“Isn’t the construction nearing completion, Father?”

“Yes. Once the paving is done, it’ll be finished. So, stay on high alert. If Aslan Vermont is going to cause trouble, it will definitely be today.”

Crunching his teeth, Count Ariant gazed at the construction site, which was in full swing. The groundwork had already been completed, and now they only needed to pave the road. However, there had been no signs of movement from Vermont.

They would occasionally come by to check on the construction status and then leave. Each time, the workers were on high alert, unable to sleep, filled with anxiety, not knowing when the deranged Aslan Vermont would strike.

‘No tricks at all? Was he just that foolish?’

However, as time went on, the count began to feel that everything was rather silly. Perhaps Aslan Vermont really had no thoughts at all. He might have simply and truly underestimated the value of the road construction rights and gave them up for free.

It was utterly incomprehensible from a normal person’s perspective, but if one thought about it that simply, it was somewhat understandable. Yes. It was a mistake to try to understand a mindless fool. That was the moment Count Ariant let out a small sigh of relief.

Rumble!

“What!? Is that an earthquake?”

“It seems to be a minor tremor. We should evacuate briefly and then resume the work.”

The ground began to shake with a vibration akin to a dragon’s roar. Debris fell, and the workers hurriedly evacuated from the construction site.

“Why is this happening at the final stage?”

“It should be over soon.”

“It’s finally calming down. Come on, everyone! What are you doing? Hurry up and let’s finish this!”

With the tremors subsiding, they were about to resume pouring cement for the paving when—

Rumble!

“I’m going crazy! Another earthquake?”

But just as they were about to start again, the ground shook once more. Everyone evacuated just in time, and the tremors ceased. Yet, every time they tried to resume work, the timing was perfect for another quake to occur.

“It doesn’t seem like today is the day. Let’s start again tomorrow.”

“That would be best.”

Ironically, once all the workers withdrew, the mountains were quiet, and there was not a single tremor all day. The next day, it remained calm until the workers arrived, but as soon as they were about to start paving, rumble.

Each time they neared completion, the earthquakes disrupted their work, and the count felt he might soon go mad.

“Damn it! This isn’t a natural phenomenon! Is it the spirits’ prank?”

It was clearly the prank of some temperamental earth spirit. If the tremors were just a little falling debris level, couldn’t they just set up a fence and continue working?

The count ordered to finish the work, thinking, let’s see who wins, the spirits or us.

“Ugh! Huge stones keep falling!”

“Who gave you the authority to evacuate? Resume work!!!”

“If this goes on, we’re all going to die, my lord! Stop the work! Stop the work!”

“You bastards…!”

The mountain responded with an unprecedented earthquake.

In just ten minutes, many workers were injured, and most of the construction equipment was damaged.

The tremors only grew stronger as the workers evacuated. How much stronger could they have become if they hadn’t stopped?

The workers, already terrified, began to take unauthorized absences.

“Damn it. No! The amount I received to make this road…! If we can’t finish this, we’ll be completely ruined! Haijik!”

“Yes?”

“Find a spirit master immediately! We need a spirit master to calm that spirit!”

“Father, the initiation fee for a spirit master starts in the billions of lark.”

“What’s ten billion lark to us! If we can’t finish the work on time, we’ll have to return all the investment due to contract violations!!!”

Three days after paying the initiation fee of ten billion lark, the spirit master arrived at the construction site.

Yawning as if bored, the spirit master Lilia disembarked from the carriage, slamming her massive staff down, her brow furrowing.

“Spirit master! Please drive away the spirit that is disrupting the construction here!”

“Ugh. I hate this kind of rough terrain…”

“If you can finish it in three days, I’ll give you an additional ten billion lark!”

“Seriously? Three days? If I take on another commission during that time, I could easily make twenty billion lark, you know?”

“Then, how about twenty billion lark…?”

“Just wait a minute. Most spirits can’t resist my command. If I find it, I can finish it immediately.”

The expression of the spirit master seemed ominous. Lilia Braidel was known for having the most exceptional skills in the empire.

Rather than calling an average spirit master and wasting time by having to call a new one again after failing, it was better to call a big name from the start.

Lilia moved forward, detecting the traces of mana left in the ground, with the count and Haijik following closely behind. Suddenly, Lilia stopped as if she had found something.

Has she already located the spirit? It had yet to be an hour since Lilia arrived.

“Did you find it?”

