Read Novel Full Vol 14 Chapter 11
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Chapter 11 – Development Plan
When we arrived in the Aquamarine Kingdom and secretly made contact with Bella-san, she visited us on the Lutto herself. Apparently, the beauty treatments and products on the luxury liner have made her the center of attention in her neighborhood. Earth’s beauty products are really amazing!
“Flora, long time no see.”
“Ines, long time no see. Are you well… I guess not; what’s going on?”
The day after we arrived in the Aquamarine Kingdom, Flora-san came to visit us on Lutto.
Has it been a long time? Ines was happy to see her childhood friend again. Well, Flora-san was surprised by Ines’ exhaustion.
She has been under a lot of stress lately, and last night, after we finished talking, she and Bella-san had a mother-daughter communication that was full of love, so I hope she will be healed by the contact with Flora-san.
The other members seem to be watching over her warmly, perhaps feeling the same way as I do.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Wataru-san.”
Flora-san bowed deeply. I guess she is sorry for keeping me waiting.
But from my point of view, it would have been better if she had taken care of Ines’ mental health, so there was no need for her to apologize at all. In fact, I’d even like to offer her a gratuity. You can expect souvenirs from me.
“No, there’s no problem. Thank you for coming all the way here today. Is everything okay at work?”
“I’m fine at work. I can quit anytime I want since I’ve already taken over the job, and now I’m just helping the junior staff. I’ve already sorted out some of my things, so I’ll be fine if I move in tomorrow.”
Flora-san, there is still some time left until the appointed time, but it seems that she is already ready to quit. Or rather, I can sense her desire to move out right away.
“Um… thank you? Anyway, now that we have things to do in this country, I think our departure will be roughly on schedule.”
Wow, Flora-san is obviously disappointed.
“Are you perhaps having difficulties staying because you are leaving your job?”
“No, I was told to get married instead of changing jobs, but that hasn’t made it difficult for me to stay. It’s just that… my mother is robbing me of my cosmetics… and the rest is already gone…”
Flora-san, I heard that she bought so much, and the rest is already gone. I mean, robbing…
“I will invite you back to the ship before we leave if I have the time, so please make plans with Bella-san and the others.”
“Really?”
“Hey, Master, you don’t even have to call my mother!”
In contrast to Flora-san’s big smile, Ines complains with a tense face.
“Ines. If we only invite Flora-san, then we have to worry about what happens afterward, don’t we?”
Ines shrugs. She seems to agree that it would be less harmful to keep Bella-san in a good mood.
“So, Flora-san. How is it going with the field survey and the monster thinning I requested from the Adventurers’ Guild?”
Now that Ines was satisfied, I went back to my original purpose. After all, I was under pressure from the God of Commerce-sama. I can’t just sit back and take it easy.
“Ah, in that case, I have the documents for you. Wataru-san has put a lot of money into this project, so I think it is in some shape. However, the Adventurers’ Guild of the Aquamarine Kingdom is mainly based in the sea, so we have a hard time thinning out the monsters, let alone conducting on-site surveys.”
From what I’ve heard, I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
“I see. I will have to check the documents first.”
“Yes.”
I received the documents from Flora-san and read them first.
Thanks to my language comprehension, I have no problem with difficult words. I don’t want to sound rude, but the contents of the documents are somewhat correct.
I thought that in the other world, it would be the norm for such parts to be in shambles, but the Adventurers’ Guild seems to be in order.
Well, the content is something that even an adult student could read, but…
Hmm… there’s definitely a lot of information on the sea-facing part. Even if not, it seems that they started the survey from the sea side. They went there by boat, right? They didn’t swim there, did they?
Come to think of it, Ines told me that she left the country because the Aquamarine Kingdom doesn’t have much work on land.
It seems that the reason they haven’t put much effort into developing the island is because there are so many fishmen, and it might be harder to develop this land than I thought.
I don’t mind that it will cost extra money since I was planning to gobble it up with money, but the question is whether wasting money and consuming charity money is in accordance with the will of the God of Commerce-sama.
…I don’t think so. He’s the God of Commerce, after all. He’ll punish me for wasting money.
The original plan was to mobilize a large number of people with a lot of money. I had planned to finish everything with manpower, but the problem is that there are more personnel who are good at sea than on land.
How to make the valuable personnel on land work efficiently…
“Flora-san, how many personnel who are good at physical labor on land can you gather? I’m willing to pay them well.”
“Is that limited to adventurers?”
Come to think of it, a lot of adventurers are fishmen, aren’t they?
