Chapter 9

Palmira was just like any other village that despised nobles, but the reason was somewhat peculiar. During the height of the war against the demons, the lord, who was a noble, abandoned the villagers and fled. That was the root cause. In the process, the lord took all the soldiers with him, forcing the villagers and adventurers to take up arms in their place.

“And now, a new lord for the village we protected with our own hands? This is beyond ridiculous!”

Marco, the Merchant Guild leader, slammed the table repeatedly, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“I even went to the capital to protest, but they didn’t even listen. I didn’t even get to see His Majesty the Emperor’s face.”

Cecilia, the branch leader of the Adventurer Guild and temporary village chief, sighed, lamenting the current situation. She, too, was far from pleased with the new lord.

“From what I’ve heard, the new lord is coming here because he committed some crime.”

Finally, Father Camille, the village priest and the one in charge of military force, spoke up.

“What the hell, this isn’t some punishment colony! So what crime did we commit to deserve this?”

“Getting angry won’t change anything. You’ll just lose your voice.”

“Right. In times like these, we need to stay calm and come up with a sharp plan.”

These three were the true powers of the village, born and raised here. Anyone who crossed them couldn’t even set foot in the village properly, let alone do anything. The previous lord, who tried to sneak back, was beaten to a pulp and chased out, serving as proof.

“…Still, if we mess with this new lord too much, it’s going to cause big trouble.”

“But if I see that bastard strutting around like he owns the place, I’ll explode!”

“The conversation isn’t going anywhere. We need a sharp plan, not anger.”

Then, Cecilia, the branch leader of the Adventurer Guild, came up with an idea.

“Right. If we can’t do anything, then we just won’t do anything.”

“So we’re just going to watch that noble bastard do whatever he wants?”

“No, I mean we should ignore him. If we all treat him like he’s invisible, what can he do? He’s already here because he committed a crime. If he kills the villagers, he’ll just lose his own head.”

“Hoh, that’s not bad.”

Father Camille wasn’t entirely pleased with the method, but he had no choice but to go along with it due to majority rule.

###

A few days later, when the new lord’s carriage finally arrived at the village entrance, the villagers greeted it with practiced indifference. They didn’t even glance at the carriage, let alone offer any greetings. When the coachman, realizing the situation, tried to lash out in anger, he was stopped by the new lord.

Soon, the carriage arrived at the lord’s mansion, and the new lord’s pet crow, seeing the state of the mansion, let out a mocking laugh.

“Ha! What kind of dump is this…?”

The people secretly began to anticipate what reaction the lord would show. If he stepped out of the carriage and threw a fit, they planned to ignore him as if nothing had happened, humiliating him.

“…Lord Raul. Is this really the mansion where you’ll be staying?”

Even to the coachman, the building was far too shabby to be called a lord’s mansion. It was more luxurious than an average house, but for a lord’s mansion, it was too old and small.

The two-story wooden building looked decrepit at a glance, and the garden beyond the iron bars didn’t even have a single flower.

The previous lord’s mansion was now being used as a warehouse, so they had gifted the best remaining house in the village. Of course, even the best here would look like a pigsty to someone from the capital.

“…It says ‘Lord’s Mansion,’ doesn’t it?”

As the carriage door opened, the eyes of the indifferent villagers briefly turned toward it.

“Then this must be the lord’s mansion.”

He stepped out of the carriage without a single complaint.

What the people saw was not the pot-bellied old man they had expected, but a young man who looked like he needed immediate medical care.

From a distance, he could be mistaken for a beautiful woman or a handsome man. Either way, his features were excessively slender, and his beautiful face showed no signs of vitality.

“If I have become the lord, then this building has become the lord’s mansion. If the lord’s mansion is this village, then it’s a splendid place indeed. Look at the essence, not the name.”

At that, a large arrow pierced the conscience of the villagers who had been ignoring him.

“But, Lord…”

“And the place I’ll be staying isn’t just this building, but this village. Seen that way, isn’t it the finest residence of all?”

