Hello. I present to you what I have translated so far of this work (syosetu link)

As you might have noticed, someone else has already translated some chapters of it (novelupdates page). In my defense, there was nothing when I checked novelupdates. Anyway, I’m going to be dropping this now. I don’t want all this work to be for nothing so I’m going to at least post it here. Have a great day.

Chapter 1

Ahh, a dream.

I immediately recognized it. It was the same dream I’ve had over and over again.

“Oi, Roa, you reading those old-fashioned tomes again?”

Derrick, my roommate, teased me so.

“I’m gonna sleep now.”

Yord lazily said so while yawning.

Derrick half-assed his work and had a habit of chasing skirts, but his inherent sociability made him quite reliable during negotiations.

On the other hand, Yord did his work properly and diligently. He was introverted and quite laid back.

The 3 of us made a good combination, in my opinion. As a civil servant, my days were peaceful and quiet. Once work was over, I would sometimes drink and afterwards immerse myself in my interests.

I thought such peaceful days would continue on and on.

How many times had I seen this nightmare?

Derrick and Yord looked the same as they did back then. It was only me who had gotten old.

40 years had passed since then.

40 years since my homeland was destroyed. Everyone—my friends, co-workers, my superiors, and the like—in the castle…they all died that day.

Only I remained.

How many more times would I need to have this dream, I wonder. Or is this my punishment for surviving? If that’s the case…then, I’d rather…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oi! Roa! How long do you plan on sleeping? You’re going to be late.”

I was awoken by that nostalgic voice. It belonged to Derrick, also the one tearing me off my bed.

“Huh? Derrick? Why are you in my room? Am I finally dead, is that why?”

After blurting that out, Derrick made a face as though he was looking at someone who has gone mad.

“…did you finally lose your wits from reading too much of those old tomes?”

“Huh? I mean, you’re already…ahh, is this also a dream?”

“I think Roa’s still half-asleep, Derrick”

Yord said so and laughed.

“Yord…you too…”

I was quickly on the verge of tears, which got Yord worried.

“Are you alright? Do you have a fever or something? You shouldn’t overindulge in your pastime, you know…”

“He must have read too many battlefield records and is now unable to tell the difference between reality and stories.”

I vacantly stared at the two as they talked. I then caught sight of my hands.

The skin was smooth. Not the skin a person in his sixties would have. I nervously pinched it, and I felt something. When I pinched harder, I felt unmistakable pain.

“What day…and what year is it today?”

With that question, the two of them looked at me with even more worry.

“Hey, really, are you alright? How about you take the day off today?”

“No, I’m fine, Derrick. Seriously, I’m fine. Still, can you tell me ‘when’ is today?”

“—today is the 1st day of the 13th month, 138 years into the Ureo period.”

The date Derrick told me was 2 years before my homeland, the kingdom of Rudeck, fell into ruin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Roa, are you sure you’re ok?”

Yord asked me that again as they accompanied me from our lodgings within the castle walls to the nook of the royal palace that was our workplace.

“Yeah. I think it just because I was still half-asleep.”

I replied so, but it definitely wasn’t because I was still half-asleep. It was because I had memories of the events for next 42 years. There was no way 42 years’ worth of memories could be packed into a single night’s dream.

I had no idea why any of this was happening. For all I know, me “going back” 42 years in time could be just a dream. However, I didn’t believe that was the case.

And even if this was a dream or maybe the hallucination brought on by being on the verge of death, that should still mean I could change the dream’s fate of destruction. If I could prevent the death of many others, then perhaps that nightmare…

I might not be able to accomplish such task all by myself though. If that was the case, then saving just the lives of those important to me…

While I was lost in that sea of thoughts. Derrick said something in exasperation.

“Geez, how much did you read yesterday? We’re so busy preparing for the army’s upcoming deployment too.”

Just like what Derrick had said, my hobby was to gather and read ancient and modern battlefield records. Of course, I like hearing about tales of recent battles too. My name was a bit well-known among civil servants. It was as an oddball though.

My coworkers would often tease ‘if you like battles that much, you should join the army’. However, I just didn’t have the courage to do so. I was also not good with human blood. Enjoying the stories in a safe and comfortable place was the ideal.

The two must have thought that I was simply in a daze because I stayed up so late reading records last night. A little bit later, when they understood that I was fine, they didn’t ask further.

At any rate, Derrick had said that we were to prepare for the army’s deployment.

Was there any major battles that happened this year?

“…where is the army deploying?”

“Are you telling me that a battle record fanatic like you have forgotten that the army is deploying 3 days later? Are you sure you’re alright? There was bandit commotion in a western village, remember? The army’s deploying to subjugate them.”

A bandit subjugation in a western village? …ahh, it was around this time, yeah. That battle…

“Is it because the odds are so stacked against the bandits that it escaped your interest?”

I shook my head in response to Yord’s question for me.

“No, this battle won’t be so simple. After all, the village head is pulling things from the shadows.”

The words I blurted out without thinking ended up greatly altering my fate as well as the kingdom’s.

 

TL note: here is the map of the north continent. I only translated the names of the locations of the ones mentioned because I don’t want to come up with how the other names could be read. 

Chapter 2

“Hey, that civil servant over there.”

Hearing the sharp voice from behind us, I and the others froze in place.

“You, the one in the middle. What did you just say?”

When I turned around, nervously I might add, I saw a middle-aged man wearing the black garb of a high-ranking officer.

2 knights wearing light armor stood to either side of the man like they were his guard. One of those knights was a small, young woman.

No one in the entire kingdom would mistake the black-garbed man for anybody else.

‘The King’s Eyes’ and ‘the Twin-Heads of Rudeck Kingdom’ were but 2 of the many aliases he had. But more specifically, he was Raze Stein, the deputy leader of the 10th order of knights.

And the knights beside Raze were known to be his sword and shield. They were Lapillia Zodiac and Granz Servey.

Each and everyone of them were extolled as heroes in our kingdom. So much so that the mere sight of any of them was enough to make people awe-struck.

There were 10 knight orders in the Rudeck Kingdom. There was no correlation between an order’s assigned number and its strength. Even then though, the 10th was a special case. All other orders had a general to lead it, but the 10th order had the king himself leading it.

The other knight orders had fairly standard duties—like the first order being the king’s guard—but the 10th and only the 10th were allowed to move as the situation demanded it. In other words, they were ad hoc units.

And the one given full authority, in practice at least, over it was none other than Raze-sama. This should be enough for anyone to know the depths of the king’s trust on him.

“Hey, you with the black hair, did you not hear the question? I asked you what you said just now.”

It was only when Raze-sama addressed me again that I remembered what I unthinkingly said out loud.

If I was not mistaken, the bandit subjugation failed in the beginning. The cause for that was the army underestimated the bandits and didn’t send enough forces. Later on, the 10th order of knights were called on. Raze-sama felt something was off with the village’s incoming and outgoing goods, and investigated what was behind the anomaly. Before long, he found out that the village head was supporting the bandits. He then laid a trap against that led to the village head and the bandits being subjugated.

In other words, there should have been no one yet at this stage that knew of the connection between the village head and the bandits. Derrick and Yord would have let my comment pass with just a ‘hmm’, but unfortunately, the worst possible person to hear it somehow overheard me.

Once their connection was exposed and proven, there was a real chance that I could be linked with them and imprisoned as a traitor. In the worst case, I could even be executed. At that point, this return to the past wouldn’t be about avoiding the kingdom’s downfall at all.

I have to come up with an excuse…and fast!

“Oi, are you intending to ignore Raze-sama’s question?”

Lapillia-sama asked so and stepped forward, discontent on her face. She placed her hand on the grip of her sword.

“…I’ve felt something off…about the village’s records for incoming and outgoing goods!”

I blurted that out what Raze-sama originally realized by himself. It felt uncomfortable to do so, but I had to since I couldn’t think of anything else.

I desperately searched my memories for details. And if my memory was right, what tipped off the suspicions should be the merchant transaction records being managed in the royal capital. The records stated that compared to a village of a similar scale, the village in question was purchasing more items and yet the village’s own reports remained mostly the same.

That seemed to be the trend every month for a period of about 3 years. A sudden and big change in the numbers would likely immediately alert people, but small increments in the reports for a period of 3 years managed to escape notice on audits.

“The records for incoming and outgoing goods? Continue.”

“Yes, sir. Based on the merchant’s income tax returns, that village’s purchases are constantly a little bit higher than that of other villages. However, the village’s purchase reports remained the same. That’s strange, wouldn’t you agree? I would understand if they were instead padding up their purchase records and using an excuse as it being necessary for their village’s maintenance or something like that. That way, they’ll have to pay less tax. However, when it’s the other way around, it’s a bit strange. When I saw those records, I couldn’t help but think there was something going on behind the scenes…”

“A mere civil servant discovered all this?”

Raze-sama looked at me with a chilling, no, a freezing gaze. Unable to stand it, I unconsciously gulped down. Thankfully, Derrick extended a helping hand my way.

“If I may! This man, Roa, is known to have great memory! Among our circle, we treasure him as a walking, breathing, talking encyclopedia! Perhaps he saw those documents by chance long ago, remembered them, and pieced this theory together after being bothered by the discrepancies…”

Raze-sama continued gazing at me, not even sparing a glance for Derrick.

“Is that true?”

“…yes. I have confidence in my memory.”

Hearing my reply, Raze-sama took a pause to think and then…

“…then, can you tell me what happened on the 10th day of the 5th month last year?”

For me, that was an exceedingly easy question.

“Yes. That day, imperial soldiers had sortied near the Reflare border, so we decided to deploy our own troops near the border as a precaution. The 2nd, 5th, 7th, and 10th order of knights were expected to deploy, but since the imperial soldiers withdrew, only the 5th ended up going.”

Upon hearing my answer, the corners of Raze-sama’s mouth rose ever so slightly.

“I see; you indeed have have a good memory. Roa, correct? I could not turn a blind eye on your suspicions. I will look into it. But if you realize something like this again, report it to your superior at once.”

“Y-yes, sir! Thanks for the advice, sir!”

At that point, I was given the signal that I could go.

After seeing the 3 people gallantly walk in the other direction, our group briskly walked to work as though we were fleeing.

“That surprised me. I thought my heart was going to stop.”

Yord whispered so on my side, while…

“That was the actual War Princess! She’s as cute as they say! Ahh, Lapillia-sama!”

Derrick exclaimed so on my other side.

Lapillia-sama was also referred to as the War Princess. It was unusual for a young girl like her to be devoting herself to the art of war and running around in the battlefield, but then again, her grandfather was praised by the king of their time to be the most excellent and trusted general.

Of course, the soldiers looked down on her at first, thinking it was just a girl playing war. However, before anybody knew it, those soldiers came to revere her as the [War Princess] for her strong insight in solo fights, her brilliance as a commander, and her appearance.

There were rumors saying that the person herself disliked the alias, saying ‘it’s disrespectful to the royal family’. However, given that she was distantly related to the king thanks to her grandfather’s wife—that is, her grandmother—being royalty, the ‘princess’ part of her alias made a rather nice fit.

As for me, who could have been cut down if I made even a single misstep back there, I found her to be an incredibly frightening individual.

