"The red-bordered areas are the territories of the four grand dukes, while the purple ones belong to marquises," Sylvie explained from the side.
"The yellow and blue areas represent counts and viscounts, respectively, and the green dots indicate baron territories."
She then pointed to the remaining white areas on the map. "The white regions are unclaimed lands—these can be directly chosen by territorial nobles."
Ron stroked his chin as he scanned the map.
There were indeed very few white regions left.
Of course, not none.
At least in the western region, nearly two-thirds of the land was still white—waiting for some "visionary" noble to claim this untamed frontier.
Aside from the areas developed around ducal territories, most of the west remained barren wilderness.
Although rich in mineral resources, the initial investment required was enormous—far beyond what ordinary forces could afford.
And since the empire's existing mining zones elsewhere were still sufficient, there was no urgent push to fully develop the west.
Large-scale development there was progressing steadily under the Second Prince, with noticeable results in recent years—
But compared to the vast expanse of the west, it was still just the beginning.
Naturally, Ron had no intention of jumping into that.
Even setting aside necessity, the manpower and resources required to build from scratch were overwhelming.
If he chose the west, it would mean starting from zero.
Unless necessary, he wasn't about to pick "hard mode."
Skipping past the west, Ron shifted his gaze to the other three regions.
In the south, only the area bordering the west remained unclaimed, which was basically no different from the west itself.
The east was completely carved up by ducal and marquis territories.
As for the north, while the three major passes were technically unclaimed, they were constant warzones.
Opening a shop there might be fine, but choosing it as a territory? Not a chance.
The remaining scattered white areas were either dangerous wilderness or disputed lands between nobles.
Ron wasn't about to step into someone else's conflict.
And most of them were too small—hardly fitting for a count's territory.
After scanning everything, his eyes suddenly lit up.
He pointed to a small area along the eastern edge of the Forest of Freyst.
"This area bordering the Forest of Freyst… doesn't have a territorial noble?"
Sylvie leaned closer.
Since the Forest of Freyst itself was unclaimed and also marked in white, the adjacent area was easy to overlook.
"If you hadn't pointed it out, I would've thought it was part of the forest," she admitted.
"This map is the latest territorial chart from March. Over the past half month, only a few hereditary barons have been added—no new granted territorial nobles."
"So this area should still be unclaimed."
There were two ways to become a noble:
One—officially granted by the empire.
Two—hereditary succession within a family.
Since no new territorial nobles had been granted recently, this meant—
This land was still available.
A smile spread across Ron's face as he tapped the spot.
Written in tiny text was—
"Tansen City."
"Well, this really is a gift from the heavens," Ron remarked.
Sylvie hesitated before speaking.
"Your Highness, although you already have some business in Tansen City, to be honest… the city itself no longer holds much value."
"Especially now that the western region is developing, and resources in the eastern Forest of Freyst are becoming depleted, Tansen City and its surroundings have declined significantly."
"If you choose it as your territory, it'll be easy for others to target you."
Ron shook his head with a smile.
"I think it's a pretty good place."
"The City of Chaos is jointly governed by four races. There are many things I simply can't experiment with there."
"But a place like Tansen City? I can do a lot more."
Sylvie looked at him with a strange expression.
If she knew that Ron's mind was currently filled with ideas like refrigerators, cinemas, buses, subways, elevators, and delivery systems—
She'd probably be stunned.
"This isn't finalized yet. No need to rush," Ron said calmly.
"At the court meeting, have our people resist a bit—make it look like we had no choice but to accept in the end."
"Once the title is confirmed, leave the territory selection to me."
Seeing that Ron had already decided to accept the title, Sylvie didn't argue further.
In the past few months, she had seen him make many decisions that seemed odd at first—
Yet all turned out to be correct.
"If you're certain, I'll arrange it," she said, standing up and putting away the map. "I still need to oversee the Mimic Grass recordings at the Card Research Institute."
"Wait, I'll go with you."
With the matter settled for now, Ron felt at ease and followed Sylvie toward the Royal Capital.
The overlap between the territorial title and Tansen City was something he hadn't anticipated.
Previously, he had discussed many ideas with Illya—but they were all shelved due to high costs.
Now, with Element Potatoes, although magic array materials were still expensive, the consumption of elemental stones could be drastically reduced.
With his rapidly growing wealth, Ron couldn't implement these ideas across the entire Human Empire—
That would be far beyond his means.
But if it was just a single city—or a few—
a pilot project?
That was absolutely possible.
And compared to Magic Duel, this excited him even more.
It gave him a sense of accelerating societal progress.
Of course, none of this could be rushed.
Step by step.
If everything went smoothly, Tansen City might become his next major focus.
With that in mind, Ron and Sylvie passed through the storage room's spatial passage, exited onto Queen's Street, boarded a carriage, and headed to the Royal Capital Magic Academy.
The Card Research Institute was located within the academy for convenience.
After a full day of recording, the magic from the original 54 Element Cards had already been captured.
Today's task was to record the newly added cards.
After that, they still needed to capture interactions between different spells—
a massive undertaking.