Chapter 68
"Black Wolves!!"
I jolted awake in the darkness at the shouts from outside.
When I hurried outside, the laborers were already huddled in a circle, holding burning logs.
I took an LED light from my Item Box and illuminated the darkness.
I could see about twenty or thirty black, writhing shapes, but there might actually have been even more.
Illuminated by the light, countless pairs of red eyes gleamed. I never expected them to attack us, even though we had more than a hundred people here.
I took ten cutlass swords and ten hand axes from my Item Box, then bought enough to make up the difference from Shangri-La.
Once I handed the clattering weapons to the beastfolk, they were ready for battle. I had the others use the axes they had been using for logging.
A beastman should be able to swing one with one hand. Then there were shields. I distributed the polycarbonate tower shields and bucklers from my Item Box among them.
"Everyone, use these! Anyone without a weapon, get inside the circle! Women, get into my house!"
They were wolf-shaped monsters, but surely they couldn't smash through the walls of the house.
"Nya! Kenichi! Give us our weapons too, nya!" "Give me a weapon too!"
I handed Myaree and Nyamena compound bows and crossbows. They should be able to see even in this darkness.
Myaree immediately nocked an arrow and fired it into the darkness.
"Yow!" "Yelp!"
The cries of wild beasts echoed through the darkness.
"Uoooooh!"
"Ah, you idiots!"
For some reason, two young men charged into the darkness with their swords raised. They were the knights guarding the viscountess.
They seemed to have gone without their armor because they had been asleep, but as guards, shouldn't they have stayed behind to protect the viscountess...?
"Y○bo summon!"
In a situation like this, the Y○bo, which was more maneuverable, would be better. Besides, it had headlights.
I started the engine at once and used the headlights to illuminate the road ahead.
As expected, the men were surrounded by black monsters. One of the blond men had his arm in the jaws of a beast.
I pressed the foot bar and drove the Y○bo forward. As I approached the scene of chaos, I took a firecracker from my Item Box and threw it.
A flash and a deafening bang thundered through the forest. As the Black Wolves flinched, my attack struck.
"Y○bo attack!"
The steel bucket struck one of the beasts in the back, tearing it in half and sending it flying.
I moved the tracks forward and charged into the pack, extending the long arm just above the ground and spinning the vehicle around and around.
"Take this! Y○bo cyclone!"
"Yow!" "Yelp!"
One after another, the Black Wolves were knocked aside by the bucket rushing toward them at high speed, tumbling across the ground.
"We're here too, nya!"
"Boss, share some prey with me!"
Myaree and Nyamena had come running over, but a black shadow sprang out from behind them.
Bell, transformed into a gale, charged into the pack of Black Wolves and sank her teeth into one of their necks.
"Kyu!"
The monster fell silent without even having time to cry out. It was probably killed instantly.
Still holding the Black Wolf in her mouth, the Forest Cat slammed it against the ground and glared at the enemy. At her magnificent display, the Black Wolves began slowly retreating.
"Follow Lady Forest Cat!" "Uoooh!" "Take this!"
The beastfolk charged into the pack next, cutting down one enemy after another.
"Lady Forest Cat is with us! There's no way we can lose!" "Ha-ha! Exactly!"
It really was true that the Forest Cat was worshiped among the beastfolk.
The pack of Black Wolves, having suffered an unexpected counterattack, quickly regrouped at the call of what appeared to be their leader and withdrew to a distance.
However, they maintained a fixed distance, neither approaching nor retreating, and watched us. They didn't seem ready to give up.
"Mmm... Explosive Magic—Explosion!"
With a high-pitched voice, a blue flash streaked through the air and became a red fireball, illuminating the dark forest with orange light.
The blast wind knocked down several giant trees, and a shock wave carrying fallen leaves swept over us.
The black pack of enemies seemed to have fallen silent after a single spell from Anemone. Monsters were supposed to have resistance to magic, but even they would be affected by this.
