Lakalera City was the capital city of Earl Samuel's territory. Earl Samuel was a local noble with real power, but he hadn't been having a good time recently.
Earl Samuel's territory didn't have any local specialties, and all of its industries were below average. In the eyes of the nobles in the capital city, Lakalera City was a classic example of a poor and remote village. The only thing worth looking forward to was that Lakalera City was the first decent territory near the Lagraz Kingdom. Earl Samuel's territory's border trade was relatively prosperous, and at least 70% of his income came from the taxes collected from the border trade.
Due to the political instability in Lagraz since last winter, the number of Lagraz merchants visiting Lakalera City had plummeted. This year's taxes seemed to be quite a problem, and Earl Samuel's life had become quite difficult.
However, things seemed to be going well recently. Not only did the major merchant Sindy intend to continue the contract, even Lady Carolyn A. Milan, the Resplendent Pearl of the capital city of Heisler, had chosen to vacation here. This was an excellent political opportunity.
This Lady Carolyn was the pampered daughter of a distant relative of the royal family. She had the Milan royal family name. Although she wasn't directly related to her, nor did she have the right to inherit the throne, her father, Duke Harold, was a major figure that even the princes had to give face to. As a princess, she was young, beautiful, and famous for her noble family name. Carolyn had many suitors in the Lagraz Kingdom.
Earl Samuel was delighted that such a person chose to visit his territory. However, he was also nervous, afraid that he would accidentally offend Carolyn. That would be troublesome.
And so, Earl Samuel invited the best chefs and opera troupes in his territory to hold a grand welcoming banquet at his residence. He invited all the nobles and nobles from the nearby counties, as well as the wealthy merchant from the East. In fact, he even received some criticism.
In the eyes of the nobles, perhaps interacting with merchants would be beneficial, but it definitely wouldn't be appropriate to put it on the table. After all, that was only "business for the lower class."
As for me, as a bonus for the wealthy merchant, I happily attended the banquet as well.
Yep, being happy to obtain new information definitely didn't mean that I could eat and drink to my heart's content for free.
Alright, I admit that the Bardi flavored spicy noodle soup was quite to my taste. The new year's apple pie was quite fresh and delicious. Even the skewers of barbecued meat had excellent spices on them. The roasted chicken thighs were even more flavorful. Plus, the pudding was delicious, and the red wine was quite old … I had eaten so much food on the way here that I was about to die. Since I wouldn't have the chance to meet them again in the future, I didn't care what they said.
I was drooling, and I swallowing it in one gulp... I was a country bumpkin. Samuel was right. Since I didn't have the time, I, and food.
Those who originally wanted to come over and chat with me after seeing my archmage robe gave up right away after seeing how starved I was. Even Sindy shook his head and gave up on introducing me to any high-ranking officials or nobles. Since no one was going to disturb me, I was quite happy to enjoy a scrumptious dinner that was hard to come by. I was only forced to stop when the main character of the banquet arrived.
When the princess appeared outside the door, she attracted everyone's attention.
I didn't even need to mention the jewels and jewels. After all, they came from a rich family in the capital city. Their temperament and facial features were all above average. But when everyone politely put down their wine glasses, I could only follow suit in order not to attract too much attention. I could only helplessly put down the pudding cake in my mouth.
"Hey, what a grand entrance. Look at that family crest. Is it really a princess?"
I had already seen many beauties. Not to mention a princess, even princesses weren't worth much. However, the follower behind her shocked me — it was actually a lively lich.
If it was anyone else, they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a skeleton mage, skeleton soldier, and a lich. But for me, a lich's soulfire was as clear as a lamp in the middle of the night.
"This is Lord Rex. He's also an imperial envoy who is touring the world under the emperor's orders. He represents His Majesty Orloss's will. "
Alright, it seems like I have accidentally transmigrated into a fairy tale. A Lich as the Patrolling Minister? Was I crazy, or was Orloss crazy?
However, the status of an envoy representing the emperor's will was incredibly high. Not only that, there was also a noble princess introducing him to me. Plus, I had already heard rumors about this. Even a brat with no eyes would know what to choose, not to mention these local nobles who were always involved in politics.
Endless applause and cheers sounded. Domain Lord Samuel took the lead in expressing his welcome. The other nobles kept flattering him. In fact, there were even a few famous female social beauties who habitually winked at the lich. But when they noticed that the lich seemed to be glaring at them with an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?", they hurriedly lowered their heads to hide their presence.
As for me, when I heard that a lich had actually become an envoy representing the emperor's authority, I was so astonished that I almost choked on my saliva. I hurriedly drank two mouthfuls of hundred-year-old Omto wine to suppress my shock.
Only later did I learn that this was part of the Undead Emperors' plan. In order to completely take over Bardi, the Undead Emperors had planned this over the course of a hundred years. Now, it was time to reap their harvest. In order to solidify their "authority," the Undead Emperors had the major nobles of the capital take high-level undead with them to tour their various territories.
"See, even the major nobles of the capital have admitted that high-level undead are nobles among nobles. What are you all so worried about?" This was probably what the Undead Emperors hoped for as much as possible to reduce the humans' resistance to the undead's higher-ups in order to prevent any accidents from happening during the implementation of their plan.
However, this was obviously limited. With Emperor Orloss suppressing the Undead Emperors, it was still possible for the Undead Emperors to accept some undead nobles. But if the Undead Emperors discovered that the country's higher-ups were already under the undead's rule, it was likely that this country would come to an end. Perhaps it was because of this information that the Holy Church became determined to "eradicate evil."
However, it was likely that the undead only cared about the current peace of mind. As for being exposed later … once the Undead Emperors arrived, so what if they were exposed?
