Several months had passed since my birth, and I’d gradually picked up an understanding of the local language. In doing so, I’d begun to answer some of the many, many questions that plagued me.
To start, I learned that my new, post-reincarnation name was Ars Louvent. Though oddly enough, I couldn’t actually remember my former name at all. I remembered my old life itself easily enough, but my name was just gone, somehow. That didn’t really bother me, though. Having two names for myself would probably have just been confusing, so I quickly convinced myself that the bout of forgetfulness was for the best.
The next piece of info I picked up: there was a high likelihood that I wasn’t on Earth anymore. My main point of evidence in favor of that conclusion came from the fact that this probably-new world’s technological level was extremely low compared to Earth’s. Not only did they not have TVs, radios, or smartphones, but they hadn’t even worked out electricity! Oil lamps were the most advanced form of lighting available.
It went beyond just lighting, too. On the whole, I couldn’t find any of the conveniences of modern society I was so used to in my new home. I’d be able to rationalize that away if we were poor, but the house I lived in was huge and opulent, tech level aside. I had a hard time believing that a family living in a house like that could be impoverished. I suppose I might’ve just been born into an exceedingly eccentric family, though, so it was hard to draw any definitive conclusions.
I did have one other reason for believing I wasn’t in my old world anymore: my family was keeping an animal the likes of which I’d never seen as a pet. It was almost like a dog, but I’d definitely never seen a dog with a pair of wings sprouting from its back during my time on Earth. They weren’t just for show, either─it could fly several feet in the air by flapping them. Though, wings aside, it bore a striking resemblance to a breed of dog called the Japanese Chin, and its name was Ahsis.
Now, I didn’t know everything about Earth, but I was still pretty confident that we didn’t have winged, flying dogs back there. The conclusion that I was probably in another world seemed more or less inescapable. I didn’t know what sort of world I was in yet, but the winged dog made me suspect it landed somewhere on the fantasy side of the spectrum.
In short: I’d gotten wrapped up in a situation I was extremely unprepared for.
○
And so, three years passed by in the blink of an eye.
As you’d probably guess, by the age of three I was totally capable of talking and walking around on my own. I finally had a solid grasp of the local language, and I’d begun to reach an understanding of the state of the world around me, as well.
To start: as expected, the world I’d been born into was indeed definitely not the Earth I used to know. My new home was apparently in a nation called the Summerforth Empire, located on the continent of Summerforth. I’d definitely never heard of a country with a name like that on Earth, much less a continent, and I knew my history well enough to be pretty sure they’d never existed at all.
Then, of course, there was the discovery that magic was real in this world. It was a power that could bring about mysterious, inexplicable phenomena─starting fires, manifesting water from nowhere, that sort of thing. Seeing real-life magic used right before my very eyes was what finally convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was in another world.
Another revelation: apparently, the Louvent family I’d been born into was a noble household. House Louvent ruled over a territory called Lamberg, a small region consisting of around two hundred households and a total population of about a thousand. I was the family’s first son, which meant that I would one day inherit the area.
Frankly, I was very worried about that whole business. I lived my last life as an office drone, after all! How could somebody like me end up ruling over anyone? Maybe I could just delegate the practical affairs of rulership to a trusted subordinate or two and spend the rest of my life idling my time away?
Oh, and there was one last thing I discovered during the first three years of my new life: the fact that I was born with a power that people around me definitely did not possess.
○
“G’morning to you, Young Master!”
“Good morning!”
One day, I decided to pay a visit to the training grounds right next to my family’s estate. House Louvent technically had about a hundred and twenty troops ready to mobilize, but the vast majority of them were really just farmers. The only thing that made them soldiers was the fact that they’d occasionally steal a moment out of their busy schedules to make their way over to train for battle, running through drills on swordsmanship and archery.
“You really spend your fair share of time here, don’t you, Young Master?” noted one of the soldiers.
“And he’s only three!” added another. “He’ll be a fearsome warrior when he grows up, I tell you!”
The soldiers were always happy to see me. Apparently, the idea of a three-year-old taking an interest in martial arts was enough to give them a good first impression of me. Truth be told, though, I was never interested in martial arts at all. I was interested in people.
I looked out over the training grounds and focused my gaze on a man who was thrusting a spear. Then, I activated my power: the power of Appraisal.
Appraisal was the name of the special ability I’d been born with. All I had to do to use it was stare at someone for long enough, and then I would instantly learn all sorts of information about whoever I was appraising. When I say “someone,” by the way, I mean it. I could only appraise people.
To be clear, it wasn’t like someone came up and told me, “Oh, that power you’re using is called Appraisal!” or anything like that. I named it myself, actually. “Appraisal” just seemed like an appropriate name for a skill that let me peer into a person’s detailed abilities and traits.
As I stared at the man, a sort of black screen materialized before my eyes with all the information I could obtain about him displayed on it. I knew from experience that I was the only one who could see the screens. That particular man’s looked like this:
The format of the status screens just so happened to bear a striking resemblance to that of the menus in a historical strategy game I was quite fond of, so I knew exactly how to interpret them.
LEA stood for Leadership: the ability to effectively command an army.
VAL was Valor: a person’s combat prowess.
INT meant Intelligence: ergo, how quick-witted they could be.
POL was Politics: their ability to conduct negotiations and handle administrative work.
Finally, Ambition represented how likely they were to betray their superiors if the opportunity arose.
The numbers on the left indicated their current score, while the numbers on the right indicated their maximum potential. Breaking the numbers’ meanings down, the scale went something like this:
100+: Inhuman
90: Excellent
80: Great
70: Good
60: Average
50: Mediocre
40: Bad
30: Hopeless
Or something to that effect. At the very least, that was how the scale went in the game I used to play. I’d gone out of my way to appraise as wide a variety of people as I could manage, and everything had seemed to more or less line up with the game’s systems so far.
