Chapter 85
"Whoa~ A bath, a bath!"
"Your Highness, please don't splash so much water!"
I can hear the princess and the female knight giggling and making merry in the shed right in front of me.
I took the shed that had been sitting atop the tree house out of my Item Box and repurposed it as a bathroom.
It was just like when we built an irrigation channel in the forest, except this bathroom also had maids attending to the princess and the female knight.
That said, the maids weren't bathing naked with them.
The same went for Primula, who was teaching them how to use shampoo and conditioner.
The Viscountess had told me to bathe with her, but doing that with an underage member of the royal family would be too risky. It would cast doubt on her chastity.
If something like that happened, the king would start targeting me too.
I was staying at the royal palace in the royal capital, but I had nothing to do, so I had casually accepted a job exterminating the rats infesting the castle's underground passages.
But we had discovered that an outrageous number of them lived down there,
so the princess had gotten the better of me.
Nyamena had been complaining too, but this had turned into quite a major undertaking.
Still, now that I had accepted the job, I had to produce results that would satisfy the princess.
Besides, if I handled various jobs for them, I might receive something valuable from the royal family.
While I was outside having a drink with Nyamena, the princess and the female knight emerged from the bathroom wearing bathrobes.
The maids and Primula followed behind them.
A table and jet heater had already been set up for them after their bath.
"Lilith-sama, please dry your hair with this magical tool."
"What? A magical tool?"
When I switched on the jet heater, hot air began blowing out with a clicking sound.
"Whoa! This is amazing!"
"I might want one of these... Long hair takes quite a while to dry."
"We find it very useful for drying the beastfolk's fur."
"I see..."
The princess stood in front of the jet heater while the maids around her lifted her hair and exposed it to the hot air coming from the silver tube.
"Your Highness, your hair..."
"Whoa! My hair is silky and fluffy! Is it because of that substance we used when washing it?"
"That is correct."
"Can I get this from the Marrow Trading Company?"
"No. I am the only one capable of synthesizing it, so it is not commercially available."
"Hmm... But any woman would jump at this."
The female knight seemed surprised by the conditioner too. It would surely work well on long hair, and the results were easy to see.
When the princess and the female knight entered the house with the maids, Primula said she would bathe alone.
Primula was calling for Anemone. The water had grown lukewarm, so she wanted Anemone to heat it again.
The princess and the female knight seemed to be staying in my house, so it had been completely turned into their vacation home.
"Hey, Boss. How did things end up like this?"
"Beats me. We've become the princess's favorite toys."
"Yeah, nya~"
"If we cooperate with her to a reasonable extent, we can go home once the audience with His Majesty the King is over. We just have to put up with it until then."
"It's nice not being bored, but..." "Not being able to hunt is depressing, nya."
That seemed to bother Myaree the most. Nyamena had done various kinds of work in Astrantia, so apparently she wasn't exclusively a hunter.
Once I finished heating Primula's bath, Anemone emerged from the bathroom.
"Aren't you going in, Anemone?"
"I took a bath earlier, so I don't need to."
As I sat cross-legged in front of the fire, Anemone came and sat beside me, so the two of us wrapped ourselves in a blanket.
"I'm getting in too, nya!"
Myaree climbed into the blanket as well. With a beastfolk joining us, all that fluffy fur warmed us right up.
While the three of us were dozing off like that, we heard the jet heater running.
Primula must have finished her bath. I needed to put the equipment away.
As I stored the table, jet heater, and other things in my Item Box, the front door of the house opened.
"Kenichi! Come here and tell me your stories!"
I wanted to say, Good grief—but this was a valuable opportunity to learn about the country. I might hear things a mere merchant would never know.
I probably shouldn't turn her down.
"Mmph!"
Anemone was displeased that the princess had taken up my time, but I had no choice but to keep her company.
However, the small house was packed full with the princess, the female knight, the maids, me, Anemone, and Primula.
"Mufu! Fascinating! Your stories are absolutely fascinating!"
I talked about various things with the princess, but it was difficult to decide which topics would be appropriate.
Religious subjects seemed somewhat dangerous, and there were probably topics that touched on taboos as well.
For example, geocentrism and heliocentrism. Even saying that the world was round might be dangerous.
Still, I was able to hear about the situation in other countries from the princess.
The neighboring Empire had a new emperor and was in the process of consolidating his power, so it probably wouldn't pose a threat for a while.
