Clatter, clatter, clatter — clack!
The wagons that had been gliding smoothly along the black road finally arrived at the domain’s entrance.
“Well, well….”
Varon, head of the Golden Goose Trading Company, lowered the carriage window and stroked his chin. The scene before him was nothing like the “poor backwater of the North” he had known.
“This is really Valeria Domain?”
Rising from the snow-covered plain was a massive grey-white wall. Not the rough, sloppily stacked stone barrier of a typical frontier domain. This was a seamless, immaculate fortress — the kind that looked like it wouldn’t take so much as a scratch even if an ogre hurled itself against it.
“It looks sturdier than the walls of the Imperial Capital.”
“Look at the ground, sir! The black road goes all the way into the village!”
The merchants buzzed amongst themselves. There was no muddy sludge, no slippery ice. The entire village had been laid out with the precision of a grid, and between each section ran black asphalt roads like veins through a body. Poverty? Backwardness? Varon’s merchant instincts were sounding alarms. This place is a land of miracles.
“Welcome. You must have had a difficult journey.”
Elian greeted the trading company party in front of the manor. Calix stood beside him, arms folded, expression indifferent. Varon scrambled out of the carriage and bowed deeply toward Calix.
“I am honored to stand before the Sun of the North, the Grand Duke himself. And my Lord — thank you for opening the road.”
“Save the gratitude for when you settle the toll.”
Elian said with an easy smile.
“For now, let’s get you warmed up. I’ve had somewhere prepared.”
Elian led them to the recently renovated guest annex of the manor — a guesthouse fitted, naturally, with Ondol throughout.
“Please, come inside. Oh — one moment.”
Elian stopped and pointed to the shoe rack.
“You’ll need to remove your shoes indoors.”
“Pardon? Our shoes?”
Varon’s brow furrowed. In imperial noble culture, removing one’s shoes in someone else’s home was simply not done — not outside of a bedchamber. Was he being asked to walk barefoot on a dirt or cold stone floor?
“The floors get dirty otherwise. You’ve stepped over the threshold of this domain — you follow the customs of this domain.”
Elian was firm. Varon pulled off his leather boots with a vaguely unsettled expression. And the moment he set his thick-socked feet on the floor —
“…Oh!”
A small, involuntary sound escaped him.
Wh-what is this?
Instead of the cold he had braced for, a wave of warmth surged up through the soles of his feet. The air was comfortable — and there wasn’t even a hearth in sight. With every step, the bone-deep chill that had soaked into him seemed to dissolve away.
“Ohhhh….”
The senior merchants who filed in behind him were no different. They had shuffled in awkwardly at first — but within moments, dignity forgotten, they had sunk straight down onto the floor and were pressing their backsides against it in bliss.
“It’s — it’s warm!”
“The floor is giving off heat! Good heavens, did they fire the stone?”
Varon, dumbfounded, ran his hand across the floor. Warm didn’t even cover it — it was hot. To heat an entire room without a hearth, in this frozen North of all places.
This is a revolution.
The abacus in Varon’s head began spinning furiously. If this technology were sold to the nobles of the capital? Supplied all the way to the Imperial Palace? A gold mine was right in front of him.
The shocks didn’t end there.
At the evening banquet.
“It’s nothing special, but please help yourselves. This is boiled Snow Boar — a specialty of the North.”
A plate of steaming meat was brought out. And then the merchants’ eyes went wide at the sight of what sat beside it — a basket filled with green.
“Is that…?”
Fresh lettuce, perilla leaves, kale. Not wilted. Not pickled. Deep green, moisture-rich leaves that looked as though they’d been plucked straight from the field.
“Greens? Fresh greens — in winter?”
“Ah, I built something called a greenhouse in the back garden.”
Elian answered, as if it were nothing. The merchants swallowed hard. In winter, when sailors and nobles alike suffered from scurvy due to lack of vitamins, fresh vegetables like these were rarer and more valuable than meat itself.
“Here — you layer the meat on top, dip it in the ssamjang, like so….”
Elian demonstrated, and the merchants followed as if in a trance.
Crunch.
The burst of moisture from the greens and the rich savory fat of the meat spreading across the tongue all at once.
“It’s… incredible…!”
Varon nearly wept. This domain was out of its mind. The roads were out of its mind. The heating was out of its mind. The food was out of its mind. He had to secure a contract. By any means necessary.
***
After the meal, the negotiation table was formally set. Elian and Calix sat side by side at the head of the table. Varon sat across from them, quietly sweating.
“I’ll come straight to the point.”
Varon opened with a grave expression.
“The Ondol technology and these winter vegetables — our trading company wishes to hold exclusive distribution rights. We will match whatever price you name.”
Elian lifted his teacup and smiled unhurriedly.
“Exclusive rights. The terms will be rather demanding.”
“Name them.”
“Ondol installation is complicated. The pipes have to be specially manufactured. And as for the vegetables — the volume is limited. We’re barely keeping our own domain residents fed, so I’m not sure how much surplus there’ll be.”
Elian had begun playing hard to get. The classic opening move of someone holding all the cards. Just as Varon leaned forward anxiously to speak —
“Elian.”
