Chapter 11
IN THE MAIN TOWER of Castle Getaeus…
The bright morning sun lit my room on the top floor. I opened the window and looked over my castle for the first time in a long time. The night before, there’d been a party to celebrate our return after fifty days away.
“It looks like a totally different castle now…”
“It really does. The dwarves sure are hard workers,” said a girl in a maid’s uniform, busily cleaning up my breakfast. It was Mora, and she seemed to be enjoying herself. The area around Castle Getaeus had actually changed dramatically while I was away.
The castle wasn’t very big in the first place, but it was built on a narrow ledge halfway up a steep mountain cliff. Much of the mountain behind the ledge had been chiseled away, and trees had been cleared, creating a semicircular plateau with a radius of about three hundred meters.
The original castle base had been left in place, but the land around it had been excavated about ten meters downward. The new arrangement looked a bit like a two-tiered wedding cake. A thick castle wall had been built around the newly hewn, green-hued lower level of the castle.
Incidentally, the new, lower-level castle wall had been dubbed the outer wall, and the land inside of it the lower courtyard. The castle wall around the already-existing upper level (what I was looking at now) was now called the inner wall, and inside of that was an upper courtyard.
The upper courtyard, originally the only courtyard, was quiet now. The lower courtyard bustled with dwarves and humans. About half of the humans were from the Schultz clan, and the other half were laborers hired from Relis City, I guess?
Anyway…
This place was originally a fort that we’d simply glorified by calling it a castle. “But now, this is a real castle, worthy of the name. I can really be proud of it.”
“Yes! Everyone was surprised and pleased. You really are amazing, Mister Geo!”
“It’s the dwarves who are amazing… Although I guess I helped by casting spells to make giants and stone materials.”
As always, Mora was generous with her compliments to me. It was a bit embarrassing, but it did feel good.
“But I think this castle is what it is because of you.” Even though Mora had stayed up late serving and cleaning after the party, she didn’t show an ounce of fatigue in her cheerful smile. Just watching her made me feel right at home in the completely transformed castle.
✦ ✦ ✦
The negotiations with the dwarves and the duke of Filsand had both been big successes. We’d achieved our goals of an agreement to build a trade route and form an anti-daemon alliance. I got a skilled blacksmith from Axeholm, and new party members in the form of a diplomat and warmaster.
All in all, the expedition had been a huge success.
We also got some key information when Reyha heard about the so-called King of Daemons from the daemonists. Up until now, we’d thought that there were an infinite number of daemons that occurred organically, like natural disasters. However, if there was something like a king who controlled the daemons, then maybe we could end all invasions by taking it down. Maybe we could even negotiate.
The fact of the matter was, we needed more information on the nature of daemons.
I needed to tend to the new additions to Castle Getaeus, the expansion, and the trade route development, and still find time to expand the anti-daemon alliance.
I also needed to address the suspicion of the warrior clan that I was an Epicenter. There was a lot to do, but it didn’t feel as daunting as before. Rather, I was full of motivation.
Was that thanks to Mora’s effect on me, I wondered?
✦ ✦ ✦
After breakfast, I gathered my friends in the war room of the main tower. It wasn’t everyone, but I called Sedam, Ild, Clara, Reyha, Djirk, and Lade. I also invited Elisabel and Diane, for a total of eight people, plus me.
“Now then, let’s start with Sedam. You did a great job protecting the castle while I was away. Thank you for that.”
“Yeah… To be honest, it was pretty difficult.”
Indeed, he’d visibly lost weight, perhaps from the stress of running an entire castle. But still, while I was gone, there’d been no major issues in the castle. He’d even led offensive missions against daemons and bandits. It was significant work. We’d drunk a lot together the night before, thanking each other and complaining to one another. But officially recognizing the work he did in a setting like this was an important role of the castle lord.
“First, as you can see, the castle expansion work is about sixty percent complete. We still have the barracks, accommodations, and warehouses to finish within the greater castle compound.”
“What about the road?”
“The road connecting the three villages within the territory to the castle is already complete. The trade route to Axeholm is complete up to the point the giants had cleared before you left. Valbo is eager for you to conjure up some new giants today.”
“The original plan was for one year of construction…isn’t this pretty ahead of schedule?”
“That’s right, but Valbo seems to have increased the number of personnel significantly. Currently, there are two hundred dwarf workers and five hundred human workers recruited from the neighboring villages and Relis City.”
I nodded at Ild’s supplementary explanation. So, the people in the lower courtyard were hired from outside after all.
“They’re really motivated. How are we on meals and paying salaries?”
“They hired cooks, too, so we don’t need to do much on the meal front. As far as salaries go…”
“The total amount we pay for salary and food expenses for the dwarves and other laborers is about seven hundred gold coins per day,” Ild chimed in again.
Djirk shook his head. “Wow. That’s enough to make your eyeballs pop out of your head.”
I pretty much felt the same way, but the castle still had plenty of capital. “How are the soldiers doing?”
“Great,” Djirk said proudly. “They’re perfect. They got loads of combat experience with that swarm of imps and the bandits that showed up after.” No wonder he was pleased. He had personally trained and commanded the thirty soldiers who’d volunteered to remain in the castle.
“Douva of the Armor House, dispatched from Axeholm, has already established his workshop. From now on, he plans to produce and maintain all the weapons and armor for the soldiers.”
“That’s great news. It seems like a lot of our gear is starting to get worn down.”
I was really glad I’d gone to Axeholm, considering the castle and road construction. Speaking of which, Valbo had said he’d finished building a grand bathhouse in the castle. The night before, I’d drunk too much and hadn’t gotten a chance to try it out, but I couldn’t wait to take a look tonight.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seven days had passed since we returned to Castle Getaeus.
In the meantime, I’d personally checked in on all of the laborers and dwarf workers gathered in the castle. That was my first priority, since the King of Daemons and his daemonists knew my name and were after my life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to check out every single person using the ESP Medal. For starters, I decided to use the Detect Enemy spell while doing my rounds, to see if anyone harbored significant ill will, but they didn’t.
Going forward, I would need to cooperate with the dark elves and warrior clan and be wary of infiltrating daemonists.
Also, as an immediate measure, I would spend three days placing Invisible Demons in dozens of places throughout the castle.
In parallel with these tasks, I continued generating giants, Walls of Stone, and Walls of Iron for the castle and trade route construction work every day. Casting all the spells took less than an hour every day, but mentally, it was all quite taxing.
Between my hard work and the unwavering enthusiasm of Valbo, head of House Dauron, our driven dwarves and laborers soon completed both the castle expansion and the construction of the trade route to Axeholm.
Valbo found me to celebrate. “Hurrah! Tomorrow we start the foundation work for the trade route from Axeholm to Filsand! We’re going to need your tunneling worms now!” That dwarf’s enthusiasm was absolutely infectious.