At last, his ankle had completely healed.
Lightly swinging his recovered leg, Alex leisurely drank plain water on the terrace of the lord’s castle.
Domain Funds : 1971G
Economic Activity : Agriculture (Active), Commerce (Inactive), Mining (Locked)
Military Strength : Knight 1, Guards 12
Loyalty : 31%
Incursion Risk : Magical Beasts 82%, Barbarians 50%, (Locked)
Alex enjoyed a brief rest as he looked over the domain, which had finally begun to settle into place.
Children ran and played across the reservoir dam, which had now become a completely safe area.
The farmland and mill were being prepared for full-scale cultivation and operation.
Beyond the status window, he could even see the road that had been cleared and tidied after the brush was cut away.
At this rate, the day when his plain water was replaced with fragrant tea did not seem far off.
“But why have you not closed the reservoir’s sluice gates?”
Hamilton, who was watching the same scene behind him, asked.
Alex gave a vague answer.
“Uh… just in case.”
The Domain of Carcosa was a fairly large territory located in the eastern part of the continent, blessed with abundant water and favorable land.
Of course, most of it was sealed off, but on paper, the territory designated as Carcosa was enormous.
‘In the setting, wasn’t Carcosa the second-largest domain in the Empire?’
There were two neighboring domains alone that bordered the river upstream of the reservoir.
This time as well, there was a high chance that one of those two would come first.
One was a friendly and reasonable domain.
The other….
‘A bunch of fucking scumbags.’
No matter who showed up, it was always best to prepare as thoroughly as possible.
“My lord.”
Hamilton’s call pulled Alex from his thoughts.
Along the newly cleared road in the distance, Elizabeth and the guards came into view.
Behind them were a dozen or so soldiers carrying a flag, along with two mounted men.
“They’re here.”
The unfamiliar troops were openly flying their banner.
The moment Alex saw the emblem of a legendary creature resembling both a serpent and a fish, he set his cup down with a sharp clack.
Of all people, those assholes had come.
***
The pleasure city of Hari.
The finest wine on the continent and beautiful women.
It was also famous as a city where artists gathered.
The fact that it bordered the infamous Carcosa provided artists and the newly wealthy with a fresh sense of excitement, making the city even more popular.
Hari’s lord knew exactly how to exploit that peculiar appeal.
“Kill him! Kill him!”
“Crush him!”
An illegal fighting arena hidden away in a secluded location.
The frenzied roars of spectators erupted from every direction.
But there were no fighters inside the arena.
“S-save me! Save me! P-please… Aaaaaaargh!”
Inside were Orcs that had happened to wander out of Carcosa—and a single slave.
A man leisurely drinking wine as he enjoyed the screams and stench of blood had been grinning, but his expression turned slightly annoyed.
“What did you say, Jack? Something… about Carcosa?”
Viscount Diego, lord of the domain containing Hari, barely shifted his heavy body and asked the retainer standing beside him again.
Jack answered in a businesslike voice.
“The flow of water has been unusual lately.”
Hari’s wine was so famous that it was sold as one of the finest vintages in the Empire.
The grapes themselves were excellent, but the most important factor was the groundwater used to make the wine.
Yet starting about a week ago, the groundwater had suddenly begun dropping at a noticeable rate.
“What does that have to do with Carcosa?”
An ordinary person might not have understood, but that was hardly something the lord of this land should be asking.
Holding a mountain of documents that looked completely out of place in their surroundings, Jack suppressed his emotions.
“Water naturally flows from higher ground to lower ground. But if the lower area is already filled with water, then the water above cannot flow down into it.”
“So?”
“…Hari, which lies upstream, has abundant groundwater because Carcosa’s reservoir downstream has always held a large amount of water.”
If that groundwater had suddenly begun disappearing, it meant something had happened to the reservoir.
Diego clicked his tongue after missing the highlight of the slave being torn apart because he had been listening to Jack.
“Ah, so what?! What do you want me to do about it?”
“…If something has happened in the Domain of Carcosa, you need to investigate.”
If the reservoir had collapsed, their groundwater would soon run dry.
“If that happens, everything from producing high-quality grapes to making wine will be affected.”
If they did not want to ruin both this year’s harvest and wine production, they would at least have to rebuild Carcosa’s dam.
Despite this being a moment that could determine the fate of the domain’s sole specialty product, Jack, who oversaw the domain’s commerce, was the only one who felt any sense of urgency.
