Volume 3: The Hero’s apprentice Slow Life
Chapter 87: Ruti’s Wyvern Cavalry
Translator: Tseirp
On the Avalon Continent, there are officially seven countries with the right to crown a king. There are some who call these the Seven Avalon Kingdoms.
By convention, the countries other than the Seven Kingdoms do still crown their kings but like the name ‘Principality’ of Logavia indicates, they are not recognized as official kings.
Below is a simple description of the Seven Avalon Kingdoms.
The ‘Avalonia Kingdom’, the home country of Ruti and Red, sits in the center of the Avalon Continent and possess the largest territory.
Located to the west, the country of literary and martial arts, ‘Franberg Kingdom’, which was destroyed in the war against the Demon Lord Army.
To the north, the ‘Kiramin Kingdom’, famous for the megacity Kiramin and home to the High-Elves.
The ‘Veronia Kingdom’, where the pirate champion Geyserik usurped the throne, stand tall as the second largest kingdom and control the southern stretch of the coastal region.
Controlling the northeastern highlands, the ‘Cataphract Kingdom’ led by the Knight King who self-proclaims to possess the blood of the previous generation Hero.
The great country to the east, ‘Tierlon Kingdom’, protected by an old thunder dragon, rules the region beyond the ‘Wall at the End of the World’.
Even further east. On the other side of the world, separated by the straits and neighboring the Dark Continent, the ‘Jade Kingdom’ which experiences year-long war.
Being able to crown a king did not necessarily mean that the country was strong. Compared to the Kiramin Kingdom with its small territory and the Veronia Kingdom that was downgraded to a city-state before the coronation of Geyserik, the military country Logavia Kingdom was a lot mightier.
Nevertheless, the various country’s crown still holds strong influences on the princes and lords of the principalities.
It was ironic that emphasis was placed on long-lasting pedigree for the legitimacy for ruling in order to prevent the individuals with the Divine Protection of 『General』 or 『The Champion』 from gathering the people’s attention.
In addition, Red, Ruti and the people of Zoltan are typically referring to the Avalonia Kingdom when they talk about the ‘Imperial Capital’ or ‘Central’.
Ideally, the various kingdoms should unite to fight against the Demon Lord Army.
However, Veronia Kingdom declared their neutrality and only committed a small number of volunteer soldiers to be stationed within the Avalonia Kingdom.
All the other countries ridiculed their opportunistic attitude and laughed at how a pirate should not be a king but the old king who celebrated his 90th birthday this year still maintained silence.
Even though the Kiramin Kingdom is a long distance away from the front lines, they proactively participate in the fight against the Demon Lord Army. However, as the High-Elves have different cultural values from the humans, until now there has still not been any satisfactory collaboration.
The Cataphract Kingdom dispatch their prided heavy cavalry throughout the continent aside from their own front lines as well.
But, in the first place, the Cataphract Kingdom was founded when the Gaiapolis Cataphract Knights from the Gaiapolis Kingdom, that once controlled the central territory before being annihilated by the Avalonia Kingdom, sheltered the surviving Gaiapolis nobles in their hometown.
The Cataphract Kingdom knights wish to battle against the Demon Lord Army but have no intention of joining the Avalonia Kingdom’s chain of command and only fight in whichever manner they please.
As for the two kingdoms to the east, they are located beyond the ‘Wall at the End of the World’. There was little information on the war situation on that side.
There was some information exchange in the form of rumors coming from the merchants who are capable of traveling through the ‘Road of Dawn’ trade route regarding the Jade Kingdom warriors’ continued resistance against the mighty Demon Lord Army.
In any case, it was probably impossible for the two kingdoms and the Avalonia Kingdom to cooperate across the ‘Wall at the End of the World’.
In the end, the Avalonia Kingdom became the leader and consolidated the countries to fight against the Demon Lord Army. However, before the appearance of Hero Ruti, they experienced repeated defeat for critical situations and for a time, the Avalonia Kingdom lost quite some land to the Demon Lord Army.
