Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[OP: ]

A well lit room with shiny things all around.

With a bright magical chandelier hanging on the ceiling, illuminating everything present in the room, the shiny things like the golden frames of the paintings, the pure silverware that was definitely not used as utensils, even the pieces of jewels that were simply being used as a paperweight.

The things present in this room were all eye-catching, and unique, as well as somewhat unusual for a simple noble house.

And yet, all of this was present in a small kingdom's viscount's house.

House of a lord that did not even have any kind of unique land or specific speciality.

"Haha, exactly! Those maggots know nothing~. Grass also has value!"

Sitting at his throne, before a pile of jewellery pieces, with two men sitting right before him who, just like him, possessed a smile that was simply filled with greed.

"The business is growing… they were right…"

Just beside the pile of jewellery, there was also a pile of unique purple grass, something that though seemed very normal, did not have a normal origin.

"My lord, we are expanding at an unprecedented rate. I've never seen something becoming popular so quickly."

The viscount of this small region, while going through a bad famine, was approached by a group of hooded people who showed him a way to get out of the predicament that they were facing.
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"This is THEIR grace. We have to show our gratitude when we get the blessed chance to meet them once again."

The thin viscount of the distant land of Hula.

Being a small territory's lord who had received this position after his father suddenly passed away in an unexpected accident, he had inherited this land, as well as all the responsibilities that he had.

His father was no famous lord, he was decent in his work as well, nothing too great.

In their entire family which had grandfather had built as the sole pass out of the Great academy, perhaps his father was the most incompetent individual.

He only had one son, he also did not have many wives like his only son did right now, and he wasn't smart enough to use what he had either.

Due to his negligence throughout his life, which he had lived with unfathomable neglect to his territory and his people, a lot of people had suffered greatly.

The food that they had and the water that they could get thanks to the mages that they paid with the money that the people of their land were barely making with their hard labour all went to the entertainment, gambling, and a strange hobby of purchasing useless things.

The man, though now a piece of unwanted history, was neither a good lord, nor a good enough father.

"We shall pack up for the day."

"Yes, my lord. We shall look through the books first."

His wife ran away with a knight since she did not want to deal with him anymore in this forsaken land, and the son who was barely an adult was left alone…

"Right. Let us complete the work."

When the famine hit them, even the small source of income that was coming to them through the people of their land stopped.

He had looked after the territory as the new lord till that point, he was older at that point and had some experience of this world and how harsh this world was, but he knew pushing the people and extorting them when there was no source of income was going to make them nothing.

He had nine wives and twelve children. He at least had to feed them and if there was no money, he would not be able to do that…

There were a few things that he could have done, starting a slave trade in his land was also a profitable option, but, in this difficult situation, a group of three individuals apprcohed him… and showed him the way out of that great predicament.

"Yes, everything's alright. Let us-."

"My lord. I hear a strange noise…"

"Hmmm?"

Purple grass.

It was a strong toxin that, when prepared right, had the effect of taking down even a [Bishop] ranked knight.

It was a potent poison… preparing it was simple, so it was mainly famous among the noble and rich people.

Especially thanks to the unique purple and the attractive yet simple look of this grass, there were many who preferred this thing over most of the other poison cheaply available on the market.

-Ooooooooooong.

"Some rat must have sneaked in."

When used correctly, it was an alchemical ingredient, but when used in a way that wasn't advisable, it was a potent weapon that many would wish to have in their hands.

And, since there weren't many suppliers of this rare thing, there was nearly no competition in the market either…

"I'll check things. Please stay there." One of the three men, the mage who also knew how to wield the sword, stood up and closed all the windows with his skill.

He had already created a barrier around the remaining two, so he walked around the place carefully and even used a detection spell, skill, even an item.

But, he found no one.

Which was strange.

But that too, from only his perspective.

"Rats are becoming increasingly annoying. No one wants to see the success of an Honest person."

The only place this grass, this unique purple grass was found until now was around the Demonic plains.

They certainly had some connection to the demons and the demonic energy, perhaps, to the evil cultists that were causing chaos all around the world.

Anyone who knew about this grass, about its origin and about how it came to life would know how demonic energy was the only thing that could birth something so sinister.

It wouldn't be strange for someone to suspect that the viscount of this land that had grown in wealth in such a short time would be connected to the demons, Rakshasas, or even the Evil cults.

The Academy, especially, could not overlook this.

-Ooooooooong!

They were looking through even the smallest clue related to those evil bastards, so it was given that they would suspect the one supplying this strange poison all around the market.

However…

-Swish.

According to the known forces of this small viscosity, the Headmaster knew there was no need to send a big force to investigate this incident.

'True Sword first form: Connection severance.'

One individual equal to a force was enough for a small thing like this. So, he sent the one that had nothing to do lately.

-Swiiiiiish!

-Thud!

"…?"

"My lord!! It's an amb-."

-Swish!

First, without any noise or indication, the (tier-5) mage that they had fell to the ground.

And then, without any indication, noise, sound, smell, even before completely seeing the fallen body of the mage, the two of them- the viscount and his assistant- fell to the ground as well.

There was no blood though, so they weren't dead.

He had made sure they were simply hanging by a few threads of their life.

The impact of his sheathed sword was also not that great so, with a little help from his little snake, he knew the two would be fine.

The mage, on the other hand, didn't need any help. He would wake up in a few hours on his own.

-Oooooooong!

"So, SanSan. What do you think?"

Wearing pure white clothes half covered in a unique kind of cloth stripe that was made with a special material, something that made him look like a certain Moon knight, the current president of the academy's student council, Zodiac, uncovered his face.

The mask of this new outfit was too suffocating. He was still not used to it.

"Ptsssssss~. Ptsss, ptsss!"

SanSan on the other hand liked the new look that he had. It matched up perfectly with his white sword, as well as its own white scales.

It was pretty, and since the unique cloth made all the blood disappear as well, they didn't even have to worry about the stains.

"No I wasn't that cool, dealing with these weak people is nothing. Besides, what about this grass? Is this one related to the demonic powers as well?"

Zodiac places the little snake- who did not have its feathers out- on the desk and the snake, despite its hunger for all the cool looking things present in this place, made a blade of the grass on the table into a ball of energy and devoured it like almost anything else.

Then it tasted the flavour of this thing, the flavour of the energy, its texture, its scent and compared it to the actual demonic taste that he could distinguish anytime.

"Ptssss~. Ptsss!"

"Its related to the demons but does not contain demonic energy? What does that mean?"

"Ptsss!"

"Right. That's what we are here for."

Zodiac nodded at the little snake, and then replaced the grass blade that SanSan had just consumed with a different one.

Then, he connected his vision with SanSan's, turning his simple eyes into the beastly golden ones, and looked at the room, at the three unconscious bodies, and lastly, at the grass itself.

"Hmmm…"

But, aside from a hidden key up the viscount's armpit, there wasn't anything of value in this place.

"Let's go."

There weren't even any hidden security devices aside from the ones that he had already disabled, so he found this infiltration much easier than what he was used to.

This was way below what he was used to. But, it was a good distraction from his boredom.

There was nothing to do in the academy in his last few days as the president of the student council, so solving this near mundane matter was much better than sitting around and doing nothing.

He didn't even have Friends like Cradle did to pass his time. So, this was much better…