"Hey, cut a little deeper over there! And you — strip the scales off first!"
Under Gramps's direction, the knights groaned and wheezed as they carried on with the work.
The job had started an hour ago, but they hadn't even reached twenty percent of the full process yet.
Still, it was a huge help that Gramps knew how to butcher an Earth Dragon.
Apparently, he'd learned the technique when he hunted a lesser dragon quite some time ago. That one had also been an Earth Dragon, and since he hadn't known the proper method, he'd butchered it in a half-experimental fashion, which ended up ruining most of the materials.
This time around, he said he was putting that experience to good use, doing his best not to damage any of the materials.
"Come to think of it, I heard this is the first time in roughly two hundred years that the royal family has been involved in butchering a dragon."
Tida had apparently looked up Earth Dragons in the records room, and she had all sorts of interesting things to share.
For example, Earth Dragon meat was supposedly delicious but extremely tough — you literally couldn't bite into it unless you tenderized it somehow. The central figure in the previous Earth Dragon hunt had been the second prince at the time, who apparently had black hair and black eyes just like me, and when he was born there was a scandal claiming the queen had committed adultery. Oh, and Earth Dragon scales could apparently be melted down and processed like metal, and so on and so forth...
"Huh, same as metal, huh..."
That was genuinely useful information. I'd actually been thinking about getting new leather armor, so this might be the perfect chance to go all out and splurge.
"There it is!"
"Hurry, get it over there!"
"Don't forget to put it in the Magic Bag!"
Just then, the group butchering the Wyvern subspecies a short distance from the Earth Dragon started making a commotion.
Looking over, they had apparently just cut open the Wyvern subspecies's stomach, and the half-melted upper body of a human was emerging from inside.
"A Tamer, huh... that's gruesome."
"Ugh..."
Tida
Something Like That
She pressed her hand over her mouth, seemingly seeing a corpse for the first time.
"Tenma, come here!"
Jean-san, who had been directing the dissection of the Wyvern subspecies, was calling me over while holding the Tamer's bags.
"Did you find something?"
"Hey, do you think this bag is still usable?"
The two bags Jean-san held out had melted in places with holes opened up. While repairs seemed difficult, they didn't appear to be completely ruined, so transferring the contents would be possible.
"They look salvageable. Please bring a replacement bag. Anything about the same size will do."
At my request, a nearby knight immediately brought a bag over.
I took the bag and used Bestowal Magic to create a simple Magic Bag.
I connected it to the broken bag, sharing the space between them. All that remained was to open the new bag and take out the contents.
"How did you do that?! This!"
Jean-san was astonished, but in principle, it was simple. All I'd done was create a new opening for the bag that could no longer be opened and attach it.
When I explained that, Jean-san was impressed, thinking *so that's all it was*—but later when I asked Grandpa about it, he told me this was a new technique and warned me to keep quiet, since it would definitely be misused if the knowledge spread.
Following that approach, I examined the tournament-use Magic Bags the Tamers had been carrying, but nothing particularly suspicious turned up.
However, when I used the same method to check the "personal items Tamers had left with the staff," all sorts of dangerous things came to light, and Jean-san and the others were visibly shaken.
First and most numerous were the poisons—ranging from highly lethal to weak, fast-acting and slow-acting varieties, ones meant for Monsters and animals, and even powerful aphrodisiacs and arousal agents were stashed away.
Next came weapons, which included items that appeared to be intended for torture.
After that were what looked like stolen goods and food supplies. Having confirmed all of this, Jean-san temporarily halted the dissection work and headed off to draft a report and interrogate the remaining members.
"Sorry, Tenma-san. The dissection will have to wait a while longer."
Tida bowed on Jean's behalf, but since it seemed like he could handle the Wyvern subspecies dissection on his own, it didn't bother him.
"Tenma-san, I've finished extracting and sorting the Earth Dragon's internal organs. All that's left is to strip the skin."
It had taken roughly three hours after Jean and the others left to finally reach the point of stripping the Earth Dragon's skin.
Now that they'd gotten this far, he could use magic to breeze through the rest.
"Well then, how about we take a break for now?"
Tida relayed my suggestion to everyone.
"Phew~ that was a real tough one."
Grandpa rolled his shoulders as he came ambling over, though he didn't look half as tired as his words suggested.
"Still, this one's a proper big one. At least a size or two larger than the one I took down. This isn't exactly proof of that, but here—take a look at this."
