It seems Farne and Shani slept in the guest room last night. Mill and I were whispering together late into the night in the kids room that Farne used to sleep in as
well but in the end he didn't return. I guess you could say it's only obvious since he's engaged but to us siblings it feels a bit lonely.
After training with magic, Mill gets caught by Farne and Shani and is currently training with great praise. Now is my chance to talk with my parents about the
disclosure of our secrets to Shani.
"Father, I'm sorry to ask during sword training but there's something I really need to confirm."
I start whispering to Hegard during sword training.
"..What is it? Is it no good after training has ended?"
Yeah, if it's not now then it's inconvenient.
"I want to talk together with mother right now. About Lord Webdos."
"! Ah, about the rubber?"
Really, are you still going to continue the training, oh~ I guard against Hegard's attack while stepping back.
"Eh? Yeah, also about magic...Ah!!"
I quickly try to charge in and stab Hegard but it was easily evaded and I ended up taking a attack to my side. I barely managed to dodge that attack and swing my
sword at Hegard but it was blocked.
"...That's right, I guess we should listen to your opinion as well, alright, bring Sharl to behind the stables."
Hegard says that and briskly walks towards the stables. I go to the main house to call Sharl.
..............
Sharl and I walk towards Hegard, who's swinging the sword behind the stables. Hegard says while swinging the sword.
"Sharl, our second son is worried about how much we can talk to Shanleid about in regards to magic and rubber."
"Oh? Is that so, Al?"
The both of them start talking like it's nothing at all.
"Yeah, is it okay if you listen to my thoughts on it?"
I speak in a tone so it's not taken too seriously as well. Hegard stops swinging the sword and they both aren't saying anything so I take it as an OK.
"I don't know much about the world so I may say something rude but please listen to my thinking first... Our family is selling rubber products to Marquis Webdos
Knight Group. I've heard that those products are now a must-have piece of equipment among the knight group. Also, after entering the knight group older brother has
smoothly been promoted and officially been invested as a knight six months ago. During the battle this time he seems to have made quite the achievements as well."
I consciously make my tone of voice more and more serious as I continue talking.
"It's more or less fine in regards to the rubber products. It seems that the tree that provides the raw materials only grows in the area of Bakkudo and I haven't
heard about rubber products being created in any other places being found yet, so I think that the knight group and the marquis little brother's company at best
think, "Ah, Bakkudo village has good luck". What I want to know here is how Bakkudo village and our family are seen by the marquis territory or other lords? If
possible how they thought before and after we started producing rubber products."
After saying that far I look at my parents faces. My parents looked at each other for a moment then Hegard says.
"..Al, you really... I guess so, before we started making rubber products they just thought of us as a normal viscount family in the most remote region. Though we
were considerably poor compared to others within the territory to the point of being counted close to the bottom, we weren't quite as far as the poorest. Since I
took over as lord I've given my best at cultivating the fields and patrols to chase off the monsters so thanks to that I think I was seen as a lord enthusiastic
about managing the territory. I properly sent out soldiers when there was a war and while we were poor when I took out loans with other lords I properly paid them
off so I don't think I was resented or looked down on. How about it, Sharl?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I had never heard of the Greed family until we got married and in the capital I think the majority of people wouldn't have heard of it, at the
very least until that point the Greed family was never a topic. It might have become a bit of a topic when I got married but even though I was of a duke's lineage it
was a branch family that can't even use the Sandak name, so I don't think it was much at all. After you became the lord I've always lived in the village so I don't
know what people outside think anymore."
Come to think of it, Sharl was the grandchild of Duke Sandak. If I remember correctly she was the fourth daughter of the third son. I don't think that's even a noble
anymore. Since it was the third son then he probably entered some family as a husband but it seems like he didn't even have the Sandak name, and the fourth daughter
is basically a normal person.
