Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? Chapter 296

Maru and Rinbo both brazenly said they want to become combat slaves so in order to get them to give up I was having Zulu and Angela knock them down until Sanno, Ruttsu, Rodrick, Denda, and Karimu appeared. The five of them appeared covered in sweat as expected from just finishing their running this morning and it seems they came along to get John and Terry to make some baldoggie for breakfast.

"Morning, Greed-kun. What are you guys doing?"
"Yo~ so you were already finished with your running? Zulu, Maruso. What's going on?"

Sanno and Ruttsu called out to us. You're loud~ Don't interfere.

"If it's about baldoggie then Mekku and the others are cleaning inside so just say something."

I replied with just that before turning my attention back to Maru and Rinbi.
It seems that Sanno and the others quietly went into the factory.
The two of them are still looking at me bitterly as usual.
Even if you look at me with eyes like that those who are useless are still useless.

In the first place something like wanting to be combat slaves, you screwed up in how you suddenly brought it up with me first.
If it's to report bullying then that's fine but it's not even that urgent of a matter right.

First off you should have consulted with the head slave Zulu and pa.s.sed it through him and then only finally came to make the request with me after you've convinced him, even Cathy would have been fine. If it's with her then I'm sure she's easy to talk to as well. In the first place what have John and Terry been doing.

Completely skipping over the head slave Zulu and making a direct appeal to me is ridiculous.
Do they not understand that it completely ignores Zulu's position?
Though they must have done such because they didn't know.

Ronslail-san~ you never properly finished training them...
Zulu's still making a strict expression.
Well, it's not like you're normally together with them after all.
It would be barking up the wrong tree to criticize Zulu over something like this so don't make that face.
Though it's a face that doesn't seem to be worrying about himself.

"Hey, the two of you. You want to die?"

"No, I don't want to die."

After a short pause Maru nervously replied.

"What about you?"

I asked Rinbi once again.

"U..Umm, I don't want to die either."

Her voice started to crack up a bit.

"That's only obvious right. Even I don't want to die."

I throw the remainder of the baldoggie skewer I had in my hand into my mouth and play around with the remaining skewer.

"You two, are you saying that fully understanding what kind of thing combat slaves are?"

""...""

You never know when you might be ordered to be my shield you know?
You never know when I might abandon you in order to earn time to escape?
There's no way I'd bring along someone who wouldn't even be able to properly earn any time if it comes to that!
If the number of people increases then so does the food we have to carry.
For as long as the number of people that can teleport at once is limited we can't waste any spots.

Now both Zulu and Angela are combat slaves whose names are known pretty well.
It's to the point where if a random newbie with no achievements meets them on the street or somewhere they'd have to quickly move out of the way and bow down in respect.
Ever since we cleared the 8th floor they've even made it into a reasonable number of rumors over here in the capital I'm sure.

I wonder if that's why...
It would be stranger if these two hadn't heard about things like that.

"How about trying to bring them into the dungeon once?"

Rodrick started talking to me after coming out from the store.
It's got no relation with you right.
Let alone that, even if I were to make these two into combat slaves then...

"Rodrick, sorry but if you aren't willing to take responsibility can you show a bit of discretion? Also, if I were to use these two as combat slaves they'd end up being put into the {Exterminators} you know?"

There's already your Denda and Karimu, along with my Mekku and Jesu a total of four combat slaves. If there's anymore it might end up as a party with nothing but combat slaves.

Of course, it's not as if becoming someone like the elf slave user Rozuwera is prohibited either. Taking into account that his slaves haven't rebelled while inside of the dungeon and you can tell Rozuwera's got a firm grasp on the hearts of his slaves and is proof that he's treating them properly.
Whether it's from a rebellion or he's killed by monsters, for combat slaves who have lost their master you never know where they may end up through inheritance of relatives so you could say Rozuwera's properly earned the loyalty of his slaves.

Furthermore, it's obviously okay to fortify an entire party of 10 with slaves but even if you were to make such a party I can't imagine it functioning properly. I'm sure they'd take advantage of the fact that there's no overseer and just spend all of their slacking off in the teleport room of the 1st floor.

"Well~ Certainly that's true but just showing them the 1st floor for a bit is teaching them about life. Don't they say, "hit the iron while it's still hot"? Isn't it important to train them while they're still young?"

No, I understand what you're trying to say but if they were to die in the process of that just showing them for a bit there's nothing more that can be done after that...

"Oh~ I just heard about it from Larry but supposedly those two want to become combat slaves?"

