Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

Chapter 39: Skilled General

A week since Leopolt has been employed, he caused problems within the house. However, it was not entirely his fault but also partly due to the household members.

First is Celia.

「Even without that kind of guy, I alone am enough to be Aegir-sama’s follower!」

Celia unexpectedly flares out at me, I guess it’s something that can’t be avoided when she gets unhappy about a newcomer who gets the same position as her.

「It’s a convenient way to determine his talent. Don’t mind it.」

「I don’t want a guy by Aegir-sama’s side with such a nebulous reason!」

That was something I shouldn’t have said. She was doing her own work while sitting down but as she could no longer endure it, Celia took out two practice-like swords with crushed blades.

「If you lose to a small girl like me you will not work as a follower anymore!!」

It seems like she is trying to test Leopolt’s skills. If it is a practice match I have no reason to stop it. I told the two of them to absolutely not get hurt. Celia has natural talent in wielding a sword. For a practice match where once the sword touches you it is over, he is a formidable opponent but....

「Fueeeee!!」

Celia runs off while crying.

The match lasted only a few seconds – one strike. Celia’s preemptive strike was predicted; he tripped her leg and overturned her nicely. Striking her back where she was flipped over ungracefully, it was Celia’s defeat.

It was a match she proposed herself, in addition to it being in front of her master she was unable to accept showing her disgraceful behavior, she covered her face while crying and ran away.

「It was an attack with decent speed but her gaze was too revealing. I knew exactly where and how she would attack.」

The current Celia is quite stronger than a weak soldier. To easily evade it means that Leopolt has quite the capability in using swords. To continue, Nonna also did something.

「To have a man like this living with us, what would you do if we get fucked by him?」

She wasn’t as intense as Celia but it seems that Nonna is also against Leopolt staying here.

「This guy isn’t someone who would do something as foolish as that. I have decided based on what I saw from him directly.」

「Aegir-sama is trusting the guy who you just met the other day more than me? He has such a gloomy face, I can’t believe in him.」

Nonna says to Leopolt who is by my side with stinging sarcasm. I don’t think Leopolt was provoked, but he rebuts.

「I believe that I will make Hardlett-sama reach higher heights. Are you going to think only about your own body and foolishly crush that possibility?」

I think you did well to make it this far with confidence, but I feel some uniqueness within Leopolt. If I were to leave him here, it would certainly be disadvantageous so I didn’t say anything.

「What an arrogant person! And you have quite the rude mouth. You are doing this knowing that I am a person of this household, right!?」

Completely different from me, Leopolt changes into using a rude tone. To a former noble like Nonna, she would not be able to hold back.

「Then let me ask you. What are you to Hardlett-sama? If you are his wife, then I will apologize for my rudeness, bow down and ask for forgiveness.」

Nonna freezes. If you think about it, Nonna is just staying with me and we are not actually married. In the kingdom’s system, concubines are recognized but she is not something like that either, she is just a lover.

「That is...um...」

It is because Nonna has been in the nobles’ system that she understood that she isn’t really somebody important right now. She turned to me asking for my help, but there is no meaning in telling a lie that we are married, trying to fool people here will only make things unnecessarily twisted.

「You are not anything. Then you are no different from a prostitute. Why should I, who has been hired by Hardlett-sama, show you respect?」

His logic is correct but to criticize her in front of her face, he either has some real guts or he is just shameless. I guess he is assuming that I won’t kick him out.

「Uuu....this humiliation! I will make sure you regret it!!」

Just like how a villain in a play would say those lines from a script, Nonna gets upset and leaves while her shoulders were raised in anger, her breasts jiggle as she was standing down.

「What you said was correct, but you must not start disputes all over the house. Next time, you should at least pay the minimum amount of respect to the women as well.」

「Yes. ‘Starting next time’, I will pay the women some respect. Would that be fine?」

I claim that I am correct this time. I nod that this time is okay. He is really an amazing guy in many ways. And the story doesn’t end there. On the afternoon of a hot day, while avoiding the strong sunshine, Nonna who was enjoying tea in a room and saw Leopolt passing through the corridor.

