Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Count Altoid's Predicament
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The previous Count Altoid, Rusbin Altoid, had been an extremely cautious man.
Because he rarely showed his face in high society, information related to Count Altoid circulated very slowly.
In that situation, the previous count's will contained the words: 'I'm worried that the faction keeping me in check will seize everything I've built once news of my death spreads, so if I die, inherit the count's title without drawing attention.'
Thanks to that, the generational handover happened very quietly.
As a result, only a handful of people knew that the count had changed recently.
In other words, Count Colin Altoid was still a green, inexperienced novice who had only recently inherited the title.
Rusbin Altoid's eldest son, Colin Altoid, had taken over the count's title not long ago, and already he was running into trouble.
"Approving the activities of that adventurer village that sprang up out of nowhere? How could Your Majesty make such a decision?"
Count Altoid, who had visited the imperial palace after hearing the news from Gesen, spoke while suppressing his anger as much as possible.
He couldn't read her thoughts from Empress Luisa's expression before him.
"There's a monster habitat there, so I stationed adventurers. Do you have any complaints?"
"Please dismantle it immediately."
"The village is already built. How easy do you think it would be to tear it down...?"
The adventurer village had given Empress Luisa an unexpected good card to play.
Both the previous Count Altoid and the current one were useful, but they occasionally rolled their eyes elsewhere.
Things like secretly altering the Mazia fruit submission ledgers, or covertly building a private magic tower to sell imperial mages' techniques to neighboring kingdoms at high prices.
But in a stroke of perfect luck, the adventurers had gathered and built their village right in the Briane wolf habitat in Count Altoid's territory.
Briane wolves were magical monsters brimming with mana, so their presence meant abundant mana in the surrounding area.
The Mage Association had even published research claiming that Mazia fruits grew particularly well because of it.
And now they had built a village right in that key habitat.
If she played her cards right with those adventurers, it could become a fine tool to tie the hands and feet of this novice Count Altoid.
The adventurer village might reduce the Mazia fruit supply from Altoid, slowing imperial mages' research a bit, but in exchange, the adventurers they gained would grow proportionally stronger—no big loss.
In fact, raising adventurers was more efficient than training regular mage troops, so the benefits of approving the village outweighed the drawbacks.
For now, she had to frame the adventurer village as part of her own plan.
If word got out that it had formed organically from adventurers communicating among themselves, Count Altoid could turn it into his own weapon.
House Altoid and Empress Luisa were in a symbiotic relationship, but they knew neither moved by loyalty or sentiment, so they didn't fully trust each other.
Especially after the previous Count Altoid's death and his son inheriting the title, Luisa had grown even more wary of the Altoid faction.
She had a read on the previous Altoid, but not on this young Colin Altoid who had just become count.
He seemed sly and cunning, perhaps because his father had raised him while grinding his teeth in determination.
"Why did Your Majesty suddenly make this decision? Have I done anything to displease you lately?"
"This is a gift I bestowed to help you, who has just received the count's title. It wounds me if you see it that way."
"...Could Your Majesty not withdraw the approval?"
"That would be difficult. Quite a bit of money went into building that village, you see."
Empress Luisa showed no intention of backing down.
Count Altoid desperately wanted to hurl his teacup and throw a tantrum right then, but the woman before him was the empress.
His father had often said that whenever the empress made excessive demands, casually mentioning Mazia fruits with a veiled threat would smooth things over.
But that tactic wouldn't work anymore.
Count Altoid, who had been grinding his teeth in silence, rose from his seat.
"Understood. I gratefully accept your gift."
"I'm glad you understand my intentions."
Count Altoid pressed his throbbing forehead as he left the reception room.
With big money hard to expect from his main revenue source, he'd need to expand the slave trade to make up the income.
Visions of his father fawning over the emperor for years—and himself doing the same—flashed through his mind like a panorama.
They had offered loyalty, and this was the result: suspicion.
Count Altoid suppressed his boiling resentment toward the empress.
* * *
Vice Captain Noah, who had been out of touch for so long under the excuse of a business trip, suddenly showed up at the army base.
With a terrifying siege weapon strapped to his back.
"Back from my trip."
Thud!
No sooner had he set the siege weapon down than a torrent of Mazia fruits poured out.
The magic swordsmen in training rushed toward the fruits with startled expressions.
Grand Mage Heail, who belonged to the 2nd Army and had been researching in his room, hurried outside upon hearing Vice Captain Noah had arrived.
The commotion outside left him with his mouth agape.
"What is all this??"
"Results of my trip."
Heail's eyes sparkled at the mountain of Mazia fruits.
There were so, so many.
Mazia fruits were considered precious, usable only by the haughty imperial mages for research, yet here they were, scattered all over the ground.
Heail's heart raced.
