Jard

PREPPING THE RANDOM, HASTILY ASSEMBLED mercenaries was slow work, pushing our departure much later than I had planned. And while I was getting them ready, I received word from Father that we were to depart ahead of him. Anxious that my slow prep might have left a poor impression on him, I had my personal troops handle other preparations and assist the mercenaries with their gear.

I was spending an obscene amount of money. Hiring a single mercenary for a month cost anywhere from one to three large silvers, so one hundred of them for a month ran me one to three large gold. A thousand mercenaries cost another ten times that. When you considered that a single knight made three to four gold per year, this was shaping up to be a massive money sink, and on top of all that, it was hard to imagine this campaign lasting only two months. If I didn’t perform big time, I would be in the red.

I had to hurry to the border village so I could improve Father’s impression of me, even if only by a little.

“Van’s territory, eh?” I mused aloud. “I never expected that failure of a child to become a baron.”

Not only did he not have an elemental affinity, the magic he did have was useless production magic. Dee and Esparda had followed him out of pity, and somehow the boy had managed to use their skills to add a few accomplishments to his name. Rumor had it that he hired adventurers and mercenaries, so it was possible that Dee and Esparda gave him some measure of financial assistance, too.

I knew Dee was an experienced warrior, and I’d heard that Esparda had a lot of battlefield accomplishments of his own. With their help, it was possible to imagine Van defeating a dragon, saving his small border village in the process and becoming lauded as a dragon-slaying hero. That was all luck, but I considered luck an important quality. But now it was my time to reduce the battlefield to ashes and put my power—Jard Gai Fertio’s power—on display.

My carriage rocked back and forth as I pumped myself up, heading toward Van’s village. I managed to get some rest in the towns and villages along the way, but the constant rocking of the carriage was taking its toll on my state of mind. Conversing with Sesto did little to help either of us hide our fatigue.

Eventually, one of the mercenaries leading the way reported that our journey was coming to an end. “Lord Jard, we will arrive shortly!”

“Damn you,” I said, poking my head out the window. “Could you not deliver your report more quietly?”

I was fed up with this mercenary captain and his vulgar yelling. On his first day, I berated him for his impolite speech, so he at least watched his words now; his yelling gave me headaches, but it was still preferable to how things started out.

I scowled at the carriage next to me, where I met eyes with Sesto. His expression mirrored mine.

“I guess we’re almost there,” Sesto whispered dully.

I nodded at him, then sighed. “I am certainly glad to have seen in person how vast House Fertio’s territory is. However, I now find myself pitying our little brother for getting exiled out here. His treatment was dictated by his lack of talent, so Father must have decided he was useless.” Of course, my pity for Van and his miserable situation only enhanced my satisfaction in being a superior elemental mage.

Sesto frowned, peering ahead toward our destination. Slowly, in blank amazement, he said, “Jard, what is that? That…can’t be Van’s territory, right?”

I looked up, wondering what he was talking about, and quickly found myself dumbfounded. “Is that…a wall? He had that built in only a year or so?”

Down the road was a walled fortress city, that much was clear. It was relatively small, but still large enough to comfortably house a thousand or more people. I could see soldiers atop the wall, keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“This must be Dee and Esparda’s work,” I breathed. I mustered all the calm I could, though internally, I was shaken. “But how much did all of this cost?”

The city to which Father assigned me was far from Van’s village, so it wasn’t until I returned home that I heard of Van’s alleged recent exploits. I dismissed them as nonsensical rumors. After all, who would expect me to believe that Van had used his magic to build houses and craft weapons, thereby making leaps and bounds in territory development?

Absurdity. I had never heard of such a possibility. He possessed production magic, yes, but history told of no production magic wielders capable of such feats. I would never pay heed to such outlandish rumors.

But the fortress city before me could not have been built in a year’s time. The closer we got, the greater the oppressive shadow its front gates cast over us.

