Chapter 9: This Is the Sort of Thing Resina Would Stab Me For

Judith Dandelion, youngest daughter of the frontier count’s family entrusted with governing the Silva Frontier Territory.

For better or worse, once she formed an idea, she charged straight ahead. Apparently, the people around her tried to confine her to the castle because she tended to run wild, but that only accelerated her ignorance of the wider world.

Hmm. I see.

“I shall make Lord Crow my husband.”

“No, thank you.”

“You needn’t be embarrassed.”

Hmm. I see.

This was the sort of thing Resina would stab me for.

The place Judith had charged into was the office of the newly established Cotton Family—a yakuza organization officially approved by the Cineraria Family.

Constructing this building had been enjoyable. I used subspace magic to clear the former site of the Sapojira Family’s office, leveled the land with crafting tools, and placed building cubes one after another…

Yes. That’s right.

I’d wanted to build something as though I were playing a crafting game.

That aside, I had no idea what sequence of events had made Judith decide to take me as her husband.

How had this happened?

“Your speech was electrifying, Lord Crow. Until now, I believed yakuza were nothing more than wicked people seeking to become rich through illegal acts.”

“That’s generally accurate.”

“It was wonderful. I found you greatly to my liking. Therefore, I decided to make Lord Crow my husband.”

I looked toward the female knight behind her. Her name had been Meia, if I remembered correctly. One way or another, she always restrained Judith’s actions discreetly.

Why wouldn’t she help at the moment that mattered?

Hey.

“Oh, Lord Crow… Heh. You’ve taken a liking to Meia too, haven’t you? What a helpless man.”

“That’s completely wrong.”

“I shall make a special exception. If I am your principal wife and Meia is a concubine, I may permit it. Meia is beautiful, after all. However, if you don’t give me priority, I shall sulk.”

This was hopeless.

The female knight Meia was glaring at Judith with a terrifying expression, but Judith pretended not to notice and continued speaking.

“She curls this hair for me every morning—”

I looked toward Garnet, who was doing administrative work behind me.

Help.

Incidentally, after we destroyed the Sapojira Family, Garnet remained shut inside her mobile alchemy workshop for some time to treat the victims of the experiments.

For some reason, the members of the new Cotton Family had therefore come to recognize the child with legs growing from a wooden box as “Garnet.”

When Garnet removed her glasses, straightened her back, and transformed into a slender, tall, beautiful girl, everyone became profoundly confused.

“She’s incredibly cute… Wait, Garnet is the girl in the box, right? Huh?”

Poor girl.

That same Garnet quietly looked away from my plea for help and stared into the distance.

Why wouldn’t she help?

Hey.

“Ah… Judith. If you talk about marrying me, your family will object.”

“Yes. Father scolded me.”

“See?”

It wasn’t allowed, then.

Listen. That was an extremely normal reaction. If the precious daughter he’d cherished like a butterfly or flower tried, on impulse and momentum, to take a yakuza as her husband, opposition was only natural parental concern.

I wasn’t saying this for any bad reason. Choose a proper, honest civilian instead.

Besides, we weren’t lovers or anything in the first place.

“Father certainly opposed it. He shouted with a fury unlike anything I’d seen before and declared that he would never grant permission. Then he instructed several female knights to verify carefully that my chastity remained intact. It was embarrassing.”

“This has become an enormous incident!”

“However, I learned that patient dialogue is important in all matters. You taught me that, Lord Crow, and I have become capable of speaking with Father more properly than before. Therefore, this time will surely be fine as well. By the time I’ve given birth to two or three children, Father will undoubtedly understand.”

“You intend to force it through!”

This girl was hopeless.

It wasn’t merely that she refused to listen. Her forcefulness was on Resina’s level.

“Isn’t it all right, Lord Crow?”

“Nothing about this is all right.”

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to leave the yakuza and live leisurely here on the frontier?”

No.

What I wanted was to withdraw peacefully from the Cineraria Family and live slowly on the frontier—

Wait.

What she said didn’t sound entirely bad.

No, no, no. It wasn’t allowed.

