Chapter 118: Silence Territory ④
After finishing breakfast at the inn and relaxing for a bit, there was a knock on the room door.
I thought Hiroki and the others had already left, but when I opened the door, it was George-san and his group.
“Oh, what’s up?”
“Ah, well… I wanted to talk to you for a bit…”
Sensing something ominous from his hesitant manner, I invited them into the room and guided them to the table.
“Um, could it be… you told them?”
“No, I kept the information hidden as much as possible! But, you know, when I reported it, I inevitably had to say we had help from someone strong, right?”
I asked, figuring that was probably why they seemed reluctant to speak, but it appears they had managed to keep it a secret, for the most part.
“So, you see,” Shizune-san said, “I explained that you were an incredibly skilled powerhouse who didn’t want to be in the limelight, but they asked me to request your cooperation by any means necessary, saying they’d provide every possible convenience.”
“Apparently, reinforcements from Marquis Edwards’s army are supposed to arrive today,” George-san added, “but even so, dealing with forty thousand seems to be tough.”
It seems the main force of the Silence army is remaining in Lease.
Apparently, they weren’t planning to return because the Marquis’s army was scheduled to come as reinforcements from the start.
I see, so that’s what this is about. To be honest, I don’t mind helping out at all.
However, meeting Lestall nobles afterward would mean breaking my promise to Pops, which is a problem.
“Well then, is it okay if I just go defeat them on my own and then leave on my own?”
I asked, suggesting something like, “I don’t need a reward since I’m not officially cooperating or anything.”
“Oh, uh. We’d be grateful if you helped, but you don’t need a reward for your work?”
“Yeah. This time, being told I have to accept one would be more troublesome.”
I could probably get a reward from the soldiers or the guild if I asked, but then I’d have to do things like provide proof of subjugation, and if I get that involved, Pops and the others probably wouldn’t be happy.
It’s more convenient for me if the situation is framed as “my friends were participating, so I just attacked from the outside on my own initiative and then left on my own initiative.”
“I-Is that so… Well, if you’re willing to help, we’re extremely grateful.”
“Yeah. I’ll reduce their numbers by about the same amount as yesterday, and then I’ll head back today.”
“In that case, that leaves a little over twenty thousand… Understood. I’ll go report that. Shizune, you stay with them.”
With that, he ran out.
“Hey, are you really sure?” Shizune-san asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to arrange it so you can receive it later?”
She looked at me worriedly, saying, “It should be a considerable sum, you know.”
“Shizune-san, you saw how strong my Louis is, didn’t you?” Yuri interjected. “He can easily earn an amount like that reward.”
“Being bothered by troublesome things later is more of a blow, you see,” Yuri smiled.
“N-Now that you mention it, that’s true. I see. So you two wouldn’t have any trouble with money. But it pains me not to be able to give you anything in return…”
Perhaps she’s a very conscientious person; she seemed genuinely troubled, wondering, “Isn’t there something I can do?”
“Ah, well then, once this is over, how about we hire you for a while?”
“Huh? What would strong people like you hire us to do?”
I explained to the anxious-looking Shizune-san that we’re developing a village, and it’s starting to take shape, but since we’re the only Hunters there, we need more manpower.
“Oh, so that’s the reason. It depends on George, but if the living arrangements are somewhat established, I wouldn’t mind for about half a year or a year.”
Ohh. I thought they might dislike something like guarding a village, but the reaction is surprisingly positive.
Hunters at a Knight’s level are rare, so it’d be a great help if they came.
“Alright! Well then, shall we go reduce their numbers right away?”
“Indeed,” Yuri said. “We still have many things to do, and considering our return time, it seems best to start moving now.”
“Eh, wait a minute! I haven’t asked George yet, you know?” Shizune-san exclaimed.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, it was a long shot anyway.” Brushing off her words lightly, I stood up and started preparing to leave the inn.
“By the way, Shizune-san, what will you do? You can wait here if you like.”
“Eh, I can’t do that! I need to know how many you managed to reduce!”
She quickly stood up, hastily declaring she would come with us, so I took her along and we moved to an unpopulated area on the outskirts of town.
“You can get out this way too, but it’s quite a detour, you know?” Shizune-san said.
I explained to her, who was concerned about the detour, that we would be flying, had her board the ‘airplane,’ and took off into the sky.
We reached yesterday’s hunting ground in just over ten minutes, but we didn’t land there and instead flew towards the mountains.
After advancing a certain distance, I activated the Mana Sight Magic Circle and handed Yuri a Mana Sight Magic Tool.
