The Etilant Army returned after harvesting materials from the goblin corpses.
At their head, Friedrich rode on horseback through the gates of Firenburg.
“Waaah!”
“Long live Young Master Friedrich!”
“May the blessings of the myriad gods be upon House Medichin!”
Friedrich smiled at the cheers of the citizens standing along both sides of the street.
‘Ah-, the thrill is swelling in my chest! More! More, more, more! More! More, more, more!’
Friedrich Medichin’s lips stretched upward at this luxury, one he had never enjoyed even in his previous life after successfully completing dozens of overseas operations without a single casualty.
Right now, he was raising one hand high and waving to the citizens, savoring this joy to the fullest.
***
Unlike Friedrich, who was fully enjoying the joy of his triumphant return, the parents he had to meet were in a very poor mood.
“Wilhelm, are you truly in your right mind?! No matter what, how could you push a child who is not even of age into such a dangerous place!”
Johanna Berstein Medichin struck him mercilessly across the back.
She was the sole heir and heiress of one of the Empire’s Ten Great Knight Houses, a family that had laid the foundation of the Etilant Autonomous Territory alongside House Medichin. The sting in her hand was fierce enough that even the sturdily built Wilhelm Medichin found it hard to endure.
“Ah, I am telling you, it was going to be fine. I attached the very best soldiers of the Central Army to him, and even sent a Thousand-Man Commander and a Magic Squad Leader along with him. I also chose terrain that would make the fighting easy. If Friedrich seemed unable to handle it···.”
Before Wilhelm, frowning, could even say that he had ordered them to fight in his place, Johanna cut him off cleanly.
“How can you say that?! Injuries are one thing, but did you not even think about the child’s heart?”
“Ah, I thought about that too and gave instructions···.”
“I cannot live like this, truly! No matter how important the heir issue is, how could you shove a child who was not mentally prepared into such a harsh place!”
Because Johanna loved her children so dearly, Wilhelm did not look pleasant in her eyes.
No matter how well he had prepared beforehand, he had pushed their child onto a battlefield under the pretext of a long merchant journey without saying a single word to her.
Wilhelm furtively watched Johanna, who was huffing in anger, and opened his mouth with difficulty.
“I was in a hurry because of the opposition faction and Latius.”
“?”
Johanna’s eyes grew round with confusion, and Wilhelm continued with a grave expression.
“As you know, the reason we govern the autonomous territory is because our two families have joined hands since the days when our ancestors settled here.”
Long ago, in a very distant past, there were two famous families.
House Medichin, which began as a family of doctors and apothecaries and amassed the greatest wealth in the Empire despite being of commoner origin.
House Berstein, a knightly family that had continuously produced Aura Masters without skipping a generation ever since the Empire’s history began.
The two families, both from Sütern, had maintained a close relationship over several hundred years. That relationship continued and became the history of the Etilant Autonomous Territory.
The marriage between Wilhelm Medichin and Johanna Berstein, the heirs of those two families, was a major event that changed the balance of the autonomous territory.
That House Medichin-Berstein now faced an immediate problem.
“Both you and I are only children, so we have no siblings of our own blood to share the burden. Among those issues, the greatest problem is that we have no sibling who can take charge of military force.”
“……!”
Johanna Berstein Medichin was the sole direct heir of House Berstein, which ranked among the finest in the Empire in terms of martial power.
Unfortunately, however, she had stagnated at the realm of High-Grade Aura.
“Ugh···.”
Johanna, who knew that things would become far easier than they were now if she reached the dream realm of Aura Master, grimaced and let out a low groan.
Just as Wilhelm said, she had no siblings born of the same womb, and even the collateral branches were all rather mediocre, so his words hurt as if they had struck bone.
In the end, Johanna let out a sigh as though admitting the truth.
“Haa-. Can you not simply stop taking the mana suppressants? If you stop drinking those, the pigs of Latius and the other noble bastards will have no reason to look down on us, will they?”
Johanna Berstein Medichin pleaded as she looked earnestly at Wilhelm, her husband, her lover, and her childhood friend of the same age.
If Wilhelm stopped taking mana suppressants as she asked, the current challenge from the noble faction against House Medichin-Berstein would be blown away in a single stroke.
But Wilhelm shook his head.
“I cannot do that. Do you not know why my late father and your father told me to take mana suppressants?”
If Wilhelm stopped taking mana suppressants and revealed his true ability, House Medichin-Berstein’s position within the Empire would become narrower.
If it became known that he, one of the Empire’s foremost intellectuals, a magnate, and a statesman, also possessed martial power that could not be taken lightly, every Elector in the Empire would move to keep the Etilant Autonomous Territory in check.
“Both the autonomous territory and the Konzern will collapse like sandcastles without trade within the Empire.”
The Etilant Autonomous Territory had a large share of commerce and industry, while its food self-sufficiency rate was low. If it became isolated from the Empire, it would be over that very day.
After hearing even that answer, Johanna let out a sigh with a helpless expression.
