Chapter 23: Survival Expedition, three, two, one… Start!

In the end, only a handful of nobles and those who had experience eating monster meat decided to taste the last dish. No need to say that most of the nobles left the room without even saying their good byes for the night.

"Wow, I never expected that the monster meat could be so good, that Land Octa was really good…" Rin smiled lying down on his bed.

"I thought it was only due to the chef's high level of Cooking skill, but when I saw them only having level one or two, I was proven wrong," Simon let out a satisfied sigh as he dropped into his bed.

"Oh, you have Analyze skill?" William looked up.

"Yeah, Analyze, Analyze Goods and Analyze Person, they are pretty useful for merchants."

"Agreed, you won't buy useless or trashy things with this skill," Leo nodded.

"You buy a lot of slaves, right? You use them for most of work in your closest proximety, too. Do you not trust people from the Servants Guild?"

Servants guild is an organization where nobles can hire servants for their mansions. Coincidentally, it's a hub of spies and assassins. Leo would know, becouse he send some of his people there. Sadly for him, he didn't know that they were slowly but surely taking over that place.

"When I went there, they offered me a spy and a former assassins, not really people you could send to clean clogged toilets. In the begining I hired some from my family lands, my Head maid was my wet nurse and my Head Butler is grandson of my Father's butler and put those two in charge of proper maidservants… though the two like each other like cat's and dog's so it wasn't really easy in the begining," Leo scrached back of his head and laughed softly.

"I can see that, my butler tried to poison me… and his replacement too…" Rin's face turned sour.

"Have you found a replacement?"

"No, not yet, but father is working on it. Though he said that the last decision should be mine."

"I can clearly see that. Usually, head butlers are hereditary positions, it's like a righthandman position for all important people here."

"Plus exchanging Head Butler without a serious reason can be seen as disgrace," Will added.

"I remember one butler of my big brother disappeared after stealing some documents, it was a great uproar and brother couldn't even attend Evening parties and Tea parties for few months," Rin smiled bitterly.

Yeah, that butler sleeps in slime's stomach, right now. And I'm sure prince working with Golden Quince and those illegal gambling houses would not be good publicity for the royal family… I'm gonna build a casino one day so I need to be sure I'm in clean waters. Hey, maybe I could threaten him a little to make him work for me, still better then destroying him like those two duke families… Leo smiled to himself secretly and hide it with a sad smile while nodding to Rin.

"Yeah, even us merchants heard about that thing. I wanted to build connections with nobles close to royalty before aproaching royalties themself but this among other things stopped me."

"You do realize you have three members of royalty as your classmates, right?" Rin looked at Simon with raised eyebrow.

"Sir Rinbell you are not helping yourself. No one can really approach miss Victina or miss Gloriosa as they are always with sir Leo and does not try to hide their displeasure when someone interrupts their talks with him."

"Yeah, I once tried to greet them and miss Victina looked at me like if I was a cockroach… that never happened before to me…" Will got depressed and I could see a tear escape his eye.

"Well, at least you have Yuni to spend time with, right?" Rin added with a smirk.

"H-hey! That's a completly different thing!"

"Yeah, those two are even bigger love birds then I originally thought they would be," Leo smiled with a same smirk as Rin, "I mean, I made a show off how close me and Will are at my party way back, so people would think that I would make him my close-hand man one day, which would boost his marriage prospects. That way we could hide Yuni's offer and make it look natural for a high ranked noble to go first, but these two showed such an unbreakable bond that I overheard some students saying that if they don't married each other, no one else will be able to marry either of them."

"Wha—?!" Will's eyes went wide with surprise and silently added, "I had no idea…"

"What about you Simon? Any love interests?" Rin tried to change person to speak to poorly.

"Well, my father wanted me to marry some daughter of a chevalier family, but as it turned out, she eloped with her butler so it got off the table," Simon answeared with no emotion showing in neither his voice or eyes.

"Oh, sorry about that…" Rin bobbed his head as royalty was forbiden to bow to anyone of lower status.

"No need. I never wanted to marry that blob," Simon waved his hand dismissively, "I always wanted to find someone by myself, but as a future member of the executive comitee for one of the biggest companies in royal capital, it's hard to say the least. They all go for the money…"

"Yeah, I can feel that. I recieve around ninety marriage proposals, or concubine proposals, each day. Turning them all down is already part of my everyday life," Leo got a dark look in his eyes, "And I'm not even talking about people who want to borrow money. Haaah~ I'M so tired from those idiots…"

"Did nothing useful come up?"

