The people of the territory led by Sir Galed were able to arrive at the New Arclight territory about four days later.
At first, since it was the outskirts and there was nothing there, everyone was relieved that it was exactly as they had expected.
And the closer they got to the center, the more bewildered they became.
“…Didn’t they say it was an empty plain?”
“No, well, this is…”
The territory folk had firmly believed that, even if they were given meals upon arrival, they would be mobilized for labor starting from a barren plain.
Sir Galed had thought the same, so he had planned to stay stationed for a few days to restore public order before leaving.
However, what lay before their eyes was…
“An earthen fortress…?”
“I can feel his mana. I did see him briefly open up the castle walls and put up buildings back in the Phoenix County, but…”
Even so, this was quite remarkable, Daniel thought as he listened to Sir Galed.
Earth-attribute magic was magic related to soil and stone, so it had an extremely wide range of uses, from erecting buildings to cultivating fields to creating golems. But the foundation of magic ultimately came down to imagination and how one handled mana.
In other words, Aizen Arclight had enough skill to clearly envision a building and sustain it with magic until it became a tangible result.
“It seems becoming famous only for his golems actually left him less famous than he should be. According to our investigation, the heir of the Arclight family was someone else, wasn’t he?”
“His name was Mark Arclight. He received a proper education, so he’s considered useful enough, but only to that extent. It seems the rumors that his professors, Iserina and Reina, deeply lamented Aizen’s talent were true.”
At the words of the guard who called himself a squire, Daniel nodded.
Considering that, unless a family was extremely well-off, education would naturally be focused on the heir, Aizen was practically a mutation.
Thinking that this was certainly an unexpected gain, he cautiously approached the earthen fortress.
After marveling once more at the considerable weight and sturdiness of the earthen fortress, they reached the entrance, where they saw red hair above the gate.
“Halt! Where have you come fro—”
“We escorted the migrants from the Phoenix County, my lady!”
“Ah, Sir Galed! I’ll open it!”
When Erika Phoenix, who had been guarding the top of the wall, operated something, the gate opened on its own.
And the migrants’ eyes went wide.
“A brick… road? The road’s already paved?”
“Those are… houses, right? Though some of them don’t have windows…”
“What is that enormous building?”
A city had already been built.
While even Galed was too astonished to say anything, Erika descended the stairs along the wall and spoke.
“Welcome! I’m Erika Phoenix! By order of the margrave, I’ve been guarding Aizen and serving him with all sincerity! I’m sure you’re full of dissatisfaction and anxiety after leaving the Phoenix County, but we haven’t abandoned you, so please talk to us anytime! Now, I’ll guide you. That’s my job today!”
Erika cheerfully addressed everyone.
As they moved under her guidance, Daniel could not help but stare wide-eyed.
“That small, strange thing is…”
“Ah, that’s a small caterpillar golem. It’s a work golem made by the Crysta Trading Company after analyzing Aizen’s golem… Recently, Mina said she wanted to name it a Walker.”
She added an explanation that construction was still in full swing, so they should be careful not to bump into the ones moving around here and there, but with everyone’s eyes wide open, it was impossible to tell how much they had actually heard.
Here and there, members of the Crysta Trading Company were maintaining and constructing the streets, and through them, they glimpsed a woman who seemed to hold the highest rank moving about and giving orders. She spotted Erika, waved, and then went on her way.
After walking a little farther, the residential district they had seen earlier appeared.
“This is a residential district built after Noel positively reviewed Aizen’s proposal. There’s no rule saying you can’t go outside it, but there are dangerous and noisy areas too, so they said they divided the territory into zones. For now, all the houses are the same, so please just choose one and move in. If there aren’t enough, let us know right away. Aizen will come build more. The knights from Count Phoenix’s domain have lodgings in the temporary official residence, so you can go there.”
Everything was already prepared, and when they heard that the lord himself would build their houses, the territory folk found themselves at a loss as to how to react.
As anticipation slowly swelled among them, one person asked with a thread of unease.
“…So we just settle down here?”
“I don’t know if he’ll have you do something, but Aizen handles almost all the construction by himself, so… probably?”
Considering that only a few days had passed, and yet the central district was already this well-equipped, even such an answer seemed convincing enough. As Danimus, who called himself Daniel, and the guard who called himself his attendant nodded along, Sir Galed, apparently unable to suppress his curiosity, asked a question.
“If it is a temporary official residence, then there is no proper residence yet? Then that structure we saw on our way here was…”
“Ah, that was my suggestion. Since the territory has a Cyclops factory and Aizen develops golems every day, we made it as both a testing ground and a tourism project for the territory.”
