Chapter 59. Domestic Affairs (4)
Judging from Raul’s relaxed expression, it could not be anything too serious.
“What happened?”
“A Free Knight caused a disturbance, so we threw him out.”
It had been predictable.
Once word spread that Marcel offered good treatment, all kinds of questionable people began gathering here.
“Why did he suddenly cause trouble?”
“He said he was an outstanding knight, so why should he have to go through an interview?”
We interviewed soldiers.
Naturally, we interviewed knights too.
I needed to use [Convenient Lesser Appraisal] to see whether they were lying.
I also wanted to judge their character.
“What kind of man was he?”
“Upper-rank Sword Expert. His age was about three times mine.”
Three times Raul’s age meant around sixty.
He had retired in another territory and come to Marcel hoping to live comfortably.
“How did you subdue an Upper-rank Sword Expert?”
“Lady Ramita beat him up.”
“...Can you stop calling her ‘Lady of the Territory’? She’s a ghoul.”
Raul suddenly became completely serious.
“You held a wedding with her. That makes her the Lady of the Territory.”
“You bastard.”
Raul flinched and quickly retreated as though fleeing.
* * *
The incident with the Free Knight gave me another concern.
As increasingly powerful knights gathered in Marcel, I felt that I needed to raise my own level.
As the lord of a small territory, being personally strong is important if I want to command the knight order.
To lead strong men, you also needed to be strong.
That might not matter much in a huge organization.
But the Marcel Knight Order was still small.
Knight Commander Axel was also not overwhelmingly powerful compared with the knights under him.
C-rank isn’t enough anymore.
A C-rank Hunter was roughly equivalent to a Lower-rank Sword Expert in this world.
That might have been sufficient before.
Now, compared with the Marcel Knight Order, my strength was only around average.
The unemployed knights from Corse had trained alongside Axel and were mostly around his level.
As for Gibraltar’s Naval Knights, I had already witnessed their terrifying strength during the operation against Luca.
Is there any way to rapidly raise my rank besides receiving divine blessings?
In my previous life, the system had automatically increased my Hunter Rank when the time was right.
Because of that, I had assumed my rank here would also increase naturally.
But aside from divine blessings, it had never risen.
My guess was that the blessings were increasing my rank so quickly that the system saw no need to advance it separately.
Should I train more seriously?
It would hurt my dignity if the lord personally sparred with ordinary members of the knight order.
But I had plenty of suitable opponents.
Raul.
Martin.
Retired Sir Pierre.
And Ramita.
The thought of adding training to my already exhausting workload made fatigue wash over me.
Still, what choice did I have?
If I wanted to survive, I needed to do it.
* * *
Flop.
“Ghk!”
I groaned as I landed face-first on the dirt.
“My lord, are you all right?!”
Martin hurried toward me.
My body was fine.
My dignity was not.
“No, I’m not. This is fucking humiliating. Ramita! Again!”
“Yes, my lord.”
I jumped back to my feet and continued sparring with Ghoul Ramita.
Ramita was an Upper-rank Sword Expert.
And not just any Upper-rank.
She was fucking strong.
She did not use a sword, but her overwhelming physical ability let her toy with me.
If we compared only swordsmanship and martial technique, I was clearly superior.
However, sparring lasted much longer than a real exchange.
With my lower realm, I was guaranteed to lose once the match dragged on.
Raul and Sir Pierre watched us.
“They say fights between husband and wife are like cutting water with a knife. At this rate, she’s going to cut his neck instead.”
“Hmm. Such skill without using aura. Both His Lordship and Ramita are impressive.”
“Master, Ramita? It’s La. Dy. Of. The. Ter. Ri. To. Ry.”
“Hahaha. Is that so? Then the Lady of the Territory is very impressive.”
I rolled across the ground like I was performing some ridiculous martial arts escape technique.
Then I shouted.
“I can hear everything, you bastard! You’re next, so wash your neck and wait!”
Raul immediately hit himself on the mouth and regretted speaking.
“Oof. I need to stitch my mouth shut. My lord, fighting! Please spare me!”
Flop.
I rolled across the ground again.
We continued this intense training for several days.
My Hunter Rank did not increase.
Still, it had not been pointless.
My combat instincts had sharpened considerably.
I could also feel that Raul and Martin had improved a little from participating.
While I was still rolling around the training ground, Pascal arrived.
“My lord, Viscount Chioggia’s lord’s ship is entering the harbor.”
Finally.
My second wedding.
Viscount Chioggia and his wife had arrived with the fake bride for the marriage alliance we created during the Veneto succession battle.
“Pascal, check the wedding preparations again. Everyone else, come to the harbor. My father-in-law is arriving, so we should welcome him properly.”
“You should wash first. You’re covered in dirt.”
“Then hurry. Assign a maid to Ramita and help her change too.”
Only my closest aides and a few maids knew that Ramita was a ghoul.
I had no intention of revealing it later either.
Just like during the wedding in Algiers, we kept her completely covered to hide her identity.
* * *
“Viscount Marcel, it has been a long time.”
“It’s good to see you again. You seem to be doing well, Father-in-law.”
Viscount Chioggia seemed to have gained a little weight.
He looked much more relaxed.
“Hahaha! Ever since I stopped worrying and focused entirely on farming, everything has been peaceful. It is all thanks to you, Viscount Marcel.”
After exchanging a few greetings, I welcomed Lady Chioggia and the officials traveling with them.
Then I was introduced to the orphan girl who would act as my bride.
“This child came from an orphanage operated by the Church of the Sun God in Veneto. She was supposedly sixteen and was about to be forced out of the orphanage, but fortunately she was chosen for this role. The church praised her as extremely intelligent and deeply religious. She can also read and write the common language very well.”
The orphan girl was fairly tall and looked older than sixteen.
