Chapter 515: The Unexplored Kingdom 2
Kalwin’s king is a handsome but unremarkable young elf. No, as expected, he has a certain dignity in his demeanor, but he is a poisonous politician who is bent on tormenting the people and maintaining a miniature garden…He has a temperament that completely contradicts my own expectations and should be ignored. He was a person I couldn’t find.
“Well, you didn’t come all the way here for sightseeing, did you?”
“Ah……emm”
I was going to ask him some questions anyway, but I didn’t know where to start. There must have been a lot of strange things.
“That……Neia told me about the plight of this country”
“Ah”
“……Why don’t you disclose what’s going on in the outside world? If you’ve had contact with dragons and the like, you must have known of their existence”
“You are being cruel. What happens when you tell people that it’s paradise out there when there’s no way to get out?”
“So that’s……still left room to make contact with the outside world and negotiate emigration, didn’t it?”
“Riding in on a dragon, eh? You seem to be very unaware. A dragon could destroy a small country overnight. If you try to make any demands with them, it could be seen as aggression. Am I wrong?”
“It’s…….”
“And you’re asking Reiner to fight a war of aggression alone? It’s a bit reckless as a national strategy, even if it is to save the people. Even if the migration were to take place, it would be 30,000. That’s not a number that can be covered by goodwill. The budget to support them would also have to be borrowed or taken from outside. If unarmed people were to go to such lengths to get out of here, would the feelings generated by that deprivation leave my people in peace?”
“…………”
King Jedha says so to me as if he were admonishing a young child, without stuttering or showing any hasty emotion.
“But then……you should at least use land improvement magic”
“I once tried to use it at the time of the founding of the kingdom, though. It didn’t have much effect in this land where the flow of qi has been altered”
King Jedha answers the question again. As someone who doesn’t know much about magic, I can’t argue with that.
“Is that all you have to ask?”
“……That, emm”
“No need to be in such a hurry. I’ll give you another chance. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a visitor from afar, and I’d love to talk to you more, but……I’m in a hurry today and don’t have a lot of free time. ……Rainer, take them to the High Priest Duke. It will give them more space than in the castle”
“I understand”
Remaining meek to the end, the king leaves the audience chamber. Normally, the audience members would be made to leave first, but his unconventionality also seemed to exude friendliness.
“Who is High Priest Duke……?”
“He is the religious leader of this country. Although, the priesthood organisation has less than a hundred members in total……”
As Neia was explaining it to us, Rainer looked down at us with a glare.
“Come. The high priest will not be happy to see you after dark”
Having said that, he starts walking again, leading the way. I, Neia and Maia look at each other and follow.
“High Priest. I’m Rainer Exeliza. I have three people I need you to take care of”
We crossed the suspension bridge again and walked along the opposite bank for a while until we came to a large building in a different part of the village from the craftsmen’s village. Even if I say it’s large, it’s only a little smaller than Polka’s temple, so it was modest after all. In front of the door, Rainer raised his voice a little and after a while it swung open from the inside, and a man in his forties or so, much younger than you would expect from his name, the high priest, appeared with a puzzled look on his face.
“Rainer. Thats sudden……hmm?”
The high priest looks around at us, then catches sight of Neia and rubs his eyes.
“……This is a surprise. Neia Grans…… who disappeared a year ago”
“Yes. It’s been a long time. Duke-sama”
“How did you survive? There was no way you could have spent a year eating monsters outside the valley”
“This is……”
“High priest. We can talk about that later”
Rainer interrupts curtly.
“O, Oh. That’s right, so what about your companions? Are they candidates for being a hero? By the way……girls aside, he’s quite capable of becoming a hero from now on”
“They’re from the outside”
“Outside……outside?”
“Andy Smithson, a dragon rider from the Trot Kingdom’s Polka, a trusted member of the elven territory. And the smaller one is his mount”
“……No, wait, what are you talking about, Rainer?”
“You’ll have to ask him for the details. I was only ordered to send them. If you agree to keep them, I’ll go”
Rainer leaves quickly. He is very brusque and goes at his own pace. But it’s a bit strange, because when you know he’s like that, it’s easy to understand.
“……Well, come in. Neia, why don’t we start by asking how you’ve been?”
High Priest Duke, opens the door and exposes his entire body. He was dressed in a priestly black dressing gown, but he was also holding a cane that did not suit his age.
