Chapter 57: Suspiciously... (2)

༺ Suspiciously... (2) ༻

It wasn’t an overstatement to say that the Duff Village, which was sitting at the entrance of the southern plains that slowly grew to the size of a village from a carriage platform, was living off of that industry.

Mac, who was in charge of the wyvern landing zone, was one of those people. His job was to manage the safe landings of wyverns and the ‘monster carriers’ on the landing zone of the village.

[This is Reff One. This is Reff One. Approaching Duff for the VIP.]

“Mr. Mac! Reff One is here!”

“I heard that too!”

Reff One. That was the broad title of the wyvern squads and the monster carriers of the Dunareff Family, which was in charge of the hyper-mega plantation all across the vast plains of the south.

“Was something happening at the Dunareff this month?”

“Umm~. It’s probably because of the Academy holiday.”

“So the Princess is coming back, huh.”

In the southern regions of the continent, the Dunareff family was overwhelmingly more famous than even the royal family. There was no way the people wouldn’t know about the genius mage who regularly returned to the household every holiday.

While the guardians representing the east were the Sword Emperor Garrand and Sword Master Lunia, the people of the south were supporting Marie as the future representative of the south in a war of regional pride.

“Ah ah. This is Duff. We will now organize the landing zone. Cat 1. Cat 1. A visual reference confirmation is required when 200 feet in the air.”

[Roger that. We will arrive in 10 minutes. We are slowly lowering the altitude.]

– Copy that.

Mac used a magic communication device to announce to the workers of the wyvern landing zone.

“Reff One. Reff One is about to land soon. Bring the wyverns of the zone indoors. And make sure you clean up the area.”

Some organization work was mandatory when there was a VIP. Stopping the other wyverns from setting off and landing on the area, they readied themselves to accept Reff One.

[This is Reff One. Landing soon.]

“Roger that. Reff One.”

Mac replied while looking at the squad of flying beasts that were slowly coming down from the air.

“Now now. Reff One is about to land. That means Ms. Marie is also going to come very soon! Get ready for some hot, burning welcome!”

While the squad of wyverns were coming to pick up Marie, the workers of the landing zone dropped everything they were doing and prepared themselves to welcome the VIP.

****

Wyverns were expensive.

Like, I wasn’t just throwing that out there because I didn’t know about their exact price; they were extremely, extremely expensive.

Sometimes on the news, they show how fighter planes and helicopters cost this and that, right?

Wyverns were exactly the same.

550 gold coins. 5.5 white gold coins.

That was about 550,000 in dollars, but that was the bare minimum, and wyverns with a good heritage easily went over 10 white gold coins.

But that wasn’t even the end. The cost to maintain wyverns was also abnormally ridiculous.

Maintenance fees, hiring riders, training fees, and food. I heard how each wyvern costs about 60 gold coins each year.

In the game, you only had to buy it once, and that was it, but here, you had to consider the maintenance fees on top of that so buying wyverns in real life was definitely not an easy feat.

“Wow... there’s a whole squad of them.”

So in other words, that meant that those 12 wyverns that were swarming in from the distant sky cost at least 6,600 gold coins and ate up 720 gold coins each year.

It was scary how that was still the bare minimum cost.

“Huh? Poppy’s not here? Ah, he swapped places with Jun from the 8th Squad, huh! Maybe he’s sick?”

O~kay then!! Right now, the minimum number of wyverns in Senior Marie’s family just soared all the way up to 96. 96 wyverns meant it was at least 52,000...

“Oh, shit... This is making me dizzy.”

I didn’t even know what to say after thinking about the sheer cost of that thing. But there was more.

“Y, you also have... a monster carrier?”

Wyverns weren’t the only ones that were slowly descending from the sky. There was also a monster carrier that was carrying a whole ‘house’.

Monster Carriers.

It was a common way to refer to enormous flying monsters that were domesticated through long years of genetic modification and training.

Although they were demonic beasts by nature, these docile monster carriers that were a result of several genetic modifications were able to carry more than 50 tonnes and still carry out a stable flight.

The one coming down right now was an eagle that was mainly white. One thing to note was that it was even bigger than 6 wyverns combined.

“...Hresvelgr.”

“You know what it is!?”

Of course I did, because that was the end-game mount of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱.

That was the final mount of the game that could only be earned after collecting materials like a madman and doing everything, including a special egg quest, training quest, private nest construction, and more.

You had to have a Hresvelgr to call yourself a veteran on the web because otherwise you’d be flamed.

