As a Househusband, Fiscal Responsibility is Imperative (2.1)

As a Househusband, Fiscal Responsibility is Imperative (2.1)

…

Commissioned by Ichypa

…

Time is like a gentle current.

Until you try to resist it because you have something important to do, then you realize that it’s a riptide that has you strapped down for the ride.

Right now, I was really feeling that fact.

Engagements typically lasted two to three years.

While I managed to overcome the initial phase and get the Namgoong to agree to the engagement, finalizing it was another matter entirely.

That took a whole year.

In that time, I did a lot of things after leaving the Demonic Sect. I hunted for a dowry to give to the Namgoong. After that I received some responsibilities, such as handling a small amount of the treasury, and I did well enough to invigorate it. When that was successful, they called my father for a meeting, I hunted a big monster to present to him, and the ball officially got rolling after that event.

Once I returned, Seol started speaking to me about actual couple stuff, like how many kids we’ll be having.

That was shortly after I got the go-ahead from the elders for my trade route between the Namgoong and the Demonic Sect.

Meaning that I was now ‘in.’

Meaning that I had two years to further prove myself worthy of my position.

Meaning that all I’ve done so far was just enough to overcome the lingering enmity between our houses.

On one hand, I could sigh in relief knowing that I brought up a massive deficit to zero.

On the other hand, now I had to turn that zero into a surplus for the Namgoong.

A year of hard, difficult work rewarded by two years to do more.

I had ideas.

Hell, the Namgoong were receptive to my ideas and were willing to fund it. That was honestly more than I could have asked for as the son of their enemy, but they were honorable traditionalists to a fault, so they gave me a fair shake.

The problem was time.

Securing some roads, building new ones, and protecting them was easy enough. All I did was increase accessibility and make sure merchants used the roads, and it paid off.

Everything else that I had in mind that was safe would take more time, skilled craftsmen, and access to resources that we currently didn’t have.

Unless, of course, I went out there and risked my neck to get it myself.

With my time limit, though?

Yeah.

There was no choice.

I had to go out there, cajole a skilled blacksmith away from their current posting, and acquire an iron mine.

Steel was a rarity in this world, but I knew how to change that fact, and the Namgoong would have no choice but to accept me once I did.

But I’ll need to risk a lot to make it happen, because I’ll have to ask my fiancé for help.

I could only hope that she wouldn’t think of this as a play for power on my behalf.

…

Interlude: Seol, the 7th Sword Saint of the Namgoong Clan

…

Rui asked me to aid him in hiring a skilled blacksmith for the sake of the Namgoong. His goal was to crack the riddle of meteoric iron for the sake of our clan and the Demonic Sect.

Outwardly, I did as tradition demanded and asked him for time to consider the matter. Whereupon I would gather the elders and speak to them regarding the formation of an expedition, as well as funding the project.

Inwardly, I was ecstatic.

Meteoric iron!

The terrible conflicts of my parents’s generation had seen all traces of it all but disappear from our lands. Those who wielded our ancestral blades were targeted and slain at grievous cost, and they broke their blades rather than allow them to fall into the hands of our foes. When my father went forth, his blade was broken in combat, and it was because he was forced to use iron as he left the Namgoong’s ancestral blade to me.

Even then, it was not pure meteoric iron but an amalgam of it and other metals.

My father perished trying to keep an amalgam sword in our possession.

Rui wished to make it so that we could have everyone be armed with it.

And, of course, I saw beneath his wish and couldn’t help but blush and almost skip as I walked to Grandmother.

He was truly doing as he said he would!

He will do everything in his power to provide for as many children as I wish!

My stomach fluttered, and I felt my cheeks redden as I recalled that singular conversation that kept rearing up in my mind.

I didn’t notice that I reached my grandmother until she struck.

The stinging of her strike was so severe that I had to touch my forehead to ensure that it remained whole and hale.

“Acting like a maiden in love when your thoughts are filled with such lust that courtesans would blush! It is good that I’m teaching you to hide your emotions and thoughts! You would give half the council heart attacks!” Grandmother admonished me and gestured for me to sit. She was well-dressed in red today. Simple clothes, but new and well made. I gave her a nod to acknowledge it, and she gave a small scoff. “Now, what has you so giddy? Perhaps it can be of some use in the future when you need to defeat an illusionist.”

“Grandmother, Rui has asked for my aid in providing us with weapons as strong as meteoric iron.”

Grandmother went still for a moment at my words but gathered herself.

“It seems that we have pleased the Heavenly Demon greatly, then. This is the true peace offering between the Demonic Sect and the Namgoong Clan. A princely gift indeed.” Grandmother saw through the matter in its entirety in a singular movement. I could only wish that I could have the same wisdom as her at her age. All I saw was Rui’s trust in me and his work towards fulfilling his oath. “We shall rise to our former strength within the decade, and once your children are grown, we will rise beyond it. The Heavenly Demon offers us prosperity and peace so long as we accept his rule. His insidiousness and cunning are without question.”

I bowed my head at Grandmother’s words while I poured us both tea.

I waited for her judgment with as much control as I could muster.

“Our coffers are nearing full. Money does little good gathering dust. An expedition will be assembled to find the skilled smiths, and I will arrange for some smaller sects to lend us their warriors while you and Rui search.” Grandmother decided, before pausing and looking my way. “He gave you more knowledge than just finding blacksmiths, correct?”

I nodded at her question.

“Three iron mines and two coal mines are already identified. Ones within the reach of our new roads. He has also already spoken with a bellmaker to create a large vessel that will copy a meteor’s descent.” Grandmother raised a brow at my words, and I was happy to share with her the knowledge Rui gave me. I must have allowed my emotions to show on my face, as a moment later, I explained with a stinging welt on my forehead. The strike’s afterimage was something I barely caught. “It will be molten iron heated to an immense degree with pumps billowing air into molten iron to cleanse it of impurity.”

