Chapter 22
#22. I'll Knock the Price of Your Wrist Off
"Aaaaaaaaah!!"
Derek, Luluen's escort knight, let out a roar and brought down his sword imbued with a red aura.
Boom!
The sword aura collided with the wall, producing a thunderous cracking sound.
After a while, the dust settled.
"…… What!!"
The building, designed as a modest family home, was perfectly intact without so much as a scratch.
The nearby laborers wore bored expressions.
"What? Is that all?"
"He'll probably do something more. They say he came from the Imperial family."
Derek surveyed his surroundings with a face flushed with shame.
He suspected that perhaps a mage somewhere had tampered with it.
From Derek's perspective, he had no choice but to think that way.
It wasn't just anyone who had struck the building—it was an Imperial escort knight unleashing a full-powered aura slash.
Even if the thing in front of him had been a magic-infused fortress wall, it should have cracked.
Yet even with his aura-enhanced eyesight, Derek couldn't detect any trace of magic power.
'A formidable expert must be hiding here. Hmph. But even so, he's just some insignificant mage.'
Derek stopped firing sword aura.
Instead, he charged directly at the building and began swinging his sword.
Clang! Clang! Bang! Kaaaang!
A spectacular sword dance unfolded.
"Ooooh!!"
"He really is doin' somethin' after all!"
The residents cheered Derek on in admiration, but the man performing the sword dance was having a terrible time.
'It's heavy…! This is supposed to be a country home where commoners live?!'
He repeatedly battered the wall with his aura-infused sword, but no matter what he did, he couldn't leave even the slightest scratch.
The wall remained exactly as it had been when Derek first stood before it.
'Break…! Just break already…!!'
If only he could make even a tiny crack, he could widen it from there.
But instead of cracking, the wall's rebound only made his own wrist throb painfully.
Kaaaang!
As he kept forcing more and more aura into it out of helplessness, he soon reached his limit.
His aura lost its sharpness, and the masterwork sword in Derek's hand began to deteriorate.
For a first-rate knight, a scar left on his sword was a measure of his own shortcomings.
His palm had been scraped raw, and a stinging pain radiated from inside his glove.
"How… How can this be……."
Derek stood there with a vacant expression.
His arm felt as heavy as lead. He could barely keep hold of his sword.
Meanwhile, the building still looked pristine.
The Northern residents fell silent for a moment.
Then cheers erupted among them!
"Told you it couldn't be broken."
"Hooray! The house we built beat an Imperial knight!!"
"Long live Winterwald!!"
When the building built with their blood and sweat withstood even the slash of one of the Empire's elite knights, the laborers clapped one another's hands and danced with delight.
Kylan gave the laborers a small laugh before slowly walking toward Derek.
"That's enough."
"G-Grand Duke……."
"No matter how important a safety inspection is, this is merchandise we're selling for money. You shouldn't be covering it in dust like that."
When his all-out strike was dismissed as nothing more than 'dust,' Derek turned around with a look of despair.
His gaze came to rest on the Third Imperial Princess, Luluen von Valdemar.
She was trembling with an angry expression, having even forgotten to hide her face behind her fan.
Meanwhile, Eleanor, who had smiled like a saint the entire time, was innocently delighted as she looked at the completely unscathed wall.
'I… I embarrassed Princess Luluen…!'
The sword Derek held was a famous blade made by the finest artisan in the Empire, custom-ordered by the princess specifically for him.
To him, Princess Luluen was like a goddess who spared neither money nor praise.
To disgrace the face of such a liege…
Derek suppressed the urge to commit seppuku and hung his head deeply.
"P-please, let me through!"
Just then, Oliver, the Imperial architectural inspector, approached the wall with a dazed expression.
***
Oliver was an architectural inspector with thirty years of experience.
Doing the same job for thirty years was impossible without genuinely loving it.
Of course, it was true that he had ingratiated himself with powerful people and engaged in somewhat unsavory behavior to survive in the fiercely competitive Imperial court.
Even so, he was an architect to the bone.
Ever since childhood, he had been unable to get enough of buildings.
That feeling had never changed.
Now, as Oliver stood before Winterwald's buildings, he felt a passion like that of first love.
Clang! Kaaang!
Oliver took out his tools and tapped the wall.
Clang!
Each time he struck the wall with his hammer, a clear metallic sound rang out.
"Th-this can't be……."
Like a madman, he pressed his ear to the wall, felt the joints connecting the pillars, checked the finishing work on the roof, and ran around without pause.
"This is impossible. It's far sturdier than the Imperial Palace…! Slime reinforcement alone can't explain this!"
Did this mean that anyone in the North could own a house like this simply by paying for it?!
As Oliver shuddered with excitement, the impatient Princess Luluen approached from behind him, tapped his shoulder with her fan, and whispered.
"Hey. What are you doing? Don't just stand there like an idiot—hurry up and find some fault with it…."
"Just a moment! Please wait!"
Luluen's face hardened.
She seemed unable to imagine that a mere inspector would dare rebuke her, an imperial princess.
He had already forgotten that the Third Princess even existed. Oliver rushed breathlessly toward Kylan and dropped to his knees on the dirt.
"Grand Duke!!"
Tears welled up in Oliver's eyes.
"I, your humble servant Oliver, beg you!"
"What is it?"
"Please allow Winterwald's magnificent buildings to be listed in the 'Imperial Architectural Almanac'!"
