Chapter 10 is here! And with this, we’ve officially caught up to the manga!

For the Patreons, Chapter 11 is available over here.

Anyway, here is the chapter, I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Chapter 10

【”After I achieved the meritorious deed of curing her highness Lunaria, I’ve been granted the rank of baron by his majesty the king. Don’t believe you’ll be able to evade the issue of messing with the sister of someone of my standing.”】

Joshua furiously glared at Kurats.

【”Stop lying! As if a commoner like you would ever get to meet the princess!”】

Perhaps because his wounds were still hurting, Joshua was frowning whenever he spoke. Still, he was yelling powerfully, like he was going to jump at Kurats’ throat.
The reason he refrained from actually jumping at him was simple, it was because he was afraid of Kurats’ huge body.

【”I am also the Gaura village’s feudal lord, a messenger will come from the royal capital to tell you about it in a few days, earl Hazel. You’ll be given another territory in exchange.”】
【”Like hell you are! After what you did to me, my mind won’t rest as long as you’re still alive!”】

Kurats proceeded to dismiss Joshua’s angry words.

【”And just what kind of authority you’re supposed to be? What makes you think you can speak these words?”】
【”What kind? I’ll have you know I am earl Hazel’s――”】
【”I don’t recall giving you the authority to hurt my territory’s people.”】

Anton coldly interrupted Joshua’s objection, making him visibly shocked.
After all, he was borrowing his father’s influence, but if even his father turned his back on him, then Joshua would become nothing more than a powerless youth.

Anton returned his line of sight towards Kurats and asked.

【”Well then, about you, why should I believe you exactly?”】
【”Because, apparently, if you go against me, I can retaliate in the king’s name.”】
【”T-that’s!?”】

Seeing Kurats’ insignia, Anton was astonished.
The insignia showed that Kurats was a representative of the country’s royals. In the old days, it was said that this insignia was initially given to executioners to allow them to take off the heads of rebels by the orders of the king.
One would first need the resolve to rebel against the whole kingdom before disobeying the owner of that emblem. This was no laughing matter.

【”What do you think showing some stupid insignia is gonna do?”】

Not knowing the meaning of it, Joshua laughed scornfully at the insignia that did not seem to have much value.
However, Anton suddenly struck his son’s shoulder and pushed him to the ground, making him respectfully kowtow together with him, as if he was facing the king himself.
Joshua was burning from humiliation as his forehead rubbed the floor.

【”Father, what are you doing?!”】
【”Anyone who holds that insignia is the king’s representative. That’s not someone a local feudal lord like myself can face directly.”】

Joshua shook his head as much as he could in denial.
He did not want to understand. He did not want to accept the truth.
Because if he accepted it, that would mean admitting to himself that the only thing waiting for him in the future was despair.

【”H-he could easily have made a counterfeit of an insignia like this one! Otherwise, there is no way a plebeian like him would have it!”】
【”Fool! The insignia has been filled with the mana of his majesty the king, it’s impossible to counterfeit it. So this is undoubtedly the symbol of the king’s proxy!”】
【”Everyone! Put down your spears and fall back! This person is a representative of his majesty the king!”】

Faced with a representative of the king of the first time in their lives, the surrounding knights hurriedly dropped their weapons.

【”Damn it! Who are you?! Who the hell are you?!”】

As he realized that no one was going to help him now, the only thing Joshua could do was to throw a tantrum like a young child.

【”―― Please be forgiving sir baron and allow me to disinherit him and expulse him from the territory to make him pay for his crimes against you.”】
【”I appreciate your consideration, earl Anton.”】
【”N-no! Father! Are you going to abandon your own son? You can just eliminate a guy like him on the spot, he’s nothing, there won’t be any evidence to prove you did it!”】
【”It’s precisely because you’re my son that I want to end this without having to kill you. Stop wasting your breath.”】

Feeling rejected by those words that he could not refute, Joshua started crying out with no shame and no care for his reputation.

【”How is this man more important than your own son?! I promise I’ll be more obedient! I promise I’ll work more seriously for the family! Father, please!”】

As he watched his son beg for forgiveness, Anton felt sad, thinking “In the end, he really doesn’t understand anything.”
Anton believed that this was undoubtedly the result of his own mistakes, for he had neglected Joshua and had favored his eldest son instead, simply because he was his heir.

【”Take him out.”】
【”Damn it all! I shouldn’t have taken this woman! This crazy whore who likes her own b-…”】
【”Yaaaaaaah!”】
【”Oh, that spot is too much!”】

Foam started coming from the mouth of Joshua, whose crotch had definitely been crushed, and he fainted on the spot.
As a fellow man, Kurats could not help himself from feeling some pity for the earl’s son.