Next up, the Aptitudes. They were scored on a letter-based system, with D representing the lowest possible score and S the highest:
Infantry: the ability to fight at close range.
Cavalry: the ability to fight on horseback.
Archer: the ability to fight at range with a bow and arrow.
Mage: the ability to wield magic for combat purposes.
Fortification: the ability to construct and maintain castles.
Weaponry: the ability to both create and handle weapons.
Naval: the ability to battle aboard a ship.
Aerial: the ability to battle in the air…probably? I wasn’t entirely sure what that Aptitude referred to, as it wasn’t from the game.
Strategy: the ability to think tactically and turn the tides to your advantage.
Incidentally, the one person I couldn’t appraise was myself. Looking at my hand or my abdomen didn’t allow me to bring my status screen up, and looking at my face in a mirror didn’t do the trick, either. It was a real disappointment, honestly─I would’ve loved to know what my own talents were.
Anyway, back to Mister Millais, who I’d just appraised. His Valor satisfied the bare minimum standards for decency, at least, but everything else was more or less a wash. On the other hand, stats like his were probably just about normal for a rank-and-file foot soldier. Pretty much all of his fellow soldiers fell into the same basket: middling Valor, terrible everything else. Some of them didn’t even have a decent Valor score.
There was one thing that caught my attention about Millais, though: his aptitude as an Archer was remarkably high. In other words, he’d probably be pretty skilled with a bow, if he got his hands on one. And yet, there he was, out on the field training with a spear. He’d been practicing his spearmanship the last time I saw him, and I couldn’t remember ever seeing him so much as hold a bow. Was he just not interested in archery? I decided to ask.
“Millais?”
“Huh? D-Did you need something, Young Master?” Millais stammered in a panicked reply. “And wait, you know my name?”
“Why don’t you ever use a bow?” I asked, pushing past his confusion.
“A bow? ’Cause bows are a coward’s weapon, of course! Real men don’t stand off in the back lines, shooting away when their enemy can’t even reach ’em─they fight up close and personal!”
Wow, what an incredibly banal answer.
If that was all that was keeping him from making use of his talent, I figured stepping in to intervene was probably best. He had a B-rank aptitude for bows, so surely he’d be reasonably effective fighting with one.
“You should give bows a try!” I urged him.
“Ugh, seriously?” Millais moaned.
“You have the talent for them! Just try it!”
“Look, kid, just because you’re the lord’s son─” began Millais, almost certainly intending to turn me down again. But just then, the other soldiers who were training nearby started giving him a look. Specifically, it was the “You know you can’t actually turn down a personal request from Lord Louvent’s son, right?” glare.
Millais hesitated for a moment, then sighed and replied, “All right, fine, I’ll do it.”
The soldiers didn’t know about my appraisal ability, of course. They probably just wanted to get on their lord’s good side by way of his son.
“Never drawn a damn bow in my life,” grumbled Millais as he picked up a nearby bow, then turned to face the archery targets and nocked an arrow.
“Oi, Millais!” shouted one of the other soldiers, who specialized in archery himself. “You’re way too far for a beginner! You’re not even gonna reach the targets at that range, much less hit ’em! Move closer!”
“No, stay right here,” I commanded.
This was all my idea in the first place, so Millais stayed rooted to the spot. He drew the bowstring back as far as he could, then let it loose.
The arrow sailed cleanly through the air…and landed dead-center in the target. He’d hit the bull’s eye. Everyone except me was stunned.
“The hell…?” whispered one of the more experienced soldiers. “How’s a beginner shoot like that…?”
“B-Beginner’s luck, that’s all! Oi, Millais! Let’s see you do that again, eh?!” shouted another of them.
Millais drew his bow once more, and again, his arrow thudded perfectly into the target’s center. One perfect shot might’ve been a fluke, but two in a row was too much to write off so easily. The nearby soldiers were flabbergasted all over again. Even Millais’s jaw had dropped so far that it was practically touching the ground.
“Millais? Do us all a favor and use a bow from now on.”
“You’ve got the knack for it, man!”
“I hate to break it to you, but you were always lousy with a spear.”
The other soldiers clustered around Millais, and it wasn’t long before he caved in the face of their praise.
“W-Well, I guess being an archer wouldn’t be that bad! What’s a little cowardice on the battlefield if it keeps you breathing, eh? Ha ha ha!”
And just like that, the matter was settled. It was almost shocking how quickly he went from “archers aren’t real men” to “maybe bows are fine after all.” Honestly, he seemed a little too shallow for his own good.
“But anyway, how’d you know, Young Master?” asked one of the soldiers. “What tipped you off that Millais was a born marksman?”
The rest of the soldiers turned to face me as well, looking more than a little curious.
I wonder─if I explain that I have a special power that allows me to see their stats, will they believe me?
There was no telling how that revelation might go over, so in the end, I settled on a simple, one-word answer.
“Instinct!”
○
I was sitting down with my family for a meal the day after my encounter with Millais. My father in this new world, Raven Louvent, sat directly in front of me.
Raven was an exceptionally tall man with a rugged face and a sharp, dangerous glint in his eyes. To be completely honest, I was rather scared of him. This was, after all, a man who had been born at the bottom rung of society, a mere peasant, and yet he’d managed to climb all the way up to a noble title by virtue of his valorous deeds alone. He was a terror on the battlefield, capable of engaging ten average soldiers on his own and emerging from the brawl unscathed.
