13 (1)

Louis had been looking at the City Information window.

Spread out before Louis was a grand map that only Louis could see. On it, each city’s rough level, food, and businesses were summarized in simple markers. This kind of consolidated intelligence was possible for any country that held many mages, but the City Information window Louis saw through the System went far beyond that level. To be honest, Louis had not been entirely generous in his appraisal of the window before, but only now did he feel in his bones how close to absolute efficiency it was delivering for him.

If others could see the window Louis was seeing, even the Mage Tower’s legendary sages would move in a pack just to study it. The window was that valuable—and for rulers who governed territories broader than Louis’s, it was the kind of bewitched object that could start a war for this reason alone, if it could be taken. Yet it was also a tool only Louis, the sole person in the world approved by the System, could use. It did not even require additional points, but its usefulness and value were beyond description. Its most important function lay in its truth and precision. Louis received detailed reports from everywhere, but because he checked the big picture and the accuracy in real time, those reports were little more than a verification step.

The official apology he received after the Papal Court left repaid Louis in unmistakable points. The points Louis gained from this special incident totaled a staggering 60,000 points. The proverb that a crisis became an opportunity fit so perfectly it was almost laughable: Louis had been pressured by the infamous Evantes, but in return he received 50,000 points and became even more famous. As a result, countless pilgrims had begun appearing in Louis’s territory. Thanks to the Hanging Gardens’ special effect, more and more clerics had been settling in Louis’s lands one by one even without any request made to the Papal Court.

Louis had been increasing, little by little, the religious facilities where they could stay.

They were buildings that handled sanitation and healing. Because the number of clerics had actually outstripped the number of religious buildings, unemployment had been occurring instead. That those arrogant people had come to Louis’s territory only to end up unemployed was something no other lord would believe if he heard it.

Even so, Louis did not spend points on religious buildings.

The total 70,000 points Louis held was still under consideration for various cases. What Louis had begun to value most was his Science total. His first Wonder, Alexander the Great’s Library, had been producing numbers at a crazed pace (and if it had been an ordinary building, that speed likely would not have been possible), but the pace at which Louis earned points had been overwhelming even that.

So he had enough points, yet ironically found himself in a situation where he could not invest.

The answer was time. If he simply went about other work, his Science total would begin to pile up—and what Louis was aiming for was a change in the era system: the Magitech Era, an outright leap beyond the flow of the current age.

The bottleneck was that he had to open two special sciences: Physics and Magitech.

‘What would it feel like to open a new age?’

Opening an age was not purely a good thing. Once Louis pulled a trigger, the System stimulated the world with a butterfly effect. Louis pressed the button, but if he misstepped, he could end up scrambling just to keep up with the age. Could he do it? Louis looked down over the vast Pontina territory. Countless buildings filled the land like a forest of trees, and below them, people moved like ants. From here he could see the Hanging Gardens at the center. It was a view reserved for the privileged.

He could do it. Certainly. He could go higher. Louis was sure.

Through the Pope, he had seen the world’s level. If things continued as they were, Louis would gain an enormous, expansive territory so vast he could not even imagine it now. He could rule more people and stand above them. The substance of his old and pure dream was finally becoming visible. It no longer felt like an abstract concept as before; it felt as if it were drawing closer and closer.

For now, he would put off complete reconstruction.

Even this time, when Louis gained 70,000 points, the first thing he considered was complete reconstruction. If he had possessed more mana, the risk he faced during Evantes’s sudden interrogation not long ago would have been far lower.

He could not open Science because his Science points were insufficient; he could not invest in Tier-5 complete reconstruction because the point cost was far too large. Then what remained was civic institutions and the construction of unique military buildings. But now his heart tilted toward institutions. Louis’s vast territory had gathered enough population to establish a grand framework—especially the concentration phenomenon in the city of Pontina was happening in real time. It was still increasing. The city had been expanding without limit since the Pope’s visit.

At this moment, Louis judged that the most efficient method using population was to build an institution system. There were three main institution paths. The largest Tier-1 paths were the Liberty path, the Military path, and the Religious path.

Once decided, it could not be revised, so whichever Louis chose, he would have to keep operating institutions in that direction and unlock additional traits.

‘Liberty… Liberty focuses on growth. But it carries penalties for running the military. If I maintain this institution, I’ll have to grow the territory even larger and use a method where I crush and annex the Eron Duchy.’

Liberty greatly helped population growth and Commerce. Money and population growth would become a powerful foundation for a defense-oriented expansion. The effects were strong, but there was another penalty: diplomatic relations with surrounding countries would drop to rock bottom. Louis continued reading the next description. Military—just as it sounded—was a military institution. Most countries currently operated it as their default. As for penalties, because it suppressed Liberty, not only did it grant no bonus points to population growth and Commerce, but once certain traits were unlocked, penalties would be applied instead. The advantage was that it showed overwhelming efficiency during war. In particular, most of its strengths lay in offense. It also matched the flow of the age. It was composed of traits that were dangerous, and that maximized rewards only when constant victory was maintained.

