The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

60 The conductors watching over the instruments headed for the stage

About half a month after the planting of the spring wheat had been completed, the people living in one of the farming villages built on the land that had been reclaimed from the Devil's Nest watched the expedition army as they marched.

All of the villagers had bright faces; each one of them were cheering for the expedition army in their hearts.

They were the sons born third or later in farming families, former tenant farmers and people who had been living in slums. By participating in Viscount Balchesse's land reclamation project, they had acquired simple houses in which they could live with their families and land that still possessed magical traces of the Devil's Nest, which had allowed it to produce crops from the first year. They had even been exempt from taxes.

Even with this expedition happening, Viscount Balchesse's tax exemption plan had not been cancelled, nor had any of their food supplies been requisitioned. Of course, because the troops in the expedition army were only the elite, none of the villagers had been conscripted, either.

If the expedition succeeded, the Mirg shield-nation would gain new territory beyond the mountain range, and the reclamation of that land would begin as well. If that happened, the crops produced by this village could be sold for use in that reclamation.

The profits would be small at first, but by their children's or grandchildren's generations, their village would be a stopping point between the Mirg shield-nation and the new territory, and it could even develop into a town.

Of course, if the expedition failed, the Mirg shield-nation's economy would enter a slump. But the villagers didn't doubt that the expedition would succeed.

The soldiers were a collection of the Mirg shield-nation's finest. Even 'the second coming of the hero Mikhail', the Green Wind Spear Riley, as well as the Vampire hunter Bormack Gordan whose name was known across the entire Amid Empire, were participating in the expedition.

The expedition army's sights were set on Talosheim, where the Mirg shield-nation had once been victorious at the cost of significant casualties. They would recover Ice Age, the Artifact left behind by Mikhail, and this time they would suppress Talosheim once and for all. These were the objectives that had been officially announced.

The villagers had heard that the Boundary Mountain Range was a dangerous land, but with an A-class adventurer who could even defeat Dragons and a high priest who had slain numerous Vampires, the expedition army would be fine. Furthermore, Talosheim had already been conquered once before, two hundred years ago. The fortress-city would be in shambles now, and the enemy would be a disorderly gathering of Undead and monsters. They would be no match for the group of Alda-sama's priest-warriors.

There was no doubt that the expedition army would exterminate the fiendish Undead and plant the Mirg shield-nation's flag upon Talosheim.

These were the thoughts of not only the villagers of this reclaimed land, but also the thoughts of many of the Mirg shield-nation's citizens.

"Do your best!"

"We're cheering for you!"

The expedition army headed for the Boundary Mountain Range's tunnel as they received the villagers' encouragement.

A little over a month after the expedition army departed the royal capital of Mirg, they arrived at the Mirg shield-nation's side of the tunnel in the Boundary Mountain Range.

From here, they planned to spend three days traveling through the tunnel and then another week or so to reach Talosheim.

Today, they would receive their last supplies at the simple fort-barrier that had been built at the Mirg shield-nation's entrance to the tunnel and make sure the soldiers had plenty of rest. The tunnel had been completely cleared of monsters by Riley, but they would be marching while fighting the invisible enemy of claustrophobia.