Chapter 64
――The next morning. Primula and I were lying on the bed in the treehouse.
When I sat up, Primula was still sleeping with a blissful look on her face.
It seemed she had let slip a little too much about my secrets, so I had punished her for it, but... this didn't really seem like punishment at all...
"...Mmm."
As I stroked her head, she seemed to wake up.
I thought she might be acting demure, but she threw off the blanket, still naked, and hugged me.
"So if I make a mistake, I get punished like I was last night?"
"...Primula, you haven't reflected on your actions at all, have you? Letting a serious secret slip is a fatal blunder for a merchant too, you know?"
"...Of course, I have reflected on it... haven't I...?"
Primula looked away from me. Why was she looking away?
She wasn't some ordinary young noblewoman. She was a strong woman who acted according to her own principles and harbored burning ambition within her.
I couldn't quite understand why someone like that was clinging to me, though... Perhaps there was some kind of calculation behind it?
But when I watched her usual behavior, it was hard to believe it was calculated.
"Primula, what would you do if my Unique Magic and Item Box disappeared?"
"What would I do...? If that happened, Kenichi, you would have no choice but to rely on Marlowe Trading Company, wouldn't you? I would support you."
"My masculine pride would prefer to avoid that, though..."
"Oh... Are you planning to run away again? I won't let you escape, though."
Primula looked up at me while still clinging to me, and her eyes were frightening.
But I felt another gaze besides hers, so I looked toward the hatch in the treehouse floor.
Three people were there, peeking out at us with the lid slightly open.
When I flung the hatch open, Anemone was standing defiantly on the floor and pulled the blue dress she was wearing over her head.
Then, completely naked, she leaped at me.
"Hey, Anemone. Put your clothes on."
"No! It's not fair that Primula gets all the attention!"
"Primula was being punished, wasn't she? Right?"
"Yes, I thought I was going to die."
The two beastfolk crawled out through the hatch too.
"Are you all right, Miss? There were some incredible screams last night..."
"Nya!"
The two of them had apparently been eavesdropping with their excellent hearing—or rather, their hearing was so good that they couldn't help hearing everything normally.
Anemone was displeased when she saw Primula blushing.
"That wasn't punishment at all!"
"The noble came here partly because we were making too much noise with our magic."
"Mmm!"
After calming Anemone down, we had breakfast atop the treehouse. We had a lot of preparations to make.
If we were going to spend a month working on the irrigation canal, this place would be left unattended.
I couldn't leave it like that, so I planned to store anything I could carry in my Item Box.
If this were Japan, I could leave it unattended, but... I didn't want everything to disappear.
First, I stored the treehouse cabin. The part forming the treehouse's foundation was fixed to the tree trunks, so it couldn't go into my Item Box.
Then I stored the scaffolding for climbing to the top of the cliff. It was in two sections, so I put each one into my Item Box.
I stored the solar panels together with the camouflage net, then put the bath and other plumbing fixtures into my Item Box...
Finally――.
"House, store!"
The whole place vanished without a trace. Naturally, I stored Nyamena's hut beside it too.
Now I could make the construction site our base and set up the house there again. Having this happen occasionally might even be good practice for escaping.
The fields couldn't be stored, so I left them as they were, but the ripe vegetables would be a waste, so I gathered them into my Item Box.
Since we'd be gone for a month, I decided to plant some corn――I had Anemone use her magic to sprout it, then planted it in the field.
It might wither without anyone to tend the field, but if that happened, we'd just have to give up on it.
"Being able to carry your house around is incredible."
"Still, really big houses won't fit inside. The size of our current house is about the limit."
"Even so, it's incredible."
"Nya!"
Bell was sniffing around the spot where our house had stood.
Now, how were we going to travel with this many people? We were already completely exposed, so there was no point hiding anything.
Besides, according to the viscount's wife, people were wary of those who possessed Unique Magic.
If they weren't going to attack us easily, we might as well march in openly.
"Kenichi, should we bring out the horseless vehicle we used when dealing with Shaga, nya?"
"Horseless? Kuro-suke, how can a carriage move without a horse?"
"With magic, nya."
"That's true. We could use that, but――it's uncomfortable to ride in. Besides, we don't have any luggage..."
Maybe I should buy a new one...
I immediately searched Shangri-La for a used car. Let's see... a diesel engine and four-wheel drive――an SUV.
Given its reputation and reliability, it had to be ○ta's La○d Cruiser. Its official name was the La○d Cruiser, though.
I had considered an H○Ace, but in a world like this, its off-road ability would be the deciding factor.
But the genuine La○d Cruiser was expensive. So I bought a La○d Cruiser P○ado.
As luck would have it, a modified one with a little extra lift and even a snorkel was on sale for about one million yen.
It was an old used vehicle with 200,000 kilometers on it, but cars of this type were sturdy, so that kind of mileage wasn't a problem.