His stats, incidentally, looked like this:
In short, he had the exceptional leadership and valor required to rally an army of any size and lead them to victory: a natural-born general, through and through. On the other hand, his grasp of political matters was rather tenuous. That was probably why he’d contented himself with his status as the lord of a small, unimportant territory.
After we finished eating, my father looked over at me and said, “Ars. I’ve been told that you discovered Millais has a talent for archery yesterday.”
“Yes, that’s right,” I replied.
“And you did so by ‘instinct,’ was it? It seems those instincts of yours are nothing to scoff at. Polish that skill, Ars. The ability to identify people’s talents is invaluable for a lord.”
Is that really the sort of advice you should be giving to a three-year-old? I guess I’m not exactly acting my age, though, so I should probably cut him some slack.
I was still Raven’s only child, and it occurred to me that I might’ve given him the misapprehension that all kids developed as quickly as I had.
“I’ll take that advice to heart,” I replied.
○
Several months came and went, over the course of which I turned four. As I grew, I learned more and more about the circumstances I’d been thrust into, and, well, let me put it bluntly: my future looked grim.
It might have been more accurate to say that the future of the entire Summerforth Empire looked grim, actually. From what I could tell, the odds of some sort of strife breaking out in the nation in the immediate future were incredibly high.
The empire dominated the entire continent of Summerforth. In other words, it had no external enemies to speak of at all. There were other nations out there, of course, but mounting an invasion of Summerforth would have involved sending their armies on an extended voyage beforehand, making the empire a less-than-attractive target.
The strife I was worried about, then, was internal: a civil war. The upper echelons of the Summerforth Empire’s power structure were so flagrantly corrupt that it was almost laughable. As a result, several peasant uprisings had already broken out all over the nation. My father had been sent to suppress one just recently, in fact.
With each revolt that was put down, though, another sprung up, and the emperor’s hold over the nation was growing weaker and weaker with each passing day. Local lords, in consequence, were growing more autonomous and less inclined to bow to the empire’s word.
Small skirmishes between feuding local lords had already begun to crop up on occasion, and the ruling authorities just didn’t have the power or influence left to do anything about them. In short, the country was a mess, and battles were breaking out all over the place at the drop of a hat. Troubled times indeed.
At the rate things were going, I could easily picture the empire collapsing entirely. Free from the threat of intervention, the lords of each region might escalate their minor skirmishes into all-out wars. Speaking as the first son of a noble family, I was incredibly distressed to realize what sort of era I’d been born into. The odds of me getting sent out into battle over and over were horrifyingly high, and if I’d inherited my father’s title by that point, I’d be commanding our army as well.
Part of me desperately wished that I’d been born into a peaceful era, fated to live out a mundane life pushing papers, but I was in no position to fantasize about what could have been. The last time I was born, I wound up in modern Japan, a nation that was about as peaceful as possible. I didn’t know the first thing about battle! I wasn’t even convinced I’d be able to function on a basic level on a battlefield!
Just how long will I be able to survive in such a turbulent era?
My mind was full of worries, but one thought took precedence above all else.
I don’t want to die.
My last life had ended abruptly at the early age of thirty-five. I had a laundry list of goals I’d left unaccomplished and experiences I’d failed to have. I did not want to let my second shot at life end as early as my first did! I wanted to fade away into the grasp of senility, surrounded by a small army of grandchildren!
What could I do to stay alive, though? I thought as hard as I could, desperate to find something I could do, when suddenly, my father’s words echoed through my mind.
“The ability to identify people’s talents is invaluable for a lord.”
That’s it! People!
I just had to gather up all the most talented and exceptional individuals I could find, make them into my retainers, and let them bolster Lamberg’s power and influence! That would lower my chances of meeting a sudden and violent end for sure! After all, in the sort of turbulent times the empire was rushing toward, the most important resources you could have were power and influence.
That settled it. I’d put my Appraisal ability to work, gathering up all of the most talented subordinates I could get my hands on! I got right to it, too: the moment I set that goal, I left our estate and wandered out into town, looking for my first recruit.
The territory the Louvent family ruled over, Lamberg, was home to a town of the same name. About eighty percent of the region’s population lived in the town of Lamberg, and my family’s estate happened to be located nearby. Even on foot, it only took about five minutes to reach the town.
I set off on my own. Lamberg was a relatively peaceful region, so wandering around without anyone there to supervise me wasn’t especially dangerous. My parents told me not to go out on my own, of course, but taking a guard into town would’ve made me stick out like a sore thumb. My whole goal was to keep quiet and observe the townsfolk, so the last thing I wanted was to draw attention. I even made sure to pull my hood up, just to minimize the chance anyone would recognize me as the local lord’s son.
It took me about eight minutes to make it to town. I was just four years old, so you couldn’t blame me for walking a bit slower than an adult.
The town of Lamberg was about as ordinary as provincial villages got. Its populace was primarily made up of farmers, ranchers, hunters, and the like, and its atmosphere was calm and peaceful across the board. There was plenty of food to go around, too, which might have had something to do with why the villagers seemed quite healthy on the whole.
With a population of somewhere near eight hundred people, it was on the large side for a village. I knew that appraising everyone who lived there would be an infeasible task, so I decided to start by checking out anyone who seemed to be on the younger side of things. Conveniently enough, a young man was busy toiling away nearby, so I appraised him on the spot.
Hmm… Not exactly great numbers, huh?
At a second glance, I realized that I’d actually seen that young man at our estate’s training grounds. That made me realize something: since the village’s young men were all liable to be conscripted if things took a turn for the worse, most of them probably came over for training every once in a while. In other words, the odds were good that I’d already appraised the majority of the village’s young men.
I guess I should move on to the women, then.
