The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 306.2 - Side 47: The peaceful Alcrem Duchy

Supported by its four vassal nations, the Amid Empire had known peace and stability. Nobody considered it possible to defeat the empire’s rule and unite the continent.

Even the military officers and nobles involved with the Orbaume Kingdom’s military, who had to speak optimistically to their superiors in order to be granted larger budgets, didn’t truly believe that such a thing was possible. One would have to be ignorant or genuinely foolish to believe that it was.

But the situation had changed.

The Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, the secret force whose individual members each possessed the strength of an entire army, had splintered; and the S-class adventurer party known as the Storm of Tyranny now wielded their power against the empire.

The new pope of the Great Church of Alda was a young man… no, it would be no exaggeration to say that he was a child. The one on the emperor’s throne was not the wise Marshukzarl, but an ordinary man that nobody had ever previously heard of.

A diplomat who served the house of Duke Sauron was standing before Duke Takkard Alcrem now. He alternated between speaking passionately and calmly explaining the risks and returns.

“The situation… the state of the world, and the times, are changing drastically. Duke Alcrem, please make your decision,” he said finally, requesting an answer.

“Hmm,” Takkard quietly pondered.

With a head full of glossy hair and smooth skin that did not sag, people had recently commented that he had become at ten years younger, but his handsome face was not wearing a pleased expression in response to the plan suggested by the diplomat sent by Duke Rudel Sauron.

“I have a good understanding of what Duke Sauron is proposing. The proposal itself, the risks and the returns. But I am sure you are aware that my own duchy has its own circumstances to worry about.”

He gave a signal with a movement of his eyes, and one of his own diplomats began giving an explanation to Duke Sauron’s diplomat.

Two significant incidents had taken place in the Alcrem Duchy this year, and one of them had taken place very close to the duke’s own home… the resurrection of the evil god Forzajibal. Takkard’s diplomat spoke of the economic damage caused by this incident and the progress of the projects that were being carried out to recover from that damage.

In truth, it was the Evil God of Cannibalism Zerzoregin that had been resurrected, not the Evil God of Pillaging Forzajibal, but very few in the Alcrem Duchy were aware of that.

And the reality was that the only ‘damage’ caused by this incident was the collapse of the ‘Sacred Wastelands,’ which had been a nest of Mimic Humans; there hadn’t been any actual damage.

Duke Alcrem and his advisors wished to refuse Duke Sauron’s proposal, even if it meant they had to lie about these circumstances.

“We are also aware of the circumstances you are in, Duke Alcrem. But we would like you to understand that we cannot simply leave it as it is. Not when war with the Amid Empire may be upon us,” said Duke Sauron’s diplomat.

What he proposed was not the formation of an alliance and a united army to attack the Amid Empire.

“It is simply too dangerous to leave the former Scylla territory as it is, especially now that it has become a true Devil’s Nest in every sense! But the Sauron Duchy’s strength alone is not enough to address it! We are swallowing our pride and begging for your aid!”

The Sauron Duchy’s sights were set not on the Amid Empire’s army or the fortresses of the Mirg shield-nation, but on the former Scylla territory.

“I understand that Rudel-dono is fearful of that place,” said Takkard.

From Rudel’s perspective as the duke of the region, the former Scylla territory was a part of his domain that had been stolen from his people by some mysterious Undead.

The Undead did not come out of the former Scylla territory, but anyone who entered it was killed and turned into an Undead to join them. None who had ventured inside had returned alive.

Every attempt to conduct reconnaissance using familiars had ended in utter failure. It seemed that there were monoliths and images painted on the ground that tormented the minds of those who viewed them; every single mage who had attempted to observe the area through such methods had been driven insane.

Some of those mages had seemingly recovered and appeared to regain their sanity, but then vanished later, leaving behind nothing but a note reading, “I am going to where God is.”

On top of that, one village after another near the former Scylla territory had their entire populations go missing, so it couldn’t be said that everyone was safe as long as they didn’t enter it.

As it was, when the Amid Empire came invading in the future, Duke Sauron would constantly have to be worried about the risk of the Undead suddenly pouring forth from the former Scylla territory and attacking his own army.

In fact, it was even possible that the Devil’s Nest of the former Scylla territory would continue to expand and even reach regions beyond the Sauron Duchy.

