Chapter 38

Bring in artisans from outside.

Sell the raw magic stones as they are, without processing them.

Those were about the only options I could think of to increase revenue from the magic stone trade.

In contrast, the expenses needed for the sake of the Jirenu Territory kept piling up.

There were the costs of mining development. The costs for Iiria to hire civil officials. There were also the costs of building infrastructure within the Jirenu Territory, and measures to support the poor such as the beastfolk and the orphanage.

On top of that, Nodon had borrowed and defaulted on about as much money as he had lent out, so the assets Nodon had hoarded were being disgorged one after another.

At this rate, it was not even a matter of securing funds for Iiria.

If we did not quickly shore things up with revenue from magic stone sales, we might fall into the red.

“…Ugh…”

But no matter how much I groaned, no clever idea came.

For the time being, with Marks’s cooperation, we had at least had him warn the lower-ranking master craftsmen not to do anything rash.

But we had already stirred up the hornet’s nest, and we needed to somehow settle the situation.

That day as well, after being run ragged by one thing after another all through the daytime, night had at last grown quiet. In the Nodon Company, I sat alone groaning, while every candle on the candelabrum had melted away and the shortened wicks, as though buried in the overflowing wax, cast a feeble light.

We could not obtain the cooperation of the Magic Stone Processors’ Guild in increasing the pace of magic stone processing.

Far from it, I had even sown the seeds of division within it.

At this rate, in the worst case, processing might stop altogether.

If it came to that, then rather than let it happen, we would have no choice but to reset everything to zero and sell the increased output of raw stones to the Bax Company even if they drove the price down.

Things really did not proceed as smoothly as they did in games or manga after all.

The people of this world had their own common sense and values unique to this world, and thinking those could be rearranged like puzzle pieces was arrogant.

I had been painfully making plans to go apologize to the guildmaster and, as a merchant company, go hear out the lower-ranking master craftsmen to absorb their dissatisfaction, when it happened.

Knock, knock, came a rap at the door.

It was the dead of night, when even the plants and trees slept.

No, I did not really know whether it was truly two in the morning, but in this world with no electricity, late night was a truly deep night.

Yoshu had also started going back to the orphanage at night lately, so in the vast former Nodon mansion, there should have been no one here besides me.

My heart rate shot up all at once, but it would be strange for a thief to knock.

And right after that, I heard the familiar voice of a girl.

“Yorinobu? Are you awake?”

There were only two girls I knew in this world, and one of them was Iiria.

“Uh, yes.”

When I answered hesitantly, the door opened.

I did not know whether Iiria could see in the dark, or whether, being from nearby, she had walked here by moonlight, but she was not even carrying a candle.

And Kururu, who was usually always glued to her side, was nowhere to be seen either.

“I’m alone.”

She must have understood from the movement of my eyes that I was looking for Kururu.

Iiria said that with a mischievous smile and walked into the room.

“What an unpleasant sweat smell.”

At Iiria’s words, as she sniffed the air, I involuntarily smelled my own clothes.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Chuckling as if drawing in her neck, Iiria spotted the chair for visitors sitting in the corner of the room, then carried it over with apparent effort and placed it beside me.

“When Kururu was cornered by magic stone processing because of your instigation, she smelled like this too.”

There might be entirely new laws in the magic circles carved into the magic stones.

Kururu had been working under that hope, but, panicked by her mistaken expectations, she had pushed herself quite hard with the work.

“But as for Kururu now…”

Without sitting in the chair she had carried over, Iiria placed a hand on its backrest and shrugged.

“Well, putting that girl aside.”

Iiria let out a sigh as though smiling in exasperation, then sat down in the chair and looked at me.

“The light was leaking out this late at night. It’s about the magic stone processing, right?”

The slate on top of the table was covered in white chalk dust because of all the plans I had written and erased.

“Yes, um, the Nodon… cough cough!”

Maybe because I had been wracking my brain for so long, my throat would not open.

After coughing for a while, I said excuse me and started again.

“The profits of the Nodon Company are not small, but they are not enough to support this territory.”

“Because I did absolutely nothing as the lord, it costs money just to put the system in order.”

Unlike Kururu, Iiria had a habit of making self-deprecating remarks with a smile.

When one thought of nobility, there certainly was an image of sarcasm, but in Iiria’s case, because of the painful experiences that came from her birth, it felt like hurting herself had become a habit.

“I heard from Kururu too, but I guess it really won’t be simple after all.”

Iiria’s eyes turned toward the scattered notes on the desk and then back to me.

“Then this might be just right. That joke from the other day—I wanted to say that it isn’t really a joke.”

“Huh?”

“You know, when I said maybe we should have Marks take over the Magic Stone Processors’ Guild?”

When she grinned, it was a slightly frightening smile befitting a sneering girl fond of self-mockery.

“But at the time, what you pointed out was also fair, so I didn’t pursue it too far.”

