CHAPTER 34 – COMPULSORY ARMY ORDER: OLD DRAGON SUBJUGATIONThe author uses “zokusei ryuu” when talking about the species of Grade Grande which could be translated as “dragon attribute.” It doesn’t make much sense in my eyes unless it would be some other kind of race/species which possesses that attribute while not being a dragon itself. I am not quite sure whether this is the case here but I don’t think so, thus I will just call the thing “dragon.”
Burkart calls Wendelin “bozou” which is a rough way to call someone a boy, Armstrong calls him “shounen” which means boy as well. I have translated bozou to boy in the previous chapters, so I will use “lad” for Armstrong calling him boy to make the difference apparent.
“…”
“…”
“Ooh! This boy is Alfred’s disciple, the yuusha-dono who subjugated the ancient corpse dragon, huh?! I see, he doesn’t possess the carelessness one would a.s.sume considering his age!” (Armstrong)
“(Ano, Burkhart-san?)” (Wendelin)
“(As usual, a sultry guy.)” (Burkhart)
“(He is an important person, isn’t that right?)” (Wendelin)
“(Ah, he is the kingdom’s head wizard.)” (Burkhart)
The next day after everyone went shopping in the shopping streets, I was suddenly visited by a messenger from the royal palace along with an entourage of several knights. They pushed me into a carriage and ended up taking me straight away to the army garrison in the suburbs of the royal capital.
Although it gave of the feeling of something like a kidnapping, it wasn’t quite the case since the knights were holding onto a decree by His Majesty.
At any rate, even though I wasn’t certain whether I was really loyal to His Majesty or not, it still remained a fact that I was a retainer of the kingdom.
The garrison I was brought to, was apparently the place where the troops stationed in the capital always did their training.
Simply made log cabins, watchtowers in order to guard the area, and a large tent.
Really, it was a structure of an army garrison as you’d expect from the style of a fantasy world.
It was regularly serviced by the army without being discouraged by the recent tendency of disarmament which was quite unexpected.
Most likely it was something like a salvation for the young n.o.bles who weren’t able to find any other work.
However, because they would end up receiving a label of simply spending their time idly eating and drinking, apparently the training was constantly strict and severe. As it would be unreasonable for the entire army at once to practise there though, the troops stationed in the royal capital established a function of alternating between their divisions to use the outskirts for performing maneuver exercises outdoors.
The carriage I was stuffed into arrived in front of a log cabin within the garrison.
When I entered it, after being urged on by the guard standing at the entrance, I immediately recognized Burkhart-san waiting inside.
Furthermore there was another person next to him, a muscular middle-agged ossan who easily exceeded a height of 2 meters.
Moreover, this ossan…
Despite being a lump of muscles, the clothes he wore was a robe and he held staggering large unrefined wand in his hand.
In other words, rather than calling him a martial artist or warrior, he was a magician.
Other than being able to use magic as well, he seemed to be the type who likewise could easily beat his opponent to death with that wand.
Fortunately it was affirmed by Burkhart-san’s earlier talk that he was a magician.
Furthermore he was named as the kingdom’s head wizard earlier with certainty.
Due to the sudden appearance of such magician loaded with muscles, I involuntarily ended up being struck speechless.
It was mostly because that person was the exact opposite of my master.
“(The kingdom’s head wizard, Burkhart-san?)” (Wendelin)
“(As for that…)” (Burkhart)
What’s the difference between a magician and wizard?
After questioning in such way, apparently it was no more than a mere variation in calling him.
However, both things possessed a huge difference.
Wizards were chosen among the magicians serving the kingdom, they were the ultimate elite.
Considering the person himself didn’t put any value into the huge significance of serving the court, it was quite a ridiculous story. Nevertheless, from the viewpoint of the society a wizard was no less than a person with a very high social standing.
Even though the kingdom’s n.o.bles such as the cabinet ministers held an exceedingly high social standing, one could think of a wizard being a cut above them.
