Wortenia Senki (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue 

The moment she opened the door, Lady Yulia distorted her face unpleasantly at the air that filled the room. It was the stench of a woman, and the sweet, sickening aroma of aphrodisiac that clung to the skin. It was the aroma of a musk imported from the central continent and broiled together with a stimulant. 

It was clearly evident what was going on in this room. Count Salzberg was enjoying himself in a rather blatant and gaudy fashion. As he sat on the sofa and enjoyed a glass of wine, his disheveled hair made it clear just how intense the tryst he’d just engaged in was. Lady Yulia walked into the room and approached the maid who was squatting in the corner of the room. The girl had her face in her hands, and after helping her fix her clothes, Lady Yulia sent her out of the room. 

The talk she was about to have wasn’t something the servants had any business hearing. 

“I see you’ve been quite indulging yourself... Beloved.” Lady Yulia said with a sigh as she sat down on the sofa. 

She looked at her husband, trying to gauge his mood from his facial expression. Even when confronted by his wife’s cold gaze, Count Salzberg showed no signs of regret or remorse. And at this point, Lady Yulia herself felt no anger. She was mostly just exasperated. 

“Hmph, as if this could even count as indulgence... Mmm, delicious. Would you like a glass, too?” Count Salzberg sank his body composedly against the sofa and took another sip of wine. 

The wine remaining at the bottom of his glass was red in color. It was made from the finest grapes gathered from Helnesgoula, which were kept for many months under the correct temperature and refined into the finest wine. Count Salzberg kept this bottle for a special occasion, and the fact he opened it meant he was likely in quite the good mood. 

“My word, beloved... Honestly, I cannot bring myself to be as optimistic as you are.” Lady Yulia wordlessly refused his offer and whispered bitterly. 

Count Salzberg laughed out loud. He could easily discern what concerned her. 

“Really now? I, for one, think the future holds interesting prospects in store,” he said, his face brimming with the confidence of the strong and powerful. 

The pride of one gazing down on the weak from high above. His meeting with Ryoma Mikoshiba that afternoon must have pleased him greatly. 

“He’s a useful man... Apparently he got rid of the pirates. That already makes him much more useful than that stupid queen, Lupis, who’s content with sitting back and doing nothing in the capital.” 

“Yes, I understand that much... But you should know that a sword that’s too sharp must be handled with caution.” 

Her words held the implicit meaning that said sword could eventually turn its sharp edge against them. 

“I won’t deny that, but we can always have him dealt with. In which case, it would be wise to squeeze as much use out of him as possible... Wouldn’t it?” 

His eyes were thick with greed, but his mind was clear and coldly calculating. The fact Ryoma was able to remove the pirates was proof he had the power to maintain public order and peace. Even if it’s in a cursed land crawling with monsters, a leader that proved himself capable of maintaining the peace would draw people to him. 

In other words — developing the Wortenia Peninsula was perfectly possible. 

And while that land didn’t belong to Count Salzberg, it did neighbor his own. In which case, one could expect to see Epirus receiving that land’s blessings, too. At this point, Count Salzberg wasn’t bent on eliminating Ryoma. He realized using him would net him more profit than removing him would. 

Firstly, Ryoma maintaining peace in the peninsula already meant Count Salzberg had to spend less on fighting off the monsters that wandered in from Wortenia. Getting rid of the monsters altogether wasn’t possible, but it alleviated his burdens somewhat. And when coupled with the possibilities that came with developing Wortenia, the profits stood to be large. 

With that in mind, getting rid of Ryoma at this point seemed unprofitable. And Lady Yulia nodded wordlessly at Count Salzberg’s explanation. She didn’t have a concrete reason to overturn his decision... 

It had been two months since Ryoma established his stronghold in the Wortenia Peninsula and got rid of the pirates. The season was approaching summer, and the sun shined in the heavens, radiating a smoldering heat over the land. 

A group of one hundred was heading south, cutting a way through the trees as they did. They were divided into three groups. One group cut through the trees and made sure the ground was stable. The second paved the cleared way with stone. The third kept watch and made sure the former two teams were safe. 

Their work was swift and efficient. Each member understood their role and they worked while splitting the labor equally. 

“Alright, start chantin’!” Lione exclaimed. 

“Our mother earth, extend thy strong arms and protect us, your beloved children, from harm! Stone Wall!” Several dozen people started chanting at once, and then slammed their palms against the ground. 

This was a low level earth element verbal thaumaturgy spell, often used to block enemy arrows and thaumaturgy. But this time, they didn’t cast this spell to defend themselves. 

“Dig it up!” 

At that order, the soldiers reinforced by martial thaumaturgy tied the two meters long, three meters wide slabs of rock that rose up from the ground with rope and began pulling it down into the ground. They then dug up the foundation that was buried into the ground, revealing a large stone wall that was nearly 5 meters in length. 

Finally, they neatly and carefully placed the ten centimeter thick stone slabs onto the sand-covered foundation. With five rows of the stone slabs placed neatly together, they formed a paved stone road. 

“Alright, we take an hour’s rest here! Guard squad, rest in shifts!” Lione ordered them, which made everyone sigh with relief. 

“Phew... We’re about half done now, right?” 

It had been ten days or so since they started working on this task. A long road of flagstones that lasted some thirty kilometers extended from the direction they came in. They didn’t need to prepare the flagstone’s shape, and so their width and height was uniform. All they had to do was set them together. 

On top of that, they used a low level thaumaturgy that was easy to learn and depleted relatively little prana. Considering the expenses that would usually be spent on procuring and ferrying the materials for the road, this was an extremely efficient method. 

“Do ya think the fortress’ construction is going well?” 

Lione turned around at that question, finding herself face to face with Mike, who was rubbing his mustache with a smile. 

“Boltz is in charge of it. There won’t be any problems.” 

“I’d bet. And thankfully, we’re blessed with good weather... Maybe too good, even.” Mike added and glared up at the sun. 

Bad weather would mean their construction work would take longer, but the intense sunlight made the physical labor harsher on all of them. 

“Just ten more days or so, yeah?” Mike asked. 

“Right. We’re about halfway done, so that’s how long it should take.” Lione nodded, turning her eyes to the road paved by stone walls. They had to cut through nearly fifty kilometers of forest, and pave the road with those walls. This work would take them twenty days or so. 

“Still, it’ll take less than a month... I swear, I’ll never understand how the lad’s brain works.” 

If they were to go about this labor in the usual way, it would require thousands of workers. They’d need to obtain the needed stone, and then work on cutting it into the right shape and carrying it over. The expenses and time required would be absurd. 

Indeed, in this world, the roadworks Lione and her group were working on right now usually took years and a startling amount of funds to complete. No one would believe they could complete it within less than a month. Ryoma’s ideas turned this Earth’s logic on its head. 

“Well, the town’s mostly coming into shape, so all that’s left is the elves.” Lione concluded. 

“You think that’ll go well?” Mike directed a doubtful glance at her. 

“Well, I dunno. They hate us humans like the plague... But hey, the boy’ll figure it out somehow, right?” 

Lione turned her glance north and whispered. 

“After all, that boy is...” 

The small whisper that left her lips didn’t reach Mike’s ears. 

And around that time, Ryoma Mikoshiba shifted his focus primarily toward developing the Wortenia Peninsula. In preparation for the day when the cinders of war would blow onto his land from the east...