novelraw Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Chapter 51
The Crimson Comet had lately been training together with the knights of the Johnson Territory.
Perhaps it was too much to wear heavy armor in everyday life, because after the first day, they discarded their full plates—which had been almost like their trademark—and went with lighter gear.
But as expected of female knights adept at aura, all of them looked stunning.
As expected, males are males.
‘Well, that’s true.’
The joint training, boosted by the sudden addition of beautiful female knights, had quite a warm and passionate atmosphere.
It was natural for men to unconsciously puff their shoulders in front of pretty women.
Of course, the female knights of the Johnson Territory weren’t bad either, but with them… how should I put it? They were too close, like older and younger siblings.
Comparing the overly familiar Johnson knights with the refreshing newcomers from outside was realistically impossible.
The most beautiful female in the world is the one you meet for the first time.
‘Surely, that was also recorded in the words of Bestia.’
-That was true. Perhaps it was just human nature?
On this point, I had no choice but to acknowledge the rabbit’s cheeky remark.
Among the many beauties of the Crimson Comet, the one who stood out the most was their vice-captain, Sir Celine.
Said to be in charge of discipline within the Crimson Comet, Sir Celine was a loyal companion who had grown up with Irene, and she was an impressive 180 cm tall.
‘Good grief. To think Rudick’s ideal type would suddenly appear like this. And on top of that, as the very knight he’d most want to avoid.’
Rudick, commander of the Johnson Territory’s knights.
He was our land’s infamous playboy, who never refused a woman who came his way, and never stopped a woman who left.
It was funny how suspiciously popular he was, but the strange thing was that he never had a bad breakup.
Though it annoyed me whenever he told me to “live up to my name,” I couldn’t deny he was a master in that field.
But that didn’t mean Rudick had no thoughts of marriage.
His mother had begun to nag him, and his age was not so young anymore.
Still, Rudick had a firm ideal type: tall women.
At 195 himself, he insisted his partner had to be at least 180, hammering that condition into everyone around him.
He swore he’d never marry unless she was a tall beauty over 180.
Not an easy task.
Even the black lion females don’t reach that, do they?
The average height of women in this world was about 160 in the low range.
Even knights with good physiques usually stood in the high 160s to early 170s.
Finding women over 180 was no simple feat.
Adding the condition that she had to be a beauty made it even stricter.
Indeed, no such woman existed in our territory.
‘But now she’s appeared, hasn’t she?’
A female knight, 180 tall, strikingly beautiful with charisma, a cold beauty.
She was like Rudick’s ideal type drawn straight out of a painting.
“Sir Celine, this way.”
“Sir Rudick?”
“There’s a matter we must discuss.”
“Very well. Let’s go.”
I was curious myself, so there was no way Rudick would simply let it pass.
Every time I saw Sir Celine, Rudick was with her, which meant he was approaching quite seriously.
Judging by their meaningful smiles during conversations, things seemed to be progressing smoothly.
But if Sir Celine decided to settle in our territory, how would Irene respond?
If she called herself Irene’s loyal follower, would she choose loyalty over love?
‘Truly unfortunate. To meet his ideal type, only for her to belong to another territory’s knights.’
The big male looks rather pitiful today.
It was great that Rudick had found his ideal woman, but the situation was tricky, so I couldn’t help but worry a little.
Normally, he was a shameless Casanova, but this time he looked oddly genuine.
Still, interfering in another’s love life would be disgraceful.
All I could do was quietly watch and hope things resolved well.
‘Meanwhile, those two are completely fired up.’
Isn’t that a disaster? A terrifying lioness and a two-faced human female, together.
Irene, instead of being with the knights, was with Leisha.
Apparently impressed by the Bakto duel between me and Irene, Leisha had approached Irene first.
When the lion beastman suddenly came to her and asked for a sparring session, even Irene had looked quite bewildered.
But she had a good eye, and she didn’t refuse the extraordinary Leisha’s request.
And after exchanging a few blows, Irene herself grew fired up and began following Leisha around.
