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Frontier Lord Chapter 016: The commander

Chapter 016: The commander

「Uh, so, Dias-san… who is that girl there? And that white creature…?」

「Oh, Aruna’s my, uh… fiancée. These Meias here are Francis and Francois — precious livestock belonging to my family.」

As I introduced Klaus to my family members, the Meias bleated while Aruna greeted him with a small wave. When he heard that Aruna was my fiancée, his eyes widened. He looked at her and stared at her horn before his gaze returned to her face.

「Ah, that came as a surprise. To think Dias-san is engaged… to a gorgeous lady no less. But that horn –」

「Now, now, we can discuss the details later. We haven’t washed up yet, so let’s not stand here. From feeding the Meias to setting up your yurt, there’s a lot to be done. By a soldier under my wing… you mean like one of those that patrol the streets, right? Then we must have you equipped with armor and a weapon.」

With that, we headed back to the yurt.

As we walked, I related how I had established friendly relations with the monsterfolk to Klaus and explained about Aruna in detail. I decided that it would be a bad idea to mention the monsterfolk’s abilities. Without touching on the subject of their concealment magic, I explained their conditional accommodation and how I had received a yurt, a well, a toilet and food. Lastly, I talked about the Meias, stressing on their intelligence and the value of their fur. I also did not forget to mention that Francois was pregnant.

Of course, I also told Aruna and the Meias more about Klaus.

He had joined the royal army at the age of twenty-four. His parents had died shortly before the conclusion of the war. We had met after he escaped to get attention for a prisoner-of-war that was being horrifically tortured. Despite our best efforts to get him out, the prisoner eventually passed away amidst the torture, and I had heard Klaus wailing loudly through the night.

As I recounted more stories relating to Klaus, Francis approached him and started rubbing his body against him. He rammed his fluffy body against Klaus’s shin, then did the same with his horn. He alternated between these two methods of impact while Klaus grimaced in pain.

What on earth was Francis trying to do?

「That’s Francis saying hello」, explained Aruna. 「He must have taken a liking to Klaus after hearing his story. That’s his way of telling new members of the flock where they stand.」

I was taken by surprise, and from the look of it, so was Klaus.

「Where he stands…?」, I asked. 「What does his bleating mean, then?」

「He’s saying that he offers you his wool and creates babies to expand the flock. He expects Klaus to make a contribution, too, and to that he will offer his support.」

「You mean Klaus is of lower status than Francis? He’s pretty competent, though, so I can’t see how he…」

「Francis believes that when the need arises, you, the strongest in the flock, will protect us all. He just hasn’t seen Klaus contributing to the flock thus far.」

Hearing that, Francis stuck his nose into the air haughtily. Klaus nodded and said that he understood.

Francois stared at her husband with a hint of disgust.

—

Watching Klaus and Francis prodding at each other, we arrived at the yurt in due time. Unlike his previous visit, Klaus was greeted with the sight of all I owned. I understood what he felt as I looked at him standing there in blank amazement — the power of concealment magic was truly staggering.

Leaving him to gawk, Aruna and I went into the yurt to do what we needed to. Cleaning up after breakfast and washing ourselves was essential to living a clean and healthy life. When we were done, I called for Klaus and we set up his yurt together.

We decided that we would erect it right next to my own. Though he said that he was okay with living in my practice yurt, it had been damaged through multiple failed attempts to set it up. There were holes in its outer covering, and there was no way I would let him live in a yurt like that.

We got to it right away, as two people working together made the process much faster. Aruna started doing the chores. I let the Meias work graze somewhere I could see while we worked.

Once we were done, I taught Klaus the essentials of daily life here including how to use a stove and how to open and close the skylight.

Yeah, I know, Klaus. It’s a simple contraption, but the idea of opening and closing it simply by pulling on a cord is amazing, eh? Do it sparingly, though, or it’ll break.

I asked myself if that was all we needed to do.

Ah.

I remembered that we needed to equip Klaus too. But it was already past noon, so I decided to discuss it over lunch. We would dine together in the yurt as I assumed Aruna would prepare his portion as well.

A pleasant aroma wafted through the air as we returned to the yurt. Grilled Black Ghee with herbs… now that’s a tasty one as usual. The smell was enough to make me lose self control — as soon as I was seated on my usual cushion at my usual spot, I immediately reached for a piece of meat.

「What about Klaus’s equipment, Aruna?」, I asked. 「Can we have some crafted at the village?」

「They can make daggers, hatchets, spears and bows, but something like the armor you’re wearing will be tough. I think it’ll be easier to purchase such things from a merchant.」

「I see… we have materials we obtained from the dragon sitting in the storage yurt. Can those be used?」

「They can. In fact, they have already started work in the village. They’re making daggers and spears made of its teeth and claws, as well as bows from its sinews. I think they’re fashioning shields out of its shell, too.」

「Ah. Then we’ll offer them more raw materials in exchange. It’ll be nice if they can make stuff like a gauntlet, breastplate or shinguard — nothing too complicated.」

I looked at Klaus.

「What’s wrong, Klaus? Oh, you’re worried about the cost, aren’t you? Don’t worry, this is on me. You’ll be in charge of recruitment and you’re going to be commander of the soldiers that will probably come in due time. This is the least I can do.」

He seemed visibly shaken by my speech, and had not touched his food at all. Despite my attempt to comfort him by declaring that the equipment would be free of charge, he continued shaking and only grew paler. As I began to grow afraid that he had fallen ill, he finally opened his mouth and spoke in a flustered manner.

「Di, Di… Dias-san? By the dragon, you mean that dragon?! You mentioned the raw materials in your storage yurt… do you mean to say you defeated one?!」

「We call it a dragon, but it’s completely different from the kind you have in mind. It’s an Earth Dragon — it can’t fly, and it looks identical to a tortoise at first glance. Aruna and I were out hunting a while ago, during which we found one far to the north. I killed it by breaking its shell open.」

「You defeated it… so easily…」, stuttered Klaus. 「It took an entire squadron of cavalry to take down an Earth Dragon, and they had to whip out the trebuchets! To think that I’ll be allowed to don equipment made of such precious materials…」

「Take as much as you need — we have an excess of materials anyway. You’ll need stuff like daggers, spears, bows and armor for the various beasts you’ll hunt in the future. As one who guards the fiefdom, equipment made of dragon stuff is really the least we can provide for you!」

「To go that far for me… okay, I understand! I will do my very best to live up to your expectations and become a man befitting of such equipment! Not just for you, Dias-san… I mean, Dias-sama and Aruna-sama, not to mention Francis and Francois-sama… I will protect your territory — and the future serfs, of course — against any enemy that comes our way!」

Klaus bellowed, got to his feet and stuck his fist into the air.

I was glad to see his eagerness to serve, but appending -sama to my name…

To make the hierarchy clear, perhaps?

Huh.

Anyway, it was good to see him like this. I looked forward to working with Klaus — not just as a commander, but as one of my people as well.