49 – Episode 49
# 49
The battle unfolded completely opposite to the previous day.
The center of Grame’s army, unable to withstand the Black Knight’s frontal assault, collapsed. At the same time, the soldiers in the rear, who were struggling against Ian’s summoned Black Curtain, lost their judgment and hindered the retreat of the front line.
In short, command was impossible.
In terms of a strategy game, it was a so-called morale collapse.
“Squad broken! Everyone scatter!”
“aaah! I want to live!”
The Talian Viscount’s army literally crushed Grame’s army.
It was about shattering the massive army into pieces and scattering it in all directions.
In fact, once an army was divided, there was almost no way to reunite it. It was typical for them to scatter and each find their own way of survival.
The case of the (former) Count’s army was strange.
Thanks to Ian gathering the birds, they managed to save about 300 people.
The Viscount’s army, intoxicated by the joy of victory, hunted down the fleeing enemies one by one.
Mercenaries kill, and knights capture for a ransom.
“Ian.”
Ian, who was observing the battlefield, was taken aback as Lucy suddenly leaped into his arms.
Lucy hugged Ian tightly, sobbing uncontrollably.
“We… we won.”
Yeah. We won.
Ian swallowed his words as he gazed at the battlefield.
Gained after becoming a wizard.
It was a monumental first victory.
#
War is a business.
The purpose of war is conquest, plunder, and the accumulation of wealth.
The modern concept that war is a terrible thing was formed after World War I and II.
In Ian’s fantasy realm, set in the medieval era, war was nothing more than a colossal money-making method.
Working tirelessly in the fields barely yields anything. In essence, farming is just like gambling (it’s true).
But if you kill people, money comes flowing in???
Hey, folks! Try killing people! Money comes out!
That’s right.
In this era, war is like a real RPG game where people hunt each other as if they were monsters.
Just by the existence of knight, priest, and wizard classes, you can tell. It’s an RPG, no doubt, right?
But in a neighborhood where people earn money by killing, level up, and accumulate achievements…
“Saying murder is bad. Robbery is also bad.”
Will such words make any sense?
“Do you not want to level up?”
“Do you not want to earn money?”
Those would be the only responses.
“Well, this is still useful!”
He killed a mob (person). So, what should he do next?
Naturally, it’s looting.
Ian, wandering the battlefield, came across soldiers obsessed with looting.
He searches corpses for anything useful.
That becomes the mercenaries’ assets.
In a sense, one could say that killing people and wielding weapons were done for the sake of obtaining those sparkling, beautiful, and desirable items.
Maybe that’s what living is all about.
An act of constantly consuming something to fill greed.
“…”
Ian, wandering the battlefield in search of the mystery of death, wondered if he could discover the mystery.
But the mystery he sought is nowhere to be found.
Instead, only greedy soldiers are sprawled out.
“Why can’t I see the mystery of death when there are so many corpses?”
Ian furrowed his brow and looked around.
He felt nostalgic for the days when he had learned magic under Eredis. Back then, Eredis had introduced Ian to the optimal way to hear the voice of mystery.
If Ian had tried to realize the mystery alone, who knows what kind of nonsense he would have gotten into.
“I don’t know.”
He had thought he might be able to learn necromancy.
It seemed that simply wandering through a battlefield with many corpses was not enough.
What should he do?
Dissect the corpses? Sleep with them in the graveyard? Or…
Ian shook his head nervously.
It would be much faster to meet a necromancer during his travels and ask directly.
If Eredis had known Ian’s thoughts, she would have been astonished.
No, it takes months for people to hear the voice of mystery even once, right?
But to try to realize necromancy after just skimming through a battlefield.
Ian, who had lost his conscience from living like breathing, left the mercenaries looting and returned to Lucy’s mansion.
Talian Hall was a large log house.
“Wow… magnificent… log house.”
Fancy corridors? Chandeliers made of glass?
