Chapter 195
Eueh-eh.
Eueh-eh-eh.
Pastel looked down the Mine Stairs with a sickened expression.
The stairs spiraled along the walls of the Mine Pit, descending endlessly Underground.
It felt like marveling at the majestic height of a skyscraper, only to realize there was no elevator and you had to climb the stairs.
"How many stairs are there?"
At her question, the muscular Employee panicked.
"I have never counted them."
Eueh-eh.
Don't tell me those muscles were built by going up and down the stairs?
"Would it be around 10,000 stairs?"
"It should easily be that many, Your Excellency."
Eueh-eh-eh.
Pastel didn't come here to reach the State of Enlightenment through the 36 Afflictions 108 Steps Training!
She had absolutely no desire to go down. She just stood there with a crying face for a moment. Seeing the Governor-General, who had come for an inspection, acting like this, the employees panicked and didn't know what to do.
"If you don't want to go down the stairs, there is another way."
Melissa pointed to one side.
"What is it, what is it?"
Pastel turned around, her Pink Eyes sparkling.
A thick rope was fixed to a long rod hook extending into the pit. It was so long that it disappeared into the darkness as it went underground.
Woah, what is that?
Grab the rope tightly, and the Rope Elevator is in operation~!
Zzzzzip.
Pastel has arrived!
"Melissa is so smart!"
The Employee was slightly flustered, but perhaps thinking it was more important that the Governor-General now had the motivation to go down, he didn't say anything.
Pastel only realized why the Employee had panicked when she arrived in front of the rope. The rope was sturdy. She was told it was also fixed to a Rod Hook in a specific area at the bottom.
However, that meant the thick rope would sway in the wind. When the wind mixed with demonic energy erupted from Underground, the thick rope thrashed around wildly. If you were near it, it didn't look like it would end with just a slap to the face.
"Uwaaak! The Rope Elevator is turning into a snake friend!"
A future where that snake friend would either nom-nom Pastel or drop her Underground.
"They say they designed it to be elastic because fixing it completely caused many accidents where it would suddenly snap and fall due to the influence of the demonic wind. So the damage goes to the hook, not the rope. It looks dangerous, but there's no problem going down; so don't worry. I've already used it a few times."
Melissa said calmly.
Uwaaang.
The Next Southern Commander might not have a problem, but Pastel has a lot of problems!
“You'd better not try any useless tricks and just go down the stairs. This seems as if you're just asking for trouble.”
Lord Demon looked at the Rope Elevator with a subtle expression. The danger of the Rope Elevator was acknowledged even by Lord Demon.
"We used it a few times, but currently it's only operated for emergencies. This method is the fastest, after all."
The Employee also conscientiously opposed it.
He was probably worried that Governor-General Pastel would fall to her death, but thank you.
Pastel obediently went down the Mine Stairs.
The fact that there were many stairs was a problem, but they were sturdy and spacious, making it comfortable. The floating sensation of the stairs being embedded in the wall was scary, but the stairs and Stair Landings had been dug wide into the wall, so it felt more stable than expected.
"They say they made it this way because falling stairs accidents happened frequently."
Melissa pointed to a stair that looked clean in color, as if it were the only one that had been newly replaced for some reason.
"I'm not curious about things like that!"
Uwaaah.
Pastel trembled. She clung tightly to Lord Demon's arm and went down the stairs.
"Lord Demon, Lord Demon. Please go swoosh with your Demon Wings and do a bbee-ro-ro-rong flutter-flutter landing!"
“I don't have wings.”
"How could that beee!"
What kind of Demon Identity do you even have? No wings, no horns, no tail, and no trident.
But his eyes are red. Gasp, he has one! Woah. He really is a demon!
They had to go down the stairs for a long time. Perhaps the Mine wasn't just at the very bottom of the Underground, as there were Tunnels and massive Mining Traces in the middle.
Did they go all the way underground because they dug for magic stones for a long time? Oh, right. It wasn't originally a Magic Stone Mine, but underwent a Change of Use after a massive number of magic stones were discovered.
"I guess this tunnel is a remnant of the Underground Research?"
"To be exact, it's an excavation done to supplement the Research Budget during the Super-Deep Project. The reason the Mine was dug vertically was also that the original purpose was to check what was there if they pierced through the end of the Underground."
"What's there if you pierce through the Underground?"
Naturally, it's only right for the mantle and outer core, friends, to say hello~.
But Pastel had a broad mind.
They claimed the landmass here was flat; to be exact, a landmass with curves, like a circle roughly split in half.
Woah-Woah.
But they also say there's a Personal God, so it's hard to just brush it off as a mere claim.
"Who knows what's there. Once magic stones were discovered and methods to utilize them were researched, the Super-Deep Project was converted into the Magic Stone Mine Project."
"Eueh, that's lacking passion."
It didn't solve a single one of Pastel's curiosities.
