How To Live As An Academy Extra Villain

19 – Find Hidden Objects (4)

“…There is one thing I want to ask you.”

After a long silence, Paine from beyond the shadows opened her mouth.

“The idea of smuggling food isn’t something I haven’t tried before. The empire is vast, so if you build a merchant corps and disguise it as a merchant corps from a distant province, there’s no way to find out unless you dig deep. But, the wagons loaded with grain are our territory The process of transporting to the city has always been a hindrance.

Not one or two carts of sheep we need, and I have been unable to find a way to move all that grain unnoticed to our land beyond the moors. Even if you set aside the fact that horses can’t stand madness. Edwin-sama, do you have a solution to this?”

Paine’s shadow looked in my direction and said.

Somehow, there seems to be a hint of desperation in his tone.

I nodded and answered his question.

“Do you have any maps?”

When I asked for a map, Paine looked out the door and flicked her hands. After a while, Isana, who was standing outside the door somehow, brought a rolled up scroll and unfolded it in front of me.

“Thank you, Isha.”

“Nothing. I’ll stay by the door, so if you need anything more, please call me without delay.”

Isana, who dropped the map, turned and left the room, and I looked over and spoke to Paine.

“You seem to have a very close relationship with her. Since she shows her gratitude for even the smallest things, I can’t help but be more loyal to her.”

“Yes…? Ah, yes…Thank you.”

I wanted to refresh the atmosphere, so I sneakily threw it, but the reaction was not very good. The effect I had hoped for didn’t come out, so I cleared my throat and quickly changed the topic to another direction.

“Hmm, hmm. Then shall we continue with our story? If we use the usual route, of course we will have to go unnoticed by the locals and the watchman. This is the passage we will use.”

“A pamphlet?”

As far as I could tell, along the left side of the tall mountain range to the east, there was a village midway between the South and North roads. Paine, who looked at the map, recited the place name in a questionable tone.

“Yes. Of course you don’t know, but there is a byway in this village that leads to the wasteland. It is not a road to be taken in peacetime, but it is a place to prepare for emergencies, so it is treated as a secret, so it is not marked on ordinary maps. And the road is not wide, but the wagon It’s wide enough for one car.

I’m quick to say that you’ve even thought about setting up a fishery association. Disguise yourself as a merchant from the north and build a waypoint in this town. Now the village is in ruins as all the residents have moved elsewhere. So there will be no eyes to see, and even though the location is a bit of a rotational terrain, it is a place that connects the north and the south, so no one will doubt it. Our guard posts on the side roads will also be removed for a while due to redeployment of troops.

Also, we know that the people in the east are taller than us and their strength is more than several times that of us, so you can only carry grain to the middle point with a wagon, and then use Paine-nim’s manpower.

However, this condition is only valid until we ship all of the grain we have sold. Once we have taken all the grain we need, we will re-staff the roads. So, please abandon the idea of continuing to use that place.”

After I finished speaking, I looked back at Paine’s shadow.

“How are you?”

“…how about it?”

After I finished speaking, there was no answer and there was a long silence, so I asked Paine for an answer.

The shadow seemed to have managed to come to its senses only after I urged it.

“…If we can carry it out like this, it’s a deal we can’t help accepting. But Edwin-sama, before that, there’s something I’d like to ask you. Then, what can you and yours gain from this deal?

We can relieve the people suffering from drought and stabilize public sentiment with this deal, but all you will get is a small amount of money. But, you’re willing to take this risk just for the pennies?”

At Paine’s words, I looked at him with a grin.

“Penny money, of course, is the price for a legitimate transaction. And if you can gain the trust of your neighbors for just a few grains, what business can you do more than that? I think we can continue. Of course, it will be difficult to form an official friendship. Isn’t it like that, Miss Paine?”

“…Do you think of us as the same person? Didn’t you have any thoughts when you saw Isana’s real face?”

“Honestly, I was a bit surprised. Seeing it in person, the feeling of intimidation was really beyond my imagination. But don’t worry. I don’t discriminate against people based on my appearance, let alone my ability. Now that I look like this, who would discriminate against who?”

I shrugged my shoulders and joked in a self-deprecating tone. And Paine paused for a moment after hearing what I said, and then burst into loud laughter a moment later.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Paine finally seemed to calm down after laughing for a while. Shadow, who managed to stop laughing, wiped his eyes with his finger and said.

