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One sloth, and a computer
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Economic War
In the academy, it's forbidden to make calls without permission beforehand.
Even if you were only receiving a report from your territory, you were forced to use a room specifically designed for the calls.
And so, right now I was talking to Amagi in the communication room but–
"…the debt collectors are pressuring us to pay up?"
"Yes. Because our financial situation has deteriorated, they want to quickly collect what they can."
"I'm struggling financially? Me of all people?"
I didn't understand.
Did something happen back home?
"Has a problem occurred in the territory?"
"No, it's developing at a steady pace. It might not be as fast as it used to be, but there haven't been any complications. Even the pioneer planet's development has stabilised."
"Why then?"
Amagi paused for a moment before answering, "It still hasn't been confirmed, but it seems like the Berkley family has been moving behind the scenes. Apparently, they have a lot of connections with companies in the financial industry."
"Derrick's family?"
There was a man who picked a fight with me back during my time at the elementary school.
He tried to kill me during the mobile knight tournament, but I ended up killing him instead.
However, that seems to have pissed off his relatives.
"The Berkley family has many connections and are very troublesome. The majority of them may only be Barons, but Serena says that we should still stay vigilant."
"So you're telling me a group of Barons is picking a fight with a Count like myself? Even as an annoyance, no matter how many small fish gather together, they're still only small fish in the end."
Though it was impossible to know all the connections each noble house had.
After killing Derrick, it was only natural for the rest of his relatives in the Berkley family to become hostile towards me.
However, for things to have developed this far was unexpected.
"Let's just repay the entire debt in bulk. Can we sell the rare metals we have stored to Thomas?"
It was annoying having to convert everything into cash, but if they wanted me to pay it all off at once, then I'll comply.
However, I wouldn't forgive their insolence in treating me this way.
"I've talked to him about it, but there's too much for him to convert. Therefore, we still haven't prepared the funds. The collectors have expressed that they'd be willing to take the rare metals instead for less than half the market price, but I'd like to know your opinion on this, Master."
"They said they'd buy my resources cheaply?"
There are many things that I hated.
On that list, debt collectors were among the worst of them.
In my previous life, they had thoroughly tormented me.
Although it wasn't even my own debt, I absolutely abhorred the collectors who tortured me so.
Even in this universe, it was my parents and grandparents who made the huge debts.
I was going to pay it all back in due time, but I wasn't going to forgive them if they tried to force it.
"It feels like I'd lose if I sold it to them. If they're going to be bought cheaply anyway, then I'd rather sell my rare metals to the Empire."
"Even though the Empire would buy them at an even worse price? Are you sure about this?"
"It's better than helping the debt collectors make money."
Besides, I could prepare as many rare metals as I wanted.
In the first place, all of my financial problems were technically artificial.
This was all because of the 'Alchemy Box' that the guide provided for me, which was an amazing tool that could create rare metals even from garbage.
"They're the ones who started this fight. Let's start pressuring the Berkley family in retaliation."
"You mean to start an economic war?"
"It's fine, my victory is assured."
It was impossible for them to compete with me while I had the alchemy box.
Poor them.
"We'll start applying pressure with a reasonable range. Now then, how's your life at the military academy? Have you gotten sick or injured? Are you staying healthy?"
"'Compared to Master's One-Flash training, what they put me through here is nothing'– can't actually be said, but I haven't had any problems. Or rather, my biggest concern is probably how there isn't anything for me to learn here."
"There's nothing for you to learn?"
"To be honest, one of the upperclassmen picked a fight with me, but I was actually able to beat him in a simulated battle. I wish you were there to see it Amagi."
Despite telling her about my brilliant victory against Dolph, she didn't seem very pleased with me.
"What's wrong?"
"…Master, didn't all of that happen because you were acting conceited?"
"It's only natural for evil lords to be arrogant. Though, I can't deny I wanted to beat down the fool who was brandishing his sense of justice. It makes me want to laugh thinking about how someone of that level was the valedictorian."
Luckily, the academy didn't really seem to care.
As I broke into a grin, Amagi began to chastise me,
"I don't want to see you constantly getting into fights with the other cadets. Master, you should focus more on your studies instead."
…today's Amagi sure was harsh.
"You know, you're the only one who I'd allow to take that attitude towards me, right? If it were anyone else, I would've already had their head by now."