By this world’s standards, women were judged as being unfit for the battlefield, and it was close to impossible for them to climb the social ladder. Things were more or less the same here as they were in medieval Japan, in that sense. I’d yet to find a woman with a high Valor score, but women seemed just as likely to have high Leadership, Intelligence, or Politics scores as the men, so I wasn’t about to rule out recruiting a woman to be one of my retainers.
I set off once more to appraise all the women I could find, but unfortunately, pretty much everyone was on the low end of average. I even appraised a few kids, but none of them had any eye-catching, exceptional stats, either. It appeared my quest was going to be harder than I’d initially thought.
The ability to appraise people was great in practice, but being able to pick out exceptional talent wasn’t actually useful at all if I couldn’t find anyone with talent. I’d appraised so many people that I was starting to feel a case of eyestrain coming on, too─using my Appraisal skill was apparently sort of hard on my vision. I was just about to throw in the towel for the day when suddenly, an angry shout rang out.
“Get the hell outta my store! I don’t have nothin’ to sell to the likes of you!”
I glanced in the direction of the commotion just in time to see a boy get thrown out of a nearby shop, landing on his hands and knees in the street. His dark complexion and distinctive facial features set him immediately apart from the Lamberg locals. I and the people I’d grown up around were fairly close to Caucasian, appearance-wise, whereas the boy looked more like a heavily-tanned Japanese person.
“That kid’s a Malkan, isn’t he?”
“Ugh, disgusting! What’s one of those doing in our town?”
“Probably just drifted along until he wound up here.”
The nearby villagers broke out into hushed conversation, which finally reminded me that I’d heard of the boy’s ethnicity before. The Malkans were a race of people who lived in an overseas nation, far away from the continent of Summerforth. The boy before me was the spitting image of how I’d heard them described.
Malkans were extraordinarily rare in the Summerforth Empire, but it wasn’t like there were none around. Most of them were the descendants of slaves who’d been brought to the empire against their will generations ago, and the people of Summerforth bore a deep-seated prejudice against Malkans on the whole. Seeing such open and undisguised discrimination turned my stomach, honestly, but I knew that if I tried to step in and help him, I’d be putting my own reputation at risk. I did decide to appraise him, though, just for good measure.
For a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
It’s… It’s…
“It’s Nobunaga himself!”
This mystery boy’s stats were so overwhelmingly high, so flawless, and he was the spitting image of a warlord so legendary there wasn’t a single person in Japan who didn’t know his name: Oda Nobunaga! Obviously, I just meant his stats were the spitting image of Nobunaga’s in that one historical strategy game I used to play, but still. He was young, and had yet to reach his full potential, but what bone-chilling potential he had!
To think the random boy I saw getting tossed into the street like a stray cat would turn out to be Nobunaga’s doppelgänger! Life really does throw you curveballs! Looks like his name’s Rietz Muses. Well, I can’t let him keep languishing away on the streets! I’m making him my retainer one way or another!
Considering his race, recruiting him was a surefire way to draw no small amount of scrutiny toward myself, but weighed against the merits of having him on my side, I honestly couldn’t have cared less about all that stuff. I sprung into action right away, trotting right over to him!
“You’re having a hard time, aren’t you?” I called out to him.
Rietz shot a sharp glare in my direction, but his expression softened as soon as he realized that I was a child.
“You shouldn’t talk to people like me,” he replied, picking himself up off the ground. “The adults will get mad with you. This isn’t your problem, so hurry up and get out of here.”
Apparently, he was actually concerned that I’d get myself in trouble. Now that I’d had a closer look at his face, I was struck by just how handsome he was. If this were Japan, I figured he’d probably have gotten scouted as an idol or something. His black hair was cut short, and he was quite tall─probably somewhere above 5’6” or so. Considering the fact that he was only fourteen, surely he’d push past six feet by the time he was fully grown.
Of course, his looks weren’t exactly a priority, as far as I was concerned. With stats like those, I’d want to make him my retainer no matter what he looked like!
“I knew the risks before I approached you. I’d like you to become my retainer,” I replied, cutting straight to the chase.
“Uh, umm, you mean you want to play make-believe?” asked Rietz with a somewhat strained smile. “L-Look, I’d love to play with you, honestly, but this really isn’t a good time for me.”
It seemed he’d taken my request as the nonsensical ramblings of a child who didn’t know better. Which, to be fair, was a reasonable conclusion. I hadn’t even told him I was the local lord’s son yet, after all!
“No, that’s not what I meant,” I quickly clarified. “My name is Ars Louvent, and I am the son of the lord who presides over this village. I believe that you are an individual of incomparable talent, so I would like you to become my retainer.”
Rietz’s forced smile vanished in an instant.
“The lord’s son? You?” he asked, shooting me a skeptical look.
Again, I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t wanted to let my identity be exposed, so I’d disguised myself in a set of threadbare rags. The locals might’ve recognized me if they took a good look at my face, but Rietz was almost certainly not from Lamberg, so there was no way he would have known who I was.
“Anyway,” I said, cutting off his objections, “if you need help, I’m offering it. Come with me!”
“I’m not so sure about this,” replied Rietz. Most likely, he was hesitating over putting his faith in a literal child. Before he could turn down my offer, though, he was interrupted by a loud growl from his stomach.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
“W-Well, yeah. So?” Rietz replied.
“We have plenty of food at my family’s estate. Come with me, and you can eat your fill.”
“W-Well…” Rietz mumbled hesitantly. The prospect of a meal was hard for him to pass up. Finally, he made his decision and replied, his face slightly flushed, “Umm, well…all right. Lead the way.”
○
As we walked back to my family’s estate, Rietz took the opportunity to introduce himself.
“Come to think of it, I never told you my name, did I? I’m Rietz Muses. You said you’re called Ars Louvent, right?”
