The Duke's Eldest Son Escaped to the Military

The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military (79)

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

25 To the East! (1)

Carl Gustav immediately set out to go to the Commander’s office to report about Iron’s decision to accept the East’s request to investigate Ghost Island. He thought that it would be better if he reported this early so they would have less chances of robbing them of an important figure. And also to receive lesser lashings from the curses of the commander. However, Carl Gustav thought wrong.

“Captain… are you alright?”

Iron looked apologetic as he asked Carl Gustav. But Carl did not answer him. He just nodded at Iron with a haggard look on his face. 

“Because of me… I’m sorry.”

“I’m alright.”

Carl Gustav forced a smile as he handed the documents to him. 

“This is the order to temporarily assign you to the East.”

“Ah… Then, will my status as a Ghost disappear too?”

“No. You’re TEM. PO. RA. RI. LY. assigned to the East so you will maintain your original status as a Ghost.”

Carl Gustav emphasized the word temporarily as he asked him to never forget that he was a Ghost even after going to the East. 

“I understand.”

Gustav nodded when he saw Iron smiling as he answered him. 

“Good. There will be more explanations later. But once you arrive in the East, you will be a member of the direct investigation team under the Eastern Command.”

“Who’s part of the team?”

“You will be moving with the East’s strongest Knight Order, the Wave Knights, and their strongest fleet, the Blue Whale.” 

Carl Gustav told Iron the members of the team roughly. 

“I mentioned this earlier, but there will be one other-worlder divine beast contractor and three spiritualists. There’s also a new star from the East in the group.” 

“The East’s new star?” 

“That’s right. There will probably be a lot of people who want to compare with you.” 

Iron looked at Carl as if he couldn’t understand his words.

“Are you talking about me?” 

“I think the Northeast must have overexaggerated your packaging.” 

“Ah…” 

“If they undermine you then they can naturally bring down the other new stars from the North. So, it’s like hitting two birds with one stone, you know?” 

Iron looked at Carl Gustav incredulously. A sigh came out from the military’s political moves. He had already seen enough political forces carrying trashes around while the Northeast was being devastated back in his previous life so this was something that he really did not want to deal with again.

“It’s already giving me a headache.” 

“Hoo… I told you not to go.” 

Carl Gustav sighed as he spoke.

However, the rewards were too great for him to give up on this. Although he was yet to deal with phoenix’s power properly, he still wanted to sign a contract with a new divine beast. After all, he would be able to gain greater strength just by signing a contract with a divine beast. In addition, the next divine beast was most likely to be a fairly rare species. He was quite sure on this matter since he saw that notification when he signed a contract with Baepsae.

― Number of Possible Remaining Contracts: Rare (1) ― Legendary (2) ― Mythical (1)

Those were the remaining contracts that he could sign after signing a contract with Baepsae. Assuming that Two Moons was a rare species, and phoenix was a phantom species of the legends, the next one that he would contract would definitely be at least at the legendary level. Perhaps it was a phantom species or something at the same level. 

So Iron couldn’t give up no matter what. And since dimensional cracks where divine beasts were involved tended to grow in size, it was just correct for him to go to them and give them some help. 

Right now, the Northeast and the North were both doing well so he did not have to worry about them for the time being. 

‘If I die here then it’s over.’

Since his body had fused together, it would be the end once he died. So, he had to consider this world as his own world and move as if his life depended on it. Iron’s will was firm.

He quietly listened to Carl Gustav’s explanation as he continuously reminded him about the things he needed to pay attention to. They were things that he already knew, but he still listened intently as if he never heard them before. 

The East had three main characteristics:

1 Their trade routes are the most active in the entire Empire.

2 They hold the strongest fleet in the entire Empire.

3 They house the largest Magic Tools Workshop in the entire Empire.

These were the three main things that they were proud of. This was especially true for the Magic Tools Workshops. It was said that they could even rival the Wizard Towers from the South with how amazing their workshops were. 

“Hoo… You’ll hear more from the East.”

Carl looked tired after briefly explaining the main characteristics of the East. 

