Chapter 6 – Girl of the Southern Lands and the Hikaru Genji Project?

 

 

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“Earl-sama, it’s very stuff with just men, you know?”

“Can’t be helped. We’re working right now.”

“You just need to take it as being able to take things open-mindedly and easygoing!”

 

Leaving the negotiations with the demons, which have been more or less stuck, to the bigshots, I had returned to my own earldom. But I was soon dispatched on a southern expedition, using an old, medium-sized magic airship.

If we were to discover an island or something within the range this ship could travel, I’d be allowed to add it to my earldom. The ship has been run by the Baumeister House and since many of its sailors are former royal air-force members, their skill and morale is high.

In addition, civil officials who would be drawing maps, Erich-nii-san who would observe this whole endeavor for the Kingdom, Burkhart-san who would act as Margrave Breithilde’s representative, Erw, and Doushi were accompanying me as well.

Doushi, however, arbitrarily joined the trip for the reason that it looked like it’d be fun. It’s not like he has some sort of task or work to accomplish here.

I worried that he might have more important work back in the capital, but…we’re talking about Doushi here, so…unless it’s something dramatic, he’ll usually push everything on his subordinates. Because of this, he’s also able to frequently visit the Baumeister Earldom.

“Doushi, is it fine for you to not be at the royal palace?”

“Seeing how the worry that the demons might suddenly start a war is gone now, it is meaningless for me to be there! Given that folks will send documents my way if I am in the palace, it is better for me to not be there!”

“That’s way too blunt…”

“It is all the same, whoever signs those things anyway!”

“No, you should check the contents first. That’s how responsible adults handle things…”

Erw was appalled by Doushi boldly declaring that he hated paperwork. Burkhart-san also warned Doushi that he should read a document before signing it, but I mean, there’s no way that Doushi would sign stuff without reading it first…right?

“The sky and sea sure are blue.”

After departing from the port at the southern tip, our magic airship was advancing southward while we were currently looking down at the southern archipelago where the development of the fishing and sugar industries was proceeding.

Whenever we discovered an island on the way, the civil officials would land and note it down on their maps while measuring. They were dispatched by the Kingdom and tasked with drawing maps which would prove that islands within this ship’s range belong to the Baumeister Earldom. They devotedly immersed themselves in drawing up the maps so that there wouldn’t be any disputes over ownerships later on.

“It’d be great if Doushi was a tenth as diligent as them.”

“Ahahaha…”

Without spelling out that he was completely right on this, we let Burkhart-san’s murmur uncommented.

“Up until now we didn’t find any big islands.”

We’ve found several smaller islands, but all of them were too small for people to live on. They were noted down on the maps, but whether we’d colonize them later…depended on Roderich, I guess.

“So far no one has checked what is to be found in the south! Our exploration has only started!”

This time we were performing the exploration with men alone, including the sailors. It’d be finished in at most half a month anyway, so I wanted to relax for a change by doing a guys-only trip. I took my wives and babies to the West before because I judged it as not that dangerous――the area of strife back then was the Terra Harrez Archipelago――and because Elise and my other wives wanted to take care of their babies by themselves.

This time’s exploration is going to be short and as it’s uncharted territory, Elise and my other women stayed back home.

As a result of that, it’s turned into an expedition with just men.

“Hey, Wend.”

“What’s up, Erw?”

“Uninhabited islands are fine and all, but what are you going to do, if we find an inhabited island?”

“We will report it to His Majesty and have him decide.”

Just as I’ve learned from the matter with the demons, it was best to outsource all the work…err, entrust things to the Kingdom’s government if we find an island with aborigines.

Even looking at it from the Baumeister House’s perspective, it was very unlikely that it’d profit us to rule over some unknown group of people, and if things went wrong, it was quite possible that we’d incur heavy losses while wasting time and effort.

“So they’ll be treated like Mizuho, or the Kingdom will have their leader become a noble. Once that happens, it’ll be fine if we limit interaction to trade.”

Not interfering with each other will make both sides happier. Foreign races have different cultures and customs, so if you try to forcibly integrate them, it only becomes a trigger for conflict.

“I suppose leaving it to the Kingdom is the safest approach.”

“His Majesty is busy with the demon negotiation, so it is also possible that he will let us handle all of it!”

“That’s quite possible too.”

“Earl Baumeister, you should resolve yourself!”