“That area over there seems to have the highest density,” Yuri observed.
“Yeah. But it’s too close to the mountains there, so luring them with sound is probably impossible…”
“How about trying the new magic you learned?” Yuri suggested.
New… Ah, that poison magic, huh.
It’s true, if they die just by touching it, that would be incredibly easy.
“Alright then, I’m changing to balloon form, so can I leave the power to you?”
“Yes, of course. We’ll need to lower the altitude a bit more.”
To Shizune-san, who was showing confusion, unable to keep up with the conversation, saying “Eh, eh?!”, I told her, “We’ll handle everything, so please just watch,” while changing forms and setting up the balloon-use Magic Tool that Mizuki and the others had made for me.
Yuri immediately sent Magical Power into it, and while making fine adjustments, we slowly descended.
When we reached a height of about twenty meters, I created dozens of Magic Circles and activated the poison Tentacle magic, and the monsters’ screams rose intermittently.
Lured by those voices, they gathered one after another, but each scream that rose would then fall silent.
“Whoa, that’s fast, real fast. But it looks like we should change the deployment locations moderately.”
“Eh, huh…? Could it be that the poison that nearly killed George was something you two created?” Shizune-san asked, bewildered.
“That can’t possibly be true, can it?” Yuri retorted. “We are not so shameless as to accept thanks without mentioning such a thing!”
Yuri, slightly miffed, began to explain things to Shizune-san, who had started to have a strange misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, an incredible number of monsters were perishing.
Even if I stopped the magic, the poison Tentacles would remain for a while, so each time I created new Magic Circles and activated them, the poisoned zones expanded.
“Hmm, should we change locations soon?”
Everywhere you looked, it was piled high with monster corpses. We could continue by creating magic on top of the monsters, but visibility was poor and it was inefficient, so I suggested moving.
“Even if materials are no longer an option… we’d still want to collect the Magic Stones, wouldn’t we?” Yuri said.
Come to think of it, I recovered some of the monsters we defeated yesterday, but they’re still in my Storage Magic.
But if they’re monsters afflicted by poison, there’s no point in taking them back…
Alright, I’ll try to see if I can absorb just the Magic Stones from a distance.
So, I first gathered the monsters in one place within my Storage Magic, creating a large pile, and enveloped it with high-density Magical Power.
I tried to extract Magical Power from the Magic Stones in the usual way I absorb it, but unlike when I hold them in my hand, there was quite a bit of resistance.
But it seemed like I could force it through if it was just this much, so when I pushed ahead, I was able to extract the Magical Power from the Magic Stones.
“Eh, you can absorb Magic Stones without holding them in your hand?!” Shizune-san exclaimed.
“No, it’s probably just Rui,” Yuri replied. “I couldn’t do it.”
Shizune-san was dumbfounded, saying, “That’s right, I remember I couldn’t do it either,” but since we were still far from the promised number, I decided to return them to storage once and then resume subjugating from the sky.
After that, we repeated the process until we could see a visible decrease in their numbers, then ended the subjugation and returned to town, where soldiers had gathered outside.
I was planning to slowly fly past, but I saw Hiroki and the others, along with George-san, waving and running towards us, so I landed on the spot.
“How’d it go? Did you manage to reduce them as planned?” Akito asked, looking a little worried.
To Akito, I took out all the monster corpses from my Storage Magic and showed him.
“Yep. Spot on!”
“Uwoooooooh!! It’s seriously a mountain!” Hiroki yelled.
“Ah, don’t touch those! I killed them with poison!” I warned.
While cautioning the excited Hiroki, I asked George-san if he could take care of disposing of these.
“Ah, yeah, of course. We asked you to subjugate them. We won’t complain about something like this.”
“That’s good. I was thinking I really didn’t want to take garbage back with me.”
While we were talking about that, Shizune-san brought up the matter of guarding the village to George-san.
“Oh, uh. I don’t have any particular business, so I don’t mind, but… what’s the location and reward?”
“Um, it’s near Leben. The reward is for two Knight-equivalents, ten Large Gold Coins for half a year. Ah, it’d be a help if you came, but you don’t have to push yourselves.”
He seemed somewhat perplexed, so I added a word to make it easier for him to refuse, but after pondering for a bit, he gave a thumbs-up and said, “Got it. I’ll take that request.”
After that, while we were discussing when we’d come to pick them up, people from the army started to gather around, so we told them we’d come again in a week, said our goodbyes, and Yuri and I took off into the sky.
“Well then, good luck with the subjugation!”
