Sitting at a table lined with books filled with records of old battles, Yu calmly listened to Sivina and Link.

“We are going to support the siege war, we don't need cavalry. We don't have time to form a cavalry unit anyway.”

“I agree with Link, Lady Cornelia already has cavalry, they should be enough. Let's use our budget for siege weapons.”

“If you say so...”

Yu never came up with the idea of cavalry, the two of them talked to themselves and came to a decision on their own. He had the idea of emphasizing siege weapons from the very beginning.

“It's okay if you get along well.”

Link quickly completed the rest of the task he had been given and put the information he had gathered about the members of their councils in a report to Yu.

He had already read the report about Leshua von Shimien, a man who was involved in trade as well as some illegal business and loan sharking. He had already made his move on him and sent a fake letter claiming to be a royal and asking to buy supplies for the war.

He looked at the other reports. Verryho was the man Link had told him before. He had fallen into a brothel when he was a child, and when he grew up he owned it, buying up most of the brothels in the Mora by the time he was forty. He had a reputation for trafficking in women.

Ravin, as he suspected from his appearance, was a corrupt priest. He used the churches to clean up the illegally obtained money of men like Leshua and Verryho. Not only that, but all public donations went into Ravin's pockets and there were many reports of abuse within the churches.

To their surprise, the elder member of their council, Beny von Dandon, was also involved in dirty business. He had drug plantations near Virgo and was involved in the slave trade. The slave trade was legal, but the penalty for drugs was execution.

These four people who were appointed to their councils were being charged with crimes just by breathing. According to Zodian law, all four should be dead by now.

But far from receiving the slightest punishment, they were put in charge of a city.

“Rotten, rotten, rotten...”

In their meetings, they were constantly trying to gain the upper hand, demanding that decisions be taken in their favor.

Yu didn't think it would be right to prepare for Vermia and take care of them at the same time. For the time being, he was trying to be nice to them, and then he would take them one by one. His first target was Leshua.

For the time being, Yu pretended to be controlled by them and allowed them to prosper by accepting their reasonable requests.

“If things go according to my plan, I could end up with all their fortunes, but my first goal is Cornelia, I have to win her.”

“Our army is ready, we have ten thousand soldiers. I wouldn't say enough for a siege, certainly not enough for Vermia, but combined with Cornelia's forces we have a chance. I'll spend the rest of our time storing supplies and replenishing supplies for siege weapons. I'm doing the supplying the way you said.”

Yu shook his head. Link was a versatile man who could juggle many jobs at the same time. Employers in the First World would have loved an employee like him.

He compiled the reports, helped Sivina to gather the army in the meantime, and then took on the job of preparing the copper-infused gold. Subordinates like him were the great building blocks that would lead Yu to success.

“How are the soldiers doing?”

“So...” Sivina stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about her answer, and then tilted her head to look at Yu.

“Hmm…” Link spoke and didn’t let Sivina to continue. “What’s that letter here?”

He had just closed the envelope. There was nothing written on it, but it still caught Link's attention.

“For the King of Ethalot,” Yu said.

Both Sivina and Yurine laughed. “Why are you writing to them?” Sivina asked. “Where I come from, the noblest Ethalotian is equal to a cow.”

“I don't want to be racist, but cows are more useful than them,” Ana said.

“That was definitely not racist,” Yu said. “I heard that refugees from Ethalot are migrating to the Mora, which is bad for us and bad for their king in terms of lost labor. Since they are our neighbors, we will need to communicate with them after the war is over.”

He couldn't find out why hatred goes on nowadays, but Ethalotians were hated. After demons, the Ethalothians were the only people that elves, dwarves, humans and all other races hated.

“For their skin color? I heard there are dark elves but dark elves are really has dark skin or it’s just a name? Or for their culture?”

He had read that Ethalot had been a huge empire in the past, ruling almost the entire continent and they had even crossed the sea and entered the continent of Aram.

But they were racist, aggressive and savage. They slaughtered a lot of people and earned the enmity of a lot of people. When there were no more enemies to fight, they fought among themselves and perished.

At the same time, these events resulted in many of the non-human races turning away from the human race and retreating to their forests, mountains and cities. This was the reason why there were so few half humans in the central-south region.

“Good thinking,” Link said. “It's a country where millions still live, even if they're not very lovely. But what are you doing with them? We're too young to care about them.”

“First something for the return of refugees, then something about trade after the war is over. The Mora will need money. And for security reasons it is necessary to maintain a state of peace.”

