Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 66

Creating a Vassal to Build a Human Empire 68

Superior Breed, Thurdret

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Sometimes, things just happen like that.

There are cases where you know a few things by chance, even in fields you’re not particularly interested in.

For example, not being interested in dogs or cats but knowing some breeds,

Or another example, not being interested in cars but knowing some car models.

Like this, there are times when you know things simply from hearing about them.

The Thurdret of Germania was just such a case.

Like a breed for dogs, or a car model for cars.

‘Thurdret? Ah, you mean that monkey-like people?’

‘I’ve heard of them a few times. They’re supposed to be docile.’

That kind of talk might hurt someone’s pride.

However, for humans [enslaved by non-humans in this context], such treatment was the ultimate honor.

Because it meant they were considered a superior breed among human livestock.

‘How many of us have names remembered by the chosen race [the non-human overlords]?’

The Thurdret’s widespread fame was no accident.

It was the result of generations of effort to become a superior breed of human.

‘Accept reality. We are dogs. Our territory is merely the owner’s front yard, and we are just being raised there.’

If the owner of the world isn’t human, then you should follow the owner.

Rather than being a stray dog rummaging through garbage in the streets,

It’s better to live as a pet dog on a leash.

‘Human life has never been independent since settling in this land. Dogs cannot live without their owners, and being loved by their owners is the best thing.’

So, the Thurdret were more loyal to their owner than anyone else.

Their loyalty was so great that other races remembered their name.

‘Look! At the results of our efforts. Isn’t our power like that of a king?’

That choice and effort were greatly rewarded.

When a Thurdret argued with someone and stood before their owner, the owner would side with the puppy wagging its tail, and the Thurdret rose to become the leading noble family in Germania, backed by the owner’s power.

The pretense of being a cadet branch of the royal family even led them to covet the throne.

The rise of power was endless.

It seemed like it would last forever as long as their owner didn’t forget the Thurdret.

“Edar, I banish you.”

Until he said those words.

#

Edar, the eldest son of the Thurdret and a bastard.

About a month after the young man, called the Thurdret Duke’s blemish, was banished from the family, a woman walked through the mansion’s hallway, smiling broadly.

‘That lowly thing is probably dead by now, right?’

She was Ibella, the Thurdret Duke’s legal wife.

‘It’s already been a month. If he’s trash with no ability, he would have died before arriving or been hunted down shortly after arriving.’

Her smile deepened, and her steps became lighter.

‘It should have been done this way from the start.’

It felt like a nail stuck in her chest had been removed.

From the moment Edar was conceived in his mother’s womb, she harbored hatred, disgust, and murderous intent towards him.

To Ibella, a bastard was shame itself.

A husband who indulged in lust and sowed seeds despite having a legal wife,

A lowly thing that crawled into the main house without killing the seed [referring to preventing the birth],

And her powerlessness to do anything about this situation.

Edar was like a large nail that reminded her of her shame.

‘They say weeds are tough, but who knew he’d be tougher than his mother.’

She recalled the trouble she went through trying to induce a miscarriage.

She used every means possible without being caught by the Duke.

Yet, Edar’s mother endured and endured until childbirth.

As a result, her health deteriorated, and she lost her life shortly after giving birth.

‘Stupid woman. If she had been quick-witted and erased him, I would have compensated her appropriately… What was so great about a child that she couldn’t endure what she couldn’t endure?’

Ibella sneered inwardly.

She also loved the children she bore.

However, that love was closer to affection for the most valuable means to achieve her goals rather than maternal love.

‘It took 20 years to get here because of that lowly thing. 20 years. It took 20 years for Svein, that petty man, to disown the bastard.’

Just thinking about it made her blood boil.

Since she couldn’t kill the child in her womb, she had to raise him.

Especially since there were no children between Ibella and the Duke at first.

‘Opportunity? What opportunity? An opportunity to hand over the family to a half-wit? Are you crazy?’

Ibella could never allow that.

The Thurdret Dukedom was something that she and her own child should have.

She had no intention of giving even a grain to a newcomer.

‘If I can’t kill him… I can just make him die or turn him into trash that no one would think of as their own blood.’

After belatedly giving birth to two children, she began to plot against Edar.

She abused him under the guise of physical training to make him a coward,

She bribed the tutors to block his education and make him illiterate,

And she nitpicked every word he said to make him a stutterer.

‘It was easy because Svein was often away. It just took time.’

The Thurdret Duke, Svein, spent most of the year in the capital.

Therefore, he didn’t notice what was happening at home.

The vassals were all Ibella’s people, so they even cooperated.

