Chapter 351: Seamless Communication (1/2)

”...” Arthur was silent for a bit before he smirked. ”As I said, I don't care how that druid ends up. The only problem is that with how she led the Tribe, there was very little chance of us cooperating.”

”Removing her from power would have been enough,” Gala said with a smile.

”Not enough for Merlin to make the decision. Without showing her true character, Merlin wouldn't have chosen the difficult choice.”

”So, you're going to ignore her as she dies?” Gala asked, probing.

”Yes,” Arthur nodded without much thought. ”Once Rega grows, Vena will try to reclaim her position as a leader if she's still alive. With Merlin being the leader, grateful and cooperative, then the druids will have a proper relationship with Hidden City.”

”Why didn't you help Vena from the beginning, making her grateful?”

”Using my powers to help her would have made her grateful, but the druids would have been the same: sheltered, needy, and unwilling to work with humans.”

”Fresh blood in the leadership would make things easier.”

”And,” Arthur paused. ”It would be easier to manipulate him. That's the world of politics, after all.”

***

”The nobles here think all of your resources have been destroyed,” Dia's voice came from the hand mirror. ”That's your plan, I guess. But if they were destroyed, I'll rob a bunch of nobles and buy them for you.”

As he listened to her words, Arthur's heart twinged. He missed how protective she was. Dia was a tough nut to crack, but once someone becomes close to her, she would protect them with all of her ability.

”For what you asked, things are going fine.” Dia's following message began. ”The nobles still detest me, but some of them covet my powers. Rinzo is helping me, and he found a maid for me. She's pretentious shit, but she knows what she's doing.”

Arthur listened as he snickered. Dia went on about her stay in the capital, and she mentioned some attempts to remove Arthur from Lordship for incompetence. Solomon rejected all of them.

”Can it be that...” Arthur frowned. He didn't care if he was impeached, but Dia's reaction to those nobles would be disastrous.

”I wanted to kill them all.” Dia's voice was scary to hear.

”That's my girl!” Arthur laughed, but he was honestly worried about her following words.

”But I decided that I will only memorize their faces for now, and then, I'll behead every single one of them after I...” Dia then rambled about gory stuff that made Arthur's stomach turn. When she finally noticed, she was startled. ”Ah, sorry, haha. Where was I?”

Arthur smiled when she panicked. She then tried to talk about everyday things, but her fluster was obvious. After sending a few messages to her, Arthur turned to his legacy.

”How do I increase the estate size?”

[Clearing monsters from the area and setting up boundaries that are enough to ward off, at the very least, monsters of the mid-tier.]

'I see, so our walls need to stand strong against mid-tier monsters.'

This would be the minimum requirement to set up an estate size. However, Arthur found the process to be too troublesome. That's why he called for a conference the following day.

”The druids agreed to work with us,” Arthur reported, and Courage's surprise was unmasked. ”I'll work with them to supply the herbs and corps we need. But, before that, I have a proposal for everyone.”

”Yes?” The Knight of Courage was intrigued.

”We need to establish a center of the city, where we'll be handling most operations. We can't keep having our conferences in a mud house.”

”Well, yeah, but this is what we have at the moment.” Manager Gruen frowned. ”We don't have the workforce to build a mansion for us. That would be the same as those nobles...”

”That's why we won't be needing any people. Our headquarters will be in the forest, the giant tree that the druids are going to nurture.”

”A... tree?” Ma blinked, leaning back in his chair. He even stopped taking notes. ”That's truly unorthodox, but how practical would it be?”

”Practical enough to build a natural defense once it grows fully. The tree isn't like any others, and we can mold it to use it as the central pillar of our city.”

”That would need a lot of planning and a creative mind,” Gruen muttered. ”But I don't see why it's not possible.”

”Did you invite the architect?” Arthur asked Ma, who nodded and took out a parchment. ”What did he say?”

”The architect replied that he'd be traveling toward us faster than the wind. But, before he agrees, he wants to meet the Seika of Living Beings.”

”Why does everyone want to meet me?” Arthur sighed.