"This Can’t Be Just a Coincidence!"

Mark might have been an uneducated man, but his instincts told him something was deeply wrong.

“Well, well, you’ve already sold this much?”

“……”

As the thugs emptied the cooper coins from Mark’s helmet, he and Daisy stood frozen, their eyes hollow.

There was no room left for anger, fear, or even despair.

"What… what exactly do you want from us?"

Mark, half in resignation, finally asked the question.

It couldn’t possibly be this petty change that drove them to torment a disabled veteran like him.

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

One of the thugs smirked, as if he’d been waiting for Mark to ask.

“You’ve got some debts, don’t you?”

“I hear your house is about to be repossessed?”

“H-how do you know that…? Don’t tell me!”

The realization hit Mark like a brick. His mind raced to the creditor who had visited his house the day before.

“It must be hard to raise your daughter in your condition, isn’t it?”

“Your daughter’s a pretty little thing, well-developed for her age. And more importantly, she’s a virgin, isn’t she? Such a shame to waste her life stuck with a useless father like you.”

“We could set her up with a good job somewhere. Pay off your debts in no time, and you’d even get to keep your house.”

“Her name’s Daisy, right? What do you say, sweetheart? Come with us, and you’ll never have to do this kind of work again.”

“Delicious food, fine clothes—you’ll never know hunger again.”

"Maybe you’ll even stay full for nine months straight. Hahaha!"

Mark finally realized what the creditor and the thugs were after.

‘So that’s why it was so easy to borrow the money! That’s why they didn’t push me for payments even after three months of missed interest!’

“Never! Never, you filthy scum!”

Mark threw himself in front of his daughter, his empty sleeves flapping as he shielded her.

“Scum? Who are you calling scum, you crippled bastard!”

Thud!

The thugs didn’t hesitate. They kicked Mark to the ground and began stomping on him mercilessly.

Daisy’s carefully carved wooden crafts were shattered under the thugs’ boots.

“Ahhh! Dad! Dad!”

Daisy screamed as she watched her father being beaten.

“D-Daisy! My daughter!”

Before Mark could do anything, two of the thugs grabbed Daisy by her arms, as if preparing to drag her away.

‘Guards! Guards!’

Tears streaming down his face, Mark frantically looked around.

This was supposed to be an area where guards patrolled frequently.

But not a single guard was in sight.

“Looking for the guards?”

“Wake up, old man. That’s a pipe dream.”

The thugs sneered, reading Mark’s thoughts with ease.

“The guy who hired us bribed the guards. For the next two hours, they won’t come anywhere near here.”

“Two hours, plenty of time—”

Puuuk!

The thug’s words were cut short.

"Ghhhrrkk!"

A short sword suddenly pierced through the side of his neck, silencing him mid-sentence.

Shhhhk! Slash! Puuuk!

Chaos erupted. Another short sword and a hand axe appeared, brutally slashing through the remaining thugs.

In mere moments, five corpses lay sprawled around Mark, including the two who had been grabbing Daisy.

“What a mess you’re in, Mark.”

“……?! Sir Joseph?”

Mark looked up, bewildered, at the man who had just saved him.

Even after years apart, he immediately recognized the face of his former comrade.

“Good thing we weren’t too late,” Joseph said, helping Mark to his feet.

“Wait… Sir Joseph, your arm!”

Mark’s eyes widened as he noticed Joseph’s left arm.

Mark clearly remembered that Joseph had lost it during the Grand Duke’s final expedition when a troll’s fist had shattered it beyond repair.

Yet now, Joseph’s left arm was perfectly intact, though its skin had a bluish hue.

“Mark, are you only going to greet Sir Joseph?”

Mark turned to see others stepping out of the shadows behind Joseph.

“Den? Snow!”

They were comrades who had survived countless life-and-death struggles together during the Northern Expedition.

“Den, your leg…! Snow, your hand…!”

Mark recalled the rumors he had heard after his retirement. Joseph had supposedly been working as a one-armed mercenary. Den, who had lost his left leg below the knee, and Snow, who had frostbite so severe he lost all but one finger on his right hand, had been employed sorting mana stones in Kardia.

And yet, here they were, whole again.

“How is this possible?!”

“We received a blessing—a miraculous one,” Den said, rolling up his trouser leg to reveal a prosthetic limb embedded with mana stones. The dark skin and magical enhancements showed no signs of impairment.

“A Northern man repays his debts. Even if it costs him his life,” Snow declared, flexing his restored fingers. His hand was stark white, with mana stones embedded near his knuckles.

“Finding you wasn’t easy,” Joseph said with a wry smile.

“You were looking for me?”

“The recent rebellion threw everything into chaos. Records and administration were a mess. Your support payments probably got lost in the shuffle.”

“Ah… I see…”

“That’s why we’ve been traveling from estate to estate, tracking down cases like yours.”

Just as the situation began to settle, shouts echoed through the streets.

“What’s going on here?”

“Slaughter in broad daylight? Arrest them all! If they resist, kill them!”

The city guards were rushing toward them, led by none other than the creditor who had visited Mark’s home the day before.

“Ten of them? Quite a crowd,” Joseph muttered, unimpressed.

Den and Snow, former veterans of the Extreme Northern Expedition, clicked their tongues in disdain.

“Not only did they fail to recognize a fellow soldier, but they also harass their own people? These fools are a disgrace to the North.”

Joseph unsheathed his sword and pointed it toward the guards.

“Kill them all,” he commanded.

“?!”

Mark gasped in shock.

