170 Eld nobles

Roussien, Princess of the Elves

The keluneire car carries us under the blue sky.

The magic car, driven by the golden-horned deer Kelyneia, is fast and gets us here in less than 10 days.

Looking out, there are no trees, and we can see far away without using magic.

This is a place called the plains, unlike the forest we live in.

The sight of such a treeless scene reminds me of how far away from the forest I am.

"Master Rouxien," he said. I can see it, that must be Eldo, the land of the heroes.

Tess leans out the car window to tell me.

Tess is a tree elf (dryad) girl who has recently come to serve me.

She is young and has only lived about 100 years.

Before she served me, she lived in the forest near the land of the humans.

So I brought her here because I thought she would be useful for going to the human country.

In fact, she knows a lot about humans and has been very helpful on our journey so far.

Oh, let's see. Let me see it, too~

Followed by Tess, Piala the Wind Elf (Napier) also looks out the window.

She looks like a child.

But Piala has lived the longest of all of us and has had two children.

She's prankster and uninhibited, and she often hides herself and goes to play in human country.

That's why I asked her to accompany me on this trip as well as Tess.

''Piera-dono, Tess. It's before the princess.

Oleola frowns at Tess and Piala like that.

Oleola, a bow elf (Oleiad), is my escort.

She's my age, she's been with me since we were little and we grew up together. She has followed me on this journey with me.

She is an excellent archer like the other Oreiad, and when we were attacked by a group of lowly and vile goblins along the way, she was able to repel them with her help.

'That's fine, Oreola. Let's go faster than that. Let's go to that brave man that Reena-sama approved of.

I reply with a wave of my hand.

In the first place, I came to the land of men to see the brave men.

Some of the elves work in the Heavenly Palace of Elyos.

I am one of them.

And I, the Arseid, who is called the Upper (High) Elf, and I, the Elf Princess, am to serve at the side of that beautiful Lady Raina.

The beautiful and dignified Lady Raina is the one I admire.

I was curious about the man she loved.

There have been many brave men that Lady Raina has had her eyes on, but I'm sure she has never loved any of them.

Therefore, there are rumors about that brave man in the heavenly realm.

That's why I came here from the Everlasting Youthful City of Arceidia to take a glance at him.

''Speaking of which, what happened to Nimu-san?　I believe you went to check on him first?

Tess asks Piara next to me.

Nimu, a water elf (naiad), was one of my traveling companions and had gone ahead to check on me.

The plan was to meet up with him in Eldo, but now, due to certain circumstances, he's already separated from me.

'Ah, then. 'Tess. Nimu would hook up with a guy and leave us, and I'm sure they'd be doing it all over right now, right?　westward

Piara smiles disgustingly.

I let out a sigh upon hearing those words.

Nimu left Eldo after informing him of his condition through his messenger, the bird, and then he left Eldo.

Apparently, she had found a man she liked and followed him.

I'm not going to say anything in particular, since he's not officially serving me, he's just fulfilling his mission.

But it's irritating because it seems that she's putting a human man before me.

But I know that elves are of that nature.

It seems that when an elf really loves someone, they can't help themselves. Maybe Nimu is the same.

'Lord Piara. It's quite vile. ...... Well, I'm certainly curious what Nimu is up to.

Oleola lets out a sigh.

Oleola, like me, has never been with a man.

She seems to be somewhat envious of Nimu.

I don't envy him, but it certainly bothers me. What does it mean to love someone?

Do I ever love someone so much that I can't help myself?

I can't stop thinking about that.

Under the blue sky, the Kelluneier car carries us forward.

Towards Eldo, where the brave man Rage is.

The black-haired wise man Chiyuki.

A multi-purpose hall built next to the palace of Eldo, where we live.

It is a rectangular building, twice the size of a school gymnasium, that was originally intended to be a playground, but has now been converted to a conference hall.

Originally it was supposed to be used as a playground, but now it is being converted into a conference hall.

Attending the meeting are myself, Chiyuki and Reigi, Kyoka and Kaya, and a group of aristocrats who are the leading citizens of Eldo.

The reason why the meeting is held in the multipurpose hall is because the number of nobles has increased due to the increase in the population of Eldo and the existing meeting room has become too small.

In front of me, the Eldo nobles are gathered in front of me.

Most of them are mature men and all of them are dressed in luxurious clothes.

The clothes are long robes of flax, made of expensive dyes. Some wear patternless clothes, while others have beautiful paisley patterns.

They are adorned with a variety of precious metal accessories.

They are adorned with agate, lapis lazuli, carnelian and jasper.

It is not surprising, since they are nobles, but some of them may have gone to the trouble of buying new clothes in order to participate in the conference.

When one thinks of nobles, one associates them with the privileged class seen in comics or novels that only exploit the people, but that's not the case with the nobles of this world.

