A Demotion Isn't That Bad Prologue

The Demoted Man

The Kingdom of Milgraff.
Located in the western part of the continent, this kingdom was one of the midsized countries with a stable political situation. However, due to the influence of the era and the surrounding countries, before one knew it, it had began to switch over to the expansion policy of advancing towards the vast and rich northeast. Thanks to the diplomatic finesse which repressed the national power of small countries in the back and enclosed them as the defying neighbors, along with the well-trained high-quality soldiers, this policy was developing mostly favorably.
However, ever since Milgraff's borders touched with the Kingdom of Bequia which possessed the same level of national power and was similarly following an expansion strategy, the situation had turned into a deadlock.  While they faced off against each other, they gobbled up the smaller nations in between as if they were harvesting crops. As a result, the borders they shared kept increasing in length and this fanned the flames of discord between Milgraff and Bequia.
Eventually, a war broke out between the two kingdoms as a natural course of the events and many lives were lost in a small-scale battle with neither of them winning or losing and resulted only in a small part of the border being altered.
It was only a year and a half ago that those two countries, which had  come to know each other very well in a sense, signed a cease-fire agreement. It was the end of the fist fight that continued intermittently, but intensely, for 8 years. By knowing the pain of the enemy's sword, they both had finally come to recognize that the other was not the appropriate opponent in a fight.
As a result, under the name of ceasefire, Kingdam of Milgraff gained time for reconstructing internal affairs.
However, n.o.body thought that this ceasefire was permanent. They understood that it was merely something unstable until the moment when one of the two acquired an ambition they would be willing to get injured for. That is why there was a necessity to reorganize the army and refine the soldiers. The talented officers, who had gathered in the frontline during the war, were called back to the capital city and a.s.signed to different regions according to their abilities.
In that manner, the fate of a single officer was decided. His career, which reflected many successes in the previous war, seemed to indicate his bright future in the eyes of anybody who saw it.
The notice of the personnel change given to this man was appointment as the Regimental commander who was the Commander-in-chief in the southwest that was the farthest away from the border with the Kingdom of Bequia.

In other words ―― it was a demotion.

The name of the demoted man was Ulises Arro.
Short black hair and scowling dark brown eyes. His stature was neither tall nor short and although he was built solidly, it was not to the point of being a ma.s.s of muscles.
From the time when he graduated the military academy at the age 18 until now at the age of 28, Ulises had spent most of his time on the battlefield. Then, after demonstrating his demon-like powers and getting promoted at one bound, he was hammered down by the n.o.bles in the capital.
He did not take bribes and never tried to curry favors with anybody. He, who would without any hesitations bluntly declare 'Is killing allies your hobby?' if his superior officer's directions were idiotic, was spectacularly driven away to the tranquil mountainous region as the regimental commander​ as soon as the war with the Bequia ended.
Even with his looks that would make hard to discern in the surging crowd as long as he did not glare at anybody, Ulises became the subject of the rumors for the lot living in the countryside which severely lacked the entertainment, and had his face remembered in the blink of an eye.
It is a common sense that such things as rumors can become relentlessly exaggerated. Like 'Apparently he half-killed a n.o.ble in the capital and was sent here' or 'He's terribly demanding and even made some of his underlings useless during the training', 10% truth and 90% exaggeration painted Ulises as a terrible man.
In addition, since he had the mind of steel, he was unfriendly and never changed his att.i.tude towards anyone. This added realness to the rumors and in a flash, he was avoided both from his subordinates and the town people.
Still, this was not limited only to the people of this town. In fact, the situation was the same even when he was in the capital. However, because the capital's population was very large, there were many people who did not know him, so they were mostly indifferent towards him. Subordinates that had spent many years with him understood Ulises and responded to his high demands with complete devotion. However, because they all were excellent, every last one of them remained in the capital.
If even one person came together with him, the terrible rumors would probably not have spread so much. There is no doubt that they would put in great efforts to get rid of the misunderstandings regarding their superior. In fact, with his rank , it wouldn't be hard to have one or two of his subordinates accompany him. However, this was not something that Ulises himself had wanted. It was enough for him to be the only one noticed by the n.o.bles and demoted
As a result, he had to start building interpersonal relations.h.i.+ps from the scratch at the new place. This was not something that could be done overnight. Though for Ulises, there was something that took precedence over such time-exhausting task.
It was training the soldiers. While working his subordinates to the bone and imposing an even fiercer discipline on himself, Ulises lived fulfilling days with the exception of human relations.h.i.+ps. In the end, regardless of where he went, he was a man one had only one thing to do.

That's why, when something like a「marriage proposal」came for such a man, he thought that it was some kind of joke.
It was said that the other person was an ordinary girl from an ordinary house in this town. He had been thinking that there was a 10 out of 10 chance that if the girl knew rumors about him, she would refuse to marry him so Ulises thought suspiciously that somebody was teasing him.  However, the matchmaker declared that the 'other party was serious'.
Ulises was 28 years old and of age where he had to start thinking about marrying a wife. Since even his parents were nagging him about it every time they sent a letter, he was already starting to consider the matter. It was just that such topics never really arose.
Since he'd become an eyesore in the eyes of the n.o.bles among the military, he found himself in an awkward situation when he returned to the capital after the ceasefire. Considering the possibility that there might even be some who would openly send a.s.sa.s.sins after him, there weren't any families who hated their daughters enough to wed them to him. Though, this kind of dangerous hara.s.sment from the n.o.bles quieted down ever since he was demoted and reduced Ulises' impending problems.

"I got it. As long as the other person is okay with it then it's fine."

Ulises replied lightly to the unusual proposal.
He was the kind of guy for whom the work and training were number one, so he didn't have any preferences regarding the women. It would be okay as long she could take care of the surroundings and help him keep his lineage from going extinct. It was carved into his sense of values that the marriage was this sort of a thing.
Fortunately or unfortunately, now that he was demoted, he had the most free time in his military life, and furthermore, there was no danger to his life. It was considered to be the best time whether he wanted to get married or have a baby. He was given a paper with the information about the other person's name and social standing of their family, but without taking a proper glance at it, Ulises once again returned to the training area.

—-
Notes:
To be honest, I was planning on doing a different teaser but this seemed more interesting so I decided to put off the other novel for a while. Honestly though, I hate this kind of formatting, not to mention 3rd POV :”
This time I decided to follow the actual chapter numbering instead of alphapolis' way of splitting chapters so this basically only a part of the ch 1-1 that's on there. (they have prologue, full ch1 and part of ch2 listed as the first chapter there) Do keep in mind though that this is merely a teaser. Please @me if somebody was already going to do this so I don't translate other free chapters.

ミルグラーフ Milgraff
era is 時勢 which could be “spirit of the age; trends; conditions​”
ベキア Bechia, could be Bequia or Vecchia so do notify me if you know the proper name
内政再建期間 internal affairs, demestic affairs, internal administration
refining the soldiers 兵の錬度上昇
Ulises' eyes are described as 目つきの悪い so basically a unpleasant look in eyes
the matchmaker is 紹介者  or “a person who introduces someone; introducer​” but that in this context that sounds more like a matchmaker to me

This was unexpectedly hard to tl so I'm 100% there's much more mistranslations here than in other novels I've done
honestlytho,notifymeifyoufindanytypos,weirdgrammarandtheactualmistranslations