Prologue
IN THE CENTER of a rotunda-like research lab stood a great many stone
statues in the form of human beings—or rather, they were petrified people that
resembled statues. Hundreds of them had been grouped there, frozen with
expressions of agony on their faces; some even with expressions of hatred.
Moving purposefully among the statues were researchers in white lab
coats and mages in robes. All sorts of equipment had been set up around the
statues, and the researchers and mages rushed hurriedly from instrument to
instrument.
I, Liam Sera Banfield, watched all this from an elevated walkway.
"When they awaken, I wonder what sort of people they'll be?"
Not long ago, I exterminated some pirates who plagued the domain of a
friend of mine, Kurt Sera Exner. Among the treasures I'd liberated from those
pirates were these petrified people.
I had no idea how or why they'd been petrified, but they'd at least been
gifted with one mercy at the time of their petrification. Or perhaps it was a curse.
Whichever way you look at it, their consciousnesses had been bound to their
petrified bodies, so even after hundreds of years had passed, their minds
remained intact. Still able to think even after having been turned to stone, theirs
was a living death.
For whatever reason, someone had gone to the trouble of petrifying these
people and inflicting these people with this terrible curse, but I was equally
determined to revive them.
As I looked down with interest at the scene below me, Amagi stood by my
side in a traditional maid outfit. She looked exactly like a beautiful—if
expressionless—woman, but she was actually a robot. Her otherwise classic
uniform had the odd touch of baring her shoulders, and each shoulder bore a
mark that identified her as a man-made creation.
Amagi's eyes with their brilliant red irises gazed down at the petrified
people, as well. She said, "Are you really going to free them, Master? Not only
were these people petrified, but they were inflicted with a curse as well. There
must have been a reason that someone would do such a thing. Are you not
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concerned that freeing them might prove dangerous?"
Maybe Amagi was right. If they turned out to be bad people, then freeing
them would be a mistake, but I was just too intrigued to resist. I was curious as
to what sort of evil deeds could lead to such an extreme punishment.
"I just want to hear their side of the story. Don't worry; if they act up
when they're released, I'll protect you." I lifted the sword I wore at my waist,
and Amagi narrowed her eyes slightly with what I assumed was amusement.
"And if you cannot handle them, Master?"
"If I die here, then I die here."
From an outsider's perspective, maybe my response would sound rather
philosophical, but I never felt like I was in any danger. After all, I had a guardian
angel in the "Guide." In my past life, I was betrayed and went through hell, but
the Guide offered me salvation. He reincarnated me in this world and had even
been providing me with follow-up service all this time. In fact, I even wondered
if this very scenario was a present from him.
Amagi was clearly concerned about me, but she didn't press the fact and
turned her eyes back toward the statues.
"The petrification is starting to come undone."
"This is exciting."
Just what sort of people are they? Finding that out alone will make freeing
them worth it.
The mages chanted their spells, and layers of curses that had been
imprinted into the statues were stripped away. Meanwhile, someone made an
announcement over the intercom.
"Now administering elixirs!"
Elixirs were mysterious cure-all drugs that had to be used very carefully,
and so the whole lab area filled with a nervous tension. These mysterious
concoctions were incredibly expensive, since even in this intergalactic empire
they couldn't be mass-produced. Countless icicle-like objects formed of these
elixirs were lowered from the ceiling. When they touched the statues, they broke
apart and turned to liquid, which spread across the stone. Researchers in lab
coats watched over the process, administering other drugs at appropriate
intervals.
The statues began to change color, and then stone started to crack and fall
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away in chunks. Human beings emerged from within these husks, all of them
naked. The statues had appeared to be wearing clothes, but their garments must
have crumbled away along with the stony material.
Once released, the freed humans all dropped weakly to their knees,
looking themselves over. Some of them cried in elation at being able to move
their bodies, while a number of them spotted me observing them and simply
stared in my direction. Some appeared wary, others were afraid, and some
inscrutable...but just one of them looked up at me and reached out her hands.
The woman who reached up to me had lilac hair and matching eyes. While
some—well, most—of the released people seemed to be shouldering a heavy,
persisting darkness, this woman instead seemed to give off a kind of radiance.
