Chapter 79
I arrived at Haken right around the ti the Spring Festival had just begun.
I had followed along to Haken in order to safely escort Irene back to her territory, but since it had co to this, I decided to take the chance to seriously observe how festivals in other cities were conducted.
With the Haken expert(?) Irene standing firmly right by my side, all I had to do was follow her around Haken, look around, and enjoy the festival.
“Haken has quite a number of tall buildings. Are Builders able to construct things like that?”
“It’s not sothing that can be done with just Builders. The taller a building gets, the more there is to consider, right? You can’t build everything with just bricks.”
“That makes sense.”
“Builders and skilled Workers built them together. A lot of other materials are used as well.”
“By other materials, you an steel reinforcent?”
“There are other things, but steel is certainly the most important.”
“The demand for iron must be quite high then.”
“This is just a part of it. In the future, even more places will need iron.”
“Indeed……”
The first thing that caught my eye were the multi-story buildings.
In Johnson, multi-story buildings were rarely seen, but here in Haken, there were quite a number of them, and it was absolutely necessary to accommodate the large population.
The structures were complex, and even for Builders, such construction wasn’t easy, so I couldn’t help but feel impressed.
It was proof that their technology had advanced that much.
“Oh, it looks like the parade is starting over there.”
“Is that so?”
Sothing was moving boisterously along the boulevard where traffic had been blocked.
And when I saw what it was, I once again marveled at Haken’s technological prowess.
“That’s……”
“My, goodness. I didn’t expect Haken’s technology to be at this level.”
“It moves without horses?”
The parade down the boulevard featured none other than cars.
Though their form was a little different, they were unmistakably automobiles.
It was said that sothing similar had existed before the Great Cataclysm, but to actually see one with my own eyes was unbelievable.
Even Leisha and Dr. Nickel, who had tagged along to enjoy the festival, looked fairly surprised at the self-moving cars.
‘Now that’s impressive.’
Honestly, even I couldn’t help but be amazed at this part.
Real cars.
They said Haken’s technology was the best among all territories, and the speed of developnt was truly absurd.
“That’s a magic carriage, but it doesn’t actually an much.”
“What do you an, it doesn’t an much? How could that be?”
“No, really. It doesn’t. That’s just for show.”
“For show? Isn’t it a restoration of pre–Great Cataclysm magic carriages?”
“Well, it is a self-moving iron carriage, technically. But they just slapped on magic circles and forcefully powered it with Mana Crystals. It’s more of a display piece, really. That’s about it.”
Unlike us, who were genuinely surprised, Irene’s reaction was indifferent.
According to her, it was nothing more than a hunk of iron forced to move with hastily plastered magic circles, having nothing to do with real technological progress.
It seed she already knew about the existence of such things being made in Haken.
“Still, isn’t it amazing? It moves anyway, doesn’t it?”
“It just moves, that’s all. If you made it that way, every other territory could do the sa.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Do you even know how many Mana Crystals went into that thing? And every ti it moves, it probably burns through a handful of them. That’s nothing but wasting money.”
According to Irene, that car was rely a fancy-looking contraption, impossible to mass-produce.
Since it devoured Mana Crystals just to move, it was nothing but a money pit.
But my thoughts were a little different.
Even if, for now, that was all they could manage, with ti and accumulated knowledge, they might eventually be able to restore real automobiles.
That ant this was just an interdiate step, and through such a transitional stage, one day they might actually complete the real thing.
‘Teaming up with Haken was definitely the right choice.’
Wouldn’t there co a ti when even this world would travel by cars?
Of course, the roads would have to be rebuilt first.
What was certain was that Haken’s technology was far greater than I had expected.
“Let’s head over that way now. I heard there’s a lot more going on.”
“Is that so? Alright. Let’s go.”
After watching the parade, we moved toward the central plaza, where various events were being held.
The first thing I spotted was the outdoor stage where the Haken Championship was taking place.
Originally, this stage had been built for residents to use freely, and residents aspiring to beco singers would perform here.
In other words, it was basically a designated busking spot set by the territory.
As people who wanted to sing and those who wanted to listen gathered in one place, a comrcial district naturally ford, and since a wide variety of food stalls could also be found here, it beca a popular spot among the younger crowd.
“A singer, huh. Do people really exist who make a living just by singing?”
“Yes. If you want to stage plays or performances, you need people like that, don’t you?”
“That’s a bit surprising.”
“They’ll probably have performances once night falls.”
Just the very existence of things like plays or performances was a little surprising to .
It seed Haken had already passed the stage of worrying about simply surviving.
Of course, not all of Haken’s residents enjoyed such things, but the fact that at least so of them had the leisure to enjoy culture was quite a aningful indicator.
Between cars and performance culture, there was quite a bit I was realizing.
It really did seem like deciding to visit Haken directly for Irene’s sake had been the right choice.
After all, there was a big difference between just hearing about sothing and actually seeing and experiencing it firsthand.
Anyway, on the outdoor stage made for the residents, a special event was taking place today.
The top player of the TRPG , which we had enjoyed all winter long, was going to be decided.
“Wait, was it even possible to have matches in that ga?”
“Exactly. It’s kind of strange to too. This is my first ti seeing such a tournant. I think it’s a new event starting this spring.”
