novelraw Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Chapter 41
“…Is it night?”
When I opened my eyes, the entire training ground was already filled with darkness.
Everyone had already left the training ground, and the only one waiting for me was Leisha.
“This feels kind of unfamiliar.”
From the faintly echoing, unidentified cries in the distance to the subtle, earthy smell rising up.
Even the gentle flow of the night breeze could be felt vividly.
These were things I clearly hadn’t been able to sense before.
“Don’t tell me… did I become a Master?”
“That’s right. You’ve properly become a Great Warrior now, bear.”
“Really? But somehow… it feels a bit lacking?”
“Is there a problem?”
“You know how they say when one becomes a Master, their body gets reconstructed? But for me, nothing seems to have changed?”
“Is that so? I wouldn’t know. Nothing really changed for me either.”
‘So things like rebirth must be nothing more than stories from novels. Or maybe my body is already in the most ideal state for me.’
If not that, then maybe it was because our training method was similar to that of Beastmen.
The so-called signs of a Master were said to be bodily reconstruction and a perfect Aura Blade.
Since my appearance didn’t look any different at all, I grabbed my greatsword and pushed aura into it.
“…Huh?”
I just wanted to confirm for myself that I had truly become a Master, but the result wasn’t very impressive.
The aura did wrap around the greatsword, but it was as thin as paper, barely visible to the naked eye.
It was true that, due to the characteristics of the aura training method I learned, I had slightly less aura than knights from other regions, but this felt too extreme.
‘This is really rabbit-like.’
-What! Are you insulting me?
As I let out a sigh in disappointment, Leisha comforted me.
“Isn’t that sort of thing nothing more than bluffing anyway? It doesn’t really hold much meaning.”
“You’re not wrong, but… just asking, you can do it too, right? Aura Blade.”
“Of course.”
“Can you show me once?”
Even though she said an Aura Blade was just bluff, I still asked Leisha to show me hers.
She nodded and extended her right hand to the side, immediately releasing the blade.
‘Whoa.’
A jet-black aura blade shot out, easily over a meter in length.
Not only did it perfectly form the shape of a blade, but the area extending more than a meter around the edge was engulfed in a storm of mana, rippling with darkness.
It was an insanely cool sight.
“…That’s brutal.”
She had said the blade was just bluff, yet that was way too serious, wasn’t it?
A strange sense of defeat made me sigh again.
But as Leisha said, anyone struck by it would die anyway.
‘What makes a Master formidable is the Aura Blade’s lethal cutting power and overwhelming physical abilities.’
I had already been confident in my physical ability to some degree, and if I supplemented the Aura Blade with the performance of weapons, then I should be more or less ready to face other Masters.
As I calmed my mind, I observed Leisha again.
They say one sees as much as they know—now that I had become a Master too, I wanted to gauge her level.
“……”
But no matter how I gauged it, I couldn’t picture a scenario where I overpowered Leisha.
It seemed there was still quite a large gap between us.
Just how strong was this woman?
‘Am I really sure I became a Master?’
-That much is certain, master. That female is simply abnormally strong.
I had definitely climbed a level, but if we sparred again, I felt like I’d just get beaten up. The thought left me feeling bitter.
At least once, I wanted to land a hit on Leisha.
But for now, that seemed impossible.
I hadn’t realized it when I first woke up, but apparently, I had been standing there for a whole three days.
Leisha was the one who drove out all the troops and protected me for those three days.
‘They say right after becoming a Master is the most dangerous, so she completely barred others from entering.’
-Still, when it mattered, that female did her duty.
Leisha must have spent those three days by my side, enduring boring hours.
She might be rough during training, but when it came to caring, she was a considerate teacher.
‘Did she see results in other ways too?’
Anyway, since I became a Master, maybe inspired by that, a training craze had spread among the knights.
Starting with Rudick, who rolled up his sleeves saying he wouldn’t lose to me, every knight had thrown themselves into repeated training.
‘Even the lion tribe warriors quietly joined in.’
Perhaps my duel with Limond had left a strong impression, because they kept requesting sparring matches with other knights.
Thanks to that, the knights and warriors were quickly growing close. It didn’t seem like a bad development.
“Haha, strong indeed. But you’ve still got a long way to go!! Hee-yah!”
“Argh!”
“Rasato, Dikiroshano? (That human, what is he? From the Bear Tribe?)”
“That male, he’s more beastman-like than actual beastmen.”
At the center of the exchange between the Black Lion warriors and the knights stood Rudick, the captain of Johnson’s knights.
He acted a little ridiculous, but he had a friendly nature.
Rudick was a massive 195cm tall and over 120kg, practically a superhuman mass of muscle.
While he was somewhat lacking in finesse, his strength was second to none.
Especially when it came to grappling, no one could easily overpower Rudick.
“Let’s play again next time, friend.”
“Urk, Haki-asohado! (Urk, get away!)”
“Ah, you like that? Haha, I really like you lion friends.”
They couldn’t understand each other’s words, but the two groups seemed to be getting along quite well.
Watching both groups mingle together so harmoniously also put me in a good mood.
Still, if I considered that we’d eventually stand together on the battlefield, it would be best to teach them our language sooner.
‘I’ll probably have to ask Leon for that. Leon and the Black Lion warrior women were fluent in human speech, so it should work out somehow.’
Of course, Leisha could also do it, but something told me that if I left it to her, things would end up getting twisted in strange ways.
“Raodonashidor, Hanadaesaka. Leishia Ronadisaoto, Rikaodiosador Hanadotonadesa. (Human lord, you’re impressive. Leisha’s interest is understandable. If you’re that kind of male, I could entrust Leisha to you as well.)”