"I'm just telling you what you need to hear, Master. You can always take my head whenever you wish."
Take Amagi's head? That's something that should never be said, not even as a joke.
I raised my hands in surrender.
"Okay, I'll try to follow your advice. Please don't be angry with me."
"I'm not angry."
"–by the way, umm… how's Rosetta doing?"
Rosetta was a troublesome girl who said she'd even follow me to the military academy. Was she behaving herself at the mansion?
She happily called me "Darling!" when we're together, and I didn't really know how I should treat her.
As a candidate for my future harem, she was definitely beautiful enough… but something felt wrong when I thought about that.
"Lady Rosetta is currently going through strict training under the head maid's tutelage. There have been talks to have her begin studies at another house, but we're having difficulty finding one considering our current situation with the Berkley family."
"So it's the Berkley family again?"
I always heard their name wherever I went.
In the Empire, that seemed to be a surname as common as 'Tanaka'.
"Well… I'll leave the details to you."
"Just leave it to me."
After the call ended, I stood up from my chair and stretched.
"Now then, just like what Amagi told me, should I try taking classes a little more seriously?"
◇ ◇ ◇
The next day's class taught the basics of fleet warfare.
I had learned about this already in the education capsule, but after hearing the instructor's lesson– I could feel myself break out into a cold sweat.
Standing on the platform, the instructor indifferently spoke about modern warfare.
"As the scale of fleet battles increase, the time they tend to last increase as well. This is because the side who's more patient tends to have the advantage, making aggressive tactics something to avoid due to the risk they pose."
The holographic image reproduced a fleet battle and explained the truth to us in an easy-to-understand manner.
"While the quality of the ships and the skill of the crews used are other factors to consider, it would be risky to charge at an opponent of the same level indiscriminately. Careful preparations are necessary."
The instructor added on,
"Modern assault tactics are usually used when pursuing a fleet that has already lost and is currently retreating. I pray that there is no one among you hoping to rush into enemy lines like a hero."
The other cadets were laughing.
But I wasn't.
After all, assault tactics could be considered the Banfield house's signature winning move.
Even if they worked until now, that was only because our opponents were pirates.
I asked the instructor a question,
"Instructor, how much of a strength difference would you need for aggressive maneuvers to become viable?"
"Oh, cadet Liam? How surprising, I didn't think there was anything left for me to teach you. Let's see… I think you'd need at least four times the enemy force in that scenario."
Quadruple the amount.
If that was the truth, then the Banfield house would be screwed if the enemy was even ten-thousand strong.
Our ships were built for aggressive maneuvers, and our soldiers had gone through assault-oriented training.
I've completely messed up in how I organised them.
"Four times… four times?"
While I was in deep thought, Wallace called out to me,
"What's wrong?"
"…it's nothing. I've just been thinking about bolstering my army."
"Why's that?"
It was necessary to immediately change our military policies and increase our numbers.
Even an evil lord would feel anxiety when their army wasn't up to par.
I wanted to trample over others from a safe position, not a risky one.
"Armaments… If I'm talking about those then–"
I guess I'll have to get in contact with the weapon factories soon.
I also need to call Amagi again.
Even if I change the policies now, it would take several years at the earliest for them to show any effect.
But considering how I'll have to change everything we've built up so far, there's no doubt it'd take even longer.
Damn it! –I messed up.
Looking back at all of our aggressive battles so far, I've been careless.
Now that I think about it, I even was losing against Dolph at the beginning of our battle because of my aggressiveness.
But luckily, I was a man who could respond to changes immediately.
Let's spin this in a positive light and say I was fortunate to notice it this early, before anything had actually happened.
"For the time being, I'll aim to double my forces to sixty thousand ships. No, shouldn't I triple them to a total of ninety thousand?"
Listening to my mutterings, Wallace went, "Eh? You really need that many?" in surprise.
Of course I did.
My army should never run from a fight.
That's because one's military power was the symbol of what it meant to be an evil lord.
Anyone would grow silent as long as you had a powerful army.
No, I'd force them into submission.
A strong military was the embodiment of the power of violence.
That's why I'll never retreat.
Ah, that reminds me!
Amagi was right, I shouldn't grow conceited while I'm here!
