The adopted heirs had tried to scheme with Traysan against Andromeda.

In some ways, Andromeda had a temperament even more thunderbolt-like than Nereus, yet she did not simply blast all those adopted heirs away.

Despite the political danger, the adopted heirs were desperately necessary.

With direct-line purebloods alone, it was impossible to govern this vast territory and its tens of millions of subjects.

Even a rough census was impossible without the Manseong Church’s full cooperation, and even then, the numbers changed every time it was conducted.

There were many fiefs where the estimated population—calculated from the population recorded in ledgers and food consumption—differed by multiples.

Rather than build a precise tax-collection system, they granted requisition authority to the Blue Knights who went into the field because they lacked the administrative capacity to gather everything into one place and redistribute it.

Even so, they couldn’t simply let the Blue Knights in the field run wild as they pleased.

And so, the adopted heirs who would oversee those field Blue Knights—despite having a record of participating in treason not even two months ago—were able to gather again.

“Long time no see.”

“You all look hollow.”

“We’ve been drowning in cleanup for a while. Caring for the wounded and the broken, replenishing the supplies and weapons that were lost.”

Ur, the adopted heir of the Royal Guard.

Scipio, the adopted heir of the Mounted Patrol.

Silvanus, the adopted heir of the Goldcoin Brigade.

Bataos, the adopted heir of the Outer City Guard, and Sirmines, the adopted daughter.

Nicolaos and Chermidon, adopted heirs of the Light Cavalry—and even Dietus, the last surviving member of the three musketeers.

They were the core leadership of the former Traysan faction.

“Our Goldcoin Brigade will probably have to keep doing nothing but work for a while. The pile of shit that bastard Acto left behind is too big.”

“The Outer City Guard’s discipline is starting to get lifted.”

“Already?”

“If one out of a thousand among a million subjects and hundreds of thousands of urban poor causes trouble, that’s hundreds of incidents a day. How are they supposed to keep us tied down? Working without leave is the highest punishment.”

“The Mounted Patrol’s 분위기 has gotten better too. They loosened the leash again after the last Grand Cathedral assault.”

Of course, they did not speak of rebellion or revenge.

Traysan had been a leader who represented their interests, not a boss who stood above them.

They had followed him earnestly while he existed, but they were not the sort to keep chasing him after he was gone.

“The Grand Cathedral.”

“He pulled something off.”

“The youngest. He was decent.”

And so the topic naturally shifted to their next move.

If they didn’t want to be used again, they had to unite.

Around whom would they unite, and through what actions would they make their voice heard?

It was time to set a new goal, a new leader.

“What do you think, elder brother?”

“He was decent. No—he was excellent. To force the excommunication of the Rikenta patriarch. And if he’d been keeping that princess Erica captive for years, it means he’d been planning it since then. He has political sense and long-range vision.”

Ur of the Royal Guard was the unspoken second-in-command, but as Royal Guard, he could not openly defy the main house’s direct line beyond a point.

“And you, older sister?”

“I’ll admit it. He earned merit for the house. While everyone else was scrambling inside to secure their own share, he went outside and came back with something between his teeth.”

Sirmines, the adopted daughter of the Outer City Guard, was a powerful Blue Knight as well, but the Outer City Guard itself was not a particularly high-status unit.

And since both had been close to Traysan, they couldn’t avoid being draped in their predecessor’s shadow.

“We can’t like him.”

“He was the youngest from the start. Rude as hell.”

“But it doesn’t seem like we even need to clash with him for work.”

The adopted heirs felt a bitterness that was also strangely cleansing.

They had lost.

He was an opponent worth losing to.

So while it was bitter, it wasn’t shameful.

“I’ll lift the block I put on the warhorse stables. I’ll allow sales to the youngest again.”

Scipio let it out as if dropping his head.

“He’s the one who fought and beat the Rikenta princess while we were busy tearing each other apart. We can’t like him right away, but we can’t keep sharpening blades at him either.”

In the end, they were Blue Knights too.

Those were the reactions of adopted heirs who had fought over power not long ago.

“Young Master Kyrie exposed the vile plot of the Rikenta family!”