“I’ve never seen this kind of design before,” I said conversationally, hoping to keep myself from being overwhelmed by what I was looking at. But Sesto was clearly shaken to his core.

“R-right… And it sure is big.”

Eventually, someone on the wall called out to us. “Am I correct in assuming you are guests from House Fertio?” It was the voice of a young woman, which I found surprising.

The commander of the Chivalric Order ahead of us responded, explaining that not only were we from House Fertio, we were in fact Marquis Fertio’s sons. The gates were soon opened for us, but we were not allowed immediate entry.

“What? Only ten representatives may enter?”

“My apologies. We are expecting the arrival of a large number of Chivalric Orders.”

I glared past the front gates. Open, they revealed a beautifully developed cityscape, one that you could be forgiven for mistaking for the capital city. Even not being all that large, it was enough to make me catch my breath.

“Brother, it is what it is,” Sesto said with a faint smile. “There is not enough land here to fit everyone.”

I snorted. “True enough. If anything, I suppose I should be impressed that such a poor village was capable of such growth,” I said, putting on airs and entering the city.

Sesto was right: the area was full of tall, beautiful buildings, but there wasn’t actually that much land. It could fit a thousand or so people at most…or, well, perhaps a little more, since most of the buildings were more than three stories tall. But even then, it was much smaller than the city I was assigned to. They were undoubtedly at a disadvantage for goods distribution compared to other cities.

A feeling of relief settled over me as I cast my gaze around the city. Eventually, I realized that we were being led to the gates on the opposite side of the city from where we entered.

“Why are we leaving?” I demanded.

“Y-you better not be thinking of tossing us out!”

Hearing our complaints, our guide looked back at us with some confusion on his face. Then he nodded, seemingly remembering something. “My apologies. I should have given you a better explanation. This is not Seatoh Village. The village itself was seeing extremely high adventurer traffic, so Lord Van created a separate town just for adventurers.”

“H-huh?” I couldn’t comprehend this. A town just for adventurers? What madness was that? What was the man talking about? Sesto and I exchanged glances, and I tried to wrap my confused head around the guide’s words.

In the meantime, an order to open the back gates rang out, and we were treated to the view outside the city.

“…Wh-what in the world is that?”

“Are you telling me that is Van’s…?”

In the distance stood an incredible fortress city. It dwarfed the one we were in.

 

Sesto

I HAD NO MONEY. THIS WASN’T A PROBLEM I’D EVER faced before, but my city governor assignment made me painfully aware of what it meant to have no money. When I first saw the giant sum I had to work with, I was thrilled to be able to spend it as I wished; why didn’t anyone warn me before it all disappeared?

Before I knew it, I required so many funds that even a tax increase couldn’t cover it all. I sold off all the goods I was managing in the city, sent the Chivalric Order out on campaigns disguised as training exercises, and slew bandits and monsters to make money. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

Just as I was panicking over what to do, word of the invasion into Yelenetta reached me. “Get a fighting force together, even if it means borrowing money,” Jard said, and I nodded. I thought I was saved.

First, I contacted my aide and told him to cook the books, make it look as though the money had gone to the war effort.

Luckily enough, I had records of the campaigns I sent my people out on. Whatever was left over could help cover my expenses for hiring mercenaries. Jard was employing a ton of them, so if we mobilized alongside them, nobody would notice it was all a lie. I was still worried, but that was how I came to participate in the upcoming invasion.

The journey itself wasn’t a problem. If I had to point to any specific issues, it would be that the meals were plain and sleeping inside a carriage was a bit rough for someone used to living comfortably. More pressing was my concern about participating in a large-scale war against another country. Jard was excited to add some accomplishments to his name, but things would definitely not be that simple.

Knights sometimes died in conflicts with bandits. The same went for fighting mid-sized monsters, and to get to Yelenetta, we had to pass through the treacherous Wolfsbrook Mountain Range. Ludicrous! Why would we traverse a monster-filled mountain range on purpose? If I said so out loud, my head would be removed from my shoulders, but nothing about this was sane.

