As soon as Friedrich drew the larger picture, his immediate tasks came to mind first.
In the web novel he had been reading before being struck by the truck, they had been preparing for a battle against goblins.
‘This is the perfect chance to show what I can do, is it not?’
The stage had already been set.
‘If I am going to fight, I need to shake this off and get up quickly. This is for restoring vitality, right?’
Friedrich glared at the red potion placed on one side of the bedside table, then reached out, opened the stopper, and put the bottle to his lips.
‘Ooooh!’
The prickling burn that ran from his esophagus down to his stomach made Friedrich marvel.
‘Whew-, this is strong.’
During his days as an officer, Friedrich had drunk an absurd variety of liquor while minding the task of entertaining his superiors, so the potion’s refreshing bite and warm afterglow were nothing to him.
In any case.
As soon as Friedrich drank the potion, he could feel energy coursing through his entire body.
‘It seems true that House Medichin began as a family of doctors and apothecaries. Anyway, good.’
Having shaken off the fatigue built up in his body, he turned his neck once to the left and once to the right with a satisfied expression, loosened his entire body this way and that, and only then put on his armor.
“Good heavens, Young Master! What is the matter now?”
“Please do not overexert yourself. Rest in the tent!”
When they saw him come outside, the knight and a Medichin Konzern employee hurriedly ran over. Seeing at a glance that they were treating him like a greenhorn, Friedrich spoke harshly.
“Are you telling me to go lie down because I am in the way?”
Flustered by his words, the two men panicked without even noticing that Friedrich had changed.
“Th-that could never be the case! It is only···!”
“We are advising you to rest because we can leave this place only after you recover quickly, Young Master.”
Friedrich looked at the employee and the knight, whose faces showed that they did not know what to do, and answered.
“I have recovered completely. The red potion worked quite well.”
When Friedrich said that while lightly loosening his body, the two men’s eyes widened.
“Y-you drank all of that?”
“Why? Was I not supposed to drink it?”
The two startled men hesitated before answering Friedrich, who had asked as if interrogating them.
“That is not it…….”
“Last time you tasted it, you were horrified and said it was too strong, were you not!?”
‘They knew that and still left it within arm’s reach?’
They had practically scattered opportunities all around him because they wanted to give him a chance.
For the frail and sensitive Friedrich.
To tell him to please come to his senses.
To tell him not to run away, but to stand and fight.
And if that was too difficult, then at least to show some will.
‘Surely…….’
At this startling change, the Medichin Konzern employee and the knight exchanged glances.
Looking at the two men’s faces, Friedrich grinned.
“Since I got hit by a rock anyway, I went and had a meeting with a god.”
“Pardon?”
Friedrich spoke to the two men, who merely blinked because they had no idea what he was talking about.
“I am joking. In any case, we do not have time to stand around dazed. Report the current situation first.”
“Yes? ···Yes, Young Master!”
“This way, please!”
The knight and the employee were bewildered by Friedrich’s suddenly changed attitude, yet a strange look of delight appeared on their faces.
***
Friedrich walked with the two men to a large freight wagon being used as a substitute for a tent.
Friedrich entered the covered cargo bed and let out a low hum as he looked at the flag bearing the crest of House Medichin.
“Hmm···.”
‘So that must be why I crossed over here.’
Seeing the crest of House Medichin, the same one he had seen in the tent, Friedrich once again accepted reality more firmly. He sat before the table inside the freight wagon and examined the map of the nearby region.
“The enemy has no way to bypass us.”
To summarize the situation the group now faced:
Friedrich, the merchant caravan, and the escort force had been chased by a great army of goblins aiming for the goods they were transporting and for human flesh, and after fleeing, they were now passing through a canyon with no alternate route.
‘At least there are no villages in this area, so there have been no civilian casualties···.’
Friedrich, who grasped the overall situation quickly, as befitted a former(?) officer, received an answer from the knight, who nodded.
“Yes. At present, they are pursuing us from a position about three days behind us.”
“Our forces number eight hundred in all, including the caravan employees and the Etilant Army soldiers. Their numbers are approximately two thousand. What will you do, Young Master? Even now, it may be better to discard the cargo loaded on the carts, put the people aboard, and quickly escape their pursuit….”
If they emptied the carts as much as possible and loaded the employees and soldiers onto them, evacuating to a nearby city would be easy.
‘But that does not suit my temperament.’
Friedrich, who in his previous life had never once fled with the enemy before him, tossed out an answer to the two men with a displeased expression.
“What else would I do? We fight and kill them all.”
“Pardon?”
