Chapter 436 – The Night Banquet and the Midday Feast

The Duke’s villa was located in the central district. It was constructed from stone materials similar to those used in the Royal Castle.

Therefore, it was relatively easy to reshape Golems to fill the broken sections, transforming them into walls, floors, and ceilings.

The repaired sections and the undamaged sections. I carefully joined the colors and shapes at their connecting points as seamlessly as possible, finishing them to appear natural.

“I’ve never seen this many Golems before.”

“I’d heard rumors, but this is incredible…”

“To think there are even Spirits present…”

The Golems filled their bodies into the cracks of the fissures, integrating with the walls through reformation. The Duke’s family, guards, and servants watched this spectacle with wide eyes.

“Hmm… This is quite… I can hardly believe it was once broken. After the repairs, it’s impossible to tell where the seams are…”

The Duke grunted as he inspected the repaired sections. As the Duke, he seemed distracted by other things as well, his eyes darting between Floria and Harvesta in astonishment.

“I plan to continue repairing the damaged sections at this pace. Meanwhile, I’ll have the remaining Golems clean up the scattered debris.”

I kept only the Golems necessary for repairs at hand, forming squads from the surplus Golems and dividing them into Caduceus’s team and Balor’s team to work in parallel. I monitored and controlled each team’s cleanup progress through the Five Senses Link while continuing the repairs myself.

I arranged the broken furniture in the courtyard, classifying them into those severely damaged and those relatively lightly damaged. Even for broken furniture, Wood Magic could repair them to some extent if the damage wasn’t too extensive.

“Then… I’ll have them gather the fine fragments…”

Sigritta summoned beast-like creatures resembling small monkeys from her book, having them meticulously collect scattered plate fragments in the hallways. Ramriya handled the fine dust by manipulating sand, gathering it and disposing of it outside the villa.

After that, Princess Stephania and Princess Adriana used Golems to wipe floors and such, cleaning from the repaired areas outward.

“There are dishes scattered deep in the bushes.”

“Be careful not to cut your hands.”

Sheila keenly spotted items scattered here and there, while Rosemary watched over Marlene to ensure she didn’t get injured.

Marlene, cautioned by Rosemary, nodded happily and repeatedly, while Rosemary hid her mouth behind her feather fan. Claudia, seeing this, narrowed her eyes with a gentle expression.

“It’s fortunate the wind is weak today.”

“Indeed. The sunlight is warm too.”

Grace and Ashley exchanged smiles as they carried a desk that had been lying in the garden. In this manner, the work proceeded amiably under the warm sunlight.

Teams capable of using Levitation worked similarly to the Golems, gathering furniture scattered about or piling rubble as materials in one place. The collected rubble was reformed by Corulis into Blocks to prevent collapse, carefully stacked into a pyramid shape.

Princess Elham had Golems grip hammers, reshaping dented pots, ornamental Armor, and other metal items back to their original forms.

“Alright now. Everyone, wake up~”

Floria clapped her hands towards the fallen garden trees, and the trees lifted themselves up, glowing with phosphorescence. Unlike when they moved under the Nightmare’s influence, they remained trees, using their roots like feet to walk and settle back into their original spots.

Harvesta seemed to be receiving the same Enhancement from Floria’s influence. Though Harvesta was being held by Floria and glowing with phosphorescence, she approached the cracks in the garden trees and brought her leaves close… and the split sections healed back to normal.

An unexpected hidden technique… perhaps something like a Wood Magic version of Healing Magic. It might be a combined effort of Floria and Harvesta. The guards who had been picking up furniture scattered in the garden watched this scene with round eyes.

So… throughout the villa, Ink Beasts, Golems, garden trees, and such were moving about, creating a very lively cleanup scene.

Last night during the Nightmare incident was also a commotion like poking a hornet’s nest, but this was different—a sense of orderly liveliness… not bad at all.

Even for transporting rubble and such, using Magic like Levitation or Golems seemed to have quite an Impact, leaving the guards gaping.

As for me… I had mostly finished repairing the damaged sections of the walls, floors, and ceilings, so while continuing the Golem Collection work, I started on window repairs. I gathered as many broken window panes as possible, placed them within a Magic Array, and deployed a Magic Circle.

It was like when I made the Sirius’s exterior. The window panes piled in the Magic Array were absorbed into floating spheres of light as if melting, then reformed one by one back to their original state before emerging.

“Amazing…”

“It’s such a beautiful Magic, Brother.”

Oscar and Vanessa also seemed in high spirits.

The repaired window panes just needed to be refitted into the intact window frames. I produced Aqua Golems from the garden fountain and had them fit the panes into the frames.

For window frames that were broken, if repairable, they would be repaired. If not, they’d need to be ordered… but since the glass itself didn’t need ordering, it should be relatively inexpensive.

I left the task of placing the window panes to the Golems and moved on to furniture repair. This would involve discussions with Miriam and the Duke.

“These piled here might be quicker to replace than repair.”

“I see. Then, let’s create a catalog and get a rough estimate.”

Tables split cleanly in two could be reattached using Wood Magic.

For items that were shattered, charred, crushed, etc.—where clean repair was difficult—replacement might be necessary. …Well, I’ll try to repair them as much as possible.

“Hmm. It seems we’ll have fewer items needing disposal than I expected.”

“Shall we reuse the severely damaged ones as scrap material?”