Amagi had just received a report from the mages and she related the
current situation to me. "They appear to be barely conscious, but they seemed to
understand when it was explained to them that you are the one responsible for
freeing them."
When I heard this, I'm sure I had quite the smug smile on my face. "Well,
that's convenient. If they feel like they owe me, I can make use of them."
I snickered, and Amagi tilted her head, perplexed. Her expression never
really changed, but I felt like I could read her emotions from her slight changes
in demeanor.
"Wh-what?" I asked.
"Nothing. I simply had the impression that you are enjoying this. In any
case, having just been freed, these people must be disoriented, if not traumatized.
They will likely require psychological treatment and recuperation for some
time."
I looked down at the lilac-haired woman who stared up at me. Her eyes
almost looked empty. There were also a lot of people who were pallid, their skin
almost a dark blue.
"Begin their treatment right away. When they've recovered, we'll question
them and find out who they are and where they're from. We need to find out why
they were petrified, don't we?"
"Very well." Amagi turned to some others to relay my orders.
With this operation having completed, I crossed my arms and considered
what I wanted to do next. "I'm running out of time before I start primary school.
Maybe it's time to break open my 'piggy bank.'"
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Once I started school, I wouldn't be free to do whatever I wanted for quite
a while. I decided I'd better line my pockets a little while I had the chance.
Amagi gave me a curious look. "Piggy bank? I was not aware you had
one, Master."
"Not on me, no. But do I have many of them." I looked up at the domed
ceiling and spread my arms. "Launch our ships! And be sure to load the Avid
onto the Vár, too!"
The Avid was my personal mobile knight, a weapon with a humanoid
form standing twenty-four meters tall, entirely black, and with massive shields
mounted on both shoulders.
The Vár was a superdreadnought, a ship thousands of meters long that
commanded a fleet numbering in the tens of thousands as its flagship. Basically,
it was a really incredible battleship; so incredible that there was an entire town
living inside of it. This feature of superdreadnoughts made little sense to me, but
I supposed it was kind of like a mobile space colony. Sure, I indulged and spent
a vast sum of money to have it built, but such indulgence was a privilege that
evil lords like myself should enjoy! I could take my subjects' hard-earned tax
money and throw it around on whatever I so desired. If that wasn't evil, I didn't
know what was.
With all that tax money, I intended to engage in the most foolish act of all:
war. Though, in truth, you couldn't really call what I was about to start a real
war. It would be more like a one-sided slaughter. After all, my military and I
were incredibly strong.
***
This world I'd been reborn into had a certain something called space
pirates—villains who carried out their dirty work amongst the stars.
These pirates operated out of fortresses, most of which were repurposed
satellites that had already been mined for resources, and they hid their ill-gotten
treasures in these home bases. Their forts tended to be heavily armed to make
them more easily defendable, but they were nonetheless little more than "piggy
banks" to me.
From the bridge of the Vár, my entirely too-huge space battleship, I
watched the battle play out. My ships, the fleet of House Banfield, were
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presently attacking another such pirate fortress. My tens of thousands of ships
fired a barrage of energy beams along with some more traditional weapons,
shaving away at the fortress' defenses. It would be clear even to a layman that
my side had the overwhelming advantage.
The operators on the bridge reported the state of the battle to me.
"Our mobile knight force has infiltrated the enemy fortress."
"Infiltration route secured. Sending in the landing force."
When my troops had successfully invaded the asteroid fortress, I rose
from my seat and gave my order. "Prepare the Avid, and ready the usual crew."
All the military officers on the bridge stood from their seats and saluted
me. It was quite a sight, considering that even though I'd grown some in the
years since becoming their lord, I still looked like I was only a teenager.
"The Avid is ready for launch, sir," said the commander.
I gave him a villainous smile. "It's almost time for me to head off to
school. I gotta cut loose while I can." I said it as casually as if I were taking a
day off from work for a little joyride in a different car.
I didn't battle with these space pirates because I hated them, or for the
sake of justice, or anything else like that. I just did it because it was who I was.
It's not always allies of justice who take down domineering villains; sometimes
it's bigger villains—like me! This was basically a hobby for me, and one I could
profit from at the same time, which made it all that much more fun.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how much treasure these pirates have
saved up for me."