Besides, it wasn’t particularly necessary for a wizard to be a n.o.ble either.
No matter how much one was a n.o.ble, if they didn’t possess the essential magical talent, they wouldn’t become one at any rate anyway.
Therefore it was obvious that society looked upon them with eyes of reverence.
To top it off, the ossan in front of my eyes was the kingdom’s head wizard.
This amazing and remarkable difference was nothing to jeer at.
Going by his appearance he was a beefy middle-aged man (ossan) though.
“Are you by chance nervous? If that’s the case, it’s not really necessary. After all, you will fight alongside me after this.” (Armstrong)
“Fight?” (Wendelin)
“That’s right. In order for the kingdom to prosper even further, we will liberate the Palkenia Gra.s.slands from the one occupying them for a long time, Grade Grande.” (Armstrong)
Grade Grande at the Palkenia Gra.s.slands.
It was a sorrowful situation I had just heard about from Erich-nii-san yesterday. And now I finally understood why we were summoned.
However, to call me for fighting a monster now ought to be foul play.
Why? Because I am just a minor with my age of 12 years.
For minors it was not allowed to enter the domain where monsters dwelt.
That was reason why we trained in the prep school by hunting ordinary prey everyday.
“Ano~ I am an underage pupil…” (Wendelin)
Intending to use the reason of underage, I tried to refuse the partic.i.p.ation in subjugating the Grade Grande.
In the first place it couldn’t be helped that I had to fight the ancient dragon as I was forced to protect the magic airs.h.i.+p I had boarded in order to protect myself in the end.
It was nothing else but legitimate self-defense; an emergency measurement.
Any kind of reasoning is fine, because that was my first battle I just want you to spare me from fighting yet another dragon after such a short while.
Who would be fond of being summoned just for being told to fight a dragon next?
At the very least, I am not such a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t.
“Those worries are totally unnecessary!” (Armstrong)
“Ano… What do you mean by that?” (Wendelin)
The meaninglessly high-tensed ossan declared that me being underage was of no concern at all.
“It is indeed against the rules for a minor to enter a domain where monsters are dwelling! But! Since the lad is a n.o.ble, it’s absolutely fine!” (Armstrong) (T/N: His name is fitting, but could be called Headstrong! :p)
“Ah, that’s what this is about, huh…” (Burkhart)
It seems like Burkhart-san, who was to partic.i.p.ate alongside as well, had some kind of an idea.
For no more than an instant he faced towards me displaying an expression of 『What a pity』.
“Lad, you are the head of the a.s.sociate Baron Baumeister household! Even though you are an under-aged n.o.ble, it has never happened before that a decree for a campaign by His Majesty wasn’t followed! This time time His Majesty ordered the military troops stationed at the royal capital to subjugate the Grade Grande!” (Armstrong)
“…” (Wendelin)
The matter the muscular ossan was talking about, apparently was an affair of utmost righteous importance to the kingdom’s n.o.bles.
For me who just obtained the peerage a short while ago, it was a bolt out of the blue.
“Give it up. By my lord I was ordered to to follow the army decree as well.1 ” (Burkhart)
Burkhart-san is quite pitiable as well it would appear as he was ordered to follow the decree by Breithilde’s margrave and thus has no way to decline the partic.i.p.ation in the subjugation of the Grade Grande.
“Burkhart-san seems to unexpectedly have no luck either.” (Wendelin)
“Boy, your predisposition of attracting misfortune appears to have infected me.” (Burkhart)
“What are you talking about? Don’t go making such jokes…” (Wendelin)
“Half of it is serious though.” (Burkhart)
“…” (Wendelin)
Completely losing all means to escape the situation, I am forced to once more head towards a dragon extermination together with Burkhart-san.
I don’t think it is wrong to wish and hope for someone to switch places with me, is it?
