After the meeting to determine who would rule over Missian’s new counties concluded, I returned to Canarre from the capital and wasted no time informing my retainers about what had been decided.
“You’ve been granted rulership over Purledo and Kuat County…? That’s incredible, Lord Ars…but will also be an incredibly difficult role to fill,” said Rietz. He seemed less than pleased by the news, which didn’t surprise me. I wasn’t over the moon about it, either.
“But it really is incredible, though!” Licia exclaimed excitedly. “You’re the ruler of three counties! I knew this would happen─you could even rise all the way up to the emperor’s throne, at this rate!”
“D-Don’t say stuff like that! We’ve talked about this! I don’t want to get suspected of treason!” I yelped.
“Oh, what’s the harm? No one here would dream of spilling your secrets!” said Licia.
“I know, but…I don’t even want to be the emperor to begin with,” I said. “Even just ruling over three counties feels like it’s going to keep me so busy, I’ll hardly keep up.”
Honestly, where does this obsession of hers with making me the emperor even come from? I just don’t get it. I know she’s just kidding, but it’s still weird!
“With this much new territory under your control, we’ll have to discuss who will oversee each individual county. I believe we should call a meeting at once,” Rietz suggested.
“Agreed,” I said.
I wasted no time in doing just that, and soon, my retainers had all responded to my emergency summons and gathered up in the castle for a meeting.
“He’s giving you both of them?” Mireille asked, somewhat incredulously. “Well, I guess that just makes sense, considering how big a role House Louvent played. You sure are something, kiddo. Never heard of anyone climbing the ranks quite this quickly.”
“It’s thanks to all of you,” I replied. “And particularly thanks to Shin, this time. I owe him my gratitude.”
Shin wasn’t formally one of my retainers, so he wasn’t present at the meeting. In fact, I was pretty sure that asking him to attend would’ve just been an inconvenience in his eyes. He was hard at work developing the next generation of airships using the funds Couran had given him, and he didn’t have the time to spare.
“Okay, but you’re the one who scooped him up and paid for the project,” Mireille noted.
“I guess I can’t deny that.”
Shin hadn’t exactly been a famed engineer in the capital when I found him. Our first encounter, in fact, had involved him being tossed out onto the street. If it weren’t for my involvement, he probably never would have found the funding he needed and never would have made his invention a reality. This just drove home the fact that my Appraisal Skill was the best power that a lord like me could ask for.
“As for the territories themselves, I’ll need to appoint acting counts to govern each county,” I said. “Who do you all think would be suitable?”
“I’ll take Kuat,” Mireille confidently declared. “I was working there up until just recently, and I learned the ins and outs of the place. I’ve already got a few of the capital city’s bigwigs dancing in the palm of my hand, so stepping in and claiming control will be no problem.”
I didn’t have any worries about Mireille’s ability to manage a county…but I couldn’t help but be concerned about her large Ambition score. I couldn’t necessarily count on her to not rebel against me…but then again, I wouldn’t be making her an actual count. She would just be my acting count, which would make turning traitor harder in a variety of ways.
An acting count wouldn’t have complete control over the county they were assigned to. They would handle the moment-to-moment decision making, yes, but any larger and more sweeping decisions would be mine to make. They also wouldn’t have permission to unilaterally deploy the county’s military. There were exceptions to that last point─if the county was invaded, for instance─but she wouldn’t be able to stage an invasion of her own without my express permission. Lords with their own territory, on the other hand, had a surprising amount of leeway to launch invasions without any sort of permission. The oversight only came after the fact─if a Missian lord went on the attack for an unjust cause, Couran would likely punish them for it somewhere down the line.
Then again, although acting counts didn’t have a tremendous amount of power, there was still no telling what Mireille would do with the position. It was easy to imagine her talking and threatening her way into complete control over Kuat. On the other hand, I had Couran on my side, which meant that any rebellion she tried to launch would be doomed to failure, and Mireille wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight she couldn’t win.
On the other hand, if she did decide to go down that path for whatever reason and I was forced to ask Couran for aid in putting her rebellion down, I would have to worry about him deciding that I couldn’t be trusted to look after my own territory. I didn’t want to do anything that would lower my standing in Couran’s eyes, at the moment. House Louvent was still a house of upstarts, and it wouldn’t take much for me to lose my title and be ousted.
“Kuat is a large territory. Wouldn’t it be better for its true count to live within the county itself?” noted Thomas. “As a rule, lords have an easier time ruling over territories when they dwell in one of that territory’s cities. All the more so in this case, considering how much work it’ll take to manage so much land.”