This is the prologue of the third volume. I might do 3-4 more chapters or I might not. No idea when. Like I said before anyone can feel free to translate volume 3 if they please. Volume 3 is still ongoing by the author at roughly chapter 160~ and while there has been some plotful events it's most just territory development and some war stuff, it feels like it will take a while for volume 3 to be complete. Author does 1 chapter per week release after all.

..However, 10 years is it..I'm amazed you managed to remember after 10 years..

"No, normally if something as strange as this were to happen you'd remember for the rest of your life right.."

The first time..it was the middle of the night when I was just about to go to sleep when my mobile terminal started ringing.
The information about the caller wasn't displayed so I found it strange but still picked up asking, "h.e.l.lo?" and after a short silence there was a haughty voice asking, "Who are you?"
Back then I was prepared for the 1/10,000 chance that it was contact from a client or someone related to the company and supposedly Al thought it was only obvious for it to be from one of his retainers or friends.

When I tried asking him about it afterwards he said it took him a bit of time to remember his j.a.panese.

However, he remembered that he didn't have any acquaintances with a voice similar to mine(I was still young back then) so he was supposedly confused.
On my end I just happened to have an a.s.sociate who has a voice similar to Al.
When I spoke that persons name and asked what in the world they were calling about at this time thinking it might be something related to work or an emergency, and in the first place I was a bit angry since he was the one who called me but asked, "Who are you?".

Just remembering the strange exchange we had back then and it makes me feel weird.

..Is it that sort of thing...

"I think it's that sort of thing right?"

..I see..

Stuff like that doesn't matter at all.
Even the transmission this time we won't know when it will be cut off after all.
First off I have to ask the important things that were bothering me.

"And, how have things been since then? What happened? In the past, I only roughly heard about things when we first talked after all.."

..Nn, I see. Then I'll start talking about the continuation...

"Yeah, I'm counting on you. And is it fine if I record it again?"

..Fu~ Do whatever you please..

Umm, if I remember right..Yeah, okay.
I dug up my memories from over 10 years ago and started up my mobile terminal turning on the recording function.
Additionally I set it up so the recorded file would save to the household file server through the third generation LED light-wave transmission (Li-Fi 3).

"Sorry for making you wait."

..I don't mind. And, the continuation was it...That was..that's right just as I was about to leave my family during the spring when I was 14 years old....

"Hey! That's long since been over!"

..Ah, so that was the case wasn't it...After becoming a Count I..

"That's already done as well right!"

..Oh. So it seems you were properly able to remember it...

This s.h.i.+tty old man, making fun of me...
Or is he testing my memory or something?

"It's still too soon for me to be getting dementia!..And for a short while after I lost contact with you I listened to the recording again a number of times and changed the recording into characters before reading the text over and over."

..That is quite..thanks for your trouble. Even if you listen to same story countless times it isn't any more interesting right..But, it seems I made you worry..I'm really sorry for teasing you at this sort of time..

Huh? Is he apologizing over just something like this?
In the first place, I have almost no relations.h.i.+p with him, I'm amazed he could apologize to me when I'm at best someone to kill time with.
Certainly a lot of time has pa.s.sed over here but it seems only a single night has pa.s.sed for Al after all.

"No, don't worry about it.."

Also, it's not about whether it's interesting or not.
It's only obvious to be interested after hearing stories about completely different creatures, common sense, values, and a world compared to the Earth.
Also, I suddenly lost contact with someone who's voice I heard almost every night for several years.
I think it's only obvious to feel a bit of attachment towards it and listen to the recording over and over.

This guy, is he really thinking about me just a bit..I wonder?
..Well, there's no such thing as a King who worries about every single one of his citizens individually so I think it might be more correct to think he doesn't really mind my feelings.

After all Al isn't a politician or a sovereign living in the modern day.
He's not the leader of a democratic republic either so he doesn't need to bother with things like a foundational support from the populace and in the first place he doesn't need the popular support.
In other words, there's no problem as long as he can exploit taxes out of them without causing a rebellion among the population.

