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Chapter 84
"A very good choice."
Of course, neither lissa nor I had the heart to push her away when she naturally beca part of our little world.
The truth was, both of us longed for soone's warmth.
She was the one who brought life back to the once-quiet Cascadia household.
Even if there had been a request, it was ultimately our decision to bring her along.
So, when I filled her refrigerator to the brim, she finally looked satisfied and hugged it tightly.
"But if you have a subspace, why don't you just store things there? Do you really need a refrigerator?"
"There is a special taste in eating things cold."
Sure, if she says so.
It had been about two weeks since we returned to the Cascadia estate.
For the first few days, life was rather monotonous and peaceful.
But that peace didn’t last long.
"Give your opinion."
That day, lissa was waiting for us with a serious expression.
It was our usual aningless small talk disguised as a eting.
The three of us—lissa, myself, and Luna, who was technically just a guest but had practically beco a permanent resident—always had these discussions.
"Did sothing go wrong? The mines?"
I asked, but she shook her head.
"No, the mines are running smoothly. But..."
The issue she brought up was sothing else entirely.
"The knights and soldiers monitoring the Demon Realm are too exhausted."
It was a serious problem.
The morale of the troops is directly tied to their combat ability.
"Recently, there have been incidents, and many knights who had left the territory have returned… but still…"
Manpower was lacking, and the systems to take care of them had largely collapsed.
"So, what do you want to do?"
"At the very least, I want to create sothing that allows them to properly rest when they’re off duty."
That was her idea.
They couldn't afford to neglect their monitoring duties.
Moreover, given the nature of the Demon Realm, they couldn’t just hire any random people to take over.
So at the very least, she wanted to provide a way for those on duty to rest properly after their shifts.
I closed my eyes in thought.
It was true that soldiers being worn down had been a longstanding problem.
I understood their hardships well enough to empathize.
Then, it happened.
"I’d love to send them on vacation, but…"
"I saw it in this noble travel guide. Vacations an beaches. Like, coming back from a hard mission and lying on a beach, drinking sothing cool."
Luna held up a book that had detailed illustrations of vacation spots.
Of course, it didn’t really seem like a place knights would enjoy.
"Ah, the sea… I used to like it too. I’ve barely been to one, though… and now, I can’t really enjoy it the sa way anymore."
lissa’s expression hardened.
The sea must have been where she lost her family.
"Or, there are scenic places with natural wonders. It says here that the neighboring continent has a massive waterfall."
"Wow, I’ve never been to a place like that… Wait, how did we even get to this conversation?"
"Leon, isn’t it nice?"
Luna turned to and asked.
"Yeah, sure. Relaxing on a beach and listening to the waves sounds great. But what’s the point? Are you saying we should send the knights and soldiers there on vacation? That’s ridiculous."
"We'll just make one."
I stared at her, dumbfounded by her confident statent.
"What?"
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and make one."
"Cascadia is inland, you idiot. How the hell am I supposed to make a beach?"
"That’s for you to figure out, Leon."
"What kind of lunatic are you?"
As Luna grinned mischievously, lissa nodded along.
"Yeah. Whatever it is, we need to create sothing the knights and soldiers can enjoy."
Seeing the two of them in perfect sync, practically staging a protest, I fell into thought.
Now that I looked at it, it was clear they were just ssing with .
Without hesitation, I stood up and grabbed one of the disposable artifacts placed on a nearby shelf.
Slamming it down onto the table, I declared boldly:
"Let there be light."
"Ah!"
Boom!
"Ack! My eyes!!"
With a loud noise, the artifact exploded, releasing an imnse flash of light.
It was a flash artifact.
* * *
The Cascadia territory contained a Demon Realm.
Because of that, the Cascadia family had long deployed knights and soldiers in shifts to monitor designated areas.
If they noticed any unusual monster activity, they would either lure them away or exterminate them.
As a result, the Cascadia family regularly rotated its knights and soldiers, stationing them at lodges near the Demon Realm to maintain surveillance.
This was the key issue.
In most other territories, soldiers and knights weren’t too restricted in their actions.
Their range of movent was mostly within their own territory, so they could live relatively freely.
Off-duty knights could visit taverns, enjoy their personal ti, or even stop by brothels.
But in Cascadia, such things were impossible.
The only entertainnt they had was the occasional snacks delivered by supply teams entering the Demon Realm.
Lately, however, the knights had found a new pasti—collecting moonstones.
"Sir, look at this one."
"Oh, that’s a pretty big one this ti."
Moonstones—mysterious, colorful stones occasionally found in the Demon Realm.
Their sizes ranged from as small as a fingernail to as big as a fist.
No one knew where these moonstones ca from, but so speculated that they were fragnts of the moon that had fallen from the sky.
That was why they were called moonstones.
Of course, aside from their beautiful colors, they were just ordinary stones.
