Typemoon: Starting Out as the Lion King's Personal Knight [405] (Patreon)

Fujimaru Ritsuka, holding a cup of black tea, gazed blankly at Alaric who had already put his winter gear back on.

After so many farewells, Fujimaru Ritsuka had long grown accustomed to parting with Alaric.

Even though this reunion, as always, brought with it harsh realities, Alaric never failed to deliver cruel truths.

This was a war for survival. Even if Fujimaru Ritsuka had yet to fully grasp this world, she could still sense the cruelty of life from those calm words.

It was a battle far more brutal than any previous experience. Yet what truly left Fujimaru Ritsuka lost in thought was her own intuition.

Alaric was still hiding something.

There was something left unsaid, a truly cruel matter, something so harsh it would be cruel to anyone.

“Rebels, huh—”

Holmes raised his eyebrow slightly, staring at Alaric. “Forgive my bluntness, but could you tell us your next move, Sir Alaric?”

Ninety days, a full three months—such a long time.

Enough time for the Earth to be completely bleached, for the Lostbelt to be rewritten.

So what about Alaric?

Over these ninety days, Alaric, who had infiltrated the Russian Lostbelt early, must have taken decisive action, given how much information he had gathered.

Though the goal was also to defeat Ivan the Terrible and cut down the Fantasy Tree, Holmes’s instincts and sharp gaze as a detective told him—

Alaric’s ambitions went beyond that.

What exactly did he want to gain from this Lostbelt—

“That’s a secret, too. I can’t tell you yet.”

Not intending to answer, Alaric smiled lightly. “This time I only came to give you a heads-up. After all, you’ve lost three months. If you slowly gather intel, won’t it be hard to keep up with things here?”

“The world won’t wait for us. We need to seize every second.”

Alaric spread his fingers, his smile fading as he said slowly, “Every minute, every second, hold it tightly in your grasp—forever.”

Alaric left, passing by Patxi, who was returning from hunting, and then departed the village.

After that, Alaric no longer paid attention to Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others’ fate.

Three months of preparation were already complete once the phenomenon filtering the Lostbelt was done.

Passing through a certain village, Alaric caught sight of a beautiful figure selling food—a tall, slender, exotic woman in a dark green coat.

Her fox-like eyes and brows were so enchanting that anyone who looked couldn’t help but become entranced, their minds compelled to obey this shrewd merchant, buying up whatever she recommended.

Even if the recommendations were necessary, the prices were outrageously high—a business with sky-high profit margins.

And in this frozen land, the only ones who could trade with Koyanskaya were the Yaga who lived nearby.

Despite the oppressive rule of Ivan the Terrible and the harsh environment, the Yaga had no energy for luxuries—the only thing they needed and must have was food.

Not all Yaga could freely hunt enough food to supply their daily needs.

Hunting was extremely dangerous. Succeed, and all was well; fail, and you’d be eaten by magical beasts, your corpse never to be found.

The law of the jungle: the strong survive.

This was the truth every Yaga lived by in this snowy wilderness.

“Um—Excuse me, Miss Koyanskaya?”

The anxious Yaga, ignorant of their own fate, looked nervously at the tall woman before him, but Koyanskaya only shook her head and sighed, “How sad, I’m truly sad. It seems all you Yaga have worse memories than a pirozhki!”

“Really now—can’t even remember to use a respectful form of address for your master. You should call me Lady Koyanskaya, shouldn’t you?”

Koyanskaya looked at the Yaga before her with a face full of contempt. “Ugly on the outside, ugly on the inside, not clever, and can’t read the room—no wonder you’ve become nothing but a boring chapter of history.”

“The method of hybridizing animals and humans is foolishness beyond foolishness. Not only did you lose the innocence of animals, you also lost the richness of humanity.”

“Stripped of all good traits, you can only adapt to the environment—what’s so ‘new species’ about that? It’s laughable.”

Her lofty critique and undisguised disgust immediately riled up the surrounding Yaga. “Hey, you—no matter if you’re the Emperor’s personal guard, you can’t just ignore what you just said!”

“This beastification policy was started by the Emperor. If you criticize it, doesn’t that make you the rebel—huh?!”

Halfway through his protest, a hunt soldier appeared behind Koyanskaya and shot the Yaga dead without hesitation.

