Episode 55

Kim Hyunwoo, who had been talking with a dwarf for a while, soon checked the notification that popped up in front of him.

Another day passed, and Kim Hyunwoo was able to meet the ‘Expedited Delivery Dwarf’, a character that existed in the settings, face to face.

“Hello!”

At a glance, she was short, but Kim Hyunwoo murmured to himself, seeing a woman whose presence and large chest starkly contrasted with her height, making it clear she was no child.

“…Big.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just saying you’re quite tall for a dwarf.”

Kim Hyunwoo, who would normally never make such a mistake, blurted out an excuse, dumbfounded by the unexpected size.

“Wow… Our Lord knows how to please a dwarf-”

The dwarf, seemingly very pleased, giggled and handed a document to Kim Hyunwoo.

“But in the end, you still have to pay the exact amount. No discounts, right?”

“I understand. Where should I sign?”

“Please sign here and here. And at the same time, you can load the payment into the empty cart.”

Kim Hyunwoo, seeing that the territory residents he had hired in advance were all diligently moving resources, immediately signed.

“Wow! Thank you so much!”

The ‘Expedited Delivery Dwarf’, who introduced herself as Gwyn, bowed with a satisfied smile, soon after confirming that all resources were unloaded to one side.

“Now! Since I have to deliver the payment, I’ll be on my way!”

With a lively laugh, she vanished like the wind.

Kim Hyunwoo, staring blankly at her departure, thought to himself without realizing,

‘It wasn’t for nothing that people praised the Expedited Delivery Dwarf.’

Of course, having played Arteil for a long time, Kim Hyunwoo was not unaware of the Expedited Delivery Dwarf who introduced herself as Gwyn.

However, Kim Hyunwoo had not been particularly interested because she was not a recruitable hero but merely a character that existed in the settings and with whom a few words could be exchanged.

Having met her, Kim Hyunwoo slightly understood why some of the community’s veterans were so fond of the Expedited Delivery Dwarf.

Thus, Kim Hyunwoo, who had been staring blankly at the spot where Gwyn disappeared,

“My Lord?”

could hear Elena’s voice, who was waiting beside him.

“Oh, yes?”

“No, you just seemed to be spacing out.”

“Oh, did I?”

“Yes. Since meeting that small dwarf. You’ve seemed to be spacing out…?”

He spoke as if he didn’t know, but his half-open eyes seemed to know everything.

“No, well, since the resources have arrived, I was thinking of getting down to business.”

Kim Hyunwoo, turning his gaze away slyly and speaking as if to lay down a steel plate on his face, dodged Elena’s suspicion (?) and immediately called a guard to start directing how to utilize the resources piled up like a mountain.

“What could be big…”

“……”

Kim Hyunwoo had to endure Elena’s oddly deadpan gaze until the end of his instructions to the guard…

The day after the resources arrived from the Tesnoka territory.

Kim Hyunwoo looked at the notification window that had begun to obscure his view, smiling contentedly.

The last time he checked, the development level was around 300, but with the opening of the Labyrinth, it had doubled to over 600 in an instant, and the population of the territory, which was in the 2,000s, also surpassed 4,000 in no time.

It was an incredible rate of development for just a few days.

“Is this alright?”

“What do you mean?”

As Kim Hyunwoo smiled at that, he asked upon hearing Elena’s voice, and she, seemingly cautious, said,

“Surely, the territory growing is a good thing… but I wonder if we’re expanding too quickly. Of course, you, as the Lord, must have thought this through.”

“…Hmm. I do think it’s reasonable to feel uneasy about it.”

Kim Hyunwoo neatly affirmed Elena’s words.

Her words were not wrong, after all.

‘In fact, it would be better to start focusing on maintaining public order at this point.’

There are many important things to consider when managing a territory in Arteil.

But as the residents are the most important, Arteil requires careful effort to ensure they do not leave the territory.

As said several times, the workforce comes from the residents.

‘Of course, the territory is currently overflowing with mercenaries.’

In the Lartania territory, there were an estimated 5,000 mercenaries, and their numbers were increasing in real-time.

In essence, this means the territory has a workforce of over 9,000.

However, despite the large number of people, unfortunately, mercenaries could not be used as labor force.

Mercenaries are too expensive to employ as labor, especially now with the opening of the Labyrinth city.

Of course, Kim Hyunwoo, who currently has a lot of money, could afford it, but he preferred not to resort to such measures.

After all, money is not infinite, and to restore the territory to its former state, 1 million Gold Coins was not considered a large amount.

Furthermore, Kim Hyunwoo had already spent about 400,000 Gold Coins in reality.

The reason was due to the construction of the secondary walls.

Initially, when Kim Hyunwoo first built the walls, he surrounded only the vicinity of the castle, not the entire Lartania territory.

The reason was, of course, because the entire territory of Lartania was very large.

Moreover, from Kim Hyunwoo’s perspective, who had to start everything from scratch, there was no need to encircle the vast land with walls immediately.

But now, with the opening of the Labyrinth city, the secondary walls were a necessary step for Kim Hyunwoo to take, so he was spending excessively to construct them quickly.

‘Of course, even with this, it has only covered about 40% of the original territory.’

Since the territory’s landmass is so large, spending more Gold Coins became wasteful, so Kim Hyunwoo decided to compromise at this point.

In essence, Kim Hyunwoo was expanding the territory using its labor force rather than increasing soldiers to strengthen its foundation, knowing Elena’s concerns, he pondered for a moment before asking,

“Is public order starting to deteriorate?”

“…So far, it hasn’t been significantly noticeable. But if the influx of mercenaries continues like this…”

Kim Hyunwoo nodded at Elena’s words.

Indeed, as she said, even if not immediately, it was certain that public order in the territory would deteriorate over time.

In fact, it was already being maintained too well.

The mercenaries had already increased to over 4,000, compared to only 200 soldiers.

Even those were stretched thin across the first tier’s rest area, the castle gate, and the Lord’s castle security, so if public order begins to decline, the situation could escalate to the worst.

Firstly, if public order drops, no matter how high the happiness level, the rate at which it plummets would be unreasonable.

In essence, Kim Hyunwoo’s territory was in a state of very poor foundation due to building up too quickly.

“If that’s the case, it should still be alright.”

“…Is that so?”

Yet, knowing all this, Kim Hyunwoo spoke as if it was alright.

Because he had a plan for everything.

“Yes. So, for now, I’d like you, Elena, to do what you can to maintain public order. I’ll delegate the related authority to you.”

“That means…”

“Exactly as it sounds, you don’t have to report everything and can make decisions autonomously. I trust you.”

Following Kim Hyunwoo’s words,

“…Ahem, I’ll do my best.”

Elena, turning her gaze away and briefly smiling, left the office after saying that.

And so, another three days passed.

‘Hmm, I thought it would come eventually, but if it hasn’t come to this point, I might have no choice but to recruit more soldiers.’

As Loria gave the warning, Kim Hyunwoo sighed with regret.

Kim Hyunwoo smiled at the notification that popped up as if he had been waiting for it.