Iron quickly sent off Carl Gustav. He knew that he had been rubbed cleanly by the commander so he sent him off to rest. He also took this time to prepare to leave for the East. He simply packed his luggage as he collected the activity allowance that he needed to go to the East. 

“To the East…”

It was a place that he longed for in his previous life. This place had a lot of things including trade routes, fleets and even the Merchant Association. However, there was one thing that Iron coveted. 

‘Magic Tools Workshop.’

In his previous life, he dreamt of setting up a Magic Tools Workshop in the North and making the North completely independent. But he eventually failed.

However, it was still clearly something that he coveted. So, he thought that it wouldn’t be bad if he went there and took a look. 

“Magic Tools Workshops… is it about time for the people of the modern world to become active in this aspect?”

After considering the great synergy that would arise from the combination of modern day technology and magic tool engineering, he thought that he somehow had to bring them to the North. 

The financial power to rival the Merchant Association, the group of the best merchants in the Empire, one of the East’s main characteristics. The ease of supply and demand materials due to enormous trades. The workshop line that had long been established.

Bringing in the Magic Tools Workshop to the North would easily give them the power to overcome those problems. 

In the past, there were only monsters in the North. They had a huge amount of monster corpses and mana stones. However, just having these two alone would not give them a chance at independence. 

‘Dimensional crack’―’Mana core’.

The branch of the Wizard Tower was already being built thanks to the scholar’s quest for knowledge being stimulated by the dimensional crack. There was also a high-possibility that they would be able to build a North-only Wizard Tower once they enticed some high-ranking wizards. Since that was done and they have now secured the core of the escaping monsters, they have now been drooling to make contact and establish a connection with the Magic Tools Workshop. 

Neither the dimensional cracks nor the mana cores were free of charge. It costs a huge amount of money for anyone to study and use it to their heart’s content. And all of that money was scheduled to enter the Northeast Command. Even the North was scheduled to receive a certain amount as a benefit. 

And with that money, it was highly likely that they would use that to build numerous workshops with the focus on Magic Tools Workshops and Wizard Towers. After all, there were still a lot of monsters which meant that there would be a lot of mana stones that needed to be processed. And those who wanted to make use of the void insects and other rare species were most likely going to enter the Northeast. 

What would happen if the North and the East are connected?

‘The Center will sink right down to the abyss.’

Just creating a connection between the North and the East would bring about a great synergy. And the synergy would be so fierce that the benefits that would be created would go beyond the initial benefits that he had thought of once they connected the East, the North and the West before. This was what Iron had planned in the beginning but the possible benefits of this connection were going to be extreme.

Why?

Back then, he did not think that it was possible to overcome the dimensional cracks to this extent. He also did not know that they would be able to acquire two mana cores in the Northeast. That was the reason why they would be able to make more than enough progress than what Iron had initially expected. In fact, it did not even matter if the North and the East did not connect. They would still gain a lot of benefits.

However, he thought that creating a new trade route by connecting the East to the West via the North with the help of Leonhardt’s support, would be possible in this situation. Once that happened, the Center would no longer be able to drag the North down. And they were also busy protecting their own turf so Iron thought that they couldn’t afford to pay any attention to their movements. 

“I wish I had some free time though…” 

There were those who were dissatisfied with the current system in the East. If that was the case, then there would be people who wanted to start anew in a new place.

Iron briefly summarized what he wanted to do in the East.

‘I want to approach them.’ 

After finishing all of his preparations, the day when Iron would go to the East had finally come. 

“Hurry up and come back.” 

“That’s right. There’s nothing good about living far away for quite a long time.” 

Billie Brandt and Lintel saw Iron off while urging him to come back quickly. Iron smiled and nodded at them. 

“I’ll do my best.” 

“Alright. Don’t get ignored and be pushed back for no reason at all. Got it? Us Ghosts are people who can’t be ignored wherever we go.” 

“Yes.” 

Iron nodded his head at Lintel’s final request before climbing on top of the warp gate.

