Surviving as the Fallen Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 21: Encounter (2)

“Flang. Flang~ Huhu. The pronunciation is really soft and nice. Flang~ Huhuhu.”

Matthias murmured softly.

That bastard was definitely a priest, but lately, he had been mumbling unpleasantly more often.

I pretended not to hear Matthias chattering beside me and focused on the man in front of me.

The man greeted us once again.

“Did you not hear me? I am Bruno, the Grand Duke of the Flang Grand Duchy. Who might you be?”

As he brought his stomach closer and smoothly extended his hand...

I stared blankly.

I did not shake his hand; instead, I carefully examined his appearance.

‘An Grand Duke dressed like a beggar.’

Not only did he lack a single expensive ornament, but no matter how generously I looked at it, his clothing itself was not noble attire.

Unless he had stolen it from a servant, there was no way he would be wearing such clothes.

Of course, if he was an Grand Duke who was extremely frugal, it would not be entirely impossible...

‘But a guy who puts so much emphasis on the title of Grand Duke doesn’t seem like the type to be that frugal.’

And it seemed like everyone else felt the same way.

Among them, Krum, who had no filter on his mouth, shouted loudly.

“What kind of beggar calls himself an Grand Duke? Your Grace, this guy is suspicious. Let’s just beat him up and see.”

Hmm.

I thought the same, but right now, we also had the priest Matthias aboard, a man who served the gods.

So, I wanted to avoid unnecessary violence if possible.

Thus, I discreetly asked Matthias.

“What do you think we should do?”

Matthias pondered for about 0.2 seconds before answering seriously.

“If someone is suspicious, we should catch him and beat him up first, right? Ah, of course, I’ll be reciting prayers while you ‘handle’ things.”

“......”

Something was strange.

Priests, mages, knights—everyone who entered this Duchy of Axen seemed to lose their sanity.

I had no idea what kind of curse was on this place.

Anyway, since even the priest agreed, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

Nod.

As I nodded...

“Catch him!!!!”

Victor shouted loudly.

Upon hearing that, the fishermen’s boats became flustered for a moment...

“Run! Pirates! Run!”

“You damned wretches… coming all the way here….”

They turned their bows and began to flee for their lives.

Seeing them running away, Krum swung his greatsword and leaped from the rowboat...

Paaaaaat! Kuuuuuuuuung!

A huge cloud of dust rose as he landed on the fishing boat.

Krum flicked his greatsword slightly, herding the crew.

“Kehehe. Where do you think you’re running? You’re now rats trapped in a jar. Hand over everything you have, and I’ll spare your lives.”

Then, he put on a flashy one-man show.

Using only the flat side of his greatsword, he smacked them around, cornering them.

It must have been humiliating from their perspective.

Thus, all the crew members on the ship Krum boarded soon lost their will to fight.

“Wow…”

Mangala murmured in admiration.

“…Isn’t that guy not actually a knight?”

I seriously considered asking Victor to rein in Krum’s behavior, but…

“Kelkelkel. Bow down and beg for your lives!”

Watching Victor excitedly jump onto another boat, I gave up on that thought.

It took about three minutes to seize all six fishing boats.

Of course, if those rampaging knights hadn’t been messing around, it wouldn’t have taken even half that time.

Anyway, since the situation was settled, it was time to shake them down.

Step.

“Speak the truth. What were you doing here?”

Erina Trotsky stepped forward, grabbed one of the crew members by the collar, and questioned him.

‘She was definitely keeping her distance during the fight….’

Now, with a fierce expression, Erina was fully playing her role.

Johan watched her with a satisfied look.

The questioned crew member retorted.

“Can’t you see? We were just fishing to make a living.”

As soon as the man spoke, the other crew members began to clamor as well.

“We were just peacefully fishing, so why are you tying us up like this?”

“That’s right! Are you some kind of pirates?”

They looked at Johan Kraubitz’s group with resentful eyes.

Then—

“What did they just say?”

Johan finally stepped forward and spoke.

“Hey, this is the territory of the Duchy of Axen.”

“What?”

“I am Johan Kraubitz, the ruler of Axen. So why should I just stand by and let some bastards fish in my waters without permission?”

“T-That’s…”

Their complaints immediately died down.

Yeah, what Johan said actually made perfect sense.

Some might think that Johan’s group was going too far by capturing them like this.

However, if you set aside the bizarre behavior of Johan’s knights—

‘By the standards of this era, this is actually common sense.’

This wasn’t modern South Korea.

This was a medieval world ruled by the law of power.

So if you encountered someone suspicious, the best course of action was to subdue them first to ensure your own safety.

And if those people were engaging in economic activities within your territory?

‘There’s no need for further discussion. Just capture and beat them.’

So, as the rightful owner of these waters, Johan began interrogating them.

“Alright, I understand that you were fishing. But that’s not what I’m curious about. What I really want to know is…”

He smirked.

