Chapter 30

Chapter 30 \n\n

Edited by TheDefend

I got a rank.That means I became a noble family.Because being a noble isn’t like a court noble.Yes, I got this thing called a territory.Yeah, I have to do territorial management, Me.…How did this happen!

 

Well, at that time, the king went on counseling.Together with the Prime Minister and the person in charge of the territory management.

Ah, the person in charge of domain management, doesn’t mean the《pro in the management and operation of the territory》.He only knows the location, the size, the features and the likes of all the territories in the kingdom.His role is like a human database for giving a territory to the nobility and changing the land ownership.

(T.N: Database in Katakana/English. I don’t know if FUNA sensei watch log horizon though)

I was asked and I told how I wished my territory would be.

 

「Facing the sea, have mountain, river flows. Just a small territory is good」(Mitsuha)

「Is it okay to have a small one?」(King)

「Yes, being large and having lots of people is troublesome when I wanted to have fun with my citizen like a family,And I also refuse to face the borders that are likely to have disputes!」(Mitsuha)

 

The king had a bitter smile.

 

「If so, then you should have land on the north side.First of all, our country only faces the sea on that side.」(Database)

 

Database-san responded immediately.

 

「Well then, Please check this map.This big river is flowing into the ocean, however this and this and this. Thin narrow lines around here are small rivers.Near the big river, there are many wide plains. But most of them are in the Earl’s territory.And the others aren’t vacant, there are aristocrat territories that have mountain and small rivers, closes to the sea and also vacant.In this case, there are only a few lands left that is directly under the royal family,We can’t give other lands, unless we kick out the aristocrat who is now in charge of that land」(Database)

 

Ohh. If I was to ask for something like that, they would definitely hold grudge.I might ask the king to give them another territory.But they must have a lot of memories with their homeland and citizen, and they also wanted to protect the land they inherited from their ancestors.The vacant land is the best.

 

「Well, then this land …」(Mitsuha)

「Oh, there’s no problem with this land.It is the baron’s territory, however he responsed to the invitation of the Empire and became a traitor.He got his punishment he deserved and his land was confiscated.This land is just a baron’s territory, I hate to say this but it’s just a small subterranean territory.However, it meets the conditions with small river, mountain that is not so steep.But are you really okay with this?There are also many other lands we can…」(Database)

 

Database-san recommended other lands, but of course I refused.Because I don’t want that kind of thing.The distance from the capital is far, it might be a problem for aristocrat or a merchant.But, distance doesn’t really matter to me.So, territory, get!

(T.N: getto in Katakana)

Hmm? But the territory facing the sea on the north side?It seems like I’ve heard it somewhere …

 

 

It was next to the Earl Bozes’s territory!Is it really a coincidence?Database-san, you do know that I’m the Earl’s acquaintance, don’t you?Was he doing this because he took it into consideration?Well, if there is something I don’t understand, I can ask the Earl to teach me, or get help. And they are all good people afterall.It would be easy to go to Collette-chan’s place, and it would be easy to make excuses when we are close.

 

Huh? The territory that Alexis got, is also next to me, on the opposite side of the Earl Bozes?

Did I get sandwitched?This was definitely planned, wasn’t it?So whenever he went to his parents’ house, he would pass through my territory, right?Yes, yes.Eh, I only need to say “yes” once?Yes, yes.\nAnd what will I do when I go to the territory?Shop? I will not lose it. Just shut it down temporarily.I will restart it if the territory goes down.I will not spread it to the territory…Well, for now. Yes, for now.Shampoo? Well, I will resume it as soon as possible. Sorry.

 

***\n

 

Three days, the King introduced me someone to give me a special training on the territory management.Yeah, ridiculous stuffing education.Fortunately, thanks to modern knowledge, classes have proceeded relatively smoothly because there was a tax system, budget management, manipulation of manpower, and so on.The teacher was surprised.Also, since classes were properly recorded with a micro recorder, I can review them at any time.Viva, scientific power!And, moving into my territory.On an average carriage.No, I don’t have a luxury horse-drawn carriage, I don’t ride with Alexis, and I don’t want to spend days alone with only him on the carriage.Actually, I have another way to travel, teleport to the Earl Bozes’ land and go from there.But for once, I wanted to look closely at the traveling route with my own eyes.Well, I rode on the carriage when I first came to the capital, but I didn’t check the surrounding at that time.

