The Women's Deal
The Women's Deal
"If you try it and it's not good, I'll swap it out for a chocolate chiffon cake."
"I-It looks delicious! Just looking at it, it seems incredibly tasty!"
At present, I can request anything from the U.S. Army PX, except for IT devices. Food and daily necessities, I can get as much as I want.
And the U.S. Army PX gets a ton of mint chocolate confectioneries in stock.
[Mint Choco Cake (full)]
[Budget: 20]
[Upon request, you receive a rebate of 19 budget.]
It was a rebate price that revealed the tear-jerking efforts of the Mint Choco Faction to break into the PX.
Since the actual purchase price was 1 budget.
"If it's good, I'll let you have it often. There's plenty of this stuff."
"Really?"
Luna, to my eyes, looked exactly like she would absolutely love mint chocolate.
Just like her severe gluten allergy.
Luna stared at the cake coated in a bright toothpaste color with eyes that dripped with drool.
She stabbed her fork into it and put a piece directly into her mouth.
With her cheeks bulging full, she chewed mushily, then suddenly her eyes widened as if she was suffocating, chewing rapidly before gulping it down.
"Kyaaaah!"
"Wh-why? Is it that bad?"
No way. My sense of observation?
She clearly looks like someone who'd love mint choco.
"It's delicious! It's so delicioussss!"
Leaving only those words behind, Luna began frantically shoveling the remaining cake pieces down.
The whole tub of cake melted away like spring snow in an instant.
'I knew it. Her face was totally a mint choco face.'
[Requesting supply of 10 Mint Choco Cakes (full).]
"Airborne Unit Commander Luna, eat as much as you want."
"Kyaaaah! Kyaaaah! Kyaaaah!"
That wasn't a fake cheer trying to get on my good side.
It was the resonance of the heart that only a true member of the Mint Choco Faction can produce.
I know because I spread mint choco everywhere back in the day. Of course, I'm not part of the Mint Choco Faction myself.
'Yeah, eat up. It's only about a kilo of flour anyway.'
That first impression of her being malnourished and shabby is still vivid in my eyes.
Maybe that's why whenever I see Luna, I want to feed her something uniquely delicious.
'Chocolate chiffon cake, I haven't even let Hildea or Rebecca try it yet.'
I want to see their reactions too, so I'll have to feed them quickly once I return.
If I let only Hildea taste it first, Rebecca might feel sad.
"The airborne troops who finished guiding the territory residents are returning inland. The knights of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Armies have also joined up."
"The inland commoners must not suffer major damage. But you must not help the other nobles either. You must tread the line well."
"Yes, understood."
While protecting the population (commoners), situations might arise where we end up helping other nobles. That must not happen.
That's why I repeatedly emphasize to Lord Deville and Luna to tread the line well.
"We'll just leave the nobles to fight the Ancient Tree Legion on their own and let them all die out."
"That's an excellent strategic choice."
The territory residents might suffer some casualties, but that's the lord's responsibility.
'If you hadn't pulled that crap with the supplies in the first place, it wouldn't have come to this. You brought this all on yourselves, so try holding out on your own.'
Just then, the composite communicator crackled.
It was an ultra-long-range shortwave communication call signal.
-Piel, are you doing well?
"Ah, Rebecca-nim. Yes, everything is wrapped up, and now it's time to leisurely watch the nobles get swept away by the Ancient Tree Legion."
-While eating lots of delicious things?
Suddenly I felt sorry.
Rebecca is probably just surviving on the combat rations and snack bars I packed for her, without even being able to eat a Marshall Burger right now.
Rebecca chuckled softly.
-I can eat my fill later, so don't you feel sorry about feeding the Commander-in-Chief because of me. Feed her to her heart's content, whether it's samgyeopsal or something I haven't even tried yet.
As expected, Rebecca's heart is as vast as the Pacific Ocean.
-That girl, the Commander-in-Chief, needs to eat more. She's a Sword Master, you know.
"Right. Because she's a Sword Master."
-Heh heh, that's not what I meant, though.
