Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Year 7442, Month 1, Day 15

After finishing the practice matches we return to the house and continue talking while taking a shower. The time is still before sunrise around 6:00am. It should be

about time for breakfast.

"By the way, why are you saying again that I'm suited to be an adventurer?"

"Eh? What?"

I yell out to Mill who's washing her head with soap in the shower. I guess she couldn't hear me well.

"Like I said, why did you start saying that I'm suited to be an adventurer?"

"Ah, it's simple. Even if you were to enter the first knight group just like that...Hm, even if it wasn't the first knight group but if you were to enter one you'd

experience a lot of troubles. It's hard for even me after all."

"Why?"

"Because Knights hate projectile weapons."

Ah, I've heard about that from Farne. The projectile weapons are cowardly~ Right?

"But, wasn't older sister being praised by those two squires?"

"Yeah, that's right. Even if they hate them what works, works after all.. But, there's the thinking that you become careless with the sword because of that. Normally

you start with the sword, spear, and horse. Then only after you've become able to do that and you have leeway do you use the bow or magic. It's really difficult to

use the bow while riding so there's almost no one using them. They don't fly very far as well and if they're fired at close to the maximum range unless they hit a

vital spot they almost always get deflected with armor or shield, and even if it hits then they can use healing magic with how much distance there is. It's not like

there's anyone who can aim at someones face while moving on a horse after all."

I guess that's only obvious. Even if you were to say bow to me I only know the ones that the Doksh family uses in hunting. It's about 1 m in length and the effective

range on it matches the beasts that they're against of about 20 m. If it's any further than that then unless they manage to hit the eye it won't deal much damage.

Furthermore there's no way they could hit a beast that's running away. I've never even heard of a great bow that's taller than adult like the one Nasuno Yoichi used

and I've never heard of composite bows like the ones the Mongol cavalry used as well.

The only exception is the crossbow which has both range and power but it ends with cavalry just firing off one shot or the exclusive infantry archers firing one

arrow per minute or so. The range is only about 100 m horizontally and it's effective range is only about 50 m. If you shoot it upwards at about 45 degrees then it

will fly farther but it's said that it never hits. Well, if you get to the normal effective range of a bow of 20 m then it can penetrate plate armor and injure the

one equipping it so the power of the cross is pretty high. Even if you say it can't be fired rapidly it's still a threat to knights. It's still no comparison to

magic though.

"I see. But any sort of troubles that older sister can do I'm sure I could do as well."

Mill was a bit angry hearing that but quickly grinned and said.

"What does Al thing about people who can use the sword at the same level as father?"

"I'm sure they're amazing people right? Older brother said it but even in Webdos Knight Group there's not many people who can use the sword at father's level."

"That's right, I think so as well. And by chance that amazing person becomes your senior or superior. And that person holds both pride and confidence in their skill

with the sword. What do you think would happen if such a person was suddenly defeated hands down by squire from the middle of nowhere with magic?"

"..I'm sure they would feel pretty pathetic."

"Right? I'm doing that sort of thing. Can you do it?"

If we're asking I could or couldn't do it then I could obviously do it. I did do sales in the Japanese business world where they tear out the eyes of living horses*

doing business for close to 20 years. There's no way I wouldn't be able to do it. But, I'm sure Mill doesn't know my true character. She only knows me as I've lived

wearing a mask. And I'm sure the words just now were directed at the mask. How kind. More importantly than that I'm happy to see that Mill is thinking about various

things and I can tell she's grown.

"I'm sure Al would be praised extravagantly. Since your talent with magic is beyond me and you probably have about as much skill as the average knight. If you use

that weird spear then even I can't win after all. On the contrary, after seeing Al's sword I realized but I think if you were to use that spear then you could

probably win against the true knights in the first knight group from the start. It seems you've gotten stronger and your body has grown bigger as well."

After saying that Mill faces behind and spreads out her arms. I wonder if she's saying to dry her off? Since she used to always do it in the past I quickly realized.

I use drying magic and dry off Mill's hair and body.

