After heading north for quite some time beyond the gateway fortress under Baron Kver’s jurisdiction, the Medichin family and their escort arrived at Asteldorf.
“Waaah!”
White walls, larger and taller than those of Firenburg.
Spires so lofty they could be seen even from outside those enormous walls.
Even Friedrich, whose insides were over thirty years old, found himself wondering what the inside must look like. The walls surrounding the city of Asteldorf looked that grand and sturdy.
“It seems we are the first to arrive, Mayor.”
“It appears so, Chief of Staff. Let us immediately establish a camp on the open ground near the drawbridge.”
Until the Imperial Diet adjourned, it was a long-standing custom of the Empire that Imperial Diet members, regardless of status, ate and slept at their respective camps.
However, because each Imperial Diet member and the troops accompanying them could establish their camps wherever they wished in the order of arrival, Wilhelm had arrived early in order to secure a prime(?) spot quickly.
Moreover, since there had been an unpleasant incident during the last Imperial Diet, the fight over places would be even fiercer this time.
While the Etilant Army set up camp on the open ground closest to the city gate, the members of House Medichin, including Friedrich, entered Asteldorf Castle.
“I will go to the trading house. I leave the children to you, my dear.”
“Have a safe trip, darling.”
Wilhelm got out of the carriage and headed to the trading house, leading a group of knights and mages on horseback. Friedrich wandered around the streets of Asteldorf with the rest of his family.
‘It deserves to be called the heart of the Empire.’
Asteldorf was an ancient city that contained everything symbolizing the past and present of the Astella Empire.
From the Imperial Palace, where the emperor elected through the imperial election resided.
To the Imperial Diet Hall, where the Empire’s present and future were discussed.
The Imperial Magic University, responsible for magic, one of the Empire’s four pillars.
The University of Asteldorf, which stood at the forefront of restoring and advancing lost knowledge.
The Pantheon, where the gods worshiped by all peoples of the Empire were enshrined in one place, and the great temples of the religious orders following each god.
And the Imperial Central Communications Tower, once the core of the Empire’s communications network, though its flame was now extinguished.
Buildings and facilities symbolizing the past, present, and future of the Astella Empire were gathered here.
‘Even if the emperor is elected by vote now, its underlying strength has not gone anywhere. Is that it?’
After Astell the Great, the first emperor who founded the Astella Empire, the emperor came to be chosen through votes cast by the Electors who held voting rights.
Even so, Asteldorf was recognized for its authority as the greatest city of the Empire in both name and reality, and as the capital. There was even a law stating that whoever was elected emperor had to govern the Empire from the Imperial Palace in Asteldorf.
‘It is impressive. Still, first I should stop by a bookstore and···.’
While Friedrich was absorbed in his plan to launder the source of his knowledge, Maria asked in a cheerful voice.
“Wow, so this is the real Asteldorf! I always only saw Father off when he left…. Why did we come with him this time?”
At Maria’s words, Johanna smiled faintly and explained in a gentle voice. Now that they had arrived at their destination, she seemed to have relaxed.
“Your father told me there was an uproar during the last Imperial Diet. While the Margrave of Nodenburg-Treisen himself was attending the Imperial Diet, the sons he left behind in his territory attacked two neighboring counties.”
“Is that not robbing an empty house?”
At Johanna’s words, Julian pricked up his ears and asked.
“My, where did you learn such a phrase?”
When Maria asked in surprise, Julian grinned and glanced at Friedrich.
‘What? Why! Why are you looking at me?’
After that glance came Johanna’s massive back smack.
“You! I asked you to help Julian study, and you taught him strange words?”
“Ahk! Th-that is not it, Mother. It fits perfectly, does it not? Robbing an empty house.”
Struggles between lords were common enough.
The problem was that it had happened while the lords were away from their territories to attend the Imperial Diet.
“In any case, thanks to His Majesty’s mediation, it was settled for now, but would the aftermath not be a problem? That is why everyone agreed that the Imperial Diet members themselves and even their families should all gather.”
The Imperial Diet members, sensitive to their own interests, spoke as one and threatened Nodenburg-Treisen.
[Will you be expelled from the Empire, or will you return the territory?]
As a result, Nodenburg-Treisen bowed to public opinion and returned the occupied territories, but for the next ten years, he would receive half of the annual revenue from those returned lands.
‘They say the north is barren, but what kind of margrave is that? He is a bandit chief. Tsk.’
A margrave was granted powerful autonomy in exchange for blocking foreign invasions at the border, and yet he had instead plundered neighboring domains.