"...?"
-Anyway, we're building the outpost where the Anvelrum Penal Unit will stay, so look forward to it later.
"Yes, Rebecca-nim."
-Oh right. Right now, a dish called Unit Pizza Beer Stew is insanely popular in the North.
"What?"
What is that naming that triggers such déjà vu?
-It's a concentrated stew made by boiling beer with square pizza and corn flour and such for a long time until it reduces. The pizza soaks up all the moisture and becomes soft, turning into a very palatable, high-class stew.
Good heavens.
That kind of bizarre dish is trending?
-Of course, I took one bite and went back to just eating the combat rations and snack bars Piel gave me. Ah, I want to eat a Marshall Burger soon.
I had to listen to Rebecca chatter for quite a long while. Still, it was pleasant.
***
A calm atmosphere flows between Elenoa and Hildea, seated facing each other.
"I hope Piel never knows that Father might commit suicide while confined."
"Are you saying you'll bear the whole burden yourself, Sir Elenoa?"
"As his noona, I want to do everything I can for him."
"...."
Hildea sipped the tea brought out from the count family home, observing Elenoa's expression.
'Sir Elenoa doesn't want to place the yoke of immorality on Colonel Piel.'
It was a welcome matter from Hildea's perspective as well.
She hoped that, in the future, Piel's children would avoid the world's pointing fingers calling them 'the children of the man who devoured his father.'
"Everyone knows how much effort I put into saving my father's life. No one would doubt that his suicide was anything else."
"Understood. Then I shall use my official authority to persuade that point."
"Please. So that our Piel will... know nothing at all...."
"Yes, so that he knows nothing at all."
Piel's image had become terribly damaged because he rampaged like a brute insisting everyone should be killed.
Neither Hildea nor Elenoa wanted it to get any worse.
"Piel has firmly made up his mind to settle in the North."
"Yes, that's right."
"Is there no way you, Lord Valkenhart, could persuade him to stay here...?"
"I'm sorry."
An apology came out reflexively.
Just as Hildea thought she needed to make some excuse.
"Please take good care of our Piel."
"...."
"If it's you, Lord Valkenhart, I feel I can trust you with my younger brother as his noona."
"...You noticed?"
"When you're being that obvious with your whole body, how could I possibly not know?"
At Elenoa's faint smile, Hildea's face flushed red.
"Th-that can't be. In front of others, I've been as dignified as possible...."
"Ah, I was just observing very carefully. It seemed like you usually hide it well."
"I'm sorry.... I dare to...."
Hildea felt somehow like she should be kneeling before Elenoa and begging for forgiveness.
"May I ask just one favor?"
"If it is within my power, anything."
"I want to pass the territory on to my nephew, that is, the child Piel will have, in the future."
Born a commoner, Hildea didn't immediately grasp the meaning of those words.
But soon realizing what it meant, her face stiffened rigidly.
It wasn't anger, but bewilderment.
"You mean you'll take them in as an adopted child?"
"Yes. I have no interest in marriage, you see."
"But...."
"I am married to the sword. However, now that I've become the lord, the line must continue. I hope that it will be Piel's bloodline."
After asking Hildea to take good care of Piel as a man, not a subordinate, she brought up this story.
The meaning was clear.
If Hildea has a child, she wants to adopt them.
"Wouldn't this be advantageous to you too, my Lord? One child would inherit the Count Balckenhardt territory, and the other would inherit the Count Anbelrum territory."
It was an enormous inheritance gain.
The children amicably inheriting vast territories would be pleased, too.
In Hildea's eyes, unaware of the defense core's true nature, it could only look that way.
"In exchange, I would like you to give birth here."
"...You wish for the child to grow up entirely thinking of Sir Elenoa as their real mother."
"Wouldn't that be better for the child's emotional state? Instead, once the age where the truth could hurt them has passed, I plan to tell them who their real parents are. Until then, I ask that you, Lord Valkenhart, act as their maternal aunt."
Elenoa smiled again.
