In the Name of the Moon

Kanan, formerly the wife of Viscount Eupatorium, had come to me.

It had not yet been formally decided that she would become a secondary wife, nor did she seem to want that herself—but

when she heard that she was the only woman I had not slept with, it seemed to bother her after all.

Now that I had become a noble, there was nothing wrong with taking a principal wife, secondary wives, and mistresses in large numbers.

I had no reason to refuse her, but she was the very picture of a typical noblewoman, and compared with Lilith, Amaranthus, and Primula, her abilities seemed somewhat inadequate.

A brand-new, impoverished margraviate had no need for people to sit around doing nothing, but since I had said I would take her in, I couldn't very well throw her out.

Despite my misgivings, I took her with me toward the tree house.

After cleaning up, I lit the LED lantern and pulled Kanan by the hand toward the tree house.

We climbed onto the platform built in the tree. I could set up a tent here and do it inside.

That was what I had thought, but wasn't there something a little better?

I searched Shangri-La.

There was no time to assemble a prefabricated hut. If only there were something ready-made that could be used as a room...

"How about this?"

What I found in Shangri-La was a gray container house.

It was a rectangular box used as an election office or a temporary shop, but they sold even things like this?

It was twelve tatami mats in size and cost ¥500,000—it might have all sorts of uses.

I could use them as huts, too. Since they seemed useful in many ways, I bought them in bulk.

It seemed I could buy five when I entered a quantity. I supposed that meant there were five in stock.

The total came to ¥2.5 million.

I could line these up as housing for residents, but—no matter how you looked at it, they were far too bleak.

A log-house kit would not look out of place in this world, but these were far too unnatural.

Besides, if they weren't made of wood, I couldn't modify them.

They were things that did not belong in this world, but they seemed useful, so I bought them for the time being.

"Click."

I pressed the purchase button, but—the instant I did, I thought, "This is bad!"

These had not been taken out of my Item Box. Things bought from Shangri-La fell from the air.

And that wasn't all. We were on top of the tree house.

"Kanan! Move toward the edge of the platform!"

I pulled her along until we were right at the edge of the platform.

As though it had been waiting for that, the container houses began descending onto the wooden platform.

"The weight of the containers isn't going to make the platform collapse, is it?"

With loud crashes, the container houses stacked up one after another like building blocks.

Once about three had piled up, the fourth lost its balance and fell off the platform.

The fifth and final one also disappeared into the darkness, but—the collapse seemed to have prevented the platform from giving way under their weight.

"Phew..."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I took an LED light from my Item Box and looked beneath the platform. The soft leaf mold below seemed to have prevented any damage.

I stored the container houses that had fallen below in my Item Box, then stored all the large boxes stacked like building blocks in front of me as well. I brought the containers back out onto the platform and adjusted their positions.

I opened the aluminum door and stepped inside, but the place was completely empty—bleak was the only word for it.

Well, that was only natural, but there were fluorescent lights on the ceiling, so they should work if I connected a generator.

I could make the exterior look reasonably presentable by putting up wallpaper and attaching outer panels.

I had no time for that today, so I would simply make it usable for now.

I took a double bed and a chest out of my Item Box and set them up.

"Sorry about the bare room."

"Well, if I think of it as doing it inside a tent at the end of a journey, it is fine."

Kanan turned her back to me and began taking off her tracksuit, but then I had a good idea.

I searched Shangri-La for sailor uniforms and bought one.

"Click."

When I pressed the button on the status screen, a brownish sailor uniform with a white collar fell from the air.

"Kanan, change into this."

"T-this?"

"Don't you like it?"

"B-but the skirt..."

As she said, the skirt was unbelievably short.

She put it on after I urged her, but naturally it left her thighs completely exposed.

"Um, you can see everything..."

Kanan desperately tried to cover herself, but there was no way she could hide anything—and that was precisely what made it good.

"You got into the bath naked with me and even raised your butt to tease me. Are you really embarrassed by this?"

"B-but..."

I undid her soft golden hair, which had been gathered and braided, and fixed it into a twin-tail style with hair buns.

I also bought white knee-high socks with frills and put them on her.

"Whoa! This is seriously a sailor-whatsit!"

She looked like a middle-aged woman trying too hard, and it was incredibly moe. Of course, I couldn't say that out loud.

I was completely in old-man mode—and I was actually an old man, so I couldn't help it.

