Volume 2 Chapter 8: Preparations

The guide was ecstatic.

"Peter, you're the best!"

That said, the Peetak house created by his parents were far more useful than the individual himself.

Even though the guide himself didn't do anything, it didn't matter what happened as long as it worked towards hurting Liam.

"Now the pirates, the Peetak house, and the Razel house are all working together to defeat Liam! This is great!"

As he watched over the situation, he decided that this was the most opportune time to use his power.

The space in front of his eyes distorted as he reached out his hand.

There, the power of the guide burst out to meddle with the situation.

"I'll definitely make Liam unhappy this time."

However, the guide's power had been greatly weakened, so he couldn't interfere with much.

In his current state, he could only do slight mischief at most.

Even so, he was happy to know that he could still trip Liam if he wanted to.

"I will regain my power, and this time it'll be you feeling the pain Liam! Fuhahahahaha!"

The white light that was observing the laughing guide disappeared again.

◇ ◇ ◇

Well, the training period was about to end.

Even if they called it training, most of it was just doing odd-jobs for the viscount's house.

Though I didn't get any preferential treatment, it was fun.

With that said, I was still frightened by the vulgarity of the policies that the overly serious Razel house had implemented.

I wanted to play around more, but there weren't many places around here that I could do so safely.

After I returned to my territory, I swore to invest more into that venture.

"Hurry it up! A lot of important guests will be coming to this party!"

While I was helping set up the party hall, I talked to Kurt while moving my hands.

"He seems really enthusiastic about this."

"Apparently there are going to be an abundance of guests this time. Since Peter of the Peetak house is here; an assortment military personnel, weapon factory representatives, and heads of various merchant houses will be coming."

When I had my coming of age ceremony, I thought a lot of people had gathered for it.

But it looks like for real nobles that had more power and history, far more people would naturally flock towards them in the hopes of establishing a connection.

I was jealous.

Someday, I want to be able to hold parties like this everyday while feasting on the delicacies of life.

"Even if they told us to set up the party venue, aren't they pretty much renovating it at this point?"

"That's just proof on how important this is to them."

The floor of the venue was torn off and replaced, while a fountain was prepared at its center.

Peter and Katerina's engagement would also be announced at this party, so they decided that almost everything should be remade and modernised.

There were craftsmen here, but we had to help out too.

First of all, the venue was unimaginably wide.

Just how many people did they expect to come?

As I pondered this, I couldn't help but notice the arena was also prepared here.

"Is that where the fights are going to happen?"

"I think so. Aren't you going to join, Liam?"

"Well, the matches are fixed, but I can't really allow myself to lose as the only One-Flash license holder here. So probably not."

This was just a small event to showcase the results of our training anyway.

It looks like Kurt was going to participate and lose at an appropriate position.

He sure has it tough.

"Weirdly enough, I think I might actually miss living here."

Kurt looked a bit sad.

"Don't feel sad. Soon we're going to have to go to elementary school, so we still have lots of things that'll keep us busy from now on."

"I guess that's true."

As Kurt responded with a wry smile, the instructor knight who was in charge of on-site supervision called out to him.

"Kurt, there's a call here for you from your house!"

"Okay, I'm coming!"

Kurt then proceeded to leave the venue.

As I continued work on my own, I caught a glimpse of an animal weaving through the tables and chairs.

-it looked like a dog.

"Are you lost? Do you need help getting out?"

As I tried to approach it, the dog-like animal suddenly fled to the back of the site.

Before I even noticed, I had chased it all the way to the hallways that lead to the exit.

"Huh? Where did it go? Does this mean it's okay if I just leave this alone?"

There wouldn't be any problems as long as it left the venue.

But as I turned around to leave, I heard Kurt's voice.

"-you can't come because the pirates have been more active recently? Yes, I understand... all right."

The person he was talking to was probably a family member.

Listening in, apparently pirates seem to have entered his territory, so they weren't going to be able to pick him up for a while.

Kurt had a worried expression on his face.

When the call was over, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed when he noticed me.

"Were you listening?"

"It's my bad. I was busy chasing a dog when I overheard you."

"It's alright. It's just that my family seems to be going through some hard times right now, so I won't be able to go back for a while. I'm going to have to ask the viscount if it's okay if I stay here a little longer."

