Chapter 42.1

‘I really want to know what is going on in that head of hers.’

He could only suppress the odd emotions that arose in him and return to his work. But then a knock came.

Knock knock.

The nimble servant who was waiting on him ran to open the door. Through the opening in the door, he could see that it was Giscard who had come. Glenn asked him.

“Ah, Sir Giscard. What brings you here?”

“There is an interim report from the  lair expedition team. They have found a passageway that is the entrance to the lair.”

“Thankfully they found the entrance safely.”

“Besides that, there were no other issues, but please take a look at the report when you have the time, my Lord.”

Giscard approached Glenn’s desk and placed the report on top of it. But as he tried to leave the room, Nadia’s voice stopped him.

“Oh! Hold on a moment, Sir Giscard. How did the thing I asked you to do earlier turn out?”

“I carried out the task as Madam told me to.”

“Something you asked him to do earlier?”

Glenn tilted his head to the side slightly. This was his first time hearing that Nadia had asked Giscard to do something separately. Nadia explained to him.

“You seemed really busy, so I thought I’ld tell you later. It’s nothing serious. Count Altair had been keeping dwarf slaves, so I asked him to find where they are.”

“Dwarf slaves? But it is illegal to keep subhumans as slaves.”

“Count Altair is not someone who would worry about that, you know.”

“That is true.”

Glenn agreed with that too. The Altair estate was well known for the high quality of the steel armor they produced. All the while, he had simply thought that they had developed an advanced smelting technique, given how much iron they produced. But who could have known that Count Altair was committing the crime of kidnapping subhumans and trafficking them as slaves, something that was strictly outlawed by the royal family.

‘But, come to think of it, if he exploits even his tenants who are of the same species as him, he would never treat members of another species well.’

But that was not all he was puzzled by. Glenn asked her.

“But how did you come to know about that?”

“To be exact, it was my father, not I, who found out. I had said it before, right? Father has a document that lists all the weaknesses of people he thinks might become his enemies later on.”

“In that case, Winterfell’s weaknesses must be listed there too.”

“Ah, not to worry about that. Probably because it was difficult for him to plant spies in Winterfell, there was nothing major contained in the document. It is most likely that he gave his permission for me to marry into Winterfell because he hoped I would become his informant.”

That Count Altair had imprisoned dwarves as slaves and was putting them to work was a top secret that only those closest to her father knew. As soon as they had captured Vallon castle, Nadia had ordered Giscard to find where the dwarf slaves were imprisoned. Count Altair, hurrying to save himself, would never do such a thing as making sure the slaves were safe, so no one knew if they were starving to death where they were.

Giscard spoke.

“There were really dwarves who had been confined there, exactly as Madam had said. If we had been any later in discovering them, some of them would really have fallen into danger. They were unconscious from dehydration when we found them.”

“How are they doing now?”

“I heard they have all recovered now.”

“Thank goodness.”

If even one of them had died, it would have been a big headache to pacify them.

“Have they been given the best treatment, just as I asked?”

“Yes, each of them has been placed in individual guest rooms, and food and servants have been provided for them as well. They will definitely not find anything lacking.”

“Great job.”

“If they had died of hunger inside our territory, there would definitely have been friction between us and the dwarves. As expected, Madam is so quick-witted.”

“……..”

Glenn began looking at Giscard as if he was seeing something bizarre. How could he even say that —

‘Didn’t he give me an entire speech about not trusting her just a while ago?’

If Nadia were not in the room, he would have definitely sat Giscard down to query him. Even if it was the marchioness’s order, he should have at least let him, his master, know. But he completed the task before even letting him know…

Now he was wondering if this was the same person who had advised him not to fall for her lip service.

Since it was a good thing either way, Glenn decided to just let it be, considering that he was currently up to his neck in work.

“So, are you going to send them back to their town? I’m glad we can maintain a good relationship with the dwarves.”

“We should definitely send anyone who wants to leave back to their hometown. However, I would like to try and convince them to remain. I’ll see how they feel about staying here to work.”

“……..”

They all looked at her with an awkward expression.

“Would they even want to stay here?”

“Before they were kidnapped and enslaved, the dwarves had initially left their hometown because they wanted to experience life in the human world.”

“That… that is also true.”

If they had remained in their hometown, they would never have been kidnapped.

“They will surely still want to leave their small, suffocating town behind. If we set good conditions before them, wouldn’t some of them agree to work with us?”

“But they have already come to serious harm at the hands of humans. I don’t think they will trust us so easily.”

“That’s alright. I told them servants to talk whenever they are around the dwarves and let them hear many rumors. Won’t they also be curious about how they were freed?”

Nadia laughed softly and continued.

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“I am sure you know what the most popular story in Vallon is these days.”

“……..!”

The topic everyone had on their lips at the moment was Peter Bills and the ten gold he received. They hadn’t stopped the dwarves from leaving the castle, so they must have heard about him by now. They must also have learned about what kind of person the new lord of the castle is and about the decree he made.