I don't believe in physiognomy.
You can't grasp everything about a person's character from their face alone.
Didn't even the physiognomists themselves advise treating it only as a reference, saying that life is something you carve out for yourself?
That was certainly the case, but.......
'Just this once, I kind of want to believe in it.'
No matter how I looked at it.
"Hup! Hup! Hnnngh!"
Layla and the word exploration just didn't fit together!
"You're! The prince! My gramps! Talked about! Right?!"
"......I am, so could you please stop the posing?"
The sight of brawny muscles rippling was visual terrorism itself.
I quietly shifted my gaze.
......There was an old man gazing at his granddaughter with loving eyes.
"Harben."
"It has been a while, Prince Abel."
The way he took off his hat was familiar.
It was the same situation as when we came to the North.
"Hup!"
......That is, if not for the Barbarian diligently posing between us.
"I'd like a bit of an explanation."
I said, pointing at Layla.
I was in such an abnormal state right now that I forgot pointing at a person was rude.
"Layla is a case where the blood of our ancestors manifested especially strongly."
He said it wasn't a common case.
And in fact, it wasn't.
After all, Northerners did look fierce by default, but not all of them boasted such a gigantic build.
If anything, Harben and Layla were the odd ones out.
"......But why is she even dressed like that?"
"She made a fuss about clothes being stifling, ho ho. Is it not nice that she is so lively?"
It'd be a lie to look at those muscles and say she lacked energy.
"Prince!"
"......Yeah, what?"
I pressed my brow and looked at Layla.
"You want me to work for you! I understand!"
"Yeah."
"But I won't follow!"
Somehow, everyone I assign starts by refusing first.
"Why?"
"I only follow orders from those I acknowledge!"
"And who are those you acknowledge?"
"The Grand Duke and Kaidel!"
I grasped Layla's standard in one go.
People stronger than her, is that it?
Freyja was a powerhouse who needed no explanation, and I'd heard that the elite knight called Kaidel also had monstrous talent.
"How do I prove my strength?"
"Spar with me and win!"
"Nice and simple. Layla, what's your level?"
"Level?!"
"Can you use aura?"
"Of course!"
Layla raised both arms and flexed her biceps.
At the same time, aura rose up.
Hm, roughly what realm is that?
"About User level."
Ignis, who had been watching from on top of the table, opened his mouth.
"Looks like she only learned aura recently. Even so, her body is ridiculously tough. The body itself could rival a fair Expert, wouldn't you say?"
Even in martial arts novels, they distinguished between external and internal training.
A fantasy world wouldn't be any different.
"Good. Then shall we go out to the garden?"
"Oh? Are we sparring, Prince?! You'll get your nose bloodied!"
I smiled and held my tongue.
Suddenly, Freyja's remark came to mind.
-As you are now, my lord husband...... you could probably subdue middling knights even fighting without magic.
Layla had only just learned aura.
She might fall into the category of middling knights.
Meaning there was a chance I could win even fighting bare-handed.
But I had no intention of fighting without magic.
Take magic away from a mage and what's left but a corpse?
Therefore.
KABOOM!!!
My victory was a sure thing.
***
"Wooooooah!!!"
Layla, launched high into the sky along with an explosion, came plummeting down.
Thanks to her hefty mass, her speed was fierce.
"Laylaaaaa!!!"
"Calm down."
Harben cried out as if wailing at the sight of his granddaughter.
If Graive hadn't been holding him back beside him, he looked ready to throw his own body under Layla to catch her.
He really is a doting grandpa.
THUUUD!!!
Soon, Layla slammed into the garden.
"Strong! Prince! I acknowledge! I, follow your orders!"
She didn't seem able to hold her body steady, but her mind was intact.
"Right, I'm counting on you. ......Just don't cause any trouble."
"Don't worry! I, follow orders well!"
Layla grinned, showing off her healthy white teeth.
Since she's going that far, let's believe her for now.
[You have answered the earnest wishes of your territory residents!]
[Buff 'Loyal Barbarian' applied!]
[The aptitude of 'Layla' grows to A!]
['Layla' gains a sixth sense for searching out valuable objects!]
......Don't pop things like this up.
It makes what I did for Anna and the Lev-Rai brothers feel faded.
A good thing is a good thing, though.
"What's all this commotion?"
At a twisted voice, I turned my head.
Short lilac hair came into view.
"Oh, if it isn't our precious company head?"
"Don't talk so slyly."
"Your reactions are fun."
"Honestly, you have such bad taste......."
Justitia said she had come to say goodbye before heading back to the capital.
"I went and looked at the facilities that popped up yesterday. ......What on earth are they?"
As befitted a merchant, it seemed she had gone to check the changes in the North with her own eyes.
