Ch.7Chapter 7. Laying the Foundation (4)

“……Huff, huff.”

Exhausted, I slumped down with my back against a building in the city.

To put it simply, I somehow managed to complete the month-long exploration mission.

‘This is killing me, seriously.’

The reason I said I would do the exploration was nothing special.

In this game, subordinates with nothing particular to do were usually sent out on exploration missions.

If lucky, they might meet new talent, and with very low probability, they might find items.

Unless you were exceptionally unlucky, [Exploration] was a command that could earn you a bit of money.

However.

No matter that this was a game world—for me who had been possessed into this place, this was reality.

What does exploration entail?

Running around everywhere like crazy.

And the only thing moving me was my two legs.

‘Phew.’

But it wasn’t like there were no results.

First, I was able to earn some money.

Nothing special—as I wandered around the village, I could see villagers asking for help.

If I helped them, I received small rewards.

Day by day, I could earn a little money through these odd jobs.

In the game, exploration just magically brought back money, so I didn’t think much of it… but now I could quickly understand that this was how things were set up to work from the inside.

In total, I collected 75 gold.

It wasn’t a large amount, but I suppose it was better than nothing.

Second.

I learned that the security in this area wasn’t very good.

With the village in turmoil, it was impossible for security to be good—but then there was something strange.

‘When Lady Luna came to get me, she came alone, and on foot…’

A situation where she could have easily encountered bandits.

That’s why my exploration activities ended up being limited to walking around the territory inside the walls.

If I went out and met bandits, a weakling like me would obviously be killed instantly.

Nevertheless, she had walked alone several times to meet me.

Although I hadn’t observed her closely for a long time—I could easily tell that she wasn’t a stupid person.

She wasn’t someone who moved without thinking.

In this game, there was definitely an event where you randomly encountered bandits when walking between cities and territories.

To prevent this, you had to spend money to hire two or three escorts.

It was an annoying system—at first because it cost money, and later because it was tedious to keep pressing buttons.

However, there were ways to avoid these “random encounters.”

First, possess the rare item [Lantern of the Dead].

If you had this lantern, bandits wouldn’t appear.

Second, have a Military Power of 90 or above.

With high Military Power, bandits wouldn’t bother you.

‘…The only thing I can think of is her Military Power stat.’

Luna’s Military Power… could it be set much higher than expected?

While Luna did have fairly high Military Power, I remember it wasn’t above 90.

But this game had those “adjustment values,” so I couldn’t judge exactly what her Military Power was in this world line based solely on the information from the game I played.

It was frustrating that there wasn’t even a status window—typical of an old-school game that doesn’t show such things.

Come to think of it, she didn’t seem tired at all despite walking up and down hills for a full day, and she even carried me, an adult man, on her back.

‘Did Lunarian Ineanne’s status adjustment reach some kind of singularity?’

Well, the prediction that “Lunarian Ineanne will unify the continent” was itself nothing short of a singularity.

If I had just a bit more concrete information, I could be certain…

‘Forget it. What’s the point of thinking about this now?’

Still, thinking about useless things made me feel a bit more energized.

A character with low Military Power is really, really inconvenient.

Do I have to keep living like this…?

It would be nice if there were ways to raise stats through training or something.

It’s not like there are no methods to raise stats—but they’re so difficult that I can’t even attempt them in my situation.

I got up and headed toward the castle for the meeting.

*

“Ah, you’ve arrived… I mean, you’re here.”

“Over here!”

Entering the castle, Luna and Tifa greeted me.

However, one person was missing.

“Where is Lord Cain?”

Luna answered my question.

“Cain has stepped out for a moment. Said he had something to attend to.”

I nodded lightly.

“Anyway, now that the strategist is here too, shall we open this?”

Tifa said, tapping something on the table.

“What is this?”

“Oh, this? One of the market merchant’s shops completely collapsed, so I was digging to help rebuild it. Then this thing popped out.”

“What? You didn’t work on… commerce?”

“How would I know about that stuff! I just went to build a house. Oh right, assign me commerce for my next mission too. I haven’t finished building yet.”

It seemed she hadn’t achieved proper results.

Still… the Intelligence 100 prophecy told her to do commerce.

If there was something hidden, it must be in that box.

“So what is that?”

“I was just about to open it. It’s really heavy, so something must be inside… but no matter how much strength I use, it won’t open. There’s a gap though.”

“The merchant who owned the shop didn’t know about it?”

Luna’s way of speaking to Tifa was refreshingly casual.

So she speaks comfortably like that to her childhood friend.

“Nope. Said he’d never seen it before. He was grateful for the help and said I could take it.”

“In that case…”

I looked around and brought a stick that could serve as a lever.

“Here. Let’s try opening it.”

