chapter 14

“You don’t know the details yet, Your Majesty?”

“Noah . ”

“Yes, sir . ”

“How would you estimate the scale of the rebellion?”

He returned my question for a question .

But whatever the emperor’s question was, it was a vassal’s duty to answer it .

I thought about it for a moment .

The “+” in status went from SS to S .

The water portion was increased almost entirely when I was selected as the lord .

So the reason behind me getting SS is all due to Almeria .

And it got dropped to S this time, that means .

“I think it’s a minor one at this point . ”

“You’re correct . ”

I didn’t think it was the “correct” answer .

His Majesty didn’t ask for an opinion, but he was aware of the situation and quizzed me .

“The military report says it’s 5,000 so far . What do you think, Noah?”

“Hmm?”

I wondered for a moment what the ‘how’ was, but it was quickly explained to me what it meant .

“It’s a small scale, as you can see, and it’s your fiefdom . Are you willing to manage it by yourself?”

Oh, I get it now what he means .

I was surprised, and so I thought for a minute .

“I don’t think I can handle this by myself . ”

“Hoo?”

“I’m too young, and I don’t know anything about the battlefield yet . I don’t know if the soldiers will listen to me when we go to defeat them . If it is necessary for the prince to leave, I think it is better to go with another, one of my brother’s . ”

“Fuumu …… I didn’t expect that answer . I never anticipated that you would refuse to be so objective . ”

His Majesty laughed happily as he said this .

“Very well, I’ll take your wisdom and choose one of the others besides you . Who do you think is better?”

“…… A Prince, I think Brother Henry would be a better choice . ”

“Why?”

“On the scale of things, I think it’s best to go at them head-on and subdue them . There’s no need for a surprise attack, so I think it would be best for Brother Henry, the most cautious of the princes . ”

“That’s an excellent choice, I approve of it . ”

His Majesty made an immediate decision .

He called Cruz and ordered that the Fourth Prince be summoned to the royal palace at once .

Even though it was late in the night, my brother immediately appeared at the royal palace and was ordered by His Majesty to subdue Almeria .

☆

After receiving my orders, I headed home with big brother Henry .

My brother’s carriage and my own, side by side, we steered through the torch-lit Imperial City at night .

“I’m glad you took the opportunity to do this?”

“You mean by me leading an army?”

“Yeah . ”

Brother nodded clearly .

“The empire is a nation of warriors, if you make your military achievements, you’ll be better off later . ”

“I won’t do it this time, I haven’t studied that kind of thing since it happened out of the blue . ”

“But you have the magic sword . ”

“You can’t lead your troops without knowledge . I won’t die, but there’s a good chance my soldiers will die in vain in the face of that incentive . ”

“…… You’re really amazing, you’ve thought that far ahead . ”

Brother marveled with his eyes wide open .

“That’s what I’m asking, please, brother . ”

“All right . Well, I’m good against the cavalry, I’ll go clean up your fiefdom . ”

Huh, so the rebels have a lot of cavalry?

I’ve heard that Almeria is in the middle of nowhere, and that agriculture and cattle farming are weak .

” That’ s true . ”

“Eh?”

“The cavalry over there are strong, but it was a foriegn thing for them before . It just fell into place when they were introduced with the horse trader on good terms, it was not on their own from the start . ”

“I see . ”

I chuckled a bit .

Apparently what I was thinking about was on my face .

It’s not too obvious, so let’s brace ourselves for a moment .

“e–!”

“What is it, Noah?”

“Hey, stop the carriage . ”

At my command, He pulled the reins and the two horses moved to a halt .

“What do you mean?”

“……”

I jumped out of the carriage .

The one who reacted was the loyal dog Leviathan, which means I was the one being targeted .

So I jumped out of the carriage first so as not to get my brother involved .

Immediately afterwards, a magic circle surrounded me in all directions .

The magicians have created a net of water and are closing in on me like a fishing net .

It was the assailants .

I jumped out of the carriage, feeling the killing intent, and a net of water was closing in on me to capture me .

The net, made of intangible water, was shrinking faster than a solid rope could ever do .

Gasheen! There was a metallic clatter .

The ring armor of the Leviathan Link prevented the approaching web of water from coming at me .

