Chapter 128
“Wow….”
It was a weekend morning. I visited the gate owned by our company in the mountains early in the morning to watch my golem soldiers at work. Ophelia, Daengdaeng, and I had ridden a truck up the pitch-black mountain starting before dawn.
“Ophelia, can you really see everything?”
“I can.”
“Amazing.”
I couldn't see very well, but Ophelia was even driving with the truck's lights turned off. Apparently, there was no need to turn on the lights and agitate the animals nearby. The hunter night-vision goggles we'd brought back from the Oseong Group research facility last time were doing their job perfectly.
Daengdaeng should still have been asleep at this hour, and it was sleeping soundly on my thigh. I was a little sleepy too, but they say the person in the passenger seat isn't supposed to sleep.
“Mmm….”
“Princess, please get some sleep while we're traveling.”
“Ah, no! You're having to drive all this way, Ophelia.”
“It is all right.”
“R-really..? Then maybe I'll sleep just a little….”
I really meant to close my eyes for just a moment, but when I woke up, the sun was shining brightly and we'd already arrived in front of the gate.
“Oh my god.”
“Did you rest well?”
“Yep….”
“Here is your breakfast.”
“Oh, a sandwich.”
When I came here last time, there had been nothing around the entrance, but now there were several barracks-like buildings made by joining containers together. They were still being used as temporary quarters, apparently, and proper buildings would be put up later.
As I ate the sandwiches from the picnic basket Ophelia had prepared, I approached the buildings, and Bradamante came out.
“Bradamante!”
“Princess! Welcome!”
“Heehee. Have you been doing okay?? How's Suri??”
“Of course! Suri went out into the mountains for a bit. Suri said they were going hunting.”
“Oh, I see. It must be uncomfortable with the conditions being so rough.”
Bradamante was using another container alone, but I still felt kind of sorry for them. I wondered if it might be better for Bradamante to sleep at our house with us after all. But it was so far away that we'd probably spend too much time traveling back and forth.
“I'm fine! Don't worry about me, Princess! I've even slept on bare ground before, you know?”
“R-really..? Then shouldn't you be….”
Anyway, Bradamante's high level of completion meant they could manage with less sleep than the other golems, and after Bradamante, the soldier golems began waking up one after another.
“Huh? Where did Minyum go??”
ㅡClack-clack..?
“Really? Where could Minyum have gone? Bradamante, you didn't see them?”
“Hmm, no! I don't know either..?”
All 25 soldier golems who had been living in the container buildings had gotten up, but Minyum was nowhere to be seen. I was just about to start worrying that something had happened when—
ㅡCrackle….
“Huh, Minyum! Were you inside the gate?!”
ㅡClack!
Minyum came out of the gate, which looked like a hole wavering with navy-blue light in midair. They were covered in what looked like blood here and there and were flicking the blood off their sword, and apparently they had gotten up first thing in the morning to warm up.
“Ooh…. So you're the most senior after all! Setting a good example!”
“Ah..!”
ㅡClack!
“Heehee, all right. I'll praise you lots!”
ㅡBeep-beep!!
While I was praising Minyum, Bradamante suddenly came rushing over to me.
“P-Princess! Starting tomorrow morning, I'm going to enter the gate early too!”
“Huh? Won't that be too hard? You don't have to, though.”
“No! I'll start working early too!”
“Uh, um…. Well, if that's what you want, I suppose it's okay….”
Bradamante is really motivated too. Is there something different about commanding officers? But I know from having served in the army that if the higher-ups keep working this hard, the soldiers are going to have a really tough time.
‘Hmm.’
Look, even now they're standing in perfect formation without me telling them to. It looks incredibly uncomfortable.
“Soldiers! Take a break! I'm not the kind of person who'll scold you for slacking off!”
ㅡClack….
ㅡCreeeak….
“Minyum, don't scare the soldiers.”
ㅡClack?!
“What do you mean, no? I saw everything! It's better for everyone to work while taking breaks, okay?”