"But you know, I'm sure you would feel sorry for them over that. Especially if you see the eyes of the people who would have received a greater assessment if you

hadn't been there. And I'm sure that would continue until you make it up to the knight group leader. No, even if you managed to become the leader I'm sure you would

eternally think that someone else could have made it if you weren't around. That's why you're not suited to be a knight."

It's a very incorrect guess along with a complete misunderstanding. However, Mill is saying it to my mask. Seriously thinking about me.

"That's why it would be better if you were to be in a place without those sorts of chains to an organization. And then you can make your own knight group. Since you

were able to bring everyone together to make rubber products after all. It wouldn't be like becoming a member of a knight group that's a lump of pride afterwards so

I think you could do it."

Do what? Is what I was thinking but I'm sure that's, "Pushing forward with my life". My own knight group would be... my subordinates or my own organization I guess.

Ah, in my case I guess it would match perfectly with my own country.

"I feel bad for older brother but if you were the eldest brother it might have been different."

Don't say things like that. I'm already feeling weird being praised.

"There's no way I can compete with older brother... Even in the knight group brother was able to keep his skill with magic hidden. Though it seems like sister-in-law

Shani already knows. And older brother has.... been completely straight forward since the past. Without bending or breaking, always looking cool. If older brother

were to say it then I'm sure everyone in the village would listen. There's no way I can match up to older brother."

These are my real thoughts. Excluding knowledge and mana just thinking as a single bare human even if I remember in my past life I haven't seen anyone as amazing as

Farne. Farne is always thinking seriously and always straightforward.

I express my honest feelings and hearing that Mill opens her eyes in surprise.

"Huh? That's only obvious right? What are you saying? I wasn't saying something like that. I meant if you were the eldest son then you would have had a personality

able to get along in the world better. Don't misunderstand, idiot. Comparing you to older brother is less than the flies swarming horse shit. It would stranger to

compare a lesser-being than a maggot like you to older brother! Should I punch you a few more times and match the color of your face to your hair and eyes? I'll make

you understand by turning your face black from bruises!"

...

"What was that! I'll beat you down one more time! Come to think of it, I thought about making you some new protectors since your old ones probably don't fit anymore

but with that pitiful chest I'm sure you don't need it. Meet me out front you bitch!"

Mill and I were about to start a fist fight while naked but,

"You two stop it already! You idiots! Mill! The squires can hear you! Al! Stop speaking in such an impolite manner! Hurry up and put your clothes and come eat!"

Father suddenly appears and ends the war between siblings before it starts with an angry yell.

I wonder when he started listening?

...........

Since we have guests breakfast was a little bit higher-quality than normal. In the center of break, Mill has returned to her stiff and refined way of speaking like

when she appeared. Pretending to be so innocent.

It seems that Mill plans to stay three more days. Even though she has a month and a half break she can only spend a total of four days at home huh. I'm sure the

capital is far away. I wonder if this will really be the last time I see Mill.

Mill's squires are eating food as politely as ever. I doubt they heard all of my conversation just now with Mill but there's a possibility they heard the final

quarrel. However, it seems they've courteously decided to ignore it. They are showing any signs of change. Why do I have to worry about older sister? Shit.

After breakfast it seems that Mill and the others are going to take a walk and rest. Older brother, Shani, and I leave the children to Sonia and Sharl and go off to

do our usual magic training. In a field with tall grass at the edge of the village there's a magic training area of about 50 m that I burnt clear to make. We make

Shani who has low mana use magic then rest. Making sure her MP doesn't drop below 6, I tell her to use a random magic and gain experience. I help support Farne's

magic training by using "Anti-Magic Field. Farne uses a variety of magics but inside of the "Anti-Magic Field" we don't know to what extent the magic he used was.

By the time Farne's magic training ends Shani's mana has recovered a bit so she uses magic once more and that's the end of training. Eventually I'm sure Shani will

receive an explanation about the Greed family's magic secret. I wonder if Farne will show her everything at that time. Though I don't think I'll be around at that

time.

