# Enhanced Translation
"Seriously, isn't that cheating? Honestly."
Isabelle approached with dragging steps, pouting her lips. The warriors of the South followed behind her.
Combat had already become meaningless. None of those remaining had any will to fight left. The Northern territory warriors had disarmed themselves and were looking at Ivan.
For a warrior, death without struggle is an insult. According to tradition, a disarmed warrior is never killed unless under special circumstances.
Even though these people had been planning a rebellion, there was no reason to treat the remaining warriors harshly now that their ringleaders were dead. Droan doesn't have the civilized world's evil practice of collective responsibility.
"Being a married man..." Isabelle muttered gloomily amid all this.
No, honestly. It's cheating. How can a married man be so desirable?
When her thoughts reached that point, she suddenly realized that this man was actually practicing polygamy. And he wasn't even "yet" married.
He hadn't even held a wedding ceremony with Elizabeta, and with Asidis, he was only "engaged" because of the mission...
In Tilles, with those conditions, he might as well be single. You could say he has a "currently dating freely" tag.
'Does that mean I have a chance too...?'
Despite being rejected three times after one confession, still.
Isabelle's thoughts were interrupted by Ivan's cold voice.
"What exactly happened here?"
"Eck, what? Huh?"
"I asked why Asidis became... um. Why she's in that state."
"Ah, um... ahaha."
Following Ivan's gaze, Isabelle could see Asidis still beating a drum at the front car of the train.
-Burn Droan! Warriors!!! Destroy what cannot be burned, and bury what cannot be destroyed!!
-Waaaaaah!!! Blood and!! Glory!!!
-Lead us to slaughter!!!
-Shield-maiden!!! Shield-maiden!!! Shield-maiden!!!!
Like a true bard, her volume was tremendous. Despite shouting with such incredible volume, her pitch was so perfect that it seemed more like music than noise.
Asidis was striking a war drum made of interwoven steel shields with a mace, her expression half-entranced... Warriors surrounded her train, shouting and dancing as if hallucinating.
It was like watching a fragment of the apocalypse. Seeing Ivan's concerned and suspicious gaze, Isabelle awkwardly smiled and pointed at Yu-jin.
"It's his fault. I, I know nothing about this."
"No, Isabelle!! You're betraying me here?!"
"Betrayal? It really is your fault! You pseudo-priest!"
"Pseudo...? What are you saying to an ordained priest who received legitimate sacraments from the Saintess?"
Yu-jin approached, laughing arrogantly. He hesitated briefly before Ivan, then carefully began speaking.
"Well, you see, this was all necessary, brother."
So, let's go back briefly to when they were sweeping through the South.
Droan's most representative and famous traditional game is the Blood Eagle. It holds the same status as swinging on Dano Day. It involves being suspended high up, many people watching, and the participant screaming.
Unfortunately, the Blood Eagle isn't a frequent event. Because it's cumbersome. If you expected some other humanitarian reason, this is Droan.
But there is another more common Droan pastime.
Arson.
This holds the same status as field burning games. People enjoy watching things burn, actively try to set fires, and occasionally become the unexpected cause of fires.
"Aaaaaaaaahhh—!!!"
A group of citizens ran out of their homes screaming. The once peaceful village was filled with flames and the smell of burning. Warriors clashed their weapons together in joy or shouted.
Surprisingly, arson isn't just visually pleasing. These Droan-economists wouldn't move without economic gain.
When arson occurs, fire-disaster victims naturally appear. By actively rescuing them, Droan people earn modest rescue fee revenues. If rescue is refused, they proceed with remains excavation and inheritance acquisition in the burned ruins. This constitutes the standard Droan inheritance procedure.
"How dare you ambush your own kind...! You damned creatures!!"
"Hahaha!! Did you expect us to send evacuation notices before raiding?"
The surviving warriors growled at the raiders with blood-flushed faces. Despite being disarmed and kneeling, their faces still flickered with fighting spirit.
However, the raiders never execute them or humiliate them beyond necessity. In Droan tradition, raiding is actually considered a high-survival activity. No Droan ever kills a disarmed warrior.
Everyone must be equally guaranteed the right to revenge. This is because everyone has the right to go to the Halls of Heaven. Even if you lose everything, as long as you preserve your life, you can head to Heaven through legitimate combat. Of course, if you win, you don't have to go to Heaven.
"Isabelle. We need to increase our speed."
"Huh?"
"Lord Yeremov is in danger."
Yuri spoke after watching warriors happily scooping gold coins or food into sacks from around the village.
"We can't move at this pace."
"I understand we need to hurry, but did you hear something?"
"No, but... how should I put this..."
Yuri sighed briefly while looking at the sky. If it were Elfihera, she might have claimed to read the heavenly signs, but she was just a mere student from the Knight Faculty.
The warriors gathered here now numbered just under ten thousand. She lacked both the authority and ability to command and lead such a large military force.
How could she persuade them to stop meaningless acts like looting or combat and rush to the eastern front as quickly as possible? She would need to win over each clan here one by one, which was honestly impossible.
As she swallowed her words, Isabelle sighed and said:
"Well, never mind."
"Huh?"
"It's that kind of thing anyway. Like with the old man, something about 'common sense.' Seems there's more common sense I don't know about."
Isabelle shook her head. The common sense of these strange people often seemed extremely nonsensical from her perspective. It felt like a way of thinking where conclusions were drawn without process.
But what could she do?
"The problem is that the old man's common sense has never been wrong. It's so frustrating."
"..."
