With the shock caused to the appearance of the Varest's Valkyrie, Elena Izana, the owner of the weapon shop was forced to close his shop. Fortunately, the presence of the two silent soldiers in mytril armor outside discouraged anyone from trying to enter by force.

Fifty-year-old Frank had been an arms merchant all his life, inheriting the merchant profession from his father as well as this shop in the same way that his father had inherited it from his grandfather. However, this was the first time Frank had faced a situation like this.

The son of a Duke had once visited Frank's shop, but the person in front of him, although she only held a small title of Baroness, was a person of greater admiration than any Duke.

「I didn't expect that kind of reaction」

Frank could only show a nervous smile in response to the beautiful young woman's words in front of him.

Elena had practically had to run into the shop to escape the crowd that constantly shouted her name in admiration. It was impossible to know what that exalted crowd that continued to grow on the street in front of the weapon shop would be able to do.

「What are we going to do, Elena-sama?」

「We'll deal with that problem once we get our business done」

Hearing that caused Frank to return to reality driven by his merchant spirit.

「Excellency, I'm afraid it will be impossible for me to cover the price of all these weapons with gold」

Faced with demand for weapons made by the mysterious blacksmith Bela, the price of these had skyrocketed and it was said that a mytril sword of Bela was said to have been auctioned for 6,000 gold coins in the capital.

Simply based on that, Frank estimated that he would end up paying 4,500 gold coins per sword and 2,500 per dagger, which came to the exorbitant amount of 140,000 gold coins, an entire fortune that would only be in the hands of at least one Count.

「What is your estimate?」

Hearing Frank's response, Elena feigned nonchalance while Nia completely lost her breath.

「I understand, in that case, I think we can reach an agreement」

Frank's knees trembled slightly, for a second he came to think that this beautiful girl admired in the whole kingdom could take those weapons to another place.

The agreement reached by Frank and Elena was as follows; Frank gave Elena 30,000 gold coins, as for the remaining 140,000, Frank had to supply a huge shopping list that Elena dictated to him.

High-qualityfurnishing, one hundred full body armor, five hundred low-quality iron swords, three magic 'S' cores, and one hundred 'A' cores.

「Excellency, do you have any relationship with the blacksmith Bela?」

Unable to resist curiosity, Frank asked that question. With such a quantity of weapons forged by that talented blacksmith in Elena's hands, as well as the armor that she and her two soldiers wore and which had been manufactured by Bela, only a fool would not reach that conclusion.

「Bela and I have established a deep friendship relationship which started because of our mutual love for butterflies」

At this point Elena could no longer deny a relationship with the alleged genius blacksmith Bela.

Concluding her business, Elena left the weapon store through the back door and immediately went to the inn she had previously used to rent a room. As for Nia, after giving Elena time while twenty iron armor and some swords were loaded into the cart, she left the store through the front door and commanded the two Izana Knights to leave the area with the cart and Elena's horse.

Although Elena knew illusory spells, they only affected areas and not on moving objects, so she must have waited at dusk at the inn.

Making good use of the darkness of the night, Elena left the inn and left the city to later join Nia who was already waiting for her on the hill where they had arrived using warp from Izana.

Nia gave Elena a simple 'C' core and Elena used it to replenish her magic power and open warp towards Izana.

「That was quite troublesome, Elena-sama」

Once inside the half-finished palace, Nia exclaimed that with a smile. She had enjoyed seeing people's adoration for Elena.

「It seems to me that soon those problems will come all the way here, Nia」

As Nia helped her remove her armor, Elena answered that, and Nia seemed confused.

「It is only a matter of time for the territory that was given to me to be announced, and there is even the possibility that before that, someone would associate the Izana on my behalf with this territory」

Nia's face slightly paled at the understanding. Most likely many people would come to Izana to see the Varest's Valkyrie, and among these, many of them would be noblemen seeking to establish a marriage alliance.

「What are we going to do, Elena-sama?」

「For now, I'm afraid we won't sleep today…」

Elena showed a slightly bitter smile, today she could not enjoy Nia's heat.

After stripping off her armor, Elena asked Nia to collect all the 'A' cores they possessed. In total, Izana had twenty-six 'A' cores.

The next thing Elena requested was that the twenty iron armor, as well as twenty swords, be brought in, the entire load of the wagon. The skeleton soldiers took care of this.

Elena first remodeled one of the iron armor and turned it into a black steel armor adorned with butterfly engravings, the next thing was to use an 'A' core to turn the armor into a puppet.

Leaning on low-ranking cores to regain magical power, Elena spent the entire night creating twenty steel puppet soldiers, whom she immediately ordered to station herself on Izana's wall and guard the gate, a task that until then had been performed by skeleton soldiers.

「It's a pity that the puppets can't speak...」

Elena could only lament about it, if the puppets could speak, they could take care of dealing with anyone who arrived at the gates of Izana simply by asking them to leave, but something like that could only be done by three beings in Izana, Nia, Elena, and Necro, and of course, Necro was not an option for this.

「Isn't it possible to create talking puppets, Elena-sama?」

「It is not impossible, but it requires the use of an SS core」

Nia gasped upon hearing that, an 'SS' quality magic core could only be obtained from an 'SS' monster, the creature class at the level of a true dragon.