“W-wait! Sir Joseph! Even if you’re a knight, and even if we’re veterans of the Expedition… killing city guards will—”

“Don’t worry,” Joseph interrupted. “We’re legitimate employees of the state-affiliated Arad Company.”

With that, the battle began—ten guards against three veterans.

“Aaaaargh!”

Screams and clashing steel filled the air.

The result was a resounding victory for Joseph and his comrades.

“Here, is this the man you were dealing with?” Den asked, tossing the severed head of the creditor at Mark’s feet.

“By the way, Mark, do you still have nightmares?” Joseph asked casually, as if the violence moments ago had never happened.

Mark, still staring at the severed head, slowly looked up.

“I don’t think I’ll be having them anymore,” he said, his gaze fixed on Joseph’s restored left arm.

“Dad!” Daisy cried, running into Mark’s embrace.

“It’s alright, Daisy. It’s alright now. Everything’s fine,” Mark said, gently resting his face against her head in lieu of arms to hold her.

Time seemed to stand still as Daisy clung to her father.

Eventually, as her fear subsided, her curiosity got the better of her.

“Dad… were those people like you? Did they have injuries too?”

Her eyes were wide with wonder and fascination, drawn to the unique colors and textures of the prosthetic limbs of Joseph and the others.

***

Recently, massive new buildings had sprung up on the outskirts of High Castle, the capital of Renslet.

Though hastily constructed, these structures were anything but poorly made.

‘Incredible. They’re using reinforced concrete construction in such a barren land.’

Thanks to the North’s abundant mineral resources, they had developed a method of construction using lime powder and rebar.

According to what I’d heard, this technique had been passed down since the Golden Age, surviving even through the darkest times.

‘Well, the North was one of the few regions to escape the madness of the Dark Ages.’

While the Empire had only recently adopted such construction methods, the North had been using them for ages.

Even in their days as druidic barbarians, they had retained their knowledge of reinforced concrete and Northern Steel.

‘And with the witches adding elemental magic to the mix… No wonder the Great Wall and High Castle could be built in this frozen land.’

These sturdy, massive buildings were being constructed at a speed that would put Earth’s construction projects to shame.

‘I like these factory buildings more than anything I’ve seen on Earth.’

Even with my perspective as someone from Earth, these factories were impressive.

Currently, five such factories were being built.

The first completed building was under heavy guard, with elite knights and soldiers dispatched directly from High Castle ensuring its security.

Inside, something was being produced at a relentless pace.

Inside the Factory

The first thing visible upon entering the building was a group of dozens of adult men cutting and shaping monster byproducts with saws and other tools.

"Hey, Bill! Is the thigh bone ready?"

"All done! Take the ones over there."

"Got it!"

However, from the perspective of this world’s people, this process seemed rather strange.

Some workers focused solely on carving bones, others exclusively cut muscles, and still others specialized in tendons or skin.

Once the first stage of processing was complete, the byproducts were loaded onto carts and taken further inside.

"Careful! Careful! Put it in slowly!"

"Control the heat properly! Burn it like last time, and you’re getting docked pay!"

In this next section, workers wearing masks, thick clothing, and gloves were sweating profusely as they boiled the processed byproducts.

"How long has Pot #3 been boiling?"

"Ah! Pot #3! Quickly, take it to the witches!"

"Pot #15 is a failure! Failure! Cleanup team, come deal with it!"

Some workers dedicated themselves to soaking byproducts in cauldrons, while others spent their time stirring the concoctions nonstop.

Behind them, other staff focused solely on moving items and cleaning the workspace to ensure smooth operations.

The Core of the Factory

Deeper inside, the factory’s core housed the final stage of production.

Here, witches sat in rows, etching magical circuits into mana stones and monster byproducts.

"This isn’t artifact crafting! This is crude, soulless manufacturing!"

"To think we’re reduced to this—grinding away at materials without personal touches or even naming our creations properly!"

Even in this high-level magical circuit etching process, the factory’s assembly-line system reigned supreme, forcing repetition over creativity.

"Agh, my back is killing me from sitting all day carving lines!"

The witches, unaccustomed to factory work, groaned in frustration.

"Deal with it, girl. At least the pay is good."

"True, that’s why I’m doing this… Ugh. If only my apprentice hadn’t burned down my lab trying to cook…"

"I’m sorry, Master…"

"What’s done is done. Now take this through the back door. Tell them the security enchantments are complete."

"Yes, Master…"

Even at the core, the process was far from finished.

Once the mana engraving was complete, the byproducts were loaded back onto carts and taken to the final assembly area.

Final Assembly

"Next up is a former soldier named Mark… Oh, he’s missing both arms? How did he survive this long?"

"Both arms gone? Impressive. What’s his height, weight, and chest circumference?"

The workers examined the recipient’s physical data before meticulously assembling bones, mana stones, and muscles to match the body’s proportions.

Here too, the assembly-line process prevailed. Each worker specialized in a single task—matching bones, attaching muscles, or assembling tendons and mana stones.

To the people of this world, this method was unfamiliar, but to someone like me from Earth, it was a recognizable factory production system.

In the past, craftsmen had overseen every step of production, from start to finish.

But this factory, armed with rigorous standardization and division of labor, operated differently. Large numbers of workers focused solely on their assigned tasks, mimicking a primitive conveyor belt system with carts, resulting in phenomenal production speed.

Near the building’s back entrance, people missing arms or legs waited anxiously, their faces filled with hope.

"Next! Mark, come on in!"

"Yes!"

"Dad!"

"Alright, Daisy. I’ll be back soon!"

"Okay!"

Mark gave his daughter a reassuring smile and stepped into the building.