The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

The wagons were returning with the playful cheers and excited voices of children who couldn't wait to see what had changed. The adults, however, were silent, trying to comprehend the amount of materials that King Theon had to use during his castle expansion. While they were oblivious to the mana economy of their ruler, they just subconsciously felt that the amount of everything spent right in front of their eyes was tremendous. Full of terrible experiences from their pasts, some of them were afraid of what price they would have to pay.

•••

I wanted to nod with satisfaction seeing the effect of my work, but in order to do so, I had to return to my body. Most of my building resources, as well as the planned forty million mana, had been spent, but the effect was impressive. As I thought, the old Palace was safe, which couldn't be said about other places in Avalon that were fine on the outside, but inside it looked as if a minor earthquake hit them. Considering this, I was glad I moved the people away for a while. After restoring buildings to their former conditions, I was facing another problem. Well, it was not really a problem; it was more like the visible outcome of the reshaping process. The buildings that once filled in the Middle Castle now only occupied a tiny portion of it, making it woefully empty. However, I used the smaller, seven-metre tall and three-wide walls to create four sections, each one of which had a gate to the Lower Castle.

I had an idea, so the people returning to their new homes would have to wait. To pass the time, they stopped at the Farm section, which was always sunny. While they lay on the green grass, basking in the warm sun, the Praetorians escorted the prisoners back to their cells. I moved them to Avalon in Shadows, and now I could extend the Dragon’s Gate fortifications as well, which was fortunate because Legio Umbra was tightly packed down there. Anyway, the idea- it was not entirely mine. Amber, Irene and Luna had some wonderful concepts among the notes they presented to me, so it would be a shame not to use them. Especially when I wanted to surprise them and give them something personal; you could say a hobby they could enjoy for years to come...

The section that was connected to the Palace retained its representative function. The large square was surrounded by many important buildings, such as Warren's Tavern, which was upgraded to a restaurant. Arguably, the two most important buildings, which were the town hall and the Guild Building, needed to be just slightly expanded despite the fact they were huge already. The Grand Temple of Avalon would also be placed adjacent to the town square. It was a little passion project of Irene, who decided to make the main altar of the temple devoted to Eriar and leave only the much smaller side altars to be devoted to the other gods. She made it this way to convey a message, I assume, and there was nothing the allied immortals could do about it, anyway. The message was quite simple; Avalon is her seat of power as the Saintess of Eriar, and no lesser godling was going to boss us around here.

She presented me with the blueprints she had worked on with Beryl, who advanced to the architect class, and I must say their work was impressive. But seeing it built was a whole different story. Irene also had an idea that Respite Taverns should be built near each gatehouse that connects Avalon with the external world. Truth be told, she wanted me to build a Respite Tavern in each dungeon under my command. She insisted on this because of the memories of her past and the struggles she suffered as an adventurer who was always preyed upon by the dishonest tavern owners near existing dungeons. Irene always wanted to help other people, even though she was running away from her past. Even knowing that she was the lowest of clerics who had been discarded by the known gods of this world. But no longer was she insignificant.

Anyway, the Southern Section would contain shops placed on the main street leading towards the East Section, with all the major complexes I had built previously, including alchemy, tailor, carpentry and forge facilities. That would leave Nadi in an awkward position as she couldn't seriously compete with Wendy, but I simply located her shop and home along the main road toward the Western Section. Her shop and home were upgraded as well, so she could improve her craft even further. Overall, the Southern Section would have enough space for building new establishments and infrastructure. There were a lot of industrious people willing to open their own businesses, so I suspected this section would soon become the heart of Avalon commerce.

The Eastern Section of the Middle Castle was where things were going to get interesting. The Magic Tower was located here, in the middle of Avalon University. It was a passion project of Amber’s, who wanted to create a full-fledged education centre in Avalon. She wanted a place where the people of this world could learn forgotten knowledge that was and still would be rediscovered by many scholars and masters of various crafts. The large six-story tall building, with a multitude of classrooms, laboratories, practice rooms, and, most importantly, the Grand Library of Avalon, was the core of the Royal University of Avalon. The Adventurers Academy was located in the Eastern Section where, obviously, new generations of Adventurers would hone their skills until they were ready to face the world.

Unquestionably, the Eastern Section would soon become the education centre under the benevolent care of Queen Amber. However, the education district of Avalon was not just composed of educational facilities. It also had many dormitories where tens of thousands of students would soon live in comfortable conditions until they finished their education period.

The homes for teachers and other academic staff members were also placed at a convenient and comfortable distance from the University. I was more than sure that Amber spent a lot of time studying from the books in my secret library and had adapted much of the stories I told her about how I always imagined the fantasy world in my previous life in her plan. I must admit, she created a marvellous place which undoubtedly would elevate the fame of Avalon once the dust of battle settled down.

The Northern section, the largest of the Middle Castle's sections, would be a residential district. It would have a large variety of homes and apartment complexes that would provide shelter for the growing population of Avalon. However, this time there would be enough room to house even half a million people in just this one section of the Middle Castle. Even more if I allowed more homes to be built and disregarded comfortable spacing. Probably even more than that if the leisure areas, like a few of the small parks or dozens of playgrounds for children, were replaced with multistory apartment complexes. But this was unnecessary, since Avalon was to be a place for all of my inhabitants to live comfortably.

