"Come on, just a little more. You're almost done."

"Nngh...!"

At the southern end of the world lay a wilderness so remote that only the most inquisitive adventurers occasionally passed through. Somewhere in the Koloa region, encouraging words mingled with strained groans.

The groans belonged to a blue-eyed woman with reddish-brown hair. Her simple clothing, typical of Shiraf Marsh, revealed taut muscles along her forearms and calves.

After repeatedly squatting and standing with a bar in her hands, Maysa finally set it down, panting.

"Hah, haa... I can't... do any more."

"A shame. I thought you had one more in you."

Turan, the young man helping her from the other side, clicked his tongue at the sight of Maysa sprawled on the ground and put the iron bar away.

Though it looked like an ordinary long iron bar, it was a magic tool Maysa had made herself. Feeding it mana increased its weight.

Tools like this were necessary to place enough strain on top-ranking nobles like them to build muscle. Of course, simply increasing the weight would send them sinking into the soft ground, so they also had to hold the earth firm with earth-alteration magic.

"I think you've done enough physical training now. Your muscle mass seems to have stopped increasing a while ago."

"Finally—ow! A little gentler..."

Maysa cried out as he firmly kneaded her trembling calves and thighs. Throughout their work reclaiming the marsh, they had helped each other train like this whenever they had time.

Maysa's progress had been particularly swift, since a lack of time and suitable circumstances had cut her previous training short. Her naturally slender frame would never become massively muscular, but feminine curves had developed on her once-thin body, and her strength and resilience had improved noticeably. In terms of physical ability alone, she now slightly surpassed Turan when he wasn't using a bloodline suited to close combat.

Turan, of course, had also grown sturdier. Having already undergone an intensive course with Haram, he hadn't made such dramatic gains, but the extra muscle gave him a more manly build.

Solif, by contrast, had already trained his body to its limits at House Baraha. He either helped them train or went off to do something else, as he had today.

Leaving Maysa to rest a little longer, Turan leaped onto the levee and looked south toward the land they had already reclaimed. Dry earth stretched beyond the horizon.

'We really have done a lot...'

Two and a half months had passed since their arrival in Koloa. As they grew more adept at magical reclamation, they had managed to reclaim nearly a third of the designated area.

Once they finished and turned it into farmland, it would probably feed hundreds of thousands with room to spare. Though the librarian had cautioned that the local soil didn't seem particularly well suited to farming.

Considering that no plain this large existed anywhere in Koloa, or even throughout the entirety of Shiraf Marsh under Ravista's rule, it was a truly tremendous achievement.

'Of course, wizards this powerful normally have no reason to devote themselves to reclaiming a marsh.'

Why would people capable of founding a respectable great house need to occupy themselves with such menial work? Unless, say, they needed the help of the world's finest Healer.

Not that the work was entirely meaningless drudgery. Besides learning how to handle large-scale magic during the reclamation, they could make time to build up their bodies like this. Physical training wasn't impossible while traveling, but it was certainly easier when they stayed in one place.

He had only been admiring the reclaimed land for a short while when he sensed a powerful mana presence behind him—and a faint one right beside it. Moments later, Solif emerged from the marsh to the north, waving and calling out.

"Hey, Turan! I'm back!"

"Right on time. I was just thinking you were due back. Everything go all right?"

"What could possibly have happened?"

The knight Yoz followed beside Solif, looking half dazed. With Yoz due to return, Solif had gone to check on him; apparently, they had run into each other and come back together. Yoz still seemed out of his senses even as Solif hauled him onto the levee.

"G-great one. Yoz offers his greetings."

"Did you return the lizard safely?"

"Yes... But I had no idea that gentleman was a noble..."

The reason for Yoz's agitation was his discovery that Solif—or rather, 'Phil,' as he was currently disguised by the mask—was a noble. He might not consider nobles gods like the ignorant locals did, but how could he feel at ease after learning he had been ordering around and instructing someone so far above his station?

Solif could have kept pretending to be a knight as long as he wished, but he needed to reveal his status if he was to use his magic properly in front of Yoz.

'Once this gets reported, Ravista will probably realize Phil is Solif.'

Turan wasn't particularly concerned. Ravista's House Head and Lida already had some idea of their strength. Only a fool would antagonize two great nobles approaching House Head caliber and another at least as strong as a great house's heir just to please a distant great house with little ability to exert its influence here. Especially when all three were rootless wanderers, free to go anywhere and do anything without fear of reprisals against a home base.

"I keep telling him not to worry, but he won't listen. You don't often find a knight this stubborn."

"I'm not sure stubborn is the word... Well, never mind. If the journey hasn't left you too tired, shall we start with a look at what we've reclaimed?"

"Of course."

Perhaps reassured by Turan and Solif's casual manner, Yoz seemed to regain some composure. Coming down from the levee, Solif spotted Maysa resting, drenched in sweat, and asked with a sly look,

"What were you two doing while I was away?"

