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Chapter 261

At one point, she was someone who didn’t care much about money, but now she was genuinely delighted.

“If you want this jewel, Leon must immediately kiss my cheek.”

At her request, Melissa suddenly jumped up and pushed me on the back.

“What are you waiting for?! Just do it already!”

But when someone rolls out the red carpet, it’s not so easy to act on it.

When I stared at Luna, she too looked at me with a nervous expression, as if she was anticipating something.

“…Can’t be helped.”

“What? Kyaaack!”

As Melissa cried out in surprise at my response, I poked her in the eye, causing her to collapse with a scream.

If no one's watching, there's no need to hesitate.

I walked over naturally and kissed Luna on the forehead.

Luna quietly looked at me and clapped her hands.

As her hands clapped together, space opened up, and jewels poured out in a dazzling cascade.

“Satisfied. Very satisfied.”

“Guuuuh… You poked a duke’s eye?! That’s treason! You headbutting dinosaur bastard!!”

Yeah, headbutting dinosaurs don’t care about that stuff.

“Don’t you know Pachycephalosaurus charges when it’s angry? Even though it looks like a stingray.”

“Argh!”

Calming Melissa was simple.

“Luna.”

“Ruby barrage.”

As she flicked her hand this way and that, red jewels rained down from the air.

Ahh… So this is the unending jewel warehouse.

That’s when it happened.

“Waaaah!! A cute friend came out of the box!”

From outside the room, Arsha’s excited voice rang out.

At Arsha’s shout, we headed to her room, where the kids were playing.

And there, we saw something completely unexpected.

The ancient monster possessed by the King of Coral—Radon’s Box.

That box was open.

Wait, why is that here?

We had originally intended for the royal family to store the box taken from the King of Coral.

But not knowing what might happen, I decided to seal it myself and took it with me.

Still, I’m sure I left that box in my room.

In Arsha’s arms, a golden cat was purring contentedly and rubbing its head against her.

“Radon?”

Luna muttered in disbelief.

That tiny puffball of a cat is Radon...?

The Radon I know is nothing like that.

Off to the side, the black dragon hatchling that Arsha hatched at the border was staring at the cat with a clearly displeased look.

One is a black dragon.

One is a golden ancient monster.

And although not present here, there's also the King of Forbidden Territory who protects Arsha.

At this point, Arsha’s talent as a beast tamer was becoming borderline terrifying.

Still, separate from that, there were a lot of things to verify about Radon’s true danger.

As I approached, Radon turned his back to Arsha and hissed at me, as if trying to protect her.

Hssssss!!!

Arsha, putting on a stern face, gently patted Radon’s rear.

“No! You’re a bad kitty if you act like that to my brother!”

Nyaaaanng!

To my surprise, the creature let out a strange cry, lowered its head, and lifted its butt.

I’ve heard cats do that when their tails are patted, but…

Wasn’t Radon supposed to be an ancient monster?

Is this even possible?

Then the black dragon, who had been watching from the corner, stomped over, pushed Radon aside, and struck the same pose.

“Uung… Kainia wants it too?”

Grrrr…

“There, there. Good boy.”

Luna, Melissa, and I silently watched the scene for quite a while.

“Father.”

Meanwhile, Grivy didn’t seem to care about the creatures at all and was just hugging her favorite plushies tightly.

“Is that thing really okay?”

“The contract mark’s been activated. It’s already Arsha’s beast now.”

“No, I mean… Usually, Radon—”

“To summon Radon requires an absurd amount of gold. But for him to show up without payment and mark himself for a contract… he must really like Arsha.”

At this point, I wondered—was there anyone who could harm Arsha?

The King of Forbidden Territory, the black dragon hatchling, and now the ancient monster.

Well… at least there’s nothing major to worry about.

I slowly walked up and asked Arsha,

“Do you want to keep this cat?”

“Yes! It's super cute!”

“I told you before, right? If you want to keep a pet, you have to be responsible.”

“Yes!”

“I believe you’ll do well. His name is Radon.”

“Radon? That’s such a cute name!”

Hmm…

He wasn’t exactly a “cute” guy before…

But whatever.

If Arsha likes it, then it’s fine.

“Alright.”

As Arsha held Radon in her arms, he snuggled into her as if surrendering.

It was oddly fascinating how the King of Forbidden Territory, the dragon hatchling, and even Radon were all so affectionate toward Arsha.

Looking at Radon, I silently locked eyes with him.

“You understand me, right? If you ever hurt Arsha, I won’t let you off.”

The creature hissed again, but as Arsha hugged him tighter, he let out a soft cry and nuzzled against her.

For an ancient monster said to have devoured kingdoms, he was acting pretty pathetic.

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* * *

Meanwhile, Melissa, who suddenly had a ton of new territories to manage, was drowning in work.

Attending academy classes by day, handling domain affairs by night—she was worn to the bone.

We couldn’t just sit back and watch, so Luna and I helped with some of her tasks, but Melissa’s stubbornness was unshakable.

—If I can’t even manage this, I don’t deserve to be a family head. I’ll see it through no matter what

Her tenacity likely came from the Heavenly Demon Sword’s influence.

I was proud of her resolve—and as her big brother, I couldn’t just leave her to suffer alone.

So whenever she was having a hard time, I would go find her and toss a flash artifact in front of her eyes.

