Volume 9 Chapter 22.1 – (V10) Became A Villainess (1-1)
That last dance was orchestrated by my mother.
It was nice, and I got a feeling that Rinne is getting used to the human world.
On the other hand, it seems like Onzada, who is a former human, is the one that wasn"t used to it. In his case, he is not used to the aristocratic society because of his clumsy way of life.
Nearly two months have pa.s.sed since my uncle became His Majesty the King, and it"s almost time to start a new school year. ……It"s been more than two years since I"ve been to the Academy of Magic, but this year I should be in the seventh grade. Seventh grade is not a word I"m used to saying.
A lot has changed in the past two months in the Saint Country. The biggest change was the change of the throne, but the south was also making a lot of commotion.
After all, the Duke of Bellrose and some of his n.o.ble families and their attendants have fled with their families and soldiers, creating a lawless area with no lords.
The lack of knights and soldiers makes it easier for rogues to gather. The people who have run away had hired and surrounded themselves with a lot of mercenary soldiers without thinking twice, and now they suddenly fled, the mercenary soldiers ended up losing their job out of the blue, so now it"s a disaster. That bea… I think that Mr. Bear and his companion are protecting the front castle gate just in case, anyway that"s being the case those people are worse than hooligans because they"re money-grabbers without any morals.
For that reason, the former Duke family is sending some personnel from the royal capital to manage it. The other Duke family also sent knights and soldiers to help out. But we need to appoint a new lord to govern the south soon, and we also need to find the new head for the other n.o.bles" position, what should we do?
I think for the middle n.o.bles" position like the Viscounts and Barons, we could just appoint a new lord with land as a bonus for those who had contributed, but the Marquesses and Counts position were also vacated one by one.
Well, as expected of the Marquis family, they have relatives all over the kingdom, so the next head was decided in no time at all, but none of the n.o.bles came forward to say they wanted the county estate, which has a large territory but it had a deep forest where demons come out.
Perhaps it was a losing business because of the monsters…… And maybe that"s the reason why they easily betrayed the country, moreover right now the soldiers who had just barely held that demon in check were also half gone, so that county"s territory was in a bad state of affairs for the people.
And that"s how Noel, the hero of the Saint Country got chosen.
Noel was awarded the t.i.tle of count for his achievements two years ago, but he and his adoptive father Mr. Bear, who is a viscount, were both n.o.blemen with no lands and only have t.i.tle, so he was given the land there for his contribution for suppressing the rebellion.
……Did we force the responsibility to him? To say it in a bad way, yes we did, but to put it in a nicer way, we are only appointing the right person to the right place.
Father also sent out Noel"s adoptive father, Mr. Bear, saying that he will take care of the adjoining baronial territory as well, so Mr. Bear recruited the mercenaries from the mercenary corps with a good ability that had been swarming in the south, and so the original 200 members of the corps moved straight up to knights and soldiers, creating a mercenary knight corps with the Hero as the leader with considerable military strength.
Mr. Bear has no other children besides Noel, so if Noel has a child in the future, he will receive the count t.i.tle and if Noel has a second son, the second son will also inherit the t.i.tle from Noel"s adoptive father so the n.o.ble girls were staring at Noel with glittering eyes.
“No, it was a big deal!?”
“Well, I can understand that, too….”
Near the southern border, Noel and Rick are having a hard time talking to each other, For a moment, I thought I heard my inner voice retorting.
I know Noel has been busy, but I wonder if Rick is busy doing something too?
The reason why we are all here at the border is to welcome a group of “royalty” from the Sylber Nation who are studying at the Academy of Magic and Wizardry.
The other party is also royalty, and since we can"t let them meet us with just any normal knights, we asked Sir Noel to send out security personnel as well, and we, who are going to be schoolmates, will meet them. ……What a bother.
“Princess, the royalty of the Church Nation is here.”
“Mhm”
Bianca, who has officially become my escort knight, reports to me.
Apparently Bri and the others had a great matchmaking experience, and they decided to officially retire.
……I"m so glad they decided to do this. But it was getting pretty messy.
Since all the former Escort Knight left, we are currently transitioning to a new system with Nia as our new captain and 10 new ladies from the knight families who are around 15 years old, have been hired as knights.
…I wonder if Nia is okay with being the captain.
By the way, the reason why I and Bianca said "royal family" is because the Church Nation has done it again.
Shortly after the Saint Country allowed the second prince of the Church Nation to come to our country to study, they also sneak in his sister, the First Princess, at the last minute.