novelraw Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Yuria woke up the next day.
Thanks to the excellent effects of the Suppository Potion.
On top of that, Yuria herself seemed to be quite the shaman, since her recovery was remarkably fast.
-The Silver Fox of the Fox Tribe is an excellent shaman. Being closely attuned to mana, it’s only natural that she would recover quickly.
‘A shaman, huh? That’s a little surprising. If she’s a Beastman shaman, would that put her in a similar position as a human mage?’
-The closest equivalent would probably be a caster (a mage who uses spells in real combat).
‘Casters are an extremely rare existence though.’
It seemed that Yuria’s group had been able to safely escape from the Levelium region thanks to her shamanism.
That meant she was far more skilled than I’d originally thought.
The Rabbit didn’t figure out her identity, and I hadn’t sensed her abilities either, which only proved she wasn’t ordinary at all.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“That’s right. Though I didn’t expect we’d meet again like this.”
“True. You never know what life has in store.”
Yuria appeared in the conference hall in her human form.
After exchanging a brief greeting with me, she sat down. Then, Butler Harold, who had been standing behind me, let out a sigh.
“My Lady…”
Butler Harold was the one who assisted me in running the territory.
Of course, that meant he had often been in contact with my former wife as well.
He must have already known that Yuria looked exactly like her, but meeting her in person clearly brought a different kind of shock.
‘Well, yeah. No one would expect another person to look that identical.’
Maybe my ex-wife had an item that let her copy someone else’s appearance.
This wasn’t just a resemblance—it was practically identical.
Back before the Great Cataclysm, when countless magical items still existed, it wouldn’t have been strange if such a thing were real.
“Oh~ so this really is the Black Lion. Did the Black Cat of Rotsy settle down here?”
The first place Yuria’s gaze landed was on Leisha.
It wasn’t strange since Leisha had once worked as a mercenary in the Levelium region.
“I thought she was just some shady female, but I didn’t expect her to be a Fox.”
“Oh, is that so? Well, I also didn’t expect the Black Cat to wag her tail at a human.”
“And yet here’s a Fox thinking about wagging her tail at Bear, isn’t she?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s not so different.”
Something strange was unfolding in this exchange.
Both of them were smiling faintly, yet the air between them was frighteningly tense.
-Ho, so this is a battle of wills.
‘Seriously though, why the hell are they fighting for dominance here?’
-It’s probably a show of dominance to decide the leading female.
‘And what meaning is there in that?’
Not wanting things to drag out into some pointless quarrel, I cut them off.
This wasn’t the atmosphere I wanted.
I had mountains of things to figure out right now, and this kind of contest wasn’t helping.
Especially a fight between Leisha and Yuria. There couldn’t be a more pointless clash.
I didn’t even understand what the fight was supposed to prove.
“Enough chatter for now. Let’s get to the important part first. Yuria, the group you brought with you—they’re all Fox Tribe?”
“Strictly speaking, they’re Fox Tribe who had been living in the Levelium region, along with their families. Some humans are mixed in too. The Fox Tribe don’t mind forming pairs with humans.”
“Ah, I see. And you’re the representative of the group, Yuria?”
“That’s right. The Fox Tribe has always been led by the Silver Fox. This time, I am that Silver Fox—Yuria.”
‘So they were all Foxes after all.’
Since the Fox Tribe could disguise themselves as humans, their identity was always ambiguous.
Even among the wagon group, most of them had appeared human.
So I asked, and as it turned out, the majority of them really were Fox Tribe.
The humans numbered about three to four hundred.
But judging by appearances alone, there was no way to distinguish humans from Fox Tribe.
“Is it true that you crossed over in order to settle in Johnson Territory?”
“That’s right. Our Fox Tribe wishes to settle in Johnson Territory.”
So that was true too.
But what exactly had happened to drag all those Foxes out of the Levelium region where they had been living just fine?
“In the end, isn’t this the real question you want answered? Why the Empire appeared in Levelium in the first place.”
“Exactly. That’s the real issue. Do you know the reason?”