He had to do something about it before that happened, even if it meant being indebted to the other dukes.

I understand that. I do. If I were Duke Sauron, I would be thinking the same thing. But… that place is a territory of the Demon Empire of Vidal, so I cannot make a move there! Takkard thought.

He knew the truth behind the former Scylla territory.

He knew that the hordes of powerful Undead that inhabited it were soldiers of the Demon Empire of Vidal, with whom he had formed a secret alliance. He knew that the territory served as an enclave of the Demon Empire.

The Undead that guarded the former Scylla territory’s borders were not monstrosities that killed all living beings indiscriminately; they were an army with leadership. They would not emerge from the territory and attack the cities and armies of the Sauron Duchy unless Vandalieu were to order it.

And as for the mass disappearances of the people living in nearby villages, they had simply moved into the former Scylla territory to live there. As citizens of the Demon Empire of Vidal, they lived far more comfortable lives than they had as citizens of the Sauron Duchy.

To begin with, it’s a mistake to think that something could be done about it with military might alone. If our nation had the military might to take that region back, we would have been able to pierce through the Mirg shield-nation’s fortresses with ease long ago, Takkard thought to himself.

The Undead army could number in the tens of thousands. He had been told that they were all a minimum of Rank 5, and the most powerful among them were of Rank 10 and above.

If this army were an enemy, the Five Knights of Alcrem (who were still missing one member) as well as their equivalent secret forces from every duchy would need to be sent in just to put up a fight.

And that would not be enough for them to win. It would only be enough to put up a fight.

Of course, if it came to that, I would tell Vandalieu-dono everything without hiding anything, Takkard thought. But even so, I cannot agree to this. Vandalieu-dono has asked me not to, after all.

Vandalieu would be attending the Central Adventurers’ School in spring. He would have no time to deal with such bothersome matters.Please visit fr𝐞𝐞w𝒏.𝒸𝑜𝔪 website to read fastest update

The Sauron Duchy was the wall between the Orbaume Kingdom and the Amid Empire; repelling the Sauron Duchy army without causing it too much damage would be very bothersome for Vandalieu. And because the Sauron Duchy was a region where there were many worshippers of Vida, many of the soldiers were worshippers of Vida as well.

As for Takkard, he didn’t wish to have damage inflicted upon his own army, either.

… I cannot send my soldiers to die meaningless deaths.

There were some among the populace who believed that nobles were emotionless people who thought nothing of using soldiers and conscripted commoners as disposable pawns.

But that was not true of nobles who possessed a certain degree of political power. It was true that at times, they had to give orders that sent soldiers to their deaths. Takkard himself had experienced having to order soldiers to venture onto battlefields from which they had no hope of returning alive.

But there were always good reasons for doing so.

It cost money to train men who dedicated their entire lives to becoming knights and soldiers, and such men were an absolute necessity to maintain public order and security.

Even conscripts were farmers, craftsmen, merchants, cooks, and healers during times of peace… They were valuable laborers.

Losing such important soldiers in unnecessary wars was unacceptable.

“I understand,” Takkard told the diplomat. “But when we sealed away the evil god who was resurrected, the Alcrem Duchy lost the Knight of the Collapsed Mountains Goldie, and his entire family, who lived in the ‘Sacred Wastelands.’ Our priority is to rebuild the Temple of Borgadon as quickly as possible to ensure that the evil god is never resurrected again, and to keep a close watch over our lands so that those who worship other evil gods do not cause us more harm.”

The truth was that both evil gods had been destroyed, and could never be resurrected again. There were also no signs of movement from those who worshiped other evil gods… though there was evidence that they had fled the Alcrem Duchy, now that it was a base of operations for Vandalieu.

Thus, in reality, Duke Alcrem had no projects that had to be completed as soon as possible or impending problems that prevented him from deploying his army.

There was a big fuss in the Farzon Duchy about how Heinz’s party, the Five-colored Blades, should have come out of the Dungeon but hadn’t yet. But that wasn’t an issue that could be addressed by Duke Alcrem’s army.

That was an issue that Duke Alcrem needed to address by using his political influence to gather information.