The other retainers around Diego were all too steeped in alcohol and violent entertainment to show the slightest interest.
Jack clenched his fist as he wondered whether the rumors that Hari’s illegal income had recently surpassed its profits from wine sales might actually be true.
He was ambitious himself, but at the very least, he did not want to cross the line as a human being.
“But….”
At that moment, one of the retainers, whose appearance was every bit as unpleasant as the lord’s, spoke with a drunkenly flushed face.
“Doesn’t Carcosa have a gold mine?”
Severin.
The lord’s right-hand man and the administrator in charge of the fighting arena.
He gave a greasy smile, his filthy gaze suggesting ulterior motives.
“Oho… Right. That place used to be famous for having more gold than trees.”
Only then did Lord Diego show interest in Carcosa.
“If something has changed over there, perhaps we could bring back some gold.”
“Indeed. I see.”
Watching the lord finally show interest at Severin’s words, Jack’s emotions, which he had been suppressing until now, finally burst out.
“That isn’t the issue right now…!”
“Surely gold matters more than some damned wine!”
Jack managed the wine exports, Hari’s legitimate source of income.
Severin managed the fighting arena, its illegal source of income.
Annoyed by their confrontation, Diego waved his hand dismissively.
Either way, did they not both agree that someone needed to visit Carcosa?
The lord quickly ordered an envoy prepared, intending to sit back and collect whatever gold he could.
***
Alex knew perfectly well that Hari’s envoy had come for precisely that reason.
Recalling a cutscene he had seen hundreds of times in the game, Alex alternated his gaze between the blustering Severin and the cautious-looking Jack.
“What’s this? Hari came all the way here in person, and instead of the lord, some green brat is sitting there?”
Severin did not even know that Carcosa’s lord had changed and made a fool of himself by demanding that the lord come out while Alex sat right in front of him.
The Hari delegation was hardly composed of people with enough standing to order a lord around, yet they behaved brazenly anyway.
“This is Lord Alex Goldenwood, Lord of Carcosa.”
“What?! N-no… Ahem, hmm… No, if the lord changes, you ought to send word that he’s changed… Anyway! It seems you’re living better than I expected?”
Only after Hamilton’s explanation did Severin look slightly flustered, but he soon returned to his shameless attitude.
He had entered through the newly cleared road, so he must have seen the residents exchanging gold in the market.
A normal person would have thought, I could make a fortune trading here!
But….
“Do you have any idea how much damage our domain has suffered because of the curse caused by your family? Hm?”
A man like Severin, whose job revolved around illegal dealings, would naturally think only of extorting them instead.
But rather than argue or get angry, Alex calmly looked at the man standing beside Severin.
Name : Jack Bex
Affiliation : Hari
Special Notes : Oath
Skills : Golden Hand, Hawk Eye
Even a rotten neighboring domain had useful talent.
Jack possessed the insight to accurately grasp situations, skills that ensured he only made profitable deals, and a trait that made him take responsibility for his word once given.
There was nothing more foolish than letting talent like that slip away.
The earlier an insightful character was recruited, the more useful he became.
“If you have any conscience at all! The moment you finally had enough to feed yourselves, you should have immediately compensated the neighboring domains…! Especially Hari, which has suffered damage from Magical Beasts crossing over! Isn’t that only proper?!”
Severin’s agitated voice continued without attracting anyone’s attention.
Alex could hear Elizabeth and the guards whispering behind him much more clearly, so he glanced back.
“What the hell is he talking about?”
“He’s telling us to hand over our gold.”
“What kind of fucking—!”
The moment she heard that he wanted their gold, Elizabeth flared up and stepped forward, only for the guards to quickly cover her mouth.
Watching them, Alex smiled with resignation.
It was a little troublesome that Hari had come instead of the reasonable domain.
But life was all about high risk and high return.
If he could use this opportunity to acquire Jack, stabilize trade, and make money on top of that, then this was actually an opportunity.
“Isn’t this all the price of the insane things your great-grandfather did? Hm?! Why should our domain have to suffer because of it?! We intend to hold you fully and unequivocally responsible for—”
Severin did not even hesitate to make remarks bordering on insulting Alex’s ancestors.
House Goldenwood was still a Count’s family, which showed just how lowly Carcosa was regarded on the continent.