After finishing magic training we start sword training. We do this together with the squires at the training area near our house. After we start training the squires

gather in small groups. Those who start swinging the sword, those who start doing matches, and ones who switch offense and defense while watching the flow of the

matches, various forms of practicing. I'm practicing in the corner of the training area using my bayonet against a tree with straw wrapped around it as a target.

After my body has warmed up I do practice matches with my older brother and Shani. If I use bayonet style then let alone the two of them I can fight against three at

once now. After that I change to a wooden sword and do practice matches against all of the squires in order. Near the end since everyone is exhausted if the

abilities are close then it can remain a good match for quite a while. And after a short break Farne and I do practice matches in the corner.

I'll try doing what I was able to do this morning. I try using magic while swinging the sword before the match. Ah, I can do it. I quickly cancel it and face Farne.

I don't know if he saw that just now but Farne was making a surprised expression. Alright, let's do this. My match with Farne started. I exchange several blows but

this sensation, I somehow feel like I can do it. When it came down to locking swords with Farne I used "Air Hammer" like I did this morning and sent Farne flying.

Though I still fail sometimes but if I were to keep practicing I'm sure it's just a matter of time before I'll be able to succeed every time.

Farne asked what the trick to it was but I don't know the trick to it. Maintain as calm as possible in your mind and don't be conscious of the movements of your body

or so. I also said I would be able to use magic while running pretty soon. I've already been doing it everyday for close to four years without getting tired of it.

Farne might be able to do it in a shorter period of time. It seems that Farne will start running from today.

A short while after training ends it's lunch. After eating I put on my protectors and go running. Starting today Farne is together with me. Since it's the first time

I said it would be better not to wear the protector and Farne honestly followed through with it. This honesty is Farne's strong point. He definitely doesn't

overestimate his own abilities and takes things with modesty. Even if he is told by his six years younger little brother not to overdo it he follows that without

trying to act cool. Even though the 14 year old me is running with my protectors on the 20 year old Farne accepted my advice without acting cool.

It's not something that can be done easily. And he put's his best efforts into everything. The type of steps to make in order to efficiently run for a long period of

time, the breathing method, he keeps taking in everything he can and making it his strength. Implementing new methods that are more efficient and figuring out new

tricks. And eventually he'll pass the pioneer. There's no doubt he gave his best just like this in the knight group as well. I'm sure he'll become a good lord. The

squires are continuing their training as they curiously watch us run and try to use magic. My failure rate is about 50%. Hm, I've finally gotten a grasp on it.

After returning from running it's time for rubber production. I don't do pretty much anything anymore. I leave for my own magic training pretty often. It's just

Diane and the rubber exclusive squire families and Farne as the supervisor role. Again I go out to the magic training area and increase the precision of my magic and

practice attacking with magic. I make a dirt hill and practice shooting into it while running. It seems like rate of success might have gone up a bit.

And it was when I was training. Farne came running. Is there an emergency!? It seems Farne is laughing. What in the world is it?

"Hey, Al, take a look at this."

The thing that Farne handed to me was... a light brown object.

"This is.."

It's almost like a balloon. No, it's not jelly beans and obviously not just a balloon. I see, finally... He's finally done it. As expected, older brother.

"It's still a prototype but I've tried various combinations. I can't waste the rubber so I've been doing it a bit at a time and it took a while. However, this is

amazing. The thickness is half of what it was until now but while it's not quite double the endurance it's considerably higher. If the thickness is the same then it

should be two to three times more durable."

I see, certainly this is amazing. I'm sure this won't tear easily. It's quite good."

Farne smiles a bit embarrassed while saying.

"Ah, I changed things around a bit at a time for each prototype. I've perfectly kept records of the mixture ratio as well so it's not a coincidence. Thanks, Al."

Why am I being thanked?

"I haven't done anything worth being thank"No, let me say thanks. The one who thought of it first is you. I just got on that and improved it. If you hadn't thought

of it I probably would have spent my entire life satisfied with the bowels of a pig. And it's not like we can kill pigs that often. This only uses a bit of rubber

and I was able to make something good thanks to you."

He's going to make it my achievement huh.

"And, how much are you going to sell this for?"

