GILF Hunter

’Hey.’

’Haha. Were you waiting for me on purpose, Mayor?’

After the meeting ended, Hermann and Lucia met again in the hallway.

To be precise, Lucia had been waiting for Hermann to come out. Hermann, who had been chatting with the people from the Merchant Association, noticed this and stepped into the hallway alone.

Lucia asked Hermann.

’What’s your angle?’

’There is truly no hidden motive this time. I simply wish to help Captain Ian with his plan.’

’You’re purely supporting Captain Ian’s plan?’

Hermann nodded with a benevolent smile.

’...And picking up some track record as a bonus?’

’That is a secondary matter.’

Hermann looked at Lucia’s dissatisfied expression and said with a laugh.

’Mayor, if you drag your feet when facing an important task, this is eventually what happens. Opportunities are very short.’

’Are you trying to say I missed the opportunity?’

’If necessary, one must know how to hold hands even if the opponent was an enemy. If you drag things out trying to take everything for yourself, you end up losing everything.’

Lucia didn’t need to take full responsibility for that plan. Hermann took the lead this time, but in truth, anyone could have become the center and pushed the work forward instead.

Hermann spoke with an expression as if he were telling a grand story.

’Do you know how I went from a daily laborer at the warehouse to earning this much money and taking the mayor’s seat?’

’Don’t you shout about that every time you get drunk at a party? That you invested in a new mine owner and made 120 times your money.’

’That is the end result... but the most important thing is thanks to my eye for people. An eye for recognizing someone who will succeed.’

’So, the one you saw this time is him?’

He had mentioned meeting and talking once before. It was clear he had been eyeing him since then.

Lucia frowned slightly and prepared to leave. Since she had found out it wasn’t a scheme to sabotage the work, her business was done.

Hermann spoke one last time toward Lucia, who turned away with a click of her tongue.

’Tsk...’

’Mayor. People eventually return to the person who makes them money. A ’grand cause’ only looks good; such intangible things are difficult and easily forgotten.’

In the end, it was a statement that rewards are what move people.

...Typical merchant. Lucia thought as she walked away.

＊　＊　＊

’That goes over here! Send that one to number 3!’

Construction suddenly began throughout the city.

Ian heard the news that the plan he submitted the other day had passed.

...He didn’t know why, but the tone of the delivery sounded quite displeased. Regardless, looking at the content alone, it was good news.

Tanya muttered as she looked out the window.

’It’s almost at the level of a festival.... It’s my first time seeing such large-scale construction at this time of year.’

’This is going according to that first phase plan you mentioned, Captain?’

’Since the City Hall accepted it, that’s probably how it’ll go.’

Hearing Rin’s question, Ian also looked out the window and answered.

Ian had submitted the proposal himself, but he hadn’t expected it to pass this quickly.

To actually proceed with such a large-scale plan required excessively complex procedures. In the worst-case scenario, he was even prepared for time to be dragged out until it was eventually rejected.

He had some plans in mind to prepare for such an event, but fortunately, it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.

...He thought there would be heavy opposition from various places, but seeing that they started construction immediately, it seemed they had even solved the budget issue well.

Did Lucia put in much more effort than he thought?

Ian, who hadn’t yet heard what happened at the conference hall, thought of this and decided to send a separate thank-you note to Lucia later.

Whatever the internal circumstances were.

Labyrinth was in the midst of work to organize and reinforce the city’s alleys and roads. Thanks to that, the city was quite boisterous.

And there were guests who arrived walking through those noisy streets.

It was Ellen, whom he had met at the exploration site recently, and Zeke, the blacksmith who had been there with her.

Zeke, for whom this was the first time visiting Labyrinth directly, looked around the streets busy with construction preparations and said to Ellen.

’Busy everywhere. I heard some monster was supposed to invade, did the city get smashed that badly?’

’No. I heard this invasion was defended much more safely than other times, so there was no damage inside the city at all.’

Ellen, who had been away, also found this sudden appearance of the city unfamiliar.

The two knocked on the door of the Ian Mercenary Group.

While Ian finished his preparations and came down, the two were guided to the guest room.

In the meantime, Ellen asked Zeke, who was sitting next to her.

’By the way, it’s unexpected. Since you said you’d come to Labyrinth, I thought you’d go straight to the workshop here to start a fight.’

’Tsk. I came to get precious minerals before they all run out. What’s already used won’t come back, so what’s the point of arguing with jewelers? Where the owner sells the materials is up to them.’

