As Planned (3)
"Tell me more." Wilhelm wasn't one to spout nonsense in a situation like this. Yohan listened closely.
"Yohan. Do you know exactly what a lord is in this world?"
"Sure. They're the bastards who are nominally granted land by the king to rule over." Yohan answered immediately.
The lords of this world were territorial nobles granted dominion over a specific region by the king. While not every nation operated this way, Westania—the kingdom encompassing Balifield—certainly did.
There was no concept of a "free city" here; a "city" was simply any settlement within a lord's territory where enough people had gathered to spur development. Curiously, despite the medieval technology level, territorial borders were defined with remarkable precision. This was thanks to flight and teleportation magic. Of course, while the surveying was precise, whether a lord actually exercised any real authority over those borders was a different story entirely.
"Good. That makes this easier to explain. According to imperial law, any territory not officially incorporated into a nation's domain is guaranteed to fall under the legitimate rule of whoever pioneers it first."
"Oho... Wait, hold on. How do you know stuff like that, old man?"
"Let me finish explaining first. While such a law exists, it's rarely applied in practice. In this day and age, almost the entire continent is nominally claimed by one neighboring nation or another."
Yohan knew this all too well. Junk Town itself was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Lord of Balifield, but in reality, it was a lawless wasteland the lord didn't give a damn about.
"But a kingdom can't just leave nominally claimed, undeveloped wilderness abandoned forever. Especially if the lord holding the rights to that land has zero interest in developing it. It's a waste of perfectly good territory."
"Well, they have their reasons. 'Undeveloped wilderness' is just a polite way of saying 'monster-infested hellhole.' Who knows what kind of beasts are lurking out there?"
"True enough."
The Great Forest in the heart of the Empire was a prime example. Though it had recently become so commercialized that even Yohan and Falco were appalled by it, until not too long ago, it had been an uncharted territory where no non-elf dared tread.
"Because of that, there is a system. A third party can step in to develop a nominally claimed territory, and by swearing fealty to the lord as a knight, they can obtain official, legal dominion over that land."
"Under imperial law?" Yohan asked. Wilhelm nodded.
"Yes. And Westania undoubtedly has a similar statute on its books. The idea is for you and your companions to take official charge of this entire region—from the Nameless Village all the way to Junk Town."
"Alright, I get the gist of it. You're saying we should turn our village and this entire neighborhood into the Goddess's turf... uh, I mean, official territory."
Transforming from a self-proclaimed order of knights into a legitimate one. That was Wilhelm's proposal.
"Of course, it won't be easy," Wilhelm continued. "The distance between your village and this dump is considerable. Furthermore, there's no guarantee the Lord of Balifield will readily accept such a proposal."
He had a point. Even if Yohan went through the trouble of hunting down every last criminal in the wasteland, it would all be for naught if the Lord of Balifield refused to dub him a knight.
"But knowing you, old man, there's no way you brought this up without a plan to handle that, right?" Yohan looked at Wilhelm, a sly, knowing grin spreading across his face.
"Indeed. Since I've decided to help, I intend to play every card in my hand to back you up."
"And what cards would those be, specifically?"
Instead of answering, Wilhelm stood up and walked over to his desk. He opened a drawer, pulled out a thick bundle of papers, and walked back.
"These are the logs I kept during my time as the sheriff of this dump."
Wilhelm was a meticulous man—meticulous enough to compile detailed profiles on every resident in town. Back when Yohan had first become the Apostle of the Goddess and was trying to clear his name of false accusations regarding a tomb-robbing ring, he had been allowed to look through some of these very files.
"They're just handwritten records, but they serve as proof that I've been monitoring and managing the criminal elements around Balifield while stationed here."
"Right, makes sense."
"Furthermore, you've personally eliminated several wanted criminals with bounties placed on their heads by the Lord of Balifield. You never collected the rewards due to the circumstances, of course. On top of that, you wiped out a troll pack not far from the city and built a thriving settlement of over two thousand people."
The crux of the matter was forcing the Lord of Balifield to acknowledge their contributions to regional security.
"Of course, this alone won't be enough to fully convince him. These aren't official state documents, so he could easily claim we fabricated them."
"Exactly. It'd be one thing if I had been regularly popping into Balifield to cash in those bounties. But if I just show up out of the blue claiming I took care of them, he's going to think I'm full of shit." Wilhelm nodded in agreement.
"Which is why we must also appeal to his greed. We need to show him the economic benefits of making you a knight."
"You mean taxes?"
"Quick as always. Based on what you've told me, the Nameless Village produces an immense surplus of high-quality crops, correct?"
"Yeah, we do."
"You have so much food that you're fermenting fruit into alcohol, and your villagers are actually gaining weight. If you offer that surplus as tax tribute, the lord will be ecstatic. Taxes don't always have to be paid in coin."
In truth, paying taxes solely in coin was a rarity. Outside of highly commercialized regions like the Corporate State, most feudal taxes in this medieval-esque world were paid in a mixture of currency and physical goods.
"Hmm..." Yohan crossed his arms, deep in thought. Balifield's treasury was notoriously tight. When the Undercity was flooded during the battle against the demon that possessed Big Boss, the sheer volume of displaced refugees had cost the lord a fortune to manage.
"Furthermore, your village possesses the technology to mass-produce High Potions—an incredibly high-value commodity. That alone would make most lords welcome you with open arms."
