The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I'm a "Farmer", Not a Demon King! ~ - Chapter 278

The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I’m a “Farmer”, Not a Demon King! ~

Chapter 278   Eight Heavens, begins marching

“One of those eight heavens has died.”

“The ‘Sword Saint’ was a valuable force that could act without the use of ‘lending’, so if we managed to crush him, it should make things somewhat easier in the future. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to go so smoothly… Truly remarkable, should I say?”

“If that’s the case, well, I guess three more won’t be a problem. Dealing with more might be a bit troublesome… Well, we’ll manage somehow. Right?”

Dealing with three opponents at the same level as that guy simultaneously, is he more than just human?

“Well, if we’re the ones initiating the attack, there might be some concerns, but if we’re prepared and waiting in advance, we can handle it somehow. …That’s what I think.”

After witnessing that battle, I can’t be confident about it, but if there’s a preparation period and it starts from a distance, I might be able to handle several opponents… or at least, that’s what I think.

“Oh, really? In that case, I’ll leave my share to you.”

Thinking about how to deal with multiple Eight Heavens at once, my father came up with such a statement.

…What is he talking about?

“Ha? Don’t mess around. You should fight too. Don’t try to make the king fight. What’s the point of having knights for?”

“If you can’t take it easy, that’s your problem, isn’t it?”

“Well, if they come close, I’ll cut them down.”

So, if they don’t come close, everything is left to me, huh?

After four months since we started moving for the war against the kingdom, today we gathered again.

“So, it seems that a ceremony was held in the royal capital for the recapture of Karakas.”

It seems that’s the case. I heard it was coming in the shortest two months, so I was planning to align with that, but it seems to have taken twice the expected time. It’s fine on our side because we had time for preparation and training. However, there was a problem, or rather dissatisfaction, during that training.

This time, I became Tenth tier, in a fight that’s fine. I confirmed the effect, and the skills seem quite useful. So, there’s no dissatisfaction with that. The dissatisfaction comes from somewhere else.

This time, we’ll be fighting the Tenth tier, mainly planning to kill from a distance. Because if they get close, I’ll probably lose.

However, I’m not planning to just let myself be beaten, so I trained with my father to prepare for when they get close. Well, I couldn’t take a single one, let alone take a clean hit.

The maximum achievement of the training was tearing my father’s clothes. How did he defend against my ‘sowing’ seed from a state less than a meter away?

I don’t know how he avoided my thief’s ‘String Cut’, and he even parried with the sword. I think that was an invisible slash, but seriously, how is he doing that?

I felt a few times during the training that I had him cornered, but if he takes out that white sword – the Holy Sword, it’s over.

With a sword, if it’s too close, you can’t fight properly because it hits unintended things due to its length. But that Holy Sword has the effect of not cutting anything other than what you desire. In other words, even if you make attacks that involve yourself or others, the sword won’t cut you, only the enemy. If he gets close and uses the Holy Sword, father can cut through me and my attacks.

Moreover, that Holy Sword extends. Because of that, even if you try to keep your distance, you die.

I can distract him by making a scarecrow, but that damn father extends the Holy Sword the moment he loses focus and mows down the surroundings, making it tricky.

Penetration through defense, infinite range – who the hell created those skills? Are they stupid? I’d die normally!

Actually, I almost died several times. Or rather, I was pretty much dead. Like being cut in half, I didn’t want to experience that.

In a state that goes beyond serious injury, normally you would die, but if you’ve only been cut, you can heal it back to normal by closing the wound and applying high-level healing magic. If the wound is crushed or turned into charcoal, there are cases where it can’t be healed, but luckily, father’s cuts were very clean, so I could heal them normally.

However, to heal, you need a healing mage, and in Karakas, the most skilled healing magic user would be Lilia. In terms of rank, there were other elves and residents of Karakas who were skilled, but with the blessing of the Sacred Tree, Lilia became the most skilled user.

I’ve been taken care of by Lilia’s healing many times because of that…

Because of that, I was laughed at every time I was treated. But since I got treated, I couldn’t do anything in return, and the stress built up.

To relieve stress, I continuously released as many seeds as I could towards father until I ran out, but they were all intercepted. Well, at that point, it was more like a wall than a barrage…

My combo was supposed to be growth from sowing seeds, but since I couldn’t connect to the combo in the first place, there was nothing I could do.

… Even though I became Tenth tier and should have gotten quite strong. I can’t imagine winning at all.

