DGDITMIAE 27

Chapter 27

*I thought things would be a bit quieter after finishing the spring monster hunting.*

Terestia stared at the piles of documents—twice as much as usual—with a fed-up look, her brow deeply furrowed.

*Now I understand why ‘Terestia’ didn’t work.*

Her efforts to show the image of a diligent Grand Duke and dispel the suspicion of being a demon had backfired, returning as even more work.

*The reward for working hard is more work…*

“I don’t want to go to the capital anymore, all of a sudden.”

“Unfortunately, even if Your Highness does not go to the capital, it was work that had to be done eventually.”

With mountains of documents already stacked on the desk, Argo came back carrying another armful and retorted.

At the sight of the documents piled high enough to make a thudding sound, Terestia leaned back in her chair and muttered weakly.

“Maybe I should just say I really am a demon…”

“Please start with the documents on the left. If you intend to bring the North under control within a month, you’ll need to move a bit faster.”

Argo listened with one ear and let it out the other, handing her the first document.

The proposal he had made—that she visit the capital for the Emperor’s birthday—came with a prerequisite:

*Take full control of the North before going to the capital.*

Of course, the Inyument Grand Duchy, Terestia’s domain, was the largest territory in the North, but that didn’t mean it was the most powerful.

Due to its proximity to the border, it was the territory with the most constant monster incursions, and there was little arable land.

Things had changed a lot since Terestia arrived, but the Inyument Grand Duchy had been so impoverished before that it had taken an entire season just to revive the domain.

Of course, making it so the domain’s people didn’t go hungry in just one season was certainly an impressive achievement, but…

Argo insisted that it wasn’t enough to go to the capital.

“The North is Your Highness’s home base.”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

“Your Highness’s home base—yet there are too many jackals audaciously waiting for the master to leave her seat.”

It was a statement she couldn’t really argue with.

Several months had already passed since she came to the North, and not a single other northern noble had come to pay their respects.

She wasn’t unaware of their intent to not recognize Terestia as the master of the North, but until now, she couldn’t afford to pay attention to them because the state of the domain was in such shambles.

But now, even if she briefly visited the capital for her nephew’s birthday, she needed to show that she would return to the North and keep her place.

The problem was how to do that within a month.

“Looking at it quickly, half of these documents are petitions? Every single one interfering with my domain’s tax rates and demanding the return of domain residents who fled here…”

*How badly must they have squeezed their people that they fled all the way to the Inyument domain, which is nothing but a big chunk of land?*

Terestia, scanning through the documents with a deadpan expression, waved her hand dismissively.

“Just summarize the contents of the petitions and set them aside. Who do they think they are, trying to stand over my head and give orders?”

“Just remember the names of those who sent the petitions. Hmm… The one who sent the most petitions is Marquis Levnin.”

“What did he have so much to say to me?”

“When a dog doesn’t recognize its master, it barks a lot, doesn’t it?”

At that, Terestia pondered for a moment, then broadly summarized the contents of the petitions sent to her by the other northern nobles.

*First, tax rates.*

The gist was that the tax rates of the Inyument Grand Duchy were so dramatically low compared to other territories that many domain residents were fleeing there.

To be honest… she thought, *So what?*

It wasn’t like they were merchants competing on price—she was lowering the tax rates of her own domain, wasn’t she?

Even if she had thoroughly exploited the pitiful, impoverished residents who were nothing but skin and bones, it wouldn’t have amounted to a fraction of the original Terestia’s assets.

Besides, she had fattened them up so nicely!

And now they were telling her to impose the same harsh tax rates as before?

That was absolutely non-negotiable.

*Second, the monopoly on monster byproducts.*

This one she didn’t understand well, and it was only after reading the document several times that she could interpret it.

“…Are monster byproduct trades prohibited in territories other than the Inyument Grand Duchy?”

“No.”

“Then why are they coming at me about this?”