I had said that taking it over would certainly be the quickest way, but in exchange the other guilds and merchant companies would assume they were next, and the territory would fall into confusion.

But I did not really understand the purpose of Iiria’s late-night visit, so all I could do for the moment was nod.

Iiria seemed to be smiling faintly, but it also looked like the face of someone in a position of status hiding her emotions.

Then Iiria, with her fluffy hair, quietly said,

“I thought about it in various ways too. And then, I figured that if we’re not taking it over, then maybe it doesn’t matter what we do, does it?”

“Huh, huhh?”

When I asked back, Iiria smiled clearly.

It was the kind of slightly wicked smile that a mischievous and straightforward Kururu would never show.

“Because of your idiotic suggestion, the guildmaster of the magic stone artisans is furious. Probably all the master craftsmen of the proper workshops have heard about it too and are angry. But the master craftsmen who came to us first were not like that.”

The ones who had come beneath Iiria to show their submission were apparently master craftsmen whose skills were poor and whose workshops were barely staying afloat.

“Those master craftsmen should listen to what you say, right? Which means…”

Iiria shrugged.

“I was thinking, what if you set up your own workshop where you can do whatever you like?”

It felt as though someone had smacked me on the head.

But after that brief daze, all sorts of concerns came pouring into my mind.

“No, that…”

I did not even know where to begin, and the back of my throat felt clogged.

The reason all those unskilled master craftsmen had come beneath Iiria was probably their ulterior motive of wanting to improve their own position even a little if we were going to take over the guild.

And even if I were to set up a workshop, I had no know-how for management at all, and I already had my hands full with the Nodon Company alone.

As though confirming those things even while speaking, I haltingly explained them to Iiria. All the while, Iiria listened like a true lord, like a lord patiently hearing a petition.

And at the end, I told her my greatest concern of all.

“I don’t think that guildmaster would ever agree to me setting up a workshop.”

The impression I had left on him was surely the worst possible.

If I then said I was going to create a new workshop that rubbed their nerves the wrong way, just how fiercely would they oppose it?

A guild was probably something like the medieval guilds I had researched so often for games in my former world. If so, there would surely be all sorts of conditions for opening a workshop.

That was exactly what guilds were for, after all: cracking down on people doing business however they pleased.

However.

“I am Iiria, the lord.”

Iiria’s smile, which was not smiling, was like a life-sized doll.

“I’m not asking to crush the guild, only to indulge a little selfishness. I won’t let them say no.”

“…”

As I found myself speechless, never having imagined Iiria would say such a thing, a genuine smile gradually returned to her face.

“Nnfufufu. I have to get used to acting like a lord too.”

It felt to me like she had been quite successful already, but when I nodded awkwardly, Iiria pursed her lips slightly and said,

“And besides, why is it that you won’t rely on me more?”

“Hm… ah, huh?”

“You’re always with Kururu. Even I, when it came to driving out Nodon, fulfilled my role… well, at least a little.”

The way she looked up at me with dissatisfaction was the same Iiria she was whenever she was acting spoiled toward Kururu.

“Honestly, I’m not just some girl who lies around sleeping in a hammock while sparrows swarm all over her.”

That was exactly the impression she gave, so I could only draw back my neck a little.

“You had Marks warn them not to let those unskilled master craftsmen do anything reckless, right?”

“Uh, yes.”

“That’s when I started thinking. Why did those master craftsmen come to us in the first place?”

I blinked blankly, then answered.

“Well, that’s because…”

“Those master craftsmen certainly came to say that if you were to become guildmaster, they would gladly obey you. But when you think about it carefully, isn’t that strange? Do those master craftsmen simply not care about honor?”

Utilitarianism with an eye toward the future. Or, as Kururu had said, crafty maneuvering in anticipation of the hierarchy inside the guild being overturned.

Or perhaps, more simply, it was just that, as the saying goes, propriety comes only after food and clothing, and with their management in such dire straits they could not afford to talk about honor.

That was what I thought, and yet I also thought, wait.

The guildmaster and the others too had continued to endure stubbornly for the sake of honor while bound by debts to Nodon…

“And so I had Marks ask around and get the details.”

Iiria’s words pulled me out of my thoughts.

“There were probably things they would find hard to say in front of their lord, after all.”

At that point she laughed as though joking.

“And then it seemed there were various reasons why their workshops were in financial trouble.”

“The workshops’…?”

“Financial trouble.”

It was not a word I had expected to hear from Iiria’s mouth.

“There were master craftsmen whose processing skills were poor and whose work was slow, of course, but there were also ones who had taken on more apprentices than they could support. But from what I heard, a lot of them seemed to have problems related to apprentices.”

I did not really understand what the latter meant, and Iiria continued.

“It seems that most of the profitable workshops are the ones that work their apprentices like slaves.”

Before I knew it, Iiria was no longer the usual slovenly girl.

She had the eyes of a noble’s cast-off child, coldly staring at a merciless world.