In case a small number of people live on the island, something like that could happen as well. Even if I ask Minister Überschaar to negotiate on our behalf, he’s busy with the demons right now, so I might not be able to get any help from him.

Once Doushi and Erich-nii-san both warned me of that possibility, I got scared as it sounded like it could become reality soon.

“It’ll all be fine if we don’t find an inhabited island.”

“Burkhart-san, I feel the possibility for that being low.”

When the Ancient Magic Civilization perished 10,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Mizuho people wandered from the savage lands into the Lingaia Continent and built their new homeland in the Great Akitsu Basin. According to Duke Mizuho, his ancestors didn’t seem to have taken all the Mizuho people along, so it’s possible that Mizuho people are living in other places as well.

And it’s not limited to just Mizuho people either. It wouldn’t be strange for other people to have escaped south and east, which hadn’t been really explored back then, to escape the chaos after the Ancient Magic Civilization’s collapse.

“Hahaha! The lord over there will have a daughter and Wend will get stuck marrying her, or something like that.”

“Erw…”

Don’t say such ominous things. What do you plan to do if it turns into reality?

“Milord! A big island has come into sight!” (T/N: What a surprise!)

“See what you’ve done, Erw!?”

Because you ran your mouth, we now found a big island, didn’t we!?”

“It’s not said it’s inhabited, right? First comes the exploration, I’d say.”

“Captain, prepare to land.”

“As you command, Milord.”

First we have to gather information about that island.

The whole island gradually came into view. It was quite big and except for the part of the land adjoining to the ocean, it was covered by a dense jungle. Moreover, a tall mountain was visible in the center of the island.

The mountain resembled Mt. Fuji in its shape and you could even see snow at its tip, creating a unique scenery for a southern ocean.

“Is there snow at the summit because of its high elevation?”

Even though its shape resembled Mt. Fuji, this mountain wasn’t as high. This is a tropic area, so would snow really remain on a mountain with such a height?

It might have some other reason, but we won’t know unless we investigate it.

“Wend, I can see a village.”

“Eeeeeeerrrww!!”

Now we’ve found inhabitants because you ran your mouth unnecessarily!

“That’s quite the wrong accusation, man! It’s not my fault, I tell you! The population appears to be low, so we’ll be able to easily turn them into our residents.”

“Erw-lad, is that not asking too much?” Burkhart-san objected to Erw’s overly optimistic view.

They’ve lived here by themselves without any exchange with other people for 10,000 years. If we tell them to become residents of the Baumeister Earldom all of a sudden, it might trigger a backlash.

“Before any of that, will they actually understand us?” Erw asked.

“No idea,” answered Burkhart-san.

As the airship approached the island, several hundred people gathered at the village and pointed at us while being surprised. It looks like they don’t know what a magic airship is. They must be curious and worried after seeing such an airship for the first time.

“Now then, time to go down there.”

“Already?”

“Time’s precious…”

The result of 『Detection』 indicated that only one magician was among them. Moreover, that magician seemed to be inside the big house deep inside the settlement.

That magician might be the leader of this settlement. Possibly they’re currently examining us.

Either way, none of the other humans should pose a danger for us.

“We want to find out about the other side, right? Besides, even if they take hostile actions against us, we’ll be alright.”

Doushi, Burkhart-san, and I are here, so I doubt the magician, who’s hiding inside, will be able to do anything against us. Going by their amount of mana, this person seems to be an intermediate magician at most.

“Having said that, captain, make sure to stay on alert.”

“As you command, Milord. Please be careful out there.”

I had the airship stay on standby up in the sky while we flew down to the island with Flight. Erw came with us while being carried on Doushi’s back.

“Is the representative of this settlement present?”

“The village chief is in the mansion, but I will listen to what you have to say.”

It’s great that they understand our language. One elder stepped forward from among the hundreds of inhabitants and answered my question.

“What about your village chief?”

“Umm…I think this would be a slightly too difficult talk for our village chief… My name is Ney and I serve as vice-village chief. I will gladly clear all official matters with you…”

Maybe the village chief is sick or something? Or maybe they deliberately don’t show their face as part of the negotiation?