They were calling it the Gate Master Haken Championship, so I stuck around for a mont to see, but it wasn’t really the kind of battle we had imagined. It was more of an exhibition match.
They had invited Haken’s most famous Masters and players to showcase their gaplay to the people.
For , it was nothing but confusing.
“So, you’re telling this many people gathered just to watch other people play?”
Wondering why on earth people would co to watch that, I checked the crowd’s reactions. The players on stage were already fairly famous in Haken.
Since Haken was the birthplace of Gate Master, the ga had a huge following here, and talented players were quietly well-known, enjoying a fair amount of popularity.
Where people’s interest gathered, money naturally followed.
The developers of Gate Master were testing the waters during this festival, and if the response was good, they planned to run such events regularly.
“Think of it as a kind of roleplay—basically like a play.”
“Well, that’s true. Win or lose, it is a fresh idea.”
Since it didn’t really concern , I just watched the gaplay of Haken’s best players with a relaxed mind.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
They carefully checked every small detail that we had completely ignored when we played, and because of that, they neatly avoided the sinister traps set up by the wicked Master.
So this was how the ga was actually supposed to be played.
Not like us, who recklessly rushed forward and got flattened by traps.
Of course, my team of idiots would never be able to play with such finesse, even if their lives depended on it.
-That doesn’t look like the Gate Master I knew.
‘There really is so truth to that.’
And another thing that surprised was how kind the Master running the ga on that stage was.
Sure, the players were thorough, but weren’t the traps placed far too honestly?
These were players so famous that no gar here wouldn’t know them. Naturally, each one’s playstyle had to be well-established. And yet, the Master wasn’t exploiting those weaknesses at all.
It should have been like Leon, who rcilessly targeted Leisha’s obsession with at, throwing one cruel trap after another. But here, nothing like that appeared.
“The Master is too honest.”
“He’s an angel, an angel.”
“Well, honestly……”
“Just look at the rogue in the lead. Every ti he spots a trap, he automatically uses Shadow Concealnt. But there he is, careless. If a Flash Spell went off right now, he’d step on the trap too, and it’d be a disaster. Even if he survived by luck, the Priest’s recovery skill would be used up.”
“And right then, a monster would drop from the ceiling.”
“And if you scattered bottles of poison that looked exactly like healing potions everywhere, it would be perfect.”
“Every ti soone picked up a healing potion, they’d have to make an Intelligence check. Fail, and it’d be a total wipeout.”
“Ugh, just thinking about it raises my blood pressure.”
“That’s Leon for you.”
It seed Leisha and Irene, my fellow players, were having similar thoughts to mine.
Even with my casual watching, I noticed a few patterns they kept repeating habitually, and yet the Master wasn’t exploiting any of them. That was a bit frustrating.
Naturally, that made compare him to our own Ga Master, Leon. Compared to that wicked brat, this Master really was an angel.
It suddenly hit just what kind of ga we had been playing all this ti.
I even felt like, soday, I wanted to let Haken’s players experience the spicy flavor of that lively little Black Lion brat.
The ga wrapped up with a victory for the players.
The audience gave loud applause, delighted that the Gate had been cleared successfully—even if only in the ga.
The organizers had even prepared silver dice as prizes for the winners. Seeing them use such things as rewards, it was clear Gate Master had really sold well.
At least within Haken’s sphere of influence, copyright protections were sowhat guaranteed, so they must have earned a good amount of money.
Watching that, I thought that once my own territory stabilized, I should probably pay attention to the cultural industry as well.
“Let’s head to the training ground next.”
While various events were taking place in the plaza, a sports festival was in full swing at the training ground on the outskirts of the territory.
Haken’s most popular sport was Battle Ball, a ball-kicking ga—basically, sothing like soccer.
Since all you needed was a ball, it was a sport anyone could easily enjoy, so participation among the residents was quite high.
But when tournants were organized on the territory level, the excitent grew so intense that injuries beca rampant—another surprising fact.
With even knights and soldiers participating, the matches naturally beca excessively rough.
“‘Battle Ball’ is a traditional ga of Haken. It’s a sport enjoyed by quite a lot of people.”
“Is that so?”
So people thought the sa everywhere, huh?
No matter how I looked at it, that was basically soccer.
Of course, it felt far rougher than the soccer I knew, but soccer too had been incredibly rough when it was first created.
The rules must have been quite different as well.
“But why is nobody tackling the striker in the lead?”
“Oh, that’s because he’s the Knight Commander.”
“The Knight Commander?”
“Yes. Naturally, it’s a bit awkward to tackle the Knight Commander, isn’t it? All the players there are knights, after all.”
“I see……”
So it was like a military hierarchy, then?
It was hard to tackle the senior-most striker.
Even in that, it was strikingly similar to the soccer I knew.
“I get that sports are good for uniting the territory, but like this……”
Still, if I were to introduce soccer—no, Battle Ball—to Johnson Territory, I’d need to tweak the rules a bit.
At the very least, in a sport, the rules should be fair. If defenders couldn’t tackle the attackers, that was definitely a problem.
Otherwise, Rudick would just go crazy, running wild all over the field.
And that was sothing I absolutely couldn’t tolerate.
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