When I returned to the town hall, I found Foldente standing in front of the reception room.
"Let's have a little meeting first, shall we?
　Then he puts his hand on my shoulder and whispers in my ear.

　Foldente says that you should only respond appropriately to what the other person says.
　He said he would wrap up the conversation.
　I can't quite understand the meaning of what is being said, but since the other party has come to that point now, I decided to nod for now to Foldente's words that I will explain the situation later.

　Inside the reception room, three people I had never seen before were sitting on the couch.

　When I entered the room, the sub-human women on either side of me immediately stood up from their seats and greeted me, but the well-dressed middle-aged man sitting in the middle only raised his right hand a little while he sat down.
　He told me that the three of them were lords of each of the three outlying small cities north of the village of Liberty, about a three to five day walk away.
　The three cities have an agreement with each other to form a federation of frontier small cities, and the middle-aged man sitting in the middle is the representative of the federation.

　And the representative of the Union of Frontier Cities, a middle-aged man, told me that
I would like to bring this village under the umbrella of our Confederation of Frontier Cities.
　Saying that, I said with a giggle.

　Even though it's my first time seeing him, I'm a little offended by the middle-aged lord who is talking to me from quite a superior position.

　Perhaps sensing this, the sub-human woman on the left has a slightly troubled expression on her face, looking at me and the middle-aged man in turn.
　However, the middle-aged man continues to speak without regard to that.
A newly-built village is not qualified to join the Union of Frontier Cities, but... you see, I am a generous person.
　I wanted to make the young lord's life a little easier.
　Then he starts laughing high again.


　I'll give you a rough rundown of the city's pecking order

　royal capital
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　A city under the direct control of the royal capital
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　Cities near the King's Capital (a territory of the King's Capital)
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　frontier town
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　small frontier town
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　village
　↓arrow (mark or symbol)
　settlement

　This is roughly how it looks like, and even the villages are under the jurisdiction of the King's Capital.
　The King's Capital determines each city based on the total population of that city, but sub-humans can only be lords of small outlying cities, and if a small outlying city is promoted to an outlying city, it will be considered as an outlying city.

New racial lords are created.
The system is changed to a council system with a plurality of sub-humans and a number of races equal to or greater than the sub-humans.

　You are forced to transition to either of these, and this is where the sub-human discrimination comes in, too.

　The middle-aged man is a lord of a small frontier city, so it is true that he is superior to me, the lord of the village.

　As I was nodding in agreement with him, Foldente, who had been listening quietly with his eyes closed, laughed as usual and got up from his seat.
You've made that clear to me.
　He turned his gaze to the middle-aged lord.
''Ha, it's good to see people who know what they're talking about, so now you guys have our

I want to decline this offer once and for all.

　You're with us... what?　What do you mean no?

　The middle-aged male lord, who seemed to be expecting me to agree to it of course, was often stunned with his mouth hanging open.
　The subhuman female lords on either side of me also seemed to be the same, looking at me and Foldente in turn with a surprised expression.

　When I took a glance at those expressions, slowly, Foldente chuckled again
This Liberty Village has just been built, and we're in the middle of setting up the structure.
　
　For some reason, after placing particular emphasis on the 'troops' part, Foldente bowed gracefully and slunk out of the room while pulling my hand.
　In response to the middle-aged male lord who tried to stop us from leaving, Foldente, as he was leaving, said
I'm sorry I can't help you, Baron. My frontier baron is a poor man with no time to spare.
　Then he closed the door with a slam.

　As it is, when I returned to the lord's room, Foldente unfolded a map of the neighborhood and began to explain to me.
The three cities, you know, need the troops of this city to fight as a shield in the front line, you know.
　Then he pointed to the three frontier small cities north of Liberty Village the one frontier city further north.

　The frontier city of Batcombe.

　It's a frontier city with a council of humans and sub-humans, but it's also a frontier city whose name lingers on in the King's Landing for some reason or another... even though it's the more notorious one.

　It's the one that is most notorious for its notoriety, but it's the one that lashes out at the surrounding small cities and villages and then suddenly fights them, stealing their money and goods and taking their inhabitants away as slaves.
　This is how the frontier cities are rapidly becoming huge.
　Naturally, this kind of behavior is said to be a problem in the royal capital as well, but since Batcombe pays a large amount of tribute every year apart from taxes, they dare not question it.

''Recently, I heard that this Batcombe has attracted the attention of that union of middle-aged male lords of small cities.
　After hearing this far, I could see the story.

　Perhaps the current strength of the Union of Frontier Small Cities is unlikely to be able to compete with the strength of Batcombe.
　That's why they're considered to be dragon horsemen, and in addition to the two sky-moving dragons, they're rumored to have a huge salamander at their side, so they've turned to me.
That's good advice.
　So, you're the new guy. You're the front line! I guess he was going to say, "You're lower class than us! That's why he brought up the status of the city more than necessary and said to us, "We are lower than you! I'm a lowlife! I guess he wanted to bring it up.

