Chapter 24
#24. The Landlord Above the Creator
Winterwald's new-city residential district.
Until just a short while ago, this place had been nothing more than a barren field battered by vicious winds.
But look at it now.
The buildings built from steelwood gleamed bluish in the sunlight, while slime gel had been meticulously applied to every joint inside, preventing even a single draft from getting in.
It was a new city that could hold its own anywhere on the continent.
And today.
At long last, the first residents were moving into the new city.
"All right! Don't push, and line up in order! We will check your occupancy certificates before handing out the house keys!"
The area in front of the makeshift housing distribution office was packed with people.
Adventurers and Northerners who spent their days beating monsters to death and their nights wearing themselves to the bone doing backbreaking labor.
They stood in line, clutching their occupancy certificates in trembling hands.
Among them was Gale's party, veteran adventurers from the South.
"Big Brother... It's almost our turn. I feel like my heart is really going to burst."
Rick swallowed nervously and spoke.
"Yeah. Me too."
Gale also let out a long breath, as though overwhelmed by mixed emotions.
It was a moment more nerve-racking than fighting monsters.
"Excuse me! Adventurer! If you hand over that occupancy certificate right now, I'll give you 120 gold! Please, sell it to me!"
Merchants from the Central Continent who had arrived in the North too late to find a house were trying to haggle with Gale's party, spittle flying as they spoke.
A house that had been worth 60 gold at the tavern just a few days earlier had soared to 120 gold the moment the new city was completed.
Rick's pupils shook like an earthquake, but Sena, standing beside him, tapped the dagger at her waist and glared at the merchant.
"Get lost. I won't sell it even for 200 gold."
"Eek! Ah, yes, ma'am!"
Overwhelmed by Sena's murderous aura, the merchants backed away in a hurry.
Gale snickered as he looked at Sena.
"Unlike this idiot, you don't waver, Sena."
When Gale thumped Rick in the side, Sena folded her arms and smiled.
"Money from all across the continent is flowing into this place. I'm not an idiot—I can't hand over prime real estate for a mere 120 gold."
"Heheh. I'm fine with being an idiot! I'll just stick by smart Big Brother forever! Oh! But don't worry, I won't get in the way of your date."
Gale looked so exhausted that he did not even bother hitting Rick anymore.
Soon, it was their turn.
"Mr. Gale, Mr. Rick, and Ms. Sena. All three of you secured excellent plots in advance! Congratulations! Here are the keys and deed to the one-story detached house on Sun Street, Third Avenue."
The employee smiled brightly as he held out three keys made of steelwood.
Sena, who had money to spare, remained impassive, but Gale and Rick were trembling so badly that they looked as though they might drop their keys.
It was small and cozy, but it was still their own home.
For ten years, they had drifted between back alleys and cheap inn rooms in the South.
They had lived as mercenaries, drinking away every coin they earned to forget the fear that they might die the very next day.
This was the moment when their lives gained a true refuge called 'my own home' for the first time.
Without waiting for anyone else, the three of them headed straight home.
Their first stop was Gale's house.
Click!
Gale opened the heavy steelwood door and stepped inside.
Even the sound of turning the key was pleasant.
……Huh?
The moment he stepped inside, Rick let out a stupid noise and froze on the spot.
This time, Sena also opened her eyes wide and could not close her mouth.
"Big Brother... Are we really in the North?"
"I don't know either... Damn. This isn't a dream, is it?"
The inside of the house was unbelievably warm.
The air was so warm that they could have thrown off their coats.
The North's vicious winds could not penetrate the steelwood and slime insulation at all.
The floor was even hot beneath their feet.
"H-heat is rising from the floor! Gale!"
Sena jumped up and down in delight.
"Apparently, you only need to replace the Fire Soma Stone once every two months. It must be hard to obtain, but they say a Solar Soma Stone can last for years without a problem."
"Big Brother! Big Brother! Biiig Brotheeeer!!"
