The next few weeks saw the building of the teleportation arc on the plot I allocated for it along with the barebones of the road system.

At the centre of my, hopefully, territory wide formation, sat the world tree. Then, in a four hundred meter radius around the tree a wide roundabout road was built of the best quality self repairing black ‘liquid stone’ with four wide roads branching from it in the cardinal directions creating four quadrants, these would be our main roads.

The roads also branched from the roundabout inwards towards the tree following the cardinals, but with a specially crafted cobblestone, and led into the area that housed the tree. Though there were gates that blocked the cobble stone path and a fence that followed on the same circumference, barring entry into the would be forest.

‘Though it only has one tree now, it will become a forest of rare and fantastic trees soon.’

The teleportation arc for my territory was built in the south-east quadrant on the plot of land closest to the roundabout. The north-west plot closest to the roundabout would be mine, the north-east would belong to the emperor while the south-west plot closest to the roundabout would be Flamel’s.

‘That takes care of their request, now to build up the formation.’

Only about a ten kilometers radius had been purified by the tree, but it was enough to fill up that space and build as I go. I had the workers follow my plan exactly and build up a road system with the cardinals as the backbone, forming an array with the roads. I made sure the roads were wide enough and plotted for residential, commerce, public buildings and plentiful green life.

‘I AM a half elf, even though it may not look or seem like it and my instinct directs me to live in a forest so I’ll get as close to that as possible.’

The purification done by the tree also resulted in arable land and most importantly, a purified water table, ergo purified ground water. As part of the land, the groundwater was also cursed, but that will be no more.

‘That means clean water for various uses. Well, I would have found another way even if it didn’t work out like this, but I digress.’

On a particular weekend, I went to the territory to observe.

‘Things are going well.’

And they really were. I guess when the emperor himself is behind your project, things just go smoothly. I had already sent word that the land of both the emperor and Flamel were ready to be built on. I also asked if they had any rare, difficult to grow tree seeds or grafts for the inner garden, the land within the roundabout, they could come and plant. One of the functions I had ‘programmed’ into the world tree was optimizing the growth of plants in its territory, no matter the plant.

As I made my way to the tree on the cobblestone path, I met a familiar person.

‘What is the empress doing here alone?’ I bowed to her.

“I greet the empress.” She gave that dimpled smile at me that almost made me let my guard down. Almost.

‘I’m starting to think she’s more dangerous than the emperor.’

“Young Solis, you really have done something spectacular here. I haven’t felt mana this fresh and pure since my time in the feywild, such fond memories.” Her expression took on a wistful quality as she looked at the tree, before she turned back to look at me.

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“I was made aware of the fact that you want to grow a garden forest of rare trees, yes?”

“Yes, your majesty.” She nodded at my answer before she said.

“I have many trees native to the feywild that I have never been able to grow anywhere else, my instinct tells me they can be grown here. You don’t mind, do you?” She tilted her head like a puppy as she asked.

‘A really fucking troublesome couple. Trees from the feywild attract lower fey like fairies and sprites and may even attract a few elementals. With the purity of the mana here they may grow into greater fey or attract the greater fey themselves from the feywild. Wait, is she trying to turn this forest into a piece of the feywild?’ I frowned as I pondered. Her face took on an interesting expression as she looked at me. Before she smiled.

“You don't have to worry, I’ll make sure the fey that make this place their home don’t trouble those that come here.” She said with a queer smile, as if there was nothing wrong with what she just said.

‘Is this bitch trying to become a fairy queen? Fuck, really, just a family full of assholes. I don’t want to meet their son now. Well, whatever. not like I can say no to her. On the bright side, the fey will keep out stragglers that may want to get a piece of, say the bark of the tree itself.’

“You may plant whatever tree you deem fit, your majesty.” I bowed to her. She clapped her hand like an excited child as she beamed at me.

“Lovely! I’ll start right away.”

And start she did. Over the next few weeks, anytime I went to observe the growth of the world tree or the progress of the territory, she had a few new trees grafted and already thriving because of the world tree. She also didn’t limit herself to the inner garden as I had previously made all the green plots public information, so I saw quite a few fey trees growing as I moved through the territory. Flamel had also followed her lead and started planting trees and plants from his rare collection in the inner garden, while dotting the whole territory with at least five trees for every fey tree planted.

‘I think Flamel also understands the danger of what the empress is trying to do and is mitigating it how he can.’ I myself collected and planted rare and varied breeds throughout my territory to help in the forest feel I was going for.

‘Luckily, this will all be full forest in the next few months thanks to the world tree.’

Both the emperor and flamel had started building their residences on the plots I had provided from them. And the speed of the building was very fast.

‘Well, that's magic for you.’

Magic is what made it possible to build out the road network to where it is today in the short span and it’s what’ll make it possible for them to build their residences in record time as well. I had already designed my own residence and was just in the process of building the large whitefyre orb that would sustain the numerous wards built into the residence itself.

“This is going to be a lot of hard work.” I spoke to myself.

A few months later, all three residences on the boundary of the roundabout were completed.

‘Just in time too, now I can concentrate on the midterms.’

The reason this was all being rushed was because sometime late next year, the emperor was hosting a delegation from the Eayes continent consisting of elves, dwarves, beastmen and fae and he decided to host them in his residence in my territory. He wanted to use the world tree as a point of pride for his empire.

‘And who am I to complain if he takes on the expensive job of building up the Heartree land for me.’

I had already completed the schematics for the main city in my territory and the builders had already built or were in the process of building what I had outlined. The only things I am building myself are some housing to be sold (single house and apartment style) and commerce space along with public buildings like bathhouses, libraries, administrative buildings, schools and the like. The buildings I made a part of the grander formation were only the few administrative buildings I built and they all had whitefyre orbs in their foundation.

All that remained were plots that will be sold to later when the territory becomes open for that. That, however, doesn’t mean that the work for the main city is done. New buildings are still being built and new trees are still being planted as the livable area expands exponentially each day to take up the space once occupied by the great waste. Once all is said and done, the city should be a perfect circle with a radius of thirty kilometers.