By acquiring the Hangar of Babylon, I finally got my hands on Frame Gears. Giant robots were the real dream machines. Though, excited as I was, we couldn’t really ride them due to a shortage of fuel — the Ether Liquid. Besides Frame Gears, the hangar also had things such as high-speed flying boats, armored trains and multi-purpose subterranean tanks. However, they also ran on Ether Liquid and were nothing more than decorations without it. I could transfer some of the stuff from the Frame Gears, but the things would still need some maintenance to function. That would require the expert hands of Rosetta and Monica, but since they were busy with the robots, I left it for later. Subterranean tanks could probably dig some really good tunnels. Opening up a hole in the Melicia Mountain Range to the north of Brunhild might make it easier for Regulus and Belfast to trade and communicate. Wait, wouldn’t that reduce the flow of people to my land...? I should probably think this through first. Today, I decided to have a look around my bustling castle town. I was accompanied by Kohaku and Sue. Since she couldn’t be with us most of the time, I prioritized her whenever she came to visit. After all, though small, Sue was still one of my fiancees. She sat on divine beast-mode Kohaku and looked at all the houses being built. “This is starting to look like a real town.” “Well, everyone’s doing their best.” The castle town already had a network of stone roads with brick houses built around them. Most of the new inhabitants were either merchants wanting to work here, their families or employees. There were also the families of our knights. Though we had knight barracks in the castle, most of the ones living there were bachelors, while those with families chose to be with their families in the castle town. Of course, I was the one who loaned them enough money to let them build the houses. Anyway, thanks to an increase in such families, the town was now filled with all sorts of people, young and old. The town occupied the area south of Brunhild castle. To the east, there were the farmlands, the north had the training grounds, while the west had our entertainment facilities. So far, there was just a baseball area, but still. Provided they had the money, even our common folk could rent the place, and we had frequent team matches going on there. And since just watching was free, the games were often observed by children and the like. “Touya, Touya! This store has so many things I’ve never seen before!” Upon seeing the goods lined up beyond the window of a shop we passed, Sue made Kohaku stop. The building was two-storied and was among the bigger ones in the townscape. On the front, there was a sign saying “The Strand Company,” meaning that it belonged to the Mismedian trader, Olba. Through the window, I saw baseball bats, balls, gloves, plush toys, shogi, hula hoops, spinning tops, and many other entertainment products, making it look less like a general store and more like a toy emporium. Of course, that wasn’t the case. The place also sold everyday items such as needles, cloth, fabric, nails, hammers, kitchen knives, candles, and mirrors. Looking further, I saw Olba, so I decided to let myself in and say hi. “Good day to you! Welcome to The Strand Company!” A dog-eared female employee noticed and greeted us. By the way, Kohaku was back to the usual mini form. “Greetings, Your Majesty. You humble us with your visit. Do you have any business here?” Upon seeing us, Olba came to greet us, too. Sue — who rarely got a chance to visit such stores — was just giddily eyeing the goods. “Hello, Olba. It’s not something I’d call ‘business.’ Sue invited me inside, so I thought I’d come in and say hi.” “Well now. Thank you, Lady Sushie. Please look around to your heart’s content.” “I will! Thank you, too, Olba!” With a smile beaming on her face, Sue began picking up various goods as the dog-eared employee explained to her what was what. Guess I’ll just buy her whatever she likes and give it to her as a present. But wait, getting something for Sue, but not any other girl would probably make them upset, so... Should I just buy five more? Man, having six fiancees sure takes a lot of consideration. I left Sue to the employee and Kohaku and talked to Olba about the recent events. The Strand Company’s main branch is in the capital of Mismede, Berge. The reason why Olba could show up here in the faraway land of Brunhild so casually was thanks to the artifact known as the “Warp Circle.” From what I heard, it was a cushion-sized sheet with a smaller version of the circle used in the ruins of Babylon. It allowed travelling from point A to point B by simply standing on it. However, it also had a few disadvantages, starting with the fact that it could only transfer