Just the other day, I had been doing maintenance on the lights along the city walls, and recently, I’ve also started maintaining the lighting in the Noble District.

What I’m handling here isn’t the wall lights, but rather replacing the magic crystals in the streetlamps scattered all throughout the area—these lamps being a point of pride for our city.

Thanks to them, the Noble District remains bright even at night, allowing people to walk around safely.

…Not that people often go out at night, though.

Anyway, setting that aside… The Noble District is, of course, lined with the mansions of nobles, and it carries an air that makes it a little difficult for workers like me to casually walk around.

This part of the city is on par with other domain capitals and even the royal capital itself.

Even considering it’s winter, you don’t see many people walking around on foot… which only makes me stand out more.

If it were a more extensive task, knights like Monica and others would be involved, making it a bit easier to carry out the work, but this time…

It’s basically just a battery replacement.

It’s not something that requires a big fuss.

It’s certainly an important job, but mobilizing the Knight Order for something like this wouldn’t leave the best impression either. So yeah—me handling it is the right call.

And so, I’ve been darting all over the Noble District these past few days.

Every now and then, a servant steps out from one of the mansions on an errand, and when they spot me, they look startled for a moment before realizing it’s me and quickly go about their business.

I mean, even I think I must look pretty bizarre when I’m working like this…

Thanks to that, the work’s been progressing smoothly, and that’s great and all—but if I let myself get too numb to this kind of thing, I wonder if that’s really okay…

Well… at least the guards at the mansions haven’t taken their eyes off me, so I guess that’s good enough?

◇

“…Alright, this one’s done too. Next is… hmm?”

I started this task from the edge of the Noble District, near the entrance. Each day I’ve been floating and flitting around like a drifting balloon from one streetlamp to another, completing the work. Today, I’ve made it to the southwestern part of the district.

In the Noble District, of course there are nobles who live locally, but you also find mansions owned by nobles from other domains or even other countries. The further in you go from the entrance, the higher the social status and influence of the residents.

At the very back, atop a high terrace, sits the domain lord’s mansion. Along the way up are the residences of Alec and August, which also double as defense facilities.

At the base of the terrace, there are administrative buildings including the Knight Order’s headquarters.

Because of that, this area around the high terrace is excluded from my rounds.

In practice, the mansions surrounding that terrace belong to the people of the highest standing.

Given Riana Territory’s promising future, many nobles from other places have been trying to establish mansions here.

If you manage to secure prime land here, you’d be able to display considerable power and prestige in the future.

It’s incredibly popular.

…And yet, in this highly coveted area, there was one plot of land left conspicuously vacant.

At the end of the main road that runs straight from the Noble District entrance is a small plaza-like area.

If you turn right there, it leads to the high terrace with the lord’s mansion. But this empty lot is to the left, past two mansions.

Now, even in the Noble District, there are still plots of land that have been reserved but where construction hasn’t started yet.

Riana is only a few years old, after all.

Even so, in most of those places, people store building materials or at least make it clear they’ve claimed the land.

But this lot, while fenced off and neatly leveled, is just an empty field with nothing placed on it.

I hadn’t noticed it before… What’s going on here?

Why is such a prime piece of land left like this?

Usually, when I leave the house, I fly straight east. I haven’t been to this side since I first moved to the city.

I only noticed it this time because my work happened to take me through here…

“Vice-Captain Sera, is something the matter?”

Hmm… While I stood there tilting my head in front of the empty lot, a soldier guarding a nearby mansion called out to me.

“Hmm? Oh… do you know if anything’s planned for this empty lot?”

“That one… I believe the domain lord has secured it. Since this side is mainly used by people from other domains, perhaps it’s intended for someone related to the lord or his lady.”

He answered while motioning toward the southwest.

“I see—thanks.”

“Yes, sir.”

With that brief reply, he returned to his post.

I wasn’t able to get many details, but I did pick up on something from that conversation.

The first squad is responsible for guarding this area, and if he doesn’t know the details, then this land probably wasn’t secured by Liesel—it was likely claimed by Seriana.

Liesel tends to be pretty open and would share information unless it’s something extremely confidential.

Seriana, on the other hand, isn’t exactly secretive, but she prefers not to share information outside her inner circle.

Come to think of it, there’s no mansion here from the Zelkis domain.

I had assumed there was no need since I could just fly over instantly if needed, but maybe the plan is to build one here.

Gramps did say something like, “Maybe I’ll head over there once my duties in the royal capital are done.”

Maybe they’re just waiting for that.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sera ・Blessing・【Hideout】+1 【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Wind’s Garment】

Blessed Item ・【Floating Orb】+1【Shadow Sword】+1【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Dragon’s Lung】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Serpent’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】【Red Sword】【Monkey’s Arm】・8 cards

Seriana ・【Area Identification】・【】・0 cards

Elena ・【】・【Green Fang】【Amber Sword】・4 cards

Alec ・【Heavy Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・10 cards