“Yeah… you’ve done a fantastic job, Sirius. I’ve taught you almost everything I can, and you’ve learned it all so well.”
“Yes! Thank you so much, brother!!!”
Half a year before my brother went to the academy, he said that to me.
To me, my brother is someone more revered than a god.
He possesses deep wisdom to contemplate all matters, knowledge to enrich our country, the strength to brave the Demon Forest, and even magical prowess.
Ah, how frustrating it is that I can’t serve my brother!
But someone as great as my brother must not end his life as a rural lord in this remote area.
That would be a loss for the world.
For now, he remains in this countryside, but once he goes to the academy in the royal capital, his fame will soon spread throughout the world…
What I—no, what I must do is to make our domain prosperous by quickly making our incompetent father retire.
Fortunately, I’ve already secured control of the household.
The steward, Oliver, and his son, the next steward, Jean, are already my subordinates.
I promised to hire the children of the maids, and the soldiers agreed to betray my father in exchange for land and jobs for their sons.
In the end, a lord who can’t provide for his people, like my father, is destined to be betrayed.
In a world where even nobles of the same country compete, how can one think they won’t be betrayed?
My father doesn’t understand that.
Thus, I hired around two hundred people, including the children of servants and soldiers, children sold off by villagers to reduce mouths to feed, and vagrants, and fed them with the hidden fields my brother helped me create.
For the common people, it doesn’t matter who the ruler is, as long as they can eat.
In turn, if they believe their ruler will feed them well, they will fight for them with their lives…
My father, who can’t understand this simple truth, is truly hopeless. I must get rid of him soon.
My brother went to the academy.
And the magic that had been cast over the forest was lifted.
The village was in an uproar.
A vast, newly cultivated field had appeared in the Demon Forest.
I lined up about forty soldiers equipped with crossbows, trained as hunters, and said,
“Calm down! I am Sirius Rayvan, the new lord of this land!”
Naturally, the villagers were abuzz.
Now is the time to use the rhetoric my brother taught me.
“Listen well, subjects! My brother Exus has departed for the royal capital! He will never return!”
Yes, never again.
“Wizards usually serve powerful nobles in big cities, not in rural areas like this! He will not come back!!!”
However…
“But! My brother, worried about the people left behind, used his magic to secure many fields and livestock for us!”
Let’s raise my brother’s reputation.
As my brother ascends to great heights, we don’t need any useless infamy that he abandoned his people!!!
“And I, Sirius Rayvan, have been entrusted with these by my brother Exus!”
“Oooh!!!”
Good… now then.
“Subjects! Follow me! If you do, I will ensure you do not go hungry! But those who do not comply will be struck down here!”
Before the murmurs could spread, I shouted!
“Now, choose! Will you follow my father and starve, or will you work under me and have enough to eat?!”
“Ooh…”
“I’ll serve Lord Sirius!”
“Me too! Look at those fattened livestock!”
“Me as well!”
Heh heh heh… well, of course.
In the new fields, there’s more than enough food, so even the livestock are well-fed.
Besides that, with the new farming methods growing crops to feed the livestock in fallow land, the livestock are fed well year-round.
We can keep the livestock fed even through winter without slaughtering them.
Also, by growing a variety of crops, if one fails, we can compensate with others.
And if we use the manure from the fattened livestock as compost, the fields will flourish.
All of this is thanks to my brother’s teachings.
Hm…?
“Sirius!!! What are you doing?!”
Oh… here comes Father.
“Oh my, Father. You’re here early.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I won’t tolerate treason!”
“Treason…? You’re saying something quite strange.”
I snapped my fingers…
All the soldiers with my father turned their swords on him.
“Everyone except you is on my side. The rebel against the regime is you, Father.”
“You… you scoundrel…!”
“Well, even someone as useless as you, I promise to keep you as a common soldier. Throw down your sword and surrender.”
“What nonsense! What parent would bow to their child? And besides, the next head of the family is Exus!!!”
This fool…!!!
“Because of you! Because of ‘that,’ my brother and I have suffered! How can you not understand, you incompetent fool!!”
“Wha…?!”
“I’ve heard that my brother could use magic from the age of three…! If you hadn’t tethered him to this land, he would have soared in the royal capital years ago!”
“N-no…”
“The sin of wasting my brother’s life, who possesses supreme talent, is heavy on you!”
It’s fine if you think I lack the capability to be the lord.
But at this point, you still think my brother should be the head?
The head of this shitty knightly family?!
Are you mocking us, you incompetent fool!!!
“Wh-what suffering?! You who played every day with Exus and your siblings!!”
Huh…?
He didn’t notice?
…How much more must he insult us to be satisfied?
“Don’t joke with me, you knave…!”
“Knave?! You called your parent a knave?!”
“Parent? Parent, you say! Did you ever call yourself a parent to us?!”
Don’t joke, don’t joke with me!
“While you prattled on about the pride of knights and played your trivial stick-waving games, do you even know how hungry we were?!”
“Stick-waving games?! You scoundrel! That was knight training!”
“In this cold village, where only occasional bandits or stray goblins come, and there’s hardly anything to steal, what knight training is that?! First, as a parent, you should not let your children starve! Do you know what we did while you were playing under the guise of training?!”
“Th-that is…”
“We learned how to catch beasts and till the fields from our brother! It was not you who raised us! It was our brother! Thanks to our brother, we siblings could live without starving!!!”
Yes, that’s right.
It’s all thanks to my brother.
Studies, etiquette, hunting, and farming, all taught by my brother!
Our parent is our brother!
“A fool who can’t even feed his own family properly, let alone his subjects, what are you prattling about now?! Enough, disappear to wherever you please!”
“You… y-you! A duel! If you are a noble, follow the proper etiquette…”
Fool…!
Still talking!
“Enough. Hunters… release.”
×××××××××××××××
Excerpts from the Great Figures of the Kingdom of Viltoria
Count Sirius von Rayvan
Though the younger brother of the demonic Exus, his name is more famous in military history than in the history of magic.
The first time his name appears in military history is in the year 274 of the royal calendar. During the war with the Adon Magician Kingdom, which existed in the northeast of the Kingdom of Viltoria at that time, at the Battle of Hanasanica, Sirius (then a knight baron) led his forty ‘Black Rabbit Hunters’ to hide in the dangerous ‘Demon Forest’ and launched a lightning assault on the rear guard of the Adon Magician Kingdom, taking down the army’s commander, Marquis Zaboa Tsen Zuckerberg.
This strategy of launching an assault from difficult terrain with a small, elite force is known as the ‘elite surprise attack’ and is still spoken of in later generations.
