Alex looked over the documents Jack had handed him one by one.
“First, the one you're looking at now came back to the Domain with me.”
Paul Gray, age 21.
Top-ranked entrant of the 341st class of the Imperial Central Academy's Department of Magic.
He continued to rank near the top of his class afterward, only to be abruptly expelled.
Alex nodded as he skimmed through the document bearing the Magic Tower's seal.
A mage was what they needed most urgently, so this was not bad.
When Alex held up the document bearing the Engineers' Federation's seal, Jack answered without needing to be asked.
“That one said they'd make their own way here.”
Make their own way....
With a meaningful smile, Alex set down the engineer's documents as well.
“Bring the mage over for breakfast tomorrow. I want to talk to him.”
For the moment, Alex rubbed at his tired eyes.
Somehow, another stage had been completed, and now he had to prepare for the next one.
“Everyone, let's call it a day and get some rest.”
After dismissing them, Alex was the first to rise from his seat.
***
At that same time, at the Guild Alliance in Haides.
The hearty-looking branch manager, James Rhine, was speaking with a grave expression.
“...Yes. That's right. Long ago, it was called Golden Carcosa.”
He was speaking into a magical device engraved with a strange inscription.
Magic Communicators had only just been developed, so each one could connect only to the single location configured when it was first installed.
Because of that, the communication devices used between Guild Alliance branches were fundamentally connected to headquarters.
In other words, the person he was speaking with was the Guild Master at the Guild Alliance headquarters.
“...Yes, yes. Understood. Then... if I hear anything else from now on, I'll report it directly to you.”
After ending the communication, the branch manager sat down with a grave expression.
The Guild Alliance was the largest organization not merely in the Empire, but across the entire continent.
For the head of such an enormous organization to personally take notice of it, Carcosa of the old days must have been a Domain of tremendous scale.
And since Haides lay directly beside it, there was no doubt that it would be heavily swept up in whatever changes occurred in Carcosa.
With so much weighing on the branch manager's mind, the lights in his office remained on until late that night.
***
The Lord's castle had begun to function like a proper household before anyone realized it.
Though things were far from perfect, new servants and maids had been hired to handle the household chores, however clumsily.
There was even a proper cook in the kitchen now.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
Alex spoke as kindly as he could, but the mage who had been summoned first thing in the morning wore an openly dissatisfied expression.
He had vivid blue hair and yellow eyes, giving him a rather sharp appearance.
Name: Paul Gray
Occupation: Mage
Special Note: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Skills: Ice Arrow, Freeze
Jack watched the two of them exchange nothing but assessing glances before quietly stepping in.
“Paul's primary duty will be defending the city.”
“Defending it? You called me here just to dump something like that on me?”
There was a reason someone like him had been forced to accept employment in a remote place like Carcosa.
He possessed an excellent grasp of theory and basic magic, but as soon as the difficulty rose even slightly, his magic had a tendency to run wild during practical use or application.
Because he had caused a major accident while enrolled and subsequently been expelled, nowhere was willing to properly employ him despite his abilities.
Exactly what sort of accident he had caused was never explained in the game or in his employment records.
All that was known was that he had frozen half of the Academy.
“If you don't like that, then what? Is there somewhere else willing to hire you for this much?”
Fine. If you don't want to do it, leave.
Seeing that Paul still had plenty of arrogance left despite his past mistakes, Alex deliberately took a hard line with him as well.
If Paul had simply accepted lower-grade commissions, he could have built up experience somehow.
Instead, his pride had made him reject lower-grade employers, and as the years passed, his circumstances had become truly pathetic.
“Come on, it's not like that's exactly what I meant.... I just meant proper work, something like....”
Paul vaguely mumbled his way through the sentence before finally shutting his mouth.
Ever since the incident at the Academy, some form of trauma had left him almost incapable of using magic other than ice magic.
Not that he had complete control over his ice magic, either. It still ran wild frequently.
‘When it went wrong, it basically meant an instant team kill....’
Still, that also meant it was just as powerful when used properly, so Alex did not care.