“Fuhahahahaha! As usual the scale is huge!” (Armstrong)
“Huge…” (Wendelin)
“The ancient dragon wasn’t small either. Even so, this one is big.” (Burkhart)
One week after the fateful meeting with the muscular dous.h.i.+, Burkhart-san, Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ and me were flying in the skies over the plains of the central part of the Palkenia Gra.s.slands using Flight magic.
The strategy this time was to attack with one sixth of the troops stationed in the capital of the kingdom’s army, namely mobilising 10’000 troops. After moving the necessary supplies to the garrison in the suburbs of the royal capital in preparation, the troops were encamped close by to the domain.
As for this, because the army entering the domain in force would end up provoking a large amount of monsters and thus end in a large-scale battle, the strategy was for them to wait at the entrance to the domain until Grade Grande was defeated.
Apart from that, even though the great number of demons wouldn’t change at all once the Grade Grande was defeated, it still remained a fact that Grade Grande was an existence unifying them as boss of the domain. Although it simultaneously reigned at the top of the food chain, it apparently likewise instilled such a fear into the other monsters that they weren’t able to move about freely either.
Therefore, if Grade Grande died and thus was missing in the lineup of the monster group, it would become possible for the army to safely crush each and every monster afterwards.
Even though it would be impossible to get away without receiving any damage at all, it was obviously still far better than during the time when the boss is still going strong as ever.
And, in contrast to a forest area, a mountainous district and such, these plains were potentially much more advantageous to a ma.s.s deployment of an army, degrading the monsters in the Palkenia Gra.s.slands to a matter of relatively weak resistance.
Hunting as a small group of adventurers here, it can be called as as a spot for beginners in comparison to other domains.
“Now then, let’s not waste any seconds and perform the last rites for the Grade Grande!” (Armstrong)
Already looking down on the shape of the Grade Grande while using Flight magic, Grade Grande wasn’t overly pleased with us looking down on him at all.
With a roar to the degree of almost tearing our eardrums, it greeted us with a severe threatening.
“Dous.h.i.+?” (Burkhart)
“Well then, I suppose this is the start! All that remains is to clash power against power!” (Armstrong)
In the end the strategy was for only three people to defeat Grade Grande, in other words the contents of the strategy weren’t overly complex.
Against such an imminent, overflowing violence, minuscule strategies were useless any way.
In the first place, besides the stationed troops from the capital there were was an unit of approximately 2’000 adventurer mercenaries temporarily recruited by the adventurer’s guild’s headquarters stationed outside the domain. But they wouldn’t absolutely partic.i.p.ate in the battle with the dragon as unskillful partic.i.p.ation would just pointlessly increase the count of victims.
Receiving a dragon’s breath from the front, it would spell instant death for most people.
Therefore, people who weren’t able to prepare for several such breaths would just pointlessly increase the corpse count if they partic.i.p.ated.
Thus it was arranged that the few of us would challenge Grade Grande to a fight as elite a.s.sa.s.sins.
As an after effect, the poor group of Erwin, in their duty as my retainers, partic.i.p.ated in the a.s.sembled forces to subjugate the monsters as the a.s.sociate Baron Baumeister household’s armed forces.
As for the reason, it was apparently due to the peculiar complicated circ.u.mstances of n.o.bles.
During the sortie preparations in the garrison, Erich-nii-san visited claiming that the sortie of the a.s.sociate Baron Baumeister household’s armed forces was indispensable and begging to be allowed to provide the necessary funds for that.
Afterwards, given that Erich-nii-san was likewise partic.i.p.ating holding both roles of being second-in-command in addition to being a staff officer, I was at ease entrusting him with a treasure of the degree of 100 platinum plates.
If it’s Erich-nii-san, he wouldn’t try something like pilfering the money he was given.
“Lad, you will focus solely on saving mana for the Cutter Tornado (T/N: >> Katta Torunedo
“Roger that!” (Wendelin)
“Leave it to me.” (Burkhart)
As it had released such fierce attack, there was no other choice but to make up one’s mind and defeat the huge dragon now.
