Ch.102Chimera – Epilogue (2)
by fnovelpia
After the brief yet incredibly long and arduous battle had concluded.
Fortunately, despite the intense situation, there were no casualties on our side for various reasons, so instead of focusing on other matters, I first wanted to take time to calculate the gains from this battle.
‘….Huh, were they really intent on giving everything away?’
I had embraced such enormous benefits that were difficult to express in mere words—so much so that I wondered if that “Gluttony” was deliberately being generous.
The gains were so disproportionately large compared to the damage we’d sustained that I investigated whether this might be part of some plot, but nothing suspicious emerged. So despite my lingering anxiety, I gladly accepted the abundance of spoils.
First among the acquisitions were two Chimeras that now recognized me as something like their pack leader.
For now, I assigned them to guard the prisoners we’d temporarily placed in a pit dug in one corner of the village. These creatures were valuable enough simply for being obedient mid-tier magical beasts of the upper rank.
Of course, they were subjugated purely through the logic of power, so there was a significant possibility they wouldn’t follow orders like pack animals, and fundamentally, being magical beasts, they posed a risk if left unattended without mid-tier supervision.
Still, being subservient to me, they would at least follow my commands to some extent, and in terms of combat ability, their status as upper mid-tier beasts was no mere decoration.
Therefore, for the time being, I could let them roam freely like livestock in the forest to protect the villagers, or perhaps train them for aerial transport, as they possessed flight capabilities despite their somewhat unstable physical structure.
….Of course, if I intended to use them, I would need to continuously provide food, and the amount of provisions that medium-to-large magical beasts like Chimeras consume would certainly not be trivial.
Chimeras are omnivores, so the goat head would graze on grass and the Red Dragon head would readily devour grains, but their fundamental nature leans toward carnivory, so for now, I could feed them with the stored meat….
‘Well, if it becomes too much, I could send one to Father.’
Just as the thought crossed my mind, if the feeding costs became unmanageable, I could send one of the tamed beasts to Father as tribute and receive some financial support in return.
A tamed Chimera…. considering the value of a mid-tier magical beast in this country of knights, and furthermore, the value of a tamed mid-tier beast with flight capabilities would skyrocket insanely.
Even Hippogriffs, considered inferior versions of the mid-tier flying beast Griffins, couldn’t be purchased without connections, even if one were willing to pay hundreds of gold coins.
Therefore, if I were to offer a tamed Chimera, it would likely be valuable enough for Father to assign a company of domain cavalry under my command.
Besides the living Chimeras, the corpse of the Chimera leader that I killed with my own hands also held considerable value.
After a round of dismemberment, the lion hide had already been sent to the workshop, and the meat had been separated by parts and isolated in storage, considering the toxicity of the blood.
Additionally, the dragon wing membranes, claws attached to the legs, and scale sections would similarly be processed quite impressively by the craftsman’s touch.
Especially in my current situation, with my custom armor completely shattered, such temporary equipment, hastily assembled as it might be, was absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile, there were also non-biological or material gains in a somewhat different direction from these biological features.
Three captured state-of-the-art… Holy Empire military direct-fire cannons from the forest. These weapons, armed with conical projectiles and rifled barrels, represented the most significant gain.
Additionally, there were about 60 outdated hunting muskets, along with enough gunpowder and bullets to fire several hundred rounds even after accounting for wastage.
On top of that, approximately 200 sets of gambesons and various plate armor parts (mainly breastplates), as well as an abundance of melee weapons, primarily one-handed, and shields….
Even combining all this equipment, capable of arming over a hundred soldiers, there was one item whose value exceeded everything—perhaps worth more than all the spoils from this battle combined.
“Is, is this real…?”
“Yes! …But is this expensive?”
“Of course! It’s incredibly valuable!”
It was a wearable golem called a “Golem Armor,” a kind of powered suit (exoskeleton) created using magic.
An ancient product of the civilization that existed before the “Desert of Death” to the south became a desert—equipment at least thousands of years old but maintained through overwhelmingly superior technology.
Its characteristic of allowing any wearer to exhibit at least mid-tier physical capabilities without effort made it extremely valuable, even if it were a patchwork with all replaceable parts substituted with modern golem components.
The value of transforming a low-tier being into a “mid-tier” tactical weapon was immense in this world, with even a patchwork Golem Armor easily worth at least one impressive stone castle.
‘This isn’t just a patchwork….’
Moreover, this Golem Armor wasn’t a patchwork—it was “genuine” with intact internal components.
Although it contained a control module that used dismembered humans as internal “parts” for remote control, if that were removed, this equipment would be in perfect condition except for the parts Hannah had destroyed.
It simply lacked any weapons made with ancient magical engineering, but purely in terms of preservation state, it was comparable to ancient weapons….
“I need to contact Father.”
If it had been moderately damaged, I would have just repaired it using Gretel’s witch techniques and used it here, but with a Golem Armor in such good condition with relatively minor damage, the situation was different.
To be frank, if it could be repaired somehow, the domain would permanently gain two more mid-tier assets, so this was a matter that seriously required hiring relevant experts (mages) for repairs.
Of course, it was somewhat disappointing that this was less like armor to wear and more like something to board and control—like a H■lkbuster in Ma■vel terms—making it not particularly useful to me, who was already mid-tier.
Well, more important right now were probably the prisoners suddenly detained in the village.
As mentioned earlier, the approximately 80 prisoners captured in this battle were confined in a temporary pit under the watch of the Chimeras, with instructions that they could be eaten if necessary.
In normal circumstances, I might have used them as labor under 20-year contracts, but the problem was that these were particularly vicious outlaws.
Considering the potential incidents that could occur if 80 such individuals were carelessly brought into the village, the best solution was probably to hand them all over to Father.
80 free laborers—moreover, 80 individuals who knew how to fight—would not be easily refused in any era….
Most likely, they would end up serving in something similar to a penal battalion.
After recalling these spoils one by one, I organized them in my mind as I drifted into sleep….
To sink my consciousness into that “space” to obtain perhaps the most important spoil of all—the one called a factor.
※ ※ ※
As the familiar darkness unfolded before my eyes.
As always, “something” obtained from the killed creatures gathered, and the “fruits” rising in the middle of the empty darkness totaled… 3?
‘….What’s this?’
One, no, up to two were within my expectations.
The Chimera leader I directly defeated. Adding that clown-dressed mass of flies would make a total of 2 “fruits.”
But… 3? An unexpected third fruit?
Its shape resembled a grape, suggesting it was a composite fruit acquired from killing multiple similar individuals, which led to a rather clear conclusion.
‘….Ah.’
Those soldiers, gunners, and even artillerymen I had swept away with my petrification evil eye.
No matter how easy firearms were to handle, they were unusually skilled, and with the addition of personnel handling direct-fire cannons, the story changed.
Convinced that this factor must be theirs, I destroyed the factor that seemed to belong to that mass of flies and maggots—the servant of “Gluttony”—and gazed with greedy eyes at the remaining two factors.
I thought there might be some unintended harvest.
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