Chapter 22: Survival Expedition starts with diner

"Alright everyone! Welcome to Dragonrose Earldom!" Leo's cheerful greetings instantly lift the spirits of the students who were dead tired after their almost two week long trip. Originally it was meant for entire first year to go, but only one hundread students arrived.

"Now that everyone is here, please take your luggage and head over to the building you see behind me, we've prepared rooms for everyone there. The rooms are made to house at least four people each. If someone wishes to have a room for just themselves, they are welcomed to camp outside," Alette put on a smile that was as sweet as it was unwavering. To that, students could only nod.

"If that's all, you are free to form groups. After you do, the maids will escort you to your rooms. Any questions? …No? Then great!"

"Will you be forming a group too, Leo?" Marchioness looked at Leo.

"Well, I am a student here. But as a Lord of the territory, I also need to make sure everyone is safe… what is it Luna?" Leo looked at his shadow and a sole hand appeared from it. The hand handed to him a paper without saying a word. The owner of the hand, Luna, leader of rabbitmen serving Leo, had a special skill called Obscure, and while it was not a unique skill, it allowed her to make her presence almost unnoticible. From the students, only Lulu managed to take notice of her. "Hmm… seems like some pests entered the mountain. Deal with them, don't let a single one leave," Leo whispered and the hand stick out it's thumb in acknowledgement before sinking back in the shadow.

"Quite bold words sir Dragonrose, can you keep up with them?"

"I'm quite sure. We don't pick up on any monster above level 25. And every group will be accompanied by some of my knights."

"You've already formed a knight order?"

"Yes, I call them Numbers. To get higher on the ladder you need to show a certain amount of skill. For example all triple digits I have are capable of commanding squad of five to twenty people, while double digits are already capable of commanding hundreds to thousands of people."

"Oh? And what about single digits?"

"Heheh, well, I only have five of those who can claim that post."

Like who the hell would thought Lani would level up by 20 levels in less then a month?! She have amazing battle potential herself, and she never lost a single soldier on her watch. Not to mention they all managed to level up like crazy! She is great at her work as president of the Dragonwork company too, and not to mention her salesman pinch after all, she was the one who recomended the expansion to Gangan kingdom. Leo smiled to himself, remembering the girl who just reached level 48 and was about to reach level 49 any day now.

"Oh, really? That's a shame isn't it?"

"Well, If I put mages there, I could easily build up the numbers, but then it would no longer be a knight order, right?"

"And you are not planning on making a Mage order?"

"Maybe one day," Leo waved his hand dismissively to end the conversation, "Well, if you excuse me, I need to make a group my…self…"

Just as Leo was about to head out, a group of male students from S class surrounded him, lead by Rinbell.

"Wanna group up with us Leo?" Rin smiled and extended his hand to him.

"Sure, Rin. William, Simon, it's nice to see you again."

"Same here!" William smiled broadly his twin rapiers hanging from his hip.

"Same goes for me, sir," Simon pushed up his glasses and bowed lightly to Leo.

"Hey, no need for that, Simon, we are all equal here."

"That may be true, but I cannot show disrespect to my sister's benefactor," Simon shook his head lightly at Leo's words.

"Your sister… oh, you mean Patricia?"

"Yes, she's my older sister."

"I don't remember becoming anyones benefactor."

"Well, my sister sold those criminal slaves from you to southern noble on borders with Beastmen kingdom. He have quite a sway in the company as he is one of the patrons."

"I see, so she had him stand behind her. Add that to me being the source of those slaves, the board must be under a lot of pressure."

"It is indeed as you said. My sister actually plans to open a branch store here in the Earldom. I believe she send you a request few days ago."

"Yes I know. Her two friends have already started building their own shops here, too. I guess, she plan to sell something else then slaves?"

"Yes, while we do deal in slaves as our main source of income nowadays, we were originally a spice company. She wishes to open that."

"That would be very welcome, but I will look at her proposal first."

"What is this proposal about?" a small girl appeared behind Leo.

"Gloriosa?! Aren't you supposed to be back in Sorcery kingdom?"

"Heheh, I wanted to surprise you. I've transfered here!"

"Transfered…"

"Well, this is the school where my dear fiancée is attending," Gloriosa laughed softly.

