How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary-Chapter 35

Chapter 35
After the Raptor Queen fell, the raptors, having lost their leader, were at a loss, not knowing what to do.
Centered around the Raptor Champion and the Elite Raptors, they split into dozens of fragments.
Some charged at the Rabbit Tribe, while the rest fled elsewhere to avoid the knights’ charge.
From the start, no one could command such a large group unless it was a Raptor Queen-level leader.
“Brother, are you okay?”
“Hey, does this look okay to you? I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.”
“You look fine to me, so what’s with the fuss?”
Rudick, who had dashed over to check on me, hurried off to protect the Rabbit Tribe workers after confirming I was fine.
Glancing at Leisha and giving her a nod of greeting was just a bonus.
The remaining raptors were neatly taken care of by the Black Lion warrior women protecting the Rabbit Tribe, along with the territory’s knights.
“Any casualties?”
“For now, most of the injured survived.
I brought plenty of potions just in case.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
“But we couldn’t help the dead.
Given the situation, it was inevitable.”
“Of course.”
Even though Leisha and I had drawn the raptors’ attention by charging into the group, we couldn’t prevent all the Rabbit Tribe workers from being harmed.
Given the circumstances, it was impossible for the Rabbit Tribe workers to block all the raptors in this open field from the start.
The only consolation was that there were far more injured than dead, and thanks to the knights’ potions, a significant number of the wounded were safely treated.
For taking on a massive raptor group in an open field, the damage was surprisingly minimal.
“Ah, I’m alive.”
“Alive, we made it.”
The Rabbit Tribe’s mood wasn’t too bad either.
The Rabbit Tribe’s stronghold was the Forest of Illusions.
Living in such harsh terrain, death had always been close to them.
Though the casualties were unfortunate, they comforted each other, thankful that the crisis was overcome with far less damage than expected.
“Raptors are really trash.”
“They’re basically worthless.
Their hides are useless too.”
“And you can’t even eat them.
Worst case.”
Raptor corpses lay scattered everywhere, but there was nothing worthwhile to take.
At best, collecting all the small Heartstones could produce a few mana crystals.
Even taking raptor byproducts in this situation felt awkward, but since there was nothing valuable to begin with, it wasn’t disappointing.
“Still, the Raptor Queen’s hide should be usable.
The Heartstones are large too.”
“This should be enough to make two sets of armor.
The color is perfect—black, the knights will love it.”
“Right, we should take at least that much.”
Since Leisha had taken down the Raptor Queen, maybe we could make a set of leather armor for her.
The armor she currently wore didn’t look particularly good.
And she seemed to like black a lot, so she probably wouldn’t refuse the Raptor Queen hide.
After tidying up, we headed straight to the Forest of Illusions.
Fortunately, there were no major issues.
After all, the Forest of Illusions was practically the Rabbit Tribe’s backyard.
Here, we gathered the Rabbit Tribe for a meeting.
If any Rabbit Tribe members didn’t want to join the territory, we planned to disband them here.
‘Freedom is important to Beastmen. We must respect their wishes.’
Luckily, every Rabbit Tribe member wanted to join our territory.
“I heard Johnson Territory is a very safe place.”
“The other Rabbit Tribe members are satisfied too.”
“Even though it’s a human lord, they can trust him.”
“Booby traps! Mana bombs!”
There was something odd at the end, but they seemed quite satisfied with the kindness we had shown so far.
“You mean you rescued the Rabbit Tribe that worked like slaves?”
“Truly, were you a real guide?”
As news spread across the Forest of Illusions that we had rescued the Rabbit Tribe from the Level Merchant Group, even more Rabbit Tribe members joined our territory.
That was partly intentional.
Hundreds of Rabbit Tribe members returned to the Forest of Illusions, and of course, other Rabbit Tribe members knew about it.
Interaction between the Rabbit Tribe members was inevitable, and it was expected that our efforts would be known to them.
‘Wow, quite a crowd has gathered.’
About four hundred Rabbit Tribe members joined the journey to Johnson Territory.
Combined with the eight hundred Rabbit Tribe members we had rescued, the total exceeded a thousand.
Including those already in the territory, it surpassed fifteen hundred.
-I! Appear! Descend!! Power! Manifest!
With so many Rabbit Tribe members gathered, the Black Rabbit could now descend in person.
“Descend” sounded grand, but it was mostly showing the bipedal form of the Black Rabbit to others.
“My goodness. You really were a guide!”
“Beastia…”
The effect was incredible.
The existence of the guide, previously only talked about, was now confirmed, and this news spread across the Forest of Illusions, drawing all remaining Rabbit Tribe members to Johnson Territory.
“Rabbit Tribe population exceeds 2,500. More effective than expected.”
-Ahem. It’s only natural.
“So, what can we do next?”
-I’m not sure either.
My memory is hazy after the descent.
Perhaps we need more Rabbit Tribe members, or they need to develop further.
“Seems complicated. Well, even if you just remain the focal point for the Rabbit Tribe, it’s not a loss.”
Until now, it had mainly been a cute gimmick.
Aside from calming the Rabbit Tribe children, it hadn’t done anything remarkable.
It had provided some initial help when the Horned Rabbits first settled, though.
We hadn’t expected anything extraordinary, so this was more than satisfactory.
“Now that the Rabbit Tribe is sowing seeds south of the territory castle properly.”
The Rabbit Tribe who settled in the territory naturally dug caves within the castle to live and spread out to plant seeds beyond the gates.