She looked so good in the sailor-whatsit outfit that I took a single-lens reflex camera from my Item Box and photographed her.

"All right, all right, give me a cuter pose."

I attached a diffuser to the flash and kept pressing the shutter.

"This is so embarrassing..."

"Hahaha. Now put your hands on the bed and point your butt this way."

Her golden twin tails crawled across the bed.

"B-but this... You can see my butt..."

Was showing her butt in the bath really any different?

After taking plenty of pictures and satisfying myself, I pushed her down onto the bed and had my way with her while she was still wearing the sailor uniform.

Sometimes this sort of thing was nice too.

Maybe I should ask Primula as well. Lilith might do it just for fun.

Mairen was already the head maid through and through, but—no, perhaps a business suit would suit her.

Should I build an executive office and have her play a beautiful secretary with glasses?

My imagination was running wild. Was this how old men felt after striking it rich, buying a Mercedes, and hiring secretaries and race queens?

As I thought about such foolish things, the night deepened to the sound of Kanan's screams.

------◇◇◇------

In the morning, sunlight streamed through the windows of the container house.

A beautiful blonde woman—Kanan—lay on the bed.

If Lilith was a blue fruit, Kanan was a bright red, fully ripened tomato. Ready to eat.

She called herself the Flower of the Frontier, and her beauty certainly lived up to the name.

For him to let such a flower go so easily, I suppose one could say that there's no accounting for taste—but saying that would be rude to the viscount.

Kanan was sleeping soundly, but remembering Lilith's words, I decided to wake her.

"Kanan, it's morning."

"Mmm... Kenichi..."

I tried shaking Kanan, but no matter how much I shook her, she would not wake up.

I gave up trying to wake her and returned to everyone else, where the maids were preparing breakfast.

The wonderful aroma of soup filled the air.

I had given them vegetables, meat, and other ingredients, and they seemed to have used them.

They said they had made a large amount of soup, so I tasted it. The ingredients had included dashi stock granules and such, but they had used them skillfully.

"Oh! This is delicious! Can we use it for our meals too?"

"Of course, sir."

Their faces brightened. Good—when Primula wasn't here, I would leave preparing soup to the maids.

With this, we could add curry roux to the soup and turn it into curry too.

Even if we made too much, I could store it in my Item Box.

"Mmph... Good morning, Kenichi. I'll bake bread..."

"Good morning, Anemone."

Rubbing her eyes, she began baking bread.

The maids said they wanted to learn how to bake bread, so I let them observe.

Anemone was using magic to fast-forward the process, but if they took their time, the maids could make the same thing themselves.

Since they seemed to have memorized the steps, I bought them several of the same doughnut-shaped bread makers Anemone was using.

These bread makers were excellent because they could bake bread without an oven.

Similar bread makers existed in this world too, and apparently some of the maids had used them at home.

In that case, I could leave it to them. Whenever Anemone was busy, the maids could bake the bread.

If I supplied the flour, sugar, and other ingredients, they should be able to make exactly the same thing.

While we were preparing the meal, everyone woke up, helped with the preparations, and ate breakfast.

I gave Bell some food too.

"I suppose we'll have to hire people to handle preparations like this eventually. When I think about it that way, it's a little lonely."

"Now that you are a noble, it cannot be helped, can it?"

Lilith replied while stuffing bread into her mouth.

"But even some poor nobles probably do things themselves, don't they?"

"Well, a local baron might do such things, I suppose..."

The Northpole Baron's territory was probably like that. I wondered how he was doing.

"Julius, do you know the Northpole Baron's territory?"

"It is the territory recently established beyond Dalia. Of course I know of it."

"The baron is an acquaintance of mine. Send him a letter too."

"As you wish."

While we were all eating, Kanan came over.

"Kenichi! You could have woken me up!"

"You wouldn't wake up no matter how much I shook you."

"Mmph..."

Even if she pouted, I had fulfilled my duty.

Once we finished eating, we resumed work.

"Come to think of it, the beastfolk don't have any homes."

For now, the two of them were sleeping together in the small hut Nyamena had used.

I decided to show Myaaree the container house I had bought yesterday.

Could they get by in this until the log houses were finished?

I took the gray container house out of my Item Box.

"Myaaree, could you get by in this until your house is ready?"

"Nyaa! What is it? A house made of iron?"

She knocked on the container's outer panels, opened the door, and went inside.

