Black Iron Magician

「Ah, Wee-chan! Hello!」

「Excuse me.」

「Excuse me desuwa!」

「Hello, everyone… You are early… Grandpa has prepared some sweets… please feel free to pick some…」

Four people gather in the conference room in the castle. Canon only guided Haruna until the front of the room, and now he is back at the headquarters. Joseph isn’t here either, and there’s only the hero party in the room. Haruna and the others sat on the prepared seats, centered on the desk placed in the middle of the room.

「This sweet is delicious! Did Joseph-san bake it?」

「No… I think it’s the high-class confectionery that he bought before…」

「Ah, you are right. It’s moderately sweet and delicious.」

「This sweet with the unique walnut flavor is from Crocus, right?」

「「Hee~」」

「As expected of Prez…」

「Fufu, I’m no longer the president. I’m now Therese, the apprentice knight and the one who’s in charge of farming! Ohohoho!」

The glorious heroes who carried the future of the country first talked about Crocus’s confectionery 『Nuts Quiche』. The chat was very lively, based on the trivia of Therese, who is familiar with the specialties of each country.

…… Well, they are lovely young maidens. There’s no way they will create a solemn and heavy atmosphere in which influential people exchanging opinions, and there’s no need for them to do so. For now, the priority is to deepen the friendship and weave the bond of the party through these trivial talks! ―― And Joseph, who’s looking at the situation through a monocle from the window of another room, arbitrarily accepted it like that.

「「「Thank you for the treat (desuwa!)」」」

「It was delicious…」

The quiche placed on the desk is completely gone, and the heroes are rubbing their stomachs with satisfaction.

「Satisfied…」

「Yes.」

「Desuwa~」

「Um, well then, Weerel. About tomorrow’s expedition…」

Since there was no sign of them moving on to the main subject, Chinatsu couldn’t help but brought up the subject herself. Weerel clapped her hands as if she just remembered and formally looked again at the others.

「Now that we’re full… let’s get down to business…」

Weerel stands up, takes out a map from her pocket, and spreads it on the desk. Then, Haruna, Chinatsu, and Therese stare at it.

「Our ally Tazarnia… this is a map of its entire territory…. The neighboring Adelheit is also drawn a little…. You can see how big Tazarnia is in comparison…」

「Is this Adelheit?」

「Yes. And this is the border. From there to the west, everything is Tazarnia.」

「Wow, I wonder how many times bigger it is…」

About half of Adelheit is shown on the map, but compared to that, the land of Tazarnia is vast. Tazarnia, which covers most of the western part of the Jiba continent, is likely to take a considerable amount of time just to cross.

「Tazarnia is very large… and the monsters that seem to be under the command of the Demon King are running rampant near the west coast of Tazarnia…. If we were to travel normally, it would take us more than a week to get there…. We have a small number of elites in anticipation of that… but it’s still tough….」

「Here! How about running with no sleep and rest? I think will arrive in three days!」

「Setting aside Haruna-san and Chinatsu-san… I think it’s impossible for me and Therese, the apprentice knight and the one who’s in charge of farming….」

「Ohohoho! Setting aside my stamina, I can’t run that fast desuwa!」

「Sorry, even I can’t do it without sleep and rest…」

Haruna’s opinion was cut off by everyone’s opposition. Weerel’s agility is less than 200, and Therese’s is only 1, which is her initial value. The too-inclined status backfired here, and they can never catch up with Chinatsu and Haruna, whose agility is near 1000.

「Running is impossible… so this time, we’ll use something like this….」

Weerel takes something out of her pocket again and places it on the map.

「This is… a dragon piece?」

「Yes…. It’s a dragon carriage…. Grandpa has prepared two earth dragons…. The speed of a trained earth dragon is twice as fast as a horse…. With this, I and Therese, the apprentice knight and the one who’s in charge of farming, will be fine…. Even if we take proper rest, we’ll reach our destination in five days….」

For the sake of the country’s official hero, Joseph seemed to have arranged the finest means of transportation available, a carriage with a national emblem and two earth dragons that do not live in Adelheit. ……Well, it’s probably because the hero is Weerel.

「As expected of you, Wee! But, that name may be a little hard to call. You can call me with just my name!

「Then, I will call you Therese-san…」

「Waa~, earth dragons~! I’ve heard it from the story of Shishō’s honeymoon, but I’ve never met a dragon before~」

Earth dragons are dragons that specialize in running on land and are speed stars that boast the fastest speed on the ground. Among them, an earth dragon that’s trained from the scratch with a completely managed skill composition is even more agile, and of course, more expensive. And Joseph bought them without hesitation. …… With public funds.

「Grandpa has contacted Tazarnia…. We’ll leave tomorrow morning and spend a night at the western border fort…. After that, we’ll head for the west coast, passing through the cities of Tazarnia…. Do you have any questions…?」

「Yes! Is it okay to take Gobuo-kun along? He can handle horses, so maybe he can handle dragons too!」

「Oh, Gobuo, huh. Wee, he’s a good goblin desuwa! I agree with her! I’m a knight, but I can’t even handle a horse! I can only help by standing next to the coachman!」

「Therese-san, you see, standing next to the coachman isn’t particularly helpful…」

「He won’t get bored, you know?」

「………」

‘She has a point,’ Chinatsu is convinced from the bottom of her heart. Therese Batten is a woman who forces through impossibility. She won even against the vice leader.

「A goblin as the coachman, huh… By the way, what is his level…?」

「6!」

「Hired…!」

「Yay!」

Gobuo joined the hero party as a coachman before he knew it. As a noble coachman, appearance is also important. Gobuo’s exclusive coachman outfit will also be arranged by the end of today.

「That settles it, I guess…?」

「Ah, that’s right. What kind of monsters appeared in Tazarnia?」

「I’ve heard that the majority of them are merman…. It seems to be a mixed force of level 3 and level 4…. However, one of them seems to give off a strange vibe….」

「Is that the boss?」

「Maybe…. It seems to be stronger than other Mermen, and you can tell immediately when you see it…. Our subjugation target is this monster…. Tazarnia is also having a hard time with this one….」

「A boss monster…! Alright, everyone! Let’s wake up tomorrow and do our best! Ooh!」

「Ooh! Desuwa!」

「O-Ooh!」

「Ooh…. I have low blood pressure, but I’ll do my best….」

Thus, the first Hero Conference ended. It is another story that Joseph later said that it was indeed a sublime and majestic conference.