「Ara, it’s Leopolt-san? You are quite free aren’t you? Will you not loiter around in the mansion, please? I’m scared that you might rape me. I feel like am about to scream.」

Nonna turned her face away and drank her tea from the specially made ceramic teacup.

「A teacup made by Igurott Levi?」

Leopolt looks at the teacup with narrow eyes. Nonna who did not think that Leopolt would understand artistic items was slightly taken aback. But she was slightly happy since she was dissatisfied that there was nobody in the house that would buy any artistic items.

「Ara, to appreciate one of the best potters in the Olga Federation, Levi’s masterpieces, it is somewhat unexpected.」

Nonna looks happy while she showed the cup to Leopolt and started to talk.

「Behold, the splendidness of this majestic horse picture, the delicate pieces were creations in his later years. The exciting masterpieces in his early years are spectacular too but I prefer this type better.」

With such a rare opportunity to display her knowledge, Nonna speaks about her forte. While speaking with Carla, she could only expect responses such as ‘it’s great if it’s big, put more in’.

「Where did you get this?」

「An ignorant merchant was selling this for 2 silver at a street stall. If you knew about his works then you’ll know it would not be enough to put 100 times that value on it.」

Nonna talks in a good mood while stroking the cup.

「You know, it is because of having such wonderful masterpieces that a noble’s dignity and fame increases. With this, I am also of use to Aegir-sama you know? You have been correcting the way you use your words recently, but don’t forget that you still owe us more respect...」

「Hm...it’s a fake.」

Nonna froze, and once she melted she instantly turned red.

「A-again with something like that! There is a limit to how rude you-!!」

「Levi’s horse picture is famous, but after he got in an accident with a horse and lost his very young son, he has not drawn at all. It is a contradiction if you think that this cup is a creation in the later years.」

「That is...but...」

I guess she had a memory in regards to Leopolt’s story. She looks at the cup with a pale face.

「The cup is not even made that well. It’s something worth about 2 silver. Using such a product in front of visitors with good judgement would only damage a noble’s dignity, so please be careful.」

「Wait! Will you tell Aegir-sama this!?」

「Of course. You purchased this using Hardlett-sama’s fortune didn’t you? It is my duty as a follower to report the truth.」

Leaving Nonna who collapsed with her hands stretched out onto the sofa, Leopolt left the room. From the room, you could hear a gruesome curse that you wouldn’t expect to come from an extremely beautiful lady. Lastly something terribly big happened to Carla.

「Hey, was it Leopolt? Don’t you want to try embracing me?」

Carla lowers her chest to show off the valley of her breasts.

「I can play with you if you like but...」

Of course she is lying. Once a single finger is put on her she intends to scream. It is believed that once he lays a hand on the women he will not be forgiven, so he would be quickly thrown out.

Carla doesn’t really hate Leopolt. But, for people to enter her beloved man’s nest, it would be better if there were less people. Children are not included in that count, but it makes her uncomfortable to smell another man besides him.

「Hey~ My mouth, it feels good you know?」

Leopolt ignores her for a while but eventually he made a serious expression.

「For me it is unmerited, so unfortunately I cannot answer you.」

「Are you scared of Aegir? It’ll be fine as long as no one finds out.」

‘Of course he would find out though’ she mutters in her heart.

「No, to tell you the truth I strongly prefer young girls, I don’t desire adult women like you.」

Due to the impact of that comment, even Carla would become speechless. Come to think of it he brought a young girl with him as a caretaker. Has she been used as a sex slave?

「You are beautiful. If at least you have the form of a young girl then I might throw everything down and chase after you.」

Carla thought that this was a chance.

「Then, I will make the preparations! It’s because this is a special case.」

「I will be in the stable. Don’t push yourself.」

It’s not at a distance where the voice will not reach and if she screams people would come immediately and gather so she smiles unconsciously. She intends to chase this pervert out quickly.

Even though it is the servants’ room, there are only personal items there. Even household members will not be able to do things freely, and there is nothing to help you do it. But such common sense does not apply to Carla.

