Chapter 53: The Start of Summer (4)

But that last part was just a joke. There was no way that the son of a slave could inherit a title, no matter what.

......Come to think of it, I heard he had gotten involved with M-22. I was quite surprised when I heard her report, during the winter, that she had become the mistress of the Margrave. I was under the impression that he was a sincere and forthright person. I can’t decide now if he was the type of person to do things because of responsibility or just because he could…...

By the way, the nobles of this world were also quite fond of women of lowly status. Margrave Doldran, for one, or Count Cartan's infatuation with a commoner. There was an old saying that upstarts preferred upper class women, while the upper class preferred lower class women. Oh, by the way, Count Cartan was basically an upstart that rose with his own abilities, so he might not be a good example of that.

Fem's voice pulled me back from my sidetracked thoughts.

"I will obey the will of master. I swear. Do not interfere until a pressing problem arises, is that correct?"

"Yeah, that's fine...... I appreciate the hard work, especially in something so unfamiliar."

“No, I'm happy to be working for you, Master. That concludes my report. Over.”

"Yeah, see ya. Over."

We exchanged a few words of greeting and terminated our communication.

I jerked my shoulders lightly and leaned deeply against the back of the chair.

"S-series, I guess it's a success for now. At this rate, we'll be able to meet the schedule."

A new type of "product" — that is, the mass-produced modified slaves, the S-series."

To put it simply, they were slaves that have been strengthened and remodeled to improve solely on their physical abilities. In contrast to the M-series and B-series, which were mass-produced versions of the Uni, they could be said to be a mass-produced version of Due. Because their magic capabilities were not improved on, the surgical procedure became more simplified, and the cost to procure the slaves were greatly reduced since their magic qualities were non-essential. In addition, by specialising, their performance in their field of specialty was far superior to general-purpose types. M-series and B-series were about C to B in terms of adventurers’ rankings. S-series could only act as vanguards in a party or expeditions, but were considered to be at least B or above.

Why would I be producing such slaves only now? It was inevitable. After all, even if we had made them before, we had no use for them.

Since they were unable to do anything related to magic, they were not suitable as researchers or assistants at alchemy and can only be used for combat. Even so, their average fighting ability was lower than that of the Mithril Golems, another mass-produced pawn. There was no particular use for them.

However, the situation is different now. I was sweet-talked by Victor and Laubert, and became the head of a faction that incorporated the surrounding nobles. In order to take care of them, just sending the Opus series from the shadows as I have been doing will soon become a problem. After all, the area they had to cover would grow too large.

Therefore, it was necessary to have a force that could be moved publicly and that could be assembled in large numbers. The S-series was responsible for this.

And as far as the report was concerned, they were fulfilling their duties.

"Not bad. It's not bad, but I don't think Seis is going to like it. They are all flawlessly made, and there's not much to tinker with, so it wasn’t going to be interesting for her."

After all, Seis was very motivated by research. The S-series, which was built around a technology that had already been proven and tested extensively, would not be of much interest to her. For now, she was proud of her work, but if we focused solely on producing the S-series, she might get tired of it soon.

I was thinking that it was about time for her to have her next training session, and that I had one of her bodies that I had no use for.

"......Excuse me, master."

With a knock on the door, I heard Uni's voice.

"Come in, the door’s open."

"I'm sorry to bother you. Lord Laubert is coming here. Would you have time to meet him?"

Oh, that's unusual. Laubert and Victor were officially in charge of internal affairs so they wouldn’t have any business in the laboratories where they carried out alchemy research.

"Yeah, I don't mind. I've just got some free time on my hands."

"As you wish. Then I will call him in."

As soon as I gave my approval, Laubert came into the room accompanied by Uni. He was carrying a bundle of documents under his arm. Hey, hey, you didn’t bring work for me, did you?

"Hello, my lord. A lovely day to you."

"I'm glad to see you're doing well, Laubert. So, what brings you here today? You haven't set foot in this place since your tour of the mining veins."

"Please don’t be so cruel, my lord. I didn't come here for official duties. I have a few things to report regarding my work behind the scenes."

He tapped lightly on the stack of papers he had brought with him. He seemed to be in a good mood, as if he was going to do a little dance.

The purpose of Laubert's visit is... Oh, I see. If it was something to do with that, it's no wonder he came here.

"......Ah, the reconnaissance of the royal capital that you’re having the faction do. Did the report come up?"

The tedious task of organising a faction. It all started when I consulted with Victor and Laubert to see if there was a way to conduct intelligence and operations in the royal capital. As I recall, I had also entrusted this man with the management of the intelligence agency that had finally been established recently.

"Well discerned, my lord. It's been quite a challenge. I'm trying to put together information that several noble families have collected on their own. Some of them are duplicates, and some of them don't seem to be useful at all. It's also a pain to extract useful information out of them."

He said that, but his face was glowing like a child who had just received a new toy. I guess he still enjoyed listening to worldly rumours. I hope he doesn't get too caught up in his hobby that he neglected his core responsibility of domestic affairs. Well, since he loved counting money as much as I did, I might not need to worry about that.

"So? If you came all the way here instead of waiting for me to return to the mansion, do you have something important to report?"

When I prompted as though I was irritated, Laubert's smile deepened.

"Yes. There is a bad news, a slightly good news and a very good news. Which would you like to hear first?"

"I don't think the order matters. And it doesn't change what we're talking about...... Uni, which would you like to hear about first?"

Just on a whim, I directed the choice to the girl who was standing quietly after allowing Laubert to enter.

Uni kept her eyes downcast and answered without pause.

"Why don't we start with the bad news, master?"

"Hmmm...why do you think so?"

"My humble opinion is that it will be easier on the heart if the good news comes later, master."

Hm. If you listen to the good news first and then the bad news, you will be lifted up and then brought down. The information itself doesn't change, but the mental state worsens. Though it was kinda ridiculous to feel that way.

"Okay, Let’s hear the bad news first."

"As you wish, my lord. I have a report for you...... Your Excellency's brother, Count Linus, is going to return to this realm."

Laubert's report was enough to make me balk. It wasn't as bad as I was prepared for, but it was a move that would have a ripple effect on my future actions.

"Is that the bad news?"

Uni asked curiously. Well, politics was not her field of expertise, so it was no wonder she didn’t get it. I tried to distract myself from my bad mood by opening my mouth.

"Oh, my bad. After all, my brother was my superior who formally appointed me as a viscount. He's coming to his home province of Volden. Which includes Marlan."

"In other words, Count Linus is not here to work as a noble of the kingdom as he was in the royal capital, but as a lord who will be managing his own domain." Laubert took over the explanation. "If that's the case, my lord won't be able to just send out reports after the fact and implement policies for Marlan, as he had been doing in the past. The Count is only a few days away by horse. I'm sure he'll use his power to interfere in everything we do. If we want to push a new policy, we have to go through him. He can audit our policies in detail, and also order our lord not to meet other families without permission, and so on. It's not a fatal situation, but it will make things moving forward more difficult. It's...... depressing to say the least."