Golden Key

Disgusted by the local nobles of this other world, Aibo grew angrier the more he thought about it. He got up in the middle of the night and dug through documents to study the power structure of the Fiore Kingdom.

He picked up the first document:

The Fiore Kingdom was a permanently neutral nation, with an area of over seven million square kilometers and a population of seventeen million.

In other words, this country had more than half of China's land area, yet its total population was smaller than that of a first-tier city. It was even more sparsely populated than Australia.

It was easy to foresee that the influence of the central government—the king—could not reach the local regions, while the influence of local nobles extended only as far as the areas around their castles. It perfectly matched Aibo's stereotype of a medieval Western fantasy world.

And that was indeed the case. Take Magnolia, for example. Major matters were basically decided by the local gang—Fairy Tail. What even was a lord? Never heard of one.

But his own guild was no better. The guild master had thrown all local administrative work to the town mayor, practically handing over power on a silver platter. Though they had avoided paying territorial taxes through the guild's strength, the townspeople still had to pay taxes to the nobles.

Such inaction often left local wizard guilds in an awkward ecological niche within a city—no one managed them, no one wanted to manage them, and no one could manage them.

That was also the usual relationship between wizard guilds and local governments in this world. If the guild's wizards had consciences, then fine. But if they were all tyrants, the local residents would suffer.

The reason this strange ecosystem had formed was naturally the transcendent status of wizards.

One-tenth of the people in this world could use magic. Even if only one-tenth of that tenth could become wizards strong enough to join a guild, that was still one in a hundred.

A country with seventeen million people had one hundred and seventy thousand wizards. That was no small number.

It was precisely because wizards were a sizable extraordinary group that wielded great power that the permanently neutral Fiore Kingdom firmly implemented two parallel vertical management systems:

In other words—wizards were managed by the Magic Council, while non-wizards were managed by the national government.

Only in another world could such a ridiculous system somehow maintain social stability...

No, wait. This damn society did not seem stable at all. Just two years ago, Oración Seis had been snatching children everywhere. Forget it, this lousy kingdom was doomed sooner or later.

Even more absurdly, the Magic Council claimed that it stood on equal footing with the national government.

Any normal person could see that real power rested with the Magic Council, which managed all the wizards of the eastern continent. The royal family and nobles had all tacitly accepted the Magic Council's authority.

But... the Magic Council did not acknowledge that.

They said that they were equals with the kingdom, that they would not proactively interfere with national governance, that they strongly supported democracy, and that they only managed wizards.

It sounded high-minded, but in reality, they were simply too lazy to manage things and did not want to.

As long as responsibility was never clearly defined, there was no responsibility. The Fiore royal family's relationship with the Magic Council was like Magnolia's mayor's relationship with Fairy Tail.

Holding office without carrying out its duties was a sign of incompetence. It only stirred up conflict and caused chaos.

With two parallel systems of administration in place, there would inevitably be complicated overlapping issues involving both systems.

For example, today's "conflict of interest over territory between a guild wizard and a noble wizard" was a classic case of overlapping jurisdictions.

Most nobles were wizards, which gave them two identities. They were both lofty wizards and nobles of distinguished birth. Those bastards got all the good things.

Past experience had shown that the way to resolve such troublesome conflicts was—those at the top passed the buck to each other, then the two conflicting sides settled it privately themselves.

The rough process went like this: This was a territorial issue under noble rule, so it was the nobles' responsibility. But Fairy Tail was a wizard guild, so it fell under the Magic Council. The Magic Council respected the king's authority, so it was the king's responsibility. Duke Everlue was an enfeoffed lord, so this was your own business—handle it yourself...

In the end, nobody could be bothered to deal with it. Whoever had the bigger fist had the final say.

That was why Makarov had never cared about Aibo's antics. He was only annoyed by the letter of accountability the Magic Council was about to send. In the end, this matter would surely be dropped.

Fairy Tail would continue developing its amusement park and making money. At most, the duke would file a petty complaint. He definitely would not dare come to Fairy Tail's territory and make trouble.

