Chapter 44: It’s just so hard to believe

I gathered my best soldiers and headed toward the wasteland.

My goal was to investigate the villager, or rather, the city in the said wasteland myself.

“But Dant-sama, you don’t have to go yourself. We’ll do it for you.”

The one to ask me was Bazara, the commanding officer of the elite group I brought along.

He has served my family for more than a generation now. Partly thanks to his combat-type Gift, he was a fighter who could take down an orc by himself, with plenty of room to spare.

“To be frank, there’s something that worries me. That worry is what made me decide it will be better if I came with you.”

“What worry is that, if I may ask?”

“Hmm…it’s possible that Lord Albert’s son, Luke-sama, is in the city in the wasteland.”

“What?”

Everyone thought that Luke-sama would certainly be the one to inherit the whole Albert territory.

However, immediately after their blessing ceremony, he was apparently sent away to some undeveloped land instead. This was only a rumor though. Lord Albert and his estate has yet to release any official statement on the matter.

And perhaps to keep the public from knowing for certain, even I—a governor of a region—was left in the dark.

On the other hand, news about Lord Albert’s second son, Raul, inheriting his Gift [Sword Master Techniques] were spread across the land right away. The fact that Luke-sama wasn’t mentioned as well meant almost for certain that he failed inherit the said Gift.

Even so, that alone shouldn’t have been enough for Luke-sama to be sent away that quickly.

However, if Luke-sama didn’t get a Gift at all or if the Gift he got was deemed worthless, then his exile made sense.

I stared at the wasteland ahead, wondering if this was the undeveloped land that Luke-sama was said to be sent to.

“All the same, it’s just so hard to believe a city can be built in this wasteland in such a short amount of time. Ahh, we’ll have answers once we get there.”

Before long, the wasteland was in sight.

As to be expected, there was no vegetation of any kind. The ground had nothing but sand and stones.

Further in though, it was a different story.

“What, what’s that…?”

Bazara was shocked.

And even though I was forewarned by the reports, I too could not believe what was before me.

As though to stop the barren wasteland from proceeding further, imposing walls stretched almost infinitely.

These walls were no less splendid than the ones in Riesen, the city I usually stayed in.

“No matter how you look at it, that’s a city, not a village…”

“I guess the next question is if that city is really built within just half a year…”

Just by looking at the reddish-brown ground, one could tell that that was impossible.

As such, Bazara and I could do nothing more than look at each other and tilt our heads.

After a moment, we decided to get closer.

When we were near enough, a viewing window about halfway up of the wall opened. The window revealed the face of rough-looking man.

…this can’t be a bandit’s den, can it?                               

“Why have you come to our village?”

“I am Dant, the appointed governor of the northern region of the Albert territory. I apologize for visiting without prior notice, but I’d like to meet with the representative of your city, err, village.”

The other person called it a village, so I decided to call it that as well for the meantime.

I still wasn’t convinced a village could have such magnificent walls though.

In a city of comparable size, it would take a while before the proper authorities were notified and a little bit more before we would be let in.

To my surprise though, it didn’t even take a minute before we were given permission to enter.

“Dant-sama, do not worry. I know not what lies ahead, but in the end, this is a city in the middle of nowhere. As long as we are here, no harm shall ever come to you.”

Bazara confidently promised me so.

“What’s…?”

When we passed through the gates, we were confused once more.

Instead of a city, what we saw were fields.

“Farmlands are inside the walls…?”

Normally, fields and such were kept outside of city walls, and inside of it were mostly houses and other buildings.

It went without saying that building walls to surround such a vast area of land cost a lot in terms of manpower and money.

“There’s a second layer of walls there…is that where the people here live? Ha, this city is much smaller than I thought then.”

Bazara said so, relieved.

I, on the other hand, became even more frightened. How can they build so many walls?