Chapter 11
#11. Winterwald's Nights Are Brighter Than Its Days
As dawn broke, workers began gathering at the Winterwald New City construction site.
The men's coarse breaths rose white over the cold, frozen ground.
"Heave-ho! Boss! Whether it's hauling rocks or logs, let's do it!"
Rick, an adventurer from the Southern Continent, jogged in place and rolled up his sleeves.
Gale also rolled his shoulders and laughed.
"Yeah. Let's show them what Southern adventurers are made of."
Gale was secretly brimming with confidence. As a mercenary, he had done work like repairing ramparts until he was sick of it. These rocks? Compared to risking his life fighting wolves, they were nothing.
"Heave-ho!"
"Let's go, Boss!"
Having built up their stamina in the North and gained confidence, they happily loaded piles of rocks onto carrying frames and hauled logs.
That's when it happened.
"Goodness, did you young'uns come without eating breakfast? Step aside."
Hairy, middle-aged Northern men began striding past them.
With even more cargo than Gale!
"Hmph! Overdo it like that and you'll pay for it later!"
"That's right, Boss!"
Gale and Rick kept working while consoling themselves, but soon they had no choice but to stop in their tracks.
"……Boss."
"……Yeah, I see it too."
The two men doubted their own eyes.
"Heave-ho! Hup!"
It was an utterly unreal sight.
A single middle-aged man had wedged a log beneath a boulder and was dragging it along by himself.
'Is he using aura?'
Gale rubbed his eyes in horror, but he could not see even a glimmer of aura anywhere on the men's bodies.
It was nothing but a little technique and pure strength.
Bang!!
When a worker set down a huge boulder, a knight who had reached the Expert level and had come over because he was on leave today smashed the rock apart with an aura-infused hammer.
The uneven house site quickly became a large pit when several residents rushed in with shovels.
While Gale's party was briefly away fetching materials, the pit had already been filled with rocks, gravel, and dirt, and leveling work was underway.
With even a wizard famous for commanding a high price joining in, ground stabilization that would normally take several days was completed in just a few hours.
A-aren't those guys supposed to be fighting monsters like themselves? What are they doing at a construction site?!"
Rick whispered incredulously. Cold sweat streamed down Gale's forehead as well.
"……As expected. The ones who know, know. They figured out the value of those occupancy rights too."
The desire for a home was no different for Southern adventurers than it was for Northern monsters.
"Hey, you bachelors! Why are you standing around? Come over here and haul this!"
"Yes! Coming!"
Gale and his party mixed in among the workers and began hauling rocks and wood.
Their initial confidence had disappeared long ago.
While the Northern men effortlessly lifted materials and ran around, Gale's party's legs trembled even with the Northerners helping them.
"Ho ho, was it Rick? You Southern youngsters don't have much strength in you. Are you ever going to get married at this rate?"
"Hngh... Hup...! Don't worry... sir! It's just that I haven't warmed up yet!"
Gale gritted his teeth and forced his body to move.
If he had not endured Walter's hellish training, he would have surrendered already.
As they frantically alternated between resting and working, the sun climbed high overhead.
"Everyone, stop what you're doing! It's mealtime!"
When the construction master shouted, several enormous wagons approached, raising clouds of dust.
"Guys. Could those wagons be..."
"Aw, no way, Boss."
Why would Her Highness the Imperial Princess come to a dusty place like this?
But to their surprise, the person who stepped down from the carriage was Eleanor, the Empire's Fourth Imperial Princess, her dazzling platinum-blond hair swept up. Even amid the dust rising from the construction site, her presence shone brilliantly.
"Ohhh! Her Highness the Imperial Princess is here!!"
The workers began cheering like fanatics, their eyes rolling back in ecstasy.
"I've prepared a special meal for all of you who are sweating so hard to build the new city! Eat your fill and find the strength to keep going!"
"Long live Her Highness the Imperial Princess!!"
When the servants lifted the lids of the cauldrons, the smell of food spread through the surroundings.
It was a scent Gale had never smelled before.
"Today's special is garlic soup made by simmering Dire Wolf leg meat until tender!"
When the princess herself took up a ladle and began serving, the men formed a line as though they had gone mad.
Gale's party accepted wooden bowls and joined the line.
The special soup, simmered thoroughly with the sun's mana, was still bubbling hot despite the North's subzero weather.
It was packed with generous amounts of whole garlic, a Northern specialty, giving off a sharp, savory aroma that stung the nose. Gale's mouth began watering uncontrollably.
"Mmph. Mmph. Gulp."
Rick's eyes flew open after he took a spoonful of soup.
"Boss. The meat just melts in your mouth!"
"Has it ever not?"
"Coming North was the right choice. Really...!"
The meat, perfectly cooked by the Grand Duke's castle chef, remained tender indefinitely thanks to the sun's mana.
"I feel so full of energy I can't contain it!"
"I'm never going back South again!"
Gale silently inhaled his garlic soup.
He buried his face in the bowl and ate so frantically that he finished much faster than his younger companions.
The princess's food was astonishingly effective!
He felt as though he had consumed some special elixir reserved for nobles and successful adventurers.
The stiffness in his aching back vanished, and his labor-weary muscles regained their strength.
The Northern men practically roared.
"I've got energy to spare!!"
"This is the stuff! If I can eat Her Highness's food, I'd be happy hauling rocks until I die!"
Gale stared blankly at the howling Northerners and muttered,
"Don't tell me... those guys didn't crawl onto the construction site for the occupancy rights, but for the soup...?"
"They're definitely the type, Boss."
***
"Should I put this pillar here?"
A man walked across the construction site with a finished wooden pillar resting lightly on his shoulder.