“Yes, that’s right!” I replied. This seemed like as good of an opportunity as any to ask him about himself, so I decided to dig a bit deeper. “How did you end up in Lamberg, Rietz?”
“It’s a long story. I was traveling with a band of mercenaries until just recently, but most of our group was wiped out in a war we were hired to fight in. Everyone capable of leading us was killed, so the survivors ended up going our separate ways. I don’t have anywhere to go home to, so I ended up more or less wandering at random until I happened to find my way here.”
I could only imagine how hard going through all that had been on him. Considering his capabilities, though, surely he would’ve been able to make a living easily enough in a different band of mercenaries, or maybe as a bodyguard? I went ahead and asked, but Rietz was less than optimistic about his prospects.
“No way,” he replied. “Nobody would hire a no-name Malkan kid like me. My kind aren’t trusted around these parts. I was only allowed in my last band because my parents were part of it.”
It made sense when he put it that way. Nobody would hire a bodyguard they felt they couldn’t trust, and most mercenary leaders probably wouldn’t be excited about the idea, either. Of course, most people also wouldn’t reach out to a random boy on the street and ask him to be their retainer, so weird things happened sometimes! Though, to be fair, if I hadn’t been able to appraise him and didn’t know that he had Nobunaga-level capabilities, I probably wouldn’t have been that reckless.
A short period of walking and talking later, we arrived at my family’s estate. Rietz’s jaw dropped as my home came into view.
“Y-You live here?” he asked, gaping all the while.
“I do! I told you I was the lord of Lamberg’s son, didn’t I?”
“That’s actually true…? Uh, I mean, please excuse my behavior! I wouldn’t have spoken so flippantly if I’d realized!”
“Think nothing of it!” I proudly replied.
“Huh? Wait, hold up…” said Rietz. “If you really are the son of a lord, then does that mean all that talk about making me your retainer wasn’t a joke, either…?”
“Of course! I was entirely serious.”
“Wh-What?!” Rietz shouted in astonishment. It was such a shocking revelation that he obviously had no clue how to react.
I decided to take him inside, find him something to eat, and then go petition my father to make him into one of our family’s retainers. Before I could follow through on my plan, however, a man burst out of the house and rushed over to me.
“Master Ars!” the man shouted. “Were you gallivanting around outside again?! For the love of mercy, please put an end to this behavior! You realize it will be my head on a plate if anything happens to you, don’t you?!”
The man’s name was Krantz, and he was the Louvent family’s steward. A man of almost fifty years of age, Krantz had served my family for decades and had been entrusted with the task of serving as my caretaker.
“I’ll be happy to listen to your lecture in a moment, Krantz,” I replied. “But first, would you mind preparing a meal?”
“A meal? Have you not eaten yet?”
“Oh, not for me,” I clarified, gesturing toward Rietz. “I meant for him, actually.”
“Hmm?” said Krantz, glancing behind me. “H-Him?! Why, he’s a Malkan! What are you thinking?! How could you bring a filthy wretch like him into your lord father’s estate?!”
Krantz’s face flushed red as he reprimanded me. I wasn’t at all happy about Rietz being treated with such open contempt, but I knew that protesting it then and there wouldn’t get me anywhere. Hatred for the Malkan people was deeply rooted in Summerforth’s culture─or, at the very least, everyone I’d met thought Malkans to be an inherently inferior race. It was considered common sense, so it wouldn’t be easy to change people’s minds. It would take a lot more than a debate with a child, that was for sure.
“I appreciate your concerns,” I replied, “but for the moment, please bring him a meal on the double. He’s teetering on the brink of starvation!”
I didn’t know if Rietz was actually anywhere close to starving to death, of course, but I thought that appealing to the urgency of the situation would be my best shot at getting through to Krantz.
“Very well,” Krantz replied, after a moment of hesitation. “Malkan or not, it would pain my conscience to see a child starve to death. He’ll be driven out the moment he’s finished eating, though!”
Krantz stormed back into the house to prepare a meal, and I was left to wonder about just how astonishingly prejudiced the man had turned out to be. Would I even be allowed to make Rietz my retainer if that was how an otherwise reasonable person reacted to him?
No, whether or not I’m allowed to isn’t the question. I will make him my retainer, no matter what! Rietz has the sort of talent I can’t possibly afford to pass up! I only just met him, and I can already tell how indispensable he’ll be for my future! I will not let him slip away from me over something like this!
Eventually, Krantz returned with bread and water for Rietz, who thanked him and dug in without hesitation. The bread was obviously old, stale, and flavorless, but watching Rietz devour it, you’d have thought it was the most delicious thing in the world.
“Now then, send him away!” demanded Krantz, turning to me.
“I’m afraid that’s not an option,” I replied, standing my ground. “You see, I brought him here to make him my retainer.”
“Wh-What?! Have you gone mad?! How could you─what?!” Krantz babbled in incoherent shock.
“I intend to discuss the matter with my father!” I declared. Ignoring Krantz, I grabbed Rietz by the hand and pulled him toward my father’s room.
“Father!” I cried as I burst into his room. “Please make this boy into one of our retainers!”
My father, as best as I could tell, had been writing a letter. My sudden entrance didn’t break his concentration in the slightest, though. He didn’t even look up until he’d finished writing, at which point he finally turned his attention to me.
“By ‘this boy,’ I presume you’re referring to the Malkan child?” asked my father.
I nodded, prompting him to shake his head and reply, “I will do no such thing. Making a Malkan into one of our retainers would be an act of unprecedented foolishness. Send him away.”
He concluded with a sigh and a scowl that told me he was unamused by me disrupting his work with this nonsense.
