Chapter 704.1 : At the Frontier VI Part 1

Chapter 0704 At the Frontier VI Part 1

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

The day of the second meeting.

Zaarash Fortress was in a fever that felt almost like a festival.

“They’ve even set up things that look like temporary stalls...”

“Where do they normally come from, I wonder?”

Ryo and Abel were both surprised.

There was no doubt that Zaarash Fortress was a fortress, but its scale was anything but ordinary.

Even before the civil war situation began, it had been the largest fortress in the Kingdom of Go, with an economy that functioned much like that of a city.

No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was even beyond an ordinary city.

A city flourishes only when it has trade with the surrounding areas.

And Zaarash Fortress, while being a ‘fortress’, conducted trade with the surrounding region... and even with cities in the Union, far away.

So perhaps, having heard the news from somewhere, people brought all the gear for running stalls and came in from outside... maybe that was it.

“This grilled fish skewer is delicious.”

“They say the fish was caught in the oasis where the fortress floats... but that is clearly a lake, no matter how you look at it.”

Both Ryo and Abel were already eating grilled fish sold at the stalls.

If they were going to be here, they might as well enjoy it. Otherwise, they would be missing out.

On this point, the two of them were in complete agreement.

“This might be a long day, after all. If we end up skipping lunch, it would be better to eat while we can.”

“Yeah. That’s exactly the basic rule of an adventurer.”

Ryo and Abel, offering excuses to no one in particular, next bought and ate meat skewers as well.

Yes, that made two stalls and two items.

Incidentally, they had eaten two grilled fish skewers each, so the meat skewers were their third item.

Probably needless to say, they had also bought two meat skewers each... so each of them had eaten four skewers from the stalls.

“You cannot survive on fish and meat alone. You need to consume vegetables and fruit as well.”

“As expected of Ryo. You say the right things.”

Finally, the two of them arrived at the training grounds while eating a dessert of sorts: a rindo that looked exactly like an apple.

By the time they arrived, preparations for the meeting were mostly complete.

There was no particular task assigned to the two of them.

The children they had trained were guards... still more like apprentices, but guards nonetheless.

So they were out on patrol.

However, the two of them were adventurers, and nothing more.

They had no official role.

This was the stage where the trained children would make their public showing, and it was also a crucial meeting that could determine the future of the fortress’ people... whether war would be avoided or not.

And it was being held under the watchful eyes of the entire crowd.

“Normally, meetings like this, where the top people show up, are held behind closed doors, right?”

“Yeah. Most of the time, the two representatives announce the agreed terms only after everything is finished.”

“This time they are deliberately holding the meeting in front of everyone... If saboteurs are mixed in, it could get serious...”

“Are you saying I might be one of those saboteurs’ lackeys?”

Abel threw back the remark he had been given the other day.

“It was obviously a joke. If you keep whining over small things, you will never become a king.”

“I am, technically, the current king...”

“Maybe the people around you are just acting that way because they feel sorry for Abel.”

“...I don’t understand what that’s supposed to mean.”

The two of them took their seats in the rows marked ‘Reserved Seats’.

Molga had told them to sit there on the day of the meeting.

“There are names written here too.”

“Mine says ‘Abel-dono’, and yours says ‘Ryo-dono’, so that matches.”

“The seat next to ours says ‘Master’.”

“Elder Masuda, then. This is indeed the reserved section.”

Ryo and Abel sat in the seats with their own names.

The ‘Reserved Seats’ probably held around twenty people in total.

After the two of them sat down, more and more seats in that section were filled.

Most of those people were unmistakably merchants.

“Merchants are easy to spot at a glance, aren’t they? Swordsmen and scouts have peculiar ways of walking that make them obvious, but merchants walk normally. Why are they still easy to spot, I wonder?”

“Beats me... don’t ask me.”

At Ryo’s question, Abel also looked over the people who seemed to be merchants sitting in the reserved section.

They did indeed look like merchants.

“Oh, I know.”

“I get the feeling that whatever you are about to say is going to be wrong before I even hear it.”

“They give off the smell of money, I am sure.”

“Yep, just as I expected. I was right after all.”

Abel shook his head lightly at Ryo’s self-satisfied line.

“Your guesses are based on the air about them, Ryo. You probably feel something similar for the merchants.”

“What a frivolous explanation... and you are spreading slander against me at the same time.”

