Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Volume 9 (eBook)

Fuurou (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-3148-8 (ISBN)

Infos

After fighting the rebels in Mahati, Dias welcomes the peace that awaits him in Iluk. He's also happy to find that the village fields are expanding, preparations for future trade are going great, and cellars are being built in key locations. However, when a councillor arrives from the Beastland Kingdom to discuss future relations, it means taking on more construction projects-namely a new border station out west. Lacking both the necessary manpower and building materials, Dias resigns himself to the fact that it would be a long-term project-until Narvant comes up with a plan to get him both! The catch? It's going to require as much alcohol as Dias can get his hands on...

Textauszug

Seki and Saku didn’t like their brother’s comment, and they jumped at him with their claws bared. Aoi, however, deftly blocked and parried their attempts. This only fired up the two elder brothers, and the three started leaping around slicing and slashing at each other.

“They’re still very much boys their age,” muttered Ellie, “which is admittedly a little worrying, but look at them go! They’re so healthy! So robust! No bandit’s going to get the better of any one of them. But if you’re really worried, why don’t you ask some of your old buddies to accompany us as guards? Wouldn’t that help?”

The boys were light as feathers as they whipped about, moving like no human I’d ever seen. I watched them and found myself nodding along and agreeing very much with Ellie’s idea.

“Wait here a minute,” I said.

I strode off to the south, where Joe and the others were doing “physical training,” cultivating fields under Mont’s supervision. I explained the situation to them and asked Joe and his platoon to accompany Ellie. There was no need to send everybody, after all.

Once that was settled, I went back and told Ellie, and she and the lostblood brothers dove straight into preparing for their trip. First they readied their cart; then they wrapped the rock salt in baar wool. The sheps who’d gathered it in the first place were all too happy to help load it all up. While that was going on, Joe and his platoon got all their traveling gear ready and stuffed rations into their backpacks.

“Up until now I’d really thought that we had plenty enough horses,” I muttered, “but now I sure wish I had enough for everyone.”

I felt bad, knowing that Joe and his platoon had a lot of walking ahead of them, but my comment only made them all grin from ear to ear. Ellie and the lostblood brothers smiled in much the same way.

“Enough for everyone? Ha!” boomed Ellie. “We’re going to save up so much money that you won’t be able to even count how many horses you have! You just wait!”

“We’re going to give it everything so that we can buy as many horses, white ghee, and geese as you like!” added Seki.

“We’ll get them all soon so they can all have kids, and then Iluk will be filled with livestock!” cried Saku.

“And anything we can’t handle we’ll just sell for more profit!” chimed in Aoi.

I nodded happily at the lot of them and decided that the least I could do was help them prepare. I walked on over to the storehouse and loaded my arms with everything I could carry, then took it back out to the square.

After all the prep was done, I saw Ellie and the gang off as far as the edge of the village. Ellie, Seki, Saku, Aoi, Joe and his platoon, and three mastis were all headed for Mahati. I felt safe and sure in the fact that with a group like that, they’d be able to handle themselves just fine. With Joe’s experience and the mastis’ keen senses, I was also confident they’d know well in advance if it was best to turn back and come on home.

But more than anything else, I had faith in all of their abilities. I’d given them everything I could for them to succeed on top of that, so I didn’t really need to dwell on it any further. I turned to head back to Iluk, and it was then that I heard some baars bleating a little ways from the road.

I wonder if they’ve picked out a spot to eat for the day?

I walked on over towards the sound, where I found a few sheps keeping watch over all the balls of wool hanging out in the grass. All in all there was Francis and his family, Ethelbald and his family, and eighteen of our new baars with them. Some of them were just basking in the sun, some were munching on grass, and the six youngest baars—all of whom were growing a little more each day—were learning from their elders.

Some of the young baars watched as Francis dug a hole with his hooves, bleating an explanation as he did so. He was telling them something along the lines of how there were lots of holes like this—deep but with narrow openings—placed around their turf for emergencies.

“Baa! Baa!” he bleated.

Francis entered the hole butt first so his horns were facing out. “If some wolf thinks it can get you, just spring out of the hole like this and ram it as hard as you can!” he said...I think.

