episode_0048

Friede van Peilun.

Princess of Palun, the Northern Grand Duchy.

Literally, she is the Grand Duchess of the North.

Palun was the front line to block the beastmen who frequently invaded from the Sky Mountains.

So, except for the professors at the academy, there is probably no one who knows more about beastmen than Friede.

Maybe you know better than the professors.

The problem is that since the Ka’har are actually a tribe that can be considered the beast people of the East, they even show their bad feelings toward me…

I looked down at the door, which was still vibrating slightly, and turned the doorknob.

As expected, it was locked.

You don’t even want to face me.

Well, I expected this level of confrontation.

Yeah, if you can’t get in because you’re being bullied at the door, it’s okay if there’s no door, right?

The door was torn off.

The hinges were smashed and the door was torn off with a crackling sound.

Friede looked at me with wide eyes.

He had taken off his uniform top and was wearing only pants and a blouse.

The hazel eyes were tinged with absurdity and trembled.

Without hesitation, I entered the room.

“It goes in a little.”

“Are you out of your mind? Ah, that sounds obvious. There’s no way he’s sane. Won’t you turn it off right away, barbarian?”

Friede frowned and shouted angrily.

The emotion that changed from embarrassment to anger was clearly conveyed to me.

The right hand toward the top of the desk looked like it was about to pick up a weapon at any moment.

Every word he says is a barbarian. It’s better than the sound of a monster, though.

Isn’t it rather barbaric to be rude to a guest who comes to visit?

I ignored it and glanced around the room.

“…Look at the corner of the room. Isn’t this a real barbarian’s room?”

It seems like the tail of the horse was trembling slightly.

It was a very scary room.

There was a large bulletin board on one side of the wall with all kinds of diagrams of living anatomy, and the shelves below were filled with what looked like specimen bottles containing internal organs.

There were more than seven vicious weapons hanging on the opposite wall.

Huge saw. A whip and mace full of thorns. A window with a weird pump.

An ax connected to a chain, and even a dagger made like a harpoon so that it does not fall out once it gets stuck.

There were even eye-pulling forceps, something I had only seen in books about torture.

The skin removed from the prisoner was displayed at the head of the bed, and the remaining body after the skin had been removed was stuffed in a corner.

…If you put a hunter, an inquisitor, and a vicious murderer in one room, wouldn’t the interior look like this?

Every time I see you, I feel like I can understand why you don’t have any friends…

If you look at it, new reasons keep popping out like onion skin.

“Can’t you understand the words, “Fuck off?” Or are you saying you want to duel with me now?”

Friede got nervous.

Her pure white skin was slightly flushed with anger.

Not drawing a weapon right away is probably showing self-restraint since this is an academy.

“That’s not true, I came because I had something to ask, but I thought the door was broken.”

So I fixed it so it would open properly.

Now, you won’t have to worry about your door being locked arbitrarily, Friede.

“I’m not kidding…! Are you here because you have something to ask? How dare you attack me like this? Are you a barbarian?”

“You’re a senior, right? Please help me, junior. I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important.”

I sat down on the sofa and tried to comfort the grand duchess who couldn’t hold back her anger.

Of course, there was no choice.

“Get out. You beast!”

I blocked the kick aimed at my head with my right arm.

Friede’s kick didn’t seem to have been made with a genuine intention to fight, so it didn’t have much force.

I guess she cares about how she conducts herself.

If bloodshed occurs at the Academy, it may be a nuisance to the Archduke.

Friede, whose kick was blocked, grunted.

If I provoked him a little more, he might actually try to challenge me to a duel.

Let’s stop here, because I’ve already prepared the magic words to calm Friede down.

“It’s a story about a prisoner, aren’t you going to listen?”

Friede stopped getting angry and blinked.

At first it seemed like I heard it wrong.

Next, he frowned as if wondering if what he heard was true.

Finally, as if to convince myself, I closed my eyes for a while, then sighed and opened my eyes again.

Friede, with his back turned, walked towards the metal case in the corner of the room, grabbed the handle, and opened it.

The inside of the case felt like a cooling spell had been applied, and a cool chill was felt.

Inside, about thirty liquor bottles were neatly stacked.

Is it like a wine refrigerator? Magic is so convenient.

Friede took out a bottle, opened the cap, and took a gulp.

The smell of alcohol, which stings my nose, could be felt all the way up here.

“Haaaa……”

Friede, who had emptied half of his drink, roughly placed the bottle on the case and returned to me.

His face was a little red, and his steps were rougher than before.

My exhaled breath smelled of fruit and alcohol.

The eyebrows were still distorted.

Friede sat down on the sofa across from me.

“Okay, I’ll listen. Let’s talk about it somewhere.”

As expected, I thought that if I brought up the story of the prisoner, they would listen.

As a person from Palun, there’s no way he wouldn’t be interested in issues related to beastmen.

All that remains is how far we can go…

First, let’s talk about that part and think about it.

—-

“If you’re a Northern Palun, you probably know a lot about beastmen, right? Because you must have met many people.”

“Yes. There’s one sitting in front of me right now.”

“After drinking so much, are you hallucinating?”

“How good it would have been if it had been a hallucination. Then you can tear it up.”

