Saving 80,000 Gold in an Another World for Retirement-Chapter 30: VISCOUNTESS YAMANO

I got a rank.

That means I became a noble family.

Because being a noble isn’t like a court noble.

Yes, I got this thing called a territory.

Yeah, I have to do territorial management, Me.

…How did this happen!

Well, at that time, the king went on counseling.

Together with the Prime Minister and the person in charge of the territory management.

Ah, the person in charge of domain management, doesn’t mean the《pro in the management and operation of the territory》.

He only knows the location, the size, the features and the likes of all the territories in the kingdom.

His role is like a human database for giving a territory to the nobility and changing the land ownership.

(T.N: Database in Katakana/English. I don’t know if FUNA sensei watch log horizon though)

I was asked and I told how I wished my territory would be.

「Facing the sea, have mountain, river flows. Just a small territory is good」(Mitsuha)

「Is it okay to have a small one?」(King)

「Yes, being large and having lots of people is troublesome when I wanted to have fun with my citizen like a family,

And I also refuse to face the borders that are likely to have disputes!」(Mitsuha)

The king had a bitter smile.

「If so, then you should have land on the north side.

First of all, our country only faces the sea on that side.」(Database)

Database-san responded immediately.

「Well then, Please check this map.

This big river is flowing into the ocean, however this and this and this. Thin narrow lines around here are small rivers.

Near the big river, there are many wide plains. But most of them are in the Earl’s territory.

And the others aren’t vacant, there are aristocrat territories that have mountain and small rivers, closes to the sea and also vacant.

In this case, there are only a few lands left that is directly under the royal family,

We can’t give other lands, unless we kick out the aristocrat who is now in charge of that land」(Database)

Ohh. If I was to ask for something like that, they would definitely hold grudge.

I might ask the king to give them another territory.

But they must have a lot of memories with their homeland and citizen, and they also wanted to protect the land they inherited from their ancestors.

The vacant land is the best.

「Well, then this land …」(Mitsuha)

「Oh, there’s no problem with this land.

It is the baron’s territory, however he responsed to the invitation of the Empire and became a traitor.

He got his punishment he deserved and his land was confiscated.

This land is just a baron’s territory, I hate to say this but it’s just a small subterranean territory.

However, it meets the conditions with small river, mountain that is not so steep.

But are you really okay with this?

There are also many other lands we can…」(Database)

Database-san recommended other lands, but of course I refused.

Because I don’t want that kind of thing.

The distance from the capital is far, it might be a problem for aristocrat or a merchant.

But, distance doesn’t really matter to me.

So, territory, get!

(T.N: getto in Katakana)

Hmm? But the territory facing the sea on the north side?

It seems like I’ve heard it somewhere …

It was next to the Earl Bozes’s territory!

Is it really a coincidence?

Database-san, you do know that I’m the Earl’s acquaintance, don’t you?

Was he doing this because he took it into consideration?

Well, if there is something I don’t understand, I can ask the Earl to teach me, or get help. And they are all good people afterall.

It would be easy to go to Collette-chan’s place, and it would be easy to make excuses when we are close.

Huh? The territory that Alexis got, is also next to me, on the opposite side of the Earl Bozes?

Did I get sandwitched?

This was definitely planned, wasn’t it?

So whenever he went to his parents’ house, he would pass through my territory, right?

Yes, yes.

Eh, I only need to say “yes” once?

Yes, yes.

And what will I do when I go to the territory?

Shop? I will not lose it. Just shut it down temporarily.

I will restart it if the territory goes down.

I will not spread it to the territory…

Well, for now. Yes, for now.

Shampoo? Well, I will resume it as soon as possible. Sorry.

***

Three days, the King introduced me someone to give me a special training on the territory management.

Yeah, ridiculous stuffing education.

Fortunately, thanks to modern knowledge, classes have proceeded relatively smoothly because there was a tax system, budget management, manipulation of manpower, and so on.

The teacher was surprised.

Also, since classes were properly recorded with a micro recorder, I can review them at any time.

Viva, scientific power!

And, moving into my territory.

On an average carriage.