Calling her a ‘girl’ felt somewhat questionable.
She bowed politely.
“Greetings, Viscount Marcel. My name is Marta.”
I used Appraisal on her.
[Marta, 19]
[Daughter of the late Vito, a beggar from Marghera. Unemployed. Worships no god.]
She was an orphan, so it was possible she genuinely did not know her exact age.
However, the claim that she was deeply religious was clearly false.
She probably pretended to believe in the Sun God just to survive. I don’t know the circumstances yet, so it would be too early to criticize her.
I decided to observe Marta longer before deciding how to treat her.
For now, I would simply be kind.
“You’ve worked hard coming such a long way. You were already told about the wedding, right? You won’t actually live with me as my wife. You’ll stay with my mother and help with her charity work. If you do well, I’ll treat you as one of the maids. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Viscount.”
Judging from her eyes, posture, and way of speaking, she seemed clever.
“Now, now. The introductions are finished, so let’s go. I’m hungry. Hahaha!”
At Viscount Chioggia’s urging, we headed toward the lord’s residence.
This time, he willingly got into a carriage.
The two of us rode together.
After watching the scenery outside for a while, I casually asked about the Duke.
“Is the Grand Duke of Veneto doing well?”
It was merely a polite question.
However, Viscount Chioggia’s expression immediately became serious.
“Viscount Marcel, do you know anything about ghouls?”
Because Ramita was nearby, I instinctively became alarmed.
“Ghouls?”
“Some people approached my father. They claimed they could bring my dead older brother back. But no matter how I think about it, it sounds like they were talking about turning him into a ghoul.”
Fortunately, he was not talking about Ramita.
This sounded exactly like the apostasy incidents that had occurred within both the Order of the God of Abundance and the Church of the Sun God.
“I cannot explain everything, but a mysterious group of Hela’s followers has been making moves in many places. And the corpses they raise are probably not true ghouls. Even the ‘King of Corpses’ cannot create ghouls.”
“As expected, you knew about it.”
“From the way you speak, it seems the Grand Duke did not fall for their offer.”
“Of course not. Father is not someone easily controlled by emotion. He did not even openly weep when my brother died.”
It seemed Hela’s followers had chosen the wrong target this time.
“What happened to those people?”
“They had not committed any obvious crime, so we didn’t formally arrest them. We confined them to their lodging. Strangely, they committed suicide after only one day. We investigated their movements afterward and discovered that their identities were false. They had also bribed officials to arrange an audience with Father. Our investigation is now at a dead end.”
That was strangely extreme.
What were they trying so desperately to protect?
“In any case, I currently monitor every follower of Hela staying inside the Marcel Territory. I believe their intentions are suspicious.”
“I understand. I’ll inform Father as well. To think I’ve received your help again, meeting you truly seems like divine providence. Hahaha!”
What is he talking about? I didn’t really help him. I just gave him a few pieces of information and said we were monitoring them. Does that count as help?
Perhaps because Viscount Chioggia had become something of a loose thread after losing the succession battle, he no longer had many people giving him serious advice.
Noble society was also extremely secretive with information.
I decided not to think too deeply about it.
The trip was short.
We soon arrived at the lord’s residence.
When we got out of the carriage, Mother, Ramita, and nearly every servant in the residence had come outside to welcome us.
Viscount Chioggia spent quite a while praising Mother’s beauty.
Then he was introduced to Ramita and his expression suddenly became serious.
“That clothing... Is it traditional clothing from the Southern Continent? I can’t see your wife’s beauty at all.”
My father-in-law apparently had some suspicious tastes.
“I’m not sure myself. But the King of Berber repeatedly asked me to respect her desire to remain completely covered.”
“That is unfortunate.”
He genuinely sounded disappointed.
I led my father-in-law toward the dining room.
Until the wedding was over, I should probably keep pouring alcohol into him so he stopped paying attention to Ramita.
* * *
The night before the wedding.
Even though the ceremony itself would be simple, there was neither reason nor any real way to stop the residents from celebrating.
The main roads were packed with people.
Lights remained burning until late at night.
People drank, ate, and enjoyed themselves.
Mother brought Marta over to me.
“Eric, this child is very thoughtful and intelligent. I think she’ll become a good friend.”
“That’s good. Keep her close to you.”
“I meant I think she’ll become a good friend for you. Aren’t the two of you around the same age?”
Uh.
Inside, I was an old man.
Did Mother still see me as nothing more than a child?
Surely she had not become so old that she was regressing mentally.
No, probably not.
Anyway, once Marta and I were alone, I mentioned what I had learned from Appraisal.
“Your real age is nineteen, isn’t it?”
Her cheerful expression immediately froze.
Her face went pale.
“...I never intended to deceive you, Viscount. I’m sorry. Orphanages prefer younger children, so...”
“I don’t care about your circumstances. From now on, take good care of Mother. And I would prefer if you converted to the God of Abundance.”
“I’ll do it immediately.”
Marta looked almost desperate.
Apparently, she was willing to do anything if it meant she could remain here.
Well, where else would a commoner orphan find employment this good?
I went to grab Bishop Daniel, who was chatting happily with several noblewomen on the other side of the banquet hall.
“My lord, I was in the middle of important missionary work.”
“Quiet. This girl wants to be baptized into the Church of the God of Abundance. Convert her immediately.”
“Really? To convert someone in an instant, your missionary ability is incredible, Viscount. Hahaha!”
Bishop Daniel sprinkled Marta with the holy water he always carried and performed a simple baptism.
He then gave her his own rosary and necklace as gifts.
They looked like antiques.
According to Daniel, the necklace had a minor effect that improved the wearer’s health.
Delighted by the valuable gift, Marta quickly removed the necklace of the Church of the Sun God from around her neck and stuffed it into her pocket.