“How did you even get your ships here? There isn’t a single unfrozen harbor anywhere around here. So where the hell did you launch these ships from?”

At that question, the man who had earlier introduced himself as Grand Duke Bruno opened his mouth.

“Did I not tell you? I am Bruno, the Grand Duke of Flang in the East. We sailed from the eastern part of the continent to fish here. Naturally, we launched our ships from an unfrozen harbor.”

Pfft.

As soon as I heard that nonsense, I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

The eastern part of the continent—I was quite familiar with that area since my cousin, Siegfried Kraubitz, ruled there.

“Hey, if you keep lying, you’re actually going to die. Where the hell is this ‘Flang’ in the East? And what do you mean by Grand Duke Bruno? You do know I’m the Northern Grand Duke, right? Nobles all know each other. Especially those of us with the title of Grand Duke.”

He was probably an uneducated fool who had no idea how the noble system worked.

He hesitated for a moment, glancing around nervously before stammering.

“W-Well, technically, Flang is not in the East but the Northeast… And, um, I mean, I’m not really an Grand Duke. I’m more like the owner of these ships? Yeah, something like that.”

Hahaha.

Krum burst into laughter.

“How in the world does owning a few ships make you an Grand Duke? This guy is just spewing whatever nonsense comes to mind.”

“……”

Before the conversation went completely off track, I questioned him again. I already had a strong hunch about something.

“Stop the bullshit and tell me the truth. Where did you launch these ships? Actually, let me ask more precisely. Where exactly are you taking all this fish?”

Wherever they were taking the fish was likely the same place they had launched from.

And the moment Bruno understood the meaning behind my question, his words abruptly stopped.

“……I cannot say. Even if you take my life….”

Schring!

The mage Bjorn drew a small, sharp dagger.

At that, Bruno immediately gave in.

“…Newdale. We came from Newdale.”

The so-called Grand Duke Bruno instantly revealed their port of departure.

The moment he did, the rest of the crew, who had been staying quiet, reacted in unison.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake—”

“You really can’t keep your mouth shut.”

“What the hell are you doing? Why would you tell them that?”

“……I have no excuse.”

As soon as I heard the name Newdale, something clicked in my mind.

‘Newdale? Does such a place exist in the Empire? I’ve never heard of it.’

Sure, I knew of a place called Dale in the East. But Newdale?

That was completely unfamiliar.

But then—

‘Wait a second. New York was named after England’s Yorkshire, right? So could this be…?’

I smirked.

Grinning, I stepped closer to them.

And then—

Schring!

This time, I drew my longsword and spoke.

“Lead the way.”

“Huh? What do you mean…?”

“I said, lead the way. Take us to the place where all of you live together.”

“W-What are you talking about…?”

Even now, they were still trying to play dumb. It seemed I needed to be more direct.

“Take us to Newdale. In other words…”

I grinned.

“Lead us to the new continent you guys discovered.”

Whooooosh.

Victor whistled between his teeth.

Now that we had left the glacier-covered North Sea, our ship had picked up some speed.

Impatient by nature, Victor finally seemed at ease.

He turned to me and said,

“The wind feels a bit warmer now.”

“Yeah, we’ve sailed southeast, so the temperature must be rising. Not to mention…”

Swoosh.

I gazed at the land that had begun to appear in the distance and continued speaking.

“Once we land there, we’ll finally get to taste something warm.”

Yeah, that was bound to be the case.

No matter how I looked at it…

‘It must be a fairly developed city.’

When that guy, Bruno, first arrived with his fishing boats, only one thought came to my mind.

‘There’s an ice-free port nearby!’

However, I had no idea where exactly it was located.

We had already searched every part of the Axen Duchy’s coastline.

So the next thing I thought was—

‘There must be a land we haven’t discovered yet.’

I guessed that these people had sailed here from a place unknown to us.

And if there was land that even I, the Northern Grand Duke, didn’t know about, the implication was clear.

‘If it were part of the continent, we would’ve known about it. Which means… people must have settled on an island across the sea.’

That was my conclusion.

Yeah, that explanation made sense.

At this time, the Empire’s people primarily relied on agriculture for their livelihood.

If there were those without land, it wouldn’t be strange for them to seek new farmland elsewhere.

And if there were merchants who wanted to escape the Empire’s high taxes?

‘Then they would want to do business in a newly established land.’

At this point, the Empire lacked the resources to manage all the islands near the continent.

So it was entirely possible that people had taken advantage of that gap.

On top of that, they were operating fishing boats for food supply, and judging by the amount of supplies they had brought—

‘This place must be quite large.’

Gulp.

I swallowed my saliva.

‘This… this could mean…’

Would the Northern Grand Duke soon acquire a so-called “new domain”?

An unclaimed land.

‘That’s mine for the taking.’

And finally—

“We’ve arrived.”

We set foot on Newdale, the newly established territory of the new continent.