What can I do for my territory?Problems of coming and going with the Capital.Surrounding situation.There are many things to learn.It will be good to hear various stories from other passengers.This time I make a different way to hear from people.

 

Near the time for departure, a lot of people have asked to be hired by me, the new lady Baron.Yeah, if they get hired by a new noble aristocrat, they can advertise their name.Moreover, because the aristocrat is just a child, they must have misunderstood that they can take advantage of me.They might also think this is a chance to get closer to me?Or is it an interlude to explore the secrets of the superior technology and magical equipment of my home country?

Well, I will not take that kind of risk.《I had worked for an aristocrat before,a veteran of a territory management,an experienced professional,I could double your profit if you hired me. etc》I would not be so stupid to believe in any of those.If you are so competent, why are you desperately trying to find a job in such a place now?

 

That’s why I declined all job seekers, and put the shop in absolute defense mode, said my greetings to the neighbors and asked the soldiers of the royal palace to watch out for any suspicious person near my shop.When they are in town, please look around the shop from time to time and come if they hear the alarm.Oh, I introduced the alarm to the neighbors properly so they would not be surprised with the noise.《There’s someone that dare to try to sneak into the Thunder Shrine Princess’ shop》… Ehh…Oh, why did the King arrange soldiers of the royal palace to look around, now?

 

On the day of departure, when I went to the waiting room, Sabine-chan was there carried some baggage.Hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey! (T.N: raw have repeat many times as well)As expected, she was taken back.It seems that the hidden escorts intended to take her back in the first place, they only waited until she met me.And Sabine-chan was throwing tantrum as she was taken back.Well, if she was taken back too soon, she would run away again.That’s why they waited until the last minute.She must be frustrated, just when she thought her dream already succeeded.

 

***

 

And the horse-drawn carriage went to the Earl Bozes’ land.There still isn’t any regular horse carriage going to Yamano’s land.

Mitsuha this time only wore a dress worn by an everyday average girl.It is a simple structure, but fluffy and a little cute.She made that choice so she can easily converse  with the passengers.Mitsuha has learning effects.The technique of conversation was referred to Sabine at Paradise Pavilion.

 

And under that skirt, Walther PPS on the left side and a small knife on the right side on the thigh.\nOf course, there is also Walther in my left armpit, but there will be a delay to pull it out, Beretta 93R and Revolver.38 are in the bag with the gun belt.The bag with weapons is always hanging on the shoulder around the neck.\nA little large bag with clothes for changing, etc, is in the luggage space of the carriage.

Large luggage is placed on the roof of the carriage, but I was allowed to put it inside the carriage because there are still only a few passengers, and it’s not too heavy or big, it’s girls’ luggage after all.

There are 12 passengers in total.This is probably the largest number at this moment, as we departed from the capital city.After that, people will gradually decrease as they are getting off at their destination.

Mitsuha spoke to a young man who seemed to be a merchant.Her setting is a naive daughter of an average shop, now she goes to work on the territory of emerging nobility.Certainly Mitsuha is a girl working in a shop, headed to work on the new territory.There is no lie. I’m not familiar with the public of this world. Yup.

 

(T.N: seem like merchant’s POV)

Although she is just a lolita (little girl), it isn’t bad to talk with such a cute girl.She listened to my story pleasantly and also came up with quite a good question.It’s the evidence that she was seriously listening to my story.She understands everything, and her head (thinking) isn’t bad.Sometimes she even talked about knowledge and information that I didn’t know about.She is likely to become a good merchant in the future.

Oh, it might be good not only for my son, but for my daughter as well.Should I consult with my wife when I returned.

Even when the mouth of the young merchant has loosened, yet the talk still continues.

Other passengers also participated in the conversation for fun, many information was exchanged.

 

***Two days before reaching the Earl’ Bozes territory***\n 

A wild bandit group appeared.

