Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Arc 9: Mad Prince Route
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Outside the cave, the shaman and the three-eyed ogre were waiting together.
“Master said to give you the connection stone once you came out.”
The shaman held out a large rock engraved with a whirlpool pattern. He’s telling me to take this now? This thing looks heavier than my body weight.
“Prince. Just in case it’s dangerous, allow me to take it and inspect it first.”
The quick-witted Meredes took it instead and pretended to examine it closely. The girl’s working hard to save my face as master. Thanks anyway.
I alternated glances between the two ogres and asked.
“What is this? What does this rock do?”
“The connection stone links to the entrance of the sanctuary.”
“……Huh?”
“This rock over here.”
The shaman tapped a tall stele-like stone erected next to the cave entrance.
“This is also a connection stone. See the pattern here?”
“Uh…… yeah. There’s a whirlpool pattern engraved here too?”
“The two stones are connected to each other. So if you bring anything up to this stone…….”
The shaman pressed the empty wine glass he was holding against the whirlpool pattern on the stele.
Woooong!
The wine glass emitted a transparent light and vanished, then immediately reappeared in front of the stone Meredes was holding and fell to the ground.
“…….”
Meredes flinched and stepped back a pace. I picked up the fallen wine glass from the floor and bit the inside of my cheek hard.
What is this!
It’s totally amazing! What kind of teleportation device is this? How does it even work?
“The connection stone is our tribe’s greatest treasure.”
The three-eyed ogre approached and crouched down to match my eye level.
“Giving it to you means our master recognizes you as her top friend. You’re basically one of our tribe now.”
“That’s an honor. But how does this thing work on principle? Can it send things in the opposite direction too?”
“If you’re curious, try it yourself.”
I pressed the wine glass against the connection stone Meredes was holding once more.
Woooong!
As if waiting, the wine glass vanished and reappeared in front of the stele, falling to the ground.
“It sends it back. This thing is really good.”
“I don’t know the principle either. I just know it operates with the master’s power.”
“The rock spirit’s mana?”
“But there are rules instead. It can’t send living things, and nothing bigger than two ogre fists.”
The three-eyed ogre thrust out both his fists and grinned.
“My fists are a bit bigger than other ogres’. Reduce the standard a little. Anyway, you’ll know when you try pressing an item against the stone. If it doesn’t transfer, it means it’s too big.”
“Aha.”
“There’s also a limit to how many times you can send per day. Usually between twenty and thirty times. It varies every day. Probably related to the master’s condition.”
“Distance?”
“Hm?”
“The distance between connection stones. Does it still work if it’s far from this stele?”
“Distance doesn’t matter, no matter how far. According to Marr tribe legend, it even worked to the northern end of the Jairut Mountains.”
That’s equivalent to from the western edge to the eastern edge of imperial territory. This is a superluminal transport device that enables real-time supply regardless of distance?
But there’s one problem……
“This connection stone has to stay here forever?”
When I pointed at the stele and asked, the three-eyed ogre nodded vigorously as if it were obvious.
“Of course. The mother stone must always stay here. Only the child stone I gave you can be moved.”
In that case, this stone’s role is limited to just exchanging items with the Marr ogres from afar.
But hey, that’s plenty.
Ideas for profiting off this connection stone immediately flooded my mind.
The most urgent among them was my original plan. I linked it to using the connection stone and got straight to the point.
“You guys have silver, right? Can you give me some?”
“Silver? You mean silver ingots? You want silver ingots?”
“Not asking for it free. I’ll pay with meat as per the prior imperial agreement. The sea serpent meat you got today will run out in a few days anyway, and you’ll need steady meat supplies going forward too, right?”
“Meat! We always need meat a lot!”
The three-eyed ogre brightened and nodded. I lowered my voice and proposed.
“But from now on, trade directly with me instead of the empire.”
“With you, Prince?”
“Yeah. I’ll steadily supply you fresh meat through this connection stone. In return, send silver ingots my way whenever you can. You must have a huge stockpile from mining all this time, right? Stocked up to trade with the empire once negotiations resume?”
“Uh……. Yeah. You really know our situation, Prince. You qualify as our friend! Woooaah!”
The three-eyed ogre shouted in admiration. Whoa, you scared me. Why yell out of nowhere?
“I won’t take payment for today’s meat. As a sign of goodwill.”
“O! Prince is generous!”
“But send some silver ingots as a down payment. I need to go buy meat.”
“Got it. Should I send it through the connection stone?”
“For now, load it on the wagons and take it with us. Later, I’ll send newly bought meat via connection stone, so from the next trade, you send silver ingots the same way.”
I need to store this side’s connection stone in a safe place first before starting trades. The three-eyed ogre thought for a moment, then nodded as if he understood.
“I get what you mean. Order matters.”
“Let’s set the meat-to-silver ingot exchange rate similar to what you did with the empire before. How’s that?”
“Very good!”
The three-eyed ogre grinned broadly and nodded.
