Roughly a month had passed since Kousuke and his companions visited the three towns of Nansen, Kenerusen, and Mikusen.
During that time, facilities for teleport gates were constructed outside each of the three towns, similar to Ryusen, and teleport gates were installed in them.
This time, unlike with Ryusen, they hadn’t advertised in advance to the town’s adventurers.
They believed that adventurers who used the gates would spread the word through word-of-mouth.
Then, about a week before the three new gates opened, the Crown was established.
Initially, with no name recognition and few known benefits, there were almost no new members.
However, as soon as the functions of the Crown Card became known through word-of-mouth, adventurers gradually began to join.
Kousuke had expected that adventurers would consider revealing their abilities to be a matter of life and death, so he had included a status hiding function. He was surprised, however, to learn that it was being used in reverse, to prove (disclose) that they possessed skills. He thought to himself, “I see.” After all, the concept of skills didn’t even exist yet, so it made sense that it would be used in such a way.
However, he believed this would only be for a short while.
This was because, despite being called “Status,” it was an undeniable fact that it directly impacted an adventurer’s life or death.
Nevertheless, the Crown had no intention of forcing members to choose whether to display or hide their status.
If it became known that displaying status directly affected life or death, the number of people displaying it would naturally decrease. At the same time, knowledge about skills would also spread.
Slowly, more and more adventurers registered with the Crown, and when the number of registered members reached about thirty, an event occurred that caused their numbers to explode.
This was the connection of the teleport gates to the three towns mentioned earlier.
The fact that Crown members did not have to pay a fee for using the teleport gates spurred new memberships.
As a result, it quickly became an organization with over a hundred members.
This was quite a large organization, even considering only the Adventurer Division.
The Adventurer Division was operating mainly through Doru.
Led by Doru, they decided to divide into the actual adventurer department and departments for managing administrative work and teleport gates.
Of course, as they called themselves the Crown, the members were not exclusively adventurers.
The Commercial Division and the Crafting Division also came under their jurisdiction.
Firstly, regarding the Commercial Division, Schmidt took the lead and the number of merchant members increased.
Just as Schmidt had predicted, there were many merchants who wished to register.
What was even more surprising, or perhaps as expected of merchants, was that a whole merchant guild wished to join.
While it wasn’t a particularly large guild, they seemed likely to become the core of the Commercial Division in the future.
As for the Crafting Division, for now, one crafting guild that had been operating in Ryusen joined them.
They were one of the guilds that had originally been contracted for building construction in the tower’s village.
Given that construction in the village would likely continue, they decided it would be best to operate as the Crafting Division under the Crown.
And so, the Crown, which had rapidly grown into a large organization beyond Kousuke’s expectations, was now largely out of his hands.
“You’ve left everything to me… is that alright?” Silvia asked, looking drained, from the sofa in the management layer’s grand hall.
“Yeah.”
“…You’re probably not trying to kill me with that smile, are you?”
Kousuke smiled evasively at Silvia’s piercing gaze.
“No, it’ll be good for you to take the lead from now on, Silvia, right? I was planning to hand it over to you eventually… or rather, entrust it to you.”
Silvia glared at Kousuke for a while in response to his explanation (?), then sighed as if defeated.
“Well… I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“That’s right. It’s the weakness of love, so what can you do?”
“Colette!!”
Silvia couldn’t help but raise her voice at Colette, who interjected during their exchange.
By the way, although Kousuke had witnessed them repeating similar exchanges many times since they became companions, Silvia still didn’t seem accustomed to it.
Colette, on the other hand, seemed to have completed her training as the World Tree’s Shrine Maiden and was now free to return to the management layer more often.
Perhaps because of this, the World Tree was also growing smoothly, and currently, the 73rd Floor, where the World Tree was located, was generating the most divine power in a single day.
Incidentally, the “World Tree Sapling” had somehow become a “Young World Tree.”
“Well, I plan to keep the village gates at four for a while, so I think things will calm down soon.”
“That’s true.”
Neither Kousuke nor Silvia believed the current situation would last forever.
Above all, although there was initial confusion, the staff were now used to their work and were performing their tasks calmly.
