I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 67

"I thought you're supposed to have increased stamina as an Oracle?"

"... That is what you told me, but my brain feels like mud."

A wry smile formed on my face as I watched my Oracle slumped against the side of my temple on the screen above me.

"I guess it doesn't help too much against mental fatigue then. You've had a fun couple of days, haven't you?"

"... I am not sure if fun is the word I would use. Maybe busy or crazy would fit better."

"Don't be so grumpy- you're the Oracle! It's only natural for everyone to want your attention~"

"There is only so much attention I can give! I can still hear their shouts echoing in my head," Ruglace shivered.

"Raaaaa~"

"... And thanks to you, I can actually hear it in my head again."

"Pfft-"

Man, he's fun to mess with.

My Oracle currently resembled a hungover college student rather than a beacon of strength, though it wasn't anything I was too worried about. As he mentioned, he'd been hounded by thousands of people practically non-stop for the last few days. Regardless of the increased strength of an Oracle, that was bound to tire out anyone who's not used to such social interaction.

First Rynn and now Ruglace... maybe I'm just meant to torture introverts? Well, I'm sure the strength is more than worth the attention.

As Ruglace had mentioned, the initial reaction to him being selected as an Oracle was amazing. It took a few moments for the initial awe at the selection to be processed, but once everyone came to their senses, loud cheers started by those from the northern villages rang out and quickly swept through the crowd.

Of course, there were a few people who were distraught about not getting picked, but the overall festive mood was hardly rattled and a multi-day-long celebration full of yummy food quickly followed. 

Sadly all of the cooking fires were drenched in the usual storm that happens every time I pick an Oracle, but it looks like they were able to handle it fine.

As I reflected a bit on the whole commotion that happened a few days prior, the target of my divinity beam sat up with a groan.

"So... now that we have a chance to speak, will you finally tell me why you picked me, creator of the world? I know I said I would fight if I had to, but that really is not my strong suit..."

"Ah- you've probably been wondering about that, haven't you?"

I smiled as my Oracle gave a slight nod on my screen.

"Sorry, but it's a secret~"

"What!? Why?"

"No, I'm just messing with you. There's actually a few reasons why I picked you-"

When I first started sifting through the candidates, I had a few flexible criteria in mind. I evaluated things like fighting experience, knowledge, and skills, yet my top priority above all else was the good nature of the candidate. At the end of the day, strength is a given with the power of an Oracle and fighting skills could be taught if needed; it's the inherent qualities of a person's character that are much harder to change.

Besides, considering the opponent, fighting abilities can take a back seat for this battle phase.

My utter lack of confidence in the lumpy toad dudes to make it through the arctic allowed me to shift my focus away from some of the pure-fighting candidates and look more toward those with more interesting qualities that may help my realm develop outside of combat.

Even with the screening done by the scouts appointed by my priest, I could get a sense from some of my interviews that there were quite a few candidates who seemed to have ulterior motives behind gaining the power of an Oracle, which of course meant an immediate disqualification from my list.

At the time, I was a bit frustrated at how many untrustworthy people there seemed to be in my realm, causing Mr. Flippers to become the unfortunate recipient of a rant.

"Seriously, what were the scouts thinking when they picked some of these guys? Even if they're strong, it's definitely not worth the risk of making them an Oracle," I started, disappointed.

"Squawk... squawk?"

"Yeah, maybe I should pick my scouts more carefully next time," I sighed, "Power is a weird thing, isn't it? There's so many people who obsess over it, yet it's usually the people who don't want it or even who hate it that use it the best."

"Squawk?"

"Mhm, that's what I think at least. There's not really many people in history who had the chance at absolute power and declined it, but those are the guys that I think deserve the most respect. George Washington, for example. After leading a revolution and beating the British, he could've easily taken the chance to tighten his grip on power and try to become a new king, yet he didn't. In fact, he didn't even want any power at all despite the country practically begging him to lead."

Despite my memory loss, I could feel the red, white, and blue coursing through my veins as I spoke.@@novelbin@@

"Even after reluctantly accepting the nomination to be president, do you know what he did? He spent his efforts on building up the country instead of harnessing the power for himself. They say power corrupts, yet even after two terms in charge, he did the unthinkable and willingly stepped down! The whole country loved him- there was nothing stopping him from continuing to run for office, but he opted to leave power and retire peacefully on his farm! It was practically unheard of at the time!"

