Chapter 118

In truth, Kururu had apparently been asking Gerario for some time to teach her the ways of war in earnest, only to be brushed off each time.

Gerario was caring and deeply affectionate, so it was not that he treated Kururu like a child. Rather, he simply did not want to bring someone important to him close to the world of war, which he did not think was anything decent to begin with.

But if they were left without being taught anything, Kururu and the others might someday be crushed by helplessness and die.

Compared to that, what should be done?

Gerario, who had probably known what he had to do from the start, seemed to have cut off his sentimentality and switched his mindset.

And to make sure his beloved disciple would not die on the battlefield, he seemed to have become a truly strict drill instructor.

“Cole-kun seems to be keeping up better.”

Right now, I was standing on open land outside the town.

With the treasury already empty, and now even a budget needed to pursue the mystery of the magic circles, we somehow had to obtain gold coins, and this was part of that plan.

Iiria was beside me, telling me the current state of the apprentice magicians turned apprentice adventurers.

“Kururu may be used to having malice directed at her, but she’s never really been scolded before. It seems to be hitting her really hard.”

Kururu’s strong will was originally something meant to bare her fangs at enemies, and I sometimes felt that at her roots, she was more maidenly than Iiria.

So it was easy to imagine Kururu getting depressed after being seriously scolded by Gerario, whom she admired, even if it was for training.

However, when I looked at Iiria, thinking that she was also not used to being scolded, this somewhat cunning lord smiled softly.

“I get scolded by Kururu all the time.”

I thought there was a world of difference between being scolded by Kururu and being seriously scolded by Gerario, but I said nothing more.

“More importantly, how much money can we earn from this?”

What Iiria looked toward was the wasteland spread out before us. Until now, it had not been used for anything in particular, and only occasionally had sheep and the like released onto it, but now a great many people had gathered there.

The beastfolk were also busily moving about and working, and what they were doing was surveying the land.

And the people and beastfolk who had crowded there were those trying to buy the surveyed land.

“To think all the land on the island was mine.”

Iiria shrugged and said that.

There was some room for misunderstanding, but it was generally true.

“If only we’d found the documents about land rights sooner, we wouldn’t have had to buy the previous land either.”

She was probably talking about how right after defeating Nodon, we had purchased some land with the little money we had obtained for magic stone experiments and tests to increase food production.

“This is thanks to Cole-san and the others. But are you confident we could have found them ourselves in the mansion’s storehouse?”

“No. I never want to do that kind of work again. Checking dusty documents full of filthy writing one by one…”

When we fought Nodon and investigated the tax collection rights, Kururu and Iiria had turned over the documents in the mansion’s basement while getting covered in dust. That incident seemed to have left quite a traumatic impression.

For that reason, when searching for records related to abandoned mines, it was mainly Cole and the others who turned over the basement storehouse.

And even after Cole found the mine records, the beastfolk accompanying Cole apparently continued carefully checking the documents and sorting the old papers sleeping in the mansion’s basement.

During that process, an important record related to land was found.

It was a declaration stating that all land in Jirenu Territory belonged to the lord, and that the people were merely borrowing it.

However, the original lordly line of Jirenu Territory had died out or something similar long ago, and the land had effectively become ownerless. In their place, merchants like Nodon had reigned as rulers.

Because of that, even the elders of the land had forgotten such a declaration, and those who should once have been borrowing land from the lord had completely come to think the land was their own.

But in a civilization where verbal promises were the default, words left on paper had considerable power.

Moreover, the current Iiria had the authority and military force to make the people of the territory remember the declaration of a lord from the distant past. Since legal specialists had also come from Roran, they supported us with historical examples showing whose argument would take precedence in such a case.

For that reason, after some disputes, the ownership system regarding land in Jirenu Territory was completely renewed.

It all became Iiria’s.

However, as for the land inside the town, the previous rental fees would not be charged retroactively, and for the time being, they would not be charged for the next ten years either.

For the other land, any undeveloped area would uniformly be owned by Iiria.

Even so, with the discovery of a single scrap of paper, Iiria had suddenly become a great landowner overnight, so power truly was amazing.

A large number of gold coins were needed to purchase large ships, and research funds were also needed for Falone and the others to pursue the mystery of magic.

So, as the island grew livelier and there was also a housing shortage, the expansion of the town was declared in Iiria’s name, and new land lease rights were put up for sale.

In other words, the people gathered in the wasteland before us right now were those trying to lease land along the new roads that would be built, land that would likely develop into a new district in the future.

“The gold coins I wanted so badly can be gathered this easily. I can understand why the nobles’ heads go strange.”

The land lease rights were set in units of one hundred years. At the very least, so that the people alive now and their children would not have to worry.

Then, as for the lease fees, it was decided that they would be revised every ten years.

Even the people of Roran were surprised by this, and apparently there was not much precedent for it.

However, in the previous world, there were examples where inflation advanced as time passed, and fixed land rents continued losing their value.

Because of that, the landholding nobles declined, and eventually they were replaced by the merchant class… That was the course history had taken.

To avoid that failure, there should be no loss in preparing countermeasures.

In addition, the rights to lease land were made freely tradable and inheritable, so they were almost no different from ownership rights. The aim was to clearly recognize land ownership in order to invigorate investment and trade.

Only designated companies would be able to handle land transactions, and each time, a sales commission would go to the lord.

Then, as the most important point, by clearly recognizing the beastfolk’s ownership of land and houses as well, there was also an aspect of helping them build assets within Jirenu Territory.

