The next morning, at the domain’s entrance.
The knights and domain residents, their spirits sky-high from the previous night’s meat feast, assembled with shovels and pickaxes in hand.
“My Lord! Where do we start digging?”
“We’ll blast through a whole mountain by nightfall, easy!”
Everyone was brimming with motivation — but Elian shook his head. What lay before them was a snow wall three meters high, stretching across the mountain pass. If they tried to clear it by hand, they’d be shoveling until spring.
“No shoveling needed. Just follow behind me.”
Elian pointed to an object he’d had a carpenter hastily custom-build for him. It was a smooth wooden two-person sled — with one distinctive feature: the front and rear seats were pressed together flush, with no gap between them.
“What is this? Are you opening a sledding hill?”
Calix asked, arms folded.
“No. This is a snowplow and an asphalt finisher, all in one. Your Grace, please take a seat.”
“…Don’t tell me we’re both supposed to fit in that cramped thing.”
“For mana supply efficiency, there’s no other way. If the line breaks, construction halts. Now — I’ll sit in front, so take the seat behind me.”
Elian sat down in the front first. Calix clicked his tongue with a displeased look, but soon folded his long legs in and settled behind Elian.
Thud.
“…!”
Elian’s body went stiff. It was far tighter than he’d anticipated. The moment Calix sat down, his solid chest pressed flush against Elian’s entire back. On either side, Calix’s long arms and legs formed a perfect cage around him.
This was like… sitting in a couple’s ride at a theme park. Or that pottery scene from Ghost.
“It’s tight.”
Calix’s low voice resonated directly above Elian’s head. His breath tickled Elian’s ear.
“I-it’ll be better once we get moving! Your Grace, hold onto my waist. It would be very bad if you fell off.”
“I won’t fall.”
He said it — but Calix’s arms wrapped firmly around Elian’s waist anyway.
“Ready? Here we go!”
The sled launched forward. Some time into the ride, Elian called out with a determined shout.
“Your Grace! Ice Blast — straight ahead!”
“Don’t give me orders.”
Grumbling all the while, Calix extended one hand.
BOOM―!
With a thunderous explosion, the snow wall blocking their path shattered apart in an instant. The road opened. The sled glided forward again.
“Now! Pave it!”
Elian spread his palm toward the ground.
Ding―!
[Skill Activated: Road Paving (Asphalt)]
― Materials: Bitumen, aggregate, stone powder (auto-purchased)
― Option: Heated wire added (additional BP consumed)
Whoooosh―!
From Elian’s fingertips, a black, viscous substance surged out. In the wake of Calix’s ice-clearing path, steaming black asphalt rolled out like a carpet being laid across the earth.
“What is that smell? It’s awful.”
Calix wrinkled his nose. The sharp, acrid smell of burning bitumen hit hard. But Elian inhaled it with an expression of pure rapture.
“Ahh… the fragrant scent of civilization! Your Grace, this isn’t a stench — this is the smell of progress.”
“You have a very peculiar sense of taste.”
The sled picked up speed. Calix blasted the path open, Elian paved it behind him — a seamless, breathtaking rhythm. But the road was no flat plain. As they descended the rugged mountain trail, the sled rattled and lurched violently.
“Whoa!”
Jolt!
Every time the sled caught air, Elian’s body was thrown backward — and every time, Calix behind him pulled him in tighter.
“Stay still.”
The force in Calix’s arms intensified. The firm press of muscle against his back. The Grand Duke’s body heat wrapping around him entirely. And the sound of ragged breathing close to his ear. For something supposedly justified by road construction, this position was entirely too stimulating.
Focus, Elian. You’re a civil engineer. You’re a road paver.
Elian forced the heat from his face and fixed his attention on the ground below. The knights and residents following behind them couldn’t contain their shock.
“Wh-what is that?”
“The snow is melting! There’s a black stone road appearing!”
In the wake of the two men’s path, a smooth two-lane road was forming, still steaming. A heated asphalt road that melted snow the moment it fell. Yet another miracle of the North was unfolding.
***
The construction went smoothly. Until they reached the midpoint of the mountain.
Rumble, rumble, rumble….
Suddenly, the entire mountain seemed to shudder. The accumulated snow had been disturbed — triggered by the combined force of Calix’s explosion magic and the noise of Elian’s construction work.
“…Your Grace!”
Elian looked up toward the mountainside. A white wall of snow was surging toward them. An avalanche. Thousands of tons of snow and ice were pouring down with enough force to swallow the sled whole.
“Damn it, there’s nowhere to go!”
It was too late to run. Asphalt or no asphalt, they were about to be buried alive. Just as Elian squeezed his eyes shut in terror —
“If you’re scared, close your eyes.”