The monsters that had tormented me when I first came to this world had also been defeated by a single spell.
"Amazing..." "This is incredible."
Anemone's tremendous magic left even the beastfolk speechless. Most of the enemies had been dealt with, and the rest began fleeing.
"Yaaawn... I'm going to sleep."
"I guess I'll sleep too."
However, Anemone firmly pushed me away.
"No! You smell like that woman!"
What? Did I? I sniffed all over myself, but I couldn't tell.
"Boss! What should we do with the Black Wolf materials?"
One of the beastfolk laborers asked me that.
"Oh, do whatever you like with them! I don't need them."
"I might want some."
"I don't need any, nya."
Nyamena seemed to be planning to strip the materials, but I was going to sleep.
"If the fire is still burning, put it out."
I tried to give the beastfolk two shovels, but they said they had some of their own. Well, they were working on digging an irrigation canal, after all.
Before going to sleep, I dragged the exhausted knights toward the house and punched one of them once.
Compared with these men, Baron Northpole, who had fought in the campaign against Shaga, had been vastly more capable.
"That's the fee for treatment."
The knight's upper arm had been torn open by the Black Wolf's bite.
He had apparently been wearing chain mail woven like wire, but the bite had torn through that as well.
For the time being, I had him remove the chain mail, then took alcohol from my Item Box and disinfected the wound. I applied petroleum jelly over it and wrapped it in a bandage.
This was all I could do for now. Several others had been wounded, so I gave them alcohol and had them disinfect themselves.
"That's alcohol, but don't drink it. This is an ointment to stop bleeding."
No sooner had I said that than a beastman put the bottle to his lips. He immediately spat it out.
"Ugh! What the hell is this?!"
"It's medicine. They add a strange flavor so people won't drink it, and that's why it tastes like that."
It was ethanol, so it shouldn't have been harmful even if he drank it.
"Ha-ha-ha, looks like you're kindred spirits."
"But when you hear 'alcohol,' you can't help drinking it."
"Can't argue with that."
Fortunately, it didn't seem that anyone had suffered serious injuries.
As for the officials—they were hiding in the carriage and trembling, so they were no help at all.
The viscountess was unconscious inside the cabin.
"Haaah..."
All I could do was sigh. Well, I was the one who had done that to the viscountess, but even if she had been awake, she probably wouldn't have been any help...
"Um... Mage-sama."
"Hmm? Me?"
"Could you stop tormenting that woman nearby? It gets me worked up and I can't sleep."
"Yeah, me too. Thanks to that, I really went all out against the Black Wolves." "Me too."
It seemed the viscountess's voice had carried clearly to the beastfolk, whose hearing was so good. I felt bad about that.
"Yeah, sorry. It's only for tonight. To make it up to you, I'll buy everyone drinks tomorrow night."
"Really?" "Heh, nice!"
Once it was light, we would assess the situation and decide whether to transport the wounded to the city.
------◇◇◇------
Then morning came.
The viscountess, in a foul mood from the start of the morning, was grumbling as she ate breakfast at the table.
However, her face was smooth and shiny.
"I have never suffered such humiliation! After being tormented by a strange magic tool and thoroughly toyed with, I was left there without even using a man's thing! I have never endured such disgrace!"
"Kanan-sama, the line there should be, 'It's so humiliating! But I can't help enjoying it! Twitch, twitch!'"
"I-I could never say such an embarrassing thing!"
I took a sheet of paper from my Item Box.
"W-what do you intend to do with that written pledge you took from me?"
The pledge I had made the viscountess sign last night stated that she would obey my orders and never defy me, no matter what I told her to do.
"Nothing in particular."
"Don't lie! After making me disguise myself and wander the streets night after night, you intend to make me sleep with filthy, lowborn men and earn money, don't you?!"
She was already saying something embarrassing enough...
"What? Where did that specific example come from?"
"Huh? No, I... um..."
I waved the pledge in front of her and questioned her. Apparently, her husband paid her no attention, leaving her with too much pent-up desire, so she often read books like that.
