38 – One step back for the future, two steps forward (1)

Unlike the ‘absolute loyalty to the king’ shown in historical dramas of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea, the principle of loyalty in feudalism is to be as loyal as one is given.

In other words, if I serve the king, I am loyal not because I live in the king’s land, but because I receive something from the king.

In my case, I have been given the Barony of Creutel by the Count of Nantes, and in a sense I am protected by him, so I give my allegiance.

So if either of these things doesn’t come true, I have a reason to break my oath to him or to commit treason.

For this reason, in the past, when a ‘declaration of war’ was received, the county of Nantes led an army.

However, in this case, for whatever reason, our Excellency Count Schwein did not properly fulfill his duty to protect me.

In other words, based on a reasonable reason that anyone can understand, take the ‘oath of loyalty’ and tell the lion in front of you, ‘I told you to wash your neck well, your Excellency Count.’ can, but…

I was lost in thought, and when I heard the contents of the letter and did not reply, the proclamator looked at me and asked if it bothered me.

“Me, Your Excellency? Can I read it again if I misunderstood?”

I responded with a smile to the slightly sarcastic question.

“No. I hear you. As you said, I will offer 3,000 gold coins to wash away my sins. By the way, who is the Proclamation Officer?”

Hearing this, the proclamator must have now understood that he had not dared to introduce himself in front of the Baron of Creutel, so he bowed his head to me and apologized.

“sorry. I am the proclamator Klein Hart. Please forgive the rudeness of not introducing me first.”

I said that, but I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a dirty mood, but I got the feeling that the tail of his mouth was slightly raised.

Could it be that even if that crazy man gave me ‘such bad news’, he thought that I would entertain him as a way of paying attention to ‘The Count’?

Did the master and servant turn into pairs…

If I didn’t know if I had committed a clear mistake against the Count, 100 people would do things that would be done by idiots who would ask if the Count was that bastard…

If I had even the slightest idea, in this situation I would have to ask for mercy because I would die if I didn’t get the money…

However, looking at it coldly, I still don’t have the strength to overthrow that mad count…

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My vassals may also kick their tongues with me at ‘this much’ atrocity committed by the count, drink alcohol and comfort me, but if I tell them to rebel… they probably won’t follow me yet.

Still, you still have to wait patiently.

Therefore, I tried to hide my desire to chew on the liver of the guy in front of me, and smiled.

The proclamation official who saw that looked at me and pretended to be tired and said, as if to certify that the liver was really overboard.

“I’m too tired from rushing the gold coin cart… Excuse me, Baron, can I take a ‘little’ rest? Also, I heard the news that ‘Croitel’ is enjoying tremendous prosperity, so I really wanted to visit it, and I want to tour this place…”

Even with the same baron, in a situation like this, they don’t openly tell me to prepare ‘women’, ‘alcohol’, ‘food’, and ‘entertainment’ because I’m tired.

However, a knight who is only dispatched as a ‘proclamation officer’ dares to make such a request to me as a baron…

It’s hard to hit a real earthenware pot with a mace.

However, I was dumbfounded, so I held back the lid trying to open, and answered with a bright smile.

“It took a lot of hard work to get to Creutel. Alright, I’ll have Ciel von Kreuttel treat you with courtesy. I’ll order the butler to vacate the best brothel in town for you. I’ll bear all the money, so you can rest to your heart’s content.”

Hearing that, the proclamation officer burst out of my office with a smile, and Balt, who was standing next to me, sighed and said,

“Your Excellency, Count Schwein, is also very kind… How could you do that to the Baron Kreutel family, who have been loyal to you for hundreds of years? Is that what you’re supposed to do as a knight? No, not even a petty serf, a usurer!”

I felt really grateful for Balt’s words of anger on my behalf.

Then Balt started screaming with curses that he shouldn’t have done even though I was in front of him.

“Is that proclamator in particular insane? If you came with these conditions, you should feel ashamed. You dare to blackmail the baron and ask for a woman? The guy who appointed that baby as an article would be empty or sold his soul to Satan! The woman who gave birth to a guy like that must be a witch!!”

In this world where belief in God leads to absolute truth, the words ‘the one who sold his soul to Satan’ and ‘witch’ are harsher insults than ‘Lee Wan-yong’ and ‘traitor’ in Korea.

