July 4th, Monday.
Midseashire, Beldan City's Film City construction site.
Xio Derecha stood before a notice board covered in "regulations," watching the construction workers voluntarily comply with those laws, a satisfied smile appearing on her face.
Then, without hesitation, she picked up the already-prepared Imperative Mage Potion and tipped her head back to drink it.
The advancement ritual for an Imperative Mage required one to establish laws and rules in a town with at least ten thousand people, then have everyone covered by those edicts sincerely acknowledge and obey them for a period of time. The longer it lasted, the better the effect.
But once there were over ten thousand people, their thoughts could never be completely unified. Moreover, Xio lacked the prestige she had enjoyed as a princess in the "Hero" world of the Spectral Empire. Ordinarily, even rules entirely beneficial to the public might not satisfy everyone.
Yet the Film City construction site Abner had chosen for her was rather special, because all the workers here were landowners and self-cultivating farmers who had been forced to sell their land after the Grain Act was repealed.
They dreamed of owning land again and would spare no price to achieve it.
And among the many laws Xio had established for them, the final reward was ownership of farmland around Beldan... Though it was not much, to those who had lost their land, it was an irresistible temptation.
Thus, they instead hoped the "rules" would become harsher, so others would be more likely to make mistakes and they themselves would have a chance.
Of course, they had all subconsciously ignored the possibility that they might make mistakes as well.
"Only in this kind of competitive environment are people more willing to follow the rules... Of course, that is also because they