CH 70

Nobles’ duties were to meddle with politics so that the commoners who resided inside their territory could lead a peaceful life. Furthermore, they also had to manage the matters inside their family, as well as the military affairs and so on in their respective territory.

Which meant, between nobles and commoners, the nobles ought to create regulations where the commoners could life peacefully, the commoners ought to work to pay the tax so that those regulations could be implemented, it was such harmonious public duties they had.

To save up money, they worked according to the regulations. To make an environment where they could work, regulations were created. It was such role-sharing they had.

Thus, as the foundation of such environment, nobles were granted with affluent wealth as well as authority. They were the authority to remove anything that disturbed the regulations, the authority to judge those who committed crime, the authority to collect tax as well as things like, in earth term, copyrights, and so on.

However, be that as it may, there was limit to such authority.

For example, abusing their authority to excessively collect taxes, framing and punishing any inconvenient people to them.

Most likely there was no nobles who would exercise their authority following their sentiment to the point of throwing the regulations out of order. If the foundations were to collapse, anything above it would surely immediately follow suit as well, after all. They were fully aware of that.

The problem was, the nobles, who were supposed to hold the authority to judge crimes, committed crimes themselves. If we put in on earth terms, it would be like, the police, who was supposed to be those who arrested the criminals, became the criminals themselves.

If the one who judge crimes were to commit crime themselves, who would judge them instead? The only one who stood above the nobles were, none other than, “Royal families”.

However, existence known as nobles were very numerous. Thus, to judge as well as monitor every one of them all around their whole territories would cost the royalty an enormous amount of resource.

Thus, if nobles were to commit crimes, it wasn’t something strange for those crimes to be cleaned up and buried in the dark.

Skirmish among nobles, crushing each other, constraining each other, such things happened everytime and everywhere in the dark unknown to the commoner. The nobles who were seated on the highest seat in their respective territory, if they were to succumb to greed and worldly desire, they might even temper with the regulation itself. With the foundation collapsed, the commoner who lived above that regulation were unable to conduct their daily activity peacefully.

Regulation and peace; which were constructed by duties and role-sharing; collapsed one after another because of the nobles’ deeds.

And it was exactly such danger that was lurking within Anex, a town under Grandile kingdom patronage, which Kitsune and co. were currently at.

From the information Kitsune and Niko gathered, as well as the information Leila gathered using her miasma, that was just how the situation there expressed.

First, the noble who reigned as the feudal lord there was Duke Orba Fonnesse.

Fonnesse house was a high rank noble, it used to be a noble house at Grandile Kingdom, and as it had a fairly powerful military power, it also greatly contributed during war and invasion period.

However, upon making a blunder during a certain war, the royalty ordered it to be transferred into this town as punishment. And so it reigned as the feudal lord there from there on.

By the way, the noble ranks were pretty similar like the one on earth, those were Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron.

However, even though Duke was of the highest rank, it was only a govermental rank, which meant they didn’t necessarily have political power.

Court rank and governmental rank were completely different.

To put it simply, court rankers were those who possessed the territory, where governmental rankers were those who worked in that territory, something like that.

—back to the topic.

From the citizens’ eyes, it appeared that Duke Orba wasn’t a good feudal lord. Leaving aside how high the tax he imposed, he often made unreasonable policies in the past. Either it for the commoners or even for the other nobles.

Capturing people he deemed to be displeasing, crushing opposing noble houses, pretty much anything he pleased. Moreover, he slyly covered such deeds. So that the royalty didn’t notice it, he did everything very meticulously, however…

“From what I heard, seems like the townfolks here aren’t particularly fond of Duke Orba.”

“Hmm….”

“Also, there’s also the case about that man who was looking for Niko-chan, so most likely Niko-chan’s house wasn’t ruined simply because of the tax, or so I think.”

With that information as the basis, Kitsune thought that perhaps Niko’s house wasn’t ruined because of tax, but for a completely different reason.

The knights were looking for them with the guise of tax overdue, however if that was really the case, it should’ve been settled the moment they captured Niko’s father. Nevertheless, the knights were even looking for the young girl named Niko. Just like that man who said working for a certain noble house.

“Anything on your end?”

Kitsune asked Leila and Trisha about any information they got.

And then, before Trisha could say even a word, Leila suddenly leaned her body forward first.

“Yes, we got properly some! Unexpectedly, seems like even the knights; who are looking for that kid; don’t know they reason behind it. Some even said how embarrassing it was to look around for a single kid, or something…. So perhaps only that Orba guy and nobles close to him who know about it.”

“Hmm… which means, tax overdue becomes more and more unlikely the real reason, huh. Because, if it’s only because of tax overdue, there shouldn’t be any reason to hide it, after all.”

“Also, seems like this girl’s father has been captured already, but seems like he’s still alive. I even heard that he was tortured to spill where this child is.”

I see, Kitsune nodded in mutter.

