Whoooooosh—!
“Ugh, why is it snowing so much here?”
As he crossed over the top of the mountain range, a blizzard was pouring down from the sky over Snowhill, where the cold winds of the North Sea came sweeping in.
Dawi was a little taken aback. The place he had been staying was cold, too, but it had never snowed this much.
There had been quite a few carnivores he’d run into while leading Malmari, loaded with corn and hides, down the mountains.
As a result, the hides piled on Malmari’s back had increased compared to when they had set out.
After pushing through the flurries and descending the mountains for quite some time,
when he had finally almost reached the bottom, he heard people shouting from below.
‘Is something going on?’
Dawi quickened his pace a little.
And then he saw people locked in a fierce battle with a pack of wolves.
Among them, Dawi recognized the senior knight whose face he had learned before.
“Aaaaargh!”
One of the territory’s residents was bitten by a wolf and dragged away,
Whoosh! Thunk!
and the senior knight threw his sword, killing that wolf.
In exchange, the senior knight was left to face a wolf charging at him barehanded,
and by then, Dawi had already raised his shotgun and finished aiming to help them.
Bang!
The buckshot tore into the wolf’s side.
The wolf was fairly large, but buckshot was enough.
From that moment, Dawi’s slaughter began.
Bang! Clack!
Bang! Bang! Clack!
As if keeping rhythm, the sounds of gunfire and reloading repeated at regular intervals.
Bang! Bang! Clack!
Bang! Bang! Clack!
The wounds on the wolves’ bodies were small, but the buckshot pellets lodged deep, ruining muscle and organs.
The sound was as loud as thunder, yet the wounds were small.
But from those small wounds, the wolves either died instantly or held on for a short while before collapsing.
Seen through medieval eyes, it was more than enough to be magic.
“Is that the military mage they said came to the territory…!”
“They said he commands thunder!”
“I heard he lives leisurely beyond the mountains. He must have come to help us!”
The explosion of gunpowder startled the people, but to wolves sensitive to sound, it was even more threatening.
Bang!
Every time Dawi fired, the wolves flinched,
and in the end, they tucked their tails and fled.
“Waaaah!”
The territory residents cheered, and the senior knight calmly issued orders.
“Check the injured, and make sure no one is missing!
You, go down and see if any beasts made it into the territory!”
Clack!
After reloading the gun and putting on the safety, Dawi approached the senior knight.
“It’s been a while. What on earth is going on here? And why is it snowing so much…”
“Haha, this happens every year. Still, thanks to you, we received a great deal of help. Thank you, Sir Dawi Baroque.”
The senior knight bowed his head to Dawi.
Ever since Dawi had written his name as “Dawi Baroque” on the baroness’s contract, the people of Snowhill had come to know him as Dawi Baroque. Dawi, however, had merely written the family name “Bak” and the given name “Dawi” in the imperial language using the language knowledge that had been forcibly implanted in him.
Dawi said,
“If I saw it, of course I had to help.”
The senior knight looked at the cargo loaded on Malmari’s back.
“That is… quite a lot of hides.”
“Yes. But judging by today’s situation, it looks like there will be plenty of hides here, too.”
Dawi’s gaze turned to the animal carcasses scattered around them.
“Haha, there are many, but good-quality hides are rare.
They have been cut up several times by blades, you see.
But those hides of yours only have a few holes pierced through them by magic, don’t they?
Hides that intact have ample value even here.”
Just then, the knights returned and reported.
“No beasts entered the territory.”
“There are no missing persons. The injured are three knights and about twenty residents. There are no deaths.”
“Good. They are residents who came out to help of their own accord. I’ll make the report, so take them to the treatment center.”
“Yes, sir!”
The senior knight looked back at Dawi and said,
“I have to go to the lord’s castle to report as well, so let us go together.”
“Yes, understood.”
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The office of the lord’s mansion.
At present, it was being used by the baroness, the acting lord.
After examining Dawi’s corn and hides, the baroness said,
“The corn is a bit smaller, but all the hides are of good quality.
I’ll give you two sacks each of garlic and salt.”
“Thank you!”
Two sacks each of garlic and salt was an absurdly small amount compared to the cargo Dawi had brought,
but since they were all goods produced only in small quantities at the lord’s castle, there was nothing to be done.
“And is there anything else you need?
Ah, this is not a trade, but a token of thanks. I heard the knights received a great deal of help from you.”
“That’s all right. If I saw it, of course I had to help.”
“Hmm… Did you manage to build your house properly?
I heard you had been living in a tent before…”
“Ah, yes! I’m living in a fairly decent house with a fireplace and everything. A log cabin. Haha.”
“A log cabin… That would be the easiest material to obtain there.
Then how did you waterproof it?
Since it is on the other side of the mountain range, it will rain a lot there in summer.”
“Ah… waterproof it?”
“You didn’t. Then we have something to give you.
Butler? Would you bring one barrel of pine tar?”
The butler soon brought over a wooden barrel filled with pine tar.
“It’s pine tar made from the pine trees common in the mountains.
You warm it up and spread it on with a brush.
It not only waterproofs, but also repels insects and prevents rot, so it is especially good for wooden houses.”
The Snowhill territory hardly received any rain in summer, but since a great deal of snow fell in winter, they would waterproof structures with pine tar.
This pine tar was produced by the baron’s family, and since it had to be reapplied every few years, they made it available to the residents at a very low price.
Dawi looked inside the wooden barrel at the pine tar.
It was filled with a dark brown, viscous liquid.
“Ah, do you perhaps need charcoal as well?”
Since pine tar was a substance made by burning pinewood, it was usually produced together with pine charcoal.
