47 Rich ariadia (1/2)

Black haired wise man Chiyuki

The Republic of Ariadia is located just on the border between the eastern and western borders of the continent and is located at the mouth of the Kish River, a large river that flows through the heart of the Minon Plain.

The number of citizens may exceed a million. It is probably the largest country in the world.

The reason why so many people gather here is because the country is rich.

The plain of Minon, which stretches to the north of Ariadia, is a very rich land, and it produces a lot of crops such as white wheat. The crops are carried to Ariadia via the Kish River, which has its source in the central mountain range that runs through the center of the plain.

And to the south is the quiet Gulf of Ariad. This bay is shallow, and the great sea monsters of the open sea cannot enter it.

The nations of this gulf and the nations of the Minon Plain have formed an Ariadic alliance around the Republic of Ariadia, and people are free to come and go as they please.

For this reason, many people gather in the Republic of Ariadia.

Also, to the northeast of the plain of Minon is the land of the dwarves, from which tools and minerals such as gold and silver are brought to Ariadia via the River Kish.

Such is the Republic of Ariadia, which issues Tikam money, the standard for world currency. Perhaps this is why its monetary economy is more advanced than that of any other country.

After all, the currency of the Republic of St. Renaria, where we are based, is also issued on the basis of Tükam money.

A country where wealth is gathered. That is the Republic of Ariadia.

And now, Rage and I are here in the general's office of this Republic of Ariadia.

Sahoko, Reno, and Nao have been separated from us.

I'm worried that we'll be left alone, so I have Sahoko to go with us.

You have come well. The brave Lord of Light. My name is Krasus and I am a general in the Republic of Ariadia.

A man of about 40 years of age comes out as you are shown into the room.

His name is Krasus, and he is the general of this Ariadia Republic.

The general is the chief of defense and security of this Republic of Ariadia.

The position of general is quite unique in the world.

In most cases, the king of the country is both regent and general. In other republics, too, the consul general is usually the chief administrator of security and defense.

This is because of the large population of Ariadia and the large area to be protected, it was necessary to separate security from the work of the steward.

In this world, most countries have military service, and there are armies of all sizes.

But it is not for fighting humans. There are not many wars between human countries in this world.

The opponent is a demon. It can be said that in this world where there are many demons, there is no room for human nations to fight each other.

However, since there are not many monsters in this area, the general's job is solely to maintain security.

There are no conflicts between countries, but civilian conflicts are the same as in the original world we were in. Rather, because of the large population, it is far more common than in other countries.

The general in front of me, Krasus, was also said to have been a knight of this country in the past, but he hasn't fought many demons.

Krasus puts his hand on his chest and gives a bow to Rage. This is the polite way of greeting in this world.

The actuality of this is that it is a very good thing. It's a pleasure to meet you.

While Krasz is polite, Rage is unassuming.

Rage doesn't change his attitude in front of the king of any country.

How many times have we gotten into fights because of this attitude?

I glance at Klassus. I wonder if he wasn't offended?

''Ha-ha. If the brave Lord of Light has come, then this country will be safe now.

He laughs at that. I don't feel like I'm worried about Rage's attitude.

Instead, I feel like I'm used to people like Rage.

However, if you don't care about Rage's attitude, it's easy to talk to him.

''General Krasus-dono. I've heard some of this from Vice President Talabos, but could you tell me more about it?

I'll ask Krasz on behalf of Rage.

Negotiation is my role. It's my job from here on out.

'No, no, we're not going to stand around, so why don't we talk in the conference room? I'll have someone get you something to drink.

We were led by Krasus to the reception room.

The conference room is large and decorated quite nicely, as it is the general's office of the great Republic of Ariadia.

There are seats for several people at a large table.

We each take a seat.

Krasus claps his hands, and the door opens and someone enters.

'Goblins?!!!'

I let out a gasp.

It is a goblin that has come in. There is a cart in front of the goblin and a drink is placed on the cart.

The goblin pushes the cart in front of us and hands us a cup of drink.

'Here you go, Gob.

Goblins bow.

We are embarrassed to see our opponents bowing to us, as they are always fighting us.

I've seen goblin slaves before, but this is the first time I've been treated like one.

There is a thriving goblin slave industry in the region. Unlike orcs, goblins are an easy species to enslave.

I've heard that it was the sorcerers of Saria who came up with the idea of turning these goblins into slaves.

It is said that by applying domination magic and the like, they are able to suppress the cruelty of the goblins and make them obedient.

I've heard of several large farms using goblins here in the Minon Plain.

Thanks to this cheap labor, food seems to be cheap in this region.

When the goblins finish handing out the cup, they bow again and leave.

I look at it with a subtle expression.

'Oh?' This is the first time I've seen a goblin slave: ...... Ah!　No, I've been remiss in this. Master Raina's teachings forbid goblin slaves. I've been remiss in this.

Krasus apologizes.

Raina is the god of battle and the protector of humans from the threat of demons. And demons are targets that must be destroyed.

