Book 11: Chapter 1: A True Lord of Evil!
"You're so stupid, I'll kill you!"
"I am so sorry!"
In front of my indignant eyes, there was a man getting down on his knees.
The man, a nobleman who sold me his domain, is shaking and pressing his forehead against the floor.
There is a reason why a nobleman of the Algrand Empire, who is wastefully proud, would go so low.
One reason is that I am a Duke, but another is simply the difference in military power.
The knights who are supposed to protect themselves are rolling around the viscount.
Surrounding him are my knights.
The face of the Viscount, who is on his knees, is in a terrible state after being beaten.
Why am I doing this outrageous thing?
The reason lies in the territory he bought from his territory.
"How can you tell a lie in such a miserable situation? How dare you deceive me?"
I stomped on the back of the Viscount's head as he got down on his knees, and he was shaking and wobbling.
"Meh, perish the thought. I myself personally think this planet is very wonderful."
I increased the force I put into my foot, causing the viscount's head to dip into the floor.
"Your head is for decoration? What a wonderful sight!"
The view around us, however, is shabby to say the least.
We had come to the Viscount's planet in a space battleship and could not believe our eyes when we broke through the atmosphere and came close to the ground.
The life of the people on the planet is, in the prehistoric sense of the word, modern.
Steam locomotives are running.
It's not because they enjoy retro in some tourist spots or anything like that.
The planet of the viscounts was living on a modern level.
I see my battleship floating in the sky, and I see the locals taking pictures with their old cameras.
When was this camera made even in a previous life sense? With a camera that makes you want to ask, "What is this?"
I kicked the viscount and he rolled on the floor.
"Do you take your territorial management for granted!"
Essentially, it is against the rules to mess with a planet that has not expanded into space.
The rule is based on the fear of losing the planet's unique culture and technology, but there is one pitfall in this.
The rule does not apply to a planet that has sealed off its original technology that would allow it to expand into space.
The Viscount's domain should have been more developed than it was.
Yet, they have taken the time to take away the technology and allow the territory's citizens to live at a modern level.
Waste. The ultimate in waste.
I love waste, but not when it's to our detriment.
The viscount looks up and makes his excuses.
"We think this level of civilization is very beautiful in our household."
I would normally laugh and forgive him, but now I can't tolerate it.
"Don't play with me!"
It is really stupid to do whatever you want in your own territory and as a result, what you are left with is a huge debt.
It is good that they got a planet with a total population of about 500 million, but it will take a lot of work to develop it from here.
Ignoring the flatly apologizing viscount, I turn my gaze to the knight I rely on the most.
"Klaus, is there any way to bring this planet up to the standard level of the empire in the shortest possible time?"
The first knight of the Banfield family [Klaus Sera Montt] advises me with his usual calm atmosphere.
"The only way is to recruit and educate settlers from the Banfield family's territory. Even if we prepare only the necessary facilities, the Viscounts will not be able to use them."
Even if useful tools and facilities are provided, the locals are over-technical and unable to maintain them.
Trying to expand the size of the territory in the shortest possible time has led to more troublesome work.
"We adopt. But make no mistake. You are no longer a fiefdom of the viscount. From this day on, this is my fiefdom."
"Ha."
The former viscount lords who know nothing - if they knew what I am about to do, they would probably lament that the old days were better.
But I don't care.
I will use them to my advantage.
"Recruit the people who want to emigrate immediately."
"Ha. --I'm sorry, but the level of civilization on the planet is too low compared to our expectations. We need to increase the number of people we send, but our family can't afford to do so."
We are developing the territory as fast as we can, and we are putting our officials in one by one with knights and soldiers who have grown up in the area.
Even though manpower is available, there is an overwhelming shortage of administrators to rule.
"I will rule for a while. --Damn, I've been dealt a bad deal."
I have already bought the territory from the viscount, and I can't turn it back now.
I was forced to take the wrong end of the stick, and I was forced to reform the territory for a while on the viscount's estate.
Klaus and the surrounding knights were in an uproar.
"Liam-sama, sir, yourself?"
The main planet can be ruled without me. Besides, I have my own SS. I can develop at least one planet.
As a duke, I have an SS to protect me.
The elite SS is essentially a tool to show off my greatness. But I have no choice but to have the SS, which is only for show, work for me.
Or rather, I want to say that since I work, they should work too.
"Well, that's true, but--no, we have Rosetta-sama now, and we might be able to manage for a few years or so."
I am so busy that I am even driving Rosetta out of the house.
It was a pain to have to rely on Rosetta, but I couldn't afford to talk about pride.
"We will develop this planet soon."
The main planet of the Banfield family.
As evening falls, the taverns begin to bustle.
The residents of the estate were talking about the call for prospective emigrants issued by the government office.
Are they getting another planet? How many times have we been through this?"
The barmaster sighs as he polishes his glass.
"This is the third time it's been decided. This time they bought it from the Viscount's family.
"The Duke has finished his apprenticeship, but he's still very busy."