Baar horns were tough, and a regular steel sword wasn’t going to get very far with them. When I thought of those same horns colliding at high speed with a wolf, I didn’t much like the wolf’s chances. I’d actually taken baar headbutts to the body a couple of times during some light training sessions, and I knew that if I took a hit like that at full speed I’d get rocked. If a baar got a good hit in, then it could take out even a monster.

“Baa baa.”

Those bleats were from Francoise, who was teaching Framea and Frannia how to use their wool when emergencies called for it. Baar wool grew the more a baar ate, and if a baar wanted, they could hide their whole darn body in the wool they grew. When it got long and thick enough, it was tough as steel and not even a wolf could chomp through it...or at least, it seemed that way according to Francoise.

“Baa baa baaa. Baa,” she continued.

She was explaining that if a baar rolled themselves around in grass and leaves, they could camouflage themselves and become near indistinguishable from the grassy plains. By staying low and rolling into a ball, a baar could disguise themselves as just another rock or part of the grassy environment.

“Baaa baa baa baaaa,” Francoise concluded.

I’m pretty sure that translated to something along the lines of “You must learn to make use of your wool in all its various ways!”

As for Ethelbald, he was running around with Fran and Franca, putting them through drills.

“Baa!” he bleated. “Baabaa! Baa!”

Fran and Franca bleated back as they ran with him. According to Ethelbald, there was a knack you had to develop when it came to both running and ramming. You had to know how to move your legs, and you had to be able to spot the best patches of land for getting a good start. You also had to use your ears to better understand your enemy’s location. He was explaining all of this as they ran.

“Baa! Baa baa!” he bleated boldly. “Baabaa, baa! Baa, baabaabaa, baa!”

Those bleats were part of a strategy he was sharing...I think.

I couldn’t understand everything the baars were bleating at one another, but I could make out the gist. Things like “Don’t ram on your own—ram as a group,” and “Ram as a herd,” and “Against humans and beastkin that walk on two legs, don’t let up the attack,” and “Once they topple to the ground, they’re easy pickings.”

All of it was enlightening to me. I had thought it strange how baars always seemed so meek, and I’d wondered how they survived out in the wild. Now at least I understood that it was a combination of clever horn use and footwork.

The six young baars all absorbed the lessons they were taught, and they ran around doing their best to remember everything they were told. For a time I stood and watched it all in silence. The young baars had been taught like this since they were born, but now they were getting bigger and growing more enthusiastic about the training. They were studious, and it suddenly struck me that they weren’t really kids anymore.

Baars matured quickly, and in fact all the young baars weren’t that much smaller than the adults now. The eldest of them, Fran, even had horns starting to grow from his head. And while a part of me wanted those kids to just stay tiny and adorable, I also wanted them to grow into respectable adults who would enjoy life, meet partners, and settle down. I was filled with this swirl of emotions as I watched, and suddenly Fran opened his mouth as he was running around and let out a bleat.

“Baa!”

His voice boomed, not like a child’s but like a full-grown adult’s. It sounded just like Francis, and it was filled with emotion. I knew then that he was no longer a boy. He and his siblings were all grown up now.

“Was that Fran?!”

“You’re all grown up!”

The voices belonged to Senai and Ayhan, and they weren’t far. I scanned the area until I noticed a spot between the baars who were basking in the sun. The girls were peeking their heads out from among them. Senai and Ayhan must have been enjoying the baar wool, soft and warm as it was, while I was watching the others train. They were both rubbing their eyes as if they’d just woken from an afternoon nap, but they quickly picked themselves up, shook the grass from their hair, and ran to Fran.

“Baa! Baa!” shouted Fran, as if he were bleating his message just for them.

The twins leaped on the baar and wrapped him in a big hug. Then Francis, Francoise, and the rest of their family all ran up to Fran and showered him in congratulatory bleats.

The twins then took off for the village to tell everyone that Fran was bleating like a grown-up baar. And while it wasn’t really big news, the villagers all thought it was nice. It was then that I remembered the rest of our livestock, and I headed for the grazing pasture the white ghee were at.

The ghee grazed at a point just barely within sight of the village. Just like with the baars,...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.7.2025
• Reihe/Serie: The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects
• Illustrationen: Fuurou
• Übersetzer: Fuurou
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: found family trope • Light Novel • Monster girls • nation building fantasy • nice guy protagonist • older main character • slow life fantasy
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-3148-7 / 1718331487
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-3148-8 / 9781718331488