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Chapter 23: The Maid’s Circumstances

 

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I did not have any intentions on keeping Myun restrained on the way back home and she was curiously asking me the reason why.

「Why didn’t you kill me? I am a spy that was about to leak information to the Debasu Kingdom about the important rubber technology」

「Nn? Did you want me to kill you?」

I try to say it maliciously to intimidate her. Myun was timidly looking down and responded meekly.

「Naturally, I don’t want to be killed. But, I’ve already told you everything I know about being a spy. When a spy gets found out, they will surely be executed. When a spy has already mentioned things like the amount of information leaked, who the information is passed on to, who they are cooperating with, there is no meaning to keeping them alive. Therefore, in normal circumstances, a person would take the necessary information from the spy and then kill them off」

What she mentioned is probably the common sense of people living in Orth. In this world, there is magic and there are demons, moreover the cultural level has stagnated at the 15th century, so I understand her train of thought. When a spy is discovered, most of them are killed and it is a commonplace thing to dispose of them efficiently. A big part of wanting to kill them also lies in the fact that the person feels betrayed and wants revenge. Leaving them alive doesn’t really give any significant advantages. Every faction in this world is likely to have spies to gather information, after confirming how much information they leaked out, it would basically be about relieving their aggravated feelings by taking it out on the spy. After all, this world doesn’t really teach humanitarianism or human rights.

「Fuuーn, Is that so? However, it’s fine. There is no reason for me to kill Myun」

「Eh?……… Why?」

「If you still can’t understand then, then how about this…… Myun, all you have to do is think that you’ve already been killed by me. Therefore, the Myun who was acting as a spy is already dead. And now the Myun that exists today, is no longer the same Myun that existed in the past」

「!……… What does this mean?」

「You should be able to figure that question out by yourself」

Well, I think it should take another hour to reach home. At the present time, I predict that it’s at around 11 pm. Hmm, I still have a surplus of MP, I guess I should try to clear any lingering doubts that I may have. Myun seems to be in deep thought and I hit her up with a question.

「Hey, Myun, I want you to answer truthfully to the question I am about to ask you. Depending on your answer I have thought of a couple of possibilities for your future」

She only had 1 MP remaining, and was in a mentally unstable state, thinking about various things Myun’s forehead was crumpled up showing a complicated expression on her face, however she still managed to look me in the eyes.

「Why didn’t you try to resist me when I freed you from the earth magic? Even though you didn’t seem to have a weapon, I am after all still a child. If you by chance held me down, or if you rushed me and tackled me, I’m sure you would have been able to subdue me without killing me, perhaps you could have even tried to run away when you got the chance」

「Oh it’s about that……..? At the start before I was able to react I had already been buried under Al-sama’s earth magic. And when I heard the voice of the one who captured me, I was able to realize that it was Al-sama’s voice, the moment I figured that out, I no longer had any willpower to resist. Ahh, I did have a weapon you know?」

As she said this she grabbed an object from around her breast area, it was an ice pick that had a wire string of about 10 cm attached to it. And from her pocket she pulled out this small bottle and passed it on to me. How dangerous, to think that a woman’s breasts would hold such a thing, I thought it was just for decoration… Then, this small bottle is, P-poison? At any rate, whilst she was giving these things over to me I had a sudden thought of “Why is she giving me all this?” To be honest, I was a little flustered, I hope that it didn’t show on my face.

「I already know that even amongst magicians Al-sama is a very splendid wizard. I understand a little bit of magic so even though I don’t know exactly how much magical energy Al-sama needed to expend to cast that earth magic from before, I can already imagine how powerful Al-sama must be. I feel that it is meaningless for me to try and resist against such a frightening magic user.  Moreover…..」

「….Moreover?」

「…….It’s nothing」

「Certainly I can use magic and even now I still have reserve energy. It is likely that even if Myun tried to resist and run away, I would have been able to catch up immediately. However, please answer the question truthfully. Is that really the only reason for your non-resistance?」

「………I would have caused trouble for my foster father. Master and mistress have also treated me so well and have blessed me with kindness. I did have motives to sneak in and work as a spy, however, in comparison to the life I led previously, my life in Bakkudo village was like living inside of a dream, I had the privilege of living a carefree and peaceful life. I pretended to be alone and a war orphan, wearing meagre clothes, added to the fact that I was one of the people from the enemy’s nation, but both my foster father and master treated me with kindness and acceptance. In addition to this, I was even hired to work as a maid. Once I found out that the other party was Al-sama how could I dare to lay my hands on Al-sama. Also, if I by chance was able to defeat Al-sama and run away……if Al-sama lived then my position as a spy would still be revealed, and if I killed Al-sama, then I would be under so much guilt and suspicions would be targeted towards me. I would not be able to do such a thing」

Myun just blurted everything in one go. Tears were welling up in the corner of her eyes. Her feet would periodically stop under the moonlit sky and she could not conceal her trembling voice as she spoke to me whilst looking down. …….Her first instinct is not to kill me, so I understand that she wasn’t able to come up with any solutions. To be honest, I think that if she just killed me and feigned complete innocence she would be free from suspicion.