The strategy plan was that I would at all times equidistantly stay away from the Grade Grande using Flight magic while preparing to fire the strategic cla.s.s magic from the wind system, Cutter Tornado, at it.
As a matter of fact, the naming of magic in this world is really quite ambiguous.
A magician who has talent can roughly guess the amount of mana within himself and by only imagining the phenomenon naturally materialize it. Because this was already the case several tens thousand of years ago during the era of the ancient magic civilization, the ancestors of the past have devised multiple magic formula2 and noted them down. Quite a few books with those notes are still remaining from that time.
For example, in the case of magic from the fire system, there would be only few magicians who wouldn’t be able to think up a Fire Ball (T/N: >> Faiya Boru <>
Furthermore there are such things as Fire Arrow, Fire Wall and Fire Snake.
Those possessing magic power left a great number of doc.u.ments behind which only differ slightly in their description. A master is just a human as well, he will only teach the magic as reference which is the easiest for him to obtain and use.
At the time you are casting magic, there are people who don’t chant, there are people who use only the spell’s name for chanting, and there are also people who chant something like a spell formula in a way of resembling short sentences in a semi-poetic manner.
And there are even more dreadful people who perform a flashy dance and strike poses. (Ed: Sounds like Wend has experience in his dark past…)
The point is, the method of how I materialize the magic is entirely up to me.
By the way, I am in the chant-less group.
Previously there was someone who used such things as embarra.s.sing flashy poses and thought up chuunibyou-like wordings for the spell incantation imitating what he has seen before. But because of the power of embarra.s.sment was quite strong, he now doesn’t use these anymore.
Something like 『Heed my call of guidance and burn the opponent to cinders: Crimson Flame~』. Well I am still only 12 years old, but the record of that itself would deem me as a splendid chuunibyou patient.
『Being chant-less is the best. Without wording out the spell, the opponent won’t be able to perceive what kind of spell is going to be used.』 (Alfred)
『Saying such embarra.s.sing words like that. The power of magic will drop!』 (Burkhart)
Because I met master and Burkhart, it was the correct choice to become their disciple.
We all belong to the so-called faction of chant-less.
Except that I don’t know whether such a faction actually really exists.
Returning to the situation at hand, this time the opponent is the Grade Grande, whose name originates from being an old-aged dragon with an earth attribute.
The magic in this world has the basic four standard systems Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. In addition to that there is Holy, which can only very few people can use. There is also Darkness, now treated as a legend, which was used by demons (mazoku).
Excluding the unique systems, the standard four system each have their own respective strong and weak attributes. To put it bluntly, the relation between them is like Janken (T/N: Rock-Paper-Scissors).
Fire is weak to Water, Water is weak to Earth, Earth is weak to Wind, and Wind is weak to Fire.
Because Grade Grande is a dragon with the using the earth system, we have decided for me to bury it in one go using the high power of the wind system’s strategic cla.s.s spell Cutter Tornado.
Or to be precise, it was Armstrong-dous.h.i.+’s strategy.
『Just speaking of magic capacity the lad already surpa.s.ses me many-fold. After all the Lad’s magic capacity is even a little bit more than Alfred’s was. Thus, we shall entrust the finis.h.i.+ng blow to the lad.』 (Armstrong)
Before the military operation started, I was told the contents of the strategy by Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ at the field where the troops were encamped.
『Lad, you will be using the highest cla.s.s of wind magic in order to consign Grade Grande to oblivion in one go.』 (Armstrong)
『That’s the appropriate way considering the intense Holy Light the boy used to perish the undead ancient dragon. There are plenty of chances to win this.』 (Burkhart)
『I am happy to receive Burkhart-dono’s agreement.』 (Armstrong)
Burkhart-san approved the strategy laid out by Armstrong-dous.h.i.+.
『Still, preparing that spell completely will take time.』
If it was poorly constructed, it wouldn’t be able to finish off the opponent which would be like putting the cart before the horse.
I declared that I would need at the very least a span of time of 2 minutes.
