Raising Villains the Right Way

This was……

Alon stood stunned, then checked again.

“So, you’re saying that’s the Fourth Castle?”

“Yes!”

“And Castles One through Three are separate as well?”

“That’s correct. The place where Your Majesty will reside is the First Castle.”

At the cheerful reply, Alon shut his mouth.

He had absolutely no idea where to even begin pointing things out.

‘No matter how I look at it, this is excessive.’

Of course, he had no intention of blaming Alexion.

What Alon had ordered him to do was to construct the castle as cost-effectively as possible, and Alexion was following that command to the letter.

The problem was that Alexion’s abilities were far beyond what he had expected, perhaps……?

‘……No, in this case, is it even right to call that being capable……?’

Lost in thought, Alon snapped back to his senses belatedly and cleared his throat.

“Alexion?”

“Yes.”

“Bring me the blueprints for now.”

He could have simply said that the castle itself was far too excessive and ordered it downsized outright.

However, doing so would have been no different from turning all of Alexion’s efforts up to this point into nothing with a single sentence, so he intended to try reasonable persuasion first.

Even if it ultimately came to stopping it.

Being ordered without question and reaching the same result through rational reasons felt fundamentally different.

“Understood.”

Alexion stepped away briefly and returned with an armful of papers.

“Is that all of the blueprints?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Heeek—”

Blueprints that looked to number at least fifty pages.

Alon stared blankly, and Penia’s mouth fell open.

[…………This is a bit much.]

[Meow-]

By the time Basiliora and Blackie were wearing the same expressions as well.

“Your Majesty. The two Mage Tower Lords also request an audience. How should I proceed?”

“……The two Mage Tower Lords?”

“Yes. The Purple Mage Tower Lord and the Brown Mage Tower Lord who are helping with the castle’s construction.”

“Let them in.”

At the report, Alon nodded as if entranced.

“We offer our greetings to the sky of this nation.”

“We offer our greetings to the sky of this nation.”

Soon after, the two Mage Tower Lords entered the office and bowed their heads in greeting.

‘It feels more embarrassing than I expected.’

Alon steeled himself and replied at once.

“There’s no need to be that formal.”

“But—”

“I mean it, so don’t worry and be comfortable.”

At that, the two Mage Tower Lords exchanged glances briefly.

“Haha, then we’ll speak a bit more casually.”

“I will as well. You’re quite broad-minded.”

They immediately dispelled the heavy atmosphere from moments ago.

Alon exchanged light pleasantries with the two Mage Tower Lords once more.

“I heard you said you would review the blueprints, so I thought you might need some explanations and came by.”

“That’s true, but……?”

At the Brown Mage Tower Lord’s words, Alon nodded and looked at the blueprints.

So many that he wondered if he could read them all today.

Even so, he couldn’t just not review them.

“Let’s do that for now.”

Alon picked up the blueprints.

***

How much time had passed since Alon unfolded the blueprints?

Most of them—

No, to be honest, from about the middle onward he didn’t look at them in detail, but having gone through almost all of the blueprints, Alon’s impression was only one thing.

‘This is insane.’

Whether in a good way or a bad way, that was the impression these blueprints left on him.

And that was because they were, quite literally, astounding in every sense.

Perhaps because they had been designed by two Mage Tower Lords, there wasn’t a single place in the castle without magic circles. One could say the entire castle itself was a gigantic magic circle.

The five gates leading from the outer castle to the inner castle each used different materials and magic circles. And across the entire castle, large-area illusion magic that could be activated whenever the owner wished had been prepared.

That wasn’t all.

He had only explained the magical aspects, but even in terms of architecture, it was clear that a great deal of care had gone into it.

If this weren’t being built in Palantio.

He might have seriously wondered if they were building a Demon King’s Castle.

In other words, the castle created by the two Mage Tower Lords was ‘insane’ in an overwhelmingly literal sense.

But it was also insane in a bad way.

‘Can this even be properly operated?’

This world fundamentally ran on give and take.

That meant that if something was given, something had to come in return.

Of course, the two Mage Tower Lords were becoming trees that gave endlessly for some reason, providing design, construction, and even, from what he heard, covering the material costs.

But that wasn’t what Alon was getting at.

Magic circles didn’t activate just because they were drawn.

They naturally required mana.

Certainly, most of the magic circles in these blueprints were efficient and consumed little mana, but……

If the number of those magic circles easily exceeded one thousand, the story changed.

No matter how little mana each consumed, if the sheer quantity was unmanageable, it was effectively the same as lacking mana altogether.

At the very least, for illusion mana circles and large-scale attack mana circles that consumed mana like monsters.

Even if they were meant as preparations for emergencies, maintaining the constant operation of a thousand magic circles would require an enormous amount of mana.

In conclusion, the building under construction was a castle that would consume tremendous costs simply by existing.