“Oh well, whatever. As a matter of fact…”

Erw explained in my stead. He told them how the Earl Baumeister House had turned the southern lands of Lingaia into its new territory, how we’ve gone south to confirm the extent of the territory and found this island while doing that, and how we would like them to become residents of the Baumeister Earldom, if possible. He also explained that we would consult with the Helmut Kingdom to have their leader become a noble, if they hated the idea of joining the Baumeister Earldom.

“There’s also the option of treating the village chief as the lord of this place and turning them into a noble of the Helmut Kingdom. Though I think they would still become our vassal.”

Now then, the question is whether they’ll accept those terms. They probably have a strong inclination towards self-reliance if they’ve been independent for 10,000 years, so they might hate the idea of belonging to some other place.”

“We don’t mind. Rather, we welcome this.”

“Eh!? You sure!?”

Because they accepted our demand so readily, I felt suspicious instead. During my life up until now, including my previous life, stories that sounded way too good to be true often led to betrayal…

 

 

“I believe you might feel uncertain since we have accepted your offer so quickly, but there is a proper reason for that,” Ney started his explanation why they wanted to become residents of my earldom. “It stems from the reason why this settlement was built. 10,000 years ago our ancestors also lived on the continent. But, because of the huge breakdown, they fled the dangerous Lingaia continent to the south. But, the sea in the south wasn’t safe either. They were attacked by flocks of serpents and suffered many casualties.”

“Huh? Weren’t the monsters born after the collapse of the Ancient Magic Civilization?”

“Earl-sama, serpents are animals. They probably gathered because a big number of people suddenly appeared on boats in the ocean. It was a banquet of prey for them.”

“It is as you say. Most of our ancestors were eaten by the serpents and only a few survivors managed to escape onto this island. Or to be precise, less than 30 people made it out alive. Their ships were broken and they had lost most of their provisions and tools. As such they had to start building a civilization on this island from scratch.

Because of that, we will gladly relocate, if you provide us with a good place for immigration.”

“You don’t want to live in this village any longer?”

“At the very least, we’re not adamant about staying here. 90% of this island is inhabited by monsters.”

“Huh? Didn’t the monster domains come to be after the collapse of the Ancient Magic Civilization?”

Huge amounts of mana exploded and were scattered in all directions. The powerful chunks of mana gave birth to monsters and monster domains. Isn’t it weird for this island to have become a monster domain after the people landed here?

“Apparently it used to be a normal forest in the past. But, the monster domain gradually started to spread with the southern mountain in its center.”

Ney pointed at the mountain with the snow line.

The land was being completely swallowed by the monster domain, and according to him, only few patches along the coast were left for them to live.

“We cannot even count the number of people who got killed by monsters, and the number of people, who can be supported by the bit of land remaining, is limited. It’s also difficult to get the necessary materials, and above all, it’s easy for us to run out of food…”

Given that the land usable by people is small, farming has its limits. Hunting isn’t overly reliable as an option either. And even if you could tell them to hunt monsters, that’s quite difficult for normal humans. With their current population, magicians will be quite rare too.

As a result of all that, their population didn’t really grow all that much in the last 10,000 years either.

“Didn’t you consider fleeing this place?” Erw asked.

“As a matter of fact, this island is surrounded by hunting grounds and dwellings of serpents…”

So they’d immediately get eaten by the serpents, if they set out in small ships, huh?

“For this reason, we will gladly obey, if you can provide us with a nice place to immigrate.”

“It’s not that we can’t, but…”

The southern archipelago possesses several uninhabited islands, so it shouldn’t be that hard for them to make a living there as long as they fish and grow sugar canes. Currently, even the Empire is lacking sugar due to the increase in consumption and I was asked by Peter to increase the production output. I hear he has been pestering Alfons, the new Duke Philip, to increase the sale of beets as well, but since this world’s beet hasn’t gone through several generations of selective breeding, the amount of sugar it yields is low.

Because they must grow a huge number of them to get any reasonable sugar output, they cannot quite catch up with the demand.

When I told Ney about it, he answered, “We’re already cultivating sugar canes, so that won’t pose a problem.”

Certainly, I can see small sugar cane fields being planted in the vicinity of the village. In exchange, they’re only cultivating small amounts of other produce like tubers and veggies. They obviously struggle with the management of the land because they have so little of it.

“If it’s a flying ship, we can leave here right away.”

“That’s great news.”

“We’ll finally be able to ditch this place.”

This island was oddly unpopular with its residents. They didn’t seem to harbor any love for their birthplace. Rather, they were all delighted about the prospect of leaving this island.