Why in the ever loving hell did her character changed so much… Leo grumbled silently.

"Well, it's about time," Kiira grabbed Gloriosas shoulder, looking like an enraged demon.

"Yessss, let's talk," Taru grabbed her other shoulder.

"MEETING TIME!!!!" Kiira shouted and dragged Gloriosa, frightened to the core, away.

"Will… that be okay?" Rin asked worriedly as he saw Leos fiancées dragging away their newest member.

"It will be fine. Daika, have them stay in rooms next to each other," I signaled to one of the senior maids, a white tigerfolk girl that was well acquainted with Kiira and the rests antics.

"DAIKA?!" a surprised yelp escaped Lionel's maw.

"Oh, Lionel, erm, sorry I meant your highness Lionel. It's been a while."

"Five years I believe? What are you doing here?"

"Can't you see? I'm a maid serving lord Dragonrose."

"But why? You are—"

"You mean were. Use past tense speaking about that time please. I am no longer of noble lineage and live simply as Daika now."

"Sir Dragonrose explain yourself!!!" Lionel, eyes colored red with anger tried to grab Leo, but he simply grabbed his hands and locked his movements.

"Calm down Lionel."

"How the hell am I supposed to calm down?! You have my family member work as a maid?! The nerve!!!"

"And since when am I a member of your family exactly?" Daika said coldly as she moved past him and forced his hands of Leo.

"Wh-what?"

"Lord Leo showed me the meaning of life and how fulfilling it can be. Now, if you try to lay a hand on my Lord again," a cloud of darkness and lightings appeared behind Daika and from it as if a tiger made from lightnings appeared, baring it's fangs at Lionel, "I will squash you as a bug."

"Alright, calm down," Leo placed his hand on Daika's head and patted her. At her current level, which is fourty seven, she could crush the level 20 Lionel with just two fingers. "Now now, go after the girls and make sure they don't go overboard will you?"

"Yes master!"

As Daika beamed a happy innocent smile, a wave of whispers reached Leo and Lionel.

"Hey did you see that?"

"The Beast king got overpowered by a maid."

"Seriously? Isn't he the strongest knight after Dragonrose group?"

"It seems even maids are stronger then knights in Dragonrose lands…"

"Hold up, if maid is this strong, then what kind of monsters are the knights?"

"If they have to keep up with sir Dragonrose… I don't want to even imagine that…"

Lionel looked defeatedly at Leo standing above him. From his point of view, he was like a mountain whose peak can never be reached.

"You okay?" Leo extended his hand to Lionel, which he saw as a mockery.

"I don't need your help," Lionel grumbled.

"If you think so. Don't forget to come to diner today," Leo signaled to the remaining three to go after him.

"You don't have to tell me," he started walking away, acompanied by three beastmen from B class.

"Everyone, I'm sorry about what you had to withness. If you don't mind please follow our maids to your quarters and rest up before diner. I can promise you our best chefs will do their utmost to soothe all your pallates," Leo gave his classmates a light bow and went to his own room with Rin, Will and Simon.

***

"Alright everyone, we are missing only Lani, but we can start anyway, correct?" Kiira sit beind tall table, looking like a judge from the overthetop shows the modern times had too much of.

"Yes ma'am!" the remaining people around her, Alette, Nina, Lulu, Victina and Taru voiced their agreement.

Oposite to them, Gloriosa was sitting on small chair, profoundly confused and not able to speak up.

"We've came here to discuss the future treatment of Gloriosa Litus Kawada, as our newest member who joined not from her own feelings like the rest of us, but as a person in political marriage. Let the second council of wives begin."

"Shall I start?" Victina raised her hand.

"Please do," Kiira nodded.

Victina jumped down from her chair and walked around the table, "As you all know the Sorcery kingdom is not ruled strictly by hereditary law, but it's next king is decided by strenght of magic the competitor possess. We can see this as blatant atempt to make Leo the king of Sorcery kingdom."

"It's true that Leo is way above average among unawakened Majins in both combat and magic. Even I, a High elf am barely able to keep up. Your time to defend yourself, princess Gloriosa."