…………Above all else.

Alon didn’t need such an enormous castle.

Therefore.

“Hm-hm—”

Just as Alon was organizing what he wanted to say about the blueprints and was about to speak.

“Um, no matter how you look at it, isn’t this way too much?”

Penia, who had been staring intently at the blueprints just like Alon, spoke up first.

“This is too excessive. If you operate a castle like this for even a month or two, the domain will go bankrupt outright because of the magic circles.”

“I’m thinking the same. And honestly, with the domain being this size, isn’t it a waste for the castle to be this absurdly huge?”

Evan immediately added, as if he had been waiting for the moment.

At the two of them speaking as though they already knew his thoughts, Alon smiled in satisfaction inwardly.

It felt like they were truly in sync after spending so long together.

“Hm, neither of your opinions is wrong.”

The Brown Mage Tower Lord, who had been listening quietly, nodded first.

However.

“There is a method when it comes to the magic circles.”

“……There’s a method?”

“Of course. Did you really think we’d construct a building without considering that much? Naturally, all countermeasures are prepared.”

“What is it?”

“It’s this.”

The Brown Mage Tower Lord confidently pulled out a single blueprint, as if he had been waiting.

“This is……?”

“A mana circulation circle. Just as the name implies, it draws in ambient mana and converts it into power.”

“……I do know about those, but don’t they lack efficiency?”

“The one we made this time is an improved version. And the materials used to draw the magic circles—”

Penia listened to the Brown Mage Tower Lord’s explanation as though entranced.

And a short while later.

“If you do it that way, then mana really won’t be a major issue.”

“Exactly. It’ll cost more than an ordinary castle, but it’ll still be very cheap.”

At some point, she had completely sided with the Brown Mage Tower Lord and was fervently examining the blueprints.

“Waa…… ah.”

She snapped back to her senses belatedly and cleared her throat.

This time, Evan, who was still maintaining his rationality, stepped in.

“I don’t know much about magic circles, but wouldn’t it still be better to downsize the castle a bit?”

“Shouldn’t a castle naturally have dignity?”

“I agree with that, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily wide.”

At that point, the Brown Mage Tower Lord went hmm~ and fell into thought, then looked at Alon.

“Does Your Majesty think the same?”

“Honestly, I do think it’s excessively large.”

At that, the Brown Mage Tower Lord smacked his lips as if regretful.

“If that’s what Your Majesty says, then we should reduce the scale a bit.”

“There’s nothing we can do.”

The Purple Mage Tower Lord likewise let out a small sigh.

Scratching her head, she said.

“This is troublesome. In that case, should we integrate them? The Third Castle was deliberately made for the knight order.”

“Knight order?”

Evan’s eyes widened as he reacted instantly.

“Right, and the Second Castle was supposed to be made like a Mage Tower.”

“A Mage Tower……?”

At the Brown Mage Tower Lord’s continued words, this time Penia reacted.

“Hmm? Well, yes. Since we had to protect Your Majesty anyway, we planned to make the knight order’s quarters in the massive outer castle and use it for you, the escort knight, to manage. The Second Castle was arranged that way for Your Majesty’s magical research.”

“Well, that’s a shame now.”

As the Brown Mage Tower Lord shrugged and muttered that, she suddenly exclaimed.

“Actually, the Second Castle couldn’t have been built there anyway. Come to think of it, that spot is usually where the consort’s castle is built. Even if we built it, it would have had to be elsewhere.”

“!”

Penia’s eyes widened once more as if startled, and then.

“Sir Alon?”

“What is it?”

“Actually, isn’t a big castle not that bad?”

“I think so too, Lord.”

“………”

In less than thirty seconds.

The two of them had been won over by the two Mage Tower Lords.

The pair displayed a lightning-fast shift in stance, on par with characters he used to play often long ago.

Seeing that, Alon felt a small sense of betrayal, but there was nothing he could do.

In the end, the time it took to review the original plan for Palantio Castle was.

“……Then we’ll proceed without any changes!”

“Do so……………”

A mere ten minutes.

***

The next day.

After finishing discussions about the castle, Alon immediately headed for the Divine Land.

He had business there to begin with.

Inside the quietly running carriage.

“Oh right, Master. There’s some news I heard yesterday but couldn’t pass along right away.”

“What is it? Is it urgent?”

“No. It’s not that, but it’s a bit strange.”

“……What is it?”

Evan conveyed an unusual rumor Alon hadn’t expected.

“Um, recently I told you that the divine-blood have been frequently fighting among themselves, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“But recently, it seems those divine-blood have formed some kind of organization.”

“…The divine-blood formed an organization?”

“Yes. From what I heard, it’s an organization called ‘Star Root.’”

“…Star Root?”

Somehow, it was quite a peculiar rumor.