“Of course. The ones who brought the Empire into Levelium were the Level Merchant Group. To be precise—Albert McBane, the new master of the Level Merchant Group.”
“The Level Merchant Group brought in the Empire?”
A shocking revelation dropped right from the start.
The Level Merchant Group had been the ones to unleash the Empire’s remnants.
Apparently, the Level Merchant Group discovered a safe sea route leading from the Empire to Levelium’s coast. Through that route, they made contact with the remnants of the Empire and came to an agreement.
They would join forces and share the Levelium region.
Accepting the offer, the Empire’s remnants flooded in, and the knights I had encountered earlier were part of that force.
-But isn’t the Empire even harsher than here?
‘Exactly. That place was truly ruined.’
Though the Empire’s landmass was much larger than the Ribella Peninsula, it had been utterly devastated.
Rumor had it that dozens of Catastrophe-Class Monsters roamed the land there.
So if they were remnants of the Empire who had hidden near the coast to avoid the monsters, it made sense that they’d be desperate to cross over here and start anew.
“What the hell were they thinking, pulling something like this?”
“Our great master of the merchant group seems to be dreaming big.”
“Dreaming big?”
“Apparently, he wants to use the Empire’s remnants to take control of all of Levelium.”
The plan was this: secretly bring in the Empire’s forces, let them wreak havoc on Levelium’s territories, then stab them in the back and drive them out.
After that, Albert McBane would claim all of Levelium, now a no man’s land, as his own domain.
“And that’s even possible?”
Even hearing it laid out, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in doubt.
The Levelium region had six territories. To drive out all of its lords would require an enormous army.
How many Imperial forces would he need to bring in to make that feasible?
‘And even then—how would he drive out all those Imperial forces afterward? Does a backstab solve everything? If the Level Merchant Group’s power was that strong, why would they need the Empire’s help in the first place?’
“This isn’t Albert McBane’s plan alone. He has allies in the south.”
“Allies in the south?”
“And wouldn’t you know it, they’re connected to you as well. Looks like that marriage scam of yours began from their side.”
“…Is that so?”
I’d known for a long time that there were more complicated circumstances behind my marriage scam.
The moment I heard it wasn’t solely Albert McBane’s doing, but that there were other masterminds, I had felt it.
I’d forced myself to ignore it back then, thinking only trouble would come of it.
But now it had come circling back again.
Truly, it was exhausting.
And now, these bastards were even trying to drag in the Empire’s forces to stir up more trouble, which only made my head throb harder.
They weren’t just crazy—they were utterly insane.
“So, do you think that grand dream of his has any chance of coming true?”
Honestly, I didn’t care who ended up ruling Levelium.
If Albert McBane somehow managed to backstab the Empire’s remnants and become the overlord of Levelium, I could acknowledge it and even applaud.
But no matter how I looked at it, that didn’t seem likely.
After all, a backstab only worked if the other side trusted you in the first place.
“No way. Do you even know what kind of people the Empire scum are? By now, Albert McBane is probably already a dead man.”
Yeah, they were the Empire, after all.
The massive neighbor + a nation of deceit.
There was no way to handle the Empire with tricks and betrayal.
If anything, the natural flow was for the Empire’s remnants to strike first, long before Albert even got the chance to try anything.
“Levelium must be in chaos right now.”
Judging by the situation, the Empire forces that the Level Merchant Group had brought in must have thrown the entire region into turmoil.
Most likely, Yuria had anticipated this and set out on the path of exile.
Things had blown up more than expected, leaving me uncertain of what to do next.
“You’d better worry about Johnson Territory before anything else.”
But this wasn’t the end.
The most important part hadn’t even started yet.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Soon the pigs will come swarming this way. Albert McBane and the shadowy masterminds didn’t just invite the Empire. They invited others too.”
“Pigs? You mean the Boar Tribe?”
“Yes, the pigs. They’re gathering to reclaim their former home. From the beginning, even the marriage scam was for that purpose.”
“Explain that in more detail.”
I’d just learned an incredibly important and shocking fact.
Our Johnson Territory had originally belonged to the Boar Tribe.
