So yeah...the next chapters are like a 9+ parter with lots of pretty big cliffhangers. Expect 1-3 weeks before next bulk release. I'll try to get it to a good point without major cliffhangers. Though we're in the last 30 chapters of volume 2 and almost all of them are pretty big cliffhangers...

Year 7447, Month 7, Day 14

Yesterday was exhausting.

In the end I had to stay overnight in the royal castle.

Incidentally I didn't get a wink of sleep.

After that I returned to Baldukk once and up to chartering a carriage to bring the {Wyvern}'s head and scales back to the castle again was fine.

I can accept that I given my own room to stay at in the third outer citadel as well.

Shortly after I arrived the King and his wife along with his highness Richard came along.

First off they said to show them the head so I showed them the frozen head of the {Wyvern} while still loaded on the back of the carriage. The moment I took off the rubber tarp covering it all three of them seemed to be unable to hide their expressions of surprise. But, by that time I had already heard the fact that the "scales are huge" yesterday morning and since I also heard that there were a lot of scales as well, I felt it was a bit unexpected that "they would be surprised to that extent".

After all there's not a single person in the {Slaughterers} who has seen a real {Wyvern}. That's why there's no way I could have known that this {Wyvern} was over double the normal size either. I just thought, it seems to be just a bit big~

While everyone was raising an uproar including the King all of the military officers and officials who happened to pa.s.s by were shocked seeing the head of the {Wyvern}. In the end a ton of unknown people came along switching places and standing around as they all started another uproar seeing the {Wyvern}'s head. I'm sure that was almost every person in attendance at the castle hearing the rumors and coming over to take a look at it.

Before I realized it the job of managing the number of people was pushed onto me and I had the realization, "I was able to do something that impressed this many people enough to come take a look~" while at the same time feeling proud of the allies I went to the 11th floor together with.

Up until here was busy but it was also pretty pleasant so it wasn't to the point where I minded just managing the people coming to take a look. I'm sure something like the scales on it's head are dirt cheap so if you want it then it's fine even to give it to you. But, if I can sell it I'd like to do that.

While I was doing that all of the artisans were called out and arrived at the castle one after another.

The number of them was a surprising 12 people.

Though they were artisans they're still coming to visit the royal castle so most of them were wearing reasonably tidy clothing.

A lot of them seemed to be pretty rich and it wasn't uncommon for them to be wearing clothes several levels higher quality than mine.

Putting that aside, the problem started when his highness Richard invited them and I into the third outer citadel to inspect the scales.

His highness Richard seemed pleased to irresponsibly say, "These four large bags are all filled with scales from the {Wyvern} at the entrance. All of you, inspect them as you please and attach a price on them."

The bags were casually filled with the torn off scales without being organized so the artisans pointed out that it was first necessary to organize them based on the size. It couldn't be helped so I flipped one bag over thinking of making different piles with each 1 cm as the cutoff when all of the artisan

9;s eye color changed seeing the scales and jumped at them.

Supposedly it's rare to obtain scales that over 3 cm in diameter so from their viewpoint it seems it looked like a pile of treasure. In the end the 13 of us, including myself, spent an entire night sorting them into piles with a 0.5 cm cutoff.

It seems that processing the small ones below 1 cm in diameter is difficult so they aren't worth much at all but even then they're easily worth over 10,000 Z so for the ones that are even bigger than that they're sold at the high price of several tens or hundreds of thousands of Z each. It seems there's several processing methods for each piece of armor so supposedly because I brought them in without any processing done to them they can make any size of armor they please and this will raise the price a bit as well.

And then things were difficult when it was time for each of the artisans to try and attach a price to them. The five piles of sizes from 1 cm in diameter up to 3 cms in diameter were quickly given a price. Even though we took them all off we peeled off the small ones along with the skin itself so the number of them was the highest. It was confirmed that there were over 3,000 scales in just these five piles. The prices they were given were from the lowest at 255,000,000 Z to the highest at 315,000,000 Z.

It was decided that they'll be purchased at the average price these 12 artisans put on them. In other words these five piles were given a final price of 275,000,000 Z. There wasn't any major problem up to here. After all they weren't all that different in size from the ones taken from a normal {Wyvern}.

The problem was the eight piles(after counting there was just below 5,000 of them) of scales with sizes between 3.5 cm and 7 cm and the pile of ones even larger than that. There wasn't even 200 scales in the pile of the largest ones over 7.5 cm in size but they were given a price of 680,000 ~ 800,000 Z each. On average that's 750,000 Z and with just these it totals to an amount close to 150,000,000.

It's too troublesome so I'll just skip over the fine details other than this but the average price that the artisans estimated all of the scales from the pure breed {Wyvern} at was just below 2,300,000,000 Z.

However.