「Wow, it’s tight! And to top it off, you can see everything!」

Carla sneaks into the servants’ room and forcefully put on Alma’s clothes. She first tried on Miti’s clothes but if you think about it, she is about the age to become a woman. She doesn’t know if that will get the pervert who strongly prefers young girls to bite. Thus, she chose Alma’s clothes but the inside is still Carla who has a glamorous body.

It is tight all over her body and when she stands, you can see her underwear; her breasts cannot be suppressed and her chest is open with nipples showing, she can only cover it with her hands.

「This appearance is more embarrassing than being naked...let’s go quickly.」

If she says that she was forced to dress like this, his expulsion would be certain. Carla avoids the strange stares from people and heads to the stables.

「I’m here! How is this appearance? Does it arouse you?」

She enters the stable and tries with all her might to twist her body, she shakes her ass where you can see her underwear clearly, she shakes her breasts hidden with her hand only at the peak. What was there was the expressionless look of Leopolt and Nina....Nonna and Celia, and the man that she loved more than anything else.

「...」

「...」

「...」

「...」

Silence filled the stables, it seems like only Schwartz was excited as he beat the ground with his feet.

「...Aegir and you guys – why are you here?」

「Taking care of Schwartz and attaching new horseshoes.」

「After that going out with Celia and Aegir-sama.」

「Leopolt?」

「It is because Hardlett-sama also left Nina to take care of his horse.」

「...pervert.」

Nina’s small voice echoed quite cruelly.

While they were dumbfounded with Carla’s eccentric behavior, footsteps and sounds of running can be heard from the mansion.

「Aegir-san! There’s trouble!! A robber has entered and the children’s room has been ransacked...」

Melissa and Maria brought the child servants and came running. Maria thought that the thief would still be lurking around the mansion so she came running while still holding her kitchen knife. And when they saw Carla’s appearance everyone went silent.

「M-...my clothes...」

Alma hugged Miti and started crying. Maria – who is usually close with Carla – and Melissa’s gaze is as cold as absolute zero, and even Miti didn’t hide her contempt.

「Th-this isn’t what you think! This is that guy’s! That guy fault!!」

Carla desperately points at Leopolt but as expected, the meaning doesn’t reach across. He has been here the entire time.

「This guy who I have been talking to here, told you to come here wearing Alma’s clothes?」

Having realized that, even I could not believe what she was doing and finally Carla snapped.

「It’s your faaaault!!」

She attacks Leopolt, but due to the small clothes her feet get tangled and she fell into a mountain of horse dung that had been cleaned up.

「Uwa....」

「Hiih!」

「Don’t look!」

「Pathetic...finally her heart has-」

「Fueeee」

Having her clothes dirtied Alma cries loudly, while seeing the household member’s disgraceful behavior Leopolt quietly leaves.

「This is wrong! You’re wrong! Nonna listen to me, this is-」

「Don’t call me, don’t touch me, you’re dirty!!」

Nonna somehow raised a loud voice and jumped back. With clothes covered in horse dung, she was entangled and – without standing up – crawled towards us. Even I would run.

「Everyone, for now let’s return to the house. We will also buy new clothes for Alma so calm down.」

Everyone left the stable and turned away from Carla. As expected, her expression and face became intense.

「I will prepare a tub so undress and bathe yourself. After that don’t come into the house until I say so.」

I don’t want to be nearby until the smell of horse dung has disappeared. While I’m at it I should punish her for doing something stupid.

Carla cries out.

「But I have no clothes...」

「You will not freeze in this time of the year. Stay naked for a while in the garden!」

The season is the peak of summer, even at night it doesn’t get too cold.

「That can’t be! Wait, don’t leave me here!」

Carla’s naked outdoor lifestyle continued until Leopolt reported the circumstances the next night. I informed everyone, but there was no part to sympathize with Carla, so I took out the rest of my allowance and everyone approved on the plan to buy Alma new clothes.

Putting it aside, while being naked in the garden it seems that Carla and Kroll had some sort of disturbance.

「This...water would be cold, so hot water...」

「.......nn」

Carla dropped the dirtiest thing straight into the water, but as expected bathing in the water from the well would be freezing. Carefully, Kroll brought a large tub filled with warm water and Carla bathes ungratefully. She is no longer covered in dirt.

