War required a large amount of money. In most cases, that money was raised by enacting a temporary tax, but this time, I used a method that I knew about from my past life—crowdfunding.
As a result, I received a lot of donations for the battle against Thorsdale, not just from nobles but also commoners across the kingdom. Though in my past life, crowdfunding had been enacted through the internet, I made do with what I had—posting on physical notice boards. Overall, it might not have been exactly how it worked in my past life, but the concept was the same.
To be honest, since communication technology wasn’t very developed in this country, I didn’t really expect to be able to spread the word quickly enough to raise much money; however, contrary to my prediction, we got a lot of donations. We even received large amounts of grain, swords, arrows, and other supplies.
As a reward for donations, we gave everyone either vacation tickets or special vouchers that they could use to buy products from the Sevensworth territory. Receiving a gift after donating was something that nobody had ever seen before, and this helped to spur interest.
War was of great concern to commoners, but up until now, they didn’t have much way of knowing when one was even starting. We decided to explicitly state on the reward vouchers that they were thanks for their donations to the war efforts, which helped spread word that war was on the horizon and prepared the people for what was to come. The information spread through the country a lot faster than I expected.
There were many reasons why I didn’t raise taxes to collect funding for this war. Firstly, the Sevensworths had a lot of money, so we could easily fund it even without extra taxation. With crowdfunding, you never knew how much you’d actually raise, but it let people donate what they were able, and the amount didn’t really matter much.
“Hey, Ginorious!” I turned to see a guy running toward me, waving his hand.
“Justin, you came too? What about the royal knights? I thought your dream was to join the royal guard?”
Currently, we were in the grand hall at a different estate that the Sevensworths owned in our territory, where we were enlisting any knights or soldiers who wanted to volunteer. A lot of people were signing up, stuffing the large hall full with new recruits. Justin was one of the ones who’d joined. I was here to guide the enlisting efforts.
“I quit. I don’t wanna become a royal guard with how the country is now. It’d be a stain on my honor as a knight,” he said, laughing loudly.
After graduating, Justin Ryan had had the option of joining Count Ryan’s order of knights. As the little brother of the house heir, he could have easily done that and lived an easy life, but he’d decided to pursue the honor of joining the ranks of the royal guard, who were known as the strongest in the country. For Justin, whose pride was very important to him, I could understand why he quit.
“I’m not the only one. Count Fletcher’s here too; the guy you fought in the swordsmanship tournament.”
Another reason I decided to use crowdfunding had to do with recruitment. With the signboards asking for donations, and with the tickets we distributed, we sent a clear message that we were fighting this war without the help of the royal family. It became known throughout the country that the royal family had no intention of lending their support.
Up until now, commoners only heard about which noble houses were or weren’t fighting in the war through rumors, but this time, it was clearly written out for them. Thanks to this, the antipathy toward the royal family from the commoners grew stronger. This country wasn’t a democracy, so in most cases, the opinions of the commoners didn’t really affect politics too much, but right now, it was having a significant influence.
There was a term in this country, “Toothless Knights,” which referred to those who were paid great amounts of money but were useless in a fight. This was the general perception of the royal knights currently. Nobles cared a great deal about their honor, and anyone who wanted the honor of wielding their blade for their country couldn’t bear to be labeled as “toothless.” Most everyone with other job prospects had quit the royal knights.
I was proud at how everything had turned out as I’d expected it to with crowdfunding. The true objective of this plan was to reduce the royal family’s forces.
“Duke Ginorious, how great it is to see you in good health. It’s my honor to greet a descendant of the great dragon.”
My eyes widened as I saw who had called out to me. It wasn’t because of how, among the men here, she stood alone in her gorgeous dress and her curled, golden hair. It was because of the way she’d greeted me. It was customary in modern day for women to lift both sides of their skirt; however, during the time when the Sevensworth territory had been its own country, women had held their skirt with their left hand, covered their heart with their right, and bowed their head. Doing this now was an affront to the royal family, and nobody in the territory did it anymore. However, the record of it remained in the history books.
The one who greeted me was Lady Francess Lillard, the daughter of Duke Lillard. She was the same woman who’d had her engagement with the crown prince called off during their graduation party. However, she should have been a part of the first prince’s faction now. So why was someone who supported the current king here, where knights and soldiers of the Sevensworths who opposed the new king were gathering. And why did she greet me like that?
As someone who’d once been on track to become queen, she must have undergone very strict training about how to conduct herself, and she was famous for being a flawless noble lady. That perfection paired with her golden hair and eyes gave her the title of “the Gold Rose.” Ana and a lot of other girls looked up to her. She wasn’t like my sister, who’d do things for fun without considering the consequences or where she was, so there must have been a reason for Lady Francess of all people to give me this old traditional greeting. I tried to hold back my confusion and returned it before asking why she’d come here.
“I’d like to ask that you allow House Lillard to support you in this war by joining your bottom ranks.”
Huh?! You want your forces to work under Sevensworth command?! You want to join our side?! Between this and the old Sevensworth greeting, it was almost as if she were trying to say that they were submitting to the Sevensworths as the true royal family. Of course, this situation would be a great boon to us, but I couldn’t understand why she’d do this.
I figured this would be an involved conversation, so I took her to the estate’s thirty-fifth drawing room, called the Windmill, to talk. We sat across from each other while drinking tea. After exchanging enough pleasantries to satisfy noble etiquette, I decided to return to the topic at hand.
“Why are you offering your help to our house? I thought House Lillard was part of the king’s faction.”
The “king’s faction” was the new name for the first prince’s faction. Usually, whenever Ana and I spoke, we still referred to him as the first prince, but technically, since he was king now, the right term was the king’s faction.