No, I don’t have a luxury horse-drawn carriage, I don’t ride with Alexis, and I don’t want to spend days alone with only him on the carriage.

Actually, I have another way to travel, teleport to the Earl Bozes’ land and go from there.

But for once, I wanted to look closely at the traveling route with my own eyes.

Well, I rode on the carriage when I first came to the capital, but I didn’t check the surrounding at that time.

What can I do for my territory?

Problems of coming and going with the Capital.

Surrounding situation.

There are many things to learn.

It will be good to hear various stories from other passengers.

This time I make a different way to hear from people.

Near the time for departure, a lot of people have asked to be hired by me, the new lady Baron.

Yeah, if they get hired by a new noble aristocrat, they can advertise their name.

Moreover, because the aristocrat is just a child, they must have misunderstood that they can take advantage of me.

They might also think this is a chance to get closer to me?

Or is it an interlude to explore the secrets of the superior technology and magical equipment of my home country?

Well, I will not take that kind of risk.

《I had worked for an aristocrat before,

a veteran of a territory management,

an experienced professional,

I could double your profit if you hired me. etc》

I would not be so stupid to believe in any of those.

If you are so competent, why are you desperately trying to find a job in such a place now?

That’s why I declined all job seekers, and put the shop in absolute defense mode, said my greetings to the neighbors and asked the soldiers of the royal palace to watch out for any suspicious person near my shop.

When they are in town, please look around the shop from time to time and come if they hear the alarm.

Oh, I introduced the alarm to the neighbors properly so they would not be surprised with the noise.

《There’s someone that dare to try to sneak into the Thunder Shrine Princess’ shop》… Ehh…

Oh, why did the King arrange soldiers of the royal palace to look around, now?

On the day of departure, when I went to the waiting room, Sabine-chan was there carried some baggage.

Hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey! (T.N: raw have repeat many times as well)

As expected, she was taken back.

It seems that the hidden escorts intended to take her back in the first place, they only waited until she met me.

And Sabine-chan was throwing tantrum as she was taken back.

Well, if she was taken back too soon, she would run away again.

That’s why they waited until the last minute.

She must be frustrated, just when she thought her dream already succeeded.

***

And the horse-drawn carriage went to the Earl Bozes’ land.

There still isn’t any regular horse carriage going to Yamano’s land.

Mitsuha this time only wore a dress worn by an everyday average girl.

It is a simple structure, but fluffy and a little cute.

She made that choice so she can easily converse with the passengers.

Mitsuha has learning effects.

The technique of conversation was referred to Sabine at Paradise Pavilion.

And under that skirt, Walther PPS on the left side and a small knife on the right side on the thigh.

Of course, there is also Walther in my left armpit, but there will be a delay to pull it out, Beretta 93R and Revolver.38 are in the bag with the gun belt.

The bag with weapons is always hanging on the shoulder around the neck.

A little large bag with clothes for changing, etc, is in the luggage space of the carriage.

Large luggage is placed on the roof of the carriage, but I was allowed to put it inside the carriage because there are still only a few passengers, and it’s not too heavy or big, it’s girls’ luggage after all.

There are 12 passengers in total.

This is probably the largest number at this moment, as we departed from the capital city.

After that, people will gradually decrease as they are getting off at their destination.

Mitsuha spoke to a young man who seemed to be a merchant.

Her setting is a naive daughter of an average shop, now she goes to work on the territory of emerging nobility.

Certainly Mitsuha is a girl working in a shop, headed to work on the new territory.

There is no lie. I’m not familiar with the public of this world. Yup.

(T.N: seem like merchant’s POV)

Although she is just a lolita (little girl), it isn’t bad to talk with such a cute girl.

She listened to my story pleasantly and also came up with quite a good question.

It’s the evidence that she was seriously listening to my story.

She understands everything, and her head (thinking) isn’t bad.

Sometimes she even talked about knowledge and information that I didn’t know about.

She is likely to become a good merchant in the future.

Oh, it might be good not only for my son, but for my daughter as well.

Should I consult with my wife when I returned.