The above amount is an estimated price in the case of a "normal" {Wyvern}'s scales. All of the artisans said not to forget it was simply attaching a price based on only the size. In other words, in the case that they're processed and armor is made from them they're materials which are likely to create some kind of special named item and that's ignoring the price ignoring the fact that they give off a reaction from magic, they put even more emphasis that in the case that these are tailored into armor(supposedly it should be enough for four suits if they use all of them and even if they use them extravagantly it'll be about three suits) that price would be even higher.

Obviously it was a very grateful matter to me.

It was almost like a dream where I was about to jump up and start dancing.

After all with this...

It required almost all of my mental strength to hold back my grinning face and because I was also lacking in sleep, on the next day when it came time to report to the King I almost let out a strange voice on accident. The high tension from lack of sleep is frightening.

....................................

"..Fu...So it seems like something named will made from them.."

After hearing the report from his highness Richard and I the King nodded with a slightly excited face.

"All of the artisans were saying that together. They can be made into named armor of the national treasure grade! No matter how low the quality ends up it still wouldn't be strange for it to end up as the heirloom for a n.o.ble family. However, in regards to the scales this time it was the common opinion among the artisans that the quality went way beyond the highest so.."

Even his highness who is giving the report while taking the same retainer's pose next to me can't seem to hide his excitement judging from the tone of his voice. Even in this era there's some art pieces like paintings and sculptures but since something like the patron system hasn't been developed things like that are extremely rare and have absurd prices. It's common sense for items with unique names attached to them to have an even higher value than those. It's also one of the reasons why magic items rarely obtained from the dungeon are worth so much.

"Hm~mm...Though that's the case that's a matter for after the tailoring of armor is finished.."

In comparison while the King was saying something like this his voice had a spring to it.

By the way, I still haven't mentioned a single word about selling them.

No, of course it's not as if I don't want to sell them.

I just thought that if it's at the national treasure cla.s.s then how about I just present them as a gift and in exchange won't you give me some territory~

After all, when an adventurer like myself presented the previous King with a {Fire Ball Wand} he received the t.i.tle of Viscount and was entrusted with a territory as a reward for it right?

I understand that it seems it can be made into {Magical.Armor}.

And not just one suit of armor but three suits..I heard it might even be possible to make four suits of armor.

But, I have no attachment towards something like magic armor.

I have no interest at all in things like national treasure or heirlooms and such.

An item that you just use as an ornament without using has no higher value than a piece of art.

Of course~ even I want expensive pieces of art.

Just by owning one you can brag about it and just by being in possession of it raises your reputation.

On top of that if someone who knows the value of it sees it they'll be impressed.

And above all else, they'll allow, I, the owner to enjoy myself.

However things like that are fine for the generations after my children and grandchildren.

Probably, there won't be enough leeway for things like that while I'm alive.

I'll be satisfied as long as I can obtain the achievement of founding father.

It's fine if I can just think, I did it!

Also, I think rubber protectors are plenty as the armor for my army.

Last year when I returned home I had them share some seeds with me for the para rubber trees on the condition that I don't export them in the future. With my mana and the spell {Growth Plant} I can accelerate the growth of 500 rubber trees by 1 month everyday. If I live like in the past where I spend everyday just eating, doing it with Miduchi, and then sleeping then even 3 months worth of growth everyday is possible. That means it would be possible to gather sap within three weeks. Well, during that time I wouldn't be able to do anything else though.

In the end, we decided to measure the value once again after the {Wyvern}'s scales were tailored into armor. For that reason I had to first bring the materials to an artisan as an individual and request for them to make some armor. Of course, it's fine to sell all of the scales just like this as well. The royal family recommended that. However, after learning that it's possible for it to be a named item the moment the armor is complete there's no way I could say something like, "Yes, sure". I won't yield on just that point.

Processing the scales will take about four months and tailoring the armor will take about the same amount of time per suit of armor. In other words, the earliest the official price can be determined is spring of next year. Well, it's a super expensive item, that sounds about right.

Furthermore in regards to the processing of the scales but several of the artisans came forward requesting to let them do it. But, one of those, the person named Karimu who I heard has a good reputation is the person I intended on asking. At first I thought about splitting them up equally between all those who came forward to reduce the time it takes but supposedly each individual scale needs to be slightly bent to match up with the figure of the one wearing the armor(according to the King's wishes, first off one will be produced matching up to his highness Richard's sizes) so I heard that it would be best to leave the entire process to a single artisan.

The processing fee for one suits worth was estimated to be about 30,000,000 Z. It seems that the fee for tailoring the armor after that is at most 10,000,000 Z. First off it was decided to have them tailor his highness Richard's armor and s.h.i.+eld and leave the remaining scales unprocessed. Supposedly this is to use them to tailor a suit of armor for his highness Richard's son who currently just turned 5 years old. After he reaches adulthood they want to process them again before tailoring them into armor.

