You Seriously Don’t Get It?
“Huh? Water started coming out?”
One day after I turned eight. Around this point, I’d come to be entrusted with handling most matters related to the mines.
Of course, I wasn’t involved with the finances whatsoever. What I handled was strictly work management.
“Yeah. There’s probably an underground water vein nearby. We’ve stopped work in Tunnel Twelve for now.”
“I see. An underground water vein, huh… Let’s investigate it next time and see whether we can reinforce the walls and keep digging. If not, we’ll have to seal it off.”
“Yeah. If we screw this up, the walls could weaken and collapse.”
You couldn’t put the workers’ lives at risk. There was no need to force ourselves to keep digging that tunnel.
Besides, over the last three years, the amount of gold and silver being mined had skyrocketed.
Not only had I crafted excavation drills, but transport work had improved too after we started running mine carts through the tunnels.
I’d also crafted electric fans.
Those were used to circulate air through the tunnels.
The fans themselves were something I’d crafted by combining knowledge from my previous life with knowledge from this world.
Using the same principle as when Father enchanted magic stones with light magic, we enchanted them with wind magic instead.
If you struck the magic stone, wind would be generated. By attaching that stone to a fan crafted from lightweight wood, the blades would spin, and the wind would blow forward.
It was something incredibly simple, but the foreman had called it “an amazing magic tool.”
Magic tool. Man, that has a nice ring to it.
“M-Master Der, it’s bad!”
“Huh? What’s wrong, Boyars?”
The one who came rushing over with panic written all over his face was one of the foreman’s dwarf apprentices.
“Master Der, you oughta head back to the mansion right away. That damned count’s here.”
“Huh? Ojiue? Is he here to demand money again…?”
They shouldn’t know the mine profits had increased. I mean, it was honestly shocking that that man apparently didn’t even know how to keep account books.
Originally, Father had been the second son of the count’s family. Instead of inheriting the title, Grandfather had granted him the baron title and this land instead. The mines had only been discovered after Father became lord of this territory.
Meanwhile, Uncle inherited the count’s house, took over all the businesses Grandfather had run, and spectacularly turned every single one of them into money pits.
Seriously, how do you even turn every profitable business into a deficit?
That was how utterly lacking he was in talent as a manager.
Because of that, he still hadn’t noticed the baron house was prospering… but wait, had he finally realized it!?
I hurriedly cleaned myself up and returned to the mansion.
Three absurdly luxurious carriages were parked outside, making it clear that not only Uncle, but Aunt and my cousin Landfas had come as well.
Ugh… what a pain. Landfas was a rotten little brat who immediately started bullying my younger brother Sieg whenever he got the chance. Hopefully Sir Robert noticed and took Sieg out horseback riding or something.
“I’ve returned. Ojijou, Obaue, I apologize for being late with my greetings…”
“Indeed! Guests arrive, yet no one comes to welcome them? Your upbringing is lacking!”
“… My apologies.”
Who the hell was it that showed up uninvited in the first place?
Landfas smirking behind him was irritating too.
I looked around, but couldn’t see my younger brother Sieg. Or my younger sister Tiffany. Sir Robert wasn’t here either.
Good. Looks like he managed to get them away safely.
“Hmph. Dermont. I hear you’ve been invited to a tea party being hosted by a marquis house soon.”
“Huh? Ah, yes. The tea party being held by the Hohenberg Marquis House…”
“Don’t you think it strange that you were invited, yet Land, the heir of a count’s house, was not?”
How should I know? It’s probably because the marquis house already knows all about your son’s awful behavior.
I’d heard rumors about Land from merchants who came to the baron house to trade gold and silver too.
Stuff like how he punched some noble boy somewhere, or pulled some noble girl’s hair. And his targets were always houses ranked below a count. Families who couldn’t oppose him because of their standing. He bullied them relentlessly.
And on top of that, this tea party was one attended entirely by young noble boys and girls. No respectable house would invite a known bully.
“U-Umm, Aniue… what exactly are you trying to say?”
“What? You still don’t understand, my dear younger brother?”
How the hell should I understand that, you idiot?
“Our count’s house and your baron house both bear the name Spanberg. In other words, they clearly made a mistake with the addressee between our houses.”
“Eh… t-the addressee…?”
No, no, there’s no way they made a mistake. It literally said, “To the son of Baron Dermont.” It was addressed to me.
Incidentally, invitations had arrived for my younger brother Sieg and my younger sister Tiffany too. Those properly said “To the son of Baron Sieg” and “To the daughter of Baron Tiffany” respectively.
“Therefore, Land shall attend as well.”
““Eh?””
Father and I reacted at the exact same time.
“Saul. I shall graciously allow your son and daughter to accompany Land.”
“I’m letting you come out of kindness, got it, stupid Der?”
Whoa there. Calling your cousin “stupid” right in front of all the adults? Seriously?
All you’re doing is advertising your terrible upbringing to every direction imaginable.
Though, if Uncle and his wife didn’t scold him even here, that was very much like those awful people.
After saying only what they wanted to say, the three of them turned around and left.
I’d just started feeling relieved, thinking they’d only come to say that today, when that bastard Landfas went and stole the silver candlestick sitting near the entrance!
“That little… again!?”
“Haah… what sticky fingers that child has… I wonder how many household items he’s stolen now.”
“My lord. The candlestick just now makes fifty-two.”
You were counting them, Head Butler? As expected of you… or maybe not, I dunno…
“Make sure to add it to the ledger for now.”
“Understood.”
“Now then… what should we do? If Landfas attends the tea party, he’s bound to cause trouble for one noble house or another.”
“This is troubling, dear…”
Seriously. But we couldn’t just stay silent either.
“Chichiue. We should inform the marquis house beforehand. From the sound of it, Ojiue already knows the tea party date. Even if we tried stopping him now, he’d just force his way in anyway.”
“So rather than that, we should notify them ahead of time?”
“Yes. The other noble sons and daughters would probably rather know he’ll be there and prepare themselves mentally, instead of relaxing because they think he won’t come. And on top of that…”
On top of that, if Landfas caused trouble, we’d establish a system on our side to smooth things over afterward.
That was all we could do for now.
What do you think about this chapter?