"Ah! Oh, Y-yes! Um, so… I believe what you said is true and father did pointed as much already. But I've been the one who chose Leo as my Guardian Knight and when my marriage was brought up by my mother, I choose him."

"Choosing partner like clothes is not how we do things here," Kiira looked piercingly at Gloriosa.

"I know…" Gloriosa nodded her head sheepishly.

"So, what were your reasons for choosing him?" Alette throw in safety rope.

"Um…" Gloriosa blushed as she remembered all the fun things she did together with Leo, "There's… too many… when we were studying magic together… when we explored the city together… playing games he brought… he's always cheerful… and at that diner… h-he was so cool…"

""No comment there,"" Goli, Lulu and Victina nodded in unision.

"Alette?" Kiira turned to her left.

"She's speaking the truth."

"Understood. In that case, let us welcome Gloriosa Litus Kawada as first order wife. However until she makes her feelings clear to Leo let's not allow her the right to vote in our meetings. Anyone whishes to say othervise?"

"No," the remaining girls answeared to Kiira with big smiles.

"Well, welcome among us, Risa," Victina smiled and hugged her friend.

"Y-yes! I'll do my best!" Gloriosa beamed a happy smile.

***

About two hours after the arrival of the school group. An enourmous lounge was set up in reception room and the students started swarming around to look. Most of them were still a little tired from their long trip, but the smell of food that came from kitchen on other side of the of the lounge, was too enticing to resist.

"It's a little early, but what if we started a little early?" a voice, belonging to Leo, called out to the group of students by the doors, perfectly blocking them.

"L-lord Dragonrose!" some of them yelped with surprise.

"Just call me Leo, I'm a student here as well," Leo waved his hand and made his way to the doors.

"B-but… you are lord here…" one of the low rank kids scrached his head.

This is… ah, yes. Ban Fried Helsink, one of the Vampire kids. If I remember correctly, he lost to Carolina, the duke's daughter only in magic so he should be in class A, if I'm correct.

As Leo realized who the kid was, Rin, a prince, stood up. "That may be the case, but as we are all students here, I would rather you speak frankly with us."

"Ah! Ahm… yes, Prince Rinbell."

"Rinbell, or just Rin is fine," Rin waved his hand magnanimously.

"O-oh, I could never…" the kid tried to disappear in the crowd while bowing lightly.

"Well, that backfired on you Rin," Will smiled broadly and made his way to us.

"Please don't make fun of me too, Will," Rin's shoulders slumped down like a stringless puppet.

"Okay guys let's go in. You there, how are preparations?"

One of the maids walking by bowed politely and answeared simply: "Yes, all dishes were prepared except for the 'Special dish' you were talking about previously… are you sure we can give that to your noble entourage?"

"If they don't eat it, they will be the only ones missing out," Leo shrugged.

"What kind of food have you prepared, sir Leo?" Simon asked.

"Just some simple dishes, like pasta, pizza—"

"DID YOU SAY PIZZA?!!!" as I started naming out the dishes, Kiira practically flew past the horde of people and grabbed my shoulders, stars of expectation in her eyes.

"Yes, I did."

"But we couldn't find tomatoes, or anything simmilar to them, how did you make it?"

"Aah, that's what you are about. As I was scouting the Earldom, I noticed cherry tomato plants in the most southern village. I made a big purchase on the spot and helped them expand the fields. We can expect a steady income of tomatoes from the next year. I also set up a new hononary chevalier family at the site to make it more easily acessible."

"GUYS, WE HAVE PIZZA!!!" Kiira screamed over the crowd of people.

"DID YOU SAY PIZZA?!!!" Taru did same thing as Kiira and flew past the crowd into Leo's arms.

"I don't know what this pizza is, but I certainly look forward to it," Rin said amused seeing the two girls act completly same.

Not even a minute later the rest of the girls arrived.

"Are you feeling unwell Gloriosa? You look red," Leo sounded concerned at the small girls state.

"Y-yes I'm fine!!" she let out a quick rattle, hiding her face behind her hands.

"Well, okay then. Since we are first to arrive, you can take any seat there is."

Once Leo made such declaration, a war broke out. A war for the seat next to him, of course. Sadly for the girls, as they were arguing, Will and Rin to the two spots with Simon promptly taking spot next to Will. As the girls realized they lost, they reluctantly took seats around the boys and filled the entire line.