Leaving the Family at this exact moment would never be permitted, and Resina would unquestionably stab me. Garnet was silently mouthing the word “responsibility,” and Kiko was waiting inside my shadow for an opportunity to assassinate Judith.

Strange.

The only person I could imagine having a peaceful conversation with was Penne.

Why hadn’t I brought Penne here?

“Lady Judith. It is about time.”

“Oh, Meia. Is it already so late?”

Prompted by Meia, Judith rose with a weary air.

“Then we shall discuss the wedding ceremony another day.”

“Stop. I truly won’t become your husband… Here, take this. On your way back to the territorial castle, could you give this letter to the lord?”

“Oh? Is it a marriage proposal?”

It was completely different.

“It’s a consultation regarding the Cotton Family’s business.”

“Oh, you’re so shy.”

“Is it possible for a person to ignore everything someone says to this extent?”

Ah.

I missed Penne, who listened properly when I spoke.

With that thought, I watched Judith leave and exited the Cotton Family office.

Sigh.

I had various inspections scheduled today.

I would change my mood.

The first place I visited was a newly created institution called the Training Academy.

Once again, I used subspace magic to clear the former orphanage’s site, leveled the land with crafting tools, and placed building cubes one after another…

Yes.

I wanted to construct a building.

Like in a game.

I’d appointed Hyadal director here. We’d changed the facility’s name to the Training Academy because it provided occupational training for children, but naturally, it didn’t subject them to any harsh drills.

“Thank you for your hard work, Hyadal. How is the Training Academy?”

“Leading Candidate. Thank you for your hard work. There are several matters I’d like to discuss. If I could borrow your wisdom…”

Under the old system, former orphans were charged the cost of raising them until age fifteen as debt and semi-forcibly assigned future occupations so they could repay it.

I wanted to do something about that…

However, suddenly releasing them into society with no debt whatsoever would be irresponsible in its own way. People raised at the orphanage who still worked while carrying their debts wouldn’t accept it either.

Specifically, former orphans who’d only recently turned sixteen and received their debts would unquestionably become furious.

It would cause a riot.

Well, naturally.

Therefore, I intended to preserve the system in which they repaid the cost of raising them while working. However, I planned to review even past debts and make repayment gentler overall.

Separate from that, the Training Academy would provide varied occupational education so the children could eventually choose their paths freely.

At present, we were negotiating one by one with various organizations inside the territory regarding employment conditions and training contents, so the orphans could seize the paths they wanted through their own abilities—

Hyadal was doing the negotiations, not me.

He was already running around at full speed.

The Cotton Family’s new businesses also intended to employ orphans graduating from the academy.

Well, even after we exhausted every possible measure, if someone couldn’t determine a path, they might still end up working as an adventurer or prostitute, just as before.

We were attempting many new approaches, and Hyadal apparently had many concerns.

“—And so, children who couldn’t attend the temple due to their families’ circumstances don’t even understand the fundamentals of reading, writing, or arithmetic. I’m too busy to teach them, but requesting priests as instructors would cost far too much. Leading Candidate, do you have any good solution?”

“Hmm. In other words… the job of teaching the orphans to read, write, and calculate is vacant, isn’t it? If any of the students scheduled to graduate are interested in teaching, why don’t you employ them?”

“Ah… Ah, I truly am inflexible. I see. We can hire some of the orphans as personnel required to operate the Training Academy. That would also resolve several other problems… Thank you, Leading Candidate.”

Well, yes.

I was glad the problem was resolved, but I hadn’t said anything especially profound.

You’re probably the busiest person in the entire city now, so your brain has grown exhausted.

Though I’m the person who appointed you director.

Eat something sweet for the moment.

And so, I left the Training Academy and walked through the city.

The urban air had improved completely. I’d destroyed the underground laboratory that discharged miasma, and we’d installed underground pipes that carried exhaust from the spinning factory outside the city properly.

I’d made the Cotton Family clean everything from the main avenues to the back alleys, so the city’s environment was now cleaner than before.

