A Lord Without a Kingdom

“What on earth is going on.”

I said it out loud, but no answer came back.

『Title: Lord – Central Count

※ Item-bound Title』

『Effects of the Title “Lord”

+Strength 20

+Stamina 10

+Dominion 30

Resources are consumed each turn if buildings are constructed or followers are maintained.

Resources can be obtained each turn through constructed buildings or the labor of followers.

If the loyalty of followers increases, additional Dominion is gained.

Current owned buildings: 0

Current owned followers: 21

No resources have been produced by followers.

Since there are currently no buildings in the territory, followers are unable to produce resources.

Resources required next turn for follower maintenance: 380

※ Rank-4 Count (伯) receives +5 to all points gained each turn.』

I closed my eyes and pressed between my brows.

Hard.

f*ck, if this is a dream then please wake me up from it.

—Oh dear. Judging by the required resources, it seems there are injured ones.

Closing my eyes made it easier to hear.

Bzzzzzz.

The hallucinated buzzing of a mosquito flying around my ear.

—Let’s see. No followers producing resources.

Bzzzzzzzz.

—Hahaha. It must be because you destroyed the castle wall.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz.

—Looks like our honey will be losing a whole pile of resources without gaining anything in return—

Smack.

If something buzzes in your ear, it basically means one of us is about to see blood.

Of course, I had no intention of letting a mosquito drink mine.

I swatted the annoying jewel mosquito—no, jewel butterfly—and spun around.

The child kneeling in front of me trembled and lowered his body even further.

“P-please spare me, Master.”

He suddenly begged like that.

‘Ah, I’m wearing the serpent skin disguise.’

To the child’s eyes, I must look like OZ.

“I’ll do anything you ask. Please.”

“Anything is a pretty scary word.”

Exhausted by this completely unexpected disaster—yes, disaster—I plopped down on the ground.

I had only sat down, but the child flinched violently in shock.

At this rate, he might just die of a heart attack on his own.

‘What the hell did that bastard OZ usually do.’

The dead tell no tales, so I couldn’t even ask.

‘Master’ dominion is being forcibly applied to a ‘Follower.’

※ The duration and range of forced control over followers are determined by the Dominion value.

※ If the follower is far away from the master or their ability exceeds the master’s, the follower may resist.

Current Master Dominion: 30

Since the lord title gives 30 Dominion, that means my original Dominion is…

“f*ck.”

The curse slipped out automatically.

Zero.

Is it really zero.

Is this because I’m basically a contract worker.

Would it have been higher if I were a department head or something.

Anyway, the reason that child couldn’t run away and was stuck trembling in front of me must be because of that forced master-servant relationship.

‘And it said resistance is possible if the distance is large.’

Which means the reason the other followers aren’t visible is because they all ran away except this one.

—Do you want to know what happened, honey?

The mosquito returned again.

—Hmm? You want to know, right? I’m sure you do. Hahaha.

This time, instead of swatting it away, I grabbed it and brought it close to my face.

“Spill it, Prophet. Why did my number of freeloaders suddenly increase?”

—I looked into it briefly, and they’re not freeloaders. It says you took them in as followers.

What?

—Honey, when you attacked Imok’s forces, you gave each of the followers he abandoned a bamboo-tube model garden, remember?

“…Yeah.”

As I said it, I felt a bad premonition creeping up.

—And then you didn’t take them back, right?

Well, I was busy hit-and-running at the time.

—So apparently that counted as you taking in the followers that Imok abandoned.

“Why!”

—Hahaha, why ask why, honey? With experience enough to be a department head, why act like a freshman. A contract isn’t anything complicated. If a master brings someone into his territory and gives them an item that proves identity, the contract is formed. Like an employee ID card. Right?

No it isn’t, you bastard.

“So because I gave them that bamboo thing, I suddenly gained a ton of followers and now I’m stuck paying for them?”

—Very concise.

I grabbed my head.

“Fine, say I’m stuck with it. But why did those guys agree to the contract with me in the first place?”

Doesn’t that mean they had to agree too.

This is insane.

“OZ—or rather, me—what exactly did they trust?”

I was about to curse OZ again but corrected myself midway.

I almost turned into the kind of lunatic who refers to himself in the third person.

“A-are you going to chase us away?”

At that moment, the child who had been silent spoke.

‘Oh right. This kid was here.’

Cold sweat ran down the back of my neck.

Man, I almost got a reputation for talking about myself in the third person.

“P-please don’t send me away. I’ll do anything.”

“Sorry, but I’m broke. Even if you stay here, there’s nothing.”

“I-it’s okay if you don’t give us anything!”

No, just you existing is already draining my resources.

“I don’t even need to sleep. I’ll work without sleeping. I can help. I can! Should I build something? Or farm the land? Or, or—”

“With that leg?”

The child, who had been looking around desperately for something to do, froze.

He turned back with a pale face as I sighed.

“You’re injured, aren’t you?”

