Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Villainous Lord

You have reached Level 99!

You have successfully unified the land.

The in-game messages sparkled. This was my current obsession—a game set in another world’s warring states period. I’d been playing it extensively since launch. Now, finally, I had succeeded in unifying the land under my control.

You have a message from the management.

The moment I finished clearing the game, a message window that I’d never seen before popped up. Did the game management team really send direct messages to players?

This was a single-player game, but it did have a leaderboard that tracked players’ conquest scores. It required internet connection for that, which meant it was certainly possible they could have sent me a message.

Do I get a bonus of some sort? Like an item?

My curiosity piqued, I decided to just click the message and see what it was about. Once I did, another message filled the screen.

The management team highly approves of your strategy. Now try for glory. This is a bonus given only to the number one player—you.

Reward Details

Once you have prepared yourself to go for glory, the first thing you will need to do is to acquire the bonus. This can be done by Exploring on the first map.

Glory, you say?

Was there a sequel, or something? I’d completely cleared the game. My character had started in a rural village, become a king, and then successfully unified a land torn apart by war. I didn’t think a second playthrough would be much fun, so I hadn’t planned on doing one, but the word “bonus” caught my attention.

If they were going to come out and say it so obviously, I was starting to think that there might be some sort of secret story content.

Where on the first map do I need to Explore?

I was bursting with curiosity. I couldn’t be satisfied with just clearing the game anymore. I looked around, searching for the bonus. But for all my searching, I couldn’t find any bonus on the in-game map.

Is the management team pranking me?

It was the only thing I could imagine at this point. I pulled up the company’s home page on my PC. It had a contact form, so I shot off an email asking them what that in-game message had been all about. Just as I was thinking about how I was going to lay into them if they said it was a joke, I looked down at the clock.

My sense of accomplishment at clearing the game had vanished—no thanks to that message from the management team—leaving me with only my exhaustion. It’s already three in the morning. This wasn’t the time to sit around waiting for a reply.

“Aaah-haaa!”

I was yawning now, so I turned off the game. No, I tried to turn it off. The moment I did, I felt faint. Darkness closed in on me, and an intense dizziness overcame me.

*

I woke up.

Today started like any other day. I yawned and stretched, as was my habit. It helped clear my head a bit after waking up.

“Huh?”

What I saw in front of me, however, was completely new. I closed my eyes, thinking I must still be a little sleep-addled. Then, after rubbing them, I tried taking another look.

However, the unfamiliar scenery remained unchanged.

Is this someone’s house? I’ve never seen this bedroom in my life. It’s got this luxurious, medieval Europe vibe. I don’t think I’m drunk. Ah!

That’s when I remembered. When I tried to power off the game, my vision had gone dark, and I’d passed out after a horrible dizzy spell.

What? Am I still out cold dreaming, then?

I pinched my cheek in an attempt to wake myself up.

“Ow!”

It hurt. I’d pinched too hard.

But one thing was certain. This wasn’t a dream.

There’s no way it’d hurt like this in a dream!

Someone must have moved me after I lost consciousness.

Shuddering, I looked around me once more.

Have I been kidnapped? Where am I?

I walked to the window in front of the bed, and opened what looked like curtains.

I’ll open the window and look outside.

Outside the window was...

“What the heck?”

The absentminded words escaped my throat unintended. My jaw dropped. This wasn’t the kind of scenery I knew—the urban jungle. No, there were just clusters of one- and two-story buildings here, surrounded by a castle wall. The sun shone over the wall, making the entire area look like something from a foreign country.

But this was no time to stand around sighing at the beauty of the place. This was reality in front of me—not something on a video game screen.

The situation was utterly incomprehensible.

I’d heard some towns in Europe still looked the same as they had in the Middle Ages, but that wasn’t the sense I got here. There wasn’t even a hint of modernity. Not in the outfits people wore, or in the fact they went around on horses and in carriages rather than driving cars.

Also, I was in a castle. The biggest building in the city. I had to be, since I could see the whole city from here. I was standing by the window in that castle bedroom, when...

“Have you awoken?”

...a knock came at the door, disturbing my panicked thoughts.

Thinking it might be whoever had set up this situation, I raced over to open the door.

“What’s going on?! Why am I here?!” I demanded of the old man on the other side.

He looked at me questioningly. “Master?”

Now I had an old man calling me “master” too.

“Who’re you calling ‘master’?! And who the hell are you?!” I demanded, unable to figure out the situation. The maids standing behind the old man looked at one another, absolutely terrified by my questions.

“I am your head chamberlain, Landers. And you are Lord Erhin, the master of the Eintorian Domain. What manner of jest is this?”

The head chamberlain looked bewildered. But I was the one who was really confused. Me, joking about this? Get real.

No, wait. Erhin...Eintorian? Eintorian’s a name that shows up in the game that I was playing right before I passed out. No, that can’t be it, can it?

A lot of pretty important late-game events took place in the Eintorian Domain. Come to think of it, I seemed to recall the name of the lord of Eintorian who appeared near the beginning of the game was Erhin Eintorian.

He says I’m Erhin Eintorian?

“I doubt it, but is this the Eintorian Domain, in the Runan Kingdom?”

“Yes, of course. It is indeed the Eintorian domain in the Runan Kingdom.”

“And you’re telling me I’m Erhin, the lord of that domain?”

“Yes, Master. What...do you intend to do today?” the head chamberlain asked, his face still fearful.

I’m being deathly serious here, so what’s he talking about? No, it doesn’t really matter. Basically, as far as they’re concerned, I’m Erhin Eintorian, the character from the game? So does that mean I’m inside the game? Impossible.

It was impossible, yes, but looking at the head chamberlain, the maids, and everything else around me, I had to admit that it made the situation seem a lot more realistic.

It’s still too absurd to even consider, though.

“A mirror... Is there a full-length mirror anywhere?”

“On the floor below this one, Master!” one of the maids answered.

“Where on the floor below this one?”

“W-We will bring it at once!”

The maids ran off, probably having mistaken the question of where one was for an order to go fetch it. I was in a hurry to see myself, so I didn’t stop them. Why in the world did they think I looked like Erhin Eintorian?

“And a map! Do you have a map of this country?”

“A map? But of course. Please, wait just a moment,” the head chamberlain responded, then took off at once. He was incredibly quick about it. Well, he had been calling me “master,” so I suppose that it was only to be expected.

I returned to the bedroom and sat on the bed.

Astonishing as it seems, I’ve clearly entered the world of the game I was playing.

Eventually, the maids returned. They entered carrying the full-length mirror between them, their expressions still as frightened as ever.

But I don’t have time to assuage their fears now.

I looked at the mirror.

My body stiffened at the shocking facts. I was speechless, unable to hide my bafflement.

The reflection in the mirror...wasn’t me.

It closely resembled the in-game graphics of Erhin Eintorian. Tall and slender, but also boasting attractive muscles and a high nose. A pretty boy whose sharp eyes went well with his silver hair stared back at me.

I was definitely Erhin Eintorian, only I looked like a live-action adaptation of the drawing.

“This is me...?”

“Master?”

“I’d like to be left alone.”

“Y-Yes, at once!”

The maids obediently scurried off. Not long after, the head chamberlain returned with a large map.

“Master, I’ve brought the map you—”

I held up a hand to silence him in mid-sentence.

“Leave it there. Also, see to it that no one enters this room until I call for them.”

“Understood.”

The head chamberlain reacted the same way as the maids had, vanishing in a hurry. The large door to the bedroom closed, leaving me in solitude once more.

I’m a 25-year-old video game enthusiast. Now, all of a sudden, I’m in a scene out of a game. I’ve even become one of the game’s characters.

As unbelievable as it was—and I didn’t want to believe it—it was plain to see that I was inside the game.

Don’t tell me this is what they meant by “glory.” Are the game devs gods or something?

The reality I was being presented with was impossible. Unless the game devs were omnipotent. Considering I wasn’t surrounded by 2D or 3D graphics, but a real world built to the game’s specifications, that only made it that much more likely.

The head chamberlain’s expressions, the way he acted, and the maids’ fearful reactions...they were all so human.

Is this what they meant by glory? The game becoming real? I love games, so if this were a normal game, I’d be beside myself with glee about now. It’s not like I was all that attached to the real world anyway.

But there’s a problem. This is a war game—a game where your life is at risk as you try to survive in a chaotic era of bloody conflict.

I was getting a headache. No, I’d had one for a while now, but it was reaching new heights.

I tore at my hair as I laid out the map the head chamberlain had brought me.

The names of the regions on the map, the countries... They’re all exactly the same as in game.

“Hold on, then that means...!”

That’s when I realized the biggest issue. If I was the same Erhin Eintorian from the game’s main scenario, I had a major problem.

Erhin Eintorian’s not the protagonist. No, worse than that, he’s not even a side character. He dies right at the start of the game. I’m that guy, of all people?

This game was the story of how the countries were reunified after a civil war broke up the ancient Eintorian Kingdom centuries ago and created a situation akin to the warring states period of Japan.

The Eintorian Domain was one of the most important regions in the game, and there are frequent struggles to gain control of it. But the key thing here was that, at the start of the game, Erhin Eintorian—which now meant me—was immediately killed in a surprise attack by his neighbor, the Naruya Kingdom.

His death marked the start of the game.

In the game’s backstory, after centuries of war exhausted all belligerents, the rulers agreed to an armistice in order to prevent an outright collapse, leading to nearly two decades of peace.

However, just as people are getting used to peace, the ambitious young king of the Naruya Kingdom starts a war. And Erhin Eintorian dies in the opening hostilities of it.

On top of that, Erhin Eintorian was a villainous lord. He liked wine and women, and had no compunctions about killing the innocent. That was the kind of guy he was.

That’s gotta be why the maids were terrified by every little thing I did.

But why, out of all the characters, do I have to be a guy who dies at the start? What happens if I die in this world? Do I die in real life? Or just go back to it? That’s the biggest question. No, odds are I just die, right? I mean, I feel pain in this world, so that’d make sense.

If that’s really the case, I can’t be careless with my life. If there were no death, there wouldn’t be pain either. I feel real pain when I slap or pinch my cheek. Which means I might really die. If the gods are the ones who brought me here, maybe that makes it even more likely?

Though, that’s assuming my soul’s been transferred to the world of the game they created.

Sigh...

My head was killing me. I was going crazy. Basically, I needed to escape the demise fate had in store for me.

Can I use the system, maybe...?

The game had a level up system that only the protagonist could use.

There was no equivalent system for NPCs.

The game’s real now, but what if only I, the player, can use its systems? That’d give me some hope. Yes, so long as I have the systems! Players can level. The leveling system allows the main character to achieve rapid growth that no one else can match. If I’ve got that, then maybe I can survive!

I set about trying to check this theory, since it felt like it might help my headache to subside a little.

System. System. Yeah, I don’t really know how to use it. How should I, assuming I can? Normally, I’d use the controller, but I don’t have a gamepad here. Then, what about stats...? That’d be a reasonable thing for them to give me for a bonus! Gimme the stats!

Ryuichi Hasegawa/Erhin Eintorian

Age: 25

Lv. 1

Status

Skill: Check Information

Items

When I cried out internally with all my heart, surprisingly enough, stats appeared. The moment I saw the status window, I felt like I was going to tear up at my reunion with a long-lost friend. That’s how elated I was. On top of that, it looked like the status window in the game. No, it was completely identical.

No doubt about it, this is the status window I know.

I pointed at Status with my finger.

Martial: 58

Intelligence: ??

Command: ??

Faction: Eintorian Domain, Lord

Faction Opinion: 10

It brought up my stats. Just like in the game. Thanks to that, I could see Erhin’s ability parameters.

He had a starting Martial skill of 58. Tyrant or not, he’s still a lord. As a member of the high nobility, he would have learned the sword from a young age, which would be why he had a higher Martial stat than the common soldier.

On the other hand, his Opinion sat at 10. Since he was a lord, that was a combined score based on the soldiers’, retainers’, and people of the domain’s opinions of him. Basically, it was about as bad as it can get.

Given his infamy, that’s to be expected. If the system is here, there should be level ups too. With each level, I’ll have points to spend on Martial, items, and skills, letting me build myself however I want. With the system in place, I’ll be the only one to level up. I’ll just keep on getting stronger and stronger.

It seemed to me that it would be the same way even now that I’d started out as Erhin Eintorian.

Just like the game!

Intelligence and Command scores are determined by past accomplishments. If you use smart strategies, you get an equivalent Intelligence rank. As for Command, that’s a numerical representation of the ability to lead soldiers and retainers. The higher it is, the more obedient they are. Having a high Martial stat but a low Command stat means you’re still not fully fledged.

Will other people’s Intelligence and Command display properly too? They did in the game.

I opened the door to the bedroom to find out.

There’s always a maid waiting outside the door. Probably to run errands for the lord.

I didn’t hesitate to use the basic skill Check Information.

I’m only Level 1, so I have no other skills.

At the moment, Check Information was my only skill, but it was a fairly useful one.

Gaen

Age: 18

Martial: 5

Intelligence: 31

Command: 10

Faction: Eintorian Domain, Castle Maid

Faction Opinion: 50

I can use Check Information to pull up a person’s abilities. Yeah, it’s just like in the game.

“Pfft! Ha ha ha! Ga ha ha ha!”

I see how it is. Instead of a mainstream story where the hero works his way up from a small town in the countryside, I need to start as a villainous lord, using the game’s systems to my advantage. That’s the “opportunity to seek glory,” right? Not that I have any clue what “glory” is supposed to mean here.

“M-Master...?”

The maid shuddered as she watched me cackle like a madman. I must have looked like I was off my rocker to her. My reputation for killing people couldn’t have helped that impression.

“It is nothing you need worry about,” I replied, trying to sound as much like a lord as I could, so as not to make her think that anything was amiss. Then I closed the door and returned to the bedroom.

