The first proposal was to grant me a title without giving me any territory, integrating me into the kingdom as a court noble. The second was to grant the Ootori family both a title and territory, incorporating the family as a whole into the kingdom. The third was to create a special new title just for me. Those were the three main options.
The first proposal was born from the concern that giving me territory would make me too powerful, so while they would grant a title and favor me with privileges, they would make sure I had no army to speak of, and the title would be one that could be inherited by children. This proposal came from civil officials of the Royalist and Neutral Factions.
The second was based on the thinking that even without territory, the Ootori family could field an army whenever it pleased by using golems — or rather, that as long as Grandpa and I were around, any ordinary army would be nothing but dead weight. If that was the case, the reasoning went, it would actually be better to give us land so we couldn't drift away from the kingdom. This proposal supposedly came from the Royal Family itself, Duke Sanga's house, Marquis Samons's house, the House of Margrave Haust (with each family's eldest son acting as representative), Baron Mustang, and other acquaintances of mine among the Royalist and Neutral Factions, as well as nobles I didn't know personally who had fought alongside Jeanne on both the eastern and western fronts. It was apparently the most popular opinion of the three.
The third proposal came simply from nobles who didn't want a commoner like me standing above them. Most of them were defectors from the Reformist Faction or people who had suffered some disadvantage at the Ootori family's hands for one reason or another.
The first proposal was driven by the fear that I might become a threat to the kingdom if I had both power and territory, while the second was based on the idea that rather than offering a half-hearted reward and leaving lingering resentment, it was better to give everything they could and fully bring the family into the fold. Both came from a place of wanting what was best for the kingdom, but the third was rooted entirely in personal grudges and jealousy — and if handled poorly, it could make an enemy of me. That was why those who had put forward the first and second proposals opposed it.
When opinions were divided, the Royal Family's preferred option or any proposal that had the support of more than half would generally be adopted. However, since the first proposal contained points that couldn't simply be dismissed, discussions continued among the major nobles with the King at the center. In the end, though, it came down to two things: skimping on the Ootori family's reward would mean they'd have to slash the rewards of every noble with a lesser achievement by a corresponding amount, and they needed to actually hear what the Ootori family itself wanted. This led to the unusual situation of waiting for the Ootori family's response.
Meanwhile, during the first internal discussion within the Ootori family — held concurrently with the nobles' deliberations — Grandpa and I had said that "being nobles sounds like a huge pain," which had initially steered the conversation toward declining the title.
Albert, who had joined the discussion, was well aware of the hardships of noble life and seemed fine with whatever Grandpa and I decided. However, when Tida and Primera joined slightly later, they opposed the idea — Tida somewhat reluctantly, but Primera firmly — and the conclusion was postponed until the next round of discussions, taking Primera's health into account.
The second discussion began with the question of why Primera had been so opposed, and by the time that conversation wrapped up, the decision had been reached for all of us, myself included, to accept the title.
The second round concluded much sooner than I had expected, but that was entirely because we were thinking about the twins' future.
According to Primera, once the Ootori family's achievements had grown this large, it was impossible to either refuse the reward entirely or accept a lesser one. At the same time, accepting a reward that didn't match our standing would inevitably breed jealousy from those around us.
Most of that jealousy would clearly come from other nobles. As long as Grandpa and I were around and alive, it wouldn't be a problem. But once we were gone — once our reach no longer extended over things — those accumulated feelings would almost certainly be directed at our children and grandchildren, the twins' descendants. As for after our deaths, that was still decades away, but even then, the golem technology possessed by the Ootori family was the kind of thing nobles would give anything to get their hands on. Once the threat that was me was gone, they would undoubtedly try to seize it from our descendants.
To prevent that, it was an absolute condition that the Ootori family, not just me personally, possessed the strength to push back — and the surest way to do that was for me to accept a title. That was Primera's position.
Albert suggested that "if anything came up, the Duke Sanga household could protect the Ootori family," but from Primera's perspective, that was no different from having the Duke's house steal the Ootori family's strengths under the noble pretext of "protection." She opposed it, saying that since there was no telling how our descendants would be treated after being placed under someone else's wing, she couldn't just take that at face value.