“Won’t you miss your birthplace even a bit?”

“Nostalgia, you mean…? I won’t say that we won’t miss it at all, but the situation over here has become dire…,” Ney answered Erw’s question with an impatient attitude and tone.

Apparently he wanted to leave this island as soon as possible.

“Why are you hurrying so much?”

“Young Sir Knight, just as I told you before, this island is surrounded by serpent dwellings. Serpents usually don’t get close to the land, but this island is an exception. This year three of our fishers were eaten by them, and since we now lack fishers, we’re short on food. We’ve requested our village chief to repel the serpents, but recently the attacks by the serpents has become more frequent. It seems like they took a liking to the taste of humans.”

Humans have little fur, so monsters and carnivores prefer to eat them, I heard. And once they get a taste of human flesh once, they’ll repeatedly come back for more.

Ah, that’s a bear, huh?

“For this reason…”

“Vice-village chief, they’ve appeared───!”

“Again!?”

Suddenly we could hear the shouting of a male villager, and once we looked out towards the sea, we saw several serpents. Once the serpents spotted us, they raised their long heads and headed for the shore.

“Women, children, get away───!”

“Don’t enter the monster domain!”

The villagers quickly started to escape inlands because of the sudden serpent attack. Given that they’d be attacked by monsters if they were too far into the forest, they only ran away as far as they could.

“(Being attacked like these monsters on a daily basis, eh…?) No wonder they wish to move away from here.”

Even if they tried to escape on boats, the serpents would spot and catch them. And because of the low number of magicians, they could only live a life in constant fear.

“We’ve got no choice but to have the village chief repel them.”

“But, isn’t the village chief exhausted?”

“Still!”

Now I understand why their village chief hasn’t shown up even after we showed up here. Still, I wonder what kind of person the village chief is.

“I’ll go and call the village chief.”

“The last attack happened just half a day ago, so she’s gotta be out of mana t’repel the serpents! We got no choice but t’flee inside the forest with everyone!”

“That’s fine n’ all, but what about the village? If we don’t get the village chief to drive the serpents away, our fields and houses will be ravaged!”

Serpents are water creatures, but it’s not like they can’t act on land. If it’s around 100 meters from the ocean, they can land and do whatever they want. They can at least destroy the village’s houses to grab their prey, the humans.

If the houses and fields get wrecked, the villagers won’t have a place to live anymore, even if they managed to escape the serpents, and since their produce will be destroyed as well, they’ll quickly end up running out of food, too. The village chief has apparently been forced into overwork to prevent that from happening.

“Making the village chief push herself any further…”

“I know that, damn it! But, do we have any other methods!?”

“It’s okay. I will drive away the serpents!”

As the villagers argued around, the rumored village chief finally made her appearance.

“Eeeiii! Get ready, you serpents! I will shoo you away!”

“””””……”””””

Her mana consumption seems to be harsh due to the repeated attacks by the serpents, but she’s sure motivated to get it done. Even so, we were lost for words when we saw their village chief.

“Umm…little lady?”

“Ah, it’s a very cool-looking onii-san. Onii-san, you have to take refuge with the others.”

“That’s my intention, but little lady, are you the village chief here?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

The village chief was a woman, and a child…she was so young that you could easily describe her as a little girl. Just like the main character of an anime I saw in my previous life. The one with the girl who had a short, orange bob-cut and lived on a southern island.

Once addressed by a handsome guy like Erich-nii-san, she happily answered him. It’s clear proof that handsome guys have an advantage at any time.

And the problem here isn’t about her being female, but her age.

“I’m the chief of this village, Lulu. Nice to meet’cha.”

“Nice to meet you, too. My name is Erich.”

“Erich-sama, huh?”

No matter how you look at her, Lulu doesn’t look older than five years. She seems pretty level-headed for her age and she looks happy while talking with Erich-nii-san, but for them to not only make such a child act as village chief, but also repel serpent attacks…

“Oi, geezer.”

“We had no choice───! Our village chief is the only person in our community who can use magic! Even for us it was a very painful decision to make!”

Erw glared at Ney, causing him to explain with all his heart that he’d done all of this himself, if only he could.

“Just form a guard unit out of adult men!”

