Chapter 115 : Water is Precious

TL:SummerPeanut

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9 September 2030, around 15:00 clock time.

The three of us headed in six wagons to the Forest of Death, where the Knights are.

To be precise, the knights are not in the Forest of Death but are encamped in the meadow in front of the Forest of Death.

We are to deliver preserves for about 400 people in total for the two combined Knights Orders. I don't know how many days' worth of food this is though…

And they say it takes about a day to get from Isaac to the Knights, and by a day, they meant from the departure at 8 am and reaching at around 5 pm.

Maybe if I keep healing the horses, we could get there afternoon today.

But there are some points of concern. It's a night march after all. Horses are not bothered by night trails. That is because they can see at night. I can also see at night thanks to the effect of the Sky Eyes.

But it would be hard for the drivers even if Karen and Bram were not considered. Well if we don’t reach the Knights fast enough and they ended up retreating, Isaac will be in danger so there’s no other choice for them but to endure.

The sun was going down and it was getting dark. If this place was in Regan, the street lights would be lit by magic stones but there are no such lights here.

I used Search to the maximum range and floated multiple Fires ahead of me.

When I explained the situation to the surprised drivers, they were relieved after. When I detect any magic beasts with Search, I defeat them with Wind Cutter without a single word. When a horse is about to drop out from fatigue, I ask the driver to switch over the driving for a bit and Heal the horse in a way that it does not get exposed. All of these consumed more MP than I thought they would... Well, it's still within my calculation that half of MP will still be available by the time we get there so all’s good...

Karen also started using Fire herself to light up the surroundings. In Karen's case, it was probably also to practice her control over Fire.

As introduced previously, Karen's current style is to first let Fire manifest around her and then attack with the whip. When an enemy evades or catches her whip and lunges at Karen, the style is to hit the enemy with the Fire that is floating around Karen beforehand.

This requires a great deal of dexterity. It also requires dexterity and nerve as prerequisites to keep the Fire in place. In fact, Karen is trying something quite difficult amongst Reimei members as she also has to wield the whip in that state.

After marching while defeating magic beasts, we finally arrived at the meadows where the knights are encamped.

They seem to have a fairly large camp and, like us, they are lit by fire.

Well, it is quite bright and I feel that this is a hard amount of light to sleep with, but if you deplete your MP, it will be as if there is no problem.

And a lot of tents were put up. I'm sure everyone sleeps in the tents.

“Karen, can I leave this to you? I don't think there will be any unnecessary problems or confusion if Karen goes from the start."

When I requested her of this, Karen replied ‘Okay’ and went to speak to the Knights.

“Good work. I'm Karen Lionel. I'm here to deliver the supplies. Is the Commander of the Knights of Arcane Fire or Margrave Isaac around?”

The Order members seemed to be surprised when Karen spoke to them.

“Ya, yes! I will call Margrave Isaac immediately.”

And went to the largest tent and immediately brought a man in black armor.

As soon as the tanned man came in front of Karen, he got down on one knee and said

“Long time no see. Lady Karen. Thank you very much for coming all the way here.”

The man then looked up into Karen's face. I appraised the man now that I think he wouldn't be offended at this moment.

Name: Geese Weiss

Title: Chains King, Ant Slaughterer

Status: Human race, head of the Margrave Isaac Household.

Condition: Good

Age: 39 years old

Level: 58

HP: 185/185

MP: 55/55

Strength: 69

Agility: 60

Magic: 5

Dexterity: 75

Durability: 70

Luck: 1

Special Ability: Swordsmanship (Lv7/C)

Special Ability: Chains Technique (Lv8/C)

Equipment: Sword of Adamantite

Equipment: Chains of Guidance

Equipment: Adamantite armor

Equipment: Adamantite footplate

Equipment: Ring of Protection

He is quite strong. This is the first time I have seen such a strong person in the Lister Confederacy who cannot use magic. The equipment is also from the Adamantite series.

I haven't seen anyone this strong among the knight commanders I've seen so far. As expected from the person who has been monitoring the Forest of Death for so long.

The Adamantite series is the opposite of mithril silver and is impervious to magic. For Margrave Isaac who does not use magic, the adamantite series, which makes it difficult for the opponent's magic to penetrate, would be a good match.

After Karen kneeled on one knee, she said to Margrave Isaac.

“Long time no see. Lord Isaac. Let's skip the formal greetings and begin with the supplies. What would you like first?"

Karen used a rare honorific when talking. Well, it's more of a polite gesture than a respectful one...

“Thank you very much. So, first of all, we'll need a supply of alcohol... No, we'll need a supply of water. We are already running out of drinking water and we are already unable to keep our equipment clean. Top priority is alco-...water."

What a man...just as Duke Regan said. I can't believe he's saying both what he really means and what he's trying to do... Then Karen, unable to hold back her laughter, clutched her stomach.

“Fufufu... As usual, you really... I've also brought alcohol. But don't get your hopes up since we prepared it on short notice. Water will be prepared by our party leader and clan master, Mars here, using Water magic."

Karen looked at me and casually stepped back behind me. Seeing this, Margrave Isaac looked very surprised.

“Nice to meet you, Margrave Isaac. I am Mars Bryant, 1st year Lister Imperial School, ranked first in S class. I would like to prepare the water with Water magic but where should I place them? If not, I will prepare the container myself if you don’t mind?"

Then Margrave Isaac said.

