Chapter 175

Golden Goblin

Ferda asked in confusion.

“Do you dislike being addressed as ‘Your Highness’?”

“It’s not that I dislike it. It just feels awkward. You’re going to be my man, aren’t you, Mr. Ferda?”

“That is correct.”

“If you call me what everyone else calls me, it feels as though there’s too much distance between us.”

Ferda nodded as though he agreed with her.

“Then may I call you Lady Valdrova?”

“I don’t like ‘Lady,’ either. I’d like you to call me affectionately, as if we’ve known each other for a long time.”

“You mean you want me to call you… Valdrova?”

“What about a nickname instead?”

“A-A nickname?”

The suggestion was every bit as adorable as her voice.

“Penelope told me that she calls Zed ‘Zeze,’ and he calls Penelope ‘Pepe.’”

“Is that so?”

He already knew. They called each other that quite often whenever they spoke.

“So I wanted to call you Pepe too, but… since the nicknames would overlap, it feels a little strange.”

“Indeed.”

The Shadow Circle reacted.

Hatred toward Penelope boiled up within Ferda.

“Then how about Ferfer?”

“If Your Highness likes it, I will gladly accept it.”

Ferfer.

It sounded similar to the name of a monster from western folklore, but Ferda was satisfied with it.

“What would you like to do, Mr. Ferda?”

“What do you mean?”

“My nickname.”

He froze.

“…Must I make one for you as well?”

“My name is Valdrova, so…”

“Val…”

“I looked it up, and apparently that’s what people call a little puppy.”

Valdrova imitated a puppy.

Ferda’s face grew hot, and he could not bring himself to move either his hands or feet. Worried that he might make an unsightly expression, he bit down hard on his lip to keep himself from losing his composure.

“Try saying it. Valval.”

“Val…”

“Yes.”

“Your Highness Valdrova.”

The expectations that had been floating gently upward burst with a pop.

“Can’t you do it?”

Valdrova asked like a drenched puppy whose expectations had been betrayed.

Ferda answered while desperately clinging to the last thread of his reason.

“Yes. That would be difficult.”

“Wouldn’t ‘Valval’ work?”

“Why not?”

“Lady Valdrova is a dragon, while I am a human. The difference between us is as great as that between a king and a commoner.”

Common married couples might speak casually to one another, but among nobles, whose marriages were mostly political arrangements, using affectionate nicknames for each other was not common.

“I see.”

She seemed convinced.

Ferda breathed a sigh of relief.

“Then when are we getting married?”

The second round began immediately.

The tea he had been drinking nearly caught in his throat.

“I believe it will be after Hestia has prospered…”

Only then, he thought, would he become someone the other dragons Luri had mentioned could acknowledge.

“When will that be?”

“It will take at least five years.”

“I can’t wait that long.”

Valdrova spoke firmly.

“You make even waiting for tomorrow so exciting that it hurts… I can’t possibly wait another five years.”

“Even so, getting married immediately would be difficult.”

“Then at least change how you address me. So that I can wait a little longer.”

“To Valval!”

Ferda was rendered speechless by Valdrova’s determination.

Was this truly the same woman who used to worry constantly that she might say the wrong thing?

He wondered whether that damned demon had taught her some strange skill.

“Val…”

Ferda forced his mouth open.

“I don’t think I can carelessly speak Your Highness Valdrova’s name.”

He continued gently.

“The name Valdrova is one that deserves respect. Treating it lightly would be unnecessary, both as your fiancé and toward those who believe in you as their Princeps.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Valdrova looked disappointed once more.

Of course, it was merely an excuse.

An excuse Ferda had forced himself to invent because he simply could not bring himself to call her that.

A faint worry crept into him.

Had the repeated refusals hurt her feelings?

“Then…”

But Valdrova did not give up.

In a voice like sunlight piercing through a gloomy sky, she said,

“Let’s choose a new name.”

“A new name…?”

“Come to think of it, my name is used for many other things. You’ll also receive the name Valdrova soon, Mr. Ferda.”

The Valdrova domain, Valdrova Castle, and Valdrova herself.

“If the name Valdrova cannot be treated lightly, then make another name for me. A name only you can call me.”

“How could I possibly choose Your Highness’s name?”

“A name must be given by someone else, because it only becomes a name when someone calls you by it. That’s why I want you to choose mine, Mr. Ferda. And…”

Excitement showed in the way her fingers fidgeted.

“From now on, you’ll be the one who calls me by it the most…”

The name I will call more than anyone else.

Ferda turned his head away, struggling to hide his burning face.

He felt as though he understood Valdrova’s feelings now.

Some things were easy with everyone else, yet difficult with one particular person.