“Shh. Be quiet. I’m measuring the mana residue again. Something feels off. Why are the readings so high?”

“What does that mean?”

“There was an error that far exceeds the normal values. A great spirit wouldn’t normally reach this level. This indicates a definite measurement error. Just a moment. Let me measure again… Huh? Why is the result the same…?”

Calculating the amount of mana residue in the soil, she tried to reverse engineer the amount of mana used. Thinking there was an error in that process, she checked again, but there were no problems. Even after repeating this two or three times, it remained the same.

There was no error.

‘Wait a minute. Does this amount of mana make sense?’

If one put their mind to it, they could even split a mountain with that amount of mana. Ah, so that’s why it was split? This huge mountain range, because of just one spirit…?

“Ah?”

Lifting her head, Lilia’s body stiffened.

Haijik and Count Ariant, equally frozen by an unknown pressure, stood paralyzed.

“What is this?”

“Ah, ahh.”

Unlike Haijik and Count Ariant, who were bewildered and confused, Lilia could see it.

Before her stood a massive brown spirit.

Its enormous size wasn’t a problem.

Unlike physical objects, spirits are not affected by gravity or atmosphere, allowing them to grow indefinitely. While many spirits were unimpressive despite their size…

‘This enormous body approached me without any sign?’

The fact that this massive being reached Lilia without her noticing was a mystery.

‘The ability to hide its presence from me, the continent’s greatest spirit master. And the power to split mountains…!’

With everything in mind, Lilia’s lips trembled.

No matter how she looked at it, this spirit was undoubtedly a great spirit.

[Unnamed spirit, kneel before me.]

Lilia’s command resonated.

The brown giant was directly exposed to that command yet did not budge an inch.

It was not an opponent that could be subdued by Lilia’s command.

Thud!

“Ugh!?”

Clearly displeased that she used a command on it, the great spirit stomped the ground in irritation.

At that, Lilia’s expression quickly turned to one of sorrow.

[Get lost.]

“Yes, yes…!”

“No! Where are you going!”

“How do I drive it away!? I’ll return the ten billion lark tomorrow, so please don’t call me again!”

“…”

Swish.

Lilia fled without looking back.

The count’s expression also turned to one of despair. Ah. What do we do about the construction now?

“Ariant is in danger.”

“Did you know beforehand, Lord Deputy?”

“Of course not. How could I have known that the great spirit of earth was sleeping in the mountain?”

Everything was unfolding as I had anticipated. Ariant had begun by cutting through the mountain and leveling the ground. However, they could not finish paving due to continuous interference from the great spirit at the final stage.

‘The great spirit of earth hates it when the mountain is contaminated.’

Cutting into the mountain and leveling the ground was acceptable. Even though the great spirit might find it a bit noisy, it would have endured it. But pouring cement over it?

That crossed the line.

Unable to endure any longer, the great spirit had eventually exploded at the last moment.

It was a very simple reason if you thought about it.

But Ariant would have no idea why the great spirit was angry, as there would be no one who could communicate with the spirit.

“So, if we leave Ariant to perish, the construction rights will naturally transfer to us. We can leave the handling of the great spirit to Yulia, the necromancer. We’ll just seize the well-progressed construction site and finish the last paving stage. Could it be that you planned this all from the beginning?”

“…”

Silvia looked at me with a horrified expression.

Half of her assessment was correct, while the other half was wrong.

Of course, if we just left things as they were, Ariant would fail to finish the construction on time and would go bankrupt.

Ariant would collapse instantly, and the count’s family would fall into poverty.

That would be troublesome.

“We can’t let Ariant perish. We’re neighbors now.”

“Ah! I knew it! No matter how rudely they acted first, you were still willing to forgive them…!”

“The more active towns near the road, the more traffic there will be. And if they go bankrupt, do you think they’ll just hand over the well-done construction site saying ‘Here you go’? Knowing their temperament, they would probably destroy the land we worked hard on just to spite us.”

“Ah. Indeed.”

Silvia’s expression, which had begun to show some emotion, quickly stiffened again.

It was as if her face said, “Of course, that’s the case.”

“Let’s go. To the Ariant territory. It’s time to renegotiate.”

“Renegotiation?”

“Let’s rescue them just before they go bankrupt. That way, we can continue to reap the benefits in the future. Hehe.”

“Wow…”

Just a tiny modification to the contract terms. Instead of refunding the initial investment without interest, we’ll deposit it indefinitely while raising the interest to 50 percent.