For that portion, he pays more consideration in regards to his retainers and allies who take care of that.
Even that is fine as long as he gives off feelings of fairness like not punis.h.i.+ng people or giving them just enough bait so they won't betray him.
He was aiming to be the barbarian king of a barbaric world.
Mentioning it from a standpoint on Earth and it would be like the upstart daimyo from the sengoku era or the statesmen from an earlier era who didn't hesitate to ruthlessly invade, steal, and kill if they saw a chance.
It's a world and era where it's only obvious for parents, siblings, and relatives to kill each other for the sake of inheritance.
Believing in their own beliefs and aiming straight ahead towards their goals is probably the correct way of living on Orth.

Although, if you were to ask whether Al's method completely matches up with that then I don't think that's the case.

There's words Lao Zi once said, "The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist. The next best is a leader who is loved and praised. Next comes the one who is feared. The worst one is the leader that is despised."
The ideal King is one where the general population doesn't have recognition of the King's deeds.
It means they only have the awareness limited ot the fact that the "King" exists.
A King who is loved and respected by the people falls behind that.
What falls even further behind is the King who is feared by his people.
And then the worst kind of King is one who is despised and made fun of by his people, that's what it means.
In other words the ideal King is one that let's his retainers put together their power to do things and then boasts "the country is better through our power" himself.

Rombert Kingdom which is considered a large country has a population of several millions.
Even that's in the lower numbers so if you round it out it doesn't reach 10,000,000 but becomes 0.
From a modern day standpoint no matter how you look it's a pie in the sky but it might fit for that sort of era and land.

It might be fine to cut things open yourself at the start.
But, after that if you leave things to your juniors while the King himself goes off to start something new then eventually the things the King has to do will run out.
And then when the next generation takes over the operations he started eventually the next-next generation of retainers will forget who started them and they'll  be able to boast that it's being run without problems.

In the first place someone like myself who has no related interests..No, we should be in a give and take relations.h.i.+p.
Though I say that, I've already investigated and given him the information that he needed.
It was my loss for having an interest in his origins in the first place.

"..Be a bit more bothered by it. That's right, these past 10 years, there's something I've put together when I had the time. It's mixed with my imagination and guesses but do you want to hear about it?"

..Nnn? He~ is that so. I'd definitely like to hear about that..

"If there's anything strange or that seems too far out of place and is different then just say something. Then, I'll bring back the summarized doc.u.ments so wait just a moment.."

.................................

Year 7448, Month 4, Day 14

After returning from Rombert Castle Al had a mountain of things remaining to do.

First, selecting the direct retainers that would take up his n.o.ble slots.

In the territory that's being granted to Al this time, there's a prefecture governor(The former official Count Riguru prior to Al is the King of Rombert Kingdom himself) and other n.o.bles who have similar roles dispatched by the King to take care of Count Riguru's territory in the west of the Dirt Plains. Obviously, while there will be some time difference between them they'll all eventually return to the capital Rombertia so the new n.o.bles will take up those spots.

Of course, there's also indigenous n.o.bles in the territory of Count Riguru and there's a lot of lower ranking n.o.bles and commoners who serve the local governors as well so if you were to use extreme logic then it would be possible for Al alone to go to the territory and start managing it right away without it completely falling apart.
The reason being that from an outward appearance of things the t.i.tle of Count Riguru was just lent to the man named Alan.Greed and the territory of Count Riguru is still considered a part of Rombert Kingdom just the same. Since there's few people who know the fine details what is commonly considered as "Through the King granting someone n.o.bility and lending a territory what was a royal territory under the control of the King until now will become a normal n.o.ble's territory" or at least that's just how it's seen.

There's several cases like this in the past so it's not unusual or anything at all.

In those sorts of cases, the n.o.ble that was acting as the governor of the territory would finish up transferring all their duties over to the newly appointed n.o.ble without omissions and then wait on standby in the capital until the King gives them their next job. In the case that the newly appointed lord doesn't have any retainers to take over the jobs then obviously the new lord them self will take over those jobs.