“They have their hands full with the evacuation! Besides, if they got injured or killed by the serpents, who would till the fields in their place? We are already doing our very best and our village chief understands this as well…”

It appears this village is a lot more cornered than we thought. Even Erw couldn’t refute this anymore.

“It’s alright. I will repel them.”

“Now listen, that’s a great thing to say, but what about your wand, little lady?”

“Wand? What would I use a wand for?”

“””””……”””””

We ended up speechless once more. Unbelievably, this girl doesn’t even possess a wand.

I think she’s a prodigy as a magician, seeing how she possesses the mana of an intermediate magician at this age, but since it’s still only intermediate, her spell power drops significantly without a wand.

The little girl faced the serpents by herself and without a wand. It’s not that she can’t actually defeat the serpents as an intermediate magician, but now I’ve finally understood why she could only drive them away.

“Vice-village chief.”

“We don’t know how to make something like a wand. There weren’t any wands in the luggage we managed to bring with us in the past either!”

Following Erw, Burkhart-san was the next to give Ney his straight opinion, but Ney firmly objected. But, even if they brought wands with them, there wouldn’t be any guarantee for them to last across 10,000 years anyway, I suppose.

 

 

 

“It’s alright! I will repel the serpents!”

Her sense of duty seems to be on fire despite her being so young. However, there’s no way we’re going to leave the serpents to her now that we’re here.

I stepped in front of the serpents in her stead.

“Ah, I’ll take care of them.”

“You will, Mister? Will you be alright?”

It appears she’s using her magic mostly on instinct rather than having taught herself how to do it. She didn’t even realize that Doushi, Burkhart-san, and I are magicians. I guess she doesn’t grasp the concept of gauging the strength of other magicians.

“It’s fine. These old guys and I are magicians.”

“Really?”

Lulu looked at us full of curiosity.

Maybe she’s seeing magicians other than her for the first time.

“Well, it seems like we’ll have to teach her the basics from scratch. But, that can wait for later.”

Burkhart-san hid Lulu behind his back while Doushi and I took the frontline.

“Erich-sama?”

“He’s my little brother, but he’s an excellent magician, so it will be fine.”

“If you say so, Erich-sama.”

Lulu came to terms with it upon Erich-nii-san intervening in our favor. As I’ve always thought, the persuasive force of a handsome guy is tremendous.

“It looks like there’s many of them, but in the end it’s just measly serpents.”

Serpents only look like dragons. But, it’s not that much of a challenge to defeat them. I mean even Wilma calls them efficient prey as they got delicious meat.

“Earl Baumeister, I shall assist you as well!”

“Doushi, it’ll be troublesome to collect the corpses, so please pull them towards yourself.”

“We’re going to have a serpent barbecue today!”

Doushi and I drew the serpents to us as close as possible. Burkhart-san readied his magic in preparation for something going wrong. Erw also took his combat stance just in case.

“Wend, that’s actually quite a few of them…”

“Serpents are weak, so please don’t worry. Their huge numbers won’t help them.”

“As expected, magicians are incredible. I hear the fishermen are scared of these beasts.”

For Erich-nii-san, a normal, civil official, it’s only natural to be scared if several serpents with an overall length of more than twenty meters approach him.

We’re just used to this because we’ve already faced so many of them in the past.

“Doushi, haven’t their numbers grown?”

Compared to the beginning, I feel like the number of serpents rushing our way has grown…ah, maybe they think the prey has increased with us being here now as well. Moreover, they landed on the sandy beach boldly without even trying to run away.

“There are ten of them right now, so we can each defeat five!”

“Got it.”

I froze ocean water into a huge lance, and threw it into the mouth of a serpent. The lance completely penetrated the serpent’s head in one blow, causing it to die instantly and collapse on the spot. If you strike their afterbrain, they’ll naturally die right away, no matter what sort of creature they might be.

“My turn is next!”

Doushi clad his body with a Magic Barrier, approached a serpent with Flight, and punched its head with his mana-laden fist. That alone was enough for the serpent’s head to cave in, resulting in the beast crumbling on the spot.

Next, he delivered a kick in passing against the neck of a serpent with his foot clad in mana. The neck shattered easily, and the serpent died on the spot.

Because we attacked after pulling them in, the shore in front of Doushi and I was dyed crimson with serpent blood. Moreover, most of it was Doushi’s work.

“A───aah.”

“Eh? Is there some problem?”

Seeing the terrible tragedy on the shore, Burkhart-san sighed.