Seriously, among the knights with a bit of mysophobia, there are guys who got angry and slapped their mouths just for saying something like this once.

“Balt, stop. I don’t care, but other guys shouldn’t listen.”

Hearing those words, Balt bowed his head towards me and said.

“sorry.”

“No, I wanted to say that too. Thank you for being angry on my behalf. by the way…”

“Yes, Bocchan.”

I looked at Balt and spoke slowly while burning my hatred for Count Schwein.

“You can’t kill people with just cursing. So let’s stop, instead, yeah let’s bow down thoroughly. To gain the momentum to strike and kill Count Schwein.”

Upon hearing that, Balt looked at me with a shocked expression and said,

“Each, Your Excellency… Could it be that His Excellency, Count Schwein…?”

“In the first place, what would be left if we followed His Excellency Schwein in the current political situation? And I still have no intention of killing His Excellency. I just pulled out the knife over there, so we’re going to sharpen it too.”

“I see… but how?”

When I heard that, I snorted and said,

“No matter how young a pig is, if you eat too much of it, you will be crushed to death by your own body.”

If Mr. Pig Count reveals money, women, and alcohol like that, it can’t be much.

As a subject, I should let His Excellency enjoy as much pleasure and lust as he wants, and let him die on his own after he catches his guard.

**

In accordance with that strategy, I deliberately made the proclamator, who conveyed the Count’s orders, stay for two more days.

In the meantime, I deliberately did not visit the proclamator to enjoy our territory to the fullest, and as a result, the proclamator had a lot of fun with alcohol and women.

Thanks to this, the proclamation officer dispatched by the count should have greeted me when he left, as usual, but he rode away in a carriage drunk to the point of not even coming to his senses.

And I loaded the wagon with 3500 gold coins, more than the requested 3000 gold coins, and went further and secretly offered to Schwein the ‘two maids who were only pretty’ I picked from our mansion.

The two maids tried not to let them go, but the head maid reported that those two were harassing Ella for no reason, using the excuse that their looks were pretty.

According to the chief maid, the two maids said that they wanted to become the concubines of a ‘rich aristocrat’.

It’s good because I poisoned Schwein, and I killed three birds with one stone because I got rid of those two maids, protected Ella from trouble in the family, and even made the dreams of the two girls come true.

**

That’s how we solve the aftermath of the war and Count Schwein’s tricks, and let’s look at the desk in the office to see our office for the first time after the war…

There, a huge amount of paperwork that required my approval was piled up like a mountain.

Fortunately, most of the documents were documents that only needed to be stamped, so I was able to solve it quickly, but…

Among them, there were two documents at issue.

First of all, this was the document that could delay the resolution.

‘Although the food situation in other territories is very good, it is Baron Creutel’s territories, but there is a problem with the preservation of food for the military dispatch.’

Because for a few months to a year from now, I won’t be taking my soldiers to battle.

Of course, this issue must be resolved in case my troops expand further or I go on a campaign to a farther place in the future.

Otherwise, if you go out on a long-distance campaign, the ‘food supply in the middle’ will be stopped, and you may starve to death…

So I put the paper in the ‘Paper Resolve Collection’ on my desk.

And the next problem was an important one that I could never pass over as someone who majored in Western history up to a master’s degree.

‘As Baron Creutel prospered, the population of the city increased, and in the slums, the streets were stinking of poop and urine.’

The official who actually reported this problem said, ‘It’s not a very important problem, so I think it can be skipped, but I’m reporting it.’ I said…

Of course, this problem cannot be easily overlooked, because if neglected, water-borne diseases such as ‘cholera’ and ‘typhoid fever’ or, in extreme cases, ‘black death’ may become prevalent.

Of course, since the epidemic hasn’t even broken out so far, if we act quickly from now on, we can definitely prevent this kind of epidemic from bursting to some extent or not.

However, if the response is delayed, Creutel, which has developed in an instant, will suffer a fatal blow.

So, after reading this document three more times, I slammed the office door open and walked out.

And finally, he ordered the soldiers passing through the corridor of the office.

“This is an urgent matter, you guys, call all the officials of Kreutel together!”

The war on hygiene has begun.

If you lose here, Kreutel is over.