Chapter 17
#17. Monster Construction Techniques
The North's Silent Forest lay blanketed in thick dawn mist.
Gale and Rick, along with the other adventurer laborers, entered the forest with lively strides.
Gale carried an axe, while Rick pulled a large cart.
"Big Brother. We're quite far from the ramparts now. Are you sure just the two of us can handle this?"
Rick asked in a trembling voice.
They had been happily hunting Trients with their axes, but now they seemed afraid of their fellow adventurers.
Gale sighed, wondering when this little brother of his would finally grow up.
"Hans's group passes through this area every day these days, so there won't be any problem. Guildmaster Walter said it was a safe area with no monsters, remember?"
"Aha! If that's what Big Brother Hans says, now that he's become a Gold-rank adventurer in just a few months, we have to trust him!"
Rick chimed in with an innocent smile.
Those words made Gale's insides sting a little.
"Yeah... Sorry I've been Silver rank for ten years. Damn it."
"I'm joking, I'm joking. I always rely on you more than I do on a Gold-rank adventurer, Big Brother. People just don't appreciate it these days because we keep going from one manual-labor job to another."
"Ha! Thanks for saying that, at lea—?"
Gale, who had been walking ahead, stopped.
Crrrkk! Kikik!
The distinctive footsteps of a Trient sounded from beyond the mist.
Gale's party reflexively reached for the weapons at their backs and tensed.
"Eek, eek! Big Brother! You said this was a safe area!? From today on, I will never trust anything Big Brother Hans says again!"
"Calm down! The guildmaster entrusted me with a sun magic stone. We should be able to escape somehow…!"
Gale watched the area ahead with cold sweat running down his face.
Emerging through the mist was a group of Trients boasting terrifyingly massive bodies.
Yet there was something strange about their behavior.
The Trients were using branches and vines to hurriedly carry the corpses of their kind somewhere.
"……What on earth are they doing?"
The rising sun dispelled the mist and brightly illuminated the adventurers and Trients.
"Kikik!?"
The group of Trients and the adventurers locked eyes.
Gale was just about to hurriedly pull the sun magic stone from inside his coat.
"Kikik! It's already morning! Kikik!"
For a moment, Gale doubted his own ears.
It sounded as though the tree monster had just spoken human words.
"Kikik! That was a mistake!"
The group of Trients fled deep into the forest with their tails between their legs.
They did not even look back.
Their legs looked awkward, but they were astonishingly fast.
…….
Silence descended over the forest.
It was true to the name Silent Forest.
Gale said with a vacant expression,
"Maybe it's because we haven't had Her Highness the Princess's meat soup lately. I'm hearing things."
"You too, Big Brother? It sounded exactly like those trees were speaking like humans as they ran away."
"You must have misheard. They're not goblins; there's no way Trients could…"
The adventurers stood there dazed for a while, then stepped into the forest one foot at a time.
In any case, they had come here to work.
If they did not work, they would not get paid for the day.
A little later, the adventurers discovered an area where countless Trient corpses had been neatly arranged.
"Could they be pretending to be dead to trick us?"
Rick asked while gripping his axe tightly.
Gale slowly shook his head.
"No… Northern Trients instinctively avoid sunlight. Look at those things. They're taking the morning sunlight head-on and haven't moved an inch."
The Howling Forest was a sticky, humid environment perfectly suited to Trients, because the boss monster had controlled even the forest's weather.
But the Silent Forest was generally too dry for Trients to live in.
Nor was it densely wooded.
Gale cautiously approached and lightly kicked one of the trees. A clear, lively sound rang out.
"It's completely dead. There's not a trace of mana left."
Once Gale finished confirming it, the adventurers who had been so frightened lit up with excitement.
"Amazing…! We can just pick these up and take them, can't we!?"
"So that's why the quest reward is so stingy. We'd have to haul them all day to make a profit."
Just as everyone was excitedly chattering, one adventurer who had been standing there blankly slapped his knee and shouted,
"I get it! The Trients completely surrendered to the might of the knights led by His Grace the Grand Duke!"
"Is that why they wet themselves and run whenever they see a person?!"
"Of course! We saw it clearly ourselves, didn't we? The Trients being helplessly sliced apart by the axes blessed by Her Highness the Princess!"
"Long live the Grand Duke!"
Without dreaming that what they had witnessed was Pochi's tearful subcontracting operation, the adventurers poured out blind praise for the Grand Duke of the North.
By now, praising the ruler of the North had become a sport and a hobby for them.
A sad story, enough to make one's eyes well up.
But in this cold North, it was true that there was not much else to enjoy.
"Hey! Stop shouting and load them onto the cart!"
"By the way, these are really light. They won't blow away when the wind comes, will they?"