Considering the case of storing mana, it definitely was easier to acc.u.mulate mana aboard the magic airs.h.i.+p the last time.
『A span of 2 minutes, huh?』
To finish off Grade Grande with certainty I had calculated that it would be necessary to acc.u.mulate mana for 2 minutes before deploying the Cutter Tornado.
Furthermore, if I were to be attacked by a breath attack in the middle of acc.u.mulating mana it would slow down the entire process in the end as I would be forced to deploy a magical barrier.
In the previous fight with the ancient dragon I had at all times the guarantee that Burkhart-san would protect the magic airs.h.i.+p with a magical barrier. That put my mental state considerably at ease, as far as I can remember the situation back then.
『2 minutes it is, I will fight with all my strength so there shouldn’t be any problem. Lad, you will stay back and prepare the Cutter Tornado. I will challenge Grade Grande to a fight with all my might. Burkhart-dono, you will be our reserve combat force and in addition to that I’d like you to supply me with mana in the rare occasion that I should run out at some point in time.』 (Armstrong)
『Please leave it to me.』 (Burkhart)
Mana supply is the act of sharing mana with another person which is also the reason for that naming.
However, there are only few magicians who can use this special spell.
Well, all members present here can use it. However, at the time of sharing your mana with another person there will be a huge loss generated.
In the case of an ordinary magician, they can’t supply more than approximately 5 mana to another person while using 100 mana to do so.
Thus the conclusion would be that they wouldn’t be too eager to share their own mana they can use with another person and there wouldn’t need to suffer from downtime.
However, Burkhart-san is apparently able to supply more than 95 mana while using 100 mana.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is a rare talent.
As one would expect, even master and me weren’t able to attain such level of mana supply.
Even so, Burkhart-san’s mana capacity could be called to be on the lower end of the advanced level category.
Still, he was able to use spells that other magicians wouldn’t be able to use at all. As for Armstrong-dous.h.i.+, one could only acknowledge his superiority.
The high evaluation of his surroundings was that he was a veteran called 『Expert Magician』.
『Then it is possible that Burkhart-san will fight as a subst.i.tute, isn’t it?』 (Wendelin)
『Even though that might have been possible in the time of my active duty, now it would be impossible for me.』 (Burkhart)
It seems that’s the reason why he will only serve as mana supply for Armstrong-dous.h.i.+.
『But, in reality I don’t think it will be necessary to supply mana. Thus I will really stay in the rear as reserve.』 (Burkhart)
『Because Burkhart-dono will be prepared in the rear, I will be able to act with corresponding composure.』 (Armstrong)
Is what Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ says.
Challenging a formidable enemy in slightly harsh conditions and winning barely at the last moment.
Considering this to be a saga read to children it’s no problem but since this will be an actual battle here which would only drive us to the wall, others would call it a fool’s act.
Adding Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ to Burkhart-san and me, who have together defeated an ancient dragon, should considerably raise the probability of defeating a dragon.
In that case, devising a proper strategy should even further increase the certainty.
『I think the probability of me defeating it by myself is about 60%. But that would be certainly irresponsible in my capacity as Royal Head Wizard.』 (Armstrong)
Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ is an outstanding talent that appears once every 500 years and thus is very famous in the kingdom.
Moreover, he has a good pedigree.
Because he is the second son of an earl household there is only little interference by other n.o.bles due to jealousy.
Additionally, the character of the person himself is simple like that; he doesn’t try to ama.s.s more private property than is necessary, he isn’t absorbed in eagerly working towards a successful career in his l.u.s.t for power, and he doesn’t show any movements to form an odd faction.
Although he dons a muscular appearance, he is surprisingly intelligent and quite capable in politics as well.
Going by Erich-nii-san’s explanation, he is the most trusted retainer of His Majesty.
At the time when we were summoned to the garrison in the outskirts, I was told this information by Erich-nii-san who expressively came to visit the garrison and after all I was able to reaffirm that he (Armstrong) is an ikemen.