The knight doubted his own ears.
Friedrich, who had always seemed soft to the point of frailty, was saying that he would not run away, but fight head-on?
Even the merchant caravan employee beside the knight stared at him with a dazed expression, but to Friedrich, they were the ones who looked strange.
“Why are you so surprised? If monsters are chasing us, is it not natural to fight?”
“Th-that is true, but···.”
“You have always hated fighting, Young Master, have you not?”
That was not wrong.
Friedrich had even refused swordsmanship training because he disliked fighting. However···.
“The past is the past, and now is now. Do you want to run away that badly? Like a cur with its tail tucked between its legs?”
The owner of this body was no longer the frail and delicate boy Friedrich of the past.
He was Friedrich, a former Special Forces officer who had been through every kind of hardship—on land, at sea, and in the air.
Friedrich did not miss the way the knight and the employee flinched for a moment at his harsh, even insulting response.
“What is it? You do not like that?”
“It is simply hard to believe that you, who have always avoided fighting, are saying you will fight···.”
“Are you truly going to fight?”
As the two men trailed off in disbelief, Friedrich’s gaze turned fierce while he pressed them again.
“It is we who must protect the safety of the merchants and travelers passing through this area! That is the duty of House Medichin and the Medichin Konzern. Is it not?”
House Medichin, which ruled most of the Etilant Peninsula under the name of the Etilant Autonomous Territory, and the Medichin Konzern that they led enjoyed many privileges, and just as many varied and weighty duties came with them.
One of those duties was to exterminate the monsters that appeared in sparsely populated regions and guarantee the safety of passage!
After emphasizing that duty, Friedrich drove the two men further.
“Besides, we can beat down the goblins who threw a rock at my head, and if we collect their eyeballs, teeth, and even their palate glue, it will make money. And you are trying to stop me? I am not sure whether the two of you are qualified to be a knight and an employee of our house.”
In the grim atmosphere created by his continued radical remarks, the knight, who had been quietly watching Friedrich, asked with a stiff expression.
“Do you mean that, Young Master?”
“Did you think I said all of that for nothing?”
Even at Friedrich’s fierce reply, the two men looked at each other and exchanged glances.
Seeing that unusual exchange take place right in front of him, Friedrich pressed them.
“What is it?”
“We apologize for deceiving you, Young Master!”
The two men suddenly knelt on one knee, bent their right arms up to their chests, bowed their heads, and begged Friedrich for forgiveness.
‘Hoo-, are these people my helpers?’
It was a cliché if ever there was one.
Even so, Friedrich deliberately put on a displeased expression and asked the two of them.
“What did you deceive me about?”
“We apologize, Young Master. We dared to test you. I am not a merchant caravan guard… I lead the 1st Thousand-Man Unit in the Etilant Central Army.”
“I am the 1st Magic Squad Leader of Etilant’s 4th Magic Squadron. I am a 4th-Circle Battle Mage who weaves the breath of Mar (Mar, the God of Fire and War).”
‘No wonder···!’
Their presence had felt different for a mere escort captain and employee in a merchant caravan.
Friedrich let out an exclamation with an intrigued expression.
“Hoo···, then why did you deceive me?”
“It was by the Mayor’s order.”
“If you encountered the goblins and said you would fight, Young Master, we were to actively assist you. If you gave up….”
He did not need to hear the rest to know. The two of them would have taken command in Friedrich’s place.
‘And I was supposed to pass up such a free quest? This is a cushy assignment.’
It seemed that the man who was his father had put no ordinary amount of care into this. The Etilant Army, and among them the 1st Thousand-Man Unit of the Central Army, would be an elite force in both name and reality, would they not?
Compared to that, it was a little disappointing that the mage seemed to sit much lower in the order of battle, but a mage was still a high-grade combat asset in and of himself, so goblins of this level should be easy prey.
‘So the table has already been set, and all I have to do is place my spoon on it. I might as well make a stronger impression while I am at it.’
Countless strategies were already springing up in his head. Friedrich forcefully suppressed the corners of his mouth as they kept trying to rise and spoke solemnly.
“So this trading journey was a test for the heir. In that sense, I passed the first test by saying I would fight.”
“······.”
Friedrich, who had answered sardonically, spoke to the knight and the mage, who responded to him with silence and lowered heads.
“Then the next task must be to wipe out all those goblins.”
“Yes, Young Master. What will you do?”
“Hmm···.”
Friedrich stroked his chin with a low hum, took his eyes off the map, and asked the two men.
“Can we prepare to fight?”