"Don't say ominous things. This is the house we're going to live in."
As though meeting a talking Trient was not even worth bragging about, the adventurers hurried to finish the day's work.
***
The Winterwald new-city construction site.
Today as well, the grand-ducal couple walked through the center of the construction site shoulder to shoulder, looking as close as ever.
A pink aura even spread around them, enough to make anyone who saw them mistake their site inspection for a date.
"Done! Bring the mixture!"
At Viscount Argen's command, the laborers poured a special mixture made by blending slime gel and soil between the steel timbers.
"Done! That's enough!"
And before even a minute had passed, a miraculous thing happened.
The slime gel hardened, causing the steel timbers to stick tightly to one another.
"The mixing ratio Your Grace specified is even more precise than the old one... Truly, Your Grace is worthy of endless admiration…!"
The slime gel was not only used to connect the steel timbers.
When it was poured over a wall made of stacked stones, it perfectly filled the uneven gaps and completely blocked the North's cutting winds.
Viscount Argen stroked the hardened wall and was practically moaning with delight.
"Ahh…! This is truly revolutionary! Your Grace! Where on earth did you learn all this!?"
"Heh heh. I'm glad you like it."
Should they call it monster construction techniques?
Every material used to build the houses was so absurdly overpowered that even someone who did not know the first thing about construction could show up as a laborer and watch buildings go up in no time.
"Big Brother! The wall finishing is complete over here!"
Rick, the Southern adventurer who had become a familiar face to Kylan by balancing subjugation work with manual labor, excitedly tapped the wall.
"This is no joke! Want me to give it a smack and see how sturdy it is!?"
Rick imbued his fist with mana and punched the slime wall.
Wham!
"Aaaaargh! My hand!!!"
Rick screamed and rolled around on the ground.
His attitude was perhaps a little too playful, but it was an amusing sight even from a distance.
'Still, the construction site probably needs people like him to keep things moving.'
Not a speck of dust rose from the wall, but Rick continued rolling around on the ground for quite some time.
"Big Brother! Even a hammer wouldn't do anything to this."
"That's right. It's the house we'll live in someday!"
Kylan nodded approvingly at his good attitude.
Even Rick, who was blinking away a few tears, looked happy.
He was probably proud that the city he would live in someday would be the sturdiest on the continent.
"Bring the next materials!! We'll have the roof on by tonight!!"
Perhaps it was because they enjoyed seeing the results appear right before their eyes.
The laborers worked with enthusiasm.
***
That night.
The grand-ducal couple looked down over the construction site from atop one of the buildings.
The lord of the North and the people who lived there alike.
Many of them had no idea how to take a proper break.
"Shine on everyone."
With her hands clasped together, Eleanor raised a sun into the sky above the construction site.
As brilliant golden light pushed back the darkness, the laborers redoubled their efforts.
"You've worked hard, Eleanor. Here, have a cup of warm tea, and let's head back."
Kylan approached, draped his coat over her shoulders, and placed a steaming cup of tea in her hands.
"Thank you, Your Grace."
Eleanor took a sip of tea with a soft slurp.
"Thanks to Your Grace's benevolence, Winterwald is transforming into the finest city on the continent. Just look at how lively the people are."
"Heh heh. How could I take credit for this? It is all thanks to your brilliant magic and your support as my wife. Without you, spring would never have come to Winterwald."
They were a perfectly compatible couple who had never once grown tired of each other.
Kylan almost automatically showered his wife with praise as he smiled happily.
'Heh heh! Steel trees don't need to fear insects eating them or corrosion!'
Maintenance costs: 0 silver!
Besides, thanks to the slime insulation, the residents living inside could save on heating costs as well.
The hundreds of sturdy buildings rising rapidly before his eyes looked to Kylan like a goose laying golden eggs.
'Haha! This is passive income itself, something we can pass down for generations!'
Kylan barely suppressed his escaping laughter and looked at Eleanor with a serious expression.
Then, without either of them waiting for the other, they leaned close.
"Ah… Your Grace…"
When he kissed her forehead, Eleanor's earlobes turned bright red.
The artificial sun floating in the night sky also began to shine even more dazzlingly.
"Her Highness the Princess is cheering us on! Let's work twice as hard since we're being paid double!"
Kylan wrapped an arm around Eleanor's waist and gazed toward where the Central Continent lay.
'Günter of the Golden Scales Merchant Guild, was it? By now, he must have heard our news and be making quite a sight of himself.'
That foolish man, who must have even taken out high-interest private loans, was probably embracing a mountain of unsellable inventory by now, wearing an expression I could imagine without even seeing it.
'He should have known his limits.'
Kylan smiled coldly and took a long, satisfying drink of tea.
The day when the continent's money would pour into Winterwald was fast approaching.