Chapter 283 : Chapter 283
Chapter 283. Entering the Spirit Realm Again
In Snow Bear Territory, some distance away from the Northern Society, its lord Blake Snow Bear sat in his chair, still unable to believe that he was alive.
After using the Alliance’s power to drive those people away, Blake learned the truth of the matter from several mercenaries.
Only then did he realize that he had come very close to death before, and that it was only because Fulan had helped him at the critical moment that he had escaped with his life.
“But fortunately, I survived,” Blake thought with relief.
Just then, a voice accompanied by the sound of someone stumbling came from outside.
“Report... someone bearing the Alliance’s insignia has arrived at the city gate and is now heading toward the castle.”
“From the Alliance...”
Blake’s eyes lit up, and he immediately asked, “Is it a black-haired person wearing a long robe with the Northern Society’s insignia?”
The man climbed up from the ground, pushed open the door, and replied, “No. The visitor is wearing leather armor and has a shortbow on their back...”
“Then why are you so nervous? Did I not tell you to notify me only when that mage arrived? Mercenaries like that pass by a few times every year. What is so strange about it?”
Only then did the man finally catch his breath and say to Blake, “But... that person is riding a black horse. It is the mage’s mount. And that person had once followed behind that mage.”
Only then did Blake’s expression change. He hurriedly said, “All right, go notify every attendant in the castle at once. Tell them all to get ready. I am going down first.”
---
Some time later, after leaving several drops of sweat at the castle gate, Blake finally saw a black horse carrying a rider come around the corner and head toward the castle.
Blake looked carefully and immediately recognized it as Fulan’s horse. He had examined that horse closely before.
The horse itself was not one of the short-legged breeds of the Northern Frontier. It had presumably undergone some kind of magical treatment.
On top of that, the black horse’s color was far too striking against the snow, making it easy to spot, so it was extraordinarily easy to identify.
And Blake had already seen the person riding it beside Fulan before, so he concluded that this person had been sent by Fulan.
At that moment, Blake could not help but feel somewhat nervous. He had promised Fulan that he would do one thing for her, and only afterward did he realize that there had been no restrictions whatsoever on that promise.
Blake did not have the ability to go back on his word. Setting aside the fact that he already could not afford to offend an Alliance mage lightly, Fulan’s ability to instantly kill a Second-Tier Professional alone left him powerless.
So when it came to the matter he had promised Fulan, he had only one path available to him: do his best to handle it properly for her.
When the black horse reached the front of the castle, it stopped directly in place. Anna leaned back on the saddle and jumped down to the ground in one motion.
Anna brushed off the bits of snow that had fallen onto her from the black horse’s journey, then walked forward and said, “I have come on behalf of a mage. That mage once had an agreement with you that you would do one thing for her, correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
One of Blake’s feet twisted against the ground, scraping aside a patch of snow and exposing a seam in the black stone flooring beneath.
“Before speaking of that matter, she asked me to ask you a question first...”
Anna held a stack of papers in one hand and a pen in the other as she said, “She asked me to ask you whether you can sense the extent of your territory in real time.”
Blake had not expected that question. He froze for a moment and even forgot the motion of rubbing the ground with his foot.
After thinking for a bit, he replied, “Yes, I can. After becoming a lord, I became able to clearly perceive exactly how large my territory is.”
In truth, a lord’s territory was defined with extraordinary precision. For two neighboring territories, their lords could clearly sense where the boundary between them lay.
That boundary could even shift in real time. Once one side occupied a town or watchtower, the boundary would change.
In the research conducted by some lords, they had discovered that such boundaries were actually tied to the people living under a territory’s rule.
As long as the people withdrew from that boundary line, the line itself would retreat as well. But the opposing side’s boundary would not advance immediately.
It would only move forward once the opposing side’s people moved up.
A lord’s strength depended to a great extent on the breadth of his territory, and every lordly family had rules forbidding the careless shrinking of their lands.
Thus, nearly every qualified lord stationed large numbers of soldiers and civilians along the boundary with neighboring lords to prevent the other side from expanding its border there.
The same had always been true of Blake’s territory in relation to the neighboring lands. On nearly every side, people were stationed there, and Blake had to pay them regularly to keep them from defecting.
Except in the direction of the Northern Society.
Blake had not stationed anyone there, nor did he allow civilians to go there.
And it was not just him. All the territories even somewhat close to the Northern Society did the same.
That was because they were all afraid that the people stationed along the border would run straight to the Northern Society.
That had truly happened before, so afterward they no longer wished to expand their territories toward the Northern Society.
