After all that tension and build-up, her name being Alicia Swordia broke me and made me laugh. I was thrown off by her first name being Alicia instead of something like Arthuria, but that second blow of Swordia out of nowhere broke me.
"What if we give the royal family the name 'Sword'?"
"No, that's too obvious. Let's tack something on the end to make it sound fancy~!"

Except, she's a target for probably a succession dispute. So he'll never get far without a target on him. And it's unlikely as a farmer, that he'd get far either way. He can certainly be a Vizier, but an actual Noble is probably beyond him.Jackpot! Wife up the princess and take control of the entire nation's economy and infrastructure.
if you romanized it to "södra" it would feel like she came from somewhere scandinavian 🤔View attachment 61207
It was mentioned exactly once in Ch.18 and never again, the katakana is technically spelled 'Soudora' / Swordra but I didn't want to change it
Nah, if you write that with regular letter, the meaning will be so much different in Hindu communityif you romanized it to "södra" it would feel like she came from somewhere scandinavian 🤔
but "swordia" is funnier so i'd prefer that 😁
Damn the town girl has a big love rival, a princess, quite the heavy hitter.
Maybe Ash has yet to understand the scale and gravity of noble political fuckery. He referred to Lord Itsuki's bloodline as "distinguished", despite him being a "mere" lord regent. I dont think it's been mentioned yet what the actual lord's noble rank is, but in other isekai works the chief of staff position is like being the head Knight.I am surprised that Ash reacts even slightly surprised, wasn't it hinted several times that both he and Maika already successfully assumed that Arthur hides their true self for political reasons? and it is not like there are so many nobles in the kingdom where this setup would make sense.
Head Knights or "Knight Commander" are usually Nobles before their Job since Authority was hereditary. (Most Isekai are based on Merit, but we all know that Merit would do nothing in reality)Maybe Ash has yet to understand the scale and gravity of noble political fuckery. He referred to Lord Itsuki's bloodline as "distinguished", despite him being a "mere" lord regent. I dont think it's been mentioned yet what the actual lord's noble rank is, but in other isekai works the chief of staff position is like being the head Knight.
Also interesting how ladies-in-waiting also serve as bureaucrats, implying this kingdom may have a relatively simple/horizontal power structure. Iirc this kind of thing didnt happen IRL until after our nobles lost a shit ton of people to the Black Death and severely needed servants, regardless of their bloodline. With such a flat power structure, a wealthy merchant's succession issues start looking quite similar to a royal's. TLDR too many possible non-royal answers regarding Alicia's circumstances to have Ash directly conclude she's a royal princess.
A novel reader may be able to shed more light into this peninsula's political structure.