Just as the last sunlight left the king's study in Rapra Castle, a single oil lamp was ignited to extend the day for a while longer.

After successive visits to the shipyard and the medical research center, Corco had finally managed to get home to his castle by the time the sun went down. But even now he still couldn't rest. After several weeks away from his desk, there was much left to do. This late in the day, Fadelio would have already gone to bed, so he would have to do all the work himself. Though he didn't mind, since he wasn't in the mood for dry desk work anyways. Without his assistant, he was free to do whatever work he felt like.

After he had sat down on his chair, he looked over the mountain of paperwork piled atop his desk, reaching almost to his shoulders. On top of the stack sat a note, which read 'to be acknowledged and stamped -F'. These were all the accumulated papers that needed to be approved by Corco after his weeks away from duty. With a determined expression, he took a heart and shoved the entire stack to the side, scattering some of it on the floor in the process. For now, he would much rather work on something more interesting, just to cap off the day in a positive way. There was still plenty of time for monotonous work tomorrow.

Once he had cleared the space, Corco pulled three separate pieces of cloth from the shelf behind his seat and spread the first on his table. In the bright light of the oil lamp appeared a map that depicted the entire city of Saniya to its current extent, spreading over the three islands of the Mayura delta, as well as along the western shore of the river.

Besides it, Corco unfurled another map. The geography was identical, depicting the Mayura delta and its surrounding region. However, the city built around the delta was entirely different on this map. Stretching both river banks, as well as the surrounding lands a dozen kilometers in all directions, it was a metropolis like no one had ever seen in this world. This was Corco's plan for the future, his plan for his ideal city.

In his plan, not much had changed on the three major islands of Saniya. However, both sides of the river were almost unrecognizable. Both the east and west sides no longer had any walls, and the old quarters that used to make up the city before he had arrived were entirely gone. Instead, the area was evenly cut up into large block sections by wide roads. Many bridges also lead across the Mayura to connect the two halves of the city's road networks into one cohesive whole. In the future, Corco planned to have only official vehicles drive on those central roads: police, firefighters, ambulances, public transportation and such. Like blood through arteries, they would service the people of the city with no obstructions.

Saniya already didn't allow large pack animals on its streets. In the future, the same would go for private cars, which would only be used outside of the city limits, for example on the three major highways that branched off from the network of roads on the map. For Corco's city, the lack of cars would open up a whole world of possibilities. The lack of parking space and lower amount of roads allowed for all kinds of constructions while retaining a reasonable density.

While the city's overall look seemed rigid with its square grid, the inner portions of the blocks between the large roads were quite big in size. Within these large blocks, Corco would get the chance to zone however he liked.

One block may be a shopping area, one may be an industrial zone, but for most, he planned to turn them into smaller, independent neighborhoods, complete with residences, shops, doctors and whatever else the people would need in their daily lives. In many regards, these small neighborhoods would be more locally ruled, with many smaller matters taken over by local governors.

This way, they would preserve the sense of community Corco felt and treasured from Saniya's quarters at the moment, while at the same time creating more structured and efficient governance.

On top of that, the city would not lose its open and natural feel which came with the Yaku's preference for open courtyards and gardens. Rather than stuff the city with giant building after building owned by a handful of magnates, the people of each neighborhood would be able to design the space they would want to live in themselves. The autonomy of the neighborhoods and their size left plenty of room for greenery, cul-de-sacs and whatever else may strike their fancy.

Even better, the entire city had been built future-proof, at least for the next few centuries, and construction would leave plenty of space to expand the infrastructure without much fuss. When the workers had built the sewers for example, they had already reserved enough room for the various amenities the people of the city would be able to enjoy eventually, from water and electricity, to tram tracks or subway tunnels, all the way to phone and internet lines.

For now, the near-future goal in this regard was to install a water treatment plant, while adding municipal water supply first in the castle and some important manufactories. Then, the water would be expanded to some public spaces like public springs, before laying pipes underground throughout the entire city and into every new and refurbished house, until they would eventually cover every household in Saniya.

However, after Atau's return from his long journey, Corco had new ideas, which he had yet to implement due to the whole war business keeping him occupied. While his cousin had brought many noteworthy things back home with him, from the camels to the coffee, the one import that Corco was most concerned with was one that most others without his knowledge would have overlook.

On an island halfway across the world, near the distant continent of Sadraiy, the people knew of a tree that could produce a thick, milky sap if tapped in the right season. In its dried form, the locals there chewed on the sap, both as a common habit, and to stave off hunger and thirst during long work days or hunts out in the wilderness. This tree's product seemed like a useful tool for an army on the march, but appeared otherwise unremarkable.

However, the local people were entirely unaware that they had a real treasure on their hands. Thus, they hadn't been protective of these plants called rubber trees and Atau had been able to buy several specimen without trouble and took them home with him. With the addition of a bit of sulfur, the gum from the tree would turn into rubber, and become one of the most useful and versatile substances known to man.

