The Victory Banquet (2)
Returning to the party hall, I exchanged final greetings with the others and prepared to head back to my carriage. Once I returned, I planned to review everything surrounding me, starting with the estate's security and defense systems. It was true that things had been going so well lately that I’d almost let it go to my head—I needed to snap out of it.
James Sett, you’re just a small-timer who has barely reached the starting line, so please, stop getting ahead of yourself.
No matter how much I’d clumsily made a name for myself, this could very well be the most dangerous period of all. I needed to analyze reality more coldly and prepare countermeasures accordingly...
“Oh my, are you leaving already?”
“Whoa!”
Startled by the voice behind me, I turned to find Catherine Chase, whom I had spoken with earlier, staring straight at me.
“Miss Catherine, we meet again.”
“You can call me Kate. Everyone close to me calls me that.”
I glanced around, but strangely, Governor Salmon was nowhere to be seen.
“Is it alright for you not to be with your father?”
“It’s fine. My guardian is right back there. Actually, Father is so busy that if I followed him around everywhere, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the party at all.”
“I suppose that’s true. He is quite the heavyweight in politics, after all.”
“Speaking of politics, are you truly uninterested in it, Mr. Sett?”
Kate, who had suddenly thrown a direct question at me, sparkled her eyes as if looking at a fascinating creature. If someone already knew my track record, wouldn’t they naturally think that? They would know that if I had set my mind to cozying up to the Democratic Party, securing a position would have been child’s play.
“As I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe I have the capacity for such things.”
“As I also said earlier, I don’t think your capacity is small at all, Mr. Sett. Let me ask you honestly. You’ve already understood why we wanted to see you, haven’t you?”
This woman’s intuition was seriously sharp. That must be why, despite her young age, she was able to fill her mother’s empty seat in a prominent Republican political family. Seeing no point in hiding it further, I gave a light nod.
“You’re looking to secure useful cards in advance for the next convention, aren’t you?”
“Yes. From my perspective, we could become a very useful cooperative relationship. Am I the only one who feels that way?”
“Miss Kate, do you want to make your father President?”
“Of course. I want to be the First Lady. Since my mother has passed, if Father becomes President, I’m the only one who can fulfill that role, right?”
Showing her ambition so honestly actually made me feel a bit of affection for her. However, precisely because of that, I had no choice but to point out the blind spot in her plan.
“In return for the advice you gave me earlier, let me offer you one piece of advice: the assumption that we will have a mutually useful relationship is a bit of a hasty guess.”
“...Excuse me? Why is that?”
“It’s a correct statement under the assumption that North-South relations will continue as they are now. Even if he’s from the South, a moderate and well-known young man would have significant utility for Governor Salmon. But have you thought about how much more our respected President Buchanan will accomplish in the future?”
He was a man who had committed a legendary blunder with the Dred Scott decision as soon as he took office. He would spend four years doing things that would incite disgust in the North, so would the atmosphere of the Republican convention four years later really flow like it did last time?
“Uh... Mr. Sett, do you not support the South?”
“If support for someone influences the analysis of a situation, that’s not analysis, it’s wishful thinking. In my view, the person who takes the clearest confrontational stance against the South will win the next Republican convention.”
In other words, Salmon Chase was already a lost cause. He had too many instances of pursuing goals in cooperation with the Democrats while advocating for a pragmatic line. He was stained with too much of the Democratic Party’s filth to ever wash it off, even if he wanted to.
Kate, who understood the meaning behind my words, stiffened for a moment before brightening up as if she actually liked it. She wrote something on her handkerchief and handed it to me.
“My eyes weren’t wrong, after all. Doesn’t this conversation alone prove that we will be helpful to each other?”
“I have no choice but to agree with that.”
“Right? This is my address, so please send me a letter. I have to help Father until the next presidential election anyway, so there’s no chance of marriage talks with other families. By the way, is there anyone you have your eye on, Mr. Sett?”
“Unfortunately, I haven’t had a good opportunity yet, so I am alone.”