"Since I won't be marrying, if you refuse, this fertile land will fall into the hands of one of the other illegitimate children after I die. Surely you don't wish for that?"
"...."
Looking purely at the property, it's a gain.
It aligns with Hildea's dream of a noble family flourishing for generations.
But the moment she faced that ambition, Hildea's heart thumped with a jolt.
'Which is truly the path for the child's sake?'
Solely inheriting this prosperous land alone.
Splitting the barren North with a sibling to inherit, or receiving a suitable portion of assets and branching off into a new family.
What was better for a noble child's future was too clear to need comparison.
But the fact that they would have to be separated as soon as they were born disturbed Hildea's heart.
"Is it fine as long as the child is Piel's?"
"Yes, because I desire a nephew. Although, all the better if the nephew has a mother of superior lineage."
"For now, I can give no answer. In any case, right now... Piel doesn't see me as a woman."
"I know."
At that smiling face, Hildea unconsciously glanced at Elenoa's voluptuous upper body.
A bountiful upper mass rivaling Rebecca's.
Piel must have had his standard of femininity set in his mind since childhood, with that chest as the minimum.
Maybe that's why, to him, she herself was....
"Eat a lot of grain-based dishes. And also restrain from using Aura Blade, Aura Armor, and Feather Step a bit."
"Excuse me?"
"Mana swordsmanship, especially aura-based types, is fatal to female knights. Otherwise, you have no choice but to eat even more than that, but there's a limit to that, isn't there."
Hildea was flustered.
"M-My chest was originally small."
"From what I can see, it looks like Lord Hildea used her stamina without reservation, leaving her body with no leeway to develop her breasts femininely."
"...."
"While significantly increasing your grain-based diet, would you like to try completely cutting off aura-related techniques for just one month? Then you'll be able to know if you have the potential or not."
"Ugh.... But to use the 105mm Magical Cannon...."
"The choice is yours, Lord Valkenhart."
Hildea bowed her head deeply, the blush reaching all the way down the nape of her neck.
It was then.
Knock knock.
"Hildea-nim, it's me."
"C-come in."
Opening the door and entering, Piel scanned the two women and nodded.
Behind him stood Luna, grinning with an utterly blissful expression.
'He fed her something delicious again.'
"As expected, you were together. Hildea-nim, Noona. Let's go have a samgyeopsal party, the four of us."
"S-samgyeopsal! Sounds good, let's go right away!"
Hildea, who hadn't eaten samgyeopsal for days, was already salivating.
Elenoa tilted her head curiously.
"Samgyeopsal party? What's that?"
"It's a type of meat, and anyway, it's delicious. Noona, if you eat this, you'll probably say you'll sell your territory and come to the North. Probably. Let's hurry."
"Hildea, Elenoa. Move quickly, quickly. I'm hungry, I tell you."
So the four of them noisily left the office.
Piel and Luna took the lead side by side, and Hildea and Elenoa followed behind side by side.
'Piel's child, who would inherit the Anvelrum territory as Elenoa's adopted son.... Must it be my child?'
Hildea suddenly thought of Rebecca.
Knowing nothing of the defense core rank conditions, Hildea thought she was hopelessly outmatched as a woman by Rebecca.
Title, wealth, even a chest as large as the size of her territory—Rebecca was ahead in everything.
The only thing she could boast was her skin, which Piel praised as being white as snow.
'If I were Piel too, and I had to choose only one woman, I'd pick Rebecca. If that's the case, then rather....'
It was truly vexing, but she knew that she had to pursue joint ownership for her to have any chance at all.
'Right, if it really comes to that, I can just send Rebecca's child.'
Rebecca had a typical noble mindset, so she might actually be pleased that the inheritable property increased.
Feeling somewhat more at ease, Hildea glanced over at Luna, who was reporting in a chattering manner.
'If all else fails, I'll ask Luna to....'
The moment her eyes met Elenoa's, she beamed a smile, and suddenly Hildea remembered.
'But how did Sir Elenoa know I stepped on Feather Step when firing the 105mm?'