Estate Tour
As soon as we left the office, Rosena headed straight down the spiral staircase of the spire. I followed a half-step behind her in silence before finally asking, “Duke, where are we going?”
“You will see with your own eyes.”
When we emerged from the spire, a vast inner courtyard spread out before me. I stopped without even meaning to. My mouth fell open on its own.
“What... is this?”
What lay before me was a training ground.
No, calling it a training ground was almost insulting. On a stretch of land so enormous it could have held hundreds of knights drilling at once, a colossal barrier dome, woven from mana, covered the sky overhead.
Inside the barrier, a fully armed order of knights was conducting mock battles in flawless formation, and the density of mana each one gave off was no joke.
“These are my personal guard knights. They are all high-ranking demons of viscount rank or above.”
Rosena spoke in an even tone.
I was speechless.
All of them viscount rank or above? I knew that even if you searched the whole city of Hereun, finding noblewomen of viscount level was no easy matter, yet here they were, dozens of monsters running around as if it were nothing.
“And that building over there? That tower...”
“That is the mana research hall. The magical-tool technology developed in my domain is supplied throughout the entire Demon Realm. Even the mana spray you use on the streets was originally made here.”
“...Pardon?”
With every step I took, a new vista opened before me. Beyond the research hall stretched endless grain fields, and beside them, a vast waterworks system powered by mana drew up streams of water.
When we climbed onto the wall, the full view of the estate unfolded at a glance, and honestly, it looked less like a single territory than a small kingdom.
“Duke, this is... honestly, more than I expected.”
“Hmph. Are you surprised by this much? I have not even shown you half of it yet.”
Rosena lifted her chin a little, speaking with open pride, but the way the corners of her eyes twitched made it obvious she was pleased by my reaction.
I looked down from the wall, genuinely impressed.
“What about the village down there?”
“That is where my subjects live. Taxes are the lowest in the Demon Realm, and public order is the highest. Naturally. It is my domain.”
Her words were brief and firm, but the pride behind them was unmistakable.
It wasn’t empty boasting. The village below the wall was neatly maintained, and the faces of the people passing through it looked bright and at ease. This wasn’t just a display of power; it was the territory of someone who truly knew how to rule.
“May I speak honestly?”
“Speak.”
“I knew you were an incredible person, Duke, but I never imagined it was to this extent. I’m overwhelmed.”
Rosena stopped walking. Her black hair stirred in the wind, and the curve of her lips rose too high to hide, no matter how hard she tried.
She gave a small cough, turned her face away, and muttered, “Ahem. Th-that is enough. There is more for you to see, so follow me.”
The steps she took ahead of me seemed lighter than before. I smiled to myself and followed her again, still a half-step behind.
We walked along the wall for quite some time. At some point Rosena turned toward a narrow stone stairway and stopped before an arched gate completely draped in ivy.
Complex magic circles were etched into the old iron door, and when she laid her hand against it, it opened with a heavy sound and a flash of blue light.
“This is my private space. Even the nobles of the estate are not permitted to enter.”
“Is it all right to show me somewhere like this?”
“I am granting you special permission. Be grateful.”
The moment I stepped through the iron gate, I felt as if my breath had stopped. The sight before me was unlike anything I had seen since coming to this world.
Endless flowers glowed with a faint, mana-like radiance, and transparent, crystal-like butterflies drifted among the petals as if they were swimming through the air.
At the center of the garden stood a fountain of pure white marble, its rising water splitting into rainbow colors high in the air and forming a fine mist.
Every blade of grass and every shrub had been tended with exquisite care, yet none of it lost the natural grace of the whole. It was perfect landscaping.
“This is....”
I couldn’t find the words. Truly. For someone like me, who had spent half a year in the back alleys of Hereun, the scene felt unreal. No—combined with my previous life’s memories, I had never seen a garden this magnificent.
“I come here often. When I wish to sort out my thoughts, or...”
Rosena trailed off.
She seemed about to say when I want to be alone, then swallowed the words instead.
She sat casually on a marble bench beside the fountain and turned her gaze toward the flowerbeds. When the wind picked up, several petals drifted through the air and settled on her black hair.
“Duke, may I be honest?”
“What now?”
“Today is the first time I’ve truly understood what it means to be a duke.”