whatever was fully on the sheet, meaning that large objects and multiple people at once weren’t an option. Then, there were the limits on the weight of the objects transferred and how far they could be taken. I didn’t ask for specifics, but from what I could tell, these restrictions were pretty strict. The last and biggest issue with it was the fact that it needed a whole day before it could be used again. Despite all this, however, the Warp Circle was a highly valued artifact that had been in the Strand family for generations and could only be used by the current head of the family. Not even I had the honor of getting a glimpse at the thing. Honestly, I could probably make similar things, but I refrained, since things could get nasty if society found out. My Gate Mirrors were more than enough. “How are things lately?” “Our profits are growing rapidly, and it’s all thanks to you. You are much like a god of wealth to us, milord. We are so busy in Brunhild that I hardly have time to sleep.” Good to know. As we were talking, I saw a bunch of children buy some caramels and spinning tops. Those are some nice smiles. Leaving it all to Olba wasn’t a mistake, after all. “However...” “Did something happen?” “Yes. How should I put this... Having a good business can attract the jealous sorts. We had someone spread false rumors about us. Something about us bribing you and getting the other kings to give us an unfair advantage.” What the hell? Those were clearly just stupid rumors by people just as idiotic. That was pretty much the opposite of the truth. A lot of Olba’s success came from the commercialization following his presentations to the kings. “Well, this isn’t exactly uncommon. The bigger problem these days are the counterfeit goods.” “Counterfeits, huh? Well, yo-yos and kendamas aren’t exactly hard to make.” “This here is one of the counterfeit kendamas. Take a look...” Olba took an object out from below the counter and showed it to me. At first glance, it looked like just a normal Japanese-style kendama cup-and-ball. I took it in hand and attempted to get the ball to enter the large cup on the side. I failed, so I tried it two more times, only to fail again. Something’s wrong here. I couldn’t claim that I was all that good at playing with kendamas, but I certainly wasn’t bad enough to not get it in the large cup. “Ah. Wait, what?” I then tried to put the ball in by hand, but the balance was off and the edge of the cup was bent. Even when I placed it there, the ball just shook a little and fell off. All right, this is bad. “The quality is really poor. Clearly carved by an amateur, rather than a master woodworker. Even the string is badly made. Look.” Olba pulled on it, and the string detached with little effort on his part. Hey, that’s dangerous! If this happens when a child is spinning it, someone could get hurt! “This is really bad. Talk about a bad deal.” “The same goes for the counterfeit yo-yos on the market. What’s truly terrible is the fact that they make them bad on purpose.” “Eh? Why?” “They probably believe that the customers would buy them again. It’s the thought process of a third-rate merchant.” Now that’s just stupid. I mean, a merchant’s trust is his life. Anyone with half a brain could tell that such scummy tactics would eventually bring the customers to completely ignore them. “Though the existence of counterfeits isn’t favorable, I don’t believe that much can be done about them. After all, even I merely learned it from you, Your Majesty. These were born out of your mind, after all.” I’m sorry. I know you’re sincere, but I’m just another counterfeiter... Damn, this actually makes my heart ache a bit. “However, I cannot tolerate anyone who isn’t considerate of their customers. I believe the most important thing is to have the dear buyers enjoy such things safely. Merchants who cannot do that much aren’t worthy of the title. They’re nothing but swindlers.” True. Even the previous world had lots of illegally copied merchandise. Some people sold fakes made to look like the real things while presenting them as their own originals. Someone with confidence in their own business would never copy the logos, designs or products of others. “The existence of these fakes must be troublesome. Why not do something to make it easy to tell that your products are actually yours?” “Well, we do mark them with the store’s symbol...” He took one of the kendamas lined up in the shop and, sure enough, it was branded with The Strand Company’s symbol. It was a circle with a scale and a fox on it. “However, even the brand ends up being copied. Though a keen eye would see the difference, most amateurs aren’t able to tell. I feel truly sorry for those who bought the counterfeits while believing they were ours.” I didn’t think