The entire Dukedom cooperated in turning Edar into trash.

‘He can’t read, doesn’t know etiquette, stutters, and is physically weak. The only thing he resembles is his face. If you ask if this kind of idiot is your seed, you can never say yes, right?’

The only resemblance was his face, and there was nothing good about him.

‘Even that similar appearance is just cowering like a frightened monkey. If he sees him, wouldn’t he think he’s just a pathetic sight that looks just like him?’

How could he definitively say, “He’s my son?”

Moreover, the Thurdret Duke was a powerful figure like a king.

Admitting that Edar was his own child meant admitting that the Duke’s blood was inferior, or that he had failed in education, or both.

The Duke’s high pride could not admit this.

‘I was relieved when they said they would send him to the Loegene Margrave as a bridegroom, though…’

She even doubted if he was his own seed, but officially, he was the eldest son.

As a last resort, the Duke tried to hand him over to the Loegene Margrave [a noble title, ranking below Duke].

Although the family was declining, they only had an only daughter.

He judged that if things went well, the Margrave family could pass to the Dukedom.

For her, it was like losing a fish she had already caught, so she was taken aback, but,

‘I was grateful that they called off the engagement on their own. They’re quick-witted after all.’

In the end, the Duke’s only option left was disownment.

There was no reason to keep him alive and create discord in the family.

Killing him outright was too vulgar for a great noble family.

So, he planned to kill him indirectly by sending him to the frontier village he had given to the elves.

‘On the other hand… that lowly thing had no sense.’

The day before the disownment was announced, she was delighted to hear that he had packed a rope, thinking, ‘Finally, the bug knows what to do,’ but the next day, he appeared perfectly fine and stood tall.

She vividly remembered the gaze she received at that time.

No one had ever given her such an intense gaze in her life.

‘Someone who doesn’t know their place.’

She was dumbfounded but sent him a full sneer.

What was there to fear from a dying man’s glare anyway?

It was just that unpleasantness was boiling.

‘It would be good to marry off the second child to the Loegene Margrave. Then, after the old man dies, the Margrave family will be ours too, right?’

She looked at the glass in the hallway wall.

Even though winter was ending, it was cold, and frost had formed.

A wide yard spread out beyond the window, and a fence was visible at the end.

A baggage cart passing beyond the fence caught her attention.

‘What is it?’

The baggage cart didn’t pass in front of the mansion.

It stopped at the entrance of the mansion and came inside.

There were dozens of them.

‘That’s… a tribute cart, isn’t it?’

She hurried down the hallway and down the stairs.

Several vassals were already out at the main gate, trying to figure out the situation.

She read the troubled look on their faces.

“What’s going on?”

“The tribute we sent this time has been rejected.”

“The tribute was rejected?” she asked, widening her eyes.

The vassal shook his head and replied that he didn’t know either.

‘Why? This has never happened before?’

She rushed to Duke Svein’s office.

He had been staying at the main house since banishing Edar.

Knock, knock. She knocked on the office door, but there was no response.

After hesitating for a moment, she slowly opened the door.

Creak—

“The tribute?”

The Duke had just started to speak.

She quietly entered the office.

He was sitting at his desk, holding a report and a quill.

He must have heard the news while working.

“Are you saying to send the tribute again?”

His voice trembled.

Ivela knew that the trembling wasn’t from simmering anger.

It was a tremor of shock at the utterly incomprehensible measure.

The vassal he had sent as an envoy knelt before him.

“…Yes. That’s what he said.”

The vassal’s voice also trembled.

He knew what it meant to be told to send the tribute again.

“Why?”

The Duke asked again.

But the vassal did not answer.

He had no answer, nor was the question directed at him.

The Duke was asking someone who wasn’t there.

A question directed at the one to whom he sent the tribute.

That person was Raeragon, the Elven Prince.

“Did he say anything else?”

“…”

The vassal remained silent even after being questioned.

Though he dared to ignore his master’s question, the Duke neither reproached nor grew angry, but merely sighed deeply and put down the report.

She knew.

The vassal was merely delivering a notification.

He had come only to listen, unable to say a word, as always.

From the start, humans weren’t even qualified to question the other races.

So even if he asked, the vassal would have nothing to say.

“Send the tribute again…”

It was a unilateral notice.

A harsh notification for which one could neither know nor ask the reason.

‘Tribute, offerings to the other races,’ she thought.

She recalled the list of items included in the tribute.

Each one was difficult for even the ducal family to obtain easily.

No, one of them was actually very easy to obtain.

Humans.

Other than that, they were hard to find.

