On the other side, Balan Village no longer carried its usual heavy silence.
The main road was packed with villagers, knights, merchants, and servants who had abandoned their work to watch the procession passing through the center of the village. Whispers ran from one end of the street to the other. Some spoke in disbelief, some with satisfaction, and others with the kind of anger that had been buried for too long.
At the center of it all was Baron Leonard.
Or rather, the man who had been Baron Leonard.
He sat inside a horse-drawn prison carriage, his wrists bound by iron cuffs and heavy chains. The carriage was built like a moving cage, with thick wooden bars on every side and iron plates reinforcing the corners. His once-fine clothes were wrinkled and stained, his hair disheveled, and the arrogance that used to sit naturally on his face had been twisted into rage.
Sir Liewerd Hawkins rode not far ahead of the carriage, his posture straight and his expression cold. He had officially arrested Leonard after uncovering evidence of tax embezzlement and corruption. The man had been given the trust to collect taxes when he first received the title of baron, yet instead of protecting the territory under his care, he had fattened himself with stolen coin.
Now that trust was gone.
His position was gone.
His title was gone.
The villagers knew it too.
"Tax thief!"
"You starved us for this?"
"Look at him now! Where's your noble pride, Leonard?"
A rotten tomato struck the side of the carriage and burst against the bars. Red pulp splattered across Leonard's sleeve. His face turned darker with fury.
"You filthy peasants!" Leonard roared, yanking against the chains until they rattled. "Do you know who you are throwing things at?! I am Baron Leonard! I am still—"
Another tomato struck him in the chest.
Splat!
The crowd erupted with jeers.
"You're nothing now!"
"Sir Liewerd stripped you of that title!"
"Rot in the capital's prison!"
Leonard's hands shook as he gripped the bars. His eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing came in harsh bursts. Every insult thrown at him landed deeper than the rotten vegetables and clumps of mud striking his carriage. The people he had once looked down on were now standing openly before him, mocking him without fear.
For Leonard, that humiliation was worse than the chains.
Near the roadside, several Balan knights watched the procession with mixed expressions. Some looked relieved that Leonard had finally been caught. Others still seemed uneasy, as if they feared the consequences of a noble's fall. Among them, the rumors spreading through the crowd were almost as loud as the insults.
"Did you hear about the neighboring village?"
"You mean the one that declared itself Constantia?"
"They didn't just declare it. I heard they built their own settlement properly."
"That can't be true. Weren't they just a dying fishing village?"
"They survived Amonn."
That name lowered the volume of every conversation around it.
Even the knights who had been speaking casually became quieter.
"Amonn? That Amonn?"
"The cruel one. The one people say enjoys butchering the weak."
"I heard he appeared there and summoned some kind of monster."
"Not just any monster. They say Constantia defeated a Golem King."
Several people exchanged looks filled with disbelief. A small village surviving an attack from Amonn was already enough to sound impossible. Defeating a Golem King on top of that sounded like a drunkard's story told too many times in a tavern.
Yet the rumor had spread too widely to be dismissed outright.
Sir Liewerd Hawkins heard it as well.
His gaze shifted slightly toward the villagers speaking near the roadside. He did not interrupt them, but the interest in his eyes sharpened. A small village that had separated itself from Balan, survived an attack from an entity as dangerous as Amonn, and defeated a Golem King was no ordinary settlement. Even Balan's forces might not have been able to endure such an attack without suffering disastrous losses.
"Constantia," Liewerd murmured.
Inside the prison carriage, Leonard heard the name too.
His head snapped toward the crowd.
"Constantia?" he hissed.
The more the villagers spoke, the uglier his expression became. The neighboring village—the worthless, dying place he had once dismissed—was now being praised in the streets of Balan. Worse still, Sir Liewerd himself seemed interested in it.
Leonard slammed his chained fists against the bars.
Clang!
"Lies!" he shouted. "All of it is lies! That village is nothing! Fragha is nothing!"
The crowd answered him with more jeers.
A clump of mud struck his face.
Leonard froze.
For a moment, he did not even seem to breathe. Then his entire body trembled with rage so fierce that the chains around his wrists shook.
Sir Liewerd did not look back at him. Instead, he raised one hand, and a robed mage riding behind him guided his horse closer.
"Contact Duke Gideon's mage," Liewerd said quietly.
The mage bowed his head. "At once, Sir Liewerd."
"Inform them of Leonard's arrest and the state of Balan's territory. Also report that there is someone in the neighboring settlement worth observing."
