Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (お気楽領主の楽しい領地防衛 ～生産系魔術で名もなき村を最強の城塞都市に～)

I'm going to fight for everyone here.

But I can't protect everyone with my strength alone.

So...

So please lend me your strength.

Let's all protect this village together!

O-Of course we will!

We'll fight together!

We'll all protect it!

Thank you.

Everyone, man the ramparts!

Yes, sir!

All right!

Let's do this!

Ortho's party went out hunting, so they're not in the village.

In that case, I'll...

Till? I need to go up there.

Oh? What's the matter?

Dee, I'm sorry. Could you go up top and report down what's happening?

I'll issue orders from here.

Leave it to me!

Dee, how many armored lizards are there?

Roughly 40. They're eight meters tall.

What? Forty?

This is bad.

Even a bunch of veteran knights would struggle taking down one armored lizard.

EASYGOING TERRITORY DEFENSE BY THE OPTIMISTIC LORD

RUSHED HOSPITALITY AND A BUSY EMISSARY VISIT

RUSHED HOSPITALITY AND A BUSY EMISSARY VISIT

Dee! Load the iron bolts into the ballistae!

Right!

Sir Dee!

Regular weapons won't work against their tough hides.

I know that.

Huh?

So far, despite some quite dismal odds, I've won all my battles.

But now, I want to give following Lord Van's orders a try.

Load those ballistae with iron bolts!

Yes, sir!

Aim!

Fire!

The bolts vanished?

No way.

They went right through?

We've shot down ten armored lizards!

So this is the might of the ballistae made by Lord Van.

But we only have one iron bolt left for each.

There's still enough of them to flatten the ramparts.

We have to use the bolts.

Everyone, reload!

Yes, sir!

Fire!

The second wave's down!

But we're out of iron bolts.

Sir Dee, if we don't act, the village is done for!

What do we do?

Wait, maybe...

Dee! Use the wooden bolts!

Wooden bolts?

But wood won't do much.

They're armored lizards. Their scales are like steel.

Lord Van has already defied my expectations in countless ways.

He protected this village from bandits, then developed it at a tremendous pace.

I'm going to put my faith in Lord Van.

Load the wooden bolts and prepare to fire!

Yes, sir!

Fire!

They're stuck in their heads!

Did it work?

Sir Dee!

We stopped them!

Everyone!

We go again!

Tonight, lizard kebab is on the menu!

Fire!

All of the armored lizards are down!

We've won!

Lord Van!

That was impressive stuff.

What a relief.

All enemies neutralized.

And forget losses. No one on our side even got injured.

To top it off, we only used a small number of bolts.

Our victory was so overwhelming, it's almost anticlimactic.

Lord Van is gonna be a big deal.

Far bigger than I can even imagine.

Take care to preserve the eyes and fangs.

You can toss the guts, but be sure to extract their magic cores.

Yes, sir.

With a haul like this, the bodies often rot before we're done harvesting.

But thanks to these knives Lord Van made, we'll be done in no time.

Good work, everyone.

Oh, wow. We have so much meat now.

That means tonight, we can...

We'll have a big feast!

Now, in honor of the great victory we achieved today, cheers!

Cheers!

Ah, this is so good!

I haven't had booze in ages!

Hey, roast some more! More meat!

I never thought I'd see the day when we could laugh and enjoy good food again.

So there actually is a noble who's not above joining in the revelry.

Still, this might be considered problematic behavior for a noble.

It's all part of Lord Van's charm.

Yup.

The outside's nice and crisp, but it's all soft and juicy inside!

Armored lizard meat sure is good, huh?

When I heard the ballistae bolts were made of the same stuff as our weapons,

it all made sense.

Lord Van made swords for all of you?

THE OPINIONS OF THE ADVENTURERS

It slices right through monster bones without any resistance.

It's light, thin, and great at cutting. It's a huge help.

It's amazing in both appearance and sharpness.

Lord Van! I'll buy one, too!

How much for a greatsword?

I'll take a longsword and a short sword.

I'll have the same.

Uh, I couldn't possible take money from you three after all you've done for us.

Once materials and the village's finances are in order, I'll make new gear for you.

If you sell the armored lizards to a merchant,

you'll get about 20 gold for each one.

That much?

Although in this case, most of the meat will spoil,

so subtracting that and transport fees,

you're looking at about eight gold each.

We still have 40 of them, so that'd be over 300 gold.

Back in Japan, that'd be roughly...

It's over 300 million yen?

Lord Van.

When a village or town makes over 100 gold,

it is required to pay 50% to the marquis in the form of taxes.

U-Um, and there's no way we can keep it a secret?

Very unlikely.

If we sell this much, it'll be discovered at once.

The 300 million I thought I'd be getting shrank to 150 million.

But the bigger problem is my father will learn about the state of this village.

If he learns this place holds some value,

he'll exile me to a different remote area,

and I won't get to live a nice, easy life in this village.

Keeping this a secret may prove difficult, but there is one thing we can try.

Huh? What's that?

We'll report it to Lord Murcia, your older brother.

My brother?

Oh! So give the glory for defeating the armored lizards to my older brother?

Very perceptive.

True, my brother longs to add an achievement to his name,

so this works well for both of us.

Lord Van! Merchants heading this way!

Hey, is this really that remote village?

We didn't take the wrong road, did we?

I take it you two are merchants?

I'm the lord of this village, Van Nei Fertio.

H-Hey, bro. That's Marquis Fertio's fourth son.

The kid everyone was calling a prodigy is this village's lord?

If you don't mind, could I ask your names and the name of your company?

I'm Bell with the Mary Chamber of Commerce.

The man with me is my little brother, Rango.

Please come on in. Welcome to our village.

Huh?

These are...

Materials from armored lizards.

You managed to strike down this many armored lizards?

This tiny village took down creatures so powerful, even adventurers fear them?

Will you buy all of it from us?

Of course.

I'll go fetch some more men.

Are you willing to wait for about a month so we can transport it all?

That's fine.

Oh, but the meat won't keep that long, so you can take some for free.

We greatly appreciate it.

In return, we also have some good quality weapons, so could you take a look?

Huh?

Does this village have a blacksmith?

These are wonderful.

We'll meet your asking price for these, too.

Oh, thank you very much.

Can I also ask you to promote our weapons?

Oh, that's...

Uh, well...

I suspect these brothers were thinking of getting a monopoly on them.

You're both naive.

If two merchants traveling the same route both start selling weapons,

everyone's gonna know the weapons were made in this village.

BULLSEYE

So it'd be best if you came up with a way

to make more profit before you promoting them sends sales rocketing.

But how?

Set up a shop in this village.

A shop the two of us would run?

You're fine with that?

Sure.

Thank you so much!

Well, with that decided, let's go build your shop at once.

Huh?