Volume 9 Chapter 4: Rosetta's Personal Guards

It had been three years since Liam embarked on his training journey.

While he was away a large fleet was being formed on the Banfield Family's main planet.

Rosetta and Eulisia were visiting the space fortress with Ciel trailing behind them.

The docks of the space fortress were lined with various ships that had been purchased from the Third Weapons Factory, and they were floating in zero-gravity.

With documents in hand, Eulisia was explaining about some of the weapons. As she was in work mode, she was like a completely different person, and her normally disappointing figure was nowhere to be found.

"They aren't the newest models, but they're mainstream, and we've been gathering a lot of them."

Originally, they were planning on having a small number of elite guards, but the numbers have been adjusted to fulfill Rosetta's wishes.

To help those struggling like her former self, she recruited knights that were having a difficult time.

Similarly, the ships' crew mainly consisted of nomads who had nowhere to go.

Eulisia asked once more for Rosetta's confirmation.

"We've been following through with Lady Rosetta's wishes, but is this truly alright? We haven't been the most particular with the ships' appearance other than our flagship and its escort ship. In fact, the flagship's appearance also pales in comparison to the other houses."

Even Liam had a flashy flagship.

When put side by side, Rosetta's personal guards were truly plain.

"It's fine to have minimalistic looks. We should focus on practicality over aesthetics. I want them to help people in need after all."

Rosetta didn't want her personal guards to be around her.

Instead, she wanted them to help people on other planets who were in a predicament.

"Darling's currently in the center of the Empire's power struggle. He doesn't have the time to handle certain things, so I want to do something in his place."

"I understand your sentiment, but the problem's with the scale."

They weren't dealing with a couple hundred ships here.

There were talking about tens of thousands of ships, with more joining as time passed.

Not only were there a lot of people in need of help, the Banfield Family was also focusing on territorial development and accepting immigrants, who were coming in waves and settling on newly pioneered planets.

Eulisia seemed worried.

"It's already far past the scale of being personal guards. I'm amazed Lord Liam even allowed this."

It was like a private army dedicated to Rosetta had popped up amid the Banfield Family's army.

Although Liam was at the top of the command chain, it was essentially under Rosetta.

Hence, a huge problem would occur if the two were to have a confrontation.

Even if that didn't happen, conflicts may arise in the future among their successors, and Eulisia was worried about that.

"In the future, we should bring forth the matter of reducing the fleet's size to Lord Liam."

"Sure, I'm fine with that."

Rosetta immediately agreed, and didn't seem to mind, but Ciel wasn't happy with that.

(I must have Lady Rosetta win the hearts of the people—the sooner, the better.)

While most people were enthralled by Liam's public image, Ciel knew his true character.

She knew that Liam wasn't the kind and caring person that the world believed him to be.

Rather, he self-identified as an evil lord.

She was doing things behind the scenes to ensure that Liam didn't get any more powerful than he already was.

"Lady Rosetta, simply having the guards trained won't be enough."

"Oh, is that so?"

Though she was quite knowledgeable, Rosetta hadn't graduated from the military academy, so she relied on Eulisia for such matters.

Eulisia stared at Ciel with suspicious eyes.

However, she didn't disagree with Ciel as what she said was correct.

"Training's just training in the end. Actual battle is something else, so she's not wrong. Still, we shouldn't move on our own. It wouldn't be too late to move after getting Lord Liam's permission when he returns."

It was a valid point. Though the fleet was Rosetta's personal guards, they shouldn't act on their own.

This made some gears turn inside Ciel's head.

(She's usually such a disappointing woman, why now! ...Right, there's that!)

Ciel proceeded to persuade Rosetta.

"There are people out there struggling precisely because Lord Liam's not there to help them. Lady Rosetta, this is the perfect chance for the personal guards to act now that Lord Liam is busy with something else. They were formed for that reason, were they not?"

With Ciel bringing up the topic of her guards' raison d'être, Rosetta was made to think a little.

"You're right. Darling must be 'doing his best' over on his side, so I want to do what I can to help. There are a lot of petitions piled up, so let's handle the ones that we can. We won't be able to handle any of the important ones though."

