The Land of the Centaurs

28: The Land of the Centaurs

The Northern Lemdria Empire. This nation, possessing vast territories and formidable military power, had several distinguishing features.

First, it was a source of mercenaries. They were active in the conflicts of the nations to the west.

Much of its territory consisted of highland grasslands where animal husbandry flourished. There were many nomads, and many demi-humans as well.

And most of those demi-humans were centaurs.

In the past, Great King Ryuke Hollyn was able to triple Lemdria's territory during his lifetime largely thanks to the cooperation of the centaur tribes.

The centaurs ran faster than ordinary cavalry, wielded bows, and boasted superior physiques.

It was said that it was impossible to win a pitched battle against the rapid assaults led by their great hordes.

"Well, the actual Great King Hollyn won through ranged attacks and fortification construction though."

While centaurs used magic and had high intelligence, the one area where they fell short compared to humans was in tactics and the use of weapons and tools.

Great King Hollyn, who defeated the centaurs using these advantages, knew their weaknesses yet also utilized their strengths.

The result was that during the reign of the next king, King Ryuke Adel, Lemdria achieved its greatest territorial extent.

"Even so, after 3000 years, cracks started to appear."

Carla had taught him this, but Sei also wanted to hear Kukuri's perspective.

"How should I put it… I think nations have lifespans. The empire collapsed after 3000 years, Istria is a shadow of its former self, and Garhart became a confederation with many autonomous districts for different races. The exception is probably just Ogress, but that's because a divine dragon is watching over it."

Even among Earth's nations, none could boast 1000 years of history. Japan was an exception, but its political system had changed many times.

The cause of Lemdria's split was apparently the large economic disparity between north and south.

The north maintained its traditional nomadic lifestyle. The south prospered with commerce and industry, and its civilization level kept rising. What Northern Lemdria could provide was military force, but wars weren't always being fought, and as weapons advanced, the demand for centaurs decreased.

To maintain the empire, wealth from the south was channeled north for development, but this was incompatible with centaur culture, and rebellions broke out.

The centaur tribes had once raided Lemdria many times, but years of tactical research and weapon development had established countermeasures against them.

Northern Lemdria, whose main fighting force was the centaur tribes, was defeated by Southern Lemdria. And the target of their raids shifted to the group of small nations in the west that had also achieved independence.

However, Southern Lemdria hadn't lost its territorial ambitions either.

Northern Lemdria still had much undeveloped land, and the resources sleeping beneath that land hadn't even been test-mined.

If they had the leeway, the south wanted to annex the north. That was the general view.

"This sounds a lot like China's history."

"Really?"

Since Mako was the only one here who could follow talk about China, Sei naturally ended up speaking to her.

"China had this structure where you had the wealthy south and nomadic peoples who came to raid it. It's similar how in the modern era, weapons allowed the south to suppress the north."

Sei wasn't particularly bookish, but he liked stories about pre-modern China. He had read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the tale of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. In manga form, though.

Setting aside modern China, there was something fascinating about the history of ancient China. Many boys probably felt the same way.

"What country is this about?"

Chaos looked puzzled. Gantz just shook his head.

Now then, Sei's group first arrived at Doran, the capital of Northern Lemdria.

In terms of its position within the country, it was quite far to the west. For the capital of a nation with such vast territory, it didn't give off that much of an imposing impression. Craia had felt more like a proper capital city.

"First, let's find an inn, then gather information."

This time, Sei wasn't using aristocratic privileges.

They had crossed the border without any particular checkpoint, and had painted over the carriage's crest. For identification, they used the adventurer's guild card.

The reason for being this careful was that they already knew this hero had considerable combat power.

Ideally, he wanted to persuade them, but he needed to accurately assess the other party's abilities and personality. Especially if the other party's Gift was the Eyes of Instant Death, he might need to kill them without any discussion.

Chaos and Gantz went to the adventurer's guild, Kukuri to the tavern, and Sei and Mako to the town, splitting up to gather information.

"Hmm, it feels kind of… normal?"

Mako murmured, and Sei agreed.

Perhaps the image was that of a developing nation's capital? The market was lively, but there weren't many large buildings.

The royal castle seemed to have extensive grounds, but there wasn't any magnificent architecture. Finding this curious, they grabbed lunch at a food stall and asked the old guy running it.

"Well now. Dunno where you came from, but this is what our country's like."

Asking an ordinary guy only yielded that much information, so they asked if there was anyone more in the know.

He told them to go to a tavern, but neither Sei nor Mako drank. They weren't dwarves. Dwarves, they were not.

Eventually, they tried asking the master at what seemed to be a tavern-cum-restaurant while getting some refreshments, but got nothing useful.

Thinking their questioning technique might be the problem, they tried eavesdropping on tavern patrons.

The kind of people who hung around taverns in the middle of the day weren't likely to have valuable information, so they gave up in the end.

Walking around town, Sei thought Craia had been a prettier city. They even found a small slum.