「Is that so? Allow me to ask once more, then why did you attempt to do something that would betray your foster fathers expectations? I can believe the fact that you’ve yet to spill any military information as there has been no dispatch of troops in Bakkudo Village recently. However, why did you suddenly choose to leak information in regards to rubber? Even if you didn’t leak information about rubber, you could of grabbed some rubber products and just sneaked it into your room right?」

「……..That is, while it may be rude of me to say, but I thought value of the information on rubber would reduce if I didn’t report it immediately. When Master was talking about the rubber products I managed to overhear that… He would show everyone rubber to hear their opinion and then proceed to commercialising the products… If that is the case, before rubber is shown to even more people, the value of information of rubber would be very high right now, and the moment that it was made into a product and got distributed the value of this information would be drastically reduced. If I took my time, then by the time that I manage to report this information Debasu Kingdom, Bakkudo Village and even Doritto Town and the surrounding areas would have already known about rubber」

After saying this much, Myun raised her face and firmly looked towards me.

「For a spy that came from the Saguaru family, even the worst spies would be able to provide some sort of information once every ten years. When Master next participates in a battle and sends troops from Bakkudo village, if I am able to at least figure out who will accompany him and how many troops will be present, whilst it may not be the most significant information, it will still be considered useful, however, in the case that Master doesn’t dispatch troops for the expedition then I wouldn’t be able to obtain any useful information. In the case that no military information can be obtained, as a spy it is still necessary to report some sort of useful information to make it clear that they haven’t been found out, therefore any sort of information whether it’s the state of affairs in the territory or even the economic circumstances of the village will be fine, as long as something is reported. I have already slipped into Bakkudo village for a period of 8 years, however I haven’t provided any information as of yet. If I sent information at this point of time, I thought that I could be relieved for the next 10 years」

“I wanted to hear those words”. It would be a lie if that’s what I told Myun right now. However, her logic does make sense. Her analysis about the value of information on rubber was also pretty accurate. The fact that the information about rubber would reduce in value in the near future is a good prediction, and basing it on this fact, it doesn’t seem like she’s lying about her motives. As expected, Myun is necessary.

My objective is to “create my own country” (Or rather than saying that maybe it’s better to say that my aim or my dream), in order to achieve this goal, the first thing I need to do is to get stronger. Naturally it is important to have a strong mental strength, however the most important thing that I need to start off with is physical strength. No matter what you try to do in this world, as long as you had strong physical prowess you would respected, and it will become much easier to gather subordinates and or followers. Magic is useful to a certain extent but in this world there is something called “Anti Magic Field” and if I only focused on training my magical power, it might turn out really bad in certain circumstances. I have already started my sword training but I’ve only trained for a period of 1 year and after all I only have the power of a 6-year-old. I will grow up sooner or later but if I don’t do anything to train, then in the end I will only be able to obtain the power of an average human being. In order to compensate for this, it is necessary for me to level up.

Even Hegard is level 15 so he seems considerable strong, but what if he was only level 1, I think that at best, he would be a little better off than the average human. When you level up, your attributes inevitably increase and therefore you get stronger. Not only that, as a lord with strength you are able to garner respect from those around you.  Although, in actual fact there are many points of governing where you can gain respect from, such as: how well you manage your territory, being benevolent or merciful to the people in your territory, etc… Above all, the first step to gaining respect from the people is by being strong. No matter how well you govern your territory, or how much compassion you show the villagers, if a horde of goblins were to attack your territory, the only thing that stands between you and your territory from being destroyed is your ability to overwhelm the intruders and force them back.

From listening to what Myun has just told me, it is a fact that when you kill monsters in this world, you gain experience points. In that case the fastest way for me to level up is to hunt these monsters and accumulate experience points. to be honest, it feels like I am in a game, and as long as Orth has these kinds of things in place, there is nothing I can do but abide by its laws, if I can get much stronger at a faster rate by hunting monsters, I obviously need to do this rather than trying to steadily get stronger by swinging my sword in practice, right? Naturally, I don’t plan on neglecting my normal training and I plan to keep practicing whenever I have the time. No matter how much muscular strength someone obtains, if they don’t increase their dexterity and stamina, I think that they won’t really get much better at wielding weapons. The only time when you can overwhelm your opponent just by using pure brute force, is if your opponent was weak.

