Chapter 117
Henil wasn’t a large territory.
Before the Great Cataclysm, it had just been an ordinary fishing village.
I’d heard that there hadn’t even been a castle back then.
All they had done was build a small village near the harbor, and people gathered around it to live.
When the Great Cataclysm struck, a castle appeared here as well.
Rather than saying soone built it, it might be more accurate to say it was built.
After all, it was the people of the Johnson Territory who had built the castle here.
—From the Johnson Territory?
‘Yeah, that’s right. Our ancestors built it. Well, that was only natural back then.’
Before the Great Cataclysm, the Johnson Territory had held the status of a Great Lord over this entire region.
The shield engraved on our family’s signet ring symbolized a frontier count, and such a title allowed great influence in this area.
—Now that you ntion it, I rember the human lords saying things like that. Calling it the Shield of the North or sothing.
‘Exactly. The Shield of the North.’
After driving out the boar tribes that had raided the northern borders of the kingdom, the Johnson Territory beca the ruler of this region.
Aside from the boar tribe, there weren’t any beastn who seriously invaded our borders, so the title of frontier count had beco largely nominal. Still, a frontier count was a frontier count.
Since Henil also fell within the Johnson Territory’s sphere of influence, it wasn’t strange that our ancestors had built a castle here.
Before monsters multiplied explosively and destroyed everything in this region, everyone had united firmly around the Johnson Territory.
‘Well, that’s ancient history now. Every other territory fell apart, and it’s been years since Henil and we each had to fend for ourselves.’
Even so, I’d heard that during my father’s ti, he continued to provide steady aid to Henil.
Especially when Henil was on the verge of collapse due to a sudden monster wave, he had personally led knights here to rescue the place.
After that, Henil continued to send supplies to our territory.
Just that alone was probably all Henil could do to show gratitude.
So, naturally, I couldn’t help but feel favorable toward Henil.
“Hoho, aren’t you the Lord? I could tell right away. You look exactly like the previous Lord.”
“Do I? This is our first ti eting in person, isn’t it?”
“It’s truly an honor to have you here.”
The man in his fifties standing before now was the master of the Henil Territory—Bruner Henil.
If I rembered correctly, his ancestor had been the village head of the port village, Henil.
He was clearly the representative of the region, but sohow, he didn’t give off the air of a noble lord.
His expression was gentle, and his clothes were shabby, making him look more like the friendly uncle next door.
What stood out most was his deeply tanned skin—unlike Sir Roman of Haken, this was a natural tan.
It was clear he wasn’t a knight; he must’ve worked under the sun.
In that sense, he was completely different from the southern lords I’d t at the Lord’s Council.
—A sea man~ a real one, huh~
‘Yeah, a man of the sea. That’s exactly it.’
Despite being a lord himself, he was remarkably humble.
It didn’t feel like one lord eting another.
More like a subordinate receiving a superior.
‘Even when we spoke through the communicator, I sensed that too...’
When I’d asked him to send supplies to Hawrun, or when we’d requested an expansion of the salt kilns,
he’d accepted every request without complaint.
Honestly, asking to expand the salt kilns was practically ddling in his internal affairs.
I’d been prepared to explain our reasons in detail, but he’d accepted imdiately, leaving taken aback.
At the ti, I hadn’t thought much of it—but thinking back now, that was odd in its own way.
“Oh my, and this must be the Lord’s Lady. I’ve heard she’s an incredible beauty.”
“Hehe, I hear that often. Nice to et you. I’m Yuria Johnson.”
“Haha, welco, truly.”
While I was organizing my thoughts, he noticed Yuria and began fussing again—calling her an incredible beauty.
Well, he wasn’t wrong.
She was the kind of beauty who drew everyone’s eyes wherever she went.
But seeing her pretending to be the Lord’s wife—going so far as to use my surna—left speechless.
Just how far was this woman planning to take her ‘Lord’s Wife’ act?
‘And besides, how did he even hear that the Lord’s wife was a beauty? Henil is completely isolated, isn’t it?’
When I asked about that, his reply was rather aningful.
“Haha, didn’t you send rchants here recently? They told so. Said the Lord’s Lady was an extraordinary beauty.”
“Ah, the rchants.”
So he’d gotten that information from the rchants.
—As expected of the Fox Tribe. They’ve been scheming behind the scenes again. Looks like they’re trying to make it official even outside our territory.
All our rchants were foxes, and apparently, they’d been spreading such rumors outside too.
Was this really necessary?
Such annoyingly enthusiastic fellows.
“Hmph! The female who’s closest to the Bear is !”
“Ah… female? So, um, you an… a beastman? Co to think of it, I’ve heard the Johnson Territory has many beastn…”
Yuria’s act as the Lord’s wife must’ve displeased Leisha, because she jumped in and made the atmosphere even stranger.
The Henil Lord’s eyes began to flicker wildly at the beastman’s distinctive talk of “female” and “male.”
For soone unaccustod to beastman speech, such word choice was bound to be unsettling.
It was utter chaos.
‘I’m going insane.’
What on earth was with these won?
Yuria had been pretending to be the Lord’s wife for so ti now, but what was Leisha’s problem?
‘Don’t tell she actually wants to beco the Lord’s wife?’
—Is that really so strange?
‘Co on, aren’t beastn supposed to be extrely cautious about choosing their mates? Isn’t this weird?’
