Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 2, Chapter 18

Winter's Crown: Act 2, Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Shalltear frowned at the Guardian Overseer’s markedly anticlimactic disclosure. As the Floor Guardian responsible for Ainz-sama’s security detail on his visit to the Dwarves, she was well aware of these ‘Frost Giants’. They were dismissed as a negligible threat: as were all of the denizens of the Azerlisia Mountains that their escort had scouted out.

“Frost Giants?” Aura wrinkled her nose, “We saw a few on the trip to the Dwarves, but they didn’t seem like much. A Soul Eater with a Death Cavalier could wipe the floor with a dozen of those things at once.”

Shalltear nodded in agreement. That the merchants of the city were concerned mattered not a whit – it only made it more likely that the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Undead would be leased out for protection. Beyond a handful of early adopters, the marketing of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Undead labour and security was advancing at what could at best be described as a crawl. The display of their usefulness in the Dwarven Kingdom had drummed up some interest in labour, but it was a tiny market compared to their Human neighbours.

“Agreed,” Cocytus said. “Against Soul Eaters: chance of victory seems dubious, at best. Unless…champions have appeared?”

There was a metallic creaking as Cocytus’ claws flexed around the shaft of his halberd. The prospect of worthy adversaries always drew his interest.

“This rumour should work to our advantage anyways, shouldn’t it, arinsu?” Shalltear offered, “If only the services provided by the Sorcerous Kingdom can facilitate trade, then having all of the merchants turn to us would be exactly as Ainz-sama has laid out from the beginning, arinsu.”

Albedo turned a suspicious look to her.

“What?” Shalltear frowned back.

“I can’t help but think that these rumours benefit you directly,” Albedo said. “How has your ‘service’ fared recently between the Dwarf Kingdom and the lands beyond their borders?”

“The majority of the flights are still reserved to assist with the Dwarven Migration,” Shalltear replied. “Outbound flights from E-Rantel to Feoh Berkana are at full capacity already: delivering agricultural produce. Imports from Feoh Berkana to E-Rantel have doubled in the last month to five tons daily – almost entirely iron ore purchased by the city forges. The remainder consists of equipment orders delivered for the Adventurer Guild, arinsu.”

A long silence followed her summary, and Shalltear frowned as she looked around.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” Albedo replied, “I just didn’t expect anything so concise coming from you. Are you alright?”

“I’m perfectly fine!” Shalltear shouted, “Of course I’m going to know what’s going on when it comes to my duties, arinsu! My point is that this rumour does not benefit me at all, arinsu: the Frost Dragons are best used for delivering highly valuable goods; having them fly back and forth with vegetables and ore is the last thing they should be used for, arinsu! There are hundreds of Soul Eaters that can deliver bulk freight, at far greater volumes than what a Dragon is capable of delivering over the same timeframe.”

Albedo furrowed her brow as she looked down at her from the top of the stairs. Sensing that she was being belittled again, Shalltear’s mood grew dark.

“Uwah! What was that for, Nee-chan?”

“If you’re going to say something, you better say it quick!”

Mare fidgeted under everyone’s gaze. Aura’s frown slowly deepened until he spoke in panicked tones.

“The Frost Giants can win!”

“Haah?” Aura exclaimed, “Have you gone crazy? There’s no way they can win!”

“A-as long as they don’t die, they win, I think?” Mare’s voice picked up a bit, “If I was at their level, and my goal was to kill the Soul Eaters, I wouldn’t fight them directly. Soul Eaters are strong compared to the Frost Giants that Nee-chan saw, but those Frost Giants can still kill them by using indirect means. Traps – an avalanche, or a landslide…or throwing boulders and knocking them off of cliffs. E-even if they just prevent the delivery of cargo, it’s bad for us, right?”

Thoughtful looks appeared on many of the NPCs’ faces. Pandora’s Actor was the first to speak.

“It appears that Mare has been picking up all sorts of useful knowledge from managing the Adventurer Training Area,” he chuckled. “His point is entirely valid. We Guardians – who were created to fight within the controlled environment of Nazarick – must now consider a much broader range of possibilities when it comes to potential confrontations. Strength alone does not achieve our conditions for success in this case; Ainz-sama has promoted our methods of transportation as safe and secure: it’s our duty to ensure that this is guaranteed to be the case.”

“Their rivals – the Frost Dragons – were subjugated,” Cocytus said. “Should they, too, be brought to heel?”

“This should always be an avenue available to us,” Albedo replied, “but what other ways are there to turn this to Nazarick’s advantage? When the Supreme One went to the Dwarves, he subjugated the Frost Dragons and the Quagoa – in addition to securing beneficial diplomatic relations with the Dwarf nation, unique assets, and trade for the Sorcerous Kingdom. With Ainz-sama’s example in mind, we should seek ways to exploit this situation in the same fashion…though I’m uncertain what more can be gained from this region.”

