Preparation (2)

As I said before, a festival only becomes a true festival when people are there. Proving that point, our territory grew more crowded with people as time went by.

Until just fifteen days ago, our territory had been so quiet that it was almost eerily still, but now it was teeming with so many people that it rivaled an ordinary city. And the exhibition had not even begun yet.

At the same time, I could not help worrying. Having our territory crowded with tourists was good for now, but what happened afterward was the problem.

As I said before, our territory had almost no distinctive features. The Imperial family was providing various forms of support to hold the exhibition, but that was only a temporary effect.

Even if the exhibition ended successfully, there would be maintenance costs afterward, and it was questionable whether tourists would actually return, so there was plenty to worry about.

'It's fortunate that so many merchant guilds have come... But still.'

The next day, when the exhibition was to begin, even more people poured in than before. I could occasionally spot races other than humans among them, and a large number of guards had been deployed to maintain order.

At the same time, the appearance of the territory had changed beyond recognition compared to before.

Lina had said it was hastily assembled, but whether it had originally been designed this way in advance or the supervisor simply had a good eye for things, there was almost no sign of haste.

They had originally planned to develop the territory three years from now, so perhaps they had simply moved that plan forward...