Chapter 712 - Chapter 12: Busy Days
After leaving Gnome's cave, I sent Wilson-san to the Royal Capital, did the restoration of the Northeastern Forest, and then headed to the border with Engrio. However, I parted with the party at the checkpoint. There, I met up with Sianya, who had arrived in a bowl operated by an Engrio magic soldier, and the Vice Commander, and went to the fortress in the demon realm in the eastern part of the Royal Capital. That's because that night was the sleepover at the female demon's place.
The Vice Commander returns to the fortress every vacation. Since there are soldiers staying behind at the fortress, when the Commander, who is the fortress's commanding general, returns, everyone tightens up. At the same time, they also seem relieved. He must be good at taking care of them. I was told by that Vice Commander to come again next month. It seems my vacations have no connection with hot spring resorts.
The next day, I went to the border checkpoint. I met up with Archbishop Price and Harris-sama and headed to the Engrio Royal Capital. The destination was the Royal Capital Great Church.
I have visited the church itself as an outsider when we did the rat extermination in Engrio. This time, I'm a guest because it's the confirmation of the draft of the report regarding the fifth Secret Book and the Testament.
I have met the Archbishop of Engrio many times during the survey. Since Archbishop Price was there, I was easily shown to the Church Head's office.
"It's been a long time."
Since Sianya was already there, I immediately went over and secured the spot next to her. As soon as the greetings are over, I have something to ask.
"I've never seen a report that only royals see, though."
In the first place, it's strange to try and have me confirm it.
"It's fine. Because it was made by the Engrio Royal Capital Great Church Head and Harris-sama."
Saying that, she giggles.
I see. For now, I just have to read it.
I actually read the draft of the report, but as Sianya said, there was no need to worry. It was said that smart people's talk is easy to understand, and it was written in a way that could only be described as concise, so even I understood it. Despite that, Archbishop Price is giving several correction instructions. When I was shown, he had only swapped some paragraphs of the text. Even though the content being written shouldn't have changed, it became a remarkably clear text. What on earth is his brain structure like? Even though we are both priests, it's quite different.
"This kind of thing is where experience counts. Try being cooped up in a church and being made to rewrite reports day after day for over twenty years. Anyone would become like this even if they hated it."
It's not a smile but a half-smile. He must have gone through a lot of trouble.
"Jeanne is a stray, and monster extermination is her forte. You can leave this kind of thing to the civil official types."
The Archbishop of Engrio and Harris-sama nodded greatly. Both of their fortes are monster extermination. They must have gone through a lot of trouble.
"Bishop Sianya might have to understand it, though."
"Yes. I will devote myself to it."
It's the first time I've seen Sianya's cold sweat.
Once the draft was finished, it was the final copy. We'll make them for the seven related countries, excluding Morandine. In short, it's just about neatly copying it out, and we all split the work for the final copies. Each person made the one for their own country, and since Harris-sama was there, I handled the one for Finis. Incidentally, the Archbishop of Engrio made the one for Regnentes, and Harris-sama made the one for Northern Gram. We sprinkled them one by one and tied them with leather cords. Originally, they would be sealed with beeswax, but they'll probably show them to King Seldic first. We put them in a wooden box just like that.
We left the church and went to the palace by carriage. It's to show them to King Seldic.
In the palace, we were shown to a place like a reception room instead of the audience chamber. No one was there except King Seldic. When the greetings were over, the King himself prepared the drinks for us.
The seven scrolls of the report were lined up on the table by the hand of the Archbishop of Engrio.
"They are all the same. The handwriting is different because we all split the work."
"Humph. So I can take any of them."
"Yes. It's a local privilege, isn't it?"
It's probably to dispel King Seldic's suspicion, but it's a clever way of putting it.
King Seldic took one and probably read it twice. After that, he handed it to the Engrio Royal Capital Great Church Head and requested its storage.
"When are you going?"
He's already asking the next question to Archbishop Price.
"We must inquire with the Grand Archbishop, and at this point, we can only say at the earliest possible time."
"Will the heroes also participate?"
"Yes. If it's decided we're going, I'm thinking of making a request."
"How many people will go?"
"It hasn't been decided. We'll secure a certain number of people and reduce them depending on the situation."
"Have the people of my country participate too. Depending on the case, I will go too."
If King Seldic goes, a war won't break out.
"I shall convey to the Grand Archbishop that there was an offer of assistance."
