Chapter 7: The Marshal's Daily Life
Since returning to the Kingdom of Nounette, I began my activities as a marshal in earnest.
In the course of my work, I learned from Alextem that the dagger I received from Princess Parvela has tremendous power.
The privilege to have an audience with the king of a major nation. It could become a trump card, but they say that the true value lies in not drawing the family heirloom sword.
"Anyway, most of the marshal's work consists of paperwork..."
"If you have time to complain, put your hands to work."
Alextem handed me a stack of documents, and I reviewed them, signing and approving the ones that required permission and returning the ones that were not acceptable to the respective departments.
As I looked through the documents that kept coming in, I began to understand the workings of this country.
I am a prince, albeit the youngest. That means the Kingdom of Nounette is a monarchy.
I had assumed that if there was a king, there would be nobles as well.
However, it seems I was mistaken.
I knew that Nounette was a small country nestled in the mountains, but I didn't realize it was so small that a single royal family could govern the entire territory.
Due to the small size of the country, there were no nobles who emerged to govern the land.
The exception is the duke, but I heard that this is a one-time title bestowed upon the most outstanding individual among the king's siblings, so it could be seen as equivalent to the king's immediate family.
So how is the country being managed then? It seems that while the royal family is at the top, the actual administration is carried out by capable individuals selected from the people.
This is exactly the same as my current situation.
As a figurehead marshal, I am placed at the top, while soldiers engaged in combat and personnel involved in logistics and other tasks carry out numerous duties under me.
In any case, it is the duty of the national army to defend such a small territory.
However, due to the small size of the country, the number of soldiers is not very large. There are around 500 active personnel, including reservists, totaling about 2,000. These 2,000 individuals are mainly elderly or retired soldiers who can no longer withstand military service, so they are considered unusable for anything other than an internal decisive battle.
The majority of the precious troops are stationed in the fortress built in the valley, which leads to the enemy nation of Mendashium. The rest are either living in the town, protecting the royal castle, or stationed in the villages.
I often wonder how they manage to maintain public order with such a small number of troops, but even here, the small size of the country proves useful.
In the villages near the mountains, there are damages caused by wild animals and monsters. However, the deployed soldiers and retired reservists take command, and the villagers turn into a militia, united and ready to respond.
I would think that arming the civilians would pose a risk of riots, but it seems to be a common practice in this country, to the extent that I receive petitions asking for weapon replenishment because their weapons are depleted from battling monsters.
By the way, the weapons provided to the militia are made of cast bronze. It's easy to obtain the raw materials from the mountains and melt them in simple furnaces, making it cost-effective and easy to mass-produce.
Personally, I think it would be better to have weapons made of iron or steel, but it seems to be difficult with the metallurgical technology of the Nonette Kingdom.
Although iron ore, the raw material for iron, is excavated, it is treated as an export product.
Even stones with little use in the Nonette Kingdom are considered essential goods in the Magistri-Plumbre, the magical empire beyond Mendashium, due to the majority of the empire's equipment being made of iron. Therefore, it is more advantageous to earn money through exports than to use them for domestic development.
"Alectem, I just had a thought. Does the royal family handle the trade of iron ore?"
"I don't understand why you're concerned about something strange when you see the military purchasing beans as supplies. We have entrusted it to a certain trading company."
"So, you're leaving the trade between Nonette Kingdom and the empire to a single merchant?"
"Although they are called merchants, they are actually branches of a major trading company with headquarters in the empire. They employ people to collect iron ore, display imported goods from the empire and Mendashium at their stores, and pay substantial taxes."
Of course, since the empire desires iron ore, they must go to great lengths to avoid conflicts with the Nonette royal family.
"But a merchant with connections to the empire... Well, it's not something for me, as a marshal, to worry about. How we interact with other countries is the responsibility of my father and siblings."
Returning my wandering thoughts to the document in hand, I continued with my paperwork.
After finishing the tasks at hand, I stood up from my seat and changed into my exercise clothes.
"Looks like I'm done for today. I'll take a tour of each department and then head to the training ground for a thorough workout. If there are any important documents or reports, bring them over there."
"Understood. By the way, if you're going around the departments, could you please run an errand for me?"
