Where Should We Build the Next Highway?

[Core Room]

"The highway east to Oda Castle is complete. So where shall we build the next one?"

As she said this, Marie spread out a map of the dungeon's surroundings.

West to the Iruma Magistracy at Kasumigaseki: about 70 km, two days on foot.

Southeast to the Toshima Magistracy at Hiratsuka: about 200 km, five days on foot.

East to Oda Castle: about 350 km, eight and a half days on foot.

"To the northwest there's already a highway from Kasumigaseki linking Musashi and Ke, so that's covered by an alternative. Northeast, then?"

"But there's little demand to the northeast. We might do better to build a sixth gate and a 'Yono Village' on the southwest side of the rampart, and lay a road running straight to Fuchū in Tama. That could be a fine idea too."

Yono derives from a former town-village of the otherworld, so it is read "-machi"; the others derive from district names within a municipality, so they are read "-chō."

"The trouble is, that would reduce the travelers passing through the Iruma Magistracy at Kasumigaseki."

"Then the option with the most necessity and the least harm would be southeast, from the Toshima Magistracy at Hiratsuka to Kōnodai in Katsushika, in the Land of Sō. And Kōnodai is closer than Oda Castle."

"Marie-san, Hiratsuka is a town where people live. Can the dungeon's sphere of influence even be extended there?"

"Hiratsuka itself is an existing town, so it can't be folded into the dungeon's sphere of influence, but Kōnodai lies a little off the straight line from Hiratsuka, and apart from the immediate vicinity of Hiratsuka it should be possible to fold the route into the dungeon's sphere of influence. Unless there are small post-towns we don't know about, or another dungeon out there somewhere, that is."

"And so, to run the highway to Kōnodai, would we put it through the middle of Hiratsuka?"

"That depends on talks with the Toshima magistrate, but running it through the middle of the town would mean tearing down existing houses. Either we run it alongside the town and make the stretch outside the dungeon's sphere of influence a gravel road, or we run the highway through the sphere of influence well clear of the town and connect a road from there into the town."

"Or else the highway proper is a gravel road in front of Toshima, and we keep the elevated road away from the town."

"There's also the method of clearing the town once, folding it into the dungeon's sphere of influence, then building the town again. But while that was all very well for Tanigoe, which had already declined, with Hiratsuka there's no telling how many years it would take before it could be folded into the sphere of influence."

"Not realistic, then."

"While we're at it, we'd do well to fold the highways between Fuchū and Hiratsuka, and between Fuchū and Kasumigaseki, into the sphere of influence and improve them too, as far as is possible, even if a wholesale overhaul is out of the question. For those we'd need to negotiate with Fuchū by way of Kasumigaseki."

"I rather feel we could just fold them into the dungeon's sphere of influence without asking."

"An uninhabited wasteland is one thing, but these are highways. We shouldn't do it without leave. Still, setting aside whether we actually improve the highways, if we can fold them into the sphere of influence, then we gain dungeon energy simply from anyone passing along them, so it's worth proposing on some pretext or other, road improvement, say."