About an hour earlier, immediately after Argos was defeated.
Alex felt cold sweat dripping from his body.
The sensation of the sword clenched tightly in his hand piercing through that enormous eyeball was still vivid.
The breath he had unconsciously been holding burst out raggedly.
“Huff…. Huff….”
Argos, who had been screaming with something closer to a monstrous shriek, slowly began collapsing into the acidic liquid.
As the force of her fall yanked the sword free and blood gushed from the split yellow eyeball, Alex felt bile rising in his throat at the sight.
[Hidden Enemy : Argos Defeated]
[Hidden Reward : 100 Coins Awarded]
[Skill proficiency increased through actions surpassing your will.]
[Radiant Light Lv.3]
[Holy Sword Lv.4]
[Holy Sword Lv.5]
.
.
.
But the system windows pouring down so densely that they nearly blocked his vision finally brought Alex back to his senses.
“My lord!”
Elizabeth hurried over and yanked Alex away.
The enormous Magical Beast toppled backward, splashing acidic liquid in every direction.
Then the massive body of the now-powerless Magical Beast slowly fell onto it as well and began gradually melting.
‘Thank God it doesn’t melt wood or brick….’
How much work would it take to clean the place well enough to use the mill again?
Alex blankly entertained that thought as he waved away the system windows chaotically filling his vision.
It seemed better to just check the consolidated information in the status window later.
“Dame Elizabeth, are you hurt anywhere?”
Only then did Alex finally look at Elizabeth and become aware of the throbbing pain in his own ankle.
Anyway, I guess we handled it within the plan…?
Just as Alex finally began settling his confusion, another system window appeared before his eyes.
[Hidden Shop Revealed!]
[Hidden Shop Location]
[Lord’s Bedroom (01:20:00)]
“Yes, well. Considering I got thrown once, I’m fi—”
Elizabeth answered him, but Alex barely heard her.
His attention was completely taken by the words Hidden Shop and the time limit displayed in the newly appeared system window.
“What?!”
Are you kidding me? This isn’t a world with cars. You expect me to get back there in that time?!
Despite his complaints, the timer mercilessly continued ticking down.
Seeing Alex react in horror, Elizabeth also became flustered.
“…What? No, I’m not particularly injured or anyth—”
“We need to get back, now!”
The Hidden Shop.
He had only used it once, so he still had no clear idea what exactly it sold.
But one thing was certain….
[Ominous Compass]
[The compass is currently observing the future.]
He had bought this suspicious compass there, and the damn thing was already trying to peer into the future again the moment the incident ended.
Elizabeth, thinking Alex had been startled by her injury, felt a small flicker of emotion.
It did not last long.
“Support me! We need to get back to the office, now!”
“…What?”
When Alex brazenly held out his arm, Elizabeth’s eyes rapidly went dull.
Alex, already obsessed with reaching the Hidden Shop, did not notice Elizabeth’s subtle change at all.
An element that had never existed in the original game, and items that could help him.
If the Hidden Shop dealt in things like this, he absolutely could not afford to miss it.
“Come on, come on! Let’s go!”
“……Yes.”
***
Thanks to the dead-eyed Elizabeth, Alex was able to return at high speed.
Leaving the residents’ cheers behind, Alex headed straight back to the castle and saw guards standing watch before the castle gate, which had previously been empty.
[Military Strength : Knight 1, Guards 6]
Hamilton really is good at his job.
After acknowledging the guards, Alex finally released Elizabeth’s arm.
“W-wait… You’re going inside like this?!”
Elizabeth spoke in alarm as Alex immediately tried to head to his room.
She did not even have time to feel upset about failing to properly protect him as his only Knight, or about how little interest he showed in her injuries.
Alex seemed to have no interest even in his own injury and was behaving like a man possessed by work.
[Lord’s Office (00:06:10)]
Watching the timer with barely six minutes remaining, Alex limped onward.
If possible, he wanted to avoid wasting any more time and open the shop with at least a minute left to think.
Elizabeth and Hamilton, unaware of the reason, were filled with complicated emotions over why he would sacrifice himself this much for the domain.
They almost felt guilty for having once treated him as an outsider.
