Welcome to the Magical Defense Corps! (1)
I had finally arrived at the marquisate of Weistenfel, the territory of the Third Prince. The road leading to the fief was nothing but barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. Even though it was a vast stretch of land relatively close to the capital, it was the very definition of a shit-tier plot. If this were 21st-century South Korea, it’d be like owning prime real estate in the capital region… except every last inch was greenbelt. Sure, the owner could develop it however they wanted here, but with zero infrastructure, wasn’t it basically the same problem?
Anyway, because the land was in such terrible condition, the number of people living in the marquisate looked pitifully small compared to its enormous size.
“You think so too, right?”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Yeah, yeah. Just stay quiet like that.”
Our dear Bruno-whatever-his-name-is seemed to agree. With his mouth gagged I couldn’t be sure, but I figured he was nodding along. Or maybe not. Whatever.
Our Bruno, who had turned into a dog after drinking himself stupid, had only woken up around noon while we were traveling. The moment he regained consciousness he seemed to misunderstand the situation and tried to leap out of the carriage, so I tied up his hands and feet to calm him down. Then he started screaming like a lunatic, so naturally I added a gag. Problem solved.
“Welcome to the Weistenfel Lord’s Manor.”
While I was busy physically restraining Bruno, we had apparently reached the manor without me noticing.
“Hello. I’m Alvaro Sternfeld, newly appointed as a vassal to His Highness the Third Prince.”
“Greetings. I am Rainer Essenrot, steward to His Highness the Third Prince. But… who is that person…?”
Ah. I forgot to remove the gag.
Slip!
“Sir! Please help me! This madman kidnapped me and dragged me all the way here against my will! If you help me return home, the Count of Barenfeldt will reward you handsomely, so please——”
“Hey, you’re not going back.”
“…?”
“You weren’t kidnapped… well, not exactly. You’ve been hired.”
I explained the whole situation to Bruno. Why didn’t I do it from the beginning? You think I didn’t want to? When we first set off he was still hungover and groaning, and the second he woke up he threw that whole tantrum. By the time I finally managed to physically calm him down, we had already arrived at the manor.
“I’d rather die than become a mage! Our family has been a knightly house for generations!”
I gave him a long, hard stare and pointed at myself. Did he think I wasn’t from a knightly family too?
“W-well, the Sternfelds are indeed a knightly house. But your case and mine are completely different, aren’t they?”
“Polite speech.”
“What?”
“Use polite speech.”
“What the hell does that——”
"Fire Ball."
⟨ Fire Ball ⟩
I conjured a Fire Ball and let it float above my palm as I continued speaking.
“I’m the commanding officer. You’re a subordinate. You use polite speech with superiors, got it?”
“But you’re just some kid who only recently had his coming-of-age ceremony——”
Boom!
“I’ll… use it…? Y-yes, sir. Understood.”
Good. He was finally starting to understand. As expected, Fire Ball never fails. Performance guaranteed. A knightly house? Doesn’t matter. If he truly had zero talent for magic it would’ve shown long ago. As long as he could handle mana at all, it was fine. And sure enough, even though he came from a knightly family, I could see a decent amount of aura settled inside his body. Switching from aura to magic? It was difficult, but since I’d done it myself, he’d manage. All I had to do was hammer it into his brain.
“Where are we going?”
“Sigh.”
“…Where are we going, sir?”
Was his body aging at the same rate as his face? Were his ears bad, or was his head just empty? Either way, I needed to tell him our destination.
“We’re going to recruit more unit members.”
“…? Weren’t we already fully staffed?”
“We’re not. You’re member number one.”
“Then you weren’t a commanding officer or anything at all!”
“Hey now, I will be soon enough, so yes, I am the commander. And you forgot polite speech again.”
“Hup!”
Was this guy a person or a goldfish? This was partly revenge for him throwing up on me earlier… but I’d picked him up because he was drunk and complaining about being unemployed. Now I had a bad feeling I’d accidentally bought a defective product. Hmm… I’d probably need to take special measures soon. Since we were going to train anyway, maybe it was time to test that. I had a feeling it would be extremely effective.
“I asked Sir Essenrot to gather people from the commoner village. We’ll interview them and recruit anyone who looks useful and is willing.”
“You’re recruiting commoners?”
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
“N-no, of course not, sir.”
He looked extremely unhappy. Well, I couldn’t blame him. First, he probably hated being treated as equal to commoners. That was likely reason number one. Reason number two was probably doubt that any commoner would actually have the talent to become a mage.
