章 44: Extra Chapter: The Skyline Planner, Fumikage Rie.
"Fumikage-sama. I've brought the blueprints with me."
"Good. Attach it to the board and call the others so we can get to work already."
"Yes, ma'am!"
My name is Fumikage Rie, the daughter of the master of Fumikage domain. This, regrettably for me, makes me the princess of Fumikage family.
"This road between the main avenue and the road to the eastern wharf is too narrow. We'd either remove it or repurpose it. Does anyone have any other suggestions?"
"How about we turn it into a U-turn slot for the carriages and horses that has to go back in a hurry?"
"Mmm… That sounds good. Does everyone agree on it?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Good. Goemon, draw that into the final map."
A few months ago, I was about to be met by my aunts and married female cousins to discuss marriage talks when I heard that the new lord is meeting with my father. I snuck out and with my ninja training, silently listened to half of their conversation.
That was when he mentioned that he is making his first attempts to improve the public utility roads in Kiko and thus, asked my father if he is willing to provide some of our land's wood products for the construction project.
When I heard that, I didn't care anymore if my father would yell at me later and make me clean the dojo all by myself. I opened the door and asked him to take me as the consultant for the project and that I am willing to work even without any pay.
"Please, Iwasawa-dono! Please take me as your subordinate!"
Later that night, I was detained in the storage shed without even eating dinner. It was a punishment from my ever-strict father who was so ashamed when I burst into the room and made an unreasonable request.
"Argh… that old man sure is feisty! I'll get back on him one day! That lanky-"
"Hey! Right here!"
"Ahh!"
While I was holding my groaning and empty belly and making plans about one day exacting my revenge on my father, I heard a voice from the small window and saw the face of the young lord peeking through it.
"M-my lord! W-What are you doing here?"
"That's my line. I know that Fumikage-sama was infuriated when you did that earlier, but this is a bit overboard…"
He spoke and took something that he slipped into the narrow bars of the window.
"Sorry, but that's the only thing I was able to make without raising anyone else's suspicion."
"This is…"
What he handed to me are three rice balls that he personally made.
"Be calm and eat slowly, I want to tell you about my plans and-
"ABARAGH-! UFFF!"
"Oh… it seems like you really are famished, huh?"
I didn't notice that he was watching me and without minding his eyes, ate them voraciously as my stomach was already making a more obnoxious noise.
After a while, I finished my food and he spoke one last line before disappearing.
"About your request… I'll accept it. Welcome to my court, Fumikage-san!"
Two days later, I announced that thing during dinner and everyone's chopsticks fell to the floor.
"R-Rie… are you… serious…?"
My mother and aunt, who was shocked with my statement, can only mutter those words.
"Of all the people… That brat was the one?!"
My cousins who seem to have taken the wrong meaning behind my words, looked infuriated.
"Haah… I can already imagine how this would end up."
Meanwhile, my father can only hold his forehead in pain after hearing those ridiculous words.
Well, things happen… It took a while before I got to go to Naka and serve in the lord's court. And that time usually revolved around my family reminding me of my past mistakes and accidents I made when I was a kid while my cousins forced me to mention them when I am around Lord Iwasawa, possibly asking me to endorse their daughters who might be marriage candidates for him.
"Welcome to Naka castle, Lady Fumikage Rie!"
At the door of the castle, I was met by a little kid who greeted me with a cute and polite tone.
"Naka castle? I thought the lord's castle is named Kaiho castle."
"Oh! Lord Iwasawa changed it to meet the name of the town at the foot of the mountain. He said that it's a practical way to remember the places while also being a symbolic note that the lord's focus is with the people."
"Ooh… I see. Can I ask you something?"
"Mm. Sure you can."
"What's a kid doing in the castle? I know that apprentices also work here, but why did they leave the welcoming of guest to you?"
When I asked that, she stopped walking and the smiling face of hers suddenly gained a darker aura.
"U-uh… kid? Hey, why are you suddenly-"
"I am the head maid of the castle, you wench!"
"ITAAA!!!"
After that blunder of mine, she hit my head with a karate chop that was so painful that I felt disoriented for three days straight.
"Oh, Fumikage-san. Welcome to Naka castle. Have you already looked at your room?"
"Y-yes. The little head maid sure was enthusiastic about- I-Itaa-!"
"H-hey… what's happening?"
"N-nothing, nothing… I-I was just feeling a bit queasy…"
That's not true. Right now, the chibi servant is pinching my left butt cheek! Argh! Her little nails are digging into it! Stop already!"
Before she can make a third cheek on my butt, the young lord asked her to prepare some tea and she left the office. But not before she can send her murderous aura towards me as if saying "I'm not done with you yet, you twerp!"
"Alright, Fumikage-san. Please take a seat."
When we were finally alone, Iwasawa-sama started talking about the work that he wanted me to do and the first words was something that made me really happy.
"I want you to handle the city planning for Naka. But before that, Aoyama-dono presented that you guys practice with Aoya first."
The work given to me was simple. I have to make a plan regarding the arrangement of structures and roads in a town or city. From the measurements of each road and avenue to the costs of each project, all was given to me and a select team of architects and accountants from the Hikigaya domain and Aoyama Domain.
