The rry-making ended yesterday. Today is the ti I attended an official business as a noble. Though I said its an official business its not so kind of eting.
I shall appoint all of you as knights.
We are deeply grateful for Your Majestys generosity. Once again, allow us to swear our loyalty to the crown and to this country.
Today is the knights appointnt ceremony. The ceremony is held on the day the first king rose to the throne sothing similar to the foundation day in my previous world. Its just a holiday for the commoners, but for nobles like , its a day when we all must attend this ceremony. So promising commoners might also attend the ceremony, but there are usually only 1 commoner family that attended. This ti theres so exception though.
I heard there was a plan to postpone the ceremony because of the battle to retake the fortress, but the battle ended before the ceremony started so in the end, the postponent didnt happen. I dont know if its better for the ceremony to be postponed or not.
His Highness the Crown Prince is standing beside His Majesty, and Father is standing beside His Highness. Well, this is a ceremony so it falls under Fathers jurisdiction. As for , since I just beca a vice count Im still just observing the ceremony but next year I might also need to aid Father.
I thought that theyre going to be appointed one by one.
Well, thats how a knight appointnt ceremony is depicted in the story.
In many story books, the usual scene of a knight being appointed is depicted as a person kneeling and then the king will put a sword over his shoulder to appoint him or her as a knight.
But in reality, the knight appointnt ceremony is more of a graduation ceremony for the apprentice knights. Thats why the kingdom might need to appoint tens of people at once. The procedure might differ depending on countries but generally, the appointnt ceremony is done in bulk.
Plus the sword used in the appointnt ceremony like this is also not light. If the king used the sword to appoint dozens of knights in succession, his hands might fall off. Thats why the king only needs to put the sword on a representatives soldiers, while the rest of graduating apprentice knights only need to kneel behind the representative.
I rember that in my past life, the ritual of the king putting a sword on a knights shoulder dated back to the late diaeval age when knights had beco obsolete. The reason this kind of ritual existed is so the obsolete knights can have a taste of the remnant of their prestige through theatrical performance. Since the knights have yet to beco obsolete in this world, for this kind of ritual to exist in this world ans that the creator of this world created it pretty half-baked.
Along with our comrade, our shield companions, we swore by our swords to dedicate our loyalty to our king.
We swore.
After the representative declared the oath, the other apprentice followed suit. Then, the place is filled with applause. I and Mazell also applauded. Then, Mazell asked with a low voice, What are shield companions?
The knights that were appointed in the sa ceremony as you are called shield companions.
I guess its similar to the sakura of the sa period[1] in my past life. If the sword in the oath symbolised the vertical relationship between the knights and the royal family, then the shield symbolised the horizontal cooperation relationship between knights. From now on, the relationship between those knights will be as close as the relationship between brothers.
(Note: this is a phrase that co from a japanese military song, it ans comrade from the sa military school)
The role of shield companions isnt included in the official job description of the knights. Their role is like an informal social security system. For example, if a knight that died in a battle left a widow and/or orphans, then the shield companions will all support their daily livelihood and their orphans education.
The one most benefited by this system is the kingdom since the kingdom doesnt need to pay the dead knights pensionahem!
As such, in this kingdom a knight and a noble , a noble but not a knight and a knight but not a noble are all possible. Since a student cant beco a knight, Im one of a noble but not a knight so I dont have shield companions.
Mazell also says he doesnt have intention to beco a knight, while Im already a noble. It will be hard for if I want to beco an apprentice knight now. Thats why now I just need to focus on being noble by amassing my own connection.
When a commoner becos a noble, he faces a lot of trouble. He doesnt have any connection with other nobles, he needs to learn the troubleso manner, and he also needs to deal with the jealousy from other nobles. Commoner becos a noble and then he lives happily ever after is sothing that only existed in a fairytale.
By the way, theres been a talk for the kingdom to confer a peerage to Mazell for his achievent in defeating Dreax, but His Highness stopped the talk.
Publicly, His Highness stopped the talk by saying hes still a student but in reality since I was conferred a peerage as a student, it shouldnt be a problem for Mazell too. If Mazell ca from a noble house, Im sure the kingdom would give him a peerage.
The real reason is, according to His Highness, If he got a peerage then next he will get an engagent, and many more in other words, it was because His Highness feared that many things would end up tying Mazell.
His Highness asked to I hope you convey this well to Mazell-kun but Mazell himself didnt want to beco a noble so he was happy to not receive any peerage. Back then, didnt you say that Im the only person who will complain when he gets a peerage? Looks like you also do!
Theres going to be a banquet party with the newly appointed knights as the main characters. As the son of the Minister of Ceremonies, Im going to work as the aide of the head staff of the banquet so I doubt there are going to be many instances where I need to show my face in the banquet. As for Mazell, after promising to et tomorrow he returned to the dormitory.
