Book 7: Chapter 10
“You are my onii-sama after all. I knew that you would definitely choose to go yourself.” Freya who was standing at my side chuckled softly and then said, “Onii-sama, what else do you need? Leave it with me.”
“Mm, let me have a think…… Honestly speaking, I don’t really know what I need for the desert. But it looks like I need lots of things. The list of things big sis gave me is here.”*
I handed the list of items to Freya. She took a look at it and thought to herself for a while before responding: “You need a fair bit, huh? The desert really is incredible as I have heard. You are bringing your entire guard-unit with you this time too. I think you would need an entire escort to take everything. There are a lot of things to transport after all. There is water, food, tents, emergency items, weapons, ammunition… umm… let me see how many horses are needed……”
I looked at Freya and said: “Send all these items to the city closest to the desert prior to us heading there. I have no need to lug these things around in the empire. Send them there first and I’ll just have to pick them up and head out when I get there. That includes the ammunition, weapons and necessities we need. We’ll stick with dried-meat and rye bread as staples for our food. We won’t take wine. We need to bring plenty of water since it’s the desert we’re talking about after all.”
“All right, but…… You need too many horses this time. It would be tough even with all of the horses in the palace right now.” Freya scratched her head. She sounded like she was in a dilemma as she continued, “You need horses for the riders as well as the horse carriages after all. That is not a small number of horses. You need at least seven or eight heavy horse-carriages this time. That means you need about fifty horses while there are only thirty horses in the palace. It would affect the people if we took their horses, would it not?”
I shook my head and replied: “There’s no need. We don’t need to take their horses. I’ll get a few Earth Dragons from mom. The tamed Earth Dragons are our best tool. One Earth Dragon alone could pull a heavy horse-carriage. However, we need to design carriages that suit the Earth Dragons. Earth Dragons don’t move slow either.”
“That is a good idea. I shall go and ask the artisans to work on that now.” Freya nodded with satisfaction and then asked: “Onii-sama, when do you plan to leave?”
I looked at the time and then answered: “In about a week’s time since crafting the carriages for the Earth Dragons and preparing our required items takes time. I need to hurry since I will be weak on the full-moon night. If I run into a full-moon while I’m there fighting for the mine, I’ll need to rest for some time.”
Freya said: “Uhm. Onii-sama, you have to also bear in mind that the most important part after finding a mine is refinement. I sent messengers to the five nations of the desert under your name and received reports that the metal we are after is indeed a specialty in the southern parts of the desert. However, it’s mainly produced at a few small villages spread out in the desert. The materials they manufacture are kept secret. But it is said that a small village had an accident recently. People are fighting over the book where they record the materials they manufacture in. However, the travellers of the desert are highly vigilant so I do not think it will be easy for you to locate them. Whatever the case, your task is to basically locate the mine and then find people who can refine the metal. After that, you need to decide for yourself if you want to bring them to the city here or let them stay there and just send you the amount you require annually.”