A total of six shields, which formed on my front, back, and sides, blocked the web of water .

The push of the shields and netting continued for a few dozen seconds before the netting collapsed and fell to the ground with a crunch .

This is a characteristic of this kind of magic .

As it was a captive magic, if it failed to capture, it would not be able to be maintained as magic .

As proof that the magic had completely lost its effectiveness, Leviathan retracted the shields .

A web made of water——-water .

The assailants from Almeria, one from the rebels, I guess .

I am only six years old and haven’t entered the fiefdom, I am still the nominal lord . At this point in time, I am naturally a target .

The question is whether to kill or capture them — right after I started thinking about it, six people dressed in black emerged from the shadows from the front, back, and left sides .

“Do it ……”

After one of them gave the command, they all jumped on me in unison .

“Noah!”

I heard my brother’s voice from the top of the carriage .

He’s worried about me – but it’s not a problem .

I used the sword skills memory from Leviathan to cut the assailants, all of whom jumped on me at once .

”Im-Impossible”

“Such a child …… gwaa!!”

The cut assailants peeled their eyes away in disbelief, then lost consciousness in agony .

The battle was over in an instant, and my brother jumped down from the carriage .

“Oh man!”

“Huh?”

“Awesome, within a few days of not seeing you, you got even stronger . What was that shield you had earlier?”

“It’s a magic tool I found on Cobalt Street, and I use it in combination with Leviathan because it works so well together . ”

“…… I got an even more amazing response than I expected . ”

He was puzzled for a moment, then immediately afterwards, brother started laughing happily .

“Not to mention making them spit it out, you killed them all, but I would have liked to hear about the ringleader, just in case . ”

“I didn’t kill any of them . ”

“What?”

Broter sure was surprised .

He walks over to the fallen attacker, squats down and reaches a finger under his nose .

“True, they’re all breathing . ”

“After I cut them down, I stunned them with the killing intent from Leviathan . Because people like this could harm themselves . ”

“Ha, that’s impressive . ”

“Brother, do you mind if I put these men under your observation?”

“I’m on it . ”

Brother nodded deeply and ordered his men to capture him .

The rest of the thing, brother knows the best .

☆

The next day, before noon, I summoned Byron to my room in the mansion .

Byron came to my room, in the mansion, feeling completely at home in his position as a vassal, and got down on one knee in front of me .

“What can I do for you, Your Highness?”

“Let me ask you, do you do business in or near Almeria?”

“I am allowed to do so . That’s also why I was able to attend the Prime Minister’s party . ”

“Hmm . ”

I knew it .

He came to get to me at that party, most likely doing business near my fiefdom, Almeria .

So I called him up and made sure of that first .

“Can I help you with something?”

“The Fodder”

“Fodder ……what about it, my lord?”

“Hmm, the fodder for the horses . Buy it all up now . I’ve got 10,000 reens for you to spend on that . ”

I said in a commanding tone of voice, rather than asking .

I had Byron underneath me with my crest on a sign, and “this” was a matter of urgency .

So I ordered in a strong tone of voice .

“Why, sir?”

“If it leaks outside you’re on your own– there’s a revolt in Almeria . ”

“What?”

“The rebels are apparently very strong on horseback . ”

“You mean the cavalry ……, so it means Cafun-sama is?

“I want to cut their supplies on fodder to neutralize that cavalry . ”

“As you wish . I’ll buy them all up in no time . You sure you don’t want to buy up all the human food? If you’ll just let me handle it…”

“Human ones are fine . ”

“Ha . ……”

Byron made a face obviously asking “why?” .

“The striking power of a cavalryman is tremendous, but a horse costs more to maintain than a man . ”

“Yes . ”

“Almeria is weak in that area, and the fodder has to be sourced from outside . And a horse’s fodder is that . There’s a limit to how much they can forcibly take from the locals, from the people, just because it’s gone . ”

“Ah, …… for the rations of soldiers they can loot for that ……, but fodder for their horses is whole other thing . ”

“That’s what I’m talking about . ”

“Outstanding thinking my lord! I’ll get right to it . ”

“Hmm”

Byron bowed to me as I saw him leave .

This should make it a little easier for brother to fight .