Fairy Kingdom Reconstruction Project (1)
Fairy Kingdom Reconstruction Project (1)
The weather was truly nice.
Leaning back on the bed the Fairy Tree had shaped for me, the day's pleasantness settled into my bones.
The branches and leaves filtered the sunlight to just the right level, fanning me with a gentle, cool breeze.
It even offered me fruit with a delightful texture, keeping my mouth from getting bored.
[I'm full... Nom.]
Since last night, Yeon-hwa had been feeding me nonstop, so I was extremely full. No joke, my stomach might actually be bulging out.
Still, not wanting to refuse the kindness, I accepted and ate the fruit.
It was small enough to fit in my mouth. The cool, crisp texture burst refreshingly on my tongue.
Above all, it was soaked with vital energy, making it a sovereign remedy for this body of mine.
Even though I stayed still, it shaded me, fanned me, and moved its branches to rock me gently... As someone once said, I was being treated better than a king.
- If His Majesty isn't the king, then who is?
The spirit draped over another branch, chin propped on its hand, tilted its head quizzically.
[...I can't argue with that.]
At that unexpected, pointed remark, I squirmed a little.
Patting the branch wrapped around my waist, I wore a complicated expression.
- We were hoping Your Majesty would grace the occasion with your presence.
Lee Ji-yeon's words from a moment ago echoed in my head.
'A kingdom...'
A kingdom and a king.
Who would have guessed that terms I'd only known as words in history books would ever apply to me?
It was the kind of talk I would have dismissed with a hollow laugh back in the old days, but now I found myself naturally accepting the spirits and fairy children calling me "King, King."
'I suppose part of this is the influence I received when I recognized my Innate Talent.'
The Innate Talent of my soul is Fairy. A Fairy King, at that.
The children follow me, calling me king, and believe in me. Since I've accepted that title and their faith, I simply want to repay them.
If I lacked the ability, that would be one thing. But right now, I have more than enough ability to repay them.
'Of course, it's still a bit lacking to officially declare it a kingdom right this moment.'
There was one top priority I had to address as king.
The reconstruction of the Fairy Kingdom.
Gathering the fairies that have scattered throughout the world back into one place.
'Hmm...'
I've been continuously thinking about the plan. I already roughed out the broad framework, and I'm in the process of putting the flesh on the bones.
- Woooong...!
Just as I was reviewing the plan for a long while, a human-sized fairy suddenly popped out of the Fairy Tree gate below.
A fairy with long black hair cascading down her back... It was Kariade.
Kariade looked around. Spotting this particular gathering of spirits and fairies, she spread her wings and flew up.
After alighting on a suitable branch, she folded her wings neatly and bowed her head with formality.
- Fairy Kariade greets Your Majesty.
[Welcome, come here.]
Her approach and greeting flowed with a fluid grace. I smiled slightly and sat up.
Kariade had volunteered to stay in the Fairy District in Taesan Territory, handling various matters of Harmonization with the Taesan family.
Since she'd been the one representing the fairies and negotiating with the Taesan family from the beginning, she carried it out proficiently.
Separate from that, I did feel a bit sorry for saddling her with the work.
[I'm sorry for leaving the affairs with the Taesan family to you.]
- It is simply the duty expected of a subject. To know Your Majesty rests at ease is joy enough, so please do not concern yourself.
Kariade, bowing even deeper as she said that, was incredibly reliable, and I felt grateful.
[Thank you for saying that. If you have the time, would you lend me a moment? It's also for my report.]
- It is an honor, Your Majesty.
Her wings fluttering gently, Kariade sat politely on the branch. I retrieved a cool tea from my Subspace, poured it into a cup, and handed it to her.
[Here, have some tea while you listen.]
- Ah...!
Startled, Kariade accepted the teacup with visible, overwhelming gratitude.
Seeing her like that made me smile wryly, and the fairies gathered around tilted their heads.
- I've never seen Kari so nervous before.
- Kari only ever looks like that around the King. Maybe she's scared of him?
- The King is scary? Why? He's so pretty and gentle... Eek, she's glaring at us.
Kariade's quiet, pointed glare abruptly silenced the local broadcast.
- ...My apologies for the rudeness.
[It was cute, don't worry about it. Please, don't be too hard on them.]
As I chuckled, Kariade's cheeks flushed and she fidgeted with her posture for no reason.
[I called you because I wanted to ask something about the kingdom's reconstruction.]
- I shall listen closely.
Kariade's eyes immediately sharpened with focus at the serious topic. I took a sip of tea and brought up the main subject.
[I've drawn up plans of my own, but for reconstructing the kingdom, don't we need territory first?]
Before calling ourselves a kingdom, three elements are commonly required to establish a state.
A people, a territory, and sovereignty.
Among these, I intended to resolve the issue of territory first.
[Right now, the kingdom has practically no territory, does it?]
Currently, the fairies reside in the Siyoram mansion and the Fairy District in Taesan Territory.
While both are lands suitable for fairies to live on, the former is Siyoram's property and the latter belongs to the Taesan family's domain.
If I wished, Kkonnim would grant me the land in Siyoram. And Lee Ji-yeon said she'd resolve the issue of the forest in Taesan Territory once she's inaugurated as Clan Head.
But a kingdom is a kingdom; I thought we should have land where we could exercise our own sovereignty.
- You are indeed correct. Separate from the goodwill of Siyoram and the Taesan family, there is a definite need to secure territory wholly owned by the kingdom.
Kariade nodded in agreement.
- It is self-evident that future generations will be born under Your Majesty's grace, so a domain is needed for the increased number of fairies to settle in.
[Mm.]
Fairies are born within the king's grace.
This wasn't a mere figure of speech. It was a fact: fairies can only be born when the king's blessing exists.
