“You said you wanted to hear about what I did in this office.”

By the time Yuder had finished his tea, Kishiar rose from his seat. As he approached the desk, he opened a drawer and pulled out a thick stack of documents.

“Everything planned and executed in Peleta so far is in here.”

Yuder skimmed the topmost page. They were official orders bearing the seal of the Duke of Peleta himself.

“Whenever something new is undertaken in a territory, you inevitably face numerous obstacles. These orders were written to overcome those hurdles.”

Kishiar added that, in chronological order, the oldest order would be at the bottom of the pile. Yuder pulled it out. The date on the paper was from about fifteen years ago. Written in Kishiar’s elegant, unchanged handwriting were the words: “To subjugate the monsters appearing in the Zilbang territory, I hereby order that forces from within Peleta be dispatched on a regular basis, in the name of the lord.”

“Zilbang?”

“It’s a place near Peleta. The territory is about the same size, but it’s been governed stably by a noble family for a long time, so the people live relatively well. The only trouble was that monsters regularly appeared near the territory.”

That was what people typically thought of as a “relatively normal” monster occurrence. Since monsters generally appeared in specific areas, people usually made sure to live far from such places.

However, there were exceptions like Zilbang, where the monster spawning site and the residential territory ended up unusually close. Up until then, the lord of Zilbang had handled the monster subjugation with his own internal forces, but he harbored deep dissatisfaction about it.

“He wanted the other northern lords to help. But since he was shouldering the burden alone, he grew resentful. From the other lords’ perspective, everyone was struggling to survive—why would they help when there was no gain?”

“That sort of thing happens often.”

The Lord of Zilbang, believing that the safety of the surrounding regions came at his own significant expense, felt he deserved compensation. Meanwhile, the other lords scoffed, arguing that it was Zilbang's choice to live so close to the monster zone, and that subjugating monsters for their own survival wasn’t something to brag about. The conflict had built up for years, deepening to a point where no one seemed capable of resolving it.

“So that’s when we, Peleta, decided to step in.”

The young Duke, still a boy then, had spent the first few years in Peleta in silence. But that was only how it appeared from the outside. In truth, he had been securing his position internally and successfully rebuilding the Peleta Knights.

The first territorial initiative he launched with the reformed Peleta Knights was none other than the proxy monster subjugation for the neighboring territory.

“If your land has no resources worth using, what do you do first? What’s the fastest way to make money? That was the question, and this was the result. Can you guess what I was aiming for?”

It wasn’t a difficult question. Yuder answered almost without thinking.

“If you subjugate the monsters in their place, you can get paid. Though... it might look a bit mercenary.”

It was hardly something a noble lord would normally do. Nobles tended to scorn the idea of doing someone else’s work in exchange for money, viewing it as beneath them—something only commoners would do. How could a noble, who was supposed to value honor, fight for money like a mercenary? In the Or Empire, which revered valorous and elegant knights, it was nearly taboo.

But everything in the world has exceptions. Lords who truly lacked money or didn’t care about appearances sometimes chose to endure the hit to their reputation and do it anyway. And Kishiar... was both.

“Ha. Right. The other northern lords all condemned me back then. I even received complaints accusing a royal of trying to extort money instead of serving the Empire.”

“They should’ve helped the Zilbang Lord themselves, then. So much talk, so little action.”

“Exactly. They all had something to say, but not one of them lifted a finger. Even the Zilbang Lord hated the cost of maintaining a larger military force.”

Despite the criticism, Kishiar pushed forward with his plan. He sent a proposal to the Zilbang Lord, offering to handle the monster subjugation for slightly less than what the lord was spending to maintain his own forces. It was a brilliantly calculated offer.

Paying a regular subjugation fee might seem like a waste at first glance—but if the knights were truly effective, it was a safer, more trustworthy alternative to mercenaries. If it worked, not only would the population grow from reduced deaths, but future ventures could also be launched—an overall win in the long term.

After much deliberation, the Zilbang Lord eventually agreed. Kishiar stamped his seal on Peleta Knights’ first external deployment order.

“As expected, the result was a huge success.”

With Nathan Zuckerman among their ranks, the Peleta Knights cleanly subjugated the monsters and returned without a single casualty. The quantity and quality of the monster by-products they brought back were astonishing.

Since the monsters appeared regularly, their types were consistent. As long as the area was well investigated in advance, the job was easy. Thanks to the renowned monster scholar Helrem, such research was likely trivial. With a strategic genius like Kishiar planning everything, victory was inevitable.

“You can sell monster by-products once they’re processed. Helrem began teaching the territory's residents how to do that. And I realized I’d need to find a good merchant guild to discreetly sell them.” 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“That’s when...”

“Yes. That’s when I found Mick Shuden.”

A smile crept onto Kishiar’s lips.

In other words, everything was connected like a spiderweb starting from this very first order.

“In the North, monsters appear regularly. Afterward, other territories facing similar issues began reaching out to me quietly, and the wealth of this empty land rapidly grew.”

No one openly acknowledged receiving help from Peleta. They all sent secretive letters to avoid drawing attention. Even after their issues were resolved, none publicly thanked Peleta. But Kishiar didn’t mind.

“There was no benefit in showing the world I was doing such things. In fact, I preferred it. After a few years of that, even the northerners who once held prejudice against me became much more friendly.”

Originally, the northern region was dominated by the House of Apeto, but like other noble houses, they didn’t care for their lands. That stemmed from the old days, when many northern nobles were loyal ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) to the royal family. The Apeto House now only managed their core lands and a few favored regions.

At the time, northern nobles were too busy surviving in the harsh conditions to build meaningful alliances. That’s why they often stayed neutral in the ongoing tension between the Emperor’s faction and the noble faction.

Kishiar’s emergence and the quiet prosperity of Peleta came as a shock to those northern nobles.

“After I became an Awakener and announced I would return to the Capital to form the Cavalry, most northern nobles began supporting the Emperor’s faction in subtle ways. It wasn’t direct help, but it was quite touching. You could call it a forged alliance through monster subjugation.”

Kishiar gazed at the first order in Yuder’s hands with deep emotion.

“I still remember the moment I stamped that first order while sitting here. My heart was pounding, thinking this was the real beginning of Peleta’s revival.”

“Is that why you kept the order?”

“Yes. I kept it as a memento. I didn’t want to forget what I did and how I got here.”

Yuder ran his fingers along the slightly faded edge of the old order. The crackle of the paper under his touch stirred the image of a boy duke from the past, holding it with his own hands.

He turned the next page. And the one after that. Then another, and another—each detailing the growth and bold expansion of Peleta’s plans. Though none of it directly concerned him, Yuder found nothing boring about these official documents.

For each plan Yuder read, Kishiar eagerly explained when it was carried out, how it unfolded, and what he had hoped to achieve. There was no hesitation—only joy, as if he had returned to those very days.

His red eyes sparkled like a young boy’s.

No gem in the world could ever look more beautiful.

Then all the papers had been turned, and only the final page remained. Yuder paused as he looked at it.

This is...