"I thought I was going to settle down on the main planet for a while, but now I'm wandering around again."
It was thought that once Liam finished his training, he would have two choices: settle down on the main planet or get busy working on the capital planet.
However, he found himself working hard to expand his territory on the frontier.
To put it another way, the people in the fiefdoms do not care whether Liam works in the city or in the countryside.
They are unhappy with both.
"Enough of this, man, calm down."
The barmaster laughs in annoyance when the customer man says so.
Normally, such a comment to an aristocrat would have been punishable by execution before Liam's reign.
But now, no one condemns it.
This is because Liam himself is not strictly enforcing the law.
"Don't say that. I heard from a guest who came for a cultural exchange that our lord is a godsend to him."
"Godsend help? What are you talking about?"
The customer wonders and drinks a little from his glass.
The barmaster turned his gaze behind the customer.
There they were, four men around a round table.
They were dressed in work clothes that showed they were finished with their work, and they were showing a keen interest in the drinks and food.
Even to the guests, it was strange to see them wondering about the mundane drinks and food.
"Are they from the Cultural Exchange? I think you're mistaking them for a migrant."
"I heard that the theme was to learn how to build infrastructure. Do you know? I heard that the former baronial lords used steam locomotives."
"I think I learned that in history class. I think it was ancient?"
"The viscount was limiting the level of civilization. It's a disgusting story. Whenever you try to develop, they forcefully stop you."
Whenever the people of the territory created groundbreaking technology and tried to advance their level of civilization, they were forcibly sealed off.
Both the barmaster and guests nodded and agreed with each other that that was a terrible story.
The guests get the general drift of the story.
"So the lords are literally and truly helped from heaven."
"I hear they're grateful."
"That's nice!--My merciful lord, he is a good man!"
The guest looks disgruntled, but to the barmaster, his attitude seems to be sulking.
The barmaster warns the customer who is chomping down on his drink with dismay.
"Are you jealous? You have to understand how it feels for me to see a big man jealous of me."
"I ain't jealous! A lord is supposed to be more like this--settling down with a bang on the main planet, right? Now we have the best knight in the empire, Klaus-sama. Leave it to him."
It was a customer's wish that Liam, who had left his home planet to give alms to an unrelated planet, would return.
The barmaster laughs.
"He's great, isn't he? Not long ago, the first knight was Christiana-sama, and now she's a natural."
"Christiana-sama. She was so beautiful, wasn't she? What are you doing now?"
"As I recall--""
"Kill all pirates!"
On the bridge of the superdreadnought Var, Christiana - the Christiana that the lords were talking about - had a scary smile on her face with her hands outstretched.
Her mouth was wide open like a crescent moon, and her bloodshot eyes were wide open.
The fleet of tens of thousands was chasing a group of pirates who were hiding in the space around the new planet that Liam had acquired.
Hundreds of pirates were being pursued and destroyed one by one by state-of-the-art naval vessels.
Communications offering to surrender were also received, but Tia ignored all of them.
A female knight, acting as Tia' second-in-command, held out her right hand in front of her and gave an order.
"Exterminate them. This is already Liam-sama's territory. He would never allow a pirate infestation!"
With these words, the fleet's attack became extremely fierce.
The fleet led by Tia was voluntarily exterminating pirates around the territory Liam had gained.
Many people with grudges against pirates have been assigned to the fleet, making it a professional group when it comes to exterminating pirates.
The operator connected Tia with a communication from the pirates.
"Christiana-sama, someone claiming to be the leader of the pirates is requesting communication."
Tia smiled darkly, sat down in the commander's seat, and crossed her legs.
"Fine. Let them through."
After not hearing any pleas for their lives earlier, they respond to the Commander's communication.
When a noisy image was projected in front of the tier, a bearded, kindly man was quite impatient.
The image shows that the ship is shaking badly.
"We will not touch your turf! We'll be out of here soon, so stop attacking us!"
Tia smiles at the pirates, who shudder at the name of the Banfield family.
However, only her eyes are not smiling.
They were cold and stony eyes.
The leader's pleas continued.
"And we didn't touch any of you, did we? You have to overlook it, and I promise I will never show my face again."
Liam got the Viscounts' territory.
So when Tia and her team discovered and attacked the pirates, who had heard about it and tried to escape. Although there was no rift between the two groups, Tia hated the existence of pirates.
"I don't care if you do anything wrong or not. Just because you are pirates, you have no value."
"You guys--you're still vassals of Liam, the so-called great lord!"
"Don't let that trash talk about Liam-sama. --I only wanted to hear you beg for your lives. So long, space pirates."
As Tia says this, the communication with the Commander is cut off.
It seems that an allied optical weapon has penetrated the enemy ship.
The second-in-command tells Tia matter-of-factly.
"We have confirmed the annihilation of the ship."
"Good. Now let's move on. This is already Liam-sama's yard--we need to clean up all the trash."
With a mixture of loyalty to Liam and personal grudge, Tia was thoroughly exterminating the pirates.
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