episode_0080

Under the shadow of the wall on the farthest outskirts of Grace Estate.

A man is surrounded by several animals.

A small hummingbird, a grumpy wild dog wandering the wilderness, a dew mouse living in the forest, etc.

Small animals that normally do not gather in one place, living in forests, fields, and cities holding their breath, were approaching the man one after another and having their heads stroked.

“I see. Have you finally found the right talent?”

The animals all had red eyes in common.

They are all men’s familiars.

All the beasts are disposable beasts that spread widely around this Grace territory and gather information for him without being able to eat them.

When the man strokes the beasts’ heads, their red eyes glow even brighter, and they hand over all the information to the man, and then, with a nod, they fall down and die.

He does the same thing to all 20 or more animals and then looks into the shadow of the wall.

“Come closer.”

Soon, a person wearing a robe jumped out from within the shadows.

“Meet Agoni, the leader of the Immortal Institute.”

The man didn’t care about his greeting and got straight to the point.

“How much control is this branch?”

“It’s still about 1/3.”

“Slow. Why? You must have had enough money.”

The man poured an enormous amount of money, approximately 10,000 gold, to stabilize his branch in Grace Territory, the second largest city in this kingdom.

However, the progress is still only 1/3.

I couldn’t understand why they were having such a difficult time even though they were just controlling the back alleys.

“… The influential figures here commonly claim that they cannot betray the Gaia Church and its commander. So the only thing we were able to negotiate was the smuggling route through the second-tier organizations and a few buildings to the west.”

“Even if the Church of Gaia is like that, did it mention the corps commander?”

Agoni, the leader of the Immortal Organization, began to encroach on the back alleys of the small cities of the Kingdom Alliance by pouring out treasures and lure customers to the back alleys to increase the number of chess pieces.

He has dealt with various circles and guilds that can be said to be the rulers of the back alleys of the area. Their common characteristic is that although they have various nobles, wizards, and the Church of Gaia as their backbenchers, they have the last remaining pride, and they use that pride as overwhelming money. By attacking them, he was able to lure them into his territory.

So, he was able to control all the humans so far with money, and this city, which is only a little larger in size and has less economic power than other cities because it is a fortress city to deal with other races, cannot be conquered in the same way as before. I couldn’t figure out why.

“I don’t understand. After all, isn’t a corps commander from a noble family? The humans in the slums are so loyal to him.”

“To be precise, he is saying that he will not do anything that catches his eye, even if it means death. It is said that the corps commander is very obsessed with this area, Grace territory, which is his area of control, so the moment it catches his eye, everything, regardless of whether it is a back alley, can be blown away.”

Agoni began to worry.

‘I want to get my hands on that soul bottle somehow. In order to do that, it will be easier if the influence of this region increases accordingly…’

“Is there any special information about the corps commander? For example, his weaknesses.”

He decided to negotiate with the corps commander who said they were so afraid.

It was a decision he made because he thought it was absolutely necessary to realize the plan he wanted anyway.

“ Speaking of the corps commander’s weakness, the story I just heard is that the corps commander who went on an expedition had his arm cut off.”

“The corps commander here was Helias. Helias Sign Thion. Helias the undefeated. It’s an interesting title. But if your arm is cut off, isn’t it possible for the Gaia Church to provide sufficient treatment?”

“Yes. Normally, yes. However, even in the Gaia Church, it is said that the commander’s arm was impossible to treat. It was said that the weapon used by his opponent, the Minotaur, inflicted fatal wounds on him, and as soon as he confirmed it, he was cursed so badly that he ended up amputating his arm.”

Agoni listens to his words, thinks for a while, decides on something, and gives an order.

“… Okay. There must be an agent here, Raines.”

“Yes. Yes.”

“First, I negotiate with the corps commander regarding the soul disease. After that, I’ll be leaving because I have other business to attend to, so put Raines in constant contact with the guys I ended negotiations with.”

