Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 61

Training Mission (2) – The Canned Food, Coming Out To The World

T/N: Three Goddess Spring -> Three Goddesses Spring

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In the end, we didn’t encounter the 2nd Division. 

After we arrived at Ohkur Fortress, the fortress closer to the Three Goddesses Fountain, we immediately spoke with the guard captain who was in charge of the fortress. 

It seemed like the bandits were being so conspicuous that by the time we, the Roa Brigade, arrived here, they already found out the bandits’ headquarters. With this, we only needed to go and exterminate the bandits now.

The only reason the bandits could get away all this time was because they were active near the border. Even though Rudek had an alliance with Lifrea, Rudek still needed to be considerate of Lifrea when Rudek sent its army to the border. 

“It’s an easier mission than I expected. I think bringing 1000 men is too much…” Luzel turned his head while raising an unsatisfactory voice. 

“Agree. I think with just half of the soldiers lacking in horse riding skills among the soldiers, we will be enough to exterminate the bandits. Roa, I’ll go, so just let Luzel take an early holiday.” 

In fact, Rays-sama told us that after the subjugation mission was done, we could take a few days’ holiday to Three Goddesses Spring. Apparently, it was our reward for the mock battle. The area around Three Goddesses Spring was a famous tourist destination, so I would gladly take the holiday before going back to the capital. 

By the way, bandits’ attacks were sighted on a road a bit away from the tourist area, right on the edge of the border. The bandits’ target was imported goods from the southern continent brought from Gedland. 

The bandits were taking advantage of the fact the road was near the border since both countries wouldn’t be able to send an army to the area immediately because it was close to the border. 

Was this deliberate targeting caused by evil people just having similar thoughts to each other, or were the bandits who got away with attacking people on the road just coming back? Either way, it was a nuisance. 

“Well, I can’t take an early holiday, but we can just relax in the fortress. Will that be fine, Roa?”

“Yeah.”

Though I was the leader of the brigade, I have the least experience, so I’ve been relying on the two of them. They said, We’ll ask your judgment for important things, but you can just leave small things to us, before. I was thankful for their help. 

“The subjugation mission might be easy for us, but it will be better for the victim if we finish the mission as fast as possible. Roa, give me your permission.”

“OK. I’ll give the Frein Unit permission to deploy. I’ll be counting on you.” 

“Sure thing!” 

Frein energetically clapped his hands together and left. 

“What should we do while waiting for them to return?” 

“Though I doubt the Frein Unit will fail, we should remain vigilant and wait, just in case.” 

“I see…How about we try cooking the canned food while waiting?” 

“Sure, that’s not a bad idea.”

“The rumored canned food? Can I also try it?” 

The guard captain joined our conversation after hearing about the canned food. 

The canned food was announced with great fanfare about half a month ago. 

At first, canned food was only used for military ration and was also introduced as a preserved food for the winter time. But after some time passed, the canned food started to be exported to the southern continent. Considering the kingdom’s plan also to sell the technique used to make the canned food, the selling of canned food to the southern continent was under a license system. 

The plan was to only sell the canned food to the southern continent for about a year, then after knockoff products started to appear in the market, Rudek Kingdom would dispatch people to the southern continent to instruct people there how to make the canned food properly. After that, the kingdoms in the southern continent would pay a fee to the Rudek Kingdom for using the technique for the next 10 years. The one who thought of all of these, was, of course, The Eccentric, Drew. 

For now, there was no plan to sell the technique to make canned food to the kingdoms in the northern continent because of the concern the technique might be used for their military. 

Initially, only two countries in the southern continent that have frequent exchanges with the Rudek Kingdom would be the ‘trial’ trading partners for the canned food but now, one other country has been added. 

That country was Luluria’s country, Fezaris. 

When I contacted the Fezaris Kingdom via Luluria’s letter to ask about importing tar to our kingdom, the Fezaris Kingdom’s minister crossed the sea and came to Rudek. 

The timing coincidently aligned with the launch of canned food, so the Fezairs Kingdom’s minister immediately became interested. 

“I’ll definitely get permission from our King so please include our country in the canned food trade. Of course, our country will definitely give your country a fair price for the tar,”

I heard that was what the Fezaris’s minister said before returning to Fezaris.

First Luluria, now this minister. The people from the Fezaris kingdom sure have a strong business spirit.

In the southern continent, Fezaris was considered a small country. I didn’t know why Fezaris’s minister wanted to participate in the canned food trade, but from our country’s perspective, we could get tar at a cheaper price while also making a profit from the canned food trade, so we had nothing to lose.

“That minister has quite the foresight. He realized that as long as his country can get their hands on the technique to make canned food faster than any other country, his country will gain profit in the future.”

That was Drew’s comment about the minister’s action. It was quite rare for her to praise someone.

In any case, canned food has now been introduced to the world.

Although the canned food has yet to gain popularity among the common people, the merchant and military officials have been paying attention to the canned food because of how long the canned food would last.

The canned food should also gain popularity among common people when the winter comes. Being able to taste fresh vegetables in the season when the vegetables couldn’t grow was a great thing.

“So that’s the canned food? So we are supposed to return the jar after we finish eating the food?”

The guard captain was curiously looking at the canned food from various angles after Luzel handed him the canned food.

It was decided that after being used, the jar must be returned to the government. After all, this type of jar took a longer time to make than a normal jar, so if it could be reused then it would be better to be reused.

As for the transportation method, Drew found a solution.

“The jars broke when being transported since they collided with each other, right? Then we can just put the jar in individual bags and hang the bags on the horse’s back. If we want to transport a large amount of canned food by using wooden crates, I think using a thick cloth to prevent the jars from colliding will yield a much better result than using sawdust.”

Right. It was just so common to see sawdust being used when transporting things using wooden crates, so I never thought of using an alternative. Preconception could be scary.

This time, we came here by tying 4 canned foods on each of our horses’ backs. We put the effort into hanging them so that the horses won’t dislike them as much as possible. Luzel and Frein helped us. As expected of the two horses’ fanatics. They knew what would make a horse comfortable for the best. In short, this training mission was also a test trial for the canned food transportation method.

After that, we spent the day cooking dishes using the canned food we brought, while also trying to calm the guard captain’s excitement.

At night, I went to the room assigned to me and started to think about one thing that had been bugging my mind for a while now.

Maybe…just maybe… there was another traitor other than the 1st Division