“Very well. I will give it some thought and tell you once I’ve decided.”

“Is there anything else you wish to discuss?”

“Hmm… Ah!”

She exclaimed and began chattering excitedly.

“Penelope said…”

The excitement and embarrassment inside him shattered into pieces.

As he listened to her talk about the conversations she had shared with her first friend, Ferda thought to himself.

Before choosing a new name, I should find her a new friend.

Ferda examined the current state of the domain for the sake of its administration.

All living beings required food, clothing, and shelter.

Of those three, food was the most important. And among the necessities of sustenance, water was something that absolutely could not be neglected.

Most of the water in the Valdrova domain was drawn from rivers. During shortages, underground reservoirs were used.

Unless an extreme drought completely dried up the rivers, the domain had enough resources to endure difficult periods.

Ferda had originally planned to draw water from the river as well.

However, this incident had shown him just how complacent that plan had been.

‘A river can be contaminated at any time.’

When the monsters surrounded the domain, they polluted the river in an attempt to slowly kill everyone within it.

Ferda had learned that when something directly tied to life was exposed to too many unpredictable variables, everything could collapse with ease.

‘But we turned it into another opportunity.’

Marquis Burnell.

They had managed to withstand the siege because he had created a water-purification device.

After the monster subjugation campaign, Isabella worked tirelessly to put the purification device to active use.

And now, she showed Ferda the fruits of her efforts.

“This is the place.”

The location of the second gift Isabella had mentioned lay some distance from Hestia Village in the Valdrova domain.

To be precise, it could be considered the very boundary of the Demonic Lands.

Where there should have been nothing but barren wasteland, a lone stone building stood in isolation.

“It looks like a tomb.”

“It may appear insignificant from the outside.”

Isabella infused mana into the security mechanism and unlocked the door.

The moment it opened, Ferda understood.

The important part was underground.

He followed Isabella down.

After descending another five meters or so, they left the spiral staircase and entered a vast open chamber.

“This is the second gift from the Iorga Magic Tower.”

The space was comparable in size to an imperial colosseum.

The outer walls were reinforced with sturdy stone and other materials, while an intricate network of long pipes filled the interior.

Had humans undertaken such a project, it would easily have taken ten years.

“When did you build all this?”

“Construction began while you were traveling to the capital. You need not worry about its safety.”

That meant it had been completed in less than a month.

For beings who stood at the pinnacle of magic, even work this complicated and labor-intensive was apparently child’s play.

“Does Iorga often undertake projects like this?”

“We do when necessary, but we do not normally go this far for humans. We certainly would not do so for another dragon.”

“So this is the power of an alliance.”

“That is correct.”

Of course, the alliance existed in name only.

‘It must be because of their pride.’

The pride of dragon spawn was notoriously difficult to handle.

Those from whom they inherited their blood were their fathers, their mothers, and their gods.

They never forgave anyone who insulted them, and they considered any conduct unworthy of their name a disgrace.

The fact that Marquis Burnell had purified the water of the Demonic Lands was humiliating to them.

These gifts could be seen as a means of redeeming that humiliation.

‘What else might they produce if I keep bruising their pride like this?’

Ferda recalled the legend of the Golden Goblin.

It was an old joke about a goblin that dropped more money the more it was beaten, and somehow, it reminded him of Iorga.

Afraid that his thoughts might be discovered, Ferda shifted his gaze along the pipelines.

The network of pipes appeared complicated, but its overall structure was clear.

A massive pipe had been installed where the Demonic Lands once stood, and it passed through several round steel barrels.

After passing through approximately three of those barrels, the pipe continued toward Hestia Village.

Ferda wondered how the system worked.

“Oh! Greetings, Regent.”

Fortunately, someone capable of explaining it appeared at that very moment.

It was Marquis Burnell.

“I did not expect to find you here.”

Normally, the man would have been holed up inside his laboratory at Valdrova Castle. Seeing him in an underground facility far outside the village was surprising.

“This is an important project, so I came to inspect it personally and ensure nothing had been overlooked. Hundreds of thousands of liters of water will be supplied through these pipes. Naturally, everything must be checked thoroughly.”

His eyes shone with an intensity on an entirely different level from when he had created the magitech rifle.

Whatever he might say, it appeared that his heart was more drawn to practical inventions like this than to weapons.

“Explain it to me. How exactly does the purification process work?”

“Of course! If you look over here…”

To be honest, Ferda had expected nothing from the explanation.

Then something astonishing happened.

‘He is explaining it surprisingly well.’

Unlike when he had explained the principles behind mana stones, Burnell’s explanation was simple and concise.

His analogies were appropriate, and Ferda found the process remarkably easy to understand.

