From the TL: Check out a fan-made summary of the battle from Chapters 143-144, located here! I think it was an excellent job. Just click on the button that says Spoiler: The Map of ch. 143-144.
……Just why is it that I’m standing here?
Trying to escape the reality that I was right in front of the throne of the royal palace, I glanced over at some of the highest-ranking knights in the kingdom, Marquis Rolentsor and Earl Einsbark.
His Majesty who was sitting there, I feel like he called my name just now, am I just hearing things?
……Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to be hallucinating, as someone pushed me on my back. I staggered as I stepped forward, and just like that I was in front of the king.
“Go, and kneel in front of the king.”
Ergnade who was right behind me was whispering to me. I proceeded the rest of the way by myself, being unable to return even though he was just a few steps behind me. I kneeled as I was told to in front of the steps to the tall royal throne, from where the king overlooked me. I met the king’s blue eyes for an instant before I looked down. Neither the king nor I had any expression of our feelings.
“Viscountess Kaldia. During this battle, you have made a splendid meritorious accomplishment. For your glorious achievement, I would like to reward you.”
“……to receive such words directly from Your Majesty, it is my greatest honor.”
While managing to squeeze out the words of courtesy required of me by etiquette, my voice sounded almost like a robot to myself, surprising me mentally with how calm I seemed to be. I’m in the presence of the person who holds absolute power over this entire huge kingdom, it’s a strange atmosphere in which was fresher than I expected.
I understood that the king was the absolute representation of authority for both the church and the law in this country. I managed to drag this fact out of my mind somehow, as if I was a computer, although right now it all feels so far away from me.
Arxia’s political system seems feudal at first glance, but the true situation is quite different. All of the actual power is held by the king, and he merely delegates power to his vassals. The royal domain system is probably the easiest to explain, it’s similar to a Count Palatine from medieval Europe. Those that manage it receive a high noble rank from the king, which wouldn’t be possible without the trust of both the king and the Upper House of Lords, and it’s supposed to be a title that isn’t hereditary.
The main reason that this system has successfully continued for the past 600 years without decaying is thanks to the existence of the church. The moral character of everyone in this country is guided by the Ar Xia church’s Sacred Code. Committing a felony would cause you to be excommunicated from the church, and as for excommunication…… those branded as heretics are savagely treated, almost inversely proportional to the modernity of the legal system for a fantasy world.
Well, at any rate, law and religion in this country haven’t decayed, and it’s been an effective system for a long period of time now.
I’ve gone off on a tangent. It seems that when my mind tries to escape reality, I can drift quite far off-topic.
……Whatever the case, did I really have such a great accomplishment on the battlefield? Indeed, I managed to disable their unit with the new weapons. But its power and shooting range is limited, and once the army knows exactly what kind of weapon it is, I’m sure that such a chaotic response won’t happen again. And as for the enemy heavy cavalry unit, it wasn’t entirely destroyed.
As for what I did after that, is this about surrounding the enemies on our overextended left flank and annihilating them? While that unit was indeed annihilated, such a thing should have been accomplished by Ergnade several times already in the previous battles. Divide and conquer. It’s one of the most basic strategies in battle.
Among the enemies killed, there was that muscular soldier that seemed to be a high-ranked knight, but I doubt his head would have such a high price attached to it if he was at the frontlines himself like that.
In any case, that was the only sentence the king spoke to me, as after that Marquis Rittergau, Earl Terejia’s older brother who’s still working despite his age, took over and read out my achievement and reward from some documents in an official tone of voice.
Although, I don’t really understand what it is that I’ve achieved, since I wasn’t paying attention. I don’t have much military experience, and the only word that I really caught was head. I’ll have to ask Ergnade later about what he meant.
In contrast though, the reward part was easy to understand. Basically, it was money, land, and ranking. ……I don’t really want land or ranking though, I felt somewhat bitter about it. Right now, the new Pioneer village is just getting settled down in Kaldia, and my hands are full with the irrigation construction for the largely untouched eastern half of my domain.
