LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 266: History Lesson
Moving on, one last thing we did was scout the land for the ideal spot for my stronghold. I wanted it to be in a place where we could easily expand our infrastructure as we grew and also plant whatever plants we wanted, while also being far from everything.
Thus far, we've been operating strictly within the duchy of Greenvale, and specifically within the Winterwood county. In the Vraven Kingdom, which is the nation made up of humans, five duchies hug the central land, which is simply called Central Region, which is controlled by the royal family, the Valerions.
We know that we are living on a continent-sized island in a world that is an archipelago, which basically means that there are numerous such lands scattered over the planet, however, people have not been coming and going as they pleased to the other lands. Only Ayame's clan migrated thousands of years ago, somehow, and since then people have not been able to replicate their feat.
Why? Because we are sealed inside. I don't know for what reason or how, but people simply can't leave the outskirts of the continent. When they try, they lose consciousness and get teleported back a short distance. Many tried to overcome this magical cage, but they were unsuccessful.
Anyhow, on our continent, which is called Iskaris, there are two other nations as I've alluded to previously.
A long time ago, many small tribes and petty kingdoms existed, but due to the threat of the other races present on the land, mighty leading figures emerged from each species who slowly, over generations, consolidated their own race into a single, giant nation, or their race simply became extinct when they failed to adapt.
Draegar, the lion beast-kin legend started the conquest of other beast-kin tribes, which resulted in the formation of the Beastkin Confederation many thousands of years after his death. He is the most sacred individual in their country, save for the Goddess.
Dwarves and elves were complete opposites of each other and had been sworn enemies since the concept of time was created. They had been at war with each other for as long as history was recorded.
However, that changed when Faelaris, the elf queen- they practice matriarchy- broke this tradition when she somehow managed to fall in love with the stocky dwarf ruler.
Their marriage was the most controversial one in the history of the Iskaris continent, but it led to the creation of the nation called Alliance of Elvardia, a mighty powerhouse that was likely the most stable nation out of the three.
Elves wanted to live in the lush forests while dwarves wanted to live in mountain ranges and spend their days in their smithies, so their alliance created a strange synergy where the elves would live in the forests that hugged the edges of their nation and acted as sentries, while the dwarves would supply them with mighty weapons, traps, armor, and the like.
This way, invading their nation was nigh impossible, as dwarf technology-empowered elves were unbeatable in their preferred environment.
However, bureaucracy also existed in their upper ranks, and the top brass- which was made up of an equal number of elves and dwarves- wanted control over the entirety of Iskaris, thus they weren't just living happily in their safe nation but fighting to expand their borders, which was the same for the other two nations.
As for the Vraven Kingdom, it was made up of 6 kingdoms who have been fighting each other forever, until the Valerion family birthed a legendary fighter who triumphed over the other kings, forcing them to bend the knee and become his dukes.
Well, in the case of the Fujimori clan, they came late to the party as the lands were already consolidated, but when the previous duke family committed treason, the then-ruling king granted the migrant clan the Silverwind territory for their many years of loyal service.
These six lands combined housed hundreds of millions of humans. The reason why such numbers could exist in these unhygienic medieval times was all thanks to the existence of Alchemy and the Healer class. Health Potions and other concoctions as well as healing spells reduced the rate of death both in young children and their mothers.
The other nations also consisted of a similar number of people, with Beastkin being the most numerous while the dwarf-elf alliance had the smallest populace.
However, despite each nation fighting tooth and nail for supremacy, each of them was boggled down by internal strifes.
For humans, it was corruption in the government as well as the widespread existence of criminal syndicates like the Vesper Consortium, for the Beastkin Confederation the issue stemmed from the fact that they were made up of numerous tribes of differing sub-species, thus having near limitless cultural and racial differences.
Some of them wanted peace, others just wanted to murder some other beast subspecies for one reason or another, and some other races were fighting to be the tribe who ruled over the rest.
