3 bar menu

Chapter 29: The Rock Salt Mining Area – Battle with the Bloody Bear

—Late September.

「Gaia! It’s headed your way!」

「Rosso! Leave it to me!」

It had been a month since we returned from the war.

Now, we were trying to seize a rock salt mining area near the Blumunt tribe’s territory.

This region was home to numerous magical beasts known as Bloody Bears.

According to my skill [Sma-ho], Bloody Bears were supposed to be weak.

「Bloody Bear – Weak. Yields durable fur.」

The bronze swords used by the Blumunt tribe couldn’t pierce the thick hides of the Bloody Bears.

But now, we had a stockpile of iron weapons from our last mercenary job.

Iron swords!
Iron spears!
Iron axes!

「Uncle Athos! With these iron weapons, we can fight the Bloody Bears! Let’s claim the salt!」

「Alright, Gaia! Let’s do it!」

Uncle Athos and I rallied not just the Blumunt tribe, but also volunteers from across the Barbar tribes.

It was Uncle Athos’s gesture of generosity—to share the spoils not just within our own tribe, but with all Barbars.

We promised that any tribe that participated in the battle against the Bloody Bears would receive a share of the salt.

By providing economic benefits to the other Barbar tribes, Uncle Athos was working to increase the Blumunt tribe’s—and by extension, my—political influence.

Just what you’d expect from Uncle Athos!

The battle for the rock salt mining area had begun—and the coalition of Barbar tribes led by the Blumunt was overwhelmingly dominant.

Iron weapons easily pierced the Bloody Bears’ tough hides.

The Barbar volunteers, who had never been able to hurt these creatures before, were overjoyed when their attacks began to work—and their confidence surged.

With that momentum, the Barbar coalition cut down Bloody Bears one after another, until only the biggest one remained.

The battle, which had started in early September, was now reaching its climax.

One massive Bloody Bear remained—defeating it would secure the area.

But the big Bloody Bear fought back ferociously.

Rosso, the chieftain of the Great Lizard Tribe, tried to hold it down with a large shield—but it dodged nimbly and charged straight at me.

「Gaia!」

「I’m fine! I’ll finish it!」

I heard Uncle Athos’s concerned voice, but I didn’t take my eyes off the beast.

The four-legged Bloody Bear charged like a truck barreling down the road.

But its attack pattern was simple—extremely linear.

After a month of fighting them, I’d gotten used to their moves.

The massive Bloody Bear loomed close.

It leapt toward me, raising its right forepaw.

Its sharp claws glinted in the autumn sun.

「Sei!」

I dodged the swipe, drew my iron sword to the side, and leapt into its guard.

The bear’s claws grazed my left shoulder.

It hurt, but it wasn’t fatal!

Just a scratch! Time to end this!

With the Bloody Bear’s massive body filling my vision, I thrust my iron sword forward without hesitation.

I aimed for the heart.

With iron, I could pierce it in a single blow.

My thrust drove straight into its heart, punching through the thick hide.

The beast’s charging force met my forward momentum head-on.

The pressure hit my right leg hard—my toes dug into the earth, and my foot sank into the soil.

The muscles in my calf screamed, and something snapped—sharp pain flared.

But my hands gripping the sword clearly felt it strike the bear’s heart.

「Guh…」

The Bloody Bear let out a choked sound and gave me a look as if it couldn’t believe what had just happened.

A moment later, it collapsed onto its knees.

「Phew…」

I dropped to the ground and exhaled.

My left shoulder had a five-centimeter gash from the claws.

My right calf muscle had torn and was screaming in pain.

But no need to worry.

A hissing sound rose as my wounds began to heal.

This was the effect of [Regeneration], a skill given to me by the god who reincarnated me.

「Hey! Gaia! You got it!?」

「Yeah! Rosso! One clean hit!」

Rosso, the Great Lizard Tribe’s chieftain, came lumbering over in wide strides and flipped over the bear’s corpse.

「Nice one! Solid strike! We can use the hide, and the meat too!」

Bloody Bear hide can be made into warm clothing and rugs, and the meat is edible.

I’m not a fan of the flavor, but Rosso and the Great Lizards love it.

The Barbar territories lie deep in the forest.

The farmland is small, and grain and vegetable yields are low.

So even with the odd taste, Bloody Bear meat is a delicacy.

The massive Bloody Bear I’d slain was quickly taken apart.

