fluvia 86: Fluvia in Front of the Ministry Buildings 1

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

Chapter 86: Fluvia in Front of the Ministry Buildings 1

It doesn’t take too long for us to reach the Royal Palace from our Estate in the Capital, and pretty soon our carriage passes through the Palace gates.

Father and Edgar were coming here today to give an official report to the King before the Court and attend a summit meeting at the Ministry of Domestic Affairs to discuss the topic of economic growth, together with the people from the other Earldoms.

Although it’s only Edgar and Father in the carriage along with us, there will be some more officials from the Dellarose Earldom coming at a later time.

Father isn’t, are rather he is no longer, particular about having officials and servants ride in a separate carriage from himself, but the reason the other officials aren’t with us is because there would have been too many people for one carriage, and the summit doesn’t start until much later.

They’ve come so early because Father is escorting Brother and me to the Castle to visit the Royal Family; Edgar is only coming along to make sure Father doesn’t lose track of time, as well as taking the opportunity to discuss and brief Father more on the topics they will be covering in the summit.

While Father has properly been preparing beforehand, he still likes getting a quick briefing over which topics and points are the very most important ones he has to make sure to talk about.

Although some people might feel that he should figure everything out long before the day of the meeting, there is something to be said about short-term memory.

Besides, the Dellarose Earldom has been utilizing a revolutionary, much less direct way of managing the territory.

Recognizing the impossibility of fully supervising all aspects of government over such a large region, Edgar delegated many duties that were the Earl’s sole responsibility to the Barons to govern their own Barondom.

With this, instead of having to judge and analyze the state of each Barondom in order to pass laws and tax rates, as well as having to consider the balances between the Barons, the Earl merely needs to lay out some guidelines for each Baron and investigate the Barons themselves.

Investigating one person and their groups of officials was much easier than investigating the whole region, after all.

And, unfortunately, that difficulty was why there wasn’t a lot of investigation, so a lot of mediocre-to-unsuitable laws could be passed onto the people made even more unbearable by the Barons’ own additions.

So basically, there was need to audit the Barons anyway, and we weren’t doing a good job of auditing the territories, so Edgar adjusted things to be much simpler from an overseer’s standpoint.

As for the Barons, well.

After instating Edgar as the new Steward, in the end, half the Barons were ousted from their positions, some even executed for their crimes, and even Bolther was let go without much public explanation, so we made use of the situation to scare the newly appointed and continuing Barons.

If even Bolther was ousted for his less-than-subpar results, don’t think you’ll be spared just because you’re the Baron; Edgar and Father made it very clear to them.

That said, the Barons now have much more freedom to work with, and therefore much more to be held responsible for.

Anyway, although the overt work has been lessened, there is naturally a whole bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes, probably involving Lysander and his team, as well as getting the Militia and Guard to work together to define each of their roles in normal life and in emergencies… and all of them are beyond my sphere of influence, so I can only trust that Father and Edgar have arranged for things properly.

At the very least, it’s obvious that Edgar’s influence is having a good effect on Father and the rest of the Earldom’s officials.

Although, the original government of the Dellarose Earldom was already filled to the brim with corruption, thanks to both Bolther’s lazy governing as well as his own corrupt dealings, so it’s kind of like, how much worse could it get?

After the officials and governing nobles purge, we had cut out most of the rotten bits, so even with an imperfect governmental system now, there’s no way it could be as bad as before.

Even though Father is much more diligent than before, with so many adjustments to the government, it can’t be helped that he keeps wanting to go over things with Edgar to make sure he has things straight before an important meeting.

It can’t be helped that we came at a time that will leave Father and Edgar with plenty of time to talk after Brother and I have been escorted to the Castle, which is still quite a far way off even after we went through the Palace’s gate, since the Royal Palace is just a giant campus full of official buildings as well as the Royal Family’s Castle aaaall the way in the back.

First, though, we’re heading to the Ministries Building to drop Edgar off first.

Despite Edgar’s high social standing, it’s a little inappropriate for a Steward to barge into the Castle uninvited, and it’s also a little inappropriate if he did come to the front of the Castle and just waited in the carriage without coming out to greet any available Royalty.

We’re basically avoiding having to choose between two vaguely inappropriate faux pas.

Compared to Edgar, it’s not inappropriate for Father to come give a quick greeting to Royalty due to being an Earl, as well as the father of the Princes’ visiting friends.

When our carriage stops front of the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, Brother catches the sound of swords clashing just as Edgar gets off the carriage.

“Oh, is the Royal Guards’ training grounds nearby?”

He asks eagerly.

Father laughs cheerfully.

“Haha, not that close, but their training is quite vigorous to be able to hear it from here. Would you like to go see?”

“Yeah!”

Oh dear, my brother is such a musclehead, and my father indulges him too much.

That said, I did drag Brother along without even giving him a chance to refuse, so I decide to let Father and Brother do as they wished.

My only concern is the time…

Edgar sighs a little and says,

“Do be careful of the time, Lord Earl.”

“I understand, I understand.”

With that casual statement and wave of his hand, Father and Brother head off to the Royal Guards’ training grounds at a quick trot.

Well, I suppose if Edgar isn’t going to stop them, then we have ample time for them to go take a look and get back.

As I watch them run off,

“… Father is more energetic lately. Has he slimmed down a little?”

Although he still has a potbelly, now that I think about it, he looks less round and more well built.

