Chapter 63
A noblewoman—the wife of the viscount who rules this land—has come to me with a request.
Apparently, they're in a desperate bind because they won't finish the irrigation canal in time.
A project of that scale would be easy with the power of heavy machinery representing the pinnacle of modern science, but there are problems too.
Certainly, if all I had to do was dig the irrigation canal, I could probably manage it with Ko○tsu-san.
But we probably won't have enough fuel. There's no time to produce the huge amount of biodiesel fuel needed to keep the heavy machinery running.
In that case, I'd have no choice but to use the white kerosene sold by Shangri-La. That stuff is expensive.
Calculating the cost of white kerosene, reforming agent, and other ingredients for use in a diesel engine, I'd have to use huge amounts of fuel costing about 3,000 yen per liter.
Of course, that would require money.
"Understood. Then allow me to explain. The hole below was dug using my summoned beast."
"What? A summoned beast?"
"Yes. With it, I believe I could dig something like an irrigation canal."
"Then you'll take on the job?"
"Not exactly. It will cost a little money. My summoned beast eats a lot, and its daily food costs about six gold coins..."
"Six gold coins... But money cannot be spared. Even now, I am employing more than a hundred laborers at one small square silver coin (5,000 yen) per day. If I cut costs and fail to finish the construction in time, it will cause serious trouble."
Judging from the viscount's wife's sour expression, she seemed to be in quite a predicament.
At 5,000 yen a day for a hundred people, that's an expense of 500,000 yen per day.
On top of that, adding 1.2 million yen per day—or 36 million yen for thirty days—would be an additional expense. Well, a noble should be able to afford that much.
"Besides, it doesn't have to be gold coins."
"Then perhaps my body?"
The viscount's wife leaned forward.
"No."
Why was she pushing her body on me? Wouldn't that be adultery?
"Don't nobles have unused furniture or something like that lying around?"
"Ah... If that's what you want, I have plenty in the warehouse."
"Then I'd be happy to accept those items in exchange."
Furniture owned by a noble would undoubtedly fetch a high price at Shangri-La. Even the furniture in the Marlowe residence had been quite something.
Furniture-making technology in this world seems to be highly advanced. Of course, the prices are high to match.
"What?! Are you saying furniture is better than my body? You could do whatever you wanted with the legitimate wife of a noble!"
"I prefer the practical benefits. If Lady Kanan wants to save gold coins, isn't my offer to settle this with furniture a godsend?"
"Guh..."
The viscount's wife looked frustrated, but I couldn't sleep with her when I had no idea what she was after.
I had no idea what this noblewoman was thinking.
Was she simply trying to save money, or had her pride been hurt because I'd said furniture was preferable to her body, in which she evidently had some confidence?
"In any case, let's go down and I'll show you my summoned beast."
"Very well..."
I stored the table and chairs, took the viscount's wife's hand again, and climbed down the scaffolding to the ground.
"Ko○tsu-san, summon!"
At my shout, a huge yellow piece of heavy machinery appeared with a ground-shaking rumble.
"Eek!"
Even the noblewoman was startled. She nearly fell on her rear, and the knights had to support her on both sides.
When I climbed into the heavy machine, the iron summoned beast roared, belching black smoke. Since we'd finished mining rhodonite from the cliff, I'd already replaced its attachment with the regular bucket.
I swung its long arm around and scooped up a shovelful of earth with the steel bucket.
"Ohhh! If it can do this, the irrigation canal will surely be finished in no time!"
Time for a little experiment. I marked off ten meters on the ground and tried digging it up.
The experiment showed that it could dig up five to ten meters of ordinary soil in ten minutes.
Well, even with a conservative estimate of forty meters per hour, ten hours a day would be 400 meters...
In thirty days, that came to twelve kilometers. Five kilometers would be easy.
"This looks doable."
"Then you'll take the job?"
"Well... Since you're a noble, you could have conscripted me by force, couldn't you? Why didn't you?"
"Someone who can use magic like this must be a Unique mage, yes? In that case, matters will not be so simple. If I tried to force you to obey, there is a possibility that the viscount's territory would end up in an irreparable state."
The viscount's wife folded her arms and looked up at the enormous yellow Ko○tsu-san towering before her.
"Has something like that happened before?"
"Indeed... In any case, Unique mages are often eccentric oddballs. They are famous for being difficult to handle."
"I hear the Unique mage in the Empire even defeated a dragon."
"Exactly. But could this iron summoned beast defeat a dragon too?"
The viscount's wife unfolded her arms and turned toward me, her eyes gleaming.
