“Once I get in, I’ll have to sweet-talk all the guys into doing my homework for me instead.”
“...”
She was different from me, all right.
No, but this was way too different.
Who on earth did she learn what from?
&
The territory was changing by the day.
Carriages came and went without rest,
and materials piled up only to disappear over and over again.
Lumber and stone,
iron stacked here and there like mountains,
and no matter where you went, you could hear the sound of hammers.
There truly wasn’t a quiet day.
At first, the architects had wanted to divide the zones neatly.
Inns with inns,
shops with shops—they said it looked better and was easier to manage that way.
But I disagreed.
Inns and shops had to be mixed.
People were simpler than you’d think.
They’d go in to rest and end up buying something,
or come out to look at goods and end up eating a meal or taking a room.
Separating the foot traffic might be more convenient,
but it would kill spending.
On the other hand, mixing them brought the streets to life.
Noisy,
chaotic,
streets that smelled of people.
That was what ultimately brought in money.
Of course, to the people of this era, it was a somewhat unfamiliar idea.
But there was a theory that a scholar would later formalize,
and a territory that had actually applied it reaped great benefits.
I knew about it.
So there was no need to go back.
I kept the smithy as far from the commercial district as possible.
Because of the noise and heat,
and the flying sparks.
There was no need to place it near the city center and drive people away in annoyance.
The smiths also much preferred to work without disturbance.
I moved the homes of the residents and immigrants to the most comfortable areas possible.
To make them settle down and stay put for good,
the living environment ultimately had to be good.
And the most important thing was, of course, the center of the village.
The plaza.
The territory wasn’t large, so we couldn’t build something as grand as a metropolis.
But even if it was small, it had to be tidy and clean.
Leveling the ground evenly,
placing a small fountain,
and tidying up the surroundings alone completely changed the atmosphere.
People entering the territory for the first time didn’t actually see that much.
Instead, they strongly remembered their first impression.
Whether it was chaotic,
or organized.
Whether it was a place they wanted to live,
or just somewhere to pass through.
In the end, it was the plaza that determined that first impression.
The territory.
Our territory now had been completely torn down and rebuilt rather than simply changed.
The money going into it because of that would be far more than usual, but that was fine.
Because the advance payments we’d received as contract fees were enough to cover it.
Because the scale was small,
if we didn’t overhaul it now,
we would inevitably end up compromising.
One way or another, my father couldn’t help but feel somewhat doubtful about this layout.
“Is it really... all right to do it this way?”
“It may look a bit unfamiliar now, but you won’t regret it later. Please trust me.”
As I said, this layout was awkward for the times.
But as time passed, this form would survive for a long time.
The building exteriors, too,
and the flow of the roads.
Most important of all was the foot traffic.
A structure where the roads spread out naturally from the plaza at the center.
It looked clean,
but it was also far more efficient in actual operation.
It was good for gathering and dispersing people,
and easy to control when problems arose.
I went around the village exchanging opinions with the architects again and again.
I was busy beyond measure.
I couldn’t neglect the military side either.
I discussed that part with Miles.
“Hmm. We should start by recruiting and training soldiers first.”
Miles said, stroking his chin.
“If we want to recruit knights, free knights are the easiest option, but they’re also prideful. They don’t come to places without proper soldiers. They may act grand on the outside, but in the end, they look for a comfortable place to leech off first.”
“Ah, like Miles?”
“Hahaha! Exactly. I admit I was quite good at leeching.”
Truthfully, we didn’t have the gold to recruit knights right now.
Since we were tearing down and expanding the entire territory, there was no way money would be left over.
“But if the soldier training goes well, and they even get rice meals every day?”
The corner of Miles’s mouth curled up.
“That’s when free knights will start lining up. Ah, if you give me hiring authority...”
“You’ll only hire female knights.”
“Of course.”
I looked at him pathetically and immediately turned away.
We bundled soldier recruitment with the process of receiving immigrants.
If they served as territory soldiers,
we would reduce the requirements for promotion to citizen by up to three years, if they wanted.
In addition, they’d be provided rice meals once a month.
Once those conditions were attached, the response was far faster than expected.
There had already been people who came here to work and wanted to settle down completely.
And once rumors spread even further, applications began coming in among people who had come looking for work.
It was truly overwhelming.
It was much harder than the days when all I did was train.
Meeting people all day,
going around the site,
checking designs,
checking supplies,
and handling soldier recruitment to boot—I felt like I didn’t even know where the time evaporated to.
Even so, I made separate time every night.
At most, a little over an hour.
Right before falling asleep,
I never skipped running and personal training.
There were times I really thought I might collapse like this.
But I couldn’t stop.
When,
and how something like that might happen again—I didn’t know.
I couldn’t let go even for a day.
And in the blink of an eye.
Three months had passed.
***
Clatter, clatter.
I was currently traveling by carriage.
It was already the third day.
I had to go two more days to reach the destination.
The territory work was still breathlessly busy.
However, the major framework had been more or less established.
My father and mother,
Albert,
and the new stewards under him were dividing the remaining tasks, so I had barely been able to make time.
I pulled out a piece of cloth from my breast.
A symbol of a hand reaching toward the sun.
This was precisely the reason I had set out on this long journey.
At first, I had considered going to the kingdom and finding the information guild.