"Working out."

"... That's all?"

"That's all."

"Damn it, I even gave you an opportunity. What's wrong with you two?"

Hearing his grumbling from a distance, Maysa fed mana into the exercise equipment and hurled it. Solif yelped and swiftly dodged. The weighted magic tool crashed to the ground, cracking the earth.

Yoz's first reaction to the reclaimed land was admiration. He repeatedly ran his hands over the ground, exclaiming in wonder.

"The ground is so firm, and there's no dampness! I've never seen reclaimed land like this in my life."

"Really?"

"Yes. Newly reclaimed land is usually wet and soft, so buildings erected on it often tilt or collapse. But this is like land outside Shiraf Marsh."

That, of course, was because Turan had alternated between his Earthkeeper and Rapids bloodline abilities whenever he had time, compacting the soil and drawing water out of the ground. Naturally, he hadn't gone so far as to make it uninhabitable, merely adjusting it to resemble an ordinary plain.

'Did I overdo it?'

He had followed the ideal reclamation method the librarian taught him, but Yoz's reaction suggested he had been more thorough than necessary. Without all that draining and compacting, they could have reclaimed one and a half times as much land.

Though he felt a little regret, Turan soon chose to look on the bright side: if a job was worth doing, wasn't it worth doing properly? The people who eventually lived here would surely be happier with better land.

Yoz's admiration soon turned to astonishment as they made their way briskly around the area. He discovered that the reclaimed land extended all the way from the eastern boundary to the western one, and that simply walking from its northern edge to the river marking its southern boundary took an hour.

"How in the world..."

"What? Amazed by how big it is?"

Even as he nodded at Solif's grinning question, Yoz's mouth hung so wide open it seemed his jaw might come unhinged.

"Th-that's an understatement! When I took this assignment, I was certain the project would take at least several decades..."

Then again, they had poured a level of power into this work that even an army of high-ranking nobles would struggle to match. Unperturbed by Yoz's astonishment, Turan looked across the vast expanse of reclaimed land and spoke.

"So, do you have any advice for us?"

"Advice... my lord?"

"Three novices did all this, after all. I thought someone with experience on several settlement projects might see things that need fixing."

Before they left, Lida had told him that Yoz had worked on several swamp and marsh reclamation projects. After a moment's hesitation at Turan's question, Yoz offered a few suggestions.

"First, you'll need a way for water to drain away."

"For water to drain?"

"Yes. The rainy season will be here soon. As things stand, water will collect inside. It will be far more than the ground can naturally absorb."

The companions exchanged glances and discussed his advice.

"Should we direct it into the river?"

"It needs to flow downhill, so we'll have to direct it downstream."

The librarian probably hadn't mentioned this during their consultation because he didn't know how much rain the region received.

Yoz continued offering useful-sounding suggestions. Rather than leaving the land barren, they should plant water-hungry trees, and instead of making the ground perfectly flat, they should give it a slight slope toward the drainage channels.

"We'll also need to bring settlers here."

"Do we need to go that far?"

"Protecting them sounds like a nuisance."

Yoz shook his head at Solif's remark and explained. Something about his manner resembled the teacher who had instructed the knight Phil. Apparently, he hadn't entirely broken the habit either.

"The heat and humidity make plants grow quickly. Left alone, the land will be overrun with weeds, attracting animals and potentially spawning monsters that could damage the levees. Apart from a few predators, animals generally avoid people, so having a substantial population here will help prevent that."

"How will they support themselves?"

"There are plenty of surface mineral deposits here. They can mine those and buy food with the proceeds. After some time, they can turn part of the land into fields and become self-sufficient."

His ready explanations were reassuring, clearly the product of extensive experience with settlement projects.

"But can we just mine the deposits and sell what we find? Strictly speaking, this land belongs to House Ravista. We're only here to develop it."

Yoz nodded at Maysa's question.

"I discussed that very matter with the House Head on this visit and had a document drawn up. It grants authority to manage those assets, provided the mining proceeds are used solely to develop the reclaimed land."

The document he offered said exactly that. His competence far exceeded Turan's expectations, making him see the middle-aged knight in a new light. He had assumed there must be a reason a great-house head kept a mere knight as a trusted retainer, but this resourcefulness was truly beyond anything he had imagined.

'If I ever settle down somewhere for good, I'd love to have him working for me.'

Of course, someone already serving directly under Ravista's House Head was unlikely to want to work for a mere wandering noble, so that would be difficult. After further discussion with his companions, Turan decided to accept Yoz's proposal.

Following Yoz's advice brought the party's reclamation project into a new phase.

Their first task was to build a road from the northern boundary to the reclaimed land. A road a hundred meters wide and roughly sixty kilometers long took just one day to create.

Then Yoz, as a knight of Ravista, personally negotiated with Koloa's knights and began recruiting settlers on a large scale.