Oh, right. There was one other thing I needed to check.

I opened the door again immediately in order to ask her what I’d forgotten to ask before. The maid, who was wiping the sweat from her forehead, stiffened when she saw I’d appeared again. Her reaction really made my infamous reputation hit home.

Just how villainous do you have to be to make people this scared of you?

“What day is it today?”

“T-Today?”

“Yes, today.”

“February 2nd!”

“February 2nd?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Of what year?”

“Erm, it’s the year 202 of the Runan Kingdom calendar!”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.”

“Huh...?”

I closed the door on the maid who looked very confused, possibly because my thanking her caught her off guard. Once I’d shut the door, I slumped down to the floor. My jaw had dropped when I heard the date.

February 2nd of the year 202 in the Runan calendar?

If that’s true, then it’s tomorrow!

That was when the Naruya Kingdom would trample the Eintorian Domain underfoot and lop its lord’s head off!

I had no time to prepare for battle.

Redeem my reputation, train the soldiers, and raise my level. I could do all those things, and still have no guarantee of survival, and I have to do it by tomorrow?! I have no luck! This is the worst! Shit! Shit! How do I even survive this...? I’m only going to be able to enjoy strategizing and receive whatever glory they’re talking about if I survive. Assuming I even go along with the gods’ plan, that is.

My mind raced. Okay, let me think about this. This game proved popular because it allowed players to try out their own unique strategies. And despite being a single-player game, there’s a worldwide ranking based on the scores players earn in battle.

Yeah, like how there’s high scores at the arcade. And I was number one. So, I need to come up with a strategy befitting my top rank! I need to come up with a way to survive. Not dying has to come before having fun. Okay, time to come up with a strategy.

I peered down at the map spread out in front of me once more.

The only details on the war that kills Erhin Eintorian were in the few lines of prologue text that show up at the start of the game. I know the army of the Naruya Kingdom invades, and Erhin gets beheaded, but none of the finer details of their war. That’s because everything I know about Erhin comes from the protagonists’ perspective.

And since Erhin’s survival would completely change the story, what I knew now would become meaningless. Still, knowing the prologue was a major asset, because so long as I knew my enemies, I could prepare countermeasures against them. Try to remember the prologue.

From what I could recall, the Royal Naruyan Army invaded the Runan Kingdom with a two-pronged attack from the north and west. But their main force appeared in the north of the Runan Kingdom, while the Eintorian Domain was on the western border of the Runan Kingdom.

That means their advance here was a distraction.

The Naruya Kingdom first send a vanguard force to the Eintorian Domain. Then they send their main force across the northern border while the Runan army’s focus is on the west. They used this strategy because the capital of the Runan Kingdom was fairly close to the northern border.

And the Runan Kingdom falls to the Naruya Kingdom.

The Runan Kingdom is confused when the Eintorian Region falls without being able to put up any real defense. They hurriedly prepare for war, and the nearby regions mass their troops in the west. Unaware of the main force that’s been moving covertly.

This battle showed off how inept the Runan Kingdom was at gathering information, and the Naruya Kingdom’s ability to move their main force covertly showed off how excellent their strategy was. They were able to move that many troops to the north completely unnoticed, after all.

This difference wasn’t purely Erhin’s fault, I thought. It’s also because the king of Runan was a tyrant ruling over a corrupt system.

Still, there’s a path here for me to survive. Basically, since the real war happens up north, if I can just drive off this diversionary force, it’ll give me time to breathe. Yeah, time I can use to level up and prepare for war. If I can just manage to live through the battle tomorrow, then the future will open up to me.

That was the one thing I was sure of.

*

The problem is how to survive. Basically, I need to come up with a strategy. I do have some ideas. The key thing is that the Naruya Kingdom is completely unaware of my existence, which means they also don’t know that I know that they’re planning a surprise attack. I’ve got to take maximum advantage of that.

But my main concern is the state of my own forces. Given how their lord’s been up until now, there’s no way he’s got a proper army serving under him. In the game, he actually loses without putting up a fight, so it’s gotta be bad. My first priority needs to be getting a handle on what the situation is. Knowing yourself is more important than knowing your enemy. That’s one of the basics of the art of war.

I started by calling in the head chamberlain and telling him, “Head chamberlain. I am going to go manage the troops.”

“Manage the troops? If you’ve some business with them, I will summon your commanders.”

“No, I’ll go in person.”

“Then I shall prepare a carriage at once,” the head chamberlain said before he rushed from the room.

My infamous reputation came in handy. It looked like some people had probably lost their lives for careless remarks before. Even if something I said or did seemed weird, no one would bring any attention to it. I wasn’t going to have time to explain every little thing I was doing, so that was pretty helpful.

Eventually, the head chamberlain returned. I followed him to an enclosed carriage—with a roof and everything!—that waited outside the castle. I was fascinated by it because of how showy it was, but climbed aboard without letting that show. It wasn’t that big on the inside, maybe about the same size as the interior of a small car that seated four people.

The head chamberlain didn’t climb in, perhaps because he planned to drive the carriage himself. I took the liberty of looking around inside.

The carriage set off immediately. There was a loud clank and I was jolted up. This was the worst ride I’d ever had—it was bad enough to make me instantly nauseous.

Blech! This shaking is awful. This carriage has nothing on a car. Well, that’s the difference technology makes.

The carriage came to a stop a short while later while I was still desperately fighting my nausea.

“We have arrived, Master.”

I stepped out at once. The fresh air helped me feel a little less sick to my stomach. This is gonna take some getting used to. I looked around as I took a deep breath.

My eyes settled on a wooden barracks. To the best of my knowledge, the barracks inside cities in this game were tasked with public order. They were also command centers for the domain’s army. It was presumably the same here in Eintorian.

I used my skill Check Information to get my bearings.

Eintorian Domain Barracks

Troop Strength: 1,200 men

Morale: 20

Seeing that info left me involuntarily clutching my head. I let out a dismayed laugh.

Only 20 Morale. It maxes out at 100, so 20 is about as bad as it gets.

Little wonder, seeing these are the villainous Erhin’s troops. Little wonder they get wiped out by a diversionary force. That figure for Troop Strength isn’t the entire Eintorian army, but the number of men guarding the city. It’s a good number—not too few, or too many.

There are barracks all over the Eintorian Domain. The city is the center of the domain, where the lord’s castle is, but there’s a vast territory around it used for farming. Well, this is an agricultural society, after all.

Although I couldn’t imagine the morale of the other barracks was going to be any higher, I somehow managed to keep that fact from overwhelming me as I headed inside. There were soldiers gathered in various spots around the training grounds. I guessed they might be practicing, but I soon realized how foolish I’d been.

No, the soldiers were gambling. They were playing a gamut of different games, everything from dice to cards.

I doubted my eyes for a moment. Was this really the barracks?

Their lord had just arrived, and yet there were no guards around, and no one seemed to have noticed. I stopped the head chamberlain, who looked ready to run and fetch someone, and instead grabbed the lapels of a soldier who was about to roll the dice and pulled him close.

“What’s your problem?!” the soldier shouted, dice still in hand, as he turned his head.

Then our eyes met.

“Eeeek! M-My lord! Forgive me! H-How long have you been here...?!”

The man recognized me at a glance and was soon prostrating himself on the ground. It looked like the lord’s infamous reputation was highly effective against the soldiers too.

“Never mind that. Call your commander here at once.”

“Y-Yes, sir! Wahhh!”

The soldier ran off screaming. His screams alerted the others to my presence, causing them all to hurry to their feet in surprise and stand at attention. Aren’t they treating me more like a natural disaster than a lord at this point?

Well, the key thing’s the commander. I walked over to the building in the center of the training grounds, the army’s command center. That was where the soldier from before had run off to too.

“Hey, what’re you bothering me for when I’m having a good time?”

“Umm... His Lordship... His Lordship is here to see you!”

The commander and his men were playing poker. The amount of money on the table was on a different scale than the petty gambling going on outside. If the commander is like this, then no wonder his men outside are gambling first thing in the morning. There’s really no future here.

“His Excellency is here? ...Ah! Y-Your Excellency!”

When the man who looked to be their commander noticed me, he shoved the other soldiers aside and rushed over. The other high-ranking men who’d been gambling with him stood at attention when they saw me.

Also, “Your Excellency”? That was a style used by dukes and counts. But only between fellow members of the nobility. The common folk called me “Your Lordship” instead. Erhin Eintorian was a lord with a noble title. Yes, incredibly, I was now a count.

And being a commander in the army, this guy was a noble too. Only a petty one, though. Probably a baron or something like that. And he was also a vassal of the House of Eintorian.

Berk Gordon

Rank: Baron

Age: 38

Martial: 33

Intelligence: 23

Command: 20

Faction: Eintorian Domain, Army Commander

Faction Opinion: 10

I checked his information.

He’s about what I expected: incompetence incarnate. The man’s a commander, and yet his Martial is lower than the rank-and-file soldiers. I’ll bet he was only made commander because of his noble birth. Still, while I can see hiring an incompetent noble as one of his retainers, he went and made the guy a commander? Even if the original Erhin was incompetent, this is awful.

“Did you need something so early in the morning? Heh heh.”

Berk walked over to me rubbing his hands together with a smile. That told me everything. It seemed like Erhin had appointed him commander because the two of them were close. Had he just wanted one of his close vassals in the position, and didn’t mind if that threw his forces into disarray?

Also, given the guy’s close to Erhin, that’s proof in itself that he’s scum.

“Was the outside gambling I saw your orders?”

“Yes, of course. You gave us permission, Your Excellency. Since the gamblers have a duty to pay a gambling tax to me. Ha ha ha!”

Gambling tax? What nonsense. I shook my head and whispered into the head chamberlain’s ear.

“Head chamberlain.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Has this man always been a commander?”

“No. Under the previous lord, there was another...”

“Did I replace them?”

“Yes. I-Indeed, you did.”

So that’s how it is.

The former lord—that’d be Erhin’s dad—passed away due to illness a few years ago. It hasn’t been long since Erhin became head of the house, and once his old man wasn’t around to keep him in line anymore, he took to villainy like a fish to water.

“Then where is the former commander now?”

“Come again...?”

“I asked you where the former commander is now.”

If Erhin swapped him out, then he’s gotta be better than this guy.

Stupid rulers always want to distance themselves from loyal retainers, don’t they?

“Baron Hadin is in prison.”

“Oh, he is, is he?”

Lucky for me, he’s not dead. Was it because he’s a noble? Well, that bit doesn’t matter. It’d have been tough to find a capable commander in just one day, but if there’s already a persuasive candidate for the position, that changes things. Of course, I’ll still need to thoroughly investigate before deciding.

“So, what I’m hearing is you’ve been letting them use the time that ought to have been spent training to gamble, huh?”

“Y-Y-Yes, I suppose?”

He probably hadn’t overheard my little chat with the head chamberlain, but Berk’s face grew suspicious as he realized something was up.

“Throw Commander Berk in prison at once! He’ll answer for the crime of disrupting military discipline!”

I gave the harsh order right before his eyes. Berk jumped into the air in surprise.

“Y-Your Excellency! What is this about?! Lord Erhin! It’s me, Gordon!”

Yeah, and so what if you are? I don’t need to answer him.

The man didn’t merit any further attention.

*

The prison was a brutal place.

It had been built underground, illuminated only faintly by candlelight. No one could continue to remain sane for long locked up in such conditions.

“Hey, let go of me! Your Excellency! Your Excellencyyy! Why are you doing this to me?! Your Excellency!!!”

I ignored Gordon as he was chucked into a cell and went to see the former commander. The warden, who was perhaps spooked at seeing the commander of the army getting jailed, moved like a robot as he led the way, his back ramrod straight.

“Th-This way to Baron Hadin’s cell!”

“There’s no need to raise your voice. Just shut up and open the cell door, would you?”

The warden covered his mouth with both hands at my barked command. Then, obsequiously doing as I said, he opened the cell door and backed away.

When I entered, I saw an emaciated man sitting against the jail wall.

“Your Excellency...?”

I used Check Information immediately, and looked at his info with all the urgency that came from knowing my life hinged on tomorrow’s battle.

Hadin Meruya

Age: 45

Martial: 60

Intelligence: 57

Command: 70

Faction: Currently Unaffiliated

Faction Opinion: 75

Huh. Well, he’s not bad.

Maybe because I’d just seen Berk’s stats earlier, the numbers here were like salve to my eyes. The average soldier had a Martial score of 30 to 40. A score of 60 wasn’t all that impressive, but it was a bit of a relief just knowing there was someone who could command the waning Eintorian Domain Army.

In this game, it’s unusual to find A-class units with an ability score over 90. And S-class units with a score over 100 are really precious.

Besides, it was his Command stat that really mattered. What I needed pronto was a commander that could bring together the unruly mass my forces had devolved into, and his 70 Command more than fit the bill.

“Your Excellency! What brings you here? Can I help you with—”

“Baron Hadin,” I interrupted him. “Tell me, do you have any experience fighting in a real battle?”

I don’t have time to persuade him to join me. So it’ll be faster to order him around with my authority as a lord. Winning him over completely can wait until after tomorrow’s battle.

“A real battle? Of course I do. Twenty years ago, there were all sorts of battles, big and small, and I was in the forces then, so...”

That makes sense. He’s forty-five years old now, so he’d have been twenty-five two decades ago.

Lots of lesser nobles served in the military, so in a way, the answer should have been obvious.

“Good, Baron Hadin. I hereby reinstate you as commander of the Eintorian Domain Army, effective immediately!”

“Huh? Y-Y-Your Excellency! Do you mean it?!”

“Your first task as commander will be to amass all Eintorian forces, with the exception of those on border patrol, at the castle’s west gate.”

Maybe his brain had seized up out of shock. Hadin simply blinked at me as I gave him that order and then left the prison.