“Ooh. I have heard of the rumors. You are the Sword Saint titled warrior who defeated the eldest son of the Duke of Syrians. You said you would prepare water for 400 people so I need at least...4 tonnes of water... Is that alright? There are eight water tanks there that can hold one tonne each so I would like you to fill up four of them. In addition to that, I also want you to fill up the water tanks that are currently being used for drinking water and for cleaning equipment if possible..."

Margrave Isaac asked me with a kindly but somewhat resigned expression on his face.

My Water magic consumes 5 MP to produce 1 liter of water. Maybe my low talent in the magic makes me less fuel-efficient.

Preparing 4 tonnes of water means I need 4,000 liters... or 20,000 in terms of MP...which can be made possible with three times of magic depletion. I might be able to manage in two days.

“Yes! I'll do my best! Where would you like me to start stocking the water from?"

I was led to a place that held drinking water and water for cleaning equipment so I started to fill up from there. The drinking water tank was already near the bottom, and the huge tank for cleaning equipment was already empty.

I poured 400 liters of my remaining MP into the drinking water and equipment tanks, leaving only 100 in reserve.

Meanwhile, Karen was serving alcohol and preserved food to the Knights. All the members of the Knights of Isaac were overjoyed, despite in the middle of the night, to be served in person by the second daughter of the Duke of Fresvald. Karen also approached each of them one by one and politely offered them a drink. It was an unthinkable appearance from the usual Karen.

Incidentally, alcohol was not on the carriage prepared by Irina so she bought all the alcohol she could in Isaac and packed it into the carriage we rode in.

And the reason why I brought Bram here is that Bram's spatial magic stored about 50 bottles of fine wine given to him by Duke Regan.

Bram gave 10 bottles of wine to Margrave Isaac, saying they were from Duke Regan, and Margrave Isaac was very pleased.

When I had 100 MP left, I just told Karen that I was going to sleep first because my MP was already depleted and I went to sleep right after supplying the last batch of water.

We still need more water but I like to think we’ve made it through the emergency.

10 September 2030.

When I woke up, it was already starting to get bright.

I’d say it’s around dawn right now…I was already lying on the bed before I knew it. And Karen is sleeping in the same bed. Most likely thanks to her invoking her authority.

I really want to have a morning bath and a morning shampoo but there is a shortage of water at the moment. If I did that here, I'd get Karen's face smeared.

I went to the water tanks for drinking water and equipment cleaning and found that the drinking water was still there but the tanks for equipment cleaning had run out. I filled up 600 liters of drinking water and fully topped up the equipment washing tank and went back to sleep but it took a long time to fill up this much water.

When I woke up again, everyone was already active. I feel bad that I'm the only one who overslept.

I found Karen nearby and called her.

“Karen, good morning. Would you like to have a bath?”

“Good morning, Mars. Of course, I want to have a bath. But if I say that now, you'll make everyone else uncomfortable.”

Unsurprisingly Karen is being considerate to the situation too.

“That is why I think I'll go ahead and prepare the Knights' baths. I'm not going make it so that they can’t hold anger towards us. For that, I need Karen's help.”

I'd already made sure the water tanks for drinking and equipment cleaning weren't too low. The Knights of the Isaac, who are here now, don't use it much anymore.

120020040

Now all I wanted was to be able to cleanse myself but a bath for one person uses 200 liters of water so with 200 people we'd need 40 tonnes of water.

Hence, I decided to make it rain.

Because it would consume extra MP to warm up the water, I would need to rely on Karen for that. Karen took up my suggestion so I immediately went to Margrave Isaac. Then, Margrave Isaac said to me as soon as he opened his mouth

“Thank you! Mars! I never thought it was possible to produce so much water in such a short time! And the wine is great. And thank you so much, Lady Karen, for all your hard work with the soldiers.”

He was very pleased. I, too, added my comment.

“Good morning. Margrave Isaac. I would like to try a few things now, could you please come to the big baths, 100 people at a time? I'm thinking of bringing down some warm rain so I'm hoping we can have a bit of a dip in the water... only I don't know if the results will be satisfactory as this is the first time I've done this..."

When I said this, Margrave Isaac looked surprised.

“You still have MP? I think you have probably put out close to two tonnes of water, haven't you? If you can do it, we would be very grateful for that suggestion of course..."

At any rate, we decided to give it a try, whether we could or not, and 100 members of the Knights came naked to the big baths. The so-called big baths are very large bathtubs made with crude Earth magic in an open field.

I was a little distance away from the baths, my hands pointing toward the sky, and my hands tilted at an angle toward the baths. Karen, on the other hand, had her back to the bath and was looking only at my hands.

I emitted water into the sky at maximum power and Karen adjusted the water to a slightly hotter temperature.

I calculated that Karen would probably deplete all her MP quickly, but for the soldiers, the thought that the duke's daughter had gone this far would surely boost their morale.

Naturally, the operation was a great success. And the Knights were splendid too.

No one wanted to stay there for long, even though it had been a long time since they had bathed, and as soon as their bodies were refreshed, they went outside the baths and quickly replaced with the knights who had not yet bathed.

Thanks to this, I was also able to use my MP efficiently, and even if Karen fell asleep due to MP depletion, I was still able to make everyone clear of their sweat with just my MP.

I also converted all my remaining MP into water and went to sleep due to MP depletion for the third time today.

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Author’s note:

Making rain happen just to allow Karen to enter the bath but in the end, she ended up going to bed due to MP deficiency...

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