“He’s my classmate! He’s Hari’s classmate!”

“War! War! War! Raise the banners!”

“Can I request reassignment south? I’ll go down with Sir Nereus—no, with Young Master Nereus.”

Among the Blue Knights, Kyrie was already a hero.

“He’s more cooperative than I expected.”

Nereus and Gluttony benefited by association as well.

Shaaahhhh!

The water split along the ship’s side.

Gluttony and the merchants had sold grain, spices, sugar, and eastern silk brought from the south, then bought and loaded all manner of manufactured goods from the central region—cotton cloth, pendulum clocks, chronometers, compasses.

“There’s more left over than expected. We can pay a larger dividend.”

“Dividends too? If not for Kyrie’s tax-exemption certificate, didn’t you say it would be a loss?”

“Prices rose because people started hoarding out of fear—war on top of civil war.”

“If prices rise, shouldn’t only necessities and food sell? Wouldn’t the luxury goods you deal in stop moving?”

Nereus knew they had also risked their lives for Kyrie’s victory.

“Forgive me, my lord, but when prices rise, can you truly refrain from holding banquets?”

“No. I’d rather starve than sit at a table without cinnamon, saffron, and pepper. I understand. Luxury and necessity are relative standards.”

And so, despite Gluttony’s impertinence, he let it pass with no more than a harsh sidelong look.

I think I understand why Kyrie keeps this man close,

If Kyrie had heard it, he would have insisted he’d never done any such thing.

Calculating, but not vulgar. Desperate, but not cringing.

In any case, Nereus did not view Gluttony poorly.

For Nereus, a noble among nobles, to view a common merchant not poorly was, by nature, an extraordinary thing.

Merchants made money by moving position.

They did not create anything; they profited by exploiting the desperation of those who needed something, and thus they were always scolded by the Manseong Church.

But in the last war, Nereus had felt that value was determined by place and circumstance.

I would have gladly paid a fortune just to get dried meat and holy water.

He was willing to pay the price of need and desire.

For a grand dream.

Beasts, Rikenta remnants, bandit gangs—there will be plenty. I’ll subjugate them, build strength and forces. And when I meet Kyrie again, then I will either topple him with my own hands or extend my hand.

He clenched his fist tight.

Replaying Heavenly Thunderburst’s Authority in his head, Nereus opened his mouth.

It had now been passed to the main house as well, but originally it was an Authority made in Tonatio.

The thought of showing the essence of thunder to Kyrie, the Lightning Blade, was delightful.

“When we reach Spiramentaon.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I’ll gather the merchant guild and the artisan guild and form a city council. Let them decide the city’s affairs, great and small.”

Once Nereus decided, he pushed boldly.

“They will provide as much war funding as I demand, when I demand it. And they will not fill their pockets by consuming Astreos. If they keep just those two, I won’t lay a finger on anything else.”

He did not hesitate to delegate boldly what he did not know well.

“We will do our utmost so that Your Excellency does not lose your eyes and ears to the affairs of money-players like us.”

Gluttony covered his mouth with both hands and bowed his head.

A full delegation of authority from a Blue Knight who was the firstborn of one of Astreos’s four major cadet lines, an adopted heir of the Patriarch, and the de facto head of the Million City.

He understood how enormous those words were.

As expected, Lord Kyrie is a god of wealth.

Gluttony swore he would never, ever overreach.

They were victors.

On the Astreos–Rikenta border, where all surveillance and taxation systems had collapsed, they could profit with sufficient stability.

They would not forgive anyone who tried to smash the honey pot they had barely seized with petty tricks.

“It’s Nereus. From this moment, prepare a grand subjugation operation. The targets are all manbeasts that harm the house.”

“It’s Gluttony. Divide the goods into those we will export openly by sea and those we will smuggle using the river. Large and heavy by sea, small and light by river.”

“Gather the mercenary corps, the Sea-Water Relief Order, the Border Patrol Corps, the nearby Mounted Patrol, the nearby Light Cavalry, and the nearby Heavy Cavalry, and I will control them centrally.”