 

「Isn’t this rarely happen?」(Mitsuha)

「Ah, but recently, it has increased.The defeated soldiers of the empire were scattered to many places,Even if they returned to the empire, there would be nothing good.Farmers or recruits might stay in the kingdom either because they don’t want to get caught in the kingdom’s counter-attack or out of fear that they have to take responsibility for the defeat.This bandit group’s leader seems to be the lower level commander, who is likely to be executed and the others must be the ranaway mercenaries that couldn’t get the money while they escaped to the north, avoiding the southern kingdom’s chasing armies」(Merc Uncle)

「Ah~」(Mitsuha)

 

Mitsuha and mercenary-like middle-aged man talking calmly when other passengers were in a big fuss.This might be a bit awkward.Mitsuha likes cool middle aged man.Because he smells like her father.It’s not about odor. It’s the atmosphere that wraps around.Well, Mitsuha is calm, because she can escape with teleport at any time.The reason why the man is calm, is because there is 《The right to be bystander》

《The right to be bystander》is like tacit understanding between mercenaries and bandits.Regardless of escort mercenaries, normal mercenaries have no obligation to protect others.Even though there are human lives involved, it’s still not enough for them to help any people on the spot just by being there without contract.

The bandits as well, they would get a lot of damage if they were to fight with mercenaries.

Then, agreement of the interests between bandits who don’t want to fight with strong mercenaries, and mercenaries who don’t get any money at all, it’s meaningless to fight.

A mercenary who hasn’t received an escort mission that declared《The right to be bystander》will not attack the bandits. Bandits also will not attack the said mercenary.

When a mercenary declared《The right to be bystander》, he didn’t have to worry about unnecessary killings or be killed.Until the victory or defeat has been decided, regardless of the battle, so even when a bad thing happened to the passengers and escort mercenaries, he would not do anything.

And the bandits just didn’t attack that said mercenary, they were mostly taking away women, children and luggage.

 

Right now, there are 9 passengers including Mitsuha.One married woman, one young woman, two girls.

By the way, the coachman is out of the scope.Bandits will not attack coachman.

If the carriage ceases to operate, it will gradually effect the trading, the lord and the country’s profit. And at a certain point, the armies will start moving.If they attacked and destroyed the carriage, it would just make their life and work harder.The coachman was treated as a part of a carriage, not as a person, not as a man.Same goes for the men if they didn’t join in battle.But if the men tried to fight back with righteousness, their safety would be all lost.That’s why they almost never tried to fight back.

 

「I will fight」(Farmer)

 

A farmer-like man with his wife and daughter said so.Of four women, two of them are his family members.He couldn’t allow his family to be carried away in front of his own eyes.Even if it cost him his life.

 

「I will fight as well」(Elder)

 

An elderly man.

 

「Children should be happy with their family.I also did a variety of bad things to protect my family and to live.Well, for once, I want to do something useful for other people as well.And if I lost my luggage here, I won’t have anything left to live」(Elder)

「Thank you…」(Farmer)

 

The farmer-like man lowered his head to the Elder.The young merchant looked at Mitsuha and said.

 

「I will also help you」(Merchant)

「I do not want to get hurt.They won’t harm us if we give them the money, luggage and the women.The mercenary will use 《The right to be bystander》anyway, and if we fight back poorly, we will be killed or injured before surrender and lost everything.Don’t be stupid!」(Coward man)

 

A man about twenty years old refused to fight back by saying so.Well, it’s not a bad thing.Human that thinks themself is the most important thing.The farmer may have refused to fight if his wife and children aren’t here.

Finally, the mercenary said to the farmer.

 

「Hey, do you want to hire an escort? I will give you a discount, just a silver coin」(Mercenary)

「「「You will fight!?」」」(Farmer + Wife + Daughter)

 

It’s a surprise. Mitsuha turned her sight to the mercenary.Meanwhile the coward man asked.

 

「Huh, you don’t use 《The right to be bystander》…」(Coward man)

「It only applies on the 《mercenary who doesn’t receive escort request 》, young man」(Mercenary)

\nBut before that, I need to use the bathroom and have a bath.\n