—Careful or not, the Master would make a perfectly fine mate.
‘What? There haven’t even been any special emotional exchanges, and she just says sothing like that?’
—Does that matter? If she likes him, they live together and have cubs. That’s all. Besides, that lion female has been fond of the Master from the start.
What kind of beast was that supposed to be?
I couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be cool, reckless, or just wild beyond reason.
Maybe it was simply impossible for a human like to fully understand the mindset of beastn—only question marks kept piling up in my head.
‘Ha, whatever. Let’s just get to work.’
At tis like this, the best thing to do was to stop thinking useless thoughts and focus on the task at hand.
“Is the cauldron we talked about last ti ready?”
“Ah, that. We’re in the middle of making it right now.”
“Then, I’d like to check the salt kilns first.”
“Of course. Please, this way.”
The reason we’d co here was to expand the number of salt kilns.
So it made sense to start with that.
We followed the Lord of Henil outside the castle, down toward the coastal kiln site.
‘There are quite a few people at the harbor.’
—The harbor’s pretty large. Several ships, too.
‘Yeah. They’ve kept the ships in good shape.’
Henil Castle wasn’t very big.
And since it had been hastily built after the Great Cataclysm, it didn’t look very sturdy either.
The only reason Henil Castle had managed to endure until now was because of its location along the coast.
The monsters in this region didn’t like the sea breeze, and rarely ventured this way.
The ocean itself was one of Henil’s greatest defenses.
‘But the sea isn’t all-powerful. It’s dangerous, too.’
The sea after the Great Cataclysm was very different from before.
Marine monsters had crossed over through the Dinsional Rifts, turning the oceans into their paradise.
Even sea routes had been cut off because of them.
The eastern coast, with its cold waters and deep depths, was uninhabited—but other regions were overrun by marine monsters.
At least large ones like Krakens or Sea Serpents couldn’t enter the shallow coastal waters, but even the smaller ones were huge compared to land creatures.
Protecting the port and ships from them must have been no easy feat.
“This is the place.”
“I see.”
The Lord of Henil led us well past the docks, to a spot that directly bordered the shoreline.
A massive cauldron sat in the center, guarded by quite a few soldiers—understandably so, since monsters occasionally appeared near the coast.
‘But the salt kilns are…’
—Silent.
‘Right. Why did they stop salt production?’
It was odd that the kilns weren’t running when the goal was to increase production.
He didn’t seem like the type to backtrack on his word either.
As I expected, there was a reason behind the halted operations.
“You’ve run out of Mana Crystals?”
“Yes, unfortunately. You see, what happened was…”
About a month ago, the territory’s only alchemist had gone out to sea for fishing—and never returned.
Without the alchemist, they couldn’t produce new Mana Crystals, and the last of their stored supply had run out just a few days ago.
Without Mana Crystals, the salt kilns couldn’t operate, so salt production had co to a stop.
“You should’ve told sooner. I could’ve brought so Mana Crystals with .”
“Ah, well. The rchants said that ever since the new territory joined nearby, many supplies were sent out from the main castle. Hearing that things weren’t going well there, I hesitated to ask for more. Besides, since you were coming here personally…”
“So you were planning to tell directly.”
“Yes. I thought this kind of issue was better discussed face-to-face. I should’ve gone to the main castle myself, but things here have been complicated… I apologize.”
“No, that’s fine.”
After talking for a while, I finally understood.
Why the Lord of Henil was acting so humble toward .
The mont he said “main castle,” everything clicked.
‘There’s only one kind of person who uses that term.’
—Villagers or residents of subordinate towns call the Lord’s castle the main castle, don’t they?
‘Exactly. Which ans the Lord of Henil believes Henil is a village under the Johnson Territory. A subordinate territory, essentially. In that case, it makes sense that he’d hesitate to request aid when the main castle is struggling.’
Calling it a “subordinate territory” sounded strange only because Henil had grown to the size of a proper domain.
The Johnson Territory ruled this region, and Henil had been a fishing village—so it fit well enough.
Before the Great Cataclysm, Henil had indeed been a village under the Johnson Territory, so there was probably no resistance to the idea.
‘The point of reconnection must’ve been that rescue force twenty years ago.’
It seed everything started from the support troops we’d sent twenty years ago.
They’d continued to send supplies ever since.
So those weren’t aid supplies—they were essentially taxes.
‘No wonder. I was wondering why they’d been sending support for twenty years straight—so that’s what happened.’
The funny thing was, no one in the Johnson Territory even thought of Henil as our territory.
Even Butler Harold considered Henil an independent domain.
Maybe sothing got lost in communication back then.
The Lord of Henil must’ve said sothing to my father, the previous lord, but it seed like we’d completely misunderstood each other.
‘I’ve no idea where this mix-up started.’
—So, is that a problem?
‘Not at all. In fact, it’s a good thing.’
I planned to maintain close relations with Henil going forward—and this might actually make things smoother.
‘Truly lucky.’
It wasn’t like Henil was the only one benefiting from this either.
That might’ve been true long ago, but now we had plenty to offer as well.
Thanks to two decades of uninterrupted exchange, both sides had co out ahead.
‘But first, I’ll have to solve their Mana Crystal problem.’
For Henil, which needed to continue producing salt, running out of Mana Crystals was hardly good news for us either.
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