The Knight's Mansion and the Revolutionary Suspicions
The carriage of nobility truly was on another level. While the other carriages and traveling merchants were stuck at the checkpoint having their luggage thoroughly inspected and being grilled about their purpose and identity, we sailed right through like it was a damn high-pass lane. The soldiers at the guard post took one look at Ricardo’s face and immediately started screaming.
It felt like a four-star general had shown up to visit a regular army base. I wondered if those soldiers would even be able to sleep tonight.
Passing through the checkpoint like this, riding the high-pass lane, I could finally understand why people became so disgustingly obsessed with power. Ah, this must be why Putin… shit, if I mention that name any further, radioactive tea might pierce dimensions and come flying at me, so I’ll stop. Whether you’re a mage or whatever, one sip of that and you’d be off to meet Comrade Lenin immediately.
“The house you’ll be staying in—Werner’s place—is still being cleaned. So just stay at my house for tonight.”
“The place I lived in was just a single room. What cleaning?”
Werner had apparently run away from home and rented a shabby single-room place where he handled his own meals and lodging. There was no way four people could live there, and there was nothing that needed cleaning anyway.
“Not that single room. A proper mansion.”
“I had a fucking mansion?”
Had this bastard Werner deliberately lived in a single room while owning a mansion, just to cosplay as a commoner? The purpose was obviously tax evasion. Living in a rundown house while preparing another property under a different name and reaping the benefits of tax fraud. Given all the shit this guy had pulled so far, it was entirely plausible.
If not that, then maybe he was preparing to enter politics? Building a relatable image by cosplaying as a commoner, visiting the market to eat street food he didn’t even like, and campaigning for votes. Come to think of it, this was a monarchy. Yet he was preparing election speeches and carefully crafting a commoner image…?
The conclusion was obvious. Werner, this son of a bitch, had definitely been preparing a rebellion. Through revolution he would establish democracy, then use the commoner image he had maintained to rise as the leader of a new magical democratic nation. That was why he had hated the crown prince and princesses. It was all part of a grand scheme to assassinate the emperor—no, the tsar…
Werner Alton was clearly a born revolutionary with the qualities of a Robespierre. But civil wars like that only ever brought chaos and suffering to the people. Now that I’ve taken over your body, your nonsense ends here, Werner Alton.
“No, I just bought it under your name.”
“What? You bought something under my name?”
“Did you really plan to have four people live in that single room of yours?”
“No, but a mansion in the capital isn’t exactly cheap…”
Throughout history and across every country, houses in the capital were ridiculously expensive. And he had bought a mansion there? Just because his little brother needed a place to live?
“Heh. As your big brother, how could I not buy at least one mansion for my youngest sibling?”
Aaah, God of Chivalry. Was Ricardo your avatar sent to this world? Buying a house for his little brother—this shining character was truly worthy of being called the incarnation of chivalry.
“So make sure you don’t disappoint me. As the Royal Mage, pile up some actual accomplishments.”
Of course you had an ulterior motive. Shining my ass. As expected, you can’t trust these hollow knights. Offering a house and then demanding repayment like this reminded me of that raccoon bastard from a certain loan repayment game. Maybe that raccoon was also from the Karven family? So the Karven family wasn’t a knight house but a loan shark family. No wonder people in the world of The Merchant of Venice hated Shylock so much.
“Fucking Royal Mage, damn it…”
“Still, don’t worry too much. I’ll look after you as much as I can.”
Yeah, Shylock really was pitiful. Just because he was Jewish, he ran a legitimate lending business with proper permits and still got hated for it. If I had been in the courtroom of Venice, I would have delivered a Confucian punch to all those bastards discriminating against Shylock. As someone who inherited the blood of the Allied forces, I’d have to bring the hammer of justice down on those neo-Nazi bastards discriminating against Jews.
“Ah, my mansion is coming into view. We’ll stay there tonight.”
What appeared was an old-fashioned mansion that practically screamed history. It gave off that exact vibe—what was the professional term again, antique? Antique Gear Golem? Anyway, it was that kind of mansion. You know those places that just look ridiculously expensive and make you certain the Wi-Fi would never work there.