With that, Grandpa produced a magic core with a diameter of over forty centimeters. For reference, the Wyvern subspecies had been about twenty centimeters across.
"This alone has got to be worth over ten million G. If you put it up for auction, it'd easily fetch double that."
"It's certainly valuable, but... I've no intention of selling it, and I can't think of a use for it right now. I guess it'll just sit in the bag gathering dust until its time comes."
While I was chatting away with Grandpa like this, Tida cautiously cut in.
"Um, Tenma-san. I've been wanting to ask for a while now—well, actually, for quite some time—what are those cattle with Shiromaru over there?"
Tida pointed toward the three White-furred wild oxen grazing behind Shiromaru.
"Oh, that's right! I was wondering about those too. Are those for eating?"
Grandpa had apparently been curious about them as well, offering to help butcher them if that was the plan, but I told him that wasn't what I had in mind.
"I saved them and they got attached to me, so I brought them along. I'm thinking of keeping them at home."
Tida looked surprised by what I said.
"I see, understood. You could use the back garden that isn't being used for anything, and if you ask Marsa, she should be able to teach you the proper way to care for them."
Even Grandpa, who readily agreed, left Tida surprised... Well, when you casually mention keeping two cattle weighing over a ton each plus a calf—three head in total—as though it's no different from owning a dog or cat, it's hard not to be taken aback.
"The issue is feed, though. What will you do about that?"
"That won't be a problem. I'll basically cut grass from the meadow in bulk and store it in my bag, and if I buy up surplus grain that's going cheap, that should cover it. If I really need to, I should be able to trade cow's milk for feed too, Grandpa."
The White-furred wild oxen look quite a bit like Holsteins. Well, the White-furred wild oxen are considerably larger, of course.
Because of this, I wondered whether I could get milk from them, so I tried my hand at milking for the first time in my life—and it was amazing.
I easily got over thirty liters of milk. When I tried a sip, it turned out to be incredibly rich and delicious, so I stored it all in my Magic Bag.
"White-furred wild ox milk is a luxury good, you know. Since they're untamed, it's nearly impossible to get your hands on any. The meat is an even prouder luxury."
I pulled out the meat with a sort of "Don't worry, I've got meat too!" attitude, and Grandpa was quite pleased.
Tida also looked like he wanted to try some, so when I told him I'd share once I'd finished butchering the carcasses, he perked up as well.
"So, Tenma. What are those cattle's names?"
Since he asked, I announced the names I'd come up with beforehand.
"That bull is 'Jūbei,' the cow is 'Hiro,' and the calf is 'Tama.'"
This came from "The One-Eyed Wild Ox (Yagyu)"—so the bull is Jūbei, and from that Jūbei connection—
the calf—
is Tama (Garasha), and then I named the mother Hiro.
I did go back and forth between Hiro and Teru for the mother's name, but in the end I settled on Hiro.
"Oh my... Well, those are unusual names, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with that."
"Yeah, they are pretty unusual."
As expected, the Japanese-style names felt a little off to both of them, but once a name is given, there's nothing to be done about it. I'd just have to let them get used to it.
Just as the introduction of the White-furred wild oxen had wrapped up and we were relaxing, Maria arrived.
"Tida, Tenma. How are you doing?"
Maria joined our break, and the four of us continued chatting. When I looked in the direction she'd come from, Lyle was still sitting seiza-style on the ground.
When I asked whether it was really alright for him, as a member of the royal family and the head of the military, to be seen in such a state, Maria said something terrifying like, "It's nothing unusual."
"So, which parts of the Earth Dragon would you be willing to sell?"
When she asked that, I relayed what I'd roughly discussed with Lyle, and we decided to formalize the arrangement in writing.
The parts to be sold to the royal family were: from the Earth Dragon, one eyeball, most of the internal organs excluding the heart, several bones, and several dozen kilograms of meat; from the Wyvern subspecies, both eyeballs, most of the internal organs excluding the heart, half the hide, half the scales, the claws and fangs, and half the meat.
More would be taken than originally planned, but the deal was to attach a fair price to everything, and Jin and the others would also add a bit on top of the originally agreed-upon amount.
As expected, or perhaps I should say, when it came to this kind of haggling, Lyle was completely outmatched by Maria.
"So, about your compensation… you don't want a noble title, right?"
"I don't!"