The dangerous country, on the other hand, was the Republic of Magloire, on the opposite side of the Empire.
I wondered if even a world like this had a republic—but apparently it did.
Villages were managed as communities, each designed as a self-sufficient unit capable of handling agriculture, industry, medicine, education, and everything else.
Naturally, they needed a certain number of people to handle all of that, so people were forcibly gathered together and relocated.
For example, if a community had no doctor, doctors or people capable of healing magic would be forcibly gathered and sent there.
All of a community's products and earnings were managed as shared property, and after taxes were deducted and sent to the country, everything was redistributed among the community's members.
At first glance, it seemed like a wonderful system, but there was no guarantee that every community would have outstanding people to staff it.
For example, doctors, educators, and craftsmen who failed to meet the required standards were often sent there, adding to the confusion on the ground.
Furthermore, development proceeded according to predetermined annual plans, and taxes were collected based on those plans.
But if a famine, accident, or something else caused production to fall drastically, each community member's share decreased.
If the annual plan could not be fulfilled, people were enslaved as political criminals, leaving the village with no choice but to sell off its assets. That might keep it afloat temporarily, but it would eventually collapse.
Even after collapsing, they could not escape, and apparently large numbers of people starved to death.
It was a textbook dystopia, but rumors of invasions of the Empire and this kingdom never ceased, apparently to distract the people from it.
"That's definitely a seriously messed-up country."
"Exactly. It is a constant headache for our country as well. Yet they call it 'an earthly paradise,' which is laughable."
Honestly, every world seemed to end up looking more or less the same...
"Are there no other minority peoples in Magloire? Elves, for example?"
"There are. Magloire is trying to incorporate even the elves and dwarves into its communities."
"That's absurd."
They were apparently sending in the army against races that refused to obey, but the elves and dwarves living deep in the forests seemed to be fleeing from them.
I could never have heard something like this from a merchant. As expected of royalty. She was apparently about fourteen, but she had received a remarkably advanced education.
"The fact that you can converse with me as an equal is strange enough. And you claim to be nothing but a merchant? Even horses would laugh at that."
"Is that so?"
"I am saying that you must be on the level of a minister or administrator—or something comparable—for this to make sense."
"Kenichi is a sage!"
Anemone, who had come along with me, blurted that out.
"What? A sage?"
I was glad she hadn't called me a god.
"Everyone says so as a joke."
"Hmm..."
The princess folded her arms and thought, but I felt that I might give away too much if I kept talking, so I cut the conversation short and went outside.
But Anemone came out with me.
"Aren't you sleeping in the bed?"
"I want to stay with Kenichi."
I lay down with Anemone in front of the campfire, but the ground was hard and uncomfortable.
If only we had a sleeping bag that could fit two people... Wait, I'd seen people car-camping use air mattresses.
I immediately searched Shangri-La. They sold ones that were rolled up for storage and inflated with air when needed. They cost about 4,000 yen each.
Since I was putting them in my Item Box, I didn't even need to deflate them every time.
"Here we go."
Two rolled-up air mattresses dropped out, so I unrolled them and inflated them by mouth.
Even a girl could somehow manage to inflate one. Once they were full, I placed the two mattresses side by side and lay down with Anemone.
"This is actually pretty nice."
It was probably better than laying down plywood. It was soft, after all.
"Boss, if you've got something this nice, lend us some too." "Nyaa."
"Oh, right."
I bought two more air mattresses. With the lung capacity of beastfolk, they were inflated in no time.
When I spread them out on the ground, the beastfolk lay down as well.
"Heh, this is great!" "It sure is, nya~"
Seeing that, Myaree came over with her mattress and connected it beside Anemone and me.
"Now we can all sleep together, nya!"
"Hey, Blackie! You sneaky bastard! Trying to get ahead of me?"
"First come, first served, nya."
"Not so fast."
Nyamena refused to be outdone and placed her mattress beside ours too.
Then we all lay down—but at some point, Bell arrived and climbed onto my stomach.
"Hey, Bell. You're heavy..."
"Nyaa."
She thumped her tail repeatedly.
"Don't just say 'nyaa.'"
I thought about what might work—and then I had an idea.
I bought ten pieces of cardboard about fifty centimeters long from Shangri-La. A set cost 2,000 yen.
