Chapter 32

"Well, then. It's a heavy task, but it has to be done."

It was when I had returned to the village and finished organizing my belongings. I had to carry out a task that wasn't going to be pleasant. It was the task of cutting the horns of the servitor beasts.

The three Valkyrie servitors I had presented to the noble Fontana family had all had their horns cut off. I couldn't help but think that it wasn't necessary to cut all three of them at once. However, I couldn't complain at the scene, and all I could do was watch. As my father had worried, it was necessary to confirm whether the servitor beasts with their horns cut would weaken and die.

I had been troubled by this for several days, but now that I had returned to the village, there was no point in delaying it any further. If I was going to do it, I had to get it over with quickly. And so, I decided to cut the horns of the servitor beasts.

***

I had two Valkyries that I had raised from the beginning and five more that I had raised later. Among the five, two were hatched from eggs to which I had directly given magic power. The other three were hatched after the first Valkyrie received the [Magic Infusion]. The three I had presented to the nobles were the ones raised by the Valkyrie.

In other words, the two that remained were the ones I had raised. I decided to cut the horns of one of these two. The reason was simple. If I left one with its horns and cut the other, I could compare their progress. If the one with its horns cut clearly died sooner, it would be better to stop the horn-cutting. I never thought that the first use of the metal blade I bought in town would be to cut a living creature's horns. But, thinking about it, in my previous life, I had cut deer antlers, which I remember was to prevent deer from fighting and getting seriously injured. So far, I haven't seen the servitor beasts fight, but it might happen in the future. Most importantly, I thought it might be better to consider the servitor beasts as livestock for sale rather than as pets or family members. It might be better not to name them so casually.

"Alright, let's do this. Sorry, but please bear with it and don't move."

I said this while stroking the white fur of one of the servitors standing quietly and began to cut the horns. It was quite a struggle to cut two horns that were quite hard. However, the servitor seemed to understand what I said and endured it patiently. Finally, the second horn fell to the ground with a thud.

***

"Hmm. I didn't expect this result..."

Several days had passed since I cut the servitor's horns. The one with its horns cut was as lively as ever. There was no sign of poor health or weakening. I was relieved that nothing seemed to be wrong.

However, a new fact came to light. It turned out that the servitor with its horns cut could no longer use magic. Not only the original magic I used, such as [Land Leveling] and [Soil Improvement], but even the life magic [Drinking Water] was no longer possible. I realized this when I saw it being given water by a servitor with horns.

What was going on? The servitor with horns could still use all the magic normally, while the one without horns couldn't use any magic at all. However, when I focused my magic power on the servitor's eyes and observed it, it didn't seem that the magic power had disappeared from its body. The current situation could be described as having magic power but being unable to use it.

Actually, this was something I learned later, but it seems that the same thing can happen to humans. Of course, humans don't have horns. Instead, humans lose the ability to use magic if they lose both hands. My father told me that in rare cases, people lose both hands in battle and have to live the rest of their lives without magic. Considering that life magic like [Lighting] and [Ignition] involves pointing at the target with a finger and then casting a spell, it might be impossible to activate the magic without hands. For the Valkyries, their horns might be serving the role of hands.

"…This might be valuable information in a way…"

Cutting the horns of the Valkyries makes them unable to use magic. This information seems to have only disadvantages, but to me, it had an advantage. I remembered that the traveling merchant had said he had never heard of servitor beasts that could use magic.

There might be some, but if a species of servitor beasts that can use magic suddenly appeared in an industry where servitor beasts can't use magic, it's hard to imagine what would happen. It might even cause trouble.

But there's an even bigger problem. The servitor beasts of the Valkyrie species that I raised can be mass-produced using the [Magic Infusion] spell as long as there are servitor beast eggs. Normally, they can only be raised by me, which is why people need to buy them from me. If it becomes known that the same Valkyrie servitor beasts can be mass-produced without me, there will be no need to buy from me. In other words, my monopoly would be lost.

"Alright, I'll cut the horns of all the servitor beasts I sell to the traveling merchants."

And so, I decided to always cut both horns of the servitor beasts before shipping them. The cut marks were hidden by the fur, making them look like the creatures were originally born this way. If it doesn't affect their lifespan, I decided to continue this horn-cutting operation.

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