The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

“The future of the family?”

The hall stirred. Perhaps because it was such a grand agenda, the hall became noisy as soon as the words were spoken. A backlash immediately followed.

“I know that Mr. Allen is a skilled contractor. Thanks to you, I was able to come back alive. But this is different. Deciding the future of the family is our clan’s business. We would be grateful if you helped, but it’s not a matter for an outsider to discuss.”

Darian countered with a polite but clearly displeased tone. He was just the one who spoke up, but the other nobles also looked displeased. Sage, who was sitting next to me, watched them and fiddled with her staff.

I gently patted her shoulder and stopped her. Maybe it’s because she’s been in the Mage Tower for too long, but her readiness to resort to force is a little unsettling.

In any case, they had no right to speak. Therefore, there was no need to be forceful.

“I agree.”

“Katarina!”

“Hmph, wasn’t this a family meeting? I’m a direct descendant, so you should show some respect.”

Whether it was a corporation or a family, it was a system where the will of the highest person was prioritized. That’s why I had said it was a good thing when I saw this empty conference room. If I could just win over one person, I could skip the tedious process of persuasion.

And Katarina was basically on my side in terms of her disposition.

“We needed this time anyway.”

Katarina said, putting her hands on the table and resting her chin on them in a relaxed manner.

“Allen is an outsider, so he brought it up without being tactful. How long are you going to continue this trial-and-error resistance? I know you want to do something, but there’s no plan, no plan.”

Scattering people in various places to engage in sporadic battles and guerrilla warfare. Using the fortress built at a strategic point as a headquarters to force a difficult attack on the enemy. It was an effective tactic, but unfortunately, reality was too harsh to turn the tide of the war with just that.

“Uncle Willum thinks so too, right?”

“……You told Darian to be polite, but you call me uncle?”

“Let’s skip the trivial things.”

In the midst of the focused gazes of the audience, Willum avoided their gazes, turned his head, and expressed his agreement.

“Ahem, he has a point.”

“Uncle!”

“The number of deserters is on the rise. Even if we gather all the blood relatives, we can’t even fill half of the conference room. You must also feel that the situation is getting more and more difficult.”

“……”

“Weren’t you attacked even in the public district, which should be safe? We needed a place like this.”

Since it was all true, Darian bit his lip and closed his mouth.

“It seems that the positions have been roughly sorted out, so let me explain further.”

Thanks to Willum, I had wasted less time. The oldest person in this place and the commander in charge of the defense. He was probably the one who knew the reality best and felt the heavy responsibility.

I could get a glimpse of his usual anguish from his dark complexion.

“First, let me ask you one thing. What is your ultimate goal?”

“To take revenge on Frederic, restore the honor and territory of the family, and restore the order of the city.”

“You’re greedy.”

“Yes?”

An answer that came back without hesitation. That was the reason I had to arrange this meeting.

“Revenge and regaining the territory are separate things. You’re mistaken from that basic point.”

As far as I knew, the capabilities of the ten families that ruled the territory were not particularly outstanding or lacking, but were all on a similar level. Although it was a war that had started with Morheim being ambushed, it was not a situation where they should have been cornered this much.

Guerrilla warfare is an effective tactic. Even if they couldn’t win, the correct calculation was that they should have at least put them in a difficult situation. No matter how well Frederic had prepared, three months was too short a time for the tide of the war to turn so much against them.

“Why is that separate…”

“Do you think that if you kill the head of the Frederic family, the lost territory will naturally return to your hands?”

“……”

Their greed and optimism were the cause. Silence fell in the hall.

“No, on the contrary, a greater chaos will occur. Although the ten families have traditionally inherited the position of lord, the actual number of noble families is much greater. Do you think they will recognize you as the lord again?”

In Brahms, the authority of the ten families was dominant. This was not due to the prestige of a prestigious family, but to the power that had been built up by inheriting the territory. Morheim had lost all of that.