"Eh?"

"Ah, No, I mean the price you sell it to the company for."

"Eh? I won't sell it. I made it for myself after all.."

Huh?

"You won't sell it.. That's a waste. Won't it sell well?"

"Eh? Will it sell? It's not completely just raw rubber but if it's this thin then by the time we get it from the village to the company I think it will be hard?"

Ah, he said he wouldn't sell it because of that case.

"No way, if you roll it up small like this and then put it into a small rubber bag which is properly closed with some lotion inside then I think it will last for a

while?"

"Oh! That's right! But, putting them into a rubber bag one at a time takes too much labor. Ah, it would be fine if we made the rubber bag a bit larger and put about

10 in each wouldn't it?"

"That's a good idea."

I think it's a good idea. If they're sold in bulk then it can raise the amount of sales while holding the unit price back a bit. Above all if they buy them in groups

of 10 then the client will use them 10 times. Since it's a waste. Then I'm sure they'll be possessed by this things appeal.

"Oh, Alright, let's go with that. I'm sure we'll be able to gather rubber from field number 5 pretty soon. That's right, we need to think of a name for this as well.

Since this is a good chance Al, you name it."

Even if I were to say condom that word doesn't exist in Orth, how troublesome.

"Hmm..I can't think of a good name."

"I see, I guess so. Ah, that's right. Since you're the first one to make them how about using your name "Alan"?"

Please forgive me on that. I can't help but think of it as a hindrance to making my own country. I should cut off future problems right away.

"How about just simply "Scabbard"? Likening it to a sword."

""Scabbard", "Scabbard" huh? Alright, let's go with that."

It seems he liked it.

"And, what kind of price will you sell it for?"

"Let me think about it. Even if there's 10 in a pack then it still won't use much rubber. Though it takes a bit of work despite that and lotion is necessary as well.

I guess around 10,000 zeni?"

I'm sure that's expensive. If you say 10,000 zeni then it's about the same price as the suckling bottle. Going off intuition I'd say around 10,000 yen ($100). 1

silver coin. It's about 1/50th the yearly income of a commoner farming family that doesn't possess any serfs. Ah, no, wait a minute?

"Hmn, how much are the bowels of pigs sold around Keel?"

"Eh? Hmm. I think around 1,000 zeni? I think it's around 10,000 zeni for one whole pig."

It's no wonder sausage isn't in circulation.

"In that case isn't it a bit expensive? You can make quite a few from the bowels of a single pig right?"

"Yeah, it's expensive. However, if we make them cheap then tons of them will be used by normal slaves and in brothels I'm sure. Even if they don't use much rubber if

they were to be used in mass all at once then it'll have an affect on production. Particularly because this takes some work in drying it, I don't think we'll be bale

to control sales well."

It's true there's that sort of problem.

"Hmn, in that case then I don't know what kind of price we should put on it. How about consulting with father about it?"

"Eehh!!? You want me to talk to father about these?... Even if I were to say to actually try it out...Let me think about it for a bit.."

It's not surprising.

"Please do so. If I were to bring it up, umm, it'd be a odd.."

"Hm, if you were to be the one that talked about it, it'd be helpful to me but.. Since you're already at a good age, have you already done it yet?"

I was already married once so obviously I've done it before. Though it's been quite a while since then. In the first place I'm almost 14 years old, it's the age

where some of the faster people are already getting married.

"Do I look like I have any girls that I'm intimate with?"

"It doesn't look like it.. I'm sure you don't have that kind of time and in the worst case if you were to have a child it would be a problem as well.. No, I didn't

mean to tease you. If you enter the knight group then the seniors will try to take you to those sorts of stores though... I was like that at the start as well."

Farne gave it up to a pro huh? It doesn't particularly matter though. Somehow I thought Shani was the first one. I guess there's no way that's the case?