A lord’s word is absolute.

In a class-based society, hierarchy was everything, and I was a high noble—a count. Even if someone were to stage a revolt and overthrow me, they would be chased from the kingdom for their crime. No one in their right mind could object to an order from a lord.

So I’ll use that authority and my infamy to their maximum extent as I put together a strategy.

To ensure my survival.

*

A man with copper-colored skin threw a soldier to the ground.

“Okay, next! Next!”

He threw the soldiers down one after another. The remaining soldiers grimaced.

“Captain, let’s give it a rest. Why should we train when no one else is...?”

“What’d you say? Stop flapping your gums and come at me!”

This was Bente the tenman—the leader of a ten-man unit. He beckoned the complaining soldier with a curling motion of his index finger. There was a smile on his face, but the man he’d set his sights on looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. Bente quickly put the soldier in a headlock and began choking him.

“U-Urgh... I give, Captain... I give...”

“I’ve told you never to say such a thing.”

“Why are we the only ones who have to go through all this when everyone else’s always taking it easy? I hear they’ve even set up a gambling den over there...”

“Don’t give me that drivel. We’re going to train even if we’re the only ones doing it. And it’s training time, isn’t it? Am I wrong?”

“Well, no, you’re not wrong...”

The soldier Bente had put on the spot looked ready to cry again. Bente grinned.

Left with no choice, the soldiers all came at him. And were summarily thrown to the ground.

Each of Bente’s men owed him a debt of gratitude for something, and they also looked up to him like a big brother, so despite their grumbling, they would still train.

“I don’t care about gambling or whatever else it is they do. I’m a soldier, so I train. That’s it. Soldiers are supposed to defend the domain, so us going into town every day to shake down the people for money, even if it is at a noble’s command, is outrageous, right? That’s why we’re gonna train all day until we collapse, and then drink hard at night! That’s how we live! That’s life, right?! Hey, you louts! Where do you think you’re looking when I’m talking to you?!”

The soldiers’ eyes went wide. They shook their heads and pointed off into the distance.

“Isn’t that Lieutenant Commander Garne?”

“Are you looking to get punched? I’m not falling for that.”

“But it’s true...”

Finally, Bente turned to look where his men were pointing. There was his direct superior, Lieutenant Commander Garne, coming this way. The two of them got along terribly because of Bente’s dissatisfaction with the current policies towards training.

Because of that, Bente’s brow furrowed when he saw him. But he couldn’t ignore the lieutenant commander, so Bente strode over confidently.

“What brings you here, when you never go outside?”

“There’s an assembly. Playtime’s over. Get ready to move right away.”

Bente stopped thinking about what he was going to complain about today and cocked his head to the side.

“What did you say? An assembly during training time? This is why our men lack the strength to fight worth a damn. Why, just the other day...”

“Shut up,” Garne, who always prided himself in how pale his skin was as a result of never leaving the barracks, interrupted Bente. “Commander Hadin’s been reinstated, and he’s ordered all troops to assemble in front of the western gate. Now, move!”

Bente looked back to his soldiers. “What’s going on? The former commander’s back? Does anyone know anything?”

The men just looked at one another.

*

I was in front of the west gate, which was the main gate of the city, built facing the border. This castle town and the lord’s castle were also our final defensive line.

I had given the order to gather everyone here, but once I realized they couldn’t even form into ranks properly, I had to question if my forces were even fit to be called an army.

This isn’t a town hall meeting. What a sad sight. But there’s no time left. I need to enact my plan at once. As long as I begin preparing now, there’s gotta be something I can do. This is depressing as all hell, but I can’t just sit and mope.

With one sweeping glance, I took in my forces.

Fifty-two hundred men in total, with a Morale of 20. First, I need to survey my personnel, then do mock battles to test the battle system. After that, it’s time to put the strategy into action immediately. The enemy crosses the border tomorrow. That leaves me twenty hours to work with. Once you take into consideration the time needed to lay traps, there’s not a moment to spare.

I started my review of the army personnel by checking the information of the hundredmen. Of course, they completely betrayed my expectations.

Considering the state of our forces, the most important stat is going to be Command for controlling the troops. Each hundredman needs to have a good enough Command score to keep their hundred-man unit under control. Without that, their units won’t even do as ordered once they’re deployed to the battlefield.

However, the reality before me was as miserable as I expected.

Not even one of the hundredmen had a Command score high enough that I could trust them to lead troops.

A Command of 30 points. 40. 28. They’re all awful. What a mess. I’m not asking for Martial. Because no one with a high Martial stat is going to be wasting away here. Lots of people have a higher Command than Martial. That’s just how this game is. But their Command scores are so low... I have no words.

My one salvation was that Hadin’s former subordinates were more capable than the hundredmen who served under Berk. I had them reinstated at once. But aside from them, there was no one of merit.

Honestly, I need more personnel—people I can trust to handle this plan.

That said, it would’ve been inefficient to check the information of all fifty-two hundred soldiers. That’s why I planned to have them fight mock battles before the operation. Because maybe—just maybe—there were some good people here.

I’ll hire any soldier who seems usable.

Also, the mock battles doubled as combat training for me.

“We will now hold mock battles between each hundred-man unit! Each unit is to choose one man, and then we will select five from those fifty-two!”

Honestly, it must have felt like a hassle, but no one dared object. I didn’t bother offering prize money. I was looking for the kind of guys who would jump at participating in these meaningless mock battles.

I soon had a bracket drawn up and the battles got underway. I was just going to watch quietly until they whittled the number down to five. Looks like they’re all pretty awful, I thought. They had such weak wills. No one was trying to show off their real power.

And so, roughly two hours later, the five were finally decided. I deliberately chose not to check their information.

“Your Excellency! These five have been chosen. Would you like to have them compete with each other at once?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll check them for myself.”

My Martial’s 58. If anyone here can beat me, that’s actually good luck.

Which is all the more reason not to check their information.

The soldiers faced me, still looking unsure as to the point of these mock battles.

“Come at me one by one!”

When I grabbed my sword, the Attack command appeared.

Yeah, it’s just like the game’s system.

It felt strange seeing the word Attack floating in front of my eyes in real life, but considering I had no idea how to fight for real, having this system was really saving my butt here.

It’s incredibly important that I get used to the battle system in time for the war tomorrow.

When I used Attack, my body moved on its own in a manner corresponding with my Martial score, dominating the soldiers with swordsmanship the old me would never have been able to pull off. Basically, all that I needed to do was keep using the Attack command as the situation warranted.

Obviously, if I had skills, I’d be able to use the Skill command to unleash more devastating attacks, but I didn’t have any just yet. For now, it was all just the basic Attack command.

Shing!

I swung my sword hard enough to cut a man in two. The shocked soldier instinctively tried to block it, but the force of the blow knocked his weapon out of the way. I stopped with my blade leveled at his face. On the battlefield, I’d have finished the strike, but this was training.

“I-I yield!” The soldier groveled before me, trembling.

He seemed completely unwilling to fight for his life.

“Next!”

Swords crossed again. This soldier was also overwhelmed and disarmed by my Attack. He instantly surrendered. I was so exasperated that I kicked the man as he lay on the ground and sent him rolling and thrashing about in agony.

“Give me all you’ve got! Approach this training like your life’s on the line. You’re all slacking too much. You think you can fight properly on the battlefield like this?” I shouted angrily, but it seemed to backfire.

The matches continued, but my Attack command went on defeating the soldiers one after another. If anything, my words had only intimidated them more. They looked at me with dead fish eyes. I could only sigh.

With four men dispatched the same way, the last soldier stepped up.

“Next!”

I’ve given up on them at this point.

I crossed blades with the last soldier. Like all the others, his sword was knocked away by the force of my Attack command. It felt like such a hollow victory, I went to kick this soldier away too.

Huh?

And yet, my leg caught nothing but air. The man had rolled to the ground, and was picking up his fallen sword. Nice moves. But I was on him again in a second. I launched another Attack. The soldier’s sword flew high through the air, and then buried itself point-first in the ground a good distance away.

But this soldier wasn’t like any of the others before him. I tried to get a look at his face, but he charged in, not giving me the time. I met the charge with my own Attack, and the force of my sword swing sent blood spurting from the soldier’s arms.

I stopped my Attack to avoid slaying him.

And yet...

The soldier grabbed my leg, attempting to bring me down with all his might. Even as he continued bleeding from his arms.

Honestly, I was surprised.

He didn’t have any great ability. But he had an uncommonly strong will to fight. On the battlefield, this guy might keep going after the enemy even after they’d chopped his limbs off.

“Enough!” I shouted at the soldier.

After all, it was entirely possible that he was coming at me like this because he’d lost control of his anger when I attacked him. I had no use for that sort of mindless battle lust. But, no, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“I’m terribly sorry, my lord! I’ve shamed myself!” the man shouted, still bravely clinging to my arm.

Yeah. This is what the will to fight looks like.

The man was in possession of a truly indomitable spirit.

It might be weird for me, someone relying on the system, to be evaluating a true man like him—but I need guys like him in order to survive.

“You, tell me your name.”

“I am Bente, my lord! It is an honor that you would face a fool such as myself!”

I immediately used Check Information.

Numbers may not be everything, but the numbers also don’t lie.

Bente

Age: 25

Martial: 49

Intelligence: 38

Command: 82

Faction: Eintorian Domain Army, Tenman

Faction Opinion: 94

What’s this? He has a Command of 82? An Opinion of 94?

His stats made my eyes go wide. His Martial’s not high, but he’s B-class in Command! When you consider how rare A-class and S-class commanders are, people with B-class abilities are valuable.

“Heh heh heh heh, bwa hah hah hah hah!”

My sudden outburst of laughter made the nearby soldiers and the head chamberlain, who was next to me, look at one another in fright. A villainous lord’s cackling probably never portended anything good.

“Bente!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“From today on, you’re a hundredman!”

A lord’s word was absolute in his domain. No one was going to directly refuse my arbitrary commands. No matter how unprecedented the promotion might be.

*

The battle system was the same as in the game. An enemy with a lesser Martial couldn’t kill you there. Yeah, Martial was what guaranteed your life in this world.

My next order of business was to check my stats with the system. Nothing had changed there, as I expected. That meant training like this wouldn’t make my level go up. You might say this entire exercise had been to prove that.

Regardless, I’d gotten Bente out of it.

Hadin reinstated all of his former subordinates, and Bente appointed each of the tenmen who had been in his ten-man unit to his new hundred-man unit.

No matter how high their Command scores are, it’s going to take some time after their sudden promotions and reinstatements to gain full control. That’s why they need their former subordinates under them. Maybe some people will be dissatisfied, but I’ll suppress them by taking advantage of my infamous reputation. I don’t have time to peacefully resolve everything.

Time’s up. There’s no room left to work with. The war’s starting now.

I stood before the assembled soldiers and explained the strategy for tomorrow’s war, then gave the commanders their orders. The expression on the soldiers’ faces changed. Still, no one openly complained. This is a lord’s power in action, I thought.

My forces all moved about busily, executing out my commands.

They’re probably all thinking the same thing. “Our lord’s playing war now.” And to be fair, their lord always did like his games.

I had no intention of disabusing them of that thought.

In fact, it might even be better to have them thinking that way, considering the current situation. If they were to realize there really is an invasion coming, they’d probably flee. They’ve only got a Morale of 20, after all. In which case, having them dig pitfall traps and lie in wait for the enemy while thinking it’s all just for fun is way better.

Anyway, as long as they follow orders, it’s fine.

This was the plan I came up with:

The Naruya Kingdom’s main force was massing in the north. In order to hide that, a diversionary unit would appear in Eintorian, which was on the Runan Kingdom’s western border. The diversionary unit’s course was clear: there was a massive mountain range between the Naruya Kingdom and the Eintorian Domain.

Actually, it was the existence of this mountain range between the Eintorian Domain and the Naruya Kingdom that led to the civil war that broke the country, leaving Eintorian as the border. The mountains were steep and hard to cross. There was a strategic pass on the sole road through the mountains. So an army needed to pass through the gate there to cross the border.

There was also the option of crossing the steep mountains like Hannibal crossed the Alps in the Second Punic War. That, or maybe taking the long route around them.

But there’s no record of that in the game’s history. No, the Royal Naruyan Army should do the simple thing and attack us through the strategic pass. The diversionary unit’s whole purpose is to draw attention. So there’s no need for them to avoid detection. Besides, Erhin’s incompetence should be well known to the Royal Naruyan Army, so they’ll take the quickest route to attack us. I know the history, so I don’t need to think about anything else. I just need to pay attention to this road.

Obviously, under normal circumstances, the battle would break out at the strategic mountain pass. But the gate collapsed in an earthquake during the previous lord’s reign and has been left unrepaired since. From what the head chamberlain told me, Erhin pocketed the funds the kingdom provided for its repair. But even if the gate were intact, it would still be cleverer not to deploy people there and use the mountain area instead.

Looking at the troops’ morale and degree of training, an ambush using ranged attacks is going to be far superior to getting them involved in melee combat.

That was why I planned to settle things here, in this mountainous area that they would have to travel through on the way from the mountain pass to the flatlands of the Eintorian Domain. There were a lot of long, narrow roads along this route, and a narrow road at the bottom of steep cliffs was ideal for an ambush.

I already know where the enemy are going to be coming from, so I’d be an idiot not to use that.

Ambush them on a narrow road. Then, set up pitfall traps where the road opens up into the flatlands. This was the start of my strategy.

*

“What exactly is he trying to do?” one of the soldiers grumbled as he dug.

“The lord’s probably just playing around,” a hundredman explained. “I guess he wants to play war this time.”

“Who would make a game of war? That’s awful,” the soldier replied, shaking his head. He just couldn’t understand it.

“Hey, he’s going to hear you!” the hundredman warned. “If the lord gets wind of you talking like that, we’re all finished. He hates insubordination more than anything. Now, dig like you mean it!”