This was the reality that arose because the Astella Empire, though bound together under the name of an empire, was only loosely connected.
‘Like the Holy Roman Empire.’
Friedrich, who had grown somewhat relaxed after his small successes so far, tightened the reins of his heart again at the cold reality he encountered upon entering the wider world.
‘Reality is a gutter, so I have to build up strength as quickly as possible. Technology, territory, population…….’
As Friedrich was thinking of grand strategy, his head suddenly throbbed.
[I am glad you have come to your senses even now. Now! Try finding some talent who can help you!]
At the words of the god Merkl, who had been sulking all this time and now spoke up as if the opportunity had finally come, Friedrich cried out petulantly.
‘Help me first before saying that, will you?’
It was then.
WHINNY!
While Friedrich was bickering with Merkl in his head, a horse’s cry rang out, followed by the shock of a sudden stop that ran through his entire body.
“Oh my!”
Johanna let out a brief exclamation and hurriedly looked over the children.
“Are you all right, children?”
“Yes, Mother. I am fine.”
“Are you all right, Mother?”
“Haa-, yes. The gods must have watched over us.”
Relieved that her children had not been hurt, Johanna called to the coachman in an elegant voice.
“What happened?”
“I-I apologize, Madam! A beggar collapsed in front of the carriage···! I have committed a crime worthy of death!”
Hearing the coachman’s trembling voice from outside the carriage, Johanna got down from the carriage in a flustered hurry.
Friedrich and the children followed her outside and found a middle-aged man collapsed in front of the carriage, covered in an old robe that looked worse than a ragged straw mat.
“Oh dear···.”
Despite the murderous air that had shaded her face, Johanna’s expression turned bitter when she saw the collapsed man’s bony, emaciated hand.
Maria was just as pained by that pitiful sight.
“What should we do···?”
“Look at his hands, Felix. They are so bony.”
“He must have starved a lot. Brother, should I bring the bread we were eating?”
Friedrich was about to answer Julian and nod to Felix, who was looking at him as he asked, but he paused.
‘If that man eats the bread we were eating, his intestines will twist.’
At a glance, the man’s digestive ability had clearly fallen because starvation had been practically routine for him. The bread they ate, which contained butter, sugar, honey, milk, and the like, would be poison to him.
Just as Friedrich was organizing his thoughts and about to speak, a voice rang out.
[That man will probably be someone you need!]
[Take that man as your companion. (Incomplete)]
‘Huh!? ···Hmm······.’
In any case, if they wanted that man to recover properly, they had to feed him salt water first to settle his stomach, then give him soup.
And since Merkl’s voice had even spoken, Friedrich’s answer to his younger brother was practically decided.
“It would be better for us to take him with us.”
***
The man who had lost consciousness in the street came to his senses only after salt water entered his mouth.
“Uuugh···.”
As the saltiness spread through his mouth, the man regained consciousness with a groan and opened his eyes.
“Where is this······.”
“It seems you have come to your senses a little, hehe.”
In the man’s eyes, now that light had returned to them, he saw a boy. The boy, dressed in luxurious yet neat clothes, was sitting in a chair as he spoke to him.
“For now, we have to settle your stomach, so slowly drink the salt water first. Once you finish it, I will give you soup, and when you have adjusted somewhat, I will give you a proper meal.”
As Friedrich said, the man endured his hunger and slowly emptied the cup of salt water little by little.
When the man calmly set down the empty cup, the boy held out the bowl of soup that had been placed on the side table beside him.
‘Food!’
The soup’s rich and fragrant smell tickled his nose.
At that smell, the man’s eyes turned wild. He raised his upper body, snatched the bowl of soup from the boy as if stealing it, and grabbed the spoon placed in the bowl.
‘Aah···!’
When he put the soup, which he could not even remember last eating, into his mouth, tears flowed from the man’s eyes as he was overcome with emotion.
Even as tears and snot streamed down his face, the man kept spooning up the soup as though enchanted, and in an instant, he scraped the bowl clean.
GROOOOOWL~.
Perhaps because it had received food for the first time in a long while, his stomach let out a resounding cry, and the man opened his mouth with a sheepish expression.
“I am sorry, but···.”
“I will bring more right away.”
Despite the shameless request, the boy answered with a faint smile and went outside the tent.
Not long after, the boy returned with soup filling a deeper, larger bowl, and the man accepted the bowl the boy gave him as if he were now going to eat in earnest, then brought it to his mouth.
