Chapter 51: Chapter 51

After the battle ended, the subjugation force, having finished tending to the casualties and gathering the monster byproducts, headed straight back to Shedil City.

Covered in wounds and blood, the army looked like nothing less than defeated remnants.

However, the pride beaming on the faces of the subjugation force’s members, along with the massive head resting on a wagon in the middle of the column, made it clear that they were victors, not losers.

On the way back, while wiping his blood-stained face with a wet cloth, Shan received a report from Roden that two of the thirty Altoan mercenaries recruited for this mission had died.

“They were unfortunate. One had his throat cleanly slit by a harpy’s talons, and the other was struck on the head by a boulder thrown by a troll.”

With ordinary injuries, they could have pulled back inside the defensive formation to be treated by a priest, but a human attacked by monsters was likely to die instantly unless wearing exceptionally good gear.

Shan etched into his memory the names of the two Altoan mercenaries who ended up buried deep inside the valley where the battle took place.

After all, they were the first casualties among those who had fought under his command.

“Roden.”

“Yes?”

“If those people have families, I’d like you to take care of them to some extent. At least so they don’t go hungry right away.”

Roden did not bring up the fact to Shan that no knight ever took responsibility for the families of mercenaries.

Instead, he merely offered a pleased smile and nodded.

“They will be pleased as well.”

“I just hope it makes them a little less sad.”

Naturally, this conversation between the two reached the ears of the trailing Altoan mercenaries in its entirety.

Feeling the overwhelming gazes fixed on the back of his head, Shan quietly slipped away toward the hastily improvised wagons crafted from nearby felled trees.

On one of them lay a tall knight resting atop a cart that was half again as large as the others to accommodate his height of well over two meters.

“How is his condition?”

“They say he has improved greatly. He hasn’t regained consciousness yet, but they said if he rests steadily, he’ll recover soon…”

At Shan’s question, the squire tending to Lug beside the wagon answered with tearful eyes.

“Thank you so much, Sir Shan! I will be sure to tell Sir Lug when he wakes up! I don’t even know how we can ever repay this grace.”

Word had already spread widely throughout the subjugation force that Shan had used a special secret elixir to save Lug.

Since a man who wouldn’t have been surprising to die in just a few minutes suddenly survived, it was bound to become the talk of the camp.

Although a few displayed a cynical attitude claiming he had done something foolish, the majority highly praised his generosity in using his own treasure to save a comrade’s life.

After all, knights were inherently weak to concepts like faith, loyalty, and friendship.

However, with so many injured around, explaining to people who begged him to sell them the medicine that he had none left was an ordeal in itself.

After marching southwest like that for several hours, it was only after darkness fell that the walls of Shedil City finally came into view.

A few standing at the front shouted loudly toward the people gathered atop the city walls.

“We killed the ogre!”

“The hunt was a success!”

As the news spread, cheers erupted from within the city a moment later.

Stepping inside through the opened gates, the subjugation force received everyone’s praise as victorious heroes.

“Hahaha, I knew it! I knew it! You actually succeeded!”

Count of Shedil, who had come out to greet them personally, burst into a hearty laugh and patted the shoulders of Shan, the other knights, and the few surviving nobles.

Perhaps because the heavy anxiety resting on his shoulders had been lifted, he looked ten years younger in an instant.

Afterward, the lords and knights of the subjugation force thoroughly washed themselves before gathering in the meeting room of the Count’s castle.

Though everyone looked exhausted enough to collapse and lie down right then and there, work still had to be done.

Namely, the proceeding to evaluate contributions in battle and determine rewards.

In truth, this was arguably the greatest hurdle of any monster hunt.

For no one in the world could standardize exactly how significantly someone had contributed to a battle.

At least, based on various rules passed down since ancient times, there was a system to tally scores to some extent using criteria such as the number and strength of hunted monsters, and in the case of large monsters, the degree of wounds inflicted.

As a tentative result emerged after much discussion, a baron who had survived from the vanguard unit huffed and shouted.

“I cannot accept this! My house fought at the very front and lost more than half of our troops! We cannot leave without receiving blood money at the very least!”

Hearing this, a viscount who had fought hard on the right wing replied with an indifferent expression.

“All the vanguard unit did was jump straight into the trap area and become ogre food. Had the left wing, including Sir Shan over there, not come to support you, you would undoubtedly have been wiped out. You have no shame to speak of, after having your life saved.”

“Wh-Why, how dare you!”

The baron huffed with an indignant expression, but unfortunately for him, not many sympathized with his plight.

Naturally, it was because most of the Old Faith believers lords and knights from the western region like him had been flattened by the ogre’s fists.