I guess it’s not going to be that easy after all. I can’t afford to back down, though!
“Father, this boy─Rietz Muses─is exceptionally talented! Failing to take him into our service would be an immense loss for our family!”
“Listen to me, Ars,” replied my father. “Malkans are overwhelmingly inferior to us Summerforthians in every aspect. There is no such thing as a talented Malkan.”
That was the widespread belief regarding Malkans throughout the whole Summerforth Empire: that Malkans were clearly and fundamentally inferior as a race. Now, I’d only met one Malkan so far, that being Rietz himself, but he alone was enough to make me doubt the narrative that society at large was feeding me. If a Malkan could be as exceptional as Rietz was, then how could there possibly be that much of an inherent difference between them and Summerforthians?
“I cannot speak for Malkans on the whole,” I replied. “However, I can say that Rietz has undoubtedly been blessed with incomparable talent and wisdom. I appreciate that you have your doubts, so why not put him to the test? That way you can see for yourself how exceptional he is.”
My father paused for a moment to consider my proposal. Eventually, he spoke up once more and said, “What makes you so certain that this boy is talented?”
“I can just tell.”
“I recall you picked out Millais’s talent with the bow in much the same way, yes?”
“That’s right! I feel the same sort of hunch about Rietz as I did back then. My instincts are telling me that he has talent beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.”
My father looked me straight in the eye. His gaze was sharp and intimidating, but I didn’t let it sway me, and stood my ground. A moment later, he turned to Rietz, who also met his gaze unflinchingly. Perhaps the trials his life had put him through had prepared him for this sort of probing scrutiny.
“Very well,” declared my father. “If you’re so certain, then I shall put him to the test, as you suggested. If I’m convinced that he is indeed talented, I will employ him as a soldier.”
All right! I actually got his permission!
Being hired as a rank-and-file foot soldier wouldn’t exactly put Rietz at the top of the social ladder, but whatever my father claimed about Malkan inferiority, I knew for a fact that he was a man who valued ability above all else at heart. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Rietz would prove himself in battle and rise to a higher standing in the long run. Plus, even if the opportunity didn’t present itself, I could just give him a boost as soon as I inherited my father’s title.
“The test will be a simple one,” my father continued. “The boy and I will spar. If he defeats me, he passes.”
All that confidence I’d just built up came crashing down. My father had a score of 94 in Valor, while Rietz was sitting at 70 points in total. He had a maximum score of 90, so with proper training, he might have had a chance. However, as things stood, his odds of success were slim.
“Umm, Father?” I nervously spoke up. “You should know that Rietz is still young─he’s only fourteen. I’m afraid that winning a duel against a man of your age and skill may be next to impossible for him.”
“You said he’s talented, didn’t you?” replied my father.
“Well, yes, but…you’re also gifted with an incredible, innate talent for combat, Father. I believe that Rietz will be well-matched against you once he’s had time to grow and mature, but without that opportunity, he would hardly stand a chance.”
“Then I won’t fight seriously,” my father conceded. “I’ll give the boy an advantage.”
What sort of advantage he’d give and to what extent he’d be giving it weren’t exactly clear to me, but I still felt reassured. As long as Rietz had a leg up somehow, he had a shot. I had a feeling my father had already given all the ground he was willing to offer, anyway, so taking him up on these terms seemed like my best bet. Thus, I nodded in agreement.
“We’ll have our bout in the training grounds. Follow me,” said my father, standing up and walking out of the room. Rietz and I hurried along after him.
As we walked, Rietz leaned over and whispered, “Umm, Ars…err, that is, Master Ars, why would you go so far to make someone like me your retainer? Are you doing this out of sympathy?”
“I explained my reasons to my father just a moment ago,” I replied. “Weren’t you listening?”
“You mean all that talk about me having talent? But…there’s no way I actually─”
“You’re good at fighting, aren’t you?”
“Y-Yes. I’ve been told I have a deft hand in battle more than once, but that’s all! I don’t have any other talents to speak of.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Not only are you a skilled warrior, but you can command troops, you have an astonishing intellect, and the instincts of a seasoned politician dwell within you! You have it all!”
“I’m telling you, I definitely don’t!”
“You just haven’t had the opportunity to put those skills to use, that’s all! Fortunately, you’ll have plenty of chances to show off while you’re serving House Louvent.”
“W-Will I…?” asked Rietz, his skepticism written all over his face. I could tell he wasn’t satisfied with my explanation.
Come to think of it, I never actually asked him if he wanted to be my retainer, did I? I was so excited to have him around, I brought him all the way here without even thinking to check! This certainly won’t do!
“Are you opposed to working for House Louvent?” I asked, looking over at Rietz once more. “If so, I can tell my father to call the whole test off.”
“Oh, no, I’m honored by the offer,” said Rietz. “If anything, it seems too good to be true! But, well…that raises questions, you know? Malkans like me aren’t welcome anywhere on this continent, so we have to be cautious about these things.”
“I’m not trying to trick you, I promise! And I’m afraid it’s not set in stone whether we’ll even be able to follow through with this. I should warn you that my father’s test is likely to be a harsh one. I have faith that you’ll pass, though!”
Hearing all of that from me seemed to help Rietz gather his resolve. I, meanwhile, was just relieved that he wasn’t going to turn down the job. Shortly thereafter, the three of us arrived at the training grounds.
Several soldiers were running through drills when we arrived. The moment they noticed us, their expressions stiffened up in unison. My father coming down to the training grounds wasn’t unheard of, so they weren’t surprised by his appearance─no, they were worried. My father was an exceptionally harsh instructor, and things always got a bit tense when he decided to stop by.
“I’m not here to train you today,” said my father. Instantly, all that ambient tension faded away. “I’m here to test this boy, that’s all.”