“If it’s you, Prince, I’d send silver or gold or whatever you want. We don’t need that stuff. As long as we can trade for a ton of meat, that’s enough!”
“Wait, gold? You have gold too?”
I asked with wide eyes. The three-eyed ogre cleared his throat pretentiously.
“Ahem. Of course. Less than silver, but we have gold and even rarer stuff.”
“Rarer than gold? What’s that?”
“You’ll see. Send more sea serpent meat, and we’ll send rare stuff in return.”
“Sea serpent? Wait…….”
No, what I originally planned to send was common market meat, not sea serpent.
Hm……
Whatever.
I can hunt one more time, or just deploy sealed priestesses on-site to catch them steadily.
“Alright. Not right away, but I’ll send extra sea serpent meat as soon as possible. Until then, other meat.”
“Good. But we prefer land meat over fish. Sea serpent excepted, of course.”
“Noted. I’ll send the best four-legged beast meat I can get.”
Then I extended my right hand toward the three-eyed ogre. Careful not to crush it, he gently wrapped my hand and nodded.
* * *
“We shall now discuss the deeds of the empire’s sixth prince, Claude.”
Jess’s voice trembled slightly from the proxy throne. The guy must be boiling inside trying to hold it in.
“Claude exterminated the sea serpent pack occupying Yoton Plains, relieving the suffering locals. Through negotiations, he reclaimed the trading village in the Jairut Mountains from the ogre gang, and secured a massive haul of silver ingots from them as a token of submission, which he presented to the imperial government.”
To be precise, he offered the advance meat payment as tribute. Loaded full on wagons, melting it down should make about 20,000 silver coins?
Of course, it pains me a little……. But this way, the empire can pardon the ogres’ rebellion. Think of it as payment for the rock spirit contract.
“However, all these acts were undertaken by Claude on his own initiative without imperial permission, which could be seen as rebellion—a grave crime with little defense. Thus, as the empire’s second prince and regent, I, Jess, taking this heavily into account…….”
“Regent Highness! This is a great boon to the empire!”
At that moment, Internal Affairs Minister Count Balbeni erupted as if waiting.
“The sea serpents of Yoton Plains were sea monsters that even knights struggled against. Even mages avoided the ocean, claiming their power couldn’t project properly, and when barely mobilized, they failed anyway.”
The failed mage here is Trombone, one of the empire’s four Arch Wizards.
He’s near the top among Arch Wizards, but the problem was his fire-affinity magic. Pouring fire into the sea just makes steam, right?
“Thanks to that, the empire knew it was a serious issue but avoided it like it didn’t exist. Prince Claude and several priestesses united their strength to resolve it!”
“…….”
“This should be seen as the fruit of Prince Claude’s loyalty to the empire, beyond whether he had orders or not. Can we punish someone for slaying a sea monster without permission, for the sake of the nation?”
“Then what about the ogre issue?”
Jess asked the Internal Affairs Minister with a deflated look. Then Military Minister Count Hops stepped forward from the opposite side.
“It’s been a year since the Jairut Mountains ogres seized the trading village for trade. The imperial army couldn’t respond aggressively because we couldn’t gauge how massive a force would be needed to suppress their rebellion.”
Exactly. Facing the entirety of Jairut Mountains ogres, one or two knight orders wouldn’t cut it.
Of course, if we’d fought, it would’ve ended with subduing just the Marr ogres. But from the empire’s perspective, ignorant of ogre tribe relations, moving troops recklessly would’ve been tough.
“However, the empire is surrounded by enemies on all sides, making it hard to concentrate large forces anywhere. Especially can’t pull main knight orders clashing with the northern heterorace alliance, nor capital garrison for emergencies.”
The northern heterorace alliance here means the elf and dwarf league.
Historically bitter enemies, but for some reason (I know why, of course) over recent decades, they’ve formed a military alliance, maintaining a tense standoff with the empire.
“In the midst of this, the western issue resolved smoothly without a single troop loss. Truly heaven’s fortune. Punishing Prince Claude, who created this fortune, would be unethical in the current situation.”
“But he did act without orders, didn’t he?”
Jess seemed half-resigned. The Military Minister bowed and answered firmly.
“It’s true. If Prince Claude had commanded imperial troops without leave, he should face the law. But the prince persuaded the ogres personally to withdraw, without mobilizing any army. Thus, charging him with rebellion-equivalent crime isn’t justified.”
This is truly moving.
In nine loops past, ministers never advocated for me this strongly. Must be the credit from repelling the Death Legion and earning saint title?
“……Understood.”
Jess sighed inaudibly and nodded. The Internal Affairs and Military Ministers exchanged brief glances and smiled.
-Good. Well done. This scratches what Regent Highness can’t bring up lightly due to his position, right?
Their thoughts were obvious.
Both judge Jess as actually on my side but unable to openly support his little brother due to regency.
That misconception led to this vigorous defense. I’m grateful, but for Jess, it must be maddening.