CH 45

Reincarnated Lord's official duties, an affair trip (Day 2)

It was deep in the night.

In the center of this small village, the remaining embers from the feast shrine through the surrounding fence like a firefly in the forest.

In the sky, the stars shine like the swirling waves of a great river, but they are nothing more than an obstacle to the darkness. They twinkle like jewels, but unlike real jewels, they cannot turn into gold, nor can they fill one's stomach.

The men were lying in the bushes, breathing silently and staring at the lights from the village in the distance.

They are bandits.

From their worn, ragged clothes, it seems that their business is not doing too well. They had been rampaging in another part of the region but were finally caught and chased off by the knights. However, the knights were not very thorough, resulting in a number of fugitives.

There were 13 of them in total. They ran and ran and ran until they reached this remote "Aldora" Territory and now they found a small village where a merry banquet was being held.

hatred.

envied.

Envied because we were being treated like this, hiding in the middle of nowhere, and yet there they were.

They should live worthy of their status, poor, and suffering like us.

When there is nothing left loose, we will take it all away from them, draining them to the bone.

Humiliation and hunger drove them to a craving for violence.

They wanted to rob, to satisfy this hunger, but more than that, their hatred and jealousy were boiling with rage, and they wanted to let loose their violence.

They were like rabid dogs, but they were able to endure the freezing darkness because they had a good commander there. And it was "he" who guided them.

He is scary.

We can't go against him.

But if we follow him, we are safe.

The rabid dogs, the ones who had been beaten, believed in and were enthralled by the man they had met during their escape.　

...... At first, when they attacked him, they were beaten back. Then he told me that if they got down on their knees and begged for their lives, they would become his dogs.

--I will give you a better life, he said.

He seems to be a nomad himself. But he was well-dressed for a nomad. So, thinking he was a wealthy traveler, they attacked him. And here there were.

This was the first village.

The bandits are hungry.

The leader gave them some rations,  but it was not nearly enough.

He wanted them to be hungry. Starve them, and then they would explode with violence. And under his training, the bandits finally let their thirst for battle win out over their appetites. They then obeyed their leader.

It was an experiment.

To strengthen humans, to make them fall to【Madness】, and to unleash it.

The random bandits were the perfect test subjects for this new magic. They were put on the reins by a magician. They could be used and disposed of without much hassle. They stared at the lights of the village, their eyes murky, their gaze filled only with the hunger for violence and madness.

The leader of the group was satisfied, and he had them lie down, waiting for the moment to strike.

He was a noble. With the magic power flowing in his eyes, he observed the bandits' every move from a distance. There was no reason for him to lie down on the ground with the animals.

He stood like a shadow at a distance, blending in with the darkness. Just in case, he had used a 【covert】. It is magic that lets a person fade into the background like a shadow, including their presence. It is not that he has become invisible or that he is wrapped in something. It is simply like a stone on the side of the road, like a shadow cast in a basement, making it impossible to be aware of his presence.

He thought to himself. I am not really a person who belongs in a place like this. I am the person who should have achieved great deeds on the battlefield, earned a title and a fiefdom, even if I am not the first son. And yet...

--In this world, wars are mainly led by the magic caster.

In this world where there is no sexual desire, and where humans cannot ejaculate without the use of a lubricant, everything seems distorted from the world as we know it, not only in terms of culture and concept but also in terms of the way human resources are treated. It is foolish if humans fight against each other, which could cause a population decline if done badly.

But still, they fight for territory, wealth, and most importantly, for honor.

Those without magic powers also participate in battle, but they are not the main players. The difference between those who have magic power and those who do not is that stark. That is why the main battles are between people with magic power or between nobles, to reduce the number of lost resources.

But depending on the resistance of the opposing party, winning may not be enough.

For nobles, wars are a matter of honor. Therefore, His specialty was to exploit their blind spot by using 【covert】. This was originally a strategy that would have been recognized as one of the best, but it was regarded as a coward. It is a strategy for commoners with low magic power, and not a practice of the nobility.

Regardless of what they said, he could not take another strategy. And so he left.

If he could not fight head-on, he would turn the commoners against them. He decided to use the commoners as weapons. This is the first step.

