Chapter 102
Chapter 102
Flag of Ark (1)
“Can something like that even be hidden?”
Aro, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, spoke up casually. Having briefly learned about religion from Winter, Aro didn’t look too favorably on our plan.
“They say the religious orders are managed by the Lofty Order, which is the state religion, right? If it’s the Lofty Order, that’s that enormous organization, isn’t it? The one that values principles and rules, and therefore receives the most donations and pays the most as well. Correct?”
A fox sitting cross-legged was quite a curious sight. Aro asked again as if confirming with Winter.
Winter nodded. It hadn’t been long since she had explained it, yet Aro had already remembered everything, and she looked at her with satisfaction.
“Then wouldn’t they be just as strict with audits? A newly established order like ours wouldn’t be able to do much.”
Aro’s words were correct. I nodded along with her.
“But Aro sunbae-nim. Originally, the census of believers is conducted in the last month of every year. It’s something we only need to prepare for near the end of the second semester. Until then, if we try to hide it, we can hide it well enough.”
“Oh ho.”
Aro stroked her chin like an immortal. A population census was an extremely difficult task. Whether it was the order reporting it or the Lofty Order receiving it, both sides found it exhausting. That was why there was a one-year interval.
“But isn’t it better to have more believers?”
Winter shook her head vigorously at Aro’s words. She looked almost desperate at a glance.
“Originally, for every increase of ten believers, the tax paid to the Imperial House rises. The amount is quite significant. For an order like ours that hasn’t yet established an economic foundation, it’s better to keep the number of believers at an appropriate level.”
Only then did Aro understand why we were trying so hard to conceal the number of believers.
“You could just receive donations. Most orders solve it that way, don’t they? Offerings? They basically collect it like a tax.”
“Th-that… um. Sunbae-nim said he wouldn’t do that.”
Aro’s expression as she looked at me turned strange. I shrugged confidently.
“A heart that thinks of the common people. As expected of someone who would become part of the Park family.”
“…Just in case, which family is this Park you’re talking about?”
“My family.”
With her arms crossed, nodding to herself, Aro said something bizarre. Winter, looking suspicious, asked which family the Park clan was. Hearing Aro’s confident reply, I let out a hollow laugh.
“Congratulations. Son-in-law of the Park family. So you had a heart that cares for the common people.”
“?”
“?”
I suddenly said that to Winter. Winter and Aro both stared at me with wide eyes.
Soon, they realized the intention behind my words. Winter’s face turned red, while Aro’s eyes sharpened.
“H-hey! Even if our souls are connected, there’s no need to get married! That was just something I said to lighten the mood back then! I will marry a proper man!”
“If we’re talking about proper, then it’s definitely Winter. Do you know how many certifications that guy has? He might look like that, but he’s quite reliable.”
Flustered, Aro fired off her words rapidly. When I didn’t respond, she grew frustrated and pounded her own chest.
But since it was all soft fur, it only made a light, fluffy sound.
“Th-that…! I also want to marry a man, you know!”
“What? Are you saying you don’t like me?!”
“N-no, how did it turn into that?!”
Winter cautiously voiced her opinion, but Aro immediately shot her a fierce glare.
Startled by the cold, sharp gaze, Winter soon steeled herself and began to resist the absurdity.
“Do you even know how enchanting I—”
I suddenly grabbed Aro’s tail while she had climbed onto the table and was lecturing Winter.
Aro flinched, her body trembling, then froze in that position. I lifted her as she was and dropped her onto Winter.
“C-cough. I’ll let it slide just this once.”
When I stroked her chin as she sat on my lap, Aro relaxed with a grin.
At Aro’s words of forgiveness, Winter looked dumbfounded. No matter how she said it while smiling like that, there was no sense of dignity at all.
“Then what are you going to do about your economic foundation?”
“We are currently supplying Candela to the Imperial army.”
Aro looked at me as she asked. I mentioned Candela, which we were supplying for military use.
Tilting her head, Aro watched as I took one Candela out from my pocket. I proudly showed the item that had played no small role in every battle.
“It’s a peculiar orb. I can feel quite an intense Divine Power from it.”
Aro, who had been fiddling with Candela here and there, spoke about what she had figured out. Perhaps because she was a shaman, her insight was indeed exceptional.
“It’s a bomb.”
“A bomb? Something that goes boom~?”
“Yes.”
Aro carefully set Candela down and rolled it toward me. I let out a small chuckle at how her movements had suddenly become cautious.
“But it’ll be hard to make long-term profit with this, won’t it?”
“Well. I have several ideas in mind. For now, I’m thinking of selling blood.”
Aro’s concern was valid. No matter how much Candela was supplied for military use, it would be difficult to sustain if the order grew larger.
That was why I had come up with blood. At the mention of blood, both Winter and Aro’s expressions turned strange.
“Blood donation?”
“The recipient would probably die no matter what.”
Winter was the first to ask a reasonable question. But I shook my head.
After obtaining the Adaptive Body, everything related to mana had disappeared. However, the blood still carried the abilities of Ancient Magic.
“Die? Hmm.”
If someone were to receive a transfusion of that blood, most people would likely die on the spot.
Unless they had a body like mine, they wouldn’t even be able to sustain the minimal mana required to maintain life and would simply die.
“I want to see the blood.”
“No.”
Aro asked with sharp, curious eyes. The one who stopped her was Winter.
