Towards A New Continent
It has no meaning whatsoever even if you were to place something into a box with no content.
It doesn’t matter even if at the Goliath Fortress, which was a monster den, the monsters disappeared and a small number of people inhabited the place, it’s not a kingdom, it’s no more than just something like a secret base created by children.
At that place, people live, gather the tools needed for living, and prepare the jobs to create the tools.
If what’s necessary for people to lead their lives aren’t put in place, there won’t be anybody who’d bother entering the empty box.
And for me, a person who’d only fought for a living, getting some content ready is a difficult task with a higher difficulty than any kind of a quest.
“ーーI understood the matter at hand. However, that condition is slightly tough”
In the former-castle that’s at the heart of Goliath Fortress, I was having a discussion with a merchant who wanders around kingdoms and towns doing business.
“If I may ask, what’s tough about it?”
He, who placed his elbows on the table that’s put together right then and there, was making a difficult expression while touching his well-groomed beard.
“……I have heard of Egil-san’s rumours here and there. A person who possesses the strongest, S Rank Adventurer, title and well trusted by those around as well. I heard you were going to create a new kingdom just for Adventurers and thought that I wanted to lend a hand to that as well”
“In that caseーー”
“But, that is my opinion as a human being, if I were to say my opinion as a merchant, I cannot be of help to Egil-san. No matter how brilliant you are as an Adventurer, it is to the extent that it can be said that there is, ‘completely’, nobody living in this『Nameless Kingdom』. Even if I were to visit periodically to do business as a merchantーーit is not the nicest way to put it, but it is not profitable at all, it will be a waste of time, so to speak”
“……”
“My apologies, but I think it may be better to proceed after gathering slightly more residents. ーーUnfortunately, a kingdom where nobody lives cannot be called a kingdom. Well then, excuse me”
He stands up, bows deeply, and leaves the room.
In this Nameless Kingdom that still doesn’t have a name, there’s only the six of us; Gossendolf and Habrik, whom I’ve known since a long time ago and who migrated here; Hart, who requested the quest to look for the traitor to me; and ten-odds Adventurers.
In this case, it’s exactly as he said, it’s not a kingdom.
He, too, has a life to lead.
An environment where he can do business is necessary for him to lead his life.
And that business is, undoable at this place where there’s nobody.
I understand that. I understand butーー.
“……Did it not work out, again?”
Eleanor, who wore a bright red dress, called out to me from the door he went out of.
She stares at me sadly. In response to such her, I answered while making a bitter smile.
“Aah, he said that it isn’t remunerative to do business at a place where there are no people. Well, it’s exactly as he said”
If there are no quests then Adventurers won’t live here.
If there are no Adventurers and people who lead their lives here, merchants who do business with them won’t make their way over here.
When merchants don’t come, gathering quests, escort quests, and so forth won’t emerge.
In this Nameless Kingdom, there’s none of those.
It’s because there’s nothing, that nobody bothers taking a step in nor live here.
“……How about, we have ordinary people live here?”
“An ordinary person who isn’t an Adventurer can’t fight. If there are no Adventurers to protect this place from monsters, who knows when this place will be attacked, right? So the powerless won’t bother to live in a place without Adventurers”
“It is, true but……”
“So nobody would bother to live here, where there isn’t any element of gain. Even such a simple thing, can’t be obtained without some kind of special happening. What a tough situation……”
“It is an arduous task to build a kingdom huh. Which is to say, we had gone into the box that our ancestors prepared without any queries and lived without thinking about anything huh……”
It has been a week since we migrated to this Nameless Kingdom.
I went to the kingdoms, towns, and even small villages that I have visited ever since I became an Adventurer and called out to my acquaintances.
Everybody listened to what I have to say. However, few of them determined to migrate and most of them refused.
Levia said that I have a leader’s calibre.
But only a handful of people gathered by my side.
I’m even beginning to doubt whether if a person like me really has such calibre.
“ーーI can’t be discouraged”
I’ve made up my mind so I have no choice but to do it, even if I’m having doubts about it.
“I cannot be standing still, for the sake of everybody who trusted and followed me”
I stand up and head to Eleanor’s side.
I touch the cheek of her, who makes a sombre expression, with my hand, and she gives me a gentle smile.
“It is difficult to tell you to, ‘take it slowly’, when I think about what will probably occur in the future, but let us first take one step forward. After all, that is the goal of the guild that Egi-sama establishedーーPath To Utopia(Salire Ethereal)”
“Aah, that’s right”
It’s a guild I established for the sake of making those, who believe and follow me, blissful. As the name suggests, I want the girls who had painful pasts to grab hold of a utopic bliss, and I want to personally become the path to that and guide everybody; it’s a name that originated from those thoughts.
So it’s no use lamenting about it here.
I’ll do what I can, and if it still doesn’t work out, I’ll come up with a new idea.
I can only go about it one step at a time like that.
“How’s everybody else?”
“Serina is cleaning the residential district today as well. Sana-san and Runa-san are making preparations so that they can have their Okaa-san live here. Fiーsan is……”
“Is something the matter, with Fiー?”
“Halfway through, we were cleaning together but……erm, it’s a message from Fiーsan, she wants to speak to you if it doesn’t work out this time around either”
“I see. Where is she?”
I said, and Eleanor went, ‘over here’, and led the way.
We carried on through the labyrinth-like area that came after entering the First Gate and went through the Second Gate. The place where somebody had probably lived in the past is being tidied up so that it’s liveable.
And as for the girls, they’re borrowing the empty rooms of this former-castle that’s at the heart of this fortress.
We walked down the corridor and headed towards the room that I gave Fi.
“Well then, I will be heading to cleaning as well”
“My bad. I’ve been leaving all the miscellaneous tasks to everybody”
“No, this is also for the sake of a bright future after all”
Eleanor says that, leaves me behind, and heads outside.
It’s been a week since I thought of wanting to quickly let them live comfortably. I’m getting impatient at this unchanging situation.
I then open the door and enter the room.
The light blue hair girl, who sits meekly inside the tasteless room, was looking at me fixedly.
“…….It didn’t work out”
“Was it written on my face or something?”
“You’re making a face like that”
“Unfortunately, that’s correct. And, what did you want to talk about?”
I go into the room that smells of animals and, Fiー silently slaps the bed.
‘Take a seat’, huh.
I sat on the bed and Fiー sat beside me as well.
As usual, the affable animals are sitting politely on top of her lap.
“Gathering people who’ll live at this place, is the current problem, right?”
“Aah, that’s right. We can’t do anything if nobody will live here”
“Uh-huh. So I tried coming up with an idea in my own way”
“What?”
Fiー holds the White Rabbit, Elizabeth, with both hands, swinging her side to side danglingly, playing with her.
It’s probably not my imagination that Elizabeth is making an expression like it feels good. And then, Fiー, emotionlessly,
“I think, we should have people migrate from a place that’s overflowing with people and is becoming uninhabitable”
“A place that’s overflowing with people? Is there such a place?”
Fiー nodded.
“In the continent that I livedーーSpuhreel Continent, there’s a large number of people and also people who can’t buy houses because the land prices are high. So, I think there’s probably a good number of people who’ll migrate over here”
“Spuhreel Continent huh……”
“Besides, territorial disputes are intense and disputes between fellow humans are unceasing over there. So, there’s surely a large number of people who loathes the disputes. Also……everybody is familiar with how to fight to a certain extent. I, too, learnt martial arts from there”