"Alright, let's find a way. What should we do?"
"Um..."
Yuri carefully watched Isabelle's expression and asked:
"How can you believe this? I'm just a commoner, a student with no background."
She had hoped for belief, but was surprised by how easily Isabelle accepted it. Honestly, even if she called it common sense, this wasn't really common sense.
In fact, this was a selfish way of thinking that understood this world itself as a kind of "worldview" - the perspective of a 21st century Earth transmigrator. It might sound terribly insulting to "people" who had been living normally in this world.
However, Isabelle just shrugged at Yuri's words and replied:
"You're a Hero."
"Huh?"
"What kind of Hero doesn't trust their party? Would my father have defeated the Demon King if he hadn't trusted the old man and uncles? And more decisively..."
Isabelle was about to proudly say something but suddenly blushed and turned her head away. It wasn't hard to guess what she had swallowed, so Yuri smiled gently and patted her shoulder.
'Because she trusts Lord Yeremov. She doesn't even doubt that the personnel he assigned could be wrong... When judgments differ, she prioritizes Lord Yeremov's judgment.'
What a sinful person. Seeing Yuri's smile, Isabelle grumbled. Perhaps having overheard their conversation, Yu-jin approached with a grin, rubbing his hands together.
"What, what is it now?"
"I have another brilliant idea—"
"Wasn't your last idea telling the old man to marry Essie?"
"That was a damn good idea. Hehe, isn't that why things have gone well so far?"
She had to suppress her desire to try Droan's traditional games. Isabelle asked in a cold voice:
"Just try saying something useless. I'll really 'Drop a Morning Star' on you."
"Isn't that like firing a nuke at a civilian...?"
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Hehe, so anyway. You said we need to persuade these jarls to rush to the eastern front as quickly as possible, right?"
"So?"
Yu-jin lowered his voice ominously and said:
"Can't Asidis do it?"
"Persuade the jarls? Would that even work? Unless we break them one by one, that would be difficult."
"Is that necessary? Why are we trying to persuade the jarls?"
"To command the warriors...?"
"Then skip the process and go straight to the conclusion. We just need to command the warriors, right?"
"...Huh?"
That's not wrong. The reason we're doing this is because we have no way to order these warriors who get distracted with looting every time they find a village to 'stop looting and run.'
At this point, Yu-jin smiled and continued:
"Originally, incitement isn't done through authority. Incitement isn't about 'making people listen,' but 'saying what people want to hear.' That's actually what priests do."
"...You fraud."
"Anyway, mass incitement is my department."
"Do you have a method?"
"Think about it. Do priests guide lost lambs with sermons?"
"...Don't they? Usually?"
"Oh my, what are you saying?"
Isabelle was confused. What else would a priest use besides 'good words'...?
"Hymns. Songs naturally stimulate people across cultural boundaries. Song is the only drug permitted by the state..."
Actually, no country in this era defines drugs as illegal. They're high-value commodities. Kalion is mainly the master in this field.
But Isabelle looked at Yu-jin without objection. His voice carried a certain credibility that transcended age.
Yu-jin's voice whispered like a snake:
"And conveniently, Asidis is, wow! A bard?"
With that, Yu-jin headed toward Asidis.
"That's not it, Miss Asidis. Put away that violin. What on earth do you think you can do with such a soft instrument?"
"Um... huh?"
"Here, take this mace. Strike the shield! Make your voice as husky as possible, low and thick, with a scratchy vocalization. That's right, now go to a high note—"
It started with Metallica's Seek & Destroy. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin.... Fortunately, his head was already full of songs to reference.
On Earth, 00s hipsters listened to hip-hop, 90s hipsters encountered rock. But 80s hipsters listened to metal.
Yu-jin was older than Ivan... that is, Kim Seon-woo, in Earth years. Coincidentally, this meant he was in an age group that could no longer quite be considered young and MZ.
'And Droan is Nordic culture.'
There's such a thing as cultural lineage. This often applies even across dimensions, as they had clearly felt in Krasilov.
That crazy northern war-obsessed country maintained a firepower-supremacist military dictatorship both on Earth and here. Unfortunately, since he wasn't familiar with Russian culture, it was difficult to utilize Earth's common sense.
But this place, Droan, belongs to the so-called Nordic cultural sphere. In other words, it's a neighborhood where the cultural bloodline of Sweden flows—the ruthless culture where guests aren't offered meals even if they're elementary school children.
But there's evidence that Swedes have warm hearts too. They had the passion to make even pre-school children's songs into death metal.
While the metal genre doesn't yet exist in this world, spreading pioneering culture is the mission of isekai heroes.
'I've become an isekai plagiarizing music producer...!!'
Yu-jin's manic teachings (St. Yansk University Theology Department Hymn Course graduate) and Asidis's excellent talent (Droan native, double major in music) met here to begin blooming a new cultural sphere.
It didn't take long for the mad rush to begin, with Yuri watching and muttering, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin..."
-Burn Droan!!!!
All the warriors went wild like madmen as she shouted Droan's favorite traditional pastime while fiercely striking the drum from the lead vehicle.
"Hehe, you could say Miss Asidis has... 'awakened'?"
Yu-jin rubbed his hands together and laughed like a schemer.
Ivan looked around at that sight and at Asidis, who was still wrapped in musical... almost frenzied musical exaltation, and briefly replied:
"Excellent."
Soon, the Droan Rock Festival (1 performer, 24,000 audience members) successfully began its mobile tour concert toward the eastern front.
EP45. Burn Droan.