“There wouldn't be a soul in my hometown who wouldn't oppose you. I don't like Ethalotians.” Sivina put her hands to the desk. “But let’s come to the actual point; half of our soldiers are still teenagers, and the other half are just out of puberty or about to be.”

In this world, even in the medieval times, it was not unusual for fifteen-year-old children to be conscripted. Yu was a little hesitant to conscript children, but he did it because it was normal for the world, and for many of them did not consider fifteen to be a child.

“Considering that we will leave towards the end of March and be there in the first or second week of April, they will not have had a very long training, but the training is still adequate.”

“Is it enough?”

“Yes, enough.” Sivina nodded and repeated her remark. “It takes a lot of money to feed regular armies like those in Rolderhelm and İlonya. In countries like the Mora, men are recruited during wartime and sent into battle after a short training. Our enemies and Cornelia's soldiers are normally farmers, barbers, shoemakers. It may sound strange to you because you are from İlonya, but that's how it is here.”

Wealthy countries maintained regular armies, while other countries recruited them in time of war. In wartime, soldiers would pick up their spears and march on the enemy, and when equally untrained soldiers faced each other, success often depended on the commanders.

Of course there were regular troops, but they were a small part of the overall picture. In general, these troops were used to defend the nobles.

“What worries me is that the army is too young. We will send children to war with expensive toys in their hands,” Ana said.

“Many thirteen-year-old boys in Elhaven go to war with their fathers,” Sivina replied Ana. “They are about to become men.”

“And we will go to war together with the children we put expensive weapons in their hands. Let's not overlook this detail.”

It seemed like a small detail, but it was a very important part. They, especially Yu and Yurine, had to be at war. They would be by Cornelia's side and would do everything to win her friendship.

“So are we going to join in the festivities? We need to have fun once in a while.”

When they were done with the report, Link and Sivina stepped back and got out of mission mode. They shrugged their shoulders and smiled. They were both excited about the carnival.

“Just working for a superior being should have been enough for you.”

Yurine jumped up from her chair, where she had been sitting calmly throughout the conversation, and came to Yu's side.

Yurine was also excited about the spring festival and was dressed in her new outfit. The outfit Yu had prepared for her was a Japanese outfit called yukata. He always chose something cute and usually white for Yurine, but today's outfit was pink.

“We'll go down first. Accompany Yurine as a bodyguard today,” Yu said.

“I thought I'd be free for one night.” Link wrapped his arms around himself in disappointment. “There was someone waiting to see my handsome face...”

“Someone waiting?” Sivina curiously grabbed Link's shoulder. “Your girlfriend? Who is it?”

She was excited and smiling.

“My fiancée.”

“Y-you have a fiancé?”

Yu pushed back his chair and stood up. He looked at Link in a daze.

"This guy... Isn't he a gay?"

He looked Link up and down. With his feminine face, slim body and the way he looked at Yu, Yu thought he was really interested in men.

“What the fuck?”

“Yu, don't worry. I-I'll think of something for you. Yours will be the best!”

Yurine blushed and spoke loudly. When the attention was on her, she meowed and buried her head in Yu's belly.

“O-okay... Anyway...” If Link wanted to spend time with his fiancée, he wasn't going to deprive him of it. “Go on then, you're off for the day, but don't forget I'm deducting this from your paycheck.”

“O~kay...” Link laughed and left the room, leaving Sivina's other questions unanswered.

After Link, Yu and Yurine went outside. Sivina followed behind them.

“Kigaro, Lonu, Kahan.” He called to the three Roarons standing guard outside their room. “Follow me.”

In the dungeons of the Full Moon Manor, he wanted test his newly designed weapon before carnival.

“Sivina, take Ana and meet us at the entrance.”

The dungeons here were not big. There were a few cells and a few prisoners inside. A blacksmith met Yu at the entrance to the dungeons.

“Here it is...”

The blacksmith handed Yu a wooden box. The box was too heavy for Yu to carry. After asking Kigaro for help, he opened the long rectangular box.

Inside the box was a rifle. It was a rifle Yu had designed and it looked even more primitive than the first rifles produced in the First World.

It had a long barrel and a wide grip. A simple mechanism was attached to the back of a steel rod. Since there was no gunpowder in this world, he had created a device using magic stones to fire the bullet.

When the trigger was pulled, the firing mechanism would hit the magic stone hard and detonate it, and the resulting explosion would push the front steel ball out of the rifle's barrel.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He examined the steel weapon and was again disappointed. It looked nothing like the weapon he had designed.

He placed a magic stone inside the gun and inserted a bead-shaped bullet through the barrel of the gun.