“Ah! We can try with this. Thanks! You’re really smart!”

I wasn’t particularly happy to be praised for something like this…

Tifa took the stick from me, jammed it into the gap, and started to lift with force.

“Hnnng! Hnnnnnnng!”

Once, twice, and then three times.

No matter how many times she tried, the box wouldn’t budge.

“Whew, why won’t this open? There’s not even a lock or anything!”

“…Tifa, shall I try?”

Watching the scene, Luna spoke, and Tifa nodded.

“Yeah. Maybe you should do it.”

Luna took the stick and then.

“…Hnnng!!!”

With one strong push.

BANG!

“It’s open!”

The box that wouldn’t open despite Tifa’s efforts finally opened with a loud noise.

“…!”

One fact I learned from this scene:

Luna has higher Military Power than Tifa.

Even though Luna looks delicate and Tifa is muscular—in this game, stats determine everything.

If Luna and Tifa were to duel one-on-one, Luna would probably win.

And second:

Tifa’s Military Power must be in the high 80s to low 90s.

Even with adjustment values, non-ruler stats don’t fluctuate that much.

The brilliant conclusion:

Luna’s Military Power is in the mid-90s or higher.

‘Lady Luna is strong.’

“This is…!”

“…My goodness.”

Luna and Tifa, who opened the box, gasped at its contents.

Curious, I approached to check what was inside.

And.

I immediately understood why they were so surprised.

“…Gold, isn’t it?”

Inside the box were gold coins covered in dust.

Who would have expected something like this to be inside an old, rusty box?

“Wow! How much is all this! Wait a minute!”

Tifa, more excited than anyone, poured out all the gold coins from the box and quickly counted them.

Her money-counting speed was impressive.

“Hey! This adds up to 6,833 gold! That’s incredible!”

“!!!”

Luna was surprised too, but I was naturally even more shocked.

Was there an event that gave thousands of gold for completing a commerce mission?

I played this game for 10,000 hours. I must have seen every event.

So I can say with certainty.

There was no such sweet event.

And then I understood why the Intelligence 100 brain said Tifa should do commerce.

Of course you’d go if you could pick up that much money at once.

“…Tifa. Where did you get this box again?”

“Huh? I told you, right? I found it while laying the foundation to rebuild the house!”

Considering that commerce missions usually involve managing the market, not rebuilding merchants’ houses.

This box was essentially something that could only be obtained because Tifa went looking for it.

‘As expected.’

I was already convinced, but this confirmed it 100%.

My Intelligence is 100.

Only a value of 100 could explain this level of foresight.

There’s no need to doubt this anymore.

“What should we do with this? I think recruiting more soldiers would be best? What does the strategist think?”

And conveniently, Tifa asked me just the right question.

‘What should we do with the collected money?’

And the answer is—

“…Um, I have a request for everyone.”

“?”

Luna suddenly joined the conversation with a very serious face.

“I’d like to… distribute this money to the people of this village.”

“???”

Hearing this, Tifa immediately expressed disapproval.

“Hey, what are you saying! We barely have enough funds for our activities! Aren’t you going to recruit soldiers? We only have about 2,000 soldiers who can properly fight! Are we just going to watch when enemies attack and perish?”

“But… there was a typhoon recently, and the villagers are struggling. This is the place we rule… and this box came from the village land in the first place.”

“Hey! This is our territory! Land that belongs to us! Basically everything that comes from here is ours! That’s common sense!”

“I know, but…”

“Haah.”

Tifa roughly ran her fingers through her hair.

Honestly, her actions and tone were a bit rough, but if she just kept her mouth shut, she’d look quite sexy.

“Luna. I understand how you feel. I’m the one who agreed to help you establish yourself here to help people in need. But even I, who never set foot in an academy, know that building our foundation with this money now will help more people than just giving it away. You’re smart, so you must know that better.”

“…I… guess so?”

Luna hung her head, visibly deflated after hearing Tifa’s words.

Certainly, I knew well from my month of exploration that this village was in terrible shape.

Luna must have been troubled by that.

She was probably frustrated that she couldn’t do anything despite being the leader.

“Hey, Strategist. Say something to Luna too. You’re smart, so you can persuade her more elegantly than I can, right?”

Persuasion.

Actually, I was planning to persuade her too.

I knew that idealism doesn’t put food on the table.

But.

“I think it would be best to follow our lord’s wishes in this matter.”

“…Huh?”

“What did you say?”

Both Luna and Tifa were surprised by my words.

They probably didn’t expect it.

I understand. I didn’t expect it either.

But what could I do?

‘What should we do with the collected money?’

And the answer is—

[Provide relief to the poor in your territory.]

When I, with my Intelligence of 100, thought about it, distributing this money to the villagers was the best option.