“This was not in the plan…”
“Master, if it pains you so, please ride on my back on the way back.”
“No, Nomariola, it’s hard on you too, isn’t it? You didn’t have to go along with me on another dangerous mountain climb like that.”
I had come down to the trading town.
Once again, swaying on a donkey along the cliffs.
Just thinking that I’d have to climb back up again made me feel my willpower draining away.
How should I put it? It felt like endlessly enduring the slow climb of a roller coaster.
If it started going down, I’d die instantly, so I suppose the slow, terrifying climb alone is fine.
“I apologize for this resulting in such a burden on Your Highness.”
Celine had ended up coming down the mountain with us as well.
I was currently in town at the direct request of military headquarters.
And that was because of General Wageris.
Well, in truth, it was the result of him accepting it as a solution and lending me a hand.
He had even adjusted Celine’s schedule and that of her subordinates so they could accompany me here and make things easier for me.
“It is because I spread word of the wonderful thing known as the hot stone bath. Now the situation has become one where Your Highness has no chance to enjoy it…”
“I don’t mind you spreading it. I made it while looking for ways to use it, after all. Thanks to that, it’s been well received by the people of Karu Village too. …And General Wageris has started praising alchemy without reservation.”
It wasn’t only the villagers, drawn to something new, who had gotten hooked on the hot stone bath and steamed dishes.
General Wageris had even come to ask me about it himself, saying he needed an explanation in order to report my achievements to the military.
I had secretly overheard him disparaging alchemy once before, so I didn’t hide anything and told him that this was exactly what alchemy was. Since General Wageris had never actually known alchemy firsthand, he was now praising it wholeheartedly.
And then that spread to the soldiers, and from the soldiers to the villagers, and somehow, only on top of the mountain, “alchemy is amazing” had become common knowledge.
“If this is alchemy, then anyone who doesn’t understand it is definitely the problem—he wouldn’t shut up about that. That guy definitely wouldn’t understand even half of Your Highness’s explanation if he heard it.”
Helkov complained about the man’s sudden about-face.
By the way, Wearrel and Ikuto were staying behind on the mountain.
There were people who wanted to use the facilities even while I was gone, so I’d had them remain there to handle things.
“General Wageris is someone who accepts as right what he has personally experienced and learned.”
“So he swallowed whole what he heard from his father-in-law, is that it? He’s a practical type, sure, but this time he was way too stubborn. He’s gotten obstinate while I’ve been away from the army.”
Helkov grumbled at Celine as she tried to defend him.
He seemed unusually resentful, but somehow he sounded like an old man.
I suppose that just meant the court nobles’ information manipulation had been that successful.
Looking at the situation now, maybe I should instead think that because General Wageris was the type to accept what he saw and felt for himself, he didn’t reject it as shady alchemy and get in the way.
At present, we had come to town in order to place additional orders for the items needed for alchemy in the village, in the form of a military request.
“The problem is that I’m the only one who can give the instructions.”
In fact, we were going to build one more hot stone bath facility.
“We are placing a burden on Your Highness. However, it is also true that the people of Karu Village are grateful for Your Highness’s alchemy.”
“And the general, having submitted to Master’s wisdom, is making selfish demands and imposing such a burden on him.”
This time Nomariola needled her, and Celine sank into dejection again.
“I apologize. I am fully aware of Your Highness’s kindness, but General Wageris is also exhausted. No, that does not excuse quarrels with the villagers. Even so, the general’s mood inevitably spreads through the army as well. Please, I beg you to lend us your strength.”
“Well, he did say that anything needed aside from the new construction would be covered by the military budget. He’s also providing manpower, and he’ll handle negotiations with the villagers too.”
I understood that being caught between the representatives of Karu and Wabiri, who had been fighting from the start, was stressful. I also understood using the hot stone bath to relieve that stress.
But then a problem arose.
It began when I encountered an old woman who wanted to cure her joint pain with hot spring water and was going to climb the mountain herself to draw some.
I invited her to the hot stone bath, and after thanking me, she brought her daughter-in-law, who was suffering from postpartum back pain, the next day.
Both of them were delighted that their pain had lessened, and since it was a small village, the rumor spread quickly. That much was fine.
But as a result, so many people from Karu Village came that General Wageris couldn’t use it.
By then, the rumor had spread among the military too, and other soldiers who wanted to use it began appearing.
“The villagers had already requested it, so it’s convenient timing, and since military personnel besides General Wageris want to use it too, expanding the facilities is fine. It’s just the climb up and down the mountain that’s rough.”