"Nyaa! It's spacious inside too!"

It was twelve tatami mats inside, which should have been more than enough for one person to live in.

"What do you think?"

"This? I can use it, nya?"

"Well, if you want it..."

"Yay, nya!"

"Is that all right?"

"Of course, nya!"

When I went outside, Nyamena was there too, staring intently at me.

"Boss..."

"Do you want one of these too, Nyamena?"

She silently nodded, but I never expected her to think this would do.

"If this will do, I'll bring out another one."

I repositioned Myaaree's container house and placed another one beside it.

"All right!"

"These are sturdy, but they have one drawback. The outer panels get hot in direct sunlight."

"Then should we put reed mats on top?" "Yeah, nya."

"Reed mats? Hang on a second..."

I bought a set of twenty reed mats from Shangri-La for ¥15,000. Shangri-La sold everything—the place was seriously a godsend.

When I pressed the purchase button, a bundle of reed mats fell from the air.

"Here, take these. It might be a good idea to grow vines up the sides too."

"All right! Blackie, let's go look for some later."

"Nyaa!"

The beastfolk liked the container houses far more than I expected.

Nyamena immediately began moving in with great excitement. I also took out a chest and a bed for Myaaree.

If we had the carpenters build triangular roofs and put them on top of the prefabs, they might look more like proper houses.

"Myaaree, Nyamena. While you're doing that, make some more oil for the summoned beast too."

"Sure thing. We just pour the oil you prepared into the magic tools, right?"

"Easy, nya."

"I'm counting on you."

I installed two magic tools in the hut Nyamena had moved out of and began making biodiesel fuel.

It had originally been built for that purpose, after all. It had simply returned to its original use.

While I was discussing things with the beastfolk, Lilith came over.

"Kenichi, why not build the mansion out of those iron boxes too?"

"What? With these? No way. That would be ridiculous."

"Hmm. I think it would be interesting."

There had been stores in my old world made by stacking containers, so that might have been interesting, but not these.

Julius was doing paperwork in his room. Amaranthus was patrolling while practicing her sword swings.

Kanan was helping with the fieldwork in her tracksuit, while Anemone read an e-book in the shade.

Had everyone really come all the way to this remote place with me, and were they enjoying themselves?

I was having fun, so it was fine for me, but I was somewhat troubled by the thought that I was dragging everyone into what was practically my personal game.

It might feel like a game now, but once the town grew larger, it would no longer be one.

When that happened, I could simply dump everything on Amaranthus.

She was better suited to being a politician than I was.

As I watched everyone work and pondered things for a while, a truck loaded with cargo arrived.

Beastfolk were riding on top of the heaps of lumber and other materials.

Were they all right? It seemed dangerous, but—this world had no traffic laws, so if they fell and were injured, it was entirely their own responsibility.

There was no compensation. Well, I would have to give them something for their injuries, of course.

All payments to Akira and the carpenters were made through the Marlowe Trading Company.

The Marlowe Trading Company managed and fronted the payments, then billed me with a small service fee added on.

I generally handled money in a very rough-and-ready way and couldn't manage detailed calculations or bookkeeping.

I had never even kept a household budget or an allowance book.

Even when I worked for myself, all I had done was enter expenses into spreadsheet software.

"Kenichi! We brought it all!"

"Thanks, Akira!"

The master carpenter came over too.

"Well then, my lord, we'll get started today."

"You gathered quite a crowd in just one day."

"Haha, there were a lot of fellows with no work to do."

"Kenichi, let's build a bridge so trucks can cross the river."

The trucks would have to cross the small river flowing from the waterfall to reach the construction site for the houses.

"Yeah... Once we really begin developing the area, we've got a mountain of problems to deal with."

"It's like a real development simulation game."

"Except this is the real world."

"That's true."

I stepped into the river and warned the carpenters and workers.

"Hey, everyone, keep back for a moment."

I took logs from my Item Box.

One, two, three, four—I brought out logs and had the workers help me lay them out in parallel.

As expected, having more people made the work go much faster.

The reason I had to stand in the river was that items emerged from the Item Box lying on their sides.

I took out a generator and machine tools from my Item Box, processed boards the carpenters had given me, and nailed them to the logs.

The circular saw cut through boards one after another, and the carpenters were astounded by the nails driven in by the nail gun.

"A-a magic tool?!"

"Kenichi, don't you have another nail gun? I'll help."