Grandmother's gaze was narrow, and her eyebrows were furrowed. Concern and disbelief were clear on her face.

But Rui already provided an answer.

From my pocket, I took out a simple paring knife fit only for cutting ingredients in a kitchen.

It was a bright gray, almost like silver, and when I filled it with Qi and struck its side… a clear and wonderful sound rang through it.

Grandmother’s breath caught, while I felt nothing but immense joy. The promise was enough, but Rui went as far as to present infallible evidence through this small knife.

“The blacksmiths must be found so that they can shape the metal. Creating the metal and what is needed for it are all here already.” Even if this was provided by the Heavenly Demon as a gift of peace, Rui showed me his strength and talent once more. Everything was in place. All the Namgoong needed to do was to find talented workers and provide funds. Even if the idea was not his, everything that surrounded it was. “The secret and method are already ours, grandmother. The means are all that remains.”

Grandmother was silent for a while before suddenly shaking her head.

“It is a gift that we cannot refuse, but also one that ties our families inexorably. The Heavenly Demon is truly peerless. All these years we believed him to only be indulging himself in women and riches, but he has been crafting means to bind the world to his will.” Grandmother shook her head. A sigh left her lips. I froze as I realized that was the most I’d ever seen her react. For a moment, instead of the Namgoong matriarch who guided the clan after its greatest defeat, I looked upon an elderly woman in red robes whose small shoulders somehow carried the whole of the Namgoong for decades. “I fear that the war I prepared you for will never come, Seol. He has spent the last two decades growing his strength rather than languishing in indolence. It will be up to your children or their children to see the Namgoong free.”

Free of the Demonic Sect.

I knew that Grandmother always intended that to be the case from the moment she agreed to the marriage. Just as I had wished to bring the Heavenly Demon low for all that he has done, she wished for the same. She lost her spouse, her children, and many of her close friends in the conflict against him. Since then, she has devoted herself to keeping the Namgoong strong and allowing me to reach the height of my potential, at the cost of luxuries and even treasures we once held in our vaults.

Her life had been dedicated to seeing the Heavenly Demon dead, but she knew the truth now.

The Heavenly Demon, unlike all his predecessors, did not win and become weak without war.

Instead, he sought out more power and now moved to consolidate the whole realm after his victory.

Not just through force, but through knowledge, through his children, and through the threat of force.

Grandmother was correct as always.

I was raised to be a blade against the Heavenly Demon and to strike him down after he suffered years of neglecting his arts. While I was confident that I could match and defeat him within a decade, before I even reached thirty, I sacrificed much for that chance. My talent with the sword and my skill with it hid my lack of experience in the politics of the clan, let alone the intricacies of our relations with others.

He was as strong as I imagined when I met him, but that was only in martial arts.

I could not even fathom his strength when it came to using his fame and infamy to change the world around him.

“We will have this new form of metal for the Namgoong. I will be entrusting the future of the clan to you, Seol. If the Heavenly Demon wishes to win the peace, then we shall let him, but the Demonic Sect has a long history of having foolish, depraved, and cruel successors.” Grandmother’s words were clear and rang in my head. I knew what she meant to imply. Rui was not in the line of succession, but the Demonic Sect has more than once pitted the children of their head against one another. To the point that children were targeted. Though I did not have a child yet, I felt a white-hot, startling rage form in my stomach at the thought of my child being involved in such a thing. “I hope, my dear granddaughter, that you will never experience the pain of losing your child. To that end, I ask you to keep training, keep gaining strength, and be ready to see what comes with it once time takes the Heavenly Demon.”

“I will, grandmother. I swear on my name.” I spoke, and Grandmother gave me a sad smile. How many times has she heard such an oath only to see it broken? Her husband perished after telling her that he would return. The same for my parents when they went forth to aid the Alliance with our warriors. So many souls were lost of her generation and the one that came after. We were all that remained. Though she must have wanted vengeance for her own sake, she accepted the peace that the Heavenly Demon offered and only wished for me to be aware of what would come next. “Rest assured that your great-grandchildren will flourish, and they will not be involved in the succession after the end of the Heavenly Demon.”

Grandmother nodded at my words with the same sad smile, but she soon shook her head, and the mask of the matriarch of the Namgoong clan reappeared upon her face.

Stern, unyielding, and unbroken after numerous calamities.

The figurehead that led us through calamity and into a new, prosperous future.

No matter how much she wished to let loose with all that we had to bring low the Heavenly Demon.

“The men and the coin will be assembled within a week’s time. Tell Rui that you and he will be riding in the Namgoong clan’s official wagon.” Grandmother had ridden the large wagon with its sealing arrays and hardy construction when we went to meet with the Heavenly Demon. It was a strong, powerful vehicle pulled by our best horses, along with spares for them, and guarded by the finest of our warriors. “Show the world that you go with my blessing as the next head and that Rui is to be acknowledged as your spouse. I will quash any foolish rumors pertaining to him that remain while you are gone.”

I blinked at her words.

“Rumors?” I asked… And for a moment, Grandmother reappeared with a slight look of alarm on her face. Then, I realized that even as I tried to smile, my face felt as though it were steel. “What rumors are there about Rui?”

He has long led a life of abuse and suffering but has risen above it.

I loved that part of him.

However, the thought of him suffering more and having to rise above it again, especially in my own lands, filled me with a searing desire to draw my blade.

“Honored grandmother, please tell me of the rumors that currently persist regarding Rui and myself.”

I will not tolerate any foolishness from my sect towards him.