"Boss, things worked out smoothly."
After the soldiers of the hostile territory were sent back, every immediate problem had been resolved.
"So they did."
I nodded calmly and recalled what had happened in the meantime.
Right after the enemy soldiers withdrew, Baron What's-His-Name came rushing out to greet us.
He handed over a contract he had written by his own hand, saying he would cede the entire mine district to us, and when Mel checked it—.
'Unfair on the level of a slave contract.'
The baron had thrown away every one of his rights and resolved to attach himself to us.
He went so far as to say he would commit the entire reserve force of the merchant company waiting in his barony and send them to the Empire.
As a result, we achieved the goal we had held as our highest priority.
All of this was accomplished in a mere few hours.
"He handles things faster than I expected."
"Boss! We spared his life, so he'd better do at least that much!!!"
Come to think of it, she wasn't exactly wrong.
In truth, the easiest thing in war is to kill everyone and take it all.
The problem was.......
"The knights are one thing, but the travel time to the Empire and back is far too long."
Our goal was to make contact with our remaining comrades—Veil and Yuria.
Circumstances suggested they had likely regressed as well, but since they were in a very distant country, there was the problem that a single message might take months.
I didn't know the exact distance from Alton, a petty kingdom on the continent's outskirts, to the Great Empire that ruled the prime land at its center, but.......
"Even assuming you changed to fresh, fast horses at every chance, wouldn't it take at least several months?"
But making a mockery of my concern, Mel was smiling brightly.
"Boss, who is Veil?"
Veil, the Vice-Commander of our mercenary company.
Well versed in every sort of trashy book, with a talent for handling people.
What Mel was asking about must have been the time before he'd met me.
'Hm—.'
Originally, he'd been an imperial noble by the name of Veil What's-His-Name.
And so Veil was——.
"Father of the Revolutionary Corps, betrayer of the Emperor. That the sort of thing you're asking?"
Before we regressed, he'd tried to overturn the Empire's sky.
Which is to say, he committed what is called a dynastic revolution.
But the current Emperor was a monster far beyond anything Veil had imagined, and in the end Veil failed.
That was how he drifted all the way to my Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company.
Of course, that wasn't what Mel was asking.
"Boss, I'm Mel Kranel, right?"
Margrave Mel Kranel.
A title that suited Mel's guttersnipe manner of speech very poorly, but the power of regression had made it possible.
For Mel to say such a thing meant that Veil was in a similar position.
And so I asked, and I heard an unbelievable answer.
"Was Veil some great noble as well?"
At this point in time.
Veil, several years before he'd met me, was.
"Veil is from one of the Great Empire's four ducal houses—."
The Empire had ducal houses called the Four Pillars.
A title of which only four exist in that vast and immense Empire.
The highest, excepting the Emperor and the grand dukes.
A position with the standing to sit alone with me—Mercenary King Jack—in my past life.
That was Veil's house.
"—He's the third son of Duke Altias!"
And of all things, House Altias.
A noble house I didn't call 'What's-His-Name' was the real thing.
And because of that ill fate, it had stayed vividly in my memory.
"The house that carried out a dynastic revolution remained a ducal house?"
"Ah, well—."
According to Mel's explanation, despite Veil's attempted dynastic revolution, House Altias kept its title intact.
The credit and trust they had built up did not collapse over the youngest son's shitty stunt, apparently.......
"So that's why those bastards got in our way so much."
It was House Altias that had a hand in the annihilation of our Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company after the Emperor changed.
"If the Veil who went back becomes the house head, who knows how things will change!"
"Hah!"
Wasn't she saying that this ill fate might now turn out differently?
"This is the power of regression too."
Truly, a power I couldn't stop marveling at.
I had a premonition that learning the pasts of my comrades that I didn't know would be very important from here on.
***
Baron Panier made his decision.
That he must submit to Margrave Kranel, who had occupied his territory.
"Father......."
"Mikhail, this is the only path for our baronial house to survive."
"E-Even if the Margrave stepped in personally—. Why would you sign a contract with such absurd clauses!!!"
But Mikhail, the young lord, could not agree with his father the baron's view.
The Margrave had handed a secret letter to the hundred knights she had brought, then sent them out of the kingdom together with the baronial house's merchant company.
In the course of it, the baron personally drew up and handed the Margrave a document that was no different from a slave contract, containing a clause that they would offer up everything in the barony so long as their own safety was guaranteed.
"My son, Mikhail. Widen your view."
The house head spoke to his son with a look that said he understood exactly how he felt.
"That enormous man who claims to be the Margrave's knight. He is the real one."
A single man had butchered dozens.
That monstrously strong knight said he served Margrave Mel Kranel, but—.
