CH 309

T/N: As I did with the Japanglish while in the Demon Country to represent everyone speaking the Demon Country language, Kanbee and the rest of the diplomatic mission are all speaking in Ploissian, so will not use any Japanese words unless speaking exclusively among themselves.

Waking up at sunrise the next morning, Kanbee was surprised to find that the people in the mansion were already up and working. He had thought that the nobles here taxed the common people and lavished themselves with extravagance, and thus would wake up leisurely and doze the daylight away. But in truth, even that blonde woman is already awake.

In comparison, the mission is still half-asleep. They wake up casually and start preparing for the day.

Of course, House Caan and Caan Territory are the ones who are welcoming them. Of course, it is only natural to get up and prepare and work in order to entertain. Perhaps today is just special because the delegation is coming, and they usually sleep late.

He would like to think so… but he can’t see it. If only today was special, they would be more flustered, confused, and overwhelmed. How are they at present? This mansion is really calm. It’s a smooth operation as if it’s just doing the usual work.

Of course, it’s suspicious. If they suddenly accepted a delegation of this scale, why were they able to deal with it so calmly? He can’t justify that they weren’t prepared to accept this scale from the beginning.

He thinks they were not ready, but… it’s not like they aren’t already getting up early in the morning, and they were working as usual…. receiving the mission really was as sudden as said. Because the retainers, civilians, and military officers here are excellent, even if they accept this size of a mission in a hurry, they will be organized well without any confusion… and that just can’t be right…

That would be impossible even in their own country. You wouldn’t show it to the guests, but if the House Servants were suddenly asked to respond like that, there would be chaos behind the scenes. It’s too improbable here.

No matter how much you try to cover it up, if they’re really in a hurry, you’ll see it all the time. But the people here don’t have that sort of anxiety to them. It’s as calm as if it had been planned from the beginning.

It was time to shake things up a little…

Thinking so, Kanbee called out to a nearby maid.

“You, the maid over there,” he said.

“Yes?” the maid said, looking at Kanbee with a dumbfounded expression. Then, she realized who she was talking to and bowed to him. “Yes,” she said more seriously, “how may I serve you?”

“Hmm… I’d like to go for a walk around town this morning, would that be alright?” Kanbee asked.

“I can’t make a decision on my own,” the maid replied. “I will check with Miss Floto. Please wait a moment.”

One of the other maids continued to attend to Kanbee, and the other left after going to check on the blond woman. After a while, he was told that he could go out into town with an escort, and Kanbee went out for a walk in Floren that morning.

Kanbee strolls around the town under the morning sun. Since there is surveillance under the pretense of an escort, he judged that there was something they don’t want him to see.

“Can I speak to the townspeople?” Kanbee asked.

“Sire… that’s fine, but… the townspeople are just ordinary folks,” the escort said. “There may be some rude words and actions in the face of you, a diplomat… but I would hope you can forgive them. If you can’t stand the rudeness of those who don’t know you are a diplomat, Lord Kanbee, then please refrain from speaking to them, to begin with.”

A soldier made a firm statement. Can you say that to ordinary diplomats and envoys? Normally, it would be par for the course to punish the citizens of the territory if they acted rudely to a diplomat.

Nevertheless, even if the people of the territory act rudely to Kanbee, this soldier asks the Head of the Mission to let it slide. Kanbee was surprised that he was allowing it and not just forbidding him outright.

“Morning is a busy time for the people of the fief as well,” the soldier said. “At such times, there is a high possibility that commoners who do not know that they’re facing a diplomat or a member of a mission will act rudely. Anyway, they don’t know that the mission has been here since yesterday.”

“… I understand,” Kanbee said. “Then it will be as if my eyes are closed if there is some rudeness before them.”

The soldier is right. For example, if they had informed them that a mission was coming through here today, they would be guilty of interfering with their passage through the area. However, if the mission suddenly came without such a plan and they were not even informed about it ahead of time, ordinary people would respond normally. They don’t know. And it’s not the people’s fault.