A large hand covered Elian’s eyes. Calix. At the same moment, from directly behind him, a wave of cold so sharp it raised every hair on his spine detonated outward.
When had it happened? There hadn’t even been the sound of a sword being drawn. A silence fell over the world, as if time itself had stopped. Then —
CRAAAASH―!
An eardrum-splitting explosion tore through the air. Elian flinched reflexively. But the impact he had braced for never came. Instead, only a violent gust swept past on both sides.
“…It’s over.”
The hand covering Elian’s eyes withdrew. Elian opened them carefully. And his jaw dropped open.
The massive avalanche that had been bearing down on them had been split cleanly in two — like the parting of the sea. On either side of their path, towering walls of snow now stood. Calix had sliced through a natural disaster with a single sword strike.
“…Wow.”
Elian was speechless. This man is not human. He’s a walking weapon of mass destruction.
“Were you frightened?”
Calix let out a small, quiet smile and smoothed Elian’s disheveled hair back into place. It was a touch so gentle it was almost impossible to believe it belonged to someone who had just cleaved apart an avalanche.
“N-no! It’s just… Your Grace, you’re absolutely insane.”
“Insane?”
“I mean incredible. Incredibly impressive. Now — let’s keep moving! We push through to the end at this pace!”
Elian thrust his hand forward again, covering his embarrassment with momentum. He was starting to lose track of whether the pounding in his chest was from the avalanche — or from the man sitting behind him.
***
Two hours later.
The far end of the mountain range finally came into view. It was the boundary connecting the North to the Imperial Territory — the pass known as the White Ridge. And there, they found unexpected visitors.
“Please! Someone clear the way! Our entire trading company is about to be ruined!”
“We can’t go anywhere! There’s six cubits of snow piled up — what do you expect us to do!”
Dozens of massive cargo wagons were buried in the snow, utterly stranded. It was the empire’s largest trading company — the Golden Goose Trading Company. They had set out carrying food and daily necessities bound for the North, only to be trapped by the blizzard for a full week with nowhere to go. The company’s head, Varon, was staring at the blocked mountain road with a look of utter despair.
“Gods above… are we going to freeze to death like this?”
Then it happened. From somewhere up the mountain, a strange and thunderous boom rang out.
BOOM!
“Wh-what was that! Is it a landslide!”
The merchants screamed and tumbled backward. The dense curtain of snow fog that had obscured their vision cleared away. And in its place stood something none of them had ever seen in their lives.
What… is that? The snow mountain is… melting?
What lay before them was a pitch-black road slicing straight through the frozen hell in a single stroke. A black road trailing wisps of steam wound its way down along the face of the snow-covered mountain.
Sizzle, hiss―!
Down that black road — still holding the heat of freshly laid asphalt — a finely crafted sled glided smoothly toward them.
Screech―!
The sled came to a sharp, stylish stop right in front of the trading company’s convoy. Two figures stepped off. One was a strikingly handsome man dressed in black, and the other a young man as pale and white as the snow around him.
“J-just who are you people?”
“And what in the world is that black road?”
Varon asked, his jaw trembling. Elian stepped off the sled and dusted himself off. Then he broke into a grin and walked toward the company head.
“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Elian, Lord of Valeria.”
Elian gestured toward the steaming black road stretching out behind them.
“As you can see — I’ve just finished clearing the only road into the North.”
“A road? That’s a road? Don’t tell me… snow doesn’t… it doesn’t pile up on it?”
Varon crouched down and pressed his hand to the asphalt. It was warm. Snow falling from the sky melted the moment it touched the surface. It’s magic. This is a miracle only a Grand Archmage could achieve.
“If we use this road, can we enter the domain right now?”
“Of course. It’s a state-of-the-art paved road — your wagon wheels won’t sink once.”
Elian’s eyes gleamed. The man in front of him was no ordinary merchant. He was a massive financier who could breathe life back into the domain’s economy.
“However.”
Elian rubbed his fingers together.
“Nothing in this world is free, is it? There will be a toll.”
“I-I’ll pay whatever you ask! My goods are about to rot — do you think money is the issue right now!”
“Excellent. And since you’ve come all this way, let’s do some business while we’re at it. Our domain has developed a remarkably innovative heating system — would you be interested?”
Elian was already in full sales mode. Calix watched from behind with his arms folded. The same man who had been trembling before the avalanche was now sharp-eyed and ruthlessly calculating at the sight of money.
…Endearing.
Acknowledging to himself that he had it bad, Calix let out a quiet smile. A black road carved into a white snowfield. Along that road, the North’s isolation had come to an end. Now it was time for people, money, and civilization to come pouring in.