The mansion doors opened. As we stepped down from the carriage, a fragrant floral scent wafted over.
“Hyung, you fucking grew flowers? You?”
Digging through Werner’s memories, Ricardo was the last person you’d associate with anything as sentimental as flowers. If anything, he would have raised a guard dog like a Doberman. And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“…Ricardo. Are you sure this is really your mansion? It’s not some fake that only looks plausible from the outside, right?”
Ricardo frowned at our reactions and answered.
“How exactly do you all usually see me that the mere scent of flowers at my house gets treated like a trap?”
“A madman obsessed with chivalry. A man who wouldn’t keep anything in his house that wasn’t practical.”
“A hollow… I mean, if he was going to release hunting dogs in the house, he would have. A Druid-hater who would never grow flowers.”
“My evaluation seems harsher than I expected.”
Well, this was a guy who had never even tried snacks until he left for adventures. It wasn’t that strange for people to think that way. He was diligent and took good care of those around him, but he was also extremely rigid.
“To be honest, I had no intention of growing flowers. But my wife used to work at a flower shop, so she enjoys tending to them. As a result, the entire backyard has turned into a flower garden.”
“Wasn’t that the training ground? And it must be huge—can your sister-in-law really manage all of that by herself?”
“The training ground was moved elsewhere. And some of my private soldiers volunteer to come help with the work.”
“Are those really pure volunteers?”
“Of course. I personally asked if anyone wanted to volunteer.”
This evil boss bastard. When the boss asks on the weekend if anyone wants to go hiking and you say yes and follow along, that’s not volunteering. That’s fucking coercion.
“Hyung, no matter how you look at it, those people seem like pitiful victims crushed by authority.”
“I never forced them. I have no intention of giving them disadvantages if they don’t volunteer. Didn’t they all come because they like flowers?”
You might think that, but your subordinates probably don’t see it that way. Of course Ricardo wasn’t the kind of trash who would actually disadvantage them over something like this, but as a subordinate, you couldn’t exactly ignore it.
“Fine. Then I’ll show you.”
“Show us what?”
Ricardo called over a soldier carrying a bucket in the distance.
“Hey, Thomas. Come here.”
The soldier—Thomas—came running over in a hurry.
“Thomas, you volunteered to help with the garden work again today. You’re not forcing yourself because you feel burdened by me, are you?”
Thomas’s face instantly turned deathly pale, like a ghost.
“Th-that’s not it at all! I’m doing it because I genuinely enjoy gardening, Captain!!!”
Thomas, crushed by power, I sympathize with you. But that man truly doesn’t have any malice. He simply can’t understand your hardships and position because of the environment he grew up in.
“Hahaha, of course.”
But if someone lacks that much awareness, I think it enters the realm of crime. Could this bastard actually be a spy from the Black Round Table? Maybe it was a conspiracy to spread authoritarian culture and collapse the empire from within. Didn’t that revenge-obsessed teacher from a certain hero movie say it? An empire that falls from outside attacks can somehow rise again, but an empire that collapses from within can never stand back up.
“Then you may go now, Thomas. Oh, right—I heard your child will be born soon. Buy your wife some good food.”
Ricardo pulled out a pouch full of coins from his pocket and handed it to Thomas.
“No, Captain, this is far too much…”
“If you don’t accept it, I’ll take it as insubordination and have you beheaded.”
“I’ll accept it. Ignoring someone’s goodwill makes you worse than a dog.”
Thomas grabbed the coin pouch and scurried away. But something felt off.
“Hyung, are you close with that knight? You even knew his name.”
“This is the first time I’ve spoken with him privately?”
“Then how do you know his name? You even knew he was about to have a child.”
There weren’t just one or two knights under Ricardo’s command… How could he remember all of them? Even if it wasn’t in the tens of thousands, it would easily be in the thousands.
“What kind of idiot becomes a captain and doesn’t remember his subordinates’ names? A leader should at least memorize basic personal information like that.”
He really was an idiot with zero awareness. But at the same time, he was a genuinely good knight. Could someone like this really be a spy for the Black Round Table?