Charcoal produced less smoke and burned for a long time, so it was mainly used to heat the lord’s castle.
“Oh no, what you’ve already given me is more than enough!”
“Mm… charcoal would certainly be too heavy to load onto a single horse.
If you were to use it as heating fuel, you would need quite a lot.
Then I will give you three barrels of pine tar.
Ah, in winter, the temperature is low, so it won’t spread well.
Keep it stored, then melt and apply it when the weather grows warmer.”
“Yes, thank you!”
After finishing the trade, Dawi left the lord’s castle with his load far lighter than when he had come.
What Dawi had gained from this trade was three barrels of pine tar and two sacks each of salt and garlic.
Pulling on Malmari’s reins, Dawi thought,
‘Ah! I should have asked for candles… Ah! And bilberry wine too!’
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.
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The baroness was watching Dawi depart with Malmari through the window.
Behind her stood the butler and the senior knight.
“It seems he hunted wild animals even on his way here.”
“Yes. Judging by the several hides that have not dried, he likely hunted them on the way.”
“Hmm… The more frequently that man comes and goes from the territory, the more the wild animals in the mountains will be cleared out.”
“Yes. That is true, but…”
‘How can I make him come more often…’
The baroness was lost in thought for a moment.
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The mountain where Dawi’s ranch was located had the highest peak among the surrounding mountain range.
Its upper reaches were always covered in perennial snow, so people called it the Perennial Snow Mountain.
Behind that Perennial Snow Mountain, in a stony mountain region.
There, on the far side of the eastern mountain range of the Snowhill Barony, lived a small tribe of dwarves.
But recently, dwarves who had fled from far to the east had joined them, increasing their population.
“We must obtain more food!”
“By what means? Are you saying we should seize it from the humans?”
“If we must, then we should!”
“Now, now! Are you saying we should break the friendly relations we have built through trade since our ancestors’ time?”
“We’re about to starve to death right now. What do our ancestors matter!”
The dwarves were suffering from a severe food shortage.
The residents of Snowhill filled their bellies with potatoes, but the dwarves did not even have that.
Recently, they had tried to raise the exchange rate between iron ore and food, but it had not had much effect.
This was because Snowhill’s food situation had also grown tight after the merchant ships that came to the Snowhill Barony stopped arriving.
“That’s right! Who built their lord’s castle? We did!
Their harbor, their lord’s castle, the stones for all their facilities—we gave them!
And yet they only trade with us and have never once given us food out of goodwill!”
“Now, now, building the lord’s castle was a trade to begin with! It wasn’t as if we gave it out of goodwill either!”
“Exactly! Which means from the start, they were only trading partners, not friends!”
“Then are you saying we should go to war?!
It may be a small territory, but they have more than ten knights!
What’s more, their armaments are excellent because we gave them iron!”
“As for armaments, ours are better since we mine iron ourselves!”
“What will you do about the mage who commands thunder! Do you plan to be struck by thunder and die?!”
In an instant, the dwarves of the anti-Snowhill faction fell silent.
At that moment, one young dwarf gathered his courage and spoke.
“W-we have never seen the mage with our own eyes, have we!
Even if the mage truly exists, does it make sense that someone of that level would become the vassal of such a small territory?”
“Did we not cross-check what the residents of Snowhill said!
They say that mage really did come to offer tribute!”
“I hear it was not tribute, but a trade with the baron’s family!”
“Hoho, that’s the same thing! He offered crops and received gifts in return!”
“If that is the same thing, then are we vassals offering iron ore to the Snowhill Barony too?!”
“What?! You wretch, there are things one may say and things one may not…!”
“Ah, enough! In that case, I will go and confirm that mage with my own two eyes!”
At the young dwarf’s shout, silence fell for a moment.
“…You mean to cross the Perennial Snow Mountain? Do you have a death wish?”
“No, I mean to circle around to the east and go to the rear side.
The western route might catch the humans’ eyes.”
And so, an expedition party centered around the young dwarf was formed.
Most of them were hot-blooded young dwarves, members of the anti-Snowhill faction.
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After finishing his trade and returning to the ranch, Dawi was startled.
A crowd of short, heavily bearded old men were standing in front of his house.
“Good heavens… he really exists?”
“That bear coat… Don’t tell me he hunted a bear himself?”
They were chattering away in a language other than Imperial, but Dawi could understand all of it.
“Excuse me, but who are you…?”
At Dawi’s fluent Dwarvish, the dwarves jumped in surprise.
“Oh my! You know Dwarvish. We are truly sorry!”
“We’re sorry!”
“If you are a mage, of course you would know the languages of other races…!”
‘Dwarves? They’re dwarves? Damn… I really did come to another world, didn’t I?’
Dawi felt it anew.
“Pardon us, but are you the mage who commands thunder?
We live on the far side of that mountain, quarrying stone and mining iron…”
The flustered dwarves began rambling on and on.
“No, I’m not exactly a mage…”
Dawi stopped speaking mid-sentence and raised his shotgun.
It was because he had seen a snow leopard prowling near the lakeshore.
Baaang—!
Because the distance was too great, it did not hit, but the thunderous sound startled the snow leopard and sent it fleeing.
Of course, the snow leopard was not the only one startled.
“H-hiiik! W-we are sorry! Lord of Thunder!”
“W-we are sorry! Please, spare our lives…!!”
The dwarves suddenly flattened themselves to the ground and began begging.
“Yes…? No, I was just driving away a beast that came to the ranch…”
“We are sorry for troubling you, beastly things that we are!”
“Th-the beasts will quietly withdraw! Please, have mercy…!”