Like I had been saying, these glorifying tales were best heard from a considerable distance.

While I was thinking of such things, we arrived at our workplace. I was rather absent-minded at work, devoting my thoughts instead on how to keep everyone alive. However, because I wasn’t really paying attention, I made plenty of mistakes on the paperwork and got scolded by my boss many times all morning.

When afternoon came and I was about to do my afternoon workload, my boss called for me. Did I make another mistake, I wondered. I planned to apologize first thing, but when I arrived at my boss’s office, I saw him waiting for me with his face a bit pale.

“Roa, don’t worry about your afternoon work and go to this place.”

My boss said so and then handed me a directive. Noted on it were rooms in the central part of the palace.

Chapter 3

“I knew it, it’s this place.”

The place noted in the directive I received from my boss was unsurprisingly the command room for the 10th order of knights.

The fact that I was called here suggested to me that I wasn’t going to be arrested for being an accomplice of the village head, at least for the time being. However, I still hesitated to knock on the door.

“Alright, here I go.”

While I was pumping my fist to encourage myself, the door opened from the other side.

“What? You’re here? I was just about to grab you by the neck and drag you here. Why are you standing there like that?”

The one to hold that one-sided conversation was none other than the War Princess herself.

Are we sure she shouldn’t be called War Demon instead?

“Whatever, come in. Raze-sama is a busy person, so don’t keep him waiting longer than necessary.”

I entered the room all while being told off like that.

“Ahm, sorry to have kept you waiting.”

I nervously took a glance at Raze-sama’s expression and he looked…laid-back? My impression of him was quite…

“Ahh, make yourself comfortable and sit down. Sorry about Lapillia. She’s just concerned for me; I hope you can understand.”

The laid-back Raze-sama said so, prompting Lapillia-sama to puff her face.

“Geez, Raze-sama, you’re one of Rudeck Kingdom’s Twin Heads. You shouldn’t show a mere civil servant that carefree face. Oi, civil servant, don’t you dare tell about this to anyone…or I’ll finish you.”

Please don’t threaten me like that…

“Now, now, everyone calm down.”

Granz-sama, the eldest in the room, said so as he served tea. He was as his reputation claimed him to be: a person of character. However, on the flip side, should such a person really be the one to make and serve the tea?

“Ahm…”

Raze-sama saw that I was unsure of what to do and encouraged me again to sit down.

I did as I was told, and even though the sofa was clearly made of high-quality leather, it couldn’t make me feel comfortable at all. I just wanted to go home as soon as possible. In the first place, I shouldn’t be casually having tea anyway. I had to think up of a way to save at least those important to me before the kingdom’s fall to ruin.

“Sorry for summoning you. You might be confused by how different I am, but this is just how I act inside the office. Nobody wants to keep up a serious face around the clock, right? If possible, I’d like you to keep this a secret.”

Raze-sama said so and smiled like a mischievous kid.

“Ah, yes, of course.”

I mean, a certain War Demon would kill me if I blabbed anyway.

“Now then, let’s get to the matter at hand. I took a quick look at what you…Roa, said earlier. There certainly is something off in their books. We’ve got you to thank for alerting us to such a thing. It is clear now that this is no ordinary case of banditry. I advised the 4th order of knights, which were the ones assigned set to handle this, to postpone their sortie.”

“…I see.”

“However, there are a few things I am uncertain about. I wanted to get your opinion on them, hence the summons.”

“You have uncertainties?”

“Back then, you said ‘the village head is pulling the strings from the shadows’, correct? Why did you say that? There was something off in the books, true, but there’s a chance that the village head is just being threatened to do so, don’t you think?”

I see.

Having an idea on why I was summoned, I began to relax a bit. I was a bit sorry to do this to Raze-sama, but I would have to borrow my answer from him when he originally found out about this.

“There are 2 reasons.”

“Ohh, 2? Interesting. Let me hear it.”

Raze-sama seemed to be truly interested, if his leaning forward a bit was any indication.

After I cleared my throat, I began explaining.

“Firstly, I must address that I also considered that the village head was just being threatened by the bandits. However, this whole affair has lasted far too long for that to be likely. It’s one thing if only a month or 2 has passed, but would anyone really not ask for help from the capital if they are being threatened for more than a year? Given that the merchants’ records show a discrepancy, we could say that most of them aren’t affected or threatened. If that was the case, then wouldn’t there have been opportunities to use the merchants as intermediaries to ask for help?”

“I see. You do have a point. Go on.”

“The simplest case is that the village head is giving instructions and the whole village is involved. But in the case of the villagers being involved, why then do we have this bandit commotion at all? It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep things as quiet as possible. That leaves us with the village head pulling the strings from the shadows.”

“Hmm, interesting. And next?”

“Now that we can assume that the village head and the bandits are the only parties involved, the question then moves to why the village head is doing such a dangerous thing. At the same time, why are the bandits following the village head?”

“I see.”

“The simplest and easiest to understand reason the bandits are obeying is they could profit in doing so.”

At this point, Lapillia-sama and Granz-sama were intently listening in. Before long, Raze-sama asked something.

“What kind of profit is enough to motivate the bandits to follow?”

“Near that village is a mountain, and in that mountain is an abandoned mine.”

“Yes, that is so. Are you saying they found a new vein?”

“Yes, I think that’s the case. One thing I should add is that I think the ones to discover this new vein are people from Golbel.”

“What did you say?”

Lapillia-sama and Granz-sama both became animated. Meanwhile, Raze-sama simply nodded and urged me to continue.

“Please take this simply as my wild thoughts,”

I prefaced myself like that, but these were no mere thoughts. These were facts that could be verified later.

To the west of our kingdom was the Golbel Kingdom. We had a volatile relationship with them. The village in question was near the border with Golbel.

Golbel had its eyes on the abandoned mine. Rather than to find a new vein though, they were just testing whether they could secure and fortify a foothold into our kingdom. But as fortune would have it, they found a new vein. They made use of it and secretly negotiated with the village head. They stated that if the village head cooperated with them, they would buy whatever was dug tax-free.

The village head had fallen to those honeyed words. According to the stories I heard later on, the village head’s son was buried in debt due to gambling. But then again, I also heard that the debt was orchestrated by Gobel to begin with.

At any rate, the mine and the village had come under the control of Golbel, albeit off the record. While the mining was ongoing, they were to make progress on their fortifications.

So, to be exact, behind the village head was the will of a neighboring country.

The single miscalculation Golbel did was on the character of the personnel they got. They were unable to send too many of their regular soldiers, because that would be too overt and would easily be get the attention of our kingdom. So, what they did was make use of bandit-like punks.

The village head then warned the villagers ‘it looks like bandits have made the abandoned mine their base. It’s dangerous, so don’t go near the place’.

The next issue was food. Bringing supplies from Golbel was out of the question. That was why the village head ended up buying more food than usual.

All would have worked if only the bandits mined and built as they were hired to do. However, the bandits grew weary of working like that and decided to attack the village’s women night after night.

It was at this point that a villager informed the capital about their bandit problem. However, since it was the incomplete information from a single villager, the 4th order of knights was convinced they were only dealing with a few ordinary bandits. The result of that was a painful experience.

“…that’s my thoughts.”

The 3 listened to me until the end and was now staring at me with serious expressions on their faces.

“You alone thought of this?”

I answered yes to Raze-sama’s question. It wasn’t like I could say ‘I learned it from your future records and legends’.

“…you two, any complaints now?”

Raze-sama asked so as he glanced at Lapillia-sama and Granz-sama.

In response, Granz-sama smiled slightly, while Lapillia-sama looked down with a look of minor discontent.

After checking the two, Raze-sama returned his gaze on me.

“Roa, I’ll have you accompany me on my next sortie. Take it as a command.”

Chapter 4

I was summoned again to the 10th order’s office on another day.

I was currently sitting in the corner of a strategy room that was adjacent to the room I was in last time.

Assembled within the room was Raze-sama, Granz-sama, Lapillia-sama, and several commanding officers of the 10th knight order.

And then, there was me. I was clearly out of place here. I was like a lone mouse within a den of beasts.

The commanding officers, for the most part, were eyeing me with puzzled looks.

Just when I thought they were going to wait for Raze-sama to explain my presence, the youngest looking among them asked ‘who is this person’.

As though he had been looking forward to know who would ask first, Raze-sama squinted his eyes a little and spoke.

“This person is a civil servant named Roa. He was the one who pointed out our lack of insight in the operation to subjugate the bandits attacking Eren village. See to it that no one in the order takes him lightly.”

“I can understand why we’re being told not to take him lightly, but…we have to warn our subordinates as well?”

“Yes, Frein. That is because he will be taking part in the operation from now on.”

“Taking part in the operation? Sorry to ask, Roa, but do you have any field experience?”

“Huh? I don’t…of course, I don’t…”

The commanding officers stared at me with an even more bewildered look, but the one most bewildered out of everyone here was me. If they asked me, I would rather they opposed my being here and, if they were generous enough, get me to leave.

While I accepted that such thoughts shouldn’t be expected, Raze-sama called on me.

“When we talked the other day, I told you to memorize the map for Eren village. Did you succeed in doing so?”

“Ah…yes, sir. More or less.”

That much was easy.

“Alright then,”

Raze-sama then spread a map on top of the table. This map was twice as big as the one I saw in the reference room.

“Roa, answer however you like. Where on this map would you suggest we position ourselves?”

“Raze-sama, what—”

The person called Frein tried to interject, but Raze-sama stopped him with a hand while also urging me to continue.

“I’ve inquired on you a little, Roa. Apparently, you have a hobby of gathering battle records both recent and ancient. That collection of yours seem to be quite considerable. You’re even famous among civil servants.”

“Ahh…yes, that is true. However, that is ultimately nothing more than a hobby…”

“I don’t mind if your perspective is a hobby-level one. Now, tell us where you would suggest we position ourselves.”

It seemed like I had to suggest something no matter what.

If memory serves, Raze-sama in the second subjugation attempt initially deployed a small force to make the enemies drop their guards. And when the village head was aware of those troops and was about to meet with the bandits, a second, detached force was deployed.

“We should divide the forces into two. One would serve as the decoys. When the village head, in his panic, makes contact with the bandits to ask advice on how they would respond, another unit will launch a surprise attack right before the village head and the bandits actually make contact.”

To my answer, Raze-sama shook his head.

“It’s not a bad plan, but it depends on a lot of things. Would the village head will go to meet with the bandits? Would they fall for the diversion? It could very well just make them put their guard up.”

“I see…”

I said so, but internally, I was more ‘huh?’.

The one who originally made up the strategy I proposed was the Raze-sama in my memory. So, if we were to implement a different strategy…that would mean that history would change, wouldn’t it?

It was not especially necessary for the strategy I proposed to be the one to be used. In fact, this would be the perfect opportunity to test if we could change the flow of history. And when I realized that I could change it right in this moment, however slight it might be, my head immediately cooled.

While everyone’s gaze was on me. I recalled various battlefield records in my head. And then, I pointed at one location on the map.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Roa exited from the room, everyone else remained and continue the meeting.

“So?”

Raze asked that to everyone in the room.

“I see…I understand why he’s got your attention, Raze-sama, but be that as it may, isn’t this nothing but an amateur’s idea?”