The soldiers had been so focused on my father that they hadn’t even noticed Rietz, but at that point, their gazes finally turned to him.
“You’re testing a Malkan kid?” one of the soldiers asked incredulously.
“I am,” replied my father. “According to Ars, he’s exceptionally talented. Assuming that’s true, I don’t see any reason not to take him in as a foot soldier.”
A hushed clamor rose among the soldiers.
“A Malkan, talented?”
“Hah, as if!”
“The young master gets some wild ideas in his head sometimes, eh?”
None of them believed in Rietz’s talent.
Eh, that’s fine. He’ll just have to prove it to them!
“We have wooden swords over there. Take one,” said my father.
“All right,” replied Rietz.
The two of them took up their training blades and faced each other.
“I told you I would give you an advantage, and here it is: our match will continue for three minutes. If you manage to land even a single blow on me, we’ll consider it your victory. You can receive as many hits as you like until time runs out, or until you surrender. Gratz! Bring me an hourglass!”
“Right away!” said Gratz, one of my father’s men. He sprinted over to the nearby storehouse and quickly returned with a three-minute hourglass.
An unskilled swordsman would have been hard-pressed to land a single strike on my father. As a matter of fact, none of the soldiers gathered around us had ever managed the feat in single combat. Considering Rietz’s Valor and his A-rank aptitude in Infantry, though, I had a feeling he’d be able to pull it off.
“Come to think of it…” said my father. “You have yet to declare your name to me. If I’m going to fight a man, I want to hear his name from his own mouth first.”
“My name is Rietz Muses,” Rietz replied.
“And I am Raven Louvent, head of House Louvent. Now then─show me what you’re capable of!”
A moment later, Gratz turned the hourglass and the match began. My father took the initiative, bringing his sword down with crushing force in a swing that betrayed a level of agility you wouldn’t have expected from a man of his musculature. A blow like that to the head could easily knock a man unconscious, or even kill him in the worst case.
Faced with that level of technique, an amateur would likely panic and fall over backward, but Rietz had clearly seen his fair share of battle. He kept his cool, stepping away and avoiding my father’s swing entirely before immediately springing forward again and going on the offensive.
My father, however, was not so easily caught off guard. In spite of the force of the attack he’d unleashed a split-second before, he regained his balance and evaded Rietz’s attack with ease. Rietz’s eyes widened in shock─it was probably sinking in that my father was a top-tier swordsman, not just a simple musclehead.
Once again, my father went on the attack. Rietz was shaken, but he didn’t let his surprise get the better of him, and intercepted my father’s blade with his own. A spectacularly fast exchange of blows began.
The nearby soldiers had been making a mockery of the match at first, but as they watched the duel unfold, they quickly fell silent. Not one of them had ever managed to hold their own against my father in single combat. My father went well out of his way to not kill or even seriously injure his opponents when he sparred, and they knew it, but even when he was holding back, they almost always ended up disarmed and defeated in a matter of seconds.
Not only could the soldiers not land a hit on my father, but they were also hardly even capable of having a proper match with him! These were actual soldiers who’d undergone no small amount of training, but against my father, they might as well have been children. But now there he was, fighting at what was certainly closer to his full strength than they’d ever seen against an actual, literal child who never retreated so much as a step. Nobody who knew how strong my father was could possibly have heckled a match like that.
As well as he was fighting, though, Rietz was gradually beginning to lose ground. At the beginning of the match, he’d attacked about as much as he defended, but as time went by he gradually shifted more and more to the defensive. About half of the hourglass’s sand had fallen, but neither fighter had landed a clean blow. That was no surprise in Rietz’s case, but the fact that my father hadn’t gotten in a single strike was something else entirely.
As I watched, it struck me that in a real fight, your opponent landing a hit could very well mean instant death depending on where they hit you. Both Rietz and my father were likely experienced with live combat, and given they’d lived to see another day, it stood to reason that neither of them had taken very many hits, if any at all.
That led me to wonder if the so-called “advantage” my father had given Rietz would really make much of any difference. I was starting to worry.
Is Rietz going to lose? I can’t rule out the possibility!
After going as far as I had to strike the deal, backpedaling and renegotiating if Rietz lost probably wasn’t going to fly. My father would surely acknowledge Rietz’s talent after a fight like this, but he was the sort of person who never went back on the letter of his word, its spirit be damned. Any chance of him taking Rietz in would be sunk.
I kept my eyes glued to the match, praying that Rietz would somehow manage to land a strike, even if only by pure chance. The sand in the hourglass was depleting rapidly, and it wouldn’t be long before the match concluded. Not even my father could fight at full strength forever, though, and it seemed fatigue was setting in─his movements were beginning to slow ever so slightly.
It was almost like Rietz had been waiting for that opportunity. He mustered up his strength and swung his blade with all his might. It was an attack born of resolve, of the fact that he knew it might be his last chance. He aimed for my father’s leg, and my father must not have seen a targeted blow coming. He couldn’t defend in time, so Rietz’s sword struck his shin true.
The soldiers stood stock-still, paralyzed in dumbfounded astonishment. They couldn’t understand what they’d just witnessed. My father was still on his feet, and showed no sign that the blow to the shin had hurt him. It was an old truism that the shin was so hard to toughen up that even the legendary warrior-monk Benkei couldn’t help but cry when he was hit there, but apparently, my father wasn’t so easy to bring to tears.
In any case, Rietz had undeniably succeeded at landing a blow. Not only had he won per the rules of the match, but he’d also won the duel by any reasonable standard of judgment. I imagined that if they fought a few more rounds, my father would probably have come out ahead in total victories, but this time, Rietz had won the day.