Most of the aristocrats in this world are the heads of clans and their close relatives who have become hereditary.

Nobles have an obligation to take care of the lives of those who belong to their clan. It is the so-called nobleman's duty to take care of their lives.

In exchange for being taken care of, they swear loyalty to the nobles.

In other words, the nobles are not just exploiters.

Also, clans are often made up of blood relatives, but there are times when they welcome those who are not blood relatives.

When welcoming them in, the non-blood relatives exchange cups with the nobles, and the relationship becomes one of parent and child. The nobleman is the parent, of course.

When I first heard that, I thought it was like chivalry.

And indeed, it seems to be correct in that understanding. The clan is sometimes called a separate family, because they are actually your people.

Those chivalrous master nobles are gathered together because we've set up a forum for them to be heard.

Eldo is our dictatorship in running the state. We can run it without the nobles' opinions.

But if we are going to run the state efficiently, it is better to have the cooperation of the nobles.

They are the bosses of the organization called clan. They'll fill in the gaps that we can't fill on our own.

And if we're going to ask for their cooperation, we need to listen to their opinions.

The reason why the number of nobles has increased to the extent that it was moved to a multi-purpose hall instead of the existing conference room is because we encouraged the weak clan chiefs, who would not normally be called nobles, to participate in the meeting. Thanks to this, it is hard to remember the names of the nobles.

We don't have a particular name for the council right now, but I'm thinking of naming it the House of Lords or the Senate at some point.

''What do you mean by that?　Mr. Chiyuki?　What about not adding new arable land?　With the power of a brave man, Lizardmen and others are not to be feared.

A nobleman, Ohata tells me.

He is sixty years old and was originally a nobleman of the Republic of St. Renaria.

When we created the Eld nation, he gave up his position as head of the noble family of St. Renaria to his son and came to this country with part of his family.

Oohata is a nickname. The nickname came from the fact that they ran a lot of arable land in the St. Renaria Republic.

At present, he is in charge of the development of most of the cultivated land in Eldo. After all, most of the cattle needed for cultivation were provided by him.

'I meant what I said. 'I meant what I said, Ohata-dono. We have enough food now, now is not the time to reclaim the swamp and increase the amount of land under cultivation. We have decided that now is the time to focus on improving the city instead of expanding the cultivated land.

I shake my head and reply.

I really want to have more land to cultivate in case of an emergency. But I don't want to fight with the lizardmen and others who live by the water by reclaiming more wetlands. That's why we didn't want to expand our cultivated land any further.

But that can't be a reason.

For the followers of the God King Odis and the Goddess of War, Raina, defeating demons and expanding the human world is justice.

Ohata is a follower of Gena, the goddess of agriculture, but he also worships Raina.

From their point of view, lizardmen are also demons. They can't say they don't want to fight demons, so they won't increase them.

When I say that, Ohata looks dissatisfied.

Well, that's probably true too. With the power of Rage, Lizardmen and others are not enough to fear. And the more land under cultivation, the more his interests will increase.

That's why he wants to increase the amount of land under cultivation.

''Ohata-dono. Sage Chiyuki-sama said. I think it's time to improve the city and put a stop to the development of cultivated land.

The nobleman's riverside chides Ohata.

He's a nobleman who profits from the river water transportation business. That's where Kawabe's nickname comes from, too.

Unlike Ohata, Kawabe doesn't want to have more land to cultivate.

His water transportation business has suffered the retribution of lizardmen and others who live on the water.

Suddenly the boats stop going and the cargo is rotting. We don't know for sure, but it seems to be the work of the lizardmen.

It's too small a harassment for us to leave, so we're leaving it alone, but it wouldn't be good for Kawabe, who's getting retribution.

'Ohata. Are you unhappy with Chiyuki's decision?

Rage glares at Ohata.

When he glares at her, Ohata has no choice but to shut up. In the first place, we need Rage's armed forces to expand the cultivated land.

Rage has accepted my idea.

Rage, for whatever reason, still values my opinion. That's why it was easy to persuade him.

'That's right, Lord Ohata. Now is the time to improve the city. Until then, any further development of cultivated land should be stopped.''

The nobleman, Kinoshita, speaks up.

He has a nickname of Kinoshita because he deals in wood for building materials.

It will be profitable for him if he does the maintenance of the city.

Naturally, I can see why they would be in favor of stopping the expansion of the cultivated land and improving the city.

Ohata was persuaded by Kawabe and Kinoshita to keep quiet.

'Chiyuki-sama. If you are prioritizing the development of the city, I think we can be of help.

"Yamanaka-dono.

One woman speaks up.

The woman I called Yamanaka isn't exactly a nobleman.

She is the head of a dwarven women's association.

