Chapter 36

Since the taverns were not open before midday, we bought a huge amount of grilled meat skewers from the street stalls set up around town, then returned to Iiria’s mansion.

Marks and the others, the swindlers who called themselves gatekeepers, were loitering around, and without smiling in the slightest, Kururu shoved several of the grilled meat skewers she had bought into Marks’s hands before going inside the mansion.

Marks shot me a joking wink and bit into the grilled meat skewer along with his companions.

We entered the dining room, and as Kururu set the food we had bought on the table and went toward the kitchen to fetch drinks, Iiria drifted into the dining room as if drawn there by the smell of meat.

“So the guild did not work out?”

She must have been sleeping face-down in the hammock again, and half her face was marked with the imprint of the netting.

“The guildmaster was so angry it looked like he might faint on the spot.”

I could not tell whether she was listening to me or not, but with a still-sleepy face, Iiria sniffed at the smell of the skewers, then casually picked one up and bit into it with her small mouth. The fang-like canine teeth were adorable.

“Mngh, mm… Well, you are telling masters to go back to being apprentices. Of course they would get angry.”

I was hesitating, thinking, That is not what I meant, when Kururu returned carrying a water pitcher. The moment she saw the net marks on Iiria’s face, she frowned, shrugged, and went back toward the kitchen. She had probably gone to fetch a hot towel or something.

“I do not mean to tell them to go back to being apprentices…”

“Division of labor, was it? Everyone takes charge of one simple task each and works that way, right?”

Iiria pronounced division of labor in the original Japanese style.

“Is it really that unpleasant?”

No matter how many times I had been told that division of labor would not work, it had never really clicked for me, but after seeing the guildmaster explode with that much force, I could not help thinking I had to listen more seriously.

“Of course it is. And on top of that, all the people who have gone back to being apprentices line up in a row and each takes charge of one task, right? Then they complete the magic stone processing in turn like that. That is just… fuh, nfufu.”

Iiria started giggling.

“That would be such a ridiculous sight. It would definitely look strange!”

When Iiria laughed, her fluffy curls seemed even fluffier than usual.

Just then Kururu came back holding a hot towel, and tilted her head at how cheerful her mistress looked.

“You say you are not sending masters back to being apprentices, Yorinobu, but where in that ridiculous line is there any place for the masters? Or do the masters work from beginning to end too, just shifting their seats little by little? That would be so, nfuh, so… ahaha.”

As Iiria started laughing again while talking, Kururu, who was pressing the hot towel to her cheeks to get rid of the net marks, said in exasperation,

“This one is a little strange in the head.”

Even though they had gone along with the reckless plan to exile Nodon, apparently Kururu and Iiria were right for now.

“I do not know about your world, but in ours, a person is only considered fully fledged if they can do everything alone. A master is proof of being fully fledged, and becoming one takes an incredible amount of hardship.”

Kururu herself had apparently intended for a time to become a magic stone processor, and though she had treated that guildmaster coldly, the way she spoke suggested she held a certain degree of respect for craftsmen themselves.

Still, if that guildmaster’s reaction was the normal one, then how exactly were we supposed to improve the efficiency of magic stone processing?

I had thought introducing a division-of-labor system to those inefficient masters and massively boosting productivity was a classic move in this kind of situation. In the production part of a game, “division of labor” would absolutely be an ability that served as the key to raising the civilization level.

But games did not take into account the customs and emotions of the people working there.

What exactly were we supposed to do?

Should we simply sell the magic stones whose processing could not keep up to the Bax Company as they were? Even if unprocessed stones sold for less, the total export revenue itself would still go up.

That said, there was no knowing how long the magic stone mine in Jirenu Territory would last, so exporting magic stones was, in a sense, also investment capital for industries that would come after the stones were depleted.

On the other hand, Iiria needed a large amount of money right now if she was going to govern Jirenu Territory as its lord, so perhaps we should temporarily sell the magic stones raw and, once things settled down, make our next move. Or maybe we could bring in craftsmen from outside the island. But would that also lead to conflict with the guild? As I was thinking through all of that, Kururu shrugged and said, “That said—”

“No matter how much that stubborn guildmaster huffs and puffs, there are some things that are pointless. Anyway, just wait.”

“Pointless?”

I did not understand what Kururu meant, and turned my gaze toward Iiria, wondering if she might explain it, but dog-like Iiria was completely absorbed in the grilled meat skewers.

And when I too began eating because Kururu told me to, someone knocked on the dining room door, which had been left wide open.

When I looked, it was Marks.

“You have visitors.”

Marks, the swindler who said he would put in a good word for people seeking an audience with the lord, then conned fee money out of gullible newcomers.

And behind him were men who looked exactly like the sort who would fall for that kind of scam, clutching their hats nervously in their hands.