Chapter 62: Chapter 62

In return for taking control of all administration in Palles, Cheryn lived buried under an overwhelming pile of documents every single day.

Entering the office (originally a lounge room that had been renovated) Shan grimaced at the room filled with the smell of dust and parchment.

“At least open a window. You were the one who said it’s good to let in fresh air periodically.”

“If I do that, all the papers will scatter, so I can’t. Now let’s see, the tax collection details for Kodam Village are…”

Cheryn, who had been rummaging through documents with hollow eyes, soon let out a strange groan and collapsed onto her desk.

“Even if you beat me to death, I can’t do any more. I need to get some rest.”

“Why don’t you delegate some of it to other people?”

“There’s no one trustworthy. Because my maternal uncle coddled them all this time, every single one of them was lining their own pockets. Even after turning a blind eye to the lighter offenders, it’s still like this. Honestly, if Callion hadn’t been here, I might have really died from overwork.”

After settling in the Palles fiefdom in earnest, Roden’s father Callion, along with the family butler Tata, began his second life as a bureaucrat under Cheryn.

As someone who had originally served as the head of the capital’s merchant guild, he was adept at reading ledgers and documents, so Cheryn evaluated him as quite an outstanding talent.

In truth, the person she really wanted to bring over was Roden, but he was busy assisting Shan and training the Altoan mercenary unit while coordinating the Brotherhood internally.

Cheryn, who had been grumbling softly, pressed her fingers firmly against her eyelids before asking Shan.

“So, what brings you here? It doesn’t seem like you just came because you wanted to see my face.”

“Well…”

When Shan explained the symptoms he had been experiencing lately, Cheryn spoke with a somewhat flustered expression.

“Shan, how old are you right now?”

“I think I must be turning around fourteen or fifteen soon?”

“Then you’re just going through your voice change and growth pains, aren’t you? It’s a bit later than others, but such cases do happen.”

Cheryn explained to the uncomprehending Shan that what he was currently experiencing was a natural part of growing into a man.

At the explanation that body hair, including a beard, would grow from now on, his muscles would develop, and his voice would deepen, Shan looked down at his body with a fascinated face.

“So that’s what it was…”

For Shan, who had inwardly admired the sturdy physiques of Roden and other adult men, this was welcome news.

Of course, he possessed formidable combat capabilities even now, but if his limbs lengthened and muscle attached, it would be an even greater help.

“By the way, didn’t you ask Roden about this kind of thing?”

“I thought it might be a change caused by being an Altoan. Roden wouldn’t know about something like that, after all.”

The reason Shan had failed to easily recognize the natural changes every man undergoes was largely due to his peculiar childhood.

In Willow Village, he had been unable to mingle with peers or older boys, and after leaving the village, he had interacted only with adults and had no occasion to meet adolescent boys his age.

Conversely, Roden and others also had not thought that Shan would be unaware of even this, so they had never bothered to mention it.

“I see.”

Cheryn realized anew that this boy’s background had not been ordinary, her expression softening with pity.

At this, Shan asked with a puzzled look.

“Why are you looking at me like that all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s nothing… Well then, shall we properly examine your body while we’re at it? Conveniently, the relevant equipment was prepared to some extent a little while ago. I kept forgetting to mention it because I was busy with work, so this worked out well.”

It had already been several months since they had decided to check for changes in his body after hunting the ogre.

Until now, it had been postponed because everyone was busy and the diagnostic tools were insufficient, but since an occasion had presented itself, it seemed like a good time to find out.

*

Leaving the office, the two headed to Cheryn’s workshop located at the end of the hallway.

This place too was quite cramped, having been renovated from what was originally a storage room for miscellaneous items.

“Don’t step on what’s on the floor.”

After warning him, Cheryn looked around and grumbled under her breath.

Her complaints were about how poor the facilities still were compared to the workshop she had originally set up in the royal palace.

In truth, even this had been barely accomplished thanks to the assistance of mages from the Magic Society.

Had they not duplicated the various tools brought by the mages as specimens, most of the necessary equipment would still not have been set up.

As Shan adeptly removed his upper garment and sat in the examination chair, Cheryn let out a soft sigh.

“It would have been even better if Professor Maya had helped. Among the mages currently in Palles, none can match even half of her knowledge in life sciences. Where on earth did everyone go? Or rather, are they even still alive…”

During the period when the civil war among the princes intensified, a significant number of mages who escaped from the capital were still unaccounted for.

This was the case even though Cheryn, who held absolute influence in the Magic Society, had issued a direct summons.

A large portion of them were likely in a state where they could not come to Palles even if they wanted to.

