Hamilton was the last descendant of House Ruth, a family that had served this domain as butlers and retainers for generations.
A sense of duty, obligation, or perhaps guilt.
Those were the things that had shaped Hamilton until now.
But something had begun to change.
“He’s a pretty fascinating person, isn’t he?”
That was Elizabeth’s brief impression after hearing everything that had happened earlier that day.
Hamilton, who had been speaking with her in the corridor of the lord’s castle, glanced back for a moment.
Light was still spilling through the crack beneath the door to the lord’s room.
“We knew Gilbert wasn’t exactly an innocent man.”
“We did. But we just thought he was the kind of man who made sure he never took a loss, right?”
Elizabeth began chattering away.
“There was no one else willing to handle trade, so we figured there wasn’t much we could do if he skimmed a little off the top. But nooo one expected that bastard to have been taking that much.”
It was not pleasant to hear, but she was right.
Breaking through everyone’s complacency, Alex had uprooted the seed of evil that had been hiding within the domain.
He had even used what Gilbert had exploited from the residents all these years to relieve their hunger.
“I am a little worried about how long this situation will last, though.”
“….”
Hamilton silently agreed with Elizabeth’s concern.
Who would lead the merchant company next?
Yet Alex did not seem worried about that at all.
He was certainly not thoughtless, so what exactly was he planning?
“There must be… some kind of plan.”
It was a vague statement, yet strangely, Hamilton felt certain there was.
No.
More precisely, he found himself looking forward to whatever plan Alex might have and what he would do next.
‘Though my son and grandson left this land, surely… they never forgot it.’
Hamilton suddenly recalled what the previous lord had said when he sent Alex a letter.
It had been a letter telling Alex to inherit this domain, something worse than a burden, let alone an inheritance, and become its lord.
To be frank, Hamilton had never thought Alex would return to this domain after receiving such a letter.
Even if he did return, Hamilton had assumed he would merely be a coward fleeing once again, this time from discrimination on the continent.
“Hah, that old geezer of ours…. I thought he was just dreaming.”
Elizabeth, who had been as close to the elderly lord as a friend and a daughter, murmured those words with a faint smile, apparently remembering the previous lord as well.
As though proving the previous lord’s words true, Alex moved through this land with the familiarity of someone who had never forgotten it for even a moment.
It was not merely that he never got lost. He even knew delicate matters such as Gilbert’s betrayal inside and out.
Through those actions, Alex had boldly proven something before every resident of the domain that day.
Alex Goldenwood was not a traitor who had fled from this land’s curse, but a savior who had returned prepared to save it.
“It’s admirable that he happened to learn divine power too. Whew…. Everyone was really excited.”
Elizabeth was grinning with a pouch of gold containing her overdue wages in hand, as though she had already placed her trust in Alex.
Whether she had simply been blinded by gold or swept up in her affection for the previous lord was another question….
Without realizing it, Hamilton also found a smile appearing on his lips, one he seemed to have forgotten long ago.
In this stagnant, rotting cesspit of a domain, hope called expectation was beginning to bloom like a single ray of sunlight.
***
Domain : Carcosa
Domain Funds : 1387G
Economic Activity : Agriculture (Active), Commerce (Inactive), Mining (Locked)
Military Strength : Knight 1
Loyalty : 21%
Incursion Risk : Magical Beasts 95%, Barbarians 50%, (Locked)
The plan was complete.
His head felt foggy, his eyes were dry, and his fingers had gone completely stiff, but Alex himself felt refreshed.
‘Go ahead, make the difficulty as hard as you want. Like hell I’m going to sit here and take it.’
As Alex sat there staring at the status window with hollow eyes, Elizabeth and Hamilton entered the office before he knew it.
“Good mor—ning… or not. What happened to your face? What… You didn’t sleep?”
“Huh? No? I slept.”
For a whole three hours.
After giving Elizabeth that brief answer, Alex beckoned to the two of them.
“We’re going to be busy starting today, so both of you need to hurry.”
Alex handed Hamilton a stack of documents he had sorted to one side.
They were applications he had selected from among the candidates, choosing those with high growth potential.
