I Became the illegitimate son of a duke

23 – Foundation for reform (1)

“Master… I love you.”

“…Chloe.”

Chloe’s eyes have changed to those of a girl in love.

The word “I love you” Doesn’t just mean friendship between family members.

“You… Are my sister.”

Chloe’s eyes widen at my words and her mouth opens slightly.

…Still, I have to say something.

“I can’t treat you like that. May her mother take good care of Chloe—”

“No.”

My words are interrupted by Chloe’s determined voice.

…No, what’s wrong, Chloe—- Huh?

Chloe’s expression, which had been shocked until just now, returned to the previous one. Those eyes that look at the one you love.

“Yes, the master was just… A brother from the neighborhood who lived in the same house.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“That’s right, a childhood friend. A childhood friend with a big age gap.”

Chloe’s face is getting redder and her voice is getting hotter.

My breathing quickens and my speech speed is very fast.

“…Chloe?”

“It’s not strange at all for childhood friends to get married, they weren’t even siblings in the first place—”

“Chloe!!”

“Wow…!?”

A voice that shouldn’t have come out of Chloe’s mouth, and I involuntarily yelled at her. Chloe catches her breath in amazement at my shout.

Kuh… You shouldn’t yell at Chloe who is sick.

“…Don’t say that, you’re my brother.”

“Lord… Sir…”

Chloe, who was just spitting out the words while breathing heavily, becomes very calm when I put my hand on his head.

I thoughtlessly stroked her hair with an apologetic heart, but it works surprisingly well.

“Chloe, you are… So tired.”

“…”

Chloe who is petted by me becomes very calm as if the incident just happened to be a dream. Although her eyes were still those of a girl in love.

…I don’t know what Chloe thinks of me, but I can’t have those feelings for Chloe.

There’s no way the opposite s*x would look at such a cute and family-like Chloe.

“Get some rest today. Let’s talk again tomorrow.”

It’s too much to talk about today.

Chloe may have gone a little crazy from being too stressed, so we’ll talk to her again tomorrow.

You never know, when you wake up tomorrow morning, all of this could have just been a dream.

“…Master.”

Chloe catches me as I carefully open the door and try to leave.

“Can I ask you one… Just one… Favor?”

The voice is very tired, but not desperate like before.

“You can hug another woman. But… Please do me first.”

“…”

I don’t answer.

I just turn off the light in the room and carefully open the door and leave.

“Haaa…”

After closing the door, I am greeted by a huge glass window in front of me.

Tonight is not a single cloud and it’s full moon. Why does it look so dark?

“You are breathing deeply.”

“hahahaha!?”

A thin, long voice enters my ears as I sigh.

Obviously there was no pretending to be popular!?

“Who—- Ines… Ah… Don’t scare people.”

“Huh, the response is good.”

It’s very dark because it’s an unlit hallway, but Ines’ unique silver hair and white skin shine brightly even in the darkness.

Ines is always white and dazzles when looking at it in the light, but seeing it in a dark place like this gives a different impression.

“By the way… Are you traveling alone?”

“Yes, I really like walking alone at night.”

Umm… Except for going alone, it’s not a taste that I can’t understand.

It is said that red eyes are naturally difficult to accept light, so walking around during the day will make your eyes very tired.

“It’s dark, it’s quiet, and I don’t have to care about anyone’s eyes.”

“I see.”

Well, every single action is polite and dignified, but doing that for the rest of your life must be too difficult.

Is the only thing Ines can rest comfortably at night alone?

“But always be careful not to get hurt, you might fall if you don’t look under properly.”

“Yes, I always move carefully so as not to get hurt. The corridors are all neatly cleaned to match the exterior of the castle, so it was easy to walk.”

Still, I thought it might be too dangerous to travel alone, so I gave this advice… But I have nothing more to say about being careful.

“Really? What was your last name?”

“I really like it because it’s more complex and splendid than the Laurel castle I was in.”

“That’s nice.”

Excluding the Bar region conquered by me and the coastal region conquered by my grandfather, the difference in territory between Laurel and Burgon is more than three times greater, and there are many fertile farmlands in Burgon.

Before my grandfather’s reign, Burgon was always rich, so it must be bigger and more splendid than other castles.

“Yes, but I didn’t get to see them all.”

After saying that, Ines slowly walked towards me.

The hallway is very quiet, so the sound of small shoes echoes very loudly.

“So… Can you tell me what I haven’t seen?”

“Wow…”

It was only then that I was able to properly see Ines’ clothes.

Until now, I had only seen Ines dressed in fancy or elegant clothes, but now Ines is not like that at all.

