Chapter 210

Three days after His Highness and Shald returned to the royal capital together with Amria and the others, a messenger from the Korato Kingdom had arrived to deliver a secret letter enclosed with the date, time and place for a secret meeting.

The secret letter, which was sealed with a strong spell that would tell the sender if it had been opened, said that the meeting would be at a mansion in the outskirts of Mikelka, a small city to the east of Arkrest Kingdom.

In addition to both me and Shald, the escort would consist of a select group of elites from both the Imperial Knights and the Court Mages.

We do have the Arc Witch Merle as the face of our country’s strongest fighting force, but she is so famous, her whereabouts are constantly being checked by the neighboring countries, so she cannot easily make any moves, even if it’s to act as the crown prince’s guard.

Besides, it seems several signs of a major shift in the war in the Romal Empire have been confirmed, so the western part of the kingdom is currently on high alert, and there is no doubt that the Royal Castle is considering sending out Merle.

Now then, I’m going to take Lynette with me to escort His Highness, but since I still have a few more days until then, I don’t have to make preparations to leave right away, so I’ll be working on something else besides the escort mission.

Now that my marriage to Christina, now also going by just Chris, was confirmed, some matters regarding this very important event in our lives, such as the date of our wedding, or the invitations to all the relevant parties, had to be taken care of first. I also have my private matter of going to meet Selina’s parents, as well as the more public matter of interacting with the hidden lamia village in the Mores Mountains.

Right now, we were selecting the right people for the meeting in Selina’s hometown, Jarla, as they needed to be able to deal with any situation, whether the exchange goes successfully or not.

The people attending this meeting in the conference room of the mansion were myself, Chris, Selina, Dramina, Diadora, and Lynette, which was our usual group, but there were also other leaders of the barony, including the treasurer, Shenna, and the commander of the knights, Baran.

「Of course Selina and Dran will be going to Jarla, and that’s fine for their private matters, but we’re going to need a few more people from our side to send as emissaries.

Selina, about how far away is it from Bern Village? Would any dangerous monsters or beasts show up while on the road?」

The one to start this meeting was Chris.

These past few days, in addition to being tossed around by Selina and the others regarding her marriage to me, and also going to visit my parents and siblings to tell them about our engagement, she must have gone through quite a lot of mental strain, but now she is able put up a fine face and attitude suitable for the baron.

A whole month has already passed since Chris was made into the baron, but is it too optimistic to see her now unconsciously acting as a baron as proof of her growth?

「When I came here to Bern Village on my own, it had taken me ten days, but considering we’ll be going as a big group, it might take more time, around two weeks for a one-way trip.

But that’s if we’re going there on foot. If we use the Horse Golems that Dran made, we should be able to cross even the rugged paths of the mountains, and since the Horse Golems don’t need to stop running, I think we can get there in just two days」

Selina’s claim was based on the fact that the Horse Golems have no concept of physical stamina, so they have no need for rest, and they can also run twice as fast as normal, living horses.

Well, even if the Horse Golems don’t need to take a break, the people riding them still do, and we also have to consider the time we might waste if monsters attack us while we’re on our way there. Selina’s claim that it would take two days, one-way, must have been based on those factors.

「And along the road to Jarla, until we reach the forest at the base of the Mores Mountains, the creatures that might appear aren’t that different from the ones that appear around Bern.

When we enter the forest, large insects, wolves, snakes, and man-eating plants will begin to stand out. But if you can get Ente to talk to them, or if you can get her blessing, those shouldn’t be a problem.

All that’s left are the small settlements of the spider-people, the snake-people, and all the other demi-humans that usually hard to find around these parts, so I think it would be good to stop by at those villages too, in addition to Jarla」

「I see. The main goal this time is to set up a point of contact with Jarla, whose population is now over a thousand people, but if we can also interact with the other demi-human settlements along the way, then I’d like to do so.

Baran, considering that within the ecology of the lamia, they are only born as female, I want you to include as many young male soldiers as possible in the envoy group. In particular, I want you to make sure that they are strictly disciplined in their personalities, so they do not cause any problems」

When Chris had first become the baron, she had been hesitant to address Baran without any honorifics, but now the words spilled easily from her lips.

Baran too, as the recipient of this, had already gotten used to his role as a knight, and was now more aware of the rights and honor he had been given, and he was now trying to stay composed and behave in a way that was appropriate for a knight.

「Yes, a round trip journey through the Mores Mountains will make for good training. But the Councilor’s Horse Golems are a little too well behaved, so I suppose it might be a problem that they won’t be very useful for training the soldiers」

「I’ll leave it to you, then. Tell the soldiers that they’ll get a large bonus for this. Shenna, please talk with Selina and Ente to create a catalogue of gifts to bring with the envoy, and estimate the food and other expenses we’ll need」

「Yes, Baron. I will calculate the estimations at once」

「Yes, please do. You can set the budget limit to up to twenty percent of what we have in the vaults. Let’s proceed in this direction as we organize the envoy to go to Jarla. Next, Dran has a new report on the developments in the Dark Wastelands. I want everyone to listen carefully」

In contrast to when she was talking about the dispatch of the envoy to Jarla, Chris lowered her voice as she spoke, and everyone present became serious as they tried not to miss a single word of what I was about to say.

