Chapter. 11. The Wizard of Wizards (18)
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While Lucilla was at a dinner where it was hard to tell whether she was a guest or a meeting, our group was eating and resting to our heart’s content and relieving the fatigue of the trip.
Occasionally, Otman asks, ‘Can we really play with ourselves like this?’ Even though he looked at me with the same eyes.
What should I do now that I really have nothing to do but wait?
‘According to the contract, that little Lucille will do her best to help us. Even though it’s unwanted attention, since he’s a merchant, he probably knows that he has to row when the water comes in. Now is the time to let him get the attention.’
Before entering the castle, we had a chat on the carriage about what kind of relationship our group and Lucilla’s people would have. I also covet this guy’s abilities and the connections and knowledge he has built up through repeated trips to the empire, and he covets his difficult-to-interfere position as a member of my religious community and the power to attack and push them away if the situation arises.
Since we both wanted something, we were able to reach an agreement amicably.
In fact, even though it was a contract, it wasn’t anything very grand.
——–
On this journey, Lucilla Aedran and her superiors do their best to help the warrior professor and his party in both material and spiritual ways to achieve their goals. Here, the best standard means a state in which there is no room to spare as seen through the eyes of the elf Idrasil.
In return, the Champion Professor expresses, through his authority, that the Church of Light officially supports Lucilla Aedran. The name of ‘Lucilla Aedran’ must be mentioned at least once in an official setting by the Archbishop, and the fact must be officially known to the social community and the Aedran family.
——–
A contract that is simple but includes everything. These are not bad conditions for both parties.
Why did Lucilla end up like a duck egg from the Nakdong River even after concluding such a big contract?
This is because they do not have their own support base. He has the ability to grow trees that grow silver coins, but since he is a tenant farmer, the owner of the land takes everything.
From what I’ve heard, it is said that her mother was a maid for the Aedran family, but fell in love with the head of the family and became his second wife.
It is said that when other siblings jumped into the succession battle with full support from their mother’s family, she had to rush in with her bare hands.
In such an unfavorable situation, Lucilla has the ability to create a business that will cross over to the empire by her own strength and collect trade goods to make enormous profits. As long as she has the backbone of her other siblings, it is a vain dream to gain the upper hand in the family succession battle. is not.
So Lucilla will do her best to keep her promise to me. If it’s not now, there really is no turning back… Enough to bear the burden of the rumor of ‘Lucilla on a new journey’, which may be.
Then what about mine?
‘…Honestly, I don’t have enough authority to move the church, but… I do know how to get the church to support Lucilla.’
In fact, this method does not require much of a position in the church. All you have to do is clearly show that supporting Lucilla is beneficial to the church.
I don’t know about anything else, but the connection I have with the Archbishop is awesome.
‘It’s nothing difficult. After this incident, I’ll stop by Teldrat and visit the nearby temple of the Light Church with that Roman guy and blow up the [Prototype Aircraft].’
The Gwangmyeong Church may appear to have an unintelligent image due to its beliefs that border on fanaticism, but that is because they do not know anything about religious groups of this era.
Religious groups are ultimately ‘groups’, and the larger the group and the wider its influence, the more money they eat up in all sorts of ways. On a small scale, it involves establishing parishes, educating clergy, and providing relief to areas where the faith has not yet spread. Broadly speaking, he lobbied with high-ranking nobles, collected information on heresy, trained holy knights, burned down villages, and even covered up the incidents with money.
The Gwangmyeong Church of the past was not used as a tool of war for no reason. Since it was difficult to even maintain the temple, let alone make a living just by receiving donations, he accepted the nobles’ offer to cry and eat mustard.
however.
In that difficult situation, the Archbishop raised the Gwangmyeong Church, which had been treated as a tool of war, to its current position, and was resourceful enough to be persistent in creating a group in charge of information and dirty work in the Gwangmyeong Church, which was a simple religious group. He is a good person.
A priest who devoted his all to promoting the denomination to the point where a more faithful person than anyone else revised its doctrines with his own hands and committed massacres.
The professor was confident because his incompetence, bordering on madness, had been sufficiently proven.
The moment the airship catches the Archbishop’s attention, Lucilla can receive the full support of the Gwangmyeong Church.
‘The amount of wheat and barley that the Church of Light buys each year to provide relief to the poor is similar to the amount of rice produced throughout Teldrat, which is famous as a granary. Even if we were to contract only 10% of that, it could be as great an achievement as winning a military supply deal as a war merchant.’
We made a reasonable contract and are doing our best to keep that contract with each other.
Perhaps that was why the sound of the horses’ hooves from the four-horse carriage approaching outside the tavern and the small steps coming from it sounded particularly combative.
A familiar girl’s voice and a knight’s voice that I started to become familiar with this morning.
The group’s attention naturally focused on the voices of the man and woman coming from outside.
“Lady Lucilla. Again, this shabby place is not suitable for a beautiful lady. Even now, go back to the castle and stay….”
