Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? Chapter 252

"And, why were you rejected?"

I've repeated the same question to sister a number of times while she's drunk and more likely to talk.

"..I'm grateful for your feelings and I have good feelings towards you as well but I've already decided that Kurea is my only wife, or said something like that..I already know..that sort of thing.."

And then sister answered with the same reply again as well. At first she praised me for clearing the 8th floor like "As expected of someone I trained" but I'm already tired of hearing it. I held a consolation party for sister after I was finally able to invite her to dinner on a day off.

We entered this reasonably high rank restaurant called Maruhasu at about 3 pm. Right now it should already be past 8 pm. Brother is together with Rozural, Wendy, and Dianne supervising the transfer of duties for the various times of rubber products and repairs at the workshop and around now should be finis.h.i.+ng up dinner together with everyone.

It's already been over 5 hours since sister and I took up our spots at a table in the back of the restaurant. Before I realized it there's a huge bottle(about 1.8 liters) of wheat vodka emptied out. Though I drank about 80% of it. It seems sister is weak to alcohol. While remembering the Chuhai from my past life I split the wheat vodka by about 1/10th with juice to make it easier to drink but in no time at all she was drunk. I'll tell Miduchi about it later. If it's alcohol then she can't definitely win against sister.

"Ah, use {Neutralize.Poison} one more time! This is delicious!"

"Yeah~Yeah"

I use the spell {Neutralize.Poison} on sister(since sister is drunk she can't concentrate to use any spells) for who knows how many times it's been while sighing to myself. I ordered some more juice from oranges and honey and additionally had them refill the ice pale with ice as well. Of course I can do it myself as well but it's a restaurant so I should properly order and pay for it. Rather since I'm essentially returning someone to normal every time they get drunk and letting them drink even more alcohol the restaurant should be thanking me.

"Ngu..Ngu!! You sure know a good way to drink it. I give you my praise!"

"Yeah, thank you my lord."

I return a half-a.s.sed reply while poking at my sazae cooked in the sh.e.l.l with just salt and no soy sauce. They use fire to take the body from the sh.e.l.l and serve it on the plate where you cut it with a knife and fork but there's no refinement or anything else to it. Since I have the chance I'd like to eat it with chopsticks~ It's unfortunate I forgot to bring along my chopsticks.

"Ah! I want to eat that! Baldoggie!"

"Yeah~yeah. Hey, Zulu."

I turn around and called out to Zulu who was eating and drinking together with Angela and Giberuti at the next table.

"Yes, I'll go and get some and come back."

Sorry about that. But, you don't drink alcohol. Angela and Giberuti seem to be somewhat drunk and having a good time so the only one left that could even be considered a decent bodyguard is Zulu. Even if he goes to the sausage factory right now excluding John and Terry who sleep over there no one else should be remaining. If there's none remaining in stock then I guess John and Terry will be slapped awake by Zulu in the first stages of sleep before being made to make sausages in the middle of the night..Maybe I'll buy them some candy next time I go.

"And you know~ That Yuri you know~ even though he looks like that he's gentle right...Aaa~"

There's no Aaa~ to it. The one who wants to sigh is me. Why did things turn out like this?

In the several days since then we dragged the Donneoru family around to our frequent customers like the brothels and shoemakers, had them remember the faces of my slaves once again, and did a simple introduction of how the sausages are made as time pa.s.sed by quickly, even when it was just teaching them the necessary office work that needs to be processed and the way to mark the sales in the ledger this many days pa.s.sed by.

It was on that sort of occasion where I received contact that sister was finally able to have this day off so I adjusted my schedule and invited her out for a meal, then after getting her drunk and having her forget everything to let her feelings out, the result was this. Putting it simply it was sister's illicit love towards lord Yuri.Guroh.o.r.etz.

However, obviously the first knight group of Rombert King is the super elite course. By the point they're enlisting almost everyone is already a true knight from some knight group and has a good reputation in their birthplace, so of course~ it's only obvious someone would have already attached their strings to him. It's not unusual for people in it to already be married at all.

He was already married by the time he entered the first knight group as a squire and by the time sister received invest.i.ture as a true knight it was around the time he even had children. Obviously that would mean that sister was aiming for the spot of Lord Guroh.o.r.etz's second wife.

Honestly speaking, from an Orth way of looking at it when it comes to marrying a person from the first group whether it's the first or second there's nothing to complain about at all. Even sister herself is a knight from the first knight group as well and let alone enough to not be troubled over money for the rest of her life, she's basically already been promised more money than the average income for a Lord of a village in a remote region on Orth. In the off chance that she actually makes some sort of large achievement and gets promoted up to company commander then it would even open her path to becoming a formal Viscount.
There's plenty to cheer about it.

"About Lord Guroh.o.r.etz, that just means that he loves his first wife that much right. Doesn't that mean he's not the type of person who would marry a second wife so easily just because she's young right. He's a good person."