“…Well, since the Grand Duchy is closest to the border, it’s only natural that monsters appear most frequently and are hunted most there as well.”

“So when monsters appeared frequently in the Grand Duchy, they were fine with me helping, but now they’re saying I’m monopolizing things?”

Argo shrugged.

*Of course not,* he answered silently, and Terestia burst out in irritation.

“Then they’re just trying to get a piece of the pie late, aren’t they? Have these bastards all lost their minds?”

“It seems they’ve grown greedy after hearing rumors that the Grand Duchy is thriving on income from monster byproducts.”

“I don’t understand even more. So they want me to share those byproducts? When my knights hunted them?”

“Exactly. So you can imagine what might happen in the North if Your Highness leaves to visit the capital, can’t you?”

*What, are they planning to start a rebellion?*

Terestia had always hated it when those beneath her defied her more than anything in the world.

When she had glimpsed the memories, she found it hard to understand, but now that she had experienced it firsthand, she thought she understood.

*This feels absolutely disgusting.*

“Besides these, there are even heartfelt long letters asking me to pay more attention to the North… Do I really have to read all these petitions too?”

“Just check the contents. You need to know their demands in order to think of answers that reject those demands.”

“Why bother, when they’re nothing but barefaced tantrums?”

“Because from now on, Your Highness’s job is to ‘provoke.'”

*Provoke?* At Argo’s words, Terestia’s eyes went wide.

She pushed aside the unsightly documents and petitions and leaned her head toward Argo, urging him to explain.

Argo slowly blinked his red eyes and opened his mouth, as relaxed and unhurried as always.

“We don’t have much time. Bringing the northern nobles under control within a month is quite difficult.”

“So? What’s the reason I need to provoke them?”

“Do you remember what I said to Your Highness when you first came to the North?”

“You’ve said any number of things.”

*Of course, my memory is excellent though!*

Terestia folded her arms and pondered, pulling out memories one by one to figure out what he was getting at.

Watching her, Argo slowly shook his head and spoke.

“I’m talking about the method of ruling humans. The first method I taught Your Highness is one of the easiest and simplest.”

*The method of ruling humans?* As she rolled her eyes, a likely answer flashed in her mind.

—

“Since it’s come to this, kill this one too and enter the domain with its corpse.”

“Why?”

“One of the most powerful emotions for ruling humans is fear. The domain’s security isn’t good either, so there will be plenty of these rampaging types—make an example of them.”

—

She recalled Argo’s expressionless face as he suggested entering the domain carrying a bandit’s corpse.

*So what he’s proposing to me is ‘fear’?*

Terestia tilted her head and asked.

“What does provoking the northern nobles have to do with fear? Doesn’t provoking just make them angry?”

“Basically, humans’ ‘political struggles’ are based on justification.”

“Justification…”

“Beating someone with your fists and ruling by the rod is easy, but one wrong move and it will only fuel rumors about Your Highness.”

*That damn demon rumor again?*

She reflexively scrunched her face and let out a sigh.

“I beat the knights into shape under the pretext of training. Isn’t there a similar justification for the nobles?”

“Exactly. These petitions of theirs only serve to annoy Your Highness—nothing more, nothing less.”

“Right, they’re just irritating.”

“So it would be better to hope that they ‘cross the line.’ If someone dares to lay a hand on Your Highness, who would dare criticize Your Highness for punishing them?”

Terestia finally understood what Argo was saying.

The reason provocation was needed was so that *they* would cross the line.

If she tried to bring them to heel now for no reason, rumors would spread that the vicious, savage demon Grand Duke was acting like a tyrant, oppressing even other nobles.

But what if, on the contrary, *they* crossed the line first?

If she could lure them—not with mere nuisance-level petitions like these, but enough that she would have no choice but to step forward—

“The moment those who fall for the provocation cross the line, even if Your Highness rules them through the emotion of fear, no one will dare call Your Highness a demon.”

Argo said this with an utterly wicked smile.