At first, everyone balked at the idea of establishing a settlement in the monster-infested southern wilderness, remote even by frontier standards. But people soon came when they heard of the abundant surface mineral deposits and the large plots of farmland promised to settlers.

"Can I really get a farm of my own?"

"The gods who heal the sick announced it themselves. Surely they wouldn't lie."

"If I could deck myself out in gold, silver, and jewels, I'd want for nothing."

The reputation Turan and his companions had earned by healing the sick during their stay in Koloa City also helped draw recruits. Within mere weeks, thousands of people began pouring into the reclaimed land.

"All right, this is where my home starts!"

"This is my patch!"

"Bullshit—"

"What's going on here?"

The settlers built houses from the timber Turan's party had cut in the nearby marsh and stockpiled for them. As they divided up farmland and mined the surface deposits, disputes broke out everywhere. Having arrived from villages all around Koloa City, they had formed factions based on where they came from. Fortunately, Yoz managed to keep things more or less under control by directing the militia he had brought from the city himself.

Once they had somehow secured their allotted plots, the settlers weeded and tilled the land reclaimed over the past few months, and dug gold, silver, iron, and copper from the surface deposits. As was often the case on virgin land, the enormous yields they obtained for so little effort had them singing with joy.

"Ah, I'm getting hungry..."

"Shall we head to the square? I wonder what's on the menu today."

One of the major problems created by gathering so many people together was feeding them. This was especially pressing because not only Koloa but Shiraf Marsh as a whole struggled to produce enough food for itself. Even if they sent large quantities of ore to Koloa City to buy supplies, there simply wasn't much food available on the market.

They had sent merchant caravans to cities farther north, too, but those would clearly take some time to return with supplies. Yet the settlers were spared a severe food shortage, thanks to Turan's use of the same method he had once employed in Kalamap.

"Here they come!"

"Oh... There are crocodiles, too."

"A hippopotamus! The hippo meat is ours!"

The settlers felt no fear at the sight of the animals approaching from afar. They knew every one of them was under a powerful wizard's control and would meekly surrender its life.

"Go inside the levee and wait."

With the Nagin Dominator bloodline he had acquired recently activated, Turan could draw vast numbers of animals out of the unreclaimed marsh with very little mana.

He could even fine-tune which kinds of animals he controlled, excluding poisonous insects and the like. Not that such precision was particularly necessary, since settlers accustomed to life near the marsh had no trouble eating frogs and lizards.

In any case, this allowed them to happily slaughter and cook the game for their daily meals.

Before long, the settlement had not only homes, mines, and eateries, but even taverns and gambling houses. Solif would sometimes remove his mask and slip into these places pretending to be a commoner, finding his own happiness and relieving the strain of being stuck in an isolated place.

"Wow..."

Yet among the diversions springing up in the settlement, one remained the people's favorite: climbing onto the northern levee, which extended farther every day. From there, they could watch the marsh being reclaimed firsthand. To the settlers, the magic Turan and his companions wielded was nothing short of a divine miracle. What else could they call the sight of hundreds of trees burning and swamps evaporating with a single gesture?

Whenever a monster burst from the burning forest, Turan and Maysa's lightning would crash down with a thunderous roar, making the spectators' hearts lurch.

"O gods..."

Each time, the settlers on the levee would prostrate themselves and pray for something. Just as humans in the distant past had done when they beheld the Freyans. Faith was often born in just such a simple way.

Three or four months passed as they came to enjoy nurturing their ever-expanding settlement. Around the time they had reclaimed more than half the designated area, Turan held out a hand toward Vije as she flew down from the sky.

"Good work, Vije."

[I'm hungry! Give me something tasty!]

"You didn't care for the crocodile meat, did you? How about steamed carp?"

[Yes!]

As they chatted, Turan took a letter from the pouch hanging around Vije's neck. Maysa, who happened to be nearby, saw it and asked,

"Asiz again?"

"Yes."

Even while absorbed in their work in the south, Turan had not forgotten to send Vije to House Berg regularly to keep in touch. With no passengers, she could travel between this place at the world's southern edge and the Dakayn Plains near its northern end in roughly two days, making such correspondence possible.

Fortunately, every reply so far had spoken only of peaceful days. Asiz sometimes sent along a few new play scripts, which were quite enjoyable to read. Solif had even made a fuss about gathering actors to perform them before giving up. The settlement might have become fairly lively, but not to the point of having trained actors or people with the necessary talent.

Turan had only been reading the letter at his usual leisurely pace for a short while when a particular passage made him frown.

"Hmm..."

"What is it? Has something happened?"

"I'll tell you both at once. Sol! Come here!"

"Why? It's break time. I was going to play dice."

Gesturing for the grumbling Solif to sit as he approached, Turan told his companions what he had read.

"It's not certain yet, but there's talk that Arabion may be about to start a war."

At that, their faces grew as grim as Turan's.