In fact, thanks to the hot stone bath facility spreading, the attitude of Karu Village’s representatives had softened.
And privately, they had even said that if the military left the facility behind for them to use after withdrawal, they would lay down their arms.
For the first time, there was a real prospect of resolution.
“His Highness says that, but tell him to stop storming in and yelling as a greeting. The people of Karu Village are starting to think that Your Highness is being bullied by that Rock guy.”
At Helkov’s words, Celine ended up bowing her head to me again.
Wabiri monopolized the hot spring water that was safe to drink, and the villagers of Karu had to plead and pay fees to use it.
Then I installed a substitute in the form of a hot stone bath and didn’t charge any fees.
Because of that, the people of Karu Village were favorably disposed toward me, and conversely, they seemed to be starting to resent General Wageris, who was so harsh with me.
They were also rivals competing over the four slots in the hot stone bath facility.
(There are other issues too, and in order for the military to recognize us as collaborators, having it built with military support like this is a viable option.)
(I am puzzled as to why he has not realized that, as a result, we are performing the reconciliation staging proposed previously. If there is a method for collecting samples regarding intelligence quotient, details are requested.)
Sephira casually said something rude about the apologetic Celine.
While having that sort of conversation, we waited for my stamina to recover, then headed out to the market.
A military official who had been standing by in town guided us.
We purchased what we could get, such as ingredients for preservatives and the like, and afterward, placed orders for what we couldn’t obtain with a merchant our guide vouched for as trustworthy.
“Huh? Metal pipes and joints starting now? And for some tiny village on top of a mountain?”
When we ordered pipes from a blacksmith to draw hot spring water and steam, he gave us a strange look.
But since we pushed it through as a military request, and he didn’t seem to want the military glaring at him, he would probably make something similar.
“Good work, Your Highness. As for the other metal parts we need, it seems we’ll be going to a different blacksmith tomorrow.”
In the building the military had rented as our lodging, Helkov informed me of the schedule.
Then Celine, who had parted from us once, came in with the guide.
“Your Highness, pardon me for disturbing your rest. The local lord has heard that Your Highness is here and has sent an invitation offering dinner and lodging.”
Apparently, the guide was the one who had brought that invitation. When I turned my eyes toward him, he seemed to take it as permission to speak and opened his mouth.
“While keeping watch, we observed movement suggesting that new personnel have been brought into this town. As expected, after the violence in the village, they seem to have realized that the actual perpetrators were captured.”
The assassins who had appeared in the village had all been captured, though the severity of their wounds varied.
General Wageris had gotten angry and told me to inform him, so along with interrogating the assassins, I had him arrange for someone to keep watch on the lord in this town.
This person must have been assigned to that task.
“I am curious what sort of excuse he’ll make, but he’s clearly going to attempt another assassination. Tell him that, since I’m a child, I’m too exhausted and can’t go.”
I answered that way and sank into thought, and Celine, as expected, noticed and addressed me.
“Is something weighing on your mind?”
“It’s a simple question. He failed the first time, and the next time his people were captured. Now he’s plotting to kill me even if he has to invite me into his own residence. At this point, he’s not hiding the fact that he’s targeting me. I wonder why he’s stopped trying to cover it up.”
At first, he could have made it look like an accident, and the next time, he had taken the utmost care not to be discovered.
Now I was curious why the lord had resorted to such short-sighted actions.
“Maybe he’s under pressure from somewhere and panicking?”
“The imperial capital is too far away to have a clear idea of what I’m doing here. Just managing to throw me into a place like this is enough; there’s no reason to rush the assassination.”
As I answered Helkov, I nodded, convinced by my own words.
If this were after I came of age, an immediate assassination over the succession issue would be plausible.
But because I hadn’t come of age, even though I had succession rights, I wasn’t in a position to exercise them while ignoring the wishes of my guardian.
Rather than kill me, it would be more realistic to shut me away, have Terry come of age before I did, and have him named crown prince.
For the side that wanted to stop that, killing me, the obstacle to Terry, would be the fastest way.
As for someone like Duke Eurasion, who held succession rights himself, he should be trying to establish his own advantage while I was shoved off to the frontier.
“…Ah, right. It’d be quicker to ask. Once our business here is finished, I’ll leave behind a letter addressed to the lord, so deliver it for me.”
At my instruction, Helkov, Celine, and of course the guide as well were too baffled to reply.
If thinking about it only made it harder to understand, then there was even a possibility that I was being attacked from an entirely unexpected direction.
In that case, hearing it from the person himself would be best after all.
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Next: How to Use Alchemy 4