Chapter 93: Margrave Nazario Innocenti

The day after the unexpected encounter with the cat-type beastman and descendant of the wanderer, Isamu and the others visited the mansion of Margrave Innocenti to fulfill one of their original purposes.

“This… It’s more like a fortress than a mansion.” 

Isamu exclaimed, looking up at the fortress surrounded by sturdy walls along the Great River Meator.

The outer walls of the city were also impressive, doubly fortified, but this seemed even more grand.

However, it also indicated the long history that necessitated such fortifications.

“Innotia, near the border and the Meator River, has never been free from conflict… Although there haven’t been major conflicts in the past few decades, we can’t afford to be complacent just because there’s a ceasefire.” 

Annemarie said with a slightly stern expression.

Given that it was a city where her former close friends lived, her concern was understandable.

They conveyed their purpose at the impressive gate, as dignified as the fortifications.

“Isamu Matsumoto-sama, Annemarie Klaufeldt-sama, and accompanying party! We’ve been expecting you!! Thank you for coming all this way. Please follow me, this way!”

Welcomed warmly by the brisk gatekeeper, they followed the guide through the facade.

Soon, they arrived at the carriage stop in front of the entrance, where several men and women were standing.

First, Isamu got off the carriage and offered his hand to Annemarie. Having been in the world of Ethersia for four months, he had naturally become accustomed to escorting her.

Once everyone had disembarked, a sturdy middle-aged man who seemed to be the head of the household stepped forward with his arms wide open.

“Welcome from afar. I am Nazario Innocenti. Bestowed the title of Margrave by His Majesty. I welcome your visit.” 

He said grandly. It seemed fitting for the head of the border family, always exposed to the front lines.

“Margrave Innocenti, nice to meet you. I’m Isamu Matsumoto, under the patronage of the Klaufeldt Viscount family. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” 

Isamu replied, stepping forward.

“Ah, you’re Matsumoto-dono, huh? I’ve heard various rumors about you. Nice to meet you.” 

Nazario said, extending his right hand for a handshake.

And as soon as they released hands, he clapped his hands and grinned.

“Well, enough of the formalities! Annemarie-san, it’s been since Julia’s graduation ceremony, right? You’re even more beautiful now!”

Gone was the dignified attitude from before as Nazario laughed heartily.

“Nice to see you again, Nazario-sama. Your way with words is as good as ever.” 

Annemarie replied with a wry smile. Perhaps because he was her friend’s father, they seemed to be on good enough terms for her to address him by his first name.

“Really father… Anyway, Anne, nice of you to come.” 

“Greeting Julia. I couldn’t introduce you properly when you last visited, so let me introduce you again. This is Isamu Matsumoto, under the guardianship of the Klaufeldt Viscount family. His magic skills are top-notch. He can defeat a Mage Ogre with a magic barrier.”

“Hey, Annemarie-san! You don’t have to say anything like that…!”

Isamu panics when his magic skills are praised right in front of him.

“Hahaha, it’s fine because it’s true, isn’t it, Isamu-san?”

“Oh, ‘Isamu-san,’ huh… Nice to meet you, Matsumoto-san I’m Julia Innocenti, the second daughter of the Innocenti family. Please, just call me Julia.”

After briefly narrowing her eyes at Annemarie’s attitude, Julia greeted Isamu.

“Nice to meet you, Julia. I’m Isamu Matsumoto. Please call me Isamu.”.

“Nice to meet you, Isamu-san! Oh, by the way, could you teach me magic later? I’m really interested in your magic!” 

Julia asked eagerly, addressing Isamu with “san.”

As Julia called him “san,” Annemarie’s eyebrows shot up.

“Hey, hey, Julia! What are you suddenly saying…”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. You don’t come across magic that can defeat a Mage Ogre very often, you know. Oh, could it be that Annemarie is a nice person? In that case, I’ll hold back.”

Julia whispered the latter half so that only Annemarie could hear.