Space pirates diligently built up their fortunes and then I came and took it
all from them. That's why I call their fortresses my piggy banks.
***
With my advance teams having breached the enemy fortress, I infiltrated
in the Avid myself and was "entertaining" the defensive forces with my
machine's bare hands. These robotic hands were called manipulators and were
supposed to be precision machinery intended for delicate work. Normally, one
wouldn't fight with them, but my Avid was something special.
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"Come on, what's wrong? Put up more of a fight!" I cried out.
I squeezed the head of an enemy mobile knight, crushing it easily in my
manipulator. Even a big lump of metal was like putty in the hands of the Avid. I
just couldn't get enough of its fearsome power.
Wreckage from enemy mobile knights and other weapons floated nearby
in the gravity-free environment. When I finished with my current target, I tossed
it away from me.
"I heard this group had five thousand ships, but they didn't prove to be
much of a threat."
While I was lamenting the fact that I wasn't enjoying myself this time as
much as I'd hoped, one of my guards leapt in front of the Avid.
"Please fall back, Lord Liam!"
The guard who'd come forward to protect me was sent flying by an enemy
attack. Only elite knights were tasked with guarding me, so whoever had batted
him away had to be formidable.
Standing before me now was a humanoid weapon piloted by a pirate who
had once been a knight. Knights were fighters who underwent arduous physical
and martial training in order to become far superior to the average soldier. They
were valuable military assets but were also expensive to recruit. In the end, some
of these knights ended up becoming pirates. But, well, I didn't really have
anything against pirate knights.
The knight leapt at me with a live sword gripped in one manipulator. From
his movements, I could tell that he was stronger than the enemies I'd fought up
until now. If he took out one of my guards, he had to be a decent pilot too. On
top of that, his modified mobile knight looked new, on par with a machine like
the Nemain models.
"Your days are numbered, Pirate Hunter Liam! There's a bounty on your
head in our world!"
In many intergalactic empires, bounties were placed on especially
dangerous pirates' heads. Due to my reputation as a pirate hunter, the pirates had
apparently placed a bounty on me as well.
I guess I'm wanted in the space pirate world. Well, that's fantastic!
I spun one of the Avid's shields around and deflected a blow from the
knight's sword. Sparks flew from the impact.
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"First I've heard of it. How much is the bounty?"
"Laugh while you can, boy! Soon, the Family will—"
When the pirate knight seemed to think better of his words and fell silent.
I lost interest and kicked his unit aside.
I gripped a laser blade in the Avid's right hand. "Time's up. Well, you
entertained me somewhat."
I wanted to hear how much the bounty on me was, but since he wouldn't
tell me, I cut him down.
I noticed something odd. "Something's wrong with the Avid."
I performed a check on the craft's right arm, and the results indicated a
malfunction. The issue was with the joints, and this wasn't the first time it had
happened.
"Again? I just had maintenance done on this thing."
When I moved the arm, it discharged flickers of electricity. I apparently
overburdened it.
"Is Nias slacking off?"
Nias was an engineering captain in the Seventh Weapons Factory, charged
with maintaining the Avid. She was a brilliant engineer but was otherwise a
complete waste of a pretty face. She wasn't really the type to cut corners on her
work though... I'd given her plenty of time and funds to maintain the Avid, so it
was unlikely this was due to her slacking off or something. Still, since I'd had
this problem multiple times, I couldn't help but get angry about it.
"I'm gonna talk to her when I get back."
I soon found my people had finished cleaning up the enemies, and they
came to await further orders from me. Fortunately, the pilot in that guard unit
that had been sent flying proved to be uninjured, and he addressed me.
"Lord Liam, Special Landing Force Treasure has arrived."
"Excellent! All right, let the hunt begin!"
I decided to leave the issue with the Avid for later and dismounted from
the cockpit. Heading outside, I met with the team I'd put together specifically for
treasure hunting. "Special Landing Force Treasure" kinda reminds me of a
tokusatsu show I watched as a kid. Well, all they really are is an elite unit. This
special force would be able to deal with any situation we ran into while treasure
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hunting. Yeah..."special force" is the kind of phrase that gets any boy's blood
pumping!
"Let's find us some treasure! Look alive, men!"
"Yes, sir!"