"Nothing much, just the power to transform the North into a fortress city?"
"Seriously, why were you deposed?"
"How do you know it's my power?"
"Everyone here is chanting nothing but your name, Prince, you know?"
It was nice to hear.
I discussed future plans with Justitia as I saw her off.
Justitia's carriage was waiting at the manor entrance.
Cattleya, who had been standing in front of it, gave a polite bow.
"Hm? There's no...... coachman's seat?"
"You noticed. It's the automatic carriage we'll release starting this year's Holy Light Festival."
The Holy Light Festival meant the Nativity of this world, in other words, Christmas.
Of course, it had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus or Santa Claus.
It just seemed that in any world, December 25th was treated as a grand public holiday.
"The Holy Light Festival? Is it that time already?"
"There's only a week left, you know?"
"I've been living so hectically since I came here. I've lost all sense of time."
It was all the more so with nothing but white snowfields everywhere.
"How about it? Does it look like it has value as a product?"
"Is that even a question?"
In my previous life, self-driving technology had been in full development.
But I never got to see the results and was reincarnated into another world.
'And yet here I am, seeing it.'
It was thanks to the inexplicable concept of magic having developed instead of science and technology.
"If you want one, I'll bring one next time I come."
"Forget it. I won't have much reason to leave the North anyway."
"Don't refuse. ......Hm, right. Accept it as a wedding gift. Even if not right away, someday you might have occasion to go out on a carriage ride with the Grand Duke."
"You're pretty eager, huh? It's obviously not something that comes cheap."
"You've become my employer, so I should at least do some flattering."
I chuckled.
"Okay. I'll gladly accept it."
Justitia and Cattleya boarded the carriage.
"For now, I've only brought as many monster carcasses as I could load."
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"Not very long. After all, people everywhere are desperate to get their hands on them."
I scratched my chin for a moment.
"Ah, right. While you're at it, why not offer the goods to the Imperial Palace first?"
"To the Imperial Palace......?"
Justitia looked at me with puzzled eyes.
"Cassandra is greedy by nature. She always tries to snap up rare things first, even if she has to pay a fortune."
"Monster carcasses have been traded many times before, though?"
"But I bet they've never been released in bulk like this time."
The value of a resource changes with its quality and quantity.
At the same time, what you can do with it changes depending on how much of it you hold.
"Selling exclusively to them rather than splitting it among several groups will be right up Cassandra's alley. Then she'll scrape together money she doesn't even have."
"Aha....... So you need a customer to fleece as much as possible?"
The technical term for that is a 'sucker.'
"And next time, sell the goods in bulk. Inviting every group, fair and square."
"Will that be okay? If she finds out she was tricked into paying a huge sum, I could fall out of the Empress's favor."
"Doesn't matter, does it? Your trading company will set up its base in the North from now on, and the Violet Trading Company isn't in a weight class the Imperial Household can openly keep in check. And even if pressure comes?"
"My elder brother, who absolutely hates seeing the company's value damaged, will probably block it on his own."
It was a splendid calculation that let me screw over Cassandra and Justitia screw over Adikia at the same time.
"Besides, from the Imperial Household's standpoint, they can't give up the huge quantity of monster carcasses that'll pour out from now on. Like eating mustard through tears, they'll keep on trading."
"You're awfully shrewd. I think you'd have lived well even if you'd been born a merchant."
"Thanks for the compliment."
I took a step back from the carriage.
"Earn lots of gold. When you come back, I'll show you the Ancient Legacy."
"......That's a promise."
"Should we pinky swear?"
"Ew, you still believe in that kind of thing? That's child's play—"
"I did one with Anna just the other day."
"—Lovely. Children ought to be innocent, after all."
She really was a woman who was fun to tease.
"Ah, but Northern promises aren't exactly innocent. Apparently if you break one, you get an axe in the head."
"......I guess I shouldn't make promises lightly in the North."
It was just as Justitia smacked her lips with a sour look and was about to close the carriage door.
"Ah, come to think of it, I looked around the buildings earlier, and they don't have much in the way of heating measures. The buildings themselves are sturdy, so they're holding up against the cold, but...... it looked like things would get a bit rough starting with the Holy Light Festival."
"I didn't have the money to buy the heating option......."
"Pardon?"
"Well, it can't be helped. I'll deal with that in the meantime, so hurry up and earn money. You'd better earn a lot!"
"......You really are impossible to figure out."
Justitia closed the carriage door.
The carriage's lights came on, and it began to glide away on its own without a coachman.
Around the time the carriage's silhouette had completely disappeared, I muttered to myself.
"Hm, heating measures, huh."
That one was a relatively lucky problem.
Whoosh!
After all, it was an area I could cover well enough with my own body.