From Noble mtl dot com
That’s the kind of ultra-luxurious interior you’d only see in a 17th-century French palace.
The Talian Marquis’s mansion is on par with the typical noble’s house.
Hunting trophies of beheaded deer adorn the walls, and wild interiors with animal hides hanging instead of traditional curtains.
The carpet laid on the floor is the one we often jokingly threaten to turn into a “you’ll be the carpet for cats and animals” when someone annoys us.
It means a solid fur carpet.
“Welcome! Ian!”
Lucy, wearing a high-brimmed hat, rushed over and greeted Ian.
He had supposedly taken off that darn hat during their travels, but as soon as he became the Talian Marquis, he eagerly pulled it out again.
Does he genuinely think that thing is pretty?
“Now that you’ve seen the Talian Hall in person, how does it feel?”
Lucy shouted with heightened excitement, evidently proud of her well-decorated home.
She wasn’t wrong.
On the medieval fantasy world’s aesthetic scale, the Talian Hall easily scored above 80 out of 100.
Just by seeing the abundance of not trash but rather the byproducts of hunting animals inside the house, you could tell.
Wow! Deer heads! Animal hides!
How much hunting must have been done to gather all this!
The homeowner is undoubtedly a powerful figure who goes out hunting as casually as having a meal!
That was the impression.
In the past, the castle of the Earl of Calts in Riverbille was less flashy (?) than this.
That one had more of a fortress feel, built for defensive purposes.
“Uh… um. Impressive.”
Ian praised without a soul.
Unless you get shot in the head, the dull and gloomy interior wouldn’t look cool.
Unless you’re a death metal maniac or aspiring taxidermist…
No matter how noble, a house built with medieval wealth wouldn’t look that cool in Ian’s modern eyes.
Well. If it’s exotic, it’s exotic.
“How’s the situation?”
When Ian inquired about her well-being, Lucy replied cheerfully.
“Very good! First, I met with the priest to receive the succession of the title, and I also checked the property list.”
The administration of a small fiefdom like a viscountcy was typically handled by a priest.
What Lucy meant by the “succession of the title” was not seeking permission from the priest, but rather stating on the document, “I am now the viscount!”
As the new viscount, Lucy also checked the property list of the “Tallian Viscounty” written in the documents.
The property list was a jumble of items written hundreds of years ago and a few months ago.
More than half of them were “borrowed,” but they were simply considered Tallian possessions.
There were plenty of people swindling things they had borrowed a few months ago. Borrowed items from 200 years ago?
How do you return something borrowed 200 years ago? By that point, it’s just mine.
But there were also people who, like ghosts, found documents saying “Borrowed a frying pan from the Tallian Viscount 200 years ago” and came asking for the frying pan to be returned.
From the Tallian Viscount’s perspective, they would say, “We’ve used this for 200 years, why is it yours?”
From the borrower’s perspective, they would answer, “We came to retrieve what we borrowed, why is it yours?”
And that’s how wars start.
The cunning ones would turn a blind eye only to find such documents and manipulate the pretext of war.
“What about Greim?”
“…He’s been captured. He’ll be executed in a few days. If you want to watch, you can.”
Oh. Medieval-style execution.
Ian shook his head.
For traitors, public execution was the norm.
It was necessary to serve as a warning.
“Lord Dicco will return after the victory ceremony.”
In fact, Lord Dicco was in a very desperate position.
The Viscount had fallen in battle. That alone explained the situation sufficiently.
But the rest of those little birds… were not at all concerned.
They could scratch their bellies and say, “Oh, the Viscount died? That’s too bad~” Why?
Because he wasn’t their lord!
There were only a few knights, including Lord Dicco, who were close enough to be called his retainers. The rest had only recently become his kin.
No matter how preoccupied Lord Dicco was, everyone else wanted to enjoy the victory celebration.
So, Lord Dicco had to attend the banquet with tears in his eyes.
“Just go back?”