Lined up before me, the team members saluted and then dispersed into the
zero gravity area, setting off to begin the hunt and plunder the enemy fortress.
This fortress itself, the wreckage from the vanquished space pirates—all of it
would become my profit. Hence, why I thought of pirates as being an extension
of my wallet.
***
Relatively speaking, there hadn't been a lot in this piggy bank, but it was
enough for a nice little profit.
After returning to my mansion, I was walking along a hallway with my
butler, Brian Beaumont. Generally he was a good-natured old man, but right
now, he was frowning and boldly offering me his own opinions.
"Master Liam, have you really been calling space pirate fortresses 'piggy
banks'? Here I thought this was part of some cute side to you, but oh, how I was
wrong!"
He probably thought I was referring to an actual piggy bank of some sort,
but this whole domain constituted my assets. What need did I have for a literal
thing like that?
"Not my fault you got the wrong idea."
"Anyone would think the same!"
As I considered myself a villain, I really only wanted to be surrounded by
yes-men. I didn't want to have to deal with people who would defy me. But
since Brian had been serving House Banfield for many long years and held the
important position of butler, he managed everything relating to the mansion
where I lived. I couldn't easily dismiss him. This was why I let him talk back to
me a bit, as much as that annoyed me.
He continued griping at me. "I mean, who says, 'I'm off to go break my
piggy bank,' and then mobilizes the army?!"
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"It's my army! What's wrong with me using it when I want to?"
I turned away from Brian, but he hurried around to my other side to
remain in my line of sight.
"You have done quite enough fighting already. Please do not go out on the
front lines anymore! I cannot sleep at night, I'm so worried about you!"
I could imagine how fed up I must have looked with this old man
hounding me as he wiped away his tears with a handkerchief.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be heading off to school soon, anyway. Just make sure to
send the Avid to the Seventh Weapons Factory, all right?"
"It has already been arranged." When I mentioned school, Brian's crying
switched to tears of happiness. "I can't believe you're finally old enough to
attend primary school, Master Liam. I'm so happy I could cry."
"You're always crying."
Primary school was where the noble children of the Algrand Empire went
to receive the next phase of their education. Only a select elite could attend, but
due to the massive size of the intergalactic empire, this "select few" was actually
quite a large number. These children, who carried the future of the empire on
their shoulders, were educated on a planet dedicated solely to this purpose. They
would live on campus for six years, acquiring the knowledge, experience, and
skills needed to be a noble.
Well, it was basically just a school for rich kids. You might even call it a
kind of rehabilitation facility where noble brats who grew up spoiled rotten
would be taught the bare minimum required for them to interact properly with
other people. After all, even poorer nobles ruled over entire planets. I was sure
my fellow students would prove to be a bunch of idiots who'd been raised as
kings in their own territories, just as I had, who would do nothing but cause
problems when they entered actual society. Primary school was meant to fix all
that. What a truly pathetic place.
Brian wiped his tears away and listed my plans for the day to me. "You
have many visitors again today, Master Liam. However, one of them is a bit of a
problem..."
When I heard this, I stopped walking and sighed. "Not again."
***
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Philanthropy is completely worthless.
In my reception room, I sat with Amagi at my side, across from the certain
visitor whom Brian had alluded to.
"So you want financial support?"
The visitor, a man in a suit with an earnest look on his face, was upper
management at an organization called the Planetary Restoration Group. They
worked to make the environments of planets destroyed by human hands
habitable once again, and their whole operation was only possible thanks to
donations from the rich.
"Yes, my lord. We would like for you to understand the work we do, and
support it, if possible."
He'd been passionately explaining his philanthropic work to me hoping to
get me to cough up some cash. The current subject was just how many destroyed
planets were out there.
"So many worlds have been ravaged by war and barbaric pirates. It's not
right to simply leave them as they are. Furthermore, many people from these
worlds have been left homeless and wandering. Our work puts these refugees
back on solid ground, on restored planets."
Well, isn't that just a noble attitude?
"It seems like a wonderful undertaking. I'm impressed by your ideals."
"You'll provide us your support, then!" The man was overjoyed, believing
that I had agreed to become their patron.
"Restoring destroyed planets does indeed sound wonderful, but I will not
provide you with financial aid. Never show your face here again."
