Chapter 724 – Half Man, Half Dragon (5)
***
I said that to Lalilura, but it seems Azteca isn’t as hellish as the rumors I’ve heard in racist Western countries.
No Just looking at the facts, it is more hell than the underworld, but it is still a hell where people live.
How did you know?
Kiara, who had been to the local area, and Istetil, a true-local, said that.
【You seem to be rounding us up and calling us cannibals, but that is an illusion.】
At the place where they gathered to discuss, Istetil said so.
I wasn’t particularly surprised by that. If they were a race that liked to eat people, Kiara would have known about them long ago and tipped them off.
In the first place, he wouldn’t have noticed that I was trying to seduce him on the expedition.
At that time, they would have fought as usual on the shore, subdued them, and left only a few alive and used them as record guidelines. In contrast to his bluntness, his attitude was also soft.
【Just as there is a “Eating side”, There must also be a “Eating side”. Also, just as there is no jungle where only carnivores exist, there are maxicas that do not eat humans. No, there are more of them.]
【Maxica? Ah, you mean Azteca.]
【Yes. Since you guys don’t understand, we can’t help but call it that.]
Istetil, who seems to be in a bad mood even as she speaks.
Well, isn’t it the feeling that our ancestors have to call themselves names like ‘Joshenjing’ or ‘people from a country that is a Chinese subject’ over a decent title? It just makes me feel worse.
Just as the East is collectively called Kitai, is that title also in a similar context?
Like fucking racist western countries.
【Anyway, you guys are the latter, right?】
【Only the Azteca Empire is openly exchanging methods of cooking humans. Maxikas, including other city-states, do not eat humans. And… 】
【And?】
【… Originally, Azteca didn’t eat humans that much. That’s all.】
Istetil, who stopped talking like that, looked at the map of Azteca as if it were strange.
It seems strange that he sees the land he was born in from a bird’s eye view.
【This land, the land we call ‘Ustlan’, is divided into three types, regardless of race. One of them is the Azteca Empire you know.]
【What about the other two?】
【A city-state that resists or submits to them. And Tlier Caxtley.]
What’s wrong is talking about monsters.
Maybe it’s because it’s a neighborhood with no interaction with the outside world. Proper nouns keep popping up between words.
─Exactly!
Kiara pointed at the map on the table with her pointer stick.
【In most of the previous expeditions, they landed in this jungle and went up inside. That’s why I had to suffer from bugs and monsters.]
Eastern shore. In other words, if you go west from the direction of the Western countries, the first land of Earthtlan you encounter is described as a jungle.
【Until today, my explorations have had to be extremely personal and short-lived, as no one could stand up to taking people with them. If someone destroys the boat while I’m gone, won’t I be able to go home too?]
【You did something crazy. The ‘Jungle of the Moon God’ is a place even Maxica fears.]
It was Istetil who hated Kiara’s explanation.
Well, even Aztecan people, if they’re human, would prefer a nice place to live. It was a jungle overflowing with parasites, poisonous insects, and large monsters. There is no reason to like it.
Kiara shrugged her shoulders and trembled.
【However, it is not possible to land on other beaches. There are many reefs and obstacles above and below, and the western part of the continent, as you can see, is the territory of the Azteca Empire.]
【It would be unreasonable to proudly enter the envoy, right?】
【Haha. The Count has a lot of abilities, so I might leave him alive and get him to work. However, if you are going to land in the Azteca Empire, it is better not to take your wives with you.]
It’s just a scary story. Istetil frowned at her.
【There is a beach in the south as well. You can land there. Wouldn’t it be enough to place that ridiculous island below the southern part and send that ‘ship’?]
Although he was horrified after witnessing Atlantis within a week, Istetil seemed to understand the outline of our operation quite intelligently.
She wouldn’t say it out loud, but she was a little surprised.
After all, it’s not good to cover up and prejudice because of race.
[If Lord Wolfhedin runs Atlantis, I plan to land on the continent by ship, but there are too many marine monsters in the south.]
—Cock-kock-kock. Kiara dotting the map with mana.
【Strength is also strong, but the number of monsters is the problem. It’s hard to come up with a way to protect the ship even if I or Lord Wolfheddin try their best. If there is even a hole at the bottom, it will sink right away?]
【If that’s the case, you can leave it to us.】
Istetil said in an apathetic tone, as if it were a trivial concern.
