When I Cleared the Death Game World, I Reincarnated as a Villainous Noble Even if They Talk About Doom Flags, I'm Actually Immortal. - Chapter 13

“Lord Lior? Where did that sword come from?”

The morning after Lior had secretly slipped out of the estate to hunt goblins, he was going through his usual sword training when Laura tilted her head in curiosity.

Her gaze was fixed on the black sword in Lior’s hand, her expression puzzled.

“Ah… well, I found it in the storage room. It looked cool, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

“The storage room? You found something like that in there?”

The estate where Lior lived had a room filled with various odds and ends—practically a warehouse.

It was a no-man’s land, cluttered with rare artifacts collected by the previous marquis—Lior’s great-great-grandfather.

Since none of the items were particularly valuable, no one ever ventured into what was essentially a “forbidden room.”

“This isn’t a cursed sword, is it?”

“No, no, it’s fine… probably.”

In reality, the sword had been forged from the remains of the Goblin Demon (temporary name) that he had slain.

It wasn’t some infamous relic his great-great-grandfather had scavenged from who-knows-where.

That said, since the weapon was made from the remains of a monster resembling a demon, he couldn’t completely rule out the possibility of a curse.

“Besides, it handles really well as a sword, don’t you think?”

“It does seem to be of excellent quality… but I still have my doubts. If you ever feel like it’s beyond your control, promise me you’ll return it immediately.”

“Why do I feel like I just brought home a stray dog…?”

It reminded him of a classic scenario:

“Can I keep this dog?”
“No! You won’t be able to take care of it. Put it back where you found it!”

Something like that.

“Anyway, I’ll be careful and test it out for a while.”

With that, the discussion about the black sword came to an end, and training resumed as usual.

After sword practice, it was time for breakfast, followed by studying.

As the heir to the marquisate, Lior was expected to take over the title once his father passed away.

Managing a domain required academic knowledge, making his studies essential.

Fortunately, Lior retained memories from his past life in Japan, which should have made studying easy—or so he wished.

Unfortunately, his memories of Japan felt distant, buried beneath his experiences battling in Drag Machina.

At best, he retained the knowledge of an elementary school student, making it difficult to call studying a breeze.

At most, he was slightly above average.

“Lord Lior, may I have a moment?”

“Felicia? Where’s the tutor?”

During his usual study time, Lior sat at his desk, waiting, when Felicia entered the room.

Normally, his tutor would have arrived by now.

“He had urgent business and will be late.”

“Huh?”

Lior’s tutor was strict and highly punctual.

While he never nagged Lior too much, he was not the type to be late.

This was unusual.

As Lior pondered the situation, a thick stack of papers landed with a thud in front of him.

“W-What is this?”

“Since we have extra time, I thought you could review the estate’s financial records.”

“Financial records?”

“These documents contain tax revenue data for Orion territory. Let’s use them for arithmetic practice.”

“I see.”

This world didn’t have convenient “math workbooks.”

So if one wanted to practice arithmetic, they had to use real-world documents like these.

Lior flipped through the reports, scanning the densely packed numbers. His head was already starting to ache.

He wasn’t particularly fond of studying.

Still, since this was about the domain he lived in, he found himself mildly interested.

“Our income should be quite high, right? A domain as large as the marquisate should generate a substantial tax revenue.”

“We can’t say for sure without comparing it to other territories. Unfortunately, there’s no available data.”

“That’s true. It’s not like other domains publicly disclose their tax revenues.”

“However, we can compare Orion’s current tax revenue with past records. Take a look at this.”

“Wait… is this a line graph?”

Felicia placed a sheet of paper on the desk, displaying a line graph.

However, something about it felt odd.

In this world, graphs hadn’t been invented—at least, there had been no official announcement like “We’ve invented graphs!”

It was possible that some incredibly brilliant individuals had independently come up with the concept and used it privately, but it certainly wasn’t something commonly available to the public.

“A line graph? I don’t recognize that term, but this chart visually represents Orion territory’s tax revenue over the years.”

“I see…”

Could it be that Felicia had invented it herself? Was she secretly a genius?

Lior felt a chill run down his spine as he glanced at her in shock, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead.

He shifted his attention back to the graph.

“…It looks like there was a sharp decline in tax revenue five years ago.”

“That year, a prolonged drought significantly reduced crop yields.”

“A drought… But why has tax revenue remained low in the years since? It’s not like it hasn’t rained since then, right?”

“No, the climate returned to normal the following year.”

“Then what’s causing this…? Oh.”

A realization struck Lior.

Five years ago, a drought had severely reduced the harvest.

That meant many villages would have been plunged into famine.

“During the drought, there wasn’t enough food, but people still needed to eat. Could it be that the farmers resorted to eating their livestock—particularly their cattle?”

“Would eating cattle cause tax revenue to decline?”

“Cattle are essential for agriculture. If they were eaten, farming would have become much more difficult the following year.”

Lior recalled something he had seen in a documentary.

In some cultures, eating cattle was forbidden—not for religious reasons alone, but because cows were vital for farming.

They functioned like living tractors, plowing fields with far more strength than humans.

If a struggling farmer had to sell their tractor due to financial hardship, their agricultural output would suffer.

Likewise, if people ate their cattle, their ability to farm properly the next season would be severely impacted.

“They could just buy new cattle, though…”

“Perhaps the taxes are too high, leaving them with no funds to do so?”

Felicia pointed at the graph.

For the past twenty years, tax revenue had been gradually increasing.

If this was due to economic growth, it wouldn’t be a problem.

However, if the increase was simply a result of higher taxes, then it meant the people were being burdened more heavily just to extract more revenue.

In that case, rather than fostering prosperity, the taxation system was merely squeezing the populace dry.

“It’s possible that Father hasn’t realized that the increased taxation is actually causing a decline in revenue. I’ll report this to Mason.”

“That sounds like a wise decision.”

Felicia nodded in agreement and promptly began tidying up the tax records.

(…Wait. What about my studies?)

This entire discussion had started as an arithmetic exercise for Lior.

He had only stumbled upon the tax issue by chance.

Yet, Felicia finished gathering the documents, then bowed her head politely.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Lord Lior, I apologize for my tardiness! We’ll begin the lesson immediately!”

Just as Felicia slipped out of the room, Lior’s tutor entered in perfect sync.

The timing felt almost too convenient.

Lior tilted his head in suspicion, but before he could dwell on it, he was swept into his studies, quickly forgetting his doubts.