Chapter 34: The Homeland of Twenty-Five Years Ago

Even though it was the height of summer and he was indoors, Rosh felt a strange chill as he read the words in the booklet in his hands.

As though a cool breeze had brushed past him, he shuddered.

Only now, at this very moment, had he finally found the answer to every question.

No wonder Dave’s commander had told him to stay as far back as possible once the battle began.

No wonder the two sons of Lord Bantanda had come to Wheel Town for a visit.

And no wonder those nobles, despite knowing that war was about to break out, had still crowded into Wheel Town.

Because they knew this was not a war at all. It was merely a performance—

A performance such as one rarely had the chance to see.

The only ones who would be wounded in this performance were the guards and soldiers who charged into battle.

Afterward, the kingdom would claim a victory in name, the nobles would watch the spectacle and leave laughing, and the only thing left wounded would be Wheel Town.

Just as Lady Chelsea had said, Wheel Town would have no lord after this, because none would be needed.

The slimes would take over.

Rosh remembered what Cole, the boy who delivered the newspapers, had told him that morning.

“Mr. Rosh, slimes are tremendously powerful monsters. In recent years, whenever slimes have laid siege to other places, the kingdom has managed to hold them off in the end, but the kingdom has suffered heavy losses every time. There has never been a truly overwhelming victory.”

So this sort of territorial cession must have happened more than once.

The kingdom was probably already well practiced in the process—perhaps it even treated each cession as a ceremony to be observed.

That was why those nobles had brought their entire households here.

Even without a night’s rest, Rosh’s mind felt unusually clear.

He organized all the threads in his head and realized that only a few details remained unclear.

And to resolve those doubts, there was only one person he could ask.

Old White.

Rosh stretched his neck, stiff from spending so long bent over the books.

While consulting the dictionary just now, he had retranslated the sentence on the back of the parchment scroll.

Leila’s previous translation had been mostly correct, but some of the words sounded strange when rendered in the language of the Gran Continent, so the dictionary had simplified them further.

For example, “the place where the sun rises” meant the east.

“The place of cold” meant the north.

Once the literal translation had been changed into an idiomatic one and polished, the sentence on the back of the parchment read:

“The enemy to the east is too powerful. Most of our companions are in the north. Endure and hold fast.”

In terms of location, the goblin settlement Rosh had wiped out last time was indeed north of Wheel Town, but it lay in the southern part of the entire goblin territory.

Combined with the preceding sentence, the meaning was:

The slimes considered the gray region part of their own territory, and they were powerful. The goblins had concentrated most of their forces in the north, while those along the southern border, where their lands met the gray region, could only endure and hold their ground. They could not enter the gray region in large numbers.

It was only after translating the entire passage that Rosh realized something.

He had been in this world for so long, yet he had never once learned what the relationship among the slimes, the kingdom, and the goblins really was.

Still, he believed Old White could give him an answer.

…

Through the small window in the door, Rosh finally saw Old White sitting quietly inside the exchange house, sipping tea. The room was no longer empty.

He looked at Old White and activated Examine.

One second later, he ended the examination and pushed open the door.

Jingle-jangle—

The familiar wind chimes rang out as Rosh stepped inside.

“Good morning, Old White.”

As usual, Rosh greeted him with a smile.

“Good morning, little Rosh.”

Old White set down his teacup and said with a smile, “My parrot told me you came looking for me. More than once, in fact.”

“Yes. Where have you been lately?”

Rosh found a chair and sat diagonally opposite Old White.

“I went to see a few people. You know how it is. Quite a number of people have come to town, and there are some among them whom I know.”

Old White skillfully poured him a cup of tea.

The remark sounded a little strange, as though half of it had been left unsaid.

Under ordinary circumstances, “some friends I know” would have sounded more natural.

Rosh did not dwell on the detail. He accepted the tea and said, “I thought you might leave town. I saw a lot of people departing.”

“Leave town?”

Old White shook his head with a rueful laugh.

“Little Rosh, I told you long ago, this is not—”

“This is not a war.”

Rosh picked up the thread, then smiled and slowly continued under Old White’s incredulous gaze.

“This is a territorial cession, isn’t it?”

Almost instantly, Old White’s expression darkened.

Along with it, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

But Rosh’s expression did not change. He continued to look at Old White with a smile.

His free hand was tucked into his pocket, gripping Thorn’s Guardian tightly.

A deep yellow glow tinged with faint green—that was the light he had seen around Old White when he examined him outside the door.

Rosh had never imagined that the little old man who so often drank tea with him was an existence on the verge of reaching the fourth tier.

But he had not yet reached it.

With Thorn’s Guardian, healing magic, and thirty available points at his disposal, Rosh had deliberately avoided sitting directly opposite Old White and kept a certain distance between them.

Thus, even if Old White truly turned hostile, Rosh was confident he would not be completely defenseless.

The two of them stared at each other in silence.

After several seconds, Old White let out a long sigh.

The temperature in the room returned to normal.

“Who told you?”

Old White’s face was filled with helplessness.

“No one. I happened to figure it out.”

Rosh smiled.

“What do you want to ask?”

Old White spoke first.

“My first question: I saw many people leaving town. Can those who have left escape this cession?”

Rosh asked.

Old White shook his head.

“Since you have realized that this siege by the slimes is a cession, you should also understand what a cession means.”

“When the kingdom first makes such an agreement, it decides how many people will be included in the cession, right down to each individual’s name, health, and what they are capable of doing as slaves.”

“The list for Wheel Town must have been settled from the beginning. The kingdom would never dare break the agreement.”

“It is only a matter of time before those residents who fled the town are captured and brought back.”

Rosh nodded thoughtfully.

After considering this for a while, he said, “Second question.”

“Who are you, exactly?”

“Me?”

Rosh’s question seemed to awaken certain memories in him.

Old White gazed at the teacup in his hands with a look of melancholy and slowly began:

“I do not know how much you have heard, but Wheel Town underwent a cession twenty-five years ago—one initiated by the goblins.”

“Of course, the kingdom claimed it was a battle.”

“And it did resemble a battle, because that cession failed.”

“Someone learned of it beforehand and led a group of people into fierce combat against the goblins. No one expected them to actually fight the goblins to mutual destruction without any aid from the kingdom.”

“The goblins’ forces in the south were drastically reduced. Fearing that the slimes to the east would take advantage of their weakness, they withdrew of their own accord.”

“The proposed cession fell through, and Wheel Town was preserved. The people who fought in that battle were turned by the kingdom into celebrated heroes.”

After Old White finished, Rosh asked, “So you were one of those heroes?”

Old White shook his head. He looked toward Rosh and slowly said:

“It was because of me that the cession ended in mutual destruction. Otherwise, we would certainly have won.”