Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight Volume 16

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3130-3
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight

The dragon may have been vanquished, but Veight's travails are far from over. He gets summoned back to the arid lands of Kuwol to investigate a strange mana disturbance on Mount Kayankaka. Upon reaching its apex, he makes a grave discovery-the Valkaan yet live. Knowing it's too dangerous for anyone else to fight them, Veight sends his companions away, but this time, the problem may be too much for him to handle alone. Luckily, his daughter, Friede, is just as stubborn as he is. Together, they may just manage to end the Valkaan legacy for good.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hyougetsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Teshima, Nari

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter 16

A few months had passed since the giant dragon appeared in the forest west of Meraldia, bringing the various nations together to defeat it. I spent most of that time dealing with the aftermath of the dragon’s demise and researching how it had come to be. In the end, we confirmed it was indeed a regular lizard-type monster transformed by an immense quantity of mana. We found remnants of an ancient artifact in its stomach, which we surmised it must have ingested by accident. Though the scale was different, it was quite similar to how the Nue I’d fought in Wa had been created.

“Why is mana such a pain to deal with, Master?” I grumbled to my master, Gomoviroa, in one of the labs at Meraldia’s university.

She closed the book she was reading and gave me a playful smile. “To think I would ever hear those words uttered by a mage. Although, I suppose I cannot disagree.”

“Right? No matter the experiment, we need to account for the influence mana may have on the results. To conduct properly controlled experiments, we need to regulate not just temperature and weight but mana as well.”

The existence of magic made it that much harder to advance in chemistry, physics, and even biology.

Master nodded and said, “It seems that if we wish to study the natural sciences properly, we must first advance the field of science. Unfortunately, magic did not exist in the world you lived in before, so we cannot rely on your knowledge to expedite our research.”

“Yeah, even I don’t know the best way to study magic.”

I hadn’t been a scientist, a professor, or an academic of any kind in my past life. All I could do was tell Master generally about the scientific and technological advancements mankind had made and what knowledge was commonplace in that time period. Fortunately, even that broad knowledge was enough to guide people in the right direction and encourage them to test hypotheses that would yield results. However, magic hadn’t existed back on Earth, so I had no idea how one could study it efficiently. If I’d been a proper researcher or something, I might’ve been able to utilize that knowledge, but sadly, I only had a layman’s understanding of science. When it came to discovering new things, I was about as much of a layman as could be.

“I guess all we can do is try to apply the scientific method to the study of magic and go from there...” I sighed.

“Indeed. Good grief, there is still far too much we do not understand about this world. But you can at least count on me to keep deciphering the unknown one step at a time.” Master tapped her chest proudly, her eyes glimmering with excitement. While I was glad she was looking towards the future, there were plenty of immediate problems that required our attention.

“...And that’s why we need a bigger budget, Veight. C’mon! Give us more money,” Ryucco said, rapidly stamping his foot against the desk.

The magical tools Ryucco had developed for the Demon Army were all useful inventions, and I knew research funding was as important as educational funding for building a strong foundation for Meraldia. Frankly, I’d have liked to give him as much money as he wanted. But while Meraldia’s economy was growing due to increased trade, our coffers weren’t limitless.

“How much do you need, and what do you plan to use it on?” I asked.

“I’m on the verge of a breakthrough with my idea for a teleportation device,” Ryucco replied, proudly puffing out his chest. “But I need more data points to figure out how to incorporate accurate coordinates into the thing. I need money to do a few trial runs.”

“Okay, but how much?”

Ryucco’s ears drooped, and I knew I wouldn’t like the number.

“Three...” he began.

“Three...thousand silver coins?”

If he only needed 300, he would’ve asked without beating around the bush. On the other hand, 3,000 silver coins were the equivalent of 20 to 30 million yen, so I could see why he hesitated.

“Or is it thirty thousand?”

“No... I need three hundred thousand,” he muttered.

