Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 650
Chapter 650: Barbarian Business (3)
Marquess Tercerion, the prime minister of Rafdonia, looked at me and let out a deep sigh. Sighing right into someone’s face was impolite in noble society. Maybe he did it because it was me. This gramps wasn’t holding back anymore either.
Eventually, he asked, “Are you not going to talk?”
“Before that, could I ask you one thing?”
“Make it quick.”
“Why did you avoid me all this time?” It was a pretty flimsy line, even for me, but I knew that I needed to ask him at least once.
“Avoid you? What do you mean?”
“I kept trying to make an appointment with you, but you ignored all my attempts at making contact.”
That shouldn’t have been possible, not unless he was actively avoiding me. So then, why did the marquess avoid me? It wasn’t like he was trying to play hard-to-get either. He had given me a position in the Palatial Meeting not long ago, and he had even tried to marry his daughter off to me.
The truth I heard come out from the marquess’s mouth was very simple.
“I was busy.”
“So busy that you couldn’t even send a reply?”
“I didn’t even know you tried to contact me to begin with. I’ve spent the last few days working in the palace.”
I looked him over again and noticed a deep-set exhaustion shading his eyes. Was that why? He sounded much more sensitive and aggressive than usual.
“And I’ve heard from my head butler that he told you that was the case, no?” he pressed.
“Uh…” I was told that, but I never expected it to be real and not just an excuse.
I went quiet, momentarily caught off guard. The marquess sent me a look of exacerbation.
“You are quite odd as well. You came to me to ask why I was avoiding you because I didn’t make time to meet you. Aren’t you being too arrogant?”
“…Huh?”
“You think that just because you want to meet someone, they should go out of their way to make time for you, as if they were just waiting for you to call on them?”
“I understand. I’ll apologize for this time.”
“Don’t apologize, make a promise. You will never seek me out using this method again. I can tolerate a few instances of impoliteness due to cultural differences, but this is frankly disrespectful behavior.”
“…I said I understand.”
Maybe it was because I had no excuse for my actions, but seeing him get openly angry at me was pretty scary.
…I’m curious why he’s been busy these days too.
Why was the marquess so busy that he, someone who lived and worked in Karnon, needed to stay in the palace for days in a row without being able to return home?
My curiosity was piqued, but I ended up keeping it to myself, unable to ask him in the end. He didn’t give me an opening either.
“Alright, then tell me the reason you are here,” he instructed. “I can’t waste any more of what little, precious time I have to rest.”
Since the marquess had conveyed just how exhausted he was in the past few exchanges, I also did my best to cut to the chase.
“I came here to ask that you choose my House Yandel for the reconstruction efforts of District Seven.”
Maybe it was his first time hearing such a shameless request, or maybe he didn’t expect someone like me to make a direct request to him.
“…Huh?”
Either way, the marquess responded with a croak of disbelief before asking me a question. “Was there a need to do all this just for that? I don’t know what you did, but I did hear that Melbeth decided to push you as their representative.”
Well, that was true. Now that I’d received the support of Melbeth, I wouldn’t lose out on much regardless of whether I joined the contract competition the way everyone else did.
However, this was just how business went.
“I have a method that lets me guarantee I’ll be picked. Why shouldn’t I use it?”
“I agree with your chain of logical thinking…” The marquess furrowed his brow. “But I cannot reciprocate your attitude of acting as if you are here to take what is rightfully yours.”
It was a side of him I’d never seen before. He hadn’t been this annoyed even when I joked that I would smash his head open.
Maybe I came when he was too busy?
A wave of regret washed over me, but I tried to be optimistic.
What else could I do, honestly? If I just waited for him to respond to me, there was no guarantee that I would be able to talk to him like this soon enough for it to matter.
“Tell me. Why should I accept your request?”
I held my ground and shamelessly demanded again, “Think of it like a bachelor’s party gift.”
“A bachelor’s party…?”
The marquess tilted his head at the foreign word. These old guys didn’t know anything.
“Come on, I won’t be marrying in the future, so can’t you at least give me a gift for it?”
Even before I was dragged into this world, disparities like this existed in modern society. I mean, it was unfair to those who never got married, right? They always give out gifts and money whenever someone they know had a wedding, but the eternal bachelors could never get anything in return.
The marquess caught himself and stopped talking as he took a moment to think it over. It didn’t matter if I was trying to force his hand here. As the person who had blocked me from ever getting married, he couldn’t just ignore my request.
“…You do make a decent point.”
Thankfully, the marquess understood the principle of give-and-take.
“However, as this is a matter of national affairs, I cannot decide things on a whim. How should I do this…?” the marquess trailed off, mumbling to himself in thought.
However, I honestly couldn’t empathize with him on that particular point. The old man before me was the one who did whatever he wanted from his second most powerful seat in the nation. The best thing for me to do was view his contemplative comments and groans as just sound effects he made before he got to the point.
“Ah, then how about this?”
As expected, the marquess offered a compromise not long after.
“I will give you an opportunity to fairly compete with the others,” he declared.
“An opportunity…?”
“In truth, there are a total of five houses, including yours, that are being considered for the task. It is very unlikely that House Yandel will be selected after the examination is complete.”
Well, that was to be expected. House Yandel didn’t have any construction projects to its name yet. If Melbeth hadn’t given me their full backing, my house wouldn’t even be in the running to begin with.
It was for that reason that I couldn’t just sit idly by and had to meet with the marquess. I knew I had no chance if I didn’t.
“So?” I prompted. “What do you mean, give me an opportunity?”
“Just as I said. I will prepare a stage for you, so prove your worth there in your own right.”