Melissa covered her mouth and giggled.
"They say it was a foreseen future because there were some Research Budget issues. It was research started with the ambitious sponsorship of the Great Temple, but back then, they didn't have airships and had to travel back and forth between the Continent and the Demon Realm riding Sky Whales that moved irregularly and dangerously, so there was no way the sponsorship could be smooth."
“Escort must have been a problem too. Doing Mine Excavation to supplement research funds might seem good at first glance, but that's only thinking of the current Demon Realm.”
Lord Demon stared at the mining remnants.
“Back then, power was everything, and a Mine producing gems was an easy Object of Plunder. If they were going to do research, they should have maintained the image of a destitute but noble Group of Researchers. By clumsily doing Cost-Benefit Analysis, they ended up becoming an Object of Plunder. If they had just held out and looked for a Sponsor instead, Demonkind captivated by their image might have come to sponsor them on their own two feet.”
Is that so?
Pastel tilted her head but didn't bother refuting it, rubbing her cheek against Lord Demon's arm.
Rub-rub.
They passed the Mining Traces and continued down the stairs.
"More importantly, we need to install Mine Carts here or something! Choo-choo chug-chug rails! Or an elevator! Or, or both!"
No, more importantly, why aren't they installed here?
She didn't know if the technology for elevators existed in this world, but since there were 10-story skyscrapers, there was probably something roughly similar, and as for mine carts, there were trains, so there was no way it wouldn't work.
She whipped around to look at the employee.
How did they do their jobs for it to be in this state?
The Manager flinched. The Employees following behind also stiffened with tension, their bodies going rigid.
"Is there perhaps no money in the Mine?"
Is there a Magic Stone Mine where digging yields the price of gold?
Even if it cost a lot of money, Mine Carts or elevators were issues directly related to productivity, so if they had any sense, they should have installed them.
Or at least be in the process of proceeding with related plans.
Pastel wasn't exactly doing an interrogation.
She was just thinking about how to do Staff Restructuring of the Existing Employees who were just taking up space and insert personnel from the Kraft Merchant Guild.
A Personnel List floated buoyantly in her mind.
"F-Funds were plentiful!"
The Manager hurriedly explained.
"We recruited related Technicians, but perhaps the United Kingdom is controlling it, as no one gathered, so we inevitably couldn't even make a plan. If Your Excellency wishes, all Employees will Exert Themselves to the Utmost to push it forward again!"
Ah.
Pastel suddenly felt embarrassed.
Come to think of it, it was true that this was a Mine in the Demon Realm, but strictly speaking, it was under Imperial Ownership.
There was no way the United Kingdom, whose nerves were on edge about leaking the Engineering Technology that uniquely overwhelmed the Empire, would share it.
'We introduced Engineering Technology to the Magic Stone Mine, and productivity improved drastically~! Seeing this, we shouldn't let them lay railroads in the Demon Realm!' If a result like this were to come out, the Empire, which looked down on Pure Engineering, might reconsider its thoughts.
Then the United Kingdom's grand strategy, which was based on the Empire's arrogance and carelessness, would collapse.
"It must have been inevitable at your level. However, I have spoken with the United Kingdom, so push it forward again."
She hadn't actually spoken with them, but would Ellie really cut her off in the middle?
The Manager marveled.
He seemed amazed at what kind of skill the Imperial Governor-General had displayed to snatch technology from the United Kingdom, which was strictly an Enemy Nation.
That's because Governor-General Pastel has good connections.
She made good friends!
Hehe.
Feeling proud, Pastel hummed and went down the stairs again. She rubbed her cheek against Lord Demon's arm.
Rub-rub.
Suddenly, the Personnel List in her mind spoke to her.
Personnel List: Am I going back now?
It was a lonely voice.
Oing.
Comforting a friend is the duty of a popular person.
Don't be lonely!
You will be with me for a while!
Staff Restructuring after a Corporate Acquisition is a predetermined essential requirement anyway.
My company has its own Organizational Culture, and this company has its own Organizational Culture, so there's no way things will stay the same.
If things stay the same, Management Principles and Organizational Culture will clash, leading to inefficiency as a baseline, and all sorts of things like insubordination will happen.
Uwaaah.
She could vividly picture the Existing Employees, who were ordered with Modern Guidelines to adopt Bureaucracy and turn everything into documents, roughly ignoring it, saying Document Creation is a Waste of Time.
That cannot be allowed!
In times like this, overturning the Employee Community, shattering the Organizational Culture, and transplanting a new one is the easy and fast way.
Governor-General Pastel is not a fickle person in power who comes for an inspection and immediately thinks of firing people just because there's something she doesn't like!
She was planning to fire them anyway, but now she has just gotten a justification!
Making the Chairman, who came for an inspection, sweat and go down 10,000 stairs is grounds for dismissal acknowledged by human society!
Personnel List: I see! Woah.
Woah.