Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Peaceful Riot
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Peter hated Duke.
No, it was closer to jealousy than hate.
From the moment they first met until now, Duke had never wavered.
He chose without hesitation, even if it meant regretting later.
That was why Peter envied Duke.
And respected him at the same time.
Before crossing the Ferry Bridge, Peter poured all these emotions into his words toward Duke.
"Thank you."
"Did you eat something bad on the way?"
"Tch. Can't even say a few words."
Peter clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, but the corners of his mouth were turned up.
"I'm grateful that you understand this old man's wanderings."
Peter harbored countless wanderings.
He wanted to prove his loyalty by laying down his life for the Empire, yet at the same time, it felt too wasteful to give his life for a corrupt Empire.
Rex suited the role of sovereign better than anyone, yet he had sworn false loyalty out of pity for her own wanderings.
And just before arriving at the city, he had felt a lingering attachment to the Empire, however brief.
All of them were wanderings too shameful to speak aloud.
Duke had severed this old man's delusions at the Ferry Bridge.
There had only been a brief exchange between the two, but that alone allowed the old man to shake off his delusions.
"It's embarrassing, but if I ever hesitate in front of Lady Rex later, give me another scolding like this."
"That won't happen."
"You sound awfully certain."
Peter shot Duke a suspicious glance at his attitude, which definitively declared there would be no more wanderings.
It was a reasonable suspicion—perhaps Duke had prophetic abilities.
And in a sense, Peter's suspicion was correct.
"Of course."
However, Duke's character was set as a knight proficient in both civil and military arts, piercing through the future with pure wisdom, without any precognition ability.
Thus, mindful of that setting, Duke stood before Peter and guided him to the entrance.
"You'll realize it once you pass the gates."
Peter tilted his head and crossed the checkpoint.
Soon, he faced an unbelievable sight.
"Hah..."
He first noticed the fresh, fragrant air.
The stench of rotting corpses and excrement typical of city streets was barely detectable.
Peter quickly figured out the reason.
"Sewers...!"
Overwhelmed with emotion, the old man hurried to a manhole near the gate.
On the way, he felt the well-paved road with his staff and marveled again.
"A city like this once in a century!"
The Hexion Empire was famous not only for its citadels but also for its road networks and sewers.
How else could the saying "All roads lead to Hexion" have come about?
Unfortunately, after the Empire's fall, most kings and nobles lacked roots, so they paid little attention to such infrastructure.
Before that, artisans had died off, severing the knowledge.
Even Sneria's territory, said to be the most prosperous kingdom, lacked urban planning expertise and reproduced such facilities imperfectly.
In this era, Rex had built infrastructure surpassing the Empire's golden age in just ten years.
Thus, Peter was moved by these basic facilities alone.
"Come to think of it, from a certain point on the way here, all roads were paved."
"The plan is to pave roads across the entire Duchy within five years. Sewers too."
"Impressive. Truly. Truly impressive."
Peter kept marveling.
However, Duke, from the modern world, wondered if getting this excited over 'mere(?)' things like that was warranted.
'Well, that's isekai for you.'
Slightly excited, Peter continued his questions.
"But to do it in five years, you'd need a huge workforce, right? Did you use mages?"
"That would be unaffordable. Instead, beastkin are doing the heavy lifting."
"Slaves?"
"Watch your words. There are no slaves in the Duchy."
"No slaves? Then how do you maintain the workforce?"
"You'll see when you look at the people."
"What do you... Ah, right! No discrimination against demihumans, so productivity has actually increased!"
Originally, slavery and demihuman discrimination were systems the Empire created to maintain class structure and openly exploit free labor.
Elves were assigned forests and fruit gathering, merfolk salt flats and fishing, beastkin heavy labor or cotton farming.
Imperial officials and people believed such abundance required treating demihumans as slaves.
But...
"Haha. I was foolish too! People work harder when free! Why didn't I think of something so obvious?"
