Teleporting via Grace, they arrived outside the town of Stormveil Castle.
After some simple disguises, Kaito and the others passed the soldiers' questioning normally and entered the town.
Here, it still maintained the prosperity from when he had left.
Though he hadn't been gone long, several months had passed.
This was like an incognito inspection. As the king of this kingdom, Kaito had a responsibility to investigate here.
Not just in this medieval-age magical world, but even in his real world, a world with fully developed civilizations, corruption and many other issues were still unavoidable.
But the magical world had one very good aspect, one that Kaito had to accept and eventually grew to love.
That was — Contract Magic.
Yes, Contract Magic!
Once a contract was made using this magic, the penalties for breaking it were quite severe.
For some people, this was practically selling oneself, selling one's soul.
But the binding effect it brought was undoubtedly excellent!
However, this would also cause dissatisfaction among many, leading to situations like going through the motions without putting in effort, or lacking initiative.
So Kaito made contracts with some people, but not with others.
And he promised them that once they truly served the people and achieved results, he would release them from the contract.
In short, within Stormveil City, Kaito had contracts with some nobles and subsequently recruited officials.
The terms of the contracts required them to be 'utterly incorruptible' and 'dedicated to the people'.
Naturally, Kaito also promised them high salaries, considerable authority within their positions, and so on.
There were also many other promised benefits.
In a word, if you want the horse to run, you have to let it graze.
And that grazing couldn't be on just ordinary grass.
Otherwise, why would they work so hard for you, if the result was worse than working for themselves, being a merchant, which would be more comfortable and enjoyable than working for you?
Money indeed isn't omnipotent, but having money is almost omnipotent.
Money can also grant you a noble status, make countless people respect you, admire you, follow you, even sacrifice their lives for you, etc.
As long as they abide by the law, even without lofty power, they can still live an extremely comfortable life.
"Not bad."
Disguised as ordinary nobles or merchants, Kaito randomly questioned various people along the way — men, women, young, old.
The answers he got were generally satisfactory to Kaito.
Although there were inevitably some mistakes in governance, overall it was good.
After all, many things were their first attempt; their minds couldn't fully adapt because they lacked experience, or they desperately needed to change their way of thinking.
For example, if you asked them to sacrifice their own life to save an ordinary person in the city during a crisis, that would be impossible.
In their view, their own life was more valuable than an ordinary person's.
Couldn't they do more, create more value than an ordinary person?
And this was a fact!
There was no refuting it!
So this was something Kaito found quite helpless and had to accept for now.
Changing mindsets wasn't possible in a short time; it would take a very, very long time. Even after a hundred years, many might still hold these thoughts.
And these thoughts couldn't be entirely called wrong.
If they survived, they truly could do more and better things.
After all, only they could do these things.
Even if they saved someone, if they died, things would still be a mess afterward, needing someone to solve it, etc.
Well~
Doing this well for now was good enough.
This was Kaito's first time being a 'king'. He basically copied existing models for implementation, adding a bit of his own ideas.
Some things had to be adapted to local conditions; not everything would fit.
After returning to the palace, everyone was surprised by Kaito's return, followed by cheers.
Now, the Stormveil Kingdom was allied with the immensely powerful Carian Kingdom!
Their Stormveil Kingdom was just a small country, with one large town governing a few surrounding small towns and villages.
But the Carian Kingdom was an unequivocally large country, ranked second in the world!
With a vast territory, several large towns, and countless smaller towns and villages, it far surpassed the current Stormveil Kingdom in both economy and population.
Forming an alliance with such a large country, opening trade, and having close, seamless cooperation undoubtedly brought immense benefits to the residents of Stormveil City.
They had even sent some mages from Raya Lucaria Academy to act as instructors, jointly establishing the Stormveil Magic Academy!
This would undoubtedly allow many young men and women who wanted to become mages to enter the academy and study magic.
If they had exceptional talent, they could even attend Raya Lucaria Academy for free!
That place was the holy land for all mages!
That night, Kaito changed into his royal attire, went to the castle balcony, raised the scepter high, and wore the crown.
He looked down at all his subjects and shouted.
The subjects below also cheered along with him!
Their future would become increasingly prosperous and thriving!
In fact, the Stormveil Kingdom was also preparing to gradually absorb Limgrave.
This vast territory, including the lakes, was once under the jurisdiction of Stormveil Castle.
But to be precise, it was ruled by many nobles.
They acted like local emperors in towns and villages, jointly managing Limgrave.
Well, similar to the situation in the Middle Ages.
They were all part of one country, but not truly under the king's control. These nobles merely submitted to you as a collective.
We will pay some taxes, or even no taxes.
We will handle the matters we should handle, but don't meddle in matters you shouldn't.
Some political systems would be discussed together to decide whether to implement them.
If suitable, we implement them together; if not, we reject them, the king.
Yes, that's how it was.
Limgrave was once like this, under the jurisdiction of Stormveil Kingdom.
But gradually, Limgrave weakened. During the Shattering, many nobles died or were injured, leaving only minor nobles.
Then, Grafted Godrick occupied Stormveil Castle, becoming king of this kingdom, but never actually governed Limgrave.
This led to the current situation.