"Squawk..."

"Think about it, Mr. Flippers! Power was the desire of everyone in that time! They literally just got done fighting a war over the abuse of power by a king! He had both power and admiration in the palm of his hand, yet he chose to let go of it to inspire others to do the same! Even other great leaders weren't able to do what he did; when Napoleon finished his conquest of Europe, he looked back on everything and said 'they wanted me to be another Washington'!"

The penguin was clearly bewildered at this point so I decided to stop my rant early.

"Anyway, the moral of the story is that I think the best Oracles would be people who aren't actively seeking out the power and are instead willing to bear it for the sake of the realm."

"... Squawk."

After finishing my tangent that seemed to fall on deaf ears and tossing those shifty candidates out of consideration, I was left with only around a few dozen candidates who had at least one interesting thing outside of combat that I thought could make a pretty big difference in my realm. I eventually whittled down these choices until I was stuck between Ruglace and this super-skilled farmer from a village in the middle of my continent. Both were extremely interesting candidates for different reasons, but ultimately I decided on Ruglace for one major reason.

The farmer's general knowledge can be passed down easily and spread with the help of my priest, but actually building takes more personal skill and experience to be effective.

After hearing about Ruglace's story during the interview, I quickly shifted my screen to his village where I was blown away by the houses he made and designed; their stone foundation and woven support frames were a huge step up from even the most advanced shelters in my realm with the exception of my temple.

"There are plenty of other places on the continent with different materials and environments. I think it'll be fun for you to design some homes for them to live in," I explained after summarizing a bit of my internal debates.

"New materials? Like different types of stones?"

"In some cases, yes, but I think you'll see what I mean when you're traveling."

Honestly, after talking to Ruglace, I'm starting to realize that I neglected to put any good regions to get big rocks outside of the mountain ranges....

My realm had been relatively flat until I almost accidentally tore the continent apart while adding things like platinum to the planet's core to increase its gravity back when I first became a Seedling. That whole mess caused the terrain to vary quite a bit and allowed plenty of rivers and streams to form naturally between hills caused by the shifting ground and lava flows. Despite the chaos, even the largest of these heavily volcanic rock-filled hills were a bit limited in how much large stone they could provide.

Until my humans can make better tools to let them actually flatten these hills, large rocks might be a bit hard for them to come by... oops.

While I reflected internally on the failures of past Jacob, a voice came through my screen.

"Okay... I can do that," Ruglace nodded after thinking for a bit, "Is that all you need me to do though?"

"Of course not! I have a special and super important task for you to do. Muhahaha!"

My Oracle shivered at my evil laugh, "A-and what is that?"

"It's nothing much, I just need you to move a mountain."

"A mountain!? Like the ones Oracle Rynn's army attacked from in the stories!? Y-you are joking, right?"

"..."

"Please tell me you are joking! I know you gave me strength, but there is no way it is enough to do that!"

"Pffft- calm down, calm down. I'm just messing with you. Well, kind of," I couldn't help but laugh at his panicked expression, "At some point, I'm gonna need you to build up fortifications in the north."

"... So you really just want me to build houses?"

"Well, that's part of it. I pretty much want you to make some things that can help the world defend against invaders. I'll send a ton of people and soldiers up there with you to help you build and hopefully give you ideas when the time comes."

"Okay, that does not sound too bad," Ruglace let out a sigh of relief and layed back against the temple wall.

"Oh, but I'm gonna want you to build everything entirely out of stone~"

"Huh!?" my Oracle shot at my words, "Entirely out of stone? Are you serious?"

"Mhm- that's where the moving mountains comes into play. I guess the roofs don't need to be stone, but I want the actual structures themselves to be. You should be strong enough to carry huge chunks of rock, so it would probably be much easier than putting together one of those stone foundations you made for the homes in your village."

This was something that I deemed to be a necessity. During threats of invasion, I needed to have a massive number of soldiers stationed in the large valley between the mountain passages. Sure, temporary settlements could be made from tipis leading up to the battle phase, but that felt like putting duct tape over a leaking pipe.