"Huh?"
I leaned back on my couch and grinned at the man. Philanthropy? The
thought made me sick.
"You're welcome to do all you want to help people, but I don't want
anything to do with you. I have no interest in your noble work."
I would never do so now, but back in my past life whenever I saw a
collection box, I would usually drop in some coins. I thought it was the right
thing to do if it would help someone. But when I was suffering in my past life, I
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would have done anything just to get some of that change back. I yearned for
any money I could get my hands on, even if it only bought me a single rice ball.
But no one helped me. I tried to raise funds in whatever way I could, but no one
spared even a thought for me. That was when I finally understood that
philanthropy accomplished nothing but self-satisfaction.
"Frankly, I hate people like you. By all means, keep helping others so you
can pat yourself on the back."
The man was shaking, his face red with indignation. "I-is that anything for
a lord praised as a wise ruler to say? I had high hopes for you!"
"Well, you can hope for whatever you'd like, but I'm under no obligation
to live up to those hopes. And when did I ever call myself a wise ruler?"
"Your subjects expect great things from you. They extol your virtues, and
yet this is the reality? You don't even deserve to be called a lord!"
Is this guy an idiot?
"My subjects are just mistaken about me, and I think you've become
rather impudent." I glared at him, and the man began to sweat.
"Th-there are some very important nobles who wouldn't like it if you laid
a hand on me!"
There were indeed nobles who were passionate about philanthropy and
had the cash to spare on it. On a pamphlet my guest had shown me, I recognized
some of the names listed. It wasn't uncommon for rich nobles to engage in
charitable giving, but I wouldn't be joining their ranks.
"You think throwing some names at me would scare me into it? This is
my domain. I'm the law here. I can easily erase one man if I want to."
No other house would defend a man who came into my domain to lecture
me. If I punished him for it, they might have some stern words for me at most.
Not many big-time nobles truly believed that people's lives had real worth. To
us, human lives were nothing more than numbers in a ledger. There were only a
rare few who actually valued each and every individual's life.
"As I said, help as many people as you like. I won't complain, but I won't
give you any money. That's all there is to it. There's no problem with that, is
there?"
When I threatened the man, the man practically fled from the room,
leaving his pamphlets behind. As I watched him go, cackling, Amagi gave me an
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accusatory look.
"Master, I cannot approve of your demeanor toward that man."
Normally I liked to act all high and mighty, but I had a hard time standing
up to Amagi. Though she was expressionless, I knew she was mad at me, so I
tried to justify my behavior.
"Don't say that. Look, I just really hate philanthropy. You think these
types do it out of the goodness of their hearts? I don't believe that for a second.
I'd be more inclined to trust someone who said they were helping people
because it was beneficial to them."
"You could simply have provided them with a minimum amount of
support to get them to leave you alone. That would have caused you no financial
burden."
She was correct there. I was in possession of an incredible treasure—the
alchemy box. It was a mysterious, amazing device that I had obtained from one
of the pirate bands I'd defeated, which could transmute any kind of trash into
gold. The alchemy box provided me with basically inexhaustible wealth, but
regardless of this, philanthropy was something I refused to engage in.
Amagi gave me a sad look when she saw that I refused to change my
attitude. "Is charity really so detestable to you?"
There were some things I wouldn't budge on, even for her. I could never
forget the suffering I went through in my past life.
"Of course it is," I said without hesitation, but she couldn't seem to accept
my answer. In fact, she looked very confused. "What is it?"
"Well, Master, is House Banfield not already engaging in philanthropy
under your very orders? You have bought a ruined planet and are in the process
of restoring it right now. You have also accepted refugees who had nowhere else
to go."
True, I was doing some things similar to that charity, but I couldn't stand
to think of my actions as philanthropic.
"You call that philanthropy? It's nothing like that. I'm just planning
ahead. We're restoring that planet and accepting refugees because they'll
become my assets. The planet and the people are all my property. Don't act like
I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart or something."
Amagi's accusatory look softened and turned to something that suggested
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pleasure.
"What is it?"
"That thinking is very like you, Master. What about the people you have
rescued from pirates? Is that not philanthropy?"