“If you gulp it down in a hurry, you will make yourself sick, so use the spoon like you did just now. Otherwise, I will take it away, understood?”
The man, who had been about to drink down the soup, flinched at the boy’s warning and nodded.
Only after he moved the spoon diligently through the bowl he had lowered from his mouth and finished the soup did the man’s face brighten completely.
“Whew-, that was a good meal.”
“You finally look all right.”
Only then did the man, who had at last come to his senses, properly take in the sight of the boy looking at him with a satisfied expression.
“···I do not know who you are, but thank you very much.”
Only after his stomach was full did the man realize just how rude and unsightly he had been.
The man gave his thanks with a ashamed expression, and the boy asked, “There is nothing to thank me for. In the end, people live so they can eat and survive.”
“That is true, haha···.”
“I am Friedrich Medichin. What is your name?”
“Friedrich··· Me-Medichin?”
When the man heard the surname of the boy who had introduced himself in a bright voice, his face turned white.
“By Me-Medichin, do you perhaps mean that···?”
“Yes. Wilhelm Medichin, the mayor of Firenburg and the consul of the Etilant Autonomous Territory, is my father.”
“!?”
The man felt as though the entire world had turned yellow.
To think he had shown such disgraceful behavior in front of the eldest son of House Medichin, someone the current him would not even dare to look at.
“I-I apologize!”
“There is nothing to apologize for. More importantly, I still have not heard your answer. What is your name?”
If he failed to answer a question asked twice, he felt as though he would be in deep trouble. The man hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I am Leibniz Merlin!”
“And your occupation?”
“W-well, that is···.”
Seeing Merlin unable to open his mouth easily, Friedrich narrowed his eyes.
“I saved someone who had collapsed, and answering that is so difficult?”
“N-no, w-well···.”
Unable to hide his embarrassment and shame, Merlin put on an entire show with his face, his tongue briefly darting out, his lower lip being bitten once to the left and once to the right.
“I will be the one to judge what kind of person you are. I will not look down on you or laugh at you, so speak freely.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Of course. So do not worry and tell me.”
After much agonizing, Merlin let out sigh after sigh as if he might make the cot he was sitting on collapse, and only then did he reveal his identity.
“I am··· a mage.”
“A mage?”
A mage was an occupation as far removed from poverty as one end of the universe from the other, so why was he this filthy?
When Friedrich looked puzzled, Merlin pressed his lips together, then soon told his story.
“I am… a failed mage. From the age of eight, I showed aptitude in all nine schools, and my potential was recognized as something that could achieve the 7th Circle or higher in all of them. But that was all.”
‘A 7th-Circle or higher achievement in all nine schools?’
Even if one devoted oneself to only a single attribute, the number of people who had become great mages of the 7th Circle or higher in the Empire’s history could be counted on two hands. Yet this man’s talent had been acknowledged since childhood?
Friedrich soon heard the answer.
“No matter how hard I tried, I could never rise beyond the 1st Circle. Moreover, the magic system I spent my entire life researching and improving was all stolen from me! All because my Circle was low!”
Merlin cried out almost like a scream, carrying the anger that welled up inside him. If his words were true, anyone would have found it pitiful, but Friedrich thought differently.
“Enough.”
Friedrich raised his hand upright and cut off Merlin’s words.
“That is reality, Mr. Merlin.”
“That is reality?”
“It is the petty and vile nature of humans to trample someone weaker than themselves and climb higher. Do you not know the story of the Margrave of Nodenburg-Treisen?”
Of course, Merlin also knew by hearsay of the ugly territorial war waged by Nodenburg-Treisen, the hegemon of the northeastern Empire. To think Friedrich would dig into his heart with such a merciless story.
Because Friedrich had pierced his wounds, Merlin was left completely speechless. Where had the boy gone who had taken in his beggarly self, fed him soup, and listened to him kindly?
“You already know the answer, Merlin. You need strength in order to protect treasure.”
Once again, Friedrich stabbed him with the dagger of his words, and blood vessels rose in Merlin’s eyes.
“Are you saying the weak should then…! Live like this for their entire lives?”
“No. They should build strength.”
At Friedrich’s attitude, saying it so simply, Merlin felt his strength drain away.
The boy’s relaxed and wise-looking bearing felt like a large, solid mountain, like when he had once faced his own master.
‘Are those words and that attitude truly something a child who has not even held his coming-of-age ceremony can have?’
“Anyone… can say something like that. Do you think I have never tried?”
At those words, Friedrich gave a small laugh.
“Then let us do this. Work on something with me, Mr. Merlin.”