Chapter 216

Chapter 216 Strongest Sage, Had Inaccurate Rumors Spread

◇

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 .

Oh right, wonder what's the news on my hometown .

"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 . "

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 .