Outside of scheduled resupplies, we’d been told by the top brass not to return to the base camp. We decided to drop by anyway, hauling in some fresh food (even if it was monster meat) as a gift.
We were met with praise. Oh, the sweet taste of bribery.
The Brattor company, which our platoon served under, got to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Brattor was the house of the lord who ruled the land where my village was situated.
Unfortunately, the meat we managed to bring back wasn’t anywhere near enough to feed the entire company, so it probably all went to the big shots. At least the bones could be used to make soup for the rest of us. I had no idea how many people were participating in this operation, but I was sure it must’ve been a logistical nightmare to ensure that every soldier was well-fed.
I needed to pay a visit to the man with the unenviable job of managing that mess—Leto. To tell the truth, the entire reason I had planned this meat drop-off was so I could see him.
Oh, but let me just say one thing: This visit was absolutely not for the purposes of indulging in debauchery. For starters, I definitely preferred the fairer sex in my previous life.
Since I’d received gifts and favors from Leto, everyone else mistook us for lovers, but he hadn’t once ordered me to drop my pants or anything.
I couldn’t say why, but being the paramour to a person of power seemed to afford its own social status in this world, regardless of the gender of the people involved. This social hierarchy system had never been present in Golden Dawn.
Maybe it was part of the lore we players had never been told. Or maybe this was actually a parallel world that only strongly resembled the game. But since I wasn’t an interdimensional visitor to another world but someone who’d actually reincarnated into it, I guessed I had to accept that I should do as the Tiuccians did.
“Still, I think I’d rather pass on the anal,” I muttered.
“Did you say something just now, Kariya?”
“Oh, not at all. It was nothing.”
Considering the mystified look on Leto’s face, I didn’t think he’d caught what I had said. I waved it off with a bright grin.
Right now, I was engaging in a secret midnight rendezvous. Leto had just finished thanking me for my platoon’s generous gift of meat. That and he’d asked me not to do anything terribly dangerous, like a worried mother hen would say.
You’re too kind, Leto...
If someone had told me that he was related by blood to our liege lord, someone who was fully content to leave monsters rampaging through the land, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“By the way, thank you for dispatching the detachment of mages the other day,” I said. When I’d requested that mages create a section of wetlands for us, Leto had been the one to arrange it.
Ah, the way he blushed as he smiled.
“Sounds like they were of assistance. I never would have imagined the dry earth could turn into a marsh with all that water. Your idea was truly phenomenal,” Leto remarked.
“Was it really that unexpected?”
“Indeed. It gives me chills to think that the entirety of Croway Plains would simply turn into a marshland if it were flooded.”
“A handful of water mages won’t be able to pull that off with their power alone,” I mused. “If you intend on turning Croway into a marsh, we would need to divert water from the western river into the plains. Doing that wouldn’t grant us many advantages, though.”
Leto looked at me curiously, as if prompting me to explain. “In what situations would it be worth flooding the plains for, then?”
“I suppose it would be helpful in the event we suffered a crushing defeat and needed to buy time to withdraw,” I suggested. “Wetlands would slow their advance. We’d need our allies to divert the river as we retreated, but seeing as Raghion lies to the west of Croway, they’d be in the perfect position to assist.”
The Raghion Empire sat to the west of the current battlefield at Croway. Khrasiel occupied the territory north of the plains, while Tiuccia, our country, held the south.
As it was perfectly situated between all three countries, the Croway Plains served as an excellent natural divider. In the summer, it became a bug-infested wetland, and in the winter, monsters would venture out of the Black Forest to its east. None of the three countries had laid claim to Croway—probably because it’d be entirely too much work to maintain control there.
“You’re certainly knowledgeable, Kariya.”
“Not at all,” I replied. “In fact, I returned to camp tonight because I wanted to ask your opinion about something.” I pulled out the white mushroom I’d collected earlier in the afternoon.
I set it on the table, and Leto peered at it with great interest. He was clearly unfamiliar with it.
