Sword, Magic and Academic Society-Chapter 283Vol. 1 - - Rovenne Viscounty

Dragreid, the region governed by Yuglia's one of the pillar noble houses, was a vast land famed for its grandeur nature.

Even among the other marquisates—there were nine pillars of the House of Marquis—Dragreid was the undisputed crowned land of nature. And just like its varied nature, its inhabitants displayed varied cultures or traditions in the, giving it a colorful outlook.

Well, this was the sophisticated way to paint the Dragreid, but in plain, simple words, it meant their majority of land was populated with backwater territories. While it boasted huge surface area, at least half of the region was in clutches of wilderness or mountains, so even for something like farming, it lacked plains.

As far as the population count mattered, when compared to other regions, you would be much better checking up from the bottom. And conversely, the wilderness was just the perfect breeding ground for hordes of monsters.

The urbanisation also hadn't progressed in contrast to their neighbour, Diarmac Marquesate, and neither they'd the sophistication of rural areas from Dosperior despite the latter facing a similar situation.

Yet, despite already being a tough place to navigate, the Claubia Fort Town, which also housed Rovenne territory, was seen as even more of a treasure trove of nature. Just as blessed it was with nature, it similarly was one of the worst places to access.

The path beyond the rural inn town, as it ran alongside an old highway, was dominated by multiple steep mountains. Nature was also a perfect breeding ground for strong monsters. One could only imagine the impossible effort that must have been spent just to bring current level of development in otherwise wilderness dominated land.

While there were not strong records per se, in the Yuglia's record, Allen's ancestor had been appointed as the noble roughly 700 years ago. The kingdom's record dictates Alsace Rovenne had been the one to pioneer the land, albeit the history passed down in the Rovenne family spoke of a different story.

In the depth of the dense forest, the Rovenne family had been living there for as long as they could remember. They basked in the rich resources of the nature while ensuring a harmonic nature with them, slowly but steadily developing the land.

Claubia Fort Town, capital of Rovenne’s territory, was located in the heart of one such region.

As a backwater place, there wasn't much to speak of, except maybe the grandeur walls confining fiefdom which stood like a sore thumb. In practice, the walls were Claubia town’s best defense against the outburst of stampede that occurs once in a decade or two. Incidentally, it was funded by the Rovenne family.

Albeit, this was where any semblance of novel experience ended. The rest of the town was just a typical idyllic scenery, cycling in a perpetual loop of tranquilnes—on another note, perhaps it would be better to state it *used* to be a tranquil countryside.

What used to be once an uneventful place had suddenly gone through a crazy transformation. The reason was, needless to say, Allen.

Ever since Allen had qualified for Royal Academy, there had been one revelation after another. Allen's antics were obviously a significant contributor, but beyond that, Schord had suddenly become an enigmatic persona, people learned that his older sister Rose was just as crazy talented—though the crazy aspect was more than just about her talent. And, even their mother had turned out to be the biological sister of the Head of the Dosperior family.

Suddenly, an unassuming place had become the birthplace of elites. To no one's surprise, this garnered attention from inside, and outside alike. There were even rumours that the Royal family had been secretly conducting human research programs in collusion with the Dosperior family, and Rovenne territory is the experimental background for their cover ops.

There was one more reason behind the attention it was getting. The other day, the Royal family had announced that Claubia Forest-Mountain Range would be coming under their jurisdiction.

The official reason stated it's a move to protect the region's valuable flora and fauna. Whatever the reason maybe, a mere viscounty receiving the patronage of the royal family was an exceedingly irregular happening.

Now, while the land was now under the administration of the Royal family, the practical handling was in Rovenne's hand. In other words, to enter the Claubia Forest-Mountain Range without Rovenne's permission was tantamount to opposing the Royal family. It brought in a whole new definition—a strong deterrence to the viscounty.

In tune, it only strengthened the rumours—there had to be a secret slumbering in that land.

The thoughts were shared by many, and by sunset, a bunch of baseless, exaggerated rumours had gained legs.

One of the rumours even made a wild guess that the Cluabia region might be laden with local speciality that helped in the cure of Mana Collapse disease, the supposedly incurable disease, which would also explain the miraculous survival of Cecilia Dosperior, and why the esteemed princess of Marquis Sunset family would marry into a viscount family.

This particular rumour, however, never took off. After all, finding a cure for the incurable disease was an achievement enough to be acknowledged in history, and that wasn't considering the vast riches it would bring them.

Regardless of the truth, the Rovenne territory had become a magnet to nobles, merchants, spies, explorers, or simply curious tourists. Along with their rush, the town was made to face new struggles.

◆◆◆

"Uh-huh... the forest just doesn't seem to be gaining its calm. There's something disturbing it, and it's only getting worse with each passing day."

Bellwood grimaced as he walked down the forest path during his daily morning walk. Cecilia, who had been with him, heightened her vigilance and threw her glances to scan the surroundings. Eventually, a wry smile surfaces on her face when she failed to find anyone's presence.

"......I don't think I can understand what gives your this feeling, but if you say so, then the forest must be restless."

If it had been just a monster, Cecilia would've long noticed its presence, however Bellwood's mystical words alludes to her.

"The presence of crowds has been exponentially increased in our territory. Despite regulating the entrance limit, there are still so many fellas camping outside the walls. I really don't know how to deal with them."

Bellwood uttered in a whimper-ish tone, his face weary. Cecilia promptly straightened out her husband.

