CH 227

It’s been 2 weeks since school started. No matter how much I thought about Ludwig’s jokey riddle-like explanation of his preferences, I couldn’t understand it, so I decided not to pay it any head. There’s no way I can make Margarete a macho gorilla or a fat giantess. Besides, it’s impossible to train a fighter to hit a monster with their bare hands. If there is such a monster-like lady, I’d rather see her myself.

That’s why I go to school peacefully, but… how should I put it… I’ve got free time. No, it’s good, isn’t it? Rather, I shouldn’t have free time at all, but for some reason I think I’ve got time.

Every day I go to school and do a huge amount of work sent from the territory. The number of jobs for Caanza Trading Firm and the Caanza Alliance is increasing, so the paperwork should be piling up compared to before the long vacation… but for some reason I feel like I’m free to do anything.

In Caan territory during the long vacation, every day was already hectic and busy. I was so busy with inspections, meetings, interviews, new inventions, and giving advice to the research institutes that I almost didn’t even have time to sleep.

However… I think that every day was fulfilling. Getting caught up in unexpected happenings and incidents… somehow making ends meet… every day is hard but fun.

Of course, I am still busy every day. The daily training continues from the morning, I go to the academy, and when I get home, I do paperwork, and I also have visits and interviews here. I don’t think my busyness has changed, but for some reason it’s unsatisfactory… I’m not a workaholic by any means…

Stimulation……. that’s it! It’s stimulation! Not enough stimulation!

While I was on my way home, the schedule was tight, but unexpected accidents and happenings always kept coming, and I somehow managed to overcome them, so it was mentally satisfying. It must have been exciting and fun. I was mentally challenged by other things, such as the Battle of the Hulk Sea and the Caanza Alliance.

I was a little traumatized that I had killed people in the war, but… including that, every day was busy and full of stimulation.

How does life compare to that now? In the morning, I casually go to school, come back before evening, and just do the standard fixed paperwork. Occasionally I meet or interview someone. It’s a life without change and no mental stimulation.

I am busy. But it’s nothing more than a boring day where every day just passes by indifferently. Before I know it, I’m no longer satisfied with such an unstimulating life, am I?

This could be a sign of danger… On the surface, I want a peaceful life, but deep down, I seek stimulation. It would be terrible if I started taking risks or doing unreasonable things just for the sake of that adrenaline and mental challenge.

It’s not like I want a hard life from myself. It shouldn’t be that way, but the emptiness and boredom in my heart is… it’s dangerous… I suppose…

What should I do? What can I do? It’s better to do something about this before I go crazy and cause trouble for people…

In order to deal with this boredom and emptiness without causing trouble to others… I should devote myself to something. That’s it! How about devoting myself to a hobby or research? I just have to immerse myself in that hobby so that I don’t have time to feel bored.

It doesn’t make sense if I neglect my work and studies, so I think it’s good to have a hobby that I can do anytime, anywhere. But on the contrary, there is a possibility that it will start during work hours and interfere with my job… it’s kind of difficult.

What should I do in the first place? Knitting? ……No good. If I take to knitting, I’ll probably be doing it all the time during class and at work… I don’t know what to say about myself, but in my previous life, I was an otaku, so if I get too focused on something, it’ll be all-consuming.

Regardless of whether I’m good at it or not, when I tried to make figures and draw pictures, it was a waste of time and it was hard. When I think about it later, I don’t think it was meant to be so elaborate, but my personality is the type where if I get absorbed in it, it will become my full focus or something like it.

But if I start saying such things, I will have to do something that I can’t do easily… so I don’t have a good idea of what to do.

If you want to do something big that you can’t do casually in your spare time… is it like training? But that’s what I do every morning and every night… even if it’s already a daily routine and it’s too late to do it, it only means increasing the amount of daily routines.

More like this… something meaningful and immersive… if so, then it must be some kind of research… It’s not something that can be done right away, and if it’s something that requires preparation, it would be impossible to suddenly start it during work hours.