he had anything to feel sorry for. Olba wasn’t he bad guy here — it was the fakers. Also, though I could tolerate imitations, stealing the brand was over the line. “Well, it’s only a matter of making it easy to differentiate the genuine things from the fakes, so... Hold on a second.” I reached into my [Storage] and took out a piece of iron the size of a golf ball, a wooden board the size of a B5 notebook and a short wooden stick. Using [Modeling], I transformed the iron into a stick and created The Strand Company’s brand on its top while making sure to make it horizontally backward. Then, I turned the stick into a handle, completing the item’s main body. For the finishing touch, I enchanted the magic I’d programmed into the brand. Once I pushed the result to the board and channeled some magic, a thin line of smoke went up as The Strand Company’s symbol appeared on it. “How does it look?” “Well, yes, this looks exactly like our symbol. Is there more to this...?” “Try to bring the branded board to a dark place.” “Eh?” Looking puzzled, Olba took it to the corner of the shop. “What is...? Eh?” “Looks like it works.” In the darkness of the corner, the brand on the board was releasing a faint light. I’d made it so that the brands created by that branding iron would be imbued with a weak light spell. “With these brands, even amateurs would be able to differentiate The Strand Company’s products.” “Yes! If we tell everyone that ‘The Strand Company’s brands shine in the dark,’ there should be much less people getting fooled by the counterfeit goods! Thank you very much!” Well, even if this lowers the problem on The Strand Company’s end, it doesn’t mean that the fakes are going away. After all, there are many customers who’ll buy non-genuine as long as it’s cheaper. There were countless customer bases and numerous preferences regarding the goods. Thus, there will always be those who buy the 100 yen ballpoint pens. In the end, it seemed like we could only entrust the morality of purchasing to the ones doing the buying. There would be no demand for copied goods if the people who bought them didn’t exist, so it would be best to get the spenders to be conscious of what they were getting, but it certainly wasn’t an easy task. “Touya, Touya! Look!” “Oh. That’s cute.” Seemingly finished looking around, Sue brought me a small box with rabbits carved on the cover. It was a three dimensional carving of a mother rabbit surrounded by her children. “If you wish, I can give this away as a present, Your Majesty...” “No. This will be a present from me to Sue, so I’ll pay full price. I also want to buy something similar for the others, so may I have a look at them?” After I rejected Olba’s offer, Sue and I chose what kind of boxes to get the other girls. Yumina’s had cats on it, Elze’s had foxes, Linze’s had Squirrels, Yae’s had dogs and Lu’s had songbirds. “I truly hope they like these.” We said goodbye to Olba and left The Strand Company. I put everyone’s souvenirs in [Storage] and walked through town again. “Helloo, Your Majesty! Hello, Princess!” “Hello to you, too! However, I’m not a princess, but a duchess!” “Really?” “Not yet, damn it...” Sue “corrected” a young girl that greeted us, but she was still a fiancee, which wasn’t the same as duchess. Hell, Sue was a daughter of a duke, so she wasn’t even a princess, either. “I’ll eventually be one, so it doesn’t matter. In fact, it’s better to have them call me ‘duchess’ now, so they don’t have to change it when the time comes.” Really, now? Well, it’s nothing to argue about, anyway. Brunhild’s castle town was spread around the road connecting the Regulus Empire and the Kingdom of Belfast. The large road reached into the east and west, and in the middle of it, there was a northward road leading to the castle. Where these roads met, there was the only inn in all of Brunhild — Silver Moon. As far as such establishments went, it was pretty sizeable, and it was run by none other than the same Micah we knew from our time in Reflet. At first, I considered making Silver Moon a government-managed institution, but in the end, I merely gave it some monetary support. After all, if it went under the government’s wing, the workers there would be public servants.