In other words, he wanted the equivalent of 2 to 3 billion yen. While the amount was staggering, I knew Ryucco must’ve carefully calculated it to reflect what was strictly necessary. I’d known him long enough to understand he didn’t take money lightly.

I folded my arms and frowned. “That’s more money than I can approve on my own, at least.”

“Figures... But the thing is, Veight, it’s not easy to teleport living creatures that have a lot of mana, like humans or demons—especially since their mana levels fluctuate as they use magic. Here, take a look at this.” Ryucco placed a withered carrot on the desk. It was a new species of carrot that Rolmund had started cultivating for medicinal purposes. It also had the unique property of absorbing mana from the soil. This carrot was quite gnarled and twisted compared to what you’d typically see.

“Is it just me, or does that carrot look stranger than usual?” I asked.

“It looked normal before I tried teleporting it. But when I activated the teleporter, it absorbed 1/10,000th of a kite of mana from the teleportation spell, which resulted in it coming out like this.”

“Oh. So...could that happen to people as well?”

“No, we’re safe there. Things that have a lot of mana and mass, like people, need way more mana to teleport. If the calculations were just a little off for them, they’d stay where they are instead of being teleported wrong.”

Messing up teleportation spells could lead to disastrous consequences, and it’s one of the most difficult fields of magic, just like necromancy. Teleportation required a lot of advanced mathematics that was way beyond my level of comprehension.

I broke off a small piece of the twisted carrot and brought it to my face for closer examination. As I did so, Ryucco tugged on my sleeve.

“See, this is why I need the money,” he said. “I have an idea to prevent mana interference during the teleportation process with my device.”

“Are you sure you can’t test this with less money?”

“Look, you’re howling up the wrong tree. It’s the dragonkin engineers who told me I needed so many data points to be statistically certain of its safety.”

Neither Ryucco nor our dragonkin engineers were interested in amassing personal wealth, so this was likely the actual minimum they needed to make Ryucco’s device safe.

Grimacing, I reluctantly nodded and said, “There’s a council meeting soon. Write a proposal request and get me a copy of your invention’s blueprints. I’ll use them to ask the council to approve funding. It’ll be submitted as a formal proposal from the Demon Army, so hopefully that’ll help sway the viceroys.”

Ryucco hopped off the desk and turned to me with a satisfied smile. “All right. I’ll go get the dragonkin to write it up. Let me know when the money’s here!”

I headed back to my office, where I found yet more problems awaiting me.

“While relations with Rolmund are improving, the Demon Army’s standing with the northern territories has continued to decline,” Baltze said, handing me a sheaf of reports.

“I was prepared for this to happen,” I replied with a wan smile as I skimmed through the reports. “Understandably, many people in the northern cities still hate demons. For better or worse, we bear responsibility for the actions of the second regiment.”

“That may be the case, but the Demon Army has diligently defended the northern cities for the better half of twenty years. You’d think they wouldn’t have any complaints about us by now.”

I gave Baltze a simper and said, “The thing about military organizations is that the moment there’s peace, people start to dislike them. Furthermore, we’re still outsiders from their perspective. You can’t blame them for being unwelcoming.”

I could spread propaganda that Rolmund was still a serious threat to make people more willing to rely on the Demon Army, but if I wasn’t careful, that could sour diplomatic relations with Rolmund. In the worst case, it could lead to an actual war, which I wanted to avoid at all costs. Besides, I had a better idea that was more my style.

“The older folk might not like us, but from what I hear, the younger generation is friendlier towards demons. They’ve been interacting with our kind since they were old enough to talk, so they’re not scared of us the way older people are. In fact, some of the younger boys idolize how dragonkin conduct themselves, aspiring to be like you guys.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Baltze said, smiling.

It was difficult to read dragonkin expressions, but once you got to know them, you became much better at picking up on the subtle changes in their lizard-like faces. Hopefully, the day would come when most humans were familiar enough with dragonkin to do the same. Of course, I planned to do everything in my power to make that day come as soon as possible.

“Let’s have the soldiers stationed in the north start...