"That's right..He entered the first knight group one year before me and he's an amazingly excellent person, has a lot of experience, and he's reliable as well. He was always paying attention to those around him and he's gentle..Even though I didn't know my right from left he said I was intelligent and cute.."

Yeah~yeah. I wonder how many times we've had this conversation now...Since sister came from a remote village with almost no life experience before she realized it she opened her heart to lord Guroh.o.r.etz who was older and reliable. Thanks to her superior magic skills she managed to overtake him in terms of career in the first knight group but I'm sure that sort of thing didn't matter to sister at all. Though if you say that's just like sister then that's also true.

If you were to ask me I'd push the person called Robert.Busshu who had just entered the first knight group around two years ago and in the middle of struggling at the bottom as a squire. In terms of age he's 23, one year older than sister and just the same as sister he's the third son of some Viscount family so I'm sure he has a hungry spirit to him as well. His face was considerably good looking with a wild sort of feel to it and just from what I saw he didn't seem like he had a bad personality either. I don't know as far as his abilities but in the first place there's no one who can enter the first knight group with no real skill.

However, it's not something to talk about right now so for today I'll accompany her until she's satisfied.

...................

Year 7446, Month 8, Day 6

We've almost completely finished transferring over all of the duties and the day for brother and the Ryogu family to return to Bakuddo has arrived. It's regrettable that I have to part ways with the squire family that's supported me through light and dark over these past two years but Ra.s.seg and the others are taking over that role.

"Al-sama, please take good care of yourself."
"We've been in your care. Please give everyone our regards."

The Ryogu family all said their farewells as the older Rozural and Wendy sat together in the coachman's seat and the younger Luke and Dianne fortified the carriage as escorts with the other squires.

"I'm the one who's been your care. You all stay healthy as well. See you again."

After we saw them off early in the morning a bit of time pa.s.sed as we slightly s.h.i.+fted the positions of the Donneoru family's furniture and the Yotlen family lectured them on the store. In regards to the sausage factory it's proceeding a lot more smoothly than I thought and if it's like this then she should be able to receive the support of Ra.s.seg and the others so it's probably fine to just leave it to Cathy already. Accompanied by Basutoral and my combat slaves we decided to return to Baldukk after lunch today as well.

"Then Cathy. Just as originally planned we'll be returning from the dungeon on the 12th so come to Baldukk on the evening of that day. It's fine for you to close the factory until the 15th while you're gone."

I stopped Basutoral and said that when he was proposing having Cathy work on the production for another month because of how crucial things are after first starting. That's no good. She and the others have already been working without break(learning the job) since last month when we started doing test operations for the factory.

Certainly that sort of thing is necessary for the start but I had already intended to make a day to close things down for a holiday. It would be better to make it known among the merchants that we deal with in Rombertia early on to avoid trouble later.

It's fine to setup a rotation s.h.i.+ft for holidays and keep things operating everyday once everyone has gotten more used to the job. It's not like I'm giving the slaves a day off out of kindness. People you know, if they're forced to keep working without breaks I think the efficiency of their work falls. Though you can't take breaks from something like farm work. I intend to pay the bare minimum wages so they can eat and go on living and I'm sure it would be boring if their only use for that money in their lifetime was just the next days meal. I have no intention of saying something like a mere slave should find a hobby but I'm sure everyone needs time to relax.

Eventually when the slaves working at the sausage factory show that they're very loyal and have the necessary qualities then in order I intend to have them take on different jobs so there is the face that I want them to get used to my way of doing things quickly. Rather~ my real aim is that I want John and Terry who have already learned simple reading, writing, and math from Basutoral on their days off to act as teachers and teach them as well.

If it comes to that then the next generation after them will be able to learn to read at an even younger age I'm sure. The meaning in preparing half of each boys and girls of the same age and race should start appear around 10 or 20 years later. It's a method I decided on using Lail Kingdom as an example from what I heard from Miduchi but I'm sure it's effective.

Centering around the roughly 30 members of the {Slaughterers} right now and around 100 young slaves. It's really the bare minimum number of subordinates I'll need when I eventually get my own territory. Of course it's always better to have even more slaves who won't betray me no matter what happens though. Well, it will cost a reasonable amount of money and it's a matter for a bit further into the future so in that regard~

I left driving the carriage we borrowed to Basutoral as I sat down in the coachman's seat next to him and talked until we arrived at Baldukk. I handed Giberuti the money for renting the carriage and the food expense for when we enter the dungeon and sent him to return it before I went back to the inn but no one was around.

Everyone must have gone to play somewhere. I already had conveyed to them that I would return to Baldukk today so the {Butchers} and {Exterminators} matched their schedules up to return to the surface today as well~ but while thinking that, for the time being I sent Zulu and Angela to Kamu and Ginger's inn.