The combat capability of modern mages was truly miserable, to the point that even Cheryn would collapse from exhaustion after dealing with a few ordinary monsters without special preparation.

In fact, among the mages who had arrived so far, several had hired mercenaries to travel to the Palles region, only to be stripped of everything they owned and barely arrive with their lives intact.

There were likely many who had simply become a meal for monsters in the wilderness.

Considering how great the monumental tower of knowledge they built was, this could be called the greatest loss caused by the civil war.

“She must be safe. Perhaps she’s being held captive somewhere.”

“I hope so.”

In truth, Cheryn worried about Professor Maya, but the person she was particularly concerned about was the head of the Magic Society.

Though he possessed magical skill matching her own, he was extremely advanced in age, making it highly probable that he could not endure a long journey.

He was one of the people whose whereabouts they definitely had to investigate once they had the capacity to expand outward in the future.

Even while chatting about various matters, Cheryn’s hands and eyes moved without rest, collecting necessary samples from Shan’s body or directly inspecting him.

Inspecting Shan’s joints through an object resembling a translucent amethyst disc, she nodded.

“Yes, it’s certain. It looks like you’ll grow quite tall. In fact, you’ve already grown three centimeters since we measured you before.”

“Really?”

“It won’t be long until the days of me looking down on you come to an end, huh? That’s a bit disappointing…”

After speaking jokingly, mentioning how cute he had looked when disguised as a girl before, Cheryn’s expression turned serious.

“And as expected, some of the ogre’s physical traits have settled into your body.”

“I thought that might be the case.”

Unlike that of the cockatrice, which had felt almost non-existent, the effect of being drenched in ogre blood was clearly tangible to his body.

Of course, it was not as if power literally like an ogre’s surged forth, but if calculated, his physical strength and stamina (which had been close to his original limits) seemed to have grown stronger by about ten percent.

“Specifically, it enhances physical strength and stamina, and perhaps because it overlaps with your growth period, it seems to be assisting your physical growth as well.”

Cheryn glanced at Shan’s body repeatedly while continuing to write something down with a quill.

“You said the place where you fought the pack lord wasn’t the Demonic Realm, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then environmental conditions are ruled out. The condition of being drenched in blood is the same… I think I’m starting to understand the criteria for a monster’s spirit to settle into a human to some extent.”

“What is it?”

“First of all, the core is Fighting Spirit.”

At the unexpected words, a puzzled expression appeared on Shan’s face.

Why was Fighting Spirit suddenly coming up here?

“You know the concept that Fighting Spirit is the soul solidified within the flesh, right? It seems that Fighting Spirit beyond a certain strength acts like a container capable of holding another creature’s spirit. Before, the cockatrice’s spirit was too faint, making it difficult to observe.”

“Ah, so that’s why…”

“The monster must possess power beyond a certain level even among large monsters, the combat must involve a small number of people, blood (which acts as the medium) must cover the body, and the hunter must possess powerful Fighting Spirit. It’s difficult for a hunt satisfying all these conditions to occur often. There was a reason it was rarely observed historically.”

“Then Sir Lug might qualify as well. He had quite strong Fighting Spirit too, even if not as much as me. Though… I don’t clearly remember whether he got drenched in blood.”

There were several ways to verify how well a knight’s Fighting Spirit had been refined.

The representative methods were checking resistance to various magic affecting body and mind, and continuously using Fighting Spirit under the Blessing of Vitality to consume and recover physical strength.

A knight with weak Fighting Spirit would reach a situation where their Fighting Spirit ran out even if they had enough physical stamina, preventing them from exerting power, but a strong knight could use Fighting Spirit even after repeating this multiple times.

Among them, Shan had never shown the bottom of his reserves when engaging in such wagers with other knights.

“If we examine his body, we might also learn the difference between an Altoan and a regular person. But I suppose that’s difficult right now?”

“Yes. I heard he’s fighting under Prince Elvin.”

This was a fact he had learned after sending a letter to Count of Shedil and receiving a reply not long ago.

It was said that after recovering, Lug had heard the news and rushed to Prince Elvin’s camp in the south.

No matter how poorly he had been treated, he was still the lord to whom Lug had sworn loyalty.

“Still, he said he wouldn’t forget the grace shown by you and me, Princess, so I’ll ask for an examination when there’s an opportunity later. It would be fine to tell him to come over to our side completely once his contract period ends, too.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Even while saying so, Cheryn did not seem to hold particularly high expectations.

