A Fief of One's Own
It was glaringly obvious what had happened. The King had wanted to bestow a grand reward, but the Chief Chamberlain, looking out for the royal treasury's interests, had proposed something bizarre—and Cain had eagerly jumped on it with a resounding "Yes!"
"Ah, well, in that case..."
"On the contrary, that fief suits Sir Cain perfectly, Your Majesty! If a hero of such legendary exploits as Sir Cain governs it, who would dare look down on that land?"
"Wait, I'm not actually that strong—"
"Is that so? Then... I shall bestow the Nodranche Territory upon Sir Cain. Sir Cain, henceforth, you shall be addressed as Count Nodranche! As the Count of Nodranche, and as King Atali's sla—ahem, loyal subject! I look forward to your continued honorable deeds."
"Th-thank you..."
You have received the fief, Nodranche!
A new skill has...
Your Reputation has greatly...
Nodranche...
Quest...
This was the Kingdom's 4th Knight Order, which Tae-hyun had squeezed out of—no, graciously received from—the King of Erance when his mind was hazy! It was a knight order Tae-hyun cherished deeply. Originally, he had kept them stationed to prepare for any demon incursions into his territory, but looking at the current situation, lending them out for a bit didn't seem like an issue. The Valley's defenses were incredibly robust anyway!
-And if I also send over some Vampires, Goblins, Orcs, and Giants...
-...W-wait. You're not just trying to dump your territory's garbage on me, are you?
-Tsk. You've gotten smarter.
-Hey!
Cain felt a surge of indignation, but Tae-hyun quickly spoke up again.
-But jokes aside, don't you need to populate your fief with something? I heard Nodranche has barely any resident NPCs but is crawling with monsters nearby. You need to take whatever you can get to boost your numbers.
-...Ugh...
-I'm telling you, Orcs are the absolute best for this. You close your eyes, open them, and boom—your NPC population has multiplied. Plus, Vampires handle cold weather incredibly well. Giants? They'll happily munch on rocks and be fine. And Goblins? Come on. Don't you know that the harsher the land, the more underground facilities you need? If an ice storm comes howling through, are you just going to stand on the surface and take it?
-Kh... Kgh...
He couldn't refute a single word! Cain groaned, unable to counter Tae-hyun's flawless logic. It made perfect sense, yet he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he was somehow getting the short end of the stick!
-Even so, clearing the quests there is going to be a nightmare. Hmm. Should I pause my own quests and head over to your fief to help you clear them...?
-Gasps! I have a brilliant idea!
-??
-There are some clueless idiots we can use!
At Cain's sudden outburst, the rest of the party began to whisper among themselves.
"He's not talking about himself, is he?"
"If his personality is finally splitting, then he's finally..."
-It's not that, you bastards! I met a Spirit King on my way here!
-!
Tae-hyun was genuinely startled.
-You didn't fall into a trap, did you?
-Huh? No, nothing like that happened.
Cain explained everything that had transpired. Hearing the tale, Tae-hyun's eyes widened even further.
"They just... showered you with gifts?"
Carbanog is utterly flabbergasted and expresses absolute disbelief!
'Wait. Could it be because I released the Cold Spirits?'
Tae-hyun tried to find a positive explanation. The Spirit King had bestowed gifts and expressed a desire to meet him. It had to be a reward for freeing the Cold Spirits!
However, Carbanog remained cold and realistic.
Carbanog states that the notorious name of Akisus cannot possibly be redeemed by such a trivial gesture.
Normally, when a notoriously bad person occasionally does a good deed, it creates an optical illusion of goodness. But the God of scams, Akisus, was an exception! If Akisus suddenly started doing good deeds now, would the demons ever think, 'Hmm... perhaps Akisus was actually benevolent all along!'? Absolutely not. They would scream, 'That bastard is mocking us!'
'...Then maybe they summoned us because they want something.'
Carbanog concedes that this sounds plausible. Perhaps they want Akisus's head or heart...
'...Whatever the case.'