“It was growing in the Black Forest,” I explained.
That didn’t seem to ring any bells with him. “What’s so special about this mushroom? Is it edible?”
“While humans can probably eat them, this type of mushroom is actually quite attractive to monsters. We found some growing around the edges of the forest, even though winter’s around the corner.” I paused there, giving Leto time to absorb the information as I chose my next words carefully. “I believe they were planted to lure high-ranking monsters to the tree line. While those monsters usually nest deep in the woods, they aren’t able to resist these mushrooms. The dzepel that you partook of tonight was one such monster—ordinarily, dzepels would never approach the plains.”
Leto didn’t say anything. But his usual gentle smile was gone and had been replaced by a hardened line.
Under the fire of his steely gaze, I offered up my opinion, keeping my tone objectively indifferent. “I believe these mushrooms are a trap planted by the enemy forces. More precisely, a trap planted by an enemy transmigrator. Is it a valid battle tactic to mass pull mobs— Uh, I mean, to lure monsters en masse to attack the enemy? For example, baiting the monsters yourself and running them into an enemy encampment while using a teleportation technique to escape?”
“Ah, so causing monsters to rampage and attack? I’ve never heard of a tactic like that being employed, but I imagine it’d be well within the realm of possibility for a transmigrator to accomplish.”
“If that’s the case, then Khrasiel might be trying to do something like that. We must be careful,” I said.
Leto nodded. “I’ll apprise the higher-ups about the situation. If you happen to find any monsters wandering too close to camp, please continue as before and have your platoon dispose of them forthwith.”
“If we plan on enacting a full-scale operation to exterminate high-ranking monsters, wouldn’t it be better to enlist the help of adventurers?” I asked. “They’re specialists in that regard.”
“While the guild has volunteered their participation in the war, they won’t be dispatching any adventurers to the front lines here,” he told me. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to deal with the situation.”
“Understood.”
In this world that so closely resembled Golden Dawn, the most terrifying enemy to meet on the field was a transmigrator. Inheriting overwhelming power mighty enough to accomplish deicide, they were capable of totally annihilating enemy troops...just like they would monsters.
SSS-tier players could bring a country to ruin with ease.
The only people who could really put up a fight against them would be other transmigrators. Everyone else, meaning your average NPC-tier person, had only one role to fulfill—watching from the sidelines as the clash between titans played out and assisting when needed.
No matter how powerful their weapons or how mighty their skills were, even a transmigrator wouldn’t be able to continue fighting forever without support. Usually, that support would come from the adventurer’s guild with which a transmigrator was affiliated.
Apparently, the adventurer’s guild had originally been founded by transmigrators themselves in the far distant past.
Just as in Golden Dawn, the adventurer’s guild’s main headquarters was situated in the Raghion Empire. Each country had its own offices, of course, but as a basic rule, each of these offices would follow the policies outlined by the country in which they were situated and not necessarily those of Raghion. They were established to help their own regions, which meant they could, on an individual basis, choose to join the war.
Maybe I should have registered at Tiuccia’s guild as a transmigrator. It was a little too late at this point, though. Besides, I’d volunteered for the draft to avoid leaving any bad blood with my home village, but it wasn’t as though I had actually wanted to go to war. I was a craftsman anyway—I wasn’t that strong to begin with.
I sure do wish I could just take it easy and live the slow life, though.
To reveal myself or not to reveal myself? That was the question...
✦ ✦ ✦
Having finished my report on the mushrooms, I was about to leave Leto’s war tent when he called out to me one last time. He remarked on how well the ribbon in my hair complemented my clothing.
Don’t worry, Leto. I make sure to wear your gift every day.
It was a protective charm that warded against unwanted advances on my chastity, after all. I’d take good care of it.
Leto didn’t order me to drop my pants this time either. Maybe he really was just a super nice guy after all.
Thank you, Leto. I’ll do my best to pay you back in my own way.