I had always gotten cardboard from supermarkets and the like, but it was surprisingly expensive when you bought it.
I moved Bell off my stomach, assembled the cardboard that had dropped out, and taped two pieces together with duct tape.
"How about it, Bell? If you're a cat, doesn't this tempt you?"
Bell sniffed the cardboard thoroughly, then stretched up to look inside—and leaped in, landing inside.
Then she curled up inside it.
"Kenichi! What's that?"
"Huh? It's a cardboard box."
Myaree seemed intensely interested too, so I assembled a box just like the one Bell had entered.
Myaree then jumped into the cardboard box as well.
"Whoa, it's warm in here, nya!"
She curled up inside the cardboard box. What, did beastfolk like cardboard boxes too...?
"Should I make one for Nyamena too?"
"Ehh, umm..."
She seemed to want to refuse, but it looked as though she couldn't resist her instincts.
I assembled an identical box for her, and Nyamena spread an air mattress inside it before curling up.
"This is seriously warm."
Three huge cardboard boxes sat side by side—a truly surreal sight.
But Bell seemed to have taken a liking to cardboard, so at least I wouldn't have her climbing onto my stomach anymore.
"Anemone, want to sleep in one of those?"
"No."
She said that and hugged me.
------◇◇◇------
――The next day.
When I woke up, I prepared breakfast. The princess was here, but granola should be fine.
If it didn't suit her palate, I could give her instant soup. I had Anemone boil water with magic and made hard-boiled eggs again.
The maids came over from the castle and entered my house. They were probably here to change the princess's clothes.
Once breakfast was ready, the princess came out of the house. The impatient beastfolk had already sat on the ground and started eating breakfast.
The princess emerged from the house.
"Good morning, Lilith-sama."
"Mhm!"
"Please excuse this simple breakfast today. It isn't as though we can eat lavish breakfasts every day."
"What's this?"
I explained the granola to the princess. Unlike the others, she didn't seem to have any aversion to unfamiliar food based on its appearance.
Perhaps that was because, as royalty, she had eaten delicacies from every corner of the land.
Before I had finished explaining, the princess put a spoonful of granola into her mouth without even having it taste-tested.
"Hmm! It's crisp, fragrant, and quite delicious. I could eat this even on a morning when I have no appetite."
"Even Your Highness has mornings when you have no appetite?"
"Of course. On those mornings, I can only manage two bowls of soup instead of my usual four."
Was that really what counted as a lack of appetite?
"This is delicious..."
The female knight sitting beside the princess ate some granola and murmured. It had been popular when I fed it to people in the city, after all.
It should suit the palates of people in this world too. The maids standing behind the princess looked as though they wanted to try some as well. I suppose they were curious.
In the end, the princess ate four bowls of granola and four hard-boiled eggs.
"Are you going underground again today?"
"Yes. Today is when the real work begins. If there are as many as they seem, we may have to go down again tomorrow."
"I am counting on you."
"Ha-ha~ I am deeply honored."
But the princess looked somewhat suspicious.
"You really aren't a former noble, are you? Perhaps someone who drifted here from another country...?"
"No, no. I am merely a commoner from a remote rural area."
"It is suspicious enough that a mere commoner can hold a conversation with me."
"Actually, there was an unusual old man living in the forest near my home. He taught me all sorts of things from the time I was a child."
"Oh? Then there is a chance that old man was a sage who had been driven from the capital, making you the sage's disciple. That would explain everything."
The princess seemed to accept that explanation somehow.
I had certainly made the whole thing up on the spot, but it was a fairly good story, wasn't it? I would use it from now on.
When I happened to look behind me, the beastfolk and Bell were frozen again, all staring in the same strange direction.
"What's wrong? Do you sense something again?"
"Yeah, Boss. There's definitely something here." "There's a suspicious presence, nya."
"Nyaa."
Bell seemed to agree with them.
"What? Could it be a ghost or a wraith?"
"Boss, wraiths shouldn't appear except at night or in dark places like dungeons..."
I had blurted out the name of a monster, but apparently they understood what I meant.
"You didn't sense anything like that underground where the rats were, did you?"
"That's right, nya."
For now, I asked the princess to confirm it.
"Lilith-sama, have there been any reports of ghosts or wraiths in the castle?"
The princess looked as though she was debating whether to say anything, but eventually spoke with great difficulty.
