Chapter 6: Forest Uprising

It was magic.

Now that I think about it, the Inner City doesn’t even have sewers or anything like that.

However, there’s no stench or filth, either.

‘Why is that?’

They take care of it with magic.

Because they have money.

They can afford at least that much in magic tools.

“How much are magic tools for waste disposal these days?”

“A permanent one is quite expensive. It’s about 10 gold. A disposable one is around 10 silver each.”

It’s 100 silver to 1 gold.

So 10 gold is 1,000 silver.

But still, I don’t really know what the cost of 10 gold is in terms of market value here, so I can’t tell if that’s very expensive or not.

“Myuron, how much is your monthly salary?”

He looked a bit flustered at my question, but quickly corrected his expression and answered politely.

“I receive a monthly salary of 5 gold.”

Five gold.

‘Is that what an administrator working for a noble household gets paid each month in this world?’

Seems fairly high.

‘If that’s the case, do the lower-class folks earn 1–2 gold a month?’

I should look into that later.

Well, I’ll find out as I live here, anyway.

“I see. Hm……..”

Anyway.

With that conversation just now, I’m certain.

They deal with waste using magic.

And for people with money, it’s not even that expensive.

It’s just common sense.

Honestly.

I want to slap my old self from before I awakened my past life.

‘Why is what I know so one-sided?’

Well, I guess it can’t be helped if I was the youngest son of a noble family.

Still, the fact that there are magic tools for waste disposal means they’re at least somewhat aware of hygiene, right?

‘Or is there some other reason?’

I can’t tell.

My master taught me a lot about magic, but nothing about this kind of stuff.

Hmm.

‘Does this world know about the connection between disease and hygiene?’

I have no idea.

“otot.”

There’s just so much I don’t know.

In any case, it’s clear I need to learn more about this world in detail.

Yeah. Got it.

Whatever I try to do, I should first find out what this place is like.

“Well then. Let’s do a round—north, south, east, and west.”

“Yes, Young Lord.”

Three Knights.

Twenty soldiers.

And one administrator.

With them in tow, I started moving.

‘It’s worse than I thought. Worse than a mess.’

We had to travel far to patrol the territory.

So the escort was increased.

Sitting safely inside the carriage, I thought about yesterday’s events and came to a conclusion.

‘Well. Even putting aside the stench, the living standards here are just wretched.’

The Lower-Class District is quite literally a den of beggars.

At least in the Rich District, there are a fair number of stone and wooden buildings.

The filth is less, too.

However, there are some problems.

I saw it while passing by—some punks who looked like thugs were beating people in an alley.

In other words, public order isn’t good.

Of course.

That’s only to be expected.

Does this world have CCTV?

‘Or scientific investigation techniques?’

Absolutely not.

There are high-level magic spells that can read the memories of the earth, but what high-level mage is going to waste his time solving crimes?

‘Sheesh. What a half-baked, chaotic system of management.’

Yet the territory still manages to function somehow.

It’s honestly surprising.

No, it’s probably just because of my memories from living in Korea.

For the people here, this is normal.

If you look at actual world history, even medieval European countries managed to operate for a surprisingly long time.

‘Ah, maybe the country collapses after 200 or 300 years because it’s such a mess?’

Actually, in world history, most countries struggled to last even 200 years.

‘What should I do…….’

‘Should I just go off and be independent on my own?’

No, Father’s managed until now, and if my brother succeeds the house head, he’ll probably do as we’ve always done.

‘Our family…… this is the 7th generation, right? History is roughly 250 years. Hmm~ So, it doesn’t seem likely to collapse soon…… Still, they’re family. Just letting them be feels bad too. What to do…….’

I’m full of worries.

It’s probably because I know too much for my own good.

The flaws are just so obvious.

It was while I was agonizing like that.

“Battle formation!”

A loud voice rang out from outside the carriage.

It was laced with aura and boomed powerfully.

“Battle?”

‘What? A battle?’

Thinking that, I looked out the carriage window.

There, the things I’d only ever seen in illustrations were attacking.

“Those are… Goblins? No, who else but Goblins could they be. But why Goblins?”

The forces escorting me number about a hundred.

Honestly, that’s not even that many.

In fact, in the Count’s direct territory, there are hardly any bandits.

There are fewer monsters compared to other places, which is why only this much force was mobilized.

Besides, it’s not as if these are troubled times when assassins might be after me.

So about a hundred soldiers and three Knights were dispatched.

Even so.

All the soldiers are standing troops, well-equipped and well-trained.

Everyone has breastplates and shields, and each carries a spear and a longsword.

They fight with spears first, then switch to shield and sword when the enemy gets close.

And then there are the Knights.

These three have formally trained in aura.

Aura has five levels: Beginner, User, Practitioner, Expert, and Master.

My father is a top-level Expert.

As for Master level—there’s only about one or two in an entire country.

‘There must be some hidden forces, of course! But even for top-level Experts, there aren’t more than twenty in a country.’

