Chapter 216
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An hour later .
Us three went to meet my father, Castor, in Baron Relaia's pavilion .
"Mathi, long time no see!"
"It's been so long, Mathi! You coming back as a Baron sure was a surprise . Would it be better if I add honorifics to call you?"
"Eh no need for that . This noble stuff is just temporary anyway . "
I exchanged such conversation with my father Castor whom I hadn't seen in a while .
The two of them seem to be doing well .
"Not only you became a noble, you even got yourselves three girls . . . "
My brother Reich said so as he looked at the girls .
It's as if he's alluding these three to be my lovers or something .
"There's no getting or the likes . . . These three are my party members . "
"Really?"
"Yeah . We formed a party at the Second Academy and this was the result . "
" . . . I see . "
Ruli looked disappointed when I said party members . . . I must be imagining things .
"That aside, how's it going at Hildesheimr recently? Biffgel seemed to be same as always at least . . . "
"It's been pretty peaceful with nothing truly eventful occurring . The only worrying element was Biffgel, but since I've been formally accepted as the heir now, there's really nothing to worry about . "
I see .
This means there is no chance at all for Biffgel to become the territory lord .
It must have been the best of news for the populace there .
"And back at you Mathi, you have been doing great, right . Rumors about you even spread in the backwaters we're in . "
" . . . What kind of rumors?"
"Like how you defeated a demon by yourself, and how you turned Second Royal Academy's curriculum upside down . . . And the latest rumor said you killed a huge darkness dragon that showed up at the capital . "
. . . Looks like the commotions at the capital have reached even my brother .
Well I figure changing the curriculum of a royal academy would become rumors .
There's one wrong rumor in it though .
『That darkness dragon that showed up at the capital refers to me right? But I haven't been killed . . . 』
『These rumors seem quite inaccurate . . . 』
This darkness dragon is probably referring to Iris .
Which means, forget killed, she's right in front of my brother now . . .
I cut to the chase while thinking that .
"So, the reason I come here today . . . Have you heard about the details?"
"Yeah . The four of you gonna infiltrate the empire and beat the dollmaster right? . . . You got any lead on this dollmaster's location?"
"We'll be working on it, but I don't think finding them will be too hard once we get in . No matter what, you'd stand out controlling that amount of dolls . "
Even if the dolls can move automatically, they still need to be given orders when they get dispatched .
Once we're inside the empire, finding the location where that takes place won't be hard .
We wouldn't have needed to infiltrate were the dollmaster went along with the dolls though .
" . . . Regardless of how strong you are, you will still be sneaking into the empire . Be sure to pay attention to your surroundings . "
"Yeah . Our opponents include demons after all . "
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka . com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel . >
I've got a feeling that the dollmaster isn't a demon though .
Judging from the dolls' scale and movement, the group that collects life forces for these dolls doesn't seem to care much about the attack on Relaia Barondom .
The demons probably ordered some sacrificial pawn humans to asses the usefulness of life forces or something along the lines .
. . . We'd have it easy if the demons show themselves up around the group though . Then we simply need to defeat them .
"Even if you're gonna be fine Mathias, how about these three? I've heard that this year's Second Academy students are pretty strong, but you need a different kind of skillet to perform infiltrations, you know?"
Reich's worry is justified .
After all, these girls look like ordinary girls if we're only talking about their outward appearances .
In reality, these three are stronger than Castor, and Iris herself is immeasurably sturdier than any human .
"We'll be fine! We've fought demons before, and we have some experiences doing infiltrations!"
"About a week ago, we sneaked into a town with 20 demons hiding inside and exterminated every last one of them!"
"We only lent a bit of hand though, Mathi-kun took care most of the demons himself . "
Hearing the girls, Reich and Castor looked surprised .
" . . . I thought they'd be strong when I heard they're Mathia's party members . . . but not to this point . . . "
"Don't tell me, are all Second Academy's students this strong nowadays? I can see why they're calling Second Academy students this year monstrous . "
"No, these three in my party are especially strong compared to other Second Academy's students . Ordinary Second Academy's students need to work together in a group of dozens or so to beat one lesser demon . "
If those students were as strong as Ruli and Alma, they would have defeated the demon back then before we got there .
That said, these students have only started their training in chantless magic, I won't be surprised if they're even stronger than current Ruli and Alma by the time they're graduating .
. . . By then, Ruli and Alma will be even stronger though .
"Dozens, defeating a demon . . . That's quite fearsome already . . . "
"A few years ago, the kingdom knights managed to defeat a demon, but they only barely accomplished that after bringing around 500 adventurers and elite knights together . The opponent was apparently the weakest ranking demon, yet our side lost around 100 lives . I didn't take part in it due to a certain circumstances on my side though . "
500 knights managed to defeat a demon huh . . . That's actually amazing .
Their weapons would be those low performance magic swords created with chant magic, and their magic itself would be the weak and hard to use chant magic .
Under such conditions, I don't think even an army of 10,000 could defeat a demon .
"How exactly did they pull it off?"
"All members shot magic on it, the rest was an all-out war . I don't quite understand just how they managed to do it even now . . . Apparently, an awfully strong adventurer from a foreign country who had gone out of his way to join the subjugation unit landed the finishing strike on the demon . "
"An adventurer from a foreign country?"
An awfully strong adventurer .
. . . And the guy went out of his way to join a subjugation mission in another country .
. . . I probably know the guy .
"Yeah . The name was . . . Girusomething fellow . Thanks to him going home without even joining the celebration party, there was a bit of uproar . "
It's Giruas . . .
He didn't join the party probably because he simply had no interest in it .
Once there's no more battle to be had, he's done, that's probably it .
"But I think Mathi is even stronger than that Girusomething chap . "
"That's for sure . I mean, Mathi beat all these demons by himself after all . "
Reich agreed with Castor .
It's certainly true that I am stronger than Giruas .
We even had a match to prove that .
My father Castor suddenly paused .
Afterward, he speaks again after pondering a bit .
" . . . Mathias, you're strong . Hence, I won't stop you sneaking into the empire . . . but make sure you come back alive, every one of you . Don't ever let your guard down . "
"I promise . "
Thus our reunion ended .
Next we just need to infiltrate the empire and defeat the dollmaster, then the demons behind the dollmaster .
. . . Since these demons appear to have connections with the empire itself, this sure is going to be quite a big job . . . Here's hoping there will be a surprising development .
If there were only one weakling demon after this much uproars, I'm gonna be disappointed .