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“White King! Why are you just arriving now?”

“Sorry, Flora. Has a lot of work piled up?”

The elf woman, called Flora, brought a large stack of documents and plopped them down in front of Repenhardt.

“These need to be processed.”

She was one of the many elves that Repenhardt had taken in and educated from the Duchy of Chatan. While all nine orcs, including Talkata, had been sent to the Blue Bear Tribe for “spiritual education,” the elves still remained within the White King’s Castle. This was because there weren’t enough elves yet to form a village.

Thus, the seventeen elf women who had once been slaves were now assisting Repenhardt with various administrative tasks.

Of course, their skills were not particularly great. Elves were slow learners, and with only about half a year of education, they were barely capable of handling simple accounting tasks, let alone complex administrative work.

However, some did show exceptional abilities. Flora was one such case; she demonstrated a considerable talent for administration and served as Repenhardt’s secretary quite effectively.

“Come on, quickly review and sign these.”

Repenhardt sighed deeply as he looked at the mountain of documents.

“Why does the work keep piling up? Just two months ago, I had nothing to do and was idling around.”

“Is now the same as then? Here’s a pen.”

“Alright…”

With a weary expression, Repenhardt began to look through the documents. They involved transactions with the Taoban Trading Company, administrative tasks for the newly recruited humans, salary management, and more. Even though the Duchy of Antares had a small population, there was still a lot to manage.

Repenhardt’s troubles weren’t limited to the warriors or mercenaries flocking to become knights. There were also the refugees from the Kingdom of Crovence, displaced by a great famine, some of whom had drifted into the Duchy of Antares, lured by rumors.

-They say the Duchy of Antares has an abundance of grain.

-They say you can eat three meals of bread every day there.

The former Viscountcy of Gelphine, now the Duchy of Antares, was actually a barren land with little arable farmland. The reason such rumors spread was that Repenhardt had supplied large quantities of grain to the royal army of Yubel, and it became known that he had purchased a substantial amount of grain from the Taoban Trading Company to ensure food supplies for the Grand Forge and other races.

Rumors had drawn nearly a thousand refugees to the Duchy of Antares, and Repenhardt accepted them all.

Unlike the original Barony of Gelphine, the current Duchy of Antares had a significant amount of farmland. When Yubel II awarded the land, he had subtly included neighboring estates to be a bit more generous.

However, that farmland had been idle until now. The different races had no experience in farming on ‘proper land.’

Both the orcs of the Blue Bear Tribe and the elves of the Dahnhaim clan had sustained themselves through gathering and hunting in the wilderness. Although some dwarves of Grand Forge were engaged in agriculture, they had grown turnips, potatoes, mushrooms, and moss under the subterranean sun of Magrim, not under the bright sun, leading to entirely different kinds of agricultural knowledge.

Therefore, there was no problem in accepting those refugees and assigning them the idle land.

Of course, they would need to be provided with food until the harvest, but Repenhardt currently had the means to do so. He was receiving grains at cost from the Taoban Trading Company. Siebolt, the head of the company, was starting to frown as Repenhardt kept taking so much grain.

The issue was that this increased the administrative work he had to handle.

“Sigh…”

With a sigh, Repenhardt quickly reviewed and approved the documents. Despite his complaints, his administrative speed was incredibly fast. As a renowned archmage, skilled with numbers and speed-reading, such administrative tasks were not challenging for him.

‘But at this rate, I’ll be stuck here forever…’

Grumbling, Repenhardt swiftly processed the documents. After reviewing and signing the last page, Flora took the stack of documents out. In exchange, Siris entered with a tea tray.

“Lord Repenhardt, please have some tea.”

“Thank you, Siris.”

Repenhardt’s face brightened as he took the teacup. Siris stood beside him, holding the tray to her chest. After sipping the tea, Repenhardt’s expression hardened again.

“But this is a real problem. The workload itself isn’t much, but…”

Although Flora was quite capable by elf standards, she was still lacking compared to a properly trained human administrative officer. Repenhardt always had to do a final review as errors frequently appeared in the documents.

“At this rate, I won’t be able to leave the Antares White Castle. I still need to visit numerous dungeons to increase my magic power. And I also need to find the relics of the Four Guardian Gods.”

Siris, who knew about Repenhardt’s past life, asked curiously.

“When you founded the empire before, who handled the administration?”

“At that time, I rarely had to leave the imperial palace. Besides, there was Makelin, who was the chancellor.”

During the empire era, there was no need to worry about talent. As they expanded territory and continuously built villages, it eventually took the form of a nation. Thus, there was enough time to teach administrative tasks to the slow-learning dwarves and elves.

But now, he had to establish the foundation of a nation from the beginning. There was neither time nor talent.

‘I thought it would be easier if I intended to build a nation from the start… but this has its own problems.’

Seeing Repenhardt sigh, Siris asked a question.

“Then, can’t you ask Makelin to help as your proxy?”

Repenhardt showed a troubled expression.

“Well… things are quite different from the imperial era. Now, this is solely administrative work managing humans, right? It’s fine to get some help from elves, but wouldn’t it be problematic if a dwarf were to take charge over humans as a proxy?”

Indeed, such a situation could cause resentment. The Duchy of Antares was still in its early stages, and it was not the right time to prominently feature other races. Unlike before, he couldn’t place dwarves or elves in administrative positions over humans.