The diesel engine was sturdy too. Two hundred thousand kilometers was nothing to worry about.
Besides, with a snorkel, it could cross fairly deep rivers, and this one had three rows of seats, so it could carry up to seven people.
It even had a sturdy, rugged-looking kangaroo bar on the front, though it was a little rusty――perfy-perfect (perfectly perfect).
"All right, La○d Cruiser P○ado summon! Here goes!"
With a tremendous noise, an SUV on thick tires dropped from the air and bounced on the ground.
I opened the door――as expected of an old car, the interior was worn, but as long as it ran, that was good enough.
It was a manual, but that was fine too. I had a manual driver's license. I sat in the driver's seat and turned the key――the fuel was fine.
I cranked the starter, and the engine caught at once, belching black smoke from the muffler.
I'd bought the car, but I wanted some kind of good-luck charm.
The P○ado I'd bought was white. According to the feng shui e-book I bought from Shangri-La, white combined with gold supposedly increased financial luck.
As a merchant, I would naturally prefer increased wealth to traffic safety.
When I searched Shangri-La, I found something called a golden wealth-attracting tree and bought it for about 1,000 yen.
It was a miniature tree in a pot, made of gold plating. Its leaves were yellow transparent stones.
Naturally, feng shui goods like this were made in that country. It looked as though it would break if I put it on the dashboard, so I hung it from the rearview mirror with a cord.
Some people hung Naritasan amulets from their rearview mirrors, but in another world, I felt the power of money would probably work better than Naritasan.
"Hey, hey! It's making some kind of growling noise, but is this thing all right?!"
While I was busy with various things inside the vehicle, Nyamena was outside, intimidated by the iron monster belching black exhaust.
"It's fine, nya. It only listens to Kenichi, nya."
"Ohh~"
Even so, Nyamena looked quite frightened.
"Pull this handle and the door opens, nya."
"It's like a carriage."
I was about to teach her how to ride in it, but Myaree was giving Nyamena a lesson instead. She had probably learned when she rode the four-ton Ki○nter truck.
Everyone climbed into the vehicle, with Anemone and Bell taking the passenger seat.
"I'll sit in the very back."
Saying that, Nyamena sat in the third row. I thought they might argue over the seating order, but it seemed to settle smoothly.
Animals sometimes get carsick when they ride in the back, so a seat with a window that opened might be better.
"The interior is quite luxurious compared with the one I rode in before."
She sometimes rode expensive shared carriages, after all. Apparently, she had even ridden luxurious carriages belonging to nobles.
Still, these days, the La○d Cruiser was considered a luxury car.
Primula looked around the vehicle but quickly noticed the golden wealth-attracting tree hanging from the rearview mirror.
"This is a good-luck charm that attracts wealth."
Since she wanted to see it, I handed her the miniature golden tree.
"This really does look as though it could attract gold coins..."
That was unexpected――I hadn't thought Primula would like this sort of thing. She said rich people might buy them, so perhaps it would be interesting to sell them.
"Boss, is that real gold?"
"No, it's a cast item with gold plating."
"So it's fake gold?"
"Pretty much. Primula――will the shop be all right if you're away from the city for a month?"
"Yes. I've entrusted everything to them."
"Miss, what if they run off with the money or take over the shop? What will you do?"
"Then it would simply mean I was a poor judge of character――and besides..."
"And besides?"
"Then I will open another shop――and swiftly put an end to those sorts of people."
"Boss, Miss is scary..."
Well, judging by that, I probably didn't need to worry about the shop.
"All right, let's go!"
We drove along the hard-packed lakeshore, then splashed straight across the river. It was about thigh-deep for a human, so we had plenty of clearance.
Besides, this thing had a snorkel, so it should be able to keep going even if it was almost completely submerged.
We took the road toward Santanka Village in the opposite direction and came out onto the main road.
Whenever we traveled through the forest to the city, we usually came out at the city's east gate, but following this road to the city would bring us to the west gate.
Under the curious gazes of the people around us, we drove down the city's main street toward our destination, the viscount's mansion.
Normally, something like this driving around would cause a huge commotion, but in this world, saying "It's powered by magic" somehow made everything work out.
Convenient or not, there was no point thinking about it.
We drove into the city's upscale residential district. This was also where the official's wife whom Crotton had pursued lived.
At the very end, we arrived at a huge white building that stood imposingly.
We stopped the car in front of a magnificent black iron gate decorated with ornaments, and Primula got out to speak with the gatekeeper.
"Kenichi, everything is fine. Please drive inside."
The gatekeeper who had been speaking with her was also standing there with his mouth open, staring in disbelief at my horseless car.
"Ha-ha, everyone is surprised. I suppose they would be if a carriage moved without a horse."