　...you're a baron!

　It is so.
　The city's rank would certainly be higher than that of a small frontier city of middle-aged male lords.
　The middle-aged lord is a baronet and I am a frontier viscount, which makes me higher in rank.
　So the middle-aged lord tries to talk in the 'city class' and
　In the end, Foldente ended the conversation by getting back at him with a 'knighthood'.

　I'm not going to bring up such a knighthood and act so arrogantly, but I had more than a little dislike for that middle-aged lord's attitude, and it would be awful to be thrown into the front line with such a plan, so, well, well, it can't be helped, this time, I laugh bitterly, I guess.

It's a good idea to ignore this story.
　It's not like Batcombe is going to do anything to destroy a small city in the middle of nowhere. It's a good thing that the capital city would send a strike force to destroy us if we did that.
　The small townspeople are going to be our shields.

　It's true that this seems like the best thing to do at the moment, but... let alone that middle-aged male lord, I feel like I might have done something wrong to the female lords of the other two cities.
It's a good opportunity for them to reevaluate the coalition," he said.
　It's all well and good to have high ideals, but it's not always possible to live up to them. You must not forget that the lives of everyone in the village are at stake.
　Certainly, in the current state of this village, we have no choice but to think of it that way, right?

　For now, I put an end to this story here, but I heard that the three lords are still staying at the inn on the street.
　I've decided to ask Foldente and the others to continue investigating the movements of each lord and the movements of Batcombe and the surrounding outlying small cities to the extent possible.
　I'm not going to be able to get a good idea of what I'm talking about. I've been getting pretty good at figure transformation, but I've been having trouble spreading my consciousness to each of them when I perform an altered form. Well, even Foldente has taken a few years to master that, so I'll try to be patient.

　It's been a few days since the visit of the three lords of the Union of Frontier Small Cities.
　After all, the three lords have not asked us to meet again since then, but we received a private letter from one of them, asking us to come back another day to say hello.
　We decided to wait for her to visit us again, as we could make a decision after hearing what she had to say.

　In the meantime, the number of visitors to the underground labyrinth (dungeon) had increased noticeably.
　I'm sure this is because of the effect of Kuro's publicity.
Is it true that in this underground labyrinth (dungeon), you can get a dragon armor?
I heard from the demon peddler that you have a good cultivation ground?
　Quite a few visitors have rushed to the gate of the village fort and are asking the guards who are accepting them to enter the village.

　The underground labyrinth (dungeon) of the report has already been completed for advanced players, and preparations are fully in place to receive them.
　I heard that there were many adventurers who tried the advanced level, but they got stuck at the 2nd level boss (Cyclops) and had to start again from the intermediate level.
　Other adventurers are testing their skills at the beginner's level first, while also collecting drop items.
　Incidentally, these drop items can be purchased at the armor shop on the same floor as the reception desk in the underground labyrinth (dungeon), and with the money from the item sales, you can buy more powerful weapons at the armor shop and try again.

.........

　
What?　Of course it's worse to be destroyed, isn't it? If you don't want to be destroyed, all you have to do is be strong.
　Laughing at that, Giambalea I don't think what you're saying makes sense........

　Some adventurers have already decided to stay for a long time and use the stagecoach to stay in the hot springs for a rest and relaxation.

　The hot spring inn is in charge of a young couple of newly arrived elves who have joined the village.
　The young elf master was a hired cook while traveling from place to place, but he fell in love at first sight with the young elf matriarch in a nearby village and married her. She came to the village to settle down.

　Because of her outstanding cooking skills, rumors about her are becoming quite popular, and some adventurers who were initially staying in the town are starting to move to the hot spring town after hearing the rumors.
　Because of this, the young elf couple and the young buffalo man couple, who are also engaged in farming, are running out of manpower, so we've decided to have four antsy people to work as accountants and customer service staff for the hot spring inn, and we've also asked for several people from the dwarven villages to be dispatched to help us build more facilities.
　As a matter of course, although Foldente also spends his evenings in the hot springs, we've had a separate bathtub built for her, so she is able to relax and enjoy herself without being disturbed by other guests.


　One day while I was continuing my work in this way
You guys are so overworked. You need to get some rest!
　and both me and Erdena were forced to be taken to the spa by Foldente.
　This was the perfect time to do it.
'A bath bear with the master!　It's been a long time since I've seen a bear~!
　The children, including Korok, were very happy and excited.
　I realized that this kind of thing is good to do once in a while.

　Incidentally, the fact that Eldena almost drowned in the women's bath because she fell asleep in the bath tub is another story.