"It is subtle, but the way they treat each other is different. That is by no means the picture of a lord and her knight."
Even a baron of an obscure petty kingdom was a noble.
He had seen no end of nobles, including at the royal council held every year.
And yet the relationship between Margrave Mel Kranel and Knight Commander Jack was something alien, far beyond ordinary.
Especially Jack, that enormous knight.
"That ferocity, that boldness. And that stubbornness that never compromises. The way he moves as though he is leading every situation, it was like watching a mercenary who has been through every hardship there is."
That was the baron's assessment of Jack.
"And yet his conduct is like that of a sovereign....... Hah!"
"Father?"
Abruptly, the baron swallowed a groan.
As though something had come to him, his generous jowls began to quiver.
"T-That....... I remember seeing a similar man. He is a different sort of man, but the feeling he gives off—."
The baron recalled a man he had met at last year's royal council.
A man said to serve as both knight and secretary to a ducal house.
That knight, with blood-red hair standing out on a face marked by a deep sword scar.
Only then did the baron realize.
"......This country may have already lost its sovereignty."
At the time he had let it pass, but after meeting Mel and Jack, the baron could be certain of that sense of wrongness.
That red-haired man who had offered counsel to the duke at the royal council.
It had oddly seemed as though the duke was minding his mood, and now he could be sure.
That was neither a noble nor a knight.
"Just how many powers have their hands on this small country......."
Baron Panier had come roughly close to the truth.
***
I had driven off the gnats that occupied my mine and accomplished my goal of finding my comrades.
Now it was time to deal with the next problem.
"Boss, are you going to break the jewel?"
A Mystery I once favored.
Named: [The Demon Sword That Would Be Strongest If It Did Not Break].
In my past life, I'd shattered the jewel that housed this sword's ego.
I used it only because I liked the sword's hardness; the noisy ego of a lowly grunt was of no use to me whatsoever.
"This thing is far too noisy."
For all the talk of a great Mystery and a weapon housing a Possessor's soul, wasn't it just the soul of a grunt who prattled endlessly about killing things?
According to my past-life comrades, the soul dwelling in this sword was that of a textbook low-tier man. (This was a way of classifying men from Mel's homeland—the incomprehensible world.)
The soul of a low-tier man dwelling in a sword was of no use to me.
So I meant to shatter it at once in this life as well, but to my surprise Mel offered a different opinion.
"They say a sword gets stronger the more you hammer it, right?"
It was the logic the dwarven artisans in my mobile fortress used to speak.
For reference, in the past, a living dwarf near me was as good as an honorary member of the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company.
Because they had the ramrod-straight temperament I favor.
"Youngsters these days say technique is everything and neglect the artisan's spirit."
The power of artisans can, in some respects, become as great as my monstrous strength.
I witnessed that miracle firsthand.
"That is not the proper attitude for a blacksmith!"
Unlike the young dwarves who got worked up over nuclear bombs and airships, the artisans in my fortress valued tradition and the old ways, and prized devotion above all.
The arms they made required immense effort and time.
The cost-effectiveness was terrible, but in the end they shone most brilliantly on the battlefield.
They were acknowledged on performance alone.
'A good dwarf is a dead dwarf.'
In this life I decided to accept Veil's view.
But the dwarves who'd lived in my fortress were an exception.
People whose words and deeds matched were a type I rather liked.
Mel knew that too, which was surely why she invoked them in speaking to me.
"Boss! The jewel too....... no, the soul inside it, if you keep hammering it like iron, wouldn't it get stronger?"
It was an idea I had never once considered.
I thought it over carefully.
For one thing, wasn't that jewel part of the sword too?
"The Demon Sword That Would Be Strongest If It Did Not Break. Pointlessly long a name, fitting for a low-tier man—."
In the end this sword broke, and I had to procure a new one.
But what if the meaning of not breaking was limited to the soul dwelling in the sword?
'The strongest demon sword.'
The premise was that it didn't break.
The soul in the sword would surely know the details.
And unlike in my past life, I was confident I could control this jewel without shattering it—.
"Let's try asking."
Thinking to attempt some conversation with the sword, I gripped the hilt firmly.
And then a deeply bewildering voice came.
—Hiik!!! S-Spare me, please. Not that horrible pain, I beg you.......
Hardness enough to withstand my Monstrous Strength Swordsmanship.
But the soul dwelling in it seemed endlessly feeble.
The grotesque voice that had first urged slaughter had vanished without a trace, and in its place came the voice of some scrawny man.
"What are you—."
What I meant to ask about were the conditions for becoming the strongest demon sword.
But this feeble sword of a thing.
—Hiik!!!!
