CH 284

I don’t understand it. What is all this? Why is Friedrich here? And what has he been doing?

Just… just a few days ago, before I left this main residence, the garden that was beautifully arranged… it’s burned everywhere. The reason is simple. Friedrich and the ne’er-do-wells, no, rather the idiots around him are at fault. It’s because some idiots have been having a barbecue in my garden.

In the first place, can this be called a barbecue? A bonfire is lit directly in the garden. Are they all stupid? Don’t they think it might catch something else on fire or something like that? As a result, there are burnt marks here and there in the garden, whether the fire spread here and there, or whether the bonfire’s location has been changed many times.

The garden that was kept clean by the gardeners and House Servants every day… has become a tragic sight.

Various foods are cooked on the fire. That would be fine. If you think it’s a barbecue, it’s not strange. If only I could leave the explanation of why they’re having a barbecue in a place like this… but…….

“Delicious! But only the first bite is this delicious! No more than that.”

That stupid idiot took a bite of the freshly cooked meat, just the softest part, and threw the rest off in the garden. Half-eaten and half-finished drinks are scattered here and there in the garden. The garden is already a mess. Food scraps are scattered here and there, and the ground is covered with burn marks.

Let’s take a step back and say that it’s fine if it’s just the garden. I’m angry and not in the mood to forgive, but let’s put it aside. These guys… are treating the food that our people worked so hard to produce so cheaply. How much trouble do you think everyone went into to produce that cut of beef?

I haven’t done much farm work or ranch work. Even so…… if you look around, you can clearly see that everyone is having a hard time and working their best regardless. That… that food that is the crystallization of everyone’s blood and sweat… and now it’s wasted for no reason.

My head is blank and I can’t get my thoughts together. What should I do…. oh, I see. I’m going to grind these guys into paste…

“Hey! Are you listening to me?! Don’t ignore me!”

Pahn, a dry sound echoes. What is it…….? Oh, did I get slapped just now?

“Kuh! You! What are you enduring this for?! All you have to do is fall over!”

The hand is raised again. It’s a slow, sluggish move. If this was my mother, she’d have struck me several times over in that time.

Pahn, a dry sound echoes again. But I don’t even stagger just by moving my face a little. It would be unreasonable to say that I would fall with this.

“You bitch!”

The hand is raised again. Geeze…… it’s okay……. let’s get rid of these unpleasant things…

“Please wait, Miss Flora!”

“Isabella…” I muttered.

Isabella came before me when I tried to erase the unpleasant things in front of me. Why stop me? If we don’t get rid of these unpleasant things immediately…

“Please calm down Miss Flora!” Isabella cried. “If you do that in a place like this, you will definitely regret it later. Please, please think of yourself, first.”

“…………”

At Isabella’s words, I lowered the hand I was raising. That’s right. It’s not something a Feudal Lord should do, killing someone out of emotion even though they haven’t properly investigated and charged their crimes yet. Then, he would just be a dictator. Even if a criminal has a reason to be given the death penalty, it is just an abuse of power if the charges are not first put through a fair and impartial trial.

In this world, in this age, it is certainly permissible. Those in power have great authority. But I shouldn’t do that. If I’m going to realize the governance I’m aiming for from now on, such impromptu executions are no good.

“What are you talking about!? Get out!”

This time, the idiot tried to hit Isabella as she stood in front of me. So I grab Isabella and leave this place. Even I don’t have the confidence to endure if Isabella gets hit. I will break and kill everyone. This is my mercy to Friedrich.

“Huh? When did…?”

It seems that they lost sight of Isabella and me, it seemed like we disappeared in a flash. It’s like they can’t see that level of movement, their sword arms probably aren’t a big deal.

“Somebody explain to me what’s going on,” I said as one of my soldiers approached.

