Despite his seemingly prestigious title of knight commander, Alan Granger saw himself as nothing but a middle manager. The one who truly reigned over the Royal Knights was the supreme commander at headquarters. Although Alan was also a commander, he was only at the top of a humble frontier division.
“This is the fabulous, fresh training system for new recruits I’ve designed!”
The rustling thunk of a stack of documents slamming on top of Alan’s desk resounded throughout the room. Marquess Ginger, feudal lord of one of the First Kingdom’s domains, Uniland, was the owner of the documents. He was a slender man in his early twenties, but he could easily be mistaken for a woman because of the prissy way he spoke.
They were both in the Uniland Division knight commander’s office that was more or less gifted to Alan for his personal use at work after he became a commander. Unfortunately, since this was a little division in the countryside, the building was rather small. The same was doubly true for the room. As a result, Ginger’s soprano voice and the smack of papers hitting the desk made quite a racket.
“Be grateful for it!” Ginger insisted.
“Again with this, Lord Ginger?” Alan said with a sigh of frustration.
Still, he read over the documents. The feudal lord would occasionally submit proposals full of his ideas on knight business, so Alan was used to this.
“Amateurs should keep their noses out of this,” was what Alan wished he could say, but he couldn’t just dismiss Ginger—the fact was, the feudal lord far outranked him.
Formally, the Royal Knights belonged to the royal family, which was responsible for deploying them into the field to maintain public order or for national defense. In practice, the majority of their work could only be performed with the feudal lord’s approval. Therefore, when comparing their positions, the feudal lord was definitely the commander’s superior.
That was why, even though most of Ginger’s proposals were often nothing more than nuisances with no practical application, Alan had to pretend to seriously consider them to avoid displeasing the feudal lord.
“Guess I’ll take a look.”
Alan knocked the documents he was in the middle of checking to the side and glanced through the proposal that was loudly slapped on his desk. Ginger made decent suggestions from time to time, so he couldn’t always ignore them, but...
“Well, no. Realistically speaking, this would be very difficult,” Alan said.
The proposal the marquess had brought over this time was optimistic, to say the least.
“Reducing the new recruit training time from a year to just three months is, just...”
“My, whatever seems to be the problem?” Ginger asked archly. “If we implement this, both the time taken and the cost will be reduced by three-fourths!”
The training they were discussing was the one given to new knight recruits. It took one year at present and was indeed a significant expense.
“Sure, that’s true when you put it that simply, but I think it’s important to slowly build a strong foundation. Hmm.”
The ins and outs of training new recruits were better established compared to Alan’s time, but that didn’t ease his mind.
“What do you think, William?” Alan asked the other person in the cramped room.
“You really wanna know? I think, what kind of senile, fossilized opinion is that? Oh wait, you’re practically a fossil yourself, aren’t you? Sorry, my bad.”
The boy who showed no actual remorse for his back talk was William Rayfield. He was a handsome fifteen-year-old with androgynous looks who had earned top marks in the year’s new recruit exam. Despite being young enough to be Alan’s son, William gave him plenty of attitude.
Should I think of him as just a fool or someone with promise?
Alan sighed again. There he was, once hailed as a hero, now nothing but a bitter middle manager scorned by both his superior and subordinate. Right as that thought crossed his mind—
The door to Alan’s office slammed open!
“Hey! How dare you two show Master Alan such disrespect!”
The words rang out as a seventeen-year-old dressed in a maid uniform entered the room. Alan was granted a noble title after defeating the demon lord, so he employed a maid. Rosetta was a girl who wore her red hair styled in pigtails and carried a feisty energy that was no mere illusion. Her good looks and figure meant she was often approached by men, but she had been known to slap even a noble who wouldn’t back off after countless rejections. She was just that kind of girl.
“Master Alan is a hero who once saved this whole country! How about you show some respect and listen to him?!” Rosetta always spoke her mind, whether she was talking to the feudal lord or the young noble at the top of his peers. However, it was to no avail.
“Certainly, but...that was a long time ago, no?” said Marquess Ginger.
William voiced a similar opinion. “Yeah, that was, what, like, twenty-five years ago? I wasn’t even born yet.”
“He might have been a great man once, but he’s stepped away from active duty and only does desk work now. Don’t you think you’re the stubborn one for clinging to the past?” Marquess Ginger added, his voice dripping with a belittling tone.
“Right on! We live in different times now,” William said while grinning from ear to ear. “‘Slowly building a strong foundation’? That’s old man talk. It’s the norm for fresh blood like us to rush into combat and get results, quick and easy!”
That was remarkable confidence coming from someone who had yet to start his actual training. Alan decided to think of William as someone with promise to make things easier for his mental health.
“Why, you two...!” Rosetta was shaking with rage.
Alan put a hand on his chin and spent a moment in silence.
“Very well. We’ll implement Lord Ginger’s proposal.”