Siris nodded in agreement.

“Well… there certainly aren’t enough human administrators in the Duchy of Antares right now.”

Dividing land among the refugees and appointing the hastily formed Knights of Antares to govern those lands could somewhat establish the basic framework of the territory.

However, internally, it was quite fragile. Noble-born knights might manage their lands well, but many of the mercenary-born knights were illiterate. Therefore, Repenhardt had to resort to the absurd administrative solution of appointing former palace attendants, who could read, as administrative assistants to the knights.

“The Duchy of Antares is barely running smoothly because it’s still early days and the population is so small. We can’t continue like this forever.”

They needed to select trustworthy individuals among the humans, verify their abilities, and cultivate talented people.

There was an enormous amount of work to be done. However, if Repenhardt tried to handle all of this by himself, recovering his magical power would remain a distant goal.

“Oh, I wish I could entrust everything to someone reliable and wander outside for a while!”

Siris, seeing Repenhardt’s lament, brought her finger to her cheek.

“Then you need someone trustworthy among the humans. They need to be highly skilled administratively and, in case of emergency, capable of protecting the White Castle as a warrior. What about Sir Azrael?”

“Azrael is a good guy, but he’s still a bit lacking to be entrusted with the entire duchy.”

“Then there aren’t any suitable candidates, are there?”

Siris tilted her head in puzzlement as she spoke. Repenhardt shook his head.

“Actually, there is a way to solve everything at once. But I’m not sure if it will work.”

“What method is that?”

Repenhardt grinned.

“There’s an incredibly capable person. So capable that it would be a shame to kill him.”

Siris clapped her hands in realization.

“Oh! That person!”

* * *

In a spacious training ground located on one side of the White Castle, a group of men were sweating and swinging their swords.

“Ha!”

“Hya!”

These were warriors who had gathered, trusting the reputation of the Fist Emperor, Repenhardt. Among them were the distinguished members of the Antares Knights, recognized for their outstanding skills. Though they had been knighted, they hadn’t yet been granted fiefs and remained at the White Castle.

“Nice strike! Try this one, Sir Stan!”

“Got it! Sir Baldwin!”

These robust, rough-looking men called each other ‘Sir’ with great enthusiasm. They were all former mercenaries recently knighted, and being addressed with the title ‘Sir’ was enough to make them happy.

Nearby, a few knights of noble origin shook their heads with wry smiles.

“Tsk tsk, it’s disgraceful for a knight to behave so undignified…”

“Isn’t it understandable? After all, we are now part of the same family.”

“That’s true.”

Despite being nobles, they didn’t seem to hold much resentment toward the mercenary knights.

They were those who had come here despite hearing rumors about treating non-humans as equals. Having passed Tassid’s test, even the noble-born knights remaining, like Azrael, were quite open-minded. Simply put, they were all good-natured individuals.

One young noble knight drew his sword and challenged a mercenary knight to a sparring match. He placed the sword against his chest and bowed politely. The middle-aged mercenary knight raised his sword to meet the challenge, and the young man grinned broadly.

“You must observe the etiquette of knights, even in sparring between members.”

“Indeed, I’m still not accustomed to it, haha.”

Despite the advice from a young person, the middle-aged man nodded obediently.

Mercenaries who had also passed Tassid’s test came to this place despite the rumors about the different races. Though it was unintentional, due to various circumstances, the Antares Knights ended up being composed entirely of individuals with strong but amiable personalities.

Clang! Clang!

Swords clashed in the air. Amidst the friendly atmosphere, two knights were engaged in sparring. One knight, resting in the shade of a tree to avoid the summer sun, suddenly looked towards the corridor and tilted his head.

“That person is wandering around again today?”

A man with black hair was slowly strolling through the corridor as if he were out for a walk. A dwarf maiden quietly followed him. The knights murmured to each other as they watched.

“Who is that person? He’s been in the castle from the beginning.”

“I asked, but even the servants don’t know.”

“He doesn’t seem to have any specific duties.”

“He’s always accompanied by the dwarf girl.”

There wasn’t a single member of the Antares Knights who wasn’t curious about the identity of the black-haired man.

He was clearly not a servant; his demeanor exuded nobility. Yet, he didn’t appear to be a knight or noble under Repenhardt’s command. He was merely a mysterious figure who occasionally appeared, leisurely strolled through the castle, and then vanished without a trace.

“Even Captain Azrael doesn’t know who he is.”

“Who could he possibly be?”

* * *

The black-haired man passing through the corridor glanced at the training ground. The dwarf maiden following him smiled softly and asked,

“Do you feel like wielding a sword, Mr. Carsus, knight among knights?”

“Oh, it’s not that, Miss Tilla. I just looked out of curiosity.”

Carsus shook his head as he looked at Tilla with gentle eyes. Tilla poked Carsus playfully in the side and said teasingly,

“Come on, if you’re itching to move, why don’t you swing a sword?”

“Is it alright to give a weapon to a prisoner?”

“Why act surprised now?”

Seeing Tilla’s mischievous smile, Carsus laughed along with her.

“Haha…”

He had been living as a prisoner here for three months already, and there was no longer any hostility in Carsus’s eyes towards the Duchy of Antares.