As for the Alliance of Elvardia, the issue was obvious. Just because some queen and king fell in love a long ago doesn't mean that the two antagonistic races were suddenly all chummy with each other. They are only together to this day because if the alliance were to be dissolved, the other two nations would gobble them up.
Anyhow, the reason I'm explaining all this is that we've elected to build our home close to the middle of the continent, where all three nations are within a reasonable distance.
Of course, we made sure that we'd selected a place that they would struggle to reach and would have no reason to even try, as it was in the middle of nowhere in a lush forest that had not much going for it as far as resources or tactical locations were concerned.
The reason why I did this was twofold. First, I have no alliance with humans. I want to be able to interact with other races as well in the future to somehow climb my way all the way to the top of the continent, and if I place the base too far from their closest city, I won't be able to teleport to their lands. Second, I'm already a wanted criminal in the Vraven Kingdom.
It might be necessary to flee the country at some point, so the short distance is a safety net for us.
Though, we're still closer to the beastman lands than the elven one. I'm afraid of their forest-related abilities. I'm not confident if the legendary veiling artifact will be completely effective against them, while it should work on both humans and beast-kin.
Blossom knew what she was looking for, and the general area where she had to search, yet it still took her hours to find the outpost, and she's a dog-kin with an amazing sense of smell, so I'm confident that the rest of her race won't be able to stumble upon us.
With the location settled, it was time to get the laborer slaves who would do all the back-breaking work to erect my luxury mansion. Ronan and Iselda had completed some initial drafts, and I liked what I saw. However, we decided to postpone working on the main mansion for the time being, instead, they would focus on constructing the building that would house them and the slave workforce.
This way, we had more time to finalize the more important blueprints.
This time we decided to roleplay me and Ayame being nobles who want to buy slaves for themselves. As the master, I have to give my name for administrative purposes, but I can just lie about it. It means that my legal ownership papers will be just for decoration, unlike Blossom's and Ayame's papers, which are under my name and thus make them legally my property with the papers serving as proof.
However, the contract magic itself will still work even if I lie about my name because the spell caster needs my mana-infused blood to transfer the slave to be under me, not my correct name.
Why can't I just openly buy slaves? I could, but I've been making big bucks in the past month, enough to not only begin working on my safe haven but also get something else. Someone else, to be more correct. I plan to spend over 100 gold today on slaves, and I was just a little peasant from bumfuck nowhere a few weeks ago.
If I buy so many slaves under my name many questions will arise and I will potentially have government as well as criminal agents after my tail.
Well, more than already are searching for me.
Ayame and I, now donning intricately tailored pompous noble dresses, strode towards the establishment where I got my beautiful samurai from.
Initially, I thought that I would have to choose between her or my stronghold plan, but thanks to all the money we made, I now could get both. Well, at least get her and also begin work on the stronghold. I can't afford to get all the materials needed for the safe haven in one go, we will need to make more cash.
According to Jack, they were making a loss on the items they sold due to my high supply price, but it was worth it because they were establishing a monopoly in Braedon, a giant city.
They must've had some savings from being high-ranked adventurers for centuries, and now were splurging on my services. I expected such older, retired fighters to live merrily in peace and serenity, but it seems they went from wreaking havoc on bloody battlefields to being cutthroat capitalists. I guess the fight never left their spirit.
We strolled through the doors haughtily by slamming them into the wall, and the employees' eyes widened when they saw two such well-dressed, masked individuals. We must've smelled of both money and danger.
One younger girl rushed up to us and bowed. "Welcome, esteemed lady and lord! May this lowly one know how we could be of assistance?"
I snort like the entitled, annoying young master that I am, "I don't speak poor, get out of my sight! You're dirtying the air around us, peasant. Bring me the owner and if he's just as filthy as you are, tell him to take a bath beforehand. Also, inform him that we're here to buy the healer elf sex slave."