The next morning, Firenburg City Hall.
With the financial power of being the head of the Medichin Konzern, the greatest merchant organization in the Empire.
And with the political power of being the mayor of Firenburg, the largest free city in the Empire.
House Medichin had been elected as the consul governing the Etilant Autonomous Territory over and over, almost as if the position were hereditary, and had ruled this land for generations.
The current family head of that House Medichin, Wilhelm Medichin, summoned the Thousand-Man Commander and the Magic Squad Leader he had assigned to Friedrich to his office in the main building as soon as he arrived at City Hall.
“I heard from Friedrich that not a single person died. Is that true?”
“Yes, Mayor. Some soldiers did suffer light wounds, but there was not a single fatality.”
“He immediately devised the very same operation we had planned together with Chief of Staff Griffith.”
Perhaps because Friedrich’s strategy had left such an impression on them, not a single trace of hesitation or falsehood could be found on either man’s face.
“Huh···.”
Seeing that, Wilhelm let out an exclamation, moistened his lips with a sip of tea, and composed his expression.
“This is astonishing. He has never once learned military affairs.”
Although Wilhelm had set the whole stage and tested him, the goal of this expedition had only been to see whether Friedrich had the will to act.
Yet Friedrich had accurately devised that stage on his own and succeeded in it. In that respect, Wilhelm could not help being more than a little surprised by his son.
As Wilhelm tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingertips, the Thousand-Man Commander cautiously opened his mouth.
“Forgive me for saying this, but I believe the turning point may have been when he was struck by the stone and lost consciousness.”
“That is right, Mayor. When a person experiences something shocking, there are cases where they awaken to their innate talent.”
“Hmm···.”
Wilhelm let out a low hum and nodded.
“It seems so. In any case, both of you worked hard, so I will inform the Chief of Staff and the Commander of the Magic Wing of your efforts.”
Wilhelm was never a man who made empty promises. Perhaps because they knew a reward for this matter would follow, the mage and the knight’s expressions brightened.
“Thank you, Mayor!”
“What is there to thank me for? You worked hard taking care of our eldest son, so I should be the one thanking you. You have worked hard, so take a few days and rest well. Use this while you are resting.”
“Yes, Mayor!”
After encouraging the two men and sending them off with a pouch of gold coins each, a smile spread across Wilhelm’s lips.
“Things are going to become interesting.”
Wilhelm drank his tea with a pleased smile at his son’s change.
However, even he could not foresee what sort of winds that change in his son would stir up in House Medichin, the Etilant Autonomous Territory, the Astella Empire, and the western continent.
***
After returning from the expedition.
Friedrich was participating in an event Wilhelm had arranged to celebrate his triumphant return.
Beneath the tents, bread, smoked ham, fruit, milk, and olive oil were piled up like mountains. Tents like these had been set up all over the city.
“This is being given to commemorate how our second child subjugated monsters.”
“Goodness, is that truly so?”
A poor man receiving food personally handed to him by Wilhelm, the consul, asked back in surprise.
“Of course.”
Johanna, who was helping distribute food beside Wilhelm, agreed and spoke with a pleased smile.
“I swear by the late former Mayor and Count Berstein that it is true. This was prepared to celebrate that, so eat well and take heart.”
“Thank you, my lady!”
Wilhelm and Johanna watched the poor man walk away with a basket full of food.
Even so, their smiles contained a faint, bitter undertone.
‘Why are they like that? It cannot be that they begrudge the money···.’
Even though this was an occasion to boast of their child’s achievements, the two of them somehow looked regretful, and Friedrich tilted his head.
***
Friedrich, his family, and the employees distributed food at the free distribution station.
Before long, they divided the group around Wilhelm and Julian, Johanna and Felix, Maria and Vera, and Friedrich and Alfred, then went around to the free distribution stations set up throughout the city.
‘Heh heh, eat plenty, everyone.’
Friedrich was in an excellent mood. That was because the quest window, which had not been completed even after he met his parents, had been marked complete as soon as he began distributing food.
[Annihilate the ‘Hungry’ Goblins and return after collecting their eyeballs, teeth, and palate glue. (Complete)]
[5,000 points have been awarded as the quest reward.]
He still had to study where he could use them, but the sweet reward put Friedrich in a good mood.
‘We sometimes did things like this back on Earth too.’
As he distributed food while recalling the volunteer work he had occasionally participated in as part of civil support, such as free meal service, he found himself before long at an alley that looked not merely shabby, but gloomy.
“This is a dangerous place, Young Master.”
“What do you mean, Head Butler?”
Friedrich asked, but Alfred could not answer immediately.
“Well··· this is where the poor live.”
“What does that mean? If they are poor, then we should help them.”