“Good. Then we can exchange letters often from now on. No one knows what will happen four years from now.”
Did she mean to go all-in for the presidential election four years later, come what may? In fact, since Buchanan might suddenly come to his senses and try to minimize the North-South conflict, acting like Kate was a natural reaction. I was the only one who knew Buchanan would be voted the worst President in American history, so I could be certain, but if I said that, I’d just be treated like a lunatic.
Besides, for me, a relationship where we cooperate behind the scenes without it showing on the surface was far more profitable than being openly branded as a collaborator. I gifted her a handkerchief with my address in return, chatted with this ambitious young lady for a while longer, and then returned to my carriage.
“...Excuse me? So, you just let that young lady go?”
“What else was I supposed to do if I didn’t let her go? Bring her here and ask her to come to Mississippi with us?”
“No, no, no! Master! In times like that, you should have naturally pushed the schedule back by a day and booked a room at the hotel!”
“That’s right! We would have gladly waited another night and cheered for you, Master!”
Aigoo, I shouldn’t have brought it up and awakened these guys’ instinct to give unsolicited advice. Back in the carriage, I shared the advice I’d heard from Kate to help myself mentally re-arm, but the conversation somehow focused entirely on the woman named Kate Chase who had given me the advice.
“Master, so... was she beautiful?”
“She was pretty, but so what?”
“‘So what’ is not the answer! Why would someone like that give you such advice, Master? She was openly showing you her interest!”
“That’s right. That was basically a signal to spend the night together, so why on earth did you—!”
A festival of unsolicited advice was breaking out in the carriage. They said the most entertaining things in the world were watching fights, watching fires, and giving advice on other people’s love lives. These guys were lamenting as if I had committed the most idiotic blunder in the world, and Leo even started spouting nonsense about turning the carriage around and going back right now.
“No, come to think of it, this is absurd. Leo, you bastard, aren’t you a lifelong solo? Do you even know anything about dating?”
“Excuse me? Well, I have to serve you, Master, so I just haven’t cast my eyes elsewhere yet...”
“Next you’ll say you’re a lifelong solo. People who have never dated once in their lives always make excuses like that.”
How did I know? Because that was exactly me in my past life. I kept saying, “Once I get into a prestigious university,” “Once I get a job,” “Once I get a promotion,” “Once I do this,” and ended up never even holding a woman’s hand properly until I died of pancreatic cancer. In that sense, I was clearly lacking in male-female relationships, but I could guarantee I wasn’t at a level where I needed to be lectured by these guys.
They’d lived their whole lives on a farm without ever playing around with women properly, so what gave them the right to act like experts on romance?
“Even if I were to take advice, I’d take it from my sister or brother-in-law who are married. If I followed your words, it’s obvious I’d fail, so why would I be crazy enough to listen to you?”
“No, it’s unfair, Master. I, Leo, am a man who has experienced talking to all the women in the house as naturally as breathing.”
“That’s talking for work. Are you kidding me? If you count it like that, I’ve dealt with hundreds.”
“Aren’t private conversations eventually an extension of public ones? If I set my mind to it, I could steal the heart of any woman on the farm in an instant. Of course, I am your faithful servant, Master, so I haven’t laid a hand on anyone yet.”
It’s not that you haven’t laid a hand on anyone, it’s that you didn’t have the guts to, you idiot. Honestly, are you telling me a man in his prime, whose brain is occasionally dominated by boiling blood and sexual desire, has never touched a woman until now?
On a farm, slaves having affairs was a constant, not a variable, and I was sure that even in my farm, hot-blooded youths were secretly carrying out their business every night. In the first place, since a child’s status followed the mother, many planters encouraged childbirth, viewing the birth of a female slave as an increase in the master’s assets.
Even without legal validity, unofficial weddings were common, and in many cases, slaves who were effectively considered a married couple were allowed to live in the same barracks. So, if Leo really hadn’t touched anyone until now, it meant he was just a guy who was all talk.
