After her declaration, I was certain that the petrified statue shook for a bit. I was sweating bullets. I had meant it when I said I wasn’t ready. Every serious relationship I had ever been in was with a slave! I promised I’d start power leveling Pervert until babies were impossible. Maybe Harem Master had some skills that could help with that as well.

“Your wedding will have to be postponed.” Prince Aberis declared.

“What? Brother, why?” her face turned from shock to anger.

He raised his hands defensively. “Think about it, sister. He’s only a Count now. A Count is far too low of a rank to marry a princess! At lowest, he’d have to be a Marquis!”

“Ah!” Her face grew flustered, and then she looked up at me sadly. “He’s right, my love, your status is too low.”

“In fact,” Prince Aberis snorted. “Your status is insultingly low! I checked your Adventurer’s Rank. You’re an F as an individual and an E as a team. Even my sister here is a rank C!”

“R-really…”

“If it got out a rank E rescued our rank S father, Aberis would become a laughing stock across the continent! You must resolve this issue immediately!”

“You’re saying…”

“Yes! You must complete more Adventuring Guild Missions. The embarrassing thing is that you could be an S rank already! There was a mission to defeat Widow’s Dungeon in the Adventuring Guild of Alerith. If you had accepted the mission, you could have gotten the rewards.”

“S-seriously?”

“If you can make it to S rank, I believe I will be able to get you another promotion. As an Earl, you’ll be a higher rank than Reign, and in a position to suppress him.”

“Ah… well, that still has the problem of resources. He’s much more stable.”

“I had hoped that you could get the orichalcum mine and use that, but it seems father had already stripped the dungeon of resources. That would have been a good place to create a second city and secure your place in the wilderness.” The Prince let out a sigh. “I’ll be sending a few advisors with you back to Chalm. I trust you have a means of teleporting there quickly?”

“Ah… yes… yes, I do.”

“Then, please bring them along. They will play some importance in the near future. They will be assessing trade opportunities with Chalm. A Traveler’s Guild branch must be established in Chalm. Since you are a Count, I’ll be sending you a Blue Mage so that you can open up a means of transport with the nearby cities. We’ll also need to clear out and fix the road between Chalm and the Capital. The area is riddled with bandits. Since Salicia’s capture, they’ve become even more threatening.”

“That is my next mission for you. Accept missions from the Adventuring Guild to take care of the bandit threat. We can knock off two birds with a single stone.”

“Ah… should I be capturing them? If I kill them, couldn’t a Dark Priest just bring them back?”

He scratched his chin. “You’re a Count now, Deek. I’m going to let you make the decision on this. Take care of them how you see fit. There is profit in bounties, but there can also be resentment.”

“Isn’t that your way of just hiding your responsibility!”

“Ahem… anyway… it’s time Aberis finally begins to support the west of the Capital. The Northwest was taken over by Lord Reign under the Imperial Cloud, but the Southwest is mostly bandits and the wilderness. If you can toss out the bandits and bring structure to the land, you’d be stabilizing Aberis significantly. Any cities you meet along the way will be ruled by lower lords. If you can gain their respect and save their cities from the bandit threat, they will become the army you need.”

So, that was how it was. I needed to increase my strength in Aberis. Although I had gained the full trust and support of the Prince and future King, this wasn’t something the King could just hand me. Even if he did, the power would only be as strong as the King’s word. Rather than strengthen Aberis, it would make it more fragile than ever. However, if I save various territories from their bandit threat, I would finally start to gain a stable foundation in Aberis. Danger and opportunity came hand in hand.

Announcement This concludes Volume 8. If you’d like to support the author, you can purchase the eBook from my website. The eBook contains bonus chapters as well as erotic images (website version only). You may also get free ebooks as a Patreon or FFA member and unlock all images and locked chapters for as low as $2 a month. Thanks for reading. I should also add that there is a bonus volume between Volume 8 and Volume 9. I will not be releasing it for free, and you can only read it if you buy it or become a member. It’s called My Harem’s Life and follows the Harem around for a single day as they get up to shenanigans while Deek is away. The story does not have any particular long-term repercussions other than some characterization, seeing from the girl’s points of view, and a few nifty hints about what dungeons can be.