Chapter 61, Restricted Area

Translator: Lizz

Edward nodded at Gina’s proposal to assign the newly arrived senior servant to the Marquis’s daughter, and restrict the free movement of both the Marquis’s daughter and her servant in the fortress.

“Indeed, that might restrain their actions. Since she was recommended to be a tutor, I wanted to believe she had common sense… but sending such a young Marquis’s daughter already made me doubt their judgment. It was troublesome if a lady we had never met came here just for a summer retreat. We had asked for a tutor precisely because I wanted to prepare a proper reception system.”

While grumbling, Edward told Sylvia to designate the still-unfinished areas as restricted zones, and to forbid entry into the unrenovated rooms and the floor where the master lived.

“There might be other places as well. I will think about it. I will consult with others, and once it is decided, I will come again to ask.”

Edward bowed to Sylvia, then went to the office and sat at the desk in the far left corner.

The office had been made stately at Edward’s request, but it did not seem to be Sylvia’s taste. No matter how many times the Mayor said ‘I will bring the documents to the fortress’, she stubbornly went to his house to complete the signatures. She did not come here except for interviews and meetings.

In fact, Sylvia only came because Edward instructed her to, and she never came of her own accord.

Edward regretted that he had failed in this, but since there was no helping it, he decided to use the office himself until Sylvia eventually began to work there.

Incidentally, Calogero also had a desk prepared in the far right corner, but since he worked at the church, he rarely came, so in practice only Edward used the place.

“Well then, let’s do this…”

He spread out the floor plan and thought deeply.

He decided that rooms arranged only for appearance like the office, the study room, and the library would be accessible, and that the garden at the main entrance and the courtyard would be made accessible through Sylvia’s magic. Since she was a noble lady, she would likely stroll through the garden or have tea in the courtyard pavilion.

The stables and fields, on the other hand, would be restricted areas.

After all, livestock were kept there, so a Marquis’s daughter would not approach them anyway.

The livestock Sylvia had brought were not ordinary.

They seemed to understand human language, and for some reason they were abnormally strong. Their ferocity was incomparable to normal species.

Even the smallest chicken had once killed intruders with ease alongside Edward.

It was thanks to those animals that they had managed to defend the place. When the plan fell apart and Edward became confused, he gave commands to the animals that had joined the fight—’Stop that one!’ ‘Circle around!’—and they understood perfectly, doing exactly as ordered.

Normally, the horns of cattle or goats did not grow endlessly, nor did a chicken’s spurs become sharper than a poor-quality hidden weapon.

Edward vaguely suspected they might be monsters disguised as livestock. Still, since Sylvia cherished them so dearly, he decided it was fine to leave things as they were.

…However, if they truly were monsters, then if the Marquis’s daughter tried anything against them, she would be killed without mercy.

It would be disastrous if a visiting Marquis’s daughter from a neighboring country were slain.

Edward concluded that the best solution was to designate the area around the stables as a restricted zone.