How Nobles Fight

The day after Zenof killed Dagrah, Allen and Cecil finally made it back to Granvelle City.

When Allen stopped before the front gate to look up at the mansion with Cecil on his back, the guard recognized them right away and rushed inside to inform the Baron of their return.

The sight of his flustered response convinced the pair that they had truly come home.

'Phew, we're finally back. Feels like it's been ages since I last saw the mansion. So, my spoils from the past few days are the murdergalsh's Rank B magic stone and Dagrah's mithril rapier.'

The magic stone was a given, since he was the one who had killed the monster, but Allen considered it a stroke of fortune gaining the rapier too.

The Knight Captain had told him to take it. Apparently Allen was terrible at hiding his thoughts; his face made it clear as day just how much he had wanted the weapon.

"Lady Cecil, I'm setting you down now."

"All right."

The Knight Captain had accompanied the children for the remainder of their return journey. However, it was Allen, not Zenof, who had carried Cecil back on his back. He did not let her down right until before the door to the house. When they stepped inside, they found all the members of the baron's family waiting in the entrance hall.

"Cecil..."

"Father, I am back."

Even though this was supposed to be a touching reunion, everyone's eyes were on Allen, not Cecil. When the Baron noticed this and turned to look at him, the relief on his face immediately gave way to alarm.

He barked at Sebas, "Call a doctor right now!"

"Yes, Master!"

After nearly being eaten by the murdergalsh, then getting pummeled and slashed by Dagrah for over an hour, Allen's current appearance was absolutely deplorable. His clothes were now mere rags wrapped around his body, their design barely held together by the last few threads. The ripped edges were plastered with the blood he had lost when he suffered each wound. Given how he looked, anyone would conclude that he was on the verge of death.

However, when he realized that everyone was worried for him, Allen swung his arms in an exaggerated manner. "No, no, I'm entirely fine! I've already used recovery potions on myself!"

'Another lesson learned: I should keep several sets of my uniform inside Storage. That, and I need to take countermeasures against getting poisoned.

'Of course, that includes stocking up on antidotes, but...I wonder if there are items that help protect against the kind of instant-acting sleeping agent that got me this time?'

Through this incident, Allen had learned a lot of information that he otherwise would not have cooped up in the White Dragon Mountains, hunting solo.

He was aware that this had proven to be quite the educational experience indeed. Being able to test several of his hypotheses in his fight with Dagrah had been a boon.

For example, no message had appeared in the grimoire when Dagrah died, meaning that killing humans did not yield any XP.

Allen was instructed to come to the dining hall to deliver his report after taking a bath.

Everyone was then dismissed.

***

When he walked into the dining hall wearing brand-new clothes, he was urged to take the seat at the middle of the long dinner table.

The Baron usually sat at the end of the table, but today he had adopted the position directly across from Allen. Cecil soon arrived as well.

The Baron started the conversation. "I'm sure you're tired, having just gotten back, but we have to decide our next move. Explain in detail everything that happened."

"Yes, my lord."

Since everyone was present, Allen began his account.

He told of being kidnapped and stowed aboard the magic ship, the conversation he overheard between Viscount Carnel and the Royal envoy, jumping off the magic ship and running toward Granvelle City on foot, encountering and killing the murdergalsh along the way, being caught by Dagrah, and eventually being saved by the Knight Captain.

"I see. So there's no doubt that Viscount Carnel is the mastermind."

"Yes, my lord. He is working with the Royal envoy who visited the other day. Their aim is the mining rights of all the mithril mines."

Allen explained how the Royal envoy needed money to prop up the Judicial Vice-minister, a man from his own faction, as the new Judicial minister.

The Viscount, who had been relying on mithril money to throw his weight around all this time, was now in dire straits without that income. Thus the two plotted to seize half the mining rights from Granvelle. It would really throw a wrench in their plans if Baron Granvelle were to bring the matter directly to the royal family, who were not in on the con. This was why they had kidnapped Cecil, to keep the Baron in check.

"So that's what happened... Thank you for telling me, Allen. Sebas, we're heading to the Royal palace right now!"

"Understood, Master."

The Baron had both fists clenched on top of the table—Allen had never seen him look this furious. The rage from having his daughter taken away from him fueled his burning desire to have the Viscount and envoy charged and thrown behind bars as soon as possible.

'He's heading to the royal palace? Now? Just like that?' Alarm bells went off in Allen's head before he asked out loud, "My lord, may I ask what you will be doing at the palace?"

"Isn't it obvious? To let His Majesty know of everything that Viscount Carnel did. I'm sure he would take action on a matter such as this."

'You being sure won't be enough, though. That might be true if you were up against the Viscount alone, but what do you plan on doing about the Royal envoy? He'd likely just give some random excuse and cut the Viscount off like a lizard's tail. If all the blame falls on the Viscount, the envoy gets off scot-free.'

"I have a suggestion for how to resolve this incident, my lord. May I share it?"

