My name was Mikel.
I turned seventeen this year and was a member of the Korin religion within the Reiwight Kingdom. Of course, I was referred to as "the son of High Priest Fouche" far more often than I was ever called Mikel.
I understood that it couldn't be helped. After all, I had no achievements of my own worth mentioning. I was just a human man who was a little bothered by that fact.
Today, I heard that my mother had gone on a rampage in the Royal Castle’s courtyard.
"It was not a rampage; it was training," she corrected me when I asked.
"Did you not give prior notice? It caused quite a stir, you know."
"That was the request from the royal family. They wanted to see a glimpse of Alfred’s power."
"So, the royals were behind it?"
"If anything, it was the Prime Ministers," she replied.
Every one of those Prime Ministers was exceptionally capable.
"Yes," Mother continued. "In particular, the way they maintain their distance from the Korin religion is exquisite. It helps us in many ways."
"That’s true. Come to think of it, you seem to have suddenly grown closer to the Chief Priest-warrior, Lord O'Brien. Weren't you two bitter rivals?"
"He and I go back a long way. He likely cooperated after taking our circumstances into account. Besides, the rivalry was an act. Did I not mention that?"
I hadn't heard a word of it. It was all a performance?
"Yes. By doing so, any dissatisfaction with the Priest-warrior Division would be directed at me, while dissatisfaction with the Korin religion would fall on him. Logical, isn't it?"
I-I see. Mother did these sorts of things with such a straight face; perhaps that was why people called her "Wicked." As her son, I would have preferred a mother who was loved rather than feared, but...
"Um, Mother?"
"What is it?"
"What are those strange poses you’ve been striking in front of the mirror for the last few minutes?"
"They are not strange poses. These are the Korin Religion Secret Poses."
"M-My apologies. What kind of poses are they, exactly?"
"These are forms devised by the Sovereign to facilitate smooth dialogue with others."
The Sovereign himself had created them?
"Yes. They allow you to communicate even with those whose language you cannot understand."
I hadn't known such poses even existed.
"Because they are a secret. However, it seems that initially, they weren't secret at all. He recommended them widely to all believers."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, but... at some point, the Sovereign suddenly sealed these poses away."
"I wonder why."
"I don't know. However, some believers who regretted their loss kept records and passed them down through the generations, eventually turning them into a secret."
"I see."
"But just because it's a tradition doesn't mean it is set in stone. One is free to incorporate their own unique interpretations and arrangements. After all, everyone has a different physique. If the poses were fixed, there would be people who could perform them and those who couldn't."
"That makes sense."
"That is why I am pursuing the forms that best suit my own body."
I understood the logic, but I wondered why she had started so suddenly.
"I haven't practiced them lately, but I used to do them all the time before you were born. It was these poses that first piqued my interest in the Korin religion."
"Oh, really?"
"I had a chance encounter with one of the practitioners passing them down. I wouldn't say I mastered them, but I practiced enough to be reasonably proud of my skill. Though, as you might expect, my joints' range of motion isn't what it was in my youth... It’s quite a bother."
I gave a strained laugh.
"However," she noted, "poses that lacked dignity when I was young can be performed properly now. The range of expression may have actually expanded. Oh, if you're interested, you should try them too. It’s a good way to clear your head during work."
"I’ll... consider it."
It was almost time for the dining hall to open, so I ushered Mother along.
Currently, my job was to serve as Alfred’s Guide. I wasn't his caretaker; other people had been assigned to that. There were several attendants who had been specifically trained to serve the royal family, along with a few gardeners who doubled as escorts. I believed those gardeners were actually high-ranking Priest-knights of the Korin religion, and I wondered if it was really alright to make them do manual labor. But I suppose it wasn't my place to worry.
As his guide, my role was simply to accompany Alfred whenever he went out to ensure he didn't get lost—physically, not theologically. Alfred knew nothing about the local geography.