“Sigh... Luck seemed to be on my side today, but now we’ve gotta do this instead of gambling. What the hell, man? Damn it all!”

Despite all of their griping, the soldiers kept digging the pitfall traps they had been ordered to. None of them had the foggiest idea that the traps were going to be used in a real war, of course. They figured it was just another whim of their tyrannical lord. But they did it nonetheless, and did it seriously—because if they did a half-ass job, they’d be killed on the spot.

Defy him, and he’d kill you. That was Lord Erhin Eintorian’s way. Every person in the Eintorian Domain knew that. The soldiers would whine and complain, but they had no choice but to dig those holes, and do it fast.

Of course, in some places, things played out differently.

Bente’s unit approached the digging in their own way. Bente was a very simple man, and had never even caught wind of his lord’s infamous reputation. More than that, now that his lord had acknowledged him and given him the great authority of being a hundredman, he was grateful. That was why he threw everything he had into encouraging his men.

He busied himself leading by example.

“You dig a hole, lay rope netting over it, and then cover it with straw. Got it? Hey, watch it! You’re gonna hurt your hand!”

Some acted out of fear of their lord. Others out of loyalty. Each person’s feelings were different, but the unit kept working busily.

*

Hadin, who was commanding troops in an ambush on a cliff overlooking the strategic mountain pass, couldn’t believe his eyes at what he saw.

The Naruya Kingdom really showed up!

The men couldn’t hide their unease. Everyone thought their lord was just playing games, so they never expected the Royal Naruyan Army to turn up for real.

Of course, their lord had told them they were preparing against an attack from the Naruyan army. It was just that nobody believed it would actually happen.

“Did he genuinely know they would be launching a surprise attack, then?”

Even Hadin had thought this was mere lark. But he’d also been glad to see his lord taking an interest in the military. That was why he agreed to command this operation. Not as a game, but as practical training in laying an ambush. Hadin would have even been willing to get hauled back to jail if it meant he could convince his villainous lord to maintain this level of military training.

But now you’re telling me it’s a real war?

The soldiers, despite their lack of training, had been fine as long there were no enemies around. Now that they saw there were, they panicked. Some were even about to let loose with their arrows before it was time.

“Commander! This is crazy... There’s way too many of them!”

There were agitated murmurs between the soldiers.

“Would you all shut up?!”

Hadin was surprised, but quickly feigned calm and stopped his men. Nothing good would come of panic. Because he had actual combat experience, Hadin’s first thought was of the need to keep a level head in this situation.

He exchanged glances with one of the former subordinates that he’d reinstated as a hundredman as they observed the Naruyan army advancing along the bottom of the sheer cliff walls.

The more he saw, the more he broke into a cold sweat.

“Commander... Are you all right?” his longtime subordinate, Norstin, asked in a low voice. He’d made the man his lieutenant as soon as he was reinstated.

“Don’t worry about me. But surely...” Hadin, who remembered fighting against the Naruyan army over two decades ago, stared in blank amazement. “Surely that can’t be Randall of the Mighty Spear, can it?”

The enemy he had once seen on the battlefield was down there. He’d been quite young at the time, but still boasted more than enough martial prowess to merit being called a commander.

“The same Randall who’s one of the Ten Commanders of Naruya, sir?” Norstin asked in response. Hadin nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right. They call him that now too. If it’s really him, we’re in trouble. We don’t stand a chance of winning this thing...”

“Commander...!” Norstin shouted, snapping Hadin back to his senses.

“We wait until the smoke goes up, as the lord ordered. That smoke signal is our sign to act. Don’t any of you dare move until then!” Hadin ordered calmly, even though he was drenched with cold sweat. He was completely lost as to what was going on at this point, but it looked to him like this was an ambush. What he’d only assumed was his lord playing around, was now their only plan with any hope of catching the enemy unaware.

Hadin clutched his sword tight.

The enemy’s forces... The enemy commander... They’re so overwhelming.

Meanwhile, his own forces’ training was the worst. On top of that, the men who had been loyal to the former commander, Berk, had kept silent when the lord was around, but acted insubordinate now that he wasn’t. Even if the ambush succeeded, as things stood, it looked unlikely they could stop Randall outright.

Still, Hadin had to do what little damage he could to the enemy forces in order to protect his country. The one redeeming factor in all this was that the enemy didn’t see the ambush coming in the slightest.

As he was waiting, breath held, the smoke signal finally went up. Just as it did, the enemy force stopped moving. Their advance halted.

“All right, now’s the time. Loose your arrows! Kill as many of them as you can!” Hadin shouted at once. The arrows flew on his command, and rocks rolled down like a landslide.

The Naruyan army scattered, dashing this way and that as they underwent a baptism by arrows and rocks.

However, things went as Hadin had feared. A number of the hundredmen who’d served under Berk slunk off into the shadows to hide as soon as the enemy appeared, able to accomplish little more than quaking in fear.

That hampered their ability to launch multiple attacks at the same time. Their force was diminished. On top of that, once the enemy were shaken by the arrows, some of the hundredmen lost their heads and gave reckless orders.

“Ch-Charge! The enemy are confused!”

“No! The lord’s ordered us to refrain from direct attacks!” The nearby tenman tried to stop him, but the hundredman had lost all sense of reason and wouldn’t listen.

“That’s situational! Charge!”

The lieutenant commander raced down the slope, and the rest of the men had no choice but to follow.

The Naruyan army was confident their enemies had no idea they’d crossed the border and were heading their way, so they fell into an ambush and were starting to take damage. But because there was discord within the Eintorian army, it hadn’t grown beyond that.

*

A few hours ago, Randall Ebbhan, one of the Ten Commanders of Naruya, had advanced his forces with a look of boredom on his face.

His second-in-command, Lieutenant Commander Getan, looked equally unamused, grumbling, “It’s just not fair, them putting you in charge of the diversionary unit like this instead of the main force.”

Randall didn’t respond, but neither did he reproach Getan for the remark.

“Let’s focus on the task at hand. I’m told that Eintorian has a pitiful excuse for a lord?”

“Yes, Commander. Our informants report that the domain’s forces are nothing but trash.”

Randall chuckled darkly. “Then I’ll bet the lord’s off womanizing now, without a clue what we’re about to do with him, huh?”

“That’s about what I’d expect. The man is practically drowning in booze and women.”

“It galls me to think that cur’s blood will be staining my spear. But the king’s orders are final... Fine. Let’s destroy Eintorian quickly. That will show them just how great I am!”

*

Royal Naruyan Army: 12,241 men

Eintorian Domain Army: 4,914 men

I’d used Check Information to scan our Manpower. Being able to check the Manpower counts like this was one of the game’s strong points, and that had carried forward into its real-world incarnation. But I wouldn’t expect us to be taking these kinds of losses if the men were following orders. And yet, the number on my side suddenly dropped.

Eintorian Domain Army: 4,414 men

I sighed. I was worried about this. There was no way this unruly mob were going to follow orders to the letter. But there was no way to train them perfectly in a day. So be it.

Still, they were steadily dealing damage. The enemy’s Manpower was definitely down from the initial fifteen thousand.

So, things are going to plan.

I had considered this possibility. In truth, this ambushing operation was part of a larger stratagem that was meant to do more than just whittle down the enemy’s numbers. I didn’t know if it would work, but my entire war hinged on it. That’s why the signal went up the moment the enemy’s vanguard entered the flatlands and fell into my pitfall traps. The hail of arrows would make it difficult for them to get out of the mountain area.

After all, there was no point in any of this if I couldn’t win here. No way was I going to be fighting a defensive battle once they’d assembled all of their Manpower. The truth was, I couldn’t expect to defend for long with my poorly trained Morale-20 forces.

That being the case, my best strategy was to kill the enemy commander while the enemy’s Manpower was split up.

That’s why I had appeared in front of the pit traps, leading a decoy force of just one thousand men while the remaining four thousand served as ambushers. I didn’t plan to fight here, of course. The enemy still held an overwhelming numerical advantage, even after falling for my ambush.

What if the enemy commander appeared here, separated from the main body of his troops? I couldn’t ask for a better outcome than that. It would make it far more likely that we could wipe out the enemy force and kill their commander.

Killing a commander in an enemy force of one thousand men would be much less difficult than killing a commander in a force of ten thousand. That’s why I needed to lure the enemy commander out.

While it didn’t apply to the units led by kings or dukes, because of their size, it was commonly understood that the commander of a smaller unit had to lead from the front.

The enemy cavalry were the ones who’d fallen into the pit traps. Their commander should have been with them. So, as they tried to get back in formation, I raised my voice and shouted, “To think you’d try to invade my lands. Listen well, Naruyan army. I’ll make you answer for this folly!”

Once I was done shouting from a short distance away, I looked around, searching for their commander’s banner. My eyes stopped on the man who was standing beneath it, wearing a particularly noticeable suit of armor.

Randall Ebbhan

Age: 37

Martial: 85

Intelligence: 59

Command: 70

Faction: Naruya Kingdom 2nd Army, Vanguard Commander

Faction Opinion: 62

“Gah ha ha ha ha!” the man bellowed. “You’ve underestimated me. And now you’ll be wiped out for it. Any horseman who can still move, follow me!”

The enemy commander, Randall, took my bait. He was a prideful character in the game too.

It was possible he was dissatisfied with being put in charge of the diversionary unit instead of the main force. He probably wasn’t going to be able to tolerate his ambitions being further frustrated by failing here. Now, he’d taken an unexpected blow from a foe he’d underestimated. That had to be infuriating. Momentary rage could rob a man of reason. Especially in battle.

The problem was his whopping 85 Martial.

He’s a famous soldier. I’d anticipated this, at least to some degree, but seeing the number 85 was still a bit of a surprise. Still, there’s no time to hesitate. I need to move forward with the plan for now.

“Bente! We’re retreating!”

I fled with Bente in the face of the enemy commander’s charge. A retreat meant to lure him in.

Royal Naruyan Army: 1,221 men

I used Check Information as I ran, a cavalry unit of 1,221 men pursuing us hot on our heels. Over ten thousand enemy soldiers were still delayed in the mountains.

I’ll never have a better chance than this.

If the enemy commander’s Martial were just a little lower, I’d probably have let out a shout of triumph at this point.

“Spring the trap!”

My forces were going to be completely unreliable in a melee, so there were more traps laid at the spot I lured them to.

When I shouted to the soldiers lying in wait as I fled, the wall of bamboo spears that were buried in the ground came up. Behind me, I heard the cavalry unit’s horses whinnying as they impaled themselves on the spears or tried to avoid them, and carnage unfolded.

“Okay, now! Give ’em a hail of arrows!” Bente shouted, urging the soldiers on.

Then, taking his own bow in hand, Bente put arrows through several of the incoming cavalry before drawing his sword, still not satisfied, and racing in to cut down one man after the next. Between the bamboo spears and the rain of arrows, the onrushing cavalry started dropping like flies. In no time, my own force’s Morale was rising.

Royal Naruyan Army: 902 men

The enemy’s numbers had dropped considerably, but the problem was still the enemy commander. He thrust his spear about blindly as he charged, destroying every arrow or bamboo spear that came at him. And, with excellent command of his horse, he leapt over the top of the bamboo spear trap and began cutting down the men of my army.

Eintorian Domain Army: 700 men

On top of that, the forces close to him started putting up a spirited fight, rapidly diminishing the numbers on my side.

He was strong. Oh, yes, he most definitely was. A commander of his caliber undoubtedly had a special skill. But at my current level, the system wouldn’t display it, and I had to defeat that powerful enemy.

My victory was contingent on it.

Why, of all the possible opponents, did I have to face a monster with a Martial of 85?!

“Hey, you there! Are you the lord? Die!”

When he found me barking commands, he just threw his spear at me. It spun rapidly, like he’d used some sort of skill on it, as it flew my way.

If I remember correctly, a difference of 27 points in Martial is insurmountable in this game. In order to defeat a commander with this high of a Martial score in battle, I need an overwhelming Manpower advantage. If the enemy has around seven hundred men left, then I need at least five times that many. That’s just how important a high Martial is in this game.

But I can stop him. Well, at least I think I can! I’ve prepared for this.

But it was Bente who stood in the way, prepared for death, who stopped Randall’s spear.

“Step aside, Bente! That’s an order! Believe in me!”

He’s defending his master. That’s an admirable display of loyalty, of course.

But it was also blatantly a hindrance to me.

My Martial might be abysmal right now, but I still have a way of fighting Randall!

I called up the item at once.

In a sense, it was thanks to this item that I could be so reckless as to take part in this battle that I needed to survive at all costs.

My mightiest weapon, and my insurance policy!

Will you use the bonus item Daitoren?

The message sparkled before my eyes, and the bonus item activated as soon as I nodded.

*

After ordering the soldiers to set up pitfall traps the day before, I had returned to the castle for a time. I had remembered something. Something important. My thoughts raced as I recalled it.

The system had told me I would have the chance to seek glory. The next thing I knew, I’d awoken to find myself transferred to this world.

Basically, that means the situation I now find myself in is the chance to seek glory. Whatever glory is. Anyway, the key thing right now is that the message about a bonus should also be true.

The night before the transfer, the chance at this so-called “bonus” had tempted me into an all-night gaming session. But ultimately, search as I might, I had never found it. If it was meant to be acquired after I was transferred to this world, though, then it was little wonder I’d been unable to locate it in the game.

I remember the message saying that the bonus could be found by exploring the first map. That means it’s not distributed automatically. In that case, there’s got to be a bonus hidden somewhere.

So, where exactly is the first map? It’s supposed to be in the first map, so...how about the place where I first opened my eyes? The lord’s very own bedchamber?

I entered the bedroom and looked around. Despite my thorough search, I hadn’t come across anywhere that they could have hidden something.