Right now I didn't have the military power to guarantee my safety, but I could still change this.
"I'm suddenly feeling really motivated."
Watching my serious expression, Wallace looked like he didn't know what to say,
"I-is that so? Well… I guess I'm happy for you? D-do your best!"
Yes, as my underling, I'll do my best for you as well!
◇ ◇ ◇
After hearing the report in his office, Cashmiro dropped his cigar.
"W-what did you say?"
The son who gave the report through a call didn't even try to hide how upset he was.
"The Banfield house sold all of the rare metals they had stored to the Empire, and after auctioning them off, they paid off their debts in full with cash."
Their plan to cut the power of the Banfield house only ended up with their front company losing credibility.
"In any case just keep pressuring them! If we leave that brat alone, the Berkley family will be looked down on!"
"U-understood."
When the call ended, Cashmiro held his head.
"You've got to be kidding me. Weren't they just a poor noble house?"
He didn't think they had that much room to move economically.
(To choose to stay in debt despite having the capital to pay it off… did they change where they allocated their funds? I thought they were just some upstarts developing on the frontier, but they're surprisingly troublesome.)
Now that things had gotten this far, there was no choice but to match them until they gave up.
If they backed off first, others would begin to question the Berkley family's power.
There was no point in any of this unless they won.
Yes– there were quite a few troubles that came once you started a fight with a high-noble.
"We have elixirs though. With those, we can earn a large sum of money in an instant. Even if they had a lot of rare metals, it's the Banfield house that'll fall first."
Although there was the demerit of how they had to destroy planets in order to make them, elixirs were always in high demand.
Cashmiro thought that Liam would definitely surrender given time.
"Nevertheless, this economic war is still a failure. We've sustained too much damage on this side."
Their front company lost credibility and trust.
While it's connection to their Berkley family was exposed.
If he knew this was going to happen, then he would've started the fight in a different way.
"…we can't afford to lose to that brat anymore."
Their fight would only grow in intensity from here on– or it was supposed to.
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Sloth Translations
One sloth, and a computer
Menu
Cursed Star Poison
A room inside the military academy.
There, a nobleman from the Berkley family confirmed the contents of a suitcase his follower brought him.
"This is the cursed star poison?"
Inside of the suitcase was a capsule filled with a purple liquid.
The substance inside of it was poison.
"Try your best to avoid contact with it. Rather than poison, it's more of a curse."
"So this thing will really curse whoever I use it on?"
The underling began to explain how the liquid worked,
"If you use this, you can kill Liam without ever being found out. The power of the curse is no joke. It's the literal materialization of those who were burned alive when their planet was destroyed."
When a planet was ruined, all living beings residing on it were killed as well, this substance was the manifestation of their negative feelings.
If one were to ingest it, they'd suffer from it's powerful curse until they died.
The only way to treat it would be to use an elixir, and if you didn't have one available, you were finished.
And if enough time passed, not even elixirs would be able to save you, leaving death as your only option remaining.
"–father and the rest of those old men are acting too conservatively. I'll be the one to kill Liam, which in turn will solidify my position as one of the family's executives!"
The follower lowered his head.
"At that time, please don't forget to give me credit as well, please."
"I know. Anyways, where did you even get this from?"
With a sly grin, the henchman gave an unexpected name.
"Do you know the 'Planet Restoration Activist Group'?"
"I've heard of them."
"They're actually dealing with these items under the table. While they're a charity organisation on the surface, in truth they illegally poach various things from the destroyed worlds. They don't take that 'planet restoration' crap seriously."
While they did have the capability to do so, they tried to avoid revitalising the planets if possible.
Instead, they dealt with and moved illegal goods for enormous profits.
"Well, that doesn't really matter to me. So I just need to put this in Liam's meal?"
"The capsule itself will melt, but it's contents will be undetectable. If you mix it into soup, it'll just be mistaken for another ingredient."
"…hehehe, this day will be that guy's last."
◇ ◇ ◇
Interrogation room.
The person sitting opposite to me was the brigadier general of the military police.
Such a guy was taking an impudent attitude, treating me like the criminal responsible for the recent death in the academy.
"Count, I've heard that you were quarreling with the Berkley family."
The brigadier general was choosing his words carefully, despite the fact that I was still only a cadet.