These were the thoughts that occupied me over our long journey. I paid no attention to Jard’s bragging.

Eventually we arrived at Van’s territory, our first destination. I’d heard it was a poor village, one that might collapse in a stiff breeze, but I was still curious to see it for myself. Van was also supposedly a baron now, but I was sure that some kind of bad joke.

And yet. Disbelief overtook me when I laid eyes on his territory.

“Jard, what is that?” I asked. “That…can’t be Van’s territory, right?”

It simply couldn’t be. But even Jard went wide-eyed when he saw what I was looking at. “Is that…a wall? He had that built in only a year or so?”

I looked even closer at the wall standing before us. It was the very picture of sturdy, and the gates were heavily decorated. My brother and I continued our conversation as we entered the city, and I wondered, Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?

I had been led to believe that this originated as a tiny border village, and fortunately the plot of land itself wasn’t particularly large. The city I was assigned to was still bigger, if nothing else.

But for some reason, we were being led out. “Why are we leaving?” Jard objected.

I backed him up. “Y-you better not be thinking of tossing us out!”

Our guide sounded unfazed when he said, “My apologies. I should have given you a better explanation. This is not Seatoh Village. The village itself was seeing extremely high adventurer traffic, so Lord Van created a separate town just for adventurers.”

“H-huh?” Jard said like a fool. I couldn’t blame him, though; the guide’s words made little sense. What is he saying?

The gates opened. Beyond them was another fortress city, this one far larger. It quite literally took our breath away. Its design was unique, and it was easily large enough to house ten thousand people or more. Off to both sides of the well-maintained road were camping soldiers from the capital’s Chivalric Order.

We proceeded along the road, bathed in the gazes of thousands of elite soldiers. It felt like we were criminals under arrest. Finally, we arrived at the front gates of this second fortress city, and I looked up at the enormous wall and gates, feeling as though I was looking up a steep mountainside. The small creek in front of us served as proof that, as unbelievable as it seemed, we weren’t even truly in front of the gates yet.

“Open the gates! Lower the bridge!” the soldier yelled. A rectangular board I had assumed was part of the front gates revealed itself to be a drawbridge, and it came down quickly. What we had been looking at was the bottom of the bridge; given how ornate it was, this was shocking. From afar, there was no way to know that it wasn’t part of the gates.

With the drawbridge down, the actual gates opened. A maid appeared with a knight by her side and said, “Welcome to Seatoh

Village. Lord Van is waiting for you.”

Jard scowled. “He’s making his older brother come to him?” he complained, but he kept his voice so low that even I, standing directly next to him, barely heard his words.

Little brother or not, now that he was a baron, it would be difficult to publicly criticize Van. All we could do was follow the maid. As we walked, I thought, I’ve seen her somewhere before…

The maid pointed to the buildings on the left and right. “Lord Jard, Lord Sesto, since this is your first time here, allow me to explain our village’s facilities,” she began, then went on to talk about the village.

According to her, Van had connections with not only the

Adventurers’ Guild and the Mary Chamber of Commerce, but also the

Business Guild. He’d found a dungeon in the Wolfsbrook Mountain Range, leading to constant adventurer traffic, and over a thousand adventurers currently resided in the area. This gave Van access to rare monster parts and materials. Even more surprisingly, dwarves had moved into Seatoh and set up a dwarf forge.

This insanity was too much for Jard. “Impossible!” he yelled, fuming. “How could all of that happen in only a year’s time?!”

“I thought he was banished to a remote village,” I explained placidly, “but it looks like that wasn’t the case. The dwarves were probably already living here, leading the kingdom itself to put all its power behind the region’s development. That’s also why the

Business Guild got involved.”

Jard nodded and smirked. “Right, that must be it. Damn you, Van, and damn your good fortune. I’ve never even seen a dwarf before.”

The maid narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t the only one, either— all the nearby knights reacted similarly.

“What is it?” Jard snapped at the girl in a low tone. “Are you going to tell me I’m incorrect?”

