170 Eld nobles (1/2)

Roussien, Princess of the Elves

The keluneire car carries us under the blue sky.

The magic car, driven by the golden-horned deer Kelyneia, is fast and gets us here in less than 10 days.

Looking out, there are no trees, and we can see far away without using magic.

This is a place called the plains, unlike the forest we live in.

The sight of such a treeless scene reminds me of how far away from the forest I am.

”Master Rouxien,” he said. I can see it, that must be Eldo, the land of the heroes.

Tess leans out the car window to tell me.

Tess is a tree elf (dryad) girl who has recently come to serve me.

She is young and has only lived about 100 years.

Before she served me, she lived in the forest near the land of the humans.

So I brought her here because I thought she would be useful for going to the human country.

In fact, she knows a lot about humans and has been very helpful on our journey so far.

Oh, let's see. Let me see it, too~

Followed by Tess, Piala the Wind Elf (Napier) also looks out the window.

She looks like a child.

But Piala has lived the longest of all of us and has had two children.

She's prankster and uninhibited, and she often hides herself and goes to play in human country.

That's why I asked her to accompany me on this trip as well as Tess.

''Piera-dono, Tess. It's before the princess.

Oleola frowns at Tess and Piala like that.

Oleola, a bow elf (Oleiad), is my escort.

She's my age, she's been with me since we were little and we grew up together. She has followed me on this journey with me.

She is an excellent archer like the other Oreiad, and when we were attacked by a group of lowly and vile goblins along the way, she was able to repel them with her help.

'That's fine, Oreola. Let's go faster than that. Let's go to that brave man that Reena-sama approved of.

I reply with a wave of my hand.

In the first place, I came to the land of men to see the brave men.

Some of the elves work in the Heavenly Palace of Elyos.

I am one of them.

And I, the Arseid, who is called the Upper (High) Elf, and I, the Elf Princess, am to serve at the side of that beautiful Lady Raina.

The beautiful and dignified Lady Raina is the one I admire.

I was curious about the man she loved.

There have been many brave men that Lady Raina has had her eyes on, but I'm sure she has never loved any of them.

Therefore, there are rumors about that brave man in the heavenly realm.

That's why I came here from the Everlasting Youthful City of Arceidia to take a glance at him.

''Speaking of which, what happened to Nimu-san?　I believe you went to check on him first?

Tess asks Piara next to me.

Nimu, a water elf (naiad), was one of my traveling companions and had gone ahead to check on me.

The plan was to meet up with him in Eldo, but now, due to certain circumstances, he's already separated from me.

'Ah, then. 'Tess. Nimu would hook up with a guy and leave us, and I'm sure they'd be doing it all over right now, right?　westward

Piara smiles disgustingly.

I let out a sigh upon hearing those words.

Nimu left Eldo after informing him of his condition through his messenger, the bird, and then he left Eldo.

Apparently, she had found a man she liked and followed him.

I'm not going to say anything in particular, since he's not officially serving me, he's just fulfilling his mission.

But it's irritating because it seems that she's putting a human man before me.

But I know that elves are of that nature.

It seems that when an elf really loves someone, they can't help themselves. Maybe Nimu is the same.

'Lord Piara. It's quite vile. ...... Well, I'm certainly curious what Nimu is up to.

Oleola lets out a sigh.

Oleola, like me, has never been with a man.

She seems to be somewhat envious of Nimu.

I don't envy him, but it certainly bothers me. What does it mean to love someone?

Do I ever love someone so much that I can't help myself?

I can't stop thinking about that.

Under the blue sky, the Kelluneier car carries us forward.

Towards Eldo, where the brave man Rage is.

The black-haired wise man Chiyuki.

A multi-purpose hall built next to the palace of Eldo, where we live.

It is a rectangular building, twice the size of a school gymnasium, that was originally intended to be a playground, but has now been converted to a conference hall.

Originally it was supposed to be used as a playground, but now it is being converted into a conference hall.

