Only My Magic Levels Up - Chapter 44



Only Noblemtl

Vanity Heat Wave (4)

“Where did the devil’s cradle come from again?”

“Fortunately, that’s not the case. If the devil had appeared so often, the world would have been a much more unfortunate place.”

After some light banter, Myra continued.

“Well, to be precise, it would be more appropriate to say that I will introduce you to a commission that will suit your taste.”

“Oh my, why did you have to do that?”

“If you look at it broadly, this is also under the jurisdiction of the church, so it’s not something I’m doing just for you. Are you interested?”

“Is it okay if I listen to it first and then decide?”

“Of course. If you don’t like it, you can refuse.”

As Galen indicated that he was listening, Myra rummaged through a drawer and took out a rolled up piece of paper.

It was a fairly detailed map of the entire eastern region, although not as detailed as the map of the area around Elta that I had seen at the Burtain House.

“What people commonly call the Eastern Region, strictly speaking, refers to the Eastern Archdiocese designated by the Church. The same goes for other regions.”

“Oh, really? I’ve never really thought about it that deeply… Now that I think about it, there are nine archdioceses.”

An archdiocese is the higher administrative district of a diocese. Several dioceses come together to form an archdiocese. In terms of districts, a diocese is a city or county, and an archdiocese is a province or metropolitan city.

The world was divided into nine major regions, from the east, west, south, north, and the eight directions in between, to the center. Each of these regions was also an archdiocese.

“I don’t know what it was like in the past, but now the only group that encompasses the entire world is the Church, so the standard has to be the Church. Anyway, that’s not the point, the Eastern Archdiocese is in a slightly unique situation.”

“You say it’s unusual?”

“As you know, the east is mostly mountainous, except for the coastal areas.”

“Yes.”

“Since the area where people live is small, the population is small, and naturally, there are few churches and priests. In short, although it is classified as an archdiocese, its importance is somewhat low.”

In principle, just as the head of a diocese was a bishop, the head of an archdiocese was an archbishop.

Just as there were not enough priests to perform the sixth miracle, so there could not be a bishop in every diocese, so there were nine archdioceses in total, but fewer archbishops.

This was because the qualification of an archbishop depended on whether he could use the eighth miracle.

If you were to compare it to warriors or magicians, it would be a level higher than gold. It would be on par with the level called jewel. There couldn’t be many of them.

“So there is one archbishop who is in charge of both the Eastern and Northeastern dioceses. He is in the Northeast, which is relatively more important, and the Eastern diocesan archdiocese is represented by a bishop named Roald.”

“Like a priest representing a diocese without a bishop?”

“That’s right. Bishop Roald is staying here, in the diocese of Belpass.”

Myra pointed to a city on the eastern coast.

“I have a personal relationship with Bishop Roald, and we often exchange letters. Most of the things I receive are complaints about how hard it is.”

“Well, being an Archbishop’s Vicar isn’t an easy job, either in terms of work or responsibility.”

“Managing a frontier is no easy task. Anyway, while it’s mostly just a pointless complaint, there are some really serious problems among them… namely pirates.”

“Are you a pirate?”

After hearing Myra’s words, Galen looked at the map again.

Looking closely, I saw that there were small dots randomly printed on the right side of Belpass. They weren’t dots, they were islands.

Myra, who noticed where Galen was looking, added an explanation.

“These islands that appear east of Belpas are called the Dawn Archipelago. I don’t know if you know, but to the south, there is a place called the Sun Archipelago.”

“Oh, yes.”

I’ve lived there for over twenty years, not just heard of it. Galen nodded his head in disbelief.

“I heard that there are few islands there, and each one is large. So I heard that the islands themselves are quite rich in natural resources. On the other hand, the Yeomyeong Archipelago has a terrain with many relatively small islands. It’s an environment where it’s inevitable that the supply of food on your own won’t be smooth.”

“So is this place a pirate den?”

“It’s not entirely wrong, but… it’s more accurate to say that not all the islanders are pirates, but rather that there are many small islands, making it easy for pirates to hide.”

Even on modern Earth, it is cheaper to transport cargo beyond a certain amount by water than by land.

In this world, it was difficult to even find a paved road, let alone a railway.

The eastern part, the coastal area, was somewhat less affected, but it was mostly mountainous, so transportation was inconvenient.

Except for special cases like Abaca, most cities were located along the coast and the flow of goods also took place by sea.

Since there were only mountains in the inland, there was no way to receive anything from the inland, so if the sea was blocked by pirates, the damage was bound to be great.

Although the mainland had at least a small plain near the coast, the people of the Yeomyeong Archipelago would literally starve to death if the sea route was blocked.

“I’m asking because I don’t know much about the Eastern structure.”

Galen asked.

“Isn’t there a ruling power in Belpass or the Dawn Isles? If there was, it wouldn’t allow pirates to run wild in its front yard.”

“There has never been a family that has wiped out pirates overwhelmingly, and the families that are suitable for it have died out in a war of attrition with pirates. Now, we should just see that there are a lot of mediocre families.”

Ships are much more expensive than you might think, and once they break and sink, they can’t be repaired.

Sailors can’t just capture anyone and put them on a ship. They need to gain some experience. If they lose at sea, they’re either dead or captured. If they lose on land, they’ll just run away.