Could it be a return of the goblins that had attacked Bern Village last summer? Baran and Shenna in particular were extremely nervous, as I conveyed the information I had found, clearly and without any lies.

「For a while now, I’ve been releasing golems that mimic birds and insects into the Dark Wastelands to gather information, which I’ve already told everyone here about before, but I’d like to share the results of the present situation with you all now.

Multiple monsters, including goblins, kobolds, and ogres, exist in the Dark Wastelands, and it was always normal for there to be territorial wars both between these races and within them, but this situation has drastically changed.

The unification of these demonic tribes that reside in the Dark Wastelands is now almost complete, and that land can now be considered to be united as a single major power.

Besides Chris, who I had already told about this beforehand, everyone else looked surprised, to varying degrees, but Dramina was the only one whose expression didn’t waver in the slightest, which makes sense.

For Bern Village, which has begun to take its new path on the road to becoming a baron territory, this situation could be life or death, and it might even be a disaster for us.

「Councilor Dran, is this force in the Dark Wastelands showing signs of moving southward?」

Baran asked me this with a grim look on his face, most likely thinking with the current strength of Bern’s soldiers in mind. I can make a lot of things, but considering the quality and number of soldiers was simply not so great yet, he must be thinking this could be a problem.

「No, as far as I could tell from my probes, a decisive battle between two of their major forces has just ended, and they are only just starting to reorganize their military and deal with the post-war clean up. They suffered a lot of damage, so they can’t do anything right away.

Besides, if they ever do start moving south, they won’t stop at making just Bern Village fall. They must have long term plans to swallow up the entirety of the Arkrest Kingdom, or even to expand their invasion to the east and west as well」

「If that is the case, then including military logistics, they won’t, or rather, they can’t move very quickly」

If they invade from the Dark Wastelands, they will spread not only from the Barony of Bern, but also to Galois and the rest of the Arkrest Kingdom. And this is all in the midst of the smoldering fires of conflict between the Romal Empire to the west and Todorokuni to the east.

It was clearer than a blazing fire that the kingdom wants the Barony of Bern to act as a bulwark against the forces to the north. Well, Bern Village was originally founded with that role in mind, so there were no complaints here.

「At any rate, this doesn’t seem like the kind of plans that the goblins we’ve known until now could think of. There should be other humans living in the Dark Wastelands as well as the monsters, but do you know what’s going on with them?」

「There are several tribes of them that bent a knee to the demonic forces of the Dark Wastelands, and were conquered and incorporated into those forces. And there are others tribes who escaped from the wastelands」

「Escaped? But, there doesn’t seem to be any who are showing themselves and joining our side, right? Are you saying that they fled to the Romal Empire, or maybe they headed to the west or north of the Dark Wastelands?」

「Yes, you’re mostly right, Captain Baran. There are hardly any that escaped to the Romal Empire, but most of them did manage to escape to the human nations to the west of the Dark Wastelands」

「Hmm, the nations beyond the Dark Wastelands, huh? I didn’t think of that until now. I guess it’s the kingdom that they’ve had less contact with, compared to those countries. So then, will they come here next, or will they go to the countries to the west? Which do you think is more likely?」

「I would say either one, but from the point of view of the Dark Wastelands, even if we, the ones located to their south, were a good target for invasion, they don’t recognize us as enemies that would attack them yet. This is because until now, we’ve only ever defended against their attacks.

In that case, if they show signs of advancing to the south, they would first have to worry about a rear attack from the countries to the west. They seem to be having a lot of skirmishes with those western nations, after all.

Even if they were to move their armies in earnest, it would be difficult for them to go all out, at least until fall or winter. In the meantime, we have to prepare on our side to fight against the forces of the Dark Wastelands」

「I understand. How many soldiers can we gather, how high can we raise their skill, how much equipment can we prepare; we have to do as much as we can. Still, it’s impressive that you were able to gather so much information, all while still sitting calmly here in Bern Village.

If you have this much of an ability to gather information, wouldn’t the other lords, including the royal capital, be unable to leave you alone?」

「Let’s keep that as a classified military secret of our Barony of Bern. And besides, I’m working on a way to teach the next generation so that they can use the same abilities as me」

Information gathering networks using small type golems are probably being tested and used in varying forms by other countries, but my network is one of Bern’s strong points, as it boasts a range, speed and accuracy that can’t be beat by all the others.

If I am the only one who can handle doing this, then the generation of my children will definitely struggle.

If you reduce the performance ability by some extent, then it naturally becomes easier to handle, though this concept doesn’t apply only to information gathering networks.

When I finished talking about the changes in the situation in the Dark Wastelands, as well as the outlook on our future, Chris solemnly announced the ending of this meeting with the dignified appearance of a baron on her face.

「With that, I think we’ve covered most of it. In the future, our Barony of Bern will face even more storms of trouble, but if we deal with it with everyone’s help and wisdom, I believe we will definitely be able to seize a better future for us all.

First, we will start with building a cooperative relationship with Jarla and the other forces in the Mores Mountains, and begin our preparations for the upcoming war with the Dark Wastelands. From now on, if you have any comments, I want you all to say them without reservation. I, myself, wish for everyone’s assistance. I’ll be counting on you all」

 

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Comment (1)

  1. ranomeinon

    How I hope that this series’ LN gets licensed (or picked up back for translation) to start filling in the craters.

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