I was visiting the White Sword Castle, the headquarters of the Carbanera Knights.
It had been 10 days since I went to greet them right after returning from Filsand.
“Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Come on, wizard! One more round!”
“Please, please!”
I had some business with the knight commander, but now I was in the courtyard.
I was caught by the Carbanera siblings, Gillion and Lioria, and asked to be their training partner as usual.
Of course, I didn’t face them directly, but used the ogres I created with [Create Ogre Platoon].
“Grrr!”
“Hmph!”
“Wow.”
Currently, Gillion and an ogre were fighting one-on-one.
I was impressed by how well Gillion deflected the ogre’s club attack with his shield.
“Raaah!”
“Grrr!?”
The ogre lost its balance and leaned forward as its club was diverted by the shield.
Gillion’s sword slashed across the ogre’s exposed torso.
“Gaaah.”
The ogre knelt down.
Gillion’s attack was definitely sharper than before, as it inflicted so much damage in one blow.
“Die, you bastard!”
“Hey, hey. That’s enough, that’s enough!”
I hurriedly stopped Gillion from swinging his sword down on the ogre’s neck.
Even if it was a monster I made with a simple spell, I didn’t feel good seeing it killed in front of me.
“Haha! I did it! How about that, wizard!?”
“Yeah, you’ve improved a lot.”
“What do you mean? It’s not that much! After all, I’m a Carbanera knight! Hahaha!”
Gillion was like a child who was having fun.
He had a funny charm when I got used to him.
I praised him and then thanked the groaning ogre and released it with [Dispel Magic].
“It’s not just brute strength…”
“No, no, he’s reliable.”
“He’s become more approachable than before, hasn’t he?”
The reactions of the knights who watched Gillion boast were varied.
The knights who were not in Gillion’s second squad still didn’t have a good impression of him. But I felt that their eyes had less malice than before.
The servants seemed to appreciate him to some extent. Direct power was very valued in this world of Sedia.
Gillion was in a rivalry with Arnogia, the son of the current knight commander, over the position of the next commander.
The next commander would be decided by a vote of the knights who belonged to the order, but it was clear that Arnogia was still ahead for now. After all, the only ones who seemed likely to vote for Gillion were the knights of his second squad.
Speaking of which, I didn’t see Arnogia, who always came with Gillion or later to ask for training with an ogre… As I was thinking that…
“Caw caw”
“Gillion-sama, thank you for your hard work!”
The bright voices of the children who were out of place in the knight’s castle echoed.
Seven children dressed in servant’s clothes handed towels and water to Gillion, or clapped their hands.
They were the former magic soldier candidates that I had entrusted to the knight order. They had very different expressions from when I met them, much brighter.
“Ha ha ha. Are you doing okay?”
“Hey, you guys! You should greet the wizard first, right!?”
The children who were scolded by Lioria all gave a knightly salute. They were quite impressive.
“Hello, Mr. Wizard!”
As I stroked the head of the smallest child in the front and asked, the child answered happily.
“Yes. You all look well.”
“Yes! Everyone in the castle is kind to us!”
Since the child said so, the people in this castle must be kind. I was right to choose this place to entrust them.
“Um um. I will make you work as the second squad members and the knight order leader’s guard in the future!”
“Yes sir!”
Gillion seemed to be popular with the children too.
But even if they were only seven, could he decide their affiliation in this knight order, where factional disputes were in full swing?
“…The only one who can afford to increase personnel in the knight order right now is us.”
I tilted my head and Lioria explained to me.
In other words, it was a financial reason.
“The management of the knight order is still difficult. …We are much better off because we have the Carbanera family’s property and income…”
According to what I heard before, the Carbanera Knight Order originally covered its operating funds with assistance from various cities of the Liuus Union, which it was allied with. However, there was no large-scale appearance of dark demons in the last ten years, and the funding was greatly reduced.
But they couldn’t cut down on the personnel or equipment of the knight order either, and they were in chronic financial difficulties.
Recently, there was an incident where I cooperated with them to destroy a dark demon nest, so they were negotiating to increase the funding based on that, but it didn’t seem to go well.
…Was that my fault?
If the cities belonging to the Liuus Union thought that they didn’t have to fund the Carbanera Knight Order if they formed an alliance with me against the dark demons…
“Mr. Wizard!”
“Hm, what is it?”