Oliver smashed his forehead against the ground and poured out words without pause.
"I will feature it prominently in the architectural report I submit to His Majesty at the end of the year! Failing to record such a perfect building in the Empire's official records would be an insult to architecture itself!"
Oliver had practically become a fanatic, shouting every thought in his heart.
The sight of outsiders falling in love with Northern culture like this was now a familiar one to the Northern residents.
***
'Why is this fellow suddenly acting like this again?'
Kylan was more than a little taken aback, but he showed nothing on the outside and began calculating in his head.
Now that he had shown everyone that even an Imperial knight's sword could not damage the building, word would spread among the laborers and mercenaries.
It was only a matter of time before the rumor spread throughout the North.
However, that alone wasn't enough.
Many of the houses and shops in the new city were still vacant, with no owners yet.
They had to sell them at high prices to cover the laborers' daily wages and the meat soup for their special meals as needed.
To do that, he needed someone who could spread the word throughout the entire continent, not just the North.
And just when he needed one, a renowned architectural inspector had appeared, offering to advertise them for free.
Far from tormenting Eleanor, Luluen had practically brought her a gift.
'I can't let this opportunity pass!'
Kylan looked down at Oliver with the solemn expression of a dignified ruler.
"I, Kylan Winterwald, am not so petty as to ignore your passion for scholarship. Do as you please."
"Oh! Thank you, Grand Duke! Thank you!"
Kylan decided to give Oliver a small gift, just in case he changed his mind later.
"You've worked hard coming all this way to inspect the safety of the Northern residents. We should at least show our appreciation before sending you home."
At Kylan's signal, Cedric brought over a bucketful of slime paste and placed it in Oliver's arms.
To an outsider, it looked as though he had been asked to take out someone else's trash.
But Oliver looked as if he were about to stop breathing!
"Th-this… Is this the slime paste used to build this structure?! D-dare I accept something so precious?"
Oliver gazed down at the paste with an expression suggesting he could die right then without regret.
There was a gleam of ambition in his eyes, as though he believed that if he took it home to study, he too could design magnificent buildings.
'Take it home and study it for the rest of your life. You won't figure out the secret anyway.'
Unfortunately, this wasn't something that could be reverse-engineered from a mere sample.
It could only be made by mixing water and soil heated with Eleanor's solar magic with slime mucus in precisely the right proportions.
The most important factor here was the solar magic possessed by our genius heroine, Eleanor.
Even if every other condition were matched exactly, there was a difference of more than tenfold in strength between Eleanor's paste and anyone else's.
Of course, Oliver had no way of knowing that, and he kept bowing so deeply that his forehead nearly struck the ground.
Watching him, Luluen gripped her fan so tightly that the handle bent.
It was only natural. The man she had brought in her own carriage was kneeling at the Grand Duke's feet and swearing allegiance right before her eyes.
"Oliver……!"
Luluen glared at him, radiating murderous intent, but Oliver seemed to have completely forgotten even the princess's existence as he imagined the sentences he would write in the architectural almanac.
Realizing that Kylan was watching her, Luluen forced the corners of her mouth upward and gave a bitter smile.
"H-heh, heh…! What a remarkable building, Eleanor. I suppose I was worrying needlessly."
She was desperately trying not to lose her elegance even as her insides rotted away.
It was exactly the ridiculous expression the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess had wanted to see.
Eleanor smiled as she faced Luluen.
"Yes, Sister. It's all thanks to your concern."
It was a noble, radiant smile without a hint of sarcasm.
"Now that the safety of the new city has been proven, you won't need to worry or lose sleep over it anymore, Sister."
Before the younger sister who had grown into the proud mistress of the North, Luluen swallowed her anger and lowered her head.
***
"......."
The office of the Golden Scales Merchant Guild was quiet as the grave.
Günter couldn't even remember the last time anyone had discussed business here.
Günter nervously bit his nails as he stared out the window.
'What on earth is happening…!'
A great deal of time had passed since Princess Luluen left for the North.
A truly great deal of time had passed.
Even though he wanted to visit her in person, the warning that she would kill him if he came without permission one more time kept circling through Günter's head.
He felt so frustrated that he thought he might die.
Bang!
Just then, the office door he had barely managed to repair was smashed apart again, and a group of thugs stormed in.
They were the moneylender Karlos and his men.
The office grew noisy again after a long time. Of course, it was very different from the atmosphere Günter wanted.
"K-Karlos! Calm down for now!"
"If you wanted to calm me down, you should have prepared gold coins for me, Günter."
Blood Axe Karlos slowly closed the distance with his men.
There was nowhere to run.
Günter went deathly pale and flattened himself against the floor.
"Just a little! If you wait just a little longer, I'll be able to sell off the materials!"
"When I gave you a chance, you should have either sold the materials at half price or handed over your entire guild."
At Karlos's signal, two hulking men rushed forward and pinned both of Günter's arms to the floor.
"W-wait! You only need to wait a little longer!"
Karlos drew a hand axe from his belt.
"From what I can see, you don't seem desperate enough."
"W-wait! Karlos!"
Karlos had no intention of stopping, of course.
"I'll teach you what desperation means.”
"No, don't do this, please!”
Karlos whispered quietly into Günter's ear.
”Don't worry. I'll knock the price of your wrist off the principal, just for you."
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!"