"...Actually, there have."
"What about the maids behind you? Have they sensed anything strange, or felt as though someone was watching them?"
"Um... Actually, that sort of thing happens quite often..."
"Hmph. Countless people have died to maintain this royal family, and there must be more people who died bearing grudges than anyone could count. It would hardly be strange if the castle were full of ghosts."
"Good grief..."
Just like in that Castle of Cagliostro, people must have died here by the score through intrigue and the like. I would have to be careful too.
I didn't want to get caught up in anything like that. If it came to it, I would make a full-speed getaway. There was no way they could catch me if I escaped in the car.
If I fled into the forest, even the army probably couldn't do anything about it.
After breakfast, we parted ways with the princess and went underground again.
Primula and Bell stayed behind at the house again. Primula had few opportunities to shine, but it couldn't be helped. It was a matter of putting each person in the right place.
Besides, she probably didn't want to go down into a place like that and deal with rats either.
We donned the white protective suits again and went underground.
The LED lights attached to our heads illuminated the underground passage.
"What the hell is this?!" "Aaaah!"
Nyamena and Myaree's screams echoed through the passage.
"Oh, be quiet. You can tell just by looking—those are rat corpses."
Countless black corpses filled the passage, and the surviving rats were hopping over them.
There were still some alive...?
I bought some large hemp sacks from Shangri-La. They were about a meter long. Ordinary garbage bags like the ones I'd used in Japan would tear.
They cost 400 yen each, so I bought about twenty. If there were a thousand rats, ten sacks would hold a hundred each, or twenty would hold fifty each—well, that should be enough.
Then I bought fire tongs for picking up the rats. Touching them with our hands would be dangerous.
Rather than ordinary fire tongs, I bought ones with a wide grip on the end. They cost 1,400 yen, a little more than regular ones, but these should work better.
"Here are the sacks. Use these tongs to pick up the rats and put them in the sacks. Don't touch them with your hands. There could still be poison on them, and rats are riddled with diseases."
"Got it~" "Understood, nya." "Okay!"
"Anemone, don't strain yourself. Set the sack on the floor and just put the rats around you inside it."
"Okay."
There was no way she could carry a sack full of rats with her strength.
We picked up the rat corpses one after another with the fire tongs and shoved them into the sacks.
It seemed that each sack could hold only about fifty rats. They were rather large, after all. If we ran out, I could simply buy more from Shangri-La.
Three, then four sacks filled with rats piled up rapidly inside my Item Box.
"Honestly, I never would have thought of exterminating them all with poison. Boss, you scare the hell out of me."
"So are you going to leave Kenichi's service, Tiger?"
"I never said that!"
Nyamena's words made me panic a little, but apparently Tiger had no intention of quitting.
Nyamena was muttering when she entered a narrow side passage and let out a scream.
"Aaaah!"
"Nyamena, what is it?!"
When I rushed to her, I found two giant rat corpses.
"So there were still some of them..."
"Kenichi! There's another huge one over here, nya!"
Seriously? How many of them were there?
I put the giant rat corpses into my Item Box one after another. There were five in total.
All the ethylene glycol in the washbasin was gone, so perhaps it had worked on them.
We had fourteen sacks filled with rat corpses in total.
But there were still rats scurrying around.
"At this rate, there may be more large ones too. Let's scatter poison again."
"All right! If we're doing this, let's do it thoroughly." "That's right, nya." "Okay."
We bought more rat poison and ethylene glycol from Shangri-La and began scattering it throughout the passages.
Collecting the corpses took about three hours, but there were far fewer rats now, so scattering the poison proceeded smoothly and was finished in about an hour and a half.
"Ha-ha, is it really okay for a job to be this easy?"
"It's easy because Kenichi is here. You don't even understand that, Tiger?"
"I understand that much too!"
"Come on, don't fight. All right! The rest can wait until tomorrow."
"Nyaa!" "Phew..."
Nyamena let out a sigh.
"Wow, that's an incredible number of rats."
Anemone peered into the hemp sacks filled with rat corpses.
"It really is. There are far too many. No wonder the castle is full of rats."
"Damn that princess. If it weren't for Boss, someone would have died."
Nyamena complained while staring at the rats.
"I agree. It's no wonder the Guild turned the job down."
"That's right, nya~"
The rest could wait until tomorrow. We went outside to eat lunch.