12

Ding. The status window left Louis an alert. While he had been away at the party, the Unique Building had been completed. He immediately opened the city status window for Pontina. In the very center plaza, the specially marked area indicated that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon had been built there. The most astonishing thing about the building was that additional food indicators had appeared in the surrounding farmlands.

Because it was built in the dead center, the effect only applied to the nearest farmlands, but Pontina territory—which already had strong wheat output—became even more abundant. On top of that, labor increased by +1. Thanks to its central location, everyone passing through received the fatigue recovery effect; it was power created by placement. The tourism value was also fairly high now.

At present, the Unique Buildings Louis possessed were two: Alexander the Great’s Library, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. His ordinary buildings were the Monument and the Colosseum. The total tourism value gained from them was roughly 10, with a swing of 2–3. He only realized it now, but simply raising tourism by itself supplemented revenue by a considerable amount.

He opened the status window. Eleven cities spread out before Louis’s eyes. He should have grown used to it by now, yet he still had not fully adapted to the sudden increase in cities. In a single instant, he had come to rule a territory broader than his father’s, whom he had watched all his life. And the alliances he had gained from the houses in the capital would make this situation even more favorable.

His points had risen from the existing 20,000 by another 20,000 on top. Forced quests hardly triggered anymore. When Louis did something, points came according to the results. In that sense, what happened in the capital had not been pure wasted time. Still, the truth he learned from it was this: the achievement that awarded the most points was war.

But war was not easy. You had to stake your life. The value of lives Louis had to handle also rose beyond imagination. The first thing to solve in the current situation was the removal of the red indicators: food shortages. The four cities Louis had seized from Marquis Gangpireu were all marked red for lack of food.

‘It looks like a crisis, but it’s nothing. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have just been completed, so at the very least, the capital’s food output has exploded upward in one stroke.’

That was true. Every nearby tile—except farmlands in fallow land—had gained +1 food production, and even the pace at which fallow land progressed into reusable farmland was above average. The only regret was that it did not apply to every farmland in Pontina territory, only to land in the immediate vicinity. But to make use of all the Hanging Gardens of Babylon’s options, the dead-center position was ideal; he had had no choice. Besides, he should not expect too much from a Tier-2 Unique Building.

Louis returned to Pontina territory. Since they had not forced the march in a hurry, it could be called a leisurely pace. Rumors truly were like lightning. Through each person’s information network—or official letters sent to Louis’s Pontina territory—the broad outline reached the nobles within the territory. And in less than a day, it gained flesh, took on an even larger shape, and spread to the citizens. The core went like this.

At the official party hosted by the Prince-King, Duke Louis had clashed with House Boarne and retaliated without mercy. People said it was a little better than Marquis Gangpireu, but that three Sword Experts had died. In truth, it was one. However, the gap in skill shown between Mihoff and Sir Dain Mark had been so severe that the rumor could easily be exaggerated beyond that.

Who was House Boarne? It was one of the families dividing the Duchy of Eron into seven parts, and it held the largest territory. In terms of military power, it was number one among the seven houses. Yet thanks to the official incident that had just occurred, people were already speculating that its position might now belong to House Pontina instead. These were not guesses from citizens, but speculations that began among the high nobles who had remained at that party.

And for good reason: the moment when Louis knocked away the flying two-handed sword with a drawn blade had been too shocking. Even if it had not been intentional, it had been an unexpected and thoroughly threatening situation. If the target had been an ordinary noble instead of Louis, there was a high chance of a fatal wound—or an outright death. But what Louis showed carved a vivid impression into those who already held resentment and suspicion toward him. In particular, the faction alliance centered around House Boarne—already sick of Boarne Aust’s unreasonable behavior over the last five years—finally broke apart as of yesterday.

Not only had Aust acted rudely first, but his management of subordinates inspired no trust whatsoever; then came the crushing defeat and the humiliating admission of it. All of it became an incident that cracked House Boarne’s achievements and honor.

Thus, House Poitiers and House Deralober—both of which had originally been tightly allied with House Boarne—showed favor toward Louis. It would be premature to call the alliance firmly set, but the value Louis had displayed was enough to spark interest among the entrenched, powerful houses to the point of causing internal conflict.