The hyenas would not stand by and watch a tiger with its fangs pulled out ascend to the throne again. Even without recalling a similar development in the game, human greed and physiology were like that.

The reason they could not readily open their mouths was because they had inwardly admitted that what I said was highly likely to come true.

“Quietly give up one of the two. That’s the best.”

“That’s what he says.”

In the gloomy atmosphere, Katarina took over the conversation.

“I think Allen has a point. Although I don’t have much affection for it, it’s my family, so I’m helping as much as I can, but honestly, there’s no answer at this rate.”

Katarina did not shrink in the heavy atmosphere and said everything she had to say.

“Everyone must have complicated feelings. It won’t be easy to give up either side. So I won’t push my opinion on this. Let’s decide by vote.”

I quietly went outside with Sage.

“I’ll give you exactly one hour. This kind of worry only makes your head more complicated if you hold on to it for a long time. Think carefully so that you don’t leave any regrets.”

The decision was theirs.

***

From the terrace, the inner castle could be seen at a glance. Although the number of people was small, the troops of the Morheim family remaining in the castle had a spirit. Although they didn’t say it to each other, the tide had already reached a point where it could not be turned back.

Those who would die had died, and those who would run away had all run away. And yet, these were the ones who were still loyal. It was natural that they held a poison that went beyond loyalty.

“Are you really going to help?”

Sage, who had come running up, asked boldly.

“It just turned out that way.”

I had heard all the information I wanted from Katarina. The only problem was that the Frederic family had taken the spirit’s cocoon. In the first place, I was too deeply involved to remain an outsider.

The fact that I had stopped the attack on the airship and had saved Darian. Frederic and I were already in a potential hostile relationship.

“I think it’s a good thing.”

Sage clenched her fists with a determined expression.

“We can’t just go back without taking revenge for what we’ve been through.”

A dispute between families was not an event of a size that could be easily decided to intervene in. The scale of its impact affected a single city. Unlike me, who had a lot of experience, it was not easy for a rookie like Sage to handle.

But she showed no sign of tension at all. On the contrary, seeing her burning with motivation, she was indeed a talent with a different kind of potential. If it had been Bell, he would have been trembling and would have just said to run away.

“The story is over.”

How much time had passed? Katarina pushed aside the curtain of the terrace and came over, delivering the results of the vote.

“We’ve decided to focus on taking revenge on Frederic.”

It seemed that a very intense discussion had taken place inside after I had left. Katarina’s hair was damp with sweat, similar to when she had been working as a blacksmith.

“You guessed this would be the result, didn’t you?”

“……”

“It was a clever turn of phrase. You gave two options, but you only emphasized the difficulty of one. Who would want to go down such a difficult path when you point out that it would be difficult to protect the family’s territory even if they regained it?”

“I just pointed out the reality.”

“That’s true. I admit it. Apart from the fact that you could just retrieve the spirit’s cocoon from Frederic, revenge is the most realistic goal for us as well.”

From the beginning, the only path they could take was revenge.

“You had a similar opinion to me, so you supported me.”

“If a contractor can’t distinguish between a place to step in and a place not to, he would have died early on. It was a shame, so I used my dexterity to help and dragged it out. That was also about to reach its limit. If you hadn’t been there, I would have stepped up and said the same thing.”

I hadn’t pushed them off a cliff, but had just cleared a blocked path. It was a great relief that she understood that. It was obvious that even if things could be done, they would fail if they were just stubborn.

If I were to make the picture I had drawn a reality, their active help was essential.

“Anyway, the decision has been made, so go back and finish the explanation. You weren’t thinking of just saying a bunch of fancy words and then saying there’s no solution, were you?”

The weight of the fist that tapped my shoulder was heavy. Although it was hard to judge just by this, she was indeed a formidable opponent, enough to have a friendship with Elliot.