Since it’s a map, does that refer to the whole of the castle, not just my bedchamber?

I’d immediately begun searching all over the castle. The bedroom, the study, the chamberlains’ and maids’ quarters, and the kitchen. No matter how high or low I searched, I found nothing in any of them fit to be called a bonus.

*

“Head Chamberlain, is there any place inside the castle that’s special?”

After much searching to no avail, I had tried asking the head chamberlain, who was the most familiar with the castle. I was starting to think the bonus would be hidden somewhere significant, like an old building, or something like that.

“A special place...? The mortuary tablets of all the former lords, going back to the ancient Eintorian Kingdom, are stored in the basement. You might call that special, in a way.”

Mortuary tablets for the former lords? Yeah, that does sound special.

I had been so convinced that I ran off before the head chamberlain could even finish speaking.

“Master?”

I could hear the head chamberlain’s voice following me distantly, but I was focused exclusively on that bonus. I ran like a madman until I reached the basement, where I came across two large, iron doors. I opened them and made my way inside, finding a large, open space before me. There were a large number of mortuary tablets stored here, just as the head chamberlain had described. But they didn’t only include lords from this domain. Some of these mortuary tablets dated to a time when the Eintorian family ruled this ancient kingdom.

“Hmm...”

As I examined the line of tablets, I discovered something a bit strange. There was a long, thin box in the middle that stood out from everything else. There was obviously something special about it. I unconsciously reached out towards the box. The moment my hand came in contact with it, a light sprang forth, and a message appeared.

You received the bonus.

Daitoren

Martial +30

Effect Duration: 30 minutes. Cooldown: 5 hours.

Weapon Skill: Crush/Once per 30 minutes

Daitoren? That’s a mythical sword from Japan’s Otogi-zoshi stories, isn’t it? If the game management team set up this preposterous situation, then did they use the Daitoren as a bonus because they’re gods?

Well, name aside, it most certainly had stats befitting of a bonus item.

I’ve never seen an item with a +30 bonus to Martial. Even special S-rank items are +10 Martial at most, and there was only one special S-rank item in the game. Yet this thing grants +30?

I couldn’t help but smile.

Sure, it’s got a cooldown on it. But if I use it only when the situation calls for it, then this thing is absolutely busted. It turns me from B-rank to S-rank.

With +30, my Martial goes from 58 to 88. After a little leveling up, I can get it up to over 90. There’ll be almost no enemy in this world who’s a match for me!

If I leveled my Martial to 70, then this broken item could take me to 100 Martial for half an hour. That’s just how good it was. I couldn’t stop grinning.

Now this is a proper bonus for helping me clear the game. Well, given my life’s on the line and all, I wouldn’t settle for any less.

*

I equipped the Daitoren in front of Randall.

It lasts for thirty minutes!

Ryuichi Hasegawa/Erhin Eintorian

Age: 25

Martial: 58+30 (88)

Intelligence: ??

Command: ??

My Martial score had jumped—from a low-grade 58 to the high end of B-class.

I shoved Bente aside, and executed the Attack command while facing the enemy spears that were still flying towards us. My hands moved by themselves, swinging Daitoren to bat away all the incoming projectiles.

Claaaang!

My fingers throbbed slightly, but I thought it actually felt pleasurable. I’d just stopped a B-class enemy’s attack with ease.

“What?!” Randall gave me a look of incredulous indignation as he tore through my soldiers, advancing towards me. Not one person in my army stood a chance against a half-crazed commander with a Martial of 85. No, not a single soul, not even among the tenmen or hundredmen.

“Wahhhhh! H-He’s a monster! Save us!”

All he could do was throw spears, yet the rank-and-file soldiers fled or were impaled as they tried to. Some of them even pissed themselves out of sheer terror.

“Your Lordship! Please, flee this place! That’s Randall of the Ten Commanders of Naruya! He’s merciless! You must flee!” I heard one of Hadin’s hundredmen shout to me from the other side of the traps.

I see Hadin’s noticed Randall too.

The Naruyan commander was living up to his reputation.

Well, that’s good for me. Now’s the time to show my forces the power of their lord.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s one of the Ten Commanders, because he’ll be facing me now!” I boasted as I sent my horse galloping towards Randall.

Just as everyone who had witnessed Randall’s feats of martial prowess started thinking I was a reckless idiot, the two of us collided.

“That was a cowardly trick you pulled. You cheeky little wretch! I’ll kill you now! Gah ha ha ha ha!”

Sneering, Randall swung his spear at me with all his might. It was a heavy-looking iron spear, but he made it look effortless.

He’s pretty confident.

And, fair enough, he had the skill to back it up, but he was still no match for me as I was now.

When I executed the Attack command with Daitoren in hand, my blade crossed with Randall’s spear.

Randall swung like he intended to slay me with just one stroke, and a look of disbelief crossed his face as he followed through with further attacks. Obviously, I used the Attack command and stopped all of them from meeting their mark.

In melee battles, long weapons have a reach advantage. But I’ve got the higher Martial score. Besides, my weapon is a super special class.

Because of that, my attacks started to push Randall back. The man swung his spear down at me with mounting confusion evident on his face.

“Die, die, dieeeee! How dare a mere lord thwart me like this!”

I stopped this attack with the Attack command too. It was clear I had the upper hand, but we were at a standstill. My attacks were pushing him back, true, but I couldn’t go for the killing blow either. If he managed to run out the clock and last for thirty minutes, then I was a dead man.

Well, in that case, I’ll use my skill. I’ve got a weapon skill now. One that I can only use with Daitoren.

Crush

Rend through everything you touch while swinging.

Will instantly kill or incapacitate an enemy with a Martial score of up to 5 points higher than your own.

Usable once per 30 minutes.

My skill could take out anyone with up to 5 more points of Martial than me in one shot, and it even came with the option to decide whether I wanted to kill or incapacitate them. Normally, insta-kill skills only let you kill your opponent, but there was a good reason why this one gave me the choice. This was a game about war and conquest. The devs had added this Incapacitate function in response to gamers demanding the ability to capture and hire enemies they liked.

That feature was faithfully replicated in this world too.

Also, the scary thing about Crush was that it allowed me to kill any enemy with a Martial score up to 5 points higher than my own with one attack.

I can only use it once every half an hour. It won’t do me any good if there are two powerful enemies. But this skill gives me the ability to walk around the battlefield. It’s a huge lifeline. I can make it through this battle because of the bonus. Without it, I bet I’d already be dead by now. Heh heh!

I had no intention of recruiting Randall, so I resolved to use Crush for the one-hit kill.

Whoosh!

The moment I did, my hand threw Daitoren at Randall on its own. The weapon smashed through the enemy’s spear with a white flash, then buried itself into the man.

“Wh-What?!”

Incaution and arrogance were killers on the battlefield. Daitoren violently impaled Randall’s head.

“I-Inconceivable...!”

And so, with one final dying scream, a fountain of blood erupted from his head. I must have looked like a coldblooded slayer, but I hadn’t been swinging the sword of my own volition. You might even say it was the Crush command that murdered him.

Besides, this is a game world turned real, and I’m in a war zone. I’m not going to be stupid and start hesitating to kill people on the battlefield. Yeah, I just have to think of this as a game!

Randall’s corpse immediately fell from his horse. The area went silent once he hit the ground with a heavy thud. Everyone, enemy and ally alike, stopped fighting and turned to stare with their mouths hanging open. I’ll bet no one thought Randall would bite it just like that.

Now’s the time!

If I was going to break their momentum, the opportunity was now, while their morale was at its lowest.

“What are you doing?! Their commander’s dead! Mop up the rest of the enemy army!” I shouted in the vague direction of my forces with a yell that came from the very bottom of my stomach.

“Yeaaaaaaaaah!” came their triumphant cheer in response.

Morale is now 90.

My forces, now with a Morale of 90, loosed their battle cries as they charged towards the enemy. Their opponents, shocked by the loss of their commander, began to retreat, lost and confused in the chaos.

This was just what I’d been waiting for. I wasn’t going to let them leave here quietly.

“Bente, raise the signal again. It’s time for the second ambush!”

“Finally, huh?! Gah hah hah hah hah!”

Bente looked overjoyed as he ran off to light the signal. Soon, I could see its smoke rising high into the sky. When Hadin saw this signal, he’d send our retreating foes into further confusion. I had some help from the system, but I’d just won a real-life battle! And my greatest prize from the battle was my own life, which, by all rights, I should have lost today.

Those two facts had me really worked up.

The sense of tension was so much greater than watching it play out in a game, and so I felt all the more excited by having won. It filled me with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that the bonus I’d received made it entirely possible that I could unite this warring land under my control.

*

The enemy had broken ranks and began fleeing down the narrow pass that cut through the mountains, which actually ended up causing them to take even greater losses. I had my forces pursue them all the way. Dawn had broken by the time we’d fully seen them across the border.

I ordered my men back to the barracks. Once they’d been instructed to get some rest, I returned to the lord’s castle by noon. Once there, I entered my bedroom, informing the maids and head chamberlain that I was not to be disturbed, and set about checking my level ups at once.

You are victorious.

You received experience for winning the battle.

Experience List

C-Class Strategy, Etc. x1

Victory against Enemy with 3-1 Advantage x3

Victory against E-class to B-class Enemy x4

The Strategy etc. experience reward is based on how efficiently I carried out my strategy. And they’re giving me a C? Was there a superior strategy?

I want to score As, not Cs. Well, no, as a gamer, what I really want is to score an S-rank, but this was a battle with my own life on the line. I don’t get any do-overs.

So, I’m pretty satisfied.

Having defeated a force three times the size of mine and killing Randall provided me extra experience.

From that, I can conclude that even if I use Daitoren for the +30 bonus, the calculation for the experience points needed to level up is still based on my original Martial of 58. One of the basic rules of this game is that you gain more experience for beating enemies that are stronger than you. So, the bonus let me earn a whole bunch of experience.

You are now Lv.2.

...

You are now Lv.8.

I’ve leveled up all the way to level 8.

You received level-up points.

Points in reserve: 700

You get level-up points for every level. I went up seven levels at once, which gives me a whopping 700 points. These points are really precious. There’s a whole mountain of things I ought to use them on.

Purchase Skills

Martial Enhancement

Item Enhancement

I can use points in these three categories. But that’s not all. Activating the skills I purchase also costs points. I can’t use them if I run out. Obviously, that only applies to normal skills, and the skills included with weapons have special limitations not related to points.

Leveling up from 90 to 91 provides a ton of points because it’s such a high level, so I won’t really need to worry about points so much once I get there. But at my current low level, I’ve got to plan things out and use them cautiously.

For now, strengthening my weapons is the priority. Just being stronger lowers the risk of dying. Because might makes right on the battlefield.

Martial Enhancement

Will you enhance your Martial? It will cost 200 points.

Currently, my Martial score sat at 58. When it reached 60, the point cost would go up. So, raising Martial wasn’t as easy as it sounded. It was going to get pretty expensive. But you only live once, and Martial’s important, so it had to be my top priority.

Once I accepted the message inside my head...

Your Martial is now 59.

...my Martial immediately went up by 1. Then, since my target was 60, I raised it again.

Your Martial is now 60.

I expended a total of 400 points raising my Martial by 2. I had a simple reason for not going beyond 60. When I used the bonus, it would take me to 90. That put me in A-class. There was a considerable difference between B-class and A-class.

Once my Martial was 60, I chose Weapon Enhancement.

Will you enhance your weapon? It will cost 300 points.

I did this to check the cost. The price had risen from 200 points to 300. That’d be because I was now in D-class. I had 300 points left at the moment.

Hrm, what should I do...?

My Martial’s hit 60 for now, so do I want to buy a skill? They’re pretty indispensable on the battlefield. They let you use special abilities, so having a number of them and using them effectively will save my hide in dangerous situations.

Of course, weapon enhancement’s not a bad idea either. The stronger my weapons, the less likely I am to die. Of course, I expect enhancing Daitoren to eat a ton of points.

Daitoren Lv.10/10

Will you enhance this item? It will cost 5,000 points.

I checked, just in case. I could only laugh. I moved over to Purchase Skills without hesitation.

The people of this world use a special power called mana to execute their skills. The more powerful a commander, the more special techniques they tend to have. Obviously, there are some guys who are just strong without skills too. I can’t use mana because I’m not from this world. But in my case, I can use skills through the system.

Attack Skills

Defense Skills

Special Skills

There are three types of skills. I could probably use an attack skill right now. Offense is the best defense.

Will you purchase an attack skill? It will cost 200 points.

I bought the skill, and the message instantly refreshed.

You have gained a skill.

Sweep Lv.1

Works on enemies with a Martial from 0 to 40

Massacres enemies within a 2-meter radius

Costs 50 points per usage

It created a basic skill that would sweep away large numbers of enemy soldiers in one go.

This’ll be really useful on the battlefield.

It cost 50 points, and I had 100 points left, so I could use it twice.

Two times isn’t going to save my life. That’s why leveling up is going to be so vitally important. Anyway, I’m the only one in this world who can level up, which means I’m also the only one who can rapidly raise my Martial score.

That was the kind of world I’d been transferred to all alone.

*

The enemy withdrew, and I was victorious. There were fewer than two thousand survivors on the opposing side, and we were able to wipe out much of their manpower on the mountain roads.

Having lived through all this, Bente had drunk himself stupid. Not that he was too inebriated to keep his hands from pouring yet another glass down his throat. His face burned bright red now.

“Hundredman! You’ve had more than enough!” one of his subordinates shouted as he shook Bente’s shoulder, unable to just sit back and watch any longer.

“If I can’t drink on a day like this, then when can I? Ah hah hah hah!” Bente responded, his words slurred with inebriation and punctuated by a boisterous laugh. Then stripped his clothes off and went totally wild.

