Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 411:  We’re home

Things happened, but the fun honeymoon(?) must also end.

「There’s still a way to go from the Savage Lands southwards to the Sanctuary.」

「Indeed. On the north side of the Sanctuary, Yggurle Kingdom, Valkyra Kingdom, and Lomaria Kingdom have developed and maintained roads to compete to subjugate monsters.」

The development of the east-west line from the Sanctuary to Lomaria Kingdom by way of Wedgefort was going well with fortress cities and highways being established along it. Also, the highway that continues to extend north from Wedgefort to Yggurle Kingdom was close to completion. The highway from Wedgefort to the Volton Margravery in Valkyra Kingdom was the first to be completed, and the monster extermination there was well underway.

「The Table Mountain also had a nice view though.」

「Takumi-sama, that place is still a Monster Nest, so it isn’t accessible to normal people.」

Speaking of which, the Savage Lands are dotted with small, but many monster nests, so much of it is unexplored.

Lately, the monster nests in the Savage Lands were changing. I suppose this is another effect of the Sanctuary, but while the mana was still just as dense, it seemed like there were less aggressive monster types, perhaps because of the miasma being cleared.

「Even so, there’d be a problem with a road being developed towards Samandour Kingdom.」

「If Samandour Kingdom doesn’t develop the road by themselves, and if we and the Trination do it, they might be taken as us preparing for war.」

I’ve heard that in the road developments during the warring ages in Japan were made narrow and winding, making it easy to attack foreign troops.

If we build the road to Samandour Kingdom by ourselves, it might really be seen as the Trination preparing for war.

Finally, the carriage reached the barrier of the Sanctuary.

The carriage Tsubaki pulls passed through the barrier like normal and went directly to our mansion.

Fuu, I’m so glad we’re back.

「We’re home.」

Going back to the time Takumi and his group crossed the border.

Earl Sechnal and Earl Vautarc, two influential nobles of Samandour Kingdom, were waiting for the report in their own respective mansions.

The two who had no doubt about its success were enjoying wine as they waited for the commander of their soldiers to report back to them.

It was then that they were informed of the return of the soldiers that commanded the attack team.

「Ohh, you’ve finally returned!」

「……I- I h-have returned.」

「Hm?」

Seeing the haggard subordinate, Earl Sechnal grew anxious for the first time.

「Did you get the elf!? What about the carriage and the Dragon Horse!?」

「……t-the assault failed.」

What reached the ears of Earl Sechnal who hurriedly demanded for the report of the result was not the report of success, but of the failure of their attack.

「Wh- what nonsense is this! A failure…… I had added mercenaries in addition to the power of the Dark Guild, you know! Report properly!」

Earl Sechnal was furious, but his subordinate who brought back the report was expressionless.

It was then that Earl Sechnal also slumped. Normally, when he would reprimand his subordinate, they would typically be shook up and ask for forgiveness. Why was that? The expression on the subordinate in front of him was…… he looked like he was pitying Earl Sechnal.

「……he was a monster. We were unable to do anything. ……nothing at all. We were at our wits end. It took less than five minutes for our crushing defeat. All that while making sure we were all kept alive.」

「Wha, what are you saying? There were seven people at best, moreover there was only one guy, wasn’t there? I thought we had sent many times more fighting power.」

Still unable to accept the reality, Earl Sechnal said so, but the subordinate shook his head.

「My Lord, all seven of them were monsters. Additionally, they were not seven-strong. They were always followed by a Familiar Arachne.」

「Wha, an Arachne…… Is that not a Calamity-class monster? I can’t accept such a report!」

「Please understand. It wasn’t noticed by our spies eyes, and it seemed like it possessed the perfected Stealth skill. We would not have known it was there if the arachne had not shown itself. They had other familiars which were out of the norm too. Please understand that.」

Earl Sechnal’s mouth flapped open and close, no words coming out.

「Mercenaries, goons of the Dark Guild, the spies, and all of them were handed over to the Adventurers Guild as thieves, and they were sold as criminal slaves. The assassins from the DArk Guild weren’t included, so…… that’s how it happened.」

「Wha, those guys weren’t j-just commoners? The mercenaries and the goons from the Dark Guild were pros.」

Earl Sechnal should have realized. The opponent who had a Dragon Horse, which was difficult for even royalty to own, pull their carriage, couldn’t possibly fall into the normal commoners.

「Replacing the spies would be an issue, but the Dark Guild’s goons and mercenaries was unfavorable. We should go about buying all of them, but……』

「Guh……」

The spies of the Sechnal Earldom were one thing, but the mercenaries and members of the Dark Guild couldn’t be left to fall into slavery. If that happened, the Sechnal Earldom would not have any mercenaries to employ. It was detrimental to the nobles of Samandour Kingdom who had limited knights employed and relied on mercenaries.

It was even more unfavorable with the Dark Guild. Earl Sechnal who always hired the Dark Guild to do work for him behind the scenes had a give and take relationship with the organization. So if he abandoned their members now, that relationship would be broken. Exposing the dark side of the Sechnal Earldom that the Dark Guild has a tight hold on would be a huge problem.

「Shit! I will not just end it here with that brat! I will chase him to the ends of the earth and make him grovel at my feet in apology!」

The subordinate who gave their report gave their final words and left the enraged Earl Sechnal.

In the room, Earl Sechnal was left there, stunned by his subordinate who had arbitrarily announced their resignation and made his way out.

The fall of Earl Sechnal and Earl Vautarc had was just beginning.

***

This is the end of Volume 8! As with every volume I had finished in the past, I will take a break. Thank you for reading this far and I hope you continue to read this with me.