Even though they were rare, they weren’t particularly valuable.
So why did fully grown knights and soldiers bother collecting them?
Because they were bored out of their minds.
A few months might be fine, but each deploynt to the Demon Realm lasted anywhere from three to six months.
Since they had to carry out nothing but surveillance duties in the forest for such a long period, the greatest challenge was enduring the excruciating boredom.
That’s why, after trying this and that to kill ti, they had recently taken an interest in farming moonstones.
“Sir Balin, take a look at this.”
“Oh... That’s quite a big one. Where did you find it?”
“Co on, sir. I can’t just tell you for free.”
So might say it was a childish hobby.
In truth, it was a aningless collection.
But the knights and soldiers were excruciatingly bored!
Of course, monitoring the Demon Realm and carrying out subjugation missions required them to stay on high alert, but that was only exciting the first few tis.
When it beca routine, the crushing boredom was inevitable.
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So, even those who initially scoffed at the idea of collecting moonstones eventually started taking an interest.
Clang!
The tightly shut door suddenly swung open, letting in a cold draft.
The Demon Realm was always freezing, after all.
Except for those delivering supplies, no one ever visited this place.
So who on earth had co here now?
“Huh?”
The knights and soldiers, who had been chatting away, blinked in confusion at the unexpected guest.
Then, their eyes widened in shock, and they shot up from their seats.
“Y-Young Master?! How did you…?”
The one who had suddenly arrived at the lodge was none other than Leon.
Leon Cascadia, the eldest son of the Cascadia family.
“You’re all working hard,”
He said calmly as he stepped inside, his eyes glinting with interest.
“I heard sothing interesting from so knights who recently returned.”
“Sothing interesting? What do you an…?”
“I heard that collecting moonstones has beco a trend among the knights and soldiers on duty lately.”
Leon’s lips curled into a smirk.
The knights and soldiers, feeling an ominous chill, quickly hid the moonstones they had been proudly displaying just monts ago under the table.
They were just moonstones, but for so reason, the mont they saw Leon, they had an instinctive urge to hide them.
However, Leon had no intention of letting such trivial hobbies slide.
“Bring them all here.”
Leon was ruthless.
“Aaah! Young Master! Please! Not those…!”
“Ah! I’ll get you even better ones later!”
The rciless plunderer didn’t hesitate.
He brazenly raided the soldiers’ storage chests and every corner of the lodge, sweeping up every last moonstone they had painstakingly gathered.
The knights and soldiers, who had long suffered through soul-crushing boredom, could only watch in silent despair as their treasures were stolen before their eyes.
A large sack swallowed up every single moonstone the surveillance team had worked so hard to collect.
The knights could do nothing but stare at the departing Leon with the sa anguish as parents watching their child being taken away.
* * *
About two hours before I looted the lodge…
At lissa’s request, I was pondering what could be used to improve the knights’ welfare.
But no matter how much I thought about it, there weren’t many viable options.
Lack of materials.
Lack of ti.
Even if I altered and restructured things, most ideas required either a significant amount of ti or resources.
In the end, my options were extrely limited.
But even the idea I had in mind ca with one major problem.
A shortage of moonstones.
Moonstones—fragnts of the moon—were considered utterly useless stones.
And yet, they were difficult to obtain.
The real issue was that these so-called useless stones were the key to my current plan.
With a special refining process, their molecular structure could be altered to form a unique pattern when combined with certain tals.
And only moonstones could do that.
“Where the hell am I supposed to find moonstones…?”
Even the rchant guilds found moonstones difficult to procure.
Especially since I needed a significant quantity.
“Moonstones? Well, there are plenty inside the Demon Realm… but gathering them takes a lot of ti. What do you need them for?”
“What do you think? You told to co up with a welfare system for the knights.”
If I was going to do this, I might as well create sothing unprecedented in the entire continent.
“Should I just flip the entire Demon Realm upside down…?”
“How much do you need?”
“If I want to gather as many as possible… it’ll take quite a bit of ti.”
Using undead minions would speed things up drastically, but it wasn’t like the Demon Realm was overflowing with moonstones, so there were clear limitations.
Honestly, unless I had already stockpiled them, collecting a large amount wouldn’t be easy.
Just then, I spotted a group of knights returning to the estate.
Riding their horses back, they looked visibly relieved to be ho.
These were the knights who had completed their watch over the Demon Realm and were finally being relieved from duty.
Since they had just returned from their most honorable task, Cascadia always held a welcoming ceremony for them.
While lissa was preparing to do just that, my gaze fell on sothing else they carried.
“Heh. Look at this magnificent glow.”
“Haha, old man. It’s still nothing compared to mine.”
“Hah! You just got lucky, kid…”
As they basked in the relief of their return, I approached them without hesitation.
Looking them over, I asked,
“Moonstones?”
“Huh?”
“Young Master?”
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