[I will accept the position of assistant auditor and acting temporary supervisor of the Serenus Marsh reclamation project with a heavy heart.]
I tucked the unusually polite letter into my breast pocket and stepped beyond the mansion walls.
I must not give the impression that officer-mage Temeratia was stepping forward openly.
That was why I had loaded her title with every belittling word possible—“temporary,” “adjutant,” “acting.”
Of course, in reality, after I punished the current supervisor and returned to the main house, she would command the site in my stead.
“Young Master. Water, dried meat, biscuits, towels, and the clothing bag—everything is loaded.”
A servant bowed before the carriage.
“You idiot. Lord Anplus prefers to be called ‘Sir’ rather than ‘Young Master.’”
Another servant standing beside him jabbed his ribs.
“Sir? How can a pureblood young master be called ‘Sir’?”
“Don’t you see the knight’s sword at his waist? He wants to be addressed that way. We just do as we’re told.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
I let their conversation slide past my ears and looked at the neatly stacked luggage.
When I went to subjugate Henestion’s insane tax collectors, I had loaded the carriage myself.
Even the coachman only appeared after I came out.
Things were different now.
Not a single finger had moved, yet everything was loaded.
It was magic wrought not by blue mana, but by dull black steel.
“We will depart as soon as the adjutant arrives.”
The coachman-cum-attendant had been waiting with me for some time.
“Understood.”
I had a rough idea why they were attaching an adjutant.
Probably not an adjutant, but a watcher.
I climbed into the carriage first and closed my eyes for a moment.
The door suddenly burst open with a BANG.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry. The handover took longer than expected.”
The tone was slightly different, but the voice was familiar.
My eyes snapped open.
“Trichitas?”
A noble among nobles, with bright blue hair that suited a long coat perfectly.
The officer-mage candidate who, under Berto and Orlando’s orders, had once tried to roast me alive with lightning.
My hand reflexively reached for the sword I had left loosened.
When the blade was half-drawn, Trichitas held out a sheet of paper and a parchment.
“I understand your wariness. But please read these first.”
With my right hand I fully drew the sword and pointed it at him, while with my left I took the paper and parchment.
The paper was Lord Argantius’s order appointing him as my adjutant.
The parchment was proof of his identity.
The details were meticulous, the format perfect, and both the ink and the wax-sealed crest were the highest quality used only within the family—no chance of forgery.
“So you’re from an information branch family? I thought you were a relative of Berto and Orlando.”
His middle and family names were clearly written on the parchment.
Trichitas Opetion Arcanus.
Just as the Temeration family was a pureblood branch family handling military affairs, the Arcanus family was a pureblood branch family handling information both inside and outside the house.
And Opetion was a collateral branch of that Arcanus family.
“Branch of a branch, but yes. Those two are cousins on my mother’s side.”
I muttered in a hollow voice.
I was so dumbfounded that neither laughter nor anger rose.
“You spoke so boldly about the shame of bloodlines even though you’re not pureblood yourself.”
Trichitas looked back and forth between my sword and me.
Then, drawing courage with a deep breath, he said,
“Your mouth was still alive even though you couldn’t use magic.”
I gladly respected the courage that refused to bend even before a razor-sharp blade.
I was about to teach him with his own body the eternal truth that a sword has the advantage at this distance.
When he thrust forward a second sheet.
“What is this?”
“Why not read it first? Before showing off a swordsman’s recklessness.”
It bore Lord Argantius’s seal.
“Auditor’s auditor?”
“This body is your adjutant and auditor. Since I’m not a mage, you must be wondering whether I can do the job properly.”
I grabbed the back of my neck.
Challenging an insolent fellow to an honor duel was noble-like behavior, but cutting down an auditor appointed by the Lord was treason.
“I definitely gave a face-to-face report to the Lord that Trichitas tried to kill me and Seongbaek.”
“That’s probably why I was attached. I was trembling, thinking I’d really be sent to a border fortress, but when the order came to report to the capital instead, you can’t imagine how happy I was.”