Therefore, the use of demons is critical in the Raina cult. The bottom line is that you should kill them without making them slaves.

However, perhaps because there is little threat of demons in this Ariadia Republic, the power of the Raina cult is weak.

The most revered person in this country is the God-king Odis, the god of law. The Odis cult does not endorse slavery, but it does not prohibit it either.

Therefore, slavery exists openly.

The reason I was more subtle about it is because of my disgust for the profession of slavery. Of course, in the original world we were in, slavery was banned. As such, I don't feel very good about it.

If this were a human being and not a demon, I would have told them to stop slavery.

''I certainly don't feel very good about it. But I'm not going to talk about it now. So let us hear why you want us to help you.

Slavery is ingrained in this region. If we tried to stop it by force, we would have to fight with the people of this region. I didn't want to do that.

Besides, even if we wanted to end slavery, it would have to be done in stages, and the question of what to do with the freed goblins would come up. That would be quite a bit of work.

So I'll stop talking about this for now.

Rage doesn't seem to be too interested in it either, so let's move on with the conversation.

'Yes, the incident was met at .......

Krasus begins to explain.

'The incident took place on the night of the day we fought with Syrone's childhood friend.

In Ariadia, one of the spectacles of the Founding Festival in three weeks' time, a match was scheduled to take place in the amphitheater for five days.

Unlike the gladiators we know and love, these matches are not pitting humans against each other.

Most of them pits demons against demons.

Because of this, many demons were captured and brought to Ariadia.

Most of the demons are Orcs, but there are some vicious monsters, such as centaurs, werewolves, lizardmen, half-fishermen Marlow, and even lamia, which is a snake with only its lower body and a female upper body.

Those captured demons were gathered in a training facility outside the Ariadia school.

The problem was that those demons had escaped.

Whether or not it was an accident or a man-made event is under investigation.

However, there are some pretty vicious demons among the escaped demons, and it seems that the demons also took away the weapons belonging to the guard of the facility. If left unchecked, they are in great danger.

For this reason, Krasus, the general in charge of maintaining the security of Ariadia, informed his allies of the situation and they decided to deal with it jointly.

Ariadia is a country that is built on trade. If the distribution is stopped by the demons, Ariadia is doomed.

They say that the price of food has already risen more than twice as much. Because of this, there is dissatisfaction among the citizens.

If they run out of food, there will be a riot.

It won't be an immediate problem because we have a stockpile, but we need to do something about it as soon as possible. So I need your help, Krasz says.

I glance at Rage.

'Okay, leave it to me.'

Rage says in a huff. 'Now we have a policy.

'Thank you,'

Krasz thanked him.

'By the way, General Krasus. We will help you too, ......, but won't you send out knights or soldiers in the Republic of Ariadia?

They should be the first to move on because it's their problem, not ours alone to work,

Krasus looks troubled when I say this.

''As I recall, it was the black-haired Sage Lord ....... As a matter of fact, we've already put out the Knights .......

Krasz looks hard to say.

'What's going on, sir?'

''Actually, ....... The knights who went out to defeat the demon have been destroyed. ......

I'm immensely disappointed in that statement.

Krasus explains.

It was the day after the demon escaped. Each country in the Ariad Alliance sent out a defeating force made up of knights, he says.

And on that day, the Ariadia knights are said to have found the escaped centaurs in the Minon plain.

The number of centaurs is only 23, while the number of Ariadia knights is 300.

The knights who are outnumbered naturally charged at the centaurs to capture the centaurs. And I heard that more than half of them were struck down without defeating a single centaur.

I hold my head up. Fighting centaurs on the plains is just too stupid.

The centaurs are all excellent archers and horsemen. If they fought on the plains and plains, ordinary humans would have no chance of winning at first.

They are omnivores and hunt with their bows.

Centaurs have a body that is much stronger than that of humans. The arrows from their strong arms fly farther than human arrows and easily penetrate armor and shields that have no magical powers of their own.

And the lower half of a centaur's body is a horse, highly mobile. A horse carrying a heavily armed knight would not be able to catch up with it at first.

Perhaps the knights of the Republic of Ariadia were defeated without even being able to touch the centaur. Originally, there were no centaurs in the Minon Plain. That's probably why they didn't understand the power of the centaurs and ended up like this.

Still, the surviving knights of Ariadia pursued the centaurs.

However, they couldn't catch up with it and lost sight of it, and soon it was nighttime and they had to make camp.

In hindsight, Krasus says they should have taken refuge in some country, even if they were forced to do so.

The number of demons in the area was low, so he was probably caught off guard. It seems that most of the remaining knights were killed in a night attack by the orcs.

Then I suddenly wonder.

'Have the orcs attacked us in groups?'

I ask Krasus.

'Yes, according to the surviving knights, it was a controlled move: ......

Then you have the same senior orcs. Are there any such orcs that have escaped?

Orcs don't swarm, but when there's an advanced species of orc, they do.

And orcs that have formed an army are vicious. They can easily destroy a human country or two.

Aside from the other demons, that senior orc would have to be defeated at all costs.

