The Order of Road Maintenance and the Town We Don't Need

[Tier-Group 3, First-Floor Hall, the Six-Party Meeting]

"Next, there is the plan for improving the highways, which is also necessary for taking in migrants."

Marie spread a map across the table.

"You are free to copy it down on paper, but I cannot hand over the map itself."

The five of them stared at the map as though to devour it.

"This dungeon is here. We will draw water out to roughly twenty to thirty ri all around and turn it into farmland, but Iruma is excluded. That said, sending water to Kasumigaseki should be possible."

"Kōnodai is too far."

said Shuyu-no-kami.

"It is far in distance, and Kōnodai sits atop a hill, so for the time being it will be difficult. Now, there are roads leading out from this dungeon in five directions, and we will improve these one by one into highways. First, the nearest: the road west, toward Iruma. Improving this road will let Musashi avoid having to cross the desert."

"There's no helping that it goes in order of nearness. We'll arrange for those who can't ride a horse straight through to use the highway running from Ke into Musashi."

"The second-nearest town is this one, in the opposite, eastward direction."

Marie pointed to a town east of the dungeon.

"Ah, that one. The eastern lot built that on their own, so feel free to tear it down."

"It belongs to no House of Oda either."

Both Okamoto Shuyu-no-kami and Oda Ukyō-no-suke stated that it was not their town.

"Not Sō's, then. In that case, next is the Nakayama road, toward Ke to the northwest and Sō to the southeast. This will make travel to each of your countries easy. Though that is a matter for after we have increased the knight order."

"A journey through the desert is a hard one. And considering supply along the way, having everyone ride is difficult too."

"With horse-beastfolk riding solo, it will be fine. Horse-beastfolk can serve as both mount and escort at once."

"Tsushima-no-kami-dono, surely that is a special case. Horses, now… at the Nakayama Dungeon, a horse appears now and again, but they can't be taken out of the dungeon, so it's a waste."

"The Nakayama Racecourse?"

"No, not anything called a 'racecourse,' just an ordinary pumpkin field. But of late, somehow, the crops have been growing poorly."

"In that case, you may be handling the dungeon wrongly. Shuyu-no-kami-dono, I should like to consult with you on that matter at a later date."

"Oh?"

"I believe it's something to the effect that increasing the mole crickets does it good. I shall look into it."

"There is much about handling a dungeon that we do not understand."

"Let us make the road east the fourth. We will either seize or destroy the eastern stronghold, and extend a highway toward Oda Castle. Oda Castle is, naturally, too far to be folded into the dungeon's sphere of influence, so from partway along it will have to be improved by the eastern country. And the northeast may be left for last."

"The east side of Ke, the Lower-Ke region, isn't especially prosperous, so it's fine to put it off."

Humans have no underfur, but the soft down of dogs and cats and such is "underfur," the very stuff birds pluck loose to line their nests. Here, however, it is merely a place name.

"In fact, the northern part of Katsushika has fallen into complete ruin, and the three counties of Sashima, Toyoda, and Okada have declined as well, so Yūki, at the northern tip of our Sō, has become an enclave cut off from the rest."

Okamoto Shuyu-no-kami said, pointing at the map.

"Yūki is this, then. The town a hundred ri to the northeast."

"If the northeast highway is improved too, one could travel safely from Kōnodai by way of this town. There's no hurry, but I would ask you not to forget to improve the northeast direction as well."

"Understood. That said, it's about eighty ri to the nearest town. If it's isolated, building a highway from the Yūki side will be difficult too, so it won't be a matter of right away."

"In the future, will you draw a road to Sumō as well?"

asked Nyūdō Daizen-no-suke.

"The only place I can build a highway is within the dungeon's sphere of influence. I will widen the sphere of influence along the highways as far as possible, but from there to each of your countries, I would ask that you all see to the improvements yourselves."

"So it can't be done after all. A highway can serve a military purpose too, so it would be good for Sumō's defense, but for the flow of goods, it's inconvenient. If only something could be done about Jigokudani, in the mountainous region west of Sumō."

"West of Sumō… that, I'm afraid, is simply too far to manage."

This region being desert, there are no rivers forming hazards like the Ōigawa, but in the area corresponding to Hakone, a thoroughly wretched volcanic dungeon has planted itself, and made a hazard of the place.