“This place is······.”
Seeing Alfred unable to answer easily, Friedrich seemed to guess something and asked,
“Why are the people here poor?”
Alfred, who was accompanying him, hesitated, unsure how he should answer.
“That is···.”
“Head Butler, are you saying there is a place in our Firenburg where I must guard myself because it is that dangerous?”
“···That is not it. This place is··· not worth that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
As Friedrich continued questioning him without letting up, Alfred let out a sigh as if admitting defeat and opened his mouth.
“The former Mayors opened the family vault several times and distributed money, hoping that the poor across the autonomous territory, including Firenburg, would rise properly on their own feet. However….”
Each time, far from the lives of the poor improving, prices across the entire Etilant Autonomous Territory, including Firenburg, soared and caused great hardship.
When Alfred explained that House Medichin’s vaults had remained closed for nearly a hundred years since then, Friedrich smacked his lips.
‘So they tried basic income, got burned by inflation, and gave up···.’
Friedrich’s face crumpled all at once. Perhaps the ugly reality of those who had cried out for basic income in the Republic of Korea, to which he could no longer return, had come to mind.
‘The ancestors probably did it with good intentions. The fact that our family came from commoner origins must have played a part too.’
It was certainly admirable and heartwarming to remember one’s origins and try to create a world where everyone could eat well and live well together.
But Friedrich knew better than anyone that simply handing out money was not a fundamental prescription.
‘Still, they were too far ahead of their time. The standard answer would be to use that money to increase jobs, productivity, and income. There is a lot to do from now on.’
As Alfred examined Friedrich’s face, where a bitter smile had formed, he thought to himself.
‘Even if he says he will become the heir, I suppose his nature cannot be helped. The blood of the Mayor and Madam had to show itself somewhere···.’
Wilhelm Medichin and Johanna Berstein Medichin did not lose affection, compassion, sympathy, or expectations for people.
Seeing a look of sorrow pass across the face of Friedrich, their eldest son, Alfred smiled bitterly.
‘If he becomes the heir while protecting that warm heart, he will become a good leader.’
Alfred opened his mouth with a thought close to a wish.
“Young Master, I hope you never forget the emotion you feel right now. And please continue to strive tirelessly. Then, when you inherit the Mayor’s seat, a day will come when sunlight reaches even this slum.”
At Alfred’s advice, which was close to a prayer, Friedrich nodded with a firm expression.
“Thank you, Alfred. I will work hard.”
‘Though I will accomplish it before I inherit Father’s position.’
In Friedrich’s mind, methods to bring sunlight to this slum were rising without pause.
***
Only in the evening did Friedrich return home and meet the eyes of Wilhelm, who had returned before him.
“Did you have a good trip?”
“Yes, Father.”
With a vaguely shadowed expression, Friedrich greeted Wilhelm and returned to his room.
“Did something happen, Head Butler?”
Finding it strange, Wilhelm asked Alfred.
“Well··· while we were going around the city distributing food, at the entrance to the slum···.”
When Alfred explained that Friedrich seemed to have tasted the helplessness of being unable to do anything, Wilhelm’s expression turned bitter.
“So that is why he had no strength in him.”
“Please do not worry, Master. I told him not to forget that feeling and to devote himself to the heir’s education, and he quickly shook off his gloom and answered. If it is the Young Master, he will do well.”
“Thank you, Head Butler. Go back and rest.”
After sending Alfred away, Wilhelm went up to the study and sat on the sofa.
“Haa-.”
Wilhelm leaned his head back, looked up at the ceiling, and let out a sigh.
‘Even I find it difficult to solve. How much worse must it have been for that child?’
Because he understood that helplessness and pain that had not been resolved from hundreds of years ago up to his own generation, Wilhelm felt all the more sorry for his son.
‘As much as you hurt today, work even harder, Friedrich. And I hope you surpass this father of yours. If only to wash away the pain of this day.’
Wilhelm Medichin hoped that his son would step over the helplessness and pain he himself had yet to overcome and become a greater man.
***
The next morning.
As soon as Wilhelm arrived at City Hall, he summoned one of his closest aides to his office.
“You called for me, Mayor?”
The man, who had a build as sturdy as Wilhelm’s and reddish-brown hair tied back, was named Griffith von Berstein.
He was Johanna Berstein Medichin’s stepbrother, the former commander of the Berstein Knight Order, and currently the Chief of Staff of the Etilant Army. At his courteous greeting, Wilhelm rose from his seat and welcomed him.
“I did, Chief of Staff. Let us talk over a cup of tea. Please sit.”
Wilhelm moved from the desk in his office to the sofa, and only after his secretary set down two teacups and left could he call Griffith, who had given him a precise military salute, as comfortably as he would in private.