Rick went nearly berserk and began lying on the floor and spinning around.
He seemed to be remembering the days they had spent their nights relying on fires made from firewood.
They did not need to chop firewood or clean ashes out of the fireplace.
The revolutionary construction method introduced by the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess was warming Northern homes as thoroughly as the South in midsummer.
Thump.
Sena also flopped down flat on her back on the warm floor, as though marking her territory.
Gale, suddenly left without anywhere to sit, snickered as he looked at the two of them.
"Sniff... Big Brother...."
Thick tears streamed down Rick's cheeks.
"I really did the right thing by listening to you and not selling it... What's a hundred gold? I wouldn't sell it even for 1,000 gold. I'm going to live here for the rest of my life... I'll be buried in the North!"
"Why's a grown man crying?"
Gale lightly kicked Rick in the shin, but his own eyes were red as well.
Sena sprang lightly to her feet and pushed open the wooden window in the living room.
Beyond the window, a small artificial sun softly illuminated Winterwald's night sky.
The magic that lit up the night, now being produced in scrolls, kept the new city's nights from becoming too dark even without Grand Duchess Eleanor.
"Winterwald... This place is truly unbelievable."
As Sena quietly murmured while looking at the night sky, Gale approached and stood beside her.
"Well? Was coming all the way to this remote place worth it?"
"……Not bad."
Sena smiled faintly without turning her gaze away.
A warm room, a sun outside the window, and the body heat of the man standing beside her.
Even though she had earned plenty of money, some part of her heart had always been uneasy for some reason.
Ever since coming to the North, that unease had been gradually settling down.
The three of them were not the only ones rejoicing.
"Waaah! Grand Duchess Eleanoraa!"
"Grand Duke! I'll work like a dog for the rest of my life!!"
Outside, the rough Northern men were sobbing their hearts out in the streets.
Northern lumberjacks with such fearsome faces that they looked capable of splitting a bear's skull with a single swing of an axe were clinging to the doorposts of the houses assigned to them and bawling like little children.
"My wife and kids can spend the winter without worrying about the cold now!"
"This is all thanks to the blessings of the Grand Duke and the Imperial Princess! Let's work even harder tomorrow so we can repay them!"
The heartfelt cries of the Northerners echoed through the new city's streets all night.
***
Around the same time.
The lord's office in Winterwald's Grand Duke's Castle.
Heh heh...!
Kylan Winterwald, the Empire's greatest Sword Master, known as the taciturn and merciless demon of the battlefield.
He was sprawled face-down across his office desk, chuckling to himself.
The stacks of approval documents and deficit ledgers that had filled the room only a short while earlier.
They had completely vanished.
In their place were only mountains of gold coins and high-value checks issued by the Imperial Bank.
"Your Highness! Your Highness the Grand Duke!!"
Count Lian, the trade commissioner, dropped to his knees on the office floor in a frenzy of excitement.
Beside him, Commander Cedric and Guildmaster Sir Walter stood shoulder to shoulder, trembling.
"The accounts have been settled! This month's net profit from selling the new city's commercial properties and leasing its residential spaces is...!"
Count Lian shouted as he shook the parchment in his hand.
"A whopping 310,000 gold!! It is the greatest surplus in Winterwald's history since the founding of the territory!!"
No other source was involved; it was profit earned solely through urban development.
Although the one-time income was enormous, the future rental income Winterwald would continue to earn was by no means a trifling sum.
"Ggh...! Your Highness!"
Cedric finally could not hold back and burst into tears.
Kylan rose and patted his loyal subordinate on the shoulder.
"That's right, Cedric. Now, whether it concerns weapons or food, no one will need to worry anymore. Everyone will be able to devote themselves entirely to training."
"This old man will continue to offer his life! The mercy of Your Highness and the Grand Duchess, who have saved Winterwald, is as vast as the sea!"
