Chapter 44 To my va.s.sal

After returning to Maust, I paid a visit to the crown prince Ha.s.se .

A detached villa was made beside the castle for the crown prince . Ha.s.se’s family was living here .

Ha.s.se has taken in the daughter of his chief va.s.sal as his concubine . But not as his legal wife . It seems like he doesn’t plan on having a legal wife until he becomes the king .

“Thanks to your imperial knight, Kelara, we had a good fight . Thank you very much . ”

“Kelara, eh? She’s just a big-headed woman . They say that dwarf’s are diligent at their work but they are so diligent that it makes harder for me to breathe easy . ”

Seems like Ha.s.se didn’t value Kelara for what she is .

“Rather than having trouble breathing, her body is well made for a knight and she has a pretty face on top of that so you could say it is breathtaking . ”

“Count, you’re good at flattery, huh? If you like her that much, I shall give her to you as a va.s.sal officially . ”

“Thank you very much . I shall give her land immediately and welcome her as a viscount . ”

Putting it bluntly, he doesn’t have a discerning eye . But, thanks to that, I was able to get a good general .

Kelara is a woman so she can also enter the ladies areas in the castle . Thanks to that, the preparations for the annual events the women hold progressed smoothly . In terms of just appearance, it was on the level of the royal castle’s ones .

Also, because Kelara has such a gallant expression on her face all the time, she also became the hot topic among the female attendants . She also had that young male knight-like aura around her after all . And because she had been serving the crown prince, she was also very clean .

Later, I called over Kelara to discuss about the next war .

“We will be invading Shara prefecture next . I am not that afraid of Antowani family but I want to win over the prominent lords in that area . ”

“Nistonia family who holds the Nistonia harbor, right?”

Kelara answered immediately . Seems like she properly understands something of this level .

“Right . Nistonia family possesses strong navy . If they cooperate with the neighboring forces, they can easily operate over 200 s.h.i.+ps . They are ruling the sea traffic with that . The prefecture in which I was born didn’t have any sea so I don’t have a navy . ”

I would really like to acquire the Nistonia family .

“We could probably destroy them from land . However, if Nistonia family falls, the navy will also fall apart . If we were to force a commander from land to command their force, the navy will probably not obey either . It would be best to draw out Nistonia family . ”

Antowani family does have influence but Nistowania family is an independent force .

I have ignored them until now but it is not like we can’t draw them in .

I have ignored them until now but it is not like we can’t draw them in .

Kelara listened quietly . Ha.s.se must have felt her expressionless face to be irritating . But as a weird job comrade, I was feeling affinity towards her .

“Just by having this Nistonia harbor, they are probably profiting quite a lot . Products of different culture must also come through the sea so their sense of values will probably be different from b.u.mpkin n.o.bles . I want you to take them down by your knowledge of culture . ”

“By my knowledge of culture?”

“Yes . There’s not another cultured person like you in this land . You might even be better than the people in the capital because of your job, Akechi Mitsuhide . If you make a display of the highest culture, they will probably be interested too . ”

“Understood . I shall prepare something of excellent quality to even entertain kings . I will definitely not disappoint you . ”

Kelara said .

“Ah, I don’t think you’ll fail either . Also, there’s one more thing . Could you come over here a bit?”

I swiftly kissed her on the mouth after she came to me .

“Count sure has strange tastes . ”

“That’s not it . It seems like the crown prince didn’t have interest on you but I think that’s a waste . I am intrigued by you . ”

“That’s not it . It seems like the crown prince didn’t have interest on you but I think that’s a waste . I am intrigued by you . ”

“The crown prince probably doesn’t like me as I am a dwarfs descendant . After all, in the golden days of the royal family, half-humans like dwarf or elf wasn’t in the imperial knight squad . ”

Kelara’s expression didn’t change even after I kissed her .

“Were you not made fun because of that peculiar job?”

After I said that, she made a wry face .

“Yes… I was given the cold look a lot… I was told multiple times to not be a knight because my job wasn’t suitable for it… They aren’t wrong either, since I am not that good at sword fighting or shooting arrows… . ”

Kelara didn’t have a cold personality, she was just brought up like that because of her surrounding environment .

No matter how much she excelled in ancient tactics, as long as she was a knight, she couldn’t be too proud of herself .

“You see, I also have a peculiar job . I was made fun of by my brother and his followers after the job was awarded to me . It was frustrating but I couldn’t retort there either . The only way you can make them swallow their words is by showing them your strength . ”

And so, I made them swallow their words . I became a great feudal lord ruling over three prefectures .

“Serve me, and devote yourself to me . I will make sure your name is on the history books even a thousand years from now . ”

“Serve me, and devote yourself to me . I will make sure your name is on the history books even a thousand years from now . ”

“Thank you very much . ”

Kelara said with a small smile .

After that, I embraced her .

“I also know of some ways… to entertain…”

Kelara said with a reddened face .

That night, I became the prisoner of one dark skinned dwarf girl .

“I told Raviara there’s nothing between us but this makes it seem like I was lying, huh…”

“When you were telling her that, it was the truth so it doesn’t count as deceiving her . ”

I was told by Kelara, who was lying beside me .