The only house that maintained an unwavering stance was House Kaban, led by Sword Master Lord Kaban. In that room, the ones with real speaking power were Sword Master Duke Kaban Ferdinand, or his granddaughter, Kaban Mary—but since Kaban Mary was a rather shy woman, the only person who could practically set a major direction was Ferdinand. And because he always prioritized the duchy’s balance above all else, if he abandoned House Boarne, no one could predict what would happen next—so Ferdinand’s choice was behavior most people could already have guessed.

“You still haven’t sent the supplies?”

Louis asked back because he had already ordered food shipments to the four cities that were showing red alerts in the letters.

“That’s not it. They’ve been sent now.”

The one answering while sweating profusely was Jodan, whom Louis had placed in temporary charge here. If his left hand had still been there, he would have wiped his forehead—but unfortunately, he only had one hand left, and that hand was holding documents.

“Why?”

“The nobles who were already here refused to cooperate with me.”

They were people who already held resentment toward Louis. While Louis was away, they had not listened properly.

“Call them.”

Louis summoned every noble in Pontina territory who stood directly beneath House Pontina. It seemed he needed to put his hands on this a bit more.

This afternoon, he planned to see the completed Hanging Gardens of Babylon. What, exactly, did it look like when finished? Louis found himself newly curious. Because he had returned to Pontina territory late at night, he still had not seen it with his own eyes—especially not in bright light. While he was entertaining pleasant imaginings, nobles filed in one after another with faces like people who had eaten a bug—or were about to. Louis could roughly tell why they wore expressions that looked ready to go mad.

Considering the time lag, the reason they had made belated cooperative follow-up moves was after Louis’s official letter. In that official letter, he had listed the allied houses they would work with going forward: in order, House Batenberg, House Parse, House Orsini, House Deralober, and House Poitiers—more than double the number of houses in the plan Louis had originally laid out.

When Louis said he would go to the capital to find houses to make peace with, many nobles had sneered even if they did not say it aloud; some had thought Louis’s idea was fanciful. Being good at war did not mean you were good at diplomacy—so perhaps it had been backlash against Louis, who had not been part of the old mainstream.

So for them to regain even a little of the power they used to have, they had to manufacture Louis’s failure. If diplomatic failure combined with rumors that Louis’s territory had become too vast to manage, it would be perfect. But the official letter contained not only overwhelming results; and the high nobles, especially after the collision with House Boarne spread through private networks, woke all their subordinates at the crack of dawn and ordered food transport. Still, late was late. They tried to buy off Jodan, but the shamelessness he had been famous for since Fred’s time did not accept a single drop of money.

The atmosphere hardened. Jodan let out a breath of relief at the fact he was not being reprimanded, while the faces of the summoned nobles were dying in a variety of ways. Anyone would think they had swallowed poison. Louis gave a short laugh.

“I heard there’s been no progress on what I ordered.”

“Th-That is…”

“Save the excuses. Who’s responsible?”

They glanced at one another, then a strongly built man stepped forward. It was Harris. Exactly the person Louis had expected. Harris’s house, House Sweet, had been an old house that had followed House Pontina for long ages without change.

But that also meant they often wielded more power internally than they should have. The reason they interfered with the food shipments Louis ordered was roughly along those lines. The man his father had failed to control was now right in front of him—and in the past, Louis too had been compared to his two older brothers and had suffered discrimination from Harris, subtle and not-so-subtle.

“I believe I made the warning clear.”

Louis muttered low. Because he had disliked the man from the start, mana mixed with anger flowed out before he could rein it in. Harris’s eyes widened as he broke into cold sweat. He looked shocked that Louis had grown again. At this point, it would be wiser for Harris to admit that Louis was a more promising lord than Remitri or Pierre, whom Harris had originally served. Perhaps after ten years of deeming him worthless, he finally decided he had to acknowledge it; Harris spoke slowly.

“…………I will accept any punishment.”

In his heart, Louis wanted to cast Harris out immediately, but Harris’s competence was the problem. He was too valuable to throw away just because he was unpleasant. If Louis told him to find the next highest among the nobles here, it would only be 7 or 8 at best. Ten was a number you could not reach without real talent.

“Reflect on your conduct.”

Since he did not specify a term, the additional order automatically attached: reflect until Louis’s anger cooled.

Harris’s eyes briefly showed hope, as if he had expected a furious decree—or even to lose his current position.

“…I will accept punishment for my disloyalty.”

That was that. After returning from the capital, Louis’s presence had grown so much that rebellion or obstruction now bordered on something that could be met with immediate execution.