“Their heads were torn off because serpents are so brittle!” Doushi made excuses.

“It would be fine if this was a group of strays, but their nest is close-by, so the blood will draw over more of them.”

“Now that we have already started, we might as well annihilate all of them!”

“Doushi, is this the proper way to say it?”

“Serpents come in big groups anyway! I will welcome them to the best of my ability!”

For the next hour, Doushi and I fought hard to subjugate the huge number of serpents attacking us.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

“There’s way too many of them for dinner.”

“They sure came at us in big numbers. It’ll be best to not send out ships in the south for a while…”

In the end, Doushi and I defeated 28 serpents. At present, the cooks, who we took with us, were cutting up the meat for dinner, but going by the fact of no further attacks coming our way, I guess we have annihilated all the serpents in this region.

“I don’t know how serpents live, but they might simply remain hidden because you two are too strong for them. There’s no guarantee that there exist no other nests,” Erich-nii-san pointed out calmly.

“We’ll only run magic airships for a while.”

I wouldn’t be able to bear watching ships getting attacked by swarms of serpents. For a while, people shouldn’t be able to move between the islands of the southern archipelago, if they don’t use magic airships.

“We should explain the circumstances to His Majesty. The Kingdom doesn’t have any free large airships, but we’ll get him to send more medium and small airships our way. Fortunately, the number of airships in active duty has increased.”

This time Arnest had gone out to excavate an underground ruin in the Baumeister Earldom, claiming 『I will join the survey if you find something』, but it’s a fact that we’ve found more airships thanks to all his excavations.

At first it was a huge problem to get enough personnel to move the airships, but the royal air force took over their training. The employment of air force members also went up, causing the children of nobles to rejoice over the increased number of possible jobs.

Some high-ranking nobles started to run their own magic airships while others increased the number of airships they were already operating. They hired veterans and got them to train the young folks and the children of their retainers.

“A huge number of small airships operate inside the Kingdom. It looks like the government wants to use the bigger airships as means to stay in touch with the south and east. New continents and the development of uninhabited islands has also become a possible goal.”

Proceeding with the development in the south increases the national power of the whole Kingdom. Given that the Kingdom has encountered a new potential enemy in the demons, they’ve become frantic about accelerating the development.

The Empire might move on its own as well. Peter and I are friends, but our personal friendship has nothing to do with the relationship between our nations. Since the Empire might employ plans to outwit the Kingdom, we must do what we can while we still have time right now.

“We will hunt in the monster domain of this island as a test while also using it as an opportunity to explore the area.”

If it contains precious monsters and produce like the Demon Forest, there won’t be any need to liberate it. We could simply build an adventurer town over here and set this as an island for adventurers.

“There’s also a limit to how much you can reclaim after liberating it. Especially considering the big mountain on the island.”

“Before that, the escape of the residents comes first.”

No further serpents should show up today anymore, so we must migrate the people off the island. The southern archipelago has some places which are currently under development, so it should be okay to make them settle there and support their lives for a while.

Given their experience in sugar cane cultivation, they’ll be immediately usable as a work force.

“For the meat of serpents, who used to be such a threat, to be so delicious…”

Because we caught a huge amount of serpents, we also offered some of it to the sailors and villagers. The inhabitants of this village were extremely happy that they could fill their stomachs for the first time in a long time.

Since it was possible for serpents to show up at any moment, we would temporarily suspend our exploration and transport them off their island. Being happy over the prospect of leaving this place, the villagers ate the grilled serpent meat while chatting happily.

“I think we will have them move to some place on the southern archipelago.”

“That should be fine.”

They should be able to quickly grow accustomed to their new environment since it’d be similar to this.

I ate my dinner while consulting about this with Erich-nii-san, but there was one thing which bothered me.

“Wendelin-sama, please have another serving of meat.”

“Sure, thanks.”

“Wendelin-sama, you are a great magician, aren’t you?”

“You think so?”

“Lulu does. Lulu couldn’t even defeat a single serpent by herself.”

 

 

 

 

Probably because I defeated the serpents in her stead, Lulu got oddly attached to me. Doushi also defeated serpents, but he isn’t overly popular among children to begin with. Burkhart-san prepared his magic just in case, but in the end he didn’t shoot a single spell.

As a result, I got myself a five-years-old stalker.

