There was only one reason I wanted to turn that unused former monastery into a Female Knight Academy.
If a Female Knight Academy were located on a summit surrounded by sheer cliffs on all sides…
“I just think… it would look incredibly cool.”
“Is that your reason…?”
“Is it no good?”
When I asked, Ayano-san gave me an exasperated look but thought for a moment.
“…It might actually be surprisingly viable.”
“Really!?”
I asked back, not expecting to be praised by Ayano-san.
“Yes. It won’t interfere with the capital, which is already suffering from land shortages. Furthermore, it seems that building was sturdily protected by magic back when it was used as a monastery. If we renovate it, it should be more than durable enough for use.”
“You even researched that?”
“It is, after all, right under the nose of Lohengrin Castle… though it was too much of a hassle to use for anything else, so it has been left abandoned until now.”
Since it’s a summit with sheer cliffs no matter where you look, normal people would have to use a gondola to come and go.
It’s an incredibly inconvenient building for the general public, but for a Female Knight Academy, it shouldn’t be a problem.
After all, climbing a thousand-meter cliff should be a breeze for the students of a Female Knight Academy.
“So, even from your perspective, Ayano-san, it doesn’t look bad?”
“Indeed. I believe it would be fine.”
“Then let’s decide on that spot. …Oh, right. Ayano-san, you said we also needed to build a storage facility for the Orichalcum, right? Let’s just build it there too.”
“—I see. Indeed, if you consider a storage location that is both robust and difficult to steal from, that summit building might be the best choice. Understood.”
As we were talking,
a young official who had brought documents to Ayano-san chimed into the conversation.
“This sounds like an interesting topic. May I join you?”
“Of course.”
He was the leader of the officials sent from the Duke Sakuragi family, and apparently, he used to be the assistant to the house steward at the Sakuragi main residence.
Everyone, including me, called him “Assistant-san.”
“Assistant-san, you might have heard, but based on a proposal from Queen Toko, we’ve decided to build a branch of the Female Knight Academy in the territory.”
“Yes. Naturally, the Duke Sakuragi family fully supports this.”
“That helps.”
I wasn’t worried because Toko-san and Duke Sakuragi are on good terms, but I would have been in trouble if the Duke’s family had opposed it.
“—By the way, Your Excellency. As the Duke Sakuragi family, we have one proposal.”
“What is it?”
“Why don’t we establish an Advanced Course at the Strongest Female Knight Academy operated by the Frontier Margrave? This would be a system to accept those who have already graduated from the traditional Female Knight Academy or active-duty knights.”
“I see.”
By creating such a course, we might be able to differentiate ourselves from the academy in the capital. As expected of the Duke Sakuragi family’s Assistant-san, he’s highly capable.
As I was thinking that, Ayano-san seemed to have realized something else.
“Is this about Yuzuriha-san?”
“As I expected, you figured it out.”
Assistant-san scratched his head.
“Lady Yuzuriha has graduated from the Royal Strongest Female Knight Academy and is no longer a student. Therefore, the custom would be for her to return to the Duke’s house and begin preparations to inherit the title of the next Duchess. After all, Her Ladyship is the eldest daughter of the direct line.”
“Is that so?”
I didn’t know that.
Yuzuriha-san basically never talks about her own standing.
“However, Her Ladyship has ignored custom. Since graduation, she has not returned to the territory, she hasn’t helped with the Duke’s work in the capital, and she hasn’t become a military officer. To outsiders, it looks as though she has simply taken up residence in the frontier. Ayano-dono, what do you think of this situation?”
“It is an extremely correct decision.”
“Oh?”
“If one takes a bird’s-eye view of the continental situation, staying close to the Frontier Margrave of Lohengrin is far more important than the Duke family’s customs. One could say she is brilliantly assisting the current Duke Sakuragi. …In fact, if the Duke himself didn’t share that recognition, he would have put a leash on Yuzuriha-san and dragged her back to his own territory long ago.”
“Exactly. Truly impressive, Ayano-dono.”
“I believe it is a natural judgment for a noble.”