Soon after that the remaining students started entering the room. They mostly separated into groups of nobles and commoners separately, but once the seats started to grow sparce, they started moving in groups decided by classes they atented.

"Alright, since everyone is here, let us start officially once again. As an Earl of Dragonrose earldom, I welcome you, I hope you will enjoy the foods my chefs prepared, also you can see a pile of books by the doors, we prepared one for each of you so please take them after the diner is done. Inside those books you will find map and list of monsters living on this mountain as well as their levels. Anyway, let this survival expedition be the most successful one, cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The diner started on a high note and even though it was first for most of the students to see such dishes, they quickly learned by watching Leo and his table.

"Sir Leo, could I ask you what this drink is? I must say the bubbly feeling is quite nice," Simon asked after sipping from his glass, "Also these glasses are really nice too… they could sell for quite a lot too, I bet…"

"These drinks are called Soda they are made by carbonating, a technique we developed here. Do you think it have a lot of commertial potential?"

"I'm definitely sure. If you sold them in high temperature places with equaly high humidity… like the Grubera dungeon city, or southern fortresses, I'm sure they would be a huge hit."

"I'm sure it would be a big hit even in royal capital. The summer there is really hard to survive without something cold."

"Ice cream! Can you make something like an ice cream?!" Taru rised her hand, looking directly at Leo with a sauce on her cheek.

"Hmm… would you like vanila, chocolate, or pistachio?"

"Pistachio all the way!!!"

"I'd rather strawberries though…" Kiira sulked a little reacting to Taru's cheerful response.

"Don't worry, we have find some of the ingrediences, so all we need now is time," Leo gave her a reasuring smile, which made both Kiira and Taru smile like children they looked like.

"Really?!" Kiira got so happy that her voice skipped an octave.

"Of course, I know all your likes and dislikes," Leo smiled at her.

"I must say, sir Dragonrose, to serve food without taste testers on site… you must trust your cooks quite a lot, am I right?" Rin said in decidedly loud voice.

"It is the first larger event in my territory so everyone aims to please our clientele."

"Were there no problems?"

"Oh, there definitely were. Two separate groups decided to tarnish my reputation by poisoning our food. Sadly for them, we discovered them before they could do anything so we served them their own medicine," Leo smiled like an innocent child, which he definitely was not. After all, even after he got titles like Event orchestrator and Trickster, he just recently got the titles: Schemer and Behind the scenes.

While everyone thought Leo was just pacifying the wild territory, he also planted his information brokers throughout his neighbouring territories as well as those he find potentially threathning, like for example Orchidee and Elvieren duchies, Kabalero Marquisdom and a few more.

"That's good to hear," Rin smiled happily and continued: "that reminds me, you've captured all those bandits who called themselves mercenaries, correct?"

"Yes. They were captured with minimal efforts waisted. Though their hideout prooved to be more interesting then their entire group."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. Ice sculptures of warriors from far gone era. Tunnels that looked like they were made with earth magic. That Ice dragon…"

"Ice dragon?!" the students errupted in shock.

"Luckily we only found out about that dragon through cracks in walls and use of magic. It seems that it's cave is comepleatly sealed off," as Leo said that, the students calmed down.

"Do you plan to defeat it, Mr. Dragon slayer?" Orion smiled wickedly from a nearby table.

"We plan to create a task force to deal with said dragon, but we need to first gauge it's strenght. You see, even though the Forest dragon I defeated with help of my friends was lower leveled, it still was a close fight. And this dragon is higher level then we are right now. Though it's still sleeping on the other side of the earldom, so please everyone be at ease," Leo smiled reasuringly and continued his food.

The diner continued in a slightly stiffened mood, but quickly restored when ice cream desert was brought on table alongside pancakes.

"Oh, pancakes! This is something not everyone can afford even in the royal capital," Victina smiled delightedly at her servings.

"Oh, how I feel that. Our capita lis always floating between our subordinated islands so we can only get ingrediences for them when we arrive there. The ships don't really have good refreshing magic tools…" Gloriosa smiled as happily as Victina at the pancake before her.