“Right away…” said Ignatz, one of my Guard Captains. “Shortly after Miss Floto left here, Lord Friedrich came and said that he would be staying here, so we were obliged to take care of him…”

I somehow understood. It seems that Friedrich and I haven’t been crossing paths till now. Friedrich came here after I left for Carruzan, and he stayed in Caanburg while I was in Carruzan.

I want to hit the Past Me who was happy Friedrich was not in Carruzan with me… if he wasn’t there, I should have known where he was going and what he was doing. If that’s the case, at least I’d have been able to return earlier…

“We didn’t know what to do since everyone knows she is your eldest brother, Miss Flora…” Erich continued. “We can’t use force to get rid of him, and even if we say anything in protest, the maids will get beaten, so we had no choice but to keep enduring it as long as possible.”

“Ahh……” I said.

Erich’s words weigh heavily on me. So in short, that means…

“Idiot! Then it sounds like Miss Floto is to blame here!” Ignatz cried.

""

“Huh? Ah! No, I didn’t mean to say that…” Erich said.

“It’s fine… Erich is right,” I said. “It’s my fault for not thinking about how to deal with this kind of situation.”

That’s right. Even if the Lord’s family came and behaved arrogantly, could the soldiers, butlers, and maids who were not instructed to do anything just get rid of them? They cannot.

Even if he belongs to another House, he is unmistakably related to me. He’s my blood brother. There is no way you can eliminate such a person by force.

If I had given instructions in preparation for such a situation and had decided on a response, I would have been able to do just that. But I didn’t even expect this. It’s just an excuse to say that I never thought my older brother was this stupid.

I didn’t want to know anything about him. I thought it was fine as long as I didn’t get involved with my older brother. This is the result of that.

If I had gathered more information about my brother, I might have been able to realize this kind of situation might happen. Even if I couldn’t have predicted this much, if I knew that my brother was such an idiot, I might have been able to monitor his movements and at least take action sooner. It’s all my fault.

I can’t help but wonder why everyone didn’t send me a messenger. But it’s not everyone’s fault. Everyone may have kept silent, not wanting to place an extra burden on me. Perhaps they thought that I, myself, tolerated my brother’s outrageous behavior.

It’s wrong for me to blame everyone for this. It’s all a result of my ignorance…

“Don’t ignore me!”

Friedrich walks with thundering steps as he puts his hand on the sword by his waist. His gait is amateurish. My older brothers were supposed to have been trained by Father as well… but what did this guy end up taking from Father?

No… it’s because I didn’t learn anything about him… geez… it’s too late…

“Suu~, haa~…, suu~~…” I went, inhaling and exhaling before I yelled, “Arrest these people! They are intruders who have ravaged our House!”

“”””Sire!”””””

When I said that, the people who were around finally surrounded Friedrich and his entourage in an instant and restrained them. Even though they were able to suppress them with just this… they ended up in this situation because of my stupidity. I don’t know what to do, to apologize to everyone.

“Wha-What are you doing?!”

“I am a close associate of the Lord!”

The rogues are surrounded by many soldiers and seem to be in a panic. As expected, they know that if they resist, they will be killed without question. Don’t pull out your weapon, then. They are just protesting with their mouths. Can you say they’re putting all their hopes on Friedrich?

“What do you mean by this? I’m the next Lord!” Friedrich yelled. “Everything in this territory belongs to me! You must know what will happen if you go against me!”

Only Friedrich intends to resist. He’s about to pull out his sword, too. He probably thinks that the soldiers can’t hurt him, who is the next Lord of Carruthers.

It’s also our fault that we’ve been so quiet about this area until now… I should have made House Caan much more clear in the public eye.

Because I didn’t want to stand out or be noticed, I was selfish to my father and put a burden on him, and as a result, this happened.

Of course, I didn’t hide it just because I didn’t want to stand out. It would be troublesome if it was known that the Caan Knighthood had such a vast territory. There will be more people who press me for a political marriage. On the other hand, there will be more people who send assassins to kill me before I became more of a threat. That’s why I blocked out as much information as possible.

