♣♣♣
AND so our legs carried us to the plaza in front of the main gate. Three merchant caravans were entering the fort, and their passengers formed a crowd with Deshmel’s residents. That made it easy to spot the two black beasts.
“I’ve never seen caravans with that mark,” I said, noticing an unfamiliar carriage.
“True, mm. That’s a new one.”
Deshmel was the world’s navel—its center. With the decline in monsters, merchants who had to suspend their trade due to the cataclysm were beginning to travel again. With Deshmel being a safe zone, what was once a military fort now served as an inn and restocking point, bringing many merchants to our door.
I was glad to have more clients, of course, and the people living in Deshmel were glad to have access to unusual goods. However, those goods were only available when merchants were around. This stressed the need for a dedicated commercial area in which they could set up shop. We needed to get on servicing and building the commercial block soon.
“It’s only a matter of time before we get adventurers and traveleeeers.”
“But I’d be sad to see Fort Deshmel so full of people, mm. It’d be hard to relax with all these strangers around, mm.”
“Yes… That’s true,” I agreed with Mirage and Jiril.
We had lots of employees who were former slaves of Edesa Kura and were uncomfortable around men. I hadn’t thought too deeply about developing Deshmel until I spoke with Dad, but maybe we should hurry. More goods meant there would be more traffic, which meant building the inn had to be a priority.
“Wait, should I start thinking about developing the town here, too…?” I pondered.
“Goodness, Holy Woman, you only realize that nooooooow?”
“Of course you should, hm. It’s going to be your town.”
“My town?!”
“And it might develop into a country, too!” Lord Revireus added. “You should become a good leader, worthy of being Renge’s bride!”
“Ack…!”
So from the Mythicals’ perspective, I should be a leader worthy of the Great Curalius’ successor! Just being called the Holy Woman isn’t enough. I need to display actual leadership skills…
I never considered that.
But if I’m going to be…worthy of Renge… Yes, that makes sense. I should try to live up to their expectations. I want to go back to Rofola someday, but thinking about it more, that’s not enough if I want to live at Renge’s side for the rest of my life. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize that…!
“Oh, what should I do?” I fretted. “I want to learn to control the Stella, but…now I need to consider developing the town, too.”
“Well, mm. How about you let your father take over for that part of the work, mm?”
“Have Dad do it?” I’d feel bad placing any more responsibility on Dad.
“Oh, that sounds like a good ideaaaaa. He was the second in command of the De Marl’s kniiiiights, wasn’t he? The top knights in such countries were involved in politiiiiics, so he’d be more familiar with it than yoooooou are.”
“True…”
“And he was the one who went around the world to spread awareness about the Sugula, mm. Other countries trust him, and even if people there start objecting, he could silence them, mm. You should let people from large cities handle urban planning, mm.”
“You have a point…”
De Marl was one of the largest countries on the human continent, and we even based the idea of the three-layered wall system on them. The two Mythicals had a point—I was essentially a country bumpkin who grew up in the sticks, while Dad lived in a big city for a good chunk of his life.
“But I feel bad just dumping that problem on him…” I fussed.
“You’re diligent to a fault, as always,” a voice cut me off.
“No, it’s just… Wait, that voice—”
“It’s been a while, Tina. Have you been well?”
“Lico!” I turned around to find Lico standing there, dressed in a casual suit.
Whoa! I haven’t seen you in forever! I thought. Still refusing to wear a skirt, huh? That’s Lico for you.
“I’m good! Have you been doing well?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’ve been so busy setting up my successor that this past year’s been pretty much a blur, but otherwise, fine,” she said casually.
“O-Oh…”
I didn’t know she’d been that busy. Apparently, she was swamped with the formalities of relinquishing her noble status, and her father insisted that if she was not getting married, she should stay home and do alchemical research. “Why are you trying to leave the country?! Stay home with your mom and dad and focus on your research! Your poor father wants to see you greet him when he comes home from work again!” her father had insisted, only for her mother to slap him.
That’s a pretty extreme family spat… Should I be privy to this? I thought after she had filled me in on the whole story.
“Your father really loves you, doesn’t he?” I said.
“I wish he would consider my age,” Lico sighed. “It gave me a headache that he’d even say that to his thirty-something-year-old divorced daughter.”
“Y-Yes, I can see what you mean…” I agreed. It didn’t sound pleasant to me either.
“My older brothers also keep insisting I stay at our family home,” Lico continued. “My mother is basically the only one who’s on my side. It’s been hell. I had to wait six months for all the paperwork to go through, and I haven’t heard a thing from Marcus…”
“Dad hasn’t been staying in touch with you?!” I gasped.
“No. Well, I can’t blame him, with how he’s been traveling all over… He always hated doing paperwork and checking in with people when we were in the knights together, so I wasn’t expecting much. I assumed he probably wasn’t dead since he’s traveling with the Mythicals,” Lico said dryly.
“I-I’m SO sorry…!”
Daaaad! At least write her a letter! You can’t leave her out to dry after proposing to her! You’re making Lico worry! You doofus!
“You should tell him off about that later, mm,” Mirage said.
“You’re right, I should. And I’ll tell Nakona about it, too,” I responded.
“I think he’s still asleep in his roooooom,” Jiril said. “Licorice, would you come with us to the second floooooor dining hall?”
“Do you mind showing me the way, Jiril?” Lico asked.
“I don’t miiiind, though I would have liked to indulge in Lord Renge’s fuuuur,” Jiril replied.
“I’m absolutely going to pat him, mm!” Mirage insisted.
“Yes, yes, go and let him give you a tooooouch,” Jiril permitted, leaving to show Lico to Dad.
I promised to talk to Lico later and headed over to the fluffiness contest. There were a lot of women there, squealing about how cute the two fluffy beasts were and petting them. Both Air and Renge looked very smug and proud of themselves, even in canine form.
“This doggy is so fluffy and soft! It smells nice too, like it’s rinsing its fur with shampoo.”
“Yeah, it smells great. It smells like the shampoo the Holy Woman makes. Does she make shampoo for dogs, too?”