These days, Baron Armin Campbell had been following a greatly rewarding daily routine.

Back when his son handed him the power to administer over the Goldic Viscounty, saying that he was a Viscount from now on, he was left speechless, wondering what was going on.

But, after adapting to a lot of things that happened lately and began bonding with the locals, his dissatisfaction had pretty much died down.

“The Goldic Fief was famous for their mining industry that could produce high quality Mana Stone that lasted for generations.”

Armin stretched his body after finishing his work, while Herman, his butler, came next to him, putting down a cup of tea while saying those words.

“The locals are satisfied because they can buy high quality Mana Stones at a low price ever since their territory was united with the old Campbell’s territory.”

“Yes. That's good news.”

Armin agreed while letting out a chuckle.

Though, right after that, his expression turned grim.

“...Everything would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t for that.”

“...That, huh?”

Herman repeated, his tone was gloomy.

He agreed with his master that they had been enjoying a pretty good life recently.

Well, aside from ‘that thing’, which usually came around this time.

“Viscount Campbell, Sir, are you there?”

Hearing the voice that came from outside the office, both Armin and Herman’s bodies stiffened at the same time.

The owner of the nervous sounding voice was a servant.

Normally, they would casually ask him to come in and greet him with a kind smile, but not this time, as they instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

“Is it that again this time?”

“...I believe so, Sir.”

After hearing Armin’s words, the servant answered while swallowing dryly.

“The sender is the Tristand Duchy and Kendride Margraviate…”

“...Come in then.”

Matching Armin’s nervous voice, several servants came in, pulling a handcart, all looking nervous.

On the handcart were two big boxes.

Accompanying the boxes, there were two letters, handwritten by two different people.

“What’s in there this time?”

When Armin asked while pointing at the box, the servant answered while shutting his eyes tightly.

“...Assortment of jewels made by the most famous jewelry in the continent and medicines delivered directly from the Magic Tower. I heard that both items are something that the Imperial Palace would periodically receive.”

“...”

Hearing that, Armin’s expression quickly became pale, meanwhile, Herman, who wasn’t looking any less pale than him, made a remark.

“If we sell just a tiny part of these, we’ll have a few months worth of budget to run our territory…”

Armin let out a groan while holding his head.

He had to do this, or else the dizziness he felt wouldn’t ever subside.

“...What’s written in the letter?”

“Nothing much, as usual.”

Fortunately, the letter only contained small greetings, in contrast to the big gifts.

They were just small talks like ‘How are you doing,’ ‘I’m doing fine here’, or ‘A lot of things happened in my territory’; the kind of small talks that people in a close relationship usually had.

But, the problem here was…

Both senders were Major Nobles who had enough power to blow the whole Viscounty with just a snort.

He wondered…

Why did such people…

Send such greetings to him, every single time, as if he was their master or something…

That wasn’t all, they even included such amazing gifts.

They kept stuffing these items into his pocket for free, as if they asked him to just receive everything without expecting anything in return.

It was as if they were desperately trying to earn some brownie points from him, even though he was the one who should have done so to both of them.

“...”

If he were to be honest, this kind of treatment was burdensome.

No, actually, it was downright scary.

If he could, he’d rather return these items back to them rather than receiving them.

“This is because of my son, right?”

“Would there be any other reason?”

As Armin said so while glaring at the two letters, Herman quickly chirped in agreement.

There was indeed no one in Armin’s life, except for Dowd, who could elicit such reactions from them.

“...Put these away somewhere.”

Armin said while waving his hands around.

The servant answered with stiffened expression,

“...My Lord, the warehouse is already full, there's no empty room left.”

“...”

“Especially since the 20 sets of petrified Protective Giant Demonic Creatures we received last time were quite big—”

“-Let's not talk about that. Please just take care of it.”

After seeing Armin’s shaking hands, as if some kind of trauma had been triggered, Herman cut the servant’s words in a gentle voice.

It hadn’t been long since the incident when Armin immediately fainted after he saw life-sized statues of ferocious Demonic Creatures, which could rip humans apart like cardboard, entering his front yard as gifts.