I sheathed my sword.
CLACK—the guard struck the metal-rimmed scabbard with a metallic sound.
“I was the fool for getting excited that a pension-paying mission would be easy.”
Trichitas gave an uncharacteristic laugh.
He let his brighter-than-blood blue hair fall to his waist and looked at me.
“We’ll be moving together for at least three months, short as that may be. I never thought I’d say this to someone who can’t use magic, but—please take care of me.”
It was a taunting gesture and smile that seemed to say, You don’t have hair this long, do you?
I sighed and reached for the sword hilt again.
“Then shall we start by fixing your speech? I’m the superior.”
Trichitas raised an eyebrow.
“I have no intention of honoring someone who can’t use magic as my superior.”
I immediately shot back.
“Then you’re not my adjutant, so it’s fine if I cut you down?”
Our eyes locked for a moment.
Blue light flickered at his fingertips.
I did not back down and slowly drew my sword.
The SHHHING of steel rang inside the carriage.
“Don’t think I’ll hit you with the flat again this time.”
After a brief silence, Trichitas spoke.
“Very well. Young Master Anplus.”
“It would be nice if you called me Sir.”
“Sir? I don’t know how to say that. Only red-blood commoners attach ‘Sir’ to ‘knight.’”
“Damn it. You really won’t let a single word slide till the end.”
***
The Intezeruto Elector territory was vast, and the Serenus Marsh was far, far away.
The carriage wheels sank into mud created by the spring-thawed ground, causing headaches.
“I don’t think we can pull it out. I’ll go check if there’s an earth mage in the village we passed. Even a village official here should be able to gather dirt, fill the mud pit, and lift the wheels.”
Trichitas began untying a horse from the carriage.
“No. Wait. Let me try pulling once.”
“What?”
“I said I’ll try pulling it once.”
“A human cannot pull a fully loaded large carriage.”
“We’ll see.”
I firmly grasped the iron frame protruding from the front of the carriage.
“Hup.”
CREAK, GROAN!
With those sounds, the huge carriage began to shake little by little.
I put more strength into my arms with a shout.
“My lord… the wheels… they’re coming out.”
The coachman-cum-attendant gaped.
Veins bulged, and the carriage was completely dragged out of the mire.
“That was surprisingly heavy.”
I shook out my hands to calm the muscles and returned the reins Trichitas had loosened to the coachman.
He rubbed his eyes, looked at the carriage once more, then opened his mouth.
“If you keep using strength so crudely, your body won’t hold.”
“Casual speech again.”
“Did I say anything wrong?”
“It’s fine. I’m pureblood, so I regenerate instantly. Even when a certain lightning mage burned all the nerves inside my limbs, I stood right back up.”
A few more days of travel, and we reached a village with a fairly large ranch.
“Young Master Anplus. Shall we stay in that village tonight… yo.”
At the sight of the cattle, Trichitas licked his lips.
Does adding just “yo” make it honorific? What kind of mischief is he planning in that village?
He shrugged.
“It’s not mischief; it’s a legitimate right. It is only natural for a noble to entertain a fellow noble guest.”
I sighed.
“That’s true. It is true, but… you seem more interested in beef than in the village lord, that’s why I’m saying it.”
Trichitas clicked his tongue.
“We’ve been eating dried meat and rock-hard bread for almost a month—aren’t you sick of it? The power of blue blood comes from mana and red meat.”
“I think so too. That’s why I brought dried beef. That’s red meat too.”
I countered, but he ignored me.
“Wrong. That’s not red meat; that’s black meat.”
So I decided to ignore him too.
“Anyway, no. The roads were bad, so we’re already behind schedule. And it’s spring. Cattle that lost all their fat over winter will only be tough and tasteless.”
Trichitas let out a scream.
“If that’s the case, why did we even receive requisition rights? If we’re not going to requisition locally, why the hell did we take requisition rights?!”
I definitely had requisition rights.
“But can we requisition when it’s not wartime?”