With the recent skyrocketing demand for High Potions due to rising regional tensions, the lord could make a massive profit just by selling them on the market, even if he didn't stockpile them for his own military.
"Even so, there's a chance the lord might reject your proposal," Wilhelm warned. "We have no hard proof of your bounty hunts. And technically, since your village is built on land within his nominal territory, he could stubbornly claim that all your crops already belong to him anyway."
"Surely he wouldn't be that shameless... Oh, wait. He absolutely would."
The Lord of Balifield was no saint. He had essentially dumped the entire burden of policing the southwestern wilderness onto Wilhelm's shoulders for years. And when a low-level devil had threatened Junk Town in the past, he had flatly refused to send military aid, claiming it fell outside his tax-paying jurisdiction.
"Wait a minute. When you put it like that, why the hell should I bow my head to that bastard? Why don't we just—"
"Cease this instant! Do you take us for a band of lawless brigands who simply plunder and pillage whatever they please?" The Unnamed Goddess, who had been quiet until now, cut Yohan off with an indignant huff.
"Yohan," Wilhelm said, ignoring the divine outburst. "The nobles of this world are, at their core, creatures who live and die by justification."
"Tsk."
"If you actually marched into the lord's castle and seized power by force, the neighboring territories and the Royal Capital would immediately brand you a rebel and dispatch an army to take your head. Therefore..."
Wilhelm stood up once more. This time, he bypassed the desk and walked over to the dresser by his bed. He rummaged through a drawer, pulled out a small object, and tossed it to Yohan.
Yohan caught it. It was an identity token, exceptionally ornate and encrusted with various gems and precious metals.
"Wh-what is this...?"
In this world, very few people carried physical identity tokens. Only those who constantly needed to prove their high social standing to others bothered to carry them.
"I told you," Wilhelm said quietly. "Since we're in this together, I intend to play every card in my hand to back you up."
Wilhelm let out a soft sigh.
"My real name is Wilhelm von Waldeck. That is the crest of the Marquis Waldeck family of the Wittenberg Empire."
Aha. That explained why the old man was always so ridiculously well-informed. Yohan nodded slowly, staring up at him in a new light.
"Handwritten logs alone won't carry much weight," Wilhelm explained. "But the weight of a claim doesn't just depend on physical evidence. It depends on who is making the claim."
Wilhelm was planning to throw his noble lineage around to force the Lord of Balifield's hand.
"Even if the claim is identical, there is a massive difference in gravity between the words of a grumpy sheriff from a trash heap and the words of the former heir to an imperial marquessate."
"Whew. Alright." Yohan tossed the ornate crest back to Wilhelm. This changed everything. With this, they could easily convince the lord. In fact, it was overkill.
"So don't feel too burdened, Yohan. I was planning on stepping down as sheriff anyway. You just happened to provide the perfect excuse at the perfect time."
"Sure, sure."
"At any rate, if I am to act under my family's name, I'll need to pay a brief visit to my homeland first."
"Wait, so once this is all over, are you heading straight back to the Empire for good? Actually, before that, how the hell did a high-and-mighty imperial noble end up rotting in a dump like Junk Town anyway?"
Having a powerful ally was great, but Yohan's curiosity was killing him. Wilhelm merely shrugged in response to the barrage of questions.
"It's a long, complicated story. Or..." Wilhelm trailed off, casting a peculiar look at Yohan.
"Well, if I'm going to convince my family to back us, I'll need to show them what I'm betting on. Yohan, you're coming to the Empire with me. The round trip will take at least a few weeks, so go back to the village first and explain the situation to your companions—"
"Ah, no need for all that."
"What?"
Yohan shrugged this time. He turned his head and smirked at the Goddess sitting beside him.
"Our resident Goddess here happens to be a certified master of teleportation."
"Is that so..." Wilhelm muttered, his stoic face cracking into a rare expression of genuine shock. Yohan puffed his chest out with unearned pride, while the Goddess simply clicked her tongue and shook her head.
"To think you would treat a divine being as a mere carriage. How utterly shameless."
"Hey, who else is going to do it if not you?" Yohan retorted. He had to admit, though—having a deity who could perform long-distance teleportation on a whim was basically a cheat code.
There was no time like the present. After briefly filling in the other members of his knight order on the situation, Yohan and his companions set off for the Empire.
"Incredible..." Wilhelm murmured, looking around. "To cross such a vast distance in the blink of an eye, and with virtually no magical backlash..."
"Told you so."
"It is a relief. The longer I am away from Junk Town, the more chaotic the transition will become."
Just a moment ago, the man had sounded completely done with his sheriff duties, yet here he was, already worrying about the town's transition. Yohan couldn't help but chuckle at the old man's stubborn sense of responsibility.
"Once we reach the nearest city, we can use the teleportation gate station to travel directly to my family's estate."
"By the way, who's the current head of your house anyway?" Yohan asked. Given Wilhelm's age, his parents were likely either long dead or had long since retired and passed the title down.
"My older sister."
"An older sister, huh? Let me guess—she's a hulking, monstrously strong warrior just like you?" Yohan immediately pictured a giant, muscular noblewoman who looked exactly like Wilhelm in a dress.
"Of course," Wilhelm replied, completely oblivious to Yohan's mental image. "She is also highly intellectual and avidly fond of reading. She is far better suited to lead the family than I ever was."
A master of both the pen and the sword. Yohan felt a sudden pang of nervousness.
"Alright. Let's get moving, then."
"Right." With that, the two set off toward the territory of Marquis Waldeck.