Ch.23Beginning (2)

Thus, as the people who would become residents of the newly established pioneer village arrived.

“While I have much to say to you all, let us move quickly first! If we are to lay the foundations of the village by the end of today, we have no time to waste!”

“””””Yes, Sir Knight (Lord Alzar)!!”””””

To clearly establish priorities, I decided to focus first on creating a foundation. With Charlotte’s assistance, I began the task of distributing the workforce.

“Have the hunters depart now for the reconnaissance mission I assigned earlier. As for the rest… regardless of profession, everyone will be assigned to construction work for the time being.”

“Everyone, you say?”

“Yes, blacksmith. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of selecting people based on their trades. Don’t you think we need walls and a roof first for comfortable sleeping arrangements?”

“…Yes, I understand.”

I could certainly understand the dissatisfaction of the blacksmith, who was at least in his mid-forties—an age where, by this era’s standards, it wouldn’t be strange for him to have grandchildren.

However, given that we currently had no forge or workshop to speak of, I successfully persuaded him… and finally, these people began village construction work under Charlotte and the architect’s direction.

Fortunately, we had sufficient timber to create temporary buildings large enough to accommodate 60 people, and we even had four oxen—essentially the heavy machinery of the medieval period.

With about 50 people working together, we could surely create living quarters better than tents by the end of the day. So rather than focusing on construction, which wasn’t my specialty anyway, I decided to concentrate on other matters.

For instance, checking our food supplies—perhaps the most critical issue in our current situation.

Most of our current food—or more accurately, what should be called the village’s communal food—consisted of typical preserved rations of this era: hardtack or ship biscuits for long-term preservation, and salted meat.

‘…This looks like military rations.’

Their appearance was remarkably similar to the combat rations I used to carry on missions, but thinking about it, what better food could there be in our current situation than these well-preserved items that provided at least minimal nutrition?

Although the hardtack was baked at least three or four times, making it hard enough to serve as a blunt weapon if swung, and the salted meat was disgustingly salty and as tough as industrial rubber parts…

‘…It’s better than I expected.’

Just the fact that we had food that could be stored for a long time without spoiling made me realize our situation wasn’t too bad.

Moreover, our provided food wasn’t limited to just military preserved rations (combat rations).

We had about ten sacks of mixed grain flour—cheap grains like oats, barley, and rye ground together—and one sack of wheat flour, so in the worst case, we could distribute a soup similar to mixed grain porridge without issue.

We also had several large loaves of bread baked with this mixed grain flour combined with wheat flour. While not as long-lasting as hardtack, they could still be preserved for quite some time…

And remarkably, they contained no sawdust or straw—quality food that was, in some sense, hard to come by.

Honestly, with this much, we should have no problem sustaining ourselves for the time being.

We could grow onions or cabbage to supplement our diet, or rely on food supplied by the hunters.

Of course… since the hunters currently needed to scout the surroundings, it might be unrealistic to expect food (especially meat) from them right away.

“Lord Alzar, we’ll be heading out now.”

“Very well, Jäger. Be careful. Remember, your purpose is reconnaissance above all else.”

The two biggest problems facing this settlement were:

First, the complete absence of suitable infrastructure for habitation, and second, the fact that this settlement was in unexplored territory, meaning we had no idea what threats might exist nearby.

Unexplored territory was, by definition, not part of “humanity’s domain”—it was a dangerous region where humans and non-humans competed for dominance in this world.

Therefore, I sent my hunters to scout the vicinity to supplement our incomplete maps and gather information about the local ecosystem.

One might wonder why I, presumably the strongest person in this settlement, didn’t undertake this important and dangerous mission myself…

But when it came to searching and tracking specifically, those veteran hunters had likely reached a level of proficiency that surpassed even my own.

There are various techniques for manipulating the energy known as mana in this world, and the way warriors handle mana differs significantly from how scouts like hunters use it.

While warriors circulate mana within their bodies like engine fuel to maintain consistently high and stable output, scouts who prioritize ambush over direct confrontation use their own unique mana manipulation methods.

Although this method produces less output (physical enhancement) than warriors’ techniques, one advantage scouts gain in exchange for this reduced output is the ability to conceal their presence.

They can hide minor sounds from their bodies like breathing or heartbeats, mask scents like sweat or body odor, and even conceal their “presence” or make themselves unrecognizable to others’ consciousness.

Skilled practitioners can demonstrate advanced stealth techniques that make them undetectable even when walking openly before someone’s eyes. In forests with many hiding places, they could move more stealthily than I could with my clanking armor.

Another aspect of this is sensory enhancement. While not quite as powerful as my “hyper-intuition” that awakened my sixth sense, they could use mana to create a mental radar that detected across a considerably wide range.

Moreover, it wasn’t just hunters who went on reconnaissance.

“I’ll be back shortly, Corin. I leave the village in your care until then.”

“Yes, Lord Alzar. Please be careful.”

With two intermediate-level fighters available, we could assign one to settlement defense while the other had freedom to move.

After entrusting the settlement’s defense to my attendant, Sir Corin Lanster, I decided to patrol the nearby plains area, leaving even my steed Gus behind at the settlement.

While the forest would be perfect for getting lost and isolated if I wasn’t skilled enough, the plains were different—open and with only shrubs as potential visual obstacles.

If the hunters would handle forest reconnaissance, I would take responsibility for the plains, where a human figure couldn’t be completely concealed anyway…

“Kee, keeeee…”

-Slash!

‘There are… more than I expected.’

As I set out on reconnaissance, I cleanly decapitated a goblin that appeared to have separated from its group, and the thought suddenly struck me.

Despite having a record of subjugating many magical beasts and goblins during previous missions, even I found the number of hostile life forms on these plains beyond imagination.

Five goblins, apparently wanderers. Four wild dogs, surprisingly common predators. I even encountered a wolf once. To have so many creatures in a space that wasn’t particularly vast…

‘So this is why they call it “unexplored territory”…’

It wasn’t for nothing that countless books warned about the dangers of unexplored territories. The number of hostile creatures living here made me feel that reality to my bones.

※ ※ ※

By the time I finished reconnaissance and returned to the settlement, the sun was already setting.

‘…Looks like we’ll be sleeping outdoors for now.’

According to Charlotte, storing grain and resources that shouldn’t get wet (from rain) took priority over living quarters, so naturally we would need to set up tents and sleep outdoors for now…

‘Ohhh… I suppose cooking really should be left to experts.’

Rather than worrying about problems I couldn’t solve anyway, I found myself more concerned about the meat soup we would have for dinner tonight.

A soup made by pouring water over mixed grain flour of rye, barley, and oats, adding the wild dog and wolf meat I had hunted, boiling it, and seasoning it with rock salt.

Honestly, it wasn’t good enough to call excellent even as a polite lie, but compared to boiled hardtack with salted meat thrown in, it was certainly edible.

Especially in the sense that it was properly seasoned and served piping hot.

Anyway, as I was sitting in a corner with a bowl of this soup, Felix Jäger, the hunters’ captain who seemed to have arrived earlier, approached me.

“Felix Jäger, what’s the matter?”

I asked him, trying to push away my anxiety about what might have happened…

“In the small forest near here that Lord Alzar asked us to investigate, we discovered an adult ogre.”

“…What?”

Such expectations, it seems, always return with the worst possible outcomes.