The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 197.
I returned to the academy after a long time and was dealing with overdue assignments.
I thought this would be quite arduous, but since Erina had already done mine while doing her own, I only needed to review and edit from my perspective.
Usually, there would be exams at this point, but they were temporarily postponed, possibly due to the aftermath of the undead invasion.
Regarding this, there were concerns among students that the academy might issue a mobilization order.
In that case, the academy would likely treat it as part of the exam and penalize students who refused the mobilization order.
While nobles might find a way out, commoners would absolutely not be able to refuse.
I was in a similar position.
‘We’ll have to wait and see how the mobilization order will be issued.’
Anyway, thanks to Erina, I submitted the overdue assignments early and used the remaining time to start inspecting those who had gone out to work.
First, Elena’s side, who started as a martial arts instructor.
Elena was teaching self-defense to citizens in a dojo within Lucretia’s mansion.
Perhaps due to the recent undead invasion, demand had exploded, and about 50 trainees were practicing martial arts in the dojo, shouting with effort.
Although the level was quite low as it was just self-defense, Elena seemed to find fulfillment in teaching itself.
“It seems to be going well.”
“Elaine, you’ve come.”
Elena beamed with a broad smile.
“You look happy.”
“Yes. It’s fun teaching many people.”
“Didn’t you teach elves? The Guardian Soldiers, I think.”
“I did teach the Guardian Soldiers, but there, only elites with basic qualifications enter. Even then, it was only about 5 people a year.”
“I see. How about during the Kuravel Holy kingdom era?”
“At that time, I only taught Eonia because the Valkyrie’s martial arts had to be passed down to one person.”
Elena smiled warmly, looking at Eo.
Eo was vigorously swinging a wooden spear in one corner of the dojo. Although a beginner in knowledge, her instincts hadn’t gone anywhere, showing a performance incomparable to other trainees.
As a pregnant woman was showing such a performance, trainees, regardless of gender, had their gazes stolen by Eo’s movements.
Elena tells me, as if she can’t help it.
“Elaine, are you on an inspection right now?”
“Yes. I have some time left.”
“Then take Eo with you. Because of her, the other trainees can’t concentrate.”
“Haha, alright.”
Elena’s martial arts instruction was quite profitable.
Using the name of Lucretia’s family, the Akasha family, was key.
The Akasha family was famous as a martial arts family even in the kingdom, so there were quite a lot of people hoping for instruction.
‘At this pace, the mansion construction will be done soon.’
After finishing Elena’s inspection, I took Eo and went outside.
Eo carefully asked me while wiping her sweat.
“…How was it?”
“Hm?”
“You saw earlier. Was my spear technique okay?”
“Ah, of course. It stood out distinctively.”
“Hehe, I didn’t know wielding a spear could be this enjoyable.”
Eo asked, her eyes shining, as if pleading.
“Hey Ars, was I really that strong? Was I really good with a spear? I hear I was even stronger than you.”
“You were stronger than me. But now, I think I could win?”
“What!? How can you be so sure! I might win too!”
“Well, you see…”
If we were to really duel, Eo could never beat me. I had never lost even in practice matches. Eo only defended, afraid I might get hurt.
“Just wait, when I regain my memories, I’ll teach you a lesson.”
“Pfft!”
“Did you just laugh!?”
“No, no I didn’t.”
If Eo regains her memories, she’d surely apologize for speaking so impertinently. Imagining that scene made me laugh unconsciously.
“Still, don’t overdo it. Wielding a spear is good, but…”
“Ah…”
Eo blushed, seemingly understanding what I meant.
“I-It’s fine. Lady Bisketa said I’ve entered a stable period now. She said a little exercise is okay. What I did earlier wasn’t tiring at all, so don’t worry too much.”
“That’s good then.”
As we walked and talked like this, the store I was aiming for came into view.
It was the flower shop my mother and Meissen had started. It wasn’t just a simple flower shop, but also seemed to double as a restaurant, as people were seen dining.
‘To start a café here. What should I say…’
Well, the history of cafés actually started from the medieval period, so it wasn’t strange.
“Ars!”
My mother brightened up upon seeing me.
“Are you done with the academy? Didn’t you say you had a lot of assignments?”
“Erina helped me.”
“Sit down for now. Have some tea before you go.”
There were quite a lot of customers. I wonder if beautiful part-timers are important here as they are in the modern world.
Most were men who came to see Meissen.
Some even tried to buy flowers on the spot to gift to Meissen.