Finally, the West Section would be a place where some of the nobles of Avalon lived. It was a place Luna came up with. She wanted to create a place where Guardsmen, the first order of Mortal soldiers and knights, could gather or even set as their home base. I built a large inner citadel where they would have access to training grounds. I also constructed an Academy where the future judges and police forces would learn their craft. With the growing population, proper law enforcement would be necessary. Additionally, my clever Vixen wanted to hide an Intelligence and Counterintelligence Agency within the Guardsmen Academy. They could draw their agents from the Guardsmen Academy who would keep a watchful eye on our neighbours to determine who was friend or foe. However, this was not the real, or maybe the entire purpose of this section. Luna had played with an idea for a long time and concluded that we would need a place where the ambassadors of other countries could reside.

Luna was a Sage, a legendary, basically mythical class, and with her skills focused on gathering information and knowledge, she heavily supported Amber in her education district project. The not-so-funny thing about Luna was her unconditional loyalty to me. It was originally the effect of being a Kitsune, a race of mystic fox spirits that had been brought to this world to serve as guides and helpers. Originally, Kitsune had to be fiercely loyal to the champion of their god. That, however, was no longer the truth, or at least not the entire truth, because she truly loved me. Luna always was dead serious about making sure I would succeed, and she wanted to have control over the flow of events. To better describe her need for control, I had to use words such as "total" or "absolute". Her bright mind was quickly solving problems, and she quickly saw dependencies we could exploit.

There’s an old proverb that says: "The strength of a kingdom comes from its King. The strength of a King comes from his Queen."

And I have three Queens.

I smirked when I opened my eyes and I saw three beloved faces staring at me with soft smiles.

"I have gifts for you."

•••

"Theon... This is magnificent!" Irene looked at the massive portal into the Grand Temple. "It's the same as the one I dreamt of..."

"I'm glad you liked it, my Saintess. It’s exactly made to the plans you showed me." I smiled and opened the doors to the vast cathedral. The brightly lit interior was full of colourful shades cast by large stained glass windows, depicting... Oh, God... Me killing Vu-lanti! Fortunately, it looked quite heroic, so I could give it a pass. Other stained windows were depicting other important events from a quite brief history of Avalon, like liberating slaves, the arrival of the first adventurers to Avalon, the failed assassination attempt of Amber and Irene, and the saving of Luna. The biggest stained glass, however, was over the central altar and depicted me with Amber on my right, and Irene and Luna on my left. It was breathtaking. I was wearing my black and gold armour, while my wives were wearing stunning royal gowns.

"It's even better inside!" Irene touched the altar made of white marble. "Thank you, Theon!"

"It's three times bigger than the temple of Zeus in Cridia City!" Amber gasped as she looked around.

Luna was able to just nod her head as she looked in awe around. I opened the doors to a preparation room and from there to the administration section. Irene's office was now an entire complex of ten offices, taking up the entirety of the highest floor. Her personal office was actually a smaller version of the war room because only there I could build a table that could display three-dimensional models. This would allow her to immediately see whatever she wanted in our Kingdom, including something that was observed by any of my denizens. A few pieces of paper were already laying on her favourite large wooden desk made by Bjorn. Irene quickly grabbed and looked at it.

"Hahaha!" She laughed after reading just a few lines and looked at me. "A full inventory list?"

"Well..." I just shrugged and smiled back, changing the topic. "You are my Queen, and Saintess of Eriar, Irene. Each time we encounter a new immortal, I will listen to your opinion about them first and foremost. They will have to negotiate with you because your word will be absolute."

"Thank you!" She jumped and kissed me happily.

"Don't mention it." I grabbed her by the waist and outstretched my hand to Luna and Amber. "My Darlings?"

•••

We were standing at the massive wall dividing the Middle and Lower Castle, right near the Citadel. Luna was looking in silence over the empty training grounds as the cold wind blew through her long hair.

"This is the Academy!" She said in shock as she turned towards me.

"Indeed, my Vixen. Or should I call you my Mistress of all intelligence and law enforcement agencies of Avalon?" I smiled, seeing her grin growing wide enough to be called a smile from ear to ear.

"You really know how to satisfy your wife, Theon." She snuggled herself to my side and kissed me with passion.

•••

Amber's eyes widened when we teleported on the wall dividing the Palace from the Middle Castle and she saw the university buildings.

"The Royal University of Avalon." I pointed towards the buildings in the distance. "The Adventurer’s Academy and other schools."

"I know how this sounds from my lips, considering that fate took away my parents and the future they had hoped for me... I can’t help but feel that now I am standing here as one of the most fortunate people. Some would even say that I am the luckiest woman in the world..." She leaned her head over my side and softly hugged my arm. "This place is the manifestation of my parent's dreams. No one ever will be robbed or straight-up denied their future. The children of Avalon will be ready to face the world. Thank you, Theon."

•••

Marie sighed as she rested on the green grass with closed eyes. Her mother had sent one of her slime maids to follow her and ensure that she respected the rules of being grounded. A shadow covered the soft rays of sun that had been shining on her face, and Marie opened one eye to inspect the intruder. It was a small girl that was staring at her in silence.

"Who are you?" Marie asked with little interest.

"I am Claire! What's your name?" she asked, hugging her big teddy bear.

"Hello, Claire." Marie sighed and sat up, only to spot Nicole, Fiona, and Clovis heading her way. "My name is Marie. I guess we will soon be seeing each other regularly during the training sessions."

The girl instantly looked down and hugged her bear even tighter. "I am afraid of monsters, Marie..."

"Don't worry, Claire! During school, you will have an introduction to adventuring class and we'll be hunting low-level slimes! They are super easy to hunt down!" Marie brightened a bit. "And if you're brave, I’ll let you play with Mr Fluffles!"

"Who is Mr Fluffles?" Claire looked around, forgetting for a moment about scary monster hunting.

"Hello!" Claire looked down at the shadow cast by Marie and saw the largest and cutest wolf face in her entire life.