Villainess and Grimoire - Chapter 105 – General Aurora Arc

Year 5009 after the system day 40 of the sun season after lunch in the southern outpost inside Aurora tent.

“Well then, I didn’t expect that the promising deal of the merchant Ricardo was to bring a cute woman in his place,” Aurora mocked lightly the person in front of her while giving a compliment at the same time making her slightly nervous, an easy way the girl used to test others.

“With all due respect gi- general Aurora, prince Julius, after a discussion between the 21 higher-ups of the merchant association I decided to take responsibility and supervise every deal that will be made with this army, so that fairness may be brought to both sides along with mutual help and future growth.”

A large pause passed as Chelsea waited for either of them to say something.

“So? You’re not done are you?” Aurora looked coldly at her while feeling a bit more respect compared to Ricardo who didn’t mutter any significant words.

She grabbed the papers in front of her filled with numbers and started speaking.

“I shall proceed, after spending some a big sum of time evaluating the achievements and goods acquired by the army since its started I noticed a few peculiar abnormal issues.”

“Something amiss?” The prince asked with some curiosity as he hadn’t been in the outpost for a long time, in fact, at all, he dropped by recently when he received an invitation letter from Chelsea to handle major business for the army which in a way was part of the domestic affairs that was appointed to him.

“It has been recovered 40 thousand soul stones between rank F and E from the most recent fight against the goblin riders, along with their equipment and their bodies the ones in good conditions can still be used to produce clothes this in specific in regards to the mounted animals, the goblin meat can be either sold along with the animals one or be used by the army, the equipment they wore, in turn, can also be used by the soldiers or given to us to handle the selling,” after speaking clearly and calmly the prince nodded and she continued speaking.

“Furthermore I’ve researched that the total equipment is close to 25 thousand armor and weapons, while they’re not in a poor state meaning that they should be sold as material for refinement or melted and used for construction, what this also means is that there are close to 5 thousand soul stones missing.”

The prince looked at Aurora who was smiling softly understanding that she had something to do with it.

“So before starting negotiating prices I’d like to know if I should or not overlook the missing soul stones,” she stared at Aurora feeling that the answer would come from her as the prince initially while she spoke slightly confused.

“They have been sold for an initial cost to make the fields along with the seeds and materials necessary, so that the soldiers would make this a self-sufficient army related to food, on that note, the seeds are the type that grows even in the cold moon season.”

“The price of 5 thousand soul stones even would surely outvalue that. Were there any other expenses so far or was the money stored and saved?”

“The creation of the entire outpost, from wood to axes, hammers, iron nails, tents, weapons, armors, wages, daily food expenses, and the list goes on as you may imagine…”

“I understand, in that case, seeing as this is already the line of defense for humanity, if everyone here falls and dies, we will come next, I figured I’d take a 40% tax of everything we sell, and…” as she was about to continue Aurora spoke.

“The only thing you’ll take after being raped by goblins is a mind break alongside the greed of today’s deal to the afterlife, where you’ll meet the goddess Aria who may or may not show you some pity,” Aurora said these insane things completely expressionlessly scaring Chelsea who gulps and grabs her right writes with her left hand so that they don’t notice her slight shake.

‘You’ve grown scarier little general, you’re truly different than your father, but yes, this merchant must be shown its place otherwise we’d have a hard time maintaining the wages and the morale of the men.’

‘This girl is truly inhuman seeing as the prince doesn’t even look concerned it just shows that in some way she was raised by him or some of his men since… young? Even with a torturous education would a kid really spout such things? Not even the children from the slums are that… bold.’

She lets out a cough resetting her mindset and says, “and as I was going to say,” she glances at both and then continues,” I’d cover the transportations of the goods as far as Lumen capital through the secure route created by the two of you, both the ones we’ll be selling  to you, and the ones you may request like food, equipment, clothes for moon season due to the cold, whatever necessary.”

“I stick to my words, you could easily do that with a 20% tax, I don’t see why you would want to double the value other than greed, but if you have enough justification then I’d like to hear it, however, if it’s just to show off to the other guys of the association I’ll chop your head today and send it to them as a gift, it’ll surely surprise them more than a great profit!” Aurora smiles innocently at her making her guts twirl making some discomfort as she imagined it, after making it sound like a happy conversation with her energetic fake tone.

‘This girl is too severe does she have a mental illness of sorts? Is she purely insane? That’s now how you handle a business…’ Chelsea started fearing for her life like Ricardo once did, but with her life on the line, she did her best to control herself.

“The transportation includes humans, in other words, if by chance the army needs to retreat we’d take no charges in helping moving materials to soldiers back to the capital, even if that meant losing the entire southern area to the goblins.”