Even if she deployed her guards, she shouldn't be too conspicuous about it.

This was to avoid pulling Liam's legs later down the line.

They would have to limit themselves to things like disaster relief, and avoid matters such as sending reinforcements to resolve skirmishes.

"But of course! We should help the needy!"

Ciel was banking on increasing the number of Rosetta's allies.

"Yup!"

While the two girls were hyping themselves up, Eulisia was looking at them with cold eyes.

◇

Eulisia distanced herself from the two, and called out to a Black Ops member, who should've been observing them.

"...Can you come out?"

Though she said that, she didn't know if there would be any reaction.

She wasn't even sure if the person was there, or not.

However, a woman wearing a mask immediately came out from her shadow.

She was freaking out inside, but Eulisia held herself back, and explained what was happening with Ciel.

"Is it okay to leave her alone? That child must be plotting something by taking advantage of Lady Rosetta's enthusiasm."

The masked woman, who revealed herself was Kunai, the one that Liam had named.

"Lord Liam has ordered us to keep an eye on her, but to let her do as she pleases."

"What is he thinking? The Banfield Family's military is also complaining, isn't it?"

Some generals in the army thought Rosetta's fleet of personal guards was too big and viewed it as a threat.

Just like her, they pushed for Rosetta to reduce the scale of her fleet in the future.

"We're using the fact that Lord Liam has given his permission to hold them at bay. —Klaus-dono has been tasked with this, so everything should be alright."

Klaus was responsible for handling this troublesome matter.

Eulisia was relieved to hear that.

"It's good that he's returned from the border. If he wasn't here, their dissatisfaction might have exploded out into something else by now."

"Then they would've become targets of our purge."

Kukuri's clansmen were there to purge those that disobeyed Liam, even if the targets were from the family.

Eulisia felt a chill.

"Even so, you're willing to let that child run amok."

"That was Lord Liam's order after all."

Having said her piece, the masked woman disappeared into her shadow.

◇

We're on a trip to search for Master Yasushi, and we're currently traveling to the next planet.

I've just finished my daily training, and I'm talking to my Junior Disciples while wiping off my sweat.

"What should we eat today?"

It's fun exploring various planets, but I'm getting tired of the food on board.

More accurately speaking, I want something stimulating.

Different dishes are served every day, and they're all delicious, so I have no complaints in that aspect, but I want something stimulating.

Eating a full course meal every day makes me miss the food I ate when I was poor.

We've tried things like Ochazuke, but I want to experiment with other things.

"Rather than these luxurious dishes that we eat, is there something you want to eat from the time when you were having a hard time?"

The chefs have satisfied all my requests, so I'm asking for my Junior Disciples' opinions.

Fuuka and Rinho look at one another.

"Wouldn't that be the time before Master picked us up from the streets?"

"We had to rummage through trash for food, so I don't have many good memories of those times."

—It seems I've stepped on a land mine.

I usually order people not to speak about heavy topics in front of me, but I can't say that to my cute Junior Disciples.

After all, I've decided not to involve One-Flash with my act as an evil lord.

I myself have also fished for food in the trashcan numerous times in my previous life, and I don't want to do that ever again.

"Let's say after Master picked you guys up."

Rinho thinks with her arms crossed.

"Something delicious...you say that, but we were happy just being able to eat."

Fuuka puts her hands behind her head to think as well.

"Yeah. Everything tasted good, even the fish that Master cooked for us which was slightly burnt."

Since the two couldn't decide, I turn towards Ellen for an answer.

"What about you, Ellen?"

"Well, uhm... I can't think of one either..."

I can tell that she's lying by how her eyes are darting from one place to another.

"Stop lying. You have one, don't you? Be honest. If you aren't, I'll make today's meal filled with food that Ellen dislikes."

"Hiii! Well, um..."

Ellen tries to say what her favorite food is, but she seems to be having a difficult time answering in front of us.

Eventually, she squeezes out a response.

"I want food made by my mom."

Ellen looks down at the ground.

It appears I've stepped on a land mine yet again.

A child with the appearance of a 10 year-old leaving her parent and going on a training trip.

It's no surprise that she misses her mother.

