Chapter 22 -
«Master, I would like to give you the report about today's plan progress.»
"Thank you, Baretta. I'll check it now."
In a room in the mansion, I was reading the data that Baretta has provided while checking the condition of the «Empty Wilderness» through a monitoring magic tool.
"Mana generation is on the right track, and so is the creation of suitable habitats for mythical beasts."
«Yes. The river near the southern Gard Beastkin Nation has been expanded, we built some artificial springs there and are now in the middle of planting the seeds and saplings after artificially forming some slopes there with magic.»
"What's the status of the land planned for settlement?"
«They have begun to process the soil under the supervision of Teto-sama...... that being said, the soil has already been fine-tuned through the body and mana of Teto-sama so we can plant this season's crops at any time."
To proceed with the migration plan, we spent our starting year researching and understanding the mythical beasts and the other two races in the settlement.
We learned various things and made an investigation to see if bringing any vegetation from the floating island to the «Empty WIlderness» would pose any problem.
However, it would have taken time to bring the vegetation from there and cultivate them in the «Empty Wilderness», so we just searched for similar seeds and plants in the surrounding regions and made do with them instead.
In our second year, we proceeded to make changes to the entire ground surface of the «Empty Wilderness» under the suggestion of Baretta while continuing the cultural exchange with the floating island.
The ground surface of the «Empty Wilderness» was originally perfectly leveled due to the disaster of the ancient magic civilization. The recovery of the earth vein and its mana flow was also going favorably, so using the control magic tool, we brought forward the transformation underground by inducing earthquakes.
Of course, Teto and I could have done that too with our magic, but just pouring some of my mana in the magic stone that was the core of the control magic tool was enough to cause earthquakes at a far larger scale with minimal price, so we went along with that instead.
After inducing terrain transformation once every month for a whole year, the ground was vastly transformed. In place of originally flat ground, there were now hills directly receiving the sunlight, depressed shady places, rock forests --- rocks and boulders that had come up to the surface from underground due to the earthquakes --- and wet marshlands that came about when some water bodies transformed part of the land.
There were also some other new ruins and magic tools of the ancient magic civilization that were excavated which I didn't find on my previous sweep of the wilderness, but I was so busy fine-tuning the land that I couldn't get the chance to check them out.
Then in our third year since we started project migration, we started bringing in Sheal, Yahada, and the other representatives to the «Empty Wilderness» so that they could get to know where they were migrating to and showed them the habitants of the mythical beasts and the planned land for settlement.
The forest had expanded to some extent near our old home where we used to live with Selene, and there, I was surprised to see that a new spring and stream had formed due to the groundwater that gushed from the ground.
After the tour, I connected the floating island to the land allocated for settlement with some «Transfer Gates» so that they could come and go anytime.
"Feel free to ask for our help if you ever need some!"
"But, is it okay? What about your free time?"
"This is also for the sake of new heights."
The floating island residents did farming on their limited land, but due to their superior bodies' ability, it hardly took much of their time. Thus they were left with a lot of free time on their hands.
That was why they invested their free time so far into their hobbies like singing, tool making, or martial arts contests.
Hence, some put that time to use helping out the maids, like planting seeds and saplings in the «Empty Wilderness», while taking back the fruits, nuts, or lumber from fallen trees which were precious commodities in the floating island.
These things were used as fodder to raise the insects or other creatures in the ecosystem of the «Empty Wilderness», and the quantity we had was more than enough so I offered the extras items for them to bring back.
When we reached the fourth year, we began to accept small-sized mythical creatures, starting with Kuro's friends, the Cat Siths.
The mythical beasts were surprised at the sight of the vast land when they first passed through the «Transfer Gate», and they carefully began to take their steps into the edge-less land.
The Cu Siths dug holes in the ground, or under fallen trees and made their nests there.
The Ratatosks settled near the world trees and arduously began to gather nuts.
Kuro's friends, the Cat Siths, and the Carbuncles preyed on the rats that we had released in the forest to breed, or the birds that came flying in to feed on the insects.
