Debriefing (2)

The debriefing went on, and Haku-san was furrowing her brow over the fact that, from here on, we could not merely monitor the Holy Kingdom's movements directly but even steer it from the top down.

If I told her, "Keep scowling like that and you'll ruin those good looks…," it'd come across as nothing but a jab, though.

"Our strategy's gone to waste. In a good way. Yes, in a good way."

"If it's in a good way, then that's a relief, Sister Haku."

"I'm so happy I could be of use to you, Auntie Haku!"

Hey, you mother-and-daughter pair over there, quit provoking her. I'm begging you, quit provoking her.

"Well, that is… Truly, it's no exaggeration to say our strategy has been pushed forward by a hundred years. If it had been anyone but Kehma-san who pulled it off, I'd have been able to praise it without reservation."

"My, Sister Haku, you could honestly praise even Kehma, you know. He is my partner, after all."

"That's right, that's right, he's my Papa!"

"Gh……………!"

Please, do her a mercy and stop. That one really lands on Haku-san!

"W-Well, let's set that aside for the moment… Kehma-san, I'll be counting on you to keep handling matters concerning the Holy Kingdom."

"Uh, well, sure."

"Now then, as for your reward… What is it you'd like? For the time being, if money's fine, I'll give it to you as money, but I'm rather at a loss over how large a sum would be appropriate."

"Uhh, let's see… Nothing in particular comes to mind, though."

"Ah, then how about you give me Auntie Haku's…"

"Here, Soto, this one's delicious. They call it a scone, apparently."

"Munch, munch."

Nice assist, Rokuko.

"I'm not exactly hard up for money right now, either. There's the income from the Karisoto District, too."

"… Ah, speaking of the Karisoto District, that reminds me. For starters, a peerage and a domain, then."

A peerage and a domain… Come to think of it, Golen Village was still just a village. Wasn't there talk that it was about time we got it re-registered as a 'town'?

"Then shall we make the Tsuia region Kehma-san's domain?"

"Understoo… hm?"

The Tsuia region? Not just turning Golen Village into Golen Town?

"I'll bundle Tsuia and Pavera together into Kehma-san's domain."

"… U-Um? Both of those already have lords, though?"

"I hear you're on good terms with them? They'll do nicely as Kehma-san's subordinates."

Uh. In other words…

"Ah, Kehma-san will be a Margrave… You'll finally be of a rank where it wouldn't be the least bit strange for an imperial princess to be married down to you."

"Um. What's a Margrave? I've never heard of it, though."

"It's a Marquis who governs the frontier, so, a Margrave, no? It sits one step above an ordinary Marquis, and is effectively the equal of a Duke… is what it amounts to. It's very nearly the highest peerage there is."

"Since having Marquises and March Counts as one's subordinates calls for a peerage of this rank, you see," Haku-san said with a sigh.

Hold on. Hold on a second.

"… What was my peerage up until now, again?"

"I've already forgotten, so from now you're a Margrave. The past doesn't matter, does it? Without a reward on this scale, it wouldn't balance out, you see."

So I really went and did it, huh.

"You took the Holy Kingdom into the palm of your hand, and you'd claim you did nothing? Also, as the monetary portion of your reward, several years' worth of taxes will be exempted, and… normally you'd need to defend the border, but the border is the Holy Kingdom, after all."

It looked like defense spending could be kept to the bare minimum, too.

What in the world am I supposed to do about this…

"And so, from here on, please govern Tsuia and Pavera, centered on the new domain capital, Golen."

"Amazing, Kehma, what a huge promotion!"

"Papa's amaaazing. Is independence next, I wonder?"

"Um, won't the lords of Tsuia and Pavera object to this, though?"

"Should that happen, they'd be traitors, so you may strike them down. I'll grant my permission."

Whoaaa. This is the kind of thing that turns into a real disaster if I don't win them over.

"You can just delegate it all to them as-is anyway, so all it really means is that whether to raise the tax revenue, lower it, or keep it steady comes down entirely to Kehma-san's discretion."

"… Um, well, I've got a feeling I'm going to run seriously short on civil officials and the like, though."

"I hear you recently summoned some five more 'angels.' Why not summon a 'demon' or so next?"

How does she even know that? Did Rokuko tell her?

… She didn't? Then Soto? Soto didn't either?

Where did it leak from? Don't tell me there's a spy in our dungeon…

"A proper demon, in that it keeps to contracts and rules, is better suited to clerical work than an angel. If it's dungeon-born, it'll be loyal too, which makes it perfect as a subordinate."

"More to the point, could you tell me where the information leaked from?"

"It's simple; the information comes by way of the Holy Kingdom… Thanks to you, our spies have free run of the place over there, you see."

Ah, that route. If five subordinates suddenly cropped up over there, then yeah, of course they'd go looking into it… The newborn angels had probably had all manner of intel gathered off them by veteran spies. They do have an honest, guileless streak to them, being angels and all.

"I see, so demons really do seem better suited to being made into officials."

"That rigid, by-the-book inflexibility of theirs is, conversely, exactly what makes them ideal as civil servants."

"Ohh, that's good to know, Mama!"

"It is. Then next up is a demon… Kehma's the one who put out the angels, so maybe I'll put out the demon."

"That sounds fine, doesn't it? In that case, I'll cover that DP as well, as part of the reward."

"Really?! In that case, since we're at it, I want to call up the finest demon there is!"

"Let's see… Up to around 100 million DP in total would be no trouble. It finally looks like it'll come out to just the right amount for this reward."

… The number of zeros is on a whole other level! Is that thing going to be something we can even control…?

Even as unease crept over me, seeing Soto stay perfectly composed without saying anything in particular, I figured, well, it'd probably work out somehow.