Pointing at the building that could be glimpsed even from the residential district, Erika said proudly,
“Its name is the Golem Arena!”
Was that where gigantic golems would be made to pummel each other?
“…That’s awesome.”
Daniel muttered without realizing it.
****
After focusing on administration for a few days, the territory became fairly presentable.
“We can take the development of the outskirts slowly.”
“The central district still can’t accommodate everyone yet, so there’s no need to increase investment in advance either.”
Still, saying we should at least plan ahead, Noel proposed several development plans for the remaining zones.
After looking over them for a while, the conclusion I reached was honestly nothing special.
“It’s a relief the territory isn’t that huge overall.”
I’m talking about the New Arclight territory. In truth, it’s smaller than the old Arclight territory.
Noel nodded and said,
“In the past, they handed out land generously, but now this is land that was forcibly created from a site that didn’t exist, so the size can’t be helped.”
“It means it’ll be easier to focus on development.”
There were pros and cons.
For now, the potato territory I had once been indebted to was at least spacious, but that made it difficult to develop. Here, the land was small, so once we decided what to do next, we could move on to the next step right away.
This was just my personal opinion, but aside from the lack of people, I thought this place would become more prosperous than the potato territory.
Of course, the land being small also meant it had a low population capacity, so if even a little went wrong, it could become difficult to pay taxes. But the consensus among Noel, me, and even Mina was that such a thing wouldn’t happen.
Because it was small, they couldn’t collect an enormous amount of taxes from us compared to other territories, and since it was a traffic hub, there was also the calculation that tolls alone would be enough. Above all…
“Honestly, it’s golems beating the crap out of each other. How could people resist watching that?”
We had an arena built as what I considered a trump card for making money, so tourism was guaranteed.
Of course, Noel said with a slightly ambiguous smile,
“I think you went a bit too far… but since if you make it, the material and construction costs drop greatly, I let it slide…”
“As long as it earns money, that’s all that matters.”
Mina had said she would handle the operation herself, so I left it to her, and she seemed confident.
Right now, it would be difficult since Cyclops hadn’t been mass-produced and distributed yet, but once they were, matches could be held as much as we wanted. Aside from that, she said they could prepare other performances too, and that a large, spacious site had many uses.
There were probably all sorts of plans inside that head of hers.
“Then, since it’s already built, shall we give it a test run while compacting the ground?”
Naturally, I hadn’t only been maintaining the territory.
I climbed into the unit standing against the arena wall.
A paint job tinged with blue light, larger shoulder armor.
And a red-glowing mono-eye with a large longsword.
“This is the first official test run of the Prototype Knight.”
I wanted to use far greater names, but my naming rights had been taken away, leaving it with an ordinary name. To vent that resentment, I swung the sword.
In truth, this one had especially had all sorts of things taken away from it, so I felt it all the more.
—“Didn’t that thing have strange horns on its shoulders in the blueprint?”
—“I told him to remove them. We have to sell it, and decorations overflowing with Aizen’s tastes are a bit much.”
That’s what makes it good, I tell you.
Hearing Noel and Mina’s words through the sound collector, I answered them forlornly by myself.
As expected, perhaps this era was still too slow to let the great soul of the space duchy take root.
In any case, to confirm the Knight’s performance, I moved the joints whose structure had been altered.
Some parts would be omitted or changed for the sake of production, but I was certain its level of completion had risen compared to before.
I continued moving the unit, testing it with punches and kicks together, then ended with a wide swing.
Perhaps the wind had stirred strongly, because Noel and Mina held down their fluttering hair as I raised the sword.
“The movement has definitely improved.”
—“Then don’t you need a practice opponent?”
The opposite side of the arena opened.
People were entering through that gate.
And with a thud, the technology demonstrator came walking in.
“Erika.”
“I snuck in, but that’s fine, right?”
Sometimes I asked Erika to handle test runs, so it seemed she had gotten in without issue.
And as Erika moved the technology demonstrator, she said,
“When they heard it was made based on my opinion, a lot of people wanted to see it.”
I could see the knights of House Phoenix.
With news of a new unit and an arena as well, perhaps something about it had struck a chord with them.
All of them were looking this way with eyes full of anticipation.
“You were going to do a mock battle anyway, weren’t you?”
Erika’s voice rang out once.
And then.
“Let’s try it once in front of an audience.”
The technology demonstrator raised its sword and took a stance.