The first was that he had been acting together with Todd and the others since close to the beginning, and was used to handling fortified armor.
The second was that he wielded the magical bow Sagittarius granted to him by Todd.
Somehow they had found out later, but bestowing something to a warrior from the chief was a point of pride and honor for the warrior, something irreplaceable.
Because of that, the other mountain people also came to acknowledge Garu as the rightful person for the position, it seemed.
That bow held by Garu, Sagittarius, was, strictly speaking, not a bow but a magic invocation device in the shape of a bow.
Rather than arrows, it could fire spells, and was tuned so that an arrow of fire magic with a set amount of power could be unleashed if magical power was poured into it.
When they had first successfully developed it, Todd had been quite delighted, thinking that now even those unable to use magic would have means of ranged attack able to unleash spells.
But he and Haruto had soon realized it was a fleeting joy.
Rather than activating the magic themselves, forcefully triggering the magic circuits by pouring in magical power consumed a massive amount of magical power.
It required so much magical power that only veteran magic users would likely be able to wield it, and those people could just use magic normally in the first place, so there were barely any qualified wielders for the weapon.
In a place where magical power could not be measured, it was only useful for those who, despite having massive amounts of magical power, had not undergone one bit of magical training.
For those kinds of irregular humans, this Sagittarius alone was usable.
“Oi, aren’t you hot?”
“It’s hot, but bearable.”
Garu and Ho spoke to Raienbach and the others as complete equals.
They did not change their attitude one bit for anyone except the tribal chief.
At first Raienbach had scolded them trying to make them correct that, but when they refused to listen no matter what he said, it seems he gave up trying to rebuke them.
“I’d like to try developing a new magical armor for Sir Raienbach soon. With his abilities he could likely handle anything we make.”
“That’s probably true… Rein could likely even handle powered armor I bet.”
Somehow Haruto had seen that Raienbach still had room to spare.
Not room to spare in combat ability, but in his specs.
Although his various abilities had been greatly boosted from using the magical armor, because his base values were so high, it seemed there was still room to raise his equipment grade and he would somehow make it work.
Powered armor was said to be equipment so powerful that once you wore it, you could never go back to your original equipment.
In the game, Raienbach had died before its development finished, but if they could keep him alive, he would likely be active as an extremely powerful multi-armed mobile soldier.
While Todd assessed he would likely be inferior to the likes of the awakened Takeru (rated S+ in combat ability on the online wiki), he probably had enough strength to be a quasi-first class mobile soldier.
Maybe it was just favoritism, but Todd could not imagine Raienbach losing against anyone once equipped with powered armor.
“It’s frustrating not being able to do research. I want to get back to the lab already.”
“I don’t want to call that storehouse with pathetic security that lets us take whatever we want a lab…”
“But I want to go back soon too. Around here, even taking a bath is a chore.”
Somehow Haruto and the research team seemed to want to hurry up and defeat Totila so they could return to the city.
There was hardly satisfactory equipment here, and all they did was use magical power gauges to pick out mountain people who seemed like they could use magic, and do simple maintenance and repairs on equipment used by Todd and the others.
They were not making anything new, just fixing and improving what they already had, which seemed to leave them unsatisfied.
Though in Renge’s case she seemed to purely dislike it for girlish reasons.
Magical power was said to increase in total amount the more it was used.
So for now, they had somehow managed to fill barrels with hot water to use as a bath by having some of the mountain people who had become magician apprentices use water and fire elemental magic.
As someone who was originally Japanese, Todd was fussy about such things as well, and because he found waiting a hassle, he made sure to prepare hot water himself and take hot baths.
On the other hand, Raienbach didn’t seem to care much about such things, and what’s more the mountain people were types who were satisfied just wiping their bodies lightly, so to be completely blunt Todd was assaulted by a fairly frequent stinging stench.
Other than Todd with his modern sensibilities about cleanliness and Haruto forced to wash by Renge, they were all quite stinky with sweat.
“As for me, it’s still fine to stay here. It’s basically comfortable, and the idea that the more I fight, the more troops increase is like playing a board game, which is interesting.”