"Have a grip on yourself, Bell. How do you expect to ease the anxiety of a fief if you, their lord, is displaying such an egregious expression? You knew this would be the exact situation should Allen get admitted to the academy, didn't you? ...You're only allowing the situation to fester even more by delaying action."

Bellwood exhaled a sigh, but raised his face, seemingly reaching a determination.

"Haa...... I had been hoping to somehow prolong it till forest has quieted down, but you're right. Ironically enough, we just have enough hands due to circumstance too. Alright, it's time to expand. Let's build a city."

◆◆◆ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"And I am asking how long do we have to camp in the wilderness! We're not some pauper, we're coming with money!"

An explorer, bearing rough appearance, hollered and slammed his fist against the table on the checkpoint of rampart. Behind him, he had been followed by what appeared to be his party members, either wearing a similar scroundel look.

"You ask me, and who do I tell, man... You know, the town's not even left any inn empty. Lord Rovenne has made it clear, unless you have any reservation with an inn, no one is allowed. So, you're better off arranging that then chewing my ears."

The guard annoyingly remarked, though it only served to worsen said explorer's mood.

"If it was possible, I would have done it already damn it! How do you expect me to book an inn when the latest opening isn't until three years later. Is this some sort of mockery!?"

Just as the Explorer worded, every inn inside the Rovenne's territory had been booked through for a long duration by the marquises of other regions through their financial strength.

They didn't splurge out of vanity either. The inns had been actively used by nobles whenever required, if not then it'd be their merchant, researchers, or a guest.

In typical scenarios, Rovenne should've been attempting to meet the booming demand, albeit they'd have a huge moat hindering them—the walls. Cluabia was a fort town. There was only so much they could expand within the bound of the walls.

As a fact, Bellwood had been offered financial loans by many, but the former had a huge dislike for sudden changes, and he turned them down.

Seeing the Explorer before him getting worked up, the Guard floated a "what the heck is he getting angry for?" look and raised his hand, shrugging his shoulders.

"Hey, Johnny. It seems you have it rough handling these idiots everyday, ain't you? Just saying, it's not too late to become an explorer, again. A person of your caliber is definitely a need of the hour. Well, if you fancy something better, I do not mind making you the Branch Manager either."

Suddenly, the guard was addressed by a passing man while letting out a laugh.

The guard—Johnny, shook his head with a wry smile when he noticed the person. Meanwhile, the explorer who had been watching their exchange approached the man.

"So, you're the Branch Manager of Rovenne's exploration association? I am Riben, hailing from Robles, the «City of Explorers». I was a D-rank explorer there at the age of 23. Can you please get us a way inside? Atleast, we'd be more helpful than the thickskull over there!"

The Branch Manager wore an impassive expression, and nudged at Johnny next to him.

"Oh, Robless...? Hey, Johnny. It seems you have better competition."

"......If they can truly help, my duty is to allow their entry and introduce them to the branch's inn. Isn't this what we'd decided?"

Johnny gestured with the shake of his neck. The explorers saw their conversation as a mockery to them, and enraged them.

"...That's some load of words for a guard! If there's lodging available, you should've started from there, dumbass! We'd even expressly came all the way from Robless to this backwater place. There's a limit—"

The explorer approached Johnny in aggression, The later saw through their attempt and slammed the butt of his spear on his knee.

The force caused the explorer to groan, and rolled on the ground. Johnny kept the butt of his spear pressed against him.

"Can you not crack a joke, Branch Manager? The whole place is teeming with C-rank explorers. If you're so eager for your replacement, just ask Chief Dio to take over your position."

What was once a once-in-a-full-moon sighting of C-rank explorers were now dime-a-dozen in the Clubia town. But, of course, they'd belonged to influential families and were tasked to gather information.

On the other hand, the presence of so many explorers had created an information exchange network between, which made decimation of basic information an effortless task, easing the burden on Explorer Association. The latter was quite thankful for the situation.

The Branch Manager spared a glance at the explorer rolling at Johnny's feet, and shook his head as if he felt a pity.

"Hmm, you're also a former C-rank explorer though. It doesn't look like your skills have gone wasted. Anyway, Johnny, if you ever feel like you need a change of pace, you're always welcome."

After capturing Johnny's shrugging gesture, Branch Manager softly addressed Riben and his party members.

".....Hey, you should also give up here. You must have come here believing you can make easy money here with your bottom-scraping skills. But, you see, our branch's seasoned explorers currently do not have enough patience to teach you all the ropes, unlike Johnny here."

Following Branch Manager's suggestion, Johnny also stops pushing his spear against Riben. "Damn you!" Riben jumped to his feet with a force.

Just then, a short-statured, middle-aged man approached Johnny. The former had been next in the line, and was watching everything quietly.

"......Well, if you may pardon me, I have forgotten to arrange an inn for myself as well... Do you think something can be done?"

A burnout salary-man. The words were a perfect fit for the middle-aged-man. Branch Manager wore an exasperated expression, sighing 'not again,' and glanced at Johnny.

"Mhm, alright. You may enter."

Johnny unhesitatingly gave the middle-aged man a pass.

" "Wha—?!" "

This caught Ribel, his followers, and even Branch Manager by surprise.

"But—"

Johnny paused, and lowered his waist, tightening the grip on his spear.

"I would like to hear who you're, what's your purpose behind the visit?"