Slave Number One Secured
Remilia Oxton was crying over her rejected thesis again today.
"Ugh... I really thought I'd prepared it so well this time."
Research Report on Monster Husbandry and the Byproducts Obtained Therefrom
Clutching the paper like a child held to her breast, she was walking the halls of the Magic Beast Research Society when someone approached her.
"Remilia."
"M-Master?"
Bagion was both her mentor and one of the evaluators of the Magic Beast Research Society.
"How long do you intend to cling to that worthless paper?"
"I... I just..."
"Come back. I'll personally fix whatever's lacking in it for you, so—"
"Ugh!"
Remilia tried to pull away from the hand reaching for her thesis, but the stares of everyone around them burned too sharply. Bagion felt it too. Pressing her any further here would gain him nothing.
"If you change your mind, come to my laboratory anytime. Understood?"
He gave her shoulder a light pat and walked off. Remilia bit her lip as she watched him go. Bagion's influence—tied as it was to the Imperial Family—held enormous weight in the Society. No matter how many times she submitted this paper, he would never allow it to pass. The greedy man wanted her research for himself.
Under the endless coaxing and threats, Remilia was beginning to want to give up on everything.
"Haaah..."
Thinking she might as well abandon it all, return to her hometown, and take up farming, she trudged back to her laboratory—
"Ah, you've returned."
"Hweeeeh?!"
—only to find a strikingly handsome man sitting there waiting for her.
"W-Who are you?"
"Ah, how rude of me. I should have introduced myself first."
The black-haired, red-eyed beauty rose from his seat and offered his hand.
"Victor Walterheim. I've come because I wish to sponsor Lady Remilia's research."
"Ah... y-yes... Wait—what? Sponsor?!"
"Yes. Sponsorship."
Remilia stared at the smiling Victor's outstretched hand, then snatched it in a flash.
"Aaaah! Wh-Where did you come from? Sh-Shall I get some tea... no, I don't have tea. Cold water, then—"
"Now, now, calm yourself. Why don't we sit and talk first?"
"Yes!"
Seated, Remilia hugged the thesis—her child—tightly to her chest.
Ah... at last, a patron who will look properly at my research...
"There are conditions attached to the sponsorship and research support, of course."
"Yes! Please tell me! I'll do anything!"
"Hahaha... anything, you say?"
"...Never use the word 'anything' again."
Filgote, watching Remilia mutter darkly behind us, tilted his head and whispered to me.
"Great Chieftain... did you kidnap her?"
"Come now~ Do I look like someone who would do something so barbaric?"
"Hmm. If that is truly the case, then good."
Another successful bottom-fishing acquisition.
Remilia Oxton. In the novel, she never managed to bring the thesis she cherished like a child into the world, and died of overwork. Later, the heroine—searching the Society for a solution to the orcs' food problem—heard Remilia's lingering soul and discovered the documents. Monster husbandry succeeded, and Remilia Oxton's grudge was finally laid to rest.
But since the heroine never took the orc tribes under her command, she would never have reason to meet Remilia either.
So I was snatching her for myself. Save a life, solve the orcs' food crisis—two birds with one stone.
"Uuu... Um, Patron, this is the North, though."
"Yes."
"Did the Grand Duke of the North give permission for this?"
"...?"
"???"
At Remilia's question, Filgote's face and mine both froze as if hooked.
"Lady Remilia? Do you not know who I am?"
"Uh... the generous patron supporting and funding my research..."
"I told you my name before that."
"Ah, Victor Walter...heim."
The moment she spoke my name aloud, Remilia's expression went rigid.
"Walterheim... as in the Grand Duke of the North?"
"Yes."
"Ah!"
A brief silence fell. Then Remilia beamed a bright smile and spun around in the exact opposite direction from me.
"I'll be heading back now!"
"Hahaha. What a joker."
Thud!
The moment she saw the orcs surrounding her, Remilia's eyes filled with tears.
"H-Hwaaang!! P-Please spare me!"
"Excuse me?"
"I-I didn't do anything in the capital! I'm just an ordinary researcher! So—"
"..."
"So please don't kill me... no, please don't throw me to the orcs!!"
"Haaah."
"What is this even..."
I waved the orcs back from around Remilia and stepped closer.
"Lady Remilia, please calm yourself."
"Hic..."
"I don't know what sort of stories you've heard in the capital, but—"
"Th-That any capital citizen who offends the Grand Duke of the North is executed on the spot..."
"Do I look like some raving murderous madman to you?"
"No."
Once she had calmed a little, I seated her at the negotiation table and continued.
"As I said at the Magic Beast Society, I require Lady Remilia's knowledge of monster husbandry."
"Yes?"
"And I wish to begin the domestication of monsters here, in the orc settlements of the North."
According to the novel, the byproducts of monsters far outstripped those of ordinary livestock. Yet because of the toxins and miasma they absorbed in the wild, no race except the orcs—with their iron stomachs—could eat magic-beast meat. Our radiant heroine inherited Remilia's research and finally succeeded, so that not only the orcs but every people on the continent could eat their fill of quality meat.