Come to think of it, the old man who made a business out of copying books had said there were many books like that too.
Spending millions on erotic books, huh...? Still, I suppose the contents of such books are the same in every world.
"In any case, if I wanted to make money, there are plenty of better ways."
"T-then what was the point...?"
"So you wouldn't make me do anything."
"That's cruel! Come now, you can do anything you like, you know? This body is at your disposal!"
She squeezed her breasts through the navy-blue dress, making a gesture as though she were pushing them together and lifting them.
"I don't need it. In any case, don't interfere with us."
When the woman who had been so excited suddenly lost all her enthusiasm, her face looked as though the world had ended.
What on earth was she thinking?
"...I-I understand. Thank you for your efforts in defeating the monsters last night."
At least she did seem capable of acting like the lord's wife when necessary.
"I am deeply honored to receive such words from the viscountess. Now I need to check on the wounded knights and decide whether to take them to the city."
"I leave it to you..."
"Sure thing."
As usual, I stuffed myself with Anemone's freshly baked bread, but it seemed saltier than usual...
Anemone was in a bad mood. Well, it was my fault, so I couldn't blame her.
"Boss! Put my share in your Item Box for me."
"All right. How many are there?"
"Four. Since the ones we killed with arrows were only mine and Kuro-suke's share, it was easy to tell."
Myaree said she didn't want hers, so Nyamena seemed to have taken her share too.
"All right. We'll sell them once this job is finished."
"But the ones Anemone's magic hit were torn apart or burned to a crisp. They can't be used for materials or meat."
Unless an animal was butchered properly and bled thoroughly, the meat would be too foul-smelling to eat.
The other beastfolk seemed to be planning to sell what they had stripped from the bodies to the merchants accompanying the construction project.
If the merchants tried to buy them for next to nothing, I could put them in my Item Box instead.
Once we returned to Astrantia, the Adventurers' Guild would buy them at the proper price.
"Then should we gather the corpses and use the summoned beast to bury them later?"
"They're already gathered."
"I see. Then we'll do it after we've eaten."
There was a risk of attracting new monsters, and leaving the bodies to rot would be a sanitation problem. Construction was still ongoing, after all.
We could dry and burn them with Anemone's magic, but if we made too big a fire, it might cause a forest fire.
"Nyaa, I don't really understand money, but will we make a profit doing this kind of work?"
Myaree seemed worried that I might not be making money from a business like mine.
In reality, we were already making a huge profit from the secondhand antique furniture alone—the furniture from the viscount's mansion.
But that was due to Shangri-La's purchase appraisals, which no one knew about, so I kept it secret from everyone.
"We will. My calculations say we're in the black, and Primula will send the viscount a hefty bill too."
"Ugh... Go easy on me."
"No. I'm going to take every last penny I can."
"The greatest reward for this job is my body, you know? Since you refuse it..."
"I don't need that, and personally, the grimoire of High Protection is enough to put me well in the black. I took this job for that alone—only to discover that it's full of utterly useless people. It was enough to make my belly button boil tea."
"Your belly button, nya? What about it?"
"Oh—well, it means something like 'It's so ridiculous I can't help laughing.'"
"Then would 'Even a horse would laugh' work?"
Primula offered a fitting expression.
"If you don't have the money, a short-term lease of the land where we lived would work too."
"I-I'll tell the viscount."
"Please do."
"Also, Primula, once we return to the city, take a look at the finances of the viscount's territory. I have a feeling they're in serious trouble. Of course, for a fee."
"Understood."
After finishing our meal, I went to check on the wounded.
The beastfolk's injuries weren't serious. They were covered in fur and thick skin, after all.
However, the knight who had been bitten on the arm seemed to have developed a slight fever. Apparently, he hadn't been able to sleep because of the pain.
"I disinfected the wound, so I don't think it will fester... But should we take him to the city after all?"
There were people in the city who could use healing magic. A knight should have enough money to pay for that much.