The greatest feature of the Religious path was perfect assimilation to the flow of the age. This, too, was not a bad choice for Louis, because he had already earned a great deal of favor from the Pope and the Papal Court. Its biggest characteristic was that, due to the many clerics, many traits were gathered around improving medical standards. It was the most stable set of traits, and while it was not as strong as Liberty, it performed “in the middle” for population growth, Commerce, and military matters. In particular, the fact that it could receive abundant patronage and help from surrounding countries was special. Whether it was the Papal Court or the Mage Tower, it could stabilize the territory diplomatically in many ways, with the support of religious states and more.

Considering stability, the institution Louis could exploit most was the Religious path, but Louis wanted to take the risk and maximize efficiency. This was a conviction he had carried for a long time. The world was chaotic even if Louis kept neutral. Louis judged it was not an age where simply holding the line was enough.

First, with an eye on it the moment he had gained the points, he opened the institution he had been targeting three times in succession. It was Professional Soldiers—a trait that reduced upkeep costs required to maintain soldiers. He immediately invested 50,000 points.

It applied to the total cost.

Among several candidates, the reason Louis chose Professional Soldiers was simple: versatility. As long as he had money to spare, he could reinforce the army as much as he wanted.

Eagle banners had been fluttering in all directions. Massive marble pillars, as if modeled after a god, formed a colossal grove while exuding an overwhelming presence. Between those pillars, thousands of tall soldiers guarded the perimeter like an iron wall. Aside from them, only a small handful within this enormous assembly hall could move freely.

It was the council of the Empire’s highest nobles—the heart and head of the Empire.

From what they debated here, enormous sums of money and countless lives were born and then vanished. Naturally, with each house and the solid chains of connection those houses maintained, the council floor was always chaotic, and brawls and even stabbings were common. Perhaps because of that, powerful armed guards always stood beside the nobles to protect them.

As that complicated political current continued, one man spoke with an easy, boastful air.

“I heard it. They say Sir Evantes failed to make an arrest in the Eron Duchy—and that he officially apologized to a noble for that failure.”

“The demon wearing a human mask apologized? Ridiculous. You sure do pick up dog-bone nonsense from somewhere. Why would Evantes go to such a petty country in the first place?”

The one who cut into their exchange was the Empire’s Crown Prince. He sneered at the man as if he had caught a weakness.

“My, another ignorant child who doesn’t know the news of the world, I see.”

Yet even after the insult, the man smiled faintly and spoke to the Crown Prince.

“It seems Your Highness has a better information network than I do. Might I hear it?”

“They say His Holiness secretly visited the Pontina territory with only a small escort from the Holy Knight Order. And there, he witnessed a miracle. Evantes doubted that miracle, and on the spot tried to arrest the lord, Pontina Louis—only to fail spectacularly and be humiliated. To contain the situation, His Holiness demanded that Evantes issue an official apology to that lord, Louis, over this matter. And they say Evantes complied and apologized without resistance.”

It was a long account, but the ripple it caused was astonishing. In truth, the reason the Crown Prince revealed such a secret was that for nobles with high-level intelligence networks, it was no longer a secret anyway. Moreover, the Empire had always made efforts—whether sincere or not—to diminish the Papal Court’s influence. Naturally, it benefited the Empire for this incident to spread widely.

The hall stirred.

Once the Crown Prince had spoken it aloud, it was official truth. People had been debating many things, but an official apology from the Papal Court carried enough weight to end multiple agenda items at once. A commotion broke out—people saying they needed to investigate who Louis was as soon as they returned, and chaos upon chaos. It was only natural to want the details. And what, exactly, did the word “miracle” mean?

“Ahem. So then—can anyone answer clearly who this Louis fellow is?”

Of course, no one could. The country called the Eron Duchy itself had little presence; the name Louis and the word Pontina were unfamiliar to them. They stood in an absolute position that commanded the world, enclosed within a world of their own. The very fact that such people had begun to show interest meant Louis was becoming famous.

“Ah. I do know one thing. He’s the one who started the craze for something called the Colosseum.”

“The Colosseum. So it began there?”

It was the slave gladiator spectacle that had already begun to surge in popularity within the Empire. Quick-witted merchants had taken what existed in Louis’s territory, brought it into the Empire, and begun selling it—turning it into a trend.

“Hah. So the one who came up with such an interesting idea was that Louis.”

The Crown Prince muttered a line with genuine feeling, as if he truly had not known.