"It can't defend itself, you see—so I'll need to receive a grimoire from you, Lady Kanan."
"Then we have a deal."
The viscount's wife's face lit up, but—
"No. We'll write up a contract here. Primula!"
"Yes."
"Write up a contract."
"What?! You bastard! Don't you trust Lady Kanan?"
A knight stepped out from the side and started to draw his sword, but I took a loaded crossbow from my Item Box and pointed it at him.
"Merchants don't trust verbal promises."
"Guh!"
"The bolts fired from this crossbow could easily pierce armor like that, you know. Or would you rather fight the iron summoned beast instead of the crossbow?"
"Gnnngh..."
A vein bulged on the knight's forehead as sweat beaded on it.
"Stand down."
"...Yes, my lady."
Chastised by the viscount's wife, the knight backed off.
I had Primula draw up the contract on the spot and got the viscount's signature. I also had the two knights sign as witnesses—perfect.
After quickly agreeing that I would use my summoned beast to proceed with the construction, I invited them to have a snack.
Now that the contract was settled, they were customers, so I would treat them well. Besides, the noblewoman was beautiful.
Every now and then, having a snack with a woman who looked like she'd stepped out of a picture book wasn't bad.
If only she were a little younger... But there was also a kind of allure that only came with age.
I took a table and chairs out of my Item Box and placed a custard pudding in front of the viscount's wife. It was one I'd made in advance.
"What is this?"
"It is a sweet."
The viscount's wife scooped up some of the yellow, jiggling dessert with a spoon and brought it to the knight's mouth.
"D-delicious! What is this?! I've never tasted anything with a texture like it—M-my apologies."
The young knight was flustered and fumbling.
"Heh, it seems this place is full of strange drinks and foods in unbelievable abundance."
But even the viscount's wife, who had been pretending to stay composed, took a bite of the pudding and could not hide her astonishment.
"W-what is this?! It truly has an enchanting texture unlike anything I have ever tasted, and such a fragrant sweetness... It seems it was made from eggs, though."
"Excellent deduction. It's made by steaming eggs and milk together."
"Oh? But this fragrance..."
"That is my secret recipe, so I cannot tell you."
"Tch... Negotiating with a Sage who possesses something like this was more difficult than I expected. No wonder you showed no interest in my body."
"That doesn't mean I fail to recognize your beauty."
"Oh? So I have a chance?"
"No, you don't."
"Tch!"
As she listened to my conversation with the viscount's wife, the female mage standing beside her fidgeted restlessly.
She probably wanted some pudding. I took another pudding out of my Item Box.
"Would you like some?"
"Huh? Is it all right?"
"Well, out of fellow-mage solidarity."
"Th-thank you!"
The mage, wearing a garment cut low across the chest, accepted the bowl of pudding from me and shoveled a large spoonful into her mouth.
My eyes kept drifting toward her cleavage. I was a man, after all, so it couldn't be helped—but Primula's gaze from behind was painful when I stared too blatantly.
"D-delicious! It's sweet and jiggly! And this fragrance! It's heavenly!"
Heavenly, huh? Women really do love sweets in every world.
After finishing the pudding, the viscount's wife and her party boarded the boat and returned to Santanka Village.
Although associating with nobles was somewhat against my wishes, now that things had come to this, it was probably wiser to quietly accept the job.
It wasn't as though she'd tried to conscript me by force, and she had properly bowed her head to ask.
Besides, I looked likely to obtain a valuable grimoire.
――And then, dinner that evening.
Today, I made stuffed cabbage. Thanks to Anemone's magic, we'd been able to accelerate the growth of the vegetables in the fields. How convenient.
We still had some calf meat left, too. But I'd always made stuffed cabbage rather haphazardly, so I bought an e-book about cooking from Shangri-La and reviewed the recipe.
Personally, I thought it had turned out well. I also made sautéed forest mushrooms and vegetables as another dish.
Apparently, there were several edible mushrooms in the forest besides nobi mushrooms.
But even in this world, mushrooms were used in high-class cuisine, while they weren't very popular among ordinary citizens.
They probably knew they had good flavor but little nutritional value. If they were paying the same price, they apparently preferred something nutritious.
"This is another unusual dish today. You wrap meat in leaves?"
"That's right. It's delicious."
"Nyaa!"
After taking a bite of the stuffed cabbage, Nyamena let out a long sigh.
"Whew... I was wondering how things would turn out today..."
"She was a noble, so I suppose you couldn't refuse and ended up bringing her here?"
"Something like that. But that noblewoman was a little pushy too."