The dwarves, who are only male, take women of a different race as their wives. And many of them are human.

The dwarves are good craftsmen, but they are not good at politics.

For this reason, a women's club made up of wives often takes the lead in dwarven society. In other words, when a dwarf marries, he is almost certain to be a butt.

Again, his wife, Yamanaka, is in attendance.

Dwarves and their wives often have mountains in their nicknames, and some are called Oyama or Yamabe.

She is not a nobleman, but she represents the dwarves who live in this eld, and no one complains about her attendance.

The dwarves are rich, and some of the nobles may be in debt.

And the tools they make are of high quality. The only people who would want to make enemies of the dwarves are the unthinking followers of Thors.

And we don't want to make enemies with them either.

Because we want to make a deal with the dwarves.

None of us, of course, is human and owns a mine.

If we wanted to issue currency, we would have to import gold and silver from the dwarves.

It is also possible to issue paper money and other non-precious metals, but if they don't trust you, it would be useless.

Even if we try to take the gold standard, we can't use that method because we don't have enough gold in our possession.

Our blood and hair, which is tinged with magical power, might have some value in the market, but we don't want to use that move if we can.

Also, we don't want to crush another country's money and issue it as our own currency if we can help it.

That's why Eldo is using the Renal Coin, which is currently issued by the St. Renaria Republic, as its official currency.

Of course, he hopes to break away from it at some point.

''Thank you. Lord Yamanaka. Thank you for your cooperation.''

I thanked the mountain.

After that, the nobles continue to speak.

Those remarks were made with the development of Eldo in mind. Of course, I haven't forgotten about inducing profits for myself.

However, this can be said to be natural. It is precisely because it is in their interest to do so that the nobles will cooperate.

The problem comes after that.

As long as the development of Erdos and the aristocracy's interests are in line with each other, it's fine, but there is a possibility that the aristocracy's interests will become vested interests that will hinder the development of the country in the future.

Moreover, the gap between the aristocracy and those who belong to it and those who don't will widen in the future.

That's something we have to think about.

I glanced at Kyouka and Kaya.

Kyouka looks at the aristocrats disinterestedly. When Rage and I aren't around, Kyouka is hosting this meeting.

It's Kaya who actually runs it, though.

To be honest, Kaya is better suited to be the arbiter than me for being able to make cold-hearted decisions.

Maybe she's already thinking of ways to restrain the nobles in her mind.

The meeting dances.

I would listen to the nobles' opinions.

Chiyuki again.

'Huh~. I'm tired~

The meeting is over and I stand tall in the corridor that leads to Eldo's palace.

It's evening. When I get back, I want to get some rest in my room.

"Chiyuki. You have been working a little too hard. You should relax a bit.

Rage walks next to me and works me over. Surely I may have been trying too hard.

In the first place, the reason we made the Eldo was to make it easier for us.

Yet it would be meaningless if we had to work hard.

''It's just like Rage-sama said. Chiyuki-sama. After flirting with the bait at random and making the nobles work, we can enjoy the benefits. Chiyuki-sama thinks too much about all the people who live in Eldo.

Kaya says some scary things.

To Kaya, Kyouka and our interests come first, the nobles and citizens of Eldo are secondary.

She wishes for the development of Eldo, but she dismisses it as being for our benefit.

'That's certainly true, but by the way: ......

Rage chuckles when I say that and Kaya gives me a troubled look.

I'm sorry for the two people who worry about me, but I just can't help but take it all on.

It reminds me of the past when I was in trouble for pushing myself too hard, and Rage helped me out of it.

As I was thinking about this, Kyouka, who is walking ahead of me, suddenly stopped.

'Oh, Reno-san and Nao-san are coming. What's going on?

I look at the end of the same aisle as Kyouka.

It's definitely Reno and Nao. What's going on?

Even though he doesn't usually greet us.

'Good job guys.'

Goodnight.

Reno and Nao come in front of us to work on us.

'What's wrong with you two, you don't usually greet me?

'The thing is, Chiyuki-san. I had an unusual visitor come to visit you, Reiji-san.

Yeah, I think we need you.

Reno and Nao shook their heads.

However, it was good because it was over, but we were in a meeting.

If it wasn't done well, Rage would have been forced to leave during the meeting.

Is he a more important guest than a meeting with a nobleman?

"Visit me?　Who the hell are you?

Rage tilts his head and asks.

'Surely you don't have to be Rage to be curious.

'It's an elf. 'Mr. Rage,'

That's right. It's also a type of elf I've never seen before. It's a good idea to have a good time with them.

They looked at each other and nodded yes.

'An elf for me?　What the hell is this?

Rage tilts his head.

What is it, really?

The elves had never visited me before. I hope it wasn't a nuisance.

We hurried back to the palace.