Calix, who had been silent until that moment, cut in abruptly.
“I peeled you a tangerine. Eat it.”
Calix held out a tangerine — peeled meticulously, white pith removed entirely — and offered it toward Elian’s lips.
“Oh, thank you.”
Elian accepted it and ate without a second thought. Varon and the merchants nearly lost their jaws.
The Grand Duke… is serving fruit?
Calix Drac — the killer of the North, the lord of ice — was peeling fruit for a mere baron. Carefully. Attentively. This was not simple hospitality. To Varon’s eyes, the scene translated into exactly one thing:
[Warning: This man is my partner. Cross him and you die.]
Calix watched Elian eat the tangerine with an expression dripping honey — then turned to look at Varon. In an instant, his gaze dropped to twenty below zero.
“So. My Lord seems to be finding this difficult.”
“Eek!”
Varon understood instinctively. If he tried to haggle or play games here, he might never leave this domain alive. He might end up buried under the asphalt road.
“N-not at all! Difficult? Absolutely not!”
Varon frantically revised the contract.
“The p-price — three times market rate! No, five times! And all daily necessities and construction materials the domain requires, our company will supply at cost, with no markup, as priority shipments! Royalties at thirty percent of revenue as well…!”
It was practically a slave contract. Elian chewed his tangerine and ran the numbers in his head. Not bad. In truth, it was an absolute windfall. But he kept his expression perfectly casual.
“Hmm. Five times. A bit on the low side, but… I’ll stamp it in consideration of your sincerity.”
“Th-thank you!”
Varon stamped the contract with tearful gratitude. He was the one who had just been completely fleeced — yet he felt as though he’d escaped with his life. The irony was profound.
Once the contract was signed, Varon gathered his things and rose, then asked carefully:
“If I may, my Lord — forgive the impertinence.”
“Yes?”
“The two of you… when might we expect the happy news? If I pass through the capital on the way back, would it be alright to let it get around a little?”
“Happy news? Oh — do you mean the news of the road opening?”
Elian asked with genuine innocence. But Varon thought to himself, oh, how shy, and glanced over at Calix. Calix understood perfectly what the question meant.
He let out a small, quiet smile — and casually laid his hand on Elian’s shoulder.
“Soon.”
“Oh…! I knew it!”
Varon nodded with absolute conviction.
“Congratulations in advance! When I reach the capital, I shall talk your praises until I have no breath left! And the wedding gifts — our company will prepare only the finest!”
“Pardon? A wedding? Whose?”
Elian asked, flustered — but Varon simply laughed “Ha ha, my Lord, really!” and practically fled to his carriage.
The Golden Goose Trading Company’s wagon convoy departed the domain. Their cargo holds were packed full of vegetables. Their mouths were loaded with a far more extraordinary cargo — an exclusive scoop about the romance of the century between the Grand Duke of the North and his Lord.
***
“Phew.”
Elian let out a contented sigh as he surveyed the gold and signed contracts stacked on the table. The advance payment the trading company had left behind was staggering. Build Points were comfortably stocked, and gold — hard currency — was overflowing. Valeria Domain had finally, completely escaped from poverty.
“Delightful.”
Calix said, idly turning a tangerine peel over in his fingers.
“Of course it is. Do you know how much this is? Your Grace — tonight we’re having beef. Not Hanwoo exactly, but… the finest sirloin the North has to offer!”
Elian was cheerfully gathering up the gold pouches when —
Ding―!
Ding―!
Ding―!
An alert far more clamorous than usual rang out through his mind. Elian paused. Before his eyes, a massive golden System Window appeared.
[Achievement Unlocked: Prosperous Lord]
― Condition: Domain assets reach 100,000 gold & food self-sufficiency rate reaches 100%
― Reward: System Level Up (Lv.1 → Lv.2)
“…Oh?”
Elian’s eyes went wide.
A level up? What does leveling the System actually do?
[System Lv.2 — New Feature Unlocked]
― Feature Name: [Domain Resource Map]
― Description: Detects and visualizes natural resources and mana veins hidden within the domain.
“A resource map?”
Elian activated the feature out of curiosity. The scene before him shifted. Like a minimap in a game, a semi-transparent hologram of the entire domain’s terrain spread out before his eyes. Mountains, rivers, and forests resolved into a single clear picture.
Most of it was ordinary grey land — but here and there, glittering icons floated. Iron ore. Coal. And then — deep in the mountains behind the domain, one mark glowing a particularly vivid red.
[??? : Ancient Mana Hot Spring Vein (Aquifer + Fire Attribute)]
“…What.”
Elian’s mouth fell open. A hot spring? And not just any hot spring — a mana hot spring? He pressed the description. It read: Exceptional efficacy for fatigue recovery, mana stabilization, and skin rejuvenation.
This is a jackpot.
An open-air bath in the snowfields of the North. It would be the ultimate tourist attraction on its own — but right now, the man standing in front of him, Calix, needed this far more urgently. A mana-stabilizing hot spring for someone who struggled every single day with mana overload.
The corner of Elian’s mouth curled up with quiet satisfaction.
“Your Grace. Would you like to go on a date with me?”