Those things possessed the power to destroy any County with ease if they were to be released from their petrification—definitely something that shouldn’t be put in the front yard of a Viscount whose specialty lay in agriculture rather than warfare.

Upon recalling such a memory, Armin tried to calm his trembling chest while Herman opened his mouth.

“...By the way, Master.”

“Hm?”

“Alongside everything they usually sent, Tristan Duchy also sent us a document.”

Hearing that, Armin could feel his heart sink.

Seeing his master’s face went pale right then, the butler wore an apologetic expression before continuing his words.

“It's an invitation letter.”

“...Pardon?”

“The Tristan Duchy said they had a big announcement to make, and they requested your attendance.”

“...”

“...Young Master and his friends are going to come as well.”

“...”

Since his son was coming, chances were that Lady Tristan would be there too. They also specifically mentioned that he ‘should’ come to attend, since they had a big announcement to make.

In other words…

The time had come.

“...They must've messed something up, didn't they?”

“There’s a high chance they did.”

“...”

Armin held his face with his trembling hands.

As if forgetting his dignity as a noble, he facepalmed.

…Please.

Son, you bastard.

What have you done this time?

●

I’ve said it before, but well-made carriages were very comfortable to ride in.

The fact that I could think this way, even though I was someone from the Modern World who had ridden all kinds of vehicles before I came to this world, meant that these carriages were quite something indeed.

So, while riding the Tristan Duchy’s carriage, one of the most reputable nobles in the continent, chances were I would be having quite the comfortable ride during this trip.

[So, is it comfortable for you?]

Hell no.

I was just saying what should’ve happened, not what I was currently feeling!

“...Um, Miss Bella–”

“I am Bella Myers.”

Before I could barely say anything, she already cut my words.

She was wearing a suit that meticulously covered her entire body, a pair of white gloves, neatly tied hair and a monocle.

The beauty she exuded gave off the impression of a competent office lady.

Also, she was the person who’d be taking care of me during my stay in Tristan Duchy.

“Unlike Sir Dowd, I’m merely a commoner without any formal title, so please, refrain from using honorifics when addressing me.”

“...”

This serious person’s name was Bella Myers.

I heard that she was Eleanor’s personal maid.

With that fact alone, I… uh, how should I put this…?

I got scared of what Eleanor was up to?

According to rumors in the noble society, sharing a maid was something they wouldn’t do unless they were ‘family’.

Caliban.

[Hm?]

I know that her reward is a First Night Ticket, but seeing what she’s trying to do, it feels like…

[She’s trying to set up a meeting between the bride and the groom’s families before marriage?]

‘...’

[Also, I heard they invited your father to come.]

Yeah.

Thank you for voicing what exactly I was thinking.

It seemed like the moment she had the chance to invite me to her territory, she immediately tried to settle everything that she had in mind all at once.

“If I may, please take a look at this.”

As my stress level intensified while I was having such ominous thoughts, Bella handed me something.

“...This is?”

“Please just skim through it for now.”

Hearing her words, I tilted my head before doing exactly what she told me to.

In the documents were information regarding the territories near the Campbell Viscounty.

The way it was written was neat and elaborate, as expected of the handiwork of a servant who served the Major Noble.

“...”

Actually, this shit was way too elaborate!

It even included details about their securities, military facilities, and even their most well-hidden secrets!

Like, the kind of closely guarded secrets that only the territory rulers would know!

“Please choose which territory you would like to annex, Sir Dowd.”

“...”

What the fuck is she on about?

“...Miss Bella.”

Hearing that, she frowned her beautiful brows.

“My name is Bella. Please treat me properly, as I am beneath you.”

“...”

“You can verbally abuse me, curse me, or humiliate me if you wish, but please refrain from addressing me with honorifics, Sir, as you’ll be putting me in an extremely difficult position.”

“...Bella.”

Since it was clear that she wouldn’t drop this matter if I didn’t give in, I listened to what she said.

“You know I can’t just do that. Territories can only be annexed by Her Majesty’s appointment.”

The case with Goldic’s territory was an exception among exceptions. Normally, it wouldn’t be so easy to take over another noble’s territory.

