Ch.772Why Are You Asking Me About That?

Perhaps my explanation was too simple, as the response I received was quite negative.

“You want to find something that was lost eight hundred years ago? By searching through the Heavenly Mountains? That’s properly insane, even for insanity.”

Ophelia shook her head as if I was talking nonsense and exhaled a misty sigh.

She said that in eight hundred years, the landscape would have changed eighty times over, so how could a family heirloom lost back then possibly still remain?

It was a rational and sensible statement, befitting a mage. I too wouldn’t have even considered such a task without my knowledge from the original work.

Though that knowledge wasn’t particularly accurate, and many memories had become strangely blurred—perhaps because the year I’d spent here had been filled with so much stimulation—I still clearly remembered everything about the holy sword.

So, I needed to retrieve it now.

With fairies, Dragonborn, Ka’har, and Werebeasts all thoroughly defeated, there wouldn’t be any major incidents even if I was away for a while.

“Um… Haschal. For something like that, wouldn’t it be better if we all searched together?”

Millia’s reaction to my saying I’d only take Demian suggested there was no reason to do so. It wasn’t that she doubted me, but rather that she wanted to come along too.

Of course, there was definitely a reason why I needed to take only Demian.

“No, it’s better if just the two of us go. I can’t even guess how long it would take to search on foot, but Demian and I can fly, right? Looking down from the sky, we might find it surprisingly quickly.”

“…That’s… true…”

Millia became visibly dejected. Like a ground-bound marine proving with her whole body the frustration of not being able to keep up with the air force, no matter how hard she pushed.

“Besides, you all need to safely transport that pile of cargo to the capital.”

Millia, Ophelia, Nigel, Jahan, and Asha—they all needed to be assigned to escort the cargo wagon.

Monsters might appear on the way back, and given the value of the items, there was a chance some lunatic might try to steal them if we didn’t provide thorough protection.

“Then what about me? Sister, can I come with you? I’ll wait at the castle!”

Lena raised her right hand with sparkling eyes, pleading. She said she would wait quietly at Faelrun Castle, so couldn’t she accompany us that far?

“Hmm… alright. Lena, you can come.”

I nodded readily.

To be frank, what help could a healing priest be on a cargo escort mission? With that team, they likely wouldn’t have a single injury.

So it seemed better to take her with me. I could also ask her to treat my left arm, which had started to regrow bit by bit.

—-

And so, Millia’s group departed for the capital, leaving behind just one wagon. Adamante also headed to the capital with them.

The rest of us set out for Faelrun Castle.

Demian took on the role of driver, so Lena and I sat in the cargo area, passing time with leisurely conversation.

It was a relatively peaceful journey.

“Mmph! Mmmmph! Mmmmmph…!”

“Urrrgh…!”

Though it was somewhat annoying to have these other species making noisy muffled sounds despite being given a ride.

“These things are at it again. Can’t you just stay quiet?”

Eirnesia, whose mouth was held open with a gag to prevent her from biting her tongue, and whose throat was blocked with a broken knife handle to prevent her from screaming, would occasionally make noises like retching and gasping.

She glared at Lena and me with eyes full of venom. But with saliva dripping from her forced-open mouth, she only looked ridiculous.

“Mmmmmph!”

Makaoros also began showing rebellious behavior again as soon as he realized our destination wasn’t the capital.

He seemed to think we would take him to the capital for treatment and then negotiate with him… but why would we do that?

If you want to extract the truth from a talkative person, it’s more effective to ask their body rather than their mouth.

If he had prostrated himself and cooperated fully, it might have been different, but since he attacked us first and then tried to negotiate even after becoming a prisoner, there was no mercy to be shown.

A bit of sawing in the underground dungeon would bring him to his senses.

—-

After traveling like this for several days…

“Mmmmmph!”

“Stay still. It hurts more if you move.”

After cutting off Makaoros’s tail, which had already started regenerating…

“Urrrgh…!”

“Tsk, if you needed the bathroom, you should have said so. Did you hold it until you wet yourself?”

After washing the fairy who couldn’t even go to the bathroom by herself in melted ice water and drying her off, we continued our journey until finally…

“Haschal, I think we’ve arrived. Look over there.”

We were finally able to reach our destination.

“Oh…”

“Hmm…”

The main castle of the Duchy of Faelrun, where the western wall had completely collapsed, leaving a gaping hole.