Having seized the vanguard position by relying on superior numbers, their speaking power was bound to weaken once their numbers dwindled.

After shutting down the remnants of the vanguard unit like that, it was time to decide on the disposal of the battle’s greatest reward (the ogre’s head) along with various other byproducts.

“Looking at it now, the ogre really is a creature with virtually nothing to waste.”

“Indeed, my lord…”

The lords and knights chattered as they looked over the list of byproducts harvested from the creature.

Starting from the neck, many parts of an ogre (including its brain fluid, fangs, bones, and internal organs) served as powerful magical ingredients.

Moreover, as it was a rare specimen that appeared only once every few decades, supply fell far short of demand, making its price astronomically high even compared to its actual efficacy.

First off, the head and mana stone, which held the greatest value, naturally went to Shan, who had fought most fiercely against the beast and delivered the fatal blow.

Since the head was the ultimate proof of a hunt’s honor, many coveted it, but because the difference in contribution was so overwhelming, there was nothing they could do.

“Hmm…”

“Well, I suppose that makes sense.”

The lords and knights nodded, though regretful.

For they knew that trying to butt in by asserting their own contributions here would make them look unsightly no matter what.

The problem was the very next byproduct.

Staring earnestly at the two large, round lumps, everyone exchanged tentative glanced.

“Ahem, next up are the ogre’s… testicles…”

An ogre’s testicles were famous as an extremely potent aphrodisiac.

To the extent that stories of a seventy-year-old man siring three children were openly bandied about.

In fact, a few among them were far more interested in this than in the head or the mana stone.

Roden quietly spoke to Shan, who was standing still beside him.

“What shall we do?”

“Huh? Those? I’m good.”

When Shan, who did not yet even understand why such stamina was needed, brushed it off like that, Roden shouted with confidence.

“I see. House Barendil waives its right to bid on the testicles!”

There was no need to tactlessly bring up the fact that they intended to gain an advantage in bidding for other items in return.

For such things were implicitly understood and handled through mutual discretion without being stated aloud.

“Ohhh!”

With their threatening rival gone, the older men began passionately competing to claim the item.

After a long bout of shouting, an elderly lord with a bleached-white beard and a middle-aged knight each claimed one testicle.

Around that time, Shan felt his eyes gradually growing heavy.

Having squeezed out his Fighting Spirit repeatedly, his body (battered and wounded in various places) pleaded for sleep to heal.

Seeing him nod off, Roden whispered softly.

“Shall I take care of the rest on my own?”

“Is that fine?”

“As Sir Shan’s squire, I ought to handle things like this by myself.”

“Then I’ll rest a bit…”

Rising from his seat, Shan yawned, offered greetings to a few nearby knights, and departed the room.

Fortunately, because the Count had agreed to grant him a room in the castle, there was no need to go down to an inn below the castle walls.

*

Collapsing onto the bed without even changing his clothes, Shan fell into a sleep so deep it was truly dreamless.

It was a heavy, sink-like sleep, as if his entire body were sinking into mud.

Waking up after sleeping for a duration that felt as brief as an instant yet as long as eternity, Shan stretched out while relishing a refreshing feeling.

Morning had come before he knew it, sunlight streaming through the window.

“Mmm…”

Just before falling asleep, Shan’s physical condition had been far from good.

The flank where he was struck by the troll’s boulder was bruised black, his ankle ligament had stretched and his knee was scraped raw while falling to the ground, and his ribs (squeezed in the ogre’s grip) were cracked.

Yet for some reason, he could not feel the slightest aftereffect of those injuries now.

Even considering that he had received healing miracles from a priest while sleeping, it was an excessively fast recovery speed.

“Oh, you awake?”

Seeing Shan get up, Roden, who was sitting at the desk across from him writing something, greeted him brightly.

“You finally woke up. If you didn’t wake up today either, I was about to grab the priests by the collar and demand they wake you.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been asleep for nearly four days. Aren’t you thirsty?”

“That long?”

Startled by the unexpected fact, Shan felt his throat parched bone-dry, just as Roden had said.

Having slept for so long indeed, hunger and thirst rushed over him with scary intensity.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m hungry and thirsty.”

“I’ll have them bring some food and drink. Other than that, how are your injuries?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt better in my life.”

“That’s a relief. I was on edge thinking something might be wrong with you.”

“Though the priests said you were fine,” Roden added.

As he called out to the outside, before long, easily digestible food like porridge, cheese, and water arrived.

However, for some reason, the maid who brought the food peeked at Shan with wide, rounded eyes.

When their eyes met, she gasped in shock and cried out.

“P-Pardon me!”

No matter how vast the status difference between a knight and a servant was, a servant of a Count wouldn’t normally act so overly subservient.