Rosena’s eyes widened slightly. I slowly looked around the garden and continued, “When I was only in Hereun, I honestly didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the weight that comes with the title of duke. I just thought you were a terrifying, powerful woman, but now that I’ve seen it myself, it feels like I’ve stepped into a completely different world. The knights, the research hall, the village—all of it was amazing, but... this garden is what surprised me most.”
“....The garden?”
“Yes. Creating and maintaining this level of beauty means you have that much room to breathe, doesn’t it? Military power and technology are things you possess out of necessity, but this is a place that exists purely for beauty. Isn’t that the true proof of strength?”
Rosena looked at me without saying a word. Her chin was still lifted as proudly as ever, but the corners of her mouth were curling upward before she even knew it.
The hand brushing petals from her hair moved more leisurely than usual, and her eyes had softened considerably.
“Hmph. You do have a talent for saying uselessly pleasing things.”
“I’m just telling the truth.”
“....I see.”
She turned her head a little, but the expression visible through the fluttering strands of her hair was unmistakably a smile.
A crystal butterfly landed on her shoulder, then took flight again, and Rosena followed its path with her eyes before murmuring quietly, “There is more for you to see. It is too early to be startled yet, so steel yourself.”
We went deeper into the garden.
As we followed a narrow path winding between flowerbeds and shrubs, the scenery gradually began to change.
The carefully arranged, artificial beauty faded away, and in its place appeared a primitive forest, where moss-covered rocks and wildflowers were tangled together.
Even the air felt different. Every breath seemed to draw something cool and clear deep into my lungs.
“Duke, the atmosphere over here is completely...”
“Be quiet. You will see soon enough.”
Rosena cut me off sharply.
There was an odd reverence in her voice, replacing her usual haughty tone.
I shut my mouth and kept following behind her. The moment I parted the final thicket and stepped out, I froze in place.
It was a giant tree.
A colossal tree that seemed to pierce the sky stood at the center of the forest.
Its trunk alone must have been tens of meters around, and its branches spread in every direction to cover the whole sky. But that wasn’t all.
The entire tree was shining.
Blue light pulsed through the gaps in its bark, and every leaf, holding a luminous glow of its own, scattered tiny particles of light whenever the wind stirred them.
Even from the ground around its roots, a faint mana rose up, wrapping the tree like mist.
“This is the World Tree.”
Rosena spoke softly.
“The World Tree...?”
“An ancient giant tree that absorbs the mana of the land through its roots, purifies it, and circulates it back into the atmosphere. This single tree governs the mana flow of the entire duchy. The fertility of the soil and the efficiency of the magical tools in my territory are all thanks to this World Tree.”
I tilted my head back and looked up toward the top. There was no end in sight.
Beams of light pouring through the branches looked like starlight falling from the heavens, and whenever the wind brushed the leaves, I could hear a faint ringing, like the clear chime of bells.
Something deep in my chest seemed to resonate in response. Even with a body that held no mana, I could feel it: the power this tree carried was overwhelming.
There are three World Trees on the continent. One of them is in my domain.
The light of the World Tree rested over Rosena’s profile as she spoke in that same composed voice.
Blue motes drifted like snow over her black hair, and the tree’s radiance pooled in her red eyes.
I couldn’t say anything for a long while.
I had survived half a year in Hereun, listening to the lust-soaked moans of demon women in the alleyways, betting my life on a single bottle of mana spray, taking it one day at a time.
Somewhere along the way, I had even forgotten that this was a fantasy world.
I’d been too busy surviving, too crushed by the weight of reality, to spare any thought for the world’s true nature.
And yet now, standing before this tree—standing beneath its glowing leaves, feeling the pulse of mana that vibrated all the way into my heart—I understood with my whole body.
Ah. So this really was a fantasy world. The place I had fallen into was a world where things like this existed.
“Why are you standing there so blankly?”
Rosena turned and looked at me. Unable to tear my eyes away from the World Tree, I answered honestly.
“I was just... remembering something I’d forgotten.”
“What?”
“That this was a different world... and that it’s rather beautiful.”
Rosena looked at me in silence, then at last turned her gaze back toward the World Tree and quietly let the corners of her lips rise. Glowing leaves drifted soundlessly down over the two of us.
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