Allen and the Baron had been the only people talking all this time. The rest of the Baron's family was present, as was the Knight Captain, but understandably, everyone's attention was focused on Allen, the person who had literally risked his life to save Cecil.

"Let's hear it."

"My lord, I want to give you all thirty percent of the mining rights I possess." The entire dining hall gasped in shock, but Allen paid them no mind. "Please use that share of the rights to convince the Royal family to thoroughly investigate what happened and to set up safeguards so that it doesn't happen again."

The Baron's face froze. "Y-You mean, b-bribe the royal family t-t-to take action on my behalf?" he stuttered, clearly shaken. "To do the very thing Viscount Carnel did?"

"That is correct, my lord." Allen said without bitting around the bush. 'I mean, you did try to do the same thing to get Cecil exempted from her duty, right? Though I guess that's a bit different.'

"B-But, that's..."

"Knights fight in the manner befitting knights. However, my lord, you are a noble. The way I see it, nobles ought to fight in their own manner."

"Fighting...in the manner befitting nobles?"

"Yes, my lord. Would you please look down at your hands on the table?"

"Hm? Why?"

Allen commanded the entire dining hall's attention. The Baron did as he was told, as if hypnotized. Everyone else also looked at his hands, curious where Allen was going with this.

"My lord, now is the time to dirty those hands. Please show us how you fight as a noble."

Sebas blurted out, "Allen, watch what you say!" He could not help himself after seeing Allen so blatantly overstep his bounds as a manservant.

"No, it's fine, Sebas."

"Master—" The butler cut himself off as he saw the tears streaming down his master's face.

Staring at his own hands with a brooding look, the Baron said, "You see, Allen...my father departed from this world when I was about your age. At the time, he told me, 'Take good care of this realm. Protect it with your older brother.'"

"Yes, my lord."

"My older brother was barely of age when he assumed the title of lord of Granvelle. I did my best to manage this land with him, but he joined our father right before turning twenty. This still holds true today, but I had to rely on Sebas so much back then. I thank you, Sebas."

'The age of adulthood is fifteen for nobles too, if I remember correctly.'

The butler wordlessly lowered his head in response to the Baron's words of appreciation. Allen stayed silent, waiting for the Baron to continue.

"Just as my father did, my older brother taught me to be an upright noble, and I've done everything in my power to live by those teachings so far. However, I must have misunderstood something somewhere... So, this is how nobles fight, huh? To think I'd be admonished by a child as young as I was back then..."

The Baron clenched both hands and stood up. "Very well, I will fight in the manner of nobles. Allen, I will be taking you up on your offer of your mining rights. Sebas, prepare for our departure."

"Immediately, Master."

'Now we should be good. Everyone who participated when Carnel baited them with promises of mining rights shares will surely bite once the Baron dangles those rights in front of their faces for real. Now, there's only one more thing I want to ask him for before he heads to the capital.'

Just as the Baron was about to leave, Allen said, "Um, my lord, I don't mean to ask for this in exchange for the mining rights, but... May I know what the duty of House Granvelle is?"

'I've left it unexplained long enough, I think. It's time to insist on this.'

"Hm..." After a short pause, the Baron answered, "Very well. I'll arrange for a tutor to give you a lesson."

'Huh? He's going that far to explain? Is it going to be like a lesson on royal service in general?'

Without further ado, the Baron left for the Royal capital with the butler and, for protection's sake, the Vice-captain in tow.

***

The storm that swept through the Royal court at the end of that year would later come to be known as "the House Granvelle Affair." As a result of everything that ensued, a group of nobles, Viscount Carnel included, were charged with corruption and forgery of official documents and brought to justice.

The Viscount insisted that Baron Granvelle was making everything up right to the very end, but when he refused to cooperate with the Royal family's investigative efforts, he was slapped with insurrection charges, and one thousand of the kingdom's most powerful knights were dispatched to his fiefdom.

The knights uncovered so much evidence that Viscount Carnel was divested of his title, and his realm was confiscated and incorporated into the lands under the Royal family's direct management.

Even a Royal envoy and the Judicial Vice-minister, both highly eminent positions, had been implicated in the scandal, causing nobles to speculate in whispers what drove the Royal family to go so far. Many were jailed, with noble houses going back generations erased entirely. The kingdom was wrapped up in a purge so intense, it matched, if not exceeded, the Talent fraud incident.

According to rumors, the root cause of the incident was Viscount Carnel kidnapping Baron Granvelle's daughter over mithril mining rights, with the Baron then raising hell in the Royal capital in a mad rage. For the sake of getting revenge, he yielded full rights of his newly discovered mine to the Royal family in order to have all the Royal retainers and multiple political factions thoroughly investigated and, where necessary, punished.

Some wondered whether the Baron had really done all this just to get revenge for a single daughter, but no one pushed him for the full truth. Now that the Baron had the Royal family and multiple political factions on his side, no noble dared even look at him wrong anymore.