It could be called a fact though that we used the occasion to discuss the organisation of the a.s.sociate Baron Baumeister household’s troops while pretending to not think about that for the time being.
『That’s true. If you were to die now, it would be hard on His Majesty.』 (Burkhart)
『There is no reason for worry. I am thankful to both of you though, Burkhart-dono, Lad.』 (Armstrong)
After the above-mentioned exchange, only the three of us were standing in front of Grade Grande to face it.
From the outset Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ rushes towards the Grade Grande before our eyes. While setting up his large wand with both hands, he shouts only a few words.
“Magical Mobile Armor and Helmet! Equip!” (Armstrong)
Thereupon Armstrong-dous.h.i.+’s entire face section is covered by a jet black full face helmet.
Likewise on the wand he was holding the bright red magic crystal couldn’t be seen anymore as it had transformed into a huge hammer.
“Eh!” (Wendelin)
“Maa, the appearance is as you can see.” (Burkhart)
While remaining diagonally floating in the air in the back, I was acc.u.mulating mana for the Cutter Tornado. Burkhart-san, who was likewise floating in the air besides me, leaked absent-mindedly.
“It’s an unique magic to change mana into material. Not only does it provide a magical barrier but also boosts the defensive strength overwhelmingly. Same with the wand, changing it into a hammer made out of the same material increases its power by leaps.” (Burkhart)
Furthermore the physical ability is strengthened to the limit. His speed of flight (magic) is the best in the entire kingdom.
Simply put, he overwhelms his opponent with combat ability that could be labelled as one hit destroyer while he fights.
Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ was toying as he pleases with the helpless Grade Grande, striking its head, its arms and its feet.
He was randomly dis.h.i.+ng out heavy blows with his hammer across the entire body of the dragon piling up damage on it.
Each time a blow lands, an unpleasant sound *bakibaki* escaped. (T/N: Sound when something is cracking/breaking)
Because of the overwhelming pain and rage, Grade Grande raised his severe roar towards the sky consecutively merely tearing up the air.
“Incredible…” (Wendelin)
“There is still more to come, such a level is nothing yet…” (Burkhart)
However, Grade Grande wouldn’t allow to be one-sidedly hit without doing anything either.
Grasping the habits in Armstrong-dous.h.i.+’s movement pattern, it began to use it tail to shake off the attacks by predicting the place he would move to.
Receiving one of those blows as an ordinary person, there was no doubt that they would end up bursting open like a water balloon.
“Look out!” (Wendelin)
“It’s fine.” (Burkhart)
Burkhart-san really didn’t show any hint of worrying, but practically there was absolutely no reason to worry either.
Did he foresee this?
Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ caught the tail Grade Grande was swinging at high speed and finished it by hurling that large build as it is away.
“Seriously!” (Wendelin)
“The materialised armor’s purpose is to serve as last defense. The reason for that is his favorite magic that grants him the strongest physical ability.” (Burkhart)
Furthermore the surprises continued.
As the Grade Grande was trying to stand up and recover from the damage by being hurled away, Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ hit its body one after the other with wind magic that had the appearance of something like snakes.
The weakness of the earth system based Grade Grande was wind system based magic.
Slowly Grade Grande was covered in wounds all over and began to bleed in several places.
“Lad! Are the preparations done?” (Armstrong)
“Eeto, it’s ready!” (Wendelin)
Although I was unintentionally fascinated by the shocking spectacle in front of my eyes, I naturally didn’t forget to acc.u.mulate the mana.
The time had slightly pa.s.sed the 2 minutes and thus the necessary magic power had been gathered.
After making sure that Armstrong-dous.h.i.+ had evacuated the area quickly, I released the Cutter Tornado magic.
As the name implies, this Cutter Tornado magic was a spell that engulfed the first target within a tornado.
Continuing the tornado will produce one by one sharp blades as it held the dry wind attribute. The target will end up being continuously injured by the blades.
Each time its wounds increased, Grade Grande raised a roar. As the tornado continued, its color began to tainted in a red color.
