Chapter 28: The Fish That Got Away

Chapter 28: The Fish That Got Away

Randolph read the report he received while shaking.

What was written there was the total opposite of the initial investigation.

So the data for the Peetak and the Banfield houses were switched?

Other than Liam and Peters names and faces, everything written in their reports were swapped.

It was unbelievable.

Such a thing was impossible.

How could a mistake like this ever transpire?

He pondered this for a while before shaking his head,

I need to immediately notify the pirates of the cancellation of the plan.

It was already around the time for the battle to start.

If it was already too late, then hed have to immediately cut all ties with the pirates, sending over the Razel houses fleet for relief aid in hopes of selling a favour.

Thats what he decided, but soon after-

Lord Randolph!

A call came in from his panicking subordinates, saying that the pirates had suffered a crushing defeat.

While the Peetak house had lost most of their fleet as well, and were now seeking refuge at his Viscount house.

T-thats no good! Send them away immediately!

The thing is, t-the Peetak house is currently connected to us through marriage, we cant refuse them because of our military alliance.

They had signed a number of treaties at the same time as the engagement, but that seems to have backfired on them.

Randoph started grasping at his head.

This c-cant be. Something like this just cant-

Thats when another call came in, this time from his daughter Katerina.

Father!

At first he was thinking about how he didnt have the time to deal with her, but his legs started to tremble after hearing her report.

Im in the territory of the Peetak house right now, but somethings wrong! Its completely different from the report, this place hasnt even been remotely developed at all! On top of that, debt collectors are pushing for us to repay the Peetak houses debt. Peters parents are apparently in the imperial capital, but when I tried calling them to ask them about this, they just gave terrible responses!

Well leave our considerable debt to you.

The Peetak houses response was bad, but to force a Viscount house to take care of a Counts debt was just cruel.

Itd be tough even for the Razel house, who earns quite a bit.

A-and also-

Theres more?!

Randolph, who didnt want to hear anymore more, told Katerina to continue,

Peter has an STD.

After hearing such a thing, everything went dark before Randolphs eyes.

Its been three months since I left the Razel house, and now Ive finally returned home.

Those three months in between were spent hunting pirates in Baron Exners territory.

The Barons territory was amazing.

You could really tell it was the kind of land that they squeezed to the last minute.

It wasnt as bad as the Banfield territory ruled by my predecessors, but the land really gave off the feeling of being ruled over by someone who was faithful to the basics of being an evil lord.

While I was in their care, I got to enjoy playing with Kurt while my fleet actively hunted down the pirates.

Apparently Baron Exner had a daughter, and he told me that I should take care of her once she reached a certain age.

In other words, hes accepted me as a fellow evil lord.

But she wasnt mature enough yet, so itd be a while before she could come to my house for bridal training.

Well, that was the end of that.

Its nice to finally meet you, Lord Liam.

An old lady with a straight back had greeted me.

Youre the new head maid?

As soon as I returned to the territory, she went out of her way to welcome me as a form of courtesy.

When she helped me change clothes, she didnt show any discomfort at all.

Apparently she was the new hire that was going to be in charge of teaching manners and etiquette, she was really loud and annoying to listen to.

Did you need something from me?

Id just like to ask you a few things about the place you went to for training. From Lord Liams perspective, what kind of place was Viscount Razels house?

Well, it should be fine to speak honestly to the head maid that I was going to be in the care of.

They were nothing special. Well, I guess they were a good place to learn at, sort of.

Serious and just they were a house that was the complete opposite of my own.

There were a lot of good things about them, but they were a house I couldnt get along with when looking at the big picture.

No, itd be impossible to get along.

We were completely incompatible.

Compared to them, how about Baron Exner?

He was the ideal evil lord.

They were a house I definitely wanted to build a connection with.

it was tough, wasnt it?

The head maid had a surprised face.

Well, were not going to be associating with them anymore, so I guess everythings water under the bridge.

was it enough? Recently, I cant help but feel like my sense of money has gone awry.