Kanbee wants to hear what the people have to say. So he tried to talk to a man nearby, promising to close his eyes even if he acts somewhat rudely and inconsiderately.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Kanbee asked.

“Huh? Sure… I don’t mind, but…” the man said, glancing at Kanbee’s clothing, then a little awed when he noticed the soldier standing behind him.

This man wears foreign clothes and is accompanied by a House Caan soldier, so he can imagine that this stranger must be a person of some importance.

“This town seems to be quite beautiful…but how is the lifestyle here?” Kanbee asked.

“Haa…” the man sighed. “It’s been a few years since the Caan Knighthood was even developed, you know…? It’s only been a year or two since Floren started its development, even shorter since it was opened to the public… I think it’s beautiful, this town.”

Kanbee raised an eyebrow at the man’s words. He said that even though the development of the entire territory took a few years, it took just a year or two to get this place to how it was.

As he suspected, this town is a fabrication.

Kanbee decided so.

This is a fictional town made to look like a good life to outsiders. It can’t be possible otherwise… it’s impossible for this man to have water coming out of the faucet that he twists right now.

He doesn’t know what kind of technology this equipment is made of. However, there is no way that such an advanced thing should be attached to an ordinary private house as a matter of course.

“It’s nice to have the buildings so freshly made and beautiful, but what about living in them?” Kanbee asked.

“Yeah~, thanks to Her Lordship, we are able to live a good life. Life has become much easier than before we moved here,” the man said.

“Hmm… specifically how?” Kanbee said.

“Heh… now that you ask…”

Kanbee is at a loss for words when he hears the reply. The Lord pays for all the living infrastructure, food, and funds at the time of reclamation. They live in temporary housing built by the Feudal Lord, are exempted from taxes for up to several years, and can farm on the agricultural plots developed under the leadership of that same Lord.

Impossible. Preferential policies that are too unrealistic are talked about. But it is also strangely persuasive. A man who looks like a farmer that Kanbee found by chance can talk about such things so smoothly. It’s so unnatural and suspicious.

Is this town a propaganda village and all the people who live here have received such an education and are made to respond in that way? If not, is everything they say true…?

After that, Kanbee called out to several people, but the reputation he heard was the same whoever he stopped, wherever he went. The escort soldier doesn’t stop Kanbee’s actions, either.

It would be nice if this was a propaganda village as expected. Everything makes sense. But if… if they were honest… if what the people say is true… if there is a Lord who can do such a drastic thing… It’s a devil’s method to control people’s hearts too rationally and make the people of the fief swear allegiance to her.

At first glance, it seems that if such preferential measures are taken, the finances will start to go downhill because they will only be able to spend, not earn back. However, if such preferential treatment is given, immigrants will flood in and the town will prosper in no time. If so, the initial cost will be recouped in no time.

As long as you could secure funds for early investment and a huge labor force to bring it up to speed… this is a devilish plan that has been terribly calculated.

And the inhabitants of the fief who are treated favorably will swear absolute loyalty to the Feudal Lord to the point of fanaticism. If such citizens fight as soldiers, a strong army will be created that is willing to die for their master.

It is far from squeezing out heavy taxes and spending all of it on extravagance. Give the people a good life, and as a result, people and goods will gather, the territory will prosper, garner the loyalty of the residents, and all of them will risk their lives to fight for the territory. And this place is getting bigger and bigger still.

Just like a Demon King! What kind of brain do you have to come up with something like this? Even Kanbee hadn’t considered anything like this. The best he can say in reply is, “I see.”

It’s horrible……. it’s dangerous here. While despising it as a small country of barbarians, he may find the positions of their countries reversed on the world stage.

Having changed his perception of the Kingdom of Ploiss and Caan Territory, Kanbee braced himself and returned to the mansion.

