So then.
The homestead facilities are essentially complete — all that remains is the water channel.
Which means the founding goals of food, clothing, and shelter are basically cleared.
Business through the Marcus Company, incidentally, is profitable enough that Mayu puts it as: “Without the Money-Grubbing God, we’d have been billionaires AGES ago.”
Sugar, spices, and pearl-ish objects, all moved at near-zero cost basis — of course it prints money.
The channel is genuinely large-scale construction, so we’ve been saving toward the build cost — and the fund is nearly there.
It’ll mean temporarily hosting a hundred-odd workers, and building temp lodging for them too.
Once the channel’s in, the fields expand — spice, sugar-beet, and wine-grape acreage all growing.
Ten elves won’t remotely cover that labor, so this place will start becoming a proper farming village.
We’ll need actual sugar and liquor production facilities too… immigration policy: officially a future agenda item.
“I want to go on a trip, all of us~♪”
So — everything was proceeding smoothly, and then Sonya said that.
Apparently, while playing with my phone without permission (as usual), she found photos of a seaside resort.
“Master… I too would like to go.”
“Ah! Boku too!”
“Have none of you ever been to the sea?”
The entire room nodded in unison.
We ARE fairly deep inland, so maybe that’s not so strange.
“Hmm. Alright — once the channel’s done, we’ll celebrate with a proper vacation. All of us.”
Every face in the room clouded over.
“Ehh~ but Ouroboros already MADE the swimsuits~”
“THAT WAS FAST!”
They love a banquet; these people are, at their core, party people.
Spot a fun event on the horizon and their logistics become terrifyingly efficient.
“We hold the trip until the infrastructure’s finished. That’s final…”
“Ehh~. Tatsuya is a CHEAPSKATE~”
And there, fox-eared Arisa appeared.
“I heard EVERYTHING! If that’s the situation — we’re ALL going to the SEA!”
“Oh? Arisa?”
Arisa raised her right index finger and clicked her tongue — tch, tch, tch.
“The me standing before ya ain’t just plain ol’ Arisa no more.”
“Meaning what?”
“One of only FIVE head clerks of the Marcus Company — its youngest an’ sharpest!”
Head clerk — that’s the number-two tier of a trading company, isn’t it.
Warp-speed promotion… oi oi, seriously?
“You… I was only lending you to Marcus as OUR negotiator, you know? What happens now that you’re internal staff?”
“The Adventurer King’s head-over-heels for Maria, ain’t he. We’re practically family already.”
“I mean — true, but…”
“Plus that company’s growin’ at ludicrous speed thanks to US. They wanted me locked in as an executive. Simple as.”
“Just don’t run too wild over there.”
She IS pathologically greedy… I sighed.
“Course not! I’ve already made SURE — my salary’s a proper rip-off!”
I dropped a firm fist-bonk.
“OW!”
“Ripping off MARCUS is where I draw the line.”
“It’s a FAIR price, I’m tellin’ ya! Profits are up obscene amounts… I’m only skimmin’ twenty percent over their original offer!”
…That’s within tolerances, I suppose.
Practically speaking, she’s now the executive in charge of our account, inside their org chart.
“So why does any of this mean the SEA?”
“About that… say, say, Tatsuya-bro?”
“Hm? What?”
“Ya told me about it once, remember? The thing that goes great with that ‘nihonshu’ liquor… uh, the monster with all them legs…”
“Squid, you mean?”
Right — just like medieval Europe back on Earth, this world files squid under “monster.”
Nobody eats them, naturally. A culinary tragedy of the highest order.
“Uh-huh, an’ what was it again… ya dry it overnight, yeah?”
“Ichiya-boshi — overnight-dried squid? Dip it in mayonnaise and it’s absurdly good.”
“THAT’S the one! So — whaddaya say we all go make us some overnight-dried squid?!”
(Episode continues in parts.)