Chapter 261
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 261
Chapter Title: The Hatching of Radon
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She, who once held the stance that money was utterly unimportant, was now purely delighted.
"If you want this jewel, Leon, kiss my cheek right now."
At her request, Melissa shot to her feet and shoved my back.
"What are you doing! Do it right now!"
This was the kind of thing where, once the stage was set, I just couldn't move easily.
I stared fixedly at Luna, and she gazed back at me with a tense expression, clearly expectant.
"No can do."
"What? Kyaaah!"
When I gave my answer and poked Melissa's surprised eyes, she let out a scream and collapsed.
With no one watching, there was no reason to hesitate.
I walked over naturally and pressed my lips to Luna's forehead. She looked at me quietly, then clapped her hands with a pang pang.
At the spot where her palms met, space ripped open, and jewels poured out in a cascade.
"Satisfied. Extremely satisfied."
"Grrr... Poke the duke's eyes?! That's lese-majeste! You headbutting dinosaur!!"
Yeah, headbutting dinosaurs don't know about that.
"Don't you know Pachycephalosaurus charges when it's mad? You stingray-lookin' freak."
"Argh!"
Calming Melissa down was simple.
"Luna."
"Ruby launch."
She scattered her hand this way and that, and red gems tumbled down from thin air.
Ahh. This was the inexhaustible jewel vault.
That was when it happened.
"Ugh... Wowww!! A cute friend came out of the box!"
Arsha's highly excited voice echoed from outside the room.
At Arsha's shout, we headed to her room, where the two kids were playing.
And there, we saw an utterly unexpected sight.
The ancient monster box that Coral's king had possessed—Radon's box.
It was open.
No, why was that here?
We'd planned to store the box we'd seized from Coral's king back in the royal vaults, but since we didn't know when trouble might arise, I'd taken it and sealed it away in my room.
But I was certain I'd left that box in my room, not here?
A golden cat rubbed its head against Arsha's chest like it was nuzzling her, purring contentedly with a grrr.
"Radon?"
Luna muttered in disbelief.
That kitten the size of a mouse ball was Radon...? The Radon I knew wasn't anything like that.
In one corner, the black dragon hatchling that Arsha had hatched in the borderlands glared at the cat with clear displeasure.
One was a black dragon. One was an ancient golden monster. And though it wasn't here now, the King of the Gold Realm was protecting Arsha too.
At this point, Arsha's talent as a beast tamer was starting to feel downright terrifying.
That aside, there were plenty of things to check about the dangers posed by this being called Radon.
As I approached, Radon bared its fangs at me, positioning itself behind Arsha like it was guarding her.
Shaaaa!!
Arsha put on a stern face and lightly tapped its butt.
"No! Be nice to Big Brother, or you're a bad kitty!"
-Nyaaang!
Surprisingly, it let out an odd cry, lowered its face, and stuck its butt up high.
I'd heard cats react like that when you tap the base of their tail.
But wasn't Radon an ancient monster? How could this be?
Seeing that, the black dragon in the corner strode over, shoved Radon aside, and struck the exact same pose.
"Ung... Pet Kainia too?"
-Grrr...
"Good kitty. Good kitty. Such a good girl."
Melissa, Luna, and I watched the scene in stunned silence for quite a while.
"Father."
Meanwhile, Gribi showed no interest in them whatsoever and clung tightly to the dolls Arsha was attached to.
"Is that thing really okay?"
"Contract mark activated. It's already Arsha's familiar."
"No, normal Radon..."
"Summoning Radon requires an enormous amount of gold. For it to pop out without any payment and carve a contract mark on its own... It must really like Arsha."
At this rate, I wondered if there was anything that could harm Arsha.
The King of the Gold Realm, black dragon hatchling, ancient monster.
Hmm. At least no major worries there.
I slowly approached Arsha and asked.
"Want to raise this cat?"
"Yes! It's super cute!"
"I told you before, right? Raising a pet means being diligent."
"Yes!"
"I believe in you. This one's name is Radon."
"Radon? What a cute name!"
Hmm... It wasn't that cute a guy... Whatever. If Arsha liked it, then it was good.
"Alright."
As Arsha scooped Radon into her arms, it meekly nestled against her, seemingly resigned.
It was strangely fascinating how the King of the Gold Realm, the black dragon hatchling, and even Radon were all so favorable toward Arsha.
Gazing at Radon, I locked eyes with it in a silent staring contest.
"You understand me? Harm Arsha, and you won't know what I'll do to you."
It gave a short hiss in response, but when Arsha hugged it tight again, it let out a brief mew and rubbed its head against her.
For an ancient monster said to have devoured kingdoms, its movements were pathetically tame.
Suddenly saddled with a vastly expanded territory to manage, Melissa was busier than ever.