Puzzled for just a moment, Shan first devoured the food brought out frantically to soothe the overwhelming hunger and thirst.

Mid-meal, Shan unexpectedly realized that the porridge and cheese tasted quite good.

The food eaten up until the morning before the subjugation had been terrible due to being heavily stale, but this seemed to be made with fairly fresh ingredients.

“It’s delicious.”

“Count of Palles’s supply wagons arrived just yesterday. Thanks to that, we were saved from the worry of starving to death after managing to hunt down an ogre.”

Roden grumbled that it was fortunate they had hunted the ogre, for the mood had been truly grim due to the lack of food.

“Count of Palles… the Princess’s maternal uncle?”

“Yeah. Though he didn’t bring them in person.”

Come to think of it, the princess had never brought up her maternal uncle either.

Wondering what kind of person he was, Shan shoved all the remaining food into his mouth.

Burp. After letting out a light belch, he brought up the topic he was curious about.

“How is Sir Lug doing?”

“He woke up. Still, they said he’ll probably need to recuperate for a few weeks. Well, if it weren’t for the Princess’s secret elixir, he would have died, so he’ll just have to put up with that much.”

“I see…”

“Aren’t you going to ask how the reward distribution went?”

“I’m sure Roden handled it well on his own.”

At words that were beyond irresponsible and bordered on brazen, Roden formed an incredulous expression before letting out a dry chuckle.

“I feel like telling you no, but yeah. It turned out pretty decent.”

“I trusted you.”

“You sure have a smooth tongue. Here, check this first.”

Roden handed over the sheet of paper he was holding to Shan.

Reading down the page, Shan let out an exclamation of awe.

Starting with the ogre’s head and mana stone, tendons and portions of bone, down to troll bones and banshee essences, the listed rewards lined up so long it was hard to even read through them all.

“There’s this much?”

“The battle on the left wing was virtually led and resolved by you, and you were the top contributor in the ogre hunt as well. Though since we didn’t fight entirely alone, we had to concede a few items.”

Explanations followed that they took fewer of the relatively cheaper materials, considering price drops caused by oversupply.

“Ah, and it’s not written there, but the ogre’s heart is also ours. Sir Lug received it as a secondary decorated warrior, but he decided to give it to us. They said even though it has a large hole in it, it’s still usable.”

“Huh? Why?”

“As payment for his life, of course. He survived thanks to the medicine you gave him.”

“Well, I only gave it to him because he was a comrade who fought alongside me.”

When Shan smiled bashfully, Roden shook his head.

“Well, whether we use the ogre heart to brew medicine or whatever, we can think about that slowly… So, shall we go visit him? It’s right in the adjacent building.”

Following Roden’s suggestion, Shan stood up, changed his clothes, and stepped out of the room.

Before long, he came to realize that everyone in the Count’s castle looked up to him.

“Oh, is that him?”

“Slayer of the Cockatrice, and now slayer of the Ogre… Isn’t he not even fifteen yet?”

“It feels like seeing a real figure out of legend or myth with my own eyes.”

“I heard he ripped out the ogre’s heart with his bare hands.”

Now four days after the ogre subjugation, the transcendent martial prowess Shan had shown had been exaggerated several-fold, spreading all across Shedil City.

Tales claimed he rode a horse flying through the sky, extending a spear to impale dozens of monsters at once, or severed the ogre’s neck in a single stroke of his sword.

There was a good reason why the maid had overreacted earlier.

Feeling his shoulders square up at the newfound attention, Shan knocked on the door with a proud smile and entered the room where Lug was resting.

“Oh, Sir Shan! You have come!”

Starting from his uniquely rustic horse-like face down to his whole body, Lug was wrapped tightly in bandages.

Though he was recovering thanks to continuous healing miracles, so many of his bones were broken that a quick recovery in a short period was said to be difficult.

“I heard the story. That you used a precious elixir to save me.”

“Because you are a comrade. Besides, Sir Lug risked your life to save me as well, didn’t you?”

Shan still remembered the moment Lug had come limping over on his broken leg to slice off the ogre’s fingers.

Had it not been for that, Shan would have choked to death under the beast’s final struggle.

At Shan’s words, moisture gathered in Lug’s rustic eyes.

Dabbing at his eyes with his long, bandage-wrapped arm, he spoke in a solemn tone.

“I will never forget this grace. I swear by the Goddess, if I ever draw a spear or sword against Sir Shan in the future, I am no human, but the offspring of a beast.”

“There’s no need to go that far. Giving me the ogre’s heart is also a bit too much…”

Shan, knowing that Princess Cheryn (with whom he had friendly relations) was not on very good terms with Prince Elvin, Lug’s master, brought it up because he found the words burdensome, but Lug shook his head fiercely.