Silver Moon’s Brunhild branch building was four stories high and had the shape of an L. It also had a large dining hall and public bath, both of which were open to the public. This allowed the place to act as not just a place to stay, but a bathhouse, as well, and it was very cheap, too. Thanks to this, the people of Brunhild always had good hygiene and the weary travelers could refresh themselves before resuming their journey. “Hey.” “Oh, hey there. What’s up?” Upon entering Silver Moon, I — disregarding my status as grand duke — greeted Micah the same way I always did. Why do I feel so at home here? It was strange, considering I never actually stayed at this place. Micah was doing such a good job with it that I felt like I was back at Reflet. “I’m just observing the place. Any problems here?” “Wouldn’t say so. I’m getting lots of customers and we’re not having any serious fights. Though, I’m kinda worried that I’m getting more bathhouse and dining hall customers than people staying.” Well, that’s not exactly unreasonable. Many people want to bathe every day, while the recipes for the dining hall were provided by yours truly. It was only natural to want to eat rare and tasty foods. Not to mention that people living in Brunhild wouldn’t be staying at the inn. “We get some hooligans every now and then, but the knights are quick to deal with them. Their post isn’t far from here, after all.” Brunhild’s knight order was split into several groups. The patrol unit kept the peace in the castle town, the security unit protected the castle itself and some other places, the information unit was responsible for gathering intel, while the development unit supervised the growth of the city and our agriculture. To be honest, some of those weren’t exactly “knightly” jobs. Those units existed because Brunhild was a new country with a severe lack of people, and the knights were informed of this before joining. I also made sure to try and assign them to roles they were good at or wanted to do. Well, the development unit ended up being pretty small, though. However, Naito — one of the ex-Takeda’s Elite Four — was one of them, so the unit got a number of his subordinates. “Good to know it’s going well. It would’ve been pretty awkward if the business I brought here wasn’t doing well.” “I don’t think that even the capital has an inn like this. Being able to bathe every day is such a luxury that people might not want to leave the country.” “Truly. Not many commoners live near a facility that allows them to bathe.” Sue — Kohaku in her hands — nodded in response to Micah’s words. Well, bathhouses away from hot spring areas were a rarity. Belfast’s and Regulus’ capitals actually did have bathhouse-like facilities, but they were either really expensive or exclusive to nobles. Most commoners got clean in a tub, and it certainly wasn’t because they disliked open baths or something. “Oh yeah. It’s not quite noon yet, but how about a meal? I’ll give one of Fleur’s roll cakes as dessert.” Fleur was one of the girls enslaved by the asshole prince of Lihnea. I introduced her to The Silver Moon, and it turned out that she was so talented at cooking that she was already put in charge of Micah’s kitchen. She was already able to make most of the recipes I’ve given her, and she was now doing so well that she became our head chef’s — Crea’s — apprentice. I looked at the time, and it was just 11 o’clock. Indeed, it was a bit early to eat, but hearing the mention of roll cakes made Sue drool so much that some of it almost got on Kohaku’s head, which made it more than obvious that I had no choice. “...Well, then we’ll do just that.” “Indeed we will!” Today’s special meal was katsudon. I questioned whether the dessert roll cake would go along with it, but Sue was digging into it without a care in the world. I was getting a bit of a sour stomach, so I gave mine to her, and she made short work of that one, too. Man, girls always have room for dessert, don’t they? After leaving The Silver Moon, we made our way toward the agricultural area. Since it was close to noon, not many people were working. Most were eating their lunches at the edges of the fields and under nearby trees. “Touya, Touya. Who does this field belong to?” “Me, actually. I paid those farmers to cultivate it, so even if the harvest is a failure, they won’t suffer for it. It’s still in the experimental stage, after all. If the farmers become able to get regular harvests, I plan to sell the land to them for cheap.” In this field, we were secretly cultivating the special produce we got at the alchemy lab. At first glance, they looked like normal radishes, but they were actually some sort of super radishes that were strong against climate change and were high in nutrients. Right now, we were experimenting with their growth and seeing how large the harvests could get. Of course, we would be back at square one if they tasted bad. Flora from the alchemy lab told me that I had nothing to worry, but I couldn’t be at ease about them until we harvested and ate them. They were actual GMOs, but I was told that they were safe and didn’t negatively influence the human body. Well, the changes were caused by magic, after all. This world’s crops were already thick with sorcery, and it was often thought that they were what caused us humans to harbor