"You had ice cream prepared already??!!!!" Kiira, the loudest of all diners, exclamated in surprise.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if confessed it, right?" Leo smiled mischieviously.

"Seems you captured them by the stomach, Leo," Rin grinned at me from beside me.

"I guess so… Maybe if I spread my cafés over entire capital, I could spread these too…"

"Hmm… this cold sweetness…" meanwhile, Will completly ignored everyone around and enjoyed his ice cream, which made later Yuni send Leo a letter requesting a recipe for Ice cream.

"You could spread it? You are acting like you can massproduce eggs and other neccesary ingredients."

"Actually, I can. The milk came from Red and Blade Cows which are raised in nearby village. The eggs however were little tougher to get. You see, they came from monsters called Rage Chicks which are usually hard to deal with for begginer tamers."

"Tamers?" one of the noble girls looked up and I noticed a small bluish yellow bird.

Oh, she's from the family I got the animal training skill, right?

"I founded tamers guild here. It's an organization used simmilarly to Adventurers guild, but they specialize in use of monsters for their quests."

"Oh, I'm sure flying monsters and those with sharp sences are quite popular there," the girl smiled.

"They are, however the guild also collects information on monsters and provide aptitude tests."

"Isn't that costly, though? You would need big quantities of monsters at ready at all times."

"That is quite right, but if we keep the monsters in secluded are and well fed, they usually become more docile. We also are not using strong monsters, level ten or twelve at most."

"That is interesting… hmm, I'm getting little interested in this guild of yours, sir Dragonrose…" the girl thought for quite a while before continuing to stuff her face with pancake.

As the girl fed her bird with some seeds, Daika came next to Leo and whispered into his hear. Some time later the diner ended and Leo decided to end it here for today with one final speach.

"Alright everyone. As we are ending the diner here, allow me to present you with one more surprise," Leo snaped his fingers and several maids entered the room placing plates with simply roasted meat before the students, "These before you are monster meats that are safe to eat. All of these are ecounterable on the mountain and are marked in the book. I know some nobles tend to disregard the meat of monsters, but at least try it out. If you run out of provisions you should be able to hunt your fill."

"Monster?" disgusted voices came from the noble students while some of the commoners sharpened their ears and noses.

"IT'S A LAND OCTA, NYA!!!!" one particularly loud cat jumped at simply roasted tentacles of an octopus monster called Land Octa, it isn't particularly strong, but it can use Earth and Water magics to blend in with ground and mud from which it attacks unsuspicious prey.

"Leave it to Cat Fiend…"

"She's always out hunting monsters I heard…"

As it seemed that the girl was the talk of the class, Leo took a look at her status.

Name: Cina Heartfell
Level: 35
Race: Catfolk
Titles: Cat Fiend, Mischievous Cat, Curious Cat, Balancer Between Life and Death, Black cat, Gold Ranked Adventurer

Skills:

Supreme: Curse sight (5), Curse Destruction (2), Curse placement (1), Mithril Stomach (1)

Extra rare: Beastification (5), Increased stamina recovery (5), Hide presence (5), Sense presence (5), Shock absorbtion (4), Shadow walk (2), Ghost magic (1), Intimidation (5),

Rare: Perfect Sight (5), Item Box (1)

Uncommon: Quick feet (5), Etique (1), Sense temperature (5), Iron skin (1), Charge (4),

Common: Leap (5), Kick (5), Unarmed combat (5), Daggers (4), Keen hearing (5), Cooking (9)

Blessings: Darkness Goddess (5), Goddess of Life (2), Goddess of Death (2), Merchant god (1)

So her name is Cina Heartfell, eh? I heard she is quite the troublemaker, but I never knew she was a Gold rank, that's same as Nina. What troubles me is the Curse type skills. I have both [Curse sight] and [Curse Destruction], but what is that [Curse Placement]? …Oh, it allows to place curses without any drawbacks. That's actually pretty good. That Mithril Stomach seems to be upgraded version of Iron Stomach I have… that so envious, maybe if I had it, I wouldn't need [Acting] skill to tell Kiira and Taru how good their cooking is… Anyway, Cina's only magic skill is Ghost magic, but I guess she can't recover SP which the Ghost magic uses instead of mana as her skill is only level 1. Maybe I should scout her tomorrow…