With the new material, some of the plans Corco had shelved in case they ever became possible were now on the table. Thus, he began to modify the road network on his ideal city map to accommodate his new ideas, adding overpasses and additional lanes to the grid roads.

Once the work was done, he stared at the new map in satisfaction, before he unfurled a third map. This one was a copy of the city in its current state, but printed on cheaper material. There were many copies of this version, and they were used to sketch out possible development projects. This real version of the city was far less impressive than the future one, but it had a big advantage: This version had plenty of space left to work with. Thus, he first made some room on the three islands for the new manufactories.

They would need new weaving tools to export to Rasacopa, since Sumaci's people would get into the clothing industry very soon.

Of course, they would have to produce the artemisinin as well. These types of industry would soon constitute the core of the economy for these two countries, especially the cloth making industry. As a consequence, they needed to be secretive about their production methods.

The space on the three islands was limited, which was a constant thorn in Corco's side. Thus, it took him a long time to shuffle things around and make the space he needed for all the new production, while also having to shift other important sites off the islands. All in all, there was lots for him to do.

With great enthusiasm, the king played around with his map, deleting buildings for older manufactories or various offices and homes, only to plop them down somewhere else in the city. For the first time since his arrival here, Corco really felt like he was playing a city building game.

Once he had finished the reallocation of manufactory space, Corco glanced over the map in idle thought and just let his thoughts wander for a while. Often, these idle periods would let him remember something relevant to his plans that was hidden deep in the corners of his mind, and so it did this time.

He thought back to Fadelio's comments earlier in the day, about the reluctance of the merchants to buy ships as a group. If he wanted to make cooperative ownership easier, especially between relative strangers, then there was a need to standardize the process. Thus, he singled out one large piece of open land near the harbor and penned it with the term 'stock market'.

Stocks weren't quite a new concept in this world. He had already used a stock system with fellow merchant DeVaerter back in Arcavia. Technically, the new fishing ships worked on a stock system as well, since the ships were collectively bought by a village, so everyone in it would own an equal piece of the ship. However, once the process was formalized and officially backed by the country, with a fancy building and all, buying and selling stocks would become a whole lot more convenient.

This way, the people should also have an easy time accepting this idea, especially those rich merchants. Though there were plenty of problems with a stock market, he had long considered plans to address these issues before they would arise. Though only now had the city developed far enough to turn his plans into reality. With this new addition to the city, the number of privately owned ships would increase, and thus the number of reinforcements they could expect in the Verduic Sea.

Finally, Corco let out a satisfied sigh as he stared over his new map one last time. Now the three maps were next to each other, all of them distinct: One showed the present city, one the distant future, and the final one the immediate future, with detailed plans for zoning and construction over the next year or so. Rather than feel pride in his work, the architect of this wonder leaned back and rubbed his exhausted eyes as he stared up to the ceiling.

Only after a while did he turn around to his shelf again. Even though the time had already passed midnight, he still wasn't done with his day. After all, now that he was back in Saniya, he would have to teach his classes in school again.

So, he picked out the books he needed to prepare for tomorrow's classes. As his eyes ran past all the books on the shelf, he soon realized that most of them contained old content he had already covered in his classes. In the end, his hands landed on a pair of books at the very end of the shelf.

Last one, he thought as melancholy overwhelmed him, and opened the first of the two, Stochastic Mathematics. However, even here, he had to go through almost half the pages before he found new content he hadn't taught yet.

If he included the five years in Arcavia, Corco had been teaching his oldest students for almost ten years by now, and most of them already had a solid basis of language and math before they began to study under him. At this point, there was little more he could teach them.

On most subjects, his own knowledge was very shallow after all. There were still many more advanced topics he was vaguely aware of, but he wouldn't be able to talk about something fancy like the theory of relativity with any kind of authority, or even accuracy. Even on the simpler topics he would consider high school level, he realized over time that there were more and more holes in his curriculum, and there were more and more student questions he couldn't answer during class.

Rather than spread misinformation, or make his students incompetent generalists like himself, he would have to let them do their own work in the near future, discover the world and its hidden laws of their own volition. He had already given them the tools to do so over the course of their education, putting emphasis on scientific methodology in everything he taught. Now he just had to give them the time and space to follow where their inspiration would lead them.

Guess it's time for this one as well.

In the end, he put the book to the side again and pulled the development map back over. This time, he looked for a large area slightly outside the city, with plenty of room and open space, enough for both the body and the mind to wander. Now that the students were about to exceed their master in many regards, it was finally time to open up their first university.

To Corco, this had special significance. It would be the end of his role as a teacher, and would open up a new chapter in their country's history. In the future, this space would be the new center of their kingdom's education, and the world's center of progress and enlightenment. His exhaustion blown away, he continued to work deep into the night.