#1269 What They’re Doing Now 

Now then, since we’ve come this far, let me talk more about the Farm Kingdom we’ve built. 

This is the crystallization of ten years of effort, after all. Indulge me a little while longer, won’t you? Hohoho. 

The Farm Kingdom is divided into four agricultural zones—north, south, east, and west. Each of them holds hundreds of fields where all kinds of crops are cultivated.  
Research continues day and night, with the goal of reproducing modern vegetables. 

Give it another ten years, and I’m sure we’ll have sweet tomatoes with a sugar content of ten, all grown by our own hands. 

It’s not just fields either. We’ve been developing rice paddies and livestock as well. 

Cows and horses are indispensable for agriculture, after all.  
At first, the farm relied on the overwhelming manpower of the Hand of Supremacy and the orcs to brute-force everything. 

The east, west, south, and north zones...each one is practically the size of a province, a state, or a fief in any other country. The wealth that comes from them is just as vast. 

Which means that whoever governs one of these zones wields power on par with a governor or a feudal lord. 
And the man in charge of the eastern district is… 

Mar-kun-san. 

You remember Mar-kun-san, don’t you? 
I know what you’re thinking: “Is it ‘kun’ or ‘san’? Make up your mind already.” But he insisted on being called “Mar-kun” so stubbornly that the nickname stuck, and now that he holds a heavy position of responsibility, it feels wrong to keep calling him that casually. So out of respect, I call him Mar-kun-san. 

 
If even I, his superior, feel that way, then those under him must find it even harder to address him. Perhaps they’ve taken to calling him “Lord Mar-kun.” 

In any case, the man who once sweated alongside us as a humble pioneer now governs a quarter of the Farm Kingdom.  
Quite the rise in station, wouldn’t you say? 

Mar-kun-san is a man who started as a mercenary, later turned adventurer, and then became a pioneer. 

When he first came to the Farm Kingdom, he couldn’t find work as an adventurer. It was, in a sense, a kind of demotion: driven from the glamorous life of adventuring into the mud of pioneer labor.  
No doubt those who strutted around as “real” adventurers laughed at him and mocked him behind his back. 

And yet, he endured. He felled trees, pulled up stumps, plowed the soil until it was soft, sowed seeds, and raised crops... 
He built houses, laid down roads, established hospitals, schools, guard stations, and all manner of facilities... 

And before anyone realized it, he had climbed his way up to become a district governor. 

After all, he’d been there since the very beginning, when the Farm Kingdom was nothing but untamed land. He’s a founding member in every sense.  
So it’s only natural deserves an important post. But this isn’t mere cronyism or favoritism. 

Mar-kun-san suffered, struggled, and endured unspeakable hardships as a mercenary, adventurer, and pioneer. That gave him a wealth of experience.  
He understands people and knows how to lead them. 

That’s why no one objected when he was chosen as district governor. And indeed, he’s doing the job magnificently.  
Under his leadership, the eastern zone has been the most profitable for two years running. 

On the personal side, he’s thriving, too. He met a woman here, married her last year, and recently learned he’s going to be a father.  
I believe her name is… Tonia. 
All in all, he’s doing quite well for himself. 

Sometimes, adventurers come to the Farm Kingdom looking for work, and if they happen to know him from the old days, they get awkward around him when they see how far he’s risen.  
I can’t help but smirk at that from the sidelines. 

Seeing a comrade who suffered alongside you finally get his due… it fills the heart with satisfaction. 

Speaking of familiar faces, I should also tell you about one more man. 
Racha Leones. 

Who’s that, you ask? He was the very first pioneer to arrive from the demon’s side. 

He, too, contributed greatly to the founding of the Farm Kingdom.  
But since most of the big events tended to erupt on the human side, his presence ended up overshadowed. 

Still, he never vanished. 

Quietly, earnestly, he kept working, dedicating himself to the toil of pioneers.  
Yet… I always felt he didn’t seem entirely fulfilled.  
Even as he labored, there were times when his gaze drifted far away, as if fixed on some distant horizon. 