Attending the meeting are myself, Chiyuki and Reigi, Kyoka and Kaya, and a group of aristocrats who are the leading citizens of Eldo.

The reason why the meeting is held in the multipurpose hall is because the number of nobles has increased due to the increase in the population of Eldo and the existing meeting room has become too small.

In front of me, the Eldo nobles are gathered in front of me.

Most of them are mature men and all of them are dressed in luxurious clothes.

The clothes are long robes of flax, made of expensive dyes. Some wear patternless clothes, while others have beautiful paisley patterns.

They are adorned with a variety of precious metal accessories.

They are adorned with agate, lapis lazuli, carnelian and jasper.

It is not surprising, since they are nobles, but some of them may have gone to the trouble of buying new clothes in order to participate in the conference.

When one thinks of nobles, one associates them with the privileged class seen in comics or novels that only exploit the people, but that's not the case with the nobles of this world.

Most of the aristocrats in this world are the heads of clans and their close relatives who have become hereditary.

Nobles have an obligation to take care of the lives of those who belong to their clan. It is the so-called nobleman's duty to take care of their lives.

In exchange for being taken care of, they swear loyalty to the nobles.

In other words, the nobles are not just exploiters.

Also, clans are often made up of blood relatives, but there are times when they welcome those who are not blood relatives.

When welcoming them in, the non-blood relatives exchange cups with the nobles, and the relationship becomes one of parent and child. The nobleman is the parent, of course.

When I first heard that, I thought it was like chivalry.

And indeed, it seems to be correct in that understanding. The clan is sometimes called a separate family, because they are actually your people.

Those chivalrous master nobles are gathered together because we've set up a forum for them to be heard.

Eldo is our dictatorship in running the state. We can run it without the nobles' opinions.

But if we are going to run the state efficiently, it is better to have the cooperation of the nobles.

They are the bosses of the organization called clan. They'll fill in the gaps that we can't fill on our own.

And if we're going to ask for their cooperation, we need to listen to their opinions.

The reason why the number of nobles has increased to the extent that it was moved to a multi-purpose hall instead of the existing conference room is because we encouraged the weak clan chiefs, who would not normally be called nobles, to participate in the meeting. Thanks to this, it is hard to remember the names of the nobles.

We don't have a particular name for the council right now, but I'm thinking of naming it the House of Lords or the Senate at some point.

''What do you mean by that?　Mr. Chiyuki?　What about not adding new arable land?　With the power of a brave man, Lizardmen and others are not to be feared.

A nobleman, Ohata tells me.

He is sixty years old and was originally a nobleman of the Republic of St. Renaria.

When we created the Eld nation, he gave up his position as head of the noble family of St. Renaria to his son and came to this country with part of his family.

Oohata is a nickname. The nickname came from the fact that they ran a lot of arable land in the St. Renaria Republic.

At present, he is in charge of the development of most of the cultivated land in Eldo. After all, most of the cattle needed for cultivation were provided by him.

'I meant what I said. 'I meant what I said, Ohata-dono. We have enough food now, now is not the time to reclaim the swamp and increase the amount of land under cultivation. We have decided that now is the time to focus on improving the city instead of expanding the cultivated land.

I shake my head and reply.

I really want to have more land to cultivate in case of an emergency. But I don't want to fight with the lizardmen and others who live by the water by reclaiming more wetlands. That's why we didn't want to expand our cultivated land any further.

But that can't be a reason.

For the followers of the God King Odis and the Goddess of War, Raina, defeating demons and expanding the human world is justice.

Ohata is a follower of Gena, the goddess of agriculture, but he also worships Raina.

From their point of view, lizardmen are also demons. They can't say they don't want to fight demons, so they won't increase them.

When I say that, Ohata looks dissatisfied.

Well, that's probably true too. With the power of Rage, Lizardmen and others are not enough to fear. And the more land under cultivation, the more his interests will increase.