“Hey, old man. Get this. Our lord wiped those Naruyan bastards right the hell out. He’s no longer anything like the lord you all used to know. He took down one of the Ten Commanders of Naruya with one blow! Gah hah hah hah!”

Bente started putting on a nude show. His subordinates rushed over, risking their lives to stop him. Word of Bente’s behavior would spread throughout Eintorian.

“Did you hear? We were almost in big trouble.”

“The Naruyans invaded again, right?”

“They say the lord stopped over ten thousand men.”

“My son saw the battle, you know. Never would have thought our lord had it in him...”

“I heard it was fifty thousand, not ten.”

“He stopped fifty thousand men with only five thousand?”

It was mainly Bente who exaggerated the story. Thanks to his bragging, the story of the lord’s exploits rapidly spread throughout Eintorian. They’d thought their lord could do nothing but fool around and make his people suffer, and yet now they learned he was strong enough to halt an enemy invasion.

If he’d lost, the Naruyans would have plundered all the towns and cities inside his domain, killing the men, and raping the women. It was a vicious cycle that had repeated time and again.

Infamous as he was for his past behavior, fending off this invasion undoubtedly did wonders for the lord’s reputation with his people.

*

I just won the battle. I’m sure having protected the people will leave a strong impression on them, but nothing else has changed. My reputation as a villainous lord hasn’t been wiped away.

I need to take the people’s opinion of me into account, since it’s going to be vitally important as I develop this domain.

I lay in bed thinking about this stuff, and just as I began to yawn—suddenly, the window shattered as an intruder burst through it into the room and leveled a sword at me.

This came out of nowhere, and I hurriedly got out of the way as I activated the system and checked the person’s information.

If I had to guess, someone might have sent an assassin after me.

Euracia Rozern

Age: 20

Martial: 87

Intelligence: 57

Command: 95

But I was completely wrong. My intruder was a beautiful woman with blonde hair. I knew Euracia Rozern’s name well. The game’s history called her a hero. But what was she doing, bursting into my bedchambers?

Martial of 87. Command of 95. Her stats were top-tier in this game.

The unexpected guest kept her sword pointed at me as she asked, “You’re Erhin Eintorian?”

It was a question she knew the answer to. Given she’d been able to target my room with pinpoint accuracy, she must have investigated already.

“What if I am...?”

“Then you have to die.”

I have to die?

Who’d just go along with that?

“And why should I have to die?”

“Because you’re a villainous lord who makes his people suffer. I believe that’s reason enough.”

A villainous lord, huh? Yeah, that’d be true. If I were the same Erhin Eintorian from the game, that is. But I’m not.

“You’re making a fundamental mistake here. I’m no villainous lord.”

I gave a disinterested shrug despite her blade being mere inches from my nose. No matter how this played out, I wasn’t going to die.

With a Martial of 87, she was stronger than Randall, making her one of the mightiest people on this continent—but she was still less powerful than I was when using the bonus. I could also knock her out easily with Crush.

“Not a villainous lord, you say? You’d claim that, in spite of how far word has spread of your misdeeds? How shameless,” she said, her brow twitching.

Her expression remained as cold as ever. Yet her long, blonde hair and beautiful countenance oozed nobility. The cold look suited her captivating eyes, so beautiful they would make you gulp. If I kept staring into them, I was going to fall in love. Wait, no, this isn’t the time for that.

Right now, I needed to escape the threat of her blade. She might not be a danger to me, but it’d be hard to talk with her sword pressed up against my throat, right?

If she’d just settle down, I knew she could be reasoned with. The game called her a hero, after all. I summoned Daitoren to my right hand, preparing for battle, just in case it came to that.

“What kind of villainous lord would risk his life on the battlefield to protect his people? If you were in Eintorian, then there’s no way you didn’t hear of that battle, right?”

“Weren’t you fighting to save your own hide?”

Yeah, that’s one way to look at it.

“But it gave you pause, right? If it didn’t, you could have slammed that blade through my neck without stopping to have this little chat. Isn’t that right, Miss Intruder?”

Her info didn’t tell me anything about her personality, but I tried this line of questioning for a start.

If she intended to kill me immediately, she’d have run me through as soon as she entered the room.

It seemed there was something on her mind, as she stepped back and bit her lower lip.

“It was a good strategy, even if you are a villainous lord. Good enough that it made me want to learn from you. But knowing the way you exploit your people, I have no intention of having you teach me!”

“Hold on!” I shouted, raising my voice as I attempted to clear up this misunderstanding which wasn’t a misunderstanding at all. “Listen, I’m not an evil lord! Have you, personally, ever seen me exploit my people?”

She paused a moment. “I’ve heard things, here and there. Your infamy is known even in Naruya.”

“Yeah, and they’re wrong about me. If you want to argue about justice, then why not see for yourself? If you rush ahead like this, you’ll be making a horrible mistake.”

Her brow furrowed when I asked if she’d seen it herself.

“Well, no, I haven’t seen it directly, but...” She trailed off.

Sensing my chance to win this argument, I loudly countered, “See? I told you so. Watch me for yourself, and if you see that I’m a villainous lord, then kill me. Why not give it a week? I think you ought to act on what you see, not just what you’ve heard. Not everything you hear is true, right? I mean, there could always be false information mixed in.”

I made this suggestion rather than immediately use Crush on her because of her stats and the portrayal of her in the game’s history.

I dunno what she’s doing here, but this is an opportunity. I want to get her on my side if I can.

“If, after you’ve watched me, you decide that I really am a villainous lord, then I’ll offer up my head without any resistance.”

“And if you’re not...?”

“Then we both go back to our ordinary lives. I’ll expect an earnest apology for this misunderstanding though, of course.”

I knew I couldn’t make her my subordinate immediately, so I decided to propose this one-week period as a way of keeping her tied down.

First thing to do is set up the event flag. This isn’t a dating sim, but event flags are still important when it comes to recruiting personnel. So, yeah, I need to set things up for the future.

“Very well. There’s some logic to what you’re saying, so I will see for myself.”

With that declaration, she exited through the window, even though the room had a perfectly good door.

But then she came right back in—through the window, of course.

“I’m sorry... I don’t suppose you’d happen to have any spare rooms, would you?” she asked, her expression remaining as impassive as ever.

*

Martial: 60

Intelligence: ??

Command: ??

Faction: Eintorian Domain, Lord

Faction Opinion: 40

I was an ordinary human being. I could use the system and bonus to raise my Martial, but that did nothing for my physical stamina. And so, having been up all night fighting, I was spent. After parting ways with Euracia, I went to bed and passed right out. By the time I woke up again, a whole day had gone by.

Also, I wasn’t sure why, but my Opinion score had risen from 10 to 40. I didn’t recall doing anything special. Well, okay, I did win the war. I guess that meant that, even with my reputation as a villainous lord, I could win some acclaim by fending off an invasion? If the invasion succeeded, the people of my domain would have been killed or taken prisoner, so, yeah, it made sense that it would improve their opinion of me somewhat.

Anyway, the key thing was that Eintorian didn’t fall.

I’d survived. Now I had to figure out how to live as Erhin. I also had no idea how the Naruya Kingdom would act now that I’d rewritten history. Would they still try to force through the invasion from the north, like they did in the game?

That remained to be seen.

I’m not going to be able to see the butterfly effect of the changes I’ve made right away. I’ll develop my domain until I can confirm what the situation is. In order to clear the game, I’ll need to unite the land under my rule.

“Head Chamberlain.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Could I ask you to bring me all documents concerning the financial state of the domain and our tax rate?”

“Our financial documents, sir?”

“Yeah. I need to study up... What’re you staring at me for? Hurry up and go,” I said, urging the head chamberlain to get on with it because he was gawking instead of moving.

“Yes, sir! At once!” He turned and was soon out of sight. It was clear he’d wanted to say something, but what? I decided to ask him when he returned with the materials.

“Did you have something you wanted to say to me, Head Chamberlain?”

“No. Not at all.”

Once the head chamberlain set all the materials down, he and the other chamberlains bowed their heads and took their leave.

Was I imagining it? Well, whatever.

I decided to start by examining the tax records for the domain.

This takes priority for now.

I needed to get a grasp of the current situation if I was going to rehabilitate this domain after the villainous Erhin allowed it to rot. The writing wasn’t in Japanese, but I was mysteriously able to read it, and quite quickly too. That was probably the system at work.

“Wow... I’ve got no words for this. He sure was a villain, I’ll give him that.”

I found myself shaking my head as I looked over the ledger.

This is the agricultural era, when farming is everything. Yet he was taxing the farmers in his domain eighty percent. This is just atrocious. I ought to make it so my people aren’t struggling to survive, at least. Taking eighty percent of their harvest is not normal.

In the Runan Kingdom, the tax rate set by law was fifty percent. And of that fifty percent collected, twenty percent was offered to the king. However, in Eintorian, they were currently taxing eighty percent of everything.

It’s the domain’s tax officer who’s been doing it. One of my vassals, of course.

“It seems the rumors that you’re a villainous lord were true.”

As I was perusing the documents, Euracia, who had been reading over my shoulder since who-knows-when, pointed her sword at my neck.

Is she a ninja? The study window’s open, so she must’ve come in through there. I was so fixated on the documents I didn’t notice. This is clearly a problem.

The system may have made me stronger, but I’m still very much an ordinary person. I need to be planning ahead for surprise attacks. I mean, I trust her for now, but still.

“Uh, no, that’s not how it is. In fact, I was letting the retainers who’ve been robbing the people go free up until now so that I could round up the ringleaders. When I inherited the domain from my father, I played villainous lord so that I could find these kinds of scoundrels and then bring justice to my lands by eliminating them.”

“You’re making excuses again...!”

“Ultimately, what we have here are just words on paper. You still haven’t seen anything for yourself, have you? The man who’s been at the head of all this extortion, the tax officer? I intend to investigate him.”

“You claim it wasn’t on your orders, then?”

“Of course not. Swear to God.”

Yeah. I’m totally innocent. The problem is this Viscount Bold Den. He’s been extorting the people alongside Erhin. It’s clear he’s one of the retainers I ought to remove first. Anyway, I’ve got to meet him and see what he’s like.

“Head Chamberlain.”

“Yes, Master.”

I called the head chamberlain back in. If I had one suspicion about the man, it was that while I initially thought he was frightened of me, he didn’t seem to actually be. But he did do everything he could to curry my favor. Well, he was fast and capable, so I wasn’t going to let that bother me.

“Could you call Viscount Bold for me? I have questions for him.”

“I’ll summon him at once.”

Obviously, the head chamberlain took a sidewards glance at Euracia, but he held his tongue and left without asking anything.

“Are you planning to stay there the whole time?” I asked her once the head steward left the room.

Euracia shook her head, then vanished from the window once more.

Seriously, the woman acts like a total ninja.

Also, I had asked her if she planned to stick around because I was asking if she wanted to meet Viscount Bold with me, but now that she’d taken off, it didn’t really matter.

I can’t tell what she’s thinking.

Soon, Viscount Bold arrived in my study. Seeing him for the first time, he just looked like a regular fat guy. As for his base stats they were, uh, kind of terrible.

“You called, Your Excellency?”

This old guy is one of the key figures who’ve been tormenting the people of this domain? Was it on Erhin’s orders, or did he put Erhin up to it? That’s the key thing. Was Erhin the only villain, or were they both evil?

“It seems you were victorious in the battle with Naruya. I should have expected no less from you, my lord!”

Viscount Bold suddenly started bowing and scraping, then moved on to showering me with praise.

“To think, a lord taking to the field of battle himself! Oh, I simply cannot describe—”

“Anyways,” I interrupted, unable to take any more of his obsequious babbling. “I want to talk to you about the taxes.”

“Yes, Your Excellency. What about the taxes?”

“Can we raise them further? I’ll be needing funds for my lobbying efforts in the capital, after all.”

“Ah, yes... I believe that it might become problematic if you were to raise them any further, my lord.”

Oh. He’s going to push back on that, is he?

“We’ve been exploiting the people with all of the different taxes you’ve invented before now, haven’t we? What harm can one more do?”

“Well...”

“Take care of it for me, Viscount Bold.”

“But we are already bleeding them for copious amounts of money, I’m not sure they have any more to extract...”

“Oh, I see. Well, in that case, I suppose there’s nothing we can do. I’ll have to reconsider.”

“I should have known you would be so quick to understand, my esteemed lord!”

Maybe Viscount Bold’s not such a bad guy? Was Erhin the only villain here?

“You are free to go.”

“Yes, my lord.”

It’s too soon to make a call one way or the other. I need more evidence.

I decided to start by looking through the documents again.

Yeah, these taxes were all from Erhin and Viscount Bold scheming together. Viscount Bold was definitely the one who came up with all the different tax categories. After all the collaborating he’s done, it’d be hasty to assume he’s a good guy just because he opposed raising the taxes further. It was a mistake for him to help with it in the first place. But by that logic, wouldn’t a good person have no other recourse but to say the right thing and be jailed for it?

I was starting to confuse myself. It was possible that the guy was just good at doing what he had to in order to get by in the world.

I’m getting a headache. Probably because I’ve been staring at paperwork all day.

“Head Chamberlain! I’ll be using the bath!”

So, I decided to take a bath. Baths are the best. I soaked for a while to soothe my exhausted body. With my mood brightened somewhat, my headache started to subside by the time I finished dinner. That’s how things were when I headed back to my bedroom.

If this were just an ordinary game, then I wouldn’t have so much to worry about. In a game, you can always just do things over. But here, one mistake could put me in an unsalvageable situation. That’s why I’m getting headaches from stressing over things.

Damn it!

I walked through the darkness and sat down on my bed as I brooded over my current situation. As I did...

Squish.

...I thought I felt my hand touch something incredibly soft and pulled back without even meaning to.

“Huh...?”