“Ah, this……”

The child hurriedly grabbed his knee.

Thanks to that, I could clearly see where he was injured.

“……”

Then suddenly I tilted my head.

Haven’t I seen this kid somewhere before?

“Hey.”

“It’ll heal quickly. Really quickly.”

“You think willpower heals injuries. More importantly, wait a second. Your hometown is…”

“There are creatures in the middle zone after the collapse. If I go out I’ll die. Please spare me. Let me stay here. I don’t want to die.”

“…Are you from the western city?”

Judging by his appearance, probably not.

The outside “cities” had very distinct physical traits among their residents.

People from the northern city were pale like Seolya.

People from the eastern city had black hair and narrow monolid eyes like Imok.

‘Of course, immigrants and mixed blood existed.’

But they were rare.

They were called cities, but they were really shelters.

Humanity’s last air-raid bunkers.

If they collapsed, humanity would simply die out.

‘Come to think of it, the setting said discrimination used to be less severe.’

[R: Not long ago, a city that accepted outsiders was destroyed.]

After that incident, cities became extremely exclusive about accepting newcomers.

People naturalized from other cities were openly rejected.

Even mixed blood between cities was disliked.

I examined the child again.

Brownish skin.

Dark hair.

Eyes that looked blue or turquoise depending on the light.

Classic physical traits of people from the Southern Alliance.

“Yeah. Definitely not from the western city.”

For a moment I thought he might be from the same city as the player character since he looked familiar.

But that didn’t seem right either.

If this kid had lived in the western city, he probably would’ve been quite famous.

‘For the wrong reasons.’

There’s no way I wouldn’t know him.

Then…

“I was in the e-eastern faction.”

“What? The east?”

Not the south?

“Yes. The east.”

“If it’s the east…”

Imok’s…

“Ah.”

Something flashed through my mind.

“I remember now.”

I jumped to my feet.

The child nearly leapt out of his seat in shock but didn’t run away.

Partly because of his injured leg.

‘Even without that, he probably wouldn’t run.’

Even while trembling, his blue eyes followed me.

—Looks like he trusts you.

Caliburn’s description was accurate.

—How cruel, honey. You accused me of bringing in other supernatural beings, but you’re the one seducing random people—

“Kyah!”

That scream was obviously fake, so I ignored it.

That attention-seeking bastard.

“You… you helped me earlier. Do you remember?” the child asked.

“Hmm.”

Now I remembered why he looked familiar.

He was the kid I picked up under the castle wall while leaving after messing with Imok.

But something bothered me.

“I saved you?”

Yes, I found the collapsed child under the wall.

But was I wearing the serpent skin disguise at that time?

The child hesitated at my question.

He looked like he was checking my reaction.

“I… saw it.”

Then he spoke carefully.

“When your appearance changed.”

“…!”

My face stiffened without me realizing.

—Oh dear. You got caught, honey.

“You’re not… OZ, are you?”

—That’s bad. If the other lords hear about this, your life will be like… what was the phrase again? A lamp in the wind?

A lamp doesn’t go out in the wind, you foreign—no, supernatural—bastard.

—Hahaha. Not a lamp. A candle.

Right. A candle in the wind.

First, leave aside Jeog-o, the traditional enemy.

But Imok—who currently had the biggest grudge against me—would probably rush over to cut my head off.

No one must find out that OZ… is actually me wearing OZ’s skin.

Not yet.

Caliburn’s whisper beside my ear turned low and secretive.

—Looks like you have to make a decision.

The child spoke quickly.

“I won’t tell anyone.”

—You could take him under you.

“You’re my benefactor. You helped me. I’ll never say anything.”

—Or make it impossible for him to say anything even if he wants to.

“I want to become your strength.”

—So? What will you do?

Without realizing it, I pressed my hand to my forehead.

—Want a piece of advice, honey?

“What.”

—Trust no one. Value nothing. If someone you never trusted takes something from you, it hurts less. And losing someone you never cherished leaves a shallower wound.

Caliburn’s advice was correct.

After all, this was a game where you had to step on everyone else to win.

But still.

“There’s no need for that.”

I finally sighed and spoke.

That answer was directed at the child.

—Haha. Our honey really is soft.

Yet Caliburn sounded like he had already expected my choice.

“Eh?”

The child’s eyes immediately filled with tears, probably thinking he had been rejected.

So I added an explanation.

“Just heal first. If you’re injured, it’ll only make things harder for me.”

If there are injured followers, the required resources increase.

“S-so… I can stay here?”

“I can’t exactly throw you out. Like you said, I saved you. If I kick you out now that’d be ridiculous.”

“M-Master…”

I quickly cut him off.

“Just don’t tell anyone what you saw. And there’s one more thing you must follow.”

“One more?”

“Never call me Master.”

Leaving the confused child behind, I turned around and trembled.

—Hahaha. Well, that kind of play is enough with just you and me, Master.

Stop it. Please.