Rex, from a capitalist society, knew history proved otherwise.
When convincing her bureaucrats, Rex had said:
(...or so the chronicles recorded.)
Of course, empty-headed Duke didn't know such details and simply induced enlightenment, assuming Peter would figure it out.
Duke also explained other ways the Duchy differed from other nations while guiding Peter.
"Hm? That merchant. The gold denominations seem different."
"Our liege changed the gold coin standard. Simplified the complex currency system to base-10."
He had also switched from yards and pounds to the metric system.
Duke didn't fully grasp the greatness of Rex's reforms, but he viewed this as a monumental achievement.
Switching from ounces, pounds, inches to meters and grams for the first time felt like a massive quality-of-life improvement.
Of course, Peter interpreted this reform differently.
"Hah. You've already been preparing to secede from the kingdom."
Measurement units tie into daily life.
Just as inch-pound users disdain metric users, changing units meant drawing a line on living spheres.
In a sense, it was treason against the royals.
Thus, Peter interpreted Rex preparing this years ago as coup preparations.
'It was just because she found it inconvenient.'
Duke couldn't comprehend linking a mere unit change to treason.
As Peter traversed the capital under Duke's guidance, he soon wore a blissfully happy smile.
"Lady Sneria's capital was impressive, but Lady Rex exceeds imagination."
Of course, Sneria's territory was currently more prosperous.
Rex had only ten years, limited in changing citizens' mindsets and infrastructure.
But as a former duke himself, Peter recognized Rex's city brimmed with far greater potential.
"In another ten years, even Sneria won't keep up."
Infrastructure, units, education, welfare.
Recalling them all, Peter boldly declared:
"I guarantee it. Growth won't stop for the next century."
As a nation grows steeply, the people scream in happiness.
Jobs keep appearing, economy booms endlessly.
"Even controlling the growth pace shows effort."
"Indeed."
Duke didn't know what traces of that effort were, but agreed anyway.
"Now do you understand what I meant at the entrance?"
"Yes. You were right again. No need for me to wander either."
Ability and character lacked nothing for pledging loyalty.
The old man broke into a full smile.
"Now I won't worry about worries either."
While guiding the city and instilling loyalty in Peter, Duke.
"Now, let's go make the official Blood Oath with our liege."
"Blood Oath?"
Duke explained Blood Oath to Peter as he led him to Rex.
Roughly, special beings like Peter could form a stronger contract than a mere liege-vassal one with Rex.
Thus, Peter went with Duke to Rex and formed the Blood Oath.
"My liege. I swear loyalty until my bones turn to dust."
Finally, Rex witnessed a special ability from the Blood Oath unlock after a long time.
'Alright, hero gacha time.'
What abilities did this old man hide, and what awakened?
With gacha excitement, Rex opened Peter's status window.
"...?"
Rex froze.
What? Are my eyes wrong?
How can Merfolk and Dragonkin be together?
As if noticing Rex's doubt,
or thinking he could no longer hide from his liege,
Peter explained himself.
"Do you know the term 'Dragon Gate,' Lady Rex?"
"Yeah. When a fish climbs a waterfall, it becomes a dragon?"
"Yes. Merfolk do the same. We naturally become Dragonkin upon reaching Rank 7."
"So your current form is..."
"Yes. Polymorph."
Good lord.
Rex clutched the back of his neck.
Not from anger or fear, but sheer shock making him dizzy.
"Ugh... my neck..."
Ari massaged Rex's tense neck muscles and questioned Peter.
"So you're a dragon?"
"No, a wyrm."
Rex and Duke knew the difference between dragon and wyrm, but for those who didn't, the old man gave a brief lecture.
"Dragons are inherently evil, wyrms wise. Can't you tell just by the eyes?"
It felt like injecting strange prejudice, but since it wasn't entirely wrong, Duke didn't correct him.
While Peter fervently extolled wyrms' coolness, Rex continued browsing Peter's info.