Meissen looked troubled but handled it appropriately. Still, when some crossed the line, she asked the guard for help.
It’s fortunate that this city has good public order. If it didn’t, accidents might happen at any moment.
‘I should assign a bodyguard before any trouble occurs.’
There’s no suitable person right now, so they might have to struggle for a while.
‘The income is… Not bad.’
The sales weren’t bad, but the profit margin wasn’t as high compared to Elena’s.
Unlike Elena who only needs to bring herself, here they need to prepare flowers and ingredients, do interior decoration, and have other miscellaneous expenses.
As the scale grows, this side might become more profitable in reverse, but it’s hard to think it will grow to that extent.
* * *
The inspection ended with meeting Bisketa, who was laying the foundation for the mansion construction.
“Here, the data you requested.”
I handed Bisketa the calculated data on expected income.
This was the purpose of this inspection. It was an inspection Bisketa requested to gauge the construction speed of the mansion.
Bisketa nodded satisfactorily while looking at the data.
“This is quite good. I thought Meissen’s flower shop would continue to make losses for a while, but that’s not the case.”
“Well, the shop owner is a beauty.”
“I see. Anyway, at this rate, we can start construction from this week.”
“Please adjust the speed accordingly.”
“Don’t worry. How many times do you think I’ve supervised such work?”
She’s indeed reliable. Well, as a former prime minister of a kingdom, her abilities are beyond doubt.
After finishing the inspection, I headed to the publisher’s office for the last stop.
There was money to be settled as it had been nearly a month since my last visit. I decided to get the settlement quickly as I thought I might need money soon.
But here, I encountered unexpected people.
Erina and Princess Rosa were there, perhaps to see the books.
“Ah!”
Princess Rosa swallowed hard as if the expected had arrived when she saw Eo, but then her eyes widened at the sight of Eo’s belly.
“What on earth is this person!?”
It seems she hasn’t heard the situation from Erina yet.
After sitting at the table and explaining the situation, Rosa glared at me as if looking at trash.
“Not content with having multiple legs…”
Erina tried to stop her, saying it wasn’t like that, but Rosa’s gaze didn’t change.
“Sigh, well, congratulations anyway. I hope the baby is born healthy.”
“Thank you. With Erina’s situation and in many ways… The same goes for Rinoa’s situation.”
“Don’t worry too much about her. She’s regained her spirits now.”
“But why are you here today…?”
“I heard a new book came out? Your book, Wade.”
“Ah.”
It’s the second volume of ‘Their Circumstances’. In this second volume, Erina’s self-insert character Irina plays a big role.
Perhaps because of that, Erina was really looking forward to the publication of the second volume. It seems she pestered Princess Rosa to come to the publisher today as well.
“Oh? Sir Ars?”
At that moment, Ukon, who came out from inside the publisher’s office, raised his eyebrows upon seeing me.
“Hmm, I guess you came to receive the settlement. And those people are…”
Erina speaks as if she’s been waiting for this.
“We came because we heard the second volume would be out today!”
“Ah… You mean ‘Their Circumstances’. I’m sorry, but the publication schedule has been postponed.”
“Why is that!”
“I heard something big happened in the Southern Continent. Because of that, the state took a large amount of paper. So, publication will only be possible after the situation in the Southern Continent is resolved.”
“Sir Ars!”
Erina says with blazing eyes.
“Let’s go deal with whatever undead or whatever right now!”
“How important can a book be…”
Eonia, who seems to have developed an interest in books, had been quietly reading volume 1 of ‘Their Circumstances’ hanging on the publisher’s bookshelf without joining the conversation. Ukon observed Eonia closely and then asked me.
“Sir Ars. Is that person the model for the female knight Elnia Pentabel in the book?”
“Yeah, you figured it out well.”
“Of course I’d know! The description in the book is exactly the same! So all the heroines had models after all. And the fact that she’s pregnant… Was the real heroine the female knight all along! Whew!”
At this, Erina exclaims in surprise.
“Reality and books are different!”
“Is that so? Since Sir Ars mentioned last time that he was thinking of publishing a third volume centered on the female knight, I thought the female knight was the real heroine.”
“What…!? Sir Ars. Is that true? Has this been discussed with Estelle as well?”
“No, it’s just… I thought it would be nice to have a story about the female knight too. It’s still in the conceptual stage.”
“So a third volume is coming out…!”
Erina burned with enthusiasm, saying she would participate in the proofreading as well.
