Текст книги "Overlord Volume - The Two Leaders"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

“Vampire? What’s that?”

Agu asked without thinking, and Brita smiled bitterly.

“It’s a secret. Well, it’s more like I don’t even want to think about it. You’ll piss yourself.”

“But I was the one who was aski―”

“You’re not in a position to ask questions, brat.”

“Then we’ll go ahead with his plan for the time being and report it to the Guild, and make a request if all goes well, is that it? Although request fees won’t be cheap, we’ll need to break the bank for this one. Tell Jugem-san and the chief about it later. Can you do that, Enri?”

“l’ll take care of the self-defence force. Honestly speaking, I was thinking this was the way to go too.”

Nfirea nodded as Brita spoke.

“Then, I guess I’ll be leaving the village for a bit su~ You really won’t ask Ainz-sama for help?”

“Yes. We’d like to do as much as possible by ourselves. If possible, we’d like you to tell Gown-sama that much.”

“Got it su~”

As Agu looked at Enri and Nfirea, who were moving off, a hard-to-describe feeling welled up within him.

“Just what’s so great about that woman?”

“Hah?!”

There was danger in the adult goblin’s voice, and it made Agu’s body tremble.

Agu felt that the adult goblins were stronger than anyone else in his village. It was only natural for him to break out in goosebumps when threatened by them.

Yet, this still could not overcome his childish curiosity.

“Are women really that great in this Carne tribe?”

From Agu’s point of view, Enri didn’t seem particularly strong. Although she had some muscle on her arms and legs, it wasn’t enough at all. While she didn’t need to be as big as an ogre, but if she were a superior, she needed way more than that.

If she were a magic caster he could understand it. The female leaders of the goblin tribes often used that mysterious power. However, that woman didn’t look like a magic caster.

Frankly speaking, Agu didn’t understand why Enri was placed above the goblins.

“It’s not like that.”

“Is that hunter woman that came later very strong?”

“Well, now. Brita’s not bad in her own way. But we’re better.”

Agu’s opinion of the grown goblin in front of him went up another notch. Although he was still short, Agu had the feeling that there was good reason for his confidence.

“And then, that woman who appeared from behind you, she’s not strong, is she? Scared me to death.”

The adult goblin suddenly clammed up, and stared at Agu.

Unsure of what he was feeling inside, Agu nervously asked his question.

“W-what? What’s with that woman?”

“That woman who suddenly appeared… her name is Lupusregina, and she… she’s very dangerous. If you want to live in this village, do not ever go near her or speak to her. It’s for your own good.”

“Ah. Ahhhh. I get it.”

“And I have to say this up front. Although it should be blindingly obvious, if you do anything to the people in the village… let’s be honest here, you won’t just get away with a scolding, you’d better be prepared to die.”

“I, I got it. So that’s like with a defeated tribe, right? I promise that I will not harm anyone from Carne Tribe.”

“All right, that’s good… stay away from Lupusregina, okay?”

Agu understood the mix of caution and dread in the adult goblin’s heart, and he engraved the warning into his heart. With that done, he realised he hadn’t gotten an answer to his first question, and he asked again.

“Why is Enri-san so great?”

Agu had learned to behave. Or rather, it was easy for him to learn, since he was the smartest in the tribe and couldn’t talk much with other goblins.

“Ha. …Enri… honestly speaking, she’s very strong.”

“Eh?!”

“It’s because you’re too weak that you can’t tell. if Ane-san got serious, she could take care of a barghest or whatnot with just one hand, and squeeze the blood out into a cup to drink. You know?”

“Really?!”

“Oh yes, yes, of course it’s true.”

Agu thought of Enri. Looking at it calmly, she’d been able to give forceful, effective orders. Maybe that was just the tip of the iceberg?

“Ane-san just pretends to be weak. If she hears anything funny about you, she’ll crush you to death with one hand. After that, cleanup will be a pain. There’ll be blood everywhere.”

“Is, is that so… then why, why does she have to pretend to be weak? If she were strong, wouldn’t there be fewer problems?”

“If you show off your strength, some fool will immediately come and challenge you. Won’t that cause its fair share of trouble as well?”

Agu had thought that strength was the solution to all problems, but that was not the case.

Locked in a labyrinth of self-reflection, he didn’t realise that the adult goblin in front of him had a playful expression on his face.

