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142 A Tense
Atmosphere
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Translator : PolterGlast
My relationship with
the temple is getting worse. This is because I told them I couldn't cooperate
with the temple's construction, but I think it's wrong for them to blatantly
harass me. The temple's harassment is that they raised the price (under the name
of "donation") for job changes and treatments within the Footscythel
viscount family's territory by five times. The amount was already not cheap,
but 100,000 Grille (equivalent to 1 million yen) is ridiculous.
"Oh, they're so
trashy, it's refreshing."
I clasped my hands
behind my head and leaned back in my chair, exasperated.
"Laura. The boxes
are ready, right?"
"Yes. It's ready
without any problems."
"Banarji. We're
going to put that plan into action, so please pass on the message."
"Understood."
When I gave the
instructions to put the plan into action, Banarji left the office with a stern
expression. From now on, we'll be in direct conflict with the temple. It's
impossible not to be nervous.
The Footscythel
viscount family's territory currently has five towns (regions) with a
population of over 10,000 people. Bozen has 38,355 people (including 5
surrounding villages), Agora has 35,689 people (including 6 surrounding
villages), Tenzan has 27,412 people (including 3 surrounding villages), Ifina
has 16,732 people (including 3 surrounding villages), and Triange has 25,238
people (including 3 surrounding villages). I have divided the vast territory
into these five regions for management, and many of the civil officials who
came from the Royal Family and the Ducal family are working there. The
Footscythel viscount family is already at its limit just with Triange, so
everything is pretty much being left to them.
Now, we've gained
three towns with a larger population than Triange. One of them—Bozen, which has
the largest population—has a temple that's throwing its weight around. The fact
that we, the Royal Family, and the Ducal family are training many priests has
not been made public yet, but I guess the time has come to put the plan into
action. Since the temple has already made itself our enemy, there's no need for
us to hold back. I'll have Banarji go to the Royal Family and the Ducal family
and tell them we're putting the plan into action. At the same time, I'll send
the Koga ninjas to each temple. And at the same time, I'll send our Explorers
to each dungeon.
The Adventurer's Guild
was constructing a building inside the cave where the Suzuka Dungeon is
located, and thanks to their financial power, the building was completed in no
time. We, with the help of Yamato and Itsukushima-san, built the soldiers'
barracks using concrete blocks, but the Adventurer's Guild used a massive
number of workers. They hired a lot of craftsmen and transporters and completed
the construction in a rush. It seems the Adventurer's Guild has this kind of
expertise, and they built it quite smoothly. The fact that the Adventurer's
Guild used a large amount of wood and that several inns and other stores
started construction in anticipation of an increase in adventurers has caused a
boom in Triange. It's a construction rush. The population will probably
increase even more in the future. That's why we're paving the road from the
town of Triange to the Suzuka Dungeon and developing the area. I'm so busy I
feel like my head is spinning.
There's a more serious
problem than the temples. The closer you get to the sea in Triange, the more
saltwater you get even if you dig a well. It was fine until now, but if the
population continues to increase, we'll definitely run out of water. So, we've
decided to build a facility that filters saltwater into freshwater. The water
problem has become the biggest problem for the urbanizing Triange.
"Yamato. How's
the filter coming along?"
"No problem. The
structure of a filter isn't that difficult in the first place. It was more of a
hassle to make it easy to maintain."
He made improvements
to make maintenance as easy and infrequent as possible. It's easy for me to
just say it, since Yamato is the one doing all the hard work.
When you think about
the development of a town, there's no end to the things you need. It's truly a
lot of work.
***
It's almost the end of
the year. My territory, which is in the south of the Oda Kingdom, isn't as cold
as the northern regions. But it's getting a lot colder. As the cold
intensifies, the dried Byshtan fruits become firmer and ripen. The Suzuka
Mountain winds that blow toward the sea are apparently good for drying the
Byshtan fruits.
When the new year
begins, it's the season for nobles to greet the King in the royal capital.
Nobles from all over their territories leave and head to the royal capital, but
I plan to stay in Triange until the very last minute. In fact, since I can
travel to the royal capital in an instant, I don't want to travel by land. I
first thought about preparing a dummy procession, but I would have to be there
to greet other nobles, so it wouldn't make sense to have a dummy. I abandoned
that idea.
It would be great if
the Explorer job could be made public, but I've recently realized that there
are a lot of problems with it. An Explorer can travel between dungeons using
the Dungeon Move skill. This means an army can also move with the Dungeon Move
skill. If that were to happen, it's only natural that there would be problems
with defense. So, before the usefulness of the Explorer job becomes widely
known, I'm sending our explorers to each dungeon. With this, we can travel
instantly to any dungeon.
The acquisition
condition for the Explorer job is a ridiculous one, like defeating the boss of
the 10th floor of a dungeon. But there's one more condition: defeating 20
monsters alone on the first day of exploring a dungeon. Because of these
conditions, no one seems to have known about the existence of Explorers until
now. Or even if they knew about the job, they didn't know the conditions to
acquire it.