【”Please accept my apology, I’ll take the responsibility of punishing him for his impertinence.”】
【”It’s fine. Well then, we’ll be taking our leave.”】

Acting like he had not seen his sister’s violent attack, Kurats left the castle of earl Hazel together with Cornelia.

『―― So disappointing. This wasn’t even worth being called a comedy.』

Thought Bernst while feeling indescribably frustrated. However, at the same time, he was feeling a chill running down his spine, the source of which was Cornelia.
That was likely due to sharing the unconscious feeling of fear that Kurats had held towards his sister since his early childhood days.
Based only on the martial arts she had displayed, Bernst assessed that Cornelia had for sure been overwhelmingly superior to Kurats before he grew up.

『And she’s been mentally taming her brother ever since. This woman, could it be that she’s the strategist type?』

Unaware of Bernst’s doubts, Kurats reservedly took Cornelia’s hand, and returned to the village of Gaura.

◆　　◆　　◆

【”Oooh! Kurats! Cornelia is safe? You didn’t attack the earl, did you?”】

Although the village chief, Ordreik, was relieved to see Kurats and Cornelia safe and sound, his complexion changed drastically as he wondered if the siblings had made enemies of the earl.
That may have not been the case for the villages close to the royal capital, but in a remote village like the Gaura village, the feudal lord basically had the power of life and death over the villagers.
The villagers were very important for the provision of food to the territory, but there were many feudal lords who did not understand that and treated them like cattle.
Therefore, excluding Kurats, if any normal villager opposed the country’s higher ups, they would have no other choice than to be killed by the territory’s soldiers.

【”…What? Did Roy not tell you?”】

Conversely, what disturbed Kurats was the chief’s panicked behavior.
“Was he always this small?” He asked himself.
In the village, nobody was more reliable than the chief, but he was still completely powerless in front of the nobles’ power.
Within a single day only, the relationship between Kurats and Ordreik had dramatically changed.
That was because Kurats had already obtained the power to easily deal with any remote territory’s noble.

【”An official will be sent from the royal capital to tell you about it later anyway, but today I became the feudal lord of this village. There is no need to be afraid of that noble anymore.”】
【”I, I wasn’t told about any such ridiculous story!”】

There had indeed been precedents of commoners getting promoted in rank after reaping some achievements in war, but the village chief could not believe that a commoner had suddenly become a feudal lord in a single day, that seemed like a mere delusion to him.

『This is annoying. Just show them.』
(Alright!)
【” ‘Dancing flame’ !”】

A fireball of about 2 meters manifested in the sky and then split into several small balls that fell down like petals while dancing wildly in the air. All the villagers were fascinated by the scene.
Moreover, despite the distance that separated them from the flames, they could feel that every single one of those small and beautiful fireballs had enough heat to kill a human being.

【”Y-you’re a mage…?”】
【”You thought I could kill a red eyed bear with my bare hands without using any magic? I was planning to keep hiding it, but that was not an option anymore, so I cured the kingdom’s princess from her illness and I was granted the rank of Baron.”】
【”Huuuh?! A baron?!”】

Unlike low-ranked nobles such as clerics or knights and their families, a baron was a full-fledged noble.
Ordreik was aware of how big of an honor it was to just speak directly to someone of such standing.

【”You’ve looked after me for a long time and I am grateful for that, but please keep my status in mind.”】
【”O-of course! Yes, anything for you, sir new feudal lord!”】

Kurats did not intend to be overbearing like the other nobles. Rather, he intended to give the village a preferential treatment when it came to their taxes and their hard labor.
Within this village were the friends who had grown up with him and the adults who had raised him. He had to, at the very least, repay their kindness.
However, through this time’s events, the commoners’ powerlessness and submissiveness had become quite clear to him, and Kurats had no intention to get any share of those weaknesses.
But if he did not want to be unjustly stepped on, he had no other choice than to become even more powerful.
There was also one more thing  in his mind ――.

(With this, my sister is an aristocrat now, and no one in the village will be worthy to get his hands on her anymore!)
『…You’re one twisted man.』

Having obtained a pretext to shield his sister from the hot glances she usually received from the single men of the village, Kurats made a decision while taking a heroic pose within his mind.

◆　　◆　　◆

Kurats was at a loss for words when he and his sister came back to their home, the inside was in a complete mess.
“That bastard must have resorted to violence and abducted Cornelia by force because she put up a resistance to wait for me to come back.”
“Maybe I should have punished him a little harder.” thought Kurats, while feeling ashamed for having felt any pity for Joshua after his crotch had been hit.

【”―― When that man took me away, I though I would never get too see you again.”】

Cornelia entrusted her body’s weight to Kurats’ back, and pushed her forehead against him.
She had yet to let go of his right hand.

Feeling the heat coming from Kurats’ hand and from his wide and strong back, Cornelia’s chest became hot as she once again realized that he had saved her life.

<=Chapter 9                                                 Index                                             Chapter 11=>