“Unni, you’re really strong. Can I call you master?”
“You, I like you. You’ve got talent. And guts too.”
Looking at them, it really felt like a legendary meeting.
Irene was three years younger than me, and at her age, that level of skill made her a genius.
In three years, who knew how much stronger she’d become?
In any case, Irene had begun training under Leisha, the master-class instructor.
It would only be for a short while, but the harsher and tougher it was, the more she would gain.
Though I wasn’t thrilled about them joining our territory, I too found myself liking the human Irene.
It was soon time for Irene and the Crimson Comet to return to the Haken Territory.
After training with Leisha in the mornings and playing with the three-horned mountain goats in the afternoons, Irene looked reluctant to leave.
But she clearly had no plans to remain in our land.
Along with the Crimson Comet knights, she silently prepared to return.
Wait, it’s ending like this? Isn’t that wrong somehow?
‘Wrong? No, this is exactly right.’
It was a refreshing turn of events, quite different from the rabbit’s silly predictions quoting the Beast God Bestia, and it put my worries to rest.
“It’s best if you take this, Lord Iron. Just in case there’s ever a need to coordinate with Haken, you’ll need it.”
“Ah, a mana communicator. You mean, for direct contact with Haken?”
“Yes, my father actually requested it in advance. He said there would be much to discuss with Johnson in the future.”
“Indeed, perhaps so. I’ll accept it gratefully.”
“Then, see you later.”
“Yes, let’s meet again if the chance arises.”
Saying it was by order of the Lord of Haken, Irene handed me the mana communicator, then smiled brightly as she mounted her horse.
The Crimson Comet, too, stood lined up in splendid formation behind her, just as they had when they first appeared.
“Crimson Comet, march out!”
At her command, they swiftly galloped southward, just like the day they first arrived.
The knights of Johnson Territory and I stood outside the gates, watching until they disappeared completely from sight.
Even though they had only stayed a week, their absence felt strangely lonely—proof of the bond we had formed.
But the thing weighing on me the most was that Rudick’s ideal type, discovered for the first time in his life, had vanished like the wind.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? You finally found your ideal type—aren’t you even a little regretful?”
“Never thought I’d hear that from you, brother, when you can’t even take care of yourself.”
“What? I was just being considerate.”
“That’s how people are. If there’s fate, you meet again, and if there’s not, no matter what you do it won’t work. If there’s fate with Celine, won’t you meet again?”
“Oh. Celine. That’s a real manly man.”
They said Sir Celine was five years older than Irene, which meant she was also older than me.
Since Irene was three years younger than me, and Common Sense was a year younger than I was, that made Sir Celine three years older than Rudick.
And yet, after knowing a woman only for a few days, he was confidently speaking informally to her, despite her being three years his senior.
Sure enough, he was something else.
‘Still, it’s strange. No matter how cool he acts, isn’t this the kind of situation that should leave a wound?’
Even for Rudick, there was no way he could come out of this unscathed, but he looked way too fine.
That was the suspicious part.
Could it be that all this “ideal type” business was just a lie?
Maybe, with his nanny (Rudick’s mother) pestering him so much about marriage, he had set up an impossibly picky “ideal type” as a shield so he could keep enjoying his flashy single life.
Given how much of a free spirit he was, it wasn’t an unlikely theory.
“Well, you’ll figure it out yourself.”
“You should be worrying about yourself, brother. Letting Lady Irene just walk away like that—doesn’t that make you something else too?”
“Let her go? What are you talking about, idiot.”
Seeing him grumbling beside me so nonchalantly, it didn’t look like I had anything to worry about.
And that was enough.
“To think it turned out this way. That side’s really something. She’s definitely not an ordinary woman.”
On our way back into the castle, Rudick muttered something cryptic and tilted his head, but I ignored him.
It was bound to be nonsense anyway.
‘The contract went smoothly, so it’s time to change the plan. Looks like I’ll have a lot to prepare.’
Perhaps this autumn would turn out to be the busiest in history.
