Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 633
Chapter 633: Reconstruction (2)
As I kept my head lowered after my apology, the marquess asked me, “Apologies? For what?”
I didn’t answer.
“Tell me. I truly do not understand.”
I got the feeling that showing him would be faster than telling him, so I began to take out the items I obtained during the Basement Floor One expedition. I then slowly piled them up in the room.
“Why did you suddenly stop?” he demanded at a certain point.
“That’s all.”
“What do you mean? From what the reports said, you should’ve at least had over a hundred magic vials with essences in them.”
Right, that.
“I did.”
Only then did the marquess become speechless, realizing why I had been talking in the past tense.
However, it appeared that he was at least curious about the reason. “…How did this happen?”
“Lord Marquess, it seems that you are the type of person who pays more attention to the process than the outcome.”
“I am saying this because you could be in a lot of trouble. Do not answer with jokes.”
Alright, then that was the extent of my messing around.
I gave him the long-winded excuse I had prepared beforehand. Although I talked for quite a long time, uncharacteristic of a barbarian, my tirade could be summarized into one line.
“…You needed to increase your strength to escape the city, and that is why you handed out the essences to the adventurers of District Seven? All those precious essences?”
“Yes.”
“My goodness… This is beyond baffling.”
“What’s baffling about it? If we failed in our escape and got captured by our enemies, the essences would’ve been taken by them anyway.” Then not quite under my breath, I muttered, “Yeah, isn’t this better than having them fall into the hands of our enemy?”
I watched as the marquess clutched at his forehead through the magic crystal as if he had been struck by a bout of dizziness. “This problem… will need to be brought up again in the next palatial meeting. You have indeed saved the adventurers of District Seven, Your Lordship. We’ll need to discuss which between your achievements and your losses is greater.”
To summarize, they needed to investigate if what I told the marquess was true or not. Well, even if they did investigate, they would just confirm my actions.
“So please don’t cause any more incidents and stay still until the situation is resolved,” he pleaded. His last words seemed to be not a formality, but a genuine comment for me.
“Got it. I’ll stay put, so don’t worry about me.”
“…It is the response I wanted, yet I find myself even more uneasy.”
“Hmm. That might be because you have a small heart, Lord Marquess.”
He looked dumbfounded.
Ah, was that the time to agree with him and try to console him?
Since that wasn’t a field I was proficient in, I pulled out a different topic of conversation. “Oh! So what will happen to the adventurers and my servants in the district square right now? Are you going to keep them there?”
“Though I’m sure it is uncomfortable, you’ll need to stay there for the time being. The situation should settle in the next few days.”
“Next few days…” From the way he said it, he truly seemed to believe that everything would resolve itself by then. That didn’t mean that I didn’t believe it myself, of course. Since the second-in-command of the palace was saying it, he probably had some evidence to back up his beliefs. “Got it. Then we’ll stay there and wait for news.”
With that, our conversation ended and I immediately returned to the square. As I spent my days living with the people on the streets, time quickly passed.
“Did you all hear? It seems that the soldiers of the palace pressured the Noarkans and most of the hostages have been freed!”
One day.
“I heard that the forces of Noark in District Seven and District Thirteen are being pushed by the soldiers of the palace!”
Two days.
“District Thirteen has been completely liberated from their control.”
Three days.
“Those damned dogs were pushed away from District Seven as well. I heard that they fled to Bifron!”
“Yeah!”
Four days…
Although the battle lines were pushed every day, we didn’t hear any explosions from the side of Bifron.
Rumble!
But then, the fifth day came.
“Wh-what?! Look at that!”
We were able to see it. Although I didn’t know what the palace’s plan was…
“B-Bifron’s protective magic barrier turned black…!”
It was clear that something had gone wrong.
***
The Final Citadel of Rafdonia. This huge city-state had the Last Sage’s legacy, the protective magic circle, encompassing all its districts.
Since the Witch’s poison was a lie, I had doubted the existence of the protective magic circle as well.
But it does exist.
With the arrow fired by Erwen not long ago, we confirmed the magic circle’s existence. Because it was transparent, it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but the barrier firmly blanketed the entire city and separated it from the outside world.
At this point, I don’t know if it’s protective or imprisoning.
Whatever the case, that wasn’t important right now.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
“Does anybody know?”
“Is it because of the Witch’s poison?”
With the ground rumbling, the protective magic barrier surrounding Bifron was dyed black. It was how I imagined an alien invasion might appear when forming a barrier around a select area to cut it off from the outside world.
There was a chance that this was the palace’s original plan, yet…
“Yandel, the movements of the army aren’t normal.”
I got a feeling that wasn’t the case.
“Wait here,” I ordered. “I’ll go look into it.”
Sensing that something was wrong, I requested a meeting with the prime minister, but it was refused because he was busy, and it took me a few more days to finally get in contact with him.
“You look gaunt.”
The prime minister, who I was seeing for the first time in a bit, seemed to have lived a busy life as he looked a few kilograms thinner.
“Looks like things didn’t go well?” I questioned.
“…The details are military secrets, so I cannot tell you, but you could say that.”
“No, at least tell me a little bit. Look at how Bifron’s ended up.”
“…You’ll be able to hear about it when things settle down a little. You are also a noble of Rafdonia. Still, to tell you one thing, the forces of Noark won’t be exiting that area for the time being.”
“That’s a relief…”
To be honest, I thought I was going to go wild with curiosity to know what was happening, but I got the feeling that he wouldn’t tell me anything no matter how much I asked, so I decided to give up for now.
“Then what will happen to us?” I demanded. “Do we need to keep staying here?”
