[Illsyore’s point of view]

The family meeting came to an end once it was decided that Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya were all going to go their separate ways to solve the three big problems that could unsettle the peace on our island.

Out of all of them, the most ridiculous one was the Teslov’s King attempt to steal my wife, especially when I thought about the fact that he was her younger brother. Then again, it wasn’t so uncommon back on Earth for noble and royal families in the Medieval Period to succumb to acts of incest in order to preserve the purity of their bloodline. If one added the religious reason of the royals being God’s appointed rulers over man, then they would have an extra reason to commit such pervasive acts.

With Ayuseya’s power being that of an Over Supreme and also lacking the curses that plagued her family it wouldn’t be surprising if the King of Teslov believed that by having her as a wife he could restore the Pleyades family’s former glory.

If that was the reason, then we could do something about it without having my wife remain in that Kingdom, such as having me remove the curse.

The second most troubling problem to solve was that of Shanteya’s return or rather hunt of the Phantom Rage organization. I have known this woman my entire life, and I could see it in her eyes that she didn’t wish to let this one pass. I wouldn’t even if she did.

This quest of hers was also going to tie some loose knots from her past. She had a few things to say to that Guild Master of theirs, and from what she told me so far about them, they were better off dead than alive.

After all, Shanteya’s past was one that started with a kidnapping from the tender age of ten, which was then followed with rape and abusive treatment which bent her into becoming a merciless killer and the well-known Broken Doll of Phantom Rage.

Now, my beautiful el’doraw wife had become a woman far different from what those assassins knew. She was a loving mother and a gentle teacher. While her fury saw no limit, she was also someone who knew how to control her Over Supreme abilities very well. Compared to the Broken Doll who was sent to the Fellyore Academy on a secret mission together with many of her other comrades, the current Shanteya was a far more sublime and beautiful flower which carried merciless thorns that pierced the skin of those she marked as enemies.

Actually, it was very hard, almost impossible for me to think of her as anyone else other than my el’doraw wife. The Broken Doll never met me, only Shanteya did.

When morning came, we had breakfast as usual and then prepared to meet with our students. Since the three of them would be gone for almost a month or more, they had to talk with the other teachers and see who could temporarily take over their classes.

Unlike during the maiden year of my academy, now we also had profession teachers such as Riveron Sei and Rengar Baria who taught the Theory of Agriculture and Practical Lessons in Agriculture. The siblings Runara Kalio and Runnar Kalio taught the new students how to make basic items. They taught silversmithing and whitesmithing besides blacksmithing. They weren’t masters of the first two, but they knew enough to get the students started.

Lumia Shora, our dance and music teacher, also prepared students to participate in various plays and musicals they would organize and perform for the people living on the island.

A year ago, a traveling actor arrived on the island in the hope of establishing a theater here. Since there weren’t that many people on the island to begin with, he was a bit disappointed, but after I suggested that he should become a teacher at my academy, he began to see both talent and new possibilities for his acting dream.

A theater was a dream for the not so far away future, but nothing stopped him from teaching my students how to perform and enchant people’s hearts with their representation of a story.

The herbology classes led by Zertan made a good combination with Ferris’ alchemy classes. Just as the Tamara and Yung Mai combo had a good success in the cooking department.

Overall, we had all the classes covered, and at one point Emperor Varakium Paramanium complained that at this rate, my students will become elites among elites no matter where they went. Hearing this couldn’t have made me feel prouder and happier about it.

Speaking of which, Savannah’s importance to our academy and also influence wasn’t one to overlook. She helped us a lot with organizing the classes and preparing the materials. Over the course of the past three years, she alone did the work of at least ten teachers. That was why I was hoping she would help us with our current predicament of Ayuseya, Nanya, and Shanteya’s absence from classes for a period of time.

To my surprise, she came up with an impressive alternative.

“Why don’t you ask the older students who want to experience teaching act as teachers for the new students and for their missed classes have them take more practical courses? You can have them train through a dungeon practice course suited for their strength.” the wonder teacher said.

“Dungeon course? You mean like a race? With obstacles and such?” I asked as I was scratching my chin.

“Yes. Or, if you want, you can just suspend those classes for the following month and have them do an intense course at the end of the year.” she suggested another alternative.

“Hm...”

Both ideas sounded good.

“I’ll have my wives know about this and maybe you can then explain it to them in more detail. They know their students better than me in regard to their courses, so whatever they choose I’ll go with it.” I decided.

“I will make some time after classes. Ah! But I promised Varakium to meet him at Leona’s Cafe. What should I do?” she wondered.

Leona Braska was a former adventurer who suffered an injury to her spine and had to retire. She found herself on a trade ship towards Illsyorea by chance and decided to start anew here. Although a bunch of debt collectors tried to pressure her into selling her body for money, prostitution was illegal on my island and challenging my influence wasn’t a good idea. I solved her problems amiably by feeding the so-called collector to my pet Leviathan.