♦ ♦ ♦

In the middle of the night, Enri suddenly woke from sleep. Though there didn’t seem to be anything around, Enri remained still while she moved her eyes to check around her. The world before her was pitch black, lit only by a slim ray of moonlight from between the window shutters. She couldn’t see anything strange in this weak light.

But Enri’s ears could hear just fine.

There were no sounds of horses neighing, armored knights clanking, or people screaming. It was just a normal night.

Enri sighed softly, and closed her eyes. She’d been fast asleep, so she was still groggy and couldn’t get up right away.

A lot had happened today. After the talk with Agu, she had gone to explain things to the village chief and Jugem, who had returned from his scouting.

It’ll be all right, right?

In order to confirm the new information, Jugem had gone into the forest again and they had left at night. Moving at night in the forest was just too dangerous. Goblins were different from humans; they could see with small amounts of light, so they could move freely. However, there were many nocturnal magical beasts and monsters, and they would become active after the sun set.

It was much more dangerous than in the day.

If there hadn’t been the need to confirm that there were no more monsters chasing Agu, Jugem would never have set out.

It was true that the goblins were strong, but that was only in comparison to Enri. Like the Beast, many creatures in the forest were stronger than the goblins.

A sense of dread and loss fell over Enri, making her twitch, and because of that, her little sister moaned in her sleep, scooting closer to Enri’s body.

Enri half-opened her eyes, and peeked at her little sister.

Looks like it hadn’t woken her up. She could even hear her gentle snoring.

Hehe…

Just as Enri chuckled in her throat, the sound of soft knocking resounded on the door. This was definitely not a trick of the wind.

Enri frowned. What could there be so late at night? Then again, it was precisely because it was so late at night that meant it had to be important.

She gingerly separated herself from Nemu and the blanket and slowly got off the bed, moving carefully so as not to wake her little sister.

The boards creaked as she got out of bed, making Enri’s heart beat faster as she worried about waking Nemu.

After that incident, Nemu had to sleep with Enri at night, so severe was the trauma she suffered.

Enri had no intention of scolding her for it. If pressed for the reason why, it would be because Enri felt safer when she slept with her sister.

But she knew, even when the two of them were together, Nemu would sometimes be awoken by her nightmares. Because of that, Enri insisted on being with Nemu even when she was sound asleep.

Quietly, and therefore slowly, she inched toward the threshold, but the knocking didn’t stop.

Enri nervously peeked out the window, and Jugem’s silhouette was illuminated by the moonlight. She sighed in relief.

In order not to wake Nemu, Enri quietly spoke outside the window.

“Jugem-san, you’re safe.”

“Yeah, Ane-san. In the end, it was all right. I’m sorry I woke you up, but some things I think you should know early.”

Enri opened the door slightly, and squeezed her body out through the gap. She was worried that the moonlight coming in would wake Nemu. Understanding from her movements, Jugem lowered his voice and spoke.

“There’s something we need Ane-san for.”

“Now?” Enri smiled.”Of course.”

“I’m really sorry about this.”

Enri followed in Jugem’s footsteps while telling him not to apologize. It might have been better for Nemu to be awake for this, and she’d considered it, but Jugem had come for her knowing that everyone else was asleep. There had to be a reason for it.

“I’ll explain as we move along.”

Maybe he was more tired than usual, but this was work ― after Jugem made up his mind, his words took on an edge.

Although Enri felt that it was okay to be more casual with a simple village girl like herself, Jugem had never let himself relax up till now, so Enri gave up on that idea.

“Firstly, we found some members of Agu’s tribe.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“…but they’re emotionally fragile, and I think they’ll need to rest for a few days. We’ll need to borrow Ani-san for this.”

Sensing Enri’s surprised expression, Jugem followed up with an explanation.

“When we found the survivors of Agu’s tribe, they were being held by the Giant of the East’s ogres, and used as food. Although Cona healed the wounds of their bodies, their minds are still scarred. Ani-san has some medicine to calm them down, and we want him to help treat them. After that, there’s a somewhat more troublesome matter.”

Jugem watched Enri’s expression before continuing.

“When we rescued them, we captured five ogres. Although we only did it to question them… it seems ogres normally coexist with goblins, and while the ogres fight, the goblins provide food, shelter, and so on, in a mutually beneficial relationship. Because of that, they said they’re willing to fight for our tribe. According to Agu, this isn’t uncommon… so, what should we do?”

“Can we trust them?”

