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Volume 3 Chapter 10-2: Eve Before Deployment

 

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「Hey everyone, would you have any interest in some marriage meetings? Of course I won’t let Kuu participate no matter what though….」

I called out to the confusion of the Fire Foxes. It seems I needed to explain a bit better.

「The Elves have more men than women and our culture only allows the Chief to have more than one wife, so many of the Elven men are bachelors. If you want I could arrange some meetings to get to know them before things proceed.」

Of course, there were more Fire Foxes than there were single men…..furthermore some of the men were single for various reasons. However, there were several among them that were like Roleau, good men who had missed their chance.

「I don’t mind being the third, I like Cyril-sama.」
「Me too~」
「….you’d all best stop there. Kuu-sama has an amazing look on her face.」
「Kuu-sama we’re joking~ it’s a joke. We can’t put our hands on Cyril…」

Upon seeing Kuu’s face the rest of the Fire Foxes played it off as a joke and I couldn’t help but glance over as well. Kuu’s cheeks were all puffed up as she pouted and when I met her eyes she turned away in a huff.

Normally when my three younger sister foxes said they’d marry me in the future she would laugh it off, but now that women of similar age were saying it she couldn’t easily ignore it.

「Kuu don’t worry. I don’t plan on getting another wife. I’d rather not fall in love anymore than hurt you and Lucy.」
「….it might be weird coming from me who came after Lucy-chan…but that makes me happy. Truly as a girl I can’t feel happy about the thought of you finding more women…」

Upon hearing our conversation the Fire Foxes were gossiping again, but Kuu just smiled happily.

Well it looks like the blind date talks were off the table for now…

Later I should check their reactions and if they’re amenable to it I’ll set it up. I’m sure both sides would end up happy if such an event went well.

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In the afternoon we had set up a tasting for our new Erucy Wine, but it was no simple tasting event.

Tomorrow was the day that Nettle set off for the battle front so this was also a farewell party as well.

After a while of observing the supply lines of the base, we had finally discovered changes. The number of wagons from the Empire’s direction were increasing by a large amount. It went on for a few days before returning to normal.

Because of that event I went over and kidnapped a soldier out for patrol and used drugs, magic, and illusions to extract the information about the army’s expected arrival and the amount of supplies stored.

After that I had killed the soldier to keep things quiet. You had to be careful of using tactics like this since any leakage of information could cause disastrous consequences.

For this reason I had to steal the enemy’s information once it was almost certain or it would be useless. By counting the influx of wagons we were able to guess the timing.

By understanding the supplies I could calculate that the enemy army was around 4,500 soldiers strong. It was around 1.5 times the amount of soldiers that Lurvish had threatened me with.

In order to reach the army with some time to spare it would be best to set out tomorrow. I had conveyed that to them already. For that reason I wanted them to drink and be merry on the last day before they had to set off.

「Everyone, thank you for gathering here today. First accept this sake, as planned we will try our newly made alcohol and send off the member of Nettle with a smile.」

Everyone including the Fire Foxes were crowded into the village square.

We hadn’t prepared much food. For the members of Nettle it was far more important to spend time with their loved ones here rather than mess around. So the party here would start and end with tasting the new sake.

The Fire Foxes used their hands to warm the Erucy Wine and hand it out to the Elves.

The snow had melted and the weather warmed a bit, but this would make the sake easier to drink.

For the smaller kids we had prepared alcohol that was half diluted with water and mixed with maple syrup to make it light and sweet.

「The sake you hold in your hands now was a result of the cooperation between Foxes and Elves. The maple syrup, cranberries, and water melted from our land. A sake made by us and from our country. So for that reason I named it Erucy Wine.」

I announced loudly seeing people look at the alcohol with more care than before.

However, if we had only wanted to get ourselves alcohol there was no need to make it ourselves.

One jug of maple syrup could only make 5 bottle of Erucy Wine. However selling maple syrup would net us a gold per bottle….while a single bottle of cheap ale was only 20 copper so it was worth far less.

Even knowing that I had made this Erucy Wine because….

「This wine is the flavor of our land, the taste of Erucy…the taste of home. Keep this taste within your hearts and minds. Especially those in Nettle who will be heading to the front.」

What I had wanted was a taste of our home. Something that would remind you of Erucy when you were far away. I wanted to plant the foundations of that with this sake.

The members of Nettle nodded with serious looks on their faces.

「Oi, Chief…keeping it in our hearts is nice and all, but is it delicious?」
「Roleau…once you drink this you’ll feel that it would be a waste to die on the battlefield before getting to drink it again.」
「Well then I’m looking forward to it! I’m getting tired of talk Boss~ let’s hurry and raise our glasses Chief!」

Roleau cheered raising the spirits of the member of Nettle.

「Everyone raise your glasses! Pray for the safe return of our brave soldiers and the preservation of our happiness! Cheers!!」
「「「Cheers!!」」」

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