Long story short, I healed her injury and suggested to open a cafe here for tired travelers or locals who wanted a place to relax while drinking something nice.

It was also a good spot to take your lover out on a date.

“Don’t worry, go and have fun. We can talk about it tomorrow. I’ll let my wives know tonight about your suggestions. Oh, and tell Leona I said ‘hi’!” I showed her a smile.

“Of course! Thank you, Illsyore!” she made a bow at the waist and then left.

After my short conversation with Savannah, I returned to my office at the Academy and looked out the window at my city.

When compared to what it was three years ago, it was far more beautiful now. There were more people on the streets and commerce was booming. My monsters were running constant patrols, maintaining the city’s peace and order.

Almost all the land to the West and Northwest of the Illsyorea Academy was covered in houses, stores, and workshops. Thanks to the Paramanium Empire and the Aunnar Kingdom, I was able to acquire more citizens and craftsmen.

The increased population allowed me to propose the opening of an Adventurers Guild here as well. As per their request, the Guild Hall was going to be located to the Southwest of the academy. It will have a warehouse for monster materials, a training ground for new adventurers, inns and renting houses for them as well as easy access to the dungeon in which they were going to train.

Right to the North of it was Varakium Paramanium’s residence. One of the biggest mansions on the island. It was designed to house not only him but also every other important official from Paramanium. Right next to it by the seashore, I built the residence of the other ambassadors.

This design was Ayuseya’s idea. The difference in size was to show that the Paramanium Empire had my back, which proved to be an incredibly useful card to play during negotiations.

While the port expanded by two other piers, I also raised a shipyard on the northern shore. It was not yet fully operational, but it did act as a testing ground for my various experiments... explosive or not.

I finished my day by looking over my schedule for the next two months and adjusting it accordingly for the upcoming absence of my wives. I had to make extra times to look after the children as well, especially Nanya’s. Kormian was not a problem. I could just hand him a story book to read, but Natrasku was half-dungeon and half-demon. Although he was barely one year old, it wasn’t that long since he hatched from his egg. He required a lot more supervision than Bachus did. At least until his exoskeleton hardened.

The demon species was rather troublesome when it came to its young. They had the tendency to take various shapes and morph differently throughout their life until they stabilized into one final form, which from what Nanya told me, it wasn’t always humanoid.

Luckily for me, Zoreya was going to help me out with babysitting, but as I was finishing up, the idea of hiring someone for this job also crossed my mind. I only had to pay extra attention to Natrasku, but for Bachus and Anette, I could ask someone to do it for me, for example Savannah. She and Varakium could have a practice lesson with a Godlike Dungeon’s children.

Do good and you would become a good daddy, do bad and someone would accidentally wipe out your empire. It was simple and brilliant!

Of course, a little exaggerated as well. If those two wouldn’t be able to do it, I could definitely find someone else. Among all the people on my island, how improbable would it even be for me not to find even a single nanny?!

Before going to dinner, I went to the shore and called out Snuggles, my pet monster.

Well, technically he was a summoned monster like all the others, but I noticed that if I left them out for a very long time, they would tend to gain their own personalities. If they could turn into a natural born was still doubtful, or maybe there were certain conditions for this to happen.

“Snuggles!” I called out to him.

The moment he felt my presence, I could see him approaching. The water surface raised up at the horizon, forming a giant dune that moved rapidly towards the shore. The people on the island got used to seeing him, so they would only just glance out of curiosity when he came, but the first time around, half of them thought we were under attack.

When the surface broke, a Legendary Water Snake, a Leviathan showed its scaly head. It was HUGE and could most likely eat an entire ship by himself in one gulp. This giant beast that took half of my Magic Energy to summon two years ago was called Snuggles and had the role of keeping my island safe from pirate ships. From time to time, I also asked him to escort Varakium’s ship back to the Thorya Continent.

“Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!” he called out to me while wagging his tail happily.

I immediately created some barriers to prevent the Tsunami from wiping out half of Illsyorea.

“Calm down, boy! Did you eat?” I asked him.

The Leviathan nodded happily.

“That’s good! Did anyone try to get close to the island? How about last night?” I asked him.

“Kyu?” Snuggles tilted his head to the left and then nodded.

“Oh? Is that so? Enemies?” I asked.

“Kyu.” he shook his head.

“Merchants?”

“Kyu! Kyu!” he nodded.

“Hm, so they got close by changing the flag. I guess it’s not his fault, but it’s hard for him to distinguish between proper merchants and fake ones.” I said more to myself.

“Kyu?” he tilted his head to the left.