“Agu says we can. The ogres won’t fight for anyone apart from the goblins of their tribe, they betrayed the Giant of the East because he wasn’t of their tribe. It’s something like that.”

“Mm. But, ogres sound kind of scary…”

“Once they accept the people in the village as part of their tribe, all you need to do is feed them and it’ll be fine. You can give them just about any kind of food too. The ogres’ tendency to eat anything is quite helpful here.”

Honestly speaking, this decision was very difficult for a simple village girl to make.

“How about killing them?”

This was delivered in a casual tone.

“Frankly speaking, I have no problems with killing them outright. It would save us a big stack of problems. In the first place, people like them who betray others might turn on us if things start to go bad. Agu says they won’t, but blindly believing everything a kid says is a little…”

“And what do you think, Jugem-san?”

“If they could fight for us, it would be great. We don’t know how many pursuers might come from the forest, so a few extra meat shields would help a lot.”

“Then, one more question, will they eat people?”

“…Ane-san. Although ogres have a reputation for eating humans, they’re just monsters who eat meat. The only thing is that it’s easier to catch humans to eat than wild animals.”

For ogres, it was better to catch humans than say, rabbits. It was only natural when you considered humans were easier to capture and gave more meat too.

“Well, if you give them something to eat, they won’t attack the villagers. In the first place, they only attack people to fill their stomachs. You have my word that we’ll hunt enough animals to fill their bellies. Of course, they’ll still need to be supervised and we’ll have to see how things go. I promise we won’t let anyone in the village be hurt.”

“…In that case, it would be good if we could trust them enough to make them subordinates. Not just for now, but for the future as well.”

“I’m glad you understand. Only thing is, there’s a small difference with what I said earlier. If they fail next time, we’ll wipe them out. Truthfully speaking, I’ve been thinking of how to impress on those ogres that Ane-san is the strongest.”

“Eh?!”

Enri let out a noise that sounded like she’d been flipped turned upside down. This was too much of a leap for her. Why did a simple village girl like herself have to become the leader of a band of ogres? Wouldn’t it be enough if Jugem was their boss?

“This is planning for the future. It’ll be troublesome if the ogres think of Ane-san as just another human being. Although we listen to you, the ogres won’t listen to anyone except us, and that’s potentially very dangerous. If anything happens to us at the frontline, I hope that there’ll be someone in the rear who can command the ogres.”

Enri racked her village girl head as she pondered the problem.

“Which means you need two people who can command them?”

Jugem nodded.

“In that case, Enfi could—”

“Ani-san might end up being on the frontline too.”

“I see…”

Enri understood, and nodded. Someone in a safe place like herself ought to be useful too. That was what Enri wanted as well. However―

“But… can I control the ogres?”

“That’s what we’re about to do, Ane-san. How good are you at acting?”

♦ ♦ ♦

Jugem brought them to the village gate and then to a side door. Beyond it were five ogres kneeling on the ground. They were also the source of the stench that had been hanging in the air.

Surrounding them were the goblin troops, all of whom were present and unhurt.

On one side of the door was an observation platform, which would normally have been manned by villagers or goblins, but not now. The goblins had temporarily left it.

Nfirea was there too, along with the somewhat distant Agu.

“Yo, Enri. Nice night?”

“Yeah, Enfi. The moon’s really pretty.”

“Indeed. It’s so clear.”

“Well, excuse the interruption. We’re a little early, but let’s begin.”

Jugem yelled out as he heard Enri’s words.

“Oi! You lot! Our Ane-san is here! She holds your lives in her hands!”

When the five ogres heard this, they raised their heads to look at Enri. It felt like there was a palpable pressure crushing her, but Enri forced herself not to take a step backward. If she gave in, the plan would fail, and the goblins would nip potential problems in the bud by killing the ogres on the spot.

Enri could already see the goblins’ hands going to their weapons. Enfi was calmly taking out a potion bottle himself.

An eternity seemed to pass under the withering pressure.

Enri endured the stares of the ogres and returned it with one of her own. Her gaze was steady and unyielding.

In her eyes, the ogres overlapped with the image of the knights from back then.

Enri clenched her fists, recalling the violent urges she had back then, of wanting to rip off the knight’s helmet so she could beat him to death with it.

Don’t look down on me. Everyone else guards the village, so I have to protect this place too!

After a second ― a second which seemed to stretch out forever to Enri ― the ogres wavered.