“I can feel myself getting stronger. Every day is fulfilling now, and it’s all thanks to Todd-sama!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
It seems that Raienbach and Garu are thoroughly enjoying this lifestyle.
Raienbach, who simply loves fighting from the beginning, seems to prefer the daily occurrences of combat here, where something is happening every day, rather than the daily life over there with simulated battles and testers.
Garu has been lent various equipment, and his strength has increased through simulated battles with Raienbach and others.
In addition to becoming a squad leader, a sense of responsibility seems to have begun to emerge.
In the mountain people’s terms, one could say he has grown from a warrior to a warrior leader.
Perhaps because he was able to recognize his own strength through battles and defeating enemies, Garu no longer seems as fixated on strength as before.
However, his hatred towards Totila seems unchanged.
But even that, unlike before, he no longer urges Todd to hurry.
There seems to have been a change in his mindset.
By the way, although they are not present at the moment, the trio of Landon and the others in the personal guard also seem to have a similar feeling.
They have immersed themselves too much in the mountain people’s lifestyle, especially Mikito and Soot, who have already adopted a lifestyle with overgrown beards and grabbing meat with their hands.
(It’ll be tough for them when they return to the kingdom. It seems there are several girls they are trying to bring back…)
While Todd looked into the distance, he prayed for their future happiness.
“Oh I see… Of course, once this is over you all will return…”
Ho muttered as if he had just now realized it.
To them, Todd and the others should be outsiders who came from the outside world.
And yet they had started thinking about them like that… It warmed his heart just a little bit.
Had they been able to adapt and be accepted into this place?
Thinking about that made him feel just a little happy.
However, Todd’s opinion leaned more towards Haruto and the others’, wanting to hurry up and go back already.
Of course part of that was anticipating coming events as well, but more than anything…
“I want to see my siblings soon… I haven’t seen them for months already.”
“Your Highness’s brocon is downright pathological, I must say.”
“Come on Haruto-san, don’t say it like that…”
“I hope Takeru and Miyahi aren’t being bullied without me there. Enethya isn’t being filled with more weird stuff by Iris again I hope… Frail Anastasia hasn’t had any health problems has she… And Edward, while he’s probably fine, I just want to see him.”
“Hey Renge-chan, so what are you going to call His Highness when he gets like this?”
“Umm… How about ‘big brother overflowing with familial love’ or something?”
“There are ways to phrase things after all…”
Despite hearing that Totila’s group was hurrying to Mount Sheila, for some reason the atmosphere around Todd’s group was relaxed.
That’s because Todd and the others had already finished their battle preparations, so now all that was left was to wait for Totila’s side to arrive.
Over half of the Mount Sheila forces had already been incorporated into Todd’s tribe, and were currently training under Landon’s command to move in larger units than before.
Calmly drinking black tea, Todd looked puzzled when he saw Raienbach walking up.
Unlike his expression up until just now, his face harbored the vigor he wore when grimly going into battle.
Making sure the others would not hear, he whispered into Todd’s ear,
“Your Highness, what exactly do you intend to do with Totila?”
Todd faltered for an answer for a moment, but soon gave a response.
He choked on the answer in his throat but…he did not notice the unnaturalness himself.
“Obviously…I’ll kill him. He’s an existence we don’t need in our future plans.”
Assuming they let Totila live for argument’s sake.
He would undoubtedly scheme something the instant Todd and the others were gone.
If he hid himself and then used guerilla tactics, he could become an extremely troublesome existence.
Totila had a gathering of warriors who adored him called his Praetorian Guard.
Among the tribes as well some had stated they would go along with Totila instead of bending to Todd’s side here.
Leaving alive Totila who had the potential to become an anti-government rebel force with his calling himself the tribal king of the mountain people and baring his fangs at Todd and the others was far too high a cost.
No matter how Todd thought it better to spare lives than kill if possible, it was exceedingly difficult to apply that thinking to Totila.
However, it seems that Raienbach is concerned that Todd’s kindness might be his downfall.
Todd himself has already taken the lives of many people.
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