The eldest among the commanding officers voiced out his concern.

“I for one think it’s interesting. We should have a decent chance of success.”

Another expressed.

At that moment, Frein raised his hand while looking all serious.

“Raze-sama, may I ask something? Do you perhaps intend to add that man into…”

“Yes, I plan to recruit him into the 10th knight order. Of course, that’s all contingent on the results of the mission and how he carries himself during it.”

Raze interjected so.

“But he has no field experience; he won’t survive!”

“Come on now, no one has field experience the very first time they enter the battlefield. Not even you, Frein.”

Being told that, Frein was at a loss for words.

“But why all of a sudden decide so?”

An officer with a well-groomed beard inquired.

“Right…no particular reason, really.”

“No particular reason? …that feels like an answer you would give, it does, and yet…”

Raze was a man usually dictated by logic, but every once in a while he would act on his instincts.

Those instincts had given way to successes in the battlefield, so the commanding officers present simply thought ‘again, huh’ with a look of understanding.

“Moreover, in the case that Roa’s plan do fail, rest assured that I have a second and third plan prepared.”

“I’m not worried about that, but rather, that man, he doesn’t look like someone who could fight. If worst came to worst, he could die.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Raze frankly stated so.

And like that, the conversation moved forward without Roa’s knowledge.

Chapter 5

“Hey, stop looking around so much.”

I was traveling toward to Eren village while being guarded by the Frein company of the 10th knight order.

“I can’t help it; the sight of so many soldiers marching is an amazing one.”

“What are you saying? Aren’t you the one who said to mobilize as many of the 10th order as possible?”

Frein-sama said so, exasperated.

What he said was true, but I didn’t think it would be this large of an army.

“Just how many people are there in the your unit alone?”

“My unit has about 500 people right now. I suppose I might as well tell you about these things. Normally, one commands about 300 to 500 soldiers, and in major battles, one might even command more than a thousand. Those who have the ability to command a battalion do that, but on the whole, a company is usually composed of about 300 people. Well, for the commanding officers here in the 10th order, I’d say 500 people is the standard.”

Frein-sama said so while throwing his chest out a bit.

“Hee, that’s amazing.”

He seemed to be satisfied by my response during his pause and decided to continue.

“Including Raze-sama’s main force, there are about 6,500 soldiers participating for this mission.”

“6,500…”

That was a staggering number of people.

Initially, there were so many being mobilized that some veteran battalion commanders expressed opposition to it. Even with this many though, the 10th knight order still wasn’t at its full might.

Originally, a country of our size wouldn’t have been able to have 10 knight orders, to say nothing of the number of soldiers we had. Rudeck was that rich.

There were 2 main reasons for such wealth: mines and a particular port.

Many superb mines had been found all over Rudeck since the olden days. The abandoned mine in Eren village was one of those. Our mines provided good-quality ores that fetched a high price in countries across the seas.

The port where merchants crossing those seas gathered was the port of Gadeland. With it being located in the middle a calm cove, it was not impacted much by the weather. Given that geographical condition and Rudeck’s specialty products, it was one of the most prominent ports in the entire continent.

The northern continent was considered to have a relatively clannish culture, yet our kingdom had many foreign people and people born with foreign blood in it. Gadeland port had undoubtedly a major influence on that.

Those mines and port brought us wealth and military might, but those were also the reasons other nations wanted to attack us.

The empire and Golbel, both of whom we had a hostile relationship with, didn’t have a port on the same level as Gadeland due to their turbulent waters and geography. To be fair, the empire did have a few prominent ports, but it was just that none of them could compare to Gadeland. As a result, merchants from the southern continent prioritized to use Gadeland for its low risk of damaging their ships and easier docking.

Once the merchants have landed, they would set out on a journey toward other nations in order to trade. Once that trading journey was finished, they would begin another one, this time toward Gadeland and then their homeland.

It was inevitable then that the city port would become more lively and overflowing with people, products, and information.

Now, if it did come to a fight, we could do so against Golbel to the west and the empire to the east on equal footing despite their nations being larger than our kingdom’s.

Of course, fighting the empire, the largest nation in the continent, head on would still be difficult. Fortunately for us though, there was a wall of steep mountains to separate our nations, making it hard for the empire to attack. Moreover, these days, the empire was busy contending with other nations.

Our neighbor to the north was the Sacred Kingdom of Reflare. We were in alliance with them. Thanks to that, our nation could concentrate on Golbel’s movement.

Despite saying we could concentrate on Golbel, deploying 6,500 troops against a reported 100-enemy troop was, to put it bluntly, not normal. The enemy numbers might even be less in reality. Which would explain why the veteran commanders expressed reluctance on this plan.

“But…are you sure you it was fine for you to make a declaration like that? I won’t be helping you out later, you know.”

Frein-sama was worried about expenditures.

Mobilizing a large number of soldiers meant preparing a large supply of food among many things. That then begs the question, was it worth it to deploy 6,500 people against an enemy that was merely 100-strong?

I explained that ‘the new vein will pay for the deployment’.

Of course, I was countered, saying ‘a new vein that’s based entirely on your armchair theory’. To that, I replied ‘so, you’re just going to let Golbel dig as they please?’

We had been in open hostilities with Golbel for a long time. The older commanders had a higher tendency of wanting to obstruct Golbel from whatever might benefit them, even if it was to our own detriment.

Moreover, I knew for a fact that the abandoned mine contained unforeseen ore veins. Once you’ve seen the future, your statements were naturally accompanied by confidence.

By making use of the animosity toward Golbel and my arguments that were strangely full of confidence despite seemingly having no basis for it, I was able to push the plan through.

“Why am I of all people in charge of protecting you…”

Frein-sama had complained as much 5 times already during the journey. If I had to guess, the reason he was in charge for my safety, despite being opposed to my participation in the actual operation, was simply because we were close in age.

He was apparently one year younger than me. To be a commanding officer in the 10th knight order led by Raze-sama at that age, it didn’t take much to think that he was quite outstanding. It also didn’t take much to guess that someone with a promising future like that would be reluctant to take on the role of guard to a civil servant of dubious origin.

Sorry to be frank, but as long as that duty’s on you, I’ll have you do it properly. I absolutely cannot die here.

My proposal passed through. Now, we must make sure that it was actually executed. If the mission succeeded with this plan, that would serve as proof that history could in fact be changed.

“Frein-sama, you’re acting as guard because Raze-sama trusts you. You must live up to those expectations.”

The one to advice Frein-sama like that was an older officer named Bikhilt-san. He had been in charge of educating Frein-sama since the latter was young. In a way, he was Frein-sama’s old butler figure.

“Bikhilt, I know that much even without your warning. I will carry out whatever I’m tasked to do. On my honor as part of House Delta, I will see this done.”

House Delta…I’ve heard of them before. If I remember correctly, one of the commanders that was in charge in the skirmishes against the empire was someone named Horald Delta. Is Frein-sama related to him? Probably, yeah. Maybe even his father.

“Hey, this isn’t the time to be spacing out. We’ll be there soon.”

Frein-sama pointed ahead, at the path ahead that forked into two. Much like the path that led to my assigned position, fate was now splitting into two.

Chapter 6

“The Rudeck idiots are finally here, huh?”

The one to utter so with an air of composure was the bearded man in charge of the fortified mine. His name was Givan.

He was one of the few regular soldiers of Golbel among this gang of thugs. Their role here was to direct the fortifications and also stall for time in the event that the Rudeck army mobilized to invade their home country of Golbel. If Rudeck did deploy its soldiers, Golbel would send out its soldiers in response under the claim that their border was being threatened.

On the other hand, it would be some time before Golbel would initiate an invasion of their own and mobilize its soldiers. That would come when the fortifications on the mine were finished. There just wasn’t much value deploying soldiers to this remote place at the moment.

There was the new vein they found in the mine, of course, but as they prioritized fortifying the place, they didn’t have an idea how much ore there might be. And the amount they had found so far wasn’t enough to justify the mobilization of troops just yet.

Unfortunately, their plans were disrupted when a portion of the thugs under their employ had gone on a rampage. They knew that it was only a matter time before Rudeck sent out a subjugation force. However, they could tell that as long as Rudeck thought that they were just your average countryside bandits, Rudeck would underestimate their force.

Right now, the fortification was about 80% complete. Moreover, they had stealthily recruited until they were over 500-strong. Like this, they should be able to endure for a while.

…buy some time. We’re preparing to deploy…

Those were the words of Sakuri, the strategist of this whole operation. Sakuri’s keen insight was the best there was in Golbel. According to him, if they could make a solid base in the mine, it would serve as a monumental foothold in the invasion against Rudeck.

Givan chose to believe in Sakuri and wait for reinforcements.

At the same time though, they were also instructed to ‘withdraw in case it becomes too rough’. They were, after all, in foreign land. Moreover, failing their mission wouldn’t hurt as much financially thanks to the cost being somewhat covered by the sale of the ores.

All that being said, Givan had no intention of fleeing so quickly. He had spent a lot of time in this operation, so he thought it was a great shame to give it up right now. Not to mention, a success here meant promotion.

He had come so far by cajoling irredeemable scum. Failure now was just unthinkable. First, he would finish his mission and make the area around Eren his territory. But even that would be nothing but a stepping stone on his rise toward the top of Golbel!

Givan couldn’t stop his lips from loosening as he imagined his future. But soon after, someone poured cold water on him.

“The enemy…! There’s 5,000 of them!! They’re taking up position to the west!”

Givan couldn’t believe the words from one of the subordinates he had brought with him.

“What did you just say?”

“The enemy has 5,000 soldiers! They’re positioned to the west, near the border to Golbel.”

“Are you kidding me!? That’s the force they send to subjugate some bandits!? That’s as large as a whole knight order! And to the west!? Are you sure you’re not mistaking them for our reinforcements!?”

Givan was unable to comprehend the report that he was given. Under normal circumstances, this situation would have been impossible. No matter how deep Rudeck’s pockets were, and even supposing Golbel’s involvement was considered due to the village’s proximity to the border, this deployment was still not normal.

Givan couldn’t help but wonder how much this operation had cost Rudeck. But then, a thought crossed his mind.

“Did they see through our plan…?”

How? That incompetent village head? No, that’s impossible. Golbel’s got him and his son completely completely under our control. But then, how the heck…

“…based on their banner, I think it’s a force led by Raze Stein.”

“If anyone’s going to see through our plans, it’ll be him…still, why him? The ones positioned in this area should be the 4th knight order. So then, what reason is there that he’s the one leading the enemies instead of someone from the 4th?”

“……I understand what you’re asking, sir, but…”

Givan had no intention of laying the blame on his subordinate for these mysteries.

“Who knows how much time we spent on this place; we can’t give it up now. We still have 500 men on our side. All we have to do is hold out until reinforcement from home arrives!”

“Yes, sir! …what do we do about the village head?”

“Don’t bother with him. The fact that Raze is here means they’ve seen through his defection. Whatever happens, he won’t be any help to us in controlling the area anymore. He’s on his own now.”

“Understood”

Their conversation over, the subordinate left to carry out the instructions he gave. The moment that subordinate left, another rushed in.