‘Then again, simplifying things enough for Malcolm to understand must have been incredibly difficult.’

After being forced to explain the concept to someone at one extreme, Burnell had apparently learned how to refine his words for someone closer to the middle, like Ferda.

In any case, the simplest summary was that multiple layers of extremely fine filters were used to extract the cleanest water possible.

“I heard that scaling the device up would be difficult, but you managed it.”

“Indeed. Do you remember when I said it would take three years?”

That had been Burnell’s estimated research period for drawing water from the Demonic Lands and supplying it reliably.

He had said that expanding the system to such a large scale would be difficult and, because safety was paramount, they would need time to confirm that the supply remained stable.

“It became much easier because Iorga handled that part for us!”

Isabella continued after Burnell.

“Each of these barrels contains one of Iorga’s large-scale purification devices.”

“You were able to shorten three years that drastically?”

“The Blue Eye Magic Tower strives to possess the finest magic on the continent. Trial operations normally consume enormous amounts of time and money, but Iorga is exceedingly generous when it comes to such experimentation.”

“They are truly remarkable. Had we attempted something like this at Escholeia, they would have berated us for wasting money.”

Isabella spoke with obvious pride, while Burnell showered Iorga with praise.

As Ferda listened, he muttered,

“A Golden Goblin…”

“Pardon?”

“It is nothing.”

For some reason, those words refused to leave Ferda’s mind.

Now that he no longer needed to remain cautious, Ferda decided to turn all the momentum he had accumulated while lying low into a great leap forward.

He resolved to accelerate the development of Hestia Village into a center of magitech.

“These are the cooperation proposals sent by Escholeia. There do not appear to be any problems with them. They only require your approval.”

The magitech Burnell had unveiled had apparently convinced many people that it would usher in a new era at Escholeia, leading more students to pursue the field.

Surprisingly, many of those studying magitech came from relatively prominent magical families.

Ferda could understand their motives.

‘They want revenge against their families.’

How many among them had genuinely devoted themselves to scholarship out of pure academic passion?

For most, it was a refuge chosen after being branded incompetent by their families or pushed aside in succession disputes.

Those who had been forced to sharpen themselves merely to survive as mages naturally developed resentment toward the privileged few who monopolized magic.

The current Chancellor of Escholeia was one such person.

—Proposal for the Development of a Mana-Stone-Powered Carriage

‘They want to create a carriage powered by mana stones.’

Once that became a reality, the term “mana automobile” would be used far more often than “carriage.”

Carriages powered by a mage’s mana rather than horses had long been dismissed as lacking aristocratic elegance.

Yet such stubborn prejudice would collapse in an instant, and the roads would soon be filled with mana automobiles.

‘…I wanted this one for myself.’

However, one could not make allies while keeping everything for oneself.

Ferda handed the project over to Stephan.

It was compensation for Stephan’s unquestioning support of the East.

‘It is only one part of the industry, anyway.’

Ferda had several other ventures in mind.

He handed Isabella a set of documents he had organized.

“Administrator.”

“Yes.”

“These are matters I investigated personally. Would it be possible to secure investment for them as well?”

Isabella opened the documents.

The moment she read the title on the first page, she frowned reflexively.

“You intend to purchase mining rights for desert sand?”

“That is correct.”

The South possessed sand in inexhaustible quantities.

Wondering what Ferda intended to do after buying so much of it, Isabella turned to the next page.

“…Glass.”

The industry Ferda intended to claim for himself was glass manufacturing.

“Someone submitted a proposal for industrializing glass production. I intend to recruit this person and establish a glass factory.”

“A glass factory… Glass is certainly valuable as a luxury product, but I doubt there will be enough demand.”

“Look at the next page.”

As Ferda instructed, she turned the page.

Then she understood what he meant.

“Glass that does not break easily, even without magical reinforcement…”

The words glass and unbreakable seemed almost contradictory.

“Do you truly believe this is possible, Lord Ferda?”

Isabella did not appear convinced.

But Ferda knew.

Glass, which was currently used only for aristocratic ornaments and luxury goods, would eventually find its way into ordinary homes.

As magitech advanced, the very definition of luxury would change.

“There is more than enough potential.”

Enough potential.

Had anyone else said those words, Isabella would not only have rejected the project but also sharply rebuked them for attempting to waste money.

‘He must have something in mind.’

One thing Isabella knew about Ferda was that he was not a man who acted impulsively.

Because she trusted him, she quietly gathered up the documents.

“I will proceed with this project. And…”

Isabella spoke as though she had suddenly remembered something.

A sour expression rarely seen on her face appeared as she continued.

“It seems that detestable witch has achieved results with her project.”

There was no need to ask why that displeased her.