Another arrow struck the hearts of those who had thought the lord would surely look down on their village.

“So don’t get too angry…”

Perhaps due to accumulated fatigue, the lord tripped on a stone and fell.

Unable to stand by, Marco, the Merchant Guild leader, approached to help him up, but Cecilia, who had led the plan, kicked him in the shin, causing him to fall in the same position as the lord.

Seeing her master fall, Betty, the maid who had been checking the luggage, rushed over and helped him up.

“Lord Raul!”

“Don’t worry too much. It’s just a fall.”

He dusted himself off nonchalantly, stood up, and walked into the mansion.

As he entered the mansion, the villagers, who had been pretending to ignore him, gathered to discuss the situation.

“He doesn’t seem like a bad person…?”

“No, we don’t know that yet. It could all be an act. He might be trying to deceive us.”

“But isn’t it a bit hypocritical for us, who are completely ignoring him, to say that?”

“Shut up. Those noble bastards didn’t care when our village was in the most danger, and now they’re acting like this. Doesn’t it piss you off?”

Before they knew it, the conversation had shifted to the lord’s appearance.

“By the way, did you see his face? He looks like he wouldn’t even bleed if you stabbed him.”

“He’s good-looking, though?”

“Good-looking or not, he looks like he’d drop dead if you poked him!”

Then Cecilia, the mastermind of the plan, kicked their butts in anger.

“What’s so important about the lord’s appearance that you’re all gathered here talking nonsense?”

“But if some pot-bellied, mustached old man showed up, our Cecilia would definitely get harassed.”

“…Wouldn’t even a perverted noble skip a woman who can uproot a tree with her bare hands?”

“Hey!!!”

Of course, the new lord was sipping coffee prepared by his maid, watching the amusing scene from the second-floor window of the mansion.

“The dignified ignore strategy has failed, so we’ll have to execute the next plan.”

Raul, the new lord, had such sharp hearing that he could hear the sound of water flowing 300 meters away.

Of course, even after seeing their attitude, he didn’t feel the need to get angry or play any tricks in return.

“I’ll give that young lord a piece of my mind, so watch closely.”

Cecilia, carrying a stack of unimportant documents, knocked on the mansion’s door.

“Sorry to bother you on the first day, but there are urgent matters that require your immediate attention.”

The door opened, and the new lord himself greeted her.

“Come in.”

“Why is the lord…?”

“My maid is unpacking, and the coachman is cleaning the stables for the horses. Naturally, the least busy person should greet the guest.”

His attitude, so different from the nobles she knew, left her momentarily flustered, but she quickly regained her composure and handed him the stack of documents.

“These are the documents that piled up while the village was without a lord.”

It was a workload that would normally take two sleepless nights to complete, but she boldly demanded that the new lord finish it by the next morning.

“Is that so?”

“Since it’s quite urgent, could you handle it by tomorrow morning?”

“No.”

At that, Cecilia raised one corner of her mouth, thinking she had expected as much.

Just as she was thinking that, as expected of a criminal exiled to the frontier, he was incompetent, the new lord, Raul, spoke calmly.

“I can finish this amount in three hours. You said it was urgent, so I should handle it as quickly as possible.”

“Excuse me…?”

“That’s not something you can normally finish in three hours.”

“It’s not something you can finish in a day, either, is it?”

He stood there, placed the documents on a nearby table, and began working.

Cecilia was astonished by his smooth handling of the tasks, but Raul didn’t even glance at her, focusing entirely on the documents in front of him.

“Here it is.”

He finished all the work in just two hours and forty minutes, then handed the stack of documents, free of any errors or mistakes, back to Cecilia.

“If there’s more work, please bring it to me tomorrow.”

“Yes, yes…”

Cecilia bit her lip and left the mansion, while Raul sipped his now-cold coffee and prepared dinner without a word.

And Raul’s pet crow, who had been watching everything, opened its cage and began flapping its wings in the direction Cecilia had stormed off.

“…They know nothing.”

In the crow’s eyes was a cold anger that even its master, Raul, had never seen before.