It was true that nobles generally had superior mana capacity and talent for handling it. I wasn’t sure if mana was hereditary, but it was probably a bloodline talent passed down through the generations. After all, their ancestors were people who fought for a living. The current nobility was formed through centuries of intermarriage between such families, so it made sense. Because of that, most nobles believed commoners simply didn’t possess such talent. If they had, they would have bloomed as knights early on. Therefore, the remaining commoners must all be talentless. That arrogant mindset was shared by the vast majority of nobles in this era.
But think about it. In this world, was being a knight a profession that only required physical talent? No. You needed both physical ability and mana talent before you could even begin to bloom as a knight.
In my opinion, among the commoners gathered here, even if many lacked physical talent, there had to be quite a few with outstanding mana affinity. I mean, look at me. I had zero knack for swordsmanship, right? So similar cases must exist.
Buzz, buzz!
When we arrived at what appeared to be the village square, a fairly large crowd had already gathered. Considering how little time had passed, Sir Essenrot must have put in real effort. Thanks, man.
“Everyone, attention!”
The noisy square instantly fell silent. From the way all eyes were locked on me, it seemed they still didn’t know why they’d been called here.
“We are establishing a Magical Defense Corps and recruiting talented individuals! Those who want to rise in status! Those interested in magic! Whatever your reason, it doesn’t matter! If you have talent, I will employ anyone. Come forward!”
The short speech ended, and the square erupted into chaos again. The residents were dressed as poorly as the wasteland I’d seen on the way here. So the prospect of the Magical Defense Corps opening up a way to make a living had clearly caught their interest. That was a relief. I’d even considered the worst-case scenario where no one showed up at all. At this rate, we were off to a solid start.
“You said anyone—does that include women?”
“Will you take an old hag in her fifties?”
“Me! Me! Pick me! Me!!!!!”
“Everyone, please form a line… Line up! Aaaagh!”
Oops. Bruno got trampled by the insane rush of people. He wasn’t going to get crushed to death, was he? As for me? I had wisely kept my distance beforehand. But at this rate, even after several hours we wouldn’t be able to sort this out. Time to adjust my mana and launch one into the sky.
"Fire Ball!"
⟨ Fire Ball ⟩
Shwooooooo— Boom!
I adjusted the Fire Ball so it would explode in the air with amplified sound, like fireworks. Everyone stared blankly at the magic they were seeing for the first time.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
“Oh my, what in the world is that?!”
“Magic! It’s magic! The mage has gone crazy and is attacking us!”
“Everyone run!”
Agh, seriously. Was it because they’d only ever lived in the countryside, or because they were commoners who never had a chance to see magic? I’d detonated it in the air, so they should’ve realized I had no intention of harming them. Instead, it only made the chaos worse. …Now what?
“Um… you’re a guard, right? Could you tell Sir Essenrot to send additional personnel for crowd control?”
Good luck, Bruno. Do your best out there. Let’s meet again alive.
In the end, we changed the recruitment method for the Magical Defense Corps to individual interviews. If we kept doing group sessions, another accident like that would be impossible to handle. Sir Essenrot had been giving me a rather lukewarm stare for a while now. I wasn’t sure, but it felt like he was evaluating me exactly as the rumors described… or was I imagining it?
“So after filtering them down, we only picked three people?”
Bruno asked. Maybe because he’d been stepped on and kicked around in the crowd, he didn’t look in the best shape. Should’ve done like me and gotten out of the way early with good judgment.
“Well, I’d say this is still a decent start, wouldn’t you? Sir Essenrot, among the mercenaries employed by the fief, are there any who want to join the Magical Defense Corps?”
“I’ll look into it. But only three? That’s fewer than I expected.”
“We’re also using this as a test run. I’d feel bad burdening His Highness the Third Prince too heavily from the very beginning.”
“Hmm. That’s a commendable attitude.”
Sir Essenrot’s gaze changed. Nice. Did I just score some points? Since he’d been the Third Prince’s steward for a long time, he must have liked hearing that I was being considerate of the prince.
“Ah, one more thing. Are there any managed hunting grounds within the territory?”
“For what purpose do you need a hunting ground?”
“It will be necessary for future training.”
“I’ll have the servants prepare one.”
At the mention of a hunting ground, Bruno seemed to regain his energy. What a simple guy. Well, in medieval times hunting grounds were usually prepared for the nobility’s hobbies, so it made sense that just hearing the word would get someone excited. But isn’t that a bit too simple, Bruno? It’s not what you’re thinking. This is called “guerrilla training.” Taste a little of that 21st-century Korean spiciness, kid.