Nyamena muttered――though if a carriage moves without a horse, I don't think it's a carriage anymore... But in this world, anything that moved on wheels was called a carriage.
When we reached the front entrance, Primula and I got out of the car and waited in the entrance hall. Anemone and the beastfolk would stay behind in the car.
Then, like a heroine's entrance in a movie, the viscount's wife came down the stairs.
Her white dress fluttered with every step――seen like this, she really was a noble straight out of a painting.
"Kenichi-dono, I am glad you have come. I was worried you might simply flee."
"We even signed a contract. I intend to keep my promise."
"Indeed――but you arrived remarkably quickly. Did you come by carriage?"
I showed the viscount's wife the vehicle we'd arrived in.
"What is this? Is this another summoned beast? Then you truly are the mage who defeated Shaga and fled Dalia, are you not?"
"There is no point hiding it anymore, so I will confess that you are correct."
"Hmm."
The viscount's wife seemed to be thinking about something.
"Kanan-sama, if you have time to indulge your ambitions, you should first do something about your household's crisis."
"...That is true."
"Besides, I have no intention of serving anyone."
"I will pay you."
"If I set my mind to it, I could earn as many gold coins as I wanted, so they would mean very little to me."
If I were willing to risk destroying a country and throwing its economy into chaos, Shangri-La would let me do almost anything.
Even without Shangri-La, I could make lewd books that violated public morals on a computer, print them out, and scatter them everywhere in large quantities.
"Damn――a man who cannot be moved by money is truly troublesome."
I looked off in another direction and pretended not to hear the viscount's wife's words.
"So, Kanan-sama. Regarding the matter of giving me unused furniture from this mansion as working capital for the project...?"
"This way."
Guided by the viscount's wife, I arrived at a warehouse behind the mansion.
There it was――a huge quantity of dusty furniture, either old and no longer used or simply out of fashion.
I tried putting what appeared to be an ornate cabinet into my Item Box.
Then――an appraisal.
【Appraisal Result】【Antique Furniture: Purchase Price: 10 million yen】
Huh? Seriously? Then what about this table set? It consisted of a large table like one found in a drawing room and six chairs.
【Appraisal Result】【Antique Furniture (Table Set): Purchase Price: 20 million yen】
This was expensive too. Then what about this splendid bed with a canopy? It only had the frame, though...
【Appraisal Result】【Antique Furniture (Bed): Purchase Price: 20 million yen】
Whoa, everything was ridiculously expensive. Even in my original world, antique furniture that nobles had used probably cost about this much.
But where did the furniture I sold go? That was a mystery.
In addition, I acquired five complete sets of furniture. The total purchase price came to 80 million yen.
"Is that enough? You may take everything if you wish. It is only cluttering the place."
Taking advantage of her offer, I added even more to my Item Box, bringing the total to 120 million yen.
With this much, I wouldn't have to worry about money even if I used Ko○tsu-san's fuel as much as I wanted. Besides, it wasn't gold coins, so it would be fine to put it into Shangri-La.
I would also receive a valuable grimoire, so if I handled this job well, I would make a substantial profit.
All right! I might as well give it a little effort.
But when I asked the viscount's wife about the site, I learned it was more than sixty leagues away (about 100 km). The site was roughly halfway to the neighboring city of Akimenes, about 200 km away.
If we went that far by carriage, I had no idea how many days it would take. So we put the viscount's wife in my car and set out for the site.
The viscount's wife sat in the passenger seat, looking around in every direction. Primula was behind me, with Anemone and Bell beside her.
Myaree and Nyamena sat in the third row.
Bell stuck her head out the open window and watched the scenery outside, perhaps puzzled that the scenery was moving even though she wasn't running herself.
The viscount's wife intended to direct the work in person and planned to bring enough supplies for her to stay there for a month.
If we waited for all those preparations and for the supplies to be loaded, who knew when we'd ever leave...
Wasn't she taking this too slowly? Wasn't this a crisis for her household?
She seemed to be lacking a sense of urgency, but perhaps this was simply how nobles were.
Akimenes, the neighboring city, was 200 km away, and the capital beyond it was another 400 km or so away.
Apparently, it took more than two weeks to travel from Astrantia to the capital by carriage.
"This is fast! Unbelievably fast! It's moving at an incredible speed!"
The viscount's wife was delighted beside me as I held the steering wheel.
"We should arrive at the construction site you mentioned, Kanan-sama, in about two hours."
"What? That quickly? Is it safe to drive this fast?"
"Boss, isn't this going about as fast as we can run...?"
Nyamena muttered from the very back.
"That's right. I once raced the beastfolk, so I think you're correct."
"But this thing can keep running forever without getting tired, right?"
"Well, as long as it has oil for food."
"Incredible... I never imagined such a thing existed in this world. And what is this dangling in front of me?!"
The viscount's wife was pointing at the gold-plated wealth-attracting tree hanging from the rearview mirror.