I looked around the bed with surprise. There was clearly someone there. I’d just felt myself touching them. And in a rather soft, bouncy part of their anatomy, at that. I found my resolve and pulled back the covers.

I was halfway to triggering the Attack command when I saw who was under there and froze up. There were two naked women lying in my bed.

Yes, two beauties, without a scrap of clothing on either of them. Both of them were incredibly busty too. I backed away, unable to cope with the situation. If I kept looking, I was going to get a nosebleed.

“Y-Your Lordship?”

The women sat up and looked at me. If anything, they seemed shocked by my reaction. The way their bosoms bounced as they moved was driving me crazy. Thankfully, they both hid themselves under the covers again out of embarrassment. It got their breasts out of sight at least, but they still looked too sexy. Wait, no, no, no, no!

“Head Chamberlaiiin!”

“Yes, Master.”

I summoned the head chamberlain once more. It felt like I’d been doing that all day today, but this time I really needed him. I don’t think I’d ever been more desperately in need of his assistance.

“You called?”

“What are these women doing here?!”

“I prepared them for you, as per usual. ‘Have two naked women ready for me in bed.’ Everything is as you instructed. Tonight’s women were provided by Viscount Bold, of course. He said he was confident that you would be satisfied with them, and left with the most boisterous of laughs...”

As per usual? Oh... I totally forgot. That’s right. I’m Erhin. Erhin had been drowning in women. He was even captured fooling around with them on the day Eintorian fell and he got decapitated. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

But still, he was doing this kind of thing every night? With a woman on each side of him? Sighhhh. Just how long has he... No, no, that’s not the point.

So, he’s been calling women to his room like this all the time? It sounds like Viscount Bold sent these women to me in an effort to curry my favor, though. I can’t go acting like Erhin did in the game right when I’m trying to shed his reputation as a villainous lord. If I was going to embrace it, then that would be another story, but I’m not going to.

Of course, the one good bit of news is that Viscount Bold sent me these women, so that’s proof that he’s not a decent guy.

“Head Chamberlain. You may go for now.”

“S-Sir...?”

“What is it? You look like you have something to say.”

For just a moment, a look of mild surprise crossed the head chamberlain’s face. Normally, he just nodded, so this was the first time he’d reacted to something I’d said this way. That didn’t stop him from quickly putting his poker face back on, though.

“N-No, not a word!” he stammered, and then rushed out of the room.

What was that about? Well, I’ve got other things to deal with at the moment.

I turned my eyes back to the two women. Now that my excitement over their unexpected nakedness had subsided, I noticed they were trembling beneath the blankets. They’d likely been brought here and stripped at least half against their will, like in the absurd old custom of offering virgin sacrifices to the gods.

I kept my distance, so as not to agitate them unnecessarily, and asked my questions from a distance.

“Just calm down for now. Who are you two?”

“W-Well...”

The two of them exchanged glances before opening their mouths almost in unison.

“I am Nera from the village of Melan.”

“I am Nara from the village of Yurta.”

Then, after giving their names, they burst into tears. I’ll bet that would have only served to please the original Erhin more.

“Viscount Bold sent you here, yes?”

“Yes...”

“And you meekly did as he said. Do you have any idea what kind of place this is?”

“Yes. We know...”

What’re they crying for? That’s not the answer I wanted to hear. Looks like I need to change the question.

I approached the bed.

“You two haven’t heard the rumors, have you?”

The two started trembling as I walked closer.

“R-Rumors...?”

“The rumors that say Lord Erhin’s a sadist who gets off on tormenting women as they cry. Your tears are only going to get me more riled up.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed they were lying in, and gently grabbed the woman closest to me by the head.

“And the rumors that he’s a real cruel bastard. The kind who’d violate you in front of your parents to see them suffer, and then kill all of you. Well, is that tasteless or what?”

“N-No!”

“Y-You wouldn’t...! P-Please! Spare us! We beg of you!”

The women shook their heads and wailed.

“You’re going to tell me everything Viscount Bold told you before having you come offer yourselves to me. And if you don’t, I’ll have your parents summoned immediately. Hopefully, you understand that I’m far more terrifying than Viscount Bold ever could be. Got it?”

Word of my infamy had spread far and wide. The two horrified women looked at one another, overcome by tears, until a small, weak murmur escaped.

“B-But... But...”

“I don’t know what he’s threatened you with, but I’m more than capable of protecting your lives. If you’ll tell me the truth, that is. Or would you rather we enjoy a fun night together? Who’s up for a mad display of blood and screams? Heh heh!”

“Eeeeek! N-Nooooo!”

“If we talk, will you...will you really spare us?”

“I’ll keep my word, but you’re going to have to choose between me and Viscount Bold. This is your only chance. Even a child could tell which of us holds more power.”

The two of them cast their eyes around evasively until, finally, one of them cracked and confessed the truth.

“O-Okay. I’ll talk... Viscount Bold swore us to silence, saying he’d kill our families if we didn’t do as he said. He also told us to...to make you drink this once you fell asleep!”

Huh?

The woman produced a small vial from somewhere on her person and then prostrated herself before me.

What is this...? Poison? No way.

“P-Please, spare me. I beg of you... I don’t want to go through that hell. Please, just kill me and get it over with. No, please, spare me! I don’t want to die!”

Well, damn.

Honestly, I never had any intention of sleeping with these girls, so there was no way they could have slipped me the poison, but that was still a close call. And here I’d just been hoping to shake them up a bit and see what information I could get out of them on Viscount Bold.

So, he wasn’t just sending me women to curry my favor. He was plotting to poison me all along?

“That’s not poison, I hope?”

“P-Please, spare us. We were told it’s not poison—just a nutritional supplement—but it would render you unconscious for a few days...and then, once he became lord, he would rescue us.”

Yeah, as if he’d ever help them. Given all they’ve said, that’s definitely poison. And the lethal kind, at that. Once they knocked me off, the first order of business would probably be for him to kill these women as assassins. That way they couldn’t divulge their puppet master.

“Sigh... Not this again.”

That’s when it happened.

I felt the tip of her sword at my throat again.

To tell you the truth, I was waiting for it from the beginning this time. There was no way she wouldn’t show up. Yeah, this was a scene she couldn’t possibly miss, and somehow still misunderstood.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to conclude I’m the evil one here.”

If she’s been watching me this whole time, the misunderstanding should have been cleared up.

When I pushed her about it, the cold steel was retracted.

Then, standing beside me, she asked the women, “Is Viscount Bold the mastermind?”

When they nodded in response, she turned to go. I grabbed her by the arm.

“I’ve kept quiet until now because I needed decisive proof. Are you going to spoil it for me? Your task is to watch me. You can make your judgment after that.”

“Is that right?”

She came to a stop. Fortunately, it seemed I’d persuaded her, so I shouted, “Head Chamberlain!” in the direction of the door. We needed to make sure the two women were protected.

The head chamberlain soon rushed to my side.

“Master! Is something the matter?”

“I want you to protect these two women. It appears that Viscount Bold was trying to assassinate me.”

“M-My word!” the head chamberlain exclaimed, blinking in surprise.

“First thing’s first. I need you to protect their parents as well, to make sure the viscount doesn’t do anything to them. Oh, and don’t go letting women into my bedroom anymore. My womanizing days are over now. If I were to continue the way I have been, my dreams of helping our domain recover will never come true.”

“Come again...?”

I seemed to have surprised the head chamberlain again, but in a different way from last time.

“Fooling around with women is not how a lord should be. You understand what I’m saying, yes?”

“Well... Er, um, I’ll see to your request at once!”

“And one more thing. Pass a message to Hadin for me. He’s to bring the domain’s forces to the front of the castle immediately.”

It’s a good thing I changed the commander of the barracks and secured my control over the military. Looking at Hadin’s record, he’s the polar opposite of guys like Berk or Viscount Bold. In a way, maybe the viscount resorted to this kind of skulduggery because I suddenly assumed control of the military?

Well, even if they’d been able to stay in control of it, there’s no one in the Eintorian Domain who’s a match for my Martial when I use the bonus. That includes this woman here too.

“You know, I’m impressed. You did well to restrain yourself earlier, when I was threatening the two of them.”

“I was so furious that I was about to burst in on you, but then I went and dropped my sword in my anger. By the time I had picked it up, the conversation had turned in a strange direction, so I decided it was better to keep quiet and listen.”

“What? So it was only out of sheer coincidence?”

“It’s a good thing too!” she exclaimed, then, murmuring to herself, repeated, “Yes, a good thing,” with a firm nod. Her face remained impassive, but there was conviction in that nod.

*

Hadin led the domain’s forces to surround the residence of Viscount Bold, easily putting down his personal forces. When I entered the house and had the viscount brought before me, he acted almost as if he were blameless.

“What is going on here, Your Excellency?! Why would you do this to me?!”

“Playing dumb, are you? The women you sent me have already confessed everything.”

“N-No!” Viscount Bold went pale as a sheet for a second, but quickly regained his calm demeanor and shook his head. “This is a misunderstanding! Why, I would never attempt to poison you, my lord! They must be the ones who plotted all this!”

“Poison me? I believe I only said they had confessed to everything?”

“...”

Caught in a lie, the viscount fell silent.

He looks aghast at his own ineptitude. Not a surprise, given that he just confessed to the crime without meaning to. But, hey, now I can extirpate the cancer that’s been infecting my domain, so that’s nice.

“W-Well... I-I heard a rumor about it!”

“Even if you weren’t responsible, I was already thinking there’s something fishy about you. Now, stay quiet while we investigate.”

“This is tyranny! Hey, unhand me!”

Obviously, he didn’t stay quiet, and instead decided to start throwing a tantrum.

“Bureaucrats, you comb through the Bold Estate’s ledger and other documents. And Hadin, you work with the soldiers to find and confiscate all of the viscount’s assets!”

“Yes, my lord!”

As my men began turning his house upside down, I could see Viscount Bold’s pallor getting worse and worse.

“E-Enough of this! Begone from my house this instant!”

In short order, we had confiscated a number of gold bars and other treasures, as well as the deed to the property. Other than that, there was a warehouse full of grain, and more luxury goods than I could possibly count.

And so, once we checked Viscount Bold’s ledger against the one in the castle, we found a number of discrepancies. In short, that meant the viscount had been embezzling a substantial amount of tax money.

There was a reason he’d pushed back against me when I said we should raise the taxes. He’d not just been taxing the people at eighty percent—he’d been taking more from them in secret, bringing the tax rate to over ninety percent. And those extra taxes had all been going directly into his own pocket.

Yet, despite all this heavy taxation, the people never revolted because of the fear instilled in them by a powerful class system. If they rebelled and killed their lord, the king would get involved, and that could only mean their deaths.

Even so, if taxes this heavy had been leveled against them for a long time, something would have happened already—but Erhin had only become lord recently, so discontent was still just beginning to mount. Or rather, his father had only just died, and Viscount Bold hadn’t started exploiting the people until after that.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-Your Excellency!” Hadin stammered, spittle flying from his lips, as he raced over to me. The way he looked at me had changed since the war. I could sense the respect in his eyes.

“What’re you so worked up about?”

“Look at this. It’s a secret letter from Viscount Bold to the Naruya Kingdom!”

Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s something to get worked up about. Nothing I hadn’t anticipated, though, of course. He’d need outside support to become lord after he killed me. So, I guess that means he used the embezzled funds to lay the groundwork for that with the Naruya Kingdom, not the Runan Kingdom? Was he hoping to offer the domain up to the Naruyans in exchange for them making him lord?

“So, to summarize... Viscount Bold raised the tax rate to eighty percent, but still wasn’t satisfied and continued secretly exploiting the people for more. Then, on top of that, he was conspiring with a hostile nation?” I said as I looked down at the secret letter.

Hadin nodded profusely.

“Heh heh! I see how it is! Have the viscount thrown in prison for assassination, tax theft, and attempting to overthrow the state!”

Even if I was mad at him, the guy was still a noble. Also, this wasn’t my country—I only ruled a domain within the Runan Kingdom—so I was going to need the king’s permission in order to execute him for plotting a civil war.

Well, with all this evidence, even the corrupt Runan Kingdom is going to have to hand down the death sentence. Because, everything else aside, his collaboration with the Naruya Kingdom is a serious case of treason. Of course, I’ll need to make up a story where it was all Viscount Bold’s doing, and the newly appointed Lord Erhin knew nothing of it.

“And, in accordance with the laws of the kingdom, all of the assets he embezzled will be returned to the domain!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Make it known throughout the domain that any vassal of mine who makes the people suffer like this will receive the same punishment. You are to report all of Viscount Bold’s schemes to His Highness.”

With Viscount Bold disposed of and his assets seized...

Domain income increased.

+15,000,000 runan.

The income of my domain had just risen massively.

The runan’s the currency of the Runan Kingdom. That’s fifteen million runan, and it costs ten million a year for the domain’s upkeep. Which means I’ve got enough to run the domain for a year with money left over.

The current assets of Eintorian amounted to roughly thirty million runan, and once I added Viscount Bold’s fortune to that...

45,000,000 runan.

...was the sum total.

That’s a lot of money for one person, but not a whole lot for funding an entire domain. If I could put it all towards managing the domain that would be one thing, but when you consider I also need to develop the army to prepare for future wars, it’s a piddling sum.

Even just drafting men costs money. And there’re limits to how many I can draft too. If the domain’s population is small enough, it may not even be possible to raise the size of our levies. If I build a domain that’s easy to live in, word will spread and population will drift here from elsewhere, so I need to develop the farmlands even if it ends up costing a lot to do it.

Which means money is everything when preparing for war.

Obviously, the additional funds will help a lot. Because what my domain needs most right now is Manpower. We lost a lot of soldiers in the battle the other day. The current size of my domain’s forces is about three thousand. That’s nowhere near enough to defend it.

Will you raise troops?