If the appearance of the "main character" was only the first event of the night, then when the princess who had just arrived from the capital whispered into Earl Samuel's ear and pointed at Sindy, I faintly guessed that the God of Misfortune had once again favored me.
"Pope … heretics!" "War!" "Enemy country …" "Capture!" "Get rich!"
My 20 + Legend-ranked Senses made my five senses far sharper than any ordinary person's. The naughty wind sent these words to my ears. In the end, Earl Samuel's expression changed from astonishment to contemplation to delight, which helped me know what I should choose.
"Damn it, this is going to be fun. Perhaps I really should go to the God of Fate's Shrine and pray to him."
But it was already too late.
"Guards, capture those spies!"
It would seem that Earl Samuel had already thought things through and came to a conclusion. Actually, there was no need to hesitate at all. Since the two countries were already at war, it would be impossible for any merchants to come to the Bardi Empire for the next several years. In that case, it would be better to first take all the goods in front of him. This was a tangible benefit for him.
A reason to take all the goods? Why would the two countries be at war with each other? Wouldn't that make it obvious that they were spies? I've already captured all the goods. As for the people, I'll release them as long as they pay the ransom. If they don't, then I'll just keep them.
What if the relationship between the two countries improves? That wouldn't be a problem. Would these foreign merchants really take revenge? At that time, there would naturally be new fat sheep delivering themselves to me. If the foreign merchants were willing to die and the ransom was sufficient, it wouldn't be impossible to continue working with them.
At that moment, Earl Samuel wasn't the only one who understood everything. Sindy wasn't an idiot either. He had long since expected such a scenario. The moment he said the word "spy", he unhesitatingly took out a scroll from his sleeve and tore it open.
It was a random Dimensional Door, a fifth-circle Arcane Spell. Since it was far too sudden and quick, even the lich wasn't able to stop it in time. Sindy was teleported to a random location three kilometers away.
It would seem that this was one of his trump cards for escaping, and he was ready to activate it at any moment.
"Damn it, Uncle Sindy, did you forget something? You can't make your teammates suffer like this. "
Several dozen pairs of eyes were staring at me. The main character had run away, and I, the supporting character, had automatically leveled up.
"Um, would you believe me if I told you that I wasn't with him?"
"Capture that guy!"
…
"Yep, that's what happened."
"That's why you unhesitatingly brought all of your pursuers here? Aren't you just making your teammates suffer? "
The silly cat, who had just hidden in a small forest, roared angrily at me. She was furious at the loss of the souvenir she had just collected.
"Isn't he just a lich? Why don't you just directly kill him? Is there a need to run away like this? "
"… Do you think that if a lich dies just like that, an even more troublesome one will come later? Besides, I'm only at the Gold rank right now. Do you really think that it's possible for me to fight against a bunch of weaklings and a Legend-rank lich by myself? "
"Do you dare to touch your own conscience and say such a thing? You can't even deal with a single lich? "
Liches were at the Legend rank at the very weakest. However, judging from his mana waves and the strength of his soulfire, Lich Rex was only at the peak of the Legend rank. Not only that, he was a fake Legend-rank lich that had been forcibly raised by an external force.
Although intelligent undead would generally be stronger than human job classes of the same power level after reaching the Legend rank, with my understanding of undead magic, it really wouldn't be difficult for me to deal with an ordinary Legend-rank lich.
Not only that, Rex seemed to specialize in ice magic in addition to undead magic. Not only that, he was a master of ice magic. It would be quite easy for me to take care of him. However, I didn't attack him because I had other considerations.
Most of our pursuers were the domain lord's private soldiers, and most of them were Iron-rank rookies. If we really wanted to counterattack, it would be the same no matter who went. However, I only suppressed the mercenaries in my group so that they wouldn't alert the enemy. Unfortunately, although I really wanted to go our separate ways and get along with each other peacefully, the enemy still didn't seem willing to give up.
With the tip-off from the citizens, in this environment where everyone was an enemy, the pursuers quickly caught up to them.
"Catch that mage! Otherwise, the domain lord will tear us apart!"
"Bastard! Is that guy really a mage? How can he run so fast? "
"Don't even mention it. Ah San was sent flying by a single hit from his staff, and he's even embedded in the wall. That guy definitely has ogre blood."
"Hurry up and chase after him. This time, the domain lord is really angry. If we lose him, none of us will have a good time."
Hearing the discussions behind me, the already frustrated Little Red looked at me in astonishment, as if she was asking me what I had done.
"Nothing much. Since we couldn't defeat him, we took a hostage to escape. That domain lord probably felt embarrassed that he lost face in front of the beautiful princess. "
"… I think that the way you took a hostage was wrong. First of all, you should have used a knife, not a chicken drumstick to the hostage's neck. Secondly, when you realized that you took the wrong one, you shouldn't have eaten the drumstick in one bite, held the chicken bone, and pointed it at the enemy's artery while shouting, 'Don't come any closer! If you come any closer, I'll stab you to death with the chicken bone!' "
"A count who was almost stabbed to death by a chicken bone? I think that once this news spreads, he'll really rather be stabbed to death by you. "
Having a magical pet who could read your mind was truly troublesome, especially when she would take every opportunity to ruin your plan. Did you think that I didn't want a knife? Who knew that I would have taken the wrong one?
"Right, not only that, he even complained that she was too noisy, so he … Wahhh!"
I unhesitatingly stuffed the last chicken drumstick I had in my inventory into the silly cat's mouth, and finally quieted down.
"… If I'm not mistaken, perhaps this is an opportunity. Yep, let's go meet up with the uncles first. I still need to pay for my psychological damage. "
"Don't change the topic! We're looking forward to what happens next! Just how did you escape with a chicken drumstick? "
"Don't mention the chicken drumstick!"
"What about Pudding?"
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