How to Live as a Tyrant’s Spoiled Brat Chapter 281

(281)

Originally, in the Empire, nobles of the rank of count or higher were required to build and operate a wyvern landing pad on the outskirts of their territory.

But we haven't seen anything like a wyvern landing pad in the past two weeks, except for the one next to the lord's castle.

Today, I was grilling a wild boar that I caught while riding a wyvern with salt and pepper that I brought with me.

In fact, the most convenient way was to spend a night at the count's castle.

You can go and say a word or two of kindness and get a warm bed and plenty of meat to eat, so it's a very profitable business.

But then we have to deal with the count's family who want to get in line with the royal family and the platinum knights, and since we've been treated to a meal, we have to give a shout-out to the count of the neighboring fief who doesn't get along with the count we're visiting.

If you drink even one glass of alcohol at night, you will be in trouble if you leave early the next day.

On the way back, you might be able to spend a few days at one of those estates and come back as if you were cruising.

But now I had to go east as soon as possible.

We had to go as far as we could that day, and then rest wherever the wyvern got tired.

So, the picture of Hwang Hyung, who is first in the line of succession, and the Platinum Knight is practically sleeping, or rather, sleeping, in a clearing in the forest.

“King Tentia. Now stop and come eat. Then everyone will come to their senses.”

I called over to Lord Tentia and handed him a piece of wild boar's leg that was cooked until crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

She defeated all the leaders and leaders of the bandits, and beat up the younger ones until they came to their senses.

In this world, not knowing your opponent is a mortal sin.

The young thieves who had become the main characters of the dragon tale crawled away on all fours, trembling, while Sir Tentia laughed and ate the boar's leg.

“Your Majesty. I didn’t know you were good at cooking.”

I laughed, lighting a fire on my palm.

“I don’t know about anything else, but I’m confident in controlling the heat. Well, the taste is thanks to the spices Rudy gave me.”

“If I had known this would happen, I would have sat right next to the wyvern. Then those rascals wouldn’t have dared come looking.”

“Then we’ll fall asleep smelling the blood and entrails of the beasts the wyvern has eaten. I don’t like that. I’m delicate.”

“That doesn’t sound like something someone who burned the leader of a bandit group to the ground without leaving a trace behind should say.”

“Nonsense. That’s why I burned it without leaving any ashes. Isn’t the smell of burning better than the smell of blood?”

“That’s true.”

Sir Tentia changed the subject.

“I know that because the empire is so large, administrative power does not reach the local areas.”

“If you hand over the Imperial Governor-General’s territory to a nearby noble as a fief, that says it all.”

“But it’s strange that there are so many thieves. After all, this place must be the territory of some knight or baron, and the knight or baron must be a sword expert or a magician, so there’s no way they wouldn’t be able to deal with thieves.”

Sir Tentia was right.

Central power was limited to the governorates of Soletaraon, the imperial trading cities and port cities, and the direct territories in the central region.

But that didn't mean the rest of the territory was a lawless, ownerless zone.

If a lord does not take good care of his fief, it becomes a cause for vassals, other lords, the church, or the imperial family to interfere.

So the lords hunted and killed monsters and humans who were worse than monsters that harassed the people of the land, such as wild dogs, wolves, greenskins, undead, thieves, and highwaymen, burned suspicious third-rate magicians and sorcerers who brought about corruption, and donated money to the church to train priests and paladins.

Of course, it was impossible for a knight to protect each and every pioneer village or small town from being plundered.

Sir Jester, father of Sir Tentia, ruled a city of five thousand people and dozens of villages.

Although he is called a knight, he is a lord of the rank of count, which is a bit weak by the standards of other countries.

You cannot and should not interfere with everything that happens in the realm.

It was similar to the work of a building guild leader carrying a load of bricks on his back.

But even if I couldn't protect you, I could still get revenge.

“Yes. There’s no way it couldn’t be handled. But what does it mean that it ended up like this?”

Sir Tentia distorted her face as if asking why she was asking such a difficult question again.

“… … There will be a war. The defeated soldiers and mercenaries who haven’t received their salaries have all turned into bandits.”

“Not a bad idea. Anything else?”

“Well… I don’t know.”

“The eastern inland was too peaceful. The population grew too much and there was not enough land.”

Sir Tentia licked her lips.

His surprised eyes trembled slightly.

“I heard that tens of thousands of people died in a large-scale erosion disaster not long ago?”

“The city has a high population density, but the land available for sitting on is relatively small. This has nothing to do with the lack of farmland.”

“Didn’t you see a lot of mountains and forests here and there on the way here?”

“It must be a rocky mountain that is too difficult to clear, or a place that was left intentionally to protect forest resources. The eastern inland is all like this.”

I smiled and trailed off.

“The eastern coast is different, of course. The people there are all hardy sailors. They risk their lives to go out and catch fish, and fight against fishermen and pirates. Those who fail to do so all die, leaving no children behind, so that is natural. But this inland area, protected by them… … .”

Sir Tentia sighed deeply and leaned back against the arum tree.

“The lord here is also a vassal of the Duke of Cariosa, right?”

I nodded.

“I guess so. We’re almost halfway there.”

“I can see why the Duke of Cariosa wanted to bring them to their knees. He is fighting while risking the lives of his people, but if they say there are too many people behind him, it would annoy me too.”

“That’s why this expedition is important to her.”

“If it’s island reclamation… … it’s a colonization project.”

“He wants to move all the serfs overflowing from the eastern inland to the island. He can train new vassals, relieve their power, solve the population problem, and expand his territory. How tempting. He has to succeed.”

Tentia Sir smiled as if she was looking forward to it.

“There is a reason why His Highness borrowed it at such a high price.”