“…Doesn’t seem like we’ll be welcomed.”

“If they’d dropped two of those, they could have taken down Nidhogg.”

I gave a hollow smile as I looked at the wall that had been blown wide open, with only the foundation remaining.

I had thought, how badly could it be damaged from a single ship collision? But somehow the entire western wall was gone.

As Demian joked, if they had crashed two of those, they could have shattered Nidhogg into pieces and still had power to spare.

…No wonder that ridiculous bill had been sent.

—-

“It’s been a while, Baron Median. Or should I say Lord Landenburg now? I’m sorry about Ludwig. Please accept my condolences.”

Grand Duke Valdemar, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, welcomed me with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

With his face covered in countless scars, his expression resembled that of a mafia boss who had prepared drums and concrete—truly terrifying.

Even his words of condolence sounded like a threat to send me to join Ludwig.

“It’s been a long time, Your Grace. I haven’t officially inherited the title yet, so please call me Baron Median.”

Of course, from my perspective—being able to easily behead two Valdemars if they came at me—there was no threat whatsoever.

After all, until I perfectly controlled the power of Karma of Murder, my impression was considered ten times more ferocious than this old man’s.

“If that’s what you wish. Don’t just stand there, sit down.”

Valdemar nodded and gestured toward the sofa in his office. It was a luxurious sofa with glossy, high-quality fur and armrests decorated with animal forelegs.

Probably made from skinned Werebeasts.

“How do you like it? My daughter made this furniture herself.”

…So it was even made by Frider.

“Ah… is that so? Well, um, impressive craftsmanship. It’s so soft and comfortable that I’d say it’s comparable to the furniture in the imperial palace…”

Since I had no idea how to respond, I offered some vague compliments as I plopped down on the Werebeast fur sofa.

It seemed that in the time I hadn’t seen her, Frider’s hobby had evolved from taxidermy of Werebeasts to Werebeast crafts.

I wonder if she’ll eventually build houses out of Werebeasts too.

“Well then, would you like a cup of tea first?”

“I’d be delighted.”

Perhaps pleased by my compliment about his daughter, despite its somewhat strange direction, Valdemar nodded with a satisfied expression and offered me tea.

“…Excuse me.”

Shortly after, a maid summoned by Valdemar entered the reception room, placed two cups of steaming hot tea on the table in front of the sofa, and left.

I picked up a teacup along with Valdemar and moistened my throat while engaging in brief small talk about the main reason for my visit.

“I did send a letter requesting payment for the wall repairs… but I didn’t expect you to come in person. Did you want to see the condition of the wall for yourself?”

As if that would be the case.

“That’s not the main reason… but first, I’m sorry about what happened to the wall. I never imagined the mage tower’s creation would have such a defect.”

I gently scratched my cheek with my index finger as I offered a sincere apology. Though it wasn’t my fault, it was clear that Grand Duke Valdemar had suffered a great loss because of it.

“However, you don’t need to worry about the restoration costs. I’ve had someone forward Your Grace’s letter of protest and bill to the mage tower, so you should receive a reply as soon as they arrive at the capital.”

I can already clearly picture the tower master grabbing the back of his neck and collapsing… but what can I do? It’s all his karma.

“You sent it… to the mage tower? Why on earth…?”

Valdemar tilted his head in confusion.

I couldn’t understand why he would react that way, so I also tilted my head and asked back:

“Since it’s the mage tower’s property, isn’t it natural for them to take responsibility?”

Surely a person of the Grand Duke’s stature wouldn’t be ignorant of such an obvious principle.

They released a dangerously defective product claiming it was complete, and an accident occurred—naturally, the tower master himself should take responsibility and compensate for it.

“No, that… um… wasn’t it you, Baron Median, who sent the airship here to Faelrun Castle?”

“But it’s the mage tower’s property, isn’t it? And it was operated by the mage tower’s wizards.”

I only specified the destination. The airship was built and operated by the mage tower’s personnel, so why should I pay compensation?

If a malfunctioning car crashes into a building, would you go to the navigation company and demand compensation?

You’d be lucky if they didn’t beat you up and throw you out for being crazy.

“Huh…”

However, perhaps with the half-civilized common sense of this world’s inhabitants, my answer was incomprehensible.

Grand Duke Valdemar looked at me as if he were seeing some kind of monster and just exhaled emptily.