It was the perfect time for autumn wheat sowing.
Even if they expanded farmland recklessly, monsters would destroy it, but these workers would never give up farming under any circumstances, which was reassuring.
No matter how harsh the land, it was far safer than farming within the Forest of Illusions.
“Now that the Rabbit Tribe has settled properly, it’s not a loss.”
-Wasn’t this almost a total disaster?
“Eh, not quite.”
The main goal of this Levelium ascent was to resolve the awkward marriage scam of the former wife and find buyers for Horned Rabbit meat.
Looking at it that way, nothing had gone according to plan.
The marriage scam situation remained messy, and they hadn’t even started trading the Horned Rabbit meat.
“Still, it’s not like we really suffered a loss, right?”
I hadn’t fully grasped the details of the marriage scam, but I had landed a solid punch on one of the masterminds, Albert.
I’d destroyed both the farm and the livestock pens right before the deal went through, so it must have hurt them quite a bit.
More importantly, I had secured an ally named Yuria.
“If they sense anything suspicious, wouldn’t they notify us? And with a debt hanging over them, they’d feel free to ask for our help.”
We couldn’t stay tied to Levelium forever, so it was better to leave things at this level for now.
Of course, if they provoked us again, they’d have to pay a proper price.
“As for the Horned Rabbits, we just activate Plan B as planned.
The rabbits aren’t going anywhere.”
The next thing on my mind after Levelium was to trade with Haken Territory.
Since trading with Levelium was no longer possible, it was time to reach out to this side.
-So, are we going to Haken this time?
“That would be difficult. They’ve just returned to their territory. I should probably send someone to confirm their intentions first.”
Since the Haken side had an organized merchant group within the territory, we could negotiate directly with the lord.
It would be fine to consider a trade after sending someone to confirm their intentions.
However, given the distance, even sending someone back and forth would take time.
It seemed the plan to sell Horned Rabbits would need to be monitored for a while.
“Even considering all of that, gathering the entire Rabbit Tribe is far more beneficial.
Ultimately, the strength of a territory comes from its population.
Johnson Territory was far too lacking in numbers.”
The Rabbit Tribe had joined, increasing the number of Beastmen significantly, but that was hardly a problem.
They were diligent, hardworking, and capable of farming.
Honestly, for a remote territory to function properly, more people were needed.
Roughly double?
With Johnson Territory’s population now around 6,000, having about 12,000 would be reassuring.
“But, I can’t think of a way to increase the population further right now.”
For the time being, the plan was to focus more on stabilizing the territory.
The Lion Tribe warrior women who visited our territory with the Rabbit Tribe couldn’t close their mouths upon seeing the fields full of Horned Rabbits.
They probably expected some method behind the massive amount of meat they had paid for, but they hadn’t anticipated that Horned Rabbits were being raised so extensively.
“This is impossible.
Raising Horned Rabbits… is this even feasible?”
Leisha was equally surprised.
Her eyes were wide, unsure of what to do.
Seeing her like that, when the lioness warriors were normally so brave on the battlefield, I couldn’t help but laugh.
-Ah, this is animal husbandry.
If you raise Horned Rabbits as livestock, the meat multiplies.
Seeing Black Rabbit manifest arrogantly in front of the Horned Rabbit pens and nod with such ridiculous pride only added to it.
Honestly, that creature wasn’t exactly sane.
“Well, in this situation, let’s settle accounts first.”
“…Alright.”
The Horned Rabbit meat I owed them was a whopping 1,100 kg.
Honestly, even double that wouldn’t have been too much for their contribution.
Especially for fighting alongside us until the very end—that was something I would probably never forget.
However, preparing this amount immediately was impossible for us.
Even combining what had been slaughtered while we were away at Levelium, it wouldn’t reach this amount.
There was no need to stockpile that much fresh meat for storage.
It was enough to slaughter and consume as needed.
Some had been laid out for jerky, but even that would take time to dry.
“The amount currently in storage is roughly 500 kg.
About the same for jerky.
What will you do? I can adjust it to whatever weight you want, jerky or otherwise.”
“Then jerky would be better. I plan to transport the fresh meat directly to the tribe. Can you do that?”
“Of course, among ourselves.”
Right, since even the Lion Tribe was involved, receiving jerky was preferable.
For the same weight, jerky was better than frozen meat.
Even if we took a slight loss with the same weight of jerky, I wasn’t going to be petty now.
“Let’s start with this, and I’ll deliver the rest as it becomes ready.”
“Sounds good. Let’s do that.”
I handed the 500 kg of jerky stored in the territory to Leisha.
It was a sort of installment payment.
Leisha, who couldn’t take her eyes off the Horned Rabbits in the pens, nodded obediently, as if it were natural.
Clearly, there was no chance she would cheat us.
Her reaction was completely expected.
‘Good, step one is done.’
-What are you planning now?
‘No, it feels like such a waste to let this go.
The Black Lion mercenaries… I really want them.’
-Indeed…
The five Black Lion special forces carrying the jerky crossed the Monster Mountains and returned to the Lion Tribe.
The idea of returning via the Monster Mountains was already impressive.
Even for top-tier warriors, just five people?
As elite hunters who roamed the Monster Mountains capturing monsters, returning to the village was probably effortless.
‘Good, Leisha is staying in the territory.’
And indeed, Leisha remained in our territory.
She seemed to be planning to collect the remaining 500 kg and transport it back to the village.
How could I keep her here permanently?
My mind began spinning rapidly.