“Givan-sama! Urgent news! The troops…!”

“What now!?”

“Seeing the large number of approaching enemies, our troops began fleeing one by one! They refused to obey our commands, and now, a fight between the deserters and our remaining forces have begun!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ooh, there’s flames…”

In their encampment on a hill a bit of a distance away from the enemy base, Granz whispered so as he surveyed the area.

“It seems, just as Roa predicted, that their infighting has begun.”

Raze saw the smoke rising out of the abandoned mine and smiled.

Deploy as many soldiers as you can in the plains west of the abandoned mines, that was the plan Roa had given them.

If hired thugs are the core of the forces in the abandoned mines, they’ll forget their limited loyalty to Golbel and start fleeing to save themselves as soon as they see our numbers. Ideally, we want all of them to desert, but the idea is, the fewer of them that chose to remain, the easier for us to attack the mine. Moreover, by taking position in the west, we’ll be announcing to them that we know about their connection to Golbel.

Roa’s plan seemed to have worked. Even without the knight order taking a step forward, they could see the abandoned mine being thrown into chaos.

“Call Roa and Frein.”

Upon receiving Raze’s instruction, the messenger raced toward the camp.

After a while, two people approached.

“Roa, things are proceeding as you expected. What’s the next move?”

After hearing that, Roa thought for a moment.

“Isn’t it alright to wait here until the thugs have escaped?”

Hearing that, Raze thought to himself ‘he’s still soft about these matters’

“That won’t do. Frein.”

“Sir.”

Raze turned his gaze toward Frein and the latter knelt in response.

“Seize control of the mine.”

“Yes, sir.”

Frein said so and immediately left.

Meanwhile, Roa, after seeing Frein’s figure get farther and farther away, looked back and forth between Raze and Granz, unsure of what he should do.

“Roa, you stay here.”

“Ye, yes, sir…”

Roa still looked nervous when Raze instructed him to take a sit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like this, my first battle ended uneventfully.

While I was simply glad it was over now, this event would have serious repercussions to those around me.

Chapter 7

In what seemed like an instant after Frein-sama began his offensive, a messenger came for Raze-sama while I was on standby with him in the camp.

“The subjugation has been completed.”

“I see. Any casualties?”

“None.”

“Has their leader been captured?”

“Regrettably, all of them resisted and was killed in the ensuing battle…however, we have found evidence that could prove their connection to Golbel. Also, Frein-sama instructed the soldiers to chase after the village lord, upon which they found and captured him hiding in a hidden room in his manor.”

“I see. Thanks for your report. You may leave now.”

The messenger saluted and then withdrew. At that point, Raze-sama directed his gaze toward Granz-sama.

 

“Granz. Now that Golbel’s involvement is clear, there’s a chance that they will send soldiers near here. I’ll leave behind half of our soldiers. Station them in the mine and defend the place until the 4th knight order arrives.”

“Yes, sir. I shall see it done.”

“Well then, we’re departing. Lapillia.”

“Sir. I will make the arrangements at once.”

When Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama exited the tent, all that was left inside were me and Raze-sama.

Having nothing in particular to do, I let my gaze wander. But then, Raze-sama spoke.

“So, how was your first battle?”

“I don’t know how to answer when there wasn’t any real fight.”

“Which is all the more reason why you’re remarkable. We won without any casualties. That is pinnacle of battle. To be frank, I didn’t think things will go this smoothly. If the mine really does have yet undiscovered veins of ore…why, it would be as though you foresaw everything.”

My heart leapt at Raze-sama’s comment. It was precisely because, like he said, I had known about the future that I could form such a plan.

Without thinking, I almost said, ‘actually…’ but I fortunately caught myself at the last moment. I doubted there was anyone who would believe me if I told the truth anyway. We were about to head home without any mishap; that would only serve to make them be on guard and there was was no need for that now.

“No need to be so tense; it was just a joke.”

My unrest was probably taken as part of my first-battle jitters since Raze-sama didn’t pursue the issue further.

“Yesss…”

I gave a half-hearted reply, to which Raze-sama only responded with a wry smile before switching back to his serious face.

“Enough joking around then. Let’s talk about what happens from now on.”

“What…happens from now on?”

“I’ll be frank. Roa, why not join the 10th knight order?”

“Huh!? What business do I have being in the 10th!?”

“What business? That’s a new one. Everyone I’ve asked to join up until now was either thankful or get emotional by the invitation, but…”

“Ahh! I’m sorry; I misspoke just now!”

It was unthinkable for an ordinary civil officer like me to be invited into the 10th knight order where the most elite people in the kingdom have gathered. So much so that when I was about to reply, the image of Granz-sama and Lapillia laughing appeared in my mind, making me think this invitation was some kind of joke. Those 2 probably weren’t that cruel in reality, but that just shows how unsettled the invitation made me.

“Very well, let’s hear your real reply now. Oh, let me just say that although danger would naturally follow in this new position, your wage will be incomparable to what it is presently. Not so bad, wouldn’t you agree?”

It wasn’t so bad indeed, and it even sounded like a guaranteed path to success. There was probably no one so unwise to refuse such an offer, yet…

“May I ask one thing?”

“Ohh? What is it?”

“Why are you inviting me? If I may so myself, I have better memory than most, making me quite suitable for the paperwork a civil servant does. I don’t think I have anything significant to offer 10th knight order though…”

“I see you have a very low assessment of yourself…I suppose that explains why you haven’t risen in position until now.”

Raze-sama gave his own assessment of me.

“But your own assessment is of no consequence to my decision. What I want right now is someone who could assist me in planning military operations. This mission serves as your test for that. And you’ve passed it.”

“Someone to assist you in planning military operations…an assistant strategist? But don’t you already have Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama?”

“Yes, that term is adequate. Now, certainly, Granz and Lapillia are excellent and are two of the best when it comes to leading troops in battle. However, the power to lead a unit and the power to direct the whole army are distinctly different. I trust you of all people know that difference.”

“…yes.”

Thinking back on the battle records I collected, the difference was clear to see.

“If you’re satisfied with my explanation, let’s hear your answer. I have no plan of forcing you into it though; doing so will only lead to unsatisfactory results.”

Considering my goal of rewriting history and saving those dear to me, I only had one choice in the matter.
I had no idea what I could do in such a position, but even so, this should still be much better than worrying by myself.

“I understand. Please treat me well.”

I said so and then bowed deeply toward Raze-sama.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the way home, I was once again being protected by Frein-sama.

“So, how did it go?”

Based on his words, I had the impression that me being invited to join the 10th knight order was known to its commanding officers. In retrospect, it now made sense on why these elite people followed the strategy of someone completely unknown.

“I will now be in the care of the 10th knight order. Frein-sama, please treat me well.”

I said so and bowed while on horseback. By the way, I couldn’t ride a horse by myself, so I had one of Frein-sama’s retainers riding with me.

“I see.”

Frein-sama gave a brief reply. Afterwards, we traveled in silence for a little while, with the horses’ footsteps being the only sounds that could be heard.

“Drop the honorifics.”

And then, Frein-sama suddenly talked again.

“Pardon?”

“Your official appointment won’t happen until some time later, but we are now to become comrades who would march into the battlefield together. There is no need for honorifics.”

“Huh? …but…”

“But nothing. Additionally, change the way you talk with me. If you’re going to be working working as Raze-sama’s aide, then that makes you my superior. Plus, I’m younger than you. Talking so politely toward me is unnecessary.”

“Well…still…I mean…”

Considering my position and Frein-sama’s family status, he just wasn’t someone I could talk so casually with.

“…I’ll talk casually with you even though you’re supposed to be my superior. So, just do the same.”

“…alright. Frein.”

When I replied like that to show my agreement, Frein gave a smile that suited his age and then said.

“Let’s get along.”

Chapter 8

On a certain day, Frein taught me how to ride a horse.

“Horses are smart creatures; they can sense the rider’s anxiety.”

“Even if you say that…”

I never had good motor coordination, so I was just barely holding onto the horse’s back.

“Well, that’ll be it for today. When you get your own horse, look after it properly. Once you’ve built a relationship of trust with it, your riding experience will change completely. In any case, let’s have lunch.”

“Yes, I’ll do that. Thank you.”

I got down from the horse and my thighs were trembling. While Frein was laughing at me, we made our way toward the knight quarter.

About half a month has passed since I returned to Rudecktrad, Rudeck kingdom’s capital. Since my return, I had been spending my time visiting the 10th knight order’s premises and then doing one thing or another, like learning how to ride a horse.

The reason for that is that I was in a sort of limbo. My transfer to the 10th knight order wouldn’t be decided upon until Granz-sama returned from the field and gave his report. Meanwhile, my previous post had been notified of the potential transfer and I was told that I didn’t have to report to duty anymore.

An ordinary civil officer being transferred to the 10th knight order was an unprecedented promotion. It felt like even my former boss didn’t know what to do. People in the civil officers’ quarters had been acting quite cautiously around me, which kind of made me feel out place there all of a sudden. Thankfully, my roommates Derrick and Yord treated me the same as always.

At any rate, Frein was thankfully there to look after me while I was like this.

“I have free time until the others return anyway.”

Despite saying that, Frein was actually quite a caring person. He introduced me to the commanders who had already returned and even accompany me in my horse-riding training. Thanks to him, I have been able to ride a horse—albeit just barely—and also slowly becoming able to exchange greetings with the other commanders.

I should also note that the meals served in the 10th knight order’s canteen had an extra side dish and were also more plentiful compared to the ones served in the civil officers’ canteen. This was probably in consideration to the fact that soldiers physically exerted themselves a lot more. As someone who is sweating a fair bit as I practice riding a horse, I also appreciated that the food here were heavily seasoned.

“But, you know, Roa…you should slow down.”

Frein commented so as I munched on some grilled meat.

“My head knows I should, but my body just won’t listen.”

That was the pathetic reply I went with.

“What difference does that make? Anyway, you really should hurry in learning how to ride. You’re the one going to be in trouble when something happens and you’re still unable to ride a horse properly.”

“Yeah; I’ll do something about it.”

While we were talking and eating our meal like that, the entrance of the canteen became noisy.

Frein had a look of wariness but soon changed his expression.

“They’re back!”

As soon as Frein said so, he stood up and made for the entrance. The surrounding soldiers also rushed for the entrance. A beat later, I also stood up, took a glance at the remaining food on the table, and followed after Frein.

When I exited the canteen, I saw Granz-sama in the open space outside. He was apparently back from his post in the mine.

Raze-sama also heard the commotion and came by. Upon his arrival, the soldiers with Granz-sama formed a perfect line. Granz-sama, who was at the center then stepped forward and knelt down before Raze-sama.

“I have returned with all of the 3,000 soldiers you’ve entrusted me with!”

“Great work! I’ll ask for the details later, but tell me, did any Golbel soldiers appear?”

“They have. They sent about 2,000 soldiers, but when they saw that we were stationed in the mine in great numbers as per your instructions, they turned around without doing anything of note.”

“I see. That’s good news then. I’ve sent word to the 4th knight order to be on guard as well. Fortunately for us, Golbel went to all the trouble of fortifying that abandoned mine. I hear we’re going to take it as it is and make it into our a fortress of our own.”

