Chapter 94: Gord (1)
Chapter 94: Gord (1)
"Chase them!"
"Don't let them escape toward the highway!"
Shouts from Eugene's group echoed through the forest.
The descent of the Wandering Castle had thrown the forest into chaos, flushing out some of the monsters that had been lurking in the deeper reaches.
"Kik-kik—!"
Goblins.
They weren't particularly dangerous creatures, but leaving them unchecked would be a clear nuisance. Eugene moved while subjugating any that caught his eye.
"Fweeeet!"
When Homi whistled and pointed in one direction, the cavalry wheeled toward it.
Until now, Homi had only handled support duties and had always been kept in the rear during actual combat.
That was no longer the case. Her hair tied back in a ponytail and her long tail streaming behind her, she rode at the vanguard alongside her liege.
In Homi's hands was a dark elf composite bow, larger than the standard design.
"Found them!"
A mercenary pointed at five goblins fleeing.
Eugene and Homi loosed arrows at once, and two of them toppled.
"Kiit-?!"
Quick-witted, the remaining three scattered in three directions. Now it was the mercenaries' turn.
"The ones scattering over th—"
WHACK!
Before the mercenary squad leader could even finish shouting, a third goblin had already fallen.
"—chase down the ones th—"
THWACK!
A fourth goblin pitched forward, an arrow buried deep in its back.
"...them?"
SWISH!
By the time Eugene had nocked a second arrow and finished aiming at the last goblin, another shaft was already flying from beside him.
THUD!
The final goblin collapsed, clutching at its throat, and everyone turned to look at Homi.
Her white, plush tail held two arrows in its grip.
Once she confirmed no enemies remained, the arrow-gripping tail rotated a full 180 degrees and returned the shafts to the quiver.
'That actually works?'
Rapid-fire shooting via tail-based arrow resupply.
He had known it should be possible, but he had not expected it to work this well in real combat.
Not only the mercenaries who had been ready to charge, but even Eugene found himself staring at Homi with a dazed expression.
Beaming.
Homi was thoroughly delighted by those reactions. She had at last proven that she could stand at Eugene's side as a full-fledged warrior in her own right.
When they reached the city, the guards recognized Eugene immediately.
"Welcome! Bonyard always welcomes the All-Conquering Knight!"
It wasn't because they remembered his face, but rather because several distinguishing features stood out plainly.
A well-armed knight drew attention on his own, and Eugene was unusually large besides, with a beautiful snow-leopard beastkin squire at his side.
On top of that, anyone with even a passing interest in the city's history would know Eugene's hair color, so the possibilities narrowed in an instant.
The guard glanced toward the direction Eugene had come from.
"You must have seen it on your way here, Sir. A bolt from the blue. It is an ill omen."
"...That's all?"
"Pardon?"
Eugene and the guard stared at each other, mutually perplexed.
Enough time had passed for the events at Rostock to spread this far—the story of countless lightning strikes followed by a colossal castle descending.
Bonyard of all places had every reason to suspect the Wandering Castle might be nearby, yet the guard showed no such reaction.
"Ah, I only said that because the city seemed too calm. There should have been dozens of lightning strikes."
"Dozens, Sir? Two or three fell, and then it was over."
There was a reason it had been so quiet, unlike the mayhem at Rostock.
"I see. Keep up the good work."
"Safe travels, Sir."
There was a saying that the body remembers what the mind forgets.
'The castle is recovering its sense of looking out upon the world.'
A man who had trained for decades could go soft after a few idle years, yet regain lost muscle quickly once he started exercising again.
The Wandering Castle was no different.
Before it vanished from the mortal world, it had undoubtedly roamed across every corner of the land. Eugene could feel it himself—with every teleportation, the castle was recovering its senses.
It seemed a few lightning strikes probing the intended destination were now enough, and that number might fall further in the future.
"Sir?"
When he explained the situation to the mercenaries, who were looking at him with curious expressions, they all nodded.
"Isn't that a good thing? It means we can travel the world more covertly."
The mercenaries looked even more excited than Eugene himself.
"Well, when it first appeared, it was far too clamorous."
"Ugh! Don't remind me. I thought the whole world was splitting apart. It's a miracle no one was crushed to death at the tournament grounds."
While Eugene and the mercenaries exchanged easy conversation, the tribal merchants who had come along to assist with trade were rigid with tension.
For people accustomed to a world of strict hierarchy and obedience, the atmosphere was almost too easygoing.
-I must serve him to the best of my ability.
-His wealth will directly determine the prosperity of the home we will dwell in.
The elders had repeatedly charged them to succeed, adding pressure to turn a large profit on the trade.
"But, Sir. If you meant to trade, wouldn't Rostock have been better? The inland sea is freshwater, so salt is scarce there as well."
"It's the center of the continent, so trade goods pour in from all directions. Take those down south and sell them, and you could get your hands on a fortune."
Eugene regarded his subordinates with an odd expression.
"When did you lot change professions from mercenaries to merchants?"
"Heh heh. These days, whenever we're among ourselves, we often talk about how to earn money through the castle."