He was an important guest from a distant land. When I was a child, I had suffered from a nearly incurable illness, and Mother had introduced Alfred to me as the son of the man who had created the medicine that saved my life.
At first, he had been a quiet boy, and I was a little worried about whether he’d be alright. After all, Mother was his guardian. Since she had many political enemies, it was easy to predict they would target Alfred just to spite her.
What I hadn't expected was Alfred’s grit. He would lightly laugh off the snide remarks from noble children who wore their hostility like a badge of honor. He wouldn't even properly engage them, dismissing their posturing about "noble language" and etiquette. By refusing to play their game, he ensured that the only people who grew tired were his opponents. Eventually, they would just give up and leave.
I was deeply impressed. I, on the other hand, had nearly fought three duels just over insults directed at my mother. I felt I should learn from his example. Incidentally, Mother had crushed those duels before they could even take place—along with the opponents’ entire households. That was the terrifying side of my mother.
However, even Alfred seemed affected by the incident with the Princes. Perhaps he was bothered by Mother and Lord O'Brien going on a rampage on his behalf. He stayed inside to rest for a while.
When he finally started coming outside again, I was shocked by his physical growth. I thought he was a different person entirely, but Mother insisted it was just a growth spurt, so I swallowed my doubt.
Once Alfred’s body grew larger, he became much more proactive. He didn’t seem to care in the slightest about the previous trouble with the Princes, yet he reconciled with them with perfect grace. That wasn't something just anyone could do. Though he claimed to be plagued by indecision, from my perspective, he was moving forward at an incredible pace. If he weren't, he wouldn't be using those same Princes to spearhead his various projects.
First, there were the outhouses. Alfred seemed to find the sanitation in this country appalling. It was normal to me since I was used to it, but it was apparently a source of great stress for him.
I wondered what he would do about it, and he started by remodeling the outhouse in the mansion he had been given. Moreover, instead of hiring a professional, he did the work with his own hands. He even went out to buy the materials himself. I accompanied him, so I saw it with my own eyes—he scrutinized every piece of timber and stone.
Just when I thought that was the end of it, a kingdom-wide project to improve sanitation was launched, along with the development of modern water supply and sewer systems. With the Princes acting as figureheads, massive amounts of funding were poured into the effort from both the three royal families and the Korin religion.
There were factions that opposed spending tax money on such things, but Alfred simply ignored them. The outhouses associated with the supporting factions became clean and efficient, while the opposing factions were simply pushed to the back of the line. Since they were the ones who had protested the project in the first place, they couldn't even complain about being left behind.
I was shocked by the results. I had never imagined an outhouse could be such a comfortable place. I realized then that sanitation really was important.
Next was the food. It seemed the local cuisine didn’t suit Alfred’s palate. I thought he might hire a personal cook, but instead, he moved forward with plans to open a restaurant in the city.
I wasn't sure how it had escalated that far, but I wasn't about to complain about new, delicious food. The dishes I sampled during the prototyping phase were incredible, and even Mother was delighted.
I looked forward to more shops like that, though I wondered why he had made a Prince the public representative. I suppose, considering he wanted to avoid trouble, a Prince was a safer choice for a front man than the unknown Alfred.
However, the local Commerce Guild eventually grew greedy. They threatened him to hand over the recipes for his new dishes, and when he refused, they began to blatantly interfere with his business. They were fools. Perhaps they had overlooked the fact that the shop was legally owned by a Prince. The noble serving as the Prince’s guardian led a group of knights and threatened the Commerce Guild right back.
To be precise, they crushed the Guild entirely. That was the natural consequence of laying a hand on a royal business. Alfred, however, noted that the complete collapse of the Commerce Guild would cause too much chaos, so it was allowed to remain—after the entire leadership was purged and replaced. The new Commerce Guild now sat firmly under Alfred’s control.
I suspected for a moment that he might have used the shop as bait to seize the Guild, but since he didn't seem to want anything from them, that likely wasn't the case. Even when the new Guild Master came to pay his respects, Alfred just left the meeting to his attendants.