The overall whiteness is unchanged, but the gap between the clothes and the skin is very large, so it looks very light. This is-

“Yes, that’s right. These are pajamas.”

“…Pajamas?”

What, how did you know—- Ah… Did I stare at you too openly? This can be happen.

Ines immediately knows what I’m thinking as I look at her clothes with his puzzled eyes.

“You can’t wear tight clothes even when you sleep, right?”

That… Is true.

The question is, why did you come out wearing pajamas?

“hehehe, how is it? I’ll keep watching.”

Ines instantly falls into my arms.

“Wait… Ines…”

Too close.

Ines is so short that the top of her head touches my collarbone, but I put my hand around her neck and raise her heel while pulling, and in an instant our faces are close enough to touch.

No…

“…”

“Wow…”

Has stopped.

The face of Ines, who was getting closer, stopped after about a hand’s length.

My eyes are reflected in Ines’ eyes.

“…Your lips are moist.”

Ines finished with those words and let go of the hand that was pulling my hair.

Not only that.

Ines, who was in my arms, took a step back before I knew it. It’s fast

“Mmm… Well, it’s okay. It’ll be mine someday.”

“Ines…?”

After Ines glanced at the door of the room where Chloe was, he looked at me with a grin.

It’s still a beautiful smile.

But… Something is creepy. I can’t feel the fresh feeling of seeing it for the first time at all.

“I’m sorry, Claude, but I’m suddenly sleepy, so I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anymore. I’ll go to bed, see you tomorrow.”

“Ugh, yes…”

After that, Ines turned around and walked slowly down the hallway.

Every time you walk, your nightgown shakes and reflects the moonlight.

‘Moist… La.’

You got caught.

…………

“Good morning, master.”

“…Chloe.”

It happened yesterday, but today Chloe changed her clothes and came to wake me up.

…Still a cute smile. What happened yesterday is like a dream.

But… It’s real.

“The coronation is over, so I have a lot of work to do. Please get up.”

“…Yes.”

Everything is as usual, but it’s so hard to get the words out.

While washing, changing, and eating, Chloe tried to talk to me as usual, but I couldn’t.

“…?”

It seems that Leclerc also noticed that something had changed.

She looked back and forth between Chloe and me with a slight squint in her eyes, then returned to her normal, calm expression.

“Your Highness, it is said that the collection of the bodies left in the wetlands of Nevers has been completed.”

Leclerc seemed to have noticed a subtle change in the mood, but chose to just ignore it and do his thing.

Me too.

If you just stay still, the things that happened yesterday will keep coming back to you… If you focus on your work, you’ll be fine.

“Yeah? That’s great.”

Most of the corpses there are Carolingians, but there are quite a few allies too.

I thought it would take longer… But it ended right after the coronation, so it’s surprisingly quick.

“As per the previous agreement, the identified bodies were sent to the bereaved families, and the unidentified bodies were all burned.”

“Hmm…”

It’s not cremation, it can’t be helped that it was just burned. There is no suitable place to bury that many bodies, and if left unattended, it would create a very horrifying sight.

“Armors and precious metals? Maybe they were stolen along the way?”

“The administrators dispatched from Dijon reported that there was not much difference between the first list and the later list.”

“The fact that there wasn’t a big difference… Maybe it was stolen a little…”

That can’t be helped. There are not enough bureaucrats and all the paperwork has to be handwritten.

“Also, it’s very likely that items were stolen before the magistrates first recorded them. In that case, it’s hard to gauge the extent of the theft.”

Uh… Listening to Leclerc’s words, this seems more plausible.

Since I don’t have a good feeling about it, let’s open up all the possibilities and think about it.

“First of all, check all the workers and bureaucrats who worked there, and mainly investigate those whose wealth suddenly increased.”

“Yes. But the work will be enormous, will it be all right?”

“That’s right…”

It’s an inefficient medieval administrative system, and if you entrust the officials with an audit day, everyone will vomit blood.

It’s not for nothing that past monarchs imposed the death penalty for trivial crimes or deliberately inflated their notoriety. Since we can’t catch all the criminals, we tried to reduce the number of crimes by spreading the reputation that criminals have no mercy.

…Do I have to?

“…First of all, hire more people to work as bureaucrats, and turn part of the staff into audits. Conduct audits not only in Nevers, but also in other places.”

“Yes, I understand.”

For now, we should go ahead with Thanksgiving Day.

Even if you create a notoriety of having no mercy, there is no prisoner, the ingredient to create that notoriety.

Those who do it moderately will be treated as free labor, but those who do it badly will be rude. Physically.