Raze-sama said so and then laughed. The other soldiers quickly joined in the laughter, adding things like ‘those Gobel idiots’ and ‘thanks for all the hard work on our fortress’

Granz-sama waited until the surroundings settled down before continuing.

“There’s one other matter.”

“What is it?”

Maintaining an air of majesty, Raze-sama urged Granz-sama to go on. Granz-sama glanced at me and then continued.

“I brought a former miner from the village of Eren to the mine and had him inspect it…”

“How did it go?”

“In that person’s words ‘I can’t believe there’s this much vein deposits left here’”

At that point, everyone simultaneously looked at me. I already knew that would be the case, but I was still a bit relieved by the confirmation.

“…I understand. I’ll hear the details in the office. Roa, you come too. Everyone, thanks for all your efforts! Take the next few days off! You’ll also receive special compensation for your work, so use it to relax once you receive it!”

The returning soldiers cheered upon hearing Raze-sama’s words.

Their celebration still continuing as I followed after Raze-sama.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a certain room in Golbel’s capital.

An old man sat behind a well-polished, stately desk with a black luster.

On top of the desk was a map showing eastern Golbel and western Rudeck. The map had several small pieces placed on it.

“I see,”

Even after hearing that his plan to turn the village of Eren into Golbel’s bridgehead into Rudeck had failed, the old man replied as though he wasn’t the least bit bothered by it.

“There were apparently two to three thousand Rudeck soldiers stationed in the mine. What should we do?”

“We can just leave it be.”

“But…”

“I said we can leave it be. It definitely is a convenient place for us, but not so much when Rudeck is just waiting for the perfect chance to move against us. At best, we would be wasting more time controlling the place.”

The old man gave a stifled laugh, then picked up the piece representing Eren village and chucked it to the bin as if it was nothing.

“I’ll let Raze Stein bring home the bacon this time.”

Sakuri said so with a blank expression and a monotone voice.

“Although you will have to wait a little more for the written notice of your appointment, it is now officially decided that you will transfer to the 10th knight order, Roa.”

Raze-sama announced so at noon in the 10th knight order’s canteen. That resulted in a wave of cheers.

“That’s great news, ain’t it!”

“Nice to have you!”

“We won’t be treating you like a guest anymore!”

The soldiers offered their congratulations like that. There were about 300 people on duty here right now. Their cheers were so vigorous it made my spine tingle with excitement.

In return, I offered ‘I look forward to working with you’ to each one.

After a while, the excitement settled down, at which point Raze-sama cleared his throat. All eyes were instantly on him.

“For your living arrangements, you will have to continue to use the civil officers’ quarters for a while. Your duties will revolve around being my assistant. To make good use of your experience as a civil officer, I shall also task you with the management of our weapons and the coordination of our supply lines, both tasks Granz have been handling albeit with great effort. Granz, hand over those duties and paperworks to Roa.”

“Certainly, sir.”

“And then, assign her under Roa. She would be tackling those weapon management duties and the like with him.”

“Yes, sir…but are you sure?”

“Yeah. We can’t treat her like a guest forever, but then again, we can’t have her act as a soldier either. There should be something she could do under Roa.”

“…Understood.”

A curious conversation between them took place. Who ‘she’ could be, I could only wonder. Aside from Lapillia-sama, the knight order was composed basically only of men. Even if I extended my definition of being in the knight order, the only female personnel I could see were the waitresses.

When Raze-sama glanced at me and squinted his eyes a little, I gave up all hope that he would tell me now.

For someone who could only look at him from afar, I had always viewed Raze-sama as a hero. Maybe it had something to do with how he usually wore black clothes, but more specifically, I viewed him as a hero who had quite an intimidating presence that led to an atmosphere where people were reluctant to approach, much less ask a question.

Recently though, as I was learning more things about him, my impression of him have changed significantly. He was more mischievous than I thought and rather liked giving people a start. Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama often scolded him in the office for it though.

Raze-sama didn’t break character in public, but I had a feeling that pretty much the entire 10th knight order knew about his true personality. I didn’t dislike this kind of ambiance.

At any rate, after lunch, I followed Granz-sama to the armory.

“It’s this place. I’d very much like to leave the weapon repairs and management to you, but will you be able to handle it?”

“Yes. This is pretty much what my previous work has been, so this is rather my specialty.”

When I replied so, he nodded in satisfaction.

“When it comes to battle, the 10th is exemplary. However, when it comes to the management of things, we’re rather unskilled. Much like the others, this kind of thing is not my specialty, so truth be told, I’m quite thankful that you’re taking over.”

While I thought ‘wow, Granz-sama has had it rough’, I looked over the weapons. They were well-maintained and even glowed with the light that shone through the door.

I wondered what that glow was when I saw it. A moment later I uttered, ‘Ahh, I see’

“Is something the matter?”

Granz-sama asked.

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

“Very well, let’s head to the food warehouse next. It is basically where we store preserved food for use on missions. We have to reorganize them regularly and also incorporate them in our meals if they are close to going bad. It’s a great hassle.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean. Is there a catalog anywhere?”

“A catalog? There is none, I think.”

“None? Then, how do you manage them?”

“Hmm. The oldest ones are in the frontmost. When new items arrive, the ones at the back are adjusted forward and the new items are stored at the very back.”

“Isn’t that tiring?”

There was a considerable amount of rations being stored here, so while moving each of them was easy enough, doing it over and over was undeniably going to take quite an effort.

“Yeah. With the manpower usually available to us, it takes a whole day!”

Granz-sama replied and laughed.

When I indirectly asked if the other knight orders were faring like this, everyone but the 10th apparently was doing just fine. If so, then the 10th had a problem.

“For now, let’s make a catalog. Then, assign numbers to the shelves. We will use the food in accordance to those numbers. This way, we don’t have to reorganize each time new stock comes in, right?”

When I suggested so, Granz-sama yelled as though he was given some kind of revelation.

“A splendid idea! I didn’t think of that!”

The state affairs of the 10th knight order seemed to be more serious than I imagined.

On the other hand, I was relieved to have found an area where I could use my talents. In order to prevent that future of ruin, I needed to help the 10th knight order. While my plan went well the last time, that did not necessarily meant that everything else would go as smoothly. In other words, I needed to make sure they wouldn’t get rid of me immediately.

“Making a catalog, huh. Surely even Ruffa can manage to do that.”

“Ruffa? Ah, could she be the woman you and Raze-sama were talking about earlier?”

“Yeah. I’ll summon her here, so just wait for her here. If you think up of any other good ideas, feel free to implement them.”

“Huh? Don’t I have to report it to Raze-sama first?”

“The armory aside, I have never reported to him about the food stockroom. He also stated that it was unnecessary. Right, let me know when you want to make more preserved food. I’ll give you a budget.”

“Understood.”

Granz-sama left and I stayed in the food stockroom for a while, wondering how I could improve the management of the place.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting!”

Before I knew it, Granz-sama was standing at the door. I had no idea how much time had passed.

“Ruffa, this is the man you’ll be serving under. His name’s Roa. Now, introduce yourself.”

Taking a small step from behind Granz-sama’s massive body was a girl who seemed slightly younger than me and had the physical traits of someone from the southern continent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9

“Although you will have to wait a little more for the written notice of your appointment, it is now officially decided that you will transfer to the 10th knight order, Roa.”

Raze-sama announced so at noon in the 10th knight order’s canteen. That resulted in a wave of cheers.

“That’s great news, ain’t it!”

“Nice to have you!”

“We won’t be treating you like a guest anymore!”

The soldiers offered their congratulations like that. There were about 300 people on duty here right now. Their cheers were so vigorous it made my spine tingle with excitement.

In return, I offered ‘I look forward to working with you’ to each one.

After a while, the excitement settled down, at which point Raze-sama cleared his throat. All eyes were instantly on him.

“For your living arrangements, you will have to continue to use the civil officers’ quarters for a while. Your duties will revolve around being my assistant. To make good use of your experience as a civil officer, I shall also task you with the management of our weapons and the coordination of our supply lines, both tasks Granz have been handling albeit with great effort. Granz, hand over those duties and paperworks to Roa.”

“Certainly, sir.”

“And then, assign her under Roa. She would be tackling those weapon management duties and the like with him.”

“Yes, sir…but are you sure?”

“Yeah. We can’t treat her like a guest forever, but then again, we can’t have her act as a soldier either. There should be something she could do under Roa.”

“…Understood.”

A curious conversation between them took place. Who ‘she’ could be, I could only wonder. Aside from Lapillia-sama, the knight order was composed basically only of men. Even if I extended my definition of being in the knight order, the only female personnel I could see were the waitresses.

When Raze-sama glanced at me and squinted his eyes a little, I gave up all hope that he would tell me now.

For someone who could only look at him from afar, I had always viewed Raze-sama as a hero. Maybe it had something to do with how he usually wore black clothes, but more specifically, I viewed him as a hero who had quite an intimidating presence that led to an atmosphere where people were reluctant to approach, much less ask a question.

Recently though, as I was learning more things about him, my impression of him have changed significantly. He was more mischievous than I thought and rather liked giving people a start. Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama often scolded him in the office for it though.

Raze-sama didn’t break character in public, but I had a feeling that pretty much the entire 10th knight order knew about his true personality. I didn’t dislike this kind of ambiance.

At any rate, after lunch, I followed Granz-sama to the armory.

“It’s this place. I’d very much like to leave the weapon repairs and management to you, but will you be able to handle it?”

“Yes. This is pretty much what my previous work has been, so this is rather my specialty.”

When I replied so, he nodded in satisfaction.

“When it comes to battle, the 10th is exemplary. However, when it comes to the management of things, we’re rather unskilled. Much like the others, this kind of thing is not my specialty, so truth be told, I’m quite thankful that you’re taking over.”

While I thought ‘wow, Granz-sama has had it rough’, I looked over the weapons. They were well-maintained and even glowed with the light that shone through the door.

I wondered what that glow was when I saw it. A moment later I uttered, ‘Ahh, I see’

“Is something the matter?”

Granz-sama asked.

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

“Very well, let’s head to the food warehouse next. It is basically where we store preserved food for use on missions. We have to reorganize them regularly and also incorporate them in our meals if they are close to going bad. It’s a great hassle.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean. Is there a catalog anywhere?”

“A catalog? There is none, I think.”

“None? Then, how do you manage them?”

“Hmm. The oldest ones are in the frontmost. When new items arrive, the ones at the back are adjusted forward and the new items are stored at the very back.”

“Isn’t that tiring?”

There was a considerable amount of rations being stored here, so while moving each of them was easy enough, doing it over and over was undeniably going to take quite an effort.

“Yeah. With the manpower usually available to us, it takes a whole day!”

Granz-sama replied and laughed.

When I indirectly asked if the other knight orders were faring like this, everyone but the 10th apparently was doing just fine. If so, then the 10th had a problem.

“For now, let’s make a catalog. Then, assign numbers to the shelves. We will use the food in accordance to those numbers. This way, we don’t have to reorganize each time new stock comes in, right?”

When I suggested so, Granz-sama yelled as though he was given some kind of revelation.

“A splendid idea! I didn’t think of that!”