They peeked at each other, and then at Jugem.

“Told you, didn’t I. Our boss is the strongest.”

“Faces down, all of you!”

Enri shouted out just as Jugem finished.

The forcefulness of Enri’s voice surprised even herself, and Agu at the edge of her vision twitched violently, but that was fine. What was important was that the ogres had lowered their heads to her.

For the time being, the ogres had acknowledged Enri’s superiority.

“Well then, what do you have to say to our boss, the chief of Carne Village, our Ane-san?”

With their heads still lowered, what emerged from the ogres was a torrent of confused voices.

“So, so scary, little boss. Forgive.”

“Sorry, we attacked your tribe. Please forgive.”

By “your tribe”, the ogres probably meant Agu’s tribe. Though the reality was somewhat different, it was easier for them to understand the situation as Agu’s people being part of Carne Tribe, in order to avoid overloading the ogres’ brains.

“We will, work for you.”

“That’s right! Work for me and my tribe!”

That last statement was made with the dregs of her spirit she could muster. Although she’d only said two or three sentences, Enri was already very tired. It was as bad as the encounter with the barghest.

Just as Enri was about to drop out of Boss Mode from fatigue, Jugem helped her out.

“Wonderful! Looks like Ane-san saved your lives!”

The strength had visibly ebbed from the ogres’ bodies. Given that they could be killed at any moment, that was a natural reaction.

One ogre looked at Enri and spoke.

“Boss, Chief, we, what do?”

That, she hadn’t thought about. Still, what she didn’t know, she could entrust to someone else.

“Jugem, I’ll let you take care of them. Use them as you see fit.”

“Got it, Ane-san.”

The goblin leader bowed to Enri, then turned back to the ogres.

“Well then. First of all, we’re going to pitch tents outside the village. You lot will be shacking up there. And you too, help them with the tents.”

The ogres left, accompanied by the goblins.

“Pitching tents outside the village will be a problem; we’ll need to find them a place to live in the village. Even so, we need to wait till they learn not to attack the villagers first.”

“I’ll need to go around to talk with a lot of people to make them accept it.”

“Yup. Although, I think as long as you’re the one doing it, it’ll be fine. And, about tomorrow…”

According to the plan, Enri and Nfirea would be setting out to E-Rantel, with several goblins as guards.

“I’m sorry. I still need to help treat the survivors from Agu’s tribe, so I can’t go.”

After all, they would be living in the same village as the same ogres who wanted to eat them. The mental trauma had to be treated along with their physical wounds, and Lizzie’s personality would only frighten them and have the opposite effect. In the end, there was nobody better for this than Nfirea.

“Really? I don’t feel so good about this…”

Enri didn’t have any experience with visiting a big city like E-Rantel, so from her point of view the burden seemed quite weighty.

“Then, how about getting the village chief to go with you?”

“I think that could be difficult…”

The chief would be busy whipping the village into shape, and helping out the newcomers to the village, so he wouldn’t be able to travel abroad.

“…How about the chief’s wife?”

“Mm. Well, frankly speaking, there’s not enough hands in the village. It used to be that way and now it’s even more so.”

Carne Village was a village with a very small population. As a result, when their numbers decreased, their ability to do anything decreased with it. This was why the villagers had suppressed their opposition to inviting more residents to stay with them.

“When I go to E-Rantel, I need to go to the shrine and confirm if there’s anyone who wants to move to the village… Really, this is too much for a village girl to be doing…”

“All the best, Chief.”

Enri pouted as she heard Jugem’s words. Part of her was thinking, “The nerve of you”. After all, they were one of the reasons why Enri was so busy.

“I really wanted to come along…”

Nfirea mumbled in a depressed tone, and then covered it up in a flustered flurry of desperate handwaving.

“I-it’ll be fine, I’ll take care of Nemu-chan. So you can go without worries.”

“…All right, I get it, am I the only one in the world who has to go through this? One moment people worship me and make me out to be someone great, the next I have to go somewhere I’ve never been to before and do things I’ve never done before…”

“Don’t be so pessimistic, Enri. There’s got to be someone out there who can relate to you.”

Enri smiled weakly to Nfirea and Jugem as her shoulders drooped, a sign she was losing the battle with fatigue. In the distance, Agu watched from the distance, muttering to himself.