Therefore, I have no choice but to hunt for monsters in order to increase my level, but I don’t really know the way to efficiently find monsters, or where I can hunt them in relative safety. If I asked permission to hunt monsters at my age to either Hegard or Sharl, there is no doubt in my mind that they would immediately reject the idea and throw it away. That’s why I don’t have any other choice but to hide this fact, but I have never had the opportunity to hunt monsters nor did I have the knowledge to do so. Yet, if Myun can lend me her strength it will become possible for me to go hunting. In any case, she was able to hide the fact that she went out hunting many times until now. She can even be considered an expert.

Although I feel kind of bad in doing this, I think that I should make use of the situation and threaten Myun a little so that she cooperates with me.

「I see. I understand Myun’s thoughts. So, about the matter I told you to think about earlier… The spy known as Myun is dead. Or rather, this is how I feel you should act from now on, as long as we can deal with the contact liaison, this will become the truth. In order to further this end, I thought that I would cooperate with you. However, the fact that you have tried to sneak in here as a spy is still a fact that cannot be denied, depending on the circumstances, if it comes to light that you were a spy, not even Dangle can shy away from his responsibility as your adoptive father」

「！！……。 Is, that so…….?」

「Well, hang on, don’t panic. I haven’t finished talking. That scenario will only occur if I tell on you to my father, you haven’t forgotten this have you?」

「！？……。 What, do you mean by this?」

「I don’t really mean anything by it. It’s just as it seems. As long as I don’t talk about you and reveal your identity, no one would ever know that there was a spy from Debasu Kingdom, in our Bakkudo village, right?」

Myun was still seemingly confused in the matter so I continued speaking.

「I will keep quiet about the fact that Myun has infiltrated our village as a spy. Like I said before, we can manage somehow in regards to the contact liaison that you have to meet. However, if you want my help, I have a couple of conditions for you」

「No matter what it is, I’ll do anything. Please give me instructions. Please keep my secret!」

「Ahh, I understand. I have three conditions. The first condition is that when you sneak outside to go hunting tonight, you will allow me to go with you. Let’s do it together. The second condition is for you to tell me everything you know in regards to Debasu Kingdom and Ron Belt Kingdom. Even if you think I already know that piece of information, don’t hesitate to tell me, I want to know everything. The last condition is; I want you to swear that you will never betray Dangle or my father ever again」

After looking completely dumbfounded for a couple of moments, Myun timidly starts to speak.

「Umm….. Is that all I have to do? Shouldn’t I receive some kind of punishment?」

「Yeah, that’s fine. What do you think? If you can accept these conditions of mine, I will cooperate with you」

「I can’t wish for more. I…… When I thought that I was going to die, I already partly gave up. I already assumed that there would be no other path other than death, for a spy that has already been discovered…. Thank you so much. For not placing the blame on my adoptive father, I’m truly thankful from the bottom of my heart!! From now on, as long as it is for Al-sama, I am willing to do anything!! Please order me to your heart’s desire!!」

She suddenly prostrated herself on the ground as she thanked me profusely, and I got slightly perplexed, but I could see how grateful she was and it washed away my worries.

「Alright……..In that case, how about we get started by first allowing this Korisaru Pellet to flow down the river? Although we have to back track a little..」

「? Why are we doing that?」

「Didn’t you say that as long as you kept in contact with them they would be appeased? They have to be contacted right?」

「I understand. But the person that will come to meet with us is a considerably strong person. Even if we can use magic, we still need to be very careful」

「Yeah, I know. The moment that you succeed in getting in touch with the liaison, please tell me immediately」

After that we both returned to the river once again and threw out the Korisaru Pellet down the stream.

While we were on our way back to the village, I asked her various questions in regards to hunting, such as the good places for hunting, what kind of clothing you should wear, the dangerous points and the things you needed to be careful of. We also discussed about how we would deal with the contact liaison from here on out and I tried to absorb all the information that Myun could tell me.

Although it’s only a matter of time before we had to deal with the contact liaison, I still had to think about the impending matter of selling and marketing my manufactured rubber goods and the production plans I have in mind, besides I also need to consider how I am going to hunt monsters from now on. I also can’t neglect my MP training or my physical training. There is a mountain of things I need to accomplish!

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