The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 278 Mercenary Owen (6) - Logical Negotiation Before a major earthquake occurs, surrounding animals often show intense reactions. Dogs bark violently for no reason, cattle and horses break their pens trying to escape, and swarms of rats flee as if in unison. Faced with an irresistible disaster, they struggle desperately for survival. The phenomenon occurring in Goden Forest now was in the same context. Not only ordinary animals, but even monsters like manticores and cockatrices ran with all their might toward the outside of the forest. For one reason only - to avoid getting caught up in the fight between Kirie Eldenhausen and the Green Dragon. However, they could not achieve what they desired. Because the moment the monsters stepped toward the outside of the forest, Giant Worms that burst out from the ground gulped them down and swallowed them whole. The group of Giant Worms positioned around the perimeter of Goden Forest were guardians that Kirie had prepared to prevent monsters from escaping. This meant that she too hadn't conducted dangerous experiments in the forest without any countermeasures. However, from Owen's perspective, it was quite inadequate. '...They only react to entities with mana above a certain level. Those without much mana are escaping as they are.' In a way, it could be called efficient work processing. Rather than capturing every creature trying to escape the forest without exception, it would cost much less to set a certain standard and exclude only those that meet that criteria. And such filtered small fry could be sufficiently stopped by guard squads at the level of large villages or cities. There would be no concern of meaningful chaos occurring at the national level. 'But if it's ordinary travelers or villages without proper defensive capabilities, even that would be a great danger.' Even just one wolf with no connection to mana, merely somewhat cunning, could be a disaster for a small village. Moreover, if all the various animals that were inside a huge forest like Goden Forest were all pushed out of the forest, the aftermath would be obvious. While it would be difficult to judge that Kirie had malicious intent, it was true that she at least lacked consideration and thoughtfulness. 'I shall offer a word of honest advice, Master.' With the boundary between Crown Prince and mercenary loosened just for a moment, Owen muttered. *** Guoooooo! The Green Dragon's acidic breath and the bombardment unleashed by Kirie's summons canceled each other out without either side gaining advantage. The problem was what came next. Like mud scattered on the ground, the remnants of the breath divided into countless chunks and small droplets poured down on the forest - that is, over Owen and Ophelia's heads. "Kyaaaaaaa!!" Ophelia screamed as she imagined the scene of melting away stickily in the dissolving acid, but Owen calmly readjusted his grip on his spear. Aura, which is materialized mana, bloomed inside his palm, and that aura gripped the spear shaft tightly like a vise. As he rotated the aura within his palm in that state, the spear also rotated repeatedly along with it. Fwoom! When Owen thrust his spear toward the air in that state, the dissolving acid that had been trying to engulf them burst apart as it was. Not even a single drop touched either of their bodies. "Oh, ohh!" Ophelia tried to express joy saying "We're alive!" but soon had to revise her plans. Because a new chunk of dissolving acid that looked twice as large as what Owen had just deflected was falling overhead. "Front! In front!!" "I know!" Bang! Fwoom! Thud! Every time Owen swung his spear, the dissolving acids falling over their heads burst with popping sounds. The dissolving acid that didn't pour toward where the two people were crashed directly into the ground, melting not only the grass and trees that were there, but even parts of the ground itself. "It's horrifying just to look at... Let's get out of here without getting caught up in this!" "That seems difficult?" "What? Why?" "We need to think about our horse friend too." "Ah." At those words, Ophelia looked at the horse she was riding. Neighing! No matter how light Ophelia's weight was, running while carrying two people couldn't be an easy task. With the additional fear of life being threatened from above, the horse's condition looked precarious enough that it wouldn't be strange if it collapsed at any moment. Considering that horses are naturally timid animals and that this horse wasn't a warhorse trained for military use, they should be proud that it had endured this much. "If we keep running like this, it won't last. It'll collapse before we get out of the forest." "How about resting somewhere for a while?" "If it were possible, that would be a good method, but I doubt such a nice resting place like that previous cave will just appear. Given that even the ground is melting away, it's