CHAPTER 318: CHAPTER 26 - MIDNIGHT VISIT

"Marquess Rommel, preparations have been completed. We have secured sufficient food supplies to undertake a military expedition together with Lily-sama."

In the middle of a cold and quiet night, Marquess Rommel received a report from one of his military officers who had arranged some of the preparations and the plan that would be carried out when the season of war between the nobles started.

"Are you sure this will be okay?" Marquess Rommel asked as he took a sip of the coffee Sebastian had made.

"Based on past events, there are some soldiers who are upset about not being included in the expedition unit that Lily-sama will lead. I think we will experience some morale drops among the remaining soldiers in Barracks."

"That’s going to happen because they want to join expedition unit, who will lead by Lily again. Can’t you calm their morale... with something?"

"I’m sure it will be complicated to do because our soldiers are already too immune to the extreme training we have been doing. If there are no interesting challenges for them to overcome, then it will be a lingering feeling of unmotivated, until Lily-sama returns home from her military expedition."

"Ugh, it’s giving me a headache. Why do our soldiers always want to do things that exceed human physical limits? I’m even surprised by this."

"Isn’t it because Marquess Rommel himself trained them to be able to surpass the physical limits of humans who were trained without using magic during Marquess Rommel’s family vacation?"

"..." Marquess Rommel was silent as if regretting what he had done while he was on a family vacation.

"I never thought that the training I was doing to fill my spare time would end up like this. Besides the First Main Division, is there a decline in morale among the other soldiers?" Marquess Rommel asked one of his top military officers.

"For now, they are busy keeping a watch dogs on the borders of the region after some rats managed to get through them and other rats that seem to be attracted to our delicious wheat fields, that made Marchioness Amagi conduct a special operation by releasing a unit of bloodhounds to hunt down other rats that are attracted to our sweet wheat fields."

"It can’t be helped, our sweet wheat fields always make other rats jealous and even invite rats from other regions to infiltrate our wheat fields. Speaking of bloodhounds hunting rats, are there any reports of official bloodhounds owned by the Adventurer’s Guild?"

Marquess Rommel’s question make the military officer in front of him to nod and take out an envelope that lacked an official seal.

"Yes, they asked not to hunt rats that their sniffer dogs were hunting," said the military officers, showing a crumpled piece of paper with writing encrypted with poetic verses.

Just by looking at the verses of poetry on the crumpled paper shown by one of his military officers, Marquess Rommel leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"This truly makes me regret being a Marquess who chooses to be a neutral noble. Without a reliable ally for things like this, I’m just opening a door to hope for help from others, huh?" Marquess Rommel grumbled, prompting Sebastian to offer him a suggestion.

"This is precisely a good thing to do, Marquess Rommel. By looking at the enemies that will occur in the future, it will allow Lily-sama to understand the current geopolitical conditions that are currently happening, to be applied to the future. To understand enemies who attack in chaotic times or enemies who are neutral without carrying out attacks from behind the scenes, we must be able to overcome difficult situations like this," said Sebastian, advising Marquess Rommel.

"This is like giving a concrete example of what we’re experiencing to Lily, huh?" Marquess Rommel asked, glancing at Sebastian.

"Yes, Marquess Rommel. This will train Lily-sama to become a Matriach who can overcome any emergency with full preparation and counterattack, just as Lily-sama did with the river that she sabotaged. We don’t know what Lily-sama did with that river, and it will be revealed when the war between the nobles begins. If my guess is correct, it will be related to one of her butterfly spirit abilities that gives a curse. In the worst case... Lily-sama has cursed people who drink or use the water from that river."

"Sebastian... somehow it feels terrible if it happens."

Tookk...

Tookk...

While the conversation in Marquess Rommel’s office was on a serious topic, a knock on the door was heard, and Sebastian rushed to open the door to Marquess Rommel’s office.

Crack...

The moment the door to Marquess Rommel’s office opened, several adult women wearing light armor walked in. This made several military officers who were in Marquess Rommel’s office stare at them with sharp eyes, especially at the shiny Duchess family insignia on the sleeves of the robes they were wearing.

"Good evening, Marquess Rommel. I hope you don’t mind our presence as we carry out orders from someone who is quite troublesome to refuse," said the female adventurer as she walked into Marquess Rommel’s office while carrying several cans of emergency food and an envelope sealed with the Duchess’s family crest.

Ploopp...

Pllookk...