“Let me first ask you to introduce yourselves……no, you guys apparently don’t know me, so I guess I’ll go first. I am Duke. I’m the high priest of the goddess Altres……though I only occasionally preach in the nearby villages as the book says”
He is a very blunt man.
“High Priest Duke was also a bombed-out cavalryman……about three generations ago”
“Recently, four generations ago”
“……Ah”
“It can’t be helped, don’t worry about it Neia……I’ve been retired, as you can see, due to injury. I was lucky. Because normally if you are defeated by a demon or something, you don’t have a life. I happened to be saved by Faria. What about Faria?”
“I know”
Was that the connection? Well, it doesn’t really matter.
“I’m……10-man captain Andy Smithson, Dianne Special Forces, Celesta Merchant Army. And it’s true that I’m a dragon rider”
“Wait, wait a minute. Let’s get this straight first. You’re from 『Outside』……that is, from another surviving country, right?”
“……That’s where it comes from? I mean, that’s right……”
Rainer and King Jedha that I knew were special.
“Rainer said it was the Trot Kingdom, but what is the Celesta Commerce Kingdom? I’ve never heard of that name……”
“I see, three hundred years ago there was no Celesta……Celesta is a country that grew out of a coalition of cities around the Russell Desert and became powerful enough to hold Trot……”
“Hmm, I see I see”
High priest Duke nodded his head in admiration as he talked about the outside world.
“But was it only around here that it perished……and I didn’t realise it was still here, on the shores of Lake Valerie? N, I thought there might be people left in places like the Eastern Mountains, where monsters have a habit of not wanting to head for higher ground”
“A country is defending itself against them going south, though”
“But if that’s true, it’s quite shocking. Minso believes that there is no place left in the world where people can live”
“Yes. That’s why I asked the king if he knew, why?”
“Was he evasive?”
“I don’t know if I was dodged or theorised”
“……I hate to say it, but that king is always like that”
“Eh?”
“……That’s too much to say”
High Priest Duke clears his throat and turns to Neia.
“So, Neia. You mean you were protected by those outside……?”
“Yes. A teleportation device in the labyrinth ruins brought me……near their country”
“I see……I wish I had a better place to fit in like I do”
“Yes”
“There are always five heroes, right? You can’t just put your successor back on the shortlist once it’s been decided”
“Th, That’s……right”
Neia suddenly becomes frightened. Come to think of it, that’s what happens, doesn’t it? I was spoon-fed out of my head because Rainer said something that reassured me, but the heroes in this country are essentially the ultimate form of soldiers who keep the number of soldiers down in order to have enough manpower to engage in farming and other work. There are always five seats. If you don’t fit into those five, you have to go back to being a farmer, etc. again. So, if this is the case, the flash sword will be passed on to the next flash knight? It’s……weak. And really, I didn’t take into account that I would be in such a weak position to make contact.
“But a dragon……? I know that a strong hero like Rainer rides a dragon……”
The high priest looks at me from top to bottom with a glare.
“Yes, that’s it. Since when do you announce that Rainer is a dragon rider? I’ve been very surprised”
“……Ah, I see. Neia doesn’t know? Well, I thought it was about shortly after Neia disappeared, but suddenly”
“Why……?”
“I wonder why. Since then, I feel like he’s suddenly gotten to know King Jedha……”
“……?”
Rainer and King Jedha. I was beginning to dispel my suspicions, but after hearing this, it seems like both of them have a suspicious side to them.
“They’re strange”
Maia blurts out.
“Hey”
“Andy-sama, don’t look away. They’re trying to deceive you, Andy-sama”
“How are they trying to trick me……?”
“It’s none of my business. But Andy-sama is so trusting that he’s vulnerable to anyone who tries to cheat him”
“……Eh, I’m a pretty skeptical person……”
“Bonaparte also used you before”
“…………”
I don’t even have a gut feeling. But Maia was fooled too. She fell for Phaser.
“I, for one, think we should be very careful”
High Priest Duke mutters in a voice that may or may not be heard and stands with a snap of his cane to force it away.
“Well, now that you’ve come all this way. Let’s get excited about dinner. Shall we serve meat?”
“Eh, Duke-sama, that’s”
“Oh, it’s not human flesh, don’t worry. Since Rainer started using dragons, demon meat has become somewhat more common”
……I’d like him to refrain from talking about scary topics. I imagined a dead body hanging out in the back of a church.