Even if the monsters are not that strong, it would still be dangerous for ordinary workers to work in a place where there are monsters. But if we don’t have these manual laborers, development won’t progress.
If development does not progress, the cost of charity will not decrease. If that happens, I will not be able to leave this country. As a result, Ines will be broken.
That is not good.
So, should I prepare to bring in a lot of workers first?
“No, we will first ensure as much security as possible, so it doesn’t matter if they can’t fight as long as they can do manual labor. I will have the adventurers escort them.”
“If that is the case, I think we can get more than a hundred people by talking to other guilds.”
One hundred people… That’s a lot of people to consider, but in terms of pioneering, I don’t think it’s enough.
But, well, there is no easy way to gather a large number of people by suddenly opening up a new area, so even a hundred people would be a lot. If we treat them well and recruit more people, we should be able to make it work.
If that were true, it would be more motivating to recruit people by using the pioneer areas as bait, but since the original purpose of the project was to provide an escape for beastmen who are discriminated against in other countries, it would be difficult to do that as well.
Well, there will probably be some beastmen among the workers, so I can scout out the ones who seem to be good.
“I understand. It will be alright if we gather more than a hundred people, so please make an effort to recruit them. We’ll go to the planned pioneering area first and prepare for safe pioneering.”
Flora-san looks at me somewhat anxiously.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know it’s good for the country, and I know Wataru-san is a great person and has acquired a lot of treasures, but it’s going to cost a lot of money to settle the land. Are you okay?”
Flora-san seems to be worried about me. I’m really happy to hear that, but the premise is wrong.
In my case, I’m in a situation where spending money properly means paying off debts (charity expenses), which doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t say that to her, though…
“No problem. Oh, I’m sorry to bother you, but could you please also talk to the merchant guild and arrange for the supplies needed for the settlement? I don’t have anything on hand, so please have them prepare whatever you think is necessary. It doesn’t matter if it costs a little more!”
＊＊＊
Flora-san went back home with a stiff expression on her face.
She was carrying ten platinum coins that had been given to her.
Flora-san was half crying and said that if she had such a large amount of money, she would be too scared to go out, so Marina-san and Carla-san took her home.
No, I left the platinum coins with Marina-san, so technically, Flora-san doesn’t have them. However, she was holding on to the beauty products I gave her as a souvenir, and she didn’t want to let go of them.
“So, Wataru. What are you going to do after all? Your original plan was just to provide some money and instructions and see how things went, but you’ve changed your plans a lot, haven’t you?”
Alessia-san’s question was quite understandable, so I showed her the documents and explained the situation.
“I see, so we should just secure a base and thin out the monsters, right?”
“Yes. I don’t think this is a job I would ask an A-class adventurer to do, but is it okay with you?”
To put it bluntly, in this country where adventurers who are a little stronger on land are out of work, Girasole is an overpowered force.
If it weren’t for the sea and the trade that the Aquamarine Kingdom focuses on, it wouldn’t be surprising to see every inch of the island occupied by people.
Well, the population of the island itself is probably the reason for the low population…
This land should be able to attract more people because there is no discrimination against beastmen, but unfortunately, it is an island cut off from the continent.
It’s a difficult place to reach for the beastmen, who are discriminated against, have no money, and would be enslaved if found by a human supremacist state.
That’s why charity money is pouring in. Once it’s developed, I’ll put more charity money into it and send a bunch of beastmen there.
If I put a word in front of the immigrants, the country will not complain about the increase in farmland and population.
The viscount when I presented the treasure… what was his name? First, let’s ask the viscount to do some groundwork.
“We don’t mind too much since we’re indebted to you. Besides, we haven’t fought on land lately, so this is a good opportunity. I’ll uproot them.”
Oof, Alessia-san looks like a predator before the hunt. She seems to be looking forward to rampaging on land.
“So where will the locations be?”
That is the question, isn’t it?
Even though it is a reward, there is no way they would let a person from another country who is not receiving nobility and is not a vassal develop such a beautiful place. So it’s a very subtle place that I can’t say anything about.
I would rather welcome it because it would increase the consumption of charity money, but it is difficult to choose a place because it has no special characteristics.
It’s also difficult because the ocean is shallow. It’s not like a sunken city where the city is sinking, but it’s not deep enough for a ferry to dock.
If the ferry could have docked, it would have been easier to use the Fortress, which is disguised as a ship, as an inn and send personnel there…
“For now, let’s just see the place and decide, shall we?”
Even though some documents say something about it, it would be better to see it with my own eyes to be sure. All right! I don’t want to work hard, but I have to, so let’s do it!