“I’m busy! This much will heal if I leave it alone!”
Leaving his two worried retainers behind, Alex immediately shut the office door behind him.
The moment he spotted an ornate chest conspicuously radiating brilliant light from one side of the room, Alex rushed over.
Inside the chest lay two shabby-looking items.
Bell of the Patron Saint
Protects the surrounding area with divine power.
Price : 150 Coins
Shield of the Patron Saint
Protects the surrounding area with divine power.
Price : 100 Coins
“Are you kidding me….”
You expect me to buy something based on a description like this?
After grumbling inwardly, Alex glared at the two products with identical descriptions and different prices.
[Lord’s Office (00:02:30)]
Once again, he had to make a decision after only a very short period of thought.
There had to be a reason their prices differed.
One was a shield, an equipment item.
The other was a bell that would have to be installed as a structure.
Alex compared the two before picking up the bell after a brief hesitation.
[Bell of the Patron Saint]
[Protects an area with divine power, preventing incursions by Magical Beasts.]
[Bound to the area where it is first installed. The effect will be lost if it is destroyed or moved.]
[Price : 150 Coins]
Just because land could not be taken away did not mean it could automatically be put to proper use, but that was enough for Alex.
He had not reclaimed 100% of the farmland yet, and Magical Beasts still remained somewhere within it.
In this situation, protecting an entire area was clearly more important than protecting one particular person.
[Purchase Complete]
[The location of the next Hidden Shop will be revealed once enough Coins have been accumulated.]
Is it going to sell things like this every single time?
The descriptions were arbitrary, and even the number of products was arbitrary.
There was no way to prepare for any of it.
Alex watched the chest disappear with lingering regret when a knock sounded at the door.
“May I enter, my lord?”
It was Hamilton’s voice.
Alex was sitting in the corner of the room holding a shabby bell like an idiot, but since his ankle hurt anyway, he decided to stay where he was.
“Come in.”
At first, Hamilton had simply knocked and entered, but this time he waited until Alex properly gave permission before opening the door.
Seeing the bandages and wooden splints in his hands, Alex figured he had come to treat him and felt rather pleased.
This is all thanks to the Loyalty and Funds I’ve built up, isn’t it?
“….”
Unlike the carefree Alex, Hamilton wanted to ask him all kinds of things and hear the answers.
How had he thought of such a plan?
When had he begun planning it?
Had he not been afraid?
Why was he going this far?
Yet when Hamilton actually saw Alex sitting alone in the corner of the room, he found himself at a loss for words.
Alex did not seem to care about his own dignity in the slightest.
“Oh, right. Good timing. Sit down for a second.”
Alex quickly beckoned Hamilton over.
Caught off guard, Hamilton ended up sitting on the floor as well and carefully examined Alex’s ankle.
“Is there anyone among the residents who knows how to operate a mill?”
Alex was more curious about that than his own injury.
To Hamilton, it truly seemed as though Alex’s only concern was managing the domain.
“They may not possess complete knowledge, but there should be some who know at least a little.”
“Good, that’s enough. Put together a list of them for me.”
Alex did not remember every resident, but he remembered the useful personnel, so all he had to do was choose from among them.
Cultivating the farmland was a long-term plan.
For now, he only needed to establish the basic framework necessary to get the mill operating normally. The rest could be considered later.
The immediate importance of the farmland was not merely a matter of production.
“Bring me that map and a pen.”
When Alex gestured toward the desk, Hamilton stopped midway through wrapping the bandage and stood up.
There was a map lying there that looked roughly hand-drawn, yet perfectly marked the geographical characteristics of the lord’s castle and the farmland.
Judging from all the scribbles covering it, Alex appeared to have drawn it himself for taking notes.
“As of today, the safe zone of the Domain of Carcosa runs… from here to here.”
Hamilton was once again rendered speechless as he watched Alex draw a long line across the map with a quill in one swift motion.
The moment he saw the map, Hamilton immediately understood why this reckless lord had gone so far.
“The road… leading outside the domain now falls within the safe zone.”
Correct.
Alex’s eyes lit up as though to say exactly that, and he nodded.
“Right. Now that Argos is dead, the Orc population in the farmland won’t increase anymore. Elizabeth and I are going to start clearing the road immediately.”