ㅡClack….
It's good that everyone works so hard, but if they work too hard and end up getting sick, that would be an even bigger problem. Though, can they even get sick..? I don't know. Still, rest is important. I kind of feel cool, like a president with a military background. Like I really understand the soldiers' hardships.
‘Ah, if that's the case, I shouldn't have come here….’
Anyway, I'm a good commander who works incredibly hard to improve the soldiers' living conditions and treatment.
“A-and…. If you work hard and the number of soldiers goes up a little, I'll put on another performance later….”
ㅡClack!?!!
ㅡClack!!
ㅡCreeeak!!!
“A performance..? Princess?! What do you mean?!”
The five senior soldiers and Minyum were practically doing five hundred somersaults, but Bradamante and the 20 junior soldiers, who knew nothing about the performance, were completely confused. Minyum approached Bradamante, who hadn't seen the performance, and shrugged their shoulders.
ㅡClack
“I-I'll watch it too! The princess's performance!”
“N-no…. It's not that amazing, so don't get your hopes up too much….”
“Absolutely!! Suri! Return ㅡ !!!”
At Bradamante's call, Suri, who had been enjoying hunting animals in the mountains, came sprinting straight to the gate. Bradamante cast magic and changed into armor, then suddenly went into the gate.
“Princess! I'll go do some work and be back!”
“Huh…. They left.”
ㅡClack!
Minyum stood with their arms crossed, looking at the gate Bradamante had entered as if it were ridiculous. Was Minyum always this kind of character..? Well, whatever. As long as everyone was getting along.
“You worked hard! Oh, right, I have something to install. Help me with this, okay?”
ㅡNod nod
The truck Ophelia and I had ridden in contained a huge projector and a tent-like screen to project onto. Something like that, anyway. Bradamante and Minyum had phones, but now that there were so many soldiers, it would probably be difficult for everyone to watch my broadcasts together on a phone-sized screen.
“Where do you think we should put it? Install it somewhere comfortable for you to watch!”
ㅡClack!!
Once the 20 soldiers got to work, they rapidly dug holes for the tent poles, put up the tent, and adjusted the projector angle. I wondered if this was what it felt like when officers made soldiers who had been resting do various chores while they watched from the side.
It was kind of fun too, since it felt a little like playing a game….
‘Oops, that's not right..! I need to understand how soldiers feel..!’
“G-good work! I'll be going now! Everyone, work hard ㅡ !!”
It would be most comfortable for the soldiers if I left as quickly as possible.
* * * * *
Before I knew it, it was early April.
“Sigh, spend a little money and I'm already broke.”
I received this month's allowance, but after trying to do a few things, about half of it had already disappeared. I'm a princess, you know?? Is it really okay for me to be this broke???
‘Isn't Ophelia a little stingy….’
Just as I was thinking that to myself—
ㅡKnock knock knock
“Princess?”
“G-gasp!! Ophelia?!”
“Why are you so surprised?”
“N-no! It's nothing in particular?!”
They say that speaking of the tiger brings it around, but Ophelia is 500 times smarter than a tiger, so Ophelia comes looking for me even when I only think about Ophelia instead of saying anything. Ophelia summoned me because there was something to say, and when I went over….
“For that reason, I will raise Your Highness's monthly allowance to 350,000 won.”
“Whaaaaaat!!!!!”
Hooray. My allowance went up by 50,000 won.
“D-did you really make that much money?!”
“We began earning regular profits outside our investments, which allowed us to make somewhat more aggressive and experimental investments.”
“Gasp…. But Ophelia, do you lose money too?”
“….”
“Ah, sorry. I withdraw the question.”
Judging by Ophelia's expression, Ophelia seemed to have lost money a few times. How unexpected. Ophelia seemed like the type who could use some ultra-hyper-ultimate-mega-big data to make sure Ophelia never lost money. Still, Ophelia had recently signed a contract with another foreign company and started selling a metal slightly better than the rare-metal alloys on the market.