But in the end, it was just me imposing a burden on my father. My father is not responsible for this uproar. It’s all my fault. Then I have to draw a line…

""

“Treat these rogues as criminals,” I said. “Treat Friedrich von Carruthers as an officer prisoner of war. Take them away,” I said.

“Flora! You bitch! Think you can get away with this! When Father returns, I will cast you out!” Friedrich yelled.

“Hold a moment! We were just being pulled along with him!” one of the ruffians said.

“That’s right. We have nothing to do with it! We were just tricked by Friedrich!”

The ne’er-do-wells were tied up and brought to prison. Friedrich is treated like an officer prisoner of war, so he’s probably still treated well. He hasn’t been tried, he hasn’t been found guilty. Even so, he is the eldest son of a great aristocrat. He cannot be treated lightly.

“Go to Manor Carruthers in Carruzan and pick up Lord Georg von Carruthers immediately,” I said.

“Right!”

While seeing off Friedrich and his posse being taken away, I gave the next instructions.

While my servants are picking up my second brother Georg, I change into formal clothes. The interrogation of Friedrich and the confirmation of the crimes committed so far will have to wait for another day. They should be in solitary confinement for a little while. While waiting for my brother Georg after changing my clothes, I checked the current situation.

“So what are the damages?” I asked.

“Sir,” a guard said. “In the past few days, Friedrich and his posse went out to town, took products from shops without paying, ate and drank without paying as well, and made women drink with them and assaulted them, as well.”

“–! … Please compensate for all the damage with money from our House,” I said.

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“Sir… we have already compensated with donations from volunteers,” the guard replied.

I felt dizzy while listening to the report. Moreover, you can’t move my assets without my permission. So it seems that the House Servants collected donations on their own and compensated for it using that money. The House Servants are too good, and compared to them, House Caan is too lousy… wouldn’t it be better to give someone the authority to immediately move the assets in such cases as these?

After that, there was no big damage other than damage to the manor, damage to the garden, and food and drink expenses. In the first place, House Carthers should be billed for these damages. In the end, I will have my family pay for it. Then I won’t have to suffer these damages myself.

“We have brought Lord Georg von Carruthers,” a servant said.

“Please let him through,” I said.

It seems that Georg has arrived. I had just said my goodbyes to him. But I have to call him again. This has developed into a problem between Houses Caan and Carruthers. No matter how much we are blood siblings, that is that this is this.

Since neither Albert von Carruthers nor Maria von Carruthers is present, we have no choice but to ask Georg von Carruthers to take responsibility.

I have to write a letter to my parents later…

“Um… is this the place?” Georg said from outside the door. “Why was I called here? Who is the person I am meeting?”

“If you come inside, you should be able to understand everything,” the maid said.

She’s not Katharina or Isabella. And neither are my remaining four wives here. Everyone was trying to kill Friedrich because he hit me. No, it’s not a metaphor or a joke, they’re deadly serious… so now they’re in another room to calm down.

Of course, there is still a chance that they will sneak out to kill Friedrich, so there are many guards to monitor and stop them. I don’t know if my soldiers can stop the wives, though…

Anyway, that’s why everyone and Isabella are waiting in another room. The ones around me right now are the maids who are on standby at this mansion under normal circumstances.

“Please excuse us,” the maid said. “I have brought Lord Georg von Carruthers.”

“P-Pardon me!” Georg said nervously.

Wow……. Big Brother Georg… he’s so wound up, isn’t he…? Please relax more.

“I apologize for summoning you so suddenly, Lord Georg von Carruthers,” I said.

“N-No! Wait, huh? Flora?”

It seems that he finally noticed me. Georg has a blank face. He’s been summoned by the little sister he just said goodbye to. You’ll wonder what’s wrong

“Here, I would like to ask you to refer to me as Viscount Floto von Caan,” I said. “In truth, a serious incident occurred just now. It concerns House Carruthers, so I have asked for the present members of the House to come to see me here.”

Even when I said that Georg was still dumbfounded.