Years passed like that, until one day, a new plan arose. 
The construction of a port. 
With the advent of the railway, transportation in the Farm Kingdom had improved dramatically, but it was still incomplete. 

Where there’s land, there’s also sea.  
If you want to move things long distances efficiently, nothing beats ships. 

Luckily, part of the territory lay along the coast, so a port was planned there.  
And since we also wanted to open trade with the Mermaid Kingdom, sea transport was absolutely essential. 

Of course, that meant not just building the port but also building ships. 
And with ships also mean finding people to sail them. 

That’s when Racha Leones came alive. 

He became the commander of our fleet, personally taking the helm as he dashed out into the open sea.  
Like a fish returned to water. 

It turns out he had once been a sailor, a true adventurer of the seas, chasing after unknown horizons and unseen lands.  
But when the age of exploration waned, he was forced to abandon the sea and settle for life as a pioneer. 

So those faraway gazes of his were him looking back at the ocean that had once been his youth. 

And now that we’d given him ships and loosed him upon the sea again, nothing could stop him. 
As admiral of our fleet, he’s handled trade with the Mermaid Kingdom flawlessly. 

By the way, the ships themselves were powered vessels built from the combined genius of the farm and the dwarves. The moment he saw them, Racha’s eyes lit up as if stars had exploded inside them. 

I worried that the old explorer in him might take over, that he’d sail off into the horizon and never return. But no, he’s balanced his passions well. 

The business of shipping suits him perfectly, aligning with his nature.  
It’s proof that everyone carries a place where they can shine. 

Nowadays, people call him “the Admiral,” and he commands a vast fleet.  
His name is known to everyone connected with the sea, even the mermaids. 

Mermaid King Arowana was so impressed that he granted him the title of “Guest of Honor to the Mermaid Kingdom.” 

Rumor even has it that he discovered an uncharted continent during one of his voyages. At last, his dreams are being fulfilled. 

And then there’s another... 
Corey, the S-rank adventurer. 

He came to the Farm Kingdom as a pioneer despite holding the highest rank an adventurer can achieve. Many pitied him, thinking it was a waste. 

But Corey worked with all his heart, won the trust of the other pioneers, and proved himself a leader. 

And since the Farm Kingdom is what it is, he grew in ways impossible to achieve in any hellish dungeon. 

Once the settlement stabilized, he returned to the Adventurer’s Guild.  
An S-rank can’t remain on the frontier forever, after all. There were plenty of places waiting for his newfound strength. 

Back at the guild, he racked up achievement after achievement, his fame soaring higher and higher. 

In time, he became recognized as the strongest active adventurer. The title of “2nd-Generation Silver Wolf,” once only provisional, became his in full. 

Now, everyone calls him Silver Wolf.  
The original Silver Wolf is retired, content to serve behind the scenes as guildmaster, proud that his successor surpassed him. 

Meanwhile, the Proto Geyser Dragon Typhon still runs her dungeon within the Farm Kingdom. 

It began as an “affiliate” of Alexander’s dungeon, but these days, Typhon is managing it on her own terms. 

She's researching daily how to build dungeons that adventurers want to visit. 
What’s up with that? 
She even consults Veal and Alexander about it, so there’s some serious dedication going on.  
On the bright side, plenty of adventurers come to the Farm Kingdom just for the dungeon and end up spending a lot of money here. That helps. 

On top of that, some elves and dwarves have been dispatched, too, making solid contributions to the Farm Kingdom’s growth. 

And so, thanks to the cooperation of many people, our Farm Kingdom has flourished.  
Even now, vegetables harvested today are being loaded onto trains and ships, carried off to every corner of the world. 

I feel proud that everyone’s hard work has borne such fruit. 

That aside, it’s time I talk about something a little more personal. 

Up until now, I’ve avoided it on purpose because I wanted to save it for later when I could throw my whole heart into it. 

Yes… I mean my sons. 

But if I start talking about them all at once, there’ll be no end to it. Better to focus on one at a time. 

And first, of course, is my eldest son… 

Saint Kidan Junior.