Chapter 36 — Everyone Has a Secret (1)
Chapter 36 — Everyone Has a Secret (1)
A waterfowl, as large as a wild goose or a heron, tapped on the window.
The bird carried a small parcel on its back like a pack and peered inside the office until its eyes met Roan's.
The soft light emanating from its whole body was proof that this bird was no ordinary bird.
Roan opened the window.
The bird then waddled across the windowsill on its long legs and stepped indoors.
After looking slowly around the room, the bird fixed its gaze on Grünent and raised its leg. Clasped around its ankle like a ring was...
"The Royal House of Arteala!"
Grünent let out an exclamation. The royal house itself had replied directly to the letter she had sent to a noble acquaintance.
Seeing Grünent begin to rise, Diobe spoke.
"Lady Grünent, I will go."
"Yes. If you tell Carol, she will bring the seal."
Apparently, the bird would not release the parcel without the seal.
How fascinating.
Roan momentarily forgot his earlier worries and examined the magic bird's form from every angle.
The bird, which had paid no attention to the distracting Roan, spread both wings wide with a bizarre cry and jumped backward the moment Roan tried to touch the parcel.
At the grating sound, like scraping metal, Roan's hand instinctively moved toward his sword.
In that instant, Grünent stopped him.
"Your Majesty. It is a warning from the bird. If you try a second time, it might disappear along with the parcel."
"Hmm. I was merely curious, so I stopped myself."
It was unclear whether Roan's awkward apology was directed at the bird or at Grünent.
Rauka, leaning against a corner of the office, watched the scene and let out a small giggle.
Grünent looked at Roan with an expression of pure adoration. Even that boyish side of him seemed utterly adorable to her.
"Have you never used a magic bird before?"
"Well. This sort of magic is common in the kingdom. What is widely used in Evirgio is dark magic. And also...."
Roan barely choked back the words that were about to slip out: that because his Knowledge was only 41, he couldn't use a magic bird like this.
"There has never been a need for me to send one personally."
"That is true. There is no need for Your Majesty to send letters personally."
Just then, Diobe returned with the seal.
As Grünent approached, the bird, which had been standing idly, raised its ankle again.
Grünent grabbed the handle of the bird's pack and touched the seal to the ring on the bird's ankle.
And in that moment, the bird vanished.
There was no magical 'poof' or sparkling dust.
It simply disappeared as if it had never been there at all.
Smiling, Grünent stroked the cheek of Roan, who was watching with slightly startled eyes.
"Your Majesty. I will show you again next time. We can use Your Majesty's seal then."
Too embarrassed now to say 'I'm not that curious anymore!', Roan simply nodded.
"Hmm. Let us do that. We should take this parcel to the Small Council chamber and open it."
"Yes. Understood, Your Majesty."
Roan took the parcel. He felt a slight weight to it relative to its size, which puzzled him.
Though he was a little curious about the contents, he decided they should all see it together.
Hearing that the Emperor was waiting in the Small Council chamber, the Chancellor, the Treasurer, the Knight Commander, and the Corrections Officer gathered immediately.
Inside the parcel was a small device resembling some sort of mechanical apparatus whose purpose was unclear, along with a letter.
When the letter was handed to Grünent, the sender, she merely broke the seal before passing it back to Roan.
"It is only right that Your Majesty reads it first."
Roan began to read the letter.
The spines on Aranya's arms started to click, and just around the time when Liron's quiet tapping of his jaw with a finger bone could be heard.
Roan handed the letter to the Chancellor and spoke in a bright voice.
"It seems we shall have to form a pirate crew now."
Aranya accepted the letter with a beaming face.
The letter, filled with gratitude toward Grünent and praise for the Demon King (of the kind hard to receive from a human), read as follows:
— We could not sell off this damn wheat while watching Merde's reaction, nor could we just keep stockpiling it, so the prediction that demonkind would be robbing them from us could not be more welcome.
I am a little sorry to say this to the Princess, but Merde is giving us a headache by acting like bullies who have no intention of buying themselves but won't let others sell.
— Good heavens, to think that Evirgio has glass!
Is it not the finest glass on the Moira Continent!
It is an absolutely essential item for operating our magic devices.
I was deeply impressed by the sample enclosed with the letter.
If His Imperial Majesty could possibly send us glass, we are inclined to continue regularly losing wheat and other necessary supplies at sea. Including those humans you mentioned as well.
— We are sending you a magic device to facilitate smooth communication going forward.
The Princess will know how to use it.
Let us discuss the details via the magic device.
Soon after, Roan spoke with the king of another country for the first time. As this was the first such event since the Demon King's ascension, the officials of the Small Council were stirred up once more.
His Majesty personally stepping forward for diplomacy with another country!
In the past, worry would have come first, but now, anticipation was far greater.
The conversation went smoothly because Grünent, who was acquainted with the King of Arteala, was present.
Furthermore, Arteala was overjoyed at the prospect of resuming trade and securing the rare glass.
"glass is absolutely essential to create the small devices you are now receiving and using. I am told it is needed to fix magic within a small space.
Of course, only the old men holed up in the tower know the details....
At any rate, I am grateful that we are forming ties with Evirgio this way. I will prepare the ships as the Emperor has requested as quickly as possible."
Consequently, the Small Council suddenly became very busy.
They spent exceedingly hectic days forming the 'pirate crew' and preparing the goods to be loaded onto the ships that would be 'plundered.'
