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Chapter 101 – Part 1

The day after the Guuma clan army, led by Gougo Guuma, was quite literally annihilated, an advance team consisting of a small number of cavalry was sent to Bern Village from Galois.

Through Denzel-san, news about the goblins’ destruction reached the higher-ups in Galois, so in order to confirm that, they quickly sent out an advance team.

And in response to this advance team of cavalry, clad in silver armor that gave off a dull glow, a group of people went to meet them, which consisted of myself, the village chief, Retisha-san, Baran-san, and a man in his thirties named Buuma, who was a somewhat well-known as one of the two “Stone Cutters” among the adventurers.

Aldeath and Mairahl couldn’t be allowed to respond to the advance team by disguising themselves as adventurers, so this man known as Buuma was a real adventurer.

The village had become a battlefield, littered with the corpses of the Guuma clan army that we had repelled. We mobilized the golems to move them out of the village, and then used telepathy magic to line up the bodies so their numbers would be easy to count.

The blood of over four thousand dead bodies made the ground muddy and filled the air with the stench of blood, which caused the animals and magic beasts to loiter around nearby. However, a magic circle was constructed under the corpses to put a freezing effect on them, so that the smell of rot and decomposition wouldn’t be noticed.

The advance team sent from Galois hurriedly making their horses run all the way here, was a group of only ten people, and they were led by a young knight who couldn’t be more than twenty years old.

He was a young man with short, close-cropped red hair, and light brown eyes blazing with ambition. His name was Zeda.

Sir Zeda entrusted his horse to the village stables, and brought us along with his squire, who looked about the same age as me, to walk around the lined up corpses. As he took in the sight of the gouged out ground, and the giant hole that had been dug up, his eyes went wide and his jaw dropped, and he was unable to close his mouth.

Who would have thought that the battle in Bern Village would be able to stop the goblins so satisfactorily in just a few hours, that the villagers would be able to bring about such a decisive victory before the sun had even set?

Lastly, Sir Zeda finally made it to Gougo’s corpse, which I had cleanly sliced in two, and his feet came to a stop. When he saw how the high goblin’s shadow iron armor had been cut so perfectly right down the middle, he very visibly gulped.

Sir Zeda must have some experience fighting goblins and other lower class ghosts, but maybe this was his first time seeing something as high ranking as a high goblin.

The squire and the others following in a thin line behind Sir Zeda seemed to be afraid of Gougo, so seeing his figure, let alone his dead body, made them go green in the face.

To Gougo’s left and right were the bodies of the next highest ranking goblins after him: the goblin mage, and the goblin commander of the cavalry. However, Sir Zeda and his knights had their eyes fixed on Gougo alone.

「So this is the goblins’ ringleader, what a terrifying face he has. But to think such a large body and all this armor was split in half so cleanly, that is also just as terrifying」

For example, even if Gougo wasn’t a high goblin and was a human instead, it would have been an extremely difficult feat to cut through even his inner organs and his skeleton all at once like this. One would have to either use magic or energy to strengthen their own muscles, or they must possess some kind of magic weapon.

But a bunch of villagers from a remote farming village, which should only have low quality weapons, had pulled off this feat, so I understood Sir Zeda’s confusion.

「The one who killed the high goblin known as Gougo Guuma, is Dran right here.

Dran started going to school in Galois just this spring.

He was selected as Galois’ representative in the Magic Contest Festival to compete with other magic academies, he’s a genius who began here in this village」

Feeling Sir Zeda’s doubt, the village chief turned to me and simply introduced me.

Looking at Sir Zeda and the others’ reactions, I realized it might have been overkill to split Gougo along with his shadow iron armor so cleanly in two.

Maybe it would have been better to aim for gaps in his armor, or to have taken off his armor first.

I received the chief’s introduction, and then bowed lightly to Sir Zeda while thinking those things.

「That Magic Academy? In that case, this all makes sense now. There’s a rumor going around Galois that there are some ridiculously amazing prodigies among the students」

The martial arts students are accepting requests from the Adventurer’s Guild and the Magic Academy’s executive office to subjugate magic beasts, and since last year, Christina-san and Nell had been a part of that as well, so that was probably linked to the widespread recognition of the Magic Academy students’ strength.

Because Christina-san possesses a beauty that surpasses the word “beautiful” itself, a beauty that can only be described by some imaginary word stronger than simply “beautiful,” there was a danger that she would break the minds of the knights, so she wasn’t currently present.

「That iron wall surrounding the village, and those golems, where did they come from?」

While Sir Zeda and his squires were on the road traveling to the village, the thing that had surprised them the most was the giant, defensive iron wall wrapping all around the village.

After Gougo and his army had been repelled, we opened up the closed off south gate, but the protective wall itself was still there, even though such a thing didn’t exist just the other day. So it was reasonable for Sir Zeda and the others to be surprised by it.

When news arrived of the goblins’ incoming invasion, these walls were constructed. Normally it would take a large amount of iron, labor and time to build, so it was normal for them to be confused.

Such a task was finished so suddenly, so maybe Sir Zeda and the others might have thought that they had mistakenly arrived at some feudal lord’s castle or something.

「That is also Dran’s doing. The iron wall was built in one night, but the golems were made by Dran at the Magic Academy, and he sent it to us a long time ago. Well, this time, because of the goblin attack, we have more golems than usual right now」

「I see, but still, even if it is an outstanding student of the Magic Academy, building such a splendid defensive wall in a single night is unheard of.

Could a mage of the government even be able to build a large and sturdy wall like this in one night…?

Dran, I haven’t heard about these golems that you built before, but it looks like they’re quite intricate objects.

When you return to the Magic Academy, you should submit the blueprints for those golems equipped with ballistas and catapults. If you are as skilled as they say you are, then this could lead to your evaluation and recognition」

Even if I submit the blueprints for the gunner golems as Sir Zeda says, a lot of the parts of these golems are buildable only because I’m the one making it, and the materials and their procurement are also difficult. If these golems are made with easier to find materials, then their quality would surely fall.

Besides, if something that I made were to be used for war or for killing people, then I wouldn’t feel all that good about it.

「Yes, thank you for your consideration. Sir Zeda, please take this. This is the magic sword that Gougo used.

It is a very powerful magic sword, but the curse that harms its user has been removed, so please rest assured」

I bowed to Sir Zeda first, and then handed over the long sword that I held in my left hand.

This is the treasured sword of darkness wielded by Gougo, the Shadow Fang. It was returned to its sheath, and wrapped loosely in a coarse cloth.

Sir Zeda received the Shadow Fang from me, removed the cloth and handed it to one of his followers, and then took the sword out of its sheath.

Seeing his own face reflected through the pattern of flames running along the Shadow Fang’s blade, Sir Zeda gulped again.

He probably got chills running through his spine from the dark magic surrounding the Shadow Fang.

He stared at the sword, fixated for a moment, but then he shook his head in a panic as he tried to regain his consciousness.

「Indeed, there is a strong magical energy in this sword, that even someone unrelated to magic like myself can understand. I will have a mage handle the disposal of this sword later.

At any rate, you killed a high goblin who wields a magic sword this strong, so you must have unbelievable skill. How about it, would you consider a path in the Galois Military?」