But the slender maid showed no sign of backing down. “When Lord Van first arrived, the village was under siege from bandits. To protect his new territory, he took up his sword and fought them back. And when a dragon attacked the village, he risked his life to bring back Sir Esparda, who stayed behind to buy us time. None of this is the result of good fortune. This village became what it is now because of Lord Van.”

Her eyes filled with tears and her fingers trembled, likely because she knew exactly who she was talking to. Jard took a step toward her and roared, “Insolent woman! No mere maid may speak to us like that!”

Despite the fear that made her shoulders shake, she refused to back down. But then a child’s voice cut in.

“Whoa! Jard, Sesto! Long time no see! Have you both been well?”

The complete absence of urgency in the speaker’s voice shocked Jard straight out of his anger. We both looked past the maid to the dozen or so people approaching from behind her. At the center of the pack was Van. Aside from having grown a tiny bit taller, he looked unchanged. I had no clue who the people behind him were, and while I had expected to find Dee and Esparda at his side, they were nowhere to be seen.

At length, Jard managed to squeeze out a few words. “Van, you need to do a better job educating your maid.” The girl’s shoulders jumped.

Van placed a gentle hand on his concerned maid’s back and then stepped forward. “My apologies. Till has been looking after me since I was a little child, so she may have let her feelings get the best of her.” With a smile, he added, “She’s normally an incredible maid, even if she can be a teeny bit scatterbrained at times.”

The maid named Till shyly cast her gaze downward. This only served to further annoy Jard who, with an aggravated look on his face, said, “It has been some time, Van. Sesto and I had a look at your village. Not bad at all. It might be smaller than our cities, but it certainly seems busy and safe. Of course, I could have developed it much more.” He shrugged.

The people behind Van looked exasperated. Actually, wait a second. What’s with this guy’s elaborate attire? The fabric was high quality and the ornamentation intricate. This was not the attire of someone headed into battle. In fact, his clothes were as ornate as Father’s—but surely these people couldn’t all be high-ranking nobility? If they were, it made no sense for Van to be the one showing them around. He may have recently acquired a peerage, but he was still only a baron. Were they letting him getting away with it because he was a child?

Either way, there’s a good possibility they outrank us. We should greet them. I leaned past Jard and quietly called out, “Van, introduce the people behind you.”

Only then did Jard notice the ornate attire of Van’s company.

Quietly, he said, “Mm, good point…”

Van must have heard him, for he stepped to the side with a smirk, letting us stand face to face with his guests. “The attractive middle-aged man in the center there is none other than King Dino En Tsora Belrinet. Next to His Majesty is the beautiful and powerful

Viscount Panamera Carrera Cayenne, and…”

The introductions continued, but we didn’t register a word Van said. That first casual introduction was of His Majesty. The others appeared to have significant peerages as well, but how could we be expected to keep listening after being introduced to the king?

“…And last but not least, my super-duper kind and talented maid, Till. She’s also an amazing chef. Oh, and I can’t possibly forget Khamsin, who’s becoming an amazing swordsman.” Van smiled and waited for us to react.

“M-my sincerest apologies,” Jard said clumsily. “I am Jard Gai Fertio of House Fertio. This is my younger brother, Sesto Ele Fertio. We have come to participate in the battle as representatives of House Fertio.” We both bowed.

His Majesty scowled at us for a moment, then looked at each of our faces in turn. He cocked his head ever so slightly. “Hmm. We are preparing to invade Yelenetta, yet the marquis sent only his children to the front lines? Is this not the perfect opportunity for him to demonstrate his strength?” A smile graced his lips. “Or is this his way of saying that the two of you are stronger than he?”

Jard put on his best smile and shook his head, brimming with confidence. “Not at all. We both have a long way to go…though I aspire to one day surpass my father and elevate our house to even grander heights.”

