, after the final mouse eradication.

The traveler pointed to one guest in the territory.

William was startled and shook his head again this time, but the traveler didn’t back down.

“Why not? What I’ve pointed to is properly ‘one’, isn’t it?”

However, William couldn’t grant the traveler’s request.

To begin with, it was absurd to say he would take a person as “payment”, but also because the person the traveler pointed to happened to be the former lord of Freidel’s wife who couldn’t wake up from sleep.

William, who didn’t have the odd hobby of suicide, handed over a pouch of gold coins and sent him away.

And disaster struck the territory.

The children of the village fell into a deep sleep and wouldn’t wake up.

***

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