The moment Maria's words left her mouth, I shot back with a refusal immediately, and Tida looked quite startled.
"Well, I figured you might say that… but just so you know, if it's a noble title, I'm prepared to go all the way up to Count."
"I still don't want one."
Maria seemed to have already known I would refuse, but Tida still couldn't accept it.
"Why not, Tenma? Becoming a Count from commoner status at the age of fifteen would be, I believe, unprecedented in history?"
Tida had a point, but that only applied to an ordinary person.
Honestly, I just couldn't see a noble title as all that great. In all my years (including my previous life), I'd never held any special status, so it didn't bother me, and I was pretty sure I was already living better than your average noble.
Besides, I wasn't short on money, so I could live however I wanted.
But if I became a noble, there would be territory management, tax revenue calculations, and
the appropriate
I'd have to take on all those duties anyway, and even if I accepted an honorary peerage without territory, I'd just end up embroiled in squabbles between the nobility.
In my case, receiving a title would mean I'd have to build up a retinue from scratch, and I'd have to vet all of them. Instead of any benefits, I'd only be piling on more disadvantages.
When I told that to Tida, she made a complicated face, but in contrast, Lady Maria was smiling, clearly amused.
"Not by blood, but you're certainly the son of Celia and Ricardo. The spitting image!"
As Tida and I stood there, stunned, Lady Maria calmed her laughter and began to explain with an enjoyable air.
"The truth is, Ricardo refused to be ennobled in the same way. Celia agreed with him, she said."
This was the first I'd learned of it from Lady Maria, but apparently, my father and mother were originally nobility.
Father was the son of a Knight, the lowest rank of peerage, and Mother was the niece of a Viscount.
Well, thinking about it carefully, Mother had mentioned she was Lady Maria's childhood friend, and Father was said to be a classmate of the King at the same school. It would be strange if at least one of them wasn't a noble.
As I was about to ask Lady Maria why such two people were living in Kukuri Village...
"Rather than me explaining, it would be better if Merlin did. Isn't that right, Merlin?"
As she said that, she turned to call out to Grandpa, who had somehow come up right behind me.
"Oh, honestly, why must I tell that tale? It's something I don't like remembering either."
"If Tenma were an ordinary child, I wouldn't ask. But leaving things as they are will definitely lead to trouble, I assure you."
Even Grandpa, faced with Lady Maria's forceful smile, sighed and sat down in a chair.
"Well, I suppose you're right... Very well, let me start with Ricardo's story. Though it's nothing grand: Ricardo was born because his mother was involved with a noble. Ricardo lived in Kukuri Village as a child, but his father, a Knight with no heir, was summoned to the Royal Capital and took him to raise. Ricardo then enrolled in a school in the Royal Capital, but a few years later, his father was ousted and lost his title. At that time, Ricardo might have had to leave school too, but because he was so excellent, he was able to stay on as a special scholarship student."
It was apparently around then that he met the King and the others. For reference, the school was a secondary school, equivalent to middle school from my previous life.
"The problem was with Celia's family, you see. They're distant relatives of mine, but originally, Celia was the daughter of the younger brother of the heir to a Viscount's house—my brother's daughter, to be precise. She was born after I left home."
Grandpa was born as the third son of a certain Viscount's house, and Mother was born as the eldest daughter of that house's second son.
Grandpa and Mother's father were close in age and got along well, but he and Grandpa's older brother (the eldest son) did not see eye to eye.
That's why Grandpa left home before he came of age,
as a commoner,
and struck out on his own. Apparently, leaving home before reaching adulthood was unusual, but fortunately, Grandpa had a talent for magic, so it wasn't a problem.
But Mother's father... my grandfather was a different story. He had no talent for magic, and as the second son, he wasn't permitted to leave the family.
He ended up getting married, and Mother was born, but once the eldest son also had a son who would serve as heir, my grandfather was apparently given an independent title of Knight Baron and sent off on his own.
Right after becoming independent, he apparently struggled quite a bit financially. But the eldest son didn't lift a finger to help.
By the time my grandfather was made independent, Grandpa had already made a name for himself as a fairly well-known adventurer, and he apparently helped out a great deal financially.
Thanks to that, Mother was able to attend school and got along well with Maria (by the way, elementary school... it was something like a primary school). At that time, Maria was already the King's betrothed, so Mother ended up meeting the King later on as well.