magic. The same applied to meat, as well, and a number of people believed that eating the meat of magic beasts from the great forest would increase their magic capacity. Yeah, right. “Are there any fruits?” “You just ate dessert...” Looks like Sue’s other stomach still has room in it. We actually did have fruits, but they weren’t ones that grew quickly. Peach and apple trees took a while, after all. Sure, we modified them in the alchemy lab, but their growth speed wasn’t extreme or anything. Strawberries and watermelons could come faster, but... They were vegetables, right? Speaking of which, while I could recall eating some strawberries, I wasn’t aware if this world had any watermelons. Just like in the other world, I’d expect them to be like melons, too, but this world had pear-looking fruit that tasted like lemons. I should get Flora to make some strawberries. “Touya, what’s that bog? Something seems to be growing there.” “It’s a paddy field. You get rice from those plants. You ate some, too, remember?” “Oh! So this becomes rice!” I left the immigrants from Eashen in charge of about eighty percent of the paddy fields. They grew rice using the same seeds they brought from their homeland. The rest of the fields were experimental, again focused on species modified in the alchemy lab. “Hopefully they’ll be ready to harvest in a few months.” “I’m looking forward to it!” We passed through the paddy field and headed to the training field north of the castle. There was a training area in the castle courtyard, but this place was much wider. The area was surrounded by a small fence, but it was also connected to a broad field that spread out further. We needed more space for training with Frame Gears and magic spells. Luckily I’d enchanted the grounds to automatically repair itself with earth magic whenever the soil had holes put in it. “Oh, there’s some people here.” On the field, a few rookies were busy training with each other. There were a few groups all paired up. Some were working together quietly, some were having mock battles, and some were running around the field in full armor. “Gah!” “Not good enough! Move it! In a real battle you die if you pause!” I turned my eyes toward the sudden sharp yelling, and I saw old man Yamagata barking words of criticism at a fallen knight. They’d been having a mock battle. As I stepped into the training grounds, everyone noticed me and stopped what they were doing to bow in respect. I told them to stop and continue what they were doing. I wished they’d get used to me walking around. “Oh, boss-man. Whaddya want?” Old man Yamagata sauntered over, a training sword on his shoulder. He was rough around the edges as usual. “We were just having a little look around the country. How’s the training going?” “It’s going. Lotta different types of people serving your army. Training styles differ, but it’s good. We’re all stronger than town thugs, at least.” The Duchy of Brunhild was sandwiched right between Belfast and Regulus, so being invaded by another country wasn’t likely. Not to mention the fact that I was allied with both countries. Yumina and Lu were engaged to me, as well. Even though invasion wasn’t likely, it’d be foolish to neglect training. Having weak knights serving me wouldn’t be a benefit. A single fragile link in the chain could ruin the whole thing. It was better to keep well trained and on the ball. Belfast’s General Leon even offered to train his knights alongside us, so things were looking positive. “Where’s old man Baba, anyway?” “Baba? He took a few guys out into the mountains. He heard there were some wild boars around the area, so they made a hunting party.” “Hunting? Isn’t that a little dangerous?” “Nah. It’ll be yummy, so it’s fine.” Geez... These guys sure are carefree. The Duchy of Brunhild’s knight order was covered entirely out of my own pocket. As the country’s leader, naturally I was the high commander. Directly under me was Lain, the Commander. Then Norn and Nikola were directly beneath her as Vice-Commanders. Directly beneath them were Rebecca, the Guard Captain, and Logan, the Security Chief. The intelligence unit and the scout unit operated separately. They were headed by Tsubaki and old man Naito respectively. The issue was that I wasn’t quite sure where Yamagata and Baba stood in the hierarchy. Formally they were advisers to the knight order, but they also trained Lain, the Vice-Commanders, and the regular knights. So they were in a little bit of an odd position, all things considered. “Well, I suppose it’s fine to get rid of potential risks.” “Not like there’s much in the way of danger around here. There are actually a ton of boars, wolves, and bears. Better than monsters, sure... But dangerous if they aren’t kept in line.” Yamagata chattered and raised a