Alex, who had barely been listening to Severin’s rambling, raised a hand and stopped him.
“But you know, now that you say that, there’s something I find rather strange.”
Alex continued in an utterly calm tone.
He had already decided what to do.
Now it was time to slowly scatter some bait that would hook Jack.
“Do His Imperial Majesty and His Holiness the Pope know that your domain operates an illegal fighting arena using Magical Beasts?”
The color instantly drained from Severin’s face.
The arena might rake in enormous sums of money, but it was only open to wealthy VIPs accustomed to under-the-table dealings across the continent.
It was an extremely secretive place that mediocre figures could not even approach, which was precisely why such enormous amounts of money changed hands there.
‘But how the hell does this brat… know about it?!’
Flustered, Severin denied it first.
“N-no such thing exists! How dare you make such a false accusation!”
His speech had become a little less polite, but Alex generously decided to overlook that.
After all, he was about to empty their pockets.
“Really? If that’s how you want to play it… then I don’t think I have anything more to discuss with a mere administrator like you.”
At Alex’s words, Hamilton handed Severin a small box at precisely the right moment.
“Not you. This is something the lords should discuss between themselves. Give my regards to the Lord of Hari.”
It was practically an order to leave, but Severin had nothing more he could say.
Carcosa, rumored to be so ruined that it would not be strange if it collapsed tomorrow, was functioning far better than expected.
‘Even if the accusation has no evidence… the Emperor might start suspecting Hari…!’
One wrong word could jeopardize not merely the gold he hoped to take, but also the fighting arena that was making him a fortune.
Once the matter grew that large, there would be no way to contain it.
It was an argument Severin had no choice but to retreat from.
“…You’ll regret this!”
Leaving behind a third-rate villain’s line with neither manners nor dignity, Severin disappeared.
However, Alex could feel a sharp gaze coming from Jack, who had been standing beside him.
The administrator responsible for all of Hari’s wine sales and domain commerce.
‘I really want that talent….’
Had Gilbert, the only man who had handled trade in Alex’s domain, not just disappeared?
In this situation, Alex was not aiming only for Hari’s money.
He wanted its talent as well.
Unaware that Alex was coveting something entirely different, Hamilton asked the moment they disappeared.
“…Are they truly doing something like that?”
Hamilton had spent his entire life in a domain where Magical Beasts had ruined everything.
He could hardly believe there was a place using those horrifying creatures as a means of making money.
Alex could understand how Hamilton must feel, so he answered with a slightly bitter expression.
“Yeah. They put a few captured Magical Beasts and a slave into the same arena and enjoy watching what happens.”
Not a trained martial artist.
Just a slave.
It was obvious what kind of scene would unfold inside that arena.
“Then we should report them immediately! We shouldn’t be discussing anything else with those lunatics!”
Elizabeth shot to her feet as well, speaking harshly in anger.
Alex had expected that reaction and leaned back leisurely in his chair.
“We will report them, but later. We need to shut the arena down immediately, but I already have a plan for that too.”
Alex savored the plain water in his cup as though it had already turned into wine.
A piece of trash had kindly appeared whom he could strip bare without feeling the slightest pang of conscience.
He needed to use his head very carefully.
“Hari is an incredibly wealthy domain. We can’t just let the Emperor confiscate all that money, can we?”
First, they should squeeze them dry to the marrow.
Then report them and let the truth come out.
The Empire had abandoned Carcosa first anyway, so Alex would not feel guilty about taking his cut before that happened.
Of course, for the moment, he also intended to stop the unethical fighting arena from operating as quickly as possible.
“That man Jack is quite useful. I already planted the bait about the arena… so he’ll definitely react.”
Alex had deliberately revealed that he already knew about the fighting arena.
Now all he had to do was wait for Jack to make his move.
If Jack was capable of reading the board, he would absolutely come to meet Alex.
“He’ll probably want to use me as an outside force too.”
Insight was Jack’s specialty above all else.
Alex had already generated more than 1,500G in profit within a short period, meaning he had fulfilled the prerequisite for recruiting Jack.
Jack would surely recognize Alex and Carcosa’s potential and approach him first with a proposal.
Hamilton and Elizabeth could not understand why Alex sounded so certain.
But a voice from one of the guards outside immediately proved his words.
“My lord. Administrator Jack Bex of Hari has requested a private audience.”