Usually gentle and timid, Winter now glared fiercely and firmly declared that it was absolutely not allowed.
“So it’s not allowed?”
“Hmm.”
At my playful remark, Aro slowly reached for my arm. I didn’t resist and let her do as she pleased.
She brought over my left hand, the one without the gauntlet, and glanced at Winter. Winter was staring at her with the eyes of a hawk.
“Yap.”
“Ahh!”
It happened in an instant. A claw suddenly popped out from Aro’s index finger and pricked my finger.
At that, Winter screamed instead and reached out toward Aro. Aro dodged her with astonishing agility.
“Huh? Why is it so tough?”
The first one to be surprised was Aro. With her sensitive sense of smell, she seemed puzzled that she couldn’t detect the scent of blood.
Quickly inspecting my hand, Aro spoke in disbelief. The finger she had pricked with her claw was completely fine.
“Seems like ordinary needles or thorns wouldn’t even pierce it.”
“That’s about right.”
I personally pressed Aro’s claw into my finger. I applied about four times more force than she had.
Instead, the owner of the claw let out a short cry of pain. Only then did blood begin to form on my finger.
“Hoo.”
When I stepped in myself, Winter let out a small sigh and stayed still.
Aro, who had been staring at the slowly forming blood in fascination, suddenly went blank and then abruptly bit onto my finger.
“Mmph!? Mmph! Mmph!”
“What are you doing?!”
After tasting the blood, Aro reacted as if her eyes might pop out in astonishment, and upon seeing that, Winter rushed over in shock.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Th-this is.”
At Winter’s words, spoken as if scolding her, Aro couldn’t properly respond.
She stared at me with trembling eyes. They were filled with emotions that couldn’t be understood.
“You…”
“……”
“You’re of an ancient species….”
Receiving Aro’s trembling gaze, I remained calm.
***
“How did it go?”
The desert that existed on the continent—among them, the largest was the Ulla Desert, a vast terrain that occupied one-fifth of the continent.
As such, many races lived there, and various families had established their bases. Among them, the most powerful were the Kargula Family and the Rahorakti Family.
“It’s been sent.”
At Rama Kargula’s words, Soloven Rahorakti replied calmly.
What she had just done was request an adventurer to deliver an item to a specific person. Rama nodded at her answer.
“This is troublesome. Very troublesome.”
Even before the vacation had begun, during the height of final exams, Rama had identified an abnormal phenomenon in the desert.
Something had waged war against the desert’s indigenous tribes. By the time it was discovered, many of them had already been killed.
“They called it a Fiendbeast, right? Soloven.”
The creature that had been killing the indigenous tribes was bizarre. An artificial lifeform possessing the traits of all kinds of beasts.
Even the Kargula soldiers dispatched to protect the natives had suffered heavy casualties. Thinking ahead to the upcoming break, Rama requested aid from the most powerful families of the desert.
“Yeah. I encountered it at the Academy.”
The only ones who arrived were the Rahorakti. At their forefront was Soloven, with whom he had once attended classes.
Surprisingly, Soloven had encountered that artificial lifeform at the Academy.
“What was it like? That Fiendbeast.”
“The name ‘Fiendbeast’ was what Davide called it. I thought it suited it well. In any case, the Fiendbeast we encountered at the Academy was a monster that endured five strikes from Bereninche.”
At Soloven’s explanation, Rama swallowed hard.
Though he had never seen Bereninche himself, he had learned enough through various information networks.
Her prowess had long since been widely known. And to withstand five of her attacks…
“What about the one now?”
“It’s very different. The Fiendbeast at the Academy resembled a Hellhorn Bull with highly developed arms, but the one here looks quite different. The only reason I could identify it as a Fiendbeast was its coloration and its absurd durability.”
Currently, the Fiendbeast had settled within Kargula territory. More precisely, at a remote villa belonging to the Kargula Family where Rama’s older brother resided.
For some reason, Rama’s brother and the group on the Fiendbeast’s side were cooperating with each other.
“Do you think Davide will come?”
“If the reward is sufficient.”
The combined forces of Rama, Soloven’s Rahorakti, and the desert’s indigenous tribes were currently in a standoff, surrounding the villa.
At a glance, the situation seemed advantageous, but the more they pressed, the more their own casualties increased. For this situation, Soloven had brought up Davide.
“Will Davide really be of help?”
“The one who captured the Fiendbeast back then was Bereninche, but the only one who assisted her was Davide. Also, Davide seemed to know quite a bit about Fiendbeasts.”
Soloven showed her trust in Davide. Rama recalled the Davide he had met back then.
He had changed, and for the better. Of course, he was still more irritating, obnoxious, and picky—but at least he was better than last year, when he had rampaged without reason.
“There must be some method. A spear that can pierce that thick hide. It wouldn’t hurt to place our hopes on that.”
“You mean that Lightning Spike or whatever it was called?”
At Rama’s question, Soloven nodded.
Having never seen the Lightning Spike himself, Rama wasn’t very hopeful. From Soloven’s description, it sounded impressive, but it didn’t seem capable of piercing the tough and resilient hide of that Fiendbeast.
“A pilgrimage, huh. Will it take long?”
“We can only hope it won’t.”
At Soloven’s quiet addition, Rama nodded heavily.
From behind a makeshift barricade, he looked toward the villa.
The building, sunk in darkness, was covered in a strange fabric.