“Sigh, anyway, what’s the point of me having a serious discussion with you guys about this? Forget the useless stuff—we won the baseball game, so tell me what you want as a reward. I’ll take it into consideration if possible.”
The moment the word “reward” came up, the noisy carriage fell noticeably silent, and everyone’s eyes shook as if they were having an earthquake. It seemed some kind of conversation had already passed between them while I was busy running my mouth at the banquet.
Sure enough, Ben, who was the head supervisor, took the lead and opened his mouth cautiously.
“Master, um... might I ask what level of reward we are talking about?”
“Thanks to you guys doing well this time, things have worked out very well. Plus, unexpectedly, I’ve even made connections with a Republican governor. So, I’ll let you do whatever you want, as long as it’s something that can be done on the farm. Of course, within the limits of not interfering with your work.”
“Well then, um... the topic of marriage between men and women came up earlier. We are all men, there are many beautiful women on the farm, and since you encourage men and women to get involved, so...”
“Why? You want me to introduce you to women?”
Were these guys seriously asking me to set them up on blind dates? When I asked just in case, the heads of Ben, Henry, and Sam shook up and down like crazy. Now I understood why they had been so excited about my love life earlier. They were guys who were true to their instincts.
“That’s not impossible. You are the baseball elites who represented our farm, went all the way to the North, and gave those white folks a lesson. If you just tell that heroic tale, women will come running with their eyes shining, right?”
“Ohhh... Ohhhhh!”
“Maaaaster!”
If I was truly aiming for my own kingdom, I needed to avoid methods like the breeding-style pairing used on other farms. The more people have real families, loving wives, and children, the higher the labor stability becomes. In other words, if I was going to do it, doing it properly would yield far greater effects.
“But just an introduction? I told you. You have to receive rewards commensurate with your achievements. Simple introductions can be done as a monthly dinner reward.”
“...Oh... Oh...”
“Leo, if I remember correctly, there was one party hall we weren’t using, right?”
“Yes. It was a bit old and poorly located for hosting distinguished guests, so we’ve been holding parties in the newly built building.”
“Then I’ll have that extensively renovated and use it as a meeting place for the farm people from now on.”
Employee blind dates... no, since this is premised on marriage and childbirth, it’s closer to a matchmaking service than a blind date. If I let them taste sweet romantic feelings rather than the haphazard, childbirth-encouraging methods of the past, their satisfaction would skyrocket, wouldn’t it?
I would decorate the party hall like a dating space from a romance variety show, and once a week, let them invite a partner of their choice to enjoy sweet desserts or coffee to their heart’s content. If I tested it by giving six-month passes to workers who made big contributions like the Sett All-Stars, and fifteen-day passes to the farm’s top-performing team, wouldn’t the reaction be explosive?
To those who had only ever met in tiny shacks or secretly once or twice in the middle of the night, how much of a stimulus would that be? This would surely act as a much more powerful motivator for the single slaves than dinners or beer.
Even slaves who already had someone they were interested in would be half-crazed if they were told they could invite their partner to such a place and enjoy dates to their heart’s content.
“Then, as a test, I’ll bundle the Sett All-Stars team that went to the baseball game and Leo together and push forward with it once.”
“Excuse me? W-why me...”
“You said you haven’t been able to meet women because you were serving me, right? Try meeting someone. I’ll watch and use it as a reference to see what kind of flashy eloquence you use to woo them.”
“Uh... w-well... ahem! I still have much to learn by your side, Master...”
“Wooooo! Thank you, Master! Thank you so, so much!”
“Me too, me too! I can finally hold someone’s hand! I thought this life was truly a lost cause. Sob sob!”
Leo’s protest was buried by the cheers of the other slaves that erupted one after another. I never knew I’d end up running a matchmaking service, but this, too, was for the efficient management of our farm.
“Long live the Master!”
“I will be loyal for life!”
Yes, yes. Love to your heart’s content and offer your loyalty. A demonic idea that utilizes even the emotions between men and women as tools for management. I repeat, I am that kind of vicious master.