Mining equipment in this world was still fairly primitive, relying heavily on manual labor.
In a place like Tansen City, it wasn't that the mineral resources had been exhausted—rather, the easily accessible surface deposits had already been mined out. Digging deeper would cause costs to skyrocket.
With other, more profitable mining regions available, Tansen City had gradually been abandoned.
What used to be the city's primary source of income—mining—had been declining year after year, now accounting for less than one-third of total revenue.
Meanwhile, agriculture—once overlooked—had slowly become the city's main pillar.
Even so, agricultural income wasn't particularly impressive either.
Frequent disruptions from small-scale beast tides meant growth remained sluggish.
Studying the map, Ron flipped a few pages forward and began jotting down plans.
A cultivation base centered around Chameleon Radish could be further expanded.
Aside from growing Element Cards, he could also start producing figurines of Miss Elementia.
With the soft, pliable texture of Chameleon Radish leaves—and their ability to return to their original shape no matter how they were molded—they'd likely be very popular.
As for Uncle McGico…
Better start small and test the market first.
Of course, expanding production would also increase the workload of the nuns.
It seemed that, aside from Element Guns, he'd also need Illya to produce a batch of staves engraved with the Plant Manipulation Spell, usable by ordinary people.
That way, nuns could lead civilians in farming, maintaining efficiency while also absorbing unemployed labor.
Fortunately, nuns were already accustomed to interacting with commoners through prayers and blessings.
Unlike most mages, they didn't look down on ordinary people.
With Sylvie overseeing things, Ron wasn't too worried about conflicts arising.
Come to think of it…
Sylvie had recently been organizing the War of the Gods tournament in both convents, right?
Wonder how badly she was losing…
Chuckling to himself, Ron flipped back to the second page and began marking up the map.
The yellow wastelands were divided into sections:
One portion for expanding agriculture
One for enlarging the Chameleon Radish cultivation base
The rest is reserved for factory construction
This was only a preliminary plan.
It would still need to be reviewed by professionals like Guy.
Ron wasn't trained in this field—there were bound to be blind spots.
His role was to set direction and make decisions, not handle every detail.
After further refinement, he added notes about potential agricultural machinery:
Tilling machines
Irrigation systems
Harvesters
"If only magic materials were cheaper…" Ron muttered, scratching his head as he stared at the long list.
Judging by the cost of a single Element Vehicle, a magic device would easily cost over a hundred gold coins.
And that didn't even include Element Stone consumption.
Before Element Potatoes, magic arrays were prohibitively expensive because they constantly burned through Element Stones.
Even if someone could afford the initial cost, the ongoing consumption made them impractical.
That's why such systems were only used in:
Northern fortress passes for defense
Magic academies with deep funding
Otherwise, no one would pay for such an inefficient setup.
Take the Element Bus, for example—
If powered by Element Stones, it would consume dozens of gold coins per day.
In just half a month, the energy cost would equal the price of building the bus itself.
If that were the case, even Ron wouldn't throw money at such a losing venture.
But now things were different.
With Element Potatoes—a near cheat-level resource—energy supply was no longer an issue.
Even so, the upfront cost of magic devices remained extremely high.
Ron could afford some…
But scaling to hundreds or thousands?
That would still strain his finances.
Thankfully, his territory as a Count would only include Tansen City and nearby towns—roughly equivalent to a mid-sized city.
Given the current technological level, there was no need to modernize everything at once.
Gradual improvement was the right path.
Rushing things would only backfire.
With that in mind, Ron flipped to the third page.
Another map.
This time, focused entirely on Tansen City.
It detailed:
Residential districts
Commercial zones
Administrative areas
Every street was labeled.
There was even data on daily foot traffic, gathered by Guy's team.
This made planning bus routes much easier.
For now, the two buses—Liya and Dis—would be sufficient.
Once Tansen City officially became his territory, he could introduce them and allow residents time to adapt.
Before that, however—
The roads would need to be widened.
Otherwise, the buses would be too dangerous to operate.
Which also meant…
Sidewalks
Traffic lights
Would need to be implemented.
"So troublesome…" Ron groaned, tossing his pen aside and leaning back, rubbing his temples.
How had things escalated to this point?
Wasn't he just trying to live a peaceful life when he first arrived?
How had he ended up becoming a city planner?
"This isn't even my field…" he muttered.
Building a well-functioning city involved countless considerations:
Infrastructure
Services
Daily life systems
Even someone as inexperienced as Ron could list dozens of aspects.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but feel a bit of respect for city planners back in his original world.
Behind every orderly city…
Were countless hours of effort and sacrifice.
"Well… I'm free anyway. Might as well treat this as a pastime."
After all—
He hadn't exactly asked to become a Count.
If anything, recreating modern systems through magic and plants…
It was kind of fun.
His mood lightened slightly.
At that moment, the bathroom door opened.
Nora appeared at the study entrance, speaking softly:
"Boss, I'm done washing. I'll head to the bedroom first."