“Hahaha, popular, aren’t we Wend?”

“Even though Lulu has the makings of a magician, she’s still an intermediate level and doesn’t possess a wand. Her mana couldn’t keep up with the increased attack frequency of the sea serpents, so she might have lost, if she had tried to take on the serpents back then.”

“And that’s when you appeared as her savior, eh? The power of your magic is on a different level, so it’s only natural that you were able to save her and her people,” Erich-nii-san remarked.

Also, he casually disregarded Doushi’s participation in this. Then again, it’s not like it’s necessary to deliberately point out that Doushi isn’t popular with children just to earn myself a glare from him.

“Wend, you’re popular with all sorts of women, aren’t you?”

That blasted Erw…just because it’s not about him…I’m gonna remember this, dude.

“Wendelin-sama is married?”

“Yeah, several times at that,” Erw light answered Lulu, saying whatever he wanted about other people’s affairs.

“It’s only natural for a great magician of Wendelin-sama’s caliber. I will also become a magnificent magician and be a good wife for Wendelin-sama,” Lulu declared with a broad smile.

“……”

At present, she’s a cute little girl, but once she grows up, she’ll probably turn into a beauty. However, right now she’s no more than a girl that ought to be protected rather than one that I could love.

“I hear this girl has no family.”

Earlier Burkhart-san apparently questioned the vice-village chief about the details. Originally Lulu used to be the only daughter of a fisherman. But, her father was soon eaten by a serpent after she was born, and immediately afterwards, her mother passed away from sickness, too.

Lulu had thus lost her entire family, but because she possessed mana since birth, she was inaugurated as village chief according to the village rules. The position of village chief is assigned to magicians with combat abilities while the actual duty is carried out by the vice-village chief, so I guess the post of village chief is more of an honorary position.

“There’s no need to turn a magician into your village chief at your new home.”

If it’s over there, they won’t get attacked by serpents anymore, so it’ll be better to leave the management of the village to the vice-village who’s already experienced at the tasks of a village chief.

However, this created a problem. It became unclear who would bring Lulu up, now that she finished her duty as village chief.

『Earl Baumeister-sama, we cannot teach magic to Lulu. Please take care of her』

Lulu has already lost both her parents. She doesn’t have any relatives among the villagers and her duty to repel the serpents with her magic is over as well.

Accordingly, the vice-village chief asked me to take care of her so that she’d become a splendid magician.

“Umm…”

“Sure, we will gladly take care of this matter,” Erich-nii-san agreed before I could even say anything.

“Erich-nii-san?”

“There’s no reason to refuse, is there? Lulu-chan will become an outstanding magician, so it won’t pose any problem to shelter her at the Earl Baumeister House, will it?”

Erich-nii-san is a gentle, handsome guy, but he’s also excellent as a noble.

“If other nobles hear about the existence of a magician child without relatives, they’ll fight over her, you know? Things might become quite terrible for Lulu-chan, if that happens.”

It’s certainly true that she could suffer her whole life if she’s taken in by some weirdo noble. Much more so because Lulu is a woman.

“Fortunately, Lulu-chan is already respecting you, Wend.”

And I also saved her. When she declared she’d become my wife, the villagers and sailors all looked happy. Rather, come on, I want at least one person to object to this…

But, I guess that’s asking too much… They cannot say anything to me as Earl, I suppose.

“Wouldn’t it be fine if you think of it as taking care of a daughter for a while?”

Erwin suggested it very easily, but even on the next day, she remained stuck to my side. Given that it couldn’t be helped, I directed the villagers’ relocation while having her train her magic.

The villagers loaded their luggage on the magic airship. Meanwhile I contacted Roderich through the MHCD, before transporting all of them to the designated pioneer village.

Because we needed several roundtrips, Doushi, Burkhart-san, Erich-nii-san, I and Erw remained on the island. For the sake of possible further serpent attacks and to start exploring the island once more.

“Lulu, lift the third by one level.”

“Okay.”

“Lift the fourth by a level as well.”

“Okay.”

“Lower the seventh by one level.”

“Okay…aahh!”

I had Lulu do a training method I came up with, but since she’s a child, she quickly failed. This training method is about lining up ten pebbles in front of you and making them all float up at eye height. Moving stuff with magic is the basics of the basics, and this training method utilizes that.

