Chapter 16
#16. The North's Hidden Forestry Commissioner
The lord's study in the North Grand Duke's castle.
Kylan raised his head when he sensed the fresh scent of grass.
A servant's voice rang out beyond the door.
“Your Grace. The Tower Master of a magic tower from the Southern Continent has arrived.”
Upon receiving permission to enter, the office door opened, and a woman in green robes stepped inside.
She was Aria of the Blue Shade, master of the Green Magic Tower from the Southern Continent and the woman known as the Empire's finest plant mage.
"I am honored to meet you, Your Grace."
"Come in, Tower Master."
Kylan welcomed her in his dry voice.
Aria's gaze turned toward a small Trient trembling inside a cage in the corner of the office.
The creature had been weakened by a sun magic stone and looked as though even breathing was difficult for it.
"Good heavens…."
Aria's eyes widened.
"I have heard plenty of rumors about how savage the monsters of the North are… but I never imagined they would be this formidable. I can sense a powerful aura entirely different in kind from the plant-type monsters of the Southern Continent."
"Is that so? I've spent my entire life in the North, so I'm not very familiar with conditions in the South."
Kylan took a sip of tea and replied leisurely.
"May I extract the magic stone?"
"Go ahead. I captured the creature to trade with you."
Aria elegantly raised a hand to the Trient's forehead.
Green mana poured from her fingertips and burrowed into the Trient's body.
"Kiiiiiiek!"
The Trient let out a horrifying scream before crumbling into dust.
It was a clean execution.
When it came to subjugating plant-type monsters, there was certainly no one on the continent who could match her.
Aria picked up a large emerald-colored magic stone from the ashes.
"Ah, it has been a long time since I have seen such a beautiful magic stone……!"
Aria replied with an ecstatic expression.
She seemed to have no intention of negotiating the price.
That meant it must be an exceptionally rare item.
"It's flawless and top-grade. Given its size and purity, I believe our magic tower could purchase it for 16,000 gold. What do you think, Your Grace?"
'Jackpot!'
Kylan's heart pounded uncharacteristically hard.
He wanted to climb onto the desk and do a tap dance, but outwardly, he maintained the cold expression of the Monster Grand Duke.
"Not a bad offer. Do that. There is no one in the North who can handle plant magic in depth, so I believe this is a good deal for both of us."
"Thank you, Your Grace! If another valuable item like this ever comes up, please seek out the Green Magic Tower first."
Once the deal was concluded, Aria handed him a check bearing her mana fingerprint and left the office with a delighted expression.
Kylan waited until her presence had completely disappeared, then broke into a radiant smile.
"Hahaha!!"
When Kylan rose from his seat, Eleanor returned to the office, hurried over, and wrapped her arms around his back.
"Congratulations, Your Grace. It seems we pulled the wool over her eyes quite nicely."
"Now, now, dear. If someone hears you, they'll misunderstand. We didn't exactly deceive her."
Kylan cleared his throat and lightly pinched the tip of Eleanor's nose.
Capitalist smiles blossomed across both their faces.
***
A few days earlier, in the Grand Duke's office.
Kylan looked down at the captured Boss Trient with his chin propped in one hand.
'I wonder how much I should sell this fellow for to have people say I got a good price.'
He was happily agonizing over how to negotiate when—
Ki… kikit… save… me.
"……What?"
Kylan's eyebrow twitched. He wondered if he had just imagined what he heard.
"Please… save… me."
"Heh…!"
"If you save me…… I can… be of… use."
Kylan let out a hollow laugh.
After guarding the ramparts in the North for so long, he had seen monsters flee or charge at him, but this was the first time he had ever seen one beg for its life.
In the original novel, this creature had been nothing more than a minor extra whom Kylan cut down in a single stroke.
I just hadn't done that because it would have been a waste of money.
"Hahaha! What? You can be of use?"
"I can stop… the monsters passing through my territory… for you. And… if you need Trients… I can choose suitable ones… and send them to you… whenever you need them."
Kylan was dumbfounded.
The creature was casually proposing that it sell out its comrades to survive.
"You speak very fluently. How did a plant learn human speech?"
"What my subordinates see and hear… is conveyed to me too. B-but if you could remove those… those things… it's too hard to speak… kikigit."
The Trient glanced at the small magic stones imbued with the sun's power around it and pleaded.
Of course, Kylan ignored it.
"Not worth listening to."
Creak.
Just as he was about to give it a few light whacks to quiet it, the office door opened cautiously, and Eleanor entered with a bundle of parchment in her arms.
"Your Grace, I thought I heard faint laughter. Has something good happened?"
"Nothing much. This monster was begging me for its life, if you can believe it. Heh heh. In all my days, I've even had a tree stump offer me a subcontract."
Eleanor's eyes lit up when she heard Kylan's explanation.
It seemed the genius treasurer was clicking an abacus in her head once again.
"Your Grace…! You should accept this offer."
"You think so?"
"Yes. The Tower Master will surely offer a large sum, but if we can use a Trient as the North's watchdog, it could generate value worth hundreds of thousands of gold pieces in the long term!"
She certainly had a point.
If the Trient did its job properly, the North would gain a free first line of defense against monster waves.
And it would also provide an inexhaustible alchemical supply of materials for as long as they lived.