The price of land was roughly about the same as the building to be constructed on it, so a plot for one mansion would be around one or two thousand gold coins.

What would be released this time was roughly twenty plots for average mansions, four large plots facing the street for companies, and thirty plots for smaller buildings such as workshops, so a rough estimate came to about two hundred thousand gold coins.

I had been worried whether everything would sell, but the fact that we had repelled Roran was significant.

If we had repelled even Roran, surely this place would be safe from now on as well. With that sense of security, many people had crowded in.

In other words, that meant hundreds of thousands of gold coins were being suddenly created by the thing called power and rolling into our hands.

I could somewhat understand Iiria falling into a kind of emptiness.

“I was surprised the Bax Company wanted to lease land too. I wonder if it’s for surveillance after all.”

“Do you think so? I think Frost-san seriously believes this place will develop.”

Otherwise, he would not have spent such a large sum to secure land facing the south-facing crossroads, prime real estate in the district that would become the new town.

Also, using land speculation from the previous world as a reference, I had stipulated that after securing land, a building must be constructed within two years, and residence or commercial activity must take place. In short, it had been made impossible to lease land and leave it vacant until its price rose, then resell it.

If so, even for the Bax Company, it should be a considerable expense, and if they established a company branch here, it would mean leaving no small amount of assets in Jirenu Territory.

In other words, if something bad happened to Jirenu Territory, the Bax Company would also suffer a loss.

That would probably greatly reduce the possibility of Roran’s forces baring their fangs at Jirenu again.

“And it’s very strange.”

“Strange?”

Iiria and I were on a slightly elevated spot where we could look over the land scheduled to be released.

Iiria sat neatly on a chair placed there, looking down over the common people… or so I wanted to say, but in appearance, she looked more like a girl who had come for a picnic.

Kururu was also away training, and there were no loyal guards solidifying the area around Iiria.

The only ones there were me, and Marks and the others napping a short distance away.

“The towns that existed as a matter of course until now were also made like this long ago, weren’t they?”

“Probably, yes.”

There must have been many different triggers for development, such as merchants gathering often where roads crossed, or a monastery being built and becoming the starting point, but when expanding, they likely followed a similar course.

“The one who decided to lay a road over there was also you, Iiria-san.”

There was no particular reason behind how it was decided that the new road would be laid there.

It was simply wasteland, unsuitable for cultivation, and the closest land to the current town.

When Iiria was asked what should be done with the new town, she casually traced her finger over the map, and that was how it happened.

But when Iiria gave instructions, people moved like this, and something new was created.

As a bonus, gold coins also rolled in.

The vague, indistinct existence made only of words called power appeared as a visible reality.

“I really have become a lord, haven’t I?”

Iiria murmured that deeply.

It did not sound happy at all, but it was also different from sounding displeased.

It did not feel real.

That was probably all there was to it.

“After all, should we not name the new road after you, Iiria-san?”

When dividing the plots, there had been an argument over what to do with the street names.

According to the world’s common sense, a road created under the rule of a new lord should bear that lord’s name, but Iiria threw a fit and absolutely refused.

I tried persuading her too, but when Iiria glared at me and said, “If you insist that much, then make it Yorinobu Street,” I meekly backed down.

Because I understood very well why she hated it.

But the reason I brought up that proposal again was because I still thought it would be for Iiria’s sake.

“What if I say I don’t want to?”

Iiria hunched her back, leaned forward, rested her cheek on her hand atop her knee, and said that without looking at me.

“You won’t. You should understand that it’s actually necessary too, Iiria-san.”

Iiria’s ears stood up sharply, then slowly drooped again.

Iiria, who sat in the lord’s seat, had to become the standard around which the territory was united.

Even if it was something that would feel embarrassing or presumptuous to a person with normal nerves, she had to accept it openly.

By doing that, everyone would understand whose orders they should obey, and the territory would establish unity.

That clever girl understood that properly.

“When you first stood before me, you were so hopeless.”

After waking up in the mine and being greatly bewildered, even with Kengo’s help, I was brought before Iiria while still in confusion, and I had been overwhelmed just by the title of lord that the other party held.

“I was made to fire magic I couldn’t fire, after all.”

“You were ridiculous. I still remember it sometimes and laugh.”

Iiria showed a truly delighted smile.

Really, she was a girl who suited being mean.

“Araratom Street would be fine, right?”

Since Iiria Araratom-sama was the first lord of the Araratom family, that should not be a problem either. She must have truly not wanted to attach her own name to it, but I understood how she felt.

“And name the largest side road Kururu Street.”

“…”

Iiria looked at me and winked so forcefully it almost seemed like it would make a sharp sound.

If she was going to feel embarrassed, then we were all in the same boat, apparently.

“It might become a popular street among the beastfolk.”

“I’m already looking forward to the displeased look Kururu will make when she finds out.”

I thought I had to record somewhere that this was not my responsibility.

When Kururu learned what had happened, she might strangle and scratch me.

Thus, the land rights were bought by the people, and with the price being driven up by competition between prospective buyers, the revenue ultimately became two hundred forty thousand gold coins.

As a down payment for ship construction, it was decent enough.

However, if construction began all at once, the harbor would fall into great chaos from the import of materials, and it would also lead to rising prices.

The adjustments around that would be a headache, and from those who had been unable to lease land, petitions to release the next district were already flooding in.

There were endless things to do.

But the sight of a new town being created somehow felt very good.

A few days later, when Kururu noticed that a street had been named after her, she glared at Iiria, who pretended not to know anything, with her face red, then silently struck my back.