"After we started selling the rubber products when I unexpectedly met some other lords in Keel they were envious but it's not like we were very wealthy to begin
with, to our family it's become a large source of income but in the marquis territories there's a lot of lords who still make far more income than we do so I don't
think it's anything to be envied for. However, it's certainly true that our territory has profited thanks to the increase in our income, it might be unnatural for us
to not be envied at all."
"That's right, but I don't think it will become that serious of a situation. Even if you were to say our income has increased it's still counting from the bottom, we
just barely have gotten up to the average lords level, I'm sure the marquis himself is probably delighted that his taxes have increased?"
Hmn, is it that sort of thing. It's true we weren't living a very wealthy lifestyle and even if our income has increased it's at best 60% to 70%, so this might be
the average income for a lord in marquis Webdos territory. It's true that in Japan if you were to win a lottery ticket worth 600,000,000 you'd become a target for
jealousy but if it was just at the level of 10,000,000 then people would just honestly congratulate you for it I guess.
My example is bad. It'd probably be better to think of the marquis as a large corporation and the regional lords as subsidiary companies. A certain subsidiary
company develops a ground-breaking product and the large corporation adopts that as a part in one of their products. Thanks to that the subsidiary company that was
running a bicycle operation was able to make enough profits to contribute to the concentrated balance sheets. During that time, the other subsidiary companies are...
Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't really matter at all. To the large corporation a subsidiary company that was almost luggage up until now is improved, I'm sure they
wouldn't go through the trouble of stealing the new product of a subsidiary company that's finally entered its growth period. However, if they seem a little bit too
promising then they might send in one executive, sort of feeling I guess? Up to here is just as I expected.
"I understand. Then, next. Older brother was smoothly able to become a knight. That is certainly the result of older brother's effort but is it common to become an
official knight within two years of entering the group? I wonder if he won't be envied?"
My parents responded immediately to that.
"Yeah, it's normal. It's normal for the child of a peasant to take a bit longer but while small Farne is the heir candidate of a lord. If they're in that sort of
position then unless their behavior or skills are completely terrible then it takes about two years to become a true knight. I was worried that some situation would
come up where Farne uses magic and proves himself to be too promising and become a knight sooner than two years. However, Farne said he didn't use magic in front of
others at all besides healing magic when it was absolutely necessary. And he said he limited it to something considerably simple as well. That's why when it comes
to the amount of mana he has or his magic technique he shouldn't have stood out too much...Ah, so that's what it was..."
It seems like Hegard understood what I was trying to say and gave me information that is a relief.
In regards to Farne's amount of mana I'm sure older brother managed to keep it a secret within the knight group. At the very least he probably restricted it to a
level where he'd think so.
"That's right. There were two things I was worried about, the first one is Shanleid-sama... the fact that she is the eldest daughter of Lord Webdos, the direct line
of the marquis family. And how far the thoughts and in what direction the marquis and knight group leader Sendhel are involved. Next, the second is even if those
thoughts are something appropriate, how much about us siblings mana amount and original magic training methods should we talk to her about and in the case that we do
talk about it, would she report that to her parents, the Webdos family, those points. Since it's already been decided that she'll marry older brother eventually
children will be born I'm sure. If we're going to teach those children using the same training methods then I don't think it will work that she their mother wouldn't
know as well."
This time Sharl responds.
"Al, in other words you want to say this right? The first is whether she might try to steal the method of making rubber products and leak it to her family in order
to prevent Bakkudo from monopolizing it. And the other one is through some method maybe they realized Farne's mana amount or magic ability and have come to
investigate the secret, and if it's valid then she'll leak that to her parents just the same right?"
Yeah, though it's slightly different and there's some parts lacking, for the most part.
