Prologue

It was the middle of winter, but Dolkness County was full of activity.

"I guess all that stuff about this place being terrifying was lies," remarked Dan, a carpenter new to the area. "It looks to be doing better than the Royal Capital."

Dan had traveled from the Royal Capital to find work, and he didn't think that Dolkness Village seemed prosperous in the slightest by comparison. He knew of port towns much livelier than this one, and he'd even been to cities up in the mountains that were more developed. Despite all of that, and although he would usually feel nothing approaching affection for a town like this, Dan still felt that the place was doing well. This observation was probably due to his job.

Dolkness Village was right in the middle of a construction boom. The carts that traveled through the town were full of construction materials like lumber, stone, and brick, and the streets echoed with the sound of nails being hammered jauntily into walls. It was a simple matter to find work in a place like this. Dan felt that he'd made the right choice in coming here, and so he strolled through town happily.

"It does seem like I'm a little late to the party," he admitted to himself, "but it's probably better that I came now instead of welcoming the New Year in the Royal Capital."

As he walked the streets, Dan saw several familiar faces. Not only did he see other carpenters, but he even passed by some merchants that he knew. Since there were so many itinerant workers gathered here, their presence drew merchants to sell them food and alcohol. Naturally, all of these workers and merchants alike spent money in the local shops. All of this together was the cause of Dan's earlier observation: Dolkness County, the land rumored to be where the Demon Lord lived, was full of activity.

There was one off-kilter thing that Dan was a bit curious about, however: the fact that there were several strange concave spots in the ground scattered throughout the town. After walking for a short time, he'd already seen several of these depressions. They were round holes that looked like they had been made by something like a large boulder falling from the sky, but in the end, Dan felt as if they didn't warrant any special concern.

Dan continued to aimlessly meander down the street as he thought about what he would do next.

First, I need to find someone in charge of a construction site and get a job, then I need to find somewhere to sleep... Maybe the person in charge can give me both a job and an inn to stay in. No, before that I should find a good restaurant-

Dan's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by someone calling out his name.

"Dan? I thought it was you! I didn't know you were in the area."

Dan turned to see a familiar face. "Oh, it's you, Tom! It's been a while."

"I think it's been about two years." The young man flashed a friendly smile as he came closer. "Did you come here for work?" Tom had been an acquaintance from before Dan had set out on his own, and they had worked together under the same head carpenter.

Dan launched into some small talk, hoping to learn more from his former junior coworker. "Yup, since the Royal Capital hasn't changed at all, I decided to try my luck elsewhere. I came here because I heard the county's doing well."

"It definitely is," Tom agreed. "There's a ton of work. Construction is underway for a large mansion, a wedding venue, and there are even some plans to expand the town."

"A wedding venue? They're building a brand new building for that?"

"It's actually a church, but it's being put up because of the wedding, so everyone just refers to it as the wedding venue."

Dan shook his head in disbelief. "Wow, nobles really go crazy just for a single wedding. How grandiose."

"No, well, um..." Tom looked a little uncomfortable at Dan's lightly mocking words. He cleared his throat conspicuously and cast his eyes around them, which made Dan worry that he'd said something untoward. He scanned their surroundings.

Once he'd confirmed that they weren't being watched, he lowered his volume before he continued. "Do the nobles here not allow you to criticize them? Sorry, I forgot about the Demon Lord."

There were some aristocrats who didn't allow any negative things to be said publicly about them, even if it was just in small talk between commoners. Not only that, but this was the county under the rule of the Yumiella Dolkness. Dan couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of punishment she might sentence people to undergo if they displeased her, considering that she had destroyed the neighboring kingdom's army with her dragon's fiery breath. The thought of it made him tremble with fear.

However, Tom shook his head in response and reassured him. "It's fine. You should be okay as long as you're not making a grand speech or anything."

Dan's shoulders sagged in relief. "I let my guard down since the town seems so peaceful. It's true that she's a tyrant, isn't it?"

The younger carpenter considered this. "She's not exactly a tyrant... Oh, but she does go crazy sometimes, but, um... Well, the countess's fiancé is a person of upstanding character, though." Tom couldn't confirm or deny whether she was considered a tyrant by those who lived in her domain. It was hard to tell what people thought of Yumiella. Dan gave him a look that seemed to seek further clarification, so Tom hastened to explain his response. "I haven't gotten a good read on her yet. You get different answers from different people. Though, I will say, the people of this town seem to like her. It seems like things were pretty terrible when her predecessor was still in charge."

"I remember hearing that she stole her title from her parents back in the Royal Capital," Dan responded with a nod. "I wonder why. I think it would be much better to live as a carefree noble who didn't have to do any work than to become the head of the family with a bunch of responsibilities. I guess nobles just think differently from us."

"Yes, they probably do think differently."

"Have you ever seen her in person? All I know is that she has jet-black hair... Huh? There's another one." Dan pointed to another one of the mysterious holes he kept seeing. This one wasn't particularly different from the others, but he felt it was strange that they were all over the town. Don't they want to fill them for safety? he wondered.

Tom didn't seem concerned, and he shrugged with a knowing expression. "Oh, those? They're not usually around people or buildings, so they're perfectly safe. If they're in a place where a carriage might get stuck, they get filled in right away."

"Is someone digging them? Who would do that? And why?"

Tom shook his head. "No, they fall from the sky."

Fall from the sky? What falls from the sky? Before Dan could voice the question, a woman walking by caught his attention.

She was exactly what one pictured when thinking of a noble lady. She wore an extravagant dress that no one outside of the aristocracy would ever wear, and she had long, delicate golden hair. Dan had rarely seen people that appeared to be of such a high class, even when he'd been in the Royal Capital.

The woman, whose noble air stuck out like a sore thumb in this provincial area, was cradling a piece of scrap lumber as if it was something of great value. Several children holding similar random pieces of wood walked alongside her.

"I cannot believe they actually gave us some!" the woman bubbled. "What are we going to make with these?"

"I told you, we're turning them into firewood," said one of the children with a roll of his eyes. "Were you even listening, princess?"

"What?" The noble lady looked scandalized. "Burning it would be such a waste."

The boy speaking to her wore worn-out clothes, and his tone was so brusque that it bordered on rudeness, but the woman was nevertheless smiling. Dan stared at them, unsure of how to respond to this strange group, one that comprised an elegant noble lady and a bunch of children who were clearly commoners.

"Dan? What's wrong?" Tom asked curiously.

"That isn't the countess, is it-?"

"No," Tom immediately answered.

"Right, she doesn't have black hair. Who is that, then? The countess's sister or something?"

"She's apparently just a friend. I heard that she was the only daughter of the duke of Hillrose."

Dan continued watching the children meander away, led by the mysterious noble lady. He didn't know much about the duke, but he'd heard a few rumors about him. "The duke is the next most powerful noble following the king, right? Wait... Wasn't there a recent commotion about a coup led by the duke?"

"Was there?" Tom shrugged. "Maybe I'm wrong, then. It's hard to distinguish between noble ranks."

Faced with Tom's uncertainty, Dan realized that he wasn't actually sure if the person behind the coup was the duke after all. Regardless of whether it had been a duke or a count, it didn't really matter-they were all just nobles to Dan. Since the coup hadn't led to any real...