Thanks to the support that the Center reluctantly gave them, it was now possible for them to maintain a huge warp gate. Iron climbed on top of the warp gate as he and the merchants and several other officers headed for the East were surrounded by a bright light.

“Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter?” 

Iron heard someone calling his name as he looked at the East’s unique architecture after the bright lights had disappeared. 

The man tilted his head asking ‘Is he not the one?’ when Iron turned his head away. The man had pinpointed him since he was the person who looked the youngest from the group of people that arrived. 

“Who are you…”

“So, I was right. I’m Captain Mateo, I will be your temporary guide here in the East.”

Iron looked at Mateo. There wasn’t that much age difference between them. Iron thought that it was a bit unusual when he saw Mateo, who looked like he was only two or three years older than him, already being a captain. 

He was lucky enough to gain enough merits in the unusually harsh environment of the Northeast and got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. But in general, the fastest course to promotion was gaining merits step by step. And this was a process that seemed to be easily and quickly done by Captain Mateo.

“I’ll guide you to Eastern Command.”

“Thank you.”

Iron walked to Mateo’s side while thanking him as they moved forward. 

The smell of the sea immediately wafted through his nose as soon as he arrived. Worthy of a Command that was built near the sea. 

“Is this your first time going to the sea?”

“…Yes.”

He had seen the sea in his original world but in his previous or present life here, this was his first time. He had never been out of the Northeast let alone go to sea. After all, he had been stuck in the Northeast to study before and he had also been sealed there just recently. This was in fact his first trip out of the confines of the North.

“It’s pretty.”

Iron looked at the sea as he passed by the bridge that connected the warp gate and Command. 

There were numerous ships anchored on the dock while geese flew in the sky. 

“It’s really beautiful when it’s peaceful.”

Mateo also spoke up to acknowledge the beauty of the current landscape in front of them. Despite seeing the sea every day of his life, Mateo still somewhat found beauty in the scenery that the sea offered. It was so beautiful that he fell in love with it. However, the Eastern Command was not a place where they could afford to be sentimental. 

“Are there a lot of pirates?”

Mateo smiled bitterly at Iron’s question. 

If one thought about the East, they would naturally think of merchants, workshops and numerous ships. However, there was also one more thing that the East was known for. And it was none other than the notorious pirates. 

There were as many pirates as there were merchant ships that flocked to Eastern Command. Because of that, a warship was always at a ready to be deployed to prevent the pirate ships from harassing the merchant vessels.

It was only natural for pirates to make a lot of money if they could do things properly. Rather than targeting those small merchant ships dozens or hundreds of times, they would often just take a risk with their lives on the line to take a gander against those big merchant ships. 

Of course, the navy strictly guarded the trade route to protect these merchant ships. But no matter how powerful their fleets were, it was impossible for them to cover the entirety of the wide seas. 

As a result, Command was always busy. 

“Actually, we’re already at our limits.”

“Ah…”

“If a dimensional crack appeared in this situation… the East might not be able to bear it.”

Iron nodded heavily at Mateo’s bitter smile. 

Soldiers would be rolled around and ground everywhere. This was the truth of the military.

“You’re working so hard.” 

“I have said useless things in front of someone from the Northeast. Haha…” 

“Not at all. There’s no place in the military that’s not difficult. Am I right?” 

Iron comforted Mateo who looked haggard. 

Mateo smiled awkwardly at Iron as they headed to Command while continuing their small chat. Once they arrived at Command, there were a lot of young men that looked at him. It seemed like they were wondering if he was the last of the people to arrive. 

In such a strange atmosphere, the Eastern Commander stepped forward and greeted Iron. 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Richard Burton, the commander in charge of the East.” 

Iron tried to smile at him after Richard Burton greeted him happily. 

“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter, the ‘11th Sword’ under the Ghost, a unit directly under the Northeast Command.” 

Richard Burton’s eyes widened slightly upon hearing Iron Carter’s introduction.

***

Report mistakes, get notified on updates and announcements, and chat with us at: https://discord.gg/woopread