”Ah-it’s terrible, m’lord! M’lord’s been done in!!” Lina
shrieked, her face pale as she burst through the manor doors.
The lord of the territory, Jade Lindrott, had been out hunting with his men to cut
down on the number of monsters roaming the land, and he’d been brought back to the manor gravely wounded.
His hunting party carried him through the entrance, his blood soaking through the makeshift stretcher.
”A-are you—-!!? Stay with us—-!!?” Margaret cried, rushing to her
husband’s side.
”F-Father!!? Noooo—-!!” Misha wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks
as she tried to push through the crowd of servants.
”—-h-huh!? M-master—-..,” one of the hunters stammered, his hands
trembling.
”Lina! Hurry-get the herbs and healing tools!!” Alfred shouted, his voice
cracking with urgency.
”—-!!? Y-yes, sir!!” Lina spun on her heel and sprinted toward the
storage room, her footsteps echoing down the hallway.
Bam-bam-bam-bam—-…
”F-Father, it’s all right now!” Alfred dropped to his knees beside
the stretcher, pressing his hands against the wound. “I’ll heal you right away. Just hold on a little
longer! Stay with me!!”
In response to Alfred’s plea, Jade’s eyes fluttered open, but he was
clearly in terrible pain, his face pale and slick with sweat.
”—-huff… puff… damn… A Red-Haired Quanine Fang Bear… huff…
puff..,” Jade gasped, each word a struggle.
”A Red-Haired Quanine Fang Bear?” Alfred repeated, his brow furrowing.
”—-cough… aye, it’s a mutant breed of the Saber-Toothed Fang
Bear,” Jade’s hand gripped Alfred’s arm with surprising strength. “That thing’s
monstrously strong… huff… Arrows, swords, spears-nothing… huff… I couldn’t even scratch the blasted
thing… guh… And those fangs-they tore through my shield and armor like they were made of paper… It’s a
bloody monster…”
The manor fell deathly silent, the only sound the crackling of the hearth and
Jade’s labored breathing.
”—-huff… puff… Ah-Alfred..,” Jade’s eyes found his son’s
face.
”Y-yes, sir!” Alfred leaned closer.
”—-huff… Don’t go anywhere near that monster..,” Jade’s voice
dropped to a whisper. “And this wound… huff… I won’t be able to move like I used to-not anymore.
So, Alfred, you’re to take over as lord from here on. Look after the territory for me…”
”—-!!? B-but that’s—-!!” Alfred’s protest died in his throat
as he saw the finality in his father’s eyes.
”—-huff… puff… Ah, you’ll be fine, Alfred,” Jade reached up,
his face tight with pain, and gently patted his son’s head. “I know you’ll manage well enough.
So… do things your own way… huff… I’m counting on you…”
Jade’s hand fell limp against the stretcher, his eyes closing as exhaustion
finally claimed him.
And so, without a moment’s preparation-without any warning-Alfred Lindrott,
barely fifteen years old and freshly come of age, was suddenly thrust into the position of lord.
Sigh… “Lord,” just like that…?
Right. First things first: I declared the area around where the Red-Haired Quanine
Fang Bear had appeared off-limits, and made sure the villagers knew to stay well clear. I also strengthened
patrols and ordered everyone to sound the alarm and run if they spotted it.
I sent a letter to the king, explaining the situation and notifying him of the
succession.
Technically, the succession wouldn’t be official until we received
confirmation, or until I was summoned to the royal capital for the investiture ceremony. But there was no way
they’d turn it down. And as for the ceremony-this was a tiny, backwater territory on the edge of nowhere.
The crown probably didn’t have time to summon me all the way to the capital for that. More likely, it would
all be settled through official correspondence.
Right. Let’s get a clear picture of the situation.