Since the two of them were walking together, it might count as a date, but there weren't enough tourist spots to really call it one.

"In other words, this country has weak royal authority."

Kukuri, who had returned to the inn, shared the information he had gathered.

There were many centaur tribes and tribes of other races, each roaming the vast territory. The emperor was supposedly their coordinator, but even this invasion of the small nations had apparently been carried out unilaterally by several tribes.

"What I heard at the guild was similar too."

The adventurer's guild in this country didn't hold much power. Each tribe had its own rules, and many tribes didn't accept adventurers into their fold. The mentality of handling things themselves rather than hiring adventurers was strong, so they weren't in much demand.

"Well, that's fine. The question is the person who stopped the monster outbreak. Did you learn anything?"

"I don't know the details, but it seems to be true that a massive number of monster corpses were found."

"What condition were the monsters in?"

"Condition?"

"Like, were they burned to death? Cut to death? That sort of thing."

"I just heard that corpses were found. It wasn't from someone who actually saw it, just someone who heard about it secondhand."

A bad feeling crept over him.

If you wanted to efficiently kill monsters with magic, fire would probably be the best option. But if that were the case, wouldn't the reports mention finding many charred monster corpses?

Just dead. To leave them in that state, there was only one gift that could do it.

"Eyes of Instant Death…"

Mako nodded at Sei's murmur.

"For now, we need to find the target. According to the map, they're still to the east."

The map Labyrinth had given them showed the heroes' current locations, but a flaw had now become apparent.

The base map itself wasn't to scale.

Given the civilization level, it might be unavoidable, but he wished they had used a more precise map.

In contrast, Sei's Map was perfect.

Of course the scale was accurate. He could zoom in and out freely. However, he couldn't zoom out far enough to encompass this entire vast territory.

"Sorry to impose, but I'd like to stop by my hometown."

Kukuri said. Apparently his family's settlement was on the grasslands of Northern Lemdria.

Since it was further east from here, they could gather information there, and more than anything, he wanted to confirm the settlement was safe.

"Well, it's true that we need to head east anyway, so that's fine."

"Halflings, huh. I wonder what the settlement is like."

Mako murmured happily, but Kukuri made a blunt statement.

"Humans can't enter."

"Eh? Why? Is it as closed-off as the elves?"

"No, entering the settlement itself isn't a problem, but I can't show you inside the houses."

"Is there some kind of rule like that?"

Chaos asked. His homeland also prohibited inviting other races in without good reason.

"It's not that. It's just a matter of build."

When he said that, everyone was convinced.

Halflings remained child-sized even as adults. Considering the height of their dwellings, it would be unreasonable for humans to enter.

"The houses are dug into the ground, so there's a chance of breaking them if you bump your head."

And so, the group set their course eastward.

Rather than taking the highway, they headed east across the grasslands. Even though it was flat, the ground was bumpier compared to a proper road. The carriage ride was rough.

"Should we store the carriage and ride the horses?"

They had four horses. Kukuri was light enough to ride double with someone. But this also had problems.

To begin with, only Sei and Mako could ride horses.

Lizardmen had no custom of horseback riding, and Kukuri and Gantz couldn't reach the stirrups due to their build.

Thus Sei's proposal was rejected, and the carriage continued on, rumbling and swaying.

Along the way, they spotted centaur tribes herding livestock.

Some tribes even approached them to confirm their destination.

When that happened, it was Kukuri's turn. When he, a halfling, said he was heading to his family home, they would readily believe him and let them pass.

The concept of territory seemed weak here too.

The livestock were mainly sheep that ate grass. The tribes moved frequently so the grass wouldn't be completely depleted.

"Ah, isn't this one of the causes of the raiding?"

Mako let slip suddenly. She had read somewhere about the problems with livestock and food production efficiency.

When the tribe's population increased, they naturally needed more livestock. More livestock required more grass to feed them.

If there was extra grassland, that was fine. But if grass became scarce, they would need to reduce their livestock. If they reduced their livestock, they couldn't survive.

"Ah, so it's a balance between population and food supply."

Sei understood too. Raiding was carried out to maintain the population, or perhaps to cull it.

The tribes here existed on a delicate balance. When that balance failed, they raided.

This was a political problem Sei couldn't solve.

Along the way, another tribe asked if they had any salt.

They had a large amount in Infinite Storage, so he wasn't reluctant to share. But when they said they'd pay through barter, that was troublesome.

They wouldn't know what to do with sheep. They already had plenty of food.

So Sei proposed providing salt in exchange for information. Information about that particular hero.

Since someone in the tribe had gone to scout the monster invasion, they could hear the story directly.

And he became certain. The hero they were dealing with possessed the Eyes of Instant Death.

That centaur said he had directly witnessed monsters collapsing one after another without anything being done to them at all.

While considering countermeasures, the group headed east. What awaited them there was a halfling settlement.

It was Kukuri's homeland.