Ch.259259. Training (1)

After the great commotion at Dongnae Port had concluded, in a sense, quite successfully.

“Th-thank you! Our hero!”

We were able to stay in Dongnae Port for a while, treated as heroes, receiving thanks from a nobleman who was an official just below the rank of magistrate.

Ah, by the way, the reason why it’s this subordinate conveying gratitude rather than the magistrate himself who governs Dongnae Port is simple.

The Dongnae magistrate, Cho Gaphyeon, was found dead after going missing.

A massive facility discovered beneath the Dongnae government office. The place, presumed to be some kind of underground base where ghouls were hiding, burned down for some reason, and the Dongnae magistrate was also found there as a charred corpse.

However, judging by the bite marks on the body, he probably fought against ghouls and unfortunately met his demise…

…Ah, enough with the nonsense.

This man simply received his just punishment while attempting to destroy evidence of his collaboration and commit the perfect crime. We at least preserved some of his honor, considering that he didn’t intentionally commit evil acts.

While he was moving around in the basement aiming to destroy evidence, I blocked the entrance and burned the interior with Nightmare flames. In the process, Cho Gaphyeon, whose limbs were all gnawed off by the rat-creatures, burned while cursing his unnecessarily sturdy body.

It was a fitting punishment for Cho Gaphyeon, who not only collaborated but also contributed to taking the lives of hundreds of innocent people, as well as falsifying documents and providing conveniences to the Hunger Cult through all sorts of corruption.

Anyway, with Cho Gaphyeon burned away, and his son almost completely cured of ghoulification despite some lingering aftereffects.

Naturally, we who had performed brilliantly in this city could personally experience what it meant to be hailed as true heroes.

When walking through the streets, people who recognized our faces would express their gratitude, and children would ask for autographs or look at us with eyes full of admiration.

On top of this, despite the situation being so chaotic that more than half of all buildings in Dongnae Port had collapsed, they even gave us an entire respectable tile-roofed house as our lodging.

Of course, I can’t deny that we deserved such treatment for our achievements, but it was impossible not to feel good when receiving such excellent treatment.

So we carried out various relief efforts, feeling like we should do some reputation work and good deeds.

For instance, we started with basics like sending Astra to help treat the injured, or using magic to create springs that provided clean drinking water.

Especially after such an undead-related disaster, stagnant surface water and well water are typically the most representative examples of what gets contaminated by undead energy…

And as it happens, most of the drinking water in Dongnae Port comes from underground water drawn through wells.

Thanks to this, creating springs that provided unlimited drinking water was more crucial than one might imagine, but…

‘…Wow, there really are people like this.’

During this process, there was an incident where some merchants who were planning to profit by selling water tried to destroy the spring, but would a magical spring like this simply provide ordinary water?

Those fellows were knocked down by lower water elementals that repelled those who approached with malicious intent, and they were soon dragged into the crowd and became the target of a public beating.

Meanwhile, one might think that if water is possible, then providing food might also be possible…

But from the beginning, there are limits to the amount of food or ingredients I can create.

I might somehow manage to feed a few thousand people, but would it be possible to feed the entire population of tens of thousands in Dongnae Port?

From the start, I only intended to help out with a bit of volunteering, not to become an unpaid laborer working as a food-producing machine all day long.

…The fact that food prices and related issues are extremely sensitive matters in this era where survival is most difficult could also be one of the reasons.

Rice holds such value that it’s used as physical currency in inland regions, and even without that, meat and vegetables are supplied from villages near the city.

But to create food and distribute it freely in this situation?

To put it nicely, it’s food aid, but frankly speaking, it would likely be seen as a preliminary step to kill off local small business owners through price competition before taking excessive profits.

The matter of survival is such a critical and serious issue that it’s right to be even more serious about this aspect.

Of course, compared to this, building large numbers of temporary houses wasn’t much of a problem, so before long, temporary buildings designed for easy dismantling began to be constructed throughout the city.

Anyway, there are two main reasons why I’m staying in Dongnae rather than leaving.

“Cheong-ah, let’s try again calmly.”

“Yes, Master!”

The first reason is to educate and teach Cheong, who has become my second disciple, helping her learn basic skills.

For now, I plan to send Cheong to my estate along with her father, Mr. Shim, but before that, it was essential to have her learn at least the minimum methods of mana manipulation and such.

…Since she is essentially my first disciple as a ‘druid,’ I also needed to take some time to establish teaching methods.

Anyway, Cheong, who has become my disciple, has… average talent.

While she may not be in the ranks of exceptional geniuses, she has talent as a ‘vessel’ and excellent natural magic aptitude, meaning that with effort, she could somehow reach the intermediate level.

Well, I’ve just met too many talented individuals, so my standards are high, but in truth, someone like Cheong would drive ordinary druids crazy trying to take her as a disciple.

Among the rare children with druid aptitude, the absolute majority cannot reach the intermediate level even if they devote their entire lives, including their extended lifespan from druid magic training. So the guarantee that “with effort, she can reach intermediate level” means she’s at least A-rank, if not SSS-rank.

So while teaching Cheong is the first reason, the second reason is… the need to wait for the royal court’s edict and the arrival of an investigator.

We, who played a major role in this Hunger Cult uprising, are too entangled to quietly slip away using our foreign status as an excuse.

Of course, we’re not entangled in the shameless and disgusting sense of being punished or blamed, but rather bound as a kind of first-rank meritorious subject.

To be frank, when foreigners visiting another country achieve such feats and save numerous citizens of that country, it would rather damage national prestige not to hold them and bestow rewards.

Additionally, they weren’t really holding us against our will either.

From the beginning, they couldn’t forcibly detain a group consisting of two high-rankers and at least ten intermediate-rankers even if they wanted to, and above all, what if they did something forceful and incurred the wrath of two high-rankers?

High-rankers who avoid direct confrontation with other high-rankers and slowly eat away at the nation through guerrilla warfare? Even if the high-rankers remain unharmed, the nation could possibly face destruction.

Even without going that far, high-level magic users have countless methods of retaliation, and they’re particularly complex to the point where no special countermeasures can be established.

So I, possessing both the authority of a high-ranker and the prestige of a hero, am in a sense no different from a special class with something akin to extraterritorial rights.

Thus, for these reasons, I met with the investigator (royal inspector) in private without feeling much burden or tension…

[Ahem, I apologize for having to speak through borrowing this voice.]

“…?”

Since the voice coming from the investigator’s throat seemed to be transmitted from somewhere else, I became confused and frantically tried to connect the dots in my mind until I came up with an idea.

Come to think of it, there is only one person who could dispatch an investigator from the royal court and transmit their voice.

“Are you… or should I address you as ‘Your Majesty’?”

[…That would be just right. I’m sure you have your own circumstances as well.]

The third king of the Kore Kingdom, a great magic user, revered as the strongest being in the kingdom, a brilliant ruler and genius of the age.