The streaming blood was dragged into the tornado. Gradually that red color thickened.
And then, as the red color was thickening, Grade Grande lost the blood from inside its body.
“Is it slain? Died due to loosing a huge amount of blood, huh? Very well done, Boy.” (Burkhart)
“Is it your master’s technique?” (Armstrong)
“He was also a person who nonchalantly had absolutely no mercy for monsters.” (Burkhart)
A few minutes after that, being exhausted of almost all its blood throughout the body, Grade Grande collapsed to the ground accompanied by a great tremor.
No matter how strong a living being might be, if they loose all blood they will end up dying all the same.
“As one would expect of a dragon, it didn’t die from the cuts, huh?”
“True that. Now then…”
Just because Grade Grande had died, it didn’t mean that it all was finished with this.
As I approached the still whirling red tornado, I began to use magic from the water system this time.
“What are you doing?” (Burkhart)
“The blood of a dragon is expensive.” (Wendelin)
As a matter of fact there would be no reward for the subjugation of the Grade Grande by the kingdom this time.
Reason being that it was a n.o.ble’s obligation to fight at the front.
Because they usually got their profit from the annual pension and their territory, it was inevitable to return those favors with public duty. For that reason it often happened that n.o.bles were pillaging the battleground.
Even if it is a bad thing to do, the kingdom hadn’t a surplus of budget to the degree of always being able to pay the n.o.bles a salary and thus this pillaging was tolerated.
Since there was no war for more than 200 years, pillaging itself didn’t really occur. This time the opponent was a monster. Pillaging from a monster was strange in itself as well.
Instead, now, after the subjugation of Grade Grande, the soldiers partic.i.p.ating in the strategy to exterminate the monsters in the Palkenia Gra.s.slands would be given a reward.
That was the privilege to collect the raw materials of the monsters they had hunted themselves.
The monster’s raw materials are well known to be very expensive.
Therefore, the soldiers partic.i.p.ating in the military operation had heard such rumor and thus were greatly looking forward to it.
Because the adventurers had this time gathered en ma.s.se as well, they possessed a pointless fighting spirit and their compet.i.tive awareness had been awoken.
As it would get b.l.o.o.d.y, victims would turn up. For the soldiers, the high-selling raw materials of the monsters far, surpa.s.sing the usual income, would allow them to live in luxury with their families or lover. The procured raw materials would be used by merchants and the guild to produce various goods which they could sell.
The kingdom’s tax revenue would rise as well. But above that, by liberating the Palkeia Gra.s.slands from the monster’s domain, the kingdom would obtain a gigantic grain-producing region.
In such situation the development of agricultural land would advance and thus increase the grain production output even further.
Having relied on the meat of hunting as supply until now, the usage of the grain and herbs in the gra.s.slands ought to multiply.
As the food self-sufficiency rate of the royal capital was low, the kingdom had to transport grain from distant n.o.bles, too. If the meat supply procured by stock-farming by the citizens in the neighborhood would become profitable, the sale prices for grain would more and more decrease as well.
Going by economical history, it can be said with confidence that increasing the amount of businesses is a cheerful matter.
“For that reason I am taking the dragon blood.” (Wendelin)
After gathering the dispersed blood in one place by using water magic within the tornado, I froze it and retrieved the lump of frozen blood stuffing it into my magic bag.
“Boy, that was admirably skilfull.” (Burkhart)
“That’s because the master of my master is staggeringly skillful themselves.” (Wendelin)
This can also be called an old man’s wisdom.
It had reached the point that I was regularity receiving coaching in Burkhart-san’s magic. That’s why I learned many useful things.
Even now Burkhart-san emphasized on the importance of training the foundations and power in his coaching as master without having to expressively declare it.
Something like this I did for myself after all.
“All that remains is the corpse of Grade Grande.”
Not just the blood, there was no portion of a dragon’s body that couldn’t be processed, thus no matter which part of it, they all sold for a lot of money.