“Are brother Log and Daya and Tel, who became your disciples, doing well?”
That’s right, they hadn’t seen those three since I left them at White Sword Castle two months ago.
It would take more than a day on foot from Jiiteias Castle to here, and besides, they were servants and couldn’t go out easily.
“Yes, of course. I’m making them study hard. I’ll bring them here soon.”
“Good! Thank you, Mr. Wizard!”
“…Oh, yes.”
As I watched the happy children, I came up with an idea.
I took out a brass bottle from the backpack that I had slung over my shoulder. It was a “Potion Server” that I hadn’t used for a long time.
“Mr. Wizard? If you’re thirsty, I can get you something to drink.”
“No, this is for everyone to drink.”
I had stored a special tea that Log and the others had helped me make in the Potion Server.
I poured the pale pink tea into the attached cup and handed it to one of the children.
“This is a tea that Log and the others worked hard to make. It contains ingredients from magic potions, so it’s very good for your health. Why don’t you try it?”
“Eh, is it okay?”
“Me too… Ouch!?”
Lioria slapped Gillion’s hand as he tried to reach out and said gently,
“Hmm… Of course, you have to thank Mr. Wizard before you drink it.”
The child blushed and bowed, saying “Thank you very much!” before taking a sip of the tea.
“…I can’t really taste anything… But…? Wow. Amazing, my body feels warm!”
“Eh? Let me have some too!”
“Me too!”
“Okay, okay. Line up, please. Sorry, but one sip per person.”
Fortunately, the tea was a big hit.
To reduce “Material” to “Element” or “Ether”, you first have to break down the material into fine pieces and then repeat various chemical operations (or something like that) such as distillation, combustion, sublimation, crystallization, etc.
As a practice for this work, I had Log and the others start with decomposition and distillation of materials.
The materials were medicinal herbs that Saria, the medical officer, had procured for us. They were effective for nourishing and strengthening the body.
Chemically speaking, what they did was just grind the herbs into powder and then boil them, and distil the solution repeatedly. Well, maybe they could find some meaning in concentrating the active ingredients.
But alchemically speaking, this was nothing but extracting the “Water Element” contained in the herbs.
Of course, this was only possible because they used the “Alchemy Furnace” included in the “Alchemy Tool Set”, not ordinary utensils.
Anyway, the tea that I served them now was essentially a “pre-healing potion with concentrated magic effects”.
It was far from being a magic item like a “Healing Potion”, but it probably had more effect than any health drink sold in modern Japan.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Wizard!”
“Don’t mention it. Thank Log and others.”
Gillion looked at it greedily, but I ignored him.
The reason why I brought this was…
“Ah, I forgot!”
“What? What is it?”
“His Excellency the Commander said to bring Mr. Wizard with us!”
A child who suddenly remembered something called out to me.
That’s right, the original purpose of this tea was to serve it to the sick commander.
“I see, I’m sorry. Please tell him I’ll be there soon.”
“Yes!”
“Um, excuse me…”
As I was about to follow the energetic children, Lioria’s voice stopped me.
I turned around and saw the face of the red-haired female knight with a sad look in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mr. Wizard… Do you really…?”
“Lio!”
The knight, who was her brother, grabbed her shoulder firmly and stopped her from saying anything more.
From the murmurs of the people around, it seemed to be a very rare sight.
“Lioria, your brother is a fine knight. …Well, at least he has the potential. If he does his best, the results will follow naturally.”
“…Yes, yes. I’m sorry…”
She probably wanted to ask me to support Gillion as the next commander.
I had declared that I would take a neutral position in the previous meeting with the commander, but… Was there something that made Lioria anxious?
“…No, this is really… Like Alura’s medicine flower…”
I visited the commander’s private room and served him my special tea right away.
He took a sip on the bed and muttered with his eyes wide open. The medicine flower he mentioned was a plant that was famous in this world, Sedia, for being the source of a spiritual medicine.
“Do you like it? It should be good for your body to some extent.”
“To some extent? This is definitely life-extending… Haha.”
A little bit of redness appeared on his usual pale old man’s face.
More than that, I was surprised to see his thin lips relax slightly. His smile was rarely seen.
“Thanks to you, Arnogia and Gillion have grown a lot. But still… There are many things they lack.”
“Well, isn’t that what young people are like?”