Even when the mouth of the young merchant has loosened, yet the talk still continues.

Other passengers also participated in the conversation for fun, many information was exchanged.

***Two days before reaching the Earl’ Bozes territory***

A wild bandit group appeared.

「Isn’t this rarely happen?」(Mitsuha)

「Ah, but recently, it has increased.

The defeated soldiers of the empire were scattered to many places,

Even if they returned to the empire, there would be nothing good.

Farmers or recruits might stay in the kingdom either because they don’t want to get caught in the kingdom’s counter-attack or out of fear that they have to take responsibility for the defeat.

This bandit group’s leader seems to be the lower level commander, who is likely to be executed and the others must be the ranaway mercenaries that couldn’t get the money while they escaped to the north, avoiding the southern kingdom’s chasing armies」(Merc Uncle)

「Ah~」(Mitsuha)

Mitsuha and mercenary-like middle-aged man talking calmly when other passengers were in a big fuss.

This might be a bit awkward.

Mitsuha likes cool middle aged man.

Because he smells like her father.

It’s not about odor. It’s the atmosphere that wraps around.

Well, Mitsuha is calm, because she can escape with teleport at any time.

The reason why the man is calm, is because there is 《The right to be bystander》

《The right to be bystander》is like tacit understanding between mercenaries and bandits.

Regardless of escort mercenaries, normal mercenaries have no obligation to protect others.

Even though there are human lives involved, it’s still not enough for them to help any people on the spot just by being there without contract.

The bandits as well, they would get a lot of damage if they were to fight with mercenaries.

Then, agreement of the interests between bandits who don’t want to fight with strong mercenaries, and mercenaries who don’t get any money at all, it’s meaningless to fight.

A mercenary who hasn’t received an escort mission that declared《The right to be bystander》will not attack the bandits. Bandits also will not attack the said mercenary.

When a mercenary declared《The right to be bystander》, he didn’t have to worry about unnecessary killings or be killed.

Until the victory or defeat has been decided, regardless of the battle, so even when a bad thing happened to the passengers and escort mercenaries, he would not do anything.

And the bandits just didn’t attack that said mercenary, they were mostly taking away women, children and luggage.

Right now, there are 9 passengers including Mitsuha.

One married woman, one young woman, two girls.

By the way, the coachman is out of the scope.

Bandits will not attack coachman.

If the carriage ceases to operate, it will gradually effect the trading, the lord and the country’s profit. And at a certain point, the armies will start moving.

If they attacked and destroyed the carriage, it would just make their life and work harder.

The coachman was treated as a part of a carriage, not as a person, not as a man.

Same goes for the men if they didn’t join in battle.

But if the men tried to fight back with righteousness, their safety would be all lost.

That’s why they almost never tried to fight back.

「I will fight」(Farmer)

A farmer-like man with his wife and daughter said so.

Of four women, two of them are his family members.

He couldn’t allow his family to be carried away in front of his own eyes.

Even if it cost him his life.

「I will fight as well」(Elder)

An elderly man.

「Children should be happy with their family.

I also did a variety of bad things to protect my family and to live.

Well, for once, I want to do something useful for other people as well.

And if I lost my luggage here, I won’t have anything left to live」(Elder)

「Thank you…」(Farmer)

The farmer-like man lowered his head to the Elder.

The young merchant looked at Mitsuha and said.

「I will also help you」(Merchant)

「I do not want to get hurt.

They won’t harm us if we give them the money, luggage and the women.

The mercenary will use 《The right to be bystander》anyway, and if we fight back poorly, we will be killed or injured before surrender and lost everything.

Don’t be stupid!」(Coward man)

A man about twenty years old refused to fight back by saying so.

Well, it’s not a bad thing.

Human that thinks themself is the most important thing.

The farmer may have refused to fight if his wife and children aren’t here.

Finally, the mercenary said to the farmer.

「Hey, do you want to hire an escort? I will give you a discount, just a silver coin」(Mercenary)

「「「You will fight!?」」」(Farmer + Wife + Daughter)

It’s a surprise. Mitsuha turned her sight to the mercenary.