It was unclear how His Majesty received the response, but it was vital that he not mistake our intentions. With few other options available to me, I spoke up. “U-um, Father—Marquis Fertio—will arrive shortly. He decided to strengthen his forces…”

Despite my best efforts to explain the situation, His Majesty’s expression remained unchanged. He sighed, gazing discontentedly at us. “It is fine. About what you said earlier—Jard, was it? You said you could develop this village further?”

Jard nodded. With all the confidence in the world, he said, “Of course. This territory seems to have received a great deal of hired help and supplies, but if I were in charge, I would not have designed it with such an odd shape. Aesthetically, it is breathtaking, but the current standard design for fortress cities is much more efficient. Additionally, I see few, if any, slaves. The judicious use of slaves vastly improves productivity.”

I panicked quietly through all of this, assessing His Majesty’s reactions. I really wished my brother would stop speaking without thinking first. With the amount of money and manpower that must have gone into developing this city, it was entirely possible that His Majesty had a hand in it all. Hell, the design itself may have been His Majesty’s idea.

Fortunately, it seemed we’d managed to avoid insulting His Majesty, for he simply nodded, his expression impassive. “Mm. So you say our kingdom’s standard fortress city design is optimal? A year ago I would have thought the same. However, unfortunate as it may seem, Baron Van’s design is far more effective than our standard layout. Even more astonishing is that he developed his territory without any outside aid. I recommend touring the region with that in mind; I am confident you will both learn a thing or two.”

Jard and I both looked at Van, who beamed and puffed out his chest. Van did all of this? He made this fortress city?

Impossible. Van was banished with no wealth to his name, and little more than a year has passed since then. How could he possibly have designed and built such a city? This level of construction would require an insane amount of money and resources.

Jard seemed to be thinking the same thing, but there was no way either of us could go against His Majesty’s words. All we could do was agree with his suggestion.

 

Jard and Sesto both begrudgingly agreed to do as His Majesty recommended. I had two members of the Seatoh Chivalric Order accompany them on their tour of the village. His Majesty wanted to look around as well, so we parted ways with my brothers.

FYI, I had already prepared lodging for them. I could have sworn daddy dearest was coming, so I’d readied a super nice room for him, but oh well; my brothers could stay there instead. They were in for the shock of their lives.

The group of us climbed to the top of the wall, where His

Majesty looked down on the village. “Every time I come here, it is filled with new things. Knowing you, I am sure you are already readying your next plan.”

I turned my gaze to the road, prompting everyone with me to follow suit. Just below us, in front of the wall, was a moat with running water that traveled all the way to the lake behind the village and beyond. After a bit of a detour, it returned to the river from whence it came. I gazed upstream and traced my finger along the river.

“I have a few ideas, but right now I’m thinking about how to use this river to improve physical distribution. It’s not wide enough to use as a canal, so if we want to carry heavy goods, we’ll have to link a bunch of smaller boats together to carry the load. Also, since we have dwarves living here, it’d be nice if we could have them make stuff other than weapons: corrective glasses for people with bad eyesight, mirrors that better reflect people’s forms, that kind of thing. Oh, and musical instruments would be nice too. I love the idea of a town filled with music.”

Improvements to material distribution and lifestyle. More forms of entertainment. His Majesty seemed stunned by my current plans for the future of Seatoh Village. Did it sound impossible to him?

Nah, don’t worry about it, Van. Who cares if someone complains about you talking up your ideal future? There’ll be no complaints once you make it a reality.

Panamera smirked, pointing at one of our ballistae. “Will you not design more new weapons?”

I folded my arms and groaned a bit. “Hmm… I do have some ideas, but I don’t have enough materials. If I had my way, I’ll be able to create a weapon ten times more powerful than these ballistae.”

His Majesty widened his eyes at me, blinked a few times, then erupted into laughter. “Ha! Ha ha ha! You are something else!” he proclaimed happily, his shoulders shaking. “The diversity of your ideas is incredible!”

Elsewhere, the other nobles directed cautious looks at me; having judged that His Majesty was fond of me, they’d decided that I was someone to watch out for.