The state affairs of the 10th knight order seemed to be more serious than I imagined.

On the other hand, I was relieved to have found an area where I could use my talents. In order to prevent that future of ruin, I needed to help the 10th knight order. While my plan went well the last time, that did not necessarily meant that everything else would go as smoothly. In other words, I needed to make sure they wouldn’t get rid of me immediately.

“Making a catalog, huh. Surely even Ruffa can manage to do that.”

“Ruffa? Ah, could she be the woman you and Raze-sama were talking about earlier?”

“Yeah. I’ll summon her here, so just wait for her here. If you think up of any other good ideas, feel free to implement them.”

“Huh? Don’t I have to report it to Raze-sama first?”

“The armory aside, I have never reported to him about the food stockroom. He also stated that it was unnecessary. Right, let me know when you want to make more preserved food. I’ll give you a budget.”

“Understood.”

Granz-sama left and I stayed in the food stockroom for a while, wondering how I could improve the management of the place.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting!”

Before I knew it, Granz-sama was standing at the door. I had no idea how much time had passed.

“Ruffa, this is the man you’ll be serving under. His name’s Roa. Now, introduce yourself.”

Taking a small step from behind Granz-sama’s massive body was a girl who seemed slightly younger than me and had the physical traits of someone from the southern continent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 10

 

The girl, Ruffa, was a beauty with large reddish eyes and a high-bridged nose. But her most distinguishing trait was definitely her hair color. It was glittering blue as it reflected the light shining through the window.

This was a peculiar trait among the Sarushan people who lived in the southern continent across the sea. I had no idea why, but that blue hair only manifested in those who were of pure Sarusha lineage. For example, should a citizen of Rudeck marry someone from that continent, their children’s hair color might be red, blue, brown, or whatever else, but blue hair would never be one of them.

Many sailors and merchants from the southern continent traveled to Rudeck, so full-blooded Sarushans weren’t at all rare. Some of them would venture into the capital where I lived, but Gadeland was practically full of them.

All that said, a young Sarushan girl of Ruffa’s age was a rare sight. The merchants and sailors mentioned before comprised the bulk of Sarushans who visited Rudeck, after all. Some of those Sarushians ended up migrating here with their families, but for them to be accepted into the nation’s knight orders was a different matter.

It was only when Ruffa hid behind Granz-sama that I realized that I had been looking at her as though I was evaluating her. I hurried to apologize for looking at her impolitely.

“Ahh, sorry. Sarushan girls are just rare around these parts, you see. I didn’t mean anything bad by it. I’m Roa. And you’re Ruffa, right? Nice to meet you.”

With a smile as broad as I could muster, I extended out my hand. In response, Ruffa timidly slid away from behind Granz-sama. I couldn’t help but think it was like I was giving out food to a small animal.

“Oh well, you’ll get used to each other. If any of you have any problems though, feel free to tell me. Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you! Oh, right, if you need helpers, just tell me and I’ll have people with the time to spare lend you a hand. Alright, that’s all from me!”

I was surprised that the hand over process was over so easily.

At any rate, Ruffa and I were the only ones left in the place.

There was only silence for a while. When I looked at Ruffa while scratching at my face, I found her taking a peek at me as well.

“…anyway, let’s check the inventory, shall we? Can you write?”

She nodded in response.

“How about calculations? Ahh, it’s fine if you can’t do it; I’m just asking.”

She also nodded to that inquiry.

I see. She’s more educated than I thought.

Which probably meant she wasn’t sold and brought here as a slave.

“Alright, I’ll go check what’s inside these boxes, so why don’t you get something we could write on from Granz-sama.”

“Understood.”

For the first time, she said something to me. I was actually quite pleased about it.

After seeing Ruffa exit to go to Granz-sama, I thought to myself ‘let’s get started’, stretched myself, and began checking the contents of the boxes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the future where the Rudeck Kingdom was destroyed, I wandered the continent for 40 years. This was no figure of speech. Having lost my home, I traveled from one nation to another.

Wherever I went, I got work that was enough to get me through the day, and just lived my life aimlessly.

Each night, no matter where, I would be visited by nightmares that I had seen over and over again. It was of the days of peace that I would never get back. Unable to bear it, I would then escape to the next place.

Although, rather than say I was looking for a place where I could stay for the long term, it would be more accurate to say that I was just looking for a place to die.

In hindsight, those 40 years had provided me a wealth of experience, as well as ideas not present in this kingdom and technology not yet present to this time. It was quite ironic that those years I spent deliberating whether I should continue to live or just end it all ended up being so beneficial.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…it’s meat, huh.”

“Yup. Meat…”

Ruffa returned with what we could use as a catalog in hand and helped me in checking the boxes of preserved food. After opening one box after another, we were astonished by our discovery.

It was nothing but meat. All of the boxes in this decently-sized storage contained thin and dried jerky. I could see now why simply moving the older stock toward the front worked well enough. But could they really live off of nothing but jerky?

“I won’t go so far as to suggest they add dried fruits, but adding dried fish should work, right…”

To my comment tinged with exasperation, Ruffa said…

“Now that I think about it, the people in the order said something like ‘I’m so fed up with preserved food’…”

I could imagine so. Eating nothing but jerky day in and day out while on a mission would make just about anyone feel like that.

“We should discuss with Raze-sama how we could improve the preserved food. Gnawing on nothing but these salty things doesn’t sound healthy…and if we’re going to make an effort, we might as well try if bottling is feasible.”

“Bottling?”

Rufffa tilted her head at the word she haven’t heard of before.

Which was fair since bottling wasn’t a thing yet in this time. I screwed up.

Bottling first became known 30 years from now in an empire territory. Because this method could preserve things like vegetables for a long time, never mind the army, it grew popular even among normal citizens.

In 40 years, when I passed away originally, there were even specialty shops for it, but right now, nothing like that existed. The bottles themselves were present though, so it wasn’t impossible to do it if we wanted to. I should make the suggestion to Raze-sama.

While I was adrift in my sea of thoughts, Ruffa stared at me. When I noticed her gaze, I rushed to smooth things over.

“I read about it in a book. It’s an ancient preservation method. A technique lost to time, you might say. You do it by placing the food inside a bottle and then boil them in water. This extracts the air from the jar and keeps the food from going bad.”

“…this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Nothing surprising there.

“If we’re going to make an effort, we might as well try this, right? Other than that, we could also try pickling in salt and even soaking food in honey. After we’ve numbered the shelves, our next goal will be making new preserved food!”

Better food could mean a better morale for the soldiers.

Unfortunately, Ruffa’s reaction to my declaration was simply to look at me questioningly.

Chapter 11

The day after we were given charge of the food storage, we immediately went to purchase new stock.

Granz-sama gave us a budget and also a helper. It was only natural that someone weak like me and a little girl like Ruffa would find the task too much by ourselves.

“Take this guy with you”

Granz-sama said so and assigned a soldier with a large build to us. The soldier’s name was Dick.

Dick-san had incredible strength, but he apparently had a carefree personality and often skipped out on training. Because of that, he wasn’t chosen to be a full-time soldier despite his talents.

By the way, Dick-san wasn’t the only one like this. Other than full-time soldiers who needed to be ready at any time to be deployed, there were soldiers who were rounded up to do things like build forts and improve infrastructures in their respective area of designation.

We were a relatively wealthy nation, but even us couldn’t afford to have our knight orders just be idle at all times.

In any case, the major streets of Rudecktrad was bustling with activity today as well. Merchants who had arrived through Gadeland port were continuously flowing in with their wares. Along the way, we came across all kinds of people, and among them were merchant-looking people with glossy, deep-blue hair like Ruffa.

These pure-blooded Sarushans had a look of surprise whenever Ruffa passes by them. Which just reinforced my thought that it was indeed rare for pure-blooded women to be in a place across the sea.

“But what are you going to do with all these fruits and vegetables? They can’t really be preserved, you know. ‘Sides, what are these empty jars for?”

Dick casually asked so while carrying boxes with ease. Inside those boxes were root vegetables, fruits, and as many empty bottles as he could carry.

“Well. We’re going to do an experiment.”

That was my only reply.

After a while of weaving through the crowd of people, we made it back toward the palace.

Close to the palace section was the 10^th knight order’s garrison. In fact, the 10^th and the 1^st knight order’s facilities were right next to the palace.

At any rate, I asked a cook in the garrison if we could use a part of the kitchen and they obliged.

“Dick-san, sorry but could you go draw lots of water? And get some firewood too.”

“Sure, alright.”

“Ruffa, please cut the vegetables and fruits. To make it easy to put the vegetables into the bottles, cut them vertically; for the fruits, half of them would be dried while the rest will be turned into jam.”

“Jam? Why are we making jam?”

“Don’t worry about that for now. So, can you do it?”

“…sure.”

I then arranged some pots into a pot, poured in the water that Dick-san brought, and placed the pot on top of the fire.

“You know that even if you boil the bottles, it still can’t be eaten, right?”

Dick-san asked so while staring at the pot.

“I do. What I’m doing is just preparation.”

“I’m done with the vegetables.”

“Ohh, these look great. Alright, let’s put these into the bottles.”

We took out the bottles carefully so as to not burn myself. After that, we placed the cut up vegetables into the bottles. Next, we put the bottles back into the pan, poured hot water into the bottles, closed the bottles loosely with corks, and then let it boil some more.

After the bottles had heated enough, the bottles were sealed tightly with the cork to push out the excess air inside. With the corks firmly in place, we poured the hot wax I had prepared beforehand.

As for the fruits, we boiled and turned them into jams, and then sealed them with a similar process while they were still hot.

“It’s done.”

Since I was in front of the flames this whole time, I was drenched in sweat when I declared so.

“Here,”

Without me asking for it, Ruffa offered me fruit water made from the extra fruits. It was a bit warm but delicious nonetheless. When I gulped it down in one go, I finally cooled down.

“Thanks Ruffa.”

“So, is it complete?”

Before us were many and varied bottled vegetables and jams. I wanted a good number of samples of what worked and didn’t, so we ended up making 5 of each.

“Pretty much. All that’s left is…to leave these be in the preserved food storage for about 10 days up to half a month, and then check if they could still be eaten.”

“For half a month? Can this method really preserve them for that long?”

Ruffa asked so as she eyed the jams. Her face said that the vegetables aside, it was a real waste to have the jams go bad.

“Probably? If the water in the bottles with vegetables don’t become muddy, that likely meant it didn’t go bad. For the jams though, we’ll likely have to open them to know for sure. We’ll have to check their smell and taste a little bit of them.”

“I’ve never heard of a method like this. And yet you did it so expertly for someone who just read it from a book…?”

“You think so?”

Despite maintaining a calm expression, I was actually in cold sweat.

The reason I was so good already was that I took on jobs to make them as I wandered from place to place in the future 30 years from now. In that future though, the shapes of the bottles and the lids used were different, so I didn’t know just how well this would work.

“…well, I think that all depends on the results we’ll get, right? For now, since the bottles are about to cool off soon, let’s carry them to the storage. Dick-san, can I trouble you again?”

I dodged the question like that. Ruffa didn’t seem satisfied with my answer based on the look she gave me, but I forced the conversation to move along. It was this or have more holes in my excuse be exposed.