"Ugh..."
"Take this medicine."
"W-what is it?"
"A fever reducer and painkiller. It should ease the pain and chills for now."
"You have my gratitude..."
He looked completely dejected. Where had all his former bravado gone?
We could have sent them back in their own carriage, but Primula wanted to see how her shop was doing, so we decided to go to the city in my car.
We still had plenty of time in the construction schedule.
After using Ko○tsu-san to dig a huge hole and burying the monsters' corpses...
I took the La○d Cruiser P○ado from my Item Box and refueled it a little, then we loaded the wounded knight and headed for the city.
I sang Suzhou Night Song in the car.
I had taught it to Primula, so she sang along. The knight was sprawled out in the back seat.
However, the medicine seemed to have taken effect, and he appeared to be feeling much better.
"Honestly... At this rate, we'd make more money if we took on the entire project ourselves."
"That is certainly true."
If we accepted public works from the country and I handled the work with heavy machinery, it wouldn't take much manpower or time. We'd make a fortune.
Still, I had no intention of doing that sort of work.
We arrived in Astrantia about an hour and a half later without incident.
"I-I can't believe it, in such a short time... Is this really the city of Astrantia?"
"Yes, it is. Now get out. You can walk, so you should be fine, right?"
"You have my gratitude..."
I helped the knight out of the car and headed for Primula's shop.
People on the streets stared at us, but I ignored them.
Primula's shop also seemed to be running smoothly, with no problems. I heard that they were replenishing every shop with the soup stock I had been supplying.
There didn't seem to have been any retaliation from the merchant who had been harassing them, even after they made the rounds of the branch shops.
Still, it irritated me that the enemy was continuing to do business as though nothing had happened.
Even though I wanted to do something about him, stirring up trouble would only inconvenience Primula's shops, which had finally begun running smoothly.
Well, I had to exercise restraint here.
------◇◇◇------
Ten days later, the irrigation canal was successfully connected to the canal in the neighboring territory—the territory of Viscount Tsunbergia.
The canal in the neighboring territory had already been completed, and no one was there. Apparently, we really were the only side that had fallen behind.
Given how terribly we'd been managing things, that was understandable... especially since the lord was absent.
The viscountess had said that the lord had suddenly been summoned to the capital, but if they had finished construction sooner, there should have been no problem at all.
Several days before the connection, a messenger was sent to the neighboring city of Akimenes, and it seemed they had decided to hold a ceremony.
These sorts of events must have been important to nobles, because the lord of Tsunbergia arrived from the neighboring city with several carriages.
He was a short, fat man wearing a blue outfit embroidered with gold thread. A blue hat resembling a beret, decorated with bird feathers, sat on his head.
His face was red, and he looked as though he had high blood pressure...
"Viscountess Eupatorium, it is truly wonderful that the canal construction commissioned by His Majesty the King has been completed."
"Indeed, it is."
"However, the report I received about a month ago said that the work had only reached the edge of the forest and that cutting straight through it would be impossible..."
"That is true. But my friend, the mage, came rushing to our aid!"
"A mage?"
"You must have heard of him, Viscount Tsunbergia—the mage Kenichi, who defeated the heinous bandit Shaga in Dalia."
Wait, wait! Why are you revealing that?!
"What? I did receive a report about someone by that name..."
"Using the many splendid feats of magic performed by Kenichi-dono, we accomplished this difficult construction project!"
"Hmm... I never imagined that such a mage was supporting Eupatorium..."
As I watched the viscountess and the viscount talking from a distance, Myaree spoke to me.
"There's a blue thing on the nobleman's hat, nya. That's a tail feather from a Kokka bird, nya."
"So that's what it is. Huh."
The tips of the feathers were blue, the stripes gradually faded, and they finally became white—a beautiful feather.
However, judging from the other noble's behavior, it seemed he had expected our side's construction to fail.
Well, anyone could tell we were a mess just by looking at us... Perhaps these people were involved in various schemes.