But I quickly gave up on that.
What if their reach extended to the information guild as well?
Even if not,
if someone was controlling information about this symbol, the moment I tried to find out, it would leave a trace.
Who,
what,
and why I was digging—there was a sufficient possibility of being traced back in reverse.
If it was a problem connected to Eileen, I had to be even more careful.
But scraping together information alone while wandering the kingdom?
It was practically impossible.
So I thought of one place.
The Pimalle family.
When trouble arises, knock on that family’s door.
It was a saying commonly attached when describing the Pimalle family in the kingdom.
A family that loved books.
And a family that had actually amassed a collection of books vast enough to rival the kingdom’s.
The saying that if it wasn’t in the kingdom, it was in the Pimalle family hadn’t come about for nothing.
Rare books and records were gathered there to that extent.
The interesting thing was,
because of that, scholars always flocked to the Pimalle territory.
To seek teaching,
to find materials,
or simply to stay near that vast knowledge.
At the end of that current, an academy had naturally been established.
At first, the Pimalle family was not a house of great wealth.
But the knowledge they possessed was of a value difficult to convert into money,
and the royal family and countless nobles gladly sent support.
The academy built in that way had now become the foundation supporting both the territory and the family together.
I had heard its name countless times even in my previous life.
But actually going there in person was a first.
Perhaps that was why.
I looked forward to it.
I could feel my heart fluttering a little.
As if only now.
I had truly broken free of a small shackle.
I, who had always been confined inside the mansion,
was now gradually feeling the reality of having walked outside.
“...”
But the reason I was now heading to the Pimalle family.
Because it was to find out the secret of this symbol, my heart settled again.
Perhaps,
it would be better not to know.
But I still wanted to make sure.
Only then would my mind be at ease.
***
The Pimalle family’s territory.
Arcadia.
The very first thought that came to mind upon arrival was one thing.
It was different.
The atmosphere was completely different from other territories.
Perhaps because I had been changing my own territory recently, I felt it all the more.
Usually, the first thing you noticed when entering a territory was the noise.
The bustling market sounds,
laborers carrying luggage,
laughter in front of taverns.
How noisy it was often indicated the vitality of the territory.
But this place was quiet.
That didn’t mean it was dead and still.
Rather, the opposite.
There were many people.
But everyone was strangely calm.
Voices were low,
and laughter was not excessive.
A strangely orderly atmosphere hung over the streets.
And at its center were books.
A considerable number of people coming and going on the streets were dressed like scholars,
and in their hands they all held books or scrolls.
Even the territory’s residents carried themselves with a certain uprightness.
Every word,
and every step had an atmosphere of trying not to create unnecessary commotion.
“Oh.”
From beside me, Miles let out a short exclamation.
“This is more interesting than I thought?”
“Aren’t you supposed to hate places like this? It looks stuffy at a glance.”
“Well, that is true.”
Contrary to his words, Miles grinned.
“But then again... there’s something about intellectual women. Hoo.”
“...”
What an amazing guy.
In so many ways.
Come to think of it, Miles was truly different from me.
A human close to my exact opposite.
Personality,
actions,
and way of thinking.
Even so, it was true that he was my benefactor who had saved me.
So I wanted to leave him as free as possible, if I could.
“Anyway, nothing much will happen inside the territory, so wander around as you please. I’ll probably be quite busy too.”
“Oh, really?”
Miles’s smile deepened.
“You won’t have time to play like this when we return, so enjoy it while you can.”
“Then don’t look for me. I’ll be incredibly busy. I’ll go show those stuffy bastards what a real man is.”
Watching him spur his horse and disappear into the village, I thought,
Crazy bastard.
He’s just a crazy bastard.
I got off the carriage right at the entrance.
The coachman drove the carriage on ahead,
and I walked slowly, looking around.
The very first thing that caught my eye from the entrance was a bookstore.
In a territory of this size, you would normally see a weapon shop or a merchant guild building first,
but this place was different.
The signboards themselves listed books, studies, transcription, and bookbinding in a row.
It was certainly characteristic of Pimalle territory.
“Oh.”
So that’s it.
Valdria Academy.
The Arcadia territory couldn’t be compared to Belmardian or Deharmont,
but compared to our Brennan territory, it was a much larger place.
One large building situated on one side of it caught the eye at once.
A structure based on neat straight lines.
An exterior reminiscent of an open book.
It was a building that stuck in the eye without being excessively ornate.
It looked exactly like an academy.
However, I couldn’t go inside right now.
Entry permission was required.
“Nothing they don’t have, indeed.”
It was said that the academy library lacked no book.
There was even talk that information guild people stopped by here when they needed something.
I was rather fond of books, so I looked forward to it.
The problem was permission.
Going through the proper procedures would take time.
I pondered for a moment.
The possibility that the Pimalle family was directly connected to this symbol was low.
So asking the family head itself wouldn’t be dangerous.
The problem was the method of reaching him.
How should I make contact?
At that moment,
I smiled faintly.
Connections.
This was exactly why nobles chased parties so tirelessly—to use at times like this.
One very small and tenuous connection with Angelina.
I intended to try and pull on it somehow.
It wouldn’t be easy.
But I had justification to try.
That alone
was worth it.
But.
How do I meet her?