Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

Note: We have merged previously splited chapters.

“First, the most distinguished personnel in this war, Hubertus Nahles Weiss Weinzierl. You did well.”

“I did not deserve such a praise, as I merely did what Your Majesty’s had ordered.”

As I heard about the King’s endless praises for the Crown Prince I tried really hard to prevent myself from rolling my eyes. Of course, as the commander of the whole army, the Crown Prince will be named as the most distinguished personnel.

It’s the typical ‘all your merit goes to your boss’ the victory of this war also all attributed to the Crown Prince. It’s ‘all praise to the Crown Prince’ route.

The King continues and bestows the Crown Prince with all sorts of rewards. First monetary rewards, then a royal family treasured sword. The greatest reward though is the fact that with this achievement the Crown Prince’s position will be unshaken.

“Next, Ingo Fati Zeavert. Sir’s army had become the key to our win in the recent battle. Sir’s achievement is truly worthy of praise.”

“I am truly grateful for your praise.”

Next, it’s my father’s turn. Father said so as he bowed his head. The one that went to the battle may be me, but the army is the Zeavet household’s so the achievement goes to my father.

The reward that the King bestows is money and it’s quite a lot of it. The reward amount is enough to pay back the money I used to buy the oil so I’m glad. The remaining problem is there will be a lack of scented oil for a while since I bought all of its main ingredients… but I doubt we will have any large-scale international banquet in a while because of the demon king so it should be fine.

Other than lack of scented oil, another effect of this time battle is probably going to be the change of perception people have toward the Zeavert’s household. We will no longer be known as a house of the civil officers only.

“And for your heir, Welner von Zeavert who had for the one who had battled on the frontline, from henceforth we shall allow him to be called viscount.”

“Such an excessive reward…”

“Please allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude once again for Your Majesty’s generosity!”

Now my name is brought up. As the actual commander of the army, I guess this will happen.

I walked to the very front where my father is and gave a very deep bow toward the throne while I started to recall this kingdom’s nobles’ rank.

In my previous world, the basic noble rank is separated into five-level. They are duke, marquis, count, viscount, and baron. Some countries also had ranks below baron like baronet, honorary knight, or esquire but well, the basic rank is these five.

The Bain Kingdom I am reincarnated into also has five… I wish. The Bain Kingdom actually had 6 ranks of nobility so it’s even more troublesome to remember.

There is also a typical classification of the noble outside of their rank similar to my previous life like a court noble and territory lord but there are also many differences. I used to get confused about them.

The first rank is baron. Usually, a baron is a knight who had done many meritorious services or a talented commoner who is liked by the king and then put in a governmental position. This bit isn’t that different from baron in my past life.

When a knight becomes a baron, the only difference he will feel is probably the fact that he can now attend a royal banquet or a noble’s wedding as a guest. As a knight, he can only attend these events as a guard.

Most barons also didn’t have any territory. Even if they had it’s only small farmland so there are also barons who are also a farmer. A baron may be a noble but they didn’t have the typical noble luxurious lifestyle.

There is also a non-hereditary baron. This type of baron will never get their territory. This position is more of an honorary position (or in this case an honorary title) than an actual noble position. Actually, this type of title is often given as a convenient reward.

As a noble title, the baron has little to no merit.

Of course, the baron had a privilege that every noble had like can escape arrest for a light crime or paying a cheaper toll when moving to another town. But these two privileges are useless for someone of a baron’s level.

Above baron, there is a viscount. I really hope a viscount is just a title given to a baron that had accumulated great merit but nope, not that simple. In this kingdom, there are not 1 or two but 3 types of viscount.

The word viscount originally mean ‘a count aide’ this is why some viscount had a small part of the count’s territory as their territory. This type of viscounts is called a ‘remote viscounts’

The second type of viscount is ‘government viscount’ they are viscounts who are appointed as a high ranking government official. Most of the royal family’s territory is managed by this type of viscounts.

Rarely, some governmental viscounts also become a minister.

Last, is the ‘provincial viscount’ who had territory in the provincial region. There is this unwritten rule that a provincial viscount must never become a high-ranking government official.

The trademark of a viscount is they barely leave their territory. They only came to the capital for like reports and special events. Only fellow viscounts remember other viscounts’ faces.