It was probably also beneficial that they had increased the number of labor slaves both before the formation of the Crown and before the opening of the gates.
Kousuke had also spoken with Wahid, agreeing that the current members would be sufficient once the initial rush of registration procedures subsided.
Regarding Vermilia Castle on the 76th Floor, there had been almost no progress.
They didn’t understand what conditions were necessary for it to generate divine power like the World Tree.
Kousuke and Shurein were both puzzled about this.
The Vermilia Jewel was originally from Shurein’s clan, but it had been lost at some point. It had somehow become an installation in the tower, but the circumstances of how that happened were unknown.
Furthermore, Shurein mentioned that they had never heard any stories about the relationship between the jewel and divine power.
Ultimately, on the 76th Floor, the activities of the vampire clan and the Iggrid Race were still the source of divine power generation.
The vampire clan, which Shurein had summoned, now numbered around fifty.
Thanks to discussions between the inhabitants of the underground world and those of the tower, the Iggrid Race had grown to about two hundred.
As for their housing, since they were originally an underground clan, they had dug out simple dwellings in the earth.
However, they couldn’t rely solely on that, so they were rapidly constructing dwellings on the surface as well.
Naturally, some of them were already living in the completed residences.
In the future, they planned to make the handicrafts they created specialty products for the Crown’s Crafting Division.
“Come to think of it, can we also register with the Crown?”
Shurein, who had been observing their conversation, suddenly asked.
“You mean, the vampire clan?”
“Yes… no, the Iggrid Race too.”
Kousuke pondered Shurein’s proposal for a while.
The inhabitants of the 5th Floor were unaware that the vampire clan, the Iggrid Race, and the Elf clan lived on separate floors.
This was natural, as there were no gates connecting to each floor, and the administrators like Kousuke had not informed them.
“No, I’m not sure… admittedly, the combat ability of the vampire clan would be invaluable.”
They would make for exceptionally capable adventurers.
Especially as guards.
“Is there a problem?”
“In this case, it’s more of a problem from the Human side.”
“…Ah. I see.”
Sensing what Kousuke meant, Shurein fell silent.
The vampire clan was said to be the guardians of blood contracts and tended to value them highly.
Humans, on the other hand, were as one might expect.
If a teleport gate connecting the 5th Floor and the 76th Floor were to be created, it was unpredictable what they might say.
However, with Kouhi and Mitsuki having sealed the barrier, there were few who could force their way through, so perhaps there wasn’t much to worry about.
Still, he thought, they didn’t need to create something that would unnecessarily cause a disturbance.
But considering the future, Kousuke rethought that having the vampire clan as registered adventurers for the Crown was a good idea.
“I see… either way, if we’re going to be trading Iggrid Race crafts, we’ll need a gate eventually.”
“Perhaps my clan could be entrusted with guarding that gate?”
Shurein joined in with Kousuke’s musing.
“…Yes. Perhaps observing the situation by starting with that would be a good approach.”
“Hmm. Understood. In that case, I will start looking for personnel in that direction.”
“Please do. …And what about the Elves?”
Colette, who had been listening to Shurein and Kousuke’s exchange, looked uncomfortable when Kousuke turned to her.
“Well, you see, the Elves on the 73rd Floor come from a rather reclusive background, don’t they?”
“…So, does that mean they have no interest outside of that floor?”
“Frankly, yes. They seem to be developing that floor to be self-sufficient.”
“I see. Then, we don’t need to consider them for the time being?”
“That’s right. If anyone expresses a desire to leave, we’ll discuss it again.”
“Understood. Well, as long as the Elves properly nurture the World Tree, there’s no problem for now.”
“I understand.”
After all, the Elves took pride in being the guardians of the World Tree.
It was highly unlikely they would slack off in nurturing the World Tree.
Ultimately, on this occasion, the installation of a teleport gate on the 73rd Floor was postponed.
As I mentioned in the activity report, I’m wondering about the title of this chapter. I might keep it as is, but I might change it suddenly, so please understand.
2014/4/24 Correction
2014/6/11 Typo Correction
