Chapter 196
Hi everyone! The main story of Greatest Estate Developer has officially concluded, but don't worry—Side Stories will be released next week. As promised, I'll also be reposting the earlier chapters starting from Chapter 1, though they won't follow a fixed schedule. Thank you all so much for your amazing support! I hope you'll continue supporting me, especially with my upcoming translation projects.
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Creak!
Turtle Neck stretched out both hands.
He made a finger-bone heart.
Behind him, several more skeleton soldiers stepped out.
Together, they fired finger hearts at everyone.
It was a greeting brimming with joy at reuniting with Lloyd—the master and benefactor they had missed for so long.
‘Keuheup. It was really hard for us to get here.’
Turtle Neck’s third cervical vertebra rattled with emotion.
All at once, the long journey they had endured flashed through his skull.
It must have been the morning after Lloyd abruptly left the territory as the King’s special envoy.
‘Captain!’
It was when everyone had woken up, drifting through the morning with no clear purpose.
Living by the humans’ construction schedule.
Following the rhythm etched into their bone marrow.
They had opened their coffins at dawn and stood blankly in the sunlight when one Bone Corps member suddenly raised his hand.
He began moving his finger bones.
Quickly, he wrote his feelings in the air.
A gesture no human would readily understand.
But the rest of the Bone Corps could read the letters perfectly.
The message was simple.
‘It’s empty!’
The others nodded their skulls.
‘That’s right. I feel the same way.’
‘Me too. I’ve felt restless since this morning.’
‘I feel like the wind is whistling through my ribs.’
‘The wind always comes in, though?’
‘Ah, I mean that’s how it feels. Even though your pelvis is smaller than mine.’
Each of them added a word.
Some nodded.
Others argued.
But they all agreed on the same sensation.
After a while, Turtle Neck, who had been silently watching, wrote:
‘I think I know why.’
‘What is it? Does the captain know?’
‘Tell us quickly.’
Everyone stared at Turtle Neck like hatchlings waiting for food.
Turtle Neck clicked his lower jaw, laughing soundlessly.
‘It’s because Lloyd left our side.’
‘Ah, aah.’
They nodded their skulls in unison.
Then they began writing in groups of three or five.
‘Then what should we do, Captain?’
‘Do we have to feel empty until Lloyd comes back?’
‘I don’t want that. I feel like I’m going to get osteoporosis like this.’
‘That’s right. We can’t live like this.’
‘Let’s do something!’
Their suppressed emotions burst out.
Longing for Lloyd—their benefactor and master.
The emptiness left behind when he disappeared.
They wanted to fill it.
They needed to resolve it.
Turtle Neck worked hard to soothe them.
‘Whoa, whoa. Calm down. Getting too excited isn’t good for your bones. Your gloss will fade, and your joints will rot.’
‘Then what are you going to do, Captain?’
‘Well. I do have an idea.’
‘What is it? Tell us!’
Every skull turned toward Turtle Neck’s fingertips.
He wrote his plan in the air.
‘We’re going to find Lloyd.’
‘Ooh!’
‘But there’s a condition.’
‘Condition?’
‘Yeah. I think it’s better if only the elite go.’
‘Why? Why is that?’
Skulls tilted.
Turtle Neck kept writing.
‘Think about it. Lloyd is our master, so he isn’t afraid of us. And the people of Frontera are fine because Lloyd already told them about us. But what about everyone else?’
‘…….’
‘They’ll make a fuss the moment they see us. They’ll run away, or they’ll try to beat us up. Does everyone want that?’
‘No.’
‘That’s why.’
His gestures sped up.
‘We need to avoid being seen as much as possible. But if all 200 of us move, sooner or later someone will spot us. So we’ll choose a few representatives and send them to Lloyd.’
‘Are we going to help Lloyd with his work?’
‘That’s right.’
Turtle Neck nodded.
‘Wherever Lloyd goes, he starts another construction job. I don’t know why. I just know it. He’s always been that kind of human. And even if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. We’ll pick the elite—about twenty. Only those will go find Lloyd and help him. What do you think?’
‘What about the rest of us?’
‘There’s no choice. We’ll have to be satisfied by wishing our elite comrades luck.’
Turtle Neck stated it coldly.
The Bone Corps fell silent.
Twenty elites out of two hundred.
A one-in-ten chance.
If you were chosen, you got to see Master Lloyd.
If you weren’t, you stayed here all day—basking in the sun, sucking on finger bones, and extracting bone broth.
But there was no better option.
Because Captain Turtle Neck was always right.
‘Okay, I agree.’
‘I agree too!’
‘Let’s pick them!’
They all agreed.
The selection was simple and fast.