“Yes.”

After answering, the man in the robe disappeared into the shadows again and Agoni also stood up.

All that remained around him were the corpses of animals.

“Oops, I have to clean up after myself.”

Perfect!

When he snapped his fingers, the animals’ bodies caught fire, and within a few seconds, they were all completely destroyed.

“Then, let me prepare too.”

Soon, only black ash was staining the bench where Agoni had left.

——————————-

“My fingers hurt.”

“Of course it will hurt. Somehow I thought it would be like this later.”

As Peria and I returned to the castle and stopped by Morsling’s Asylum, the medicine’s effectiveness ran out.

“I wonder why I did that.”

“I was clearly worried? Because this is all your responsibility.”

Fractures really hurt. Anyone who can ignore pain and move is probably insane.

So I learned once again how great the drug is.

In exchange for three fingers.

In the end, with tears in my eyes, I went to the resuscitation center with Feria and came back with a bandage on my finger.

It was a bonus to go and meet Linai. And when Linai heard why I was hurt, she got quietly angry.

[…From now on, if I tell you that you die or break something while doing such a reckless thing, will you be angry?]

Maybe it’s because I got scolded, but I feel depressed. Or it could be the effect of the medicine.

It was only after Peria and I received treatment at the resuscitation center that we began to see the surroundings.

The surrounding area was crowded with people.

“Wow. I heard people were coming, but have this many people already come? Are these all people who came to see Deshade?”

“I see? I didn’t know it would go this far beyond what I expected.”

A space has been set up near the resuscitation center where you can meet Deshade, but the unit is a bit noisy, perhaps because wizards and alchemists are visiting.

“Please follow the controls!”

“We will take a break for 30 minutes from now on! Everyone, please stop asking questions!”

This isn’t some kind of idol or fan meeting, but it seems like there are a ton of people who came to see Deshade.

I think Thistle is probably having a hard time, but I don’t want to get caught up in it and help Deshade, so I hurry out.

As I passed through the crowds and headed toward the supply area, it got quieter and quieter, so I felt a little better.

After that, Peria saw the people gathered around and said that she was planning to go to the guild first and then open a business with the people and left.

Then, I opened the door to the supply area by myself and went in, only Ennin was there.

“Welcome. Was the matter resolved well?”

“To what extent? But what are you doing?”

Enin was holding a black suit that looked like a vest. This is an interesting piece of clothing in that the material is slightly shiny.

“They said it was a new armor made by engineers in the back. Please try it and let me know your review. Would you like to try it on? Hwarim asked for some ingredients he wanted to get and was about to leave the base when this came in.”

When I looked at it, it turned out to be a piece of armor.

Looking at the shine, I could roughly guess the material, but seeing the black vest made of demonic beast leather instead of the usual iron breastplate gave me a new feeling.

However, at first glance, it doesn’t look as good as a breastplate, but Enin gave me a vest, so I took it and tried it on.

“First of all, it’s good because it’s light, but the defensive ability doesn’t seem that good?”

“Wait a minute. Just in case, you can put this in there.”

As I put on the vest and lightly jumped in place, Enin put another iron plate inside. It appears to be an iron plate to prevent accidents.

Enin then made me stand in front of him and began to loosen his knuckles, making a popping sound.

“It is said to be armor made from the leather of the Black Serpent. So, shall we try it right away?”

“While wearing it?”

“Yes. If you just leave it standing in the air, you won’t know how much of an impact it will actually take.”

“I guess so.”

Enin picks up the dagger he was preparing lying on the desk and stabs the solar plexus.

I tried poking it gently just in case, but no matter how much force I applied, there wasn’t even a scratch.

“Can I make it a little louder?”

“I think so. It doesn’t look like it can be broken through with any amount of force. Then, without hesitation. Breathe!”

Enin suddenly pulls his arm back.

At that moment, I remembered Enin holding an anvil and swinging it.