Meanwhile the coward man asked.

「Huh, you don’t use 《The right to be bystander》…」(Coward man)

「It only applies on the 《mercenary who doesn’t receive escort request 》, young man」(Mercenary)

The mercenary replied to the confused coward man.

Somehow, I have only met good Mercenaries until now.

Yes, this one too.

「General goods store Mitsuha. We handle anything from love consultation to territorial management, etc.

By the way, 《get rid of the bandits》’s fee is one silver coin」(Mitsuha)

The Mercenary looked at Mitsuha in amazement, Mitsuha just smiled back.

Yeah, I don’t hate helping a cool uncle.

The mercenary’s weapon is a short sword.

The elder took out his weapon, a dagger.

Oh, there’s something about this elder, he isn’t just an average elder.

I took out the knife from the bag on my shoulder and handed it to the merchant.

Even surprised, he took the knife.

A knife from a pretty girl.

The knife also makes the girl looks beautiful.

Next, took out the Gun belt and put it on my back.

Spare magazine for Beretta 93R and revolver .38

The magazine right now is hollow point bullet.

These bandits didn’t wear hard skin monsters or metal armor.

It will be okay with this bullet type.

Everyone asked 《What is it?》 as they saw it.

The farmer’s weapon is a wooden stick which he took from the carriage.

Although he has strengh, but he is an amateur.

Well, for this person, wooden stick might be much better than shorter blade.

There are 8 thieves slowly closing from the front and back of the carriage.

3 of them look like mercenaries, 5 other peoples seems nervous as they are walking.

They must be the former farmers.

The 4 of our combat groups also went outside the carriage.

Merchant is in a carriage.

He is the last defender, and watching out for a surprise attacker.

His role is also preventing the women from becoming a hostage.

Oh that’s right, farmer and the young girl handed out a silver coin to the two of us.

「Girl, if you don’t want to get hurt, quietly give us your items and money.

Take off your clothes as well, leave only the underwear」(Bandit Merc 1)

A former mercenary said so while grinning.

「Oh, of course, I’m taking the girls along as well, so you don’t have to take off your clothes yet, hahaha》(Bandit Merc 1)

How vulgar.

I won’t admit that this man is a mercenary.

To think this man in front of me is a mercenary like the cool mercenary uncle, Svens and Wolf Fang Mercenary group. I felt sick.

I don’t intend to make the elder, merchant and farmer kill people. There is a high possibility that it will be the reverse.

In reality, it will be just mercenary and me, 2 vs 8 people.

However, our opponent is actually just 3 people, 5 other peoples are just amateurs.

But I don’t know about the ability of the 3 former mercenaries over there.

Mercenary uncle seems to be strong, but I do not know what will happen.

The difference in number is overwhelmingly disadvantageous.

If possible, I want to attack after they clearly shows their murderous intent and moves to action.

I am well aware that it is just naive, but I know that it is possible.

「Mercenary, do you want to declare 《The right to be bystander》?」(Bandit Merc1)

Mercenary uncle answered in a low voice to the bandit’s words.

「… me … I am hired as an escort」(Mercenary)

《Employed Escort》, that word was converted to another word inside of Mitsuha’s head.

Bouncer, bouncer, bouncer …

「Wha…!」(Bandit Merc 1)

The bandits fell back in a hurry and pulled out their swords.

3 former mercenaries used swords, and the rest are using 3 swords and 2 spears.

When one took out the sword, he had fallen to the criteria for dangerous combatant in Mitsuha’s ROE (Rule of Engagement).

Papapan! (SFX)

The man who pulled out the sword got blown away.

「Eh……」(Bandit Merc 2)

All of sudden, their fellow was blown away on the ground.

They couldn’t understand what happened and the bandits stopped moving for a second.

He will not be a first-rate mercenary if he misses such a gap.

And the cool uncle mercenary dashed toward the bandits while holding his short sword, it’s a quick flash. He rotated his body as he was and slashed 2 merc bandits one by one.

Strong!

In a moment, the two other main enemies were disabled.

The remaining five people are confused but still have weapons.