“Haa-. Those damned nobles. I wish we could simply sweep them all away···.”
It was not as if they lacked strength.
The Etilant Army was the private army of House Medichin-Berstein, as well as the army of the Medichin Konzern and the autonomous government.
Thanks to House Medichin, the owner of the Medichin Konzern, the greatest merchant organization in the Empire, it possessed excellent equipment, tens of thousands of troops, and a magic wing.
It was commanded by knights from the Berstein Knight Order, whose command ability was as outstanding as their personal martial strength.
It was the strongest army in Etilant, and even within the Empire, it was a powerful army ranked among the top ten.
If they started a civil war with the Etilant Army at the forefront, it would not be difficult to hang the heads of those who opposed House Medichin and the autonomous territory from poles. However, Wilhelm shook his head.
“We cannot allow innocent soldiers and residents to shed so much blood in vain because of our power struggle.”
Even if the Etilant Army ranked among the highest within the Empire and was the only military organization on the Etilant Peninsula capable of systematically operating troops numbering in the tens of thousands.
The opposition nobles, the lords of Latius, and the knights under them were people capable of wielding aura or magic.
Fortunately, their level was insignificant compared to the officers and battle mages of the Etilant Army, but their numbers were overwhelming. Overwhelming numbers were a form of violence in and of themselves.
Therefore.
If civil war broke out, Wilhelm could clearly see the terrible sight that would follow: soldiers on both sides, and innocent residents, bleeding enough to form rivers and dying enough to pile up into mountains of corpses.
“Moreover, the fact that Sütern could come down from north of the Asfrus is also a problem.”
“···That would be true. The bastards of Sütern are connected to the bastards of Latius through marriages and blood ties.”
Within the Etilant Peninsula, those men formed the core of the anti-Medichin-Berstein faction. They were nobles who occupied the fertile Latius Plain in the southwest of the Etilant Peninsula.
Those bastards, with their enormous grain production, were relatives or in-laws of the nobles of the Sütern Palatinate beyond the Asfrus Mountains, the northern border of the Etilant Autonomous Territory.
“Nor do I feel comfortable bringing in mercenaries from elsewhere. Whether they would fight properly is one question, but the guest could also end up becoming the master, could they not?”
Because of all these things, Wilhelm had no choice but to push his eldest son into the goblin subjugation campaign. It was to create a record that could compensate for his eldest son’s frailty.
“Compared to the force I attached to him, goblins are so insignificant they could not even begin to compare. Still, monsters are monsters. If we publicize the victory on a large scale and release the family’s money, we will be able to turn public opinion.”
For now, what mattered was buying time by any means.
After hearing even the words Wilhelm added at the end, Johanna had no choice but to nod.
“I understand. However.”
Just as Wilhelm was about to breathe a sigh of relief at Johanna’s words, which had softened somewhat.
“If our son returns seriously injured anywhere, be prepared to sleep in separate rooms for the rest of your life.”
“Ugh···.”
There were few things more painful for a man than being unable to share a bed with the wife he loved so dearly.
As Wilhelm groaned at the thought of suffering that pain, and Johanna sank into worry, a familiar voice reached their ears.
“I am back!”
Unlike his usual gentle and soft tone, it was the hearty and vigorous voice of their eldest son.
THUD-THUD-THUD!
Hearing that voice, Wilhelm and Johanna ran to the entrance with a loud rush of footsteps.
***
‘Those two are my parents now.’
Johanna was a noblewoman of striking beauty, her dark brown hair elegantly pinned up.
Wilhelm was a broad-shouldered, blond, dashing man with a sword scar at the nape of his neck.
Recognizing that these two, both tall enough to have been volleyball players on modern Earth, were his parents, Friedrich greeted them.
“I am back. Father, Mother.”
“······.”
Wilhelm and Johanna could not find anything to say when they saw their son return home wearing armor, with a bandage wrapped around his head.
Of the two, Johanna’s eyes filled with tears as she pulled Friedrich into an embrace.
“Thank you for coming back alive, my son!”
“Thank you, Mother.”
Friedrich smiled at the maternal affection he was feeling for the first time in a long while.
Johanna released her eldest son, then cupped his cheeks in both hands.
“How on earth did you get hurt? Hm?”
“Well···.”
When Friedrich told her that he had taken off his helmet because it felt suffocating, only to be knocked unconscious by a rock thrown by a goblin, Johanna struck him hard on the back.
SMACK!
“Ahk! That hurts, Mother!”
“I am hitting you so it hurts! That way, you will never again come back injured over something so foolish!”
‘It was not even something I did···.’
Unable to tell the truth, Friedrich endured Johanna’s unceasing smacks to his back.
“You will kill the boy at that rate, my dear.”
“I do not think you are the one who should be saying that.”
Johanna stopped her hand and whipped her head around, glaring as if she might devour him. At her murderous gaze, Wilhelm smacked his lips.
“Well, now···. It is not as though I did it because I wanted to, is it?”