Ruttsu came to stick his head into as well. Seriously wouldn't you guys just stop. Well in this guys case I'm sure the majority of it is just out of interest.

"That's impossible right. I'm sure they don't know how to handle weapons so it'll just end with them dying right away. It's not something as simple as that."

Sanno joined in as well but he seems to be speaking from my point of view. Denda and Karimu are behind him holding small leather pouches. It seems they were properly able to buy baldoggie for breakfast.

"I think so too...At your guys level you'll just end up killed by monsters right away and reduce my a.s.sets. Give up."

After I said it as if spitting it out Maru and Rinbi just lowered their heads even lower.
See?
If they can't say anything else over just being told this much then there's no way they'd be able to fight inside the dungeon.

"Al-san, if you put it like that then they won't be able to say anything else...Right~ you two?"

Even after Rodrick called out to them like that, naturally the two of them were still clenching their fists while looking down.
I thought Rodrick would be used to dealing with slaves but after actually seeing it he's pretty easy-going.
Well, I'm pretty easy-going myself though.
I can't help but think that I'm dealing with people.
The fact that they're things, I can't clearly come to terms with the fact that they're simply a.s.sets which can be consumed.

Even after pa.s.sing away in my past life I've never had kids.
While I loved my nephews and nieces, I'm sure from their point of view I was just an annoying relative uncle that gives them an allowance occasionally when we meet.

Even when it comes to Zetto and Bekki, I only spent the short period until they were 2.5 years old together with them so it's not like I was together with them until they built up a solid individuality. Of course~ for the most part I understood their personality but personality is in the end just personality. Babies don't have any individuality. I never spent time with them and watched their growth until they were able to think somewhat on their own as a single individual.

In that sort of meaning the closest one would be my older sister Mill but since I myself was an infant, we only ever had any proper contact around when she was 5 years old. By that period her personality had already considerably taken form. I don't know much at all about when she was 3~4 years old and her personality was in development.

Additionally, while it was in the middle of nowhere Mill was born in a n.o.ble household and there's the education from father and mother as well. On top that she was raised with plenty of love being poured into her. I'm sure there's no comparison to a child slave from the city.

In comparison Maru and Rinbi were born slaves and if I remember right, around 5~6 years old? Or maybe even earlier? In any case they were estranged from their parents since they were small. It might not be wrong to say they were raised without knowing parental love at all. In a wider sense you could say they were raised while being neglected. When I first purchased them it wasn't limited to just these two but all of them were extremely thin and had a bad look in their eyes with almost no expression.

They even seemed to have some fear of I, their master, in their eyes.

Although, I was already a pretty well-known adventurer back then and also managed a decent company as well.

I thought it was something that couldn't be helped.

Even though that was the case, somehow less than one year later they've started to a.s.sert themselves and are expressing their wishes to me.

If it was just that...

The radiance in their eyes.

However.

Of all things to become combat slaves...

s.h.i.t.

Why are they looking up to such a dangerous position?

"Call out Mekku and Jesu, never mind. Mekku!! Jesu!!"

Without replying to Rodrick I raised my voice and shouted towards the factory.
I start talking to Maru and RInbi while waiting for the two of them to come.

"You two, be able to run the same outer crater course as we do within 2 hours by next month. If you can do that then I'll listen to what you have to say once more."

Even if you make that sort of face I still haven't accepted it.

..d.a.m.n it.

I feel like there will be regrets.

..d.a.m.n it.

..I encourage living a life without any regrets..

Certainly that's true right...
But, I can't take back something I've already said.
Henry, Mekku, Rubi, Jesu.
You all have enjoyed yourself a bit too much until now right.
I'll let you experience a bit of mental stress.

.........................

After pushing the care of the two brats for the time being onto Mekku and Jesu, since time was getting late I immediately went to Tukerin's clinic and met up with Miduchi. After greeting him, I made the request, and paid the bill in advance. Surveying the Dirt Plains. Incidentally the estimate of the cost to survey it was 25,000,000 Z. Expensive~ These greedy dark elf b.a.s.t.a.r.ds~ If they give me a half-a.s.sed survey report after this I'll bully Miduchi at night.

..One year since then. It should be about time for Kuro and Mary to have retired from the Webdos Knight Group and be departing.

Near the end of last year both of them received invest.i.ture as knights together. Particularly Mary seems to have been put in charge of quite a few duties regarding accounting so with training their replacements and all that they were expecting retirement to be around spring. After they retire I asked them to investigate the Dirt Plains on their way to Baldukk so they should arrive around summer or fall.

