Chapter 28: The Fish That Got Away

Randolph read the report he received while shaking.

What was written there was the total opposite of the initial investigation.

So the data for the Peetak and the Banfield houses were switched?

Other than Liam and Peters names and faces, everything written in their reports were swapped.

It was unbelievable.

Such a thing was impossible.

How could a mistake like this ever transpire?

He pondered this for a while before shaking his head,

I need to immediately notify the pirates of the cancellation of the plan.

It was already around the time for the battle to start.

If it was already too late, then hed have to immediately cut all ties with the pirates, sending over the Razel houses fleet for relief aid in hopes of selling a favour.

Thats what he decided, but soon after-

Lord Randolph!

A call came in from his panicking subordinates, saying that the pirates had suffered a crushing defeat.

While the Peetak house had lost most of their fleet as well, and were now seeking refuge at his Viscount house.

T-thats no good! Send them away immediately!

The thing is, t-the Peetak house is currently connected to us through marriage, we cant refuse them because of our military alliance.

They had signed a number of treaties at the same time as the engagement, but that seems to have backfired on them.

Randoph started grasping at his head.

This c-cant be. Something like this just cant-

Thats when another call came in, this time from his daughter Katerina.

Father!

At first he was thinking about how he didnt have the time to deal with her, but his legs started to tremble after hearing her report.

Im in the territory of the Peetak house right now, but somethings wrong! Its completely different from the report, this place hasnt even been remotely developed at all! On top of that, debt collectors are pushing for us to repay the Peetak houses debt. Peters parents are apparently in the imperial capital, but when I tried calling them to ask them about this, they just gave terrible responses!

Well leave our considerable debt to you.

The Peetak houses response was bad, but to force a Viscount house to take care of a Counts debt was just cruel.

Itd be tough even for the Razel house, who earns quite a bit.

A-and also-

Theres more?!

Randolph, who didnt want to hear anymore more, told Katerina to continue,

Peter has an STD.

After hearing such a thing, everything went dark before Randolphs eyes.

Its been three months since I left the Razel house, and now Ive finally returned home.

Those three months in between were spent hunting pirates in Baron Exners territory.

The Barons territory was amazing.

You could really tell it was the kind of land that they squeezed to the last minute.

It wasnt as bad as the Banfield territory ruled by my predecessors, but the land really gave off the feeling of being ruled over by someone who was faithful to the basics of being an evil lord.

While I was in their care, I got to enjoy playing with Kurt while my fleet actively hunted down the pirates.

Apparently Baron Exner had a daughter, and he told me that I should take care of her once she reached a certain age.

In other words, hes accepted me as a fellow evil lord.

But she wasnt mature enough yet, so itd be a while before she could come to my house for bridal training.

Well, that was the end of that.

Its nice to finally meet you, Lord Liam.

An old lady with a straight back had greeted me.

Youre the new head maid?

As soon as I returned to the territory, she went out of her way to welcome me as a form of courtesy.

When she helped me change clothes, she didnt show any discomfort at all.

Apparently she was the new hire that was going to be in charge of teaching manners and etiquette, she was really loud and annoying to listen to.

Did you need something from me?

Id just like to ask you a few things about the place you went to for training. From Lord Liams perspective, what kind of place was Viscount Razels house?

Well, it should be fine to speak honestly to the head maid that I was going to be in the care of.

They were nothing special. Well, I guess they were a good place to learn at, sort of.

Serious and just they were a house that was the complete opposite of my own.

There were a lot of good things about them, but they were a house I couldnt get along with when looking at the big picture.

No, itd be impossible to get along.

We were completely incompatible.

Compared to them, how about Baron Exner?

He was the ideal evil lord.

They were a house I definitely wanted to build a connection with.

it was tough, wasnt it?

The head maid had a surprised face.

Well, were not going to be associating with them anymore, so I guess everythings water under the bridge.

Youre not considering revenge?

revenge? Oh, as in response to their treatment of me?

Well, I was angry, but if there werent serious people like them around, then the Empire would be likely to collapse.

