Chapter 19
I’m translating the chapter into polished HTML now, keeping the first-person tone and the dialogue structure intact. Next I’ll render the special in-universe text as required and then give you the finished chapter only.CHAPTER_TITLE: Episode 18
A week had passed since I’d toured the festival with the princess.
The festival was over, and everyone had rested as much as they could; it was about time for the crowds to thin out.
But the departure ledger showed fewer people leaving than had entered, and, on the other hand, the merchant guild’s streets had started to fill up.
There were people looking to set up stalls, and others searching for empty buildings.
An obvious abnormality.
The people of the ducal house, who had been working while everyone else was resting, seemed to have only belatedly noticed the situation and were now scrambling to respond.
The head of the house wasn’t moving, but the subordinates beneath him were running themselves ragged.
So much so that even the usual shadow assigned to me had been replaced by a single maid.
“It’s strange, isn’t it? The Blium family isn’t lacking compared to the other ducal houses, and yet things are in such an uproar.”
“……?”
The conversation began like a riddle.
It was the kind of thing the princess always did when she wanted to teach me something, so I watched her quietly. When she saw that I was looking at her, she smiled with satisfaction and wrote her question down on paper.
“When you’re a duke, you don’t handle this kind of thing personally. Not that they never do anything at all, but honestly, complaining about such trivial matters is a little odd. That’s why you hire subordinates.”
“Is suddenly adding about four thousand people really a trivial matter?”
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not so different from the population that comes in when a village is ruined by drought and goes looking for relief.”
“Is that so?”
“Creating villages between cities is surprisingly hard work, so failures are common. Since this is a ducal territory, it isn’t really a public-order problem, but it’s still difficult for a place to sustain itself. So four thousand more people in a big city like this isn’t some special crisis. But then why is everyone making such a fuss?”
“Because they’re from another country?”
“That’s a problem too, yes. But not the one here. Unlike the northwest, this region has always had frequent exchanges with the Kone Kingdom. Even the march lord’s talents are prioritized toward intelligence handling rather than raw military strength.”
“Hmm. Did they find the crown prince’s corpse or something?”
“No, they’ve only just raised an army. At the time of Crown Prince Volpa’s disappearance, a force of a thousand soldiers and a month’s worth of provisions vanished with him, so it’ll still be a long road.”
“Maybe a demon king appeared?”
“Then he’d be dead, but guesses of that sort aren’t very useful, my lady.”
“Because we don’t know the details yet?”
“Exactly. It’s better to assume he’s simply dead. So then why is the manor itself in such an uproar?”
“If it’s not an external problem, then it’s internal. ……Is it because of me?”
Was she teaching both of them because she didn’t know who I would pass the curse on to when I died?
As that thought crossed my mind, I looked at the princess. She cut the cheese into neat little pieces and held it out to me. I took only the cheese and ate it, then let out a sigh.
“Do they think I’m going to kill the person they choose?”
“Who knows? I’m not exactly close with the duke and duchess. But if they’re assuming the worst, then whoever they choose will be forced to play along. And these four thousand will make excellent bargaining chips.”
“……?”
“My lady, when a refugee crisis breaks out internationally, who do you think arrives first?”
“Well……”
“It’s the people with awkward amounts of money. No matter what profession they have, they aren’t truly upper class, but they aren’t poor either. The ones with a decent amount of money are the most sensitive to change. And people like that adapt very well to new laws and new societies.”
“Ah. Refugees who don’t cause trouble.”
I could understand that.
Even in my previous life, migrants who arrived with nothing often faced resistance from the existing members of society and, because they couldn’t maintain even a minimal standard of living, were driven into crime or illegal work. But migrants with money usually tried desperately to adapt so they could live better lives than they had back home.
They had no backing, so they avoided anything illegal. They weren’t tied to any faction the way they had been in their homeland, so they worked hard to avoid making enemies. And because they had already spent money to immigrate, with no second chance waiting for them, they gave everything they had to their work.
By then, I understood what the princess meant by bargaining chips.
“So this is an opportunity to strengthen the city’s power.”
“Exactly. They’re people Blium doesn’t really need, but in other cities they’re quite useful. Especially for counts and viscounts.”
“……? Wouldn’t barons need them more? They’re weaker.”
“They’re so weak that they can’t absorb that many people all at once. Think about it. What happens if merchants suddenly flood into people who’ve been barely feeding themselves by farming in the countryside?”
“Ah.”