I've already sent them 20,000,000 Z to purchase some horses and as travel expenses just in case. I said to make sure they buy two proper war horses so it can't be helped that it ends up costing about that much. After they group up with us if they do things properly then something like 20,000,000 Z should only take them about half a year to return.

Now then, if it's possible I want to pay a visit to Sandak Company while it's still morning. Miduchi and I went all the way to Sandak Company but since we hadn't made an appointment the company president was in the middle of meeting someone so we couldn't meet him. After he confirmed the openings the old man clerk said it would be at earliest in the evening so I said we'd be back then and left.

It couldn't be helped so Miduchi and I split up and went around offering greetings to the merchants and companies we purchase pork and materials from. Of course, greetings are just secondary and it was really to investigate shares among their clients. It might be better to call it negotiations to increase the amount of consumable meat they're willing to allot and sell to their new customer Greed Company. If possible I want them to sell us beef as well as pork. We went around to the acceptable butcher stores and farms making use of the spell {Suggestion} when possible to slowly advance our negotiations.

While we were doing that the time pa.s.sed by until 4:00. Miduchi and I met up before heading towards Sandak Company once again. And, it was just as a group with excited looks on their faces was coming out of Sandak Company and getting into a carriage. The company president had come out to the entrance to see off that group.

I guess they're a large-scale business partner or something? While maintaining some distance to not get in the way they quickly departed. After Miduchi and I made a light nod towards the president, he called us over.

"h.e.l.lo~ Greed-san, in regards to that {Earth.Amulet} but it's popularity is superb!"

Hohou!
Isn't that the best thing I've heard all day!

"Is that so! That's great."

"Thanks to that while we already sent out notice for the auction it's unfortunate that we weren't able to start taking bids yet. Well it can't be helped standing around and talking about here so please come inside."

I've mentioned ti before but the auctions for expensive items aren't up for public bidding.
The kinds of people who buy or can buy things like that are all busy so there's no way to gather them all in a single place at a fixed time and date. The process of the auction is, first, a notice is sent out in advance.
They have a number of people who would definitely partic.i.p.ate in the bidding or are well-informed about the item take a look at it. And then they have a discussion with the company president on the spot to decide the minimum bid price.

After that they once again send out an official notice to people who seem very likely to make a bid while simultaneously conveying the minimum bid price. Those who wish to make a bid can come look at the item on a day convenient for them and propose the price they'd be willing to pay to the company. After everyone who's interested in bidding has seen the item, the company once again makes a list of everyone's proposed prices and distributes it to everyone. And then they decide on a fixed date and have private bidding. Those who wish to bid will look at the list before deciding their final bidding price and then tell that to the company. It's because of this that you could say deciding their proposed price at the start is where the bargaining takes place. Therefore, the bidding doesn't take place until everyone who's interested in bidding has seen the item.

The company president said that's the reason, "please think it'll take at least half a year for the price to be decided".

"Those people just now were interested bidders as well. They come on a long journey from far away along with their knight leader and financial affairs minister to have a look at it."

"Ho~ that is quite something.."

"The proposed price they just discussed a while ago was 4,500,000,000 Z. This is around the average proposed price for the auction this time. Therefore, the final bid price should be roughly 1.5 times that."

Nuwwa! 1..1.5 times!?
Isn't that 7..7,500,000,000~!!!

"Eh..then that means it'll be around 6,700,000,000 ~ 6,800,000,000?"

Miduchi said with her eyes wide open as Zeni(Z) marks appeared in them.
I'm sure I'm making a similar face.

"That's correct. Even for us it's been a while since we made over 1,000,000,000 in profits from a single business transaction. We're grateful, Greed-san."

The president of Sandak Company lowered his head to Miduchi and I with a pleased face.
Of course, we're also making pleased faces.
After all even after paying the handling charge and taxes it still comes out to 5,000,000,000, that's 5,000,000,000!
Even after I pay out bonuses to everyone in the {Saviors} that leaves over 4,000,000,000 remaining in my hands.
Won't my funds increase by over double all at once!

"There's 9 gentlemen who have expressed interest in bidding and only 1 remaining who wishes to view the item. Please wait just a short while longer."

Waiting, I'll wait, I'll wait as long as you need. Waiting with my head held high.