"I understand your worries. When we heard the proposal for Shani to marry Farne from Sendhel-sama during the campaign we couldn't respond immediately either, and
discussed the same thing. However, since we couldn't come to a conclusion by thinking about it we called out Farne and listened to him. Ah, at first we didn't use
this method of asking. In the first place, when we were on the campaign the story about them getting married didn't come up from the start. We heard about Farne's
marriage for the first time after the stir had ended on our way back. It seems that originally Shani hated Farne. Even though they were the same age as a knight she
couldn't win against Farne in anything. Even though she's the eldest daughter of Sendhel-sama, she has three brothers and a little sister so she somehow wanted to be
successful as a knight, even though she was giving her best at it since it was her only option, she lost to Farne entirely so it seems she hated him quite a bit.
Farne said he didn't realize because he was always training frantically without spare time to think."
Hmn, is that how it was? Then why is she coming as a bride to someone she hated so much? It's gotten even stranger... After pointing that out this time Hegard says.
"What Sharl said just now isn't what we heard from Farne but what we heard from Shani in the end. Even if we were to say she hated him it was more she found him
detestable. It seems at first she thought of him as rival or something and tried to compete with him but Farne didn't pay any attention to her and easily left good
results. Even though she was putting in her best effort since Farne was also putting in his best effort she couldn't close the gap. If you were to ask what kind of
training then obviously since it was the same knight group they completely knew the content of their training. He wasn't doing anything special at all. Just simply
giving it his best at the training. Unable to keep up with him with the sword, spear, horsemanship and such battle techniques then she tried to challenge him with
academic abilities but kept beating at everything she tried, so she found that detestable. Why is this person hindering my goals, it seems she found him so
detestable she just kept observing him."
What in the world is that, is she a stalker?
"Just like that when a year or so had passed, there was supposedly some field training. Farne and her were both on foot as squires accompanying a senior knight. At
that time her platoon was driven into a corner and had to flee. Normally you'd give up and admit your defeat there or resolve to die and make a final charge but
Farne calmly analyzed the situation and tried to create a foothold to counterattack. Pretty much everyone had given up and was preparing to make a final charge but
there Farne requested they retreat once more, reorganize the platoon, and look for a chance to counterattack, he was supposedly scolded for running his mouth even
though he was just a squire. In response to that Farne said if you give up on the way or make a meaningless charge then it's only obvious you'll lose, losing means
becoming a prisoner, and that means placing a burden on the territory and people to pay the ransom, if they were to die there and the platoon get destroyed it's the
same as not being able to protect the territory and people behind you, so they'll end up being trampled by the enemy. Losing is in other words that sort of thing,
even though I'm a squire are you really a knight if you can't recognize that? is supposed what he said."
Ah, that's just how older brother should be.
"The senior knights seem to have given Farne a beat down for talking like he knew what it was like but even then Farne didn't bend his opinion. It seems that was the
first time Shani recognized Farne. Ah, I'll never be able to beat this person, is how she felt.
Well, thanks to wasting time on that dispute they ended up losing that training but when recapping the training there was a knight who tried to denounce Farne for
going beyond his authority and speak his opinion on the strategy insulting the official knights even though he was just a squire. The knight leader Sendhel took the
matter seriously and gathered evidence from those related on the spot to give judgement. Even though Farne didn't have permission to speak he ended up saying his
opinion so he was given the punishment of cleaning the stables for six months and the punishment for insulting a knight was being forced out of the knight group.
However, based on the content of his speech and the situation the platoon was in at the time, that resulted in the insult his punishment was reduced to three months
without being removed from the group.
It seems that the majority of the testimony was from Shani. Farne was in the center of that judgement holding his chest high not saying a word when not given
permission even when he was told he might have to leave the knight group. I don't know what happened to the knight who made the complaint and the one he supposedly
insulted."
...Farne is really honest.
"In any case, from that on Shani recognized Farne, or rather realized she liked him it seems. It seems like she was originally quite bothered over it. Unexpectedly,
it seems soon after that she went straight to Sendhel-sama to ask for permission to marry. It seems Sendhel-sama had some thoughts of his own about Farne but he put
some conditions on permitting it.