"Not a chance. Ninety nine percent are low ranked nobles who failed at bussiness and come to me to start anew. I know they want to live a better life, but they could at least show me some bussiness plan. Sometimes they expect to recieve money just becouse they said they need it… really, if I was a shark loaner, I would give them more then they can repay and when they eventually went bancrupt I would bought up their lands selling them to slavery."

"Maybe becouse you are so young they think you don't understand bussiness. I actually warned my sister before going to you to buy those slaves to stay on her toes. One can't underestimate you just becouse you look like a child. If it was up to me, I'd say you are older then us," Simon gave a strange look to Leo from his bedside.

"Well, I did sneaked up from my music lessons to look at father and my big brother at work maybe I just pick up something from dealing with some of the nobles," Leo shrugged off the question about age and turned the conversation back to Rin, "So Rin, tell me how is your training going? I heard you recently spared with Lulu."

"I did, but… let's say that holder of Sword Saintess skill can really hold back. Heh, it sometimes felt as if she was playing with me."

"Maybe you should keep yourself to academics? To be honest your implentation of enchantments to everyday tools could improve the livelihood of many people. Not to mention that using magic items in everyday life is still only conscidered possible for the highest class. You could make it more accessible."

"You know a bit about enchantment magic yourself, right Leo?"

"My best work was to put together some wheels and make them spin," Leo brushed off Rin's comment with honest truth. Though, he forgot to mention that while he was at it, he made an engine simmilar to Magic furnaces only way smaller.

"Haaaaah~" Rin droped into his bed spreading his hands over the bed, "I was thinking…" he started, almost unaudibly. "In last three weeks there were six assassination atempts in the royal palace. Four of which were within the palace I live in and three were in vincinity of my room. It got me thinking that I may need to drop out from the race for crown."

""Wait really?!""

"But your engagement just got announced."

Simon and Will got surprised, Will even a little sad for him.

"Hmmm…" Leo's brows knitted as he got into thought.

"Leo?" Rin looked up at Leo who put hand on his chin and was racking his brain which was spinning at higher speeds thanks to King of Wisdom skill and its Accelerated Mind subskill.

"That's a rough spot you are in. You never know when the assassins may strike so it would risk Shizuko's life too. However it makes me feel like that is exactly what the enemy wants. They know how caring you are and try to get to your mind. Heck, they might even try to kidnap Shizuko to get you to get out of the race… If it was me, I would lay a trap, or rather two traps to be sure. Would you like me to assign you some of my assa— intelligent collectors?"

"You were about to say assassin, right?" Will looked doubtful.

"They're virtually silent and quickthinking. Good people to count on in any kind of situation."

"So they are assassins," Will added with a look.

"Ahem! I won't force you to accept them, but I would be happier if you did. I'm sure his Majesty the King would too."

"Alright, send some of your assassins to me."

"They are intelligent collectors I said… well, once we return you will find applicant for head butler and head maid. I will leave the decision which to hire up to you."

"Okay," Rin nodded, his mind easing up little by little.

"Coincidentally, your sister requested bodyguards from me too, Simon."

"Big sis Patricia did?!" Simon could not believe his ears.

"Yeah, apparently they already tried to poison her three times by the time the request came to me."

To ease up the heavy air, the boys continued chatting until late at night, mostly about good spots for dates. No need to say that Leo was scribling those down like crazy. After all, more girlfriends equal to more dates.

***

The next morning came in a flash and at time the school usually started, everyone was standing at the gates to the mountains.

"All right everyone. The Survival expedition will start soon. We have already prepared your guardians. Additionaly everyone is required to wear this bracelet," Leo raised his hand, standing next to Marchioness Berita, on which a red leather made bracelet was embedded with blue stone that shined softly, "This is magic item imbued with Space magic spell called Forced Teleport. This bracelet will forcibly teleport you if you get hurt above a certain limit. We have set up the limit on a [Human Soldier] of [Level 15] so keep in mind that you have to be extra careful. Once it activates you will be teleported to Knight Barracks where you will be treated. Any other words, sir Dragonrose?"

"We will start selecting groups shortly, but before we go let me tell you this. On top of this mountain are hot springs and we build a small resort there. From next year, this place will start taking in it's first clients. Those of you who will manage to get to the top during these two days will get to use all facilities we already prepared."