After having breakfast at the mansion, Kanbee was told that they would all be traveling by carriage today, so they boarded some. The destination seems to be a town called Caanburg, the capital of Caan Territory. Others preferred to ride horses and the soldiers had to move on horseback anyway because they could not protect the carriages while inside them. The diplomats are put on a strange-shaped carriage and start moving.

“Quite the odd design for a vehicle, isn’t it?” Kanbee asked one of his fellow diplomats.

“Indeed it is…” one of them replied. “I’ve been to the Kingdom of Del, but it’s completely different from the carriages there. The way it develops depends on the region, I guess.”

Kanbee stared blankly at the other members of the mission, all proudly talking about such things.

“Hmph… you don’t seem to know anything,” Kanbee said. “Is that the only insight you have?”

“Wha?!” the other diplomats spluttered, turning red in the face.

Since Kanbee is superior in terms of position, they can’t openly oppose him, but there’s no doubt that they find this behavior unamusing, though they’ll only admit that honestly in their hearts.

Kanbee is certainly excellent and has the aura of a genius, but perhaps that is why he often looks down on others. He is also overconfident and outspoken, so he is often dismissed. His work is excellent, so there are parts that are overlooked, but he also had many opponents.

Again, the other diplomats took it as just looking down on people and making fun of them, but that wasn’t the case. There’s a good reason why Kanbee asked this.

It’s true that Kanbee is overconfident and looks down on people, but there’s a reason for what he said. However, even if there is a reason, Kanbee is thought to be an arrogant self-confident person because he doesn’t take such compromises into consideration so as not to butt heads with people.

What is surprising now is not that the shape of the carriage has changed from the standard. It’s surprising that this Caan Territory, which has only been open for a few years, has such a huge highway running through the forest.

A huge highway that could accommodate two horse-drawn carriages on one side cuts through an empty forest. There is also the end of the road, that is, the terminal point is a small town called Floren that they had left earlier. Putting aside the fact that it’s a main road that runs between large towns, they’re building something this huge on a road that only extends to such a tiny settlement.

2 lanes on each side, making 4 lanes total, the roads are too huge…if they were used for an invasion army…they would enable overwhelming speed and quantity of marches and transportation of military supplies.

An army of tens of thousands can march, and it can withstand the transport of supplies to support that force. If… if there was a war with this country…, more soldiers and supplies would be transported than in the past wars. This overly wide road is… a military road that was opened in anticipation of future wars.

Furthermore… this carriage and the road surface… it’s too abnormal. Even though the carriage is running at an unbelievable speed, it hardly shakes. It can’t be done without both the performance of the carriage and the condition of the road surface.

Why are roads laid out in such a rural area so thoroughly maintained? This is because the road surface conditions greatly affect the transport speed in marching and transporting goods. Just like the carriage is blasting across the road now, the road surface is clean and the vehicle does not shake, and the performance of the carriage is good and goods can be transported quickly if they aren’t violently rattled. It is of great significance in the movement of large armies and the transportation of supplies.

It’s not the time for diplomats, the ones who ventured to an enemy country to investigate their status, to say anything more explicit than, “Quite the odd design for a vehicle, isn’t it?”

The technological ability to lay evenly leveled roads. And the technical ability to make a carriage with a special form that does not shake. Furthermore, military roads are thoroughly maintained even in such a rural area. The Lord here is a monster. She is unmistakably a monster. If not, is she God or the Devil herself? She has thought of all these and done them, too.

If you just imagine it, even Kanbee can do it. If you just dream like that, it’s not impossible. But to actually realize it on such a large scale would be insane. In the unlikely event that it fails, the country will go off a tipping point into a downward spiral. Such a big gamble is actually performed… and made to pay off handsomely.

An existence that has such financial power, technical power, judgment, decision-making power, and execution power… you have to call that person a monster.

Do not make a mistake in future negotiations. With all unreliable diplomats surrounding him, Kanbee was worried about the upcoming negotiations.