“The bout is yours,” admitted my father, though not without a moment of frustrated silence beforehand. “As promised, I’ll take you into my employ as a soldier.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Rietz had done it─his position as a soldier of House Louvent was secured. The soldiers around us, meanwhile, were stunned.
“G-Gods above, that kid’s incredible!”
“Did you see that? He won!”
“A Malkan, of all the people…?”
Not one of them could object to taking Rietz in after the display they’d just witnessed. None of them would’ve had the guts to stand against my father’s decision in the first place, of course, but having someone as strong as Rietz on their side could be nothing but beneficial for them; I didn’t imagine they would’ve complained regardless. Adding even a single capable soldier to your side reduced the odds of your horrific death on the battlefield, after all.
My father returned his wooden sword to the rack, then approached me and stated, “It’s just as you said. Rietz has an undeniable talent for battle. He’ll be a swordsman to be feared someday, I’m sure.”
One fight was all it took for my father to appreciate the depths of Rietz’s abilities. In truth, of course, fighting was only one of Rietz’s many talents─he was actually even more stunningly capable when it came to his skills as a commander, tactician, and politician.
“You perceived Millais’s talent with a bow before, Ars, and this time you saw something in Rietz that no one else could. I’m starting to suspect that you have something, yourself─a power that makes you truly special,” my father continued. Had he realized that I was capable of Appraisal? “I’ve told you this before, but the ability to identify people’s strong points is a truly indispensable skill for a lord to possess. Identifying them is merely the first step, though, and if you stop there, you won’t last long in this line of work. You have to know how to use those talents, not just how to pick them out.”
Once again, my father was throwing the sort of concepts at me that most reasonable people would never even consider discussing with a four-year-old. That said, his words really did give me some food for thought.
Knowing how to use your people’s talents… He’s absolutely right.
However many talented individuals I gathered up, if I couldn’t help them make full use of those talents, they’d be nothing but pearls before swine─the swine, in this instance, being none other than me. And wasting their talents wasn’t even the worst-case scenario. If someone as exceptional as Rietz decided I wasn’t worth their service, I could very well find myself shipped off to the slaughterhouse before I knew it. This was a lesson that I would have to take to heart.
“That said,” my father added. “If your power to perceive the strengths of those beneath you is genuine, and if you do learn to make full use of those strengths, there’s no telling how high you could rise in society. We live in an era of strife and chaos, but even in these turbulent times, you could climb to the pinnacle of the aristocracy…or even claim the emperor’s throne.”
The emperor.
In other words, my father believed that I could quell the discord that was sweeping through Summerforth, and become a leader fit to define an epoch.
I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t picture myself becoming someone that important, and I wasn’t interested in doing so, either. Could you imagine just how much of a pain in the ass being an emperor would be? I’d be perfectly content gaining just as much influence as it took to keep me alive, and no more, thank you very much!
“Ha ha ha ha ha! I’m joking, Ars,” my father suddenly bellowed. “A noble from a backwater like this, becoming the emperor? Hah! I wouldn’t expect that much from you. So long as you stay alive and carry on the Louvent family’s name, I’ll have no complaints.”
My father, cracking a joke?!
It was a relief to know he wasn’t serious, in any case. For a moment, my father kept cackling and patting me on the head, then finally left to return to his room.
After he departed, the soldiers descended upon Rietz, swarming around him and asking him to spar with them as well. It seemed they were eager to get a taste of his capabilities firsthand. Unfortunately for them, the intensity of his match with my father had left him so exhausted that his hands were shaking too hard to even hold his sword properly. His next bout would have to wait until another day.
○
Thus, Rietz officially became one of my family’s retainers! That was an achievement, to be sure, but there was one problem left to solve: his housing situation. The rest of my family’s soldiers were all Lamberg folk with homes in the village, so they all lived in town. Our only two options were to find an unoccupied house and have Rietz stay in town, or find a place for him to live on our estate.
I asked my father what we should do, and he told me that Rietz could live in a currently unoccupied room in the servants’ quarters. I was all for that plan─he’d almost certainly face all sorts of persecution if he had to live in the village, and sparing him that treatment was for the best. In exchange for his lodgings, he would work around the house in addition to fighting as one of our soldiers.
“I’m still not so sure about this,” said Rietz after everything was settled. “Do you really want someone like me working for you?”
“This again?” I replied. “I swear, I must have told you that I want you here thirty times by now!”
I was giving Rietz a tour around our estate. One of our servants was initially tasked with the job, but it seemed like the perfect opportunity to chat with Rietz and get to know him better, so I volunteered to take over those duties.
“You have, but I just can’t believe it! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined serving a noble family!”
“We may be nobles, but our territory is tiny, and our influence even smaller,” I countered. “Plus, you’ve technically only been hired on as a soldier! It’s not exactly a dream position.”
“Y-You don’t understand. I’d just about given up on finding someone willing to give me the time of day, much less hire me! Any position is a dream come true for a person like me.”
A wistful look appeared on Rietz’s face. He was probably thinking back on all the misery he’d suffered through. A moment later, he knelt down on one knee and bowed his head to me.
“If it weren’t for you, Master Ars, I’m certain I would’ve died in a ditch somewhere out in the wilderness. I cannot possibly thank you enough for giving me this chance.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” I replied. “I made you my retainer because I expect great things from you! I’m confident that you’ll be an incredible asset.”
“I will be! I swear that I’ll work myself to the bone to repay you for the kindness you’ve shown me today!”
Rietz pledged his service to me, and I chose to take his oath at face value. I knew that he was a man I could trust to never betray me─a man who would pull me back from the brink of defeat time and time again. In that moment, it felt as if our future together had been set in stone.
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