The Eagle 1, carrying Jin and Reinhard, flew westward.
Or, to be more precise, Jin and Reinhard had temporarily returned to Hourai Island via Warp Gate.
"That was quite a successful shopping trip."
"Yeah, I had a great time too."
The two of them sat in the dining room, chatting over cups of tea.
Just then, Saki walked in.
"Hey, Jin, welcome back."
"I'm back, Saki. We managed to make some good purchases."
"Kufu, that's great to hear."
"I bought this as well."
Reinhard unwrapped his parcel and showed them a takemodoki work lamp.
"Oh, that looks wonderful."
"Doesn't it? I think it would look great on a table, or right by a bedside."
Crafted from hundreds of delicate strips shaved down to about a millimeter wide, its refined, graceful design seemed suited to both Western and Japanese-style rooms.
"Come to think of it, what determines the strength of these takemodoki strips?"
"Hm? Jin, do you mean how variations in the raw takemodoki affect the finished strength?"
Saki's sharp ears had caught Jin's quiet murmur.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Takemodoki that grew poorly is soft and brittle, while stalks that grew vigorously tend to be much sturdier."
"I see..."
Jin was impressed. As expected of Saki, she understood the material's physical properties inside and out.
"By the way, Jin, I was talking with Hanna-chan earlier and had an idea."
"What kind of idea?"
"About the compensation."
Saki explained that she had thought of a clever solution regarding the compensation for the Principality development project—a problem they had all been fretting over recently.
"Though honestly, most of it was Hanna-chan's idea."
"Oh? What did she suggest?"
"A leased territory."
"Ah."
It made sense that Hanna would think of that.
Long ago... four hundred years ago, Jin had leased Kaina Village from the Klein Kingdom as a leased territory before it eventually became an independent territory.
"Kufu. You lease the land, Jin improves it to his heart's content, and then you just hand it back after ten or twenty years."
That way, it wouldn't raise eyebrows for Jin to do whatever he pleased—or rather, carry out massive environmental overhauls. And since the land would be returned once the lease expired, nobody could complain.
"Paddy rice fields would be the main focus, I suppose... or mining development."
The climate was temperate and the soil fertile, making double-cropping—harvesting two rice crops a year from the same field—well within reason.
"Well, using both as a pretext would probably be best."
"Yeah. You're right, Saki."
On flat terrain, developing a mine would mean digging straight down.
Subterranean water would inevitably well up during excavation, and diverting that water into irrigation channels for rice paddies would neatly kill two birds with one stone.
"Let's try negotiating along those lines."
Fortunately, their underground survey from the other day had already mapped the subterranean water veins and mineral deposits, so proposing specific plots of land would be straightforward.
"The only question is what sort of official justification to give."
In other words, they needed a plausible reason for leasing the Principality's wasteland for a set duration.
"They might get nervous if they think we're conducting dangerous experiments."
When Jin mentioned something akin to nuclear testing, Saki brushed the thought aside.
"...Though I doubt they'd actually expect you to do something like that, Jin."
"Well, of course I wouldn't."
Reinhard offered some advice of his own.
"Why not just tell them the honest truth?"
He suggested they simply state they were investigating whether the land could support paddy rice fields, and if so, whether cultivating rice there was viable.
"And for the rest, you can just say you're conducting exploratory mining."
Reinhard added that Jin could mine the deposits for about a year before returning all rights to the Principality.
"I see. That sounds perfectly reasonable."
In that case, Jin figured a five-year lease would be ideal.
Geographically, this approach seemed most promising for the Darato Principality.
"We could lease the gentle plain south of the Nameless Peak. That area should be suitable for paddy rice fields."
Next was the Mimaka Principality.
"Over there, we might not need to force rice paddies; we could focus primarily on mining."
They could likely develop mines along the mountain range east of the north-south highway, from the foothills up the slopes.
"If we do build rice paddies there, though..."
Studying the map, Jin thought the area west of Quonale looked promising.
"What about the Norha Principality?"
"Probably around the western side of Lake Kotsushi and Lake Yato, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, I think you're right, Reinhard."
Having settled on rough candidates for the leased territories, Jin felt a wave of relief after all his worrying over the compensation.
"By the way, My Lord. A new fact has come to light."
Laojun addressed Jin as he took a breather.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Yes. It concerns the reason why no highway connected the Darato Principality and the Mimaka Principality. One of the contributing factors has been uncovered."
"Oh?"
The Mimaka Principality and the Norha Principality, the Norha Principality and the Jagus Principality, and the Jagus Principality and the Darato Principality were all linked by highways.
Yet the road between the Mimaka Principality and the Darato Principality remained severed. Laojun had discovered why.
"At the time of their founding, the Mimaka Principality and the Darato Principality were apparently on exceptionally poor terms."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. The roots of the Four Principalities trace back to the Pioneer Revolutionary Corps, whose top four leaders became the Dukes of their respective realms."
"Right, they did."
"And during that founding era, the two who became the Dukes of the Mimaka Principality and the Darato Principality harbored intense friction. They severed diplomatic ties before ever completing the highway they had begun building."
"Hmm..."
Jin felt a bit exasperated, thinking it sounded like a petty children's feud.
"There was reportedly talk of an arranged marriage between their children, but the arrangement fell apart."
However, because their relations with the other leaders were not nearly as hostile, the rest of the highway network was properly laid out.
"So the highways didn't exist all the way back in the pioneer days after all, huh?"
"Indeed, My Lord. Though dividing the reclaimed territory into four distinct quadrants—northeast, northwest, southwest, and southeast—with the Nameless Peak serving as one of the focal points appears to have been the arrangement from the very beginning."
"You mean it was split like that right from the start of the reclamation?"
"Yes."
Learning this changed little in practical terms, but clearing up one of his lingering questions brought Jin satisfaction, and he praised Laojun for the effort.
"I see. That makes total sense. Good work."
"Thank you, My Lord. There is one additional matter to report."
"What is it?"
"Yes. We have obtained further details regarding the Progressers."
The Progressers were a collective of engineers believed to be distant descendants of the Jin Family lineage.
For reasons unknown, they resided within the Jagus Principality and worked on its behalf.
Jin had already received an initial summary of that much.
Now, it seemed new information had come in.
"Let's hear it."
Straightening in his chair, Jin settled in to listen to Laojun's explanation.