The territory of a viscount is not that large. An influential viscount has territory the size of a small city but most only had territory that can be considered bigger than a village but smaller than a city. Some viscounts territory is only composed of farmer villages and farmland that is large enough to do tenant farming.

Other than three types of a viscount, there is another equal but different rank than viscount called ‘deputy count’ This rank is usually given to sons of a marquis or a count. This rank is closer to an ‘honorary viscount’.

You can tell if someone is appointed as a deputy count or a viscount by listening to the King’s word when appointed them. If the King said ‘We shall appointed him as a viscount.’ then that person is appointed as a viscount, while if the King said ‘we shall allow him to be called a viscount’ then that person is appointed as a deputy count.

I heard deputy count used to be considered as one of the nobility rank in the kingdom right below the viscount. Back then, there were not six but seven ranks of nobility.

I was appointed as a deputy count. There is actually barely any benefit for me. I will receive a salary from the court, though the amount is only roughly the same as a barren. It’s an amount enough to support a family but I’m still a student with no family to support.

Rather than benefit, this rank brought me one huge trouble.

As I said before, this rank is given to a son of marquis or a count. It’s a symbol of an acknowledgement as the official heir of the house from the royal family. For a case like mine, whose father is a minister that often stayed in the capital, the job of managing the territory comes as a packaged deal with this rank.

The huge problem that I was talking about is not the matter of heir. If my brother was alive, me given this rank by the royal family would lead to a full-blown successor war, but since my brother died and I become the count’s only son, I’m automatically the heir without being given this rank.

The huge problem lay in the ‘managing the territory’ bit. As the person who manages the territory, I also must protect the territory. It means I will be the one who will lead the knights and the army at the frontline in case of any battle.

Basically, the king is telling me this ‘your father is a court minister, so he won’t be able to go to a battlefield. You go in his stead.’

The ‘managing the territory’ bit had also brought heated argument among the others noble about ‘who’s higher a deputy count or a viscount?’

One common argument goes like this. The deputy count is only their father’s helper. Of course, a viscount with their territory and political influence as a high officer in the central government that managed finance or administration is higher.

The opposing argument then goes like this. But, if the deputy count is a son of a marquis who is also a court minister, then as a manager of a marquis territory, isn’t it obvious that the deputy count is higher than a viscount?

… and so on so on. The debate finally calmed down when the king decided to make the rank viscount and deputy count equal. The official document will keep the name’ deputy count’ while his official position and the way other nobles call him will be ‘viscount.’

Though it had calmed down, it doesn’t mean the debate had completely disappeared. The debate used to be heated again at a royal banquet. The order of sitting in a royal banquet is decided by the person’s political achievements, position in the society, the parent’s position, the position of the in-law family, and age. The heated debate often arose about the order of sitting of the viscounts and deputy counts.

Maybe that’s why only nobles with a rank of count and above can attend a banquet nowadays. Baron too, but many feel that the viscount didn’t appreciate their rank.

The next rank of nobility is the count rank. This rank is divided into 3. There are ‘town count’, ‘rural count’, and ‘court count’. All type of count had their territory.

Some count had nothing but ruined land as their territory, but the fault lay with that count’s father or grandfather for always playing around and never doing their job properly.

The first type of count is ‘town count’. They are counts who had a large town as their territory. Their territory may also have farmland, but it’s small, so their primary income comes from taxes, paid either by the town’s residents and merchants or from export and import tariff.

It may look like they are not earning that much, but for a counts who had a harbour town as his territory, the amount they make can be ridiculous to the point they can buy a personal warship. Yes, this kind of count existed in the kingdom. Then, for a town count that had a territory near a mine, he had an excellent connection to the kingdom’s engineer, so pissing him will bring endless trouble. 

Even if the town count’s territory location is not special, every town count also had other benefits like a great war potential of their territory. A town is where adventurers and aspiring mercenaries gather, after all. Then, they also had a solid connection to the merchant, causing them to be well informed about the flow of goods.

A hidden power will describe a town count the best.

This is different from my previous life. In my previous life, a ‘town count’ or ‘landed gentry’ was a position that was even lower than a viscount.

The second type of count is known as ‘rural count’ This type of count has a territory composed of mainly farmer villages and farmland. Their primary income comes from corps, livestock, and forestry.