“Come here, step away and point that thing against the wall and pull that thing over there towards you. Once you do that, there will be a pardon for you and you will be free.”

There was a risk of the gun going off and he wasn't stupid enough to try it himself. If it was going to explode in someone's hands, it would be better if it exploded in the hands of a criminal.

He gave the criminal the gun and retreated to a distance. The man didn't even realize what he was holding.

“Yurine, you build a windbreak in front of us, just in case. You,” he called to the roarons. “Get in front of Yurine.”

Yurine couldn't see anything and complained because the roarons were in front of her, but Yu wasn't going to back down. He took Yurine in his arms and closed her eyes completely. He didn't want her eyes to be damaged in any way.

“Yurine, the wind wall.”

The prisoner began to tremble with fear as Yurine formed a wall of wind in front of the roarons to give her a third shield.

He had the intelligence to realize that he was about to do something dangerous while they were taking such precautions.

“Like I said, point that thing at the wall and pull the trigger.”

The black-haired prisoner hesitated, but he wanted his freedom back. So he pulled the trigger and...

The steel of the rifle shattered as the magic stone exploded. The man's short scream was the last sound that came out of him. His face and neck were shattered by the blast of the rifle, his hand was severed and his dead body fell to the ground.

The other inmates were first shocked by what they saw, then the first inmate screamed and everyone started screaming.

“The body of the weapon is too weak, it needs to be strengthened and the magic stone needs to be reduced in size. Work harder and tidy up over there.”

There was no need to stay any longer in this place with prisoners banging on the bars, or to examine the weapon, which was, in a word, a failure.

“It was already clear that he was going to die, the chances of us succeeding the first time were very low. At least I had chosen a death row inmate.”

The death of a criminal for the sake of developing a rifle was a risk Yu was willing to take. If he had not given up on this world, he would have struggled with his conscience, but now he would have been more indifferent to the death of people because he would have undone all the deaths.

Of course, since the deceased was a death row inmate, he thought it was good that he died in whatever world he was in. He didn't feel the need to empathize with a criminal who deserved to die. He didn't care about the dead person.

They arrived at the gate of the Full Moon Manor with Kigaro and the two other roaron warriors who would guard them today.

Link was indeed gone and today Sivina and Ana were to guard them with the roarons.

Since Dimen had relatives of his own, he wanted to be with them if there was going to be a festival, and Link was absent, but otherwise the original cast was complete. There was even a surplus.

“Hi, Luna.”

Yu was still wearing his butler's clothes, but because it was a festival, Luna had taken off her maid's clothes and put on festive clothes.

She had a pink, fancy dress. She wore red shoes under her frilly skirt and her shoulders were bare. She wore her hair up so that her ears and the nape of her neck were fully visible.

“Girl neck... no time for fetish... She's pretty, but... But... Anyway, don't let me spoil it.”

Making her feel like her emotions were being toyed with would only increase his guilt. For now he gave her a warm smile. He thought that once they got Vermia back, she would enter Cornelia's service and be free of him.

“H-hi.”

Luna was really an innocent girl. She had been trying to look pretty for Yu and now she was giving him shy looks.

“I cut up a corpse in front of the girl and it didn't do any good... Should I… No but… Maybe if Sivina says bad things about me to her, or she sees me with Link while doing gay thing… God no! No I can’t doing such a thing please delete my brain history god so I don’t remember what I thought.”

It hurt Yu's conscience that those looks weren't meant to be seductive, but because she was truly embarrassed. Luna's cheeks were flushed and as Sivina looked at her and sighed, Yu felt a guilt he never thought he would experience.

“Huh? Hah? HAH!”

The sound of Yurine tapping her mana-transmitting foot echoed through the mansion.

“Yes, be jealous and cause trouble. Don't give your daddy away. If I have to refuse, I'll use you as a reason.”

If it was someone she loved, she might have seen Yurine's jealousy and shouting as a real problem, but now her jealousy was working in his favor.

“Why are you looking at each other like that?! Yu! Explain this now! I order you to explain!”

“Is something wrong, young lady?”

“Are you kidding me, Yu! Of course there's a problem! Stop seducing girls! How many times do I have to tell you, huh? Enough!”

When Yurine used the word seduce, Luna's cheeks turned red and the look of pity in Sivina's eyes grew. Yurine was punching Yu.

“I'm sorry, young lady.”

“Yes! You must! Apologize, of course!”

Yurine grabbed Yu's hand so tightly that it hurt and brought it to her chest and turned to Luna, who was watching them nervously.