questionable whether caves would be intact." "Then what should we do?" At Ophelia's question, Owen pointed to the sky. More precisely, at the mage and dragon continuing their battle in mid-air, hurling all sorts of attacks at each other. "We need to end that fight." "......" Ophelia blankly looked up at the sky. When the Green Dragon flapped its wings somewhat strongly, the mage's summons could be seen collapsing one by one from the wind pressure and the poison carried in the wind. Among the summons, there was one that drew out aura from its claws, so on the premise that the other summons are similar, it means each one of them is equivalent to the 5th rank. Interfere in a battlefield where 5th rank beings are dropping like cannon fodder and end the fight? "Are you insane?" "Rather than sitting and dying, doing something while dying is the mercenary way!" "No, let's just run away! Even if the horse collapses, that would have a higher survival rate!" "Hmm, miss. Think carefully." "Thinking or whatever─" "Wouldn't the record of having defeated a dragon be a big bonus points during interviews?" "......" If some viscountess had heard this, she would have asked back why that would count as bonus points when selecting ordinary earldom bureaucrats, but unfortunately she wasn't here. (E/N: Gotta admit I still dunno if she is a countess or viscountess, but that doesn't matter!) "If you're to be a retainer of the great Lady Kuella, you should at least be able to defeat a dragon. A subordinate needs that level of prestige so people around won't look down on their master. Don't you think?" It was clearly insane talk to anyone, but unfortunately Ophelia's brain, pushed to an extreme situation, had somewhat diminished filtering capabilities. Escape or flight would be difficult anyway at this rate. To survive, the fight had to be stopped. And if they caught the dragon in the process, it would be advantageous in future interviews. Ophelia's confused mind reached a conclusion. "Alright! Let's do it!" "Good choice! Now, let's go!" When Owen swung his spear in a large arc, all sorts of things in the surrounding area were pulled along as if swept up by that momentum. Broken trees, shattered rock fragments, fallen monster corpses and such gathered together to create a path leading to the sky, and Owen leaped onto that path without hesitation. Neighing! Perhaps the excitement of running through the sky for the first time in its life made it forget its fear. The horse carrying the two people also galloped along the path made of debris as if squeezing out its remaining stamina. Thanks to Owen using aura to deflect air resistance, their running speed only got faster and faster. Because both Kirie and the Green Dragon were focused only on each other, they only noticed the mounted charge after Owen had already approached close range. Sensing the mana from behind, the Green Dragon urgently attempted to evade, but Owen's lance charge pierced through the Green Dragon's back first. Thwooooock! Though he stabbed with a spear, the result was closer to being struck with a mace. With its neck and tail bent backward, the Green Dragon's belly and chest were pushed forward, and Kirie didn't miss that opening. Clatter! Chains that appeared in mid-air firmly bound the Green Dragon's body. The dragon tried to protect its body through hard scales and defensive magic, but with its movement sealed, when the summons unleashed a coordinated attack, it eventually couldn't endure and met its end. After storing the dragon's corpse, which would be useful in many ways, to one side, Kirie descended to the ground and looked at Owen and Ophelia. With the cold and arrogant face that comes to mind when thinking of mages, Kirie opened her mouth. "Who are you? Why are you here? No, why did you interfere?" Owen answered. "We're passing travelers. If you ask why we interfered, I can only answer that you're being shameless." "What?" "I don't know what kind of experiment you want to conduct, but what do you intend to do after turning an entire forest into this state? Don't you worry about other people getting caught up in it? With that level of ability, you could have completely isolated the surrounding area with a Domain, couldn't you?" Kirie's eyebrows twitched. Of course, with her abilities, completely preventing people's access wouldn't have been impossible. But in that case, using the surrounding Earth Veins and mana as power sources would become much more complicated. Though she possessed vast mana befitting the title of Archmage, even so, it would be difficult to handle alone the mana required for repeatedly using summoning magic hundreds and thousands of times while staying up for days and nights, making use of Earth Veins essential. If she took her time slowly, she could have caught both rabbits of seclusion and mana supply, but if other masters returned with gifts first while she did that, that would also be a problem. Of course, Kirie