It looks like the condition of his family's house was making him anxious.

Well, I guess I can do him a favour here as a fellow evil lord.

"If this bothers you that much, I can send you back home."

"Really?! No, that's no good. There's pirates-"

"Kurt, pirates are just living wallets for me."

"Huh?"

"After cleaning everything up, I'll take seventy percent of the spoils, and your house can take the remaining thirty."

"N-no, this isn't something that easy to decide! Usually, this is something that you'd consult with your vassals in your territory first and-"

"It's fine, I hold absolute power within my territory. They'll listen to anything I say as long as I order it. Remember, this is one of the benefits of being an evil lord. Even something that's white is black as long as I say it is. So if I order them to prepare for battle, there's no way they could refuse."

Kurt continued to look at me while stunned.

How innocent.

Well, I guess I need to make a call to Amagi now, huh?

◇ ◇ ◇

The Banfield mansion.

Inside of the building's office, Amagi was talking to Liam.

The floating image of Liam was a sight for sore eyes.

"-dispatch a fleet? It's possible, but I don't think it's appropriate to send one over to the viscount's territory."

"I actually need them so I can help bring a friend back to his home. I'll be having another pirate hunt."

"Oh, I see. So you're doing this to help out your friend?"

"Because he's a fellow evil lord, I need to cherish our relationship."

"I'm happy for you."

Amagi made a gentle expression as she thought about how Liam was probably misunderstanding something again.

"So how big of a fleet do you need?"

"How many can we send?"

Just recently, the Banfield territory was attacked by Goaz's pirate armada.

Because of that, they invested quite a bit into expanding their fleet.

"I can prepare about twelve thousand ships."

"That's good enough. Oh, and make sure to bring my Avid too."

Avid was Liam's personal mobile knight.

Larger than normal knights, it was a high-grade aircraft that only a few people could possibly pilot.

"Why don't you just sit this one out? There's no need for you to fight out there yourself."

"It's a boy's dream to fight in a robot! Don't worry, I'll be bringing over large profits this time as well."

"...if that's the case, then I'll go and arrange a meeting with Baron Exner."

"I'll leave it to you."

As soon as Liam ended the call, Amagi immediately began making contact with all the parties involved.

"-the timing is good, should I put them to work as well?"

◇ ◇ ◇

The Third Weapons Factory.

In front of the many mobile knights lined up there- Tia looked over the humanoid weapons.

She had just graduated from the university.

After collecting the credits needed for graduation, she just went through with it.

From now on, what was waiting for her was the training to become an official, but before that she was going to return to Liam's territory.

The girls who were candidates to become knights were returning as well.

-They all wanted to participate in the pirate hunt.

Eulisia, who was an employee of the Third Weapons Factory, was explaining their newest model of knights.

"These are the models used in the special forces of the imperial army."

By design, the mobile knights were supposed to be big, but the aircrafts in front of Tia were built a bit differently.

They were slender in build, and they seemed to emphasise appearance.

"The specs listed in the catalogue aren't bad."

To Tia's comment, Eulisia responded with a smile.

"I have confidence in their contents. Even so, the Count sure is impressive. There aren't many nobles that can buy so many knights in bulk."

Hundreds of new models were purchased.

While marveling her new knight Tia gave made a request to Eulisia,

"I'm allowed a personal colour, so I'd like to have mine painted to be white and purple."

"A personal colour for a mere knight candidate? You must have a lot of confidence in yourself."

Tia laughed at this and smiled,

"I don't, but from now on I'm sure that we'll always be victorious."

When the knight candidates of the Banfield house entered into their respective aircrafts, the eyes of the all the mobile knights flashed with light as they were started up.

Tia started addressing everyone,

"Everyone be grateful. Lord Liam has given us the best opportunity to prove our worth- it's time for a pirate hunt."

◇ ◇ ◇

The days of our training abroad were about to end.

It was the day before we were going to leave the Razel house- a martial arts showcase was being held with the graduating students as participants.

Those who had received preferential treatment won their matches one after another and the venue was brimming with excitement.

Right now it was the match between Kurt and Peter.

"-ku!"

"Hmm? What's wrong? We're both swordsmen of the Arend school, so I'd be troubled if you couldn't even lay a finger on me~"

Peter was completely dominating the match while he ridiculed Kurt.

