CH 5

“Yuo-sama, I will be guiding you around the village today on behalf of my grandfather.” (Hannah)

As its ruler, it’s important for me to be familiar with Yapan as a whole, so the day after we arrived, we decided to check the village and territory out.

Hannah, the village chief’s granddaughter, volunteered to be our guide. She looked cute with her short golden hair. She efficiently showed us around and never lost her bright smile.

But she still looks thin and undernourished.

I firmly vow to build a prosperous village so that her condition will improve!

“Yuo-sama, this is Noboribetsu Cave.” (Hannah)

After touring for an hour or so, we finally arrived at the place that I wanted to visit the most. The place where my grandfather excavated those strange objects was near the cliff. 

Maybe more interesting things are buried there

The might even be a dungeon! Just the thought already has my heart racing.

… but once I got closer, I was disappointed.

Noboribetsu Cave was just a normal cave. It was no more than 10 meters deep and didn’t even look like it would have slimes in it.

Eeh? I thought we would see something interesting.

“… there must be some secret passageway or something. Lara, let’s look into it.” (Yuo)

"Roger that!” (Lara)

Thinking that it was suspiciously empty, I decided to go snooping around the cliff with Lara. I’m sure this was where my grandfather excavated all those weird junk so I still believe I will find things there. Hannah helped us by moving some rocks around.

However, even after an hour of searching, we still didn’t find anything. 

Hmmm… I guess it’s not gonna be easy.

Just when I was giving up, I heard Hannah’s sharp voice. 

“Lord! Please leave immediately! That’s the Great Earthfish that attacked grandpa recently!” (Hannah)

I turned around and saw a 10-meter-long fish coming toward us with its mouth open! It swam in the soil and had two heads. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a fish like this. It looked quite familiar to a fish I saw in the capital called ‘porgy’ (鯛).

I just know this will taste good grilled.

“I’m gonna distract it! Eiyahh!” Hannah pulled out the sword on her waist and boldly challenged the monster.

She’s surprisingly very agile.

Hannah’s agility helps her dodge the monster’s attacks with aplomb. 

For someone so thin, she’s actually a magic swordsman?

However, the monster’s skin looked hard and impenetrable. In an effort to protect us, a back-and-forth battle between Hannah and the gigantic fish began.

“Ugh, I don’t have any strength since I haven’t eaten yet…” (Hannah)

Although Hannah was able to keep up, her movements started getting duller for some reason. Seeing this, the monster opened its mouth wide and took advantage of Hanna’s weakness.

“I can still hold him off! Master, please return to the village and call for backup! Ice attack, [Ice Lance]!” (Lara)

Just in time! Lara shot an ice attack from her palm to save Hannah. She then instructed me to evacuate as soon as possible. 

Lara may have a point. As a lord, I should probably go back to the village and call for help. Regardless of the fact that I’ve been banished, I’m still Lara’s master and the lord of this fief. I can’t just leave the two of them behind and run away. It’s my duty to protect my people, and I have the means to fight.

My [Heater Skill] can cause anything I touch to heat up and explode. In other words, if I get this big fish extremely hot, it’s gonna be grilled, right?

“Lara, I’m going to blow this fish up. You take care of Hannah.”

The two-headed, ground-swimming fish is very large but its movement was linear and predictable. While it swimming toward me, I avoided it by jumping on its back and then touched it. 

I concentrated on the thought, “Explode!”

At the next moment, the monster’s right head exploded with a loud sound. Blast waves from the explosion caused Hannah to stumble and almost fall if not for Lara’s quick aid.

“Great job, master! But watch out, it’s still attempting to escape!” (Lara)

With one of its heads blasted off, the fish immediately attempts to escape its current predicament.

“Oh no, you won’t! This is for attacking the village!“

The monster tried to escape, its head attempting to dive into the cliff.

It would be a hassle if it escapes into the cliff. But I won’t let that happen. If I let it escape, it might retaliate against the village.

“You’re gonna blow up!” (Yuo)

With little only a bit of its body remaining, I put my hand on the monster’s tail. I concentrated on the thought of blowing it up and immediately ran away. 

Dogaaaaam!

The cliff collapsed with an unusual sound. I felt a sharp pain behind my ears. The area was covered with debris.

Oops… It seems I made it too strong. My bad.

Hannah said it was a tough opponent, I hope it’s okay that I blew it up. Well, it’s just fish anyway, what’s there to be scared of?

