Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (お気楽領主の楽しい領地防衛 ～生産系魔術で名もなき村を最強の城塞都市に～)

Whoa!

Whoa!

Incredible! You made a house in a flash!

Lord Van's production magic

is much better suited to governing a territory than elemental magic.

It's an interesting skill,

but I think offensive magic is still the best for protecting your people.

People feel much more secure living under that kind of a lord.

That's not true at all.

I'd rather live in your town than Lord Jalpa's, Lord Van.

They're both too biased toward me.

In times of war, you would indeed be correct, Lord Van.

However, what the people seek is a lord who will improve their lives.

In that sense, no one could better answer to the people's needs than you.

Sir Esparda is correct.

I can't believe you made a whole house.

Lord Van's powers far exceed those of regular production magic users.

If you bring me the lumber, I can make houses for all of you.

Arb! Law!

We're gathering lumber!

On the double!

Yes, sir!

Don't lose to those knights!

Right!

They're all super motivated.

Um... If we bring you lumber, could you make homes for us, too?

Huh?

M-My home doesn't keep out the elements anymore.

The floor in my home is giving out.

My front door has rotted away.

I'll probably wear myself out doing all that work at once.

Still...

Their homes are in seriously bad shape.

Okay. Let's start by dramatically renovating their lives in the village.

Very well. We'll make entirely new homes for everyone.

Yay!

Aw, yeah!

The home I've always dreamed of!

We'll go fetch the lumber!

If I can bring everyone joy with my production magic,

then I'll have to use it.

EASYGOING TERRITORY DEFENSE BY THE OPTIMISTIC LORD

THE WONDERFUL RENOVATION OF AN IMPOVERISHED FRONTIER

THE WONDERFUL RENOVATION OF AN IMPOVERISHED FRONTIER

Can you believe it?

All of those old rotting homes that made your lives so tough...

...have been reborn as stunning, newly built homes.

Wow!

That is truly magnificent work.

I'm shocked by Lord Van's huge mana capacity

but impressed he knew how to construct a neighborhood like this.

This is called a grid plan.

BATH | LORD'S MANOR | DEE'S HOME PLAZA

It has a four-home block as its fundamental unit,

and large streets run between the blocks in a lattice.

Uh-huh.

I made all of the villagers' homes uniform to avoid any disparity.

This should suffice for now, but once we've eventually obtained lots of stone,

I'll rebuild each home to better suit its residents.

Thank you so much!

The villagers were incredibly grateful.

In addition, I built a simple public bath next to my manor.

Can you believe it?

There's a bath.

I'm so happy.

It's a public bath!

That's wonderful.

Yippee.

I made it because I wanted to bathe, but I'm glad to see they like it.

I went with a simple design for the bath.

Then, Pluriel used her water magic to fill the tub,

and Khamsin heated it with a charcoal fire.

It's essentially a Goemon bath.

Okay, Lord Van, let's go take a bath together.

I'll join you, too.

Huh?

N-No, um...

I'm already a fully grown man.

That's true.

What a nice bath.

I can't believe he's letting people of our status enjoy this luxury.

That's just the kind of man Lord Van is.

Seems so. He's constantly surprising me.

He's an incredibly kind child, which is rare for a noble.

He so is! You're right!

I can tell you lots of things that make Lord Van wonderful!

Listing all of them will take time,

but at just two, he excelled in his studies and with a sword!

His boundless knowledge was on par with most adults,

and with the sword, he was hailed as a prodigy

for constantly beating the other boy soldiers!

This is paradise.

What's the matter?

Khamsin, you've built up some muscle.

Have I? I'm still scrawny compared to Sir Dee.

Compared to that man, everyone is.

Must be nice having muscles like yours.

Though you have been working incredibly hard at your sword training.

Yup!

I'm doing my best to become like Sir Dee so I can protect you, Lord Van.

Huh? You're gonna be like Dee?

Please spare me that.

You called?

We're also going to take a bath!

I-I think I'll be getting out now.

Now, now, don't be like that.

Let's deepen our friendship by being naked together!

Bathing together warms the heart and body!

Despite all that happened, the bath felt good.

Now I can finally sleep in a room.

So fluffy. I'm content.

Good night.

Lord Van, thanks to the knights and everyone else,

we now have a splendid trench.

Yeah. That's good.

But it would be ideal for our defenses to fill it with water and make it a moat.

Plus, we'll need water for drinking and for use in the bath.

All right. Let's secure a water source.

We quickly set about diverting water from a nearby river.

Esparda instantly dug out a trench a few dozen meters long,

while Dee, Khamsin, and the others continued it onward by hand.

I followed on behind, strengthening the bottom and sides of the trench.

What could be so fun that he laughs like that, though?

And he's already 40. What a spry fellow.

Given the distance between village and river, this is some construction project.

Well, people can't live without water.

It's hard work, but having everyone pulling toward the same goal is kinda fun.

Plus, once conditions are improved and less uncertain for everyone,

it'll be easier for merchants to visit, too.

We need to do this so I can live a laid-back life in the future.

Well, it'll probably take us a week, so we'll just keep chipping away at it.

I can see the village up ahead.

Seriously?

This is a crazy pace.

Okay, that's enough for today.

Why?

If we keep this up, we'll be at the village in a few more hours.

Oh, c'mon. Look around you. Look at Khamsin and the others.

I thought I'd found a great new way to train for once,

but I guess we shouldn't overdo it.

You're kidding, right? You still have the stamina to keep going?

Whew.

Same for this guy? Talk about scary.

THE NEXT DAY

Thanks to all of your fine contributions,

we have finally completed the canal to carry the water.

I know it was a lot of hard work over this past day and a half.

Uh-huh.

I'm truly grateful to all of you.

Okay.

Open the gate.

Whoa!

It's flowing nice and steady!

It's wonderful!

Amazing!

Wow, water! Look at the water!

Oh, hey! Water!

It's really water from the river!

Ah, it's full of water now.

Though it might flood when the rain makes it rise.

Maybe I should create a lake behind the village, too?

I think that's a great idea.

If we use that lake as a reservoir, it will prove useful during droughts.

Okay! Let's do that.

Whoa!

Can you believe it?

This village that had no waterways now has a lake for a reservoir.

Now we won't have to worry about how to get water daily.

Thanks to you, we no longer need to trek to the river to fetch water.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much!

No, not at all. You don't have to thank me.

I'm glad everyone has access to the water now.

Now life will be easier for the whole village.

Lady Arte. Are you awake?

I-I'm sorry for waking you.

Are you all right?

Your hair is so nice and silky. Maybe I'll pet it for a bit.

You're so dashing, Lady Panamera.

Dashing?

I'll have you know I pride myself on being as beautiful as a goddess.

Y-You're making my vision spin.

That's your punishment for calling an unwed lady "dashing."

B-But...

Anyway, it's still a long way to this remote village.

Get some good rest.

Now our rampart is mostly complete.

Can you believe it?

What used to be a wall of dirt has been strengthened further.

I tried mixing stone into the earth wall to make it strong like concrete.

With a rampart this sturdy, you can rest easy even when bandits strike.

Still, I think I need to make us even safer.