When I turned 12 years old I received sexual education. Even though I'm the second son of a countryside viscount since I'm still technically a noble in order to make

sure I don't have kids with some weird person. It's still fine if it was someone within the village but I was told to be extra careful of the female adventurers who

come along as guards with the caravans. If Farne had died before making an heir then either Mill or I would have had to succeed the Greed family and it's not as if

there aren't women who aim for that sort of thing. That's why there are a lot of nobles who behave strictly. In order to avoid trouble in the future.

As far as I know Shani's first time was with Farne. I heard her voice in pain shortly after she came to the village after all. She's the eldest daughter of the

direct line of Marquis Webdos. She was able to marry Farne because she had several male siblings though I'm sure her conduct was strict.

"I understand. I'll try giving it my best but it's also a matter of timing.. If older brother has good timing then please talk to father about it before me."

"Yeah, I guess so.."

We exchange glances, let out a sigh, and head home.

...............

After returning to the house Mill and the others had returned as well. It can't be helped.

"Older sister, do you have time right now? I'll take your measurements."

"..Will you make it properly?"

Shut up. You'll chip away at my motivation.

I'll properly make it for you before you return.

Since the protectors are stuck on above the armor I take measurements above the armor. Around the time I was measuring her chest I laughed a bit in ridicule. Since I

did it in the dining room while the squires were watching with great interest I wasn't hit. I was glared at with eyes like she wanted to kill me but I already

predicted that far.

Tomorrow I should have finished making it and then I just need to make adjustments to the inside and it's completed. When I was talking about the production schedule

for the protectors the squires were surprised that I could do it that fast. Since the molds are already made it only really needs some slight adjustments should I

make theirs together as well? Just in case I confirmed with Mill and she started saying how it would reduce the amount of rubber we have for making products and

increase the amount of work I have to do. Then your protectors are the same, idiotic older sister. In the first place it's not something for you to be worrying

about.

Putting the idiot aside, since they went through the trouble of coming to the village while protecting this thing, I asked Hegard about making theirs as well. The

two of there were very grateful. Come to think of it we've only sold the protectors to the Doksch family that does the hunting. Excluding Farne and Mill these two

will be the first ones outside of the village to use it. Hegard is shrewdly talking about the appeals of the protectors. When the Webdos knight group was sounding

out if we would sell them we ended up refusing because we didn't have enough rubber but I wonder what's with the sudden change in direction?

I thought that and asked later and he said he was waiting for a chance until now. It seems he's planning to sell directly to the first knight group. And if we become

the exclusive merchant for the first knight group then we can quickly add to the power of the brand name. We can raise the price up as we sell it as well. For the

time being we still have to take measurements, coming here is a condition but if there's an actual demand for them then it wouldn't be too bad to go to the capital

and take measurements all at once.

Making it into a brand huh? It's a good idea. Isn't father more suited to be a merchant? In the first place armor is extremely expensive. Leather armor costs about

50 silver coins. Chain mail made from metal costs around 10 gold coins and if it comes down to splint mail or scale mail which is made from thin metal plates layered

together then it gets even higher up to 20 gold coins. A full suit of plate armor will cost you at least 4-50 gold coins. Since you can't even take the look of a

knight without at least having chain mail it only makes sense that it costs a lot of money.

Putting aside Farne that's already retired from the knight group I wonder if Mill properly looks the part without metal armor just using rubber protectors? I've

suddenly started worrying about it. I nervously tried asking the squires about it and as a matter of fact everyone wants it. It seems that there's a charm to it that

it's light, easy to take off, and still has close to the amount of defense that metal armor does. However, even if they ask Mill then she just responds, "we aren't

selling it", so they had given up on it. Obviously since armor is seen as something that's considerably expensive even if we were selling it they wouldn't be able to

buy it but since Mill from the countryside was using it they only saw it as the same price as splint mail it seems.

I thought it was only about 3 gold coins at best but armor is insanely expensive. Certainly I've never seen the adventurers that come as guards of the caravans wear

anything but leather armor. It only makes sense that they'd be that grateful. Since we're giving you a free sample make sure to give it your best with advertising

it.

The next day I made the chest portion of Mill's protectors slightly larger. Shed tears for my kindness.

Of course, there's no way she'd be grateful, she just looked at the protector with a complicated expression.