He’s in his late 30s now, so it will be impossible for him to become perfectly slim and muscular after decades of mediocre-to no exercise.

That’s just how the body is, unfortunately, but I still think it’s good that he’s training more than usual.

Back in my old world, they say 30 minutes of exercise a day, at least 5 days a week, will decrease the chances of premature death, so naturally, I’d prefer Father to be well instead of sickly in his old age.

“I believe he has. At least, he looks much more lively. Although we’re busy, he insists on training hard every day.”

Edgar sighed a little, shaking his head as Father and Brother disappeared from view, but he has a bit of smirk on his face, so I know it’s only a mild annoyance to him.

“Oh my, don’t you think it will be humiliating to Father if Brother surpasses him so soon?”

“Sooner or later, it doesn’t really matter, does it? Young Lord Fedor is destined to surpass him in the end.”

Edgar gave a small snort.

It’s inevitable; Fedor has been training since he was 5 while Father slacked off heavily as an adult, after all.

“Oh dear, but to be bested by your son before he’s even come of age would be a hard blow to take.”

The coachman, Alwin, chimes in.

He’s probably thinking about his own son, who is almost 15.

Although the servants are strict on themselves when there are other people around, I’m pleased to know that we have an environment that allows them to feel like they can talk to us when no one else is around.

It’s good to foster a spirit that appreciates the people who work for us, in my opinion.

As the three of us calmly waited for Father and Brother to return, chatting about some benign aspects of the summit meeting Edgar and Father were going to attend and about which families we would be seeing in the next few days, as well as the hectic, whirlwind of schedule we’ll be thrown into, a carriage squeaked up to the Ministry of Domestic Affairs.

Since Father and Brother had left for a bit, Alwin had already pulled the carriage up further from the direct front of the building so we wouldn’t be in the way, so the other carriage was able to pull up to the disembarking area without too much trouble.

Edgar looked over curiously, saying

“It’s still quite early for the summit.”

“Perhaps they also have other things to do beforehand.”

“But that carriage is somewhat overdone. Those poor horses.”

Although Alwin has somewhat different concerns compared to Edgar and me, I can’t disagree with him.

Due to my illness, although it’s now long gone, the Dellarose House’s carriages have always been on the shorter, more subdued side with a focus on comfort and efficiency, and as we are THE trendsetters in Valed, sleeker carriages made out of durable, high-quality materials became more popular than massive towers decorated like a Christmas tree made from materials that had to be constantly repaired.

I never understood the mother of pearl exteriors that were previously in style.

However, unlike fashion, the carriage industry wasn’t stagnating while waiting for a change, and so although our quite stylish-in-simplicity carriages were becoming more popular, it was still quite common to see THIS kind of monstrosity from time to time.

The owner of the carriage was clearly not a noble, being nearly half the size smaller around compared to our everyday carriage, but it was nearly 1.5 times our carriage’s height.

Although most of the carriage exterior was a dark-stained wood color, there was panel of mother of pearl in the door.

Unlike the current preference of keeping the curtains and dangling decorations demurely inside the carriage, he still had enough drapery and gilded decorations hanging at the exterior of the carriage.

This isn’t just a Christmas tree anymore.

It’s also why Alwin was pitying the horses, since the towering carriage was made even more unstable with its curtains and decorations swaying back and forth during transportation.

Such a small but gaudy carriage … it makes me think of a nouveau riche who had just received more money than sense and spent it all on painting his car.

As we watched the other carriage curiously, the door finally opened and a sallow-faced, middle-aged man got out.

He was dressed slightly overly gaudy, but in general, he was dressed in men’s businesswear.

Anyway, it wasn’t the man that was the problem here.

It was the girl who got down after him.

Oh my…

Edgar, Alwin, and I couldn’t help but suck in our breaths sharply.

N-now.

Now I do see what they were trying to do.

Mother’s dresses are certainly THE dresses to imitate these days.

The slightly sexy allure, the bodices that accentuate her lean torso and tight waist, emphasizing the bodylines of an adult woman; all of these have captured the eyes and attentions of a public that was bored out of their wits of the trends that had slightly stagnated.

However, on a little girl who hasn’t gone through puberty yet, with almost her entire childish bodyline on display, it gives a very … uncomfortably sexualizing effect.

Coupled with the heavy makeup and overdone hair, it was beyond gaudy.

It was like someone wanted you to look at her like she was an adult woman.

It is exceedingly uncomfortable to see.

“… If my daughter wore that, I’d tan her black and blue.”

Alwin was so shocked he couldn’t exercise the restraint he usually showed as he muttered that.

It doesn’t help that he has a young daughter, I suppose.

What he’s not voicing is that she looks like a child prostitute, but from his look of disgust, I can tell that’s what he’s thinking.

I can’t tell how old she is underneath that getup, but from her height, I’ll assume she’s somewhat close in age to Brother and me.

I sigh.

“Edgar, I already knew you weren’t overreacting when you said they’d try to seduce the Prince, however…”

“…Yes, this is a little … much, isn’t it?”

Although we can’t help but say something, we obviously speak softly to avoid letting the father-daughter pair hear us.

It’s no good to gossip blatantly about people right in front of them, after all.

---

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

---

<a/n: You might be thinking, ‘Oh yay, new ‘rival’ type character,’ but I assure you, anyone worth Fluvia’s time wouldn’t be so low class>