Survival Strategy for Weak Territories! ~ My Territory Will Be Destroyed No Matter How Many Times It Is Repeated. How Can This Be Saved? ~ - Chapter 0.1

Since the translator for this has been MIA for a while I decided to pick it up.

-Mr.Graverobber

First Run, A Certain Afternoon

“Klein-sama!”

“Oh, what’s wrong Gramp?”

A young man was devoting himself to growing herbs inside the garden of a large mansion.

His name is Klein von Asgard.

A Virgo (virgin) 18 years old.

He is a normal lord governing an ordinary territory that is not particularly large in size neither does it has any special products.

That being said, his territory is not an extremely desolated one either.

The man himself is mediocre and not particularly good at anything.

Still, his territory is operating relatively well.

At least it should have been like that, until today.

“An extremely important matter has come up, sir!”

“Hahaha, what is it. Did our cows finally go into labor?”

Since he was already accustomed to the words [Important Matter] being equivalent only to such things, Klein’s smile remained unchanged.

However, his elderly butler, who rushed over to him and is now out of breath, came to report him about something else.

Something that will crumble everything he knows.

“This is not such a minor matter, sir!”

Saying so, the butler handed him a piece of paper.

When Klein checked its content, it turned out to be a declaration of war.

“Hmm, let’s see? A declaration, of war?”

In other words, it was the notice that notified the destruction of the Viscount of Asgard.

“It was a declaration of war from the Marquis of Laguna, sir!”

“Haa!?”

Marquis Laguna belongs to the same kingdom as Klein.

Klein’s territory is located to the east of the royal capital which is situated at the center of the country. That is why he has never had any point of contact with Marquis Laguna who’s based in the north before.

Let alone speaking with him, they have never even exchanged a letter.

Why would a house that he has never come into contact with before is now openly hostile toward his territory, Klein was clueless.

“Are, are you sure that this is not some kind of misunderstanding?”

“Their messenger has already returned, however, there should be something written on the letter, sir. Please take a look at it!”

“Y, Yeah.”

After Klein carefully read through the letter, the reason for this aggression written inside was [You are in the way of our trade route plan].

However, Klein himself doesn’t remember giving such an order.

“……Umm, I have no idea what they are talking about at all though.”

In the first place, he first hears from this very letter that the Laguna house is planning to open a trade route to the east.

Klein was confused at the incomprehensible letter.

“It’s not like we have any power to interfere with a Marquis house’s business in the first place.”

At first, he was confused by this sudden declaration of war but when he recalled the reputation of Marquis Laguna, he could roughly guess their true intention.

First, the Laguna house has been expanding itself at tremendous speed in recent years.

They have become famous for taking away the territories and assets of fallen aristocrats as well as the property of crushed merchant families.

He has only heard rumors about him before but the current head of the Laguna house seems to be acting like a mafia who resorts to dirty means to crush the merchants’ businesses and rob land from the nobles alike.

“So it’s like that huh.”

When he thinks back on the reason stated in the declaration of war, such thoughts come to him.

If he thinks about it calmly then the answer is there right in front of his eyes

“…….since the Marquis has recently annexed several territories in the east, we might have been in the way of his plan.”

“……I see.”

The other day, there was an incident at the royal palace and some noble houses were purged.

Klein also heard that some of the purged houses’ territories were merged and given to the Marquis.

If he thinks carefully about it now, Klein’s territory lies between Laguna house’s territory and the territory they recently acquired.

Territories acquired by the Marquis are scattered around Klein’s territory.

In other words, his territory could be said to be a hindrance just by being situated in the middle of the Marquis’s newly acquired territories.

“I understand that he can’t connect his land to some of his new territories but, to accuse us of obstructing his trade route plan is……”

“There are many bad rumors circulating about the Marquis as well, sir.”

Hearing Klein’s conjecture so far, the head butler can somehow grasp the situation.

If the merchants hail from his territory conduct businesses inside the territory he owns, they will not have to pay taxes to another house.

The tariffs will naturally be exempt and above all, there will be no luggage inspection.

“So it’s true that the Marquis is making his fortune through drugs and contraband trade huh.”

Klein’s territory is situated between the Marquis’s main territory and his newly acquired one.

If they remove Klein’s territory from the equation, they will obtain various kinds of freedoms.

“In other words, they are using a pretense to threaten us but in the end, all they want is to freely conduct their business huh.”

“Perhaps, I think that your assessment is correct, sir.”

After associating bits and pieces of information available to him, Klein somehow came to understand his situation.

He could guess the reason why the Marquis is pointing his hostility toward them.

“……but this letter. Are they truly intending to tell us that we should give them something unless we want to be destroyed?”

What Klein still can’t wrap his head around was how the letter was written.

“Klein-sama. What did the Marquis say?”

“Well, what is written here doesn‘t sound like a request or a threat at all. Rather, it’s a simple declaration of war.”

The kind of line he expected to find in there was——[If you don’t want to be destroyed then accept our demand].

Klein thought that the Marquis was going to threaten them to make his profits.

However, no matter how many times he read through the letter he couldn’t find any sentence that indicated that at all.

The content of the letter can only be summarized into one sentence.

[I will destroy you.]

No matter how he read it, that was all the letter was saying.

There are neither requests nor claims written on it.

And that only fuels Klein’s anxiety.