The Grand Duchy of Nozen, Western Region
Late at night, the Grand Duke of Nozen frowned.
“What is this?”
Hilbury Nozen, Grand Duke of Nozen, was an old man with white hair.
Though broad-shouldered and handsome even in old age, he wore an eyepatch over one eye, and one of his legs was a prosthetic.
Receiving a thick stack of reports, he tapped a line with his finger.
“Lumber for rebuilding furniture? Olive wood?”
“Ah, it’s not something that requires your attention, Your Grace.”
His aide answered respectfully.
“It was an unexpected shipment of timber, so we decided to purchase it using the budget allocated for assisting the local residents. The wood is sturdy and beautiful, quite different from our usual relief supplies. We thought it would help boost the morale of the common people during this crisis—”
“Hm? It came from Sears.”
Hilbury stroked his beard and narrowed his eye.
“As far as I know, the new Marquis of Sears is currently absent.”
The House of Nozen and the House of Sears were both ancient noble families recognized as founding contributors to the Empire.
However, while the Sears family had steadily declined until it wielded less influence than even a remote frontier count's household, the Nozen family had taken the opposite path.
The Grand Duchy of Nozen continued to prosper endlessly thanks to the vast western grain-producing lands under its control.
Their wealth, prestige, and intelligence network were incomparable.
“I believe it was ordered by Lady Brisa. Apparently a grain merchant came demanding repayment of a debt, and she offered lumber instead.”
“Hm.”
Hilbury knew nothing about the relationship between a grain merchant and a marquisate.
Ordinarily, purchasing furniture-grade timber for relief efforts was not something that would attract his attention.
Under normal circumstances, he would have simply overlooked it.
If not for the name Sears.
Or for the fact that a girl named Brisa stood behind this unexpected shipment.
Hilbury narrowed his eye.
“Leopold sent flowers to this girl anonymously, did he not?”
“...He wished to keep that secret. He took great care to conceal it.”
“There is nothing in this land that I do not know. A mere fourteen-year-old cannot hide things from me.”
The old man casually exposed the boy’s private life.
“Especially when it concerns my only grandson—the heir to this duchy.”
Leopold Nozen.
The fourteen-year-old successor of House Nozen, a boy who looked exactly as Hilbury himself had in his youth.
The western territories were wealthy, blessed with fertile grain fields and rich mines.
But every year they were struck by the disaster known as the Monster Wave.
This year’s Monster Wave had arrived earlier than usual.
And its scale surpassed every previous record.
As a result, Leopold had been sent directly to the front lines without even attending his academy graduation ceremony.
He had inherited the Nozen family’s supernatural abilities more strongly than anyone and was a vital force against the Monster Wave.
“While moving toward the battlefield, amidst all that chaos... flowers...”
It was a duty no heir of Nozen could escape.
Hilbury himself had lost an eye and a leg in the process.
That was why he had no choice but to send his grandson to war.
Even after his son and daughter-in-law, whom he had sent to battle ten years ago, had returned as cold corpses.
“Well, um... perhaps he was simply looking after her as a fellow academy student? After all, circumstances prevented him from attending the funeral of the previous Marquis of Sears.”
The aide desperately tried to protect the boy’s privacy.
Especially because this was exactly the sort of thing Hilbury might disapprove of.
“It’s something anyone could do. Ahahaha. Hahahahaha.”
“...”
“Hahahahahahaha.”
“...”
“Ha.”
His efforts failed.
Instead of laughing it off, Hilbury raised an eyebrow.
Ordinarily, he would have paid no attention to it.
Even if Leopold had sent flowers to that girl.
The Grand Duchy of Nozen was far too busy to concern itself with some insignificant noble family from the central region.
But this matter was somewhat interesting.
“The olive trees of Sears are intertwined with the family’s history. Cutting them down is not something one does lightly.”
Hilbury searched his memories.
Had Leopold ever spoken about Brisa while attending the Academy?
Then he remembered a conversation from last winter vacation.
“The instructor praised you highly. He said that while your appearance alone is a talent, objectively speaking, you excel at everything. Since you've never once lost first place in an exam, Leopold, I assume you'll graduate top of the class. Then who do you expect to be second?”
“The same person ranks second every time, so probably her.”
“Really? Who is it?”