"If someone does not like sharing a bath we have family baths separated too," Taru added.

"And one more thing. Those of you who would get the great idea of peeping will get hit with paralysis barrier and if they don't return of their own will they will experience true «Nightmare»" Leo looked at the boys while Taru looked at Kiira.

"Let's enjoy the hot spring!!!"

"Woooo!!!"

Clearly, some students completly forgot about the warning, but they would realize their mistake soon enough.

Now, the members of S class, from who only Leo was already admitted to enter second semester of first year. As the members were meant to be chosen in order of seating, Leo would go first with Victina after him and Kiira in third place.

"Alright Leo, choose your team."

The choosing was rather quick as most students already formed groups before coming here. Ruby the vampire for example had a group made only of Vampires and Orion had his group elf-only too. The most diverse groups were of the top three seats. Though, the girls chose only girls for their groups.

Leo's group consister of three F class students and one C class student beside Leo. None of them had anything to do with each other too. The one from C class was a Salamanderfolk boy, and the rest from F class were Capricornfolk girl, Gorilafolk boy and the Catfolk girl who drooled over Land Octa, Cina Heartfelt.

„Lord Dragonrose… are you sure… you want us… to be your team?“ the Capricornfolk girl, Calva, said with worried look in her eyes.

„Just call me Leo like everyone else.“

„O-oh, I could never…“

„Urghhhhh…“ Leo’s eyes rolled back.

„Are we going already nya? If we don’t the leave nyow all Land Octa’s will be caught nya!“ Cina started pulling Leo’s arm.

„Well, at least someone is happy… anyway, sir Dragonrose, why did you choose us? We are deffinitely among the weaker in our classes, so I don’t understand your choices. Wouldn’t it be easier for you if joined up with members of the A class or B class?“ the Salamanderfolk boy, named Regga, asked with highly polite tone.

„Yeah, I want to know that too…“ the Gorillafolk boy, Gordo, asked with high-pitched voice.

„Heh. Do you really think I’m that shallow? Let me tell you right now that that is not the case. I chose every single one of you for a specific reason. You could say that I have enormous advantige here becouse all I need to do is cast one spell and I will be at our destination. For this expedition, I’m only allowed to use Earth, Lightning and Ice magics. These bracelets also record spells we use so even I can be disqualified if I break the rules. The reason I choose you guys is to compensate for what I am not allowed to do. Cina is in charge of spotting enemies as she have the most developed sences. Regga is our rearguard enchanter. I would like you to boost us with enchantments and enhancements. Gordo have the strongest build of you all so I would like him to guard Regga while we are on the move. Calva and me will be on the offensive against monsters. With this strategy, you guys should be able to make it to level 25 or 29 by time we make it to the top.“

„It’s a solid strategy, but I’m not sure I could move whole ten levels…“ Regga grumbled as he was only level 19, the lowest among everyone. Gordo was level 22, Calva 21 and lastly Cina was level 35, the highest of them all.

„My lordship,“ two knights bowed as they came before the group. They were Arsen and Nora, who both joined up Leo’s personal knight squad. The girl used to be in local knight squad under Carla Noman, but due to what the bandit group did to her, she ended up broken both mentaly and physicaly. The latter was cured by Leo while the former was healed by Arsen who ended up being quite intimate with the girl. But they still keep it PG, Leo smiled to himself as he saw the two.

„Arsen and Nora. So you two are taking on the task?“

„Yes. I understood my weakness and overcome it thanks to you,“ Nora bowed, yet there was slight shift in her body. I guess she still haven’t recovered fully. Only understandible given what happened to her, but damn was her recovery fast! Leo smiled politely and introduced them to his team.

„Honestly, I believe we won’t have much to do with you around, my lord,“ Arsen bowed politely.

„Oh, don’t be like that. I’m just a student here and you are supposed to look after us and grade our teamwork.“

„Yes, sir,“ Arsen bowed politely and the group set out for the hunt.

The gate was the only way to the mountain so the teams came together before it for the Survival expedition to start. The teams were unsurprisingly uneven. Orion made his team from elves only just like his right hand, who on the other hand had her team made purely from half-elves. Ruby too, had her team made from Vampires only.

„Hey there, Leo,“ Gloriosa came from behind the group, but as Leo still had access to his skills he instantly spotted her.