Engrio soldiers basically cannot enter the Ruined Town. If they enter, it would be a special case. He seemed dissatisfied with Archbishop Price's reply, but as a defeated nation, he'll just have to accept it.
Once the confirmation of the report was finished, we finally returned to the cave where the Demon Lord would be resurrected. We met up with the Henry Party here too, and I was handed the amulet containing the stone that Erikson-sama is scheduled to possess by Eleanor-sama. Erikson-sama is apparently on standby until the time to finally break the Magic Stone.
I was given one day off, but I spent that time infusing magic into the Light magic circles to be used in the cave.
Lately, I've been too busy and have no time to relax. I might be tired. The soldiers passing by in the passage all call out to me worriedly. It's bad if it's showing on my face.
I feel like I haven't done rat extermination lately either. Perhaps because I haven't seen a rat's face for a while, I had a dream where Nakanohara was covered in rats.
"What are you going to do tomorrow? You've been busy lately, haven't you? You were moaning 'rats, rats' last night. Wouldn't it be better to rest a bit?"
The mage whose wish is about to come true and who will have a shop on the Royal Capital's main street asked. Though, the shop's name is Class of 175 Shop No. 6.
"Well, I had a strange dream. A dream where a swarm of rats occupied Nakanohara."
"Listen..."
She was quite exasperated with me.
Since it looked like she was going to lecture me, I changed the topic.
"How is the shop going? Smoothly?"
"Hmm? Nu-fu-fu-fu. Well, yeah."
Since she bit into it, I'll try asking further.
"The shop is decided."
"The main street?"
"That's right."
"Isn't that amazing!"
"Well, yeah."
Her grinning face won't stop.
"The problem is the shop's name."
Isn't the shop's name Shop No. 6? Is she dissatisfied? Well, Beatrix Magic Tool Shop would be fine too, though.
"It might become Shop No. 7."
"Shop No. 7?"
According to Beatrix, there's talk of making a downtown version of Shop No. 3, where Mary is the manager. To be precise, the talk itself has been around for a while. It was like a story of setting up a branch for one of the girls who became a clerk in the early days and who was identified as a candidate. However, that girl, who was the key person, had gotten married and was on maternity leave. It seems that girl has safely returned. She was just fifteen when the shop opened, but she's already a mother over twenty. The partner is a guy she's been dating since their orphanage days, and he's currently working in the guards.
"Which one is faster?"
"I don't know. This one is like that, but over there, they haven't talked to everyone yet. Since it's downtown, there will be a shop, but as expected, the interior and such. Price aside, that one clearly has more furniture. Probably both will open around autumn."
It's August now. So in two or three months, huh. Before winter would be good. The downtown one aside, the magic tool shop's customers are wealthy people. Depending on the case, foreign nobles will also come. After all, it has the Sertorian Royal Family's seal of approval. If they are nobles, they'll have plenty of money from taxes, so their purse strings will likely be loose.
"Mary says it's better to wait until after they've paid their taxes, because even if it's just a few days early, they'll end up paying for a whole year. Also, in the case of a magic tool shop, the Royal Family's payments related to Teleport will be on a yearly basis, so they'll be more generous with orders after the taxes have come in. So at the earliest, it'll be after mid-October, I guess."
I see. Everyone thinks the same.
"More importantly, right now, it's you, Jeanne. I can't leave you alone when you're moaning in your sleep from a strange dream about rats."
Dammit, I couldn't deceive her.
The next morning, Beatrix negotiated, and it was decided to do the rat extermination of the fortress. I had heard before that they were in the underground warehouse and such, but since it's another country's fortress, I had refrained, thinking there would be many military secrets. However, since it was built for the surveillance of the cave where the Demon Lord would be resurrected, it's apparently fine not to worry about it since it's assumed that other countries' Demon Lord subjugation units will come and go normally. However, as a result of saying I wanted to do it even though there was no request, it was unfortunately treated as a hobby and there's no reward.
"Is it that fun? Wouldn't it be better to rest? You can rest for a day, you know."
King Seldic tilted his head.
"It's like training, so if I don't do it, I feel somewhat unsettled."
"Humph. Well, do as you like. Since you two are already familiar faces, you can wander around as you please. I'll have a guide take you to the entrance, at least."
I was concerned about the 'to the entrance' part, but I understood from the moment I descended the spiral staircase to the basement to scout the place to set the bait and approached the entrance door. It's the 'excretion' type. The guide soldier is already wrapping a hand towel around his face. It smells terribly. I felt like I was going to gag. The soldier, taking advantage of the fact that I was taking light with the Light I produced from the tip of my staff, opened the door and said, "Well then!" and tried to quickly hand over the key and climb the stairs.