Several adult women who entered Marquess Rommel’s office were from a renowned high-ranking adventurer party in the Adventurers’ Guild and were currently being hired by a high-ranking noble in the Aurora Kingdom. Their presence in Marquess Rommel’s office was to bring a message and cans of emergency food distributed by the Adventurers’ Guild.

"It would be more interesting for you to refuse this someone’s request, wouldn’t it?" Marquess Rommel replied with a joke that made the party of adventurers tremble.

"Believe me, Marquess Rommel... if we could refuse, we would be in a neighboring Kingdom and take a vacation for a while until this war tradition is over," said one of the adult women while opening the hood of her robe.

As the hood of her cloak opened, Marquess Rommel only smiled wryly when he recognized her.

"I didn’t know you would be treated like this by this... someone," said Marquess Rommel as he stared at the sealed envelope in front of him.

"If we’re talking about Duchess Kaori, she took something precious from you that you couldn’t escape from her bonds to do something like this. Which means... Duchess Kaori just made a large donation to one of the orphanages that raised you and asked one of your caretakers to persuade you to do this?" Marquess Rommel continued as he took an envelope that seemed to contain something important with a can of emergency food.

"You know Duchess Kaori... crazy behavior like this, Marquess Rommel?"

"Well, we’re talking about Duchess Kaori, who has gone mad after losing her husband. Anything can happen to a Duchess who doesn’t care about human morals," Marquess Rommel replied as he tore open the envelope addressed to him.

Marquess Rommel read the contents of the letter addressed to him, making him take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

"Aah, I didn’t expect this crazy Duchess to care about you girls. I’ll talk to Lily about this," Marquess Rommel continued as he folded the envelope and handed it to Sebastian to burn.

"Thank you, Marquess Rommel." Several adult female adventurers immediately bowed to Marquess Rommel before leaving Marquess Rommel’s office.

Hearing Marquess Rommel’s called Lily name, it made Sebastian curious about the contents of the letter he had read. However, as a butler who respected Marquess Rommel’s privacy, Sebastian quickly burned the envelope he had handed over to him.

"We have an unexpected new ally who is willing to commit acts that violate the code of the neutral Adventurer’s Guild."

"No... we already have a new ally who knows how to exploit the weaknesses of ambiguous rules that lack proper legal clarity to exploit from the rules of Adventurer Guild."

Marquess Rommel muttered something he knew himself, which made Sebastian rush to burn the envelope and try not to be too curious about the contents of the letter that Marquess Rommel had read.

"Sebastian, have you ever tasted the emergency food cans, Lily distributed some time ago?" Marquess Rommel asked suddenly.

"If it’s something Lily-sama gave me during the Golden King Bear hunting operation, then I’ve tasted it," Sebastian replied as he lit the envelope to make sure it was completely burned.

"Does it taste that good that it makes you addicted?"

Slurp...

While asking something that made Sebastian curious, Marquess Rommel drank the remains of the coffee that was now almost empty in his cup.

"At that time, I was eating dry food called emergency rations. Its hard texture made it difficult to swallow, and it tasted a bit bland, except for its strong sweetness. Is there something related to this food, Marquess Rommel?" asked Sebastian, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

"Well, it looks like Lily has do something related to the Quest request I submitted to the Adventurer’s Guild and added something big to it. Like this emergency food can in front of me," said Marquess Rommel as he took the emergency food can with the illustrated instruction manual.

"The adventurers asked Lily for permission to add a manual to the emergency food cans that would be distributed to the residents who had evacuated to a place I had prepared. For reasons I still don’t know, they wanted to ask for more of these emergency food cans, because they were addicted to the taste and the convenience of cooking them."

"Uh-huh... how about we try it?" Sebastian, who looked curious, wanted to taste it for himself.

Marquess Rommel immediately threw the emergency food can to Sebastian.

Sebastian readily accepted the thrown emergency food can and read the instruction manual that someone had carefully illustrated.

"It’s quite easy to understand how to cook it. We just add water to cook the food in this emergency food can," Sebastian muttered while reading the instruction manual on the edge of the emergency food can.

"What a coincidence, it’s already midnight. Would you like to try it together?" Marquess Rommel asked Sebastian, glancing at his military officers who were still in his office.

"I think it’s a good idea to take a break with a heavy snack like this," Sebastian said as he opened a can of emergency food and followed the cooking instructions on the edge of the can.

Pyyuurr...

Pyyuurr...

While watching Sebastian cook the emergency food cans, several military officers who had tasted Lily’s emergency food rations were also curious about the taste of the food from the emergency food cans, which looked different from before.

The moment they tasted it, they begged Lily the next day to get an emergency food can in front of Lily’s room.