He said it would be fine if Farne is invested as a true knight, after that if Farne agrees, and on top of that his father, in other words me, gives permission as
well. However, until Farne is invested a knight she can't reveal it at all and can't even tell Farne about it, was one of the conditions. But, at almost the same
time as he was invested the battle started. In reality it seems she wanted to quickly discuss with Farne about getting married and ask me for permission. She
supposedly talked to Farne right after he was invested as a knight but because it was in the middle of a war she couldn't talk to me. I didn't even have enough time
to slowly talk with Farne after all."
I see, I've understood that Shani is completely head over heels with Farne and doesn't have any hidden agenda.
In regards to rubber products, I wonder if he thinks that it would be fine as long as his daughter marries into the family?
"I understand on the reason behind their marriage. I've also understood that it seems the chances they're aiming for information about rubber or our magic as well.
But, there's no way we can guarantee those feelings will remain the same from here on out is there?"
Since divorces aren't recognized for the heads of noble families and their heirs, there's no reason to worry about divorce. After a few more years when Farne has
children I plan to turn over the family head to him after all. However, it's certainly true we don't know how Shani's feelings may change from here on out.
But, in regards to rubber products there's no need to worry. For us it's an important and large business but for the marquis it's not very big at all. Then about
magic, I don't think there's any other option than explaining it all to Shani and talking about the situation. Obviously, that's only after she's finished the
wedding ceremony and completely a member of the Greed family. Until then we'll just keep an eye out and if possible keep it hidden until the two of them have
children.
Therefore, for now stop training with magic at the house. Though the magic you use for the production of rubber it can't be helped so I'm sure she'll quickly realize
your mana amounts are quite a lot. That can't be helped but from here on out try to do work without using magic as much as possible. It can't be helped if the
efficiency drops because of that but next year I plan to have one of the squire families quit farm work and exclusively work on rubber so eventually the production
amount should return to normal. Until then I'm sure it'll be a bit tough but give it your best. Ah, which family would be best to make exclusive for that you trying
thinking of first, once you've decided let me hear the reason. It's fine if you decide by the end of the year so take your time thinking about it."
Hmn, so heads of noble families and their heirs can't get a divorce? That is, how should I put it... During the time things are going well I'm sure there's no
problem but if there's a discord in their personalities after getting married and they want to split up what do they do? Is there no chance other than to endure it
and continue with their marriage? Ah, bigamy was accepted wasn't it? Then is it fine? I have the feeling there would be some living apart, but I wonder if that's not close to
a divorce? Ah~ really, how annoying. I don't particularly care about rubber but I don't know what to do about the method of magic training so I was asking but I
didn't have an opinion from the start. If father decides on a policy then that's fine.
After that all I have to do is think about a squire family to exclusively do rubber related jobs but I can take my time with thinking about that so its no problem
for now.
"I understand, I'll do as father says. With this I won't have to worry about what I should do. I'll tell older sister later as well. Thank you for listening to me."
"Al, I know you're worried about us but trust in your family a bit more. Shanis is going to become family soon. If you were to say that then you could say I'm also a
member of Duke Sandak's family."
I felt like I was hit. It's just as mother says. Being suspicious of my family over something boring, am I an idiot?
"It's just as mother says. No matter what the details were that I would doubt the woman older brother recognized, something was wrong with me. That's the same as
doubting older brother. I'm sorry, please forgive me."
Hegard strokes my head while saying.
"It's fine, Al. We were thinking the same thing as you at first. Questioning that and trying to resolve it to remove your worries is definitely not a mistake. Rather
than that it's good you managed to realize that without being too trusting. That's the type of disposition needed for a noble and someone who is entrusted a
territory. You don't know what will happen to the territory and people with just a single decision you make... It's definitely not a bad thing to think about various
things. But, Shani is already going to become family. Once she becomes family don't doubt her anymore."
"Yes, I understand."
Ah, Hegard is a good father.
Don't you think?
I felt like my feelings were relieved a bit.
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