NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18
Seeing the atmosphere of the castle, Jeongjae thought it wouldn’t be strange if the walls were splattered with blood, and with a firm resolve, he followed Jenis up to the second floor.
Jenis led Jeongjae to a room not far from the stairs, which was close to the special room.
When Jeongjae opened the door, tense and anxious, he couldn’t help but exclaim at the surprisingly tidy room.
“Wow. It’s neat.”
“Are you surprised that it’s neat?”
“No, it’s just… I prepared myself to be shocked no matter what kind of room I opened the door to.”
The appearance of Jeongjae as he opened the door truly matched the word ‘ordinary.’ It felt awkward, as if a perfectly normal inn room had been squeezed into a gothic castle. Jeongjae tried to adapt to this dissonance, alternating his gaze between the gloomy hallway outside and the cozy room within.
“That’s one of the reasons I like this castle. The gloominess and comfort coexist. If only one side were present, it would be too exhausting or too boring, wouldn’t it?”
“It’s similar to how kids love exploring the basement.”
“Exactly.”
After nodding a few times, Jeongjae walked into the room where he would spend the night. Jenis watched him from outside the door without stepping inside.
“My room is on the opposite side, so if you need anything, feel free to knock. Dinner should be ready soon. Just drop your things lightly and call for me.”
“No, I’ll go right now. I feel bad making you wait.”
After tossing his belongings onto the bed, Jeongjae said. Since he didn’t have any other change of clothes to wear and dinner was already prepared, he felt no need to do anything else at the moment.
Jenis nodded with a smile.
“Then please follow me again. I’ll guide you to the dining room right away.”
Jeongjae walked down to the first floor, following Jenis. She led him to the door of the dining room, which came after passing through the hall they had gone through upon entering the castle.
“This is the dining room. It’s too spacious to use for light meals, so we don’t use it much, but on days when guests arrive, it means the doors will open soon. It’s the day the head chef gets busy again!”
Hearing the word ‘chef,’ Jeongjae felt a strange sensation. Now that he thought about it, even though the castle was gloomy, it was very vast, yet he didn’t see a single servant taking care of it.
“Who manages this castle? With this much space, it can’t be easy to maintain. You’re not doing everything magically, right?”
After seeing Jenis’s skills, he thought, ‘she might be able to do it all,’ but still, it had been a long time since Jenis had attended university almost continuously under the pretext of being a noble.
If Count Harker lived alone in this castle, there would be mold growing somewhere, spiders spinning webs. No, to be honest, if it ended just with mold and spider webs, that would be quite fortunate.
“Of course, there are servants. The maids are very skilled at cleaning. There are no male servants, though. My father thinks it’s better to keep an extra guard than to use a perfectly healthy man as a servant.”
“And where have those maids gone?”
“They’ve gone home. The maids hired here are usually the wives of the guards, so they’re the only ones who can take care of their families’ dinners.”
Jenis said it as if it were obvious. However, Jeongjae realized that even in this world, where the caste system was supposed to have been abolished, it couldn’t be considered entirely normal.
“That’s suspiciously nice welfare…”
“My father can be a bit shy, so he’s not good at being stingy with others. He gets shivers thinking others might talk bad about him behind his back.”
Jeongjae thought it was odd that such a person could hold a significant position in the noble faction. No, rather, could a person like this who deviated from the norm be such an important figure, receiving both scorn as a traitor of the royal family and praise as a true noble?
If he acted just like everyone else, he might not be considered lacking, but he would never become an important figure like Count Harker. Jeongjae began to feel a growing interest in Harker himself.
“Now, let’s go in. My father will be waiting.”
Jenis said as she placed her hand on the doorknob of the dining room. As Jeongjae nodded, Jenis gripped the doorknob firmly and swung the door open.
The first thing that caught his eye was the long table placed in the center of the large room.
At the edge of the table, which was the main seat, Count Harker was already watching the two enter, sipping from a glass.
“You’ve come quickly. I thought it would take longer.”
The Count said. Jeongjae bowed his head and lightly greeted.
“It’s not polite to keep a guest waiting.”
“Anyway, thank you. Because you came quickly, the commission I have to pay the chef has decreased. Ah, you can return now.”
Hearing the Count’s words, the chef who had been standing by the cart next to the Count bowed to him and greeted.
“I’ll be leaving now, Count. I wish you and the young lady a pleasant meal.”
“Thank you for your hard work. Please return safely.”
Jenis politely bowed her head in thanks to the chef. Watching the chef slowly exit the dining room, leaning towards the castle gate, Jeongjae gently closed the dining room door and asked the Count.
“Do you pay the chefs by the hour?”
“The important thing with expenses is always to have clear standards. It doesn’t matter if you spend a lot. As long as it’s predictable. Rather than randomly determining salaries, setting such standards allows you to predict how much budget you’ll need. If it’s predictable, you can be prepared.”