"It's a good-luck charm that increases financial luck. They say gold attracts gold..."
"Do you have any more?!"
"I could give you one, if you would like..."
I made sure to explain that it was gold-plated. It would be troublesome if the plating came off and she accused me of deceiving her.
I searched Shangri-La, but although larger versions were available, there didn't seem to be any made of eighteen-karat gold.
A cliff stretched endlessly along the left side of the road, while vast tracts of land appeared on the right. They didn't seem to be in use at present, but apparently the plan was to divert water here and convert the land into farmland.
I see――a completed irrigation canal already ran parallel to the main road.
The water for that farmland was to be drawn from Kazura Lake, which lay in a neighboring noble's territory. The project was being carried out by royal decree.
I see. Then we couldn't delay the construction simply for our own convenience.
"Speaking of the lake's water, couldn't you draw it from where our house was?"
"Lake Astilbe is lower than this place. That would not be possible, would it?"
In that case, I thought, we could divert the river flowing atop this cliff and send it over here――but I kept my mouth shut. If I said something unnecessary, I might create even more work for myself.
I had no obligation to do anything like that, anyway.
"You..."
"Yes?"
"Do you truly have no need for my body?"
"I really don't. I have a wife, after all."
"I have one too!"
Anemone shouted from behind us, and the viscount's wife gave me a disapproving look when she heard her.
"You... even a child like that...?"
"It's merely a child's nonsense."
"And yet you have even tamed a forest cat――Primula was right; you really are a Tamer."
The viscount's wife was gazing at Bell, who had her head out the window behind us.
"Primula~?"
Using the rearview mirror, I looked at Primula, who was shrinking back in the rear seat.
"Do not blame your wife. If one has such an extraordinary man as her lord, it is only natural to want to boast about him."
"I do want to boast about Primula too, but..."
"Indeed, your wife's business knowledge is impressive. I hear she manages several shops single-handedly."
"Regarding that matter――thank you very much for removing the merchant who had been harassing my wife's shop."
"It was a trade involving the cheese-making process. Besides, those people who look down on a woman's shop annoy me more than anyone."
The merchant who had harassed Primula's shop had apparently voluntarily suspended business, but he hadn't gone out of business.
Personally, I was annoyed that the punishment seemed a little too lenient... but she seemed to understand that I wasn't satisfied with it.
However, with the viscount away, this was probably the most she could do.
"It is wrong in the first place to look down on a woman without any particularly good reason simply because she is a woman."
"Quite so. Your wife boasted that you were a sage, and it seems she was not exaggerating after all."
This viscount's wife seemed to be an advocate of gender equality. That struck me as a difficult position to take in this world...
But they said the emperor of the neighboring Empire was a woman, so perhaps that country was more progressive.
"I do not possess enough knowledge to be called a sage. Still, I thought my wife was rather tight-lipped, so the fact that you got her to let everything out so easily suggests your conversational skills are quite formidable, Kanan-sama."
"Ha-ha, it was nothing so special. I also tried the soup sold at your wife's shop, and it was refined enough to be called noble cuisine. You were the one who created the original recipe, were you not?"
"You went out of your way to try it?"
"If I hear that a shop is fashionable, naturally I would want to know what it tastes like."
"Is that so?"
"You claim to have such a beautiful wife that you cannot stop boasting about her, yet there are beastfolk in the back too. If I ever want one, you may come to my bed at any time."
"That is absolutely not going to happen."
"Hmm... Why are you so certain? It is not as though you have no interest at all, is it?"
As she said this, the viscount's wife peered intently at my face as I held the steering wheel...
"I would like to keep my dealings with nobles to the absolute minimum whenever possible."
"Having connections with nobles is useful in many ways, you know?"
"But it also increases the number of entanglements, doesn't it?"
"Hmm... To think that I, who was called the belle of the frontier, would be treated so casually..."
It seemed her pride had been hurt by being treated so casually.
"If you were so confident in being a belle, perhaps you should have become a candidate to marry into the royal family."
"That opportunity did arise, but they said the family background did not match because I was the daughter of a poor noble. Becoming a viscount's wife was the best I could manage."
"Then you didn't marry him out of love or because you liked him?"
"There could be no such thing in a marriage between nobles."
So it was simply a political marriage. Apparently, the other person's feelings didn't matter.
"That is a rather bleak and heartless story."
"Indeed. But it is the truth."
As it turned out, both the viscount and his wife had lovers, so apparently there was no problem with either of them sleeping with other people.
But among ordinary nobles, it seemed normal for the men to have many lovers while the women were expected to preserve their chastity.
Good grief――nobles really were impossible for me to understand. Their values simply didn't agree with mine.
I wanted nothing to do with getting caught up in that kind of mess.
While we were discussing things I wouldn't want the children to hear, the construction site came into view.