It's been about six months since the explosion, and I've turned twelve years old.
　I've only lived for twelve years ...... Maybe it's because I'm living a very dense life day by day, or maybe it's because I have memories of my previous life, but I feel like I've lived longer than twelve years.
　I feel like I'm about 30 years old.

　Now, without talking about me turning twelve, let's talk about what happened in the past six months.
　I've been working hard to strengthen the defense of the territory.
　War was almost certain to break out, and I began to prepare for it, carefully and with haste.
　The school that had been destroyed by the explosion was closed for half a year, but there was still no prospect of recovery, and I wouldn't be able to go to school for the time being.
　Well, that's okay because I can focus on developing the territory.
　There's probably nothing for Frank to do at the moment.

　And since I've been busy developing the defense, I'm sorry to say that I've decided to leave all the commercial development to Elsie and the Holland Trading Company.
　So, although I listen to reports from time to time, I haven't been involved in the development of the underground city for less than half a year.
　According to the recent report, the construction of the magic tool factory is finally finished and the production of street lights has started, so the building construction of the underground city has started.
　It's planned to open to the public in half a year at the earliest, and one year at the latest.
　It's on schedule, or even much earlier than planned. That's really thanks to Elsie.

　Oh, and by the way, I've stopped calling Elsie "sir" and speaking to her with honorifics.
　She asked me to call her by her first name like Shelly and the others because she felt some distance between us, so I did that.
　Well, that makes me feel that way, so I tried to talk to Elsie using the same language as Shelly and Belle.

　Oops, I digress.
　As for the main topic, what I did during these six months, I strengthened the Knights and the city's defense equipment.

　Strengthening the order means of course to increase the number of members, but I've held the monthly examination six times and increased the number by about fifty.
　Huh?　Not much for the enthusiasm, is it?　But just like the first tryout, I had to choose carefully.
　It would be bad if I was in a hurry and let the Kingdom's spies join us.
　Even though I'm this cautious, the kingdom still sends spies to try out for the exam, and they're not going to let me skimp on the exam anytime soon.

　But it wasn't all bad.
　Rumors of the overly strict exams and of Bernolt's rise to the rank of captain drew world-famous adventurers and swordsmen to challenge him.
　Although not as strong as Bernold, the number of people who are strong, and who seem to be getting stronger, is steadily increasing.
　Incidentally, Alma is growing faster than I ever imagined.
　I've been taking turns being an examiner for the entrance exam with Hermann, but recently I haven't had a turn to be an examiner.

　Thanks to Bernold's sound guidance and competing with Hermann, I've become as strong as an S-ranked adventurer in six months.
　Mastering attribute-free magic gave him even greater speed, and he changed from a two-handed sword style to a two-handed sword style in order to improve his technique of fighting with his hands, using his natural ambition and prodigious athleticism to become stronger and stronger.

　Speaking of which, yesterday, with nine wins, eight losses and one hundred and twenty-eight draws against Hermann, Alma was happy to hear that she had successfully won for the first time. On the other hand, Hermann was really depressed.
　Well, as you can see from the number of draws, the two of them are evenly matched.
　Maybe tomorrow Hermann will win and lose nine out of nine.
　Even so, he's even with the dungeon-trained Hermann, so I'm amazed at Alma's growth speed.

　As such, we're still small in number as a group, but I think we've grown enough to be able to say that we're a select few.
　I'd like to continue to strengthen the group at the same time to strengthen its members.

　And as for our defense equipment, we have focused on the west side.
　Since it was originally a commercial town, Myrddin territory was only about gathering people together, there were no strong monsters around, and since we never got involved in a war, it was really poorly protected from the outside.
　Walls were just a decoration . They are low and thin because they were built only to keep goblins out of the city.
　There's no way we could have survived the war just like that.

　So I started to rebuild the west wall.
　I thought about doing it by hand ......, but it would be impossible to complete it before the war started, so I spent about half a year experimenting and building the wall using only creative magic.
　I put a lot of thought into it, so I was satisfied with the result.
　I'm pretty confident since I designed many tricks and installed a golem that keeps watch over us 24 hours a day without a break.
　After the last explosion, I've decided to leave nothing to chance.

　Just like this, the Myrddin territory has been changing for the better in the past six months.
　But on the other hand, in the same half year, the empire had taken a turn for the worse .

　The cause, of course, was the Philibert family.
　The late master of the House of Philibert left behind many things that were very troublesome to the empire.
　Ruined territories, over-exploited territories on the verge of starvation, borders with kingdoms that were barely capable of defending themselves.
　I wonder how much money and time it would take to restore this to its original state already: .......

　Of course, after I crashed the dungeon and made poverty even worse, there was no way I could think of a way to ignore it just because I was busy with my own territory, so I made sure to support it.

　But since I didn't have enough manpower in my own domain alone, I only sent money, food and other relief supplies such as magic tools.
　From now on, when there's room in my territory, I'll have to dispatch people to support them.

　So, although the Empire is trying its best to revive the former Philibert territory, it hasn't been able to make any progress.
　The reason for this is because the priority has been given to repairing and strengthening the defense base near the border of the kingdom rather than restoring the territory.

　There is a good reason for this too: ...... What do you think will happen if we leave the destroyed defense base intact and rebuild the territory first?
　If you think about it properly, you'll understand, but no matter what you think, the kingdom will gladly come to take the territory that the reconstruction is over: .......
　Because he knew that would happen, the emperor decided to focus on the defense first, despite the public's disapproval .

　Really, politics is hard work .
　But it's not a person thing: .......
　Maybe from now on, I'll be in charge of the vast western territory that was controlled by the former Philibert family and their subordinates.

　Last time I was asked to bow to the emperor and make a request.
"I am truly sorry to impose on you, Leo, who has done so much for the empire in the past. But I'm not sure you're the only one who can do this...... please, when you come of age. I'd like you to run the West in the future.
　Apparently, His Imperial Majesty, or rather, his idea of an empire, was to marry me off to Shelly as soon as I came of age, make me a duke with a long list of accomplishments, and as a member of the royal family, manage the vast, almost national, lands to the west that formerly belonged to the House of Philibert and its holdings that could not be entrusted to a nobleman, and make me a duke. The idea is to have the duke.

　So, I'm going to be a duke.
　Well, I suppose that's inevitable. When I decided to marry Shelly, I knew I'd have to work for the empire.
　I just didn't realize that I would have to work so hard .......

　So, until adulthood ...... now I'm twelve, so four years until I'm sixteen . It takes a lot of good people, a lot of money, and a lot of planning to manage a huge area of land and plan for recovery in such a short period of time.

　Four years, or ...... by any stretch of the imagination, that's an overwhelmingly short amount of time. .......
　Well, we'll have to do everything we can .
　For now, let's wait until the territory we have now is completely developed before we start preparing for that one.


　All right, we've made our decision. All we have to do now is work hard!