"Hmm… this place right here is still untouched… what if-"
"Boss!"
"Kyaa-!"
"Ahhh-!"
"KYAA-!!!"
"AHHH-!!!"
By the way, this is Goemon, my errand boy who stuck with me since I arrived to plan the new cityscape of Aoya. At first, he said that he just wants to work until he finally told the truth and said that he just doesn't want to go home and inherit their failing farmland.
Since that day, he's been my apprentice and quickly became adept with geometrical equations and estimating the costs of the projects that we are making.
"Look at these two idiots… they've screamed at each other out of shock, but now, they're just competing on who can burst the other's eardrums…"
"Meh… leave them be, with our boring lunch break, even stuff like this is entertaining."
Meanwhile, our companions who should be stopping our usual stupid banter just watches us… I'm beginning to think that they're looking down at me when work is over…
They're not doing that, right?
(TN: Yes, yes they do.)
And so, a few months later, Aoya finished its redesigning and became more cleaner and less of a fire-hazard than before. With out experience, we then moved into the bigger and more laborious city of Naka.
"Wow… that's big."
"Sure is… I know that Naka has been here since ancient times, but this is the first time that I've seen something like this."
When we went to the castle library to pick up the compiled maps of the city, what we got was something that had to be glued into an entire wall.
"Haah… alright! Let's get to work!"
Lord Iwasawa gave us a memo before he left for the war in Yukonami. He said that a number of inventions that he's about to unveil must be taken into consideration for the cityscape. One of this is something that emits warm air into the back alleys as it cools the insides of a home. Another is a metal cabinet that keeps food fresh and would make some loud noises at night, thus, forcing us to construct the place where it would be placed with cement.
"Whatever those are, I think we can be alright so long as the back alleys aren't accessible from the outside. If this was some kind of ventilation equipment, I guess it makes sense that we keep it directed outside but not accessible from there."
"Mm! Good thinking, Goemon!"
Months later, the first changes came to the western wharf where much of the residential areas are concentrated. The back alleys are narrowed, houses were rebuilt, roads were widened and the materials for the buildings was changed to make them more fire-resistant.
At some places, there were even fountains that keep each local plaza cool with the natural water that it spurts out and another group of city planners hired by Iwasawa-sama contacted us to ask for our map since they are the ones tasked to do the new underground sewage system that we don't know about.
"Hahaha!!! We've did it guys!"
"Haah… finally, this is the sight that I wanna see all this time."
The hallmark of our city replanning work was this tower in the middle of Naka harbor. A clock tower that shows the exact time and chimes an equivalent amount of bells as the time it is showing every hour.
Now that we've done our work, we can finally-
"Rie, bring this to the secretary's office."
"Please give this to the Auditor too, Rie."
"Sorry, Rie. You have to go on an overtime again."
Yeah, there was a party for our achievement, but after that, I was sent to become a liaison officer in the castle. A pretty nice name for such a boring and uneventful work where I just have to walk somewhere and bring some papers.
"Hey, hard at work, I see."
"Argh… you again, lolibaba?"
"-!"
It was my fault. She did greet me politely but because of my exhaustion, my tongue slipped which made her forehead to bulge a vessel in annoyance as she cracked her knuckles.
"A-A-A-A-Ahhh! Wait, wait, wait! I'm sorry- I'm sorry!"
"Fufufu… prepare to be pummeled you brat. I won't stop until rip open a new cut on that annoying ass of yours. I've been prepared too, you see…"
When she said that, she showed me her right pointer finger whose nails are sharply cut and filed to be razor sharp.
"Ehehehe… come here, you brat!"
"IYAAAAA-!!!"
Well, that's how me and the head maid usually end up. It might look like a hostile scene to many onlookers, but this is just me being the usual immature brat while she's trying to reaffirm her maturity even with her youthful appearance.
This… why did the reversed appearances and actions sounded weird to me?
But just this night, a message came to me from the Military Communications command. It came from lord Iwasawa and it's the words that I've been waiting to hear for so long.
["The alliance is set. Bring your team together again. This time, you guys are in charge of the entire southern triad."]
"Hehehe…. Gahahahaha!!!"
When I read that another big project is coming our way and I can finally get back to those interesting work, I laughed out of pure happiness and excitement.
"Oi! Shut up! I'm trying to sleep here!"
"S-Sorry!"
"You brat! You're always the loudmouth in here!"
"Yes, sorry for the trouble!"
And yeah, I awakened some nearby dormitory neighbors. Geez… you guys are just as loud when you're drunk and giggling until the morning and I don't complain about it at all. But when it's me, I get shouted at for just a laugh or two...
Regardless, I've got a job for my team and we're set to do it!
"Hehe! I'm going to make a name out for myself."
クリエイターの想い 
Ephraim_Chronia
Ephraim_Chronia Extra trivias about this character:
1. She has the nickname "Trouble-maker" in her home town. She gained it after she flew a kite that has a candle at night and the rope snapped, causing a tree to burst into flames when the kit landed.
2. She's mentally immature but her IQ is off-the-charts according to Hiroshi's tests to her.
3. She's the only one in the Fumikage plan to not yet be bethroted after turning 15. She's 17 in canon.
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