I was actually quite surprised by the unnecessary cruelty.

To a certain extent, it was necessary to have a normal fight so that it'd be harder for the audience to tell that the match was fixed.

However, Peter was that bad, and it totally looked fixed no matter how you saw it.

Kurt also looked a bit puzzled.

"Forgive me."

While saying such a thing, Kurt seemed to have given up as he intentionally dropped his sword.

In the first place, although they were both from the same school, they had completely different stances.

No, something was wrong here- was this guy really the heir of a virtuous house?

Was it that? The pattern where the child became useless despite how amazing the parents were?

After dropping his sword, Kurt fell down to one knee.

"...I surrender."

The atmosphere of the venue seemed to have died down a bit, but it was still exciting.

Peter stomped down on Kurt who was kneeling.

"So you acknowledge my ability?"

"...yes."

Just by looking at Kurt's bearing, you'd feel sorry for him.

Even so, I couldn't help but marvel at how Peter had the qualities necessary to become a good evil lord one day.

As I pondered this, Peter suddenly turned his imitation sword towards me.

"You're going to fight with me too, since it'll be boring if it just ends here. Come up to the arena quickly, you poor minor swordsmanship practitioner."

When Peter declared as such, the viscount gave instructions for me to go up to the arena while making a troubled expression.

The head instructor knight started apologising to me,

"I'm sorry, he's an important guest for us, so we'd appreciate it if you went."

"He actually had the audacity to insult my school. Hey old man- is it okay if I go at him seriously?"

The head instructor knight gave me a slightly devious smile,

"Well, isn't it his fault for not stopping anyway? I never really liked playing out these farces in the first place. However, don't kill him."

Only the part about not killing him was said with a serious face.

But of course I wouldn't kill him.

"Don't worry about it. I might've not had a lot of practice with this trick, but with Kurt's help I was able to find a solution to making my style non-lethal."

"Really?"

To the suspicious knight, I presented a squeaky toy hammer.

Both in this universe and in my previous life, this was a hammer that made a squeaky sound whenever it hit something.

It wouldn't hurt much if I smacked him with this.

"Wait, don't you think that might be a little disrespectful?"

"If I don't use this, then depending on my opponent I might accidentally kill them. So this is fine."

As I entered into the arena with my toy hammer, Peter started laughing at me.

Viscount Razel was glaring at me as if I had just hammered in the final nail in the coffin.

Peter turned towards me,

"Puhahaha! It looks like you're so poor you couldn't even afford a sword. Did you know I could buy as many of those things as I want?"

While I listened to him prattle on, I waited for the start signal.

The referee looked towards Viscount Razel and seemed to be hesitant, but eventually gave the go after being ordered to.

"Match, start!"

Immediately after.

The hammer I swung down onto Peter's head made a big 'Squeak!', while he dropped to the ground with a 'Thump!'

As soon as the match started, I narrowed the distance and swung down, sending Peter crashing downwards towards the floor.

I could see the whites in his eyes.

"...I didn't even do much."

I shook the hammer to check it's condition, but it didn't seem to be broken.

It was extremely durable for a toy.

While I stood alone in the arena, the surrounding children who were given preferential treatment began to jeer at me.

"Y-you cheated! That's unfair!"

"If you have any complaints, then come on up."

I will teach you the truth of this universe and what that means for serious and good people.

In this universe, the ones in the right weren't strong.

It's the strong ones who were in the right.

To you future virtuous lords- I'll personally teach you all reality!

"It'll be annoying to face you one at a time, so I'll take all of you on at once. Come at me."

"You're just some trash from a minor swordsmanship school, don't get coc-buh?!"

To the fool who climbed onto the arena, I sent him flying out of the ring.

"It's not a 'minor school'. It's called the One-Flash. I'll beat that name into your heads so you'll never forget it."

Those who had won their matches started to climb up into the arena and flocked towards me.

I blew all of them out of the ring with my toy hammer while laughing.

Standing in the center of the arena, I started telling them about the truths of this venue.

"Don't get carried away just because you won some fixed-matches! You're nothing but small fish!"

Not just the people who challenged me, but even Viscount Razel was glaring at me with a red face.

I think I might've overdid it, 'cause I don't think they want to be involved with me ever again.

Still, that was refreshing.