Mysterious Job
Chapter 44 To my va.s.sal
After returning to Maust, I paid a visit to the crown prince Ha.s.se.
A detached villa was made beside the castle for the crown prince. Ha.s.se"s family was living here.
Ha.s.se has taken in the daughter of his chief va.s.sal as his concubine. But not as his legal wife. It seems like he doesn"t plan on having a legal wife until he becomes the king.
"Thanks to your imperial knight, Kelara, we had a good fight. Thank you very much."
"Kelara, eh? She"s just a big-headed woman. They say that dwarf"s are diligent at their work but they are so diligent that it makes harder for me to breathe easy."
Seems like Ha.s.se didn"t value Kelara for what she is.
"Rather than having trouble breathing, her body is well made for a knight and she has a pretty face on top of that so you could say it is breathtaking."
"Count, you"re good at flattery, huh? If you like her that much, I shall give her to you as a va.s.sal officially."
"Thank you very much. I shall give her land immediately and welcome her as a viscount."
Putting it bluntly, he doesn"t have a discerning eye. But, thanks to that, I was able to get a good general.
Kelara is a woman so she can also enter the ladies areas in the castle. Thanks to that, the preparations for the annual events the women hold progressed smoothly. In terms of just appearance, it was on the level of the royal castle"s ones.
Also, because Kelara has such a gallant expression on her face all the time, she also became the hot topic among the female attendants. She also had that young male knight-like aura around her after all. And because she had been serving the crown prince, she was also very clean.
Later, I called over Kelara to discuss about the next war.
"We will be invading Shara prefecture next. I am not that afraid of Antowani family but I want to win over the prominent lords in that area."
"Nistonia family who holds the Nistonia harbor, right?"
Kelara answered immediately. Seems like she properly understands something of this level.
"Right. Nistonia family possesses strong navy. If they cooperate with the neighboring forces, they can easily operate over 200 ships. They are ruling the sea traffic with that. The prefecture in which I was born didn"t have any sea so I don"t have a navy."
I would really like to acquire the Nistonia family.
"We could probably destroy them from land. However, if Nistonia family falls, the navy will also fall apart. If we were to force a commander from land to command their force, the navy will probably not obey either. It would be best to draw out Nistonia family."
Antowani family does have influence but Nistowania family is an independent force.
I have ignored them until now but it is not like we can"t draw them in.
Kelara listened quietly. Ha.s.se must have felt her expressionless face to be irritating. But as a weird job comrade, I was feeling affinity towards her.
"Just by having this Nistonia harbor, they are probably profiting quite a lot. Products of different culture must also come through the sea so their sense of values will probably be different from b.u.mpkin n.o.bles. I want you to take them down by your knowledge of culture."
"By my knowledge of culture?"
"Yes. There"s not another cultured person like you in this land. You might even be better than the people in the capital because of your job, Akechi Mitsuhide. If you make a display of the highest culture, they will probably be interested too."
"Understood. I shall prepare something of excellent quality to even entertain kings. I will definitely not disappoint you."
Kelara said.
"Ah, I don"t think you"ll fail either. Also, there"s one more thing. Could you come over here a bit?"
I swiftly kissed her on the mouth after she came to me.
"Count sure has strange tastes."
"That"s not it. It seems like the crown prince didn"t have interest on you but I think that"s a waste. I am intrigued by you."
"The crown prince probably doesn"t like me as I am a dwarfs descendant. After all, in the golden days of the royal family, half-humans like dwarf or elf wasn"t in the imperial knight squad."
Kelara"s expression didn"t change even after I kissed her.
"Were you not made fun because of that peculiar job?"
After I said that, she made a wry face.
"Yes… I was given the cold look a lot… I was told multiple times to not be a knight because my job wasn"t suitable for it… They aren"t wrong either, since I am not that good at sword fighting or shooting arrows…."
Kelara didn"t have a cold personality, she was just brought up like that because of her surrounding environment.
No matter how much she excelled in ancient tactics, as long as she was a knight, she couldn"t be too proud of herself.
"You see, I also have a peculiar job. I was made fun of by my brother and his followers after the job was awarded to me. It was frustrating but I couldn"t retort there either. The only way you can make them swallow their words is by showing them your strength."
And so, I made them swallow their words. I became a great feudal lord ruling over three prefectures.
"Serve me, and devote yourself to me. I will make sure your name is on the history books even a thousand years from now."
"Thank you very much."
Kelara said with a small smile.
After that, I embraced her.
"I also know of some ways… to entertain…"
Kelara said with a reddened face.
That night, I became the prisoner of one dark skinned dwarf girl.
"I told Raviara there"s nothing between us but this makes it seem like I was lying, huh…"
"When you were telling her that, it was the truth so it doesn"t count as deceiving her."
I was told by Kelara, who was lying beside me.