“Just hold on a second! I didn’t mean it like that…”

Blushing all the way to her ears, Annemarie made a feeble counterargument.

“Ah, you’re always like this… It’s a joke, a joke,” 

Julia laughed.

“…”

Though he couldn’t hear what they were saying, Isamu could roughly guess from their expressions and sighed.

“Anyway, where’s Orihime-chan? I’ve been looking forward to seeing her more than anything!” 

Julia exclaimed.

“What do you mean ‘anyway’!!… Well… we couldn’t just leave her out here, so she’s in the dedicated bag,” 

“All right, Julia, that’s enough. You can’t keep our guests waiting at the entrance forever.” 

A genteel woman scolded Julia as she peered into Orihime’s bag.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Mother… I apologize for keeping you waiting, everyone.”

Regaining her composure, Julia apologized.

“Goodness, what a troublesome daughter… Matsumoto-sama, nice to meet you. I’m Fleurier, Julia’s mother. Since it’s not proper to keep our guests waiting at the entrance, please come in. And you too, please follow me.” 

With that, the group entered the mansion of Margrave Innocenti amidst some chaos.

“Wow, this magic stove is amazing after all. With this, we can significantly reduce the amount of expensive firewood we use. And it’s nice that it doesn’t produce smoke. Silvio from Zambrotta Company, huh? You’ve really done it by monopolizing this. I’m sure the other companies are regretting it.” 

Nazario said happily as he boiled water with the delivery of the magic stove.

“I’m honored by your praise, Your Excellency.” 

Silvio said somewhat nervously due to the presence of such a prominent figure.

“You’re too stiff, Silvio. So, about building that workshop for producing this?”

With a wry smile, Nazario asked the question.

“Yes. During this visit, I would like to finalize the selection of the site if possible.”

“I see. It’s nice to have a quick decision. Julia, didn’t you have some candidate sites in mind?”

In response to Isamu’s answer, Nazario nodded vigorously and turned to his daughter Julia.

“Yes, Father. There are several candidate sites, but considering the importance of the magic tool that will change the resource situation of our territory in the future, I thought it would be best to choose one closer to the mansion…”

Julia handed one of the maps she had to Nazario.

“Hmm. Indeed, there’s no guarantee that there won’t be troublemakers around… Isamu, how do you plan to operate the workshop? Are you going to bring everyone from the viscount’s domain or from Zambrotta Company?” 

Nazario asked, looking away from the documents and directing the question about the management system to Isamu.

“The workshop manager and the leader of the artisans will be brought in from the viscount’s domain, but I’m planning to recruit others locally for the rest. I think it would be smoother to handle administrative matters and recruitment by locals.” 

“I see. That’s helpful, but… Is it okay? To let people from other domains create such valuable magic devices?” 

“After all, if you buy magic items and disassemble them, you can see how they’re made… Besides, this time I want to try a different way of making them. If it works out, it could also serve as a deterrent against plagiarism.” 

Isamu explained, taking out a prototype board from his bag.

“This is a prototype, and by doing this… “

Isamu tinkered with the board, which was then divided into four pieces.

“This is a small board that only works when four of them are connected. It doesn’t work on its own. So, each creator will be responsible for only one type. That way, it should be difficult to plagiarize.” 

“Wow, such a method… To separate the activation circle and the function circle is quite unusual…”

As Nazario mentioned, it had been common knowledge until now that the function circle consisted of one piece.

Since the contents of the magic circle were not understood well, it was difficult to divide it effectively. Additionally, it had become customary for one artisan to finish one piece.

Isamu had been considering increasing production efficiency by implementing a division of labor. The narrower the range one needed to remember, the quicker they could adapt.

It also served as a security measure, a byproduct of the process.

“Understood. Then, let’s reach out to a trustworthy trading company here.”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t the Nashara Trading Company be better? Since they are descendants of the wanderer, there might be some common ground.”