Like I said, Id rather just avoid getting involved with them from now on.

She seemed to be muttering something, but I couldnt hear her.

It was the prime minister that the head maid contacted after she returned to her quarters.

In an Empire where anti-aging technology had advanced by a great deal, it was quite rare to see both the head maid and the prime minister, two people who chose to look old.

Its been a long time, prime minister.

Ive been looking forward to your report. So what kind of person is the Banfield kid in your eyes?

The head maid, who originally worked for the imperial palace, had quite the close relationship with the prime minister.

It was a relationship born from knowing each other ever since their youths.

Hes the perfect example of the ideal imperial noble.

Is that so?

From the prime ministers point of view, he was a good child who did his best to save his debt-riddled territory.

The head maid had the same opinion, but she wouldnt say it out loud.

He has quite the character about him. It was almost as if I was looking at your younger self.

Apparently, he was just like the prime minister who quickly climbed the ranks in the palace during his youth.When she said that, the minister started smiling,

I see, so he has character does he?

Sometimes, there were people born with incredible luck.

They lived existences as if they were chosen by something as the population suddenly increased, it was only natural for several of such people to appear in the same era.

It wasnt just luck. Hes quite mature for his age. Maybe the Razel Viscount house actually had a good teacher among them, because it doesnt look like any re-training is necessary.

Hmm theres been a lot of bad rumours about that house lately. Did you hear about how the Count was attacked near their territory?

They ended up having to deal with a fleet of normal pirates, and the Peetak houses fleet who claimed to be pirates.

Hes quite courageous despite his age.

Knowing how the Peetak house operated, the prime minister understood the situation and easily dismissed them as pirates.

Are you going to do anything about this?

A foolish young nobleman who doesnt know the harshness of reality needs to be disciplined. For this, the Empire will start a thorough investigation into the situation.

It was decided that the pirate raid and the other shady things about this situation would be investigated in earnest.

Still, is the Viscount an idiot? What the hell was he thinking when he chose to support the Peetak house over the Banfield house?

Marriage between the Razel and Peetak houses.

The prime minister could only tilt his head in confusion at the idea.

No matter how he thought about it, they were definitely the wrong choice to partner with.

Since they were practically crippling themselves, he decided now would be the most opportune time to start an investigation.

The prime minister told the head maid,

Keep watch over him for a while. Hell probably become one pillars that support the future empire.

Oh? You sure do have high expectations for him.

Only because there are fools everywhere else. Speaking of which, I heard an interesting story recently. Why dont you pass it on to your present master?

Once the call finished, the head maid decided to convey to Liam the information she heard from the prime minister.

Lord Liam! This Brian here was so worried that I couldnt sleep at night!

No, youre old so you need to get enough sleep.

When I returned to the mansion, Brian started to cry like usual.

I turned to Amagi,

Hes lying. His sleeping time has been reduced, but not to the point of impeding his health.

This guy, was he really worried about me?

Brian asked me,

B-by the way, Lord Liam I heard that you did a lot of things at the viscounts, were you able to harvest many fruits from your training?

There were a few, but there wasnt many.

Well, I made a friend, does that count?

Oh! Lord Liam has made a friend! This Brian here is ecstatic! Did you invite them over?

Why was he so happy about me making friends?

Even I had a few frien wait a minute.

Now that I thought about it, I didnt.

Evil lords usually dont, right?

Though I guess that might be wrong, because I know that some villains create groups.

Great villains always have a bunch of henchmen following them.

Master, regarding our future policies-

Because I was asked by Amagi, I decided that now was the time to announce the changes Ive been thinking about for a while.

Before any of that, Id like to create an entertainment district.

Amagi sighed, Is that so?

I was enthusiastic despite her weak reaction.

Creating a place to relieve stress is important, but STDs and the like are no good. Theyre too dangerous. Lets prepare a safe environment to play around in thats thoroughly managed. Well use my pocket money as the budget.

The budgeting for this year is already finished, so we have to use my personal funds.

was it enough? Recently, I cant help but feel like my sense of money has gone awry.