“So it was true, she took control of the goblins by force… the Chief of Carne Village, Enri-nee…”

Side 1 (2/2)

Translator: Nigel

Editors/Proofreaders: Ferro, TaintedDream, Namorax, Skythewood, NoirX, SifaV6,

JcqC, RockGollem

 

Part 3

The fortress city E-Rantel was dominated by three concentric rings of fortified walls. The doors on these walls were some of the sturdiest and strongest parts of the walls themselves, and they seemed to radiate a sense of solidness.

It was a common sight to see travellers on the street staring open-mouthed at the city that was said to be able to repulse any invasion the Empire made. And the people on the streets had surely made similar expressions in the past.

Besides these gates were customs inspection posts, manned by several soldiers who were relaxing just out of the direct sunlight.

Although some people might question whether it was all right for the soldiers of a city near the frontline to be so relaxed, the truth was that the troops at the inspection posts were there to vet travellers. Their job was to uncover contraband and spies from other countries, so they had nothing to do when nobody was entering the city.

As a result, the currently idle soldiers ― though they maintained discipline instead of passing their time by playing cards ― couldn’t resist the urge to yawn.

They might look slack now, but when they were busy, they were extremely so. It was especially hard to describe the mornings in words, when the city had just opened its gates.

With the sun at its highest point in the sky, the travellers began appearing on the streets in small groups, scattered sparsely among the other pedestrians. It was only natural that people would travel in numbers, given that this was a world inhabited by monsters.

When they show up, they show up in force; we’re going to be busy soon, thought the guard who was idly contemplating the streets from his counter. His eyes rested on a wagon about to enter the street, waiting for some pedestrians to pass.

A woman was driving it. He couldn’t see anyone else on the uncovered wagon bed. She was travelling alone.

He couldn’t see any weapons on her either. His first guess was that she was some village girl.

As the soldier thought this, he tilted his head as he second-guessed himself.

It wasn’t anything rare to have people from the nearby villages coming here. However, a woman travelling by herself was a different matter entirely. The area surrounding E-Rantel wasn’t completely free of bandits and monsters. Thanks to the efforts of the legendary adventurer team “Darkness”, most of the dangerous monsters and bandits had been wiped out. But “most” didn’t mean “all”, and there were still mundane beasts like wolves and the like to look out for.

This wasn’t unique to E-Rantel; it applied to all of the other cities as well. And come to think of it, could women travel by themselves?

While the thought that she might have just outrun the bandits came to mind, he didn’t sense any tension or nervousness from her at all. It was as though she knew the journey was a safe one.

What kind of woman was she?

The soldier shifted his now-suspicious gaze to her horse, and that was when he did a double-take.

The horse was exceptional, not something a mere village girl would have. Its condition and coat reminded him of a warhorse.

Warhorses were extremely valuable. Even if you could actually raise the money to buy one, a normal person wouldn’t be able to get one easily. Leaving aside monstrous riding animals like wyverns and griffins, warhorses were some of the mightiest creatures which could serve as mounts.

A normal person would need money and connections to obtain such a warhorse, and a simple village girl wouldn’t have those connections.

It was also possible that she had stolen the horse from its original owner, but anyone who stole such a valuable item would be hotly pursued and targeted for retribution. This was why bandits wouldn’t steal horses or attack mounted soldiers.

In short, after considering all the visible evidence, the chances that she really was a simple village girl were very low. So what was this creature posing as a village girl?

The important thing was that she was travelling alone. That meant she was very confident in her abilities, and those abilities were not limited by the fact that she chose to dress as a village girl. With that in mind, it was likely that she was a magic caster, since their equipment and power rarely matched their appearance.

That was an answer he could accept. If pressed for the reason, it was because magic casters, or adventurers in general, were wealthy and connected, so obtaining a warhorse would be easy.

“Is that a magic caster?”

His partner beside him went through the same thought process.

“Might be.”

The soldier furrowed his brow and answered.

Magic casters were very irritating people to check and clear.

To begin with, their primary weapon, magic, was a thing that didn’t exist in a form that was visible to the naked eye. Which meant it was impossible to see what they were armed with.

Secondly, they might use dangerous items as part of their magic and finding those was hard.

Thirdly, magic casters usually had a lot of baggage, so checking them all was troublesome.

Honestly speaking, he hated dealing with them. Because of that, they’d hired a man from the Magician’s Association – after paying a suitable fee, of course – to help them out. However…

“Do we have to bring that guy out? I don’t want to.”