“Oh!” Aurora claps once surprising both and then she says,” that’s a useless reason this line won’t falter plus I want to expand the territory so I’ll need money for future expeditions, in case you use that 20% extra to support them, I’ll accept the offer.”

“It won’t falter? No offense but how can you be that sure? The Saintess predicted that our kingdom would be destroyed, so I’m expecting something really dangerous to come for us, don’t you get it?” She said while raising her voice both worriedly and agitated.

“Look me in the eyes, Chelsea, do you think I would be here in this position if I didn’t know?”

“I… but…” Her legs started trembling lightly as she looked directly into her light blue eyes reminding her of ice.

“I’ll tell you what, accept my counteroffer, and you can use the extra 20% as investments and aid me whenever I set on an expedition.”

‘While it’s not a bad offer I must make sure this will be benefiting for the future for my side even if I’m called greedy, in the end, it is a compliment for a merchant like me.’

“When are you expecting to start the expeditions?”

“I expect to engage in multiple fights with the first goblin king till the moon season where they should wait it out, after that in I’ll reduce their numbers for the entire next year, and ultimately kill him by the next moon season which we’ll have enough resources to not have the soldiers working during the cold.”

“So you’re gathering resources… I understand, in that case, I’ll make it 50% tax for this first year and reduce it to 10% on the following one along with lending money if necessary so that you can do what you must, how’s that?” She asks seriously knowing that if she accepts the amount of money she’d get in the first year would be ridiculously high, enough to expand and even multiply it.

“A leap of faith,” Aurora nods lightly, gets up from the chair, and leaves the tent.”

“Was that a yes?” Chelsea asks confused unknowingly if she should celebrate or if she was fully rejected while staring at the prince.

“That was a yes miss Chelsea, a leap of faith is a term used when believing in something outside the boundaries of reason, it must’ve been from spending time with the Saintess, she’s part of our army in case you weren’t aware miss,” the prince explains while finishing it with a charming smile.

“Your highness, that girl… please be honest with me, was she educated since birth from you or perhaps the late king’s advisors?” Upon hearing such words the prince frowned and declared,” there’s nothing that we could possibly teach that girl, she’s in a different intellect boundary than us.”

As he finished talking to her, the right hand and legs finally ceased shaking as she understood the atmosphere and the way of speaking of the girl that was till just now in front of her,” Is she not a human then? Perhaps a demon in disguise contracted by your highness or something?”

Upon hearing such words the prince started laughing and then placed his hand in front of his lips hiding without covering it, and then said,” no miss, she is certainly a human, an extremely prodigious one that makes us believe that all humans should be more like her, and follow such an example.”

“But your highness she looks way too young to have acquired both war and economical knowledge, and from the way she spoke who knows what else! It was one of the main points that I discussed with my colleagues, they agreed that it’d be fine if one was a genius at a very specific art, such as war, and even then it wouldn’t be to the point of mastering it as everything related to it causes a gigantic amount of pressure, for example, if I was in her place I’d be trembling in anxiety every day, and from having met her she doesn’t so much as flinch or shiver, Aurora doesn’t even look worried and has this unbeatable, confident aura about her like the girl dreads about nothing, shouldn’t a general fear enemies? Having such a feeling would allow us to be more cautious and make wiser moves, isn’t that one of the reasons we humans survived thus far?”

“I don’t mind disclosing information about her and war but is that what you’ve really came here for?” The crown prince said in a cold tone as if he continued the lady would no longer have a way out for her from knowing too much.

“Your highness with all due respect, I understand my place as a merchant, and mean not to be rude, however, knowing who I’m working with that too is the way of doing business, so I beg of you please do tell me how that is possible,” she made a serious expression and proceed to bow in front of him.

Upon gaining interest and some respect for the woman in front of him the prince started speaking with a faint smile.

“Not that long ago our little general like I enjoy calling her, she made two speeches which I obviously read before she reciting them by memory, the first was to cause awareness towards humanity and to help us gathering soldiers, but the second was to fill them with guilt.”

“Making the humans feel guilt?” A surprised expression could be seen on Chelsea’s face.

“Yes while it is a fact that due to the first speech we gathered more men it was only after the second one that the human side increased the most in military number.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

He smiled faintly once more and then said,” after calling them lazy and cowards a tremendous number of men joined my sister and my brother armies along with my own, those who did not join for a just cause like the ones who were swayed by her first speech were manipulated into joining one of the other two, despite we being in a throne dispute to that girl’s eyes, the only thing those cold blue eyes most likely see, is the path to victory, that is the type of person whom you’re dealing with.”

“That’s… quite an elevated estimation of a child, your highness.”

