The next few weeks were spent designing what would be my crowning jewel of a city in my territory. I had long decided that the whole city, and hopefully territory, would be a big formation, though I’m still finding the right balance. It needed to be a loose enough formation so that the building of new things does not hamper the function of the array.

‘This is too troublesome.’

“What are you doing?” The princess asked. I was in the homeroom while looking at a piece of paper with my sketches so I didn’t notice her coming in. I put away all the things on my desk and looked her in the eye.

“Nothing.” She looked at me for a few seconds before she continued.

“You know, my father told me something interesting a few weeks ago.”

‘Is that why you’ve been staring at me for the past few weeks, well, even more than you usually do?’

“And?” I raised one brow as I answered.

She crossed her arms and looked at me as if trying to dissect something she couldn't understand, the geometric patterns in her eyes softly glowing brighter than her irises. Brandon took that opportunity to burst in with a frantic look in his eyes.

“How! How did you create it!” He shouted.

‘Fuck, so he saw this conversation but not the one I had with the emperor? Can he tune the visions to particular people? Whatever.’

“I was just about to ask seer.” She frowned as she turned her eyes to him.

“You waited weeks for whatever reason, you had your chance.” He frowned at her before turning back to me.

“Just tell me, because I know if I let the conversation happen between the two of you you will never give the princess any answers. She harbours some guilt for whatever reason and that hinders the interrogation.” The princess flushed and sputtered.

“What are you talking about, I am not-”

“Give it a rest, we all know you were the reason he got the waste in the first place.” She was stunned into silence before Branndon continued.

“Well, I got a vision that confirmed it years ago and Solis is smart enough to have deduced it. He’s just allowing you some dignity by-”

“Alchemy.” I interrupted.

“”What.”” They both turned to me and asked.

“I developed the seed with alchemy and planted it with a ritual. That’s all you need to know. Also, I don’t particularly care that you’re the reason I got the waste, you just gave me an extremely large territory and a title to be passed on. That is all.”

‘Well, I am incredibly annoyed but that can be set aside.’ They stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Can we see it, the tree I mean.” Brandon asked.

“No, not for a few months at least. When the city that will be built becomes habitable, then I’ll invite you. But not sooner.”

“So that’s what it was you were looking at then, city planning.”

‘Ohh, you’re back to talking princess.’ I just raised my brows and looked at her in silence. She flushed a little before standing up straight.

“I’m sorry for asking my father to force the waste on you with malicious intent, it was immature of me.” She paused a little, before looking slightly away and mumbling.

“I was angry that I couldn’t beat you and wanted to scare you a little.” I just waved her off.

“It’s okay.”

‘It really wasn’t, but whatever. Base of operations.’

The rest of the week passed in a sedate manner. I ended up in the library most of the time to work on the city planning before I finally came up with the barebones of the formation.

‘Really, my chi sorcery shows itself to be invaluable time and time again.’ It’s what allowed me to complete things like this at breakneck speeds.

‘It’s time then.’

I walked to the teacher’s office area where I knew Flamel would be. I knocked on his door and waited.

“Come in.”I entered and stood in front of his desk.

“I’ve completed the backbone for the city I’m building.” I unruffled a large continuous piece of paper in front of him.

“I’ve mapped out the roads, sewage disposal, some public buildings and various plots of land for different things. With the tree as the centre, there will be a roundabout with four connecting main roads at the cardinal directions that run till the edge of the territory, forming the four main streets while dividing the territory into four. In one of the four main plots closest to the tree and just outside the roundabout, we will build the teleportation arc. The other three plots will be for my main residence, your residence and the imperial family’s residence. Then we……” We discussed the plans I had into the night. As we were coming to a close, I added one more point.

“I want to use only the best materials on the market, I should be able to afford it.” He looked at me with a weird face, before he laughed.

“Did you think we were going to make you pay for all this?” He asked.

“Well yes, It’s my land..”He laughed again.

“Don’t worry about paying for things, the emperor and I will foot the bill since we’re rushing you to build it. Just take it as the extra payment for the lots of land you are giving us to build on.”

‘Well, hello windfall.’