Ryo grimaced.

But then he raised his head again.

“Our disciples are doing their best!”

“Disciples...we have not taught them for long enough to call them that though.”

“It is not about time. It’s philosophy. It’s about how deeply you can convey the spiritual core of a thing. That’s what it means to take on disciples.”

“With you, Ryo, the strange part is that at first glance it sounds like you are saying something profound.”

“How rude! I’m always saying profound things.”

“Maybe to yourself.”

Both of them had, in fact, taken on people who could be called ‘disciples’... but it seemed that people’s perceptions differed.

Ryo and Abel could see the children they had trained walking along the opposite-side stands of the training grounds, checking to see whether any suspicious objects had been dropped there.

“So the sight of people checking for explosives is the same everywhere, then.”

“Explosives?”

“Something like the kingdom’s ‘black powder’.”

“Oh. Yes, something like that would be a serious problem.”

Abel nodded.

During the three years since he had ascended the throne, research into ‘black powder’ had advanced.

So Abel understood its properties, including its destructive power.

“I don’t know whether research into ‘black powder’ has advanced around here, but there could be something similar in alchemy.”

“Yes, indeed. Human imagination can sometimes produce terrible things. Imagination is truly an infinite power, but if used wrongly, it can make mankind miserable. Be careful, Abel.”

“Me? Why me?”

“More often than not, the source of a problem is the ruler. It is troublesome if imagination is too poor, but if it is too rich, then those around them are dragged about and suffer. Moderation... balance is what is needed.”

“I’m not convinced, but very well.”

Abel ended the discussion because he saw someone he knew approaching.

“Oh, Master.”

“Elder Masuda, have you been walking around inside the fortress?”

“Mm. There were quite a lot of people I had never seen before. A considerable number had come from outside. As for the stalls, about ninety percent of them were like that.”

“Eh? Then the grilled fish, the meat skewers, and even the rindo stand we ate from...?”

“Most likely so.”

“You ate that much since early this morning? How vivacious...”

Ryo and Abel confirmed it, and Elder Masuda marveled at the appetite of the young men.

No one present pointed out that Ryo and Abel belonged squarely in the category of big eaters...

By this point, the stands at the training grounds were almost full.

In the center of the training grounds, seats facing each other had been prepared for the negotiators of both sides, along with seats that seemed to be for the mediators, placed in positions where they could oversee everything.

“The central seats only have space for about three people on each side.”

“That’s right. There are about ten seats prepared a little farther away, but... only the main negotiators will probably sit in the center.”

“The mediators... even the Union people’s seats are only for three. With so few, an assassin would not be able to get in.”

“There wouldn’t be an assassination in front of this whole crowd.”

“You never know? The enemy is the Union, after all. Who knows what they might do?”

For some reason, Ryo was folding both arms and making an airs of superiority while offering his commentary.

What exactly did Ryo know about the Union?

Of course, nobody knew. Not even Ryo himself.

No, there was one swordsman here who was closest to the truth.

“You are just making that up on the spot, aren’t you?”

“G-guh.”

Ryo’s eyes darted around before he could stop himself.

“Oh, look, the delegation is coming in.”

“...Yeah, they are.”

Ryo thought he had successfully dodged the question.

Feeling sorry for him, Abel let the matter drop.

The first group to enter was a cluster centered around merchants.

“So this is the fortress’s delegation.”

“Seems like it. The one leading them is...?”

“Mm. That’s the head of the merchants’ association, Pisek. He’s this term’s coordinator for the merchants. In other words, he is the representative of this fortress.”

Ryo confirmed it, Abel asked, and Elder Masuda answered.

“He feels like a merchant who has kept producing results.”

“...I am not entirely sure what you mean. He does not seem aggressive, but he looks like the type who would absolutely protect his subordinates.”

“So there are merchants of offense and merchants of defense?”

“Yes. Both are necessary to the people.”

“Gecko seems like an offensive merchant. Chairman Pisek feels like a defensive merchant. A stone wall.”

Ryo nodded.

Hearing that, Elder Masuda laughed.

“You have an interesting way of seeing people. Certainly, Pisek and the ‘Sand Trading Company’ he leads are not the sort to keep releasing one new product after another. They treasure their long-time customers and their goods. That is why, in the Union, there are apparently nobles whose families have kept using the company’s products for three generations.”

“Keeping repeat customers is important.”

