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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“Ga-Ganilson!!”
The punch was solid. His nose was definitely broken, and he might have lost a few front teeth too.
The adventurers who immediately understood the situation and went into spectator mode burst out laughing in genuine happiness at the sight.
Some even pointed at the guys and laughed while holding their stomachs, speaking in a foreign language I heard for the first time. Even though I staged it, their reaction sent chills down my spine.
Other people’s fights are the most entertaining, and I aimed for the stupid ending where they get a taste of their own medicine, but laughing so innocently like that is a bit… Isn’t their sensibility somewhat off?
Putting aside my contemplation of this world’s twisted sensibility for a moment, I ignored the guy called Ganilson, who was rolling around covered in tears and nosebleed, and approached his hesitating companion while gnashing my teeth.
“Hey. Hey! You fucking bastard, come here. That son of a bitch shattered my shoulder, what are you looking at, you bastard?!
Is that the attitude you should have towards a guy who keeps a friend who shattered people’s shoulders?! Huh?!”
When you tell paid mercenaries or adventurers, who are almost on par with delinquents, to pick a fight with a passerby, how high would their level be?
How much would those who ordered them to do that have taught them, and how much would they know about me, who doesn’t even properly live or work in the village?
That was exactly their level. Adventurers or mercenaries surprisingly low in level, from who knows where. Truly a disposable pawn to be used and discarded for measuring combat power.
“Huh?”
“Huh is fucking informal, you delinquent bastard!!”
As I injected mana into my foot, adjusting my strength appropriately, and kicked his shin, the guy collapsed from the unexpected impact and started wailing.
“Uwaaaaah!”
“Just fucking overreact. Does that hurt? Does it hurt?”
Of course, it would hurt like hell. But to those watching, it’s an exaggeration. Because the kick itself doesn’t look that hard.
I had already made an impact with a manly punch using only muscles, so they wouldn’t think I used physical enhancement for just pretending to be in pain.
The surrounding adventurers were already showing what it means to roar with laughter, and I turned my body and wrapped my arm around the surprised Lagnis’s shoulder again and moved.
If it were an alley, I would have even emptied their pockets, but it wasn’t something to do on the main street.
“My mood is ruined because of some idiots.”
“Uh, Eldmia?”
As I scratched my head and lowered my hand, making a gesture of covering my mouth with my fingers, Lagnis, who noticed the situation, followed me without a word.
Leaving behind the numerous sneers directed at the two guys who were floundering on the ground, we walked for a while before Lagnis opened her mouth again.
“Then those people earlier were…?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s probably right. I think they were just hired for a short time with loose change. It seems they were trying to check what kind of guy I am… I hope they see me as a delinquent bastard with the worst temper since I acted like that as much as possible.”
“Why did you do that?”
“It’s easier if they underestimate me.”
I only had a sword on my waist and showed movements that lacked even the basics. And the two guys who got hit by that collapsed and couldn’t even get up. One guy might be mistaken for exaggerating, even if the other guy isn’t. That was the important part.
Through several experiments with Asirye, we found out that my physical enhancement using mana is not noticeable even to those who can detect aura, unless I apply a considerable amount of enhancement.
Even aura users detecting aura is based on the aura operation method, and since I’m not using any operation method right now and just wrapping mana around me like armor in an extremely crude way, it seems to be undetectable.
Even if I heavily enhance it, it only looks similar to a buff from magic, she said. It was an aspect that I regrettably neglected because it was inefficient in many ways and learning the operation method wasn’t easy.
But now it’s helpful. It allows for unintended weak character cosplay.
It was a measure I took with the possibility of knights being deployed, as Asirye said. No matter how confident I am right now, I don’t think I can beat those so-called knights while picking my nose.
Even if a knight with physical enhancement equivalent to or slightly inferior to what my body can withstand comes, there’s a high possibility of me dying due to the difference in swordsmanship.
Then, it’s even more important to make them think I have nothing and let their guard down to reduce the risk.
“Still, thanks to those guys, I think we can be sure of a few things.”
“Like what?”
“The fact that the noble faction realized your location faster than we thought, and the fact that they didn’t consider at all that someone might be protecting you.”
That’s why I used those guys as experimental mice. Because an unexpected variable has been sticking around for four days.
“They must have been watching from somewhere. By now, they probably think you’re sticking with some local delinquent bastard to survive. I don’t know how they’ll interpret my sudden appearance, but I don’t think they’ll interpret it negatively for us.”
“…They’ll use a different method?”
“Of course. But I think they still have the possibility of using those guys. Since I smashed one guy’s face and roughly kicked the other guy, I think I’ve created a plausible excuse for revenge.
It’s too obvious, but if they keep trying to test the waters through them, they’ll come to the inn or find us with another gang in a short time. Naturally, they’ll hire kids with better skills.”