‘Form groups of twenty and pick a leader. Leaders, play rock-paper-scissors fairly!’
‘Scissors!’
After a few rounds of fierce battles, alternating sighs and cheers, the lucky twenty were chosen.
Captain Turtle Neck.
Vice-captain Frozen Shoulder.
And eighteen other skeleton soldiers.
‘Then I’ll entrust the rest to you, Square Jaw.’
‘……Sniff. Okay. Do well for our sake, Captain.’
‘Leave it to me.’
(T/N : Was this portrayed in the manhwa? Its so wholesome )
That night, Turtle Neck, Frozen Shoulder, and eighteen skeleton soldiers packed their shovels and left Frontera.
They didn’t get lost.
They were bound to Lloyd by the Undead Domination Skill.
Thanks to that, they could sense his direction in real time.
‘It’s east!’
‘Let’s go!’
They crossed the eastern mountain range.
It wasn’t an easy journey.
Wild animals and monsters coveted their glossy bones.
Wolves, in particular, drooled and harassed them relentlessly.
But they endured.
They crossed the range safely.
Beyond it stretched a wasteland where it was hard to find even a drop of water.
From there, the journey became easier.
The Bone Corps didn’t need water in the first place.
‘Keugelgel, it’s warm because I bask in the sun all day!’
They needed neither food nor drink.
Even when the desert appeared, it was the same.
If anything, it was more comfortable—fewer people meant fewer eyes.
So they crossed the desert.
Even when they passed an oasis or skirted a village, nothing went wrong.
They scattered themselves across dunes and shallow pits and lay still through the day.
If people passed nearby, they only saw scattered bones.
They would click their tongues and mutter something lonely like, ‘Tsk tsk… were they shipwrecked?’
Then they would move on.
Like that, the Bone Corps traveled on, disguising themselves as they went.
At one point, Lloyd’s location suddenly changed dramatically.
‘Oh! Lloyd just passed over our heads!’
‘What? Really?’
‘I saw it too! It was Lloyd! He flew away riding Ggoming!’
For a moment, everyone was thrown into confusion.
The presence they had felt across the eastern desert abruptly shifted to Magenta, the royal capital.
But the confusion didn’t last.
Soon, Lloyd passed over their heads again—from the west, across the eastern desert.
After that, they kept moving steadily.
And finally, today.
At the end of the long journey, they arrived without a single dropout.
Of course, Lloyd had also felt their approach through the Undead Domination Skill.
‘Anyway, those commendable guys.’
Turtle Neck, Frozen Shoulder, and the eighteen skeleton soldiers who had stubbornly come all this way.
Lloyd’s eyes filled with satisfaction as he looked at them.
‘They don’t need food or fancy lodging. They don’t get tired, they’re resourceful, and they don’t even get paid. These are pure gold.’
And now they had come to this distant land just to help with the work.
He couldn’t help but favor them.
Of course, the rebels felt differently.
“O-oh?”
“What is that!”
Termes, the rebel leader, and the other men flinched.
The moment they saw Turtle Neck, they reflexively grabbed shovels and pickaxes.
If Lloyd hadn’t stopped them, they might have charged immediately.
“Whoa, whoa. Everyone calm down.”
Lloyd grabbed Termes’s shovel tightly.
Then he turned back with a calm smile.
“Don’t be surprised. Those guys listen to me.”
“……Those skeletons?”
“Yes.”
“By any chance… are you a black wizard?”
“Ah, no.”
Lloyd’s smile turned even more sly.
“There’s a story. Want to hear it?”
“Ah…….”
Termes and the others froze.
They remembered the day they had first kidnapped Lloyd.
Back then, they had asked the wrong question—and had been forced to listen to Lloyd explain himself for over an hour.
Termes shook his head quickly.
“No, no. I don’t think we need the explanation.”
“That’s right. We’re not the kind of people who need that.”
“Right. Aahm. Of course not.”
Termes laughed awkwardly.
Lloyd smiled in satisfaction.
“Thanks for trusting me. Anyway, they don’t bite. They won’t hit or attack. They’re diligent and kind, so they listen well.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Even if they look like that, they’re regular employees from my territory.”
Shining regular employees, no less.
Turtle Neck, Frozen Shoulder, and the rest of the Bone Corps swelled with pride at Lloyd’s introduction and casually slung their shovels over their shoulder bones.
After clearing up the misunderstanding, Lloyd said:
“Anyway, it’s a relief the right talent showed up at the perfect time—just when we need to break through the last water vein.”
He smiled brightly and patted Turtle Neck’s shoulder.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
“Surely… that skeleton soldier is going to do the work of opening the last water vein?”