„Hey there Risa, you wanna team up?“

„Oh no, I already teamed up with Tina.“

So the princess‘ are working together, eh? I’m not surprised, Leo thought to himself and nodded.

„I see. You have good guards with you so I’m not worried.“

Unsurprisingly, all girls that called themselves Leo’s fiances had their team made up from girls only. This left the remaining parties of mostly males.

„Alright, everyone knows the rules so without further ado, let’s start the survival expedition!“ with the shout of the marchioness Berita, the groups run off into the forest with their guards not lagging behind.

Only a few parties, namely Leo and his friends’ parties, took things slowly and evenly.

***

While the Survival expedition started, in the royal capital Goli was walking the streets of the capital, just like usual. She didn’t have any concreate goal in her walk, but it was important to scout the streets so no crime would go unpunished.

Recently, there was a massive spike in crime as many runaways from north made their way here. As it turned out, the Passurian kingdom invaded small country to it’s east called Gameria and some of the survivors made their way here through the Blue Origin Theocracy or other northern nations.

Though, instead of runaways, they should called Survivors as the Passurian kingdom was bringing policy of not letting anyone escape. They left a lot of dead bodies or slaves behind their lines of soldiers.

„It’s even gloomier then usuall…“ Goli walked through the slums where beaten up and tired people were sitting or lying in the streets.

„Get back here you bitch!“ an angry man shouted at a runaway slave. The slave was a pregnant woman and as it turned out, there was a man holding back the slaver alongside one other woman.

As the pregnant woma was nearing Goli, she tried to push her away, but Goli grabbed her and stopped her. Goli used her Analyze skill that she recieved through her connection with Leo.

„Ashasha li?“ Goli asked in Scalefolk language, which surprised the pregnant woman.

„Oishasha ruu…“ the woman nodded in turn.

„Thank you for capturing that cu—argh!“ the fat slaver came running after the pregnant woman only to get smashed by Goli’s fist.

„So you were selling illegal slaves and hit hard eh? Too bad for you that I showed up. Geshusha Ja!“ Goli called out to the two in the back who walked up to her.

„Golilgri shi…“ the old woman’s eyes grew watery.

„Hello there, Mother,“ Goli smiled when the woman reached her and wrapped her hands around her in a tight hug while sobbing softly.

„Yhouu!! Do yhou now what yhou did?! I’mh with the Gholden Qhuinche! Yhou ah done foh!!!“

„Oh? You are with Golden Quince? Then I guess I will be taking you with me too, then!“ Goli delivered another punch into the slaver’s gut, knocking him unconscious.

„Sister…“ the man took off his hood.

„Brother Gardgali…“ Goli got surprised by who she met with so much that she was almost unable to speak. „Umm… sorry, I’m so surprised I got to see you that I forgot myself. Are there any other slaves he owns?“

„Some from Gameria… aparently a noble born too.“

„Go get them out. I will take you all to my home.“

„Your home?“ the mother asked.

„I was freed from slavery by my master. I’m also a baroness now.“

„B-baroness?!“ the old woman widened her eyes, „But you became templar knight…“

„I was, but…“ Goli smiled maidenly, „I discovered something greater then just serving the pope.“

„You are miss Golilgri, right? I’m Wen-qi, I’m married to your brother Gardgali,“ the pregnant woman bowed deeply. Unlike Goli and her family, she was from Black Scalefolk tribe. If Leo was here, he would say she have Chinese feel to her.

In that moment Gardgali returned with a group of twenty-or-so women, same number of men and nearly fifty children under the age of ten.

„Wha?! So many?!“

„This is everyone,“ Gardgali said with a sad look.

„Well, I did tell you to take everyone… anyway, let’s go to the Dragonrose manor.“

„Dragonrose?! You work for that Dragon slayer?!“

„Yes,“ Goli smiled happily and start leading the group towards her home.

***

As the group of nearly one hundred slaves arrived at the Dragonrose manor, they were instantly surrounded by people who worked in the mansion, aka the former slaves. The group split up with Goli’s family and three other people who were of noble birth. Goli lead them to her room after she took some documents from Leo’s office.

„What are those?“

„It’s hiring contract. You will be hired by me personally as my servants and butler.“

„Wait, what?“

„Goli slow down, we can’t keep up. What is this hiring contract?“ Gardgali asked his sister with serious confuseon.