Ryo nodded.

It was troubling when a product one had always used was discontinued... many people felt that way.

After all, the successor product was not necessarily a good fit.

But then Ryo suddenly thought of something else.

“You said Pisek leads the ‘Sand Trading Company’, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Could it be that they have inns or eateries inside this fortress?”

“They do. The best inn in the fortress, the ‘Sleeping Sand Inn’, and the popular eatery, the ‘Dining Sand’.”

“I knew it!”

Ryo nodded at Elder Masuda’s explanation.

“So that’s the inn we are staying at.”

“Yes, yes. Which means Pisek-san must be a truly wonderful person.”

Ryo declared it as if it were a certainty.

“Why do you say that? Certainly, the inn and the eatery are both well equipped.”

“It is not just the facilities. The smiles of the staff are wonderful! That means the hospitality... in all sorts of interactions, they treat people pleasantly. That must mean the working environment is good.”

“Ah... that’s probably a fair point.”

Ryo argued strongly, and Abel agreed.

People’s evaluations of the owner or management change depending on whether the inn they are staying at is good or bad.

Perhaps that was only natural.

The next delegation to enter had a figure at the front who was clearly a noble.

Yes, a presence that made it obvious at a glance that he was a noble.

He was by no means posturing arrogantly.

Rather, his expression was gentle, but it also showed that he was a person of strong will.

“Is that Marquis Nyusha?”

“Yes, that’s Marquis Nyusha himself.”

Elder Masuda nodded at Abel’s question.

There was no hatred or resentment visible in Elder Masuda’s expression or manner.

He was the leader of the opposing camp, which had stood against them for five years, but it seemed there were no personal negative feelings involved.

Rather...

“To have come in person, he’s indeed a remarkable man.”

He seemed to hold something close to admiration.

“I was imagining someone more conniving.”

For Ryo, seeing him for the first time, the expression was rather direct.

“Conniving... what are you talking about?”

Abel shook his head at the sheer oddity of the phrasing.

“No, because he destroyed the royal family, right? That makes him a bad person. So someone like that must have a sneaky face...”

“So you mean a face with little dignity?”

“Yes, yes. Exactly.”

Ryo nodded as if he had gotten it right.

But hearing that, Abel again shook his head in denial.

“A guy like that could not possibly destroy a royal family.”

“Is that so?”

“Think about it using the Kingdom of Knightley as an example. If you were going to name a noble capable of destroying the royal family, it would be someone like Marquis Heinlein, Margrave Rune, or perhaps Marquis Hope. All of them are truly first-rate people.”

“Indeed.”

Abel, the very person being hypothetically destroyed, was speaking in an absurdly hypothetical way... but nobody said anything.

That was because Ryo was the one playing the jokester, not the straight man.

“Oh, there is one more senior noble with power who does not seem very capable of handling things properly.”

“Is there?”

“Duke Rondo.”

“Eh... well, he really can’t do politics or covert work at all... But Abel, you have that wrong.”

“Hm?”

“If it were me, I would ask the monsters in Duke Rondo’s domain to attack the royal family. That would definitely bring about the destruction of the royal family!”

“You would destroy the kingdom itself, not just the royal family...”

In the end, Ryo was the jokester, and Abel the straight man.

The last delegation to enter was...

“That’s the Union’s mediator, right?”

“That should be right. The one walking at the front is the Deputy Minister in charge of foreign affairs for the Eastern Eighth District...”

“Don Le-san, I believe? He looks really... tense.”

“I won’t deny it.”

The mediation group numbered seven, including Don Le.

Seeing them, Ryo tilted his head slightly.

Because Abel was sitting next to him, he noticed.

“What is it?”

“No, see that one person in the mediation group wearing a hood?”

Ryo pointed it out.

At the remark, Abel looked at the mediation group.

Indeed, one person was wearing a hood.

“There is. Judging from the way she walks, she is probably a young woman.”

“As expected of Abel. I thought she was a woman too, but... doesn’t she seem out of place?”

“Hm? Well, all the people involved in the negotiations are over thirty. In that sense, she is young. She probably has some special skill.”

“Right...? Something about her is bothering me.”

Both representative delegations and the mediators were now in place.

Join my Patreon and continue to the next chapter early here on Patreon!

Patreons are enjoying 5 to 9 chapters early now depending on the subscribed tier.