It fainted on the spot.
That was what the energy from the sword told me.
"Mel, is it right to keep a thing like this alive?"
"The condition for becoming the strongest demon sword might be that the soul doesn't break, right? The sword itself was amazing, but the soul is endlessly soft, so......."
Now that I was sure touching the gem made the sword docile, taming it was something time would take care of.
Roughly all the important business was done.
"Your Excellency Margrave Mel Kranel, Knight Commander Jack. Would you not care to tour the mines you will soon own?"
Just then Baron What's-His-Name brought his son along and offered to give us a tour of the mines.
Mel and I obligingly followed the baron and looked over the mines in the surrounding area.
'To think the deposits were this vast.'
Even to me, with little interest in commerce, the scale was tremendous.
I wondered how the owner of mines like these could be a mere baron.
Setting aside all the expensive luxuries, the caliber of the merchant company he had sent off to find my comrades made no sense to begin with.
And the scale of the mines before me now, even less so.
"I felt it when you sent the merchant company as well; for a mere baron, the scale of the economy you run makes no sense. However did you explain it away to the royal household?"
"Y-Your Excellency....... W-Well—."
At Mel's aristocratic question, Baron What's-His-Name rambled on incoherently as though making excuses.
Beginning with the family precept of keeping their wealth from others' knowledge, all the way to the worldly wisdom of settling for being a petty kingdom's baron and holding to a neutral position.
'So it has been less than two years since the mines grew in scale—.'
That lined up roughly with when I killed off every monster in the surrounding area for the sake of training.
"Seeing it, it makes sense."
"What does?"
"That your sword came out of a mine, Boss!"
The scale of these mines really was tremendous.
Looking out over them, there was no end in sight.
A scale that wouldn't fall short even beside the mines run by those called corporations in the continent's center.
If I obtained the mobile fortress later on, wouldn't I be able to get all the Arcane Ore needed to grow it from this land?
The thought came to me on its own.
"U-Urgent news!!!"
That was when we finished touring the mines and returned to the baron's castle.
We received a summons from the royal household far sooner than expected.
"His Majesty King Alton Wihar commands Margrave Mel Kranel and Knight Commander Jack to enter the palace at once!!!"
Until just moments ago I had thought this a petty kingdom whose administrative reach did not extend to the provinces.
Far sooner than expected, Mel's investiture as a noble began.
***
The Second Prince of the Kingdom of Alton, Jahad Alton.
He held a single dream in his breast.
The aspiration to make his name as a war monarch, a martial king.
So Jahad built a faction and split the kingdom in two.
"Duke Robert, Father has summoned Margrave Kranel to the capital."
Second Prince Jahad held a secret meeting with Duke Robert.
He was the true power of the noble military faction that had believed in and backed him since childhood, the effective patron who had raised the Second Prince this far.
"It is thanks to Your Highness's efforts. I am truly grateful!"
"Mel Kranel, is she not the woman who nearly became my kin by marriage? I wished to see her as well, so I granted your request."
The previous Margrave Kranel had once proposed a political marriage with his daughter.
By report she was a beauty who could well be called the finest, but after that the Margrave collapsed, and there was no chance to pursue the match.
And then suddenly she was charged with heresy.
It had left something of a blemish, but—.
"If she is a peerless beauty who has even become a margrave, there should be no great problem, no?"
"If even half the rumors are true, that would be more than enough to smooth over a mere heresy charge. Ha ha—."
The well-built old man stroked his long beard and smiled softly.
His expression was that of a benevolent grandfather, but the pressure he gave off was another matter.
Displeased that the Second Prince was distracted by women, Duke Robert applied subtle pressure.
"Ahem. In any case, it is His Majesty's command, so the Margrave will arrive at the palace within a few days."
Pressed down by that presence, the Second Prince cleanly forgot the matter of the woman.
As befitted the true power of the military faction, the pressure radiating from the duke was formidable, and in fact there was not a single person of skill in this country capable of guarding him.
'Who is that?'
But this time was different.
The Second Prince tilted his head as he looked at the being guarding the duke's back.
An enormous knight in full plate armor standing behind the duke.
'He looks a full head taller than the duke.'
Apart from the mean-faced strategist the duke always kept at his side, it was a face he had never seen.
Even that strategist, who somehow looked insolent, appeared to be minding that enormous knight's mood.
The Second Prince steadied his breath and asked.
"I have not seen that knight before. Will you not introduce him?"
Duke Robert answered smoothly.
"For the sake of the grand design, he is the one who will cut off the variable that has arisen in House Kranel."
The lowest-ranked of the Ten Great Knights of the Continent, his identity concealed.
The Stalwart Knight had stepped forward himself.