Then a few months passed.

　Rietz succeeds in making a difference in the war.
　He also began to be noticed for his intelligence.

　My father, who fought alongside Rietz on several occasions, saw through his intelligence.
　He gave him a book to try out, and he immediately understood what was in it. As expected, my father was astonished by this.

　From then on, he received an advanced education and so on, and in effect, he became unfit to be called a miscellaneous soldier. As a result of his education, Reetz's intellect grew significantly, and he is now at 89. He is almost in the 90s.

　And now Rietz doesn't go into battle, but has been given a certain position by his father.

''Well, Master Ars, shall we continue our studies today?''

　That position is my education officer.

　At this point in time, Rietz had acquired one of the best knowledge in the Loebent family.
　Considering it's only been a few months since he began his studies, it's a phenomenal progress.

　As the eldest son, he has put a moderate amount of effort into my education, and it seems that he has assigned Rietz to be his educator in an effort to make him an excellent literary and military heir.

　I've spent the past few months working on finding people and neglecting to acquire knowledge of this world.

　Therefore, learning from Rietz was something I wanted to do.

　Rietz took the book and turned to face me.

''Today, let's talk about the current state of the Samaforce Empire.

　As he said this, Rietz opened the book and showed it to me.
　There was a map of the Samaforce continent, where the Samaforce Empire was located, drawn. It's a rather sketchy map. It seems that the cartography skills of this world are not that high.

''Well, I told you before that there were originally seven countries on this Samaforce continent, and they were united to form the Samaforce Empire,''
Yeah.

　The Samaforce continent was originally divided into seven nations.

　The Lowfile Kingdom, which was located in the northeast of the continent
　In the northwest of the continent, the Kingdom of Can Sheep
　The Kingdom of Ansel in the east-central part of the continent
　Schulz's kingdom in the central west of the continent.
　In the middle of the continent, the Kingdom of the Paradisle
　In the southwest of the continent, in the Kingdom of Seitz
　The Kingdom of Mythian, in the southeast of the continent.

　These seven.

　There is a strait between the continent of Samaforce and another continent, the Kingdom of Ansel, which trades with countries outside the Samaforce continent, accumulating power and invading other kingdoms.

　After invading all the kingdoms, Anasazaz Baidras, King of Ansel, came to call himself Emperor and renamed the country the Samaforce Empire.

　Incidentally, these country names still remain as local names.
　For example, the Kingdom of Lofail is now called Lofail Province, and the Kingdom of Canthiep is now called Canthiep Province.

　The one who governs each province is called the Governor General.
　The viceroys are the descendants of the emperor's bloodline, or the descendants of the king who surrendered to the Ansel Kingdom at an early stage and escaped execution.

　Our territory of Lumberk is in the province of Mythian.

　Meesian is a good land with four seasons, a lot of flat land, so there is a lot of food and a large population.

''This year will be the two hundred and three years since the Samaforce Empire was founded. The current Samaforce Empire is no longer in a dying state.
　The governors of the provinces are no longer obeying the orders of the empire, and they are slowly beginning to become independent. But even so, the influence of the Baidras Emperor family is not low, and the territories owned by the Emperor family are not small, so if a competent person takes command, they may be able to reel it back in.
Is the head of House Baidras a capable man?
The present head of the family, Baidras XII, is a child of eight years old. The real power seems to be in the hands of the vassals. I don't know the details, but since there's no one person in power, and various factions are fighting each other, I don't think they're doing well.

　Even under such an emergency, they're still in trouble.
　That seems to be no longer good for the Emperor family.

''Well, it's not just the Baidras family that is fighting in the inner circle, nothing else. Even in the Mythian Province where we are located, there could be a war for succession in the near future.''
What do you mean?
The current Governor of Mythian, Amador Salemakia, is very old and I have not heard of him becoming ill, but it is likely that he will pass away within ten years.
　Master Amador has two sons. Normally, the eldest son should be the one to take over, but his younger brother is the better one, and he is wondering which one should take over the house.
　If he dies before deciding, there is a high probability that a war will break out. Even if he dies after making a decision, the probability of war is not low.
　Both of my brothers and sisters seem to want to take over the family.

　A battle for succession?
　It could be a big battle if it's not done well.
　Small battles seem to have happened a few times, but when it comes to big battles, it has never happened since I was born.

　If a battle for succession really does occur, if the losing side ends up on the losing side, it is possible that they will lose their territory.
　On the other hand, if the winner of the battle is able to play an even greater role in the war, he or she will receive additional territory.

　By the time the battle occurs, my father will be alive, so he will be the one who decides which side to take.
　What is he going to do?

Which side is my father going to take?
'Master Raven seems to think it's only right for his brother to take over, but it's not for him to decide which side to take.

　That's what I've been told.

　This is because my father is not a direct vassal of Governor Mysian.

　Each province is divided into about twenty "counties".
　The one who controls the counties is called the head of the county. This Lumberg territory is in Canale County, and my father is the head of Canale County.

　If we refer to this LAMBERG County as the address of Japan, it is called LAMBERG, Canare County, Mythian Province of the Summerfirth Empire.

　The point is that the head of Canale County decides where he will be attached to, so my father has no authority to decide.
　Well, he's in a position to voice his opinion, so there's a chance that the Mayor of Canale County will decide which side he'll be on based on my father's opinion.

''Which side do you think Leets would prefer to take?''
I mean, is it me?　Hmmm, I've never met either of my brothers, so it's hard to say...

　I thought I could tell since Reetz is high on intellect and politics, but I guess I didn't have too many stones to judge.

　My appraisal is going to work well when deciding which side to take like this.

　If I can measure which of the brothers is better, and which of them has more talented people on their side, I should be able to detect which one seems to have a higher chance of winning by using an appraisal of those things.

　And if we manage to persuade our father if we disagree with him, and furthermore, if we can get him to persuade the Mayor of Canale County, we'll have a winning horse.

''Small fiefs like the Rovent family should see this term as an opportunity. If they can play an active role in the war and rise to the position of county mayor, it will be a great breakthrough. In order to do so, they should build up their strength in the future.

　Rietz concluded his story there.

　Then he continued to study for a bit, and when he was done

Well, I'm going to go out looking for people today as usual. If we're going to build up our strength, we're going to need good people.

　I suggested.

'I understand. I'll go with you.

　Lately, Rietz has also begun to follow me in my search for personnel, as well as an escort.

　I've finished looking at most of the personnel in the village, and lately I've been looking for them in nearby towns. There were a few people in the village who seemed to be of decent use, so I made them my vassals, but I haven't been able to find any Leets-level personnel.

　In order to go to town, you need an escort because of the dangers that follow, but if Riets is there, it's very safe.

''Well then, let's go.
Yes, sir.

　I headed into town with Reetz.