“Next time you see a merchant ship or a navy ship get too close to the island from any other direction than the port, please be kind and direct them this way. Give them a nudge away from the shore or point them in the right direction. Do you understand?” I asked him.

“Kyu! Kyu!” he nodded happily.

“Good boy!” I said and used [Telekinezy] to scratch his gigantic head.

“Kyu~!” he replied with a happy call.

After I played a little with him, I returned home and had dinner with my family. I then spent the evening playing with my children and going over with Shanteya and Nanya about what I had to do to take care of them while they were gone.

Anette made a fuss when she heard her mother was going to go away for a while, but she settled down once I promised to let her help me build a dungeon for the adventurers. It was a good opportunity for some father-daughter bonding time and also for seeing just what she was capable of doing.

My Dungeon children were not level 1, Anette was 124 and Kormian was level 10. The reason for this was because they were slowly leeching off Magic Energy from me and the entire city.

As a Dungeon, I did not need to pay rent, however, I did appreciate an influx of Magic Energy, so for every month they rented one of my building, the inhabitants would need to pay daily a certain percent of their total Magic Energy. They did this by placing their hands on the many Magic Energy Absorbing Unit installed all over the city. They were designed in such a way that by saying their name, they could easily transfer as much Magic Energy as they wanted.

This Magic Energy was mostly used for maintaining the island’s facilities as well as all the monsters around here minus the RIDICULOUSLY powerful ones like Snuggles. When they learned about this simple system, they were more than eager to use them. As for why I was using a percent of their total Magic Energy pool and not a fixed number, this was in order not to create a division among the citizens. It did not matter how much one or another poured into the MEA units, in the end, it was still a certain percent which was the same for everyone else. Thus, the concepts of poor/rich inferior/superior were barely felt in this regard.

The excess Magic Energy was used for my own projects or to feed my children. But it wasn’t like they were dependent on this system for their meals, I made sure they got plenty of food no matter what. The main purpose behind it was the maintenance of the city and to introduce a cost-effective way of nurturing Dungeons without turning them into enemies.

If my plan worked, then in the future, Illsyorea would become a heaven for all species.

 

[That night, somewhere on the Thorya Continent’s southern shore]

[A simple merchant’s point of view]

Oh my! To think I would end up in such a shameful deal!

I, a prestigious merchant renowned throughout the southern Paramanium Empire, was forced to wait in this dangerous place for a bunch of people from Thorya. If it weren’t for the generous payment I received, I would have never thought about accepting such a shady deal in my entire life! After all, what could be worse and dangerous nowadays than smuggling people on Illsyorea Island?

We all heard what happened to the pirates who roamed these waters, and I had seen the terrible sea snake that guarded the island. One wrong move and my own life could be forfeit!

Yet, I was a merchant who was unreasonably charmed by the jingle of coins in my purse.

“Ah! There you are!” I said in an exasperated tone of voice.

For two hours I had waited on this abandoned shore fighting for my life against this dreadful heat! My clothes were all soaked, and I felt the discomfort of mosquito bites all over my body.

The four hooded individuals approached me from the darkness of the night. If they did not make themselves visible on purpose, I wouldn’t have even spotted them. But could it be that they purposely remained hidden longer just to get on my nerves?

“The ship. Is your part of the deal secured?” one of them asked.

He was using a voice modifier spell and a shadow cloak to hide his identity, but judging by his height, I could tell with ease that he was a draconian. The order came from Teslov, so what else could these people have been other than some inferior reptiles?

“Yes. As I had promised, I made sure to include you four among the passenger list under Very Important Person. As soon as I receive my payment, we shall embark and set sail for Illsyorea, but if anything happens to me, my men are to set sail at once and this shady deal will be revealed to the public.” I said and showed my empty hand.

Being a greedy merchant didn’t mean I was a fool. On the contrary, I had to scheme and make sure that all of my deals went according to plan.

One of the hooded men approached me and then dropped a purse of coins in my hand.

“Hm. One moment.” I said and then took out a Spell Crystal.

On it was a simple spell called [Count], and with it, I could count the number of items in a purse or a crate without looking at them.

When I activated it, the number 250 appeared above the crystal.

“Why the extra fifty coins?” I asked squinting my eyes at the number.

“To forget you ever met us.” the hooded draconian said.

“I already did.” I replied with a smile.

These sort of transactions where the other party was so generous were the best!

“Good. Now how long will this journey last?” he asked.

“Three days at most. The Leviathan of the Dungeon Lord Illsyore made this path quite safe for any ship. Nowadays pirates don’t even dare get close to Illsyorea.” I replied.

“Three days... It’s good enough.” he nodded.

“This way gentlemen.” I said, and as I walked after them, I noticed the tail of one of them, it had dark-brown scales.