Then there were the fields. Alfred expressed a desire to do farm work. The three royal families and the Korin religion, assuming he wanted territory, rushed to prepare land for him, but they were wrong. Alfred simply wanted a field, just as he had said. He didn't even want a large one; he was looking for something the size of a slightly expanded home garden.
One of the royal families, relieved by the modest request, gave him land they owned near the Royal Castle. However, Alfred didn't accept the deed directly, instead arranging for it to be held by one of the Princes. Since the nobility was always fussy about land near the capital, it was a wise move.
But there were always idiots. Some noble children started a commotion, claiming he was conceited for being granted land near the castle despite having no achievements. They ignored the fact that the Prince officially owned the land and Alfred was simply tilling it. These noble sons ordered their subordinates to ruin the field Alfred had worked so hard to cultivate.
This made Alfred absolutely furious. He snapped so hard that I found myself wondering where his mild-mannered attitude had gone. He caught the vandals and the noble children who had ordered them and actually tried to bury them alive right there in the field. I honestly thought it might be for the good of the country to just let him finish, but I reluctantly stopped him. Judgment had to be left to the crown.
I had to clarify that when I told him to stop burying them alive, I didn't mean he should switch to crucifixion.
A little while later, the parents of the noble children learned of the incident and begged the royal family for mercy. The long-standing issue of fragmented land rights near the Royal Castle was suddenly resolved as the terrified parents surrendered their claims. The royal family, while wearing complicated expressions, handed those lands over to the Prince acting as Alfred’s proxy.
Finally, there was the uninhabited island. Alfred mentioned that the city was a bit too noisy and asked for a place with fewer people. That turned out to be a contested island. The three royal families and the Korin religion presented Alfred with top-secret maps, asking him to take his pick.
The island Alfred chose was in a perfect, yet problematic, position between the Reiwight Kingdom and its neighbors. Everyone claimed ownership, but because it was a hassle to develop, no one had actually touched it.
As expected, it started an international dispute. Furthermore, the island was infested with Magic Beasts and Monsters. But Alfred headed there anyway, taking the Princes with him.
However, the problems vanished almost immediately. Apparently, a Dragon had been spotted flying over the island recently, and the monsters had all fled in terror. Alfred certainly had luck on his side.
As for the neighboring countries, they suddenly went silent. That was because the Korin religion’s strongest armed group had mobilized. Mother had a look of immense satisfaction on her face, and I suspected Lord O'Brien had coordinated with her.
When I asked what had happened to the ownership, I was told that every country had withdrawn its claim. I assumed that meant it now belonged to the Reiwight Kingdom, but I was wrong—the Kingdom had withdrawn its claim as well. The island was now officially Alfred’s private land.
Wait, if he owned his own sovereign territory, didn't that make him a King rather than a Lord? I suppose it didn't matter.
"We can't just allow him to take that island," the neighboring countries had initially protested.
"That place has been declared the Island of God," Mother had countered. "If you have a complaint, please feel free to bring it to us with force of arms."
"That is going too far. Do you really think you'll make it home alive?"
"You've noticed the Dragon, haven't you?" Mother asked.
"What of it? It’s just a wandering Dragon. It happens."
"I thought you'd say that," Mother replied coolly.
"Wait... you don't mean...?"
"As far as I'm concerned, I am offering you a helping hand."
"And not just for the benefit of the Korin religion?"
"Your continued survival is the benefit of the Korin religion," Mother stated.
"Understood. We will observe the situation for the time being."
After the ambassadors left, Lord O'Brien turned to Mother. "Was it really necessary to bring the knights and everyone else?"
"There are hot-tempered fools everywhere," Mother replied. "Even if the leaders are convinced... oh, here they come now."
Lord O'Brien laughed. "Hahaha! Alright, form ranks! We're kicking them out!"
"Form ranks here as well!" Mother shouted. "We're charging through!"