In doing so, he irritated his injuries and let out a groan of pain.

“It is not too much at all!”

“Please calm down.”

Thinking that staying longer might do harm as Lug recklessly moved his body in excitement despite his injuries, Shan and Roden told Lug to rest more and left the room.

Looking back at the door, Shan let out a soft groan.

“Mmm.”

“Why?”

“No, it’s just somehow tiring.”

Shan spoke honestly, saying that while Lug wasn’t a bad person, constantly receiving endless looks of admiration or being praised to an exaggerated degree made it quite burdensome to keep him around.

Hearing this, Roden chuckled and lightly patted his shoulder.

“You just need to become someone worthy of such treatment. No, honestly, you’re already more than worthy. You are Sir Shan, who ripped out the ogre’s heart with his bare hands and killed it.”

“What do you mean, ripped out with bare hands?”

“The rumor’s already out, so you’d better give up on explaining.”

Pulling out the sword that had been driven into the heart seemed to have looked that way from a distance.

Then again, what did the method of killing matter anyway?

Afterward, after checking the key monster byproducts stored inside the vault (such as the ogre’s head, mana stone, and heart) and dropping by the stables where Arwin stayed, Shan received an invitation from Count of Shedil.

Evidently, news of his awakening had reached the Count’s ears.

Guided into the office, Shan tried to unbuckle the sword at his waist, Guardian of the East, to entrust it to a servant standing nearby, but the Count waved his hand in refusal.

“Leave it. I was the one who gave it to you, so keep it on. Surely you won’t suddenly swing it and slash me, will you?”

Permitting someone to bear arms in the presence of a noble was a symbol of absolute trust.

Slightly surprised by the unexpected gesture, Shan sat across from him, and Count of Shedil asked with a pleased smile.

“I heard you slept very deeply. How is your body?”

“Thanks to your consideration, I have completely recovered.”

Having heard that the priest assigned by the Count had continuously performed healing miracles over the four days, Shan bowed his head slightly and expressed his gratitude.

In truth, his body right now was more than just completely recovered.

Overflowing with vigor, he felt like running around right this instant to unleash it.

Come to think of it, though it wasn’t particularly intended, he had been drenched in blood while hunting the ogre, so he wondered if it might be related to the phenomenon Cheryn had mentioned before.

It seemed he ought to find an opportunity to get examined once more after returning to the capital.

While Shan was lost in those thoughts, Count of Shedil lightly sipped his tea and brought up a topic.

The contents were trivial things.

Asking whether he had any intention of selling the ogre’s mana stone (he seemed deeply impressed by how they held out using the Cockatrice’s mana stone this time) or inquiring if there were any knight-errants of decent skill in the subjugation force.

Of course, Shan had no intention of selling the mana stone to the Count.

Since he had obtained a top-tier mana stone, he wanted to ask Cheryn to forge a fantastic magic device with it.

Since he already had a sword and spear, would something like armor or a shield be better?

As the Count mumbled small talk to lighten the atmosphere like that, his face suddenly turned serious.

“By any chance, have you heard that those who came for the subjugation force have all returned?”

“Yes. I heard everyone except those heavily injured and unable to move has disbanded.”

Unless it was a long-term contract, money drained away for every day mercenaries were maintained, so for the lords and knights whose business was finished, there was a need to return as soon as possible to terminate the contracts.

Thanks to that, among those belonging to the subjugation force, only a tiny handful including Shan’s party were currently staying in Shedil City.

“You will also be returning to the capital.”

“I will likely leave today or tomorrow.”

The drain on mercenary hire fees applied to Shan as well, so staying here for several weeks while Lug recovered was bound to incur a heavy loss.

He also wanted to craft a useful item using the ogre byproducts as soon as possible, and above all, Cheryn’s remark that the situation in the capital was quite grim weighed on his mind.

At Shan’s answer, the Count hesitated briefly before letting out a low groan and speaking.

“No matter how much I ponder how to beat around the bush, no good idea comes to mind. I shall speak plainly. How about staying here in Shedil for the time being, considering it a period of rest?”

“Pardon?”

“Just in case, I am not bringing up silly talk like making a vassal contract with me. For a personage such as yourself has grown far too large for me to hold now.”

Waving his hand as if telling Shan not to misunderstand, the Count brought up astonishing news.

“It is news that came in just yesterday, but it seems something grave is taking place in Hasra. Though I do not know the exact details, entry and exit through the city gates have reportedly been restricted for several days.”

The Count softly added that it might be better to stay away at least until the situation was understood.