Our Lord Has Gone Mad (1)
Six months since I became aware of my past life.
Surprisingly, not much had changed.
The main scenario was still six months away, and there was only so much a frontier lord could actually do.
They could've at least given me a status window.
No matter how many times I shouted for one, all that came out was a translucent... sigh of breath.
If I was going to prepare for the start of this dark fantasy, I needed a turning point.
There was a reliable strategy for the Eclipse.
During the prologue period, gather and raise the strongest heroes you can find.
Of course, that was only true by game standards.
As a player, I could recruit heroes through gacha pulls and real-money spending. Now? Not so much.
A guy stuck with a tiny frontier fief — calling it even that was generous — had absolutely nothing to offer heroes of that caliber.
And for good reason. The heroes I'd raised in Tales of Legend were all top-tier characters. By now they'd be thriving at the Magic Tower, the Imperial Court, the Dragon's Den, or some assassin guild — holding important posts and making names for themselves.
How the hell was I supposed to lure people like that to Seorigol?
No possession perks or anything?
The world really was cold-hearted.
If I couldn't get a status window, at least give me some kind of visible special privilege.
— Or so I kept grumbling, until even that got old. And then one day, I headed for the Academy.
For all my shortcomings, I was still a student of the Imperial Royal Academy — the place where only the Empire's finest gathered.
It had been six months since I'd last set foot on campus.
The Imperial Royal Academy.
And within it, the lavish lecture hall of the Fief Management department — elite among elites.
Brilliant morning sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making the expensive clothes, jewelry, and the people wearing them gleam even brighter.
Into that radiant scene, I moved as inconspicuously as I could.
My worn, faded suit — tailored by the only (former) tailor in Seorigol, an old man — looked especially shabby against it all.
"Oh my, look over there. Isn't that Ian Darkest?"
Damn it.
I'd wanted to slip into a seat unnoticed.
The moment the cadets spotted me, the air in the lecture hall turned ice-cold.
Voices that had been chatting cheerfully died away, and stares loaded with curiosity, contempt, or outright mockery pinned me in place.
"……."
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, I found a seat in the farthest back corner and sat down.
"What's the occasion? Feels like I haven't seen him in almost a year."
"Hasn't been expelled yet, huh? He's hanging on somehow."
"Tsk tsk. Having to share a lecture hall with a bastard like that… how undignified."
"Rumor has it that garbage fief of his — Seorigol or whatever — is on the brink of bankruptcy. Did he come to borrow money?"
In the past, every one of those snide remarks would have set me off. I'd actually gotten into fights over them more than once, and disciplinary hearings had been called.
But now—
Effect activated.
For some reason, I could take it better than before.
A side effect of remembering my past life, maybe?
I ignored the whispers coming from every direction and straightened my back.
This place — the Fief Management department — was a privileged track where the children of the Empire's most prestigious houses and even members of the imperial family gathered. Their vast, wealthy fiefs produced results impressive enough to substitute for Academy coursework and exams entirely.
In other words, if you had a decent fief, you could buy your Academy diploma relatively easily. It was a department reserved for the elite of the elite.
Someone like me — Ian Darkest, bastard son with a fief in name only — was a foreign object simply by existing.
So every time I came to the Academy, I used to shrink into myself. It felt like the persecution I endured from my family followed me here without missing a beat.
A noble bastard was a bastard outside the house, too.
— That had been the old me, though.
Having taken in the soul of a modern man, I had, frankly, gotten a little shameless. Even now, the only thoughts that flickered through my head were things like And so? and What do you want me to do about it?
No — to put it bluntly.
It wasn't that any of you were impressive. Your parents were.
"All right, settle down."
Professor Valerius, his hair white with age, took his place at the lectern, and the noise subsided.
His gaze swept over the students and lingered on me for a moment. Just a moment. Then he spoke.
"Today is the midterm fief management performance presentation. As before, each of you will briefly present your fief's key achievements and future plans. I see we even have someone attending class after quite a long absence."
Our eyes met through the thick lenses of his glasses.
"Maintaining attendance just barely high enough to avoid expulsion may be an efficient strategy, but bear in mind that you are taking a risk. It can become grounds for dismissal."
I know. I know that.
I'd love to attend as much as possible — but what am I supposed to do when a catastrophe is about to hit?
Graduating from the Academy was still fairly high on my priority list.
It was just that, right now, something more important took precedence.
"Come forward in the order I call. First — young master Alberto of House Valencia."
As the presentations began, the lecture hall came alive again. That energy, however, was thick with the flaunting of wealth and success, and with quiet competitive fire.
"This quarter, our Valencia fief successfully secured an exclusive contract for the fur trade route with the eastern forest region, increasing trade volume by seventy percent over the previous quarter. In particular, the pelt of the rare magical beast known as the Snow-White Fox has become enormously popular in the imperial capital, and…"
Alberto finished his presentation with his chin tilted arrogantly high, and a wave of applause followed. The next presenter, Emilia — a duke's daughter — was even more impressive.