But if Remilia does it herself, with me sponsoring her instead of the heroine Angelica?
I could unlock the tech tree the heroine only reached mid-novel right at the start.
Budget can come from the dowry the Roeyental family provided. And as for the important part—the monsters to raise—
"Great Chieftain! We have brought monsters!"
I waved as Gartan returned from the plains herding a dozen or so bison-type monsters.
"Bl-Bloody Horns!! Good heavens, Bloody Horns in such healthy condition... huff... huff..."
I smirked.
Of course. A woman who had spent her life shut away in a lab staring at dying specimens. Seeing healthy ones like these would set any researcher's blood on fire.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Remilia took a few steadying breaths, then looked at me with a suddenly calm expression.
"You will truly... support me?"
"Yes."
"But why..."
"I need food. Food for the orcs who will settle here. With the methods currently available, they will not last long. However—"
I spread Remilia's thesis across the table with a flourish. I understood neither the contents nor the principles. But speaking of the future in which the heroine succeeded was well within my power.
"Imagine it. A future where monster domestication succeeds and quality meat spreads across the continent. A future in which the researcher who supplied that meat is praised by every nation..."
I leaned in and whispered against her ear like a devil offering a human a sweet bargain.
"...the figure of Doctor Remilia Oxton..."
"Wooooah!!! Leave it to me!! Everyone, orcs!!! Let's start by breeding the Bloody Horns first!!! You only have males?! Then let's go catch some females—yahoooo!!!"
"Oh! What fierce eyes!"
"She is no warrior, yet her spirit is intense! We shall follow!"
"Drink this, woman! It will fill you with strength!"
Watching Remilia charge off with the orcs, gulping down the caffeine beverage I had adjusted for them, I allowed myself a wide smile.
Slave Number One successfully secured.
"Mmmngh~"
Morning sunlight tickled her face. Cecilia stretched and rose from her chair.
"Already morning?"
After several nights spent poring over documents related to northern iron-ore distribution, she had finally placed the last period on the final paper, ending the long battle.
"Uuunngh... I can't eat any more... ugh."
"Pfft."
Cecilia lightly patted the shoulder of Ran, who was dozing beside her with a trail of drool, and woke her.
"Eheh... ehh!! Lady Cecilia!"
"Heehee. Did you sleep well?"
"I'm so sorry! I must have dozed off—"
Calling it a doze felt wrong when the birdsong drifting through the window was so clear and lovely.
"Heehee. It's all right. I nodded off myself and only just woke. Would you prepare a light breakfast... or rather brunch?"
"Yes, Lady Cecilia!"
Once Ran had dashed out the door, Cecilia began reading through the materials she had organized on the desk.
...To move this quickly after the death of the previous Grand Duke of the North, Proud Walterheim...
She ground her teeth. She had believed herself long accustomed to the cunning of the Imperial Family, yet they had stretched their hand into the North this meticulously—without the Roeyental ducal house or any other faction noticing.
Once they have a leash on the North, where next? The West? The East? Or perhaps the great houses of the Empire they have left free until now?
Schemes and conspiracies filled her mind.
Perhaps...
The thought that Crown Prince Baron's act of casting aside his strongest ally had been nothing more than a political performance—because the preparations to subdue the ducal house were already complete—drew a hollow laugh from her.
"How empty... truly..."
Not an empty relationship after all. It had been thoroughly calculated from the beginning.
"I should count myself fortunate that I cut it off before I grew attached..."
"Lady Cecilia!! I've brought it!"
Ran burst through the door carrying a plate of sandwiches prepared by the Walterheim mansion's chef. The moment he heard they were for Cecilia, he had pulled out the freshest ingredients and crafted a masterpiece of confidence.
"Delicious."
When she took a small bite with her tiny mouth, the harmony of crisp vegetables and the chef's special ham delighted her palate.
"Ah, the maids asked me to check whether Lady Cecilia is inconvenienced in any way. And Father... I mean, the butler also asked me to confirm whether you need any further materials..."
The people of the Walterheim mansion had not rejected the outsider. When she made even the smallest effort to approach them, they had looked surprised, smiled, and tried to help her.
To call such good people northern barbarians and demons...
Compared to the authoritarian, two-faced nobles of the imperial capital and the Imperial Family, these people who treated her with honest openness felt almost painfully endearing. There was only one exception.
"Ran, has His Grace returned?"
"I heard he stopped by briefly and then left again."
"I see."
Victor Walterheim. Bound to her by contract. The man who treated her coldly yet, the moment she entered his shelter, spoke to her with warmth.
...Does he treat me coldly because he has so many enemies? Or... no... is he simply being faithful to the contract?
Cecilia had met every sort of human and learned to analyze and evaluate them, yet Victor was different.
Those cold, still crimson eyes—what thoughts lay beyond them?
Honestly. If I dig too deep, it will only trouble him.
She shook her head and rose from her seat. This was analysis for the sake of the contract. With that thought, she looked at Ran and spoke.
"Let us go see His Grace."