The skills were decent, unremarkable ones.
Skill Name: [Wisdom of the Ages A+]
Not fixed damage like Ari's, nor brainy like Duke's.
A skill for conversing and giving apt advice, plain if anything.
'...or so one might think.'
But recalling the original story, Duke disagreed.
'That's an enlightenment vending machine.'
"Apt advice."
Not specified what that entailed, so it seemed plain at a glance.
But its scariest part: the old man just needed to talk, and anyone would gain enlightenment.
Of course, as "apt advice," effects stopped at Rank 2, none from Rank 3 up, but the condition was too easy.
In the original, sending Peter to boot camp turned all regular infantry from Rank 1 to 2 in a year.
'This alone shifts the war balance.'
While other territories' grunts were Rank 0, Providence Duchy's started at Rank 1.
Naturally, it covered Rex's superhuman shortage weakness, allowing proper clashes.
Recalling that, Duke felt jealous of Peter.
'Damn. I still haven't unlocked a useful skill.'
No empowered or stronger feeling yet.
While Duke quietly envied Peter,
Rex kept checking other parts.
'Karma... predictably in merits. Loyalty 99%, betrayal rate 2%? Ah, conditions listed.'
If Rex turned tyrant or derelict ruler, Peter would kill him and commit seppuku.
Note: derelict included shirking duties without cause, so unjust retirement too.
'...'
Thus, Rex realized once more he couldn't retire from dukehood.
Finally, the awaited section.
'At least traits are normal...'
[Traits]
🛡️ Loyalty A
🌀 Madness B
💡 Wisdom S
Indecisive (Deactivated)
(This unit is strongly influenced by Hero, Duke!)
'Fuck.'
Now he went mad politely right on entry.
Obviously whose fault it was went without saying.
Rex pinched his brow and closed the window.
Wow. An azure dragon subordinate who'll kill me and suicide if I retire for rest.
He was overjoyed to death.
'Eh, but Wisdom trait. He won't do anything weird.'
Rex rationalized and celebrated recruiting Peter.
A few days passed since Peter officially became a retainer of Providence territory.
Rex, initially worried about Peter, relaxed after a few days.
'Right. Madness doesn't mean insane person.'
To reiterate, Madness meant using any means for goals.
Thus, no need to distrust solely for the trait.
A stubborn retainer risking life for loyalty fit the condition too.
Thinking so eased Rex's mind.
He regretted not staying vigilant hours later.
"Your Grace! Riot!"
The guard captain burst through the office door.
Rex jumped from his desk.
"What? Rebellion?!"
"No, not rebellion—a riot."
"Reason?"
"Well..."
The captain hesitated, then guided Rex to the window, saying seeing was faster.
Soon, Rex saw citizens protesting with placards before the mansion.
The problem was the placard content.
<Lady Rex, take a wife immediately!>
<You must produce an heir soon!>
"..."
What.
What kind of protest is this.
Rex looked at the guard captain.
"And you call this a riot?"
"Look at the leader."
Only then did Rex spot the one at the protest's front.
A blind old man, with three young knights presumed followers behind, shouted.
Peter prostrated like a loyal minister petitioning the king in a historical drama.
Each bow, the knights behind bowed too.
"..."
Rex muttered seriously.
"Why isn't this a dream."
Behind the protesters, Duke, arm-in-arm with Hana on a date, looked toward Rex's window.
Watching Duke, Hana asked what she'd long wondered.
"Darling. I assume you permitted this protest, but why something like this...?"
"Old man Peter begged so earnestly, I couldn't refuse."
"Ah..."
Hana sighed with mixed emotions.
She thought the senile geezer bore full responsibility.
'Right. Darling wouldn't permit such idiocy.'
How much self-loathing for approving it.
Plus the content made suppression awkward.
She sent warm eyes to Duke suffering inwardly.
But the truth differed slightly.
'Payback for teasing me last time.'
The protest's mastermind smirked inside his helmet.