“Yes. That way, no one has to die.”
It was the obvious answer.
Opening the final water vein of the Qanat waterway was extremely dangerous.
How dangerous?
A job with a 100% mortality rate.
In other words, you died no matter what.
So in the ancient Middle East, when Qanats were dug, the oldest worker would take the final job. No—he would volunteer for it, offering his life so that the younger generation could drink clean water.
But here?
There was no need.
“Turtle Neck and the Bone Corps will be assigned to the water vein work.”
“I-is that okay?”
“Yes. But we should install filter nets downstream. That way these guys won’t lose any bones.”
“…….”
Everyone nodded, overwhelmed.
Preparations for the final work began.
Several layers of filter nets and frames were installed downstream.
Then Turtle Neck, Frozen Shoulder, and the Bone Corps were sent in.
“Okay, can you see the guideline direction from here? Just dig along it.”
Creak!
Turtle Neck and the Bone Corps nodded vigorously and raised their shovels and pickaxes.
They hammered the bedrock with pickaxes and shoveled without pause.
After a long time of digging—
At last, the water vein opened.
Puh-uh-uh-uh-!
‘……!’
A tremendous water pressure burst out.
Turtle Neck and the Bone Corps couldn’t endure it for even a tenth of a second.
Their bones exploded apart and were swept down the waterway in the raging torrent—only to be caught by the filter nets without losing a single piece.
After that, water continued to flow.
Kwaaaa-!
Through the wide, desolate underground tunnel beneath the desert.
Along the precisely calculated route.
At last, it reached its destination.
The end of the Qanat.
Clear water poured into the purification plant prepared on one side of Kandara City.
It was water from melted snow, carried from mountains a full 36 kilometers away.
“Water! Water is really flowing out!”
As the purification plant rapidly filled, the citizens of Kandara cried out in emotion.
They hadn’t truly believed Lloyd.
At first, they thought he was the Sultan’s henchman.
Later, after hearing the rebels’ story, they cleared up the misunderstanding.
That he was a nobleman from a distant western country.
That he had come to eliminate the drought through construction.
They understood the situation—at least to some extent.
Even so, they doubted he could really bring water all the way here.
Water from those distant mountains.
Could that even be possible?
They told themselves it was a futile hope.
A vain wish.
Even our King Sultan has given up on this place.
The city’s administration fled long ago.
Why would a nobleman from another country do what even we can’t?
Don’t expect too much.
If you expect too much, you’ll only be disappointed.
They had been quietly bracing for disappointment.
But now—
They couldn’t deny it.
Lloyd’s bold words had been right.
Everything he said had come true.
The cold water wetting their hands.
The clear water mothers and daughters, fathers and sons drank without fear.
It was proof.
‘I’m glad.’
Lloyd smiled contentedly as he watched the people who had finally gained water that wouldn’t dry up in the drought.
But he didn’t celebrate like they did.
It was still too early.
He had to confirm the rest of the waterway’s endpoints.
‘The Qanat waterway doesn’t end only here. I have to check all the other places.’
He recalled the construction contract he had signed with the Sultan.
The contract required him to solve the drought across the entire Kandahar region with the Qanat.
But Kandara City?
It was only the central city of the Kandahar region.
Not the whole region.
That was why.
‘I didn’t recklessly block all of the rebels’ tunnels. I blocked the ones that needed blocking, and I opened the ones that needed opening.’
He had gone through precise calculations and simulations.
The waterway now connected to small cities and villages across the Kandahar region like a spiderweb—like blood vessels.
“So, Mr. Termes. Let’s move together for a bit.”
“Where to?”
“To the other small cities and villages in this region.”
They likely didn’t even know the Qanat existed yet.
The rebel tunnels running near their towns.
The clear water now flowing through those tunnels.
The caves that had become natural wells.
If they drew water from there, they wouldn’t thirst anymore, and they could farm again.
He would fly with Termes and explain it all.
Only then could he say he had truly fulfilled the Sultan’s contract.
“Now, let’s go.”
From that day on, for three days, Lloyd toured the small cities and villages throughout the Kandahar region.
Everywhere he went, he explained the Qanat—its existence, its use, and how to manage it.
And just as he finished visiting the last village—
A welcome and fruitful message floated before his eyes.
Ding-dong.
[You have achieved the feat of connecting a miraculous stream of water in the middle of a dry desert through ingenious wit, bold negotiation skills, and accurate and persistent construction methods.]
[Accordingly, the people of the Kandahar region, who have suffered from a long drought, have sent you great praise.]
[A new praise for you has been created.]
[A new praise, <Veteran Young Master from the West>, has been created.]
This one (Epilogue) was actually pretty cool.