„You are all under the slave contract. Those last indefinitely, unless a specific change occurs. This contract is such specific change. You will be given place to sleep, where to eat and live quite comfortably. Once you will work off two and a half of your innitial buying price, you will be freed of your slave contract. Your further work will be determinated after the contract is terminated.“

„Hrmmm… but there is one more thing—“

„About Wan-qi? Do not worry, we have added proclamation that children born during your time as a servant will be born commoner.“

„I see, that’s good then,“ Gardgali smiled and Wan-qi eased up and dropped her head on his shoulder.

„Now… why did you three came with us?“ Goli turned to black haired girl who was gracefuly sipping her tea. She had heterochromatic eyes of red and blue color.

„Is there really a need to ask? You must be quite foolish one, then. But allow me to introduce myself, I am Joanna Dellia Gameria, only princess of Gameria kingdom!“

„Wasn’t Gameria already destroyed?“

„As long as royal family lives we shall prevail!“ the boy next to her shouted at Gardgali.

„Calm down, you are not the only one who lost their kingdom,“ Goli gave him a piercing look.

„And you are not only priness here, just so you know,“ Goli turned to window under which a group of children was playing. They were children of noble birth rescued from illegal slavers, „Priness Daika, Princess Ryba, Prince Arvan… sister Taru too, they all were saved by lord Dragonrose.“

„What is life of lowly Earl’s servant compared to being ruler?“ the boy spoke up again, but made a fatal mistake of sullying Leo right in front of Goli.

As he made his proclamation, the air in the room froze with murderous intent. Goli turned around, her neck creaking. What was scariest about her however were her eyes, they were empty as if what she was looking at was a pebble on a side of a road instead of human. Then. Before anyone could blink, her hand blured and she cut off the man’s left arm. She also added some fire magic, so the meat got seared and the wound instantly closed.

„Healing fee will be added to your contract.“

„Ah?!“ the boy did not comprehend what was happening and the pain hit him a second later, „Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!“ he screamed out in pain holding his now handless shoulder.

„Y-you are too brutish, miss Golilgri,“ the princess hide her face with a fan, but her eyes betrayed her fear.

„Brutish? Oh, that was just a warning. Lord Leo might just scare him unconscious with his presence alone, but I believe sometimes a punishment like this is needed instead. Remember boy that next time you disrespect lord Leo I will aim higher then shoulder is, understood?“

The sobbing boy looked up from the ground, tears tainting his face, he nodded.

„Great. Now get lost. You princess may go too. About your future will decide Lord Leo himself.“

„U-understood,“ the princess closed her fan and left the room behind the boy where they were picked up by maids and lead to their private room.

„Aaahh… that took wind out of my sails… sorry, but I can’t let my master get sullied by nobodies like them.“

„Aaaaaaaaaahh, you never change sister… you always were more of a Guard dog instead of a Scalemen…“

„I’m Elite Scalemen, mind you,“ Goli smiled bitterly at her brother’s words.

„What?! You’ve evolved, Goli?“ the mother smiled happily.

„Only thanks to the effort sister and lord Leo put into training with me.“

„Sister… so she is here too?“ the mother smiled bitterly.

„Who is this sister person, dear?“ Wan-li asked confusedly.

„She’s speaking of our father’s illegimate child. That girl was however born with a gift of Foresight and thanks to it became guarded against assassins mother send at her. It ended up in a fight between our parents and we stepped back.“

„Gardgoli’s policy number one is not interfering, as you might’ve already guessed,“ Goli smiled bitterly.

„Well, our father was inprisoned later and I succeeded the family. Given Goli joined templar knights, I was the only one who could inherit it.“

„Their months long fight got sorted in less then ten minutes by their children,“ Goli snickered, „… Well I’m happy to see you all alive.“

„Me too, sister. Or should I call you, Milady now, given you outrank me?“

„Don’t be funny,“ Goli gave a cold look to her brother.

„…I’m happy to see you too…“ the mother said silently, but Goli picked it up and smiled warmly for the first time.

„I’m happy to see you too, Mother. …But no fighting with sister, understood,“ her eyes remained untrusting, though.

„Heh, yeah… I’ve had enough of that too,“ Goli’s mother sound humbled by years spend in slavery.

And so, the three Scalefolks started living in the Dragonrose mansion, still not knowing what the future holds for them, but with strong renewed hope burning in their hearts.