Through that connection, Mother met Father and the two started dating. My grandfather apparently intended to eventually welcome Father as a son-in-law, given that Father had noble blood and good grades at school.
With that in mind, my grandfather approved of Mother and Father's relationship, and even allowed Father to continue working as an adventurer, thinking it would be good experience.
However, when the eldest son saw how close the King and Mother were—
Mother being a friend's romantic partner, and all—
he mistakenly assumed the King had feelings for her, and began pressuring my grandfather with all sorts of schemes to make Mother a concubine of the King.
Because of that, even though my grandfather wasn't particularly healthy to begin with, the severe stress caused him to fall ill.
Even worse, the eldest son criticized my grandfather for being unable to fulfill his duties as a noble and tried to adopt Mother as his own child.
Just at that time, Mother and the others had returned to the Royal Capital to participate in the martial arts tournament. When Mother and Father heard about this, they protested to the eldest son, but he wouldn't listen. To make matters worse, he even dragged in his superior from his own faction to push the plan forward.
The King (who was Crown Prince at the time) also tried to protest, but apparently Kurif stopped him, having come up with a certain scheme.
And so, having heard Kurif's plan, Mother and the others entered the tournament and won spectacularly.
After their victory, when the King at the time offered them a reward, this is what Mother apparently said.
"We don't need a reward. Please recognize our marriage and sever all ties with my family."
This was apparently Kurif's plan. Normally, one might expect punishment for the crime of lèse-majesté, but the King at the time and several powerful nobles — the Royalist Faction — had already had the groundwork laid by the Crown Prince (now the King) and others, so the request was smoothly granted. The two were married and moved to Kukuri Village, where Father was born.
The eldest son, on the other hand, was forced into early retirement on the grounds that he had caused an unnecessary uproar.
Shortly after the eldest son's forced retirement, Grandfather passed away from the toll it took on him.
"Moreover, what makes it worse is,
the eldest son's eldest son
still holds the title of Viscount... He might come after us with petty harassment out of spite."
"That's why one of the countermeasures proposed was to make Tenma a Count."
So that's why Maria was so fixated on my peerage. Well, I'm sure there were other reasons too.
"By the way... is it okay to kill that former Viscount?"
Tida was visibly taken aback by my blunt remark.
"Now, now, that wouldn't be right."
"No, that would be problematic."
"That's right, Tenma!"
The two opposed the idea, and Tida showed a look of relief — but...
"It's too early to kill! We should observe the situation a bit longer first!"
"That's right, and we'd have to plan it thoroughly so we're never caught!"
Tida was even more taken aback. She seemed most shocked by Maria's remark that amounted to endorsing the killing.
"Tida, do you understand? Nobles sometimes have to take people's lives. Troublesome, isn't it?"
"No, but Tenma, you're not a noble, right... Besides, isn't this whole thing because of you!"
Tida wore a completely exhausted expression.
Tida seemed to have gotten an earful of some adult dark humor before her time.
That conversation, half-serious and half-playful, continued, and before they knew it, they had overshot their break time.
"We should get back to it soon, or the sun will set."
"Yes, shall we begin, Tenma?"
The current state of the Earth Dragon was that incisions had been made to skin it. Therefore, they would first remove the obstructive head and the tips of its limbs.
This was my role.
"Here we go..."
First, I used the Gigant to restrain the Earth Dragon. Then, following the incision just below the head, I used my blade to slice through the flesh.
I cut all the way around the neck, and in the end, only the bone remained. Cutting through bone was difficult, so I pressed the tip of my blade against a nearby joint and applied force.
"Ohh!"
The Earth Dragon's head came off far more easily than expected, drawing cheers from the knights watching nearby.
After that, using the same method as with the head, they cut off the tips of the limbs.
"That should do it," I said.
Putting away my blade and the Gigant, I first secured the portions for Jin and the others.
The knights used magic on their dissection knives to enhance their sharpness, then carefully separated the dragon's hide from its meat along the cut lines.
Occasionally, an inexperienced knight would make a mistake and cut a finger, or fail to peel the meat away cleanly, but for the most part, the work proceeded without major issue.
And, approximately two hours later, the entire process was complete.
It had taken about seven hours in total, with over twenty knights mobilized. The Earth Dragon had been transformed into raw materials.
"Then that's a wrap!"
Tida shouted, seemingly as excited as if the work were truly finished, but all they had done was...
The knights' work was
done.
"Tida, your work isn't finished yet."
