Ch.276276. Colony

Peter suddenly realized he was sinking into sleep.

As he began to descend into deep waters, as if being endlessly pushed away, his mind slowly started to be drawn in somewhere and fall asleep—

‘—Don’t be ridiculous!!’

—but he didn’t.

As his consciousness rapidly surfaced, Peter’s sinking mind also rose at tremendous speed, soaring as if shooting toward the high sky.

His reason became clear, his mind sharpened, and everything about what he had been doing until now was vividly imprinted in his mind.

And at some point, Peter, having recalled everything including why he had lost consciousness, pushed someone away from within himself—

“—Huhk!!”

Simultaneously, Peter raised his collapsed body.

Soon, he was shocked at the sight of the devastated city—seemingly the aftermath of an attack by the demon sword within him—and the severed head hanging from the waist of the fallen black warrior, when suddenly.

“……..?!!!”

Perhaps due to the aftermath of unleashing the demon sword once more, Peter felt a chill down his spine at the grotesquely transformed appearance of his right arm.

At first glance, it was covered entirely in black plate parts, chain mail, blackened cloth, and a gauntlet….

But all of this wasn’t real armor; it was simply a part of Peter’s body formed by the transformation of his real arm.

The chains wrapped tightly inside the gauntlet, the plate parts, and even the thick woolen cloth worn under the armor.

So as Peter was silently shocked,

“Peter! Peter! Are you alright?!!”

Startled by the voice of his master whom he thought was dead, Peter turned his head to see Master Beartello, covered in blood, running toward him breathlessly.

“……..?!!”

Confused at first, Peter soon recognized it was the demon sword’s trick to provoke anger and raised his right arm—

Somehow, the black armor had completely disappeared from Peter’s arm, and only a small diamond-shaped metal fragment rooted in the inside of his wrist remained to show its existence.

※ ※ ※

The Western Continent where the Dawn Empire is located, and the Eastern and Southern Continents.

Unlike these three continents that developed their civilizations through mutual exchange, there was a continent that developed independently due to its remote location, which explorers called the New Continent.

This New Continent is broadly classified into three regions.

First, the northern snow region. With generally low temperatures and dense forests and wilderness, this area was home to exotic races like the Wendigo, various beastmen races, and bird-men races.

Although life was quite harsh due to the overall cold climate….

These races had their own survival know-how, and above all, the races themselves were so strong that survival was no issue.

Next is the central plains region. This paradise-like area with insanely fertile soil, deserts, and abundant water resources was mainly inhabited by a unique race that had independently evolved from human-elf hybrids.

These Eldians, who were originally half-elves but evolved independently as their bloodlines continued to mix, had been living moderately thanks to the abundant land, but after encountering humanity, they rapidly increased their level of civilization.

Of course, in this world, the Eldians were too exceptional as druids who tamed all kinds of beasts, so they never lost their land to weakly armed pioneers with mere gunpowder.

And finally, the southern jungle region of the New Continent, commonly referred to and regarded as the Demon Realm.

In this jungle region with insane density, many plants are man-eating, and it’s crawling with all kinds of poisonous insects, giant man-eating insects, ferocious beasts, and dinosaurs.

The scorching heat, suffocating humidity, and an ecological environment so hostile to outsiders that it’s treated as actively antagonistic prevent most races from living here.

Even life forms introduced from outside sometimes become monsters in the process of adapting to this environment, with a representative example being the WereJaguar, suspected to have originated from jaguar beastmen.

It’s literally a hellish environment where rumors say a demon army of 30,000 led by a great demon entered the jungle during the demon invasion and was annihilated within 7 hours, or that a dragon of ancient dragon class (Grade 0) lives inside.

But even in such an environment, there are intelligent beings who have managed to adapt and survive.

They are the reptilian humans, commonly represented by races such as Lizardmen or Snakemen.

These beings, who are both warm-blooded and cold-blooded, didn’t develop civilizations with complex technologies, but instead survived by developing their own unique civilization and indigenous technologies.

They tamed native creatures as livestock without druids, or obtained food by modifying native plants in various ways.

However… despite this lifestyle, the jungle was like a green desert to these reptilian humans, and when food issues began to emerge—the Dawn Empire’s expedition visited this place.

“Who are you…?”

“We are explorers, exploring new places.”

“……”

“If it’s not impolite… could we perhaps exchange some simple goods as a gesture of friendship?”

The two groups that first encountered each other had a conversation with the help of translation magic, and then spent time getting to know each other by exchanging simple gifts.

The reptilian humans, specifically Lizardmen, handed over wooden clubs as hard as commonly used steel and dried insects, and the expedition responded by giving them commonly eaten long-term preserved meat fruits and several steel daggers.

And after this exchange of gifts,

A delegation in elaborate attire, appearing to be high-ranking among the Lizardmen, requested another conversation, mainly about the meat fruits they found curious.

“Do trees that bear meat grow in your homeland?”

“Yes, they do.”

“Then… could we have the seeds, no. Could they be grown here?”

“I’m sorry. Those fruits are given by our god. They won’t sprout outside our lands.”

“…That’s unfortunate.”

Though it was a very brief conversation, the expedition leader, realizing through this short exchange that they were in urgent need of food, made a proposal to them.

“Then, how about this?”

“……..Hmm?”

This proposal became the root of what is now the Dawn Empire’s New Continent colony.

The proposal the expedition leader put forward was, simply put, a kind of trade based on food.

In exchange for providing some pioneer territory to the Dawn Empire, they would regularly ship meat fruits to the New Continent to trade with the Lizardmen.

Even including the cost of transport from the Dawn Empire’s homeland on the Western Continent, it was definitely profitable, and from the Lizardmen’s perspective, there was nothing to lose.

The area the expedition requested as a base wasn’t territory of nearby tribes, and the precious metals they demanded in exchange for food were just pretty decorations to the Lizardmen.

Rather, when the proposal to exchange what were merely decorative items for precious food spread to neighboring reptilian tribes, they naturally secured footholds in the southern New Continent very easily.

And so, things progressed smoothly.

With the help of surrounding reptilian tribes, they built a colony consisting of a port and urban area, and not long after informing the homeland about the contract, dozens of ships visited through the port.

The empire’s ships, loaded with sausage meat fruits or jerky meat fruits favorable for long-term preservation, supplied food and officials, and the reptilian humans who gained a stable food supply began trade with smiles.

Thanks to this, these two forces, which flourished rapidly and exchanged various things, still maintain quite a good relationship.

Especially as the empire’s cavalry is recently trying to officially adopt dinosaur species as mounted beasts, the demand for New Continent products would only increase, never decrease.

“Phew, what nice weather~.”

And the man who is also the governor of this colonial port city.

“Ah… I miss my wife.”

Blad von Dracula, who had left his wood elf wife back in the homeland, could only lament while stroking his pet lizard (baby basilisk).

“Kyuuu……..”

“Hmm? Hungry? Want some meat?”

“Kuung!”

Looking with honey-dripping eyes at the cute lizard showing affection after recognizing the difference in power—a baby that would grow to be a mid-level monster over 6 meters long.