But because the duke occupied the "legal high ground" of the kingdom, he would probably fantasize about one day, once Fairy Tail declined, bringing over the title deeds to reap the rewards.

And Aibo could not openly go and kill Duke Everlue either, because the duke was also a wizard.

If a wizard from an official guild killed a noble wizard with no criminal record, both the Magic Council and the Royal Army would act to bring the murderer to justice.

Thus, after fully understanding the convoluted and messy web of relationships involved, Aibo realized that there was actually nothing he could do. His whole face turned red.

This world was one gigantic amateur production. This country was riddled with institutional bugs, yet society happened to function normally anyway, so everyone turned a blind eye to those bugs.

He had thought that sorting out the situation would help him find a solution. Instead, he found that dealing with Duke Everlue within the rules was unrealistic, while killing him outside the rules was not worth the cost.

His already foul mood became even worse.

"Should I just blow up the Magic Council?"

In a daze, Aibo fainted from rage.

Unexpectedly, another incident occurred the next day.

The maid from the Heartfilia family, who had only left Magnolia yesterday, returned to Fairy Tail.

"Mr. Aibo, I hope you will accept this."

In the reception room, the maid took out a golden key, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Aibo.

"This is...?"

"The contract key of the Virgo Celestial Spirit. It previously belonged to Duke Everlue. At Virgo's request and of my own accord, I hope you will accept this gift from the Heartfilia family."

"Huh?"

Aibo was a little stunned. A key of the Zodiac... they were just giving it to him? Since when had his relationship with their family become this good?

"As far as I know, unless a Celestial Spirit's master voluntarily terminates the contract, the Celestial Spirit is not allowed to betray its master, right? Does Duke Everlue not want this Celestial Spirit anymore?"

"I can sense that you are also a Celestial Spirit Wizard, though you may not know that our Heartfilia family once possessed all twelve Zodiac keys.

"Although the twelve keys were later scattered, the Heartfilia family made a contract with the Celestial Spirit King. Our family still retained the right to reclaim ownership of all twelve Zodiac keys once.

"That is also the main reason Duke Everlue was previously willing to 'lend' the key to my mistress."

The maid paused before continuing:

"Originally, I intended to use this unused authority to mediate the conflict between Duke Everlue and your guild. But I am sorry, the negotiations failed. Duke Everlue refused my request.

"Since that was the case, I had no choice but to exercise that authority and dissolve the contract between Duke Everlue and Virgo. Virgo is now without a master.

"Before coming to visit you, I asked Virgo for her opinion. She was also willing to recognize Mr. Aibo as her master, so... I hope you will accept this key."

"This... doesn't seem right..."

Aibo scratched his head. Such an enormous windfall landing right in his lap felt unreal and absurd.

Was the Heartfilia family some kind of charity? They had come to cooperate, offered money, offered connections, and now they were offering a Celestial Spirit. Could this be some kind of scam or honey trap?

Fortunately, Aibo had a lie detector—

[My master instructed me to build the best possible relationship with Mr. Aibo. I hope my attempts to please him will not trouble him... This should not be too abrupt, right? I have already tried my best to restrain myself.]

Huh? That was not right. She really was not lying? What was going on with her mistress? Could she be a fan of his books?

Aibo was confused, but this seemed to have no downside no matter how he looked at it. Should he... accept it?

"Mr. Aibo, please do not overthink it. If our family wishes to further expand the southern railway market in the future, we will most likely need your guild's assistance. Consider this gift an investment from the Heartfilia family."

But there was no need to specifically seek out a seven-year-old brat like him, was there?

Although there were still many suspicious points, Aibo decided to accept the golden key. After all, there was no reason to refuse a free benefit. If any trouble arose, he would leave it for his future self to handle!

"Since you put it that way, I'll shamelessly accept this gift. Thank you."

"You are most welcome. May the friendship between you and the Heartfilia family endure forever."