"Wait a second!"
Beatrix caught him.
"W-What is it. I was told by His Majesty that I'm just the guide!"
There's no need to hate it that much, is there?
We held him back as he tried to flee, and managed to get him to talk. He said that if we close the door and it's in a distant place, it's fine, so he decided to tell us what he knew.
According to him, this place is like a drainage channel and there are no basements or anything. And ahead of this, it's connected to a cliff in the forest and is being discharged directly down the cliff. According to the fortress soldiers, the rats are mainly appearing in the basements and on the first floor using the vertical holes connected to the drainage ditch as a means of movement.
The fortress usually only has surveillance personnel. At most several people. Since rainwater also joins in, it was basically no problem even if left alone.
But since the cave conquest operation started, more than several hundred people have been staying for months. I don't know if the field mice in the forest became rats or if the ones originally there increased, but they won't be troubled for food. And humans put out what they put out. Even if nothing else, if the Demon Lord's army were to be resurrected, they would probably block the drainage ditch with soil. As a result of sediment accumulating there, humans stopped approaching the drainage ditch. The rats are doing as they please. It's not as bad as Archbishop Stephens's place, but why are fortresses like this?
Since complaining won't start anything, I scout while squatting on Beatrix's plate. The structure is simple; there are vertical holes here and there in the descending drainage ditch, and filth is accumulated beneath them. I had them forbid the use of toilets except for one place for now, but since I'm afraid of unexpected falling objects, I advanced while protecting my head with a second Wind Barrier.
The drainage ditch would originally be washed away by rainwater, but unfortunately, there are too many people. The descending drainage ditch is blocked in places, and there are traces of it overflowing. While turning my nose at the stench, I reached the discharge outlet that had become narrow. Light can be seen, but it's narrow. Since I don't want to do things like crawling, I went up and went outside the fortress. When I looked near the discharge outlet from outside the fortress, filth was accumulated at the bottom of the cliff below my eyes, and slugs and cockroaches and such were swarming in mountains. The surrounding area is forest.
"What to do is decided. I've never felt more regretful that I can't use Maelstrom than now."
"Are we going to flush it? Shall we ask Eleanor-sama for help?"
"No, the two of us will do it."
"How?"
"Let's break that embankment."
When I wondered what she was going to do, she went downstream of the drainage ditch, flew a second Wind Barrier, made it sink into the embankment, and released it all at once. Since she released it toward the upstream, it didn't come here, but it was a mess. Various things flew around, and because it broke, the sewage started flowing out, and the smell became even worse.
The two of us, while saying "geh-geh," managed to endure just barely without vomiting. We went toward the upstream and broke them one by one, and finally broke them all.
Once we broke them all, we left the drainage ditch once, went above the vertical holes, and washed them with Shower. We went back to the drainage ditch once more and fired Shower with force repeatedly... or rather, persistently, and washed every corner, from the walls to the passages.
"Alright! With this, it should have become a bit better, right?"
She has sweat on her forehead. If she can clean this seriously, she should do at least some tidying up normally.
"True, but aren't you using too much magic?"
"Yeah. I'm a bit tired."
"Shall we rest? What about the rats?"
"I forgot."
"Listen..."
"Just kidding, just kidding."
While saying that, she went up above the holes again. She froze the wet walls of the holes with Freeze.
She dropped the prepared leftovers from the holes. It's a setup where if the rats are attracted by the food, they'll slip on the ice, fall into the drainage ditch, and gather.
We left it like that, and when we went after eating lunch, they were gathered in mountains. I annihilated them with a series of Overflows while they were all looking this way and saying "kii-kii." We also had the soldiers help with carrying out the corpses. That said, it's just about preparing a teleportation magic circle and teleporting them. We offered a funeral service and cremated them.
That night, I could sleep soundly.
"Good morning!"
It's a refreshing morning after the rat extermination. Everyone I meet in the passage greets me with a smile.
It was when I sat down for breakfast.
"Ah, Bishop Jeanne."
King Seldic, who was having breakfast at the same table, called out.
"Yes."
"From now on, it's fine if it's once every two weeks, but please do the rat extermination. Since it's a formal request, I'll pay the reward at the market rate. Regarding yesterday's portion, was it fifty-three rats? I'll put out for that too."
"Yes. I understand. But what happened all of a sudden?"
"It's better for your health that way, isn't it?"
What does that mean?