Chapter 81: Mission Completed [2]
Chapter 81: Mission Completed [2]
Carl decided to rest at Hilfin for two days for those who had worked hard.
The soldiers were given complete free time with only a brief instruction: "Don't cause any accidents."
Carl knew that there was nothing more ridiculous than a superior saying.
"You know I won't touch you as long as you do your job well, right?"
A person who says things like that can never stand by and watch soldiers rest.
The imperial soldiers went outside and headed to the bar after Catherine released them without a single restriction in response to Carl's words.
They drank alcohol in moderation, just enough to avoid mistakes, and repeatedly praised Carl as they sat around talking.
As Carl said, Fardin gathered all the fiefdoms that participated in the battle, praised them, and gave them a huge amount of money as a reward.
In addition, compensation was also provided to the families of those who died, thereby calming public sentiment that had been greatly shaken.
"Keep quiet about silver. For all of us. You can talk about the rest as much as you want."
As he heard, Fardin used the word "we" to comfort the common people. He quickly found a silver mine in the forest, occupied it, and reported it to Carl.
"There were traces of humans?"
"Yes."
Surprisingly, there were traces presumed to be human in the silver mine.
By creating a strong support, they mined silver safely and systematically. Not only had the gnolls suddenly learned metallurgy, but the whole situation was suspicious.
"All right. Let's bury this quietly for now. I will report to His Majesty the Emperor."
"Yes, Lord Carl."
Fardin followed Carl's orders more obediently than expected.
There were many things that came to Carl's mind, so he took a moment to organize his thoughts.
Based on the thinking skills and rich imagination he gained from Lucas, Carl was quickly able to draw an overall outline.
'Some man came here and used some kind of evil magic to create a blood pond and a gnoll statue. From that, numerous gnolls were created, and the red gnoll was born. The human behind the scenes attacked Hilfin with gnolls and, at the same time, mined and stole the silver. And then I came.'
When Carl won the battle against the gnolls, the group retreated, and a gnoll with a red mane and silver fur was born and ran away.
'For what?'
Take control of Hilfin territory?
This probably isn't it. If the gnolls spread and take over the territory, Madius will decide to attack.
It seems certain that he wanted to obtain silver. It seems that Madius knows about the silver, but Carl can't know for sure. Next...
'Did he want to make that?'
A gnoll with a red mane. What if the goal was to create it?
'... I can't even say for sure that he's human.'
Carl organized his thoughts. There is nothing he can do if he thinks about it further.
First, let's report to Azgoth.
Azgoth will not sit idly by and watch this happen. Azgoth is moving, so how much help will it be if Carl acts alone?
'... This probably didn't happen in the original work either.'
A subjugation mission that Ias finished in an instant. In the original, that was the end.
Carl... This is the change that occurred when Lucas became Carl.
"Whew..."
Carl sighed, his thoughts tangled and unresolved.
His head hurt.
However, the mission was successfully completed.
Now there is only one thing left.
All he could do was return to the imperial palace, where Azgoth, Adrian, and countless other nobles were waiting for him.
***
Even on the way back to Himeln, Carl did not necessarily stop by cities or villages.
Unlike the dissatisfaction they had when they first headed to Hilfin, the imperial soldiers followed Carl without saying a word.
Now everyone knew that Carl was trying to hide himself.
Carl bravely rode his horse in front of them, fought with them with a spear and sword, and took the initiative to jump into the most dangerous places.
The feeling of being firmly trusted by their lord could not be explained in words.
Strangely enough, the imperial soldiers who had merely followed Carl on Azgoth' orders were already acting as if they were Carl's private soldiers.
This happened thanks to Carl's strange and powerful charisma.
Whenever Carl took a break, he got out of the carriage and learned full-scale martial arts from Bilford, and he learned strategy and tactics from Catherine.
It was not the clumsy scrambling that was seen when heading to Hilfin.
It was so heated that everyone who saw it got worried.
The imperial soldiers glanced at Carl, who was rapidly learning martial arts at an unbelievable speed, and Harman, who had not seen Carl leading and fighting, was so shocked that his eyes were almost completely bluge out.
'What on earth happened in that moment?'
Harman had also learned swordsmanship through culture. From his perspective, Carl was already worthy of being considered a warrior.
You should not ignore it just because you have learned the basics. Basics aren't basic for nothing.
Knowing just the basics is enough to protect yourself and kill your enemies, so those are the basics.
Also, Carl was nominally being treated by Milton with recovery magic and was learning little by little how to manage mana.
"In the end, the most important thing in handling the power of transcendence is will. Even if you know the theory like a mountain, you can't just lead resolutely with a firm and clear will."
Carl felt Milton flowing mana into his body and was able to move mana in just three days.
The moment he first got mana, he already had experience handling it once, so it wasn't difficult.
Next, he studied under Catherine and learned how to use mana as a warrior.
"The most important thing is will, but it is better to have a firm image and move your mana. It is helpful to think about exactly which areas and how to strengthen them."
Carl, who had been taught like that, shocked everyone, even himself.
"This… It's not this easy..."
Carl succeeded in strengthening his body with mana in one go!
Even Catherine was shocked, stuttering and gibbering. But for Carl, a 'solid image' was too easy.
To be precise, Lucas subdivided muscles into parts and stimulated them by targeting precise targets.
No, he was able to send mana.
Lucas was not in good health.l before he became Carl.
However, he thought he would definitely exercise someday, so he watched and studied a lot of exercise videos.
It wasn't that he couldn't do it because he didn't have the will, it was because he was so weighed down by his social life that he couldn't exercise.
Still, since he helped Carl like this, he didn't even know what a worldly thing it was.
This time, the moment of 'Is this okay?' was repeated again.
'Oh, do I have any talent?
' As people around him made a fuss, Carl also had this thought.
However, he instantly became humble when he thought of Adrian, the munchkin protagonist of the original work, and the genius Nero, who pushed gnolls into a corner with only force.
'Nero is the greatest warrior in the history of the imperial family and will become a master next year, and Adrian is a perfect genius in every way.
They mastered mana before they were even ten years old.' He shouldn't think that Carl, who had barely mastered mana, could do anything about such monsters.
"Lord Carl, you are truly amazing."
"You can stop now. I will work hard even if you don't say that."
"No, that's not it…"
"I barely learned the basics of martial arts and managed mana at the age of 16, so it was too late at the latest. I know that I have to work harder because it's too late for me to learn all of this."
"This…!"
Bilford was praising Carl, but when Carl started talking nonsense, his head got heated and he almost made a mistake.
As Catherine quietly placed her hand on his shoulder and looked at him sternly, Bilford was only trembling, hissing, and breathing heavily.
After spending his entire life bedridden due to illness, Carl mastered the basics of swordsmanship in less than a month.
He was able to control mana in three days and was able to strengthen his body with mana in just one attempt.
But when he say it like that, it's strange that Bilford, who risked his life to become a knight since he was young, doesn't get angry.
Of course, this happened because Bilford had no way of knowing that the objects of Carl's comparison were Adrian and Nero.
...No, even if he knew, he would have been angry. Those two wouldn't have grown this fast either.
Ten days later, with Carl being violent towards Bilford, Carl returned to Himeln.
And as soon as he returned the first thing he did was directly go to Imperial Palace.