As for the price... I’d just say that it’s more expensive than the most expensive price of that wyvern squad. It wasn’t an end-game mount for nothing.

– Guung

The fact that the Hresvelgr gently placed down the large cubical ‘building’ hanging on its neck on the ground without even making any noise, was proof of how perfectly trained it was.

Soon, the wyverns also landed one by one, and an experienced middle-aged veteran came down from the biggest wyvern.

“Lady Marie!”

“Uncle Verg!”

Marie was about to approach the man called Verg, but he politely stopped her before gesturing at his men with his eyes.

– Toot toot!

Along with a noisy fanfare, an old gentleman and an old lady wearing butler clothes came out of the cubical ‘building’ and walked up after rolling a red carpet in front.

“Great job studying as always, Ms. Marie.”

“Grandpa Paul~. Seriously. I’m telling you, you don’t have to do this every time.”

“That won’t do. After all, you are the first daughter of the Dunareff of the South, Miss.”

Butler Paul, with a benevolent look on his face, greeted Marie before turning towards me.

“This gentleman over here is...?”

“Ah, he’s Korin! Korin Lork! He’s a freshman this year!”

“Ah~. So he is the one...”

Paul walked up to me and suddenly grabbed onto my hands.

“Thank you sir. Thank you so much... for saving our miss. It is an honor to see you.”

“Umm... okay.”

It seemed that they were already aware of what had happened to Marie. Paul wasn’t the only one – all the wyvern riders and workers simultaneously lowered their heads at me.

“T, thank you?”

Honestly... I was quite overwhelmed by the wyverns and the Hresvelgr in front, so I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say.

“Now! Please come into the guest room!”

“Thank you for everything!”

After shouting that, Marie greeted all the wyvern riders and nonchalantly walked on top of the red carpet all the way into the so-called guest room.

“What are you doing, Korin? Hurry up and come inside!”

“...”

On top of the ‘guest room’, the Hresvelgr was looking down at me with a majestic gaze.

Damn it... I seriously want one of these.

By the way, I only gained access to the Hresvelgr at the end of the game scenario. I barely got to ride this handsome eagle towards the end and yet...

****

Dunareff Family.

They were apparently the practical rulers of the southern regions of the continent, who possessed 2 million hectares of land and operated a super-megalo farm.

Using the vast piece of land that they have possessed from a long time ago, they supported the kingdom’s finances, and it seemed that they were in charge of 1⁄3 of the crops of the entire El Rath kingdom.

Starting from crops and produce like potatoes and cotton to pastoral farms that have hundreds of thousands of domestic animals freely roaming around the green pasture – they even had plantation factories that produced magic plants like Mandrakes.

Instead of thinking, you only needed to listen to Marie’s explanation to tell just how enormous everything was.

“From all~~ the way there to there, we have flour farms, and from there to there – hmm, we can’t see because of the horizon – anyway, for about 30 minutes on a wyvern, we have potatoes! That mountain over there is this year’s grazing land! We will be moving back to that mountain over there next year! Oh right. Was that where our gold farm was?”

“Miss. The gold farm is further north. That place is the diamond farm.”

“Right right!”

Hmm, I see. When it’s millions of hectares big, everything’s just on a whole different scale.

“...Is that a corn farm?”

“Nn! Ah~, you saw the Audhumbla!”

It was so far down, and yet I could still see their shapes through the window of the guest room. Just how big were they exactly?

“That’s called an Audhumbla, and it’s su~per big! Hmm~ Probably about twice the size of the carriage that we were on!”

So... it’s bigger than the King of Iron Mountain, huh.

Those unimaginably enormous animals were collecting corn with a harvesting tool on their necks. Twenty or so of those massive monsters moving around in a group was... truly a mind-numbing sight.

S, so this is normal for rich people huh... But wasn’t this still too much?

While I was dumbfounded by the ridiculous scale of the farm, Butler Paul brought a large roast turkey from the kitchen of the guest room.

“This is a special meal we have prepared for our two esteemed guests.”

He said while serving a gold roasted turkey, beneath which was a garnish made with a potato puree. The cocktails had several tiger prawns sticking inside – this was something I only saw in movies!

After having the best food that I haven’t even had on the ground, we arrived at the wyvern landing zone that was just outside the big city of Reff in about an hour and realized that there were still many things to be surprised about.

“Lady Marie! Congratulations on your holidaayyyyy!!!”

“Congratulations on your promotion to semi-Unique Gradeeeee!!!”

Around the landing zone were thousands of people welcoming Marie, who just got down on the red carpet.

