Volume 1 Chapter 6 Three Heads Are Better Than One
A few days after Elizabeth started working as a civil servant for Lord Victor, she, known as the smartest girl in the academy, was holding her head in the office.
"The Beast Forest has such poor land... It's worse than I thought."
"Right?"
For some reason, Randy seemed proud, but his tone and attitude were already slipping. He was trying hard to act polite, but he wasn't the type of guy who could keep up a facade for long. Because of this, he often avoided interacting with others at the academy.
That said, compared to how he acted towards Harrison and others, it was still better. Even Randy had some sense of decorum.
"Our poverty is famous even in this country."
Randy shrugged in response to Elizabeth's look, which seemed to say that he shouldn't be acting so high and mighty.
"The main income comes from the remains of beasts hunted in the Beast Forest..."
As Elizabeth flipped through the papers piled on her desk, she murmured, "Hmm." Many of the residents were working hard to grow wheat and other crops on the poor land, but it wasn't enough. Therefore, many of them hunted beasts in the Beast Forest, ate the meat, and sold the skins and fangs to buy the crops they needed.
Because of this situation, there was hardly any tax revenue.
"How do you pay the knights and servants?"
"That's me."
Elizabeth tilted her head at the proud Randy. However, by the time she learned that Randy was hunting beasts in the Beast Forest, and that it directly translated into the knights' and servants' wages, she was once again burying her head in her hands.
"How haphazard is that..."
Elizabeth's words slipped out, and Randy could only respond with a wry smile. In reality, his father, Alan, was trying every day to improve the poor land, but the results were almost nonexistent.
Randy, being a reincarnator, was helping his father with his vague knowledge, but he was a complete novice when it came to farming. His half-baked knowledge was barely making a difference.
"For now, can you show me the specialty products?"
As Elizabeth stood up, Randy reluctantly said, "Well, okay," and stepped outside the room.
(To be honest, this isn't something a lady should see...)
Whether she knew Randy's thoughts or not, the sound of Elizabeth's shoes was somehow cheerful.
"Now, here are some parts of the beasts I caught."
Randy pointed to a large storage shed behind the mansion. It was quite big since it held not only what Randy had caught but also what the knights had brought in.
"This."
Randy handed Elizabeth a clean cloth.
"An merchant will be coming soon, so the inside is pretty stocked... I've done some processing, at least."
As Randy opened the double doors with a wry smile, an indescribably strong smell burst out from the shed.
"W-What is that smell──."
Coughing, Elizabeth looked at Randy, who turned back with a wry smile and said, "My specialty product."
Skin. Teeth. Horns. Fur. Bones... various parts taken from beasts. Even though they have been processed to some extent, they are still parts of dead bodies. It's no surprise that they smell.
The smell was so bad that Elizabeth was on the verge of passing out. "It can't be helped," Randy said as he entered the warehouse alone and came out with the skin he had collected just yesterday.
"This is the one I got yesterday."
He offered a shiny black piece of leather to Elizabeth, who had tears in her eyes. When she gasped at the rawness of it, her hair color changed to black.
"Oh, a Black Serpent. Kid, you did pretty well."
Eleonora laughed heartily, and Randy replied casually, "Thanks."
"Kid, can I take a look inside?"
Unlike Elizabeth, Eleonora seemed fine with the awful smell and entered the warehouse without waiting for Randy's permission. After a while, she came out with a puzzled expression.
"From what I can see, there are quite a few parts from high-level beasts... and a large magic stone too. Why can't you make any money from this?"
Randy sighed at Eleonora's furrowed brow.
A corpse is just a corpse.
Considering the processing and preparation costs, buying skins and teeth would only bring in a pittance. Especially for high-level beasts, disassembling them requires high skills and a lot of money.
Moreover, the way the parts are taken off is also a problem. Even high-quality materials would be worthless if they are in bad shape.
"Though the extraction has improved, we never know when we might get attacked."
Randy sighed again and explained the lack of demand for other materials as well. The same goes for magic stones. The high-level beast magic stones were valued a generation ago.
Now, technology has been established to efficiently convert mid-level beast magic stones. Because of this, the overall price of magic stones has dropped, and high-level beast magic stones, which are hard to process and can't be converted, are treated as high-risk, low-return waste.
Processing materials also requires skill and a lot of money.
This means that the prices of materials inevitably go up... If the materials are expensive, the prices of the items made from them go without saying. In this era, such things are only sought after by eccentric rich people or for small weapons.
In other words, Randy and his group are surviving on the low prices of mid-level beast magic stones and the limited demand for small weapons.
"Processing... preparation, and then demand."
"Even if we set aside the magic stones, if we can prepare from material collection to processing, I think there's a lot of room for growth, kid."
The two of them were skillfully exchanging ideas, but Eleonora suddenly looked up as if she remembered something.
"Kid, I just remembered something. Come with me."
Without waiting for Randy's reply, Eleonora placed her hand on his shoulder and snapped her fingers. A light rose from the ground, enveloping the two of them──"Wait," was all Randy could protest before they vanished.