In this world, when people casually spoke of magical engineers, mages, or magical power, each of them actually had their own field of expertise.
Enchanters specialized in magical enchantments, Builders handled construction and consecration, Item Makers developed new magical tools or researched pre-Great Cataclysm era magic, Alchemists dealt with potions and medicines, and, though rare, there were Casters—mages who hunted monsters with magic out in the field.
The ones closest to what we imagined as “typical mages” were the Casters, but such mages were rare here.
The more familiar types were actually Enchanters and Item Makers—the researchers.
Indeed, in this world, mages were more like engineers.
“What we requested here was an Enchanter.”
Of course, Item Makers who could create magical items were tempting too, but the most urgent need was Enchanters.
What we had requested from the Lord of Haken was, naturally, an Enchanter.
“Let’s start with repairing the walls. When the Enchanter arrives, we’ll have them inscribe magic circles right away.”
With the promise of support from the Lord of Haken, our own schedule had shifted.
Instead of burdening the Alchemists with maintaining magic circles, we would borrow the power of specialists.
At best, Alchemists struggled even with minor repairs, but Enchanters were on a different level.
My goal this time was a complete overhaul—renewing the magic circles entirely.
“Then, while we’re at it, why not replace the knights’ equipment too?”
“Ah, right. That’s a good idea. Let’s make it uniform while we’re at it. We still have materials, don’t we?”
“Of course we do. Our rule’s always been to never sell the important ones.”
“Exactly. The problem’s the enchantments, not the materials.”
The reason our knights still wore their ragged leather armor was entirely because of the reinforcement magic circles.
Even if they wanted to switch equipment, they couldn’t inscribe the auxiliary magic circles for protection, reinforcement, or temperature control.
So they had no choice but to stick with the old ones.
Sure, Alchemists could patch on temporary fixes here and there, but making completely new ones was impossible.
Not only were magic circle commissions extremely expensive, but the mages of this world were also notoriously closed off, making it nearly impossible to submit requests from the outside.
But if an Enchanter came to visit our territory, this would be the perfect chance to renew everything.
‘Come to think of it, the Crimson Comet really looked like knights.’
I liked the red very much.
Their enchanted iron plate armor was one thing, but the fact that all of them wore matching equipment was particularly impressive.
It gave off a sense of belonging and unity.
That was what knights ought to look like.
“Since it’s come to this, wouldn’t it be good to increase the number of knights too?”
“Would that be possible?”
“We can just pick out the most talented among the soldiers and make them recruits.
It’s not like we didn’t make knights because they lacked skill—it was because we lacked equipment.”
So, while we were at it, we decided to expand the knight order too.
The soldiers of the Johnson Territory had battle experience to the point of being hardened veterans, and many of them displayed skills around lower- to mid-level knight standards.
In other lands, they would have long since been knighted.
But knights required knightly weapons and equipment.
And given the lack of gear in the Johnson Territory, they had never been accepted as knights.
So, this would be the perfect chance to expand the order.
With the Rabbit Tribe cultivating more farmland, there were more places to defend, so increasing the knight order seemed a fine idea.
‘That means the Alchemists will need to put in some extra work.’
-Don’t the Alchemists already have research tasks you gave them, master?
‘True, but since they’re free from magic circle maintenance now, I think it should be fine.’
You couldn’t just whip up knightly armor by stitching leather together and carving magic circles into it.
Various magical processes were required.
Especially since we preferred leather armor, there would be plenty of work for the Alchemists.
Though they were busy with various projects, I figured they could at least handle this.
‘After all, in the Johnson Territory, “help out” is basically the Alchemists’ job description.’
-As expected of master. You’re a proper thug.
Just as I was thinking I should toss the Alchemists another task, the owner of the alchemy workshop, Peter, came to see me.
The sharp male beast has sensed it and come to kill his master.
To tell him to stop throwing him work.
No way.
I was always innocent.
Still, given the timing, I found myself meeting Peter with a hint of tension.