Jack continued listing the agreed-upon terms.
“And there is someone we'd like you to teach about magic.”
“Teach?”
“They can already use magic, but they've never received formal instruction, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you.”
“Why should I have to do something like that too?!”
No wonder the advance payment had been so high. Paul immediately began voicing his complaints.
“Do you think I'm some private tutor? Do you have any idea how much effort it took me to accumulate my knowledge and expertise?! You can't just demand them from me like a pack of thieves.”
Paul seemed quite proud of his knowledge, but frankly, it bordered on arrogance.
Was he not currently a failed mage whom no one was willing to employ?
“The person who'll be receiving your instruction belongs to an insular nonhuman race. Despite never having had the opportunity to receive an education outside their community, they possess exceptional talent....”
“So what? Does having unfortunate circumstances mean they should get to coast through life? Academies accept nonhuman races these days too.... No, wait. Being a trainee at a Magic Tower would be ten million times better than going to an Academy, so send them there instead!”
At Paul's adamant insistence that he would not do such menial work, Jack clenched his fist so tightly that the documents in his hand crumpled.
Alex, on the other hand, listened with a completely blank expression, apparently not worried in the slightest.
Just then, a guard outside the dining room spoke.
“My Lord. Aroha has arrived.”
Alex, who had not reacted at all to Paul's temper tantrum, nodded.
“Let her in.”
Paul became so enraged by Alex's attitude that he shot to his feet.
Even then, Alex merely gave him a soulless smile.
“She's the one you'll be teaching.”
“Are you even listening to what I'm saying?!”
Hearing footsteps approaching, Paul turned his head.
As though determined to reject whoever appeared, he pointed toward the entrance and shouted.
“Seeing them in person isn't going to make me soften up! A mage of my caliber reduced to a mere private tutor....”
Aroha entered with light footsteps, dressed as she usually was.
To Alex, her unique pure-white clothing looked like something a figure from Greek mythology might wear, giving her a mysterious air.
Combined with her pitch-black skin, naturally swept-up white hair, and white eyes, she looked profoundly otherworldly, but....
‘That just makes her even more beautiful.’
Thinking that, Alex glanced at Paul.
Just as expected, Paul had frozen in place, staring at Aroha with his eyes wide open.
“My goodness....”
After watching Paul's dumbstruck reaction for a moment, Aroha furrowed her brow.
Paul covered his mouth with the same hand he had just been pointing with, then looked at Alex.
“I'll do it! I absolutely will! And I'll do it well!”
Paul changed his attitude in a booming voice, then bowed so deeply before Aroha that he nearly prostrated himself.
“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Paul Gray.”
Aroha knew nothing about the courtly etiquette of the inland regions, but she could tell from the atmosphere that Paul was attempting to show respect.
However, Paul's booming voice had been loud enough to hear from outside, and Aroha had obviously heard every word of it.
So from Aroha's perspective, she could not tell whether he was mocking her or being sincere.
With an uncomfortable expression, Aroha answered briefly.
“...Aroha.”
“Aroha... Even your name is perfect.”
What's with this bastard?
Aroha shot Alex an unpleasant look, but Alex merely shrugged.
Through the game, Alex already knew everything there was to know about Paul.
Beautiful things were the most effective way to handle that arrogant mage.
“I happen to have quite a talent for teaching as well.”
Come to think of it, Paul had seemed to like Dark Elves in the game too....
‘They were enemies back then, though, so... he got drunk on the image of himself standing against something beautiful.’
In any case, the reason Paul reacted so intensely to beautiful things was his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In one sense or another, he did not want to work with anything he personally considered lacking in beauty.
Fortunately, what Paul considered beautiful was not limited solely to outward appearance.
“Making even your mind perfect by filling it with knowledge. Naturally, that's something only a mage of my caliber could accomplish. Now! Let's immerse ourselves in the beautiful world of mana, Aroha!”
Aroha looked as though she wanted to run away from Paul, who had suddenly burst with motivation, but Alex pretended not to notice.
