From that day on, Father began the mine development project in earnest.
“From now on, you will attend the meetings as well, Ktun. It is time you took responsibility for some of the house's affairs.”
“I will do my best.”
I answered gladly.
What? Didn't I hate work?
But this was a family business.
‘This isn't one of those companies that's like a family. It's an actual family company.’
And the money earned from developing the mine would be used to improve my life.
Of course, even so, there was not much for me to do.
“Sir Balt, we will need a prospecting team if we are to survey the mana stone vein…….”
“I have learned something that may help with that. Do you remember Malt, who fought alongside us during the Kingdom War?”
“That drunkard? He is not dead?”
“No. Apparently, the fellow has established a trading company. It primarily handles minerals and arms, and he also has experience in the mining industry. I intend to contact him.”
“Very well, take care of that matter…….”
Father and Sir Balt would handle all the complicated matters, while Vilheim would step in whenever someone needed to represent the territory.
Then what was my role?
‘A totem.’
All I had to do was occupy a seat during the meetings.
I was enjoying such peaceful days when Father summoned me one day.
“Ktun.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Now that the situation has been settled, I believe the time has come to tell you as well.”
What was it?
‘The secret of my birth?’
But I already knew it.
I tilted my head, but it was not the secret of my birth I had anticipated.
“Come in.”
Who was he calling?
As I tilted my head again, two men opened the door and entered.
One of them looked familiar.
[It is that bastard. Zeke, was it?]
Golgol's enemy!
Golgol roared from beneath the earth!
With vengeance boiling inside me, I reflexively gripped my sword. Then the two men abruptly knelt before me.
“Young Master Ktun, please accept our loyalty.”
“Please accept our loyalty.”
Excuse me? What did you want me to accept?
I blinked in confusion, and Father spoke.
“I have spent the past few weeks looking into them. They were members of the Men-at-Arms Mercenary Company, a fairly renowned group on the front lines. They have never formally been knighted…… but judging by their conduct in this region, they appear to be men of their word.”
“Then…….”
“It is this father's opinion that taking in men of their caliber would not be a bad idea.”
As though agreeing with him, my ancestor erupted.
[Not bad, my ass! Do you think it is easy to find swordsmen of that caliber in these remote mountain backwoods? Granted, it bothers me somewhat that they came from a mercenary company instead of being knights-errant, but no one is born a knight!]
Perhaps attempting to ride the momentum, Zeke bowed his head even lower.
“Young Master. The moment you treated this lowly swordsman as a knight, I resolved to become your knight.”
“I will stand with Zeke in this.”
“Ho ho.”
For some reason, Father watched the scene with a pleased look in his eyes.
He also kept sending me meaningful looks, as though he wanted me to accept the two of them immediately…….
‘……Is this the romance of knighthood?’
I felt like the protagonist of a heroic epic.
But only for a moment.
I beamed at them.
“I will accept the sentiment alone.”
“Ah! Thank y……!”
“No. I said I would accept only the sentiment.”
“……?”
“……?”
The two knights raised their heads and stared at me in bewilderment.
Father and my ancestor reacted the same way.
“What do you mean, son?”
[Descendant, have you gone mad? I told you, swordsmen of their caliber are rare.]
Mad?
From where I stood, these gentlemen were the ones who had gone mad.
What? They wanted me to accept their loyalty?
‘They call it loyalty, but…….’
I knew the truth.
Knights in this world were not nearly as romantic as people imagined.
One only had to look at Father's knight…… Sir Balt, our territory's infamous money-gobbling hippo and highest-paid employee, to understand that.
I did not know whether Sir Balt truly received as much money as the rumors claimed, but this much was certain.
Whatever the amount, knights were money-gobbling hippos.
“Young Master, may I…… may I ask the reason?”
I answered Zeke's desperate question with a gentle smile.
“I am not qualified yet.”
Well…… money was a qualification too.
***
When Ktun left the room, the baron followed him out, unable to hide his bewilderment.
The two men were left alone.
Zeke stared blankly as he mulled over the words Ktun had just spoken.
―I am not qualified yet.
He was not qualified?
“What in the world do you think he meant? Milo, do you know?”
“Well…… I do not know.”
They had experienced the opposite many times.
As they moved from battlefield to battlefield with the mercenary company, whenever they met a noble they truly wished to follow, those nobles mocked them.
―Do you believe yourselves qualified? Lowly swordsmen such as you?
It was truly humiliating treatment, but they understood.
They were non-bloodline ability users, and they had not received instruction as the squires of renowned knights.
If Ktun had questioned their qualifications, they would have shaken it off and left without regret. It would have hurt a little, but they were quite accustomed to such treatment.
But that was not what had happened.
“Qualifications…… What qualifications could he possibly lack……?”
“Perhaps he simply did not like us and rejected us indirectly?”
“Young Master Ktun is not that sort of person.”
“Hmm.”
Just how much of him have you even seen?
……Milo wanted to ask, but he quietly lowered his gaze instead.
Why?
Because Zeke's eyes were already half-unhinged.
‘Hmm, this is troublesome.’
To be honest, Milo was not nearly as sincere about this as Zeke.
He had been growing tired of life on the road when Zeke said he had found a rather decent noble, so Milo had more or less latched on to the opportunity.
But with Zeke this obsessed…….
‘What should I do?’
Milo considered how he might convince his companion.
After all, they had failed Viscount Hadion's commission and therefore had not received the remaining payment. On top of that, paying their ransoms had left their purses perilously light.