The spear is dangerous even with beginner’s skill.

Mitsuha aims for the spear holding bandits.

Papapan, papapan (SFX)

Machine gun Beretta 93R three shot burst echoes.

They maybe former farmers, but they are just《former》in the end.

Now that they have fallen to dark side, became the murderers called bandits.

They already killed a lot of people and they will kill more if they still alive.

It might be the citizens of Mitsuha or an important person.

They aren’t allowed to escape here.

Three remaining bandits using swords were dealt with by the cool mercenary uncle in a flash.

It was an unilateral victory.

***

Mitsuha learned various things about the Bozes territory from farmer’s family as they keep traveling in the carriage.

They tried hard to convey their knowledge as far as they know, to return the favor for their benefactor.

Merchants and other passengers also taught Mitsuha a lot of different information.

This is a great harvest.

However, even Mitsuha had asked the three, Mercenary uncle, elder and farmer, but only the farmer talked with Mitsuha.

Well, I can somewhat understand.

The Elder and Mercenary uncle are accustomed with keeping a secret,

and the farmer couldn’t refuse the request of the girl who saved his life and protected his families.

Because the others were in the carriage, they haven’t seen anything.

Just listening to the gunshot, they didn’t understand what it was.

For that reason, they thought the bandits were defeated with the collaborate of four people.

The enemies are mostly just 3 former mercenaries, they might be killed one by one and the other five were dealt with easily.

Well, the number of mercenaries is true.

The carriage was loaded with weapons and gold items collected from bandits.

Once they are delivered to the lords, they will be returned to the person who sent it.

It is a measure to investigate the size of the bandit group and their identity … whether it is trade disturbance from other countries … etc.

As the bandits this time seem to be the deserted soldier of the empire, their equipement would be as well returned on the spot.

However, Mitsuha isn’t going to the main town of Bozes territory, so she gives ownership of those weapons to the farmer.

The farmer declined, but if he kept insisting, he would only trouble his benefactor, who didn’t plan to go to the main town.

The farmer told that he would not sell one sword and the two spears, and he would pratice with those weapons to protect his family by himself.

His wife and daughter looked at him with respect and believed in him, who protected them from the bandits.

A man about 20 years old was completely ignored by the young woman who was talking to him until yesterday, and was stared at with eyes like seeing dirt.

There is no woman smiling at the man who abandoned them and tried to hand them to the bandits.

No matter where, in this world or Earth.

Mitsuha got off the carriage at the branch point of the road.

From here, I must go on foot to head towards my own territory, the Yamano territory.

I waved with other passengers and broke up.

Only the coward man with knee on the ground doesn’t wave his hands back.

By the way, why didn’t the passengers recognize Mitsuha even they stayed at the capital?

In this world without photographs, television, and the net, information transmission is late and inaccurate, and the content of information gradually distorts.

More than a message game.

As a result, Mitsuha’s appearance and behavior were totally different except for those who were present at the scene.

Furthermore, most of the passengers of this carriage weren’t in the Capital at the time, and those who were in capital only heard her broken voice through the speaker, a distorted loud voice.

There were few people who glanced from afar.

But the gunshot, the sound of a grenade cylinder, a heavy machine gun, a 20 millimeter cannon, etc. arrived to even the center of the Capital from the battlefield.

Compared with that, the shooting sound of the pistol was somewhat cute.

In addition, the soldiers back there had a long lightning stick.

It was not something that Mitsuha had, like squatting.

Perhaps someone of the bandits who were former imperial soldiers may have noticed, but they couldn’t tell it to anyone anymore.

***

Water line 10 seconds, land line 8 days, I have finally reached the Yamano territory.

No, I just crossed the stream on the way. Water line.

Finally I could see the main town from the gaps in the trees.

Sorry… I will never say main town again!

It is not even a rural town.

It’s a village!

Just a village!!

I am ashamed and absolutely will not call it the main town ever again.

Should I call it by the name of the town?

Anyway, I will go back to my home on Earth for now.

Because It took totally 8 days, there must be a lot of mails to reply…

But before that, I need to use the bathroom and have a bath.