He laughed lightly and then replied,” I certainly do have my own doubts from time to time, especially while feeling anxious back in the capital handling domestic affairs as there are some people that could cause issues to the front lines, so at least being there as a watchdog of sorts, I can easily protect Aurora back.”

“Yes, there’ll always be people who try to get benefits during times of war, myself as a fellow merchant am included, that is quite natural,” to those words the prince smiled and added nothing to which she restarted the conversation as it was a rare opportunity for her to be speaking with someone from the royal family, and perhaps in the future have done it today could bring more fortune someday.

“Just to make sure, I’ll take it that even the one who wields the title of tactician approved for her correct?”

“Yes, my friend lord Ryu the head of the blue family has become an advisor and is currently the leader of the army right-wing, of course, that he’ll follow Aurora orders, but if there’s none he’ll make his own decisions, I believe that’s their agreement.”

“What happened to teacher Mark, he’s quite a big shot whenever a war arises.”

“I see you are quite well informed, he’s currently handling the teaching of the major’s Aurora has chosen each to lead a thousand men making them sub-leaders of sorts.”

“That’s different than the way it used to be, my grandfather used to be a soldier and would tell me tales about war, including formations, ranks, and things like that,” she finished with a happy smile reminding herself of him.

“Surprised a child would be happy to hear such things.”

“Well at the time I was pretty young and there wasn’t much to hear about, so ended up learning what I could with him, it just happened, but even then it makes me realize that from hearing stories to actually wage it as Aurora does…” she started laughing a little crazy as it felt hard to believe and then once she calmed down she continued,” it truly appears hard to accept.”

“For you to have come here in place of Ricardo I figured you knew where you were placing yourself in no?” He retorqued with a perplexed expression.

“I… came here on behalf of the association because the current leader firmly believed that a good deal could not be handled with the girl who scared him,” unable to hold it inside he laughed vulnerable to his heart content.

“I’ve actually met that man before but to be honest I didn’t expect him to have become such a coward, age must truly change people…”

“If I may be bold, what changed Ricardo wasn’t age but fear caused by the little girl who despite her size, carries quite the deadly weapon.”

“It is to be expected if she was any less her authority wouldn’t be firm among the soldiers, and that could cause a big problem, no point having soldiers that don’t follow orders, and a general who isn’t respected is also useless, in the end, she is a child, so it’s even harder for some adults to respect her as such reason why I gave her the emblem to help her in the admiration area, even though after seeing how the men handle her with a slight fear in their eyes, it seems it was unnecessary.”

“Isn’t causing too much fear also a bad thing? Wouldn’t they attempt to murder her or something, like if she abused the power?”

“Perhaps, but since she participated in the annual tournament the respect they have for her is even greater a lot of them were there watching it, and rumors travel fast especially inside a deployed army where talking is the best form of passing time during their duties.”

“Oh, what rank did she place for the men to regard her as worthy?”

“4th.”

“What?”

“Hum?”

“She’s not only a genius but also strong physically and magically? That’s impossible your highness!” She shouted astonished by his words.

“Ah, worry not, well this is a secret, but we used her twin sister in her place, that one is the real deal in magic, and rather fine with the sword.”

“A twin… that’s indeed a rarity, what’s she called?”

“The green-eyed one, Iris.”

“Iris and Aurora… Is she smart like the general? Green eyes? Different eye colors? That’s adorable, I guess her parents must have one of each.”

“To be honest I don’t know, we’ve never talked that much, but at the very least she’s creative and deadly with the way she uses her rare ice element, as for the eyes, from what I know both parents have brown eyes, the mother is blonde and the father has brown hair, so it ended up as a random outcome.”

“Oh my, that is certainly peculiar, wondering if there’s anything in the library about eye colors being different.”

“You can always check when you return to Lumen capital, if you’d like you can even read my library.”

“Such an honor! Am I really allowed to?”

“Yes, consider the permission as you owe me a favor.”

“Ah, well that’s fine, favors usually mean we’re bound to see each other another time,” she makes a lovely expression smiling joyfully making the prince correspond with a gentle face.

“In that case, we shall drink tea at some time in my mansion,” his expression changes to a cheeky one with a playful tone making Chelsea chuckle.

“Very well prince Julius, I’ll be looking forward to that invitation, and of course the books.”

“Of course the books are included,” he laughs amused with the conversation.

A man comes inside the tent and coughs, the two happy faces turn to him and the prince gets up from the chair,” it seems my escort has arrived.”

“Have a safe trip back your highness, I’ll keep lady Aurora some company, I’d like to know her better.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate some company, have a good day miss Chelsea,” the men leave and the woman leaves the tent to find Aurora.