It is not easy to recover the damage once it happens.

Of course, by the same logic, once you set pirates on fire, it’s hard for them to move again.

The eastern region itself was not a particularly attractive location for a family with that much power to settle down there.

I don’t know what it was like in the past, but at least the current eastern coastal region is a place where various powers live off of each other.

“The church is stepping forward and making steady efforts to eradicate it, but it is still not easy. It is unlikely that the church would be particularly skilled at naval warfare, right?”

“Um, is that the person you asked me to introduce you to?”

“That’s right. There is no battlefield where wizards are not welcome, but naval battles are especially unwelcome.”

A fire wizard might be able to set the ship on fire, and a wind wizard might be able to rip the sails apart.

Being able to outwit your enemies in ways other than melee combat was a huge weapon.

“You deal with water in particular, don’t you? Then you’d probably be at a much greater environmental advantage than other types of magicians.”

“That is true.”

It’s not for nothing that the Oceanis family has been touted as being invincible on the water.

Actually, if we were to put it that way, then Galen, who has spirits, should be called invincible even on land.

In any case, if it was about eradicating pirates, it was a stage where Galen could do well.

It’s just that Galen wasn’t really interested in being active and gaining fame.

He could always show off and make money later. His only interest was leveling up.

Pirates are just thieves on ships, so what good will it do to gain experience by taming them all the time?

Galen was about to politely refuse.

“Of course, I’m not saying that a simple pirate expulsion would suit your taste.”

At Myra’s words, Galen swallowed back the rejection that was rising to his throat and listened.

“Wasn’t it because you said you wanted to go to the Devil’s Cradle that you thought it would help you with your magic training?”

“yes.”

“Pirates are not strong, but they are annoying because they hit and run away, so regular cleanups are not fun. The reason I want to introduce you is because I recently received a letter from Roald saying that the pirates seem to have become more organized.”

“If it had become organized… would a pirate king have appeared?”

“They just said they were going to look into it. It’s not known whether it was a warrior or a magician, or whether there were only one or several. But rumor has it that the ship Baek Eun was on was also wrecked.”

“Why did you sit there and do pirate activities with such force?”

“I don’t know. If you catch him and ask him, wouldn’t you know?”

“hmm······.”

“If you’re interested, I’ll write you a letter of introduction. Of course, with your skills, you can just go, but Roald will treat you much better if you have a letter of introduction.”

Galen, who had received the tempting offer, was lost in thought.

Anyway, I’ve already seen all the fun there is to be had in the pioneer zone.

The overwhelming advantage was that you could ‘easily’ encounter and hunt the Baek-eun level evils, but hadn’t you already caught them all with Lilia?

Now, even if you want to catch Baek-eun, you have to search ‘difficult’. Just searching through the Great Mountain Range is something you can’t do no matter how good your level is.

Weak evil spells would also help raise the level of Vanity Flame, but Galen was too famous as a water mage here. It was still a bit difficult to use fire openly.

So, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to move locations and check out the interesting rumors Myra had told me.

You can teach yourself Vanity Heat Wave during the time you have left over on your way there and back.

If it’s true that the pirate king or whatever is strong enough to destroy Baek Eun.

Even if you’re a warrior, you’ll gain experience, and if you’re a wizard, you’ll be able to learn new spells. There’s no pressure, since you’re just catching bad pirates.

“Then··· please.”

Galen made his decision.

*

When I was just playing for a few days, time seemed to pass quickly, but once I started preparing to leave, it went by quickly.

The horse that I had been riding on since I left it in Niger and had been left in the church for a long time was full of energy, perhaps because it had been resting for a long time.

Since there was no need to carry water, the already light luggage became even lighter as there was no need to even need a fire starter.

After finishing his preparations, Galen went around greeting his acquaintances.

In fact, there was no one to take care of. Doni, like a peddler, said he had gone on a trip to another place, and he only briefly greeted the monks he had been traveling with for two months in the pioneering area.

“I will not forget your contribution. I hope we will have the chance to meet again. I will continue to cherish it in the future.”

Myra was busy, so we greeted each other in advance.

“Thank you for your hard work, Brother Galen. Thank you for everything… and I hope you continue to work hard.”

Jenny gave a somewhat subtle greeting depending on how you listened to it. It must mean to keep up the good work? To work hard, right?

At first glance, it seemed like he didn’t mean anything malicious. Galen smiled and said goodbye.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Lilia’s reaction was somewhat surprising.

Before going to the Devil’s Cradle, she was the one who said that she would return to the pioneer zone after finishing work.

I took Galen’s words that he was leaving so coolly that I even felt a little regretful.

But still… if Lilia had continued to hold me back, that would have been problematic in its own way. It would have been better to break up cleanly.

Galen waved his hand, shaking off his bittersweet feelings. Lilia smiled brightly and saw him off.

“See you again, brother!”

After saying goodbye to everyone, Galen passed through the gates of Abaca and headed east.

The destination is the largest port city in the East.

It was Belpass.

*

And then, that evening.

Galen knew the road to Elta, which was a day’s journey by carriage or horse, so he moved diligently and was able to enter the city without any problems.

“See you again!”

“······Why are you coming out here?”

I ran into Lilia in the restaurant on the first floor of the inn.

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