Even if I receive new, unsettled land from the Jugfena royal domain, without receiving any human resources to go along with the land, this has no benefits for me. They’re just giving me more land to match my promoted title.
At any rate, although I still don’t quite understand why, I now have the rank of a lesser earl. How strange. Something like a promotion in noble rank shouldn’t be that easy to obtain…… I guess it can’t be helped that I’m a bit confused, as too many unexpected things just fell into my lap.
As for the otome game that’s supposed to begin when I enter noble school, that’s coming up soon, later in autumn of this year that I’m twelve.
……But more importantly, one year ago, war between Arxia and Rindarl broke out, and it’s a fact that I played an important role in this particular battle.
How is this battle going to affect the otome game, I wonder. I don’t want the war to expand even more, as I’d have less time to take care of Kaldia, and it might be devastated or fall into disrepair due to the war. I finally managed to bring my domain back to a civilized level similar to the other domains – just how long did it take? It’s been ten long years.
I absolutely won’t stand for my ten years of hard work to go to waste, so the next chance I get, I think I should remove even more of Rindarl’s soldiers.
……After all, it seems that I have an affinity for combat.
Yeah! Finally eliza is rewarded for her hard work in a way. Excited for school arc!
LikeLiked by 20 people
School arc is coming! Thanks for the chapyer.
LikeLiked by 9 people
Looks like she unwittingly took the head of some Rindarl bigshot, this will definitely affect her upcoming “school” life.
LikeLiked by 17 people
i forgot this world was that of an otome game.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Vlad Tepes
⦁ Lord of a Wallachia, a border domain
⦁ Uses fear and torture to intimidate opponents
⦁ religiously motivated conflict (Eastern Othordox vs Ottoman Turks)
⦁ Dracul / “son of the dragon”
Eliza
⦁ Lord of a Kaldia, a border domain
⦁ Uses fear and torture to intimidate opponents
⦁ The war is religiously motivated conflict (Churgh of Arxia vs Church of Alfena)
⦁ Rides a dragon
LikeLiked by 25 people
Actually, I think it was said somewhere before that the author stated Vlad the Impaler was a primary inspiration for Eliza. Vlad is considered horrendous by all his enemies, but his citizens apparently considered him a hero still for protecting them.
LikeLiked by 21 people
I suspect that conflict between Eliza and the actual otome game protagonist will be inevitable.
But it will take a nationalistic tone instead of whatever the original otome game had.
otome game: get your hands off my future husband, you wench
now: stop trying to influence Arxian politics you foreigner scum
LikeLiked by 18 people
Vlad Tepes is still considered a national hero in his old domain to this day.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Romanians *hate* the Count Dracula character.
LikeLiked by 5 people
So, soon, Eliza is going to impale the corpses of her ennemies and have a tea party in the middle of the corpse forest?
….
I can actually see that happening…
LikeLiked by 12 people
I can imagine the first part too, but I am no too sure about the second part.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Vlad Tepes? Now I’m getting squeazy. Remembering the specific of his deed is nauseating. He was great though. Learning enemies’ tactic to turn it against them? Ingenious!
I’ve compared Eliza’s situation to France, various HRE states, and English history and nothing come close.
It seems there is a revival of interest in south slavic and rumelian history. Check out Shoukoku No Altair. It’s an alternate world historical fantasy by historian Katou Kouno. Imho one of a kind shounen manga. Turkiyeli Al Nasr Altair.
LikeLiked by 3 people
isn’t vlad tepes was murdered by his sibling?
i wonder would eliza get killed by ratoka in the end of story.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sorry~
Should be
“isn’t vlad tepes was fighting his sibling?
i wonder would eliza get in war againts ratoka in the future”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for the chapter!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m quite eager to know how great her achievement actually was
LikeLike
“… I think I should remove even more of Rindarl’s soldiers.” xD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aaaawww, the cute bloody reverse-trap murder loli is turning into a battle maniac….
…
I pity Rindarl’s soldiers…
And I still can’t see how her school life is going to go…
LikeLiked by 2 people
really author san, she can understand war and economy but she cant follow a list of her accomplisments being read aloud she can only understand “head”….. such bullshit
LikeLike
Well, maybe I didn’t express it clearly, but it was also partly because she was lost in her thoughts. So, I edited the sentence to clarify that.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I think she was trying to show she was stressed from meeting the king, and everything was a blur.
