Chapter 96
“Monsters have appeared in the central region.”
“Monsters?”
“Yes. Three of them this time.”
Phew. I was worried it might be another report about discovering a vein in the wasteland.
Fortunately, it seemed blind luck had not found me this time.
While I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, Baratheon standing beside me looked serious.
“Monsters in the central region…”
For a long time, monster appearances had been concentrated in the north.
It made sense since the only passage for them to cross the continent was the Misty Mountains.
The reason the Asinov family settled near the Misty Mountains was to stop monsters right at the entrance, wasn’t it?
However, recently, monsters had begun appearing more frequently in the central region, and even in the south.
Scholars had taken notice of this unusual phenomenon.
They analyzed the monsters’ movements and discovered that instead of immediately attacking upon crossing the Misty Mountains, the monsters were secretly moving downward.
This was very different from their past behavior when they would rampage immediately upon crossing, showing high aggression.
“Anyway, they say all the monsters were suppressed, but the damage seems significant.”
“It can’t be helped. The situation there is very different from the north.”
The central and southern regions were vulnerable to monster incursions.
They couldn’t be compared to the north, which was thoroughly prepared based on long experience.
It’s a peaceful era without wars among humans, after all.
It was unusual that the Asinov family remained armed at all times, ready to fight.
“Still, it seems the monsters’ behavior is becoming more intelligent.”
As Lucas thoughtfully stroked his chin, Baratheon, unusually, tilted his head with a serious expression.
“Maybe they’ve learned that if they rampage in the north, they’ll be immediately suppressed? Even the dumbest creatures could figure that out after suffering a lot, right?”
“That could be, but the monsters’ intelligence is too low for that…”
As Lucas said, monsters were known to have very low intelligence—comparable to, or worse than, a three-year-old child.
“It’s doubtful they could move with such a planned and organized approach.”
Occasionally, a monster would get lost and appear in the central or southern region, but it was only recently that they had been moving with such clear intent.
…Lucas explained it like that.
“Well, it’s not like someone is controlling them, right?”
Baratheon roughly ran his hand through his hair, looking troubled.
Though he had stepped down as commander, he had been at the forefront of monster hunting in the Misty Knights since childhood.
Whenever the topic of monsters came up, he inevitably became tense.
“Anyway, because of that situation, we received a proposal for our territory.”
The monsters appeared in the central region, but would that have anything to do with a proposal to us?
“What kind of proposal?”
Blinking in curiosity, I saw Lucas smirk.
It was the expression he made whenever he smelled money.
“They want to buy the weapons we developed.”
“…Excuse me? Weapons?”
“Yes. They’re very interested in grenades.”
But these weren’t made for sale…
They were just an ordinary way to waste money.
Until now, the bombs had been large and heavy, making them difficult to use in combat.
During the transport of a massive cannon, if the crew were attacked, the cannon would be useless before it could be properly used.
However, at Devon’s military research lab, they had drastically reduced the size and weight of these bombs so they could be held in one hand and thrown.
These were called grenades.
The first ones made were offensive grenades, and later smoke grenades and flash grenades were developed.
Of course, in a peaceful era with no wars, these weapons were completely unnecessary.
Well, sometimes they use grenades during construction, I suppose.
A very modest use indeed.
“After seeing a territory completely destroyed this time, everyone seems to feel a sense of crisis. They don’t know when monsters might attack next, and your side is so unprepared.”
“…That’s right.”
“Only a few families are allowed to maintain soldiers, hiring mercenaries isn’t reliable, and raising a militia is uncertain due to time and skill constraints.”
“So…?”
“So they became interested in the weapons developed by Asinov. We’re famous for monster extermination, right? But we can’t exactly send troops.”
Strictly speaking, it was the Asinov main house that was famous for monster hunting, but from the outside, Devon was considered part of Asinov.
The extravagant spending of the third year seems to have quietly passed.
Just after the new year, and this hits me out of nowhere!
Selling weapons generates profit, and profits push my downfall project backward again.
“Surely it would be better to buy verified magic scrolls. Why would they want our weapons?”
“Magic scrolls are incredibly expensive and cannot be mass-produced due to the manufacturing process. But we can do that.”
Right, magic scrolls can’t be mass-produced.
Inscribing magic onto objects is extremely difficult, and only a few wizards could do it.
The process also consumed tremendous amounts of mana, making large-scale production impossible.
That’s why magic scrolls stayed expensive.
Ugh, if that reason doesn’t work…
I quickly came up with another excuse.
“Is it okay to sell weapons to another territory? They might use them against us later.”
“It’s fine. We won’t sell top-performance weapons.”
Lucas, as if he had already thought about this, offered a solution without hesitation.
“We’ll make grenades with slightly reduced performance for sale. Only we will have the superior version that can defeat them. Problem solved.”
“…I see. That way, they won’t be a threat to us at all.”
“Exactly. I’ll organize the detailed sales plan into a document and show you soon.”
“…Alright.”
Even without seeing the document, I could already imagine it.
Lucas’s sales plan would be perfect, with no mistakes in the contract, and as a result, I would make a huge amount of money again.
I could see a future where people cheered, and I swallowed tears silently.
“Your foresight is incredible. I didn’t expect this situation when we set up the military research lab.”
Yeah, right? I didn’t either.
If I had known, I would never have established the military lab to develop new weapons.
I’m working hard to retreat, so why do I keep catching the mouse instead?!
“I was really worried about this, but once again, you were right, Danae.”
No, I was wrong. Completely wrong!
Whether Lucas knew my inner cries or not, he smiled gently and delivered the final blow.
“By the way, they discovered another gold mine at the western construction site.”
“….”
Another gold mine?
Earning money this absurdly again?
It’s about time this stopped, you crazy lucky person…
Dragging myself back to my room, the first thing to greet me was the angel doll sitting on the nightstand.
Surely, it was the cursed doll that had ruined Eila’s daily life.
Why is my life completely fine?
No, “fine” isn’t even the word. Everything I touched kept hitting jackpots.
“Hey, aren’t you a cursed doll?”
I grabbed the doll in frustration and shook it around.
Unlikely as it was, the doll’s face, looking at me as I shook it, somehow seemed to smile pleasantly.
“Why can’t you work properly, huh? Let me fail a bit too!”
Of course, grumbling at a doll wouldn’t help at all.
But at least it made me feel a little relieved.
After venting for a while, I threw the doll back onto the nightstand and flopped onto the bed.
No matter what I do to fail, I’ll probably succeed again anyway.
I was too drained to get any work done today.
“Miss!”
At that moment, the door opened abruptly, and Marina rushed in.
Marina wasn’t the type to barge in without permission, so something urgent must have happened.
“Marina, what’s wrong?”
Startled, I sat up, and Marina approached me with a flushed face.
“Miss! It’s here!”
“Here? What do you mean?”
“The bluebird!”
Marina flusteredly held out her hands.
And there, in her hands, lay the familiar bluebird, unconscious.
Blanche!