"Huh?"
Tida tilted her head at Maria's words.
"That's right. Now, about the materials for the deal with the royal family,"
the price
"negotiation still needs to happen. Since you're the one responsible this time... go easy on them."
I said with a deliberate smile aimed at Tida.
Tida's face went pale when she saw me, and she looked toward Maria nearby, but Maria paid her no attention.
After all, it was Maria who had asked me to put on this kind of
act.
She was, in other words, the mastermind behind it all.
This wasn't some scheme to fleece Tida for money — it was simply about letting Tida experience this kind of negotiation. In other words, it was Maria's
parental affection
at work.
"Understood. This isn't the place for it, so shall we hold the negotiations in my room?"
Realizing she couldn't count on Maria's support, Tida tried to move the discussion to her room, but I turned her down.
"No, let's just do it here. The knights who helped with the dissection are probably curious about what kind of price the Earth Dragon materials they helped butcher will fetch."
Since Tida had given me the choice of venue, I declined without hesitation and proposed we do it right here in front of the knights. Not that my proposal carried any real weight — at this point, Tida effectively had no say. After all, the knights were already watching her with eager eyes.
Tida, overwhelmed by the stares of the surrounding knights, agreed to conduct the negotiation here. With this, Tida would no longer be able to lowball the price on the materials.
If she drove too hard a bargain, there was a real risk that people would think, "The next queen after the next queen put a low price on our work."
Tida didn't seem to have caught on yet, but Lady Maria's eyes had taken on a slightly sharper edge.
"Let's start with the Earth Dragon. What we can get from you is one eyeball, the organs minus the heart, several bones, and several dozen kilograms of meat — is that correct?"
"No, there's a change to the organs. We'll take one lung, the liver, the gallbladder, and the stomach. In exchange, we'll sell you 200 kilograms of meat."
The organs I'd just named were the ones with the highest demand. I'd told Lady Maria we'd sell them those, but with Tida as the negotiating partner, pushing back was worth a try.
"That's fine, but are you sure you want to add that much meat?"
"Yeah, we still have plenty of meat. I'd rather you take it off our hands."
"Understood."
Just as I'd predicted, Tida did exactly what I'd hoped. Honestly, compared to the value of the organs, the meat was practically an afterthought.
After all, the only thing you can do with meat is
eat it.
But the organs can serve as crafting materials and medicine, and of course, they're edible too.
Tida was pleased simply by the increased quantity of meat, completely unaware that behind her, Lady Maria's expression had grown even sterner.
"Now then, let's talk price... What do past Earth Dragon transactions look like?"
In response to my question, Tida pulled out what appeared to be a prepared document and began to answer.
"There are five recorded past transactions. The first was 200 years ago — head, heart, scales, claws, and meat. The second was 150 years ago — eyeball, all the organs, plus scales, bones, and meat. The third was 120 years ago — meat only. The fourth was 80 years ago — everything except meat. The last was 40 years ago, the one Lady Merlin defeated, and that time we purchased everything. However, the condition was apparently quite poor, so it's not much of a reference."
She added that prices back then were quite different as well, so the data was only useful as a rough reference.
It wasn't particularly helpful, but the fact that Tida had prepared the documents in advance earned her a slightly better evaluation from Lady Maria, and the hint of a smile returned to her face.
"Then let's set prices individually. We'll start with the eyeball. How about 1 million G?"
"Umm... yes, that price is fine."
She had made the offer with a slightly bold, pushing-her-luck tone, but Tida nodded readily.
"How about 800,000 G for the internal organs?"
"It would really help if you could lower the price a little more."
"Then how about 700,000?"
"Thank you very much."
The negotiations proceeded with astonishing ease. But as things progressed, Lady Maria's expression grew increasingly stern.
Tida was definitely going to get an earful later.
Her face made it as clear as day what awaited her.
A supplementary note on the name of the White-furred wild ox.
From the one-eyed cow came
Yagyu Jubei,
and through the "Jubei" connection it became Akechi Jubei Mitsuhide, and from his wife's
Teruko
came "Hiro," and from their child Akechi Tama (Hosokawa Gracia) came "Tama."
As for the note about being torn between "Hiro" and "Teru" for the wife's name — that was because the author had mistakenly thought her name was written with the "Teru" character (Teruko) rather than the "Hiro" character (Teruko), and when correcting the main text, wrote that he had "been torn between the two."