55 – Matap (1)
After Adriana left like that, and just a couple of days had passed.
[Accepted the trade at Tesnoka Territory.]
[Time remaining until resource arrival: 23 hours, 21 minutes, 11 seconds]
As Kim Hyun-woo chatted with the dwarves for a while, he soon checked the notification window that popped up in front of him.
A day passed, and Kim Hyun-woo finally came face to face with the “Swift Delivery Dwarf” that was supposed to be in the settings.
“Hello there!”
He couldn’t help but mutter as he looked at the woman with a huge chest, completely opposite to her small stature, giving off a strong presence that made it clear she was no child.
“…She’s huge.”
“Pardon?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I mean, you’re a dwarf, but you’re taller than I thought.”
Normally, he would never make such a mistake, but he found himself involuntarily stuttering and making excuses in the face of her unexpectedly violent size.
“Wow, our lord sure knows how to please a dwarf~”
The dwarf, clearly pleased with the comment, chuckled and handed Kim Hyun-woo a document.
“But even if you praise us, you still have to pay the fee accurately, right? Something like ‘DC’ is impossible, isn’t it?”
“I understand. Where should I sign?”
“Just sign here and here. Then, you can load the payment onto the empty cart at the same time.”
After confirming that the residents of the territory he had hired for today were diligently moving the resources, Kim Hyun-woo quickly signed the document.
“Wow, thank you so much for this!”
With a satisfied smile and a nod, the “Swift Delivery Dwarf” who introduced herself as Gwin quickly disappeared like the wind as soon as she confirmed that all the resources had been unloaded on one side.
“Well then, I should go and deliver the payment now!”
With an energetic laugh, she vanished.
Kim Hyun-woo, who was staring blankly at the figure, found himself thinking without realizing it.
“I shouldn’t have underestimated the Swift Delivery Dwarf for no reason.”
Of course, as someone who had been playing Arteil for a long time, Kim Hyun-woo was not unfamiliar with the Swift Delivery Dwarf introduced by Gwyn.
It’s just that Kim Hyun-woo didn’t have much interest because it was not a recruitable hero, but rather a character that existed in the setting and could exchange a few words. He didn’t give it much thought.
But now that he had met him, Kim Hyun-woo could somewhat understand why some of the veterans in the community were so eager to recruit the Swift Delivery Dwarf.
So, for a while, Kim Hyun-woo stared blankly at where Gwyn had disappeared.
“Lord?”
He could hear Elena’s voice from beside him.
“Oh, yes?”
“No, you just seem lost.”
“Oh, did I?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“Yes. Since meeting that little dwarf. You’ve been looking lost…?”
She spoke as if she didn’t know, but her eyes seemed to suggest that she knew everything.
“No, well, now that the resources have arrived, I thought we should start working in earnest.”
As he said that, Kim Hyun-woo subtly shifted his gaze and diverted Elena’s suspicion(?) by talking about using the resources piled up like a mountain and immediately began instructing the guard standing next to him on how to utilize the resources, but…
“What’s wrong…?”
“…”
Until the instructions to the guard were over, Kim Hyun-woo had to endure Elena’s strangely dead-eyed gaze…
####
So, the next day after the resources arrived at the Tesnoka Territory.
Yongji Lartania.
Yongji Development: 618
Yongji People
[Human: 4146]
Owned Buildings
[Lord’s Castle LV1 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 99% [Temporary pause]]
[City Wall LV2 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 0%]
[Residential Area LV2 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 0%]
[Blacksmith LV3 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 0%]
[Barracks LV2 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 92%]
[Tavern LV2]
[Market LV1 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 0%]
[Lumber Mill LV1]
[Restaurant LV1 ＞＞＞ Upgrade in progress 0%]
[Tannery LV1]
[Stone Masonry LV1]
[Trading Post LV1]
[Secondary City Wall LV0 [Under construction] 9%]
[Inn LV0 [Under construction] 0%]
[Administrative District LV0 [Under Construction] 0%]
Military Strength
– Regular Soldiers: 200 [Upgradeable soldiers available!]
—-
Kim Hyun-woo looked at the notification window that had gradually started to obstruct his view, a satisfied smile forming on his face.
The territory that was around 300 when he last checked, with the opening of the evolving maze, had swiftly doubled, exceeding 600 in an instant. Simultaneously, the population of the territory, which was in the 2000s just moments ago, now surpassed 4000.
