The moment I stepped into the lord's manor, Ifrit, a man clad in black attire wrapped in black and crimson flames, clicked his heels together.
"Salute to our Supreme Great One!"
His voice bellowed, echoing throughout the room. At the same time, Titan, a brown-haired boy standing attentively behind Felice's seat wearing the exact same black clothes as the flaming man, also called out.
"Long live our Great One!"
Snapping into a crisp posture, he pressed his right hand against his forehead in salute.
The other town representatives aside from Felice rose to their feet as well, placing their hands over their hearts in deference.
In the middle of this headache-inducing display—
(Hey, no matter how you look at it, they're doing that for Master, right?)
(Y-Yeah. It really feels like Princess Rosemary ruling is just for show, and Master's the actual ruler here.)
Such terribly indiscreet whispers drifted to my ears from Somni and Tetor behind me.
I mean, isn't calling me a "ruler" taking things a bit too far? That makes me sound like the head of some evil syndicate from an otherworldly tale. Calling me a governor would at least sound somewhat better.
"Or so they say, Great One."
Rose gave a mischievous smirk, planting both hands on her slender hips as she leaned in and whispered into my ear.
"Hey, cut it out..."
Rose was clearly having the time of her life with this. Her ultimate goal was self-governance by the people. In the first place, she had no real ambition to rule as a monarch. To her current standards, the attitude of this town's residents—where equality was guaranteed regardless of status or human race, and where people took the initiative without waiting for orders—might already count as a roaring success.
Well, while I wasn't thrilled about being used as a convenient excuse, it wasn't causing any real harm. Besides, my involvement with this town was strictly an investment in my future slow life. In other words, purely temporary. If that was the case, I saw no need to fuss over it.
Even so—
"Felice, you've gotten pretty gaunt since the last time I saw you."
I offered my honest impression to Felice, a girl of about fourteen or fifteen with one strand of golden hair tied off to the side, who was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes. It had only been about a month since our last meeting, but her cheeks had hollowed out noticeably.
"Whose fault do you think that is?!"
To Felice, who practically hissed with pent-up resentment, I tilted my head.
"Hmm? Did I do something?"
"Did you do something, you ask?!"
She sprang to her feet with furious energy.
"Day in and day out, I was trapped in some bizarre Territory whipped up by your subordinate, enduring days of utter torture!"
Flailing her arms, she let out a shrill shriek. Seeing her make her case with such tragic intensity, large tears brimming in her eyes, it wasn't hard to piece together what had transpired.
"Days of torture... What on earth did you guys do to her?"
Looking over my shoulder, I asked Lucas, who was almost certainly one of the ringleaders. Knowing this elderly gentleman was involved, I doubted it was anything more than a spoiled girl's dramatic exaggeration, though tolerance for hardship did vary from person to person.
"It was nothing of great consequence. We merely had the princess spend around thirty years in Lady Norn's Territory to acquire the knowledge necessary to serve as the lord of this town."
Rose was the king of Eastend. Since there were currently no other lands to oversee, Rose was nominally serving as lord as well, but that wouldn't hold up once our territory expanded. Moving forward, we needed Felice to step up and govern as the lord of Ket Gwy. Naturally, that meant forging her into someone with the flawless capability required of a ruler. I had casually dropped instructions to the monsters in the Compendium to handle it.
"Thirty years, huh. Yeah, that really is no big deal."
Here I was wondering what kind of terrible torture she went through, and it turned out she was just having knowledge drilled into her for thirty years. Felice really was an incorrigible chicken. That barely even registered as an ordeal by normal standards.
"Indeed it is. She is an utter chicken."
A chicken indeed. Though frankly, Asta, given that your title is the Chicken Majin, you're the last person she wants to hear that from.
"Yeah, thirty years or so is nothing."
"Sure is."
Zack and Oboro nodded in agreement. As I thought, this was just common sense.
On the other hand—
"Th-Thirty years...?"
Young Tetor was left completely speechless.
"No, no, Master, that's a massive deal by anyone's standards!"
Young Somni shouted back in disbelief.
"It's no use. Almost everyone in this room has already been thoroughly infected by Kai's utter lack of common sense."
Rose gave an exhausted shrug, sighing as if she were completely drained.
Hey, Rose, don't talk about me like I'm some kind of contagious plague! Even I have feelings, you know!
"Master, I'm bored."
Tugging on my sleeve, Faf peered up at me to make her request.
"All right. We still have a little time before lunch. Go play outside, the lot of you."
I gave Faf, Mew, and Fen each a pat on the head, granting them permission.
"Yay, okay!"
"Okay!"
"Yeah!"
The two girls and one wolf pup nodded vigorously, their faces lighting up with pure joy as they dashed straight out of the building.
Mm, Faf was getting much better at being away from my side. Well, it was still only for a few hours at a time, and if an entire day passed without seeing me, her mood would turn thoroughly foul. Regardless, this was significant growth for her. As her stand-in father, I ought to take genuine pride in watching my daughter mature.
"Well then, let's put the idle chatter aside and get down to business."
The moment I tried to steer the meeting forward—
"It is not idle chatter!"
Leaving Felice sobbing and face-planted on her desk out of the corners of our eyes, the rest of us settled into our seats around the table.