As a result, a deeply moved Melissa would draw her sword and come chasing after me, but with her speed, it was impossible for her to catch me.

In the mansion’s garden, a large sandbox had been installed—Grivy’s doing.

“Froggy~ Froggy~ Give me a new house and take this old one~”

Each time she giggled and tapped the ground, the surrounding sand would tremble and slowly rise.

The shape was clumsy, but it was clearly a castle.

“W… wow…”

Seeing Grivy’s skill, Arsha’s eyes sparkled in wonder, and the black dragon hatchling, who liked Arsha, along with Radon, began digging and piling sand to try and build castles of their own.

Of course, there’s no way those two could handle earth better than an earth spirit.

Still, the fact that Grivy and Arsha were becoming friends was good news.

Let’s take care of things one at a time.

I had declared that I wouldn’t teach Ashuria Abelgard anything until she graduated, so I successfully sent her back.

She did mutter something creepy about skipping grades, but even Ashuria wouldn’t be able to graduate in such a short time, so I ignored her.

As for where to install the permanent gate, I chose an area still under development.

The necessary magical materials were delivered here by the twin siblings themselves, who led the workers, and the rest of the supplies were obtained through a deal with the Planetaria Trading Company.

The basic frame resembled the triumphal arches I had seen in my previous life.

However, unlike those, this one was open on only one side instead of both.

After building a large base structure, I softened its hardness to a clay-like consistency.

Then, I gathered some of the finest sculptors to refine the shape artistically.

Of course, the one who stood out the most was Cheon Ryeong.

He had a deep understanding of sculpture, and upon hearing my plans, expressed a strong desire to participate.

True to his word, he left behind a magnificent and beautiful piece of work.

The reactions of the territory's residents, who let out gasps of admiration as they watched the sculpture being completed, proved how impressive it had turned out.

Once the sculpture was finished, the structure—originally soft like clay—was hardened, and then coated with a mix of metal and mithril mined from our quarry.

Afterward, the form of the completed gate was replicated down to the molecular level.

The goal was to build two gates in each territory, like creating intersections.

By setting up bidirectional gates between Cascadia and both the Valt Plains and Kalis, I could operate the three locations as though they were a single estate.

Of course, simply shaping it wasn’t difficult—what came next was layering it with countless magical treatments.

Although it looked like a massive gate on the outside, the interior of the structure contained a complex network of mana circulation channels.

Ordinary methods couldn’t fabricate something like this, but with the Machine God's Heart, I could mold any object however I liked.

“About three days, I’d say.”

After embedding special magical materials into the ground and syncing them, I began to feel the slow flow of mana.

To prevent interference from the outside, I also installed a protective barrier.

In other words, to forcibly destroy this setup, you’d need enough firepower to instantly shatter the multi-layered, 8th-circle-level defensive spells I placed outside.

If someone could do that, it wouldn’t just be the gate that got obliterated—the entire territory would be reduced to dust.

So I didn’t have to worry much about sabotage.

Next up: sustainability and safety...

As for sustainability, that wasn’t a major concern.

I installed multiple orichalcum-based charging units that absorb and release surrounding mana in a loop, activating a specific magic circle in the process.

Occasionally shutting it down for long-term maintenance wouldn’t be much of a problem, and otherwise, it could remain active 24/7.

For safety testing, I could rely on the data from the teleport gate I had installed earlier in the Cascadia territory.

Of course, just because the gate was installed didn’t mean I could activate it for constant use right away.

“There might still be remnants of the resistance, so we should only open it when necessary.”

When I reported the gate’s readiness to Melissa, she leaned on one hand and replied.

The Coral royal family had collapsed, and most of the remnants had disappeared—but that didn’t mean they were all dead.

Some had surrendered, but many fled to the eastern continent to escape danger.

Some would likely remain in Coral, trying to resist.

If we linked Cascadia directly to those places now, there was a chance those lunatics would cross over and launch terrorist attacks.

The Valt Plains posed less of a risk, but Coral’s capital, Kalis, held a massive human population.

Of course, most of them would scatter to other territories, but since it was once Coral’s capital, far more people would be moving through it than in Cascadia.

Suddenly fusing the lands and opening them up like that would obviously cause all kinds of problems.

“For now, both our manpower and systems are unstable, so I want to start by slowly solving the issues on the Kalis side.”

In that respect, the Valt Plains—where most of the population were farmers—was relatively more manageable.

“This is all your fault.”

She grumbled while glaring at me.

“What the hell did you do that suddenly made our territory so huge overnight?!”

At her complaints, I turned my gaze toward Luna.

Luna, who had been staring at me, turned her head in the same direction.

“Beep beep beep. Compass, respond.”

Then she pulled out Laplace’s Compass and pretended not to notice anything.

“You little—! You’re the biggest problem here, you bastard!”

In the end, Melissa hurled a nearby book in frustration.

Honestly, the one who had the biggest headache right now was Melissa.

And I did feel guilty about it.

Cascadia had just begun to stabilize, and now she was suddenly responsible for managing two vast new territories.

So I reached into my pocket, hoping to express my apology.

And pulled out a flash artifact made of metal.

“You lunatic!”

She reflexively pulled a light-blocking device over her head.

By now, even flash artifacts had little effect on her—she had faced them so often that she carried countermeasures around.

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