The atmosphere was cold.

No, rather, it should be said that it is so hot that it feels like sparks are going to burst out.

If Asha were here, her eyes would light up, saying that this would definitely lead to a fight.

…This is not the time.

Because I didn’t come to fight.

“…I guess I’ll have to deal with a prisoner, and I’d like to get some advice from an expert.”

“Suin? You?”

Friede asked curiously.

“Not even Palun, where in the system would a first year student have to deal with a beastman?”

It was a natural question.

Then, how far should I explain something for which there is no evidence?

Academy attack incident.

It is a large-scale attack that takes place three months after the entrance ceremony, during mid-term training.

An incident in which Miliciya, a secret terrorist organization of prisoners who infiltrated the system, raids academy students.

It was something that would happen under the instructions of Varyacruz, the beast-man kingdom, beyond the northern snowfields.

30% of students die that day.

Even if you clear it properly with Damian.

So I had to stop it.

The problem is that if I say something like this, there is no way you will believe it if there is no evidence…

If you make a strong claim without evidence, even if it turns out to be true later, it will only increase suspicion.

How did you know that?

Then, should we try some bluffing?

“It smelled like an animal. Last time.”

” Wash and live.”

……Wouldn’t it be okay to let him be killed by the beast?

The resolution I made a while ago is becoming meaningless.

“No, really. Shut up and listen. I went to see an underground waterway a while ago. There was a smell of an animal there.”

It’s a lie. I couldn’t find anything there.

Still, in the original work, it was said that Miliciya came out of an underground water canal.

“It definitely didn’t smell like a person, and it didn’t really smell like an animal either. It was a strange mixture of those two smells. I couldn’t even find the location…so, just in case.”

“To groundwater…? Hmm, that can’t be possible…but I get it. So, what exactly do you want to ask?”

Friede’s expression became a little more serious.

It looks like he was ready to have a proper conversation.

“I want to know the characteristics and weaknesses of the beast. Since I live in the East, I have never met a prisoner.”

“Characteristics… About 2~3m tall, with an appearance that is a mixture of a beast and a human. The closer the blood is to pure blood, the more it resembles an animal, and the lighter the blood, the more human-like it is. He has great physical ability and still has intelligence. It even has some degree of regenerative power.”

Friede rested her chin on the armrest of the sofa and snapped her fingers.

“In short, they are people who mixed the strengths of trolls, ogres, and humans, and then doubled that. Each one is a monster.”

First of all, I know that regular students are at a level where they can’t even compete in a head-on fight.

That’s why I came to see Friede.

“What should I do to kill it?”

“That’s my specialty.”

She grinned and pointed to the wall where the weapons were displayed.

The saw blades, eerily protruding like the teeth of a wild beast, reflected the light from the ceiling and gave off an evil light.

“Same as a troll. Tear it apart and make it bleed until it can’t regenerate.”

“Is that it?”

“Or what, pull out the heart or slit the throat? It may be much more difficult, though.”

Is there an easier, trickier way? It’s not something I can solve just by being active.

I need a method that other people besides me can use.

“Are there any methods that other students besides me can use? A decisive weakness or something.”

“If there was such a thing, we would have made them extinct a long time ago.”

It was a correct opinion.

Damn it. This is giving me a headache.

“Silver is somewhat effective, but it is not a good metal to use as a weapon.”

“What about plating on the surface of a steel weapon?”

“I tried it, but when we fought, it all came off. Well, it’s better than not doing anything.”

If it’s better than not doing anything, you should try it.

“What about magic? Trolls are weak to fire and electricity. Isn’t that the case with Suin?”

“Well, if their whole body is set on fire, they will die, but it’s not something that can be called a weakness. They’re not people you’ll hit easily.”

Well, it’s normal for living things to die when they burn.

It’s hard to get it right, but it works.

“What is the priest’s blessing?”

“Sub-races are not monsters. The miracles used by the priests of Menes are somewhat effective, though.”

Is it Menes? The god of the moon and dreams.

…Almost all of Meneth’s priests are in the north, so this might not be possible.

As expected, I guess we should rely on those with good skills.

Like Damian or Ophelia.

Ophelia can’t be too aggressive, but Damien seems to be better than the original if he trains with her and improves his skills.

If we use those guys as a barrier and forcibly gather the remaining students in one place to deal with it…

“…Are you thinking more seriously than I thought? It’s as if he’s confident that the beastmen will attack him.”

Friede narrowed her eyes and glared at me.

I felt a little creepy, so I licked my lips without realizing it.

Did you win an award too? Still, if it’s like this, it’s probably still okay.

“I am confident in my sense of smell and instinct. If the scent I smelled is indeed that of a prisoner, then the reason for hiding must be to commit something.”

“In the system, as a prisoner… It’s such an absurd story that it’s hard to believe.”

Friede stood up.

Now that we’ve finished talking, does this mean we can leave?

“If you bring proper evidence, I will report it to the Academy and the North. If it were true, it would definitely be a very dangerous thing.”

In the end, we have to somehow find evidence within two months…

If only we could find the evidence, we would be able to gather a group of knights in advance and prepare.

Yeah, really, there’s two months left and I can’t find it?