Elena originally planned to return to Lendolf to resign as a knight although this would entail giving up her noble status. With the power and knowledge she had acquired, she no longer needed to depend on anyone to protect herself.

As for the next thing she would do after giving up the nobility, that was something she still had no clear idea about. Being able to practically create mytril she would no longer have to worry about the economic issue.

However, she had suddenly received a nobility title of her own and a territory, and while it was clear that she was only being used as bait to provoke a war, Elena thought that she could make use of this in her own way.

After selling her mytril sword for three thousand gold coins and answering questions about the blacksmith again, Elena bought several low-quality swords. Landolf's arms merchant had a better eye for weapons, so he naturally offered a better price, as for the blacksmith's name, Elena gave the same name as before, Bela.

That night both Nia and Elena herself were a little anxious.

Despite having sufficient funds, Elena only rented a room with a single bed, which made it clear to Nia that Elena wanted her to sleep next to her again.

The anxiety in both of them of course came from the blood ritual, since that, each had slept on their own to maintain a training atmosphere, so it was easy to forget about it during those two weeks.

However, the presence of a single bed in the room quickly brought the memory of that kiss to Nia's mind.

As for Elena, of course her anxiety was not caused by nervousness as in Nia's case, but rather by feeling Nia's bare skin against her skin again, in addition to wishing to find some other credible reason for to kiss Nia again.

Despite everything, Elena did not have to force Nia, she undressed until she was only in her pumpkin panties and with her flushed face she got into bed and hugged Elena in silence.

Elena could almost feel that she would have a nosebleed from Nia's adorable shy behavior.

That night Elena must have used all her willpower to resist the urge to taste Nia's sweet lips while she slept peacefully. However, Elena did not regret the situation at any time and once again reaffirmed her desire to surround herself only with cute girls.

「I will turn Izana into my private garden」

After murmuring that singular goal, Elena hugged Nia even tighter to finally close her eyes and sleep.

The next morning Elena and Nia wasted no time, after having breakfast at the inn they left the city, and just finding an opportunity, Elena created a warp that took them to the area where they had trained for just over two weeks. From that point, it was only a matter of a pair of hours for them to get to Dur.

Once in Dur, Elena and Nia headed straight for the inn they had occupied during their only night in this city. In that place, Elena asked for information about the territory of Izana after renting a room.

Izana was a territory practically on the border between Varest and Sadora that in the past had belonged to this last kingdom. According to the information that Elena obtained, Izana was once a prosperous mining territory from which large quantities of iron were extracted, this was the reason why Varest had taken this territory from Sadora in the past. However, as the iron in the Izana mines ran out, the territory fell into disrepair and currently there appears to be nothing of value there, not even a single person currently living in the area.

「Elena-sama, is it really a good idea to take possession of such a territory?」

「For any other person, Izana will be a territory without value, but for me it is different」

Elena smiled and Nia could only nod, even if she had her doubts about it, she fully trusted Elena.

That same day, Elena and Nia went to the city market and bought twenty quality 'A' magic cores, which caused Elena's funds to drop considerably.

「What do you plan to do with these magic cores, Elena-sama?」

Magic cores were crystals of solid magic power obtained from monsters, their use ranging from the manufacture of magic items to potions.

「It'll be more fun if you see it with your own eyes」

At this point, Nia was completely convinced that Elena was enjoying too much watching her reactions to all the absurd actions she was doing, so she could only let out a slight sigh and wait to be surprised once again.

In order to recoup her funds, Elena sold another mytril sword to Dur's highly pleased arms merchant, however, with the price on Lendolf as precedent, Elena managed to obtain two thousand five hundred gold coins this time.

With her indices of magic power low due to the use of warp and the creation of a mytril sword, Elena decided that it was best to stay for the rest of the day at the inn and wait for the next day to travel to Izana.

After another night of enjoying Nia's soft skin and having to resist the urge to steal her lips, Elena decided to start her journey to Izana as soon as she finished breakfast.

Elena and Nia left Dur not without first hearing some interesting rumors, apparently, the victory obtained against the Sadora's army on the border and which forced sadorians to return to their kingdom had occurred only thanks to the effort and courage of a young woman knight. Rumors said that the young woman was as beautiful and strong as a Valkyrie, and that the king had been so pleased with her achievements during the battle that he had conferred on she a noble title. Up to this point, no one knew the name of the young woman knight or the title that was conferred on her, much less the territory that was given to her, the only certainty is that her nameless figure was slowly beginning to become famous throughout the kingdom.