“Don't try to seduce Yu too!”

She was now in the ‘I don't want to give my father away’ mode. Yurine had a right to be angry. She was thinking of offering him her mother and Yu suddenly flirted with a girl.

“You guys walk in the back! I forbid you to go near Yu!”

Yurine, still shouting, threw Sivina, Ana and Luna to the back of the group. She and Yu were going to lead the way and not let the girls get close to him tonight.

***

"...and the demon queen,

She turned to the noble and handsome knight.

She said I’d offer you everything;

Just marry me.

Thrown of the entire underworld,

The red crown of hell,

Armies of the wasteland,

I'll give it all to you if you marry me.

That's all I ask of you, noble knight,

I'll give you everything you want in return.

I will lay the world at your feet,

I'll put the crown you want on your head.

The noble knight looked at the demon queen,

She had white hair like old women.

Her skin was wrinkled, dead.

The smell was unbearable for a human being.

The knight said my answer is my sword.

I can't be fooled by your promises,

I'll send you away with the blow of the morning,

To the bottom of hell.

And the knight raised his sword,

He brought it down on the queen's chest.

The knight's coup,

He cleansed the world of evil.”

There was something frightening about a song about demons and the horrible concept of killing someone, sung in a cheerful tone, that he couldn't understand.

But unlike Yu, the group of children, including Yurine, watched the puppet show with bated breath as they sang this epic song. Even though they missed the beginning of the song, Yu said they hadn't lost anything because he didn't like the song.

“Yu, let's watch one more.”

“You like it?”

For Yu, who can watch any video he wants on his phone screen, the puppet show in a wooden box behind a thin curtain was no fun.

But Yurine followed the show with excitement. She couldn't sit still watching the simple movements of the puppets, but at the same time she couldn't take her eyes off them.

“Hmm-hmm. Let's watch another one.”

The people who had just performed were taking a break. Yu started to watch the areas where the children gathered to find the puppet shows.

But there were no other puppeteers.

“I think we should move on, young lady. We'll meet other puppeteers.”

“Didn't I tell you not to approach Yu?”

“You did, but as your bodyguard, we have to approach you.”

Ana smiled at Yurine and Yurine could not refuse her logic. With a sigh and a gesture to the back, Ana went to her friends in the back.

She hadn't gone very far, in fact, only three steps separated them.

Kigaro walked ahead and cleared the way while the other roarons stood like walls around Yurine. They attracted too much attention, but they had no choice as people jumped in front of Yurine and begged for help.

They could find work for a few people, feed them and advertise it, but soon others would be lining up and there would be an endless line of beggars.

That's why they kept the people away from Yurine and didn't allow a beggar to appear before her. They had no intention of ending the night listening to someone's troubles.

The whole square was lined with rows and rows of stalls, and the stalls extended into the alleyways.

In some places there were tents for special guests. The last time Yu went into a tent in Rolderhelm, Lucie made him to pay. He had learned his lesson and didn't go near the tents.

Yu occasionally glanced behind him to make sure the girls were following them. Separating their group could cause problems.

“It's a good thing Luna stayed behind. If she was with me, I would have had to deal with her.”

Luna caught Yu when he turned around to check on them and smiled. Yu smiled again, unperturbed, and Sivina, who had grabbed the two of them, looked at Yu as if he was some kind of lowlife asshole.

“My heart, it hurts...”

“Yu, they sell food.”

“We can't eat, you could get poisoned.”

They could not buy food from outside. Yu carefully watched the preparation of the food they ate. He didn't let anything unfamiliar go down their throats for fear of poisoning. The food they ate was specially prepared.

“Yu, there are clothes. Look, they look like mine.”

“You are the ruler here, you cannot dress where ordinary people dress.”

There was a vendor selling different colored versions of the yukata Yurine wore.

“Again, someone from the world has come and produced here.”

Yu had designed and sewn Yurine's outfit himself and did not expect to see such clothes in the Mora, which culturally resembles medieval Europe.

“Yu, that man over there is practicing magic.”

“You don't even have to look at what he’s doing, it's dangerous.”

If he was practicing magic, he could have thrown a fireball or an ice knife at Yurine before they knew what was happening. There was no need to take any risks.

Yurine's morale was plummeting as her every request was denied.

“How about looking at the toys?” Yu asked.

“Do you think I'm a child who plays with toys?”

Yu shook his head. “Every night you sleep with the bear I gave you.”

“It's not the same thing!”

“Suit yourself.”

Apart from watching harmless performances, listening to songs and buying souvenirs, there was little else for them to do. Wanting to avoid the slightest risk of action, Yu led the group through places with the least danger and the least excitement.

