Oh Come On, Again?
On the fifth day after leaving the baron’s mansion, we still hadn’t even reached the halfway point to the frontier region of Zenas.
The journey from the barony to Zenas took more than half a month by carriage.
By the fifth day, Zeke and Tiffany were clearly bored out of their minds. They had become much quieter, and Chichiue-dono and Hahaue had just started discussing whether we should stop by a town somewhere… when the carriage suddenly came to a halt.
Sir Robert knocked on the door.
“Baron-sama. The Royal Knights are ahead of us.”
“The Royal Knights?”
Oh come on, again?
Father climbed out of the carriage, so I followed after him.
Zeke, Tiffany, and Mother got out as well.
They were probably tired of riding in the carriage too.
The Royal Knights had positioned themselves atop a small hill.
And at their head stood, not that division commander, but…
“Your Excellency the Chancellor.”
“Duke Halterius.”
Huh? A duke?
“I actually have something I wished to tell you all.”
“To us?”
Father glanced at me.
Huh? Me too?
“Indeed. First, regarding the matter you requested of us. I have received word that everything was recovered successfully.”
The matter we had requested was having all of our household furnishings taken away by a merchant officially recognized by the royal family.
Officially, they had been “seized by the Crown.”
That way, my rotten uncle wouldn’t be able to get his hands on them.
It wasn’t that I had any attachment to the furniture.
But the thought of that family using it pissed me off.
So I had everything emptied out.
“Thank you very much, Your Excellency.”
“Mm. There is one more matter as well.”
“One more? Whatever might it be?”
“Well. It seems that shortly after you departed, an accident occurred at the mine.”
Gotcha.
“W-What!?”
“A-At the mine!?”
Alongside Father, who genuinely knew nothing, I acted surprised too.
The dwarves listening to this from the wagon behind us were probably doing everything they could to hold back their laughter.
“It appears to have been a cave-in. Furthermore, water flooded in, and the tunnels were completely submerged.”
“W-Water? Dermont, could this be related to Tunnel Twelve that you warned us about the other day?”
“Yes. That’s why I told Ojiue it was dangerous.”
Because I figured anyone who overthought my warning would definitely go to the mine.
“And I told him to make sure he brought someone familiar with the mine’s interior.”
Because I figured someone with an unnecessarily oversized ego would enter without any miners and go in by himself.
According to the Chancellor, all the miners who had worked for us were fired on the spot.
Naturally, that happened before my rotten uncle visited the mine.
I had said it because I didn’t want the people who worked for us getting caught up in this.
And he fell for it perfectly.
Well, if he had brought them along, there wouldn’t have been any collapse or flooding.
“However, regrettably… no, fortunately, the count, his son, and several servants suffered only injuries.”
Eh, Your Excellency?
You definitely said “regrettably” just now, didn’t you?
You said regrettably.
“So my brother was injured... I see.”
Father wore a complicated expression.
Deep down, part of him was probably worried.
Even if he was like that, he was still his half-brother.
It was an emotion I couldn’t understand.
“Now then, one matter remains. Bring it here.”
“Yes, sir.”
At the Chancellor’s command, a knight approached carrying a scroll.
“This is... a receipt!? B-But we sent that money because we wanted it accepted as taxes!”
We had taken cash with us to the frontier, but we couldn’t possibly bring all of it.
It was too heavy.
So Father had sent the remainder of our wealth as taxes, both as an apology and as thanks.
“These are His Majesty’s words. He appreciates the sentiment, but governing a territory in the frontier is no easy matter. Therefore, you are to use these funds when the need arises.”
“... What an undeserved honor.”
“You sent it to the National Treasury because it would only burden your luggage, did you not? The assets have been entrusted to me. If you require anything, send word by letter. I shall dispatch it immediately.”
In other words, he would purchase things on our behalf using the money we had sent as taxes.
That was helpful. Extremely helpful.
“Your Excellency, why are you treating us so well?”
“Hmm? Well... that is... well now... ahem. Ahem!”
What was wrong with him? He suddenly started coughing.
And he kept glancing toward the carriage behind him.
“Your Excellency, do you have a cold? The weather is getting drier lately, so please take care not to strain your throat. Warm honey water is very good for it.”
“I-Is that so? Y-Yes... Ah, that reminds me. Dermont, there is something I should tell you.”
“To me?”
Now I was being singled out?
“I hear that a rather unusual tree grows in Zenas.”
“An unusual tree?”
“Indeed. It is thin, and hollow on the inside. Yet it is apparently quite hard. Zenas is known as a barren land, but nearly all the trees growing there are of that sort. I hear the only timber suitable for lumber grows atop the mountains.”
Thin and hollow inside? That sounded familiar somehow.
But I’d never seen anything like it in this world.
“I thought perhaps your Alchemy Magic might be able to do something with it. After all, there are no other resources there to speak of.”
“I-I see. I won’t know until I actually see it, but I’ll try something.”
“Excellent. That is exactly why I have such high expectations for you.”
Hm? Why I have such high expectations for you?
“Now then, be on your way.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you very much for everything.”
I bowed deeply and bid farewell to the Chancellor.
Climbing back into the carriage, we resumed our journey toward the frontier region of Zenas.
---
“Tch. So those bastards didn’t die.”
“Hahaha. Well, I figured they wouldn’t.”
Inside the covered wagon carrying the dwarves, we were discussing what we had just heard from the Chancellor.
“What a shame.”
“Sure is.”
“But hey, our setup worked perfectly.”
“Yep. It worked beautifully.”
Using Alchemy Magic, I had dropped several chunks of ore that were almost entirely gold into Tunnel Twelve.
Totally by accident. Pure coincidence.
And since that tunnel was going to be sealed off anyway, I had removed several support pillars.
For reuse, of course. And maybe I accidentally left some of those pillars lying around. That was about all we did.
“Still, they only discovered that gold vein a little over ten years ago.”
“Hahaha. It’s already an abandoned mine now.”
“Hm... so what’ll we do if we ever come back?”
“If that’s even possible, it’ll be years from now at the earliest. The water should be gone by then.”
And even if it wasn’t, we could always pump it out.
Which meant I needed to successfully create a pump through alchemy.
Just because I had knowledge from Earth didn’t mean I knew everything.
Honestly, my knowledge was about average.
I could only create things based on rough mental images, then improve them through trial and error.
Well, there was still plenty of time.
First, I needed to focus on developing our new territory.
What do you think about this chapter?