Al was given a very detailed explanation about the transferring of jobs by an official in the capital so he needs to select the members for that sake.

Even if he himself plans to take up the position of knight leader in the capital of Count Riguru's territory Begurittsu, there's one Baron who will act as the lord of Wido a large town with a population of 8,000 or so on the size scale as Begurittsu, and then one viscount who will act as their retainer.
After that there's 4 hidden pioneering villages but in all of them there's vacant slots for viscounts to act as the lords of them.

In other words, it's necessary to select at least six people to become n.o.bles.
That's not all.
It can't be forgotten that a n.o.ble who will become lord also needs squires to act as their hands and feet.
The n.o.ble that was dispatched as governor obviously has their own squires that serve them.
It's not something absolutely necessary for the towns a good distance away from the Dirt Plains right away but particularly the hidden pioneering villages have a lot of immigrants and the villagers don't have much of a history so it's necessary to adjust the interests of the squires left in the village.

Depending on the case it might even be necessary to display your power and force them to obey.

Therefore, for each of the n.o.bles who will take over the hidden pioneering villages they'll need several squires.

"In regards to the lord of Wido it's fine to put Zenom at the top, but who to place as his retainer.."

Incidentally, Ralpha is Zenom's daughter so her position as a n.o.ble isn't particularly decided.
Since it's already definite that she'll become a sub-n.o.ble just like that.
And then I'll have Gwine take the shape of a squire serving Zenom to make her a commoner.
After that, I'll have the same dwarf Kevin become a squire of Zenom and start a new Firestarter family with him as the head.
This much was decided right away.

However, since the scale of the town is considerably large I thought of setting one or two more people as his squires.
At first I intended to place Rokko there since he's good friends with Kevin but after some more thought I realized it would be better to leave a pioneering village to Rokko.
Including the fact that he's one of the older members his skill with the sword is easy to tell and necessary to pin down the older squires and make them obey.

Also, it seems that Toris and Bel intend to marry in June so I can't split them up. I intend to leave them the pioneering village at the front lines to take care of together and I'll place Misu and Jeru there as well. Toris and Bel have already finished purchasing over 20 slaves and are in the process of educating them.

I'll leave the second pioneering village to Rodrick and place Sanno and Ruttsu who look up to him there as well.
Whether his combat slaves Denda and Karimu remain slaves, he frees them and they become Free People, or he let's them jump straight forward to commoners and has them serve as his squires is something Rodrick decides as the owner. Incidentally Rodrick and the others have already purchased over 20 slaves in total as well.

I intend to send the sub-n.o.ble Binsu to the third pioneering village as a Viscount.
Since it was one of the comparatively early pioneering villages in terms of geography it's close to the edge of the Dirt Plains and not all that far from the capital of Begurittsu. There's a low probability of it becoming a battlefield so I only plan to place Hisu with him. After that they've also purchased about 10 slaves.

Finally, I plan to place Kamu as the Viscount and Lord of the fourth pioneering village along with Kimu and Rokko, if necessary it might be fine to send several combat slaves over here as well.
I've been thinking that the former knights Henry and Mekku were suitable. If it's them then they should already be decently educated so they might be able to give advice on managing the territory as well.

Right now, what I'm worrying about is of the remaining people who among my direct retainers to send to Zenom's place.

"There's something I want to leave Basutoral to do after all.."

In regards to the Basutoral couple, they'll become commoners and squires that serve Al himself and for the time being they'll remain in contact with the company in the capital.

"Zulu is..my head slave after all."

Al holds his head while writing down memos.

"I want to keep Jesu  and Rubi by my side and.."

"What about sending Maru and Rinbi over after training them a bit more?"

Before realizing it Miduchi was sitting on the bed of Al's room and was looking at the doc.u.ments on the territory he got from the official while comparing the investigation reports from the dark elves, Kuro, and Mary.
It was an already predetermined route to send Kuro and Mary into the Count Riguru Knight Group.
Furthermore, for the time being Al will act as both the Lord and the Knight leader.
If Toris and Bel give birth to a child or in the case that they don't at most 3 years later when the management of the territory stabilizes Al's already said for one of them to study to become the leader.

