Chapter 33— Land ownership

"Ars, you came back with something amazing."

　One day, I was talking to Father Paul at the church.

　Looking at the text on the parchment, Father Paul said so.

　But what does “something amazing” exactly mean?

　Father Paul is the one who named me at the baptismal ceremony.

　After that naming, I sometimes come to church for a reason.

　It was to learn letters.

　The only book I saw in this empty village was the book that the priest had at the baptismal ceremony.

　By the way, both of my parents were illiterate.

　The best way to learn was to go to church.

　On days when it rained and I couldn't go out to the fields, I would visit the church and take a lecture on letters from the priest who would have a book to the side to explain in more detail.

　This time, the priest said at the time of the lecture of the characters in this language.

　We usually use his priest's book as a teaching material, but at this time I brought in a parchment with letters written on it because I wanted to figure out something a little.

　The parchment was the one I got when we went to the town the other day.

　Familiars were presented to the Fontana family, and this was issued as a permit to sell the Familiars in the future.

"Since this is a permit, what does it say in this sales permit?" (Ars)

"Yes, that's right, but it's not a sales permit." (Father Paul)

"Is it different? Is that a permit for something else?" (Ars)

"That's right. This document actually formally recognizes the forest settlement as yours, Ars."

　With that said, Father Paul presented the piece of parchment to me on the desk.

　I got two documents from Raymond-san, a head servant of the Fontana family. (TLN: This sentence is trippy. The original was “I got two documents from Mr. Raymond, the owner of the Fontana family.”. However, the last chapter said that he wasn’t the head of the family, so I’ll stick with him being a servant.)

　One was about selling Familiars and the other was about owning land.

"My dad took care of it for me. It would be a problem if I was asked for wheat as a tax on the land I had cultivated. I was saved."

"That's right. Ashira did it for you. But the greatness of this document isn't just about taxes. Do you understand?"

"Eh ... no, I don't know ... I can’t completely read the words on the document, yet."

　The content written on the parchment has very small topics.

　One formally allows me to own the land that I’ve cleared out of the forest north of the village.

　In addition, the taxes I will pay for that land will be paid in the form of money instead of wheat, because I don’t grow that in my land.

　So to speak, it is only written about these two points.

"Okay. First of all, this document that you showed me states that the land that you’ve cleared in the forest is yours. Do you know that?"

"I do."

"Then the question is, where is the land you have cultivated?"

"No, isn't it the place where trees in the forest are cut and leveled?"

"That's right. That's what reclamation is, but what's important here is the text that describes the amount of land you’ve reclaimed. It doesn't say when, where, or how big. That is, the land you are allowed to own, according to this permit, includes all the land you have cultivated so far and all the land you have yet to cultivate. "

"Well, it sounds like a play on words, so how can we be sure that that is so?"

"Now, the content of the following text is added here to have concrete evidence. It is the content where it says that the tax is paid in the form of money instead of wheat."

"Is that something wrong?"

"The aristocratic Fontana family officially recognizes the territory of the land you’ve gotten and you have to pay taxes according to the land, but it is not in the form of wheat, which means that it does not matter if your land is not agricultural land."

"Well, that's right, because it wasn't originally meant for making wheat on the land, but for raising Familiars."

"No, there is no mention of land for raising Familiars, which means that it doesn't matter what you do in your land."

"So it means that….?"

"In the end, your land was told by the Fontana family to be treated like a tribe." (TLN: I… I can’t phrase it any better. Go to the summary at the end for more information.)

　Apparently, even if he talks about aristocrats and powerful people, it doesn't make complete sense to me.

　I asked Father Paul what I didn't understand, after that.

　So, in the end, it turned out that the aristocrats were the rulers of the land, but not the perfect rulers.

　The Fontana family controls a land called Fontana Territory, but it seems that they do not have complete control of that territory.

　It is said that some of the nobles have ruled some of the land for a long time, because instead of giving them some privileges, aristocrats add them to their territories.

　It is said that it is common to pay money and send out soldiers who will be a force in case of emergency if you are given a part of the land by an aristocrat.

　And, as far as he read in this document, Father Paul seems to want to say that that applies the same treatment to me as the family. (TLN: More explanations~~)

"Why did I get such a special treatment? This didn’t happen just because a Familiar that can be mounted was born, is it?"

"Maybe they never dreamed that Ars had or could cultivate such a large land."

　According to Father Paul, land is an irreplaceable property for many people, but it also has the aspect of being immovable and hard to maintain.

　This time, I presented a Valkyrie, a beast that you can ride on, to the Fontana family.

　So, as the Fontana family’s head servant, Raymond-san must have thought:

　’He’s not the eldest son of the farmer, and we’ll be in trouble if he goes to another aristocratic land and produces the same Familiars there.

　Anyway, I want you to continue making Familiars here for the rest of your life to benefit the Fontana family.

　If so, the land that was cultivated in the forest to feed the Familiars should be officially owned by him, not his parents.

　That way, I should be able to tie that boy to the land for the rest of his life.’

　But Raymond-san didn't know of my pioneering power.

　He wouldn't have dreamed that I had the power to cultivate a land large enough to call myself a landowner or a powerful family.

　As a result, he allowed my land ownership by writing a short sentence.

　For that reason, the more I increased my range of operations, the more I was allowed to occupy the land, and I got the right to use the land freely.

　In other words, he doesn't care what I do as long as I pay for it here.

　Apparently, I had changed jobs from a farmer to a powerful family without even realizing it.

　But I have no idea what to do.

　For the time being, I reminded myself that I would just do what I always do.

TLN: Summary: 

So basically, Ars has been allowed to own as much land as he wants in the forest. In this chapter, it talked about nobles getting land instead of earning privileges from the aristocrats. This will make sense if you think about the definitions of "noble" and "aristocrat". An aristocrat is a powerful, and influential person. A noble is a person that was liked by the king/queen and awarded for their achievements. Usually, the awards are in the form of privileges, such as being able to do some things that most aren't allowed/can't do. However, the aristocrats don’t have complete control over their territories, so they give the nobles a part of their own territories to occupy to maintain order. So, they’re treating them like tribes. The nobles, that is.

The agreements in the permit that Raymond-san issued were basically “the land in the forest is Ars’s, as much as he can cultivate”. He didn’t expect that the young Ars is able to expand his territory as much as he wants using the magic he knows…. So a flaw in the permit. 

As stated in the chapter, Ars can basically do anything in the area of the forest that he has/will clear out. Our protagonist has basically gotten the title of “noble”. 

P.S.: Thank you for leaving a review on NovelUpdates.com! I really appreciate the support you are giving me at how I’m translating. I may not be the best, but I truly am trying! So, lots of thanks to you! I saw that something negative you thought of was “the repetitive wording”. Yeah, I’m also having some problems with that. Though, the fault may lie in my translating browser. Cancellara-san has been using very simple Japanese, which I can tell because there are almost no incorrect words after directly translating. Of course, there are always a few hundred tenses that are wrong, but that doesn’t count! The repetitive words such as “however”, an example that I myself am very aware of, that is used on here have most likely been directly translated as such. しかしながら, ところが, and 但し basically all translate to “however”. 

Author-san may have been alternating between those so as to not be repetitive, but when translated, it does not seem so. I will try to fix them, for better readability! Thank you for the feedback! Un, un! 

Bye,

CadmarLegend