“Ah, now I’m going to be so busy I won’t have time to breathe. To make armor and weapons for all the family members, I’ll have to work for days on end…”

“No, you’ll be moving with me.”

“……?”

“You said yourself that it’s meaningless to give masterpiece weapons to ordinary soldiers.”

I also agreed with that. While being realistic, it was necessary to take off the rose-colored glasses of the romanticism of knights that was prevalent in Brahms. Equipping even the private soldiers with the equipment of a craftsman was an inefficient act.

“If it goes to an all-out war, you’ll only be at a disadvantage.”

If you wanted to turn a disadvantageous situation around, you had to catch them off guard. In that sense, using Katarina, the former contractor Simon Jackson, as a blacksmith was a waste of talent.

“I’ll explain the details when we get there.”

Although it was hard for me to boast with my own mouth. If she was engrossed in the purpose of revenge, it would probably be a plan that suited her taste.

***

“The rebellion of the traitors is on the wane.”

The great hall of the Frederic family was becoming more splendid day by day. One territory and two territories, a simple calculation of a twofold difference. But occupying 10% of the city and occupying 20% was outside the formula of one plus one equals two.

The revenue collected had not just doubled, but had jumped several times. The fact that the lord’s chair was decorated to rival a throne was a fragment of that.

“It seems that the search operation in the public district has borne fruit.”

“Have those worm-like people finally realized where the king’s will lies and given up? They were just clinging to the coattails of a game that had already been decided. Now things have returned to normal.”

The frown on the head of the family’s brow, which had been wrinkled since the failure of the airship attack, finally smoothed out. A sense of satisfaction was mixed in his leisurely gesture of tilting his glass.

“The progress of the territory annexation?”

“It’s going smoothly.”

“Of course. The local nobles with ambitions might be a different story, but for the residents of the territory, it doesn’t matter who the person above them is.”

The public sentiment was that they just wanted the dispute to end as soon as possible, regardless of who won.

“I realized this fact too late. It’s a shame.”

Whether it was cowardly or not, as long as you won, that was all that mattered. Honor, rules, etiquette, laws… he had clung to such meaningless values for too long.

“It’s thanks to the king’s sympathy for the great cause.”

“Yes, thanks to that, things went smoothly. Our lord did a very foolish thing.”

The head of the family sneered as he thought of the king who had helped him cause this mess.

“Let’s break the tedious balance of the city. I understand the intention to break away from the situation of being nothing more than a scarecrow with his hands and feet tied, other than the role of a mediator, but it was a short-sighted view.”

Since their common ground was the same, the king had supported Frederic in secret.

“If you want to exercise influence by talking about gratitude, you should first have practical military power.”

The royal family had a power that was equivalent to the union of about three lords. Even if Frederic had absorbed Morheim, it was still no match for the royal family. But that was the case if the head of the family’s greed had stopped at just one Morheim.

“Three families have already fallen. What would be different if one more disappeared and the rest were all destroyed?”

Since the king had given up his role as a mediator, the war would not end until only one victor remained. And the head of the family dreamed that the final victor would be himself, not the king.

As the head of the family was savoring the sweet future, his subordinate spoke.

“Shall I hear the rest of the report later?”

“What other report… ah, you mean the outsider?”

“Yes.”

The head of the family gestured with his finger to urge him to continue.

“Currently, as you have commanded, we are focusing on identifying and tracking their movements.”

“Well done. As I said before, don’t touch them first. It will only cause trouble.”

“Yes, but there is one person of particular note.”

At his subordinate’s addendum, the head of the family, who had been listening indifferently, pricked up his ears.

“A contractor from Gellerg City.”

“A contractor?”

“Yes, he is a person whose whereabouts were unknown after disembarking from the airship.”

“If his whereabouts were unknown…”

“There is a high possibility that he is the person who interfered with the family’s event.”

The subordinate hesitated and then said.

“There are circumstances that his movements have been discovered in the territory of the Lumiere family.”