The Lindrott barony was a tiny territory surrounded by mountains on all sides, with
a single village-Lindrott Village-home to fewer than a hundred people. On top of that, the high mountains cut
off the sunlight, so we got barely five hours of daylight a day. The ground was always damp, and mold and moss
sprang up like weeds. Crops didn’t grow worth a damn, and to make matters worse, monsters roamed everywhere.
In a situation like that, of course the territory was dirt poor. Food mostly came
from whatever meager crops we could grow, wild vegetables and nuts and fruit from the mountains, and whatever
game we managed to hunt. Every year, we spent the whole winter on edge, fretting over how we were going to
survive.
The wooden fence around the village was rotten and falling apart, and the buildings
were crumbling too. Even the manor-our home, the biggest building in the territory-was a tiny little place,
where the five of us lived: me, my parents, my little sister, and our maid.
Father: Jade Lindrott, forty. Former lord of the Lindrott barony.
Mother: Margaret Lindrott, thirty-three. Third daughter of the Forester viscounty,
another frontier territory in the western Kingdom of Flumford.
Little sister: Misha Lindrott, eight years old.
My two younger brothers-the second and third sons-died of illness when they were
small, one after another. So when Misha was finally born, the whole family doted on her. She was our little
mascot, and she was famous throughout the territory as Lindrott’s Little Angel.
Lina, sixteen. A village girl from Lindrott territory. She worked as a live-in maid
for the Lindrott household, and she was my childhood friend. Her strawberry-blonde pigtails were her trademark,
and the way her big chest-totally at odds with her innocent face-bounced around was my secret little pleasure.
…Nah, I didn’t need to be talking about her chest right now! I mean, sure, it
was a pleasure. Any healthy fifteen-year-old guy would be looking at that bounce, right?! You would too!!
…Ahem.
Anyway, as things stood, the five of us were barely scraping by. About thirty
villagers-men and women, young and old-could handle a hunt. That sounded like a lot for a population this size,
but the truth was, most of the young folk headed off to become adventurers the moment they came of age, so the
village was aging fast, and I couldn’t count on anyone for serious monster hunts.
And it wasn’t like we had any industry to speak of. And even if we did-trading
was a nightmare. The nearest trading post was Flour Village, at the edge of the neighboring Riegel viscounty,
and to get there, you had to cross through the mountains-a three-day journey. And then it was another three days
on foot from there to the viscounty capital, Granliger.
And along the way? Monsters. Bandits. They showed up like clockwork-of course they
did. But if you didn’t make that trip, there was no merchant guild, no proper market, no way to do any real
business. And if you wanted to go anywhere else, this route was the only way through.
”—-…sigh. This is hopeless, isn’t it..,” I muttered, staring at
the crumbling ceiling of my study.
”—-…phew. No point putting it off. Time to stop holding back.”
Alfred had memories of his past life-memories of being Japanese-and he had the
knowledge he’d picked up from devouring light novels. He’d stayed quiet all this time because if he
stood out too much, there was a real chance he’d be captured and kept as a slave for life. But now, he
didn’t have the luxury of playing it safe.
”Right. If that’s the plan, I’d better get moving.”
And with that, he left the room.
Trivia:
- The family’s near-destitute state is immediately established through the
five-hour daylight limitation, which prevents proper agriculture and makes monster hunting the primary food
source.
- Alfred’s meta-humorous commentary about Lina’s chest serves a dual
purpose: it establishes his age (fifteen) and functions as nervous deflection from the overwhelming
responsibility just placed on him.
- The succession transfer happens with zero formal ceremony, highlighting how
insignificant the Lindrott barony is within the kingdom’s political structure.
- Jade’s use of “do things your own way” (やりたい様にやりなさい) carries heavy
emotional weight as both a father’s final blessing and a relinquishment of control to his heir.
- The Forester family connection through Margaret establishes that the Lindrotts
maintain at least nominal ties to higher nobility, even if they’re politically irrelevant.
- Alfred’s past-life knowledge has been deliberately suppressed to avoid being
enslaved, implying the kingdom has a brutal system for dealing with unusual individuals.