Chapter 30 – A Reassessment

Now, then, let’s talk about Count Borick.

He’s Gaikaku’s former employer and a former count.

Let’s briefly touch on the recent circumstances of the man who was, for a time, a knight.

He was currently drowning himself in alcohol.

Having ceded his title to his son and resigned from his knighthood, he was fundamentally idle.

He spent almost all of his time drinking.

Gaikaku disapproved of liquor tasting, but he truly detested this kind of self-destructive drinking.

Much like drinking contests, he disliked any drinking that posed a serious risk to one’s life.

It went completely against his own philosophy on the matter.

However, if the purpose of drinking was to relieve the sorrows of daily life, it wasn’t something to be condemned.

Since it was a matter that would end only with his own death, perhaps that was fine. At the very least, he wasn’t causing trouble for anyone else.

At least, that’s what those around him thought.

They didn’t want to get yelled at for trying to stop him, so they figured they would just let him be.

Fortunately, he was suffering from a kind of social anxiety, so there were no incidents of him calling for young women and sexually harassing them.

Nor did he drink pointlessly expensive liquor.

Above all, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t understand how he felt.

And so, they let him do as he pleased.

“…Damn it.”

The number of liquor bottles in his private room was a testament to his excess.

His entire body had become unhealthy; at this point, the slightest thing would likely trigger a serious illness.

But perhaps that was what he was seeking.

“Damn it…!”

If anything could save his soul now, it would be news that the Conjurer Knights had fallen into disgrace.

But the fact that no such news had arrived meant Gaikaku was still living out his brilliant days as the Knight Commander.

He imagines Gaikaku living out ‘some kinda super-cool knight’s success story.’

A complete and utter nobody is walking the path that should have rightfully been his.

He knows that he was so, so close to achieving it himself, and that is precisely why…

“Damn it all!!”

“F-Father, um…”

His heir appeared before him.

As the current count, his tenure was still short, and he had come to his father for advice.

Given the nature of his question, he seemed very hesitant to ask.

“Actually, there have been petitions from the citizens to subjugate some bandits…”

“So what! You should be able to handle that by leading your own troops!”

“Y-Yes, but… my men have a low level of training, and, um…”

“Huh?!”

“It seems the task is too much for them…”

Now, let’s lay out the facts.

Both Tistria and Gaikaku had acknowledged Count Borick’s work.

When he received petitions from the populace, he dispatched his private soldiers to resolve the issue.

He had the skill to swiftly resolve matters that would normally have resulted in great sacrifices or required a formal request to the Knight Order.

To put it bluntly, to the citizens, he was a wise lord.

The fact that the story of “his subordinate was so excellent, he got poached” became something of a joke is proof that he governed well.

If that hadn’t been the case, he would likely have been killed by now, or else be living in fear of a citizens’ revolt.

The freedom he had to drink himself into oblivion was a result of that.

“So what! In that case, send a request to the Knight Order!”

“We have, but… it seems they’ll be delayed… and in the meantime, more petitions from the citizens…”

“So what!!”

Count Borick had his justification.

His son was the one at fault, so he could attack him without reservation.

“Father, how did you… manage to get a master swordsman like Lord Gaikaku… um, to serve under you?”

“My personal virtue!!”

It was of no use as a reference, but “personal virtue” was, well, correct.

Gaikaku had entered Count Borick’s service thinking, He’s a bit of an idiot, but he probably won’t order me to do anything evil, and they had indeed settled into that kind of relationship.

If the offer from Tistria regarding the Knight Order had never come, that relationship would surely have been maintained to this day.

“He came to me of his own accord because I possess such great virtue!!”

“Th-Then, what should I do?”

“How should I know! You’re the count now, aren’t you!! Then handle it yourself!!”

Yes… this was the shortcoming of Count Borick’s son.

Technically speaking, Count Borick himself was not to blame.

It wasn’t that Count Borick fell from grace and his son took over.

First, Count Borick joined the Knight Order, and his son took over at that time.

It may not seem like a big difference, but the reality was vastly different.

“When I said I was joining the Knight Order, you accepted, saying, ‘Please leave the rest to me,’ didn’t you! What did you intend to do once I was gone?!”

“Well… um, I was thinking I could ask you to handle it as a priority, Father…”

“And what difference is there between that and now!!”

Count Borick had thought, If I take Gaikaku with me, I should be able to handle the Knight Order’s work. He had, at least, some basis for this.

But Count Borick’s son didn’t even have that. He figured he could just rely on his father even after he joined the Knight Order. No, he simply had no plan at all.

Whether Count Borick became a knight or not, the domain’s fighting force would be leaving regardless, yet his son hadn’t given it a single thought.

“You’re the count now! It’s your job to protect the domain, no matter what it takes! Don’t come crying to me when nothing out of the ordinary has even happened!”

Count Borick couldn’t offer any actual advice, so he settled on chewing him out.

Berating someone who was clearly at fault felt good. That was the kind of man he was, and for the first time in a while, he was really getting into it.

“Honestly… and you call yourself my son!”

“E-Excuse me…”

Count Borick’s son, the current count, left the room.

With a downcast face, he trudged through the castle.

The stares of those who watched him pass were painful.

“Even that father of his would do something if you petitioned him…”

“He basically had an entire Knight Order all to himself here… The previous lord might have been surprisingly capable…”

“Compared to him, what does our current lord plan to do?”