“U, uhh...”

It was fearsome at this point. I had never seen such a warm welcome, even when the stupid Mr. Park was saving the world and being called a Hero, and even when he returned after defeating the Unique Grade demonic beast that attacked the city.

“Umm. Grandpa Paul? Why are there so many people?”

“They have all heard about the things that happened to you, Miss.”

“I see... they must have been worried.”

It seemed that even Marie wasn’t used to such a big welcome when returning from the Academy, so she had a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

“Uncle Verg. How many people are there...? And it was just yesterday that I had my grade adjustment. How do they know about it already?”

“Your skin’s very beautiful. Even prettier than last winter!”

While looking after Marie’s skin, which was as soft as a mochi, the maids were bustling with noise. It was normal for maids to say things that would put their masters in a good mood, but all their compliments for Marie were genuine.

Actually, there was something the employees at the mansion had decided on before Marie’s arrival.

‘You remember right? Don’t ever talk about vampires in front of Lady Marie!’

Everyone was greatly shocked when they heard how Marie had awakened as a vampire. Even though it wasn’t that rare for people to sometimes awaken into a demi-human, the reception and public consensus against them was by no means positive.

But even so, Marie was still Marie.

Those who knew about Marie knew how adorable and gentle she was. The maids who had been serving her for a long time felt like they were sending off their daughter when she headed to the Academy, and yet she had come back as a demon!

In order to make sure she didn’t feel down, they decided to be careful with their words. Actually, the newspaper companies that the Dunareff had shares in made sure to portray her as a victim, and the public perception was therefore not as bad as it could have been.

As long as there was enough money and power, it was possible to make a serial killer into a saint in this world. And besides, who would dare openly pick a fight with the royal Princess of the Potato Empire?

“Ms. Marie. How is life at the Academy?”

“Nnn... I think I need another uniform. It feels stuffy around my chest.”

“Oh my~. That proves you are still growing even more. We will prepare the best designers and master dressmakers.”

“Hmm... And, can we get one for a male as well?”

“For a male?”

“Ah~. Is that for your peer that you came here with?”

This is it! The maids looked at each other, before immediately deciding on the next topic.

“He was a very handsome-looking gentleman, right? Very amicable and had a great personality as well.”

“Nn. He’s a great person.”

Marie replied while slightly burying her head into her clothes with flushed ears. The maids paused after seeing that conspicuous change.

‘That’s youth.’

‘Youth it is.’

‘Does anyone know anything about that gentleman?’

‘He’s a Grade 5 Knight, apparently. It’s a bit low for him to become Miss’s spouse, don’t you think?’

‘No no no. Mr. Verg told me he’s a Grade 1 Knight. Apparently, he is on a similar level with Sword Master Lunia Arden of the East!’

‘Hoh...’

After silently sharing information in less than 3.7 seconds in front of their master with nothing but eye contact, the maids decided on the next direction of the conversation.

“Oh really~? He looked like a very reliable person. What kind of person is he?”

“Hmm... First off, he’s handsome...”

‘Is he?’

‘Objectively speaking, I guess?’

‘But not as much as our Miss.’

“Very responsible, nice...!”

‘His personality seems good at least.’

‘How about his family?’

‘It doesn’t matter when Miss is from the Dunareff.’

‘You’re right.’

“He said he wanted me to be happy. He called me a good person, nice and pretty...! Hehe...”

““......””

Hearing those last words, an ominous feeling struck the three maids.

‘His tongue... is quite smooth.’

‘Is he a player?’

‘No way... right?’

The maids all got an ominous feeling, because this lady from the Dunareff family had been protected from the surroundings due to her absolute position in the south that she had been living a life that was very distant from men.

Even though there were enough marriage proposal letters to fill up a warehouse, that meant nothing because someone burned them all down while screaming, ‘These guys are all after my daughter’s wealth!’

In other words, it meant that Marie Dunareff knew nothing about men!

“Umm... By the way, Miss. This might be a very sensitive topic, but...”

“Nn? What is it?”

“Did you perhaps, provide the young gentleman with any financial support... or were there talks about borrowing money by any chance?”

‘Y, you idiot! That’s way too straight-forward!’

‘But! She won’t tell us if we don’t ask like this!’

For some reason, she was right on the mark.

“Hmm~. I did invest some into his business!”

“Ohh...”

None of the maids had the room to scold the one who accidentally let out an audible gasp. After a while, they carefully asked a question with a shivering voice.

Their hands weren’t even moving at this point.