Then exchanges with the outside world should become much more stable.
Hamilton had no choice but to swallow the many questions circling in his mind.
Hamilton’s questions belonged to the past.
Alex’s actions were aimed toward the future.
“It won’t be easy, but it isn’t impossible.”
They might have nothing to export, but they had plenty they needed to import.
And this domain possessed gold.
A domain where high-quality chunks of gold practically circulated like currency.
That alone was enough incentive to attract outside peddlers.
As though swept up in Alex’s momentum, Hamilton asked a question about the future.
“But who would willingly come here?”
Alex gave him a triumphant smile and shook the Bell of the Patron Saint.
Though small, it produced an exceptionally loud sound, yet its strange resonance was somehow clear and beautiful.
“They’ll want to come.”
The reservoir had drained rapidly, so people upstream—that is… people in other domains—would probably think some kind of calamity had occurred here.
Though what had actually occurred was not a calamity, but a variable.
“You think they’ll be able to resist coming to see?”
A cursed domain where cultists threatening humanity had established themselves.
There was bound to be someone interested in the new variable that had appeared there.
“Whoever comes, we just have to treat them ve~ry well, show them that our domain is still alive and functioning, give them some gold, and send them on their way.”
Wherever there was gold, something was bound to gather around it.
Before that happened, all they needed to do was firmly stabilize the farmland they had secured through this incident.
“Hamilton, find out what the residents need most. Clothes and spices… things like that would be the basics, right?”
Alex, who had been enthusiastically explaining everything, suddenly noticed Hamilton sitting silently.
He could not read the man’s expression at all, and somehow the bandage Hamilton had tied so firmly seemed to be making his ankle hurt even more….
[Loyalty : 25%]
The Loyalty he had raised to 21% thanks to his Epithet was slowly creeping even higher.
That was proof that the residents’ perception of him within the domain was changing.
And the butler before him was probably experiencing a change of heart as well.
“What? Were you moved by my plan or something?”
Looking down at the tightly wrapped bandage around his ankle, Alex asked in a joking voice.
Hamilton carefully lowered Alex’s foot before answering in his usual calm tone.
“To be precise… I reflected upon myself.”
Reflected?
At Alex’s puzzled expression, Hamilton shifted his posture.
Hamilton respectfully knelt on one knee before his liege.
“I would be lying if I said I never doubted your true intentions, my lord.”
Because your grandfather was my only liege.
At Hamilton’s added words, Alex tilted his head with a somewhat awkward feeling.
I don’t remember ever seeing a script like this in the original game….
“From this moment onward, I, Hamilton Ruth, shall serve Lord Alex Goldenwood as my lord… my one and only liege, and the last I shall ever serve.”
For the first time, Alex was left speechless at the sight of Hamilton pledging his loyalty.
Not his grandfather’s retainer.
A retainer who served Alex himself.
Feeling strangely unsettled, Alex hurriedly fixed the sloppy posture he had been sitting in.
He had thought the word Loyalty was merely a ceremonial system term.
At best, he had expected trust.
But sincere loyalty….
Facing a middle-aged man kneeling before him somehow made his face feel strangely warm.
“…Thank you. I’m glad to hear you say that.”
It was a moment that made all the hard work he had put in feel worthwhile.
And now that things had reached this point, at the very least, it seemed unlikely that his life would be threatened inside his own castle.
Along with that relief came a strange stirring in his chest.
Following that swelling feeling, even larger plans began appearing in his mind one after another.
“Elizabeth worked hard this time, so give her a little extra bonus.”
“I was already planning to do so.”
Not, That would be a good idea.
But, We should.
Alex could not decide whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that Elizabeth was someone who could be handled with money.
Anyway, even if there were only two of them, what if workers capable of doing the work of more than a hundred men had already fallen into his hands this quickly?
There were hundreds of things he wanted to try.
‘No… things I have to do.’
In this horrific difficulty, where even perfect preparation still produced one disastrous variable after another, he had to do everything he possibly could.
Facing the upheaval that was bound to come, Alex instead raised the corners of his mouth with confidence.
“Then, Hamilton. Let’s work overtime.”