Even before that large group of petrified people, I had saved other captives
from pirates who'd been tormenting them horribly. I'd even used rare elixirs for
their treatment. What I'd gotten in return for the expense hadn't matched up
though, so I considered these efforts a mistake on my part.
I said, "There were a lot of lookers among the people captured by the
pirates, and people with valuable skills and knowledge. It's good to have people
like that indebted to you, isn't it? They're assets. Plus, the good-looking ones
might join my harem one day. Or maybe their kids would. They're nothing more
than an investment."
If I saved such people and allowed them to live in my domain, they'd get
married and have kids. That meant there would be even more beautiful women
in the future, and my harem would become more extravagant. Welcoming these
former captives had been a pretty blatant waste of resources, but I chose to live
true to my desires.
"You do realize there is not a single person in this so-called 'harem' of
yours as of yet."
"Come on, there's you!"
"As I have explained to you multiple times in the past, you cannot count
me as a member. Thus, the number is zero. You currently have a harem with
zero members. Please accept that fact."
"There's you, so it's not zero! I'm the law here! It's my rules! I won't
accept disagreement from anyone!"
How did we go from philanthropy to this?
Amagi appeared so fed up that she actually shook her head, but she then
relented and moved on to the next thing on my schedule.
"Your next meeting is with the new representative from the Third
Weapons Factory."
"New representative? What happened to Eulisia?"
The Third Weapons Factory had always been represented by Eulisia, a
waste of a pretty face just like Nias of the Seventh Weapons Factory. I found it
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strange that they would give someone else the position though.
"She has entered a military academy for retraining."
"Retraining? Does she really need that?"
In this world, the military maintained schools for retraining soldiers who
had already completed their education, since people lived such long lives. Once
you became a soldier, it was a given you would likely need retraining in a few
decades, and people took leave from active service to pursue this. It was also
necessary if you were transferring to a new unit or required new skills, like if a
maintenance tech went on to become a pilot. If you trained for a new skill,
however, that would only lengthen your stay in the military. Education wasn't
free, so you would be expected to work that much longer to make use of those
new skills. Eulisia was on active duty, so if she was retraining, was she looking
to gain some new qualifications?
"I am unaware of the reason, but her training has already begun. Because
of that, they have changed representatives, and the new one wishes to meet with
you now."
One of my pitiful beauties was gone. It was a bit of a pity in itself. Well, I
still had Nias, and she was more than enough really.
"All right, then. Lots of meetings again today, huh?"
"These individuals wish to meet with you before you enter primary
school. Once your schooling begins, it will be difficult to see you for anything
but emergencies."
Unimportant meetings would be refused while I was in school. I guess
there were a lot of people lining up to meet me before then.
At that moment, I remembered something to do with primary school, and
asked, "Amagi, did you send a bribe to the school?" This was a suitably
villainous topic for me.
"It was not a bribe, but a donation. We have made a generous
contribution, yes."
"Same difference. Guess now I'll be able to enjoy school, though."
There was no formal tuition to attend the school, but nobles had their
reputations to consider, so they typically made a donation of a certain amount
when enrolling themselves or their offspring. Some—like me!—made hefty
donations with the understanding that the student in question would be well
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accommodated when they attended.
"At least, I'll try to enjoy my six years of school. I wonder what sort of
special treatment I'll get?"
I expected to receive a warm welcome there, thanks to my financial status.
Money was everything after all, even in this world. I had instructed Amagi to be
sure to donate a large sum, to ensure that I'd be treated well.
Amagi said, "I am pleased you are looking forward to it, Master."
***
In her chambers of House Banfield's mansion, the head maid Serena sat in
front of a holographic image of her true master. The one Serena actually served
was not Liam, but the prime minister of the Algrand Empire. She had come to
work at House Banfield at Brian's recommendation, but unbeknownst to him,
she was a spy sent by the prime minister to gather information on Liam.
"I apologize for calling you like this, but allow me to get right to the point,
if you would. I'd like to hear the reason for the vast amount of money House
Banfield has donated to the primary school."
"His donation?"
"That's right. None of the teachers at the school know what to do. The
principal came to me in tears."
"Large donations aren't such an unusual thing, are they?"
"For a regular noble, no. It's understood their donations are to ensure
their children are treated well. When the money comes from Pirate Hunter Liam,
however, it's a different matter."
