Chapter 216 Strongest Sage, Had Inaccurate Rumors Spread

 

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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.
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."
<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.







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