Then there’s magic research. The secrets of magic are still far away. I’m a young newborn chick who can’t be said to have mastered magic. Magic research will be useful in various ways, and if you want to do it in earnest, you won’t be able to do it right away.

You can come up with a plan in your spare time, but if you want to experiment and verify it in earnest, you will need a certain amount of equipment and space. In other words, in my free time, I think about magic research, and when I do a full-scale experiment, I do it on a large scale in a laboratory or an experiment field. This might be good.

If I decided so, it’s good to be hasty. Let’s build a laboratory somewhere in a large space. It’s good to have a place where even if I start firing off spells, the surroundings are unaffected.

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The in the royal capital is out of the question… it’s totally useless to do it there. If by any chance I fail casting magic on the ranch, it could be a catastrophe. After all, it is desirable to have a situation where there are no people or objects in my immediate surroundings. Let’s ask the King to let me acquire land somewhere outside the royal capital.

Real estate can be bought and sold at will, but the royal capital is the territory of the royal family, and if a noble acquires land to build a large-scale facility on the outskirts of such a place, there’s a chance something could go wrong.

For example, it would be important if other nobles acquired a large plot of land near the royal capital and built military facilities on their own. It could lead to talk of preparing for the overthrow of the government. In my case, it only means that it would be nice if there was a place where I could study magic or some other hobby, but I should eliminate the possibility of doubting my innocent intentions first.

All right! Let’s go to the royal castle on the way home from school tomorrow and get an appointment to meet the King.

The next day, when I went to the royal castle on my way home from school, for some reason I was let through to the inner palace at once.

Isn’t this King too careless? What would you do if I was an assassin? To begin with, I don’t think it’s a good idea to meet someone of His Majesty’s stature, even though I’m the daughter of margraviate, and only a knight at most by myself, I don’t rank that high, do I?

Well, I came here because I wanted to see him, and I could see him right away, so it might be strange to complain, but I can’t help but think there’s something wrong about this process.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you today, Ms. Pu… Flora,” Wilhelm said, quickly correcting myself.

“Your Majesty King Wilhelm, I hope the day finds you well, too…” I said.

Hey! You bastard! You would have definitely tried to say “Ms. Pudding” now! Don’t think I’ll miss it! I decided I didn’t hear it, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t hear it regardless!

Damn it…. the royal family definitely calls me Ms. Pudding… aren’t these guys making fun of me by calling me Ms. Pudding, Ms. Pudding behind my back?

“So then…?” Dierich said. “What is your business today? Of course, you must understand we haven’t finished the canal bill, yes?”

Dietrich… you’re kind of haggard… are you okay? And every time I see him, he always tells me that the canal bill hasn’t been drafted yet. I’m not hurrying him on… I’ve never harried him about it even once, so why does he say the same thing every time I see him…? Or he the sort of guy who goes “Don’t push me.”, “Don’t push me.”, “I swear, don’t push me!”?

Well, it’s fine. I didn’t come here today to talk about that. The King and the Prime Minister are probably not free right now, so let’s get to the main topic right away.

“Actually… I would like to acquire land in the outskirts of the royal capital,” I said. “In pursuit of that, I’ve come to inform you both so as to not cause any unfortunate misunderstandings.”

Anyone can buy real estate. However, if other nobles acquire large-scale land in the immediate vicinity of the royal capital, which is the heart of the royal family, there is a risk of causing unfortunate misinterpretations. Above all, even if there is nothing really wrong, there will be people who intentionally distort your actions and spread rumors that demean you. After all, I have many enemies.

That I went to the royal castle today is to lay the countermeasures to such people going, “House Caan has bought a large piece of land right next to the royal capital to help further their nefarious schemes.” and such.

In addition to telling Wilhelm and Dietrich in advance that I have no intentions of rebellion, I came with a written report of my request to deal with those ill-willed rumormongers. Even if I don’t explain each and every detail, these two people will be able to tell what it is.

Wilhelm and Dietrich were staring at each other with a slightly goofy looks on their faces. Do old men find it fun to stare at each other?