Just when I was thinking that, a person came along and asked ‘what are these for’. That person was War Princess Lapillia-sama. At the sight of her, even the laid-back Dick-san stood upright.

“Lapillia-sama? What are you doing in a place like this?”

“Oh, don’t mind me. More importantly, I asked what these are.”

Lapillia-sama said so in a tone that implied I had to answer. In response, I gave her an explanation on bottling.

“…so, if we succeed, we’ll be able to preserve vegetables and jams for long periods of time…”

“…really?”

She asked so with a look of doubt.

“We’re still at the experimental stage, so we’ll have to see…”

Her gaze returned to the bottles again, mainly on the ones that contained jam.

“Very well; I’ll help out then.”

“Come again?”

“I’ll take care of these ones. You’re experimenting, right? It’s better to know what a change in environment could do, right?”

“Well, you’re right, but…”

“Also, instead of opening them all half a month later, let’s open them in steps. I’m thinking on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, and then 15th day.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Then, please bring some to me on those days. I’ll open it and taste test it.”

“It’s okay; I’ll do it myself.”

“Huh!? But what if it has gotten bad…?”

“Not a problem. I have a strong stomach.”

“Even if you say that…”

My life would be in danger if I let Lapillia-sama eat something that has spoiled.

“It’s fine. I’m obviously going to smell it and taste only a little at first. That’s settles it then.”

Lapillia-sama one-sidedly proclaimed so. And before I could even think of how to protest, she picked up 5 kinds of jams—and jams only—and left.

She just wanted to eat the jams, didn’t she?

“……let’s clean up.”

A sudden wave of exhaustion rushed to me by the end, but what mattered was that we completed the bottling process.

TL note: anyone knowledgeable with bottling/canning, feel free to comment. As per my little research, in the early days the bottles were corked and waxed before heating. Also, keep in mind that even in our world, people didn’t have knowledge about bacterias and assumed food going bad had more to do with the exposure to the air.

Chapter 12

10 days after we bottled vegetables and jams.

“Huh? Dick, you’re here again?”

I had gotten quite casual with Dick who had been visiting the storage almost everyday.

“Just curious ‘bout the bottled stuff, y’know. Today’s the 10th day, right? You gonna open some of them soon?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan. Ruffa, why don’t we take this chance to cook and eat something? You think you can borrow the kitchen for me?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Ruffa replied so and dashed out. I had managed to get Ruffa considerably open to me.

“Then, Dick, help me in carrying stuff.”

“Sure~. But in exchange, report that I’m helping you out and that I’m not just playing hooky~”

As expected, that’s why he’s here. Oh well.

We talked idly as we made our way to the mess hall. When we were near enough, I felt some kind of tension in the air.

I wondered what could cause this in the early afternoon, but it didn’t take long for me to identify the cause. Raze-sama was here. Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama were with him as well. And Raze-sama aside, the expression of the 2 looked serious.

“Hey Roa. Apparently, you’ve been doing something unusual, yet I don’t seem to recall ever hearing about it.”

“Huh?”

But Granz-sama told me I didn’t have to report every single detail about the preserved food management…

I thought that and glanced at Granz-sama. Granz-sama quickly averted meeting my eyes.

Hey, no fair!

“Ahh…sorry about that…we’re still in the experimental stage, so I thought I should only report once we succeeded.”

That was no lie. I thought it was too early to report about what ultimately was an experimental product.

“I see. At any rate, I heard you’re going to taste test items that are 10 days old.”

There was only one answer that came to mind on how he could have known that. I turned my gaze toward Lapillia-sama. She too quickly averted making eye contact.

“…yes, that is the case, but I won’t be making any conclusions until we open a batch 5 days from now. Which means that any report with real significance will have to wait until later. Is that alright?”

“I don’t mind. As an experiment, this is quite interesting. If you succeed, we would be able to improve the nutrition of not only soldiers on a mission but also of sailors. I suspect we can also use it as an export. If so, our nation’s profits will be unfathomable.”

I gasped as I listened.

Perhaps this was only to be expected when it came to Raze-sama.

Bottling came about 30 years from now due to the empire’s diplomatic situation. They wanted ships from faraway foreign nations to trade with their ports, so they put their effort into finding a way for those ships to carry food for longer periods of time. Hence, bottling.

Bottling was popular not only to the sailors, but also to the ordinary citizen who found it so convenient to be able to enjoy vegetables out of season, especially during winter. If anything, being used as rations for soldiers during missions was more of a secondary benefit.

Lapillia-sama probably gave him the minimal amount of explanation, yet Raze-sama perfectly grasped the value of bottling. It was frightening, to be honest.

“……yes, I suppose.”

I limited my answer to that.

“What Dick’s carrying are the bottled items, right? I’ve seen the jams through Lapillia, so show me the others instead.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

Dick, infamous even among the truants, shouted his reply vigorously and then presented a few bottles to Raze-sama. Raze-sama received them and looked at each one as though to inspect them.

“How many have you made?”

Raze-sama asked me so.

“5 of each kind. We’ve already had a few failures though.”

Maybe we didn’t properly push out the excess air but we had about 10 bottles that went bad already. We knew right away that those bottles had gone bad thanks to the muddiness of the water within. And when we opened those bottles, what little doubt we had left was dispelled by the foul stench. We promptly disposed of all of them.

“I see.”

“Ahh, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of these are guaranteed successes. Sampling them could still upset our stomachs.”

“That’s fine. Open the bottles and serve them. I’m assuming we eat it as they are?”

“We could, but I was thinking of using them as ingredients in a dish…”

“Let’s go with both. Cook some of them, and then some of them we’ll taste as they are.”

“……I’m sure I’m mistaken, but are you saying you’ll eat them too, Raze-sama?”

“But of course. That’s why I’m here after all. After hearing Lapillia explanation, I figured that if I were to ever participate, it should be today.”

…Lapillia-sama once again averted my gaze and looked elsewhere.

“Ah, now that I think about it, what happened to the jams that were supposed to be taste tested on the 3rd, 5th, and 7th days, Lapillia-sama?”

The one to answer me wasn’t Lapillia-sama but rather Raze-sama.

“Those bottles are what convinced me to come.”

..so they were successes?

With that, I could only give up on changing Raze-sama’s mind.

“Understood. I’ll have it served in a bit, but just keep in mind that I don’t know if it’ll upset your stomach.”

To my words of warning, Raze-sama merely flashed a mischievous smile.

Chapter 13

“I see, applying heat prevents food from spoiling so quickly.”

“Why does heating the bottles also make it harder for the food to spoil?”

“Why is it that you have to push out as much air as you can?”

“How long will the food last after the bottles had been opened?”

While I was cooking the foodstuff that we had bottled before, I fumblingly answered Raze-sama’s questions. In the first place, what little I knew about bottling came from my time doing it as part of my job in the future. I had no in-depth knowledge whatsoever.

By the way, I started by simply stewing the bottled vegetables and some of the many jerky in stock, and then added salt and spices to make a simple soup. In addition to the soup, I also stir-fried a few of the jerky and vegetables together. The theme was dishes one could easily make in the battlefield.

As for the jam, I spread it onto military-issued hard-and-flat bread that I lightly toasted.

These were nothing fancy at all, but as portable food, they were probably not so bad.

“How long can food be preserved when bottled?”

“The end goal is to make the food the food last 3 to 6 months. If things go well, we could preserve food for maybe even a year…”

“It’s for that long?”

Raze-sama voiced the question, but Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama were also unable to hide their surprise.

“Ah, well, it depends on the food we’re preserving, of course…”

Without replying to me, the three of them earnestly looked at the bottled food.

After a while, Granz-sama let out a deep breath.

“……if what Roa says is true, never mind our rations, this will have an immeasurable impact on our kingdom, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. But it’s still too early to assume anything as it is still in the experimental stage. Roa, the 10th knight order will officially fund the experiments on bottling you will do. Also, submit in writing the names of civil servants you can trust. You will need help for this research, and we will provide it to you. Dick.”

“S-sir!”

“I hereby assign you to work as Roa’s assistant in this research. You will be exempt from doing any duty other than training from here on.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“And if you need more manpower, talk to Granz. Granz, you’ll be in charge of selecting the personnel.”

“Understood.”

As soon as he finished giving those instructions, Raze-sama stood up.

Things were about to end relatively without incident, so I was secretly relieved. However, just when I was feeling so, Raze-sama locked eyes with me.

“Roa, come with me to my office. I entrust the rest of you to clean up here.”

He said so and promptly walked away.

As for me, I asked Ruffa and Dick to do the clean up and then hurriedly followed after Raze-sama.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Didn’t I say I wanted Roa and I to talk by ourselves?”

In the office was not only Raze-sama and me, but also Lapillia-sama. Granz-sama left the room in accordance to Raze-sama’s command, but Lapillia-sama remained where she was.

“I would rather not do so. I am Raze-sama’s sword. I still don’t fully trust Roa, and so, I can’t leave you alone with him.”

She gave the impression that she would not back down no matter what.

Raze-sama had a look of irritation on his face, but I had never seen him be so forceful in the office.

“What you’re saying is incredibly rude to Roa…alright. You can stay, but only if you apologize to Roa for your rudeness first.”

“But…”

Lapillia-sama pouted, but as though she realized that she had already said too much, she apologized to me with a whisper.

“Don’t worry about it; I understand where Lapillia-sama is coming from…”

They had known me for only half a month, so if anything, Raze-sama and Granz-sama were the strange ones for trusting me so soon.

But then again, they might just be confident they could repel the attacks of a civil officer with slender arms.

“Now then, to the issue at hand. Roa, where did you get that knowledge?”

Raze-sama asked so with a serious expression.

So, this is really about that, huh…

I was able to dodge the question when it was Ruffa who asked, but I also thought Raze-sama would ask sooner or later.

“…I don’t really remember.”

“You don’t remember?”

“As you know, I have a great interest in battle records. I think I had read about bottling in the many books I had read when I was a child, but since it isn’t a battle record or anything like it, I didn’t put any particular effort in remembering it.”

“But you did remember it, so it probably made some kind of impression on you.”

“Yes. And that’s probably because I had read it in Gadeland when I was really young.”

“Gadeland? Sorry, aren’t you from Rudecktrad?”

“I’m not. The village I’m from is somewhere near Gadeland. My father was a fisherman, so we often went to Gadeland to sell his fish. So, maybe I knew of bottling from one of the books given to me to pass time.”

“They gave books to a really young child?”

“I had always been a bookworm…I heard that I was a quiet kid as long as I was given a book.”

Since I knew I would be questioned about bottling sooner or later, I prepared this answer beforehand. This was probably the only way for me to get through this interrogation.

“I see…I suppose it’s possible that the knowledge comes from across the sea. While we’re on the topic, how are your parents?”

“My father died at sea when I was 15. And my mother during the epidemic a few years ago…”

“I see. Sorry to have asked something so thoughtless. I pray that both of your parents are at peace in heaven.”

“Thank you.”

Probably thinking that it would do no good even if he asked further, Raze-sama ended his questioning despite looking like he was still a little doubtful.

“It seems your ability to remember things is better than I expected. If you remember something like this again, please speak to me about it before anyone else. It will probably depend on the details, but I’ll try to make time for you as best I could.”

