Chapter 54: To the north (1)
Fortunately the mountain was quiet.
As aftershocks kept happening, the soldiers had turned back.
Roan used Kalian’s tear actively and went out of the mountain while avoiding the eyes of people.
He first moved towards the south rather than the north, where the rose troop was.
His objective was a plain that was spread on the boundaries.
‘The hottest place in the kingdom.’
Roan wanted to bury Reid’s skeleton in the hottest place possible.
‘Actually I wanted to bring him to Etna mountain……’
The Etna volcano that overflowed with lava during the four seasons.
However the mountain was located at the southwestern end from even Dies kingdom.
As Roan didn’t have a permit, he couldn’t cross over to another kingdom.
‘Sir Reid. This is the hottest place in the kingdom.’
He thought that being hot was similar to the essence of fire resembling the essence of the sun.
Roan dug into the ground in a place that didn’t have many humans and then placed the skeleton in it.
After he piled up some dirt over it, he placed wood and grass on it.
‘This is everything I can do for you.’
He used a flint and set it on fire.
The dried logs and grass instantly lit on fire.
‘If my understanding in the Flamdor mana technique was deep I would have been able to create fire with just the flick of my fingers.’
Roan looked at the fire and sat down.
He was trying to operate the mana technique in a place other than Biate’s place.
As he started to breathe, the mana started to flow inside his body.
The amount of mana compared to the place of Biate certainly fell behind.
But.
‘Ah……’
An incredible heat covered his body.
‘Hot.’
In the mana spinning in his body, there was abundant fire essence.
An amount of essence that couldn’t be compared until now was separated.
The essence of fire violently flowed following the mana road.
Roan kept breathing and accumulated the essence of fire in his mana hole.
The mana hole that was the size of a coin started to swell up and then it became the size of half a fist.
“Whew.”
Roan let out a long sigh and slowly opened his eyes.
The fire that was burning had lost strength and was dying.
‘Is it because I absorbed the fire essence?’
Roan smirked and stood up.
He wanted to keep training in the mana by setting all of this place on fire.
However, operating the mana technique in this empty place was quite a dangerous thing.
‘Anyways, it’s certainly more effective than the lair of the blue dragon.’
He was happy and satisfied with just that.
Roan placed some more grass and logs on the dying fire and bowed.
‘I will write a new history with the mana technique and the brawling techniques you had left.’
Roan said his thanks and his last words and then started to move.
The bright flame danced like it was saying it’s farewell.
******
Roan moved towards the north.
But this time, he didn’t use a ship but went by ground.
His objective was the capital of Miller.
‘I have to meet with mister Chris.’
The reason why he was looking for in the middle of returning to the troop.
‘My memories about battles, war, strategies and things related to army of the kingdom are clear but…….’
There weren’t many things he could trust in aside of those things.
Especially, it was all the more so about merchants and commercial rights.
‘About when I died, goldmaster Seil was monopolizing everything.’
Because of that, he didn’t have many memories about merchants.
‘I need a safe information importing in for the future.’
Because of that he had to raise a young merchant and business.
But however he found in his memories, that there was no one suitable for investment.
‘If there’s none in my memories, I will have to find them myself.’
Roan was planning to ask that to Chris.
‘There’s nowhere like Miller with had an abundance of people.’
There would certainly be many young merchants that became discouraged and broken because of the clash with reality.
He had to pick the ones with talent and had a future amongst them.
‘If it’s mister Chris he will be able to do it.’
Chris bit his lower lip.
His steps started to become faster.
Because he walked constantly, he reached to the capital in a shorter time than he thought.
Even in his past life, he had only visited the capital 10 times.
It was a place that wasn’t that related to him.
‘But in this life it’s different.’
To reach a higher place he could only get closer to the capital.
Fortunately, he could pass the inspection at the entrance faster than anyone.
Because he was a class 5 adjutant from the kingdom.
Roan soon went to Lisa street.
The street had Chris told him to come to when he came.
“Now! There are fruits imported from the south!”
“There are medicinal herbs taken from Grein mountain! And also medicinal waters taken from Mas river!”
“There’s good quality paper! And also good quality ink!”
“Look at the wheat of Peidan’s plain!”