“It might be useful for some idiot who wants his power stripped away, or for a baron who works under a count without any land of his own.”
“I understand. So, viscounts.”
“Yes, but the viscounts won’t step forward directly.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know what the head of the house intends to do, but if they accept even the viscounts, it’ll turn into a mess.”
“There are that many viscounts?”
“More than you’d think. And if things grow noisy, the people temporarily staying in Blium will try to raise their own value. To keep that secret, only counts will probably move.”
“And the viscounts go to the counts to lobby?”
“Yes. Which means, what does that leave the head of the house with?”
“Hmm. You said the duke and duchess’s goal is to keep the ducal family from dying out.”
“Mm, yes.”
“……It wouldn’t be educating an heir, would it?”
“Who knows?”
The princess answered with an evasive smile, as though she had wanted to teach me this and was enjoying it.
Still, my answer must have been wrong, because she sliced the cheese thin again and offered me another cracker. This time I ate the cracker too and fell back into thought.
No matter which of the two princes they turned into a lump of flesh, their objective was to ensure the family line continued.
A count steps forward, but a marquis does not.
No, which noble stepped forward wasn’t especially important, so I let that part pass.
What was certain was that the viscounts were making demands, and what they could give the ducal house was…….
“……May I ask one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“If Blium neatly cuts those people up and feeds them to someone, what can a viscount’s house give Blium in return?”
“Hmm?”
“It can’t be money. Blium isn’t poor enough to ask a viscount’s house for money. It probably isn’t local produce either. And it wouldn’t be a family heirloom…… well, I don’t even know if they have anything like that, but they wouldn’t ask for some cherished possession.”
“That’s true.”
“Then what on earth could they give? Loyalty? That’s something you can get without giving away a person, isn’t it?”
“In that case, there’s usually only one thing they can give.”
“A person?”
“Yes. A person.”
“Not merely labor, then.”
There was no shortage of force like knights, and surely not of scholars like scribes.
It wasn’t as though they lacked manual labor either, so the remaining option was something heavily dependent on talent, or…….
“A woman?”
“Correct. More precisely, a concubine. The first prince is seventeen, and the second is fifteen. They’re at the age where it wouldn’t be strange for them to have betrothals already. Since both are entering the academy, there’s nothing odd about letting them gain experience and learn about sex.”
“I see.”
“First they’d register her under a branch line, then, if any problem arose, they’d adopt her into the remaining line and raise her there so the family bloodline wouldn’t end.”
“Are the people from the viscount’s house satisfied with that?”
“She’d be a concubine who could never become the principal wife, and her husband might die at any time, but in the end she’d be absorbed into the ducal family. She’d enjoy luxuries she could never have at home, and above all, it’s a political marriage.”
“So there’s no emotion involved.”
“Exactly. As long as contraception is handled properly, they’ll probably turn a blind eye to one mistress. The princes would accept a young lady for the sake of continuing the bloodline anyway, so they wouldn’t give their hearts to her. And since the match is with Blium, they’ll know to handle contraception properly.”
“Hah. Disgusting.”
“Haha. Is it now?”
The princess gave a small laugh at my words.
She looked at me with a smile that seemed amused, or perhaps curious, and gestured for me to sit on her lap from across the table. When I moved to obey, she wrapped her arms around me and whispered in my ear.
“So tell me, what exactly is so disgusting about it?”
“Their behavior is disgusting. The way they tossed out empty promises without even thinking I’d survive. The way, when I asked them to kill me in exchange for a wish, they ignored me like I was a dog and kept me like livestock. And the way, the moment there was a chance to marry you, they immediately switched tactics.”
“Do you understand their behavior?”
“Ha. I can understand taking a concubine. A parent’s child, unlike one born simply because they were needed, is born with love, and no matter how well they grow, they still look like a baby, so their parents would cut off a finger if it meant doing something for them.”
Just as my parents had done, and as every parent on television had done.
So I couldn’t say I didn’t understand their actions.
“If they’d spoken that honestly when I asked them to kill me, how long would I have waited for them? But they didn’t. My life, the curse I’m enduring—it was worth less than those princes’ so-called chastity. And now that a way to give it up has appeared, they’re acting like this.”
My teeth ground together.
I was so angry that I could no longer maintain even the smallest shred of dignity I was supposed to keep in front of the princess—
“I’m glad.”
“Huh? What did you just say?”
“I said I’m glad, my lady. Truly glad.”