“…Ha.”
Calix laughed — the laugh of someone who’d just surrendered, yet felt nothing but relief.
“You really are a strange one, Elian Valeria.”
“I’ll admit I’m a bit unusual. But I guarantee the results.”
“Fine.”
Calix gripped Elian’s hand firmly in return.
“Take as much as you need. It’s been overflowing with nowhere to go. If my curse can warm this land — I’ll give it until my bones wear down.”
It was consent. And a thoroughly willing one at that.
“Thank you, Your Grace! Then let’s get started right away!”
Elian exclaimed, buzzing with excitement.
“Alright, we need to draw the pipes first, so… come with me.”
“Right now?”
“Strike while the iron’s hot! The knights have had time to thaw out — the timing is perfect!”
Elian dragged the still-moved Calix along like a piece of luggage and headed back toward the Ondol room where the knights were sprawled out.
“Alright, everyone up! Time to earn your keep!”
“Ughhh… my Lord, just five more minutes….”
“The floor is too warm, I can’t get up….”
The mighty Black Lion Knights let out pained groans at Elian’s command. But Calix simply watched the scene with a quiet smile.
His own knights, lying at ease in the warmth he had made. He found that ordinary, almost miraculous sight deeply pleasing.
Not bad at all.
Calix rolled up his sleeves and drew his blue mana to the surface. He was no longer a destroyer. He was now a great partner in construction — one who would rebuild the North. The curtain was rising on the grand “North Renovation Project,” fueled by nothing less than the Grand Duke’s own mana.
***
A wave of heat hit them the moment the village hall doors opened. The air inside was so warm and humid it would have fogged up glasses on the spot.
“Ahhh, this is the life….”
“Long live our Lord! Long live the Grand Duke!”
The sight was something to behold. Outside, a bone-cutting blizzard raged — yet inside the hall, elderly villagers were lying on their backs in short sleeves, bellies exposed to the air. Children, red-cheeked from the heat, were fanning themselves. Women sat in clusters, chatting away.
Was this the North, or a sauna? The village hall, where the pilot Ondol installation had been completed, was nothing short of paradise on earth.
“My Lord! Please get to our house next!”
“I’ve already torn up my floor to get ready!”
The moment Elian appeared, people swarmed around him like a crowd. The reaction was explosive. Even those who had first been skeptical — grumbling about why anyone would rip up a perfectly good floor — had become devoted converts to the Ondol faith after spending just one afternoon with their backs pressed against the hall’s warm floor.
“Please, everyone calm down! We’ll get to each of you in turn. As soon as the materials arrive….”
Elian calmed the crowd and slipped back outside. A contented smile crossed his face, but inside, he was burning.
Ding―!
[Warning: Food Supply Running Low]
― Current food stock: 3 days’ worth
― Point balance: 10,500 BP
― Warning: Purchasing food may leave insufficient funds for Ondol construction.
Points. Points are the problem.
Elian’s brow furrowed as he stared at the System Window. The points he’d earned sleeping in the Grand Duke’s arms all night were decent — but nowhere near enough to cover both the village-wide construction costs and food sourced through the System.
I can’t keep buying everything through the System. We need to be self-sufficient.
But this was the North — frozen tundra. The ground was solid as stone, and the sun was a pale, distant thing. Farming in these conditions was madness. Spring was still a good two months away.
“Ha….”
Elian sighed and kicked at the hard-frozen ground. Then, out of nowhere, an idea flickered through his mind.
Wait. Can’t farm because the ground is frozen? Then thaw the ground — and block out the cold.
Elian’s eyes lit up. Back in his civil engineering days — the thing that had stood beside the field kitchen at every construction site. The pinnacle of modern agriculture that had let him eat fresh lettuce wraps even in the dead of winter.
“A greenhouse!”
Yes. That was it. Ondol installation took time — laying pipes, plastering, curing — but a greenhouse was different. Stick in the frame, throw on the plastic sheeting, done. Less than a day. A few hours would be enough.
Elian immediately opened the shop tab.
[Search: Agricultural Vinyl]
― High-Strength Clear Vinyl (0.1mm): 50 BP per roll
― Long-Life Film (UV protection/insulation): 100 BP per roll
“That’s cheap!”
Practically nothing compared to construction materials. Elian hit the purchase button without a second thought. All he needed now was a human pipe-bending machine to handle the frame.
***
At that same moment, in the study.
“…Again?”
Calix pressed his fingers to his forehead and asked. He had just finished drawing out hundreds of pipes for the Ondol construction and had been about to rest.
“Your Grace, I’m sorry, but this one’s a slightly different shape.”
Elian shuffled forward and held out a blueprint. Instead of straight pipes, it showed a semicircular, arching form.
“You want them bent like a bow? What are you planning to do with these?”
“Grow crops.”
“Crops?”
Calix pointed out the window toward the snowfield.
“Elian. Unless the cold has driven you out of your mind, you can see that snowfield out there. Any seeds you plant right now will freeze before they ever sprout.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going to put a coat on the ground.”
“A coat?”
Elian pulled out something he’d been hiding behind his back. A massive roll, wound up like a scroll of parchment. When he unfurled it, a thin, transparent sheet cascaded open.
