A week after the completion of my city and its subsequent opening, the number of humans visiting my city had increased. My most recent tallies stated at least 300 humans per day were visiting and at least 50 of them stayed the night on our inn.
DP too was steadily being gathered.
An average of 5 DP was gained per human that stayed in the city for a full day. If they only stopped by momentarily, this number would drop to 2 DP on average. All in all, my daily income was around 500 DP.
It seemed like this city stimulated various human desires and since human emotions fluctuated more than I expected, my income amounted to such.
At the moment, Kuina and the others hunting in the [Crimson Cavern] still provided me with more DP but that was bound to change as I gained more human visitors.
Because I had finally secured a steady flow of income, I could now prepare for [War] and build my vicious dungeon without worry.
It would be a rather bad idea if I did not begin preparing for a [War].
It was to my advantage that I was able to make a dungeon whose sole purpose was the annihilation of any and all intruders while the other Demon Lords had to balance protecting their crystals and drawing in humans into their dungeons.
“At last, I’ve finally made it this far. The headaches were endless but I made it.”
…but there still were problems.
Given that a great number of hot-blooded adventurers were coming to our city, it was only natural for them to have disputes with their fellow adventurers.
On top of that, there were issues of theft too. The group of people trying to steal swords were especially high in number.
The Golems, however, resolved all these problems with a show of force.
The Golems were programmed to suppress ensuing acts of violence at once and also to arrest anybody trying to take with them items from the store that they didn’t pay for.
Besides those problems, there were an endless supply of apple thieves, people squatting in order to skip out on the inn charges, and people who harass the Mythological Foxes, Dwarf Smiths, and High Elves.
…They were all dealt with by the Golems though so our city remained peaceful. Golems were truly convenient.
“Oto-san, things have finally settled down.”
“Nice, isn’t it? We’ve hired helped, after all.”
At the moment, I was at the city leader’s house, diligently doing office work.
The store and inn now had at least 10 adventurers working part-time which freed up Kuina from working there.
It seemed like with a daily salary of 12 silver coins, twice the average salary of a manual laborer, the job was so fascinating that some of the broke and lower-class adventurers even wanted to keep on working for us for the long-term.
In some point in the future, it might be better to give them a house to settle into instead of letting them live meagerly and stay at a communal room in the inn.
I hoped to have full-time employees at the inn and store rather than part-timers.
As I was thinking so, the door burst open and in came Elder Dwarf and Ancient Elf.
“Master.”
“My master.”
The two wore serious looks on their face as they walked.
“What’s wrong? Why do the two of you look like that?”
“Master, we’re shorthanded. I need more help.”
“Me too. There’s too much work.”
They were quite distressed.
The store and the inn didn’t require much skill out of its employees so adventurers working part-time were able to do most of the work and only needed to be watched over. Blacksmithing and agricultural duties however needed expertise.
Apparently, the adventurers boasted about the swords they bought in our city and were steadily spreading news about it, leading to even more adventurers visiting our city to buy the swords. Perhaps it was even too popular that even if we doubled its price, more will still come.
The apple, for its mysterious ability to relieve stress, and the bread, for its unusual deliciousness, had also gained popularity among the adventurers.
These were all reasonable but the number of swords that could be made in a day was limited while the apple and wheat—the main ingredient of our bread—were only grown at an accelerated rate due to the elves’ power.
It was becoming quite taxing.
“I kind of understand. But first, Elder Dwarf, I ordered to to lessen the number of swords produced down to twenty a day but did even that not help? Sure, you already have a month’s worth of advance orders but is that pace too much?”
I was hoping that increasing the scarcity of the swords instead of selling them all out at once would, aside from making the dwarves’ workload lighter, keep the customers going back.
Furthermore, the blacksmiths and the resale merchants of the nearby city would seriously complain if we sold too many swords.
However, if we went to the other extreme and sold all the swords only through advance orders, its effect to draw in visitors would be gone. So I decided that five of the twenty swords made daily would be displayed over the counter and would be sold to the winners of a lottery.
In addition, the raw materials were also an issue. The Golems diligently dug and gathered the materials night and day but between their current mithril output and our [War] preparations for the dungeon proper, that was really all we could spare.
“There are still a lot of requests for weapon and armor repairs. Also, the orders for custom-made items are too detailed and bothersome. The Dwarf Smiths couldn’t handle it all by themselves so I’m forced to working on the orders too. The humans have increased so an expansion of our buildings is also necessary. We are just barely able to handle the orders right now but it keeps me from doing my true job: the development of our weapons.”
I understood what she meant then. The sales aside, the repairs of their equipment wasn’t something we could make the adventurers wait for too long.
“Alright, I’ll give you two new Dwarf Smiths.”
“Thanks. Two of them should be enough.”
In our past week of operations, my DP had increased by a considerable amount. This much of an expense should pose no problem.
Plus, Dwarf Smiths were B rank monsters and would become a significant addition to our fighting force so it was like killing two birds with one stone.
“Okay then, how about you, Ancient Elf?”
“Yes, as for us, we are harvesting more than we are able to grow. No matter how much we accelerate the growth, it is rapidly being consumed. It’s to the point that the High Elves have gotten groggy.”
“The apples aside, instead of you guys growing the wheat, could we not just use the ones bought from Eclaba?”
“It’s better that we don’t. Our bread is now known to be delicious and there are a lot of visitors coming to our city for the bread so if we used the wheat bought from Eclaba, they might get upset.”
She was definitely right. If the bread suddenly stopped being delicious, the customers would indeed get upset.
The taste of the wheat was the result of combination of the blessings it had received from the elves, the fertile farmland, and the water supply.