The head maid understood what the prime minister was trying to say.
"Does the primary school not know of Lord Liam's scrupulous nature? They
must realize he doesn't desire special treatment."
Serena had determined through her undercover work that Liam was no
enemy to the prime minister. She also judged him to be an exceedingly superior
ruler, despite his youth.
"They know, and that's the problem. Because of this, they have no idea
what to do with the money he provided. What do you think it means?"
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"I think it's simple. Lord Liam doesn't expect special treatment, and just
wants a proper education."
"Then you think so too," the prime minister said when he heard Serena's
reasoning.
The head maid recalled an in-depth conversation she'd had with Liam at
one point about primary school. "He was very interested when I told him that the
school makes up for budget deficits with donations. He looked deep in thought
when I told him many foolish nobles make large donations in order to secure
special treatment. I believe he felt sympathy for the school's plight."
Nobles who were important enough received special treatment even
without donations. When Liam heard that, he appeared to think about it deeply.
Serena had interpreted Liam's expression to mean that he was dissatisfied with
the status quo.
"Lord Liam would not desire such an environment."
"He's almost too mature for his age. How are things with him in general
at the mansion?"
"Yes, sir. He begins his day with training and studying and fulfills his
political responsibilities as well. I have cautioned him about his vulgar mouth,
but he requires no other modifications of his behavior. I would consider him an
exemplary noble even if he weren't so young."
"He's almost too good to be true. Is there anything else of interest to
report about him? He'd convey more charm if he entertained himself in some
amusing way."
Serena chuckled at the prime minister's suggestion that Liam was too
diligent to possess the charm of a boy his age. "You want to know if he's
chatting up the mansion's maids on his breaks, like a certain someone used to
do?"
"I-I was young back then. So does the count engage in any such things?"
The prime minister forced the topic of conversation back to Liam.
Serena was amused by the prime minister's embarrassment over his own
youth, but she wasn't sure how to answer his question. "I've asked Brian about
this, but apparently Lord Liam makes no moves on the staff. Honestly, it is a bit
of a concern, just how serious he is."
Liam seemed to take little notice of his mansion's maids, nor of the
daughters of his territory's vassals who came to his domain for training. The one
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problem Serena could find with Liam was his issues with women. It wasn't that
he fooled around too much, but that he didn't fool around at all.
"I see. That is curious."
"If he finds himself a girlfriend at primary school, I think everyone here
would welcome her as his first wife, even if her standing wasn't very high."
"Well, I wouldn't want him getting involved with any troublesome houses.
What about an arranged match?"
The prime minister was worried that if Liam married the wrong person, he
might become negatively influenced by her family. Serena agreed. The two of
them wanted to ensure that Liam remained an asset to the Empire.
"The problem is that even if Liam's personal reputation is good, House
Banfield has earned very little trust due to its history. Most houses would think
twice about a match with him."
They had tried to arrange a match for Liam, but his father and grandfather
had been such terrible lords that other houses still wanted little to do with House
Banfield. There was no issue with Liam's own reputation, but no one wanted to
join their families together because of the past. They hoped that as Liam
continued to make a name for himself, particularly once his education was
completed, houses that were on the fence about him might begin to think
differently about making a match.
In this world with its extensive lifespans, a fifty-year track record didn't
mean much. Maybe when Liam had at least a hundred years under his belt he
would start receiving requests for marriage interviews. This was proof positive
of just how badly regarded his father and grandfather had been.
"That's unfortunate, but I don't know how I'd feel about joining hands
with his house, either, if I was them. After all, that's why I sent you to evaluate
him."
Serena was undercover at House Banfield to ascertain whether Liam
should be won over or ignored by the Empire.
As he mulled over matters pertaining to Liam, the prime minister's
expression darkened. "I know you're concerned with the marriage issue, but
there is something else I want you to be mindful of. His Highness will be
attending primary school as well. Please make the count aware of this."
Serena recalled hearing this before and gave the prime minister a bit of a
strange look. "Prince Wallace, yes. I don't know if it's good or bad luck that the
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two of them will be schoolmates."
Imperial Prince Wallace Noah Albareto was to attend primary school at
the same time as House Banfield's young lord.
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