It had been the Bear Tribe, the Lion Tribe, and Johnson Territory together who had driven out the Boar Tribe and built Johnson Castle on this land.
So if the Boar Tribe wanted to reclaim their old home, it meant a massive war was inevitable.
As the lord, this was something I absolutely could not ignore.
“Before that—will you accept us?”
“Hah, right now that’s…”
“But we’re desperate too. We’ve got nowhere else to go.”
Just before revealing the most important information, Yuria cut herself off.
It was clear she intended to use the crucial details as leverage to secure acceptance into my territory.
“And besides, us joining would be quite beneficial for you too.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You need information, don’t you? Until now, maybe you could afford to just worry about your own people. But that’s not the case anymore, is it? I’m sure someone like you has already realized that.”
“And?”
“Our Fox Tribe is spread all across the Ribella Peninsula. The ones who came with me to join your Johnson journey are only the core group. We fled because we couldn’t stomach the Empire. But the other Foxes are still living well in various territories. Of course, not in closed-off territories like this one.”
-As expected of Foxes. Clever creatures.
So that was the truth.
Foxes disguised as humans were scattered everywhere, gathering information.
All of it flowed into what they called the ‘main group.’
And the leader of that group was Yuria.
“The entire tribe is like an intelligence guild.”
No wonder she always seemed to know strange things.
This woman wasn’t a mere merchant—she was an information broker.
“And besides, aren’t you having trouble lately?”
“With what?”
“Trade. The scale of trade with Rubina is expanding. You probably want to establish something with Henil too. But the scale is too big for Johnson Territory to handle alone, isn’t it?”
“How could you… wait, so there are Foxes in Rubina and Henil too?”
“I told you. Unless it’s a closed-off place like Johnson Territory, the Fox Tribe is everywhere.”
So not only Rubina, but even Henil was within their reach?
These were truly high-performance allies.
“And trade is our specialty.”
“Of course. We are merchants, after all. Well? Tempted?”
Naturally, I was tempted.
If I accepted the Fox Tribe, I wouldn’t have to worry about trade anymore.
And the value of their intelligence went without saying.
“One last thing.”
“There’s more?”
“Your reputation. I could protect it, couldn’t I?”
“My reputation?”
The sudden mention made me tilt my head in confusion. But Rudick and Butler Harold lit up instantly.
“Does that mean, as the Lord’s Lady…?”
“Wait, you mean another sister-in-law?”
What the hell were they talking about now?
Why were “sister-in-law” and “the Lord’s Lady” suddenly being mentioned here?
-That female is already the Lord’s Lady just by existing.
‘What nonsense is this…?’
“…No, wait. That’s true.”
If Yuria walked around the territory in her human form, the rumors would spread instantly.
-The runaway Lord’s Lady has returned.
The residents who remembered the disgraceful scene when my wife ran away would be overjoyed.
The Lord’s Lady had finally come back.
‘And my one stain, the marriage scam, would be dismissed as just a passing episode.’
-So that’s what she meant by reputation.
It was a notion I never would have imagined.
The real Yuria stepping in to replace the fake Yuria as the Lord’s Lady?
Was this the true insanity of another world?
Just what did these people think marriage even was?
Even more outrageous was the fact that Rudick and Butler Harold seemed genuinely intrigued by the idea.
“Well, it’s true. My lord has only ever cared about body and face.”
“When I objected before, you still accepted her as your wife just because she was pretty.”
So this was my karma—or perhaps Iron’s karma.
‘This is giving me a headache.’
Shaking my head at the absurdity of it all, Yuria leaned closer and started flirting.
“What? Am I not good enough for you? We Fox females are actually very popular with human males, you know? And I’m the most outstanding of them all—the Silver Fox. I’m very confi—ow.”
“Shut up. And keep your distance, you’re suffocating me.”
I couldn’t help myself—at her cheap flirting, devoid of even a shred of sincerity, I smacked her on the forehead.
This woman really was full of surprises.
-Still, isn’t she a pretty female? Have a drink.
When I first met her in the merchant group, she had seemed decent.
But what happened to make her like this?
Maybe there really was something wrong with this land.