To be honest, it's
almost impossible to become an Explorer with these conditions. I entered the
10th floor of the royal capital dungeon and hunted monsters, but even with my
double job, it was a tough place. To defeat a boss? That's a condition that
would cost you more lives than you have. The royal capital dungeon is said to
have a higher difficulty level than other dungeons, but still, the 10th floor
is not a place you can easily reach. The other condition, "defeat 20
monsters alone on the first day," is also difficult for the average person.
The difficulty of this condition is lower than the other one, but it's still a
tough task. And you have to be conscious of it when you enter the dungeon, or
you won't be able to acquire it.
If the Princess finds
out about this, she might send explorers to dungeons both domestically and
internationally and nullify the cities' defense networks. I've heard that most
dungeons are in capitals and large cities. This means that cities were built in
places where dungeons existed. If an army were to suddenly appear from a
dungeon, there would be no way to stop it. If we were to send explorers to
foreign dungeons, we could do a lot of bad things. I'm sending explorers to
dungeons within the country. Not to do anything bad or anything, but so we
can move around when we need to. What that "something" is, even I
don't know.
But I digress. The
point is, if we pave the roads, travel will become a little easier.
"I wish we could
pave the roads more and have cars run on them."
"That would cause
a big change, including in military affairs."
I know that without
Yamato having to tell me.
"But still. Don't
you think it would be a good idea to pave the roads just within our
territory?"
"Paving the roads
is fine, but cars are a different matter."
"If not cars, then
make a carriage with less vibration."
"Well, that's not
so difficult. It won't take much time."
Yamato talks about
things like suspensions, but I don't know the details. Why does Yamato know so
much about so many things?
"How do you know
so much about so many things?"
"Huh? Isn't it
normal?"
"Are you saying
I'm not normal?"
"Reincarnation
into another world is a dream for light novel readers. It's only natural to be
prepared."
"..."
It seems his knowledge
comes from novels in the light novel genre. Can you really get this much
detailed knowledge from that kind of source? Is it enough to just call him an
otaku? But you were so prepared for being reincarnated into another world. I
take my hat off to your dedication.
"I wish we had
more mages."
If we did, we could
use earth magic to pave the roads. But with the number we have now, that's not
possible.
"I'm not a mage,
but I might be able to help."
"What do you
mean?"
Yamato gave a creepy smile.
Stop that. It's disgusting.
"Itsukushima-san
is making something, isn't she?"
"Something... Oh,
that thing?!"
She's processing the
magic stones we get from the Suzuka Dungeon with alchemy. The prototypes are
apparently almost successful. You can make magic items without using alchemy,
but there are apparently problems with their power. That's why we're having her
process them with alchemy to make good ones.
"Itsukushima-san
said she thinks she'll be able to finish them soon."
"Understood.
We'll wait for that to pave the roads."
One day, Sodon
appeared looking dejected.
"I can't get into
Marquis Tsukmandes' mansion anymore."
"Hm, is there
someone so skilled at sensing presence that even you can't get in, Sodon?"
If there is, I'd want
to scout him. After all, if Sodon gets serious about erasing his presence, even
I have a hard time sensing him.
"No, that's not
it. I can't enter the mansion no matter how hard I try. It's like there's an
invisible wall."
"In other words,
there's a barrier?"
"I don't know if
it's a barrier or something else. But there's something there."
I know that Marquis
Tsukmandes is trying to get other nobles to boycott our wheat and salt. Did he
sense that I was investigating him? I don't think Sodon made a mistake... But a
barrier or something? That's a pain.
"Sodon, you
should rest for a while. You've been working too hard, so this is a good
opportunity."
"I'm fine."
"It's fine. Just
rest for a bit."
I'll leave the rest to
Koga and the others. If there's something that even Sodon can't get past, the
only thing we can do is have the Koga clan use a large number of people to
monitor Marquis Tsukmandes' mansion.
▽▽▽ Side: Princess Ermelda ▽▽▽
"What do you
mean?"
"Ma'am. The three
slave heroes, Sadao Tsuchii, Hayate Uchida, and Shinji Akaba, have not returned
from the dungeon."
"What about the
people who accompanied them?"
"They also
haven't returned."
Does this mean they
were wiped out in the dungeon?
"I was told that Sir
Akaba and the others were going to challenge the 6th-floor boss. Is that
correct?"
"Yes. That is
correct."
The three of them, a
mage, a scout, and a transporter, along with the three heroes, even though they
were slaves, should have had considerable combat power. They should have been
able to fully demonstrate their abilities against monsters. Thanks to that,
they had progressed far enough to challenge the 6th-floor boss. And yet they
were wiped out... I guess I have no choice but to give up. But what kind of
monster defeated them? That's what I'm curious about.
"Should we
investigate?"
Currently, the temple
and Marquis Tsukmandes are making strange moves. Especially Marquis Tsukmandes,
whose lord just died a few days ago, and his son has just inherited the house.
And the cause of the lord's death was a disease, but I can't help but feel uneasy
when a marquis who seemed like he would never die suddenly died. Honestly, I'd
like to send a hand-picked elite force to investigate the dungeon, but with the
Tsukumandes Marquis family's situation, the timing is impossible.
"Only a few
people can investigate the 6th floor. Now is a critical time. I regret to say
this, but please handle it as a complete wipeout."
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