“Good point. That’s something a rookie lord should definitely take to heart.”
“You should really remember that. There are plenty of fools in this world who think they saved money just because they spent a little.”
Now Jeongjae felt he could somewhat keep up with Count Harker’s way of thinking. His thoughts were closer to that of a modern entrepreneur than that of a noble.
An innovative way of thinking. It wasn’t strange at all for such a person to lead others. And it wasn’t surprising that his daughter, raised under such an influential father, turned out to be extraordinary as well…
“That was a long story. Let’s eat. Now that the chef has left, there’s no one to keep it warm.”
Following the Count’s words, Jeongjae and Jenis took their places on the Count’s left and right.
Naturally, Jeongjae and Jenis sat across from each other. The Count, sitting closest to the food, personally moved the dishes from the cart to the table.
Jeongjae stood up with a grateful heart to help, but the Count stopped him directly.
“Sit down, sit down. There’s no rule that a guest has to move the food they will eat.”
Being forced to sit awkwardly again, Jeongjae noticed that Jenis seemed to be smiling with a grin on her face, enjoying something.
The dish that the Count brought out was a thick steak with buttered potatoes. While it’s not too light, it also didn’t quite feel luxurious.
It was a dish that seemed to lie very close to the boundary of ‘showing sincerity.’ Jeongjae was very satisfied. It was a hearty chunk of meat that appropriately displayed both consideration for the guest and restraint in luxury.
“Please excuse me for not providing a full banquet. If I had a little more preparation time, it wouldn’t have been like this, but these days I’m not exactly free either.”
“No, this is plenty generous.”
“I only had the meat lightly seared. I hope it suits your taste.”
“I prefer it that way.”
Jeongjae answered sincerely. There was no fault to find in the level of cooking and the quality of the meat. After taking a small slice, tasting it, Jeongjae spoke to the Count once more.
“It seems you are attentive to your servants, Count.”
“Valuing everyone is a fundamental quality of a ruler. Especially, employing the wives of guards as maids, and taking care of their children during their shift helps boost the spirits of the soldiers. For them, protecting the castle is like protecting their families.”
“If you’re taking care of the maids’ children, wouldn’t that incur extra expenses in hiring them?”
“Isn’t it a predictable expense? The mere increase is not a problem.”
“Is the shortage of soldiers a significant issue?”
Recalling Jenis’s words about the Count being obsessed with increasing the guards, Jeongjae asked. The Count sighed and put down the knife he was using to cut the meat.
“Our house has already given 14,000 men to the Hero by gathering the entire power of the territory. It’s not just a problem. In fact, I’ve been wrestling with that issue all day long.”
“My territory isn’t an exception, I suppose.”
The Count nodded. His attitude of not denying it left Jeongjae feeling a heavy burden.
“I’ve had several conversations with General Hellhound. He’s well aware that the rear territories also need minimal forces to protect their land. In the end, it’s been difficult to bridge the gap as long as I don’t concede.”
“Then is it at its limit now?”
“Walter Hellhound promised that this conscription order will be the last, and he won’t submit any more laws concerning mobilization of soldiers. On one hand, it’s reassuring to know that promise is trustworthy, but Harriet’s Territory especially is going to be complicated.”
“Why is that?”
Jeongjae asked, feeling apprehensive. No one would want to face ‘particularly complicated’ problems in a small territory they had just obtained.
“There’s a bit of movement among the bandits over there. They’re not exactly highwaymen, but it will be a sufficient headache for someone leading a small territory.”
“Is it difficult to suppress them?”
“In the past, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But now there are not enough forces to divide. To suppress the bandits without losses, we need to send ten or even a hundred times the forces to capture them in one go. But how can I send a large army there when I’m short on troops to defend my own directly governed territory?”
The Count’s words were justified. Ultimately, it implied that Jeongjae had to deal with this issue directly.
“Don’t worry, Baron! I’ll help! The two of us should be more than enough to deal with those bandits!”
“It’s not nothing. But this sort of issue needs to be handled carefully, Jenis.”
Jeongjae pierced the thick steak with his knife as he spoke.
“Handled carefully? What do you mean by carefully?”
“Bandits are humans. You can’t think of today’s struggling bandits like the beasts, Orcs. If we… If we repress too roughly, it will only lead to more wounds.”
Perhaps because a tricky problem popped up, Jeongjae felt the atmosphere at the dining table sink for a moment. After glancing back and forth between Jenis and Jeongjae, the Count brought up a completely different topic.
“By the way, I’m also curious about my daughter’s school life. How was Jenis at the university? I’ve heard she was an excellent student, but as a father, I want to hear more detailed stories.”
Thanks to the Count bringing up a suitable topic, Jeongjae could momentarily set aside his worries and engage in relatively light conversation.
Despite that, it could be said that being able to hear even a piece of information about the crisis that Harriet’s Territory was facing from the Count’s lips during that dinner was a significant gain.