“Knight Demikas. Sorry, but I am both a nobleman and a merchant. The most important asset for a merchant is people, right? “How can I enjoy sumptuous meals, baths with scented oils, and soft feather blankets when the group that followed me across the dangerous Blue Line stays in such a ‘shabby’ place?”
“okay. This is truly a wise move. “Please regard this as a mistake made by an untrained officer who lacks learning.”
“It’s okay, Knight Demikas. Basically, the greatest duty of men in a territory suffering from war is to eliminate threats outside the territory with strong force and charisma and protect the people, right? These minor shortcomings of strong knights are usually resolved by ‘taking a wise wife’, which is the traditional way… right?”
“Uh…. Wow! Lady, you mean-”
“Oh my, it’s late at night. Adult men and women talking on the street at this late hour could easily lead to criticism, so I’ll just go in and take a rest. I really enjoyed it today. Bye!”
“Le Lady Lucilla! Just take a moment! “If there is someone who starts gossiping, I will stop him by even hanging his head on the castle gate, so just for a moment…!”
Jump up!
Kkeikkeok – Clap!
With the plaintive voice of a horse riding a horse, Lucilla opened the door and bolted it with a speed that even an experienced thief would admire.
“Oh my. “They say that when a woman falls in love, she becomes even more beautiful.”
“Hey~ Bride-to-be~”
Crack!
“Just one word. Try more. “Your two pieces of silver will be taken out of my pocket.”
“Lao Tzu says it’s only two silver coins. “Gold Geyser’s name is Crying.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a silver coin, a copper coin, a pebble, or anything else, as long as you can cover those damn grinning eyes!”
Lucilla growled, baring her teeth, as if throwing away the voice that had tickled the man’s heart with affection just moments ago.
The neat dress she had changed into on the cart was gone. She was wearing a rich, gorgeous red dress. She casually kicked off her small, uncomfortable shoes and flopped down at the table where her companions were.
Aww, it’s so cute I’m dying.
“You worked hard, Lucille. “There’s nothing more tiring than chatting with nobles.”
“Well, I had a hard time. It wasn’t just a greeting, it was a talent show for all the family members to persuade the ‘Teldrat suitor’, whom they had only heard about! Even before I took a spoonful of soup, the history of my family and the favors of His Majesty the Emperor were being told in a row, and by the time the meal was served, it seemed like there was going to be a dance competition in the parlor… I couldn’t even properly refuse because of who I was! “I thought walking a tightrope while trying to keep my stomach in a tight fit would be shriveled up!”
Lucilla said that thanks to this, she couldn’t even drink water, let alone eat, and ordered meat stew separately for herself.
‘Uhm. ‘This damned little boy.’
Although he was grumbling about how hard and difficult it had been, even just listening to the conversation in front of the inn, I could clearly see who was holding his leash and shaking him.
‘The suitor of Teldrat’ is the same state as a woman announcing to the world that she is ready to meet her partner.
From a man’s perspective, since he is literally in a situation where he is standing next to a woman who is ‘ready to marry’ and appealing to her in order to get her permission, it is natural to imagine the ‘next time’ after receiving permission.
In a situation where such a subtle and strange current is flowing, he throws out words that stimulate the imagination, such as ‘bath water’ and feather bed, and in response to a compliment for being wise, he shakes the naive knight’s guard by telling him to meet a wise woman, and sneers at the impatient opponent. Lucilla ran away, leaving her alone.
The knight named Demikas must have been standing blankly in front of the closed inn for a long time. And he must have driven his horse alone on the lonely moonlit street, trying to calm his agitated mind.
‘Um, just be careful. Come to think of it, this girl was the daughter of a high-ranking noble family, right? His skill was such that he had a noble way of speaking, so he could easily roast and boil a knight who had just graduated from the academy and entered the family’s work.’
In fact, one of the reasons why the academy teaches speaking skills is so that you don’t get caught like this when you go out.
Whoosh! Squeak Shack!
“Khaaaa! “I can live now!”
The professor shook his head as he watched Lucilla, who looked a million light years away from elegance, holding a bowl of soup and scraping it all the way to the bottom.
At that age, you can turn the inside and the outside around so freely. He was a guy who would make men cry when he grew up.
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“Did you win?”
“I won.”
The situation in the castle was summed up in one word.
“It was a spill, so I decided to make the most of the situation I was in. The ‘Imperial noble’s fantasy of a Teldrat woman’, which I had only heard about through rumors… was even crazier than I thought. It’s not just a trophy; it’s really like a bard’s story, and as soon as I become the daughter-in-law of that house, my territory will suddenly grow and everything will go well, and they will run at me tenaciously. Well, since it was clearly visible what the other side wanted, it was convenient to be able to freely spread conditions that were advantageous to our side… but honestly, it was a bit scary.”
Aldrich, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth to Lucilla’s words.
“What do you mean it’s scary?”