“What… is this?”
Calix reached out with curious eyes. It wasn’t glass. It was as clear as glass, but thin as paper and flexible as cloth. When he pressed it with a finger, it pushed back with a tough, springy resistance.
“Transparent… leather? What kind of monster hide is this? A slime?”
This world had no concept of plastic or vinyl. To Calix, this was the most bizarre new material he had ever encountered.
“Let’s call it… transparent dragon hide. You can just call it vinyl.”
“Nonsense.”
“Regardless — it blocks the wind and lets sunlight through. Inside one of these, even in winter, it’s as warm as spring.”
Elian said with full confidence. Calix looked at the thin, flimsy sheet and let out a scoff.
“You think this wisp of a membrane is going to hold back the North’s biting winds? We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t tear.”
“Care to make a bet?”
Elian grinned.
“If it works and vegetables actually grow — I’ll personally wrap every bite of meat for you and put it straight in your mouth. You have to eat it, too.”
“A wrap…? I have no idea what that is, but it doesn’t sound particularly appealing.”
Calix feigned indifference — but the image of Elian feeding him by hand didn’t sit entirely unpleasantly in his mind.
“Deal. But if you fail, I’m rolling you up in that vinyl and sending you tumbling down a hill.”
***
The construction was swift and decisive. A flat open lot at the edge of the village. Under Elian’s direction, the knights and domain residents moved in perfect coordination.
“Two-meter intervals for the pipes! Drive them in deep — they need to hold against the wind!”
“Heave!”
The Black Lion Knights put their extraordinary strength to work, punching holes into the frozen ground and driving in the pipes. Among them, Calix’s contribution was, predictably, the most dazzling.
“Your Grace! Bend — I mean, curve these, please!”
Whenever Elian handed him a pipe, Calix channeled just a thread of mana and bent it into a smooth U-shape — not a single creak of resistance, more precise than any machine.
“Next.”
Calix had become a master pipe-bender. Under his hands, rigid steel curved like taffy, and the frames took shape one by one. As dozens of arched frames rose up in a row like a tunnel, Elian brought out his secret weapon — the vinyl.
“We’re covering them now! Be careful not to tear it!”
Flutter―!
The massive transparent sheet draped over the frames. It was tied down tightly with rope to keep it from catching the wind, and the edges were buried under soil to anchor it in place. In less than half a day, three transparent tunnel structures, each fifty meters long, stood complete.
“Is that… it?”
Kyle, the knight captain, asked, looking slightly deflated. Compared to the wall construction — stacking stones, plastering mortar — this felt like child’s play.
“Yes, that’s it. Shall we go in?”
Elian opened the entrance of the greenhouse. A soft rustling sound. The moment they pushed through the vinyl flap and stepped inside —
“…!”
Calix stopped in his tracks. Kyle, Cedric, and Hans, filing in behind him, all dropped their jaws.
“It’s… warm?”
It was a miracle. Literally the difference of a single sheet of vinyl. One step outside was a knife-wind blizzard — in here, it was eerily, impossibly still. The howling wind had been reduced to a soft flapping against the exterior sheeting. The air inside was not just warm but humid.
“How can this be….”
Calix looked up at the ceiling. Through the transparent vinyl, the sun was visible. It was insulation. Solar heat came in — but the warmed air couldn’t escape. On top of that, Elian had already laid waste-heat pipes from the Ondol system beneath the soil to warm the ground from below.
“It feels like a different season from the world outside.”
Calix murmured. He pulled off his glove and pressed his hand to the earth. The ground that had been frozen solid as rock was thawed — soft and damp.
“Good enough for farming, wouldn’t you say?”
Elian asked, chest puffed with triumph.
“…I’ll grant you that. What on earth is going on inside your head.”
The words came out blunt, but Calix was genuinely awestruck. First the man had melted stone to build walls — now he had trapped spring itself in the middle of winter. This man had a gift for making the impossible possible.
“Alright then — shall we plant?”
Elian pulled a packet of seeds from his pocket and gave it a little shake.
“What are we planting? Potatoes? Wheat?”
Hans asked with an eager look. When it came to solving food shortages, staple crops were the obvious choice. But Elian shook his head.
“Potatoes take too long. We need food quickly, so we’re starting with fast-growers.”
Elian tore the packet open.
“Lettuce, spinach, and crown daisy.”
“…Greens?”
Kyle asked, visibly disappointed. To knights who lived and breathed meat, a pile of leafy vegetables was deeply unsatisfying.
“With respect — a table without meat is fine, but a table without vegetables is a fast track to illness. And besides….”
Elian grinned and glanced over at Calix.
“Samgyeopsal… do you have samgyeopsal here? Well, whatever — do you have any idea how good roasted boar tastes wrapped in fresh lettuce? Your Grace, you have something to look forward to. I’m going to make you the most incredible wrap you’ve ever had.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Calix let out a quiet smile and breathed in the damp air of the greenhouse. The smell of soil and water. The smell of life. Inside the greenhouse where white breath still misted in the cold air, the two of them began to turn the earth and press seeds into the ground.
For the first time, green hope was being planted in the frozen soil of the North.