“Of course! Wartime requisition rights are just ‘obviously’ there, and peacetime requisition rights have to be obtained separately because it’s peacetime.”
At moments like this, I truly felt I had come to another world.
I muttered as if confirming.
“So if I go right now, call the village official, and say I want beef, they’ll slaughter and bring it?”
Trichitas answered as if I were stupid for not knowing.
“It’s a chance to make ties with a pureblood noble of the main house! They’ll bring wine, meat, women—everything they have!”
“Then that makes it even more impossible.”
“What?”
His eyes bulged as he asked.
“We cannot receive lavish hospitality during the spring famine. Not even barley sprouts are showing yet.”
“Young Master. Pardon me, but may I check your complexion once more?”
He asked as though he had heard something unthinkable.
He was genuinely shocked—using proper honorifics.
“Why can we not receive lavish hospitality during the spring famine?”
“Because the villagers will starve?”
“What do serfs starving have to do with us?”
Is that so?
Words did not come easily.
I had lived nineteen years seeing the god-like power and immense authority of blue bloods.
More than enough time for my previous life’s morality to have diluted.
“It has nothing to do with us, but it will matter to that village lord. He needs hands to plant wheat and tend cattle, doesn’t he?”
Yet the remaining morality from my past life mixed with blue-blood pride and formed a different kind of ethics.
“He’ll value ties with the Young Master more even if it means losing a few hands!”
Trichitas screamed “Argh!” and collapsed into his seat with a sigh.
“Still…”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“To even consider the circumstances of some rural official… You are truly the model of a deeply thoughtful great noble.”
“Thank you.”
Why is he suddenly like this?
Did he go mad because he can’t eat dripping beef?
“If only you could use magic, you would have been truly noble-like.”
Tch—
“Never mind. It was my fault for expecting anything.”
***
Last autumn, it took a little over a month to reach the Serenus reclamation site.
This spring, it took a little less than a month and a half.
In terms of days, about a week longer.
“It really is a vast plain.”
“I was quite shocked the first time I came too.”
The slightly humid wind, the endless grassland, the wild grass grown to chest height—it was exactly the same as before.
“That direction is the front line of the marsh reclamation. By now, clearing should have reached this point. We’ll see it once we climb that hill.”
Trichitas marked a spot on the unfolded map.
As expected of someone from an information branch family, he was skilled with numbers and letters.
If I erased the emotions, he was nothing less than the perfect adjutant.
“We should start by asking about the construction plan.”
“Of course. But I wonder if the site supervisor will obediently comply with a non-mage auditor’s request for materials.”
If I erased the emotions.
I sighed and took out the organized documents from my breast pocket.
“No matter what anyone says, the current supervisor is dead. Wages delayed, budget embezzled, reclamation stagnant—”
After flipping through a few pages, Trichitas stuck out his tongue.
“Goodness. Did that fellow really think this wouldn’t be discovered?”
The carriage climbed a gentle, long uphill slope.
When it was still a marsh, this must have been a hill that rose abruptly or a place where an unusual amount of earth had piled during reclamation.
“Stop.”
When the coachman halted the horses, I stepped down from the carriage.
Below lay the large camp that had been built, and beyond it, sunlight reflected on water surfaces.
Scattered patches of water, dense thickets, clusters of water plants swaying in the wind.
And stretching to the horizon—an enormous untamed land.
This was the Serenus Marsh that I had protected and Ribelia had gained.
It was a beautiful landscape, but remembering that this land should already have been fully reclaimed according to plan made curses rise to my throat.
“Over there!”
“They’re here!”
“Everyone gather!”
“My lord! Come out quickly. Finally, other lords from the main house have arrived.”
People poured out of the camp.
I placed a hand on my sword hilt and descended the hill.
“Is the overall supervisor visible?”
I pointed at a man mixed among those running toward us.
“He certainly looks the part.”
A man in gorgeous uniform was rushing toward me.
Even from afar, his smile was bright as if he had seen a savior.
“From the clothes, it seems correct. I still don’t know why he’s so happy though.”
I came here to cut off that guy’s head.