I nodded.

“Yes. When you return, you will be able to bring back a great wealth and something more.”

As you go east, the territory becomes more stable.

It was visible at a glance from the sky.

The ratio of forest, farmland, and pasture was balanced, a caretaker would come out to the Wyvernpit to bring sheep and tents, and sometimes the lord or his representative would wait for us to greet us.

Of course, there were no bandits, highwaymen, greenskins, or ancient monsters to be found.

“The Duke of Cariosa is eagerly awaiting His Highness the Grand Duke of Valencian.”

“Let’s make it fly faster than the Western Hemisphere.”

About a month after leaving Soletaraon.

The scent of the sea began to mix with the wind.

* * *

That day the sky was unusually clear.

A wind blew, carrying moisture, a hint of salt, and the warm air typical of coastal areas.

"majesty!"

“Yeah. We’re almost there.”

In the distance, I could see the sea sparkling like a blue jewel and a thriving metropolis.

It was the port city of Ketusion, where the sea monster Summerlin, who resembled a great white shark, came and fell in love with a man on land.

“They say it’s the largest port in the East. It’s huge.”

“The length from side to side seems much wider than that of the Soletaraon.”

Ketuzion was a crescent-shaped city surrounded by three large bays.

Looking down from the sky, it looked like a sea monster had bitten the inside of the crescent moon three times, one bite at a time.

All the buildings were stone structures of four stories or more, and there were several huge towers that seemed to pierce the sky.

Perhaps to combat the sea breeze, it looked more rustic than sophisticated, and the building was also much wider than Soletaraon.

Whether it was the taste of the Asenortas of all time, the walls of all the buildings were white like sandy beaches, and the roofs were blue like the sea.

There's so much blue in front of me, I don't know if there's a reason to paint even the building blue.

In the center of the city, there was a large river that flowed into the sea, and using that river, they dug canals throughout the city like a checkerboard.

This enabled merchant ships to enter the city's inner city without having to unload their cargo on wagons at the beach.

“They trade with the entire East through that river.”

“Is it only the east? Recently, His Majesty opened another canal, so now we can go to the central and northern parts as well.”

Of the three ports built on three bays, the central port along the river was obviously a trading port.

There were rows of huge sailing ships, each boasting huge sails, a hull of over 60 meters, and a displacement of up to 1,000 tons.

The sailing ships were flying the flags of all sorts of families, even the flags of the Eastern Continent and the flags of the Emirates of the Southern Continent below.

“Isn’t that… a crime?”

“Hmm. For now, all jurisdiction within two weeks of here by Wyvern belongs to House Asenorta.”

Of course, the merchant ships of the Asenorta family occupied the best docks in that port.

In front of the ship flying the Great White Shark flag, other ships bowed their heads like wolves before tigers and rock bream before sharks.

As I turned my eyes to the right, the third and smallest port came into view.

Of course, it was the smallest, but it was still smaller than the central port, and it was one of the largest port cities in the east.

Surprisingly, the ships there were all fishing boats, large and small.

“I never thought they would leave the fishing industry in such a huge port.”

Sir Tentia raised her eyebrows and muttered.

“Cariosa is a warrior. You should know that you can’t fight by eating gold coins.”

In contrast to the air of freedom felt in the 'large-scale trading port', Ketushion was a well-armed city.

Walls that seemed to be over 20 meters high were built here and there throughout the city, thoroughly dividing the districts, and each of the huge towers had an enormous ballista crossbow in place, and the waterways that resembled blood vessels could be completely blocked by lowering the bars and closing the water gates.

And the warrior's mood reached its peak at the left port.

“That’s a military port.”

“Yes. He commands seven fleets.”

The sailing ships there did not appear to be much different from merchant ships.

But Sir Tentia and I could vividly feel the numerous spells that would be cast upon those sailing ships.

“It’s like toughness, acceleration, and lightness….”

“Of course it would have flame resistance too.”

“It’s smaller than I thought. I thought battleships were incredibly large.”

Even the largest of the sailing ships in the military port was only about 10 meters longer than the merchant ships.

Rather, most of the warships were around 50m long, so they looked small.

I shook my head slightly.

“Sir. Those ships are all transports, escorts, landing ships, and reconnaissance speedboats. The fat ones are transports, the sturdy-looking ones are escorts, the flat ones are landing ships, and the thin ones are speedboats.”

"yes?"

“A real battleship made of giants is too big to fit into a port. It is assembled at sea, and all supplies are received by transport ships. A battleship is born at sea and dies at sea.”

Sir Tentia took a deep breath and exclaimed, “Huh?”

“That’s pretty cool.”

A sudden headwind blew, and the two wyverns spread their wings in a hurry to catch the wind, causing Sir Tentia's red hair to flutter beautifully.

At that moment, I could barely make out what she was mumbling through her lips.

“Born on the battlefield, die on the battlefield.”

Seriously, he's a knight through and through.

After walking around the city, we headed down to Wyvernpit near the military port.

It wasn't a lie that Cariosa had been waiting for us, as there was already a considerable crowd gathered near Wyvern Pit.

The moment I landed inside the dome, I looked up at the giant castle towering over the rocky hill on the left end of the city.

Whioooo-.

The castle, which had been exposed to the sea breeze for hundreds of years, looked more like a fortress than an imperial palace.

After getting off the Wyvern, I packed up a gift for Cariosa, stretched out my stiff body from the long flight, and went into the Wyvern Fit's personal lounge to do a final touch-up on my clothes and hair.

At that moment, a face I had been longing for appeared behind the mirror I was looking at.

“Archduke Valen.”

Aqua-blue hair, scaly skin, and shark-like teeth.

Before I could even turn around to say hello, she bit the back of my neck.