“Eh!? The Nashara Trading Company!?”

Isamu was surprised by the unexpected name that came out of Lady Fleurier’s mouth. And when Lady Fleurier’s saw that Isamu was surprised by the name of the company, she was also surprised.

“Oh, do you know about the Nashara Trading Company?”

“Yes. Yesterday, I happened to go to a restaurant for dinner, and the waitress happened to be a descendant of the Nashara family. I heard various stories from her, and she suggested that I inquire with the Nashara Trading Company for more details, so she gave me the location of the shop.”

“Oh my, is that so? But how did you know that waitress was a descendant of Wami Nashara?”

“Ah, that was just a coincidence… She was a beastman with ears and a tail similar to Orihime, so I just talked to her.”

Isamu scratched his head sheepishly.

“I see. Well, it’s perfect timing then. The Nashara Trading Company is the largest trading company in the western part of the kingdom. It’s thanks to Wami Nashara visiting the Innocenti family that we still have a relationship.”

And so Lady Fleurier proceeded to tell Isamu and the others about the founding of the Nashara Trading Company.

Wami Nashara, a beastman with cat-like ears and tail, possessed an ability skill called “Zero Storage,” which allowed him to store items in a different space, much like the so-called “item boxes” often found in Japanese light novels. It seemed that the amount he could store was about the size of two containers, from what Isamu heard.

Utilizing this ability skill, Wami Nashara played a significant role as a special logistics unit for the Innocenti Knights, who were in the midst of a war with a neighboring country at the time. While he couldn’t single-handedly reverse the tide of battle, the ability to carry weapons, food, and materials as long as they fit in the storage proved invaluable.

With the successful efforts of the Innocenti army in pushing back the front lines in no time, they finally achieved their long-standing goal of fortifying Innotia.

Having successfully kept the city away from the front lines, Wami Nashara, who had never favored conflict in the first place, left the knights at this juncture and established the trading company.

As a merchant, or rather, a merchant was the best position to utilize the Zero Storage ability. Leveraging this advantage, the Nashara Trading Company experienced rapid growth in no time.

The rest of the story was as Annemarie had heard before. They actively welcomed beastmen who had fled from neighboring countries into the company, laying the groundwork for this city to become a major base for beastmen.

Wami Nashara often said that he wanted to “meet the Caith-sith once again.” In his original world, Wami Nashara’s tribe lived alongside the Caith-sith, who were fairy-like creatures. He always proudly recounted that the ears and tails were remnants of the Caith-sith, from which they had diverged.

Unlike Isamu, who had been summoned here with nothing but his own body, Wami Nashara spent his later years traveling the world to confirm whether the Caith-sith existed in this world. However, his wish went unfulfilled, and he ended his life without finding them.

“I see…”

Just imagining being separated from Orihime and summoned here made Isamu feel distant. He felt as though his heart would burst when he thought of Wami Nashara’s regret.

“Although Orihime-chan isn’t a caith-sith, she looks similar to the caith-sith that doesn’t exist here. I think the descendants of Wami Nashara would be delighted to meet her.”

As Lady Fleurier finished speaking, she squinted her eyes and stroked Orihime.

“That’s true. It would be nice if they were happy.”

“Isamu-san, how about making a divine object for that cait-sith? We won’t distribute it widely, but wouldn’t the descendants appreciate it?”

“Wow! That’s a great idea! When I get back, I’ll consult with the Chief Priest and Mimilia-san right away!”

“What’s a divine object? From the way you’re talking, could it be…”

“There was a little incident after you left. Orihime-chan played a big role, so we decided to enshrine her in our territory. This divine object is for that purpose.”

As she said that, Annemarie took out a mascot-sized divine object from her bag.

“Hey, what’s this…”

“Well, well, well…”

As expected of the mother and daughter from the borderland, they swiftly got excited. It didn’t take long for them to place orders for all kinds of divine objects.

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