The progress achieved in just a few days was extraordinary.
“Is it okay?”
“What do you mean?”
When Kim Hyun-woo asked Elena, who was smiling while looking at it, she glanced at him slyly and spoke.
“Growing the territory is undoubtedly a good thing, but… I can’t help but worry that it might be expanding too rapidly. Of course, I’m sure the Lord has thought it through.”
“Hmm. It does seem a bit unsettling, I agree.”
Kim Hyun-woo positively acknowledged Elena’s words.
After all, she wasn’t entirely wrong.
‘Actually, ideally, at this point, it would be better to start making efforts to maintain public order.’
Fundamentally, there are many important aspects to consider when operating a territory in Arteil.
However, as important as the territory residents are, efforts must be made in Arteil to keep them from leaving, as they are crucial.
As mentioned several times, the workforce comes from the territory residents.
‘Of course, in this territory right now, mercenaries are overflowing.’
Currently, it was estimated that there were about 5000 mercenary troops in the Lartania territory, and the number was increasing in real-time.
So in fact, there are over 9,000 personnel in this territory.
However, despite the large number of personnel, unfortunately, mercenaries could not be used as personnel.
It costs too much to employ mercenaries as personnel. Especially at the current opening of the Labyrinth City.
Of course, if Kim Hyun-woo had a lot of money, it would be possible, but he didn’t want to do such a thing if possible.
After all, money is not infinite, and in fact, 1 million gold coins is not a large sum to restore the territory as it used to be.
In fact, Kim Hyun-woo has already used about 400,000 gold coins.
The reason is the Second Rampart.
At first, when Kim Hyun-woo first built the rampart, he only surrounded the vicinity of the Lord’s Castle, not the entire territory of Lartania.
The reason, of course, is that the entire territory of Lartania is very large.
Moreover, from Kim Hyun-woo’s perspective, who had to start everything from scratch, there was no need to surround the entire vast land with a rampart at once, so he did it this way.
But now that the Labyrinth City is open, the Second Rampart was absolutely necessary for Kim Hyun-woo to move forward, so he was spending money excessively to build it quickly.
“Of course, even though I’ve only enclosed about 40% of the original territory.”
Since the territory is so large, it became wasteful to spend more than this, so Kim Hyun-woo compromised at this point.
In fact, Kim Hyun-woo had used the territory’s labor force to greatly expand the territory at a time when he should have been increasing his military strength, knowing that Elena was worried about it, he hesitated for a moment and asked.
“Is the public safety deteriorating little by little?”
“…It’s not showing a significant decline yet. But if the influx of mercenaries continues…”
In response to Elena’s words, Kim Hyun-woo nodded.
Certainly, as she said, even if it’s not noticeable right now, the public safety of the territory will deteriorate over time.
In fact, it was being too well maintained right now.
The number of mercenaries has already exceeded 4,000, while there are only 200 soldiers.
Even then, taking charge of the rest area on the first floor, the security at the Holy Gate, and the security of the Castle Lord’s residence, the available personnel were so few that if the security started to deteriorate, the situation could become the worst.
First of all, even if the happiness level is high, if the security deteriorates, the rate at which the happiness level plummets is unreasonable.
In fact, Kim Hyun-woo’s territory is in a very poor state due to the rapid build-up of the foundation construction.
“If it’s at that level, it should still be fine.”
“…Is that so?”
Despite knowing all of that, Kim Hyun-woo spoke as if everything was fine.
Because he had a way to handle everything.
“Yes. So, for now, as much as Elena’s power allows, I’ll ask her to prioritize maintaining security. I’ll delegate the authority related to security.”
“Are you saying…”
Literally, it means that you can handle the situation independently without reporting frequently. I trust you.”
Following Kim Hyun-woo’s words,
“…Hm, I’ll do my best.”
Elena briefly averted her gaze, drew a deep breath, and left the office with those words.
And so, about three days passed.
[Lord, the security is gradually declining. If it continues to drop, the happiness of the residents is expected to plummet sharply.]
“Hmm, I thought it would gradually improve, but if it doesn’t, I may have to recruit more soldiers.”
Lorelei’s warning made Kim Hyun-woo’s appetite diminish in a moment of regret.
—-
★★★ The hero ‘Light Researcher’ has entered the territory. ★★★
[The messenger of the ‘Wizard’s Tower’ has arrived in the territory!]
As the notification popped up as if it had been awaited, Kim Hyun-woo smiled.