Apparently, they had been suppressing their abilities as beasts all this time so that it didn't strain the floating island under the orders of the Dragon Grandpa, but now they could live here without worrying about such things.
And then on the fifth year, which was now---
Migrated small-size mythical beasts had apparently conceived children as they were now diligently working to raise them.
Dragon Grandpa was delighted to hear the news, though he also showed his remorse that they couldn't raise them on the floating island.
Aside from them, the members of the two races were preparing farms and houses in the planned settlement land ahead of their migration while doing various exchanges like bartering for the crops that the maid group from the «Empty Wilderness» raised with the fish they caught from the floating island.
That being said, not everything was progressing in our favor.
The mana output in the «Empty Wilderness» was currently progressing at a snail's pace due to the amount of mana being absorbed by the small-size mythical beasts, which was making me restless recently.
"It would be impossible to migrate them all at once, but bring in mid-size and large-size mythical beasts here one at a time once the mana density stabilizes."
«Understood. Then I would like Master to make a suitable size «Transfer Gate» for them.»
"Yeah, I know...... or rather, the topic circled back to spending mana again, huh?"
I exhaled a deep sigh and calculated the amount of mana I would need to make it.
The creation of the «Transfer Gate» involved the creation of a pair of corresponding magical tools, one by one.
Right now, my mana capacity has topped at around 500,000 units after continuing to eat «Mysterious Nuts» in these five years.
Furthermore, I gleaned from my prior failure when I tried to create a big transfer gate that I would need 5 million mana for a medium-sized transfer gate, and 15 million mana for a large-sized one.
"Sigh...... let's take it slow and steady. I have to use mana in other places for inspection so it's impossible to spend all my mana in the creation of a transfer gate."
«Besides, 'that plan' also needs a large amount of mana.»
Things might be alright now, but there was never an end to the trouble, huh? Just then, Teto and Yuishia entered the room where Baretta and I were.
"Majou-sama~, we received a lot of delicious fish and salt."
"Welcome back, Teto, Yuishia. How was your trip to the floating island?"
"Everyone was delighted with the food we brought."
Teto and Yuishia went to barter foodstuff today.
The things we offered from our side were the vegetables that the maid group had raised, and the items made from processing them.
Sweet items like sugar or jam that were made from fruits were very popular on the floating island since they weren’t something they could get.
Also, the empty glass bottles that were left behind seemed to be used as containers or vases there since it was something too complex for them to make.
Well, this exchange was dubbed bartering, but it was more like passing them samples of the items they were later going to produce by themselves.
There was just that much that the residents of the floating island could use for bartering so they even brought out the tools made of mythical beast fangs or claws, but I had to decline using them as bartering objects due to their value.
I mean they'd be gobbled up cleanly by the outside world without even any of their bones left behind if they barter things with such a broken sense of value.
That was why I was currently hosting regular bartering sessions between both sides so that they could slowly get accustomed to assessing an item's true value when the time comes for them to get in contact with the outside world.
"Majou-sama, Majou-sama, the dragon people said they want liquor."
"Alcohol, huh......? Well, festival season is soon upon us."
"Apparently, the harvest this season was poor so they didn't have any grains left for alcohol."
The floating island also has yearly celebratory festivals.
Hmm, well I do have some aged alcohol that I either made with «Creation Magic» or bought from outside occasionally......
"I guess discussing it with Dragon Grandpa first would be better. And I think he'll also enjoy alcohol...... Prepare three barrels of alcohol."
«In that case, let's prepare some popular alcoholic beverages. Then they can choose what to make after migrating.»
In this way, though it was a roundabout way, we proceeded with the relocation plan as they gradually got used to the «Empty Wilderness».
Rushing the relocation plan may potentially lead to some form of distortion or imbalance.
That was why we were taking our steps cautiously, discreetly, and slowly while carefully ensuring integration with their current way of life.
Well, as the saying goes, even the most well-conceived plans can be thwarted. We couldn't prevent the residents of the floating island from dividing into a migration faction and a conservative faction.