“Ha, excuse me. It’s been such a long time since I’ve laughed like this, Edwin. I was honestly surprised. If I’d known such a bold person was around, I wouldn’t have made friends long ago. The past years are truly pitiful. .”

“It’s too much praise. And what’s the use of regretting the past? What’s important is what’s to come. I’m sure Paine-sama is like me.”

Upon hearing what I said, Paine nodded and answered.

“Yes. The important thing is the future. All right, Mr. Edwin. I Paine, as the rightful heir to the Barda clan, I will accept your offer. I will tell Isana to arrange a place for you at the mansion, so stay relaxed and discuss the details.” Please share.”

“It’s what I’ve been hoping for, and it’s an honor. Oh, and Mr. Paine. You said earlier that all we can get is a pittance. In fact, there are some additional things I’d like to ask for. would you please?”

***

After talking with the future demon king, Paine, I headed to the guest room with Isana’s guidance.

The room was plain without any decorations, but it was neat and tidy, giving it a luxurious edge.

I roughly unpacked my things and threw myself on the bed nestled in the corner of the guest room.

‘ha… ‘

It’s late today, and Paine has a schedule later, so we decided to talk in detail from tomorrow.

I said it was a schedule, but what the hell is the demon king doing?

What I encountered earlier was his alter ego.

The real Paine is probably operating somewhere in the Empire disguised as a human by now.

Actually, I don’t know that much about the demon king.

Until the last part I read, the story of the demon king had not yet been fully resolved, so all I knew was a few fragmentary things.

that gender is male.

Contrary to the other blood relatives who are reluctant to contact with humans, they actively formed a base and used camouflage artifacts to hide and melted among them for several years.

In fact, he is a moderate demon king who likes the people and culture of the West, but he eventually decided to invade the empire due to the unavoidable circumstances of the demons and the demands of the hardliners under his command.

And at the end of the war, when most of the hardliners were massacred by the warrior party and the forces of the demons reached the end of the offensive, they made peace with the empire and received part of the land and settled there.

So, I never expected that I would be able to meet them so easily.

… In any case, the invasion of demons is not something that can be prevented by selling some grain.

The record-breaking drought that is currently hitting their eastern continent was not a temporary phenomenon, but a permanent change in climate.

It is only this year that we sell the surplus grains of good harvests to them, but there is no guarantee that this will continue to be the case next year and the year after.

And even the amount they send is not enough to feed all the demons, so the dissatisfaction will build up as the years go by, and one day it will explode and eventually turn its blade toward the empire.

Just like the humans of this era, the demons have not yet established a proper centralized system.

At least, the assortment was a bit more primitive than humans, and the demons were divided into several clans and barely formed chief nations.

In the original work, Paine was elected as their representative, the Demon King, due to his naturally strong power.

However, even so, he was not an absolute ruler, and he still could not ignore the influence of the chiefs who led each clan.

And the result was the great invasion that occurred a few years later.

The problem is that it is I and my family who must bear the brunt of it.

From noble mtl dot com

Between the Empire and the Golden Region, a high mountain range rose like a cliff to prevent the influx of demons and various monsters, so the only passage was through the wilderness between the Southern and Golden Regions.

The furthest easternmost place in the south is Maidheaden, our territory.

If we continue to build friendship with Paine, the moderate demon lord, we will have room for compromise in case of emergency, and since other blood relatives will benefit from us anyway, we may be able to reduce the public opinion that openly approves of the unconditional destruction of the South. I do not know.

If you do it well, you can avoid the worst-case scenario of the entire South being reduced to ashes like in the original story.

Of course, this assumption is too optimistic, so it is clear that additional means must be prepared separately, but anyway, this method is the best I can think of right now.

Although it bothered me a little that the side road was pointed out, the road there was very narrow and not suitable for a large number of people to move at once.

And since the road is between steeply high cliffs, in case of emergency, you can just block the road by bombarding it with magic.

‘after… ‘

I didn’t have the strong power to overturn the war situation alone, nor the high intelligence to design and control every situation alone.

It is not a very pleasant reality that only fragmentary knowledge can be used to avoid tragedy.

‘It’s really hard to survive… ‘

Thinking over and over again, I blew that consciousness beyond the softness of the bed before I knew it.