“Don’t get cocky just because you won once. Next time, I’ll definitely bring you down. That’s what he said.”
“Really? He said that with a smile?”
“Black Lions are tough by nature. They can even deliver murder threats with a smile.”
“Hm, that sounds a little strange. Anyway, tell him I understand. And also ask for his cooperation with the territory’s affairs from now on.”
Leisha scratched her neck with her finger while scowling, and Limond subtly avoided her gaze.
It was an incredibly awkward scene.
-That lion male is trying to push the lion female onto the lord.
‘Huh? You understand the beastmen’s language…. Well, of course you would. But why didn’t you say anything until now?’
-You never asked, master.
‘So you just let me throw out those silly jokes all this time?’
-That’s a bit different.
This rabbit, seriously.
Well, it didn’t matter.
Limond, who had fought me directly, seemed to hold a favorable impression of me.
It didn’t look like he was the type to sulk after losing a duel.
As for Leisha’s strange translations, well, that was just her hobby, so I could let it pass with a smile.
“The Black Lions are really strong.”
“They’re decent enough at simple tasks.”
“Looks like this will finish sooner than I thought. It’s better for everyone if we wrap things up before winter comes, right?”
“I feel bad for troubling the residents so much.”
“Don’t worry, we’re all one family now.”
The Black Lion village was being built in a corner of Johnson Castle.
Apparently, lion beastmen usually lived in wooden houses, but since they couldn’t chop down fresh timber and build with it right away, they were using the firewood stockpiled for winter as building material for now.
The dried lumber, which had various uses, was mostly stored in the village warehouse.
They were taking some of it to build houses and then replacing the stockpile with freshly cut logs from the mountains.
‘Wooden houses, huh. At least they don’t have quirks like the Rabbit Tribe. Still, their craftsmanship is practically disastrous.’
Leaving the house-building to them turned out to be quite the spectacle.
They were so clumsy that it looked like they were going to end up with ramshackle huts.
Seeing no other option, I enlisted the help of the territory’s residents, and now the houses were rising quickly.
-I thought the lion tribe was known for being good with their hands, but I guess that doesn’t apply to the Black Lions.
‘So they’re really just pure battle specialists. Well, being good at one thing is enough, I suppose.’
Just like how we didn’t expect the Rabbit Tribe to do anything besides farming.
Of course, even the Rabbit Tribe had been expanding into all sorts of roles lately, but no matter how much they developed, they could never be expected to match the Black Lions’ combat power.
As long as the Black Lions contributed their strength when the territory needed it, that was enough.
‘Still, I’ll have to make sure their living conditions are improved over time.’
Johnson Castle had been built before the Great Cataclysm, and it was one of the few castles that had never been breached during it.
That meant the facilities built before the Great Cataclysm still remained intact.
Back then, houses were often equipped with various magical arrays and artifacts for daily convenience.
Things like water generation, purification, and simple heating arrays.
The plumbing systems were also fairly well established.
In some ways, this magical civilization was more convenient than modern technology.
‘The problem is, at our current level, we can’t install those kinds of facilities in new houses. The only magical personnel in the territory are alchemists, and they can’t handle this kind of work. Plus, we’re short on catalysts for the arrays.’
Naturally, the newly built beastman village couldn’t have such magical conveniences.
The Rabbit Tribe’s burrows were the same, and now so were the wooden houses of the lion beastmen.
While mana crystals for arrays could be gathered through monster hunting, catalysts were extremely rare, and there weren’t any proper magitech engineers in this city either.
“I don’t really care. As long as we get a public bathhouse and latrines, we’ll manage well enough.”
“Really? Then let’s go with that for now.”
It was fortunate that the beastmen considered such things trivial, but it still seemed necessary to improve the village as quickly as possible.
Failing to provide proper housing for residents would greatly damage the lord’s reputation.
Even if they said otherwise now, once they experienced the convenience of magical facilities, they’d surely be captivated.
‘Still, the residents are surprisingly positive.’
The Black Lions had suddenly become their neighbors, but the residents’ reactions were relatively favorable.
Thanks to the Rabbits, they were already used to living alongside beastmen.
Moreover, the residents of Johnson Territory—overflowing with manly men and bold women—tended to respect the strong.
That meant they had no reason to reject a newly joined warrior tribe.
‘Of course, it’s not without problems.’
For example, this sort of thing.
Right after the Black Lions joined the territory, there was an incident where a female warrior of the lion tribe beat up a soldier terribly.
Apparently, during training, the soldier had grabbed her tail.
He said he instinctively reached out when he saw the tuft of fur swishing in front of him.
But the problem was, grabbing someone’s tail among beastmen was an act with deep meaning.
“He grabbed a female warrior’s tail? Secretly, and forcibly? Was he asking to be killed?”
I was told that grabbing the tail of the opposite sex was practically equivalent to a sexual act.
Something that might only happen between lovers.
But he had done it in secret, forcibly.
There was no way that wouldn’t cause a problem.
Of course, he hadn’t known and had done it thoughtlessly, but from her perspective, it was enraging.
This kind of thing was simply a clash of different cultures, something that would have to be gradually adjusted over time.
The soldier involved sincerely apologized, saying he hadn’t known, and the female warrior who beat him also apologized for hitting him, so it was smoothed over.
The real problem was incidents unrelated to that.
Like the one right in front of me now.
“So you’re saying you sneaked into the horned rabbit ranch and stole some horned rabbits? And then you got caught roasting and eating them on the spot?”
A theft had occurred within the territory.