“Brisa Sears.”
“I heard she entered the Academy two years earlier than most students. Yet she still ranks second every time?”
“The results say so.”
As always, Leopold had answered dryly, revealing nothing of what he truly thought.
Instead, his cousin Sylvia, who had been sitting beside him, cheerfully chimed in.
“But she spends every night in the library. She works that hard and still can't beat Leo. Personally, I think her intelligence is probably only around my level. Right, Leo?”
Leopold had replied:
“That's an interesting opinion.”
Which, in noble language, meant:
"That's complete nonsense."
As the heir of the western duchy, Leopold never expressed himself directly.
“She’s so arrogant and prickly. She doesn't even have any friends. She looks like a porcelain doll, ridiculously pretty, but I've never seen her smile or get excited about anything. There’s definitely something strange about her personality. Don’t you think so, Leo?”
“There’s room for debate on that.”
Which meant:
"I disagree."
Sylvia shot him a glance before continuing.
“But all her jewelry and belongings are top quality. Most students would never imagine that the House of Sears is practically bankrupt. Honestly, I’m not even sure she knows it herself.”
“Sylvia.”
Without changing his expression, Leopold said:
“Doesn’t this duck seem a little overcooked?”
Which meant:
"I don't want to hear any more of your nonsense."
At the time, Hilbury hadn't thought much of it.
But looking back now...
“We should send an informant to Sears.”
Raising an eyebrow, Hilbury gave the order.
“I want to know as well.”
The old man's remaining golden eye glimmered calmly.
“Leopold seems to think highly of that girl. I would like to know whether she is someone worthy of my evaluation too.”
Several days later.
The Marquisate of Sears
“His Lordship should be arriving today, right?”
It was the day Alpheus was scheduled to return.
As he planted the remaining seed potatoes, Philip looked excited.
“If he catches the warp route on time, he should arrive this afternoon.”
When I didn't respond, Philip awkwardly continued.
“As for Wendy... Lord Alpheus will probably give her a severe scolding.”
Wendy had been excluded from the potato field labor.
No one took the punishment I had given her seriously.
“We're not that lacking in common sense.”
Philip seemed to have forgotten how recklessly he himself had challenged me at first.
“She’s just... like that. She worships Lord Alpheus too much and crossed the line.”
I looked across the former olive grove, now transformed into rows of potato fields, and sighed softly.
At least this much could be explained away as me being crazy.
I'm the crazy one here. I just want Alpheus to come back.
I wanted to avoid the hardships from the beginning of the novel.
The starvation.
The suffering.
The desperate struggle for survival.
But afternoon passed, and Alpheus never returned.
Instead, late that night, one of his elite knights staggered into the manor.
“It seems His Lordship's return will be delayed considerably.”
His face was pale with exhaustion.
“Lord Alpheus has suddenly departed for the East... to rescue the Second Prince. He sent only me to deliver the news.”
I pressed a hand against my forehead and sighed.
As expected.
It was exactly as the future I knew had shown.
Rangsi, who had been working late as usual, hurried over.
“The East? Why's everyone suddenly heading east?”
Alpheus's knight drew a tired breath.
“A Monster Wave has begun in the eastern sea. The Second Prince—the one funding our rewards—is trapped there. And the only person who can officially recognize Lord Alpheus's achievements in the Northern War is the Second Prince.”
The story was following the original plot perfectly.
At this point, I stopped doubting.
I truly did know the future.
Fortunately, I had been preparing for it.
“There’s no way His Lordship can return empty-handed. Besides, the two of them fought together as comrades-in-arms. He had no choice but to go.”
“But why was the Second Prince there in the first place?” Rangsi asked. “Shouldn't he be attending victory celebrations? Why would someone that important go there?”
According to the novel, the Second Prince—competent but born to a commoner empress—would die in the East at this point in the story after falling victim to the Crown Prince’s scheme.
“How would I know? Probably the orders of someone even higher up than him. Still, there’s warp travel. He should be back within three days, right?”
Three days?
Not a chance.
This was exactly when the warp network would begin becoming unstable.
Even this knight arrived half a day late...
Warp travel operated using mana.
Naturally, the appearance of mana-rich monsters interfered with its operation.
And then, the very next morning—
the problem arrived immediately.