We’d finished distributing the winter supplies brought from Flumen to organizations closely connected with the Cineraria Family. Everything remaining had been set aside as ingredients for the Family’s regular soup kitchens.

Unfortunately, society inevitably produced impoverished people who struggled even for daily meals. Feeding them at least the minimum was an important responsibility for yakuza.

“We replaced the purification barrier with the new model too… Is there anything else to do?”

I’d received word that Jairo and his Chivalrous Band had completed the purification-barrier replacement while I was frantically busy.

By my calculations, we’d accumulated approximately three thousand ingots of magical silver. Once we offered them to headquarters, their value would be absurd.

The administration was also working hard to sell the maple syrup and maple sugar transported from Maypool to Flumen. They were apparently worth a considerable amount. However, production had plainly exceeded demand, and they had recently begun filling the warehouses at headquarters.

I’m sorry about that.

While considering various things, I reached Dasilva’s exit.

Hmm.

I truly wanted to relax, but I was somehow always busy.

When I left through the repaired and reinforced northern gate, dense miasma still spread outside.

However, a single clean road had been prepared leading deeper into the Tainted Forest.

That’s right.

Purification Lanterns had been installed like streetlights, repelling the miasma and keeping monsters away.

Don’t tell the Temple.

At the end of that road lay the production site for magical cotton grass, which had given the Cotton Family its name.

“Thank you for your hard work. Is cotton production proceeding smoothly?”

“Yes. There are no problems.”

The person answering was a muscular man named Muscari.

He was a former member of the Nemophila Family whom Penne had once put to sleep, after which he’d served time in my subspace. A large cloth mask covered the lower half of his face and gave him the appearance of a villain, but some mechanism to block miasma was essential at this worksite.

I’d also strictly prohibited excessively long working hours and tried to create the fairest possible workplace.

These twelve men were spies sent from the empire’s north, but headquarters had officially entrusted their treatment to me. After I discussed matters with them, they formally joined the Cotton Family and began working at this cotton-production site.

Naturally, “cotton production” didn’t mean they became covered in injuries while harvesting cotton, as the orphans once had.

“Leading Candidate. Look. It’s just time to harvest the magical cotton grass.”

When he guided me over, I saw—

Magical cotton grasses with only their fluffy heads protruding from three layers of netting stretched low above the ground. The netting prevented them from moving away, leaving them with nothing to do but rustle their cotton.

Then men carrying a particular magic tool appeared.

“Men, begin the harvest!”

“Yes, sir!”

The men activated the magic tools in their hands—devices that generated wind. Buffeted by the air, the cotton scattered upward one boll after another. Men standing downwind rapidly loaded it onto carts.

Yes, yes.

Compared with the previous harvest that used orphans, efficiency appeared to have improved greatly.

After losing its cotton, a magical cotton grass withered and left behind seeds. Those seeds fell beneath the nets, absorbed miasma, and grew again. Once large, the three layers of netting trapped them and prevented movement, allowing their cotton to be harvested by wind once more.

That was the approximate production cycle at this facility.

This method made each harvest safe and brief, and they could perform approximately three harvests per day. The cotton was transported to Dasilva’s spinning factory, where employees receiving proper wages turned it into thread.

In that way, the Silva Frontier Territory’s cotton industry narrowly avoided collapse.

I’d also made slight improvements to the spinning magic tools themselves, so I believed the overall efficiency of cotton-thread production had improved considerably.

Reaching stable operations had involved various difficulties, but everything was now beginning to run smoothly.

Everyone was sufficiently motivated as well.

“It appears there will be no problem leaving cotton production to you and the others, Muscari. This is an important business supporting the city. I’m counting on you.”

“Yes. Leave it to us.”

Now then.

Cotton production was proceeding well. Even if we set aside the Temple’s human experimentation for the moment, one major problem still remained.

The miasma that had thickened throughout the Silva Frontier Territory, and the monsters it had made increasingly active…

This was a grave crisis that threatened the city’s very survival.

“—A stampede. With miasma this dense, I suppose a large-scale monster disaster can’t be avoided after all.”