There Was a Mana Stone Mine in the Mountains Behind the Territory (1)

The road back to Seorigol.

I ought to have been able to relax, having slipped free of expulsion. And yet every time the carriage wheels jolted, something in my chest jolted with them.

The academy's expulsion committee, and the chaos that followed, still cluttered my head. But there was a more fundamental, more urgent problem waiting to shove every one of those worries aside.

Food.

The people I'd left behind in Seorigol. And Anya, who was leading them.

Before I left, the territory's food situation had been nothing short of a life-or-death crisis. Even the Aberration-born Territory Creation itself had fretted that its "prey" might starve to death. I'd ordered fields cleared, but the means to stop the hunger right now had been painfully short.

Anya's last letter had been, frankly, grim.

I'd written back asking her to hang on a little longer. I'd brought dried bread and emergency rations from the academy; that would cover a few days at least.

Fancy dinner menus could go to hell. I'd worry about that once nobody in the territory was starving to death.

Caught between dread and hope, I walked the approach road into Seorigol.

"Huh?"

Something was off. The faces of the people coming and going… weren't bad. No — if anything, they looked healthier than I did.

What?

I was still turning that over when I stepped into the village proper — and something came bursting out of the side path through the trees in a rustle of undergrowth.

"Hey, you lot! You dug up a proper haul this time, right?"

A bright, ringing voice. Familiar silver hair catching the wind. Anya. She had baskets in both hands, and a line of children trailed behind her.

"Yes, Captain!"

"We found so much!"

And behind the children came grown men and women, grunting under the weight of their loads. They carried baskets of their own, each one spilling over with forage from the mountains.

Anya directed the kids and adults toward the storehouse with practiced ease. Only then did she spot me. Her eyes went round.

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"When did you get back, nyang?"

"Just now. But… what's all this?"

Anya set her baskets down and lifted her chin — the look of someone who had just pulled off something magnificent. She launched into her report with solemn, swaggering dignity.

"As the lord ordered, I started on the top priority — securing food and building the foundation for it, nyang."

"That so? Can I hear the details?"

Anya's tail swished. She spoke with absolute confidence.

"Hunger is a problem you fix now! I used my senses and the survival skills Grandma Elara taught me, nyang! From the refugee kids, I picked five who had good hands and already knew the mountains, nyang. Kids are light, so even if they fall in the hills they don't get hurt as bad, nyang. Perfect for scouting!"

There was logic to it. But child labor laws? Come to think of it, fantasy worlds didn't have those. And the kids' faces looked bright enough, besides.

"I taught them how to find mountain fruit and small game, nyang! When the kids find it, the adults collect it!"

"Was there a lot of fruit?"

"Seorigol is a backwater, so the forest's never been touched by people, nyang! Plenty of edible fruit, mushrooms — all of it, nyang!"

"…That stings a little."

Still. So that was an advantage. I'd never thought of it that way. Theore's hunting-and-gathering system was extremely, extremely primitive — something you only used in the tutorial and then never touched again.

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"How many people did you put on foraging?"

"Twenty-five! Including me — nineteen adults, and five talented kids. The kids did support work and training too, nyang!"

"Results?"

Anya pointed at the baskets.

"We cleared the immediate starvation crisis, and we've even put a little into reserve, nyang!"

She planted both hands on her hips and stood there in full triumphant glory. She might as well have been a general riding home from a victorious campaign.

She really is a conquering general.

I couldn't help admiring her report. Her skill, her crisis management — I was seeing her in a whole new light.

Beastkin aren't just gifted with physical senses, huh.

A solution I never would have reached on my own. Having heroes I could trust in the territory was more reassuring than I'd given it credit for.

"Well done, Anya. You really worked hard."

Anya's tail wagged with pride.

Wait… her tail? Since when was it out in the open like that?

"It was nothing, my lord!"

I nodded and led her to the office. "Office" was generous — it was a shabby little lodging at best. But it was the only place where Anya and I could talk alone.

From my bag I carefully drew out a small box. A real cake, hard-won from the academy.

"W-what is this, nyang?"

Anya's eyes went huge.

"While I was sweeping up dried bread, they happened to be handing out cake as a special ration, so I grabbed some."

It had seemed perfect for Anya, who'd been working herself ragged. The academy staffer had seen the newspaper article about me and, surprisingly, packed up a slice without a fuss. "Hang in there," he'd said.

I held the cake out to her.

"Try it."

"…Okay."

Anya carefully reached for the cake.

"Nya!"

Her finger sank straight into it, and she jumped. Then she pressed the white cream on her fingertip to her nose and sniffed.

"Pfft—!"

"W-why are you laughing, nyang?! I'm not some country bumpkin!"

"Who said you were? Just take a bite."

If I told her I was laughing because of the cream on her nose, she'd flip completely. Better to keep that to myself and enjoy the view.

Anya turned the cake this way and that, fascinated. After a long hesitation, she carefully took a bite.

"…!"

That small mouth fell open in a perfect circle. Her eyes went truly, rabbit-wide.

"It's sweet, nyang…!"

She stared at the cake in silence for a long moment, then took another bite, and another — tiny, precious bites. Cream smeared at the corner of her mouth and she didn't even notice. She was so cute I couldn't help smiling.

"This… is really good, nyang…"

"Eat slowly. It'll be a while before I can buy you another one."

…And just like that I was sad again. Seorigol's finances.

Anya shook her head hard.

"You shouldn't eat things like this often, nyang. Only on special days, nyang."

Hearing that, something warm settled in my chest for no good reason.

"Yeah. You did really well this time, so let's call it a special day."

Anya's face went red. She stuffed cake in her mouth and turned her head away.

Watching her with quiet satisfaction, I pulled out my notebook and checked the territory status window.

The resident count had already gone up by seven. Twenty-eight more until the next level-up.

The housing shortage I could handle by stirring them up to build it themselves. Housing construction was normally the biggest money sink — especially labor costs — and I could wipe that out for free.

Perfect. Stir them up, huh?

I chuckled, then caught myself. Given how dire the food situation had been until moments ago, this was no time to sit around laughing. At least Anya had pulled off a miracle.

Come to think of it, Anya's hunting and gathering was genuinely sophisticated.

Originally, Theore's hunting and foraging wasn't even given a level ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— it was a gimmick half-starved residents fell back on when they had nothing left. But Anya had systematically mustered the people, built teams, and run proper hunts and forage operations. And that, in the end, had saved Seorigol from crisis once already.

The dried bread I'd rushed to bring could be reclassified as emergency stock. Once the fields were properly running, food wouldn't be a worry on the climb to 2-Star.

And we're already planting rapid-growth crops alongside the field clearing.

Housing and food, solved. Which meant —

Twenty-eight people to 2-Star.

Gather that many refugees and we were there. Then special buildings, hero recruitment through loopholes, real development.

The problem was that a summons from the Darkest family would probably come soon. I'd more or less raised a banner against Lionel, the family heir — of course they would. I already had a plan for how to handle the family, but that didn't change the fact it might take time.

In other words: hit 2-Star before then, and leave Anya with a few development tasks. Best use of the clock.

"Well then. Shall we grow the population?"

Twenty-eight. A lot, if you wanted to call it a lot — but not hard. I'd just go round up some refugees wandering around outside.

"Heh heh."

"Why… why are you laughing like a demon, nyang?! You're scary!"

Six hours out of the territory, hunting refugees — no, inviting them home.

I hadn't found a single refugee.

Instead —

"…A mana stone mine?"

Glittering blue stones everywhere I looked.

What were these doing here?