As if it couldn’t be helped, Zeke spoke with a disgruntled expression.

It was certainly a waste, but fighting over good materials was a common occurrence for blacksmiths. If one couldn’t let go of the missed materials, nothing would ever get done.

Ellen watched Zeke from the side and asked a question she had been curious about.

’Hmm. Broadly speaking, isn’t lapidary work similar to yours, Zeke-san? It seems they do a lot of precision circuit work these days as well.’

’What on earth are you talking about!’

Zeke looked at Ellen with an expression as if she were speaking utter nonsense.

’The things used in lapidary work only sparkle in the end; they have no practicality at all! With that kind of skill, one could make much more helpful items, but to use such precious materials just to end up showing off luxury...’

’Mmm. So that is your opinion.’

From Ellen’s perspective, items from ruins were all research data, whether they were lapidary goods or magical items.

And since both were materials that could reveal ancient lifestyles and techniques, she honestly didn’t feel much of a difference between them.

Still, for now, she sympathized with the opinion of Zeke in front of her.

In the meantime, Ian arrived and greeted the two.

Ian spoke with a surprised face as he saw the two visiting together.

’The two of you came together? Didn’t the investigation there end a while ago?’

’That’s true. But Zeke-san showed interest in some blueprints I had. It’s data on ancient architecture... so he decided to stay at our office for a while because of that.’

’You’re interested in ancient architecture?’

’To be precise, it’s about the mana circuit design that goes into it. Aren’t there many ancient buildings with magical functions compared to ordinary ones?’

It referred to circuit engineering, Zeke’s main interest and specialty.

It was a technology used in various ways, from making small magic items to building large-scale magical structures.

Zeke also nodded at Ellen’s explanation and added.

’Yeah. After all, isn’t it better to have a larger scale to draw out the circuit’s ability to the maximum? Such things don’t sell at all these days, so I just end up making mostly miniaturized ones out of necessity.’

’Since they don’t build things like that at all lately...’ Zeke muttered.

The things Zeke was talking about were ancient magical buildings with special effects.

Such things were rarely built anew, and buildings built in the past were used more for tourism rather than actual function.

They looked grand and cool... but if one were to actually build them, people would tilt their heads in confusion.

If there was such land or budget, it was much better in terms of practicality to just build a state-of-the-art building. That’s why they aren’t built anew.

In times like these, even if one spent a massive amount of money to build a giant telescope tower or a city-scale magic amplifier, there would be no place to use it. It was truly a giant waste of money.

However.

Though it was a very rare and limited case... there were still a few cities left that could utilize such buildings.

One of them was right here. Labyrinth.

An expert with knowledge of artifacts and ruins. An expert with architectural and circuit design skills. And even the artifacts to be included in the building...

A chance to build an [Ancient Structure] that could only be attempted when everything was equipped at the right time.

It wasn’t something Ian had intended, but by chance, the two experts who could actually execute it were gathered in one place like this.

In that case, naturally, he had to make such a proposal. Ian thought so as he spoke to the two.

’In that case, would you like to try building one yourself? An ancient structure.’

’Directly?’

’Directly?’

Ian pulled out a sheet of paper from several documents. It was one of the exploration records Ellen had shared with him.

Since Ian was the biggest supporter of the exploration team, Ellen had shared all the data obtained whenever a ruin exploration ended, and thanks to that, numerous ruin-related materials were kept in Ian’s drawer.

What Ian held out to the two was data on a building written in an old book excavated from a ruin.

It was the [Archmage’s Spire], which could amplify the power of grand magic and supply the mana needed for magic maintenance using the mana stored in the city.

Zeke immediately wore an expression as if it were impossible.

’By what means can such a building be built in this city? There’s no way permission would be granted.’

’Since technology has advanced that much in the meantime, doesn’t it not necessarily have to be this size? It would be possible if it were the size of one of those watchtowers in the city.’

’...Hmm.’

’If we remodel one of the watchtowers, it would also save a lot of time. Coincidentally, large-scale construction is underway... I can get that level of permission for you instead.’

’...Is that so?’

After hearing Ian’s words, Zeke’s face immediately changed to a tempted expression.

Building an ancient artifact directly within the city?

So... with someone else’s money?

Wasn’t that a massive waste of money? No matter how he thought about it, it was a foolish thing to do.

While thinking such thoughts rationally, the two were already naturally nodding their heads.

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