The retainers slammed their foreheads against the floor and wept before Kylan.
The good-for-nothing corrupt nobles who had siphoned off all the money and treated Kylan as a pushover were no longer anywhere in Winterwald's territory.
Kylan put on the benevolent expression of a lord as usual, but it was particularly difficult today.
'That's it! It means I can just drink tea with Eleanor in a warm room, and the money will multiply every month!!'
The retainers mistook Kylan's reddened eyes for 'tears of love for his people' and wept with emotion.
"Sniff!"
"Your Highness! Your Highness!!"
"Ahem!"
Kylan cleared his throat and once again put on the most dignified and benevolent expression of a ruler he could manage.
"You have all worked hard. All these achievements are the result of the sweat shed by all of you and the people of the territory."
Kylan rose from his seat and declared,
"Now that the coffers are full, it is only right to be generous! This month, everyone at the Grand Duke's castle, including the knights and administrators, will receive a special performance bonus! Make sure good food and alcohol are also provided to every guild branch!"
"An even bigger performance bonus!?"
'The people need to eat their fill of meat so they can go beat up monsters and pay the rent again tomorrow.'
Kylan swallowed the rest of his words.
The retainers went wild and cheered at Kylan's unprecedented announcement of a bonus feast.
"Long live the Grand Duke!! Long live Winterwald!!"
"I'll gather the knights right now and wipe out every last monster! I won't let a single rat come anywhere near Your Highness's commercial properties!!"
Having tasted the sweetness of capitalism, the retainers now seemed ready to pretend to die if Kylan told them to.
"Yes, all right. You may withdraw now. I need to rest as well."
At Kylan's gesture, the retainers left the office sniffling.
Silence descended over the office, which had been so boisterous moments earlier.
Kylan slowly turned his head.
In one corner of the office stood a small desk beside mountains of boxes filled with gold coins.
There sat the true savior of Winterwald and its greatest contributor, Grand Duchess Eleanor, wearing round spectacles and moving her quill without pause.
"Hmm, next quarter we need to increase the proportion of paved roads around the commercial district and readjust the tolls imposed on the Southern merchant guilds..."
Not a trace remained of the past when she had been persecuted as a bastard.
All that remained was the sight of a genius finance minister who had become a workaholic solely for Winterwald's prosperity and her husband's safety.
Kylan approached without a sound and gently took the quill from Eleanor's hand.
"Oh, Your Highness? There is still quite a lot left to do...."
"That's enough for today. No matter how much I love money, I can't stand by and watch my precious wife collapse from overwork."
Eleanor's cheeks flushed at Kylan's gentle voice.
The night was growing late.
The artificial sunlight outside the window cast a warm glow through the office.
Kylan's gaze turned toward the very bottom drawer of his desk.
Inside, carefully hidden, was the title deed to the largest, most expensive five-story standalone commercial building among all the new-city properties sold that day—the one that generated the highest monthly rent.
This particular property was not registered under Winterwald's name, but was Kylan's personal property.
The performance-bonus system Kylan had introduced.
It was meant not only to motivate the knights, but also to create a legally obtained slush fund in precisely this manner.
'I wonder if she'll like it more than a ring?'
Kylan's lips curled into a smile as he thought about giving his beloved wife a gift she would never forget.
***
While Kylan was enjoying a beautiful night with Eleanor.
In a rugged mountain range far from the Northern Wall.
Grrrrrr....
Thousands—no, tens of thousands—of red eyes gleamed simultaneously in the darkness.
"It looks warm. That place looks very warm."
A low voice.
A voice imbued with intelligence, one no other orc could possibly possess.
His gaze was fixed on Winterwald's artificial sun, the only thing blazing with golden light in the pitch-black Northern night sky.
The North's true disaster, which had been asleep for hundreds of years, was awakening.
The Orc Chieftain.
The highly intelligent chieftain slowly raised a massive weapon, drawn by the warmth of the new city.