However, once Hero Ruti appeared, she fought in numerous battles in various locations to free the occupied lands, annihilated the greatest threat that was the Wyvern Knights led by the Wind Four Heavenly Kings, Gandor, and caused the war to gradually turn in their favor.
Furthermore, the Hero made the discussions between the kings of the Cataphract Kingdom and the Avalonia Kingdom happen and they showed some degree of compromise.
Now, at the very least, the two countries could fight shoulder-to-shoulder on the same battlefield and their relationship was improving.
The joint army of the Avalon Continent showed signs of a comeback but the Demon Lord Army still remained mighty and the battlefront reached a stalemate.
In addition, news reached the Imperial Capital that Widosla, the successor of Gandor as the Wind Four Heavenly Kings, was reorganizing the Wyvern Knights.
The Avalonia Kingdom was sustaining their counterattack with the Bahamut Knight Order as the main force but the situation was still unpredictable.
☆☆
“Ah, the prices for vegetables rose.”
I was looking at vegetables in the Zoltan market.
The Japanese leek that cost 5 common until recently was now 10 common.
“Hmm.”
I was planning to use Japanese leek for my cooking but it was two times the price now. And it rose in just a few days.
“Aunty, why did the Japanese leek prices rise so suddenly?”
The store aunt who seemed cold and was huddling close to the brazier in wearing a thick layer of clothes slowly walked over.
Then, she stared at the Japanese leek. I felt silent intention from her gaze that spoke of unavoidable circumstances ...
“Ah, I made a mistake.”
“Oi.”
Today, Zoltan was peaceful as usual.
☆☆
When I was on my way home after buying ingredients, I heard cheers from the vacant lot.
“Amazingggg!”
“That makes five consecutive victories!!”
“King! This person is the Wyvern King!!”
What was with the ruckus?
It piqued my interest and I made a slight detour to peek at the vacant lot.
“Older sister is amazingggg!!!”
“Fufun~”
Ruti was playing the ‘Wyvern Race’ board game with the kids there. She was smiling contently.
It seemed that she plundered a large amount of the children’s wyvern dolls due to her consecutive victories.
“A-another round!”
“Sure.”
Ruti placed a glass wyvern doll on the board. To the Downtown children, that sparkling dragon was very attention-grabbing.
The unyielding children placed their white stone wyvern doll, black iron wyvern doll, and ruby eye wyvern doll on the board.
Although the quality of the doll did not confer any advantages, because of the Zoltan rule where the winner takes all, special wyvern dolls would pose psychological pressure.
While the game could consist of wyverns drawn on wood pieces or just random stones, it was chivalric spirit that drove them to want to compete against the best wyvern with their own best wyvern so the secret to winning was to first target the opponent’s mentality.
“It’s getting exciting.”
“Onii-chan!?”
After noticing my presence, Ruti was panicking as if she was a child whose mischief was discovered.
Her actions were so cute that I unconsciously laughed.
“That’s amazing, you’ve won quite a bit.”
“Eh, ermmm.”
“You’ve always wanted to try right? Then isn’t it all right?”
Ruti, who has been a 『Hero』 since she was a child, was never good at making friends. After all, she was a complete foreigner to the children community. That was why, to my knowledge, Ruti had never played Wyvern Race.
However, I did know that Ruti was collecting any wyvern dolls that she could get her hands on during the journey.
You might find Ruti a little bad for taking the dolls from the children but you’re wrong.
The opponent might be children but they had a mutual agreement and the real thrill of wyvern race was when they tossed the dice which they bet their wyvern dolls on. Ruti was not doing anything wrong by gaining the wyvern dolls through winning.
I smiled to Ruti to reassure her.
“I played a little as well when I was an apprentice knight.”
“Onii-chan did?”
“Why don’t we play with everyone next time?”
“Okay.”
Ruti nodded happily after hearing my words.