Understood, but before that may I ask why you purchased more battleships? Even then, why a fortress-class battleship, something thats too much for us to handle at the moment?

I turned my eyes away from Amagi.

You know about our current military plans, right?

When I stayed silent, Amagi proceeded to chew me out,

We cant prepare the crew right now, well have to train them from scratch. Do you understand how much the maintenance costs are?

its because I wanted it.

Its couldnt say that I bought it while excited by Nias sportswear.

You need to be careful. Thanks to that, weve been requested to buy ships of equal rank from the other weapon factories one after another. The imperial army has even gotten in contact with us in hopes that we purchase their older models.

The weapons factories were pressuring us to buy their products.

While the military contacted us in hopes that wed purchase the extra assets they didnt need anymore.

Because you could afford a fortress-class, you have a lot of funds, right? seems to be the premise theyre approaching us with.

But If we refused both of them, various problems might ensue.

If thats the case, lets a few and distribute them out. Lets give some to Baron Exner.

Nothing good will come out of giving things away for free.

Brian threw me a lifeline while Amagi was still scolding me,

Oh, then why dont we rent them out to the neighboring small lords? By giving them some strength to defend themselves, the current burden we have could be reduced some.

Currently, it was our Banfield house that was maintaining security of the local area.

I see, thats a good plan.

We can even earn rental fees while were at it.

Okay, then lets get in contact with the military then. The older models we purchase from them will be rented out to the neighboring lords, while the new ones will be used here at home. Problem solved.

Amagi frowned,

That doesnt solve our initial problem of not knowing what to do with the fortress-class.

While we chatted, the head maid approached me,

Lord Liam, I have a report,

Peters manhood had exploded.

I started laughing like crazy after hearing the news.

The head maid informed me that the Peetak house was currently in chaos.

However, the story of Peter- the cause of it all, was more interesting than the main subject of the report itself.

He played around too much and got an STD.

You shouldnt laugh, its disrespectful.

I was currently enjoying Amagis lap-pillow in the bedroom. As my laugh finally started to die down, I was completely out of breath.

After coughing for a bit, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down.

Ahh~ I needed that.

Master, what the head maid was trying to convey was-

Their house is in chaos, I know. Theres nothing you can do but laugh at it.

In the Peetak house, Peter, their only heir, was unable to create a successor.

For that crazy reason, the house was currently in turmoil over who the next head was going to be.

Even though he was so serious, his house had broken apart and was now in chaos as I thought, theres no point in being serious.

Im sure he got it from Katerina. It truly is useless to be a serious person. I cant help but feel sorry for Peter, who was forced to be with such a terrible woman.

Getting it from his fiancee is definitely a possibility, but there hasnt been any confirmation that theyve been in a physical relationship yet.

Amagi continued on, Itll be hard for Katerina to get married from now on.

Shed be in hell if she stayed with Peter, and shed be in hell if she didnt leave him.

Because now shell be rumoured to have an STD.

As a side note, it looks like the Henfrey company lent a lot of money to the Peetak house. Theyre apparently greatly in the red now.

how stupid.

Did they approach the Peetak house with the intention to scam them?

Well, Id be troubled if they got crushed, so Ill give them some support.

Theyre my important Echigoya afterall.

While enjoying the lap pillow, I looked up towards Amagis mountains.

Oh yes, Master whats that pendant you have there?

This? Its something I picked up during a mining operation.

Brian, who originally was an adventurer told me, Its a souvenir based off of a mysterious artifact that was said to protect its wearer from all poisons.

Apparently it was a necklace created to prevent poisoning, though it was only a replica of the real thing.

You want it?

Master should hold on to it. Though it might be fake, keep it as a reminder that youre in a position thats susceptible to being poisoned.

She was telling me to keep wary.

Nowadays, poisons can easily be found through inspections.

You shouldnt grow negligent.

Because it was easy to check, it was rare for nobles to be poisoned in recent times.

But since I feel like its lucky, Ill leave it around my neck.

Its made of my favourite gold afterall.

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