“Things shouldn’t be any different from other domains, so why is he so useless?”

He felt small.

Everything his father had said to him was being said by everyone around him, too.

This deeply wounded his pride.

He had been present for the decoration ceremony from Tistria, so he had witnessed his father’s entire disgraceful display.

To put it simply, he was disillusioned with his father and had sworn he would never become like him.

But in reality, he was even worse than that father.

That was the objective truth of the matter. There wasn’t a single praiseworthy thing about him.

“Damn it…”

But that’s just how the world is.

He’s still young, so one hopes he’ll work hard and manage the domain from here on out.

It’s just that because the previous lord did such a good job, the constant comparisons will make things incredibly difficult…

To repeat: that’s what it means to take over a job.

※

Now then, Tistria and her aides had been away at the front.

They returned to the Knights’ Headquarters quite a bit later than the Conjurer Knights.

Upon their return, they reviewed the report from Gaikaku and the letter of thanks from Dikes that had arrived, but…

The contents were rather strange.

Gaikaku’s report was simple: “Cooperated with the local Elven defense force and succeeded in rescuing Aspi. However, Aspi’s handmaiden was seriously injured. Though her life was saved, full recovery will take a year and a half.”

Of course, it included other details following the proper format, but that was the gist of it.

“As expected of Lord Gaikaku. The rescue was a success, it seems.”

“Y-Yes… As for a score?”

“Lady Aspi is safe, so it’s a perfect score. As for everything else, there have been no complaints from their side, so there are no grounds for deducting points.”

“I-I suppose you’re right…”

Tistria, who had assigned the request, was the one who best understood the difficulty of resolving this incident.

Of course, her aide, Wesun, had a similar view.

The fact that Aspi was unharmed… or rather, that she simply hadn’t died, was a huge accomplishment.

In fact, they wanted to praise him just for taking on the job in the first place.

An Elf rescue mission… I wouldn’t have the confidence to accept it. He himself was reluctant, too… I can’t blame him, but he truly is a remarkable man.

If they had come back complaining, “The handmaiden got hurt! We protest!” it was the kind of situation that would make you want to yell back, “Then you do it, you idiot!”

Of course, the client understood this, so they were expected to be simply grateful and say something like, “As expected of the Knight Order! Amazing!”

However… the letter of thanks from Dikes was something else entirely.

“By the way, about this letter of thanks from Forest Chief Dikes… it reads less like a letter of thanks and more like an apology…”

“It would seem so. I hear the messenger who delivered it was also bowing profusely.”

One could understand if it said something like, “Thank you for saving my daughter! I honestly thought it was a lost cause!”

But instead, it said something along the lines of, “We are seriously sorry! Truly, seriously, super, sorry!!”

That’s a loose translation, of course, but for some reason, they were apologizing over and over.

What’s more, it also said, “The Conjurer Knights, their Commander and the other members, are the absolute best!! Please do not, under any circumstances, blame them for anything!!”

There’s a postscript written like idle chatter that says, “A man named Tureis and his parents lost their jobs and were then evicted from their home by their landlord”… What on earth happened?

Wesun was now genuinely curious about what had occurred.

Difficulty aside, it should have been a simple operation to rescue a hostage, with no casualties other than the one handmaiden.

So why did they receive an apology letter that read as if Gaikaku had murdered their parents?

One thing was clear: just like with previous clients, the crucial details were being obscured.

“Clearly obscured” was a mystery in itself, but for some reason, the clients were also cooperating with Gaikaku’s information blackout.

“If the client is satisfied, then all is well.”

“Yes, I suppose so…”

Tistria took the report at face value.

Her stance was that if the client was satisfied, that’s what mattered most; if they had a complaint but didn’t voice it, that was their own fault.

A person in a high position has to be this broad-minded to do their job.

“Be that as it may… this recent personnel assignment was not a good one.”

On the other hand, she felt there was a problem with how the work had been assigned.

“Normally, our deployment should have been the last resort. Nevertheless, our dispatch was decided first, and the Conjurer Knights came after, in the end.”

“That’s because the client told us, ‘Don’t send rabble like the Conjurer Knights’…”

“The Conjurer Knights are still new. It can’t be helped.”

Regarding this job, Gaikaku had been worried, “If a bunch of nobodies like us just show up, will we even be able to form a joint operation?”

In reality, since it was Avior’s hometown, his worry was unfounded, but…

In most other places, it would be natural for them to say, “Send us a different Knight Order.”

But to build a track record, you have to do the grunt work…

“So, from now on, instead of waiting for requests, let’s proactively send the Conjurer Knights into the field. If they build up successes even on small battlefields, it should create trust.”

“Indeed…”

Tistria’s thinking was sound.

Rather than sending them to a critical battlefront right away, it was better to frequently send them to smaller skirmishes to make it known that “the Conjurer Knights are just as amazing as the other Knight Orders.” That should reduce friction.

If there’s a problem, it’s that Lord Gaikaku laughs with a ‘Geh-heh-heh’…

The way he went all-out to project a shady aura—that was something she couldn’t defend at all.

“Well then, I shall recommend the Conjurer Knights to the military command.”

And just like that, it was decided Gaikaku would be going to war.

His permission had not been obtained.