Bell: A member of the Mercury Race working in Village Four. Representative of her people. Gou: A member of the Mercury Race working in Village Four. Acts as Bell’s support. Tou: A member of the Mercury Race. Captain of the Universal Ship.
On the night I returned to the village, Lu pointed out how dangerous the wine voting had been.
She explained that even if there was a clear gap in the results, any attempt to quantify the difference in power between nobles and commoners was a recipe for disaster. To put it simply, the general public's perception of "Nobles are amazing" could easily shift into a much more concrete realization: "Wait, are nobles only at this level? If we commoners join forces, could we actually take them down?"
"The nobility in the Demon Kingdom are usually quite powerful themselves, so it probably wouldn't escalate into a riot that easily," Lu noted.
"But we were just voting on sake," I argued. "Does that really translate to a numerical value of power?"
"It does. You had sake representing the nobility competing directly against sake representing the commoners."
I fell silent. I had come up with the ranking idea on a whim, but it seemed I had overstepped.
"The ranking itself wasn't the problem," Lu clarified. "The problem was trying to group the nobles and commoners together in a single list. But you corrected the plan after Michael spoke to you, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Then there’s no issue. The Demon King will handle things on his end as well."
I felt a bit guilty for causing extra work.
"Think of it as a processing fee for him using Tiselle's help," she said. "You don't need to worry about it. However, as for the Goroun and Dalfon Companies providing such lackluster sake for your gift..."
"I wasn't planning on complaining about their gifts," I said. "They really don't need to worry about it."
"It doesn't work like that. Besides, it's actually more helpful for them if they receive a formal punishment. Anyway, I’ll handle that part properly."
"Are you sure I should leave it to you?"
"I'll go easy on them. It’s not like they did it on purpose."
I was surprised to hear the investigation was already complete by the time I got back.
"Determining who is an ally and who is an enemy is vital," Lu said firmly.
"The Dalfon Company aside, surely the Goroun Company is fine? We’ve known them for a long time."
"That doesn't mean we should be lenient with their mistakes."
Rebuking a mistake was, in its own way, part of maintaining a healthy relationship. I understood her point and decided to let her handle it.
"Yes, just leave it all to me. Now then, I have something to discuss regarding my side of things."
"Your side? Do you mean the expansion plan for Village Four?" I asked.
"Exactly. While I was working on various things, it ended up getting... a bit too big."
"Too big?"
"Yes. I experimented with remodeling the Floating Gardens to see if I could make them larger, and the final count ended up being higher than planned. Creating the fields will be a lot of work, but will you be alright?"
"That part is fine, but... won't the sky look cluttered with so many of them?"
"I have Visual Deception Magic active at all times, so from the ground, only the Sun Castle is visible."
That sounded convenient. I asked if Gou or Bell had complained.
"Not at all. On the contrary, they’re delighted."
"Then I don't mind. Having more space for fields is actually a huge help."
I decided I would consult with the Civil Official Girls the next day to decide what to plant. But before that, I needed to see it for myself. I found myself looking forward to it.
The following afternoon.
We arrived at Village Four.
A few of Kuro's children, who had come along as guards, looked exactly like pets that had been tricked into a trip to the vet. Apparently, they were terrified of high places.
I hadn't intended to deceive them, though. I had told them we were going for a walk, but surely they should have noticed something was up the moment we boarded the Universal Ship.
Was it really my fault? They barked at me as if to say it definitely was.
I told them that if they were so scared of heights, they didn't have to get on the ship. That only made them sulk, as if to say I was missing the point entirely. It looked like I would have to take them for a proper ground-level walk tomorrow to make up for it.
Setting the wolves aside, I began inspecting Village Four with the Civil Official Girls.
The main island where the castle stood had been expanded recently, but it didn't look very different. The real change was in the surrounding area—or more specifically, the southern side. There were about thirty discs of various sizes floating there.
The Floating Gardens. The plan had originally called for four, but they had certainly multiplied.
These discs were floating individually, but ropes and suspension bridges had been strung to connect them to one another and to the main island. The entire landscape had been transformed.
The interiors of the gardens were currently being filled with soil, so they looked a bit barren for now, but the sight of so many of them clustered together where there had once been nothing was startling. Some were nearly as large as the main island itself.
I noticed they were all clustered to the south and asked Bell if there was a reason for that, such as sunlight.
"That's part of it," Bell explained as she led the way. "But primarily, it’s to ensure they don't obstruct the Universal Ship's flight paths. Tou is quite strict about that."
