When the dry, cold air filled her nostrils, Figxin knew she was back in the Northern Domain.

The moment she heard the Church was partnering with the Zog Group, she decided to return to her fief immediately, skipping the remaining weeks of the exposition.

She had to get the Northern Domain to partner with the Zog Group as soon as possible. The earliest partners would carry the most weight.

’If I wait for them to grow any bigger, who knows how much value they’ll see in the Northern Domain.’

To save time, she had teleported for many segments of the journey.

She hadn’t teleported the entire way, though. She still traveled by land or sea through areas with poor magical infrastructure. Teleporting the whole way would have been too expensive.

The trip back to the Northern Domain took eleven days in total, a full week shorter than her original voyage by sea.

"ACHOO!"

Figxin sneezed.

’I’m back. It all feels so familiar again.’

It wasn’t a cold. In this godforsaken place where it could still snow in May, long-term residents all had respiratory problems to some degree.

It manifested as endless sneezing, nostrils that were perpetually alternating between clogged and clear, and a runny nose that never seemed to stop whenever the seasons changed.

The strangest part was that the ailments would vanish as soon as one traveled south, only to return the moment they set foot back here.

This incurable sickness was just like life in the Northern Domain itself—a bleak, lingering condition that never improved and stuck with you for life.

’Can I really change any of this?’

"Princess, we’ve docked," Zete Mage said, knocking on her cabin door.

The Personal Guard followed Figxin off the ship. Though they were returning home, they were nowhere near as excited as they had been upon arriving in Twin Tower City.

It wasn’t that they loved this place; they simply couldn’t leave it. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Feifei!" On the docks, a slender woman with skin so pale it looked lifeless and hair and eyebrows just as white waved at them excitedly.

"Gelda!" Figxin ran up and gave her a huge hug.

"What are you doing back so much earlier than expected?" Gelda asked.

"Because I missed you, of course!"

"Don’t joke around."

"I have a big plan, but let’s talk about it in the carriage. Oh, and this is a gift for you."

Figxin pulled a hopelessly scrambled Magic Cube from her pouch.

"It’s a Magic Cube. It’s a really fun toy."

Before leaving Twin Tower City, she had visited its famous "specialty shop"—Zog’s Toy Store. After careful consideration, she had picked this out from countless other toys as the only one Gelda might possibly be interested in.

Zog’s Toy Store had a tradition of making a luxury version of every toy, perfect for ripping off rich fools—or, to put it more delicately, for catering to the needs of its more distinguished clientele.

The one Figxin had was the top-of-the-line version: made of obsidian with crystal facings to differentiate the colors.

"This is a... a toy? I thought it was a piece of jewelry or an ornament."

In Gelda’s hand, the Magic Cube caught the sunlight, scattering a brilliant rainbow of colors. It was quite beautiful.

When it comes to gemstones, as long as it’s not *actually* glass, the more it looks like glass, the more valuable it is.

"Of course it’s a toy. You’re supposed to get all six sides back to a single color. I scrambled it for you on purpose, to see if you can solve it."

"Alright, alright." Gelda could tell at a glance that she was lying. ’For a normal person, being so easy to read when you lie is no big deal,’ she thought, ’but for a member of the Royal Family, it’s a fatal flaw.’

’But she’s far from the center of the power struggle now. Maybe she’ll be stuck in the Northern Domain for the rest of her life.’

’Maybe that’s for the best. At least in this miserable place that no one cares about, she won’t die a mysterious death.’

Figxin was, in fact, lying. She had scrambled the Magic Cube on the road and couldn’t figure out how to solve it again.

Back at Zog’s Toy Store, the record time for solving the Magic Cube had already been pushed to under a minute—and that was without using the Acceleration Technique. The record was held by a Thief who was supposedly an old acquaintance of Toto’s.

The people at the research institute had figured out the formula for solving it, which Figxin had copied down, planning to show off for Gelda when she got back.

However, the ship had been rocky, and a cup of water had tipped over and soaked the paper with the formula. She hadn’t been able to solve it since.

Figxin had considered taking it apart and putting it back together solved, but she was afraid she’d be too rough and break the crystals, so she eventually gave up on the idea.

Hand in hand, the two of them boarded the carriage and set off toward Winter City.

They weren’t sisters by blood. While old King Sutton was fond of sowing his seed far and wide, he did at least acknowledge his own children.

Figxin was the King’s illegitimate daughter, and Gelda, the abandoned daughter of a minor noble, had grown up alongside her.

The reason for her abandonment was the color of her skin and hair. The official story was that she was cursed by a Devil—an ill-omened girl who had lost all her color.

Of course, it was just albinism.

Now, she was the capable majordomo who helped Figxin govern the Northern Domain and handle its myriad affairs.

To show his concession to the tide of democracy, the King had established a law to choose his heir through fair competition.

Of course, it was hardly democratic, since the heir to the Kingdom could only be chosen from among the princes and princesses.

Nor was it fair, as the competition involved each candidate receiving a fief and having its development compared after a few years.

And Figxin’s fief was the Northern Domain—a land suffering from severe population drain, with virtually no key industries. Even the abolition of serfdom had been in name only, never truly taking root.

Development? The very word sounded like a joke here.

"So, what is this big plan of yours?" Gelda asked once they were in the carriage.

"I want to build an army."

"Don’t you already have a Personal Guard?" Gelda knew Figxin had loved playing with swords and staves since childhood; even her chosen profession, Barbarian, was hardly befitting a Princess.

And she was no low-level amateur, either. She had extensive combat experience, earning high praise even from veterans of the Old Border Army who had served for decades.

"They’re too few. It’s not enough. I want to solve the bandit problem in the Northern Domain."

"You’re joking again."

"I’m not!"

Gelda looked at Figxin. Her expression was completely serious. Gelda hadn’t seen her this fired up since she first arrived in the Northern Domain.

"The bandit problem... it’s not something that can be changed so easily," Gelda said with a sense of helplessness.

The entire society of the Northern Domain was intertwined with crime. For the youth, joining a gang or becoming a bandit was a common "career path."

The circumstances being what they were, many people had no other choice.

"But if we don’t try to change things, there will never be any hope. I’ve found someone willing to work with the Northern Domain... er, a Dragon. We just need to make this place more stable."

"A Dragon?"

"The Zog Group. They’re a massive conglomerate that shot up in Twin Tower City. They have ways for the Northern Domain to develop other industries. As long as people have safer ways to make a living, they won’t have to turn to crime."

Gelda understood. ’She’s still not ready to give up. She wants to build up the Northern Domain and prove all those people in the Royal City wrong.’

"But what about the biggest bandit gangs? It’s not like *they* don’t have a choice."

The Northern Domain existed in a bizarre state of co-governance between the nobility and the gangs.

The gangs would regularly bribe the nobles, but it wasn’t the typical kind of bribe paid by a subordinate to a superior.

It was more like, "I’m giving you this money, and you’d better take it. That way, we can all keep up appearances. Otherwise, we’ll have to... help you keep up appearances."

That was the kind of bribery it was.

"That’s why I need to build my own army. And I’ll only recruit and train people who have a blood feud with those big gangs."

"And where will the money to train a professional army come from? Our tax revenue isn’t nearly enough."

"I’ll use my savings. Then, we’ll let the war pay for itself."

"And if you fail?"

"What’s the difference between me now and a failure?"

A horse neighed. They had arrived at Winter City.