She attended academy classes by day and handled territory affairs in the evenings. Unable to just leave her turning into a total wreck, Luna and I pitched in to help where we could, but Melissa's stubbornness was ironclad.
-If I can't even handle this, I can't call myself family head. I'll do it no matter what.
That ferocious stamina was probably thanks in no small part to the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
Her determination was so admirable that, as her big brother, I couldn't let her struggle alone.
So every time she looked exhausted, I'd seek her out and flash a stun artifact right in her face.
The result? The touched Melissa would draw her sword and chase me down—but at her speed, catching me was impossible.
A massive sand playground had appeared in the mansion garden—that was Gribi's handiwork.
"Thickie~ Thickie~ Give away the old house, get a new one."
Giggling with a kyarruk, every time it tapped the ground, the surrounding sand vibrated and slowly rose up.
It was crude, but the shape was unmistakably a castle.
"Ugh... Wowww..."
Arsha's eyes sparkled in wonder at Gribi's skill, prompting the black dragon hatchling and Radon—who adored her—to try building their own castles by digging and piling sand.
But of course, they couldn't handle earth as well as an earth spirit.
Still, it was great news that Gribi and Arsha were getting along.
Now, to tackle things one by one.
I'd successfully sent Asuria Abelgard packing by threatening not to teach her anything until after graduation.
She'd muttered creepy things about grade-skipping, but even Asuria couldn't graduate in a short time, so I ignored her.
For the permanent gate sites, I chose areas still under development.
The twin siblings personally led workers to deliver the necessary magic materials here, while other supplies came via trade with the Planetaria Merchant Guild.
The basic framework resembled the improved gates from my past life.
Except these had only one side open, not both.
We built a massive base frame, then softened its structure like clay. Top sculptors were gathered to artfully shape it.
Naturally, Cheonryeong stood out the most.
Deeply versed in sculpture, he'd heard my plan and insisted on joining. True to his word, he left behind a grand yet beautiful piece.
Just seeing the territory folk gather to gawk and gasp during the process showed it turned out pretty impressive.
Afterward, we hardened the clay-like structure, then coated it with metals and mithril mined from the mountains.
Finally, we replicated the completed gate's form down to the molecular level.
The goal was to place two gates in each territory, like building an intersection.
Gates allowing bidirectional travel from Cascadia to the Balt Plains and Callis, with the other territories mirroring the setup, would let us run the three places like one big territory.
Of course, shaping them was easy—the hard part was applying countless magical treatments.
They looked like giant doors from outside, but inside, I'd carved special mana circulation paths.
Impossible with normal methods, but the Machine God's heart could reshape anything.
"Should take about three days."
I embedded special magic materials underground and resonated them, slowly feeling the mana flow.
I also set up barriers to prevent external interference with the mana flow.
In short, destroying it artificially meant shattering my 8th-circle multi-layered defense spells in one go.
That level of firepower would reduce not just the gate but the whole territory to dust, so sabotage from most threats was no longer a concern.
Next up: maintenance and safety...
Maintenance wasn't a big worry to begin with.
Install multiple oriharcon chargers to absorb and cycle ambient mana, activating specific magic circles, and done.
Shutting down briefly for periodic checks wasn't a huge issue, so they'd stay active 24/7 otherwise.
For safety tests, I could draw on data from the teleport gates in Cascadia territory.
Of course, installing the gates didn't mean activating them full-time right away.
"Resistance forces might still be out there. For now, open them only when needed."
Melissa said, chin in hand, as I reported on the gate operations.
Coral's royals had fallen, and most remnants vanished, but that didn't mean they were all dead.
Some surrendered, but many fled east to escape threats.
Some probably stayed in Coral to resist.
Linking Cascadia directly to those places in that situation could drive survivors mad enough to invade and terrorize us.
The Balt Plains were less populated, but Coral's capital Callis had massive numbers of people.
Most would scatter to other territories, but as the former capital, far more would pass through than Cascadia.
Suddenly merging lands was bound to cause problems.
"With manpower and systems unstable, let's tackle Callis issues slowly for now."
In that sense, the Balt Plains—mostly farmers—were far easier.
"This is all your fault."
She shot me a glare and grumbled.
"How the hell does your territory double overnight like this?!"
At her complaint, I turned to Luna.
Luna, who had been staring at me, turned her head the same way.
"Beep boop. Compass, respond."
She pulled out Laplace's compass and pretended to fiddle with it.
"You little punk! You're the biggest problem here!"
Melissa grabbed a nearby book and hurled it at me in frustration.
Truth be told, she had the biggest headache right now.
That tugged at my conscience.
Cascadia was just starting to stabilize, and now she had to manage two huge new lands overnight.
To express my apology, I reached into my pocket.
And pulled out a metal consumable artifact.
"You madman!"
She reflexively yanked light-blocking gear over her head.
That blocked stun artifacts pretty well.
She'd been hit so often, she carried countermeasures now.