Read Novel Full Vol 15 Chapter 4
Vol 15 Chapter 4
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Chapter 4 – Acceleration of Schedule
Princess Annemarie’s house was a beautiful giant clam house, and inside was a lovely room full of the parental silliness of Her Majesty Queen Adelheid. There, we were served delicious tea and sweets made from the nectar of roses that bloom in the sea, which is very rare.
“Phew, it was a very rare and delicious sweet and a great tea. Princess Annemarie, thank you for the treat.”
It was a very pleasant tea party. The host was a young girl, a mermaid, and a princess, so it was a unique tea party, but I think the time spent enjoying the tea and sweets was wonderful and peaceful.
“No, I’m glad you enjoyed it too. …Wataru-sama.”
“Y-yes?”
Something suddenly changed in Princess Annemarie’s mood. A moment ago, she was smiling and laughing, but what happened?
“Wataru-sama, I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay, including the sacred treasure of the Sea God and the borders of the Mermaid Kingdom.”
“…No, don’t worry about it so much.”
The castle in the sea is very exciting! A simple thank you is enough because it is the result of a casual exploration of the world.
However, when a young girl thanks me deeply with a serious face, I can’t bear it.
“I understand that Wataru-sama is such a person after working with you on the Chris. So, I will say no more, but I would like to thank you on behalf of all the mermaids. To repay your kindness, the mermaids promise to help Wataru-sama with all their strength. This is also the will of Queen Adelheid. Thank you very much.”
Princess Annemarie. It’s heavy. It is heavy, you know.
“Um, you’re welcome. But I’d have a hard time staying awake if my help caused trouble in the Mermaid Kingdom, so I’d appreciate it if you’d do it in moderation.”
If that were the case, I would like to say that I don’t need any help, but I’m sure that would not convince the mermaids.
“Yes, I understand. With Wataru-sama’s power, I don’t think there’s much need for us mermaids to help. So if you have materials, things, or seafood that you need in the sea, or if you want to contact someone far away or anything else that you think might be a little tedious, please leave it to us.”
…I see, that means they can really help me, as the saying goes.
In my case, I guess they thought it would be easier to return the favor with that kind of help.
That’s a good answer. I do not need the help of the mermaids because I can escape from difficult events and even retreat to my ship in case of danger.
By doing the chores, I am relieved of a lot of trouble, and the mermaids are happy to return the favor. It is a win-win-win situation.
I am especially happy about the seafood. It is possible to eat delicious seafood on a luxury liner, but when I have the fresh seafood of this world cooked by the God of Gastronomy-sama, it will not only taste good but… it will be delicious in many other ways as well.
“Well, then I will ask you to do it for me.”
“Yes, leave it to us.”
Princess Annemarie’s powerful words brought the tea party to a close: “Refill!” …The fairies’ refill declaration went out.
I don’t think Princess Annemarie would ignore the requests of her invited guests, and it looks like the tea party will go on for a little while longer.
The aquamarine rose nectar that Princess Annemarie served me seems to be a rare commodity, so I’ll have to offer the next tea cakes myself.
＊＊＊
A few days after the mermaids left, the dark elves moved safely into the two villages on the island.
Although they will still need help from now on, the summoning slots on the ship have been freed up, and it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders… Unfortunately, a problem was discovered that needed to be addressed immediately.
Yes, the fairy snack problem.
The dark elves and fairies had been getting along well and enjoying the fruits of the forest for a few days now.
However, the fairies, who had been enjoying a variety of sweet treats every day at the Chateau, had finally reached their limit.
Cakes, doughnuts, chocolate, ice cream, pudding, jelly, and various other tastes and intense sweetness not found in fruit. The fairies craved them intensely.
The fairies flew up to the Chateau, screaming to be let in and given sweets to eat.
They are more troublesome than the dark elf children on the island because they can fly to the Chateau.
I could have refused the fairies’ invasion without giving them permission to come aboard, but that would not have made much sense because they would have congregated on the island and made a mess of things.
In addition, the fairies befriended the dark elf children on the island and bragged about the sweet treats they had eaten at the Chateau, which aroused the desires of the naughty children on the island.
Just by showing up on the island, the children and fairies would cling to me, and I would end up exhausted.
Originally, I wanted to set up a shop on Dark Elf Island to sell sweets, and I decided to speed up my plans.
“We will put the sweets in the store properly, so you can go and earn some pocket money by working or helping until the store is ready. You won’t be able to buy sweets by just sitting around here.”
“…What do you mean by pocket money?”
An unexpected question from an innocent, if not naive, child.
Come to think of it, the dark elf village was almost cut off from the outside world.
To a certain extent, only the village chief and the village superiors know what is going on outside, and even the adults are not well informed. Then, of course, the children are not well informed.
Huh? Did I say something careless?
There is no money in circulation on the island, which is almost entirely based on rationing and bartering.