A mercenary's life was one of wandering every corner of the land from one commission to the next.
Veterans with long careers knew which regions produced what specialties and where particular goods were cheap or expensive.
In an age starved for entertainment, the veterans had taken to amusing themselves by debating how to wring the greatest profit from the Wandering Castle.
When mercenaries who had smuggled on the side began laying out business plans laced with adventure stories, everyone listened with interest.
'Oh?'
Eugene made a mental note to set aside time later and hold a discussion forum. It seemed likely to produce some fairly useful ideas.
"I appreciate the advice. But the real issue is that I'd rather avoid the nobles who'll be swarming the north."
"The moment the castle reappears and opens its gates, they'll come swarming like a hive of bees."
Given Eugene's current circumstances, he was in no position to accommodate and entertain those nobles.
Yet if he turned honored nobles away at the door, his own reputation would plummet.
Mercenaries were inevitably insensitive to such concerns.
"I also want to stay as far from the Emperor's notice as possible."
"Ha, even if the Emperor's own grandfather came, there'd be nothing he could do against our castle."
"Is that all? No matter what enemy comes, you'd sweep them right back out, Sir, and seize even greater renown."
The mercenaries trusted the employer who brought them great victories and loot wherever he went.
"But the Emperor is still the Emperor, isn't he? Drawing his attention would be a pain. For now, we should quietly make money, stockpile supplies, repair the castle, and take in enough residents. I want to focus on business without interference."
The mercenaries had only considered whether the castle could be taken or not.
Eugene's wish—to set aside his identity as a knight for a while and, as a businessman, distance himself from the Emperor—was something they would find difficult to understand.
Meanwhile, the tribal merchants were watching Eugene with surprised eyes.
As far as they knew, Eugene was a killing chariot who felt no fear and took joy in crushing his enemies.
But now that they observed him, he somehow seemed to have the blood of a merchant flowing in him, much like themselves. Though that might be an impious thought they dared not voice.
News of Eugene's visit was immediately reported to the city's upper ranks through the guards. Without needing to find lodgings, he was shown to a mansion reserved for honored guests.
"I see quite a number of knights about?"
Contrary to the peaceful atmosphere, knights were moving here and there throughout the city.
Compared with when Eugene had been invited as a Champion, their quality had declined, but there appeared to be at least twice as many of them.
A short while later, Panis, still as plump as ever, came rushing over to Eugene.
"It has been too long, Chief Magistrate. I am glad to see you in good health."
"Th-the words are mine to say, Sir. Every time word of your new renown reached us here, I could not have been more delighted. Oof!"
Eugene approached Panis, who was bowing and offering a handshake, and embraced him warmly.
Now risen as a lord rather than a mere knight, Eugene's unchanged attitude of friendship brought tears to Panis's eyes.
"This makes me uncomfortable!"
"What could there be to feel uncomfortable about between us?"
It was not empty courtesy, but genuine feeling.
Even on the frontier, Bonyard was an excellent crossroads for goods and information. There was no harm in staying close to Panis, a major player in both legitimate and under-the-table dealings.
Moreover, quite apart from profit, he had given Eugene his greatest foothold in his rise.
Without Panis, Eugene would never have earned fame as the All-Conquering Knight, met Varda, or formed ties with the Black Hand Clan. He could be considered the single greatest butterfly effect in Eugene's life.
"Sir, are you not the master of the Wandering Castle? You have already far surpassed an ordinary lord. I am quite overawed now."
"How did you come to know of that?"
That he had become the castle lord was something that would gradually spread through the Harris Trading Company, which handled the river crossing and supply. But it should have taken more time for the rumor to reach this place from the wastelands of northwestern Roman.
"Among our city's trading partners is the Harris Trading Company. They sent a carrier pigeon discreetly inquiring about you, sir."
"So that was how it happened."
That Eugene had a close relationship with Bonyard was already a well-known matter.
"Would the city be uncomfortable with my visit? I did, after all, take possession of the castle the Emperor wanted so badly."
"Not at all! Not a problem in the slightest."
Panis laughed and waved his hand dismissively.
"The Gord thugs right on our doorstep are what scare us. The Roman Emperor cannot project any power here—not with all those Noble Faction territories he would have to cross."
Even if the emperor lost his mind and sent an expeditionary force, the city possessed ample strength to repulse it.
When Eugene explained that he had come to sell salt and buy trade goods, Panis put him in touch with the city's Merchant Guild.
The tribal merchants began negotiating with the merchant guild, and as if all their earlier tension had never existed, they poured out a torrent of words.
'The way those fellows behave, really.'
The stiff faces they had worn before Eugene relaxed at once into arrogant confidence.
Dark elves generally treated humans as an inferior race. Eugene was the exception.
"No, isn't this too expensive?"
"Of course it must be expensive. This is not ordinary salt, but premium salt once supplied to the Ancient Kingdom's royal household."
"!!!"
He could only marvel at the audacity of packaging ancient warehouse salt that way and selling it off.
The fact that Eugene was the lord of the Wandering Castle was already known to everyone who wielded any influence in Bonyard, so the tribal merchants too could negotiate comfortably.
