13 (27)

Louis then slashed across the orc’s chest as well. The orc screamed and staggered backward. Louis stepped on the orc’s neck and stabbed once more. The ground was already a flood. Perhaps because it was an orc, its hide, blood, and everything else far exceeded a human’s. At this point, it should have died of shock, yet it still flailed about. But as though that had been its final act of resistance, the orc then stopped moving entirely. Louis wiped the flat of his longsword on the orc’s leather clothes and said lightly,

“Next.”

The bandits stared blankly. The moment Gray Axe had died, they already had no chance of winning. On top of that, one muttered remark sent a ripple through them.

“T-There’s a lion crest engraved on it.”

“There’s only one person who can use the lion house crest, don’t tell me……?”

“Damn it. There’s no way a face like that belongs to some ordinary man. I think that’s the duke…….”

The bandits looked at one another.

“Run.”

Whistles blew here and there, and a considerable portion of the force turned their backs and fled. Most of the bandits who ran did not even bother to take their weapons with them. Louis looked over the village, now turned into utter chaos. Along with his information window.

Only then did he realize it. The orc he had just killed had not been an ordinary one.

‘Well, its hide was thick.’

The orcs had reacted a bit slowly, but that was simply because they were less intelligent. In any case, the last ones to flee were the orcs, and some were dying at the hands of the force Louis had brought. Some soldiers, as if intending to vent their anger by chasing them to the end, drove their swords in anyway, while others were taking down the villagers tied to posts one by one. The woman was clinging to her surviving father and crying, while the old men and boys who had been tied to the posts ran about frantically looking for the corpses of their families as soon as they were freed. No matter where one looked, the place was filled with wailing.

“Your Grace. What shall you do?”

“What do you think should be done?”

“These are slash-and-burn settlers, so it would be proper to either execute or arrest them.”

“Good. You will remain here.”

“Y-Yes…?”

“Stay here and help them. Once I reach Gedria, I’ll send troops separately.”

“Yes.”

Then, realizing that the answer was strange, the Commander of a Thousand asked again.

“Help them?”

“The old and the young will be given another chance. If sturdy men committed crimes, we will judge the severity and use them for labor. I am in great need of workers right now.”

“L-Long live Your Grace!!”

It was a frail voice. It was an old man. He had caught the words Louis had spoken. Then the people who had been wailing all bowed to Louis. Resting his chin on his left hand, Louis swept his eyes over them once.

“Clean things up roughly, then depart. Select those who will remain and report to me in fifteen minutes.”

“Yes.”

At the entrance to Gedria, which stood in the middle of a desolate land where lush forest ended at a certain boundary line and dry soil stretched endlessly beyond it, a place where not even a trace of balance could be found, soldiers in sturdy helmets stood like statues. They were full of an awkward discomfort, as though the clothing felt strange on them. It made sense, since until recently they had been barbarians who did not belong to Louis. And in the middle of them, an elderly mage was there to receive someone. The mage’s name was Euclid. A man whose pride reached the heavens was waiting for someone. In front of him, a young man dismounted from his horse. The adjutant who had been standing before Euclid addressed Louis.

“It is an honor to meet Your Grace. You are a little later than expected.”

“I stopped to deal with a bandit group.”

“A bandit group……. you say?”

“They were unusual. A peculiar lot moving around together with Green Skins.”

“Good heavens……. You encountered those bastards? Were you injured anywhere?”

“I told you. I dealt with them.”

“…………..”

Perhaps because she was glad she had finally seen her master, Oren added cheerfully,

“It was amazing. He killed a gigantic orc that was two heads taller in a single stroke.”

“Gray Axe…….”

“Ah, so that bastard was their leader. I cut off his arms and slit his throat so he could never get back up, so there is no need to worry.”

The soldiers stirred. That was because they all knew to the bone what a monstrous bastard Gray Axe had been. That bandit group had recently been formed by those who refused to return to the Huns, and after joining with wandering groups of orcs, they had turned into an uncontrollable bandit force. They were mad enough to clash in small-scale engagements even with the regular army. And yet Duke Louis, with a force of not even fifty men, had personally slain the leader of that bandit group. Euclid looked at Louis and sank into thought.

‘As a swordsman too, he is certainly a talent one could never find again……. And to think he personally dealt with a bandit group. Of all the humans I’ve met, aside from one, he is the boldest. Even Gray Axe would have been troublesome in the Empire……. The subordinates he keeps around him also seem capable…. Above all, he is the only lord who understands the value of Magitech. If I support his territory, he will grow into something terrifying. Even becoming a king would not be impossible.’

Euclid looked at Louis with satisfaction, then stepped forward.

“Duke Louis. Do not be too shocked when you see the aqueduct I made.”

The closer they drew to the area Euclid guided them toward, the more the dirt road had been deeply dug up in various directions. They were wagon-wheel tracks. It was immediately obvious how rough the construction had been and how much the Great Mage’s handiwork had been involved. Residual traces of mana swarmed everywhere. Louis’s sensitive body instinctively perceived it. A little farther on, water was crashing down. It was literally a small waterfall. An enormous volume of water poured from a solidly built structure. At the very top of the structure was a clear crystal sphere set into place. It was operating, and Louis immediately understood the principle of it. The starting point had been powered by a mage pouring mana into it, but after that, the energy was being obtained by burning Black Water. That stretched on continuously in great length. Louis could not help but marvel.

