Contradiction

The palace's office. Yuria answered the ringing phone.

"Hello? Yeah, yeah... Got it. I'll wait for instructions."

Nodding, she scribbled a note, then hung up. She adjusted the Magatan metrics for clothing and shelter on the blackboard.

Clothing and shelter both increased by one.

"What happened?"

"A family had a child—eleven. Four families want to move into new homes. Lately, it's been common."

"Huh. So it's been common lately..."

She counted on her fingers. Working backward, roughly...

"Children born right after their master entered Magatan."

"Ah. A little baby boom during the high-growth phase, I suppose."

Anyway, good news.

"What now?"

"Leave it to me."

Yuria nodded, expressionless, then picked up the phone again.

"Hello? Tell the mother—once she's done, head toward Magatan."

Listening to the conversation, she was probably talking to one of the five child slaves.

If it were Yuria’s child, she wouldn’t give such orders. So it had to be one of the other five.

She watched the girl issuing instructions.

The phone was working now—there was a sense that city-building was accelerating.

Where once a single message took half a day to travel one way, now it was almost instantaneous.

That meant requests could be answered instantly, emergencies dealt with on the spot.

“Master, a major fire’s broken out in Beisk.”

“Who’s closest?”

“Svetlana and her daughter.”

“Send both. Don’t hold back—tear down anything in the way to stop it spreading.”

“Understood.”

Yuria picked up the phone and relayed the order.

Like this, I just stayed in Rebeck and gave orders from afar.

I thought, I don’t even need to be here anymore.

☆

I was walking through the untamed wilderness with Rirya and Arisa’s mother and daughter.

Not a train moving from town to town—just walking.

"Brother."

"Yeah?"

"Shouldn't you tell me soon? Where exactly are we going?"

Rirya asked.

"Can't say yet."

"Can't say yet?!"

"Yeah. Just... get away from Rebeck. From the towns we've known."

"Get away? And then what?"

Arisa tilted her head, asking.

The Eternal Slave trait: short infancy, long childhood.

From what I’ve heard, they stay as girls for about a dozen years, then suddenly grow into adults.

No physical growth during childhood—but the mind grows slow and steady.

Arisa, Rirya’s daughter, still looked like a girl, but she’d started to resemble her mother more and more.

"Yeah. We’ll build a castle."

"A palace, you mean?"

"Not quite... more like a Demon King’s fortress."

"Demons... what kind of 'king' is that?"

The way she asked back was kind of amusing.

I let out a quiet chuckle, then answered the mother-and-daughter slaves.

"‘Demon King’s fortress’—it’s just a mental image. I want something like a royal castle, but also a dungeon. I’m calling it that for convenience. Ah, in this world, '邪神城'—‘Demon God’s Castle’—might be easier to grasp."

"Why go to all that trouble?"

"My castle’s in the middle of town. If I build it there, civilians get caught in the crossfire."

A dry smile.

This had happened a few times already.

Now, the greatest enemy—the Demon God, Saint Night.

That bastard’s been targeting me nonstop, and every time, the town gets dragged into it. Damage happens.

While thinking about how to stop that, I remembered Rira.

The snake-woman queen who lives underground.

I’d built that maze to keep intruders out. Why not build one for me—just for Saint Night?

I called it the Demon King's Castle, but really it's just the king's castle—my own mental label, since there are no "residents" there.

Even more to the point, I only made it real once I could create phones and magical doors.

Even if I built my fortress far away, as long as I had a phone and a magical door, I could handle anything.

That’s what I figured.

I’ve beaten Saint Night back many times, but I still haven’t found a way to erase her completely. So I thought it’d be better if I stayed distant.

“I see. So that’s why you’re building a castle. It’s going to be a real one—can’t wait!”

“Even Arisa gets excited about a slave king’s castle.”

“A slave king’s castle?”

Arisa nods slowly.

Huh. A slave king’s castle, huh.

Sounds a bit like those old guys collecting medals, but… not bad.

“A slave king’s castle. Fine. Approved.”

“Yay, really?”

——Magic power charged: 30,000.

Arisa spinning in circles, arms raised. Kinda cute.

It’s fine, onii-chan? Deciding something so lightly like that?

"Perfect. Slave King's castle—just the name for my castle. Nice touch, coming up with that."

She runs a hand through Arisa’s hair. The young slave’s face brightens even more.

If my older brother’s fine with it, then I’m fine with it.

"Right, name’s fine. But you’re helping me build the castle."

Yes, I’ll do my best to build the castle.

"Besides building, I’ll need your help with the strategy."

"Is this a攻略?"

"Yeah. I’ll tackle the thing I built—just the two of you and me. The concept’s a demon lord’s castle, right? Ideally, it should be a dungeon even I couldn’t clear."

“That’s impossible, you know. Making something even the strongest older brother can’t beat? That’s pushing it too far.”

"It's fine, it's Papa himself making it, after all."

"But it's the older brother himself who's doing the conquering."

"Come to think of it, you're right about that."

Mother and daughter, Rirya and Arisa, tilting their heads in unison.

By the time they were done talking, even they couldn’t tell what they meant anymore—got all tangled up, like knots in a rope.

"Contradiction, huh."

We wandered further through the wasteland, searching for a place worthy of the slave lord’s castle, with the two of them—so delightfully cute—walking beside us.