Wood could be used to bolster the numbers of shelters during the actual invasions, but since wood would likely rot in the thousand years between them, I wanted to have a decent amount of stone structures that could at least be somewhat maintained to act as a starting point for my humans.

Well, that's just my excuse for sending him up there, anyway~

Honestly, this shelter building was just a cover for my real mission for Ruglace.

Wouldn't a massive stone fort fit amazingly in that northern mountain passage?

Yes, that's exactly right. When I was talking about fortifications, I really wanted him to make a massive stone fort at the end of the passage to use as a base when defending against invaders.

Sadly, I was a bit worried about the Academy coming for my head by outright ordering him to do this, since these types of fortifications had yet to be invented in my realm at this point, so I wanted to send him up there with soldiers to naturally spark the idea between them. I figured having soldiers stationed at the mountain passageway would give them plenty of time to think of things that could be useful for helping them defend in battle.

Even if all they can come up with is a giant wall, it would still be amazing at stopping future invaders~

If a stone wall could stop the Mongols in their tracks, I was confident it could fend off most of the invaders that were still nearly primitive in development.

I guess an Oracle could do some damage to whatever they make, but it'll still do wonders with holding back the rest of the army.

Such a project would take many years, but now was the perfect time to build something like this. I had an Oracle who was experienced in building, was super strong, and who had plenty of time given how I doubted the invaders would be able to get through the snow. 

I have like 200 years with an Oracle builder~ oh the possibilities are endless!

"Squawk..."

"What do you mean I have an evil look in my eyes? I'm completely innocent and not scheming in the slightest!"

"Squawk!"

"He likes building; I'm just letting him do what he loves so much."

"Squawk."

I ignored the penguin voicing his concerns from behind me and turned my attention back to the prey- I mean my Oracle- on the screen above me.

"Don't worry, before I get you started on any of that, I'll let you go spend some time in Woodrath to at least fix the homes in your village. Please use that time to teach some of the people there your methods so they can help build everything while you're busy in other parts of the world. I know you wanted to build all of the houses near the gulf yourself, but I think this is a good compromise; besides, if you don't spread the knowledge, they'll have no idea how to rebuild if they ever get destroyed in the future."

"That is fair," Ruglace nodded at my proposal, "If people are being saved from the storms, it does not really matter if I am the one to build them or not. How long do you think I will have to teach them?"

"A few years would probably be fine, right? Honestly, with your Oracle strength, you might even be able to completely rebuild a few villages in that time."

Ruglace looked down at his hands at my words, "Is my strength really that much? Is it really possible for me to build out of large blocks of stone and to rebuild a village so easily?"

"Yes, I'm confident in that. It's far more likely for speed to be what holds you back, rather than strength. There's really only so much you can do in a day."

As long as I keep getting more divinity, my Oracles should keep getting stronger. Even Rynn was able to carry several thousand-pound trees and throw a boulder in the last battle phase... honestly, I'd be shocked if Ruglace wasn't able to haul some big blocks of stone around like they were pebbles given the trend.

Although I vaguely remembered the sheep instructor saying something about a cap on how much divinity could be given to our Oracles, I still expected there to be a sizeable leap between the physical strengths of Ruglace and Rynn.

Well, that limit is supposed to rise in every battle phase, so I doubt it's anything I need to worry about for now.

"Ruglace! What are you doing over here? We are about to have a feast!"

"So that is where you were..."

My thoughts were interrupted by Priest Brung and a young woman who spotted my Oracle hiding in the corner of my temple to escape the crowd.

"Please- no more feasts... can I just eat in here?"

"What? Of course not! There are people coming from all over Rynntara to meet the new Oracle!"

With a look resembling a puppy being taken to the vet, I watched this poor Oracle being dragged out of the temple on my screen with pity.

"Looks like they caught you, Ruglace," I teased, "Go have fun for now, we'll talk more about this later."

"Can you at least use your power to bring fish for me to eat? It has been all chicken for meat for so long..." he whined.

"Nope, I used all my power making you an Oracle. Enjoy the chicken, Ruglace~"

"Nooo!"

