At the very moment Aiden was burning with determination to give the prisoners jobs no matter what, the prisoners in the semi-basement prison shuddered at the eerie chill that brushed past the backs of their necks.
“What is it? I suddenly feel cold.”
“This damned north never gets warm, even though they say spring has come. Good grief!”
The prisoners each muttered a word or two.
Perhaps it was because the somehow unfamiliar, bleak chill made their anxiety refuse to fade unless they spoke to one another.
“Can’t you be quiet?”
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!
Soon, however, they had no choice but to shut their mouths when a jailer swung an iron club.
In any case, far above the semi-basement, an emergency meeting of the lord’s castle leadership was decided in Aiden’s office.
“Is there anyone who might know about how monsters and beasts establish territories?”
“That field is probably something hunters know best.”
“Should I send word to skilled hunters our merchant company once traded with?”
“Let’s do that first.”
“However, it will take some time. Skilled hunters tend to live in villages quite far from the lord’s castle.”
Kalisa smacked her lips.
The north was vast.
The lord’s castle was located in one of the warmest parts of the north, so there was a great deal of farmland, and the ratio of farmers was overwhelmingly higher than in other villages.
Because of that, goods were relatively abundant by northern standards, but where there was light, there was shadow.
In the villages around the lord’s castle, it was not easy to find people who made hunting their livelihood.
And if one meant skilled hunters, that was even truer.
‘No helping it.’
Some things were created not by talent, but by environment.
“What about the head cook? Since he is not a professional hunter, would his knowledge in this area be lacking?”
When Aiden tossed out a remark out of regret,
“Ah! We have the head cook! Why did I forget that? Shall I bring him right away?”
“That is right. If it is Lord Brikal... he may certainly be more than enough to serve as an adviser.”
Jamie and Kalisa cried out as if something had cracked open in their heads, nodding without pause.
Soon, the head cook appeared in the office.
It would be lunchtime soon, so it was his busiest hour. Because of that, Brikal’s expression looked somewhat anxious, but lunchtime was not the important matter right now.
“Hmm.”
After hearing about the fixation of beast and monster territories around the mine, the head cook stroked his chin for some time, then gave a weighty nod.
“This is only my guess, but....”
He carefully offered his opinion.
“There may be spirit medicine near that mine, or perhaps inside it.”
“Spirit medicine? Why does the discussion lead there?”
“If beasts and monsters have continued facing off, that means there is something both forces cannot give up.”
An unexpected term appeared.
Spirit medicine.
“Occasionally, spirit medicine that awakens beasts and monsters into something higher naturally occurs. If it is a mine untouched by human hands, the possibility should be high. All the more so if it is a mountain that was already famous for medicinal herbs.”
“Is this spirit medicine something like a medicinal herb?”
“I do not know exactly either, but they say spirit medicine can take all sorts of forms. Mana existing in the world gathers in a certain thing for a special reason, so it may be a flower or grass, or it may become a mineral.”
“Oh.”
He had learned something new.
This was not content that appeared in the books Aiden had read.
‘Interesting.’
“However, there is something more important than that.”
Seeing that Aiden’s attention seemed to have been completely taken by the spirit medicine, the head cook slightly changed the direction of the conversation.
“No matter that spirit medicine exists, the territorial boundary between monsters and beasts is actually difficult to maintain in balance for so long. Administrator, do you perhaps know the reason?”
“I am not sure. As you know, I am utterly ignorant in this area.”
“Because, by nature, beasts cannot defeat monsters.”
“Ah.”
Once he heard it, it was excessively simple.
‘True. No matter how ferocious red-blooded beasts are, how could they fundamentally defeat monsters?’
He had yet to see them in person, but from what he had heard, among monsters, there were even creatures that breathed fire from their mouths.
Because of that, Aiden felt a little embarrassed.
He was somewhat ashamed that he had not known something even children knew.
Noticing Aiden’s expression, the head cook smoothly moved on to his next point.
“However, there are times when a pack of beasts possesses enough strength to oppose monsters.”
“When their numbers are large, right? No one can stand against sheer numbers.”
Jamie interrupted and acted as though he knew, but the head cook shook his head.
“If their numbers had grown that greatly, the village below the mountain where the mine is located would already have been devastated. But there is no such story, is there?”
“Ah.”
“Therefore, in this situation, the answer closest to the truth is probably....”
“Probably?”
“There is likely a spirit beast leading the pack of beasts. One that has lived for well over forty years.”
“Goodness.”
“By the gods.”
At the head cook’s words, Jamie and Kalisa’s faces hardened at once.
Just as people said that when a person was truly shocked, they could not even scream, the two aides merely let out low gasps.
‘...A spirit beast? What is that?’
It seemed Aiden was the only one who did not understand the situation.
“I feel this question may make me look a bit foolish, but it seems better to ask than to make assumptions. So, is it serious that there is a spirit beast?”
Monsters of all kinds roamed around under the name of monsters, and it seemed there was spirit medicine inside the mine. What was wrong with there also being one forty-year-old spirit beast?