Therefore I quickly put away the corpse of Grade Grande in my magic bag.
Since time doesn’t elapse within the bag, it would be fine to have it butchered at the guild afterwards.
As one would expect, for me to butcher a dragon myself would be difficult. Handling it poorly and wasting time on it would cause the quality of the meat to drop ending up lowering its price.
I should entrust this to a professional.
“Amstrong-dous.h.i.+, you are fine with splitting the profit on sales of Grade Grande equally between the three of us, right?” (Wendelin)
“I am fine with that. But, that Cutter Tornato was magnificient. Just talking about its power, it has already exceeded Alfred’s magic. From now on, diligently put an effort into practising.” (Armstrong)
“Yes.” (Wendelin)
“Now then, since we have defeated Grade Grande, we should expect the monsters in the vicinity soon to come here. Today we will camp here and tomorrow we will prepare for hunting the monsters.” (Armstrong)
“Eh?” (Wendelin)
“What did you just say?” (Burkhart)
Burkhart-san and I ended up being astonished by Armstrong-dous.h.i.+’s unexpected statement.
The mission this time was for us to defeat Grade Grande and for the adventurers to exterminate the monsters. If we imprudently started a fight here, we certainly would be s.n.a.t.c.hing away the military’s and adventurer’s job.
“No matter whether we defeated Grade Grande, the amount of remaining demons (ma) is quite large. Consequently, without our help, the number of victims would unnecessarily rise. We can expect a hard struggle tomorrow.” (Armstrong)
“I am still under-aged and thus totally inexperienced in hunting even ordinary monsters…” (Wendelin)
“The first and second monster fights were a pair of dragons. Boy, you’ve got a staggering amount of experience. However, since I have already retired from active duty…” (Burkhart)
“With the three of us together it will become a trivial matter.” (Armstrong)
In the end, the three of us were rus.h.i.+ng around across the Palkenia Gra.s.slands for the length of an entire week afterwards. It took all of our energy to hunt the numerous monsters.
“Ano, me and the hunted monsters…” (Erwin)
“Erwin-kun, you are Wend’s representative, therefore you are not allowed to to leave the front lines at any time, isn’t that so?” (Ina)
“If you don’t move out, you won’t be able to return Wend’s money.” (Louise)
“Since there will be a reward for an excellent representative.” (Erich)
“Is it more than one gold coin?” (Irna)
“…” (Erich)
“Erich-san! Don’t be silent now!” (Erwin)
In the meanwhile, Erwin’s group didn’t manage to become accustomed to their post as mikos.h.i.+3 within the a.s.sociate Baron Baumeister household’s troops. Everyday they departed while experiencing stomach pains.
Translation Notes
1 It isn’t quite clear whether he means that he was directly ordered by the margrave or indirectly in his duty as proxy of the margrave who is likewise a va.s.sal of the kingdom and thus as va.s.sal of a va.s.sal so to speak. Both lead to the same conclusion though, so I chose to word it as I did.
2 The author used “mahou” here so basically it would be “magics” but I kind of imagine it as magic formula if you want to note it down as the word magic describes the effect and not so much the process which he is talking about here.
3 Their post is 神輿 which is mikos.h.i.+ in romaji. Translates to portable shrine … so don’t ask me wtf they were doing. I left it out because it sounds odd no matter how you look at it … Following additional information has been provided by Nguyen Gia Thai regarding the mikos.h.i.+ used in the context:
j.a.panese mikos.h.i.+ is a type of activities where a lot of people (mostly males) drag a portable shrine from one sacred location to another for some certain spiritual purpose. There’re a lot, forming front group and back group to drag it, and it’s pretty much taboo to let the portable shrine fall to the ground or for it to be damaged. The context is that, the retainer group of Wendelin must/should have been/supposed to be situated in the center of their army, letting others fight for them, and not expose themselves to danger no matter what (as said in the following interlude). But Ina and Luise are full of fighting spirit, so they don’t let Erwin remain behind and continuously advance to the frontlines.