"But I've already promised to sell this fellow to the Master of the Green Magic Tower. If I break that promise, the North's credibility will suffer. What should I do?"
Kylan clicked his tongue regretfully.
Eleanor covered her mouth and gave him a coquettish smile.
"Oh my. In that case, I suppose it can't be helped."
Fwoosh!
As Eleanor raised a finger with a mischievous look in her eyes, a tiny sun appeared above it.
The Trient panicked and thrashed, but it had nowhere to go.
"I-I'll bring… someone to replace me… kikit! I'll bring them…!!"
"Someone to replace you?"
"There's a second-in-command who's stronger than me…!! They're about my size! I'll somehow offer them up to you, Master!"
'Who said I'm your master?'
Kylan could hardly believe it, but he found himself laughing as he looked down at the Trient thrashing desperately to survive.
'Certainly… the sturdier the North's shield, the better.'
Having finished his calculations, Kylan nodded.
"All right. Then from today on, your name is 'Pochi.'"
"……."
The struggling Trient's expression suddenly turned cold.
'This bastard?'
The Northern Grand Duke had personally bestowed a name upon a lowly monster, for goodness' sake.
When Kylan placed a hand on his sword hilt, Pochi hurriedly opened his mouth.
"Th-thank… you. Pochi… sh—…. It's a good name, Master."
"All right, Pochi. Do you know what a Mana Oath is?"
When Pochi tilted his head and waved his branches, Kylan kindly explained.
'Mana Oath' was the highest-level magical binding contract on the continent, one that crippled the mana circuits of anyone who broke their oath.
"But it can't be forced. It can only be established under terms that both parties sincerely consider equal and fair."
"I-I don't really understand, but… I'll do it."
He had no conscience, but at least he could read the room.
Right. If he didn't want to die, he should agree first, even if he had no idea what it was.
Kylan laid out the contract terms simply enough for even a stupid plant to understand.
[Article 1] I will let you live, so do everything in your power to stop any monsters that pass through your territory and come down toward the ramparts.
[Article 2] Every month, pay a set amount of magic stones and construction timber at a designated location.
[Article 3] Never attack humans without Kylan's permission.
It was a perfectly fair contract.
"For the record, by 'a set amount,' I mean as much as my beloved Eleanor here demands."
"Oh my. Your Grace, you're too much. I'm embarrassed."
At Kylan's declaration, Pochi's branches glimmered red.
The Mana Oath was rejecting the terms because they failed to satisfy its conditions for activation.
"Fine, then die here. I'll use you as firewood for my people."
Kylan was just about to beat Pochi to death when—
"Your Grace! I have a good idea."
His angelic wife, Eleanor, gently embraced Kylan from behind. She gazed down at Pochi with a benevolent look and whispered.
"How about allowing half the magic stones Pochi gathers to be consumed by the Trients? If the Trient army grows stronger, that means the North's shield will become sturdier. To ensure a supply of construction materials, we should give them enough food to reproduce, shouldn't we?"
It made sense when he heard it.
Since they could no longer attack humans, they would have to obtain quality nutrients somewhere.
She was suggesting that they apply a performance-based pay system not only to knights, but also to the monsters working as subcontractors.
Sssss…
At the promise that his labor would be rewarded, Pochi's body began emitting blue mana.
Pochi's soul had accepted the contract as reasonably fair.
"Tch. Know that Princess Eleanor has saved your life twice. Repay that favor by working yourself to the bone for the rest of your life."
"I will remember that… Master."
Thus, the forest's second-in-command, a Trient, was unfairly kidnapped and sold to Aria, while the real Pochi returned to the sea of trees and took office as Winterwald's hidden forestry commissioner.
***
The conference room of the Grand Duke's castle.
As always, Sir Walter delivered his report with a bright expression.
Despite his advanced age, he was always brimming with enthusiasm in the conference room.
"Your Grace! Please look at the place marked on the map! A group led by Hans, the Gold-rank adventurer, has apparently discovered a strange forest!"
"Strange?"
Kylan tilted his head, barely suppressing a laugh.
"That's right! They say part of the forest is filled with 'Trient corpses' that have mysteriously perished!"
The retainers began murmuring.
They reacted as though the Trients driven from their group had gone looking for a place to die.
"The adventurers are calling it the 'Silent Forest' and proclaiming it a miracle God sent to aid Your Grace, the Grand Duke of the North!"
Walter spoke with fervor.
It was truly unnatural flattery.
"If you permit it, the guild will officially post a logging quest for the Silent Forest so we can safely procure construction materials! Since it is a safe area with almost no monsters, the quest fees paid to adventurers should be low as well!"
The safer it was, the lower the fee. It was the principle of capitalism.
Count Lian and the other financial officials gave him a standing ovation.
"Hahaha! Your Grace's territory is receiving even heaven's blessing!"
16,000 gold in revenue.
Sturdy construction materials procured at a low price.
With free private security in place, the number of knights and territory residents lost each year would also decrease.
It was truly three birds with one stone.
Kylan hummed inwardly while outwardly nodding with the most dignified expression a ruler could manage.
"Hmm. Heaven is aiding Winterwald's revival. Now that we have sufficient materials, press ahead with the remaining new-city construction."
"We will obey! Your Grace!"