Blake explained in detail to Anna his understanding of territorial boundaries, and every time he said something, Anna wrote it down in her notebook.
After Blake finished, Anna asked a few more detailed questions and recorded all the answers.
By then, the two of them had been standing at the entrance, talking the whole time.
Only after answering several questions did Blake come back to his senses, and he hurriedly said, “Why do we not go inside and sit down? Standing here...”
Before Blake could finish, Anna interrupted him.
“No need. My questions are already finished. I still have other things to do later.”
Anna put away her pen and papers, then took out two folded maps of the Northern Frontier from her pocket.
They had been drawn by mages of the Northern Society and were more accurate than the vast majority of maps.
She opened one of them and said, “Listen carefully. This is what the mage wants you to do. This is your Snow Bear Territory...”
“She wants the ownership of these three villages transferred to her, and she wants every appointment in those three villages withdrawn.”
“I am going to conduct an experiment on this land. If you sense any change in your territory, send someone here to find me.”
Blake looked at the territorial boundary represented by those three villages on the map. Just imagining his territory shrinking by that small section after losing them made his heart ache.
But he had already made it very clear earlier. He simply had no ability to bargain with that mage and could only passively accept.
Grinding his teeth, he said, “All right.”
He could still accept the loss of those three villages. The greater part of his territory would remain, and that was enough. Even if his ancestors were standing here, they would have nothing to say.
After all, even his ancestors could not have withstood the combined forces of those mercenaries and Beastmen. They could only have survived in the same miserable way.
If anything, this was already the best possible result.
He had not lost most of his territory.
---
Fulan arrived at the place where she had entered the Spirit Realm with Nora last time. After getting there, she set up a few magic traps and then entered the Spirit Realm together with Nora.
After opening her eyes in the Spirit Realm, Fulan heard Nora say beside her,
“I hope this trip into the Spirit Realm is not as unlucky as the last one.”
Fulan paused for a moment but said nothing. Still, she felt that Nora would probably be fine this time.
After all, even the Lord of Radiance, who had caused trouble last time, was no longer doing so.
As one of the great markets of the Spirit Realm, how could its defenses possibly be breached so easily?
She saw the words 【Heart Lake Market】 written on the stone monument beside them.
After obtaining the Spirit Realm Guide Item for this market, Fulan said to Nora, “I am going to sell a few things and earn some Spirit Crystals on my own. Go do whatever you need to do.”
Nora nodded as well. She knew that Fulan had lost a weapon she had made herself last time, and since Emerald Market still had not reopened, this was an opportunity for Fulan to see whether she could receive compensation.
The Spirit Crystals used for this trip into the Spirit Realm had all been paid for by Nora, so it was perfectly normal that Fulan had none on hand.
After moving a little farther away from Nora, Fulan walked behind a stone and used the method given to her by the Lord of Radiance to arrive in Monsa City.
As soon as she arrived in Monsa, she saw that the house she returned to in the Material Realm was already piled high with Spirit Crystals like a small mountain.
“There are probably more than a dozen tons here. I wonder whether the Lord of Radiance really did give me my proper share.”
Fulan took about one hundred kilograms of Spirit Crystals and then headed into the market. She estimated that one hundred kilograms would be enough for what she intended to buy.
What she wanted to buy now were Spirit Realm Guide Items, and she also needed to choose domains where gods were present. She would not be buying many guide items, and that would not cost many Spirit Crystals.
The other thing she wanted to buy was the materials for the Modification School’s modification sequence, Song of the Deep Sea. These Spirit Crystals were more than enough to purchase everything below Sequence Four.
As for the materials above Sequence Five, however, Fulan had absolutely no expectation of buying them all here in one go.
Materials of that level were so rare that one generally had to post commissions through the Adventurers’ Guild to obtain them.
And she did not intend to go post commissions while carrying around a heap of Spirit Crystals.
She had decided first to observe whether it was safe to use these Spirit Crystals before going to the Adventurers’ Guild.
Having made up her mind, Fulan headed to the street that sold monster materials. With one sweeping purchase, she spent less than one kilogram of Spirit Crystals and bought all the modification materials she needed for Sequence Four and below.
Fulan once again experienced the joy of being wealthy. Measuring Spirit Crystals by the kilogram still seemed excessive in a market where some transactions were conducted by the milligram.
After that, she went to the street that specialized in selling Spirit Realm Guide Items. Looking at guide items shaped like spoons and shovels, she could not help but open her eyes in astonishment. How could such Spirit Realm Guide Items even exist in this world?
Just as Fulan was carefully examining those Spirit Realm Guide Items, a shout rang out.
“Those damned yellow-robed people are here! Run!”