4
My hometown and domain, the Peldalros Viscounty, was a region rather far from the Imperial Capital.
First, most of the major cities around the Imperial Capital were territories directly administered by the Imperial family.
Next, the nearest major cities were mostly duchies or counties.
By this point alone, one was already quite far from the capital, and around the duchies and counties, baronies almost invariably existed.
Because nobles of baron rank usually existed as subordinate vassals to those of count rank or higher.
It was my hometown, the Peldalros Viscounty, a place one could only reach after passing through numerous other noble territories for quite a long distance in a straight line.
One could say it was slightly closer than the Highgarden Marquisate—a border marquisate that defended against foreign invasion at the fringes of the Empire—but that was about it.
The difference was negligible, and almost all marquisates naturally had Warp Gates.
Since they were on the nation's border, the Imperial family had no choice but to support them, resulting in their installation.
Viscounties weren't forbidden from installing Warp Gates, but still.
I doubted there was any viscounty wealthy enough to install facilities that incurred no small costs in production, installation, and maintenance.
At the very least, the House of Peldalros was not.
Therefore, for nobles without a Warp Gate installed in their domain, using a carriage was the standard method of leaving their territory.
This was precisely the awkward position of a viscount.
Too strong to be subordinated under houses of duke or marquis rank.
Yet not powerful enough to defend the Empire's frontier from foreign invasion, so they received little to no support from the Imperial family.
Complaining about this situation wouldn't change reality.
All I could do was leave the Peldalros domain and board a carriage heading for the Highgarden Marquisate.
Because it was the nearest place with a Warp Gate to the Imperial Capital.
The small mercy was that the road between the Peldalros Viscounty and the Highgarden Marquisate was maintained well enough for carriages to pass.
It was the fruit of the entire family's combined efforts before Mother collapsed from a magical mishap.
My father, retired from active hunting, worked hard hunting monsters to earn money, which my younger sister, Delphina, managed and multiplied into quite a large sum.
Mother would use wind and water magic to prepare the foundation to make road-building easier.
With those funds, they hired laborers to harden the ground and create a dirt road.
Thanks to that, there was now a decent road from Peldalros to Highgarden that a carriage could easily traverse.
This opened an outlet for grain and goods produced in Peldalros to be sold as far as Highgarden.
So, what did I do while the rest of my family fulfilled their roles and built the road?
I simply became one of the laborers, working hard with a shovel and pickaxe.
At the time, I was still a 1st Circle mage.
And unlike Delphina, I had no aptitude for business or management.
“I wish I had reached the 3rd Circle a bit sooner.”
If I had, I could have contributed more during the road's construction.
Or helped Father with his hunts to contribute more funds.
Though it was a shame that after manifesting the 1st Circle at a young age, reaching the next stage took me quite a long time.
In any case, it was fortunate that I was now a 3rd Circle mage, which was in itself a great gain.
While I was surrendering myself to the swaying of the carriage on my journey, lost in such thoughts.
The carriage had just crossed the border of the Peldalros domain and entered another territory.
A modest yet small domain of reasonable size. The Ormund Barony.
It was one of the neighbors of Peldalros, but we had scarcely any direct interaction in the past.
In any case, to reach the Highgarden Marquisate, one more or less had to pass through the Ormund Barony.
Honestly, it was absurd that we had so little proper interaction until now.
In fact, not a single trade deal had ever been successfully concluded between the Ormund Barony and the Peldalros Viscounty.
Moreover, the lord of the domain, Baron Ormund, was a reclusive figure who barely engaged in exchanges with other nobles.
We had no particular need to force trade with such a person.
When the carriage was about halfway through the Ormund Barony.
I spoke to the coachman, who was driving the horses, and asked him to stop.
“I will get off here.”
The coachman turned his head back.
“Will you be alright? It's still about three more hours to Highgarden.”
“Passing through this area, I thought I might meet an acquaintance I haven't seen in a while.
I'll pay the full fare to Highgarden, so please let me off here.”
“Well, as long as I get the fare, it doesn't matter much to me, but….”
Losing one passenger and one piece of luggage was hardly bad news for the carriage driver.
He'd gotten the full fare, so he could have no complaints.
And though it was a small village, there was a town and inn in Ormund where he could rest before continuing.
“Then I'll be on my way.”
I watched the coachman disappear toward the village, having taken seven silver coins for the fare.
Instead of heading toward the nearby Ormund manor, I moved into the small mountain beside it.
Unfortunately, tonight I would have to spend the night camping without a safe room or comfortable bed.