The main benefit that a rural count has is the number of people they have in their territories. Like in my previous life, most people in this kingdom live in farmer villages because It’s natural for people to build settlements near farmland. Plus, because of how large the amount of labour is needed for farming, people still choose to stay in the village to help their family farm.

I don’t know if, in the future, this world will also have an industrial revolution that will lead to the creation of tractors moved by magic. For now, most of the kingdom’s citizens lived in farming villages.

This benefit is the primary source of a rural count’s influence. They could move a large number of people if they wanted. Not to mention they also controlled the kingdom’s food.

A large number of citizens translated directly to a large amount of potential labour force. A rural count may not have any military power, but they influence military supply transportation. After all, who can transport goods if not people? Another sector that desperately needs a labour force is road building. Road building also happens in this world, even if they have magic.

A Simple way to describe a rural count is a noble who have an obvious power.

The last type of count is ‘court count’. Like its name, it’s a count that worked in the royal court. They also had their territory. The title count is given to a noble that had territory in the provincial region.

Just while other counts spend the most time in the province to manage their territory, the court count spends most of their time working in the royal court in the central region. People often associated this count with an image of an intelligent person adept in politics. I don’t know if my father is adept in politics, though.

Among the three counts, the rural count had the weakest influence. It’s quite different from my past life, where a noble with vast farmland as their territory usually have a strong influence. Some can rival a duke. But in this kingdom, the position of a rural count can be pretty shaky.

The next nobility rank is Marquis. They are nobles who have a town the size of several counties as their territory.

Marquis always stayed in the capital and only return to their territory a handful of times. They left governing their territory to several counts as their representative

Marquis only left the capital under special circumstances like diplomacy work with foreign countries.

Posts that held many of the kingdom’s internal secrets like the knight captain, Minister of Defense, or General of the kingdom’s army are always left to the marquis.

Marquis has one special right that nobles below them didn’t have. They have the right to possess a private army for each of their territories. They also have a large number of knights under their command.

One strange thing that I noticed about marquis in this kingdom is that they are often left in charge to protect the kingdom’s border despite mostly remaining in the capital.

Another privilege that only nobles ranked marquis and above have is the right to become the king’s in-law. This is because there’s a rule that requires the queen to be a lady at least from the marquis household. In reality, though, there are several ladies from a count’s household that managed to become a queen.

Other rights that only noble with marquis and above rank have is the right to create a territory law. They can create and enforce a special law that didn’t exist in the kingdom’s constitution.

There was this story about a certain marquis that created a law ‘all bandit shall be executed’ It caused all bandits to completely disappeared from his territory. It also caused trouble in surrounding territories since the bandits ended up running there.

If there’s any clash between the kingdom’s law and the marquis’s territory law then first both laws are investigated. Usually, the kingdom’s law ended up being the one that is enforced, but times when the territory’s law becomes the one that is enforced also existed.

I do think is a good policy. Because this way the territory lord will be able to swiftly solve problems that didn’t exist in the kingdom’s law.

After the marquis, next is the duke. The nobility system in this kingdom, follow the western nobility system which is a bit different from the Japanese nobility system that I know in term of the duke. In the Japanese nobility system, the rank ‘duke’ didn’t exist. There is only a ‘prince’

So the western nobility system duke and prince are both conveniently called just ‘prince’ in Japan. It’s confusing[1].

In the western nobility system, a prince is either someone who ruled a small country or the son of the reigning monarch. Including the Crown Prince. A simple definition of a prince is a man who had a connection with the current monarch’

While duke is a title given to a lord who is higher than marquis. Dukes often control large towns. Many nobles became dukes after amassing a massive amount of war achievements. the duke territories are often treated as autonomous areas, like a small country. Other than being a noble title given to a lord of a kingdom, some countries also have ‘duke’ as the title of its reigning monarch.

The reason why the title ‘duke’ didn’t exist in Japan is because of the difference between Japan’s imperial family system and the western’s.

Japan, Chinese, and other countries that embraced the Chinese-style nobility system had a large number of imperial/royal families since the reigning monarch have concubines. As such large territories that are typically given to a duke in western countries are given to one of the princes instead so the need to create a completely new title like duke didn’t exist.

On the other hand, the western nobility system is based on the system that existed in the European dark ages, the times when the church had a huge influence to the point that for a prince to be recognized as the next king it was more important to be recognized by the church rather than by his own parents.