The mage nodded and pulled a small communication crystal from his robe. As faint light began to gather within it, the prison carriage continued down the main road, carrying Leonard toward judgment and leaving behind a village buzzing with rumors of Constantia.
Back in Constantia, Fragha sat alone in his room.
The sunlight passing through the window was soft, but his body had not fully recovered enough to enjoy it. Clean bandages still wrapped parts of his body, and the faint scent of herbal medicine lingered in the air. The room was quiet except for the occasional sound of people moving outside, their footsteps and voices muffled by the wooden walls.
Fragha leaned against the headboard and stared at the transparent blue screen floating before him.
[Points: 550]
The number still felt unreal.
Five hundred and fifty points.
Before the battle with Amonn and the Golem King, he had been forced to count every point carefully. Now the system balance before his eyes had suddenly opened several possibilities at once. Even so, Fragha did not let himself become careless. Points were power, but wasted power was no different from throwing gold into the sea.
His gaze moved through the System Shop slowly.
Combat skills appeared first. Some were tempting, especially after nearly dying because his own body had been too weak to act freely. There were sword techniques, body enhancement skills, elemental abilities, and several defensive options that could have helped him survive more directly.
But then his eyes stopped.
[Skill: Territory Map]
[Price: 200 Happiness Points]
[Description: Grants the user the ability to summon a highly detailed map of a territory. The map automatically tracks geographical data and hidden natural resources beneath the land.]
[Note: Areas the user has not physically visited will appear dark or blurred on the map. The map updates in real time based on physical exploration.]
Fragha stared at the skill description.
Then his eyes widened.
"Yo, what?"
For the first time since waking, his voice carried genuine surprise.
"This skill is way too useful," he muttered. "I have to buy it."
He did not hesitate for long.
Purchase Territory Map.
The system responded immediately.
> [Congratulations. You have purchased the skill Territory Map for 200 points.]
The number on the screen changed.
[Remaining Points: 350]
Fragha exhaled slowly, then activated the skill.
A new panel expanded before him, wider and more detailed than the usual system screen. Lines of light spread outward, forming the shape of Constantia and the surrounding land. Some areas were clear because he had already walked through them. Others were dark, blurred, or covered in gray fog where his physical exploration had not reached.
He leaned forward slightly despite the pull of his bandaged body.
The village center was visible. The training field, the warehouses, the newly built houses, the cliffside paths, and the coastal areas he had visited all appeared in clean detail. The map even displayed the slope of the land and small markings for water sources, stone deposits, and usable terrain.
Fragha's gaze moved north.
There, near the hill above the village, a faint shape caught his attention. It was partly hidden behind blurred markings, but the area he had passed near before was clear enough to reveal something unusual.
A cave.
Its entrance was covered by thick leaves and overgrown plants, hidden well enough that an ordinary person might walk past without noticing. The map marked the hollow space behind it as an unexplored interior.
Fragha's fingers tightened slightly against the blanket.
"A cave north of the village…"
His mind began to move quickly. A cave could be dangerous, but it could also be useful. Depending on what lay inside, it might become storage, a mining point, a shelter, or even a source of income for the village. Constantia desperately needed revenue, and if the Territory Map could help uncover hidden resources, then this skill had already paid for part of its cost.
His expression slowly changed.
The thought of resources led to the village's future, and the village's future led his mind back to the reason he had been bedridden for two weeks.
Amonn.
Fragha's hand curled into a fist on top of the blanket.
"That damn Amonn," he muttered, his voice low. "Just watch. You played with the wrong person."
The smiling white mask appeared in his memory, along with the black robe, the cruel laughter, and the way Amonn had looked down on the people of Constantia as if they were insects. Fragha's gaze hardened.
"I'll make your fate worse than Leonard's, you bastard."
A knock came at the door not long after.
Fragha looked up.
"Enter."
The door opened, and Arad stepped in first. Viktor followed behind him, with Hans entering last while carrying a small stack of documents against his chest. All three men stopped briefly when they saw Fragha sitting upright with the system screen fading before him.
"My lord," Arad said, lowering his head. "You are awake?"
Viktor's brow furrowed with concern. "How is your condition?"
Hans adjusted his grip on the documents and gave Fragha a careful look. "Lord Fragha, should we call Stella or Hana first? You may need another examination."
Fragha leaned back slightly against the pillow, the hardness in his eyes easing but not disappearing completely.
"I am fine enough to talk," he said. "Come in."