Even if the elves did not accelerate the growth of the wheat, good tasting wheat could still be harvested in our lands. In the future, the immigrants shall be the ones to grow the wheat, only it would take them longer before they could harvest.
“I understand. I’ll also give you two new High Elves. Like so, the growth acceleration to the crops would be enough. Also, why not make your work easier and make use of the humans to harvest the apples and wheat? As soon as possible, hire part-timers… no, they’ve got to be immigrants, don’t they?”
So far, we still didn’t have any immigrants. Something I should rectify soon.
“Yes, of course. I think I’ll leave it to them then. Thanks!”
With that, I somehow managed to solve their issues.
But then, I saw Kuina looking enviously at the relieved Elder Dwarf and Ancient Elf.
“Oto-san, just like El-chan and Elf-chan, the Mythological Foxes…”
“We can’t, at least not now. We only have so much DP left, I think it’s better to spend it elsewhere for the moment.”
Almost all of the DP I had gained after the founding of this city was going to be spent on creating the Dwarf Smiths and the High Elves.
So of course, we couldn’t afford to make the Mythological Foxes whose numbers were enough for the moment.
“I understand… how unfortunate.”
When I thought the conversation was over, I heard the sound of the bell installed on the door.
◇
“Enter”
“Yes, my lord.”
The one that came in was Wight. Behind him were a wealthy looking man with good physique and a slender man with a well-trained body.
“This gentleman said that he wanted to talk with you, my lord, no matter what so I led them here.”
As Wight said so, the gentleman lined up beside him.
“I am most honored to meet you. My name is Konanna Krutrudo and I run a small firm back in Eclaba. The purpose of my visit to this splendid city being governed by the great sage Procell-sama is that I have something I wish to talk about with you.”
Just when I thought he radiated the scent of money, he indeed was a merchant. The man standing close beside him probably was his guard.
“What an honor it is. Are you perhaps Krutrudo of the best and largest firm in the commercial city of Eclaba? Certainly, I would listen to whatever it is you wish to talk about. But first, instead of talking standing here standing, why don’t we sit ourselves and relax in the room over there?”
I guided the men to the drawing room I had prepared in this house.
◇
When I gestured for them to sit, the man with good physique… Konanna, did so but only after he gave me his thanks.
“This is a good item. This is my first time to see a chair this fine and comfortable.”
“I’m pleased to know it is to your liking.”
It was made with [Creation]. It was the finest chair in my memories.
If asked, Elder Dwarf was likely to say it was an ergonomic, unbelievably rational, wonderful beauty.
“Many of your furnishings, among other things, are unfamiliar to me. It might be rude of me but where did you come from?”
“In a humble village somewhere across the sea, far to the east.”
“And the name of that place is?”
“A secret. The fruit and swords we sell here at Avalon as our specialties are all from there so excuse me from not sharing any further knowledge.”
It was a line I had prepared beforehand.
Saying the items were brought over from the other side of the sea and were therefore developed there was, by itself, persuasive.
“I see, that’s reasonable. I wouldn’t tell a stranger anything about my secrets to success, after all.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“Can you tell me one thing though: I would like to know your reason to build a city composed mostly of young demi-human girls here in this remote, monster-infested land?”
I was surprised that even though he was a merchant, he wasn’t asking anything directly related to money.
But then again, he could just be looking for anything that could be used as my weakness.
“Yes, I can tell you that. It might not be obvious based on my appearance but I have the blood of demi-humans flowing in me. I was being persecuted as I grew up and by the time I reached adulthood, I immediately left to go on a journey. On my journey, I met with several others that had similar troubles. I then thought I wanted to help them somehow.”
I smiled wryly as I reached the end of my made-up story.
“If demi-humans are going to just be persecuted wherever we go, I decided I would rather build a city outside of any nation’s borders where demi-humans could happily live out their lives. I then gathered candidates for my city. Luckily, everything that my plan needed was here.”
It was a complete and utter lie but it couldn’t be easily dismissed as one.
The merchant’s eyes grew sharper as he tried to see through my real intentions.
“I see, that’s wonderful. You are not just an influential man that has built and is governing a city like this but you are also a man of character.”
I don’t think he seriously believed my story but he didn’t press any further.
“I don’t deserve to be called a man of character. It was simply my ego at work.”
“I see, I see. I shall take note of that distinction. Yesterday, I had the privilege to stay at your inn but, oh my, that hot spring was wonderful. It relieved me of some of my fatigue. And the combination of submerging myself into the hot bath and the ice-cold alcohol made out of the fruit called the apple was simply the best!”
“It pleases me greatly to hear that. But leaving that aside, shall we get into the main purpose of your visit? You did come here to do business, did you not?”
“Yes, indeed.”
The smell of profit emanated from this city. And so, humans were rapidly gathering here. With them doing so, it was only natural for humans like him to come rushing here.
I was rather grateful to them, the humans who would come here bringing their own products to sell, for Avalon lacked a great number of things.
“I’m sorry but let me say this upfront: I will refuse any business that involves selling our products outside of the city and any that will reveal the techniques we use.”
“Wha—”
The merchant was clearly taken aback. Perhaps what I said was his true purpose.
My goal was to gather a lot of people here in my city, not to earn money. No matter how many items we procure or how much of it we could sell was of little consequence to me.
That was why I was perfectly fine with something like selling only one sword to each customer.
“But, if the deal is going to be within this city, you have my utmost cooperation. Now that that’s out of the way, let us discuss the details of your deal.”
And like that, a battle different from ones where swords clashed against swords began.
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