"It'll be training while I'm at it."
Up until now, I'd just been cranking up the firepower blindly.
This time, it'd be a battle of how delicately and finely I could control my flames.
......Let's at least make that the excuse.
"Being broke is so miserable, how's a guy supposed to live?"
Hoping Justitia would come back as soon as possible, I turned on my heel.
***
Two days had passed since Justitia left.
Every day, smiles were blooming in the North.
The newly built facilities.
The knights pouring their zeal into Graive's training.
The Lev-Rai brothers, who had neatly trimmed their beards and hair and started farming.
Even Greta, clumsily but diligently improving the tree-bark soup.
All kinds of changes were breathing life into the territory.
The sound of that laughter could be heard through the window of the office.
Freyja put down her book.
"It is good to see everyone like this."
Freyja had originally stayed in a military tent.
But after the territory gained some leeway thanks to Abel's efforts, she had cautiously moved her quarters to the Grand Duke's manor.
The knights' fervent cheers were a bonus.
......Why had they all been so happy about it? She didn't really know.
"I cannot tell you how fortunate it is that the Prince came."
Johannes, whose dark circles had faded markedly, went on.
"After all, even yesterday, it was remarkably peaceful considering we went through a Monster Wave."
The fourth wave had been repelled far more easily than the three raids before it.
It was thanks to only 50 monsters coming at them.
"Still, we must not let our guard down. My lord husband warned us, after all."
"That the sudden drop in numbers might be a sign they are preparing for the next wave....... That is what he said."
At the time he said it, Abel had looked into the air and muttered this.
-What's this? It can't be confirmed because the blue moon's power is strong? ......Still, I can see the time. The fifth Monster Wave will come on the eve of the Holy Light Festival. Don't let your guard down, everyone.
He had looked every bit like a man suffering from madness.
But to the Northerners, it was no different from a hero receiving divine revelation.
After all, whenever he reacted strangely, light inevitably came to the territory.
"What is my lord husband doing right now?"
"At this hour, he should be making the rounds of the residents' houses."
Every day, Abel was visiting the facilities and making flames.
It was a new form of magic that heated indoor spaces all day long with small flames fixed in midair.
"I hear he keeps going on and on about how nice it would be if only he had something called 'ondol.'"
"What could that be?"
"Who knows. After all, it is hardly the first time the Prince has said something curious."
The corners of Freyja's lips curved ever so slightly.
Just hearing about Abel was easing the fatigue from her studies.
Noticing that, Johannes spoke.
"Please take a short rest."
"I am sorry, Johannes. This is the first I have learned that I am someone with such poor concentration."
"It is only because you are not used to it."
This was Freyja, who could swing her sword for three days and nights straight if she set her mind to it.
Her, with poor concentration?
Not even a passing dog would believe it.
"I was the same at first. If anything, I hated even looking at books."
"You, Johannes?"
"I only opened books after I belatedly took an interest in studying. There is a saying that age does not matter when it comes to learning. Your Grace will soon find the joy in studying as well."
Johannes smiled like a father.
He was deeply grateful to Abel for gifting Freyja the zeal to study.
"Hmm......."
Freyja pressed hard between her brows.
"Hm."
Was it because her spinning vision had settled down a little?
A troublesome problem she had put off for a while came to mind.
"How are things with Germain?"
"He is staying quiet for now. ......But he keeps repeating his request to be allowed to see his wife."
"And his wife?"
"She has been requesting a visit. What should we do?"
"Let us ask my lord husband's opinion."
Freyja rose from her seat.
"After all, though he did something that would not be satisfying even if we killed him, there must be a clear reason my lord husband deliberately left him alive."
"Do you intend to go right now?"
"Yes."
Freyja strode toward the door of the office.
Johannes stared at her retreating back.
'Is it just my imagination?'
That it felt less like she wanted to consult him on official business and more like she simply wanted to go see Abel's face.
It was the moment Johannes was nodding his head at the curious thought.
Thud-bang-crash!
A rough, dull, unrefined noise rang through the manor's hallway as if to smash it apart.
Only one person could make such ferocious footsteps.
"It is Layla. Surely she had gone out exploring on His Highness's orders......."
"Princeee!!! Where are youuu?!!!"
Johannes's words were drowned out by the thunderous roar.
"Jackpot! Jackpot! I found a jackpooot!!!"
Freyja grabbed the doorknob.
"It seems something big has happened. I had better tell my lord husband quickly."
"Ah, yes......."
Freyja swiftly moved toward the direction of Layla's voice.
Johannes, left alone in the office.
He scratched his cheek.
"Hmm....... That is the end of studying for today."
And it seemed it would be hard to start the lessons again for a while.
Once again, a new wind was blowing into the North.