After pretty much confirming that her father was still alive, Niko’s expression became slightly more cheerful.

However, from Leila’s words, if he was tortured in interrogation, Kitsune wondered whether he was really alright or not. Speaking of torture, it was usually in form of body torments, so in the worst case scenario, it wouldn’t be strange even if he lost on or two limbs.

As for why he was tortured in the first place, as expected it was to know where Niko was. Where did he hide her, or perhaps to whom he entrusted her with, if they put that into consideration, without a doubt they most likely had done some investigation about any house that had connection with Niko’s house.

“With this, it’s almost for certain that Niko-chan’s house was a noble house, huh….”

“Kitsune-kun, Kitsune-kun.”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“I’ve gathered the information, you know? Praise me, praise me.”

Toward Kitsune who was deep in thought, Leila said so excitedly; brimming with confidence at that; at him. She even slightly closed in her face toward his.

Upon seeing that, he looked at Leila with astounded eyes. However, he also thought that it might be not too good to not give her any reward for gathering the information so, even while sighing, he extended his hand and caressed her head.

“Okay okay, thank you, Leila-chan.”

“Ufufu, ufufufu.”

Making her white hair disheveled, it was quite a crude caressing, but nevertheless, Leila herself was brimming with satisfied and slovenly expression. As if a cat that was being hugged.

And then, wanting him to do it more, Leila rubbed her head against the hand that was caressing it. Kitsune felt as though she was trying to leave marking on herself.

“Then, what are we going to do now, Kitsune?”

And then, Trisha asked so while glancing at the happy looking Leila.

Those words contained meaning to continue the discussion. Upon understanding that, Kitsune continued the thought that once stopped due to dealing with Leila.

“Let’s see… fortunately Niko-chan herself is with us. Moreover, we’re adventurers, after all, so in their eyes, there won’t be any problem to remove us using force… moreover they’ve already known my face, so even with us doing nothing, most likely they’ll be the one coming at us with some sort of plan.”

“…yeah.”

“We’ll somehow deal with it and turn the table on them when that happens. I think it’d be best if we could make them reat without killing any.”

While ignoring Leila who was hugging him like a spoiled child, Kitsune discussed so with Trisha. Even if they had gathered such information, it wasn’t like they could do something themselves. Thus, waiting for the other side to come to them themselves was the best option here.

If they managed to deal with the assassins who came, either it with force or negotiation, it would surely be conveyed to their superior.

If that were to happened, sending another assassins with the same level as the first would be an idiotic move. It’d be a completely different story if Duke Orba were actually such idiotic guy who would do such a mistake, though.

Most likely, it’d be either talented people close to Duke Orba, or some powerful mercenaries hired by him. The best possible outcome for Kitsune and co. was the person, Duke Orba, to come out himself, though.

“And so, to deal with those first wave of assassins… we should level ourself up as much as we can first. Ever since I got my left eye back, I haven’t perfectly grasp my current status, as well as the new skills I acquired, after all. Moreover, since I won’t always be together with you or Leila-chan, there’s a possibility that they’d attack me when I’m alone, so I think it won’t be bad to improve my prowess a bit.”

“…I see, then what should we do? If you’re going to do that, that means we’re going to stay in this town for a while more, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, Rishe-chan, if possible I want you to take some quests from the guild in the time being. Seems like there’s guild in this town as well, after all. However, seems like we can take quests just fine, but we can’t sell raw materials there, though.”

After telling her his intention, Kitsune gave her some instruction as well.

By taking quest there, they could raise the funds that’d be used at the next town even for a bit, or so he intended.

“Hmm… you’re right, got it.”

After receiving Trisha’s assent, this time Kitsune turned to Leila. Before he noticed it, Leila who and was hugging him around his waist ever since, was closing her eyes with a very happy expression, as though she might fell asleep at any given moment.

“As for you, Leila-chan, I want you to stay with Niko-chan.”

“Eeh?”

“I and Rishe-chan are going to train and taking quest for a while, so I want you to guard Niko-chan in the time being, Leila-chan. Can I ask you to do that?”

“Umm… fine, but give me another lap pillow after you finish training, okay?”

“…okay okay, you get it, you get it. Then, I’ll leave Niko-chan to you.”

Kitsune made a bitter smile to Leila’s pestering.

It felt as though after receiving that lap pillow back then, Leila became more and more clingy to him.

Kitsune himself was aware that Leila held affection toward him, so he didn’t stay idle about it, but since he still didn’t know to what extent her affection was, he thought that perhaps he shouldn’t just leave her be.

Anyhow, there would come the day Leila understood that feeling. At that moment, he couldn’t be sure whether they could stay as close as they were or not.

“Well then, let’s get going. We don’t know when or where those assassins will come, we also don’t know whether they’ll really come or not, so let’s just do everything as how we usually do without concerning ourselves with such matter too much.”

However, currently Niko was their main priority.

Shifting gear, Kitsune said so.