However, when I ask, Krasus shakes his head.

''The sorcerers of the Magician's Association also asked me about it. But it seems that there were no senior orcs in the area. Besides, from what I've heard, it doesn't seem to be a demon we can handle: ......

That's certainly true too: ......

Senior Orcs are larger than ordinary Orcs. They have a body of steel and can only be hurt by magical weapons.

Ordinary humans are no match for them.

Fortunately, the only high level Orcs are found in Nargol, and they can only appear in the human world. They rarely come out to the human world.

However, that doesn't mean that there are no advanced species of Orcs appearing in the human world.

According to records, an advanced species of Orc called Grendale appeared in the northern lands of the Republic of Ariadia, where he formed an army and destroyed human lands all over the world, enslaving humans to create an orc empire.

However, Grendale was defeated by the demigod, the brave Beolf, and his empire is no longer in existence.

There was no way an ordinary human could handle an opponent who could finally win with a brave man who was the son of a god.

So maybe Krasus was right and there were no advanced species orcs among the demons that escaped.

''If that's the case, it's probably not an accident, but an external culprit. Someone must have deliberately let the demon escape.''

Krasus nodded as I said this.

'The sorcerer-dono said the same thing.

Well, if you think about it, you would normally come to that conclusion.

'It's a tricky situation: ......

I sigh.

I don't know what the culprit is. But since he can make orcs follow him, he must be a very advanced demon.

And it doesn't show itself. We have to start by finding out who it is. It's quite a tricky situation.

Yes ....... It seems that we can no longer deal with this on our own. ......

According to Krasus, not only the Knights of Ariadia, but also the knights of each country seem to have been decimated by the demons.

It's no longer possible for the knights of each country to deal with the situation alone.

It seems that each country judged so and decided to contact civilian freedom fighters, the Order of Odis, which has branches all over the world, and the Society of Magicians to ask for help.

And it seems that they spoke to me who happened to be in Saria, the headquarters of the Sorcerers' Association.

It seems that they've made individual offers to other famous warriors as well.

It seems that besides Rage, someone else who is called a brave man has already come to Ariadia.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get a good idea of what to expect from them.

I am a little surprised to hear that there are many people who are called brave.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but I think it's a good idea.

Also, Krasus said that all the brave people had an attitude like Rage.

That's why the rude attitude of Rage may not bother you.

But hearing that, Rage becomes unhappy. I'm sure he doesn't mind the fact that there are brave men other than himself.

I'm not going to be able to say that I'm going to be able to do that. Please save this Ariadia!

Saying that, Krasus bowed deeply to Rage.

◆Novis the Fire Brave.

'Whew!

Get up and move around.

Move so as not to wake the woman next to you.

The woman is a woman who was my client. She is a widow and has no children.

She's quite rich because she has an inheritance from her husband who was a wealthy man.

She asked me to be her husband, but I can't do that.

I'm a brave man, after all, and I'm a brave man. There are people in this world who need my help, and I can't stay in one place.

I'm going to sneak out of the house and get dressed.

Maybe I'll go to the public baths.

With that, we start walking.

I walk through the entertainment district of the Republic of Ariadia.

It's been a long time since I've been in this country.

In this area where there are few demons, my power is not needed much.

The only place I can exercise my power is in the huge amphitheater in front of me right now.

The arena basically pits demons against demons, but occasionally there are matches between humans and demons.

I'm tempted to go out to test my skills.

But the arena is closed now because of the incident. So you can't do it now.

By the way, although the arena is closed, we have a huge public bathhouse, an amphitheater, and a horse racing track in this country.

As such, the country has no shortage of entertainment.

The public bathrooms are located in the central square and you have to walk a bit.

We'll see what we can do: ......

I've been called in to defeat the demon, but I don't intend to move in a hurry.

Since we've come all the way to this Ariadia, let's take it slow for today.

''Please, let go of me. ......

It's small, but it's a female voice.

You run to the direction of the voice.

You see a woman surrounded by several men.

A man's hand is grabbing the woman's arm.

”Hey, hey, we're going to find your lost buddy,” he says. Kindness comes in handy.

The man says that, but the look on his face tells me he's being kind and not saying it.

I look at the woman's face. Then he takes a breath.

The woman is a ridiculously beautiful woman. Her face is white and well-groomed, peeking out of her flaxen hair, which has a slight habit. A little teary-eyed eyes will look like a man's desire for protection.

And the most striking thing about the woman's appearance is the bulge of the chest which is visible even from the top of the clothes.

It is quite large.

The woman begs the man who holds her arm to let go, but he does not let go.

That's because she's that beautiful, she won't let go.

The people around her just watch and do not move.

The man who surrounds the woman seems to be very strong. He's afraid that by helping the woman, they will do him violence.

I will have to help him here.

That's my role as the ”fire hero”.

If I help him, he might thank me in some way.

I chuckle at the thought.

'Leave it at that!　Old man!

I step out in front of the men.

'What are you!　You know I'm Gaudin the Earth's hero?