In the bible, there is a famous line “Thou shall not commit adultery” That’s why the king of the western kingdom can’t have concubines. Officially, at least.

Without concubines, No matter how much the royal couples ‘work hard’ and even if the queen gave birth to one child every year, the number of royal family members won’t be too large, since the son of the concubine won’t be recognized as an official member of royalty.

That’s why large territories won’t always be governed by a prince, unlike in the Chinese nobility system, but rather by a subject that had amassed merit. In this case, a separation between that subject and a prince is needed and that’s how the title ‘duke’ is born.

Under the western system, some princes do become an heir to another kingdom because of their political marriage.

While some dukes ended up becoming a king because of the church declaration like ‘The God had recognized this person as the king!’

But in either of these situations, separating the title ‘duke’ from ‘prince’ itself won’t cause any problem.

From an outsider’s point of view, separating the title also make it easier to remember so it’s a win-win situation.

The situation is different in the Chinese nobility system. A king/emperor’s children is still a member of a royal/imperial family even if their mother is a concubine.

I mean the ancient Chinese emperor had at least 20 daughters and the man that married those daughters also had the qualification to be called a prince, so the actual number of the royal family is just staggering.

Not to mention there were also some men who is conferred the title of prince because their sons married a princess. 

Under the Chinese-style nobility system, territories are often only kept around the member of the imperial/royal family so there’s no need for an additional title like duke.

To add to the confusion, this type of nobility system had a separate parameter to decide the right to a throne other than the title of prince.

For example in Japan, there is Prince Yamagata Aritomo[2]. He might be a prince but he didn’t have any claim to the Japanese Imperial throne. In the western nobility system, he’s a duke.

Fujiwara clan[3] in Heian Period[4]is also another great example. Despite being the clans of the princes and emperors’ wives, none of the members of the clan had any right to the imperial throne. This is because of the difference in treatment of maternal families in eastern culture and western culture.

In the Chinese style nobility system, a prince can also have a different amount of authority depending on who the current reigning emperor/king is. The same prince can have a different amount of power in a different era.

Due to differences between the western and Chinese-style nobility system, translating both prince and duke into just prince often causes confusion in Japan because no one knows which is which. More often than not, both are just careless clustered together.

Maybe the Meji Government[5] should have creates a different title to separate duke and prince in the past.

So they can give Yamahata Aritomo an equivalent ‘duke’ title instead of the straight-up ‘prince;

So to simplify things.

Western-style title: a Prince has direct blood relation to the royal family, while Duke hasn’t. Prince has the right to the throne.

Chinese-style title: Prince is a title that can be given to anyone who had the slightest bit of connection to the royal family. These Princes may or may not have the right to the throne

Those are really simplified explanations. Though these simple explanations can still cause some misinterpretation. 

The Bain Kingdom I’m currently in follows the western style nobility title that separated prince and duke.

The Crown Prince falls into the prince category while the current prime minister is a duke. That means the six nobility rank in this kingdom is prince, duke, marquis, count, viscount, and baron.

The ‘Weiss’ in the Crown Prince’s name signifies that he is the successor of the throne. Other royals, like the second princess Laura Louise Weinzierl didn’t have Weiss in their name. The Crown Prince can also be referred to as Prince Weiss.

He’s sort of ‘Archduke’ of this kingdom. Well, the Archduke in my previous world is a different though.

Anyway, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reviewing this world’s nobility system.

In short, by giving me the title ‘deputy count’ the king is telling me “You’re still a student but there’s no doubt that you are the next count so take care of the count’s military affair.”

Just how did things become like this?

♦

[1]In Japan, 公(prince, official rank of old japan nobility) is used to translate the word ‘duke’ and ‘prince’ to Japan. There’s no distinction. Ex. Prince of Monaco and Duke of Hamilton will both be called 公 in Japan.↵

[2] Former Prime Minister of Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamagata_Aritomo ↵

[3] In the Heian Period, the Fujiwara clan is the power behind the imperial court. With wives of the emperor and imperial princes, all come from the Fujiwara clan. Still, the member of the Fujiwara clan had no claim to the throne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwara_clan ↵

[4] The period in Japanese history from 794-1185 A.D is considered the peak Japanese Imperial Court.↵

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period#:~:text=The%20Heian%20period%20

[5] The era of Emperor Meiji marked Japan’s start of westernization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Meiji_Japan ↵