「With the remaining eighty armor that Frank gave us as well as the 'A' cores, I will create more steel puppets」

Elena let out a long breath as she watched the sunrise, although a hundred steel puppets was a great addition, this did not solve her problem regarding the lack of personnel who could communicate with other people.

「Homunculus is out of the question…」

Elena murmured that her spine was shaken by a strong chill. Although she knew how to create those creatures that were the apex of alchemy next to the philosopher's stone, the main ingredient of homunculus was unpleasant, enormously unpleasant, the seed of a man's life... besides, since this nasty ingredient was that created the link between the homunculus and its creator, Elena could not have control over a homunculus.

「Elena-sama, what about... employing slaves?」

Nia had some difficulty making that suggestion.

Watching as Nia's shoulders trembled slightly, Elena wrapped her in a warm hug.

「We can try」

「Yes」

Nia returned Elena's hug to gain courage.

Of curse, Elena had no intention of employing the slavery contract to subdue anyone, so the problem in Nia's suggestion was to choose people who were willing to follow Elena on his own accord.

「Master, what can I do for you?」

When mentally called by Elena, Necro came quickly.

「We need more manpower, and for that purpose tonight I will take you to a place where you can get more skeleton soldiers, so I need you to accumulate all the magic power you can」

「Of course, obeying your orders and being of service to you is the sole purpose of my existence, Master!」

Elena ordered Necro to temporarily halt construction of the palace to start a more urgent project, the construction of an underground necropolis below Izana where Necro and his skeletons could be hidden when necessary.

As for the stone golems, whose current number was forty, Elena ordered them to give priority to the section of the fort destined for them, a large warehouse in which they could hide. With the puppetry magic currently lost, it would be quite troublesome for Elena if it was discovered that she could use it.

Having finished organizing the new construction priorities, Elena opened a warp, but this time the destination was not Dur or Lendolf, but a place that could be somewhat troublesome for her, the city of Lutrel.

Neither Dur nor Lendolf had specialized slave shops, and the only city Elena knew of that if had such nasty shops was the city her father ruled, Lutrel.

Hiding under a white hooded cloak, Elena gazed at a city larger than Lendolf.

Behind Elena, Nia could sense the conflicting feelings that her master must be feeling.

「Elena-sama…」

「It's fine Nia, sometime I should go back to this place」

Elena smiled faintly.

「Let's go」

Elena began to walk toward Lutrel followed by Nia, the two Izana Knights, and ten steel puppets. Elena brought so many puppets with her to handle the slaves she would buy, so she thought it would be strange to be the only one riding since Izana doesn't have enough horses.

「I must get mounts at least for the Izana Knights…」

Elena muttered that to herself.

Lutrel was a thriving city that served as a checkpoint for the surrounding territories, therefore Lutrel was the seat of a pair of major orders of chivalry, the Lutrel Order, and the Order of Saint Carlio.

Upon reaching the great gate of the city, Elena was surprised to see a large number of soldiers checking the people entering and leaving the city. Something like that was not normal, so surely something must have happened in the city.

Seeing an intimidating group of ten soldiers dressed in full-body black armor, two in mytril armor, all of them surrounding an adorable half-elf maid and a mysterious figure hidden under a white hooded cloak, the people waiting for their turn to enter to the city they chose to step aside. Someone who could afford to equip their soldiers with full-body armor, and two of them in mytril armor, must be a high-ranking nobleman whom they in no way wanted to offend.

The soldiers of the city were also intimidated to see that group, only one of them dared to step forward driven more by duty than by courage.

「My Lord, may I ask you to identify yourself?」

That soldier who stepped forward was trembling slightly, that character hidden under that withe hood was a Duke? a Prince?

The black-armored soldiers stepped aside to make way for a lovely half-elven maid who approached the soldier.

「My master wants some privacy, so she asks you not to announce her name」

The soldier swallowed when he heard that, that person must be the daughter of a duke or a princess.

Seeing the soldier nod, Nia handed him a silver ring.

The soldier carried the silver ring to the mirror in his hand and once the information appeared, his legs trembled with emotion and admiration, Elena Izana, who in the kingdom did not know that name?

「W-welcome to Lutrel, Excellency」

Driven with excitement, the soldier returned the ring to Nia, then prostrated himself on one of his knees.

Observing that, the rest of the soldiers exchanged glances and then followed the example of their partner.

「Welcome to Lutrel, Excellency」

Since they did not know the person's name or title, the soldiers proceeded to offer a general salute.

Elena let out a faint sigh of relief when she saw that the soldier had agreed to her request, the least she wanted was to cause another uproar and this time, in the city her father ruled.

Elena's group entered the city, and that soldier could only lament not having been able to see the face of who was described as a beautiful Valkyrie.

Of course, once that group disappeared into the city, the soldier was forced by his companions to reveal the name of that person. The soldier only spoke two words and his companions completely lost their breath, Elena Izana.

For several seconds the traffic at the south gate of Lutrel was paralyzed due to the apparent inability of the soldiers guarding that gate to move.

Elena's group was as eye-catching inside the city as it was upon arriving at Lutrel's gate, however, since she no longer had to worry about having to give her name, Elena ignored that and headed straight for the huge Lutrel shopping area.