"Can you use it?"

"Leave it to me."

He really could do anything. I bought another nail gun from Shangri-La and handed it to Akira.

The bridge was completed in no time, and the truck made its first crossing.

"Is it wide enough?"

"It's fine. Plenty of room."

The truck revved its engine and crossed. Its weight pressed the logs slightly into the ground, but they seemed to hold.

"Whoa! That's incredible! You did it in no time!"

"With this magic tool, do you even need us?"

The workers had a point.

"If we did everything ourselves, you wouldn't be able to earn any money. Besides, Akira and I have other work to do, so we can't spend all our time on carpentry."

"That's right, you lot. You finally have work, and now you want to throw it away?"

"No, that's not what we mean..."

After the foreman gave them a stern pep talk, the workers headed to the log-house construction site.

Akira used the Unic to unload the cargo from the truck, and then—

I placed the log-house kits I had bought from Shangri-La at the planned construction site.

There were nine in total. I had brought one out yesterday, so it was still sitting near my house.

We would have to bring that one here too.

The Shangri-La log-house page showed zero stock after I bought ten kits.

That was probably the end of the supply.

If we waited a while, another series might go on sale again.

"Whoa! So this is it!"

The workers gazed at the mountain of log-house kits.

"The materials are already processed, right?"

"That's what it says. Apparently, you just assemble it according to the instructions on this paper and it becomes a house."

"Amazing."

The carpenters and workers formed a circle and began discussing the matter.

"Foreman, there are materials near my house that I brought out yesterday for demonstration. Bring those here and assemble them too."

"Ah, those? Understood."

I could leave this to the professionals. If I used my Item Box for everything, they would have no work left.

I had to let them do whatever they could.

After their discussion, they decided to unload the cargo from the truck first.

Bundles of lumber tied with rope were lowered by the truck's crane.

Was this the building material for the sawmill they planned to construct beside the river?

"Does your Item Box have cargo in it too, Akira?"

"Yeah. I brought a big circular saw."

They apparently planned to power it with the waterwheel and use it to cut and process wood. Oh, I see.

What they were doing was not all that different from my old world.

The cargo Akira had brought also included necessities and food for the workers.

The Marlowe Trading Company had arranged all of that as well.

It was normal for merchants to enter construction sites like this and sell food, and merchants had also been present during the irrigation-channel work to draw water from Lake Kazura.

Normally, merchants working on such projects offered extortionate prices, but that was impossible with the Marlowe Trading Company, where Primula worked.

They charged normal prices plus a reasonable service fee.

The Marlowe Trading Company's secret to making money: conduct business honestly.

I left the carpentry to them and returned home, then called for Anemone.

"Anemone, help me out."

"Okay."

She put the tablet she had been reading into her shoulder bag and followed behind me.

We went to the forest boundary. From here, we would clear a road straight to the highway.

At present, we had to take the winding road to Santanka and make a long detour to reach this place, but—

building a straight road from here would greatly improve transportation.

First, I took a drone from my Item Box and estimated the general direction from above.

We could probably manage if we proceeded while checking the direction with a compass.

Ideally, we should survey the route first, though...

I took a pink spray can from my Item Box and marked five trees.

"Well, let's give it a try. Anemone, use the golem to knock down the marked trees."

I placed the golem core in the forest.

If we gathered the soil around the trees onto the core, their roots would be exposed, making them easier to knock down.

"Got it! Mmph!"

In response to her magic, soil began gathering around the core.

Just as I had expected, the roots of the trees deprived of their soil began to show.

As the growing pillar of soil pushed against the tree trunks, the soil around their bases was gone, so they toppled over one after another with ease.

"It worked, just as I thought."

Within only a few minutes, five huge trees had fallen.

We could dig up the smaller trees with the heavy machinery.

"Phew..."

"Thanks, Anemone. You can rest for a while."

"Okay."

She was going to read an e-book near me, so I brought out a parasol for her.

I summoned Ko○tsu-san equipped with the greatsword and began cutting the huge trees into sections.

The treetops and roots were unnecessary, so I piled them up in a designated place.

Anyone who wanted firewood could take it from there.

There was no other use for it.

Working together with Anemone, we processed twenty huge trees in one day and advanced about one hundred meters into the forest.

The highway was five or six kilometers away, so even while handling other work, we should be able to open the road within two months.

Naturally, that was an unbelievable speed in this world.