Although his suspicion had eased slightly, he still had no intention of going right now. There was no pressing reason to meet the Spirit King immediately. If the Spirit King was truly desperate, he would come looking for Tae-hyun himself!
-Cain. So you're planning to put those guys to work?
-Uh... is that a bad idea?
-No. I'm just proud of you for actually using your brain...
"I actually shed a tear," Choi Sang-yun deadpanned.
"Embarrassing as it is, I teared up a bit too," Jeong Su-hyeok added.
-Tell those jerks next to you to shut up! Once I develop my fief and strike it rich, you guys won't get a single drop of the soup!
"Will there even be any soup to begin with?"
"Probably just plain water..."
Jeong Su-hyeok and Choi Sang-yun were brutally realistic. Honestly, what could possibly come out of that frozen wasteland? At best, they'd get ice and seawater!
Cain gritted his teeth at their mockery. Just you wait...! I will absolutely rebuild this territory and make the name Nodranche synonymous with a goldmine!
"Still, if it's developed, won't something valuable turn up?"
Perhaps feeling a bit of pity for Cain, Lee Da-bi spoke up. Tae-hyun nodded in agreement.
"Well... an undeveloped territory is like an unscratched lottery ticket."
"Like The Valley?"
"The Valley is a lottery ticket that was scratched and then immediately caught fire."
"……."
"……."
A solemn silence fell over the group.
"Unlike The Valley, where we already have a pretty clear picture of what's there, Nodranche is an island that players have barely touched. If he diligently clears quests and pioneers the land, something is bound to turn up. A high-tier dungeon... or even a mine wouldn't be bad."
"Given Cain's luck, though, that's a bit of a stretch."
"Yeah, his luck is kind of..."
"……."
The companions delivered their cold, unvarnished verdicts.
"Let's just focus on our own quest. The Zaion Mountains are no walk in the park," Tae-hyun said.
What Tae-hyun mobilized for the Zaion Mountains raid was, of course, his multi-species special forces! On top of that, he had requested aid from the Underground Alliance Goblins and even borrowed their engineering units.
'Since it's a mountain range, we'll likely have to delve deep underground, so they'll be highly effective.'
When exploring mountain ranges or digging into the earth, the races one typically encountered were Dwarves or Goblins. If they ran into Goblins, things would go incredibly smoothly!
"We'll bypass the areas we cleared last time as quickly as possible and head higher up. We have the tournament schedule to keep in mind, so we won't push ourselves to the absolute limit, but it's still best to fill out the map quickly."
Tae-hyun pulled out the incomplete map of the Zaion Mountains and drew a line across it. His objective was to complete the map of the mountain range as quickly as possible, locate the settlements of the mountain tribes' NPCs, and activate them. The quests would come after that!
"Alright. Let's move out!"
"Yes, sir!"
The number of players flocking to the Demon Realm was far greater than Tae-hyun had anticipated. Once the path became freely accessible at any time, the Demon Realm was perceived as a newly opened frontier. It was an uncharted territory ripe with opportunities and perfect for leveling up!
In the past, only highly capable explorer players dared to venture there, but now, any high-level player thought, 'Should I check it out?' Although countless raid parties had been utterly annihilated in the Demon Realm, those disasters had long since been erased from the players' minds!
"But isn't it dangerous?"
"Nah, that's just because those guys were idiots. Besides, as long as you stay near the fortress, you're fine. They only wiped because they were dumb enough to wander off too far."
These dismissive remarks rubbed salt into the wounds of the players who had been kicked out of their guilds. The shattered raid parties shed tears of blood as they ground out mundane quests around the Demon Realm fortress.
"These ungrateful bastards have no idea whose sake allows them to lounge around so comfortably...!"
"To be fair, it's not exactly because of us, is it?"
"Shut up."
-Hey guys. Do you want to get the hell out of the Demon Realm?
"!!"
A whisper suddenly arrived from Cain. The eyes of the stranded raid party members widened.
-O-of course we do!
-Well, I just received a new fief...