didn't explain these details in great length. Because she was someone of high status. "Ha! From what I can see, you seem to have gotten caught up while attempting illegal entry or exit, but if you had moved openly through official routes from the beginning, this wouldn't have happened." (E/N: That's...actually a reasonable answer) Ophelia flinched. Because it was her insistence to attempt illegal exit despite ignoring Owen's advice. "Hmm, I see. So there's no fault on your side for involving others?" "This forest is my front yard to begin with. What's wrong with doing some experiments in my front yard? I've already sent word to the surrounding cities and villages, so there's nothing to blame─" "Then I suppose reporting it to the country would work." "─What?" At an answer she couldn't have imagined, Kirie's eyes widened. Regardless, Owen calmly stored his spear behind his back, then turned the horse's reins. "Sorry, miss. It seems I'll have to go back for a while. If it's Imperial Territory, trial applications are possible immediately, so I'll try to get it finished as quickly as possible." "Wait a moment!" Kirie, who had unconsciously raised her voice, soon came to her senses with a gasp, then returned to her arrogant and cold mage face and said. "I am Kirie Eldenhausen. I was the Crown Prince's magic tutor." The intention of her words was clear. That she was someone of such high status that they should know better and back down. Indeed it seemed to have an effect on Ophelia, as she gasped and held her breath. But Owen remained unmoved. "Your words are in past tense. Then what about now?" "What?" "I'm asking what you are now if you were the Crown Prince's tutor in the past." Kirie reflexively tried to answer, but soon found herself speechless. There wasn't anything in particular. Due to the characteristic of 6th Rank mages maintaining their physical prime, Kirie looked at most middle-aged, or with some exaggeration around her thirties, but in reality she was among the most senior of the Empire's mages. At one time she held grand titles like royal chief advisor and magic tower master along with various duties, but in her later years she had long since stepped down from everything except the Crown Prince's tutor position. After all, she couldn't die buried in work at her age. But now she's been pushed out of even the Crown Prince's tutor position? Then what is her current position? Unemployed. Of course, if she wanted to take on work she could take on as much as she wanted again, and she did have some honorary positions, but categorically she was undeniably unemployed. 'Ah, no! If I just win this competition, I can regain my tutor position!' Kirie desperately tried to pull herself together, but Owen didn't give her a moment's respite. "And earlier you described this forest as your front yard - does that mean this place is your private property? As far as I know, this land should have no owner?" "That's." "In other words, you were conducting the extremely dangerous experiment of dragon summoning in a place that isn't even private property, without any position or authority. Isn't this enough to warrant reporting?" Cold sweat ran down Kirie's back. Of course, given her status, she probably wouldn't actually receive any serious punishment. But getting scolded like that at her age would itself be humiliating. Most of all, the other tutors currently competing with her wouldn't miss this opportunity. They'd probably chew on it more thoroughly than dried squid legs. "You're talking nonsense! Do you think you guys would be safe either?" "It's just an ordinary illegal exit attempt, so we'd just pay some fines and be done with it." Paying fines VS social humiliation + elimination from competition. Before that overwhelming exchange rate, Kirie shuddered. 'Should I silence them?' For a moment she even had such thoughts, but the momentum Owen had just shown was at a level she couldn't easily ignore. If she were in perfect condition it might be different, but having already devoted herself to summoning rituals for days and nights, and having just fought with a dragon, it was somewhat burdensome to provoke him. She wouldn't lose, but even if they just fled to a nearby city, she wouldn't be able to touch them because of watching eyes. In the end, she had no choice but to propose a compromise. "Tsk, it can't be helped! I'll specially show mercy so just go! I'll consider the rudeness you've shown offset by my apology for involving you!" At the surrender declaration that finally came from Kirie's mouth, Ophelia breathed a sigh of relief. When Owen suddenly charged in, she wondered what would happen, but it seemed like things would work out well at this rate. "I see. But what will you give as hush money?" ...Or maybe it might not work out. At the sight of Kirie trembling and Owen grinning slyly, Ophelia let out what must have been her umpteenth sigh. ----------------------------------------------------------