I was that powerful after all.
However, I was innocent, so I wish they'd stop treating me like the culprit already.
"What's the basis for these accusations? Where's the evidence that shows that I'm the killer?"
"The dead cadet was a member of the Berkley family."
"What about it? There's a lot of people with the Berkley surname. How am I supposed to know which one you're talking about? Or are you just trying to pick a fight with me?"
In the first place, the fact that some cadet died didn't interest me at all.
And beyond the interrogation room door–
"You bastard! To actually lock up Lord Liam like this! I'll kill you! Don't think you can just imprison my lord with no evidence and get away unscathed!"
–Marie was yelling out in vulgar language.
It seems that the military police had gathered just to hold her down.
"Please calm down!"
"We have permission from the academy for this!"
"We're only checking his alibi!"
Listening to such words, I turned to the brigadier general in front of me.
"So it's your personal judgement that's determined me to be the criminal?"
"Well, no matter how you look at this situation…"
Just because I've declared myself hostile to the Berkley family, I'm the murderer?
I hate false charges.
They remind me of being falsely accused of things during my previous life's divorce.
A new person appeared outside the room.
Apparently it was Tia, who had just become a fourth-year student at the academy.
"You fossil! Lord Liam graciously allowed you to serve at his side, and yet you still allowed him to be confined in a place like this?! As I thought, we don't need someone as useless as you!"
"You minced-meat bitch!"
I thought she had come to help me, but it looks like she just came here to pick a fight with Marie.
From the noises I could hear coming from beyond the door, they were no doubt brawling it out.
"Y-you two need to stop!"
"Call for reinforcements!"
"Someone get a cadet instructor!"
The military police was in a frenzy, while the brigadier general was holding his face with his right hand as he sighed.
I don't really care if they fight, but are they not going to help me?
My evaluation of those two was rapidly dropping.
"I'll smash a fossil like you into pieces!"
"I'll cut you back down to the chunk of meat you were!"
The door was struck with tremendous momentum, distorting it and cracking the walls.
What the hell were they doing?
Were they not aware of their positions as my head and deputy knights?
I was getting angry.
"If there's really no evidence, then I'm leaving."
As I stood up while saying that, the brigadier general tried to stop me.
"Please wait!"
"I won't. Try again once you have proof."
As both the insides and outsides of the interrogation room were growing noisy, a military police officer burst through the door while out of breath.
"Your Excellency! We've found evidence!"
"What?! I see, well done! Count, you can't escape now!"
As the brigadier general tried to arrest me, the military police officer shook his head.
"N-no, you've misunderstood. The evidence came from the dead cadet's room. It seems he's smuggled in some cursed star poison."
"…w-what?! Contact headquarters, and evacuate all cadets from the school building immediately!"
Completely forgetting about my arrest, he started to fall into a panic.
Even so, to use cursed star poison… I've heard of that before. If I remember correctly, it was something like the concentrated mass of people's curses and resentment.
It was something that'd definitely kill you if you ingested it.
To be drinking something like that, were the people from the Berkley family idiots?
◇ ◇ ◇
The morgue.
Dying while suffering– there laid the man who tried to assassinate Liam.
The guide– who had come to the room, looked down at the man's body with a sad expression.
"…the idea of trying to kill him using a curse wasn't bad."
If the assassination was successful, the guide would've been pleased, if not somewhat unsatisfied.
But the result was a failure.
Detecting the danger beforehand, Kukuri had reversed the situation and had him poisoned instead.
"Well, at least you had a connection to Liam. Everything you felt, all of your suffering and despair will become my power."
After the guide placed his hand from the man's face, his expression changed to a peaceful one.
The guide's connection to Liam was so strong that any negative emotions unrelated to him couldn't be absorbed efficiently. However, this also meant even the slightest connection dramatically increased the assimilation in turn.
The guide relished the man's emotions as if he were drinking high-quality wine.
"It's delicious, your feelings alongside the grudge of an entire planet's destruction are quite pleasant. You were a fool, and I don't even know your name, but I promise to use this power you've given me to its fullest."
After regaining his strength, the guide's mouth twisted into the shape of a crescent moon.
"I've regained quite a bit of power. With this, it should only take one– no, two or three more moves to drag Liam down to hell."
Liam was the first person ever to ever torture him so.