‘To say to send the tribute again means to increase the amount.’

Because what to offer as tribute was already decided.

It was a list that had remained unchanged for generations.

Therefore, if it wasn’t to his liking, it was the quantity.

It was a euphemism to increase the amount.

‘Suddenly increasing the amount of tribute? Why?’

Just thinking about it was burdensome.

Even for the Duke, who wielded power akin to a king.

Because the tribute items were things even he found difficult to obtain.

Otherwise, would the Elven Prince be satisfied?

“Understood. Go back and rest.”

After the vassal left, Ivela approached Svein from behind.

The Duke was holding his forehead as if he had a headache.

She placed her hand on his shoulder.

“What on earth is going on?”

“I don’t know. I’m also bewildered because I haven’t heard anything.”

The Duke sighed deeply.

“First… we must increase the tribute and send it. Even if we ask the reason later, satisfying the Prince is the priority right now.”

“We should consider what costs less to increase.”

“What would cost less to increase…”

The tribute must be sent.

If not, it would incur the wrath of the Elven Prince.

The tribute must be sent again, but the loss must be reduced as much as possible.

After much deliberation, the Duke adjusted the quantity and ratio of the tribute items and sent them.

Then, after a few weeks, the empty carriage returned.

With another notification.

“He said to offer the same amount as this time, three times a year from now on.”

“…”

Ivela watched the Duke cover his head.

A silent scream escaped from his open mouth.

‘Sending almost double the existing tribute three times a year?’

She also felt like screaming.

They had sent almost twice the tribute already.

And now he was saying to increase it from once a year to three times?

That was six times the original amount.

“What’s the reason? What did the Prince say?”

“…”

The vassal remained silent for the same reason as before.

Unlike before, the Duke slammed the desk with his fist.

“Find out!”

His face turned red, and the veins in his neck stood out.

“He must think I’ve done something wrong! I need to know the reason so I can beg for forgiveness!”

“Y-Yes, I understand.”

The vassal squeezed his eyes shut and left the mansion.

And after some time, he returned.

Packed in a wooden box with salt [a traditional method of preserving bodies].

He had paid the price for daring to question the notification of a chosen race.

– You have insulted me.

This was the reason he heard at the cost of the vassal’s life.

“Insulted?”

Insulted, how?

What insult?

Svein and Ivela couldn’t understand.

The one they served was the Elven Prince.

How dare anyone insult such a noble being?

‘Wait a minute…’

Something suddenly flashed through Ivela’s mind.

‘Edar.’

She asked the Duke and vassals gathered in the office.

“Has anyone heard any news about Edar?”

“Edar? Why suddenly him…?”

The Duke, who had asked why, widened his eyes.

His intuition whispered.

Where was Edar banished to?

Where was the land that Serdret had handed over to the Elven Prince?

“Send someone to the frontier village right now! Find out what Edar has done! And bring him here immediately!”

But it was never revealed what Edar had done.

Likewise, Edar never returned to Serdret.

The people the Duke sent were cut off after crossing the border.

No matter how many times they sent people, no one returned.

Every person they sent disappeared without a trace.

‘What is that bug doing!’

At this point, the suspicion was considered a fact.

How many people had they sent, would all of them have betrayed them?

Everyone was convinced that Edar had done something.

What was the reason for doing it, would he have done it if he was confident?

The vassals were furious and clamored for sending troops.

“It’s not an accident! He used dirty tricks!”

“This is an insult to the Duke!”

“We must uncover the truth and hold him accountable!”

Just as the Duke was seriously considering dispatching troops, news came that the northern lords of Wallachia had invaded the Great Plains and suffered a great defeat.

‘What?’

And soon, news followed that a human lord of the Great Plains had conquered northern Wallachia, and that lord’s name was Edar of Serdret.

‘That lowly thing?’

That Edar, who even the lowest servants in the mansion didn’t treat as human?

Conquered northern Wallachia and became a Margrave [a noble title, similar to a Marquis]?

Everyone was shocked by the incomprehensible event.

‘How? How could such a thing happen…?’

The calls to dispatch troops disappeared.

Not out of fear, but because they couldn’t understand.

What on earth had happened to Edar to make such achievements possible?

It was beyond their common sense.

“…Let’s investigate the situation a bit more for now.”

The Duke backed down.

He knew that Edar was the eye of the storm.

But he couldn’t judge whether the storm would truly sweep everything away, or if it was just a storm in a teacup.

The Duke decided to wait until the situation became clearer.

In the meantime, many people were sent to understand the Great Plains and northern Wallachia, and they met the same fate as their predecessors.