“Umm, by business, you mean...?”

“He said he wanted to create an inn! And he said he would definitely multiply the money by three times! Korin is very smart and capable!”

‘...Shit.’

The maids all shared the same sentiment.

****

Considering how all the influential people of the area were invited, including the mayor, the party itself was a comparatively normal one held at the garden.

Of course, even a normal one was extremely big when held at the Dunareff mansion.

“Korin...! Everything here is delicious! Do you want some hash browns?”

“Yes please.”

Marie was in a casual dress, leading me forward by the hand. Since she was the protagonist of this party, we naturally ended up gathering a lot of eyes from the crowd.

“It was called a party, so I was thinking of a banquet of nobles, but this is quite different from what I expected.”

“Hnn? Well, it’s because everyone’s just here to say hi~”

She said as if it was natural for the influential people of the area to greet her. Seeing how there was a whole crowd that was eager to strike up a conversation with her... it might be correct to say that it was a part of everyday life for her.

“Oh right! We need to deal with your thing first, Korin!”

“With Count Casseus?”

“Nn nn! He’s right there!”

It seemed that she was going to prioritize my business first.

“It’s your party so how about you enjoy it first?”

“Hmm~. Why bother?”

“...”

Damn, she was just built different or something! Was she implying this was just an everyday stuff for her that she didn’t need to bother enjoying it? Was this the dignity of the rich farmers that had control over the continent?

Together with Marie, I headed to a corner of the garden, where a man with a slightly darker skin that was normal for people from the archipelago was sharing a conversation with the guests.

Count Casseus.

He was a named character that you inevitably had to meet when clearing the quest of the Unique Grade demonic spirit sealed inside the Great Library, Sebancia Duke.

While looking for news about Sebancia’s wife and his daughter, Ruina Duke and Cecilia Duke, there was a need to visit his castle and the player had two choices.

One was to infiltrate Castle Duke in secret and look for clues. Of course, patrol guards would come for you if you got discovered and killing them would increase your infamy points so it was way too risky if you weren’t maining stealth.

The standard procedure was to finish Count Casseus’s questline and get the official permit from him. The problem, however, was that he would ask you to defeat the Sea Serpent that was wreaking havoc at the archipelago.

In any case, Count Casseus was a strict and seasoned NPC that matched his appearance of an old merchant. Even when he was talking to us, the heroes of the country, he was strict in the sense that we had to finish his quest beforehand if we wanted to ask him for any favor.

“Hello, Lord Casseus!”

“Lady Marie?”

What was going on?

Why does he have such a bright smile on his face? When we were looking for him, he was like, ‘You’re a guardian? Maybe I can get a permit for you if you deal with this troublesome problem of mine,’ with a discontent look on his face, was he not?!

“I’m Marie Dunareff!”

“Casseus Vlandria. Nice to meet you, Madam.”

Marie pushed her hand forward for a handshake, as Casseus received the offer with a wide smile on his face.

“I am the director of Dunareff Construction.”

“Of course, Miss. And I am the head director of the Vlandria transportation business.”

“Wow. I love the buttons on your coat. Did you make them by carving obsidian?”

“Yes. We have stores in each port city that take care of jewelry.”

“No wonder! Oh, by the way, I have a monster carrier – one that’s called Hresvelgr.”

“Right. Actually, I saw it on the way – it looked incredible!”

“You see, the bed inside the guest room of the carrier is a bit shaky, and it’s quite uncomfortable.”

“Well that’s not good! You see, my wife runs a furniture business. She also has very firm beds and maybe she can do something about it.”

“Sounds great. I would love to see her if I can.”

“If you may, please come to our castle. It would be an honor to introduce my wife to you, Miss.”

“Wow~. Castle Duke, right? The castle of the hero, Sebancia Duke! Can I please have a look at the office as well, then?”

“Of course you may. Would you be okay with this week?”

“I think Friday would be great! If you’re busy...”

“No, we definitely have time, and we would make one even if we didn’t for your visit, Miss. We would love! To see you on Friday!”

“Then, see you on Friday!”

After making an appointment with Count Casseus in the blink of an eye, Marie came to me with a wide smile on her face.

“I got the appointment! It’s this Friday!”

“...”

I had to board a ship, dive 60 meters underwater and fight against a damn snake inside the ocean just to go into that castle and yet...

“Korin. Do you want to go shopping tomorrow? He said he will be hosting a party, so I think we need to get some formal clothes! And it’s also boring to stay home doing nothing, right?”

“Sure, of course. Let’s do that.”

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