TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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No matter how talented Ian was as a wizard, he didn't know magic that could make food spring from the ground.
If Ian's colleagues had known, they would've been shocked. "What? Even Ian can't do it? Impossible!"
But what can't be done, can't be done.
Ian was a wizard, not a god.
Moreover, he was a young wizard who'd only recently been recognized by his master.
To supplent the scarce food supply, he had to work diligently.
'If Mani helped, we could catch a break.'
Ian was hoping for the help of Mani, the botanist.
If she could make crops grow quickly, it would be a great help to the domain.
But Mani hadn't arrived yet, and until then, Ian had to find food sohow.
'Hunter Stingray... what a sha.'
Ian licked his lips, recalling the corpse of the monster as big as a whale.
If he could've dismbered and brought it back, it would've helped the domain's livelihood.
But he'd already handed Hunter Stingray over to the fishing village people.
The opportunity had passed.
Ian had to rack his brains for other solutions.
"You look worried, Master."
Lewis asked about Ian's well-being in fluent Imperial language.
Sohow, his pronunciation seed even better than before.
Ian marveled anew at the actor-level enunciation that almost rivaled Kira's.
Why did a werewolf have such a good voice?
"Yeah. My head's a ss with worries about the domain."
"Don't worry too much. Everything will work out."
At the naturally flowing encouragent, Ian almost shed tears of emotion.
The werewolf Lewis was more useful than a decent human deputy.
"Lewis. I hear outsiders tried to steal Talian's ga."
Ian spoke, recalling what he'd heard from the bandit leader.
In dieval tis, all land belonged to the lord.
More precisely, the emperor lent land to the lord, who then lent it to knights and commoners.
Therefore, mines, rivers, forests, and other non-agricultural lands were all the lord's property.
Mining, fishing in rivers, hunting in forests...
All required the lord's permission.
"Oh. There have been a few such unfortunate incidents."
Lewis nodded.
In this era, thieves often stole from neighboring domains.
The reason was obvious: there was no escape route in their own domain.
If they snatched ga from a neighboring domain, ran like hell, and hid behind their own lord.
The neighboring domain's lord had no way to punish the criminal.
After all, the judicial rights of a domain belonged to that domain's lord!
Moreover, areas with lax security like Talian were perfect for thieves.
Before Lewis and Damon took charge of Talian's security, the Talian domain was rumored to be a hotspot for thieves.
"But Baron Damon and I dealt with all the scoundrels."
"Has there been any apology from neighboring lords?"
"Unfortunately, none."
With those words, Ian's guilt vanished completely.
Right. This was the post-apocalyptic world of barbarism and chaos... no, the dieval fantasy era.
If there was food, whoever put it in their mouth first was the owner.
"... In my personal opinion, those scoundrels were rcenaries sent by neighboring lords..."
"I know."
Ian replied nonchalantly.
Thieves coming suspiciously often? No end in sight no matter how many were caught?
One couldn't help but suspect they were sent at soone's instigation.
And those who sent the thieves were probably Talian's neighboring lords.
From their perspective, Talian's ruin would be unconditionally good.
How many people wouldn't smile at a neighboring lord's power weakening?
Ian intended to use the sa thod the neighboring lords had employed.
"Lewis. Go gather the wolves."
"Deer hunting? Or... human hunting?"
"Deer, of course."
Ian had Lewis command the wolves.
"[Awoooo!]"
At the werewolf's howling, wild wolves gathered.
Ian split the gathered wolves and sent them to the forests of neighboring domains.
"Don't leave out a single piece of ga you see, bring it all to Talian."
"I'll follow your orders, Master. However..."
"What is it?"
Lewis was ready to understand and implent Ian's plan.
But there was one thing that bothered him.
"If wolves steal ga in an organized manner, people will certainly find it suspicious."
"Well. I suppose they would."
The neighboring lords weren't fools.
If wolves ca in droves and cleaned out the forest, of course it would raise suspicion.
"If we're not careful, we might end up being accused as black wizards."
Of course.
A neighboring domain's wizard controlling wolves to steal our domain's ga?
From a lord's perspective, the lid would blow off.
And here, sending an assassin or hiring a wizard to counterattack would be an amateur's decision.
Because then it would beco a kind of 'mutual assault'.
The mont you responded with violence, it was treated as part of a domain war, so you couldn't expect outside help.
A true master's decision would be to report the opposing wizard as a 'black wizard' to the order.
Black wizards were the Heaven's Faith order's trigger button.
What? A noble becos the backing of a black wizard and steals neighboring domains' ga?
You, excommunicated!
The mont the story reached the Pope's ears, the excommunication-beam would fly.
Then the land's owner (in Ian's case, Lucy) faced a deadly dilemma.
Acknowledge their employed wizard as a black wizard and apologize-dogeza.
vs. Just f*ck it and go to war with the world.
Naturally, in 99% of cases, the story ended with just apologizing to the Pope and beheading the wizard. Massive compensation followed as a bonus.
Therefore, what Ian was doing was, in a sense, extrely dangerous.
Summoning itself was neutral magic, but if you attacked humans with summons, that was definitely black wizard behavior.
That's the part Lewis was worried about.
"Humans won't acknowledge my existence, Master."
If it beca known that Ian had Lewis steal ga, there would be plenty of clergy who would have fits.
But Ian laughed calmly.
"Whatever the world says, I know you're a devout believer of Heaven's Faith, Lewis."
"... Master."
Lewis looked at Ian with impressed eyes.
Ian was saying now that it wasn't monsters attacking humans, but a vassal moving on his lord's orders.
"The important thing is storytelling, Lewis."
"... I'm ignorant about magic, Master."
Lewis misunderstood that Ian was talking about magic.
But this wasn't a magic story.
"This is... well. A kind of public opinion war."
"Public opinion war... that's a difficult word."
Ian judged so.
No, actually, this was a public opinion war.
A ga where victory and defeat were decided by how you packaged the result of [Ian stole ga].
'You're going to report as a black wizard?'
Ian grinned and said.
"Lewis. Go tell Kira to write a letter and send it."
"A letter... you say?"
Ian nodded.
"Yes. The recipients are Isilla of [Blue Key Monastery]. And... Takarion."
What Ian was doing did violate dieval business ethics.
Using monsters to steal ga from neighboring domains! How deserving of divine punishnt!
But separately from that, Ian had to create food sohow.
It was unavoidable if he didn't want to see all the refugees starve to death.
And Ian decided to explain such circumstances well to Isilla and Takarion.
dieval monks.
Especially monks who published gospels could emit soft-power similar to modern dia outlets.
Ian did do sothing bad, but...
How on earth could re rural lords report Ian?
A wizard who was friends with [Golden Finger], a popular gospel writer, no less!
"I have many friends, Lewis. Especially when it cos to Heaven's Faith-related matters, there are quite a few people who will help ."
"Oh..."
From Ian, who spoke confidently, the wizard's intelligence seed to be felt.
So Lewis trusted Ian 100%.
"Then I'll start."
Lewis left, leading the wolves to carry out Ian's orders.
Ian smiled contentedly.
Later, when caught (which would probably happen for sure), relations with surrounding lords would plumt.
But what could he do?
They had the prior offense of sending thieves first, and they were bastards who knew Talian was struggling but ignored it, so there was no need to be scared now that relations were worsening.
'Then I should lay so smoke screen.'
Ian left his seat to prepare for wizard action.
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