With those words, our meeting on that day came to an end.

The next day…

“To commemorate your official assignment to the 10^th knight order, the king has granted you an audience with him.”

It took me a while to comprehend the meaning behind the words Raze-sama just uttered.

Chapter 14

Rudeck’s current king was King Zeurasia.

To a simple civil officer like me, he might as well have been a celestial being. I had seen what he looked like a few times, but those times were during ceremonies and only from afar.

Now that I was looking at him up close, I could see that he had kinder face than I had thought. It was hard to imagine this person would later on be known as the Foolish King. But that was only after the fall of the kingdom. Before then, he was known as a kind person who cared for his subjects.

“Is there something on my face?”

When the king inquired so, I hurried to bow my head.

“I, I apologize! This is the first time for me to see your face, so I forgot myself. I apologize.”

The king gave a light laugh in response, and then said ‘now, the dagger’ to an attendant.

The attendant gracefully walked until they were in front me. In their hands was an ornate dagger wrapped in red silk.

“Roa, I am pleased to welcome you to the 10th knight order which I command directly. I bestow this dagger to you as my welcoming gift. May you strive ever harder.”

“I am thankful for your kind words. I humbly accept this grand honor.”

I said so as I accepted the dagger. With that, the ceremony was over. I was now officially part of the 10th knight order. However, even though it was a knight order under the direct command of the king, being inducted like this, especially when no one else was being inducted alongside me, was highly unusual.

Originally, I was supposed to get only a document as proof of my official appointment. What changed things was likely the matter about bottling. It was still in the experimental stage, but Raze-sama must have already told the king about it.

I had no idea what kind of conversation the two of them had, but it would seem that bottling was recognized as an important project that must be kept secret. Moreover, it also seemed like the king became interested in me and wanted to meet.

However, until bottling became public, inviting a mere civil officer would have drawn the attention of those around the king. And so, the excuse of rewarding me for my contributions on the Eren village matter was used.

“Raze, let us have tea after this. Granz and Lapillia, you come too. And while we have you here, come join us as well, Roa.”

When the king invited me to tea in a casual manner, the attendant from earlier looked for a split-second like they were going to protest, but in the end said nothing.

In place of that attendant though, someone else cut into the conversation.

“It seems Your Majesty has taken quite a liking to that person.”

It was a general in a sparkly white armor that was almost like a counterpart to Raze-sama’s black attire. This man was good looking like Raze-sama, but instead of his eyes being so sharp that they would intimidate people from approaching, his were gentle and it charmed everyone people who saw it.

One of Raze-sama’s more known aliases was “the Twin-heads of the Rudeck Kingdom”. However, that name wasn’t referring to just him. The other head was actually the white-armored leader of the 1st knight order, Lucifer Veras.

As much as possible, I kept Lucifer out of my line of sight. I had no confidence I would be able to remain calm should I get a good look at him, after all. I was taking care not to let my expression change as Lucifer talked, but even so, I couldn’t help but gnash my teeth in secret.

General Lucifer was deeply trusted by the king and was also highly popular among the citizens. However, in 2 years, this man would turn traitor and sell out our kingdom and everyone’s lives to the Holy Kingdom of Reflare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a certain night 2 years from now, Lucifer and the 1st knight order let soldiers from Reflare into the royal palace. The surprise attack that followed caused almost everyone in the palace to die without being able to resist.

I was saved only because I happened to go out for a walk when the attack began. And I only went out for a walk to clear my head after reading a book so much my eyes and shoulder felt a bit sore.

At any rate, when I noticed the attack, I ran without even trying to find out what was actually happening. It was only when I was a fair distance away from the palace that I turned around and saw the pillars of flames from it. There, in front of me who could do nothing but stare dumbfounded, this kingdom met its whimpering end.

Time passed and I roamed from land to land. Along the way, rumors about what really happened that night reached my ears. According to those rumors, King Zeurasia was an absolute imbecile and the kingdom only persevered thanks to the efforts and abilities of its Twin-Heads. And yet, even with the Twin-Heads, the king’s rampages couldn’t be contained. Lucifer and the 1st order worried that if things went on for longer, even the citizens’ lives would be at risk. And so, fealty be damned, they asked Reflare for help.

All of which were, of course, nothing but lies.

But no matter how many people I asked, the only answers I got were vague phrases like ‘the king’s a madman’ and such. Nothing definite ever came up. To begin with, even though I had worked for a number of years in the palace, I had never heard of any story where the king committed any acts of violence or where any of the Twin-heads admonished him. Whether these convenient rumors were spread by Reflare or Lucifer, I couldn’t tell for certain right now.

Whichever it might be, Lucifer and the 1st knight order did not get to enjoy a bright future. Lucifer was welcomed into Reflare as a hero and was appointed to some important position, but a mere 2 years later, he died. Following his death, the 1st knight order, which had been serving as Lucifer’s private army, disbanded. I heard that Reflare made use of them until they were ground to a pulp.

And now, the traitor who sold my homeland was standing right before me.

While I was suppressing my emotions from going amok, I listened in on the conversation King Zeurasia and Lucifer were having.

Lucifer seemed to be suspicious that there was some other reason why the king was so interested in a mere civil officer like me. Even so, he probably concluded that it wasn’t enough for him to push the subject.

“Then, how about you join us?”

“I’m afraid I have other duties to attend to, Your Majesty.”

Their conversation over, the king prompted Lucifer to exit before us.

I kept my eye on him as he exited and even until I could no longer see his back.

Chapter 15

“Now, tell me about that again.”

After I received my official appointment alongside a dagger, I was brought to another room by the king.

The king and Raze-sama walked toward a table with steps that suggested familiarity. Granz-sama and Lapillia-sama followed after them. When I was panicking about what I should do, an attendant pulled out a chair. Grateful, I sat down. I then asked a question to the king.

“What should I talk about…?”

“The bottling, of course. At the moment, only myself and a small portion of the 10th know about it. I am asking simply to make sure, but you haven’t talked about it to anyone else, have you?”

“Ah, no, I haven’t. Ahm, Raze-sama…about the civil officers who could be trusted…”

I was sorry for changing the subject on the king, but given the scale of things now, the ones I recommend would be placed under strict supervision. I wasn’t so comfortable of recommending someone under that condition.

“I’m going to take a look at personnel who look promising and select a few among them.”

I received a concise reply. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but there was nothing I could do about it right now. I decided to just confirm again later.

Like that, I began my explanation about bottling while having a tea with the king and the others. However, what I said were the things I had explained to Raze-sama before, so the king probably heard of it as well.

“I must say, I find it interesting a technique like this existed since ancient times. Why do you suppose it was lost?”

“Ah, this is just a guess, but…back then, people probably didn’t have any bottles that could be used for this.”

I had prepared this answer beforehand in case Raze-sama asked that same question.

“…ohh? What do you mean?”

“This is also just my guess, but an important factor in bottling seem to be the extraction of air inside and keeping it that way. Based on the fact that the food will only last for a few more days once the bottle is opened, I think the exposure to the air is what makes the food spoil. If so, we need bottles that could be be sealed airtight and also be subjected to high heat. Manufacture of such bottles were perhaps too difficult back then.”

“There is merit to that theory. What do you think, Raze?”

“I agree, that probably was the case. But then that begs the question of how such a method was discovered when the level of technology was only like that back then.”

“Yes, but since this was from a foreign country, finding the answer will be difficult. If we had the book Roa read back then, then maybe we’ll have some hope.”

“I’m sorry. It was from when I was a young child, so…”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. At any rate, and excuse the change in topic, but I’ve heard you collect records of both modern and ancient battles. I wonder, do you have a favorite commander? No, let me ask a more interesting question. If you were to reassign our kingdom’s ten knight orders, how would you do it?”

…on one hand, I was glad to be asked something about my hobby, on the other, it was an especially difficult one to answer.

“Your Majesty, this jest”

Raze-sama began to complain, but…

“Right, it is a jest, so answer without hesitation.”

The king said so, emitting an aura that demanded an answer.

“…can I exclude the 10th and 1st knight orders?”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

“Then…when it comes to defending, I think the 4th, the 5th, and the 7th are all excellent.”

“I could understand the 4th and the 5th, but what makes the 7th excellent?”

“The commander for the 7th has served for a long time in the 3rd, but what is less known about him is that he was originally from the 4th knight order as a foot soldier and risen through the ranks there. Of the records I’ve read involving him, I would say that his defensive capabilities are solid albeit nothing flashy.”

“……Raze, what kind of duties are the 7th presently doing?”

“Highway security and supporting the transportation of goods.”

“Roa, which knight orders do you think are suited for duties such as highway security and transportation support?”

“…personally, I think the 3rd…and then, maybe the 9th.”

“How so? Both of them are experienced in offensive operations.”

“That’s precisely why. The commanders of those 2 knight orders are both experienced in many battles, so they can easily act depending on what is needed to be done. If any signals for battle goes up near where they’re providing support, they would be able to take the most optimal action without even having to check with the capital.”

“Interesting. Alright, how about the remaining knight orders?”

“…the 8th is special like the 10th and 1st, isn’t it?”

Publicly, the 8th was an ordinary knight order, but it almost had no major accomplishments to its name. Basically, it was a logistical support corps. Even its commander wasn’t well known.

I also thought that, despite it being called a knight order, it was an intelligence unit or something more sinister.

“…what about the 2nd and 6th?”

The king asked so without confirming or denying anything about the 8th. I took that to mean I shouldn’t ask anything further about it.

Originally, this kingdom only had 8 knight orders. The 8th used to have the honor of being the last numbered order, but due to how rich our treasury was and the creation of 2 new knight orders to combat the empire’s threat, it was now sandwiched by the other orders.

“I think those last 2 will make for good attackers. The 2nd has their prized cavalry, making their mobility unquestionable. The 6th, meanwhile, has achieved many honors in the battles against Golbel. Furthermore, the commander of the 6th is the youngest among all the commanders, and the order itself is quite full of spirit.”

I tried to explain my thoughts as inoffensively as I could, but I had no idea if I succeeded. As such, I peeked at the king. After acting like he was in thought, the king then said,

“Interesting observations. Raze, if not for your word, why, I would have thought he was a spy.”

Oh no. Did I overdo it?

“I heard you would go through battle records night after night with little to no sleep, but this is just something else.”

Raze-sama said so as he looked at me with a little bit of exasperation in his eyes.

“Mm. This has been time well spent. Roa, I’ve heard that you are serving as Raze’s assistant. When I invite Raze to tea again, you should come along as well.”

“Huh? Ah, yes, Your Majesty.”

“Well then, let’s call it a day.”

Like that, my tea party with the king was over.

When we stood up and started to leave though,

“I just remembered, you were looking for civil officers that could be trusted, no?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I might…know some people who could do the job? Will you leave the selection to me? How many people will you need?”

It was presented as a question, but the matter was more or less decided already. I was planning on asking Derrick and Yord to help me, but if that meant they would constantly be monitored and have their lives become significantly more restricted, I would much rather have someone else do the job.

“At present, I think 2 people would be enough.”

“Very well. I’ll send them to you before long. Now then,”

With those words, we finally, truly left the room.