Even if the current lord were dismissed and a new lord appointed, it would only mean replacing the person in charge, and I couldn't imagine it affecting the place where I lived.
Besides, the construction had succeeded. It was fair to say the crisis had passed.
I would send Primula to the nobles to inspect the finances, so we should be able to uncover any problems as well.
The ceremony ended, and we prepared to return to the city. We all climbed into my La○d Cruiser P○ado and headed for Astrantia.
Of the nobles, only the viscountess rode in my car. The other officials and maids returned to their territory in carriages.
About four large empty carriages also arrived at the site to take the laborers home. However, the beastfolk apparently didn't use them because running on their own legs was faster.
They could run at about thirty kilometers per hour, so even if they hunted along the way to fill their stomachs, they would still reach the city by the end of the day.
Still, seeing more than fifty beastfolk running in formation like a marathon was like watching an entire tribe on the move.
They had all sorts of fur patterns, which was fun to watch and somehow heartwarming. Their markings looked exactly like those of cats in my original world.
As I drove and watched the beastfolk running alongside us, they noticed us too and waved.
In fact, when Bell stuck her head out of the car window, some of them even clasped their hands and worshiped her.
"There aren't any male cats with calico patterns, right?"
"Boss, you know a lot."
"That's right, nya!"
"But there are extremely rare male calicos too, aren't there?"
"That's right, nya!"
"But they're so rare that nobles sometimes keep them as curiosities and show them off."
"That's pretty sad."
The patterns here were just like those of cats back home, too.
More importantly...
"Hey, Kanan-sama, why did you mention my name?"
"W-well... Surely it's only natural to want to boast when one has such a splendid friend."
"You really don't have any friends, do you?"
"Hmph. Friendship with nobles is impossible. We are all enemies, constantly trying to trip one another up."
"That's bleak. Is that really how it is, Primula?"
"As far as I know, there are some people who are on good terms with one another..."
"It's all just a façade!"
The viscountess seemed to have become disillusioned with noble society.
"So even while smiling and shaking hands on top of the table, they kick each other's legs beneath it?"
"Exactly!"
Because of what had happened this time, the neighboring territory had learned my name. Would rumors spread at an accelerating rate now?
In the meantime, we arrived in Astrantia.
"Are we there already? Good heavens, this summoned beast is magnificent!"
"Please don't tell other people, 'My friend controls incredible magic and summoned beasts!' or boast about me like that, Kanan-sama."
"Why not?! As I said before, surely one may boast when one has a splendid friend!"
The viscountess said that to me, but...
"It would cause trouble for me. If trouble came rushing to me from every direction, I'd have to leave the viscount's territory and move somewhere far away."
"No, that will not happen. Once they know you are under the viscount's protection, other nobles will not dare make a move against you so easily."
"Even so, they'll approach me behind the scenes, won't they? There must be plenty of larger, richer territories that could offer better terms than the viscount's territory."
"You said we were friends, yet would you betray me for money?"
"I'm not going to do that, but..."
"Then help me too! Protect me!"
"That is the job of the lord, your husband, and the knights, isn't it?"
"Isn't this where you embrace me and speak words of love?!"
This woman was married, yet after having too much time on her hands, she seemed to have confused fiction with reality.
If only the other nobles would give up on interfering with us, as the viscountess said.
Primula, who had been listening to us, looked somewhat exasperated.
"Sigh... Perhaps clinging to Count Asclepius's protection from the beginning would have been an option after all."
"What?! Against a great noble like him, I would have no chance!"
"Primula, is that true?"
"Yes... Well, I did mention before that such an option might be possible, didn't I? But then Kenichi ran away..."
"Still, after hearing the townspeople talk about their dislike of nobles, I can understand it. I felt the same way myself—ha-ha."
Neither Viscount Eupatorium nor his wife seemed to be bad people.
They just didn't seem particularly suited to politics.
I suppose we should use proper wording: They simply didn't seem particularly suited to governance.