Of course, it was nowhere near the level of the materials we used ourselves, but even that seemed to be highly regarded in the tech industry. Ophelia said it had allowed Ophelia to pick and choose among companies offering favorable contract terms.
“At present, the facilities at the forge overseen by Sir Galahad are not large enough for mass production, so this is not a large-scale operation. Even so, it was a fairly large contract relative to the company's current total assets.”
“I see…. Should we increase the number of house fairies too?”
“It would be best to equip the forge with automated facilities. Of course, as the facilities expand, the number of forge golems will also need to increase.”
Anyway, Ophelia had secured favorable terms through a fairly long contract, gained a steady monthly income, and proceeded with aggressive investments.
“Total assets have increased by 120 percent compared to the previous month.”
“Oh…. Then how much is that?”
If 120 percent of 80 billion won was… What was 20 percent again..?
“96 billion!”
“176 billion won.”
“Huh?”
“The increase in total assets is 120 percent of the total assets from last month.”
“Huh, whaaat..?! A-a thousand..?!”
“That's correct.”
No! Then my allowance should increase by 120 percent too, shouldn't it! Make my allowance 600,000 won!!
“I-I see…. Ophelia, you're incredible….”
“Thank you.”
“Then where are you going to spend that money?”
Surely, now that we'd gained almost 100 billion won, my allowance wouldn't stop at 350,000 won. If I praised Ophelia a whole lot and worked on Ophelia a little, maybe I could get it up to around 500,000 won.
“As I mentioned, expanding the forge facilities. In addition, we plan to increase purchases of the materials used to produce rare-metal alloys, as well as the total production of the finished rare-metal alloys to be sold under the contract. Our expenses have increased by as much as the net profit we brought in.”
“Sob…. No…. Spend a little less and raise my allowance….”
Sure enough, Ophelia had already broken down the massively increased total assets into ten-won increments and allocated every bit of it. Honestly, couldn't Ophelia invest just a little more in me? Of course, the house, my food, education, clothes, and various other things did cost a lot, but….
I needed allowance for things like that, not all that other stuff..!
“Hmm, understood. Then I will consider raising it to 400,000 won.”
“R-really..?!”
“Yes, Princess. If you can effectively relieve stress through leisure activities, I judge that to be a significant benefit as well.”
“Yay ㅡ !!!”
Eve. The 400,000-won man!! No one can stop me now.
“Heehee, thank you, Ophelia.”
“I'm glad you're happy, Princess.”
“Now that we have so much money, are we going to build a building too?”
“We still do not have enough to purchase land and put up a building downtown.”
“Wouldn't 170 billion won be enough?”
The privately held company ‘EVE Project’ is, on the surface, a company specializing in network security and hacking defense. If you're wondering, ‘Aren't we doing anything like that at all??’—Ophelia is handling it.
Apparently, Ophelia goes around checking out small and midsize companies' networks and pointing out their security vulnerabilities. So we're already earning some money and gaining a fair amount of recognition in that field too.
And although I didn't know it, Daengdaeng was doing the same kind of work.
“Whoa, you were working..?”
ㅡBeep….
“Sorry. Go eat as much feed as you want.”
I thought Daengdaeng did nothing but sprawl around, sleep all day, and eat feed whenever it woke up, but it had actually been working. Anyway, the foundation of the company was the security business Ophelia and Daengdaeng were running. On top of that, we were developing and selling alloys, while also dabbling in technology development and the steel industry.
Ophelia told me that the professional term for this was business diversification, or a conglomerate.
“If the combat power of the soldier golems is raised across the board, we plan to establish branches in each city and deploy golems there. When a gate appears, we will provide a physical security service that prioritizes protecting contracted buildings.”
“Ooh!!”
“Ultimately, based on our performance and experience as the security company mentioned above, we would operate in a form similar to a PMC.”
“Ooh….”
I didn't totally understand it, but didn't it sound incredibly impressive?
“I hope it works out!”
“That is correct.”