Chapter 217: Chapter 217 - The Research Institute For Magic
"Good morning, aurea."
"Morning, Yaci. Everyone."
I love how everyone takes breakfast together here in the manor before going to their jobs. It makes us feel like a big family.
Lovelace, Ingela, and Yaci. And me. It’s small as polycules go, but it’s already bigger than normal couples; that I can say for sure.
Their look as I sit down is familiar and warm.This is home.
This is the feeling I looked for back then.
To be with my loved ones. Sharing life like this.
"How are you feeling, Aurea?"
"Much better. Almost as if nothing had happened. Actually, no. I’m feeling very rested. Brimming with energy. I’m itching to come back to action."
"You sure? It’s been only three days since your death."
"Three insufferably long days. But it is true. I really feel full of energy right now."
Lovelace and Yaci are so cute and considerate, but I really do need some action now.
"Well, at least your appetite is bigger than ever."
"Laugh as you want, Ingela. But it proves that I’m healthy, after all."
These moments with everyone laughing together are what make life worth it. I will make it very sure that I never die again. Never.
"All right, Your Highness. You have my approval to resume your activities."
"I follow Ingela’s vote."
"Me too. Welcome back."
"Thank you, Ingela, Lovelace, and Yaci. I am back."
:::
After some banter and giggling, I reach the thing that has been in my mind since before my vacation.
"Ingela, Lovelace. I want to create a Magic Research Institute here in Altenfeld city. I want you, Ingela, to be the Head of the Institute. And Lovelace to help with it as well, for some time. I would have to negotiate with grandpa that part."
"I remember you saying something like that before. But what exactly is your goal?"
Ingela nods gravely at Lovelace’s words, while Yaci excuses herself.
"Well, I’m not really good with magic or bureaucracy... and I have some training to do with the newest recruits. See you three in the evening."
"Bye, Yaci."
"See ya!"
Yaci gives me and Ingela a kiss each, then goes her way, so I turn to the other two.
"Well. I want to gather a bunch of intelligent and creative brains with the potential for magic so they can research and develop all the new branches of magic that we opened. And also, to dive into all that juicy System data."
Ingela immediately leans forward and puts her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands.
"That sounds very exciting! A group of people devoted to researching, testing, and developing new magic! Just imagining what new heights we’ll be able to reach makes my heart flutter..."
Lovelace doesn’t have such a reaction, but the gleam in her eyes is enough to tell me that she’s interested as well.
"Yes. I was thinking of beginning with the most impressive and reliable members of the hidden army. A group of around twelve. I have already made a list."
"Weren’t you supposed to be resting, Au-re-a?"
The way that Lovelace dropped the syllables of my name was bone-chilling.
"I WAS resting, Lovelace. It’s just that I can’t not think about anything at all. I can’t help but think about the stuff that excites me."
"Okay, okay... if you insist. But it’s true that the idea is very exciting. So, how do we begin with it?"
"I’ll head to the administrative office that Ingela set up and see if we have any buildings that we could use for that here in the city. It doesn’t need to be any bigger in this moment."
"Us three plus twelve more. Also, we need to contact those twelve."
"Are you sure that the city is the best place for that? Some magic can be quite destructive."
Ingela and Lovelace immediately pointed to some additional things that need to be done.
"You two are completely right. Our first goal will be to develop construction materials at least as resistant as the Arena, so we can then construct the proper building of the Research Facility. But, in any case, it’s better to be outside, with some distance from the walls."
"Ohhhh... we should begin in the Arena proper, then. Research those barriers that are imbued in the rocks that build the place, and try to reproduce them."
"That’s actually a great idea, Ingela. And it saves us a lot of work in this beginning. That research will be helpful not only for building the institute but also for the fortresses of our country."
"Thanks, Aurea. I can take on me the job of reaching the people on your list and making the proposal."
"Ingela, Aurea. Aren’t you forgetting something very, very important?"
Huh?
"Are we...?"
"Yes. Budget. Salary. Materials."
Ugh. Bureaucracy.
"Yeah... you’re absolutely right, Lovelace. Thank you. I’ve been so engrossed in the war that I forgot how civilian work... works."
During the war, my unit was considered small and within the institution of the army. Which meant that I never needed to deal with that side of logistics.
We had a cohort of officers for that, who dealt directly with the central office of the official army. Father told me to focus solely on the execution part of the army: training and fighting.
To be honest, I don’t even know how much the hidden army cost. Not per month nor in total. And everyone’s even receiving pensions right now. War veterans and all that.
I’m told that some of the best soldiers even earned themselves noble titles. Most got the rank of baronets, but still. Nobility is nobility.
It was a move from my father to not only reward the very trustworthy people of the hidden army but also occupy the vacuum the insurrectionists left.
All the nobles who sided with the Blessed faction fled the country or were killed. In both cases, along with their families. That caused several places to be without their barons, counts, viscounts, etc.
Putting people from the hidden army there simply guaranteed that they would be fiercely loyal to the royal family. And also that they share our vision of unity of humans and beastkin.
"Aurea. How much do you know about the financial state of the duchy you are the head of?"
"Not much, I’m ashamed to admit. I remember that the treasury of the duchy was quite empty because of all the corruption, but that the nobles we imprisoned had quite the heavy pockets..."
I was actually in the middle of sorting out the finances when the mana-sucker monster came to Altenfeld. The Duchy was a complete mess, with almost all the official data adulterated to cover up criminal activities.
"Exactly. Ingela has been spearheading the bureaucratic work while we rested. I think that you should go to the administrative office and get yourself up-to-date with that. Then we sit down and plan."
Ughhh... and here I was thinking that I would escape the financial spreadsheets...
"All right, all right. Mind coming with me there, Ingela?"
"Of course not!"
"Aurea, there’s one more thing I want to tell you."
"Huh?"
"I’ve been talking with your mother a lot lately, and..."
"What? H-how?"
I seldom get to see my mother, ever since she became a goddess. How is Lovelace getting to see her and talk with her ’a lot’?
"That trip to the realm of the dead was very... educational. I can explain it to you later. The important thing, right now, is that the gods’s powers are limited, getting weaker with the distance to their places of worship."
"I see... it makes sense. Gods are entities created and sustained by those places and their worshipers, after all. So that’s why she couldn’t help us during the battle?"
"Exactly. Apparently there’s a society of gods that have their own rules and laws, and they put a game of weights and counterweights to avoid direct confrontation between gods as much as possible."
"Juno doesn’t seem to care much about that."
"Yeah... but that’s also the reason they didn’t intervene in the war directly. Apparently she made something bad and was punished for it."
Hmmm... That actually explains a lot of things.
"So, as she is having an eye on us, we can’t leave Wesgoth’s territory without being targeted by her?"
"Exactly. The Temple is already working to expand northwards, building a network of sacred sites. It has the goals of increasing the speed of mana recovery of those places and also providing a foothold for the Saint."
Mom really is awesome.
"Another thing that has been nagging me... even with the killing of that dark elemental, the System is still working. I didn’t sense much of a dip in its power."
"Oh. There’s also news from her side about that. She discovered recently that the rest of the planet is being sucked by probably hundreds of those guys."
"Rest of the... wait. Planet? Are we really on a planet world? Like spherical and circling around the sun?"
"Indeed. This is a system similar to the one from Earth, though at the same time different."
"I see... Then that means that, besides this pocket region, the rest of the world is barren?"
"Yeah..."
If I didn’t have enough reasons to defeat that woman, now I have one more.