The nobles do not regard the commoners as their equals. They consider them as resources within their territory. Then, from the nobles' point of view, this method would be accepted as a proper one.

He came up with the idea and put it into action.

"Let the scene begin. Can you compete with my beasts? Show me."

--【Madness】

The bandits turn mad and are strengthened. The bandits start to move at the wicked mage's command.

◇

Wrrrrrrr, Wrrrrrrrr

Suddenly, the alarm of the defense system rang through the night.

The leaves of the trees are shaking along with the bonfire.

This is the Moiré village.

This village was surrounded by defense systems invented by Desmond and built by his own men. This was also an experimental site to test the results of his creations. However, unlike the leader of the intruders, all of this was done with the consent of the villagers and kept secret from Desmond himself.

The warding that surrounds the village is a triple-layer formation.

Dividing into Boundaries layer, outer layer, and inner layer.

In this place, the Boundaries layer is the wooden fence that surrounds the village. At first glance, the village appears to be simple, a poor but healthy little community where people live out their daily lives.

However, if a person without a life energy signature climbs over this fence, the alarm of the defense system will go off. 

The inhabitants of this village have no magic powers except for some children born from Desmond's seed. However, they are descendants of fugitives and criminals who flee and live in this remote place, at the base of a mountain. Although they are criminals, most of their crimes were committed against the nobility. 

They were people who were unable to obtain the protection of the nobles and were driven to live on their own. And they have trained themselves techniques to defeat the low-level monsters with their own strength, even if it is not as powerful as magic.

It was a fighting style that elevated physical functions and abilities by enhancing the body with life energy. It was made possible through breathing control and intense training. These were not common techniques. 

Regardless of how much the nobles saw the commoners as resources rather than as human beings, they still protected them as their property. Perhaps some of them were driven out of their territory because they had awakened such power. But in the end, they ended up here. Lived outside of such rule and in a place close to where the monsters dwell. 

When Desmond met with these people that were capable of using it - it's not hard to imagine that Randolph was overjoyed, even if he didn't express it - he worked with them to create a defense device for it and without their ability to control life energy, the defense system may not have been completed. With the invention of this device, they were now able to free themselves from the burden of guarding the place all day all night.

A coward bandit, animal, or magical beast would flee at the sound of this alarm alone.

--But this time, it was a group of crazed bandits led by an evil mage.

With their eyes bloodshot and driven by madness, they were like zombies as they climbed over the wooden fence.

The mage is surprised at the sudden sound of the alarm but dismisses it as something inconsequential thinking that it is just a commoner's crude invention. Although he does not know what it was. He's using commoners as tools afterall.

"Ggh!"

The growls left the drooling mouths of the bandits.

The second layer.

Debuff magic is applied to those who try to force their way through.

Their speed is reduced, their muscles weakened, and their defenses lowered, their ability to think is reduced, and disrupt the ability to cast spells if they have magic powers. They groaned at the effects but kept going, knowing only that they had to move forward, trying to release the violence that they had been subjected to. Their eyes bloodshot and clouded with madness, flaming with hatred, jealousy, and rage, they marched on like menacing undead.

The alarm sound alert goes off even louder. And lastly, the third layer--

／

The bodies sprawled out everywhere in the village center...

In the center, the people of the village were collapsed and snoring with their mouths wide open, resembling the scene of a battlefield.

Tonight's celebration was for the wedding between Monica, the daughter of the village chief, and Desmond, the guardian deity of the village. But the real wedding is scheduled for tomorrow. The reason for holding the party this night was because her ceremonial wedding dress need to be pristine on the day of the wedding.

The men, who look like mountain bandits, and the women, who were beautiful and lithe, all fell to sleep with their mouths wide open, like they were about to swallow the sparks from the bonfire.

Then the alarm rang out!

Will they be able to wake up from their deep and comfortable sleep?

And even if they do, will they be able to handle the crisis?

Look!

Their chests are glowing.

This is the work of the "recovery pellet" that, in the event of an emergency, will recover them from their "abnormal" state, even if they are drunk and asleep, and they will be able to restore to their perfect condition. It is a magic device that is configured to be activated at the same time when the alarm is sounded.

The recovery magic that has been contained within will be triggered automatically.