Limgrave was left with ruined small towns, some ordinary villages, and many undeveloped areas.
Kaito looked into Limgrave's past and was also preparing to re-absorb this land.
The remaining nobles would be given ordinary positions to continue managing, but they would no longer be nobles, and 'nobles' as a class would no longer be allowed.
Anyway, this land originally belonged to the Stormveil Kingdom. As for the Mistwood, and the southern islands, those were not part of Stormveil Kingdom.
They were occupied and ruled by a series of smaller kingdoms and nobles.
Including the large lake, the area of the Dragon-Burnt Ruins, which was once home to several small countries, but they were gone for other reasons.
"Alright, that's all for the above."
"Get to work developing it. Besides rebuilding towns and roads, also expand the villages and reclaim more farmland."
"If you encounter monsters, dispatch knights or even mages to deal with them."
After Kaito processed a series of documents, he issued them one by one.
He spent two days here and was slightly exhausted.
This was mental fatigue, exhaustion from work, not physical.
Although this was a bit bad for Wolf Brother Blaidd, he was still on his way and wouldn't reach their rendezvous point very soon.
And even if he arrived, he would have to wait for Kaito.
With Melina and the Fire Keeper helping Kaito into the bedroom to sleep, soon after, moving sounds came from within. Many of the maids guarding outside couldn't help but blush, while secretly hoping Kaito might fancy them.
After all, they were selected from Stormveil City to be here.
Their beauty ranked among the best; some even came from noble families...
…
The next day, Kaito woke up early, full of energy and clarity.
The state apparatus of the Stormveil Kingdom was running again.
And with the various decrees Kaito had issued yesterday, many officials in relevant positions began issuing orders and working.
Some people left Stormveil City early, taking people to Limgrave.
Others recruited residents from the town to begin road construction.
Still others began persuading people to relocate to Limgrave.
In short, everyone had their tasks. Kaito also announced some related content on the city walls again.
Simply put: Make the Stormveil Kingdom great again!
Gradually return from a small country to a large country!
At least, that was the current state.
After he became Elden Lord, he would not allow any small or large countries to exist.
The entire world would have only one country, with everything else being provinces, cities, towns, etc.
But that would have to be solved slowly after he ascended the throne.
Such things couldn't be resolved quickly after becoming Elden Lord; it would take several years at the shortest, possibly decades.
That's why Kaito needed the loyalty of Raya Lucaria Academy, to have all its mages come out to work, following the knights to suppress various small kingdoms, etc.
This world was vast.
The Lands Between was merely the center of this world.
The more marginal the regions, the less developed, poorer, and more backward they were.
How to put it? Mainly, the Lands Between was a super continent surrounded by others.
To get here from other smaller continents, you basically had to take a boat.
Later, he would build airplanes, no, magical flying boats for transportation, or even kill all the monsters in the ocean first, then build highways over the sea, to connect the various continents and thus the entire world.
If they only relied on boats, over time, these places would gradually escape control, and some people would rise up to establish small or large countries again.
'Alright, time to set off.'
'Wolf Brother should be waiting there by now!'
Kaito thought this, but didn't rush to leave.
Preparations still needed to be made.
After Melina and the Fire Keeper had packed enough provisions, they slowly began their journey.
The Mistwood was far away, and Kaito hadn't been there yet, so they had to travel on foot. At best, they could ride the spectral horse Torrent, sandwiched with Melina in front and the Fire Keeper behind.
If they hurried, maybe they could get there in about 10 days?
At least, that was the result Kaito got after examining and comparing maps.
In the game, it would take minutes, even though the Elden Ring game world is large, this one was larger.
Of course, Kaito was also larger.
When they encountered no people or life on the road, Kaito would steer Torrent to move through flatter forests with fewer obstacles.
When Melina in front got too shaken up by the horse and passed out, the Fire Keeper would sit in front.
There was no help for it; Torrent was just too bumpy.
Plus, taking shortcuts meant traversing this rugged forest path.
Occasionally, there was no choice but to take dry riverbeds or waterways.
Anyway, he needed to hurry to the Mistwood.
Unfortunately, things didn't always go as planned.
They still encountered some hostile monsters along the way.
No need to dismount.
Wherever they went, he'd throw a rock spear.
One shot doesn't kill? Throw another. Repeat as needed.
He proceeded towards the Mistwood while grinding monsters for XP.
At night, they would stop, set up camp in a suitable place, and leave a Site of Grace for convenient teleportation later.
Using the sky as a blanket and the earth as a bed, they gazed at the stars.
Kaito held Melina's hand in one of his and the Fire Keeper's in the other.
Both women's faces were slightly flushed, their bodies tired and heavy with sleep.
But compared to the Fire Keeper, Kaito was more concerned about Melina.
The hand of Melina he held had burn scars on it.
Even when Kaito pressed her, she remained silent, even refusing to speak when commanded by her king.
It seemed...
He needed to resolve her mother's issue too.
First, he needed to pull Radagon out of Marika's body, then kill him.
After that, Marika wouldn't matter; he could enjoy her.
Kaito wasn't picky.
He'd sample occasionally, but wouldn't get too deeply involved.
Besides, Marika was certainly not an ordinary woman.