“Then…what about sending the Adventurers?” Pestonya asked.

“As weak as these Frost Giants are,” Aura answered. “The Adventurers in training aren’t quite there yet. We have maybe one team that can face them down directly.”

“If there have been no orders from Ainz-sama for a violent confrontation,” Pestonya reasoned, “then an Adventurer expedition would satisfy several objectives at once…wan. They’ve been training diligently over the past two months, but they have nothing in the way of field experience. If they are to be explorers and representatives of the Sorcerous Kingdom who first meet new peoples in the future, then this is as good an opportunity as any to establish that foundation. If an agreeable resolution is achieved with the Frost Giants, then all the better, wan.”

Aura did not look convinced. Albedo looked down at the Homunculus Head Maid with a frown.

“The Adventurer Guild is a national institution now,” Albedo told her. “They carry the name and reputation of the Sorcerous Kingdom. If they are committed to an expedition and fail, it will reflect poorly on the nation.”

“Pestonya’s idea does hold merit, however,” Pandora’s Actor said. “I agree with Aura’s assessment that they have insufficient strength to directly confront multiple Frost Giants, but, as Pestonya has stated, the Guild’s field experience with the expedition system is essentially nonexistent. Rather than the stated goal being to establish contact with the Frost Giants and secure their cooperation, we can include this as one of many objectives that may or may not be fulfilled as a part of a greater exercise. The Adventurer Guild and the apparatus that supports it is thus far entirely untested when it comes to their actual purpose, so the main goal would be to establish the proper protocols for future missions.”

“Mare,” Albedo turned to address the Dark Elf Druid, “do you believe that this is a wise course of action? Is the Adventurer Guild ready for this?”

“Mmh…if they’re forced to fight the Frost Giants, they’ll die or at best be made to flee. Everything else, though, I think is correct. We need to do this eventually, and we have enough Gold-ranked teams to start. H-however, we need to do at least one expedition in a safe and controlled environment before that – trying to establish basic procedures in a dangerous place is impractical.”

“An exercise for an exercise?” Aura wrinkled her nose, “Do you have to be such a perfectionist? You keep rebuilding and reshaping the Training Area and fussing over the smallest things too.”

“I-it’s important to Ainz-sama!” Mare cried, “I have to do my best!”

Shalltear felt her back straighten as Mare expressed his conviction. She was not alone, and the nature of their discourse shifted entirely.

“If I may say so,” Yuri Alpha spoke into the silence, “I agree with Mare-sama’s method. Cramming too much into the Adventurers’ curriculum would be counterproductive. Blindly sending them out as they are would be essentially throwing them into a deadly live-fire exercise before they’ve even established what they are supposed to be doing under normal circumstances.”

“I-I didn’t say it wasn’t important!” Aura said, “Just…argh! Alright, what do you want to do, then?”

“Draw up the teams for the expedition and outline the objectives?” Mare replied, “Once we’ve found a suitable location, we’ll see how they do and develop our methods from there.”

Mare’s words were simple enough, but they understated the sheer amount of work involved for both the expedition members and those overseeing them. Shalltear had the feeling that she would be opening a lot of Gates for this exercise.

“Then do you have a location in mind for this exercise?” Albedo asked, “Somewhere in the Great Forest of Tob, perhaps?”

“N-no,” Mare shook his head. “There’s still a lot of interference in the Great Forest. I have another place I’ve been eyeing – an unclaimed forest inside the Sorcerous Kingdom’s borders that should be mostly safe for Gold-ranked Adventurers. There’s someone nearby that should be able to help out with parts of the planning that the Adventurers wouldn’t normally think of as well.”

For all of his outward shyness, Mare actually interacted with quite a few of the citizens: mostly the Adventurers under his management and the landowners in the rural regions that he performed soil management and weather control for. He tended to be received well wherever he went – unless he was dumping vermin on hapless Adventurers in training. Shalltear conjured a map of the Sorcerous Kingdom in her head, and she immediately recognized the location he was referring to and who he had in mind.

“Someone…you don’t mean…”

“Un,” Mare nodded in response to Shalltear’s unfinished sentence. “It’ll be around the summer harvest, so she’ll be nearby overseeing things anyways. Y-you don’t mind if I borrow her, right?”

“Not at all,” she replied. “Just keep in mind that she has her own duties to attend to. Knowing her, though, she will make time for you.”

“Thanks!”

The Guardian Overseer’s gaze went from Shalltear to Mare; then to Pandora’s Actor for some reason. She seemed about to say something before speaking in tones that, for a moment, did not match her placid expression.

“How much time will you be allocating to this exercise,” Albedo asked, “and where will the…real exercise begin?”

