Published: August 10, 2026
"What do you mean by a playground?"
"It means a place where you can play however you like. This is already a territory that has committed the crime of provoking foreign aggression. It would be fine even if you made the wrong choice as aub and crushed it, and it would also be possible to make it look as though you were showing mercy."
"Please wait a moment. It would be terrible if you crushed it, wouldn't it!? There are actually nobles and commoners living there!"
Just as I was thinking that he was saying that too casually, I remembered Hasse. Come to think of it, Ferdinand had always been like this. He had flatly said that if commoners attacked the lord, it would be fine to wipe out the entire town.
...Lord Ferdinand, you really were planning to wipe out Arensbach.
It didn't seem to have been a joke at all, just a cute excuse for trying to hide his embarrassment after letting his guard down and getting poisoned by Dietlinde. At this rate, maybe, just like with Hasse, if I didn't work hard, Arensbach would be squashed flat by Ferdinand.
Hasse nightmare, again!?
I was holding my head when Ferdinand lazily said, "You were the one who wanted it," as if it were obvious.
"It has the sea, and it has fish. You were envious that fish could be eaten anytime, were you not? And there are also several civil officials who are angry at how arrogant Lanzenave has become lately and are experimenting with obtaining the original trees for some of the spices in order to reduce trade with them even a little. If we support them and make cultivation possible, the chances of obtaining various spices will be high."
...What is that!?
Arensbach sounds delicious!
I covered my mouth so I wouldn't drool, and pictured a paradise of fish in my head. Arensbach, which had been a bundle of nightmares, now seemed like a very appetizing territory.
"Also, this is your own land that you obtained by dyeing the foundation. You can develop it however you like. Wouldn't you be able to build that library city you once proposed while preparing for lectures?"
"Huh? A library city!? Am I really allowed to build it?"
During my preparations, Ferdinand had looked at me with exasperation, and during the noble academy lectures, Eglantine had looked at me with the warm, indulgent eyes of someone encouraging a child's dream. Could I really go ahead and actually build that library city? If Ferdinand granted permission so easily, that somehow made me even more uneasy.
"That concept was designed with construction in Ehrenfest in mind, so building it as-is would cause various problems. Therefore, the design would need to be improved to take Arensbach's current specialties and main industries into account, but it is possible to realize the concept of a library city."
My heart had been racing at the thought of fish and spices, and then I was given the green light to build the library city. Being told modifications were necessary somehow made it feel more real. I could tell it had completely gripped my heart. Arensbach was starting to look like a very attractive territory.
"As you once said, if it is your own territory, you can freely create a temple school to raise the literacy rate among commoners. You do not need permission from anyone else, and the Zent cannot interfere with the scope of territorial administration. In this period of upheaval, you may be able to force through sudden changes to some extent, may you not?"
...A temple school, huh. That was a dream too. Raising literacy and widening the pool of authors...
I was overflowing with surprise and admiration at Ferdinand's memory for remembering every plan I had ever mentioned in the past, and a voice in the back of my head said, "Maybe aub Arensbach is fine?" At the same time, another voice warned, "Get a grip. There's no way Lord Ferdinand would be this kind all the time."
...Right. Lord Ferdinand isn't that soft!
As I desperately told myself to stay calm, Ferdinand continued.
"Your important people are already preparing to move, are they not? Then you can simply bring them to your land. If you build a temple school and a library that commoners can also use, and if you can lower the barrier between nobles and commoners in the process of expanding the printing industry, it will become easier for you to meet them as well. ...And the contract you made with your downtown family is limited to Ehrenfest. If you are in another territory, the contract's effect will disappear."