The pebbles have numbers assigned to them, and if I tell her to raise one by a level, the designated pebble is to be raised around 50 centimeters above the eye line. If I tell her to lower it, the designated pebbles is to be lowered around 50 centimeters.

It’s a training method similar to a simple game, but it’s unexpectedly difficult.

Because there are ten pebbles, it’s difficult to maintain all of them at the same designated height. If you’re unfamiliar with this like Lulu, you’ll quickly neglect the control over all the pebbles the instant you try to move a single pebble according to instruction.

“It doesn’t go all that well.”

“Everyone has problems with this at the start.”

“You too, Wendelin-sama?”

“This is something I invented, but even as the inventor, I was initially bad at it.”

I taught this to Agnes and her friends as well, but as might be expected, the three were no good at this at the beginning either. If you can continue doing this exercise for an hour, you’ve reached a high level of skill. Burkhart-san surprised everyone by doing this for around three hours without any trouble at all. Doushi also surprised everyone, but in the opposite way, since he couldn’t even keep this up for ten minutes.

“Now then, time for a break.”

“Lulu is fine.”

“Lulu, magic isn’t anything you will master in a day. Training is important, but you must also take breaks properly.”

“Okay, Lulu understands.”

Once I got to know her a bit better, I quickly found out that Lulu is an honest and cute girl. As I talked to her and taught her magic, I felt like I was dealing with my own daughter.

Given that Friedrich and my other babies will grow up as well, allowing me to talk and play with them, this feels like a great rehearsal.

“Today’s snack is a cake made out of fruits from the Demon Forest.”

“Whoaaa, how amazing.”

Lulu’s eyes sparkled when she saw the cake with plenty of cream and fruits I took out from my magic bag. Sweet stuff existed on this island as well, but it was limited to the sugar that could be harvested from sugar canes. Moreover, sugar was counted as calories to ensure survival. As such the people in this village didn’t have the leeway to eat sweets as snacks.

“Lulu is digging in.”

Lulu happily ate her cake. The bit of cream stuck to the tip of her nose only increased her loveliness all the more.

“I see. The same happened in a book that Ina read the other day. A man took custody of a small girl and raised her into his ideal type of woman…oophm!”

“Wendelin-sama, why did Erwin-san fall down?”

“Maybe he tripped over a rock? Erw is a klutz.”

“Is that so?”

“Lulu, I also have some cookies that I bought in a store in the capital.”

“Yaaaay, thank you so much.”

I pressed Erw, who ran his mouth about odd nonsense, to the ground with Airhammer so that Lulu wouldn’t notice it. Currently he was stuck to the ground like a frog that got run over by a car.

But, that’s what he gets for treating others like they’re Hikari Genji. Or rather, a similar story might exist in this world as well, I guess. Though I have some doubts about why Ina would read such a story.

“After this, we will practice until evening and then I will teach you simple kanji after dinner.”

“Thank you.”

The inhabitants of this island can read and write hiragana and katakana. Lulu still is fice years old, but she’s a smart girl, so she can handle most of them. Otherwise, she probably would understand the need to repel serpents and carry it out.

But, since none of the villagers could read kanji, I decided to teach her. Most of the books written by magicians use kanji. And since she won’t be able to read those books, it’s necessary for her to quickly memorize kanji.

“Lulu wants to hear stories about you, Wendelin-sama.”

“Are you fine with stories from the past? I woke up to magic a bit later than you did, Lulu. For a while I trained my magic all by myself, but one day I accidentally met my Master…”

“Wow.”

Lulu innocently listened to my tale with sparkling eyes.

Once we finished our dinner, I taught her simple kanji for some time. Because Lulu is still young, she’s retiring to bed early.

Because I didn’t have anything special to do, I told her a story to make it easier for her to quickly fall asleep after the kanji studying finished. I was doing something a father would do, so the vice-village chief was deeply moved when he saw it.

“This girl has never seen her father. I’m sure Lulu is currently thinking of you as a father, Earl Baumeister-sama.”

No, Vice-Village Chief, I’m sorry to disturb your emotional moment here, but I think your perception of the situation is lacking by a step.

“Wendelin-sama, Lulu is going to grow up quickly and become a good wife.”

“…I look forward to that.”

I felt like she’d cry if he turned her down here…another good guy will show up once she grows up anyway…

Deciding to think of it like that, I continued with a story from my past instead of a good-night-story.

 

 

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