It was essentially saying she couldn't trust the Duke's house — or rather, her own older brother. Albert had the confidence to say with certainty that nothing like that would happen during his generation, but he couldn't very well vouch for the generations of children and grandchildren yet to be born. He looked uncomfortable as he accepted her reasoning. Albert, too, must have figured that if a situation arose where the Ootori family needed protecting, he'd be able to get his hands on some of my technology — even if not to the extent Primera had suggested.
For all those reasons, the first thing decided was that the Ootori family would accept a title, and the next step was to set the conditions. I didn't expect everything to go through as requested, but Tida pointed out that if we didn't provide at least some detailed preferences, it would be difficult on the rewarding side as well, so we moved on to discussing the location and size of the territory. That was when suggestions started coming in that were... frankly more about having fun than anything else, and the discussion went in a rather bad direction, to be honest.
Partway through those discussions — before things went off the rails — Primera returned to the twins' side, with Aina going along to accompany her, which meant there was no longer anyone present who could keep us grounded and looking at things calmly. On top of that, the free-wheeling, "wouldn't it be cool if we did this and that" planning session — a conversation more like dreamers swapping wish lists than actual negotiations — was just too much fun. We ended up tossing out conditions like "what would be entertaining," "what could lead to profit," and "that guy would be annoyed if we did this, so let's do it," all while half-joking around. And in the end…
"The territory must be a location with potential for growth and an area befitting the rank of the title. The Royal Family shall not interfere with the family's own military or territorial governance beyond what is necessary. As for national taxes, exemptions or reductions shall be granted on a scale of several decades, and no deliberate harm shall be inflicted upon Ootori territory."
— the discussions concluded with demands like these, the kind that could easily be called going way too far.
Incidentally, the biggest goofball of the bunch was Gramps, with Hana and Amour tied for second place. Albert, whether because of his position as the eldest son of a prominent Royalist Faction figure or simply by nature, had thrown himself into supporting Tida's efforts to bring Gramps' demands into the realm of something remotely realistic. Din-san, meanwhile, was feeding advice that would work in our and Gramps' favor. Jeanne and Aura, from roughly the midway point onward, had switched over to maid duties like preparing tea, and Uncle Mark… well, he'd slipped out of the room while quietly apologizing to me, careful not to get caught up in Gramps' antics. As for Amour, he'd apparently lost track of the conversation at some point and become utterly absorbed in the snacks Jeanne and the others had prepared. Hana kept chiming in here and there with proposals that would supposedly benefit the south—like trying to wedge part of the Ootori family's territory into the Southern Autonomous Region, or pushing to position it near the region while as far from the Royal Capital as possible—only to be shot down immediately by Tida and Albert every time.
The conditions we'd settled on were enough to leave both Primera and Aina speechless. Tida had taken them back with a look on his face that practically screamed "I know I'm going to get chewed out by the King—or rather, by Caesar-sama—but I'll show them anyway." And yet, contrary to my expectations, the outlandish demands put forward by the Ootori family were adopted almost exactly as written.
I was told that later, Caesar-sama had remarked before the King and the assembled nobles, "Normally these would be laughable terms that any sane person would reject outright, but given the Ootori family's contributions, this is surprisingly cheap." That was apparently enough to settle the matter.
And so, the reward ultimately chosen for the Ootori family was: the area surrounding Kukuri Village—including the Great Old Forest—and, since a barony and a count's title on the western side had been slated for elimination anyway, roughly half their combined territory was thrown in as a bonus; a count's title; and thirty years of full tax exemption followed by another thirty years of tax reduction. As for the Kukuri Village area, since it fell within the domain of Border Count Houst, the finer details were to be worked out later between the Border Count and the Royal Family. It turned out that before this war even began, several secret agreements had already been struck between the Royal Family and the Houst Border Count's house—one of which stipulated that if, hypothetically, Imperial territory adjacent to the Border Count's domain were to be conquered, the seized land would go to the Border Count's house in exchange for ceding the southern portion of the Border Count's domain back to the Royal Family.
That sounded awfully convenient from my perspective, but it had actually been a proposal from the Border Count's house even before the war, and the reason had nothing to do with me—it was simply meant to make the Border Count's domain easier to manage. The current domain stretched vertically along the forest, which meant its borders with neighboring territories were longer than the domain's actual area warranted, requiring far too many places to defend.