I turned to Mr. Flippers with a sigh as Ruglace got dragged off my screen.

"He's a bit of a greedy Oracle. Do you know how hard it used to be to get chicken meat near the temple back in the last battle phase? I remember watching our humans walk for days to hunt some, yet here he is asking for fish. Kids these days don't know how good they have it."

"Squawk~"

"... I don't care if I sound old, I know I'm right."

Gross, I really am acting like an old man. Maybe it's better just to stop training; I don't think it's worth it...

With my Oracle conversation partner now surrounded by a hundred people, my hand naturally drifted toward a blue orb sitting on my desk.

I guess the old man should talk to the old woman. She must be having the same problem as me, right?

"Yo, Julia! Are you free?"

My call through the orb was answered by a voice a few moments later.

"Hi, Jacob! I have time, I was just scouting out some places for my Oracle to visit. Did something happen?"

"It's just been a bit since we last talked so I wanted to check up on you," I shrugged as I leaned back in my chair, "Still, I can't believe you didn't tell me you picked an Oracle already! We've been trapped in our domains for so long- I thought for sure you'd tell me the first interesting thing that's happened in like decades."

"I was going to tell you! It's only been a few days since I picked him though; I don't have a priest so I've been super busy giving him instructions," Julia defended.

Huh? She said 'him', didn't she?

Although my heart throbbed for a second, I held my composure and held my voice steady.

"I'm just messing with you. I've been pretty busy too, even with the priest; trying to pick an Oracle is a ton of work. What's this new Oracle like, anyway?"

"Oh, he's really cool!" Julia said excitedly causing my eye to twitch, "He's from a village near my temple so he's been training with a bow since he was little. He's also extremely talented with magic- honestly, I was a bit blown away by how easily he was able to manipulate plants even with the low mana density in my realm!"

"O-oh really? He sure sounds great..."

"Yes! His mana control is extremely good- there's a chance he might even be the first in my realm to discover wind magic with how he uses the bow!" Julia beamed before speaking, "What about you, Jacob? Did you find someone to be your Oracle?"

"That's great! But yeah, I just picked an Oracle, too. He's a builder."

"A builder?"

"Mhm, I got some plans for him. I figured that if the lumpy toad dudes can't make it through the cold, it would be the perfect chance to focus on developing my realm~"

"If only I had that kind of leeway... why didn't you tell me to make a super cold spot in my realm? It's working so well for you that it's basically cheating," Julia whined, "Ah- I have to go. My Oracle might pass the village I want him to visit. I'll talk to you soon, Jacob!"

"Alright, good luck, Julia!"

My smile faded along with the glow from the orb.

"Picking a dude as an Oracle is also basically cheating," I muttered before leaning back with a sigh.

"Squawk?"

"No, I'm heartbroken," I turned to the penguin who was attaching a new mechanical puppet to some rope, "Julia's only been trapped in a room for over seventy years; I can't believe her heart disappeared so fast! Girls really have no patience..."

"Squawk."

"No, I'm acting jealous, not dramatic."

"Squawk."

"... Okay fine, maybe both, but you just don't get it! Oracles are someone you have to get super close to; even if it's like a friend even a son or whatever, you feel strongly for your Oracle after a while. Even I would've kissed Uunga by the end of the battle phase." I groaned.

"Squawk!?"

"It's a special bond! You just don't understand," I sighed, "I'm joking about the kissing thing, but my point stands. I'm sure she'd be jealous too if I picked a girl as my Oracle."

"Squawk..."

"Oi- I'm not crazy yet!" I defended, ignoring the penguin's look of pity, "You know what? Screw it- I'll pick a girl to be my next Oracle after Ruglace! Then she'll know what she's putting me through."

As I continued to complain, Mr. Flippers simply shook his head in exaggerated shame while hooking up the new puppet to the pulley.

"Fine- how about we try out that new dude. I gotta blow off some steam."

"Squawk~!"

After way too long of sitting in my chair, I finally stood up and grabbed the sword leaning against the side of my desk.

"I'll help you finish setting him up; it's the least I can do before I cut it to pieces~"

"Squawk!?"