Whether they check my skills or confirm if there’s some unknown backing behind me. They would normally want to review after putting me in a situation where I can’t easily win.
But they’ve been continuously monitoring for at least four days… Are they also waiting for something? It’s not like there are guards at the inn, so it would be hard to run away if they infiltrate and kidnap at night.
Unable to think of anything substantial, I told Lagnis and started thinking together while buying and eating this and that again.
We had to act naturally as if nothing had happened. While we were licking the ice cream that was being sold, made with the fruits of alchemy that I couldn’t understand, Lagnis said,
“Even if they kidnap me here, they have to go to Laheira to ride a wyvern, right?”
“That’s right.”
Wyvern rental places are only in truly big cities. There’s no other way around here except the closest Laheira.
“Could it be… that they’re not planning to ride a horse to get there, but to ride a wyvern from here?”
“Huh?”
“They could secretly load a wyvern, kidnap me with the wyvern… and use the carriage used for transportation as a disguise.
Because we were thinking ‘of course they’ll ride a horse to Laheira’ until just now. Taking advantage of that blind spot.”
Is this the difference between commoners and nobles? Certainly, I wasn’t able to come up with such an idea.
The reason wyverns are only found in big cities in the first place is because their management requires high-level personnel and they are expensive means of transportation. In this era, it has the same status as a 1-2 person aircraft.
They’ll actually transport it, hide it, and then ride it and fly away? It’s definitely the idea of people with money. If that’s really the case, it becomes impossible to track them as soon as they leave the city, so it’s worth attempting from their perspective.
“If they’re really rich, it seems feasible and very likely. Assuming what you said is true, is the reason those guys are being so sluggish because the wyvern hasn’t arrived yet? Because it’s more convenient to kidnap right on time than to keep the hostage and risk being suspected?”
“I don’t know exactly how long it takes from Laheira to Ogwen either… but I think that’s the most plausible. Or maybe their plans are also messed up and the wyvern transportation is delayed.”
Well, there’s no law that says I’m the only one who has to be annoyed, tangled up, and bothered in the world. They’re human too. I should rack my brain harder so that I can assume even the crap that people overflowing with money will do in the future.
But then… isn’t it a huge waste of money?
Is there really such tremendous value in Lagnis right now that they have to go that far? Am I missing something? It’s hard to get a sense of it with my brain.
Since the territory has already been devastated, rebuilding will be difficult for a while. It’s a time when they’re too busy reinforcing what they have rather than building something new.
Unless there are tremendously huge resources or something like that, there’s a high possibility that it will disappear from the map, just like how our village disappeared.
But Lagnis definitely spoke as if there were still remaining assets when she first explained her situation to me. The noble faction took her death for granted in order to absorb the assets and rights and secure the pretext.
I thought the assets were the money left in places like banks, and the rights were about the territories to be rebuilt after the war. I also thought the pretext was just a part of the factional strife… but I can’t shake the feeling that I judged it too complacently.
“Lagnis.”
“Yeah?”
“When you first told me… you said the nobles were after your family’s assets, rights, and pretext, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“As a commoner, I don’t really understand why the two factions are fighting over you to this extent. I can accept that they’re just trying to use people to take you… but is it such a huge matter that they would even attempt wyvern transportation?”
Because they are convinced that her life or death will bring a big change to the balance of the two factions that have been maintained so far. Because it’s worth enduring the demerit of wyvern transportation, which I have no idea how many gold coins it would cost.
So this is the whole mess.
“Do you have any specific ideas?”
“Hmm. Even though you’re smart, there are inevitable parts due to perspective after all.”
After looking at me as if it was interesting, Lagnis suddenly smiled as if she had won, and explained.
“Because the territory isn’t the only asset of the family. From the money in the bank to the stakes in various businesses. Many are still under my father’s name. That’s the asset. Honestly, even that alone can make wyverns seem trivial.”
The assets are as expected.
“The rights would refer to all the rights as a margrave. From the noble faction’s perspective, they can’t help but desire not only the private soldiers that can be held with the margrave’s authority but also the military discretion.
I think it’s enough to make the capital nobles, who are only allowed to have 10 or 20 private soldiers, go crazy.”
…Wait a minute. Margrave?
“The pretext isn’t much different from what Eldmia somewhat expected at first. It would be something like:
‘The young lady of the Lien family, who inherited the will of the margrave who gave his life to protect the country and the people, returns after several years and succeeds him, pledging loyalty to the king once again.’
Or ‘They fought for the people and the king, but due to the king’s incompetence, they couldn’t avoid annihilation, and the last survivor of the Lien family was found after the noble faction’s care and painstaking efforts. The king didn’t even try to find the last blood of his loyal subject.'”
Not much different? It’s very fucking different from what I expected?
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They aim for her future positions power