As of now, no Imperial territory had actually been carved off yet. The Resistance had definitely been hijacked by that woman, and most of her zombie underlings had already been slain. The Royal Family was backing the Border Count, and they were assigning me the quest as an adventurer—so the Border Count would almost certainly succeed in claiming the Imperial side's territory. The designated quest assignment, though, I'd only just heard about for the first time then. But since I had no reason to refuse, I simply accepted.
After the merit-based reward distribution—including some of the provisional bonuses—I departed as a "reinforcement" under the pretext of relaying a message to the allied forces stationed in the Border Count's domain, heading toward a fortress near the border. Along the way, I encountered a messenger party from the Border Count's army that had been en route to the Royal Capital, explained the situation, and traveled onward to the fortress with part of their group.
And from the moment I linked up with the Border Count's army, the territorial carving proceeded at a remarkable pace.
First, I flew ahead from the border fortress eastward—several dozen kilometers into Imperial territory—and constructed a fortified outpost there with walls and a moat capable of garrisoning roughly a thousand troops, then stationed over a hundred Golems to defend it. Next, I set up identical outposts to the north and south, each a few kilometers away from the first, and garrisoned them with Golems as well.
These three outposts formed a single defensive unit. I then repeated the process—shifting eastward in the same formation at intervals of several dozen kilometers—building two more sets before returning to the original outpost.
When I arrived back, the Border Count's army had already assembled, so we joined forces. Since building those three defensive positions and returning hadn't even taken a full day, Laila Agrissa—who had been promoted to Knight Commander by that point—greeted me at the outpost with a thoroughly exasperated expression.
And so, the Houst Border Count's house carved off Imperial territory and brought it under its control while simultaneously ceding the southern portion of its domain to the Royal Family, which was then formally granted to the Ootori family as their reward. I officially became a count. But acquiring a vast territory and a noble title was hardly the end of things. Between surveying my domain—which was really just an excuse for a family trip—and assembling a retinue befitting a count's household, my days became overwhelmingly busy.
For the record, the initial members registered to the Ootori household were: Din-san, Jin, Garat, Menace, Lina, Kelly, and Agri.
Din-san had ostensibly resigned from the Royal Guard to help spring me from captivity and placed himself under the Ootori family's banner, so I let him stay on as-is. As for Jin and the rest, they'd been running their mouths every time they got drunk about "helping build a nation" or "hiring us once Tenma gets promoted." The moment my appointment to a title and domain was announced, they showed up practically begging to be recruited, so I took them in. Most likely, Jin was already slated to receive a title of his own in the future, and he wanted to get under the Ootori umbrella first so that, once he was ennobled, any headaches could be offloaded onto me. Well, I was fine with that—on the condition that they actually earned their keep.
Kelly had already been on friendly terms with the Ootori family for some time and had been playing a key role as something close to a family member even before the war started. I extended an offer on a whim, and she agreed—on the condition that even as a retainer, her work as a blacksmith would take priority. That suited me just fine.
Agri was less a retainer than an advisor. I'd recruited almost exclusively combat-oriented people, and I was certain we'd run into serious trouble without at least one so-called "person of integrity" who could offer opinions and keep the others in check. Plus, if Agri came on board, I figured we could rope in the Tamer's Guild through her connections—like pulling things along by their roots.
The retinue was small for a count's household, but thanks to the thirty-year tax exemption, we had plenty of breathing room for territorial management. My priority had been to start small with people I could absolutely trust. If I'd rushed to build a retinue on a scale befitting a count's title, nobles with ulterior motives would inevitably have weaseled their way in, and I could see exactly how badly that would end. Besides, even with a small number of retainers, the Ootori family had an entire legion of Golems—what mattered was having trustworthy people who could command them.
And so, I'd been steadily assembling my retinue while simultaneously working on developing the territory. The problem was, the only place that looked like it could generate meaningful tax revenue was the city of Russell—and even that was still reeling from the zombie attack that had crippled its functions as a city. I had to move quickly on economic reform. And on top of that, I needed to develop a new central hub for Ootori territory.
The road ahead was full of obstacles and shrouded in uncertainty, but… somehow, every single person involved was inexplicably optimistic that things would work out.