“It was a bit later than expected, but they’ve finally come.”

“They sure have.”

“So, I’ll leave the handling of those matters to you.”

Despite the situation being quite critical, Edward seems to be quite nonchalant and has thrown the future responsibilities to us.

“Hey! You’re quite laid-back about this.”

“Isn’t military action your responsibility? My job is information gathering and making money, and dealing with barbaric stuff is not in my job description.”

In response to father’s words, Edward, who answered, seems to have a genuine intention to leave it to us, without any motivation at all.

Well, he’s not wrong when he talks about responsibilities, but normally, in situations like this, isn’t it something the whole country should handle together? I don’t think it’s something you just pass off with a “It’s not my responsibility.”

“Now, the real topic begins.”

“Weren’t we discussing the real topic until now?”

“Well, it was half of it.”

“Half…”

“Yes. The other half is about the composition of the enemy this time.”

“Composition? … The Eight Heavens?”

Come to think of it, when I heard about it, I knew the Eight Heavens would be involved, but I still didn’t know how many of them would participate.

“Yes. It seems they will be bringing five people this time.”

“Five people?”

“Yes, five. In fact, it might be more accurate to say only five. It appears that they’ve set a condition to divide the land here in Karakas based on the contribution made in this battle.”

New land. Well, with that on the line, it’s natural that they’d be willing to participate to some extent. But even so, there might be an issue if they claim this place as their own.

“Even if they say they’ll divide it, none of the Eight Heavens currently own land around here, right?”

“Indeed. So even if they get some, it will be an exclave. Normally, enclaves are troublesome to manage, but considering it’s Karakas, having control over an exclave, no matter how troublesome, is worth it.”

“Well, this city can be useful for making money and collecting items, so it’s not a bad idea to hold onto it.”

Ah, I see. In ordinary circumstances, an exclave might be a hassle to manage, but if it has value, that changes the story. Well, it’s a natural conclusion.

However, I can’t help but wonder if it’s okay for the country. After all, this city is a place the country spent money to build. Even though it’s currently occupied by bandits, wouldn’t the country want to reclaim it if possible? If they just hand it over to the Eight Heavens, it becomes their territory, but can the country fully treat it as their own land?

“But in that case, wouldn’t it diminish the meaning of capturing this place? As a country, wouldn’t they want to reclaim this and reuse it as a trade hub?”

“If you ask whether they want to or not, they would indeed want to. However, Karakas is already widely known as it is. If they try to use such a place, it would take not just years, but possibly decades. While it’s not wrong as a long-term goal, when weighed against other benefits, it becomes a delicate situation.”

Certainly, this place is already known as the ‘criminals’ city.’ Saying, “We defeated the bandits, so it’s safe now,” won’t immediately attract people. Even if the national army defeats us and conquers Karakas, they won’t be able to wipe out all the bandits, and someone aiming for the second and third bosses might show up. Besides, just beautifying the city would take a considerable amount of time and money. There are traps and underground passages that weren’t originally supposed to be here, making any improvements time-consuming.

Therefore, even if the country were to reclaim this place, it would take a significant amount of money, manpower, and time to make it properly usable. Considering those numbers, it’s not unreasonable to give up.

However, given enough time, there will be profits, so what other benefits would make them give up those potential gains?

“Other benefits?”

“The problem for the country is not so much the loss of Karakas location but the fact that Karakas exists without being under the country’s control. Because of this, it runs wild, and bandits act freely, deteriorating public order. Rather than losing a potential trade hub to the Eight Heavens, it would be more pleasing if they could manage this place within the reach of the country, even if it’s handed over to the Eight Heavens. In simple terms, that’s the idea.”

Ah, well, certainly, there must be many bandits. It’s not just about the area around Karakas; it also involves those around it becoming more active because of the existence of Karakas. There might be people who turn to banditry thinking, “Well, we can do it too,” with Karakas being the city of criminals.

“In the first place, the country has to crush us; otherwise, if we gain independence, it will be troublesome. So instead of postponing the defeat of us while talking about future profits, it would be better for the country to crush potential profits that may or may not come and ensure they don’t happen. After all, the country must defeat us, and preventing our independence is a given.”

Well, that makes sense. It’s already decided that they’ll crush us and prevent our independence. The country has to defeat us no matter what. It’s better to crush potential profits that may or may not come than to let us go independent and run amok more than before.