For Elena, this was clearly the second phase of the king's and royal court's plan, the rumors about her and her bravery spread throughout the kingdom and by the time her name was revealed, she would already be considered a war hero. The next thing would be to take actions that would provoke Sadora's anger, further enhancing her bravery and denigrating the cowardly Sadora's knights who had chosen to flee instead of facing her, and this would undoubtedly lead to someone in Sadora seeking to assassinate her, an event like this justified a total war against Sadora backed by the irate people of Varest.

With her own plans for this in mind, Elena followed the directions she had received to reach Izana. The journey should take about two days, but with her full magic power, Elena used runic magic on her horse and sorcery to eliminate the resistance of the wind, all together it made that by close to sunset, an old stone tower appeared in the distance.

Very soon Elena and Nia glimpsed what once in the past must have been a city no less large than Dur, yet the place was currently just ruined. The wall was just a piled up rubble, of the buildings within the city only the rock foundation remained and the only thing that stood was that solid stone keep.

「Elena-sama, this place is...」

「It's perfect, Nia」

Nia resisted the urge to scream in surprise when Elena hugged her lovingly from behind.

「E-Elena-sama…」

「Nia, can you give me one of the magic cores」

Elena released Nia and ignored her blush.

At the foot of the keep, Nia delivered one of the quality 'A' magic cores they had purchased in Dur.

With the core in her hand, Elena approached a nearby rock pile and placed the core on top of the rocks.

「Emet」

In response to Elena's one word, the nucleus glowed, then it began to levitate. To Nia's amazement, the rocks near the core began to levitate and accumulate on top of it until it took the form of a large rock humanoid about two meters high.

「A golem...」

Nia gasped as she remembered something she had read in the Mother Goddess Sanctuary about puppetry, an ancient magic that had been completely lost a century ago. The art of creating and manipulating magic puppets, that was that lost branch of magic.

As her mind was stunned by what she saw, Nia felt someone hug her from behind.

「Nia's reactions are always so adorable」

「Elena-sama, can you use lost magic...?」

Nia ignored Elena's hug, her surprise at the appearance of a golem continuing to overwhelm her.

「Is puppetry a lost magic?」

Elena was surprised to hear that. In reality, Elena did not know much about magic, during her days at her father's mansion she was only taught to be a lady, and in her days in the Order of Saint Eclestine she limited herself entirely to training, so all knowledge about Elena's magic comes from the memories of Kaname, and these, of course, correspond to a remote time already forgotten.

「How can Elena-sama use lost magic?」

「It's... complicated, that I can use this magic is something that scares you?」

Elena turned away from Nia and asked that question.

「No way, anything Elena-sama does could never scare me!」

Nia immediately turned to Elena and hugged her as she gave that answer. For a moment Nia felt that Elena might disappear, so her mind pushed her to forget about her status as a maid.

「Then it's okay」

Elena smiled as she stroked Nia's head.

「Nia, we will build our home in this place」

「Yes, Elena-sama!」

Elena created nine other golems, which meant that her magic power decreased dramatically, however, using sorcery, she was able to extract magic power from a core and absolve it for herself.

「The most important thing is to rebuild the wall」

With such a priority, Elena sent seven of the golems to rebuild the ruined wall. The puppets were not properly monsters despite having an intact magic core, but they were not mere magic tools, they had a level of intelligence based on the skill of the puppeteer who created them, therefore, with a level of skill in this as absurd a branch of magic as someone like Kaname came to possess, the puppets created by Elena possessed intelligence comparable to that of a human. Elena only had to order the golems what she wanted them to do, and they would find their own ways to carry out their orders without the need for her to be watching them.

The remaining three golems were assigned to the task of tearing down the old tower and beginning construction of a suitable palace.

「What should we do, Elena-sama?」

「We will explore the nearby mines to see if we can still give them any use」

Ignoring the night over them, Elena and Nia left the ruins of Izana. They planned to use the resistance of their bodies to the fullest to secure their position on this land that they would make their home.