It is hard to believe that commoner villagers in this remote area, who could be called barbarians by those in more developed cities, could possess magic items that not even the nobility had, or that they were able to achieve this level of effectiveness.

The intruders were not capable of thinking properly, let alone being surprised by it.

Nor could the evil mages, who were simply watching them from outside the village, waiting for the results of his experiments.

This was Desmond's experimental site - not that he intended it to be, but he would come up with ideas for things like this, and some would happily start making prototypes and then ask other "I made this, would you try it?"  and  "It was Desmond-sama's idea, right? Leave it to me, I have the physical strength to do it." 

Due to the chain reactions of the people who were eager to try them out, the number of strange devices in this village was increasing day by day, which can be troublesome and frightening at the same time.

By the way, the experiments are not forced, and the risks are all fully disclosed with informed consent. And that is exactly where the difference lies.

They are fundamentally different from the rabid dogs that are driven mad and turned against others. They are the Warmongers, who were trained and sharpen their fangs. And the man in charge of training them is Randolph, the Gray Hound.

Desmond was okay with this, saying that it would be nice if they could protect themselves and grow prosperous. But in truth, he thinks that there was no way I could stop Grandpa anyway, and he had no intention of stopping these energetic warriors. Some might consider it a strategic move. But he thought it was just their way of running a village.

They are a group of highly skilled fighters, more powerful than a poorly trained mercenary. They awoke from their drunken slumber and began to rally against the intruders.

"tsk, I was having a sweet dream..."

"Well, we're going to have to make them pay for this, aren't we?"

They start to wake up from their slumber with a smile, chatting like they're still celebrating and somehow, looking more vicious than the intruder bandits.

"But, I didn't expect this to happen when Desmond-sama is here. Haha, you think Desmond brought them here to test us?"

" 'That would be interesting', Randolph-sama would say that. But I think he isn't the kind of person to do this. Rather, is Monica getting cursed for marrying the guardian deity?"

"Nah, this is just a wedding gift."

--Gehahahahahaha!

If Desmond had seen this scene.

"Run, Intruder-san, whoever you are,  don't look back and run!!!"

He must have shouted that with all his heart.

In the midst of all this.

"Well,  I guess I'll have to start the hunt."

Although she was a petite, young girl just fifteen years old, she had a wild charm and the dignity of a strong warrior evident in her movements as she stood up.

Monica, the bride who will wed the Guardian Deity and carry his son in her womb, was the star of the show. On the night before the ceremony, she was not wearing a bridal gown, but her one-piece dress that was still very formal and befitting of the bride.

--Although she was already covered in mud at one point due to alcohol.

Even though she is covered in dirt, she blooming like a wildflower. A war maiden that guides others. No, she was a female predator, her eyes blazing brightly in the bonfire light and she licks her pretty lips with her cute pink tongue.

Those limbs are the fangs and claws of the beast that is waiting to be unleashed.

She roars. Like a brave, fierce, savage heroine!

"The prey has crawled into our cage!　No, Des brought it to us! We need to show Lord Des our full power!"

The fierce men and women shout their war cry.

The village chief Ian, does not interfere with his youngest daughter's speeches. After all, it is she, who is the star of this night not the village chief. In fact, he would have scolded her if she had not taken the lead. If only Desmond were listening.

"No no no,  what are you talking about, Monica!　I mean, I just think of you like a cute cousin...."

He must have been thinking, but his wishes and hopes were crushed.

She clenched her fist and raised it up high.

"For him, our gallant benefactor!"

"For him, our gallant benefactor!"

The villagers responded to Monica's shouts.

The crackling bonfires are being overwhelmed by the pressure.

The air is threatening to dispel the darkness, and the fangs of the brazen warrior roar out a cry for the destruction of their enemy.

"Honor to the Lord Des!"

"Honor to the Lord Des!"

"Let us show our might!"

"Honor to the Lord Des!"

Her speech was, of course, taught by Randolph.

The villagers were in high spirits, each with his or her own weapon, from wherever they got it. Regardless of whether the opponent is a noble, thousand warriors, or a divine soldier, it is impossible not to be intimidated by their ferocious strength.

"Crush them!"

"OOOOOOHHH!"

The battle cry burst through the night. The wild beasts howled at Monica's downward swing of her palm.