“Astreos has no intention of stopping us, and Rikenta has no strength to stop us. Buy as much as you like and sell as much as you like.”

On the foundation Kyrie had laid, the south of Astreos began to stir into life once again.

As he had said, Nereus linked up with the many forces stationed in the south and began subjugating countless manbeasts.

Gluttony, along the trade routes made safe by that, carried out both licensed trade and illegal smuggling.

On a borderland filled with chaos, the army grew strong and the city grew wealthy.

It was something even Kyrie, who had first raised the idea, had never anticipated.

["...I gathered every combat unit in the region and built a system where the governor commands. A powerless adopted heir like you could never assemble a unified high command like this. I subjugated fourteen bandit gangs and twelve beast dens, plus four mutated beast dens. I’ll send up the liquid extracted from mutated beasts, so manufacture it into elixirs. Can you even imagine how strong I’ve become? When we meet again, I’ll bring you down in under a minute..."]

["...As this quarter’s dividend, we send bullion worth 11,000 gold coins. The trade we promised on the Astreos–Rikenta border has been concluded, and thanks to using Helix Barony as an intermediate base, the trade routes have become even more diverse. Thanks to your victory, Lord Kyrie, and thanks to Lord Nereus securing the region’s public order, risk factors have decreased, and the scale of commerce has grown several times larger than before the war. Using Helix Barony as a base, we intend to link it to a large-scale logging project of giant trees in the border region, and a shipbuilding project through the canal as well. Next quarter’s dividend is expected to be around 15,000 gold coins..."]

I blinked in my room in the Twin-Thunder Palace.

What?

Why is this actually working?

Free smuggling zone, providing Helix Barony as a hub—every bit of that had been empty promissory talk from the days when we had nothing.

Sending Nereus to Spiramentaon had been closer to a plea for him to please vanish from in front of me.

And yet the two of them were truly thriving.

Money and mutated-beast liquid rose up to the capital.

I blinked, feeling like I’d baked bread out of air.

I kept blinking like that all day.

“…Kyrie, Kyrie?”

“Sorry—no. I mean, sorry, older sister. I was thinking about something else.”

I snapped back at Andromeda’s call.

“Are you tired? It might be better to switch to coffee.”

“Thank you.”

Right now, I was having tea time on the Twin-Thunder Palace’s terrace with Andromeda and Erica.

I still didn’t know why I had to be seated between these two, and it felt like I never would.

Erica held out a cup of coffee to me.

It was a drink I’d barely ever had.

“It’s Rikenta’s specialty—luwak coffee. It clears your head.”

“Wait. You’re trying to make my little brother drink burnt-bean filthy water? Why is it black?”

Andromeda grabbed Erica by the wrist.

“F-filthy water? Does the Astreos lady not even know coffee? It’s a precious drink even the Holy See drinks!”

Erica’s brows trembled as she stared in disbelief.

“That’s what you drink, so your insides turn black too. Birds of a feather. Little brother, don’t eat this kind of delinquent food.”

“Please stop saying ignorant things. Let go. Your strength is disgustingly high.”

I knew this wasn’t really about luwak coffee.

It used to be the exact opposite.

Until a few years ago, Andromeda had been a Sub-patriarch in name only.

She’d been so powerless under Traysan that she’d had to raise and use even a bastard from the red-light district after having her limbs cut away.

By contrast, Erica had been a heavyweight who could raise tens of thousands of troops in vast territory and fight for the patriarch’s seat of a great house.

Among direct-line heirs of their age, the gap had been incomparable.

Even now, it was still true.

Erica had become a captive living off my palace, while Andromeda had risen to a position second only to one, above ten thousand.

“You—stop the Sub-patriarch already. She’s about to make me drink coffee through my nose—”

“Little brother, this strange woman was about to make you drink burnt-bean water, and your older sister stopped her. You’re grateful, right? Grateful, right? Hurry and say thank you. Understood?”

I tried to restrain Andromeda, saying it would be fine to drink the coffee.

But I never actually got to taste it.

If I stayed any longer, it felt like my nerves would overheat, so I used Frey as an excuse and fled.

In the end, it was a very good thing.

Chapter 134

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