LikeLiked by 4 people
and the thought of her own accomplishments are not that great even tho its more than her thinks makes her can’t understand it too
LikeLiked by 1 person
To date, every single time she has come to the attention of a powerful fixture of the nation it has been a serious threat to her life. From the church putting her on trial to the noble assembly placing her in the midst of a criminal and political conspiracy.
It is only natural that being called to meet with the absolute monarch would be a nerve-wracking event in light of this.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I wish we were given more details about the noble she killed…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, I bet everyone will be scared of her once she enters the school
LikeLike
I find it hilarious Eliza didn’t get how great she was in battle and all she catch is she bring someone’s head, so what? She even scorn getting more land and title… which means more job for her,
I can imagine once school arc began, perhaps she would be Cool and manly Onee-sama type of girl to the others.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That guys head was worth more than money, it was worth a whole deal of trouble too XD
LikeLike
She scorns the reward because she has internalized noblesse oblige as her guiding principle and justification. Basically the idea that she is saving the people of the Kaldia domain is what makes her redeemable. As opposed to being a monster damned by her bloodline and resultant act of familicide.
Additional land just means more area for her already taxed soldiers to patrol. Higher title means a greater demanded contribution to national affairs. Both harm her people.
LikeLiked by 3 people
So it’s gonna be school arc next? I’ll miss her gallant figure marching to the war.
LikeLike
Ok, so what will she do in the ‘otome game’, I mean, I really dont think she fit any role, even if you put her as a villain, she has no motivation to go against the heroine…….unless the heroine decisions affect her domain XD
I cant wait ^^
Thanks for the translation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
How about a secret yuri capture target?
LikeLiked by 2 people
How about no. D:
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for the chapter!
LikeLike
” It seems that when my mind tries to escape reality, I can drift quite far off-topic.”
< can relate
LikeLike
Thanks for the chapter~ :3
“I think I should remove even more of Rindarl’s soldiers.”
more of… what? more heads? Eliza the impaler? sounds nice~
She was confused and stressed out to even hear what she accomplished… lol
LikeLike
Eliza is so cool! more battle achievements! i hope she will be a gallant and cool type onee-sama in the school and become a really popular among the girls in the school
LikeLike
How old was Eliza when she killed her family? Are two year olds able to walk to garden, pick wolfsbane or nightshade, and then drop it into a pot on a stove?
LikeLike
Yeah, that’s the one sticking point I have with the novel, everything else I’m fine with but the start still bewilders me.
LikeLike
Did she say something like “I don’t want anymore trouble so next time those Rindarl guys come again i’ll make sure you wont be attacking for the next 2 or 3 decades” something like that? now i feel sorry for those poor soldiers
LikeLiked by 2 people
what happens to her domain when she goes to school? does she still oversee it or does she pass on the responsibility to Oscar? Because Earl Terejia is getting too old. But then again theres also her adoptive father, Earl Ergnade.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks 4 the chapter!
She really had no idea why she’s being rewarded.
LikeLike
isn’t vlad tepes was murdered by his sibling?
i wonder would eliza get killed by ratoka in the end of story
LikeLike
Eliza vision:
Gold – Yes, gimme.
Land – What? More work? No thanks.
Title – Totally useless. Can I get a refund? D:
On the bright side, since she’s an earl now, does that mean she can have a Knight order under her own name? Can she get more people knighted like she wanted to? 😀
Eliza really has been working hard these past 10 years, huh. It really seems she can’t stand to have all her work gone to naught. So yeah. Uh… go kill more soldiers I guess.
The King seems interesting, he seems like a really cold character. Since he holds -all- the authority of Arxia, I wonder what he thinks of everything going on?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the chapter!
My my, rising up in the world Eliza. How old is she again? Even so, she’s quite bloody-minded, but it can hardly be helped.
LikeLike
YES GIRRRLLL~~~!!!!
LikeLike