“At festivals like this, there are fire dancers and stuff, and most people come here to watch such things. Why are we looking at boring places?” Sivina asked. She sped up a little and came up to them.

“To stay out of danger. You say he's a fire dancer, what if he suddenly throws fire at Yurine while we're watching him, and Yurine's pretty face burns? Who would pay for that? There is a possibility of something like that happening and we will do the most logical thing to eliminate that possibility, we will stay away.”

“You're boring, Mr. Valarfin.”

“You'll understand when you become a mother.”

He responded to criticism of his paranoia with a cliché response. Maybe it was boring, but for Yu, boring was acceptable if everyone would sleep safely at the end of the night.

“I, I give up. Let's get the toys.”

“Are you a child to play with toys?”

“Let's have it! Come on, come on. Then let's go back and watch the puppeteers again, their break is over.”

“Okay.”

As they made their way to a stall where toys were lined up, this time it was Luna who came up to him. She gathered her courage and excitedly called out to Yu.

“Mr. Valarfin! They're dancing in the square, shall we go and see them?"

“Where did you hear that?”

“The man who sold me this told me.”

Luna showed Yu the cotton candy in her hand.

“Go to back, nush nush...” Yurine didn't let her talk to Yu anymore and gestured for her to go to Sivina and Ana.

Then she dragged Yu in front of a stall. This stall was not the toy stall Yu had planned to come to.

“Yu, I want you to play with this. You pick up the arrow here and throw it at the toys, and whatever you drop is yours.”

“I've seen in anime, they do it with a rifle.”

He looked forward to such scenes and Sivina taught him how to use the sword as well as the bow and spear. So he thought he could achieve something.

“You were using that rifle thing here? Are you stupid?” Yurine shouted. She thought it was the same rifle with Yu’s. “Why are you doing such a dangerous thing?”

“It's not that kind of rifle, anyway...” Yu put a few copper coins on the counter and called out to the middle-aged man at the counter.

Yu's coppers gave him two arrows. The arrow he was going to use was one of the toy arrows, the bow didn't stretch much and the arrow was small. Moreover, he saw that the arrow was curved sideways to make it harder to shoot.

“Well, well, well, asshole...”

The prizes were arranged in a pyramid. The top prize was the most beautiful, an ornate doll, exquisitely designed.

In the middle were stuffed animals and at the bottom were simple wooden toys.

In fact, it would have been easy to hit one of them with an arrow, but there were ten meters between them and there were obstacles hanging in the air to make it difficult.

“If I throw it at the top, can I succeed with this? I have a better chance of hitting the ones in the middle. The toys at the bottom have the best chance of hitting, but they're so crappy, the ones in the middle are the best.”

He pulled the bow towards him, putting the load on his back as Sivina had taught him, but since it was already a toy, there was not much difficulty. He held his breath and released the arrow.

“Well done, Yu.”

The toy that fell down was a stuffed bear. Disappointed, the shopkeeper picked it up and gave it to Yu. He had lost a toy that could have made him more money for a few coppers.

“Well done, Yu. Keep it up.”

She took the toy from Yu and waited for the second shot. Yu stretched the bow again and again aimed at one of the prizes in the center of the pyramid.

This time the shopkeeper hit the floating boxes hard and caused them to sway rapidly. He made it difficult for Yu to hit them again.

“Don't I have to hit this bastard to spite him?”

He drew the bow and released the arrow using the same tactic as before.

Even it was a stuffed bear again, he shot it in the end.

The clerk clicked his tongue and gave the prize to Yu, who gave it to Yurine.

“Thank you Yu!” Yurine hugged Yu as she continued to hold the bears. “Now the puppets!”

“Let's look at the puppeteer first and then go to the square. Hey, let's go.”

Sivina, Ana and Luna were busy shopping at the next stall. Sivina left Ana to pay and came over to Yu.

“I was going to try my luck at shooting arrows.”

“You're going to sink him with every throw.”

Sivina balled her hands into fists under her chin, pursed her lips and opened her sea-green eyes wide.

“W-why are you making such a sweet face now?”

Yurine was too busy hugging Yu to notice the wordless interaction between Sivina and Yu. If she had, Yu would have been pinched again.

“Fine, do it, but don't overdo it. We don't want to take everything for a few coppers.”

“Aye!”

Sivina won the most expensive prizes with the few copper coins she had paid and distributed them to everyone, including Yu, and then they continued the feast, first to watch the puppet show and then the performance in the square.