"As you can see, our fief partnered with a magical engineering research institute this quarter to develop a mass-production process for 'Mana Condensing Crystals,' and we have filed for a patent. This will revolutionize the Empire's magic industry going forward, and projected revenue is…"
Success story after success story followed, dizzying just to listen to. Mithril mines, massive trading companies, new city construction, investments in magical research… Each of their fiefs was practically a small kingdom. I simply listened in silence, thinking of Seorigol's miserable reality. I'd struggled all year, and my results didn't even reach the tips of their toes.
"Next… young master Ian Darkest."
When Professor Valerius called my name, the air in the lecture hall turned cold once more.
"Pfft."
"Heh."
Open snickers broke out here and there. I rose slowly from my seat and walked to the lectern. A hundred mocking stares burned into my back.
I projected Seorigol's data onto the magic blackboard. Compared to the other students' flashy graphics, it was nothing but a few crude, simple charts.
"Seorigol fief. Midterm report."
I opened my mouth in a dry voice, stripping out every trace of emotion.
"Fief population: fifteen. No change from the previous quarter. Primary sources of income: potato and oat cultivation……"
— "Pfft. Did you hear that? Oats."
— "Potatoes — my, what a gourmet crop he's growing."
"…herb gathering in the nearby hills, and… negligible revenue from a small iron vein recently discovered. Quarterly income: nine million renne."
Snorts of laughter rippled through the hall. Nine million renne in a quarter. Converted to Korean won, that was nine million won. It probably didn't even match what the other students spent on pocket money in a single month.
"Next, expenditures. Increased costs for land improvement and seed purchases to raise food self-sufficiency. Expenses incurred for wall repairs and the construction of defensive fortifications… and a significant increase in emergency supply stockpiling costs in preparation for unexpected disasters."
The longer I spoke, the louder the students' laughter grew.
— "What, is someone invading? Why build defenses?"
— "I wouldn't take a speck of dirt like that frontier backwater even if you gave it to me. Even if you gave it to me."
"…As a result, this quarter's net loss stands at fifteen million renne. Cumulative debt, including unpaid taxes, has risen to fifty million renne. That is all."
When the presentation ended, a brief silence fell over the lecture hall. Then, as if they couldn't hold it in any longer, the room exploded with laughter.
"Puhahaha! A net loss of fifteen million renne? I'd love to sell one of my horses and pay it off for him!"
"Disaster preparedness? What kind of disaster hits a dump like that? Did a wild boar raid the place?"
"Fifty million in debt? That guy's going to end up sold at a slave market before long!"
"Who told him to be born a bastard? He doesn't know his place, crawling into the Fief Management department, and this is what he gets!"
Jeers and mockery crashed over me in waves. Even Professor Valerius only cleared his throat awkwardly, showing no intention of intervening.
Perhaps he, too, considered me a nuisance.
Effect activated.
I returned to my seat as if nothing had happened. The reaction was exactly what I'd expected. If anything, this was on the mild side.
In the past, some of them had thrown filth at me mid-presentation.
Class eventually wound down to a close.
"That will be all for today's lesson. Do your utmost in managing your fiefs, and correct any unstable financial practices — such as operating at a deficit — as quickly as possible."
Anyone could tell that was aimed at me.
Fair enough. Even in the Fief Management department, my attendance rate was among the absolute worst. Of course the professors disliked me.
I subtly avoided the professor's gaze and scanned the classroom.
I'd only attended to keep my enrollment active — but I had a goal of my own as well.
When class ended and the students filed out like an ebbing tide, I didn't leave my seat. Instead, I approached one particular student. Cassian Leonhardt.
The second daughter of a mid-tier count's house, she wasn't arrogant by nature and tended to think relatively rationally. Of course she wouldn't consider me an equal, but at least she didn't openly despise me.
Like me, her fief wasn't particularly large, so she was the type who was always absorbed in developing it.
"Cassian."
At my call, Cassian — who had been organizing her papers — looked up with a faintly startled expression.
"…Darkest? What is it?"
Wariness and a touch of annoyance colored her voice.
"Do you have a moment? There's something important I need to tell you."
Cassian looked me up and down with suspicious eyes.
"If this is about borrowing money, I'll pass."
Hey.
The way she said that, people would think I was some money-obsessed lunatic…
Ah. Right. I had borrowed from her a few times.
Ahem.
I cleared my throat and looked her straight in the eye.
"It's not about money."
I lowered my voice, making it as serious as I could.
"I came to give you a warning. One that might help you — and perhaps your family as well."
"A warning?"
"Yes. It'll be hard to believe, but… a terrible catastrophe is about to strike the entire continent. According to the information I have, it happens in six months."
"A catastrophe? Darkest, your jokes are in poor taste. The world is more peaceful now than it's ever been…"
"I'm not joking. The sky will turn black, and monsters will rise from the earth. This isn't some ordinary natural disaster. It's the kind of catastrophe that twists the very laws of the world."
In preparing for the Eclipse, I had reached two conclusions.
First: no matter what happened, this was not a catastrophe I could stop alone.
Second: if you don't have teeth, use your gums. Even if I couldn't recruit heroes, I'd secure as many side pieces as I could.
So I would sow fear in the department and draw out their cooperation.
And among them, Cassian was the most promising candidate.
"A catastrophe is coming?"
Her brow furrowed.