“For now, since the ogre’s spirit accelerating your growth could cause issues, keep coming regularly for examinations. Your skin might tear from growing rapidly, so apply this ointment to your body consistently every day…”

*

Cheryn’s diagnosis was indeed exceedingly accurate, and not long after the symptoms began in earnest, Shan’s body literally began to grow explosively.

Even he, who usually adapted naturally whenever his body grew slightly thanks to his peculiar athletic reflexes, felt a sense of unfamiliarity.

Naturally, the people around him did not miss these changes either.

In fact, he was changing so rapidly that no one short of a blind person could fail to notice.

“Hey, you… didn’t you grow taller again already?”

Roden clicked his tongue incredulously as he compared his height with Shan’s.

It was because he realized that the height difference between the two, which had originally been about thirty centimeters, had shrunk to around twenty centimeters before he knew it.

“Because of that, my joints throb every night when I sleep lately. There’s nothing to do but bear it.”

As foretold earlier, the changes did not stop at simply growing taller.

First, hair grew on his chin, the bridge of his nose, and around his genitals, while his voice (which had been squeaking) stabilized and deepened.

Thinking that he would have to live putting a blade to his neck and face for the rest of his life gave him a strange feeling.

Furthermore, his entire skeleton thickened, his shoulders broadened, and his muscle mass naturally increased, making his body broader and thicker.

Beyond merely keeping his body from growing rusty, Shan began full-fledged training once again.

“Haa, hah, hoo… Priest, please.”

“Yes, Brother.”

As Shan set down a massive boulder and made his request with difficulty, the mercenary unit’s military priest cast a miracle of healing.

Closing his eyes and concentrating his mind, he could feel his muscles and joints damaged by excessive training recovering.

“Alright, one more time…”

Although not quite as extreme as when he received Sir Darkal’s guidance to master Fighting Spirit in the past, the intensity of Shan’s training was desperate beyond imagination.

When this exercise was combined with his explosively increased meal intake, muscles filled out his body, which had thinned during the rapid growth.

While going through this period of growth akin to evolution, Shan received an unexpected visitor.

Baron Yurk Zhul of Lugen, the Count’s brother-in-law whom Shan had smashed months ago, came to find him.

“It has been a while, Sir Shan.”

The man greeting him in a gloomy voice was pale with sunken cheeks, looking as if he had suffered a severe illness.

From his bowed head and dejected demeanor, it was difficult to find even a trace of the near-arrogant confidence seen in the past.

“Yes, glad to see you.”

“…You have grown a lot since I last saw you.”

Even though barely two or three months had passed, the boy who had looked similar in age to his nephew had grown astonishingly taller.

Although the youthful air had not completely vanished, his tall stature and deepened voice gave off a strong impression that he was transitioning from a boy into a man.

After scanning him briefly, Yurk met Shan’s green eyes and lowered his gaze.

Merely facing him made the terrible pain he had felt that day seem to come alive.

“I came for no other reason than to apologize for my previous rudeness.”

Come to think of it, was not the condition of the duel that the loser formally apologize to the winner?

Shan had simply not gone to demand it because the baron before him was in seclusion, but it was a right he naturally deserved.

As if reading Shan’s thoughts, Yurk added more words.

“Not merely because it was a condition of the duel, but because I truly know now that my words back then were wrong. Sir Shan is someone who has no reason to put on such bluster.”

“Yes, well. I’m glad you think so. Thinking back on it now, I feel like I was a bit harsh too.”

Shan accepted the man’s apology somewhat tepidly.

Looking back, rubbing his face into the urine he had passed was indeed excessive.

Rather than instilling fear (which was the original intent) it was closer to an act of inflicting unnecessary humiliation.

If he could return to that moment, he would not have gone at least that far.

After all, even without doing that much, it would have been enough to prove Shan’s power and allow Cheryn to take initiative over Palles.

As the atmosphere relaxed moderately with apologies exchanged, Yurk hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“However, there is just one thing I would like to ask. Is it true… that I am nothing but a worthless bug? Someone who acts proud only on this narrow island, but becomes a nobody once going outside?”

“It’s not to that extent… If a swordsmanship tournament were held in the capital, wouldn’t you be able to reach around the quarter-finals?”

Shan honestly expressed the impression he had felt.

Naturally incomparable to a royal knight like Kamad, much weaker than Lug, and roughly on par with Sir Gowell.

That was Shan’s impression of the baron in front of him.

Considering the swordsmanship skill of the knights he had interacted with after the jousting tournament, it could be said to be fairly high-ranking.

At the very least, it meant he was at a level where he could boast of being the strongest knight in this Palles region.

Hearing Shan’s words, Yurk paused his breath for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.

