CH 298

Chapter 298 – It’s Not in My Nature to Sit Still

I won’t go into much detail about my nightlife. At any rate, it is not serene. Or is it calm in a way? Because in the end, I’m the one who dies, hahaha.

At any rate, I really don’t want my upper limit of strength and stamina to be reduced to 20% or so the next morning. When I lose that much, I have to eat a meal and rest for two hours or so before I can even move.

“…Are you okay?”

“Yeah, well… I just need to rest, and I’ll be fine.”

As I sat slumped on the sofa in the living room after eating breakfast, Iphrita called out to me in concern. She was surprisingly kind.

“You must be going through a lot.”

“Well, this is one of the ways of taking responsibility, isn’t it? Since we have entered into this kind of relationship, I can give and receive equal love and affection as long as my body and time allow.”

So I have been exhausted since this morning. Excluding the harpies, there is a combat-type elf, a one-eyed race, a beastman demon type, a dragon, three humans, three onis, and two elves.

Yes, two elves. Before I knew it, Driada-san was in the mix. No one said anything, or there was even a sense of cooperation, so I guess the outer moat had already been covered. So she slipped into the hole that Ellen and Amalie-san had left.

Eh? The three slimes? Those were a no-go. Those three are practically bottomless.

“Responsibility… You’re trying to be sincere in your own way, aren’t you?”

“Of course. They are forceful, but I don’t feel bad about them liking me either. They are all beautiful, and they show their love to me straight away. I’ll do my best to respond to them to the best of my ability.”

These are words that come from the bottom of my heart. On Earth, I was just an ordinary guy. I never thought that I would be approached by beautiful women and girls such as Sylphy, but it was an unexpected pleasure… although I had to bear some hardships.

“Even so, there are still a lot of things that confuse me. It’s so different from where I used to live.”

“Hmm…”

Iphrita sat down next to me while saying that in a disinterested manner. She moved from where she was sitting.

“Iphrita?”

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

I kept my mouth shut as I was defeated by the scarlet eyes staring at me. What’s the point of going to the trouble of sitting next to me again in this situation? No, could it be?

“By the way, you’re taking it easy, but are you free?”

“That’s right. I don’t have anything to do at the moment, or rather, I don’t have any work I’ve been assigned to do.”

Negotiations with the Holy Kingdom seem to be going poorly. That would be natural. There are too many things that make both sides hate each other. At any rate, since the truce itself has been established by starting peace negotiations, it is said that both sides are now fighting hard to push through their differing claims.

However, there is also the fact that the more time the Holy Kingdom is given, the more disadvantageous it becomes to the Merinard Kingdom. After all, there is too much difference in basic national strength. No matter how hard they try, the number of soldiers they can mobilize is greater. The more time they give to the Holy Kingdom, the more they can throw into the front line at an accelerated pace.

The Kingdom of Merinard is also in the process of increasing the number of soldiers by recruiting former subhuman slaves who have been freed and who wish to join the army, but there is an upper limit to the number of soldiers that the Kingdom of Merinard can operate. Well, I think they can do quite a bit with me, but if they organize an army of disproportionate size, they may strangle the Merinard Kingdom later on. An army is a money-grubber no matter what.

“But I honestly don’t think it’s a good idea to just sit around and take it easy because there’s no work assigned to me.”

“Is that the way it is?”

“That’s the way it is.”

I am a bit aware that I am a workaholic. I feel uncomfortable being the only one taking it easy while everyone around me is busy.

“So I’m thinking of doing something.”

“What do you mean by something?”

“That’s the difficult part. It would be bad for me to move around too much and get the Holy Kingdom to find out about it. I was told that if I was going to do something, I should at least get away from Merinesburg.”

“So why don’t you just do that?”

“But if I leave Merinesburg, I’ll have to leave Ellen and Amalie-san, who are pregnant, and I’ll have to leave the little harpies, too. I don’t want to do that.”

“Oh, right…”

Iphrita’s gaze turned cold and serious. No, I can’t leave a pregnant woman behind, and I can’t leave the care of the children completely to the mothers, can I? Although that seems to be the right thing to do according to the culture of the harpies.　

“So I’m going to do something to help Sylphy and the others while I’m holed up in the castle.”

“What do you mean, ‘something’?”

“Didn’t we just go through this?”

I don’t have a concrete plan.

“First, let’s see what I have in my hand.”

“Right. You can’t do anything if you don’t know what cards you’re going to play.”

“Speaking of me, I’m a craftsman. I can produce most items in large quantities. How about mass-producing something that is in high demand, selling it, and putting it in the treasury?”

“No. If you distribute quality products at low cost and in large quantities with your ability, the craftsmen and producers who make those products will eventually perish.”

“I know, right? I knew it.”

I had this problem figured out a long time ago. If I get serious and mass produce a product for general distribution, the domestic industry will die. Because I can prepare everything from raw materials to finished products at almost no cost, and the quality of the products is quite high. According to the blacksmiths and craftsmen in the Research and Development Department, although my products are not as good as those made by master craftsmen, they are at a level where they could be called high-performance products or excellent products if put on store shelves.

It is obvious that if such quality products are distributed in large quantities, they will drive out the products of existing craftsmen and workshops from the market.

“Mining capacity, then.”

“Isn’t that the same thing? All the mines in the country will go under, and the value of rare metals and gems will plummet.”

“Yes.”

I was told that the gemstones, mithril, gold, silver, and other gems and precious metals that I gave to Sylphy and Melty to fund the liberation army are being sold off little by little so as not to cause a collapse in value.

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Money… huh? Do you want to start a business?”

“It’s impossible to make money without preparation… I don’t have any entrepreneurial experience, and I don’t have a business acumen either.”

“But you do have something that can be used for business, don’t you?”

That would mean products I’ve made, gems and ores I’ve dug out of the ground with my abilities.

“You said yourself earlier that it would be bad to flush them out.”

“I said it’s not good to pour so much that it displaces other products on the market. Just do it in moderation. You don’t have to do everything in business, do you?”

“I see. You want me to be an investor. But how?”

I don’t mind investing, but I don’t have any contacts.

“There is a convenient organization. You can start by talking to them.”

Iphrita got up from her seat and motioned with her index finger as if she wanted me to follow her. Hmm?