Chapter 543: Divine Ascension (4)
When Eugene had returned to the mansion a year ago, he had found it drastically different from how he remembered it.
‘How on earth did the mansion turn out like this?’ Eugene couldn’t help but unconsciously think to himself at that time.
Even so, a year ago, the mansion had still retained some traces of its former appearance, but now no such traces remained.
Eugene stared at the mansion in silence.
What bothered Eugene more than anything else was the extreme disharmony that could be found within the grounds of the estate. On one side, there was a forest so dense that it seemed like it had been ripped right out of the Rainforest. Then there were the three Fairy Trees[1] that towered above the rest of the forest. As Fairy Trees, they would have already grown much larger than ordinary trees, but these weren’t just any ordinary Fairy Trees; they were saplings grown from the World Tree.
While looking at the lush tree branches that were beginning to cover most of the sky above the forest, Eugene had to swallow back a gulp.
Unlike the first side, which was filled with the overflowing vitality of nature, the other side didn’t have any traces of nature left. All he could see were various different mechanisms that were hard at work. All sorts of items were flying down the constantly running conveyor belts — swords, spears, axes, arrows, and shields — those sorts of products.
In other areas, all sorts of different minerals were piled up. Even the precious mythril ore was heaped up and made to look as common as a stone one could find on the street.
Eugene widened his eyes as he watched all this activity taking place. The dwarves were running around everywhere on their short, stout legs, and among their number... were people that he wasn’t familiar with.
“Hmmm...,” Eugene hummed thoughtfully.
Upon inquiring, Eugene was informed that they were all Spirit Summoners who belonged to the White Tower of Magic. They were working as the dwarves’ assistants with an air of familiarity, and they were also responsible for enchanting the completed equipment and items. Some of them had even set up their own workshops and were collaborating with the dwarves.
In the first place, although the current White Tower Master, Melkith El-Hayah, was a renowned Spirit Summoner, the White Tower of Magic didn’t just deal in spirit summoning. They also specialized in alchemy.
“Hmmm.... ah....,” Eugene murmured in surprise.
When he had last seen them a year ago, the grounds of the mansion had also been in quite a state of disarray. The elves and the saplings of the World Tree that Eugene had brought here had already been causing the Lionheart Forest to grow far too aggressively. Then, there were the ten dwarves he had brought with him to process Raizakia’s corpse. At that time, the dwarves had set up a workshop on one corner of the mansion’s grounds to improve their work efficiency, but the problem now was that the workshop had already grown far too large.
‘The results are definitely a benefit, but...,’ Eugene kept these thoughts to himself.
Thanks to the saplings of the World Tree having fully set down their roots, the ground beneath the Lionheart estate had been transformed into one of the strongest leylines on the continent. The Lionhearts had been able to monopolize the benefits from this as, even if you just looked at it in terms of pure efficiency, the mana that the Knights of the White Lion and the Black Lion had accumulated over the past few years was qualitatively superior to all of the mana that they had previously accumulated through a lifetime of training.
The dwarven workshop might somewhat marr the estate’s aesthetics, but the goods they produced were of excellent quality. Thanks to that, all of the Lionhearts had been armed with dragon-sourced equipment, and they would be able to continue to monopolize the dwarves’ craftwork throughout the near future.
“Once everything is over,” Eugene said after clearing his throat with a nervous cough, “how about getting the whole family to move somewhere else?”
Instead of replying, Ancilla just kept up a shallow smile. Shooing the others off, she had volunteered to greet Eugene’s return today all by herself. Naturally, this act was because she wanted to show him how much the mansion had changed over the past year.
“By ‘once everything is over,’ when exactly do you mean?” Ancilla questioned as she led Eugene on a tour of the mansion.
Eugene gulped, “I... after I’ve slain the Demon King of Incarceration and the Demon King of Destruction, things should be over at that point....”
“That sounds like it will be quite difficult,” Ancilla said with a sniff.
“Yes, that’s right...,” Eugene admitted nervously.
“Although it isn’t as much as you, I’ve had to face my fair share of difficulties during this period,” Ancilla sighed in a low voice, still keeping up her smile.
Eugene suddenly recalled how Sienna and the Saints had immediately run away when they saw that Ancilla was the one coming out to greet them. Sienna had escaped by saying it had been too long since she had last seen her older brother and the Saints had left while saying they had some matters to discuss with the Pope, who had arrived earlier that day....
“Moving, you say, that sounds like quite a good idea. Do you already have a place in mind?” Ancilla continued her interrogation.
Eugene hastened to promise her, “I would be fine with wherever you decide, Lady Ancilla. If you wish to live in his castle, I will even go up to King Strout II, who has said that he will be attending today’s banquet, grab him by the collar, and order him to make preparations to vacate his palace immediately.”
“Oh my...,” Ancilla muttered appreciatively with a nod, still wearing the same smile she had first greeted him with.
When they had discussed this topic before, Eugene had sensed that Ancilla didn’t seem too upset with the idea of moving the family to a different home. However, Eugene could sense that something had changed since then. The last time, Ancilla had felt a bit resigned to the changes going on around her, so after giving it some thought, she wasn’t upset by the idea and had instead come to accept the possibility of moving out of the Lionheart estate — but now, things were very different.
‘I’m dead,’ Eugene thought to himself in fear.
He could feel her chilly, murderous intent wash over him as he walked behind her. Ancilla’s murderous intent was one born of deep resentment rather than a violent rage.
Eugene tried to continue persuading her, “Or how about the Holy See? Yuras is actually quite a nice city to live in, and the Vatican is right in the center of the city. They might tell everyone publicly that there are no warp-gates in Yuras, but that’s just a bunch of lies. The Vatican even has a warp-gate hidden in its basement. And if that’s not enough, we can just make a few more.”
“A castle, as you said earlier...,” Ancilla, who had been quietly listening to Eugene’s chatter with that same stiff smile on her face, finally gave a physical reaction. She nodded slightly as she turned to look back at Eugene, “I believe that Babel would be fine.”
As Ancilla spat out these words, her eyes, which had been narrowed into thin, smiling curves, opened up slightly to reveal her pupils. The cold gaze that shot out brushed over Eugene’s skin. Ancilla’s gaze seemed to penetrate even deeper into Eugene’s skin than any of the Demoneyes he had met throughout his life.
“Ba... Ba-what?” Eugene stammered.
“Babel,” Ancilla slowly repeated.
“Is the Babel that you’re talking about the same Babel that I’m thinking of?” Eugene nervously checked.
Ancilla calmly clarified, “I’m not sure just how many places you know about that are called Babel, but as far as I am aware, there is only one Babel.”
“Ah... ahem...,” Eugene awkwardly cleared his throat.
Could Babel really be called a castle? Eugene thought back to what he had seen of Babel during his last visit to Helmuth. Babel had definitely looked like a skyscraper that was ninety-nine floors tall....
However, Eugene knew that if he dared to tell Ancilla that Babel wasn’t a castle when she was in such a vulnerable state, the fan she held in her hand would definitely be snapped in two.
“Um... Babel is... alright... as long as it stays intact and doesn’t collapse. Then yes, I agree,” Eugene conceded. “The bottom floors can be used to garrison the knights, and the upper floors can be for the family’s personal use.”
Ancilla nodded in approval, “It would be quite a powerful gesture to repurpose the royal palace on the top floor for the Patriarch’s personal office. It would also be very symbolic.”
“Yes...,” Eugene weakly agreed.
But would Babel really be able to remain intact after he was done killing the Demon King of Incarceration? That, more than anything else, was causing Eugene to feel hesitant to agree.
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