"Those two huh..I wonder about that?"

Recently, those two were finally allowed to enter the dungeon and have become members of the {Slaughterers}.

"Of course there's still a ways to go. But, if you concentrate on having them trained they should be decent by next year right."

Miduchi said while flipping a page of the doc.u.ments.

"Nn..I see. Then I guess I'll do that..Ha~ with this it's all decided."

Al stretches his arms above his and then stands up.

"I'm going to take a quick shower and clear up my head."

.........................................

..Hey, stop adding in whatever lines you want..

"Isn't it fine?"

It seems Al was a bit angry about it.

..It's true at that time~ I worried about it quite a bit. But, in the end I decided it all on my own..

"Don't lie."

..It's obvious. The selection of n.o.bles is all the lord's responsibility after all..

"Of course that's true. But, I can't believe you didn't ask anyone for their opinions on it. Putting aside whether you adopted their ideas or not you would have definitely asked their opinions. Even if it's like this I tried thinking how you might like to do things and wrote it all on my own you know."

While I'm retorting to Al like that through the mobile terminal with a grin on my face there's just a silent sigh from the other side.

....Putting that aside, did I mention the reasons for the initial deployments I made...

"Don't openly try to change the subject...You didn't tell me. It's just my imagination."

..Hn, I see. It's mostly correct. That's quite impressive. But there's one thing you're missing..

"Hn?"

..It's because Zenom, Ralpha, and Gwine none of them had any experience in farming after all. Though that's also the reason why I put Ginger and Kevin together with them. Although, there were quite a few officials who decided to remain on that side so it wasn't much of a problem. No matter how large the area of it's farmland or how many serfs it had the Wido at that time was primary a town with it's focus on trade. In comparison no matter how much effort you put into it the pioneering villages are still focused primarily on farming especially cultivating new land. Also, regulating the kingdom's knight groups stationed there. I took things like that into consideration as well..

I thought there were things missing for sure but I felt a bit depressed that my thoughts didn't reach that far.

"I see now. So the reason you didn't let go of Kuro and Mary was because they had traveled around the territory once and they have experience in a knight group so they were necessary to get a grasp on the knight group right?"

..Nn, something like that. But, the reason why I placed Maru and Rinbi there was..not because Miduchi said it at that time. If I remember right, back then I wasn't able to decide whether to send over Zulu or not until the time limit. Right before making the switch I took Miduchi's opinion into consideration and....

"He~ is that so? In that case I'm sure there's quite a few things different."

..Well, it's not fatally different and those aren't particularly important points right? Rather than that it's a bit embarra.s.sing to hear about myself..

"Hn? Then how about writing an autobiography?"

..Like I'd write something like that!..

"Right? That's why in place of you I'm writing one just like this."

....I see..Somehow..Thanks....

"Hey, that's unpleasantly admirable of you. Are you about at the end of your lifespan?"

..I said I'm still lively right? It seems it'll still take a while longer for me to die..

Then that's fine.

"And, what's next? There's still the continuation but do you want to hear it?"

..Yeah, I'd definitely like to listen to it. Somehow it feels a bit embarra.s.sing though. Even though it's not as if someone else is listening to it..But, if it's a biography then it should be written as accurate as possible right. To the point that it's not even necessary to add the acting cool parts. Also the mistaken places and the embarra.s.sing places properly..If there's something different then I'll correct it...

"Yeah, that's a big help. If you throw in an appropriate tsukkomi then it helps me a lot."

..Yeah. Then let me hear it..

"Umm, but I wrote it 10 years, no, I guess it's only one day over there right. It only goes up to where I heard last night you know?"

Either way I have tomorrow and the day after off.
In that case it should be fine to use them for the sake of an old friend who's voice I can listen to for the first time in a while.