Amid all this, Roan steadily attended the Small Council meetings, grasping and learning how the affairs were progressing.
"The wheat that comes into the port will first be moved to Basel and then distributed. That falls under the Treasurer's purview."
"That is correct, Your Majesty."
While examining the transport routes for the incoming wheat on a map, Roan suddenly asked Aranya.
"Then is it possible to supply the front lines by winter?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. We plan to send a certain amount of the food stored in Basel to the front lines. However, fundamentally, it is the lords who are responsible for providing food and goods."
Roan fell into thought for a moment.
He had heard that Evirgio's winters were very cold and long because the land was dry. Out of the twelve months, just like Earth's calendar, there were supposedly as many as six winter months.
Soldiers couldn't survive on food alone, so what about things other than food?
He would have to figure out later to what extent the central government should intervene.
Roan consciously tried to focus on his work.
He spent each day believing that every single day was a step further away from being the Hero's main enemy.
Without that belief, he felt he would be crushed by the fact that there was now barely a year left until the day the Demon King was supposed to be killed.
The Hero was drawing closer.
Roan felt increasingly suffocated.
'I did get some skills, but how effective will they really be?'
[ — Will :
A skill that manifests the mind's intent to achieve something in the form of power
In the process of carrying out a decided course of action, one gains from within oneself the power to overcome external influences
The power exerted varies vastly depending on how long and how earnestly one has contemplated the matter
— Attentive Hearing :
Listens to the subject's story and understands their heart
Can more clearly grasp the subject's intent, emotions, and the like contained within the story ] While 'Will' was a skill he duplicated from the Hero,
'Attentive Hearing' had appeared out of the blue.
In the game, skills were generated based on frequently performed actions.
Fighting a lot produced combat skills; using magic and raising a character like a scholar generated knowledge-based auxiliary skills.
'This might be because I've only been talking instead of fighting here.'
He had tried to listen to others, but was it really to the extent of generating a skill?
Roan read the skill descriptions once more.
[ — 【Derived】 Appeal Lv1 :
【Creation Condition】 Will + Attentive Hearing
Words spoken after understanding the other party's emotions and situation carry the speaker's intent, moving the listener's heart
The person listening to the caster's words comes to clearly understand the intent and emotions arising from the caster's 'Will,' akin to using the skill 'Attentive Hearing' ]
In other words, it was a skill that cast 'Attentive Hearing' onto another.
Since the Hero could absorb skills from NPCs as well as main romanceable characters, there were hundreds of skills to be seen in the game.
He had hundreds of hours of playtime and had completed several playthroughs, but this was the first time he had seen a derived skill.
There was a skill called 'Persuasion,' but it basically didn't work unless the other person was willing to listen. It was similar to 'Mihon.'
However, 'Appeal' inherently included an element that made the other party listen. It could be considered a superior skill to 'Persuasion'.
'I'd at least have enough time to open my mouth before the Hero swings his sword... Hmm. Or maybe not.'
When I played, I watched all of the Demon King's lines,
but a real Hero might just skip the Demon King's dialogue entirely and charge in without question or answer.
And so, Roan once again focused his attention on the documents scattered across his desk,
to choose a method of survival that consumed a great deal of time and energy but was reliable.
*
The border of Merde was dreary.
Despite the warm summer night breeze, the soldiers had long become taciturn due to the continuous news of defeat coming from the front lines.
Two of them were staring out into the darkness beyond the border.
As if trying to fight off boredom, they were passing the time with some idle chatter, and one of them was recounting a rumor he had heard from someone else.
"You know Cook Martin? I heard his cousin is in the navy."
"I know Martin, but this is the first I've heard of a cousin. So why?"
"Lately, the navy's been in an uproar because of pirates."
"If it's the navy, is it the south or the north?"
"The north."
The soldier listening looked bewildered.
There were ports of Arteala and Evirgio in the north, but pirates couldn't possibly emerge from Evirgio.
This was because monsters valued individual martial strength and found it difficult to unite. He had heard they couldn't fight properly in naval battles, which required many to move a ship as one.
"You don't mean Arteala is pirating?"
They were the sort of people who would stake their lives on money, so it was possible. But his remark was brushed aside.
"No, good heavens. They say there's a monster pirate crew."
...What kind of bullshit is this?
The soldier who was listening pondered for a moment before chuckling.
He had been listening intently, wondering what this was about because he said he'd heard it from someone, but it turned out to just be a baseless rumor that Martin had probably picked up from the marketplace and repeated.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? How can monsters steer a ship? Those bastards don't have the brains to manage a group properly. Don't they just charge in individually even in battle?"
"But apparently they pulled it off. Besides, maybe because those bastards know they're at a disadvantage, they're not even targeting our navy, they say."
The soldier who was listening narrowed his eyes with suspicion and asked.
"What then?"
"Without violating our territorial waters, they're said to be swarming into Arteala's seas."
"...There's no way the Arteala bastards would just sit still after getting their goods stolen?"
It was a highly logical inference, but the soldier passing on the rumor simply shrugged.
"I don't know about that. Since it's not something we can see from our country. Anyway, since it's not ours and not Arteala's ships, they must be Evirgio's. That's what they're doing lately, coming and going into the west and recklessly plundering Arteala's ships."
The soldier who was listening had already dismissed the story as a tall tale at 'I don't know about that,' but it soon became an established fact when Arteala officially released a statement to Evirgio saying, 'We would be grateful if you could return our citizens whom you are abducting.'