How exactly was he going to set the stage for me? I couldn’t picture it.
However, after hearing the marquess’s explanation, I found myself surprised.
“To put it simply… the five houses are going to get together and have a construction competition?”
“Rather than competition, it would be more of a showcase for each house to show off what each of their strengths are.”
I didn’t know if he could really call them different things, but what the marquess said next gave me some confidence.
“Just come with enough proof to not lose face. If you do, then this contact will go over to the Yandel Barony.”
It was a bit of an odd feeling. Although things had progressed beyond that point and no longer quite fit that scenario, I’d come almost full circle back to that same competition I nearly had against the dwarf house of Melbeth.
“Alright, tell me when the date is decided.”
I never thought someone would make a construction challenge out of it.
***
I returned to the holy land after finishing up with the marquess, and when I did, I saw the head administrator’s room still lit as she worked into the night.
Hmm, or maybe not?
“Shavin, what are you doing, reading so late?”
“Oh… It’s… It’s a letter. The branch manager of Alminus Bank is asking me if I’m considering changing jobs… But it’s strange. They shouldn’t know me well enough to ask…”
Huh? Did Count Alminus put in a good word for her? Was the bank going to hire her on the spot if she went to meet them just once?
Really, this gramps…
“Just ignore it. It’s definitely from a scammer.”
“…And why does hearing you say that make my self-confidence plummet?”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry.”
“So, what are you doing here at this hour?”
“Do I need a reason to visit you?”
“Yes. Did you think I wouldn’t notice how you never come anywhere close to me because you’re scared I’ll ask you to do something?”
Uh… So she knew.
I felt caught out for a second so I quickly skipped to the main topic. “I was talking to the prime minister and just got back.”
“…The prime minister?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just because. Looking at you in this light does make you seem like someone important…”
Shavin threw in a quick backhanded compliment at the end, but I ignored it since I wasn’t here to joke with her.
Instead, I went into detail about the conversation I had with the marquess and told her that we would need to personally look over the construction skills of the warriors.
“To… Tomorrow…?”
I sensed a hint of killing intent in her shaky voice, so I quickly tried to explain myself. “We don’t need to the whole lot of them. But don’t stick to calling over just the good ones. We need to judge what our average is, so just grab a group of them.”
“Hmm… That doesn’t sound too difficult.”
“You don’t have to stress about it. We just need to get a feel for the warriors’ skills right now and look at what improvements we need to make to get them ready for the competition.” “Got it. Then I’ll prepare them.”
Alright, then I could look at this tomorrow…
After completing my mission here, I talked with Shavin about a few more things regarding the internal affairs of the holy land before quietly returning to my room to sleep.
And then, morning dawned on the next day.
“Ohhhh!”
“The strongest warrior of our race has come to see our skill!”
“It’s time to show off!”
“Behel—LAAAA!”
For some reason, the barbarians I called here early in the morning all looked pretty motivated and passionate.
It came as a total surprise to me. I hadn’t even called them here to see their fighting skills.
Since when did these guys get serious about construction?
I got curious, so I threw Ainar a question. But the answer I received completely threw me for a loop.
“It’s thanks to the brainwashing of the head administrator.”
A word that I couldn’t ignore as the chieftain was uttered in front of me.”. Brainwashing?” I echoed.
“The head administrator said that with enough rewards and endless compliments, even a goblin could be fixed.”
I wondered what she was talking about, so I listened to the whole story. It seemed that Shavin had done a lot of things to change the perception of the warriors.
Whenever a warrior finished their work, she would give them a small reward, and she would then also praise them excessively in public to raise their desire for honor.
She fulfilled their desire for recognition…
I guess she was able to perfectly pinpoint how to motivate a barbarian.
Really, though, why were the warriors so passionate about strength to begin with?
The fact that the power they possessed directly corresponded to their livelihood played a part in it. However, by nature, strength truly fulfilled their desire to be respected. All warriors trained while spilling their blood and sweat to be seen as strong and be respected by all people.
“I don’t know much, but they even held a competition to see who could build a house the fastest the other day!” Ainar boomed. “I heard that if you win it, you’ll become popular with the opposite sex, so I tried as well, but it was hard!”
I didn’t respond.
“What a shame! If only I hadn’t entered the labyrinth and had learned construction instead, I would’ve been able to do it better!”
Even Ainar was speaking gibberish now. I didn’t need an explanation about how desirable construction skills were within my tribe.
I don’t know if this is good or bad…
It was a little worrying as a chieftain, but I tried to look at it through an optimistic lens. With better skills in construction, a path would open where being a warrior wouldn’t be the only way for someone to live their life.
And an increase in choice was always a good thing.
…Well, then I guess I can look forward to it?
With that, I stepped back and watched the test-construction process that Emoor had prepared and began to assess the warriors for their construction skills.
“I can move three steel bars at once!”
“Well, I can move four!”
High in moving materials.
“Behel—LAAAA!”
High in construction speed.
“What are you doing?! Just slam that pillar in there!”
Low in details.
“….K-Kirita, second son of Myulka! Th-the window doesn’t fit here. What do we do?!”
Low in difficult construction techniques.
“Keep going! If we finish building today, the chieftain will give each of us ten thousand stones!”
Low in labor costs.
Also, a few more interesting characteristics to point out: They could only build rectangular buildings. They didn’t know how to make round roofs. They were overall quick with the construction but made many mistakes. And they didn’t know how to read a blueprint at all…
So this is their limit…
I sucked in a breath as I looked at their clear weaknesses.
…What could I possibly do about it?