“Even so, thanks to Father, everyone came back without a single death, Mother. The wounded soldiers were only lightly injured, so they only need simple treatment.”
At Friedrich’s words, both Wilhelm and Johanna were startled.
“No one died?”
“Is what you just said true?”
“Yes. I used the supplies Father had prepared in advance···.”
When he said that he had used the terrain for an ambush and encirclement-and-annihilation tactic to wipe out the goblins without losses, both Wilhelm and Johanna’s mouths fell open.
“That cannot be···.”
“How did you come up with such a scheme?”
This boy, who had spent every day digging only into literature, art, and music, had commanded troops and achieved a complete victory?
Friedrich smiled faintly at the two of them, who looked as though they could not believe it.
“After I got hit by the rock a goblin threw and lost consciousness, I came to my senses. It hurt even to take that one hit, and it made me think about how much pain the people who would have been hurt more seriously or killed must have felt. So I decided to fight.”
Wilhelm had secretly hoped that this subjugation campaign would help him gain some realization, but to think he had gained it in a single attempt.
As Wilhelm’s face showed a mixture of surprise and joy at the fact that his threadlike hope had become a sturdy rope, Friedrich looked straight at him and continued giving his after-action report on the goblin subjugation campaign.
“You mobilized the knights for labor and prepared an ambush?”
“Yes. The amount of work one of them could do was equal to five or six ordinary soldiers. Even the beginner aura users.”
“······.”
Even if Friedrich had used his father’s authority, the fact that he had taken control of the knights and mobilized them for labor was enough to astonish Wilhelm. Was this truly his frail eldest son?
“Good. Is there anything else you have to say?”
“I captured the goblins as intact as possible and brought back a fair number of materials. Father, I would like you to give half of the profits from selling them as reward money to the soldiers who participated in this battle, and the remaining half to the officers of each rank and the battle mages.”
“!?”
“What··· do you mean by that, my son?”
Johanna asked back at the unexpected words.
“How could I leave money lying there? I scraped together everything that could make money. I want to use that money to reward the people who suffered because of me.”
At Friedrich’s proud smile, the two of them were left speechless.
“My word···.”
It was already admirable that he had won a battle and returned, but he had even carefully collected the monster materials, and now he was asking them to use the money earned by selling them to look after his own people.
It was enough to make them offer thanks to Merkl, the guardian deity of House Medichin.
Seeing that his son seemed to have matured greatly through this battle, Wilhelm did not hide his satisfaction and answered readily.
“Of course! That is how it should be! A leader must look after his own people. I will handle it that way!”
If Friedrich wanted to change this world in the future, he had to impress a new image upon Wilhelm and Johanna.
Since he had won his first battle as well, Friedrich took one more step forward.
“Thank you, Father. From now on, I will devote myself to the heir’s education as befits the eldest son of House Medichin.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes. Of course. However···.”
Friedrich, who had spoken confidently, drew out the end of his sentence. At that sight, questions appeared on both of their faces.
“Why? Is there something you need? No, are you hurt somewhere else?”
When Johanna jumped in alarm, Friedrich smiled sheepishly and said, “That is not it. I have a request.”
“A request, you say…….”
When Wilhelm trailed off with an unsatisfied expression, Johanna snapped at him.
“No, Friedrich says he will receive the heir’s education you have been harping on about so much. Is it so difficult to grant one request?”
“Ah, whether he will merely receive the heir’s education and end it there, or properly inherit my position, is something we will know only after hearing him out, is it not?”
Though they used polite speech because their child was present, Wilhelm and Johanna bickered as though they were speaking with a friend.
Looking at the two of them, Friedrich smiled.
‘Shall I begin?’
It was time to show what he had prepared throughout the entire journey back. Friedrich drew a deep breath inwardly and spoke.
“Father is right, Mother. A promise—no, a contract—must be made clear.”
“A contract?”
“Yes. I am making this request on the condition that I become the heir, so naturally, we should prepare the proper documents and make a contract. Is that not so?”
After finishing their light quarrel, Wilhelm and Johanna were left speechless by Friedrich’s shamelessly matter-of-fact reply.
But Friedrich had no intention of backing down here. For the sake of the future as well.
‘This is no ordinary family, so it will be better to nail things down clearly before moving on.’
House Medichin commanded one of the largest merchant organizations on the western continent, governed the Etilant Autonomous Territory, and even held a vote in the imperial election.
In Friedrich’s view, if he wished to become the proper heir of a family that held wealth, honor, and power all in one hand, then a contract had to be drawn up. Moreover···.
‘The old Friedrich might have been different, but I am not!’
The military was also an organization, and Friedrich, who had engaged in his own share of push-and-pull office politics, regarded making a transaction clear as something as natural as breathing.
“Promises should be put in writing, and guarantees should be backed with money. Would that not prove I have the qualifications to succeed you, Father?”
At Friedrich’s bold reply, Wilhelm and Johanna were left at a loss for words.