“Oh… You’re quite thorough.”

“Since they ended up broken due to being controlled by Nightmares and such… it feels wasteful for good furniture, you could say.”

“I see… No, indeed, that’s true. Hmm.”

The Duke closed his eyes as if deeply moved and nodded.

That was also one of the reasons I offered to handle the cleanup. I wanted to reduce the damage from such Nightmare incidents as much as possible.

I cut out the damaged parts, classifying them by wood type and color. I roughly assessed how much furniture could be made. Hmm… How about a rocking chair? For chairs, small parts can be assembled.

“Oh! A rocking chair? But this has quite complex curves in the back and seat.”

“Yes. The shape is designed to distribute body weight across the entire chair to reduce strain on the lower back.”

By refining the shapes of the seat and back, the entire chair supports the body to distribute weight. This reduces strain on the lower back while sitting, and so on.

It’s not quite based on ergonomics, but I aimed for a chair that minimizes physical burden even when sitting for long periods.

“Would you like to try sitting for a bit?”

“Please, go ahead and try it. I’ve also applied structural Enhancement, so it shouldn’t break easily.”

“Then, if you’ll excuse me.”

The Duke sat in the rocking chair and rocked it happily.

“Oh… This feels quite nice. It’s like my back, waist, and thighs are being enveloped from behind…”

“Shall we add it to the Labyrinth Trading Company’s products? It’s a chair with a new design philosophy.”

Miriam showed enthusiasm for commercializing it.

“That might be good too. Even if not as a rocking chair, the seat and back shapes have applicable uses.”

“Hmm… This is good… Truly a fine item.”

The Duke praised it highly. He seemed delighted that furniture that would have been discarded was being reborn into new products. Well, consider it prototype number one.

“Next… shall we add a few more safe rooms?”

Upon saying this, Princess Stephania and Princess Adriana, who had been cleaning up scattered fragments in the garden, nodded eagerly. Yeah. I know the two of them love Hidden Rooms.

“Safe rooms, you say?”

“Yes. Installing hidden doors that aren’t noticeable at a glance, allowing evacuation during emergencies… that sort of idea.”

“Oh ho. That sounds interesting.”

As expected, the Duke seemed quite taken with this kind of talk. His eyes sparkled as he stood up from the rocking chair.

Now then. Where should the entrance to the Hidden Room be? I moved through the villa with the Duke, Oscar, and Vanessa.

“Where in the villa should we make it?”

“Near Oscar and Vanessa’s rooms would be reassuring.”

“I see.”

Then… let’s create a space between the walls of their two rooms, and from there make a hidden passage leading underground for evacuation.

“Creating a new passage will make the rooms slightly smaller, though.”

“I have no problem with that.”

“Nor do I. The rooms are spacious enough for one person.”

Both Oscar and Vanessa seemed agreeable. Then I’ll proceed without hesitation. I turned the walls into Golems to expand them, then solidified them back into walls to secure space for the hidden passage.

Next is the entrance. Using furniture would probably be best. From Oscar’s room, a painting would serve as a Revolving Concealment. From Vanessa’s room, the back of a wardrobe would slide open to reveal the hidden passage entrance.

Both require releasing a latch to enter the hidden passage. From the inside, the Mechanism can be fixed so that after evacuation, entry isn’t possible.

Descend a spiral staircase from the passage underground. I continuously turned the earth into Golems to remove it.

“Theodore. Erect a pillar here.”

“Understood.”

I created the underground passage, solidified the walls, floor, and ceiling with Petrification, and consulted with Seraphina to erect pillars and perform structural Enhancement to reinforce the safe room.

I also added a small room usable as a toilet, and finally, created an escape route leading from the rear of the villa to complete it. The path leading to the escape route would, as usual, use Revolving Concealment. I made it so bolts could be fastened from both sides. Equipping it with Alarm Devices and such, considering the central district location, the security setup should be perfect.

And so, after finishing the safe room, I returned to the courtyard.

“Shall we turn the soil from making the safe room into bricks or something?”

“Hmm. Nothing goes to waste. Then, I’ll have a storage shed built in the courtyard later.”

“Understood.”

I Petrified the Earth Golems and divided them. Formed them into bricks and stacked them up. Now then. It’s about time for lunch, isn’t it? A delicious smell was drifting from one corner of the courtyard.

“After all you’ve done for us… I feel I must consider some form of repayment.”

While moving, the Duke showed a thoughtful expression, but soon lifted his face as if struck by a brilliant idea.

“That’s right… How about an island as thanks? The formal discussion will be after reconciliation with the Grand Duke. Well… if His Majesty Melvin shows reluctance, we may need to consider something else.”

“…An island, you say?”

“Yes. It concerns territories owned by the Duke’s family. There’s a suitably sized uninhabited island in the southwest. We were considering building a mansion there as a resort. It has a water source and beaches. There’s a deep inlet that could be used as a harbor—a rather blessed topography… Since there’s already a port town, fishing grounds, and shipping routes nearby, it shouldn’t be bad from a supply perspective either.”

Hmm. So he’s suggesting building a villa there as a winter retreat. As thanks… it’s quite a large-scale offer. With Airships and Teleportation Magic for travel, it shouldn’t be too troublesome.

The southwest is warm, the sea has high transparency, and it’s said to be scenic. It’s an attractive proposal.