Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”We have no right to interfere with our students’ family industries,” Elden said, having eaten his fill. He set down his cutlery, took a fine cigar from his pocket, and lit it. ”War always brings a variety of problems. It’s an unavoidable consequence.”

”However, my reason for being here today is unrelated to that. Allow me to introduce you. These are the two most outstanding students from our academy’s latest class: Shiva and Gordon.”

”According to our program, the top ten students from each class are given an opportunity for field experience during the summer break to assist their mentors with research projects. I am leading this year’s top two students for their fieldwork, and we have chosen Delusional Land as the site.”

As Elden spoke, he took out a stack of documents and handed them over. ”This is our application for permission, the specifics of our research project, the planned methodology, and the final evaluation criteria.”

”If you’re interested, you can fill out the ’Anonymous Evaluation’ section on page seven with your assessment and feedback on them after the fieldwork is complete.”

”Anonymous…” Ron glanced at the female student, Shiva, then at the male student, Gordon. ’We’re all sitting here eating at the same table. How is that anonymous?’

’Signed, a certain Mr. Ron, Lord of Delusional Land, who wishes to remain anonymous?’

And this research topic… Ron’s gaze shifted to Elden, trying to detect any sign that the expressionless Dwarf was joking.

”You’re planning to study Ghost Witches?!”

”Precisely,” Elden said, giving Ron a suspicious look. ”As the Lord here, you must have had some dealings with such creatures, haven’t you?”

”In papers published over the last few years, I’ve discovered that a Ghost Witch coven—a small society formed by three Ghost Witches—may exist here in Delusional Land. They’ve become more active recently, and I hope to conduct some research on them with your assistance.”

”I don’t imagine it will be too difficult, as we don’t plan to make any deals with the Ghost Witches or dissect them. Simple long-distance observation and brief communication shouldn’t be too dangerous, would it?”

”What’s with that look on your face?”

Elden might have been an old-fashioned, rigid Dwarf, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t read the room. Seeing the increasingly strange expressions on the faces of Ron and his companions, he couldn’t help but press for an explanation.

”You didn’t… hire them as your consultants, did you?”

Remembering how friendly this young man was with a group of goblins, the Dwarf felt a sense of foreboding and quickly added, ”Don’t worry, you can read our proposal and the other documents carefully. We have absolutely no intention of harming them! If you’ve truly taken them under your command, we can even pay an additional fee…”

”Dean, this isn’t about money,” Aive chimed in, looking troubled. ”It’s just… the Ghost Witches you’re looking for might be… gone.”

”Gone?”

Shiva immediately objected. ”But that’s impossible! While Ghost Witches can alter their life form to adapt to their environment, or relocate based on a desired form, they typically remain in a fixed location for a hundred years or more to accumulate the materials needed for their next transformation!”

”And that paper was published by a scholar just two years ago! There’s no way a Ghost Witch would leave in only two years, let alone an entire coven!”

”Research from two years ago? Even experimental results can be overturned in that time, to say nothing of observations of living creatures,” Ron snorted. He looked at Elden. ”Dean, with all due respect, the paper you found is outdated.”

”Lord, weren’t you listening to me?” Shiva shot to her feet, agitated. ”You may be a Caster, but you’ve never studied at an academy. You probably don’t understand the standards for academic literature—any paper reviewed by Elden Academy and published within the last year or two is extremely accurate. There wouldn’t be any issues with it!”

”Besides,” the young woman pulled out her own notebook, showing Ron the pages-long bibliography at the end of her unfinished thesis. ”Please, look! This is the culmination of years of work by dozens of scholars. With so much corroborating evidence from so many expert perspectives, how can you question the ’validity’ of our project?”

”Of course, I’m not trying to criticize you, but since you’re not an academic, your understanding of this field of research could certainly be improved…”

”Not an academic?”

Ron laughed, thoroughly exasperated. He stood up and looked at the student before him, who was five or six years his junior, and found the whole situation utterly absurd.

’He’d spent nearly half his life in academies! If it hadn’t been for that explosion in the lab next door, that proportion would have only grown larger!’

’He wasn’t an ”academic”?!’

”Shiva,” Elden gestured for his student to show some restraint. Ron was the Lord here, after all—a lesson he himself had learned quite thoroughly last time they met. ”My Lord, I apologize for my student’s tactless words…”

”It’s fine, it’s fine,” Ron said with a wave of his hand. ”We all have moments like that. It just reminded me of some similar experiences from my past.”

”Your name is Shiva, right? There’s some truth to what you said. After all, I haven’t read the papers you mentioned, so I have no right to comment on them.”

”However, when it comes to the current status of the Ghost Witches, I happen to know a little more than those papers do,” Ron said, sitting back down. ”Because just a few months ago, the so-called ’Ghost Witch coven’ you’re talking about ceased to exist.”

”There were three—no, four—Ghost Witches. Now only one remains. I worked with her briefly, but she breached our agreement and is now hiding somewhere deep in Delusional Land. So Aive was right. The Ghost Witches you’re looking for are, indeed, ’gone’.”

”Only one left?” Elden was stunned. ”Are you certain? You can’t trust the word of a Ghost Witch. You didn’t just hear this as a rumor from one of them, did you?”

”A living Ghost Witch will lie, but a dead one’s corpse won’t,” the Lord of Delusional Land said, crossing his legs in front of the three ”academics” who had traveled so far. ”To say nothing of the most powerful one, who didn’t even leave a corpse behind.”

”You don’t mean to say—” Gordon’s eyes went wide as he pointed a trembling finger at Ron.

”That’s right,” Ron said with a laugh, glancing at the dumbfounded Shiva. ”We had a direct hand in the deaths of those Ghost Witches. We were more than just witnesses; we were deeply involved.”

”Miss Shiva, now you should understand. Your research really is outdated. This all happened within the last few months.”