The staffs have their own problems. The kitchen is especially busy. After all, its going to be an embarrassnt for the royal family if there is no food and wine on the tables, so everyone needs to grasp the perfect timing to replace the foods and wines on the table before it is completely empty. Once in a while, there is going to be soone who feels unwell in the middle of the banquet so we need to think on how to handle them. We also need to be prepared to answer any question at the banquet.
Everyone is busy, similar to when theres a wedding reception party at ho. This is Fathers job as the Minister of Ceremonies so it cant be helped.
Well, it is my job to coordinate the timing of rearrangent of the foods on the banquets table as Fathers aide. The table will end up being empty if we only bring the new food when all the food on the table is taken. We also need to take the distance between the banquet hall and the kitchen into account as they are quite far from each other. All in all, I need to grasp the perfect timing to prevent the table from being empty.
I spent the morning attending the ceremony, while I spent the whole afternoon helping with the party and the cleanup. Its exhausting but technically this is my original job as my fathers aide, not leading an army. When the evening ca, 2 knights visited in my room. Ah Im busy.
I am Cres Gauther Schunzel and he is Volak Birol Neurath.
It has been a while, Welner-sama.
It has been a while, Sir Cres, Sir Volak.
I ended up repeating Sir Cress greeting. The Schunzel house and Neurath house are both related to the Zeavert house. Not closely related to the point I can call them cousins, at most I can call them a distant relative. Thats why both of them are not strangers to . They are older than though.
From today on, both of us are assigned to be under Viscount Zeavert.
I look forward to working with you.
Got it.
So they were both assigned to be my subordinates. Max, Augen, and Barkey are my fathers subordinates so unlike them, Neurath and Schunzel will be directly under my command. When I inherit the count title in the future, both of them will probably occupy similar positions to Max and others.
Even though Im still just a student, as long as Im a noble, there will be many instances where knights will be put under . Since officially viscount is higher ranked than knights and orderlies are even lower ranked than knights. Thats why I need to change the way I speak accordingly[2]. Im sure both Neurath and Schunzel understood that, thats why none of them complained about the fact that I changed the way Im speaking with them.
(Note: Welner was talking with a polite Japanese when he first greeted Cres and Volak and changed to casual Japanese after he heard Cres and Volak are appointed as his subordinate.)
I dont have any work to give to you both now but theres sothing I need to speak to both of you so, probably in two days
Understood.
Then, will it be fine if we co to the mansion the day after tomorrow at the morning?
I want you to co here, but we will talk in the palace.
I understand.
Yup. My stomach hurt, again. Its kind of nervous to have people older than as my subordinate. Though I guess Im kinda used to it now. When we start working, Im sure I will forget the fact that they both are older than . Im glad that at least they are people of my generation, not so 40 years old n.
For now I need to be careful so they dont die in vain because of my order.
After Neurath and Scunzhel left my room, I continued to sort the information that I have. Then, a new visitor ca to my room. Its Frenssen, the butler that accompanied the rchant corps. I dont know why he ca here.
The Master has ordered to be your aide, Welner-sama. It will be a pleasure to work with you.
Huh? Frenssens words surprised
Its so sudden. But I understood after I heard the details from Frenssen. It seems like Father gave a full-ti aide because as soone who entered His Highnesss good grace, Father predicted there are going to be many tis I need to move independently in the future.
Im surprised, but at the sa ti Im grateful. Because Im sure Fathers prediction will be right and Im going to have more jobs piled up.
The main reason Im busy is that Im doing a job that I dont have to do, but If I dont do it Im afraid that the royal family might kill . Im just a simple coward.
Ok. From now on, Im going to be counting on you.
Please take care of , Welner-sama.
If my brother is still alive, he and Frenssen will be in the sa generation. He might have been my brothers aide candidate. Though if my brother is alive, Im going to be nothing but spare heir. If that happens I dont know if Im going to have a better life or not.
While thinking about that, I told Frenssen about my business tomorrow and also asked him about a thing that Ive been curious about.
Mazell and his companions will be here tomorrow morning, so I want you to also be here.
As you wish.
If hes here tomorrow, I dont have to give extra explanation to him.
Another thing. I dont need you to do this imdiately, but can you investigate Mangold, the deceased Marquis Knaps son?
Investigating Sir Mangold?
He went missing when I was away from the capital. I want to know what he did before he went missing.
Yes, sir.
Im curious about what kind of people he led to attack the fortress, what kind of equipnt he and his people used, and everything that Magold did while he was at the capital so I want Frenssen to investigate it. I just need to sit and wait for his report.
Tomorrow, I need to exchange information with Mazell and his companions.
T/N: We tried to trim down the infodump a bit to make them into reasonable length, rather than using the skip button. Please give us your feedback in the comnt.
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