"We'll be getting this much every month from now on."
"Ma—Mazia fruits aren't cheap, are they?"
"It's the middlemen that make them expensive. Direct trade is way cheaper."
"Most Mazia fruits come from Count Altoid's territory, so direct trade should be impossible..."
"That's why we built the adventurer village—to make it possible. Were you asleep when I explained the plan? You were slacking off."
Clicking his tongue, Vice Captain Noah sauntered into Heail's lab and flipped through the papers detailing his recent research.
He had apparently been working hard; drafts of various attack magic circles showed diligent progress.
"Not slacking, huh."
"Where would rebels find the time to slack?"
"I like that. Here's a gift."
Noah picked up a Mazia fruit and tossed it carelessly onto Heail's desk.
"Alright, I'm off on another trip for the next phase. That was just the interim report."
"Wait, hold on! You're barreling ahead like a runaway magic car—give me some explanation!"
"No, that's why I kindly wrote it down on paper for you."
"That's just chicken scratch...!"
At "chicken scratch," Vice Captain Noah whipped his head around and glared piercingly at Grand Mage Heail.
"...I absolutely didn't mean that. It was my eyes and brain playing tricks on me—I couldn't make it out, sir."
"Why are you so spineless? Fine, I'll explain again. Listen up."
Vice Captain Noah picked up another sheet of paper and began drawing crude pictures while scribbling and explaining intently.
"...So this guy gets pissed, that guy gets pissed, they duke it out, and I snack on the crumbs. Then it leads to this other guy getting tense... And to counter that, we..."
He sketched sloppy drawings and doodles.
Heail, listening intently to Noah's explanation, lost the thread midway and got completely lost.
"...And that's how we come out on top. Got it?"
Noah, having explained half-heartedly, flung his pen onto the chair and left Heail's room.
"Wh-what did he say...?"
Heail figured asking Noah again would earn him a smack, so he just picked up the paper and zoned out.
Illegible scrawls and unrecognizable doodles.
He held it up to the light, wondering if there was a hidden message, but no—it was just pure scribble.
Grand Mage Heail pulled out the drawer and retrieved the scribbled paper Noah had left last time as "the plan."
After studying it, he had pieced together that it was related to the adventurer village.
Thanks to that, he had helped the adventurer Hansuhan check the magic circles and security, roughly grasping the situation.
Beyond that, he hadn't connected it to weakening the emperor's mage army, so he had meekly returned to base.
To be of any help, he needed to decipher Noah's whirlwind plan.
『Vice Captain Noah Doodle Studies –1』
Pulling out the half-finished notebook from last time, Heail began analyzing the new scribble sheet.
One hour, two hours.
Time passed, sweat beading on Heail's forehead.
"Lord Barci! Mage Heail's been slacking off since earlier!"
As soon as Prim visited the army base, Heail's friendly colleague snitched on him with a chuckle.
"Oh? What are you analyzing so intently?"
Interested, Prim approached Heail and read the 'Noah's Plan' summary he had compiled.
"So that's what Noah was thinking. Even I didn't get this part. Well done."
"Haha... Can't we make that Vice Captain Noah take handwriting lessons? Such a shame for his clever schemes to go to waste with that scrawl."
"It's fine. He doesn't have time for that. As long as you and I understand it."
"Agh, is that how it works?!"
"Keep at it. I'll give you a bonus."
"...Yes, sir!"
At the mention of a bonus, Heail straightened up and dove back into the doodles.
He scribbled away diligently, trying to figure out Noah's intentions.
Every time he unraveled a clue about Noah's actions, Heail couldn't help but be impressed.
Hours later, Heail set down his pen and let out a gasp of admiration.
"Wow... It's reckless, but if it works, it'll be huge?"
A twinge of respect crept in, despite his bruised pride.
『Vice Captain Noah Doodle Studies –2』
Before he knew it, he had neatly compiled it into volume 2 as a book. Spending the whole day dissecting Noah had given him a headache.
'Analyzing the vice captain's doodles for a bonus...'
It felt profoundly wrong somewhere, but the insights gained were substantial, so he couldn't call it a total loss.
Heail tied back his disheveled silver hair and clicked his tongue.
Turning his head, he saw the mountain of Mazia fruits Noah had brought.
The fruits meant the plan was progressing smoothly.
Pushing a plan of this scale all by himself.
He was too arrogant and willful to acknowledge even in death, but respect welled up again.
"Ugh! What the hell!"
He was about to tidy his desk and refocus on magic research.
Snapping to, he realized his desk was crammed with photos of Vice Captain Noah, training videos, and other Noah-related materials.
Completely unrelated to the doodle analysis.
Feeling embarrassed at how Prim-like he was becoming, Heail cleared away everything except the essentials.