? ? ?
About thirty minutes after seeing the carriage off.
I began establishing my own base in the small mountain of the Ormund domain.
The most basic element of camping was pitching a shelter to block rain and wind.
After finding a flat, dry spot.
Clearing away stones and digging into the ground to set up supports.
The thin cloth hanging from the end of the support billowed up into the air.
It wasn't actually cloth made to be used as a tent.
But for now, I needed it to at least look like a campsite.
It was a makeshift tent made by draping some useless cloth from the manor's storeroom over a suitably sized log cut from nearby.
After that, I set up warding spells around the campsite.
Gathered some firewood and lit a campfire with fire magic.
I took out jerky and peanuts I'd packed beforehand from the bottom of my backpack.
Meals were important.
To be precise, routines were what kept one's mind clear every day.
One thing I'd learned from long camping life in my previous life.
Was that I had to maintain my lifestyle habits no matter where I was.
A cup of coffee right after waking. Three meals. At least six hours of sleep.
Turning these daily necessities into routines conserved the physical and mental energy expended on them, preventing easy burnout.
It also helped me immediately notice if anything was different from normal.
I chewed the moderately tough jerky and swallowed it.
After asking Tenet to roast the peanuts once, making them quite edible, I poured them into my mouth.
Finally, just as I rinsed my parched mouth with water magic.
'What's this?'
The alarm spell I'd set around the campsite activated, interrupting my routine.
'Looks like just one mage.'
'A mage? Don't tell me it's a noble?'
'Would a noble camp in a mountain like this? And if it is a noble, even better.'
The whispers of uninvited guests—no, precisely the ones I'd invited—reached my ears through the warding spells.
I quietly picked up the staff I'd leaned against the tent and waited for them to appear in the darkness.
Soon, three figures emerged from the darkness.
“Whoa, calm down! We're people, not monsters!”
The tallest one in the center waved his hands at me, answering a question I hadn't even asked.
“T-that's right! We were just looking for a place to camp and ended up here!”
“Looks like a pretty big tent for one person. Let us impose on your hospitality!”
Then the two men who appeared behind him chimed in with similarly shameless words.
For now, the three who showed up first wore ordinary clothes without any armor.
One could say they looked like ordinary travelers.
If not for the heavy arming swords at their hips.
“What do you want?”
I met eyes with the one in the very center of the three.
“There must be a reason why you crawled into someone else's campsite.”
“Well, it's a bit strange to explain.”
“We came out for a stroll with the villagers on this fine day, but the sun set faster than expected.”
“So we were looking for our way when we saw your fire. We came to ask a favor!”
They pushed shameless excuses before me as if they'd arrived by coincidence.
While pretending to continue the conversation, I quietly gathered mana into my staff.
“Sorry, but I don't have enough food or space to share. Why don't you just be on your way?”
“Come on, have a heart. Is it so hard to let us stay for one night?”
The words of a man with his hand on his sword carried no persuasion.
“I'll give you a torch to make your departure easier.”
“Why so stingy? Have you no compassion?”
Their nonsense was growing worse.
“My situation isn't so great either.”
Deliberately showing off, I raised my staff and pointed it at their heads.
“So get the hell out of—”
“Hey!”
The one in the center ignored me completely and shouted toward the bushes they'd come from.
“This mage says he'll share food and a place to sleep!”
At his words, four more men burst from the grass.
“The tent is big and the fire is warm!”
“Thanks, brother! We'll rest well!”
“We ain't gonna do nothing weird, so don't worry!”
It was nonsense that was essentially a declaration of battle.
I'd wondered what gave them confidence against a mage of unknown skill with only three men.
But seven was enough to make them feel superior by numbers.
“I believe I told you to get the hell out of here.”
“What?”
“I came 'cause he said he'd share food and a place to sleep!”
“The tent's big enough, can't we stay over?”
Their swaggering attitudes, emboldened by numerical superiority, naturally didn't improve.
“Take one step forward, and I'll cut your throats.”
“Ooh?”
“Scared to death, I am.”
“What can one mage do?”
Still believing they had the upper hand, they began to snicker and mock me.
The talkative one in the center fearlessly took a step forward.
“What? Cut our throats? You ever killed a—”
He couldn't finish his words before falling into eternal sleep.
My Wind Blade, which I'd been preparing for quite some time, sliced across his throat.
“…Huh?”
Someone muttered that in the silence.
At the same time, the body, losing its balance, collapsed to the ground with a thud.
It was the sound that signaled the beginning of the battle.