Supposedly those wishing to make bids aren't just from Rombert Kingdom but also from Guranan Empire and Bakuruni Kingdom as well. Obviously it's not like they've made direct contact with the n.o.bles of countries like those. They get into contact with a local organization that acts like an emba.s.sy and then that contacts their own country. The purpose of the local organization is for information gathering and negotiations regarding tariffs but occasionally they do jobs like these as well. Even transactions dealing with paintings or sculptures are splendid sources of cross-country negotiations.

Furthermore, there's a local organization for Devas Kingdom in Rombertia as well but for the most part we'll still in the middle of disputes over the borders so it's more or less never used and the knight group always has them under surveillance. Of course, the degree of surveillance is extremely high and it's surveillance to the point that they can brazenly tell they're being watched. Obviously parties like that aren't given any notice about the auctions.

Supposedly all of the foreign country emba.s.sies with fast horses that wish to bid for the amulet have already inspected it and now they're letting important high ranking n.o.bles and clients within the country take a look at it and propose their prices.

Ah, I need to ask this.

"Ah, come to think of it, about the sale price but can I receive it in platinum coins?"

5,000,000,000 in gold coins is 5,000 of them. In the worst case even that's fine but I'm sure it'll be bulky in terms of both weight and volume. I've somewhat heard about platinum coins in discussions but I've never seen the real thing so I want to take this chance to see them.

"Fufu, that's only obvious. That's also one of the reasons why we set the minimum bidding price to 1,000,000,000 this time."

Supposedly it's a custom to set limits on the type of currency being used to pay by setting the minimum bid price. Obviously they carefully limit those who are told about it. In this case it has the meaning of, "It's inevitable to reach the billions. We won't tell those who don't have the ability to pay in the first place but pardon us from any window shopping."

.............................

Year 7447, Month 4, Day 30

Yesterday, or rather during this morning when Miduchi and I returned to Baldukk we started on way towards the fairy village. After pa.s.sing through the 1st and 2nd floors we sang the j.a.panese national anthem as usual and teleported into the fairy area on the 2nd floor, then after clearing through the pitfalls and snake fountain it was time to have a rest until night.

"You can sleep first. I'll wake you up in 4 hours."

After making a simple bed by just spreading my robe out on the floor it was decided that I'd sleep first.

"Yeah. Then I'll get some rest first."

I closed my eyes while using arm guards I took off as a pillow.
Soon after something was placed over my body.
Miduchi must have put her robe over me.

..............................

"The rainy season this year was shorter than usual so it's gotten quite a bit sweet."

On my right Shiina with her hair tied up is giving an enthusiastic speech to the buyer in charge of fruits and vegetables for a mid-size supermarket. The official presentation was finished last month during a visit at the end of October and while the mangoes our firm deals in which are imported from Nam Doc Mai in Thailand are more expensive than the pelican mangoes that from the Philippines that over firms deal in, they decided that the flavor and packaging of ours were better so today is the delivery day for that company.

The other party is making sounds as if they're satisfied as well.

If I remember right this was the first client that I'd left her in charge of.
Things sure were pretty hard this time. No matter how hard we tried we couldn't get a hold of them and by chance our fruit and vegetable stocking route had started growing them so I decided to chance it suggest mangoes which I don't usually handle very often.
That ended finishing the deal.

She was overjoyed by her first sale I think it was.

After offering our thanks and standing up from our seats the buyer saw us all the way to the elevator on the reception floor.

After the door of the elevator closed Shiina said, "Thank you very much. Over half of the reason I was able to make the sale was thanks to Kawasaki-san." and lowered her head to me. When she raised her head again a beauty mark on her earlobe stood up because of her tied up hair.

Something like that did happen...

.........................

I was shaken awake.
It's time to change shifts.
I stand up from my bed and stretch out before putting my protector arm guards back on.
Switching out with me this time it's Miduchi's turn to rest.

After taking off her arm guards and placing them as pillows just the same, I placed my robe over her after she laid down.
I saw down to her side with my back against the wall of the cave.

"Night."
"Good night."

Miduchi closed her eyes while facing me on her arm guard pillow.

After about 2 hours pa.s.sed, I think the time should already be past 9 pm?

I started playing with the bullet-head of a bullet that was mixed into a pocket of my bag while looking at her face.
The scar I couldn't fix in the end stands out.
I felt a bit sorry about it.
In the end I still can't use the spell that cures illnesses.

"If they just use a gun then even a small child can kill you instantly. It's scary."

I remember Miduchi's words that I heard from Bel.
..I guess so.
Stray bullets on the battlefield are frightening.
That's why I need to make absolutely sure that guns aren't used outside of my camp.
They're an absolute secret until the time comes.
Even though I used to think that..right.
I've changed.