“I agree. However, I’m ashamed to say that in our Duke’s family, there are many idiots in the branch families who cannot understand even that much.”
“…You have my sympathies.”
“That said, it’s better to have as few elements as possible that other nobles can attack.”
“So, you want to establish an Advanced Course to keep Yuzuriha-san in the status of a student?”
“It would be a great help if you could do that.”
Their conversation was highly political and I couldn’t quite grasp all of it,
but if doing so would help Yuzuriha-san, I had absolutely no reason to refuse. And so—
It was decided that the Branch School of the Female Knight Academy in the territory would also feature an Advanced Course that didn’t exist in the capital.
After that, the officials from the Duke Sakuragi family, who were strong in construction matters, gathered. They debated back and forth, crushing every potential problem one by one.
As a result, just a few days later, a detailed plan from ordering to completion had been drafted.
Truly, Ayano-san and the Duke’s officials are something else. I can’t compete with them.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
3 (Toko’s Perspective)
Late at night at the Sakuragi Duke’s residence.
After returning to the capital from her discussion with Suzuha-nii, Toko entered the Duke’s study in secret and immediately gave a smug thumbs-up.
Seeing this, Duke Sakuragi knew that Toko’s plan had succeeded.
“I see. That man accepted the proposal to establish the branch school.”
“Yup, perfectly!”
The recent theme of the closed-door meetings between Toko and the Duke
was how they could convince Suzuha-nii to build new military facilities within the Lohengrin territory.
Of course, there were already barracks and border forts, but they wanted something more large-scale and cutting-edge.
The reason was simple:
the importance of the Frontier Margrave’s territory was now incomparable to what it once was.
Even if a military invasion was practically impossible as long as Suzuha-nii was there,
if they didn’t build at least one new military facility, other countries might think they were looking down on the Orichalcum or Suzuha-nii himself.
If diplomatic problems arose as a result and Suzuha-nii got angry, that would be the scariest scenario.
“I mean, honestly, it would be natural to place the headquarters of a regional army there.”
“That man likely wouldn’t be pleased with that.”
“Exactly.”
The current head of the Lohengrin house, Suzuha-nii, was a commoner by birth and had the sensibilities of a commoner.
One of the biggest differences between nobles and commoners is their view of the military.
To a noble, the military is a tool, for better or worse.
Commoners, on the other hand, often have emotional feelings toward the military—meaning they either like it or hate it.
And while Suzuha-nii didn’t state it publicly, it was the shared opinion of Toko and the Duke that he was likely the type who was uncomfortable with the military.
In most cases, a distaste for nobility or power goes hand-in-hand with a distaste for the military.
And Suzuha-nii clearly feels uncomfortable with nobility and power.
—Which is why…
After much discussion, they settled on a military facility that would look decent enough to other countries but one that Suzuha-nii would definitely compromise on.
In short, that was the branch school of the Female Knight Academy.
“When I was leaving, Suzuha-nii was all smiles and said, ‘I can cover the full cost!’ He said he could use the profits from the Mithril mine.”
“In other words, that man perceived the branch school as an educational facility.”
“Without a doubt. Well, if he didn’t, he probably wouldn’t have been happy about enrolling Suzuha in the Female Knight Academy in the first place.”
“And thanks to that, he met Yuzuriha and became connected with us.”
“True. If not for that, at the very least, I definitely would have been killed in the coup.”
“And Yuzuriha would have become a hollow shell from the shock, and our country, invaded by other nations, would have perished. …That man’s lack of desire for power is his only flaw.”
“If he had it, Suzuha-nii would be the King by now, and I’d be his bride right next to him.”
“What are you saying? The one standing next to that man will obviously be Yuzuriha.”
Neither of them was willing to back down on this point.
However, they had learned long ago that a fruitless argument here was meaningless. So, the Duke decided to change the subject.
Visit the request page If there’s a Japanese Light Novel (LN) or Web Novel (WN) you’d like me to translate
When the donation goal progress bar above hit 100% one novel will be chosen for translation
| Table of Contents | Next* |
Support the Author by Buying the Original Books!