「Uu.....」

Naturally bathing outside, Carla is naked. The boy’s gaze was drawn to her big breasts.

「What is it? Are you turned on?」

「Not at all!」

Unlike Melissa, Carla doesn’t hold back, she pointed out the enlarged crotch.

「But, the dick of a kid like you is nothing to worry about.」

As expected, Kroll took offense.

「What was that! You are a pervert yourself. You were playing around covered in horse dung!」

「That’s not it! This kid doesn’t even know anything...Well it’s fine. Aaah, I have to sleep in the garden today huh...Aegir is mad at me.」

Getting your beloved angry is the worst thing to endure. Carla sighed as she continued to wash herself while naked. At least when she met him tomorrow, she didn’t want to smell.

「Th-this.」

Kroll averts his eyes while bringing out a thin quilt. He is worried about her when she sleeps tonight so, this is his consideration.

「...Thanks.」

「I-it’s fine. Before I go...cover yourself...」

Carla grins and showed a smile. she was thankful for the warm water as well as the futon. She also didn’t wish to create a misconception with her beloved man. Inside Carla’s mind, she thought that she was trapped by the man called Leopolt, it’s not like she liked doing those perverted acts but she was tricked into it.

This is his mistake. As compensation for his kind actions, Carla thought that it would be fine if she messed around with the servant boy in a sexual manner.

「Do you want to see it?」

While still naked, she approached Kroll. He saw Melissa naked before, but that was only the breasts and the bottom half was covered with a towel, but Carla is fully exposed. Seeing an adult woman’s crotch for the first time his eyes were fixed there.

「Hey? If you say that you want to see I have something good for you.」

「I want to see more!」

「There is still more. Say it quickly. Do you want to see it?」

The boy’s mouth moved before he could think.

「I want to see!」

Carla grins even more than before, she sits down and spreads her legs.

「Here you go...」

Carla’s own hand spreads a woman’s important place apart slowly. With a slight sound of flesh peeling open, the exposed crotch was a dark pink colour. Normally it would be tortured by a large cock so without much work it opened pretty wide, the boy could see everything inside quite clearly. Peeking in as if he was trying to bite it, the boy twitched.

「Ah!? Uuuu!」

His waist trembles while he moaned. A fishy smell wafted in the air, the boy’s pants were wet in the front. Seeing a woman’s hole in the flesh for the first time since he was born, he ejaculated without even touching it. Kroll’s face turned red and he tried to hide it in a rush. From behind him, Carla was having fun and laughing.

And so, the experiment to get Leopolt to leave was crushed, or it self-destructed, he did not use the girls as eye candy or harass them, so everyone had no choice but to accept him.

Later, Kroll’s night routine has increased to three times a day.

Outskirts of the capital training grounds

「First division platoon to the front! Advance!!」

In the training place was my newly formed battalion with the three infantry companies (1 company – 200 people) where a mock battle was taking place. Of course, the spears and arrows were covered with cloth so they could be used and not hurt people. Even so, the intensity of actually moving several hundred people in a mock battle is nothing like the real thing.

The purpose of this mock battle is to increase the skill of the new companies, but there are other hidden objectives besides that.

「Hardlett-sama, please try moving the second platoon towards the right wing and sieging with debris.」

A mock battle between companies, the company that I’m commanding and the company that Agor is commanding are fighting each other, but I am not commanding at all, just moving according to everything that Leopolt says.

By the way, Agor has commanded the infantry company in the Federation for many years, so he is quite familiar with it and extremely proficient. When he first fought with the new company captain Carl he overwhelmed them. When he fought against me, I was at a disadvantage and was brought to a tie. It was a tie because if the commander loses the morale of the soldiers that he is commanding would be affected.

And this time, the company commanded by Agor is struggling. If they try to attack they will be targeted with raining arrows, if they try to defend then they will be bypassed and get flanked. Even now, they are semi-surrounded and are one-sidedly taking attacks, their formation is crumbling.