[Sea monsters? Shuns and fears us Skolakiche. If we just swim around that ship, they won’t even come close. Even if blood is spilled, they will run away from the nearby sea.]
【Five?】
That’s very helpful information. I asked in surprise.
【What kind of principle is this?】
【… Is the history of the nation. We will do the demonstration in the nearby sea area, so check it out.]
Don’t like to say He’s a man of many secrets.
We discussed it like that, planned the strategy, and took a break for a while.
– Moongrak.
When the Valkyries offered several cups of tea, Istetil calmly drank it.
It seems that he doesn’t worry about poison. Kiara, who was flipping through the newspaper, said as she was sipping the Valquiriers’ tea, which had become so delicious.
“It’s been about a week, so it’s time to move under the water.”
“Are you talking about another country?”
It was not informed that this expedition was in fact a Hittite expedition.
However, it is likely that other countries will come to smell it to some extent, or to stick a spoon in with a promise of appropriate cooperation. ─Fallang. Kiara flipped through the newspaper.
“Yes. Besides Narmer-Nile. Personally, I expected Nidavellir.”
“Nidavellir? Why are you there again?”
“Because Azteca prefers foreign artisans. Like dwarves, for example.”
… Flutter. Kiara passing the paper.
A man of mixed blood, a dwarf woman and an Aztecan warrior, covered the newspaper as if he had finished reading it.
“Azteca no longer has a class that wants to acquire specialized skills, including metallurgy. Even if she tries to extort talent from other city-states like a united empire, she knows that she will be dragged away, but there is no way she will become an artisan.”
“So you’re recruiting craftsmen from the outside?”
“I’m not talking about them, but there are many ‘warrior (Ueyoselotl)’ classes who can breathe underwater. It is also true that they tend to kidnap the Dwarf artisans of Nidavellir.”
For some reason, the word ‘warrior’ sounds a bit different from the image I had in mind.
Still, Kiara said that she was actually born through such a process.
To dismiss it as absurd, it was unlikely that the guild leader of the Adventurers Union would talk about his past and spread his sophistry.
‘… If you look at it then.’
When I went to Nidavellir the other day, the shop where Zoid Tustas worked as a security guard sold Aztecan masks or something.
‘Did I get frightened while watching Lalilura’s strangeness?’
If you think about it, that was a bit odd.
Azteca is a land unfamiliar to Western countries. In fact, in other countries, I haven’t even heard of Azteca’s products, let alone word of mouth.
Nidavellir had a chance to get involved with Azteca compared to other countries.
Didn’t the army of King Chung, who operated close to Germania-Nidabellir, also use insects from Azteca? There is too much evidence to doubt Kiara’s words.
“But, if you simply need a craftsman, you don’t have to go all the way to Nidavellir, right?”
Even going from Azteca to the edge of the western country is fucking exhausting, but why is it that you have to go all the way to Nidavellir, the far east, so close to the wilderness going to the east?
‘Or is there any reason to be a dwarf?’
No matter what the method of bringing the kidnapped dwarf was, it wouldn’t be an ordinary effort.
Of course, it’s not something to be praised for, but it is.
“Yes. Of course, there are other reasons too. This is because Azteca believes that the qualities of a child are different depending on who the mother is.”
Kiara held up three of her fingers and picked them up one by one.
“One. A person of noble birth. Two. A person of great talent. Finally three. It is a dwarf.”
“… Why only dwarves?”
Among the candidates, isn’t the only one with a different color scheme? In fact, in a different world with strong bloodlines, the first and second reasons are based on fairly realistic reasons.
“Haha. Sir Wolfheddin. Superstitions don’t need logical reasons.”
Kiara said that, but I noticed that there was something he didn’t say. It may be that there are unspeakable or terrible memories intertwined.
And with a lot of secrets, I’m a forager that I can’t go wrong with anywhere.
I was in a position where I couldn’t say the word without hiding it from Istetil or Kiara.
And actually, Kiara’s words were right.
By the time we were almost ready to go out.
This is because the Nidavellir delegation from the Atlantis Conference came to Heathreut once again.
【Excuse me for being an alter ego from the beginning.】
Carrying something like a small doll modeled after a girl.
[Queen of Nidavellir, Ivaldi von Dberg. Meet the great hero with high reputation.]
【… It’s an honor to meet you like this.]
In this fantasy medieval land, why do royals go out of their homes?
It’s better than Elizabeth’s brother and sister in that he only sent an alter ego.