After the light faded, what appeared in Randy's view was a crumbling ruin.
"Where... is this?"
"It's a small island to the east of the continent."
"Teleportation magic, huh?"
"Well, I can only teleport to places I've been before."
Eleonora said that and entered the ruins without hesitation. Randy hurriedly chased after her. Even though Eleonora was in control now, the body still belonged to Elizabeth.
Without any weapons──only the skin of a Black Serpent──and with no real preparation, Randy found himself moving deeper into the ruins, but he quickly noticed something strange.
"There's a presence, but it's not attacking, huh?"
As Randy looked around nervously, Eleonora puffed out her chest proudly. She explained that weak creatures in this ruin were too scared of her magical power to attack.
(So that's why we weren't attacked back then.)
Randy finally understood why they hadn't faced any beast attacks while rescuing Elizabeth and returning to the town. In shallow parts of the forest, only weak creatures appeared, so they must have feared Eleonora.
The dungeon exploration, which had no tension at all, soon came to an end. In front of them was a small room with a stone coffin in the center. However, the coffin's lid was wide open, and it didn't seem like there was anything inside.
"Is this the place?"
"Yes, this is where I hid the thing that will be my trump card."
With a sly smile, Eleonora told Randy to move the coffin. Randy thought that there was no way she would try to trap him at this point, so he pushed the coffin with all his strength.
"It's heavy... isn't it?"
As Randy struggled to push the coffin, Eleonora watched in amazement, saying, "Wow! I can't believe you're pushing it all by yourself!"
Seeing that Eleonora had a bit of magical power, it seemed she intended to give him a buff. Randy frowned and continued to push the coffin, thinking she should have done it earlier.
Where the coffin had been, there was a small hole.
"What's this? Parchment?"
Randy tilted his head, and Eleonora sighed, saying, "You don't even know what a scroll is? This is why you're a barbarian," as she snatched the parchment away.
After opening the two pieces of parchment, Eleonora said, "Here it is," and tossed one to Randy. Written on it were the words 'Production Magic.'
"This is an ancient magic scroll. You can use it if you channel your magical power through it."
Randy nodded at Eleonora's words and activated the scroll──light shone brightly, wrapping around him──a strange feeling, almost like floating, enveloped Randy, and when the scroll disappeared, the light and floating sensation were gone.
"Now, you should be able to use 'production magic'."
Confidently, Eleonora nodded in satisfaction, saying, "Yes, it was a good idea to hide it for emergencies." Meanwhile, Randy was groaning.
(Even if I can use it... I don't really understand it.)
Frowning, Randy unintentionally opened his status window. No, it had opened on its own.
There, he saw the skill section with 'Production Magic: Beginner' written clearly. Next to the status, a new tab appeared, called 'Craft.' But more importantly...
"What is that?"
...Randy was struck by Eleonora's surprised expression. In this era, no one could display a status screen like Randy. In fact, no one could even see one. So, he had let his guard down.
(Was that a mistake...?)
Unlike Randy, who frowned, Eleonora peered curiously at the status window. "I see," she muttered, "Oh, this is..." The conclusion she finally reached was...
"An unusual magic."
...It seemed to be magic. Apparently, there was a faint flow of magical power, and even Eleonora had never seen such a strange system before.
"Magic, huh?"
Furrowing his brow, Randy fiddled with the crafting tab. Following the intuitive controls, he watched as the skin in his hands began to shine and transformed into beautiful leather.
"It's properly tanned leather now..."
To Randy's surprise, Eleonora nodded proudly for some reason.
"If you use it enough, you can make tools too."
"Really?"
Randy turned around excitedly, causing Eleonora to flinch slightly. She must have been surprised by his enthusiasm, but for Randy, that was the least of his concerns.
With this power, things he had only been able to imagine with knowledge might actually take shape.
(This is amazing!)
Trembling with excitement at the unexpected effects, Randy suddenly clapped his hands as if remembering something.
"What was the other scroll for?"
"Oh, that one is for copying."
"Copying?"
"Yes. It's for copying magic and transferring it to a scroll... something like that."
As Eleonora waved the scroll in front of him, Randy suddenly had an idea.
"Do you think I can copy this one?"
With a mischievous look, Randy pointed at the status window, and Eleonora grinned back, saying, "I was thinking the same thing."
From there, things moved quickly. They copied Randy's upgraded status window onto the scroll and prepared to use the magic on Eleonora, or rather, Elizabeth──
"Status open, then."
...A status window appeared in front of Eleonora, complete with the crafting tab.
"Hey, what is this...?"
"Just wait."
As Randy got excited, Eleonora raised her hand and immediately switched places with Elizabeth. Having witnessed everything, Elizabeth seemed to know what to do and quickly opened the status window.
"Sir Randolph..."
Randy was just as surprised as Elizabeth.
"...Isn't the magical power value strange?"
The magical power value was completely garbled and unreadable. Seeing Elizabeth's status, which seemed to be way more overpowered than his own, made Randy secretly feel a bit down, but that was a different story.
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