few fair points, when suddenly Kohaku, who was currently in Sue’s arms, sent me a psychic message. Fret not, my lord. As long as we’re present, beasts of the earth, sea, and sky cannot terrorize Brunhild.? That’s right... I’d forgotten, but Kohaku, Sango, Kokuyou and Kougyoku were Heavenly Beasts. They had full mastery over animals of their respective species, and thus none of the creatures under their command could cause trouble here. Magical beasts excluded. Thanks to Kohaku, the dogs, rats, and cats in the town operated as my ears on a domestic level. In other countries, birds under Kougyoku’s command operated as my eyes. Brunhild had little in the way of water, and definitely no sea, so Kokuyou and Sango weren’t too active. Because of that, the two of them were following Sakura around for the time being. “After training we’re all gonna head over to meet Baba and have some boar hotpot with him and the boys. You wanna come too, boss?” “Nah, I’m good. But I hope you guys have fun.” I smiled softly, but declined Yamagata’s invitation. I didn’t feel like getting drunk with a bunch of older guys. It’d be too tiring an experience. I used [Storage] to produce two barrels of sake, some meat, some veggies, a bunch of fruit, and a few chunks of Bloody Crab meat. “Here, you guys can make use of these better than me. Feel free to have your party here, just clean up afterward.” “Ohoho! Hey, everyone! The grand duke just gave us all a present! Let’s work hard today, and play hard tonight!” “Woohoo!” Everyone cheered in unison. “Wow... Grownups are strange.” Sue muttered in surprise as she watched all the merry knights laughing together. Hey now, don’t be like that. There are many types of people out there... We parted from the smiling knights and went to our final destination for the day. West of the castle. The place hadn’t been developed much, so it was largely empty plains. The only thing around was the baseball stadium I’d built a while back. “It’s crowded...” There was a lot of happy cheering coming from the baseball field. I’d opened the stadium up to anyone so long as they paid for entry to play. Games went on all of the time, so I made sure to keep the prices low. Children played on the grassy lots, while adults paid for the privilege of using the proper stadium. Watching the games was free, so the players would often be supported by their spouses and kids, who’d look on excitedly. We also hosted friendly matches with members of the western alliance. Sadly, our team wasn’t especially impressive. We didn’t have many players with the right stuff. The baseball field had been built as a leisure facility, but I wanted to build more places to entertain my citizens. I wanted kids to have fun but also be healthy, so I decided an athletic focus would be smart. An activity that trained the body while also relaxing the mind was best. Plus we could offer harder versions of the activity to train the knight order. We went into the stands and looked down at the game, where a red-uniformed team was facing off against a white-uniformed team. There were a few people walking through the stands selling drinks and popcorn to the supportive fans. “Touya... Popcorn...” “More food...?!” We just had lunch earlier, sheesh. Well, whatever... I bought her some caramel popcorn and we sat watching the game for a while. The match was pretty good, and both teams were very respectful of one another. “Touya, you really are amazing...” “Huh?” Sue held my hand as we walked back to the castle, and she murmured something suddenly. “Everyone here is really happy. It looks like they’re enjoying their lives. You’re a wonderful leader, Touya.” “Really? I don’t think I’m doing anything special.” It was really nice seeing everyone today, though. First and foremost, I want my citizens to live full, happy lives. In a way, the people of Brunhild are all my family. From the bottom of my heart, I wanted the children born in Brunhild to grow up with a strong sense of national pride. “I feel safe here. And I think this place is very special. You might get worried sometimes, Touya... But I think you’re doing a wonderful job. Everyone here seems like they’re friends with one another, like they can do anything they set their mind to.” “Ahaha... Well, thanks. I’m doing what I can.” That made me happy. It was as she said: everyone seemed like they were happy to do whatever they put their minds to. I had to work hard to make Brunhild a bright and happy nation. We reached the castle, and the knights on guard duty opened up the gate. “I’m back.” “We’re baaaack!” We happily returned to the castle. Back to my family. Yumina, Lu, Elze, Linze, and Yae. I was home. The Duchy of Brunhild... This is our home. Now, and forever.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login