The Barbars worked together to bleed it, skin it, and butcher the meat using iron knives.

The tanning of the hides would be done by the elders, women, and children back at the village.

「Sma-ho!」

I activated [Sma-ho] and opened its information screen.

The scattered remnants of the remaining Bloody Bears began to disappear from the map.

The one I defeated must’ve been their boss.

With their leader gone, the rest fled.

「Gaia! Are you alright? You okay?」

My lover Jessica came running up.

She’s the niece of Elranief, chieftain of the Elves.

「I’m fine. Fighting beasts is way less stressful.」

「That’s true. That last battle was so chaotic.」

She meant the one between the Vaffancrow Empire and the Kingdom of Argeas.

We had fought as mercenaries for the Empire, but…

「Well, we lost that one, didn’t we?」

The Imperial commanders were so hopeless it was laughable.

We, the Barbar Mercenary Party, saw through Argeas’s encirclement tactics and pulled off an escape.

「We may have lost, but we made a killing, right? You wrung the Empire dry, didn’t you?」

「Damn right. We paraded through noble estates collecting our dues!」

Jessica and I burst into laughter, still in each other’s arms.

During the escape, we brought along Crown Prince Muno and his noble entourage.

After returning to the capital, we, of course, went house to house receiving thanks—cough, I mean rewards.

With the gold we received, we bought back Barbar slaves.

Over a hundred of them were able to return to their homeland.

Those people are now powerful allies of mine.

Not just a good deed—it expanded my influence too.

Uncle Athos was thrilled. A great return on investment.

「Gaia! The salt!」

Uncle Athos tossed a lump of rock salt to me.

It was about the size of my fist, with a faint pinkish hue.

Jessica scraped off a bit with her nail and tasted it.

「Ah! Salty!」

「Ha! It’s salt, after all!」

I did the same.

It was salty, but the flavor was smooth—and it even had a subtle umami.

I bet this would make a damn good soup.

「Now we won’t need to buy salt!」

Jessica beamed with a childish smile.

She’s beautiful, but still thirteen—there’s an innocence to her grin.

「Yeah. No more buying from the Vaffancrow Empire.」

Until now, we’d been buying salt from the Empire at ridiculous prices.

No—forced to buy it is more accurate.

But now, we had secured our own source of salt!

From here on, it’s ours.

Still… there was a problem.

「Haaah… Gaia. What do we do?」

Uncle Athos sighed, brow furrowed.

I stepped away from Jessica and faced him.

「They lowballed us pretty hard for those Bloody Bear hides, huh…」

We had sent a Blumunt tribesman who spoke the Empire’s language to sell the hides in the nearest town.

But he got ripped off badly.

Imperial merchants look down on us Barbars as savages from the north—they don’t deal with us fairly.

The man came back and handed Uncle Athos just a few copper coins, clearly ashamed.

A complete rip-off!

Uncle Athos and I were both fuming.

From that one transaction, we learned.

Dealing fairly with Imperial merchants was unlikely.

So for now, aside from what we used ourselves, we were stockpiling the Bloody Bear hides.

And now we had the salt.

「Hmm… They’ll probably underpay for the salt too. Worse, if they find out about the mine, the Empire might launch another invasion…」

「We really want to avoid that…」

Uncle Athos’s concern was valid.

If the Empire learned of a salt mine in Barbar territory, they might really invade this time.

We’d found a new trade good—but now faced a dilemma about how to sell it.

Uncle Athos, ever the lover of gold, slumped in disappointment.

「Haaah… I was really hoping to strike it rich after we beat the Bloody Bears…」

「Now, now, Uncle Athos! Salt doesn’t spoil. We can just stockpile it!」

I tried to cheer him up.

Salt sells anywhere.

We could bring it along on mercenary jobs and sell it elsewhere.

We’d keep everything beyond what we needed.

「More importantly, Uncle Athos!」

「Yes, Gaia? What is it?」

「Let’s take the next region too!」

「Hmm? Is there something there?」

Uncle Athos puffed out his cheeks in excitement.

I grinned.

My [Sma-ho] screen had revealed new data.

The fog had lifted from the neighboring area next to the salt mine.

Previously, it had been greyed out, obscured.

Now, we could finally see what lay there.

I looked Uncle Athos straight in the eye.

「Uncle Athos! Let’s claim a new resource!」