Volume 23 Sidestory 1, Thoughts of the Lords

The entry into the Amamiya Tower on the four cities with transfer gates was immediately delivered to Leril, the lord of the city to the west.

The news was not so much a surprise as it was a revelation.

Aside from Kennelsen and Mixen, the other two towns had not publicly criticized the Tower, but they were not exactly friendly either.

However, this was only from the perspective of their rulers.

The incorporation of cities into the Tower was accepted by the inhabitants of each city without any confusion.

If anything, they were fascinated by it.

The only people who criticized or opposed it were those who were clinging to old interests that had failed to catch on to the new trend.

Aside from those who were hanging on to those interests, the rest of the population was not listening to their arguments.

***

The Tower itself was accepted as a matter of course, so it was safe to say that at least the four cities were on the right track.

To put it bluntly, Leril did not want to make an enemy of Alec, who was serving as the city’s deputy.

He was handling it so brilliantly.

It was already known that Alec was the former third prince of the Kingdom of Flores on the eastern continent.

How someone of such a status could be sitting on the sidelines as a deputy in the town of Tower was unknown.

The information about him was unnaturally hidden from the public.

However, this was of no concern to Leril, the lord of the city to the west.

As a former third prince, he was well-educated and extremely talented.

The ruler of the Tower, Kousuke, was the only name people heard of, but he was rarely seen in public.

In effect, it was Alec who was responsible for the city.

Moreover, from now on, in addition to Kennelsen, which had been under the control of Alec, three other towns would also be under the control of Alec.

Not only that, but the surrounding small villages and towns would certainly be brought under its influence as well.

In this way, Kennelsen alone would be no different from a small nation.

Whatever its official position ended up, Crown’s logistics and the movements of its adventurers would make it difficult to resist.

***

To begin with, Alec was not trying to forcefully incorporate by force.

What they were doing was suppressing the flow of goods to the villages and towns by seizing the logistics, including the big trading companies.

To put it bluntly, this was more of a threat to small villages than the threat of military force.

This was only possible because Crown had the financial resources to finance both the merchant and adventurer divisions, as well as a large merchant corps.

Ostensibly, Crown was an organization separate from the executive branch, but no one would take that at face value.

It would be fair to assume that the town within the Tower was initially founded by Crown.

This means, in essence, that it would be difficult to get the Tower town administration to disassociate itself from Crown.

If Crown could be separated from the town administration, it would be possible to change the current trend, but that was not currently an option.

♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦

“I guess it doesn’t work out that way.”

Leril muttered unintentionally, but fortunately, there was no one by his side.

To be honest, he was a little envious of the four cities that had decided to join the umbrella of the Tower.

He would never mention such a thing in front of his subordinates, though.

The purpose of what Alec was doing was clearly to create a country on the continent that would be on an equal footing with the rest of the continents.

Such a thing would be a feat that no one had yet accomplished on this Central continent.

The same thing that had been done in cities on other continents and the surrounding towns in the port side of the continent could be under them.

But even if it was possible, it would be only become a puppet of a state from another continent.

He could assure such a thing because he was Leril, the lord of the city in the west.

Alec was able to do what he was doing now because of the previous incidents, no doubt.

Because of the presence of a powerful weapon used by the Tower, other countries could not carelessly interfere with the Tower’s movements.

As long as there was no means of countering it, if they made a bad move, they would be retaliated against.

However, there were some who were beginning to suspect that the offensive weapons might actually be a bluff.

Nevertheless, not a single nation has decided to attempt testing such a weapon with their own armed forces.

Leril believed that at the very least, the Column Kingdom would not be trying to attack them in the foreseeable future.

Of course, this was based on information gathered from various sources.

***

The current situation made it more and more difficult for the city of the west to get a hold of them.

To begin with, there was a branch of Crown in this city.

This was because they wanted to send people who had interests in Crown to the branch and try to gain influence from there.

Of course, not only the city to the west, but other cities in the other three directions would be establishing branches as well, but they would be attempting a similar goal.

But unfortunately, that plan never worked.

Or, more accurately, it was going exactly as originally planned.

But it would be more accurate to say that they were getting incorporated as a result.

After all, the other side had an enormous resource supplier called the Tower.

The reality was that when they tried to take a bite out of the other side, the other side was also aimed to swallow them whole.

If there was a country established in the central continent, like in other continents, and if there was such a thing as a feeling of being their hometown, the result would have been different, but unfortunately, there was no such thing in this continent.

Of course, there are those who were proud of being one of the largest cities on the continent, but that’s all there was to it.

The city happened to be geographically located close to the continent to the west, so it was colonized a long time ago.

Thanks to this, it was able to grow as a city through distribution from the other continent, but it was more of a town dangling from the western continent.

However, this is not the case for the towns under the umbrella of the Tower and Crown.

They were even beginning to take pride in being a city and an organization on the Central Continent.

He was surprised to see how different people’s awareness could be changed depending on their backgrounds and origins.

♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦

“I guess I can’t keep thinking about that forever, can I?”

Leril was the lord of the city of the west, and had to deal with what was happening now or would happen.

The Central continent was going to be moved again in a big way because of this matter.

As Lord, he must respond to the situation.

No one would doubt anymore that the Tower was trying to create a nation.

They may have been trying to create a country from the beginning, or in the process of doing so.

However, the reality of the situation was that the movement had reached a point where it could not be stopped.

Even if the Tower’s executive branch denied it, the public would simply not believe it.

Their expectations had already been too great to ignore.

The question was what other moves would be made in response to that move.

The city to the west itself had no intention of making a positive move.

Leril personally believed that it would be a good idea to just go with the flow, but as a lord, he could not say such a thing even as a joke.

This sort of matter would not go well if it was done from above.

***

One interesting thing about this was regarding the southern cities.

The southern continent had always been relatively favorable to Crown because of the Friesian grass.

Even if the southern cities were to become part of the Tower, they would not be openly opposed.

They were probably aware of this situation.

The politicians of the southern city also seemed to have begun to consider the possibility of joining the Tower.

However, this move would not be overlooked by the other three cities.

Perhaps the fate of the Central continent could change again, depending on the moves of the southern city.

At that time, Tower would definitely be at the center of it.

What would happen to the city in the west at that time?

Leril was sure that he would be busy as a lord.