Either way, securing territory was essential for the kingdom's reconstruction.
'Actually, there are plenty of candidates.'
Not all the world's land belongs to humankind.
While it's safe to say the White Zone is safe territory dominated by humans, from the Gray Zone onward, there are many places where people live while clashing with monsters.
The Black Zone is outright monster territory.
Kill every monster in the Black Devouring Land area and plant Fairy Trees—that counts as securing territory.
I just couldn't choose the kingdom's territory through a haphazard land-grab.
- I must apologize, but owing to my lack of information, I have only managed to narrow down a few candidate locations...
Looking dejected, Kariade produced a paper from within her clothes. I beamed and shook my head.
[There's no need to blame yourself. With all the work I've entrusted to you, do you think I'd be so unreasonable as to be disappointed you couldn't find a candidate location? I've been considering a candidate site myself for a while now.]
- Your Majesty has...?
Kariade hesitated, her eyes blinking slowly. What I sensed from her dark eyes wasn't doubt, but anticipation.
[I was thinking of visiting that candidate site briefly now. Would you be able to come along?]
- Yes, Your Majesty. I shall gladly follow.
Her wings gave a broad, gentle flutter as she bowed her head deeply.
'The place is a bit unusual, so she might be surprised...'
Suppressing a quiet laugh, I rose from my seat.
* * *
The conditions for selecting the Fairy Kingdom's territory were quite stringent.
One essential requirement was an environment suitable for a Fairy Tree to take root.
After all, the Fairy Tree forms the foundation of the kingdom's establishment, deploying a natural barrier to create a livable environment for fairies and blocking external invasions.
Such Fairy Trees grow well in soil evenly rich in mana and vital energy.
Since the plan was to plant Fairy Trees across a territory on the scale of a kingdom, I had to weed out any place where an Earth Vein would be depleted by just one or two trees.
And there were plenty of other factors to consider beyond that.
Planting a Fairy Tree resolves most major issues, but I couldn't exactly declare the first territory symbolizing the kingdom's reconstruction in some half-baked location.
'A candidate location chosen by His Majesty...'
She had been too ill-informed about the outside circumstances to pick many candidates herself.
Yet Lee Ha-yul was leading her with an air that suggested he had already half-decided.
His demeanor likely meant that, according to his analysis, this place was suitable to be selected as territory.
Kariade followed closely behind Lee Ha-yul, filled with eager anticipation.
'What kind of place could it be?'
Perhaps it would be a space like a dreamlike garden.
A land where wide grasslands and forests spread under an azure sky, cleaved by an ever-flowing, straight river that would never run dry.
[Ta-da, this is the candidate site.]
- ...This place is...?
Kariade's mouth fell open. She was aware it was an undignified act, but she didn't have the presence of mind to close it.
The sky was dark.
Not because it was night. The sky itself was simply pitch-black, like charcoal. Here and there, other colors were visible.
Purple, crimson, yellow... Ominous hues twisted and swirled into the vortices rampaging across the heavens.
The ground also differed from her imagination.
The surface was blackened. It was barren, as if it met the horizon without a single tree.
Unfathomably deep pits riddled the landscape, and what looked like hundreds or thousands of slashes, as if carved by a Giant's sword, had rent the earth until it collapsed into itself.
"Ah, uhh..."
"The scars here are really brutal."
Kariade's eyes trembled uncontrollably. Standing beside her, Liana swallowed a sigh with a complicated expression.
"Seeing these scars feels like my own heart is being carved up in the same way, but separate from that... is this really a suitable location?"
[Heh.]
[Yes... This place is suitable.]
Nodding his head with a slightly deflated look, Lee Ha-yul also surveyed the area using Observation.
It was a familiar place. The blatant traces of slaughter carved into the earth were familiar too. He'd personally engraved most of them, after all.
The Reverse Side.
More specifically, it was a location that corresponded to its Inner Core.
'This is the most suitable place. No, there's no candidate better than this one.'
The Reverse Side was vast.
If you included everything from the center to the outskirts, it was about the scale of a small continent.
All of it was monster territory. If the space was cramped, he could simply bulldoze and expand it. It wasn't even human land, so there was no hassle.
'It's also overflowing with mana and vitality.'
The Reverse Side was a space that nearly triggered a Great Catastrophe.
There had been a staggering number of high-rank monsters that naturally spawned inside it. That was thanks to the high-concentration mana saturating the Reverse Side.
With those countless monsters buried in the ground after battle, the Earth Vein's vital energy was also brimming.
In other words, it was excellent territory for planting and nurturing Fairy Trees.
Of course, it inherently contained danger as well.
The Reverse Side was, from the start, an unstable space. The fact that merely destroying its core previously had caused a backlash said it all.
'Though, I can resolve that part.'
Lee Ha-yul slowly waved his hand. The space, responding to the Authority coiled around his gesture, quivered faintly.
'I can make the core myself, and then fix the entire space starting from that focal point.'
Configuring the environment was something Lee Ha-yul and the Fairy Trees could accomplish.
Aside from that, the remaining task was... dealing with the monsters that had newly spawned after the rampage at the end of last year.
[Everyone?]
- Yes~?
Having nodded to himself, Lee Ha-yul unfurled his wings.
Whooosh! Hundreds of glowing droplets cascaded from his five-colored wings.
Rising toward the sky like reversed rain, the droplets swelled irregularly, and soon, higher-ranking spirits, having assumed their forms, blinked their eyes open.
Thud! This time, Lee Ha-yul's foot stamped the ground.
A heavy resonance rippled out across the surface.
Stone pagodas, ranging in size from as small as a person to as large as a mountain, surged up in droves, and from within them, undead strode forth.
After surveying the spirits and undead, Lee Ha-yul briskly clapped his hands together.
[Shall we do some cleaning?]