Wortenia Senki (WN)

Translator: HASUTSUKI, Editor: Chaz

Two months had passed since Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma started his rule over the northern Rozeria Kingdom.

Currently, Ryouma is getting used to his office and official duties. It was in the middle of such work that a man appeared in front of Ryouma.

Despite the man’s intense sweating, Ryouma still invited the messenger from the capital city of Pireaus into his office.

His age in appearance was around 40 and his facial expression was bland.

He was a man with no special characteristics.

If he was walking in the middle of the street, nobody would think of him as eye-catching.

However, his appearance was therefore ideal for the duty he was given.

Immediately, Ryouma read the letter that was being handed to him by the man.

“I’ve thought that this moment would come but… It was slower than I had expected…”

As for just how slow it was, of course, he wouldn’t say… Such words escaped Ryouma’s mouth the moment he read the letter.

There was no need for him to read the letter in detail.

As a matter of fact, he didn’t really care about the meaning of the letter.

However, the messenger seems to misunderstand Ryouma’s muttering.

“Late was it?”

Toward such a question, Ryouma directed his eyes at him.

His gaze felt like a man who could see through anything.

In fact, Ryouma was trying to appraise the man standing in front of him

Was he just a messenger or was there something else?

(Well, since he is being trusted by that Earl, it should be fine but…)

The man in front of Ryouma looked like an honest person.

Since he was delivering an important letter, it meant the man was a reliable vassal of Earl Bergstone.

It seems, however, that his head was not that great.

But, that didn’t mean he was stupid, it’s just that he might be the type that could not read the air.

Since he looked at the information held within the letter with interest.

An attitude that can be said as impudent.

(No wait… Perhaps it’s actually the opposite?)

Some thoughts crossed Ryouma’s mind.

His face looked like a naive honest person.

However, under that guise, a churning beast might actually hide.

(I guess I should be careful huh?)

Despite having northern Rozeria under his rule, it didn’t mean that the governance was already stable.

Considering the future, it was better for him to eliminate uncertainties as much as possible.

“I’ve certainly received the letter. Please give my regard to Earl Bergstone.”

As he said that, Ryouma stood up from his chair and spoke to the man.

-

“I’ve heard about him from Master Sudou but… That man is too different… I do hear stories that Japanese people are all the descendants of Ninja, maybe that story is true after all?”

Officer Karl, his real name was Karl Ackermann, muttered those words after he left the place where Ryouma resided.

He was a man summoned from the corner of Berlin the capital city of Germany. He was summoned to this world by a small country which now part of Ortomea Empire, luckily when that happened the Organization picked him up.

Since then, Karl had rarely gone to the battlefield. In fact, he was living normally as a Grass.

By the way, Grass was a reference to intelligence activity during the warring state period.

The scope of their work was wide which made it hard to explain. However, most often Grass were people who lived in the enemy country, gathering intelligence, while Operatives were the one who perform sabotages and assassination.

That said, Karl’s work was not dangerous.

As a matter of fact, the Organization mainly operated within the Ortomea Empire and around it.

Of course, the relationship between Ortomea and the Organization was not necessarily a cooperative one.

However for the Organization, Ortomea was a convenient tool and like any good tool, it needed to be taken care of.

Since the Ortomea Empire goal was to conquer the Zalda Kingdom, information regarding the Rozeria Kingdom had become important.

But to be honest, Karl job was not to gather confidential information within the Rozeria Kingdom.

It was true that Karl’s work was information gathering.

However, it was just miscellaneous information that could be found by anyone, such as daily weather, the prices of goods, and the marriages of the nobility.

Furthermore, since he served Earl Bergstone, he wouldn’t find much of such confidential information, after all, the Earl had been defeated during the previous political strife between his father-in-law and Duke Gerhart…

In fact, Karl chooses to work with Earl Bergstone because his household was in ruin back then.

After all, in that situation, Karl would be able to move more freely.

That time was over however.

Over the past few years, Karl’s environment had begun to turn tense.

Of course the cause was clear and that was the existence of Mikoshiba Ryouma…

Karl had received a tremendous amount of trust from Earl Bergston, whom he had served more than ten years.

It was only the other day that Karl was being ordered to investigate northern Rozeria which had become Baron Mikoshiba territory.

(I thought him burning the villages and destroying the ten noble households was for making the security within Epiroz decline, but in fact, it was actually in anticipation for the future…)

In Karl’s mind, the scene of black soldiers guiding the farmers toward various place surfaced.

He understood the meaning of that when he arrived in Epiroz.

(There’s no doubt, he’s trying to make a family register and trying to organize rural areas…)

Of course, since it was needed to collect taxes, a family register existed in this world.

However, it was only a simple register.

When it comes to villages, it was common to have written down only the number of people living in it, but not individual or family names.

The register that Mikoshiba Ryouma was trying to make was a very detailed one.

A society where numbers were assigned to all individuals in an effort to manage them.

It was close to that of national identity numbers.

(The problem was, how many people could understand that?)

At the very least, with the current state of this world technology, it was impossible to create the country that Mikoshiba Ryouma envisioned.

Even if one was looking optimistically, the technical power of this world was much closer to that of a middle age Earth

There was no phone or internet.

As a means of communication, people were still using carrier pigeon or raising smoke.

An overwhelmingly poor information structure.

In fact, there was only one way to solve that problem in this world.

(Well, he might not think deeply about it… Perhaps he will just go and ask for cooperation from the Guild.)

Whether to dispose of them or making a connection, Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma would still need to make contact with the Guild.

“I guess I should contact Sudou-san immediately huh?” f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

Karl quickly left Epiroz.

However, he did not notice the pair of eyes following him from the shadows.