If this was a real battle then the soldiers would be falling down one by one, in the near future they would all be wiped out. In the center of the training ground, there was a watchtower and a red flag was raised on top. The supervisor watching from above announced our victory.

「Impressive, sir.」

I feel a bit sorry for tricking him.

「Excuse me, but is this time’s commander Aegir-sama? The style is different from the first time so...」

As expected he realized, there’s no meaning to trick him.

「This time the one in command was this guy.」

I explain the circumstances with the hiring.

「I see...there’s quite a distinction.」

With a sudden increase in co-workers living in their master’s mansion, it seems that he is being treated specially, so it is not that good of a feeling. Agor makes a doubtful face. But his true nature is a soldier; he has no choice but to accept the fact that someone above him is being treated well.

In fact, it is because I couldn’t throw the follower without a house into the barracks, so I let him live with me.

「But I will not let you withdraw as it is. Let’s have one more match.」

This time Leopolt took direct command, I went up to the watchtower with Celia to spectate. The training for the soldiers on that day became intense and severe, but in the end, neither Agor nor Carl could not gain victory from Leopolt. Training was over, I returned to the capital on horseback, and talked to Leopolt about what would happen from now on. Celia seems to be dissatisfied beside me, knowing that he is here but it can’t be helped.

「He doesn’t seem to be lying.」

「In the end, it is only an exercise. It is worthwhile in increasing results in actual battle.」

Since he was not just a braggart, there is a need to think about the treatment. But before that, there is something I want to ask.

「What do you think about the infantry company?」

「It is fatally immature. It cannot be helped since they are newly formed, but they are skillful in their formations, so if we raise their response speed to orders, even a highly skilled army would suffer defeat.」

「What do you think of Agor and Carl?」

「If you are asking about them as commanders, their limit is a command of a company size. For companies and below they are above average and average respectively. They understand how to perform established tactics, but aside from that they are unable to perform much else.」

A harsh scathing, making a fool of my buddies who fought together with me, Celia blatantly contorts her face and I also don’t feel too good.

「I apologize. But I would not lie.」

From the beginning, I did not expect detailed consideration or attention from this guy. I urge him to continue.

「You can say that leaving the troops of the company to me will make them competent. For the time being it is enough.」

If this guy says it’s alright then it should really be fine. He is not a person who sells flattery.

「Then what do you think if I give you another infantry company to command?」

「I will accept if those are your orders, but I can’t say that it will be the best plan.」

「You don’t have confidence?」

「I am confident that I am better than them and that is all. I hope to be in a position where I can be a staff officer and participate in creating strategies. I will definitely lead Hardlett-sama to victory.」

「Wh-! All of a sudden!」

Celia spoke up. To be a battalion staff officer means that within the battalion, it is a standing below that of the commander, it’s a high position equal to that of the adjutant. It isn’t something to be given to a person just hired. But as far as I could see from the mock battle just now it seems best.

「I can’t do that.」

「That’s right! Of course he can’t!」

「The staff officer of the battalion is in the end just a member of the army. Lord Radhalde needs to appoint the position, but I do not believe he will recognize you since you are from the nobles who rebelled.」

「That’s exactly right!」

「I am aware.」

「That is why, you should take my advice and remain by my side as a follower for now. Eventually, the residual commotion around the rebellion will cool down, or once I get promoted I can increase the extent of my personnel at my discretion.」

「Eeeh-!?」

Celia is noisy.

「I will thankfully accept.」

Normally, there is neither fame attached nor rewards, just the increase of workload. I thought he would have at least one complaint, but Leopolt acknowledges in two replies.

「Do you have any complaints?」

Leopolt smiled slightly for the first time since meeting him.

「Once Hardlett-sama becomes a noble with territory, I can serve in the army as a military strategist. I can privately fulfill the role of a staff officer, because that will be achieved shortly.」

His facial expression soon disappears, and his cold eyes look towards the capital. I have no interest in his past, but I want to know about the secret of his ability and his cold heart.

Once I left Leopolt’s side, Celia clings to me without delay. Celia wants to be spoiled such that he would find out about the relationship between us.