Chapter 180 The Redania Empire (2) The Bordering Village



In front of the entrance to the village, there were two guards standing guard. One of them is a muscular man in armor with a helm on his face, and the other one is a woman with a sword on her hip. Both of them wore a cloak on top of their armor to cover their upper body.

"Welcome to this village of ours~" The muscular guard said with a big grin.

"We are the village's protectors. My name is Cai. You must be travelers, right? What brings you to the Redania Empire?"

"We are... traveling merchants," Lyan answered as he removed his hood, and revealed himself.

"Ohh! A merchant! Welcome! And those at back... They're unconscious!?" The guard exclaimed in surprise because of the sight of thirty people getting carried by people with cloaks and hoods.

"It must be because you're traveling at such a dangerous time of year! Come! You need to let them rest at a warm place!" The female guard said as she immediately lead them to a house with a big and warm fireplace.

"Thank you very much." (Lyan)

"My name is Aisha. Nice to meet you all. I hope that we will get along well."

"You too, Lady Aisha." (Wilhelmina)

All of the company replied with a nod and gave their greetings.

As Lyan entered the building, he noticed that it was very spacious. There is a large table with chairs in the middle of the room, and the walls are decorated with paintings of various subjects which shows the wealth of the Redania Empire since a village at the border of the territory could be so wealthy.

"Is this really a village's house?" Lyan wondered as he walked towards the back of the building where he saw a door.

"This is our living room and dining room. Those who live here are mostly merchants and we often get funds from them to renovate the place. But at this time of year, there are no visitors that came so it's empty right now. If you need anything, please ask anyone in the village for assistance," Aisha greeted them as she led them to the back of the house where there is a small kitchen and a dining room separated from each other.

(I guess they gave us a big house to use because of our number, huh...) (Lyan)

Lyan glanced at the other unconscious slaves that his disguised skeletons are carrying. With a single nod, they immediately went inside and put each of them in their respective rooms. 

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I will pay for the rent of the house," (Lyan)

"Ah. It's fine, really. You said you're a merchant, right? Just bring your goods that you want to sell at the village center later. We love the goods that traveling merchants usually brought," (Aisha)

"I see. I do so then," Lyan shook his hands with Aisha as he show his gratefulness.

Aisha blushed a little and left the house, leaving Lyan and his company inside the big house.

"They are wealthy... And they have great hospitality, huh... Looks like Redania Empire's prosperity is not just a mere rumor, after all, huh? Anyway, first thing first..." Lyan shifted his gaze towards his skeletons which are now disguised as humans with cloaks.

"Clean up the place. Don't let even a single dust remains," Lyan gave his command as he take a sit on the couch and summoned a book from the air.

With a single command, the disguised skeletons immediately move their feet and scatter as they clean the place up.

Maybe because they came at the time of the year when travelers don't travel to the cold north, the place holds lots of dust all around the corner. As a person that loves cleanliness, living in a place full of dust is something that he could not tolerate. Luckily he has the skeletons that are already trained to be servants by Griselda in the Grimoire's space.

As the skeletons cleans the room, Wilhelmina used her magic to check if the children have no injuries or wounds in the children's room. All of them are fine, except for one of them whose arm got broken during the battle with her former master's guards. She will be okay though since 

Lyan had cast healing magic and repaired her arm with his magic.

"Now... What should we do next...?" Wilhelmina uttered under her breath.

They were already got saved by Lyan, got healed, got food, and even temporary shelter for them to rest. But what next?

Judging from his behavior, it seems that he has a reason for helping them, but it doesn't mean that he will take care of and babysit them for their whole life. It means that at a certain point, either sooner or later, they won't be able to rely on him anymore and have to move forward alone.

Thinking about those lines wells up frustrations in her, but she soon shakes her head as she smiles and strokes the heads of the little children on the bed. They are the reason why she persists until this moment and didn't give up before.

"The good news is that we're no longer slaves. With the absence of the master, the slave curse died out, and we freed ourselves from the slave collar as well. And not just that, all of us are still alive and healthy. I guess our current situation could be stated as a blessing as well, huh..." (Wilhelmina)

Wilhelmina's body which got healed by Lyan as she slept inside the wagon had gone to a complete recovery. Her mana channels that seem to e damaged because of getting overused before seem to have completely recovered as well, and her body is slowly adapting again to her powerful flow of mana.

(At least, with the knowledge I got from my time as a noble, we could use them to our advantage and even make a living from them) (Wilhelmina)

She thought about what to do next. The first thing on her mind was to find a way to survive. Once they've recovered, their main goal is to find a peaceful land without war and conflicts, and make a living peacefully to enjoy their lives.

But of course, inside her mind, the peaceful life didn't include her in the picture. With her current state where she is no longer a slave and still has a well and healthy body and mind, she has another goal that she needs to fulfill.

The duty of the proud daughter of the Credia Family.

The mission was to free and save her people from the grasp of the Verandia Kingdom. It is something that she, as the successor of the Credia name, needs to fulfill.

(I need strength... No matter how strong I am, there is a limit to what a single person could do... But if it's that guy...) (Wilhelmina)

The image of the man that faces the frost giants together with magic beasts and monsters as his allies appeared inside her mind.

(If he's on my side. With the right plan, taking back the kingdom might not be something impossible...) (Wilhelmina)

As Wilhelmina is gathering her thoughts and making her own schemes in order to take over her kingdom and her land, on the couch, Lyan is opening a book in his hands. But he is not reading, there are images on the page, but they are moving as if the book is alive.

(Good... It's working...) (Lyan)

A smile formed on Lyan's face as he saw the sight that he wanted.

The book he's holding is the summoning grimoire disguised as a plain black book. It turns out that the grimoire could be commanded to change its look even without him having to use his illusion magic manually, and as he thought about wanting to see the inside of the grimoire's space, the grimoire opened itself and showed the grimoire's space page, showing the images that are the view inside the grimoire's space.

With his command, the view could move and he could take a peek at whatever he wanted to see. The thought of peeking at the high spirits' rooms crossed his mind, but it won't be worth it if he ended up triggering their enmity towards him just because of one action, so he decided to focus on his main goal.

It is to monitor the undead skeletons that are absorbing the remaining mana from the frost undead corpses that he brought to the summoning grimoire's space. Their corpses that contain the dense mana might be useful for the skeletons, and just like he thought, he could see that some of the skeletons are slowly absorbing the mana and the stronger ones are starting to have some natural ice mana residing inside them.

There are also Grimclaw and the Acid Ant Queen and her servants that are also having a feast on the mana from the frost undead. But not only are the frost undead, but they are also given two frost giants' corpses for them to consume the mana. While Grimclaw only took the remains of the soul and the mana, the acid ant queen and her servants ate the frost giants as a whole, not even leaving the bones behind.

(This could make them even stronger...) (Lyan)

___________________________________________________________________________

<All Summoned Creatures Strength ++>

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1), Winter Wolf Alpha (Lv. 12)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army