Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: The War Hero Becomes the Fairy Godmother (5)
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Following her daughters, even the baroness showed up in front of the armory.
After her subordinates got taken out, now the boss herself appearing—this was a classic pattern whenever a mercenary band tried to rough up one of their own.
That aside, I had a pretty good idea why the baroness had come forward like this.
'Because the magic armor's in here.'
Magic armor could be custom-fitted to the wearer's build.
It was optimized for humanoid bodies, but it had the flexibility to properly reshape itself even for something like an ogre standing five meters tall.
It could be worn, no problem.
It just wouldn't look very dignified.
The real issue was the value of magic armor with performance like that.
The Alliance Kingdoms lacked the technology to develop it themselves.
All the magic armor they had was pure war spoils.
There had been rare cases of buying it from imperial smugglers who'd gotten caught up in some corruption scandal, but even those turned out to be an Empire ploy.
Anyway.
I knew these things cost a fortune to produce.
'About the price of a fighter jet, right?'
Each suit was equivalent to building a state-of-the-art fighter in modern terms.
I knew this well because every time I smashed one, imperial troops would scream, "Do you have any idea how much of our people's taxes went into making this?!"
Of course, I wrecked them all anyway.
I smashed the heavy suits that men came charging out in, but for the bikini-armor types worn by women, I sometimes left them intact on the wearer to minimize damage.
"I'd rather die than let a bastard like you touch me! Ptui! I'll die before I let you rape me!"
"Then die."
"Huh? Wait, that's not—"
Splat.
Not all the bikini-armor magic suits made it back to the Empire intact.
Snatching gear from the enemy on a battlefield where lives hung in the balance wasn't easy, but with the war against the Empire dragging on for twelve years, opportunities to capture magic armor cropped up now and then.
'Over a hundred, if I remember right.'
Beyond what I'd secured myself, used magic armor scattered across the Alliance Kingdoms numbered well into the hundreds.
The Empire had mass-produced them in droves, and the Alliance made good use of the ones they captured—which was why even a rural barony like Arsin had one stashed in their armory.
The problem?
After the armistice, who ended up owning all that captured magic armor from the Alliance side?
'The Empire traded territory gains for relinquishing ownership of the magic armor.'
Under the armistice treaty, the Alliance's haul became true spoils of war.
Of course, without the mana core—the heart of the magic armor—it was like a fighter jet without an engine.
In other words, if you could scrounge a mana core to swap in, or have a person replace the machinery with their own power source, operating the armor was a piece of cake.
So naturally, everyone was gunning for it.
With no need to worry about the Empire anymore, it made sense that a mercenary band would risk infiltrating the barony just for a shot at magic armor.
Fortunately, Baron Arsin had managed his magic armor more securely than I'd expected.
Creeeak.
I opened the door.
Light from outside flooded into the armory, and those waiting out front perked up, peering inside eagerly.
"Listen up, Butler Yuri."
The baroness stood stock-still before the armory.
Right on the boundary between outside and in, as if stepping one foot forward might trigger something disastrous, she stayed put and extended a hand toward me with a smile.
"Let's cut to the chase. Hand over that key."
She was polite enough with the formal speech, but her attitude was downright imperious.
Or maybe seeing the real magic armor gleaming behind me had sparked that greedy glint in her eyes—the look of someone who'd rolled through wartime battles.
And that greed was aimed straight at the armory key in my hand.
"Why should I give you this key? If you want it so bad, come in and take it."
"......"
"Oh. What, is there some barrier keeping out anyone without the key?"
I stepped casually to the side.
The magic armor was mounted facing the entrance, its angular chest plate aimed squarely at the doorway.
"Why aren't you coming in?"
"As you said, Butler Yuri, no one's allowed in here without permission."
Was she implying cooperating with her was the way to get the magic armor?
"You know what that is, right? Magic armor?"
"Magic armor..."
"Even with my amnesia—"
"Fun coincidence—it's right there in my memories."
"Good. Then you know how much danger you were just in."
"More danger than those self-proclaimed knights trying to attack me?"
"Exactly. That magic armor there. Or more precisely, the security spell on this armory."
The baroness opened up surprisingly readily.
"Even people from the barony can't enter without that key, or the magic armor's mana beam will pierce right through them. Just like how countless Alliance folk got heart holes blasted in them by imperial barrages twelve years ago."
A simple spell.
Those who open the door with the key.
Those who possess the key.
The key was a magic device linked directly to the armory.
"I see."
"'I see' isn't the calm response you should be giving here."
The baroness smirked subtly, her voice laced with mockery.
"Did Diela tell you all this?"
"......"
"Did Diela warn you how dangerous the stuff in this armory is? Tell you that going in without the key would make the magic armor react and kill anyone at the entrance? Judging by your face, she didn't say a word."
Coincidentally, she was spot on.
Diela hadn't told me a thing about what was inside.
"Butler Yuri. I don't know why you decided to help Diela, but she's a girl with nothing to her name. Even after we became family, she refuses to accept us, pulling every trick to drive me and my daughters out of this house."
"Is that so."
"Yes. She'll use anything—or anyone—to get her way. Take this time: she knew full well it could send you to your death, but she handed you that key anyway. To this dangerous place with the magic armor!"
Baroness Trimien Arsin reached out to me, her face alight with malicious glee.
"Butler Yuri. We'll welcome you not as some mere servant, but as an honored guest. Amnesia or not, we'll treat you like foreign nobility. No— if you wish, Arsin Barony will receive you as if Hans Wilhelm himself, the hero of the continent, had graced our halls."
"Ho ho."
Her bold pitch perked up my ears.
Just what kind of treatment did she mean by "like Hans Wilhelm"?
"I've heard Hans Wilhelm is the hero who ended the war—the continent's savior. What exactly do you mean by treating me on that level?"
"The highest honors our barony can offer."
The baroness gestured toward her two daughters.
"Sir Hans Wilhelm is fond of women, they say. My daughters are lovely, refined as ladies, and above all, pure enough to ride unicorns."
Pass—though I held off blurting it out and listened on.
"So, if Sir Hans Wilhelm came, you'd marry off your daughters to him as befits such treatment?"
"Oh my, marriage? We wouldn't dare dream that far."
"Pardon?"
"Sending a woman to Sir Hans Wilhelm means one thing: attending him for a night."
"......"
A bit embarrassing, but that was the continental norm.
Noble ladies dreaming of dates with Hans Wilhelm all fantasized about "a night with the great hero."
To brag a little, imperial newspapers had officially dubbed me "Grand Spear Master of the Lower Half."
The issue.
"So you're saying you'd offer your daughters' purity for this thing, no matter what?"
Hans Wilhelm might've thought, "If you're offering..." and taken it before pondering further.
"How could a mother treat her daughters' chastity like some disposable tool?"
"......!"
But right now, I was Butler Yuri.
Amnesia or not, a man with chivalry etched into his bones.
"Pretend I didn't hear that. Step aside."
I pocketed the key, stepped out of the armory, and locked it right there in front of everyone.
"Tomorrow morning, I'll help the young miss don that dress."
"......"
"If you truly cared for your daughters, you wouldn't sacrifice their beauty for material gain."
"Ha...."
"A lady's body is her own. Lifting her skirts under duress is coercion—a crime."
I pocketed the key and turned away from the baroness and her cronies.
"I am no such scoundrel."
That I declared.
I, Hans Wilhelm.
Had never once forced myself on a woman who hadn't willingly sat upon my bed.