They were already overdue to head out and find another commission, but…….
‘Tsk, if I'd known this would happen, I would've left with the others.’
Their former companions had departed in search of new work.
Apparently, some planned to return to the Men-at-Arms Mercenary Company.
Milo was brooding over his predicament when a possibility suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Ah, could it be that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, that matter. The succession!”
“The…… succession?”
“Yes!”
Baron Palaon was not the only one who had investigated them over the past few days.
They had also looked into the liege lord they might serve and the nature of his territory.
And as a result.
“Young Master Ktun currently has one elder brother. As far as I know, that brother has yet to make any particular name for himself. I heard that he manifested a reasonably good talent during the Blood Awakening Ceremony…… but was Young Master Ktun not the only one who stepped forward during this war?”
“He was. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“If Young Master Ktun were to take in two knights at once in this situation, how would it look to the firstborn?”
“Well…….”
It was simple.
He would feel threatened.
“So that was what he meant when he said he was not ‘yet’ qualified……. Milo, you are as astute as ever.”
“You are the stupid one…… No, thank you for the compliment. Ahem. So what will you do now? Judging by the situation, it seems he is in no position to accept us.”
“That is…….”
Zeke sank into thought, his expression darker than before.
Milo was right.
If Ktun had truly rejected them because of the complex and delicate power dynamics surrounding the succession, there was nothing they could do.
But then.
“Milo.”
“What is it?”
“Why did the baron…… No, why did His Lordship introduce us to Young Master Ktun? Surely His Lordship is aware of this delicate situation?”
“Well, that is…….”
“Could it be that Baron Palaon has already settled the succession in his own mind?”
“That…….”
Milo started to answer, then tilted his head.
Now that Zeke mentioned it, that did sound plausible.
‘Is that really it?’
Something did not sit right.
At first glance, Zeke's argument seemed correct, but the atmosphere within the inner castle did not entirely support that conclusion.
Then again, what did it matter?
Frankly, the succession of this small territory was none of his concern.
The urgent matter was to find a commission before their money ran out.
“Hmm, even if that is true, what can we possibly do?”
“Why would there be nothing we can do?”
Milo tilted his head.
“……? What can we do?”
“Hear me out.”
Zeke explained his plan. When he finished, Milo shouted as though he were having a fit.
“Are you insane?! You want me to……!”
Milo was about to continue when a sudden chill made him flinch.
Zeke was staring at him with a slightly unhinged gleam in his eyes.
“Milo, did you just call me insane?”
“N-No, that is not what I meant. This is because you…….”
“It seems we need to have a conversation first. Milo, clench your molars. Think while I hit you. Decide whether you will do as I say or not.”
As Milo watched the approaching fist, he thought.
‘fXck, I should've just left.’
He had well and truly stepped in shit.
***
Meanwhile, in Baron Palaon's office.
The baron was speaking with his second son. When he realized the boy's true thoughts, he sighed in profound sorrow.
“So you are saying…… that you refuse to accept those knights because of money?”
“Yes.”
“All because of that……?”
“What do you mean, ‘all because of that’? What could be more important?”
Money was frightening even in the modern world, but by Ktun's standards, it was even more frightening in a fantasy world.
After all, people in the modern world did not kill each other over 100,000 won.
Baron Palaon, meanwhile, felt as though his heart were being torn apart.
“If that is the problem…… this father will support you until you can afford the knights' wages. This father can at least do that much.”
“Oh, no.”
How could he speak of taking in knights when he could not even afford a necromancy teacher?
And…….
‘When I already have Sir Balt? Do I really need them?’
Could Sir Balt, who received such a high salary, not simply do the work of two or three people?
Even modern office workers with no mana whatsoever could readily do the work of two or three people without any additional hiring. Surely the superhuman Sir Balt could accomplish even more.
Of course, Ktun only thought this because he did not know the facts.
A necromancy teacher?
Baron Palaon was searching for one.
After deciding to reveal the mine development project and draw upon its budget, the first thing Baron Palaon had done was search for a necromancy teacher.
He simply had not been able to find one yet.
In any case, the budget was not so tight that it could not support two knights and one necromancy teacher.
Therefore.
“If that is the issue, this father will…….”
Baron Palaon opened his mouth again to persuade Ktun, but a knock sounded from outside the door.
KNOCK, KNOCK.
“Baron, Sir Zeke and Sir Milo are here.”
“Hmm, let them enter.”
The door opened, and the moment Zeke and Milo entered, the baron flinched.
‘What happened to his face……?’
Milo's face was swollen like a puppy stung by bees.
The baron was about to ask what had happened when Zeke shoved Milo's head down and bowed.
“Baron, please allow us to become soldiers of Palaon Territory.”
“……What?”
“If the Young Master is not yet qualified, then it is a vassal's duty to wait until he is. Please, I implore you not to deny us this one request.”
Zeke thought.
‘When he ascends to the position of successor one day.’
I will lend him my strength.
Baron Palaon sensed that there had been some misunderstanding.
“No, listen. There seems to be some…….”
That was when it happened.
“No, Father. When they desire it this fervently, I do not believe it would be right to turn them away. I humbly beseech you, grant these two gentlemen their wish.”
“What? Ktun, you…….”
“Father, I beg of youuu―!”
Ktun dropped to his knees and pleaded.
Please do not say anything.
At the sight, Zeke secretly wiped away a tear.
‘Ah, I understood my liege lord's intentions correctly―!’
It was the moment a grand plan…… a big picture took shape in Zeke's mind.