So, that means our family is really something.

There’s no way the Knights of such a family would be weak.

All three are at least aura Practitioner level.

Even if they’re at the lower end, that’s enough to use aura.

It’s an impressive level.

‘Hmm. Not really the time to be thinking about this, though.’

There are quite a lot of Goblins.

At the very least, the ones pouring out from the forest look to be well over a few hundred.

“Form a circle around the carriage! Protect the horses and the carriage!”

At Sir Benson’s command, the soldiers surrounded my carriage in a ring and raised their spears, forming a formation like a hedgehog.

Definitely.

They’re elite.

***

While I was admiring them, the monsters charged in.

Soon, a deadly fight broke out right before my eyes.

‘Somehow… I feel indifferent. Maybe because I remember my past life.’

Goblins die.

They get stabbed by spears, spilling their guts and screaming as they fall one by one.

The soldiers’ spears are 2.5 meters long.

That’s plenty, and there are many of them.

It’s only natural that the charging Goblins are skewered and killed.

Normally, I’d be horrified and my heart would be pounding with nerves.

If I were still living in Korea, that’s how I would have reacted.

‘Zhuge Xian…… Yeah, in Zhuge Xian’s days, I saw plenty of death.’

The Jianghu is a brutal world.

Definitely more barbaric than Korea.

I saw many die, and I died myself, too.

‘Well…… I suppose it’s thanks to the experiences I had as Zhuge Xian. But still, it’s strange for Goblins to be this fierce. Something’s off. Book knowledge and reality are different, but this behavior doesn’t match what I know of cunning Goblins.’

I opened the door and stepped outside.

Dozens of Goblins were dead, and some of our own soldiers were injured at this point.

“Young Lord! It’s safer for you to stay inside the carriage…… Young Lord!?”

Sir Benson started shouting at me, then looked shocked.

No wonder—I was climbing onto the roof of the carriage.

“Let’s see here.”

We’re traveling alongside the forest right now.

That is, the right side of the carriage is plains, the left side is forest.

I heard there’s a road through the forest, but we had no reason to take it.

So as we were traveling beside the forest, we got attacked by Goblins bursting out from within.

Normally, Goblins don’t act like this.

If that’s so—

There must be another reason.

“Let’s see…….”

I pulled out the Magic Book I brought with me and flipped through it, looking for a spell.

1st Circle Magic.

Search.

A detection-type spell that locates magical power.

It’s a 1st Circle spell, but it’s very useful.

Its range is about 500 meters.

I quickly skimmed over the passage for the spell.

Ever since I awakened to my previous life as Zhuge Xian, my perception abilities have skyrocketed.

I could instantly understand and memorize the spell.

Hmm.

As expected.

I thought it would work, and it does.

To think I could understand a spell just by glancing at it.

“Mana, move at my command. Search.”

I cast the spell right away.

The mana circle activated, and mana moved at my will.

The surrounding mana twisted and exploded into magic.

Pop!

“Just as I thought.”

Something foul could be felt deeper in the forest.

‘What to do?’

With my current ability, attacking that area is difficult.

Just as I was thinking that, I felt a presence shift.

Aha.

Did it start moving because so many Goblins died?

“Kwahoo!”

Goblins are usually about 1.4 meters tall.

So, they’re small.

But this one was about 2 meters tall.

It wore some kind of bone helmet.

It looked like a Goblin, just huge.

And it held a strange staff.

A group of Goblins clustered around it.

‘So there was a Goblin Shaman. No wonder this wasn’t a normal Goblin attack.’

“Goblin Shaman!? When did that thing show up?”

Benson shouted in surprise.

“Tolmen, Bilson, attack the Goblin Shaman from the left and right! I’ll attack from the center!”

Tolmen and Bilson are the Knights who came with Benson to guard me.

They’re ranked lower than Benson.

They immediately grabbed their reins and spread out to the sides.

They each took about ten soldiers with them.

The Goblin Shaman raised its staff and began chanting something.

I could see magical power moving.

“That won’t do. No way.”

I raised my hand.

“Mana, move at my command. Magic Missile.”

Papat!

Three spheres of magical energy appeared around me.

Well, that’s my limit with my current skill.

But, you see, I’m not an ordinary mage.

Whoosh!

Instead of the mana circle, I drew on the internal energy in my dantian and infused it into the three Magic Missiles just before firing.

I’d already tried this during training at home.

The result?

Very impressive.

“Attack.”

Fweeeee!

The Magic Missiles sliced through the air, tearing through it.

The Goblin Shaman, who had been muttering something, looked at me in shock.

But the Magic Missiles were already upon him.

Pupupuk!

Three coin-sized holes were punched right through his body.

The Shaman’s face twisted with disbelief, then he let out a scream of agony.

“Kyaaaaaaagh!”

“Indeed. Not bad.”

Mixing magic and martial arts.

The effect is outstanding.

‘Who would have thought Magic Missile could fly at supersonic speed!’