“That is why I regret to inform you that I cannot help you. But, of course, I will not hesitate to provide aid in the form of funds and supplies,” Takkard said.

Because his realm neighbored the Sauron Duchy, it was difficult to reject Duke Sauron’s request outright. Thus, he decided to at least provide superficial aid through funds and supplies, treating it as a necessary expense.

There had been numerous instances in history where the Alcrem house responded to requests from the Sauron house with money and supplies rather than military aid. The diplomat would surely back down and accept this.

“… I do not mean to say that this is an adequate replacement, but I shall send some of my most capable knights to aid you,” Takkard told Duke Sauron’s diplomat.

“My lord?!” Bravatiyu exclaimed in surprise.

It seemed that it would be difficult to pre-emptively prevent Duke Sauron’s attempt to take back the former Scylla territory. With that being the case, it would be best to send his own people to provide inside information, share that with the Demon Empire of Vidal, and defeat Duke Sauron’s army in a reasonable manner.

Although he was a little irritated by his overly suspicious subordinate, this wasn’t a decision that Takkard had made out of temper.

Ah, my life would have been so much easier if I were an earl rather than a duke, he thought wistfully.

It was another ordinary day in the city of commerce that was ruled by Earl Morksi, who was blissfully unaware of the exhausted Duke Alcrem’s wish to trade places with him.

Tama and Gyoku, who had translucent white bodies, adorable round eyes, and long legs, were cooking at a food cart in a back alley of the red-light-district – which was now known as ‘Vida Street’ – in Vandalieu’s stead.

Rock, the leader of the Iron Boulder Brigade – a party of adventurers who were based in this city – was walking past.

“… So, this food cart’s finally being operated by familiars now,” he said with a dry laugh. “I don’t know whether I should be impressed that he’s such a skilled tamer that he can have his familiars prepare food, or surprised that he’d be willing to leave the whole food cart to them.”

“Hey, guard, is that allowed? There’s a maid sitting behind the food cart, but she’s not a tamer or anything, right?” one of Rock’s companions said.

The city guard he was talking to – the novice city guard who had finally become able to see two characters of his divine protection – gave a dry smile. “There’s no problem. The supervision of tamers is under the jurisdiction of the Tamers’ Guild, and… there’s an unspoken agreement to leave matters related to the red-light district to Starving Wolf Security unless something really big happens.”

“So that means that everything’s up to Vandalieu, huh. He’s the Starving Wolf’s boss, after all, and the ‘True Ruler of the Red-light District’… When we first met him in a Devil’s Nest, I didn’t think he’d become such a big shot… No, maybe he was already a big shot back then?” Rock’s companion.

“Don’t sweat the details,” said Rock. “So, you’ll have a grilled squid skewer for now?”

The ingredients served on the food cart’s skewers changed from day to day, and today’s main ingredient was the squid monsters that appeared in ‘Garess’s Ancient Battleground.’

Incidentally, the ‘maid sitting behind the food cart’ wasn’t Rita or Saria, but the Vampire Zombie Maid Magisa, who had been one of the Pure-breed Vampire Birkyne’s subordinates when she was still alive.

It was possible that people seeing the food cart for the first time would be frightened to see ity being run solely by high-Rank monsters. Vandalieu had stationed Magisa here to stop them from being afraid; people would be reassured to see the monsters’ tamer watching over them.

… The truth was that she wasn’t even a human, let alone a tamer, but even Rock wasn’t aware of that. The only one who knew the truth was Earl Morksi.

“… Is this really allowed? I mean, those guys are grilling squid,” Rock’s companion questioned.

“Well, they have a lot of legs, but it would only be cannibalism if they ate octopuses. So it’s fine, isn’t it?” said Kest.

“Huh? Those guys aren’t squids?”

To be precise, they were Krakens – Floating Little Krakens. They were miniature Krakens whose torsos were about the size of a human body, and they were capable of floating lightly above the ground.

Though they were related to squid and octopuses, they were another species. Thus, this wasn’t cannibalism… to give an analogy, it was the same as a lion eating a tiger not being considered cannibalism.

Incidentally, Tama and Gyoku’s parent, who had been turned into an Undead and resurrected as a Little Kraken Zombie, was behind the cart, cutting the squid, putting them on skewers and covering the skewers with sauce.