“Yeah.”
Ian was a little puzzled.
If I go back like this, won’t it be hard to come again?
No matter how the viscount pities Lucy, he wouldn’t have raised an army just out of sympathy without showering money.
There must have been something he wanted from this war…
Wouldn’t it be better to receive that from Lucy and go back?
“Lucy. Haven’t you talked with the viscount?”
“Talked?”
“He said he had something to give you instead of helping.”
Lucy grinned with her characteristic mischievous expression.
“Nothing like that?”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Nothing at all?
Ian was bewildered, but indeed, there was nothing.
No, originally, he planned to create an atmosphere after winning, making it irresistible for Lucy and then extracting various things…
But the viscount messed it up…
Even if he regretted hitting the ground and saying, ‘I should have told you in advance!’ in the afterlife, what could he do now?
It was the viscount’s fault for not setting conditions in front of his nephew instead of showing off in front of him.
So, even the viscount’s people couldn’t misbehave in the Talien territory.
“Lucky break.”
Ian nodded his head.
In Ian’s eyes, Lucy was a natural. She could do anything. Well, she was the owner of such good luck.
It could be called a favor, but if providing meals for mercenaries and sharing the spoils with the knights was payment, then it was a hefty one.
“Ian, are you coming to the banquet?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll see you at the venue!”
With plenty still on her plate, Lucy couldn’t afford to free up much time. Even meeting Ian had been a brief squeeze.
Understanding her situation, Ian once again roamed the area with nothing to do.
#
With a few days of free time, Ian found himself deeply pondering.
“What is a wizard…?”
A person who converses with the mystical. A seeker of the arcane.
That was the wizard Ian knew.
Until now, he had been studying under Eredis and accumulating achievements by coincidentally encountering mystical beings and conversing with them…
But now that he had some free time, Ian began to doubt the path he was walking.
Is this the right way to train?
If he was a seeker of the mystical, perhaps he needed a more extreme approach…
“I’m not sure.”
As a novice wizard, Ian was overwhelmed by the task of creating his own future.
What he needed was more experience.
Now, he vaguely understood why Eredis had recommended traveling to Ian.
“Oh! The magician has arrived!”
“Ian Raven! Come over here and have a seat!”
Ian smiled as he looked at the knights calling out to him.
Still filled with ignorance about this world…
Little by little, Ian felt himself becoming a part of this world.
“No, can’t you eat something other than black knight stuff?”
“Eat! Eat!”
The Marquis’s banquet… Yet, it felt more like an outdoor barbecue. There was no epic feel to it.
Nevertheless, it was a noble’s gathering, different from ordinary parties as the common folks were mobilized to serve (…).
“…”
Bellanca, who had arrived earlier, was glaring at the pile of meat in front of her as if she wanted to kill it.
“What are you doing there?”
“Well, I have to eat all of this. Can’t let it go to waste.”
The knights who had witnessed Bellanca’s prowess smartly piled meat onto her plate with admiration. As ten knights took turns serving her, the amount was enormous.
Bellanca wasn’t a food fighter YouTuber, and there was no way she could eat the mountain of meat alone.
“Come on now. Surely, you won’t say you can’t eat the food I offer?”
“Come on, Black Knight! Take a bite of this too!”
…”
With the growing spread of food in front of her, Bellanca closed her eyes tightly.
Ian chuckled.
Colleagues persistently pushing unwanted food… Where have I seen this before?
It’s the company dinner.
Ah! So the knights’ banquet is a company dinner!
“Eat a lot. You know the main character always gets the most attention, right?”
“Ah. Then, Ian, can you help me a bit…”
“Ah, not really. I can’t stand the smell. Sprinkling some pepper and grilling, is that all there is to barbecue?”
Though Belenka gave Ian a resentful look.
Ian patted Belenka’s shoulder.
No one dared to recommend medieval-style barbecue to Ian.
Thank goodness for being a sorcerer!