I was young enough for him to see me as such. I had seen scenes where someone who I thought was immature showed unexpected power when it came to it.
“I thought I wouldn’t make it through this winter… but maybe I’ll try to hang on a bit longer.”
“I hope you do. I’ll have this tea delivered to you regularly.”
“Thank you… but I have nothing to repay you for your kindness. If only I had a granddaughter, I could have given her to you as a bride.”
He added a joke, which meant he was feeling really well.
This special tea, if I could lower the cost, it could be a product by itself.
“The other day, I asked you to share some food with me. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm… Your household has grown bigger all of a sudden too. … You should always store more food than you need. The price of food will go up even more from now on.”
That was an implied advice, but there was something else that caught my attention.
“What do you mean by the price of food going up? Is there a crop failure or something?”
“… No, that’s not the case.”
The old knight evaded the question and sipped his special tea.
Come to think of it, Elizabel also said that food prices were rising in the Liuus Union.
This world Sedia seemed to have more advanced agricultural technology than the medieval Europe I knew. I didn’t know the details, but they had crops that looked like potatoes that could be harvested in a short time and had high nutritional value, and they also had knowledge of fertilizers.
I hadn’t heard much about food shortages in this world until now…
“… Dark demons, huh.”
In my head, some pieces connected and formed a hypothesis.
It was something I had been thinking about for a long time.
This world Sedia and the medieval world I knew, they looked similar in terms of socio-economics, but they were not.
That was because of the existence of dark demons.
“That’s right. The area around Liuus has been peaceful for a while. But the people of Sedia have a karma that they must always be prepared for dark demons.”
“That means they have to maintain an excessive army for their production capacity, right?”
The army in the medieval world I knew, whether in the east or west, was basically composed of part-time farmers and soldiers.
They usually produced food as peasants, and when there was a war, they became soldiers with weapons. Standing armies appeared only in the late period of the Middle Ages, or so I thought.
On the other hand, the army in this world Sedia was required to protect the people from dark demons before fighting against other humans.
They had no time to do agriculture or anything else.
Then naturally, the huge army that only consumed food and fuel would put pressure on the economy of cities, towns, and villages.
“… The second ‘Great Breeding’. We managed to overcome that. But gradually. Gradually, the economic balance of this continent is starting to collapse…”
This old man, he had a sharper eye than I expected. I never thought he would pay attention to the global economy.
His mouth, which had been unusually relaxed until a moment ago, was already tightly closed.
Yes, this old knight had been fighting on the front lines for decades, protecting people from the dark demons. He must have thought about the environment surrounding him and his comrades.
I also sighed lightly.
For now, we are busy enough to feed the people around Jiiteias Castle.
But…
“We have to think of some countermeasures for that too. If Elizabel can form an alliance with the cities of the Liuus Union, we might be able to do something.”
If golems can be manufactured in the mage guilds of each city, we can reduce the military expenditure, and if potions and such can be mass-produced, we can lower the attrition rate of the army.
Speaking of which, today’s request also involves the economy.
“I remembered today’s purpose. Actually…”
The purpose was the promise I made with earl Filsand.
In exchange for making him give up on invading Feldi Kingdom, I planned to exterminate the undead from the “Twilight Plain” north of Filsand and east of White Sword Castle and develop it.
There was originally a fortress of the Carbanera Knights in that land, and I wanted to borrow their power as well, so I wanted to consult with them.
“The ‘Twilight Plain’… and ultimately the recapture of Lastland Fortress is the long-cherished wish of the entire knight order. And now not only you, but even earl Filsand is willing to join us… I can’t die anymore.”
The knight commander said with a strong look in his eyes.
He looked more spirited than when he drank the special tea.
“I’m glad you agree. However, I plan to start the project… in half a year or a year. Please live long until then.”
I joked and he also smiled wryly.
“But… really, you…”
“Hm?”
“The economic talk earlier.”
The smile on the old knight’s mouth was somewhat gentle.
“I was just muttering pessimism and complaints, and I wasn’t trying to find any solutions. I think this is the way of this world Sedia… something like fate. But you don’t seem to think so at all.”
“Well… I know the problem and I have friends and power who can deal with it. Then I’ll do it, right? Deal with it.”
When I was just a company employee, this kind of thing would have been beyond my imagination.
But now I can say it as if it were natural.
The “Mask of the Great Wizard” seems to have become more familiar to me than I thought.