“It can’t be helped. If anything happens, it’s our asses.”

“It would be nice if she’d just dressed like a magic caster to begin with.”

“Carrying a weird staff, wearing a weird robe?”

“Yup. At least you’d know she was a magic caster. Then we’d forcibly enlist her into the Magician’s Association and make her carry the obligatory Adventurer’s Guild identification seal.”

The two soldiers got up as one, laughing to each other. This was to welcome the girl who might be a magic caster.

Under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, the wagon rolled up to the door and stopped.

The girl disembarked. Her forehead was slick with sweat, but she seemed used to travelling under the sun. Her sleeves were long, probably to ward off sunburn. Her clothes didn’t seem expensive or well-tailored. No matter how you looked at her, she was a simple village girl.

But you couldn’t judge a book by its cover. She could be hiding something. Their job was to find out what that was.

The soldiers warily approached the girl.

They spoke to her with kind and gentle tones. Something along the lines of, “We don’t want to spook you, so please calm down and relax.”

“Yes. No problem.”

The soldiers escorted the girl to the checkpoint.

In order to protect against the use of ‘Charm’ spells, two more soldiers followed at a distance of several meters. The others watched her carefully, wary of any suspicious movements.

The girl tilted her head several times, as though sensing the tension in the air.

“…What’s wrong?”

“Eh? Ah, no, nothing’s wrong.”

Someone who could notice the minute changes in the air couldn’t possibly be normal. The guards brought her into the checkpoint with that in mind.

“Then, could you sit down there?”

“Yes.”

The girl sat in one of the chairs provided in the small blockhouse.

“Let’s start with your name and origin.”

“Yes. My name is Enri Emmot. I come from Carne Village, near the Great Forest of Tob.”

The soldiers exchanged looks, and one of them stepped out of the blockhouse. He was going to check the register for any matching records.

In order to manage its residents, the Kingdom kept records of them in the form of registers. That being said, the registers were crude affairs, and the relevant details of birth and death were update very slowly, if at all. At a very conservative estimate, there were tens of thousands of mistakes in them. As a result, relying too heavily on the registers would be a bad idea, but even so, they had their uses.

This register was muddled, but it had a lot of entries, so searching it would take a long time. The soldiers understood this, and decided to try and take care of something else in the meantime.

“Then, in place of the toll, could I see your permit?”

Normally speaking, everyone who used the Kingdom’s roads had to pay a toll ― something like a passage tax. However, charging residents this money would cause trade to grind to a halt, and as a result every village was issued travel permits with which they could enter the city free of charge. Of course, as there were different nobles in each region, there were different rules for each region too.

“Hmmm, let me see… here it is.”

The soldier stopped Enri from opening her bag to search it.

“Ah, we’ll do that. Could you give us your bag?”

Enri handed it over without protest. The soldiers carefully searched the insides, and found a parchment.

They unrolled it on the table so everyone could see. Although the literacy rate amongst Kingdom citizens was very low, it was a given that every soldier stationed at a checkpoint could read and write. Or rather, they were here precisely because they were literate.

“I see. Well, it looks all right. This is definitely the permit issued to Carne Village. I have confirmed this.”

The soldier rolled the parchment back up and returned it to the bag.

“Next, state the reason why you’re coming to E-Rantel.”

“Yes. Firstly, I’m here to sell the medicinal herbs that we’ve picked.”

The soldiers looked outside at the wagon, whose urns were currently being searched.

“And what are the herbs you’re selling?”

“Four urns of Nyukuri, four urns of Ajina and six urns of Enkaishi.”

“Six urns of Enkaishi, you say?”

“That’s right.”

Enri was proud of this, and it showed on her face. The soldier understood why.

After all, when manning a checkpoint, one eventually picked up a working knowledge of medicinal herbs.

Enkaishi only flowered for a very short time and could only be gathered during that time, but it was a major ingredient in healing potions. The demand was very high, and thus the price was always good. If she had six urns like she said, that meant that she would have a lot of money when she sold them off.

“Then, where do you plan to sell them?”

“I was planning to sell them at the former residence of Madam Bareare.”

“Bareare? You mean the pharmacist Lizzie Bareare?”

Although she didn’t live there any more, she had been the most important person in E-Rantel’s pharmaceutical business until recently. If she was selling the herbs at Lizzie’s place, that meant Lizzie trusted her very much.

Then, there’s no need to pry deeper, the soldiers thought.