Published: January 15, 2026
One month later. Just as life in Seato Village had completely returned to normal, an unusual visitor arrived.
It was Apollo from the commerce guild.
"Long time no see, Lord Van."
"Apollo! You’ve brought quite a crowd today!"
I said that as soon as I met Apollo at the castle gate. Apollo smiled with his usual expression.
No wonder Van-kun was so surprised. Behind Apollo, a large convoy of massive carriages completely filled the highway. There were so many that it was impossible to count.
"Th-that's incredible."
Arte also voiced her amazement at the sheer number of carriages. Meanwhile, Bell and Rango, who were mainly in charge of receiving guests, couldn’t contain their excitement and ran off toward the carriages without even properly greeting Apollo.
"Ah! These are precious fabrics from the Central Continent!"
"And look at this! Valuable ceramics, silverware, paintings...!"
While the two of them made a fuss, I glanced at Apollo.
"Could these be imports from the Central Continent? I think this is way too soon, though."
Surprised, I asked. Apollo then showed a slightly more confident smile than usual.
"Yes, I prepared these to deliver them to you faster than anyone else, Lord Van. Congratulations on your recent victory."
Apollo smiled as he said that.
"Thank you very much. Did you return to the Central Continent during the war, crossing through the Yelinetta Kingdom? Coming from the coastline?"
"Exactly. Since the borders were closed, I waited in the southeasternmost town of Yelinetta. I thought it would take longer, but to win by making both the Shelvia Confederation and Yelinetta Kingdom vassal states—that’s impressive."
"No, no, it was all His Majesty’s strategy. Don’t make it sound like I brought the victory by myself."
Worried by Apollo’s comment, I pointed it out. Apollo widened his eyes noticeably and bowed his head.
"Ah, I hadn’t realized... My apologies. Well then, shall we get to the main topic? Is there a place where we can talk privately?"
"A private conversation? For now, let’s go to the lord’s manor."
With that exchange, I guided Apollo to the lord’s manor. By the way, the carriages were moved to the far end inside the Seato Village walls. Outside was too dangerous, and there was clearly not enough space in front of the lord’s manor.
In the lord’s manor reception room, I asked Til to bring tea and sweets. Remaining in the room were Arte, Kamushin, Espada, and by extension, Bell and Rango also joined.
Since this was an import from the Central Continent, not just a regular export-import, Espada was also invited.
Only Apollo, Bell, and I sat down. The others stood around the seats.
"First, let me explain the situation."
Apollo began and spread a map out on the table. Though the table was not very tall, it was wide, and the map covered almost the entire surface.
Bell immediately spoke up after seeing the map.
"Wow! This is a detailed map of the Central Continent!?"
Hearing that, I took a closer look. On the left was the name of the Western Continent, Grant Continent. On the right was a slightly taller continent—that must be the Central Continent. It was called the Lease Continent and seemed about the same size as the Grant Continent. Astonishingly, the northern half of this continent belonged to the Solstice Empire.
This made it nearly equal in size to the Kingdom of Scuderia, which had annexed the Yelinetta Kingdom and the Shelvia Confederation.
"...I’d like to see how they manage to maintain such a large country."
I traced the Solstice Empire’s territory with my finger. Kamushin looked up.
"Is it difficult to build such a large country?"
A simple question. Arte looked interested, probably as a noble. Before continuing, I gave a brief explanation.
"To maintain a large country, you need very solid laws. Also, it's tough to assign people to govern distant territories. In theory, if you have proper laws and competent administrators managing each region perfectly, you could expand endlessly. But it’s rarely that simple. If the laws have loopholes, bad actors will crop up, ruining security. If the knight order is poorly managed, other nations might invade. And if you entrust distant areas to bad governors, some might secretly enrich themselves at the country's expense. Worst case, they might even start a rebellion."