E Chapter 71:

Inauguration

[N POV]

"At last, we’ve arrived in Fittoa!" Rudeus said, as he stepped on the ground in the Fittoa region. As happy as he was, it can’t be helped that he’s started panicking inside.

All that time, they wished to come back to the region. What they wanted to do was reach this place.

Now, the destruction of the metastasis isn’t something he can’t perceive.

Barren land without any vegetation was what was left of the place.

It can be easily seen how much damage the metastasis tragedy incurred to the whole region.

"This sure is nasty. I’ve been traveling around the Millis continent all this time, but I still remember that this place is green..." Reida said, looking at the scene in front of her.

Isolte patted Eris’s shoulder and said, "It’s alright, the damage can be recovered… as long as there’s still people that can help them…"

Eris didn’t actually care about the region. As she looked at Isolte in confusion, she asked, "And why’d I care about this barren place?"

Isolte dropped her hand and realized that the girl in front of her was not bright. Thankfully, she won’t rule the place, and I will head to train with her in the Holy Land of Sword in the future.

Politics isn’t something she can deal with, that’s for sure.

Ruijerd looks normal, though, since the situation on the Demon continent is worse than this.

As they continued on their journey, the damage didn’t worsen. They stayed the same. except for the fact that the people have started to return to their usual lives.

From what Rudeus can see, the crossbow flag that Arbalest had erected in the vicinity was erected.

which showed that the place was being helped by Arbalest.

"They really are famous around here..." Rudeus said, while looking at the flag in the vicinity.

"From what I gathered, Arbalest not only provided them with food and a place to stay while the village was rebuilt, they also offered them training. So that they can deal with bandits, which surely will pillage them, or a protection service" Reida said.

"What’d they pay with, since all their belongings must be transferred to who knows where?" Rudeus asked.

"Power, they will pay with their human resources..." Reida replied.

After hearing her answer, Rudeus can see that they’re harvesting. It will then be divided into 3 portions, each of which will have a different amount, with the portion that has the crossbow flag being the smallest.

"From the flagless to the flagged portion, it seems that Arbalest also gave harvesting tax, huh..." Rudeus contemplates why the Arbalest would be given the smallest amount, while the middle one was the biggest of the three.

Curious, he asked Reida, but she just shrugged.

He couldn’t stop his curiosity and asked the people near the harvest.

The farmer said, "These are crops given by Arbalest. They gave it to us in exchange for our sending them 10% of every harvest, while 50% was paid for tax, leaving us only 40% of the total crops we produce. We can’t refuse the humongous amount of tax since it's an emergency, but lord Sauros said that we’ll be exempt from tax after the situation gets better. "

"I see. Thank you for answering my questions." Rudeus thanked the farmer.

Seeing the young child, he can’t help but ask, "Are you one of the survivors?"

Rudeus, pausing for a while, answers his question, "Yeah, we just recently arrived here… me and the red-haired girl was victims of the metastasis… the other are accompanying us. "

"I see, it might not be much, but do you want to stay in our lodging? We can at least help you with that. " The farmer offered. He seemed to be the village chief.

Rudeus looked towards his companions, and they gave him a nod.

"Just what we needed. Thank you village chief."

The village chief says it with pride, "No problem, the people of Abalest are always helping us, and it’d be embarrassing if they could do it but we couldn't."

…

..

While Rudeus and his companion continued on their journey to Fittoa’s capital, Roa,

Within a week, Claude had already started making things that could be used in space.

The discussion about how to deal with the Undead dungeons in the future is stagnating. However, they can count on how long it will be until the outbreak starts.

By knowing the power Arbalest had, by the time the event occurred, they could already expect that more than 30% of Arbalest members would reach Saint Rank and hopefully, some of them could reach King and above rank.

Realistically speaking, reaching an Emperor's Rank isn’t a feat people under 30 can achieve. However, knowing Claude’s development, reaching that rank within several years is possible.

Without any further incident, he should already be above that level.

Even so, they can’t expect an Emperor rank holder to achieve what even the God title holder can’t achieve.

Further planning is definitely necessary.

They can’t expect to always use Arbalest members, but using external help is somewhat tedious.

The only possible way seems too drastic. Claude didn’t want to get himself strangled with it. Which means, if he wants to proceed to make Arbalest officially tied with Ars, Mike needs to take the helm and trouble himself to get a noble rank.

"No way, I’m not going to do it." Mike refused.

When everyone wanted to become a noble, none in Arbalest wished to be one.

Weirdly, they all had the same opinion of being a noble.

Trouble.

Power breeds trouble, and as much as they craved control,They don’t want to deal with the trouble that comes later.

The royal family can be a troublesome thing when you want to deal with it. Because Arbalest already had their own autonomy within several nations,Tying them along with a certain country won’t be a good thing.

Furthermore, the nation is always keeping tabs on Arbalest. Having the vice leader under their thumbs is definitely something desirable.

No, they wanted them.

Their goal was to obtain Arbalest for their own country.

If they wanted to have a rebellion, just a yell and all the people in Fittoa would hold their weapons to back Arbalest.

That’s how famous Arbalest is, and that’s what the current leader of the Asura Kingdom hadn’t realized.

Once the size of the group is known, people will start to realize how humongous the independent group is. In order to prevent them from being seen, a decoy is a must.

Ash had already left the room, while Mike "No! No way! " Keep refusing the plan.

…

..

"With the authority given to me by the King, I, Sauros Boreas Greyrat, will appoint Mike of Arbalest to be a lesser noble of Asura."

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