Current recruitment limit: 15,000 men

I activated the system just to check what drafting troops would cost, and tried setting the value at one thousand men.

This will cost 2,000,000 runan.

If a thousand men costs two million runan, then ten thousand men will cost twenty thousand runan. Yeah, that’s as obscenely expensive as I expected. But it’s an investment I should make. If I’m going to put together an elite force, I need at least ten thousand men as a starting point. And when I consider my current finances and population, ten thousand men is exactly what’s realistic.

But Opinion’s going to drop the moment I draft them. I need to be prepared for that.

“Hadin.”

“Yes, Your Excellency?”

“The Naruya Kingdom’s invasion has left us with no choice but to restore and increase our manpower.”

“I agree,” Hadin nodded.

“I’m thinking of drafting ten thousand men, and I’d like you to be the one to train them.”

“Ten thousand, so suddenly?”

“If it’s rations you’re concerned about, we’ve secured enough supplies from the assets we confiscated here. Our top priority has to be defending the domain. I assume the people don’t want to become slaves to Naruya, right?”

“Of course not. If you’ll trust me with the task, then I’ll work myself to the bone building a strong army! I’ve been saying that since before I was dismissed as commander...”

Hadin had been about to say more, but he suddenly fell silent. He must’ve felt he was prattling.

Well, considering Hadin’s Command score, I think I can more than trust him to handle it.

“Okay. I’ll trust you. Enlist those ten thousand men at once, and train them thoroughly, along with the existing three thousand!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

No need to hesitate on drafting troops, then.

Will you use 20,000,000 runan?

The Eintorian Domain’s Manpower changed by +10,000.

The domain’s forces’ Preparation decreased by 10.

The domain’s forces’ Morale decreased by 20.

The domain’s Opinion decreased by 20.

The people’s opinion of me had been improving a little, but it now took a precipitous drop.

There’s no way of avoiding that with a sudden mass mobilization, even if we did just have a war with the Naruya Kingdom. Especially when you consider that the sudden boost in Opinion was representing their gratitude over me preventing the invasion, not a change in the way they saw their lord.

On top of that, half the domain’s funds are gone in an instant. Sigh... Just goes to show that money’s important in this world too. Incredibly important. I can’t keep ruling like a villainous lord, but if I adjust the taxes to fifty percent, it will eat into my funding. It’s good to be rid of Viscount Bold, but there’s still no end of problems to deal with.

To that end, the need to raise the people’s opinion of me was becoming a new and pressing concern.

*

If I’m going to conquer the land, then ten thousand men isn’t going to cut it. But they’ll have to do for now. There are all sorts of limitations to deal with. For one thing, I don’t have the population to raise more. As a dangerous border territory, Eintorian’s not that populous. Which means there’s more than a few things I’ll need to do before I can unite the land beneath me.

Where do I even start? I’m short of personnel, money, and levels. In order to develop the domain, I’ll need to raise my level first. There’s a mountain of things to do, and no preset route to take, which makes it even harder to decide.

I returned to the castle, my head hazy with thought, and headed straight to my bedroom. I’d been up working all night instead of resting, so I felt like I was going to nod off the moment I lay down.

And yet, at that moment, the head chamberlain, who had been walking behind me, suddenly stepped in front of me and then got down on the floor, kowtowing.

“Master...”

This was unexpected.

What’s he groveling for all of a sudden?

“What are you doing, Head Chamberlain?”

“Well... I’ve heard that you will be dismissing Viscount Bold and reforming the tax system!”

“Uh, yeah, that’s the plan. But what’s it got to do with you groveling in front of me?”

Don’t tell me he had ties to Viscount Bold. Is that it, and he’s turning himself in due to a guilty conscience?

“I believe you also said earlier that you would end your womanizing ways and devote yourself to restoring the domain...”

“What of it?”

Instead of answering the question, the head chamberlain just looked up at me.

“Were you doubting me because of my sudden change in behavior?” I asked, thinking that might be it, and scratched the back of my head.

It was true that the head chamberlain should’ve had ample opportunity to notice the discrepancies between me and Erhin.

“I’ve been thinking about this since I was a kid. I figured I ought to experience all sorts of things. By acting the villain, I could weed out the other scoundrels, and that would allow me to revitalize the domain. That’s why I’ve endured until now. Also, if word spread that I was incompetent, people would start to underestimate me. That’s exactly what I wanted. It’s what let me pull out a victory against the Naruya Kingdom. Now that I’ve shown my true colors in the recent war, I intend to keep them on display permanently. I’m done deceiving all of you!”

“I’ve felt the great change in you of late, Master. It’s absolutely moving... If you wouldn’t mind, would you tell me what your aspiration is?” the head chamberlain asked, still on his knees and making no attempt to stand back up. I couldn’t imagine he had any ties to Viscount Bold. He’d been serving since the previous lord’s reign, and came from a house that had been loyal to the House of Eintorian for generations.

“My aspiration, huh? I guess that’s gotta be restoring the Eintorian Kingdom. My plan is to build a domain where everyone can live lives of plenty.”

“Ohhh, Master! It is just as the former lord said! He told me that, as you were his son, surely the day would come when you would carry on his will...!”

There’s no need to cry over it.

Looks like he bought my weird excuse. Of course, the way I act may have changed, but my voice and appearance haven’t. So it’s not realistic for him to imagine I’m a totally different person. I’m sure he’s never even considered that sort of supernatural explanation.

Well, that works out fine for me.

“Oh, get up already. What if the other servants see you prostrating yourself like that?”

I put an arm around the head chamberlain and helped him to his feet. Then he bowed his head to me again, saying, “In fact, there is something that the former lord told me I was to give you once you became a man who could carry on your ancestors’ will. It has always been on my mind... I’ve longed for the day when I could finally give it to you!”

Something the former lord left for Erhin? It looks like he had his own concerns about his son’s profligate behavior. That’s gotta be why he didn’t give it to him directly, and instead left the head chamberlain with instructions to do so when Erhin started to show better judgment.

But what is it? His last will and testament? Or maybe a memento?

“You have something for me from my father?”

“Yes. This way. Finally, the burden is lifted from my shoulders...”

The head chamberlain began walking and indicated I should follow, so that’s what I did. He headed down the stairs, and we didn’t stop on the first floor but continued to the basement. I saw the big iron door that led to the place where I’d previously obtained the bonus, but the head chamberlain didn’t stop there. It looked like our destination was elsewhere.

“This appears to be a dead end?” I said, describing exactly what I saw.

The head chamberlain shook his head. “It is true that the hall ends here, but there is a secret to this place that only the former lord and I knew about,” he explained, holding a pendant he had been wearing up to the wall.

As he did, a giant mana circle—something like a magic circle—appeared.

They usually showed up when you activated a skill in this world. When the mana circle vanished, the wall did too, and behind it there was a set of stairs heading down.

“This way, Master,” the head chamberlain said, calmly descending the steps.

There was a place like this hidden in the lord’s castle?

I stared, absolutely speechless, at the space that had suddenly appeared for some time before hurrying after the head chamberlain. It was a pretty long staircase.

It’s so dark here. Pitch black.

The only thing shining was the steps, which made it seem pretty indisputable that the space had something to do with mana. In front of me, the head chamberlain finally came to a stop.

Looks like we’ve reached the bottom.

Once I moved up to stand beside the head chamberlain, he pointed at what was in front of us.

“It is over there, Master. The fortune that your family has amassed in order to restore their nation in all the time since the Eintorian Kingdom fell to other states, reducing them to mere counts of a border province!”

I tried to look in that direction, but it was so brilliant that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Squinting until I adjusted to the blinding light, I was finally able to see exactly what was there—a massive fortune in gold and treasure.

“So, basically... You’re telling me the House of Eintorian has been dreaming of restoring their kingdom for generations...and these are the war funds for it?”

“That is what I was told. Please, understand how the former lord must have felt, Master. If you will, then I could die right now with no regrets!”

Could it get any better than this? Who knew a character like Erhin had this kind of massive fortune. It’s going to be real convenient when it comes to covering the costs of my conquest.

I smiled despite myself.

This changes all sorts of things. One of my worries is essentially resolved now. The need to both manage the domain and prepare for war, the need to amass strength... This can more than pay for all of it!

I stared at the treasure for a time, thinking. Then, accepting the pendant from the head chamberlain, I became its absolute owner.

The best thing about this secret place is that, even if another country were to seize this domain, they couldn’t get in here without the pendant I now hold.

If I have the servants move the treasure out of here, then its existence will become public, but only I, the one with the pendant, can get into the place where it’s hidden.

I let out a cheer of glee before ordering a team of service to spend the rest of the night carrying out one tenth of the treasure.

The total sum of the treasure came to roughly a billion runan. Combined with the domain’s existing funds, that came to... 1,025,000,000 runan. If I used it to develop the domain, the population would grow, allowing me to recruit more soldiers, and they would eventually provide military power.

The House of Eintorian was originally a royal house. That’s why they had been preparing for generations, raising war funds in order to restore their kingdom. With my funding secured, a plan immediately came to mind—a plan for raising Opinion. I called Euracia in order to put it into action.

Hey, if I can put her to use, then I should, right?

“Now that the guy who was exploiting them’s gone, I need to improve the people’s opinion of me. I’ve gotten my hands on some money too.”

Obviously, the fortune left by my ancestors is far more massive than what I seized from Viscount Bold, but there’s no need to go out of my way to reveal that.

“You’re going to raise their opinion of you?”

“That’s right. In light of the situation, I need to raise popular sentiment, and use the power of it to train more soldiers to resist the invasion. Is that not what a lord ought to do in these chaotic times we live in?”

When I turned the question on her, Euracia quietly nodded. I could probably take that as agreement.

“I’m heading to the central plaza to do that. Will you come?”

“I will. I’m interested.”

Euracia followed me there.

I’d given the head chamberlain his orders in advance, so there was already a large crowd gathered in the plaza. Euracia and I stood before the people together, and I announced my very important new political strategy.

“My people, who have been tormented by Viscount Bold, know that all of the evil you have suffered to this point were by his design, and I merely acquiesced in order to gather evidence of it. But now, the evil one has been captured. To apologize for what you’ve all been through, I hereby exempt you from all taxes for the next year!”

I’ll improve the people’s impression of me by pinning all of the crimes on Viscount Bold. It’s a total villain move, but, well, I’m sure it’s fine just this once. As long as I can use what I’ve gotten my hands on to raise the public’s opinion of me. I have plenty of money, so I don’t need to worry about taxes.

The people of the domain had been worrying that I was about to announce another outrageous policy, so it took them some time to process what I’d just said. Once they did, though, it didn’t take long for them to start cheering. That’s because the quickest way to the people’s hearts was exempting them from a year’s taxes.

Up to this point, the fruit of their toil in the fields had largely been stolen from them, but now it was all theirs to keep. It was more than enough to instantly change their feelings towards their villainous lord.

Opinion has risen to 70.

Opinion increased by +10 due to a high Charisma score.

Opinion is now 80.

Yeah.

That’s what I brought Euracia for. It was important to change how she thinks about me, but I also wanted to recheck the relation between ability scores and Opinion.

Her high Charisma raised Opinion by a full 10 points. Just having her at my side made it a joint ability check. Euracia’s Command score of 95 was born of her high Charisma. Her Charisma score functioned just like in the game, and provided a +10 to Opinion.

Of course, she was just happily watching the people cheer, completely oblivious to that fact.

*

Tutankha, king of Runan, wanted to tear his hair out. He seemed absolutely terrified as the eyes of all the nobles gathered in the audience chamber focused on him.

“Your Majesty, they’ve already come as far as the Deran Region and the Ruon Domain...” said Duke Ronan, the commander-in-chief of the army.

“The enemy is almost upon us! How long do you people intend to keep letting them beat us?”

The Kingdom of Naruya’s invasion had begun in the north, and the unprepared Kingdom of Runan had lost battle after battle. Obviously, the northern territories had fallen hopelessly, and now the Naruyans’ army of conquest was nearing the capital. The incompetent King Tutankha was most concerned about his own safety, and lambasted his nobles as he desperately tried not to die.

“Come to think of it, I heard the Eintorian Domain was also invaded?” Tutankha said questioningly, having managed to recall a report from the other day despite his stupidity. This was an incredible surprise, given that he often forgot reports he’d heard only an hour ago.

“Indeed. Yet Eintorian is fine. There was no further invasion, and the enemy’s forces are focused on the northern front.”

“Which means the lord of Eintorian won the battle with the Kingdom of Naruya, right?”

“Yes. For now, at least...” Ronan furrowed his brow. That’s because he’d heard rumors about Erhin, the lord of Eintorian. People said that, after inheriting the title a few years ago, this Erhin fellow had proved to be an incompetent lord who did nothing but misgovern his domain.

“Based on the reports we received from the domain, he held back a force of fifteen thousand from the Kingdom of Naruya with only five thousand men. Honestly, I find it hard to believe. I can only assume he’s inflating his accomplishments...”

“But he still stopped them, didn’t he?”

“Either he got lucky, or it was a scouting party at the largest.”

Tutankha shook his head at what Ronan was saying. The capital was about to be invaded. If they had a lord who had experience winning battles, he needed to stand on the front line. Now was the time to take any action that even marginally improved their chances.

Tutankha immediately commanded, “His experience winning battles is important. Send him to the front lines to protect the nation at once!”

“But, sire. Erhin’s abilities aside, as a lord of the frontier, he has the important task of defending our border...”

“Damn the borders! Our capital is threatened! I’m giving you an order as your king!” Tutankha roared. As a retainer, Ronan was ultimately forced to nod his head. It would be treason to go against his orders.

“I-In that case, we should leave his soldiers on the border and call him here on his own.”

“That makes sense. Leave the border to his troops while we have the lord prove his ability on the front line!”

Having declared this as if it was the epitome of good policy, Tutankha rose from his seat and left the audience chamber.