Even if I were to set up a shop, how to handle money has not yet been decided, and a poor explanation at this point would lead to confusion.
“Felicia. How the money will be handled hasn’t even been decided, has it? How am I supposed to explain that?”
The current Dark Elf Island frankly doesn’t need coins, so there’s no point in explaining the general economic system.
On the other hand, I suppose it would be better if they didn’t use coins, but I’m a little worried about that too, thinking about the future.
The current dark elves have gone through so much hardship that they do not think about leaving the island, but when the generation accustomed to the peace on the island is raised, they may leave the island or establish ties with countries on the continent.
If they don’t know how to spend their money at that time, they will be exploited if they are not careful.
It is a difficult problem.
“My father must be thinking about this a lot, so I think it would be best if you asked him to explain it to them.”
I didn’t expect such a roundabout remark from the serious Felicia. It’s a little heartwarming to think that even Felicia can be lenient with her relatives.
“Then let’s do this. You little ones, go and ask the village chief for help and work.”
Felicia suggests that I throw everything to him, and he will not refuse me, will he? I’ll gladly throw everything to the village chief.
“””Village Chief!”””
The children of the Dark Elf Island, the newly arrived children, and the fairies ran out, cheerfully calling for the village chief.
Well, this is a corner of the village chief’s house, and they will catch him soon.
But still… I feel that the children of the Lost Mountain, who should have been quiet, are becoming more active under the influence of the children of this island.
It’s good that they’re energetic, but I hope they don’t imitate the bad parts.
“W-what’s wrong with you kids? Hey, you shouldn’t be making trouble in my house! Calm down, fairies. Don’t pull my hair!”
As expected, the village chief seemed to be immediately captured. Up here, I can hear the impatient voices of the children who are tangled up with him.
How is the village chief going to handle the money?
At the moment, the only income on Dark Elf Island is gold and silver from the mines near the hot spring village, and I take care of that gold and silver and give them goods from various places and luxury liner goods as compensation.
Iron and copper can also be mined, but so far, the iron and copper have been processed and used on the island.
Come to think of it, the mined gold and silver have accumulated to some extent, and I should probably go to the southern continent to redeem them at some point, but… I’m not too keen on it because the situation on the southern continent is quite dangerous, and I might get involved in some strange things.
I think I’ll postpone the redemption after all.
“Master, as soon as they’re done talking to the village chief, those kids might start keeping an eye on us again, so let’s do what we have to do while we still can. Besides, Alessia and the others are going to make a container and bring it here, so we’d better hurry, or we’ll run out of places to put it.”
Ines also said something unusually reasonable, as if she didn’t like the situation that had just happened.
I understand exactly how she feels because I was also under a lot of pressure from the little ones’ stares.
Alessia-san and the others are cooperating with me in many ways, and I have to do my best as well.
But I am a little sad that Rimu and Pent left to play with Fuu-chan and Beni-chan.
“That’s right. Let’s make it quick.”
Let’s make it quick and have a lot of fun with Rimu and the others.
Since the shop building was not yet finished, we decided to use a room in the village chief’s house as a temporary shop.
It’s a room for entertaining guests, but since there’s no one there to entertain, they don’t mind if we temporarily use it as a store.
The only time they had a chance to use the room for its original purpose was when Princess Annemarie came to visit and when the new dark elf residents arrived.
However, Princess Annemarie did not use it because she stayed on the Chris, and the village chief of the Lost Mountain, Triatem-san, and his son used it until a while ago, but since they left for the hot spring village, there is no one to use it now.
Triatem-san, now settled as a consultant, was respected by Felicia’s father, Village Chief Federico, and seemed slightly uncomfortable.
He moved to the village of hot springs, taking advantage of the fact that he liked the hot springs very much during his tour of the village. I wonder if he liked the hot springs so much or if he was running away from the village chief Federico, who respected him unconditionally?
Oops, no time to worry about unanswered questions.
When the little ones return, we will be under intense scrutiny.
They are sensitive to things that have to do with sweets, even though they don’t know much about the shop or money, and they look at me with great anticipation, asking me for sweets as soon as possible.
I would rather not work under that look.
“Master, wouldn’t it be better to display the sweets later?”
“Hmm? Felicia, what do you mean?”
When I summoned the rubber boat filled with sweets, Felicia asked me to wait.
“If you display the sweets, you will have to defend the sweets to the death while you display the other goods. We should put the items that the children are less interested in first.”
I see. Because we moved our stall up due to pressure from the children, all the attention was focused on the sweets, but originally, we were going to put out not only sweets but also general merchandise, right?
“Felicia is right. I’ll bring them back.”
The rubber boat with the sweets is repatriated, and the rubber boat with the general merchandise is summoned.
The assortment will include popular items from the island, as well as items recommended by us and Alessia-san’s group.
Now, all we have to do is put them in order.