It's necessary to have a meeting them them as well so I wanted to reserve a random restaurant tonight and discuss our plan from here on out. Shortly after Zulu and Angela came back but both of them had nothing. Since it couldn't be helped I told them to return to their inn once and leave their belongings before coming back while Basutoral and I killed time taking showers.

However, while we were taking our showers everyone who has a room in Boil Manor ended up returning. When I tried asking Miduchi where they went it seems all of the {Slaughterers} went to the outer areas of the outer crater this morning for training. Hmm.

In any case just as planned it's possible to talk to Kamu and Ginger tonight. I felt a bit bad for Zulu and Angela but after they returned I sent them off towards Kamu and Ginger's inn again with a message that I want them to come to Murowa after they take a short break and if Zulu and Angela don't have any plans afterwards I asked them to go to Murowa first and reserve the place.

I laid face down on my bed in Boil Manor for the first time in two weeks while organizing things in my head for a bit. The details were about the organization of all three teams of the {Slaughterers} for the time being. Thanks to rus.h.i.+ng into the 9th floor this time I've surpa.s.sed the achievement of the founding King and am quickly becoming the person of the moment.

Honestly speaking, something like what floor I've made it to in the dungeon of Baldukk on this corner of the Ollad Continent doesn't matter to me at all. If I could just surpa.s.s the achievement of the founding King then it would add a gold lining to my actions but there's almost nothing other than that. Though I say that, as expected things like a gold lining and prestige you can't buy with money so as much as possible I intend to make practical use of it.

Well, in the first place I came to enter the dungeon seeking treasure just the same as all of the many other adventurers who've gathered, so something like clearing through the floors is nothing more than a bonus. Since it just means that the number of rivals decreases, relative to that our portion should increase, or at least it was my true intention to aim for the lower floors with those sorts of expectations.

I had high hopes when the door opened of the first altar shrine we found on the 9th floor but since it was empty you could say it was greatly beneficial just that we can now predict things aren't as simple as that.

I'm sure not all of the shrines in the altar rooms have something in them from the start.

It's something that was often said in Baldukk, "Since the founding King made the Kingdom of Rombert using treasure he obtained on the 8th floor, even if it's not all of the altar shrines that exist on the 8th floor he should have been able to monopolize a considerable amount of them." and I didn't have any material to deny that either. Or rather I wanted to believe in it. It's because I wanted to believe that if we go to a new floor we'd be able to take all the treasure from the altar rooms there as we please and if that was the case it would have been more convenient for me as well.

However, putting aside the ores you can find digging up the floor or walls(It's great that the pickax we bought in the past didn't end up completely pointless), we confirmed that just the same as in the past the altar rooms are occasionally empty so there was no choice other than to revise my plan.

It's certainly true that when we entered the 9th floor I was thinking something like, "If we remain adequately careful then just by randomly exploring the 9th floor we can obtain lots of treasure no one has touched. Even in the worst case that we can't obtain enough valuable treasure for me to buy a territory then matching it together with the treasure from the 10th floor beyond that then there's no way we wouldn't find treasure with a high enough overall value to do it, with this we can say goodbye to this moldy dungeon."

It was really counting the chickens before they've hatched but I wanted to say goodbye to the dungeon at the latest in the middle of next year(of course in terms of appearances we'd still continue as adventurers challenging the dungeon) while Miduchi and I spend about half a year searching for the ingredients necessary for the medicine and if we can find them that's great. Even if we can't completely find them we should be able to gather quite a few. Simultaneously in order for Gwine to produce a map of the Dirt Plains I'll have Zenom and Ralpha who are used to traveling act as her escorts along with a couple of my combat slaves join them on exploring. While looking for a good time I'll select one of the treasures with a reasonable value to it and present it to the King..or at least I was dreaming of that.

However, I'm sure things won't go so easily~ and I already thought this would be the case somewhere in my mind. It seems that this time that way of thinking was correct. Unless we have considerably good luck I'm sure it'll still be necessary to continue exploring the dungeon for a while longer. Miduchi was saying something that sounded pretty random like "Normally the chances of finding treasure should increase on the lower floors and the value of items should be higher as well" but it seems the basis for it is games from our previous life so I can't put any faith in it at all.

Just like everyone said even if Miduchi's opinion is correct (Though I do think it's probably correct~), regardless of whether the probability of finding them is higher and the value of the treasures we find increase if you compare it to definitely obtaining treasure from every altar then in the end it's no different from what we've been doing up until now.

Just because they've increased the number of winners and prize money for 1st to 3rd place lottery tickets sold by Mizuho Bank, if you were to ask me it's hard to say something like "That's great." about it.
Of course it's not something that's bad.

Still, it's not as if I've forgotten about the huge specially made altar with no summoned monsters and the door of the shrine open from the start that we saw the first time we entered the 8th floor.

Now then, I guess it's about time go. Before I announce things to everyone I need to make the necessary preparations under the guise of a meeting with Kamu and Ginger.