This sudden scene froze the other Yaga in their tracks. Watching, Koyanskaya smiled with delight. “Sorry about that, all you nameless Yaga? My guards are special models.”

“They’re elite types who’ll move to act as soon as I’m the slightest bit displeased. So you’d better watch what you say.”

Glancing around at the frightened Yaga, Koyanskaya smiled. “Alright~ Very good. Let’s start business, let’s do business!”

In high spirits, Koyanskaya spread her arms wide, baring her pointed canine teeth in a grin. “Since everyone’s food situation is getting tougher and tougher, I’ve prepared double the amount from last time!”

“Don’t worry, buy as much as you like~ I’ve got plenty of stock.”

As she spoke, the hunt soldier behind her pulled out frozen meat and set out the price list.

“Ah, um, whatever it takes, as long as we can get food—”

The starving, nameless Yaga swallowed hard. “Food, food—huh? What’s with these prices?!”

“That’s right, roar beast shoulder meat is now up to 500,000 rubles!”

Koyanskaya smiled.

“That’s triple the price! Last time we already couldn’t afford it! This is meaningless. You promised that as long as we obeyed the Emperor, we’d get the minimum food rations.”

Unable to accept this, the nameless Yaga protested, “Now it’s barter, trading away our last valuables! And the price keeps going up every time!”

“You’re just taking advantage of us! Why must you always torment us like this?!”

With this Yaga’s complaint, the others nearby also began to show their resentment, the atmosphere instantly becoming as tense as a powder keg ready to explode.

Koyanskaya, utterly unconcerned—perhaps even a little amused—smiled and said, “Ara, things are getting tense. Feels like a revolt could break out any second.”

“As the Emperor’s guards, you can’t let this slide, can you? Want to try another way to solve the food shortage?”

If there are too many people and not enough food, just reduce the number of people.

“N-no, that’s not it, we’d never dare defy you!”

The nameless Yaga desperately explained, “But if you do this, it’s like sentencing us to death. Could you please lower the price back to last time’s? Then maybe we could manage—please, Lady Koyanskaya.”

“Hm, you’ve gotten a little smarter, though I’d love to grant your request—”

Koyanskaya chuckled, “But it’s still impossible, so give up. This isn’t about prices rising or falling, it’s the iron rule of NFF Services. Besides—aren’t you lying when you say you can’t pay? Surely you’ve got something left.”

“Left? We don’t have—”

The puzzled Yaga just stared at Koyanskaya.

As if finally getting to the main point, Koyanskaya showed a devilish smile. “Isn’t there plenty? Enough pointless energy to protest to me, the brazen nerve to let rebels go unpunished.”

“And that friend beside you, whose assets are about the same as yours—”

“Isn’t preying on the weak the Yaga’s rule? Remember, didn’t I just say there’s more than one way to solve a food shortage?”

Her words, like a demon’s whisper, instantly ignited the hunger within their bodies under the pressure of the environment.

What followed was a hell of savage chaos—just to buy enough food, they even murdered friends and relatives, just to scrape together enough to make a purchase.

Alaric watched this quietly, until it was all over.

Though Koyanskaya had deliberately created this situation, there was no denying that this Lostbelt was truly a cruel place.

“Oh, isn’t that Lord Alaric? Are you here to shop as well?”

As if just now noticing Alaric in the shadows, Koyanskaya covered her mouth in surprise. “Do you still have money left?”

“Sorry for being unemployed—”

With a mocking smile, Alaric rolled a snowball and threw it at Koyanskaya’s head.

The throw was so weak it couldn’t possibly hit, but Koyanskaya didn’t dodge. Instead, she quickly pulled out a sniper rifle and fired a shot at Alaric’s forehead.

Bang, bang, bang!

In an instant, the high-speed snowballs covered Alaric’s face.

“After all, I’ve thoroughly checked your financial reports, haven’t I? I made sure I didn’t miss a single coin before I stopped.”

Koyanskaya bared her pointed teeth, grinning. “Or are you planning to buy intel again, so you’re raising funds?”

“I’d rather just rob you.”

Alaric answered honestly, “You’ve done so much business—you must have plenty of funds. Once I’ve robbed enough, I’ll come back to buy intel from you.”