Since I had the chance, I had a fun Q&A session with Lowell.
I asked him how often the Beastmen go out to battle, how the Vampires manage to catch a bus on those days, and what they do if they need to hunt on days without a Beastman expedition due to unforeseen circumstances, among other things.
I might have annoyed Lowell quite a bit, but whether he was bothered or not was none of my concern. To cut to the chase, I felt I had made a good decision in listening to him.
The Vampires here were quite a bit weaker compared to the Duchy Vampires, but they certainly knew how to survive very well.
There’s no absolute in battle, but they had their own systematized strategies optimized for feeding, and their effectiveness had been proven by their survival rates.
Listening to ways they analyzed troop distributions and the maintenance of the Pahera Castle Wall to predict where battles would be fierce and where to hunt easily felt quite astonishing.
I reflected on my casual thoughts that I would just pick an exit based on intuition and make a round.
Perhaps because it was a place where those with nowhere else to retreat gathered, these Vampires were far more serious than I had imagined, and they could be considered specialists in surviving.
“This is why you should never judge by appearances.”
It’s not that the strong survive, but rather the survivors are strong. The fact that they must risk their lives with each hunt remains unchanged, but if they can raise their survival rate through prior analysis, that too is a skill.
Of course, I hadn’t learned that analysis method. For me, it was cheaper to just leave that to Lowell and treat him to a meal instead.
This was truly the division of labor and specialization I had only heard about, and the specialist in a sickbed with zero social experience gained a valuable realization today.
“—So, is there anything else you’re curious about?”
Despite having talked for a while and likely being tired, Lowell asked without showing any sign of it.
Maybe it was just my feeling, but he seemed much more polite than before, almost like an employee presenting in front of company executives.
Of course, my social experience isn’t exactly noteworthy, so I can’t say for sure. It just felt similar to something I’d seen in a drama long ago.
“So, where do the Beastmen get their food?”
“I heard they grow some food on a small scale in this forest and get the rest from the outside.”
So they were bringing it in from outside? No wonder the Beastman forces looked way more significant today; I was wondering how that many heads managed to survive.
It was somewhat interesting to know they were growing a bit themselves, but I bet the quantity isn’t that large.
They couldn’t just clear the Elves’ forest to create farmland, so I figured they might be using some of the leftover land in the vast forest for small gardens.
But food is being brought in from outside? It was obvious that humans wouldn’t sit idle either knowing who’s out there getting supplies.
Even if humans couldn’t set foot in the forest, they could just block the entry of supplies from the outside, right?
As I voiced my various concerns, Lowell glanced around. Confirming there were no listening ears, he lowered his voice to ask.
“Well, I’m not trying to dig into Miss Scarlet’s personal information or anything, but you came from the east, didn’t you?”
“…….”
How did he know? Should I kill him?
……No. He was a hard-won ally. While there are alternatives, he’s quite skilled, and there’s no need to jump to conclusions.
Let’s stay calm. There are only two Vampiric duchies on the Terra continent, and many strong Vampires come from those duchies, so if he took a guess at one of the two, that wouldn’t be unreasonable.
But given that he specifically said “the east,” it’s almost certain he believes I came from Sahelrn Duchy.
While he can’t know I’m the Progenitor just from my origin, it goes without saying that it’s better for my birthplace to remain unknown.
Meanwhile, Lowell seemed to interpret my silence as affirmation.
As expected, he once again proved to have quite a sharp intuition. Realizing he had stepped into sensitive territory, he quickly attempted to clarify.
“Just to make it clear, it would be easy for others to learn that Miss Scarlet is from the east with just a bit of attention. Of course, I wouldn’t be the one to reveal it.”
“……Is it that obvious?”
“The three strongest human nations on the continent are skewed toward the east. Because of that, folks from the east tend to overestimate the risks. On the other hand, while it’s not exactly the Suwong Kingdom, there are Beastmen territories scattered around the west, so they can gather food fairly well. The Mist Labyrinth surrounding Albresia is massive, and a city on the eastern side like Pahera can’t interfere with the forest on the opposite side.”
“……Ah.”
Thank goodness. If that was the case, there was no need to kill Lowell.
Putting it all together, it seems like this:
The eastern side of Albresia faces strong pressures from powerful nations like the Luminous Kingdom and the Empire, meaning aside from the conflict zones in southern Suwong Kingdom and Sahelrn, there aren’t Beastman territories. However, the west is relatively livable.