I thought to myself that maybe he wouldn’t try to stab me with all his might, but seeing the strength packed into those slender arms made me break into a cold sweat.

“Sleep…!”

bang!

Cheer up!

The dagger that had been stabbed with all its might was shattered, and it looked like Enin had stuck it in with his fist.

“Wow, I thought I was going to die.”

“As expected, I expected it after hearing the material, but it seems to really absorb shock to some extent as I heard. I heard that black serpents live in rocky areas, and their leather absorbs shock so they don’t fall to their deaths. Something better than expected arrived.”

Surprisingly, I thought it was over without much shock and took out the iron plate inside.

By the way, Ennin doesn’t seem to think about anything else when conducting these experiments or handling the equipment.

‘It was dangerous.’

Patter-patter-

The iron plate he was holding at that moment fell into pieces, probably because it had received the impact of the Serpent Armor from both the front and back.

When I see that, I feel a little chill in my back and ask Enin what happened.

“… The steel plate is completely broken into pieces?”

“Ah… I guess I hit him a little hard. sorry. It was meant to be something to keep in mind, but since it was new armor, it seems like it took more strength.”

‘You really almost died, right?’

If it weren’t for that new armor, I might have died completely and gone to the resuscitation center.

There were no knife marks on the outside of the armor, but the iron plates on the inside were not crumpled but shattered.

Enin probably doesn’t use magical power, but he seems to know extremely well how to use his power well. This may be a natural talent.

I was a little jealous of the armor that could withstand Enin’s attacks.

“It’s really good, but it’s a waste. It looks expensive just by looking at it, but it looks difficult for us to use, right?”

“First, we should call a driver and conduct another experiment. They say that even if you can block such a strong impact, it doesn’t mean much if you can’t block a weapon loaded with magical power. And since we are all knights in the end, appearance is important, so there are many pieces of equipment that have been used and then rejected. I’m worried that many people will say they don’t want to wear this the moment they hear the material. It’s armor made with great effort in the rear.”

“The knights are full. Don’t worry about how you look.”

As for me, I feel like I would wear armor with horns or straps as long as it had good defensive capabilities, but it seems that appearance is more important to knights than anything else.

‘… Still, I don’t think I can wear string armor.’

When I thought about it again, I thought that might be a little difficult.

First, I took off the coveted armor and returned it to Enin and asked her any questions.

“But isn’t the amount of material obtained from this material limited to some irregular periods?”

“Yes, but. Right now, it is said that a large number of Black Serpents were found in a lake on a mountain near here, and adventurers killed them and delivered them, so the quantity is large.”

‘It’s not just any freshwater eel, it’s full of demonic beasts that can make human armor.’

The fact that the material of this new type of armor shows this level of performance means that it is full of demons with this type of leather.

No matter how much I think about it, I think it’s a very difficult terrain to survive in.

Of course, since the adventurers have built all the magical beasts, continuous supply may be expected only if this is adopted as armor.

“But the drivers are really full. Some people can’t use it because they don’t have any.”

The performance looks really good, but it’s a shame it’s not my product.

I pray that you come to us because you don’t want to wear it.

Since they are knights, they obviously don’t want to wear things like the skin of demon beasts, so there won’t be any opportunities.

Enin organized the armor and swept up the broken iron plates with a broom and told me the sudden news.

“Oh, and speaking of knights, it occurred to me that the Black Yaks, a coalition of Minotaurs that had invaded the castle, had been wiped out. So, it looks like the commander and knights will arrive first around the day after tomorrow.”

“Really? Then the backlog will be taken care of.”

“That’s right. I think that issues that are difficult to handle directly unless you are the corps commander and the treatment of General Terraim will probably be clearly decided. I think I’ll also be doing a discussion about the castle of the dream demon and stopping the devil’s descent. However, although it is still just a rumor, there is some bad news.”

“What is it?”

“There is a rumor that the corps commander had his arm cut off.”