“Hmm… should I say it’s close to obsession? It was a bit too explicit. Didn’t he say that he was planning to greet my father separately? He suddenly opened the family storehouse, showed off a pile of shiny armor, spears and arrows, and said things like “We are so well prepared”. The Countess asked to have tea after the meal and invited him to a small drawing room. She said something like, “I didn’t notice when there were young people around,” and lowered the lights so that it was just Demikas and me. “Why don’t you leave it where it is?”
Taang!
“It felt a little… rude. “To the extent that I had to escape the castle by bringing up old traditions that no one paid attention to, such as the rules of a merchant family.”
“okay. It’s worth it. It may be just a story floating around among nobles, but isn’t the case with the Woman of Teldrat proven to be true every time? “Among the high-ranking nobles of the empire, there are more than one family that have turned their lives around by meeting a woman who has embarked on such a remarkable journey, so it is worth being greedy.”
“Yes, of course. When the Duke of Glenn was falsely accused of treason, Duchess Nadia Glenn alone searched through a library’s worth of imperial precedents to prove that the verdict against the duke was unreasonable, or Schwarz, who was a nobleman who went bankrupt and only had an empty castle and a dried-up fiefdom. After visiting the baron, he recognized the talent of Arthur Schwarz, who was covered in dirt and erecting a wall along with the other residents of the territory, and volunteered to become his wife. Baron Schwarz’s talent, which no one knew about, blossomed. Now, he is a swordsman who picks out sword users like a factory. There is also Countess Nicelia Schwarz of the Marquis Schwarz. “There are many historically proven cases.”
“That much… Then I guess it’s not just a rumor, but something real?”
Certainly, at that level, it was enough for the family to step forward and push the back. There are already numerous success stories, but they are not just successes; they are jackpot-level success stories, so of course you can’t help but be coveted, right?
‘There’s a good chance it wasn’t just a coincidence. This world is created according to the imagination of the vast majority of NPCs.’
At first, it could have simply been a part of a tale fueled by the fame of a great hero. As time goes by, many coincidences overlap, and the ‘large-scale success stories’ mentioned by Lucilla above accumulate, and before you know it, the formula [welcoming a woman from Teldrat = success] has become common sense among people.
And among the nobles, who have greater influence, or greater resources, than ordinary commoners, ‘Lucilla Aedran is a woman who went on a spiritual journey.’ What if it spreads all over the place?
“…Lucille. “What did the Vigilen family say when you left?”
“Let’s see… I asked to borrow a boat to cross to the rocky area, and he said he would consider it if I could come back tomorrow evening.”
“okay?”
I was called back to the castle. At dinner, not lunch, where light conversation takes place. This time, he only called Lucilla without talking about the rest of the party….
“…Then, come with me tomorrow. Even if you are a wizard, if you are a warrior of the Light Church, even the Margrave cannot just ignore you.”
As my expression became serious, Lucilla, who also became serious, asked me in a low voice.
“I wonder if the Vigilen family will force me to come out?”
Lucilla must have sensed that feeling inside and realized my intention even before I spoke.
“okay. “Until now, I just dismissed it as a little bit of seasoning to your conditions, but now that I’ve heard about it, I think some people will roll their eyes.”
The professor recalled the sights of the city he had seen on his way here. A quiet street with not many passers-by even in the middle of the day, when it was still peaceful but strangely tense.
Sword users were patrolling deep into the blue line, and the eastern border troops were increasing in number as they got closer to the territory.
‘I still don’t know how much influence Mute has had on the Empire, but I’m sure we’re making preparations here.’
And above all, the head of the family appealed that he was ‘ready’ by showing off a warehouse full of new weapons, as if preparing for war, in a family warehouse that was not open to outsiders.
‘What if the nobles here really thought of Lucilla as a genie who would bring success, and if they thought they could get permission like Marquis Schwarz by showing potential?’
Jeon-woon speaks of confusion. And in times of turmoil, there were always people who dreamed of turning the tide.
Margrave A local nobleman with great power who can wield the same authority as the emperor within his own territory.
Perhaps the desire he quietly harbored in his heart may have been fueled by the unusual tale that anyone would not hesitate to describe as the scent of war carried by the wind as an ‘opportunity’.
Of course, this assumes the worst case scenario. It may simply be the parent’s plan to give their second son a good daughter-in-law, or it may be a family that is inherently more open-minded.
However, if that ‘worst assumption’ becomes reality…
drool!
“I can’t do it. “I guess I should meet him sometime.”
When Lucilla visited the castle again, she might never be able to leave it again.
Tdu-duk, tdu-duk!
The professor stood up from his seat with a violent cracking sound.
“Lucille. “Do you know where the Gwangmyeong Church’s temple is nearby?”
“yes? Yes… it’s inside the square, though. why?”
“I’m trying to get a priest’s uniform to wear.”
“Priest… clothes?”
“okay. Since they’re being serious over there, I’m going to be a little more serious too. “As a warrior of light.”
The professor laughed cruelly, remembering the faceless lord of Vigilen.
Ro Haram said, “He who embraces the light of goodness never treats the weak poorly.”
Those who committed evil crimes against others were subject to the death penalty, regardless of gender or social status.
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