“Two weeks should be enough,” Mare replied. “After that, we’ll take a few days to finalize things before we set off from somewhere along the northern border.”

“The northern border?” Albedo tilted her head curiously, “Why not start from one of the Dwarf cities?”

“I wanted to make sure that everything is working as expected by going through the Great Forest of Tob – Nee-chan already has it all mapped out, so we can double-check the expedition’s work as they make their way to the mountains. As for where to start…”

“I suggest the Great Lake.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Shalltear, who had put forward the suggestion more forcefully than she had intended. She cleared her throat before conveying her thoughts in a more reasonable tone.

“The information is still coming in,” she said, “but this is something that I had intended on proposing anyway, given what I’ve put together, arinsu. As a part of my duties in establishing the aerial transportation network, I’ve had to do quite a bit of research on the region’s logistics as a whole. One of the things that stood out to me the most was that, after commerce begins overland with the Dwarves in earnest, the main route for trade is actually east into the Empire, then north along the western Imperial Highway until it reaches the old trade link with the Dwarves which leads to Feoh Jura, which in turn runs to Feoh Berkana, the ruins of Feoh Teiwaz, and then back down the mountains to Re-Estize, arinsu.

“The reason why trade takes such a roundabout route is simple: there are no suitable roads leading in a direct line from E-Rantel to Feoh Berkana, arinsu. What currently exists are winding trails through the mountain valleys that are both lengthy and unsuitable for use by cargo vehicles, arinsu. I propose that we remedy this by constructing a new royal highway that connects E-Rantel to the Great Lake. The highway would then follow the most expedient path to Feoh Raizo; going underground to connect with the subterranean route between Feoh Raizo and Feoh Berkana, as well as the one between Feoh Raizo and Feoh Jura. With this new highway built to our standards, the Soul Eaters will be able to travel at better speeds than what their wagons can handle on the Imperial Highway.”

“Are you really okay?” Albedo said worriedly, “You haven’t been binging on any strange, status-altering consumables?”

The Guardian Overseer went over to the Throne of Kings, and an administration screen popped up before her fingertips.

“How rude!” Shalltear shouted, “I’ve been studying very hard for this proposal, and Undead don’t benefit from food buffs anyways.”

Shalltear sulked as the other NPCs present digested her words.

“This…royal highway,” Cocytus said, “would bring prosperity to the Great Lake. If truly possible, I would lend my full support to this project.”

“I see no apparent downsides to Shalltear’s proposal,” Pandora’s Actor chimed in. “Ainz-sama has impressed his goodwill upon the Dwarves already through his gracious assistance with their migration. Connecting our two realms with this new transport link will serve to cement the relationship that has been forged. The financial boon is clear as well: trade will flow faster and under our full control. Merchants will not have to pay a series of Imperial tolls for using their highways, reducing the cost of goods for our industries. The benefits are well in our favour.”

“A harmonious relationship with the peoples here is Ainz-sama’s Will for the Sorcerous Kingdom,” Sebas said, and both Pestonya and Yuri nodded in agreement. “This will make great strides to ensuring such beneficial relationships are promoted, and may be used as an example to showcase to prospective allies in the future.”

“I-if Ainz-sama can see how far the Adventurer Guild has come,” Mare added, “then I’m all in.”

“This meeting has dragged on for waaaay too long,” Aura yawned. “What did we come here for again?”

Ah–

They realized just how far they had digressed, and Albedo cleared her throat.

“I don’t see any problems with the Adventurer Guild exercises, but the proposal for a new royal highway is a more weighty matter and should be cross-examined at length. As for why everyone was originally called here…no one has any information as to where these Frost Giant rumours are coming from?”

“Several have approached Momon on the matter,” Pandora’s Actor said and looked to Narberal, who also nodded slightly, “and Nabe as well. Dwarf merchants have been arriving for some time now, so I considered them the most likely source of this information as a whole. I don’t consider such rumours overtly belligerent, but it is possible that they are indirectly attempting to improve road security. The two races do not overlap in their spheres of influence otherwise.”

“At least an understandable motive exists if this is the case,” Albedo said. “Has anyone else heard anything about this?”

A long silence hung over the throne room as no one else could come up with anything else. Albedo let out a long breath.

“Very well, then. Everyone is to maintain vigilance in regards to this matter. Pandora’s Actor: use Momon’s influence to smooth out any unrest this might cause.”

“Of course…” Pandora’s Actor replied, “How should we respond if we encounter anyone actively spreading these rumours?”

“Forcefully suppressing widespread gossip will simply lend credence to it,” Albedo said. “If you discover anyone maliciously doing so, however, mark them to be collected by the authorities. We will find out just why they are doing this, and there will be a world of pain awaiting anyone who dares to disturb the order of Ainz-sama’s realm.”