“The troops disguised as caravan guards and employees all belong to the 1st Thousand-Man Unit. There is also enough equipment to arm them, enough provisions for the group, and enough tools such as ropes, axes, and pickaxes.”
As Friedrich listened to the answer and began drawing up a strategy, a voice that had now become familiar spoke to him.
[Oh, you are doing better than I expected. Good. I will watch to see whether you pass the test!]
At the same time, a translucent window appeared before his eyes.
[Annihilate the goblins and return after collecting their eyeballs, teeth, and palate glue. (Incomplete)]
Friedrich’s eyes flashed after receiving the mission.
‘Hoo, is that so?’
But it was a little lacking.
‘Hey, do not just talk. Give me a little more of a hint.’
[…….]
‘Or should I just get hit by a rock again?’
At Friedrich’s threat, the quest was updated again.
[Annihilate the ‘Hungry’ Goblins and return after collecting their eyeballs, teeth, and palate glue. (Incomplete)]
Friedrich had enjoyed reading fantasy novels since adolescence.
To him, someone who knew fantasy novels backward and forward, goblin eyeballs, teeth, and palate glue were items that gave off the scent of money.
Moreover, Merkl, who had entrusted him with the role of proxy, was worshiped as the god of merchants and wanderers among both the empire and other races.
‘I can understand why a god of merchants would show interest in combat. It is cold-blooded, but···.’
In this world, where survival came first, respecting life across species was the sort of nonsense that belonged on the same level as saying that cancer cells were alive too.
‘Well, this worked out. Is this not what they call killing two birds with one stone?’
Having finished assessing the situation, Friedrich asked. In truth, it was a plan he had come up with from the moment he first saw the map placed in the command tent.
“The terrain is favorable to us. Shall we try a driven hunt?”
“A driven hunt?”
“It would be a shame to leave empty-handed, would it not? We should kill them as intact as possible and···.”
Friedrich Medichin was proposing that they sweep up every profitable material, such as goblin eyeballs.
“What do you mean…?”
The mage asked back in surprise at his suggestion.
It was surprising enough that Friedrich, who had always seemed frail, was saying he would fight, but did that expression not look exactly like that of a veteran who had been through every kind of battlefield?
“Right now, it looks as though we are being chased by the goblins, but in truth, we have the advantage. As long as we can draw those goblins into the canyon, victory is certain.”
When Friedrich said that while pointing at the map, the knight nodded.
“Certainly, it would be good if we could lure the goblins, but….”
“Do you have some good method?”
“We should use bait.”
“If you say bait….”
In the next moment, the two men’s faces turned white.
“Absolutely not! We cannot put you in danger any further, Young Master!”
“What are you talking about? Why would I do that when we have perfectly good bait?”
“Then…?”
“There it is, the bait.”
What Friedrich pointed at was the food loaded high in the wagons. Smoked hams, sausages, and other provisions that starving goblins would go mad for.
“Have those provisions scattered like a trail of crumbs all the way to the entrance leading into the basin. Right now!”
At those words, Friedrich clapped his hands, and the Thousand-Man Commander and the Magic Squad Leader stood and saluted.
“Loyalty!”
“We will carry out your orders!”
At this very moment.
The first battle of Friedrich, who would one day make his name known as the greatest commander since Astell the Great, the founder of the Astella Empire, and as the ‘Wicked Genius,’ had begun.
***
However.
At Friedrich’s orders before that battle, all the officers, including the Thousand-Man Commander, doubted their ears.
“You want us to···.”
“Do manual labor?”
Even among the Etilant Army disguised as a merchant caravan, every officer of Ten-Man Commander rank or higher had either received the title of knight or baronet, or was the child of a lord ranked baron or above. And such men were being told to break the ground with shovels and pickaxes and fell trees like ordinary soldiers?
Unlike the aghast officers, Friedrich gave the reason with an indifferent expression.
“All Etilant Army officers can use aura, can they not?”
“That is true, but···.”
Aura is meant for fighting enemies, not for swinging tools!
To the officers who barely swallowed those words as they rose to their throats, Friedrich brought out his trump card.
“I will report the entire process before and after this battle to the Mayor. Conduct yourselves accordingly.”
‘What are you saving your aura for? Get to work, knights!’
Aura enhanced the strength of the body and the cutting power of a blade.
Friedrich was wielding a whip with a carrot attached, intending to put that aura to use in manual labor.
“!!!”
At those words, there was only one answer the officers could give.
“W-we will do it!”
“We will do our utmost!”
It was the moment noble warriors who wielded aura became workers of unmistakable efficiency.