“Yeah! We’ll help out next time too, so let us know if anything comes up!” Hiroki shouted back.
Exchanging such words with Hiroki, we left the place, and Yuri and I once again embarked on a leisurely journey through the sky.
“It was good that we came, just in case, wasn’t it?” Yuri remarked.
Yuri, stretching like a cat, mentioned how glad she was that we hadn’t just left things as they were.
“Yeah, true. That plant alone is a ‘first-time killer,’ so it would have been tough for them.”
“Indeed. If it weren’t for that, they probably could have survived even if we hadn’t come, but…”
Yeah. Only if they had been able to make the choice to cut their losses at some point and flee.
In that case, they wouldn’t have been able to protect the town, and it would have become a desperate retreat.
So, it was really the right decision to come and check.
Plus, we’ve made connections with Hunters we can hire.
“But, was it alright? Deciding to take the Hunters returning to Lestall to the village.”
“Yeah. I thought it would be just right if they spread the story that we built it as a salt production area.”
Of course, no one except us and the creator knows that we’re having a Magic Tool Craftsman make bombs.
It’s a bit iffy for the story that I’m building the village to spread, but who the Lord is would probably be found out quickly either way.
In that case, it’s better to give the impression early on that it’s a village built as a production site due to the salt shortage.
In any case, the tunnel is currently closed off, so spies can’t get in, and it’ll be over half a year before they return anyway.
“That’s true. Normally, one wouldn’t think of placing an important craftsman in a defenseless village. It might be safer to manipulate impressions and avoid drawing strong attention.”
While we were talking about that, we arrived in Leben in no time.
I spoke a little with Count Connor, telling him I’d be taking Raku and Fuu, and also taking in Rose and the others.
He readily agreed to it.
Afterwards, when I told him about things like the ceasefire negotiations with the Empire starting, he naturally showed strong interest in that.
“So the Empire is pretty much on its last legs from the previous war, is it? This is welcome news.”
“In terms of military strength, they still have a dangerously large number, you know. But I think they’ll have no choice but to abandon any invasion.”
Well, even if they have numbers, it seems most of the high-ranking Knights they can mobilize now are soldiers of the Ignat Family.
Other than that, they’re engaged in the war with the north, and it was said that almost all the surviving high-ranking Knights from the previous war are accounted for.
Well, excluding those in military service, there are apparently Temple Knights from the church.
At those words, he looked astonished, as expected of the continent’s largest power, but then he seemed to calm down, convinced that things were stable for now.
“However, Your Highness, if you’re building a village, wouldn’t it be better to take more people?”
He said it was fine to take people from here.
However, I somehow only have a bad impression of Leben’s residents, so I’m hesitant to recruit here.
If they knew the recruitment was from me, people probably wouldn’t gather anyway.
That said, taking all the decent workers from the mines would be unfair to Count Connor.
“Hmm. We’re just building the foundation right now, so maybe I’ll ask later if it becomes necessary.”
And so, I ended the conversation with that evasive remark.
“Alright, then, Raku, Fuu! Let’s go!”
“”Won!””
“Hmm, they were a source of comfort in this house. It’s going to feel lonely… Maybe I should get one too. No, things have calmed down, so perhaps I should call my family over?”
And so, after bidding farewell to the pondering Count Connor, we picked up Rose and the others at the mine and were supposed to return to the village, but…
“As expected, transporting this many people at once is impossible.”
Fifty-odd people and two demonic beasts would indeed be too much.
We might manage it if we pushed it with the hot air balloon form, but since it’s not an emergency, we decided to make round trips to transport them.
And so, when we actually brought them over, we faced another problem.
No matter how much of a mansion it is, there’s no way it has that many rooms, so in the end, we don’t have enough housing.
“Sorry about this, but please live in the party hall for a while. If it looks like it’ll take time after I consult with the carpenters, I’ll go buy some houses.”
We gathered all the beds in the mansion, and went to buy more for the ones we were short, finally making it a state where they could sleep, but it ended up looking like a space where beds were just lined up in a clean dojo.
“Sorry? …We have no complaints about a fine place like this. Are we really allowed to use these expensive-looking beds?”
“Yeah, use them as you like, as if they’re your own. You’re scheduled to take them with you even after your houses are built.”
And so, today too, we had a dinner party while reporting to everyone that new companions had joined.
Fortunately, all the people we brought were good-natured, so they also engaged the children in conversation, and the boys showed faces of relief.
With this, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief, knowing we could now get started on our original goal of salt production.