The stack of documents I had decided to return to their respective departments ended up back in my arms. Each department had thoughtfully organized the documents to be returned in the order of my visit.
Though I had mixed feelings about this errand, considering it as a side task on my way and accepting it, I left the office.
As I greeted each department and returned the documents, some people asked me what was wrong with them. I responded politely, which caused me to be late in arriving at the training ground.
"It seems the soldiers have already finished their training."
The soldiers working at the royal castle consisted of seasoned veterans and recruits.
The veterans would spend one to two years training those who had newly become soldiers, and the trained soldiers would then be assigned to border forts or villages.
I had intended to assess the progress of the new recruits, but it turned out to be a miscalculation.
"Well then, I suppose it's time to refresh my body that has dulled from paperwork."
After doing some flexibility exercises, I begin running in the training ground. While running, I perform a sacred technique to conceal my presence.
The sacred technique is a skill that manipulates the power generated by the body—something like vitality or qigong. By releasing a large amount of power, one can behave like a superhuman. It's similar to the soldiers of the sacred knight nation, Mudou Beniornatal, who can sprint without injury through a downpour of magical rain.
Now, what would happen if I were to conceal my presence—essentially minimizing the power generated by my body?
The answer is simple. My physical strength would weaken.
I realized this when I returned from the Empire.
Furthermore, by further reducing the amount of presence to the level of a tree or even a ghost—where only those with keen senses would notice me even if I were right in front of them—I could greatly decrease my physical strength. It's like being weighed down all over my body.
"Hah, hah... Moving like this, my muscles get tired quickly, and my cardiorespiratory function declines. It's perfect for training, but it's tough... hah, hah..."
The training that focuses on weakening oneself to improve muscle strength and stamina was suggested to me by Alektem, who thought it would be better to conceal my ability to use sacred techniques. Although someone might notice that I'm using sacred techniques during training, reducing the risk of others finding out by concealing my presence is actually a good method.
Feeling enthusiastic, I step forward with my heavy body, as if wearing weights all over. With each step, my muscles tremble.
By the time I finish two laps around the training ground, I'm drenched in sweat, and not only my legs but also the muscles on my back start to feel the heat of fatigue.
"Hafu, hafuu... Now, it's time for striking practice."
I take a wooden sword from the equipment. Normally, it should feel like a stick, but because my physical strength has weakened, it feels heavy as if I'm holding a barbell.
I hold the wooden sword with both hands and stand in front of the stake for striking practice.
I swing the sword up, slowly bring it down, making it hit the stake, and tightly grip the handle the moment it connects.
Slowly swing up, bring it down again, hit the stake, and grip it tightly.
Why am I doing the striking practice so slowly? It's because I'm checking the movements of each part of my body while doing it.
Due to weakened muscle strength, I can clearly feel the stiff and overly tense parts of my movements more than usual.
Now, after confirming my movements several times, I step back and initiate an attack. I step forward with my right foot, strike the stake with a wooden sword, retract my foot, then step forward with my left foot and retract it, and finally step forward with my right foot. The movements are slow here as well.
Next, I take two steps and attack the stake. If I'm satisfied with the two-step attack, I increase the distance to three steps, then four steps.
Lastly, I attack while running. This time, I don't move slowly but try to perform the attack as quickly as possible.
"Toriiii!"
I shout while running and strike the stake with the wooden sword. I run back to my original position and attack again while running.
I continue the running attacks until I reach the limit of my weakened cardiopulmonary function, and then I sit down on the grass, barely catching my breath.
"I might have pushed myself too hard. But if I stop concealing my presence—"
I stop using sacred arts and my body suddenly feels relieved as the vitality inherent in it is restored.
"Haa, haa. Haah, I've calmed down."
Wiping the sweat flowing down my forehead with the back of my hand, I stand up from the ground and head towards the water source.
Being in a mountainous country, the water was originally delicious, but the water I drew from the river now seeps into my parched body incredibly well.
Feeling the comfort of it, I unintentionally drink gulp after gulp, over and over again.
Finally relieved of my thirst and taking a breather, I sense a presence behind me.
As I turn around, I see two unfamiliar soldiers standing there.