Magisa was in charge of pretending to be their tamer and handling payment.

The three rat sisters – Maroru, Urumi, and Suruga – were working as waitresses.

One of them squeaked at Rock to ask for his order.

“Give me six squid skewers. One for the nice guard over here,” said Rock.

“Huh? No, you don’t have to worry about me…” said Kest.

“Come on, it’s fine. Your shift is over, right? This won’t count as a bribe, so quit your worrying.”

With another squeak, the rat sister, who was balancing her three-meter-tall body on her hind legs, skillfully used her front paws to write down the order. If one didn’t look at her head, she would resemble a bear.

No ill-mannered drunkards dared to cause trouble at this food cart now. Compared to a year earlier, public order in Morksi’s red-light district had improved dramatically.

Meanwhile, the person responsible for improving that public security – the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael, also known as Miles – was currently battling against a mountain of documents.

“Phew, personnel management is a lot of work. Instead of having a main office and branch offices, why don’t we open offices in every city and exchange documents?” said Miles.

“In human societies, there are no Goblin communication devices, Golem faxes, and no Gufadgarn or Jane to rely on,” a Demon King Familiar replied. “Doing that would drastically increase the labor required, as we’d have to carry the documents between the offices.”

“Well you could do the work there, boss. You can record any kind of document, can’t you?”

“… Your boss is not impressed by your suggestion of using him as a fax machine.”

The Demon King Familiars were helping Miles with the paperwork, holding writing tools with their tentacles.

“It seems that a few worshippers of Alda were protesting and singing hymns in the plaza in Alcrem,” said Miles. “Though from what I heard, nobody paid them any attention.”

“By ‘hymns,’ you mean those songs that call for the rejection of Vida’s races, don’t you? I have to wonder – did they really think that they would receive any support by singing those kinds of songs in Alcrem’s plaza?” said the Demon King Familiar.

Even before Vandalieu’s arrival in the Alcrem Duchy, many of its people had supported the peaceful faction of Alda. There was little chance that they would suddenly start supporting Alda’s extremist faction, but…

“I suppose they thought that it would be better than doing it in Morksi?” said Miles.

“So, they were not reckless enough to challenge Kanako to a battle of musical performances,” the Demon King Familiar agreed.

Still, these worshippers of Alda had taken the idea of protesting through music from the concerts held by Kanako and the others, so the protests themselves were peaceful.

The problem was the other worshippers who shared their radical beliefs.

“The arson attempt on the Tamers’ Guild, the attempts of violence on our security personnel, the attacks on me and Kanako and the others, the attempts to get into your house… People who act on their own are actually quite troublesome, since you can’t hold any organizations responsible,” said Miles.

As the reforms announced by Duke Alcrem came into effect, the radical worshippers’ crimes had grown more extreme.

“Well, it also makes it easier because there are no complaints when we handle the incidents crudely,” said the Demon King Familiar.

As a result of their reckless actions, such as attacking Miles and Kanako, and attempting to sneak into the house that Vandalieu had turned into a haunted house, the radical worshippers had their existences erased from the city.

They had then been brainwashed, replaced with fakes, or had just the contents of their brains replaced before being released into the city as if nothing had happened, and their sentences were decided after that.

Those sentences depended on the crimes they had committed, but… those whose existences had been erased had all committed crimes that would see them branded as criminal slaves or executed by the Alcrem Duchy’s laws.

“Why would people who worship a god of law proactively break the law themselves?” the Demon King Familiar wondered out loud.

“I’m sure they only care about obeying the laws they believe are correct,” said Miles. “More importantly, the move the peaceful faction made is so impossible to understand that it’s creeping me out. And all they did was send letters to you, Darcia-sama, and Kanako.”

“… Enemies that only show quiet movements in public are the most troublesome,” the Demon King Familiar agreed.

“By the way, Boss, what is your main body up to now?” asked Miles.

“I’m currently clearing a Dungeon on the Demon King’s Continent with twisted space. It’s the kind of Dungeon where you can be walking down a corridor, then suddenly be falling towards your right, and then find yourself slammed against the ceiling… It’s not too late for you to join us, if you’d like?”

“Pass. Let me know when you’re doing a simpler Dungeon that’ll give me a break from all this work.”

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