A professional armor artisan has a sharp eye for predicting the growth of the one wearing the armor but as expected it's necessary for them to at least be at the age of adulthood. It seems that if they're at least that old they can manufacture it while antic.i.p.ating the growth of their height, arms, and legs in the future to some extent.

As expected armor is the dictionary definition of a high cla.s.s item~

It's different from the rubber protectors of Bakuddo that are close to ma.s.s production.

I was impressed.

Furthermore, it was decided that I would sell the royal grandchild, in other word his highness Richard's sons armor at the same price as his armor is estimated to be. In other words, they reserved the exact same amount of scales as are used in his highness Richard's armor and even in regards to the remaining scales they'll keep them for repairs. I'm sure the estimated price put on the first suit of armor won't quite reach four times the amount but it shouldn't be wrong for me to hope for three times the amount.

...............................

While making those sorts of over-optimistic calculations(though they've already been made) I returned to my company with a pleased face and invited Ra.s.seg and the others out to eat.

"What's going on? Suddenly inviting everyone out to eat?"

"Al-sama, you seem to be tired today but did something good happen?"

Ra.s.seg and Mili said after suddenly being called out from the workshop.

"Hn? Yeah, that's right. You'll find out eventually. Right~ Harisu?"

"Wa, yes?"

Harisu had a face on like he didn't really understand and didn't know how to reply.

That's only obvious but you should make a bit more overjoyed of a face without getting so tense, right?

"Ah, yeah. Around tomorrow, no maybe even today, I think an official notice will start going around?"

When I said that while unable to endure grinning and it seems the Donneoru couple understood right away. They must think it's because I was able to clear the 10th floor.

"Nfufu. After eating I'll be returning to the store to sleep for a bit. You all, take today off from your jobs and go check out the government office or something, alright? There's no problem~ Leila and the others will watch the store so there's no need to worry. Right? Go and take a look for a bit."

Since I'm saying that much Resseg and Mili both nodded.

Fufufu. Supposedly today at noon the {Wyvern}'s head will be displayed in front of the government office along with the official notice.

I definitely want you to take a look!

Since it seems they'll be taking it to a mounting artisan tonight after all.

.............................

In the evening when I returned to Baldukk I was relaxing in my room before dinner when I was caught by Miduchi.

"It was decided the scales will be tailored into armor. I don't know how much it'll be worth until spring of next year."

I started talking in my room.

Miduchi's sitting on the other side of the table while drinking bean tea with ice floating in it.

"But you already know the rough estimate right?"

"Yeah. Each suit should be worth over 1,000,000,000 Z. Depending on how things go it wouldn't be strange for it to even reach 2,000,000,000. Though how many suits can be made I really won't know until a bit more time pa.s.ses. But, it's estimated to be at least two suits."

In any case before they actually start the processing it's necessary to plan out the objectives for the processing. Along with that some temporary tailoring is necessary. It's necessary to listen to the wishes of his highness Richard the one who will be using it and the design needs to be decided as well. By this point a rough estimate of the number of scales that will be used is done. By this point the number of suits that can be made will roughly be determined but just the same as before there's no way of knowing in the end.

After that, the processing of the scales will start based on the design. Obviously it's possible for processing the scales to fail so there's no way of knowing the yield until the processing is finished. After that they need to sort through the scales that can be used. Along with that they'll perform temporary tailoring a number of times. At this point the number of scales used of each size is finally accurately identified. It's only at this time that the number of suits that can be made is accurately identified. It's said that it'll most likely be two or three suits. Since it seems they're intending to use the scales extravagantly after all.

"Amazing! If it's two suits then that's 4,000,000,000!? Even after paying the bonuses and taxes that's 3,000,000,000...It seems like the amulet will sell pretty high as well..If it's like this then"

Miduchi's face got even more excited and it might be my imagination but has a bit of a blush mixed in.

"Yeah. Though it depends on the prices of the other {Magic.Items} as well. Putting aside the other {Magic.Items}, with the amulet and everything I've currently got on hand I think it'll add up to close to 12,000,000,000 Z."

"..I see. Congratulations. You're dream is going to come true.."

Miduchi placed her cup with the bean tea on the table and said with a smiling face like she was about to cry.

"Yeah. Umm..Thanks."

Miduchi and I exchange glances.

A smile naturally appears on my face as well.

Gradually our faces get closer.

It was right then, I heard the sound of someone rudely running up the stairs of Boil Manor.

There sure is someone rude out there.

..It's not as if we're the only ones lodging here after all.

I felt a bit disappointed.

A bitter smile appeared on Miduchi's face as well.

I shrug my shoulders.

However, those rude footsteps came up to the door of my room and knocked.

Who is it?

"Greed-kun, are you here!?"

It seems they're in a hurry.

This voice, it's not the {Slaughterers}.

But I know it.

It's the leader of {Black.Topaz}, sis Anderson's voice.