Since they could not hire people who had received advanced education outside the domain under the current circumstances, the best option was to choose people worth teaching.
The applications were full of familiar names Alex had seen as NPCs in the game, so selecting them was not difficult.
“Interview these people yourself, Hamilton, and hire the ones who need to start earning money immediately.”
Needing money immediately meant they also had plenty of immediate uses for it.
Once the domestic market became active, Alex planned to secure a route connecting the domain to the outside world.
Peddlers would only travel through if there was a safe road, so things had to proceed step by step.
He could think about that more later….
“There’s an important problem right now.”
[Ominous Compass]
[Time Remaining : 43 : 23 : 19]
[The compass is currently pointing northwest.]
Alex swallowed dryly as he looked at the system window he could not afford to ignore.
Time was tight, and there was no room for mistakes.
They had to move according to plan.
“In two days, Magical Beasts are going to overflow from the farmland.”
Alex continued without hesitation after opening with that ominous statement.
“We’re going to use this opportunity to wipe out the Magical Beasts and reclaim part of the farmland.”
Alex pointed out the area he intended to reclaim on the map.
Thirty percent of the entire farmland.
At the same time, however, that was an area roughly equal in size to the current safe zone surrounding the lord’s castle.
In other words, he intended to double their operating area….
“….”
“….”
After hearing Alex’s absurdly ambitious plan, the two retainers looked at each other in silence.
There were so many things in what he had just said that needed to be addressed that neither knew where to start.
“Wait, first… no…. What do you mean Magical Beasts are suddenly going to come pouring over?”
“The current safe zone has been maintained since before you were born, my lord. There should be no reason for the Magical Beasts to suddenly invade… should there?”
Elizabeth and Hamilton voiced their doubts one after another.
Still, perhaps because Alex had spent an entire day raising Loyalty, it was reassuring that neither immediately objected.
“Right. That means the Magical Beasts have been living stably inside the farmland for more than twenty years. How much do you think those Orcs have multiplied in there?”
It would be difficult to convince them of the exact timing, but he could at least make them understand that it would not be strange for the Orcs to spill out at any moment.
“And we can’t spend our whole lives living in the front yard of the lord’s castle, can we?”
Just as Alex said, reclaiming the farmland was something they had to do eventually.
But it was also something they had never dared attempt because it seemed impossible.
“Elizabeth and I will handle that part for now. In the meantime, Hamilton, conduct the interviews and hire some people.”
“No, seriously…. You do understand how dangerous that place is, right?”
“Do you… have a plan?”
Seeing that they at least seemed to accept the idea of targeting the farmland, Alex grinned.
“Good. Here… I’m planning to use the reservoir dam at the edge of the safe zone.”
After spending the entire night considering dozens of possibilities, Alex had no shortage of plans.
He began explaining the best one—the plan with the highest chance of success.
They were ingenious strategies that the two, who had spent their entire lives in this cursed land, could never have imagined.
Surprising plans, yet plans that also carried a hopeful sense of possibility, began to take concrete shape through Alex.
***
The Maze Garden had once been the lord’s private garden, but was now sealed off.
Its main gate was tightly shut, wrapped several times over in chains.
Even the fencing had already been swallowed by sinister plants, which had tangled together to form the maze.
Alex’s plan began with obtaining a flower that grew there.
“You know you absolutely can’t go inside the maze, right? Seriously? Seriously?!”
Elizabeth had made such a fuss about how dangerous it was that Alex lazily waved a hand to cut her off.
Truthfully, he wanted to ditch Elizabeth too and move around alone as quickly as possible.
But if he did, he had a feeling the two retainers would bury him under their concerns until he could not get anything done.
“Enough. Enough! I told you, I’m not going inside the maze. And Hamilton, don’t you need to get moving too?”
At Alex’s impatient urging, Hamilton finally backed off with a dissatisfied expression.
Even though Alex had eliminated their hostility, he still had a long way to go.
To them, Alex was still closer to being the grandson of the man who had been their liege than a liege to whom they themselves owed absolute loyalty.
That perception could not be changed immediately, so he would have to alter it gradually.
Alex walked along the outskirts of the Maze Garden, plucking the materials he needed.