"Nn.."

Miduchi rolled over a bit and her face was hidden behind her white-dyed hair.
I gently brush her hair and push it off her face.
Her slightly pointed elf ears appeared.
There's no beauty mark on her earlobes which are smaller than a hyumus.
I guess it's only obvious because it's a new body.

I start playing with the bullet-head in my hand again.

Pin~ and I flick it with my thumb before grabbing it as it falls.
It's the same thing I've already repeated countless times.

【Arrowhead】
【Iron】
【Condition: Normal】
【Manufacture Date: 26/3/7447】
【Value: 1】
【Durability: 114】
【Ability: 10-120】
【Effect: None】

Arrowhead, indeed...Come to think of it the sh.e.l.ls are 【Bra.s.s.Craft】 while the net gun and revolving rifle were 【Metal.Craft】 right. Even when it comes to the gunpowder it's still 【Cotton(Processed)】 or 【Dye(Processed)】 after all. I have to wonder about that compared to the bullet-head which has an ability field and is still barely recognized as a weapon...Though I guess it's still better than being recognized as clubs.

Oh~ while I was s.p.a.cing out thinking about things like this it's almost time.

"It's about time for you to wake up."
"Nn..D..ea.r..no way..that's too embarra.s.sing.."

You, what in the world are you letting me do to you?

...........................

Year 7447, Month 5, Day 2

This time the spells that Mila-shisho and Karl taught to us were {Peace.Glue} and {Roaring.Wall} these two. We struggled a decent amount to acquire both of them. Putting aside {Roaring.Wall}, I want to be able to immediately activate {Peace.Glue}. Other than Toris and Basutoral it's possible for Binsu and Rodrick to learn to use it after all.

After returning to the capital while still lacking sleep, Miduchi and I first decided to get some rest.
Though there's only a short while left until dawn, let's sleep until noon today.

Though in the end both of us still woke up at around 9:00.
A poor person's mentality right.

Now then, I spent plenty of time talking with Miduchi other than when we were trying to learn the spells.
If Maru and Rinbi can't run the course within 2 hours by the end of this month then I'll return them to their previous jobs. If it seems like they can run then it's fine for Henry and Mekku to train them with the spear and they can act as reserve members for the {Slaughterers} or it's fine for them to enter the {Exterminators} as well. Well deal with it when it comes to that when Kuro and Mary group up with us.

I'm sure the investigation of the Dirt Plains will start with just a summary.
According to Miduchi, they'll report the truth of the things they investigate but how much effort they put into the investigation is unknown and depending on the case Kuro and Mary might give a sharper viewpoint of it. In regards to this it's fine if they properly investigate and if not then I'll eventually have to form a surveying team.

And then, the {Earth.Amulet}.

After all an item that can cancel out spells made up of only Earth and Void magic with about a 50% probability is quite impressive. If I were to take it to the extreme then it even has the possibility of canceling out my ultimate attack spell, {Stone Cannon (Missile)}.
Although, I still have things like ice and flame so even if my enemy were to equip it there's not much to fear.

However, that price is attractive.
If we follow Miduchi's theory then below the 10th floor it's possible we could obtain something even more effective.
We've already finished re-organizing so isn't it about time we put some enthusiasm into it?

{Peace.Glue} Alteration
(Earth Magic Lv 4, Wind Magic Lv 3, Void Magic Lv 4, Consumed MP 10)
The targeted weapon along with giving off light for an instant will no longer be possible to pull from the scabbard, holder, or quiver it's already placed inside. The duration of the effect is the level of the caster times 60 seconds. However, it's possible for the owner of the weapon to attempt drawing the weapon just once during the duration of the effect. There's a 1% increase in the chance of breaking the spell for every level different from the caster and the minimum is 1%. However in the case that they realize they can't draw their weapon because of a spell the probability of breaking the spell is doubled and if they try to resist the spell using mana the probability of breaking it increases by 3% for every 1 point of MP poured into it using level 0 void magic.

{Roaring.Wall} Evocation
(Earth Magic Lv 4, Wind Magic Lv 4, Void Magic Lv 5, Consumed MP 13)
On a single wall(The maximum size is 10 square meters per level of the caster. The duration of the wall is 10 minutes per level of the caster.) that the caster wishes creates a wall of noise that can deceive those trying to listen through said wall. The wall can be a large level surface or a gently curved surface and in the case it suddenly bends partway through the valid range will be up to turn. The noise will only be heard by those intentionally trying to hear sounds from the opposite side of the wall.