“You won’t need to anymore. District Four will also return to normal operations starting tomorrow.”
“Then are we free to move around again?”
“That’s right. District Seven should be open right now, so you can go there if you wish.”
“What about my servants from Bifron? Are there problems with them too?”
“Ah, we had a deep discussion about that problem as well…but we decided to overlook it for the time being. However, that is only while you have them as your servants.”
“And what happens when they stop being my servants?”
“They will be executed. We cannot send them back to Bifron at present.”
Execution as soon as they stopped being my servants. Although they proposed such an extreme condition, considering how conservative the palace usually was, we were let off easily this time. Well, they probably had their own ideas as well.
“Ah, and since they will be living within the city now, they will also need to start paying taxes.”
Hah…I guess I should’ve seen that coming.
“How much do they need to pay?”
“Their rate is the same as regular citizens. The underage will be exempt from taxes just the same.”
That was a bit of relief to hear. If not for the final bit added at the end.
“Ah,” the marquess said, seeming to realize something. “Also, the residents of Bifron cannot take on jobs that require military training. I’ll tell you this just in case you misunderstand, but that includes being an adventurer.”
To put it simply, I couldn’t even get the talented ones to become adventurers to manage the rest of them.
“Could I give you a piece of advice as someone who has been in the position of prime minister for a long time?”
“Go on.”
“Reduce them. As much as possible.”
I went silent.
“What’s the point in having those useless people around?”
It was the type of advice I expected to receive from the prime minister. The city itself tended to treat those who couldn’t pay taxes as useless and worthless, and the marquess was the one who managed the overall finances of the state. The residents of Bifron would only look like trash in his eyes.
“Oh, thanks for the advice. I’ll let it pass through one ear and out the other.”
The barbarian heart, however, wouldn’t allow such nonsense to settle.
After that, we exchanged a few more words before the prime minister left, saying he was busy.
That was the end of our conversation.
After returning to the square, I summoned the adventurers of District Seven and the residents of Bifron and headed into the destroyed District Seven.
…In the end, we returned here like this.
We ran to Bifron before living as refugees in District Four before finally returning to District Seven.
They really messed this place up.
It seemed that the news of the palace soldiers driving them out was true, the district looked incomparably more destroyed than when we first left it. The main road was turned to rubble as the collapsed buildings to its sides were marred with blood splatters and battle scars.
The tents the soldiers had used weren’t even packed up and were still set up.
“Noooo! My shop…! My shop!”
“Mother! Mother! Here! Over here! You’re safe!”
We encountered the residents of District Seven, who could finally return after the district was opened up.
“W-well then, we’ll be going.”
“Me too… I need to check if my home is still safe or not…”
“Thank you for saving us. I will never forget this until the day I die, Lord Baron!”
With that, the District Seven adventurers slowly broke off and went their own ways, and I was left alone with my allies and the 8,712 residents of Bifron.
“…Yandel, where are you going?”
“I’m going to the holy land.”
“I see… You do need to check how things are going there,” Amelia said, understanding my position.
In actuality, though, the reason I was heading to the holy land was completely different from what she expected.
It was true that I was worried for them.
But we need to find a place to sleep for today.
If we couldn’t find a place to sleep, we could just sleep on the streets of District Seven, but I figured if we were going to do that, it would be better to sleep out in the open in the holy land.
Well, that should have been the case, at least.
“Lord Bjooorn!”
As soon as I arrived at the holy land, I regretted coming.
“Why did you only return now?!”
“…It’s been a while, Shavin Emoor. Have you been well? Let go of me first—”
“I won’t let go! What if you don’t come back for months again if I let go?! No! Never!”
It seemed that Shavin, the administrator of our tribe, had been battered by work alone for the last few months, and even had maxed out her stress due to the invasion by Noark.
Amelia used her professional voice and pulled her hand off of me. “Let go of his hand, and we can talk after.”
“Huh? Ah… Okay…” Shavin seemed to regain her senses.
If this was a boss battle, she was currently maxed out on stun. From my experience, that was the time to quickly put in my apologies.
“Shavin, I’m sorry, I really didn’t know I would take this long to return.”
“…I understand the situation as well. I was quite worried myself.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you—”
When the conversation seemed to be going in a more friendly direction, she suddenly cut me off. “But what’s with those people behind you?”
Shavin’s eyes had landed on the 8,712 people standing awkwardly behind me.
This was a problem.
“Ah, uh, er…”
What should I say?
Well, let’s change the topic for now.
“S-so, how is the holy land? From what I can see, a lot has changed…”
“While you were away, we completed about a quarter of our holy land development. Thanks to that, we have a lot of money as well.”
“Oh, that’s great to hear.” I did notice how the roads were paved and the buildings were lined up well on the way here.
“So, who are those people?”
“They are the residents of Bifron. They became our Yandel Clan’s servants.”
“All of them…?”
At those eyes that asked what crap I was spewing, even I couldn’t help but become quieter.
“…There was a situation.”
Shavin was lost for words, as she became a little uneasy before carefully asking me this question. “So why did you bring them here? Those servants?”
“They don’t have anywhere to stay. So I’m thinking of letting them stay in the holy land for the time being.”
“Wow, I see.” Shavin nodded sarcastically as she asked, “Then what about the land those people will use? The food they will eat? What about our budget?”
Ah, about that… The financial minister would need to take care of that. So to translate it into the language here…
“The head administrator can take care of that.”
“…Head administrator?”
Shavin Emoor tilted her head in confusion as if to ask if a position like that existed in the clan.
I tapped her shoulder as I said, “Yeah, head administrator.”
You just got promoted.