"She must be in a pretty desperate situation, then."
"Hmm..."
Yet Anemone was in a bad mood despite eating delicious food. She was staring intently at Primula.
"What's wrong, Anemone?"
"Didn't Primula arrange for Kenichi to meet a noble?"
"I did no such thing."
"I trust Primula too, and I don't think she did anything like that—but I'd like to hear the details of how the noblewoman came here."
"Husband?"
Nyamena looked surprised, but she hadn't entered the noble's mansion. There was no way they'd let a beastfolk into a noble's mansion.
Because of that, she didn't know what Primula and the viscount's wife had discussed.
"It's no good for a married couple to keep secrets, is it? You'll tell me exactly what happened at the noble's mansion, won't you, Primula?"
"O-of course."
Primula said that, but she was acting a little strange.
This is suspicious...
"Then tonight, how about we go up to that house in the tree and have a long talk, just the two of us?"
"No, um..."
Primula grew flustered as I pressed her.
"You want to know what's inside my Item Box too, don't you?"
"I... do want to know, but..."
Primula stiffened, placing both hands on her thighs.
"Then it'll be just the two of us."
"...Yes."
The beastfolk, who had been listening to my conversation with Primula, began whispering among themselves.
"Hey, Kuro-suke, Boss is scary!"
"There's probably a mountain of magic tools for torturing women inside his Item Box, nya."
"What the hell?"
"They probably tie you up and torture your whole body with snakes, nya."
"Idiot! Stop! We're eating!"
They're so loud that it doesn't count as whispering. Is this their way of voluntarily exposing their own weaknesses?
"Nyamena."
"Yes!! W-what is it, Boss?"
At my call, Nyamena, who had been whispering, jumped.
"You said High Protection was an Imperial spell, but is the Empire better at magic?"
"Yeah, that's right. They conduct research on a national scale."
"Then their magical culture is more advanced too?"
"Something like that. Besides, they actively test the magical aptitude of people without money and even orphans, then train them as mages."
"I see—but in that case, they become state employees by force, right?"
"Well, naturally. The country is spending its budget on them. But there are people who rose up from being orphans that way too. The famous one is a woman called Raylan of the Night Crow."
And once even a civilian is recognized as having a certain level of ability or as a user of Unique magic, they are forcibly drafted into the military as an Imperial mage.
Because of that, apparently many people hide the fact that they can use magic. It's a policy with its good and bad points.
"Nyamena, you know a lot."
"Heheh. When you go to a tavern, rumors like these are what you nibble on with your drinks."
With no mass media, taverns must serve as places for communication and exchanging information.
Myaree didn't drink much, so apparently she didn't go to places like that. She mostly listened in at the market to gather information.
"So, Nyamena, I hear you're asking for snake torture?"
"Cut it out!"
"They say snakes crawl into holes when they find them, you know?"
"I would never betray you, Boss! And I wasn't here for what happened today—I was outside and didn't know anything!"
Well, that was probably true.
Still seated in her chair, she began inching backward.
"If you're afraid of me, you can run away from here, you know?"
"But if I run away, I won't get to eat food this delicious or drink this alcohol anymore!"
"Ha-ha, true enough. Once you get used to good food here, you won't be satisfied by cheap eateries in the city."
"Ha-ha, sorry for scaring you. It was just a joke, a joke."
I gently patted Nyamena on the head.
"Mrrr..."
"What was that adorable voice? Ha-ha."
"What?! I'm allowed to make cute noises too!"
So Nyamena could make cute gestures like that too.
But Anemone still hadn't cheered up.
"What's wrong, Anemone? Is there something else?"
"Kenichi kept looking at that female mage's navel and breasts."
"Huh?! I wasn't looking that much."
"You were... I will wear clothes that show my navel and breasts too!"
"Don't. Wearing such immodest clothes is out of the question. If you're going to do that, wait until your breasts are much, much bigger and your legs have grown long and shapely."
"Hmm..."
She stayed sulky the whole time. What a problem.
------◇◇◇------
――That night.
On a night when the moon was reflected in the dark surface of the lake, a woman's cries rang through the pitch-black forest.
After I thoroughly pampered Primula in the treehouse atop the tree, I learned all the details of what had happened at the mansion—
Apparently, the viscount's wife had come to me because Primula had let slip something about my magic.
But it seemed she hadn't deliberately tried to bring me and a noble together.
Had that woman followed the trail of Primula's story here, placing her last faint hope in my magic?
Well, what was done was done.
I had to do the job and obtain a rare grimoire for Anemone.