Return to Ashtaroth Castle
And so I departed Decarbia Castle, leaving the reliable demon officials and human mercenaries.
My main base was Ashtaroth Castle. And while Gottlieb was taking care of it now, I couldn’t stay away from it forever.
As we traveled up the road leading to the town, my beautiful castle came into view.
The old Eligos castle was to the north, and the old Decarbia castle was to the south. This meant that I just need to capture the east and west lands to make Ashtaroth Castle safe.
Of course, none of that would be easy. Besides, I had Demon King Zagam to deal with now.
But before I faced him, I wanted to improve domestic affairs and gather some information.
And so I called Fuma Kotaro and stretched in my office chair as I waited for his arrival.
I had been gone from this castle for so long.
We traveled far and fought battles. I was tired.I thought relaxing in this old familiar chair would help take away some of the fatigue. But there was something missing. Something was wrong.
There was something that could not be separated from relaxing in this chair.
But what could it be?
As I mused over this, Eve came in with the answer.
She was pushing a silver cart with a tray of scones and some tea. Then she smiled angelically and poured me a cup.
Yes, this fragrance.
My office was always filled with the smell of black tea.
I would always drink the wonderful tea that my maid had poured, and ease my mind every day.
As I had not taken her with me during our visit to Kongming, I had not had this tea in a very long time.
At this point, it wasn’t so much a luxury for me, but a necessity like air or water. I could not live without it.
In fact, the pretty lady that accompanied us put on some tea for me once, even though I was careful not to ask. She didn’t measure the amount of tea leaves or steam them, nor did she care about temperature. Also, she used hard water instead of soft water. So it was very awful.
To preserve her honor, I will just call her Saint J. She was an expert with the sword and lower than a novice when it came to tea.
And so I made my own tea when on the road. And it was very decent compared to Jeanne’s attempts.
I was reminded of just how important Eve was, and it was she who now addressed me.
“Master. Lord Gottlieb has managed this castle very admirably in your absence. However, there is one problem.”
“A problem?”
I asked. Eve nodded.
“Apparently, a fight broke out in town while you were away. And some are not happy with how it was judged.”
“I see. What kind of fight was this?”
“I will explain it to you.”
And so Eve proudly related it to me.
Gottlieb was the dwarven chief who supported me from behind while I went out to fight Demon King Decarbia.
He had sent out many monsters and humans from this castle after training them.
These reinforcements were a great help, and Decarbia Castle fell. However, the soldiers were not happy with the way they were rewarded based on their achievements and merit.
Gottlieb had deemed that the werewolf corp was only second-best when they had seemingly done the most.
“I see. And who got the highest credit?”
“That is the problem…”
Eve looked surprisingly calm as she continued.
The Legendary Rebuilding of a World by a Realist Demon King