Understood, but before that may I ask why you purchased more battleships? Even then, why a fortress-class battleship, something thats too much for us to handle at the moment?

I turned my eyes away from Amagi.

You know about our current military plans, right?

When I stayed silent, Amagi proceeded to chew me out,

We cant prepare the crew right now, well have to train them from scratch. Do you understand how much the maintenance costs are?

its because I wanted it.

Its couldnt say that I bought it while excited by Nias sportswear.

You need to be careful. Thanks to that, weve been requested to buy ships of equal rank from the other weapon factories one after another. The imperial army has even gotten in contact with us in hopes that we purchase their older models.

The weapons factories were pressuring us to buy their products.

While the military contacted us in hopes that wed purchase the extra assets they didnt need anymore.

Because you could afford a fortress-class, you have a lot of funds, right? seems to be the premise theyre approaching us with.

But If we refused both of them, various problems might ensue.

If thats the case, lets a few and distribute them out. Lets give some to Baron Exner.

Nothing good will come out of giving things away for free.

Brian threw me a lifeline while Amagi was still scolding me,

Oh, then why dont we rent them out to the neighboring small lords? By giving them some strength to defend themselves, the current burden we have could be reduced some.

Currently, it was our Banfield house that was maintaining security of the local area.

I see, thats a good plan.

We can even earn rental fees while were at it.

Okay, then lets get in contact with the military then. The older models we purchase from them will be rented out to the neighboring lords, while the new ones will be used here at home. Problem solved.

Amagi frowned,

That doesnt solve our initial problem of not knowing what to do with the fortress-class.

While we chatted, the head maid approached me,

Lord Liam, I have a report,

Peters manhood had exploded.

I started laughing like crazy after hearing the news.

The head maid informed me that the Peetak house was currently in chaos.

However, the story of Peter- the cause of it all, was more interesting than the main subject of the report itself.

He played around too much and got an STD.

You shouldnt laugh, its disrespectful.

I was currently enjoying Amagis lap-pillow in the bedroom. As my laugh finally started to die down, I was completely out of breath.

After coughing for a bit, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down.

Ahh~ I needed that.

Master, what the head maid was trying to convey was-

Their house is in chaos, I know. Theres nothing you can do but laugh at it.

In the Peetak house, Peter, their only heir, was unable to create a successor.

For that crazy reason, the house was currently in turmoil over who the next head was going to be.

Even though he was so serious, his house had broken apart and was now in chaos as I thought, theres no point in being serious.

Im sure he got it from Katerina. It truly is useless to be a serious person. I cant help but feel sorry for Peter, who was forced to be with such a terrible woman.

Getting it from his fiancee is definitely a possibility, but there hasnt been any confirmation that theyve been in a physical relationship yet.

Amagi continued on, Itll be hard for Katerina to get married from now on.

Shed be in hell if she stayed with Peter, and shed be in hell if she didnt leave him.

Because now shell be rumoured to have an STD.

As a side note, it looks like the Henfrey company lent a lot of money to the Peetak house. Theyre apparently greatly in the red now.

how stupid.

Did they approach the Peetak house with the intention to scam them?

Well, Id be troubled if they got crushed, so Ill give them some support.

Theyre my important Echigoya afterall.

While enjoying the lap pillow, I looked up towards Amagis mountains.

Oh yes, Master whats that pendant you have there?

This? Its something I picked up during a mining operation.

Brian, who originally was an adventurer told me, Its a souvenir based off of a mysterious artifact that was said to protect its wearer from all poisons.

Apparently it was a necklace created to prevent poisoning, though it was only a replica of the real thing.

You want it?

Master should hold on to it. Though it might be fake, keep it as a reminder that youre in a position thats susceptible to being poisoned.

She was telling me to keep wary.

Nowadays, poisons can easily be found through inspections.

You shouldnt grow negligent.

Because it was easy to check, it was rare for nobles to be poisoned in recent times.

But since I feel like its lucky, Ill leave it around my neck.

Its made of my favourite gold afterall.