Noisy sounds.
There were hundreds of small and big stalls at the sides, with tens of varieties.
‘Certainly, rather than a high class shopping district, there’s a more human smell in Lisa district.’
There was nowhere like this place in Miller.
But of course, this was Roan’s personal taste.
He asked about Chris’s whereabouts to the people that came and went.
‘Oh. He already opened his travel agency.’
Roan was truly happy.
‘I won’t be able to go in empty handed.’
He went to a nearby fruit store.
“Oh! Welcome! What fruit may I give you? Nowadays, the strawberries are really sweet.”
Roan ate one strawberry that the owner gave him and nodded.
“Give me one basket of it.”
“Oh! Thank you!”
The owner placed the strawberries on a wide leaf and started to roll it.
Roan started to walk after he finished his business.
“They said it was around here……”
He stopped walking and looked at the sides.
“Ah……”
A low exclamation came out that instant.
‘However shabby it is, it is too much.’
A really worn out building compared to the others.
He saw a small signboard in front of him.
‘This is the right place.’
Roan fixed his clothes and then opened the door.
“Welcome!”
A loud voice.
A familiar voice was heard.
Chris, who was studying a book in the small place, stood up.
“What may I help…….”
He was greeting him while walking towards Roan and then, he froze when he saw him.
Roan smiled faintly and slightly bowed.
“Hello mister Chris. It’s been a while.”
“Si, sir adjutant Roan?”
Chris fumbled with a surprised expression.
Roan smiled brightly and lent the strawberries he had in his hands.
“Want to eat strawberries together?”
******
Bang!
Rock scraps flew along with a loud noise.
“Sir viscount! I already told you, you can’t break the stone pillars!”
The young soldiers yelled with a surprised expression.
On the other hand, the middle aged man that broke the pillar smiled brightly and lightly swung the spear he had in his hand.
Tung! Tutung! Tung!
The big rocks that were on the ground floated.
Grip.
He put strength in his hands.
Pat!
The spear split the air.
The trace only left was the tail.
Pubuk! Puk! Pubuk!
The rocks that were in the air turned to dust even before they fell to the ground.
Marvelousness.
Just like it implied, it felt like watching the technique of a god. (T/N: Word joke. It can be viewed as Marvelous:god – ness:technique.)
The middle aged man put back his spear and let out a long sigh.
“Good. Finished my morning training!”
At those words, the soldier said displeased words.
“Ah……I’m dead.”
“The steward said he couldn’t break the pillars……”
The middle aged man ignored those words and walked.
He walked with his shoes that were filled with dirt and went towards the office.
“Whew! Certainly, the morning training is the most refreshing!”
The middle aged man wiped off the sweat with his sleeve and put a satisfied smile.
Both of his hands, clothes and shoes were filled with dirt.
However he didn’t care at all.
Rather, he placed his legs over the table that was filled with piles of paper.
Then, the door opened and a middle aged man with clean clothes appeared.
He let out a long sigh while standing in front of the man covered in dirt.
“Whew. Viscount Baker. You broke the pillars again?”
At those words, a humorous voice was heard.
“Kevin. I told you to just call me by my name when we were alone. What’s with Viscount Baker? Just call me Viscount Reil.”
It was a really comical expression and hand movements.
The middle aged man covered in dirt was the rumoured genius spearman Reil Baker.
Next to him was the steward Kevin, who served him for more than 30 years.
“We are nobles that don’t even have a territory, but we have a need to act like one. On top of that, do you know how many things there are as nobles? Even now there are many people that wish to see you and some invita…..”
When he talked up to then.
Reil raised his right hand.
“Stop. I understand so stop the lecturing. Just how many things are there to do?”
At those words Kevin took one more step and gathered all the papers and letters that were spread on the table.
“Excluding the non important ones, this much remain.”
A paper mountain that surged up the table.
At that moment, Reil frowned and had a weird expression.
“Huh? Why is there this much?”
“It gets piled up as you don’t do any work all day and just focus on training in the spear.”
A sulky voice.
Kevin was a bit upset.
Reil wanted to say something but didn’t.
‘If I talk wrongly here I have to hear his complaints for 10 days.’
He glanced at Kevin and then put his hand among the pile of paper.