Today's been nothing, but a series of failures.

"How 'bout you two?"

I turn towards Fuuka and Rinho for help, but neither of them notices my hint.

"Anything's fine."

"I guess anything that will look good in a picture, or a video?"

'Anything', they say. They couldn't have given a worse answer.

Fuuka remembers something while we're wondering what to eat.

"Oh, I want to eat bread."

"Bread? So Western cuisine?"

"We were given bread when we first met Master. It was a cheap bread, but it was the first taste of food that we had."

Fuuka recalls her memories of that time and looks back at it nostalgically.

The same goes for Rinho, but she's absentmindedly holding her cheeks with her hands.

"That bread was delicious. One of the people competing with us over the scraps of food tried to kill us, but we turned the table on him. That was when we met Master. He treated us kindly and gave us some bread."

Fuuka tilts her head.

"Really? I thought he helped us when we were being attacked?"

"Does it really matter?"

What's up with this ambiguous encounter?

Then again, Master picked them up when they were very young, so their memories might be hazy.

Bread, huh?

"Okay, we'll have the chef make bread for us. What kind of bread was it?"

"Sweet buns!"

"With jam for mine!"

This is how our meal became sweet buns.

◇

On that day, the head chef onboard Liam's battleship was waiting for his order.

Even for chefs that served Count Banfield's family, preparing Liam's meal wasn't an easy task.

Not only did the chefs have to be skilled, they had to command the highest level of respect, and honor in their field.

Chefs with both skill and pride were awaiting Liam's order.

"Head chef, this is Lord Liam's order!"

Seeing how much of a hurry his subordinate was in, the head chef made a stern expression.

"Calm yourself! No matter what kind of dish he demands, I can make it perfectly."

He scolded his subordinate for being so panicked, but when he heard what the order was, he buried his head in his hands.

"H-he demands bread."

"A dish that goes well with bread? That's rather vague, but I should be able to come up with something."

"No, he wants bread. Only bread."

"—Hm? What are you on about?"

The head chef fell into a dilemma when he was told that Liam wanted only bread.

"So... umm... he wants sweet buns."

The other chefs around him also came to a stop.

The best chefs in the territory were being ordered to make sweet buns.

"A-and, um, this is for reference."

The image that was shown was that of a cheap bun.

The head chef was utterly confused.

"What's this? Is he trying to test me? Does Lord Liam wish to see how far I can improve this? That has to be it, right?!"

His subordinate shook his head and replied in the negative.

"He's ordered to reproduce the sweet buns as close to the original as possible, and to make it cheap."

The surrounding chefs rushed to support the head chef who was about to collapse.

The head chef then said, "B-bring the ingredients. Since it's an order, I'll reproduce it perfectly, even if it's just cheap sweet buns."

Liam was making one of the most talented chef bake cheap sweet buns.

◇

Rinho and Fuuka start devouring the sweet buns when they come out.

"This is it! This was what I was talking about."

"They're not as tasty as I remember them to be, but I guess these will do."

Ellen also takes a bite seeing how happily the two are eating.

Then, she turns to face me.

"Master, these cream buns are delicious."

"That so. Eat as much as you like."

"Yes!"

I felt sorry for them and prepared food that they wanted as an apology, but I feel conflicted, and can't help but wonder if these cheap buns are enough to make it up to them.

They're delicious alright, but doesn't something feel off?

———————————————————————————————————-

Brian (´;ω;｀): "It's painful. Lord Liam, instead of ordering first-class chefs to bake them, couldn't you have simply bought them? Lord Liam's misusing the chefs... it's painful."

Wakagi-chan ( ゜∀゜): "Enough about the buns! I'm here to advertise Volume 7 of 'The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs'. Finally, it's time! Volume 7, which kind-of-sort-of-maybe has the possibility of me making a big appearance—"

Brian: "Ei!" (´;ω;｀)r鹵~＜≪巛;゜Д゜)ノ "Nougyaa~"

Brian (´;ω;｀): "...."

Brian (｀・ω・´): "Volume 2 of 'I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire' where Lord Liam causes big waves will be out on December 25th. Please look forward to it!"