Having undergone orthodox Academy training, Paul was exactly what Aroha, who lacked a proper foundation, needed most.
Of course, because of Paul's personality, he had never managed to properly get along with his allies.
So Alex had not expected Paul and Aroha to become friends in the first place.
“That should be enough explanation. Aroha, sit down too. Let's eat together.”
***
Since it was hardly an atmosphere suited for casual conversation, breakfast passed in awkward silence.
As soon as Alex finally finished eating and stood up, Jack apparently could not endure it any longer either and quickly followed him outside.
“Did you truly intend to hire that man?”
Jack had come to trust Alex's foresight by now, but he could not help wondering what Alex was thinking this time.
With an advance payment of the size Alex had offered, they could easily have hired a perfectly competent mid-level mage with no glaring flaws, even if that mage had not entered the Academy at the top of their class.
“Yeah. We don't need someone who's just going to come here, work for a little while, and leave. If possible, we need someone who'll settle down here.”
Someone who could not easily find employment elsewhere was more likely to endure Carcosa even if life there was difficult.
At Alex's explanation, Jack nodded uncertainly.
He understood what Alex meant, but it was a decision that only made sense when considering the very distant future.
“So that's the carriage they said they'd send over for the stagecoach service?”
After leaving the Lord's castle, Alex pointed toward the carriage standing along the road leading into the market.
It was a proper carriage, reasonably clean and sturdy.
“Ah, yes. They said they'd establish a round-trip route using that carriage once every four days. The wagons used for commercial transport would be separate.”
“And in exchange, they want a five-year contract based on the current fare?”
“...Yes.”
Jack answered with a strange expression as he rubbed the back of his neck.
Alex found himself rubbing the back of his neck as well before speaking with a sigh.
“You said the current carriage fares are... almost five times the continental average?”
“Yes. Unless they were paid at least that much, no coachmen were willing to travel all the way to Carcosa.”
Alex groaned at Jack's answer.
It was something they urgently needed.
The isolated Carcosa desperately needed contact with the outside world.
But no matter how thoroughly Alex had cleared the roads around the Farmland, it was still too much to expect ordinary residents of the Domain to travel alone.
Walking all the way to another Domain was dangerous, and the burden in terms of both time and stamina was far too great.
“Five times the normal rate doesn't sit right with me.”
“I think it's worth negotiating.”
Jack also believed the service was necessary, so even though he thought five times the normal rate was an outrageous rip-off, he could not oppose it outright.
At the same time, purchasing their own carriages was not a decision they could make lightly.
They would also have to buy horses, hire people to care for them, and employ coachmen to drive them. Considering all that, there was no guarantee the investment would even succeed.
“Either we shorten the term or lower the price.... We'll have to find a way.”
It seemed Alex himself would have to leave the Domain at least once.
No matter how much advance advice he gave Jack, Jack could not possibly deal with every situation on his own.
“We've only just started interacting with the outside world. And after spending that much at the Guild Alliance, the rumors are bound to spread even further.”
“Probably. It's embarrassing to admit, but my brother will likely spread the story around social circles too. It may not be in an entirely favorable way....”
At Jack's cautious words, Alex merely chuckled.
“As long as the fact that we paid three thousand gold up front doesn't change, I don't care.”
Prices arose from the difference between supply and demand.
‘Carcosa has money now!’
If a rumor like that began to spread, then naturally more people would come here looking to do business.
The number of suppliers would increase, while demand would remain the same unless the Domain's population suddenly doubled.
‘Then the suppliers will obviously start competing on price.’
Even in a class-based fantasy society like this one, it was a flow of capital that could not be resisted.
Realizing what he had been thinking, Alex scratched the bridge of his nose before turning away from the street.
For now, this was not a problem so urgent that it had to be solved immediately.
The normalization of the market and the development of the Domain could be left to time for a while.
[Ominous Compass]
[Time Remaining: 99 : 11 : 05]
[The compass is currently pointing east.]
What he needed to deal with now was something that could not be left to time.
In stark contrast to the streets gradually regaining their vitality, an inexplicable disaster was only four days away.