Therefore, the guide resolved himself to never give up on his revenge.
Because of his careless actions so far, he had screwed up multiple times already.
He had regarded Liam as an insignificant existence, and had suffered the consequences of doing so.
"I need to gather his enemies. I'll plan this out thoroughly, and then he'll definitely–!"
The guide disappeared from the room in laughter.
◇ ◇ ◇
The imperial palace.
The prime minister could feel his temper rise as he read the report from the military academy.
His subordinates around him were nervous.
"…who approved the handling of cursed star poison's treatment without authorisation?"
Questioning his subordinates, the prime minister wondered what punishment would be appropriate.
The problem was that the offending party was connected to the Berkley family.
Any normal punishment would bring various troubles.
It was necessary to crush their status first.
"Normally, the execution of their house would be appropriate, but one house is but a small fraction of the Berkley family as a whole."
Even though they were a collection of barons, together they held the power of a ducal household.
As a gathering of houses, even if they punished one of them, it'd just be like cutting the tail off a lizard.
The Berkley family's– no, Cashmiro's neck couldn't be touched.
How did they prosper so far? Besides the fact that they're the only stable supplier for elixirs, they had also received much favour from the former Emperor.
They approached his majesty with gifts of elixirs, and in return he covered-up all their illegal deeds.
Before he had even noticed it, they had grown too large, bringing many headaches to the prime minister.
He had to crush the Berkley family for the sake of justice, for they were growing too powerful in the Empire.
They had that much influence.
"I won't be able to reach Cashmiro's neck at this rate."
"Yes. In that case, wouldn't it be better just to accept his existence and receive the elixirs he offers instead?"
"I'd rather die."
The prime minister placed many expectations for Liam because he knew that he had the power to overcome this situation.
If the Empire could move, they'd be able to easily solve this problem, but they were too big and couldn't react quickly enough.
And once they started moving, it'd be difficult to make them stop.
Because it was hard for them to take action, this situation would eventually lead to the Empire's collapse.
A subordinate gave a report on another matter.
"Minister, because we've recently replenished our stock of rare-metals, the military is asking to replace their lost fleets."
"…what they're asking for is impossible."
The Empire wasn't the only intergalactic country out there.
There were neighboring countries adjacent to them, and even if you said there was quite a distance between them, they still had trades and disputes with them.
Naturally, they had armies stationed on the borders to solidify their defenses.
Sometimes they even invaded and conquered their enemies territories.
But the Empire's large size only meant that they had more borders they needed to protect. Furthermore, there was always a battle happening somewhere.
Resources were being used faster than they could replenish them.
And rare metals were needed in the all-important engines for the ships.
Substitute metals could also be used, but due to the obvious difference in performance, there were many requests for ships built using rare metals on the front-line.
The army heard that Liam had recently sold a lot of rare metals to the Empire, so naturally, they took this chance to petition for a resupply.
The prime minister looked at the results from the most recent war.
"We're being pushed on multiple fronts."
One of his subordinates explained why,
"There are various reasons, but I believe the main one being that resources aren't being used efficiently. There are cases of patrol fleets being increased to sizes far larger than necessary."
Patrol fleets.
They were important forces that protected imperial territory, and among them were fleets directly prepared by nobles.
Those cases happened when an aristocrat didn't want to subordinate themselves to another, immediately becoming the commander of the fleet they arranged after they graduated from the academy.
While others had histories of preparing fleets full of obsolete equipment so they'd be relocated to areas free of strife they could laze about in.
In any case, there was a rise in wastefulness.
Some of them had even deserted to become pirates, turning into a problem that needed to be dealt with quickly– but they didn't have the budget, the staff, nor the resources needed to do so.
"What a headache. It'll cost money to reorganise them, but we can't afford it."
Their disbandment wouldn't fix everything, and that was excluding the handling of their equipment in addition to the reassignment of their personnel that happened afterwards.
In the first place, there were multiple patrol fleets that were poorly controlled, where the soldiers weren't even properly trained.
A fleet that didn't conduct training regularly quickly lost it's skill, so reconditioning was absolutely necessary.
The strength of the Empire was enormous, but they weren't omnipotent.
"Now, what else is there?"
The prime minister was stressed by the problems that endlessly popped up, one after another.