That made sense. Since the gardens were hidden by magic, they needed to stay within designated zones to avoid accidents.
"We also utilize the Sun Castle’s shadow for some of them," Bell added, pointing toward the north. There, I saw a massive floating structure—not a garden, but a giant cylindrical tank.
"This is a Special Water Storage Floating Garden developed with Lu-sama. It has a built-in circulation function to prevent the water from stagnating. While each garden can store its own water, this serves as an emergency supply for the entire complex."
A floating wall of water. Magic truly was incredible. I noticed aquatic plants growing at the bottom of the tank and asked why.
"We plan to introduce fish to keep the water stirred," she replied.
So, the plants were for the fish, and they used the main island's shadow to regulate the water temperature. It was all very well-thought-out. Then a thought occurred to me: wouldn't the fish jump out?
"The sides are fine, but there's a risk of them jumping out from the top, so we have to manage the water levels carefully."
"I see. That’s... actually really nice."
"Hehe. Lu-sama suspected you might like it, so she prepared a small aquarium for your personal use."
"Really?"
Even though she called it small, it was roughly the size of a four-and-a-half-tatami room. Since the depth could be adjusted, I could keep almost anything except for giant monsters. Personally, I preferred having schools of small fish rather than one large one. I wanted to try my hand at aquascaping with water plants—something I had always wanted to do but never had the chance.
And if we could build tanks like this...
"Yes," Bell confirmed. "It should be possible to create the fish displays you were planning for Shashato City."
Apparently, Lu was already making preparations, though we didn't have many fish yet. I was deeply grateful.
I wanted to dive into the aquarium project immediately, but I had to fulfill my duties first. For now, the priority was inspecting the gardens and deciding how to use them.
They were plenty spacious enough to serve as fields. As for the crops, the priority would be spices and seasonings since the demand was so high. After that, we could look into fruits, coffee beans, and tea leaves.
"If possible, could you leave a few of them as open spaces for exercise rather than just fields?" Bell asked.
"Of course. They are supposed to be 'gardens,' after all."
With this much space, we could even move some residences over. Bell, the Civil Official Girls, and I spent some time discussing the allocation of the islands.
The final count was exactly thirty-four Floating Gardens of varying sizes. Three were dedicated water tanks. Of the remaining thirty-one, we decided to use twenty for farming and the other eleven for residential and communal facilities for the people of Village Four.
Since the gardens could be stacked to create multiple levels, twenty islands provided an immense amount of space. In fact, even without stacking, the projected harvest for Village Four was calculated to be fifteen times its previous capacity.
Fifteen times?
Wait. Would we even be able to handle that much harvesting? The Devil Race and Dream Demons had been managing the work until now, but they were definitely going to be shorthanded. I would have to come up with a system to provide extra labor during harvest season.
That night.
When I returned to the Village of the Great Tree, I found that the Goroun and Dalfon Companies had sent a massive shipment of food as an apology for the sake incident. There were delicacies from the mountains and the sea. While I felt they didn't need to go to such lengths, I couldn't help but be happy to see such delicious ingredients.
Lu informed me that as a return gift, she had sent small barrels filled with gold coins to both companies.
"If you sent gold coins, isn't that just paying them instead of giving a gift?" I asked.
"It’s fine this way. They’ll use that money to ensure they can produce high-quality sake in the future."
"Is that really how it works?"
"That’s exactly how it works."
Michael: "We sent apology gifts and they handed us back barrels of gold coins."
Ridley: "...D-Does that mean they’ll never forgive us?"
Michael: "N-No. I choose to believe this is an order to use this capital to brew the most delicious sake possible!"
Ridley: "I-I see! As expected of the President! We'll provide our full cooperation!"
Michael: "Good. I’m counting on you!"
Gou: "Lu-sama, while expanding the territory is welcome, wasn't the original plan for only four units?"
Lu: "Well, I was experimenting and I just sort of..."
Gou: "I don't think thirty extra units is something that happens 'just sort of.' Um... has the Village Head said anything?"
Lu: "I’ve been using Visual Deception Magic, so he hasn't found out yet."
Gou: "W-W-W-What are you going to do!?"
Lu: "It's not like he'll scold me. Though I do feel like I might have overdone it with the number of fields he has to till now..."
Bell: "Why don't you just tell him honestly that you ended up with more because you were researching how to make aquariums?"
Lu: "T-That would be embarrassing!"