‘This is…. incredible.’

Pantalist. It was not barren land. This place held something greater than gold. In the future, national hegemony would be divided by whether one possessed Black Water or not. Louis had caught the goose that laid golden eggs, and only now was he truly feeling it in his skin.

‘This is insane.’

There was no choice but to say that the options were incredible as well. Bananas themselves already had a production speed that overwhelmingly surpassed wheat, but setting that aside, the +5 Food value was equal to the wheat production of the duchy under the combined buffs of the Pope’s visit and the golden age. Once those buffs ended, Gedria would effectively be +1 higher. The drawback, if there was one, was that wheat could be easily traded, but bananas could not. They would either have to be consumed internally, or else sold to those who were already accustomed to them….

‘Aha. I can sell them off to the Huns.’

Thus one more value had been added to the alliance with Atila. Euclid had been staring at Louis for a while now. He had expected some exclamation of admiration at this majestic sight. But Louis said nothing, simply resting his chin on his hand and sinking into thought.

‘Huh, well now. This brat. Could it be that when I showed him the design draft, he had already pictured the finished product? Come to think of it, they said Louis himself designed the Hanging Gardens in the central square. I thought that meant one or two lords had snatched the credit, but could it be…. does he have talent in construction too………? Could it even be in magic as well…?’

Euclid had never seen such an overwhelmingly talented young man. In Euclid’s long life, he had even seen Marcheni Edrok, the gray meteor genius who had become the youngest sage in the Mage Tower, but aside from magic, he was a half-wit of a youth who could barely manage even the simplest daily life.

“More.”

“…….?”

“I need more. Great Mage Euclid. I will mobilize all the funds of Pontina territory and support you fully. Shake the world.”

Euclid seemed shaken to his core by those words. He lost the power of speech, and only when his disciple Oren poked him insistently did he come back to his senses. If it was recognition from Louis, he had been given more than enough.

Thanks to the assassination attempt, the political situation had become unstable. On the wide marble floor where that incident had taken place, nobles dressed in luxurious clothes were swarming. It was not even a marketplace, yet the current chaos rivaled one. The situation was such a mess that some nobles were grabbing each other by the collar and hurling curses, others had put their heads together in circles and were discussing matters, and more than a few had simply poured wine down their throats, saying they already had a headache.

“You bastard. You call that something worth saying?”

“If it were you, would you still be grateful after drinking from a goblet handed to you so you could die? And watch your mouth.”

“First, calm down. Duke Louis hasn’t even made a statement yet, so isn’t it out of order for the people below to be making such a scene first?”

“The duke as well. With the situation this serious, how can he be thinking of going to Gedria?”

“That’s enough. There are too many ears around.”

Those grabbing one another by the collar went even further. Cursing violently, they slammed one man to the floor, saying he had stained the honor of the inspection delegation. The fallen man refused to yield as well, rising immediately and tangling with them again. In any case, the reason they were maintaining such a grave atmosphere while waiting was because Duke Louis would soon be arriving there.

At that time, Louis was leisurely crossing the duchy. It had prospered beyond comparison with the time when his father had ruled it. Merchants who had come to sell or exchange goods even a little more cheaply or dearly filled the square and dotted the streets everywhere, (Louis thought that even though he had expanded it once already, he would need to expand it again), mercenaries without work piled around the smithies trying to repair swords or armor, many prostitutes were also visible, targeting them with makeup on and swaying their sturdy buttocks, and above all, merchants were openly shouting while recruiting mercenaries to use as guards, and even on the single street Louis was walking along, there were more than five such places.

While entering to observe the city, Louis had kept his identity hidden and wore his robe deeply pulled down. Ever since the Pope had declared it a miracle, pilgrims and mages frequently wandered through the duchy, so people dressed like this were common enough. Even so, Louis’s great height and the well-built physiques of the bodyguards following him while hiding themselves meant it was impossible to avoid drawing attention entirely. Still, people seemed to assume he was some wandering mercenary of considerable skill.

Even while looking over the city, Louis had opened his information window and was organizing several matters. Since on the previous journey across Pantalist he had learned that quite a number of slash-and-burn villages were scattered near that region, he intended to use the same method: give the elderly and children a new chance, while judging young criminals by the severity of their crimes and turning them into labor troops. They would not be simple slaves, and he intended to make sure they had enough money to support their families as well. He had demanded another work from Euclid, and at the same time had begun constructing Euclid’s Aqueduct on both the eastern and western sides. Once completed, water would circulate evenly across the entirety of Pontina territory. In the long run, this was certain to be of enormous help. How many territories in the entire world could truly boast that water was evenly distributed throughout them?

While that was happening, a prostitute approached Louis. The woman smelled of cheap perfume mixed with rum, and had black hair with makeup clumsily caked on. Just from her skin, he could tell she was a girl of about sixteen. She boldly pressed herself against Louis’s arm, her not-yet-fully-grown breasts exposed lewdly.