The Corpse Flower, which grew along the maze walls and looked like rotting flesh, was the key ingredient that would make this plan work.
“So, uh… what did you say this flower was called?”
“Corpse Flower.”
Elizabeth nodded as Alex answered while plucking one.
“Well, the name fits the damn thing perfectly. But how did you know this grows here? Even we don’t know what it’s called.”
Alex considered how to answer Elizabeth’s question as she followed behind him.
It was not just this flower.
He knew every nook and cranny of this domain.
But he could not reveal the source of that knowledge, which made the question difficult to answer.
“How do you think? My father told me.”
He could hardly tell her about his experience through a game, so he gave her a convenient excuse.
When he attributed it to the real Alex’s family, Elizabeth nodded.
“Grrrrrr….”
Just then, the strange growling of a carnivorous plant came from directly beyond the wall, silencing even the talkative Elizabeth.
Starting with that flower, Alex searched all over the domain and gathered various materials.
Knowing the domain inside and out made his movements extremely efficient.
Seeing Alex locate every material he needed with perfect accuracy, without even the slightest mistake, left another strong impression on Elizabeth.
‘Maybe he really can…. accomplish something…?’
With doubt and expectation mingling in her thoughts, Elizabeth asked Alex as he searched the ground.
The sight of two armored adults walking side by side with baskets of weeds in both hands was admittedly rather ridiculous.
“So if we make a potion with this and release it upstream, that’ll work, right?”
“Yeah. The reservoir is upstream, and the farmland is downstream.”
That was only natural, since the reservoir itself had been constructed to supply the irrigation channels.
“So that’s why you gave the butler that job?”
“Of course. Tch…. Two days…. Two days should be enough.”
Alex went back over the plan again, reminding himself how much time remained.
By the time they reached the now-nearby lord’s castle, Elizabeth had hauled over a large pile of firewood.
She might be rather talkative, but as long as her wages were paid regularly and on time, Elizabeth would do just about anything, making her an extremely versatile worker.
‘Besides, Elizabeth has limitless growth potential… How should I develop her this time to get the most out of her?’
In particular, Elizabeth had no growth cap on any of her combat-related stats, so if she was developed properly from the beginning, she could achieve extraordinary efficiency.
After briefly getting lost in thought, Alex refocused on the immediate problem before him.
A potion that lured Magical Beasts.
If he failed to make this potion, the entire plan would fall apart.
“…You look more like some kind of witch than a Paladin.”
Or should I say a mage?
When Alex began putting the ingredients into a large cauldron and boiling them, Elizabeth snickered and made another pointless joke.
Alex would have liked to play along with her if possible, but instead he checked the ingredients once more with a tense expression.
He knew the recipe extremely well, but actually making it with his own hands was nerve-racking in a way he had never anticipated.
As Alex mixed the ingredients with precise movements, Hamilton arrived at just the right moment.
“Oh, you’re back? Did it go well? How was it?”
Without even looking at Hamilton, Alex asked while keeping his attention fixed on the cauldron.
Hamilton held out some documents as he answered.
“The interviews went well. This is the list of newly hired employees.”
“I’ll look at that later. So, what about what I asked you to do?”
He had already narrowed down the candidates so that it would be fine no matter whom Hamilton hired.
“…Yes. As you ordered, I closed all the sluice gates on the dam.”
The most important task Alex had assigned Hamilton.
It was securing as much water as possible in the reservoir.
Only then, seeing that the plan was still proceeding smoothly without any setbacks, did Alex relax and raise the corner of his mouth into a grin.
“Good. So almost no water is flowing out right now?”
“Yes. However, if all the sluice gates remain closed like this, the reservoir’s water level will approach its limit in two days.”
How long could a dam in a place without even concrete hold out?
But two days was exactly what Alex needed, so he nodded.
“That’s enough. No—even if the dam ends up collapsing, this is something we have to do.”
Now he had to let the Corpse Flower, which had been boiled down into a porridge-like mixture, cool completely before adding the other ingredients.
Alex once again focused on the materials he had gathered in order.
Temperature control.
Exact quantities.
Order….
“Two days… should be enough.”
Whether those words were certainty or determination, even Alex could not say.