How could you be so scared of a cutie like me?

“Well,” Panamera said, “the weapons you make are terrifying, so I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to those, too. That said, we are in the process of invading Yelenetta. I would be grateful for any and all weapons you could share with us.”

His Majesty nodded and looked toward the Wolfsbrook Mountain Range. He narrowed his eyes and murmured, “Indeed. We must be quick. We may have the advantage right now, but our enemies have dragons and those cursed black balls. We must not let our guard down.” The other nobles glanced at me, looking concerned. “Baron Van, rumor has it that the enemy deployed a weapon even more powerful than the black balls. What is it exactly? We looked over the report, but it was difficult to envision.”

All eyes were on me. I was being asked, in essence, to describe the new cannons. Well, primitive as they were, they still had tremendous destructive power, enough to be a genuine threat. They had very low accuracy—it took numerous shots at the wall before they landed a single hit—but the loud noises they made and the way the earth itself shook on impact was more than enough to instill fear in people’s hearts. Horses’ hearts too. They were generally considered timid creatures.

Mages would certainly consider the cannons a threat. Depending on how they were used, we might find ourselves in a new world in which retaining mages was no longer a priority.

Before I could really think through all of this, I had to answer His Majesty. I gently shook my head and said, “It’s actually a bit like the weapon I plan to make, so I’ll start by explaining Yelenetta’s version.”

I used some trees to craft a model for His Majesty, making sure it was precisely the same type as Yelenetta’s cannons. I heard startled murmurs from the people behind His Majesty, shocked that I could produce a model so easily, but His Majesty was calm as he observed the wood block cannon. “Hmph,” he said. “It is not as big as I expected.”

I nodded and pointed at one of my ballistae. “For ballistae, the length of the bowstring and the materials it’s made from are really important. Likewise, catapults need to be big to give projectiles more time to accelerate. But this new weapon is completely different. You load the barrel here with a large number of black balls, then insert an iron ball or whatever projectile you wish to fire. Next, you detonate the black balls inside, launching the projectile out with terrifying speed and force. In other words, as long as it’s durable, the weapon itself can be rather small.”

His Majesty seemed fascinated, peeking down the barrel of the cannon. He nodded. “So it fires iron balls from here? That is quite a threat, but I still think your ballistae are far more devastating weapons.”

Hearing that he felt my ballistae were superior to the enemy’s new cannons delighted me. How could I not feel proud? Unfortunately, reality wasn’t so simple. “To be honest, while my ballistae are superior in every respect at the moment…there’s still plenty of room for this cannon to be improved. With the ballistae, the best I can do is increase the number or make them bigger.”

His Majesty glared at the cannon, looking grave. “You mean to say that this cannon can evolve further? You believe it will eventually surpass your ballistae?”

I was impressed by the speed with which His Majesty grasped the threat Yelenetta’s new weapon could become. He truly was on another level. Most people would be incapable of seeing ahead when presented with such a foreign, inscrutable weapon.

I nodded, and then tried building the superpowerful but highly impractical cannon I’d been tooling with in my mind so that I could set it beside the Yelenetta cannon. I only had wood to work with so it wouldn’t be usable, but if you thought of it like a clay model, it would still be pretty impressive.

Quickly morphing the timber into wood blocks, I made a foundation for the cannon, then produced a mechanism that would allow it to be rotated to the left and the right. Next, I made the gears that would enable adjusting its vertical angle, and finally the barrel of the cannon itself, over three meters long for maximum accuracy. I didn’t know if this was the right move, but I also designed the interior of the barrel as a spiral, so it would rotate projectiles on their way out.

Just like that, my superpowerful and highly impractical cannon was complete. My audience could do nothing but stare at it, wideeyed.

“So I tried building the design I’ve had in my head, and depending on the quality of the gunpowder, I think it will fire much farther and more accurately than Yelenetta’s version. In other words, we’ll be capable of long-range attacks that not even mages could defend against.”