Black hair, a towering height, and a refined aura.
He was the Empire's greatest Sword Master and the ruler of the North, Grand Duke Kylan Winterwald.
"Y-Your Grace! How could you undertake such backbreaking work with your precious body...!"
"Ho ho. When my people are sweating like this to build their homes, how could I, the Grand Duke, simply sit in my office?"
Everyone stared in shock, their mouths hanging open.
It was only natural. A man who had risen to the position of Grand Duke of the North was working with dust covering him.
"Ah... Your Grace...."
"To sweat alongside lowly commoners like us!"
"He really comes running anywhere Her Highness is!"
Kylan inwardly scolded his wife for working far too hard, but seeing the construction progressing smoothly and the workers brimming with morale, he realized he could not make her stop.
'As expected of Eleanor. She knows how to work the numbers.'
She had fully anticipated that if the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess worked themselves a little, the deeply moved workers would grind their bones down far beyond what their wages were worth.
'I should help too. My wife needs a dependable husband by her side so no one looks down on her wherever she goes!'
He wondered why a Grand Duke of the North should have to use his aura to haul stone, but the thought of Eleanor watching him from behind made strength surge through his body.
'Before I knew it, I've become a hopeless fool in a romance fantasy too.'
"Her Highness distributes the food, and His Grace erects the pillars!"
"What magnificent and benevolent rulers!"
The workers raised their pickaxes, declaring that they would bury their bones for the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess.
Kylan did not feel too bad about it either.
***
That night.
"Good heavens... Boss. Is this really a house we're allowed to stay in?"
"It is, so wipe the dirt off properly before you come in."
After finishing their hellish manual labor, Gale's party headed to the mansion of the late Baron Vargo, the former military quartermaster.
The mansion was so brightly illuminated by direct moonlight that no one would trip even at night.
No, with soft rugs laid out everywhere, it was practically the perfect place for children to trip and play.
'I can have a family someday too, right? Once I have a house and my life settles down, someday...'
But his immature companions did not give Gale even a moment to indulge in such thoughts.
"Boss. Look at this Dire Wolf statue. Doesn't it look like it'll come alive any second?"
"You lot, don't touch a thing. If you break even one..."
"We're not idiots, Boss. You think we worked all day just to get those occupancy rights? Heh heh."
"Heh. Right. We need to get a house of our own too."
The walls were covered with paintings and statues that looked as though they were worth dozens of gold coins, making it impossible to walk around without a care in the world.
When they passed through the hallway and entered the mansion's spacious living room, they saw fellow adventurers from the South sleeping there, exhausted from their labor.
Gale and his companions found a vacant little room and lay down together on its cramped floor.
Then, without any prompting, they each pulled a piece of parchment from their clothing.
[Winterwald New City Construction Contribution Certificate]
The crest of Winterwald was stamped across the top of the parchment.
It was a token of their labor, received along with their daily wage of 16 silver.
Apparently, once the parchment was filled with Winterwald's crest, it could be exchanged for occupancy rights without paying a deposit.
The remaining amount after the deposit could supposedly be covered by a substantial loan as long as they proved their status and record as adventurers. It was an utterly insane system.
The Grand Duke of the North truly seemed like a man sent down from heaven for the sake of his people.
"Boss, isn't this parchment amazing? It has Her Highness's magic in it, so it's incredibly warm just holding it."
"Don't ever lose it. It's more precious than gold coins."
Rick and the other younger men chatted excitedly about the Northern Grand Duke's love story, but Gale could not hear them.
His eyes were too busy gazing into the future.
'Joining this construction project was the right call. It was the best choice of my adventurer life.'
In the North, where prices kept rising, he could receive room and board for free while steadily saving money.
Thanks to the unexpected food from Her Highness and the luxurious mansion, his younger companions' morale had risen as well.
"Come on, let's get a good night's sleep if we're going to work tomorrow too."
Gale hugged the certificate carefully to his chest and closed his eyes.
After he had slept for a while, this happened.
The world outside the window had grown brightly lit.
Gale slowly got up and leaned his head out the window.
"Is it morning already..."
It wasn't morning.
For some reason, only the area around the construction site was as bright as day. It was as though a small sun had risen. It was a kind of magic he had never heard of or seen before.
"Mmm...! What's going on, Boss? Did monsters invade outside...?"
Rick also leaned his head out the window.
Viscount Argen, who was in charge of construction on the Winterwald New City, was marching down the street with the construction masters and countless workers.
Everyone wore an expression as though they had been bewitched.
Honestly, the sight before them was more frightening than a monster.
Night-shift workers wanted!! His Grace the Grand Duke will personally join us to shorten the construction period!!
Gale was stunned.
Adventurers rested at night.
Even a wicked lord who forced people to repair ramparts let his slaves sleep at night.
But he's calling total strangers in to haul rocks all night?
It was impossible to understand why the Grand Duke of the North had become known as a romantic instead of a demon.
"Anyone who works through the night will be paid double the daily wage! In addition, Her Highness's 'special late-night meal' will be provided without limit!!"
Gale's pupils trembled.
This was practically forced participation.
When the people who worked only during the day had collected all the seals on their contribution certificates, would there even be any vacant buildings left in the city?
The parchments of those working at night would be receiving seals at twice the speed!
Before long, even wealthy merchants from across the continent would come North carrying their deposits.
"S-so evil...!"
Rick, the relatively clever one, voiced the same sentiment as Gale.
"Boss! What do we do now?!"
When Rick asked while trembling, Gale shouted,
"What do you think, you idiot!! Grab the tools!!"
It felt as though his human dignity was being tested, but Gale woke his companions.
He believed that as long as the princess's magical food was there to sustain them, they could somehow endure it.