“Ahem.”
An awkward cough.
It meant to tell him to get out, but Kevin didn’t move at all.
His eyes were telling that.
Reil smacked his lips and then looked at the pile of papers.
“Mmm. This is a request to give a speech in Miller academy. I did it last year so… declined. This is an invitation to a brat’s party that’s from the family of a duke, obviously declined. I already met this one the past month, so declined. This region, I went the last month……”
Swish. Swish. Swish. Swish.
The papers and the letters flew to the sides busily.
Reil vaguely looked at the titles and kept yelling decline.
Kevin’s body started to tremble.
He was right before exploding.
There was no way Reil didn’t discover that.
‘He’s angry. Angry.’
Reil, who was about to throw away one more letter, stopped. Then he acted as if he was looking at the letter thoroughly.
“Mmm. It’s sent by Baron Aaron from the east. If it’s Aaron Tate…..”
He acted like he fell into his thoughts just to cool down Kevin’s anger.
“Ah! He’s the one I met at Miller kingdom when I went to the forge! His ability to pick a spear was outstanding.”
A forge operated by one of the three best blacksmiths in the kingdom.
Reil met Aaron at the regular forgery he went to.
He thoroughly checked every weapon, unlike a noble, and then bought the spear Reil had picked.
‘As he was different to the other nobles, I liked him.’
Then, they greeted each other and promised to meet each other next time.
‘Now that I see it, he raised great merits at this Slen battle and Pedian’s monster subjugation.’
He also knew about the news about the 7th corps.
Suddenly, he felt interested.
“Why would baron Aaron Tate have sent me a letter? Hmm. Hm. Hmmmm. Hm.” Reil hummed and stamped the letter.
And then after a while of reading the contents, he burst out of laughter.
“Huh! This man, I thought that he was fine but he’s a real bragger.”
He shook his head.
Kevin, that was looking at him, and frowned.
“What’s the contents?”
He was also curious.
Reil smirked and looked at the letter.
“I will tell you what’s written. He says that there’s an 18 year old class 5 adjutant on one of his troops and he found out about the ambush of a goblin army and slew their leader. Not only that, but he found out about the large scale surprise monster attack of Pedian’s plain and faced the ogres on top of that. This is not the only thing. It wasn’t enough by planning the inundation strategy on Prely river, but he also slew the orc leader Se…..”
“He slew Sedek?”
Kevin butted in.
“Huh?”
Reid had a bit surprised face.
“How did you know that?”
At the question, Kevin shook his head.
“That’s why I told you to read the battle reports I gave you thoroughly.”
A rebuking sound.
Rein opened his eyes roundly.
“Then all of these things are true?”
“Yes. If it’s a letter sent by Aaron Tate of the 7th corps.”
Kevin answered with a rather uninterested expression.
In the other hand, Reil had a surprised face.
“Wow. So all of these things are true, huh?”
His mouth slightly raised.
Then, Kevin’s voice was heard.
“After looking at this Slen battle report, the soldier that slew Violin’s head also seems to be that class 5 soldier.”
“Ohhhh!”
‘An 18 year old greenhorn accumulated these kind of merits?’
Certainly, there was no way for a person that had good eyes for picking good weapons to not be able to see well.
He raised the letter and looked at Kevin.
He was glaring at him with sharp eyes.
‘Anyways, if I stay here I will just keep hearing his nagging……’
He looked at the letter again.
‘And the contents of the letter are also interesting.’
Now he was also curious about the 7th corps that was being a lot nowadays.
‘I have never gone to the eastern parts of the kingdom…….’
A smile appeared on his face.
He shook the letter and looked at Kevin.
“Kevin. I will go to the east to sight see for a while.”
At those words Kevin shook his head.
He pointed to the piled papers, letters and invitations.
“There are still these many things you have to check.”
A firm and determined voice and attitude.
Reil smiled brightly and nodded.
He stood up and then swept up everything on the table with his right arm.
Paaat!
The papers and letters that scattered in the air.
“Wh, just what……..”
When Kevin was fumbling with a surprised expression.
Reil’s humorous voice was heard.
“All declined.”
< To the north (1) > End
Translator’s note: Thank you for reading!