We still had the Empress as the leader of our country, we couldn’t just do things as we wanted like—

“Her Majesty has approved this matter.”

“...”

“You just need to choose and we will immediately incorporate their territory into the Viscounty territory, Sir.”

The fuck? Is she crazy?

I felt that my mouth went dry as I looked at Bella. Contrary to how I looked, she just continued calmly.

“The Campbell Viscounty is a family that will soon be related to our Tristan Duchy by blood. It will put us in a difficult position if Sir Dowd refuses to expand the Viscounty’s territory.”

“...”

“The Lady, the Duke, and even Her Majesty, all have agreed—”

“-By the way.”

I swear, I’d die from nausea if we kept talking about this, so I forcefully changed the topic.

“Why do you keep calling me Sir…?”

You see, it was my father who had the title, not me. On paper, I was merely the eldest son of a noble family, one without a knighthood or an official noble title.

However, when I posed this question, Bella asked me back with wide eyes.

“...Sir, you didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“...”

She silently stared at me for a moment.

Soon after, a light sigh came out from her mouth.

“...If you truly do not know, then please don’t mind me. I believe there is a good reason why the others had not told you yet.”

“What does—”

“Please don’t worry, you will find out about it soon.”

She cut off my words just like that.

When I thought that the awkward silence would continue, Bella shifted her gaze outside while opening the window.

“Rather than that, please take a look at this.”

She pointed outside, as the carriage was about to go over the slope of a high hill and went downhill.

Since we were at a quite high altitude, we could clearly see the scenery from inside the carriage.

“This is the Tristan Duchy.”

Bella said as I followed her gaze and looked outside the window. Before my eyes…

A vast city unfolded like a panorama.

“...Whoa.”

It was so wide.

Like, really fucking wide.

I had been to the Imperial Palace before, but even the Palace, which gave me the impression that it was both majestic and massive, didn’t give out this overwhelming ‘vastness’.

The city was vast, even when I tried to look at the horizon, I couldn’t see its ends. It seemed like what they said about the Tristan Duchy being the most huge noble territory in the continent was true.

This was the Empire’s best bastion, the one that was dubbed as the second heart of the Empire after the Imperial Palace, the Tristan Duchy.

Eleanor’s hometown.

Does this even make sense?

This was the first time I’ve seen a city this massive, even if I were to count my previous life’s experience.

I guess the term Empire’s Greatest Major Noble didn’t exist for no reason.

Such a sincere impression crossed my mind.

This scenery made me once again realize that the white-haired Lady who was always with me, was a very important person.

“Hm?”

As I was admiring the scenery, something strange suddenly flashed by and passed through my view.

At the checkpoint before entering Tristan Duchy territory at the end of the slope…

There were crowds of people…

“...”

No, actually, maybe, people wasn’t an accurate word to describe them.

Rather, they were a very well-trained ‘army’. Hundreds of them were lined up, all wearing solemn expressions.

Normally, this would be something that would provoke my anxiety, as I’d suspect that something had gone wrong somehow.

But, they weren’t holding weapons in their hands, so it shouldn’t be the case.

[ Welcome to the Tristan Duchy, Sir Dowd Campbell! ]

[ We Sincerely Wish for Your True Unity with Lady Tristan! ]

“...”

As soon as I saw those words, written in the signs that those knights held with solemn expressions, my face stiffened.

Besides those signs, they were also holding pictures, paintings, and statues… All of them depicted Eleanor and me standing next to each other.

“...”

I kid you not, those were statues!

How the fuck did they got those things prepared in such a short time?!

Of course I knew who it was that made them do all this.

Eleanor, I swear.

You don’t need to go this far!

Seriously, I’m going to die from embarrassment…!

“It’s time to set out, Sir, or else we’ll be late for the parade.”

“...Parade?”

“The Duchy had planned several events to celebrate your visit, Sir. The parade marks the beginning of the events.”

“...”

Hearing Bella’s words, I broke out in cold sweat.

Shit hadn’t even started yet and the difficulty level had risen to the highest.

Fuck me.