“You have heard about Friedrich, yes?”
“There is no need to ask.”
After that brief answer, Griffith took a sip of tea and smiled faintly.
“To be honest, I was a little surprised. From what I heard from the Thousand-Man Commander and the officers below him who took part in this battle···.”
Griffith told him about Friedrich, who, unlike before, had become rougher but had not avoided combat, and Wilhelm was more than a little surprised.
“···He has changed a great deal. Truly.”
“It seems one stone to the head changed him. A blessing in disguise, one might say.”
A blessing in disguise.
There was likely no phrase more fitting than that for Friedrich’s changed state, or more precisely, for his current state, in which strength had been added to his existing gentleness.
Wilhelm, who nodded along, also let the corners of his mouth rise slightly.
“Then being struck on the back by the child’s mother was a small price to pay.”
“It was a very small price. You know Johanna’s personality better than anyone, Mayor.”
At Griffith’s uncharacteristic smiling remark, Wilhelm gave an awkward smile.
“That is true. When I think about the time we ran into twenty orcs as children….”
An orc was difficult for even an ordinary adult man to face alone.
Yet Johanna and Wilhelm had defeated not one, but twenty orcs between the two of them.
It felt like only yesterday that they had fought desperately in the deep forest, relying on each other’s backs.
“Still, I married Johanna thanks to this one scar, so it was a profitable trade. Haha.”
Wilhelm laughed heartily and pointed at the scar on the nape of his neck.
It was a medal-like scar he had earned protecting Johanna through the power of love.
Perhaps recalling the dizzying memory of that time, Griffith nodded with a bitter smile.
“It truly was chaos back then. Johanna was crying and making a scene while holding you, Mayor, and even then, you were worrying, saying that if you died, who would be able to handle her….”
If Griffith had discovered that chaos even a little later, the current House Medichin, the Konzern, and the Etilant Autonomous Territory would not exist.
As Wilhelm spent some time reminiscing about the past, his thoughts led to the future of House Medichin, and his face darkened.
“It is in the past, so we can laugh about it now. However, when I think of the future of our autonomous territory and our children, that laughter quickly stops.”
At Wilhelm’s skeptical words, Griffith’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean? House Medichin and the Etilant Autonomous Territory are not something anyone within the Empire can disregard, are they?”
“I wonder. Internally, there are the bastards who defy our house and the bastards of Latius. Externally, the bastards of Sütern and Flandern are desperate to devour us, are they not?”
Even as Griffith’s face stiffened, Wilhelm continued speaking.
“The other petty nobles, the pigs of Latius, and the lazy bastards of Sütern are problems, but Flandern is pushing up right beneath our chin.”
For now, it seemed that House Medichin held the advantage.
But if Flandern, Sütern, and Latius joined hands and pressured them by any means, Etilant’s future would grow bleak.
“That is true. Above all, the greatest obstacle is still Latius. They ignore the laws of the autonomous territory while throwing aside the duties of nobility. They are vermin.”
Griffith had originally been born a serf in the Latius region in the southwest of the Etilant Peninsula, and he regarded the lords of Latius as his mortal enemies.
“I still cannot forget it. Monsters attacked the village, yet the man who called himself our lord locked the castle gates and did not even come out···.”
Thus, under the lord’s indifference, Griffith had lost his family and neighbors, become an orphan, and fled north and farther north with deeply rooted resentment in his heart, until he was taken in as an adopted son of House Berstein.
Griffith von Berstein believed without the slightest doubt that his life existed to destroy Latius and bring about the rise of the Etilant Autonomous Territory.
“If we must fight them, I will be the first to step forward, leading my brothers, children, and nephews to sever the heads of those pigs. However.”
Though his rage toward the lords of Latius had not faded in decades.
Griffith was a man who could become colder for the sake of revenge.
“We lack sufficient justification to strike first, and the number of aura users and mages on our side is too small. If we are to keep a civil war from becoming anything beyond a civil war, we must wait until the opportunity comes.”
If they were to strike the anti-Medichin nobles, and especially the lords of Latius at their core, they had to possess both justification and strength so that Sütern could not interfere. Only then could they reduce needless sacrifices.
Because Griffith’s heart was the same as his own, Wilhelm erased the regret that had briefly settled on his face and smiled.
“If we work a little harder, the opportunity will come. I will be going to the Imperial Diet with Friedrich before long, so I will be counting on you, Brother.”
“Yes, Mayor. For the honor of Etilant as well, I will do my utmost to prepare.”
Wilhelm and Griffith were partners who understood each other’s dreams and acknowledged reality.
Though they did not share blood, they recognized each other.
And with courteous words, the two exchanged trust and respect.