With his delicate twenty-first-century sensitivity toward wild animals, Aiden found this world unfamiliar once again.
“A spirit beast is a beast that has already swallowed spirit medicine. It is far stronger and cleverer than ordinary monsters. Even when monsters gather, they merely become a larger mass, but beasts led by a spirit beast are like a human army, making them extremely difficult to deal with. In particular, the beasts of the north already have many that are larger, stronger, and cleverer than those of other regions. If there is a spirit beast, and one that has survived for a long time and gained skillful experience leading beasts....”
In the brief silence, everyone in the office swallowed.
They had anticipated what would follow.
“Perhaps that mountain range is no longer human territory.”
***
Even after hearing Brikal’s words, Aiden could not give up on the mine, so he asked the same question of several professional hunters who arrived later.
“Damn it.”
And he received the same answer.
“The situation was not favorable, Administrator.”
Jamie tried to comfort Aiden, who was in a foul mood, but it was not enough to soothe the heart of his superior, who had been swollen with dreams and hopes of preparing new jobs(?) for the prisoners.
“It seems the village below the mountain range where the mine is located has, for generations, mainly gathered herbs, picked mushrooms, and kept bees rather than hunted. There were not many people who knew well about the habits of monsters and beasts.”
In other words, because each village was so closed-off that knowledge was not shared, they had missed the golden time to resolve the situation before the packs of beasts and groups of monsters grew this large.
Some might sneer at this and say, “As expected of northern barbarians,” but Aiden thought differently.
“We should not blame residents who lived while adapting to their environment. This is entirely the fault of officials who knew the situation and ignored it.”
The mine had been discovered and investigated thirty years ago.
And the herb gatherer’s grandfather had said, “The number of beasts and monsters suddenly increased on the mountain that had been filled with medicinal herbs,” forty years ago.
There had clearly been ten years in between.
‘If they had investigated properly then, there would have been some method.’
Aiden once again could not endure the irritation he felt toward the many predecessors who had passed through this position.
Whether they had thought of it as exile or demotion, if they had taken the seat, they should at least have done the work given to them properly!
“You should give up on that mine now. There is no helping it, is there?”
Even at Jamie’s suggestion, Aiden felt so regretful about the mine that he almost grew ill.
‘If I give up like this, I feel like I’ll even think about it in my dreams.’
A mine operated by the prisoners’ free labor!
In other words, automatic hunting.
Was that not a dream-like phrase?
Those who committed crimes would receive proper punishment for them, victims would receive at least a small comfort from seeing the harsh labor, residents would learn a lesson, and the lord’s castle’s purse would grow full.
This was truly killing two birds with one stone, catching crayfish while digging a ditch.
He could not give up so easily.
“Even so, the iron ore from that mine is low-grade, so the profitability will likely not be as good as you expect, Administrator.”
“It would still be much better than chopping down trees lying everywhere.”
“That is true, but....”
“It is the prisoners’ labor anyway. As long as we mine it, it is an unconditional profit.”
Aiden pictured a balance scale in his head.
Then, on the left side of the scale, he placed reasons he could not give up the mine one by one. On the right side, he placed reasons he should give up the mine one by one.
‘It is even.’
The imaginary balance scale still maintained its balance, not tilting to either side.
That was how difficult it was to give up, and how difficult it was not to give up.
The advantages and disadvantages were both far too clear.
Thinking of what he could do if only he had iron ore, Aiden wished there were just one tiny reason not to give up on it.
‘I don’t need a big reason. Even a truly small one would shatter the balance.’
After all, one did not need a heavy weight to break a balance.
“...Huh?”
Aiden, who had been lost in thought, sprang to his feet.
“That’s right. Breaking a balance does not necessarily require great force!”
Jamie and Kalisa could not guess what their superior had thought of this time, so they merely looked at each other and shrugged.
***
A short while later.
At last, the guidance for the long-awaited first round of the village hunting competition, which the northerners had been waiting and waiting for, was distributed to each village.
《Notice on the 1st Northern Daily-Life Hunting Competition》
Document No.: HG/01-Hunting Competition
This is to notify you that the 『1st Northern Daily-Life Hunting Competition』 will be held as follows.
Eligible Participants
-Applicants aged sixteen or older among the residents of each northern village
-No restriction by sex. However, participation is limited to ten people per village.
Hunting Competition Location
-Area around the southern foot of the Frostbane Mountain Range
-However, entry into the central mountain area is prohibited. Violation will result in the disqualification of the corresponding village.
Hunting Targets
-Monsters only
-Intentional capture or hunting of ordinary wild beasts will result in disqualification.
(Note)
-Injuries sustained during the hunting competition will be managed later by the lord’s castle. However, injuries caused by reckless hunting will result in point deductions.
-In the event of serious violation of competition rules, the corresponding village and competitors will be stripped of eligibility to participate in all future hunting competitions.
Chief Administrator of the North
Aiden Blackwood.
If the pack of beasts led by the spirit beast and the group of monsters were maintaining a tight balance, then he only had to create a crack in that balance from this side.