They supply food from the western Beastmen to those in the Mist Labyrinth, but since the Pahera-associated Kingdom of Armes is located on the eastern side of the forest, it would be physically impossible to block supplies for the Beastman Resistance.
However, asking for cooperation from the western nations is a no-go since it doesn’t directly impact them.
With little influence from the Luminous Kingdom and the Empire, there’s no way to coerce them either.
If it had been simple, maybe they would have offered compensation and asked for help, but they couldn’t present a reward for the annoying request to block the irregular supply routes of the Beastmen.
And voilà, the supply chain of the Beastmen is completed.
From this perspective, it looks like the Beastmen are quite strategic. If they had attacked the western nations, those nations would have also worked to block supplies.
It’s a simple yet effective strategy to supply resources from the west while only fighting in the east, centered around the safe haven of the Mist Labyrinth.
And if I had been from the west, I wouldn’t have been oblivious to this situation.
While Helraig Duchy is to the north and some knowledge of the western circumstances would be expected, it’s understandable that Sahelrn Duchy, located to the east, would be less aware of the western situation.
‘So, Lowell is convinced I come from the east because I have no knowledge of the western dynamics.’
If he drew a conclusion based on spotting something reminiscent of the Progenitor in me, then it would be wise to eliminate the variable, but if that’s how it’s known, there’s nothing to be done.
It’s not something I can silence by killing someone, and simply distinguishing east and west doesn’t directly lead to me being identified as the Progenitor.
“Hmm, so what made you curious about how the Beastmen supply their food? Are you perhaps enjoying human meals?”
While not as tasty as blood, there are indeed some Vampires who eat food, of course, we can’t eat as much. Lowell made a self-deprecating joke that highlighted his poverty.
He’s quite perceptive. I could feel the awkward atmosphere dissipating before it became too uncomfortable.
Although I didn’t make it obvious, I was slightly alarmed internally, prompting me to respond in a more relaxed tone.
“It’s because of my slave. They need to be fed.”
“Right, you do have a Dragonkin slave.”
While I still have a bit of preserved food left, meaning survival isn’t an issue, I can’t keep feeding her with dried meat forever.
Dried meat isn’t infinite either. Unlike when I could sneak into the city posing as human, it’s nearly impossible to do that now. Essentially, if I run out of food, that’ll be the end of it.
But this is a bit tricky. I can’t just ask Eleonora to farm from now on.
……Wait a minute. I think I might have a good idea.
The Beastmen have food. And I need food for Eleonora.
Direct violence is prohibited in the Mist Labyrinth. In other words, if I were to stroll into the Beastmen’s food storage and “borrow” some, they can’t really do anything to stop me.
‘Am I a genius?’
I was afraid of my own talent for applying what I learned right away.
In short, the Beastmen are specialized in food distribution, and I am fine-tuned to this madwoman concept.
And taking someone’s food under the guise of madness is something a madwoman would likely do.
Thus, by the transitive property, if the Beastmen gather food and I steal it, where else could there be such a perfect division of labor and specialization?
My mind cleared, and I felt like I had discovered a new horizon. It was as if Columbus had taken up residence in my brain.
“Lowell, do you happen to have any connections with the Beastmen?”
“Yeah, I’ve had to go a few times to ask about the expedition schedule on behalf of the organization. Why do you ask?”
“Come with me. Guide me to where the Beastmen are tomorrow.”
I shared this brilliant idea with Lowell. However, as I continued to speak, Lowell’s expression oddly shifted.
That face looks familiar… Oh right, I’ve seen it on those memes about the “way of thinking is totally different from ours.”
“Uh… Miss Scarlet, as tempting as that sounds, I feel like that might not be a good idea. There are unspoken rules regarding property damage, you see.”
Lowell emphasized, albeit gently, why I shouldn’t steal food.
He mentioned that if they got spiteful, they might come by during the day and rip down the tent.
In any case, once you start touching someone else’s property, they have various ways to retaliate, essentially like how no one presses the button on a nuclear weapon even though they have it.
In reality, it doesn’t really matter to me whether the tent gets taken down or thrown under the sun, but I need to play the part of a regular Vampire.
After listening to a lengthy speech about the timeless tradition of prioritizing the public enemy, the human intruder, for those who set foot into the Mist Labyrinth, I decided to modify my strategy slightly.
It wasn’t that I got annoyed by the nagging.
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