Chapter 138: Monster Affinity and a Great Achievement in the Past (2/2)
But just as I was thinking that, he told me that most people figure out where their affinities lie fairly quickly.
“Most monster tamers only need to find what major category they specialize in, such as mammal-type, reptile-type, or bird-type, then from there, we can start to narrow it down to the special categories. What takes time is finding exactly which monster under that bigger category a monster tamer specializes at. That or if you need some kind of special condition. You should know too about the people of the duke’s family.” [Taylor]
“If I recall correctly… Reinhart-san needs monster beasts with four legs. The madam can only tame wolf-type monster beasts. And Reinbach-sama needs monsters with scales. I think that was it.” [Ryouma]
“Exactly. Elize had an affinity for the mammal-type, but she specialized with wolf-type monster beasts. So long as she contracted monsters of that lineage, she can contract pretty much anything. On top of that, she can also tame more monsters than other people when it comes to wolves.
Reinhart could tame any monster that has four legs regardless of their lineage. The one exception are bird-types.” [Taylor]
When he said that, I remembered about that time when we tamed rimel birds.
At that time, he refused to even approach the rimel bird of the ojousama…
“What about Reinbach-sama?” [Ryouma]
“He is… special. It was as if the good points were taken from Reinhart and Elize and put together. As long as the monster has scales, Reinbach-sama can tame anything, be it a lizard man or a dragon. He can also tame a lot of them. And just like his son, there’s no lineage he can’t form a contract with. Well, there are things he’s not good at too, but they’re not enough to be considered a defect.” [Taylor]
I’ve heard that Reinbach-sama could tame dragons, but I guess he really is an amazing person.
“You didn’t know? I’m pretty sure his tale has already been written of in books and has spread throughout the country.” [Taylor]
“Really!?” [Ryouma]
“Looks like you really didn’t know…” [Taylor]
“I have heard of things, such as about his military exploits in the past or about how the madam also says he’s extraordinary, but that’s all.” [Ryouma]
“The most famous story would probably be that. It’s true that he’s exceptional. You can’t use him as a standard.” [Taylor]
What does he mean?
“in this world, there are things known as divine beasts that have received the divine protection of the G.o.ds. They’re special monsters. They received their divine protection along with their duty of protecting certain territories. Since then they have been protecting these places as their own turf. Their power is far beyond that of humans and even those monsters that we consider to be S Rank.” [Taylor]
“…Since you’re bringing this up now, could it be?” [Ryouma]
“Exactly. Reinbach-sama has formed a contract with a divine beast.” [Taylor]
So that really was the case…
“It’s a story when he was still young and affiliated with the army. …In one of the borders of this country is a place known as the Flame Dragon Mountains.” [Taylor]
Branch Head Taylor looked into the distance as he started telling the story.
“To this day, the volcanoes of the Flame Dragon Mountains remain active. It is an environment extremely harsh for humans. At the center of these mountains is the territory of a divine beast, also home to many powerful monsters. But while these powerful monsters exist in this place, there are also many magic gems, magic stones and various ores here. It is a treasure trove of resources to humans. In the past, a neighboring country once sent soldiers for those resources.” [Taylor]
As a result, the soldiers incurred the wrath of the divine beast and were trampled in the blink of an eye.
But if that were all, then the story would have ended with the country having gotten their just deserts.
“Borders are things that humans decided for themselves. To the divine beast, both the neighboring country and our country that was connected to the mountains were enemies. As such, the dragons under the divine beast started rampaging in the area near the border. Because of that an army was sent to protect the country. One of the men leading a platoon at the time was Reinbach.” [Taylor]
“And that’s when Reinbach formed a contract?” [Ryouma]
“Exactly. There was no other way. They would have had to sacrifice countless soldiers in order to kill just one dragon, much less 10 dragons. Had they fought, their destruction would have been guaranteed.
But that might actually have turned things for the better. Since in order to avoid the battle, as a last resort, they attempted to use the monster taming ability to form a contract with the monsters and try to negotiate with them. Given Reinbach’s lineage and his high compatibility with the monsters, he was appointed as the person in charge of the taming. No one actually thought he would succeed.” [Taylor]
“So they were able to negotiate with the divine beast.” [Ryouma]
“Yes, fortunately the divine beast was intelligent enough for negotiations. There was a fairy-tale about them being able to talk, but Reinbach was the only one to actually go and confirm it for himself. After negotiating with the divine beast, Reinbach came back and said that the divine beast gave a condition – well, it was more like an order – to ‘do something about the humans attacking’.” [Taylor]
As soon as the people in charge got word of that, they changed their target from the dragons to the neighboring country.
Everyone agreed that it was much better to pick a fight with the soldiers of the neighboring country than some dragons they had no chance of defeating.
Morale of our soldiers ran high, and because they had chosen to negotiate with the dragons instead, they hadn’t received much casualties.
Meanwhile, because the neighboring country had taken an aggressive stance earlier, their strength was greatly reduced and their morale plummeted.
The result was clear as day. The battle lasted less than three days before the soldiers of the enemy country were forced to retreat from the Flame Dragon Mountains.
“Since then a lot of things happened politically between the two countries, but the end result is that we were able to safely avoid a war with the divine beast and the dragons under him. Moreover, Reinbach was permitted to keep his contract with the divine beast and was also allowed to form a contract with his dragons under the condition that his territory would not be tampered with. Permission was also granted to mine resources from places other than the divine beast’s territory.” [Taylor]
“That must have caused a huge commotion.” [Ryouma]
“It wasn’t just a huge commotion.” [Taylor]
The branch head laughed in astonishment.
“Although it was only in the places permitted by the divine beast, just being able to receive permission to mine resources from the Flame Dragon Mountains was a huge achievement. On top of that, by forming a contract with several dragons, he was also able to acquire great power.” [Taylor]
And because of this course of events, Reinbach-sama gained influence everywhere. Politically and militarily too. With both social standing and achievements in his hands, it was hard for any organization to handle him.
And in the end, he left the army.
“They feared that any faction he joined would quickly destroy the power balance and cause needless chaos. It was also then that his elder brother was met with misfortune. So in order to focus his efforts in managing the Jamil Territory in place of his older brother, he decided to leave the politics and military behind.” [Taylor]
“He had a tough life, huh… It’s something I can’t imagine.” [Ryouma]
I truly do think that from the bottom of my heart.
But there is one thing that I do understand… Reinbach-sama is an even bigger cheat than I am.