Adrian didn’t even notice her panicking.

"I am so glad I have you by my side," he said with a warm smile.

Claire felt her face burn up even more. Guys usually said that kind of stuff to their wives, not to their hired generals. She had absolutely no idea how to answer him. So she just looked away and pretended to stare at the sweating soldiers who were busy training.

Aria narrowed her eyes at the interaction.

For a second, she just stared as her adult thoughts went into overdrive. But then she grabbed Adrian’s hand and tugged hard.

"Papa, let’s go look around the town," Aria demanded. "I want to spend time with you."

Adrian chuckled. "Alright, let’s go."

"You guys supervise their training." Adrian said. "And Claire, it has been a while so do check if anyone is making mistakes or having issues."

He turned around and walked off with Aria.

They strolled through the barony that was getting developed at an extremely fast pace. The massive stone defensive wall was almost entirely completed. It was tall and extremely thick and it was perfect for a defensive wall to keep monsters and bandits out.

Adrian guided her toward the residential sector. Six massive apartment complexes were fully constructed. Construction crews were already building the framing and the foundations for six more right next to them.

The apartment complexes were shaped like a giant "U" and the open courtyard faced the wide main road.

Adrian walked into one of the ground floor rooms to inspect the work. He didn’t bother going to the other ones since every single apartment was identical.

It had a medium sized living room that doubled as a bedroom. The residents were given roll up mattresses that they could stow in the corner during the day. There was also a small, basic kitchen area in the back.

Rather than giving everyone a private tub, the ends of each hallway opened up into massive communal washrooms. Rows of basic toilet cubicles sat opposite to closed shower stalls, equipped with just simple wooden buckets for bathing.

The reason was simple. Commoners in this era treated hygiene like a myth. Most of them scrubbed down once a week if they were lucky. Or maybe once a month. So even though the idea of a public bathhouse made Adrian’s skin crawl, efficiency had to come first.

Building individual plumbing for thousands of people was too time consuming right now. These were just going to be homes for the Unofficial Citizens. The better housing would serve as a motivation for them to get the official citizen badges.

’I probably should have built the premium housing for the knights first,’ Adrian thought as he walked out. ’But the builders are already starting on the larger family homes anyway so there is no point trying to think about it now.’

They left the residential district and walked toward the town square.

This was going to be the commercial heart of Oresfall. Instead of massive multi story complexes, Adrian had ordered the construction of individual storefronts.

Blacksmith forges ate up an entire block, generating a deafening wall of noise as hammers struck hot iron. Take a right, and you’d hit Apothecary Lane. Potion makers and herbologists stood around their stalls, having some common things on their display.

Then came the empty storefronts. They were just bare-bones stores that were waiting for ambitious locals to rent them out and hustle. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Twenty towering inns stood on both sides of the main dirt road, reaching four stories up. The ground floor was like a communal dining room, while the upper three floors were just cheap cubicle rooms. There didn’t have much space but they were perfect for traveling merchants and such who just needed a cheap place to stay for a night.

Adrian spotted Damian walking down the street with a wooden clipboard and waved him over.

"How are the numbers looking?" Adrian asked.

"Excellent, my lord," Damian reported with a bright smile. "We currently have over ten thousand active builders working on the expansion. The women asked to be hired too and I approved it since you said you wanted to prioritize speed. Thanks to that, our construction speed has doubled."

"Keep it up," Adrian nodded.

A few days passed in a flash, and the highly anticipated royal visit finally arrived.

A line of luxurious carriages rolled through the gates of Oresfall which was still not completely built.

Adrian stood in the main hall of his mansion to receive his guests. The youngest princess of the Crestwall Empire walked in while being flanked by two heavily armored Imperial Knights.

She was small and cute. She looked only a few years older than Aria and she wore an elegant, frilly dress fit for royalty.

’Hmm. If I calculate using the canon events, she should be around eight years old now.’ Adrian thought as he smiled at her.

Standing right beside Adrian, Aria stared at the wooden floor.

’I really hate this girl.’ she thought.

Because back in her past life, the empire had stamped Aria as a demonic witch, a great evil who had to be beheaded. And this exact bubbly princess had spearheaded the campaign to hunt her down and chop her head off. So naturally, Aria braced herself for the worst.

But the snobby, disgusted sneer never came.

Instead, the royal brat practically skipped over with a blindingly bright smile.

"It is so nice to meet you!" the princess said excitedly. "I have heard so much about you. They call you the flower of Oresfall! And you are really pretty too. I hope we can be good friends."

Aria just stared at her, completely thrown off guard by the friendly tone.

Adrian watched the interaction and smiled inwardly. ’Things really are different this time. I just gotta keep doing what I do and Aria won’t have to go through the stuff she went through in the novel.’

Adrian stepped forward and bowed slightly. "Welcome to Oresfall, Your Highness. Would you and your guards care for something to eat after your long journey?"