“Ah, yes…. that’s right… I completely forgot,” Wilhelm said, seemingly convinced of something. “By the way, what are you going to do with the land you’ll purchase? Will it be a farm or a ranch again?”

Separate from this, if you just want to start a farm or ranch, you can acquire land adjacent to your current farm or ranch and expand it, so the land I am thinking of acquiring this time is a great deal away from the current agricultural lands. There is no reason to build a ranch in such a place. From the point of view of efficiency, it would be normal to expand to adjacent real estate.

“No, I’m planning to create a research institute and a testing site for various research and experiments,” I said. “So, we’re trying to make it close to civilization and people as possible but also out of sight and way of both. However, it would be a problem if rumors started that a noble built a military installation right next to the royal capital…” I said.

“Hmm… I understand. I’ll find a place that suits your conditions. I’ll also think about how to prevent other nobles from interfering, so you can rest assured,” Wilhelm said.

“Eh…? Ah… Thank you?” I said.

What do you mean by “preventing interference”? Does that mean that I should follow the instructions of the Kingdom of Ploiss instead of buying it on my own?

Well, that seems fair? You can’t have a nobleman, albeit just a knight, trying to build a large-scale facility on their own accord just on the outskirts of the royal capital. This must be a place where there is no danger and the king and nobles are satisfied in their compromises.

“Then I will contact you about what the preparations at a later time,” Wilhelm said. “We’ll also arrange an exact date as well so please be ready for it.”

“Okay……?”

What is the king saying? What am I supposed to ready? Money? And what is this date, exactly?

After that, Wilhelm and Dietrich explained various things, but I feel like they didn’t say anything important. But I couldn’t tell you what they were saying at this point, so I thought I’d understand if it happened on that day, so I nodded and went home.

And 2 weeks later…… 1 month after the beginning of the 2nd semester of school…… for some reason, I was in the middle of a ceremony at the royal castle.

Wilhelm told me to anticipate that later date… so it seems that it was for the costume, accessories, and instruments for the ceremony. It was my fault that I left it to Katharina and Helmut, who I contacted without even asking about the details of what Wilhelm was having them prepare. If I wanted to know more about this… I can’t help but say it now, but I regret not asking.

I am currently kneeling in the hall where the ceremony is held in the royal castle. I have my hair rolled up, hide my body with a cloak, and wear a mask that looks like a jester’s, so the nobles who are just looking at me from afar won’t be able to see my figure or face very well.

I wonder if this Wilhelm’s consideration so that my face won’t go public. It would have been better if you hadn’t done this extra thing in the first place, if you were so considerate…

“In honor of Floto von Caan splendidly repelling 8 ships of the Royal Navy of Holland that were terrorizing our coast, I will raise him to the rank of baron for his distinguished service!” Wilhelm said.

………… I thought it was suspicious when I was dressed in this outfit. I’m not wearing my usual knightly outfit today. I thought it was strange that it wasn’t a knight’s formal dress even though it was a formal ceremony, but… was this a baron’s formal attire…? I didn’t know about the baronies, so I hadn’t really looked at them… the viscount’s outfit I had seen before, so I noticed something…

“Accordingly, I will give Baron Caan the Tertu Plateau near Berne and rename it Charlottenburg!”

“”OOOOHHHH!””

Clap, clap, clap… the hall was filled with applause at Wilhelm’s declaration.

I want you to wait a minute. I just said that I want to buy land, but I didn’t ask for a promotion or give me a territory outright. When I glared at Wilhelm, he quietly spoke to me:

“(You were granted a territory next to the royal capital by royal authority. Can other nobles interfere now?)”

“…………”

That may be true, but… I certainly understand what the king is saying, but… but I’m not convinced!

But regardless of my feelings and thoughts, since the ceremony was held on such a large scale and the other nobles were informed beforehand, nothing can be done anymore. If try to undo it now, it seems like I got demoted for some grave mistake. I had no choice but to accept it silently.