Eo, who had read the book, was also urging for the female knight’s story, so it seems I’ll have to work on it whenever I have time.
‘Will it really end there?’
I had a feeling that this might not end with just three volumes, but might continue to four or five volumes, becoming a long series due to the urging of people unsatisfied with just three volumes.
After the sun set, I sent Eo back with Erina and headed alone to the mercenary guild.
It was time for a reply to the letter I had sent to Dorofei.
As expected, there was a letter from Dorofei kept at the request office.
Moreover, for some reason, there were two letters.
“Why are there two?”
If he had sent them together, they would have been in one envelope. The staff at the request office pondered my question and then answered.
“One arrived by regular mail around dawn. The other arrived by special delivery a few hours ago. Well, maybe there’s some urgent matter?”
“Urgent matter…. Thank you.”
After sitting at a table in the guild’s tavern, I first read the one that had arrived at dawn.
It contained congratulations and praise for finding Eonia, and his views on the construction of the mansion.
Dorofei suggested that if I was going to build multiple mansions anyway, why not build one in the Savior Alliance area as well.
‘That sounds good.’
Considering Gunther’s case of becoming a criminal within the Ellan Kingdom, and thinking about searching for Aggert who was sold into slavery to the Savior Alliance, it would be good to have a base there too.
Dorofei also expressed concern about the undead invasion. He said the Savior Alliance would likely intervene in some way.
In that case, there was a high possibility of friction between the Ellan Kingdom and the Savior Alliance.
That was the end of the contents of the first letter.
Next was the letter that came by special delivery.
I thought there might be some urgent matter, but that wasn’t the case.
─I sent this quickly by special delivery in case we might miss each other. I wanted to come to Baien myself to see Eonia too, but…. Please understand that I couldn’t come because the Ellan Kingdom’s borders are half-closed right now.
It was a typical calm introduction from Dorofei.
─By the way. Do you remember Elliot who used tracking magic last time? While chatting with him about this undead invasion, we vaguely speculated something. Ars, do you know about blood mages? There are mages among dark mages who specialize in handling blood. They’re called blood mages.
I did know. They were beings only found in history books, mainly responsible for confirming the bloodlines of royalty and nobility in the past.
However, due to a historical event known as Xavier’s Rebellion, blood mages faced hardships.
It was an incident where a nobleman named Xavier Orin conspired with a blood mage to falsely claim his son was royalty in an attempt to seize the throne.
The kingdom, which had already been struggling with how to deal with dark mages at that point, took this opportunity to persecute blood mages and other dark mages.
After that, blood mages were no longer seen in the kingdom.
Moreover, because handling blood required study and effort rather than being an innate ability, when the lineage of blood mages was cut off, no new blood mages appeared to succeed them.
Thus, blood mages disappeared into history. Officially, at least.
─Elliot said there might be disciples of blood mages who had been in hiding in the Lost Lands. He said the Forest of Lament would be a perfect hiding place for that.
I wondered what he was trying to convey. But that was where the main point began.
─Blood mages can crystallize blood into gems, apparently. They’re called blood stones. Thinking about that, something occurred to me. What would happen if we put a tracking spell on it? When I asked that, Elliot casually said, ‘Well, we’d have to try it, but if the tracking magic activates, wouldn’t it track blood relatives with similar blood?‘ That’s what he said. He might have said it without much thought since it’s not his business, but I’m telling you just in case. Because if that’s possible, you could make a gem with your blood, cast a tracking spell on it, and maybe find your sister Julia, right?
My eyes lit up.
Of course, Dorofei’s words were incorrect. I’m not blood-related to sister Julia.
Whether Dorofei forgot that I was adopted or I didn’t tell him, in any case, my blood won’t do anything.
But there’s Mother here. If it’s Mother’s blood, we might be able to find sister Julia.
Moreover, it becomes a crucial clue to find her.
Dorofei doesn’t know this either so he didn’t mention it, but Gaspar and Yumir are also in a father-daughter relationship.
‘Finally…!’
I found a clue to find Yumir.
It was the moment when the purpose of this undead subjugation increased to three.
The first was to search for Estelle, who was said to be in the Forest of Lament.
The second was to find the dark mage who knows how to restore Eo’s memories.
The third was to find a blood mage.
I had planned to participate in the undead subjugation in some way from the beginning, but now my motivation was different.
Coincidentally, just as the state’s call for the undead subjugation was issued, I hurriedly began preparations for the journey.
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