"Master! That was amazing! It’s like you’re the child of destruction, the Scorching Witch!” (Lara)

After I confirmed that the monster was gone for good, I receive weird praise from Lara.

It feels good to be praised.

But the “Scorching Witch” is a witch from fairytales, a witch who scorched everything to the ground. It might be fictional but no young lady would want to be associated with such an infamous character.

“Ehh, that’s not good…” (Yuo)

No matter what, I don’t want to be known as something so violent like a Scorching Witch. Why can’t I be called Guardian of Flames or the Lady of Blaze?  

“Scorching Witch? Haaaaaaaah? Lord-sama is the Scorching Witch?!” Hannah exclaimed in a high-pitched voice.

Don’t tell me…

“That’s not true! It was just a metaphor, okay? There’s no way I’m a witch!” I tried to correct Hanna before she has some weird ideas.

It would troublesome if weird rumors spread at an important time in my reign as lord. Plus, I don’t want to be mistaken for a violent and scary witch. It’s as crazy as claiming to be the reincarnation of the Earth Mother Goddess.

“Fufufu, did you just realize? Indeed, in a way, master is the Scorching Witch.” Lara says admittedly, fanning the flames.

This is supposed to be a joke! Don’t say such things to a naive country girl or else she might actually believe you!

Hannah has a strange twinkle in her eye, I’m afraid she’s the type of person who would take a joke seriously.

“I knew it! There’s no way you would be able to defeat a Great Earthfish, a monster that preys on forest dragons, with just your bare hands if you were just a normal lady! I’ll make sure to let the villagers know so they don’t get careless!“ Hannah said with excitement, emphasizing how vicious of a monster that fish was.

I heard that even with their combined efforts, the entire village was still unable to defeat that fish.

NO NO NO NOOO! I just heated it up a bit and it exploded, I didn’t do too much!

Guuuuuuuu~ A strange noise came from Hannah’s stomach.

"Ah, I’m so sorry!” Hannah apologized in shame while blushing.

Come to think of it, during the fight, she mentioned that she didn’t have strength because she hasn’t eaten yet. That’s why she wasn’t able to finish off such a weak fish [1]. 

“I see! No one has the strength to handle the monsters around here due to hunger…” (Yuo)

The villagers lack nutrition and therefore don’t have the strength to fend for themselves. After all, people have to eat properly to fight, don’t they?

“Hannah, I’m sorry blew most of the fish up. If there are any edible parts left, you can take it to the villagers so they can eat too.” (Yuo)

I instructed Hannah to retrieve the fish. Monsters are edible anyway so the villagers could feast on it instead of leaving it here to rot.

“Hiiiiiieeeee! Are you sure you don’t want to keep it for yourself? It’s a ten-year-old Great Earthfish, it’s meat is very nourishing, you know?“ (Hannah)

“We can’t eat it all by ourselves. You can have it.” (Yuo)

“Thank you very much! Witch-sama’s mercy is making me cry. I love you, Witch-sama!” Hannah took my hand and shook it.

She immediately dashed back to the village. What? She called me ‘Witch-sama’ so naturally.

Oh no, this is definitely a trend that’s gonna stick!

“Lara, what were you thinking? Everyone’s gonna think I’m a witch even though I have zero magic power!” (Yuo)

“Well, it’s all part of my plan to let everyone know how strong master is.” (Lara)

Unsurprisingly, Lara didn’t mind what I was saying despite my desperate protests. I really don’t think strategies like this would be useful in such a remote area.

“Nonetheless, you truly are an ideal feudal lord, master. Distributing food to your people was very compassionate of you.” (Lara)

“No, no, it’s not that big of a deal!” (Yuo)

I just believe that food should always be shared.

It’s true that some feudal lords, like my stupid brothers, hoard all their territory’s resources instead of distributing them to their people, but that’s not how I want to lead my territory.

“Master is a great lord. Let’s all work together to turn this frontier into the most powerful nation!” Lara said happily.

The most powerful nation, huh? That’s a far cry from the slow life imagined. But I don’t mind making my father and brothers regret ever banishing me by making this land prosper.

While watching the sunset at the frontier, a new goal sprouted in my heart.

<<Scorching Witch’s Recent Gain>>

Great Earthfish meat

<<Scorching Witch’s Ability>>

[Thermal Blast]

(T/N)

She genuinely thinks that fish was easy to kill…

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and any corrections are greatly appreciated, just refer to the corrections panel on the navigation bar.