"And that is not all. Even the demons that swarmed the castle did not dare enter the warehouse where this salt was stored. That is why it was preserved intact."
Since ancient times, salt had been believed to possess the power to purify wicked things. The tribal merchants exploited this fact without reserve.
The reality was simply that the monsters had not spared it a glance because it was nothing more than salty.
With the magistrate's prestige added to the bargain when he came by to greet them, they secured a very favorable price.
However, he did not receive all of it in coin; he arranged for part of it to be exchanged for specialty goods intended for new trade.
"I have truly missed this taste."
The mercenaries rejoiced at the taste of Samur dates, which they had not enjoyed in a long while.
Cheap as they were here, their price would rise three to five times over if taken to Barsia or Roman.
"You mean the fresh ones?"
"Yes. I want half dried and half fresh."
The tribal merchant and Eugene shared a quiet laugh at the guild member's bewildered expression.
-If we freeze them, they won't rot for half a year. Then we can thaw them slowly in refrigerated storage and preserve much of their fresh texture.
-In the north, this is something even kings rarely get to taste. We can name our price.
If he sold plump, fresh dates to the nobles, the price would leap more than tenfold.
Eugene had no intention of trading in obvious goods like wheat, barley, or animal hides.
He planned to exploit three advantages to their limit: instantaneous long-distance movement, mass transport, and refrigeration and freezing.
"This is only the beginning."
"Pepper, rose water, tea, porcelain, saffron, tapestries. There is no shortage of goods whose price rises dozens or hundreds of times if they can simply be transported intact."
The tribal merchants who had returned to Eugene after concluding negotiations chattered in excitement. Their confidence seemed bolstered now that they had achieved a greater result than expected.
All their lives, they had racked their brains over profits while bound by realistic constraints.
They had to choose routes, decide how many porters to hire, worry about perishable stock, and hire neither too many nor too few guards—a real money pit.
But trade via the Wandering Castle allowed them to skip every problem that had tormented them.
The mental rush it gave them was like a drug.
Eugene pointed out one more thing the merchants had not yet considered.
"Do not forget that no tariffs or bribes factor into any of these dealings."
"R-right, that too!"
The truly lucrative trade was maritime. That meant appeasing the nobles who controlled ports and the officials beneath them, on top of paying tariffs—enormous bribes, constant intelligence-gathering, and endless efforts to stay in their good graces. With the castle, all of that could be ignored.
All of that could be ignored now.
Twitch-twitch.
Eugene watched the tribal merchants clench and unclench their hands.
-Sir Knight! What about putting a trebuchet on the roof? We could be the lunatics who bombard the inside of a castle instead of its walls!
-Unfortunately, we cannot use this castle to conduct a siege. It can only teleport to places far removed from human souls.
-Aw, man.
It was exactly the same motion the dwarves had shown when they grew absorbed in plans to repair the castle and install armaments.
After concluding his business, Eugene heard an unexpected piece of news from the magistrate.
"A tournament? In Gord, you say?"
"Yes. Gord's founding anniversary is coming up soon."
A society where people were exploited under a class system was like a sealed pot boiling over a fire.
Even lords who ruled by sword and armor and looked down on common folk understood that a few times a year, they had to let off steam.
Such anniversaries were festivals where everyone ate and drank, but also opportunities for nobles to display their authority and knights to advance their careers.
"It is said that several powerful lords have joined together to hold it more grandly than in previous years."
"It is because of the Roman civil war."
"A foreign war is a blessing to one's own country. From this year onward, they will all try to get a piece of it, commercially or militarily. This event is a warm-up for that."
By the magistrate's standards, a powerful lord meant at least a count. If several such men had joined forces, the scale would rival or exceed the tournament at Rostock, with prize money to match.
"As expected of you, Sir Knight. Is your competitive spirit already stirring?"
"Ah, well."
The magistrate smiled when he saw Eugene's eyes light up.
"I had a feeling I kept seeing quite a few traveling knights in the city. There was a reason for it."
"The Gord tournament is well suited even for poor knights to participate in. It enjoys that much popularity among free knights."
A Gord-style tournament was an infantry group battle. Mounted jousts were seen only at banquets hosted by a king.
Barsia, traditionally on bad terms with Gord, was wont to disparage it as a vulgar brawl of ignorant knights.
But for lesser knights with poor horsemanship, it was a land of opportunity—men such as former mercenaries lucky enough to be knighted, or third sons of impoverished houses.
"Would Sir Eugene consider taking part?"
"It is a country that was practically an enemy as recently as last year. Would it be acceptable?"
Eugene was even called by such grand nicknames as the Guardian of Bonyard. How would the city's people view him taking part in a commemorative event held by men who, until recently, had been trying to swallow up half the city?
Even though the prize money and the connections he might gain there tempted him, he had been restraining himself for the time being.
"Ha ha ha! That is precisely why I urge it all the more. How satisfying would it be if our city's finest knight appeared at their event and crushed them utterly?"
In fact, the magistrate looked as though he very much wanted Eugene to participate.