“I see, around that much…”

He confessed that he had actually suspected that all the martial skills he had built up over time were a mere illusion, and that everyone had simply humored him all along because of his status.

With his pride torn to shreds, even his power (the final proof of his superiority) was doubted, so he had found it impossible to step outside.

“If Blois hadn’t helped, I probably would have continued like that.”

The one who had visited him and urged him to step forward was none other than Blois, the Count’s son and Yurk’s nephew.

He said that young boy had visited several times, confidently apologizing for his mistakes and proposing reconciliation, which moved him.

‘So that was it…’

After the duel, his relationship with Blois had also become awkward and they hadn’t interacted, so he hadn’t known Blois was visiting his maternal uncle all along to do that.

“Anyway, as long as that wasn’t the case, it’s fine. If I am someone of at least that caliber outside as well…”

Yurk, who had been muttering blankly, bowed his head a moment later, excused himself, and walked outside.

Not long after, Shan heard news that Yurk had begun public activities again as Baron of Lugen.

Upon hearing the story after calling Shan to ask what had happened, Cheryn spoke with a subtle expression.

“How bizarre. You only talked about that kind of thing?”

“Yes.”

“Can a person truly reflect and repent…”

She said that ever since the duel, she had kept spiders attached to the mansion where he stayed.

Because she didn’t know when he might harbor a grudge and attempt something strange.

Yet after remaining in seclusion all that time, he had apologized to Shan, resumed public activities, and even disbanded his own faction that had gathered to plot retaliation.

“I’ll have to deal with those guys sooner or later. By coming up with a suitable excuse.”

As always, she was a princess making terrifying statements with a calm face.

In any case, it was not bad that a baron of the Palles region and a capable knight had resumed activity.

Since they were in a situation where even a single knight force was desperately needed for patrolling across the river and nurturing troops.

Of course, Cheryn said with sharply gleaming eyes that she would maintain surveillance for quite a long period.

*

While Shan grew physically and reconciled with Yurk albeit awkwardly, making growth in various aspects, many things changed in the Palles fiefdom as well.

First of all, the biggest change was the emergence of light that drove away the darkness of the night.

After ordering strict division of labor among the mages of the rebuilt Magic Society, Cheryn completed the process of splitting Mana Stones while keeping the secret of the core technology intact.

The Mana Stones of mediocre large monsters such as trolls, werewolves, and kelpies were split into hundreds and thousands of pieces, becoming materials for magic devices that emitted light.

“Wow…”

“It really just emits light.”

Originally, magic devices that produced light had short usage times and became useless ornaments after a few uses, but adding a tiny Mana Stone turned them into magic devices that could be used semi-permanently.

In fact, the reason Cheryn tried to make this first was for her own use.

Unlike the royal palace, which originally had many light-emitting magic devices, in Palles she had to light an oil lamp to work or read books, which hurt her eyes from the gloom and was annoying to manage.

Of course, even aside from that, there were an enormous number of positive effects at the fiefdom level.

First, as certain areas became bright even at night, nighttime crime significantly decreased, and overall productivity increased as activities became possible after sunset.

Eliminating potential fire hazards and the need to consume oil or candles was a bonus.

Shan and Roden also received a few lamp magic devices and installed them in the mercenary unit’s residential district.

Watching bright light stream out even in the middle of the night, Shan muttered softly.

“If things like this are embedded all over Hasra in the future, I wouldn’t even dream of sneaking around like in the past.”

“Well, isn’t it better not to have to do such things anyway?”

“Not necessarily. Being in the dark feels strangely good. Because I can see the opponent, but they can’t see me.”

That was a privilege that Roden could never understand, something only a few Altoans with exceptional night vision, including Shan, could feel.

Besides this, Cheryn used magic device manufacturing to produce various items needed for daily life first, instead of immediately churning out weapons and armor.

She said she planned to make armaments after gaining proficiency by making other items first.

A storage room with cold air flowing inside to help preserve food for a long time, a water supply auxiliary device that pumped water from below to above, a heating device that warmed beds or rooms without a stove…

The sight of magic devices being created one by one (devices that originally only a wealthy few among the nobility could enjoy through Altoan relics) was truly like a miracle.

Watching this, Shan was able to feel firsthand what the age of magic Cheryn dreamed of was like.

A world where everyone could enjoy the power of magic.

Midst marveling at how it was truly a miracle-like thing, Cheryn summoned Shan and Roden.

Resting her elbows on the desk with a serious expression, she muttered lamentation-like words.

“We don’t have any Mana Stones left in the fiefdom anymore.”